Thursday, October 6, 2011

Creative Writing Tip Three


Listen to children. You'll get a lot of good writing material!

Recently, my daughter, Page, was telling me about the time she bought her youngest daughter, Aspen, (who was three at the time) a Winnie the Pooh stuffed animal. Page put the doll on Aspen's bed with excited anticipation. She couldn't wait to see Aspen's face. When Aspen saw it, she turned to her Mom and said, “Who is that?” Page answered, “It’s Winnie the Pooh." A puzzled expression came over Aspen's face and then she grimaced, “Gross, his name is ‘Poop?’ I can't play with a stuffed animal named 'Poop.'”

Creative Writing Tip Two




Write about what you know. If you’re not familiar with places or things you want to write about, do the research—travel, read and ask questions. It’s obvious to your readers if you try to write a book about something you know nothing about.

Recently, my daughter, Jennifer, and I had lunch with an author friend of ours, Jessica George. After eating and laughing a lot, we started discussing writing and Jessica shared a little of her background with us. She was so fascinating and I realized immediately why her books are so great. In addition to loving to write, Jessica said she took eight years of German, four of Norwegian, and even studied Old Norse so that she could read the great Viking sagas in the original language. That was impressive.

Check out her blog listed under “My Favorite Blogs and links.” You’ll be glad you did and keep writing!

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Creative Writing Tip


Early in my writing career, my daughter, Jennifer and I had just completed our first manuscript and we were so excited. A friend of Jennifer’s that had worked as an editor for a publishing company offered to read it and give us her opinion. Of course we were devastated when she told us to take out all of the unnecessary adverbs and adjectives. To make a long story short, we barricaded ourselves in Jennifer’s office for almost a week and when we were finished, we had cut out over one-thousand words. Every time I write, I remember those words and I’m so grateful for her honesty and advice.

The tip for today is: use as few “ly” words and adjectives as possible. Strengthen those verbs. Let your characters show their personalities through their actions.