Sit Down and Write Already! But Read This First.

It's still warm in California, but all signs point to fall. Aside from my being allergic to things, it's one of my favorite seasons. I'm hoping to channel some of the general sense of well-being that autumn brings me into my writing--whether the motivation goes into my current work-in-progress, or whether it's new projects like that short story percolating in the back of my head, this fun Halloween Short Story Contest at Literary Asylum, or even a new novel for NaNoWriMo. (Yes, I've got something percolating for that, too...) Maybe I'll even send a story or two to new markets I just heard of, like Read Short Fiction, which advertises their stories on Facebook in order to build a larger audience. (An interesting strategy.)

In any case, I'll continue to remind myself to keep my Butt In Chair, let my imagination go, and, as writerjenn notes, skip the boring parts.

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If you're still having trouble getting motivated to write, here are a few sources of additional procrastination. (I help; I hinder.) Barb Langridge of A Book and a Hug has an exhaustive and fabulously searchable database of children's and YA book reviews. Toy with it here. (Maybe one day I'll devote enough time to my OWN procrastination to see if we can get our reviews linked. Though, judging from how often I contributed to the Children's Book Reviews wiki...erm...ahem.)

Okay. Still procrastinating. Why not check out the latest installment of The Secret of Donotalado, the ongoing interactive story brought to you by the Hazardous Players?

Or, get even more incensed in preparation for Banned Books Week: the Stockton, MO school board voted 7-0 to ban Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. And then counter that tidbit of infuriating news with this excellent article by Jim Blasingame, president of ALAN (Assembly on Literature for Adolescents), talking about Native American literature for teens, and including Sherman Alexie's comments on censorship and writing for young adults. (Kudos to my mom for forwarding those links in her latest NCTE newsletter.)