Monthly Archives: October 2012

Just Released . . . and are we excited!

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The Lively Muse
Daily Appointment Calendar for Writers
Featuring A Writing Prompt for Every Day

Finally, a desk calendar that’s devoted exclusively to your daily writing practice. No matter how many meetings, appointments and “to-dos” you have on your various iCals, Google calendars, wall calendars, desk calendars, calendars magneted to your refrigerator, and written in ink on the palm of your hand, The Lively Muse’s Daily Appointment Calendar for Writers will keep your writing date front and foremost, where it should be.

We know some writers need a little help getting started. That’s why we’ve provided a prompt for every day. Just like the prompts in the original A Writer’s Book of Days and the Revised Edition released in 2010, the all-new prompts in the Daily Appointment Calendar for Writers are guaranteed fresh, guaranteed evocative, and guaranteed to get the pen moving or the fingers flying.

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Dear Lively Muse — Q&A for Writers

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Dear Lively Muse,
What is the most important thing about writing?
Just Starting Out

Dear Just Starting,
The most important thing about writing is writing. Until you have words on the page you don’t have anything to work with. You may have an idea, but thinking about an idea isn’t writing. Besides, ideas are never the same on the page as they are in your head. It’s OK if you don’t know where you’re going or what you want to say. Just trust the pen or your fingers on the keyboard and get something down. Begin anywhere. Write anything. Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation or grammar. You can clean it up later. Don’t stop to re-read or edit or fix until you’ve finished. When you do, you move from that white-hot place of intuition and imagination and into a cerebral place of judging, evaluating, comparing. There’s a time and place for that, but not in the first flush of creating.
Use the prompts to get started and trust the process.

Good writing! The Lively Muse

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“Step Away from the Desk”

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A writer wrote saying how difficult it is for her to leave the writing when she’s in a groove, and asked if I had any ideas on how to get some kind of physical exercise while working so intently. I knew exactly what she was talking about. Sometimes I get so inside the story, I don’t even notice the time. Hours (or is it days) later, amid much creaking and moaning, Continue reading →