Picture courtesy of oilbac at Flickr
Happy Friday! Today I thought I’d share a quote with you by Earl Nightingale.
Put Your Time to Good Use!
"Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use."
So however you’re spending your Friday, or this weekend, keep that in mind. We may not all be writing, but this time of year there is plenty of gardening and other chores to take care of, so if that’s on your list, go out and enjoy nature. Most of us get too busy and caught up with our daily lives to enjoy all the beauty around us. No matter where you live, you’re bound to find beauty in something. If nothing else, we can rejoice in spring and warmer days ahead.
This is something that I’m very guilty of in my own writing – too much description. Although, in my mind, I don’t think there is really such a thing unless you use too many adjectives all run together and keep repeating yourself.
Description is very important in your writing and draws the reader into your story. I really like to know everything about a story I’m reading, so I can be right in the place with the characters. What do you fellow writers think about this? I think all the senses should be covered. There are many possible situations when it comes to writing. Let’s look at a couple of simple scenarios to explain my point of description.
If you’re at a carnival you want to get caught up in the excitement with your characters. You should be able to feel that thrill and smell the onion and mustard wafting from the food carts, hear the screams of the carnival riders and get caught up in the street scene.
If it’s a nice day, feel the sun on your back in the summer and the dirt between your toes as you shuffle between the rides and the food booths. Listen to the vendors calling people over and the rattle or thump as people toss balls or coins to win prizes.
In my opinion, it is so important to see, smell, touch, taste and hear every scene. Of course that doesn’t mean to overdo it. Once the scene has been set up, there is no need to go over all the details again.
Let’s take another scenario. It’s summer in a suburban neighborhood. As you walk down the street or sidewalk, someone is mowing the lawn. You want to smell that new-mown grass, hear the whirr of the motor and feel the sigh as the person works hard and looks at the great expanse of lawn yet to be mowed.
Perhaps someone is watching from the porch, sitting in the shade sipping lemonade. You can hear the tinkle of ice in the glass and the satisfied swallow on a hot day. Down the street kids are playing ball. Their laughter almost drowns out the birdsong in the trees overhead.
As you walk along someone else is hanging out clothes to dry on an old fashioned clothesline. The breeze brings you the fresh scent of soap as they flutter in the wind. You notice the woman’s frustration as she wrestles with the clothes pins and stray strands of hair blowing across her face. She wears a white, ruffled apron over a plain housedress. For a moment this takes you back in time with some brief snippet of your childhood.
A story should draw your interest. Is this woman like your mother or another acquaintance you have known? You remember playing ball as a kid and mowing the lawn for spending money. Summers were a great time, especially for kids, even if there were chores to do.
This looks like an ordinary family doing things that ordinary families would do on a summer day, but we all know there is always more to any story. So what is in store for this family? What issues do they have to face and overcome?
The bottom line is to set up any story with places and characters that can be related to in some way. As the reader, we want to be walking along with them through all the drama they may face in their lives.
Description should be right up there after believable characters and a great story.
I’m sorry everyone. I’ve been tied up finishing a magazine project and have neglected to post here again for too long.
Here are some tips for any YA authors reading this. For readers twelve and up your book should include these elements.
1. Sex and Romance (Parents may cringe but teens want to read about sex and romance, especially girls. These scenes shouldn’t be too graphic and steamy but it has to be in there if your book is going to sell. This is just a fact of life.)
2. Self Concept and Awareness. Teens are self-conscious and need characters that build up esteem.
3. Peer Group acceptance. Teens travel in packs and so should their characters. You shouldn’t have any isolated characters in your book.
4. Future. You should always build up a promise for a bright future for your characters.
5. Place in family. Family and their place in it is very important to teens, even if they don't let on that it is.
And this is very important. Most YA books must have a happy ending. Please no tragic endings.
There you are. Now go and write and try out some of these important writing tips!
That’s a good question isn’t it, and I had a lot of fun reading all the myths associated with this day.
My thought is that this fear is all in the mind and probably connected to ones upbringing and environment. I always find things like this fascinating, but then so is the subject of ghosts and UFO’s, etc. Usually anything out of the ordinary hits my buttons.
I’d like to share a few facts about Friday the 13th. Did you know that usually every year contains two of them but this year we’ll have three, each 13 weeks apart? Now isn’t that interesting? The last time this happened was in 2009 and the next time will be 2015, but it is very unusual because this a leap year and the next one of those won’t roll around until 2040. In case anyone is worried about this we already had one of them (Jan 13) and the next one is July 13.
No one exactly knows how superstitions get started and they go back so far in history it’s almost impossible to find the origin. I can give you some very interesting facts though. Some people get so distraught over this day that they refuse to leave the house to go to work or to shop or get on the road at all. Studies have shown that there are more accidents on this day, but I think it is probably due to people who think bad things are going to happen, so they do.
I came across a news article the other day that says it does. According to a study done in Germany, looking at something green for a few minutes will get you moving to do something creative. They suggested putting green plants in your office or workspace, or perhaps painting one wall green.
Green has always been noted for new growth. In spring plants leap to life with new green shoots and flowers bloom. That’s a very inspiring sight after winter. I got to wondering if this would work for writers block.
I thought I’d share this notion with the rest of you. It never hurts to give this a try, does it?
Do YOU ever have those days?
I'm heading for the Advil and to bed. I've been at it all day - getting a magazine together. Of course nothing goes as planned so it took most of the day to covert some files I needed and then to crop and resize them, along with getting copy together and finishing up some articles. I'm still waiting for some author interviews, but at least I made some progress so all my weariness isn't for nothing.
I have to relax my neck and shoulders because it's back at it bright ad early.
Night all.
This book is set in a mysterious place called Snowybrook. Unlike what you may think, this fairy tale is for adults.
Everything in this little village centers on the inn that is run by Mikel Fairdawn. It seems to be the gathering place for all the residents where drink and food and conversation can be had around a roaring fire. Visitors come and go as well throughout the book.
I didn’t really realize it at first but this book is a few short tales all mingled together and centered on the life of Mikel Fairdawn who finds himself involved with fairies, goblins, witches, dragons and the like. Of course the soldiers are always hanging about too and no one in this little village trusts the soldiers.
The innkeeper feels it is his duty to keep everything running smoothly so he tries to intervene to fix any problems that arise, even trying to change the course of history at one point to protect the town from the soldiers. The tales that arise in this book are pretty ridiculous situations, but this is a fairy tale after all and that is what is expected in a good fairy tale.
Mikel does have two helpers at the inn, a fairy named Merrybright and a not-so-bright boy named Bubba. We soon learn that Mikel and Merrybright are in love and having an affair. They sneak off into the woods as time permits, leaving Bubba Boy in charge, which is a recipe for disaster. As I mentioned earlier, Bubba isn’t the sharpest tack in the box. His lack of judgement almost spells disaster for the inn and the entire vale at one point.
Once again Fairdawn comes to the rescue to intervene between the soldiers and to fight a dragon. At one point he even falls under a witch’s spell as he ties to return the sword of a fallen comrade.
Merrybright’s parents don’t approve of her relationship with the innkeeper but they can see it is true love and know she will not marry the fairy they had in mind for her. They finally accept Fairdawn, but in the end he has to prove his true love for her by yet another quest.
This book was interesting and full of crazy characters.
