Find out the first and middle names of your grandmother and her mother. Say each of their names without thinking of the woman, and choose one adjective and noun that comes to mind for each. Then say each of their names while thinking about them and choose another two words.

What’s a Dev? Find out here!

Tell someone that you love them. (Someone you love, of course!) How do they respond first? With voice, touch, or facial expression? If on the phone, does their voice change after you tell them? How? Take their reaction to heart, cherish it, and then run quickly to write it down.

What’s a Dev? Find out here!

What’s a Devoir, you ask? Any French kid would tell you it means “homework,” although the literal meaning is “duty”. But don’t let that scare you. These Daily Devoirs are anything but work. Think of them as candy for your brain.

What’s the reason for the Daily Devoir?
I wanted to find a new way to help young aspiring writers who ask me for advice. And once I began writing the Devoirs, I realized that anyone might have fun doing them. So young or old, writer or non-writer, everyone is welcome to join in!

How to do your Daily Devoir:
Read the Dev. Write the result down on a piece of paper, and put it in your appointed Dev Diary, Dev Drawer, Dev Box…wherever you want to keep your Devs. And if you feel like it, post the answer as a comment here, to the Daily Dev on my FB page or on Twitter with the hashtag #dailydev.

Why do the Daily Devoir?

IF YOU ARE AN ASPIRING WRITER: Devs are to get you into the zone, if only for a minute out of your busy day. They are to give your brain a mini-break from what it normally thinks about and take it in another direction. And then, the day you sit down in front of your notebook or computer screen and are in need of inspiration, you can go to your Dev Box, take out your slips of paper, and find a wealth of random ideas and words that might just be that imaginative spark you need.

IF YOU ARE NOT A WRITER: Devs are like yoga for your gray matter. They are the creative break in your perhaps not-so-creative day. The connection with your imagination that you might not access often in your regular routine. Do them and be refreshed and stimulated. And, if you’re feeling brave, share them with the rest of us!

PAST DEVS

September 16 The Superpower Dev
September 14 The Hand Grenade Dev
September 8 The Guerre Dev
September 1 The Arctic Dev
August 31 The Apocalypse Dev
August 30 The Fur Teacup Dev
August 29 The Winter Whiff Dev
August 11 The Hideaway Dev
August 10 The Acknowledgments Dev
August 8 The Shifty Waiter Dev
August 7 The Mystery Fruit Dev
August 6 The Modigliani Dev
August 5 The Name Dev
August 4 The Love Dev
July 31 The Cloud Dev

A couple of people recently asked me the same question, so I thought I would bring it up here on the blog. The question:

Does Vincent love Kate more than Hélène?

My response: WOW! Good question!!!

And my answer would have to be: I believe you can have more than one love in your life. But no two loves are the same.

When Vincent loved Hélène he was very young, inexperienced and hadn’t seen much of life. He had only met a few other women in his small Brittany town. It was an innocent but true love with a childhood friend.

By the time he finds Kate, he’s had decades of experience. He’s known some joy and a lot of tragedy. He’s met thousands of people. And yet, Kate is the only one he falls in love with. And it’s an all-consuming desperate love because he now knows how rare it is.

So I would have to say: Kate and Hélène are two different loves for Vincent, but neither takes anything away from the other.

Now…tell me what you think. Is it possible to have more than one true love in a lifetime?

Go outside. Look at the clouds until you find one that looks like something recognizable. Write it down. If no clouds, write “The sky is the color of…” and add a word or phrase.

What’s a Dev? Find out here!