Tag: fiction

We don’t need no stinkin’ italics!

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[found on grammar.quickanddirtytips.com]
Did you know…when you italicize a word or phrase,  the following punctuation should NOT be in italics?
Here are some more fun facts:
“…a medium-sized list of things you probably should italicize. Just be sure to double-check the style guide you’re supposed to use, as rules vary. Here goes:
      • foreign words not yet assimilated into English—more on that later;
      • legal citations;
      • letters of the alphabet when you’re referring to them as letters;
      • scientific names;
      • titles of works, including books, plays, short stories, very long poems, newspapers, and magazines;
      • titles of movies and radio and television series;
      • names of operas and long musical compositions;
      • and names of paintings and sculptures (1).
      • You might also be asked to italicize the names of famous speeches, the titles of pamphlets, the names of vehicles (such as Challenger), and words used as words (2).”
[found on http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/how-to-use-italics.aspx]

Bitter writer? Or Better writer?

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[found on goinswriter.com]

“Anyone who writes is a writer, but that doesn’t mean they’re a very good one. So let’s talk about how to become a better writer. We’ll begin with the basics — here are seven key lessons:

    • Writing is simple, but not easy.
    • Before you get a larger audience, you have to get better.
    • Practice makes you better; it’s the repetitions that make it effortless.
    • Until you put your work out there, you’re only screwing around. Write for real.
    • You can’t practice without discipline. Keep showing up and persevering.
    • There will always be resistance; type through it, anyway.
    • Get over your excuses and do the work.”

[found on http://goinswriter.com/writing-tips]

George Orwell Asks Before Writing…Do You?

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[found on writingclasses.com]

 “A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus:

    1. What am I trying to say?
    2. What words will express it?
    3. What image or idiom will make it clearer?
    4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?

And he will probably ask himself two more:

    1. Could I put it more shortly?
    2. Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?

One can often be in doubt about the effect of a word or a phrase, and one needs rules that one can rely on when instinct fails. I think the following rules will cover most cases:

    1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
    2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
    3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
    4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
    5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
    6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.”   

[found on http://www.writingclasses.com/InformationPages/index.php/PageID/300]**

Ending Soon: Publishing Package CONTEST!!!!!

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There’s not much time left to enter!

A Book’s Mind is having a Back Cover Battle!
 
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO??
      1. Write your book’s summary.
      2. Submit it.
      3. You could win a Basic Publishing Package!

HURRY! The contest ends June 15th!

Make sure and tell A Book’s Mind that Editing Addict sent you!

Our ABM coupon code is B012.

 

Jot It, Don’t Thought It

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“The more you write, the more ideas you are going to generate.  It’s inescapable; as your brain gets used to being creative, you’re going to create, and probably many more ideas than you need.  And at some point later, you’ll be able to use those ideas.  But only if you catch them.  It is essential to get your ideas recorded permanently as soon as possible after you think of them.  The longer you wait, the more the idea will fade, and the less will remain when you finally are ready to take it down.  This means you have to be able to take your ideas down wherever you are….
 
However you decide to capture your ideas, you must do so as soon as possible.  Immediately, if you can.  This applies even at night–perhaps even more so at night.  At no time is an idea likely to be more vivid than at night, and at no time is it likely to fade faster.  If you wake up in the middle of the night to a great idea, you really need to write it down.  Get yourself a drink of water, jot the thing down as completely as you can, and go back to sleep.  In the morning you will be in a much better position to judge whether the idea holds any real promise.  This is much better than waking up certain that you had the inspiration for the next Great American Novel last night–and now you can’t remember what it was!”  
-found on http://www.pgtc.com/~slmiller/writing-tips-ideas.htm
 
IDEAS FOR JOTTING YOUR THOUGHTS…while you still have them:
      • Use the technology you have been blessed with today!
        • SmartPhones / iPods / Tablets / Laptops / Desktops…
          • Type Note Apps
          • Hand Writing Apps
          • Voice Recorder Apps
        • Tape Recorder / Micro Recorder
        • Voice Mail
          • Call and leave yourself (or a friend) a message
        • Email / Text / IM / Social Media / Blog
          • Send yourself a quick text
          • Send yourself a quick email
          • Post an idea
        • Any other idea you can think of to use (safely)
      • Use the old-school tools you  have….we all know you still have them:
        • Pen / paper
          • Keep in the car with you
          • Keep in your purse / wallet
          • Keep by your bed
          • Keep in the bathroom (use responsibly!)
          • Keep by the TV
          • Take with you on walks
        • Typewriter (not all have this one, some will need to look it up, it’s in the dictionary)
        • Any other idea you can think of to use (safely)

 

Trouble Your Readers Effectively

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“The Inciting Incident as a Trigger

The inciting incident is the crucial event—the trouble—that sets the whole story in motion. It triggers the initial surface problem and starts to slowly expose the protagonist’s story-worthy problem. Now, the protagonist won’t fully realize the extent of his story-worthy problem in the opening scene, so the initial surface problem has to be so compelling that it forces him to take immediate action. The protagonist’s understanding of his story-worthy problem, then, will grow clearer to him as a direct result of what he goes through in his journey to resolve it.
Also keep in mind that each of the protagonist’s attempts to resolve the initial and subsequent surface problems must end in failure. There can be partial victories, but once an action ends in success, the story is effectively over. Success, in this case, means that all the problems are resolved. That cannot happen until the final scene of the story.
So, if we were to broadly outline the shape of a publishable story—the inciting incident and all its intertwined surface and story-worthy problems—it would look something like this:
    • The inciting incident creates the character’s initial surface problem and introduces the first inklings of the story-worthy problem.
    • The protagonist takes steps to resolve the initial surface problem.
    • The outcome of the major action the protagonist takes to resolve the initial surface problem is revealed, triggering a new surface problem. The scope of the protagonist’s story-worthy problem continues to unfold.
    • The outcome of the major action the protagonist takes to resolve the additional surface problem is revealed, and yet another surface problem is created. The story-worthy problem continues to become more apparent to the protagonist, as well as to the reader.
    • Another outcome is revealed, and more surface problems are created. The story-worthy problem continues to become clearer.
    • All lingering surface problems are resolved, and the story-worthy problem is fully realized. The resolution of the story-worthy problem is represented by both a win and a loss for the protagonist…..”
-found on http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/there-are-no-rules/write-fiction-that-grabs-readers-from-page-one

Implement a Writing Schedule

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[found on fictionwriting.about.com]
“Carve out a time to write and then ignore the writer’s block. Show up to write, even if nothing comes right away. When your body shows up to the page at the same time and place every day, eventually your mind — and your muse — will do the same. Graham Greene famously wrote 500 words, and only 500 words, every morning. Five hundred words is only about a page, but with those mere 500 words per day, Greene wrote and published over 30 books.”

How to Write Fiction: Ernest Hemingway

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[found on openculture.com]

Ernest Hemingway’s tip on How to Write Fiction (from openculture.com)

 “To get started, write one true sentence. Hemingway had a simple trick for overcoming writer’s block. In a memorable passage in A Moveable Feast, he writes:

“Sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get it going, I would sit in front of the fire and squeeze the peel of the little oranges into the edge of the flame and watch the sputter of blue that they made. I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, “Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there. It was easy then because there was always one true sentence that I knew or had seen or had heard someone say. If I started to write elaborately, or like someone introducing or presenting something, I found that I could cut that scrollwork or ornament out and throw it away and start with the first true simple declarative sentence I had written.” “

[found on http://www.openculture.com/2013/02/seven_tips_from_ernest_hemingway_on_how_to_write_fiction.html]