Wednesday is my super-busy tutoring day — 4 awesome students! I think I learn as much from working with them, as they learn from me 🙂

Three or four years ago, I was collecting spelling rules from here and there, and got the bright idea of putting them together into a really comprehensive spelling book.  Of course there are lots of spelling books out there, but I couldn’t find one that covered all the bases.  So I got busy and put my “Spellbound” book together. I was just about ready to publish it when I stalled–because the more I thought about it, the more depressed I got about how boring and technical it was.  Besides that, it was dull to look at.  So I shelved it, and it’s been sitting there sad and lonely for a good couple years. Several months ago, though, I started taking a sketching course called Verbal to Visual, and I quickly realized that I could use my new skills to illustrate the spelling book in amusing ways.  But still … the manuscript itself was stale….

And then today I got a brainwave! When I work with my tutoring students, we have a lot of fun practicing spelling by using lots of rhyme and rhythm to learn new words.  Why not, I thought, make a fun rhyming spelling book? I decided to give it a try, beginning with “Abbreviations.”  And not only did I have fun myself creating the rhymes, but I really do think others might find it fun, too–and the rhymes might be just the ticket to make the rules easy to remember. 🙂

I also wrote a couple of pages in my journal today.  Handwriting, I find, helps my creative muse get active faster than trying to create on the computer keyboard.  Besides which, I have a wonderful collection of pens of all colours, and that helps me create too.  (And yes, I created those spelling rhymes in handwriting, with my favourite purple pen).

One other thing I do every Wednesday is transfer, from my daily agenda book to my writing calendar, all the writing and editing and reading I’ve done in the past week. There I can see, at a glance, how much I’ve accomplished! It really is motivating and encouraging.

What do you do to motivate yourself to keep up with your writing goals?