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Introducing SmallWorld's WordSmithery. Welcome to SmallWorld's WordSmithery!

Introducing SmallWorld's WordSmithery

I've mentioned before that creative writing is one of those areas in which parents struggle teaching. I love teaching creative writing. I often teach this class at our support group's weekly enrichment classes, and I love most of all getting students in my class who come with this caveat from mom: "He hates writing. He doesn't want to be in this class. " Almost without fail (I can think of only a couple of kids who were immune to my charms), that I-hate-writing kid becomes hooked. The assignments will be given each week, and for the first few weeks, it's probably best to follow in order. 5 Freewriting Secrets for Being a "Genius".

You've heard of freewriting, certainly. At its most basic, it's about forcing your internal editor to stay away while you splash your most raw and unusual thoughts onto the page. In Accidental Genius: Using Writing to Generate Your Best Ideas, Insights, and Content (2nd edition, revised & updated), Mark Levy tells how he uses freewriting, not only to loosen up his writing muscles, but to solve business problems of all kinds. Eight Secrets Which Writers Won’t Tell You. Image from Flickr by Lazurite This is not particularly relevant to the post, but I’m getting an awful lot of comments telling me, often a little snarkily, “it’s ‘THAT’ not ‘WHICH’”.

Eight Secrets Which Writers Won’t Tell You

The “don’t use which for restrictive clauses” rule comes (as far as I can tell) from Strunk and White. Plenty of authors, including Austen, have used “which” exactly as I use it in the title. It’s very commonly used like this here in England, so I’m guessing my comments are coming from US readers. There was never a period in the history of English when “which” at the beginning of a restrictive relative clause was an error. A Simple Novel Outline - 9 questions for 25 chapters & H.E. Roulo. Just as every tree is different but still recognizably a tree, every story is different but contains elements that make it a story.

A Simple Novel Outline - 9 questions for 25 chapters & H.E. Roulo

By defining those before you begin you clarify the scope of your work, identify your themes, and create the story you meant to write. At Norwescon 2011 I sat in on a session called Outline Your Novel in 90-minutes led by Mark Teppo. I’ll give you the brief, readable, synthesized version. Character Creation Made Easy, Pick a Personality-Method 6-MBTI Profiles.

13 Writing Tips. Twenty years ago, a friend and I walked around downtown Portland at Christmas.

13 Writing Tips

The big department stores: Meier and Frank… Fredrick and Nelson… Nordstroms… their big display windows each held a simple, pretty scene: a mannequin wearing clothes or a perfume bottle sitting in fake snow. But the windows at the J.J. Newberry's store, damn, they were crammed with dolls and tinsel and spatulas and screwdriver sets and pillows, vacuum cleaners, plastic hangers, gerbils, silk flowers, candy - you get the point. Each of the hundreds of different objects was priced with a faded circle of red cardboard.

And walking past, my friend, Laurie, took a long look and said, "Their window-dressing philosophy must be: 'If the window doesn't look quite right - put more in'. " She said the perfect comment at the perfect moment, and I remember it two decades later because it made me laugh. For this essay, my goal is to put more in. Writing Realistic Injuries. Quick Contents Introduction General remarks What's normal?

Writing Realistic Injuries

Reactions to injury - including emotional reactions, fainting and shock. Minor injuries - such as bruises, grazes and sprains Head injuries - from black eyes to severe concussions Broken bones Dislocated jointsCutting and Piercing - for various locations, including blood loss symptoms and figures. Blunt trauma - getting hit, internal injuries.Burns - including electrical burns Hostile environments - such as extreme cold and heat, oxygen deprivation and exposure to vacuum.

References - useful websites. Introduction Characters climbing cliffs with broken arms or getting knocked out for an hour or so and then running around like nothing happened, bug me. Back to Quick Contents General Remarks There’s a lot of ‘relatively’ and ‘probably’ in this article because everyone reacts differently to injury. English 50 Exercises for Story Writers.

English 50 – Intro to Creative Writing: Exercises for Story Writers Basic Theory: What is a short story?

English 50 Exercises for Story Writers

As soon as someone delivers a definition, some good writer will write a story that proves the theory wrong. About the only thing we can say for sure is that short stories are short and that they are written in what we call prose. Some attributes, however, seem to show up more often than not. Short stories have a narrator; that is, someone tells the story; have at least one character in them; have some action occur (or perhaps fails to occur); take place somewhere; that is, there is a setting for the action; and someone either learns something or fails to learn something (theme).With these five characteristics in mind, we can create an almost endless supply of exercises to help sharpen our techniques of story telling. Exercises for Fiction Writers - Page 2. Creative Writing Exercises: Make a Book Journal and Fill it with Discoveries!

Kurt Vonnegut: 8 Basics of Creative Writing. Kurt Vonnegut created some of the most outrageously memorable novels of our time, such as Cat's Cradle, Breakfast Of Champions, and Slaughterhouse Five.

Kurt Vonnegut: 8 Basics of Creative Writing

The Pixar Touch - history of Pixar - Blog - Pixar story rules (one&version) Pixar story artist Emma Coats has tweeted a series of “story basics” over the past month and a half — guidelines that she learned from her more senior colleagues on how to create appealing stories: #1: You admire a character for trying more than for their successes. #2: You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer.

The Pixar Touch - history of Pixar - Blog - Pixar story rules (one&version)

They can be v. different. #3: Trying for theme is important, but you won’t see what the story is actually about til you’re at the end of it. Now rewrite. CALLIHOO Writing Helps. Character Feelings You can describe your character's feelings in more exact terms than just "happy" or "sad.

CALLIHOO Writing Helps

" Check these lists for the exact nuance to describe your character's intensity of feelings. SF Characters | SF Items | SF Descriptors | SF Places | SF EventsSF Jobs/Occupations | Random Emotions | Emotions List | Intensity of Feelings.