Essential Writing Concepts: ADD

Courtesy of Chris Corwin at Flickr

There are many writing concepts that, once pointed out are so obvious that you are sure you knew it all along. This is one of those. It is the clarification of an idea, a marking out the boundaries of something so obvious that you will instinctual know it. However, in realising it intellectually, you will be able to assess your writing anew and with more insight. 

All prose is made up of three things: A D D (which doesn't actually stand for Attention Deficit Disorder, in case you were wondering).

Action: Mary picked up the glass and threw it at his head.

Dialogue: "You pig. How dare you bring her here?"

Description: The room was brightly lit, and the expensive sound system played hits from the 90's. Waiters with champagne glasses on silver trays paused, and peroxided ladies in glittering dresses held their breath. 

That's all there is in a novel, the combination of bits of action, dialogue, and description. Sometimes description can include action, or action description, but the division of the two is necessary for understanding pacing. Action moves a story forward, while description is pausing to look around.

At different points in the history of prose, and in different cultures, the ratios between these three things have varied. As previously mentioned, I'm working to edit and develop a piece written by my great grandfather over half a century ago. The first thing that struck me was that the manuscript has a very large amount of dialogue, and almost no description at all (which, by the way, is quite annoying as I can fill in the dialogue, but have more trouble developing the description of early 20th century Scotland.) Discussing it with my grandfather, he pointed out that it used to be considered the height of sophistication to be able to move a story along by the dialogue, without the need for description. But nowadays so much dialogue leaves no room for the imagination. 

Each genre has its own requirements for how much of each you should use. Take action/adventure, Matthew Reilly as an example. To keep the pace up, the books have large sections which are just action and dialogue, with reduced description. Then, move across to the romance genre, and say Georgette Heyer, and you get long descriptions of every article of clothing worn. 

Similarly, a writer's particular style is developed from how they choose to use these three elements.

In another post I will look at how to utilise the three in your pacing. But as a basis, writing should be made up of equal parts of the three. In peaks of tension, you might have more action and dialogue, and the troughs of your story will generally be more descriptive. However, over all, most pages should have some of all three. 

Exercise:

Now if you are editing a work, try this exercise to better understand your own writing.

Take three different coloured highlights: one for action, one for dialogue and one for description (this can also be done with the highlight feature in your word processor).

Go through your entire manuscript highlighting every part into one of the three.

Are there pages that are predominantly one colour? This is a bad sign, and you probably need to break this up a bit. (This is one of the big problems with "The Ill Made Mute", a book I loved, but there were pages and pages of nothing but description, which I ended up flicking past until I say the next set of quotation marks.)

ROW 80 Goals:

So, last Monday I set the following goals:

- Finish the first run through of Bootcamp and sent it off for a structural edit.
- Started editing After The Winter.
- Create the cover for Bootcamp (I want to play with the one I already have a bit), and start a Goodreads Giveaway for the hard copy, giving myself a deadline for when it will come out.

How much of that have I done? That would be none.

Instead I dedicated this week to getting all those other life errands fixed that require time and energy. I got my car cleaned, picked up the screws I needed to fix my desk, went to Ikea to get more storage for my room, put my car into the mechanics, finally got my hair done, and organised my little flat a bit more. And somehow that was my week gone.

So, the only solution is to try again this week. Wish me luck!

A Writer's Portfolio: The Author Bio

Get in early creating your author identity! (image courtesy of Umut Kemal at stock.xchng)

 
As writers, we often spend so much time thinking about the piece we are working on, that we neglect the other essential little bits that are required to be an author.

How often on conferences or in courses have you been told to sit down and take time to write up your author bio? Well, for me, never.

Whenever I go to publish something, be it on Amazon, or a guest blog post, or even entering a competition, I am suddenly faced with churning out around 250 words about myself.

Writing about yourself, summing yourself up in 250 words, is difficult. At first, almost impossible. The trash that I've come out with still haunts me at night.

So I am now challenging you to put aside whatever you are working on, and take some time crafting and forming this very important piece of writing. Having a good description of yourself, practiced a few different ways, polished up and ready to go, is an essential part of the writer's portfolio.

The question is, how to go about it?

Sitting at a blank computer screen telling yourself to write about yourself is the hardest possible way to go. Actually, sitting in front of an internet form at midnight, with Amazon telling you to write about yourself before you can publish your book might be slightly harder. Eitherway, you can definitely make life easier for yourself.

First we are going to get some ideas and models. You need to know what to include and what not to, what style works well. Should it be in the first person, or do you write about yourself in the third? Do you mention your pet cat, or focus only on your qualifications for writing in this field?

This varies across what genre and style you are writing in. This is why you should do some research.

Start by working out who you are writing your bio for, who is your audience and what do you want to tell them? If you are a self-help writer you may want to give some credentials. If you are writing humorous fiction your audience might expect your bio to also be funny. A romance writer? Your audience is interested in relationships, and so probably want to know more about you as a person, not just your books.

Next I recommend going to Amazon and reading the bios of authors writing in your field. Note what person they write in (first or third?), the types of details they give and what they leave out. Find a few that really appeal to you, and work out exactly what it is that you like about them.

Now you need to start writing. This is not going to be a once off, polished, done affair. The greater number of different ways you write about yourself, the more chance you have of finding the perfect combination of information and tone.

So I want to challenge you, over the next week (yes, across Christmas), take a few minutes everyday to jot down another version of your personal bio. Try focusing on a few different aspects each time. Also, try adjusting your wording, keeping the same content but changing the style. At the end of the week, sort through them all and pick out the parts that work the best, then start to polish. You should make a slightly longer version, around 250 words, and a much shorter snappier version, down to 50 words.

Then you will need to keep playing with it and updating it at various intervals. Your information is going to change. Maybe your cat died, or you won a great award. I highly recommend keeping a list of all your editable bios (such as your Amazon author page, your blog about page, etc.) so that when you have a new achievement or detail to add, you know where to go.

Remember, you need to give yourself time and permission to do on this. It is all part of your work as a writer, and shouldn't be left to the last minute.

One week, seven attempts, great start for 2014 being your year of writing!

Pinterest for Writers and ROW 80 Check - In.

Why Do I Have A Picture of The Olsen Hotel? Read and Find Out!

Writing Challenge:

Today is not so much a challenge to write, but a challenge to help writing. 

My best friend laughed at me when on the weekend I said I had finally discovered Pinterest. However, no one told me how amazingly useful it could be for a writer!

For those of you who, like me, might have seen it referred to but don't actually know what it is: Pinterest is basically a website for scrap-booking pictures from everywhere - uploading your photographs, 'pinning' pictures from wesbites, 'repinning' pictures from other people's Pinterest boards, etc. 

You start your own profile, and then you can create boards. You give the board a title, pick a genre such as 'architecture', and start pinning away. You scourge the internet, and using the little pin it bookmark thingy, it will automatically add any picture you choose to your board, where you can also add a short description. As it always links back to the original photograph, the copyright issues are different to blogging (you aren't claiming it's your photograph.) 

You might have clicked onto why this is so great for writers: book story-boarding!

On Saturday I started a storyboard for my 1920's Romance - After The Winter. I started with looking at 1920's fashion websites, and pulled out some fabulous pictures for some of the different dresses she could wear in various scenes. I then moved onto looking up 1920's cars for my playboy (I've gone with a Bugatti, is super sexy). I had in my mind set the majority of the action in an expanded version of an Italian town I visited while I was there - Piedeluco. So I went through and found fantastic shots of the town and uploaded a few of my own. I also picked out certain places for where they would first meet. But, being imaginary, I then took some pictures from a piazza in a town on the Almalfi Coast because it was just perfect for a series of cafe scenes. I also have images of the two actors I would get to play my main characters. As I was looking for pictures, I came across little bits of information, or details, which I will have to go an add in, because they are just interesting. 

And now, people are following my board because they love the feel of all the images. So, when the actual book comes out... well, hopefully they will like that too! I can also point potential agents towards it saying 'here, get a feel for the book'. 

So, I challenge you to start your own Pinterest board for one of your books. There are plenty of images around us, and it gives a whole new dimension to your writing. Once you've started it, add your board link to the comments below and we will come and visit!

ROW 80 Check - In:

So, continuing with my Round of Words in 80 Days writing challenge, which very conveniently adapts each check-in to what I think I can accomplish. My goal has been to write a post or article each day. How did I go?

Thursday I did my actual Check - In for 100FD, a day late but it made a better story, which covered all my Thursday posts. 

Friday I turned my Personal Fitness Base Camp post on ITB syndrome (common in runners) into an article for submission with Unique Article Wizard (aff link).

Saturday I can't actually remember what I did... hmmm... that's a bit worrying because the entire day seems to be gone. Oh well, possibly didn't do any writing that day. Though at some stage on the weekend I did create some articles for submission based on The Five Day Writer's Retreat. The new website should be up and running this week, which will be awesome. It looks amazing (I've got a graphic designer working on it for me :D). So, later in the week, drop by www.thefivedaywriter.com.

Sunday I started my Pinterest board, which you are welcome to follow if you would like to see what other images I add about the book. I also wrote out my Half Marathon training report for this week (completed all training, though in a different order, and lost the weight I had set out to do, so yah!), though didn't post it.

And then... Well, I had planned to come home from church and publish articles on all three of my blogs (have you checked out www.buffyandgod.com yet? My newest blog, on practical theology.) However, after church I got invited out to dinner which was great. On the tram home at 11pm at night, thinking it might be a bit late but I can get at least the fitness post published, I start going through my bag to find my house keys. Hmmm... 

I get off the tram so I don't miss my stop, and sit down in the empty shopping centre to go through my bag more thoroughly. 

After emptying absolutely everything out of my bag, I had to conclude that I had left my keys in my apartment.

Add to that, my mobile phone battery had died. 

Now normally my best friend would have a spare key, and she was working night shift at the hospital, so it would have been a bit of a bother catching the tram back into town, but doable without inconveniencing anyone else. 

However, she had recently given me back my key so I could lend it to someone who was going to be crashing, but didn't. So it was still on my key ring, in my apartment.

My other spare key? With my family in a small country town an hour out of Melbourne. No phone, and the trains wouldn't be running. 

Locksmith? No number, no phone. 

And I couldn't bring myself to just turn up on a friend's door step, hoping they wouldn't be asleep when I rang the bell. 

So, instead, I just walked into the nearest hotel and said 'Do you have a room for the night?'. 

The first place, I have to admit, didn't have a room, and suggested I needed to get more friends (how rude!), but the second place was happy to accommodate me. They are also one of the more expensive hotels in Melbourne! (I stayed at the Olsen, for anyone who wants to know. Justin Bieber stayed there when he recently came and did a tour. It's a little bit trendy and hip, but also just a few blocks from my apartment). 

Luckily they had a phone charger and in the end my mother agreed to drive down and drop my key to me, as I also had a medical appointment today in the city which made it hard for me to get up to her and back. 

But, it was distressing, slightly fun and adventurous, and I'm very glad I have a credit card so didn't need to sleep on the streets. It is also why I didn't post last night.

Don't forgot to post your Pinterest board in the comments! I'd love to see what you are all working on. (Except if it's erotica, maybe no boards for that.)

ANZAC Day Challenge and ROW 80 Check-In

Lest We Forget

For all of you not in Australia, you might not have realised, but today is one of our most important public holidays: ANZAC day.

It is a celebration and recognition of what our armed forces have sacrificed. It marks the anniversary of the first military action Australia served in, in World War I (we are a pretty new country, aren't we?). The Australian and New Zealand forces landed at Gallipoli on the 25th April, 1915. It was a complete disaster militarily speaking - 8 months and 8,000 Australian's died (which when you think how small we were, it was a huge number). However, it became an important part of our national identity, as the ANZACs (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) were brave, and courageous, and everything you would hope you would be if faced with that situation.

(If you don't know anything about the landing at Gallipoli, I highly recommend the movie with a very young Mel Gibson in it).

Now the day also commemorates all our soldiers since then.  It is probably one of our biggest national celebrations. 

Melbourne Dawn Service, Today.

As an Australian Army Cadet, I used to get to match in the parade with all the soldiers, carrying their banners. Still remember the time when after we had finished one of the old soldiers told me it was a tradition that you had to kiss the Sergeant Major. 

'Oh, who's the Sergeant Major?' I asked completely innocently. 

'Me.' He said with a cheeky grin.

Writing Challenge:

So, for today's check-in (which is a day late, I know, but this makes it more interesting) I'm going to give you an ANZAC day themed writing challenge. It's pretty simple:

Think on the words lest we forget for a full five minutes, looking at them in different ways, and then write anything that comes.  

ROW 80 Check-In:

My goal was to keep trying to write at least one blog post or article per lunch break. 

Monday I wrote up my half marathon training report for last week for Personal Fitness Base Camp. (Two weeks complete, yah! And I'm starting to be better at handling the longer distances, I think.)

Tuesday I tried writing my inspirational piece for the ROW 80 blog, but have kept that as a writing challenge for Sunday, and instead took part from The Five Day Writer's Retreat and turned that into a silly, but hopefully amusing post for Kait. 

Wednesday I started my brand new blog! I had always meant to have the three: Writing - Fitness - Theology. And finally I do. Buffy and God - The Blog is up and running! I was also super happy I could get www.buffyandgod.com as my domain. I mean, yeah, how many other people would want that? But still, I'm glad it is all mine now. 

Thursday - It's a public holiday, so I didn't have a lunch time, but I've started putting together a video review of Lite'n'Easy, a weightloss program in Australia, which will go on Personal Fitness Base Camp, as well as my YouTube Channel. 

I have also posted on PFBC today about IT Band syndrome (common problem for runners, and how to fix it. Growing up in a medical family does have it's advantages, just saying.)

I've done this post for 100 FD.

And I'm still hoping to post on Buffy and God - The Blog about faith. It might have to be saved as a draft and published tomorrow, though. 

So, I think that is a kick ass effort, if I do say so myself.

Now, I want everyone's opinion. All ROWers and 100FD fans, what do you think:

I'm looking to my new self-publishing project (or perhaps I'll try and get it traditionally published if someone snaps it up soon enough.) And there are three options:

1. Castle Innis book 1 - the first draft is 90% complete. Late 1700's historical adventure/romance. (see Synopses for a more detailed description.)

2. After the Winter - my nanowrimo from 2012, probably 70% complete (as I need to re-write the beginning as well). It's a 1920's romance set by the Italian Lakes. 

3. A completely new, unthought of Chic Lit. As my little sister very kindly pointed out today 'You could write from experience '30 and still single', but add in the perfect guy at the end.' Thank you Jenny! But yes, yes I could. And maybe I would be lucky and it would make the guy materialise. (Anyone else seen Ruby Sparks?) 

So, those are the three options I'm looking at for the moment. Anyone with feelers out in the market, historical romance still going strong? Better off with chic lit? How do we feel about the 1920's? Great Gatsby is coming out to the movies soon, so that could increase interest.

Trim'n'Taut Writing Challenge with a Prize and ROW 80 Check In

Courtesy of Glen Pebley, at stock.xchng

Trim'n'Taut Writing Challenge:

Last check in I gave you the transformer writing challenge: to take a tweet or Facebook status update and like a transformer, keep unfolding it until you had a story outline. 

Well, today we are going the opposite way. The challenge is to take a full story and trim it  down into the length of a tweet. 

Why?

Well, first of all it helps you really focus in on the key elements of a story.

Second, it is a great skill for pitching. If you can think of the snappiest way to present your whole story, rather than rambling on for 3 hours trying to describe everything, you just might be able to pick up a publisher while in an elevator. 

Third, we all like to tweet about our books, don't we? 

To make it more interesting, I'm offering a prize to the best attempt in the comments. I'm going to offer a copy of Anne Lamott's fantastic book on writing 'Bird By Bird' because I believe every writer should read it at some stage. 

There are three categories, but the overall winner will be from any of them.

The beginner level challenge is to take a short story or a TV episode and try to condense it all down into one sentence. 

(I will just say that my best friend is very good at this, harsh and cruelly so. When I won a creative writing award at college she came up and said 'I hope it wasn't for that story where he ran, ran, ran and then fell off a cliff.' Of course it was, and unfortunately that was a pretty accurate description of the piece, but hey they still gave me the award!) 

The advanced level is to take a novel or movie and try trimming it down. 

Finally, the expert level is to take an entire series and strip away everything until you have the key element. 

The result should be identifiable as the original story, and extra points if you can make it sound interesting and engaging as well. 

This is open for a week until I sit down to write my post next Wednesday 24th April. Anyone in the world can enter, you just have to be prepared to give me your address so I can get Amazon to ship you out the book.

ROW 80 Check In:

So my goal was to write a blog post or article each working day. 

My ROW 80 check in for Sunday was a bit late and got posted on Monday instead, so that sort of counts as I did a post for Personal Fitness Base Camp on Sunday reviewing my first week of training for a half marathon. 

Tuesday I did my Killer Online Platform post here on 100FD about how to build your own website. I had already put together a lot of this and saved it as a draft. However, I spent my lunchtime adding more, and then int he evening had to do further research to respond to a question in the comments (which was a great question).

I wanted to do another post for Personal Fitness Base Camp, but just couldn't think of anything to say other than that our prayers are with those affected by the Boston Marathon attacks. It was such a shock to me, as I start my training for my first half marathon, to imagine what it would be like getting to the end of a marathon and have your world crumble down like that. 

The newspapers today reported about the 9 year old boy who was waiting to give his dad a hug at the finish line and was killed by the explosion. My heart went out to the father, who had just pushed himself through the wall, pushed himself to the finish line, used up all his reserves, about to celebrate, and instead is now facing the worst emotional marathon of his life. 

All I could do was prayer.

Strangely it has made me take my training a bit more seriously. 

Then today I spent my lunch break checking out other blog posts by ROWers. When I got home I tried to record a new video blog (sort of difficult all by yourself, but I'm getting the hang of it, and have finally managed to connect up my DSLR with my Mac, so I can control it via my laptop, which makes things a lot easier.)

And now I'm writing this post. So, overall, I'm counting that as a win! 

So, let's see how I go for the rest of the week.

Don't forget to add a trim'n'taut story tweet in the comments for your change to win a copy of Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott! 

Transformer Writing Challenge and ROW 80

 

Writing Exercise:

 

Today's Writing Challenge is to help you unpack short pithy statements into long prose. Think of this as the Transformer of Writing Challenges.

 

Mostly great concepts come to the writer as a short idea; imagine if girl meets boy but boy is actually a vampire. It is then the writer's job to unpack that into a book outline, then into chapters, scenes, paragraphs and sentences.

 

It is a process of slowly unfolding the concept, bit by bit, until it is fully transformed into your kick ass book.

 

The more you practise this reverse origami process, the easier it will become, and the more you will be able to identify nature folds that would lengthen out into chapter breaks etc.

 

So, today, I want you to go to Facebook or Twitter, the two mother ships for super short story ideas, and find a status update that has a whole short story waiting inside of it. Then I want you to slowly unpick it into a basic outline, then try to unfold it a bit more into a more detailed outline.

 

If you have time and feel so inclined, why not take some times and actually write it up?

 

ROW 80:

Well, my goal was to write a blog post or article each day at work. So, in that I was successful.

However, of course, secretly I had meant to myself a blog post for each blog, and additional articles, in which I was not successful. But that is my fault for a) having hidden goals which I'm judging myself against. They weren't stated because obviously they were ridiculous, so why do I feel bad that I didn't reach them?

So, no more hidden goals.

I really am just going to be pleased if I can do a single blog post or article each day (preferably in my lunch break). If I get more, well that's just extra brownie points to me.

 

And, if you haven't done it already, why not check out my new YouTube channel? If you subscribe, you will get to see all the videos I'm making straight off that bat. I'm working on a bloopers reel at the moment, which should bring a smile to your face :D

 

 

Rush Hour Writing Challenge and ROW 80 Check In

 

Courtesy of Chris Cockram at stock.xchng

 

Rush Hour Writing Challenge:

When I’m tired, I’m not always the most considerate person. Catching the peak hour train to work happens to test my patience just a little bit. Rushing off the train and trying to get onto the escalator amidst what felt like 1,000 other people, I become irritated when a slow moving girl in front of me just stopped about a metre from the escalator in order to search her bag for her ticket.

After almost bumping into her, I quickly side stepped, and turned to cast evil stares at her while I moved up the escalator. However, looking back over my shoulder, she had such a lost and bewildered look on her face that I suddenly felt quite sorry for her. In a moment she was engulfed in the crush of people as I was carried off, but I wondered how I would feel if she were one of my characters? What would her story be? How would she react if she knew that someone else had such a sudden flash of irritation with her?

So, my writing challenge to you, which is good for both your writing and also your blood pressure, is to find a situation that usually irritates you, and re-write it from another point of view. It might be the checkout chick going too slowly, but then you write it that she has just had her lifelong pet bunny die and she is in shock, or one of your children is screaming and you realise how the situation could be different that imagine if they were actually being kidnapped by goblins and it was the beginning of their quest to try and come back to you.

 

ROW80:

Still going pretty strong. Monday I wrote a post for PFBC on training for a half marathon, based on some questions I had emailed a friend who is a state marathon runner. I then also turned that into an article to be submitted to directories.

On Tuesday I didn’t get anything done at work, but when I got home I uploaded the previously written KOP article and did all the linking and finding photographs for that.

Though Wednesday was a bit of a write-off for me. Was completely exhausted so used my lunch break to do a 20 minute relaxation meditation/sleep. And when I got home I started my half marathon training at the gym (going to be reviewing my training as I go on PFBC) and then went to bed early instead of putting together this post. But it is here now. Yah.

So, more article writing and posts to come!

If you come up with any good irritating situations which could be a writing prompt to others, please share them!

 

 

Trifecta Writing Challenge and ROW 80 check in.

 

While looking for writing challenge ideas, I came across Trifecta. While I love ROW 80 as a writing challenge to help you with your projects, Trifecta is a writing challenge to test your writing abilities by taking you outside of your comfort zone. The challenge is short and sweet, and a great exercise to get you going at the start of the week.

Weekday Challenge:
Each Monday at 10:00 AM Eastern Time, a one-word prompt will be posted on our home page. The chosen word will come from the Merriam Webster's Online Dictionary. For the Trifecta Writing Challenge, we will always use the THIRD given definition. Please note the definition—we’re likely asking you to use the word in a different way than you typically do.

You should write a creative response using the given word. You must use the word, in its correct form, in your response. Your response can be no fewer than 33 and no more than 333 words.

We're looking for creativity, thoughtfulness, and attention to detail. Be artsy; be creative; stretch yourself. Write until your fingers bleed. We want to see your guts spilled out on the page.

Reading about this reminded me of Ray Bradbury's writing process, which helped him write 1,000 words a day for most of his life. I did a review of his process in The Five Day Writer's Retreat, this quote is from his collection of essays 'Zen And The Art of Writing'.

p. 79.
Dandelion Wine, like most of my books and stories, was a surprise. I began to learn the nature of such surprises, thank God, when I was fairly young as a writer. Before that, like every beginner, I thought you could beat, pummel, and thrash an idea into existence. Under such treatment, of course, any decent idea folds up its paws, turns on its back, fixes its eyes on eternity, and dies. 

It was with great relief, then, that in my early twenties I floundered into a word- association process in which I simply got out of bed each morning, walked to my desk, and put down any word or series of words that happened along in my head. 

I would then take arms against the word, or for it, and bring on an assortment of characters to weigh the word and show me its meaning in my own life. An hour or two hours later, to my amazement, a new story would be finished and done. The surprise was total and lovely. I soon found that I would have to work this way for the rest of my life. 

So, my challenge for you is to take Trifecta's word, and apply Bradbury's word association process to it. Take arms for or against  the word, bring forth an assortment of characters, and see what story might come of it.

So, a past Trifecta challenge:

TIME (noun)

1a : the measured or measurable period during which an action, process, or condition exists or continues : duration

 b : a nonspatial continuum that is measured in terms of events which succeed one another from past through present to future

 c : leisure <time for reading>

2: the point or period when something occurs : occasion

3a : an appointed, fixed, or customary moment or hour for something to happen, begin, or end <arrived ahead of time>

b : an opportune or suitable moment <decided it was time to retire> —often used in the phrase about time <about time for a change>

Good luck!

ROW 80 Check In:

So my goal was very simple: write at least one blog post or article each week day. 

And surprisingly, I kicked ass!

Wednesday I did a post for Personal Fitness Base Camp (PFBC) and my ROW 80 check in. 

Thursday I turned the PFBC post into an article for automatic submission. 

Friday I wrote up two blog posts for 100FD for next week during my lunch break, and then when I got home I did a link round up for both PFBC and 100 FD. 

On Saturday as an extra I filmed two new videos for my websites (okay, so I filmed like 100, but only 2 were any good! I've just got a new digital SLR camera and my brother was teaching me how to use it. I'm going to make a bloopers reel because some of it is hilarious.) 

And today I've done a PFBC post and then this. So I really think I nailed that goal. 

Let's just see if I can keep it up next week!

By the way, I've now got my very own YouTube channel! There are only three videos up at the moment, but check them out if you want a bit of a laugh :D

And if you want to be first to find out about more of my videos, why not subscribe? 

Writing Challenge GRE Style and ROW 80 Round 2!

Courtesy of Stephen Tainton at stock.xchng

Writing Challenge:

Continuing on with my newly developed theme, every time I do a ROW 80 check in, I'm going to give you all a writing challenge to stretch and strengthen those writing muscles.

Today I'm talking about writing strength: aka  your vocabulary.

As a dedicated writer, why wouldn't you want to learn and play with new words? 

You never know when they will come in handy. And you might learn that you have been using a word wrong for a long time... like laconic, which I always thought meant laid backed sort of thing, but actually comes from Lakon, meaning relating to Laconia, ie Sparta. It is someone who is spartan with words, not speaking much. Weird, huh? Now you are all going to picture Gerard Butler kicking a guy into a well when you hear the word. Or maybe it's just me :D.

So, think your vocab is already pretty good?

Here is my challenge, give yourself the GRE test. 

Go to: http://quizlet.com/216464/kaplan-gre-vocabulary-flash-cards/

There are 500 words on flashcards, word on one said, definition on the other (if you click the right button. Don't have the word and definition on the same side, sort of defeats the point!). 

Now, using the shuffle button and see how many of the 500 words
a) you have never heard of

b) you would have trouble defining

Admittedly, some of the words are pretty rare, but rare words can be the best. 

I just thought I would chuck in this video, because it beautifully demonstrates the fun you can have with rare words. Check out this song by Australian comic group Tripod (only 4 minutes long, and will give you a giggle.)

ROW 80 - ROUND 2!!

(Let's Get Ready To Rumble!)

Okay, so Round 2 of ROW80 started without me even noticing! Bad sponsor, bad!
So I haven't got much to report (other than I've bought a new DSLR camera with which to do some video blogging, so watch out for that!) but I had better set some goals. 

My aim is not very high, compared to what I used to do, but full time work is sucking the life/energy/mojo out of me so that even this is a bit of a challenge. 

But my goal is:

To write one blog post/article/similar 5 days per week. 

Also, to read 1 book per fortnight. 

Well, that at least will keep me ticking over. 

And I'll get to visit everyone else's blogs and get inspired by that. 

Need inspiration to get yourself writing? Sign up to my newsletter at The Five Day Writer and get a free copy of The Five Day Writer's Retreat. I promise it will have at least one thing in there that will spark you and get you writing.

Power Words Exercise

Courtesy of Darrendean at stock.xchng

Continuing on in my Wednesday Writing Exercise theme today I want to give you an exercise to make you focus on the power of the written word. 

Tomorrow, I want you to write a note to someone and in as few words as possible, completely change their day. 

Simple. Right? Yeah, okay, you're not going to fall for that one.

Yes, it is going to be hard, but you can do it, you're a writer!

Here are just some suggestions:

I'm not a big fan of the 'I love you', unless it is really actually going to mean something to them, because it's been a bit overused and killed. 

'I'm having your baby' would obviously work in some situations, but I don't want you to lie.

The good old 'by the way, I'm not wearing any underwear' might be of use for those of you who are married. 

But even in the most banal cases, such as writing on a group birthday card, as a writer you have an obligation (I believe, and try to live up to) to make the most of each written word you give to someone else. You have been gifted in choosing the right word for the right time to evoke an emotional response. 

Don't forget that. 

Practice it as much as you can. 

And yes, it can be easier to evoke a response by wounding someone, ripping out their heart and handing it back to them, but I would prefer if you stayed positive. 

So, go ahead and try it. One note, change their day. 

ROW 80 Check In

For those who have been following my blog, you will notice that I haven't posted anything on this blog or my other one since last Wednesday, even missing my Sunday check in.

Have to admit, the day after I got my book out, I totally crashed (emotionally speaking, not physically like last time I fell off my bike). It was quite unexpected and really threw me. Am still slowly trying to claw my way back. So apologies everyone.

However, considering we are almost at the end of this round, I feel I should set some kind of goal. 

So, by Sunday I want to have rewritten the beginning of my NaNoWriMo romance: After the Winter. I sat down two nights ago to start reading through it again (not having touched it since the end of November, but with fond memories) to find that beginning was... well... to be blunt, it was crap. There were some good ideas and passages interspersed with a lot of 'oh my goodness, I actually wrote that? I thought those words would join together to make a sentence an English speaker would understand and relate to?' as well as a complete lack of intelligible pacing. It was sad. Very sad.

For a while I thought about ending it all! (Well, the book at least) But walking home tonight from work I was listening to Writing Excuses, the podcast, and they were talking about beginnings, and it got me thinking about how to restart mine. 

Their great bits of advice:

1. Come in late, get out early for each scene.

2. Make sure the setting and tone of the novel is introduced in the beginning. 

3. Come in right when the 'change' that motivates the story is happening. 

4. make sure there is motion in the first section. 

So, keeping all of that in mind, I'll see what I can do over the next few days. 

Anyone else got great advice on how to write a good beginning scene? 

(I've got some great advice on how not to, if anyone is interested :D)

Mindfulness Writing

Courtesy of tung072 at stock.xchng

Today I'm combining my ROW80 check-in with a new series on writing exercises. 

I'm challenging myself to come up with new and exciting writing exercises for you each Wednesday, to keep you motivated and thinking like a writer. 

So, today's exercise is based on the theme of 'mindfulness'. 

Your challenge, if you choose to accept it:

Download one of the mindfulness bell apps (such as Mindfulness Bell for Android (free) or Lotus Bud Mindfulness for Apple (free)) and set it to randomly chime throughout the day. 

Wherever you are, when you hear that chime you need to do one of two things:

1. If you can, pull out a pen and paper or open a blank word document and quickly describe your surroundings through the eyes of someone else. It could be a five year old that has come to sit at Daddy's desk for 'Bring Your Daughter To Work Day', or even an 80 year old who has come back to visit and is thinking how different it is to when they used to work there. 

2. If you can't physically write it down, at least try to capture in words some of the key points. 

The aim is to a) get you looking at your surroundings like a writer, and b) start thinking in words, and how to choose the right words to describe things.

If you can, do it for at least one day a week. (The bell rings numerous times throughout the day, you need to do it each time it rings). 

ROW 80 goals:

My goal was just to relax after the book launch, which I have sort of done. 

Well, sort of. I spent a lot of time thinking about where I'm going next, and how I can develop and do it all better. 

As this is almost the end of this round of ROW80, I think it's a great time to evaluate how the round has gone, and where I can go next!

As mentioned in my last post, I'm going to experiment with a slightly new direction, with a focus on developing the skills of the writing industry, on top of those of actually being able to write, which is quite exciting. 

So, keep reading for great content, new designs, and information on how to be the best possible writer you can be!