Grammar (yay Strunk and White!), Mythological references, Monster manuals, etc.

What do authors keep on their desks to help them do their jobs?

Also, recommendations of good books is always great. I have found that if an author whose books I like says that someones elses book is good odds are I will enjoy it.

Another potential idea: do you ever get an idea that simply MUST be written? It may have nothing to do with your current work and may in fact be so insistant that you have to stop what you are doing to “tend” to it? What do you do in that situation? It seems to me something that a creative mind like yours (and your fellow authors)
might fall prey to.

Another potential idea: Do you think certain things are harder to write than others? Or is writing just writing?

Just some thoughts. No Haiku, sorry. It is too early in the morning and I have absorbed not nearly enough caffeine.

I always love to hear about other people’s mangled english, unless it made it into the final draft. Or amusing misspellings. Or things the spellchecker thinks makes sense, but absolutely don’t.

Ideas discarded
I have no use for this thing
Fertilize daisies!

What doesn’t work for stories for you? What did you poke at and discard? Why?

Maybe you could talk about trying to find ideas to write about –
And that could be either ideas for blogs or ideas for stories, whichever you prefer.
(Really, it’s helpful if there’s a contest. Contests draw readers like flies). But
Kick-ass females are always good. How did you come up with yours? What qualities

Of your protagonist do you like best? Is there anything that annoys you about your characters?
Famous people – everyone’s met one or two. Have you met any?

The writing process is always a good choice. How do you do your plotting?
Has it been hard for you to write every day? How do you motivate yourself?
Everyone has a vice. Like chocolate. Or coffee. Or tea. Care to share?

Do your characters do what you tell them to or do they have minds of their own sometimes?
Endings. How do you plot them? Do you know the end going in or does it come to you as you go?
(Maybe this is too many ideas? I didn’t realize your title was so long when I started this!)
OK, I think I’m running out of steam. Just one more suggestion:
Naughty or nice? If you had to choose one or the other kind of romantic interest for your protagonists for all future stories, which would it be?

Geez… That was hard! But I’d try just about anything for a copy of Blood of the Demon. *grin*

And… I’m always rather fond of world building discussions, or culture/language building, or even character creation.

I think it really depends on what you want to write about and what you think is the proper place to write about certain things. Perhaps, you think, this blog is just about writerly things so talking about how interesting the graphic design on a particular mug you saw wouldn’t be appropriate, or maybe you do. I think a lot of blogs function simply because the people writing them have people that are interested in *them* and what they have to say, even if they’re small matters like mug designs.

I visit because I really like the atmosphere and I like the writerly discussions and how it usually all ties into life and perceptions and things like that. I like this blog because all of you who post here seem like really nice, really cool people.

But if I had to put one idea into the idea jar, it would definitely be about story creation, or weaving and knitting ideas into stories and making them work or how characters come to you and how you add and edit their traits and personalities, unless, of course, they come to you as an entire being first.

That’s what I’m interested in. Where things come from and why, and possibly what they mean to you.

Umm. And that’s it. Hope I don’t come off as demanding. (And I totally could never be a very consistent original blogger. I would totally stick to my absolutely favorite topics and just write the crap out of them all the time and people would be like, “Argh, why is she writing about this AGAIN?”)

Best of luck~

Honestly, most readers will lap up pretty much anything. Guest blogs, plugging a favorite author, your three-year-olds latest poem. As long as you don’t feel uncomfortable, go for it.

Like Kim said, it doesn’t have to be partictuarly significant to your readers (though that helps) as long as it is significant to you, and the reader can see that. Pretty much anything that interests you will interest the reader. I’ve even seen pictures of wine cork collections garner much positive attention. I know this sounds a bit cynical. But try to think of it as you being just that cool.

I *could* re-write this comment in a sequence of lame haikus, but I figure being clearer trumps being clever. (*crosses fingers*)