LINDSEY’S WRITING PRACTICE: WACKY WAYS TO WARM UP
Posted: September 3, 2025 Filed under: Fiction, Lindsey's Writing Practice, Writing, Writing Inspiration | Tags: Books, Creative Writing, Lindsey Martin-Bowen, Lindsey's Writing Practice, Poetry, Reading, Writing, writing exercise, Writing to be Read Leave a comment
Many writers I’ve known either suffer from writer’s block—or, like Ernest Hemingway—have discovered techniques to lift their minds above that block and leap over it into productive writing.. So if you suffer from writer’s block, even for a day, why try some of these
WACKY WAYS TO WARM-UP
OPEN a book—any book. Often, dictionaries work best. Close your eyes, then point to a page. Open your eyes. Start writing by using whatever word you pointed to. (No cheating here—force yourself to use that particular word.
If your finger rested on an article, such as “an,” “the,” or “a,” start with the word following it. I suggest using this focused free-writing just after you awake in the morning—or even after a nap later. It worked wonders for Ernest Hemingway.
SIT AT A COMPUTER or TYPEWRITER or next to YOUR JOURNAL with pen-in-hand. WRITE a poem. IMMEDIATELY. This need not be a prizewinner. You might begin by describing sunlight filtering through Venetian blinds or ominous clouds churning above your concrete patio. Play with the poem’s language for about fifteen minutes, then embark on your writing project.
FLIP through a MAGAZINE until you find a provocative photograph. Imagine you’re one of the persons in the photo. What are you saying? Thinking? Feeling? Why? Who are you talking with? As you were the character in the photo, write about what’s on your mind for fifteen to twenty minutes. Then start on your project.
JAUNT (or drive, if you must) to an enclosed shopping center (or perhaps an outdoor mall, if weather permits). Find an “outdoor” cafe that serves whatever beverage you prefer. Open your journal and describe your environs. Then watch the people around you. Describe their physiques, clothing, and movements. Capture their voices and words (or dialogue). Then begin your own project. I used this method to write a few chapters of my novella during graduate school. The indoor mall near my home contained a Winstead’s, which inspired me.
AND, of course, DREAM. Jot down your dreams in your journal (which I suggest keeping on a table adjacent to your bed). Respond to those dreams when you first awake. Then begin your project. I’ve also found this technique invaluable when words come to me, too. Many times I lose particular phrases if I don’t jot them down immediately—then worry about revising them later.
GOOD LUCK. If any of these techniques inspire you to plunge into your writing, please let me know. And I’d love to learn the details about which ones helped and what your writing project was.
About Lindsey Martin-Bowen
On Halloween 2023, redbat books released Lindsey Martin-Bowen’s 7th poetry collection, CASHING CHECKS with Jim Morrison. Her 4 th collection, Where Water Meets the Rock, was nominated for a Pulitzer; her 3rd, CROSSING KANSAS with Jim Morrison was a finalist in the QuillsEdge Press 2015-2016 Contest. In 2017, it won the Kansas Writers Assn award, “Looks Like a Million.” Writer’s Digest gave her “Vegetable Linguistics” an Honorable Mention in its 85th Annual (2017) Contest. Her Inside Virgil’s Garage (Chatter House Press 2013) was a runner-up in the 2015 Nelson Poetry Book Award. McClatchy Newspapers named her Standing on the Edge of the World (Woodley Press/Washburn University) was one of the Ten Top Poetry Books of 2008. It was nominated for a Pen Award.
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Did you know you can sponsor your favorite blog series or even a single post with an advertisement for your book? Stop by the WtbR Sponsor Page and let me advertise your book, or you can make a donation to Writing to be Read for as little as a cup of coffee, If you’d like to show your support for this author and WordCrafter Press.
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LINDSEY’S WRITING PRACTICE: Mapping a Character’s Mind
Posted: July 2, 2025 Filed under: Character Development, Fiction, Lindsey's Writing Practice, Writing | Tags: Character Development, Creative Writing, Fiction, Lindsey Martin-Bowen, Lindsey's Writing Practice, Writing, Writing Tips, Writing to be Read 1 CommentMost fiction writers realize Character & Conflict remain essential elements in writing fiction. And those concepts can work to make a poem more engaging, too. Thus, this month’s practice offers hints for creating characters—and conflict, which remain essential in moving fiction along.
First,create a mind map for at least the main characters in your novel, short story, or poem. How?
Using the point-of-view for each character, fill in the “answers” to these questions:
1. I hate . . .
2. I love . . .
3. I need . . .
4. I fear . . .
5. I am drawn to . . .
6, I get shivers from . . .
Once you’ve set up this “map,” for you main character(s), think about each character’s flaws. For example, what might urge a character to make a choice opposite from what he or she would normally do? (Remember, each character is a hero or heroine in his or her own mind.)
Consider, too, how seasons and landscapes may serve as characters that motivate the human characters. Remember: TENSION (or CONFLICT) is ESSENTIAL to move fiction along. Thus, a character must WANT something at a story’s onset—and some person, place, or situation, must block him or her from getting it. Thus, the character must try a different ploy.
Dialogue, too, can create conflict as strong as action can. (In fact, many successful stories create as much—or even more—conflict with words as with action.
Again, much of this can work in poems, especially when the poet uses an archetype for either the persona—or a character the persona loves, hates, fears, is drawn to, or all of the preceding situations.
Have fun with this—and see if it helps move a story, chapter, or poem along. Remember: writing must HOOK the reader with a character in conflict with others, a situation, or him or herself.
About Lindsey Martin-Bowen
On Halloween 2023, redbat books released Lindsey Martin-Bowen’s 7th poetry collection, CASHING CHECKS with Jim Morrison. Her 4 th collection, Where Water Meets the Rock, was nominated for a Pulitzer; her 3rd, CROSSING KANSAS with Jim Morrison was a finalist in the QuillsEdge Press 2015-2016 Contest. In 2017, it won the Kansas Writers Assn award, “Looks Like a Million.” Writer’s Digest gave her “Vegetable Linguistics” an Honorable Mention in its 85th Annual (2017) Contest. Her Inside Virgil’s Garage (Chatter House Press 2013) was a runner-up in the 2015 Nelson Poetry Book Award. McClatchy Newspapers named her Standing on the Edge of the World (Woodley Press/Washburn University) was one of the Ten Top Poetry Books of 2008. It was nominated for a Pen Award.
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Did you know you can sponsor your favorite blog series or even a single post with an advertisement for your book? Stop by the WtbR Sponsor Page and let me advertise your book, or you can make a donation to Writing to be Read for as little as a cup of coffee, If you’d like to show your support for this author and WordCrafter Press.
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This segment of “Lindsey’s Writing Practice” is sponsored by WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services.
Whether it’s editing, publishing, or promotion that you need, WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services can help at a price you can afford.
Stop by and see what we have to offer today: https://writingtoberead.com/readings-for-writers/wordcrafter-quality-writing-author-services/
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Writer’s Corner: Doing the NaNoWriMo Thing
Posted: December 3, 2024 Filed under: Book Promotion, Books, NaNoWriMo, Science Fiction, Time travel, WordCrafter Press, Writing | Tags: Books, Creative Writing, Kaye Lynne Booth, NaNoWriMo, Novel, The Rock Star & the Outlaw, WordCrafter Press, Writer's Corner, Writing, Writing to be Read 12 Comments
This was my third year participating in NaNoWriMo. The first year I gained confidence when I learned that I was more than capable of making the daily word count goal, something I was unsure of when starting out. At that time, 1,667 sounded like an awfully lot of words, but I did it most of the days in November, and when I didn’t do it, I made up for it on the days I wrote two thousand or more, and by the end of the month of November, I had exceeded the overall word count goal of 50,000. (For the sake of transparency, I started with a partial manuscript, so although technically I was successful, I did not write enough new material to make the goal.)
Last year, 2023, I was well on my way to being successful, this time for real, and it was coming down to the last week, when my computer crashed and I was digitally down, making it impossible to complete the challenge. From this, I learned that it isn;t the end of the world to not finish, and I still feel that if my computer hadn’t crashed, I would have successfully met the challenge. I was making or exceeding the daily word counts each day and was on schedule to finish early, before the end of the month.
This year I went into NaNoWriMo with a very positive attitude. I knew I could make the daily word count, so I didn’t stress about it, but I did paln for it. I approached with a plan to implement strategies which had been successful in the past, and a good working plot outline, so I would be clear on where the story was going. Last year, I had abandoned the time blocking strategy which I’d implemented the first year, for an “ass-in-chair, write-the-book” strategy which I’d learned from one of my graduate school professors. (Don’t get me wrong, time blocking is a valid strategy for some people. It just wasn’t effective for me.)
At first, things seemed to go pretty smoothly, until life got in the way during the first week out, when where I live received almost four feet of snow and I was snowbound for four straight days. I didn’t think it would ever stop. It just kept coming. But even with all the shoveling I had to do, and the firewood I had to split to stay warm, I was able to meet my daily word count goal in the evenings. It started snowing on Wednesday, and when I was finally able to get out, on Monday, the 11th, I had to go to work at my day job. I was so tired, that I wasn’t able to make my word count for the first time. I fell asleep in front of my computer at 8:30 p.m. that night with only 634 words for the day.
But, I found that it wasn’t the end of the world that I didn’t get the badge for making the word count goal every day. And I made up the words I’d missed getting down the very next day, with a total word count for the day of 2624. It’s amazing what a decent night’s sleep will do for you. I really do write better if I take care of myself properly, and that proved it. It is also important to take time out for yourself, even though you may be pushing to make a word count goal or a deadline on a writing project. I’ve been looking forward to each new episode of Tulsa King, with Sylvester Stallone, each Sunday, after my shift at work, and I’ve learned that I can watch an hour or two of television and still get my word count done. This is something I had to teach myself. For the first two years I took the challenge, I took every moment I had to write, like a driven person, and now I’m finding that I’m more productive when I block out time for other things, too.
In the end, I didn’t make it. My Internet went down on the last day, so I didn’t get to log my last days totals anyway. (That is also why this Monday blog segment isn’t coming out on Monday. I just got my Internet back up and running this evening.) My total on November 30th was around 43,000 words. Not quite making the goal, but you know what?
It’s okay, because I’m still working on it everyday and I currently have 45,630 words of my story. I started out from a blank page this year. That’s not bad for a month’s time. And it’s a fantastic start toward the completion of the novel.
What I Learned
- I learned that if I just keep at it, the book will take shape
- I learned that my style of edit as you go is okay. It’s a part of my writing process and it works for me and I end up with a much cleaner first draft. It’s necessary for me in order to obtain the proper foreshadowing and also when planting the little easter eggs which helps connect the books for series readers.
- I learned that thinking about time travel sometimes makes my head hurt. It’sa lot to wrap your head around, and it’s easy to get your plot lines twisted when writing about it. Also another reason to edit as I go. With time travel, changing one thing may change several others, jumping from chapter to chapter for revisions became common place for me with this book.
- I learned to use multiple P.O.V.s to make the plot flow smoothly. This was the most P.O.V.s I’ve ever used in a story.
- I learned how to write in multiple subplots – again, the most I have ever tried to use – and multiple time periods.
About the Book
There is not a lot I can tell you about the second Time Travel Adventure Series book without throwing out huge spoilers to those who haven’t read book 1, The Rock Star & The Outlaw. Although each book can be read as a stand alone, book 2 has references to events in the first book and they are complimentary to one another. Book 2 picks up where the first book leaves off, which is why I can’t explain further without giving away the ending of the first book.
I’m having a lot of fun writing this book, maybe even moreso than I did with the first. Like the first, this one has musical inspiration, with song titles for chapter titles and a playlist in the front of the book. By having mutlple P.O.V.s, it opened this one up to even more music artists and songs. And by dealing with temporal loops, it allowed me the opportunity to change events which occured in the first book, creating a whole new story stemming from the same events. It is a crazy, wild ride and you never know where the characters will end up.
I can’t say too much about the new book, but I can share the book trailer for book 1, The Rock Star & The Outlaw, which is also a wild ride through time, for those who haven’t read it yet.
The Rock Star & The Outlaw
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Writing the Rockies through the years
Posted: July 30, 2018 Filed under: Books, Writing, Writing Event | Tags: 2018 Writing the Rockies Conference, Creative Nonfiction, Creative Writing, Genre Fiction, Poetry, Publishing, Screenwriting, Western State Colorado University, Writing Events Leave a comment
Every event we take part in touches us in some way, helping to shape us into who we are. Our experiences change us, sometimes in small ways, and sometimes in more drastic ways. We live, we learn, we transform, and always there is movement and growth. Certainly, the 2018 Writing the Rockies Conference was one such inspirational event, although there were so many offerings, it would be impossible for me to touch on them all. The offerings which I did get to attend were very informative and inspirational.
During the welcome reception, the program director, Dr. David Rothman, talked about what it is that makes the Writing the Rockies Conference stand out among other writing conferences. Certainly, the fact that it leans heavily toward the academic aspects of writing should be counted toward the top of the list. Not that the writings explored are all academic in nature, but the intention is to educate us in how to tap our inner creativity and allow it to flow out onto the page. And every year that I have attended the conference, like everything else in life, it changes and grows.
The Writing the Rockies Conference has expanded considerably since I first attended in 2012, and has even grown some since I last attended in 2016.In addition to the great panels and single day workshops, and their outstanding poetry symposium, which are offered every year, the 2018 line-up included an opera performance and workshop, three-day intensive workshops and seminars in all five concentrations, (creative nonfiction, genre fiction, poetry, screenwriting and publishing), which are available for an additional fee. And as usual, there were opportunities to sign up for pitch sessions and manuscript critiques, and social events such as Coffee with the Pros, where you have the chance to chat with professionals from the industry, both student and professional readings, as well as open mic events and a full day’s schedule of nature hikes in the Gunnison Valley, (one more thing which makes this Conference unique). While attending, there were also opportunities to attend a special presentation of Comedy is Hard by Mike Reiss and a one man play, Multitudes: An Evening with Walt Whitman by Kim Nuzzo, both public performances which coincided with Conference dates.
In his Keynote, author, poet and educator, Mark Todd discussed Writing From the Edge of Nowhere, and why so many writers sprout from Colorado or are drawn to Colorado as a backdrop. Certainly, the breath taking scenery attracts the attention of writers and many have tried to capture the beauty of the Colorado landscape with their words. There are some who haven’t done a bad job of it. As a native Colorado author who made historic Colorado my setting in Delilah, I can tell you that the love for the landscape draws you and for westerns, the landscape plays a big part.
The publishing panel, moderated by Kevin J. Anderson, who has been traditionally published for many years and has founded his own WordFire Press with his wife Rebecca, was enlightening for me. As I’d been wondering if my own publisher was being fair with me. I learned what you should be able to expect from a small press publisher, and found that although perhaps my communication with my own publisher could be better, they are probably giving me a pretty fair deal in today’s market. Their panel also made me reconsider my own plans for publishing The Great Primordial Battle, which is book 1 of my Playground for the Gods science fantasy series. It’s been sitting on the virtual shelf after many rejections, and I was planning to self-publish it when it comes back from my beta reader, but now I’m thinking perhaps I should give traditional publishing one more shot before I go that route.
I had the honor of sitting on the alumni panel for Western’s Graduate Program for Creative Writing, which offered the chance for panel members to toot their own horns about their individual successes and tout praises for the M.F.A. in Creative Writing program. On the panel with me were my fellow alumni, Chris Barili, Susan Spear and moderator, Steve Visel.
Although I did not purchase a meal card, I heard high praise for the conference cuisine, well worth the additional charge. The welcome dinner and ceremonies, featured delectable appetizers, a main course of stuffed peppers or mushroom chicken and all the accompaniments, and mouth-watering fruit pies for desert. All was well prepared and attractively presented by Western State Colorado College.
The one thing I was disappointed with was that I didn’t get to do the book signing I had anticipated due to scheduling conflicts. But at Writing the Rockies they are always looking for ways to improve their program, so I can always hope that next year things will be scheduled better. Over all it was a great conference and I look forward to watching it grow and develop in the future.
