Twenty Inventive New Year’s Writing Prompts

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Here are twenty inventive New Year’s Writing Prompts to start your writing year off right.

1.       A professor has a dream about no one coming to her class on the first day of the semester

2.       A mom realizes that her kids don’t go back to school until February

3.       A grumpy neighbor gets mad that Christmas lights are still on

4.       A gym owner hands out cookies and gets punched in the face

5.       The lights go out on New Year’s Eve and don’t come back on in the morning

6.       A candle store goes out of business because every single Christmas gift gets returned

7.       A woman’s New Year’s Resolution is to leave her husband

8.      Fireworks go off on New Year’s Eve but then a city realizes it was a bomb

9.     The ball drops in Times Square, breaks open and ______ flies out

10.   Everyone is forced to relive the last year over again

11.   A child’s New Year’s Resolution is to get their parents to divorce

12.   A January calendar is printed with the wrong date

13.   Travelers use the wrong dated calendar to book airline tickets that are one day off

14.   A woman decides to leave her Christmas lights up all year round

15.   A granddaughter starts to declutter her grandmother’s house and finds a shocking amount of____

16.   A boy gets a new pair of sneakers and discovers they allow him to_______

17.   A grocery store gives away a chance to win a free car with every pound of kale sold.

18.   A blizzard shuts down a mountain highway, and two strangers find the same cabin

19.   There is a national emergency signal sent at 12:01 am that says _____

20.   There is a magical calendar and whatever you write on it comes true

If any of these writing prompts tickle your fancy, you might love one of my books! You can check them out points up up there! And if you write a bestseller based on one of my prompts, please acknowledge me in the back.

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Three Months of a Book No Buy - What Worked, What Didn't

Brief Recap:

I decided not to buy books for the first three months of 2020. I talked about it a bit here, in January’s Best Books To Read Now post.

Why? I bought a lot of books in December and one day, I was scrolling through the hundreds of other unread books in my Kindle and thought, “I really want to read some of these things in here. They look really good. But I keep getting distracted by the new shiny books that I keep one-clicking.”

Temporary solution: Pause book buying for 3 months so I could re-discover my TBR pile.

We’re almost at the end of the quarter so let’s see what happened…

What I’ve Bought:

You didn’t think it would be ZERO, did you??

Well, I’ll admit, I REALLY thought I could stick to it. But I didn’t.

I’ve bought four books since December 31, 2019. I will say, they were all on sale. Two were backlist books that rarely go on sale; September by Rosamunde Pilcher and Paradise by Judith McNaught. These are two books that I’ve read many times, that I own the paperbacks of and the paperbacks are falling apart. They shouldn’t even count as new book purchases, TBH. Think of it as updating my bookshelf with new technology.

Then I bought one of the books in Rhys Bowen’s Royal Spyness series. I’m trying to acquire them all, so when one goes on sale, I pinch it. And then I bought another Rhys Bowen book, because (1) it was on sale and (2) I’m a sucker for WWI stories.

Still. Four books in 3 months, four purchases that were (mostly) well-thought out, not that impulsive? Is a pretty good success for me.

What I’ve Read (aka How did that TBR pile work out for you?)

So how many books have I finished from the TBR pile?

One.

How many have I started and DNF’d (Did Not Finish) from that TBR pile?

Three.

How many free books have I finished from the library/ review copies from NetGalley?

Uh… a lot.

What the heck, Lindsay?

Here’s what I’m thinking.

My Kindle is essentially a compilation of three piles: Books I’ve Read, Books That Were on Sale, and Books I Probably Should Read (Because someone said so/ asked me to / recommended it). But that doesn’t mean that the Book I WANT To Read At This Moment is in any of those three categories. So. That’s a problem.

Also, in the past three months, I have to recognize that the Thrill of a New Book is a great high, whether it comes from the library or a publisher. It’s that same dopamine hit that feels so good when we shop online at 11:30 pm. Finding something new at the library is so fun and cheaper than the bookstore but it’s still not helping my bookshelf issues.

Also, I declared this the Year of Hell Yes.

In 2020 I’m trying to apply the maxim, “If it’s not a Hell Yes, it’s a No.” And it’s come up a lot when I’m scrolling through my Kindle, looking for something to read.

Hard truth time: If books are still sitting in my TBR pile… they were a “NO” at some point.

OUCH, right?

Still, I have this stubborn belief in The Myth of an Undiscovered Favorite Book. That one day I’ll decide to open up Yadda Yadda Yadda and it will be the best thing I’ve ever read and OMG where has this been my whole life. It does happen. I still believe. Also…

Will I continue the no (low) buy for Q2?

Yes. Surprised?

I’ve enjoyed a more thoughtful approach to my reading in the past three months. The combination of Hell Yes and No Buy has resulted in me being picky, but in the best ways. I do think there are still treasures buried deep in my bookshelves, virtual and real, which I really want to discover. And if this also means I’m frequenting the library more (and the library app while I’m self-isolating), I have no complaint about that.

So stay tuned for three more months of book discovery! I’ll still post my Best Books blog posts here and go into the blind details of my DNFs in the secret posts of my Inner Circle Newsletter. Get on the list if you haven’t yet!

Balance and the Rock Star

I love the new year and the retrospectives and the planning and the beauty of a blank calendar. This year is no exception.  I've taken some time to go over 2015, thanks to these lovely printables at The Happiness Planner.  My answers to some of the questions were a little shocking, to tell the truth.

Without going into too much gory detail, I overdid 2015. Some of it couldn't be helped, some of it was all my fault. I've been battling a Cold from Hell (which would make a great band name, btw) for over a week and all signs point to the fact that my body has completely given out, surrendered, thrown out the white flag, etc. No matter how many supplements, vitamins and amino acids I choke down, they cannot undo the damage that 12 months of stress has done to my body.

Ironically (?), this was my goal for the year.  I was going to Dream Bigger. I still love that mantra. Looking back at my awesome writing spreadsheet, I estimate that I wrote approximately 325,000 words in 2015. That doesn't count words produced during edits, blogging, etc.   That doesn't count words that I produce in a very stressful full time day job.   This is a metric shit-ton of words, of hours spent at laptops, huddled over the ipad mini on the train, scribbling on notebooks.

As much as I love it, and while I now know I am completely capable of it,  I can't do this in 2016.

Not unless I'm having fun doing it.

That's what my reflections have shown me, in a striking black-and-white clarity.  I love having fun.  If I'm having fun, late nights and tendonitis and the strange looks of parents on the soccer field as I balance 300 pages of a manuscript-in-edits on my lap while sitting on the sidelines are all 100% worth it.

If I'm not having fun, well. It's just not worth it.  Pretty simple, right?

So for 2015, I am going to be a rock star. That's going to be me, up there on the amp, head banging and singing my heart out.  I'm having fun for the sheer fun of it. I'm going out with my girls, I'm supporting my tribe, I'm drinking wine, I'm writing the stories that make me feel like Mick Jagger, Beyonce and Taylor Swift all rolled up into one. I'm going on more roadtrips, seeing the ocean, basking in Broadway lights.  And in this, I believe I will find the balance that eluded me in 2015.

That said, I'm SO FREAKING EXCITED about some of the projects that are in the works and/or germinating right now. I wish I could tell you all about them, but until I get official go-aheads, please follow me on social media, or sign up for my newsletter so you can get the updates for 2016.  

I'm wishing all of you a very balanced and fun 2016.

P.S. Have you checked out RUSHING TO DIE yet? It came out this week!

Happy 2014! The Year of...?

I love New Year's Day. For the past eight years, we've celebrated New Year's Eve with a rockin' party with our good friends ("rockin'" = chili, hot dogs, pajamas, cookies, ok... wine.) Then after midnight, everyone goes home, I sweep up the crumbs and throw away the paper plates and go to bed, waking on New Year's Day with a full heart and a clean house.  

For nearly twenty years, I also would start a new calendar on New Year's Day. What better way to start a new year? So full of promise, possibility? A clean slate, literally. Pages and pages of potential parties, trips and tasks, just waiting to be filled in.

Just thinking about it is making me warm inside.

Except this year...  There is no fresh calendar. No clean pages. No blank squares.  Because 2013 was the year I went digital.

After years of mocking  and derision and dumbfounded looks from friends, colleagues and spouse, I stopped writing things down. On old fashioned paper.  With crude implements of plastic and ink.

It's all in a slim pink box now that I pretty much have to keep on me AT ALL TIMES. I am a slave to the phone and the calendar, the alarms, all the bells and whistles that keep me eternally on call for... something. Everything.

But...I still write things down. As I stated on Facebook yesterday, I keep track of all the books I read in a journal. Made of paper. Using crude implements of plastic and ink. That's not to say Goodreads isn't a useful site, but for me, there's something so important about reading a book, that I have to physically record it.  I keep a Christmas notebook as well. I record gifts given, cards received.  Again, things that need to be memorialized in a tangible way.  Notes of phone conversations, the most ethereal form of communication, litter my desk. Grocery lists are made most every week, on an actual piece of paper.  (Fear not - I do throw these away once the shopping trip is completed.  Although inexplicably I have kept written records of dinners cooked from 2006 to 2010, a history of a time when getting dinner on the table every night, with two children under four, was a feat worthy of a history book.)

As you can probably tell, going to a digital calendar was a pretty big deal for me. I don't think this is a generational thing, either. I see plenty of college students still clinging to paper planners.  There's something about the physical that grounds us.  Holds us to a moment, or a goal.  When our whole life seems lightning fast and uncontrollable, we still have this thing. This book. And it is real. And it confirms that we are doing what we are supposed to be doing. Or it tells us, "hey goofy, get back on track. There's a whole list of to-do's that do not have a check mark next to them."

So I sit on New Year's Day. My planner is next to me. I have bought no new calendar but I have journal pages, for things that I want to still keep solid and real. Things like  a list of books I have read. A packing list for my vacation.  The new addresses of old friends.

2013 was a big year for me. It was the year I went digital... sort of.  I imagine that most people, even when they find themselves in the midst of big changes still find that some things stay the same.  We give up paper calendars... we're still scribbling in a notebook.  We lose twenty pounds... we still battle with holiday sweets.  We sign contracts for multi-book deals... we still find ourselves in pajamas at our computers, living the life of an introverted, insecure writer. 

I may not have a shiny and new paper calendar, but 2014 is still full of possibility.  I know 2014 is going to be full of big, huge, sparkly stuff and probably a lot of pajamas and to-do lists.  And I can't wait.