Short stories. Marketing. News reporting. Poetry. Business proposals. Literary fiction. Technical writing. Blogs.
There are a ton of different kinds of writing out there, each strikingly different from others, and each different kind requires different writing rules.
How do you make your readers cry?
I promise this post won’t be a downer. What it will be (hopefully) is really useful advice on how to portray the stages grief—and in the process, maybe encourage you to continue creating even during your own personal sorrow.
Have you ever felt desperate? Not desperate to find disposable diapers at midnight when you realized you just used the last one and your baby has diarrhea? And not desperate to find your car keys. I mean desperate to find a way for your hero to escape the wooden box sinking in the middle of the ocean desperate.
As your character sinks to the bottom of the ocean, and as the air supply at the top of the wooden box gets smaller you grab your head in your hands and pace the floor frantic to save your hero’s life before his air supply runs out.
You try jumping jacks to stimulate oxygen to your brain. You do a google search for ideas to break writer’s block and then do you everything they suggest.
As writers, a good portion of our time seems to be dedicated to waiting. You wait to hear back from agents, you wait for contest results, you wait on e-mail replies, you wait for your critique partners to read your projects, etc. And if you’re like me and aren’t the most patient person, the waiting can be hard.
A pitch session is a five to ten minute period of uninterrupted time with an agent. Here’s how to make the most of that opportunity.
I’ve started a new novel, as in a blank page 1 in need of 275 – 400 more pages written to be complete. I’m lucky, because this book is second in a series, so I already have the plot and framework in mind (sort of ). I just require about 70,000+ more words to fill in the blanks.
It’s so simple, but difficult to do.
Fortunately, I’ve completed four other novels and will publish book #4 later this year. I’m trying to apply what I’ve learned in the past to remain more sane this go-round. Let’s discuss three pitfalls I’ve learned with first drafts.
