Prompt: Take Your Fill-In-The-Blank To Work Day Take your dog, cat, frog, aunt/ant to work day. From the June 2015 Costco Connection: Summer is typically a time when many businesses see a drop-off in customers, so they create ways to engage customers. Here are some specially designated days and, of course, you can write on any of these. Have fun. . . Let your imagination take over. June 1: Flip A Coin Day June 3: Repeat Day June 4: Hug Your Cat Day June 8: Best Friends Day June 10: Iced Tea Day June 18: National Splurge Day June 19: Sauntering Day June 26: Take Your Dog to Work Day You can search the internet for all kinds of “official” days. Just Write!
Author: mcullen
Marlene Cullen is enthusiastic about encouraging people to write, even those who think they can’t write. Her series of books, The Write Spot anthologies, features writing that entertains as well as inspires writing. Every story, vignette, and poem in The Write Spot books include writing prompts motivating readers to become writers.
Marlene hosts The Write Spot Blog, a treasure chest of inspirational gems for writers.
Fulfilling her passion for writing and sharing with others, Marlene has created unique writing environments such as Jumpstart Writing Workshops, where participants often experience transformational changes. Her workshops provide essential elements for successful writing.
Marlene is the founder of Writers Forum of Petaluma, a monthly literary event featuring presenters talking about the craft and business of writing.
Marlene's awarding winning short stories and essays have been published in literary journals, anthologies, and newspapers, including Tiny Lights, Building Bridges, More Bridges, Redwood Writers anthologies, and The Write Spot anthologies.
She is a member of the California Writer's Club.
The Write Spot Blog Seeks Guest Bloggers
Writers! Need to build your cred? . . . or, as they say, need to build your platform? One way is to be a guest blogger. The Write Spot Blog seeks guest bloggers. ~600 words, something inspiring and informative for writers. Contact Marlene if interested. mcullen – at – comcast.net
Perfect Day . . . Prompt #164
Write about a perfect day. Photo by Kent Sorensen
Just Write Magic Carpet Ride
For inspiration to Just Write: Click on a topic below and you will arrive at a (hopefully) inspirational post. Just like being on a magic carpet ride! The following are from the 2013 Just Write Posts Gorgeous Writing by Melanie Thorne Fabulous Character Sketch, Elizabeth Berg Natalie Goldberg talks about writing practice Twelve Steps to Successful Writing by Marlene Cullen Amy Zhang and Your Scraps of Writing How to get in the mood to write by Marlene Cullen Don’t think. Don’t Plan. Just Write. Marlene Cullen Natalie Goldberg’s Six Rules of Writing Get Started. How to use prompts. Marlene Cullen Pass On The Dream And Tell Its Truth – Natalie Goldberg Elizabeth Berg demystifies how to describe characters Debbie Macomber had so many rejections . . . Writing about place, August Kleinzahler Three top Pointers About Writing Personal Essay by Kelly Caldwell One way to learn how to write, get…
The Blue Moon Literary & Art Review is ready for you
The Blue Moon Literary & Art Review publishes poetry and fiction of all genres, including literary fiction and murder mystery. They are especially interested in short stories and excerpts from novels in progress. Click Submission Guidelines for complete instructions. Something Unique with Blue Moon: Ever wonder why your piece wasn’t selected? Blue Moon offers a Critique Service: If (and only if) you would like a written critique of your work, include a $10.00 Critique Fee with your mailed submission. What a deal!
Random Words #163
Use these words in a freewrite: elaborate, bitter, cool, leave, mist, arm, moon, bare, peach, vision Post your writing on The Write Spot Blog.
Guest Blogger Jordan Rosenfeld reveals secrets of successful writers.
Guest Blogger Jordan Rosenfeld: 5 Habits of Persistent Writers (That you can adopt, too). Show me two equally capable writers and I’ll show one who succeeds at her publishing dreams and one who struggles. What’s the difference between them? And no, the answer isn’t luck, or “being born with it.” The writer who succeeds persists. What does this mean, precisely? We hear a lot about persistence–is it just a numbers game, where if you keep submitting the same story or novel eventually it will just magically land? No, that’s blind hope. Persistence is passion + commitment + practice. Below I’ll walk you through seven strategies for becoming a persistent writer, and I promise you the answer will not include self-immolation or losing sleep. Find a Passion Root: One of the most amazing things about rose bushes is that they are notoriously difficult to kill by chopping or cutting. You can prune…
Hands. Prompt #162
Today’s Writing Prompt: Hands
“Not only is it OK to risk failure; it’s necessary.” Anthony Doerr
Anthony Doerr, winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, believes “We need to live with the fear that we will stink, that no one will pay any attention, that we will fall like trees in an empty forest: the fear that we are going to take our glorious, flawless, nebulous ideas and butcher them on the altar of reality.” “Not only is it OK to risk failure; it’s necessary.” Marlene’s Musings: Feel better now? If a Pulitzer Prize winner can think it’s okay . . . no, it’s necessary to fail. . . then let’s all fail. No worries about your writing. . . Go for it. Just Write! Quote from “Costume Drama,” Real Simple magazine, October 2014.
Every day I fail.
“I’m a novelist. Every day I fail. My drafts — when I complete them, which is not often —are inevitably shadows of what I had hoped they would be.” — Anthony Doerr Sound familiar? Writers often experience failure. . . whether it’s receiving rejection notices or failing to complete writing projects. But . . . to not try, really, is to fail. So, if you have unfinished short stories, plays, poems, manuscripts. . . dig them out, blow off the dust and see if you can get back into this project. If not. . . move on to a new piece of writing. Anthony Doerr was awarded the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. And yet, he has doubts about his writing, just like the rest of us. “I can’t ever fully execute the glorious and inarticulable dreams in my head. Even on my best days, I just manage to cobble…