10 Steps to Finding Your Writing Voice Bonus: Need help finding your writing voice? Click here for free tips. I write only because / There is a voice within me / That will not be still.–Sylvia Plath Awhile ago, I wrote an article called, “Finding Your Blog’s Unique Voice.” Photo credit: Dan Foy (Creative Commons) But here, I want to share a little bit more about how to find your overall writing voice. Spending some time deliberating over voice is worth your attention and focus. If you struggle with getting people to read your writing or with staying consistent in your craft, you need to stop chasing numbers and productivity and reboot. An exercise for finding your voice Not sure where to start? Describe yourself in three adjectives. Why do you need a writing voice? Finding your voice is the key to getting dedicated followers and fans and that it’s the only sustainable way to write. Once you’ve found your voice, make sure you continue to develop it. The bottom line is that there’s a lot of noise out there in the world.
Practical Tips on Writing a Book from 23 Brilliant Authors | NeuroTribes Hello there! If you enjoy the content on Neurotribes, consider subscribing for future posts via email or RSS feed. Steve Silberman reading at the Booksmith in SF. Photo by Heather Champ. I love books. The subject of my book is autism, the variety of human cognitive styles, and the rise of the neurodiversity movement. The science of developmental disorders has made significant advances in recent years, and some of the social issues that I raised in the piece — such as the contributions that people with atypical cognitive styles have made to the progress of science, technology, and culture — seem more relevant than ever. I’ve signed a contract with a wonderful publisher — a Penguin imprint called Avery Books — and a sharp and enthusiastic editor named Rachel Holtzman. I’m not sentimental about old media vs. new media. But now comes the hard part. I’ve chosen to deal with my anxiety by tapping into the wisdom of the hive mind. A few things became clear as soon as their replies came in.
How To Write A Novel Step by Step The toughest part of learning how to write a novel is knowing where to start and how to keep on going to the end. This section of Novel Writing Help is all about demystifying the writing process. Figuring out how to write a novel can be confusing, probably because there are so many steps to take... You've got to create all the fictional characters and write a watertight plot. You've got to write the subplots and weave them seamlessly into the main plot. You've got to build an atmospheric setting and decide on a theme. ... and that's all before you can even start to write the novel! Where do I even begin?!? The answer is that you begin by studying a good map and familiarizing yourself with the route. Actually, it is two maps in one... First, it gives you an overview of every step you need to take to get from where you are today to having a published novel to your name. Take some time to study this map now, just to get an idea of where you are going. 1) Planning. 2) Writing. 3) Editing. So...
10 More Websites That Help Cure Writer’s Block With Writing Prompts From jumping into the shower to using voice recognition software, these famous authors (some Booker Prize awardees) have their own idiosyncrasies. But all of them seem to agree on one hurdle: the dread of writer’s block. Most of us are nowhere near those heights, but we do our own form of writing, like blog posts or simple journaling. Even then, sometimes the words just refuse to come. That’s when writing prompts can help. Let’s look at ten unique websites that give a leg-up to the struggling writer with writing prompts and ideas. Creative Writing Prompts We start off with a popular site for writing prompts. Writing Fix WritingFix.com is an educator’s resource for writing lessons and language skills. Plinky A prompt each day should help you light the spark of creativity. Fifteen Minutes of Fiction The Story Starter How about 1,108,918,470 creative prompts to make you perk up and start to write? Daydreaming on Paper The site says that it can inspire you with its random prompts. Toasted Cheese
Tips for Editing Your NaNoWriMo Novel I have been writing fiction for 30+ years and regularly critique the work of others. The best general advice I can offer is to learn why the rules are important and when to break them. No writing 'rule' will make you a good writer. They are guides to help you avoid mistakes in your technique. For example: One of the most abused rules of writing is to eliminate the passive voice, often by searching and eliminating forms of 'to be' (is, am, are, was, were). The problem with simply eliminating the passive voice is I can offer a dozen good examples of reasons when the passive voice is not only acceptable, but preferred. 1) When the the character or actor is unknown or hidden. 2) When you want to highlight the action over the actor. 3) When the character is depressed, equivocal, or unable to decide. 4) To distinguish a lull in action or to precede/follow action to make the action seem more vibrant. 5) In some contemplative, self-reflective character examination situations
Psychology Today: The Creative Personality Of all human activities, creativity comes closest to providing the fulfillment we all hope to get in our lives. Call it full-blast living. Creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives. When we're creative, we feel we are living more fully than during the rest of life. I have devoted 30 years of research to how creative people live and work, to make more understandable the mysterious process by which they come up with new ideas and new things. Here are the 10 antithetical traits often present in creative people that are integrated with each other in a dialectical tension. Creative people have a great deal of physical energy, but they're also often quiet and at rest. This does not mean that creative people are hyperactive, always "on." One manifestation of energy is sexuality. Creative people tend to be smart yet naive at the same time. Another way of expressing this dialectic is the contrasting poles of wisdom and childishness.
11 Rules of Writing -- a concise guide to important grammar, punctuation, and writing style rules This site is a concise guide to some of the most commonly violated rules of writing, grammar, and punctuation. It is intended for all writers as an aid in the learning and refining of writing skills. Explore each of The Rules to see examples of its application and find references that provide additional explanations and examples on the Web and in print. Buy a book or find a website that will help you to improve your writing skills. Visit our new blog for tips and strategies for writing, studying, homework, SAT/ACT, math, and much more at the Junket Studies Blog Want to improve your writing and help support this site at the same time?
How to Publish Your Own Amazon Kindle Ebook Would you like to be the next Dan Brown or J.K. Rowling? Perhaps your aspirations are less lofty, but you still have a story--or expert information--to share with the masses. Unless you are already a bestselling author, landing a publishing deal is easier said than done. Thankfully, though, tools are available for you to publish your own electronic book. I'm no stranger to publishing, having written or cowritten a dozen books. For a small or medium-size business, self-publishing has a variety of potential benefits. You have assorted options, including Amazon's CreateSpace and Kindle Direct Publishing; Barnes & Noble's PubIt; Lulu; and SelfPublishing.com. If writing an entire book seems daunting, you might prefer to take an existing blog of yours and publish it via Amazon so that everyone with a Kindle can download and read your posted material. What You Need to Publish an Ebook For starters, you need content: Self-published books don't type themselves. Professional Consulting or DIY?
WriteWorld 25 Things You Should Know About Character Previous iterations of the “25 Things” series: 25 Things Every Writer Should Know 25 Things You Should Know About Storytelling And now… Here you’ll find the many things I believe — at this moment! 1. Without character, you have nothing. 2. A great character can be the line between narrative life and story death. 3. Don’t believe that all those other aspects are separate from the character. 4. The audience will do anything to spend time with a great character. 5. It is critical to know what a character wants from the start. 6. It doesn’t matter if we “like” your character, or in the parlance of junior high whether we even “like-like” your character. 7. It is critical to smack the audience in the crotchal region with an undeniable reason to give a fuck. 8. You must prove this thesis: “This character is worth the audience’s time.” 9. Don’t let the character be a dingleberry stuck to the ass of a toad as he floats downriver on a bumpy log. 10. 11. 12. 13. The law of threes. 15. 16. 17. 18.
How to self-publish an ebook | Fully Equipped A while back I wrote a column titled "Self-publishing: 25 things you need to know," which was mostly about how to create and sell your own paper book. After folks asked me to do something similar for e-books, I created this article, which has now been updated a few times. I begin with one caveat: The whole e-book market is rapidly evolving, and a lot of self-publishing companies are offering e-book deals bundled into their print book publishing packages, which makes them harder to break out and evaluate. It's all quite complicated, and in an effort to sort through the confusion, I've decided to offer a few basic tips and present what I think are some of the best options out there for creating an e-book quickly and easily. As things change -- and they will -- I'll do my best to keep this column up to date. Tips: It's gotta be good: The same rule applies to self-published e-books as it does to print books. E-book publishing options: Coker has chided me a bit for disparaging the middleman.
Worldbuilding: Fantasy Religion Design Guide by Joe Wetzel (joewetzel at gmail dot com) [If you like this article, check out the other Worldbuilding articles on this website using the sidebar navigation.] Depending on your campaign setting idea, in the early stages you may only need a bare minimum of details about your religion. In cases like these make sure you flesh out any particular deities you need (for example if a character is a Cleric or Paladin describe that god in at least bullet points and note any needed game statistics or mechanics such as the god’s domains) and build up the religion later when it is needed or when you have an intriguing idea. This also gives you an opportunity to see how the players react to your religion’s skeleton and build on what they like and what is important to your evolving setting and story. But if religion, gods, or a pantheon is a key aspect of your campaign setting idea, you’ll want to work it up in detail early during your fantasy world’s development. Multiple Religions? Nature of the Gods
32 iPad Apps That Writers Just Love | Day to Day Woman I am pleased to share the following guest post with my readers. Having a love for Apple products and recently adding an iPad to my collection makes this post a perfect read for me. Although I have not had the time to write about must have apps for the iPad (like I did for must have iPhone apps), my guest writer from Accredited Online Colleges has. Today’s writers benefit from an incredible assortment of digital tools from which they can draw inspiration and productivity. Adobe IdeasKeep this app handy for moments of inspiration.
How To Write A Novel Using The Snowflake Method Writing a novel is easy. Writing a good novel is hard. That’s just life. If it were easy, we’d all be writing best-selling, prize-winning fiction. Frankly, there are a thousand different people out there who can tell you how to write a novel. In this article, I’d like to share with you what works for me. This page is the most popular one on my web site, and gets over a thousand page views per day, so you can guess that a lot of people find it useful. Good fiction doesn’t just happen, it is designed. For a number of years, I was a software architect designing large software projects. I claim that that’s how you design a novel — you start small, then build stuff up until it looks like a story. If you’re like most people, you spend a long time thinking about your novel before you ever start writing. But before you start writing, you need to get organized. Step 1) Take an hour and write a one-sentence summary of your novel. Some hints on what makes a good sentence: Shorter is better.