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Posts from the ‘Craft’ Category

Apr 27

Famous writers’ rules of writing

Writers are apprentices. We are constantly trying to polish our craft. I know some writers who’ve written for years, are best-selling authors, and still strive to learn and grow as much as they can.

You can’t teach writing like you can brain surgery–there are just too many variables but you can head the advice of those best-selling authors. Everybody has their own method but here are a few tips from the pros:

George Orwell’s Five Rules for Effective Writing

Robert Heinlein’s Rules of Writing

Elmore Leonard’s Ten Rules of Writing Plus Some – this post includes Leonard’s rules plus other authors, including Margaret Atwood, Jonathan Franzen, and Neil Gaiman.

Exercise: Create your own “rules” list and hold yourself accountable to them for 30 days. I’ll post my list soon.

Apr 24

Random scrivenings from my writer’s notebook

Writers have to be the kind of people who look closely at the world and what’s going on around them. We must develop our writer’s antennae and constantly tune in to the odd, poignant, and startling details.

Here are a couple of notes I collected and noted in my writer’s notebook during a recent trip. I’m always looking for good names and scored with two in one flight.

Entry one from my commonplace book:

“Good character names: Pink Wilkerson. Short for Pinkney.”

Read more

Apr 23

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Do your characters have secrets?

When developing characters–hair color, size, likes, dislikes, hobbies, background–do you think about what secrets they might have? Secrets can make your character more complex, human, and interesting.

For ideas on the types of secrets people have, listen to Frank Warren’s 11-minute Ted.com talk below about an art project he started back in 2004. He handed out 3,000 postcards and asked people to anonymously mail in their secrets. He has since collected over half a million secrets and posts them weekly on his website www.postsecret.com.

Warren says, “Secrets can remind us of the countless human dramas, of frailty and heroism playing out silently in the lives of people all around us.”

What secrets might your characters have?

Apr 20

Writing spice for your reading pleasure

I’m always looking for a dose of writing spice. Here are three posts for your reading pleasure.

In Write the Way Vermeer Paints (Or What I Learned from Girl in Hyacinth Blue), Tim Kane writes about the techniques of the old masters and how they relate to writing.

Next, how would you define your entire story in two sentences? Find out from Nick Thacker in this guest post for WordPlay, How to Write a Novel in Two Sentences.

Finally, learn about how to build settings into your stories by reading Jody Hedlund’s take on Seven Setting Basics that can Bring a Story to Life.

Apr 19

Guerrilla grouting and writing

End of week 5, emergency remodel.

In February, our upstairs bathroom sprung a leak that dripped down the wall and through the ceiling downstairs. We wanted to replace the bathroom and kitchen floors anyway, so we hired our contractor friend.

We live in a 100-year-old house and, as these projects tend to go, one thing led to another and our two-week job is now almost into week six.

I appreciate our contractor because I’m about as handy with a hammer as an elephant is with a paint brush (excepting those amazing elephant artists). I do have an awesome pink hammer but the most action it’s seen is when I accidentally dropped it on my foot when I brought it home from the hardware store.

Since my contractor will be gone for the next week, I volunteered to do whatever needed to be done in order to keep the momentum going. I want my house back. I want my life back. And I have a deadline because of an event in May. So–my job this weekend is to grout the shower tiles and finish grouting the floors. Read more

Apr 17

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Four ways to cultivate writerly inspiration

A young woman introduced herself to me at a poetry reading recently. “I write poetry, too,” she said. “But only when the inspiration strikes me.”

Ah, youth. I remember saying the same thing when I was younger.

You see, I’d bought into the myth that writers are a temperamental lot who only write when their muse “inspires” them. Fortunately, I’ve grown as an artist and realize now that the best writers are the ones that cultivate their inspiration daily. They discipline themselves to write each day even when they’re tired or don’t feel like writing. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, inspiration becomes a habit.

How can you cultivate inspiration? Read more

Apr 16

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Spark story ideas by asking these five questions

One of my writing friends and I were kicking around story ideas this week so we could send out pitches for freelance assignments. I analyzed how we formulated our ideas and thought I’d share these questions in case it helps spark ideas of your own.

These questions are also good for generating ideas for other writing projects, including memoirs, novels, and short stories.

What is misunderstood? Sometimes, something that you think is wrong, or misunderstood may lead you to write about it to right the wrong, shed light on a problem, or improve a process. Read more

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