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Life spoke to the void. "Why do so many hate me? Yet they cling so tightly to my cloak." Death spoke to the void. "I am accursed and feared by so many. Yet they all come to me in the end." Joy spoke to the void. "I am pursued by all. Yet they find me so elusive." Hope asked the void: "Why am I both held so tightly and thrown so easily away?" War spoke to the void. "I am what they hate. Yet they cannot live without me." Peace spoke to the void. "I am sought by all. Yet they have never found me" Innocence asked the void: "Why am I both the first they have and the first they lose?" Strife asked the void: "Why am I the one that they hate t

8 Tips for Becoming Self-motivated to Write Anybody Can Write a Novel   Chapter 1 “Beginning to Write” – Section 4 “Self-Discipline” With Links to Supplementary Material I've talked before about dealing with writer's block, and different techniques for conquering it. But how do we write diligently and with self-motivation, given the overwhelming amount of distraction around us and the difficulty in becoming self-motivated? Today, I'm going to give some of the strategies that I have found to help me the most, so that you can try them or even modify them to fit your own personal strengths and vulnerabilities.

8 Ideas for Optimizing Your Writing Workspace Anybody Can Write a Novel Version 2.0 Chapter 1 “Beginning to Write” – Section 4 “Your Workspace” (Previous Tutorial)              (Next Tutorial)                                                                       "My music is simple stuff. Anybody can sit down, look at a set of symbols and produce sounds the music represents" -Chuck Berry In the same spirit of making yourself more self-motivated to write and warding off writer's block, a few of my readers have asked about optimizing your writing workspace for the utmost productivity. This presents something

Writing Without Confusing Yourself (Or Your Readers) Writing is a very personal, individual undertaking. Everybody approaches the activity a bit differently from the next guy. Some people can come up with concept, plot, characters, and everything else and just sit down and write. Others need to take time to figure out what's going on; what's going to happen in the story, and how it all fits together. Others still will find themselves getting stuck somewhere along the middle, losing track of everything or changing an idea mid-way through, or never know how to end. These are the people for whom this has been put together. Those of you who can

DaGrblz's Process to Writing Chapters version 2 Step 1: Plot Planning Make a sort of timeline for your whole story. -Draw a line across a paper -Start the first entry at the very beginning, but write tiny and sideways, so there is room for every event on your timeline. -This timeline gives general ideas of what will happen in the story. -Now go back and mark the events of bigger importance and/or indicates a time skip/flashback in the story. -This organizes my thoughts of where to begin and end a chapter. Step 2:  Chapter Planning Write out the specific events of the chapter you are about to write. -Get a piece of noteboo

REALITY CHECK! Writing for Profit It's Not just an Adventure - It's a JOB. Whoever told you that writing fiction for publication - for money - is supposed to be Artistic, Fun, or Easy -- LIED. Writing may look artistic, and creative writing certainly is artistic (that's why they call it Creative Writing,) but writing for a living; writing for publication with the intent to get paid on a regular basis is NOT artistic, it's NOT always fun, and it certainly is NOT easy. Writing for publication is WORK. Sure, some of it is fun, but the bulk of it is mind-bending, eye-straining work. Don't get me wrong, creativity is part of the job of writi

1. Everyone found out 2. Outsider 3. Old-fashioned 4. It's always been this way 5. I know you did it 6. Hidden 7. Singer 8. While the music was playing... 9. He smiled, hiding the way he really felt 10. Perfect 11. Blue 12. Map 13. Had I just gone mad, or did I really see that? 14. Expensive 15. Complaining 16. Ship 17. Secret 18. Just let it go 19. Flying 20. The little kid suddenly started screaming 21. Memory 22. Violence 23. Scarf 24. Snowman 25. She raised her voice 26. I'm serious 27. Annoying 29. A dream I had last night 30. Stairs 31. A grin 32. We both knew 33. Curtains 34. Earrings 35. Laughter 36. Everyone was dancing, but no one n

One way to add excitement to your story is by adding lots of bad-guys, also known as EXTERNAL Conflict. Another way is by adding INTERNAL Conflict, more commonly known as Angst. I'm sure most of you have noticed by now that most movie characters, and far too many book characters, are One-Dimensional. They do stuff, but they don't face any personality issues: a hang-up, a fear, paranoia, a moral code, a love interest, a strong dislike… Or worse, they do have all these things, but they never really affect the story. There's a Plot Arc, things happen, but no Character Arc. The things that happen don't affect the characters emotionally. W

You're staring at a blank page with no ideas about where to go or how you're going to get there. The image is so familiar, it's cliché. Yet no matter how many times we write about it, sing about it, or think we've gotten rid of it, we always end up returning to that sheet of paper as empty as our minds. If you're mid-story and wondering where to go, this guide is unlikely to help you. You may want to try "Beating the Block," which lists a few scene ideas. If you're a visual artist and came here by mistake, try the "Art Block Banisher." However, if you just want to put something—anything—on that piece of paper, this guide

Writing a novel is different for everyone. However, here are some things to think about during the journey of writing your novel. STEP ONE - Prewriting What message do you want to send the world? It may sound like an obvious question, but the message of any literature can be very abstract or become lost in the literature. Keep the "message" or theme specific. Every event that occurs, every character added to the story, ask yourself whether or not it helps delivering the message you want to your readers. Characters Characters are vital to the book. You cannot have too many, nor too few. Choose characters that people can easily relate to.

Writing Emotions VISUALLY "What is ...VISUAL writing?" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- Visual writing is when the reader can SEE your story unfolding in their imaginations just like a movie.     * Non-visual: It was a dreary day.     * Visual: Icy rain slithered down the window glass from an iron gray sky. This is more commonly known as SHOWING vs. TELLING.     * Telling: It was a dreary day.     * Showing: Icy rain slithered down the window glass from an iron gray sky. "What's wrong with just...Telling them?" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- The problem lays with Reader interpre

Introduction to the New Tutorial Anybody Can Write a Novel Version 2.0 Chapter 1 “Beginning to Write” – Section 1 “Introduction” (Next Tutorial) “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There's no way around these two things that I'm aware of, no shortcut.”―Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft Within the many styles of martial arts, there are powerful moves unique to each—whether it be footwork, punching, blocking, kicking, or the countless weapon styles among them. Yet none is objectively perfect, nor does any reach

7 Tips For Writing Action Scenes Anybody Can Write a Novel   Chapter 7 “From Story to Art” – Section 7 “Action Scenes” With Links to Supplementary Material Action scenes in a novel are a difficult tool to master, but well worth the time and effort to create dramatic an memorable scenes that will engage and entertain your readers. To pull them off effectively, you must be able to keep a quick yet varied pace, keep a tight focus, reflect your story, and make it all quick and crisp. Today, I'm going to give you a starting-point for honing your skills in this method of storytelling. Tip 1: Create a visible plane