and The Write Practice has another “Show-Off” contest where if you win for the month, your story actually gets published on print!

Yes! You heard that right, on print - with real paper, real ink, and it will be a real book!

This month’s theme is Love. Not much of a surprise there but it can be any kind of love.

I’ll be working on a piece, maybe two. Deadline’s on Friday, February 10.

So get writing!

Writing every day can be quite tough. It’s a challenge and also a good practice to keep creativity flowing.

I do my best to write something at least once a day. Be it doing a practice on The Write Practice or preparing a blog post for my travel blog, it’s still writing.

After each day of writing and thinking, I can feel my brain slowly being squeezed dry. It’s like too much thinking has made my brain blow a fuse.

At The Write Practice, Joe Bunting always posts something about taking a break for at least 24 hours. No tweeting, no checking on Facebook, no blogging, no writing, no anything related to social networking and writing. Just rest. Read a book. Relax.

I’ve read the same post more than once and yet I’m still as stubborn as hell.

I check on Twitter for any mentions. I share posts from my travel blog. I read through other people’s blog posts. I still turn on my laptop, or even our iPad.

Maybe now that I’m feeling so drained, I’ll stop and rest for a while.

A challenging prompt by Lillie McFerrin called Five Sentence Fiction was shared to me by @jblearnstowrite.

This week’s word is clandestine.

The shopping street was bustling with tourists, locals and temporary stalls that were lined up side to side for the annual Valentine’s Day fair. A little girl picked up a small wind-up doll and ran to her mother, who was too busy haggling for clothes to notice her daughter. The girl watched in amazement as she wound up the doll and it started to walk in a straight line. When the doll stopped moving, Greg saw a bright light followed by a low but loud sound. “Happy Valentine’s,” he said as he started to walk away from the rooftop giving him a view of the whole city.

There’s my take on the word, clandestine. Tell me what you guys think. :)

Recently, I’ve been going back to outlining my ideas for stories.

I attempted to use Microsoft OneNote for this task because it seemed pretty easy to use and it syncs with the Skydrive so you can get your work from your mobile app to your desktop or laptop. However, I really got pissed off with it after discovering that my laptop won’t connect to Windows Live.

I got frustrated and I gave up.

Switched to another app called Evernote. And I love it! Plus it’s free!

Read More

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and I’ve recently decided to write a short story about Valentine’s. I used this idea for the first tutorial lesson by The Write Practice. If you love to write, you should really check them out!

Denice walks into the school gym, wearing her midnight blue glitter dress. She scans the room, looking for Riley and his date. She wasn’t able to tell him that she was coming to the dance anymore because he was still mad at her and also because her mother had forced her to attend.

She walked past the refreshments table and saw Riley in the middle of the dance floor. He was dancing and smiling with Pauline, his Physics lab partner. Denice wanted to approach them and ask if she could talk to Riley for a bit but something stopped her.

He’s really happy with her, she thought. He doesn’t need a friend like me.

She turned her back against the dance floor. Suddenly, she was holding back tears. I don’t want anyone to see me like this. Denice ran out of the school gym and made her way to the small garden behind the school grounds. The flowers in the garden had bloomed and somehow, it made her smile.

Read More