How to Create an Instant Bestselling Novel How to Create an Instant Bestselling Novel by Cliff Pickover Please consider the following helpful tips. These will make it easier to get your stories or novels published. These tips will help you write good fiction in general. First, buy a National Geographic magazine. Page through it and select a setting. Five Open Source Apps For Writers and Authors by Lisa Hoover - Jul. 17, 2009Comments (9) Even if you have the perfect idea for the next Great American Novel, getting it down on paper is never easy. While you could always use standard word processors like OpenOffice Write or AbiWord, they don't have the bells and whistles that make writing books, manuals, and theses as easy as possible. Fortunately, there are a few open source applications that help budding authors get stories out of their heads and into the hands of readers. Kabikaboo - This recursive writing assistant is perfect for managing large documents, technical manuals, and long novels.
Is Your Writing Any Good? Do you ever worry that your writing might not be much good? When I talk to writers, especially those who are just beginning to get their work out there in the world, one of the most common fears they have is “I’m not good enough.” All too often, I find myself surprised that they can’t see the strength of their own words. But then I have to remind myself that we all go through these doubts – and sometimes, we have to conquer them again and again on our writing journey. What about you – is your writing any good? I’m going to give you seven big clues that tell whether or not your writing is good … even if you can say “Yes” to just one of these, then you’re definitely in the running.
A Simple Novel Outline – 9 questions for 25 chapters « H.E. Roulo Just as every tree is different but still recognizably a tree, every story is different but contains elements that make it a story. By defining those before you begin you clarify the scope of your work, identify your themes, and create the story you meant to write. At Norwescon 2011 I sat in on a session called Outline Your Novel in 90-minutes led by Mark Teppo. I’ll give you the brief, readable, synthesized version. Answer 9 questions and create 25 chapter titles and you’re there. Here are the 9 questions to create a novel:
Novel Writing: Choosing a Method that Works Best for You by Margo L. Dill riting a novel is one of the biggest accomplishments of a writer’s life. Every novelist has her own way of writing a novel. From outlining to sticky notes to just writing the darn thing, novel writing is a process that can differ for each writer.
General Fiction Getting Around... Career Essentials Getting Started Queries & Manuscripts Market Research Classes & Conferences Critiquing Crafting Your Work Grammar Guides Research/Interviewing Writing Contests The Writing Business Income & Expenses Selling Reprints Collaboration Pseudonyms Negotiating Contracts Setting Fees/Getting Paid Rights & Copyright Tech Tools The Writing Life The Writing Life Rejection/Writer's Block Health & Safety Time ManagementColumn: Ramblings on the Writing Life On Conquering The Fear Of Criticism and Judgement check out the book trailer to Joanna Penn’s new thriller PENTECOST Very pleased to present Tribal Writer’s first (…drum roll please…okay, enough with the drums) guest post. And how fitting it should be by Joanna Penn, whose site www.thecreativepenn.com is absolutely indispensable for anyone trying to figure out how the *#&$^ to be a viable writer in these times that are a-changin’, and who has been a great source of information and inspiration to yours truly. Joanna, as the kids like to say, “gets it”. Confession: this post SHOULD have gone up on Feb 7 to coincide with the launch of Joanna’s new thriller of a novel, PENTECOST.
The Seven Basic Plots: Christopher Booker Examines Common Narratives in Storytelling According to the British journalist and author Christopher Booker, there are only seven ‘storylines’ in the world. In his book, The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories, a work that took over forty years to write, Booker surveys world literature, outlining commonalities and showing that, although there are a multitude of tales and endless variety in the telling, all narratives are really variations of the basic seven. Booker’s work is detailed, interesting, and very long—over 700 pages—but his message is simple. Whether they represent the deep psychological structures of human experience or whether they are merely constructs of tradition, no matter what the story, you’ll find one or more of these basic plotlines: Rags to Riches Someone who has seemed to the world quite commonplace is shown to have been hiding a second, more exceptional self within. Although it may seem reductive to restrict all narrative to these seven basic plots, it is actually quite instructive.
Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling « Aerogramme Writers' Studio These rules were originally tweeted by Emma Coats, Pixar’s Story Artist. Number 9 on the list – When you’re stuck, make a list of what wouldn’t happen next – is a great one and can apply to writers in all genres. You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer. They can be very different.Trying for theme is important, but you won’t see what the story is actually about til you’re at the end of it. Now rewrite.Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___.
Cure writer's block with writing prompts - writing tips character name generator Jack Kerouac's Essentials of Spontaneous Prose If possible write "without consciousness" in semi-trance (as Yeats' later "trance writing") allowing subconscious to admit in own uninhibited interesting necessary and so "modern" language... 66 Writing Experiments 5. Tristan Tzara's hat: Everyone in a group writes down a word (alternative: phrase, line) and puts it in a hat. Poem is made according to the order in which it is randomly pulled from hat... R.A. Salvatore on How to Write a Damn Good Fight Scene By Nothing gets your pulse pounding like a good fight scene. It's better than coffee in the morning, and worse than a Red Bull at night"”especially if you're trying to get to sleep sometime before dawn. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who would confess to missing more than one lunch bell while engrossed in the middle of a particularly riveting fight scene. A hallmark of the fantasy tradition, fight scenes are as common as whimsical six-syllable names in fantasy books, and yet, despite their frequency, there's nothing harder to write. So when it came time to write this column, I knew I was going to have to call on the big guns, if I wanted to get it right: R.A.
Writing Exercises Meredith Sue Willis Author and Teacher More Free Writing Exercises below and here : Exercises 1- 20 Exercises 21- 40 Exercises 41 - 60 Exercises 61-80 Exercises 81-100 Exercises 101 - 120 Exercises 121 - 140 Exercises 141 - 160 Exercises 161 - 180 Exercises 181 - 200 Exercises 201 - 240 Exercises 241 - 260 Point-of-View Characters Whose Gender Is Not Yours We had a discussion in my Advanced Novel Writing Class at NYU about the difficulty of capturing a character who is of a different gender from yourself. Writing about people unlike yourself– by race, ethnic group, age, and certainly gender or sexual preference– is always a big challenge, but also of great interest to a creative writer. Satisfying Story Endings Below are some tips on writing effective story endings. At the bottom of the page, you'll find links to more tips on story writing. The ending of a story or novel forms readers' final impression of what they have read.