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A couple months ago I wanted to try something new, mix things up a bit. My wife suggested I write my next novel in real-time, for all the world to see. Grammar trolls be damned. After a day to think about it, I said I’d do it.
I was a little scared before I started, and humbled when it began, but in one more day I’ll be done with the first draft and I’ve harvested some great lessons along the way. Here’s what I’ve learned from writing a novel “LIVE”, and why you might want to try it too.
Have you ever experienced the pains of being bullied? Did you cry for hours like I did? Did you feel you’d never rise again? If so you’re self-esteem and confidence has been damaged. You don’t feel like you’re good enough. I’m here to tell you that you’re wrong.
Yesterday, we learned a great tip for following the essential writing advice, “Show, Don’t Tell.” Today, we’re going to continue to work on showing instead of telling with this writing prompt.
We’ve all heard a variation of the advice: Show, Don’t Tell. In other words, don’t tell us what happened, show us. But how do you know you’ve succeeded?
One of my favorite things to do is freewrite. I love it, for so many different reasons. For the most part, I love it because it’s freeing, just like the name implies. But there are three specific cases when it can be especially helpful.
There I was, in the middle of my first novel. I’d found my rhythm and was bringing chapters to read aloud to my weekly critique group. They were loving it. I was thrilled that I was finally making my dream come true.
Then, WHAMMO!
Out of nowhere, I lost my story. Nothing I wrote flowed anymore.
So you need to get a word count for the latest chapter of your novel or an essay assignment for school? Don’t worry, here are three easy-to-use tools to count your words.
I think movies get a bad rap. I’m a little tired of hearing readers moan about how awful the movie adaptation was for so-and-so book.
I get it. Nothing’s as good as the book…but come on. Imagine having to cram a 700-page novel into a 90-minute movie. Yowza!
Instead of whining about it, let’s talk about how movies can inspire you and improve your writing.
I remember one of my teachers at one point in my schooling mentioning that there is a balance between the good days and the bad days you’ll get. The exact phrasing used to express this idea was “Some days you get the elevator, some days you get the shaft.” Morbid, perhaps, but it’s a saying that has stuck with me since then. I really like similarly structured euphemisms and turns of phrase, and I just learned the name for them: isocolon.
Memoirs and autobiographies or even television interviews are great ways to understand why people do the things they do, and why people are the way they are.