Advice for writers...

"Writing is like skiing - you will fall when you hesitate."

"Do not reduce your story to outlines and sketches, notes and 3x5 cards. You will make your story finite this way and it will suffer because it cannot grow beyond your outline."

"Let some stuff that you think is interesting drop away."

These quotes are from Advice for Writers by David L. Robbins.

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"You Are Enough"

"Work With What You're Given"

"Writing Begets Writing"

These quotes are from The Three Cosmic Rules of Writing by Dennis Palumbo.

Writing links

Finishing Your Novel - by Timothy Hallinan

Excerpts from Novel Writing: 16 Steps to Success by Evan Marshall

John Baker has a great series on the phases of creating text.

You must want to fly so much...

“How does one become a butterfly?
You must want to fly so much
that you are willing to give up
being a caterpillar.”
~Trina Paulus

“Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.”
~Nathaniel Hawthorne

“Words – so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.”
~Nathaniel Hawthorne

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan, 'press on' has solved, and always will solve, the problems of the human race.”
~Calvin Coolidge

That's it, that's all. Have a great weekend and happy writing.

BICFOK

Never Give Up

Ballantine Pays $3.75 Million for a Literary Novelist's Vampire Trilogy

Garth Stein's novel The Art of Racing in the Rain has sold at auction for $1.2 million to HarperCollins


**UPDATE - speaking of not giving up, Alison Kent's cut-off date to join Seventy Days Of Sweat is Friday, July 13, at midnight.

words...

Desire Innocence Illusion Diabolic Persistence chocolate cookie dough bizarre twisty art Morning food mystery enchantment Fantastic Conflict Luscious feisty dreamy delicious Accordion twilight mockingbird Cure the disease He couldn't remember rebirth agony childish Just Keep Breathing Ultrasound commute pink Fiction is Folks Goal Motivation Conflict Writing begets writing Vacation after finish Sparkle Shadows Peace Rowlingization Kinganomaly Supermegajumbosales

Click here for the word search.

Just Do It

Image courtesy of Writing Time, a site for beginning writers that offers inspiration to fire up your creativity, exercises to jumpstart your writing, and guidelines to help you craft your creative writing, whether you're interested in writing an essay, a poem, a short story or a novel.

I challenge you to give me 3 words to inspire...

An author's writing process.

Rachel Chase shares her secrets on how to write a page a week.
Click here to get a glimpse of her writing process.

Thinking blogger award

Thanks to Rene, for awarding me the 'thinking blogger award.'

Now, I must choose 5 other sites that make me think. A tough one!
Since Rene has already received this honor, I will pick 5 others. I will also pick bloggers who I think will pass on the honor.

1. The Mimosa Effect 2
It's fun to follow along Desert Rat's journey of writing. DR is motivated and shares great insights on writing, poetry, life and kitty-cats. Definitely makes me think.

2. Quantum Storytelling
Redchurch can outthink us all. I just love reading his concepts and theories. Never a dull post (sometimes they're over my head - but never dull!).

3. Dr. Bill's Harley Wisdom
As a writer of romance, or any genre for that matter, I believe it's important to understand how humans interact in relationships. Well, Dr. Bill's site is the place to learn about that! He explores love and relationships to a deep level that can help writers understand why their heroines and heroes do what they do.

4. Writer Unboxed
This site has probably already been honored with this award, but I have to include them in my list. Aside from colloquial updates and insights from contributors, this site offers some incredible author interviews!

5. Write Now Is Good
I enjoy following kg's posts. Lot's of helpful information - especially her current weekly feature on organization for writers!

Fine Print:
For those of you I have selected, here's what to do next.
1. If you get were tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote.

It's really hard to pick just 5 blogs that make me think. I suggest you follow the links backwards (from the first link of the original awarder) to find many more wonderful and thought-provoking blogs.

What are some of your favorite blogs and why?

RIP, Kurt

Kurt Vonnegut dies at 84

Way back when, he was the first author that when I read one book, I bought his whole backlist. What authors had a huge impact on you?

Foolin' around

I'm an April Fool. April Fools is a writing challenge not unlike NaNoWriMo except that you set your own goal. Mine's 15,000 words for the month of April. 500 words a day, and I'm behind already. LOL

Just finished reading Gods In Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson. It's a gem. Joshilyn has a fresh voice and the story line is unique and engrossing. She has a way of making the reader root for a vulnerable character. I'm so glad her next book is out, Between, Georgia, because I crave to read more from her. I read an exerpt of the first chapter and it looks great too.

Desert Rat made a good point in the comments of my last post. Time to start focusing on reasons to write, not excuses not to. Thx DR.

Have you read any great books lately?

Sabotage and subterfuge

I often despair about having no time to write, but I know it’s all a state of mind. I’m definitely one of those who enjoy “having written.”

One form of procrastination I partake in is taking on new projects such as freelance writing assignments and joining committees at my local United Way. I get so excited about them and they’re fun and satisfying, but they end up taking away the precious personal time I should be dedicating to my passion of writing fiction. I’m just a dichotomy of commitment and over-extension. The commitment side is the protagonist who loves writing and works hard towards hopefully being a published novelist one day. Then there’s the other side, the antagonist cajoling me, “You can do it. Take on more. Say yes.” He always makes me feel like I can do it all.

Well, I finally put my foot down. I’ve resigned from the UW and my most recent freelancing project. It was hard and I felt guilty, but it’s time for me to learn to say no and pay attention to MY list of priorities.

What subtle techniques do you use to avoid writing? What do you do to beat them?

Need laughter or motivation?

For those wrimos who need a laugh or a little bit of motivation, I encourage you to listen to the follow Writers on Writing interview with Chris Baty (author of No Plot? No Problem and founder of NaNoWriMo).

It's a double interview, with Baty following Literary agent Betsy Amster.

Goals & Dreams

Moira Allen talks about setting effective writing goals. She suggests that since writing is an unstructured working environment, a good way to be productive is to set goals.

However, since we’re all different in what we want, time we have, and dedication to our craft, Allen says, “To be effective, goals should meet three criteria: They should be measurable, meaningful, and attainable.”

She also points out that goals are separate from dreams.

“Goals, by the way, are not the same as dreams. While you may yearn to become a six-figure novelist who regularly guests on Oprah, that's not a goal. It's a dream -- and the only way you'll achieve that dream is by setting measurable goals that will take you toward that dream, one step at a time.”

One of the changes I’ve made lately is to stop obsessing over word count. You’ll notice I’ve taken my word meter off the sidebar. Instead of worrying about word count, my goals consist of time spent on my writing. Publication may be my dream, but the real reason I ever started writing was because I enjoy it. I don’t want to lose that.

So, I’m curious. What is your dream? And, what goals have you set to achieve that dream?

Some links:
Goal Setting: Powerful Written Goals In 7 Easy Steps
Writing: Option or Objective - Setting Realistic Writing Goals
Setting Goals for Your Writing Career
Are You Achieving Your Writing Goals?
Goals Are Worthless If...
Setting Reasonable Writing Goals - (Or don't do what I do, do what I say...)
How to Get There from Here: The Magic of Goals
Goal Planning for Optimal Enjoyment

Writing Goals

Last time I asked about whether you set goals when you create your characters. Today, I want to know if you set goals for yourself. I’m referring specifically to writing, but am also curious if you set goals for writing as part of an overall strategy to reach life objectives.

Personally, I write out goals for myself at the beginning of each year. I review my previous year’s goals and see how well (or poorly) I did in achieving them. My strategy usually consists of an evolving set of goals. For example, if I want to write more, I may start with a goal of 5 hours per week and work my way up during the year. I call my strategy my ‘2006 Plan of Action.’ It includes a mission statement, writing goals, work, family, and home goals, spiritual and ethical goals, social and cultural, physical and health, mental and educational, and outreach goals. Sounds like a lot, but I usually feel successful if I improve even just a little in each area.

I got the idea from Vicki Hinze, an inspirational writer with a great blog and website full of information about Hinze as well as a library of great articles (free membership required – but well worth it). Vicki let me reprint her article, ‘Why We Need A Plan.’ You can find it on my website, here.

It really helps me to find out how other writers write. Do you have a schedule? Goals? Is it easy for you to find time to write? Do you write every day (at least one word, as Maya Angelou advises)? What advice would you give to those trying to get a schedule in place?

Nienke

Writing scenes and creating characters - techniques

Hope everyone had a great weekend. I'm off to Quebec City for a few days on a business trip. Then, I'm off for 1 1/2 weeks on holidays! The plan: to get tons of writing done.



My question to you writers is, do you use the Goal-Motivation-Conflict technique in your writing? Do you apply GMC to both internal and external goals?

Joan Swan over at Romance Worth Killing For wrote an interesting post about Robert Gregory Brown's attitude, emotion, goal and action technique. Swan says:

In relation to character development though, RBG brought it all back together for me with one simple concept: imagination + self.

He says every character he writes is him--hero, heroine, secondary, tertiary, one-liners. They're all him...

RBG suggests you ask yourself, if this were me, how would I handle the situation?

My next question is, do you get your characters from within yourself? Or, do you create characters externally? Or, if none of the above, how do you make your characters seem real?

UPDATE: Therese Walsh over at Writer Unboxed has posted the 'Mother of all Character Interviews.'