Writer's Blog: Tips and Inspiration

Writing Prompt: Singing the Blues

IN HONOR OF THAT OTHER AMERICAN tradition, join me and make a list of your current woes. Together, we can sing the blues! (I know. This runs counter to the most fundamental of Thanksgiving philosophies—but once we’ve purged our troubles, I’m betting we’ll be better-primed to list our blessings come November 26th!)

Writing prompt

So, we’ll start by creating our lists. Go ahead and jot down your current afflictions—as many or as few as you choose. Here’s my short list:

  • My BFF from wild-childhood just turned 60. Which means—guess what—I’m not far behind.
  • According to my periodontist (my relationship with whom is, in itself, worthy material for a blues song), I’m gearing up for a third gum graft.
  • If you look closely enough (and please don’t) you can see that my hair is thinning at the part.

Okay, now let’s turn our blues into blues LYRICS!51Z8W1N5JRL

12-bar blues lyrics are pretty simple: The basic verse pattern is AAB, AAB, AAB . . . for as long as you’ve got something to sing about. All three lines of each verse rhyme—and the first two lines of each verse are (almost) identical. Oh! And don’t forget to give your song an awesomely pitiful title. Here’s mine:

The Not Getting Any Younger Blues

A. My ol’ best friend’s gone way past the halfway point
A. Yeah, my ol’ best friend’s gone way past life’s halfway point
B. Now, I’m shuffling along just a step behind her, hard of hearing and creaky of joint

A. My ol’ periodontist, he’s tellin’ me my gums are too thin
A. Yeah, my ol’ periodontist’s sayin’ my pink ol’ gums are thin
B. I gotta lay back in his chair again an’ let him patch some roof-of-my-mouth skin back in

A. My good ol’ hair’s thinner now than when I was young and fine
A. Oh, my good ol’ hair’s thinner than when I was young and fine
B. So I’m doin’ a swoop-di-doop comb-over just to cover up the ever-widening line

A. My ol’ best friend’s gone way past the halfway point
A. Yeah, my ol’ best friend’s gone way past life’s halfway point
B. I’m just shuffling along, hard of hearing, creaky of joint, and only one step behind

* * *

If you’ve shuffled along this far with me, and want to learn more about the blues, check out PBS’s Blues Classroom and Danny Chicago’s “How to Write the Blues”!

Writing Prompt: I Spy

REMEMBER WHEN YOU WERE A KID and bored to tears at Hour Three of the eight-hour car ride to your grandparents’ house (pre-video games), and your mom would distract you with a game of I Spy? (“I spy with my little eye something beginning with the letter ‘D,'” you might say, hoping your parents would get the hint and pull over for Dairy Queen.)

Today, as writers, we can still play I Spy—only “backwards,” looking around our world (or the world of our characters) seeking objects that start with a certain letter or display a certain color or are made of a certain material (“I spy with my little eye something made of glass”). Why would we do this? Because we (and our characters) are pattern-seeking missiles—and focusing our pattern-making super-powers upon something as specific as “things starting with the letter ‘P'” can set a whole sweater’s-worth of associations unraveling.

Writing prompt

For example: “I spy with my little eye something blue.” When I glance around my office, I see . . .

My business card . . .
My mouse pad . . .
The top of a Bic ballpoint pen . . .
The mat inside the frame of my college diploma!

Aha! That’s it.

When I finally graduated from Rollins College, my dad was so proud (or was that “relieved”?) DSCN0496 he took me to the frame store and had my diploma framed. That same day—and this only a year before he died—we also stopped by the eyeglass shop to have his sunglasses repaired, ate bagels and scrambled eggs at Einsteins, and walked over to the drugstore to pick up his prescription.

That was one of the last “normal” days I had with my dad. He’d been sick—and then better, and then sick again—for several years. I haven’t thought of that visit recently, and have certainly never written about it. Maybe now I will.

So. What do you spy? And where does it take you?

Children’s Book Authors Needed

KELI SIPPERLEY, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF of Rourke Educational Media, sent this wonderful want ad: Rourke seeks experienced writers for work-for-hire book projects. We publish fiction and nonfiction for school and library markets. Authors must be able to research Everyone_Goes_to_School_COVand write engaging content to specified grade levels and deliver clean, fact-checked manuscripts to specs on tight deadlines. We are expanding our fiction collections and especially need writers who write with voice and humor. Nonfiction writers who are simultaneously fun and informative are always in demand.

Send a resume, a brief unedited writing sample, and a letter of introduction that lists your subject-area interests to keli@rourkeeducationalmedia.com. Previously unpublished writers are welcome. If you are serious about your craft and work well with editors, they want to hear from you. Visit RourkeEducationalMedia.com to see current titles and learn more about them.

NaNo for Kids!

NOVEMBER IS NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH (or NaNoWriMo, for those of us who like a little shortening with our bread). While NaNo may not be news, it is a great wake-up call Coverfor folks whose writing projects made like Rip Van Winkle over the summer. The scoop, according to the official NaNo site, is this: “On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 PM on November 30.” Sign up and receive beaucoup support for this annual challenge.

There’s a NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program, too! The Young Writers Program allows 17-and-under participants to set “reasonable, yet challenging, individual word-count goals.”

Stylin’

SOMETIMES, WE ALL NEED STYLE HELP. Fortunately, there are many online resources that help writers (and editors) write right. (Sorry.) Here are a couple to get you started.

The staff of the (daunting) CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE knows how much their style guide weighs (oof!)Huge-book—and how time-consuming it can be to search its seemingly endless pages for a simple guideline. Taking pity on those of us who’ve yet to bite the bullet and subscribe to CMOS online, Carol Fisher Saller (aka, The Subversive Copy Editor) wrote a CMOS Shop Talk article about using “the online edition to find things in the print edition even if you don’t subscribe online.” Save your back. Check it out.

The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University also provides free writing resources—including both Modern Language Association (MLA) and American Psychological Association (APA) style guides—to users worldwide.

Got a different fave? Drop me a (not necessarily correct) line with the 411.

SF:SE 2015!

SF:SE 2015 (SPECULATIVE FICTION: SOUTHEAST) is a convention for writers —and lovers—of horror, scifi, fantasy, and weird fiction, to be held September 25th-27th, in Orlando, FL.sfseposter copy, with osc Con director Rachel Litt says, “At SF:SE, expect a marriage of con cultures, including conference standards like workshops, panels, and editor consultations, as well as convention devilry and a masquerade ball!”

You can also get query-ready with help from renowned guests such as Orson Scott Card, Jacqueline Carey, Peter V. Brett, and Kelley Armstrong! Visit SF:SE2015.com, for more info—then get writing, get costuming, and get weird!

The Urban Legion

FIRST, A HOSTILE VOICE INVADES the (pretty) head of restaurant critic Lynn Grady. Then a (sort of handsome) stranger appears, blocks the voice with an improvised tin-foil hat, and recruits Lynn for a hydroponic-farm-to-fork tasting gig. 51K7minh0lL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_In the fun-house logic that rules Dave Agans’ THE URBAN LEGION, this leads naturally to a vicious attack by French waiters, a high-tech underground war, and the discovery of a consumer-products conspiracy. You’ll never feel the same about food courts or airport restrooms, once you’ve read THE URBAN LEGION!

Congrats, Dave! And thanks for your note: Hi, Jamie. It’s been a while since you did a comprehensive analysis of THE URBAN LEGION. You’re mentioned in the acknowledgments. Thanks for all the help!

Tarot Writing Prompt: Impressionists Tarot

Q. HOW IS A TAROT REVIEW LIKE A WRITING PROMPT?
A. Read on!

I liked the IMPRESSIONISTS TAROT so much, I let my inner fan girl loose to write the Amazon review, below.

Wonderful, moody, readable deck 883dd73f9256945937fe89e99c5e36da

I just got a new Lo Scarabeo deck, the IMPRESSIONISTS TAROT, by Corrine Kenner, art by Arturo Picca. I loved the images I saw, so despite having been disappointed in several recent Lo Scarabeo purchases, I went ahead and bought the IMPRESSIONIST TAROT KIT.

OMG! I really love it! The images are not appropriated directly from Impressionist paintings. That is to say, they are not prints of original paintings. Rather, Picca has either painted copies of the originals, adding minor adjustments to make them tarot-appropriate, or he’s used the artists’ styles and borrowed aspects of specific paintings as inspiration for his original work.

The KIT (not the deck-only option, as it was first released) includes a WONDERFUL companion book by Corrine Kenner, in which she discusses the artists whose particular works/styles the card images are based upon.

Overall, it feels like a moody, emotional deck to me. One Amazon reviewer complained about the card stock, but while it is thin, it doesn’t seem problematic to me (and I’m quick to hate bad stock). Another reviewer mentioned the colors, saying they seemed muddier than they associate with Impressionism. And I have to say, there is a less-than-bright quality to the colors, notable, since the Impressionists were known for being “painters of light.” (However, since originally writing this review, I got a second copy of this kit, and the printing was distinctly brighter and sharper in the newer version. Hmm.)

As always, my aging eyes wish the images were larger. And while the borders are quite visually impactful (they’re created to look like museum frames), I think they serve the artwork well, rather than distracting from the card art, too much. Finally, the card backs, which look like the back of a framed painting, are fabulous!

Tarot writing prompt

But what about you? Is there a book you love (or loathe)? A film? A writing product (lap desk, editing program, particularly awesome pen)? If so, shout out your appreciation (or criticism) in a good, old-fashioned, online review. It’s a fine way to hone your persuasive writing skills. Plus, it’s always fun to see your name in—well—pixels.

I am Calico Jones

BRILLIANT MYSTERY WRITER ELIZABETH SIMS indexhas a new, short e-book—a collection of four short stories, titled, I AM CALICO JONES, from her imprint, Spruce Park Press. AND her short story “Untold Riches” is available in another new anthology, LESBIANS ON THE LOOSE: Crime Writers on the Lam, from Launchpoint Press. AND LEFT FIELD, the fifth in her Lillian Byrd series, was a finalist for a ‘Goldie’ at the recent Golden Crown Literary Society‘s conference in New Orleans! Way to go, Ms. Ez!

Lies!

CHRISTINA BENJAMIN is about to launch LIES, the third book in her terrific YA series, THE GENEVA PROJECT—which takes place in the troubled land of Lux! The first two books, TRUTH and SECRETS, are currently on sale for $.99 so readers can get caught up for LIES’ September 1st debut. Pre-order LIES now, on Amazon.

563643_175978649219949_122053263_n

Lit-Land-O residents, take note: LIES is launching at Writer’s Atelier, on Saturday, September 12th, at 4:30, when Christina will be reading from LIES and signing copies!

1 … 17 18 19 20 21 … 27

Copyright ©2026 Jamie Morris LLC| Contact | Privacy Policies | Terms & Conditions