Write Anyway

Hello once again everyone!

Welcome to another mid-week random word bank. I rather like random word banks. There is a challenge in them that not only gets your mind working, but you can also end up with a scene that you didn’t know you had it in you to write.

I hope you find these word banks useful. If there is a type of prompt you would prefer to see, please let me know.

Remember, with all the words, you can use any form, any tense of the word. Eg. Laugh can be laugh, laughter, laughs, laughed.

For the first word bank, I don’t want you to write a short story or anything actually. What I want you to do is word association. For every word there, I want you to write the word and then write the first word that comes to your mind after.

For the second word bank, I do want you to write a short story (or something longer if you like) that incorporates this week’s theme. This round goes as usual; just include all of the words in the bank.

For the third word bank, it is something different yet again. I would like you to try your hand at writing a poem incorporating the words provided. (Don’t worry if you can’t quite use all the words; eight or nine is great!)

Enjoy!

First Word Bank
Believe
Summer
Movie
New
Sushi
To-Do
Ache
Plan
Island
Tap

Second Word Bank
Bold
Panorama
Call
Load
Ice
Blue
Wait
Back
Accuse
Pink

Third Word Bank
Beautiful
Close
Turn
With
Soft
Hum
Earth
Wind
Offer
More

***Remember to leave a link to your responses!

Today, lessons are on my mind. More life lessons than school type lessons, but those play into the picture, too.

Though I don’t think I have enough years on me to say I have lived a long life or learned as many things that those who are older than me have learned, I know I have learned my fair share.

I think life lessons are infinitely harder to learn than school lessons. Life lessons aren’t so cut and dry. Life certainly doesn’t come with a syllabus, though I know many of us often wish that it did. For the most part, lessons seem to come through strife or determination.

And yet, I have learned many things - especially about myself - through positive events. They may have been hard to achieve at the time, but the experiences left me a better person.

What life lessons have you learned? Did any come at a cost? What would you say is the hardest lesson to learn? Are there any lessons you have liked learning? Are there lessons you had to be taught more than once?

Remember, to help clear your mind before you start writing, take a few deep breaths. Focus on the sound of the air entering and leaving your lungs. Let the noises and worries of the day fade for a few moments while you focus only on breathing.

After you are calm, think about your experiences and start writing.

Wishing you heaps of creativity, a generous muse and heaps of time to write. Feel free to check in here with your progress for the day/week/month/etc.

“Have you ever stood still and scratched your head and said, ‘Where in the world?’ Is there somewhere in the world you would love to go? Are you looking for someone or something or a place that makes sense to you? Where in the world are you?”

Haha. I stand in the middle of a room and wonder where in the world I put this or that way too often. If not me, my husband is usually asking me where I put this or that. Haha.

It’s funny that one of the questions is ‘is there somewhere in the world you would love to go’ because I posted this on my other blog not too long ago:

This is just the start of a list, but these are the places that first came to mind…

Peru
Berlin
Canada
Egypt
Italy
Greece
US West Coast (California, Washington, Idaho…)
Wisconsin
New York via Niagara Falls
London
Bath
Stonehenge
Amsterdam
Singapore
Hong Kong
Tokyo

I’ve started working on planning a world trip. While, if it happens, it’s many months and dollars away, there is no reason I can see to not start planning one now. You never know what can happen in the future, and I would like to start thinking about the good things.

So, where in the world? Anywhere. The world is a fascinating place, and I want to experience it. Whether it will come to pass is for the future to tell. Half the fun is the planning.

I’m a bit late on this, but Friday isn’t over yet! At least, not in the States. I’m enjoying what little is left of my Saturday morning at the moment, but that’s okay. As long as it is Friday somewhere, right?

And…here we go!

1. Being told ‘no’ is not the end of the world.

2. Sitting here, listening to the sound of rain falling, I keep wishing that winter was over. I can take it for only so long. The seemingly endless rain with no snow to follow just seems… empty to me. And yet, I know that Australia needs the rain, so I keep my mouth shut.

3. Avocados, potatoes, sweet potatoes and other things I’m not allowed to have on my current diet tastes so good!

4. Sometimes, putting others first is just what you have to do to get back in touch with your humanity.

5. The world is breathtaking, really.

6. Well, maybe there is something to be said for drinking large amounts of water every day.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to building Rome (new computer game), tomorrow my plans include doing some shopping, getting bottles for all my spices, getting new pj pants and spending time with my husband and Sunday, I want to avoid work for as long as I can!

There you have it. I hope you all have an absolutely wonderful weekend. I know I say this every Friday, but I truly do. If everyone in the world could have a fabulous weekend, imagine what the world would be like on Monday.

Hello and happy Thursday Thirteen, all. As per usual, I will be giving you a list of thirteen prompts in all shapes and sizes. They could be a first line of dialogue, a plot idea, or something else. I hope you enjoy and pick and choose as you please.

If there are any other types of prompts that you would find useful, let me know anytime.

Have a great day.

1. “What is actually happening?”
2. Plot Point - Blow something up.
3. “Look to the west.”
4. Write a scene with the theme of cold.
5. When have you felt truly out of control?
6. “What do you mean I can’t?”
7. Plot Point - Give your main character a blast from the past.
8. Explain love to a robot or alien.
9. “The last person who said that to me ended up dead.”
10. Write about a time in your life when you’ve felt regret.
11. Write a scene with the theme of journey.
12. “You’d do well to shut your mouth and shut it now.”
13. Plot Point - Make things more difficult for your main character by bringing in an old love interest.

Hello once again everyone!

Welcome to another mid-week random word bank. I rather like random word banks. There is a challenge in them that not only gets your mind working, but you can also end up with a scene that you didn’t know you had it in you to write.

I hope you find these word banks useful. If there is a type of prompt you would prefer to see, please let me know.

Remember, with all the words, you can use any form, any tense of the word. Eg. Laugh can be laugh, laughter, laughs, laughed.

For the first word bank, I don’t want you to write a short story or anything actually. What I want you to do is word association. For every word there, I want you to write the word and then write the first word that comes to your mind after.

For the second word bank, I do want you to write a short story (or something longer if you like) that incorporates this week’s theme. This round goes as usual; just include all of the words in the bank.

For the third word bank, it is something different yet again. I would like you to try your hand at writing a poem incorporating the words provided. (Don’t worry if you can’t quite use all the words; eight or nine is great!)

Enjoy!

First Word Bank
Risk
Game
Path
Holy
Avocado
Fact
Fiction
Time
Money
West

Second Word Bank
Aloof
Grandeur
Robe
Green
New
Breath
Blue
Up
Cold
Wait

Third Word Bank
Destiny
Want
With
Grasp
Metal
Winter
Light
Distract
Play
Flute

***Remember to leave a link to your responses!

There is a saying that any two people in the world are only separated by six people. This plays into the ‘it’s not what you know but who you know’ way of thinking in our world today, but it’s still quite an interesting concept.

The first time I played the game it was actually meant to be a challenge to connect two things, like toast and trees.

Toast > butter > grass > ground > roots > tree

That sort of thing.

I’m not sure about being connected to every human being on this planet in just a few steps. But, after finding out I have ’six degrees of separation’ type connections to top executives at Fox in the United States, I’m not not willing to simply dismiss it.

What do you think of ’six degrees of separation’? Do you think it could be/is true? Have you ever found out you have connections to people you never thought possible? How were you connected? How did it make you feel when you found out?

Remember, to help clear your mind before you start writing, take a few deep breaths. Focus on the sound of the air entering and leaving your lungs. Let the noises and worries of the day fade for a few moments while you focus only on breathing.

After you are calm, think about your experiences and start writing.

Wishing you heaps of creativity, a generous muse and heaps of time to write. Feel free to check in here with your progress for the day/week/month/etc.

Hello and welcome to another week here at Write Anyway. As always, I’m starting the week with a bit of musical inspiration to get your creative mind going.

Love him or leave him, Joe Cocker’s unique voice came into my little world a couple years ago with his version of ‘Have a Little Faith In Me’. This week he is spotlighted as my featured singer.

According to Wikipedia:

“John Robert “Joe” Cocker OBE (born 20 May, 1944) is an English rock/blues singer who came to popularity in the 1960s, and is most known for his gritty voice, his idosyncratic arm movements while performing and his cover versions of popular songs, particularly those of The Beatles. He is the recipient of several awards, including a 1983 Grammy Award for his song “Up Where We Belong”, a duet which he performed with Jennifer Warnes.”

Enjoy.

And there you have it! Your musical inspiration for the week.

There are a lot more songs out there, so do some hunting! I hope you find this music inspirational.

If you have any suggestions for singers or bands you’d like to see featured, let me know in the comments. I won’t promise to put all selections up, but I do promise to take a look. Besides, I’m always open to falling in love with a new band or singer and adding more music to my massive collection.

Have an excellent week filled with inspiration, time to write and a very generous muse.

Yay! It’s Friday and I’m not under huge amounts of pressure to work straight through the weekend like I did last weekend. Big friggin’ yay!

Can you tell I’m excited it’s Friday? It’s not like I have any big plans for this weekend or anything. I’m just glad it’s Friday (a sunny Friday!) and I’m not thinking about how much work I have to do this weekend. THAT doesn’t happen very often.

And…here we go!

1. The fish and chips shop and the Indian place make a quick and easy dinner.

2. How to Organize all the Books You are Reading is the book I’m reading right now.

3. July brings back memories of past Julys.

4. Number one was obvious.

5. They say if you tell your dreams then you’re just a big dream-teller, you dream-teller… you….

6. I rarely take enough time to think it over.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to enjoying the fact it is Friday and all that good stuff, tomorrow my plans include going to the grand opening of the new Indian joint run by our friends and Sunday, I want to relax!

Very exciting and all that stuff, no doubt. HA.

Yes, I’m still very excited that today is Friday.

I hope each and every one of you has an absolutely awesome and wonderful weekend filled with great food, great company, a great book/movie/whatever it is that you want or need.

PS. You could make your weekend even better by stopping by my Left Behind and Loving It virtual workshop and leaving a comment!

Hello and happy Thursday Thirteen, all. As per usual, I will be giving you a list of thirteen prompts in all shapes and sizes. They could be a first line of dialogue, a plot idea, or something else. I hope you enjoy and pick and choose as you please.

If there are any other types of prompts that you would find useful, let me know anytime.

Have a great day.

1. “That just screams redo.”
2. Write a scene with the theme of pressure.
3. Write about a time in your life when you had to do something you didn’t want to do for ‘the greater good’.
4. “What makes you think that?”
5.Write a scene with the theme of want.
6. Have you ever been two-faced?
7. “I told you once. I’m not telling you again.”
8. Write a scene with the them of lust.
9. “For the first time in one hundred years…”
10. Have you ever gotten something you wanted and realized it wasn’t as great as you thought?
11. Write a scene with the theme of wanderlust.
12. “Do you ever look at the stars and know, just know in your gut, that you’re meant to be somewhere else?”
13. Write about a time in your life when you had to fight for something.

Hello once again everyone!

Welcome to another mid-week random word bank. I rather like random word banks. There is a challenge in them that not only gets your mind working, but you can also end up with a scene that you didn’t know you had it in you to write.

I hope you find these word banks useful. If there is a type of prompt you would prefer to see, please let me know.

Remember, with all the words, you can use any form, any tense of the word. Eg. Laugh can be laugh, laughter, laughs, laughed.

For the first word bank, I don’t want you to write a short story or anything actually. What I want you to do is word association. For every word there, I want you to write the word and then write the first word that comes to your mind after.

For the second word bank, I do want you to write a short story (or something longer if you like) that incorporates this week’s theme. This round goes as usual; just include all of the words in the bank.

For the third word bank, it is something different yet again. I would like you to try your hand at writing a poem incorporating the words provided. (Don’t worry if you can’t quite use all the words; eight or nine is great!)

Enjoy!

First Word Bank
Type
Discharge
Noise
Army
Annoy
Chicken
Laser
Want
Light
House

Second Word Bank
King
Egypt
Water
Patient
Orange
Wonder
Cross
Look
Question
In

Third Word Bank
Strong
Take
Crunch
Path
Breathe
Turn
Narrow
Tense
Stomach
Wait

***Remember to leave a link to your responses!

Back closer to when we first met, my husband told me about his childhood hero - Victor Borge. The way he spoke about the man changed his voice and brought a smile to his face. I couldn’t help but smile as well, given his reaction; it was wonderful to see.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t reciprocate the childhood memory. I never had a hero growing up. Most of the people didn’t demonstrate heroic qualities (in my opinion) and I never paid enough attention to the world as a child to find a hero in someone didn’t know.

Though I don’t think my life is necessarily incomplete for not having had a childhood hero, I thought about what it might have been like had someone emerged in my life as someone I could look up to as a good role model.

Did you/do you have a hero? If not, do you wish you had? If so, who is your hero? Why? What makes one person a hero and one person not? What defines heroism? Does one act or many make a hero?

Remember, to help clear your mind before you start writing, take a few deep breaths. Focus on the sound of the air entering and leaving your lungs. Let the noises and worries of the day fade for a few moments while you focus only on breathing.

After you are calm, think about your experiences and start writing.

Wishing you heaps of creativity, a generous muse and heaps of time to write. Feel free to check in here with your progress for the day/week/month/etc.

Hello and good morning (or whatnot, depending on your time zone) everyone! Another Monday, another Musical Monday…

A few of you out there probably aren’t going to like me for putting up this week’s singer, but I really can’t help myself. I am a slave to my shuffle, and this is what the shuffle landed on.

So, without further ado… Alanis Morissette

According to Wikipedia:

“Alanis Nadine Morissette (born June 1, 1974) is a Canadian-American singer-songwriter, record producer and occasional actress. She has won twelve Juno Awards and seven Grammy Awards. Morissette began her career in Canada, and as a teenager recorded two dance-pop albums, Alanis and Now Is the Time, under MCA Records. Her international debut album was the rock-influenced Jagged Little Pill, which remains the best-selling debut album by a female artist in the U.S., and the highest selling debut album worldwide in music history, selling 30 million units worldwide. Her following album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, was released in 1998 and was a success as well.”

Enjoy…

And there you have it! Your musical inspiration for the week.

There are a lot more songs out there, so do some hunting! I hope you find this music inspirational.

If you have any suggestions for singers or bands you’d like to see featured, let me know in the comments. I won’t promise to put all selections up, but I do promise to take a look. Besides, I’m always open to falling in love with a new band or singer and adding more music to my massive collection.

Have an excellent week filled with inspiration, time to write and a very generous muse.

“I looked to see if we had done this topic before (it’s getting trickier to remember!) and found that the only time we had used the word ‘indulgence’ was on the fourth week and it wasn’t even the topic! It has been a little bit too long since we were indulged. What do you make of that?”

Ah, indulgence. It’s almost scary when the prompts reflect the ‘theme’ of the past week in my life.

At the moment, I am trying to lose weight. I make no secret about it; I figure the more people know about it, the more people I have supporting me. Heck, I think most people on this planet can relate to some kind of weight issue - be it gaining, losing or maintaining. Body image has, unfortunately, become such an important thing…

I’m trying to lose weight for two related reasons. The first is for my health. The second is so I can (hopefully) conceive a child without any medical assistance.

Anywho, I started on meal replacements in late May, not really sure if it would work. I’ve had limited (about ten pounds lost at most over long, long periods of time) results from all sorts of diets along with ‘regular diet and exercise’. Lo and behold, it has been working quite well. I’m down about thirty pounds.

This week I cut loose a bit and let myself indulge. A meal voucher in combination with celebrating my permanent residency has made for delicious meals, drinks bought for me and a general good time.

Of course, I’ve gained a couple pounds back, but I think it was totally worth it. Indulgences - kept as indulgences - are needed in life. They remind us how to live, love and enjoy what we have.

Then it’s not such a hassle to get back to doing what we have to do to survive.

For the first time in a while, I am actually late with the Fill-Ins. Pout. I have been absolutely swamped with work this week, though, and it doesn’t look like I’m going to get the kind of weekend I’m craving (a complete disconnection from everything work-related). Ah, well. At least the weekend means more time spent with my husband.

And…here we go!

1. The last thing I ate was this morning (it’s now afternoon as I’m posting) and it was a meal replacement bar. Yeah, I’m doing the meal replacement thing. Honestly, though, the stuff - most of it - tastes good AND it’s the only thing so far that has helped me actually lose weight. 30 pounds gone so far.

2. New bras and knickers are something I recently bought.

3. When it rains, it means that droplets of water are coming down from the sky. Eesh. The state of education these days…

4. My husband was the first person I talked to today. He’s always the first person I talk to regardless of the day of the week. It’s only natural when you sleep with someone and live with them…

5. Hugs are extra comfort.

6. Hugs are extra comfort.

Hehehe.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to having a great night out with my husband, tomorrow my plans include working a heap and Sunday, I want to watch some movies with my husband, but I’ll probably end up working some more!

Yay! I hope you all have an absolutely wonderful weekend filled with heaps of free time and lovely indulgences.