December 2009
53 posts
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Thesaurus: good
Good is just a plain word that really has no value literally. Instead of good, here are twenty synonyms.
excellent
superior
outstanding
tremendous
fantastic
terrific
exemplary
desirable
beneficial
advantageous
favorable
decent
superlative
proficient
marvelous
useful
exceptional
incredible
altruistic
angelic
*There are hundreds, possibly thousands, of synonyms for good. If...
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'Tis the Season...
for a new blog post, of course. 2010 is coming in a few days even if you’re reluctant to acknowledge it. (Sorry.) And you all know what that means: new series. Here’s a weekly breakdown of what’s expected that way you’ll be prepared and check on the days you’re interested.
Mondays: Practical editing for writers series Tuesdays: Publishers and agents information...
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Happy Holidays everyone! :)
Whichever holiday you celebrate during this time, celebrate hard. Because, as writers, you know December 26th will hit and you’ll miss all those “After Christmas Sales” to work on your manuscript. Tough life, huh? No worries, you’re making good progress.
*Expect a post on what’s coming this next year sometime this week. :)
Happy Holidays!!
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Thesaurus: evil
Yes, thesauruses are evil. Not quite, but your antagonist is evil for sure. Instead of being caught calling your antagonist “evil” continuously throughout your MS, try out some of these words for size. Run them by your antagonist and see how he/she likes them. The more evil sounding, the better.
deplorable
malevolent
wicked
immoral
depraved
corrupt
degenerate
diabolical
...
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"You know, they're just fictional..."
I was working on Snowflaking since I’m a day behind. I was developing the characters for “Untitled”, specifically my main character.
I casually mentioned, while I was typing, that she was a sweetheart. My boyfriend, who was sitting next to me, looked over and gave me an incredulous look and said, “You know, they’re just fictional.”
Of course I knew they were...
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Weekly Wednesday Writing Prompt
**I found this great idea for a writing prompt but forgot to snag the link, so it’s not my idea.
Steps:
1.) Create five distinct characters. 2.) Create a world for them to live in. 3.) Begin writing and keep writing for ten minutes. 4.) Remove one character from when the ten minutes ended until five more minutes passes. 5.) Keep writing for another ten minutes. 6.) Remove a second...
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Snowflake Updates
No, no. It’s not snowing in Florida…yet. :)
It’s December 21, and I’ve been typing away madly in the Snowflake documents on the different novels that will be written next year. I’ve finished one, another should have been finished yesterday but will be done tonight. I’m planning to start a third tonight (maybe finish?).
Acceptance (YA) is officially finished. ...
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Thesaurus: fun
Fun. I think I used that word consistently when I was eight. Seven? Not these days. There are plenty, and yes I stress plenty, of other words to use. These are some of them.
amusing
enjoyable
pleasurable
festive
recreational
exciting
playful
merry
entertaining
appealing
mirthful
jovial
cheerful
celebratory
jollity
convivial
gay, as in happy, folks
jocular
animated
gleeful
...
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Weekly Wednesday Writing Prompt
What are your resolutions/goals for 2010? What is the one thing you want to accomplish before it’s over? If you don’t have any resolutions, why not?
Do you make realistic goals you know you can obtain, or do you make over-the-top resolutions just to say you’ve made one? Which is better?
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Inspirational word of the day
Unfortunately, due to lack of material and time constraints, this series has to be postponed until the start of the new year. If by some chance I find the time to find more information, another post will be published to say that the series is back on.
Think of it as a show that has been postponed a few weeks. It now gives you more time to write.
Happy writing!
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Inspirational word of the day
Stamp: Make sure to develop your voice and make it known in your manuscript. It is the best marketing tool.
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Inspirational word of the day
Experience: Write your novel through the eyes of your character. Experience what they experience. Go what they go through.
“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.” Tom Clancy.
(Photo credit)
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Life, decisions, and growing up
Everyone has to make a decision on what they want to do in their life. Whether they are in middle school, high school, college, or graduate school, everybody makes their own decisions.
This isn’t just a rambling on what people should or shouldn’t do when they’re older. I’m caught between two things: science and writing. They are both my largest passions, but mix them, it...
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Inspirational word of the day
Wild: Don’t get lost in the tangles of your story. Your story may be bigger than you, but make sure you mark your path to avoid getting lost.
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Napkin tales
I was eating breakfast in the university cafeteria and, of course, a character “sits” down across from me and starts talking. What am I supposed to do but write down what she says? I’ve never “met” her before and I was writing her life story when I didn’t even know her name. Midway, I stop her and finally figured out it out. Everything made sense after that.
...
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Life Update?
Speaking of freedom, exams are upon us here at UT, and people, well those who actually care about their grades, are all scrabbling around trying to understand either their entire course or a section of it for their tests. Fortunately, I’m getting a fairly early start. Unfortunately, that means that I may not be able to update daily like I should. To solve this, I’m going to type out...
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Inspirational word of the day
Freedom: Enjoy the path of endless joys while it’s there. It can be torn away in a second.
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Inspirational word of the day
Hey everyone! I rushed back up to my dorm room fearing that it was 11:00pm or something, and to my surprise, it’s only 7:38pm. I officially have 3.5 hours to spare.
Anyway, now onto the inspirational word of the day.
Path: Take the lesser traveled path and see where it takes you. You’ll never know until you try!
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Thesaurus: Awesome
The word “awesome” is overused everywhere. Listen in some conversations and count how many times you hear someone say awesome. Trust me, you’ll lose track. Instead of using the common word in your prose, use one of the following instead.
breathtaking
amazing
remarkable
extraordinary
outstanding
incredible
magnificent
wonderful
superb
fantastic
grand
astonishing
...
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Inspirational word of the day
Growth: Even best selling novelists had to start off as newbies at some point. Don’t be discouraged if you’re a newbie novelist.
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Inspirational word of the day
Radiance: Today, focus on your setting. Make it glow bright by providing a lot of details to aid the reader in visualizing.
For ideas: See revision checklist: setting post. :)
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Revision Checklist Series Over
It’s been great typing out tips for manuscripts. All posts will be archived so you can view them any time. If you feel like I’ve missed an important part of the novel, please let me know and I’ll write another post.
Still continuing:
Thesaurus series
Inspirational word of the day series
New series in 2010:
Publishers and agents
Word of the day (different from being...
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Revision Checklist: Theme
Hey, readers! I’m not sure if I’ve already posted a checklist today, but I’d hate to deprive you all. So, without further ado, here is theme.
The theme of a story is also called the moral of the story. Under all the plot, conflict, and characters, theme is the one thing your readers will take away from the story. With that said, you can imagine how important making your theme...
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Weekly Wednesday Writing Prompt
It’s that time of the week again. Here’s another prompt. Clichés are more common in manuscripts than you might think. Here’s a common cliché that may not always be written but implied. Try to write for the entire allotted time.
Freewrite for 3 minutes on the cliché: back to square one.
I left the topic open for a reason. Different people see that sentence in different ways.
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Revision Checklist: POV
The point of view is a commonly looked over topic for some reason or another. In fact, it’s the most important. How you tell the story is how the reader will understand it. Everybody has a different point of view of the same story, so if you have 3 main characters, there are 3 different ways to tell your story. Which are you going to choose?
That would be the first question to answer and...
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Inspirational word of the day
Steam: Need to blow off some steam? Take it out on your characters. Everybody loves conflict!
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Revision Checklist: Dialogue Part 2
Continuing where we left off, let’s focus on the content first, then the actual words.
First off, is your dialogue interesting or is a snooze fest?
Is it everyday language or does it pack a punch?
Does your dialogue reveal too much information?
It’s hard not to fall in the trap of having characters say already known information just to remind the reader. DON’T DO THIS. The...
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Revision Checklist: Dialogue Part I
Dialogue is the one time in writing fiction that you can really show off your character’s personality. Though this device is very useful, you must be cautious that you’re not abusing it
Do you use too much unnecessary dialogue?
Turn to a random page in your manuscript. How much of it is dialogue? If the whole this is, then you need to rethink some lines.
The risk of having too...
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Inspirational word of the day
Avalanche: Have fun and be a little reckless while you can.
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Inspirational word of the day
Balance: Writing takes balance between the sane and the insane. Make sure you define what that balance is otherwise you’ll fall in the deep end.
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Revision Checklist: Setting
Setting plays a major role in your novel no matter the genre. Without setting, your characters are just floating in space without a place to call “home.” Define that place for them. Here are some suggestions.
Is it a real place? Or is it just a figment of your imagination? Or is it a combination of the two?
Sometimes authors will extensively study the location of their novels.
...
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Ideas for 2010?
As readers of this blog, I feel you should have some say in the content. I have some content planned out and this wouldn’t change unless if people think it’s unnecessary, but if you feel there is something you’d like me to talk about here (writing related), please leave a comment in the comment box. If you’re unsure how to do this, read my post on commenting a few days...
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Revision Checklist: Style
*Ah, sorry for the late post. Life has a habit of getting in the way sometimes.*
Today we’ll be discussing styles of writing. Each person has their own style and perhaps it work for them. But, like with everything, everyone could use a little pointers.
Some questions to ask yourself are:
Are you using the active or passive voice?
Is your subject doing the action or is the subject...
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Thesaurus anyone?
There’s only so many times you can say a word without sounding redundant. Each week or so, I’ll post a new thesaurus list for your convenience.
Today is stupid.
unintelligent
vacuous, inane
foolish, dimwitted
imbecilic
moronic
senseless
dense, ignorant
idiotic, doltish
simpleminded
nescient, obtuse
imperceptive
absurd, inept
preposterous
That’s only small list, of...
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Procrastination
Everybody does it and writers are notorious for it. But everyone does it a different way.
Today, and for the past few weeks, I’ve been procrastinating writing by blogging. Yes, sadly one form of writing has outdone another.
Ways to procrastinate:
Catch up on your favorite TV series. Or even your not-so-favorites. Watch some films you missed in the theater. Or films you haven’t...
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Inspirational word of the day
Fire: Today, edit one page of your manuscript. Get rid of anything that is just fluffy and doesn’t further the plot.
**Note: Pay special attention to purple prose and DELETE, DELETE, DELETE.
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““Some national parks have long waiting lists for camping reservations....”
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Anyone thinking about 2010?
This semester went by so quick I can hardly believe it’s December (4!!). I remember when it was summer. Although I’m sad that the year is almost finished, I’m excited that there is a five (yes, five) week break coming up around the corner. (It translates into more writing, of course.)
That said, here are a list of things I’d like to accomplish.
Milwordy
Edit two...
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Comments and everything that goes with it
To leave a comment on someone’s tumblr blog, simple click where it says how many “comments and reactions” there are and it will redirect you to a new site where you will then be allowed to type your thoughts.
To enable comments on your tumblr blog, go here and register on their site. It’s free, don’t worry. Once you register, you will be allowed to either a.) type in...
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Revision Checklist: Characters
This probably went unnoticed by readers, but I thought it was pretty neat that the inspirational quote and the revision checklist post both talked about characters. Plus, it wasn’t planned that way which made it ever more awesome. :)
Now, onto making your characters stellar and 3D. I’m going to focus mainly on the main character, but you may apply these points to all your characters,...
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Inspirational word of the day
Splash: Give your characters a splash of personality. Make them pop out of the page.
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Nerdy sentence of the day
“Don’t freak out about the primary carbocation.”
This warrants an explanation of sorts. I just left my organic chemistry lecture and my professor was showing us more reaction mechanisms. If you’re a science buff, you’ll know that primary substrates are quite unstable. However, our reaction had resonance to stabilize it. So, when the leaving group leaves, a...
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Common terms thrown around by literary agents,...
Every profession has their own jargon and to be recognized, you learn it and use it like it’s natural. Writing, just like everything else, has its own jargon. Here are a few of them.
**Note: This list will be continuously edited so check back often. Also, I found these definitions by typing them in Google. You may do the same to see sources.**
MS= manuscript. (Only used in type, though.)
...
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Revision Checklist: Plot
Plot is an integral part of your novel. Without it, you’re doomed. Here are a few questions to ask yourself when you’re reviewing your plot:
Is it believable? Or is a reader going to draw a blank and say, “What?!”
Is it plausible? Can this event really happen or is it too out there? (Exceptions: paranormal, fantasy, sci-fi)
Are there too many coincidences that make it...
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Inspirational word of the day
Beam: Shine a little light on your novel’s theme. Have your characters reveal a little of themselves to you.
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Great resource (for free!)
For those of you out there that have difficulty with tenses, check out this great resource. I just recently signed up for hubpages.com mainly to promote this blog and make an internet presence, two very important things especially as an unpublished author.
I felt the need to make this its own post because of the great way the author of this article shows the difference between past, present, and...
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Revision Checklist: General
**If you haven’t already checked out my previous post on revising, here it is.**
Today, I’ll briefly go over what the “general” revision is about.
Here’s a short checklist of things you should keep in mind:
Structure
Spelling
Grammar
Punctuation
Tenses
Vocabulary
Clarity
Readability
Characterization
Pacing
Descriptions
Tone
Length
Contradictions
...
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Weekly Wednesday Writing Prompt
This is the second week of the weekly Wednesday writing prompt.
Write about the color of hunger. Avoid using the words: hunger, food. Encouraged word: taste.
Write 250-500 words. Take your time with this one and make it visual.
-Happy writing! :)
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Inspirational word of the day
Storm: Keep moving even if you’e headed straight for a roaring storm. If you don’t, the storm will come closer and you won’t be prepared.