Jul 16
As a young girl, I was a big daydreamer. While my teachers tried to fill my blank mind with science or math or proper grammar, my head was crowded with imaginary friends, chestnut horses, and rainbow unicorns. Make-believe scenes reeled through my mind on a daily basis.
In forty-some years, not much has changed.
Now, however, I use my dreaming mind as a tool to find story ideas, develop character and plot, or find the perfect word for a poem. Read more
As I write my next book, I find it helpful to think back on what has excited me about other stories or characters.
In my last post, I shared a few of my favorite scenes or ideas from the movies. Below is my list of recent in-print favorites. These are either scenes, images, objects or themes that have stuck with me and made me wish I’d come up with the them.
Novels:
Karen Marie Moning’s “Fever” series. In her fantasy world, “Death-by-Sex” Faes can turn their powers off and on, capturing a person with lust. One of these Faes uses a pearl necklace in a very erotic, highly charged way. It’s one of the most unique and memorable “sex” scenes (there’s no actual sex) I’ve ever read. This is one of those scenes I wish I’d written. I’ve written more about this in my post, “How to Write a Good Sex Scene.” Read more
Common advice given to new writers is to write about what you know. This can be good advice. For example, if you want to write legal thrillers, then having a background in law will save you research time and lend a sense of reality to your story.
Having been a paralegal for seven years, I have a background in law, but if I had to write a story with a legal theme, I’d end up as crazy as Jack in “The Shining.” So maybe better advice to a new (or seasoned) writer is to write about what interests you.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- What are you passionate about?
- What makes you come alive?
- What new things would you like to learn?
- If you had all the money in the world, what would you do?
Exercise: Set a timer for 10 minutes and answer the questions above.
In my next post, I’ll share a technique I use to help discover what interests me.
“I’m convinced that fear is at the root of most bad writing. . . . Good writing is often about letting go of fear and affectation.”— Stephen King
I’m starting a new book with the goal of finishing my first draft in 90 days. I started writing the book last year but was sidetracked with other writing and editing projects. I was also sidetracked by fear:
As Stephen King suggests, I’m learning how to let go of my fear to become a better writer. Read more
When meeting a new person, sometimes I mention that I used to be shy but now I can’t shut up. Though I say this jokingly, it’s true. When I quit my job and went to work for myself years ago, I had to break out of my shyness in order to survive and eventually thrive out there in the big, bad world.
I modeled people who seemed to be naturally outgoing. It took years of practice to overcome my shyness and even now, after being in my own little writing world for too long, it’s an easy mode to slip back into.
On a recent trip, I was forced to be around people and so practiced being my outgoing, extrovert self again. One way I did this was through storytelling. Read more
The golden rule in writing, “Show, don’t tell,” is something I try to follow most of the time. The only time I use “telling” is for transitions, to speed up time, get from one place to another, or weave in necessary information. But when writing in scene, I try to evoke character feelings through “showing.”
Loud, neon emotions written flat on the page don’t convey anything except a writer’s immaturity and lack of craft. Read more
I don’t mean to sound morbid, but if you’re building characters for a short story or novel, I suggest you write their obituaries.
I’ve written a fair number of them over the years as a newspaper reporter, for members of my family, and to help friends who struggled with the words to honor a loved one who had passed away.
A good obituary is a tribute and a glimpse of a person’s life. As a journalist, I felt it was an honor to write obituaries even if I didn’t personally know the people I wrote about. Read more
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