FRAGMENTS FROM A WRITER'S MIND

Time marches on and on. There is a writer's life outside of blogging but there should be room for both. I have good intentions. I want to keep this blog moving along; life rushes in and those thoughts are somehow washed away. Focus is a small word that should be stuck in this brain. If I focus strongly on placing this blog on my daily schedule--ah, maybe I should make that weekly--I should be able to use my creative mind more often.

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I've just returned from a very hot camping trip. But, in spite of the heat, the muse didn't dry up and blow away. I managed to get some work done and to make some notes for future work. Some of it was in full form--paragaphs of essays, scenes for stories, snippets of poetry and--fragments.



Some of these fragments come out in the form of beginnings of books, or chapters or maybe even endings. I tell students in my classes to keep a notebook of such lines. Many times I have gone to such notebooks, found the perfect line, and had the take-off for a short story or chapter. Lines to begin, such as:



Things were disappearing from the house.

The silence was no longer tranquil.

The shadows in the room danced up the wall.

Living with Jerry felt like a ride on a cut-rate roller coaster.

There was a time when I couldn't see the road ahead.

I've always been a sucker for lonely men.

In the ruins, we built again.



What about some intriguing endings?



He wasn't a sheriff who liked seeing his face on the six o'clock news.

She later would remember the prophecy.

A large, dark shape stood between her and the door.

A smart woman could learn a lot about a man over dinner.

If John hadn't killed him first.

The photo sat there, silently accusing.

Do any ideas come from these beginnings or endings? If so, start writing.



Snippets of poetry:



Safe from her enemies,

a wren chirps happily

among the cactus thorns.

**

Love--

Broken dreams,

Old promises.


I copied down quotes from famous and unknown people. I love to collect quotes and use them at the beginning of articles and essays or chapters of my books. You can find them everywhere. Just remember that they must mean something, have a connection to the content of your work, or a character in your story.

"There are years that are questions and years that are answers." (Zora Neale Hurston)

"Map out your life, but do it in pencil." (Jon Bon Jovi)



Titles? You can always come up with titles but, as with the quotes, they must fit your work.



Some Blue Sunday

The Peddler's Pack

Field of Flowers

If I Had No Voice

Offering Up a Song

Crying Out Somewhere

The Magic Never Ceases

A Hush on Christmas Eve



Remember this: your muse never goes on vacation and--



When you aren't writing, you have plenty of time for fear to silence your words.