Congratulations to everyone who has made it this far in our Write Fifteen Minutes A Day Challenge! You are well on your way to developing a habit that will bring you joy for many years.
(Don’t know what we’re talking about? Read this post. Yes, you can join late – the more, the merrier!)
Some research indicates that it takes 21 days to form a new habit. If you started WFMAD seven days ago, you are already one-third of the way there.
Before we start writing, I’d like everyone in the Forest to sing "Happy Birthday!" to my awesome niece Tiffany who turns 18 years old today!!!!
::waits while confetti settles…. steals another piece of cake while waiting::
Well done!
Ready….
Today’s advice: This comes courtesy of Dave Matthews. (BH and I saw him in concert on Tuesday night.) In the song, Lying In The Hands of God, he sings, "Now the floor is the ceiling. If you never flew, why would you, cut the wings off a butterfly? Fly…."
Set…
Today’s prompt: This comes courtesy of my Creature With Fangs. My husband was trying to repair our dishwasher this morning. He had to stick his head into the maw of the machine to change a worn gasket. Our dog decided to help the best way she knew how, by licking the back of his head. He shooed her away and resumed his task. She tried to "help" again. And again.
This got me thinking about perspective. Hence, today’s prompt.
Take a scene you’ve already written. It should have two characters in some kind of conflict, or one character struggling with something. (If you don’t want to use your own WIP for this, take a scene from the book you are reading right now.)
Insert an animal into the scene and rewrite it from the animal’s POV. The goal is for you to see the scene from a fresh perspective, one that is wildly different from that of the human characters. For my taste, I’d say avoid all lolcats cutesiness, but if it makes you happy, go for it. Just make sure that the POV of your critter narrator is strong, fresh, and convincing.
Scribble…Scribble….Scribble!
However, if the story you’re writing is told from the pov of raccoons, insert the pov of a human … 🙂
I forgot how time gets away from you when writing. Poor dog’s been waiting for me to take him outside.
Well, I did end up introducing a dog into the scene in the old WIP. One more day under the belt!
Another day down, and another day I didn’t need/use the prompt. But I actually wrote what I wanted to today. I keep getting scenes in my head from later in my WIP but somewhere along the line, I got hung up on writing in order. And by the time I get to those scenes, they’re gone. So, there was still a slight bit of guilt–as if I’m reading ahead in a story–but I went ahead and just wrote the scene. And it was so much easier than struggling to get to the good part, only to forget what was good about it. How very liberating writing out of order can be!
Today has been filled with me going back and forth to the vets all day. Cats have needed x-rays, UA’s, bloodwork… life is just not normal when your pets are sick.
It’s a lousy excuse – I still have plenty of “15 minutes”‘s left – but I’m tired and have no brain. I’m giving myself a day off from WFMAD and will write 30 tomorrow.
The image of your husband head-first in the dishwasher just makes me think of Mr. Johnny Verbeck. Now I’ll be humming that song all day, darn it.