Monday Morning Writing Challenge

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I am working on getting my family to the dinner table at the same time each night.  Note that I said “dinner table” and not “couch, in front of the TV.”  Most nights it’s just the kids and I, whichever ones are here since some nights one or the other, or both, of the older ones are at their dad’s house.  Chris works late most nights, so he only gets to join us occasionally.

This inspired this week’s prompt:

Write a story about dinner with your family.

Write about any part of your family:  parents, children, spouse, holiday meals, a barbecue, dinner out — anything that comes to mind.  Whether it’s quirky, funny, sad or anything else, I’d love to see what you come up with so feel free to comment or send it to me by email.

Have a great week!

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Monday Morning Writing Challenge #1

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This will be another one of those “new features” I talked about in an earlier post.  I’m not sure how often it will appear–weekly, bi-weekly or monthly–but you’ll be seeing it again soon.

I love writing prompts.  I’ve seen good ones and bad ones, and I think which category a prompt falls into depends as much on the writer using it as the prompt.  Something that might make me completely draw a blank might inspire someone else to write a best-seller.

If this writing prompt inspires you, use it.  If you’d like to share what you write, feel free to post it in the comments or even send it to me if you don’t want to share it publicly.  Either way, I’d love to see any writing based on my prompts.

If it doesn’t inspire you, I hope you will keep reading anyway.  Maybe something in the next prompt, or another post, will.

This prompt is in honor of spring finally beginning to show itself in Connecticut.

You’re going through some old photos and come across one you haven’t seen before.  It is a black and white photo of a young woman wearing a flowered dress and a hat, sitting on a white fence surrounding a field. She is facing partly away from the camera so you can’t see her completely, but she looks to be in her early 20′s.  You’re not sure if the picture belongs to your mother or your father, but the name on the back simply says, “Melanie.”  There are no “Melanies” in your family, nor have you ever heard the name mentioned.  Who is she?  What is happening in the picture, and where is she now?

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What should I write?

I am very tired today, for some reason.  I got up around 8:30, so I had enough sleep.  I did get up in the middle of the night though when a very naked M. came in to tell me her bed was wet.  She had her diaper on the floor and had taken off her pjs, so I’m not sure what happened exactly.  Either her diaper leaked, or she took it off and fell back asleep.  I think that’s much more likely.  She recently learned to put on her own pull-ups and pants, so she’s likely to strip at any time so she can put them back on.  In any case, I got her all changed and put new bedding on her little bed, and she was asleep in minutes.  I was too, so I can’t figure out why I’m feeling this way.  It has been a long day, so maybe I’m just expecting too much.  I just always feel like I’m not accomplishing enough, even when I can see that I am making progress with the house and my writing.

I got my copy of the 2011 Writer’s Market yesterday, and finally got to unwrap it today.  It was kind of like Christmas.  I’m so excited about getting it, it’s almost silly.  I also got my copy of The Weird Sisters along with it, which I can’t wait to read.  I have another book to read first because I promised a review and want to get it up as soon as I can.

I’m having serious trouble coming up with ideas to write.  I’m still editing my book, but I’m also trying to write some short fiction.  I’d like to start trying to sell some stories just to get used to the process, but I’m not having much luck coming up with anything lately.

I think that it’s not so much a block as it is just trying too hard.  Forcing it isn’t going to make me think of story ideas.  I need to spend some time just working on my book, as planned, and doing some more toward educating myself.  I need to do like I said I was going to and research querying magazines and other parts of the business that I could use some knowledge about.

How do you come up with your ideas?

 

Goals: Welcome to March

Word Count for February:  23,461

My goals for March:

1) Continue writing 750 words per day at least.
2) Thoroughly organize one room (any room) in the house.
3) Edit novel (2nd draft).
4) Submit four stories/articles/poems to four different magazines.

 

What are your goals or plans for March?