After I have had a good stint of writing, I like to take a break and do something fun to reward myself. Okay, I probably take way more breaks than necessary, but that’s beside the point.

Below are some fun sites that allow you to play games with words. Not only are they fun, they can improve your vocabulary. They also warm up your brain and stimulate creativity. At least that’s what I tell my husband when he catches me playing games instead of writing.

These are my favorites:

Acrophobia This is a truly addictive game that asks you to make clever or witty sentences, often fitting a theme, out of random acronyms.

Web Boggle Just like the board game. Find words in a random grouping of letters horizontally, vertically, diagonally, to the left, right, or up-and-down.

Word Yacht In this word-based version of the game Yahtzee you roll the 10 letter dice and create words to complete one of 8 different categories.

I'm sitting in front of my computer right now, and for all the world, I want to run away. Why? Don't I love to write? Don't I want to finish my novel? The answers are yes. But, I still want to run away.

What motivates us to run away from things? Usually, it's fear. So, what is it that scares me? Not writing well... Not having anything to say... I don't think those are my problems. I can save the "writing well" for the revision process. No pressure. Write badly--it's all good. And, I do have plenty to say. The thoughts sometimes trickle out like a dripping faucet, but they usually come when they are called.

So, why is writing so hard... for me, anyway? Laziness. Procrastination. Writing takes effort. Surfing the Internet and reading message boards is fun. Writing is work. Talking on the phone is fun. I think I'd even prefer to do laundry right now than open up my word processor and write. And I have the nerve to call myself a professional. Ha!

No calling in sick. No hanging out at the coffee machine. I have to sit down and write.

I love the Internet. I don't know how we ever got by without it. It's wonderful for research because you can type in a search and find useful information in a heartbeat. But, I also love to use it to stimulate creativity.

Google is a great search engine. Have you ever tried typing in random words just to see what comes up? Today I typed in alacrity and spiteful. What a combination. Want even more fun? Click on the images tab. Or the news tab. Now you've got even stranger combinations.

If you like this concept of Internet searching but don't feel like picking the random words yourself... there's a cool search engine that will do this kind of thing for you. It's called Banana Slug. A neat way to get a new perspective on your Internet searches.

Check out the other ways I use the Internet to stimulate creativity.

I've recently taken up running. It seemed like a good idea for a variety of reasons... fitness, weight-loss, and it's cheaper than a gym membership. For all of it's benefits, running is definitely hard, which is why it reminds me so much of writing. I have a real love/hate relationship with my writing, but it's one of the most rewarding things I've ever done.

I dread getting started on a run. If it’s raining or I’m tired, I’ll try to talk myself out of going. But, once I get moving enough to fall into a rhythm, I really enjoy it. Writing is the same way. When I think about sitting down to write, I'm great at finding a million excuses to do something else. This is when my bills get paid or I call friends I haven’t spoken to in a while. But, once I actually allow myself to start typing, I fall into a rhythm, and I actually begin to enjoy it. So for me, the hard part isn't writing... it's sitting down to write.

Running is self-motivating. Once you start doing it regularly, you begin to see the results right away. Within a matter of days you see improvements in endurance and muscle strength. Seeing these results motivates you to continue. Writing can be that way, too. When you start writing regularly, you begin to accumulate pages. Seeing the pages grow makes you want to write more. When you sit down to write, the ideas flow a lot faster... it doesn't take as long to jump into the work.

The best and most indescribable feeling I get from running is euphoria. There's a point during a run, after I've been going for a while, when my body gets a second wind. I feel like I could run forever and never get tired. I feel powerful. I feel a part of nature and world around me. It's an amazing psychological rush. Writing can yield a similar feeling... just not as often. And, it usually doesn't come until I sell the book. But, there's nothing like the feeling of accomplishment that comes with completing a book. You know you've done something special. You've created something from nothing. It's powerful feeling that no one can take from you.

Is it possible to know your characters too well? I think it is. In my current project, I'm so familiar with my female lead's personality that I'm not giving my reader a chance to get to know everything about her. It's all in my head, and somehow I've got to translate it to paper.

It's tough when you have a character with a strong personality because you have to be true to their nature without turning off the reader. It's a fine line to walk. I've put down many books in the past because I couldn't relate to the main character and their motivations.

In my work-in-progress, I'm trying to convey the contrast between the heroine's tough veneer and her uncharacteristic vulnerability around the man she's attracted to--the hero. Showing her qualities should be easy for me because I've done all the background for her. I've decided her physical description, I know her history and all her strengths and weaknesses.

But, despite all the information I have about her, I'm still struggling to disperse this information to the reader without overwhelming them or being too terse. Always a balancing act.

My strongest (and most favorite) tool is dialogue. My goal today is to get the right level of banter going between the characters so that she is revealed through her actions and reations during their conversation.

We'll see how it goes. In the meantime, I think I'll refresh myself with some of these articles about characterization:

Characters Make Your Story by Millie Criswell
Character Building Workshop by Writer's Village University
Writing Dialogue by Elizabeth Rose

verbicide (VUR-buh-syd) noun

1. The willful distortion or depreciation of the original meaning of a word.

2. A person who willfully distorts the meaning of a word.

[Latin verb(um) word -i- cide killer, killing.]

Killing words. That brings to mind a vivid image, doesn't it? That's why I like this word so much. You get an immediate sense of what it means: murdering words.

Not literally, of course. Often when I see the blood red ink my critique partners leave on my manuscripts I feel they might be committing verbicide. But clearly they're not, since verbicide means willfully distorting the meaning of words...

The way teenagers (and many adults) use the word "like" to pepper their sentences is no doubt a form of verbicide.

I suppose slang could be considered a form of verbicide. It sounds like fun to take old, boring words and infuse them with new life and meaning. When it's put that way, verbicide doesn't sound as much like a crime.

Here are some victims of verbicide through slang:

Props - instead of a means of support it now can mean respect or recognition. "I have to give her props for losing ten pounds."
Sick - refers to someone ill or someone possessing incredible talent. "That bass player is sick!"
Blaze - once just a raging fire now it can mean to leave quickly. "My favorite show is about to come on, I have to blaze."

I have a short attention span and I'm easily distracted. Therefore, I have to play a lot of tricks on myself to settle down and write. For instance, I'm one of those people who always needs to have the television on, even if I'm not watching it. It's a bad habit I developed as a child. Hearing the noise in the background keeps me from feeling like I'm alone in the room.

So most times, when I sit down to write, I initially have the television on. When I really start to focus and get into the zone, I can then mute the sound or turn the tv off altogether. This is what brings me to mood music. Some people listen to music when they write to help get them into the right mind-frame.

I've rarely listened to music when I write, primarily because it would have to be bland enough for me to ignore... and if I'm just going to ignore it, why bother? Well, there must be a reason because Amazon.com has an entire section devoted to music to write to.

When I was on deadline once, I burned a CD of inspirational songs to get me motivated to write. You know, You-Can-Do-It music. That actually helped get me started. My favorite you-can-do-it song is Make it Happen by Mariah Carey.

I suppose it might be helpful to find music that suits a particular scene I'm about to write to help set the atmosphere. I honestly can't see myself playing "chicka-bow-wow" music before I write a love scene. That seems just a bit too cheesy. But, who knows, maybe it actually works.