Feeling empty as an artist? When people say that you need to fill up, they are tapping into a well-loved metaphor about the artist. The artist, we’re going to assume, has a lot to say. They have emotions and connections, stories and accounts, worldviews and interpretations, images and sentences. An artist pours out their … Continue reading Filling Up That Uninspired Empty Feeling
What to read? I’m at the library, looking for something to check out and I see a row of similar-looking spines, books all by the same author, some with numbers on them. It’s a little army of series fiction! (And almost always one of those numbers is missing!) I have an irrational insecurity around serial … Continue reading Five Reasons Why I Would Write Series Fiction (And One Reason I Wouldn’t)
I have a section in my book called Facing The Darkness. Most writers I know have a resistance. This is usually an antagonistic force that they need to deal with before they put words on paper. This darkness has been misunderstood — at least by my readers — in that some think that it’s about … Continue reading What To Do When Darkness Keeps You From Writing
Facing the blank screen can be one of the most intimidating moments of being a writer. I have a sure fire way to conquer this moment: the free write. A free write is a word spew, or word vomit if you don’t mind a graphic image. A free write is also a brainstorm or stream of … Continue reading How Champion Free Writers Combat The Blank Page
What’s so problematic about “write what you know?” I swear, sometimes in writing circles, these are fighting words. Mark Twain famously gave this advice. And in the context of who he was (um, very famous for his fictionalized accounts of his boyhood on the Mississippi River) and the time period in which he lived (yeah, … Continue reading What’s So Bad About the Advice, “Write What You Know”?
“Write drunk. Edit sober.” Easy enough, right? It means to write without boundaries, loose and wild and out of control. Thoughtful word selection and complex grammatical decisions belong in the world of editing. And yet, how often do you “lose your buzz” and start editing right in the middle of writing? How do you … Continue reading 7 Ways To Keep Your Buzz & Write Drunk — By Elaine Bayless
Super powers always come from somewhere. Does your main character have super powers? If your main character has a history of abuse then you may have a super hero on your hands. This isn’t just the stuff of Marvel Comics. In real life, victims of abuse — at least those that have sought therapy, … Continue reading 5 Super Powers & 5 Sources of Kryptonite for Abused Characters
I hate laziness. And yet it’s an old friend of mine. Lazy slouches in the corner and asks me to go get it a drink. It sneaks out of simple requests, claiming that it’s just too tired. It claims that everything will get done, but when the inspiration hits, or when that condition is just … Continue reading Living With My Old Friend Laziness
“Don’t waste your time chasing things that will never be beneficial to your future.” ― April Mae Monterrosa Are you wasting your time? Now that you are safely nestled into the routine of a New Year, it’s time to be honest about how you’d like this untouched calendar to be filled. You may have … Continue reading Wasting Time: Seven Hard Questions To Ask Yourself
Is this thing on? Why aren’t readers laughing? Why isn’t your comedy working? You get a ton of likes and LOLs on your Facebook posts. Your tweets have been re-tweeted dozens of times. People are always picking themselves up off the floor when they are with you, but when it comes to writing comedy, you … Continue reading Six Big Reasons No One Is Laughing At Your Comedy
Someday in the future, maybe five years, maybe ten years, maybe twenty years from now, the best-seller lists will name authors that no one has heard of now. Those future best-selling authors don’t spring up out of nowhere, they’re alive and breathing as we speak. They’re out there, right now, getting kids ready for … Continue reading Top Eight Things Future Best-Selling Authors Are Doing Right Now
By Katharine Grubb, 10 Minute Novelist I believe we can accomplish great things if we get our thought life under control. Good thoughts produce good habits. Good habits produce good patterns. Good patterns help us grow in discipline, which makes us more confident, which allows us to succeed. I strongly encourage you, as you are … Continue reading Top 10 Things You Should Be Saying To Yourself That Will Help Make You More Successful
It’s pity that I don’t hold murder weapons on my desk. If I did, I could describe them and stick them in my work-in-progress. This is what I do have: I have a cobalt glass heart that I use as a paperweight. My husband’s cousin, Robin gave it to me. It’s been over 15 years … Continue reading Top 10 Ways To Describe An Object In Your Novel And Why It Matters
We can’t be the writer we want to be if we keep doing the things we’ve always done. This is the time self-involved, sensitive writing types, think about how we can make this upcoming year the best ever. Especially if we are participating in Nanowrimo. This is an exciting time of year and it’s also … Continue reading Top 10 Tricky Things You May Have To Do In Order To Achieve Your Goals