Tag: fiction

How to Keep Writing through Difficult Times

Jaclyn13 Comments

How do you keep writing when it feels like the world is burning? This post offers some advice on how to keep writing in uncertain times. Break through writer’s block and find motivation to write when times are tough. Your writing is important even in difficult times. This post will help you get back to work.

How to Keep Writing through Difficult Times Overcome Writer’s Block in Uncertain Times How to Write When the World Is Burning

How to Keep Writing When It Feels Like the World Is Burning

I don’t know about you all, but I am tired of living in unprecedented times. It seems like the “unprecedented” hits just keep on coming: wildfires, pandemics, hurricanes, grid failures, winter storms, political strife, and even war. 

You are a writer because you feel things, because you see what is happening around you and you’re moved by it. Maybe you are particularly affected by it even, because writing takes a kind of empathy and observation that not everyone has. But this is exactly why you need to do it. It is the most important time for you to make art. 

You are a writer—writing is what you are here to do. It’s not selfish of you to keep writing in difficult, uncertain times. In fact, you need to do it. 

It’s not easy. Even Toni Morrison wrote about feeling the crushing weight of everything happening in the world and not being able to write because of it. There’s something comforting to me in the idea that even a writer as seasoned and accomplished as Toni Morrison also felt the difficulty of sitting down at the desk in hard times. As important and influential as her work is, she too felt the resistance to creativity when times were tough. 

But her advice to herself is important for us all to remember: 

“This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

Step 1: Remember Why Writing is Important

This is probably the most important step. If you take no other steps today (even writing!), take this one. Your writing is important. Remind yourself why it is important, why the world needs it. Even if all your writing does is make yourself feel better, that has made the world a better place. Peace begins within each of us. Find your peace.

There are many reasons to keep writing, even in the face of overwhelming global hardships. Here are just a few of them:

  1. Writers bear witness. If you write about what is happening in the world or your experience of current events, you help shape the way that future generations understand the events happening around you. Write what is happening, as you see it. 
  1. Writers offer solace. Everyone is having feelings about political situations, global crises, and massive upheavals. Not everyone has the ability to put words to these emotions, but you do, my friend. When you put your thoughts onto the page, you are giving voice to others who may not be able to form their experiences into words. There are others out there who feel the same way you do; giving voice to your experience will also give voice to theirs. It is comforting when you find the words you need to express yourself. It makes people feel seen. Your writing can be a comfort.
  1. Writers offer relief. I know it is not easy to keep writing your fantasy novel when it feels like there is way more important stuff happening in the world. Climate change. Pandemic. War, even. It can be easy to succumb to the feeling that whatever writing you are working on is trivial unless it directly addresses whatever the current problems are. But people don’t just need to be informed or enlightened about what is happening in front of them. Sometimes they also need a break. Sometimes they need to allow themselves to get lost in art so that they can come back to the world refreshed and able to do something. You can offer that break. You can give them that relief.

Step 2: Take care of yourself.

We writers can be sensitive types. This is part of why we are good at writing. But in times like these, being sensitive is not easy. It’s not all creativity and dreaming and intuition. It is also empathy and compassion and suffering at the thought of others suffering. Sometimes it is also vicarious trauma. (Here is a helpful article about how to ease vicarious trauma if you are feeling that.)

If you are not feeling up to writing, you probably need to do something to take care of yourself.

I know there’s a lot of talk these days about self-care, but it really is important. You can’t get to work unless you take care of yourself first. So do what you need to do to get yourself right. Take a walk. Meditate. Take a bath. Bake a cake. Find solace in poetry. Do something to help if that makes you feel better. Whatever you need to do to get yourself in a mindset that is grounded and safe. Here is a huge list of ideas for different ways to take care of yourself. Pick one and help yourself feel better.

You need to take care of yourself so that you can do the necessary work. 

Step 3: Change your plans.

I was going to create a post today about candles for creativity, but that seemed ridiculous right now given what’s happening in the world. I am a planner. Every quarter, I make detailed writing plans and I have goals, dammit! But working on that blog post didn’t feel right. 

Then there was the part of me that wanted to just have some wine and watch MasterChef and try to tune it all out. 

Instead, I am here writing through tears.

It’s not easy. It’s not easy to keep going. There’s suffering and frustration and heartache and sadness and anger and injustice and all of it might be rattling around in your chest, in your brain, in your gut. So maybe writing that meet cute you had planned is simply not going to happen today. 

Maybe you need to change your plan. How can you move forward given the emotions you have? Maybe it’s just journaling. Maybe you just need to get your own feelings out so you can get back to your project. Maybe you can channel those feelings into another scene, or another project all together. Or maybe you need to write about what’s happening around you in the best way you can. Give yourself the grace to let go of whatever you had planned to be working on and allow yourself to respond to what you need. That is what the world needs.

Step 4: Channel your feelings.

This brings us to a related step. Change your plans so that you can channel your feelings. Find a way to make something beautiful out of what you are feeling. That is your superpower as a writer, to take conflict and uncomfortable feelings and to make them into something exquisite. There are several ways to do this.

  1. Journal. You might just journal to get your feelings out. This can actually be really helpful in getting yourself to a good place. Maybe it doesn’t feel important to journal, but most writers begin writing because it offers us some kind of relief. If you can get your fears and rage out on the page, they are no longer taking up space in your head. These prompts might help if you need a place to start.
  2. Write the situation. Maybe you can’t move forward on what you had planned to work on today, but that doesn’t mean you can’t create something. Let yourself write an unexpected poem. Document the chaos from your perspective. Write a letter to someone about what’s happening. Sometimes the most important writing is not planned, sometimes it’s what wells up from within when the unexpected knocks us down. Allow yourself to let those unexpected feelings well up. It could be the most important writing you ever do.
  3. Find the connections. Another way to channel your feelings but also move forward in your work is to find the connections between what you are feeling and the project you had planned to work on. Maybe this is the day you write that heart-wrenching scene. Maybe the wrench you throw your character is a pandemic, a forest fire, a war across the globe that somehow touches her life. Maybe you channel your anger into dialogue with the villain. Think of the butterfly effect. Everything is touched by even small actions across the globe. There are definitely connections between what you are working on and world events.

Find something that makes sense for you. How can you create something useful, something beautiful? How can you give a gift to the world formed from the chaos?

Step 5: Write.

And then, you have to get to work. Like Toni Morrison said, there’s no time for self-pity, no room for fear. There’s no more important time to be writing than now. By all means, remember your why and take care of yourself and channel your feelings and change your plans. But then, write. 

Do not let yourself give in to the feeling that you are powerless or that there is nothing you can do. Do not let them fool you into thinking that creating art is not important. 

As John F. Kennedy said, “Strength takes many forms, and the most obvious forms are not always the most significant… When power leads man towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. For art establishes the basic human truth which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment.”

Whatever you do, you need to sit down and write. That is how civilizations heal.

If you need help getting started, you might think about creating a writing ritual to lower the threshold for beginning. Or you might try a prompt to get the words flowing.

And if you still can’t write, go back to step one. Think again about why it matters and take care of yourself. Give yourself some grace. The words will come.

The Definitive Guide to Writing Rituals

Jaclyn15 Comments

What is a writing ritual and what are the benefits? How do you create a writing ritual that boosts your creativity or your productivity? How do you find that special set of actions that will inspire you and help you beat writer’s block? This post is a deep dive into the idea of writing rituals: what they are good for, how to create your own, some examples of writing rituals to try, and how to choose the best ritual for you.

writing rituals: the definitive guide

Writing Rituals

I don’t know about you friends, but sometimes it can be hard to get in the mood. 

Get your mind out of the gutter. I’m talking about writing. 

It can be difficult with so many of life’s distractions to find the time and the space to write. There’s dishes and the post office and three-year-olds trying to show you what they made. There’s Facebook and Netflix and nature just outside beckoning you to take a walk. How do you find the room in your day to write? The answer is you don’t. You don’t find room. You make the room. 

You hear this advice all over the writing world. When I first heard it, I thought it was harsh. It seemed to imply that I needed to cut other things out of my life so that I could write. Spend less time with the kids. Sleep less. Don’t do anything for fun. Just sit at the keyboard and bleed, was what I heard every time someone lectured me about making the time and space to write.

But I am realizing I have been thinking about it all wrong. Making the time to write doesn’t have to be so harsh. What if making the time to write just means creating a special time, a special place where you can really just focus on your creativity? A special experience outside our mundane expectations where you can let yourself get lost in the words. You make the time and the space to write by creating a ritual around it. 

There is a long tradition of writers needing rituals. We’ve all heard the stories of idiosyncratic writing rituals of famous writers. Fredrich Schiller reportedly needed the smell of rotting apples to write. Colette would pick fleas from her bulldog until the muse arrived. Dan Brown hangs upside down and Victor Hugo could only write nude. Creativity requires a bit of magic, a bit of being outside of ourselves and being open to a wider, larger perspective. So how do we become more creative? More productive? How do we beat writer’s block and connect with our muse? We create the right conditions.

What is a writing ritual?

A writing ritual is a particular set of actions that you do over and over again in order to better your writing. It’s something that you do time and again to make the sacred space for creation. A signal that you are leaving all your worries and cares about the mundane behind and giving this time over to connection and grounding in your practice. It doesn’t have to be magical or woo-woo. It just has to be something that works for you. That special sauce of things you know you can do that will help you get in the mood.

Why do a writing ritual?

What are the benefits of creating a daily writing ritual that works for you? There are actually quite a few. You can think of it on a magical level, as if you are calling your muse, or you can think of it as something scientifically proven to help you get into the flow. Either way, there are clear benefits to having intention in the actions and atmosphere around your writing. Here are some reasons to create a ritual to help your writing process:

  1. Creates a separate space and time that’s devoted to writing. Creating a writing ritual allows you to transform yourself or your space into something special where you can let go of other distractions and concentrate more fully.
  2. Primes your brain for writing. The little things we do can send signals to your brain that it is time to write, and therefore help you begin sooner. As Stephen King puts it, “The cumulative purpose of doing these things the same way every day seems to be a way of saying to the mind, you’re going to be dreaming soon.”
  3. Lowers the bar to get started. Psychologically, creating a writing ritual helps you lower the bar to start. It’s easier to light a candle than it is to write the first line of your novel. But all you have to do is take that one first step, and then the next step and the next. Creating a writing ritual allows you to control that first step, perhaps even the first few steps, to make them small enough that you never have an excuse not to start.
  4. Allows you to connect more to the process and the muse. There is quite a bit of talk of pre-writing rituals—about what to do to get started. But I think it is equally important to take stock of our actions while we are writing. Creating a ritual around your writing can help you stay more in the present moment and broaden your senses to things you don’t ordinarily stop to pay attention to.
  5. Increases motivation by creating time to take stock. In the same way that your actions before and during writing are important, so are the actions you take right after you finish. How do you leave your writing or story in such a way that you are eager to come back to it?

Parts of a Writing Ritual

Part 1. Separation: Setting the tone

To start your ritual, you want to set the tone and mark it as a special time and place. This should be an action that helps lower the bar to starting, something that is easy for you to do and tells your brain “Ok, it’s time to write!” Here are three ways that you might begin to prepare yourself to write and separate yourself from your daily distractions.

  1. Open and welcome. This is a chance for you to light the spark. Choose one small thing to be your opening signal, the signal to yourself and your muse (or perhaps your family) that the sacred time has begun. It’s good if this first step takes very little time, in fact, just a moment is best. Think of this as the moment that everything begins. Here are some ways to begin marking the moment: Ring a bell. Dim the lights. Light a candle. Say a special phrase that inspires you. Maybe your way of opening and welcoming is to gather with a group. Join a Discord group or plan to sit down and work with a friend. Community can be a powerful motivator.
  2. Transform yourself. You can transform your state of mind, by meditating, taking a walk, going outside, doing yoga, having coffee, etc. What puts you in the right mindset? Or you can transform your outer appearance. Maybe you throw on your most comfy sweater to settle in, or your most sassy lipstick. It could be as simple as taking a shower, or saying a prayer. Or it could be as ornate as getting all dressed into your “author” costume. Say affirmations to get yourself in the right mindset. Maybe you even free write for a few minutes. Get all those other pesky ideas out of your head so you can concentrate on the creativity in front of you. Have a glass of wine, even. Whatever you need to do to get yourself in the right frame of mind to write.
  3. Create a sacred space. What could you do to make the space special, to make it different than your living room or kitchen table? Or the place where you do your schoolwork? Sometimes it only takes a very small thing to transport you to a sacred space. Lay out a cloth. Put on white noise or ambient sound. Change the way the space smells with essential oils or candle melts.

Part 2. Liminal Space: Doing the Work

You’ve welcomed the muse. You primed your pavlovian writer-dog. You’ve set the stage for writing. It’s time to do the work of the ritual. Make it happen! The universe is supporting you. All the conditions are right. Then make it so. This is the part where you write! You have transformed your space to make it sacred, made yourself sacred. Now manifest it. Get writing!

  1. Set intentions. What are you going to make manifest while you are writing? Is your intention just to write the most authentic piece you can? The most beautiful? Maybe you want to finish the next chapter, or write a certain number of words. Maybe you are editing, and your intention is to transfigure the rough draft you have into something beautiful. Maybe your intention is to spend some time looking within, or to connect with someone or some truth. What’s your purpose for this session? Write it down. Say it out loud. Keep it in mind. Hold it close.
  2. Be mindful of your time and your actions. Set a goal—an amount of time, an amount of words, finishing a chapter. You might do writing sprints, taking mindful breaks. Or write until you reach your daily goal. You might set a meditation bell timer to ring every fifteen minutes to remind you to stay on track. How can you keep yourself focused on the work at hand?
  3. Engage your senses. Play music that inspires you. Light incense. Lay out crystals that help empower you. Use your favorite pen. Pour a cup of your favorite tea. This is about keeping yourself in the experience. The more you engage your senses, the more present you will be in the moment, and that’s exactly how you get into that beautiful state of flow. 

Part 3. Reassimilation: Coming Back

Honestly, I think this is one of the most important parts, but also one of the most overlooked. You need some way to bring the power of what you’ve created and the sacred time and space you created back into your everyday life.

Though ritual creates a special space, the idea is that the work we do in the ritual continues to impact our daily lives. Maybe we leave the writing at the desk, but the growth we’ve experienced because we have created, the ways we have been changed by our characters, by the worlds we build, the lessons we force our characters to learn because we also have to learn them ourselves: these are the things we need to bring back with us as we re-enter the world of laundry, mac and cheese, and finally cleaning the oven.

This makes the symbolic return to the world pivotal  part of the ritual. This is the step that carries us through until the next time we get to visit the sacred space. Here are some ways you might honor that closing time.

  1. Give thanks. Once you’ve done the work, it’s important to recognize what has transpired and to give thanks for it. Find ways to be grateful for the work you’ve done. Wherever you think your creativity comes from, any beauty that we can create is a gift, and sometimes all we need is to recognize that we are creating and give thanks for that. Find your favorite line and share it with someone. Thank yourself, or your muse, or the universe or your creator or whatever source you feel your inspiration comes from. 
  2. Recognize your progress. Sometimes progress with writing can be slow. It can help keep the motivation up to celebrate every win, to recognize that every word you wrote was a step in the direction of your dreams, or of your work getting out in the world. You might keep a short journal of how you felt each day. Or back up your draft and make it so! Check your goals from this writing session off your list. You might even give yourself a reward of chocolate or stickers.
  3. Plan to be back. Blow out the candles and promise to return. Set a goal or intention for the next session. Do one very small thing to let the universe (And yourself!) know that you are finished, but only for now. 

How to Create a Writing Ritual

I am not suggesting that you do all of these things every time you write, of course. Some of these will work for you and some will be a waste of time. Think of this list as a menu. Choose one bit from each “course” to try. 

See how the music affects you. See if you are drawn to certain smells. And then choose the ones that seem to make an impact on you and the way you feel about your writing. 

It’s important to make sure that your writing ritual supports your writing and does not take away from it. The elements of the ritual shouldn’t take so long that it eats into your writing time. You want these to be things that support your writing, not procrastination, and it’s important to keep that in mind. 

The point is not for it to be something stereotypically “magical.” It just needs to be transformative to you. You are creating this experience for yourself. You are conjuring this other world and these other people in your writing. You are creating the magic. What makes sense to you?

Daily Writing Ritual Examples

This post is all about creating the perfect combination of actions to get you in touch with your creativity as quickly as possible. My advice is to choose one from each of the above parts of a ritual that feels like it speaks to you and give it a try. That being said, here are a few examples of writing rituals that might help spark your creativity or give you more focus:

  1. Light a candle. Do pomodoro sprints for a preset amount of time. Track your progress and thank your muse and/or yourself for showing up. 
  2. Put on your favorite writing outfit or article of clothing. Set your goals for this writing session. When you’re finished, read through what you have written and choose your best line. Express gratitude for that line.
  3. Lay out a cloth. Play some music that inspires you while you write. Set an intention for the next writing session, committing to show up for yourself. 

How to Choose a Writing Ritual

Here is the thing about us writers: none of us is quite the same, which is why we all have something peculiar to say. This also means that finding yourself as a writer is in large part a journey of finding your process. 

Writers give all kinds of advice: You must write every day. You must write by hand. You must write first thing in the morning. You must write drunk and edit sober. I call bullshit on this kind of advice. Some of us are binge writers, and write best one day a month. Some of us have overzealous inner editors when we are too loud when we’re by hand. And I, for one, felt like I never wanted to write at all when I tried writing first thing in the morning.

Your writing ritual is going to be the same. You have to find what works for you. This may sound counterintuitive, but I think we should treat our creativity, our inspiration, our magic, and our connections to our muses like science. Try different things. See what works. Record how you feel, or how much comes out. 

So here is my advice: try anything that speaks to you and record how it affects your work. Maybe you want to put on your sassy writing lipstick before each writing session for a week. Record how it goes. Then try a ritual with lighting a candle and some music. How does that go? Use what works for you. But in order to find out what works for you, you have to do some trial and error, so definitely find some way to keep track.

So much focus on craft (both the craft of writing and the craft of magic) is about doing things the “right way” and places value on what’s received. But connection with the past isn’t the only reason to do a ritual. People pass on this kind of wisdom because they find it works for them. Try things that have worked for others, but also try things that feel right to you. 

You know what resonates with you. Are you a person inspired by goal-setting and planning? Choose a ritual that speaks to that. Do you know that you respond to sensory experiences? Maybe a candle and music is right for you. The best person to craft a ritual for you is yourself.

Remember, Edith Sitwell used to lie in a coffin to get ready to write, so you do you. 

Do you already have a writing ritual? What other things help you reach that state of flow? What do you do to inspire your creativity?

Introducing: Marrow Magazine

Jaclyn3 Comments

Dark. Wild. Feminine.

Marrow Magazine is a literary magazine committed to publishing work that explores dark spaces. Send us your monstrous tales, your experiments in darkness, your crepuscular darlings poking their heads out from beneath rocks.

We like it weird!

We publish speculative fiction and nonfiction, magical realism, dark fantasy, surrealism, fabulism, wild fairy tales, and experimental work. We accept poetry, fiction, non-fiction, hybrid, art, and multimedia pieces. Help us challenge the boundaries of what a literary journal can be. Plays, confessions, songs, rituals: as long as it is literary and strange.

We do not charge submissions fees.

We accept submissions year-round. Please allow up to three months for us to respond, as currently we are a three-woman team.

We publish digital issues quarterly, with one new piece releasing each week. Our official issues include all pieces published that quarter as well as extras like author interviews, reviews, and commentary.

If you’d like to submit in a genre, we accept fiction and nonfiction of up to 10,000 words or 3 poems at a time. If you prefer to submit genreless or hybrid work, you can let us know in your email; we can publish with or without classification.

To submit, please use the form below. Use whatever font you like as long as it’s legible, and please keep any personal details off of the submission so we can read it anonymously. Let us know if you’d like us to consider your submission with or without genre.

Please wait until you hear from us to submit again.

We do not consider previously published work, but simultaneous submissions are entirely welcome. Please let us know if your submission is simultaneous and let us know as soon as you can if it’s accepted elsewhere. If we do accept your work, we humbly ask that you withdraw it from consideration elsewhere.

All rights revert back to the writer upon publication.

Click here to submit.

28 Creative Writing Prompts to Celebrate Imbolc and Inspire Your February

Jaclyn3 Comments
creative writing prompts for imbolc

Can you feel it in the air? It’s the depths of winter, but there’s something stirring. Even as the snow is still coming down, the end of winter is in sight. Even here in Alaska, the birds have started singing. 

It’s Imbolc! Imbolc is the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, and it’s a great time to start new projects. In celebration of the day, I’ve created 28 creative writing prompts based on the sabbat. 

Imbolc is the first day of February, and in the year this post is written, it is also a new moon and the lunar new year. So, the number 28 is no accident. Try one writing prompt for each day of February, if you feel inspired. Or, you could think of it as one prompt for each day of this Snow/Storm Moon. A moon’s worth of writing prompts. Write your way out of winter, and start your lunar new year off right!

What is Imbolc?

Imbolc is a traditional Celtic holiday that falls halfway between Yule (winter solstice) and Ostara (spring equinox). It’s the day the tide changes in favor of spring. The world is waking up from the slumber of winter’s darkness. The sunlight is coming back in a way that’s actually noticeable and though the world is still covered in snow (at least here!), the earth is beginning to awaken with the light.  We are now closer to the balance of the equinox than we are to the drastic darkness of the solstice. It’s a time for hope and preparation.

It’s also celebrated as Candlemas, St. Brigid’s Day, or February’s Eve. Imbolc honors the goddess Brigid, especially in her roles as the goddess of the hearth, of fertility, and of creativity. It’s traditionally a fire festival, a time when baby lambs are on the way, and when there is the promise of spring and new life. 

Imbolc is, to me, one of the most underappreciated pagan holidays. One of the things I love about Imbolc is that it is really a time for a fresh new start. Imbolc is a recognition that you need a period of rest and readjustment after the busyness of the winter holidays. It’s hard to start fresh the day after New Year’s Eve, especially if you’ve been out celebrating. If you are already falling down on your New Year’s resolutions, never fear! Imbolc has your back. It’s time to start anew.

How to Celebrate Imbolc as a Writer

Imbolc is an especially powerful holiday for writers. Why? It’s Brigid’s day, and Brigid, in addition to being the goddess of hearth and home, is also the goddess of poetry. This means that anything we do to boost our words and our creativity will be supported. 

There are lots of ways to use the Imbolc energy to move your writing forward. It’s a great time to start a new project, to daydream and to plan. It’s the original spring cleaning. Here are some ways that writers can observe Imbolc to support their writing practice:

  1. Spring Clean your Writing Space. Out with the old, in with the new inspirational space. Imbolc is a great time to declutter, rearrange, and create a space that will inspire a new year of writing.
  2. Start a new habit. It’s a great time to start something small and daily that could have a big effect in the long term. Read a poem a day, start a new writing habit, start a new hobby, pick something new to learn about, journal, or pull a tarot card each evening. Find something small and manageable that will help support your writing. 
  3. Set some new writing goals, or spend time daydreaming about your vision. It’s time to focus on the new year and this fresh start. Now that the hustle and bustle of the depths of winter is over and we can finally see the light again, it’s a useful time to make a new vision board, or create goals for the new year.
  4. Create a new writing ritual. Especially if you (like me) are the kind of person who has trouble getting in the mood for writing, a little ritual to start you off could be just the thing to connect you with your muse. Put on some music, light a candle or some incense, do a meditation, wear your sassiest lipstick or cozy up in the sweater that makes you feel like your best self. This is the time to think about how the small actions you take can be seeds that grow into a new way of being. 
  5. Spend some time writing outside. It’s not always easy to get outside this time of year, but Imbolc is a great reminder that it still does the soul good to be out in the trees and under the sky. 
  6. Try something new. Imbolc is a time of new beginnings, and sometimes the most refreshing thing you can do for your writing is just to try something new and get out of the same-old-same-old rut. You could do this with your writing (take a playful stab at a new genre, or a new voice), but I also think trying any kind of new thing can revitalize our writing. Go ice skating, go to a new park, or try a new activity. Anything that can give you a fresh perspective also helps make you a better writer.
  7. Start a new project. See below for prompts to help with this one! 

Creative Writing Prompts for Imbolc

  1. Celebrate Brigid with some poetry. Use the Poetry Foundation to find one line of poetry that really speaks to you, and start there. You could create a poem, a story, or even nonfiction. Use the line of poetry that spoke to you as the starting point for your own writing.
  2. Write about something waiting to be born. 
  3. Write about someone who meets the goddess Brigid.
  4. Go outside and see it with new eyes, and ears, and… Use synthesia to describe what you see. What do the colors taste like? How does the sky smell? Bring us there by mixing all your senses and letting your metaphors run wild. 
  5. Write a story about a character who finds something magical while cleaning out their home. 
  6. Use this Image, from Tiffany Laura Danyelle on Unsplash.
  1. “The world has been still. But something has started to stir underground…”
  2. Write about what happens when the snow starts to melt. 
  3. Check out the Ace of Wands tarot card. This is the card of new growth and emerging to a new state of being. Use this card as the jumping off point for your writing. 
  4. What happens when St. Brigid and the Goddess Brigid meet?
  5. The nuns of Kildare, the monastery founded by St. Brigid, were tasked with keeping an eternal flame. Write about keeping a flame alive. 
  6. It was rumored that if a man crossed the hedge of the Church of Kildare, he would be cursed or be driven insane. Write a story about a man who crosses the hedge and goes insane.
  7. Clean it out! Do an erasure poem of the wikipedia page of Imbolc. (Or another related page of your choosing).
  8. Use this image from Foundry Co on Pixabay.
  1. Write about making a bed that never gets slept in. 
  2. Write about a girl made of reeds who comes to life.
  3. Do a meditation. (You can find Imbolc-specific meditations here.) Jot down the images that come up and create your work from there.
  4. “It’s time to burn it all down. She lit the match…”
  5. Write a story that begins with an initiation. 
  6. Find three things that need to be cleared out of your house. Use those three things to describe growth, without using the word growth.
  7. “When I looked into the water of the well, it was not myself looking back at me…” 
  8. Write about something that has died within you, thank it and lay it to rest.
  9. Winter is ending, and this means new beginnings are on the horizon. Write a story that begins with an ending. 
  10. Write about something unexpected “in the belly.”
  11. “The serpent awakens…”
  12. Write a story that takes place at the exact moment between seasons.
  13. Write about starting a small new habit that changes the character’s life (or yours!).
  14. Use this image, from Annie Spratt on Unsplash.

As always, if any of these prompts inspire you, I would love to read what you create. Drop a link below or send me a message. Truly, nothing makes my heart happier than helping people create, and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate this special time of year than to write new possibilities into being. 

Enjoy!

For more writing prompts, click here.

Top Blog Posts of 2021

Jaclyn2 Comments

It can be so important to reflect every now and then. I am taking a moment to look back on the top Lightning Droplets blog posts of 2021. These are the posts that were most popular last year. Maybe you will find them useful as well?

Enjoy!

Most Popular Blog Posts of 2021

  1. Planning and Goal Setting for Writers: A blog post that takes a look at Sarra Canon’s HB90 Planning Method, which is designed especially for writers but can work for any kind of creative entrepreneur. The method walks you through the process of visualizing your ideal life, outlining specific goals, and making a plan to see them through each quarter. This way of planning has been a game changer for me!
  2. Dangerous Plants: A Writing Prompt for Character Development: A unique writing prompt paired with craft advice about developing characters. It includes instructions for the prompt, the three most important to ask any character, and an explanation of why this prompt works. If you do this prompt, definitely share it with me. I would love to see what you come up with. This was my personal favorite blog post to write in 2021. I would love to create more posts like this, so if you like it, let me know!
  3. Seen Like the Sea: A poem for my daughter’s third birthday. This was the only bit of poetry that I shared this year, and it was a hit. If you’re a parent or love the ocean, check this poem out. You might like it!
  4. Writing Roulette: Plot Generators to Spice up Your Literary Life: This is one of the oldest prompts I posted (2014!), and it’s still a favorite. A round-up of several online plot generators to get your creative juices flowing. Sometimes inspiration out of nowhere can really get the juices flowing in new directions. Also, you can see my own response to this prompt here.
  5. How to Design a Writing Life: This blog post looks at Publish and Thrive, a course by Heart Breathings that is designed to give indie writers all the info they need to launch their career, or develop their skills even further. It is a five-week course that encompasses the process of developing your ideas into publishable books, marketing those books, and building a writing life that will bring more than money (but also money!). This course really changed the way I think about my writing and the possibilities of a writing life.
  6. What Counts?: NaNoWriMo Days 16-18: A possibly-controversial blog post about how to decide what to include in your word counts for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I did a whole series of blog posts for NaNoWriMo this year and this one was the most popular.
  7. Falling off the Horse, A Haiku for NaNoWriMo Days 9-12: An ode to all those who are trying to grab the reins of their goals and still sometimes fall behind.
  8. 20,000 Word Reward: A blog post about the importance of celebrating your wins, even when you are behind, and about appreciating and loving your cheerleaders. All progress on that novel is something to celebrate. Don’t forget that!
  9. Novel Excerpt from the WIP: A small snippet of The Snow Witch, my current work in progress. It’s a surreal scene in which the main character falls into a tree well. Did you that’s something that’s possible? I love the places novel research can take you.
  10. It’s November!: NaNoWriMo Day 1: Another post from the NaNoWriMo series. An announcement about my intention to blog every day during November, which I turned out to be a very inspiring goal. This post got lots of love, which ultimately inspired me to keep going later in the month. I so appreciated that.

Looking back, you do really learn a lot just looking at what readers responded to most over the course of the year. I know January 2022 is mostly over already, but the Mercury Retrograde has been calling me to look back and reflect, and sometimes, that’s the most useful way to move forward.

Thank you for reading!

How to Win NaNoWriMo: My 2021 Journey

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I am stoked to say that I won NaNoWriMo, for the second year in a row! Woohoo!

Here is how the whole month went, start to finish.

It’s November: NaNoWriMo Day 1

There Must Be Fifty Ways to Track Your Word Count: NaNoWriMo Day 2

How to Set Daily Word Count Goals: NaNoWriMo Day 3

Why Do NaNoWriMo? NaNoWriMo Day 4

Rest and Double Down: NaNoWriMo Day 5

Novel Excerpt from the WIP: NaNoWriMo Day 6

Week 1 Review: NaNoWriMo Day 7

10,000 Word Reward: NaNoWriMo Day 8

Falling off the Horse, A Haiku for NaNoWriMo Days 9-12

Novel Excerpt from the WIP: NaNoWriMo Day 13

Week 2 Review: NaNoWriMo Day 14

What I Have Learned Halfway Through: NaNoWriMo Day 15

What counts?: NaNoWriMo Days 16-18

20,000 Word Reward: NaNoWriMo Day 19

Saturday Snippet: NaNoWriMo Day 20

Week 3 Review: NaNoWriMo Day 21

Writers in Relationships: NaNoWriMo with your SO Days 22-25

30,000 Word Reward: NaNoWriMo Day 26

Saturday Snippet: NaNoWriMo Day 27

Week 4 Review: NaNoWriMo Day 28

40,000 Word Reward: NaNoWriMo Day 29

Final Results: NaNoWriMo Day 30

Final Results: NaNoWriMo Day 30

Jaclyn3 Comments

I won NaNoWriMo!

At 11:00pm on November 30, 2021, I snuck in my last words just as the deadline was nearing. Now, I did not finish this novel. I still have a few chapters left. But I did write 50,041 words in the month of November, which is huge for me!

Last year was the first year I won NaNo, after trying it for several years without success. But, last year I wrote almost all the words in the last few days.

Check out this crazy graph from 2020.

One of my goals for this NaNoWriMo was to be more consistent. To be honest, I felt like I had failed, because on November 29th, I was still 10,000 words from reaching my goal, and my graph was very up and down. I was frustrated that I didn’t sit down to write every day, and generally not feeling great about how it went, even though I knew I could make it to the 50,000 goal.

2021 Stats

But actually, if you compare the two graphs, I was way more consistent this year than I was last year. So, definitely progress!

How did it go for you all?

Here are the stats for the last day

Progress:

Day 30 Word Count: 9761

Total Word Count: 50041

Where I Planned to Be: 50000

1667 words per day: 50000

Week 4 Review: NaNoWriMo Day 28

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Week 4 Review: NaNoWriMo Day 28

A review of how things went this last full week of NaNoWriMo.

Word Count Goal Per Writing Day: 2000

Actual Average Word Count Per Writing Day: 3698

Planned Writing Days: 5

Actual Writing Days: 4

Day 22 Word Count: 0

Day 23 Word Count: 0

Day 24 Word Count: 0

Day 25 Word Count: 0

Day 26 Word Count: 5302

Day 27 Word Count: 5008

Day 28 Word Count: 783

Planned Words This Week: 10000

Actual Words This Week: 11093

Planned Words So Far: 46000

Actual Words So Far: 39103

A great week for big word counts per writing day. Not so great for consistency. I am definitely down by not out. There are two days left and I know I can do it! 

30,000 Word Reward: NaNoWriMo Day 26

Jaclyn1 Comment

30,000 Word Reward: NaNoWriMo Day 26

So, if you do the math, I am behind. By Day 26 of NaNoWriMo, according to the official NaNo site, one should have 43,342 words. I am just now reaching 30,000.  But 30,000 words in one month is something to celebrate, and I am being grateful to myself that I am getting words on the page, that this novel is moving ahead, and chanting “Progress, not perfection” to myself every step of the way.

I know I can be an overachiever and that I can be really hard on myself, so I am finding these “even if you are behind” rewards an excellent way to remind myself that moving forward is a win, even if I am not moving forward as quickly as I expected. 

Again, I sent the family to the store to pick the plants for me, because last time, it really made me happy to feel supported with the small surprises they brought home. It has the added benefit of making sure that everyone likes the plants that are decorating our house. 

Here is my 30,000 word reward:

It’s a galaxy false aralia. 

And, it totally motivated me. I got over 5,000 words today! This is by far the best day I’ve had so far in terms of words on the page. 

I love that these plants are congregating, creating a little forest that is reminding me that the novel is coming along and that I am showing up. 

I have a lot of showing up to do to catch up at this point, but I am determined! 

Are you still in it? Are you progressing? Any advice about keeping yourself on track?

Here are today’s stats!

Progress:

Day 26 Word Count: 5302

Total Word Count: 33321

Where I Planned to Be: 42000

1667 words per day: 43342

Week 3 Review: NaNoWriMo Day 21

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Another weekly NaNoWriMo check-in!

Word Count Goal Per Writing Day: 2000

Actual Average Word Count Per Writing Day: 2918

Planned Writing Days: 6

Planned Writing Days: 4

Day 15 Word Count: 0

Day 16 Word Count: 0

Day 17 Word Count: 719

Day 18 Word Count: 3005

Day 19 Word Count: 0

Day 20 Word Count: 3896

Day 21 Word Count: 4050

Planned Words This Week: 12000

Actual Words This Week: 11670

Planned Words So Far: 36000

Actual Words So Far: 28010

I was so close to my word goal this week! 

Again, I wrote less days than I intended. Maybe 4 days a week is my process? But, I also had much bigger word counts per day than I planned. They were not enough to catch me up, but they are definitely moving me closer. 

How did Week 3 go for you?