Tag Archives: writing life
The Supernatural Fairy Tale Writing Challenge
One of the search terms used to find this site is fairy tale story ideas. I’ve been using fairy tales as inspiration for many years. I like using the formula: fairy tale + paranormal element = supernatural fairy tale. Sometimes I even give myself an extra challenge to help inspire me; a certain genre, a …
How to Defeat Writer’s Block with Lies and Deceit
There is no secret as to how you finish a novel, you just steadily work on it: page by page, chapter by chapter, day by day. I write 4-5 days a week. And I pretty much follow the same ritual. I write in the mornings when it’s quiet. I drink 1-2 cups of very strong …
Writing in Silence
As everyone is writing this month either for NaNoWriMo, or like me, working on a work-in-progress, I’m curious as to if you must write in silence, listen to music, or need a noisy coffee shop in order to write. I’m a silent writer: no people, no television, no music. There are a couple of reasons …
Writer Humor from The Carol Burnett Show
Sometimes when I’m writing/editing and changing a lot of things around, I imagine my characters getting disgusted at me and saying, “Make up your mind, woman!” It reminds my of the writer skits from “The Carol Burnett Show” like the one below. Funny Stuff. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOVOv5WrZWs
Rough Draft: the Good, the Fair, and the Ugly
After reading through and making notes to the rough draft of my novel, I scored each chapter on how well I believed it flowed and how much work was still needed. Right now, I’m on chapter 6 (Fair) and I really like how this tiny bit of information has helped me as I approach each …
Second Draft: relax and write
After printing, reading, and making notes, I’m officially on my second draft of my contemporary romance. I’m not going to worry so much with grammar and line-edits yet – that’s next draft – but below are some of the things I found I need to fix. Characterization – This is the biggy. I have backgrounds to …
Keeping a Novel Diary
I think keeping a diary as you write a novel can be a really good thing for your next book. I’m working on my rough draft and struggling a bit right now. I started wondering today, is this how I always feel when I’m writing a rough draft? And then I remembered, I took notes …
Dorlana Vann - Author 