  Noticing Newbies
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 Welcome to the Noticing Newbies Newsletter! Our goal is to showcase some of our newest Writing.Com Authors and their items. From poetry and stories to creative polls and interactives, we'll bring you a wide variety of items to enjoy. We will also feature "how to" advice and items that will help to jump start the creation process on Writing.com.
We hope all members of the site will take the time to read, rate, review and welcome our new authors. By introducing ourselves, reviewing items and reaching out, we will not only make them feel at home within our community, we just might make new friends!
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Quote
Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.
~Jim Ryun
Ideas to Help Get Your Mind Out of Hibernation
I'm continuously in search of ideas for writing picture books for children. I take bags and bags of books home to study this genre I write for. I am filled with hopes and dreams and drive to one day, get that letter or phone call, "We'd like to accept your manuscript for publication."
Over the years, I've picked up on some great ideas to help spark my imagination. I've also learned important habits that are paying off. You possibly could be a very lucky writer and get something published your first try with little effort... but in reality, that's not going to happen to most of us.
Good Habits
My list below probably includes suggestions you've heard before. But if you are not practicing these habits currently, perhaps you'll feel inspired after reading this newsletter.
 Keep plenty of paper, pen(cil)s, erasers, and whatever you use to write with, available. I carry a Recycle bag with me everywhere I go. It's always filled with two or three notebooks, sharpened pencils, a pencil sharpener, inspiring writing books, a few magazines, among other odds and ends.
Keep up on the genre you are most interesteed in. Study the current Best Seller list to know what's selling. Read reviews and book summaries. Go to your local library! Read, read, read!!!
No time to write? Find it. I got up at 3 am this morning because it's my only 'alone time' to write. I work fulltime and don't always have time after work to write (but I do if it's possible!). The early morning hours are best for me. If you want to write but can't find the time, rethink. Make time. Do it. Write!
Write, write, write, write, write, write, write write. No ideas? No excuse. Write. Write your name, what you look like; describe your dog or what your food tasted like. Write a lame story. Write the worst story ever. It does not matter if you don't have a great idea for a best seller because it's more important to write something than nothing. Writing will get those creative juices flowing. It will bring up ideas, make you think, stimulate your brain cells. Just write.
A Few Ideas
Okay, now that you've got a few good habits to consider... now that you have a few good habits you are going to practice, let's go over some possible ideas to help spark your imagination:
Read titles to get inspired. Yes, titles can sometimes spark an idea. You can find titles anywhere... Your own bookshelves, magazines, bookstores, your local library, and of course, the Internet!
Read lists. What could you do with a list? How could you base a story around a grocery list or a To Do list? There are several books available filled with all sorts of lists. Make your own list. Now come up with something.
Look at pictures, whether they are your own photos, pics on the net, a coffee table book, whatever, look them over. Is there a story you could write about the picture of your son holding up his first fish he ever caught? Did the fish give him a good fight? Was he the only person who caught a fish that day? Or what about that sunset with kayakers paddling by in the background? Where are they going? Where were they earlier? Did they experience rough water that day, or find something unusual on an island?
Cliche`s have been overdone in the past, but who can resist blurting one out now and then? Take a cliche` and rewrite it. It's raining cats and dogs means what? It's not really raining cats and dogs, so describe the rain in a different way. Think of other descriptions of rain: mist, drizzle, showers, etc. Try this excersize with any cliche` you like. If you can't think of any, you can find a list of them online, or visit your local library. I have my own little paperback of cliche`s. One day I wrote a whole article using as many cliche`s as I could. It was a barrel of laughs! 
If you enjoy writing for younger children, practice incorporating onomatopoeia. The race care ZOOMED down the track. Thunder RUMBLED from above as lightning SLASHED through the sky. HONK!HONK! Get out of the road, little puppy! BUZZZZZ! Watch out for the bee! Onomatopoeia surrounds us all the time. Think about the sounds you're making today as you type: CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK!
Another fun thing to do is open up a book and find a section of dialogue. Take that piece of dialogue and write your own story around it. (Just make sure you write your own version of the dialogue as no one wants to be accused of stealing anyone's work!) Below is an example taken from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, names and dialogue tags left out:
"Where'll we dig?"
"O, most anywhere."
"Why, is it hid all around?"
"No indeed it ain't. It's hid in mighty particular
places-- somtimes on islands, sometimes in rotten
chests under the end of a limb of an old dead tree,
just where the shadow falls at midnight; but mostly
under the floor in ha'nted houses."
 Now... what could you do with that? Does it spark any ideas? It certainly does for me!
Ideas can be found anywhere. Look around. Listen. Taste. Feel. And read, read, read! But most importantly, write like there's no tomorrow.
May this winter be filled with much inspiration...
Have a wonderful week!!!
Keep on Writing!
Yours truly,
Cubby ") |
~ Got questions? Look for answers here... ~
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And Now For Our Featured Newbies!
Excerpt: I finished writing, then closed the journal and set my pen down. For a moment, I thought about my mother, Ann Page, roaming around Europe on the trip she had always dreamed of. I wanted to be with her, for I was closer to her that anyone in my family; but she told me that she had to do it alone. I remembered that day; eight years ago, small and short-haired, I held her hand and cried.
Excerpt:
It’s becoming oppressive,
Who is watching you?
The frosted window glares from above,
The unreachable escape,
Excerpt: They approached the trio of Tomcats sitting on the far side of the field when Jesse stopped short. She was there, standing by the nearest Tomcat, arms folded across her chest in a measured display of boredom, brown eyes boring holes in the back of the head of a girl about Jesse’s age that had to be her sister. The eyes gave that away, but there the physical similarities seemed to end. The older girl had shockingly red hair sticking out from under a baseball cap that bore the insignia of the 59th Fighter Squadron, the famous Wolf Pack, that his father had served with during the war. The girl’s bib overalls were torn at the knees and stained in several places with engine lubricant. The redhead was firing off a string of highly technical questions at the pilot standing there, looking more distraught than if she were the lone pilot going up against a fleet of battleships.
Excerpt: A silent night in the forests of Great Everwood, aside from the crunching of leaves made by the Wolf Clan on the hunt for food. Rabbits, deer, other clans, anything will do. They already have something: a little girl for a snack and the parents as the main course. It is the matter of catching the girl that is the problem.
Excerpt: Slowly the people of the town gathered in the square, like flies to a light, and stared onward to the sun as if something was to happen. They heard it before they saw it, a beautiful song, rushing through the trees as swift and quick as a gust of wind. It raised the hairs of the townspeople’s arms tantalizing their ears and warming their hearts.
~ A Few More Places to Check Out... ~
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FEEDBACK
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Recommended Books
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Recommended by Cubby
Please send me your favorites!
 Cubby's Writer's Block Challenge of the Month
1) Send me one great writing tip to share.
2) Use the exampled dialogue and write a story around it.
3) Use any tips listed in this newsletter and write, write, write!
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Noticing Newbies: January 20, 2010 Issue [#3509]
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