All posts tagged writer wednesday

The truth about the secret inspiration of a skeptic

Gordon Bonnet Guests at GonzoInk:

Wednesdays is for Writers and at times, GonzoInk celebrates it with an exercise, an essay on writing, or a guest post by a writer. Today we have the latter two all wrapped up in one nice post by Gordon Bonnet. (@talesofwhoa) on twitter. Please do follow him. he’s incredibly supportive. I really enjoy his blog posts especially those he writes with skepticism in mind. Plus, he has a wicked sense of humor.

Here’s Gordon:

Grab it at Amazon

The following is really a question without an answer, but an intriguing question nonetheless.

I belong to a fiction-writing group that meets weekly on Tuesday evenings.  The range of different styles, plots, and approaches to writing in this group is staggering.  We have (just to mention three examples) a woman writing stories of Mennonite family in Oklahoma during World War II, and the cost (both personal and public) of being a pacifist in a time of war; a tale, humorous and heart-wrenching by turns, of a girl who is foisted off upon her aunt’s extended family, and has to adjust to living in a rural village after spending her whole life in the city; and the story of an 18-year-old farm boy who has been drafted to fight in the French and Indian War.

We have had extended conversations in this group about where inspiration comes from.  To be sure, each of these (and my own writing as well) reflects our lives’ experiences; the settings, and often the characters, are those we know, even if vaguely fictionalized.  But where, really, does that spark come from that sets us off (or that sets an artist or a composer off) on the path to creating something?  I can say from my own experience that I seldom have any real clue where my own ideas come from.  I tend to write fiction with a supernatural twist (an amusing pastime for a hard-headed rationalist, perhaps, but I have to indulge the mystical side of my personality somehow, don’t I?).  And with few exceptions, I can’t really point to anything that was the source of the basic ideas for the pieces I’ve written.

The word “inspiration” comes from the Latin words “in-” (which, indeed, means the same thing as in English) and the verb “spirare” meaning “to breathe.”  So “inspiration” literally means “an inward breath.”  You can still find the word used in its original, literal context in the medical use of “inspire” (meaning “to breathe in”), but the figurative sense is more common.  An inspiration is something that breathes life into a work; and there’s this sense in the term, isn’t there, that it comes from outside us — that it’s something we are the recipients of, not the creators of.

I know that I have frequently had the experience of feeling like some character I was writing about has leapt off the page, and has taken the plot into his or her own hands.  One particularly striking example occurred in my novel Convection, about ten people trapped in an apartment complex during a hurricane.  I had initially intended the character of Jennie, a 19 year old convenience store clerk, to be simply the sullen and bitchy counterpoint to the nine other people in the building; just a foil against which the others’ efforts to remain steadfast, to help each other cope, would stand out in higher relief.  But Jennie wasn’t content to be a backdrop, and an obnoxious one at that, and the only way I can state it (because this is how it felt to me) is that she took over and wrote herself a bigger part.  Her bitchiness became a defense mechanism for her own insecurity, instead of a raison d’etre of her character; and she ended up being the quick one, the only person who was able to put the pieces of the puzzle together and figure out why one by one, the survivors of the storm were being killed.  The throw-away character became second only to the point-of-view character in importance to the plot, and when (in the second to last chapter) Jennie gets killed by one of the three remaining people who have survived to that point, the members of my writers’ group were unanimous in their dismay.

“She was my favorite character,” one of them said.  “I know why you killed her, but I hate you for it.”

All of this is just by way of describing how out of control of the writing process itself I often feel.  Now, I’m as certain as I can be that this is just an illusion; I do not believe that there is some kind of Jungian Collective Unconscious from which I am drawing inspiration.  But if this belief (or lack thereof) is correct, then where do these ideas come from?  I suppose that the conventional answer is “the subconscious,” but this to me doesn’t seem to do anything more than to put a name on something we have no explanation for.

So, in the end, I have no explanation for the “otherness” I feel when I am struck with an idea for a story, or the odd feeling that a character has taken control of my hands and is making me write him or her into the story in a different way than I intended.  I am completely convinced that there is a perfectly rational explanation for both of these phenomena, but I’m damned if I can figure out what it is.

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by Thea Atkinson on December 21, 2011  •  Permalink
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Posted by Thea Atkinson on December 21, 2011

http://theaatkinson.wordpress.com/2011/12/21/the-truth-about-the-secret-inspiration-of-a-skeptic/

Do you repeat yourself? A Writer Wednesday exercise

On Unconscious Repetition in Your Writing

Walter gives us some exerciseWalter Shuler

I’ve never felt particularly comfortable giving writing advice. Mostly that’s because while I’ve written all of my life, I’ve really only written in earnest and for the public recently. I guess that boils down to a lack of confidence at times :) However, this post stems directly from a personal experience with my own writing so I feel pretty comfortable sharing the exercise. It was a good friend, talented fellow fantasy writer and beta reader James Tallett (@thefourpartland, TheFourPartLand.com) that pointed out the unconscious repetition in my story. The piece in question was The Clockwork Men from my short story collection Blood and Brass. Here’s what happened (well, mostly).

James: Stop with the repetition!

Me: What?

James: Seriously. Stop it. Now.

Me: I have no idea what you’re talking about.

James: You really need to figure out some new ways to describe your character.

Me: Umm… ok.

James: No, really. You’ve called him “the boy” approximately 9,000 times just in the first 2 pages.

Me: Really? No way!

James: Yup. Go look.

I did go look, and he was right. The character in question was a boy named Aelfgar and the setting was a slaver’s ship after the boy had been abducted (see there? I did it again). I used Word’s handy find feature and low and behold, what do you think I found?

The boy looked.

The boy turned.

The boy.

The boy.

The boy.

The boy.

Wow! It was everywhere! Let me clarify something here too – this was not my rough draft. I’d read over the story probably five or six times by that point. And I had NEVER caught it. It just goes to show you how when reading your own writing, you’re more likely to see what you THINK you wrote, rather than what you REALLY put on the page (seriously, beta readers are essential).

Was there anything inherently wrong with using “the boy” to describe Aelfgar? No, it was pretty apt. The character IS a boy. However, it ruined the flow of the story at that point, and if it weren’t for James, I would never have noticed. Upon further inspection, the repetition carried over throughout the entire story (not just ‘the boy’, but with other monikers too).

You might not have the same problem, but I’m willing to bet that at least a few other writers have struggled with this issue. So, what’s the exercise here? Check your work. Then DOUBLE check it. Then have a beta reader check it.

  • Pick a character in your work.
  • Figure out how you refer to him/her/it.
  • Tear your writing apart to find out exactly the words you use to refer to that character.

How many times do you say “he”? How often do you call her, “the thief” or “the president” or whatever? Can you improve on those at all? Variety is the spice of life, and there’s always several ways that you can refer to a character without losing your reader. Use Word’s find feature to highlight every instance of that phrase in yellow throughout the story (this works better if you’re looking for something non-generic).

If you don’t have Word, you likely have a similar feature available to you. Use it. A lot. Remember, just because something makes sense in your head, that doesn’t mean that it’s not going to derail the story with mind-numbing repetition. Oh, and get yourself a handful of beta readers.

***

Blood and Brass is available NOW

Walter Shuler is a father, husband and fantasy writer. His debut book Celadonian Tales Vol: 1 Blood and Brass is now available through Amazon.com here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005LST00C and through Smashwords here: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/87076

You can connect with him on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/#!/anakronistical

Through Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/hallalitriocht

And check in at his website here: http://hallalitriocht.com/ You’ll find sneak peeks and even some freebies, plus plugs for some other awesome writers (like Thea!).

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by Thea Atkinson on September 14, 2011  •  Permalink
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Posted by Thea Atkinson on September 14, 2011

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Writer Wednesday exercise: Brainstorming ideas by Ava Jae

Prelude Ramble by thea

I get asked it all the time; you do too, I imagine, if you’re a writer: “Where do you get your ideas?”

I dread that one almost as much as I dread the question about what my book is about. I still haven’t nailed that one yet. The truth for me is that I really don’t know.In a post on Jason McInytre’s blog, I told him that my approach to writing is one of discovery and that it’s always a pleasant surprise to find something I write holds up to the research. He seemed to ‘get it’, which leads me to believe that stories and ideas are out there in the ether somewhere, waiting to be pulled down and brought to life.

Thalo Blue by Jason C McIntyre

Purchase Thalo Blue on Amazon

For instance, in One Insular Tahiti, I write about an event in WWII where a whole regiment of Nova Scotia soldiers is surrounded and massacred by the German army–no big surprise there, I’m sure, as I bet it happened to a lot of regiments. But the kicker for me was that it HAD to be in an apple orchard–or at least apples had to be there somewhere.

First off, I had no idea if an entire group of Nova Scotians had been killed this way, but it was crucial to my plot so I needed to know it would match up loosely with history. If not, I’d have to change a bit of things. Imagine my surprise and delight when I find a link that discussed a North Nova regiment–and get this–an apple orchard. Some of the details I had added were sitting right there on the screen in front of me.

I found this link, at least. I think the others have disappeared into the internet never to be retrieved, but at least you can see the synchronicity.

I’m sure you’re thinking, Brah. You could easily just be saying this and finding stuff to match what you say. Sure. Sure, that could happen, but it didn’t. It always amazes me that the universe can offer us such aid when we need it. And for me, it’s all from the discovery of writing.

So the writing exercise is to write and let yourself discover something: Discover a character,

a concept, a plot, a new world. Just write for 10 minutes and see what comes.

Impeding Justice by Mel Comley

comment to enter the montly draw

Remember to come back and tell us how it went. this month the gift for a lucky random commenter is Mel Comley’s Impeding

Justice. Simply comment on Writer Wednesdays and get entered into the monthly draw.

And if you don’t like this exercise, The Writing Network (twitter ID @theladywrites) has a different

one you can try. It’s just about getting creative and feeling inspired. Doesn’t matter to me whose exercise you do, just exercise.

To get your engines revving, I offer this piece on brainstorming from Ava Jae. I think you’ll really enjoy it.

Brainstorming

 by Ava Jae

 

As I’m currently in the brainstorming-editing-brainstorming-rewriting-brainstorming-WAITING FOREVER TO EDIT MY RECENTLY FINISHED WIP!-stage, I thought it appropriate to talk about ferrets and how ridiculously adorable they are.

Aha! Weren’t expecting that, were you? Just kidding. Today I’ll introduce you to my two favorite brainstorming techniques; one of which I’ve used for ages and another I just recently fell in love with.

TECHNIQUE #1: THE WHAT-IF GAME

I’m sure many of you have tried this, but if you haven’t, for the love of all things bookish, TRY IT!

The What-If game is very simple. I’ll describe it in steps, because steps are fun.

  • STEP ONE—THE MAGICAL QUESTION: sit down with a blank sheet of paper and a pencil (or pen or marker or crayon or keyboard or what-have-you) and at the top you write the miraculous words “What if…?”
  • STEP TWO—DOT: Now make a bullet point (or star or heart or fish because you can).
  • STEP THREE—BREATHE IN, BREATHE OUT, THINK: Close your eyes, take a deep breath and let the question hang. What if…what if what if…what if ALIENS INVADED THE EARTH AND THEIR ONLY WEAKNESS WAS…WAS…FERRETS! Ok, that one might be a tad bit ridiculous, but write it down anyway. There’s no such thing as anything that’s too out there for the What-If game.

In all seriousness, this really works. Start with an idea, a basic idea (What if I wrote about pirates?) and see how far you can push it. What if their Captain was a crazy, egotistical half-wit only someone as insanely talented as Johnny Depp could play convincingly? What if he didn’t have a ship? A crew? What if the world was flat? What if they sailed over the edge?

This can go on forever people, FOREVER! And it’ll help you uncover some gems you may not have thought of otherwise. Trust me.

TECHNIQUE #2: THE IDEA PAGE

As I mentioned earlier, I discovered this technique very recently, but it’s quickly becoming a favorite.

The word page is simple and best done on a sheet of notebook paper or on a program that lets you write literally all over the page, like OneNote. I still think pencil and paper will work best, though. It helps with the whole freeing, creativity thing which is what you’re going for here.

So! I was inspired by the Wordle word clouds online (http://www.wordle.net/ ) and thought it’d be fun to make one by hand, except instead of writing words that you use often, you write words that relate to whatever you’re trying to write. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Step by step, here we go!

STEP ONE—PAPER: Get your notebook paper out and turn it SIDEWAYS. I don’t know why this helps so much but something about writing over the lines instead of conforming to the shape of the page really gets your right brain going.

STEP TWO—THE FIRST WORD: Write a word somewhere on the page. It can be as big or small as you like, except it’s probably best that you don’t take up the whole page (unless you want to cram the rest of your words in tiny little letters around it. Actually that might be fun. Maybe I’ll try that.). Anyway! If all you know at this stage is that you’re writing a dystopian novel, then go ahead and make your first word dystopian. Maybe you want to make your antagonist sympathetic. Write that. Maybe you only have a name. Go ahead and slap that baby down.

Great. Now you have the first word.

STEP THREE—GO CRAZY: This is pretty self-explanatory. Go crazy. Write all over the page. Write in funny angles if you want, different sizes, above and below the red line, around the holes in the page, it doesn’t matter, write wherever you’d like. The goal is to fill up the page with ideas, words, thoughts, names, even full sentences that pertain to your new WIP idea. If you’ve got some symbol in your head, go ahead and draw it. There are no rules here. Use funny colors, use pens and pencils. Doodle if you’d like. Just think about your idea and get it down.

Best part is you can use either one of these at any stage of the game. Don’t have a novel? Start with this. Stuck in the middle of a scene and don’t know how to end it? Whip out the paper and get your brain storming.

I challenge you guys to try these at least once. Who knows? You might just find you like these methods too.

These are obviously only two of many different brainstorming techniques. What do you do to get your ideas on paper?

-30-

Bio: Ava Jae writes books and blog posts and spends unhealthy amounts of time on Twitter. When not reading, editing a WIP or dreaming up a new novel, you can probably find her nerding out on Photoshop or squealing over the newest X-Men movie.

You can follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/Ava_Jae

she blogs at: http://avajae.blogspot.com/

BTW: by Thea

Free short story by Thea Atkinson

God in the Machine is free. totally free

I use a brainstorm technique when my writing stalls, but I use it in concert with freefall. Basically, I free word associate until I hit a word that ‘sticks’ then I freefall from that word. I use it more for short fiction like my free short story God in the Machine available at feedbooks and Smashwords.

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by Thea Atkinson on July 20, 2011  •  Permalink
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Posted by Thea Atkinson on July 20, 2011

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Writer Wednesday exercise is a #tease from The Other Life by @Ellenmeister

The writing exercise is based on a word today. That’s it. So simple.

Basically, the writing prompt is TEASE. It can be based in any genre you like: erotica, YA, chicklit, it can even be a ramble about how your brothers used to tease you about the size of your thighs and how they used to call you Thunder thighs until you fled weeping to your bedroom and wouldn’t come out even for ice cream. Ok, so that one’s mine. Ha. You can write whatever you want. It doesn’t have to be fiction or poetry or anything. It can just BE what it is. The idea is to use the notion of a tease to help you build the initial words. Set your timer to 10 minutes and freefall from the word. See where it takes you.

  • Impeding Justice by Mel Comley

    comment to enter the montly draw

Remember to come back and tell us how it went. this month the gift for a lucky random commenter is Mel Comley’s Impeding Justice. Simply comment on Writer Wednesdays and get entered into the monthly draw.

And if you don’t like this exercise, The Writing Network (twitter ID @theladywrites) has a different one you can try. It’s just about getting creative and feeling inspired. Doesn’t matter to me whose exercise you do, just exercise.

To get your engines revving, I offer this essay from Ellen Meister. I think you’ll really enjoy it.

THE CALL

or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Being in Suspense

By Ellen Meister

The Other Life by Ellen Meister

Click to purchase The Other Life on Amazon

Last summer, my agent called with news that could change my life forever. No, it wasn’t The Call. It was a call. All lower case with an indefinite article. Why? Because the news was merely a possibility. An exhilarating chance that my career could soon soar.

This, I have to admit, has been the pattern of my life. My good news has never come in one life-changing, confetti-falling-from-the-ceiling phone call. Instead, it comes in tiny, excruciating teases.

I should have seen this pattern emerging back when I was trying to conceive my first child. We had been hoping for so long, and I was desperate to see my dream finally come true. Back then, home pregnancy kits weren’t as sensitive as they are now, so if you wanted a quick answer you needed a blood test.

I was under the care of a specialist, so when I suspected I might be pregnant at last, I ran to the doctor’s office and had my blood drawn. Then I went to work and waited for … The Call.

It was four o’clock by the time the doctor phoned. Oh, please, I thought, when I heard his voice. Please, please, please, please, please.

The news? My hormone levels indicated pregnancy, but the lab had a problem and they were rerunning the tests.

Wait. What? Am I pregnant or not?

The next hour-and-a-half were pure torture. But at last, I got the news that made me weep with joy.

It was the same thing when I wrote my first book and tried to get a literary agent. For months and months, I sent out queries and suffered the agony of rejection, all the while fantasizing about The Call That Would Answer My Prayers.

When at last my caller ID showed the 212 area code of a wonderful New York City literary agent, my heart almost stopped beating. Was this it? The agent, sounding ebullient, wanted me to know that her assistant read my book and loved it, and that she would be reading it herself over the next few days and would get back to me soon.

Thunk. More waiting.

It was the same pattern when I learned that my first book had been sold to a major publishing house. And my second. And my third. All the phone calls began, “We have an offer, but …”

I suppose I’ll never get the-call-that-feels-like-someone-has-just-knocked-on-my-door-with-TV-cameras-balloons-and-a-giant-check. But I have to admit that the news I got from my agent last summer feels pretty damned close. And so, at last, here it is …

My friends, HBO has optioned THE OTHER LIFE for a television series.

CUE CONFETTI.

–30–

Ellen Meister lives in New York and is the author of three novels. Her latest, THE OTHER LIFE, has been optioned by HBO for a TV series, and is available in stores now. To order online, visit any cyber bookseller, including Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Books-A-Million • Borders • Indie Bound • Powells

For more information, visit her website at ellenmeister.com.

–
Visit my website at ellenmeister.com

Connect online at

twitter.com/EllenMeister and facebook.com/EllenMeister.author

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by Thea Atkinson on July 13, 2011  •  Permalink
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Posted by Thea Atkinson on July 13, 2011

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Writer Wednesday exercise is #humor #writing: Paris Hilton gets a Fairy

You may know that in April I spent some time writing flash fiction in different genres and posting them on blogs across the internet, and if you didn’t know that…where the heck were ya? (check the categories dropdown under blogstreak)

I recently had a twitter chat with JH Sked who writes really funny tweets and makes me laugh almost every time. So I told her she should write humour. “I’ll post it on my blog,” I said. Being the writing trooper she is, she agreed. Her resultant post is below and I think it’s pretty durn good…for someone who says she doesn’t write humour. I think she’s pretty happy with stepping outside of her comfort zone, and now she has another piece in her arsenal.

I doubt many of you have attempted humour. I’ve tried it to some small success, but both in flash fiction pieces as I just couldn’t sustain it over the long term. Humor is deadly tough. Even folks with great senses of humour have a hard time being funny on paper.

Some resources that might help:

So the time has come to get you out of YOUR comfort zone. Your exercise today is to

write humour. Or try to. You can use the post below to guide you if you like.

Remember to come back and tell us how it went. The draw for Four Years From Home by Larry Enright is this week, and you KNOW you want a copy. (it’s funny even though it’s a really great mystery) And if you don’t like this exercise, The Writing Network (twitter ID @theladywrites) has a different one you can try. It’s just about getting creative and feeling inspired. Doesn’t matter to me whose exercise you do, just exercise.

Wolfsong by J H Sked

Purchase Wolfsong by JH Sked

Paris Hilton gets a fairy

By JH Sked, author of: Wolfsong

I looked around the room full of funeral attendees, chatting away in animated groups. All of us, the fairies of the world, gathered to the mourn the passing of one of own.

Atkins and Cabbage Soup were chattering  at each other in the corner,  carefully avoided by everyone else in the room. Allie Oops stood some distance away, an expression of utter dismay slowly creeping over her face. I shook my head.  Diet pill manufacturers have a lot to answer for. By the looks of things, having a fairy shit herself at a funeral had just been added to the list.

Paranoia was gabbling away at Conspiracy Theory, then tried to grab his tinfoil hat. Conspiracy shrieked and burst into tears. I turned away to signal  the trolls I’d hired as bouncers – and saw her.

Her.

Paris Hilton.

Mincing into the room on a pair of Jimmy Choo’s and wearing the shortest little black dress possible. She stopped to tickle one of the trolls under his chin and coo as he flexed his abs.

Paparazzi whistled and took a series of pictures, then let Paris head for the buffet.

I grabbed his arm. “What is the human doing here?”

He shrugged, wings flickered in a quick burst of strobe. “It was her fairy that died,” he shrugged. “Besides, I told her it was a photo op.”

“Are you insane?” I hissed. “You can’t bring a human into our world!”

He looked at me, black shades firmly in place. “I thought you’d want to meet the woman who killed one of us,” he said, and nodded at the portrait on the stand in the centre of the buffet. “Took her awhile,” he added. “But I reckon it was her, sure enough. Common Sense just never stood a chance.”

He started towards the table, then turned back. “You know, you’re probably the most powerful one in this room. Think about that.”

I thought it about all afternoon, watching the socialite flutter from diet fairy to drug fairy to sex tape fairy. She said “Like” a lot, and a few other things that made my wings itch.

She avoided Decency as though the fairy carried an STD, which was strange since she’d hugged both Syphillis and Gonoreahea  repeatedly, and gave Chlamidia  an impromptu lap dance at some point after finishing most of a bottle of funeral wine.

I thought about it in the bathroom, carefully adjusting my spanx.  I influence and affect millions throughout the world. Do what you want, unless the liposuction fairy smiles at you, once I’m there, I play for keeps. You will hate me until the day you leave this world.

I re-entered the room, caught Paparazzi’s eye, and nodded. Then I marched over to Paris, who had her face buried in Cocaine’s hair, and pulled her away from the party.

“Like, who are you?” she said, pulling away.

I beamed at her. I’m good at that kind of smile. Sugar and sweetness with no hint of the bitterness to come. “I’m your new fairy,” I said.

“Like, cool. But where are we going?”

I pulled out her schedule. “You have a nightclub booking in an hour. Let’s get you ready, shall we?”

“Cool.”

And as we left the funeral, I heard one of the trolls speak to Paparazzi, following close behind us.

“Who’d the human get assigned to?”

“One of the big guns,” Paparazzi whispered back. “That’s the muffin top fairy.”

-30-

Anomaly by Thea Atkinson

Anomaly has 9 great reviews on Amazon

BTW: from Thea. I love the way JH was able to keep my attention and my pleasure

throughout the piece. I felt as though I was in the ‘in crowd’ with each line. There’s an intimacy to this humor that makes the ending very satisfying. Kudos, JH.

I try to find some humor…albeit dark humor..with J in Anomaly. Feel free to sample

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by Thea Atkinson on June 29, 2011  •  Permalink
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Posted by Thea Atkinson on June 29, 2011

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Do your sex scenes sizzle or fall flat? @bethanyhalle @gpwriter #mywana

Writer Wednesday Exercise

Sex scenes are tough. How hot is too hot? Just exactly what DO you call the necessary bits of anatomy? What if the writing just falls…limp?

Finding the right balance between steamy and corny is my greatest fear. Especially since I write psychological thrillers: to me, everything has to come from the character and be authentic.

I write a sex scene in just about every novel, and I think I’m OK with it—with what I end up with anyway. Anomaly had a very short scene that I thought was critical for J’s character, One Insular Tahiti had a forced sex scene, and Secret Language of Crows had an invisible sex scene.

I’m not a master of erotica like Cassandre Dayne or George Pappas but I’ve learned a couple of little things along the way that have helped me when I needed to write a scene.

  • Just call the anatomy bits what they are (unless you’re writing for one of those pulp romance novels) or at the very least what the ‘character’ would call them.
  • The characters still have to react to one another. It’s not about listing out mechanical acts
  • You don’t have to describe each and every detail. Just the highlights.
  • Stay clear of alliteration
  • Consider rhythm. Ahem. Sex has rhythm. Keep that in mind. And get it right. It doesn’t have to overtly match that of real sex, but it needs to have some sort of scene matching rhythm. Is the encounter a harsh one or is it romantic?
  • Stay away from clichés. If you must use one/or recognize one in the scene, change it to a conceit.

So: your job? Take one of your characters and put him/her in a situation where some sort of sexual encounter is a forgone conclusion. In fact, it is a NECESSARY thing for the evolution of the scene or character. You might not use it in your novel, but you might discover a thing or two about the character that you can use somewhere else. It can be a vanilla style or erotica style or straight out hardcore. Your call. Your writing.

But please come back and comment. Tell us how you made out. Or tell us what your tips to writing these scenes are. Tell us anything. You’ll get entered to win a copy of Larry Enright’s Four Years from Home at the end of June.

A few resources to help you out:

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by Thea Atkinson on June 15, 2011  •  Permalink
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Posted by Thea Atkinson on June 15, 2011

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#WW Exercise at GonzoInk: Pick a genre, any genre #amwriting @larryenright

Pick a genre, any genre. No cheating now.

Literary dog
Scifi juvenile delinquent
Thriller holocost survivor
Mystery soldier
Crime 80 year old widow
Humor wicked witch of the north
Romance 11 year old at fat camp
Chicklit serial killer
Fantasy Boudicca

This week’s exercise is a little different. Pick a genre. See them up there? In my April blogstreak, I had to write a piece of flash fiction for each one (and more. Heavens, what was I thinking?)

Your job is to select a genre. Got one? Good. Now the fun begins. Each genre has a character. that’s the thing in the next column right next to the genre. You can make it the main character or a periphery character, but you have to include it.

Next, Listen to the youtube video below. That is the story’s genesis. What does that mean? Heck, that’s up to you. I’m just providing the exercise, silly.

Feel free to comment below, paste your story, a line from your story, a complaint about the exercise, whatever…and get entered to win a copy of Four Years From Home by Larry Enright at the end of the month.

Now, go. Be creative if you can. Mwah ha ha

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by Thea Atkinson on June 8, 2011  •  Permalink
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Posted by Thea Atkinson on June 8, 2011

http://theaatkinson.wordpress.com/2011/06/08/ww-exercise-at-gonzoink-pick-a-genre-any-genre-amwriting-larryenright/

Writer Wednesday Exercise at GonzoInk plus winner of #ebook draw

It’s Writer Wednesday at GonzoInk and two other things are happening. I thought I’d combine the posts for economy.

 First off: One of my posts two weeks ago was about my cover art for Secret Language of Crows. I asked folks to comment on the evolution of the cover and offered to give away a copy via Smashwords to a random visitor. If you’re interested, the post is here. Well, I drew from the pool of commenters and the happy winner was Mary. She has picked up her copy and is hopefully reading it as I type this.

 Secondly: I thought I’d use the final cover as a jump start for our weekly writing exercise.

Your task: set your oven timer to 10 minutes, look at the picture and freefall whatever comes to mind. If you can’t get going, use the word Secret or Crows as the first word in your freefall and Go Go Go! I’ve pasted in a youtube link to a song from the SLOC writing soundtrack. Hope that helps. It’s from Natalie Imbruglia.

  Please feel free to post excerpts here of what you wrote or direct us to your blog you call home. Comment on anything, just comment and I’ll enter you into a monthly writer Wednesday draw at the end of June.

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by Thea Atkinson on June 1, 2011  •  Permalink
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Posted by Thea Atkinson on June 1, 2011

http://theaatkinson.wordpress.com/2011/06/01/writer-wednesday-exercise-at-gonzoink-plus-winner-of-ebook-draw/

Writer Wednesday Writing Exercise at GonzoInk #poetry

Once upon a time, I took a workshop from Harry Thurston who is described as Canada’s naturalist poet. He was impressive. I’m terrible at poetry; just ask any of my writer friends who  write it. I think I may have written half dozen of them in my time and all very badly.

The workshop was at White Point Beach Resort: a beautiful spot on the South Shore of NS with gorgeous sands and bunnies all around the property. Harry asked us to walk the beach for about ½ an hour and pick up something that ‘spoke’ to us. Then come back with the object, grab a coffee, and wait. That alone, was wonderful. We reassembled with coffees and artifact in hand to our tables and the writing magic began.

He told us that we could use a formula if we liked to help egg on the poet muse. I’m going to share with you what I remember of the formula as it’s pretty cool. Mind you, a stale formula on a writer’s blog page cannot recreate the magic of that workshop in any way, shape, or form. I encourage you to attend any of his workshops if you are able.

  •  First: Describe the object physically. Use as many senses as you like
  • Second: Imagine its history
  • Third: Imagine how it got to the place where you picked it up
  • Fourth: Imagine it’s future.

Poets will be very creative with this formula. As a fiction writer, I was pleased I was able to have a guideline. The results—which we read out loud—were astounding.

Try it out, and feel free to share here or at the very least, tell us what object you picked.

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by Thea Atkinson on May 18, 2011  •  Permalink
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Posted by Thea Atkinson on May 18, 2011

http://theaatkinson.wordpress.com/2011/05/18/writer-wednesday-writing-exercise-at-gonzoink-poetry/

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