Photo by Tom Fisk on Pexels.com Here we go. Listen, no matter how prepared (or not) we all feel, it's showtime. NaNoWriMo is hitting my time zone in exactly one hour and twenty-three minutes. I, for one, am nowhere near as prepared as I usually am. I haven't even read my very first zero draft … Continue reading Preptober Week 4.
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Preptober Week 3(.5).
Photo by Justus Menke on Pexels.com Uh. I guess I'm just blogging whenever now. As you may have guessed, I had another busy week. I was launched into a huge sea of training modules (don't ask me how many, I haven't had the courage to count them), all due by the end of November. I … Continue reading Preptober Week 3(.5).
Preptober Week 2.
Photo by Alimurat u00dcral on Pexels.com So, uh... Apparently my new blogging schedule is going to be Sunday afternoons. Whatever works, I guess. So. What have I been doing to prepare myself for NaNoWriMo this week? Well, first I did the vital work of creating my moodboard and playlist. Obviously we can't embark on a … Continue reading Preptober Week 2.
Preptober Week 1.
Photo by Plato Terentev on Pexels.com In classic form, I missed my first designated blogging day after my break. But I'm here anyway. For the next two months, I'll be doing a weekly "journal" format for NaNoWriMo, the prep in October and the actual challenge in November. Not necessarily the most useful content, but hopefully … Continue reading Preptober Week 1.
Word Painting Part Eight: Channeling Frankenstein.
Good writers always have something to say. I don't mean that they are pedantic or preachy, but generally people write in order to describe or share some sort of common experience, emotion, or philosophy. We write to share common ground with our readers, or to explore some of the things we all go through, but … Continue reading Word Painting Part Eight: Channeling Frankenstein.
Word Painting Part Seven: Murder (On) The Links.
Photo by tyler hendy on Pexels.com No, sorry, not... not that kind of links. One thing you should know about me is that I pass up the opportunity to make an incredibly stupid literary joke. Anyways. I was actually talking about linking verbs, and how easily they can mess up a descriptive passage if we … Continue reading Word Painting Part Seven: Murder (On) The Links.
Word Painting Part Six: The Naming Of Things.
Photo by Mustafa ezz on Pexels.com The Naming of Things is a difficult matter,It isn’t just one of your holiday games;You may think at first I’m as mad as a hatterWhen I tell you, a thing must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES. Yes, I am bastardizing T.S. Eliot’s “The Naming of Cats” in order to make … Continue reading Word Painting Part Six: The Naming Of Things.
Word Painting Part Five: Still Lifes And Action Shots.
Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com Now that we've learned how to use our eyes, it's time to start thinking about how we will write about what we see. The first (and probably most obvious) thing we need to identify is whether the thing we are describing is static or in motion. If the object … Continue reading Word Painting Part Five: Still Lifes And Action Shots.
Word Painting Part Four: Use All Your Eyes.
Photo by Jumana Dakkur on Pexels.com As we’ve established in previous posts, a writer’s first job is to observe. “Yeah, yeah,” you might be saying at this point. “I don’t live in a white box. I know how to look at stuff.” Okay, but do you really? Describe one thing that you walk past every … Continue reading Word Painting Part Four: Use All Your Eyes.
Word Painting Part Three: According To Aristotle.
Plaster bust of Aristotle (portrait bust; plaster cast) by Watt, James is licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 Last week we looked at a lot of things that good description isn’t. Now it’s time to start exploring what it is. We’ll begin, as most of the Western Canon does, with Aristotle. In Rhetoric, Aristotle identifies five aspects … Continue reading Word Painting Part Three: According To Aristotle.