If You've Got Five Minutes...

You're gonna love this. Trust me. It's five minutes and worth every single second. You might wanna even watch it twice. I could preform it for you by now. I won't. I can't sing.


This is how I feel when I'm in a Writing Rut. (I'm not saying I am. It just reminded me of it. But I could be...) It seems like I have certain words and phrases and descriptions I use over and over again--like Pachelbel and the same chords in every song.

Do you do this? How do you make each story distinct with the words you use? I try to listen to the characters, but sometimes I find myself always using, say, something like this, "She held the XXX in front of her like a shield." And it's never something that could actually, yanno, shield anything. It's like her history paper. Or the pants that boy is bringing over. Or something. (Don't try to make sense of the pants. Really. Maybe I'll post it for Teaser Tuesday. That's right. It's being resurrected. Prepare yourselves.)

Anyway, back to Pachelbel and repetition in your stories. With all the letters and words and sentences and different ways to put them together, do you ever find yourself writing in a rut? If so, how do you get out?

By the way, I do this (the rut thing) with dinner too. My boy kidlet will sometimes say, "Sloppy joes...again?" and I give him the laser eye and he mumbles, "Sorry," and eats his stinking sloppy joe. Again.

Getting to Know You...

Getting to know all about you. Yeah, cue the music, people. (And name that movie/play, if you can.)

Okay, I don't know how many of you are actual subscribers and how many of you slipped and accidentally hit that subscribe button and now you don't know how to undo it. But I'm glad you're here! I love blogging, and I love comments.

So today is "Getting to Know You" day. I want to know who you are! I can see my followers (and I always try to click on you and follow you back. Yes, I have the sheep syndrome from time to time.) and it's fun to see your tiny heads on the side. But I don’t really know you.

So here's the deal. Leave me a comment with who you are. Who you hope wins Survivor or American Idol. What you do for a living. Your favorite food. Whatev. A short little blurb about yourself.

If it were me, I might say something like this: "I write YA fiction, adore reality TV, drive way too fast, and wish bacon alone could sustain life." It doesn't have to be like, your entire life history or anything. But just a little something to get to know you.

And I'm gonna bribe you to do it. Food usually works with teenagers and husbands, but since I can't send you my infamous chocolate pie through cyberspace, I'm going to offer up a copy of TANTALIZE by Cynthia Leitich Smith. Hey, the book is about a girl who runs a restaurant and that's totally food-related, so it's all good. So get introducing yourselves!

**Winners will be chosen by random number. No Sprite-spewage on this. Although bonus points will be awarded for that. ;)

It's Not You, It's Me

Just for fun. And for my friend, Michelle.

Words, Gotta Love 'Em

Okay, so I think my friend Heather really hates me. She's always finding these cool things that take up my time. I think she knows deep down that she's going to addict me to yet another thing on the Internet...and she's cackling to herself in a deep voice, "Mwa-ha-ha!"

I can just hear her.

Because she posted the coolest thing I've seen in a long time. That may reveal how unexciting my life is, but I'm okay with that.

It's called Wordle. It's awesome. It creates word clouds with blocks of text you paste in. I pasted in my synopsis for my work in progress, once titled Shadows, now re-titled as The Mirror. Or something. I don't really have a title right now, let's just say that.

But, seriously. How cool it this? C-O-O-L, I know. You should try it out, too. Wordle. Create. Play. Post. Awe-some.




You can see a bigger, cleaner version in the Wordle gallery.