What am I doing?

I just lost seven words of production.  There's three more.  Another two.

You see what I mean?  Every word I type into this blog is one less that I can put into a story.  It's sapping away my time and my productivity and all into something that no one is every going to read.  This blog post is empty calories to a man on a diet, an idling engine to someone trying to conserve gas, an open window with the air conditioning running.


Then... why am I doing this?  Because sometimes that open window blows in fresh air, even if it's warmer.  Because sometimes your engine has to idle for a while so it runs more smoothly on the road.  Because sometimes that candy bar is exactly what you need to calm yourself down and enjoy the life you're prolonging with good health.

Okay, now I've lost the metaphor, and I've got cravings for Mr. Goodbar.

The point is, no matter what you write, you're not wasting your time.  Creativity is not a container that can run out, but a well that is deep and cool.  Even when it runs dry, rain can refill it.  And if the rain doesn't come, you can dig somewhere else.  And if that doesn't work, you can move somewhere more humid.

Dammit, I lost the metaphor again, and now I'm thirsty.

The point is, this blog is going to my chance to run the faucet long enough to get the brown water out, so I can start making pancakes with it.  Mmmm, pancakes.  Can you smell them?  Nice and fluffy and buttery.

What have we learned here today?  I'm going to get something to eat.  Then I'm going to start writing.

What's in a name?

Often tempted to give difficult to pronounce names with deep meaning providing a name for my characters is time-consuming to veer from Character 1/A and so on. To this point I start this point to discuss names -- male versus female, historical, biblical, non-western cultural, or just made up using Scrabble pieces.

Here's an Ask.com question about character names, the 'conversation' is interesting since many of the names seem to bring up emotions and can be based upon looks.

I've created a google.doc spreadsheet for us to add names, meanings, even preferred intended sex of character.

I figured we could add links to websites for name generating, meanings, and so on and so forth -- here and in the document.

http://www.meaning-of-names.com/
www.behindthename.com/
www.quickbabynames.com/
www.namespedia.com/
www.symbols.net/names

Great websites and venues to discover

http://www.creativity-portal.com/prompts/imagination.prompt.html
Prompt generator

http://www.newpages.com/literary/submissions.htm
Literary magazine contests and calls for submissions

http://spellingblog4.blogspot.com/
a Spelling Bee for Adults!

http://www.themoth.org/storyslams
Story readings in NYC

Contests, Fellowships, Awards, etc.

More information on the sites but here are the mini scoop:

Three-Minute Fiction Round 6: Laughing And Crying - It's back! Three-Minute Fiction has returned to weekends on All Things Considered. We're bringing you a new judge and a new challenge to start off this new year. . . accepting submissions until 11:59 p.m. ET on Sunday, Jan. 23. We must be able to read your stories aloud in three minutes or less, so again, the maximum is 600 words. . .Only one entry per person. Send in your story by clicking on the "Send Us Your Original Short Story" link on the Three-Minute Fiction page.

10-Minute play Festival: Actors Theatre of Louisville and Miami’s City Theatre have joined forces to co-sponsor the National Ten-Minute Play Contest. . .Next Deadline Submission Postmark is November 1, 2011. . .Each playwright may submit only one script. . .script must be no more than ten pages long.

The New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award is a $10,000 prize awarded each spring to a writer age 35 or younger for a novel or a collection of short stories. . . Submission Guidelines. . . BUT The publisher must submit all books. Authors may not submit their work on their own. . .SO you might want to consider joining the Young Lions Membership program at least. . .The Young Lions is a membership group for New Yorkers in their 20s and 30s who are committed to supporting the work of the Library.