Close Third-Person is important tool to have in your kit. This is a chance for the reader to become intimate with the characters. And if done correctly, you can enter the natural vernacular seamlessly.
We all face a point in our writing careers when we feel the heavy weight of writer’s block crushing our muse. We all have moments where we want to write but can’t because nothing comes to mind. Well, nothing that we consider worthwhile that is.
About a decade ago, I had the good fortune to read a screenwriting book called How to Write for Animation by Jeffrey Scott. Unlike most screenwriting books, Scott hardly mentions story theory; instead, he focuses on teaching a very practical writing process. I applied his methods in my own work, and was amazed at how helpful they were. In fact, Scott’s book turned out to be one of the three most helpful professional books I’ve read.
Although many people believe the best way to battle writers block is to sit down and fight through it, I like to kick-start things with an activity that lights me up, gets me giddy, and puts me in the right place to write my best stuff.
Here are sixteen activities that can help you tap into the creative part of the brain and get you jazzed to put pen to paper. Many of them are completely unrelated to writing, but in my experience that’s the best way to beat writers’ block. Bookmark it for the next time you’re out of creative juice!
A few days ago I was at TEDx Yerevan, which as always was a very uplifting experience. I’ve been there before, but this time was different because a my life had gone through an important change over the past year.
During coffee breaks and lunch, the most common question asked was, “So what do you do?” At the conference in 2012, when people asked me what I did, my answer was more complicated. I had quit my job and at that point just started writing Highfall—my first novel. Maybe that is why I answered with insecure phrases, such as “I am trying to write,” “I write a bit,” and “I want to be a writer.”
Sound familiar?
