This is the latest in a periodic series about the common obstacles writers face. Both experienced and newbie authors deal with building characters who are believable and real enough for the reader to want to follow for several hundred pages. For some writers, this can be the most challenging obstacle …
I’ve shared in other posts how I receive inspiration for a story. The most common way is from an image that pops into my mind. Many times, I can’t remember what I was doing, reading, thinking when the idea came to me. I gave up asking myself, “Where did that …
Today, I’m sharing the first page of a story from another brave author, who shall remain anonymous. Thank you, bold author for taking a risk to seek feedback on your story. The story is set in 1970 and describes a soldier returning from Vietnam. What follows is the original as …
Write the Story Writing is risky. And not just in the sense of facing physical danger. Although I’m sure many writers did face physical danger at one time that stimulated or inspired them to write their story. There are other risks every writer faces. More mundane than climbing Mt. Everest, …
This is another in the ongoing series about writing obstacles. To date, I’ve covered Time, Talent v Learning, Perfectionism, and Plotting. Today, we’ll look at world building. I think this is one of the more subtle areas of writing and one we frequently pay less attention to. We focus on …
If we have a plot with no characters, I’m not sure what we have, but we don’t have a story.
This is another in the series about common writing obstacles. Perfectionism is the bane of many a writer, even experienced ones. Each story must be perfect or it’s no good. There’s no middle ground. There’s no forgiveness for ourselves. We don’t allow for the fact we’re human, we’re frail, and, …
This is another in a series on common obstacles to being a writer. Talent has been described as something you either have or you don’t. You can’t learn it. I and many others disagree with this notion. You can learn to be a writer whether or not you have talent. …
Over the next few blogs, we’ll be exploring some of the most common obstacles every writer faces at least once in their career. We’ll begin with the obstacle of time. “I think I’ve got a book in me if I could only find the time to write.” We’ve all heard …
Someone once asked me which authors influenced my writing. I was ready to snap off a few names, but stopped. I needed to think about it. In what ways, and in what areas, did they influence my writing? I ended up with a list of twenty-nine names. Now I had …
