IWSG: Ideas for When You're Stuck

I have the amazing privilege of co-hosting this month's IWSG along with CD Coffelt, Isis Rushdan, and Michelle Wallace!

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Today I'd like to offer some ideas for when you're feeling stuck, out of ideas, in a slump, and just plain discouraged. These have worked for me, and maybe they will for you, too. We all have different writing processes, but maybe at least one of these “tricks” will fit your style.

As writers, we've all probably heard the “just write” admonishment. I firmly believe in it. Writing is a solitary endeavor, and it takes discipline. It takes constant practice. It takes doing it even when you just don't wanna. But how do you "just write" when it ain't flowing?

I just open up a word document and start typing. Literally. Anything that pops into my head. I jot down what I'm thinking, what I'm worried about, what I did the day before, and most of the time, something clicks and I have an idea for a post, and I'm off.

My recent post "The Fog Stole My Feet" happened that way. I was sitting there, idea-less, and I wrote, "We had weird fog this morning", and that led to Carl Sandberg's line “the fog comes on little cat feet”, which I'd memorized in high school, and I realized that I couldn't even see my feet, so off I went.

On the days that a post doesn't come to me with this method, I turn back the clock. I start typing out childhood memories, identifying them by a phrase, and most of the time something will spark and I'll write a post about young Tina and her weird antics, or accidents, or invented games.

When I'm really stuck I read. I have the luxury of a Kindle, a LOT of writer friends, and an impossibly long to-be-read list. I usually have three books going at a time, and I'll “pick one of them up” and read a few pages. Sometimes what I read makes a light-bulb go off and I have a post idea. If that doesn't work, at least I'm procrastinating in a useful way ;-)

Some days, a post just doesn't come with any of these methods, so I turn to my kids. “What should I write about today?” They usually offer some pretty weird ideas, and sometimes nothing useful, but again, a spark can come from that. However, a lot of their suggestions are about embarrassing incidents, and so that's where my series of unfortunate event posts have come from: desperation and the encouragement of my teens.

Being stuck for a post is different from being stuck in your WIP, though, but I'll save those suggestions for next month. I hope at least one of these ideas might help you next time you need a little boost for your blog.

~Tina

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Alex “Ninja Captain” Cavanaugh  is our leader for this wonderful, supportive group. Don't forget we even have our own website now.  Be sure to check it out if you haven't already, and "like" our facebook page, too. I'm so impressed with what these talented folks are doing to promote this group! Encouragement month long is now just a click away! 

Want to Make a Difference? The Holiday Food Drive Blogfest

M.J Joachim's generous, giving spirit has led her to a really creative idea for a blogfest. I'm excited that she's invited me to co-host The Holiday Food Drive Blogfest.

The idea behind this blogfest is to give back to the community during this season - to help those less fortunate. Whether the holidays fill you with cheer or dread, helping others is always a good idea.

Our food banks are extremely low on food this season, especially with the recent government shutdown. Many of them helped feed the military and other government workers who were furloughed and left without pay during this time. Our hope is that this bloghop will, in some small way, help put food back on the shelves and feed all those in need during the holidays this year.  Here in Colorado the food banks are even more depleted from the horrible floods we had in September.



The Holiday Food Drive Blogfest is a simple one. Here are the basics:

1. Sign up on the linky and mark your calendars.
   
   
2. Put up your post anytime between November 18 and 20^th.
   
   
3. Write about a local food bank or organization that helps feed the poor in your area. Share as much detail as you can to help promote their cause.
   
   
4. Then give some of your time and/or treasure to help support their cause. Honor system applies. Feel free to share your activity in your blog post – not to brag, or say look what I've done, I'm such a great person, but to encourage others and give them ideas of what they could do to help others.
   
   
5. Show the blogfest badge (generously created and donated by our favorite digital artist, the amazing Jeremy of Being Retro.  Please link back to this informational post at either of our sites when you put the badge up. (If you need help doing this, just email me and I'll walk you through it.)
   
   
6. Please help us advertise this blogfest, even if you're not participating. Tweet, facebook, mention it at the end of a post, whatever works for you we could use the publicity for this great cause.
   
   
7. Follow your hosts’ blogs, if you are not already doing so, that way you won't miss any important info about this important community event.  Blogland is a community in itself - let's show the world what we can do to help our hometown communities.
   
   ~Tina
   

The Fog Stole My Feet

Oh October, how you beguile me. One moment it's radiant light, dancing lady trees, quivering aspen, and scarlet burning bushes. Then the next day you shroud yourself, hiding all but the tiniest glimpse of your splendor.

The fog slithered along the ground, my feet disappearing as if underwater. The soggy, snow covered leaves assured me I was still on terra firma, yet looking down, I was footless, as if walking in water. Thick, goey clam chowder water.

I couldn't see across the street, only the faint glow of the still-lit street light. As I waded through the bright yellow carpet of fallen leaves, a few would pop out of the fog and twirl in front of me. I know where the stairs are, so I was safe, but it was surreal ascending them without seeing my feet.

I turned back to look at my house (the purpose of my venturing forth in the fog to begin with). I could see a tube from the aquaponic garden poking out of the fog towards me. Lumps that were cars. My faint street light. The closest branches of our autumn blaze maple, with a couple of lonely leaves.

Driving was even weirder. 15 mph was about the extent of visibility, but of course cars (without headlights) would come out of nowhere, as if they'd just exited some wormhole. I turned on my fog lights. (Swedish cars need fog lights...)

Pulling into the dreaded carline was bizarre. There was no school. I was in a line going nowhere, could only see one car in front of me, and we just crept along. Finally I could make out a flagpole, and the school appeared as I entered the circle, as if just deposited there by some kid done building a Lego set.

I inched my way home and wondered about the extreme contrast from the day before. It didn't escape me that I had only one day of my favorite month left – and I could see very little of it. It's as if October was saying, “Pay attention! Look closely! I'm still here, but not for long. Cherish the day.”

Today she's back in her full glory for one more showy day. I'm crunching through my dancing leaves again, marveling at the now blood red burning bushes around every corner, and wishing that time would stand still, just a little longer.

~Tina

Do You Believe in Miracles?

Or when something extraordinary happens, do you just chalk it up to beating the odds? (For those of you who argue with me about math's usefulness – here's another example ;-) Let me tell you what happened last week, and you tell me: miracle or odds.

For our 20^th wedding anniversary last year, The Engineer bought me a gorgeous, pink sapphire ring with diamond accents. OK, that's not entirely true. He PAID for the ring which I picked out.

Ever since he gave me a toaster oven for Christmas the first year we were dating, I've picked out my own gifts and said, “Here honey, look what you got me!” We joke about it. “How did you know that a this would be perfect? You're such a good shopper!” I've worn it everyday since.

Monday was no ordinary day. I was finally starting to feel human again, the boys were leaving for hunting on Wednesday, and I had to buy their groceries, and get all the clothes washed so they could pack.

I filled a cart over the brim at the grocery store. It was meticulously packed. The checker, as he was filling bag after bag, decided I needed two carts to get everything out to the car because he wasn't a good packer. I got everything inside the house. I put everything away, I packed the food for the trip. During this outing, I'd used every reusable cloth grocery bag I own.

As I was folding load of laundry number five, I needed lotion. As I was putting it on, I noticed, to my horror, that the stone was missing from my ring. I was despondent. What are the odds of finding something of that size after all that my hands had done in the last four hours? NOT VERY GOOD. Chances slim to none. It could be hiding literally anywhere in the house, a bag, the store, the parking lot...

I don't give up easily though, so I called the store and asked them to look out for it. I tore apart my bed, where I fold laundry. I started to think about where I might have dinged my hand and realized that shoving all the sandwich makings into the meat drawer might have put some pressure on my hand. I took the drawer all apart. No stone.

Next I decided that why not go through all the cloth grocery bags that I'd folded and put away after emptying them. I had to do something, and might as well do a complete-able task. Most have that rubbery bottom flap thingie to stabilize them. I took it out when possible, and ran my hands under the ones that were attached. I came to a bag with no bottom rubber thing, so I just shook it out.

“Tink, tink, tink.”

Something fell out of the bag. Pebble, probably. But I looked around on the wood floor, and there was my pink heart. INCONCEIVABLE! I was floored. I cried. I called the store back, and told the same nice lady in customer service that I'd found it. “That's completely amazing!” I agreed.

So you tell me, miracle, or just beating the (almost impossible) odds? I'm voting miracle.

Have you ever lost, and then found something precious that you were unlikely to ever see again? Do you believe in miracles? Do you buy your own gifts because you're married to such a great shopper like I am?

~Tina

In Case of Emergency...

It didn't used to be complicated. I've been using inhalers for a long time for asthma. Here, let me explain in a few simple steps.

This is an inhaler.

You push down on it and suck in the medicine.

Then they decided a lot of the medicine used to get stuck in my throat so they gave me a spacer.

This is a spacer.

It has a hole to put the “suck here” end of the inhaler into it.

And a new “suck here” place. 

Put inhaler in opening A, put lips around opening B, push button, suck in medicine.

However, now they have a new kind of inhaler, which I get to use because the old kind doesn't really work so well for me anymore.  You remember how medically "special" I am...

It looks like this. 

See anything resembling anything familiar from the other pictures? Me neither. Good thing I got instructions.

These take up, I kid you not, ¼ of my bed. See all the pictures? See how complicated it is? Now imagine you're having a breathing emergency. Do you have time to decipher all these directions? No. You do not. You want to suck up some medicine right away. NOW. 

You don't want to find slots A,B,C, and D. You don't want to figure out how to get the bottom half of the inhaler off to insert the cartridge.  Correctly.  Which they explain.  In detail.  You don't want to have to repeat steps 5, 6, 7 FOUR times. (These involve priming the inhaler by turning the bottom half until you hear a "distinct" click, then depressing the "activation button".)  I'm quoting directly from the brochure here. And get this. These steps need to be performed EACH time you want to use your “rescue inhaler.” 

I think it would be faster to call an ambulance, go to the hospital, wait to be seen in the ER, and get a nebulizer treatment. Oh well, I guess I'll have something to read next time I'm in carline.  I'd better memorize these instructions if I want to have any hope of being rescued in time...

~Tina

Best Thing I Ever Ate: Comfort Food

We were talking about comfort foods the other day when I was whining about being sick and trying to be comfortable. I mentioned soup, specifically New England clam chowder. I have lots of other comfort foods, and since I've been watching cooking (no surprise there...) a lot lately, I've gotten fixated on a show called, “The Best Thing I Ever Ate”. Celebrity chefs talk about their favorites in various categories, say “with chopsticks”, or “in a deli”, or “wish I'd thought of it”. I'm going to write some posts about my favorites in various categories, and pretend I'm on the show. Today is: comfort foods.

Nothing beats a dish we call Jenocide's Favorite. It's her childhood favorite (see nickname tab if you don't remember who she is) and she and her mother have made it for me when I've had babies, or surgeries, or just been sick. It warms my stomach and my heart.

It's a simple dish. Layer of mashed potatoes, layer of hamburger gravy, corn on top. It's super easy to make, and I can have dinner on the table in under ½ an hour. Or like today, breakfast in 2 microwave minutes!

Jenocide's Favorite (also known around here as Tina's Favorite)

½ onion, chopped

1 pound of hamburger

1 packet Betty Crocker Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

rosemary

lots of salt and pepper

Flour

water

Kitchen Bouquet Browning and Seasoning Sauce (the secret)

corn, either frozen or canned.

Chop onions and brown with hamburger, and seasonings -being generous with all the spices. Once hamburger is cooked, adjust seasonings. You will need a lot more salt than you think.

Toss in enough flour to coat meat, then add about a cup of water per pound of hamburger. (Now that I have large teenage boys, I make this with 2 pounds hamburger.) Let gravy come to a boil. Add a teaspoon or two, according to taste, of the Kitchen Bouquet. Keep adjusting seasonings.

Cook corn in microwave and mashed potatoes according to box directions while gravy is simmering.

Let people serve themselves in the proportions they prefer. If you've got OYT, then your left-overs will be short on mashed potatoes, as you can see in my bowl. That's OK, I don't do so well with lots of carbs.

It's just so deliciously simple, yet the flavor of rosemary comes through as a nice surprise, and the Kitchen Bouquet adds that “It's been on the stove all day” depth to it. Try it for dinner sometime soon. You'll be comforted.

~Tina

P.S So what's this Kitchen Bouquet thing? It's a little bottle found on the bottom shelf of the store, under the display of all the dry packs of seasoning mixes. 

You know, taco seasoning, brown gravy mix, fajita seasoning, chili seasoning. Those packets you dump in your food with all the MSG and flavor crystals and make it taste so yummy without you having to have a rack of spices like some folks do...

Being Charlie's Angels

(photo credit IMDB)

When I was in 5^th and 6^th grade my favorite TV shows were The Brady Bunch, Charlie's Angels, Fantasy Island, and Love Boat. I took the Charlie's Angels obsession pretty far, though. My friend "Diana" and I would get together for play dates and act out episodes of the show.

First of all, I can't believe my mother let me watch those Aaron Spelling shows. I remember her (or maybe it was the Swede) saying, “You watch, there will be a woman in a bikini, for no apparent reason, in the first ten minutes of the show.” Sure enough, there was. I don't suppose 11 year old girls were the demographic he was actually going for with that move, but we sure loved the show. Action, danger, spying, detective work, undercover secret missions, spy gadgets – it was awesome.

Diana was rather bossy (um, yes, there are people bossier than me) and would decide what mission we were on, record “Charlie” telling us our mission, and play it back on her tape recorder. We'd get our equipment ready – we had a lot of stuff, most of it homemade out of other things. 

 Blocks of wood, painted and with a pipe-cleaner antenna were our walkie-talkies. We had ID cards, carefully typed up and aligned on an old, manual typewriter.  My mom even let me use an expired credit card. I tried some security by taping over the number with masking tape and putting a new number there. I'm sure that would have stopped any nefarious use...We also had check books – old checks with the account number cut off. We had great fun "buying" stuff to outfit us for each assignment.  Accessories are always an important part of the mission!

Our purses were probably our best accomplishment. We each had several. Some were real purses bought with hard-earned money, but most of them we made ourselves. We had rudimentary sewing skills, so a draw string bag could be accomplished as could flat ones, like a clutch purse. We also made a lot of stuff out of cardboard and scotch tape.

We really got into character. I was Jill (Farrah Fawcett, I was blonde after all, and aspired to have her hair). Diana, who was of Indian descent was Kelly (Jaclyn Smith). Mom even let us put on make-up for the occasion. As you can see, we were quite stylish.

Here I'm playing with Swissie, and DataBoy got in the picture. Of course my eyes are closed so you can see my nifty blue eyeshadow...

This was an undercover assignment as cowgirls. We got to carry “guns”.  That's Diana on the left (and part of the other picture from my album.)

With only a few hours of TV allowed a week, we made the best use of what we saw and had hours of fun recreating the episodes, as accurately as possible. I'm glad Momarazzi documented it all so I can show you more embarrassing childhood photos...

What made up games did you play? Did you ever watch Charlie's Angels?

~Tina