Music for Your Writing

I personally cannot write without music. It keeps me focused, gets me in the mood of the scene, and drowns out all the distracting noises.

Now, music serves a few purposes in my writing process. I have a playlist dedicated to each of my major human characters, of songs they would like. I made customized playlists for them on Spotify. It took about an hour, but it was so worth it. After all, like the picture says, your character's music will tell you you more about him/her than you ever could.

Then I have my scene playlists. I have a playlist for angry/fight scenes, sad scenes, and happy scenes. These help me get into the mood of the scene, and identify with my characters' feelings. 

This is just what I do with my music. Some writers can't stand music. But if you like music, I recommend this system, or something like it. Happy listening, and writing!

Write What You Don't Know

(I'm currently writing this with a lizard on my shoulder, so forgive any typos)

So, you're looking at the title of this post, going, "Whaaaaaaat?" The conventional wisdom is to write what you know. But this can be extremely limiting. You might be a cranky middle school student, or a seventy year-old. How, then, can you write a teen romance with lots of unicorns? 

An English teacher might tell you to write something else, something you have a personal connection to, like life in middle school or a nursing home. But you really want to write about those teenagers and unicorns. 

Well, I'm here to tell you that you can write that romance, even if you've never seen a unicorn or been a teenager in love. The trick is to use what you do know to write what you don't know. 

You've never fallen in love? Sure you have! You may not have been in love, but you love your family. You love your pets, and your friends. And unicorns are just horses with horns, and rainbows. You can draw on what you know about love for your friends and family to write love between two teens. And you've probably seen one of those sappy horse movies; you can use what you know about those horses to base your unicorns off of. 

So use what you know, and what you don't know, to create great literature. Or just a teen romance novel 😈.

Writing Believable Dialogue

Believe it or not, people don't speak as they ought to. Perfect grammar does not apply to real-world conversations.

Some characters will use proper grammar, but, unless you're writing about a royal family in the 1800s, these characters should be few and far  between, because, in real life, people who use perfect grammar are few and far between. A character's grammar and tone must be consistent with his background: the time period and place he live(d) in, his family, his education, and his personality. You should also consider who the character is speaking to. A character will speak differently to his mother than to his girlfriend.

For example, your main character, Terrence, is a rich kid who hates his parents and secretly leads the most notorious gang in town. Terrence isn't going to say to his gang, "would you lively fellows like to incapacitate the mayor this fine evening?" He's going to say, "Hey, how's  bout we go beat up mayor Bradford tonight?"

Now Terrence is back at home. He's going to have to lie about where he's been. This should change the way he speaks as well. So he won't say to his mother, "Oh, I was just out playing ball with some guys from school." The fact that he is lying will put a fearful edge into his voice. He might say, "Oh, I was, ah, playing football. With some guys from school. You know."

Finally, Terrence has got himself a girlfriend. He wants to impress her, so he lays on the charm. He should speak to her like this: "Hey, baby. You look nice tonight. Your dress makes your eyes look like..."

Okay, so I have no idea how guys talk to girls when they want to impress them. The idea of this insanely long-winded post is that your character's dialogue should reflect their personality and situation. Don't have them all speak the way your English teacher wants you to.

Happy writing!

Looking For a Beta Reader?

First and foremost, a little news-- I'm on Twitter now. Check me out here. If you're coming here from Twitter, you can ignore this little update, but I wanted to put it out there for everyone else.

Now, to business. I'm looking to be a beta reader, because that sounds like the most fun ever. If you have a work in progress that needs beta reading (and every manuscript does) ], I'll be happy to critique at least part of it for you. I'm only a ninth grader, but I give writing advice every day, so I'd say I'm pretty qualified for the job. 

If you don't want me to be your beta reader, you're going to need to go on the internet and find someone who is

• Honest-- Praise is great, but if your beta reader (We'll call him Bob for simplicity's sake) gives your awful manuscript a glowing review, you'll be happy to send it off to a publisher, only to get it rejected like a kale and steamed broccoli salad.
• Kind-- Bob had better let you down easy. If he tells you outright that your manuscript is a kale and steamed broccoli salad, you'll probably cry until your tear ducts fall out. You want a Bob who has mastered the art of the compliment sandwich.
• In your target audience-- If Bob is a crotchety, sixty year-old accountant, you won't show him your YA book about a girl and her unicorn. You'll want to show it to a younger beta reader (we'll call her Annie) who loves unicorns. Annie will tell you what she wants in the book on behalf of all teenage girls with a passion for unicorns, and will recommend the book to her friends. Even if Bob does like unicorns, he won't tell his friends about the book, because they're probably also ancient accountants, and they probably don't like unicorns. Annie will be a better beta reader from both an artistic and marketing standpoint. 
• Qualified-- Bob, if he's an accountant like we had him in the last scenario, won't know a thing about creative writing, because he's never done any of it before. You'll want an experienced and avid writer, or at least a critically thinking reader, to evaluate your book. Let's call this reader Joanne. She can see right through your surface content to the bare bones of your plot. She can see the holes, and give you ideas on how to patch them. She can ask the important questions, like, "Why does your antagonist do this nice thing?" or, "Do you really need a love interest at all?" She can give you advice, like, "The nice thing your antagonist did should be given more significance, so that readers will sympathize with him," or, "The love interest gets in the way; you should replace her. That'll take out some of your major plot points, but that could be a good thing, as it'll quicken your book's pace and keep the central conflict central."

Whew! That's a lot of qualifiers! Where do you find a person that ticks all of those boxes? 

Well, you could take the easy route and give your manuscript to me. I promise I'll be the best beta reader you'll ever have.

But if you don't want to do that, there are millions of people online. At least one of them will want to read your book.

Another thing-- you'll need about five to twenty beta readers to get accurate criticism."WHAT!?!?!!?!?!?" Yes, five to twenty. But you can do it. Find some Bobs, some Annies, and best of all, some Joannes, and listen to or read carefully their critiques. This will improve your manuscript, I promise.

Happy writing!  

Style, Mood, and Tone

We've all heard of these. But what are they, what do they mean to you, and how do they affect your writing?

First of all, there's style. This is simply the way you write. Your writing style is the unique way you commit your vision of the world to the page. Style is choosing one word over another. Style is putting something humorous where others wouldn't. In short, style is "mak[ing] something that has not heretofore been made." (Ernest Hemingway). Don't try to copy someone else's writing style. you'll end up sounding like a fake, a cheap imitation. Stay true to your writing style, and your manuscript will thank you for it.

Then there's Tone. This is the overall, well, tone, of your book. Your book could be serious, lighthearted, sarcastic, indifferent, rude-- all the kinds of tones that we use in everyday conversation. When your narrator speaks, they have a tone that they use. The tone should be consistent with your theme and throughout the book. For example, if you're writing a satire, a sarcastic or humorous tone would suit it best.A drama must be serious, and a book about children who travel to a magical land should have a tone that reflects their sense of wonder, and maybe a little confusion.

Sometimes your tone can swallow your text. Think of a really insecure and rude narrator who says something like, "I'm going to tell a story, and you'd better not make fun of it. Maybe I wasn't some perfect hero, but I did my best and that's what matters, okay, so don't go telling all your friends how stupid I am." Etcetera. Just get to the story. Your tone isn't as important as the content of your story.

And, finally, there's mood. The mood is the way you portray how your characters feel. You can set a mood for a scene the way restaurants set a romantic mood for valentine's day. They dim the lights, put roses and scented candles everywhere, and turn on some classical music. You can do the same thing, but for any mood. Want a scary mood? Turn out the lights, break a window or two, scatter some blood on the tile, and turn the thermostat to "Antarctica". A joyful mood? Bright sunlight, a field of flowers, and a kiss or two between characters your readers have shipped the entire book. You get the idea.

Keep on writing, and have fun! See you tomorrow!

  

Starting a Daily Writing Habit

Writing is a full-time job. And if you skip a "real" full-time job, you'll get fired. You have to write every day, for one reason: you'll lose momentum. When you don't write, your book slowly slips out of your mind. Keeping up a daily writing habit keeps your book fresh in your mind.

Now, you need to find your time and place. I already talked about this in an earlier post, so go and check that out. 

After you've picked your time and place, go there every day. I mean every day. Never skip a day. (If you do, it's not a big deal, but you should at least try to write even just a little every day.) 

A good website/app for building habits is Habitica. It'll tell you how it works, so I'm not going to. 

So write every day, and have fun doing it!

Cliches, Tropes, and Stereotypes.

So your cast of characters consists of a pretty blonde mean-girl, a sassy black kid, a hot russian assassin, and a mad scientist. Your antagonist has a black curlicue mustache, and keeps kidnapping your protagonist's love interest because.. jealousy or something. Your protag. is a "Chosen One." And your plot twist is a fatal illness. These are all cliches, tropes, and stereotypes. And they do NOT belong in your story. You'll bore your reader to sleep.

So how do you fix this? You need to keep your assassin, or your scientist, or your jealous antagonist. And you can keep them. You just need to change them.

Let's use our hot russian assassin as an example. She's really cool, but since when does she need to be russian, or hot? If it's not integral to the plot that she's russian, like if the villain is a mythical russian creature that only she has information on, then she can literally be from anywhere. My assassin, for instance, is from an imaginary country in the Amazon rainforest. And if we don't need her to be attractive, why bother making her look good? She can have acne, scars (definitely scars), anything you like. 

Now you have an ugly, South American assassin. Boom, cliche solved. You can do this with all your cliched or trite characters or plots. Just a few changes are all you need to change an old idea to a fresh new one. 



And, because text can be boring, here's a picture that shows another example of breaking a stereotype. 

My Dragon!

                                         
This is my new bearded dragon, Athena. Just got her literally two hours
ago. Isn't she cute!

My Writing Buddy!

I posted a few days ago about writing buddies. Now I officially have my own!She's my grandma, and she's a great writer. She wrote a book called For the Love of Chocolate. Check out her website, tanalovett.com. 

A Prolouge

Lots of people have prologues. And most of them have problems with their prologue. The two biggest problems are that some prologues are irrelevant, and some are too relevant to put outside the story. I'll be covering both of these problems.

I'm going to talk about the latter problem first, because it's one that I've actually had. My prologue was so important to the story, I couldn't risk having people skip over it. People skip prologues all the time. And they might miss something big if you put it in your prologue. The kind of obvious solution is to include your prologue in your first chapter. As long as it;s important. If it isn't, keep it in prologue form.

Now, if your prologue is something like "Long ago in a far away land, [the entire history of your world]." Then you have a problem. This is just an info dump, and ain't nobody got time fo dat. Cut it, and scatter the history through your book. 

One more thing: if your prologue is in a vague, omniscient point of view, with lots of things left unexplained, I refuse to read it. I just refuse. This style is just off-putting, and while some people are into it, I find it a cheap substitute for suspense. Give me a scene with a point of view, a narrator, and a point.

I don't have a lot of experience with prologues, so this is the extent of my advice. But I hope it helps. 

Naming Your Characters

So you've got this idea for a great story. But who's in it? You've got an idea for a character, but you don't know what to name them. They're a feeble, humble little character, and her working name is Xena. That's a big no-no. She needs a name that fits her personality.

"But how do I find one?" You're asking. I recommend babynames.com, where you can pick an origin for the name you want, the gender of the name, and/or the first or last letter(s) of the name. Then a list of names will come up, and you can look at the meaning of the names. For example, our weak little girl shouldn't be named Emily, which means "To Excel". She needs a name like Violet, which literally just means "A blue/purple flower."

"But I knew a Violet who was mean to me. I don't feel like I should write a little girl named after that big bully." So pick another name. If you can't picture your little girl as a Violet, make her a Hazel or a Lily. There are literally millions of names, pick one that fits your character.

Remember that you have to take into account both the meaning of the name and the culture of your character. A boy from Cuba wouldn't be called Anya (a russian girls' name) or Menefer (an egyptian name).

So start researching now. And have fun doing it. Fiddle with names for as long as you like, until you find the perfect name.

How to Face the Revision Mountain

So, you've gotten to the end of your manuscript. You skip a few spaces, type, "The End," and now what? Do you send it off to a publisher immediately? Of course not. Chances are, your first draft is gonna be pretty awful. Which is why you need to revise.

Now, everybody tackles this differently. Some people revise as they go along, so they don't have to deal with a mountain of revision at the end of the book. This is fine, but I feel that revising as you write is like trying to do your homework while watching a movie. You'll get caught up in the story and won't be able to keep working on moving forward. You'll think you have to get it perfect before you can move on, and that narrow way of thinking can be very limiting. So instead, slap some words on the page and tell yourself, "maybe it isn't perfect, but I can always fix it later."

Now is later. 

So you look back through your manuscript, whether it's five pages or four hundred, and you think to yourself, "I have a mountain of work to do. How in the world will I be able to do it all?"

The answer is setting a daily goal to revise as much as you can comfortably manage. Just like with your word count goals, which are important, you'll set a goal to revise x number of pages. And you're going to revise said pages, day after day, until you look back and realize that you're at the top of your revision mountain, looking down at how far you've come. 

Your second draft will probably stink too. But it'll stink less. And You'll just keep revising until it emits a nice, pleasant aroma. 

Similes and Metaphors-- How, When, and Why to Use Them.

For all you kids who haven't learned about similes and metaphors yet, or the adults who forgot because school was a long time ago; similes and metaphors are basically comparisons. A simile compares two things by saying: "The deer was as graceful as a ballerina," or "The deer was graceful, like a ballerina." Basically, to spot a simile, look for the words like and as. A metaphor is a little more complicated. An example of a metaphor might be: "The deer pranced through the forest, a ballerina on a moonlit stage." That's not a good metaphor, but it makes the point I want it to. A metaphor is an implied comparison.
A metaphor can be used for the same purpose as a simile-- to make an image clearer-- or lots of other things. For example, in my upcoming novel, two evil characters are playing chess. (Well, they're not evil, just misunderstood.) One uses a black pawn to topple the white king. This is a metaphor for how he'll take the throne of the other character's home planet. 

A metaphor can be a sentence, an image, a dream, even a whole book. As long as you're using something to mean something else, you're writing a metaphor.

So similes and metaphors are great. But when do you use them? And why?

When to use them? Well, some people say you should only have one comparison per page. I'm inclined to disagree. But they have a point. Too many comparisons and your readers will just get confused. My rule of thumb is that when just describing something doesn't draw a clear enough picture, you need a comparison to help readers form the correct image.

Why? Well, here's why. You've just written: "The man was very tall, but walked with his shoulders hunched in an awkward shuffle. His skin was pale, almost gray, and his face was covered in stitches and bruises. He had black hair and moaned a lot. His eyes stared at nothing." Why not compress that down into, "The man looked like Frankenstein,"? You'll save a lot of space, and you'll put a clearer picture into your readers' heads.

Thanks for reading! Happy writing!

A Writing Buddy

Update from last night: raspberry and mint tea is amazing. Try it sometime.

So, every writer feels differently about sharing their work. Some people share everything they write before it's even on the page. Some people (like me) don't want to show a word to anybody until it's absolutely perfect. But I feel that everyone needs a writing buddy. 
What I call a writing buddy is someone who you can read your work aloud together, scribble on each other's work with colorful pens together, stress over NaNoWriMo together-- basically write and rewrite and write again together. A writing buddy will give you encouragement, spot mistakes you overlook, and understand those #writerlife moments. 
Picking a writing buddy is going to be kind of a hard process. First, you have to find a writer. Then, you have to find a nice writer. Then you have to make friends with said nice writer (Either online or in person). Then you have to be willing to take constructive criticism.
Constructive criticism will feel a little mean at first. If someone points out that your baby's head is big, you'll be offended. And your writing is your baby. What you have to realize is that the person who points out the flaws in your writing is only in it to help you (unless they aren't, in which case, drop them and find a new writing buddy). They want to improve your story, not put it down. Take their advice, examine it, and see if you need to take it. You shouldn't throw out every bit of criticism, but that doesn't mean you need to make every change your writing buddy suggests. They can be wrong, after all.
So go out, make some writer friends, get a writing buddy, and have fun writing with them!

Finding Your Place and Time to Write

Writing anywhere and everywhere is great and all, but I've found that I can rarely get out more than a paragraph or two out when I have other things to do. Writing in starts and stops, little by little, won't get you anywhere. You need a place and time to sit down, write until your fingers want to fall off, and then write some more.
Well, how does one go about that? The first thing you need to do is find a place. Take your laptop or notebook all over your house, all over town if you have to, and see where you feel most comfortable. Give each place ten minutes and write as much as you can. Take note of how much you wrote, how much you enjoyed it, and the quality of your work. A 1-to-10 scale works great for this. 
Once you have your place, set your time. When are you least busy? When do you feel most inspired? When does your chosen writing place inspire you most? Experiment with different times until you find the right one.
Now, make it clear to your friends and family that you'll be going to your place at your time every day. Don't let them disturb you. Treat your writing time like any other appointment, because it's just as important (some, like me, would say more important)as a dentist's appointment. This is your thing. Do your thing at your time, in your place, for maximum doing of the thing. 

This is my workspace. The time is almost 1 A.M. The thermos is currently empty, but I'm heating up water to make raspberry/mint tea (a frankenstein-style combination I'm trying for the first time tonight.) And my laptop, is of course, where I keep everything. It's a simple setup, but effective.

So You Have No Clue What To Write....

Well, neither do I. So I whip out my handy-dandy list of prompts (Which I'm just going to make up right now) and start working. Here are a list of prompts for every kind of writer's block:

Story Starters

"There he was. The one. The first boy she would ever kill."

"My timer broke a long while ago. But I don't care."

"My stupid unicorn refuses to heal me."

"After such a long time, she wondered if she'd ever see them again. She hoped not."

"This would have been the most cliche story in the history of the multiverse, if it wasn't for the three-headed dog that fell from the sky during math class."

"The dome is completely sealed. I never would have imagined that one night, I'd see something on the outside-- but I did."

What happens Next

"Gunshot"

"I woke to the sound of the the five o'clock news. [insert name here] laughed. 'Get up, lazybones,' he said. 'You're on TV.'"

"'I think it was me.'"

"He raised the staff, and I felt my mind go blank."

"'It's true', said a voice."

"Suddenly, the world became black and white. I rolled my eyes. 'This is the third time this week.'"

"'I had a dream this was would happen,' she said quietly."

A Strong Ending

"'You know what, maybe you're right.'"

"It doesn't matter what happened next. And by that I mean, that because of the the laws of death, I'm not allowed to tell you."


"Then he got in his car and drove away. I turned and went into the house, a PB&J the only thing on my mind."

"It'll happen. But not to us. I'll make sure of that."


I'm going to use three of these in a short story, because I feel like it. 




My timer broke a long while ago. But I don't care. I don't need a soulmate. I'd prefer a best friend, but those aren't real. 
I was at the grocery store, looking around at the happy couples. I knew they were only really happy because they could see in color. Those without their soulmate only see in black and white. and me-- I see a little of both. I read in a book about earth in the 21st century, and they had these animals called dogs who could see a few colors, but not all of them. That's how I see. Sometimes I can see in better color than in others. And today, for the third time that week, the world switched back to black and white. 
"Come on!" I shouted. Heads turned, but I didn't care "Not again!"
A man walked up to me. He seemed different. He looked perfectly normal, but-- in color. His hair was a vibrant turquoise. His skin was a fancy word called mahogany. His tee-shirt was purple, with pink skulls. His eyes shone like sapphires. 
"You okay?" He asked.
"You-- you're in color." 
"Isn't everyone?"
I stared at him. He was at least a foot taller than me, so I had to take a step back. "What do you mean? Your timer is broken." I pointed to the smashed screen on his wrist.
"The secret to seeing in color," he said, "Is breaking your timer. you forget you need a soulmate. You make it a point to love everyone. And someday, you'll meet someone you love more than anyone, not someone Fate told you to meet."
"How do I start?" I marveled at all the colors.
"Just look around. Think nice thoughts about--" he turned and pointed. "That woman there, with the pink hair. Isn't that a great color?"
I looked at the woman. I thought of the nicest things I could about her, and suddenly-- boom, I could see. In color. It was almost blinding, the variety of it all. I could see the crisp green of the apples, the soft yellow of the bananas, even the soft orange of my skin. I had never seen color before, and I loved it. I felt like opening my heart and pouring out the colors to the world, showing people that their timer didn't matter, if they just loved everyone. 

So, that story was incredibly sappy, but I had a good time. And that's what really matters in writing. So take some of my ideas and start writing having fun.

My Character Sheets

So in order to get the details of your characters straight, you're going to need to write them down. And to do that, you need a nice, organized character sheet. Here's mine:

Name: 

Nickname: 

Age: 

Appearance: Hair:    Eyes:   Skin: Nose:  Mouth:  Height:  Weight:  Build:  Style of dress:   Posture and movement:

Ethnicity:
 Occupation: 

Education:

Talents/Powers/Abilities: 

Likes:

Dislikes:

Good Points: 

Flaws: 

Fears: 

Hopes:

Backstory:


To show you how to use this method, I made a profile for a randomly generated superhero I made with my dad the other day. Here it is:

Name:Jane Bordeaux

Nickname: Frozen Heart

Age: 16

Appearance: Hair:long, straight, and dark.  Eyes: icy daggers of ebony.  Skin: so white it's blinding. Nose:Short and pointy.  Mouth:Small, and always clamped tightly   Height:5"8'  Weight: 120 lbs Build: slender  Style of dress: wears lots of blue, everything she buys is from Goodwill  Posture and movement:tries not to be noticed

Ethnicity:Russian, but raised in France. Now lives in America
 Occupation: Student by day, superhero by night

Education: high school sophomore 

Talents/Powers/Abilities: Can control ice, very smart

Likes: sleeping in, biology class, her friend Flying Squirrel

Dislikes:Fire, mutant-haters, her parents

Good Points: Fiercely loyal, fights for what she believes in.

Flaws: Chilly, icy, cold, frosty

Fears: Fire

Hopes:To bring about equal rights for mutants.

Backstory: When her real parents got frostbite from touching her, they shipped her in a box to france, where a couple took her in in order to study her powers. She was always rebellious, and when another mutant was put in jail, she joined a protest and accidentally killed a police officer. She ran away to America to escape the consequences.


Feel free to use this character creator sheet, and my example character. Tell me if it worked for you, and share your own character sketches.

Making Likeable Villains (Spoilers)

So you have a protagonist. That means he needs some opposition. This could come in any form, but what we're talking about here is the classic antagonist. When you think of an antagonist, you think of an evil man with a long, curling mustache and a top hat.But antagonists come in all shapes and sizes, and, believe it or not, they need to be as three-dimensional as your protagonist. Why?

Well, another three-dimensional character is another character that your readers can make their own, kind of take under their wing and into their fold of favorite characters. Examples are Marvel's Loki, DC's Clayface, and Rick Riordan's Luke Castellan. All these antagonists have one thing in common-- humanity. We can relate to their motivations. Loki is motivated by his love for his adoptive father and his hatred of his real father. Anyone who loves and/or hates anyone can relate. Clayface was driven crazy and turned into putty by the Joker, and try as he might, he cannot resume normal life. Anyone who feels like an outcatst (which is most of us) will feel for him. 

Luke Castellan is a bit harder to feel for. At the end of The Lightning Thief, he drops the world's deadliest scorpion on Percy Jackson, telling him he regrets nothing. But in the later books, we find him trapped in an impossible situation-- he must serve the evil titan Kronos or die. The titan forces him to serve as a host body, and the only way to kill Kronos is to kill Luke, who by now everyone loves. He kills himself to send Kronos back to Tartarus, dying a hero. 

We relate to his feeling of being trapped by someone more powerful. Maybe you have a boss, or anyone really, who pushes you around. You don't like that feeling, and you don't like it when others feel the same way.

So, what makes a villain great? The motivation behind his cruel actions. Maybe he's mean to your protagonist because your protagonist was mean to him. Maybe he feels threatened by your protagonist. Maybe he feels like your protagonist is getting in the way of his important cause. Don't have him be a total jerk just for the sake of having a total jerk. Have your villian be just as well motivated as your hero.

Stuck!

We've all been there. You sit down with your thermos of hot chocolate at one in the morning, a scene playing out in your head. It's going to be the most epic scene in the book. You sit down, and.... nothing happens.
The problem with writing is that ideas are ideas, and words on paper are words on paper. Your job is to translate ideas into words, and that's some hard stuff. So you stare at the screen, your fingers on the keyboard, watching your characters interact, and seeing none of that appearing on the page. 
So what do you do? You write. "What?" you ask. "The problem is that I don't know what to write."
Well, you're going to write the first thing that comes to your mind. Maybe it will be the start of your epic scene, or maybe it's about muffins riding unicorns. It doesn't matter. All that matters is that you get your fingers moving. Just like a musician plays a simple song to get back into the rhythm of his music, you must type something in order to get back into the rhythm of typing something good. Soon, that awesome scene will come pouring out of you like water from a cleft rock. (Shoutout to my homie Moses!). 
Now, your scene won't be perfect, but don't be discouraged. It can always be revised.I'm not advocating laziness, but if you truly struggle get the words onto the page, get them on there, take a break, and come back to edit in the morning (the real morning, not one o'clock.)

My Favorite Writing Quotes

I came across this site a while back, and I thought I'd share some of the quotes I found there. Whenever I'm stuck, I look at the quotes until I'm motivated again. I hope these help.


If you like to tell stories and compose sentences, and if you work hard at being good at these things, then you are a writer even if you haven’t published anything.  -Trenton Lee Stewart

Writing is magic, as much the water of life as any other creative art. The water is free. So drink. Drink and be filled up. -Steven King


Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. -William Wordsworth

Don’t tell me the moon is shining, show me the glint of light on broken glass. -Anton Chekhov 


This manuscript of yours that has just come back from another editor is a precious package. Don't consider it rejected. Consider that you've addressed it 'to the editor who can appreciate my work' and it has simply come back stamped 'not at this address.' Just keep looking for the right address. -Barbara Kingsolver


When I was 8, I was reading a book in which it was snowing. When I looked outside, I expected there to be snow on the ground. I thought, "This is the most powerful thing I can do! I’m going to be a writer.” -Candace Bushnell

Poetry Dump

So I was away at a respite home for a few days because my mom said I needed a break. I didn't think so, but I went anyway because she said so, and it wasn't horrible. I had a good time, and I wrote a whole bunch of poetry, which I will share.... Now.

Fourteen
I'm not the little girl I was
Or the big girl you hoped I'd be
I'll take your orders humbly
Do my best to lend a hand
'cause I know you'll do the same
I'll hug you tight
Kiss you good night
'cause I know you love me too
But don't ask me to be happy
talking politics and wine
my bears are waiting
back at home
and I can't be late for tea
Don't ask me to play tickle
on the night of the big dance
my makeup isn't perfect
and my date is running late
But most of all don't tell me
"Grow up"
or that I am too small.
'cause I'm fourteen and that is just
the way I want to be


Plain Jane
I don't heart JB
I don't play JV
My socks are different colors
And my hair looks like my brother's
The other girls don't see me
Unless I trip over their feet
And then they tell me, "Watch it, freak!"
I don't shop at the GAP
Sometimes I need a nap
I'm the plainest Jane in town.
But that's not all, so stick around,
'Cause my story's pretty neat
It started on a day when I was feeling pretty beat.
I sung a song, and I begun,
To see that I was special
I could brighten someone's day
with nothing but a smile.
I could help around the house
and take the garbage out.
And maybe it's a small difference,
but I'll choose it any day
over being plain old Jane.


Home
Home is when you race to the door
to hug your dad hello
Home is when you're sad,
and your mommy holds your hand
Home is when your sister barges in
and tells you that she's bored
Home is when the dog won't move,
and you ask her to get up
but she only speaks
in pleading puppy-eyes
Home is when I ask Dad about his day
and his eyes light up
Home is baking cookies
because-- cookies
Home is when you read
lying on your desk,
with your dog on your chest
Home is gushing to my dad about my writing,
who cares only because it's me talking
Home is when you sing as loud as you want,
even when people are listening (and you're  really shy)
because you're
happy

This is all poetry I wrote at one in the morning, so it's a little stupid, but I wanted to share it because-- you know this is a writing blog, and this is writing, so...