You may have noticed the last few months that I’ve been talking a lot about what I’m thinking about writing. Why? Because I know me, and I have to have my head in the game to play it well. When I am thinking about something other than what I am doing, I have walked into [...]

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          A little over a year ago I decided I was going to work through “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron. I’m not sure why I decided I needed a book to help me be creative. At that time I was writing at least an hour every day and [...]

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The home cleaning website Flylady.net is devoted to helping people establish routines for getting rid of their clutter and keeping their houses clean. Flylady starts everyone off with only one task to do every day–shine your kitchen sink. From there you take baby steps to add more items to your routine until the next thing [...]

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I’m close to being settled in my new home. Close enough that I finally made the time to find and print the file of notes on the story I might work on during NaNo. Yay! I’m the kind of person who gets a lot of mileage out of encouragement, though, so I have been staying [...]

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Introduction: I (Shonna) regularly read an e-newsletter put out by Publisher’s Weekly called Children’s Bookshelf. Imagine my surprise a week or two ago when I saw MY NAME staring out at me. Well, not my name exactly, it was Fran Slayton, not Shonna Slayton. I had to visit Fran’s web page and check her out. [...]

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          As you know, I’m endeavoring to get back into the routine of writing regularly after far too long a break. You all are just dying to know how I’m doing, aren’t you? Don’t deny it. I know you are.
          [...]

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I’m a few days away from finishing the second draft of my NaNoWriMo project from last November. I’m at the point where I’m ready for a first reader.
In my mind’s eye my plot is pretty much complete. As I read the pages I can visualize the characters acting out the story. Unfortunately, my clever mind [...]

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I was reading one of the multitude of great articles on writing out on the web this week, and one reminded me of something I used to do and had forgotten about.
Several years ago, while working on a screenplay, I used index cards to outline scenes. But not wanting to lose the excitement of the [...]

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        The other day I took a break and played a game. In this game, I have 5 minutes to progress through 4 levels. While arranging jewels into groups of 3-5 of the same color, I am also gathering and manipulating coins that allow me to progress to [...]

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Thought of another routine for writers: the routine eye exam. Had yours lately?
I’ve been wearing glasses since the fourth grade. The teacher complained about me being slow to copy things down, and then she caught me squinting. She dragged my desk closer to the front of the class until I could see. I was so embarrassed [...]

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