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Changes

August 12th 2010 12:14


As I'm sure you can tell, Fictional Worlds has undergone a major facelift over the last couple of days. It all began with me creating a banner-I've made two, including the one you see above-and then I changed the blog's theme to match the banner more.

They say a change is as good as a rest and while I'm not quite sure I believe them-or ever did believe them-I am quite happy with the physical changes to Fictional Worlds. I am trying to make other changes-changes in my schedule, my commitments, and my life overall-and this is just the beginning. Over the next few months I will be sharing writing related changes here and more personal changes on my other blog.

I am incredibly grateful to all those who have stayed with me throughout the last two months during which I've posted less than half as much as I should. It's time to think about my commitment both to my passion of writing and to my love of blogging.

While this summer has been almost dull for me-without any of the trips out of town I wanted or very much writing completed-it's also been full of change. My change is largely inspired by a very dear friend of mine, Sam, who spent the first month of this summer in the Bahamas. The lucky girl who is one of the most talented artists I've ever met was artist in residence at a summer camp.

She's back now and with her came the beautiful shell that you see in this post. Seeing her again and seeing just how much she's grown as a person and an artist over this last month is incredibly inspiring. Although it makes me ache for a place that isn't here and desparately wish I could escape the city, it also brings me great joy. The shell sits on my writing desk now and it's an inspiration.

Sam has big dreams and I have dreams that are just as big, and together we'll accomplish them. We have to make some changes to ourselves and to our lifestyles but someday we'll travel the world, and someday the two of us will change the world around us.

It all starts now in those precious last few months between being dependant and almost being a kid and being an adult, independant and ready to face anything the world has to throw at me. This is the summer of change and there are crazy times ahead.

Come with me on my journey?
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Posted By: Dianna G - Category: Short Non-Fiction, Articles/Info
   


Making a Diary of your Own

June 8th 2010 12:34
Over the last month, you've learned about the benefits of writing a diary for your character. I'm sure you've heard of the benefits of journalling for yourself-but have you ever really journalled? Knowing that you can write something for your character's journal every day for a month, who's to say that you can't write a journal of your own for more than a month?

Those of you who read The Place of Poetry in Journalling will know that I personally have a poetry journal. I love this journal, both because I love the book itself and because I love the freedom of expression.

There are as many different ways to journal as there are people who journal. You can journal with art, writing, collages, whatever your heart desires. Just let your soul pour out in any way it wants. If you're curious about different types of journals, check out this article 15 Different Types of Journals to Keep. It's an old article but it's worth reading for sure.

If you need help starting your journal, take a look at this set of comments or this article.

If you still need more reasons to journal, take a look at this article.

And if you want a writing related reason to journal-or ideas for how journaling can help your writing-take a look at this article.

Do you already journal? If not, do you want to start journaling?
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Posted By: Dianna G - Category: Articles/Info
   


What Is the Dear Diary Workshop?

April 27th 2010 12:42
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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Launching Dianna L. Gunn's Web Corner

April 26th 2010 12:25
I meant to do this on Saturday, but life got in the way.

As most of you should know, earlier this year I decided to create another website for Fictional Worlds. Last month I decided that this would be my personal website and would also include information about Fictional Worlds


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Exhaustion and Excitement

April 21st 2010 12:28
I've spent the last few days relaxing and reading a book that I'm going to be reviewing on Friday. I've only gotten one chapter of my book written, but after playing intense catch up last week, I feel justified to this break.

The next few days here are going to be very busy. Tomorrow I'll be posting links to some blog posts, Friday I'll be launching a book review and giveaway, Sunday I'll be writing the first pre-Dear Diary post on this blog, and on Monday or Tuesday I should be posting an interview. I'll also be launching the new website either this weekend or early next week


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Some Reading Suggestions

April 9th 2010 12:54
I don't know about where you are, but up here the weather is miserable and wet. It's spring and the world is alive, but this weekend I plan on staying in, getting some work done, and reading a new book. If you're looking to stay in and do some reading yourself but don't know what to read, I've got a few suggestions.

I'm going to start with some books


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Just Something To Point Out

March 28th 2010 14:18
I'm popping my head briefly back in here this weekend to bring to you a wonderful blog post. It's at Problogger, and not only does it have great advice for blogging, it points out some things about our society's treatment of body image.

Dear Blogger: Do You Hate Your Customer?
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Prompt: Falling In Love

February 23rd 2010 12:16
Every Tuesday is going to be prompt day here at Fictional Worlds. These prompts are simple phrases or words meant to trigger an emotional response. You can write anything you want to them. I suggest you do a freewrite, either from your point of view or from that of one of your characters. You could also write a poem or even a short story about it.

Sometimes these prompts will be more rigid exercises, like letters or diary entries. If you would like to submit a prompt that you've found useful, please email me at diannalgunn@gmail.com


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Book Review: A Long Way Gone-Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

December 10th 2009 12:46
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs Of A Boy Soldier

I read this book for my English class. I was asked to choose a biography and my teacher recommended this book. I'm glad that he did


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Thoughts On Nanowrimo 2009

December 2nd 2009 12:08
I have a lot more to say on this, including the big 'credits' post that I'm planning, but I just wanted to get in a few words now.

It's early morning inmy part of the world and I'm still recovering from a hectic month and a wonderful TGIO party. A lot of the people that I saw last night I won't see again until next Nanowrimo, until October or November. Some of them I might see once, twice, three times if I'm lucky, during the rest of the year. The forums begin to die and the Tonano chat dies with them, slowly but surely


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Praying To The Muse

November 30th 2009 17:39
Nanowrimo is over in just a few short hours and I'm almost thirty thousand words away from my goal. For those of you who have insane numbers of words to write today-I wish you luck. It's going to be a long day, a hard day, and you and I are going to have to push to make our goals, but the effort is oh so worth it.

Pray to your muse. Beg and plead with it for its blessing and its kindness. In the next few hours the last thing you need is writer's block. You need to be able to just keep going, keep going in a frenzy with one plot point, one action your character takes leading fluidly into the next. You and I need a miracle


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Excerpt: Snapshots

November 23rd 2009 12:15
This is kind of a long scene for an excerpt, but I can't just give you guys part of the scene, because that would not be very cool of me.

Dreaming of Eternia
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Tired

September 27th 2009 22:59
I spent the weekend running around the city, partying, trying to figure stuff out, and more partying. I didn't get out to Megan Crewe's book launch, which was kind of sad, but I had a great weekend nonetheless.

Last night was the official end of my summer. I went out, I partied with my friends, I danced so hard I hurt myself (which I did several times this summer) and I had a great time


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5 Excellent Writing Blog Posts

September 10th 2009 12:17
Hi everyone. So, in keeping with my blog posting schedule (I'm surprised I've kept to it this long) today's post is a list of five great blog posts about writing. I've been wandering around the blogosphere looking into different writing blogs for a while now, always looking for something new to read, and today I found some great new blogs and posts.

1.25 Best Writing Blogs 2009 I found this linked to on another blog, and I've found some great posts for this entry on blogs that I've been looking through found via this list. Editor Unleashed is a popular blog amongst writers, and while I don't read it often, I do find it useful sometimes. The blogger asked people to nominate blogs and then vote on them for this, and the winners have been selected and are now linked to for all to find. Muahahahaha


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Outline Review: Phase Outline

September 3rd 2009 12:25
This is the third post in a five-part series about outlining. The first two posts are:

Outlining Part One
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Review: Stephen King's On Writing

August 24th 2009 21:04
On Writing by Stephen King


Not having finished the book that I'm reading right now, which is a very very long book (but great) and not wanting to do a website review, I decided to review a great book I've already read


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Outlines: An Article&Call For Help

August 23rd 2009 15:23
Fiction Factor: Outlining

The above is an article about outlining which some of you may find useful. It lists three different types of outline and describes them briefly with advantages and disadvantages. It's a good article on a great website for writers at every stage in their career


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5 Wonderful Writing Communities

August 22nd 2009 23:07
Writing is, for the most part, a solitary thing. You spend hours by yourself on the computer typing away, getting your story out onto the screen, replacing the blank white screen with a screen full of black text.

But one of the things that has influenced and helped me most as a writer is community, starting with some communities I've mentioned in previous posts (some of them quite often). I'm a mamber of several writing communities, and each one has helped me in its own way


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On Fiction: Outlining Part One

August 20th 2009 22:18
I've decided to write a series of posts about outlining. There will be five posts in this series, each one focusing on a different type of outlining. The first post will focus on my style of outline and the following ones will be reviews of different forms of outlining available online.

Not every type of outline works for every writer. Personally my outline is very basic, showing the biggest scenes that need to happen and what order they need to happen in. Some writers on the Nanowrimo forums (Kateness, who wrote 800K last year, being one of these) write outlines that can be up to 10, 000 words in and of themselves


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5 Reasons To Start A Blog

August 17th 2009 06:32
In light of my recent blogaversary I've written some posts about blogging, which is not usually my focus here, as I like to focus more on fiction writing. (I do a lot more of that.) Over the last two years I've really come to love blogging. If you're a writer, and you don't have a blog, I think it's high time you started one.

Here are five reasons to start a blog


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