3-minute inspiration

Writers, NPR is doing you a tremendous favor. All you have to do is come up with a 600-word (or shorter) story, inspired by the picture provided here. Too lazy to enter? You can tickle your muse by reading recent winners and the judges' comments on why those particular stories rose to the top.

Picture Writing

When most writers think "picture writing" they think of a lot of things - techniques, mostly, of penning descriptive language; some think of the oodles of "tricks" they've learned (and probably forgotten) in some class or workshop or seminar somewhere.

But when I stumbled upon (not using that cool but time-sucking website, by the way) i heart photograph by fellow blogger Laurel Ptak I thought, now that's really picture writing! Each of the images really do convey a thousand words.

Cool.

Have a look!

Imagination is Where It's At

For the past few weeks I've been writing sales letters, newsletter articles about very dry subjects, and retyping a lot of press releases. Such is the exciting life of a writer-for-hire.

But like a lot of things, creativity comes in spurts. The most creative periods in my life so far have been (1) while I was in the messy middle of a divorce, and (2) while I was pregnant with my son. (The pregnancy was pretty hard, but I'd still pick it over the divorce.)

I should learn from this, shouldn't I? Apparently, I'm most creative when I'm completely unsettled.

Maybe I should quit my job and move to Alaska or Timbuktu. Or take up skydiving.

I'm not bored; I may have to look up "bored" in a dictionary to remember what that word means. But, I am in a groove... these days, the groove is filled with a lot of press releases and newsletters. I know surprises tend to find us when we're in a groove, and surprises of all kinds seem to lead straight to creative bursts of energy. On that note, I'm ready for another day. And I'll be on the lookout for surprises. I hope a few nice ones come your way...