Nov 23
Salman Rushdie said he always wanted to write a book with a flying carpet in it, and he finally did. He says the way to make a fantastical idea seem real and believable is to ask questions about the nature of the idea and relay the truth of it to your reader.
The 3-minute video below shows the process he goes through to make any idea believable:
As a child, I spent a lot of time with my grandmother. One of the sayings she is known for in our family is: “Any dog can be thankful.”
With that in mind on this day of Thanksgiving in the USA, I want to thank all of our faithful and supportive followers at onewildword.
Today, I’m highlighting three followers who inspire me with their words and content. And thanks to all our readers for being part of our community.
Cast Light is a great source of inspiration. I particularly enjoy this call to action. And especially for those who are in the midst of NaNoWriMo, find a burst of energy in this post about finish lines.
If you’ve been reading this blog for long, you know how much we advocate reading. Jane Fritz’s post about a balanced reading diet is excellent food for thought.
You have to love Scripts & Scribes (@scriptsscribes), a free writer’s resource website. Find some writerly insight by listening to their interviews from top professionals in publishing, film & TV, theatre, and comic books.
Someone once told me that in our questions lie the answers. As writers, we know the importance of asking questions. We ask ourselves questions about our story, characters, plot, and even point of view.
Yesterday, I was trying to figure out how to integrate 1st and 3rd person points of view in my current manuscript without it feeling forced or artificial. As I sat in the sauna reading Chris Baty’s NaNoWriMo book “No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days,” I asked myself, “What would it take for this combination of different points of view to work and flow organically from my story?”
I played around with a couple scenarios and then an idea came to me. Instead of giving my protagonist the ability I was going to give her, I thought of another ability that would suit the story better and solve my problem—allowing the 1st and 3rd person points of view to grow naturally from the story. This new ability came from my protagonist’s backstory, was nurtured by her profession and was unusual and unexpected enough to pervert my readers’ expectations. Viola! Story problem solved. Read more
Holidays enchant us with snowmen, gingerbread people, and candy canes. They can also be full of drama: Uncle Ralph and Aunt Sally in a snit at the dining room table or overtired children throwing tantrums in the middle of the mall. And don’t even get me started about the company Christmas party when Roger in Accounting had too much to drink and….well you get the idea.
Anyway, all these scenes are subjects for writers. Opportunities to observe the human condition to see what it can offer our storytelling. Read more
Nov 19
Today is day nineteen of National Novel Writing Month—the month where crazy people the world over take the challenge to write a 50,000-word novel in a month. Besides fighting off a cold (I WILL win) and being slightly behind on my word count, I’m doing pretty good.
Going into the final ten days of the challenge, I have a definite plan: write 3,000 words per day for the next four days (Thanksgiving included) to get caught up with my word count and then continue my daily writing routine into the home stretch. This will be the first time I’ll have completed the challenge and I’m psyched! Read more
Want more big ideas? Turn off your phone and let your mind wander. Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project and Happy at Home, has a rule for herself when she’s traveling from one place to another, whether it’s by foot, taxi, or subway. She turns off her phone. No checking e-mail, texting, surfing the web, or talking.
In an interview with author Daniel Pink, Rubin said she used to force herself to check e-mail in an effort to be more efficient.
“Then I thought back on my life as a writer,” she said. “Every time I had a major idea that made me write a book about a subject or led to a year-long obsession, I was walking, on a bus, or on a subway.” Read more
Have you ever written a passage of dialogue between two characters who sounded just alike? I have. After awhile, I couldn’t tell which character was speaking. With a novel full of characters, it can be difficult to make each and every one stand out with a distinctive voice.
One way to find a character’s distinctive voice is keep a Voice Journal. Author James Scott Bell says he’ll do this if he finds one of his characters is starting to sound too dull or pedestrian. Read more
