I am not a runner....(My first 5K with The Color Run and Cool Kids Campaign)

Our view at the start line
Photo by me!

Remember my first entry? I am not a blogger? Well, I am also not a runner, but I gave it a go last weekend. This time last Sunday, The Color Run came to Baltimore, so a group of my friends and I went into the city to participate and support a great cause, The Cool Kids Campaign.

"The Cool Kids Campaign is devoted to improving the quality of life for pediatric oncology patients and their families by focusing on the academic, social and emotional needs brought on by a cancer diagnosis." Before The Color Run, I did not know about this foundation, but I am glad to have been a part of the run that raised money to benefit these kids and their families, and I look forward to participating again in the future.

Little Bits of Inspiration #2: Write or Die....

So, I just loaded up my twitter feed, and the first tweet I see is:

"I haven't written in over a week. I feel like I should. I need someone to yell at me to write..." @tabithamiriam

Funny, because I've heard these exact words from many people recently...especially with NaNoWriMo in full swing.

Thankful for Things

This started as a Facebook post, and it started getting longer and longer so I decided to make a mini blog post.

I've been seeing on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.....all these things people are thankful for in November. Each day they say something else they are thankful for, and I think this is a great reminder for those of us who are lucky enough to be happy.

Little Bits of Inspiration #1 - A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words

When you're a writer, one of the most thrilling moments you can find yourself in is when you're in your "madman" phase*, writing away, seeing the scenes in your head and getting them down on paper, the words coming so fast that your fingers can't even keep up. It's like watching a movie or TV show, being taken along for a ride, it's fun and makes you feel really good about yourself. If only all writing could be like this....

Fan Fiction as an Exercise

One of the ways that I got into more hard-core writing (setting deadlines for myself, plotting in my head all day long, finding myself excited about getting home from school to write) was Fan Fiction. I honestly cannot remember the last time I read a piece of fan fiction, though the last piece I wrote, I remember, was over ten years ago (the summer before college started), a Harry Potter Fan Fic, all about what if Wizardry was just in Harry’s head. But I digress, while I no longer have a need or even a slight desire to write/read fan fiction (and there is part of me that shuns that part of my existence because I grappled with the morality of stealing other people’s characters), I still think it’s a very valuable exercise for beginning writers.