So I Looked in a Book
By Annette Rey
Where do you get inspiration when a day seems dry and auto-repeating? I looked in a book for a cue, Great Toasts, by Andrew Frothingham. I found this inspiring quote by Oscar Wilde,
“Work is the curse of the drinking class.”
What writing ideas do you pull from that?
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It’s Not What You Think
By Annette Rey
As writers, we are always looking for inspiration for a new slant on old ideas, for freshness inside ourselves. It’s fine to write gloom and thunder and broken hearts but I think all writers need UP messages and a cheerful attitude to draw them in, to begin their journey into expressing their voice on the printed page.
So we need a calling card, something that calls US into the act of writing. Let’s look at UP calls and see where that brings us.
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CoSchedule Headline Analyzer May be Helpful
By Annette Rey
CoSchedule (https://coschedule.com/) is a site that offers software that helps businesses get organized. The site also states they have a program that can help you save time, publish more consistently, and grow your blog traffic.
Like any business, they are in business to make money, so their software has a price.
But I discovered they have a free tool on their site called Headline Analyzer. This can be of use to writers to improve their SEO (Search Engine Optimization) results in creating productive titles for their blog posts. The Analyzer reveals some interesting details and some fun facts about your input.
Let’s take a look.
Places to Experience and Enjoy
By Annette Rey
My last post suggested you break the monotony in your life and get out of your house to collect new experiences and material about which to write. You can take this new knowledge and adapt it to a fiction piece, poetry, haiku, or create an article about the experience that you may query a magazine to publish.
I promised in my next post to list opportunities, many of them free, that may also be available in your area. You will be surprised at the variety of offerings that can get your writing juices flowing.
Here is the info.
What a Relief!
By Annette Rey
In March I informed you of Writer’s Digest’s parent company filing for bankruptcy. It was open to speculation whether another interest would find value in purchasing WD.
It’s all been rather hush-hush until now. In the November-December 2019 issue of WD, the Editor-In-Chief speaks.
Boy, Have I Been Having Fun!
By Annette Rey
Any time away from your daily grind job is fun, right? Well, I have been recently blessed with a relief in my workload. I am spending that time enrolling in free, educational, one-day events around town (at colleges, nature centers, libraries, and churches)*.
These are marvelous opportunities for writers. Waves of new information enter your head and the creativity part of your brain lights up. I will be sharing these experiences with you, encouraging you to search out the same types of opportunities in your part of the world. You will be amazed at what is out there to stoke your writer’s imagination to help you break through anything you may think is writer’s block.
Take a look.
Love Them Both!
By Annette Rey
You can break writer’s block by combining another subject you love with your primary desire to write work that flows. To this end, science facts will get me writing.
On 3/30/19 I posted Will Writer’s Digest Die?, an article informing that F&W Media, the publisher of Writer’s Digest, has announced Chapter 11 bankruptcy and unless another interest buys the magazine, writers of the world will lose a valuable resource.
What do these first two paragraphs have to do with one another? Read on.
By Annette Rey
A Research Book
I often direct writers to unusual resources to find real-life personality flaws to apply to their character creations. Your readers will relate to these more believable characters because they are sure to have met someone like them at some time in their lives.
Life Code by Dr. Phil is one of those resources.
Please, No!
By Annette Rey
F&W Media, the publisher of Writer’s Digest and more than fifty other magazines, announced Chapter 11 bankruptcy due to plummeting subscriptions and advertising revenue.
I invoke the little boy’s words as he looked up into the face of his hero, a beloved baseball player accused of throwing the 1919 World Series in the infamous Black Sox Scandal, “Say it ain’t so, Joe!”
Help Beat Writer’s Block
By Annette Rey
Beat that blank page! There are lots of ideas out there to spark your brain, to pick up your pen, to place your fingers on the keyboard. Here is one of my favorite ways that works for me.
