The 2020 Daily Writing Challenge – February 13

/ JoHawkTheWriter / 3 Comments

2020 Daily Writing Challenge

Writing is like driving at night in the fog.
You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
– E. L. Doctorow

Today is Day 44 of the 2020 Daily Writing Challenge.

Did you write yesterday? If you didn’t, what stopped you? Self-doubt can leave you feeling like a deer in the headlights, petrified, off-balance, and powerless. Instead of using your precious minutes to type even a handful of words on the page, you allow yourself to be distracted.

Perhaps you stare at a blank screen, convinced your work recounts an incoherent trip along a winding road leading you nowhere. Your vivid imagination has forsaken you, leaving you in a void of uninspired darkness. You suspect you are a fraud who will never be good enough.

Breathe. Think about the adventure you want your audience to experience, explore your plot, meet with your protagonist, and learn about his hero’s journey. Practice composing your favorite scene in your head. Eliminated distractions, lock worry in a cage with your evil antagonist, and just write. Remember what you love about writing and remind yourself this is about creating a world for your ideal reader. The story is the path you share, and your destination is the beginning of another tale.

Try it and let us know how you did in the comments below.

_________________________________________

Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Finding New Beginnings in Abandoned Stories – Daily Quote

/ JoHawkTheWriter / 5 Comments

ruins-for-me-are-the-beginning.-with-the-debris-you-can-construct-new-ideas.-they-are-symbols-of-a-beginning.-anselm-kiefer

The next item on my schedule is rewriting/editing a piece I hate. I consider it an epic fail. Surprise, surprise, this subpar story is in my short story draft file, ignored, and condemned to languish in a perpetual state of procrastination. I don’t hate the premise, but the story’s execution is weak. There are words, sentences, and ideas I may decide to salvage. It requires me to roll up my shirt sleeves, prepare for construction dust, and do Atlas-style weight lifting.

I have several of these projects. A few stories have merit, good ideas, a likable character, and believable conflict, the stuff you want in a story.  But they lack the spit, polish, and shine for me to declare them good enough for prime time. While I may like these stories, the prospect of dissecting, cutting, reworking, and rehashing them is unpleasant. However, I want them finished, which leaves me little choice on what I must do.

How do you approach a rewrite or edit?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

The 2020 Daily Writing Challenge – February 12

/ JoHawkTheWriter / 3 Comments

2020 Daily Writing Challenge

Writing is like driving at night in the fog.
You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
– E. L. Doctorow

Today is Day 43 of the 2020 Daily Writing Challenge.

Did you write yesterday? If you didn’t, what stopped you? Self-doubt can leave you feeling like a deer in the headlights, petrified, off-balance, and powerless. Instead of using your precious minutes to type even a handful of words on the page, you allow yourself to be distracted.

Perhaps you stare at a blank screen, convinced your work recounts an incoherent trip along a winding road leading you nowhere. Your vivid imagination has forsaken you, leaving you in a void of uninspired darkness. You suspect you are a fraud who will never be good enough.

Breathe. Think about the adventure you want your audience to experience, explore your plot, meet with your protagonist, and learn about his hero’s journey. Practice composing your favorite scene in your head. Eliminated distractions, lock worry in a cage with your evil antagonist, and just write. Remember what you love about writing and remind yourself this is about creating a world for your ideal reader. The story is the path you share, and your destination is the beginning of another tale.

Try it and let us know how you did in the comments below.

_________________________________________

Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Things We Do for Love – Flash Fiction Challenge

/ JoHawkTheWriter / 18 Comments

Title: Things We Do for Love
Source:  Flash Fiction Challenge
Prompt: Write a story to the theme “a dog in the daisies.”
Word count:  99 words

short-coated white and black puppy lying on green and purple flower field

Photo by Ian Wetherill on Unsplash

Abra was true to her name – mother of many. I had qualms about breeding her, but since she was the county’s best herder, every farmer wanted one of her pups.

She whelped ten, five males and five females. I named the girls after flowers and the boys after trees. Everyone asked about them. When would they be weaned? How much did I want for them?

I auctioned nine and they passed on the runt, Daisy. I gleefully keep her. Daisy resembled her mother, and she stole my heart. And like her mother, she became the county’s best herder.

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

The Care and Feeding of Your Writing Hydra – Daily Quote

/ JoHawkTheWriter / 5 Comments

i-used-to-think-that-when-i-finished-a-book-i-was-finished-with-it.-but-its-like-a-wonderful-hydra.-every-time-a-head-disappears-more-heads-appear-so-i-will-be-writing-for-the-rest-of-m

I started my writing journey to release the characters who were chattering in my head. Adventures hovered and flitted through my mind as numerous as fireflies on a summer’s night. But I shared Tony’s concern. Would there come a point where I ran short of ideas? Where would I find inspiration? How could I continue my quest if my well was dry?

Despite my fear, I write daily. I pluck an individual concept from the ether, tease the thread from the massive tangle of jumbled thoughts, and I describe what I see. Some develop like a single seed of a dandelion, so delicate, I must act quickly to capture them before they float away on the slightest breeze. Some tales are yarns created from nubby hand-spun wool. They produce interesting textures and present unexpected issues that demand creative solutions. They grow, creating a warm, comfortable blanket.

Writing is like cutting the head off a Hydra. One day, I discovered the dandelion seed had taken root and become a vigorous plant demanding my attention once more. Establishing itself in a tiny crack, it threatened to take over the garden, and I knew the only way to weed it out was to write more and write faster. Each written piece spawns more story ideas, and my list grows longer until I find I am standing in a field of yellow flowers.

Does your writing inspire additional stories?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

The 2020 Daily Writing Challenge – February 11

/ JoHawkTheWriter / 3 Comments

2020 Daily Writing Challenge

Writing is like driving at night in the fog.
You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
– E. L. Doctorow

Today is Day 42 of the 2020 Daily Writing Challenge.

Did you write yesterday? If you didn’t, what stopped you? Self-doubt can leave you feeling like a deer in the headlights, petrified, off-balance, and powerless. Instead of using your precious minutes to type even a handful of words on the page, you allow yourself to be distracted.

Perhaps you stare at a blank screen, convinced your work recounts an incoherent trip along a winding road leading you nowhere. Your vivid imagination has forsaken you, leaving you in a void of uninspired darkness. You suspect you are a fraud who will never be good enough.

Breathe. Think about the adventure you want your audience to experience, explore your plot, meet with your protagonist, and learn about his hero’s journey. Practice composing your favorite scene in your head. Eliminated distractions, lock worry in a cage with your evil antagonist, and just write. Remember what you love about writing and remind yourself this is about creating a world for your ideal reader. The story is the path you share, and your destination is the beginning of another tale.

Try it and let us know how you did in the comments below.

_________________________________________

Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

The Convenience of Writing in Inconvenient Places – Daily Quote

/ JoHawkTheWriter / 10 Comments

i-can-write-anywhere.-i-write-in-airports.-i-write-on-airplanes.-ive-written-in-the-back-seats-of-taxis.-i-write-in-hotel-rooms.-i-love-hotel-rooms.-i-just-write-wherever-i-am-whenever

No matter how much you plot, plan, schedule working time, and commit to keeping the promise, life happens. The dog requires a walk, a friend needs a shoulder, or you fall asleep at the keyboard. If I waited for celestial alignment and ideal circumstances, I fear I would never write.

Luckily writers are creative, muse driven, inspirational lightning rods, and we must write when the ideas strike. While I am not sure my motion sickness would allow me to compose in the back seat of a taxi, hotels, airports, and airplanes would work. I am enamored with writing in a Walden Pond environment. Maybe I should start a bucket list of writing spots.

The good news is I don’t have to wait for the perfect writing space to materialize. Lacking access to an internet connection improves my productivity. If I can open my laptop and manage to balance it well enough to type, words will make my story grow.

Where is your oddest or favorite writing spot?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

The 2020 Daily Writing Challenge – February 10

/ JoHawkTheWriter / 3 Comments

2020 Daily Writing Challenge

Writing is like driving at night in the fog.
You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
– E. L. Doctorow

Today is Day 41 of the 2020 Daily Writing Challenge.

Did you write yesterday? If you didn’t, what stopped you? Self-doubt can leave you feeling like a deer in the headlights, petrified, off-balance, and powerless. Instead of using your precious minutes to type even a handful of words on the page, you allow yourself to be distracted.

Perhaps you stare at a blank screen, convinced your work recounts an incoherent trip along a winding road leading you nowhere. Your vivid imagination has forsaken you, leaving you in a void of uninspired darkness. You suspect you are a fraud who will never be good enough.

Breathe. Think about the adventure you want your audience to experience, explore your plot, meet with your protagonist, and learn about his hero’s journey. Practice composing your favorite scene in your head. Eliminated distractions, lock worry in a cage with your evil antagonist, and just write. Remember what you love about writing and remind yourself this is about creating a world for your ideal reader. The story is the path you share, and your destination is the beginning of another tale.

Try it and let us know how you did in the comments below.

_________________________________________

Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Growing Up with Christopher Robin – Daily Quote

/ JoHawkTheWriter / 25 Comments

i-would-love-having-winnie-the-pooh-stay-here-at-the-house.-we-could-talk-of-food-and-what-we-were-eating-next.-maybe-ponder-that-over-a-little-morsel...-and-then-take-a-little-nap-and-d

I remember reading the Winnie the Pooh stories as a child. Christopher Robin’s tales made me jealous. I thought it would be wonderful to have a stuffed teddy bear who could talk to me. How glorious to escape to the Hundred Acre Wood for marvelous adventures with his loyal animal friends.

Someone gave me an overstuffed purple rabbit with a carrot tattoo on his left foot. The bunny was mute, or maybe he was a stoner. I was six, what did I know? My Hundred Acre Wood comprised a single scrawny apple tree. Each summer, it produced terrible green apples so sour my entire body shook for a week after only one bite. Sour Patch, Lemon Drops, and Warheads didn’t compare with those little green bombs. When the hard, inedible fruit matured, they fell to the ground and dissolved into rotting brown heaps. The wasps loved them and aggressively protected their treasure. They transformed the backyard into a war zone, and they launched air raids against anyone who dared to enter their occupied territory.

Christopher Robin represented a fantasy. His story presented a believable lie spoon-fed to gullible children. I often wondered about Christopher Robin’s life outside of the Hundred Acre Wood. Was he a lost boy trying to cope in a chaotic adult-centric world? I considered he had more in common with Hansel and Peter Pan than Pooh revealed. Yes, if Pooh came to visit, we would have long discussions which would require a tasty morsel, and a nap, to keep up our strength.

Did you find a childhood story difficult to swallow?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

The 2020 Daily Writing Challenge – February 9

/ JoHawkTheWriter / 3 Comments

2020 Daily Writing Challenge

Writing is like driving at night in the fog.
You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
– E. L. Doctorow

Today is Day 40 of the 2020 Daily Writing Challenge.

Did you write yesterday? If you didn’t, what stopped you? Self-doubt can leave you feeling like a deer in the headlights, petrified, off-balance, and powerless. Instead of using your precious minutes to type even a handful of words on the page, you allow yourself to be distracted.

Perhaps you stare at a blank screen, convinced your work recounts an incoherent trip along a winding road leading you nowhere. Your vivid imagination has forsaken you, leaving you in a void of uninspired darkness. You suspect you are a fraud who will never be good enough.

Breathe. Think about the adventure you want your audience to experience, explore your plot, meet with your protagonist, and learn about his hero’s journey. Practice composing your favorite scene in your head. Eliminated distractions, lock worry in a cage with your evil antagonist, and just write. Remember what you love about writing and remind yourself this is about creating a world for your ideal reader. The story is the path you share, and your destination is the beginning of another tale.

Try it and let us know how you did in the comments below.

_________________________________________

Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer