Writing inspiration comes from the pigskin

In the fall I have several literary routines:

1.     Read my New York Times

2.     Delve into one of the past issues of the New Yorker Magazine

3.     Review my writing from the work week

4.     Curl up with the novel I’m currently reading

5.     Spend copious hours watching college and professional football

Number five may not seem like a writerly endeavor, but football has more to offer writers than an excuse not to write.

What Gets the Ink on the Page

By David E. Sharp

Writers are a creative group. And with creativity comes idiosyncrasy.

Admit it! You have weird habits!

Do you consume copious amounts of coffee like Honoré de Balzac? Or, are you more in line with Faulkner and Hemingway; maybe you consume something stronger?

A Writer's Life

By Brian Kaufman

I have a notion that might comfort the discouraged. If you put words to the page, you’ve heard a familiar pointed question. Relatives wonder if your time would be better spent with family. Bosses wonder if you’re as committed to your job as you should be. Friends wonder if you’re fooling yourself. 

In the past, the answer to that one pesky question drew a line between someone with talent and someone without. Today, there are publishing venues for anyone with a cupful of skills and a bucketful of persistence. Small press. Blogs. Literary magazines. Webzines and eBooks. 

Today, doubters require more information. Do you have a book? Are you self-published?

Finding the Write Group

By Jason Meadors

Not every writer needs to be in a group, just like not everyone needs to have kids, or pets, or morning coffee. (I have all of that, so I don't understand life without them, although it's obviously possible.)

I visited a couple different writing groups in my past writing life, and "past writing life" means I was stringing short stories together for the entertainment of friends and family while otherwise staying busy getting continually word-mired in the Great American Novel.

The Benefits of Reading Aloud

By David E. Sharp

I was a quarterback on the speech and debate team in high school. You didn't think we had quarterbacks in speech and debate? We totally did. And I was one. Take my word for it. Don't research this.

Some of my favorite tournament events involved cutting a piece of prose or poetry and reading it aloud to a room of judges and other students who hope you don't read as well as they do. More fun than it sounds.

Picture Perfect?

By Kristin Owens

Last year, I attended a writing conference where I met a lot of authors in person. Everyone ditched their yoga pants and wore clothes with zippers and buttons. I recognized a few from their dust jackets or social media icons. Others . . . not at all. 

The author at one keynote session spoke, and I had to refer back to the program to make sure I was in the correct room. It took several glances. The photo wasn't current. Not even from this decade.

This repetitive motion hurt my neck, and while licking a Motrin, I missed her presentation.

Saving the Cat

By Ronda Simmons

Save The Cat! is a book written in 2005 by Blake Snyder, a screenwriter who determined  almost every story is composed of the same essential elements, or "beats."



Similar in breakdown to the three-act structure touted by other writers, Snyder offers a simpler description and application. This is less about formula and more about finding the rhythm of your particular drummer.



The Blake Snyder Beat Sheet, aka BS2, is a Hollywood standard that can be applied at any fiction.