NaNo-What-o? No, NaNoWriMo! That time of year has come upon us again. No, I'm not talking about Halloween, or Thanksgiving, or any of the holidays. No, no, I'm talking about something much more important - NaNoWriMo! What exactly is NaNoWriMo, you ask? Well, I'm so glad you asked. Here let me tell you... NAtional NOvel WRIting MOnth NaNoWriMo, get it? Okay, according to the site, that is pronounced: NAN-no WRY-Mo. Most authors I know who are participating have come to just call it NaNo. It comes in the month of November, every year since 1999. Every year in October, http://www.nanowrimo.org opens up for new subscriptions for eager novel writers to challenge themselves by writing a novel of at least 50,000 words during the month of November. There's a catch though - you can't start writing the actual novel until 12:01 your local time, November 1, and you must be finished with the novel by the end of the month. Now, the novel is not limited to 50K words, but to 'win' the NaNoWriMo Challenge, you must not only write at least 50K words, but you must also finish the novel. There is a list of author's who have actually had their NaNoWriMo novel published, and many people who wrote novels for NaNo and went on to self publish. So what's the point to it all? Well, for someone who has never published an novel, NaNoWriMo provides a great motivation, in a fun environment, with lots of other aspiring authors to support an encourage one another and finally tap out that novel that we all think we have dwelling inside of us. For the experienced or published author, NaNoWriMo really gives the author a nice challenge, by adding a deadline environment, accountability and a means for checking progress. This can help an author who has been tossing around ideas for their next book really dig in and push the creativity out of them. The first thing you do is visit the website at nanowrimo.org and register for an account and create your profile. This is completely and totally free. NaNo is supported mostly by donations. After you have created your account and profile you can join the user forums and discussion groups, also free, and get to meet other authors taking the challenge this year. Last year, NaNo boasted an impressive 59,000 participants, which means you potentially have 59,000 other writers all there to cheer you on. In addition to the website, many areas in the US have local NaNo meetings with other participants in close physical proximity. The group in my area met regularly during October and November at the local Starbucks. Now, after you have created your profile, have added all your writing buddies, joined a local group to track progress by your area, you are now ready to prepare to write your novel. Now, remember, the rules say you can't start until November 1, on the actual writing, but there are many things you can do to prepare. Below is my self-help list for preparing for NaNoWriMo (btw, I was a NaNo 'winner' last year too): 1. Buy lots of coffee. If coffee is not your caffeine of choice, then buy lots of whatever is. Fifty thousand words is much more than most realize. Think about this, most articles on sites like Associated Content are only about 600-1000 words long. That means you will be writing, on the upper end, the equivalent of about 84 articles in one month's time, but with a plot and story line, hopefully, that should be consistent and flow together well. That might just mean some late nights, and coffee is a staple! 2. Buy a plastic shower cap. When it is 2am, two days before Thanksgiving, your entire family coming to visit, and you are only 30,000 word into your NaNo novel, you will need to place this shower cap on your head in order to remind you not to pull your hair out. 3. Lock up all firearms. The temptation will be too great at 5am after no sleep, when one of your novel's character decides to take the storyline in a whole new direction, NOT to shoot your computer monitor. Be sure all firearms and baseball bats are securely locked away during the month of November. 4. Buy headphones. This is not to listen to music. No, these will be what you put on your head to block out all the sounds of people in your house whining, "You're at the computer writing again?" Be sure not to buy headphones with a cord though. The temptation to strangle yourself or them will simply be too great. 5. At 11:59pm, October 31 - promptly disregard and temporarily forget anything and everything you have ever been taught about writing. This is important. NaNo isn't about writing the perfect novel or the great American novel. NaNo is about writing A novel, crappy, good, in between... the point isn't to make it perfect, but to challenge yourself to do something different that you normally would not do if you were not participating in NaNoWriMo. In order to finish a novel in 30 days, you will have to let go of your preconceived notions about writing novels and just let your writing flow. Honestly, you may be surprised when you let go of all the 'rules' of writing just how easily writing can flow. 6. Learn how not to edit. NaNoWriMo is about writing a novel in 30 days, not editing one. In fact, NaNo has March set aside, or maybe it's February, but nonetheless, there is a month set aside by NaNo to edit your crappy November novel. November is National Novel WRITING Month, and your goal is only to write it, not to edit it yet. Also, it's not National Novel RE-writing month, so save the rewrites for after you have actually WRITTEN the novel. Now, let's get a bit more serious about NaNo. While you cannot start writing the actual novel until November 1, you can indeed start writing a plot outline and developing your characters right now. If you get a good outline prepared and learn and know your characters well, you will be able to really just sit down and pound out the story. There's a couple of weeks left before the actual kick off, so you should have plenty of time to register on the site, set up your profile, and start working on your outline and character development so that you are ready to begin writing, writing, writing, during the month of November. I have found this challenge to be a lot of fun, a little bit crazy, and highly motivating for me as a novelist. I completed a novel through NaNoWriMo last year called, "In Her Own Back Yard" and this year, my novel is titled, "Another Lifetime." Don't forget to read the FAQs, because not only are they informative, but they are hilarious to read too. And be sure to sign up for the weekly prompts from Chris. He's funny, motivating, and a total hoot to read. Feel free to add me as a writing buddy (michelleldevon) and let me know your NaNo name so I can add you and together, we'll see if we can't each crank out a crappy novel in the month of November. Best of luck to all who participate. By Michelle L Devon | Submitted On October 20, 2006 Michelle L Devon is a freelance writer and an editor, providing write for hire and editing services through her company, Accentuate Services. For more information, or if you need someone to edit your NaNoWriMo novel, please visit her website at http://www.accentuateservices.com For help with your writing or to find paying writing gigs, you can join her free writer's forum at http://www.writersforum.info or http://www.accentuateservices.com/forum Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Michelle_L_Devon/36496
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Whether fiction or non-fiction, books with strong dialog are more interesting and engaging to the reader. Dialog is a fantastic and necessary device to move a story and reveal character. As a writer, you are probably accustomed to using your internal VISION to describe a scene, event, or make a point. You see it in your mind and describe what you SEE. Dialog must be handled differently. Dialog is primarily a task for your AUDITORY processing. You must hear it internally and write what you HEAR. Most people process information visually, so this may be a significant shift for you. Whether you are recalling an actual conversation or devising one from your imagination, you can try these practices to refine your 'ear' for dialog and add richness to your writing. 1) Eavesdrop: Next time you are sitting at a coffee shop, waiting in line, or dining solo at a restaurant, prick up your ears and listen in on nearby conversations. For this exercise to be most effective, take notes and try to record exactly what is said. Of course, be subtle. 2) Take notes while you are talking on the phone: Again, try to write down exactly what the other person says. I got a lot of practice at this when I was a journalist. You will start to notice subtleties in the way people speak; that we don't all sound alike, even if we are saying basically the same thing. 3) Know your 'characters': The better you 'know' your characters, the easier it will be to write outstanding dialog. For non-fiction, this is fairly easy. You are writing about real people, and, in most cases, you can talk to them and get a feel for who they are. In fiction, this is more of a challenge, but I promise you, the more deeply you 'know' your characters, the better your overall story will be. 4) Get inside the speaker: When you sit down to write dialog, get inside the speaker's skin. Do your best to 'become' that person while you are writing their part. What matters to them? What does it FEEL like to BE them? Move back and forth between speakers as the 'conversation' evolves. 5) Go for realism: People typically don't talk the same way they write. They utter incomplete thoughts, they hesitate; they interrupt. Dialog is affected by region, social standing, self-esteem, education, emotion, agenda, and the relationship between the characters. For a dialog to sound authentic, you must account for these idiosyncrasies and variables. By Robin Hoffman | Submitted On January 01, 2010 Robin Hoffman, MA, The Author Alchemist, is a publishing strategist, book editor and writer's coach who helps aspiring authors transform their dreams into reality. Find out more at http://www.robin-hoffman.com Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Robin_Hoffman/465096 Is your writing as good as it possibly could be? Would you like to make your writing easier, more efficient, and take it to the next level? Well, perhaps it's time to consider graduating from Microsoft Word, to software just for authors: Scrivener.So, have you heard of Scrivener? If you haven't, here's a very quick introduction: Scrivener is a writing, idea management, note management, research management, and text organization tool specifically designed for writers. Here are the particular strengths of Scrivener, when it comes to your writing:
Here's a Crash Course Into Scrivener... So now that you're convinced that Scrivener is a much more suitable (and productive) solution for you than Word, especially for longer documents, let's dive into some of its easier functionality that you can start benefiting from immediately... Let's run through some key features... Organization of Chapters Whatever you're writing, it will be broken up into chapters of course, or at the very least, sections. Scrivener allows you to create an outline of all your chapters, and the sections that make up those chapters, and easily rearrange them however you choose and whenever you choose. Now, at this point we're still at a level of functionality that's also available in Microsoft Word. But, that will very shortly start to change, as you'll see... So not only do you get a clear outline of your book/document and can re-arrange it very easily, it allows you to set "flags" for your chapters/sections so you can clearly mark the current status of each. For example, once you've written your first very rough draft, you may choose to change its color to yellow. Then once you've created the second draft that's ready to be sent to an editor (or for finalization if you're doing it all yourself), you may flag it as green. As mentioned, a chapter can be made up of any number of sections. A section could be as big, or small, as you like, depending on you like to write and organize your content. And since each of those sections can be set up with flags too, with a simple glance you know the exact status of whatever it is you're working on. Notes and Other References Your research has its own section in Scrivener. Here you can write notes to yourself, include links to resources, or even copy and paste straight off the internet and into Scrivener, so you have the contents of a web page right there for you to refer back to at any time without having to click out of the application (since there lies the danger of being distracted). Plus, just like every part of Scrivener, your notes section can be organized into categories, so however you like to structure and refer to your notes, the software will quite happily accommodate that. And importantly you can have the research section of Scrivener and your writing window open at the same time. So no need to constantly click from one part of the software to another, you have your research directly in your eye line as you write, which makes referencing a lot easier and quicker. Your Characters When writing fiction, you need to have a very clear idea of your characters - their characteristics, their look, their history, and anything else you need to know to fully flesh them out in your writing. Well, Scrivener offers a section for this too, so that as you write, you can have a reference right in front of you about who you're writing about. It helps you avoid getting details mixed up between characters! Plus, you can include photos (even just of celebrities who look like who you have in mind), so that you can see them clearly, which will help guide your writing. The Main Export Formats Scrivener offers many export formats including even Microsoft Word format, if you decide you'd prefer to temporarily work on your manuscript in Word for whatever reason. The two formats that will save you a ton of effort, be used again and again (if you're a prolific writer), and that you'll find absolutely indispensable are exporting to ePub and also Kindle format. Further Benefits of Scrivener Let's dive a little further into some of the more advanced functionality Scrivener offers and how it helps you be a more productive and efficient writer, whatever type of content you may be creating... Distraction Free Writing It's so easy when writing at a computer to get distracted. Emails coming in, Skype messages appearing, and Facebook just needs to be checked that second, right? Well, what if you could hide all that, and only have the text you're writing visible on the screen? Scrivener offers exactly that. Everything disappears except what you're working on, until you're ready to return back to your regular working environment. Now, this doesn't guarantee that you won't be tempted to check your email and see what's happening on Facebook, but it certainly helps hide all that away from you, to help minimize distractions as much as possible. Speaking of which... Setting and Meeting Project Targets Do you have an idea of how long your book is going to be? Well, let's say 50,000 words, give or take. Next question: When must the first (rough) draft of your book be written? Well, let's say April 29th, and let's imagine that's 20 days away from now. Okay, so how many days a week would you like to work? Monday through to Friday, or perhaps the weekend too? So let's say in this instance you're going to go flat out with this and have decided on writing seven days a week. Okay, so what does that work out as? It's 2,500 words a day. Sound realistic? Or how about if you choose to take one day off a week? That roughly increases your required daily word count to 3,000. Scrivener helps you stay on track with your writing goals by keeping you accountable to meeting your daily writing target. This is called the Target Tracker. And it's been said that Stephen King writes 2,000 words a day, day in, day out. And it works for him, right? So perhaps there's something to writing consistently rather than the feast or famine approach of waiting around for inspiration. And remember, this is your first draft. You can't improve what doesn't exist, so get something written, and then your review, editing, and finalization cycles are where "okay" even "terrible" writing becomes great. But it has to exist in the first place, so don't get hung up on the first draft. Scrivener Always Remembers Where You Are Each time you open up Word, you're back at the top of the document, right? Well, Scrivener takes a different, and more helpful approach. Wherever you were when you closed the software last time is where it opens up next time. This makes carrying on where you left off, from one day to the next so much easier. The Corkboard The corkboard in Scrivener is another way of viewing and affecting the outline of your document. Instead of just being presented with a long list of chapters and sections, you can see each chapter, and each section, as a (virtual) piece of paper pinned onto a corkboard. Plus in this screen, you don't just see chapter/section titles but also brief overviews. This is great for planning, and great for rearranging your content visually. Using Scrivener for Blogging... Too Much? Scrivener doesn't just have to be for books and long documents, it can work for blog posts too. Of course, if you tend to write and publish 500 word blog posts, using Scrivener might be like using a sledgehammer to pound in a nail. But if you tend to write in depth blog posts of 2,000 words and up, and you find you're not as productive or effective a writer as you believe you can be working in Word, then perhaps it's time to make the move to Scrivener. You can in fact use the software to map out your writing for weeks ahead. For example, you could outline all of the blog posts you're planning to publish in April. Within Scrivener, each chapter can be a separate blog post, and then of course within each post there's multiple sections. Then the same tips as above apply - it's easy to structure and re-arrange your posts, you can easily keep notes and research in front of you, and you can make clear at a glance the status of each post, or even of each section. Or you could of course if you prefer create a new Scrivener project for each blog post, or for each batch of related projects. If you're working on a series of related blog posts, or blog posts all on a similar topic, then each of these batches of posts, even if they're not published in sequence, could be bundled together into a single project. So since Scrivener does have a free trial, and if you're a prolific blogger (or would like to be), try out the software and see if it helps you write more effectively and productively. Scrivener - Beyond the Basics This article has been a quick dive into Scrivener and how you can start getting productive with it very quickly. However, really we've just touched the surface here, and once using the software becomes a habit that's working for you, you'll want to explore functionality beyond the basics to help really make your writing time as effective as possible. Check out my blog for more publishing tips. Amy Harrop Blog Article Source: By: Amy Harrop | Submitted On July 09, 2016 http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Amy_Harrop/695929 Have you ever created a character who was blah, maybe even boring? I mean obviously, at some point he or she must have served some purpose, or you wouldn’t have created them. Right? But now what do you do with them? Write them off? Some writers just love to kill off characters in their stories. Do you mention them in passing, back in chapter 3, and never see them again? Are they *Gasp* nameless, faceless, and homeless? You passed an old man, with white hair, dressed in old baggy jeans and wearing a baseball cap and thought “Man, that person sure didn’t amount to much.” They may even have been driving an old beat up truck with a dog named “Old Roy,” riding in the back. If this happened in 1990, you might never have realized you passed a Billionaire named, “Sam Walton.” Strangely enough, he did not have a heavenly aura around him, and he did not wear a neon sign on his back that said, “Owner and Founder of Wal-Mart, Inc.” He was not overly tall, he did not have big broad shoulders, in fact, it would be quite accurate to say he was average looking. Let’s face it, not all characters are heroes, leading ladies, or supervillains. We don’t always pay as much attention to someone we consider to be a background character. (Unless your name happens to be Sir Author Conan Doyle.) Doyle had the gift to recognize that even the most boring, seemingly insignificant detail could solve the entire mystery. I would like to suggest you can do the same with your characters as well. The key is not to give it all away at one time. Consider this example: Chapter one – girl does not like her father, Chapter ten – reader discovers girls father beat her, Chapter 18 – girl grows up to be martial arts instructor, Chapter 24 – girl finds father doing same to little sister, Chapter 30 – girl beats father within an inch of his life. At the beginning of this story, a girl who does not like her father is nothing new. By itself, the reader might even think, “So?” When you discover the father beat her, you might think, “oh, that makes sense.” When you get to the part about her becoming a martial art instructor, you may find yourself wondering, “did that have anything to do with the father?” By the time you get to the section that shows he did it again, most would think, “Oh he’s evil, somebody needs to teach him a lesson.” Towards the end when she beats him, one might think, “YES, you go, girl!” or “I’m so glad she stood up to him.” Did you see what we did there? She went from victim to hero over the length of the story. I once created a character who had this mental link with another character. I already had my main characters, and NONE of them had unusual gifts of any kind. At the time I was typing the description, I remember thinking, “Why am I doing this? She’s nobody. She’s not even important to the story.” Boy, was I wrong? She gradually became a main character and took me in a whole different direction. If you’re a writer, there are no accidents (or there shouldn’t be.) If you get to a point in your mystery, romance, or crime novel that you need to introduce a new antagonist or protagonist; might I suggest, giving your nameless, faceless, homeless character another chance at fulfilling their destiny. Sometimes you might have to work backward and create scenes or even just lines here and there, to show the reader he was there all along. Help your reader discover nobody is as unimportant as others might think. Background characters won’t all become Billionaires that can change the world . . . But on the other hand, you never know. This article was written by Tedric Garrison on 10-08-17. Tedric has been a writer and photographer for over 40 years. He is the author of the Time Travel University series now available on Amazon.com and is the creator of the website www.writephotos.weebly.com Short stories and novels are similar in that they both tell stories. However, there are some fundamental differences between the two types of fiction writing. The most obvious difference is the length or word count. Whilst novels can range from 80,000 words and upwards in length, the short story can be 500 words long although 800 to 1000 words is more common. There are also short stories that can be as brief as 200 words sometimes referred to as flash fiction. Another way in which short stories and novels differ is the number of characters and background story you can include. For example, with short stories four characters is usually the maximum number that will be acceptable. More than this would make the story too involved and would probably make it more suitable for longer fiction, such as a novella. On the other hand, a novel can have any number of characters starting with the main protagonist together with minor characters. With longer fiction you have the opportunity to tell an elaborate story that will feature the main components such as plot, subplot, setting and point of view. In a novel you can expand the story to include all five senses; sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch. Thus, engaging your readers in fiction that will be more descriptive and interesting. In the short story none of this is possible. You have to gain the attention of your reader immediately and give your main protagonist a problem to overcome. This problem or obstacle will have to be resolved by the end of the story. It is important however to leave your readers feeling satisfied with the outcome. This can make short story writing seem more difficult than writing a novel and again highlights the difference between the two. Point of view is another difference. In a short story the story is told through the eyes of the main character regardless of how many characters that are present. With a novel however there is more flexibility. The narration can be told in the first person which creates more intimacy, but it can be restrictive experiencing the entire story from the protagonist's point of view. It is more common for novels to be written in the third person narration point of view. This is a very useful technique in novel writing as you are able to experience the story from the viewpoint of multiple characters, thus creating rich and diverse fiction. By Sharon P Wilson | Submitted On January 12, 2017 Sharon Wilson has been studying and researching the art of creative writing for many years. She has a particular leaning towards novel and short story writing. Sharon is keen to help budding writers like herself develop their art and achieve their goals. For more information visit > https://sharonswriterstidbits.wordpress.com/ Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Sharon_P_Wilson/2111024 The 7 elements of creative writing are character, plot, setting, point of view, style, theme and literary devices. Just about everyone agrees on what the elements are though not about how much or how often they should be used. Even if you don't plan to use any or all of these elements in your writing, you will write better if you know what these tools are and how they are used. Character At the least, characters carry out the work of the plot in a story. At the most, characters fuel and drive the entire story. Characters may be human or not, animate or not. Readers identify with characters, becoming involved enough with their fictional worlds to cheer on the luckless underdogs and hate the nasty villains. Verisimilitude. A special kind of suspension of disbelief occurs in readers' minds when they are reading and enjoying stories. This suspension can only be achieved when the writing has verisimilitude, which means believably. A reader who constantly has reason to question the validity of a character as it is written, cannot enter the state of suspension of disbelief. Thus characters must be authentic to attract and bond with readers. Our connection to characters can run deep. Think of the many memorable characters you have read that still seem more real than some people you know. Who doesn't carry a bit of Holden Caulfield's alienation and confusion with them forever after reading, The Catcher in the Rye? Note that you may find inspiration for a character anywhere. You may make a character out of anything. An inanimate character, such as the hat from Miller's Crossing, may say a good many things while having no mouth. No Plodding Plots, Please Simply put, plot is what happens in the story. Generally, plots follow a simple arc. By the time most writers begin to write, they have already been exposed to many plots via popular culture. Every book, movie, and song has a plot--something happens. Even game shows have plots. Develop the habit of looking through the surface and perceiving the underlying skeleton of plot in almost everything. It has been alleged that only 7 plots exist in English literature. Reading any good collection of Shakespeare's plays will teach you those 7 plots. As an alternative, several good books on plot are available. Pithy Old Saw An oversimplified but pithy old saw about plot says that there is only one plot and to write it you find a character and set him looking for something. Another old saw goes that if your plot is lagging in pace or sagging in tension, kill off someone (a character, of course) to jazz things up a bit. Old saws, as a rule, should be viewed with deep suspicion and used whenever handy. Setting Setting is where your story takes place. You may have one or many, depending on the needs of your story. Setting may be large, such as John Irving's use of place in Until I Find You, which is so pronounced that one or two European cities just may be actual characters. Conversely, your setting may be the living room or kitchen. Just think of the plays you have seen that unfold in only a few settings, such as in Arsenic and Old Lace. The best advice about using this element is to ask yourself how a specific setting will underscore the themes in your work. Are you using a quest plot that would be supported best by the changing locations of the journey? If your story is about an initiation, a personal growth tale, then setting will seem less important because that type of quest unfolds primarily inside the character's mind. I Want to Believe! The only way to do setting wrong is to use a setting for no reason other than you like it. A superficially selected setting will ring false to readers, so don't do it. If you write in the Romance genre, wildly romantic settings are appropriate. If you write Science Fiction, make sure you write as a scientist first so that your settings are believable even though your world is obviously imaginary. For several a fine bits of believable SciFi world read anything by Robert L Heinlein. Point-of-view In general, we know that the tale grows taller with the telling, so reliability, or the lack of it, in point-of-view quickly becomes an essential tool. Many liars' points-of-view have been skillfully used to tell a story, such as Tom Sawyer in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, with notable effectiveness (Tom's many explanations to adults). In determining whose point-of-view to use, determine first whose story you are telling. Is your narrator the best character to tell the story? Imagine Lolita written from any but Humbert's perspective! Do you need your narrator to lie or tell the truth? There are several choices of types of point-of-view: first person, I and me; second person, you; more commonly third person, he, she, Jeanne, Richard; third person omniscient which includes seeing all characters' minds; and lastly third person limited which tells the whole story through one character. Choose the point-of-view that will best present the story you want to tell in the way you want to tell it. Don't be afraid to try writing your story from a few different viewpoints until you find the right one. Just don't be afraid of trying anything in your writing because no matter how long you have been writing or how much you have written, it is intended to be a lifelong journey on which you constantly discover new things about yourself as a writer and about this big old world you write about (or from, in the case of the SciFi's). Style Style is slippery to take hold of because it is made up of thin, smokey ephemeral things which are clearly extant but also difficult to grasp. It is a signature inside your writing and drawn from your vocabulary, syntax, rhythm, voice, and mood. It may be imitated but is mostly a natural byproduct of you. It defies most efforts to manipulate it. It is also as individual as DNA. Read anything by Kurt Vonnegut, and then follow that with some Ernest Hemingway and you will readily see that each writer is brilliant and crazy-gifted and just as different from the other as possible. Changing your style, if you wish to, can be achieved with contrivances such as elevated diction and specific themes. It is even possible to mimic authors with more pronounced styles, but no one has suggested it makes you a better writer. Some freelancers claim they can control their styles, changing from one style to another as their assignments demand, but again, it is contrivance for a certain purpose, not an actual modification of personal style. Be yourself. It's easier and makes for better writing. Theme Theme in fiction is not limited to any specific set of ideas. Your theme(s) refers to the 'moral of the story" or the bigger ideas in your story such as murder, betrayal, honesty, and compassion. Theme is like setting in that if you deliberately use a certain theme with the intent of making a given point rather than because it naturally fits into your story, that piece of writing will probably fail. Show Me, Don't Tell Me The problem with premeditated pedantic use of theme is that you invariably sound preachy. Art doesn't preach because art teaches from the inside out, changing people in meaningful ways via the internal experience of learning, not shouting at them until they agree because they are tired of listening. Readers like to decide for themselves what your story means or says about the larger world. Readers don't like to be preached at nor obviously told how to interpret events in your writing. Don't do it. Show without telling. Lead, if you must consciously lead at all, by example. Tell your story with as little of your own prejudices and interference as you can manage. Trash story lines that include heavy-handed themes. You will know when you are heavy-handed by the exaggerated need to keep on explaining why. Ironically enough, no matter what theme you believe you have written, your readers will decide for themselves what you meant anyway. And that is the miracle and majesty of art. Literary Devices No deus ex machina The first literary device was called deus ex machina and was used in ancient Greek drama. It was, literally, a god character who was lowered down with ropes onto the stage when the hero needed rescuing or immediate godly intervention was needed to resolve the plot of the story. Even the Greeks who invented it knew it was cheesy. We use the phrase, deus ex machina, now to include all manner of cheesy, contrived plot resolutions. Other types of literary devices include but are not limited to allusion, diction, epigraph euphemism, foreshadowing, imagery, metaphor/simile, and personification. You may not plan to use any of these, but do recall that everything written, ever, contains these devices, and they are exceedingly useful to writers. As with all tools, use the appropriate one at the appropriate time but do not use a device in place of good writing or else you too will be cheesy. How well were you paying attention We know our readers are always paying attention, but some of you like to be tested, so here is a quiz over this article. The answers are not hidden just below the questions, so on your honor, no cheating. 1. It's a great idea to use deus ex machina to solve plot dilemmas. 2. Imagery is only used in animated stories. 3. It's a surefire good idea to use a strong preachy theme in your stories. 4. Ancient Greek playwrights invented diction. 5. Foreshadowing is a very good brand of eye shadow. 6. Fire is one of the 7 elements of fiction. 7. You must use each of the 7 elements of fiction at least one time per story. 8. Your author had far too much fun making up this quiz. Answers: F, F, F, F, F, F, F, T By Jeanne D Green | Co-Author: Richard Green | Submitted On March 29, 2017 To read about these and other tribulations that keep the writing mind awake nights, come read us at http://www.greenswriting.com. We'll leave the site on for ya. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Jeanne_D_Green/2352604 Think about the last time you started a physical activity, one using muscles you had not used much before. You started out feeling fine, but the next day, you were sore. Those muscles were protesting their initial use. But you enjoyed the activity, so you continued to use those muscles. And gradually or quickly, the strain decreased, the muscles grew stronger, and you were able to do more. Writing is like a muscle because writing involves many developing many skills -- from understanding grammar to understanding purpose and audience -- skills that need practice in order for you, the writer, to become proficient. When you start writing, your writing muscles are unaccustomed to that activity, so you ache afterwards. This ache could translate into over critical evaluations of the work produced (probably valid), unfulfilled expectations that the writing would be easier than it actually was, or frustration that the activity took so much more time than expected with much less produced than hoped for. IN THE BEGINNING, YOUR RESULTS ARE AWFUL Lew Hunter talks of "training-wheel screenplays": those first four or five screenplays that are truly awful but that you need to write in order to learn enough to write a fairly good script. These first scripts should never be shown to anyone because they are embarrassing. Every writer has a time of producing training-wheel material, whether short stories or novels, articles or books, or short stories or novels; however, we are so proud of our accomplishment -- we actually finished something -- that we show it to everyone. Most readers are polite, perhaps even encouraging (mothers can be like that); some will say, "It needs work." That is all part of building the writing muscles. Realize that practice is essential to building muscle. That practice takes time and effort, focus and concentration, and much patience on your part. You must allow yourself time to grow those skills and confidence to the next level. Proficiency only comes with much dedicated practice and focused effort. Refrain from too much self-criticism at the beginning stages of your development. Do not become discouraged at your first feeble attempts at your craft. We all start out as poor writers; with practice, we become better writers. Eventually, we can become professional writers, if that desire is strong enough. Do not make the mistake I did. In my early writing career, when I was trying to decide the genres to focus on, I would write something and send it out. The rejection came back with boomerang swiftness. With each rejection, I would jump to another type of writing, figuring that rejection indicated my talent for the genre. The result was that I never stayed with any one kind of writing long enough to become proficient in it. I finally realized that all this jumping around was not the best course of action, so I chose a few types of writing that I had enjoyed (writing books, writing about travel and writing, writing screenplays) and focused on developing those muscles (skills) specific to each type of writing. Eventually I became good enough to be published or to win awards, but I worked hard, spending a lot of time and effort to reach that point of proficiency. One benefit of all that jumping around was that I learned about many types of writing, and I learned to write better out of sheer practice of writing. Writing is always good practice for better writing, no matter the genre you write. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE The more you exercise that writing muscle, the stronger it becomes. The more writing practice you put in, the better writer you will become. The stronger the muscle becomes, the more you will be able to perform more complicated, challenging tasks. You will feel confident at tackling larger and more complicated projects. So you can move from writing short blog posts to short 10 page e-books and eventually to writing 100 to 200 page book manuscripts. The old adage is true: "practice makes perfect." For writing, since no writing is ever perfect (a topic for another article), we will amend the adage to "practice makes improvement." Exercising the writing muscles is hard work, at least at first, but the whole process does become easier -- with practice. The key to success is constant, daily (or as often as possible) writing. And write projects that really spark your interest, so you can sustain your writing efforts through the frustrating times. Granted, some people do hit success with their first attempt at a genre, but most of us need that practice before we are good enough to be recognized for our accomplishments. EVENTUALLY, YOU BECOME A PROFICIENT WRITER As you become a better writer, you will find other writers who agree to read and critique your efforts (I am not talking about your mother or close friends or relatives, unless they are truly qualified). You may join a writing group, or you may just find friends who are also good writers. As your writing is critiqued by these qualified readers, you will learn even more, especially about those issues particular to your writing -- your "favorite" grammar errors or lazy ways you put words and sentences together. You will learn to tighten your writing. You will learn techniques to create better ideas and better ways to express those ideas. Regardless of the pain and frustration of building up your writing muscle, trudge on. Continue to write; play with different types of writing; play with writing for different audiences and age groups; eventually, you will stumble upon your best fit for your writing. Actually writing is the only way you will achieve that level of proficiency so that your writing is taken seriously. To get to that level, practice writing-- stretching the writing muscle is essential. Write in a journal or write a blog about your hobby or passion. Write novels and stories and screenplays for you alone as the audience. But write. And then write some more. By Katherine Ploeger | Submitted On May 10, 2010 Katherine Ploeger, MA, MFA, is a writer, editor, writing coach and consultant, and screenwriter. She writes and publishes practical, process-oriented information products for writers (nonfiction, children's, screenwriters, and others), sold through Quilliful Publications at [http://quillifulpublications.com]. Her latest book is titled Write That Nonfiction Book: The Whole Process. She has also recently published Common Writing Errors Workbook, a workbook to enhance a writer's editing skills. You can also find valuable and free information on her blog, Katie's Writing Notes, at [http://katieploeger.com]. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Katherine_Ploeger/233601 An article directory is a website with collections of articles written about different subjects. Sometimes article directories are referred to as content farms, which are websites created to produce mass content and establish expert status for websites or blogs. I did not know about the existence of these directories, until I started looking for cheap ways to promote my own website. At the time, I was all about photography and found that if I wrote a decent article about photography and posted to one of these directories, I could get FREE publicity. Now the whole key to these directories is that they are FREE both to the writer and the user of those articles. So, you ask, why would I want to write articles for free? Here in lies the beauty of the whole world of article directories. At the bottom of each article, you can put a link (sometimes two) to locations that will most benefit you. I had one article that was shared over the web 3,200 times. Every time some one read one of my articles and got to the bottom of the page they would read the "About the Author" section which had a Link to my web page. I will show you an example of what that looked like, but remember that website no longer exists. About the Author: Award winning writer / photographer Tedric Garrison has 30 years experience in photography. As a Graphic Art Major, he has a unique perspective on what it takes, to make a great photo. His photo eBook “Your Creative Edge” proves creativity can be taught. Today, he shares his wealth of knowledge with the world through his website. (Visit betterphototips.com today.) In this case, I was able to link to my site AND put in a plug for the eBook I had written. I was not on Amazon at the time, but found this type of free publicity well worth the time it took to write the articles. At one time, betterphototips.com ranked in the top ten for photo tips or photography tips. There were some other tricks I learned about web design too, but MOST of my traffic came from someone who had read one of the 92 articles I had written about photography. If I were to apply this same technique today, I would probably link both my website and my Amazon author page. The more people see your name in print, the more likely they are to think of you as an expert in your field. So even though you are not paid directly, there are benefits to this type of work. Once you have been published on the web, (paid or not) you are PUBLISHED. Since these directories build their reputation based on the quality of the articles they except, to be excepted multiple times does say something about the quality of your work. Besides the publicity, having access to multiple writers at your fingertips, gives your site or blog the appearance of being more well rounded. I knew nothing in the areas of; Underwater photography or Arial photography, but my website had articles about those areas too. Obviously, not all writers LIKE to write articles, but if you do this might be your foot in the door for PAID articles later on. If you don't (or simply never seem to have the time), using an article directory might be of benefit in helping you keep your website or blog current and up to date. Forgive, the long gap between entries. I spent all of Feb in the hospital, and most of March figuring out what I am going to do next. I would love to be optimistic and say my battle with Cancer is over, but in reality recovery can be just as devastating as the disease itself. Similar to a long bout of writer's block, making your way back to where you were before is often easier said than done. Forcing myself to walk to build my leg muscles back up, is like forcing myself to write. If I sit in bed all day (which is so much easier) then I continue to get weaker not stronger. Reminding myself to eat, whether it is painful or not, is like sitting at the computer again, knowing it is not the most comfortable seat in the house. Bending, sitting, stretching, reaching for things that were all second nature before, now takes a concentrated effort unlike anything else I have gone through before . . . except writing. Before the multiple surgeries, I was walking 5 miles a day, now a month and a half later I am barely up to 2 miles a day. You want to compare yourself with what you did before and that's just not fair. I used to write 4 pages a day (1000 words), yesterday it took all my efforts to come up with 249 words (which I will share with you in a moment.) If you keep comparing yourself to the past, you have to put it in a positive perspective. I have walked 5 miles a day before, therefore I know it is possible. Do NOT fall into the trap of thinking, I used to do 5 miles now I am out of breath at one mile, I must be a failure. That's bull, plain and simple. If you haven't written in a while it does not mean you will never write again. It may take more effort than before, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Yesterday, I was focusing on how much I wasn't doing, but I did come up with this: Time to Write I’m listening for voices that are no longer there. Either that, or the past, present, and future are all speaking at the same time. Why is it such a hard mountain to climb? I am not feeling motivation, inspiration, discouragement, or despair. When I was in the groove, I really didn’t care. I knew writing would get me there. I’m not going forward or back, and wonder where I lack. Who motivates the motivator? Is it voices from without or feelings from within? Is it really that simple, I just need to begin? How long must we endure, until we realize it is time? It is time to live, laugh, love and create a feeling of Zen. It is time to start writing again. Writing is who I was, who I am and always will be. If the stories have stopped, it’s because there is no me. But I am still here, and so are they. Now is the time to dig deeper today. It’s time to release the good and evil, the strong and the weak. It’s time to create the adventure I seek. Life is not nearly so bleak. The gift does not simply get up and go. It’s not in your wallet you left by the door. It’s not in your clothes a heap on the floor. It’s not outside in the shade of a tree, because the gift within me . . . is from thee. Knowing that I am cancer free, doesn't mean the road to recovery will be a piece of cake. It means now I have a chance, at least there is a road to recovery, if I do my part. If you haven't written in a day or two, or even a month or two, it doesn't mean you can't write . . . it does mean it may take a lot more effort, and that's OK. Life happens. We learn and we grow. We struggle and push forward. Remember a block can keep you from something, or it can be the stepping stone to reach even higher than before. Keep on writing and stepping higher everyday. :) I was surfing You-Tube the other day, and found Steve Harvey giving an inspirational message, which surprised me. After a few more clicks, I found Jim Carrey giving a Commencement address. As the minutes turned into hours, I found more and more comedians that were also GREAT motivational speakers. (Bill Cosby, Ellen DeGeneres, Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, and more.) My mind started racing; trying to understand how some of these people who have been doing comedy for 30 years or more, were now able to give such inspiring messages. It had just never occurred to me before that the people who make us laugh also had the skills to make us cry or to stand up and cheer! I have no logical reason for limiting their abilities in my mind. I am a writer, photographer, graphic designer, and web designer. If you think about it, I’m sure you can also list several things you do, besides writing. The longer I pondered this, I came to the realization that what makes most comedians funny is their ability to poke fun at human nature. We laugh at them because it helps us not to take ourselves so serious. They observe everyday events from a different perspective. I found myself wondering if any of them also wrote books and surprise, surprise every one of them also write. (That was me, being sarcastic, in case you couldn’t hear that while I was typing.) Now, I’m not saying all writers can become comedians, there are other skills involved as well. But, on the other hand, I do believe we can learn from their undying devotion to finding the humor in almost every situation. It seems many comedians either become suicidal (depressed) or they become wise and share that with the world. Often, they do both. They go through a phase of massive depression, but they keep pressing forward and then eventually, BOOM! They learn enough to change the world around them. Isn't that what we all want, in some form or another? We want to leave our mark, we want to share our gift, we want to change the world! I wrote an article a few years ago, about dyslexia. In that article, I described the differences between a verbal thinker versus a picture thinker. Most people are verbal thinkers, they have an average of 2 to 5 thoughts per second. Picture thinkers (those with dyslexia) have an average of 32 thoughts per second. They do not look at things as just black and white, but also 64 shades of gray in between. If someone calls a dyslexic person slow, they are just wrong. The effort they put into their thought process is often hundreds of times more complex than ours. If you ask me what 2 plus 2 is I sure hope I can answer faster, than someone working on 986 times 986 divided by 64. If you know the answer to that, just nod your head, I obviously wasn't talking about you. Many people have the same mistaken notion that to write you must be born creative. They are just as wrong. Most Comedians are not dyslexic (although Whoopi Goldberg is,) yet they learn to see things differently. They literally train themselves to see outside of the box. This is where we can learn from their experiences. I know from my experiences in photography, I tend to write visually. If you have experience in sales, you no doubt have some people skills that you can apply to yours. If you're an athlete, you have a different perspective on health. If you are a composer, your knowledge and understanding of music is light years beyond my own. The key to being successful in your writing efforts is NOT to exclude the other parts of your life. Embrace what makes you different. If a comedian was to study you for a day, what would he or she pick up on that might make others laugh? Is it your attention to details? Is it how clean your house is? Or maybe how many different hobbies you do have? Many, if not most, writers start writing after they’ve spent years doing something else. For those of you who wanted to be a writer from the very beginning, I salute you. But even as a writer, you are still more than just mere words. You are a son or daughter, a Father or Mother, a male or female. Learn from your experiences and observations. If you can make people laugh, great; if you can make them cry, even better. Make people see what you saw and feel what you felt, that’s what makes a great writer. Until my first wife of 30 years died while I was writing I could not actually write about those types of emotions. Strangely enough, during my mourning period, I didn’t write at all. I associated my writing as not paying attention when she needed me most. It had taken several months before I realized that her death was not the end of my writing, but the beginning. It does not matter if you had a terrible childhood, or you were raised by millionaires, your experiences are still yours. Use your other skills to improve this one, be your own kind of comedian and study people. (My definition of a cheap date is to go to the mall and watch people, then make up funny stories about them.) If you want to write, then write. If you want to dance, then dance. Be true to yourself and write what’s important to you. |