Do you ever ask yourself, “How is this different from similar pieces of writing?” A writer is many things, but if you aren’t creative you might as well stop wasting paper. Take the time to make everything you write the best you can, and most of what you write your […]
Learning the Craft: Pace
What is Pace? Wikipedia defines pace or pacing as the speed at which a story is told — not necessarily the speed at which the story takes place. How does your story unfold? What is it’s rhythm and flow? Shouldn’t there be a rise and fall of plot points […]
Learning the Craft: Style II
Should I say things in a positive way? Suppose you want the reader to know how dark a room is. You set your scene. A teenager walks into a room and you write, “There was no light in the room.” The first thing the reader will see is the light […]
Learning the Craft: Dialogue for Character Revelation
Dialogue can make or break a writer. It can make a character’s flaws or virtues obvious or subtle. It proves that what the author has said about a character in narration is true. And it teaches the reader more about the character than the narration ever could. If a writer […]
Learning the Craft: An Office!
“Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.” — Jane Yolen Do you write each day? I try to write a […]
Learning the Craft: Those Rejection Letters!
How do you let go? It’s like sending your firstborn to kindergarten. You’ve nurtured and fed your baby for years. You got up early and stayed up late to tend to your baby. You spent so many hours alone in the company of your bairn that you fear letting them […]
Learning the Craft: Battling Discouragement
In the last post, we talked about the damage that rejection and criticism do to a writer’s spirit. Most writers are sensitive, quiet people who are unsure about their calling. So how do you weather the endless rejections from publishers and critics? First, remember the rejection that Jesus received. Imagine […]
Learning the Craft: Knowing Who You Really Are
For the past few blogs, we have talked about grammar: Adverbs and adjectives, similes and metaphors. Learning all of this is important if you want your writing to be crisp and professional. However, none of this counts if you don’t believe in yourself as a writer. Do you feel discouraged or […]
Learning the Craft: Metaphors and Similes
What is a Simile? In our last blog, we got rid of most of our adverbs. So how do we add descriptive, figurative language to our work? Good writers learn the benefits of using metaphors and similes. What is the difference? A simile is a type of metaphor, but […]
Learning the Craft: Adverbs!
Can we make our writing tighter? Last week we dealt with adjectives. Taking a few pages or a chapter, we removed all the adjectives and adverbs and made a two-column list. The first column contained the adjectives, and the second column had the adverbs we removed from the text. Afterwards, […]