Tag: Write

April 2, 2016

Write: Reach into Hearts

Life is captured in the words we join. That is their beauty and their horror. That is their power.

Categories Inspiration/Poetry Comment: 1

March 22, 2016

What Should Not Be Forgotten

Categories Inspiration/Quotes, Words, & Phrases Comments: 0

March 16, 2016

10 Tips to Improve Motivation, Especially for Writers

Everyone struggles with motivation from time to time, and unfortunately, the reason can vary dramatically from person to person and moment to moment. Some days you may be tired or stressed. Other days, you may not even know why you’re not in the mood to work. Well, I can’t promise a cure-all, but here are 10 tips to try to...

Categories Creative Process Comments: 0

March 6, 2016

Howard Nemerov on Writing What You Know

Take that, write-what-you-know people! When you write (fiction especially), it’s not so much about what you know or what you’ve experienced as it is what you say.

Categories General Thoughts & Updates/Quotes, Words, & Phrases Comments: 0

March 5, 2016

Do I Have to Be a Scientist to Write Science Fiction?

Is it just me, or can the science part of science fiction be pretty intimidating? I mean, I got through high school chemistry and all that, but science has never been my best subject. I don’t spend a lot of time reading about astronomy or physics or anything seriously technical. I’m not an engineer. I’m definitely not a rocket scientist. I...

Categories General Thoughts & Updates/Research & Worldbuilding Comment: 1

February 22, 2016

A Character by Any Other Name Wouldn’t Be an Excuse

It’s amazing what excuses people will come up with when they’re trying to avoid starting a story, but having trouble naming the character shouldn’t be one. A student tried that one on me the other day. He said that he was supposed to write a story that was 2 pages long (the horror!). With a put-upon sigh, he explained how he...

Categories Creative Process/General Thoughts & Updates Comments: 2

February 17, 2016

Plot Uniqueness: The Macro vs. Micro Problem

For all that people say that there are only 2-3 stories, no one wants to be the author who makes people grimace and say that he (or she) writes the same plot over and over again. At the same time, a plot that jumps around completely out of left field can leave the story feeling disconnected and jarring (or just plain bad)....

Categories Characterization, Plot, & Setting/Research & Worldbuilding Comments: 2

January 26, 2016

What Plot Points Can (Should) You Skip? How?

It’s a hard question. While anyone who’s written for any length of time knows that not all parts of the story are going to make it into the book, it can still be enough to give you a headache. What should I skip? What needs to stay? Well, the obvious thing to skip is little details that don’t drive the...

Categories Characterization, Plot, & Setting/General Thoughts & Updates Comments: 0

January 18, 2016

Happy Birthday, Peter Mark Roget!

Although it’s said that Philo of Byblos wrote the very first one, and that Amarasimha wrote one in Sanskrit called the Amarakosha, the first English thesaurus as we know it was written by Peter Mark Roget. As a writer, I use a thesaurus almost every day (at least), so I am very, very grateful he decided to do all that work. Can you...

Categories General Thoughts & Updates Comments: 0

December 5, 2015

The Only Surefire Way To Become A Better Writer

Categories General Thoughts & Updates/Inspiration/Quotes, Words, & Phrases Comments: 4