Pen on Fire has the wherewithall and the creativity to jump start the cloistered writer within us all, with tips on waking the muse, to how to carve out time to write.
Pen on Fire: a Busy Woman's Guide to Igniting the Writer Within seems to me to be the kick-in-the-pants that most of today’s women writers need. This refreshing book focuses on the craft of writing and how multi-tasking Mom’s, career-driven Maven’s or even the Sedentary Sloths can get their hind-ends in gear and get to the joy of writing.
Like many women who have small creatures (read: kids) underfoot, I seem to lack quality creative time, and when I do find that illusive moment to write, my frazzled mind just doesn't feel up to snuff. I don't know, maybe it's the long hours filled by my day job (and I’ll be honest, it’s so easy even a cave-man could do it), the hair-pulling hours spent trying to help my 5-year-old with his homework, or the science experiment that used to be a sink full of dishes, but at the end of the day, my creativity has gone into the Witness Protection Program and has taken my muse with it. But, by some divine wind or enchanted play-of-lights, this book danced right off the shelf and into my arms a few fateful weeks ago. (Praise be to the big B&N)
First, this book showed me that I do have time to write during the day, and no I do not need to pray for 25 hours instead of 24. Apparently, I’m just using my time for senseless stuff like laundry. Okay, well, it doesn’t say that, but Pen on Fire does show how to carve out quality writing time and how to make yourself worthy of skipping the laundry one night to gain a few extra minutes of time to spend writing.
But more important than showing you how to accumulate wasted minutes of the day, Pen on Fire actually shows you easy things that you can do, like free-writing, having a musical writing track, or using a writing prop, to trick your brain into warming up to write a lot faster than it wants to after a day in the life of a busy woman.
As an example, one woman in this book has a writing hat, and she only wears it when she is writing fiction. If she has to get up to answer the door, the cap comes off. When she’s writing non-fiction, she doesn’t wear it. When her husband calls for her, she replies, “Not now, I’m wearing the cap.”
Oh, and did I mention that it’s chock full of writing prompts? For its extensive muse nurturing, Pen on Fire is a bottom-less cup of Java-- giving me infinite ways to trick my inner muse and dive headlong back into what I am-- a writer.
I will be discussing this book more in future blogs, but for now I wanted you to know that it’s worth giving a read. You might be delighted how easy it is to set your Pen on Fire.
