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It is finally cooling off here a bit.

In fact, we have the first sign of winter!



That, in this morning's early light, is the first load of our firewood. It came from land we own in the foothills of the Adirondacks. You might say that we grow our own heat. Once all the wood has been delivered, we'll rent a splitter and spend a couple days splitting and stacking. This year we have two fireplaces to feed; the monster that heats our house, and the soapstone wood stove that will heat the cottage.

Before we split and stack, I need to finish canning peaches and take care of a LOT of garden chores. The goal today is to write for 10 hours and garden for 2.

Gardens are fascinating places.


Ready...

Today's advice: "Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to write "very;" your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be." Mark Twain


Set...

Today's prompt: Your character finds strange-looking seeds in an unusual place. (Your job, if you choose to accept it, begins with a riveting description of both the seeds and their location.)

Have her plant the seeds. Focus on the action of planting - make it hard, and a vivid description of the setting. Your choice if you want her to be alone of with another person. As soon as the job is complete and she is picking up her tools, the plant explodes from the ground and reaches full-size in seconds. What does it look like? What has she grown?

What happens next?

Extra bonus points: Do not use adverbs. Any of them. If you find yourself reaching for an adverb, pick a stronger verb instead.


Scribble...Scribble....Scribble!

I am going to spend the morning moving my niece into her apartment. I have figured out that there is some kind of natural law that requires relatives to move only on one of the five hottest days of the year. Natural laws are a bitch.

You can stay near a fan and clickety-click on all these links I found for you.

If you blog about YA books or write them or read them (or any combination) you want to read Persnickety Snark's Guide to YA Blogging. Nice work, Adele!

Bitch Magazine has a great interview with Sara Zarr.

PLEASE participate and spread the word to teachers about NCTE's National Day on Writing!

Ready...

Today's advice: "The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt." Sylvia Plath 


Set...

Today's prompt: Part One: Write three quick lists, of five items each. Give a very detailed description - as specific as possible - for each item.

List 1 = five colors
List 2 = five sounds
List 3 = five textures

When you are finished with your lists, scroll down for Part Two.....





and be grateful you aren't carrying boxes in this heat...





think of me when you are sipping lemonade..........






or sangria..............





almost there..........



Part 2 - Study your lists and come up with a bunch of different combinations, using one element from each list. One of these combination is going to strike a chord inside you. You might feel it in your gut or your throat. Freewrite for fifteen minutes on the combination.


Scribble...Scribble....Scribble!

I'm headed to the farmer's market in search of peaches and horseradish. Find someplace cool today and scribble!

Ready...

Today's advice: "The scariest moment is always just before you start." Stephen King


Set...

Today's prompt: The seven deadly sins are so useful. I have picked one of them out of the hat for you to ponder and write wildly about.

Before I announce Today's Sin (which is a rather fun concept), get your character in the right place. Ummmm.... let's put her in the middle of August, vacationing with family. It could be at Cape Cod, or a lake in Michigan or camping, at her grandmother's place, visiting an aunt in a city, or staying home to babysit for the neighbors because since her dad was laid off there is no money for anything.

Her mindset at the beginning of the passage should be triumphant, in-control. She owns her world.

And then The Sin shows up. It can arrive in the form of another person, an object, a situation, or a bit of gossip.

Try not write something like "She was feeling [insert sin-modifier adverb]." SHOW the reader that her soul is being eaten by this sin by her behavior. Start subtle and go large.

And Today's Favorite of the Seven Deadly Sins is....






(Yes, it's another one of those damn scroll-down prompts.....)








(You know you love them.....)






(You let the dog out already, right?)





TODAY'S SIN IS ENVY!




Scribble...Scribble....Scribble!

Busy times here in the Forest!! I watched the Pitt/Arizona game last night while answering email, and was a little bummed at halftime, because OfficeMouse (aka Daughter #3) and I had arranged a halftime phone call to go over the first half of the game. And she didn't call. But, I know.... she's all grown up now.... living her own life........ about to start her teaching career........ and she lives almost six hours away.....has better things to do that than talk football with her old Mom.......who really misses her....

So yeah, I was feeling pretty sorry for myself.

That's when the OfficeMouse and her boyfriend Perceptor walked in. A surprise visit for the weekend.

There was much rejoicing in the Forest!!!

But there is still writing to do.

Ready...

Today's advice: This is what Joyce Carol Oates says: "I have forced myself to begin writing when I've been utterly exhausted, when I've felt my soul as thin as a playing card, when nothing has seemed worth enduring for another five minutes . . . and somehow the activity of writing changes everything. Or appears to do so."


Set...

Today's prompt: Do NOT scroll down to read Part 2 of this prompt yet!!.

Part 1 - Write the next scene in your WIP or, if you are in-between projects, write about what you did yesterday. Write enough to fill a page or so.

Got that done? Excellent! NOW you can scroll down.....






Keep scrolling.....







Yes, I know it's hot. It's August.....









If I'm trying not to whine, you can too. Almost there....






Part 2 - You made it without melting! Good job! Take your one-page scene and introduce the most unexpected character in the world into it. How is your character going to react? If you find that the introduction of this character does not jolt your main character into an unanticipated response, keep raising the stakes. The goal is for YOU to learn someone new about your character.


Scribble...Scribble....Scribble!

I tried to make a poll this morning, but I couldn't quite figure it out. Instead, I'm posting some questions below. Please answer in the comments section. If you feel the need to write an essay about any of this, mail it to laurie AT writerlady DOT com.

How many days a week do you write?

How do you claim your writing time?

What is the biggest distraction from your writing?

Do you have a Bubble Buddy?


Ready...

Today's advice: You don't have to know exactly where you're going on your next adventure, but having a couple of maps will probably prevent a screaming death match in the car.


Set...

Today's prompt: Find the biggest piece of paper you can. If necessary, tape together four our more pieces of notebook paper into a very large square. Now get out pens, crayons, markers, and/or colored pencils.

Draw a map of the neighborhood you lived in when you were a kid, or the neighborhood your character lives in. Start out with roads and houses. Identify who lives where. Add in gossip about the different families when it pops into your head. Any stores? Where's the bus stop? Cracks in the sidewalk? What happened on that corner? What did the air smell like? What was the best time of year to live there? Why? Keep writing and drawing and writing and drawing until you have not only a neighborhood map, but a memory map, too.




Scribble...Scribble....Scribble!

August is a wistful month for many reasons, including the fact that it is when the SCBWI Annual Conference is held in Los Angeles. Le sigh. I really need to go back soon. Until I can, I will have to content myself with reading the official blog about the conference.

That's enough wistfulness. I woke up with the sun and harvested a bunch of green beans that will soon be on their way to the freezer. I planted 10 plants, but that's not nearly enough, given that green beans are a staple here. Next year I think I'll plant 30. The tomatoes are starting to ripen and my popcorn plants have tasseled.

Has anyone ever frozen kale?

From the garden to the writer's desk. We've been doing a lot of character development this month, so it's time to mix things up. Are you listening? Good, because today is all about dialog.

Dialog should carry one of the two burdens of Story: a) move the plot forward, or B) add to our understanding of character.

Beware the temptation to load dialog down with backstory blathering, as in this Draft 1 Example:

Narrator: "You know, it's funny you should say that, Drake. Remember the time when we were kids and our house burned down because Cousin Ichabod tried to repair the stove with a blowtorch and how he forgot to turn off the gas and remember how after they let him out of the hospital he got on a bus to Las Vegas and was never heard from again? Well, sure as heck, he came home today - thirty years to the day after destroying our house and family."
Drake: "Do you think he knows that Ma and Pa have been scheming to kill him every day since and they put all the insurance money into the finest weaponry and land to hide the body?"

Yeah, I know. Made of suckitude.

But we all write like this, when no one is watching. I think ::lowers voice to whisper:: I think it might be part of the process. Don't tell the people who give standardized tests. They enjoy the delusion that first draft writing is always polished prose. (Silly bureaucrats!)

I have a cure!

Prepare yourself!!!  Get down on one knee and bow your head.

::raises staff of oak and ash:: I, Madwoman of the Forest, do hereby grant thee the First Draft Exemption For Writing Bad and Pointless Dialog. 
::bonks assembled writers on head with staff::

OK, get up now. Don't you feel better?

I find that I NEED to write banal and blathering dialog in a first draft because it help me understand the characters and their backstories. The trick is to have the courage to admit how bad it is when it comes time to revise. And cut out everything that is useless.

Example, Draft 2:
Narrator: "Ichabod's back."
Drake: "I know. Ma has the cannon ready. I'm supposed to dig a hole."
Narrator: "Already did it."
Drake: "Then I get to cover him up."
Narrator: "Fair enough. But don't tell Pa."

(Yes, I deliberately created a question with that last line. It's supposed to move the story forward.)



Ready....

Today's advice: Mystery author Robert B. Parker said, "Say a lot in a little. Put the most meaning in the fewest words."


Set...

Today's prompt: Today you eavesdrop. Sit next to people who do not know you are listening and write down as much as you can overhear. Stop before the police are called. Read over what you've written, paying special attention to how often they spoke in fragments and how quickly information was conveyed. How does the way they speak differ from the way your characters speak?

Extra Bonus Points: Rework some of your dialog from your WIP. Be merciless - what can you throw away?
 

Scribble...Scribble....Scribble!

Writing anything requires that you make thousands upon thousands of choices for your characters. This is why it can feel like so much fun to start a book, but once you are a hundred pages into it, you are ready to pitch it onto a bonfire. If you made a wrong turn on the path of choices, you can find yourself hip deep in tangled plot with no easy way out.

One of the common mistakes I make in early drafts is to let all of the rotten things that happen to my characters come from the outside. I think I do this because I like my characters, or maybe because, in an early draft, I don't know them well enough.

I've found that letting my characters mess up leads to all kinds of fresh plot paths and story energy.

You can probably see where I'm going with this.


Ready....

Today's advice: It doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't even have to be good. Yet. But you must get something down on the page today.


Set...

Today's prompt: Put your character in an ordinary scene: babysitting, making lunch, texting friends, whatever, and allow her to make the absolute worst decisions possible for the scene. You'll need to motivate her decision - let your mind run free. Make it a spectacular screw-up with ugly consequences.

TUESDAY EXTRA SPECIAL BONUS PROMPT!

Someone leaves a half-full bottle of tequila at the bottom of your driveway. Write about who left it and why.
(This is based on something that happened to me yesterday. Honest.)

Thank you, Chicago Tribune, for the lovely review of The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes to School!

I'm off on an adventure this morning, one that will absolutely stoke my dreams. What are you doing to feed your dreams this month?

Ready....

Today's advice: You won't do it, unless you dream it first.

Set...

Today's prompt: There are two parts to this one. Indulge yourself and write for more than fifteen minutes!

Part 1: What crazy, ridiculous huge life-changing thing would you do if you were guaranteed it would be successful?

Part 2: What crazy, ridiculous huge life-changing thing would your character do if s/he were guaranteed it would be successful? What fear is holding her/him back from trying? Show the tension between the character's dream and fear in a scene with a person who brings out the worst in your character.

Busy day here, so I'll keep things simple.

Ready....

Today's advice: This comes from my favorite mystery writer, Elizabeth George. "Writing has to be important to you. A lot of writing is simply showing up and doing the work day after day."

Set...

Today's prompt: Write a detailed personals ad for your character. It can be a character in your work-in-progress or someone you make up on the spot. Start with the physical description. Use details from the description as jumping off points to explore the history or life of the character. For example, Where did that scar on her calf come from? Is she still angry about it? Has she ever thought of turning it into a tattoo? What would it look like? Who in her life would it scandalize? Etc., etc.....

The WFMAD 2009 Challenge is steaming ahead!

I am honored that this Challenge was featured in the NCTE Inbox Blog, along with a wonderful discussion about creating writing communities in the classroom. If you are a teacher, you definitely want to read this.

I'd like to send a shout-out, too, to the teachers who attended my speech at the SUNY Oswego Writing Institute on Monday. Welcome to the Forest!

This raises an interesting possibility for me. How many of you have online writing buddies? I'm not thinking of a critiquing partner, but someone who will help keep you honest about daily writing time. If you don't have one, would you like one? Want me to help?

OK, now, to work!

I studied linguistics in college and am a very proud word geek. I ADORE the English language.  The language takes strength from the contributions of many languages, just like the US draws strength from the cultural diversity of our people.

Ready....

Today's advice: Mix it up. Allow yourself to write things that are not part of your work in progress. All language play will strengthen your writing.


Set...

Today's prompt: I've listed two obscure words below, along with some etymology and definition from the online Oxford English Dictionary. Your assignment, if you choose to accept it, is to write a riff on one or both words, or figure out a way to incorporate whatever you're writing.


TO SHIVE: "[f. SHIVE n.¹ Cf. ON. skífa.]  trans. To cut (bread) into slices.

edweola

Wow! I've had incredible feedback already - thanks to everyone who checked in on Twitter, Facebook, LJ, MySpace and all the other landing zones for this blog.

Several people wrote in with suggestions for keeping those precious fifteen minutes uninterrupted. My favorite so far: "Let the dog out before you begin writing."

What are you doing to protect your WFMAD time?

(If you have no idea what I'm talking about, read yesterday's post.)

We had a Comfort Gathering for my father in the Forest yesterday. His oldest friends and family joined us to tell stories about my parents and share the joy of their presence. I had a big photo of my mother on the mantle; her senior picture from high school. That leads me to our prompt today.

Ready....

Today's advice: Be clear with yourself about how much of your time is controlled by other people, and how much is really under your control.

Set...

Today's prompt: Find a yearbook pic or school photo. It can be of you, your beloved, your kids or you can go here for inspiration (click on the image to make it larger). Choose a photo that evokes an emotional response - that gut feeling - even if you aren't quite sure what that feeling is at first. Don't think, just write the words that stream through your mind as you look at the photo. Write for fifteen minutes and have fun!


Scribble...Scribble....Scribble!

The Goddess of YA Literature ventured into picture book territory yesterday and reviewed a number of recent picture books, including INDEPENDENT DAMES. It is an honor and a hoot to have the book compared to the MAGIC SCHOOL BUS books, which I love.

A couple of you have asked for my pesto recipe. I mostly wing it, but here is how I made yesterday's batch:

6 cups basil leaves (I stuff the cups, cram the basil in, so it's a lot) washed and destemmed.
1 generous cup chopped pine nuts
1 and one-fourth cup grated Romano cheese (you can use Parmesan - it's worth buying the good stuff)
10 cloves of garlic. Maybe 12.
Somewhere between three-quarters of a cup and one cup of good olive oil

I don't have a food processor so it takes a while to chop all the basil into a mush, but the smell is worth it. Once the basil is chopped, stir in the other ingredients. Add a dash of salt and two dashes pepper. Make sure everything is well mixed.

Last night I tossed the fresh green beans with pesto. I think I could eat it with anything, including oatmeal. Might experiment with making pesto bread....

Making it fresh in the summer is fun, but I wanted to have some to enjoy when the snow piles up into 15-foot drifts come February.

Step One - freeze small portions of pesto in glass jars.

Thaw slightly to remove from jars.

Stick in vacuum sealer bag.

Suck out all the air and seal (this is really fun to watch).

Voila! Let it snow! Yesterday's batch was enough to fill seven small jars worth of pesto, plus eat at dinner, plus have enough to munch on for a couple day's snacking.

How do you make your pesto?

WFMAD 30

Today's goal: write for 15 minutes.

Today's mindset: fantastical

Today's prompt: Start out with the magic words "Once upon a time...." and write a fairy tale about the upcoming presidential election. Use common devices like villains, enchanted objects, interventions by fairies, etc.

Scribblescribble....

Sorry about the lateness of this post. I dove into a few research books early and forgot to come up for air. They need to go back to the library tomorrow, so I'll not be nattering or ranting today.

Did you do anything about your writing space yesterday?

WFMAD 29

Today's goal: write for 20 minutes (Think you can do it? Come on! It's art! We're supposed to break rules!)

Today's mindset: yoga-stretching your brain

Today's prompt: Write down the type of music that you hate the most, the stuff that raises your blood pressure. Now turn your radio to a station that plays that kind of music and listen to it while you write whatever images that fill your head. Try not to blather on about your feeling, i.e. I hate this crap, etc. Try to allow concrete images that represent the feelings bubble to the surface and write them down.

The point of this is to take you out of your comfort zone. So it's OK to be uncomfortable.


Scribblescribble....

Toni Morrison is one of my heroes for many reasons; she's a gifted, brilliant, powerful author, she lived in Syracuse NY for a while, and now, she's helping our country remember. (Here's a non-NY Times link for those of you who aren't registered with them.)

That bench is now on my Must-Visit list.

I am deep, deep in my research, trying to figure out how to wind the strands of my character's story around historical events. I'm swimming in a sea of correspondence with historians and preparing to meet a couple of them.

One of the more interesting aspects of writing historical fiction is meeting those historians who have made one tiny facet of your story their entire life's work. It's sort of like challenging Kobe Bryant to a game of one-on-one, knowing that he's not going to cut you any slack, but feeling like you've got your game on and you have a chance.

I spent a good hunk of yesterday marshaling my arguments for a historian who doesn't believe that oxen were used to pull the artillery wagons towards a fort under siege. I'm pretty sure I'm right; he's wavering, but he doesn't seem to have any evidence to back up his concerns. If any of you, by chance, have anything to contribute to this conversation, please get in touch with me.

In honor of today's WFMAD session, I present to you.....





... my desk.


WFMAD 28

Today's goal: Write 15 minutes and maybe a little more, because it's Monday.

Today's mindset: organized

Today's prompt: Today is all about the space in which you write. I have written many, many places (my former writing spaces are an essay waiting to be written) and now I have my own slice of heaven. I work on the third floor of our house, in a loft space tucked under the eaves. I have a giant teacher's desk from the 1920s that I trash-picked from my parents' trailer park. I do not have enough bookshelves, but BH is going to change that when I go away on book tour. This is my creative kingdom.

If you are taking your writing seriously enough to try and do it every day, then it's time to examine your writing space. What else besides writing happens there? Does it say "Dedicated Writer at Work" or "Sure, Go Ahead, Interrupt Me, I Don't Really Want to Finish This Novel"?

The Guardian has a regular feature on writers' rooms. I hope they do more.

If you can't think of anything else to write about, today I'd like you to sketch out or write about the positive, affirming changes you are going to make to your writing space. Do you need to tidy it up? Get rid of visual clutter? Pay the stack of bills? Add flowers or a candle? Is there music in your space?

Extra-super bonus points will be awarded to those folks who actually act on their palns for their writing nook.

Scribblescribble....

Allow me brief rant about messing up.

Kids do it all the time. Teenagers are the lord and masters of messing up (though it makes them cringe and their face break out). By the time we get to be adults, most of us will do anything to avoid messing up because it's embarrassing and horrifying.

We hide our mistakes, we blame others, we bury the shame by swilling beer, chowing down seven-layer dip, partaking in illegal substances, watching American Idol or Real World marathons, and pulling our hats down to cover our eyes. Because we feel bad when we mess up. We feel stupid and worthless.

But to be human is to mess up a lot.

So the choice is this - you either acknowledge that you are not human, which means you are an Immortal, which means you should feel like crap if you miss a day of writing or forget to change the oil in your car or blow off a date with your best friend. You're Immortal - go back in time and fix it! And stop whining!

If you're human, then you get a little break. The trick is to be honest with yourself, get up, dust yourself off, and go at it again.

Have you missed a couple of writing days this month? Had you planned on being published by now? Were you convinced that not only would you be published by now, the movie of your book would be out and you and JK Rowling would be taking your kids to Chile to go skiing in August?

Nothing wrong with that. Dreaming is the first step. But if you've fallen a little short of your goals, do not reach for the seven-layer dip and the remote. Dust yourself off and admit what's not working. If the goal is really important to you, set another milestone (perhaps one that is a shade more realistic) and go back at it.

I have fallen way short of my running goals recently. I overtrained for the Lake Placid half-marathon and wound up with pissed off tendons and muscles in my calves and feet. I've taken almost a full month off from running to recover and I've spent about nine-tenths of that time yelling at myself. Which is ridiculous.

I"m going to try and start running again this week, but I know I need to be more balanced about my exercise. (Balance = a concept that eludes me; I usually go at a project a hundred miles an hour, then I crash and burn and wonder what went wrong.) I just bought a bike so I can crosstrain more and so my legs and feet will forgive me. I'd like to run another half-marathon in the fall, but I'm not going to obsess about it. The goal is to try and get in some kind of exercise every day, just like I write every day.

Me geeking out on my new ride.


Today's goal: Write for 15 minutes without scolding self.

Today's mindset: balanced.

Today's prompt: Take a couple of minutes to evaluate how you're doing on your writing goal for the year and if you need to recalibrate. "Write every day from now until December 31" is a reasonable, achievable goal. "Get an agent, score a four-book, six-figure contract based on this really good idea I have" is not reasonable.

Extra prompt - freewrite descriptions of clothing worn by your characters. Push for exquisite specific details about those jeans or that suit or her bra strap that tell us as much about the person as the clothes.


Scribblescribble...

My head hurts. I overstuffed it with facts and dead bodies and ghosts yesterday.



BH and I drove out to a couple of Revolutionary War sites and met with a man who has been studied the events that happened there his entire life. I took a million photos and asked half a million questions.

I've already done the background research for this novel and I have a pretty good sense of how the events in the character's life unfold in conjunction with the historical events he's caught up in. Now I'm doing the "boots on the ground" research: visiting sites and bugging the experts for the small details; the real-life stuff that many academic historians don't put in their books, but that make scenes come to life for readers.

As always, going on location helped me see my story with new focus. We stood on the site of a ferocious battle. Cattails and grape vines are growing out of the dirt that was soaked with blood 231 years ago. Despite the heat, I shivered and had to fight back the tears.

The sense of time evaporates in places like that. It feels like the battle happened yesterday, or it's about to happen in the next hour, or in the next five minutes. The enemy is ready to explode out of the woods without warning, tearing across the cattails and marsh grass. Musket balls will rain across the field, dropping horse and ox, biting into the trunks of the beech and ash trees that line the road. We and They will fight hand-to hand with bayonet blades and hunting knives and axes. Our muskets are used as clubs because there isn't enough time to load and shoot. Fathers and sons and husbands and brothers will die in this forgotten bit of woods. The survivors will weep and dig shallow graves for the dead before hurrying away, knowing that the enemy is hiding in the shadows.

Then the cattails will start to grow again.

Right now it feels so close to me, I can feel the weight of this coat on my shoulders.

I'll spend today putting my notes from the trip into the proper scenes. But if you're looking for a WFMAD prompt, here it comes.


Today's goal: Write for 15 minutes.

Today's mindset: daring.

Today's prompt: I'm calling this one Fork in the Road. List three significant choices you've made in your life, then list the alternative to that choice. Choose one of the paths you didn't take, and write abut what might have happened if you had chosen that instead.

OR! List some of the life choices your character makes and change one of them. Write out how it affects the rest of the story; what are the unfolding series of consequences from that decision?


Scribblescribble...

Warning: cherry jam can be habit-forming. I am sneaking back to the orchard as soon as it opens for another fix. My works? A cherry pitter, clean glass jars, pectin, and a large vat of boiling water.

I keep misspelling cherry as "cheery." There is subtext in that, I think.

Two recent blog bits saluted my new book, INDEPENDENT DAMES. The Columbus Dispatch reviewed it along with my friend Kay Winters' COLONIAL VOICES (thanks, Kay, for the link!), and the editor from L.A. Parent had nice things to say, too.

Public Safety Interlude: I hate to sound like a nag, but sometimes I don't have a choice. Wear sunscreen and stay away from tanning salons! Note to new readers: I had melanoma in 2002. Two spots were surgically removed, both Stage 1 cancer. I'm still figuring out how to tattoo the scars. I never visited a tanning salon but had a lot of sunburns as a kid. Now I am the Queen of Sunscreen.

Today's goal: Write for 15 minutes, then find fresh cherries.

Today's mindset: poetical.

Today's prompt: Even if you never write poetry to be published, I believe you should dabble in the form. Poetry allows us to focus on language and rhythm much more than prose. Reading and playing with poetry with absolutely make you a better novelist.

Visit Poetry Daily and wander around a bit. Find a poem or a poet that you like and write your own poem in the same style or using the same theme. I took a workshop from Molly Peacock and am a big fan of her work. (She has a new book out!) If you can't find another place to start, read her poem Pedicure. If the thought of writing a poem is too intimidating, write for fifteen minutes about how irritated you are with this stupid prompt. Or take a risk and fly on your words.

Scribblescribble...

I am deep in 18th-century research and writing again, but it's summer, which means other things are calling my name.

Like basil.

And cherries.

I've been getting up wicked early (5ish), working in the garden, and then sitting down at my desk by 6:30 am most days. I work until the late afternoon, then turn my attention to things like

basil. This was my experiment with freezing basil. It was very simple; pick basil, trim stems,

chop up with olive oil,

and freeze. In a couple weeks, the late planting of the basil crop should give me enough leaves to make a big batch of pesto.

And now the cherries are ripe, too.

BH and I (that's him on the ladder) picked 15 pounds of cherries late yesterday. There was an Amish family at the farm doing the same thing. They picked waaaaaaay more than we did. I'll make a couple of batches of jam when it cools down tonight. By this time next year, I'd love to have a solar dehydrator - dried cherries are loverly.

On nights I'm not canning or gardening after dinner, I crawl back inside my book until bedtime.

Today's goal: Write for 15 minutes.

Today's mindset: yummy.

Today's prompt: focus on taste; anticipating it, describing it, watching how it affects behavior. Write about a taste that represents love to you. If nothing comes to mind, write about a taste that represents anger. If that doesn't work, freewrite about a breakfast in an exotic location.

Scribblescribble...

Yesterday someone wrote asking me to explain how it is we live without public water. That is a very good question.

According to the EPA, 15% of Americans get their water from private wells, like us. The town of Mexico, a couple miles down the road, has a public water system, but we don't technically live in the town. The very rural town we do live in is beginning to develop a public water system, but we think it will be at least a decade before they get to our neck of the woods, if ever.

Our well, like all of our neighbors' wells, is a hole dug into the ground (by experts!) until it reached an underground aquifer. Pipes were laid from the well to the house and pumps installed. In our basement, we have a fancy-pants German filtration system to make sure nothing nasty is hiding in the water. We have it tested periodically; it's wonderfully clean and pure.

Our environment would be better off if more people used well water. For one thing, you are less inclined to throw chemicals on your lawn and garden when you know that you'll be drinking them. Secondly, knowing that water is a finite resource makes people pay more attention to their consumption. It's not that we walk around unbathed or anything, but we try really hard not to waste a drop. (That's why there are rain barrels to help collect water for the garden.)

One more water note (I write this watching the sky, hoping the rain gets here soon.) When we lose electricity, we lose water access because the pump doesn't work. This doesn't happen often, but since I married a Boy Scout, we're always prepared for it.

I do think that living out here in the country, heating our home with wood, snowshoeing when the driveway is blocked, getting by without electricity and water occasionally, not having air conditioning, plus growing and preserving our food has given me an insight into 18th century living conditions that I wouldn't have had otherwise. (And I haven't talked about our camp yet.... one word ... outhouse!)

Enough about our plumbing. It's time to write.

Today's goal: Write for 15 minutes. If you have public water, push yourself and write for 16 minutes.

Today's mindset: curious and open-minded

Today's prompt: interview your character. Don't overthink this. Just ask your character questions so you can get to know her/him better.

Hint: don't accept generic answers. Push for details. For example, "pizza" is unacceptable as an answer to question #1. "Thick-crusted pizza with asiago cheese, fresh basil, and prosciutto, served with a glass of Beaujolais nouveau and eaten on the screen porch" is the level of detail you're reaching for.

I'll get you started with a few:
1. Favorite food
2. Secret crush in elementary school
3. Which relative do you loathe and why?
4. Favorite smell
5. What magazine do you buy when no one is watching?
6. What's your best feature?
7. If you were given a paid day off and $500, what would you do with it?
8. What's your biggest regret?
9. Favorite sound
10. What is hidden in the box at the back of your closet?

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My Beloved Husband tells me I yelled at one of my characters in my sleep last night, really hollered at the guy for being a two-faced SOB. I was relieved to find out it was one of the bad guys in my new book, not my protagonist. While I don't remember the yelling dream, I do remember the dream in which every single person I met was an eighth grade English teacher.

Woke up very early this morning to water the garden because we're going to have a disgustingly hot day. I've been using the rainwater we collected in four big barrels. Dragging pails of water all over the place is a sure-fire way to make your arms strong. We're not connected to public water out here; all of the water we drink and use comes from a well. In the summertime, we try to conserve water whenever we can, hence the rain barrels.

I'm hoping for rain tonight or tomorrow.

A couple of people have written to me asking if they are allowed to link to my blog from their blog. Absolutely! The more, the merrier!

We're now starting Week 2 of the WFMAD Challenge. Thank you for sharing your comments and updates. I'm really enjoying this.

As always: today's goal: Write for 15 minutes (minimum).

Today's mindset: fists clenched, ready to do battle.

Today's prompt: conflict. In the last decade, I've critiqued a lot of manuscripts at writers' conferences. They usually had lovely imagery and interesting characters, but many were lacking a solid core conflict. This is usually an issue in the early drafts of my books, too. My characters wander around the pages thinking deep thoughts, but not doing much. Once I get a clear sense of who they are, I have to throw them to the lions and see what they're made of.

Today I'd like you to brainstorm five situations that pit one character against another. Freewrite about the one that makes your stomach tight. Keep the stakes high, but remember to let the characters' actions convey a lot of meaning; don't let them fill in the backstory in dialog. Hint: use strong verbs today - shy away from adverbs.

Scribblescribble...

The first week is done! Have you been able to write every day? How did that feel?

If you fell short of the goal, why did that happen? (If you blew off the whole weekend, please read Saturday's post.) What can you do to guarantee yourself fifteen minutes a day for the rest of the month?

Today's non-writing activity: examine your July calendar and write down your writing time every day, in pen. If anyone in your household gives you a hard time because you're writing, just point to the calender and say, "I have to."

Today's motivation: this is starting to feel good.

Today's prompt: Take a noun (lunch box or ladder or bus stop or make up your own) and expand it with three other nouns. Write about a character interacting with these objects EXCEPT (here's the tricky part) don't use your usual Point of View. If you usually use the third person POV, write from the first today. If you normally write from the first, today try the third. Also - please have the character be opposite of your gender.

Think of this as yoga for the writer brain. Gentle stretching is good.

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Endnote: a lawyer friend of mine poked me and told me I had to announce this: all of my blog posts are copyright Laurie Halse Anderson. Teachers may use these writing prompts and advice in classroom settings, but are asked to email me at laurie AT writerlady DOT com when they do so. Permission is not granted to anyone to reproduce these prompts and advice, repost them to the Internet, or otherwise distribute them without permission. Because lawyers are cranky like that.

You've almost made it through the first week - congratulations!

I have lots to write today, plus hours of work in the garden, so I'll keep this short and sweet.

Today's goal: Write for 15 minutes (minimum).

Today's mindset: writing without thinking.

And now you're saying to yourself: "What the heck does that mean "writing without thinking?" How can I do that?

You know when you are in that country between sleep and wakefulness, how your thoughts drift from image to image without effort, sometimes making creative leaps of imagination? That's the place you want to be in today. Even if you have a Work In Progress, take a little break from it for fiteen minutes and play with this exercise.

When you read the prompt (don't peek at it yet!) I want you to write down a list of the first 20 nouns that the prompt brings to mind. Please note: NOUNS. Not adjectives or verbs.

From the 20 nouns, pick three or four that are the most vivid. Build on the image of those nouns and figure out which one provides you with the strongest picture in your mind. In the remaining time you have left (feel free to take more time if you want) write in exquisite detail about this image. Paint a picture with words. Your could craft a scene, or you could just describe what you see. But don't overthink it. Let the image tumble through the magic of your mind.

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Today's image prompt: Your mother in a pretty dress.


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Today Americans celebrate the courage of the men and women of 1776 who, after a generation of frustration with British economic policies and military heavy-handedness, declared this land to be free and independent, and fought a war to make it so.

Yes, I said "and women." My newest book, INDEPENDENT DAMES: WHAT YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT THE WOMEN AND GIRLS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION examines the roles that women and girls played during the war.

Please read the Declaration of Independence out loud. Read it to your kids or your partner or your cats. This document is the beginning of our promise to ourselves: "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

The men who wrote this document fell short of their own dreams, of course. They could not find the courage to grant freedom to people of color, or to recognize that women were equal and able partners. See my forthcoming book, CHAINS, (pub date 10/21) for my take on how the Revolution looked to a slave from Rhode Island.

But the Declaration was a magnificent start. We still have lots of growing to do, as a nation, but as a very smart man said, "America is the sum of our dreams. And what binds us together, what makes us one American family, is that we stand up and fight for each other's dreams..."

What does this have to do with out writing challenge? Everything.

Today's goal: Write for fifteen minutes. Don't judge, don't edit (yet!), just let the words chase each other onto the page.

Today's non-fiction prompt: Write your own Declaration of Independence. Declare to yourself and the world which old, unsatisfactory notions and habits (relating to your writing) that you are freeing yourself from. Write down how your former mindset was hurting you; stifling your creativity and strangling your dream. Post some of it in the comments section, if you want.

Today's fiction prompt: Historical fiction alert! Write down a scene from the interior of the Pennsylvania State House where the men of the Continental Congress were gathered to debate the Declaration, and possibly sign it, thus committing themselves and their families and fortunes to high treason against the King. (Don't worry about getting the historical details right (YET!). If you were to turn this into a polished piece, you would find all of those while researching.) Try to jump back and forth between the exterior action and dialog (the debate about the document and its consequences) and the interior thoughts of your main character.

Today's motivation: A lot of people died so that you and I could have the right to write and say what we want. Write for the ones who sacrificed themselves for our freedom. You can do it for fifteen minutes.

Think of me while you're eating potato salad today.

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What a terrific start! Aside from all the comments on LJ, I got a lot of feedback on MySpace and Facebook, plus a couple of emails. Thank you to everyone who wrote and congratulations on jumping in!

Today's goal: Write for 15 minutes.

Today's wreath of forgiveness: I know a number of you are kicking yourselves because you didn't write yesterday. You forgot or you "forgot" (meaning you didn't really forget but were afraid to start so you made up excuses all day long and you woke up loathing yourself.)

Do not call your therapist. Do not abandon the writing dream. Simply forgive yourself.

This is hard and it can be scary. You don't have to write a novel today. You don't even have to write anything coherent. No one will judge the quality of your work right now, or condemn you for starting today instead of yesterday. Just write. 15 minutes. You can do this.

Today's motivation: It will make you happy.

Today's prompt: Write about the most embarrassing incident from your childhood.

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