When All Else Fails . . .

We all have those days when we don't know what to write about. Call it writer's block. Call it laziness. Call it boredom with the whole antagonist-protagonist-plot process. Whatever it is, nothing's showing up in either your brain or your work in progress.

That's kind of how I felt about this blog post. Tired. The old "I've got nothing" feeling that hangs over you when a deadline's looming.

So I did what any desperate writer does--I started surfing the Internet. And I stumbled upon a fun Web site: Creative Writing Prompts, which was voted one of Writer's Digest's 101 Best Web Sites for Writers in 2006 and 2007.

Click on any one of the numbers 1 through 346 for a writing prompt or idea. Here's a couple of samples:
114: Write about a time your pampered yourself. (Hhhm--could I do some research instead of writing about this from memory?)
254: Why would an antiques dealer leave town?
311: Use the following words in your story: photographer, needle, dormitory. bicycle
340: Melinda Alcott and Dwayne Modderman meet in a bank. One of them is a loner. Describe how they meet.

You can also subscribe to CreativeSparks!, the e-zine of CreativeWritingPrompts.com and download a copy of the CreativeSparks! E-book (volume 1) for free.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go figure out how Melinda and Dwayne meet. But first, which one of them is the loner?

Tickling the Editorial Funny Bone

I edit Connections, which is a leadership magazine put out by MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) International.
I like editing. This is a good thing, since I've read each issue at least a dozen times before it goes to print. When I'm on deadline, I'm not laughing when I catch a mistake. I'm usually heaving a huge sigh of relief that a misspelling or grammar error didn't sneak by my editorial eye.
Yesterday I visited one of my favorite writers' Web sites: Visual Thesaurus. The site is just what it says it is: a visual take on a thesaurus. When you type in a word, they map out different words that mean the same thing. It's so colorful--kinda' like mindmapping.
But I digress.
The site highlighted an interview with Editorial Emergency, an agency that provides branding, copwriting and non-profit messaging.
As I was strolling through the site, I saw a link labeled "Our Customers." Then I saw a link labeled "Not Our Customers." And that's the section that got me laughing. It's 23 pages of mistakes. Spelling errors. Grammar errors. On signs. In newspapers. Advertisements that make you shake your head and think, "How did someone not catch that?"
If you're an editor or writer, you know it happens. You're just glad when it happens to someone else.