April | 2012 | Cathy C. Hall Writes

Oh, dear. It’s that time of year again when the days grow warmer and the honeysuckle’s on the breeze and my little toesies wiggle in flip flops. And I have a terrible time, sitting inside at my laptop, writing, when what I really want to do is go outside and play.

Maybe if I had this awesome blog planner, courtesy of Erica over at Confessions of a Homeschooler, it would help. Of course, I’d still have to write everything down on the pages to get myself organized which would involve…oh, dear. More writing.

But at least I came across this delightful blog post about dialogue tags from Dottie over at Trust Me…I’m a Writer for when I absolutely have to get some work done on the novel manuscript.

I have to admit that “said” is my go to dialogue tag, but I’ll occasionally throw in a “grunted” or “snarled.” And I’m a big fan of “whispered.” Oh! And yelled. As in “Hold your horses,” she yelled. “I just have one more sentence to write.”

So I opened up this box that arrived at the Cathy C. Hall house and wheeee! It was Chicken Soup for the Soul Boost Your Brain Power!

And yes, I am rather fond of exclamation points, but that exclamation point in the title was put there by the Chicken Soup people, not yours truly. Though I am all for boosting brain power and honestly, I would’ve probably added an exclamation point had there not been one.

Anyway, perusing this book (not just my own story with my personal method for boosting brain power) made me feel lots smarter than I did when I woke up this morning. So wheeeee again! But I would caution you against feeling too smart. Because that is just when you get your comeuppance.

For me, it came up with a map. Specifically, I realized (this afternoon) that I would need a map of the town that’s protrayed in the novel I’m working on. Which shouldn’t be that difficult. But anyone who has ever driven in a car with me–or walked in a neighborhood–or heck, been in a really big building–knows that I have this “issue” with maps. I can’t follow ’em.

That might make drawing a map a bit of a problem. But I’m going to double check in my Boost Your Brain Power! book, see if anyone wrote a story about that. Because there are some seriously smart people in Boost Your Brain Power!

(I’m not sure how I got in there. But I think that calls for an exclamation point or two, don’t you?!!)