Category Archives: Inspiration

Writers Horoscope August 12: Today, take a second look at your [w]rituals.

It’s possible you’re losing sight of your writing goals.

Take a deep breath…that’s it…now put down the compass. The only sharp object you should be working with is a medium point Bic.

writing rituals overdoing it compass scientific

Writers Horoscope August 10: A change of scenery is in order.

Face it–waking up to a sea of pixels and liquid crystals is hardly a warm, embracing welcome to your creative urges**.
So, mix it up.
Get out of the house.
Breathe real air.
Pave a new neural pathway. [Not even sure that’s a thing. It just sounds right.]
Turn off YouTube, fergawdsakes.
Happy writing.

Bench with comments 2

 

**Ever notice that ‘urges’ is easily rearranged to spell ‘surge’? I mean, really, isn’t that cosmic? A surge of urges………eeew-ick, an innocent four-word phrase and we’re thrust into 50 Shades territory…thrust……okay, we’re done here.

Writers Horoscope August 9: Choose optimism today.

  • Rejection slips? Hey, someone [or at least someTHING] considers you among the living.
  • Put on hold when you request payment for your work? See #1. [You at least rate the push of a button.]
  • Your characters running amok? They might have a firmer grasp of the real story than you do.
  • The critique group finding hidden meaning in your work where none was intended? At least they’re reading it. And at least your words have meaning.

Web Gems: A quick look at openculture.com

 

I’m sharing three highlights from openculture.com, a leading provider of open educational resources. More to come in the future.

1. http://www.openculture.com/ Scroll to Writing Tips in the inner right column. Guidance from the list of fair-to-middlin’ writers [;->] below is available.

  • Ernest Hemingway
  • F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • Stephen King
  • Ray Bradbury
  • William Zinsser
  • Kurt Vonnegut
  • Toni Morrison
  • Edgar Allan Poe
  • Margaret Atwood
  • David Ogilvy
  • John Steinbeck
  • Billy Wilder

2. http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses
There is a section on journalism and writing, including this iTunes-based creative writing master class. I figure even if you drop in at your leisure, mug of coffee in hand…

  • No turning heads and ensuing glares from students or teacher. [Even your inevitable coffee spills will go unnoticed.]
  • Tons to learn in convenient time chunks.

3. http://www.openculture.com/free_ebooks
Ebooks from Neil Gaiman, Phillip Dick, David Foster Wallace, and John Muir, as well as some struggling amateurs ;-> like Faulkner, Fitzgerald, and Shakespeare. Also, consider scrolling down to the bottom to the ‘Assorted Texts’ section.

Writers Horoscope-July 30: Your high-strung tendencies can be an asset.

Your protagonist Dwayne has been a pin-cushion lately.

It’s time for him to rebel against his office doubling as a cleaning supply closet at ‘Serfs-On-Call’’. Scrawl out ‘WHAT WOULD YOU DO???’ on the nearest Big Mac wrapper, slap it on the wall, take off your pulse monitor, and picture Dwayne.

Feel the burn…you’ve been dissed one too many times…yes, that’s clumsy Art with the plumber’s crack bursting in for a mop replacement and you find yourself engulfed in rolls of bathroom tissue…there you go, now reach for that keyboard.

Hint: Stay off the ledge. You’re only on Chapter 10.

Writers Horoscope-July 29: Introspection is the order of the day.

Tread lightly.

Don’t let ‘What should I be doing with my life?’ devolve into a sniping session that spews  the age-old, ‘Shouldn’t you chisel the cheese encrusted from your front burner?’ or ‘Did the dogs get their hourly dose of love, affection, and Beggin’ Strips?’ or–the most hurtful of all–’Are you gonna wear that today?’.

Writers Horoscope-July 26

Today? Face reality.

It’s nitty-gritty time in the writer’s workroom.

Yesterday’s [July 25] noble effort to ‘simplify’ has, of course, complicated things.

You’ve discovered a wealth of vivid characterization, intriguing plot points, and cogent, logical outlining…in freehand.

Time to digitize. Yes, type.

Fire up the Ninja Coffee Bar, cue up your ‘Gettin’ Stuff Done’ playlist, and launch into a keyboarding trance.

See you on the other side.

Prewriting Mini-Course Available Soon

Greetings! I’ve been working on an online course entitled:

Prewriting: Jump-start Your Writing Projects With These Eight Approaches
[Fun AND Productive First Steps to a Completed Work]

It’s not yet ready for unveiling, but in the next two weeks, I’d like to make a free mini-course available to get knowledgeable writers’ feedback.

If you’d like to take the free prewriting mini-course, just add your email address below.

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Video-based Modules Included in the Full Course:

  1. The flexible outline [K.M. Weiland demonstrated this in a Writer’s Digest article.]
  2. The Foolscap approach [based on work by Steven Pressfield.]
  3. Mind Mapping
  4. Use of concept lists [Here is an Surprise-The Unexpected-Amazement Concept List July 2017 with the theme of ‘surprise/the unexpected’.]
  5. Character Interviews
  6. Interviews with yourself as an author
  7. A recap of James Patterson’s approach to outlining. [I paid $95 for his master class. Good, good investment.]
  8. Building Hemingway bridges into your prewriting

Also included:
— Videos demonstrating my use of these strategies.
— Writers’ quotes and insights into prewriting.
— Relevant applications from the following two books:

  • 45 Master Characters [Victoria Lynn Schmidt]
  • 20 Master Plots [Ronald B. Tobias]