Skip to content

Posts tagged ‘writing tips’

Oct 21

2 Comments

Name your muse to increase creativity

“Art does not come from the mind. Art comes from the place where you dream.” – Robert Olen Butler in From Where You Dream: The Process of Writing Fiction.

The other morning, I had a dream about writing. I was definitely in my happy place when I woke because the dream starred one of my favorite authors–Neil Gaiman–who was giving me writing advice.

In the dream, my hubby and I were having a picnic on a grassy knoll in England. (I’ve never been to England so I’m not even sure what it looks like or if there really are grassy knolls). Mr. Gaiman was walking by and stopped to entertain us with the details of his next writing project.

I told him I was a writer but that I was having problems finishing my current novel. He said, “You’re getting caught up in all that other stuff that doesn’t mean anything.” Wagging his finger at me, like my mother used to do when I was young and naughty, he continued, “Just tell a story. Forget about everything else for now.”

I woke up smiling. I mean, who wouldn’t with Mr. Gaiman wagging his finger at you?  Read more

Oct 17

A premise sentence can keep your writing on track

Ever heard the saying, “Ideas are a dime a dozen?” While it’s true that ideas can be found everywhere we look, it’s not true that every idea is worthy of a story or can sustain an entire novel. That’s why I like to write in a variety of mediums: poetry, short story, novels, even songs. Most of my ideas can find a home in one of these genres.

But how do you know if your idea can sustain a novel?  One way to do this is by writing a logline or a premise statement. Whatever you want to call it, this is a one- to two-sentence summary of your story that includes the protagonist or hero (including a type of person and an adjective that describes him), his goal, the antagonist, the main conflict, and action (plot).

In “Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success,” K.M. Weiland calls her one-liner the premise sentence. Here’s her premise sentence for her novel Dreamlander: Read more

Oct 15

3 Comments

What should you write? How about writing your favorite novel?

When starting a new novel or story, it’s a good idea to know what genre you’re writing in. That’s pretty obvious. What may not be so obvious are all the nuances within your genre. What kind of story, exactly, are you telling?

One way to discover this is to ask yourself: What are some of your favorite novels or movies and why do you like them? What makes them stand out above the others?

Below I listed a few of my favorites and why I like them. My “why” may be different than yours.

Books:

Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.

Why: original pov (from dead girl), lovely prose, deeply creepy antagonist, unique setting: heaven.

Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd Read more

Oct 9

2 Comments

Learn how outlining techniques can help you find your story (and have fun)

I just finished reading one of the most helpful books on writing I’ve ever read—and that’s saying a lot considering how many titles decorate my shelves.

But I hesitate to tell you the title. You might faint. You might freak out. You might jump back from your computer screen or iPhone or whatever device you’re reading this on and chuck it out the nearest window.

One word, in particular, in this book’s title is generally known to make writers quake in their pink bunny slippers as if they are witnessing a wolf spider crawl up the bathtub drain. Read more

Oct 7

3 Comments

Rhetorical devices: Your secret writing weapon

When a book instantly grabs me and draws me in, I like to go back later and analyze why. Sometimes, it’s the subject matter. Sometimes, it’s the narrator’s voice. Sometimes, it’s a simile or metaphor that hooks me. Always, it’s the strong writing. Strong writing means that the arrangement of words on the page “works.” Strong writing is an art that we can learn.

Many award-winning, best-selling authors have a secret weapon that helps them produce strong writing. That secret success weapon is the use of rhetorical devices.

Award-winning poet and author Jack Remick discusses his use of rhetorical devices in his interview with Joel Chafetz. He says that the devices all conspire to create a certain cadence in his work. He goes on to say:

…”it’s not enough to put the words down, that’s information. You have to make the words dance and rhetoric can make your words dance. Most people dismiss rhetoric but rhetoric cannot be dismissed. Rhetoric can give you rhythm, rhetoric can give you cadence, rhetoric can give your writing new life. So the writing in Blood is thick with rhetorical devices. And that’s what you’re picking up—the poetry of violence couched in rhetorical devices driving images at full speed so the story spins out ahead of you, drawing you along with each one.”

I’ve used rhetorical devices in my poetry for years–alliteration, assonance, similes, metaphors, etc. These are some of the more common devices with their definitions below: Read more

Sep 30

4 Comments

Frustrate your characters to keep readers turning pages

As writers, our job is to frustrate our characters. This job can be hard on us because we usually like our protagonist, maybe even feel she is a part of us. But when we write, we are forced to act more like her antagonist than best friend. That’s because, in order to keep our reader turning pages, we need to create conflict for our characters.

Even in fiction that doesn’t feature car crashes, bombs, or airplanes falling from the sky, we need to have some amount of conflict or tension. We need to create frustrated characters. So how do we keep the stakes high even in a cozy romance or literary novel? Read more

Sep 25

J. J. Abram’s mystery box as metaphor for writing

In producer/director/writer J. J. Abrams’s Ted Talk below, he says his fascination with how things work and the mystery surrounding life were given to him by his grandfather.

When he was a boy, his grandfather took him to a magic store where Abrams bought a Tannen’s Mystery Magic Box. This many years later, the box has never been opened because he says it represents his grandfather to him and the infinite possibilities and hopes that his grandfather instilled in him.

Abrams believes that mystery is the catalyst to imagination. He gives the example of when he was working on the TV series “Lost.” He had 11.5 weeks to write the script, cast it, and shoot it.

Because of the short time period, he and his crew had no time to think about what the show couldn’t be. No time to think about what they couldn’t accomplish. Read more

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »