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May 24

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If your boss vomits his bad mood on you, note the details in your journal

Today my boss barfed on me his unhappiness at having to come back from vacation. And of course, as my stomach clenched, I couldn’t help but think about what great material I was getting out of the situation.

As writers, we must suffer for our art. As my blood pressure climbed, I watched how his face turned scarlet – noting what was red from the sunburn he’d brought back from his vacation and what was due to his meltdown. Read more

May 23

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How important is talent in writing?

My biggest pet peeve is when I hear somebody say writing can’t be taught. Of course it can. Maybe it can’t be taught like brain surgery–follow a certain protocol and you’ll have success. But through consistent effort and learning from our mistakes, we can become better writers.

One of my favorite quotes from Terry Gilliam, writer, director, and member of the comedy group Monty Python, reminds me of this fact: Read more

May 22

Where do stories come from? Find out here

Are you curious about where stories come from? How a writer comes up with a particular idea? I find it energizing to learn the story behind the story.

Some stories come to their authors in a rush, seemingly out of nowhere. Others say, a chance encounter, or an observation of something odd sparked their story. Then as they wrote, the meaning revealed itself and the language and the emotion rose to the surface and drove the story home. Read more

May 21

How listening to poetry sparked my muse: ode to Billy Collins

Recently, while on a six-hour plane ride, I listened to former poet laureate Billy Collins’ CD “Billy Collins Live.” After the hilarious introduction by comedian and actor Bill Murray, Collins reads nearly thirty of his own poems.

As mentioned in a previous post, “Three Ways to Feed Your Muse,” I often find inspiration in other writer’s works. As I was listening to the flow of words and ideas from Mr. Collins, one particular poem nabbed me and before long I found myself writing a new poem. Read more

May 18

Perfecting your first page and other inspiring ideas

Celebrate Friday with these tidbits of writing advice.

In Revealing Character through Details, Julie Eshbaugh at Publishing Crawl explains her philosophy about expressing character details in fiction and includes several examples.

Then, head over to writer and editor Jane Friedman’s blog to read Perfecting Your First Page: Three Tasks or Exercises.

May 17

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How to use symbols in your writing

As a poet, I collect symbols. Because poems are usually shorter than novels, we have less space to get our meanings across, and a symbol can convey a mood or theme in a few words.

In a longer work like a novel, symbols can help deepen the plot, add to characterization, and expand themes.

But what exactly is a symbol? I like this definition from http://fictionwriting.about.com:

A symbol is a person, place, or thing that comes to represent an abstract idea or concept-it is anything that stands for something beyond itself. Read more

May 16

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Boost your creativity by doodling

Sometimes my brain seizes up when I sit down at the computer to write. It’s as if the glare of the screen and the cold, hard keys have drained all the energy out of my ideas. But since I rely on the keyboard and computer to put sentences down on the page, I have to work around it.

So I was intrigued when I read about doodling as a way to boost creativity. Roisin Markham writes about how doodling brings an unconscious clarity to her thinking process.

I’m planning to try it. For all the details, check out Roisin’s post at CreativeDynamix.

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