Hello, inklings!
It’s time for another writing roundup where I share the writerly things I’ve found especially inspiring, helpful, encouraging and insightful over the last four weeks! From craft-honing podcasts and articles, to funny and innovative products, I’m positive you’ll find something that piques your creative curiosity!
Without further ado, here’s my November roundup!
7 Things You Can Do to Reignite Your Creative Spark (article)
In this inspiring blog post, Melissa Chu shares seven practical ways we writers can get our creative juices flowing! From zooming back from the big-picture view of our book, to fasting from our devices from time to time, the article’s chock-full of tips that can help breathe new life into our artistic endeavors.
Click HERE to read it!
Shakespearean Insults Mug (gift idea)
So while this (like most of the products I recommend) won’t revolutionize the way you write or help you birth the next literary classic, it may very well come in handy the next time you’re racking your brain trying to come up with a colorful cut-down for one of your characters to say. 😉 It would also make an excellent holiday gift for a book nerd in your life!
Click HERE to order one!
4 Keys to Remembering What You Learn (podcast)
Most writing requires research, which means reading, listening, and watching all sorts of things to help familiarize ourselves with a particular subject, time, place, or person. Fantasy and historical fiction writers have especially lengthy research periods, at least if they want their work to ring true in readers’ imaginations.
If you’re like me, you find researching fun; it’s retaining all that knowledge that’s the problem! In this podcast. host Ruben Chavez teaches us how to not only absorb information, but keep it stored for the long term. Click HERE to give a listen!
Aqua Notes (awesome product)
Whoever invented this is a straight-up genius! Just listen to the product description:
“AquaNotes is a waterproof notepad that allows you to record your great ideas while you’re in the shower. It’s so durable you can even write underwater. They’re recyclable, environmentally friendly, and the notepad is printed with soy-based ink.”
What writer hasn’t been in the bath or shower, and received a heaven-sent, breakthrough idea only to forget it a few minutes later because they had no way to record it? Aqua Notes will be there for us mid-shampoo when inspiration strikes!
Click HERE to get yours!
Writing and the Creative Life: Why Staring Into Space Is an Important Strategy for Success (article)
Speaking of showering, check out this excerpt from the aforementioned article by Scott Myers:
“In the shower we are simply staring into space, washing our hair on autopilot. We aren’t checking our messages or Twitter feed, or writing a report. We’re just day dreaming.
“We may — mistakenly — think that nothing much is happening in our brain when we aren’t consciously doing something, certainly nothing much of importance is going on. But our brain actually lights up like a Christmas tree when we’re daydreaming. Many brain regions become active in this situation, far more than when we are focusing. (emphasis mine)
“Why?
“When we daydream or relax our focus, our brain begins drawing connections between all the things that it previously didn’t see as being all that connected. Most importantly, the brain networks responsible for creative insight come online.” (emphasis mine)
If ever you feel lazy or unproductive while staring into space, then this article will assure you that indeed the opposite is true. Turns out that still waters really do run deep!
Click HERE to read the article.
(Bonus) Writing Quote of the Month:
“Keep a small can of WD-40 on your desk—away from any open flames—to remind yourself that if you don’t write daily, you will get rusty.”
—George Singleton
That concludes this month’s roundup! Let me know what cool and helpful writing/publishing-related things you’ve learned recently by tweeting me @dandersontyler!