Category Archives: writing tools

Reader/Writer Friday: Your Holiday Shopping List

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Are You On Your Holiday Shopping List?

The holiday shopping season has arrived. Black Friday has passed and we are being inundated with offers of “special” prices. You are probably making your lists and preparing yourself for the shopper’s journey, fighting the crowds in person. Or, maybe you plan to take the arm chair version of the ordeal, shopping online.

Either way, I have a question for you. Do you have yourself on your list?

What if Santa told you he had a whole new division of elves eager to be creative and invent new tools or services for you? Have your ever thought of something you would like to receive as a gift that would make your writing easier, faster, better, more enjoyable? For any of the following:

  • Planning
  • Outlining
  • Writing
  • Editing
  • Publishing
  • Marketing

Since anything is possible in this exercise, and there is no cost to you, how creative can you get? What can you invent? An AI based marketing program that does everything for you? A desktop Gutenberg self-publishing machine that allows you to put in the various papers, cardboard, and formatted Vellum/Atticus/D2D file, and out pops your paperback or hardcover?

Or maybe you have an idea for something that is not new, but is a new situation, like an editing/marketing company that locates beside your house and will provide free services to you in exchange for putting a large sign in your front yard.

You get the idea, we are brainstorming, and the sky is the limit.

Grab your coffee, put on your thinking hat, and invent something new for your writing. Pretend that it is Santa’s “Design Your Own Gift Week.”

Reader Friday: Tools for the Quest

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Chris’s hands gripped mine tightly. “Promise me you’ll go.”

We sat in his tiny shack. He had “returned from the dead” after being missing for eighty days, gaunt, thinning white hair, and a scraggly beard. And no explanation. I barely recognized him, although we had seen each other weekly before his mysterious departure.

He handed me a dog-eared, well-used paperback. I struggled to make out the title. Exodus. I looked up and he riveted me with those blazing blue eyes, those eyes so fierce they could burn a hole in a retina.

Chris had given me a copy of his book, The Mythical Quest, before he left. Why this?

He pulled a carefully folded cardboard sheet from an inner pocket and handed it to me. “This is the code.” He pointed at the tattered book of Exodus. “You’ll need both.”

I shook my head. “Why?”

“Help me back into bed.”

I tried to ask again. He shook his head and pointed at the bed.

Before he closed his eyes, he pulled a bag from his pants pocket and handed it to me. It was so hot I nearly dropped it. I tipped the bag, and a huge, glowing, uncut stone rolled into my hand. I had to look away. The color was so bright. And it was unlike anything I had seen in the light spectrum of this planet.

I set the stone on the table and helped Chris to his cot. He never opened his eyes again. His lips curled into a smile. He stopped breathing.

Okay, we’re past the opening disturbance and heading for the first plot point, the doorway of no return. We’ve studied the code and the tattered copy of Exodus. We can’t get there by plane, train, or automobile. We must hike.

What tools and supplies should we take on our journey?

Fill in any details (including why we must go), and tell us what items you will include in your backpack?