January | 2013 | VIVIAN KIRKFIELD – Writer for Children

Do you want to stretch your creative writing ability?

Here’s another fun challenge, this one offered by children’s author Susanna Leonard Hill.

Short and Sweets is a great way to get your mind thinking outside the box!

This week’s prompt, called “Saying It Without Saying It”, invites you to describe a childhood event or common childhood occurrence…such as a Birthday Party or a Camping Trip. The trick is not to use certain words that are often associated with that particular event or feeling.

If you’d like to take part, click on this link: http://susannahill.blogspot.com/2013/01/monday-short-and-sweet-saying-it.html

Here is my entry:

We hold hands…the long windowless hallway seems to go on forever.

“You’re squeezing my fingers!” I try to loosen my grip. “Sorry.”

A cloud covers the faint sliver of the moon as we enter our room and feel our way to the beds. My sister dives into hers…blankets rustle as she covers her head.

At the edge of my bed, I hesitate. “Can I sleep with you?”

“Do you have to?” comes the muffled reply.

“Please!!!”

A sudden rush of air tells me she has flung back the covers. “Alright…but stay on the edge and don’t move around!”

Arms outstretched, I shuffle over to her bed and crawl in silently…warm…safe…waiting for morning to come.

Can you guess what I am describing? Hop over to Susanna’s Short and Sweet post…I’m sure you will know which of the 15 choices I picked.

I hope 2013 has started well for you…I feel like I am digging my way out of a mountain of emails and unread blogs after having been virtually (no pun intended) computer-less for almost two weeks. Visiting with my kids was a fantastic way to start the year…I’ll share some photos in another post.

9 Outstanding Apps to Teach Creative Writing (educatorstechnology.com)
Susanna Leonard Hill: Welcome To Summer Short And Sweets!!! (onewaytowonder.wordpress.com)
Writing changed – perhaps even saved – my life (danasitar.com)
Creative writer fulfills acting dream (fijitimes.com)
Creating Your Own Settings in Creative Writing (tomlaing.wordpress.com)

Jake at Time after Time has a Sunday Post Challenge and every week he provides a theme…the past week’s theme was GOALS.

Did you set goals for 2013?

I did! If you click here, you’ll see that many of them involve writing.

When Nancy at Spirit Lights the Way issued a “Writer’s Desk” challenge, I knew I had to participate.

Nancy says:

“ Write a short essay or poem (between 33 and 100 words) about your writing desk, your writing rituals, why you write, how you write, how you stop writing, or . . . surprise us with a tantalizing tidbit about your writing life.”

For all of the rules, please click on this link. There is still time to join the fun…deadline is January 25.

I used to have a room that doubled as both an office for me and a guest room…it looked something like this:

Then, my husband retired and discovered the world of watercolor painting. I gave him that room to use as his studio and now it looks like this:

So I do most of my writing at the dining room table…and for me, fortunately, writing has very little to do with location, location, location and very much to do with motivation, inspiration and perspiration.