Writing Prompts for Jan/Feb

Don't forget to bring a story, poem, essay, memoir, using one of the following prompts as your subject

to our meeting on Feb. 8th

I look forward to hearing them!

1. Memoir, Write a favorite memory. Can be from childhood or anytime of your life.

2. Tell about your pet. Current or no longer with us.

3. Write a story about your pet. This can be true or fictional.

4. Tell about a special skill you have. Working with wood, gardening, cooking, sports, dancing, teaching etc.

•  Write a story about using this skill.
•  Write a how-to regarding this skill.

5. Write a love story or poem about a loved one.

6. Write a love story or poem about love gone wrong.

7. Tell about a concert you attended or were part of.

8. Did you play in a band? This may be a high-school marching band, a garage band with your friends, a band at church, or any other type of band you were part of.

9. Write about a place you visited while traveling.

10. Write a review of a book or movie you recently read or saw.

11. Write about the impact of a book or movie from your youth. Something that influenced your life (even for a short time.)

12. Tell about a special place. This could be from anytime in your life.

13. If you could meet anyone, living or dead who would it be and why. Write about it.

14. Where do you place in your family? Were you the oldest, middle, or youngest child? How did this affect your life? Write about it.

15. If you were a super-hero, what would be your super-power? What would you be called? What would your uniform look like? Write a story involving you as your super-hero self.

16 If you won the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes, what would you do?

17. Write about a tool or object you have that not many people have heard of. Describe it. Give instructions on how to use it.

18. Tell about a very hard time in your life. What did you learn from it? Did it make you stronger or leave a scar that won't go away?

19. Write about a favorite song. What is the meaning of the song? What does it remind you of?

20. Tell a story about a game you enjoy. Could be true or fictional. Make the reader enjoy it even if they don't know how to play or don't care for it.

21. If you were to write a logo for yourself, what would it be? Where would you want it displayed?

22. What are you most afraid of? Write a story about it. True or fictional. Make the reader feel the fear.

23. Have you ever been on a diet? Write a story about trying to lose weight. True or fictional. Is it a comedy or a horror story?

24. Pick an animal of your choice. Write a story from that animals point of view. This can be for children or adults.

25. Pick one of the following pictures. What is happening? Write a story using it as your theme.

Writing Prompts for Jan/Feb

Writing prompts for Jan/Feb

Writing Prompts for Jan/Feb

For those who missed our last meeting... Jan/Feb Writing prompts

For those who missed our last meeting....Writing Prompts for Jan and Feb

Next meeting - February 8!

Ada Writers Meeting, February 8, 11:00

Be sure to bring:

1. Your dues. $12.00 for 2020
2.  Your story, poem, essay, etc. from the prompts I gave you at the last meeting. 
3.  A notebook or something to write on and a pen or pencil.
4.  Your smile!
5.  Special prize for anyone who bring in a good joke!

the Procrastinationo Cure - part 2 The 7 Steps

The Procrastination Cure - 7 steps

from  the YouTube video Procrastination-7 Steps to a cure 

by Med School Insiders.

1. Break down the steps.

- smaller tasks seem easier to accomplish than larger projects.

- use hyper specific timelines

Take 5 minutes to decide what you need to accomplish each day.

High levels of structure increases your ability to achieve your reward.

(This doesn't work for everyone)

2. Keep the task small.

Hardest part of getting a task done is getting started.

Example: Your have 5 chapters to read, plus lectures, and other things. This can be overwhelming so your put it off.

-Decide to work in 25 minutes blocks followed by a 5 min break. This makes the task less daunting.

3. Set the bar low

If you set the bar lower than what you are capable of your will almost always achieve the goal and often surpass it.

Example: You want to write every morning for 2 hours but your just can't get started. Instead decide to write for 20 minutes. Chances are you will meet your 20 minute goal and surpass it. If not, you only needed to write for 20 minutes.

As days go by, this 20 minute goal may increase a little daily or weekly. By the time your goal is again 20 minutes, you will have developed the habit of getting started and reaching your goal.

4. Hack pleasure from the experience.

-Give yourself a reward for completing a task. (have a snack, a cup of tea, call a friend for 15 minutes, go for a walk, etc.)

-Listen to music while you work. Find something without words while you write. (The theme from Rocky, or John Tesh, Live at Red Rock, etc.) 

5.  Use Parkinson's Law to your advantage:

Work expands to meet the time allotted to it.

If you have 30 minutes of work to do and have 2 hours to do it, you will expand the work to take up 2 hours.

- Make artificial deadlines to help force yourself to get things done more efficiently.

- This will decrease the delay in the motivation equation and decreases the likelihood of procrastination.

- Don't be too aggressive with your timelines, that can lead to unnecessary stress. Example: You usually complete a task in 15 minutes but you are going to set the goal to 5 minutes. It's going to be hard to meet that goal and therefore you are causing stress that can lead to procrastination.

-With time you will get more accurate with gauging how much time a task will take.

6. Be deliberate with your writing environment. 

-The biggest killer to our productivity are distractions

-Avoiding distractions through sheer will-power is unlikely to be fruitful long term.

-Approach it by crafting a work environment that minimizes distractions.

- In doing so we are decreasing impulsivity from our motivation equation.

Suggestions for getting rid of distractions while your writing:

1. -Put your phone on airplane more, or turn off the ringer.
2. -Ignore emails
3. -Go to full screen with the work at hand.
4. -If working at home distracts you - go to the library or a coffee shop to work instead.

 7.  Understand your personality type

Some people do well with strict time limits, or word counts, or page goals. For others these limits would cause stress. They do better to decide to write a chapter or another page. 

Big part of optimizing your own life whether it's productivity, study habits, diet, exercise, or anything else, is understanding one's self.

Procrastination Cure - Part 1

The Procrastination Cure - 7 steps

from  the YouTube video Procrastination-7 Steps to a cure 

by Med School Insiders.

We discussed procrastination at our last meeting.

Here are the high-lights:

Motivation = Expectance x Value

________________________________I

Impulsiveness x Delay

Motivation -the willingness to do work

Expectance - how much you enjoy doing the task and how much you enjoy the reward.

Value - The more you enjoy the task the quicker you're going to get your reward.

Impulsiveness - the tendency to get distracted by other things.

High impulsivity lures you to do other things rather than the task at hand.

Delay - The longer the delay the more likely, you are to procrastinate, you decide you can take care of it later.

So - You want to maximize the expectance and the value as they are directly related to motivation, and 

Minimize impulsiveness and delay to keep your from achieving your goal.

Dues are due!

Money, money, money - Money!

 (That's a song from the O'Jays, 1973, called the Love of Money)

Dues for 2020 are due as of January 1st.

It's just $12.00 per year - what a bargain!

Bring your checks or cash to Nora or another of the officers.

Thanks!

Poetry ContestL

Love is in the air!

The Poetry Contest is in full swing! As a matter of fact it's nearly over!

The Dead-line for entries is February 7th.

Get those love poems sent now!!

If you have any questions as to where or how to send  them in go to 

Happy February!

That's right, February is here. Did anyone see what happened to January?

Hope everyone has recovered from the holidays, that terrible bug that was going around, the winter storm (snow)! Hopefully, you've done some writing.