Next week, though, we must put in a minimum 5,705 words plus 2,445 to total 8,150 words by next Saturday.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Writing Marathon
Next week, though, we must put in a minimum 5,705 words plus 2,445 to total 8,150 words by next Saturday.
More sparks to light your flame!
Pausing to reflect in the midst of my busy day, I thought of several key ideas in which to spring forth leads toward a story. Whether short or long, the main theme should be your primary focus in developing your novel.
1. Communication. Whether watching TV, reading a newspaper or magazine article, or passing along tidbits of the grapevine from your neighbors, we hear stories every day for enjoyment or to keep up with current events.
2. Our own drama. Bring up the past, the present or the future to garnish those happy/sad times and alter your own history into a renewed hope of the future or a twisted bleak misery of a life. The choice is yours! Sometimes our current problems in our own lives may add up to reveal a delicious ending or a crippled result, whichever your story may prefer to finish.
3. Write down your ideas. Don’t hesitate to write down those ideas that pop up fresh and inviting into your mind, no matter how ridiculous they may seem at the moment. You can work out the details later when you start writing. Some writers leave a notepad and a liquid writing pen (they flow easily at any time) on their nightstand, and wake up in the middle of the night to write down their dreams.
4. Outlines. Some writers prefer to draw out their story in a simple, numbered outline to assure themselves of a balanced body and clearer aim for their novel’s target.
5. Write fast. Still others like to get their one idea down fast and hard, including simple words into their story’s main focus, and expounding upon the frame with more sweet verbs and adjectives and nouns, interspersed with dialogue to flow the story along.
6. Quiet, please! Next is getting a very, shhhh time for thinking. No children clinging to your legs, no spouse whining for dinner. All is quiet in the household as you are all alone. Don’t let this alone time slip by; take advantage of it. Now sit up straight, breathe heavily in an out several times, and watch the stress flow out of your body. Lovely, isn’t it? After all this, now think up an idea or a problem or circumstance that has hit you between the eyes and you can’t see for anything ahead of you except this one problem. Let go with the words. Don’t stop to fix anything, just let those fingers fly over the keys and your soul weep out the truth.
1. Communication. Whether watching TV, reading a newspaper or magazine article, or passing along tidbits of the grapevine from your neighbors, we hear stories every day for enjoyment or to keep up with current events.
2. Our own drama. Bring up the past, the present or the future to garnish those happy/sad times and alter your own history into a renewed hope of the future or a twisted bleak misery of a life. The choice is yours! Sometimes our current problems in our own lives may add up to reveal a delicious ending or a crippled result, whichever your story may prefer to finish.
3. Write down your ideas. Don’t hesitate to write down those ideas that pop up fresh and inviting into your mind, no matter how ridiculous they may seem at the moment. You can work out the details later when you start writing. Some writers leave a notepad and a liquid writing pen (they flow easily at any time) on their nightstand, and wake up in the middle of the night to write down their dreams.
4. Outlines. Some writers prefer to draw out their story in a simple, numbered outline to assure themselves of a balanced body and clearer aim for their novel’s target.
5. Write fast. Still others like to get their one idea down fast and hard, including simple words into their story’s main focus, and expounding upon the frame with more sweet verbs and adjectives and nouns, interspersed with dialogue to flow the story along.
6. Quiet, please! Next is getting a very, shhhh time for thinking. No children clinging to your legs, no spouse whining for dinner. All is quiet in the household as you are all alone. Don’t let this alone time slip by; take advantage of it. Now sit up straight, breathe heavily in an out several times, and watch the stress flow out of your body. Lovely, isn’t it? After all this, now think up an idea or a problem or circumstance that has hit you between the eyes and you can’t see for anything ahead of you except this one problem. Let go with the words. Don’t stop to fix anything, just let those fingers fly over the keys and your soul weep out the truth.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Sparks to Light Your Fire!
If you need help getting started with a new story, try my webpage, “Writing Prompts.” There are a few writing prompts of my own listed there, but you may also access the web for more ideas. Just a couple to name:
• Creative Writing Prompts http://www.creativewritingprompts.com/
• Creative Writing Solutions http://www.creative-writing-solutions.com/creative-writing-prompts.html
One of the creative writing books I studied in the past suggested playing a game called, “What If.” It is a game one can play most any time of the day, depending on circumstances that arise. You’re driving your car and someone pulls out with their car onto the same street, almost hitting them. If you had been looking down, fiddling with the radio or your CD player, looking up into your rear view mirror or watching a person jogging down the sidewalk, you might have hit the car. With the “What If” game, you visualize what might have happened. Playing the “What If” game is easy, but writing your ideas down soon after you think of them is just as important!
• The newspapers or magazines are full of stories that you can alter and use to your advantage.
• Write a quick description of something. Now play the “What If” game, what if this should happen to the item, or that.
• Don’t try for something too bizarre that has never been done before! Readers like to relate to the stories they read, but if they can’t find a niche or a little scratch of something similar with it, they may bypass your novel and bring back their old favorites. Yes, it’s true there are many popular sci-fi reads out there, but first plant the idea in your head so it rings of a sensible tone before attempting it in front of the populace.
If you have any other ideas on ways to prompt your writing adventure, please feel free to promote them here! - Linda
• Creative Writing Prompts http://www.creativewritingprompts.com/
• Creative Writing Solutions http://www.creative-writing-solutions.com/creative-writing-prompts.html
One of the creative writing books I studied in the past suggested playing a game called, “What If.” It is a game one can play most any time of the day, depending on circumstances that arise. You’re driving your car and someone pulls out with their car onto the same street, almost hitting them. If you had been looking down, fiddling with the radio or your CD player, looking up into your rear view mirror or watching a person jogging down the sidewalk, you might have hit the car. With the “What If” game, you visualize what might have happened. Playing the “What If” game is easy, but writing your ideas down soon after you think of them is just as important!
• Write a quick description of something. Now play the “What If” game, what if this should happen to the item, or that.
• Don’t try for something too bizarre that has never been done before! Readers like to relate to the stories they read, but if they can’t find a niche or a little scratch of something similar with it, they may bypass your novel and bring back their old favorites. Yes, it’s true there are many popular sci-fi reads out there, but first plant the idea in your head so it rings of a sensible tone before attempting it in front of the populace.
If you have any other ideas on ways to prompt your writing adventure, please feel free to promote them here! - Linda
The Writing Marathon Guidelines!
What’s a small contest without a few rules (the nasty word)? Remember that the whole point of this marathon is for YOUR novel to be written in the next three months! Unlike National Novel Writing Month’s (November) goal in 30 days is 50,000 words with the average daily word count at 1,666, pen-n-quill’s average daily word count is only 815! This leaves a few of us who have extra time to polish some of those words, embellish the blasé areas, plop in descriptions where needed. You can also try an outline this week while real writing the rest of the time, or highlight in color those words you must not forget (like where did Sam hide the skeleton key to the attic door?).
Without further ado, here are the guidelines:
1. Sign up as a Follower to this blog, and bookmark it or send it to your desktop for easier access.
2. Write at the minimum 815 words per day, adding up to over 5,705 words per week.
3. At the end of the week, I will post on the blog my word count before 11:00 p.m. (2300 hrs) Pacific Savings Time (PST), encouraging you to do the same. Please reply as a comment to my post your word count before midnight. Always reply with the same name you gave when you signed up as a follower. The additional word count in subsequent weeks will be the minimum total count for all preceding weeks.
4. The contest will end on September 30, 2010, and writers with a minimum of 75,000 words will be given the chance to elevator pitch their story on my blog the following week!
During this time I will interject posts about writing. If anyone would like to add comments about your own writing or my posts, feel free to do so.
After the contest, the next three months work hard at chiseling your story just right for an agent’s eyes. If you need help editing your work, try joining a critique group to get feedback for your work. An excellent grammar book is “Rules for Writers” by Diana Hacker. Googling dictionary.com can reach you definitions, synonyms and antonyms of words. Although I have a “Chicago Manual of Style,” it is somewhat difficult to find answers to grammar problems, but a few of you may be picky writers and this is a good one for that! Writer’s Digest has a simple “Formatting and Submitting Your Manuscript” book to assist you further before submission to an agent. Writer's Digest puts out a “Writer’s Market” book, which lists most of the publishing houses and some agents’ listings, to address your queries. You can find this book at your local book store.
I wish you all the best in your writing days to follow. Now, sit down and tap away at those keys!
- Linda
Without further ado, here are the guidelines:
1. Sign up as a Follower to this blog, and bookmark it or send it to your desktop for easier access.
2. Write at the minimum 815 words per day, adding up to over 5,705 words per week.
3. At the end of the week, I will post on the blog my word count before 11:00 p.m. (2300 hrs) Pacific Savings Time (PST), encouraging you to do the same. Please reply as a comment to my post your word count before midnight. Always reply with the same name you gave when you signed up as a follower. The additional word count in subsequent weeks will be the minimum total count for all preceding weeks.
4. The contest will end on September 30, 2010, and writers with a minimum of 75,000 words will be given the chance to elevator pitch their story on my blog the following week!
During this time I will interject posts about writing. If anyone would like to add comments about your own writing or my posts, feel free to do so.
After the contest, the next three months work hard at chiseling your story just right for an agent’s eyes. If you need help editing your work, try joining a critique group to get feedback for your work. An excellent grammar book is “Rules for Writers” by Diana Hacker. Googling dictionary.com can reach you definitions, synonyms and antonyms of words. Although I have a “Chicago Manual of Style,” it is somewhat difficult to find answers to grammar problems, but a few of you may be picky writers and this is a good one for that! Writer’s Digest has a simple “Formatting and Submitting Your Manuscript” book to assist you further before submission to an agent. Writer's Digest puts out a “Writer’s Market” book, which lists most of the publishing houses and some agents’ listings, to address your queries. You can find this book at your local book store.
I wish you all the best in your writing days to follow. Now, sit down and tap away at those keys!
- Linda
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Announcement! Writing Marathon
Start your brand new story writing as fast as you can with few edits. Every day write at least 1000 words, about 5-7k a week, and within three months you will have finished the rough draft of a novel! Each week you will post your word count by 11:59 p.m. on Saturdays. I will post mine first (before 11 p.m.), and you can place your word count as a comment to my posting.
Each winner who writes at the minimum 75,000 words receives space for an elevator pitch to their story at the end of the marathon on September 30, 2010. This elevator pitch will be included in my next post on October 1, 2010, after the results are in. Because there is no monetary gain, this writer trusts your word count as the true amount.
Please join me in this marathon to achieve a lifetime goal, and who knows? Maybe in the near future we will see our stories in print!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)