Writing Unleashed with Laura M. Harkins

Winchester  I welcomed a new member to my family this week. A polydactyl or Hemingway kitten called Winchester (homage to Supernatural ) . His brother Tennant is still getting used to him, but they're both such love bugs it shouldn't take long. Tennant & Winchester So, in celebration, I bring to you a little motivational writing tool I found on Electric Literature's Facebook page: Written? Kitten!  You write 100 words, then a picture of a kitten appears. You write 100 more words, another picture of a kitten appears. Mind blown! Enjoy!!

I dreamt last night. And in this dream, I found myself in a leather jacket leading the investigation of a heinous murder case that took place in a high-rise apartment building. It was my first case as a detective and I had to prove myself. In true Laura fashion, it took me 10 minutes to find a walkie-talkie that worked and I got stuck in the elevator trying to reach the 11th floor with no success. I woke up when I not only couldn't get to the 11th floor, but also couldn't get off the damn elevator. Thoughts bounced around my head as I laid in bed...could I do this in real life? No. I'm the farthest thing from an authoriatrian. Then I thought how that might segue into my stories. I tend to gravitate towards writing stories with amateur sleuths, characters that aren't tethered to strict rules that police must obey. So, it might be time to push through the comfort zone and try giving one of the characters in my WIP a more authoritarian role to contrast the main charact...

Source The blogosphere's collective thought waves can really help a girl out of a major rut. My writing is on the brain all the time. They just haven't made it to the page in a long time. Every time I sit down, my chest constricts and I panic. It's crap. Then I feel like crap. Once the self-deprecating thoughts suffocate my motivation, I question my goal to be a writer. Waaaah! Waaaah! Waaaah! Note to self: Get your shit together. So, I bring you a few blog posts that reinvigorated my motivation. Around of Words in 80 Days Becky Taylor talks about a writing challenge that helped her make small writing goals to get her writing  every  day. Writing Daily C. Hope Clark discusses writing daily as well. She suggests writing in a specific form every day (prompt, short story, novel, poetry, etc). Here are a few blog posts I found insightful and interesting:  "Forget Your Weaknesses; Attack Your Strengths" A Thrillerfest workshop with Mark Tavani J...

i-likethings.blogspot.com Man, having your momentum rip away feels like someone is sucking the life out of you with a vacuum.  I submitted a short story for my writer’s group, showed up and endured the critique torture, finished my novel and put a blog post up all in a few days.  The progress had me skipping around and humming tunes.  Unfortunately, the expiration date on my happiness came sooner than expected.  My stretches of concentration are short.  I spend most of my time distracted by an endless amount of things.  As a newbie to the writing life, I battle daily with my ability to maintain focus.  But I fear if I don’t get myself under control soon, I will never see lucrative success. So, at the moment I’m learning to clear some hurdles. TV To put it mildly, I have an addiction to televsion. Whether I’m streaming live from Netflix or catching up on shows piling up on the DVR, it’s embarrassing.  I see a support group in my future....