Fiction by nature is something considered, not true, or not possible. Yet some of the best Science Fiction is that which makes you suspend your disbelief. We know for example that a man cannot fly, but I've lost track of how many "Superman" movies are out there. Some rely on special effects, to ooh and ahh the viewers. Some try to impress with technical jargon and new inventions that make the impossible possible. But the best way to overcome the impossible is by focusing on reality. Real emotions, real fears, and doubts are signs of good character development. Because in the real world, people are what life is all about. When it comes to superheroes, I like Spiderman, BECAUSE he had doubts, and was insecure... therefore I related to him the most. Not all of us will have the technical knowledge to write something as earth-shattering as Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" which many claim was the real motivation behind the first nuclear submarine. But what you do have is your own life experiences. I wrote a short story called "Shooting Goliath" as a realistic story of what happened to me when I fell off a waterfall. BUT I also have a scene in my time travel adventure where my main character jumps off a waterfall to catch someone else's attention. Now I KNOW that's fiction... because I'm scared of heights, but I have had the experience that makes that section believable. I have a character in that book that lost their spouse after 30 years, which has also happened to me. My story is based on the concept you can't help others if you can't help yourself. Every character has doubts and fears to overcome before they can complete their assignments. I focus on what I do know, not on what I don't. Yes, I have a character that is a writer, and I have a character that is a photographer. My stories are character driven by emotions that I understand. I'm NOT saying settings and plot are not important. What I'm saying is to use your strengths. You don't have to be a cop to solve a mystery. You don't have to fly to write about superheroes. What you must do is write about what you know to catch people's attention. Do I believe a man can fly? No. Do I believe Lois loves Clark? I have no doubt. Use your experiences to make the story come to life. If you've been hurt, write it down. If you've been scared, write it down. If you have ever been in love, fooled, overjoyed, given birth, buried a pet, been in an accident, run a race, or had your heart broken, write it down. These are the things that will make your story worth reading regardless of what it's about. Using your imagination doesn't mean you make up everything from scratch. Just ask yourself "what if" and plug in your own experiences. This is what keeps the readers engaged, and turning page after page. Be yourself and keep on writing. Award-winning writer/photographer Tedric Garrison has 40 years experience in both areas of expertise. As a Graphic Art Major, he has a unique perspective on creativity. His photography tells a story and his writing is visual. He believes creativity CAN be taught. Tedric shares both his writing and photography skills at his new website: http://writephotos.weebly.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Tedric_Garrison/88147 Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9856732
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If I ask the average person what a Beat Sheet is they probably wouldn't have a clue. Even when I ask writers, they may or may not have heard of it, but many do not know how it applies to them. If I ask what does "Do, Ra, Me" mean, most people associate it with musical notes. But as Julie Andrews pointed out, this is only the beginning. Next, you go... "Doe, a deer, a female deer, ray a drop of golden sun... " Think of a Beat Sheet as a starting point. Even if you do not like outlines, a Beat Sheet can be an effective tool in keeping a writer on track. A story beat is a type of plot point you include to drive your story forward. A Beat Sheet includes the different beats (or plot points) you want to include in your story. Some writers create mystery, fantasy, tragedy, a quest, or rags to riches. Obviously, they can't all have the same plot points, can they? Yes and no. ALL stories have a beginning, middle, and end. This could also be described as A) introduce a character, B) has a problem, and C) must be resolved. In most cases, there is a fourth point between items B and C known as discouragement. After all, it's hard to make a come-back if everything was perfect, to begin with. To show how this can be helpful, I'm going to create a new Beat Sheet and walk you through the process. Note: I made mine in WORD only because I don't use EXCEL. You can make yours on paper if you want. Start with three sections. Some people call them Acts (like a three-act play). Each of those Acts will also have a beginning, middle, and end. Do this one more time and you will have a table with 27 blank lines. There are different Beats templates available online if you write in standard Genres, but I do not. I write Time Travel / Romance, so some of the things I am about to share will vary depending on your project. Just like the song, "Do, Re, Me" we all need a starting point. I took mine from a basic Beat Sheet found online. For Act One I wrote: Introduce protagonist, hook the reader, and set up conflict. So far, we have just a few notes. Remember each Act has three sections, that's why we have three objectives for each Act.
The key words for Act Two include Protagonist reacts, one step forward, and two steps back. If you're looking at these phrases and thinking these are kind of vague, you're right. Remember, we haven't started writing the song yet. Act three consist of Hero gains courage, overcome the odds, and conquer the adversary. So far, this could apply to any story. This is where we start to customize the sheet to make it work for you. With nine blanks in under each Act, you now have an outline for a 27-chapter book. Realizing some ideas may take more than one chapter, I usually aim for 30 chapters. Under Act One, the beginning section, I wrote: action original hero, boy meets girl, and bigger than both. What does that mean? When I wrote those words, it was a mental note to myself. To hook the reader, I wanted to start with an action scene, and I wanted them to see what he or she was like originally. Everything we have entered so far is just a few words in the first column. You will note column two is empty. This is where you take a few words and make it into a full sentence. My goal is not to create a twenty-seven-page document, but to spark ideas on one easy to read page. This process will not write the entire novel for you, but... it will give you a roadmap to follow. Once you have 27 sentences, expand it to 27 paragraphs. If you can create 27 paragraphs, you can create 27 chapters. At this point you have 90% of the first draft done. In the Beat Sheet I created I planned for three different side stories (mini time travel adventures) and two plot twists. Do I know what they are yet? No, but I plan to make the story a page-turner. That's like highlighting your roadmap, so you can see where to turn next. Many traditional writers refuse to use outlines because they claim it robs them of creative options. If it makes you feel any better, you didn't create an outline, you created a Beat Sheet. You don't have to admit being a plotter if you don't want to. I won't tell anybody. Even if you don't expand to paragraphs just yet, you at least have a roadmap of where you're going. This is a tool to be used just like your computer or thesaurus. You can see examples of both a blank Beat Sheet and my completed Time Travel / Romance Beat Sheet on my website. Award-winning writer / photographer Tedric Garrison has 40 years' experience in both areas of expertise. As a Graphic Arts Major, he has a unique perspective on creativity. His photography tells a story and his writing is visual. Tedric shares his insight, experience, and skills at his website: http://writephotos.weebly.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Tedric_Garrison/88147 Software like Photoshop, Excel, and Scrivener are great, but they can also be intimidating. Have you ever paid for a program and never use it? Learning something new can be scary. Many programs have help files, but often that's not enough. Reading something and learning it are two different things. There are three types of learning. They are audio, visual, and hands-on. In this article, I will use Scrivener as my example. When considering this software, I looked at the Scrivener website and studied the overviews and features section. Impressed enough to make the purchase and read the written tutorial, I was quickly overwhelmed. Note, at this point, I was only looking at buttons and icons. Next, I went to Facebook and found a group called Scrivener Users. I prefer to hear from those who use the software, as opposed to those trying to sell me something. One advantage was now I could ask questions. Many people kept referring to the book Scrivener for... by Gwen Hernandez, so I purchased that. The book was excellent. Occasionally, I would click on an icon to verify the features listed underneath. Being a photographer for 40+ years, I relate to all things visual. Therefore, the next logical step was YouTube. Although they had dozens of tutorials most felt like a synopsis, a summary if you will. I liked being able to see and hear what I was learning. But, I wanted to watch without being dependent on the internet. What I found was a website called udemy.com, which had several outstanding video tutorials. What I had missed to this point, was the hands-on approach. With the program now open, I found the pause button was my new best friend. The class was reasonably priced and had excellent quality. It was also downloadable. With my slow internet speed, it did take a while (over 5 hours), but each of the 46 videos was downloaded to a folder on my desktop. Now, I could watch, practice, and hear the lessons all at the same time. If you want to be a writer, you don't just write when it's convenient, you write every day. If you want to learn something new you don't just read a manual and expect to know it all. You use different senses when you want to learn effectively, and you can also use a variety of resources. Millions of writers write blogs and how-to books with the expectation you will comprehend the subject better. There are thousands of users on Facebook and other social media outlets, waiting to share information they have learned from experience. The key word being experience. You must jump right in and get your hands dirty. YouTube has videos on almost any subject you can imagine. You can find inexpensive courses online. In many cases, you can also find Podcasts and audio CDs on your favorite subject. The information age does not limit you to one medium. You've heard the phrase show don't tell. This applies to learning as well as writing. Part of my learning process includes repetition. If I can listen or watch something multiple times, it tends to stay with me better. Some people can read something once and retain everything. I'm not one of those people. The more types of learning methods you employ, the better the odds you will retain the information. When getting your hands dirty doesn't help and reading is not enough, try using more resources. Award-winning writer/photographer Tedric Garrison has 40 years experience in both areas of expertise. As a Graphic Art Major, he has a unique perspective on creativity that makes his photos tell a story and his writing visual. He believes creativity CAN be taught. Tedric shares both his writing and photography skills at his website: http://writephotos.weebly.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Tedric_Garrison/88147 Words make all the difference. It's not just what you say, but how you say it. Once a writer finishes his or her 80,000-word masterpiece, they often find the work has only begun. I recently did a rewrite that took my manuscript from 315 pages down to 265 pages long. You spent two years getting 315 pages, how do you magically reduce it by 50 pages? If you diet, you watch what you eat. If you write, you watch what you write. It's called editing. Everybody has their weaknesses, whether it be chocolate chip cookies, or writing words that aren't helping your story. When it comes to editing there are certain words or phrases you need to cut down on, like... chocolate, ice cream, or cookies. Just kidding. But seriously, the word "like" is one of my demons. It's like I just use it here and there, then like I look down and see I've used it like five times in the same paragraph. It's not like I'm saying like is always bad, but it's like I'm just saying you don't always want to sound like a valley girl, do you, dude? Now for the list of words, you need to watch out for to keep your story from feeling bloated. 1. Like - If this is "like" something, then it is NOT that thing. Giving accurate descriptions and using correct verbs makes reading more enjoyable. 2. Really - This is a flabby modifier. Try to do without it, or better yet try to come up with a more robust word than the one you're modifying. Example: rather than, "I'm really hungry." Try "I'm starved." 3. So - The word "So" is an unnecessary intensifier. Like the word "Like", it can become addictive. "So, what you really mean is... " would read better as, "What you mean is... " 4. Up, Down - usually these words are not needed. They tend to be redundant. For example: "I sat down on the bed." could be, "I sat on the bed." Now, if you need to "look up", that's fine. But do not say, "look up at the clouds in the sky." Just say, "Look at the clouds." 5. That - If a sentence makes sense after removing "that," delete it. For example, "This is the most amazing book that I've ever read." can be, "This is the most amazing book I've ever read." 6. Big - This is a weak adjective. Replace it with something more precise. Example, rather than "He was a big man." Try, "He was six feet tall and 250 pounds." 7. Suddenly - "Sudden" means quickly and without warning, but using the word "suddenly" slows down the action and warns your reader. Do you know what would be better? Just spit it out. Rather than saying, "Then suddenly, I heard a blood-curdling scream." Say, "I heard a blood-curdling scream." 8. Did not - This is referred to as a negative construct. Readers don't like it when you tell them what something is not. They like when you tell them what something is. Example, you could say, "The actor did not remember his lines." or, "The actor forgot his lines." 9. Said - Many writers have a divided opinion about this word, but here is my perspective. One hamburger will not kill you, but if you eat at McDonald's three times a day for 20 years... what happens is not their fault. In other words, if you have an entire page of dialog, after the original "he said, she said", let it go. The readers are smart enough to follow along without saying "said" every single time. 10. Very - In this case, nobody can explain why better than Robin Williams. "So, avoid using the word 'very' because it's lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don't use very sad, use morose. Language was invented for one reason, boys -to woo women- and, in that endeavor, laziness will not do. It also won't do in your essays." - Dead Poet Society Are there other filler words or phrases you can do without? No doubt. These are just the most common ones I must remind myself about. While writing this article, I deleted the word "Just" half a dozen times, so I guess you could add that to the list. The thing to remember is if you become aware you use a certain word or phrase too much, so will your reader. To keep your readers turning every page as fast as they can, you need to keep up the pace. Don't use ten words when six will do. Writing a book takes endurance, motivation, and inspiration. Writing a good book takes editing. By Tedric Garrison | Submitted On December 18, 2017 Award-winning writer/photographer Tedric Garrison has 40 years experience in both areas of expertise. As a Graphic Art Major, he has a unique perspective on the Elements of Design and how they relate to photography. His photo eBook; Finding Your Creative Edge in Photography proves creativity CAN be taught. Tedric shares both his writing and photography skills at his new website: http://writephotos.weebly.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Tedric_Garrison/88147 What comes to mind when you hear the phrase, "a picture is worth a thousand words"? If you have Dyslexia or are close to someone who does; you realize this is more accurate than most people give it credit for. It is said a verbal thinker may have 2 to 5 thoughts per second. A dyslexic person is considered a picture thinker and would have 32 thoughts per second. Picture thinking is estimated to be, overall, 400 to 2,000 times faster than verbal thinking. This information comes from: "The Gift of Dyslexia" by Ronald D. Davis. Some refer to this as right brain verses left brain thinking. I will confess I enjoy photography almost as much as writing. In both cases, how you choose to produce your creative endeavors depends on how you think about it. When a verbal thinker learns the word "CAT" for example; he has basically 4 thoughts, each letter and what they sound like together. The picture thinker on the other hand; will see the letters in the word "CAT" in at least 40 different ways, before even thinking of sounds. From an outside perspective; it seems that the picture thinker is handicapped because he or she is so much slower, but in reality they are putting MUCH more effort into the process. Having worked for a nation-wide portrait studio before, I remember being limited to 7 shots per portrait sitting. Even if I only shot one subject, it felt like my hands were being tied. A picture thinker could easily shoot 30 to 40 photos of the same subject and not blink. Verbal thinkers tend to be very analytical in nature. Obviously all writers use verbal skills, but that doesn't mean they are all verbal thinkers. Look on any Facebook writing group, and you will see someone, asking how many words are in a chapter, or how many pages in a chapter, or how many chapters in a novel, etc. They seem to think if you follow some magic formula the story will automatically write itself. They get so absorbed in the technical aspects, they tend to stop thinking creatively. Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, John F. Kennedy, Steven Spielberg, Whoopi Goldberg, Cher, and Henry Winkler were all successful NOT in spite of having dyslexia; but largely in part because of having it. Because they were picture thinkers they had greater vision (no pun intended). You too can share in that vision by releasing yourself from your own limitations. Some people take portraits by centering the subject and having them look straight ahead and smile. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it's not the only way. I could write several articles about the alternatives, but that will be for another day. Some writers plan out every detail before they write a single word and write consecutively, chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, etc. But, it is also not the only way. Some writers write the ending first. Some write a certain amount of words per day. Some listen to music in the background, some do not. Some only write at a certain time each day. Some will write five minutes here or ten minutes there. If you get stuck, don't stop writing, just try something different. It is human nature that we all learn by doing. I invite you to step outside your comfort zone and write more than you ever have in 24 hours before. This process will help transform you from a verbal thinker into a picture thinker. You might be asking how it does that? Let me give you an example. Back when I taught photography one of my favorite assignments was to take pictures of a mailbox. The rules were simple, you had to shoot 36 photos of the same mailbox and each shot had to be uniquely different. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, let's see... you can shoot left, right, front, back, up or down... only 30 more to go. Time after time, when it came to a class review, the best pictures were always the last five or six pictures taken. Why? Because the first 20 or 30 shots everybody kept using their traditional ways of thinking. Once they started thinking outside the box, (no pun intended), the visual thinking kicked in. Once you master how you think, you realize being creative is not just for the lucky few. You can finish that chapter, you can give a more detailed description, you can leave clues without giving away the answer. It's not a matter of doing it as you have always done it before, it's a matter of thinking about things, differently than you have before. When you get to the point where thinking different is the norm, your perspective will change and writer's block will be a thing of the past. Remember, as a man thinketh, so is he (or her) depending on your point of view. There is no right or wrong, but... there is always another way of thinking about things. Keep an open mind and keep on writing. Written by: Tedric Garrison 12-10-17 Award-winning writer/photographer Tedric Garrison has 40 years experience in both areas of expertise. As a Graphic Art Major, he has a unique perspective on the Elements of Design and how they relate to photography. His photo eBook; Finding Your Creative Edge in Photography proves creativity CAN be taught. Tedric shares both his writing and photography skills at his new website: http://writephotos.weebly.com Most sporting events, award first, second and third place. There may be hundreds of competitors, but only the top three get recognition. Likewise, when it comes to writing software; (specifically editing software), I am going to cover the top three. All three of these programs will blow away a regular word processor when it comes to basic grammar and spelling. The three big contenders are Grammarly, ProWritingAid, and the Hemingway Editor. Yes, I have used all three, but I will be dropping one of them shortly. The most prominent budget for advertising goes to Grammarly, hands down. You can see it advertised on YouTube, Facebook, blogs, and websites all across the world wide web. A lot of writers, especially those who use Scrivener, prefer ProWritingAid. The underdog, and least known by most is the Hemingway Editor. A lot of people like to root for the underdog, so that's where I will start. The Hemingway Editor is the least expensive of all three programs with a one-time purchase price of $19.99. Keep in mind all three have free versions available. One of the beautiful things about this program is you do NOT need internet access, to use it. It focusses on five main areas to improve your writing. These areas include readability, adverbs, passive voice, word choice, and sentence structure. You can export to a variety of formats including HTML, PDF, text, and Word. Add this to your existing word processing program, and you will raise the quality of your work. As mentioned Grammarly is VERY popular and with good reason. Besides being able to use it in your novel or short story, it can be used on email and in the Chrome browser. That means no need to be embarrassed when you post to your Writer's Group in Facebook and use the wrong version of effect (for example). It has a Word plug-in that works great in Windows, but not so much on the Mac. It has good vocabulary enhancement suggestions and is compatible with more than 30 file types. It has a plagiarism checker, and according to the website, the paid version has over 400 + checks and features. Please note, I HAVE the paid version, and I have no idea what those features include. Some will argue, you get what you pay for, but be warned. The cost of this program is $139.95 per year. ProWritingAid has the most compatibility with Windows and Mac operating systems. It works great with top word processing programs like Word, Scrivener, Open Office, Google Docs and more. It has a Word Explorer feature that contains a thesaurus, a dictionary, reverse dictionary, collocation dictionary, alliteration dictionary, cliché' dictionary, rhymes and example usages from poetry, prose, and songs. It has over 25 reports that examine different areas of your writing, that includes contextual spelling, grammar and punctuation checking. This means it gives recommendations based on what you actually write, not from some outdated rule book. The price of this software starts at $40.00 per year, but it also has an option of $140.00 for a lifetime license. So, who won the gold? To answer that I decided to give all three a test. I did this on Thanksgiving Day 2017. I selected a 1200 word scene from one of my works in progress. Since Grammarly seemed to be the heavy favorite, I started there. I used the plugin for Word 2016 and received 15 Critical errors. Then just for fun, I ran it online where it said I had 9 Critical errors AND 24 Advanced issues (because I had the paid edition.) Fifteen verses Thirty-three, strange. I thought it was the same program, but apparently not. The Hemingway Editor was much more consistent coming up with 36 errors both online and stand alone. Yes, the cheapest of the three found twice as many as the most expensive program in the group. Makes me wonder. Now, the moment of truth, ProWritingAid found 222 errors in 22 separate detailed reports using the same 1200 word document. They offered easy to understand explanations for everything they marked. I'm not saying I would use all 222 recommendations, but even if I only accepted 50%, that's a whole lot more than the other two. So, in summary, ProWritingAid took the Gold, Hemingway Editor took the Silver, and in a distant third place, Grammarly took the bronze. Remember when I said I would be dropping one of these shortly? Guess which one I'm no longer using. If you don't like these results, run your own tests. (There are free online versions of each.) Play with all three and decide who won the Grammar War for you. By Tedric Garrison | Submitted On November 29, 2017 Award-winning writer/photographer Tedric Garrison has 40 years experience in both areas of expertise. As a Graphic Art Major, he has a unique perspective on the Elements of Design and how they relate to photography. His photo eBook; Finding Your Creative Edge in Photography proves creativity CAN be taught. Tedric shares both his writing and photography skills at his new website: http://writephotos.weebly.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Tedric_Garrison/88147 What is the attraction of Time Travel as a genre in writing? Is it the idea we can go back and fix our lives? Or the appeal of watching history unfold? Maybe it's the concept that everything happens for a reason. Regardless of your "why", you need a good "how" to make time travel a reality. Below are five examples of how you can make that happen. Don't worry, none of them have to do with Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity. 1. Mechanical - Most Sci-Fi fans are familiar with automated time traveling. What do Dr. Who and Back to the Future have in common? They both have machines of some type that allows characters to go forward or back in time. This is by far the most common method writers use to get their subjects from point A to point B. The advantages are you don't really have to explain the mechanics, just assume it works and continue with the story. The disadvantage is making sure you don't sound like a Dr. Who or Back to the Future rip off. 2. A Natural Phenomenon - Relying on a natural phenomenon is a little different. TV series like Star Trek and Stargate use these a lot. This includes black holes, wormholes, and the ever popular, rip in the fabric of time. In these stories, time travel is not usually planned, it is something that is thrust upon the characters. Advantages are it is typically high suspense and makes a great plot twist. The disadvantage is they are usually harder to explain and often require space travel as another area to research. Examples of this include, A Wrinkle in Time and the show Sliders. 3. Hypnosis or Meditation - If you use hypnosis or meditation to travel in time, the characters own mind is doing all the work. Think of Somewhere in Time or Time and Again. This makes time travel limited to only those who have strong enough willpower. Advantages are this puts your character in charge of their own destiny. Disadvantages are the character must spend so much effort to maintain that reality, that any small detail can disrupt the adventure. 4. Sleep or Dreams - If you use sleep or dreams this is a form of time travel happening to your character, but, less technical than a wormhole. Often used to teach someone a lesson. Think Rip Van Winkle or A Christmas Carol. Advantages are it can be excepted by more people, including children because it does not sound like Sci-Fi. A disadvantage is that it can be challenging to make a dream, not sound cliché. 5. Magic or Enchanted Items start to blur the line between Sci-Fi and Fantasy. The Story of the Amulet and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban both use items that are not traditional time machines. Advantages are you get to make up your own rules because after all, it is magic. Disadvantages include not all sci-fiction fans like fantasy and visa versa. Also, this usually involves more backstory that you must work in (the history of the item, how the character came to possess the object, etc.) Most time travel adventures are character based, but the reader still needs to grasp how this is possible. Like knowing your setting, you also need to understand the mechanics of what you are suggesting. Are there other ways of writing a time travel story? I'm sure there are, but you as the writer need to have a clear picture in your mind before you try to share that vision. These are some of the more popular ways of writing time travel, think of them as templates, but don't forget to make it your own. By Tedric Garrison | Submitted On November 12, 2017 Award-winning writer/photographer Tedric Garrison has 40 years experience in both areas of expertise. As a Graphic Art Major, he has a unique perspective on the Elements of Design and how they relate to photography. His photo eBook; Finding Your Creative Edge in Photography proves creativity CAN be taught. Tedric shares both his writing and photography skills at his new website: http://writephotos.weebly.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Tedric_Garrison/88147 If you want to write a novel, there are basically two schools of thought on how you go about it. You either belong to Team Plotters or Team Pantsers. Those who identify themselves as "Plotters," like to plan out their novel before they ever write it. "Pantsers" on the other hand, tend to write by the seat of their pants. They go with the flow and hope one thing leads to another. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. As a Plotter you always know what is coming next, this might help eliminate the dreaded writer's block that so many writers fear. However, when you do change one thing it can set off a chain reaction where you have to change many things. When you are a Pantser, you have few restrictions so if you add a character or kill a figure it doesn't slow you down. You open yourself up to spontaneous creativity. The problem is sometimes you write yourself into a corner. Which might cause writer's block, which can disrupt your creative juices, for days, weeks, or even months. For a long time, I did not think of myself as a member of either team. I was just a writer. When I was inspired, I wrote. When I wasn't, I did something else, like research, or Facebook, or whatever. So, what changed? I was trying to find something I had bookmarked a while back. I had a folder that said Writing Stuff, but inside I had 154 links placed randomly over the last several years. Finding it was harder than I expected. After a while, I did get it sorted out. Now I open Write Stuff and see four folders - Book Reviews, Research, Scrivener, and Writing Websites. Each of those folders may have other folders but no more than 15 links in each one. So now if I want to find information on Virginia Dare, for example, I go Write Stuff >> Research >> Virginia Dare. Looking at 10 links is a lot easier than 154. You might be saying what does that have to do with writing? You are right that is only a symptom of a much bigger problem. Let me give you a real-world example that you might relate to better. You decide to write a Time Travel novel where students learn to become Time Travelers. You have two main characters, so you need a character sketch and background story for both. It is a school, so you know there must be other students. You create four to six more couples. Remember to write a character sketch and background story for each. So far, so good. Of course, they must learn from someone, so you create six instructors, same information required. You plan for four or five adventures over the length of the story. Now you have the people they meet, the settings for each mission, the physical description for each person, the overall plot, the subplots and more. THAT is a lot of information to keep in your head. The last thing you want to do is describe your hero with blue eyes on one page, and two chapters later give them brown eyes. Who is it that has the sister with Tourette Syndrome? Who fell off a waterfall as a child? Who used to be a painter? Don't get me wrong, it can be done. Just like I could have found that link I wanted, eventually. I used to think that using an outline was somehow cheating. I thought it would stifle my creativity. I thought it would be boring if I planned. Those who defend being a Pantser will say, but I need to be able to go wherever the story takes me. I've got news for you, being a Plotter does not mean you plot out your character's daily wardrobe for six years. Knowing physical descriptions, background stories and the setting where specific events happen can make life so much easier. It's up to you how much you want to plan in advance. Some will say that's all part of the research. I would argue if it's not written down, where you can find it, then it doesn't really help. I had tons of links, but the longer I took to see them, the more likely I would get distracted. I guess you could call me a "Tweener," because now I am somewhere between the traditional Plotter verses the hardcore Pantser. Someday I might even break down and do a synopsis of each chapter, but not today. For the moment, I just want to write, but that doesn't mean I have to remember all those details all the time. Planning in advance (Plotting, if you will), is like goal setting. If you don't write it down, it doesn't count. Take some of the stress off your shoulders, and try Plotting for a change. By Tedric Garrison | Submitted On November 12, 2017 Award-winning writer/photographer Tedric Garrison has 40 years experience in both areas of expertise. As a Graphic Art Major, he has a unique perspective on the Elements of Design and how they relate to photography. His photo eBook; Finding Your Creative Edge in Photography proves creativity CAN be taught. Tedric shares both his writing and photography skills at his new website: http://writephotos.weebly.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Tedric_Garrison/88147 Sure, you like to read books--in fact at times you enjoy reading them more than living in the real world--but liking a good story, craving a world written of imagination is different from creating one, right? Surely a writer is born, calluses on fore and third fingers, and not made? Not necessarily. American master bard Walt Whitman didn't produce his masterpiece Leaves of Grass until age 35--and nobody has yet figured where his genius came from, near ready-made. Here are seven signs you might be harboring a fugitive author inside, a writer hidden and desperate for escapism. 1. You really like books. I mean really. You read under the covers as a child, not to mention in the car, on the bus, even heaven forbid at lunch while others played. More than just a borderline literary obsession, yours was the sad ennui that life in the real world could never reach the same heights as on the page. Maybe your true direction in life is to be found in perfectly kerned type. Maybe there you will reach your true heights. 2. As an adult you often avoid reading. Not because you've grown out of it, but because your standards in reading continue to grow, and frankly, you've been let down one time too many by a poorly written book; you're just too good a reader for writing that is below you. A writer stuck in the closet is guaranteed to have higher standards than most; perhaps it is time for you to wear the shirt that fits. 3. It's a cliché--but fiction is the home of clichés so read on--you can name the books that changed your life, whose well-crafted, compelling truths and hidden insights helped you to see the world in different ways, yourself as well. Maybe you have a written truth to offer the world of your own. 4. You often tell others of the faults in what you are reading, how you think a novel could be written better. You intuitively know what makes good writing, know whether an author has something to say before you've half-travailed the page. You would write books reviews if only you were a writer you sadly exclaim. Well maybe you should--pick up a pen and you are. 5. When you read words you hear the voice of the author inside you--in fact yours is the long-held belief that somehow you know the authors whose work you have read, although you have never met. Maybe you do. Writing, like other forms of art, is a bridge between the author and reader, and poet, artist, and meditation teacher Sri Chinmoy writes that if we are aware of this bridge, we can not only enter the work of a writer, but also acquire their capacity: "When you want to create something, you want to invoke beauty to inspire you. So, at that time, you must identify yourself with someone who is creating. You want to do something unique, but the type of thing that you want to do somebody has already done or is doing. Only you want to surpass him. So, try to identify yourself with the consciousness of the person who has already done the thing or with the person himself, and try to get inspiration, aspiration and capacity from him. If you want to write something spiritual, read my writings and identify with them. If you want to draw something, take your ideal artist and identify with his creation."[1] 6. You long to discover the hidden meaning of things, the hidden motivations and depths in the hearts of others, the mystery of the world around you, also inside you. Most good writers do--it is why they write--their fascination for life equal if not greater than for writing itself. Follow the path of such writers to self-knowledge; pen in hand, start yourself to write. 7. You have always been a storehouse of facts, a walking library of information. You can remember everything that happens to you, often astound friends with precise recall of events and their sequence, without quite understanding why. Your mind itself is a narrator: reporting, observing and describing the events of your day, albeit unbidden usually--a tape recording whose reels are without end. Song-writer Kristin Hersh began writing songs because "If I don't turn ideas into songs they can get stuck in me and make me sick."[2] Even if not to this extreme, if your mind is bursting its bounds, put it's excess creativity and energy to good use; start writing it all down. You might also want to try meditation, and acquire a much needed on and off switch. According to Hersh, "songwriting is about shutting up instead of talking."[3] Whether of songs or entire books, if you want to be a writer, now is the time to bite the apple rather than talk about it. Footnotes: 1. p.42, A Galaxy of Beauty's Stars, Sri Chinmoy, 1974 2. Kristin Hersh, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristin_Hersh 3. Ibid Written By John Paul Gillespie | Submitted On July 28, 2007 John-Paul Gillespie is a New Zealand based free-lance writer and designer with a love of words and, when occasionally silent, a practice of meditation. A member of the Sri Chinmoy Centre, he credits meditation as the inspiration behind all his writing. John contributes to a site on spiritual writing: http://www.writespirit.net/ Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/John_Paul_Gillespie/52578 You've been writing for ten years, and someone asks, "What's your niche?" Do you know what to say? If you respond, "I write articles," or "short stories," or "novels," you just answered wrong. These are all types of writing or categories that you write in. A writer's niche is usually defined as: "a distinct segment of the writing market." The key word being, "distinct." So, with that definition in mind, if you say, "I write photography articles," while that is better, it's not great. If you say, "I write articles about taking photography portraits," that's actually pretty good. But if you say, "I write articles about taking baby portraits with your camera," you just hit the jackpot! Ding, ding, ding. Confetti falls from the sky. That's your niche. So why does it need to be that specific? I can think of two reasons. First, (if taking baby portraits is what you do) nobody is likely to ask you to take underwater photos or skydiving photos. The second is much more important. Your neighbor or best friend has a new baby, and their first thought is, "I know the perfect person to take those pictures." Now some may argue, but I don't want to limit myself, that's why I take pictures of everything, or why I write about everything. That's OK, but when someone asks you the question, "what is your niche?" you need to man up and say, I don't have one. I do a lot of different photography, or I do a lot of different writing. That's OK, you are not a bad person if you don't have a specific niche. But... If you have a bleeding ulcer, do you go to a foot doctor or a surgeon? If you have a $150,000.00 Lamborghini, do you go to a general mechanic or a specialist? If you want to invest in stocks, do you go to a stockbroker or the janitor who works at Wall Street? Well, maybe, but you get a general idea. As a writer, most of you are familiar with the idea of branding. Do you want to be known as a jack of all trades and master of none? Let's take Stephen King as an example. He is known as the master of suspense or the king of terror, and that's a good thing. That's his specialty. He also writes about writing, he may even write about gardening (don't quote me), but that's not the point, he is well known, mainly in part because of his niche. Let's say you are a photographer and you want to get more business, so you build a website. After a few months, you notice no difference, so you think I need to get more traffic to my site. You start to write photography articles that link back to your site. After a few months, your site is doing great, but you still have no business. What went wrong? You wrote articles about portraits, parts of the camera, sports photography, landscape photography, the Zone system and more. Therein lies your problem. You proved you know about photography, but you still have no niche. The people you attracted to your site were interested in photography, NOT what your photography could do for them. Having an area of expertise gives them a reason to use you, as their photographer. Isn't that the real goal? Do you want to be known as just a writer? Or do you want to be known as the writer who writes romantic time travel adventure novels that have family values? Now, that's a niche. But you have to decide what your niche is before you can become famous for it. Don't be scared to commit. Give yourself a better chance to succeed. Find your niche. Award-winning writer/photographer Tedric Garrison has 40 years experience in both areas of expertise. As a Graphic Art Major, he has a unique perspective on the Elements of Design and how they relate to photography. His photo eBook; Finding Your Creative Edge in Photography proves creativity CAN be taught. Tedric shares both his writing and photography skills at his new website: http://writephotos.weebly.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Tedric_Garrison/88147 |