To raise money for Prostate Cancer Research, people all over the world are growing mustaches this month. If you haven’t seen Adam Garone (the founder of Movember)’s Ted Talk, I recommend watching it. It’s a fun story. To create Movember awareness, Diana Rose Wilson and I have turned my game Pessimistic Moustache into a twitterContinue reading “A Quick #Movember Update and a game of #pessimisticmoustache”
Category Archives: Writing Exercises
The Pessimistic Moustache Game: Avoiding cliche description
The idea and tools I recently read The Hollow by Agatha Christie and one simple but unique description jumped out at me. “He came in accompanied by Inspector Grange, who was a large, heavy built man with a down-drooping, pessimistic moustache.” I love the idea of pessimistic facial hair and it really got meContinue reading “The Pessimistic Moustache Game: Avoiding cliche description”
Radio Inspire Me: A Fun, New (to me) Writing Exercise
My excitement with Future Learn’s Fiction Course continues. One of the exercises from week two is to turn on the radio and come up with a story or beginning of a story (500 words) based on what you hear. I was skeptical but determined to try, so I set my radio to AM and slowlyContinue reading “Radio Inspire Me: A Fun, New (to me) Writing Exercise”
Writing a Page Turner: Chapter Endings
Our exploration of conflict and suspense sprinted out of the gate in the first month of 2016. We have great books to read, a study plan, tools for evoking emotion and Moxie Sharpe is having weekly misadventures to put it all into practice. Exciting! So what’s in store for February? Application. Writing Moxie’s misadventures isContinue reading “Writing a Page Turner: Chapter Endings”
Creative Similes: The Essence of Your Unique Voice
Simile – a figure of speech in which two unlike things are explicitly compared. Comparisons and associations are how we help others to see the world from our unique perspectives. Ralph Cornish, a fellow writer and friend, recently challenged our critique group to write a short piece consisting only of similes. To tackle the challenge,Continue reading “Creative Similes: The Essence of Your Unique Voice”
Exploring: Collective Nouns
Yesterday’s writing group was incredibly fun, thanks to Ralph Cornish presenting an exploration of collective nouns. We’re all familiar with at least a few collective nouns that we use in regular speech: a hill of beans, a mountain of debt, a litter of pups. But there are so many more fun and interesting collective nouns.Continue reading “Exploring: Collective Nouns”
To finish what I begin – Tips for finishing a draft
With all of the kids spending as much time in the lake as they could before heading back to school, I must have become nostalgic for a moment because I suddenly remembered something from my blue bird (tiny campfire girls) days — “to finish what I begin.” It really stuck in my head so IContinue reading “To finish what I begin – Tips for finishing a draft”
Getting Words on the Page – Three Tools to Increase Productivity
It’s almost time for me to print out the rough draft of my novel, to read through the whole thing with fresh eyes, as if I just brought it home from the bookstore. But first, I have a few more goals to accomplish: I WILL finish reading Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie (I was bornContinue reading “Getting Words on the Page – Three Tools to Increase Productivity”
Exploring the Senses – Finale: Using sensory information in your writing
Through this series on exploring the senses we (you and I) have explored all the major senses and more. We’ve experimented with how sensual stimuli trigger memories that can inspire writing and played with different ways to add sensory detail to our writing. Now, I want to talk about when and how to use thisContinue reading “Exploring the Senses – Finale: Using sensory information in your writing”
Exploring the Senses – The Sixth Sense
Though everyone agrees on the five major senses, neurologists and perception researchers believe there are more. Some think the main senses should be broken into sub-genres. Others believe we have many sensory cell types leading to other senses including: balance, pain, temperature, time, body part location, and sensing internal organs. However, when we talk aboutContinue reading “Exploring the Senses – The Sixth Sense”
Experience Writing 