Writer's Fun Zone by Beth Barany
If you could give yourself a present for the holidays that would improve your life, your art and your relationships with others, what would it be? For me it would the gift of confidence! Having confidence in yourself as a writer and as an artist is crucial to your success and to your very survival in what can often seem to be an indifferent world. To have confidence in yourself is to appreciate and treasure your uniqueness and singular point of view that no one else in the world has.
It’s been a long standing tradition that writing contests are not only good for finding those story jewels ready to be published, but they serve as a great platform for feedback even if the author doesn’t win the contest.
I was out hiking with my wife yesterday on Thanksgiving and everyone was extra nice. I saw families spending time together. It looked like people were actually enjoying themselves.
As a relief from my freeway commute in the mornings, I’ll sometimes get off and head west toward the Pacific coastal range, past ranches and pastures, over rolling hills and through redwood groves.
I’m an Alfred Hitchcock fan. He was the master of suspense, and he has influenced my writing. Here are links to short interviews by The American Film Institute.
Few writers pay much attention to character placement, but this is something of paramount concern to filmmakers, and a subject I cover in depth in Shoot Your Novel. A director has to lay out his camera shots, deciding when a close-up shot would be more effective than a long shot, for example. He may want the camera positioned far away from the action, to make details unclear and evoke curiosity or misinterpretation. Or he may have an extreme close-up to ensure viewers don’t miss a tiny detail that is crucial to the plot.
About 3 months ago I submitted my writing to a chapter contest for Romance Writers of America. I received the feedback a little over a month ago and am just now writing a post about it because I was too embarrassed to share before.
We all face it, that frightening moment when our flying fingers pause mid-motion over the keyboard. Wait, was that the wrong tense? Did I say that before? Is that a realistic reaction from my character? Oh pink elephants, that’s too predictable!
Why do we let failure identify us? Why do we not realize that adversity, burdens, writer’s block, etc. are just isolated events from which we can recover? Sometimes we let failure define who we are, making us believe we’re actually … A failure!
I took the decision not to do NaNoWriMo this year. I’m so far behind with other writing projects; I could not contemplate starting something new. However I did enjoy the last couple of years and learned a lot from it. Hopefully for next November I’ll be ready to try it again.
Many authors and students have difficulty starting their projects. For students, often the problem is they aren’t terribly inspired by the topic. I don’t blame them for feeling stuck. It’s difficult find motivation in broad topics like, say, global warming. Once you’ve created a slide showing that poor polar bear swimming in the melted waters of the Arctic, there isn’t much else to say.
Does your writing sometimes feel dead? Perhaps your words stare vacantly back at you like lumps on the page? Or do you feel like a lump as you write? How can you inject passion and danger back into your writing?
I hope your November is starting out well! Over here, Ezra (my husband) and I have started National Novel Writing Month, (Nanowrimo). He’s started with a bang. I’ve started with a crawl, then a...
Many authors think that it is totally time-consuming to find reviews for their books. I admit, just like everything else, it takes time. You can get book reviews. But if you want to develop a long-term relationship with one of the key influencers in our industry—book bloggers—then you’ll want to learn how to get reviews for your books.
Recent Comments