Today I am pleased to introduce you to a new blog series I’m calling An Eclectic Writing Class. This will be a series of roundup posts with resources for specific writing-related categories I’ve chosen. You’ll understand it as we go. Let’s just jump in.

Productivity and time management go hand-in-hand. You need both to be a productive writer. On her Youtube channel, Amy Landino provides business, lifestyle, and social media success tips to help you "go after the life that you want." This quote is from her video Make Time For Everything You Want to Do.

I thoroughly enjoy Brandon Sanderson’s 12-lecture BYU class on Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy (318R). I’ve listened to them all at least three times and notice more useful stuff with every listen. The ones on magic systems and world building are especially good.

Write a scene including  the phrase “the floor creaked” 

I recommend setting a timer for 20 or 25 minutes and writing whatever pops into your head. If you need to tweak something in the phrase to make it work for your story, like changing a pronoun or swapping an object out for a different one, go for it. There are no rules here.  Just write.

You can read my basically unedited attempt at this prompt on Wattpad. Placeholder words are in [square brackets] and notes to myself for later are in {curly brackets}. I plan to continue posting these in “An Eclectic Writing Class - Prompt Writing.” I recommend adding the work to your Wattpad library so that new additions pop up in your newsfeed. With the mobile app, you can even get notifications on your phone.

If you would like me to see your attempt, send me a link, or share it on Twitter with the hashtag:

#eclecticwritingclass

You can also follow me on Wattpad to see any new projects.  I’m not looking for feedback on the prompt writing, but if I ever expand it into real stories, it would be great to get a critique group going. Contact me if that’s something that interests you.

When choosing vocabulary words, I like to pick ones I might actually use. The easiest way to do that is to take them from my reading. Anytime I see a word I'm not absolutely certain I know how to use, I write it down for later.

This section will vary in the number of words, depending on how many words I've come across in my reading, but I'm trying to limit it to ten. You're welcome to use my words or find your own.

My words for this lesson are:

There are a lot of ways you can try to learn vocabulary, from flashcards to writing sentences. Most have been gamified and made into apps that are way more engaging that word list memorization. I've made a Memrise course for my words, but use whatever works for you.

My fiction writing is still basically at a standstill. My blog to-do list is getting shorter each day, but each item invariably takes me 4x longer than I think it will. Hopefully, in the next 2-3 weeks, I’ll be done with the things I can fix for a while. Lots of great reviews are on the way.

That’s it! I’m not sure exactly how often I’ll add posts to this series, but once a month doesn’t seem unreasonable. To find other posts in this series when they come out, you'll be able to find any other posts in this series at An Eclectic Writing Class.

What do you think? Did I cover it all? Is there another element you’d like to see added to this post series? Leave a comment below or my hairless ghost lemur will haunt your dreams.