Creativity R&R

I've been finding myself very frustrated at not beginning anything new just going round after round on a project I used to love and now... well, you know. Maybe you're in revision hell at the end of a finished project. Or maybe you're in the muddy middle of your current WIP (or two).

Either way I'll bet you could use a little new project escape. So I'd like to challenge you to allow yourself a little R&R, a new project retreat to stimulate the writer's senses and break out of the stale current work into the glorious realm of 'something fresh'.

Once a week for one month - on your worst writing day, your most intensive family day or at lunch every Wednesday, write something new. A scene, some dialogue, a character description. Long hand, pc hand, short hand, or on a napkin. A paragraph or a page a week, surely it will become more.

I've been collecting 'ideas' on my handy digital voice recorder but like Heather Sellers says in her book, "Chapter after Chapter", an idea is in the head. For it to ever to become a creative written endeavor, it must be written. '

Instead of writing notes like 'a story about a babsitter' write: Dana said, "You didn't pay me last time, either, Heather." And she smacked that gum which seemed to be a weird striped gum, green and purple, both. Transition out of ideas into images.'

So, on a day when there's too much scheduled to be constructive on the revisions, I'll schedule in a short creative writing session with some of these stored up ideas and work them into images. Please share how this works for you.

I think I'll feel enthused and pumped and who knows - maybe it will turn into my next WIP. I'll let you know next week how I do on RCM.