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Posts from the ‘Craft’ Category

May 7

Add poetry to your writing repertoire

April may have been National Poetry Month but poetry is a mainstay in our writing life here at OneWildWord. Writing and publishing poetry or short stories is a great way to build up your artist resume while working on longer manuscripts.

Below are three of our most popular posts on different aspects of writing poetry. We hope you enjoy them!

How do you know when your poem or story is done? In this post, Carly shares her thoughts and those of poet Mary Jo Bangs on when a poem feels “done.”

Queen of the list: How I transformed compulsive list making into art is about creating lists to use in your prose or poetry. If you have a compulsion for list making, why not turn it into something useful?

This post answers the question, What makes a good metaphor? And how do you know when a metaphor is working?

Apr 30

1 Comment

Good storytelling should disturb us

Years ago, when I first started writing prose, I remember a literary agent said he and his wife never watched TV unless they were at the gym or a local bar because they don’t even own a TV. They focus all of their attention on reading.

Looking for role models for my literary life, I thought, “Aha…I won’t watch TV either.” It made sense. Less time in front of the tube equals more time writing or reading. My husband and I didn’t watch much TV anyway, but we did have our favorite shows we’d record and watch later.

At some point in my literary life—after graduating from my MFA program—I realized that being a writer wasn’t just about the ability to write well. Just at important, if not more so, is the ability to tell a good story. Read more

Apr 29

3 Comments

Don’t stop readers in their tracks: Four tips to maintain your story’s flow

One of the most important things we must not do to readers is bore them or stop the flow of the story. In my recent post, How not to write a story, I shared agent Margaret Bail’s tips and writing don’ts.

Here are several other points she and other agents, editors, and workshop presenters made during a panel discussion at the Las Vegas Writer’s Conference.

Character description. A common but ineffective way to describe your character is by having her look in a mirror or other reflective surface and describe what she sees.

Read more

Apr 26

Plot as a driver for change: A cat story

“Life is a journey, not a destination.” Ralph Waldo Emerson.

This week it’s raining cats at our house. Besides having a stray cat adopt us and become our “outdoor” boy, I also had to take one of our indoor boys, Simba, a 20-lb Maine Coon, to the vet.

Considering he hasn’t been out of the house in years (Simba, not the vet), it went pretty well. I did say “considering,” right?

I nonchalantly put the cat carrier on the bed next to Simba and then, like the Flash, snatched him up and shoved him in said crate before he could put up a fight. He hissed going in and then instantly learned how to meow. (Really, he doesn’t meow–he whines when he wants something). Read more

Apr 25

How one author acts out her writing

As a child, author Randall Platt wanted to be an actress. She wrote screenplays for her favorite western television shows, complete with roles for herself. As an adult, she pursued acting but eventually found that what she really wanted to do is write.

In a workshop at the Las Vegas Writer’s Conference, Platt, award-winning writer of Hellie Jondoeand other YA and adult fiction, shared how her experience as an actor carries over to writing.

Her lessons and tips:

Know your character’s motivation. Every character we create must have reasons for why they do what they do. To understand your characters’ motivation, you need to know their backstory. It shows how they’ll act and react. With each book she writes, Platt creates character sketches that include information about her characters’ religion, family, what they do for a living, their parents, and more. Some writers spend a “day in the life” of their character examining everything the character does. Other authors like to write letters to their characters to understand them. Read more

Apr 24

6 Comments

Original idea & logline: using them to write a better story, part two

In my previous post, I wrote about the importance of writing down your one-sentence original idea. This is the very first idea you had—whether it’s about plot, character, or theme—that got you excited about writing your story. Reading your original idea each day before writing will keep you focused on your story. 

Another exercise is to develop your one-sentence logline. In his book, Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need, screenwriter Blake Snyder said that if we develop our logline before we begin writing, it will help us write a better manuscript.

According to Snyder, there are four main elements to a great logline:

  1. A good logline has to have irony. He gives an example from the blockbuster movie Pretty Woman: “A businessman falls in love with a hooker he hires to be his date for the weekend.” Pretty ironic, huh? Another way to define irony, Snyder said, is that something unexpected happens. He also calls this the “hook.” Read more

Apr 23

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How not to write a story

Margaret Bail, an agent for the Andrea Hurst & Associates, wants to help writers by telling them how NOT to write stories.

Bail, who is also a writer, presented a workshop at the Las Vegas Writer’s Conference Saturday. Several of her tips also came up during sessions in which agents, editors, and instructors critiqued pages that attendees had submitted.

Check out this list and see if you’ve committed any of these cardinal sins of writing.

In the beginning:

Don’t start with the protagonist waking up. Besides not wanting to see him or her in bed, Bail doesn’t want to see your character brushing her teeth, washing her face or anything else in her morning routine. Read more

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