Write about an ironic use of bad manners.

Her pointer finger pressed against her lips thankfully muffled her abrasive shhh to a classroom of twenty adults.

Well these are not an assignments but something to ponder and get your pen moving or the delete button active.

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink.”

– George Orwell (1903-1950)

“You don't write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.”

– F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)

What is in front of you? Or out your back window?

There is a speckled starling that believes he is a brown sparrow. He travels with a flock of sparrows and eats at the feeder with his surrogate family, even though his beak and feet are three times the size of his companions.

"If we personify the novel, make it into a being named Marissa Novella, for example, I believe that we can see the complex interworkings of story and plot."

Name your novel, not give it a title, but make the project a living thing so that you know you have to breathe life into it everyday.

My pile of papers and doc files are now referred to as Millie Yarn.


Walter Mosley, This Year You Write Your Novel

how the city-girl changed into a country-girl...

Some man stepped on my foot and some woman smacked the back of my head while I was quietly sitting on the L train, if this abuse happened in the country on my farm I could hit them back with my spade shovel.

The exclamation points: How do you use this punctuation correctly?
I have found four online sources about the usage of exclamation points, plus check the Chicago Manual of Style 16th Edition for more information. Review and edit your manuscript accordingly.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5952_exclamation-point.html

http://www.nationalpunctuationday.com/exclamationpoint.html

http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/exclaim.asp

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/Problems-with-Exclamation-Points.topicArticleId-29011,articleId-28984.html

Write something that includes one-way dialogue with the main character. Make the reader visualize what he or she is doing instead of talking.

Alan pulled up outside the plastic hospital. I heard the gurgling diesel engine, but still did not move. Without speaking, Alan grabbed my elbow and pulled me to my feet. The receiver resting in my lap hit the floor, but Alan just disregarded it.
Once outside Alan said, “What is going on, there are messages for you all over this country? Let’s get you out of here. No bitching about how much you hate the open truck on these dusty roads, there is no time to close it up. Get in.” I only mustered up the energy to slowly move, I could not speak or raise my eyes from the dirt my shuffle was kicking up.

Alan swung the passenger door open scooting me along as I silently and mechanically entered the truck. Alan slammed my door shut, ran to the other side, rolling the truck in gear before he closed his door.

I have been away from the pages for so long; it is tempting to start another novel instead of finishing this one. The story has lost its appeal after so many years of rewriting; how do I know the story is solid for the reader?


How is your plot laid out? My main character goes through a series of loses but does she really transform?

Diving back into 200 pages of material, I am taking baby steps.
Short introductory phrases no longer need a comma according to the Chicago Manual of Style 16th Edition.

In 2002, I was living in Denver. The comma can be omitted. Check your manuscript for such phrases.

Falling off the writing wagon.

I did not have writer's block; I had a time management problem. Like the hiding winter sun, my writing life was tucked under the clouds for the past month. I could say that a break is good, but I would be only justifying my absence, staying focused with daily writing keeps you in tune with your characters and subject matter. I will renew my commitment to daily novel writing and hope that my followers will forgive my absence.