July 4th and Rhymes with ?

July 4th makes me reflect on my ancestors and the first time they saw the Statue of Liberty as they sailed into the harbor. My father left struggling post WWI Germany in 1930 for the opportunities available in the U.S.. My maternal grandparents left the Czech republic in 1911 seeking a stable future away from European wars. They all found what they were after.

Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to, when all they need is one reason why they can.  ~ Mary Frances Berry

This quote applies to writers, too. One day some writing friends and I sat around sharing some of the excuses we come up with to not write. Laundry, walking the dog, grocery shopping, and phoning a friend were popular. Too often, we let our writing slip to the bottom of the priority list as we did "just one more thing" before writing. Some days the desire "to have written" is there, but less so than the desire "to write." 

Sometimes I grant myself a writing vacation and take a week to read some of the books on my list. You do have a list, don't you?

Other days I find the discipline to make myself write even though inspiration is lacking. Often when I do that, I find that my muse awakens and I actually accomplish something. I just need to remind myself of one reason why I can.

Rhymes with ?

Several years ago, a poetry judge for a writing contest gave low marks to poems that rhymed and said many writers who submitted needed to take a poetry writing class. I rarely write poetry, but I felt like saying, "Well, excuuuuse me! Some of us are old-fashioned and enjoy reading poems that rhyme." I think writing a good poem that rhymes is much more challenging than writing a prose poem.

If you write poems that rhyme or maybe just want to include a fragment with rhyming words in your fiction, this site that might help: http://words-that-rhyme.com. You enter a word and the site returns a list of words that rhyme with it.

It isn't foolproof, though. Many of the responses simply have the same letter combinations but are pronounced differently. For example, when I entered the word "allow" one of the responses was "below."  Depending on the effect you are after, similar but non-rhyming words still may be useful.