Daily Jots

Don’t get upset about wrinkles: they’re just foreshadowing!
Cathy Crimmins

Now that’s a nice way to think about wrinkles wouldn’t you say? Do you have a character in your latest piece of work that you could see thinking that way??

More blogs by S.P. Bragg
*Aging Fabulous
*Her Accessories
*Shopaholics Daily
*Southern Byways
*Daily Jots

Coming of Age…All Over Again: The Ultimate Midlife Handbook

A lot of people might not agree with me, but I think that if you can make writing fun for kids, a lot more of them just might find that they enjoy it. My two think of writing as work! Somewhere along the line, they missed the fun part!

A few years ago, I taught a creative writing course to a gifted class in our local school and the kids had the most fun when I made up little projects for them. One day I filled a paper bag with a lot of bits and pieces and told them to weave a story around the items in the bag. The stories that were turned in were amazing!

That’s the first thing I thought of when I saw this piece of software.

More blogs by S.P. Bragg
*Aging Fabulous
*Her Accessories
*Shopaholics Daily
*Southern Byways
*Daily Jots

Story Wizard - Creative Writing Software for Kids

Such a boring topic I know, but I find that if you take a few minutes to review your schedule each day, you get a lot more accomplished by the end of the week. And that means a sense of accomplishment. People are always asking me how I pile so much into my day and it’s all because of how I schedule things.

But, I make sure that I also leave time for play!! No play makes people awfully boring!

I know that I have this book, but it’s lost somewhere on my bookshelf. I really have to come up with some sort of method of organizing my books. This particular book is one that you can thumb through at will and always find something useful.

Time I opened it again!!

A Writer’s Book of Days

When you are building a character, it’s always nice to give them something unusual as a personality trait. That is the first thing I thought of when I saw this how to… Just what kind of character would go out of his way to tie his shoes in unique ways?? A murderer is the first thing that came to mind.

“Whilst mathematics tells us that there are more than 2 Trillion Methods of feeding a lace through the six pairs of eyelets on an average shoe, this section presents a (somewhat more realistic) typical cross-section of traditional and alternative lacing methods that I’ve either found or created or that have been sent to me by web site visitors.

The selection is limited to those methods that I considered worthy of devoting the time required to create instructions, either because they are widely used, have a particular feature or benefit, or just because I like the way they look. Stay tuned - the list is still growing! .”

While this how to shows you the obvious/ordinary ways to lace your shoes, the idea could be just a jumping off point to create a really unusual character.

31 ways to get you started…

When was the last time you organized your books. The reason I’m asking is because I was just standing in front of my book case looking for a particular book and I simply couldn’t find it. I know that it is there, I simply couldn’t locate it. I’m going to have to spend some time today trying to come up with some sort of organization that will prevent this from happening.

*Home Organizing Idea Book

Well actually the idea of managing your time could apply to everyone, not just the writer. I guess the more I think about it, the more I realize that it’s not about managing time so much as learning to manage ourselves. That is the key and I noticed it even more so while on holiday. I am definitely a person who is governed by routine. Not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing!

*A Writer’s Book of Days: A Spirited Companion and Lively Muse for the Writing Life

I have a hard time with… ordinary. I think that it all started when I was a teenager and nothing in my life was allowed to be ordinary! If the most popular girl in the school enrolled in modeling classes, I had to have them too. If the girl up the street received a horse for her birthday, I had to have one too. And that’s just for starters.

Dad isn’t around to pay for all of my wants anymore which is probably a good thing and I have had to learn to back up a little and take a second look at ordinary! That’s where this book comes into the story…

It’s called “Romancing the Ordinary” and it really opened my eyes. Breathnach talks about different things each month in short manageable pieces for those of us who have no patience. She starts off June like this…

Thirty days hath perfection, she calls herself the month of June… In case you haven’t noticed, there’s splendor in the grass and a riot of color in the garden.

And what am I doing??? Yelling at service men who tick me off. Obviously I need to spend more time with this book! I’m starting to wonder where my short fuse is coming from?? Or was it always there and only now coming out as I get older?? I used to be soooo nice!

;)

Thoughts for Today…
Thoughts on Suffering
Thoughts on Time
Videos
Websites of Interest
Weird News
Thoughts on Women

“It’s no secret that the HowStuffWorks staff likes to take things apart and see what makes them tick. Some of us are also the kind of sticklers who point out science and technology mistakes in TV shows and movies, much to the chagrin of the people listening. But when we heard about the controversy surrounding “The Da Vinci Code,” we couldn’t resist picking it apart.”

My husband loves to do stuff like this and came up with his own list of things that didn’t make sense in the book. Did you spot anything that seemed… just a bit off??

Personally, I simply read it for the shear entertainment. :)

Thoughts for Today…
Boxed - Unboxed Thinking
Thoughts on Contentment
Enrichment
Excellence
Thoughts on Gardens

What Didn’t Work

As long as habit and routine dictate the pattern of living, new dimensions of the soul will not emerge. Henry Van Dyke

Does that mean that if I like routine, I’m not going to grow as a person?? I’m not quite sure how I feel about this. I like routine. I don’t find anything negative about doing the same thing day in and day out. I like to know what I have to do so that I can do it.

I also like lists. I don’t think that I would get half of the things accomplished if I didn’t have a detailed list in front of me. But I know that there are some people who can’t bare to plan their day. They have a rough idea what they have to do but leave lots of room for surprises. Me… I don’t like surprises.

So, am I in a rut??

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