4 Tips for Personal Writers by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
4 Tips for Personal Writers
4 Tips for Personal Writers Anybody Can Write a Novel Chapter 9 “Types of Writers” – Section 11 “Personal Writers” With Links to Supplementary Material While some people write for a cause, for the love of story, and/or for profit, there are some who write for themselves—to process their emotions, thoughts, and experiences in life. Even those writers who have other primary motivators can also relate to this feeling. As human experience is tremendously universal, stories that are the result of personal writing have the same potential to help others in the same way they help the writer. However, with revealing something as tender and emoti...
6 Tips for Creating Your Story's Timeline by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
6 Tips for Creating Your Story's Timeline
6 Tips for Creating Your Story's Timeline Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0 Chapter 3 “World Building” – Section 1 “History” ( Previous Tutorial ) ( Next Tutorial ) “Man is explicable by nothing less than all his history. Without hurry, without rest, the human spirit goes forth from the beginning to embody every faculty, every thought, every emotion, which belongs to it in appropriate events.”-Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essay I, History From the events which take place in your novel, to the culture of the people groups present, to the attitudes present in the characters, to the nature of the cosmos and the natural consequences...
7 Tips for Introducing Your Characters by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
7 Tips for Introducing Your Characters
7 Tips for Introducing Your Characters Anybody Can Write a Novel Chapter 5 “Choosing and Designing Characters” – Section 3 “Introductions” With Links to Supplementary Material When a reader first picks up a book, they create an instant connection with the author of the story—formed through a required level of trust just so that the two of you can immerse yourselves in the world you have created. The writer and the reader are, at that point, friends or pleasant acquaintances; and at that moment of relationship and immersion into the realm of story, the characters become just as real as the reader/writer relationship. The writer, in this ...
8 Tips for Describing a Story Setting by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
8 Tips for Describing a Story Setting
8 Tips for Describing a Story Setting Anybody Can Write a Novel Chapter 3 “World Building” – Section 3“Describing Settings” With Links to Supplementary Material Another tricky skill to master in writing is setting description. Setting description is often the first thing that a reader encounters in a story, making it an essential skill to perfect if you want to hook your readers. To make matters more complicated, it is often difficult to calculate the right amount of description in settings—too much or too little can either leave the reader bored, overwhelmed, or confused. Today, I'm going to talk about how to create engaging and approp...
6 Tips for Mapping a Fictional World by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
6 Tips for Mapping a Fictional World
6 Tips for Mapping a Fictional World Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0 Chapter 3 “World Building” – Section 2 “Maps” ( Previous Tutorial ) ( Next Tutorial ) “I wisely started with a map, and made the story fit (generally with meticulous care for distances). The other way about lands one in confusions and impossibilities, and in any case it is weary work to compose a map from a story.” - J.R.R. Tolkien If you've ever read or written a story that seemed unintentionally ethereal—where the descriptions did not paint a vivid picture of the setting but instead a more vague dreamscape that the characters meandered along aimlessly—th...
6 Tips for Creating Supporting Characters by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
6 Tips for Creating Supporting Characters
6 Tips for Creating Supporting Characters Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0 Chapter 5 “Characters” – Section 4 “Supporting Types” ( Previous Tutorial ) ( Next Tutorial )
“Although my heart may be weak, it's not alone. It's grown with each new experience. And it's found a home with all the friends I've made. I've become a part of their heart, just as they've become a part of mine.” --Sora (protagonist of Kingdom Hearts ) Great stories are hardly ever about only a hero or a villain who fight obsessively to the bitter end. In a great story, there is an entire world of characters who not only love, fight, support, challenge, teach ...
14 Tips for Writing an Essay by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
14 Tips for Writing an Essay
14 Tips for Writing an Essay NOT Anybody Can Write a Novel Chapter Infinite “Life Skillz” – Section 1 “Essays” So you've likely clicked on this in pure disbelief, wondering “what sort of witchery is this? Blake writes novel tutorials, not essays!” Well... mostly true. This is indeed not witchery, nor the start of a new series (we still need to finish our Novel after all); but an outline for a small public speaking event that I've got scheduled at MSU on the topic of how to write an essay. You see, when I was learning how to write, I was never taught how to write a good essay, that there was a correct format, or that there was a way...
Need Some Advice/Help (Serious Matter) by TheKatanaPhilosopher, literature
Literature
Need Some Advice/Help (Serious Matter)
I'm sorry to bother you folks, but I need help.
I've been a struggling artist for so many years now, and it's starting to take a toll. Everything I've tried so far to make a living has for the most part not worked (or rather I can't really think of anything that has). I can't find anyone interested in hiring me, no one's showed interest in commissions (except maybe only one person 7 years ago?), I can't sell anything I've made; and within one week I've had the potential of being hired by 3 different people, but all ended in not being hired (for valid reasons of their own) back to back (this is among the numerous of times in the past I can think of, whenever I went around asking if someone was interested in hiring). Admittedly it's gotten to the point where it feels like I'm a bit cursed (when it comes to making earnings to live on).
I'd like to know what would interest you (and what my faults are)? What can I do that'd catch yours (or someone's) attention, that would lead me to
6 Tips for Creating Character Motivation by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
6 Tips for Creating Character Motivation
6 Tips for Creating Character Motivation Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0 Chapter 5 “Characters” – Section 12 “Motivation” ( Previous Tutorial ) ( Next Tutorial ) “Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.” -Plato I've found that character motivation seems to categorize people into two groups—those for who it comes naturally and those who need to put conscious effort into it. Some people get it without even thinking about what they're doing, while others need to make a plan. Neither group is necessarily better at writing than the other, it's just an interesting dividing point among us that allo...
8 Tips for Writing Your Story's Epilogue by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
8 Tips for Writing Your Story's Epilogue
8 Tips for Writing Your Story's Epilogue Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0 Chapter 6 “Plot Points” – Section 12 “Epilogue” “A true epilogue is removed from the story in time or space. That's the reason it is called an 'Epilogue'; the label serves to alert the reader that the story itself is over, but we are going to now see a distant result or consequence of that story.”
-Nancy Kress The most basic element of a story are the efforts of a protagonist to reach a goal, to fight the antagonistic forces that prevents him/her from reaching that goal, and to either achieve it or fail. By the end of the Climax, it should be clear whether your...
11 Tips for Writing Humor and Parody by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
11 Tips for Writing Humor and Parody
PLEASE NOTE THAT WHILE THIS PAGE WILL REMAIN ACTIVE FOR PURPOSES OF EDUCATION AND RECORDS, IT IS OUTDATED. CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE NEWEST VERSION. 11 Tips for Writing Humor and Parody Anybody Can Write a Novel Chapter 2 “Genres” – Section 9 “Humor and Parody” With Links to Supplementary Material Humor and Parody are of the most beloved in story genres, and yet are also two that are of the most difficult to accomplish. There are a number of factors—ranging from how a story is composed, to the many types of humor that exist, to the particularities of what people find funny—that make this such a difficult genre. Today, I'm going to gi...
15 Tips for Writing Your Story's Third Draft by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
15 Tips for Writing Your Story's Third Draft
PLEASE NOTE THAT WHILE THIS PAGE WILL REMAIN ACTIVE FOR PURPOSES OF EDUCATION AND RECORDS, IT IS OUTDATED. CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE NEWEST VERSION. 15 Tips for Writing Your Story's Third Draft Anybody Can Write a Novel Chapter 8 “Editing” – Section 2 “Editing the Second Draft” With Links to Supplementary Material Several months ago, I wrote an article about Editing and Rewriting your Story's First Draft , and today I am writing an article for editing the subsequent draft. You may be spitting your coffee and jack at the computer screen, and telling me that I am not done with story genres, yet! Very true... and I'm sorry for the mes...
