Attention all new writers.

4 Writing Crutches that Insult that Reader's Intelligence by Kristen Lamb

45 more flaws that expose your lack of storytelling experience, part two by Jason Black

Verbs, verbs, verbs by Buffy Andrews

How fearless are we as writers?

Or do we play it safe?

This again?

As far as dining out goes, I admit to being very habitual with my food choices.  It's not that I'm picky.  I can't think of too many things that I won't eat or anything that I wouldn't at least try.  It's just that when I find something that I love, I tend to get it over and over again.

You know how it is, right?  The one time you decide to get something different you spend the entire meal wishing you'd just ordered the usual.

So when I go on vacation I try not to choose restaurants that I go to at home.  That way I'm forced to try something new and there's nothing to compare it to.

Well, somehow I managed to retain my creature of habit status while in Gulf Shores.  It's entirely D's fault.  He introduced me to this local restaurant chain called Shrimp Basket.  (I wonder what crackerjack marketing team came up with that name?)

It looked like nothing more than your standard hole in the wall restaurant...

...but it seemed to be extremely popular.  And the food was amazing.  Also cheap!  D and I ended up going twice in a week.  (D, three times!)  

Of course, we ordered the same thing each time.  (Refer back to opening paragraph if this surprises you.) Fried popcorn shrimp, shrimp cole slaw, potato salad, and hush puppies.  

If that doesn't make your mouth water than clearly you're either not a Southerner or you're insane.

I loved the place so much I considered buying a t-shirt.  Sadly, I did not.

Beach.

See that strip of sand along the bottom of the peninsula?  That's where we stayed.  Near the tip.

D took this one.

Another photo by D.  The house, on the left.  It's called Tamaron.  (They all have names.)

The tractor smoothes out the beach road several times a day.

D took this one too.  I taught him a bit about how to take a decent photo and he went a little crazy.  (He took 200 in about 30 minutes!)

A house destroyed by a hurricane.  They're not allowed to build as close to the water anymore, so eventually it'll be torn down.  (I don't think it was much closer than Tamaron.)

More sand art.

Final photo by D.  (Although I edited them all.)

My niece was a fun model.

Tips for the Procrastinators.

It's never too late to be who you might have been.  ~George Eliot


Testing the Idea--Is it Strong Enough to Make a Novel?  by Kristen Lamb

Home via Procrastination Central by Jan O'Hara (I should read this one at least once a week.)

Emotional and Psychological Dynamics by Paul Elwork

Deciding When to Show and When to Tell by Martina Boone (More vindication!)

My writing space.

It's nothing fancy, but it's enough to do the job.

One of the first purchases I plan on making (after a piano) when I finally buy a house is a beautiful set of matching bookcases.  Better yet, built-ins.

I'm rarely without company here.

Izzie loves watching the ducks.

Does setting matter?

Of course setting matters in writing, especially when world-building is involved.  Can you imagine Harry Potter without Hogwarts, The Burrow, or even Little Whinging?  How about The Lord of the Rings without The Shire or Rivendell?

But what about your own personal setting?  As a writer?  Where do you go to write?  Does where you write make a difference in how you write?

I used to write all over the place.  I'd write on the bed, at the dining room table, even in the bathtub, but I didn't really have a special place.

Over time I've slowly begun to realize that I'm much more constructive with a routine.  I've always had an office, but in the past it's been the place where I find the books and the art supplies rather than the place where I'd go to write.  Partly because I had a bad habit of throwing all the homeless junk in there and closing the door.  So it was always messy.  And partly because even when I got around to putting it back together it wasn't very attractive.

I'm a visual person and how a room looks affects how I feel in it.  Once I came to the conclusion that I needed a clutter-free, clean, semi-attractive room to write in on a regular basis I went to work.

I planned on posting photos of the newly revamped office, but the camera battery died before I could get any good shots, so they'll have to wait.  In the meantime here are some fun and sometimes funky writing spaces.

Check out that glass ceiling!

Do any of them call your name?

If I had to choose one I think I'd pick the white room with the sofa and the desk in the corner.  I don't tend to go for that much white, but I love how clean and uncluttered it is and I think that'd be user-friendly to my ADD brain.  Plus I love how the desk is facing out. I have a thing about desks against walls.  It's so un-Feng Shui.

Do you have a particular place where you write or does it even matter?

What's a Rejection Junkie?

A small selection this week.


Editing--Meet the Novel-Killer by Kristen Lamb

The Writer's Rejection Dictionary at Adventures in Children's Publishing

When Middles Sag by Elizabeth S. Craig

Respite.

There is nothing more rejuvenating than a visit to the beach.

Setting Sail

Exultation is the going

Of an inland soul to sea, --

Past the houses, past the headlands,

Into deep eternity!

Bred as we, among the mountains,

Can the sailor understand

The divine intoxication

Of the first league out from land?

                      ~ Emily Dickinson

But more wonderful than the lore of old men and the lore of books is the secret lore of ocean.

                        ~ H. P. Lovecraft

The cure for everything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea.

                            ~ Isak Dinesen

At the beach, life is different.  Time doesn't move hour to hour but mood to moment.  We live by the currents, plan by the tides, and follow the sun.

                              ~ Anonymous

You know what they say about a picture being worth a thousand words?