A special gift for those writers having a hard time allowing themselves playtime!

License to play by Tamlyn Leigh is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Netherlands License.

A weekly blog post about your inner two year old, and the many ways they can use to help you make your writing sparkle with their zeal :)

Today's playdate is all about engaging new layers of your creativity.

It is something that you probably did as a lil one, and still do during long, long phone conversations or musings about the next story you write.

What you need

• a box of crayons, the more colours the better!
• a sketch pad, a note pad, anything that has a drawable surface (no we don't mean the walls! Really, we don't!!)
• your hand(s)

Sit down, and just draw what comes up. It doesn't need to be perfect, just doodle. Doodle along. When you're stuck in a project, get the crayons and doodle. When you are feeling down, grab your crayons. Just engage that wonderful inner two year old into making the adult in you giggle like mad!

My inner two year old and I love love love to draw flowers. Violets and strange little flowers with five leaves. Or we love to draw kitties, no matter how badly drawn they are. The doodles are for us alone. You should see some of the notepads I have!

And then when you have doodled along, get to write, you'll see how good it feels.

Have a wonderful weekend :D

Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Tamlyn and her inner two year old (mostly the latter hehehehhehe)

This week I bought a train. Specifically an n-track train. I sat at the table as I put it down, and I smiled all the time. I don't think I felt this kind of joy in a long time. I played with something I love, and loved as a little girl, pressing my nose against the glass of a really big train track somewhere in an amusement park.

Years ago I had a similar train, and I had done so much with that track, I had mountains, a complete village, all with lights, and it was magickal. Until I got depressed. And sold it for peanuts on the dutch variant of craigslist.

It wasn't until this year that I realized how much I missed that train set. It embraced a lot of aspects of me, my playful side, my creative side (I wish I had pictures of how I did some decorating, it was gorgeous), and my geeky side :)

And ever since I have the train, I am letting all of those aspects out. I can't even begin to tell you how it has helped my writing. I feel liberated now. I know, it may sound strange, but that's what it is :)

So today's playdate's question is: what's your train? What toy or what object brings out multiple sides of you? How can you use that in your writing?

Ohhh I can hear you think, sing a song, really? I can't sing!

Your inner two year old doesn't mind though. She maybe has a voice others compare to crows, but she just sings her songs. She loves to make up her language for it too.

One of my favorite songs from my childhood is one with a completely made up language. Every time I sang it, I felt mischievous. I knew what I was singing, because I had given a meaning to the words. So when I sang the first line I sang something like "Oze wieze woze", but in my mind I sang "My brother ihiiis stuuupid". So I giggled like mad and still do whenever I think of songs like that :)

Wanna play along?

The playdate for today is as follows. Write a lil song in a nonsense language. Let one character sing it to another with the full knowledge of what that means. Giggles are mandatory!

I will post my own playdate response next week. Am off for the weekend!

Wheeeeeeeee!
Tamlyn :)

(PS I love how my inner two year old always goes Wheeeeeee! So much so that when I write something with her, I always will close with that. You have been warned!)

I have a whooooole pile of other words that aren't. They could be submittable after rewriting the whole darn things. I won't.

Why?

Because they are my foundation bricks. They are the books where I learned my craft, where I found my voice, gradually, and where I learned so much about myself and my writing. I wouldn't be where I am today as a writer if I hadn't taken the plunge with them.

And I love them all. The wobbly YA book with a fantastic teen girl, who deserves so much better, and will get it too, one day. Or another book, that started out so good, with an idea I fell in love with immediately, and then crashed and burned halfway through chapter 2. Writing and finishing it helped me through a very very hard time in my life, and I felt so much better for it.

This book, and many others, are sitting on my hard drive, gathering dust. That's all they will do. But each and every book has their strength in the book I am writing now. I am at 20K now. And each word was such bliss to write down. I engage all aspects of me in my writing, and the result is a book I can't wait to start on again.

My inner two year old and I are a couple of sweet tooths, we love our candy and we especially love to get it when we feel we really really deserve it, or when we aren't feeling well, and need some comfort in the form of something sweet. Right now It's NaNoWriMo time, and a lot of you are participating (by the way, if you don't have me on your buddy list, my username is tamlynleigh down there as well). So this playdate is especially for nano!

Our playdate for today is: let's go and get us some candy. Write a scene you have been really really really looking forward to write to help you along in getting there, or write a scene in the backstory you really want to tell. It doesn't matter that the scene comes in the book or not. It's all about play, and your inner two year old will tell you what she wants to play with.

For the non novelling types amongst you, you could write a little flash fiction on the first thought that comes up in you.

Remember to smile while you write, and remember to smile in your writing!

Have fun, and see you at next week's playdate!

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Tamlyn and her inner two year old who really loves to write lots of exclamation points!!!!!!

Every week I will post assignments that are focused on engaging your inner two year old in your writing. Or as my inner two year old likes to say: let's play!

I know this will change, inevitably, but for now: I love my book.

I am very behind due to all my medical issues of the past weeks, but I don't care if I make it to 50K. I care that I write a book I passionately love, and that I fill with scenes that make both me and my inner two year old giggle.