The contest deadline is April 15, so head over and enter. Class starts May 3 and runs for six weeks. What are you waiting for? You have nothing to lose and plenty of information, support and guidance to gain.

Without thinking, I sped up, whipping around the curve toward the house and pulling into the driveway. There was smoke coming from the basement doors and everyone was standing around. There was my mother, my stepfather, my siblings. I counted off, mentally inventorying my family to make sure everyone was safe. It ended up being nothing serious — an issue with the furnace — but ever since that day I can’t help but tense every time I hear a siren or see those flashing lights.

This week’s {Creativity Corner} prompt is a story spark.

The sounds of sirens fill your ears as several emergency vehicles pass you on your way home. You don’t think anything of it until you pull onto your block and see the police cars and an ambulance parked in front of your neighbor’s home. The yard is cordoned off with yellow caution tape and you pass the scene slowly, wondering what is going on…

Finish the story in 750 words or less. It can be serious or silly, a mystery, sci-fi or a romance. You could even use the prompt to remind you of an experience you had and write about that instead. Whatever you choose, have fun with it.

When you’re finished, please feel free to share something about your letter-writing experience in the comments. Remember, these are exercises. The results don’t have to be perfect. But to benefit from them, you actually have to do the work. Now head to your corners and come out writing!

(Image by MSVG)

Consider Form

While in some ways a writer is a writer, form and genre can make a huge difference when it comes to the effectiveness of critique groups. Expecting a poet to provide plot criticism or a novelist to critique poetry may not be helpful. Instead, try to build a group of like-minded writers. If you write essays, find other essayists or at least other nonfiction writers. If you’re a poet, look for other poets. Writing a sci-fi thriller? Build a group with other novelists. Joining a group of writers familiar with your form will mean everyone in the group has a common purpose and understands the elements necessary for quality writing within that form.

Personality

No matter what type of group you join, personality is going to play a huge part in how effective your group will be. Look for writers who are open to feedback from others. You’ll also want fellow writers who are kind in their critiques but are honest at the same time.

Mix Things Up a Little

While it’s important to build a group of writers who write in the same form as you, having a group that varies in style (and maybe even genre) can be helpful in teaching each of you new skills and techniques that you might not have considered before.  For example, if you write personal essays, but someone else in your creative nonfiction group writes narrative journalism pieces you could pick up tips on interviewing and incorporating facts into your essays, while the journalist might learn how to inject humor or personal observation into her pieces.

Size Matters

Your group can be as small as two or three people or as big as twenty, but what you get out of a critique group will likely vary based on its size. Members of smaller groups will generally be able to submit and receive critiques on their pieces more often. Larger groups will either require more commitment from members to read several pieces before each meeting or will mean fewer people get their work critiqued less frequently. Depending on the level of support you need, you’ll want to find or create a group that will be able to meet those needs.

Timing is Everything

Some groups meet regularly and submit pieces for critique at every meeting, while others meet when the need strikes. Depending on the how many people are in your group and how much the members are writing, you might choose to meet monthly, weekly or just a few times a year. Whatever works for your group is fine, as long as everyone involved is committed to the schedule (or lack thereof) that you’ve set up.

Location, Location, Location

If you’re lucky enough to find a group of writers in your area, in person meetings may work best for you. But online or email groups can work well, too, for those people who can’t find local groups, can’t find room in their schedules for meetings or who have writer friends in far-away places.

It All Comes Down to Commitment

No matter how many people are in your group, who they are, what they write, wherever or however you decide to meet, it’s the commitment to the group that will make or break it. Busy schedules are the norm for everyone, and finding dedicated members may be the biggest challenge you have. But once you find a group that works for you, your writing will improve. No doubt about it.

Now that you know the importance of joining a critique group and how to make one work once you’ve created one, you may still be wondering how to find writers interested in being part of your group. Well, you’re in luck. Alexis Grant at The Traveling Writer and I are collaborating today, and she’s offering you some tips on finding the people to form your group.

I’m sure many of us have childhood memories of baking or decorating cookies. Normally for {Creativity Corner} we’d write about those memories. But this week I think we should try something different.

Write a scene or story from the perspective of your favorite cookie. Need some suggestions? Try these:

- You’re a Girl Scout Thin Mint traveling hundreds of miles to your new owner who will promptly open a sleeve and begin working her way down to you.

- You’re a chocolate chip cookie who starts out as multiple ingredients and evolves into a single, solid and delicious treat.

- You’re a plain old snickerdoodle cookie and your brother is a chewy chocolate peanut butter cookie. Write about your relationship.

Try one (or all) of the above suggestions, or come up with one of your own. Have fun with it.

When you’re finished, please feel free to share a paragraph or two of your writing in the comments or post the exercise on your own blog and leave a comment here with a link to your writing. Remember, these are exercises. The results don’t have to be perfect. But to benefit from them, you actually have to do the work. Now head to your corners and come out writing!

(Image by norwichnuts)

In middle school and junior high, I had several pen pals. Going to the Post Office to get the mail was always exciting because I never knew when I might get another envelope addressed to me with a hand-written note inside. The contents of the letters were never very exciting, but the act of opening and reading something written just for my eyes was worth the walk or bike ride to the mailbox.

After a long hiatus filled with emails, phone calls and the occasional card, I’ve taken to writing letters again. I don’t always get them in return, but sitting down with pretty stationary and a nice pen to write something is just as nice. Knowing that when the recipient opens the mailbox and sees that hand-addressed envelope amidst the junk mail and bills, she’ll smile and know I took extra time and care to send her something I had to put a stamp on.

For this week’s {Creativity Corner} prompt:

Write a letter to someone — anyone. It can be someone you haven’t seen in a while or someone you see every day. You don’t even have to mail it if you don’t want to. You could even write a letter to your (past or future) self.

In the letter, open up to the reader. Share a secret, a piece of advice or a story. Write as much or as little as you want. The only rule is that you must use a pen and some pretty stationary (or notebook paper, if you don’t have any stationary on hand).

When you’ve finished, consider how this exercise made you feel. I often find that when I set out to write a letter it ends up heading in a different direction than I initially intended. I’m more open than I had planned to be and more willing to share things that I hadn’t planned to share. Whether you actually send your letter or not, consider writing letters more frequently as a way to explore your thoughts and emotions. Like writing in a journal, writing a letter can be a freeing experience.

When you’re finished, please feel free to share something about your letter-writing experience in the comments. Remember, these are exercises. The results don’t have to be perfect. But to benefit from them, you actually have to do the work. Now head to your corners and come out writing!

(Image by Pink Sherbet Photography)

It turns out that there are plenty of reasons why a client might not get back to you, and most of them have nothing to do with their lack of interest.

1. They’re busy. It’s very possible that they just might not have found time to answer your email or return your call. After a reasonable amount of time has gone by (no more than a week) a follow-up email or phone call can be the perfect prompt to get the ball rolling.

2. They didn’t get (or forgot about) your message. Even the most organized people can overlook emails, forget items on their to-do lists, or misplace messages. A follow-up on your part can put you back on their radar. Even if the client doesn’t have work for you right away, the follow-up indicates you’re still interested and available if and when work comes up.

3. They’re overwhelmed with other responsibilities or deadlines. Again, this comes down to busy-ness, but we all have long lists of things to do. When several items on that list are urgent or coming due, things like answering emails or reading queries may fall to the wayside. A check-in via phone call or email to make sure you’re still in the client’s queue is totally acceptable. Express understanding for their delay in responding and then ask when you should follow up again.

4. The budget is tight. Clients may be uncomfortable letting you know that the money to pay you just isn’t available, so they may fail to get back to you. A quick follow-up call will let you express your continued interest in completing the work and may even provide the opportunity for you to discuss a payment plan or other options that the client hadn’t considered previously.

These are only a few reasons why a potential client might not respond to a query or quote, so follow up really is imperative to landing that business or assignment. While it takes a little extra time on your part, it really is worth the effort. Take my own recent experience as an example:

A potential client contacted me and requested a quote for some work. The client responded to the quote within 24 hours, requesting some clips and contact information for a reference, which I immediately provided. Then I waited. And waited. After several weeks with no response, I decided she must not have been interested and wrote it off as a lost opportunity.

But then my coach encouraged me to follow up anyway. After a little hemming and hawing, I finally picked up the phone and made the call. And do you know what happened? After a month of no news, that potential client became an actual client in the span of about 15 minutes.

The lesson here? Don’t let business opportunities fall through the cracks. Follow up on every query or client lead. Some of them won’t pan out, but some of them will. And that means more money in your pocket.

When I was a kid, my grandmother always had tulips in beds along the front and sides of her house. In the area I grew up in, they wouldn’t bloom until mid-May, usually right around Mother’s Day. So every year, my sister and I would go over to Grandma’s house — she lived next door — get scissors and a cup of water, and go out to pick a few tulips for my mother.

A lot of my flower memories include my grandmother. She had a lilac bush in her backyard and each summer she would send me out to cut some stems for her kitchen.

I remember marveling over the tiny bell-shaped blossoms of the lily-of-the-valley plants along the back side of her house. They were so white and so perfectly formed.

And later, it was the flowers we took to plant on her grave that I remember, the purple and yellow pansies that we’d line up along her small, nondescript headstone.

What flower stories do you have? For this week’s {Creativity Corner} prompt:

Write about a time you received flowers unexpectedly, or an experience or memory that centered around flowers. Write as many details as you can remember and dig deep into the emotion, as well as the action, of the experience.

As always, have fun with this exercise. Write freely. Don’t delete and don’t judge. Just write!

When you’re finished, please feel free to share a paragraph or two of your writing in the comments or post the exercise on your own blog and leave a comment here with a link to your writing. Remember, these are exercises. The results don’t have to be perfect. But to benefit from them, you actually have to do the work. Now head to your corners and come out writing!

I suppose I could send an email, but that’s much more impersonal. At least with a phone call the person on the other end of the line can hear my voice, my inflection, my emotion.

If I had the money and the time, a flight and a conversation over a good meal might suit some announcements better. Unfortunately, my budget and my job keep me from hopping on a 747 every time I have news I’d like to share.

So the phone it is. And it works quite well in most cases. In fact, the phone works so well, that I can think of several phone calls that have been pivotal experiences in my life. Which brings me to this week’s {Creativity Corner} prompt:

Write about a phone call that changed your life (or the life of your character) in some small or large way.

Where were you when you made or received the call? What were you wearing? What time of the day was it? What did you surroundings look like?

Who was on the other end of the line? Did you call him/her or did the other person call you? Had you been anticipating the call or was it unexpected or spontaneous?

What was the conversation like? What was said? How did you (or the other person) react? How did the conversation end?

In what ways were things different after you hung up the phone?

Use this prompt to recall memories about a particular phone conversation by free-writing your way through it. If you’re writing from your character’s perspective, don’t think too much about what your character(s) should or shouldn’t be doing or saying. Just consider the situation and then write the scene out quickly.

You can edit or flesh it out later. Right now, you’re experimenting and investigating. There’s no pressure to produce a perfect vignette or scene. Just write.

When you’re finished, please feel free to share a paragraph or two of your writing in the comments or post the exercise on your own blog and leave a comment here with a link to your writing. Remember, these are exercises. The results don’t have to be perfect. But to benefit from them, you actually have to do the work. Now head to your corners and come out writing!

(Image by Esparta)

Critique groups have plenty of benefits:

1. Creativity loves company. I’m a firm believer that where two or more creative spirits gather, creativity will flow. Conversations, suggestions and even criticisms can spark ideas for new pieces. As your work (or that of fellow members) is discussed, excitement can build for writing or other creative pursuits.

2. It’s like school, only more fun. As part of a critique group you’ll find yourself learning more than you might have imagined. Some people in your group may be grammar Nazis. Some may have an eye for plot inconsistency. Others may be able to pull the real story out of you by asking the perfect questions. Not only that, but each member will bring unique experiences and individual belief systems to their writing that might expand your own ideas, thoughts and beliefs. If open to the topics, comments and suggestions of others, group members can learn and grow as writers (and maybe as people, too).

3. Group members are more honest than your mom. Sure, it’s nice to hear “It’s wonderful!” and “This is the best thing I’ve ever read!” from the friends and family you share your work with. But those comments, as true as they may be on some level, are not going to improve your writing. Being part of a critique group gives members permission to provide you with honest, constructive feedback that will help everyone in the group improve their work. And being open to receive and apply this feedback will make your work stronger and make you a better writer. Take those comments from your Mom and let them bolster you when you’re feeling like a hack, but make sure you have a group of readers who will give you an honest and helpful critique so that you can hear “It’s wonderful!” from editors and publishers some day.

4. Deadlines work wonders. I’ve found that having to regularly produce work to share  is one of the most useful side-effects of joining a critique group. Instead of being able to put off working on your next essay or chapter or short story, you have a built-in responsibility to be regularly producing and editing pieces.

5. Fellow writers know what you’re going through. Becoming a critique group member is like joining a support group. We build each other up and encourage one another when we need it. When necessary, we also challenge each other to change and improve, to grow and stretch ourselves as writers.

With the help of a small group of dedicated writers, I’ve become a better writer myself, plain and simple. But being part of the group isn’t always easy. Membership requires commitment, dedication, time, and energy that I sometimes don’t have, but I stick it out and am better for it.

I challenge you, if you’re not already a member of a critique group, find one or start one. Now. Don’t wait. The quality of your writing may depend on it.

I love fresh apples in fall and berries in the spring and summer, but my favorite fruit fills the winter gap and grows on trees hundreds of miles from me. During the cooler months, I eat all the oranges, tangerines, clementines, and grapefruit I can stomach. I crave their tangy sweetness, the sour bite at the back of my tongue, their juicy segments that pop in my mouth. After lunch, for breakfast, right before bed, I eat them anytime and all the time.

Choose a citrus fruit and describe it in as much detail as you can. (If you don’t have a piece of the fruit at your disposal, use your imagination or find some pictures to spark your senses while you write.)

Pay attention to the light (or lack thereof), the color(s) of the skin, the scent, the shape (and irregularity of it). Once you’ve written about your whole fruit, slice it open on a plate and write about how it looks now. How is it different? The same? What does it taste like?

Try this exercise with as many types of citrus fruit as you like. Or compare and contrast two pieces of fruit. Use novel words. Practice your metaphors. Get flowery in your language and then be sparse. Take your time and dig into the essence of the citrus. Have fun with it.

When you’re finished, please feel free to share a paragraph or two of your writing in the comments or post the exercise on your own blog and leave a comment here with a link to your writing. Remember, these are exercises. The results don’t have to be perfect. But to benefit from them, you actually have to do the work. Now head to your corners and come out writing!

(Image by Muffet)