All Blog Posts Tagged 'writing' (141)

Persephone- my spiritual persona.

*New cover image for Kindle work- ''Valhalla- Loving Fearlessly''.…

My first novel

several months ago I had an idea like many others for a novel.  I decided it would be best to use a ghost writer for this project as I really didn't think I could produce something worth reading.

After trying out a few different ghost writers from Fiverr I found its like walking through a mine field.  From the UK I wanted someone to write for me in British…

If I hadn’t had that one book signing, I would have never met, Dan, an author who helped me reach the people of Auburn, NH.

If I hadn’t donated “Memories of Chronosalis” to the Hooksett, NH library, I would have never known about the New England Author’s Expo.

If I hadn’t attended the first event of the Expo, I would have never met the friends I did or gained the valuable experience.

If I hadn’t gone as a spectator to the Derry, NH library event, I wouldn’t have known…

“A writer is only good as his or her own experience.” Have…

Fictional writing should offer a rhythm, a pattern, and a sound. Together these elements create what’s needed for any decent narrative: flow. Without flow, readers will soon find themselves disinterested in what you’ve written and, frankly, perturbed at you.

Here’s an example of what I mean from my novel, Curse Me Not. Read this passage, not for…

My Knoxville writers’ group has been at it again with more flash fiction. This time we used Seventh Sanctum to give us individual prompts. Seventh Sanctum is a website that provides randomly generated ideas that inspire writers. The following is what came out of my random prompt, “A Jew on the River Styx.” Since I’m Jewish, it seemed a random bit of fate!

 …

In my previous posts, I've expressed how challenging writing can be. But, that's only half the battle. The real difficulty begins when you go to publish.



Years ago, a writer could only publish their manuscripts through a traditional publisher, but with the 21st century comes self-publishing. A writer no longer needs to beg an agent to take a look at their manuscript. The writer is their own publisher...sounds great! Right? Well it depends.



Self-publishing and…

Now, by the sounds of this blog title, you're probably thinking, "Of course you can write for a living! Just look at Stephen King or J.K. Rowling!"



This statement is definitely valid. But I think as budding writers and avid readers we often forget how much work goes into the concept of "writing for a living". It isn't just, "BAM! I wrote a book, now everybody read it!" No, there is so much more to it than that.



I've heard it said before that "writing for a living" can be…

This past weekend I attended a writing event at nearby library. A friend of mine from there asked me to come and take part. I was grateful for the opportunity as I was trying to reach out to more people. Unfortunately, no one, aside from other authors, showed up. But that's not to say nothing came out of it. In fact, this was a major learning experience for me.



You see, I've always considered myself an ambivert. This is not a term one usually hears, but its a combination of…

When I first started writing, I was about ten years old. At the time, I had just found my way into the writing world and I didn't know all that much. I was mainly self-taught and learned what I could through reading mystery books like Nancy Drew. I found the world of writing to be fascinating and wanted to discover myself through this art form.



Looking back, I wasn't all that great at it. I could write dialogue effortlessly, but descriptions were the bane of my writing existence.…

When I was forced out of New Orleans by the ravishing flood waters of Hurricane Katrina, I ended up in a small town, only 3 hours away from my hurricane ravished home. I had a free place to live, but it was a long way from everything I had ever known. It just didn't feel like home. I was experiencing true country living, and I was a city person.  This community was created for evacuees who had escaped from the disaster. I struggled my way through the country. At first it was boredom... I…

Rage is not anger. Don’t confuse the two.

We can rant at a neighbor’s dog that won’t stop barking, we can snap at a significant other for not picking up their dirty underwear, we can even feel our blood pressure rise at the words of a politician or shout at another driver who cuts us off on the interstate. Anger comes in a flash and usually leaves the same…

My favorite fiction to curl up with has usually been a mix or urban fantasy and paranormal romance. Yet now after bingeing on the genre for a while, I find myself diversifying.

Yes, I grew bored with the standard tropes associated with, let’s call it “paranormal fantasy.” You know the tropes I’m…

“Flash Fiction” is a short—sometimes really short—form of storytelling. The number of words required in flash fiction differs from writer to writer, editor to editor, contest to contest, but some purists insist that it’s a story told in less than 75 words. For less-rigid flashers, anything under 500 words is flash-worthy. Either way, and despite the limited length, flash…

As a member of the Knoxville Writers Guild, and in particular of the Guild’s Sci-Fi/Fantasy Writers’ Group, I recently joined in on a writing experiment that was downright fun. The idea was that each of us write a short ditty (called “flash writing”) using a photo as a writing prompt.

We were given several stock photos to choose from: a couple of samurais…

Novel writing is demanding!

The novel writing process incorporates elements that must be blended and mastered to create a successful novel. I’ve developed a series of articles that will help you unit these diverse elements together and craft that prize winning book.

Once…

I received an interesting question from an English teacher in Iran who wanted to know the differences, if any, between “must” and “have to/has to.” This is an interesting question because the expressions are nearly identical. To answer, I had to think not only about their strict definitions but also about how they are used. 

The terms “must” and “have to/has to” are modal auxiliaries that communicate (1) an obligation to perform some action or (2) that some state of being or action is…

I am sure you writers will agree, there are many reasons we like to write. For me, the first reason is that it's my "outlet". It's the way I resolve things in my own mind. Sometimes it comes out in a short story. At other times it comes out in a song or poetry or in a blog post.  (See a video of a song I wrote below)

I call my self a creative writer. I mainly like…

Teaching elementary and secondary students how to write well is challenging. Many students don’t understand the core principles behind writing, including the basics of sentence and paragraph structure, a logical progression of ideas, and reader awareness. Others don’t have the technical skills of writing, including grammar and punctuation. However, with consistent, year-by-year, engaging instruction by committed teachers who understand not only the value but also the principles and skills of…

Academic and technical writing are far different than literary writing, such as novels and poetry. The primary purpose of academic and technical writing is to provide information about a defined topic to a specific audience. Whether you write graduate papers, professional journal articles, dissertations, white papers, manuals, websites, reviews, or similar documents, you are writing academic or technical documents.

Academic and technical writing can be bad writing. They can…