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The Office of Letters and Light Blog. This month, we’re taking the SURVIVAL acronym from a wilderness survival guide, and using it to lead you through the depths of the forests, lakes, and crags of your writing journey. Therese Walsh, author of The Last Will of Moira Leahy and cofounder of Writer Unboxed tells us how improvisation can be an essential tool in the writer’s toolbox : Whose Line is it Anyway? Is one of my favorite television shows; I’m always amazed at the skill of these improvisers as they craft an entertaining story from scratch within minutes.

Their philosophy and techniques can help you, too, as you write your draft in record time. Here’s how: Ideas. You have a similar bag as you begin your NaNoWriMo experience. Mayday Option. Punting the Critic. Reinventions. The point is: you can mix up anything. Open Doors. The easiest way to do that is to generate problems for your characters.

Volume. Interaction. Sidestepping. Experimentation. Live just as fearlessly as you push through your new scenes. Writing Prompts. Write to Done. Arouse your creativity Electric flesh-arrows … traversing the body. A rainbow of color strikes the eyelids. A foam of music falls over the ears. It is the gong of the orgasm. ~ Anais Nin Creativity is like sex. I know, I know. The people I speak of are writers. Below, I’ve exposed some of their secret tips, methods, and techniques. Now, lie back, relax and take pleasure in these 201 provocative ways to arouse your creativity. Great hacks from Merlin Mann of 43 Folders. How to Make a Writing Deadline. Writing is one thing. A deadline is quite another. These tips are for the writer who is close enough to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but far enough away to truly believe that the tunnel could collapse around them at any point.

In the past, I’ve locked myself in the house, not seeing or talking to anyone for days on end only to emerge like one of the White Walkers from “Game of Thrones.” I knew I needed another way. These tips helped me join the living once more. Even under a deadline. 1. Before you undertake the final throes of a deadline, you should map out how much time you have and how much writing you have to do. (Which writers’ conference is the BEST to attend?) Guest column by Liza Palmer, whose book CONVERSATIONS WITH THE FAT GIRL became an international bestseller its first week in publication, as well as hitting # 1 on the Fiction Heatseekers List in the UK one week prior.

Try not to negotiate with yourself to take a day off and then “make up the words tomorrow.” 2.