I’ve been struggling with writers’ block lately and wondering aloud if I was ever going to get back into the practice of writing consistently – and even writing at all. I was gently reminded yesterday that writing is a PRACTICE. It’s something you have to do every day to get better, and to fall into a rhythm that produces good works.

"not on speaking terms" by devi laskar

I am a poet first, so I jotted down some of the words I live for and by; these are a few of my favorite words (with all the thanks in the world to The Sound of Music and Julie Andrews singing to the Von Trapp children during a thunderstorm):

Verdant, hellebores, games, eucalyptus, coastline, waistcoats, cloak, glare, dowager, rummy, muse, souvenir, migration, monarch, devious, calyx, coccyx, merchants, beetle, scarab, jeweled, wild, unpredictable, moody, mercurial, junk, gait, cash, strip, daylight, base, mutiny, muddle, pianist, lightning, Pandora, school, shark, black-eyed, lounge, fluorescent, incandescent, mythology, cards, philosophy, donor, divisive, angled, isosceles, pragmatic, wistful, majestic, icy, morbid, hunger, alignment, bullet, siphon, night, shade, errors, fossil, sand, desert, doctor, master, servant, map, atlas, signs, directions, mendicant, tropical, abattoir, ossuary, city, lost, distant, regret, love, sentient, cunning, stand, rings, loquacious, alight, asp, regents, traitors, sunburn, spell, forlorn, blue-green, engulfed, depression, serene, sanguine, catapult, free, quiet.

What are the words you can’t live without? and What words are going to jump-start your writing life today?

Devi Laskar is a founding member of the Book Writing World. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University, an M.A. in South Asian Studies from the University of Illinois, is a rabid Tar Heel basketball fan, is working on a couple of novels and has 37 days to go before she finishes the first year of her art-a-day challenge.