Writing Inspiration

Dear Hashtag,

So right now, I'm really struggling with writing. Part of it is just that I'm totally out of practice, and part of it is that I need to just sit down and do the work. And part of it is that for the last couple of years, I've been feeling utterly uninspired. Or if I do have inspiration it is for D&D, or a project with John, or stupid crap for this blog, but nothing that I feel makes a decent short story, much less has the potential for a full length novel.

Which is stupid. Because I'm not a terrible writer, when I'm doing the work and writing often enough to keep my skills sharp and my brain functioning. Which I  haven't been doing, so this is something to help me find the inspiration I'm looking for and sharpen my skills in the mean time.

Here are my sources of inspiration which I will use to write:

•  Pinterest! I have so much amazing art collected on pinterest, and I never use any of it. So using some sort of rational methodology, I will select an art piece and use it as a starting point. 
• Story Prompts. I typically read a dozen prompts (or more) before one speaks to me, but these can be a fun starting point. 
• Writing Challenges. For the most part I'm acquiring these from the various writing podcasts I listen to. I'm going to start collecting them and actually doing them. 
• Fan Fiction - I know, I know, but I don't care. This one is to use a major character and write a new story for them. 
• Fan Fiction Part Two - Use a minor character and write a story for them. This is much more fun, personally. 
• Wired Magazine. Science fiction is surprisingly interesting, so the idea here is to read an article, take it to some extreme conclusion, and write a story in that world. 
• Fables, Myths, Religious Stories and Fairy Tales. Write the "True" story. Or a modern rendition. Or a new take on it. This is a classic way to learn structures. 
• Podcasts. What? I listen to so many, these are a constant source of ideas. The basic idea is to take whatever I'm listening to when I sit down to write and figure out how to make a story out of it. We'll see how well this actually works. 
• Current Events. There's always something going on. This is similar to the Wired concept - take a current news event and craft a story from something contained therein. 
• World Building. This isn't a prompt, just background stuff. The idea here is to take an existing fiction piece, craft additional stuff in the world, and then either add to the story or start a new one in the same world. 
• Character Building. Again, not really a prompt, but the idea is to take a secondary or tertiary character in an existing piece and write a new story just for that character. 
• Twitter - There are tons of challenges, prompts, and ideas on twitter, so I just search for something, find it, and write. 
• Idea Notebook - When an actual idea comes to me, I'm writing it down. I currently only have a couple, but am slowly adding them. Hopefully I will add them more frequently than I use them, since that's what it is for. This will take one and make a story from it. 
• Expand an existing piece. Add to it, or flesh it out, or just start a new scene or a new chapter. 
• Polish an existing piece. One single existing piece, go through and edit, search for junk words and crappy dialogue and make it better. 

So that's my plan. Make lots and lots of work until I write something I think is actually good, until I find the inspiration I need to make real stories or a full novel. And then write more.

40 x 40, Habitica, & Dice

Dear Hashtag,

So we have a tradition in our family where we make miniature bucket lists filled with (potentially) achievable goals. The boys are on their 10 by 10 lists (that is, 10 things by age 10) and Holly is on her 30 x 30, but alas... I'm too old for that list. And I found that my 30 x 30 list was... ambitious. Overly so, I think. To be fair, I wrote it when I was 25, thinking graduation was just around the corner and a successful career would spell the end of our financial troubles. While we're getting there, I decided to do things a bit differently for my 40 x 40. I picked 8 sets of things to have as goals/bucket list items, and for each of those sets I have 5 things. Tada, instant list. Needless to say, this was difficult.

My full list is actually on Pinterest, you can find the board here: 40 x 40

Well, technically those are the ones I haven't completed yet. Which is most of them.

So anyway, I'm doing this Habitica thing, which I would highly recommend. It is basically an RPG for your life - you add your own habits, daily tasks, and to-do list items, and you get experience and treasure for completing them. It is a gamification thing, but it actually helps, particularly if your friends join! So if you do decide to join, let me know so we can team up and go questing together. That adds accountability and helps me, at least, try harder.

But I don't want to add my 40 x 40 things here, since they are such huge and lofty goals and would just sit there. Instead, I started this monthly dice challenge where you roll a die and work on that specific thing that month. I think this would be a great way for me to focus in on my list. It is random, fun, and allows me to shift focus from month to month so I don't get bored.

But instead of picking specific goals, I'm going with 6 of the 8 categories, and then I'll select a specific one from that category to work on. My categories are Career, Finances, Experiences, Learning, Self Improvement, Travel, D&D/Gaming, and Sexy Time. I think career and travel are outside the bounds of this particular method, so my six dice categories are:

1. Self Improvement
2. Finances
3. Experiences
4. D&D
5. Sexy Time
6. Learning

Now, it is important to note that I don't actually have to achieve my goal in any given month, just that I have to make an honest effort. And I may end up splitting some of these up in the future and pulling Finances, since right now there isn't much to do in terms of "honest effort" toward purchasing our first home. We're just not there yet.

Anyway, wish me luck!
Dom

Upcoming Projects

Life has been pretty crazy lately, and I haven't been able to update this nearly as much as I would like, but I'm hoping to get back in the swing of things soon. I have a few projects I'm working on, and would love to hear from readers about:

• General Conferences - I'm keeping a pretty tight lid on this project until I can finish the first set, but it involves past conferences and a look at the gradual shifts in doctrine, teachings, and what is emphasized in the LDS church. This is pretty much my only hyper-Mormon project in the works, but it should be fun. I'm hoping to get this launched in July. For those of you I requested information from, I'd appreciate getting it soon. 
• Book Lists and Reviews - I'm working on putting together a list of books to read, and plan on reading through them slowly and then reviewing them. This is primarily going to be taken from a "hone my craft" perspective, and will therefore include Science Fiction, Fantasy, Roleplaying Game settings/adventures/splat, and anything else that somehow makes it on to the list. Any books my readers suggest will automatically be included, regardless of genre/topic. 
• Names - This blog is still going to have posts about names, and I plan on working on developing not just fun new posts but fun, interesting and unique new research. In addition, I will explain the title of this blog, because somehow I haven't yet!
• Guest Posts - I'm currently actively looking for guest bloggers, writing about anything I'm remotely interested in, which is pretty much everything. Except maybe sports. Yuck. But anything else is good, including names, games, dames, and uh... flames. Yeah. Seriously though, if you're interested in doing a guest post on just about any topic, let me know. I'd love to go over it with you and work something out.
• Random Posts - This is what I've been doing so far. And will certainly keep doing.
  
  That's about it! Not too bad, right?