Author interview no.586 with multi-genre writer Barbara Morrison

Welcome to the five hundred and eighty-sixth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with memoirist, poet, non-fiction and fiction author Barbara Morrison. 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, Barbara. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

Barbara: I’ve been a passionate reader ever since decoding that first Golden Book and began writing while still in school, mostly stories and plays that I forced my siblings to put on. I didn’t start writing poetry until I was in my twenties.

Morgen: I’d love to have had a sibling (my brother) do that. You write non-fiction, how do you decide what to write about?

Barbara: While sometimes my non-fiction is about writing and publishing, I mostly write about poverty and women’s issues. Part of my mission as a writer is to show the real lives of people living in poverty, having myself been on public assistance as a young, single mother and felt the stigma of all those hurtful stereotypes.

Morgen: That’s a wonderful idea. People like JK Rowling, formerly a struggling single mother, are inspirations. What have you had published to-date? Do you write under a pseudonym?

Barbara: I’ve published two poetry collections, Here at Least and Terrarium, and a memoir, Innocent: Confessions of a Welfare Mother. I’ve also had work published in magazines and anthologies. I write under the name B. Morrison.

Morgen: You’ve self-published, what lead to you going your own way?

 

Author interview no.583 with erotic writer and marketing adviser Lucy Felthouse

Welcome to the five hundred and eighty-third of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with erotic writer and author marketing adviser Lucy Felthouse. 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, Lucy. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

Lucy: Hi Morgen. Thanks so much for having me on your site! I’m Lucy Felthouse, I’m 27 and I’m based in South Derbyshire in the UK.

Morgen: Derbyshire is a beautiful part of the country. I’m only a couple of hours south yet I go too rarely. Note to self: go to Derbyshire more often.

Lucy: I’ve always written, as long as I can remember. When I was a child I’d announce I was going to be an author, but as I got older I realised it wasn’t as simple as sitting down and writing a book and people throwing money at you. So I tried to figure out what else to do. I finished college and still had no idea, so I decided to buy myself three more years by going to University to do a degree in Creative Writing. It was then I started writing erotic fiction, as a dare. I left University and started working in PR & Marketing and continuing to write on the side. Now I work for myself and my days are a combination of running my PR & Marketing business (Writer Marketing Services (
http://www.writermarketing.co.uk
) and writing.

Morgen: And don’t the days go quickly, but I bet you enjoy yours as much as I do mine. What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?

Lucy: I write erotic fiction and erotic romance, and lots of sub-genres within that. I haven’t yet tried any other genres. I have too many erotica and erotic romance ideas still bouncing around my head, but perhaps once I’ve exhausted them I’ll try my hand at something else.

Morgen: You have the same ‘problem’ as me; more ideas than time. What have you had published to-date?

Lucy: I have 16 single-author short stories, one novella, over 30 anthology appearances and four anthologies I’ve edited or co-edited.

Morgen: Yay for short stories, my favourite format. Have you self-published? If so, what lead to you going your own way?

 

Author interview no.565 with fantasy novelist Ginny Atkinson

Welcome to the five hundred and sixty-fifth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with fantasy novelist Ginny Atkinson. 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, Ginny. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

Ginny: Well, I’m married with four beautiful kids. I’ve lived in numerous cities along the east coast of the US. My father was in the US Coast Guard so we moved pretty much every four years. We settled down in Southwest Virginia in 1994 and I’ve stayed here ever since then. I started writing in the late 80s to help with the moving and loss of close friends. I put down my pen for a few years, but always ended up coming back to it.

Morgen: It has that draw, doesn’t it. What genre/s do you generally write?

Ginny: I enjoy fantasy. My current series is the stereotypical set on distant planets fantasy. I also have a book on hold right now that is more of a mystery it’s about a serial killer in a small town.

Morgen: What have you had published to-date?

Ginny: I have one book published at the moment, ‘Birth of the Fire Child’.

Morgen: What a wonderful title. Is your book available as an eBook? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?

Ginny: It’s only available for the Kindle at the moment, but I hope to move to paperbacks soon. I read both ebook and paper. There is just something comforting about the feel and smell of a paper book.

Morgen: There is. Most people say they love holding a book, although it’s great having the choice. I totally agree. 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?

Ginny: I consider my characters like my family. It would be hard to pick a favourite out of them. I haven’t really thought about that too much. I would love to see someone like David Wenham play one of my male characters, probably the King in Fire Child. I think that Craig Olejnik has the perfect look for my character Patrick in Fire Child.

Morgen: I don’t know either of them but they’ve been in some great things. What are you working on at the moment / next?

Ginny: Right now I’m working on the second book in the fantasy series ‘Lumenessa’. It picks up right where Fire Child left off.

Morgen: How exciting. Do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?

Ginny: I try to write every day. Sometimes when the kids are being kids and running around I so suffer some block, but it never lasts long.

Morgen: I think we all do, even those of us who don’t suffer from writer’s block; we’ll have a slight hitch on where to go next but even just going off to make a cup of tea and come back to it helps. Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?

Ginny: I try to do an outline before each book. Some of the characters tend to deviate from it from time to time, but they always end up where I want them to go.

Morgen: Your characters are better behaved than mine. Do you have a method for creating your characters, their names and what do you think makes them believable?

Ginny: Most of my characters have traits from people I’ve known throughout my life. Good and bad. Their names really just depend on the “ethnicity” I attach to them. Since I write mostly fantasy I feel like you need to make the character relatable. You have to put them through the same trials that a real person would go through.

Morgen: You do absolutely and none of us are perfect. Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?

Ginny: The editing process is a must, even if you are a seasoned writer. What you might not catch whether it’s grammatically, spelling error or just a wrong character name, your editor should catch it.

Morgen: They should. We’re always too close to our work, plus they often come up with some great suggestions. Do you have to do much research?

Ginny: Yes I do. Most of my world is based off Celtic, Norse, and Arabic mythology. I change certain things to give it my own twist, but the basics are there.

Morgen: What point of view do you find most to your liking?

Ginny: Third person all the way. I find first person hard to read and write. As a reader I find myself wishing I could see what the other characters are doing or want to know what they are thinking.

Morgen: That’s true about first person. I’ve just released my first novel which is a first-person present tense chick lit. I started writing it that way, I think subconsciously, but it just felt right, and we get enough from Izzy’s point of view about the people she meets (which are mostly rather peculiar!) so the reader (hopefully) doesn’t feel left out. Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?

Ginny: I don’t think my mystery will ever see the light of day. It’s too violent and has a lot of controversial topics in it.

Morgen: I’m writing a crime story like that at the moment and there are parts in it that I wonder whether I’d be brave enough to unleash on the general public but I do think there’s an audience out there for everything… just look at Fifty Shades of Grey. What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life? Has anything surprised you?

Ginny: I love delving into the minds of villains. What makes them tick and all? I do not like the filler lines about describing every hand gesture body movement or a too detailed description of a character. I like to have just enough where you can picture them but not too much. I am surprised by how drained I am at the end of a writing day.

Morgen: Absolutely. The writer and reader have to go hand-in-hand; just walk alongside them not pull them quicker than they want to go – they want to enjoy the ride. What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Ginny: Keep it up. If you have a story to tell keep pushing forward with it.

Morgen: You can’t edit a blank page. Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?

Ginny: I have quite a few quotes I like some from my favourite authors.  One is from a Sherrilyn Kenyon book “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.” And the other is more of a life lesson quote “Never leave anything on a voice mail, text, or the internet that you wouldn’t want played or shown at your trial.” My husband is a police officer and I just find it amazing at all the senseless things that people leave out in the open.

Morgen: That’s true – there are a lot of people out there who wish they’d not put something online… What do you do when you’re not writing?

Ginny: I love to paint, cook, and decorate. I’m like regular Martha Stewart.

Morgen: I’m definitely with you on the painting. Where can we find out about you and your writing?

Ginny: Right now, just Amazon.com. I am in the process of creating my own website.

Morgen: I’d recommend a WordPress site (you can have it as .wordpress.com or your own, although the former is free!). If you get stuck, I offer a very inexpensive (£50 / $75 to create or £10ph / $15ph to maintain) blog creation and maintenance service. Thank you, Ginny.

I then invited Ginny to include an extract of her writing…

Shawn walked into the bar looking for the two creatures, he was told could help him find his brother.  He went up to the bartender and asked him.  The bartender pointed over to the dark corner of the room.  Shawn took a deep breath and swallowed spit as nervousness welled up in him.

“Here goes nothing,” he mumbled.

“What do you want, boy?” a dark haired woman with four scars running across her face said.

“I was told that you are really good at finding things.”

“You were mistaken.  Now leave.”

“Wait.  I’ll pay.  I’ll even give you a ship if you can help me.”

“Hmm. Come back to our office and we will discuss this,” the short curvy redheaded woman said.

Shawn followed the two into a back room in the bar.  The door was old and it creaked when it opened.  He walked into the room and noticed how cluttered one side was.  The other was very meticulously organized.

“Have a seat,” the redhead stated.

Shawn sat down as the scarred one asked, “So, what are you looking for?  Person, place or thing?”

“Person.  My brother, actually.  He was taken from our ship halfway to the closest planet from here.”

“How long has he been missing?”  Red asked

“Six days.”

“Six days and you are just now coming to us?  What took so long?”  The scarred one asked.

“I thought I could find him on my own.”

“So what have you done?”  Red asked.

“Well, I talked with a few people who I thought would know something.  But to tell you the truth, I really don’t know where to start.”

“Okay, so who did you talk to?”  Asked the scarred one.

Shawn started telling the story of the husband and everything leading up to the disappearance of his brother.  Kediri and Ceana shared a glance.

“So what do you think of his story?” Ceana asked Kediri in her thoughts.

“Could be genuine?  Could also be that he is the husband looking for the man who banged his wife,” Kediri replied.

***

And a synopsis of her book…

The Halflings Ceana and Kediri are asked by Shawn a winged Spritling to help him find his missing brother. They quickly find out he has been sold into slavery.

Caught up in a whirlwind adventure to distant planets Ceana finds her family has secrets to hide. Royal secrets.

Book one in the exciting Lumenessa saga the Halflings find out more about their powers and the whereabouts of their missing parents.

***

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 

Amazon.co.uk: Morgen Bailey's Writing Blog: Kindle Store

or 

Amazon.com: Morgen Bailey's Writing Blog: Kindle Store: Morgen Bailey

 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 items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:

Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group

• 
  http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
  
• 
  http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374
  

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• 
  http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
  
• 
  http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189
  

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• 
  http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
  
• 
  http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934
  

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• 
  http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
  
• 
  http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017
  

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• 
  http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
  
• 
  http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445
  

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Guest post: Fiction Writing: Finding Inspiration within Real Events by Barbara Jolie

Tonight’s guest blog post, on the topic of taking inspiration from our surroundings, is brought to you by Barbara Jolie.

Fiction Writing: Finding Inspiration within Real Events

For many, one of the most difficult aspects of writing fiction is finding inspiration. Fiction writing requires a careful balance between writing stories and ideas that are fantastic and magical, while also being believable and approachable. Finding ways to create stories, plots, and characters that demonstrate your creativity, but are also relatable to the average reader can be a challenge. That being said, almost all authors will agree that some aspects of their fictional writing consist of aspects from their actual lives. Whether it is merely a character or an aspect of a character that is inspired by someone you know or it’s an entire plotline that feels very familiar, we pull inspiration from events that actually happen a lot of the time. This doesn’t make our writing any less fictional. It is these real events and real people that help inspire our writing and enable us to write pieces that feel familiar even among the fantastic.

At one point or another in every author’s career inspiration becomes a challenge. Struggling with finding a writing subject, moving a plot forward, or developing a character can be one of the most difficult aspects of writing. It’s easy to feel defeated when inspiration fails us. Don’t give up hope. Of course, there will be times of struggle and times of success in any pursuit. If you find yourself struggling to find a writing topic or you just don’t feel inspired by what you’ve already started working on, take these thoughts into consideration.

The best way to write something that you really believe in is to write about what you know. To some degree this means that you are writing from your own experience. Now, this is not to say that you have to write a memoir or a non-fiction piece; it just means that you need to draw from your own personal experiences and stories. Some of the most engaging pieces draw from real life events. Creating characters that truly feel familiar to readers usually involves writing off of someone you actually know. The character does not have to resemble that person exactly by any means, but you can draw things from that person to place in your character. Even just taking a situation that you or someone you know has dealt with and building your characters responses to that situation from a true event can help to inspire a truly meaningful reading (and writing) experience.

Many writers draw from their own experiences to perpetuate their craft. Take, for example, one of the most prolific and celebrated authors of our modern age Joan Didion. Didion has written within the fiction genre, non-fiction genre, plays, screenplays, and essays. Her work is critically acclaimed and draws inspiration from numerous events and characters within her real life. Her memoir The Year of Magical Thinking and her most recent piece Blue Nights examine elements of her family life and the circumstances of her husband and daughter’s deaths. These books (though not fiction) demonstrate how unfamiliar scenes can be made accessible through familiar feelings and character responses. Both novels spend much of their immediate plots sitting in hospital rooms, exploring doctor’s discussions, and examining medical terms. Didion draws on her experience with illness, hospitals, and eventually death to illuminate the very human feeling of grief, helplessness, and loss.

Think about your own personal experiences and what you can draw from them. Of course, many times we insert aspects of our actual lives into our fictional writing without even really realizing it. This is what writing is all about. But, if you find yourself struggling to really make a character or scene feel real and accessible to the reader, consider your own life. Think about college roommates, important life events, walking the line at graduation, studying the first subject in college that really inspired you—these aspects of your own life can help you create scenes and characters that come alive. To some degree or another, you have to place yourself in your craft. Think of how you or the people around you would react when they are placed in the situation that your characters are placed in. Even if your characters aren’t college students or lying in a hospital bed, those feelings, emotions, and responses you have in those situations may translate well to your character’s situation.

As fiction writers, we can gain from these moments of self-exploration the significance of human emotion in our writing. Even if the setting or plotline is completely unfamiliar (as a college dorm room scene may be for some of us or a fairy kingdom is for all of us), it is the underlying human emotion evoked within our writing that makes a story successful.

That was great, thank you, Barbara!

Barbara Jolie is a full time freelance writer and blogger for onlineclasses.org. She writes about advantages of online classes and is particularly interested in writing and language education. If you have any questions email Barbara at barbara.jolie876@gmail.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 Candy Marie Bridges – the five hundred and fifty-eighth 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 

Amazon.co.uk: Morgen Bailey's Writing Blog: Kindle Store

or 

Amazon.com: Morgen Bailey's Writing Blog: Kindle Store: Morgen Bailey

 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.

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.

 

5am Flash: I’m a guest on Tom Blubaugh’s website

The tables have turned! Yes, I’ve been interviewed by Tom Blubaugh on his website. Please do take a look, you could win a copy of my 365-Day Writer’s Block Workbook (Vol 1).

My other interviews are listed on the Morgen With An ‘E’ and My collaborations pages.

***

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.

 

Guest post: Debunking the writer’s block myth by Marlene Caroselli

Tonight’s guest blog post, on the topic of writer’s block is brought to you by non-fiction author Marlene Caroselli.

Debunking the writer’s block myth

If you are alive, you are thinking. And, if you are thinking, you can record your thoughts. What if you have no thoughts about the book you wish to write? Rubbish–it’s all in your head–quite literally. There are several options available to you for getting those thoughts out of your head and onto paper or a computer screen. First, though, you need to let time be your guide.

Fiction

Begin collecting ideas, articles, web sites, et cetera that you’d like to explore in that book of yours. When your folder has at least 50 resources or references, begin to organize them. Use the stratification technique: Simply create six or more columns–Character, Location, Dialog, Plots, Scenes, Timeline, for example. Then start adding details to each of the categories. Each time you come across or think about something you’d like to include in your book, jot down your idea. Don’t worry about spelling or editing problems until the book is done. You can save the title until the end as well. For many authors, the title evolves as the book is being completed. Other authors, though, like to have the title before they start. It doesn’t really matter; the choice is yours.

Once you have a bulky set of details in each category, begin writing. Commit to two pages a day. Your book can be done in six months, sooner if you write quickly. Form a network of friends who will encourage you to keep on your writing schedule. Remind yourself each morning, “If I get nothing else done today, I will complete my two pages.” Some authors, when temporarily groping for words, just write anything that is in their mind until their brain stops meandering and gets back on the writing track. It’s an excellent method of pulling thoughts out of a brain that is headed toward hedonism, if only temporarily.

Non-fiction

Be sure there no other books out there that parallel your planned manuscript. Publishers have enough rejection-reasons already–don’t make a duplicated idea one of them. Do your research and if you find you do have a unique idea, begin your book by using the stratification method again. This time, though, divide the main topic into 10-20 subtopics. Then go back and add points to each of the topics (which will become the book’s chapters). To illustrate, if your overall theme is career advancement, you could have these divisions:

SECTION 1: GETTING THE JOB

Updating your resume, Finding a job, Going on an interview

SECTION 2:  DOING WELL ON THE JOB

Handling office politics, Getting a raise, Working on a team, Making a contribution

SECTION 3:  GETTING A PROMOTION

Gaining visibility, Having a mentor or sponsor, Engaging in benchmarking

SECTION 4:  THE MANAGERIAL RESPONSIBILITIEs

Leading, Communicating, Maintaining good morale, Increasing productivity.

Presidential speechwriter Robert Orben once remarked that he gets up every day and searches the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If he doesn’t find his name on it, he goes to work. Whether you have a full-time job and do writing on the side, or whether you have made writing your full-time job, you have the same obligation Orben does. You have to go to work if you want to complete that book. Claiming writers’ block as a way to postpone that obligation means the work, and the book, will never get done. You are better than that–you’re a writer, not an excuse-maker.

Thank you, Marlene!

Dr. Marlene Caroselli (www.saatchionline.com/LainaCelano), is an author, keynoter, and corporate trainer.

She has published over 60 books, including Jesus, Jonas, and Janus: The Leadership Triumvirate, and Principled Persuasion, named a Director’s Choice by Doubleday Book Club.

***

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 multi-genre author Michael J Bowler – the four hundred and ninety-ninth 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.

 

Guest post: Talk yourself out of writer’s block! by Nicky Wells

Tonight’s guest blog post, on the topic of the dreaded writer’s block is brought to you by Nicky Wells.

Talk yourself out of writer’s block!

Writer’s block, yeah, I get it.  I know that weird, disassociated feeling when you stare at the screen and your mind seems to go into neutral, and no constructive thought comes forth.  Nada.  Not a sausage.  Zilch.  I usually bite my nails furiously (a bad habit that I am trying really hard to shed without much success) and eventually go off to make a cup of tea, with lots of sugar, please.

I can see how someone could get themselves completely stuck, fall down that deep black hole and struggle to pull themselves out again.  Yet that has never happened to me so far.  I usually manage to kick-start my writing again, if not that same hour, or even that same day, then usually the following day.  Therefore, when I read a fellow writer’s plea for advice on overcoming writer’s block, I came up with a few ideas, and I was actually quite surprised at how strongly I felt about them.  So I thought I’d put on my sharing hat and… share.

My ideas largely result from a six-year immersion in a professional work environment where I had to ‘produce’, day after day, hour after hour, whether I felt like it or not.  It was non-fiction writing; sometimes, it would be a client letter, but most times, it would be research briefs or books of some description.  All in all, it was a creative process harnessed and managed to within an inch of its life.  It taught me that it is possible to be creative, to write, on tap, on demand, when you need to.  So without further ado, I give you:  Nicky’s tips and tricks for talking yourself out of writer’s block.  I am not an expert, nor a psychologist.  By I am a pragmatist, and this is what you’re getting from me: pragmatic, down-to-earth suggestions, a kind of tough-love school of thought.

Diagnose the cause—I reckon writers get blocked for a variety of reasons, occurring singly or in combination.  Insecurity (my work’s no good anymore); perfectionism (got to get it right first time); pressure (got to get the manuscript to my agent/publisher by this or that date); tiredness (just can’t seem to get any ideas); distraction (too much else going on in your life).  Figuring out why you’re ‘blocked’ might well yield the answer in and as of itself.  But if not, read on.

Defeating insecurity—This is a tricky one, but you simply have to believe in yourself.  Why else are you writing?  So when the doubts niggle at you, remind yourself of your achievements.  If you’ve written one good book, chances are you’ll write another.  Consider your work-in-progress to-date.  Does it make you laugh?  Bingo.  Does it make you cry?  Well, fantastic.  There you go:  you’ve got the makings of a great book.

In my opinion, the best strategy for overcoming insecurity is to read your book with a fresh perspective.  Load it up on your e-reader, or print it out in a large font in landscaped orientation; anything to remove you from the familiar layout that you’ve been staring at for hours.  Read it out aloud.  Read it to someone else.  Or record yourself and play it back.  Take yourself out of your writer’s box and into the reader’s seat.  And when you are in that zone, allow yourself to enjoy your book as a reader.  Don’t overanalyse, don’t look for problems.  Just read!  While you do that, have a pad handy to jot down notes regarding anything you really like, or anything that grates or doesn’t sound right.  There, you’re taking constructive action.  Don’t overwhelm yourself.  Just keep reading, give yourself the benefit of the doubt, and note down ONLY the really good things, and the things that really annoy you.  Then, when you’re done, go back and take stock.  Address one issue at a time.  Don’t panic!  Even the biggest rewrite isn’t as big as it looks when you apply method and structure.  One change at a time.

Abandoning perfectionism—Well, what can I say?  Let it go.  You don’t need to be perfect.  In fact, your work won’t ever be perfect.  It’s impossible.  So bury that unattainable goal and just go with the flow.  Who cares if there’s a dud sentence or two?  Who cares if that scene could have been written differently?  Think of your all-time favourite book.  I bet there’s something in there that could be better.  I can see you thinking… oh… hang on, yes, there it is.  See, told you!  Imperfections merely accentuate the beauty of your writing, so quit worrying and get over your quest for the perfectly turned phrase.  Just do it, as they say.  Just write.  Tell yourself, “nobody’s perfect.”

Alleviating pressure—That’s a big factor!  Granted, sometimes deadlines focus the mind and pressure can get the old adrenaline going.  But most of the time, pressure freezes you up.  And most of the time, pressure combines with self-doubt and / or perfectionism and plunges you into a really deep freeze.  Take the pressure off.  Got a deadline?  Rethink it.  Tell your agent or publisher now, well in advance, that you might need a little longer.  At the very least, talk with them about it, even if you don’t move the deadline.  At the end of the day, you’ve only got two options.  You can meet the deadline and send the agent or publisher the manuscript then, as it is, however bad you feel about it.  They might like it, or they might not.  If they don’t like it, they might make suggestions, or they might turn you down.  It’s a gamble, either way.  Or you can try to renegotiate the deadline.  They might accept your request, or they might not.  If they don’t, you can still revert to the previous strategy (send what you have).  If they do, you’ve taken the pressure off.  Congratulations.  Now breathe, and relax.

And what if you miss the deadline?  What if your WIP still isn’t up to the standard you like?  Well, does it matter?  I mean, really, in the grand scheme of things, does it matter?  I know it matters to you, and I am being a complete heretic here in many ways.  But: does it matter to the universe?  Life goes on, the world will keep turning, and opportunities will present themselves, whether you’ve met your deadline or not, whether you’ve reached your self-imposed standards or not.  It’s all in the mind.  Nobody’s died.  Get a grip, as my heroine likes to admonish herself.

Respecting tiredness—If you’re tired and have run out of inspiration, let the writing go.  Listen to your mind and your body!  Give yourself a break.  But don’t give up!  There’s a difference between walking away from your desk frustrated and disheartened, or shutting down the computer purposefully, squaring your shoulders, lifting your chin and saying (out loud):  “I am tired. I am now going to have a break.  And when I am rested, I will come back and write some more.”

When you do have a break, allow yourself to have a break.  Too often, we walk away from our work on a ‘break’ but keep fretting about it.  Don’t!  Don’t keep thinking about the fact that you ought to be writing, and don’t dwell on the fact that you seem to have run out of ideas.  That way of thinking causes a traffic jam in the little synapses in your brain, and you will literally be blocked.  But if you force yourself to do something else, disallow any thoughts of writing, the synapses will open.  Clean the house.  Do a jigsaw.  Help the kids with their A-level maths homework.  Do anything that challenges your brain and / or your hands but that isn’t writing-related.  Sometimes, ten minutes will do and suddenly ideas will zap across the canopy of your mind.  Sometimes, it might take a day, or even week.  Fine.  So be it.  Just know that ideas will come!

And that’s it.  When you’re faced with that awful sensation of writer’s block, try to figure out what’s blocking you and then do something constructive about that.  Talk to someone, talk to yourself.  Don’t spend hours staring at the screen or the printout.  Take some different action, whether it’s a break, or a chat with your agent, or a long reading-out-loud session.  Take it one step at a time, not a whole manuscript at a time.  Don’t be afraid to make those changes, and don’t panic.  Believe in yourself and your instinct.  Most of all, remember that you’re writing because you love it!  And now you’re welcome to tell me off for lecturing you on something so fundamental in such a happy-go-lucky, easy-as-pie, really annoying kind of way.  Good!  Because that means you’ve started writing again….

I loved that, thank you, Nicky! Although I rarely suffer from a block, the recording and playing back sounds a brilliant idea. I record a fortnightly podcast (one of which is this post!) so it makes perfect sense!

About Nicky Wells:  Romance that Rocks Your World!

Nicky Wells writes fun and glamorous contemporary romance featuring a rock star and the girl next door.  She recently signed her debut novel, Sophie’s Turn, with U.S. publisher, Sapphire Star Publishing, and the book is due for release on 6 September 2012.  Nicky loves rock music, dancing, and eating lobsters.  When she’s not writing, Nicky is a wife, mother, and teaching assistant.  Nicky is also a featured author on the innovative reader / author project, loveahappyending.com.

Originally born in Germany, Nicky moved to the United Kingdom in 1993, and currently lives in Bristol with her husband and two boys.  In a previous professional life, Nicky worked as a researcher and project manager for an international Human Resources research firm based in London and Washington, D.C.

Visit Nicky on her blog where you can find articles, interviews, radio interviews and, of course, an ongoing update on her work in progress, the second and third parts of the Rock Star Romance Trilogy.  You can also follow Nicky on Twitter and find her on Facebook.

About Sophie’s Turn—Coming from Sapphire Star Publishing on 6 September 2012!

One fine day in Paris, Sophie Penhalligan suddenly finds herself engaged to her teenage crush and love-of-her-life-from-a-distance, rock singer and star extraordinaire Dan Hunter.  But there is the small matter of her very recent, but very prior, engagement to Tim.  Reliable, honest, trusting Tim, her boyfriend of two years stashed away safely in his mews house in South Kensington while Sophie is drinking rather too much champagne with Dan in Paris.  This contemporary romantic fairy tale describes how Sophie gets into her impossible situation and how she turns it around.

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 multi-genre author Kelly Abell – the four hundred and thirteenth 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 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.

 

Podcast: Bailey’s Writing Tips episode 051 – writer’s block by Nicky Wells

Episode 51 of the Bailey’s Writing Tips podcast was released today and featured a forthcoming guest post on writer’s block by Nicky Wells. This piece will go live on as a guest blog on Tuesday 26th June (7pm UK time) but today was a pre-blog airing and even if you don’t suffer from writer’s block I hope you will find it useful.

The podcast is available via iTunes, Google’s Feedburner, Podbean (when it catches up), Podcasters (which takes even longer) or Podcast Alley (which doesn’t list the episodes but will let you subscribe).

Nicky Wells writes fun and glamorous contemporary romance featuring a rock star and the girl next door.  She recently signed her debut novel, Sophie’s Turn, with U.S. publisher, Sapphire Star Publishing, and the book is due for release on 6 September 2012.  Nicky loves rock music, dancing, and eating lobsters.  When she’s not writing, Nicky is a wife, mother, and teaching assistant.  Nicky is also a featured author on the innovative reader / author project, loveahappyending.com.

Originally born in Germany, Nicky moved to the United Kingdom in 1993, and currently lives in Bristol with her husband and two boys.  In a previous professional life, Nicky worked as a researcher and project manager for an international Human Resources research firm based in London and Washington, D.C.

Visit Nicky on her blog where you can find articles, interviews, radio interviews and, of course, an ongoing update on her work in progress, the second and third parts of the Rock Star Romance Trilogy.  You can also follow Nicky on Twitter and find her on Facebook.

About Sophie’s Turn…
One fine day in Paris, Sophie Penhalligan suddenly finds herself engaged to her teenage crush and love-of-her-life-from-a-distance, rock singer and star extraordinaire Dan Hunter.  But there is the small matter of her very recent, but very prior, engagement to Tim.  Reliable, honest, trusting Tim, her boyfriend of two years stashed away safely in his mews house in South Kensington while Sophie is drinking rather too much champagne with Dan in Paris.  This contemporary romantic fairy tale describes how Sophie gets into her impossible situation and how she turns it around.

The podcast also featured some of my news…
Visitors to my blog will know how much I love blogging about writing. So much so that I have posted over 900 items (either guest’s or mine) about the topic. I do an author interview a day, two spotlights and guest posts a week and weekly flash fiction and poetry. I’m currently booked up to November for the interviews and July for pretty much everything else but if you’d like to take part do take a look. I’ve also just created
http://icanbuildyourwritingblog.wordpress.com
and, for £50, €60 or $75, I can create a blog for you or anyone you know. Although it’s geared towards writers I can create them for any business or hobby. I already have an animal healer and editor to create blogs for.

…and feedback
I’ve received some wonderful feedback (and some less so, which is to be expected) for my eBooks. I have individual short stories, some free, some not free, a 31-story collection and a writer’s block workbook and it’s the latter that I received a wonderful review on today. Regardless of whether you get stuck with writer’s block this eBook has over 1,000 sentence starts and over 50 writing-related hints and tips. It’s just $1.49 on Smashwords and $1.62 including tax from Amazon.

and feedback from Nicky on this episode: “wow wow wow! this is amazing. It’s fantastic to hear ‘me’ through someone else. Thank you! The whole family listened to it over dinner (captive audience!) and we enjoyed it. Thanks so much, you are superstar!!” pleased then

Thank you for downloading or clicking on this podcast. If you have any feedback or areas you’d like covered in the hints & tips podcasts, do email me at morgen@morgenbailey.com and I look forward to bringing you the next episode in a fortnight which will be three more short stories.

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 and you can follow me on Twitter, 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 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.

 

Story A Day May 2012: May 2nd – You are a lovely lot

Late April 2011 I discovered
http://StoryADay.org
and the project that is to write 31 stories in 31 days. Anyone who knows me or follows this blog, knows how passionate I am about short stories so my clichéd eyes lit up at this new marvel. And just a few days later there I was, breathing life into new characters. This went on to become (with some editing of course) my 31-story collection eBook Story A Day May 2011.

And here we are a year later doing it all over again. Today’s prompt was ‘memories’ and here is my 376-worder.

You are a lovely lot

No child likes being told off and adults even less so. Being told off for saying you have a bad memory isn’t the worst thing in the world but it stuck, and every time Laura goes to say she has a bad memory she remembers her history teacher, Mrs Davis, shaking her head and tutting.

“Tell yourself something bad and you’ll believe it,” she’d say, but it was true, Laura had a terrible memory… for dates especially, history therefore being her worst subject, which made Mrs Davis warm to her even less.

The teachers at Fordham High had their ‘pets’; no apples were involved but the star pupils sat at the front so their hands would be the only ones the teachers saw. On the rare occasion their eyes did wander backwards it would inevitably be Laura they picked on, hand or no hand raised in the air. ‘Not remembering’ wasn’t an acceptable excuse and many a time she’d be sent to the Head for a caning on the hand.

She’s sure that if she ever had her palms read the fortune teller would frown, confused by the dominance of lines, unable to tell how long Laura’s life would be or how in love she could get.

Given the events of late 2001 it wouldn’t matter. Mid-August she’d said “goodbye” to her father, the last time they’d spoken, then just days later she’d heard the news on the radio driving back from the recycling tip. The first plane… the second… the pictures on TV when she got back to her mother’s and they turned on the news.

Laura’s father had died just three days before, in a comfortable hospital bed, unconscious for days, dementia swallowing his brain for the last time. She had had her farewell and as she saw the drama unfold and repeat, she thought of the daughters of the men in the buildings – businessmen, just like her father – unaware of what they were losing, no chance to say “goodbye”.

She imagined one man, grey, sitting at his desk, calm despite the panic around him. He was looking at a photograph; his wife, son, daughter, and he was smiling, saying just five words as the floor beneath him crumpled… “you are a lovely lot”.

Sorry about that… a happier one next time for sure.

If you like working from prompts you might be interested in my 365-Day Writer’s Block Workbook (Vol 1).

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 and you can follow me on Twitter, 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 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 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.

 

Guest post re. writer’s block by Smoky Trudeau Zeidel

I’m delighted to bring you this guest blog post, today on the topic of writer’s block, by Smoky Trudeau Zeidel.

‘Fallow Times: Dealing With Writer’s Block’

If there is anything a writer fears more than a crashed hard drive, it’s writer’s block. The terror of one day sitting down, poising our fingers over the keyboard, and nothing coming out is enough to send most writers back to bed.

Sometimes, we sabotage ourselves, simply by not sitting down at our computers and putting finger to keyboard. Yesterday, I suddenly decided I just had to retile my bathroom floor; I spent the entire day on the floor, cutting tile, putting it down, fussing to make sure it was laid with the precision of a professional floor tiler. I asked some of my writer friends about their procrastination activities. One said she spent hours ironing her girls’ school uniforms. Another spent hours repainting baseboards. A third invited her grandchildren over for a sleepover so she’d have to focus on them rather than her writing.

That is procrastination, not writer’s block. The cure for that is to schedule a day once a week or so to do projects like these, and the other days, put your butt in your chair and your fingers on the keyboard and write!

But what if you are where you are supposed to be, at your desk, fingers poised, and not one word flows from your brain to the keyboard? What if you really are frozen, unable to write?

Believe it or not, this is okay. In fact, it’s a necessary part of being a writer. I don’t believe in writer’s block. When we can’t tap our ideas, it doesn’t mean we don’t have any. It means they aren’t ripe yet; they aren’t ready for birth. Any organic gardener will tell you fallow times are just as crucial to a good harvest as growing times. The soil needs to rest, to prepare itself for the next growing season. Your creative imagination is exactly the same. It needs to lie fallow and rest between crops of good stories. Winter of the mind is as crucial to a story as winter of the earth is to a good harvest.

That’s all very well and good, you may be thinking, but what if I’ve been in a fallow time for too long? How can I jump-start my ideas?

Different methods work for different people. What one writer swears is the cure for writer’s block, another writer will say doesn’t help at all. This list of suggestions is just that—a list of suggestions. If one trick doesn’t work for you, try another.

• Change your routine. I’m a morning person. I can happily awaken at 5:00 a.m., fix a cup of coffee, and write until noon. Then, at exactly 12:02 p.m., my brain turns to mush and I can’t write any longer. I have writer friends whose schedules are just the opposite. They sleep until noon and write into the wee hours of the night. If you’re blocked, shake up your routine. Try writing in the morning if you’re a night owl, or writing at night if you’re like me, a morning person.
• Write something different. Yes, you’re working on your masterpiece of a novel, the one that is sure to be a best seller. But if you’re blocked, you aren’t working on it, are you? Instead, try writing a poem, a limerick, a haiku. Write a love letter to your partner. Write a song. Don’t worry if it’s good or not. Good isn’t the issue—writing is. It’s very possible that the simple act of putting pen to paper (or keystroke to keyboard) is all you’ll need to jump start your creative imagination.
• Take a walk. Or, go to the gym. Play tennis, or golf. Sometimes our brains don’t work because we’ve spent so many hours hunched over our computers our bodies are turning into piles of mashed potatoes. A little exercise will lift your spirits, tone your body, and give your creativity a jolt.
• Play with toys. Yup, toys. I hereby give you permission to put playthings on your desk. If you don’t have any toys, go to the store and buy some. The reasoning behind this is quite simple. Think for a moment: who are the most creative people you know? Children, of course. Remember as a child casting aside your newly unwrapped holiday presents to turn the box into a spaceship? How many of you made forts from your parents’ dining room chairs? Playing with toys will bring out your inner child. Your creative, inner child. When I taught fiction writing workshops, this was always a favorite assignment of my students: to go out and buy toys for themselves!
• Practice some other creative art. This is similar to the toy thing, and works well for people who are so grown up they can’t find their inner child anymore. (But that isn’t you, is it? I didn’t think so.) Your creative nature is like your health. It needs to be fed and nurtured. Carrots are a healthy food, but your body wouldn’t stay healthy for very long if you ate only carrots, would it? The same is true for your creative nature. Feed it only one food—fiction writing, in most of our cases—and that creative nature will grow unhealthy. To keep it fit, sculpt clay, paint with watercolors, or take up jewelry making. Make a collage. It doesn’t matter what it is, just so long as it is new to you and creative. It doesn’t have to be very good; no one has to see it but you. I am partial to making little statues and figurines out of Sculpey clay, and to making jewelry from semi-precious stones. But sometimes I dabble in watercolors, silk dyeing, and book making. Every time I finish an art project, I feel like I can return to my computer and take on the world.
• Go ahead and write crap. If you really, truly don’t want to do anything other than work on your novel, by all means, sit at your computer and write crap. It is easier to fix bad writing than it is to create something from nothing. It could be that writing crap will wake up your muse enough to make her indignant and come rushing back to help you dig yourself out of that big pile.

All writers experience fallow times at one point or another; anyone who tells you otherwise is not being honest with you. If you’re in a fallow time, enjoy it. Make notes about what is going on around you; go to a coffee shop and eavesdrop on conversations. Who knows? You may overhear something that you can use. Remember, for writers, everything is research, everything is material for stories.

You will survive your fallow time. In the long run, it just may make you a better writer.

Thank you so much Smoky. I’m off now… to go and write.

Smoky Trudeau Zeidel is the author of two novels, On the Choptank Shores and The Cabin; a recently-released collection of stories,Short Story Collection Vol. 1; and two nonfiction books on writing which have recently been combined into one book, Smoky’s Writer’s Workshop Combo Set. She is the author of Observations of an Earth Mage, a collection of prose, poetry, and photographs celebrating the natural world. All her books are published by Vanilla Heart Publishing. Smoky lives in California with her husband Scott (a college music professor and classical guitarist), her daughter (a college student and actress), and a menagerie of animals, both domestic and wild, in a ramshackle cottage in the woods overlooking the San Gabriel Valley and Mountains beyond. When she isn’t writing, she spends her time hiking in the mountains and deserts, splashing in tide pools, and resisting the urge to speak in haiku.

If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me at morgen@morgenbailey.com 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” (while quietly bouncing up and down in my seat with joy!).

 

How to beat writers’ block from Stewart Ferris & The London Writers’ Club

courtesy of an email from the London Writers’ Club: Beat writer’s block with writer and publisher, Stewart Ferris. Our June LWC speaker is publisher of the award winning independent publishers, Summersdale Publishers Ltd. and author of three books for writers. He shares with us his top 10 tips for beating writer’s block:
1.  Write a paragraph about why you can’t write.
2.  Get some air and clear your head.
3.  Stop thinking, just write from the heart.
4.  Go to a different part of your work and write from there, you don’t have to write in a linear fashion.
5.  Read another writer’s work for inspiration.
6.  Forget writing well – just write badly until you get through this patch then come back and improve it later.
7.  Go back and revise what you’ve already written – this will get you into the flow.
8.  Set a time limit in which you will write just one page and force yourself to go for it.
9.  Make a list of ways in which your work can be improved, then tackle one subject from that list.
10.  Think of a sparky new character with a tangential agenda to the main action that will throw everyone off course if introduced right now.*
Join us on Wednesday 29th June, to hear more words of wisdom and come with lots of questions as there will be plenty of time for q and a.  Book your ticket below. Remember members come free and you can introduce a guest to the club, just let us know their name. *From How to be a Writer, Summersdale Publishers Ltd., £4.99. More details of the event from THE LWC.

 

‘Writers: What to do when you get stuck’

from Writer’s Relief Blog…
http://www.writersrelief.com/blog/2010/11/writers-what-to-do-when-you-get-stuck

under the headings of Step 1: Step back… Step 2: Use physical energy… Step 3: Examine underlying problems… Step 4: Revisit the areas of your work that flow smoothly… Step 5: Don’t try too hard… Step 6: Hand it over… Step 7: Read other people’s work… and Step 8: If all else fails…

It’s great… do take a look.

 

If you’re suffering from writer’s block – try a word web

We were just chatting on the Linkedin forum about writer’s block and in one of my replies I suggested filling in a word web and was going to suggest a blank one on the internet only I couldn’t find one that could represent what I was talking about… not without wading through pages of educational and academic links so I thought, I’ve got one so I may as well put it on here. So here it is.

Word web (blank)

It’s pretty self-explanatory but the idea is that you pick a strong word for the centre, i.e. if you were to pick something like zebra you might only get inital links of stripes, black/white, horse, crossing before getting stuck (which wouldn’t help your writer’s block at all). You could then get stars from stripes (which itself could lead to flag which could then go to half-mast… to half-past and so on) and piano from black/white and so on and so forth but with not many inital leads you may find your web top or bottom heavy. So I suggest picking a random page from a book then looking for a word that may lead in plenty of directions.

Once you have your web filled in (and of course you could start other webs with some of the keywords you’ve come out with), pick half a dozen elements and see if you can make a story out of them. You can take this literally and do what we do on a Monday night workshop and write a story in 10-15 minutes including four of those words. It’s amazing the different stories that can be born out of the same four words… disproving that all great minds think alike.

Good luck and have fun… and if you have a minute (after your 10-15 of course), do let me know how you get on.