Writer's Fun Zone by Beth Barany
You are a real writer, that’s why you stopped at this title. You persist. Real writers write despite nagging questions about the mortgage, food and what to do with the children this weekend. And you still write. So where is our international support group? Not a critique group – not a writers reading group, we already belong to those. What I would like to see is a more sensible group, based on the real challenges and essential character of a writer.
‘Yay, no saggy middle issue’, the words every author hopes to hear from their editors upon receiving revision notes. But how do we avoid it when we have three hundred pages to fill? Believe me, I feel the pain of that middle section of every book I write, just like everyone else…I’ve just learned a few techniques to ‘get around it’. At every writing conference I attend, I always choose to sit in on the workshops that tackle this issue and the following are various tips I’ve found to be the most helpful.
Do you ever shy away from certain topics in your writing for fear of what people will say or think? As a writer and/or artist you have power and the ability to influence others through what you create. Why not use that power to challenge assumptions and to try and get closer to the truth? Is it because the truth can set you free, but can also get you fired, killed, or at the very least into arguments and trouble with your friends, family and associates?
Are you working on your novel? Either writing or marketing? If you’d like to be, enjoy this summer sale! In honor of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, I’m offering a 50% off or more...
Warp Weavers is set in alterna-London, so my friends and I have dubbed it story ‘low fantasy’—using the world we know and live in, but with twists of magic. Think Harry Potter, or Buffy. My editor tells me that this is actually called urban fantasy, but I like my version better. So what’s it all about?
Please welcome Author Denis Ledoux, to our Featured Q&A at Writer’s Fun Zone. *** If you’d like to be considered for an interview, check out our guidelines here. *** On to our...
I, Dave M. Strom, am a technical writer, comic book geek, and budding novelist and short story writer. So far, I specialize in bringing to life Holly Hansson, the Super(wo)man who’d rather be Clark Kent. She’s a writer also.
Writers tend to get into a lot of trouble with time. There’s making time to write, managing deadlines, and the vagaries of market timing.
Okay, I’m not sure that there are three reasons for joining a writing community, but there are a few I give here, because the video is only 3 minutes long. Enjoy! ABOUT: In this video,...
L. Heller Boragine was born in Colombia, South America. She is fluent in Spanish and English. She holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Vermont in Environmental Studies, a masters degree in Speech Communication from Syracuse University, and has 20 years experience teaching Communications studies and coaching academic debate.
I’ve been honing my eavesdropping skills as of late, in the spirit that each of our fictional characters speak in a different voice. Whereas one character may sound like a grumbly religious naysayer, another may have the vocal inflections and vocabulary of a “valley girl”. Each character not only uses different verbiage, none speak alike in inflection or tone as well. I pondered this fact of good character development for some time before I decided the best way for me personally to get the “hang” of that was to eavesdrop on other people’s conversations in order to keep all of my characters from sounding exactly like me.
I know, I know, there is no such thing as a “perfect partner” unless of course you exist in the written pages of all those books we devour like popcorn. And let’s be honest, if we did live in those pages, we’d all have curves to die for, a kick-ass attitude that would make men swoon at our feet, or for those male readers out there—a chiseled chest to cradle all those females falling under our Alpha-with-a-soft-spot spell.
Does the word “goal” send you into a panic? It does me. A man whose blog I follow religiously told of a motto hung above the door of his gym. It read, “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit keeps you going.” I believe Jim Ryan was attributed with saying that. Great thought, don’t you think?
For the last five weeks, I’ve felt like I was in the middle of something, as if I was unfinished. It made me a bit uncomfortable, but I was also satisfied to be “in...
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