Every February, the Write Owls host a month-long write-a-thon where we challenge ourselves and our readers to write every day by midnight.
If you’ve ever participated in Write By Midnight or any other writing challenges, what exercises kept you engaged and kept you writing?
Be sure to tag us @WriteOwls and include #WriteByMidnight2020 with your response. We’ll do our best to incorporate your suggestions in this year’s daily prompts.
Naomi Hawkins-Rowe
It’s 2020, folks. Don’t you just love how that rolls off the tongue? We here at Write Owls hope that you are beginning your year with the beautiful sound of click-clacking on computer keys (or a typewriter if that’s your preference), and a list of goals, both set in reality and in daydreams (because we need those too, especially now.)
I, like most people, have thought long and hard about what I wanted to do and change Continue reading
What book changed you the most as a child?
Megan Norris Jones
If you write, then you’re a writer. You don’t have to wait for the validation of publication, starred reviews, or the best seller lists. Writers write. But what happens when you get stuck, when you’re not writing? If a person who writes is a writer, then what is a person who stares at a computer screen and then decides that she’d better go do the laundry?
We all have those moments/weeks/seasons when the words won’t come. Don’t panic. There’s no need for an identity crisis. You are still a writer. You just need to use a little bit of your creativity to come up with something that makes you step back and consider the whole story, instead of that one little element you’re stuck on, something that reminds you what makes this story worth writing in the first place.
Here are a few techniques that have helped me:
1. Write the jacket copy. Jacket copy is those two to three paragraphs on the inside flap of a hardback or on the back of a paperback that introduce potential readers to your story and convince them that they have to read it. This exercise will help you home in on the best parts of your story because they’re what’s going to sell your book. Continue reading
Posted in Megan's Posts
Tagged author motivation, writer's block, writer's life, writing, writing life, writing tips
This month, find inspiration in other people’s words. Pick a debut novel in your genre and read a few pages before you start your daily writing session. You’ll gain insight into how other published authors are breaking out and hopefully discover something new to motivate you with your own project. Bonus: you’ll have guilt-free pleasure reading time and have read a new book by the end of the month.
Posted in Administrator, Write by Midnight Pep Talks
Tagged author motivation, books, reading, WBM, Write by Midnight, writing life, writing tips