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Oct 25

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Enter the inspiration zone to generate story ideas

Tanya Lloyd Kyi has a prescription for filling blank pages: Freewrite with childlike abandon. Kyi shared tips about writing and generating ideas in her workshop, “The Inspiration Zone: Practical ways to generate and sustain ideas,” at the Surrey International Writers’ Conference Oct. 19-21.

Kyi said that, as a child, she wrote constantly and didn’t worry about who saw it. But things change when you get older.

“We can find ourselves in a straitjacket worrying about what we’re allowed to write about and not write about,” she said. “Sometimes we have to cast away those doubts and just write.”

Writing prompts can spark ideas for new stories. Read more

Oct 24

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Passive verbs are for zombies

When I first started writing, I struggled with the passive voice. I remember one of my writing mentors drawing it to my attention. In an early chapter of my memoir I had too many “woulds,” “coulds,” and linking verbs. All of this led to my reader feeling distanced from my story.

As storytellers, we want to engage our readers. One way to do this is by using active verbs.

Here’s the difference:

He kissed her. (active) Read more

Oct 23

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Find good story material by being an observer

If you’ve been reading this blog awhile, you may have seen me mention the term, “good material.” Good material is how I describe any incident, detail, or drama I’ve observed or experienced that might find its way into my writing.

Stories that ring true contain happy and sad events, as well as the mundane and terrifying, because compelling stories are distinguished by conflict and drama.

We’re surrounded by good material but it doesn’t do any good if we don’t recognize and note it.

How do you know what good material is? I like to say you know it when you see it. It might be as simple as an interesting bumper sticker that could later turn up on the car of a character. Read more

Oct 22

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Write a pitch for your work-in-progress: the sooner the better

This weekend, I attended the Surrey International Writers Conference in Canada. It’s one of my favorite conferences and a wonderful, supportive environment to pitch your manuscript to potential agents and editors.

I didn’t feel like pitching my memoir, so I decided to practice-pitch my work-in-progress, an urban fantasy novel, because that’s the project I’m really excited about right now. Problem was–I didn’t have a pitch for it.

I did have my original idea and an overall grasp of my story so I spent half an hour throwing my pitch together before bed Friday night. In other words, I winged it. (Shhh…don’t tell). Read more

Oct 19

Ready to revise? Move forward with these two posts

If you’ve written a draft and are now ready to jump into revisions, Wise Ink (@Wiseink) reveals a road map in At First Draft: The 6 (Minimum) Steps to Revising Your Manuscript before Submission.

At the blog YA Stands, Rachel Russell (@RachelxRussell) wrote Fisticuffing Revisions Into Submissions, about her process for revising her manuscript.

What’s your approach to revisions?

Oct 18

Writing unique emotions will set you apart from other authors

When you can convey authentic, universally true emotions through your characters, you connect with your readers and they’ll keep turning the pages. Your readers become invested in your story the moment they viscerally feel what your character feels.

See what else the Plot Whisperer, Martha Alderson, has to say about writing emotions in her 5-minute video here: Read more

Oct 17

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See how these successful authors write

I’m always intrigued by how other writers write. I like to see their routines and quirks. Not only is it entertaining and informative, just maybe, I think, I’ll find something in their process I can adopt to improve my own.

Here are a few tidbits from The Daily Beast’s feature, How I Write.

Michelle Gagnon, mystery writer and author of the young adult thriller, Don’t Turn Around, is a big believer in writing a complete draft before starting any editing. Read more

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