Life of A Writer

Last week I told you about Balderdash, a great board game for writers. After I discussed the game, I gave you a question from the Marvelous Movies category, so you could play along. Those who decided to play had to tell what they thought the movie, Mr. Peek-A-Boo, was about. Sue Glasco from Woodsong Notes was the only one who decided to play along, and her answer was a good one. In fact, if she had been playing the game with family or a group of writers, her answer may have fooled quite a few people, which would've been a good thing for her.

Sue's answer: "A bachelor somehow becomes guardian of a baby and plays peek-a-boo and other games with the little one."

Although Sue's answer was a great one, the correct answer is: "Mr. P realizes he can walk through walls and uses his talents to help a girl who is being blackmailed." Remember, Mr. Peek-A-Boo really is a movie, and that's exactly what it's about.

Once again, if you believe your family and/or writer friends would enjoy Balderdash, get it today for less than $30. It truly is a fun and hilarious game!

In my next blog post, I plan to tell you how to gain buzz through a few methods that you may not know about.

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My time on the weekends is dedicated to hubby and the kids, so my writing takes a back seat then. We enjoy fishing, camping, nature walks and croquet, but when we're having fun inside, we also gather around the dining room table to play board games. One of our favorite board games is Balderdash, and although I don't work on the weekends, I exercise my mind when we play Balderdash.

When we first bought the game and quickly learned how to play, I thought to myself, "This is an excellent game for writers!" Truly, it is. It's a game writers can enjoy with their family or even take along with them to a writer's meeting. The game can be hilarious at times, but it also allows a writer to show off their talent, and if your mind's really creative -- and I know it is -- you could become the undefeated player of Balderdash. Well, undefeated with your family, because if you play this exciting game with a group of writers, then you can bet you'll have some tough competition. Either way, I'm 99% sure you'll fall in love with Balderdash!

What makes Balderdash a great choice for writers? Without trying to go into too much detail, I'll explain a bit about how you play.

First, it's better to play with a minimum of four people. Once you have your group of players, the fun begins!

Someone rolls the dice, and the number will determine which category on the card is read. The cards have five categories: Weird Words - What is the definition of this word?; Peculiar People - Who is this Person?; Incredible Initials - What does this stand for?; Marvelous Movies - What is the movie about?; and finally, Laughable Laws - What is the law?. (One side of the card has the question, which the person who rolled the dice will read to the group, and the answer is on the other side.)

After the question is read, the group must write down what they believe the actual answer is, and then they hand their slip of paper to the person who read the question. Once that person collects everyone's answers, he or she will read all the answers aloud without revealing who wrote it (including the correct answer). Then you go around the group and each person says which answer they believe is the true answer, and believe it or not, the actual answer is a fact. Let me give you an example of a question with the correct answer:

Category: Laughable Laws

Question: "In the country of Andorra, upon discovering a corpse, the sheriff must...

Correct answer: Ask "Are you dead?" three times.

The object of the game is to try to fool as many people as you can. In other words, you want them to think you're answer is the correct answer, so you can move your game piece forward more spaces on the game board. The person who makes it to the finish line first wins.

Okay, I just can't resist. I'm going to use another one of the questions from the Marvelous Movies category, but this time, I'm not going to reveal the correct answer until next week. Instead, I'm going to let you play along, so leave a comment with your best answer to the question. Then when I reveal the true answer here next week, I'll include your response and even link to your writing-related website, blog, product or service (if you enter one).

Ready? Here's the movie: Mr. Peek-A-Boo.

Now, leave a comment and let me know what you think the movie is about. Remember, in the actual game, you'd be trying to fool the other players into thinking yours is the actual answer, so let the brainstorming session begin.

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Have you ever had one of those days where you sit down to write but found yourself uninspired to do so? Don't worry; you're not alone. Writers have experienced this on more than one occasion. The worst part, however, is when -- despite not being inspired -- you know it has to be done so you force yourself to do your job. But because you're not feeling motivated, the ideas don't flow, so you discover yourself surfing the web or doing other things with the hope that you'll be able to write or get an idea within a few minutes. Surprise! Next time you glance at the clock you realize several hours have passed and your work day/night is over! This, my friend, is called procrastination, and because Michele from Writing the Cyber Highway tagged me, I'm going to share a few of my tips for overcoming procrastination with you. Not just because Michele tagged me, but also because I enjoy sharing what I've learned over the years.

Are you procrastinating at this very moment? If so, keep reading and maybe you'll leave my blog and be able to get back to writing… before you lose track of time.

Overcoming Procrastination in Seven Easy Steps:

1. Night owl writers, go to bed. Day writers, take a nap. Seriously, all I have to do is lay my head on the pillow and the ideas run rapid. By then I'm up turning on the lamp. Next, I grab the notebook and pen from my night table to record those ideas (as I did for this post). Ok, maybe it won't work for everyone, but it works for me. In fact, it works even when I'm not trying to overcome procrastination.

2. Soak in the bathtub or take a shower. When I do either of these two things, it refreshes my body as well as my mind. Go ahead, give it a try.

3. Get organized again. Instead of surfing the web, focus on re-organizing your workspace or office. I learned that an organized workspace does wonders.

4. Go for a walk. Sometimes a little fresh air rejuvenates my mind. Who knows, it could work for you too.

5. Read a book about freelance writing. What better way to procrastinate than learning how to become a better writer. Many times when I procrastinate, I head to my bookshelf and grab one of the books on freelance writing, and 99% of the time, it inspired me to get back to work.

6. Go for a drive on a country road. I've found the best time to do this is in the spring, so you can open the windows and take in all the springtime smells: honeysuckles, flowers, etc. Besides, if you're going to procrastinate, then at least you won't loose track of time by taking a drive on a country road. Well, you may, but you won't waste as much time as you would surfing the Net, because you may run out of gas if you drive for too many hours.

7. Take advantage of those writing exercises and prompts. Since you may surf the Internet when you procrastinate, surf to the tons of websites that list free writing exercises and prompts. Pick an exercise or prompt and do it. By the time you've finished that writing exercise or prompt, I'll bet you overcome procrastination. If not, then at least you can say you didn't waste your writing time.

Those are my seven easy steps for overcoming procrastination. I hope they help you, because they've certainly helped me over the years.

Instead of tagging seven others, I would like to invite you to take part if you like. All you have to do is link back to me, list your seven tips for overcoming procrastination and then tag seven others to do the same. Oh yes, comment and let me know where to find your post. I'd love to read your procrastination tips too.

Photo courtesy: Flickr

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Before I began writing tonight, I visited some blogs about freelance writing, and while I was reading them, I ran across a post on Michael Kwan's blog, which I found through ChrisBlogging. As I read Michael's post -- Freelance Writing for a Niche or for the Masses -- I came up with an article idea of my own. In his post, he shared his own experience about what it was like when he first started searching Craigslist for writing jobs. As he discussed his experience, he told his readers how he didn't have "much of a professional portfolio" at that time, but he said he would still offer his services. He went on to say, "Unfortunately, not many of them listened. I even offered to write for free in exchange for some 'exposure,' but without a proper portfolio of work and a series of satisfied customers, they weren't prepared to take a chance on me."

After reading about Michael's experience, as well as relating to him, the idea for my own article hit! He kept talking about not having a portfolio, and lack of this portfolio is what kept him from landing the writing jobs he was seeking. However, he did eventually build a portfolio and increased his chances of landing those writing jobs. Therefore, the article idea that I got was an article for aspiring freelance writers. The article will discuss ways aspiring writers can build a portfolio for themselves. Then, once they've built their portfolio, they may have better luck when they go to apply for writing jobs.

Now for the good news: this article has already been written and submitted. Yes, friends, you read correctly. Not only did Michael's post spark the article idea, but also it inspired me to get my butt in gear and write it right then. I wrote the article and submitted it for publication. So, once my client (The People's Media) has published the article, I will be sure to post the link to it here for all you aspiring writers to read.

Now I'm off to type out a couple more articles, and then I will probably join hubby in bed. Oh yes, thank you so much for the article idea, Michael! And ChrisBlogging, thank you for referring me to Michael's blog! You both provide very valuable information on your blogs.


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What does brainstorming and research equal for you? For me it equals a combination of things: more busy nights, a night of tossing and turning until you get back up (like tonight), more writing just for you and moola. Let's begin with the brainstorming shall we. As most of you know by now, I'm one of those "night owl" writers. Yep, I write up until the wee hours of the morning -- usually until four or five in the morning. Well, tonight I began working, but my eyelids kept closing. So, I told myself, "That's it. You're going to bed, woman. You're tired and need a good night's rest." I did just that. Well, until my head hit the pillow! For some odd reason, when my head hit that pillow, the ideas started roaming through my head, and all of a sudden I was wide awake! "Shoot, will I remember all this in the morning?" I asked myself, then rolled over, adjusted my pillow and tried to put my ideas to rest, too. Ha! You see how that went. Here I am up and fully awake, and just a few minutes prior I could hardly hold my eyes open. And that my friends is truly the life of a writer. When those ideas begin to form, you can't sleep a wink. Within moments, you're up, firing up the computer again, opening Word and recording those ideas on paper. Hopefully, after you've jotted down the ideas that were keeping you awake, you'll be able to put your computer back to sleep and hope the next time you lay your head on the pillow you'll visit dreamland. I guess we'll soon see if I can master that and get the rest I need, eh.

What started the brainstorming? Well, before I attempted to visit dreamland, I applied for another writing job. This writing job is one I'm crossing my fingers and my toes for. The writing job I applied for would require me to write about freelance writing. Yep, something I know well. Anyway, upon applying for this job, I already had a long list of writing-related topics stored in my brain to write about. Then once I hit the sack, my brain started working 100 miles an hour with more topics to write about, and I even thought of some topics to pitch about Adsense, as well as another idea that I believe would fit well in general consumer magazines. No matter how much effort I put into trying to go to sleep, I just couldn't. Therefore, I rose from my bed to get those ideas typed into Word.

Ah, yes, I can't forget the research. Once those ideas formed, I started thinking about ways I could improve the traffic to my Web site and blogs. I know writing keyword-rich content is the way, and that's when I realized I was going to spend one night or two researching to learn more about finding the right keywords for my Web site and blog. Then, I'll research a better way to sprinkle those keywords throughout my content to gain a better PR. I also need to learn this so I can increase my Adsense earnings. Once I've absorbed all of this information, I told myself I would help y'all by posting some of what I've learned here on my blog. With that said, keep watching my blog for the information or you can subscribe to be notified immediately.

OK, wish me luck as I attempt to visit dreamland again. I'm hoping all of this will allow me to rest my head on my pillow, close my eyes and there I'll be ... in dreamland.

Until next time, friends ... rest well and may all your dreams come true!

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