Inspiration Abounds!

Late winter/early spring is one of my favorite times of year around here. Cooler air and sunshine make it easy to get outside (See ya later, “dreadmill”/treadmill!). Everywhere I look, people are walking, running, riding bikes, playing pickleball and tennis, hanging out with their canine pals at the dog park. Every weekend, there are art shows and craft fairs and garage sales. Oh, and food trucks! And let’s not forget spring training! Yes, there are more people and traffic (I’m looking at you, snowbirds and spring break visitors!) but there’s more energy, too. Life just feels full of color and texture and vitality right now. Inspiration abounds!  

WRITING

I subbed the short story I mentioned last post. . . and received a rejection. Sigh. But I'm not giving up on that story just yet. I'm pretty sure it's still got some life in it. I’ve also got a loose draft of one story and scribbled notes on another.  

 

READING

I’ve got two different kinds of “claustrophobic” reads for you:

The emotional, dread-inducing kind in Adrift by Will Dean. A story that will stay with me a long time. 

And the physical kind in Her Last Breath by Taylor Adams where the characters go on an “ill-fated caving expedition.” That means underground, people. Under. Ground. Enough said.  

 

WATCHING

We finished Season Three of The Night Agent and enjoyed it way more than we thought we would. 

And can someone please explain to me how it’s possible we’re now watching Season 50 – 50! – of Survivor? Where did the time go?! 

 

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Do you have a favorite time of year? What makes it your favorite? Has a recent read left you filled with dread? (In the best way possible, of course!) Has anything made you feel old – or young! – lately?

Reigniting that Creative Spark

Recently, our neighborhood held an “art walk” where local artists and crafters could open up their homes, let people see their studios and maybe sell their work. It didn’t matter if the studio was an extra bedroom or a den, a converted garage or a tiny laundry room, wonderful work came out of them - jewelry, sea glass crafts, mosaics and art quilts, to name a few. But my favorite part of the experience was getting to chat with some of the artists and crafters.  

From the person who created fun and funky mosaic tables and tiles to the person who incorporated found objects, like ripped screen from a hurricane, into her work, the excitement and passion held by everyone was inspiring. Being around people like that never fails to reignite that spark in me. 

 

WRITING

A pretty decent draft of a longer short story is done and resting quietly. A couple of ideas are in the starting stages, which means lots of scribbled scraps of paper all over the house and messy thoughts typed up in a way that only makes sense to me.

 

Last month, I mentioned that my short story, Bad Candy, will be out in Inanimate Things Volume 2 on April 18th. The anthology is getting positive reviews over on Goodreads. 

READING

Lisa Genova’s More or Less Maddy is definitely one of my favorite books of 2025. The blurb says - “A breathless, riveting novel about a young woman diagnosed with bipolar disorder who rejects the stability and approval found in a traditionally “normal” life for a career in stand-up comedy.” I will absolutely attest to the breathless and riveting part of that statement! 

 

WATCHING

TV - We finished our re-watch of The West Wing. Once again, another show with some clunky seasons in the middle, but it finished pretty strong and we enjoyed it overall. We also re-watched the first season of The Night Agent, and it was just as good as we remembered. The second season? Not so much. I’m not sure what happened there.  

 

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What reignites that creative spark for you? Are there people in your life who are excited and passionate about something? Are YOU that person for others? What are you reading or watching lately? 

For Inspiration, Look Up

Inspiration is definitely all around us, but for the purpose of this post, we're looking up.

Last month, daredevil Nik Wallenda and his sister, Lijana, performed a high wire act in Times Square. It was exciting and emotional. During a practice a few years back, Lijana fell from the wire. She broke every bone in her face and was not expected to survive, let alone walk (on the ground!) again. So while it was amazing to see her up in Times Square, it was more thrilling to me to watch her take some of those early steps right above my head.

Wallenda makes some of his wire walking practice sessions free and open to the public.  My husband and I went to the first one. The crowd was silent as Lijana got up on the wire, but the desire for her to succeed was practically thrumming through all of us, as if we were screaming on the inside. It wasn't until she made it all the way across that the crowd breathed a sigh of relief then erupted into applause.

It all starts with one step. One step toward a dream. One step toward better health. One step toward freeing yourself from whatever chains hold you back, hold you down. It's okay if the step feels terrifying to you, but easy and normal to everyone else. It's okay if you need a harness or a safety net, especially in the beginning.

And even though most of us don’t have a crowd of people cheering for us and taking our photos (thank goodness for that last part!), we usually have at least a few special people rooting for us.

And, if it helps at all, please know that from this tiny corner of the blogosphere, I am wildly applauding your progress.

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Who or what has inspired you lately? Why? Let's put some positive energy out into the world!  

How, Not What

I have two excellent posts I'd like to share with you all. 

The first - "A Writer's Manifesto" - is by Julie Duffy. You might know her, as I do, from StoryADay, but she wrote this for Writer Unboxed. 

"A writer’s manifesto is a highly personal document that,

• Is about your identity as a writer.
• Gives you a unified sense of what you want to achieve in all your writing.
• Transcends genres and projects.
• Is more motivating than individual goals."

She not only shares her own manifesto, but she also gives guidance on how to create our own. I wrote one up for myself and put it on my bulletin board. I look at it every day, and it does exactly what she says it does. 

"When you find yourself struggling, ask yourself how you want to be writing. Not what characters or stories or subjects you’ll tackle or how you’ll make this scene perfect, but what you want to achieve with your writing. Pick up your manifesto and ask how you can make today’s writing align with your values."

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Now, any post that starts off referencing actor Bryan Cranston as dentist Tim Whatley from Seinfeld has me hooked. So, of course, I kept reading James Scott Bell's "What Bryan Cranston Can Teach Writers" over at The Kill Zone.

Bell talks about Cranston's autobiography, A Life in Parts, where Cranston talks about his acting career and the moment he started focusing on the process and stopped focusing on the outcome. Bell relates it to writing. 

"You’re not here to get something, 

you’re here to give something—

entertainment value to a reader."

An excellent reminder! 

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Do you have a writer's manifesto? Plan on creating one? Are you able, for the most part, to focus on the process and let the rest go? 

Out of My Gourd

For some people, Fall means cool, crisp weather. For others, it means pumpkin-flavored everything. Since I'm still running my air conditioner, and I'd rather carve a pumpkin than eat it, nothing says Fall to me like National Novel Writing Month.

This time around, I'm a NaNo Rebel. I will write 50,000 words of fresh fiction, but it will not be a novel. At least, I don't think so. I have Plan A and Plan B, which means I'll probably end up with Plan W, but I'm okay with that.

See, somewhere along the line, my writing stopped being fun. This happened for more reasons than I can count or even define. And I really, really miss that energy, that joy. Then I came across this quote by R. L. Stine:

"The writers who go into a school, do an assembly and say to write from the heart, write your passion, write what you know . . . the kids who listen to them will never write a word . . . I've written 350 books, and not one has come from my heart, not a single one. It's true! They're all written to entertain people, for people to enjoy and have fun. But you don't have to write from the heart."

So, this November, I will have fun with my writing again! And if I have to take down every pumpkin in the vicinity to do it, I will! (Drama! Suspense! A Possible Serial Killer of Pumpkins!) I have no idea what will happen, but since the month will go by anyway, why not have something creative - brilliant? stinky? both? - to show at the end of it?

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Are you NaNo-ing this November? Excited about your current project? Still having fun with your writing? Are you pro-pumpkin?

Get on Track! Writing Books and Links to Guide, Inspire and Motivate

This past summer, I came across some wonderful posts (and books!) about writing that really hit home for me. I'm sharing them here in the hopes we can all stay on a good track - or get on one! - for the rest of the year and into the next. May you come away from reading them with the same inspiration, motivation and guidance that I did! 

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If you've lost your writing mojo, check out Anna Elliot's post over at Writer Unboxed - When the Spark is Gone: 4 Ways to Bring Back the Joy of Writing: 

"But we all have experienced those hard days: times when we feel like we’ve lost the spark of delight in what we’re working on. It might be a scene, a chapter, or an entire book that suddenly feels flat or empty or just lifeless on the page."

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If you're trying to figure out where you'd like your writing career to go, these two posts from Pretentious Title can help:

Author Career Planning: "I'd like to talk about career planning. In my opinion, the trad vs self publishing choice is just a microcosm of figuring out a real career path for yourself."

Know Thy (Publishing) Self: "Because the truth is that both trad and self publishing have horrible pitfalls and incredible heights. Neither of them is easy and nothing is guaranteed. So how do you know which is right for you?" 

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I can't say enough good things about Lisa Cron's book Wired for Story: The Writer's Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence. I'm now reading her new one, Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages that Go Nowhere.) Oh. Yes. Please.  

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And now . . . some inspiration! Bear with me, I'm going all Fan Girl (wait, am I too old for that? Or should it be Fan Woman?) I am a huge fan of Mindy McGinnis - the 2016 Young Adult Edgar Award Winner! - whose new book, The Female of the Species, is out September 20th.

Guess how long it took this book's journey form beginning to bookstore? 15 years! In A Picture of a Thousand Torments, Or: A Literal Pile of Rejection Letters, Mindy says, "I'm sharing all of this with you not as yet another example of "never give up," but rather, "never stop improving." If I had continued to query for fifteen years but never bothered to improve my craft, I guarantee I would still be receiving rejections." Read her post. Please.

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(I didn't receive any compensation for mentioning these links or books. I just liked them and wanted to share.)

The Movies in My Mind

I am prone to weird dreams. Not necessarily nightmares - although, I have those, too - but dreams that seem somewhat normal but leave me utterly exhausted. Although I can sometimes tell they originated from a book or from other media, I've never tried to actually interpret them. I'm pretty sure I don't want to know....

Here's a recent weird one:

I'm attending some sort of conference and sharing a huge hotel room with three other people. One of them is a fellow blogger. (Someone who is familiar in the dream but has no name or face I can place when I wake up.)

Huge heavy drapes are pulled across the windows, and I don't know if it's day or night. Suddenly, a group of men come in, my Dad among them. (My Dad passed away last year, but in the dream he's alive, not a ghost or anything.) He tells me we need to go, there's some sort of alert and we have to leave Pasadena. (This tidbit comes from either a horror novel about a spider invasion that partly takes place in California or from an old episode of The Big Bang Theory.)

I shove things into bags - for some reason, I have lots of stuff for this conference. Whatever is happening is bad because my Dad - a very organized packer - would never let me just throw stuff in bags. He picks up a backpack that's obviously too heavy for him - he's wearing a green sweatshirt and sweat stains form between his chest and stomach. I scold him, and he tells me he's fine. (By the way, that part would've totally happened in the real world.) We head out into a morning that looks normal but has a weird yellow cast to it.

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Do you have weird dreams, too? Do you use them as inspiration for stories, for art? Do your characters dream or have nightmares? Do you like to interpret dreams? Any thoughts on mine? Hmm, maybe it's a post apocalyptic story waiting to be written....

You're Never Too Old To Do Something Amazing

Every once in awhile I get kinda blue thinking about how old I am. Yes, I know I'm not that old in the grand scheme of things, but since I am older than I once was, I feel I'm entitled to some mental moaning and groaning about time wasted and lost opportunities.

But then my husband gave me this article  - "This List Proves You're Never Too Old to Do Something Amazing" (Business Insider, March 2014.) I was blown away by what people have accomplished at all ages and stages of life! Here are a few of my favorites:

At age 39 - Sharon Sites Adams became the first woman to sail alone across the Pacific Ocean.

At age 40 - Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run. 

At age 47 - Kent Couch attached 105 helium balloons to a lawn chair and flew 193 miles.

At age 49 - Julia Child published her book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

At age 57 - Frank Dobesh competed in his first 100-mile bicycle ride - exactly 10 years after he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor.

At age 75 - cancer survivor Barbara Hillary became one of the oldest people, and the first black woman, to reach the North Pole. 

At age 92 - Paul Spangler finished his 14th marathon.

At age 96 - Harry Bernstein published his first book, The Invisible Wall, three years after he started writing to cope with loneliness after his wife of 70 years, Ruby, passed away.

At age 100 - Frank Scherer seems to be the oldest active water skier in the world.  

Boy, does this list snap me out of my pitiful little pity party! What have you put off doing because you think you're too old? Anyone on this list particularly inspiring? Do you personally know people like this? 

I've got lots of living yet to do…and so do you!

As NaNo Nears . . . .

I have a story idea for NaNo. Okay, it's really just a scene. Not even a scene. More of an image, like a still from a movie. 

I've tried to rewind it to see what happened before.... Nothing. Fast forward to see what happens after.... Nothing. I know a story exists; I feel it.

I sorted through my folders of ideas - news stories, scraps of overheard dialogue, shreds of dreams scribbled down in the gray morning light - wondering if anything would shake something loose, would make that still move. 

And move it did. Only not in the smooth flowing way I'd like. No. Instead, I'd come across an idea, an article, a character sketch and I'd feel that ping, the one that says "Yes, I belong in this story. I don't know why or in what capacity exactly, but I belong here. Trust me."

And so I do. 

I still don't know what my story is about. I don't have an outline or a timeline. I don't have a working title. I do have a main character. I have a sense of foreboding and fear. I have more stills than I care to count, but I also have blips of movement, of actual scenes. I have the essence of the story, and for me, for now, that's enough.

How do your ideas come to you - fully formed or in pieces? Do they arrive visually, like in images, or do you hear your characters' voices? Do you get a ping or something else? If you're participating in NaNo, how prepared are you?  

The End is Near . . . or is it?

The majority of the stories and novels I write start with an image. Occasionally, I hear a few lines of description, narrative or dialogue, but it's usually visual, my own silent movie scene. This moment, while often the impetus for the work, is not always the opening scene. Sometimes it falls in the middle or even at the very end. It can change slightly but it rarely disappears. It's sort of like a hidden mental hook I hang the whole story or novel on.

The Camp NaNo novel I'm continuing to work on has that. It's got lots of characters, too many plot threads to count, and some scary (I hope!) blood-and-guts-but-not-too-gory scenes. What it doesn't have? An ending.

I pretty much always have some idea of how the work is going to end. It might be vague, but it's there. Not this time. I've got loose and frayed plot lines that need to be knotted up. I've got characters moving toward an end point . . . but none of us know what that end point is or what will actually happen when we get there. And I don't like it. I like to know where I'm going, how long it will take to get there, what happens once I do. (Why, then, am I a writer, with all its unpredictability and uncertainty? Probably a post for another day.)  

So, as my characters and I move toward the cliff's edge with no rope bridge in sight, I ask what you all do with your stories and novels. How do you start? Does a character speak to you or does the plot present itself first? Do you know the ending ahead of time? Or is it always a surprise to you?

Liquid Inspiration

I think my husband is trying to tell me something with one of my Christmas gifts.  At first, when I slid the two bottles of water out of the fancy wine tube, I thought he was just trying to keep me healthy and hydrated.  But then I took a good look at one of the bottles.  The label read - Inspiration - Monroeville Writers Water.  Hmm, okaaaay...   

But I kept reading and learned that Monroeville, Alabama has been home to some of the South's great writers, including Harper Lee.  Rick Bragg called it "the cradle of Southern literature."  How could so many amazing writers come from one small town?  The proposed answer is there must be something in the water. 

And now I have two bottles of it in my hot little hands.  "Find your muse with a drink from the fountain of literary inspiration" the labels says.  "It's refreshing, inspiring and 100% Southern."  Hmm, I wonder if it will work for a transplanted Northerner like me?  And when should I drink it?  Before I'm stuck, keep the juices flowing?  When I'm stuck, give me a sudden burst of creativity?  Decisions, decisions. 

So, while those holiday TV commercials show husbands giving their wives expensive cars as gifts, my husband knew what I needed.  He knew I needed something way more valuable than wheels.  Encouragement and inspiration and support are priceless.  His encouragement and inspiration and support are priceless. 

Hmm, maybe he's getting a little worn down, a little tried, of keeping me going.  (I can be exhausting.)  Maybe he needs to drink more water.  Hey, maybe he needs some liquid inspiration.  Good thing I have two bottles...

Inspiration at the Beach

I just got home from the South Carolina Writers Workshop conference and let me just say, I am inspired.  Now, I learned a lot from the critique I received and from the workshops I attended, but it was two women - Rachelle Gardner and Joshilyn Jackson - in particular who re-lit the fire for fiction in my gut.

I've followed literary agent Rachelle Gardner's blog for awhile now, even linked over there a few times here at The Shellshank Redemption, so I was very excited to meet her and learn from her in person.  She didn't disappoint.  Her workshop, "First Lines, First Paragraphs, First Pages: How to Create a Terrific Opening," was excellent.  Those beginnings are what draw readers in, are what makes them want to read more.  She talked about how "voice" can't be taught, how it must be found.  It's the expression of "you" on the page and it takes courage to put it there.  Everything she said clicked, and I came away from the class excited about stories and their telling.

Joshilyn Jackson's newest book, Backseat Saints, was on my to-be-read list anyway, but when I saw she was going to be at the conference, I bumped it up.  I wish I had read it sooner, like the moment I left the store with it.  I wish I had read all of her books sooner.  I bought her first one at the conference, read it, loved it.  She is that good.  (If it sounds like I'm gushing, it's because I am.)  Her workshop, "Headspace & Heartspace: Writing is Not a Business, Publishing is Not an Art," reminded me why I write and how I can write better.  Write the book only I can write and write it to the best of my ability; write what matters to me and be true to it.  I don't have room here for all the great things she said (now, she should write a book on writing!), but one particular piece rang so true it stilled me inside - give up the idea that publishing a book is the goal.  The real goal is to be a novelist and any work done toward that goal is worth it and is not a waste of time.  Amen.  Just...amen.

Okay, I'm done gushing and being a groupie...for the moment.        

The Natural Writer

I am not a nature girl. I haven't gone camping since I was a Brownie and all the other little girls chose me to be their "bathroom buddy" - the one they woke up to walk with them to the bathrooms. In the woods. In the dark. I don't dig in a garden, although I do manage to keep some plants alive. I don't like "critters," especially in the house. Ask my husband what happened when one of those little Florida lizards made its way inside our old apartment. And don't get me started on palmetto bugs.

Overall, nature and I are on civil, if not friendly, terms. So, I find it extremely interesting that one of my favorite places to go is ... the beach. I'm not talking about swimming or sprawling in beach chairs (although I enjoy those, too) but walking ... and walking ... and walking. My husband and I walk on the beach as often as we can. It clears our heads and our lungs. It's where I can breathe. I look out over the water and feel both incredibly small and huge with possibilities at the same time. Inspiration and imagination ride the waves, lapping at my toes, receding, then returning. Always returning.

Then, when my husband and I sit in our little courtyard at home (remember, no garden for me!) and I close my eyes and feel the sun on my face, solutions to character issues and plot tangles drift like puffs of white clouds through the shocking blue of my mind's sky. The distance from my laptop and blogs and rejection letters seems so very great then. But I always return to the words.

Because isn't that what writers do?

Inspiration vs Routine

How do you make room for bursts of creativity in your routine? How do you impose routine on inspiration?

There are hundreds of writing/advice books sporting differing schools of thought. Some say a strict schedule will choke the imagination. Just sit and write when the mood strikes. Others say discipline gives inspiration a place to go, room to make itself comfortable, when it shows up.

I don't want my words, my stories, to feel like they're just the next one on the conveyor belt - "Okay, one story done, next. Keep 'em moving! Write 'em, submit 'em. Next!" And yet, without some sort of schedule, I'd just watch reruns of CSI and Law & Order: SVU all day. (Hmm, wouldn't that be a routine in itself? Maybe throw in some Project Runway and Top Chef for variety?)

For example, according to my schedule today, I am - right now - supposed to be polishing a flash fiction piece. Instead, I am writing this post because I was intrigued by the idea of routine vs. inspiration; I was "inspired." So, my routine is off, but something positive and productive came out of it. Was I moved by creativity or was I just lazy?

Is there a right way and a wrong way to move through this writing life? Or do we all have to find our own way, and does that way change as we do?