Tag: writing help

Inspiration Monday: the echo before the cry

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Lately a few of you have expressed worry about being late with your InMon entries. Quit worrying! You have an entire week to post them if you want me to link to you in the next prompt post, and even if you’re a couple of days late, I’ll link to you in the following week’s prompt post (in fact I might not even notice that the prompt you are using was “supposed” to be last week; I get the weeks mixed up and I’m not that strict anyway).

Oh, also…next week is the one-year anniversary of Inspiration Monday! I’m not sure what to do about it…it kinda snuck up on me. I’ll try to work up a little recap of the year, eh?

Now read!

LadyWhispers

Craig

Pen ‘ n Tonic (last week)

SAB Inspirations (last week)

LoveTheBadGuy

MIQ and another

Lynnette

AuraofHope

Kim

UndueCreativity

Chris

The Lime

Barb

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The Rules

There are none. Read the prompts, get inspired, write something. No word count minimum or maximum. You don’t have to include the exact prompt in your piece, and you can interpret the prompt(s) any way you like.

OR

No really; I need rules!

Okay; write 200-500 words on the prompt of your choice. You may either use the prompt as the title of your piece or work it into the body of your piece. You must complete it before 6 pm CST on the Monday following this post.

The Prompts:

The echo before the cry
Ailing mind
I hope not
Pick it up
Building without windows
 

Want to share your Inspiration Monday piece? Post it on your blog and link back to today’s post (here’s a video on how to do it); I’ll include a link to your piece in the next Inspiration Monday post. No blog? Email your piece to me at bekindrewrite (at) yahoo (dot) com.

Plus, get the InMon badge for your site here.

Happy writing!

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Inspiration Monday: pretend you don’t notice

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Finished reading the Hunger Games trilogy a week ago yesterday. Still recovering. Can I handle the movie? Time will tell.

Read some less-depressing stuff! /

Lady Nimue

Craig

Lynnette

Scriptor Obscura

Lady Whispers

WritingSprint

Chris

Robin

LovetheBadGuy

Kim

Siggi

Barb (also, Barb’s last week; I linked to the wrong thing!)

Chris

Hugmore

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The Rules

There are none. Read the prompts, get inspired, write something. No word count minimum or maximum. You don’t have to include the exact prompt in your piece, and you can interpret the prompt(s) any way you like.

OR

No really; I need rules!

Okay; write 200-500 words on the prompt of your choice. You may either use the prompt as the title of your piece or work it into the body of your piece. You must complete it before 6 pm CST on the Monday following this post.

The Prompts:

Pretend you don’t notice
Picking their noses
Musical hands
A fight to the life
Can’t see past my gun
 

Want to share your Inspiration Monday piece? Post it on your blog and link back to today’s post (here’s a video on how to do it); I’ll include a link to your piece in the next Inspiration Monday post. No blog? Email your piece to me at bekindrewrite (at) yahoo (dot) com.

Plus, get the InMon badge for your site here.

Happy writing!

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Inspiration Monday: try not to scream

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I count myself among the very blessed, in that I worked nearly 11 hours today and still had fun. Three cheers for enjoyable jobs!

And three cheers for this week’s InMonsters!

Craig

LadyWhispers

AllTimeScout

Chris

LoveTheBadGuy and another

Lynnette

Barb

HugMore

ScratchyPen

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The Rules

There are none. Read the prompts, get inspired, write something. No word count minimum or maximum. You don’t have to include the exact prompt in your piece, and you can interpret the prompt(s) any way you like.

OR

No really; I need rules!

Okay; write 200-500 words on the prompt of your choice. You may either use the prompt as the title of your piece or work it into the body of your piece. You must complete it before 6 pm CST on the Monday following this post.

The Prompts:

Try not to scream
That wasn’t supposed to happen
Airless
Mind writer
Do not fold

Want to share your Inspiration Monday piece? Post it on your blog and link back to today’s post (here’s a video on how to do it); I’ll include a link to your piece in the next Inspiration Monday post. No blog? Email your piece to me at bekindrewrite (at) yahoo (dot) com.

Plus, get the InMon badge for your site here.

Happy writing!

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How to Start Writing a Novel in Three Easy Steps

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Blank page

Don't fear the blank page - photo by D. Sharon Pruitt

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We talk a lot on here about various stages of the writing process, but a quick glance at the Internet reveals several people who want to write books but have no idea how to get started. Well, my friends, here’s how.

1. Getting the Idea

You’ve got to start with an idea. This can be any number of things. It can be a character (“cheesemaker who loves books and has an ugly dog named Ahab”). It can be a partial plot (“bored millionaire attempts to take over the world”). It can be a setting (“a space station 500 years in the past”). Or a single scene (“faun with umbrella under lamppost in snowy wood”).

What’s your favorite kind of book to read? What do you daydream about? Typically, if a storyline or setting is interesting enough for you to daydream about it multiple times, it’s a good thing to start writing about.

While you’re waiting for that idea, try writing some short fiction (prompts here weekly, folks). That’ll get you some practice, and you may even stumble on an idea with enough legs to become a novel.

2. Plotting

If you don’t know where the story is going, you’re likely to get bored with it fast. But don’t worry about planning every detail at first—most of it is likely to change as you do the actual writing. A quick list of major events in the story, in chronological order, is a good start.

3. Facing the Blank Page

Now comes the part so many writers seem to fear. Actually writing. Let me help you with this:

Your first draft is going to be terrible.

It’s supposed to be terrible.

The point of the first draft is to get down everything you know about the story, as fast as possible. It’s to get you started. So quit worrying about finding the perfect words or structuring the perfect sentence. Quit worrying about being eloquent or poetic. Just get some ink on paper. Because before you perfect the story, you have to discover it, and to discover it, you have to dive in and write it.

Reassure yourself that no one else will ever read this draft. Give yourself the freedom to write badly, honestly, and with vulnerability. I guarantee you the final draft will look nothing like the first draft. But I also guarantee that you can’t write the final, glorious draft until you write the first, terrible draft.

And while it’s okay to edit a tiny bit as you write, restrain yourself—don’t spend hours rearranging a paragraph you’ll just end up cutting later (there’s a 99% chance* you will cut it later).

A Final Warning

Writing a novel is will be the hardest thing you’ll ever do. You will deal with constant discouragement, from the beginning stages to getting published and beyond—if you get published—and I’ll tell you right now, your chances aren’t good. Nobody’s are. But you know what?

It’s still worth it. 100%.

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What’s keeping you from starting a book?

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*Yes, I pulled this number out of thin air. It’s true, nonetheless.

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Inspiration Monday: the noise of ideas

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Did anyone else notice I totally misspelled “traveling” last week? I didn’t even notice until a few days later when I just looked at it and thought, that doesn’t look right, does it? Are there really two ‘l’s in that word? Of course, I’ve changed it by now, but I thought I’d better admit my error as a warning. This is what comes from lack of sleep, people–get your 8 hours!

In other news, Lynnette suggested I create an “InMonster” badge (a term LovetheBadGuy coined first) and I did! Here it is! Hope you like it! Hopefully I’ll make a couple of other versions eventually.

Now read some amazing work!

Scriptor Obscura (last week) and one this week and another

Caerlynn

Chris and another

Craig

Kim and another

LovetheBadGuy and another

LadyWhispers

Hugmore

Barb

Lynnette

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The Rules

There are none. Read the prompts, get inspired, write something. No word count minimum or maximum. You don’t have to include the exact prompt in your piece, and you can interpret the prompt(s) any way you like.

OR

No really; I need rules!

Okay; write 200-500 words on the prompt of your choice. You may either use the prompt as the title of your piece or work it into the body of your piece. You must complete it before 6 pm CST on the Monday following this post.

The Prompts:

The noise of ideas
Covered with words
Popular rebellion
Hold on to your weaknesses
The crying machine

Want to share your Inspiration Monday piece? Post it on your blog and link back to today’s post (here’s a video on how to do it); I’ll include a link to your piece in the next Inspiration Monday post. No blog? Email your piece to me at bekindrewrite (at) yahoo (dot) com.

Plus, get the InMon badge for your site here.

Happy writing!

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