5 x 5 Favourites by Steph Beth Nickel

Some of these resources are not directly related to writing and some are not presented from a Christian worldview, but I find them inspirational and encouraging even so. 

5 Favourite Books

Don McNair's Editor-Proof Your Writing

Lynne Truss's Eats Shoots and Leaves

Marcy Kennedy's A Busy Writer's Guide Series

Mignon Fogarty's Grammar Girl

Sarah Ettritch's Self-Publishing for Canadians

5 Favourite Facebook Groups

Create If Writing

Faith-Pump Fridays

InScribe

The Confident Writer

The Light Bearer Community

5 Favourite Sources of Inspiration

Conferences and Workshops (I prefer the in-person variety.)

Jonny Diaz's YouTube Channel (and many other contemporary Christian artist's channels)

Nature (I love taking a walk, camera in hand.)

Pinterest

Well-written TV shows (I love the writing and the fast-paced delivery of the lines on West Wing.)

5 Favourite Podcasts

Kirsten Oliphant

Orna Ross

The Creative Penn

The Phosphorus Project

Truly Social

5 Favourite Websites / Posts

100 Best Websites for Writers 2017

Compel (This is a members only site, but there are a plethora of great information here.)

Lisa Hall-Wilson

Self-Publishing Formula

Writer's Digest

Writing Outside the Box – by Ramona Heikel

Writing prompts, which are by their very nature “fresh” and different, help me to stay out of a writing rut.  The ones I like the best have variety built into them: different genres, subjects, formats, tones and approaches.  Some are intended to inspire new material for a current project, and others are tools for exploring a completely new piece.   

One of my favorite writing books is The Write Brain Workout, which has a new prompt on each page, and is full of large color images (I’ve included three here), which automatically rev up my creativity and sense of fun.

I haven’t always, but lately I’ve been forcing myself to do each writing prompt in order, whether it’s one that appeals to me or not.   

On a recent holiday / writing retreat, I ended up writing a piece that left the character no choice but to dredge up sad and difficult memories.  I guarantee that I would not have chosen to do that on my own!  I resisted at first, but felt it was necessary to write outside of the box, and I’m actually glad I did.

 

 Also on my holiday, I wrote pieces guided by the following prompts from two other favorite books, Creative Writing Activities and The Writer’s Book of Matches:

“Well, to be honest, I just threw it away.”

Write a make-believe conversation between you and something in nature.

“Why do you have ten jars of Easy Cheese in your cart?”

Who knows what these short starts will turn into?   

They may go nowhere.   

But they gave hours of enjoyment, made me think deeper than usual, and did a lot to shake the dust off my creativity!

 

Posted by Ramona

www.happilywriting.com