Category Archives: Writer's Circle
Just about everyone I talk to is an aspiring writer. I’ve also noticed that many aspiring writers don’t actually write. They aspire to write, one day, when the kids are older or grown, when they can afford to work part time, or when they’ve retired from the 9 to 5 grind. Sadly, the perfect day [...]
Have you twittered…tweetered, uh, tweeted lately?
If your answer was no, then I know you’re not Ashton Kutcher or one of the million followers who express their thoughts in 25 words or less. I can barely form a thought much less express it in 25 words or less. I blame my English teachers, always demanding 250 [...]
It doesn’t matter what kind of fiction you write, the core of every genre and every story is the human condition. This is true even if your characters aren’t Homo sapiens, because they will exhibit human traits, emotions and motivations. Successful writers understand the people they write for and about. You can learn through personal [...]
You must often make erasures if you mean to write what is worthy of being read a second time; and don’t labor for the admiration of the crowd, but be content with a few choice readers. - Horace
If you wish to be a writer; write! -Epictetus
Writing is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and [...]
Writing isn’t just an act of putting words to paper. It is a labor of love, constantly challenging, rarely appreciated and never perfected. As writers, we give our imagination a voice which struggles to be heard. We must use plain, simple language which can be understood. While we strive to find the most precise and [...]
It’s never crowded along the extra mile. - Wayne Dyer
I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have. - Thomas Jefferson
Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there. - Will Rogers
There are victories of the soul and spirit. Sometimes, even if you [...]
It is so much easier to say that you like this or dislike that, than to tell why one thing is, or where another thing comes from, that many flourishing critics will have to go out of business altogether if the scientific method comes in, for then the critic will have to know something besides [...]
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin
A perfectly healthy sentence, it is true, is extremely rare. For the most part we miss the hue and fragrance of the thought; as if we could be satisfied with the dews of the morning or evening without their colors, or the heavens [...]
1. Pronouns should follow the Nouns to which they refer, without the intervention of any other Noun.
Avoid, “John Smith, the son of Thomas Smith, who gave me this book,” unless Thomas Smith is the antecedent of “who”. Avoid also “John supplied Thomas with money: he (John) was very well off.”
When, however, one of two preceding [...]
1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one [...]
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