Prompts
The most important and underrated factor in a writer’s success is discipline. Talent and luck always help, but having a consistent writing practice is often the difference between aspiring writers and published writers. The advice we hear from agents, editors, and authors alike is always the same: Focus on the writing. However, finding the time and inspiration to write is not always easy. That’s where creative writing prompts and exercises can help. Writing prompts provide writers with a starting place, an entry point into their writing practice. The Time Is Now offers a weekly writing prompt (we’ll post a poetry prompt on Tuesdays, a fiction prompt on Wednesdays, and a creative nonfiction prompt on Thursdays) to help you stay committed to your writing practice throughout the year.
Written? Kitten!
Why You Should Self-Publish
Originally published on Indie Reader This past week, my latest self-published book debuted at #7 on the New York Times bestseller list. Crunching some numbers, it appears that I've sold a million books in the last two years. You might think I'm living the best days of my life right now, but that isn't the case at all. I've had a lot of careers and have gone through quite a few distinct phases in my life, and several were happier than being a bestselling author. There's the decade I spent as a yacht captain, delivering boats all over the world. My wife and I moved to Virginia in 2005. I loved it. I was home with my wife every night. I did most of my mental writing during those two years. I wrote most of my stories while working in a bookstore for very meager pay. All of that meant that I could work a 30-hour job at a university trade bookshop for just over minimum wage and fill my hours with writing. I never went into these programs to hawk my books.
Apocalypse/Mutant nickname generator
This name generator will give you 10 random nicknames for either mutants or people living in a post-apocalyptic world. This generator originally started out as a mutant name generator, but most names can be used as nicknames for people living in a post-apocalyptic world as well, so it turned into this generator. Not all names will fit mutants and not all names will fit normal people caught up in a broken world, but there's plenty of names for both. Many names will overlap as well, like 'Anomaly', 'Ashes', 'Imp', 'Leech', 'Pickle' and 'Slime' to name just a few. Each of these names could be used for mutants and nicknames, depending on the meaning you put behind it. The names were mainly created as descriptive or role fulfilling names. Note that while some names will fit X-Men themed mutants, many of the names were created with less fortunate mutants in mind. To start, simply click on the button to generate 10 random names.
Yarny
Comic Master
Digital Is (Telling Stories With Pictures--Graphic Novels)
Step 1: Formulate a Narrative Some graphic novelists start from scratch and visually draft their narrative as they go, acting as both writer and illustrator; others create visual adaptations of existing prose work, “translating” the written word into visual-verbal form; still others work in collaboration from the onset, in a partnership where a writer creates a narrative script that an illustrator uses to craft the comic. There is no one “right” way to begin the composition process. That said, I have found that in teaching my students to focus on the nuances of a new form of writing, it is easiest for them to adapt an existing narrative than to try to create new content at the same time they are being asked to apply elements of visual literacy. INSTRUCTIONS: Find (or create) a poem, short story, or excerpt from a longer work of prose that you would like to experiment with adapting into a visual-verbal format.
