Do you remember getting the dreaded “Compare and Contrast” homework assignment in school? I remember her voice and her words still freeze my blood. “Students, the assignment is to write a five-page, single-spaced paper comparing and contrasting the lives and writings of Louisa May Alcott and Walt Whitman.” Can you feel the panic? These two have nothing in common.

But doing your research you stumble on one insignificant fact. Neither Louisa May Alcott nor Walt Whitman ever married. Does this resonate and influence their writing? If so, I have a story I will struggle to contain in five pages.

What fact does your protagonist and your antagonist share? Does it tie them together, makes them the same? How has the same fact driven them to opposite ends of the universe?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

This is what I enjoy about writing flash fiction. Limited word count means each word must pull its weight. You comb your writing and banish fluff and extraneous words. But providing rich vivid descriptions and conveying a compelling story is the part of the joy of writing. It is a challenge to strike the correct balance.

What is your favorite form? Do you use that form because it is a challenge or because it is easy?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Joe’s statement is profound. Life is a big black freight train. Your job is to position yourself next to the tracks, avoid a head-on collision, grab hold, and climb aboard before the train passes. You don’t live life sitting on the siding.

How does this quote relate to writing? For me, it means facing the onslaught, writing every day, pursuing opportunities, improvement, challenges and demanding more of my writing. When the train whizzes past I will have the skills to clamber aboard.  Stretching beyond your comfort zone is tough. It is scary to grab hold and claim your place. The payoff promises a heady rush.

What are you doing today to run with life?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Composers, writers, artists of all types search for ways to make the ethereal, the ephemeral and the elusive, tangible. The work we attempt is to take ideas that are without form or substance, imagined things that are beyond words and translate them into music, stories, art, and reality.

Artists create or relieve anxiety, foster understanding, challenge social norms, entertain, enlighten and elevate us.

Today’s challenge is to Imagine the Unimaginable.

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Today we begin a new week, a new month, a new quarter and maybe a new project?

This month’s project is the reboot of what thought I was starting last month. Then life intervened. So, I am beginning a brand spanking new project. (I like being the boss of me). This month I am hoping for five to seven short story rough drafts besides my other writing.

This project idea is less than two months old. I have images chosen for inspiration and I know the ending. Otherwise, I am flying VFR.

What rituals do you use when you begin a new project?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Honestly, I never feel lonely. I am often alone in a crowded room, but I never consider myself lonely. Me, myself, and I have great conversations.

This quote might better suggest writing allows us to share connections. It connects us to others with similar feelings and experiences. We are not alone. For those lonely hearts try writing, it might work.

What feelings can you write today?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

A curious thing has happened.

I started with a new purpose in mid-June, with a goal of writing something every day. As with any new habit making it happen was a struggle. Some days life interferes, and I struggle. I fight back carving out time to write, even if I start at 11:00 at night to make it under the wire.

One day the writing happened with ease. The word count I achieved amazed me. I assumed it was a fluke and forgot it. Until a few weeks later. That was novel. Then it happened again. Now I am intrigued.

I now show up to write with a sense of anticipation… Will today be the day when the writing, writes itself?

Have you experienced these moments?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Everyone reading this blog has a certain command of the English language. If we were face to face, English would take on a new dimension. There would surely be an Irish brogue, a Texas twang, a broad Australian variation, a mile-a-minute New Yawker, a Southern drawl, a proper British articulation and a few dozen more.

I love listening to the way people from India speak English. There is a lovely musical quality with a lift at the end of each sentence. It is as if the world is full of questions for which there are no answers. And that is okay.

Those differences represent the individuals’ roots. Others who speak in the same manner have an instant bond, they are almost family.

Writing is a poor substitute for the richness inherent in speech. Encumbered and restricted we must strive harder to reach in, to speak in his language and touch his heart.

How can you write today to speak to your reader’s heart?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

I find inspiration in everyday things. A movie I am watching, something someone says, the words I read. Inspiration is everywhere.

So today I have something a little different. Can you find something in your daily life today to inspire you?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

I love writing but the last two weeks were bumpy. A loved one spent fourteen days in the hospital. I was there every day. His discharge happened late Monday night, and he is much improved. However, it was a challenge getting my planned writing done.

Those short stories… out the window. The piece I needed to edit and rewrite… not done. Something had to give. I don’t buckle at the first roadblock, (besides the drugs let him sleep).

In two weeks, I normally publish thirty posts. I missed five.  Straight scale grading gives a “B” grade. Tough to swallow, but that wasn’t the lesson.

What lessons have the bumpy road taught you?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer