Do you draw? Do you have a talent for sketching? Or are you like me and have problems getting stick people to even look like stick people?
A great technique to help you with a story idea is to try sketching what you’re thinking about a character, a location, actual motion or movements within the scene, even what the weather and geography is. The beauty of this method is that it helps you focus your thinking even if no one else can appreciate or understand what you’ve sketched.
Read more on Non-writing techniques to help you find and develop story ideas…
Through the marvel of working at home and with a little help from our DVR, I get to see some interesting interviews with writers. Yesterday’s “Today Show” interview with John Grisham was one of those. Click on the link and enjoy it for yourself. (Yeah, I know it’s one of those online videos which forces you to watch a commercial first, but it’s worth the wait.)
Read more on Did you see that interesting interview with John Grisham on ‘Today’?…
I’ve always been a funny person. No, seriously, I really am a funny guy. I know everyone says that and the world is filled with wannabe comedians — but I really AM funny.
Read more on What makes humor funny? Share your tips for humor writing…
Not a euphemism, nor exactly a misused word, but “mountain” is one of those terms so broadly defined and widely used that you could debate the value of it.
For example, I was looking at a website earlier today about Pigeon Forge cabin rentals, located in the Smoky Mountains. I’ve never been to the Smoky Mountains, although I’ve skirted along the edges on a couple of trips eastward from my home in Missouri. But are they really “mountains”? Or are they mostly just “hills”? How would you understand the difference — or is there a difference?
Read more on Then there are words with wide ranges of meaning — I’m talking about connotations…
Euphemisms are those words or phrases we use when we want to dress up a word or phrase in something more pleasant. A euphemism often hides a more direct or even blunt term. I’m sure you know what I mean. I ran onto a website that listed dozens of euphemisms, several of which I use often, some of which just irritate me.
Read more on A little word fun: What are your favorite euphemisms?…
Whether you write fiction or non-fiction, chances are you have to do at least a little bit of research. Is research something you enjoy doing? Where do you do most of your research?
Read more on Are you a researcher or a writer? Or are you both?…
I really like the term “literary license.” It sounds so official, as though I as a fiction writer have been approved to use words that’ll even kill — thinking about James Bond and his OO7 license, of course.
Read more on More about anachronisms and the use of ‘literary license’…
When I posted the first excerpt from my Western novel, I made a comment or two about the genre and said it was more a “vanity” thing than anything else. I grew up back in the 1950s and ’60s when there were a ton of Western movies being made and lots of TV Westerns that were very popular. And, as it happens, my family has always been involved in someway with farming, ranching — mostly farming — and horses. Even today, my older brother and his wife own a very successful horse farm near Baltimore (a far cry from our southeast Nebraska/southeast Colorado family heritage).
Read more on Western novel excerpts revisited — how I got the idea, what I’m doing with it…
At one point, I had a blog started called “Tales of the Old West.” I posted this and the earlier excerpt which I posted here yesterday. I had some links on that blog to merchants for “Rustic Decor” and “Western Decor” furniture, as well as some cowboy type belt buckles. Unfortunately, the site was tanked with the server crash I had a few weeks back and I still haven’t gotten it rebuilt. But I always thought it might draw some traffic, perhaps even gain me some sales.
Read more on Second excerpt of Western novel — comments, please?…
Many years ago, I decided I wanted to write Western novels. These days it’s really hard to make a buck writing Westerns — or as they are sometimes know now, “historical novels set in the Old West.” It never was a lucrative genre, but it’s dear to my heart. I even know a couple of people — one of whom I’ve mentioned here — who’ve written and published a ton of Westerns. Even with their urging, and networking with/through them, there’s just not much out there.
Read more on Different novel, first excerpt — your opinions, please?…
In a comment to a recent post I did about my “more than/more then” pet peeve, one of our readers gave me a link to an absolutely great little writing site — ThereTheir.com. I hadn’t found this website, but now that I know about it I have bookmarked it and will go back, frequently.
Read more on Go immediately to ‘ThereTheir.com’ and enjoy — we don’t have to write like idiots…
I made a post yesterday pointing you to ezinearticles.com as a good source of content and ideas for your writing. I discussed in that post some of the ways people use articles to market products, draw traffic to blogs, or whatever, through the Internet and the role article directories may play in that marketing process.
Read more on Some of the problems with website content and article directories…
Sometimes the stuff that comes to me via email and via attempts to “comment” on my blogs just makes me sick. Other times, such sp*m (rhymes with “ham”) really cracks me up.
Read more on If you blog, you know what I mean by ‘comment sp*m’…
If you’ve hung out around here much, you already know that I’m a Stephen King fan. I would say he ranks as one of my top five favorite fiction writers. (Number one would be Larry Block, number two Dean Koontz, number three James Patterson, then probably … oh, well, anyway, that wasn’t my point.)
Read more on Saw an interesting interview with Stephen King — where do you get story ideas?…
Some language battles aren’t worth fighting, but we fight them anyway, don’t we? The one I’m talking about is the ongoing misuse of “then” and “than.” I cannot tell you the number of times every day that I read about something being “more then” something else.
Read more on Okay, all you writers out there, listen up — I’m getting irritated more THAN you know…
