Winter Image Challenge

The image is of a snow covered tire, the little red berries surrounding it. Take this image and think about it a moment. Write me something, a poem, a story, a stream of consciousness ramble. Describe it if you like. Or go somewhere else completely. . .

Pretend you've fallen and this is what you see. Is the tire part of a yard? In the middle of the woods? The remains of a winter evening car crash?

Are the specks of red berries or fairy eggs? Are they mystic berries or poison for the unfaithful spouse?

Or is this image about the snow for you? Is your story about the cold? Is your poem about the winter?

This the Guild's first image challenge. Others should feel free to post images and challenge their fellow writers. Or maybe tell us about an image that you wrote about. This is your mission: visual inspiration. Tell us about it. You don't have to post your work or the result of the inspiration. Just the "about".

Have fun, and happy holidays!

Inspiration in Weird News

So, I have a little box on my yahoo homepage that is weird news feeds from the associated press and international news papers. It has things like stories that involve men who bite dogs and dogs who decide they want to drive their owner's minivans into doughnut shops.
Recently, however, I've discovered that this little box that I glance over every now and then often times has a lot of unusual stories that I can use.
It has become a source of inspiration.
It didn't hit me that I used my weird news feed for anything other than something to read to pass time until I found myself dragging an article about a burglar being trapped in a house that he was trying to rob by a ghost into my One Note (I love one note. Have I mentioned this?) and went over a couple of ideas that might make somewhat amusing short stories.
I just found it interesting that something I barely even look at unless the headline really grabs me turned out to be a major source of inspiration for me.
Hum, so I thought it was useful and interesting. *shrug* I think I might have some incentive to write this Christmas break. And half my work is done for me, haha.
-Kimmi

NaNoWriMo: Finish Line. Not Quite but Kinda.

Can you believe November is over? I just barely crossed the 50k line myself. And that was without my actual novel reaching anything close to a conclusion. I still have work to do if it's going to be anything. This year wasn't a great year for writing but it did teach me a few things:

Head starts are awesome. I was sick for a week. I took tons of days off, but because of the head start I got on my word count goal (10k in three days), I was able to keep up. Also, I learned that I can write wayyyyy too many words in a weekend if I put my mind to it.

Journals are the bomb diggity. I kept a NaNo journal on my One Note. It really kept me informed of where I was lacking and when I was a powerhouse. I also realized that One Note is so convenient that I'll probably be using it for everything from a food journal to a poetry diary.

NaNoWriYe. So maybe it's not national, but I think I could benefit from a National Novel Writing Year. I'm at that age. I need to be working my baby. It's that time. I've got to keep my writing chiselled to rock hard syntax perfection and get my dialogue lookin' sexy. This is the year. I say that all the time. Every year. However, my life is about to hit an oil slick. I'm going to be tossed out on my butt careerwise. Also, I realized that several of my stories have not been worked on since '06. What happened to '07 and '08? Seriously. College. Anyhow, this year needs to be the year that something is done. Who's with me?

*silence*

Seriously, any takers?

*crickets*

Well, I'm still doing it. Here goes an entire year of setting goals and failing. I mean, overcoming obsticals. Yeah. That's what I meant. I plan on keeping up with my failures and my successes in a journal. What do you guys think? Is the writing journal worth the extra writing? This question goes out to those of you who know about my list obsession...