Little Writing Tidbits

New York Times: H.P. Lowers Bar for Printing Glossy Color Magazines

I found this article very interesting. It made me wonder if this could be somewhere to take Della Donna in the future. I love the idea of laying out and printing a physical magazine, but I prefer to keep DD free and accessible to everyone, as it currently is.

Also, I think NaPoWriMo is genius! (More feasible than NaNoWriMo, for me at least.) I am a few days behind since I just found it but I have already started writing some poems.

Finally, I am also taking part in ProBlogger's free course, "31 Days to Build a Better Blog." It is really convenient, since one email comes to my inbox each day.

I have been thinking about short stories lately. I wrote several as homework assignments when I took a fiction writing course, and was quite surprised and happy at how they turned out. (I had always told myself I couldn't do fiction.) I even published a handful in various places.

Now, whenever I see a call for submissions or a contest involving short stories, I rack my brain for which of those initial stories are left (unpublished). It is kind of silly. The other day I told myself, Hey, write some more short stories! I can't beat those old ones to death, no matter how much I like them.

I have actually had a couple in the works for a while now, but I didn't know how they would turn out so I left them hanging. Their premises are really interesting but I need to wrap my head around them from start to finish.

I just found this advice over at Write101.com:

• Put a man up a tree
• Throw stones at him
• Get him down

That sounds about right.

I subscribe to Jill Badonsky's monthly newsletter on writing, The Muse Is In, and this month's edition contains an interesting piece on suggestions for journaling.

Muse Trysts: Special Journalers Unit

Adding a Creative Twist to your Journal Writing:

• Write lists (they help your mind think with more creative resourcefulness.. always leave room for more ideas to be added to your lists so that your subconscious continues to work on them.) List ideas: a list of how you can make journal writing more YOU, a list of themes you'd like your life to take on, list your gripes, resentments, fears and peeves then write a segue at the bottom, "I now release these and make room for inspiration."
  
  
• At the bottom of your journal entry write a quick review of its highlights as if you were a book or movie critic.
  
  
• Write an entry recording your day as if your life were living exactly the way you'd like it to go.
  
  
• Write about yourself in the third person. e.g. "She had no idea what she was going to write but she began anyway."
  
  
• Write headlines about your life: e.g. Woman Moves to Vintage House in Urban Neighborhood: Redefines Peeling Paint as Shabby Chic. Then see how your journal writing goes.
  
  
• Write a How-To Article… How To Get Through The Day Today. How To Work With A Boss Who Is Bonkers. How To Forge A New Pathway In Life. And then proceed to make a list of how-tos that relate to the title.