As many of you likely noticed, I haven’t been writing as much as I used to. I wish I could blame this sudden lapse on my busy work schedule or my full school schedule, but in all honesty I’ve just been lazy, unmotivated, and lacking inspiration.

Last year, I was balancing two full time jobs (one as a producer on a TV show) and full-time graduate school –barely sleeping three hours per day– and I still found time to write at least three to four days per week.

I’m not sure what happened between last year and today, but I got lazy. Very, very lazy.

Fortunately for me, my friends and family will only tolerate my lethargy and idleness for so long. Allow me to show you my Christmas present this year:

Yep. A collection of 642 writing prompts to help me break through the sloth and return to my writing roots.

My sister-in-law gave me this gift as a joke (I don’t think she realized how little I’ve been writing recently), but I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it. I needed this. I needed to get the words flowing again. I needed something to break through the excuses (“I don’t have any ideas!”) and get me back to doing what I love.

I once had a teacher say that writing is like pumping water from an old well. You start pumping and it’s disheartening, exhausting, and you’re not getting anything for your efforts. You keep pumping and dark, murky, undrinkable water finally starts flowing. It’s repulsive and you hate it, but you’ve got to keep pumping. Eventually, the mud clears from the pipes and the water starts running clear. Fresh, crisp, refreshing water eventually comes out, but you’d never get to it if you didn’t start –and keep– pumping.

After several months of inactivity, it’s time to start pumping the well. My goal is to work on at least two or three writing prompts per week, and I’ll post my favorites up here. Here’s hoping the pipes haven’t rusted too much, and we can enjoy some clean water here very soon.

Happy pumping, my fellow writing friends, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

~ Victoria Elizabeth