Ten Things on a Tuesday
1. I had a nice writing day yesterday with crcook . Last week, we did an exercise that helped my WIP a ton. You'll get to see the results of our work when Colleen posts at kidlit_central next. (Which happens to be tomorrow, so go tokidlit_central tomorrow!)
2. I loved the Tina Fey interview in the new issue of O! magazine. Tina talks Gov. Palin, improv, writing. (There's also another article in there about luck being more of a state of mind than luck. Basically, you prepare yourself mentally for good things to happen. Extroverts seem to be better at finding "luck." They are out there, and social, and create more situations for "chance encounters" that create luck.)
3. My local friend, Jennifer Brown, who is a humor writer and children's author had a great post on her Facebook page about the pressure to be funny.
4. This made me think about that big-super-friend-locked post I did about Acting for Authors and how excited I was about this topic last summer.
5. Points 2, 3 and 4 above made me think it would be fun to have an Improv for Authors workshop--not so much to learn to act, but to learn to use improv as a tool for creativity and writing prompts. Improv games give me so many ideas! Honestly, I've never actually done improv, but watching my kids' acting classes do improv has sparked many a story idea.
6. Which made me think abou this improv game you can try at home. Play this game with your kids and their friends (or a friend's kid). Gather 10 random items from your house. Pretend you are aliens and you've just stumbled upon a time capsule containing these items. What do you see? Pick up an item and begin using it as the alien might. The item cannot be used for its original purpose. (A shoe might be a flower pot or a phone or an elevator button that blasts you into space.)
7. My critique group rocks. We met last night, and they had lots of great feedback on my manuscript. What great WIPS everyone has! I can't wait to see more of all their projects.
8. So much about motivation is just playing a mind game with yourself. Yesterday I ran--and you all know how much I hate running--by convincing myself that I could do it by running 3/4 around the track and walking 1/4. I tripled my normal number of laps this way. (Which is still nothing impressive, but I tricked myself into running longer...and that's a good thing!
9. I read four Twilight books in four days last week. Just like kellyrfineman , I lost weight! For me, it was another mind game--if Edward can have self control and not eat Bella, I can stay away from that pizza! I've lost six pounds the last two weeks! One thing I'm doing is making foods that have lots of flavor--things that seem like treats instead of "diet food."
10. My new exercise bike arrives tomorrow! I go to the gym five days a week. I wanted the bike so I could do a little extra at night (on days when I'm feeling like I really did a bad job with my eating...or when I had to rush through my workout at the gym). PLUS, my hubby is still cute, but I'm sure his heart isn't in as good shape as he looks. He is horrible at getting to the gym, but is going to make an effort to work out at home. AND, A really needs to start doing something since she's not doing any sports. Ballet is good, but doesn't burn enough calories.
Whew! I made it to 10!