Where Normal Need Not Apply
In my last post about Google search terms, I mentioned that we sometimes have lots of content around a search’s keywords and yet have never answered the question directly. In that case, Google just gave us an idea for a blog post. *smile* One search term that led people to my blog this […]
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Fan fiction, also known as fanfic, refers to stories written by fans about the characters, situations, or world of existing works created by others. This definition sounds broad because the world of fanfic is broad. On some level, everything from Wicked, inspired by The Wizard of Oz, to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies […]
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Last week, we talked about how stories change from the initial story seed to the first draft. Then it dawned on me that I’ve experienced that same evolution between a first draft and a finished draft, where so much changed that I hardly recognized the original story any more. For fun, […]
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Artists of every type find inspiration all around them, and writers are no exception. Ideas might come in the form of a dream, a “what if” question, an overheard conversation, etc. Those are all fairly normal sources of inspiration. Personally, I’ve been inspired by dreams, “what if”s, an 80’s music […]
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With any job or activity, if we want to get better, we have to stretch ourselves. Athletes strive to move faster or stronger. Musicians aim to complete a harder, more intricate piece of music. And writers… How do writers stretch themselves? We can collect feedback on our writing from beta […]
“Hey, Jami, now that you have a bazillion things to do and no time to get it all done, what are you going to do?” “I’m going to Disneyland!” That’s right. I threw up my hands and decided everything could wait a week while I head to Disneyland with the […]
If we don’t want to waste time writing a story that will never get anywhere, we have to make sure we’ll be able to complete it. And guess what? It’s not completed when we, as writers, think it is. Going from seed idea to completion happens over two stages. So […]
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Writers are often overwhelmed with story ideas. When I’m in the middle of difficult revisions, it’s normal for me to think of several other shiny ideas that I would much rather work on instead of doing yet another round of edits. But not every idea is worthy of a story, […]
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Every story begins with an idea. Sometimes this idea comes to authors out of the blue. Sometimes a dream provides the spark. Sometimes “people watching” or an overheard conversation will trigger the thought. But no matter where it comes from, the idea kicks off everything else, like a seed from which […]
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