Environment and Your Mood
By Annette Rey
Have you noticed the emotional effect that varying environments produce on your mood? When I view luscious environments in the background on television shows, I am aware of the feelings those scenes evoke in me.
As a help to enrich your writing, begin to focus on emotional changes inside you related to environment. Think more introspectively about your feelings. Put these feelings into words.
Let’s look at some ways to accomplish this.
And Have Fun Doing It
By Annette Rey
Why do professionals advise writers to limit the use of adverbs? Aren’t adverbs descriptive words? Don’t they give a visual to readers of what is going on?
These are good words. Personally, I like them. My lazy side prefers them.
And that is the point. It’s harder to write a sentence that shows the reader what is going on. It takes more thought to find descriptive words. It takes more time. But the results are worth it. You will have more pride in your work and the reader will have a better reading experience.
So let’s look at a few of those adverbs and learn substitutions for them.
Subject Search
By Annette Rey
Are you having trouble finding a subject about which to write? I have found that odd subjects are alluring to many readers. People are curious. Many are seekers. A lot of them are ravenous readers and read package ingredients, posters, and billboards. They are hungry for information and they wish to escape their realities. So don’t think you won’t please an audience if you write on subjects out of the ordinary.
Who doesn’t squirm when a hairy spider is described? Yet, like people who watch ghost stories or sensational news clips, their eyes peer between the fingers covering their face, so as not to miss a thrilling moment.
Let’s talk about roaches.
By Annette Rey
Let’s call the piece you are constructing a living body of work and think in those terms, a whole unit composed of dependencies and interconnections and interactions.
Body of work = the whole piece
Living body of work = one piece, breathing, experiencing, projecting, inviting, moving
But it can’t function without its parts which are listed in the analogies that follow:
$ Okay. How many writers out there are spending way over their budgets on writing craft books, pretty ink pens, highlighters, folders, notebooks, copy paper and the next gadget being hyped as a just-must-have? Sure, many of these items (and more) can be needed for a writer’s life. But, a beginning writer has more money going out than coming in. How can we spend a bit less, yet gather what we need to produce good work? Some of the following ideas are simple common sense, even mundane suggestions, but worth mentioning.
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In another post I mentioned my spiral notebook library. It is growing and is filled with juicy fodder for my work. The pages are overflowing with my own ideas drawn from reading other authors, instructional excerpts from books on writing, character profiles I am building, chapters of various book projects, small nuggets of grammar, vocabulary – you name it, every aspect of writing.
A review of any of these notebooks opens writing flow like a rushing river and I do not exaggerate. Scraps of thoughts written months ago seem to have germinated in my brain without my realizing it. Revisiting an entry provokes an “Aha!” moment and I’m writing and fleshing out the idea without effort.
Periodically do you ask yourself, “Will anyone be interested in this that I am writing?”, “Will this sell?”, “Do I have what it takes?”
Most struggling writers have self-doubts, give up from time to time, or throw in their pen completely until their inner muse draws them back, sometimes almost against their will.
But for those times when you are at the crossroads of doubt, or feel simply out of steam, consider following the next four points.
What do I mean by Live Your Writing? Let me start with an opposite explanation. If you treat your writing as just beginning when you sit down to type, then you are not living your writing. If your writing is an afterthought of your day, an isolated concentration separate from your daily events, then you are not living your writing. The following four suggestions will help you find ways to incorporate your writing into your life when your fingers are not holding a pen or tapping keys.
This is my anniversary piece, Blog #1, as I am opening this site today with my first post. Since it is the day of the American launch of the sixth and last season of Downton Abbey, I choose to comment on the incomparable Lord Julian Fellowes.
What a masterful writer! And he seems an unassuming gentleman, something we Americans probably expect from Englishmen, right? He is an extremely accomplished human being, a film director, actor, novelist, and holds a seat in the House of Lords.
If you want to become a better writer, I daresay a great writer, fix your eyes on the screen of the Downton Abbey programs. Don’t miss a beat. You will peer inside the mind of a creative genius. As you watch, try to think like Julian Fellowes does, as a writer. It is easy to get lost in the story lines and the fascinating, multi-faceted characters and all the subplots and intrigues. But, try to focus on the actual process he used to create this outstanding work.
Writer's Block No More 