Help For Your Manuscript
By Annette Rey
I said help for your manuscript but, hey, Bloggers, this is for you, too.
I like my written work to look clean, well-thought out, well-planned. I’m a stickler on things both large and small. Are you?
Don’t you hate it when you are typing away and something in the software program is not cooperating with your standards? How do you fix it?
Try This Technique
By Annette Rey
For the third time in less than a year, a person close to me has died. This has left me feeling fate knocking at my door. For protection from these outer influences I crawl into my writer’s hole and find memoir to be the perfect subject to contemplate.
Take a peek…
Not the Usual Writing Lesson
By Annette Rey
What do I want to say? Will I tell you things you don’t want to hear?
Radio Noir
In 2017 I posted one of my favorite articles on the gumshoe/street punk/police detective interactions on serial radio programs in the 1940s (read it). Not everyone owned a television set yet and home radio entertainment was a family event. Everything from sci-fi, comedy, horror, family, and mystery shows flowed into the ears of eager listeners.
I have Sirius radio in my car and listen to Radio Classics as I drive. I get a kick out of how the world was viewed then. And I admire the great writing of the programs I hear.
If you want to know how to give images to your work, to give your reader visuals of your story, listen to old radio broadcasts.
Following are great samples from one such program.
And Do It Subtly
By Annette Rey
You can read online articles and books about the craft of writing, attend writing workshops, speak with other writers, take writing courses, and all of that I suggest you do. But, what about those other moments in your life when you are sitting quietly and idly pick up a non-writing related book? How can you make those books writing-useful?
Perusing through the book Body Language by Dr. Glenn Wilson, it occurred to me how we writers can make use of information packed in practical books. As I read the material, my mind began creating lively and descriptive sentences for character interaction. We can insert meaning, motive, love, hate, regret, attraction, and more – and do so subtly – just by mentioning a character move, a raised eyebrow, a one-sided smile…
Awareness and Attitude
By Annette Rey
I came across this piece of profound wisdom and want to share it with writers and any person trying to maneuver through life’s journey.
When you need a lifeline, you need a reminder like this.
Peek Inside the Minds of Famous Authors
By Annette Rey
Writers work hard and need a break. Let’s have some fun with a writer’s related word game of some thought-provoking quotes. One statement on the list was said by an author’s main character. Two of the statements were said by one author.
The authors are: Dashiell Hammett, William Faulkner, Edgar Allen Poe, Agatha Christie, Mark Twain, and James Thurber
Answers at the end – no peeking!
1) I remained too much inside my head and ended up losing my mind.
2) Imagination is a good servant and a bad master
3) An author values a compliment even when it comes from a source of doubtful competency.
4) Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.
5) Don’t get it right; just get it written.
6) I feel like a wet seed wild in the hot blind earth.
7) I have not killed anyone. They will not let me.
Just a bit of interesting trivia – Have you ever wondered about the unusualness of Dashiell Hammett’s name? Dashiell was the maiden name of his mother. I read somewhere that he didn’t like it having been given him. And that is strange because his real first name was Samuel, yet he chose to go by Dashiell. He served in both WWI and WWII and is buried in Arlington Cemetery.
Books for Readers and Writers
By Annette Rey
I know it’s not possible to know everything, but I think it’s a shame a lifetime can go by and a person can miss so much. I only just came across this author who has been writing for decades. And I wouldn’t have found him except for a fluke (see my post Writers, Go to Your Library).
Six Reasons to Digitally Connect to Your Local Library
By Annette Rey
I love books – books I can hold, books I can smell, pages I can turn. I even take joy in categorizing them and lining them on shelves. I enjoy looking at the titles on their spines, and they seem to watch me from their lofty perches as I remember discovering their delectable secrets that revealed themselves as I lightly tiptoed, and sometimes hungrily dashed forward, through their words.
I didn’t think I could enjoy reading books on an electronic device, but the ease and convenience of acquiring reading material won me over. There are other reasons to give this a try, specifically as related to retrieving books from your local library through apps designed for any device.
For Flash Fiction or Short Story
By Annette Rey
I’m starting a new series of posts based on breaking writer’s block with exercises using an unusual approach.
Do you need a quick-start writing idea that is unusual and challenging? You can make this exercise as involved and as long as you like. Or you can hover around the idea and write a short flash fiction.
Here’s how to begin:
Writer's Block No More 