Friday, September 5th, 2008
Your resource this time is Strunk’s Elements of Style, available online for free at www.bartleby.com/141/strunk1.html. This is a key style guide and of the most frequently suggested. He teaches a clean, crisp style, well-suited to modern prose.
I also called out to Dictionary.com for sake of a rant on false epistemologies and playing with definitions.
I spoke about various ways to redeem your villain, if you want to.
Your prompt this week is a sensory exercise. Describe the experience of walking into an unfamiliar room, when it’s too dark to see.
Friday, August 29th, 2008
In this episode I mostly rant about being stressed about a cat, and why not to let an unfinished story sit for too long.
Your resourse this time is World Wide Words, a celebration of the English language.
Your prompt is to write an ideal, perfect, wonderful job description, then set up a situation where it’s really the job from hell.
Friday, August 22nd, 2008
Your resource this time is the Launchpad article by David Levine. Check out that whole blog. It’s good.
I talk about the viral marketing campaign HBO is launching for their new series True Blood, including the web sites TruBeverage.com, AmericanVampireLeague.com, LoveBitten.net, FellowshipOfTheSun.org and BloodCopy.com. The release date is Sept. 7 at 9.
I review Stanley Bronstein’s AIQ Moments, but only briefly since that’s the main topic of this week’s Knit Spirit.
I talk about using a quick exercise to flesh out side characters and interleafing their story just enough to make it seem like more than it is.
I have two Stories of the Third Wave items up on the Murverse, a Knit Spirit parody and LoveLines.
Your prompt is a first line. “What do you mean that’s________?” Fill in the blank as you see fit.
Friday, August 15th, 2008
Your resource this time is Writing Spirit. It’s a one stop shopping resource for writers.
I also wanted to bring Wonderlands to your attention.
This week I talk about telling, but not telling too much.
Your prompt is a first line. “The worst thing to be transformed into in this town is a kitten.”
Friday, August 8th, 2008
Your resources is the Advanced Fiction Writing web site.
Kimiko of the Tale Chasing podcast asked me to get involved in a promotion effort for Playing for Keeps.
Registration is open for the 2008 Muse Online Writer’s Workshop.
Your prompt is a character–the guardian angel of ice cream.
Friday, August 1st, 2008
In this episode I talk too much. I talk about Harry Mount’s two identical books and show off how bad my Latin pronunciation is. I talk about why you should write what you know, especially what you love. I talk about
I talk about the Teaching Company’s new class on constructing sentences–where I think it’s useful and where I disagree with it.
Your resource is the News from Poughkeepsie feature on the Murverse. It’s a daily writing prompt. It’s a great creativity starter. You might also want to check out the Living Waters Publishing blog. This is a Christian children’s book publisher, but they post advice useful to any writer. You might also be interested in their Twitter feed.
Your prompt is to write one scene set in a place you go to at least once a week.
Friday, June 27th, 2008
Your resource is Author’s Den.
In this episode I talk about how to withhold information to cause turnabouts in a story, when this works, and when this fails.
Your prompt is to try this in a scene of your own.
Friday, June 20th, 2008
Your resource is author’s den.
This episode I talk about a wonderful example of world building I saw this week and how societies don’t stand in isolation in reality as they sometimes do in fantasy. I look at what drives them to be similar and what drives them to be different.
Your prompt is to take a look at a foreign society you’ve never studied before. I’m choosing ancient China.
Friday, June 6th, 2008
Your resource this time is Absolute Write.
In this episode I talk about dumping information in a manuscript in chunks.
Your prompt is to write a scene where you convey a character’s age, marital status, and occupation without directly referring to any of those. Carol might come home to find Paul has made her favorite dinner. She throws her scrubs in the laundry and freshens up before coming into the kitchen. You get the idea.
Friday, May 30th, 2008
Your resource this time is backspace.
This week I talk about story structure and appealing to the senses other than sight and sound.
Your prompt is to take a story that you like, novel or short story, and determine how the structure makes the story work.
