author: Nicole J. LeBoeuf

So the fruitcake is now wrapped in a booze-soaked cheese-cloth, which means I won't have much to say about it until Christmas. Filling that conversational gap is the next bi-fold door off the living room closet, half of which is on the porch getting its paint stripped. It will be difficult to think about pretty much anything else until that particular sub-project is done.

Since I have very little of substance to share today, you get an online source of word prompts. Virtual Writers' World is the blog of--or, rather, it is a blog in association with--a Second Life group of which I'm a member, Virtual Writers Inc. I very rarely find myself participating in their activities at the time they are announced, but I have of late begun dipping into their group notices for word prompts whenever I do get around to my daily freewriting.

For an example, check out this week's schedule. There are two single-word prompts for every weekday--that's for the twice-daily "writers' dash" exercise--as well as more involved prompts for the 7-days-a-week "500 Word Snatch" activity. And here's something I didn't know about: Fridays are now "dedicated dash and drabble day," inspired by this podcast.

And there's even more stuff going on in the Twitter hashtags #wordscrim and #writersdash and also #500WS.

You should totally go over there and check it all out. I'll be right behind you, soon as I scrape this paint off these doors.