Woo Wednesday

Woo Who?

I’ve been taking walks most evenings. It’s been nice for a lot of reasons, but one of them is that woo woo things keep happening. For instance, the other night I was walking my tripawd doggo, Max, and he stopped to sniff something. I looked up at the street sign next to me and saw a tiny owl watching me.

We stared at each other for a couple of minutes. I kept waiting for it to leave when my dog moved or I shifted a couple of feet, but it stayed put. After a while, I bid it good night, and walked away. I turned back about ten yards down the block and it was gone.

This is only the second time I’ve seen an owl in my neighborhood. We’ve lived here fifteen years. The last time I saw one was six months ago when an owl literally knocked on my back window. It sat on my fence for a while watching me when I went out to investigate, too.

And don’t get me started about all the feathers crows have been leaving around my house.

Apparently there’s some serious bird business I need to handle.

Woo Wells Workshop

On Monday, I kicked off July’s theme of Word Craft with a post about how to improve the rhythm of your writing. We also discussed the possibility of me hosting write-ins every week. It would be for subscribers only, so if that interests you, sign up.

Woo Writing

Last week, I started using a new writing routine. Mornings are for writing and ideating, and afternoons are for housekeeping, like writing newsletter posts and answering emails. My goal is to write 7500 words a week, and I surpassed that goal last week. I also managed to get my posts for the week prewritten and started some new promotion initiatives for this space.

I also stole an idea from my friend, Vicki Pettersson, and began journaling about my writing process each day to kick off my work. It helps me get my head back in the story each morning and keep track of things like dreams I’m having while writing it. At the end of my writing sessions, I also use it to make notes for myself for the next day. It’s really helping me focus. Vicki’s got a great Youtube channel going with awesome writing tips. Check it out!

It’s so nice to finally be producing words regularly. I’m still figuring out what story this novel is trying to tell, but I’m having fun with it.

Woo Reading

Since this month’s theme is Word Craft, I wanted to share with you some of the novelists that I look to for inspiration when it comes to writing beautifully.

Tana French (They’re all good, but The Likeness was the first of hers that I read)

Shirley Jackson (Everything she wrote ever)

Toni Morrison (Start with Beloved)

Ray Bradbury (Read the opening paragraph of Fahrenheit 451)

This is by no means an exhaustive list. I was going to list all the poets I love, too, but it got way too long. (Start with Mary Oliver, Langston Hughes, Anne Sexton, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Maya Angelou, Audre Lord, Pablo Neruda, and Rimbaud—they should keep you busy.)

Which writers (fiction or verse) really make words sing for you?