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The Dear Diary workshop began with an idea on the Wriye forums. Someone said they were thinking about writing a diary for their character for one month, and titling it 'A Month in the Life Of __________'. I decided to write a diary for Astarael, Goddess of Death in the world of Tamraq at the time of the first two Jihad books.

It was a great experience. I got accustomed to writing in Astarael's voice, got to know her on a more personal level, and managed to write a thousand words every day, even though I didn't get around to posting all the Dear Diary entries I wrote. I chose to call it the 'Dear Diary Experiment' because I started each entry with 'Dear Diary'. (There will be links to some of these posts at the end of this one.)

I enjoyed it quite a bit, and later did the experiment again, writing from Alaendril's point of view during the war. Alaendril is an important character both in my series and in the world of Tamraq, where they take place. Again, I managed to write every day, get to know one of my key characters, and get used to writing in his voice.

This workshop is designed to help you create a diary for your character. During the workshop I'll be posting prompts, things to get you thinking about who your character is, and ideas for different ways to write the diary. I will be doing a Dear Diary project in the month of May myself, so you'll also get to see some of the diary entries I write.

If you are a member of the WriYe forums, there is special content that will only be posted there, so be on the lookout for interesting stuff in the challenges forum. If you aren't a member, I'm not sure if it's too late to sign up, but if you want to participate in the forum activities there, the link is here(clicky).

If you would like to read some of my previous Dear Diary posts, take a look at the following:

~Dear Diary is a post introducing the concept of the Dear Diary exercise and Astarael.

~Dear Diary 2 is the second Dear Diary post. I seem to have misplaced the first one.

~Dear Diary 13 is the thirteenth Dear Diary post, in which Astarael talks of the toll the war is taking on the people as well as on the Gods.

~Dear Diary 18 this post is Astarael remembering the day she told the Council the Demon is a traitor.

~Dear Diary 1 (Alaendril) this is the first post of my second Dear Diary workshop.

~Dear Diary 3 in which Alaendril discusses the difficulties of trying to help a girl he found on day two who doesn't speak his language.

~Dear Diary 6 in which Alaendril returns to the border of Appollinia and meets a God.

If you want to read more, check out Best Of Fictional Worlds 2007-09

Expect more posts about the Dear Diary workshop in the coming days.

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

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Learning

January 17th 2009 03:52

Writing is in large part a learning process. A writer needs to be open to new things; this is why we have classes and workshops and books about writing. Not all things will work for you, this is true. We're all different. You probably won't find a class that's absolutely perfect for you. A method won't always work.

But if you don't try new things, how can you possibly know? Everything changes; our writing should too. Let's take the example of a well known author, JK Rowling of the Harry Potter series.

People change and grow as readers as well as writers. Though as a child they delighted me, I can't read the first four books of this series anymore; I've grown to a point where they seem dull to me. The writing isn't bad, necessarily, but it isn't as compelling as later books.

JK's writing grows. While her ideas are great, her writing was only mediocre at the beginning; I can understand to an extent why she collected over thirty rejections before finding a publisher for her books.

The seventh book is dark, it's intense; you just can't put it down. You can tell she's grown as a writer by the way she tells the story. It doesn't feel like it's designed for children anymore, or even young adults. With the sixth and seventh book she truly crosses age groups, and this is what all books hopefully will do.

If you're thinking about taking a class, do it; you never know what you might pick up. If you're thinking about trying a new genre, try it. Only with practice, feedback, and experimenting do we grow better as writers.

Of course, this goes into the outside world as well. Our writing is enriched by the experiences we've had, by the things we go through each day. We become better at writing not only with practice and feedback, and experiments in the writing world, but by changing ourselves and trying new things in our own world. By seeing more in life, we can draw on more when building our worlds and when writing in the one we live in.

Try something new; maybe it will work for you, maybe it won't. But that experience may very well provide you with an idea for a great story. The experience of seeing your first real taste of a new culture may give you a little detail to add more depth to your world. It's not guaranteed-but it's more likely that you'll get an idea by doing something than by sitting around on your butt.

Learn something new today. Read about someone else's writing process. Sign up for a writing class. Try a new sport. Read about a new culture. Plan a trip if you can, somewhere not too far but where life is different. You'd be surprised how much changes with only a few hours' drive.

Learning helps you with both your writing and your normal life. Writing is a learning process-and as much as we may hate school (I do), writing is more fun to learn about, and you'll never make it any further than where you are already if you don't.

They say we all learn something new every day; maybe we don't really learn something new every day, but we can at least learn something new every month or two. So go Google something you don't know much about, and see where the internet leads you.

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

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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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