Every weekday I post a set of poetry prompts on poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com and a set of story prompts on the script, novel and short story blogs (and poems, script / novel extracts, stories at the weekends). As you’ll see by the headings, you’ve missed a few but they’re listed on the relevant group’s Exercises page so you can always find them there…
Poetry Writing Exercises 095: Friday 17th May
Here are your four poetry exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: spies, recognize, spot, aunt, pack
- Random: hiding from a friend
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- One-word prompt: group
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what it says on the tin. You can use it at the beginning of the poem or include it later, and being poetry it doesn’t have to be exact – just be inspired by it.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the poem but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- Single-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = an object, a location, a colour.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Title = The title for your piece.
- Haiku poem= 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
*
Story Writing Exercises 099: Friday 17th May
Here are your four story exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: throw, hit, low, enter, blur
- Random: S/he’s spending Christmas with her/his ex
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- One-word prompt: eye
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what they say on the tin. You can start the beginning of the story with them or a later sentence but they’re a great way of kicking off.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the story but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- One-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = two characters, an object, a location, a dilemma, a trait. Mix them all together and you have a plot… hopefully.
- First person piece or monologue (a one-sided conversation).
- Dialogue only = this is where you literally just write a conversation between two people. No ‘he said’, ‘she said’ or description, just speech and the reader has to be able to keep up. :)
- Second-person = some of you will know that I champion. The prompt can be in any style but has to be written in second-person viewpoint… oh, what a hardship. :)
- Title: This is the title of your story.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
Tips
- Don’t forget your five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell
- Show don’t tell: if your character is angry, don’t tell us he is, have him thumping his fist on the table.
- Colours: Include at least one colour in your story. It does add depth.
- Use strong verbs and avoid adverbs: Have a character striding instead of walking confidently.
- Only use repetition to emphasise.
- When you’ve finished the first draft, read the story out loud. It’s surprising how many ‘mistakes’ leap out at you when you read out loud… assuming you have any of course!
*
Pictures above courtesy of morguefile.com
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: adverbs, author, blog, books, competitions, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, exercises, feedback, fiction, film, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, literature, monologue, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, mystery, non-fiction, nonfiction, novels, pantoum, plays, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, prose, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, science fiction, scripts, scriptwriting, short stories, short story, sonnet, tanka, terza rima, thriller, triolet, tv, villanelle, writer, writing, writing exercises, writing group, writing poetry, writing workshop
Every weekday I post a set of poetry prompts on poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com and a set of story prompts on the script, novel and short story blogs (and poems, script / novel extracts, stories at the weekends). As you’ll see by the headings, you’ve missed a few but they’re listed on the relevant group’s Exercises page so you can always find them there…
Poetry Writing Exercises 094: Thursday 16th May
Here are your four poetry exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: awake, free, fugitive, way, live
- Random: garden duty
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Thursday Title: Something similar
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what it says on the tin. You can use it at the beginning of the poem or include it later, and being poetry it doesn’t have to be exact – just be inspired by it.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the poem but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- Single-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = an object, a location, a colour.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Title = The title for your piece.
- Haiku poem= 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
*
Story Writing Exercises 098: Thursday 16th May
Here are your four story exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: pump, vein, dark, taste, obey
- Random: Her/his partner wants a threesome
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Mixed bag: surgeon (character 1), chocolate taster (ch.2), rabbit (object), library (location), phobia of kittens (trait), foot stuck in something (dilemma)
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what they say on the tin. You can start the beginning of the story with them or a later sentence but they’re a great way of kicking off.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the story but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- One-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = two characters, an object, a location, a dilemma, a trait. Mix them all together and you have a plot… hopefully.
- First person piece or monologue (a one-sided conversation).
- Dialogue only = this is where you literally just write a conversation between two people. No ‘he said’, ‘she said’ or description, just speech and the reader has to be able to keep up. :)
- Second-person = some of you will know that I champion. The prompt can be in any style but has to be written in second-person viewpoint… oh, what a hardship. :)
- Title: This is the title of your story.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
Tips
- Don’t forget your five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell
- Show don’t tell: if your character is angry, don’t tell us he is, have him thumping his fist on the table.
- Colours: Include at least one colour in your story. It does add depth.
- Use strong verbs and avoid adverbs: Have a character striding instead of walking confidently.
- Only use repetition to emphasise.
- When you’ve finished the first draft, read the story out loud. It’s surprising how many ‘mistakes’ leap out at you when you read out loud… assuming you have any of course!
*
Pictures above courtesy of morguefile.com
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: adverbs, author, blog, books, competitions, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, exercises, feedback, fiction, film, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, literature, monologue, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, mystery, non-fiction, nonfiction, novels, pantoum, plays, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, prose, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, science fiction, scripts, scriptwriting, short stories, short story, sonnet, tanka, terza rima, thriller, triolet, tv, villanelle, writer, writing, writing exercises, writing group, writing poetry, writing workshop
Every weekday I post a set of poetry prompts on poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com and a set of story prompts on the script, novel and short story blogs (and poems, script / novel extracts, stories at the weekends). As you’ll see by the headings, you’ve missed a few but they’re listed on the relevant group’s Exercises page so you can always find them there…
Poetry Writing Exercises 093: Wednesday 15th May
Here are your four poetry exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: sleep, fear, way, turn, forget
- Random: the corner of the room
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Sentence start: Out water…
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what it says on the tin. You can use it at the beginning of the poem or include it later, and being poetry it doesn’t have to be exact – just be inspired by it.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the poem but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- Single-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = an object, a location, a colour.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Title = The title for your piece.
- Haiku poem= 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
*
Story Writing Exercises 097: Wednesday 15th May
Here are your four story exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: gas, fast, tense, deep, reason, trace
- Random: S/he’s allergic to cats / dogs
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Sentence start: Every time I look at you…
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what they say on the tin. You can start the beginning of the story with them or a later sentence but they’re a great way of kicking off.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the story but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- One-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = two characters, an object, a location, a dilemma, a trait. Mix them all together and you have a plot… hopefully.
- First person piece or monologue (a one-sided conversation).
- Dialogue only = this is where you literally just write a conversation between two people. No ‘he said’, ‘she said’ or description, just speech and the reader has to be able to keep up. :)
- Second-person = some of you will know that I champion. The prompt can be in any style but has to be written in second-person viewpoint… oh, what a hardship. :)
- Title: This is the title of your story.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
Tips
- Don’t forget your five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell
- Show don’t tell: if your character is angry, don’t tell us he is, have him thumping his fist on the table.
- Colours: Include at least one colour in your story. It does add depth.
- Use strong verbs and avoid adverbs: Have a character striding instead of walking confidently.
- Only use repetition to emphasise.
- When you’ve finished the first draft, read the story out loud. It’s surprising how many ‘mistakes’ leap out at you when you read out loud… assuming you have any of course!
*
Pictures above courtesy of morguefile.com
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: adverbs, author, blog, books, competitions, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, exercises, feedback, fiction, film, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, literature, monologue, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, mystery, non-fiction, nonfiction, novels, pantoum, plays, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, prose, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, science fiction, scripts, scriptwriting, short stories, short story, sonnet, tanka, terza rima, thriller, triolet, tv, villanelle, writer, writing, writing exercises, writing group, writing poetry, writing workshop
Every weekday I post a set of poetry prompts on poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com and a set of story prompts on the script, novel and short story blogs (and poems, script / novel extracts, stories at the weekends). As you’ll see by the headings, you’ve missed a few but they’re listed on the relevant group’s Exercises page so you can always find them there…
Poetry Writing Exercises 092: Tuesday 14th May
Here are your four poetry exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: artist, tutor, Jane, unlimited, card
- Random: Tuesday Title: Fortune favours
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Tuesday Title: Fortune favours
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what it says on the tin. You can use it at the beginning of the poem or include it later, and being poetry it doesn’t have to be exact – just be inspired by it.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the poem but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- Single-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = an object, a location, a colour.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Title = The title for your piece.
- Haiku poem= 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
*
Story Writing Exercises 096: Tuesday 14th May
Here are your four story exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: strange, not, what, lightning, vein
- Random: S/he has frequent hiccups
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Tuesday Title: Please forgive me
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what they say on the tin. You can start the beginning of the story with them or a later sentence but they’re a great way of kicking off.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the story but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- One-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = two characters, an object, a location, a dilemma, a trait. Mix them all together and you have a plot… hopefully.
- First person piece or monologue (a one-sided conversation).
- Dialogue only = this is where you literally just write a conversation between two people. No ‘he said’, ‘she said’ or description, just speech and the reader has to be able to keep up. :)
- Second-person = some of you will know that I champion. The prompt can be in any style but has to be written in second-person viewpoint… oh, what a hardship. :)
- Title: This is the title of your story.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
Tips
- Don’t forget your five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell
- Show don’t tell: if your character is angry, don’t tell us he is, have him thumping his fist on the table.
- Colours: Include at least one colour in your story. It does add depth.
- Use strong verbs and avoid adverbs: Have a character striding instead of walking confidently.
- Only use repetition to emphasise.
- When you’ve finished the first draft, read the story out loud. It’s surprising how many ‘mistakes’ leap out at you when you read out loud… assuming you have any of course!
*
Pictures above courtesy of morguefile.com
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: adverbs, author, blog, books, competitions, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, exercises, feedback, fiction, film, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, literature, monologue, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, mystery, non-fiction, nonfiction, novels, pantoum, plays, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, prose, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, science fiction, scripts, scriptwriting, short stories, short story, sonnet, tanka, terza rima, thriller, triolet, tv, villanelle, writer, writing, writing exercises, writing group, writing poetry, writing workshop
Every weekday I post a set of poetry prompts on poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com and a set of story prompts on the script, novel and short story blogs (and poems, script / novel extracts, stories at the weekends). As you’ll see by the headings, you’ve missed a few but they’re listed on the relevant group’s Exercises page so you can always find them there…
Poetry Writing Exercises 091: Monday 13th May
Here are your four poetry exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: find, aloof, food, backwards, tuneless
- Random: write a sonnet about writing a sonnet
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Monologue Monday: Write a first-person poem about a neighbour
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what it says on the tin. You can use it at the beginning of the poem or include it later, and being poetry it doesn’t have to be exact – just be inspired by it.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the poem but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- Single-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = an object, a location, a colour.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Title = The title for your piece.
- Haiku poem= 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
*
Story Writing Exercises 095: Monday 13th May
Here are your four story exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: side, lose, other, act, forgive
- Random: S/he cries at the slightest thing
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Monday Monologue: It’s her/his first ever visit to…
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what they say on the tin. You can start the beginning of the story with them or a later sentence but they’re a great way of kicking off.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the story but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- One-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = two characters, an object, a location, a dilemma, a trait. Mix them all together and you have a plot… hopefully.
- First person piece or monologue (a one-sided conversation).
- Dialogue only = this is where you literally just write a conversation between two people. No ‘he said’, ‘she said’ or description, just speech and the reader has to be able to keep up. :)
- Second-person = some of you will know that I champion. The prompt can be in any style but has to be written in second-person viewpoint… oh, what a hardship. :)
- Title: This is the title of your story.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
Tips
- Don’t forget your five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell
- Show don’t tell: if your character is angry, don’t tell us he is, have him thumping his fist on the table.
- Colours: Include at least one colour in your story. It does add depth.
- Use strong verbs and avoid adverbs: Have a character striding instead of walking confidently.
- Only use repetition to emphasise.
- When you’ve finished the first draft, read the story out loud. It’s surprising how many ‘mistakes’ leap out at you when you read out loud… assuming you have any of course!
*
Pictures above courtesy of morguefile.com
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: adverbs, author, blog, books, competitions, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, exercises, feedback, fiction, film, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, literature, monologue, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, mystery, non-fiction, nonfiction, novels, pantoum, plays, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, prose, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, science fiction, scripts, scriptwriting, short stories, short story, sonnet, tanka, terza rima, thriller, triolet, tv, villanelle, writer, writing, writing exercises, writing group, writing poetry, writing workshop
Every weekday I post a set of poetry prompts on poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com and a set of story prompts on the script, novel and short story blogs (and poems, script / novel extracts, stories at the weekends). As you’ll see by the headings, you’ve missed a few but they’re listed on the relevant group’s Exercises page so you can always find them there…
Poetry Writing Exercises 090: Friday 10th May
Here are your four poetry exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: feel, consume, sand, easy, smile
- Random: treating an instrument as if it were a girlfriend
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- One-word prompt: remote
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what it says on the tin. You can use it at the beginning of the poem or include it later, and being poetry it doesn’t have to be exact – just be inspired by it.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the poem but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- Single-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = an object, a location, a colour.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Title = The title for your piece.
- Haiku poem= 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
*
Story Writing Exercises 094: Friday 10th May
Here are your four story exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: monster, find, better, babe, snack
- Random: She’s found underwear in the family car
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- One-word prompt: break
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what they say on the tin. You can start the beginning of the story with them or a later sentence but they’re a great way of kicking off.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the story but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- One-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = two characters, an object, a location, a dilemma, a trait. Mix them all together and you have a plot… hopefully.
- First person piece or monologue (a one-sided conversation).
- Dialogue only = this is where you literally just write a conversation between two people. No ‘he said’, ‘she said’ or description, just speech and the reader has to be able to keep up. :)
- Second-person = some of you will know that I champion. The prompt can be in any style but has to be written in second-person viewpoint… oh, what a hardship. :)
- Title: This is the title of your story.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
Tips
- Don’t forget your five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell
- Show don’t tell: if your character is angry, don’t tell us he is, have him thumping his fist on the table.
- Colours: Include at least one colour in your story. It does add depth.
- Use strong verbs and avoid adverbs: Have a character striding instead of walking confidently.
- Only use repetition to emphasise.
- When you’ve finished the first draft, read the story out loud. It’s surprising how many ‘mistakes’ leap out at you when you read out loud… assuming you have any of course!
*
Pictures above courtesy of morguefile.com
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: adverbs, author, blog, books, competitions, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, exercises, feedback, fiction, film, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, literature, monologue, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, mystery, non-fiction, nonfiction, novels, pantoum, plays, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, prose, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, science fiction, scripts, scriptwriting, short stories, short story, sonnet, tanka, terza rima, thriller, triolet, tv, villanelle, writer, writing, writing exercises, writing group, writing poetry, writing workshop
Every weekday I post a set of poetry prompts on poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com and a set of story prompts on the script, novel and short story blogs (and poems, script / novel extracts, stories at the weekends). As you’ll see by the headings, you’ve missed a few but they’re listed on the relevant group’s Exercises page so you can always find them there…
Poetry Writing Exercises 089: Thursday 9th May
Here are your four poetry exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: sweet, home, lady, tonight, thrill
- Random: in normal clothing
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Thursday Title: Thursday’s girl
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what it says on the tin. You can use it at the beginning of the poem or include it later, and being poetry it doesn’t have to be exact – just be inspired by it.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the poem but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- Single-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = an object, a location, a colour.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Title = The title for your piece.
- Haiku poem= 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
*
Story Writing Exercises 093: Thursday 9th May
Here are your four story exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: sketch, ill, new, hang, care
- Random: S/he collects something unusual
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Mixed bag: traffic warden (character 1), fruit picker (ch.2), cough sweets (object), bookshop (location), forgetful (trait), lost wallet (dilemma)
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what they say on the tin. You can start the beginning of the story with them or a later sentence but they’re a great way of kicking off.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the story but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- One-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = two characters, an object, a location, a dilemma, a trait. Mix them all together and you have a plot… hopefully.
- First person piece or monologue (a one-sided conversation).
- Dialogue only = this is where you literally just write a conversation between two people. No ‘he said’, ‘she said’ or description, just speech and the reader has to be able to keep up. :)
- Second-person = some of you will know that I champion. The prompt can be in any style but has to be written in second-person viewpoint… oh, what a hardship. :)
- Title: This is the title of your story.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
Tips
- Don’t forget your five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell
- Show don’t tell: if your character is angry, don’t tell us he is, have him thumping his fist on the table.
- Colours: Include at least one colour in your story. It does add depth.
- Use strong verbs and avoid adverbs: Have a character striding instead of walking confidently.
- Only use repetition to emphasise.
- When you’ve finished the first draft, read the story out loud. It’s surprising how many ‘mistakes’ leap out at you when you read out loud… assuming you have any of course!
*
Pictures above courtesy of morguefile.com
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: adverbs, author, blog, books, competitions, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, exercises, feedback, fiction, film, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, literature, monologue, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, mystery, non-fiction, nonfiction, novels, pantoum, plays, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, prose, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, science fiction, scripts, scriptwriting, short stories, short story, sonnet, tanka, terza rima, thriller, triolet, tv, villanelle, writer, writing, writing exercises, writing group, writing poetry, writing workshop
Every weekday I post a set of poetry prompts on poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com and a set of story prompts on the script, novel and short story blogs (and poems, script / novel extracts, stories at the weekends). As you’ll see by the headings, you’ve missed a few but they’re listed on the relevant group’s Exercises page so you can always find them there…
Poetry Writing Exercises 088: Wednesday 8th May
Here are your four poetry exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: judge, fish, baker, derby, drum
- Random: a party at a village hall
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Sentence start: Cross over…
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what it says on the tin. You can use it at the beginning of the poem or include it later, and being poetry it doesn’t have to be exact – just be inspired by it.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the poem but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- Single-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = an object, a location, a colour.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Title = The title for your piece.
- Haiku poem= 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
*
Story Writing Exercises 092: Wednesday 8th May
Here are your four story exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: office, drab, flow, feed, silent
- Random: S/he has no-one who cares about her/him
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Second-person sentence start: She won’t look you in the eye until…
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what they say on the tin. You can start the beginning of the story with them or a later sentence but they’re a great way of kicking off.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the story but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- One-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = two characters, an object, a location, a dilemma, a trait. Mix them all together and you have a plot… hopefully.
- First person piece or monologue (a one-sided conversation).
- Dialogue only = this is where you literally just write a conversation between two people. No ‘he said’, ‘she said’ or description, just speech and the reader has to be able to keep up. :)
- Second-person = some of you will know that I champion. The prompt can be in any style but has to be written in second-person viewpoint… oh, what a hardship. :)
- Title: This is the title of your story.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
Tips
- Don’t forget your five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell
- Show don’t tell: if your character is angry, don’t tell us he is, have him thumping his fist on the table.
- Colours: Include at least one colour in your story. It does add depth.
- Use strong verbs and avoid adverbs: Have a character striding instead of walking confidently.
- Only use repetition to emphasise.
- When you’ve finished the first draft, read the story out loud. It’s surprising how many ‘mistakes’ leap out at you when you read out loud… assuming you have any of course!
*
Pictures above courtesy of morguefile.com
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: adverbs, author, blog, books, competitions, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, exercises, feedback, fiction, film, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, literature, monologue, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, mystery, non-fiction, nonfiction, novels, pantoum, plays, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, prose, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, science fiction, scripts, scriptwriting, short stories, short story, sonnet, tanka, terza rima, thriller, triolet, tv, villanelle, writer, writing, writing exercises, writing group, writing poetry, writing workshop
Every weekday I post a set of poetry prompts on poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com and a set of story prompts on the script, novel and short story blogs (and poems, script / novel extracts, stories at the weekends). As you’ll see by the headings, you’ve missed a few but they’re listed on the relevant group’s Exercises page so you can always find them there…
Poetry Writing Exercises 087: Tuesday 7th May
Here are your four poetry exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: risk, worship, hall, transmission, table
- Random: learning something new
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Tuesday Title: Twisted
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what it says on the tin. You can use it at the beginning of the poem or include it later, and being poetry it doesn’t have to be exact – just be inspired by it.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the poem but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- Single-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = an object, a location, a colour.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Title = The title for your piece.
- Haiku poem= 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
*
Story Writing Exercises 091: Tuesday 7th May
Here are your four story exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: best, 2012, speak, customer, saying
- Random: S/he’s too shy to meet someone new
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Tuesday Title: Secret admirer
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what they say on the tin. You can start the beginning of the story with them or a later sentence but they’re a great way of kicking off.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the story but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- One-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = two characters, an object, a location, a dilemma, a trait. Mix them all together and you have a plot… hopefully.
- First person piece or monologue (a one-sided conversation).
- Dialogue only = this is where you literally just write a conversation between two people. No ‘he said’, ‘she said’ or description, just speech and the reader has to be able to keep up. :)
- Second-person = some of you will know that I champion. The prompt can be in any style but has to be written in second-person viewpoint… oh, what a hardship. :)
- Title: This is the title of your story.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
Tips
- Don’t forget your five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell
- Show don’t tell: if your character is angry, don’t tell us he is, have him thumping his fist on the table.
- Colours: Include at least one colour in your story. It does add depth.
- Use strong verbs and avoid adverbs: Have a character striding instead of walking confidently.
- Only use repetition to emphasise.
- When you’ve finished the first draft, read the story out loud. It’s surprising how many ‘mistakes’ leap out at you when you read out loud… assuming you have any of course!
*
Pictures above courtesy of morguefile.com
Tags: adverbs, author, blog, books, competitions, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, exercises, feedback, fiction, film, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, literature, monologue, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, mystery, non-fiction, nonfiction, novels, pantoum, plays, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, prose, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, science fiction, scripts, scriptwriting, short stories, short story, sonnet, tanka, terza rima, thriller, triolet, tv, villanelle, writer, writing, writing exercises, writing group, writing poetry, writing workshop
Every weekday I post a set of poetry prompts on poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com and a set of story prompts on the script, novel and short story blogs (and poems, script / novel extracts, stories at the weekends). As you’ll see by the headings, you’ve missed a few but they’re listed on the relevant group’s Exercises page so you can always find them there…
Poetry Writing Exercises 086: Monday 6th May
Here are your four poetry exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: result, tiger, crisp, same, mound
- Random: write a haiku about writing a haiku
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Monologue Monday: Write a first-person poem about going to a concert
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what it says on the tin. You can use it at the beginning of the poem or include it later, and being poetry it doesn’t have to be exact – just be inspired by it.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the poem but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- Single-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = an object, a location, a colour.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Title = The title for your piece.
- Haiku poem= 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
*
Story Writing Exercises 090: Monday 6th May
Here are your four story exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: unite, whatever, live, juice, belong
- Random: S/he speaks three foreign languages
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Monday Monologue: your character is painting a ceiling
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what they say on the tin. You can start the beginning of the story with them or a later sentence but they’re a great way of kicking off.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the story but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- One-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = two characters, an object, a location, a dilemma, a trait. Mix them all together and you have a plot… hopefully.
- First person piece or monologue (a one-sided conversation).
- Dialogue only = this is where you literally just write a conversation between two people. No ‘he said’, ‘she said’ or description, just speech and the reader has to be able to keep up. :)
- Second-person = some of you will know that I champion. The prompt can be in any style but has to be written in second-person viewpoint… oh, what a hardship. :)
- Title: This is the title of your story.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
Tips
- Don’t forget your five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell
- Show don’t tell: if your character is angry, don’t tell us he is, have him thumping his fist on the table.
- Colours: Include at least one colour in your story. It does add depth.
- Use strong verbs and avoid adverbs: Have a character striding instead of walking confidently.
- Only use repetition to emphasise.
- When you’ve finished the first draft, read the story out loud. It’s surprising how many ‘mistakes’ leap out at you when you read out loud… assuming you have any of course!
*
Pictures above courtesy of morguefile.com
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: adverbs, author, blog, books, competitions, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, exercises, feedback, fiction, film, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, literature, monologue, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, mystery, non-fiction, nonfiction, novels, pantoum, plays, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, prose, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, science fiction, scripts, scriptwriting, short stories, short story, sonnet, tanka, terza rima, thriller, triolet, tv, villanelle, writer, writing, writing exercises, writing group, writing poetry, writing workshop
Every weekday I post a set of poetry prompts on poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com and a set of story prompts on the script, novel and short story blogs (and poems, script / novel extracts, stories at the weekends). As you’ll see by the headings, you’ve missed a few but they’re listed on the relevant group’s Exercises page so you can always find them there…
Poetry Writing Exercises 079: Thursday 25th April
Here are your four poetry exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: tumble, naked, black, hair, soap
- Random: A family reunion
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Thursday Title: Famous for the young
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what it says on the tin. You can use it at the beginning of the poem or include it later, and being poetry it doesn’t have to be exact – just be inspired by it.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the poem but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- Single-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = an object, a location, a colour.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Title = The title for your piece.
- Haiku poem= 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
Tips
- Don’t forget your five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell
- Show don’t tell: if your character is angry, don’t tell us he is, have him thumping his fist on the table.
- Colours: Include at least one colour in your story. It does add depth.
- Use strong verbs and avoid adverbs: Have a character striding instead of walking confidently.
- Only use repetition to emphasise.
- When you’ve finished the first draft, read the story out loud. It’s surprising how many ‘mistakes’ leap out at you when you read out loud… assuming you have any of course!
*
Story Writing Exercises 083: Thursday 25th April
Here are your four story exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: power, surprise, take, new, Paris
- Random: S/he’s just been jilted at the altar
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Mixed bag: teacher (character 1), florist (ch.2), mobile phone (object), street (location), one leg slightly shorter than the other (trait), hiccups (dilemma)
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what they say on the tin. You can start the beginning of the story with them or a later sentence but they’re a great way of kicking off.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the story but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- One-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = two characters, an object, a location, a dilemma, a trait. Mix them all together and you have a plot… hopefully.
- First person piece or monologue (a one-sided conversation).
- Dialogue only = this is where you literally just write a conversation between two people. No ‘he said’, ‘she said’ or description, just speech and the reader has to be able to keep up. :)
- Second-person = some of you will know that I champion. The prompt can be in any style but has to be written in second-person viewpoint… oh, what a hardship. :)
- Title: This is the title of your story.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
Tips
- Don’t forget your five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell
- Show don’t tell: if your character is angry, don’t tell us he is, have him thumping his fist on the table.
- Colours: Include at least one colour in your story. It does add depth.
- Use strong verbs and avoid adverbs: Have a character striding instead of walking confidently.
- Only use repetition to emphasise.
- When you’ve finished the first draft, read the story out loud. It’s surprising how many ‘mistakes’ leap out at you when you read out loud… assuming you have any of course!
*
Pictures above courtesy of morguefile.com
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: adverbs, author, blog, books, competitions, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, exercises, feedback, fiction, film, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, literature, monologue, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, mystery, novels, pantoum, plays, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, prose, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, science fiction, scripts, scriptwriting, short stories, short story, sonnet, tanka, terza rima, thriller, triolet, tv, villanelle, writer, writing, writing exercises, writing group, writing poetry, writing workshop
Every weekday I post a set of poetry prompts on poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com and a set of story prompts on the script, novel and short story blogs (and poems, script / novel extracts, stories at the weekends). As you’ll see by the headings, you’ve missed a few but they’re listed on the relevant group’s Exercises page so you can always find them there…
Poetry Writing Exercises 076: Monday 22nd April
Here are your four poetry exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: brown, government, sweet, brothers, question
- Random: A white line
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Monologue Monday: Write a first-person poem about a trip to a new country
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what it says on the tin. You can use it at the beginning of the poem or include it later, and being poetry it doesn’t have to be exact – just be inspired by it.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the poem but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- Single-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = an object, a location, a colour.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Title = The title for your piece.
- Haiku poem= 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
*
Story Writing Exercises 080: Monday 22nd April
Here are your four story exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: impervious, position, check, burn, quick
- Random: His/her partner’s a clone of his/her mother/father
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Monday Monologue: your character is about to propose
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what they say on the tin. You can start the beginning of the story with them or a later sentence but they’re a great way of kicking off.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the story but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- One-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = two characters, an object, a location, a dilemma, a trait. Mix them all together and you have a plot… hopefully.
- First person piece or monologue (a one-sided conversation).
- Dialogue only = this is where you literally just write a conversation between two people. No ‘he said’, ‘she said’ or description, just speech and the reader has to be able to keep up. :)
- Second-person = some of you will know that I champion. The prompt can be in any style but has to be written in second-person viewpoint… oh, what a hardship. :)
- Title: This is the title of your story.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
Tips
- Don’t forget your five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell
- Show don’t tell: if your character is angry, don’t tell us he is, have him thumping his fist on the table.
- Colours: Include at least one colour in your story. It does add depth.
- Use strong verbs and avoid adverbs: Have a character striding instead of walking confidently.
- Only use repetition to emphasise.
- When you’ve finished the first draft, read the story out loud. It’s surprising how many ‘mistakes’ leap out at you when you read out loud… assuming you have any of course!
*
Pictures above courtesy of morguefile.com
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: adverbs, author, blog, books, competitions, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, exercises, feedback, fiction, film, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, literature, monologue, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, mystery, novels, pantoum, plays, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, prose, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, science fiction, scripts, scriptwriting, short stories, short story, sonnet, tanka, terza rima, thriller, triolet, tv, villanelle, writer, writing, writing exercises, writing group, writing poetry, writing workshop
Every weekday I post a set of poetry prompts on poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com and a set of story prompts on the script, novel and short story blogs (and poems, script / novel extracts, stories at the weekends). As you’ll see by the headings, you’ve missed a few but they’re listed on the relevant group’s Exercises page so you can always find them there…
Poetry Writing Exercises 075: Friday 19th April
Here are your four poetry exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: break, critical, outrage, cut, living
- Random: an old sixpence
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- One-word prompt: ghost
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what it says on the tin. You can use it at the beginning of the poem or include it later, and being poetry it doesn’t have to be exact – just be inspired by it.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the poem but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- Single-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = an object, a location, a colour.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Title = The title for your piece.
- Haiku poem= 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
Tips
- Don’t forget your five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell
- Show don’t tell: if your character is angry, don’t tell us he is, have him thumping his fist on the table.
- Colours: Include at least one colour in your story. It does add depth.
- Use strong verbs and avoid adverbs: Have a character striding instead of walking confidently.
- Only use repetition to emphasise.
- When you’ve finished the first draft, read the story out loud. It’s surprising how many ‘mistakes’ leap out at you when you read out loud… assuming you have any of course!
*
Story Writing Exercises 079: Friday 19th April
Here are your four story exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: laugh, skip, step, growl, light
- Random: S/he’s obsessed with the colour yellow…
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- One-word prompt: seat
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what they say on the tin. You can start the beginning of the story with them or a later sentence but they’re a great way of kicking off.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the story but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- One-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = two characters, an object, a location, a dilemma, a trait. Mix them all together and you have a plot… hopefully.
- First person piece or monologue (a one-sided conversation).
- Dialogue only = this is where you literally just write a conversation between two people. No ‘he said’, ‘she said’ or description, just speech and the reader has to be able to keep up. :)
- Second-person = some of you will know that I champion. The prompt can be in any style but has to be written in second-person viewpoint… oh, what a hardship. :)
- Title: This is the title of your story.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
Tips
- Don’t forget your five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell
- Show don’t tell: if your character is angry, don’t tell us he is, have him thumping his fist on the table.
- Colours: Include at least one colour in your story. It does add depth.
- Use strong verbs and avoid adverbs: Have a character striding instead of walking confidently.
- Only use repetition to emphasise.
- When you’ve finished the first draft, read the story out loud. It’s surprising how many ‘mistakes’ leap out at you when you read out loud… assuming you have any of course!
*
Pictures above courtesy of morguefile.com
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: adverbs, author, blog, books, competitions, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, exercises, feedback, fiction, film, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, literature, monologue, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, mystery, novels, pantoum, plays, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, prose, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, science fiction, scripts, scriptwriting, short stories, short story, sonnet, tanka, terza rima, thriller, triolet, tv, villanelle, writer, writing, writing exercises, writing group, writing poetry, writing workshop
Every weekday I post a set of poetry prompts on poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com and a set of story prompts on the script, novel and short story blogs (and poems, script / novel extracts, stories at the weekends). As you’ll see by the headings, you’ve missed a few but they’re listed on the relevant group’s Exercises page so you can always find them there…
Poetry Writing Exercises 074: Thursday 18th April
Here are your four poetry exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: bone, bore, bunk, budge, bend
- Random: Michael’s started crying
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Thursday Title: Rare and True
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what it says on the tin. You can use it at the beginning of the poem or include it later, and being poetry it doesn’t have to be exact – just be inspired by it.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the poem but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- Single-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = an object, a location, a colour.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Title = The title for your piece.
- Haiku poem= 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
Tips
- Don’t forget your five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell
- Show don’t tell: if your character is angry, don’t tell us he is, have him thumping his fist on the table.
- Colours: Include at least one colour in your story. It does add depth.
- Use strong verbs and avoid adverbs: Have a character striding instead of walking confidently.
- Only use repetition to emphasise.
- When you’ve finished the first draft, read the story out loud. It’s surprising how many ‘mistakes’ leap out at you when you read out loud… assuming you have any of course!
*
Story Writing Exercises 078: Thursday 18th April
Here are your four story exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: determined, ostentatious, notorious, alert, clock
- Random:S/he’s wearing head/earphones to avoid…
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Mixed bag: student (character 1), pilot (ch.2), bunch of primroses (object), café (location), stutter (trait), can’t speak each others’ language (dilemma)
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what they say on the tin. You can start the beginning of the story with them or a later sentence but they’re a great way of kicking off.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the story but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- One-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = two characters, an object, a location, a dilemma, a trait. Mix them all together and you have a plot… hopefully.
- First person piece or monologue (a one-sided conversation).
- Dialogue only = this is where you literally just write a conversation between two people. No ‘he said’, ‘she said’ or description, just speech and the reader has to be able to keep up. :)
- Second-person = some of you will know that I champion. The prompt can be in any style but has to be written in second-person viewpoint… oh, what a hardship. :)
- Title: This is the title of your story.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
Tips
- Don’t forget your five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell
- Show don’t tell: if your character is angry, don’t tell us he is, have him thumping his fist on the table.
- Colours: Include at least one colour in your story. It does add depth.
- Use strong verbs and avoid adverbs: Have a character striding instead of walking confidently.
- Only use repetition to emphasise.
- When you’ve finished the first draft, read the story out loud. It’s surprising how many ‘mistakes’ leap out at you when you read out loud… assuming you have any of course!
*
Pictures above courtesy of morguefile.com
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: adverbs, author, blog, books, competitions, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, exercises, feedback, fiction, film, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, literature, monologue, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, mystery, novels, pantoum, plays, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, prose, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, science fiction, scripts, scriptwriting, short stories, short story, sonnet, tanka, terza rima, thriller, triolet, tv, villanelle, writer, writing, writing exercises, writing group, writing poetry, writing workshop
Every weekday I post a set of poetry prompts on poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com and a set of story prompts on the script, novel and short story blogs (and poems, script / novel extracts, stories at the weekends). As you’ll see by the headings, you’ve missed a few but they’re listed on the relevant group’s Exercises page so you can always find them there…
Poetry Writing Exercises 073: Wednesday 17th April
Here are your four poetry exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: fail, trivia, master, touch, right
- Random: Old-fashioned party
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Sentence start: As it lay alone…
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what it says on the tin. You can use it at the beginning of the poem or include it later, and being poetry it doesn’t have to be exact – just be inspired by it.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the poem but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- Single-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = an object, a location, a colour.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Title = The title for your piece.
- Haiku poem= 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
*
Story Writing Exercises 077: Wednesday 17th April
Here are your four story exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: pale, dust, glass, sleep, old
- Random: S/he’s unwrapping a birthday present
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Sentence start: Sarah had always planned to…
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what they say on the tin. You can start the beginning of the story with them or a later sentence but they’re a great way of kicking off.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the story but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- One-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = two characters, an object, a location, a dilemma, a trait. Mix them all together and you have a plot… hopefully.
- First person piece or monologue (a one-sided conversation).
- Dialogue only = this is where you literally just write a conversation between two people. No ‘he said’, ‘she said’ or description, just speech and the reader has to be able to keep up. :)
- Second-person = some of you will know that I champion. The prompt can be in any style but has to be written in second-person viewpoint… oh, what a hardship. :)
- Title: This is the title of your story.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
Tips
- Don’t forget your five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell
- Show don’t tell: if your character is angry, don’t tell us he is, have him thumping his fist on the table.
- Colours: Include at least one colour in your story. It does add depth.
- Use strong verbs and avoid adverbs: Have a character striding instead of walking confidently.
- Only use repetition to emphasise.
- When you’ve finished the first draft, read the story out loud. It’s surprising how many ‘mistakes’ leap out at you when you read out loud… assuming you have any of course!
*
Pictures above courtesy of morguefile.com
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: adverbs, author, blog, books, competitions, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, exercises, feedback, fiction, film, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, literature, monologue, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, mystery, novels, pantoum, plays, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, prose, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, science fiction, scripts, scriptwriting, short stories, short story, sonnet, tanka, terza rima, thriller, triolet, tv, villanelle, writer, writing, writing exercises, writing group, writing poetry, writing workshop
Every weekday I post a set of poetry prompts on poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com and a set of story prompts on the script, novel and short story blogs (and poems, script / novel extracts, stories at the weekends). As you’ll see by the headings, you’ve missed a few but they’re listed on the relevant group’s Exercises page so you can always find them there…
Poetry Writing Exercises 072: Tuesday 16th April
Here are your four poetry exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: walk, face, crack, fall, spend
- Random: Sarah is sitting in the middle of the road
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Tuesday Title: Tim’s Top Ten
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what it says on the tin. You can use it at the beginning of the poem or include it later, and being poetry it doesn’t have to be exact – just be inspired by it.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the poem but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- Single-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = an object, a location, a colour.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Title = The title for your piece.
- Haiku poem= 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
*
Story Writing Exercises 076: Tuesday 16th April
Here are your four story exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords:
diocese, anthropologist, judge, drum, parliament
- Random: Two characters liking the same thing until…
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Tuesday Title: In charge
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what they say on the tin. You can start the beginning of the story with them or a later sentence but they’re a great way of kicking off.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the story but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- One-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = two characters, an object, a location, a dilemma, a trait. Mix them all together and you have a plot… hopefully.
- First person piece or monologue (a one-sided conversation).
- Dialogue only = this is where you literally just write a conversation between two people. No ‘he said’, ‘she said’ or description, just speech and the reader has to be able to keep up. :)
- Second-person = some of you will know that I champion. The prompt can be in any style but has to be written in second-person viewpoint… oh, what a hardship. :)
- Title: This is the title of your story.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
Tips
- Don’t forget your five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell
- Show don’t tell: if your character is angry, don’t tell us he is, have him thumping his fist on the table.
- Colours: Include at least one colour in your story. It does add depth.
- Use strong verbs and avoid adverbs: Have a character striding instead of walking confidently.
- Only use repetition to emphasise.
- When you’ve finished the first draft, read the story out loud. It’s surprising how many ‘mistakes’ leap out at you when you read out loud… assuming you have any of course!
*
Pictures above courtesy of morguefile.com
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: adverbs, author, blog, books, competitions, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, exercises, feedback, fiction, film, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, literature, monologue, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, mystery, novels, pantoum, plays, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, prose, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, science fiction, scripts, scriptwriting, short stories, short story, sonnet, tanka, terza rima, thriller, triolet, tv, villanelle, writer, writing, writing exercises, writing group, writing poetry, writing workshop
Every weekday I post a set of poetry prompts on poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com and a set of story prompts on the script, novel and short story blogs (and poems, script / novel extracts, stories at the weekends). As you’ll see by the headings, you’ve missed a few but they’re listed on the relevant group’s Exercises page so you can always find them there…
Poetry Writing Exercises 071: Monday 15th April
Here are your four poetry exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: dirt, swerve, memory, drive, bed
- Random: Scared and in a hurry
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Monologue Monday: Write a first-person poem about an old friend
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what it says on the tin. You can use it at the beginning of the poem or include it later, and being poetry it doesn’t have to be exact – just be inspired by it.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the poem but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- Single-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = an object, a location, a colour.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Title = The title for your piece.
- Haiku poem= 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
*
Story Writing Exercises 075: Monday 15th April
Here are your four story exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes for each one, then either have a break or move on to the next one.
You can do them in any order.
- Keywords: sublime, anarchy, glasses, business card, headsets
- Random: She’s a self-defence teacher
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Monday Monologue: your character is meditating
Have fun, and do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on!
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what they say on the tin. You can start the beginning of the story with them or a later sentence but they’re a great way of kicking off.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the story but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- One-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = two characters, an object, a location, a dilemma, a trait. Mix them all together and you have a plot… hopefully.
- First person piece or monologue (a one-sided conversation).
- Dialogue only = this is where you literally just write a conversation between two people. No ‘he said’, ‘she said’ or description, just speech and the reader has to be able to keep up. :)
- Second-person = some of you will know that I champion. The prompt can be in any style but has to be written in second-person viewpoint… oh, what a hardship. :)
- Title: This is the title of your story.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
Tips
- Don’t forget your five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell
- Show don’t tell: if your character is angry, don’t tell us he is, have him thumping his fist on the table.
- Colours: Include at least one colour in your story. It does add depth.
- Use strong verbs and avoid adverbs: Have a character striding instead of walking confidently.
- Only use repetition to emphasise.
- When you’ve finished the first draft, read the story out loud. It’s surprising how many ‘mistakes’ leap out at you when you read out loud… assuming you have any of course!
*
Pictures above courtesy of morguefile.com
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or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: author, blog, books, competitions, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, exercises, feedback, fiction, film, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, mystery, novels, pantoum, plays, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, prose, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, science fiction, scripts, scriptwriting, short stories, short story, sonnet, tanka, terza rima, thriller, triolet, tv, villanelle, writer, writing, writing exercises, writing group, writing poetry, writing workshop
Welcome to the six hundred and seventh of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with thriller author Ethan Jones. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.
Morgen: Hello, Ethan. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.
Ethan: I have always liked to read and I tried my hand at writing when I was 13-14. I would read a story or watch a movie and then go to write how I wanted the story or the movie to continue. Then life happened. After finishing law school, I also continued my graduate studies and got a Master of Laws degree. As a part of my degree, I had to write a 150-page thesis. The process of research, writing, rewriting and editing inspired me to return to my childhood passion. I was blessed with time and I learned things as I wrote.
I live in Canada with my wife and my son.
Morgen: Oh yes, I know all about life happening. I left my job March 2012 and have got one novel online since then (I have another four written, they just need the dreaded editing). The time goes so quickly, it’s crazy. We (time) and I used to be good friends – I’m hoping we rekindle our friendship this year. 
What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?
Ethan: I love spy thrillers and suspense stories and I like to write about things I love. Besides spy thriller, I’ve started to work on a murder mystery set in the US, called A Complicated Justice. A Court of Appeals judge goes missing and the detectives are trying to find him, the reasons why he has disappeared and the whole truth.
Morgen: That sounds great. Do let me know when that’s available. What have you had published to-date?
Ethan: My debut spy thriller, Arctic Wargame, was released on Amazon.com on May 22, 2012 as an eBook and paperback. At the same time, I released two short stories: Carved in Memory––which is a prequel to Arctic Wargame and explains an important aspect of Justin’s background–– and The Last Confession––about a dying NY mobster confession to his priest. Most recently Tripoli’s Target, which is the second book in Justin Hall series. This time, Justin and his partner, Carrie O’Connor, return to North Africa to meet with one of the masterminds of a terrorist network. The man in question has promised them high-value intelligence, related to an assassination plot against the US President during her visit to a G-20 summit in Tripoli, Libya. The US Secret Service is informed about this plot, and they take all necessary measures to protect the President. However, new intelligence points at a large flaw in Justin’s and Carrie’s plan. They must now scramble to avoid the disaster. Tripoli’s Target was released in fall 2012.
Morgen: Which have been 5am Flashes free eBooks a few times (and I have them, thank you). You’ve self-published, what lead to you going your own way?
Ethan: I shopped my two novels, Arctic Wargame and Tripoli’s Target (out in fall 2012), to a few hundred agents and publishers over the course of 2009-2011. I received some great feedback. A few agents asked for a partial manuscript and two or three for a full. But no one was willing to make an offer or sign a contract. In the meantime, I kept writing. I had not considered self-publishing because it seemed like a lot of work and I had truly hoped an agency or a publisher would pick up my works. Upon the suggestion of a good friend, I dusted off my first novel, Arctic Wargame. I found three great beta readers, all published writers, and we took a new stab at my gibberish. Then I worked with two great editors and proof-readers, to create the best possible work.
Morgen: A “few hundred agents”? Wow, that’s determination. I stopped at just after a dozen, because I could see how simple it was (once you got the hang of it) to eBook. Are all your books available as eBooks? How involved were you in that process? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: advice, agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, biographers, biography, books, characters, children’s, creative writing, crime, critique, erotic romance, erotica, Ethan Jones, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, fiction, flash fiction, free eBook, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, interview, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mystery, mystery series, negative criticism, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, paranormal, paranormal romances, pinterest, poetry, poetry collections, publisher, rejection letters, rejections, romance, science fiction, screenwriting, scriptwriting, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, spotlight, spy, spy thriller, story author, story authors, story writer, submissions, thriller, thriller author, tips, Twitter, vampire, western, Wordpress, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing group, writing magazines, YA, youtube
What is the line that separates good and evil, coincidence and providence, delusion and reality? This question is confronted by G.T. Rigdon, author of morally engaged fiction, provocative stories for curious minds. His book High Striker will be available for FREE on Kindle during 27th to 29th December 2012.
High Striker synopsis:
In 2018, Dr. Amos Konklin, a renowned neurosurgeon dubbed “Doctor Golden Hands,” is arrested for a grisly double-homicide at the Old Wilderness Campground. During a mesmerizing interview with reporter Peter Wild, Dr. Konklin reveals a shocking secret. For decades he’s wrapped those golden hands around a twelve pound sledge-hammer, his instrument of choice in numerous executions. As the reporter probes deeper, he is lead into a world where a brain surgeon who spent his childhood running the “High Striker” carnival sideshow game is connected to Isaac Newton, Nikola Tesla, The Bible, and tormenting visions. High Striker is an unparalleled Old Testament / Carnivale thriller whose central character could be described as a God-obsessed fusion of Hannibal Lecter, Dexter Morgan, and a carny. It’s a remarkable journey through time and place, a saga of the Konklin family spanning generations, exploring religious, intellectual, and philosophical perspectives of the human condition. Ultimately, it dares to confront the challenging question: What is the line that separates good and evil, coincidence and providence, delusion and reality?
Available from Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/High-Striker-ebook/dp/B008YPL8AO and Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/High-Striker-ebook/dp/B008YPL8AO
For more information visit www.gtrigdon.com
G.T. Rigdon is an engineer, an ex-minister, and a writer of morally engaged fiction, provocative stories for curious minds.
***
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: Amazon, books, Dexter Morgan, ebooks, free eBook, G.T. Rigdon, good and evil, Hannibal Lecter, Isaac Newton, Konklin, literature, Nikola Tesla, promotion, The Bible, thriller, writing
Tonight’s guest blog post, on the topic of getting your facts right is brought to you by crime novelist Neil Yuzuk who brought us Getting it right (part 1) and Getting it right (part 2) in October and November respectively.
Getting It Right (part 3 of 3)
How to get your facts straight?
RESEARCH – PEOPLE – RESEARCH – PEOPLE – RESEARCH – PEOPLE
Here’s another way to get information—talk to people. They love to share information and I promise to use their names in the books—they love it and they’re a great resource.
I met “Phil the Armenian” when we were waiting to be served at the deli counter and we got to talking. Phil is a Teamster. In my third book, “Beachside PD: Undercover,” Danny is going undercover as truck driver. Phil offered to help me and I told him that I would write him in as a character in the book, as Phil “the Armenian” O’Brien (Armenian mother and Irish father)—He loved it.
I needed “behind the scenes” information on TV broadcasting, so I called a former student, Basche Warner, who works as a cameraman/producer and we met for pizza. He brought along a friend of his, Jack Shipley, who is also in the industry and they briefed me for two hours on procedures and equipment. I ended up using just a bit, but I have it if I ever need it. They’re in the book as a combined character, Basche Shipley.
We have all of these people in our lives and in exchange for using their names as characters, they are more than willing to help. And, if you don’t know a cop or a truck driver, ask your friends. Two fellow authors helped me and now I have a police secretary named Morgen Dingli in my books. Morgen did a beautiful podcast of a short story I wrote and Ms. Dingli has been generous with her writing advice.
In “Beachside PD: Undercover,” Danny was shot. I brought that chapter along on a physician visit. My Internist read it and suggested inserting a chest tube for Danny’s collapsed lung. For the description of Danny in his post-surgical ICU bed, I turned to another former student who is a Nurse Practitioner and she helped me brush up the scene.
People love to tell their stories. I just received an email from my son’s lieutenant that he has more cases for my next visit. In “The Gypsy Hunter” I gave a big plug to his wife’s charity, Bit-By-Bittherapy.com. It’s an organization that uses horses to help people with special needs; their “Horses For Heroes” is for military veterans & their families. I used it to rehab a Seminole coed whose sister was murdered.
I met author K.B. Schaller (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0TkzdG2bbI) on LinkedIn and she was very generous in helping me be accurate when it came to the Seminole Tribe and its culture. She’s also helped me create a Seminole thread in the new book. In return, my son David designed a video trailer for her.
We are and can be resources for each other, the key is to keep it within reason.
There are real cases in the news all the time—use them. Learn about forensics, it’s a great case solver, often in unique ways.
Use the real detective TV programs to inspire your stories. I said “inspire” and not “copy.” On one program, there was an interesting case that was solved by finding a wristwatch at the crime scene. I liked the concept and took it several steps further, so in the end, I had an important sequence of forensic evidence to solve the case.
A warning about forensics, they are fallible. So much depends on how it’s gathered and how it’s interpreted. For example, a man was arrested for an act of terrorism where hundreds were killed, because his fingerprint was found at the scene in Spain. However, he was five thousand miles away in Colorado when it happened . . . and, he’d never been to Spain—never, ever.
If you’re writing about Bobbies and Blaggers—talk to the constables you might encounter during your day. Stopped for speeding? Try, “Officer, I’m so glad you pulled me over. I’m writing a book about police procedures and I was wondering if you could take the time to give me some tips on what Road Patrol officers look for, and what are the proper stop procedures.”
If that doesn’t work, ask to be arrested so you can see the inside of the stationhouse and experience arrest procedures first hand.
If this has helped, then Bob’s your uncle. If I can ever be of help, please let me know.
Oh wow! I’m in a novel… I’m famous. What can I say? (usually a lot)… thank you, Neil.
Neil L. Yuzuk (pictured right with son David) was born in Brooklyn, New York. Now retired after twenty-two years, as a SPARK Substance Abuse Prevention Counselor, he wrote Beachside PD: The Reluctant Knight, after collaborating with his police officer son on a screenplay of the same name. The book was a finalist in the Global eBook Awards in the category of suspense / thriller.
The second book in the series is Beachside PD: The Gypsy Hunter and third book is entitled Beachside PD: Undercover. He has also written a screenplay: Fade To Light. Another book, Zaragossa: Fruit of the Vine is in the works.
Neil and his co-author son David are the authors of the Beachside PD series and their website is http://www.BeachsidePDBooks.com. You can also watch their video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20e_i39GaQA and their print and eBooks are available at Amazon.com.
If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. If it’s writing-related then it’s highly likely I’d email back and say “yes please”.
The blog interviews return as normal tomorrow morning with memoirist, poet and fiction author Barbara Morrison – the five hundred and eight-sixth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words (and post stories of up to 3,000 words). Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: action, crime, David Yuzuk, Foyle's War, Global eBook Awards, Law and Order, Lewis, Luther, Morse, mystery, Neil Yuzuk, New Tricks, novelist, novels, romance, Schindler’s List, screenplay, suspense, thriller, Touching Evil
Welcome to the five hundred and seventy-fifth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with crime thriller author Rick Reed. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.
Morgen: Hello, Rick. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.
Rick: I didn’t start out to be a writer like most authors that I know, but I have always been a voracious reader. In 1999, while living in a cramped apartment, working third shift as a police detective, newly divorced and trying to find ways to burn off the stress, I discovered that I enjoyed making up police stories.
Since I never expected to find an agent, much less a publisher, I started an underground police department newspaper. It was short and crude and was written as a celebrity roast. The celebrities were whatever unlucky police officer, or politician, I had in my sights for some mischievous—not malicious—fun. The paper was called The Monkey Boy Gazette, and there was an issue every month for ten years before my identity was discovered. My first amendment right to free speech was honoured, but there are subtle ways to punish transgressors and I was finally unable to continue the paper.
Before that happened though, I had a circulation of about one thousand readers, including the entire police department, city government, and local FBI. After I was put out of the underground press business, I was told that my stories were being mailed all over the country to other law enforcement agencies, including the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. My paper had become a collector’s item, and the victims of the stories were framing them and hanging them in their offices and homes.
Morgen: It’s great having the experience so you really can write what you know because it’s writers like myself who love writing crime but are never sure if the ‘facts’ are right. You could become a crime writers’ consultant. What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, biographers, biography, books, characters, children’s, craft of writing, creative writing, crime, crime writer, critique, Detective Jack Murphy, erotic romance, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, fiction, flash fiction, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, Hamish Macbeth, historical, interview, Joseph Weldon Brown, Kensington, Kensington Books, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, M.C. Beaton, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mystery, mystery, mystery series, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, paranormal, paranormal romances, pinterest, poetry, poetry collections, publisher, rejection letters, rejections, Rick Reed, romance, science fiction, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, series, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, story author, story authors, story writer, submissions, The Monkey Boy Gazette, thriller, true crime, Twitter, vampire, western, Wordpress, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing group, writing magazines, YA, youtube
Complementing my daily blog interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the one hundred and fortieth, is of Jack Brody.
Jack Brody is a writer, ex-military, and an avid traveler. After his Army stint and then deciding to pass on law school, he went to film school, wrote screenplays, and held a number of jobs which ran from everything to working for a newspaper for one day, to film production, to then going into real estate (with at least five others along the way). He’s fascinated by history, politics, and architecture, all of which play a part in his novels (yes, he already has two more in the works).
When not writing, he can often be found hiking with his two faithful dogs, occasionally breaking out the old BMW bike for a ride though the mountains, or playing volleyball or bar trivia with his friends. He divides his time between his home in the Southern Appalachians and wherever his passport will take him. After reading Jon Krakauer’s bestselling ‘Under the Banner of Heaven’, he was inspired to undertake a full year of research in preparation for the novel. Taking what he’d learned, along with a bit of imagination, the result was the conspiracy thriller, The Moroni Deception.
And now from the author himself:
I’d written screenplays for a number of years, and had made several half-hearted attempts at a novel before, but not only was it so different, but it was so much harder I found than writing a screenplay, so I had tended to give up pretty easily.
I did, well, I won’t say “tons”, but literally pounds of research, from all the books I went through, notes that I took, and reams that I printed off from my internet research. While I had some idea in the beginning of what my story would be–which at the time, started out having to do with a rogue FBI agent who was investigating the murder of his Mormon girlfriend who had broken away from one of the LDS’s radical fundamentalist offshoots. As you can see after reading it, it’s changed quite a bit from that.
I then probably took close to a year of doing nothing but researching and taking notes, mostly of what seemed like fascinating items to further explore and perhaps later work into the story. As far as “The White Horse Prophecy” goes, I wish I could take credit, but Joseph Smith supposedly first came up with that in the 1840s. There’s actually a pretty good Wikipedia entry on the prophecy that gives a basic explanation. Mr. Romney has mostly dodged the question when asked about it, but I think back when he was running the first time, he said something along the lines that he considered the Prophecy to be a matter of “speculation and discussion by church members” and “not official church doctrine”.
If I could condense all the time I spent, doing both the research and the writing, it would probably be about two-and-a-half years. However, and unfortunately for me, that’s not the way things work, especially when we’re not only living out our lives, but trying to put bread on the table with our day job. So the true time it took stretched out to almost five-and-a-half years. I started it more than a year prior to the election of 2008, which is how I remember.
When I read about how a guy like Dan Brown gets up every morning at 4:30 or some ridiculous hour, does an hour of exercise, and then sits down to write for four to five straight hours, or 10 to 15 full pages, I’m both impressed and amazed. My writing time has always generally been limited by how much energy–both physical and creative–that I had left at the end of a working day. I often found myself not beginning my writing until 11 at night, and then writing until 1 or sometimes 2 AM. And that, again, was not every night. I also had a very real case of “writer’s block” for about a year where no matter what I did or how hard I tried, I couldn’t get anything substantial down on the page. I even went to a hypnotist, which didn’t do a lot, and I almost gave up. Also during this time period, I had to deal with a heart attack at a relatively early age, which came completely out of the blue, and then after that, the year-and-a-half long battle a best friend of mine had to endure in his losing fight with cancer.
For The Moroni Deception, I started out with a completely different story. I don’t even quite remember where along the way my protagonist turned into an investigative journalist, other than that I thought I wanted to create a character who solved his problems more with his brains than with what he was packing, which seemed to be so often the case with a lot of adventure / thriller protagonists I was reading at the time. With The Moroni Deception, which I think is fairly intricately plotted, a lot of the little details that I think made it that much better, came out along the way. I, of course, had a general plot outline in my head, and then down on paper. And then when something else would pop into my head, I would see first if it worked, second, if it actually made the story better, and then if it would work into the overall conspiracy. The lead conspirators / villains I didn’t settle on until probably two thirds of the way through that I was working on the book. But when I finally did settle on this person or persons who shall remain nameless, that’s when I then went back and made little subtle changes starting from the beginning.
Wow, what a life and how interesting to hear about the way you write. Thank you, Jack.
You can find more about Jack and his writing via…
Jack’s website: http://www.themoronideception.com where you can read the first chapters.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0093CDLSE
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-moroni-deception-jack-l-brody/1112755708
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The blog interviews will return as normal tomorrow with murder mystery novelist Peter Bradbury – the five hundred and sixty-sixth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running but donating and choose a free eBook.
Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them) on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are fortnightly episodes, usually released on Sundays, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: avid traveler, conspiracy thriller, Dan Brown, ex-military, FBI, Jack Brody, Jon Krakauer, Joseph Smith, LDS, novel, Southern Appalachians, thriller, writer
Tonight’s guest blog post, on the topic of getting your facts right is brought to you by crime novelist Neil Yuzuk who brought us Part 1 in October.
Getting It Right (part 2 of 3)
How to get your facts straight?
RESEARCH – GOOGLE – RESEARCH – GOOGLE – RESEARCH – GOOGLE
Even though I have police at my fingertips, eager to share their information and stories with me, I can’t bother them for every little thing. And sometimes I find things they didn’t know. I needed a revolver with a silencer, so there wouldn’t be any spent shells at the crime scene. I was told there are no revolvers with silencers—there are. I also needed information about automatic weapons and a sniper rifle and sight.
I found, through Google, an arms dealer who sold surplus Israeli weapons. They were perfect for Beachside PD’s new SWAT team. The arms dealer was more than happy to give me the information I needed and he described a revolver that took a silencer. His name? I only know him by “Double Tapper.” A double tap is killing someone with a .22 caliber pistol—two shots to the back of the head. The bullets rarely exit, they just bounce around inside the skull turning the brain into . . . you get the picture. I used the gun he suggested, a Smith & Wesson Combat Model 18, .22 LR revolver, in an assassination: ‘In one quick move, the gun was put behind Smithers’ ear, the hammer cocked, the trigger pulled once, twice and the sound of the two shots were reduced to pfft – pfft by the silencer. Smithers’ body spasmed briefly and then he was dead.’
I needed a second silenced pistol. More research took me from Google to YouTube and led me to the Nagant M-1895 revolver. It is an elegant weapon and was used widely by the Soviets during World War 2. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, it began to show up in the U.S. It worked perfectly in a murder attempt and was easily traced because of its unusual bullet shape . . . the sound of its firing mechanism—it sounds like a toy pistol without the bang. It totally muffles the explosion, but not the mechanism’s, click – click.
When I needed information about vineyards and wines—a subject I know nothing about—Google. But when I say Google, I mean spend long periods researching. Don’t go with the first thing you find. I contacted several vineyards who were more than willing to help and I also watched several TV programs on vineyards.
Here’s another bit of help. The only reason why I was able to get the Gypsy crime cases and stories for “Beachside PD: The Gypsy Hunter” was that I researched Gypsies before we met. When I told him that I knew where Gypsies originated, he folded his arms and gave me the, “I can’t wait to hear this piece of nonsense” look. I blew him away with the correct answer. After he picked his jaw up, he said, ”You are the first non-Gypsy I’ve met in almost twenty years, who knew that.” I won his respect by doing my research.
Do you know where the Gypsy people originated? Research it anyway, as you’re most probably wrong. In addition to the information he gave me, I continued research on Google re culture and customs, took two books out of the library and bought two more on-line at Amazon. My research lent authenticity to what I wrote. Here is a meeting between my Gypsy hunter and the hunted Gypsy’s father. The parenthetical remarks are not in the book, but for your information. ‘I was sitting in a back booth drinking iced tea when he came in. He spotted me and walked over a bit slower than usual. I offered him tea, and he asked for it in a disposable plastic cup. To use utensils that had been used by gadje (non-Gypsies) was marimé (a multi-use word, used here as forbidden). The Rom (Gypsies) consider the gadje as unclean and diseased. They had a lot of rules about cleanliness, but the disposable plastic cup and straw was kosher to his way of thinking—although, he was drinking tea with a gadjo (non-Gypsy).’
In “The Gypsy Hunter” I used photos of Gypsies (Google) when I needed to physically describe certain Gypsy characters. I also used an actual Renaissance Faire that is in Fort Lauderdale for a crime scene. I downloaded (Google) the map of the actual Faire grounds and was able to use it as a guide when I described the search for a missing Seminole Indian coed.
If the book reads authentic and believable, it comes from a lot of research.
GETTING IT RIGHT (the conclusion), out next month, will discuss how to use people in your research.
Thank you, Neil.
Neil L. Yuzuk was born in Brooklyn, New York. Now retired after twenty-two years, as a SPARK Substance Abuse Prevention Counselor, he wrote Beachside PD: The Reluctant Knight, after collaborating with his police officer son on a screenplay of the same name. The book was a finalist in the Global eBook Awards in the category of suspense / thriller.
The second book in the series is Beachside PD: The Gypsy Hunter and third book is entitled Beachside PD: Undercover. He has also written a screenplay: Fade To Light. Another book, Zaragossa: Fruit of the Vine is in the works. Neil and his co-author son David are the authors of the Beachside PD series and their website is http://www.BeachsidePDBooks.com.
You can also watch their video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20e_i39GaQA and their print and eBooks are available at Amazon.com.
Since Neil sent this guest piece to me, I learned that he and his family were badly affected by Hurricane Sandy and I understand they’re now staying with friends. We wish you well, Neil.
***
If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. If it’s writing-related then it’s highly likely I’d email back and say “yes please”.
The blog interviews return as normal tomorrow morning with biographer Gearoid O’Dowd – the five hundred and forty-sixth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books and I also have a blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.
Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them) on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are fortnightly episodes, usually released on Sundays, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: action, crime, David Yuzuk, Foyle's War, Global eBook Awards, Law and Order, Lewis, Luther, Morse, mystery, Neil Yuzuk, New Tricks, novelist, novels, romance, Schindler’s List, screenplay, suspense, thriller, Touching Evil
Tonight’s guest blog post is brought to you by science-fiction and thriller writer Ian Miller. You can read my interview with Ian here.
Beautiful writing
Somehow, Morgen talked me into writing a blog on “beautiful writing”, and I cannot think why I accepted because I do not consider that I have the answer. To add to the problems, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and everybody has their own idea. According to the Concise Oxford, “beautiful” is something that delights the senses, so I thought while trying to work out where to start, what piece of writing has done that to me the most?
One scene came to mind before all others, a short scene from “War and Peace”, and one that I rather fancy most will have considered padding, the sort of scene the average editor would delete for not moving the story onwards, yet I remember it over 40 years after reading it. It depicts a grain harvest; you sense the swish swish swish of the scythes, the heat, the dust, and the stop for refreshments. Why would that make an impression? Because I had worked in grain fields (admittedly with combine harvesters) and I know how to use a scythe. To make an impression, I think you have to be able to get the reader into the scene and in Tolstoy’s time, peasants harvesting grain would be something most people could relate to. Of course you also need skill, and Tolstoy was a master.
If the scene is supposed to delight the senses, I think it has to be essentially static. However, if you keep writing static scenes, the book goes nowhere, which is why editors love to delete static scenes. We can now see why Tolstoy put in such a scene: you cannot remain at a climax for extended periods of time. To have a second climax, you have to come down from the first and have a period that is relatively tension-free, which is at least one correct place for a “beautiful scene”.
How to write it is more difficult. One critical point, in my opinion, is to have a clear rhythm. The objective is to get a favourable emotional response from the reader, and an awkward sentence construction merely distracts the reader. I also favour repetition. I know! Editors hate repetition, but in any art, all rules can be broken if you know what you are doing. As an example, in music harmony classes, parallel fifths are regarded as the most heinous crime, and signs of gross incompetence. Yet if you play enough Haydn sonatas, sooner or later you will find them. The difference is, of course, that Haydn was a master and knew exactly what he was doing, and why. The same with writing rules. If you know why you are doing something, and it gives the effect you want, then there is no reason not to do it. There are undoubtedly a number of further points. From a personal point of view, I prefer not to have a plethora of adjectives; for me, “beautiful writing” comes from the way it is presented, not from a long-winded description of something beautiful. “Clever” words should perhaps be avoided, because you are trying to carry the reader with you, to draw out an emotional response, and that will be spoiled by visits to the dictionary to find out what is actually being said, and by polysyllabic words that interrupt the rhythm. Finally, the best way is probably for the author to feel the scene, to insert him/herself into it. If the author can be lost in the scene that is intended to be beautiful, it will either be beautiful, or an outright disaster. The latter option is part of the reason you might need careful editing some time later.
I did indeed ask Ian to write this piece. You see folks, he made the ‘mistake’ (which others have made ) on one of the blog posts’ comments of saying “someone should write a blog post about…” so I threw down the gauntlet, as the saying goes… well, not threw down but dropped elegantly… and very well accepted I would say. Thank you, Ian!
Ian Miller was born in 1942 and studied chemistry at the University of Canterbury (BSc Hons 1, PhD) followed by post-docs at Calgary, Southampton and Armidale. He then returned to New Zealand to work at Chemistry Division, DSIR, on recycling, biofuels and seaweed research.
In 1986 he set up his own research company to support the private half of a joint venture to make pyromellitates, the basis of high temperature resistant plastics, which, with an associated seaweed processing venture, collapsed during the late 1980s financial crisis.
In his scientific career he has written about 100 peer reviewed scientific papers and about 35 other articles and was on the Editorial Board of Botanica Marina between about 1998-2008. Early in this century he had a provisional agreement with a major publisher to write a book on how to form theories. This took a lot longer than expected, the publisher lost interest, however he completed the first part of the project and the first ebook in the series entitled “Elements of Theory” was self-published last year. The second, Troubles, about planetary formation and the origin of life, has just been released.
During his first year at University, following an argument with some Arts students, he was challenged to write a fictional book. Following two rejections, this was abandoned, but subsequently, as he began to get some television exposure while trying to promote the pyromellitates venture, Gemina was self-published, only to find as a condition of finance that all publicity for it was forbidden. It was somewhat difficult to sell books without any promotion.
Following the collapse of the pyromellitates venture, he returned to writing fiction, using both his scientific and business experience to write “science in fiction” thrillers, a type of “future history”. This series starts with Puppeteer, set in the near future when both oil and resources are in short supply, when government debts leads to the inability of governments to govern properly and when corruption is widespread. In Puppeteer, one man threatens to detonate three nuclear bombs to get revenge of corrupt officials who have ruined his life, while two others alone can stop him. Further details can be found at www.ianmiller.co.nz.
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If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. If it’s writing-related then it’s highly likely I’d email back and say “yes please”.
The blog interviews return as normal tomorrow morning with fantasy and paranormal romance author Berni Stevens – the five hundred and forty-fourth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books and I also have a blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.
Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them) on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are fortnightly episodes, usually released on Sundays, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: author, creative writing, Ian Miller, interview, non-fiction, novelist, novels, pyromellitates, Readstreet, science fiction, thriller, writing
Welcome to the five hundred and fortieth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today welcomes back author and editor Alana Woods (who I interviewed in April about her writing) to talk more about her editing. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.
Morgen: Hello again, Alana. We’ve spoken before but just about your writing and I’d like to delve into the editing side of your life but first could you please remind us about yourself and how you came to be an editor.
Alana: I’ve lived in Canberra, Australia since 1980 except for five years when my husband John and I thought we’d go north to the sun and spent four years on the Sunshine Coast living next to the sea. It was lovely but we missed the kids in Canberra so moved back—after taking a sidestep to the UK for 14 months to be live-in nannies for our eldest daughter’s first child. It was either us or an hour commuter train trip with him every day into London and we won!
My first jobs were as a shorthand typist then a publications typist at a weapons research facility. Next came a five-year stint in court reporting from which I moved into an editing unit for a government department. I was lucky in that the editor in charge was a friend and gave me an interview. Afterwards he told me that although he gave me the interview it was me who won the job. However, I’ve always been grateful for that opportunity.
Morgen: Things happen for a reason and here you are. Is there a format / genre that you generally edit?
Alana: I was an editor in various government departments when I worked full time, so it was exclusively non-fiction on topics as riveting as the working environment and competition and consumer law. I contract edit nowadays but my clientele is still mostly government because that’s where I’m known. But the subject matter is as diverse now as maybe a federal government national initiative one week and the tree population of Canberra the next.
Some years ago a friend asked me to scrutinise her fourth novel and since then I’ve taken on fiction when asked. I don’t tout for business, authors approach me. I’m careful what I take on because editing a novel can be very open-ended time wise, depending on the amount of work they need, and I’m conscious that I need to keep time for my own writing.
Morgen: Absolutely. It’s very easy for everything else to take over. A rather global question, but are there common mistakes an author can make?
Alana: Since publishing my first novel Automaton some years ago I’ve been approached by many, mostly young writers, with requests to critique their work. After looking at quite a few I put together a handout of writing tips covering weaknesses they seemed to have in common. And as they form the basis for my 25 essential writing tips: a guide to writing good fiction for aspiring authors. I won’t give too much away, but in my experience I’ve found that while people are learning the craft they struggle with structure, voice, dialogue and word use.
Morgen: Do take a look at Alana’s book, folks, I’m mentioned in relation second-person point of view. Do editors generally charge by the word or the hour?
Alana: There’s a variety of ways: by the word, by the page, by the hour, a flat fee.
I charge by the hour but the time and cost of the job will be agreed at the negotiation stage.
To be able to quote on a job what I need from the client is the word count, what type of edit they require, and what the document consists of: all text or text with maybe figures, diagrams, charts, referencing etc. The more complicated the document and the higher the level of edit they want affects the time it will take and what I’ll charge.
Morgen: My editor charges per 1,000 words so, like you, we know up front how much it’s going to be. How much notice do you get (would you like / need) for editing a project?
Alana: I’ve done many with no notice at all. If you want the job you’ll do it if you possibly can. If there’s an impossible deadline, clients aren’t interested in negotiating with you over when you think you can fit them in. If you can’t do it immediately they’ll move to the next editor on their list. But if the deadline is discretionary or not pressing and they know and want you, they’re amenable.
If I’m not otherwise booked I prefer rush jobs because scheduled jobs can and often do slip at the client end. I try not to get annoyed when they repeatedly delay but it does get to me because I’m loathe to take on another job in the interim in case they end up clashing.
Morgen: How annoying, although it does sound like you’re busy enough anyway. I’ve heard numerous authors say they can self-publish without an editor – what would you say to that?
Alana: NEVER, EVER, EDIT YOUR OWN WORK. That’s the editor’s mantra. Unfortunately I’ve been known to ignore my own advice, invariably to my cost. I’m like everyone else; I just don’t see all of my own mistakes, omissions etc.
Morgen: We don’t do we, because we’re so close to it. How do you edit – on screen or on paper?
Alana: Government and corporate jobs I tend to do on screen, with tracked changes activated. That’s because you approach them objectively. The content is usually not in question, just its quality. I scan it first to familiarise myself with the subject matter and assess what needs to be done, and I’ll fix typos etc. that I see along the way. The second pass is when I get down to business.
Fiction is quite different; it’s subjective and what’s needed can range from a straight proofread to a very involved assessment and mentor process.
Authors adept at the craft generally just want and need a proofread and those I do on screen. As a rule of thumb an 80,000-word manuscript takes me 40 hours to proofread and I will always go through them twice.
If anything more than a proofread is required I’ll use a combination of screen and paper editing. I’ll do three passes: the first on screen to get to know the story and make notes of things that I need to come back to; the second on paper where I go over the manuscript thoroughly; and the third to input everything into the electronic version (and I’ll scrutinise it again at this stage). I always use tracked changes and comment boxes so the author can see exactly what I’ve done or am querying.
Then there’s the highest level that involves assessment and mentoring, which is what’s involved when authors are still new to the craft and on a steep learning curve. There’s no point trying to say how many times I might go through one of these manuscripts but, again, it includes a combination of screen and paper.
Morgen: You write as well, please remind us about that and does being a writer as well influence your editing at all?
Alana: I’ve published two thrillers (Automaton, Imbroglio), a short story collection (Tapestries and other short stories) and two non-fiction works (Family medical history and 25 essential writing tips: a guide to writing good fiction for aspiring authors). Automaton was my debut novel and won the Wild & Woolley Fast Books Prize for best Australian self-published fiction and went on to become a best seller in Australia. I’m now working on another thriller.
I feel the influence both ways: when editing I very much look at word usage, placement and effect, and when writing I’m doing the same from the editor’s viewpoint of being concise and making the point in the best possible way.
Morgen: The best of both worlds. If someone wanted to become an editor, how would they go about it? Are there qualifications they can gain? Would they need them? Is there much competition to be an editor?
Alana: I’m afraid I’m a very bad adviser here. I’ve been in the game so long I don’t know what’s required at entry point nowadays. I can say that when I was working and wanted to hire editors what was important to me was how well they did in the on-the-spot tests I gave them. That sorted the doers from the tryers. They could talk for hours about what they’d done and show me dozens of jobs they’d worked on, but if they couldn’t edit the couple of pages I gave them to my satisfaction I didn’t hire them.
Morgen: The proof is in the clichéd pudding. What do you think of eBooks? Do you read them or is it paper all the way?
Alana: I love my Kindle; I flew to the UK for two months in the middle of this year and nothing beat loading it up with dozens of books so I didn’t have to agonise about which one book to take to read on the plane and while sitting about at airports. But ever since I can remember I’ve loved books. I was one of those kids that exasperated the life out of their mother because I preferred to be in my bedroom reading than going outside to play. I love holding real books, the smell of them, the feel of them. I love being able to turn the pages.
Morgen: I have an iPad so it feels more like a book as it’s a two-page read but yes, I (and most people I’ve spoken to) wouldn’t give up the ‘proper’ book. How important do you think title / covers are?
Alana: Covers are what first grab the eye so, to me, as with most authors I think, they’re of prime importance. And after that the title has to intrigue, although I’ve been known to pick up, peruse and buy books if I like one or the other.
Morgen: I’m a big titles fan although a good cover is a bonus. What are you working on at the moment / next?
Alana: My next thriller, which has a corporate crime theme. I dearly wanted to finish it this year but what with the contract work I do plus all the self promotion that authors need to do nowadays it’s going a leeetle slower than I’d like.
Morgen: Marketing is usually the answer to “what’s your least favourite aspect of your writing life?” because it’s so time-consuming. Do you work every day? If there is such a thing, do you ever suffer from editor’s block?
Alana: I can go for weeks without a paid editing job, which is when I get stuck in to my own writing in earnest. And no, there’s no such thing as editor’s block, thank goodness. Editing is all very process driven. You know what you have to do and you just work your way through it.
Morgen: Do you have to do much research for your job?
Alana: I wouldn’t call it research, but if you’re doing what is called a substantive edit an editor is expected to check that things like references, quotes and dates are accurate. And you’re expected to be alert for anything that might cause legal, such as copyright, problems. Which is why I did some legal units in my tertiary studies.
Morgen: I mentioned this a moment ago; what’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your editing life? Has anything surprised you?
Alana: Now that I work at home I hate the prospect of jobs before I start them—I’d much prefer to be working on my own stuff or outside doing some digging or something in the garden. But once I start a job I get thoroughly engrossed and hate stopping of an evening when my husband comes in to my office and says ‘Dinner’s ready’. Yes, he’s the cook in the family.
Has anything surprised me? I’ve worked on some important government initiatives and feel I’m a more appreciative citizen for knowing about them. One in particular was an Australia-wide environmental land and water care initiative. Its scope and the number of ordinary Australians involved surprised and heartened me.
Morgen: What advice would you give aspiring writers?
Alana: Oh boy, advice. There are plenty of things they can, should, do. First of all read, read, read and analyse what they like and don’t like about other authors’ work. Then write, write, write and don’t ever stop because that old adage of practice makes perfect is an adage for a reason. Join a writing group and don’t be shy about workshopping their efforts. They need to find their writing voice and hone their skills and that won’t happen if they don’t practice. And buy my 25 essential writing tips: a guide to writing good fiction for aspiring authors.
Morgen: Yes, please do. If you could invite three people from any era to dinner, who would you choose and what would you cook (or hide the takeaway containers)?
Alana: Off the top of my head … Henry VIII as a representative of all the men in history who’ve killed or mistreated their wives for not giving them sons: I’d love them to know the sex of a child was their fault (Oh dear, that sounds like a rant and he probably wouldn’t stay for long). The second would be Cleopatra because I’d love to know what made her so fascinating. And the third would be a world-class editor, say, Pierre-Jules Hetzel, who was Jules Verne’s editor and one of the best of the time. Although he’d probably make me feel very small if he insisted on discussing editing knowledge and experience.
I’d serve lots of wine so they wouldn’t think too much about the food I’m serving. But my chicken risotto and lemon tart usually get the thumbs up.
Morgen: It’s a winner with me. What do you think the future holds for editors?
Alana: I can’t see them becoming an extinct species any time soon, not if the amount of work I’m approached to do is any guide. Then there’s the ever-increasing proliferation of authors. If only half of them wisely decided to employ an editor to proofread their work we’d be inundated!
Morgen: And they should. Where can we find out about you and your work? Do you take enquiries from authors directly?
Alana: I don’t advertise because I have an established clientele and I’m not actively looking for work. If authors want to talk to me about editing their work I’m happy for them to email me. They can contact me via my website http://www.alanawoods.com. If we decide we like each other and want to take it a bit further I’ll work on a short excerpt or the first chapter without charge. If they like the result then we talk turkey because by then I’ll know what level of edit is involved and I can give them a sensible quote and timeframe.
Morgen: Is there anything you would like to add?
Alana: I think I should finish by saying that editors aren’t infallible. We’d like to be, but I’ve yet to meet one who will categorically guarantee that they’ll find 100 per cent of your typos. I’ll go so far as to say I’m comfortable saying I will pick up at least 99.99 per cent and I’ll always give it everything I’ve got to find that other 0.01 per cent.
Morgen: Thank you, Alana.
I then invited Alana to include an extract of her writing…
‘Richards isn’t bothering you?’ He had used Lizzie like a weapon.
They were at the rear of the court building. In the shade. Elisabeth stopped and removed her sunglasses. Judy felt like an interloper. They were less than an arm’s length apart.
‘Don’t worry about him. He doesn’t bother me.’ She put a hand on his shirt, round about where the ribs come together. Judy held her breath. Robert looked down at it, bent an elbow, then returned the hand to his side. ‘It’s been a while since Thierry Richards got under my skin, Robert.’ Again he resisted the urge to flatten the fingers against him. Was she telling him not to worry about Richards, in any capacity? His heart pounded. Her fingers increased their pressure and her eyes softened. ‘Okay?’
The thought that she was still manipulating fell like a torrent over a cliff and she saw his eyes cloud. Withdrawing everything about herself she stepped back, replaced the glasses and left them to come behind.
He was appalled with himself.
***
Alana was born in the UK but is a true blue Aussie in her heart and soul; she absolutely loves the place.
She has been a professional copy editor for most of her career, only taking time out to have children, and has been writing for almost as long—but for some years she says it was the sort of stuff you put in the cupboard because you think no-one would be interested in it.
She became serious after a prod by her husband to either do it properly or stop. Alana says that after a few months of scribbling away furiously he asked whether she had finished, but now he just asks when she’s going to make enough money for him to become a kept man.
***
If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.
If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.
Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).
The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: agent, Alana Woods, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, biographers, biography, books, characters, children’s, creative writing, crime, critique, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, fiction, flash fiction, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, interview, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mystery, mystery series, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, paranormal, paranormal romances, pinterest, poetry, poetry collections, publisher, rejection letters, rejections, research, romance, science fiction, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, story author, story authors, story writer, submissions, thriller, tips, Twitter, vampire, western, Wordpress, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing group, writing magazines, YA, youtube
Gary Showalter’s novel ‘The Big Bend’ will be listed as free for download on the 2nd and 3rd of November:
The day begins like any other: Terry Rankin, sole proprietor of Rankin Personal Security Services in Orlando, Florida, accepts a private meeting with a potential client.
Sheila Adamson is looking for a bodyguard to protect her from her abusive husband, but Rankin refuses to take the job until she begins divorce proceedings.
Moments later, Mrs. Adamson is dead and Rankin is buried beneath the rubble of his house, knocked flat by a car bomb planted in the dead woman’s Jaguar.
When he’s questioned by the local police, Rankin learns that Adamson’s attorney has also turned up dead, his Cadillac riddled with bullets.
Suspecting there is more to these murders than a domestic dispute, he teams up with Orlando cop Cathy Diamond for a thrilling—and treacherous—adventure that will lead them deep into the heart of the Everglades and hot on the trail of a dangerous criminal.
In Rankin’s sardonic bodyguard-turned-investigator, Gary Showalter has created a new hero for fans of hardboiled mysteries.
Available free today and tomorrow from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.
***
Gary Showalter was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. He lived in Aruba, Florida and the Panama Canal Zone before joining the U.S. Army during the 1960s. Mr. Showalter has picked cotton in East Texas, baled hay in Ardmore Oklahoma, sold light bulbs in Los Angeles, California, and built cattle pens in Fallon, Nevada (during a blizzard, of course). After settling in Atlanta, Georgia, Mr. Showalter worked as a professional gardener before turning his hand to furniture making.
In 1981, he moved to Israel, married, and raised four children while working as a furniture maker, silversmith, goldsmith, and ornamental wood turner. He served in the Israel Defense Forces Reserves for sixteen years, and when not on active duty he worked in government and private security. He has also served in senior management positions in two software development companies in Israel.
Mr. Showalter has published articles dealing with international terror and the Israel-Arab conflict in the Jerusalem Post, Israel national News and several political science web sites.
Mr. Showalter returned to the United States in the fall of 2003. He published his first novel, “The Big Bend”, in the fall of 2008, his second novel, “Hog Valley”, in 2009, his third novel, “Twisted Key”, in 2010 and his fourth novel, “Lonesome Cove”, in 2011.
Mr. Showalter resides in Dunnellon, Florida, where he is working on a non-fiction book on rose care due to be published in late November, 2012. He is a finalist for inclusion in a finalist for inclusion in the 3rd edition of “50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading”, which is published by www.TheAuthorsShow.com.
***
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books and I also have a blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.
Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them) on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are fortnightly episodes, usually released on Sundays, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: Amazon, fiction, free eBook, free eBooks, gary showalter, novel, offer, suspense, thriller, writing
Welcome to the five hundred and thirty-eighth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with YA thriller and suspense / romance author Daphne Olivier. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.
Morgen: Hello, Daphne. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.
Daphne: I grew up in the foothills of the Amatolas, South Africa, where my latest novel, The Kennaway Woman, is set. From an early age I read everything I could lay hands on—biography, fantasy, historical fiction, thriller, mythology, science fiction or the classics. I still enjoy a wide variety of literature, and have written in several different genres. I live in a small town in South Africa with my husband and our two dogs.
Morgen: It’s great that we start as readers as I’m sure it shapes the kind of writing we do (I read Roald Dahl and Stephen King so most of mine is dark). What have you had published to-date? Do you write under a pseudonym?
Daphne: My first novel, a YA thriller, The Peacock Throne (about a search for sunken treasure on the South African Wild Coast) was finalist in the Sanlam Youth Literature Award and subsequently published by Wild Child Publishers.
My second novel, a suspense/romance, Her Dangerous Inheritance, was published by Melange Books under the penname, Flora Penn.
My latest book, The Kennaway Woman, published by Melange Books, is historical fiction. This is the one I enjoyed writing most as it is based on historical facts that have always fascinated me. In 1857, in the aftermath of the Potato Famine, 157 destitute Irish women sailed to South Africa to become wives of German Legionnaire settlers. The Kennaway woman is based on the life of one of these women.
My thriller, The Pegasus Project (about a GM experiment that goes wrong) is scheduled for publication at Melange Books in 2013.
When not researching or writing a novel, I write science fiction. My short story, Check Mate, has appeared in OG’s Speculative Fiction.
Morgen: I had one-to-ones with three agents at the Winchester Writers’ Conference in July 2011 and all of them said they wanted more historical. Are your books available as eBooks? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?
Daphne: Since acquiring a Kindle, I have read very few paper books. All my books are available as eBooks. Her Dangerous Inheritance and The Kennaway Woman are available in print from Melange Books.
Morgen: It’s great having the choice isn’t it. Do you have a favourite of your books or characters? If any of your books were made into films, who would you have as the leading actor/s?
Daphne: My favourite book is The Kennaway Woman. If it was made into a film, I would choose Meryl Streep to take the part of Nora O’Neal—a strong woman who overcomes overwhelming odds with courage and fortitude.
Morgen: She’d be great. She’s got to be one of the most versatile actresses. Did you have any say in the covers of your books? How important do you think they are?
Daphne: Covers are very important. I was fortunate to have a helpful and cooperative artist who incorporated all my ideas in the covers of my books.
Morgen: The cover you’ve given me here is great. What are you working on at the moment?
Daphne: Another historical novel set in South Africa during the Boer War.
Morgen: Do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?
Daphne: I’m addicted to writing and write every day, whenever possible. I have never suffered from writer’s block. My problem is that there are not enough hours in the day so I tend to write at odd hours during the night as well.
Morgen: Oh yes, I know that feeling, and have too many ideas to cope with. We’re very lucky aren’t we. Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?
Daphne: I outline the complete plot before making a start on a novel but, as writing progresses, the characters tend to take over and sometimes things change quite a lot.
Morgen: They do, that’s my favourite aspect of writing. Speaking of your characters, do you have a method for creating them, their names and what do you think makes them believable?
Daphne: Most of my characters are based on people I’ve met, but others are figments of my imagination. I do try to create names that suit the characters.
Morgen: Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?
Daphne: I do a lot of editing and find the input of crit partners helpful. Writers tend not to see mistakes in their own work. That is why having someone else read and crit the manuscript is so beneficial.
Morgen: I agree. We’re always too close and another pair of eyes / ears will not only pick out anomalies but also come out with some great suggestions. Do you have to do much research?
Daphne: I wanted to get the facts right so spent a lot of time researching history for the Kennaway Woman. I’d heard about the Irish Potato famine (who hasn’t) but research brought home to me just how catastrophic it actually was. I’d also heard about the Kennaway Girls—the Irish women who came to South Africa to provide wives for German Legionnaire settlers—but research made me realize the poverty, hardships and dangers these pioneer women endured.
Morgen: My father spent eight years researching his side of our family and apparently we’re (very distantly) related to the former US President Jimmy Carter, having an Irish strain, in common. What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? Have you ever tried second person?
Daphne: My first book, The Peacock Throne, was written in first person. Since then, I’ve written in third person. I haven’t tried second person and don’t think I’ll attempt it.
Morgen: That’s a shame because I personally love it but I write (usually quite dark) flash fiction and short stories which it suits but it’s definitely an acquired taste. Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?
Daphne: Rejections are part of most writers’ lives. I don’t let them bother me. I simply update my records and submit somewhere else. I realize that publishing is a business and that what pleases one editor may not suit another’s list or schedule.
Morgen: Absolutely, just the right thing for the wrong person. How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?
Daphne: I have just begun marketing with facebook: facebook.com/daphne.f.olivier and blog: http://www.daphneolivierdotnet.wordpress.com. I have also requested reviews and plan to do signings at local stores.
Morgen: Yay WordPress. What advice would you give aspiring writers?
Daphne: Follow your dream. Set aside a certain time of day to write and stick to the schedule no matter what distractions pop up or how you happen to feel.
Morgen: (Note to self: follow Daphne’s advice). If you could invite three people from any era to dinner, who would you choose and what would you cook (or hide the takeaway containers)?
Daphne: John Steinbeck, Daphne du Maurier and Isaac Asimov. It would be interesting to see such different people in the same room. I would entertain around a campfire with a typical South African braai (barbeque) and an assortment of salads.
Morgen: Sounds wonderful. Are you involved in anything else writing-related other than actual writing or marketing of your writing?
Daphne: I belong to several crit and writing groups and correspond with other writers to exchange news and views.
Morgen: Me too. I run / belong to four groups and they’re all invaluable. What do you do when you’re not writing?
Daphne: When not writing I read, play bridge, garden and walk my dogs. When time allows, I slip away to the bushveld to enjoy solitude and the company of wild animals.
Morgen: Can I come? Are there any writing-related websites and / or books that you find useful?
Daphne: I recommend Critique Circle, Deadly Prose and Critters Writers Workshop. All have helped me immensely.
Morgen: I’ve heard of Critters, though not investigated it as much as I should and will certainly look at the other two. Where can we find out about you and your writing?
Daphne: Visit my blog at: http://www.daphneolivierdotnet.wordpress.com.
Morgen: Thank you, Daphne.
I then invited Daphne to include an extract of her writing and this is from The Kennaway Woman:
Nora O’Neal shivered as the coffin slid into the open grave. Her lip trembled but no tears fell. She had cried for Mama and baby Sue and for so many others who lay in this churchyard, buried beneath mounds of black earth. And now it was Papa’s turn. She would have cried for him too had she not felt so numb and cold. She swayed, and for a moment had the strangest feeling none of this was real, that she was floating somewhere far, far away and that the redheaded woman standing at the graveside wasn’t her at all.
Nora pulled her shawl tighter around her shoulders and stared down into the grave. It was hard to imagine Papa lying in that long, narrow box, hard to believe she’d never hear his voice again, never see his eyes light up when she came into the room. Papa, who’d worked so long and so hard in a desperate effort to keep his family alive. Nora closed her eyes to blot out the memory of the last few, terrible months. The images haunted her dreams at night, but she would not allow them to intrude during the day. Not while she had strength to push them away.
“Dust to dust, ashes to ashes,” Father Donahue intoned. He hunched his shoulders against the wind and glanced up at the sky as though anxious to be gone before the drizzle set in and became a steady rain. The wind dropped then gusted again, sighing through the trees and ruffling the leaves at their feet.
Nora’s gaze strayed to William and then to Deirdre, standing beside him, clinging to his arm for support. Not so long ago, her brother had been big and brawny with a ruddy complexion, a man proud of his strength. Now he was little more than a shadow, his cheeks hollow, his clothes hanging off him as though they belonged to someone twice his size. Deirdre had changed too. Her pale face and drab hair bore little resemblance to the pretty girl William had married less than a year ago.
…and a synopsis of that book…
As famine sweeps across Ireland, Nora O’Neal clings to hope that her lover in America will send for her. Devastated by news that he has married someone else, she turns to the Kennaway Scheme as her only hope of survival. The plan to send a shipload of destitute women to South Africa on board the Kennaway appears a godsend, but Nora soon discovers a drawback. On arrival, the women are destined to marry German Legionnaires, men settled on land granted to them in the Eastern Cape after the Crimean war.
Nora is horrified at the thought of marrying a stranger but must face the fact that the alternative is starvation. Or life in a whorehouse. When the Kennaway docks in Dublin, she joins the crowd waiting to board.
Soon after landing in East London, Nora meets and marries Johan Detmann, one of the many men seeking a wife. As the pair travel along the lonely road toward her new home, she wonders what lies ahead, unaware that she is about to enter a land troubled by famine, hardships, uprisings and bloody Frontier wars.
***
If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.
If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.
Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).
The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, biographers, biography, books, characters, children’s, creative writing, crime, critique, Daphne Olivier, erotic romance, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, fiction, flash fiction, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, interview, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, Melange Books, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mystery, mystery series, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, OG's Speculative Fiction, paranormal, paranormal romances, pinterest, poetry, poetry collections, publisher, rejection letters, rejections, romance, science fiction, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, story author, story authors, story writer, submissions, suspense, suspense romance, thriller, Twitter, vampire, western, Wild Child Publishers, Winchester Writers Conference, Wordpress, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing group, writing magazines, YA, youtube
What is the line that separates good and evil, coincidence and providence, delusion and reality? This question is confronted by G.T. Rigdon, author of morally engaged fiction, provocative stories for curious minds. His book High Striker will be available for FREE on Kindle during 10/29 to 10/30 2012.
For more information visit www.gtrigdon.com.
At Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/High-Striker-ebook/dp/B008YPL8AO.
***
G.T. Rigdon is an engineer, an ex-minister, and a writer.
One of his favorite quotes is from Plutarch who said: “The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.”
He finds great satisfaction by igniting such fires with morally-engaged, provocative stories.
***
Do you have a free eBook scheduled? Would you like me to ’5a.m. Flash’ it? Just send me a short blurb, dates it’s free, website links and third-person biography and I’ll gladly put it up at 5a.m. on the first day it’s due to go live.
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books and I also have a blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.
Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them) on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are weekly episodes, usually released Monday mornings UK time, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: Amazon, free eBook, G.T. Rigdon, promotion, thriller, writing
Welcome to the Short Story Saturday review slot and the fourteenth review in this series. This week’s review is of the 1,009-word short story ‘Torn’ by fantasy and thriller writer Tracey Alley, taken from her short story collection The Kaynos History Tales.
They say to start any writing with action, and although the first half of this story is slow, it is very intense with highly descriptive detail of our protagonist’s surroundings and situation. This gave it more of the feel of a chapter beginning which allows for an elaborate unwinding, but there’s no doubt that we have empathy with the character, who until the second half is nameless. Some months ago a beta reader critiqued one of my short stories (which went on to be Aprils’ Fool) and said that I hadn’t named April until half-way through the story, and therefore felt more engaged with the character once she knew her name. I agreed and brought her name in at the beginning (also to connect with the title quicker). Whether a writer should do that or not may be a matter of opinion but something I probably notice more now than I would have done and something for authors to think about.
I mentioned titles (and I’m a big fan of them), short snappy titles work well (anything short and snappy should attract the reader’s attention) and ‘Torn’ is very apt for this story.
Knowing nothing about this piece before I started reading it I admit to being a little disappointed (especially after such a long build up) when the true nature of her predicament was revealed but then I’m mainly a crime writer (and reader), and clearly have a dark side, and it felt to me like the beginning of a crime novel until I read on into the second half and realised it had a fantasy element. The character here did seem to recover very quickly, given how much pain she had been in during the first half of the story which left me wondering whether she had imagined it. We’re not given an indication of her age but she felt immature which would fit with her actions and thoughts.
The dialogue is convincing and although I’m not a fantasy expert (far from it), the writing felt realistic.
Stories should have dilemma and there’s plenty of it here. As I mentioned earlier, it felt like a chapter rather than short story and I wanted the story to continue, which is the sign of good writing. If the other stories in Tracey’s collection are of a similar vein, fantasy fans shouldn’t be disappointed.
Thank you Tracey for letting me read your story.
Tracey Alley was born and raised in QLD, Australia but caught the travel bug quite early and lived in Melbourne and Christchurch, New Zealand for a while. She considers herself a Christian, albeit a slightly esoteric, left of center one who also has a great amount of respect for Buddhist tradition and philosophy.
She’s infinitely curious about the world and her friends describe her as an intellectual butterfly as she flits from one topic to the next. She’s a pacifist, a little bit left of center and can, like most people, be very complex. She’s passionate about the things she believes in and believes firmly that you have to keep learning as you grow. So far she has two degrees and will likely do more study.
She believes she was born to be a writer and feels blessed that circumstances allow her to write full-time and still survive [although not on royalties yet ]. She fell in love with words at a very young age and is a voracious reader, often with two or three books on the go at the same time.
One little-known but rather interesting fact about Tracey is that on the paternal side her great-grandfather owned a circus. He was a lion tamer and worked with all the big cats and her great-grandmother was a trapeze artist and of Romany Gypsy blood. On her mother’s side of the family she was born into Scottish aristocracy.
Her website is http://traceyalley.weebly.com and her novels and short story collection The Kaynos History Tales are available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.
***
Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I review stories of up to 2,500 words on this ‘Short Story Saturdays’ feature. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them) on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are weekly episodes, usually released Monday mornings UK time, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything… and follow me on Twitter where each new posting is automatically announced. You can also read / download my eBooks and free eShorts at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore, Kobo and Amazon, with more to follow. I have a new forum, friend me on Facebook, like me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, find me on Tumblr, complete my website’s Contact me page or plain and simple, email me. I also now have a new blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.
Tags: crime, critique, fantasy, review, short stories, short story, thriller, Tracey Alley, writing
Tonight’s guest blog post, on the topic of self-publishing, is brought to you by thriller author Ethan Jones. See below for free eBook offer!
Self-publishing and Expectations
As writers, we want everyone to not only read our books, but also love them. The reality is, of course, a bit less stellar and much more sobering. Not everyone will love your books. Not everyone will read your books. In fact, even your closest friends and relatives may not buy and read your books.
Arctic Wargame, my debut spy thriller, came out officially on May 22, although I uploaded it on Amazon.com a few days before that date, just to make sure everything worked fine. I promoted my work extensively on my Facebook personal page (which has almost 200 friends) and Facebook author page and my Twitter account. I e-mailed pretty much everyone on my e-mail contact lists. I put up posters at my workplace and announced it on the newsletter of the church I attend. The result: I can count the book sales from this blitzkrieg with the fingers of one hand.
What is happening here? Why aren’t these people who I consider friends and close acquaintances buying my book? They don’t love me? They don’t care? What, then?
You may have wondered about these things if your experience is similar to mine. The answer to these questions is complicated and lies as much in your expectations as in the reaction of your friends and relatives.
In terms of expectation, there is nothing wrong with aiming high and dreaming big. But self-published writers need to brace themselves for the most likely scenario of a slow start of their career. Gaining recognition and gathering a readership is generally a marathon, not a sprint. Even many traditionally published authors attest to many difficult starts. Allow yourself time and be prepared for a long journey. Nurse patience and develop a hard skin for negative criticism and rejection.
In terms of your friends and relatives, they are not really to blame. At least not en masse. They love you, of course, each in their own way. Some of them are forgetful, fully intending to check out your work, but then life got in their way. Others simply are non-confrontational and do not want to tell you they are simply not interested in the genre in which you write. After all, we have different tastes and what you spent a year or more writing, re-writing and revising may just not be their cup of tea. Then, you could even have the occasional acquaintance or “friend,” who considers your success as a threat or resents it for whatever reason and has has no intention of supporting your efforts.
The bottom line is that even if all your friends and acquaintances bought your book, that is still quite a limited number. The goal of each author is to sell to complete strangers, who pick up your book solely because they heard something good about it, and they want to enjoy a great story. Then, if they like it, they will want to tell their friends about your work.
During the first few days that Arctic Wargame and my two short stories were published I used to check my sales and ranking almost every hour. Now I checked it once a month, just to make sure there some activity is taking place. I promote my work vigorously and I advise you do the same. We can’t control who buys our books, but there is something we can all control: how much promotion and marketing efforts we put on our products. I know we are writers, but self-published authors have the additional task of becoming salespersons. We need to take our work to the public and hope and pray they will enjoy our stories.
And don’t forget to keep writing. Perhaps your second, third or twentieth book will become a best-seller.
I will! Thank you, Ethan.
Ethan Jones is a lawyer by trade and lives in Canada with his wife and his son.
The author of Arctic Wargame, a spy thriller available on Amazon as an e-book and paperback, he has also published two short stories: Carved in Memory, a prequel to Arctic Wargame, and The Last Confession, both available on Amazon as e-books.
His second spy thriller, Tripoli’s Target, was released in fall 2012.
His debut spy fiction novel, Arctic Wargame, and two short stories, Carved in Memory and The Last Confession, are also available on Amazon.
His blog is http://ethanjones.blog.com.
** NEWSFLASH ** Arctic Wargame is available FREE on Amazon from 9th to 11th October only!
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If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. If it’s writing-related then it’s highly likely I’d email back and say “yes please”.
The blog interviews return as normal tomorrow morning with children’s / YA author Ashley Howland – the five hundred and sixteenth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything… and follow me on Twitter where each new posting is automatically announced. You can also read / download my eBooks and free eShorts at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore, Kobo and Amazon, with more to follow. I have a new forum, friend me on Facebook, like me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, find me on Tumblr, complete my website’s Contact me page or plain and simple, email me. I also now have a new blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.
Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them) on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are fortnightly episodes, usually released on Sundays, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: advice, Amazon, author, Ethan Jones, free eBook, literature, negative criticism, novels, self-publishing, short stories, spy, spy thriller, thriller, thriller author, tips, writing
You can do them in any order.
You can do them in any order.
