Serious Fun

Want to know the top three activities that are guaranteed to improve your writing?

1. Write every day

2. Write every day

3.  Write every day

Seriously.

But that doesn't mean that you should write seriously.

In fact, the more you can make your daily writing discipline like some wild and crazy joyride, the faster you’ll get to where you want that writing to go.

So lighten up!

Enjoy the process.

After all, it’s not brain surgery. It’s not life or death…

unless, of course, you kill off a character or two – but still.

This is fun!

And to quote the master…

“Fun is good.”

~Dr. Seuss

PROMPT: Create a new folder. Label it Sandbox, Jukebox, or Xbox (whatever kind of fun you kids are into these days). Then noodle around – catch one of the voices inside of your head and see where s/he goes, create a crazy recipe, or write about wacky neuro-geeks who do think brain surgery is fun. Throw these daily bits into the digital file. Give yourself a couple of months of this and you’ll see – something wonderful this way comes!

Monkey Business

I am NOT a monkey.

My state has a prepaid tuition program known as GET.

Sadly, it has a projected deficit of about $631 million.

I know, I know, chump change because it’s only an “illion” with an M and not a B or a Tr, but some of our senators are calling for its discontinuation anyway.

To quote one of our fine representatives –

“The GET is the 800-pound gorilla and the tail is wagging the dog.”

Yeah, I’m pretty sure he said this with a straight face.

And I just can’t help myself, but I simply MUST respond.

Senator R.T.–

Gorillas DO NOT have tails.

Your license to metaphor has been revoked.

My work here is done.

PROMPT: Political speak is such an AMAZING skill – it’s like a superpower! Write a thousand words of material today, just be sure that it says ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Who knows, this could be the start of a new career for you!

The Incredible Edible…

Just when you thought everything was ho-hum-same-old-same-old –

Fashion designers have created something totally NEW, fantastically FRESH, and incredibly…

CHOCOLATE!

Yes, we are talking about the chocolate dress.

You can see one for yourself here.

Granted, these fashioners get mega points for creativity, but seriously folks, what are they thinking?

Anybody knows that any body harboring double X chromosomes is just one hormonal shift away from being buck-naked.

Wait a minute.

That’s exactly what they’re thinking.

PROMPT: Perhaps our hero is stranded and on the brink of starvation. Suddenly, he has a light bulb moment – “Praise cheeses!” he says. “I just remembered that my backpack’s made of Brie!”

Yep, it’s all about edible wearables today. Write… and nosh on!

Dreams... The Other Kind

Paul McCartney’s Yesterday.

Blue Suede Shoes by Carl Perkins.

Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones.

What do they have in common besides being awesome jams?

They were all inspired by dreams.

And lucky for the rest of us, these artists got their butts out of bed and wrote or recorded bits that would help them remember their insights in the morning. In fact, they say that the recording of Keith Richards chanting, “I can’t get no satisfaction” and doing a verbal of that famous guitar riff finishes off with a grand finale of loud snoring.

In the book department, dreams have helped create E.B. White’s Stuart Little and Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach.

And by the way, there’s no need to fret another nightmare.

Think Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein,

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson,

and Stephen King’s Misery.

So, to quote those wise words of screechy Steven Tyler –

Dream on

Dream on

Dream on

Yeah, and sometimes you just have to see it live to appreciate it.

PROMPT: Always keep a dream catcher (notebook and pen or digital device) next to your bed. You never know when that late-night chimichanga or quart of Ben & Jerry’s is going to inspire your next best-seller.

Calling All Dreamers

I have a dream…

~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Do you have a dream?

Of course you do.

In fact, you probably have many dreams.

You have dreams for your own life… for your family… your community… your country… your world.

Today would be a wonderful day to write down those dreams in black and white… red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

Then go about the creative business of making them so.

“Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.”

~Martin Luther King, Jr.

PROMPT: Go to the mountaintop. What do you see?