No matter what you are doing, if all the ingredients aren’t available, the results will definately be different from what you were expecting. It doesn’t mean you'll be left with disappointment and a bad taste in your mouth. It means you have to adapt and dig into your creative cupboard to make it happen. ​Simply put, finding the right recipe is all that is needed.

Like baking cookies, writers use a recipe to create characters, story lines, plots and endings all in a teasing effort to have you wanting more. Sometimes changing the persona of the character, or throwing in a twist in the storyline are needed to carry the plot forward. Yes, it may change the ending; but if it’s done right, like the cookies, your reader's will want more. 

Next time you have an idea for some prose, consider the following recipe. 

Idea: Bake cookies
Character: The cookie
Outline: The recipe
Scene: The steps of the recipe
Plot: Bring all of the needed ingredients together
Hook: Eating the first one
Storyline: Sharing the recipe
Ending: Eating the last one and wanting more

Alternately, if you are looking to bake cookies, try one of our family favourites found in From Our Home To Yours: Cookies

​​Being known as a writer can be a hard row to hoe. Looking for inspiration to write is a journey faced every day, even when it's a passion, never mind a livelihood. There are those who take their inspiring moments from their faith. Others, from day to day experiences. Some even draw on what others write to fulfill the void. 

So, where do I get my urge to write from? Let’s see, where to start? Ideally, I like to draw from my own life experiences or those from others I have known. Topics I am interested in are memories sparked by something I have read or heard said.  I like to write about nature, western heritage, traditions, my take on social media and whatever the imagination at any given moment throws at me. 

Recently, I had the pleasure of being in the company of some amazing women. At the end of the day, we were asked to reflect on the statement, “What Am I Claiming?”  I quickly made a list of eight items that came to mind. From a sentence I jotted down, “A vision to start a vision,” came a raw, creative, impulse moment . . .

Letting the mind and body connect. Visualization of what we leave behind in the quest of what is in store. Claiming a path. Selecting the moments of importance. Storing the memories, not discarding them. Let them grow dust on the shelf to make room for the unbridled passions. 

You see, at that given moment, I was given inspiration to write. It was not part of the question we’d been given, it was a need to get my claim on paper. The whole point of the exercise was to name what we felt passionate about. What were we going to take with us in our journey, be it success in business, a relationship, personal growth or life in general.

If you are passionate about writing, don't be afraid to record your words, and share them, no matter where you are or what you are doing. The one liner, or pages, you pen may be the beginning of something great. Claim It!

​January and February have flown by and March, it seems, has started without me and now it’s time to do some catch up.

The last few weeks have been an immersion of writing, deadlines, research and winter weather. Breathing room has settled, in and so have new schedules, Morning Muse included.