Your senses are the vehicles for experience So you want to write a novel. You think of all your favorite in factors your most beloved books: secret passages, magic powers, stormy weather,  plot twists, and even undiscovered worlds. Sure, these things might be interesting, but are these the fiction factors you really remember, or do you remember something else? You can have the best setting, the neatest idea...

Sevillana Passion I thought I’d do something a little different today and post a poem that I wrote several years ago. This poem is called “Sevillana” and touches on the traditional Spanish dancer. Enjoy. Sevillana The colors of her dress address, the passion in her dance the rhythmn, lights and firey nights.. the guitar that seemed to prance Piercing brown eyes hypnotize, the lads that...

Literary Work in Progress I have just returned from doing some client prospecting at a trade show this week, and boy am I tired. It was a lot more work than I had imagined, and its just nice to be home again. From a writing perspective, I have good news. I should be crossing the 100,000 words mark this weekend on my current novel (the first in a series I will be calling the Cross Chronicles).  I’m...

Use the active voice in your writing. This means that the subject of your sentence is doing the action, and the action isn’t being done to it. This means that the subject of your sentence is what is doing what the verb says. Some writers write in the passive voice, meaning that the subject of the sentence is not performing the verb. This creates a weak and a vague sentence. This kind of sentence is less...

As a writer, new ideas are critical for your success. Everyday I wake up at six am and try to come up with something that I can write for this blog, for example. But how do you keep the ideas coming? Here is a quick list of sources of inspiration for your writing: Scan the newspaper for current events Watch TV or advertisements (too much of this has the opposite effect) Take a walk (don’t take anything...

Writer’s “Cheat Sheets” I recently found an awesome writing tip over at inkalicious. Read below for the content, and a link. For those of you who are analytical and need a pattern or formula to help get you going, inkalicious has come up with some great writing tips that I have relsited below. PLOTTING: Polti’s 36 Dramatic Situations •01. Supplication: Persecutor, Suppliant, Authority...

Have you ever thought about what type of language you should use in your writing? What about the style? If you haven’t, you should. Consider the following sentences: Dick, the local high school quarterback, was recently killed in a car accident. The town was left in sorrow today as Bronson High’s starting quarterback lost his life in a tragic car accident. Dick left behind a wife and two brand...

photo credit: Elrenia_Greenleaf You want to write, but how do you decide what to write? Perhaps you have sat down and tried to convince yourself that you were going to write non-stop for the next ten minutes. Ten minutes went buy, and you didn’t write much, or maybe you didn’t write anything at all. Has this ever happened to you? It has to me, and I know you feel horrible. So where do we start?...

Writing fiction is a lot of fun. Well, its a lot of things. One thing that can be particularly challenging about fiction writing is writing about magic, or some equivalent power or ability. Its not the dreaming up of special abilities or effects that is particularly difficult, but making those unique powers relevant to the story, and a meaningful part of the conflict within the characters. There are various...

Sometimes it’s hard to think of what to write. Let’s face it, we all go through it. Sometimes we need something to jolt our creativity and to jump-start our writing. Writing exercises are short activities that try to get you past the writer’s block you are probably experiencing, and back on track to do the kind of writing you want to do. Think of three of your favorite movies. Consider the main...