Tag: Writing

Follow the Yellow Brain Road

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[found on mindmapping.com]
 
“Mind mapping is a highly effective way of getting information in and out of your brain. Mind mapping is a creative and logical means of note-taking and note-making that literally “maps out” your ideas. 
 
All Mind Maps have some things in common. They have a natural organizational structure that radiates from the center and use lines, symbols, words, color and images according to simple, brain-friendly concepts.
 
Mind mapping converts a long list of monotonous information into a colorful, memorable and highly organized diagram that works in line with your brain’s natural way of doing things.
 
One simple way to understand a Mind Map is by comparing it to a map of a city. The city center represents the main idea; the main roads leading from the center represent the key thoughts in your thinking process; the secondary roads or branches represent your secondary thoughts, and so on. Special images or shapes can represent landmarks of interest or particularly relevant ideas.
 
The Mind Map is the external mirror of your own radiant or natural thinking facilitated by a powerful graphic process, which provides the universal key to unlock the dynamic potential of the brain.*
 

The five essential characteristics of Mind Mapping*:

  • The main idea, subject or focus is crystallized in a central image.
  • The main themes radiate from the central image as ‘branches’.
  • The branches comprise a key image or key word drawn or printed on its associated line.
  • Topics of lesser importance are represented as ‘twigs’ of the relevant branch.
  • The branches form a connected nodal structure.*”
 Mind Mapping graphic

[*found on http://www.mindmapping.com]

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

Show Not Tell

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“If you take a course on writing or attend a writer’s conference, you’ll likely hear the phrase, “Show, don’t tell.” In other words, “show” your readers what is happening, don’t just tell them.

Don’t tell readers what you did; describe doing it.  One of the reasons we tend to tell rather than show is that it’s easier and faster. Showing how to do something requires time and effort. In teaching, it’s easier to tell students what’s wrong with what they did than to show them how to do it right. The latter, however, is more effective.”

-found on Our Daily Bread [www.odb.org]

Who, Which, and That…Oh my!

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[found on wsuonline.weber.edu]

Who, Which, That:

“Do not use which to refer to persons. Use who instead. That, though generally used to refer to things, may be used to refer to a group or class of people.

    • I just saw a boy who was wearing a yellow banana costume.
    • I have to go to math next, which is my hardest class.
    • Where is the book that I was reading?”

[found on http://wsuonline.weber.edu/wrh/words.htm]

Enquire or not to Inquire

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[found on dailywritingtips.com]

“These are two spellings of the same word, which means to seek information about something or to conduct a formal investigation (usually when followed by “into”). The corresponding noun is enquiry or inquiry.

Either spelling can be used, but many people prefer enquire and enquiry for the general sense of “ask”, and inquire and inquiry for a formal investigation:

  • I enquired his name
  • The first enquiry in my inbox today was about lost property.
  • We are going to inquire into the incident.
  • The lawyers asked when the inquiry will be completed.”
[found on http://www.dailywritingtips.com/inquire-vs-enquire]

Active / Passive Voice

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[found on plainlanguage.gov]

What is active/passive voice?

“To know whether you are writing in the active or passive voice, identify the subject of the sentence and decide whether the subject is doing the action or being acted upon.

  • Passive Voice: the subject is the receiver of the action.
    The tax return (subject) was completed (action) before the April 15 deadline by Mr. Doe.
  • Active Voice: the subject does an action to an object.
    Mr. Doe (subject) completed (action) the tax return (object) before the April 15 deadline.

When we write in the passive voice, we add some form of the helping verb “to be” (am, is, are, was, were, being, or been) to an otherwise strong verb that really did not need help.

  • Passive: Additional information (subject) can be obtained (action) by employees from our website.
  • Active: Employees (subject) can obtain (action) additional information (object) from our website.”
[found on http://www.plainlanguage.gov/howto/quickreference/dash/dashactive.cfm]

Writing Prompts

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[found on dailywritingtips.com]

Examples of Writing Prompts

“The following are twenty writing prompts that you could use to spark your imagination. If you want to use one, don’t worry about where the ideas take you or whether what you’ve written is “good”. The point is just to get into the flow of writing. You can come back later and polish if you wish to. [dailywritingtips.com]

    1. It was the first snowfall of the year.
    2. He hadn’t seen her since the day they left High School.
    3. The city burned, fire lighting up the night sky.
    4. Silk.
    5. She studied her face in the mirror.
    6. The smell of freshly-cut grass.
    7. They came back every year to lay flowers at the spot.
    8. The streets were deserted. Where was everyone? Where had they all gone?
    9. This time her boss had gone too far.
    10. Red eyes.
    11. Stars blazed in the night sky.
    12. He woke to birdsong.
    13. ‘Shh! Hear that?’ ‘I didn’t hear anything.’
    14. He’d always hated speaking in public.
    15. She woke, shivering, in the dark of the night.
    16. The garden was overgrown now.
    17. He’d never noticed a door there before.
    18. She’d have to hitch a ride home.
    19. ‘I told him not to come back too!’
    20. His feet were already numb. He should have listened.”

[found on http://www.dailywritingtips.com/writing-prompts-101]