From Your Friendly Professional Nag

Yep. I'm breaking out the cattle prod again.

We all know that if you want to be a "real" writer, you need to write as much as possible . . . preferably every day. Maybe that's your New Year's Resolution: write every day. Maybe it's a resolution you've had before, but every time you sit down and face that blank page, you struggle: "Okay. I'm here. Butt in chair, ready to write." And that cursor blinks at you on that big white screen; or that blank notebook looks up at you with all those pristine lines waiting to be filled with your beautiful words. That blank page/screen can be very intimidating! So here are some links to help you out.

Get a daily(ish) prompt at these sites, so that when you sit down at that blank page, you'll have an idea to write about. Use them as morning pages, a general warm-up, or see if you can turn a prompt into a full-fledged story (a lot of my stories started out as prompts)!

The One-Minute Writer

Sunday Scribblings

Dragon Writing Prompts

Writing Prompt (on Twitter)

No Telling

Creative Writing Ink

Bibliographic Junkies (Yahoo Group)

And why do I have all these links? Because I have problems facing the blank page, too. And I have trouble making sure I write EVERY DAY.

I'll plan to hold myself accountable for writing every day by posting my daily progress on Twitter (except weekends; I'm not a slave driver). If you'd like to do the same, you can follow me on Twitter (and I'll follow you back), and we'll hold each other accountable (cheers when you write; gentle encouragement to do better tomorrow when you don't). Just post your progress every day. Let's make 2011 the year we finally make our "write every day" goal!

http://twitter.com/BrendaKezar

Or, if Facebook is more your style, you can join Kelly L. Stone's 90 day writing challenge and get the year off to a good start (the challenge ends in April, but that doesn't mean you can't keep the momentum going through the year). You can sign up on Facebook here:

Author Kelly L. Stone's 90-Day Writing Challenge