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Les Writing blog, with tips, advice, and my own writing... And Nanowrimo obsession.

Articles/Ideas/Prompts Short Fiction - Fictional Worlds

Some Highlights

December 25th 2008 05:26
Today I'm going to highlight some of my favourite things to read. The first few are going to be actual books that I've loved and read more than once; the last few are going to be blog entries geared specifically towards writers. Reading for the cold winter months: curl up with a good book under your favourite blanket-don't we all just love it?

For those of you who have gotten Christmas money, some books to consider

~Anne Rice: Lasher-the thing with Anne Rice is some of her stuff is heavy and hard to get through; for horror fans, Lasher is definitely one of her best works.


~Timothy Carter: Epoch-this is a fun one, it's somewhat horror but it's also quite humorous (if your sense of humor is as warped as mine.)

~Sidney Sheldon: Tell Me Your Dreams-this is a dark book and a fairly heavy one; I'm not sure what to classify it as, only that it's definitely NOT YA.

~Barbara Erskine: Lady Of Hay-not for the light of heart, this is an absolutely amazing, heartbreaking story.

A few lighter reads:

~The Chronicles of Narnia (if you don't know of this series... you need a new education.)

~A Series Of Untortunate Events by Lemony Snicket: not the most pleasant of events, but his style keeps it from getting heavy, and the books are a lot of fun.

~Terry Pratchett: The Colour Of Magic-this is his first book in the Disc World series, and it's great fun.

~Piers Anthony's Incarnations series is also great fun.

Blog entries for writers:

These are a few of my favourite rants from Limyaael:

On animals and hunting-http://www.forresterl abs.com/limyaael/rant163686

On Art in culture-http://www.forresterl abs.com/limyaael/rant159024

On Religions-http://www.forreste rlabs.com/limyaael/rant131681


What Makes A Good Fantasy-http://www.forresterl abs.com/limyaael/rant128913

Ten Pieces Of Writing Advice-http://www.forresterla bs.com/limyaael/rant120163

That's all for today, folks. I'm burnt out and will likely be tomorrow after Christmas activities and wandering about on the relatives' new farm. I'll probably use that as a writing exercise and post something about it tomorrow, and then hopefully Friday I'll have the energy to do a critique.

I'm still looking for five volunteers for a first-page critique. Please email me at diannalgunn@gmail.com

ALSO: I've finished the first half of my workshop-planning. For the writing section, I'm going to have six (one a week) articles about the writing process, which will be posted on the blog as well as the workshop site, and I'm going to be doing ten pep talks. I'm looking for people to write pep talks. I need a total of six pep talks from other people.

I'm going to be emailing a published author who I was in contact with a while ago asking her if she would be willing to contribute either a pep talk or a planning exercise. I'm really hoping for that.

I'm also going to be turning the workshop into a PDF which will be made available on Lulu sometime after the workshop ends. Each revision will be a new version of the PDF. The PDF will contain the exercises as well as a few extra articles from my blog on the process of writing, editing, and submitting.

If you are willing to help-especially if you will let me put your pep talk/exercise in the PDF-please contact me at diannalgunn@gmail.com

Happy holidays, folks.

~Dianna
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What makes a writer?

December 12th 2008 06:31
I've gone over this before, but I was reading a thread on Forward Motion earlier and it's been a while, so I felt like writing about this topic.

What makes a writer in my mind is someone who loves to write. Someone who can't help themselves; they just need to do it like most people need to breath. Writing is a passion, writing is a love; when the going gets tough we still keep going. Writers love to do what they do, and are willing to work at it.

The first post in the thread that I was reading talked about plateaus, peaks. Milestones. The first plateau is where you want to write, but can't seem to finish a story; the first finished draft is a milestone. Editing, critiquing, taking critiques, all those things are milestones.

A writer is still a writer no matter where they are in this list of milestones, no matter what their current plateau is. 'Writers' are the ones who are willing to work to hone their craft, who are willing to learn new skills-not only willing to, but want to-and to experiment. (Says the girl who's never written outside her genre... um...)

Writers try to be the best that they can be and every major improvement is a milestone. With every finished story a writer improves; they learn more about the art of writing, learn more about themselves, their characters, their worlds. Writers learn more about themselves and their perceptions of the world around them through writing than most people ever really see.

I'm proud to be a writer-and I'm proud to try new things, to experiment. The workshop I'm working on preparing is a huge experiment right now, as I've never done anything of the sort; I'm working hard on the exercises (lies, I'm procrastinating... but it is hard work, when I'm working) and hoping that people will find them useful. Most of these haven't been tested, as I usually don't do extensive planning. The first time anyone will so much as look at these exercises other than me will be when the thing launches.

I'm still looking for writers of other genres to help with some non-genre-specific exercises; and I'm looking for people to do pep talks for the six week writing part. If you want to volunteer, please email me at diannalgunn@gmail.com.

And something else new that I'm trying is the 2YN, two year novel course over at Forward Motion. Check out the site here:

http://fmwriters.com/

I'm Litharukia on there (which is also my alias on WriYe and Nano and other such writing sites.) If you sign up, send me a message!

Thanks for reading.
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Only Writers Can Understand Writers...

October 25th 2008 16:57
I have many, many different circles in which I travel. About seven different groups in which I hang out on a regular basis, and even more who I talk to online. And I have to say, my favourites are my writer friends.

Why? Because if I tell them I can't make it to something because I'm too busy writing, they understand. When I talk about my binder full of notes on different stories and worlds, they understand. When I talk about my love for words, they get it.

That's something I don't have in any of my other groups (although there is some crossover). My friends from school don't understand why I'd rather spend a weekend writing than spend it partying. My Pagan friends don't understand why I'd rather write than go to rite.

But you know what? I love writing. I love my writing friends, because they understand in a way that nobody else can. They understand my devotion to the art of words, they understand my craziness when it comes to Nanowrimo. And that's what I love about them: that sense of understanding. I feel I can be completely honest and open with them.

It's just that simple-writers understand each other, and they're the only ones that can; because writing is a way of life. Writing is a passion, and one not easily understood by outsiders.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that writers should be united. We should be friends with other writers, because quite simply, they can understand us better than anyone else-no matter what part of the world they come from, words can be the one thing you can understand, the one thing you can share. The one common interest.

So write on, and make friends with other writers-because they're some of the best friends you can ever have.
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When Everything Is Just Too Much

October 4th 2008 23:28
So let me tell you something. School is stressing me out; I'm trying to force myself to go but it isn't working very well. Things at home aren't pleasant either. I'm stressed; so stressed that I've been sick on and off for two weeks now. Nanowrimo is on the horizon.

It's times like these when anybody-writer or otherwise-starts to wonder about all their obligations and if they're worth it. It's times like these when normally I would abandon the blog for weeks at a time; I'm trying not to. It's sort of working. It's times like these when we just want to throw in the towel


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Website Review: Holly Lisle

September 15th 2008 00:48
I'm sick, my internet access is severely restrained because I stayed out REALLY late watching the Batman movie (which I loved), and I'm just feeling generically exhausted from school and life at the moment.

However, I am posting something. I just got the last lesson in Holly Lisle's newsletter course on creating your own royalties. Although it isn't for me at quite this point, I believe that someday I will be prepared to take better advantage of the course, which is saved in my Gmail. (I'm just going to say this: I love Gmail, there is so much space, you can keep most of your emails. I have dozens that are kept because there is just that much space


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The Magical Moments

September 10th 2008 08:46
Why do we live life?

For those moments of magic, those moments of beauty and joy and love.
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Why Do I Write?

September 1st 2008 05:57
I've written about this topic before. But I've been thinking about it a lot lately, so I decided to talk about why I write-not only this blog, but everything else that I write.

I write because without writing, I would be locked away with no outlet to express myself


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Psychological and Physical torture

July 25th 2008 14:16
I'll admit. I torture my characters. Mostly psychologically, although I have been known to delve into the realms of extreme physical pain every once in a while. About, oh, once a year-Nanowrimo is always an ideal time to test out every method in the book, if only because it's tried and true for word count purposes.

The torture method that I am most fond of, though, involves solitary confinement. Or, almost solitary confinement-and the only visitors are violent and take it out on you. Something that leads to utter, and total despair


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Out Of Control Characters!

July 25th 2008 05:18
Meet Nimara. She's the psychopathic mother of one of my RP characters, a vampire, who is getting way out of control. She plans on conquering a world.

And is demanding that I write a story about her. Well I am flat out refusing-I'm mad at her and besides, I have other stories to write. But this isn't the first time a character got out of control


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If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

July 24th 2008 07:34
I have no idea who said that first. Nor do I really care. It makes the point I'm trying to get across, and that is the important thing.

Last year I wrote a story, had it critiqued, and edited it a fair bit-almost rewriting it completely. I sent it to seven markets and was rejected by all of them. For a while, I didn't submit it anywhere, because I didn't have any good markets to submit it to


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Website Review: Critique Circle (LINK)

July 23rd 2008 07:06
I so rarely point out any website that isn't Nanowrimo on this blog that I'm not sure if it's more sad, funny, or just plain obsessive. Well, I have another website that's just plain excellence for writers.

Critique Circle is an incredible site. The people there are friendly, and most often return the favour when you give them a crit. (Whenever I'm unable to return a critique, I feel a little bad; I do return them unless the story isn't in a genre I like.) In fact, people are so eager to return the favour that people have actually asked me when I was posting my next story on the site-they wanted to return the favour


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Publishing your books, short stories, and poems...

July 20th 2008 10:19
Publishing is the dream of many, many writers. Including myself. Publication can be difficult; to be a successful writer borders the 'pipe dream' line. It isn't quite a pipe dream-it's doable with enough work, persistence, and talent-but it isn't easy or for the weak of heart.

Take, for example, JK Rowlings. She's an incredible success story, worth billions upon billions of dollars. She was a single mother who submitted to over thirty different publishers. And now she's a rich woman known the world over for her books. I'm not going to comment on their quality; this post isn't ABOUT quality of writing. It's about determination


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AugNoWriMo

July 18th 2008 06:36
By now, everyone who even bothers to read my blog on a sort-of frequent basis must understand that I have a deep, intrinsic love of blogging.

I just realized I've been blogging here for over a year! Nevermind that. We have more important things to talk about. Like writing goals


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Write What You Love...

July 18th 2008 05:35
Some people say 'write what you know'. But if I recall correctly, Stephen King and I have the same belief-that it is best to write what you love.

Because we can all write about what we learned in school, but most of us wouldn't want to. We know it-but we do not love it. And if we are forced to write something we do not love, it is by far a lesser product than what it would be if we loved it


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