Thursday, February 28, 2013
Tips for Writing Dialogue
For those of you who struggle with dialogue in your stories, this blog by Meg Waite Clayton, lists 10 great suggestions that might help. At the end she also includes some fun quotes by well-known authors.
Meg's Top 10 Suggestions for Writing Dialogue
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Great Article on How to Promote Yourself on Social Media
Guy Kawasaki's 10 Social Media Tips for Authors at MediaShift
This was a great article that I saw on twitter posted by Dianna Graveman. Check it out! It's geared toward writers but the advice is useful to anyone promoting a business or platform with Social Media.
The image above is provided courtesy of www.freedigitalphotos.net
Check out others fun links and posts I've added to some of my other pages too!
Saturday, February 23, 2013
The Familiar Sting of Rejection
So I was just told by my eleven year old that Dad was awesome. As an after-thought she added that I was awesome too. That sort of careless comment stings. But as a writer its a feeling that you become more than just a little familiar with.
We spend so much time in our heads as writers that sometimes we forget that to others we might seem a bit odd. Whether you write full-time or part-time you often get a similar response from people when you tell them you're a writer. That oh, that's cool, reaction and then an awkward silence. Its even worse when you get a pass on your query for your writing that follows the same vein as my daughter's comment. Your work was good, has its strengths even, but just isn't right for that editor or agent now. In other words you might be nice, but someone else was truly awesome.
So how do you turn that sting or those hurt feelings into something positive? As writers we live with our feelings close to the surface. If we didn't where would we draw from to bring our stories to life. That can make it very hard to face rejection. You might be asking yourself right now why keep at it? What is the point of going on with this hard, maddening, sometimes impossible art form known as writing?
Because of the way writing that next story, working on that new project makes you feel. First maybe comes the germ of an idea or a character that seems so real to you they could just walk right out of your imagination into the world. The excitement and joy of discovery are almost like first love all over again. Only this time you get to write the ending, you get to be in charge of fate. This is your world and you get to reign supreme. Heady stuff.
Then the final chapter comes, the rewrite is complete, and you have to convince others to love your story as much as you do. It is a daunting, scary task. But maybe its a good journey to navigate. Much as we'd like to, we can't live in our heads forever. If we lost touch with reality our characters and worlds would too. So maybe the positive about rejection is the pain itself. The learning curve that forces us to crash back down to earth and figure out what next. In order to write stories that make people feel we have to first feel the full spectrum of emotions ourselves. To make a good story you have to have a protagonist that suffers and in someway changes and learns something in the end. How can we ask our imaginary creations to do that if we can't hack it first?
So go out there and fall in love again and remember that feeling when you have to fight for your story in the real world. And hopefully you won't have to do anything as hard as what you just made your characters suffer through.
We spend so much time in our heads as writers that sometimes we forget that to others we might seem a bit odd. Whether you write full-time or part-time you often get a similar response from people when you tell them you're a writer. That oh, that's cool, reaction and then an awkward silence. Its even worse when you get a pass on your query for your writing that follows the same vein as my daughter's comment. Your work was good, has its strengths even, but just isn't right for that editor or agent now. In other words you might be nice, but someone else was truly awesome.
So how do you turn that sting or those hurt feelings into something positive? As writers we live with our feelings close to the surface. If we didn't where would we draw from to bring our stories to life. That can make it very hard to face rejection. You might be asking yourself right now why keep at it? What is the point of going on with this hard, maddening, sometimes impossible art form known as writing?
Because of the way writing that next story, working on that new project makes you feel. First maybe comes the germ of an idea or a character that seems so real to you they could just walk right out of your imagination into the world. The excitement and joy of discovery are almost like first love all over again. Only this time you get to write the ending, you get to be in charge of fate. This is your world and you get to reign supreme. Heady stuff.
Then the final chapter comes, the rewrite is complete, and you have to convince others to love your story as much as you do. It is a daunting, scary task. But maybe its a good journey to navigate. Much as we'd like to, we can't live in our heads forever. If we lost touch with reality our characters and worlds would too. So maybe the positive about rejection is the pain itself. The learning curve that forces us to crash back down to earth and figure out what next. In order to write stories that make people feel we have to first feel the full spectrum of emotions ourselves. To make a good story you have to have a protagonist that suffers and in someway changes and learns something in the end. How can we ask our imaginary creations to do that if we can't hack it first?
So go out there and fall in love again and remember that feeling when you have to fight for your story in the real world. And hopefully you won't have to do anything as hard as what you just made your characters suffer through.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Great Book by a wonderful author and friend
Helpful and Interesting Links for Writers
Here is one for a writing retreat that sounds lovely.
http://elephantrockretreats.com/upcoming-retreats/
Here is one for a FREE Master Class in Creative Writing
http://www.writers-village.org/writing-success.php
Also check out this great resource and newsletter for writers where I found a lot of this terrific information
http://www.fundsforwriters.com/fundsforwriters
http://elephantrockretreats.com/upcoming-retreats/
Here is one for a FREE Master Class in Creative Writing
http://www.writers-village.org/writing-success.php
Also check out this great resource and newsletter for writers where I found a lot of this terrific information
http://www.fundsforwriters.com/fundsforwriters
Demo Garden Last Spring
All the beautiful sunshine out there is making me antsy to get out there and work the soil. Hope we have this kind of weather next Tues. when we are actually scheduled to work.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Welcome to my blog
Welcome to my new blog as a writer, mom, and active community volunteer. I hope to share my own personal journey with you as a published author of short fiction and a novelist who is also a busy mom and active volunteer in my community as a Master Gardener. I hope to build this site as a helpful tool and a supportive place to come to share stories of your own personal journeys as writers, parents, or gardeners.
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First Love Language Is an Exploration into Many Firsts
Image copied from NetGalley First Love Language by Stefany Valentine is a refreshing YA contemporary romance that explores so much more t...
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I like this story start enough to keep it going for another week. Read below in the comments section to see how it unfolds. :) CORRECT CH...
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