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Blogs about: Writing

It’s rumored that Ernest Hemingway considered his best work a simple six-word quip: “For sale: baby shoes, never used.” Clever, huh? Few of us will match his greatness, but that doesn’t stop us. Writing — like all forms of communicating — is a universal urge. We write because we must, even if it hurts.

Today's Featured Posts
Monday, Aug 16, 2010
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A List
BadKidsGoodGrammar's Blog 4 hours ago

No, not The A-List. Just a list. I’ve been non-committal with this blog of late. I’ve been feeling very meh. I don’t like to feel meh, but I feel very meh-y. When I feel this way, there are a number of things I enjoy doing: Taking a hot shower. The environmentalist in me hates it, but I drown the little bitch out with hot, hot sudsy water. Hearing nothing but the shower and seeing nothing but steam has a very soothing effect on me. Money shot Eating various comfort foods which include virtually nothing that’s very good for me. One of my favourites is an egg sammy. It’s a hard-fried egg. On buttered bread. The end. Other favs include Nanny bread, Pictou County pizza, bbq steak and homemade mac-n-cheese. Cheese, butter, flour and love. Sleeping. As I may or may not have stated before, I am an Olympic-class sleeper. I am so good at sleeping sometimes I scare myself. In the past couple of years my naps have become less mandatory (thank you doctor for realizing

More from this author
The extraordinary ones...
Meanwhile, back at the ranch... 13 hours ago

The coulees that dot the landscape on the ranch are mystical places that I spent my entire childhood exploring. Each season they changed, and each year when I returned after a long winter, I found something new. I walked them today again for the first time in several years and I was taken right back to the magic I feel they possess. I believe that the curious, the brave and special people that take the time to pick apart this prairie and get to the roots of the rough places give themselves a gift of beauty and life and discovery, losing themselves in a mystery like nothing else. And so when I returned, I wrote…. There are secrets out here at the ranch that not many have explored. These secrets are quiet and hidden and full of magical life that only a watchful, imaginative eye can detect. This magic is not that far off the beaten path and most people, the ordinary people, never even turn a head or give this world a glance as they kick up dust from the tires of their SUVs. But the specia

Today’s Posts in Writing
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Writer's Block
Daily Life Notes

I’ve been asked a couple of times before if I ever come across writer’s block. I surely do! Many times! Now with this August goal to write a post a day I’ve had writer’s block more than ever. So what do I do to overcome this and continue with my challenge? Here are some of the things I do (in no specific order). Ask a friend! Sometimes I ask my friend what they think would be a good topic to write about. Listen to music. Sometimes music can inspire great words in our minds. Read a book or a blog. Great authors can lead us in the right path. Watch a movie. Ever been inspired by a cinematic scenery? Get up and forget about writing. Sometimes we need of thoughts and having that rest might give us new and refreshed ideas later on. I had a teacher who told us to always carry a small book and something to write with, a pen, a pencil, a crayon or whatever it was that we wanted to write with. Many of us looked at our teacher wondering why he would say such thing. It was

Life surfing channel
Piece of Pie ala Mode

three word wednesday: joke, leverage, remedy deciding to depart i left the counterfeit comfort filled with fierce fire flames taking myself and fevered soul conflict to remedy the quiet stall of gentle falling rain cools the connection to this crazy constant steam cloud surround my sweet illusive flight going nowhere another cigarette the aching itch digs deep during the blink of lights on lights off ticking time the leverage of this life changing the channel johnny carson’s midnight monologue a joke with no laughter mute plays best **i always gotta kick outta the boss’s 57 channels and nothin on….

Extract from chapter 13: The Horatio Horseblanket Chronicles volume 1
Tooty Nolan's 'The Hamster-Britain Stories'©

Chapter 13: Global Worming If Cruncher harboured a grudge against Molly in particular, or hamsterdom in general, he kept his feelings well hidden; and before long he was his old jovial caterpillar self once more. And for a while things seemed to be getting along quite well. Until that fateful day… *** Molly entered the living room of her delightful little cottage that sat atop the hill that looked out over the charming rural town of Hamster Heath. She carried a cup of tea and a huge slice of sponge cake. Both dropped to the floor as she discovered her juvenile son, Horatio, sitting on the carpet in front of the fire, sliding back and forth in a provocative motion. “You dropped your tea, Mum,” he observed. “What the fluffing heck are you doing?” she demanded, “Did the late, unlamented, Reverend Lewd teach you that?” Horatio was puzzled. “I don’t need a crooked vicar how to teach me the best way to cure an itchy bum:” he retorted, “I found out how to do that myself. Do you still want tha

What I Miss about Print Publishing: The Finished Object (or Why I Knit)
Grits and Purls
Exchange
The Blog O' Bones
Drink driving - A cautionary tale
Moss on Motoring
4 Simple Goals
a real good imagination
The Happiest Place on Earth
Ramblings
Paper Goods: Tam+Sam
Nuvany Nice
Picking a side
What a mom writes

I like that I get to write an enormous variety of stuff as a freelancer. Sometimes I am a journalist, though I don’t feel like I ever was a hardcore journalist. I write for a living, and a lot of my past writing and training was as in journalism (see: college newspaper, grad school), and my post-grad-school full-time job was as a writing editor. But I’ve never been one for the super-tough questions, and even now bugging sources for interviews is hard for me. I think I may be too naturally polite to really get down and dirty. I write reported stories a lot now, though, and I like doing it. I like researching, and I like talking on the phone with sources, many of whom are really smart people who really know what they’re talking about when it comes to technology. But in the past six months or so, I’ve also been writing marketing materials and pieces for all kinds of custom media (some of which are reported stories, actually). I am surprised at how much I like it, a

Writing Loving the Goddess of Love and Haying
Satin Sheets

The last few days I’ve been in the hay field with my husband and daughters. Mostly watching them play, teasing my husband, and writing notes for Loving the Goddess of Love. There has also been the occassion to pitch hay out of the swells and ditches. Though the real work begins when we move operations to the east meadow. So I’ve had the opportunity to work on Loving the Goddess of Love. Much of my research has been completed. My character charts done. And my setting sketches finished. So I started to write. The idea was to use some of the same scenes from My Lord Hades in this book to give everyone a different prespective of some of the events. But then I decided to use the same events but at different times during the scene. So for those who read My Lord Hades you will get to find out how the conversation between Athena, Artemis, and Aphrodite got started and why. You get to learn what exactly Hephaestus was talking about when Hades came to visit him at his forge. And just

50th book out
workbook thinking

so, this week was something of a milestone for me – my 50th book out there in the world: a tome called ‘waiting room’. i pushed out a few different things this week but given its position in the release schedule this one is likely, when i gain fame and fortune from my endeavours, to occupy something of a high point. this particular book was conceptualised a while ago and has been waiting for me to edit it – the way i have always worked, since way back when i used to write everything out longhand, is to have books that i write into with an actual book with  a unified aesthetic that i am working towards, and to have loose leaf poems that i just write on random subjects and then sort out later; i maintained that when i got a computer and this is one of the loose leaf compilations. i know some people have a hard time looking at old work but i found this to offer something different to my current work and as such to represent a valuable addition to the collection of

Make Free Websites, Sell Ebooks Everywhere
How to Make, Market and Sell Ebooks - All for FREE

It’s surprisingly easy to make free websites and sell ebooks. You can sell ebooks with PayPal buttons from your own free sites and blogs. You can sell ebooks from major retailers like Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Apple, Smashwords and more. You can sell ebooks from eBay and many other online vendors. Guess what it costs you? Nothing, not one penny. You can even publish your physical book with CreateSpace at no cost. And you can sell ebooks and make lots of money. It’s never been a better time to be an independent, self-published author. If you want to sell ebooks and do it all for free, just contact me or read my ebook on selling ebooks, How to Make, Market and Sell Ebooks All for FREE.

Info Dumps
The darker side of the fire.

Even in a story that we already know, it is often necessary to provide background information so that the story itself becomes clear as soon as possible. The where, the when, and even a little about the characters needs to be known by the reader in order for things to make sense, however, it does not need to be dumped all in one place. I read quite a lot, novels, short stories, novellas and flash, all find there way into my hands.  Often I go on sprees where I read several books, one after the other in rapid succession.  I have read good books, okay books, and some lousy ones, but I always enjoy reading them. Why? Because with each book there is something to learn about as a writer.  Pacing, plot, character development, and how you write the story itself is essential for every writer to learn. One of the things that a lot of writers have trouble with is the info dump, or how to get the background information to the reader as soon as possible. Starting chapters are often information dum

The beauty of balance...
The Memoir Coach

I don’t mean to brag, but when I was younger I was the pogo stick champion of my neighborhood.  I would pogo all around the neighborhood and not too long ago I happened across a pogo stick and tried to get on it.  Horrors and shock shook me as I could barely even bounce 3 bounces in a row! Balancing is a part of our every day life.  Not only in our physical realm, but in all aspects of our life.  Balancing is an art. It is a way to embrace thinking, feeling acting, resting, seeing, listening, and touching without being overwhelmed. I want to feel the goodness of living well-balanced days: spending time alone and with friends, eating cookies and broccoli, enjoying the sun and walking in the moonlight, reading and writing, talking and listening. Today in your writing explore what you need in your life to feel balanced.  Is your life balanced right now?  If not, what are you missing that you need to add in.

Review: Wordnik's Thesaurus
Motivated Grammar

A few days ago, John McGrath, Wordnik’s Director of Product Development, sent me a link to the preview version of Wordnik’s new thesaurus feature.  Wordnik, if you’re not familiar with it, is an online dictionary that integrates information from traditional dictionaries and online usage to give a more complete picture of a word’s meaning.  Merging these supervised and unsupervised data sources is of course a brilliant idea, and I think within a few years it will become a necessary part of any online dictionary. I decided to test the Wordnik thesaurus with two types of words that often aren’t adequately represented in traditional thesauruses: colloquial phrasal verbs and insults.  The particular colloquial verb I tested was flesh out, which tends to pop into my head when I’m writing academically, as I want to first give an overview of the point I’m arguing, and then flesh it out.  Sadly, I’ve never found a synonym for flesh out that befits

Death And The VQR
Itinerant Bastard

What a strange publishing world. And it just keeps getting stranger. Read here about a little literary magazine that could—and, apparently, that couldn’t.

Plans Are Afoot. AFOOT, I SAY!
Dudley's

So I’ve got this book project idea… And I think it’s about high time I get serious about it. And finish it. Been working it out in my head for a while now, and it’s time to bang this sucker out, just write the damn thing, and see if anyone gives a crap. Run it up the flagpole, and see who salutes! So, consider this a soft announcement of my forthcoming memoir/essay project, based largely on my memories of experiences had at church camp over many summers back in Texas. There will likely be further posts like my previous one (found HERE) that will serve as a way of me gauging interest and entertainment value, that sort of thing. We’ll see how it goes! Further details as things progress.