Always good information from Ms Weiland. Here is a recent post about how and why to use paragraph breaks. To help us all make reading an even more pleasant experience for the people we write for!
Enjoy!
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Writers must use paragraph breaks to direct a reader’s experience of the story’s action and pacing. Here are three guiding principles to keep in mind.
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Ever have trouble figuring out names for your characters? It’s not usually an issue I have, though I have made the mistake of naming 2 characters with the same first name, kind of (Lilly and Lilly Mae). I did it on purpose because one was white and one was black and it was a way to make a point, but it did give me a few issues when both characters were in the same room.
Another good place to look for names – your local obituaries! Helps with matching age and ethnicity with a name choice.
Valerie Biel, on her blog, with Kristin Oakley, discusses naming character and gives us lots of different reference posts on the topic.
Are you working on a memoir or maybe just thinking about it?
Michael is correct – writing a memoir is much like writing fiction or it is if you want it to be interesting 🙂
Michael Mohr has written a helpful post on Joanne Penn’s site that you should check out: https://www.thecreativepenn.com/2018/03/09/fiction-techniques-writing-memoir/comment-page-1/#comment-438767
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In honor of the made up but very important (for screenwriters and movie lovers) #nationalscreenwritersday, here are 10 things to remember when writing your screenplay, or when creating most any story from ScreenwritingU – one of the people who set up this “special” day.
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Here is a great post from Jerry Jenkins for any writer. There is also a pdf with the words for future reference.
Thanks Christopher!
The Story Reading Ape (Link)
K.M. Weiland has a wonderful blog for writers, if you haven’t already seen it. In this post she talks about how writers make readers care about what is going on in a story, which should be a lot of conflict or things that get in the protagonist’s way of their goal.
And by the way, have a wonderful holiday and an even better New Year!
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To reach your goal of writing gripping and intense story conflict, you must first learn how to make that conflict matter to readers. Here’s how!
Source: The #1 Way to Write Intense Story Conflict – Helping Writers Become Authors
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Janice Hardy give writers some practical information about how to make sure your plot and your scenes are needed for the story and some ideas on how to correct things if they are not.
Source: Author, Jody Hedlund: 5 Reasons Your Plot Stalled
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The best-selling novelist shares his secrets to writing. I’ve read Kings book: On Writing. It’s a good book to read but not as much about how to write better but how King writes and thinks about writing. You’ll probably find a gem or too as Glenn Liebowitz did in this post on inc. I’m not in love with Kings book as much as Glenn, but it’s worth a read. You can’t deny Stephen knows how to write.
Source: 8 Simple Writing Strategies That Helped Stephen King Sell 350 Million Books | Inc.com
Robin Rivera on writeonsisters discusses something that many authors are not even aware of – Style Sheets. Read her post and learn about something that can save you money and your editor time. In addition, it will make sure your story turns out the way you want it.
When I create a style sheet, I use excel. I have columns that list the various things I want the proofer or editor to know (depending on why I’m creating a style sheet): character names (in order of appearance), odd spellings and location names are a few of the typical things I note. I also note the style guide I am using to answer basic questions of comma usage and how to handle titles of things (books, movies, articles…). If I plan on going against a particular style guide rule, then I’ll note that as well, to save me a lot of time back what an editor might want to naturally correct. It is easy for me to cut and paste information from anything I am editing or writing into this document. And if I’m passing an edited manuscript onto a proofer, it saves a lot of time and headache for them and the author, as well.
They take a little time, but they are well worth it!
**Please read the Amazon notice in this post. It’s important information for every author publishing on kdp.Amazon!
3 Reasons Authors Need Style Sheets » WriteOnSisters.com
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image from jmdeditorial.co.uk
As some of you know, I’m writing my first MG story (so far the title is “Agnes in Istanbul – An Adventure Mystery) so when I come upon something related to middle grade fiction, I read it. In case you write in that genre or are thinking about it, here is a post that discusses what makes a story MG vs, say, YA. If you read these genres to educate yourself what these aged kids are reading, you get a sense of what they are saying.
I think it is always a good idea to read in the genre you are writing. It’s not that you have to copy things others are doing, but there are some basic concepts that writing for MG that are good to know, some of which is mentioned in this post by Micheal Canon and Molly O’Neill.
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