Feeling in a festive mood? I have a bounty of holiday gift ideas for writers that will knock your socks off. And if you’re a writer wondering what to give your friends and family, don’t worry, I’ve got you covered with some of these ideas, too. 😉
14 Easy Ways to Bring Your Scenes to Life
You know that feeling when your writing starts to just get thin? Like if it was a three-dimensional being, it would be so insubstantial it would just faff about and never get anything remotely interesting or useful done?
Yeah. I think most of us have written scenes like that. And it can get even worse during NaNoWriMo, when you’re pushing yourself to meet your daily word count, and you’re running out of steam and getting discouraged because you’re not sure what to say and oh my gosh what am I going to do, I’m never going to finish this, and I may as well just quit now, there’s no way I can reach this word count by the end of the day, let alone 50,000 by the end of the month (or whatever your goal is).
*takes deep breath, in and out*
Too many of my writing sessions have looked like this: pushing myself to meet a self-imposed deadline and getting down on myself because my writing is getting thinner and thinner by the minute.
We need easy ways to jazz up a scene, to beef it up a little without having to throw a dragon into the mix (though you could do that, too). If you’re suffering from writer’s block, pick one of these ideas, throw it at the page, and see if it sticks. Worst case scenario, you and your character will have fun trying!
Sharing Your Work-in-Progress Without Fear
I was recently tagged for the 7/7/7/7 challenge. Put simply, if you want to participate (you're by no means obligated) you're to flip to the seventh page of your work-in-progress, count down to the seventh line on the page, and share the next seven lines. And then invite seven other writers to share their work, too.
Honestly? I had mixed feelings when lovelies Lucy Flint and Nicole Clark tagged me. There was an audible "squee!" of excitement, but when reality set in moments later, my stomach clenched with fear and nerves. How could I put my unpolished work out there, even a smidgen of it? People would judge my worth as a writer, my abilities as a coach, by what they saw. Every rough spot, every awkward moment would be a mark against me. First impressions are important, I thought. What if sharing a snippet of my rough draft changed things irrevocably?
How to Honour (or Toss) Old Bits and Bobs of Writing
If you've been writing for any length of time, chances are you have some old story snippets laying around ... but what to do with them all?
This week, I was helping Mum sort through stacks of old paperwork and stumbled on a handwritten piece of a story, about half a page long. A paragraph into reading, my shoulders were tense and I was waiting for calamity to ensue, and then ...
I burst out laughing, the tension defused. Mum had pulled off one of the best reversals of tone, and false alarms, I've ever read.
Once our giggles faded, we started to wonder, what to do with it now? It's years old and has no connection to any of her current stories, but it's a nifty piece of writing and worth keeping.
Still. What to do?
We have a few options when we come across an old piece of writing.