Category: on inspiration

You Are A Story Teller

Kelly Babcock Leave a comment
My son and I telling each other stories.

I have spent years crafting my language. No, not English specifically, I’m not responsible for that mess, but the English words I choose when talking or writing are my language.

And you have your own language as well. When you tell a story there are grammatical constructs and turns of phrase that you favour. Even your choice of spelling when there are options speaks to “your Language.”

And there are many things that have informed my language, I want it to make people think, I prefer it to be a bit witty, I want it to be clear and concise without being Read more

Date Night with a Writer

Lori Twining 2 Comments
Photo Credit: Pexels – Cottonbro Studio

Over the last few years, Friday nights have become date night for my husband and his favourite writer… That would be me. 

We are both book lovers that challenge each other to find books that have been adapted into movies. We read the books, watch the movies, and then we discuss the differences between the literary version versus the cinematic version. We discuss things such as:

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Spring is in the Air

Bernice Connell Leave a comment

This year, more than usual, I am desperate for spring’s arrival.

A cluster of personal and professional situations has really sent me into a tailspin in recent weeks. It has been impossible to bounce back easily and quickly as I normally do. The hours spent working and worrying are seriously disproportionate to time spent having fun. I am rarely reading these days and writing has come to a full stop. Even recognizing the possibility that what I’m experiencing right now may be helpful to a future character, there is no energy for writing daily pages.

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Essential Ingredients for a Writing Retreat

Donna Judy Curtin 1 Comment
The Modern Schoolhouse in Pinkerton.

Planning to set aside the time and space to write new words can be one of the best ways to amplify your creative process. Whether your space is an early morning coffee shop, an Irish pub, or a planned writing retreat–scheduling the time to write is essential. For myself, working full-time, raising kids, attending figure skating & hockey with family, and carving out time to cook healthy meals… tends to demand most of my daylight hours. Therefore, dedicating the time to write must be deliberate.

Over recent years, I’ve been blessed to join a couple of writers who similarly battle with this time crunch challenge. We’ve found that planned writing retreats with chunks of undisturbed time, are paramount to moving our writing projects forward. The following is a list of key ingredients to a successful writing retreat.

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Inspirations by and for Writers

Bernice Connell 1 Comment

“One day I will find the right words and they will be simple.” So said Jack Kerouac. An encouraging adage that resonates for me.

I have been following several blogs that focus on inspirational philosophers and authors and am learning more about many familiar names in the literary world.

Most interesting to me currently is Tennessee Williams. Follies of the Gods is a collaboration between Williams and interviewer James Grissom who collated Williams’ thoughts on the actors he worked with that brought his works to the big screen. Descriptions of his relationships with the actors are beautifully written.

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Preventing Post-Holiday Writer’s Guilt

Lori Twining 2 Comments
Christmas tree decorated by the kids.

Don’t panic, but there are only six days until Christmas arrives and only 12 days until the year ends. Holidays are approaching fast, and I realized I still haven’t achieved everything I wanted to this year. Now, I am worried about all the things I won’t get done over the holidays. 

Instead of stressing about the post-holiday writer’s guilt already, I decided to take a deep breath and plan to keep writing a couple of hours each day despite all the festive Christmas parties littering my calendar with work, family, and friends. My holidays will be packed full, but I have ten days off, and it would be great to make some progress on a writing project or two. Therefore, I need to figure out how to juggle the schedule to make sufficient time for work, family, exercise, writing, and a little bit of sleep.

Connecting with family and friends at this time of year is important, and fitting in the job stuff is required to pay all the bills, which is why making room for writing feels difficult and complicated.

So, if you are reading this and would like to prevent the post-holiday writer’s guilt, then check out my suggestions to help us achieve our writing goals together. 

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Call Me the GRINCH

Donna Judy Curtin Leave a comment

Tis the season of stress. The season of hunting for that perfect precious gift while you get your elbows up to wrestle for that last sale item on your list. Not only do you need to tackle your regular laundry, dusting, vacuuming, dog walking, work and dishes… but now you need to clean your house before you can hang up those pesky decorations and Christmas lights (fit in the marital spat over the lights, apologize and then make up for your poor behaviour), drag out and dust off the ol’ Christmas tree, and then somehow remember to move the freakin’ Christmas Elf every night before bed. Read more