If you need to get unstuck in the middle of writing November, here’s some simple, but effective advice.
AdviceToWriters – Advice to Writers – The Answer is to Write.
Tag Archives: november
2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 16 | Last Line First Poem | WritersDigest.com
My warm up poem ideas for November are all from Robert Brewer’s blog Poetic Asides. Each prompt this month was contributed by a different poet. This one is from Joseph Wells. He suggests that we take the last line of yesterday’s poem and use it for the first line of today’s.
If you did not write a poem yesterday, I guess you can use an old one. Nobody will care.
My poem yesterday was a riff on the saying about the rich man, heaven, and the eye of a needle. I heard somewhere that The Eye of the Needle was actually a city gate, so that’s what my poem was about. The last line was “of a needle”. What do you do with that? Actually, I had fun.
Read the poems of others in the group and add one of your own. You can join the challenge any time.
2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 16 | Last Line First Poem | WritersDigest.com.
Of the Needle
Of the needle
I need to say
little, as it so
readily makes
its own point,
leading the way
among crisscrossed
threads, pulling
a joiner behind,
teasing notes
out of grooves
in vinyl or just
teasing someone
who may or may
not be a friend,
towering in
freestanding
stone in a canyon
or in steel
among city
skyscrapers
of the needle
I need to say little
as it so readily
makes its own point.
Linda Armstrong, November 16, 2012. All rights reserved.
2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 15 | Tradeoff Poem | WritersDigest.com
The challenge today on the Poetic Asides blog is to write a trade-off poem.
Click on the link below to read others’ takes on the prompt and then, if you are inspired, add your own.
2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 15 | Tradeoff Poem | WritersDigest.com.
Tradeoff: A Very Old Tale
The city gate
was so narrow
that some called
it “The Eye
of the Needle”
but the rich
trader coming
from afar had
never been there
so he didn’t know.
The packs
on his camels
were wide
and bulged
out on either
side with all
the goods he
had brought to
sell, but those
who would
buy were inside
and he could
not pass
through the eye
of the needle.
Linda Armstrong, November 15, 2012, All rights reserved.
2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 14 | Stuck Poem | WritersDigest.com
Today’s prompt on Robert Brewer’s Poetic Asides Blog is “stuck.” This is a good one for me, because I have not worked on my NaNoWriMo book since Sunday, and things were actually going very well. I even know what to write next, but I seem to be stuck.
Read my rationalization poem on the blog. Then check out the great contributions of others. Add your own, too.
2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 14 | Stuck Poem | WritersDigest.com
Inertia
I’m stuck
stuck
stuck
like the needle
on a vinyl
record
three days
without progress
or loss
I just
have to
state what
I want to do
and a state
of entropy
sets in
Something
in me loves
reflective
waters
and still
wants to
stay still
though I
still still still
keep
trying
to keep
moving.
Copyright Linda J. Armstrong 11/14/2012. All rights reserved.
and here’s another, inspired by another poet’s post:
For Jacqueline
They say
Cezanne
when stuck
in one of
his intertwined
compositions
tossed the
offending
canvas out
his window
into the intertwined
branches of one
of his trees,
only to retrieve
it when unable
to resist the
way it had
entwined itself
with his entangled
mind.
2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 13 | Letter and Recipe Poems | WritersDigest.com
Today’s poetry prompt on the Poetic Asides blog is a letter poem (and/or a recipe poem). These are prompts I used in class when I was teaching. They are classics for a reason. They produce varied and excellent results for writers of all ages (and not just poets).
If you want to read the poems of other participants and post your own, click on the link.
2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 13 | Letter and Recipe Poems | WritersDigest.com.
Here’s mine:
If you’d like to see some of my dad’s paintings, his dealer’s site is here: http://www.californiaartgallery.com/ec-watercolor-keck.html
2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 9 | When He’s Gone Poem | WritersDigest.com
The challenge today is to write a poem that uses the phrase or theme “when he’s gone.” Click on the link below to read the responses, starting with mine, which is also included here.
2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 9 | When He’s Gone Poem | WritersDigest.com.
When he’s gone,
she misses him,
sometimes stepping
into the room
where he works
to share something
she has found
like a child taking
a toy to a visitor,
remembering with
a start that he is
off on another trip
she slips back into
her own routine,
reading on the couch
and taking long
walks alone by
the river. When the
phone rings, his
car pulls into the drive,
or he appears at
the arrival gate,
his face is always
new, and everything
they have shared
comes home.
The Insomniacs | Flowering Minds
If you are writing a bedtime story for children, some may tell you that everything has been done. Don’t believe it! Here’s a detailed review of a delightful new story about not being able to fall asleep.
From Jen’s Pen…: #PiBoIdMo & #SkADaMo Week 1 – Mad Woman On A Mission
For picture book writers and illustrators, here’s a great post about one artist’s quest to find her personal style. It includes some ideas that worked for her, and some may work for you too.
From Jen’s Pen…: #PiBoIdMo & #SkADaMo Week 1 – Mad Woman On A Mission.
PiBoIdMo Day 7: Every Day Tammi Sauer is Structurin’ « Writing for Kids (While Raising Them)
Here are some hints about structure and plot from picture book author Tammi Sauer. Most articles about plotting are for novelists. Actually, the basic advice isn’t that much different. There are, of course, fewer characters and no subplots.
PiBoIdMo Day 7: Every Day Tammi Sauer is Structurin’ « Writing for Kids (While Raising Them).
2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 6 | Left or Right Poem | WritersDigest.com
There are two related prompts for today’s Poem a Day Challenge at Brewer’s Poetic Asides blog. You can write about “right” or “left.” I wrote about being left-handed.
If you submit your poem on the blog, write it first in a word processing program, then paste it in. The blog is so busy you get a “you are posting too fast, slow down” message. If you get this, use the backspace on your browser and keep submitting until it goes through–usually on the third or fourth click. You don’t have to post to participate in the challenge. You can read everybody else’s for inspiration and just keep your own file at home. You will still be eligible to submit your finished book (20 poems) in December.
2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 6 | Left or Right Poem | WritersDigest.com.
Here’s mine:
The teller
filled out
my withdrawal
slip writing
as I do
left-handed
and upside down
I asked her about
the inevitable bump
on her middle
finger and
whether she was
an artist. She
said she drew
but wasn’t
great and I
admitted to being
no Leonardo. Then
I took my money
and she said
she had never met
another person
who wrote like
her, and that
remains true
of us both.
One Way to Wonder 
Dear Dad,
You never were
much for writing
so I never wrote
you a letter.
You and I
always knew
each other
best through
landscapes,
pigments, brushes,
lenses, captured
hours, minutes,
and seconds
that will never
come back
but could be
relived again
and again
through transparencies
or stacked paintings
in a closet.
I write to you
now, looking
down at your
hands, freckled
and funny
as a write this,
and later,
when Alden
and I take
pictures of winter
deer, you will
be shooting with us
As always,
Linda