Writing Inspiration and Check-in

 

Picture credit rawpixel at freepik.com 

How's your writing going? Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this month or any other type of writing event? Though writing can often be a solitary task, the great thing about social media is that writing communities are right at your fingertips. Not all of them are free, but they can help with the isolation writers feel from time to time. 

The other wonderful thing you can find on social media is writing news: new books, writers talking about the representation agreements they just signed, book birthdays, book giveaways, and even writers talking about queries that have gone nowhere.

Now, before you think I'm encouraging you to waste your writing time on internet browsing, I'm only sharing it because we all need to connect with fellow writers from time to time and read some news to inspire us and cheer us on. 

Here are a few of my favorite inspirational quotes about writing. Hope you'll share some of yours.

Write what should not be forgotten. ~ Isabel Allende 

To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong. ~ Joseph Chilton Pearce  

Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers. ~ Isaac Asimov 

A book is a dream you hold in your hand. ~ Neil Gaiman 

What will you write today? What will you write tommorow?

Cheryl C. Malandrinos is a freelance writer and award-winning editor. She is the author of four children’s books including, A Christmas Kindness, released by 4RV Publishing. A blogger and book reviewer, she is a member of SCBWI and lives in Massachusetts with her husband and three adult children. Visit Cheryl's website at https://ccmalandrinos.com or her children’s book blog at https://childrensandteensbookconnection.wordpress.com

Inspiration During a Crisis

Here is a dilemma for you: more time to write and too distracted by the world wide news to take advantage of it. The struggle is real for many of us. Between checking local news for updates, there is national news to see what the federal government is doing, and employment news to follow, and ...

These are some tips that I hope will help inspire anyone struggling with the challenge to embrace this forced change of pace and turn it into productivity.

Take a virtual tour through your vacations

The above picture is from Hawaii when we visited Waimea Falls. We only visited Hawaii once, but the memories last forever. Take 5 to 10 minutes to scroll through your vacation photos. Let them inspire a story or uplift you as you recall the fun you experienced. Then commit to sitting down and writing for 10 minutes.

Go for a walk

Considering many of us are now stuck inside our homes or limited in where we can go, what a great time it is to commit 15 minutes each day to walking. Not only is it good exercise, it will help clear your head. Breathe deeply and focus on the joy of being outdoors and that feeling of freedom. Remember social distancing rules if you run into a neighbor.

Tour a Museum Online

One blessing of this whole COVID-19 experience is that thousands of museums around the world are now offering online tours. What a great way to virtually see more of the world and find inspiration from famous artwork and landmarks.

Take an online writing course 

Writing groups and in-person classes are on hold. Now, may be the time to consider an online writing course. Thanks to products like Zoom, in-person writing groups can move temporarily online and instructors can use these types of resources to teach classes that typically take place in-person. Honing your skills during down time is a great source of inspiration and a way to increase your productivity.

Let me leave you with one last thought from Isabel Allende.

Cheryl C. Malandrinos is a freelance writer and editor. She is the author of four children’s books including, A Christmas Kindness, released by 4RV Publishing. A blogger and book reviewer, she lives in Massachusetts with her husband and two daughters. She also has a son who is married. Visit Cheryl online at http://ccmalandrinos.com and her children’s book blog at https://childrensandteensbookconnection.wordpress.com

Advice & Inspiration for Writers from Writers

Back in 2010, my first book made it into the publishing world. Excited in so many ways, I embarked upon a virtual book tour to promote it far and wide. One of the questions asked of me in several interviews was, "What advice would you give to new writers?"

Here is how I responded:

You have the power to make your dreams come true. Use it. Don’t let self-doubt, naysayers, or an overcrowded schedule get in the way of making your dreams a reality. You’ll make the time to write if you want it badly enough. Track your time for a week so you can discover where time is wasted, and don’t be afraid to delegate chores to others. Use positive self-talk instead of putting yourself down. Those who haven’t been called to be writers may not understand your desires, but that doesn’t make them any less valid. Perseverance will go a long way.

I would probably share the same advice today. Too often, we allow outside influences to get in the way of our creativity. Too often, we let self-doubt steal our confidence. We, the wordsmiths, forget the impact of criticism on productivity.

I'm not sure if today is the day you are struggling to string together ten words to make a sentence or not, but my hope is to leave you with enough inspiration to keep you scribbling or typing away for the rest of the week.

"A word after a word after a word is power."

--Margaret Atwood

"Words are a lens to focus one's mind."

- Ayn Rand

"Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it's the only way you can do anything really good."

--William Faulkner

“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”

—Ernest Hemingway

“If a nation loses its storytellers, it loses its childhood.”

—Peter Handke

Cheryl C. Malandrinos is a freelance writer and editor. She is the author of four children’s books including, A Christmas Kindness, released by 4RV Publishing. A blogger and book reviewer, she lives in Massachusetts with her husband and two daughters. She also has a son who is married. Visit Cheryl online at http://ccmalandrinos.com and her children’s book blog at https://childrensandteensbookconnection.wordpress.com

Vacation Inspiration

For some of us, writing is as much a visual experience as it is a physical task of putting pen to paper or typing on a keyboard. Thankfully, modern technology has enabled us to capture moments that can inspire our writing.

Here are a few photos from our recent vacation and ideas they inspired.

1. A whirlwind romance culminates with a proposal near this elegant fountain.

2. A summer romance comes to a surprising end when one half of a couple invites the other on a walk through this beautiful garden only to find out that he is breaking it off to return home to another person.

  

1. A young elf lives in this enchanted cottage with her family where she struggles to find her place in the world.

2. A brother and sister step inside this abandoned cottage and find themselves transported back to 18th century America. 

1. A newly hired ecologist finds herself in danger when she discovers her employer is performing illegal experiments on endangered species.

2. Three friends are separated from their families during a hiking trip. 

What are some ideas these photos inspire for you? 

Cheryl C. Malandrinos is a freelance writer and editor. She is the author of Little Shepherd, A Christmas Kindness, Macaroni and Cheese for Thanksgiving, and Amos Faces His Bully. A blogger and book reviewer, she lives in Massachusetts with her husband and two daughters. She also has a son who is married. Visit Cheryl online at http://ccmalandrinos.com and her children’s book blog at https://childrensandteensbookconnection.wordpress.com

How Can Writers Use Positive Thinking?

Many years ago, I challenged my online writing group to draft an end of the year review that outlined only the positives of their writing journey. They could share anything they wanted, but it had to be framed in a positive light. Not only did our members enjoy looking back in a positive way, they realized just how much they actually accomplished.

But what is positive thinking? How does it work?

What is Positive Thinking?

Positive thinking is more than just uttering a few happy words and then allowing your fears and self-doubt to take hold again. Positive thinking is a mental attitude that, with practice, allows you to have positive thoughts and uses daily affirmations to help you to see a positive outcome to almost every situation.

Judi Moreo, life coach and author of You Are More Than Enough: Every Woman’s Guide to Purpose, Passion & Power, encourages her readers to make conscious choices to think about themselves in a more positive light. Moreo says we must stop criticizing ourselves and demanding perfection in what we do, and that we need to change the mental pictures we have of ourselves. Through the use of daily affirmations and by visualizing our success, we can achieve the desired results.

Daily Affirmations and Creative Visualization

Daily affirmations are positive thoughts you can affirm throughout the day to uplift you and make you feel better about yourself. Judi Moreo uses them throughout You Are More Than Enough because, as she says, “Changing your life is a process.” Positive thinking isn’t something you can use randomly. If you want it to work, you have to practice it every day.

Moreo dedicates an entire chapter in her book to creative visualization. She says that you can use your imagination to create pictures of those things that you want “to be, do, and have.” On the flip side, you can also imagine that you aren’t able to accomplish what you want because you aren’t smart enough or good enough. Which person do you want to be?

How Positive Thinking Molds Your Future

If what we see is unmet goals, then there is no desire to move forward. Why would we expect anything to change? When we focus on all the good that came out of our efforts, not only do we feel a sense of accomplishment, we can consider changes to help us achieve more goals in the future.

How Can Writers Use Positive Thinking? 

At the beginning of this year you--hopefully--wrote down a list of S.M.A.R.T. goals. Then you broke down that list into smaller, more manageable chunks before creating weekly or daily to-do lists.

Look at your goals and all you’ve accomplished this year. What do you see?

My goals for 2018 included:

GOAL 1: Submit Clever Tom to agents

GOAL 2: Participate in STORYSTORM

GOAL 3: Blog twice a week on all four blogs

So what have I accomplished?

GOAL 1 (not exactly)

GOAL 2 (yes)

GOAL 3  (mostly)

Clever Tom is a children's story I had a ton of fun writing. Something (I couldn't put my finger on what) held me back from submitting it to agents. I tweaked it and then tweaked it some more. I reread it numerous times. Finally, it hit me--it's too long. Just the other day, I sat down with the story again and made the last edits to cut out over 300 words.

Did I meet my goal? Not yet, but on a positive note the story is better because of it.

STORYSTORM is an annual event to generate story ideas. This year I met my goal of 30 story ideas for the month of January and celebrated with a great big ice cream sundae. Rewards help you accomplish more too!

When setting the third goal, I knew it was aggressive considering my limited writing time. But who doesn't love a challenge? I began time blocking my calendar more regularly and have increased my blogging time this year. That's a win as far as I am concerned.

Looking Forward

Use these last two months of 2018 to move ahead with a positive attitude and see what else you can accomplish before Father Time pushes us into the new year. This will give you a head start on practicing positive thinking by the time January rolls around. Then use daily affirmations to keep you focused on the positive and visualize your success.

You have the power to make 2019 your most productive year yet!

Cheryl C. Malandrinos is a freelance writer and editor. She is the author of Little Shepherd, A Christmas Kindness, Macaroni and Cheese for Thanksgiving and the recently released, Amos Faces His Bully. A blogger and book reviewer, she lives in Massachusetts with her husband and two daughters. She also has a son who is married. Visit Cheryl online at http://ccmalandrinos.com and her children’s book blog at https://childrensandteensbookconnection.wordpress.com

Finding Inspiration in Everyday Life

William Faulkner once said, “I only write when I am inspired. Fortunately I am inspired at 9 o'clock every morning.” Gosh, I wish it were that simple for me. Honestly, I don't believe writers wait to be inspired before they write. The challenge might be more that they ignore the everyday happenings in their busy lives that can inspire their writing.

Imagine this..

A young mother at the end of a hectic day has at least one more chore to do before she can plop into bed for some much needed rest. It's bedtime for her little girl; the one who wants to be sung to sleep every night. Weary, the woman trudges upstairs for their bedtime routine: go potty, change into pajamas, brush teeth, read story and say prayers. Along the way, the little girl has asked about going to the zoo soon, shared every single thing that happened at preschool that day, and asked for a drink of water.

Finally, it's time for bed. The woman stifles a yawn and plunks into the rocking chair beside her daughter's bed. She hoists the little girl with the binky planted between her pouting lips and a pink blanket in tow onto her lap, and settles into that one special position that is comfortable for both of them. Then she begins to rock and sing. She sings of frogs going courting and tiny little Thumbelina. The woman sings songs her mother wrote when she was just a little girl. She rocks and sings until her legs ache and her throat is horse, yet, the little girl's eyes are still peering up at her pleading for more. Now what will she sing? She's gone through every nursery rhyme and childhood song she can think of.  The woman's mind wanders to Christmas, which is still months away. She knows decorating, baking for the neighbors, and the sending of cards will be added to her overloaded schedule. But then, she remembers the music. The wonderful hymns of peace, love, and joy that fill the season. So she pushes her feet against the floor once more and, as the rocker goes back and forth, she sings of stars at night and the night wind speaking to a little lamb and a little drummer boy who visits a special baby and gives him the gift of his music.

In the days that followed, the woman would use Christmas music to lull her daughter to sleep time and again. Each time she sang of that little drummer boy, her mind would wander to a young shepherd in the fields on the night of Christ's birth. He would be afraid to leave his sheep and join the other shepherds who were eagerly seeking out the baby the angels had just told them about. Then, in a moment of great faith, he agrees to go with them and, as a result, he saw the Holy Family and his life was forever changed.

Years passed. The little girl with the blanket and binky started school. The woman turned her attention to her life-long love of writing. In those early days, she sought inspiration and found it in the image of that young shepherd who stepped out in faith and left his sheep behind to visit a baby in a manager. That story becomes her first published book for children.

All around us, in the mundane and the extraordinary moments of living, inspiration is there. We only have to open our minds to all it has to offer us as writers.

Cheryl C. Malandrinos is a freelance writer and editor. She is the author of Little Shepherd, A Christmas Kindness, Macaroni and Cheese for Thanksgiving and the recently released, Amos Faces His Bully. A blogger and book reviewer, she lives in Massachusetts with her husband and two daughters. She also has a son who is married. Visit Cheryl online at http://ccmalandrinos.com and her children’s book blog at https://childrensandteensbookconnection.wordpress.com