book trailer workshop
Posted in inspiration, linktopia on Feb 23rd, 2010
Djmills pointed me to this excellent workshop on creating book trailers at Happy Endings. The posts go up weekly, with three more to go. Check it out.
Category Archive for 'inspiration'
7 ways for a writer to play
Posted in inspiration on Feb 3rd, 2010
1. Write a scene or a short story in a different genre. Take a stab at a mystery if you write literary fiction, try romance if you usually write military scifi.
2. Set a dialog-heavy scene (a couple arguing, the hero finally catching up to the villain who betrayed him) in an unusual locale (like the [...]
Magical Miss M
Posted in creativity, inspiration, kids at play on Jan 16th, 2010
The tagline of this blog is “writer at play”, but my attitude towards my literary endeavors is more akin to steely-eyed clenched-teeth fortitude these days. I was eyeball-deep in one set of revisions for a couple months; I have since waded into yet another novel revision. While revisions do have their moments of mountain-high elation, [...]
a date, a date!
Posted in inspiration, personal on Dec 19th, 2009
Earlier this week, David and I went out for a date, our first in at least two years (I think the last time we went out was when we left the kids–only had the older two at the time–with their Grampa and went to see the first Transformers in the theater). We had a friend [...]
Happy Thanksgiving
Posted in inspiration on Nov 26th, 2009
After a long day of companiable cooking, recipes that turned out great, generally cheerful children, and lots of dishes, I’m pleasantly full and tired. But it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without giving thanks. As a writer, I am grateful for:
My husband, who has always supported my writing habit, and who didn’t even blink when I told [...]
eureka!
Posted in inspiration, short stories on Sep 23rd, 2009
Last night, I started to think of a story for an upcoming anthology I want to submit to. It wasn’t a new idea, but it snuck into my head with a first paragraph, a hard-edged character, and emotions–emotions tight-dammed behind walls of concrete, emotions desolate and sweeping like winds on the tundra, emotions as despairing [...]
Visual Inspiration #4
Posted in inspiration on Aug 31st, 2009
(Click on the links for parts one, two, and three.)
This workshop requires the use of a good visual dictionary. I have the DK Ultimate Visual Dictionary, but the Merriam-Webster one looks pretty nice, too.
Flip through the book, stopping at pages that interest you. Take a moment to study each double-spread, enjoy the images, read the [...]
Visual Inspiration #3
Posted in inspiration on Aug 12th, 2009
I enjoy objects that are both beautiful and functional, thereby pleasing my aesthetic and practical sides. For this Visual Inspiration mini-workshop, I’m using three-dimensional arts and artifacts–furnishings, statues, pottery, plate settings, jewelry boxes, mirrors, masks, and more–to spark story ideas. Check out the Smithsonian website for tons of art to browse through. Pick something (or [...]
Visual Inspiration #2
Posted in inspiration on Aug 2nd, 2009
This is the second in my Visual Inspiration series–an intentional way of immersing yourself in images, giving your right brain plenty of opportunity to come up with ideas. Today I’m going to talk about using collages to spark a story. This is fun because you get to do, not just look. Get some scissors, a [...]
Visual Inspiration #1
Posted in inspiration, pretty pictures on Jul 27th, 2009
My right brain is a magpie. It likes pretty pictures and shiny things. It thrives on drama, loves to touch things it shouldn’t, plays in the sand, is fascinated/repulsed by fungi and gets very excited over news reports of giant squids. Since this is where some of my best writing and my neatest ideas come [...]