Watch this Videojug movie to get a quick overview on how to improve your writing skills. It starts from finding out your weak areas in terms of writing and strengthening them through a variety of ways. The dictionary and thesaurus are two great friends of a writer. It's nice to have a mentor or to be part of a writing group as you develop your skills, too. Some nice tips on character development and plot development are also shared in this video.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Saturday, October 27, 2012
They'll Never Get It At Goodreads - Guest Post by Dennis Mahagin
They'll Never Get It At Goodread
by Dennis Mahagin
I need a plan. My poetry collection has just been published, and I've no idea how to promote it.
"The poet chooses his fate," said Gregory Corso, once upon a time; yet Gregory certainly never mentioned anything about Social Media! How does a writer shift into a new set of gears after chasing the chimera of book publication for many years? Is there such a thing as "Writers' Post Partum Depression?" Can I save my book from the "Remainder Bin?" Where do I begin?
"Are you on Goodreads?" an editor friend asked me on the phone a week or so before my book was to be released. "Tumblr, too," she said, "don't forget about Tumblr..."
"What the heck's a tumbler?" I asked her.
It seems of late, the many fast flux iterations of the Internet are quite passing me by.
It wasn't always this way. Eight or so years ago when I first began working on my poetry collection in earnest, I made my reputation (such as it is) publishing on the Net. This led to landing an unlikely book contract with an independent press; I started a blog and joined several online literary communities as an obsessively obsequious, aggrandizing way to keep my semi-burgeoning Bio in the public eye. I was more than a bit caught up in it all — looking forward, ever forward, to my book's launch, which at that time was slated for late 2008.
Then came the recession. My publisher went out of business; my contract was canceled. To say this turn of events took the "wind out of my sails" would be an understatement. I got pretty despondent, in fact, and my book went on the back burner. I languished in a hiatus of hiding and not writing. I tried to stay off line most of the time. Self doubt was having a field day in the forefront of my consciousness. I began questioning my motives, my talent, my prospects: in short, everything I'd been working toward, for half a decade.
In the end, I just couldn't bring myself to throw in the towel. In early 2010, I returned to my manuscript with a fresh set of eyes. I saw that it was still good, in spots, but it required a great deal of work yet, too. So I went about revising it... and revising some more. And more. I began to see my setback as an actual opportunity to make the book better. Then I sent a version of the book, which barely resembled its origins, to a dozen publishers. Nine of them said no. Time kept its brutal vigil.
Then, late in the year, my book was accepted for a second time.
Two more years would go by before the eventual publication of the book. During this period, I continued to tinker with the work, firing off new version after new version over the transom, until finally one day about three months ago, my publisher sent me an email that said. "We have a release date for you now. Please stop sending revisions!"
It seemed that the dream had caught up with the self; I breathed it in and left it alone. What remains, of course, is the future. One of my biggest fears, aside from the book "flopping" in a commercial sense, is that I will examine the book in its finished form after a year or so and lament that I didn't have enough time to make it better.
"Alrighty then," I tell my friend on the other end of the phone. "Explain this Tumbler thing again to me, like I'm a four year old?"
Yes, I need a plan, but I'm not terribly worried. As Gregory Corso would no doubt concur, self promotion is the nasty chore we writers endure, before returning to the "work" — as nothing but a reward: Thank goodness creation (whether it be poem, essay, story, or novel) takes place blissfully, mercifully, and only in the present.
Goodreads may not be ready for me; but I've got another book to write.
Dennis Mahagin is the author of a debut poetry collection entitled "Grand Mal," published by Rebel Satori Press. The book is available on Amazon at the following URL: http://www.amazon.com/Grand-Mal-Dennis-Mahagin/dp/1608640515/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1350263902&sr=8-1&keywords=dennis+mahagin
by Dennis Mahagin
I need a plan. My poetry collection has just been published, and I've no idea how to promote it.
"The poet chooses his fate," said Gregory Corso, once upon a time; yet Gregory certainly never mentioned anything about Social Media! How does a writer shift into a new set of gears after chasing the chimera of book publication for many years? Is there such a thing as "Writers' Post Partum Depression?" Can I save my book from the "Remainder Bin?" Where do I begin?
*
"Are you on Goodreads?" an editor friend asked me on the phone a week or so before my book was to be released. "Tumblr, too," she said, "don't forget about Tumblr..."
"What the heck's a tumbler?" I asked her.
It seems of late, the many fast flux iterations of the Internet are quite passing me by.
It wasn't always this way. Eight or so years ago when I first began working on my poetry collection in earnest, I made my reputation (such as it is) publishing on the Net. This led to landing an unlikely book contract with an independent press; I started a blog and joined several online literary communities as an obsessively obsequious, aggrandizing way to keep my semi-burgeoning Bio in the public eye. I was more than a bit caught up in it all — looking forward, ever forward, to my book's launch, which at that time was slated for late 2008.
Then came the recession. My publisher went out of business; my contract was canceled. To say this turn of events took the "wind out of my sails" would be an understatement. I got pretty despondent, in fact, and my book went on the back burner. I languished in a hiatus of hiding and not writing. I tried to stay off line most of the time. Self doubt was having a field day in the forefront of my consciousness. I began questioning my motives, my talent, my prospects: in short, everything I'd been working toward, for half a decade.
In the end, I just couldn't bring myself to throw in the towel. In early 2010, I returned to my manuscript with a fresh set of eyes. I saw that it was still good, in spots, but it required a great deal of work yet, too. So I went about revising it... and revising some more. And more. I began to see my setback as an actual opportunity to make the book better. Then I sent a version of the book, which barely resembled its origins, to a dozen publishers. Nine of them said no. Time kept its brutal vigil.
Then, late in the year, my book was accepted for a second time.
*
Two more years would go by before the eventual publication of the book. During this period, I continued to tinker with the work, firing off new version after new version over the transom, until finally one day about three months ago, my publisher sent me an email that said. "We have a release date for you now. Please stop sending revisions!"
It seemed that the dream had caught up with the self; I breathed it in and left it alone. What remains, of course, is the future. One of my biggest fears, aside from the book "flopping" in a commercial sense, is that I will examine the book in its finished form after a year or so and lament that I didn't have enough time to make it better.
"Alrighty then," I tell my friend on the other end of the phone. "Explain this Tumbler thing again to me, like I'm a four year old?"
Yes, I need a plan, but I'm not terribly worried. As Gregory Corso would no doubt concur, self promotion is the nasty chore we writers endure, before returning to the "work" — as nothing but a reward: Thank goodness creation (whether it be poem, essay, story, or novel) takes place blissfully, mercifully, and only in the present.
Goodreads may not be ready for me; but I've got another book to write.
Dennis Mahagin is the author of a debut poetry collection entitled "Grand Mal," published by Rebel Satori Press. The book is available on Amazon at the following URL: http://www.amazon.com/Grand-Mal-Dennis-Mahagin/dp/1608640515/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1350263902&sr=8-1&keywords=dennis+mahagin
Sunday, October 21, 2012
How To Write Well Coaching Video
Do you want to write a book, but don't know how to do it well? Writing coach Jurgen Wolff shares some of the essential advice for making your story work.
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Plot? Who needs it? - Guest Post from Phil Tate
Plot? Who needs it?
by Phil Tate
I can crank out short stories in three weeks or so, from inception to final polishing, and I’ve had some success with publishing them, too, including in the final issue of The Battered Suitcase. But I’ve always wanted to be a novelist, and I’ve had nothing but trouble writing one agents like. It’s taken a few years, but I’ve finally figured out what’s wrong. It has to do with the way I write, which is influenced to some degree by the software I use. I write on a Mac, and anything will do for short stories, but I wanted something more sophisticated for novels, so I bought Scrivener, a wonderfully complex program that makes child’s play of organizing and reorganizing chapters and scenes. I love it, and I wouldn’t use anything else, but here’s how I use it. I write a scene. I click a button to create another one. I write that. This goes on an on, hundreds of scenes, all of them wonderful and polished and profound. Each one is self contained (kind of like a short story) and invariably shows character development and growth, introduces or reinforces symbols, continues motifs, etc. But what I have had trouble with is the overall arc of the story, the big novel-sized story. The increasing tension, the climb toward a climax, an overall thrust or momentum or whatever you call it. Maybe you call it plot. That’s where my trouble is. Voice? You got that down. Character? Realistic, authentic, interesting. Dialogue? A real knack for that. But plot? Oh, my.
Some years ago I was at a workshop led by Natalie Goldberg, and she told a similar story: "Natalie, you have to have a plot!" her friends told her, and everyone laughed, including me, because it was so obvious. How could anyone write a novel without plot? Ha, ha. Well, I’ve found out. It’s pretty easy, actually. Just keep writing those wonderful scenes, one at a time, and forget that people want something simple. They want, as in Winter’s Bone, a girl who desperately needs to find her father, or as in Moby Dick, a man who must kill a whale. Readers want a reason to keep turning pages. They want to find out what happens. It’s not enough to watch them grow up.
So I set out to write Winter’s Bone and Moby Dick, only I started with two teenage girls fighting for survival. Their mother dies, their father left them years ago, and the girls set off to find him. But they never do. I mean, after all those flawless, enlightening scenes, including beer and sex and perverts, who needs him?
Tate’s stories have appeared in Glimmer Train, Narrative, Black Warrior Review, and others. He has three novels packed with great scenes (and a little plot). See more at http://www.philtate.com
by Phil Tate
I can crank out short stories in three weeks or so, from inception to final polishing, and I’ve had some success with publishing them, too, including in the final issue of The Battered Suitcase. But I’ve always wanted to be a novelist, and I’ve had nothing but trouble writing one agents like. It’s taken a few years, but I’ve finally figured out what’s wrong. It has to do with the way I write, which is influenced to some degree by the software I use. I write on a Mac, and anything will do for short stories, but I wanted something more sophisticated for novels, so I bought Scrivener, a wonderfully complex program that makes child’s play of organizing and reorganizing chapters and scenes. I love it, and I wouldn’t use anything else, but here’s how I use it. I write a scene. I click a button to create another one. I write that. This goes on an on, hundreds of scenes, all of them wonderful and polished and profound. Each one is self contained (kind of like a short story) and invariably shows character development and growth, introduces or reinforces symbols, continues motifs, etc. But what I have had trouble with is the overall arc of the story, the big novel-sized story. The increasing tension, the climb toward a climax, an overall thrust or momentum or whatever you call it. Maybe you call it plot. That’s where my trouble is. Voice? You got that down. Character? Realistic, authentic, interesting. Dialogue? A real knack for that. But plot? Oh, my.
Some years ago I was at a workshop led by Natalie Goldberg, and she told a similar story: "Natalie, you have to have a plot!" her friends told her, and everyone laughed, including me, because it was so obvious. How could anyone write a novel without plot? Ha, ha. Well, I’ve found out. It’s pretty easy, actually. Just keep writing those wonderful scenes, one at a time, and forget that people want something simple. They want, as in Winter’s Bone, a girl who desperately needs to find her father, or as in Moby Dick, a man who must kill a whale. Readers want a reason to keep turning pages. They want to find out what happens. It’s not enough to watch them grow up.
So I set out to write Winter’s Bone and Moby Dick, only I started with two teenage girls fighting for survival. Their mother dies, their father left them years ago, and the girls set off to find him. But they never do. I mean, after all those flawless, enlightening scenes, including beer and sex and perverts, who needs him?
Tate’s stories have appeared in Glimmer Train, Narrative, Black Warrior Review, and others. He has three novels packed with great scenes (and a little plot). See more at http://www.philtate.com
Sunday, October 14, 2012
One-Million People Pre-Order J.K. Rowling's New Book
Famed author J.K. Rowling who wrote the Harry Potter series is releasing her first non-Potter book, "The Casual Vacancy" on Thursday. The publisher has already set aside more than a million copies for pre-orders. Vanessa Yurkevich tell us why some are saying it will be the biggest book release of the 21st century.
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