Motion, emotion, and motivation will keep your story moving. It’s no coincidence these three words share the Latin root for move. Whether you’re writing fiction, biography, or an informational article, be sure to include each of these. Let’s look at how each one enriches your story. Motion Plot is the motion in your story. It moves the story forward and compels your reader to keep turning the pages. What will happen next? Plot is the logical progression of events. It’s a series of cause and effect that leads the reader to an endpoint. The motion must be focused and directed toward the end goal to avoid aimless wandering, and risk…
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Things That Fall From the Sky
Precipitation has a specialized vocabulary all its own. Generally speaking, precipitation includes rain, snow, and hail. But each of these has a range of words to describe them. Rain Rain falls from the sky as drops of water. It comes down hard, soft, heavy, and light. Rain has its own specialized vocabulary. It can mist, sprinkle, drizzle, or rain. A light rain is a shower. Heavier rainstorms come in downpours, cloudbursts and torrents. Rain paired with thunder is a thundershower, and is often accompanied by lightning. A rainfall with copious amounts of water is called a deluge and may lead to flash floods. In northern latitudes you may experience freezing…
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Vocabulary, Building Blocks for Writers
Vocabulary is a fancy term for the words you use. Since words are the writer’s building blocks it makes sense to build a large vocabulary. So how do you do it? Building Vocabulary Vocabulary can be specific to a profession, art form, or region. For instance, to a student, the word site will probably refer to a website, but to a biologist or archaeologist it will refer to a location. Medium to an artist is the material they use to make their art, but it can also be a psychic leading a seance, a size, or the way information is transmitted. And then of course, different regions have their own…
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Bring Intellectual Curiosity to Your Writing
I enjoyed the holidays with family. I hope your holidays were full of happy times with people you love. Here’s something to think about as you write in this new year. Intellectual curiosity withers in either or, black or white, up or down, left or right. It thrives on maybe, what if, but, and so, possibly and even though. Intellectual curiosity allows us to look through another’s lens. It forces us to consider viewpoints other than our own. When the world is presented as either or it puts blinders on the intellect. The world is not black and white. It is filled with a kaleidoscope of color. Media Landscape…
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Fifty Thousand Words
Here it is the final day of NaNoWriMo and I’m a few words short of the fifty thousand word goal. Did you see what I did there? Fifty thousand is two words and 50,000 counts as one! Bumps in the Road I’ve been plugging away on my novel and even earned my 25 day badge for writing twenty five days in a row. (see picture above) But on day twenty seven I ran into a few bumps. There were the five hours spent shoveling after a snowstorm, then a holiday, followed by an unexpected family crisis (they’re always unexpected, aren’t they?), and a car stuck in the snow! Playing Catch…
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Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on the blessings in our lives. In today’s post I want to focus on family, friends, and purpose. Family Family shapes us in so many ways. I am the youngest of three children. Both parents were college educated. Dad grew up an only child and followed his father into the family business after he contracted polio which put an end to his dreams of working outdoors in the forestry industry. Mom married young, had a son and was a widow by the age of 20. She attended college, received her teaching certificate and supported herself and young son on a teacher’s salary until she…
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Treat Yourself
A writing retreat pays big dividends, and it doesn’t have to take a bite out of your wallet. Do you have access to a cabin, a condo, or a room over the garage? You could sign up for a Costa Rican retreat with daily writing, critique, and personal coaching sessions at a couple of thousand dollars per person. Or. . . create your own retreat for next to nothing! That’s what my critique group did. Share the Load One member generously offered her time-share condo for the weekend, another made sure we had enough snacks to keep us going, and two members provided meals. Everyone was responsible for their own…
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NaNo Prep
NaNoWriMo is just around the corner. What’s that you ask? It’s shorthand for National Novel Writing Month. Each November since 1999, participants have attempted to write a 50,000 word novel. That’s a lot of words! Resources: Word Tracker NaNoWriMo’s website at NaNoWriMo.org is chock full of helpful resources. There’s a word tracker to show progress toward your word count goal. It’s set up as a graph. With days on the X axis and word count on the Y axis a target slope gives you a daily word count goal. Your actual progress shows where you stand in relation to the target slope. If you write every single day with no…
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Time for School
If you’re a student, welcome back to school! Sharp pencils, packages of shrink-wrapped lined paper, and fresh haircuts are sure signs of a new school year. No more late nights stargazing or watching Netflix. It’s time to settle in with textbooks and homework. Survival Tips Whether you’re in fifth grade or college you need a good night’s sleep. Light from a TV or computer screen can affect melatonin production. That’s the hormone that regulates your sleep cycle, also known as circadian rhythms. Turn off all screens two hours before you plan to sleep. That includes your cell phone! Stay active. If you find yourself sitting for more than an hour,…
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Propaganda
Propaganda is a dirty word. As a writer you have a responsibility to recognize it. As a reader your future may depend on whether you recognize it or not. I’ve been away visiting family and wasn’t sure I’d post this week. But something I saw on Facebook prompted this post. Twisted Truth Let’s start with a definition. Click here. We rarely think of propaganda as the truth. Surprisingly, propaganda can be the truth repackaged. Let me explain. In seventh grade Mrs. Tucker taught a unit on advertising and propaganda. I find it interesting how these topics are linked, but I digress. At the height of the Cold War, she presented…
