Hyba Is Writing

Looking Back on 2022: This Year in Writing Not to be a total downer, but here's the thing: This year has been difficult, frustrating, disappointing, and very unproductive. But despite all of that, there is one thing that I find undeniable, and that's that I have been constantly trying regardless. Trying to write, trying to get back to my creative projects, trying to handle a new full-time job and suddenly feeling a whole lot more time-poor, and struggling to stay physically and mentally healthy on top of it all.  To be fair, I'm not really doing all that well on any of these fronts, but with a few days left in the year as I write this, I'm wondering what I can do to turn things around for myself. I admit that I am not satisfied with what I got done this year, simply because it was meant to be a year where a lot more got done. I had rewrites planned, a slew of short stories I wanted to finish and collections I wanted to launch, the first issue of Scrittorio that I wante...

Vocabulary Writing Prompts There's a thing I started doing a couple of years ago, where I'd find new vocabulary words that I thought were cool and would use them to write a sentence or snippet. I enjoyed this exercise so much that I ended up using it to help generate new interesting scenes, lines, and snippets that would fit into my bigger WIPs, especially my fantasy stories ( The Qarran Tales ).  There was something very satisfying about learning new, powerful words and using that vocabulary in my own writing. But it was also a very fun writing challenge for me, and it became a game that I would play whenever I had a few minutes to myself. One word game in particular,  Freerice , is my go-to for these vocabulary writing prompts (with the added benefit of donating food). When I'd get to a word that I didn't know and liked, I'd take a break from playing the game to write a line or two using that word, and then get back to playing.  But you can also use the Merriam-We...