By Annette Rey
A Research Book
I often direct writers to unusual resources to find real-life personality flaws to apply to their character creations. Your readers will relate to these more believable characters because they are sure to have met someone like them at some time in their lives.
Life Code by Dr. Phil is one of those resources.
By Annette Rey
Seek and Find
I took a summer hiatus from this blog, but not from life. A patient has terminal cancer and I have been helping him to confront end of life issues. So forgive me for my absence.
On to the reason for this blog – to support writers on their journey to more knowledge and better writing. Let’s begin.
Laconic
By Annette Rey
Recently I happened to look up the word laconic to see how the dictionary defined it. I have been familiar with this word all of my life as I was an avid reader as a child but was curious as to what the dictionary had to say about this word. Interestingly, that entry showed nuanced differences between it and other closely related words.
It is important to you as writers, and all of us as speakers of English, to use these words correctly to communicate effectively and, by proper usage, perpetuate these words to be good examples to our reading audiences.
A Little Comedy Can’t Hurt
By Annette Rey
For a change, rest from your writing and have a little laugh.
Or Not!
By Annette Rey
Often I tell writers to get information, insight, and inspiration about their characters from “real life” sources instead of just relying on their own imagination.
Here is a good site to check out.
Challenging and Stimulating Four-Part Exercise
By Annette Rey
Figuring my own taxes consumes my mind and time so I did not make a post last weekend. But I think I have a contribution that will allow you to forgive me for that neglect. Where I am frugal and couldn’t bear to pay a tax preparer to do my taxes, I willingly spend money toward improving my writing. I have purchased DVD sets from Great Courses and suggest writers look into this resource.
Please, No!
By Annette Rey
F&W Media, the publisher of Writer’s Digest and more than fifty other magazines, announced Chapter 11 bankruptcy due to plummeting subscriptions and advertising revenue.
I invoke the little boy’s words as he looked up into the face of his hero, a beloved baseball player accused of throwing the 1919 World Series in the infamous Black Sox Scandal, “Say it ain’t so, Joe!”
Finding Motive
By Annette Rey
So many things to incorporate in your characters, right? You can run dry inventing.
Here’s a real quick shortcut to help you to continue growing your characters in a believable way.
Cut Your Babies
By Annette Rey
Many writers want to meet a word count and fear they won’t be able to reach that objective. So they spew. That’s not a totally bad thing. Their problems arise when they find they have over-extended and need to eliminate words for the sake of their word count. Their words are their babies. “But I like the way it sounds now!”
Word count be damned, put concision in position one. You will find that if you focus on concision, clarity follows.
Look, Think, Write
By Annette Rey
Writer’s block? Okay, we’ve been over this before.
Step One: Look around your room.
Step Two: What do you see?
Step Three: Name it out loud.
Step Four: What thoughts are conjured by those words?
Step Five: Write about it.
It really is that simple.
Why? Because you are a creative writer, that’s why. Believe in yourself.
Writer's Block No More 