Welcome to the last creative writing post of 2016! It’s been a pretty crazy year, and while it may not have been the best for many people, my “Year in Review” has some of my proudest achievements yet! Following last year’s format, my final 2016 Wednesday post is a review of my resolutions from the beginning of the year. Enjoy, and Happy New Year!
Did I complete that Master’s thesis on time?
Yes and no. While I did have to request a couple of extensions, I at least managed to complete my thesis within the year to meet a defense deadline in September. After revising it a final time and submitting it to my school library last month, my next goal is to complete the paper for submission to a scientific journal next year. Here’s hoping I can meet my next deadline in 2017!
Did I expand my blogging network?
Yes! While I’m not exactly pulling in thousands of readers a day yet, I did meet some new writers through WordPress and get a lot more networking done this year than last. I commented on more blog posts, shared several articles I enjoyed, and even participated in blogging events! I look forward to meeting even more writers in the year to come!
Did I start monetizing my writing?
Not quite, but I’m on track. I didn’t sell any articles or win any story contests this year, but I did sign up for Fiverr and just got approved by Google AdSense this month. I’ve already started placing ads on my blog, and you can expect to hear about my new freelance writing and editing services soon. Now that I’m done with school (for now), hopefully 2017 will prove to be a much more fruitful year for my writing career!
What about you? What have you learned about writing in 2016? I hope you had a productive year, and that your 2017 will be even better! Thanks for reading, and Happy New Year!
With the holiday season upon us and Christmas just around the corner, it’s time for another Christmas-themed blog post! Last year I shared a list of my top ten Christmas songs, but there are so many songs I love that I decided to share a few more this year. Nothing like some good Christmas music to get you into the holiday spirit!
So just for fun, here are five more Christmas songs I love listening to around this time of year. Enjoy, and Happy Holidays!
Note: this post contains embedded YouTube videos. If you’re reading this in your email, you may need to open the page on my blog to see them.
It’s not really the holiday season until you’re hearing the A Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack everywhere you go. Last year I started my list with “O Tannenbaum“, while this year I’m going with the more iconic “Linus and Lucy”. Everyone knows this one for the famous Peanuts dance scene, right? It’s a Christmas classic!
Okay, maybe this one is a bit grim for Christmas, but it takes me back to my childhood, so I love it anyway! I’m sure most of us have seen How The Grinch Stole Christmas! at least once, and we all know this famous theme song. If you happen to know a real-life Grinch or two, this song is for you!
Yes, I know I shared this song last year too, but this version from Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean is too awesome to leave out of this list! Conducting the Salvation Army band evidently comes naturally to Mr. Bean; this is easily one of my favorite remixes of this classic Christmas carol!
Here’s another song I picked up from Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean! This one is sung by a chorus of caroling children, and it’s nothing short of angelic. One of the cutest scenes in the whole special!
Another well-known song from How The Grinch Stole Christmas!, “Welcome Christmas” covers the other side of the famous children’s story. The Whos understand about the Christmas spirit what the Grinch has yet to learn, a lesson Dr. Seuss so eloquently sums up in a few lines:
And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before!
“Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store.
Now there’s a lesson we can all stand to be reminded of every holiday season! The company of loved ones is what truly makes a very Merry Christmas!
Bonus: if you like your holidays to be as politically correct as possible, you may get a kick out of Jon Cozart’s ridiculously hilarious Progressive Christmas Carols video. Enjoy, and have a Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah/Joyous Kwanzaa!
What about you? What are your favorite holiday songs, Christmas or otherwise?
The end of 2016 is finally on the horizon, and as I look back on my achievements over the past twelve months, I’m proud to say I’ve accomplished quite a lot. One of my major goals going in was to win my Goodreads Reading Challenge, a set goal of how many books I wanted to read in 2016. I may not have set the bar particularly high for my first try, but I’m still happy to have reached it!
Welcome to December! Wow, the year just flew by again, didn’t it? As we reach the end of 2016, why not help yourself to one more batch of “What If?” Writing Prompts? Today’s set features more prompts in the theme of the holiday season. See what new holiday stories you can spin from these ideas! Enjoy!
What if… Christmas came early this year?
What if… you were stuck reliving New Year’s Eve every day until you fulfilled all your resolutions for the past year?
What if… you found a note from Santa Claus leading you on a scavenger hunt for your Christmas present?
What if… there were a mixup at the North Pole and you had to help Santa get all the presents to the right children by Christmas morning?
What if… on New Year’s Eve, time were reset and the same year started over?
Good luck spinning some more holiday tales!
If you have any “What If?” writing prompt suggestions (for any theme), please feel free to share them in the comments below. Ideas I like may be featured in future “What If?” posts, with full credit and a link to your blog (if you have one)! Also, if you’ve written a piece based on an idea you’ve found here, be sure to link back to the respective “What If?” post. I would love to see what you’ve done with the prompt! Thank you!
November 2016 has been an incredibly hectic month, hasn’t it? From the chaos surrounding the U.S. presidential election to the final sprints of NaNoWriMo, it certainly hasn’t been the easiest few weeks for many writers who actively follow politics. As it draws to a close, I confess I found myself more emotionally drained this month than I can recall feeling at any point during the last few years (and that’s saying something). Sounds like now would be a good time for some more inspirational words!
So just for fun, and as a little ray of sunshine for anyone else who may be needing it these days, here are ten inspirational quotes for hope and a brighter future. Enjoy!
1) You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us. And the world will live as one. – John Lennon
2) It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart. – Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl
3) We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided. – J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
4) There is some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for. – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers
5) Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. – Martin Luther King Jr.
6) There is a saying in Tibetan, ‘Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength.’ No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that’s our real disaster. – Dalai Lama XIV
7) Remember, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. – Stephen King, The Shawshank Redemption
8) The road that is built in hope is more pleasant to the traveler than the road built in despair, even though they both lead to the same destination. – Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Fall of Atlantis
9) I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death. – Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: Autobiography of Nelson Mandela
10) The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope. – President Barack Obama
What are your thoughts on these quotes? Any others you would add to the list?
Remember that list of commonly misspelled expressions I shared last week? Well, here are a few more to add to your notes. I know, sometimes it seems like there are way too many of these to keep track of. Anyway, while you’re working on your novel for NaNoWriMo or any other writing projects, it may be worth keeping a long list of these expressions as a reference. You never know when you might find yourself second-guessing the spelling of an idiom, right?
So for further reference, here are 12 more expressions you may have misheard and/or written incorrectly. Enjoy!
1) Beck and call: indicates being constantly ready to obey someone’s orders immediately. Write “beck and call”, not “beckon call”.
2) By and large: an alternative expression for “on the whole” or “everything considered”. Write “by and large”, not “by in large” nor “buy and large”.
3) Curb your appetite: to restrain or keep your appetite in check. Write “curb your appetite”, not “curve your appetite”.
4) Foolproof: describes something that is incapable of going wrong or being misused. Write “foolproof”, not “full proof”.
5) In this day and age: an alternative expression for “at the present time” or “in the modern age”. Write “in this day and age”, not “in this day in age”.
6) Leeway: indicates the available amount of freedom to move or act or a margin of safety. Write “leeway”, not “leadway”.
7) Nitpicking: denotes looking for small insignificant errors or faults, usually in order to criticize unnecessarily. Write “nitpicking”, not “knitpicking”.
8) No holds barred: indicates that no rules or restrictions apply in a dispute or conflict. Write “no holds barred”, not “no holes barred”.
9) Rank and file: an expression of military origin referring to the ordinary members of an organization as opposed to its leaders. Write “rank and file”, not “ranking file”.
10) Sneak peek: describes a special preview of something before it becomes generally available. Write “sneak peek”, not “sneak peak”.
11) Vice versa: a Latin phrase denoting that a statement remains true when the objects are switched. Write “vice versa”, not “vice a versa”.
12) With all due respect: a polite expression used to mitigate the effect of a disagreement or criticism. Write “with all due respect”, not “with all do respect”.
What are your thoughts on these expressions and idioms? Any others you would add to this list?
J.C. Wolfe is a fiction writer, biologist, and aspiring novelist of science fantasy and romance. A natural-born American and graduate in Marine Ecology from a university in Brazil, J.C. now writes for a living in California while spending free time blogging and penning stories and poetry.
J.C. Wolfe is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
What if… Christmas came early this year?
1) You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us. And the world will live as one. – John Lennon
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