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Lock your windows — Kaylaisweird’s response

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

This response to our writing prompt was written by Kaylaisweird, one of our recently joined members. Enjoy her somewhat spooky response!

The taste inside my mouth is an empty one.

Shallow, flavorless, nothing.

I try to recall all of the different times that this has happened, and only come up with two. The last occasion was when my father had this syndrome that made his entire left side of his body go numb; and I just watched in terror while the paramedics tried to stop the convulsing.

I remember it distantly, much so like a hazy dream that once burned alive with clarity and now is settled into a pile of dust and coals.

This time it is nothing like that. Everything is vivid and filled with color. I’ve been staring at the same crack in the cement for over an hour and I don’t believe that I’ve even blinked once. My mother was carried away, under a sheet on a stretcher. The blood on my hands is a deep, sticky brown that closely resembles mud and I don’t think it will ever come out from beneath my fingernails.

I hope…that someday, somewhere…someone will give that bastard a taste of his own medicine. The police told me that it looked like it was just a typical break-in that didn’t go as planned.

I know that they’re just doing their jobs, but if you want my opinion…I would keep a gun by your bedside and lock all your windows.

Tags: lock your windows, Writing Prompts
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A Writer’s Journal

Monday, March 29th, 2010

One of the best ways to monitor your progress as a writer is to keep a journal.

Keeping a writer’s journal allows you to keep track of the days you’re successful, the things that inspire you, techniques or strategies you learn, and how many words you can complete each day.

Here are a few things you should consider recording every day:

The number of words you wrote and how much time you spent writing
A quick summary of any articles/chapters that you wrote
Anything that inspired you while writing today (movies, something a friend said, a memory, etc)
Techniques you used to generate ideas (brainstorming, using an outline, speaking out loud, etc).
If you sold an article, how much money you earned for the time invested and its word count
Classes and/or interesting articles you’ve read. Include how to find them again, such as recording the web address.
Anything that was going on while you were writing (kids or pets interrupting, music or television shows going on in the background, whether you visited websites as you were working, etc).

Keeping track of these items will help you to understand how you’re improving as a writer. Looking back at these journal entries will help you see how far you’ve come, as well as how to make yourself more productive as a writer.

Looking at your best days will help you figure out what factors help you to be the most successful. After you’ve recorded your progress every day for a month, look for some common factors on the days where you performed well, and on the days where you didn’t write as much.

For example, you may find some of the following correlations:

On days that you were most successful, there were fewer distractions (no interruptions, no checking email, etc).
On days that you were less successful, you were watching a movie at the same time as you wrote.
Using a reward for a certain amount of progress resulted in a higher quality work.
Watching certain types of movies/reading certain types of books tended to inspire you.

Try using a writer’s journal for a month, and see what you learn. I’ve found it to be a valuable tool for watching my own progress, keeping track of what I learn, and figuring out ways to continue improving as a writer.

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