Ann Marie Gamble

notes from the wordsmith trenches

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Archive for the ‘Creativity’ Category

Getting Unstuck

Sunday, November 7th, 2010

Need a push? Try a writing prompt. There are some posts about prompts on this site, and more on my Tumblr page.

The point of prompts is to get you out of your brain and on paper. Don’t worry too much about whether this bit of writing is necessary to your main story; it’s to get you moving along the page instead of through the neurons.

I scheduled this to post on November 7 because Doyce Testerman says Day 7 is one of the days we’re likely to bail out of a new habit.

Don’t quit. Write something down, right now.

Now leave for a couple of hours. Take a bath, take a nap, play with a kid.

Then write some more things down. Tomorrow’s going to be easier.

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Posted in Creativity, NaNoWriMo, Process, Prompts | 2 Comments »

Vacation/Research/Life

Sunday, September 5th, 2010

Guédelon, France, summer 2010

It’s been a while since I’ve been at the blog: our summer ended up chock-full of away-from-the-keyboard adventure (and inspiration). There are those who consider it impossible to get much writing done if you don’t log off. I get a lot out of the Internet, as far as research goes: old-school facts and figures, maps and photos and nowadays videos and accounts from a wide range of people. I get enough that I forget that stumbling through a specific physical space gives you ideas that a general read-about doesn’t. (more…)

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Posted in Creativity, Process, Travel | 1 Comment »

My Muse

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

It has a certain "je ne sais quoi."My bathtub used to have four faucet handles: two each hot and cold, one that sent water to the tub faucet and one to the shower. The tub is a giant porcelain one, built into the alcove created by the brick chimney on the other side of the bathroom wall; I can nearly lie down in it although it’s cold as stones until you slosh some hot water around it.

So one day I went to turn on the shower and the knob came off in my hand. The threads were stripped and corroded and I wasn’t wild about the design, so I figured I’d replace it. This turned into one of those Money Pit projects: two sets of handles is not current plumbing code, so I’d have to replace the entire mechanism, which meant getting into the wall, which was covered with a sheet of laminated particle board that had rotted and molded. (more…)

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Posted in Creativity, Process | 3 Comments »

A Week of Prompts: Saturday

Saturday, April 17th, 2010

To round out our week, one last book:
The Write Brain Workbook: 366 Exercises to Liberate Your Writing by Bonnie Neubauer (more…)

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Posted in Creativity, Process, Prompts, Writing | No Comments »

A Week of Prompts: Friday

Friday, April 16th, 2010

Setting the Scene
We start with “Where does the scene take place?” (and that’s the prompt for today). But we can add depth for the reader: time of day, sensory experiences, attitudes of the characters to this place and time, how it compares to other settings . . . (more…)

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Posted in Creativity, Process, Prompts, Writing | No Comments »

A Week of Prompts: Thursday

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

A book! An honest-to-gosh book!

The Pocket Muse, Monica Wood
Photos, essays about the writing life and getting it done, quotes, random thoughts, and prompts. This kind of thing could be a sappy soup, but I’ve found it to be a great testament to noticing: what you have available to you is enough, so do the work. (more…)

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Posted in Creativity, Process, Prompts, Writing | No Comments »

A Week of Prompts: Wednesday

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

2010 Writer’s Challenge

This is a blog put together by some grads of Emerson University to keep their writing going. The challenge is simple: “I will write every day.” They put up a blog post every day with anything from a few words to a writing exercise to get you moving. (more…)

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A Week of Prompts: Tuesday

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

one word

“simple. you’ll see one word at the top of the following page.
you have sixty seconds to write about it.
as soon as you click ‘go’ the page will load with the cursor in place.” (more…)

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Posted in Creativity, Process, Prompts, Writing | No Comments »

A Week of Prompts: Monday

Monday, April 12th, 2010

The Forecast
What’s the horoscope? How do the I Ching sticks throw down? If you had a fortune cookie right now, what would it tell you?

Prompt: (more…)

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Posted in Creativity, Process, Prompts, Writing | 2 Comments »

A Week of Prompts: Sunday

Sunday, April 11th, 2010

The From the Heart chapter of RWA has a writing group contrarily called the Procrastinators. Really what we do is pick a week or two every month to post goals and encourage each other to move forward, with quotes, cheerleading, and tips. I’m the host this month, and I thought I’d cross-post the tips.

Today’s prompt:

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day
April 6

tantalize
\TAN-tuh-lyze\ verb (more…)

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Posted in Creativity, Process, Prompts, Writing | No Comments »

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