Articles/Ideas/Prompts - Short Fiction - Short Non-Fiction - Writing Exercises

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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Posted By: Dianna G - Category: Articles/Ideas/Prompts, Generic Fiction Rants, Short Fiction, Short Non-Fiction, Writing Exercises

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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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Posted By: Dianna G - Category: Articles/Ideas/Prompts, Short Fiction, Poetry, Short Non-Fiction, Writing Exercises

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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.

But what do we do? We keep pushing, keep pushing ourselves to the limit every day to do our best no matter how bad we feel. We keep going, doing everything in our power to prove that we are capable people. That we can handle it.

The writer lives this life more than some. We live from paycheck to paycheck in worry; maybe the next one won't exist. Maybe there will be no work. We work hard in competitive markets where we might not make anything. We might just fall on our faces and have to try to pick ourselves up again. It might not even work.

But that is the risk we all take. We all know it's there. And no matter what, we have to keep working. And no matter what, I will keep writing. I will somehow manage 250, 000 words this November. And it will be something to be proud of.

I hope that those of us going through hard times right now-students of any age especially-can push themselves to stay on top of their goals, and to meet them, and to do all the great things, or at least most of the great things that they want to do.

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Posted By: Dianna G - Category: Articles/Ideas/Motivation, Articles/Ideas/Prompts, Short Fiction, Poetry, Short Non-Fiction, Writing Exercises, Articles/Info

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