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Thursday, March 30, 2017

Laurel Garver's 5 Reasons to Write with Prompts

5 Reasons to Write is an ongoing series highlighting writers who love to write. Topics can include writing with certain genres, writing with prompts, or writing with various types of technology (text, voice, and more). 

Five Reasons to Write with Prompts

By Laurel Garver

Some writers feel that using writing prompts is like riding a bike with training wheels—fine for beginners to get them moving, but too restraining for the more experienced. The fact that creative writing teachers often include them in courses can also give them an elementary flavor.

But prompts are useful beyond mere apprentice-work practice stories. Writers at every level can benefit from bringing prompts into some part of their process. Here are five reasons to write using prompts beyond “so I can get an A in my undergrad fiction writing course”:

1. To warm up
No Olympic track star rolls out of bed and walks directly to the blocks, nor does a dancer simply strap on her toe shoes and dance The Rite of Spring. The pros know you can't perform your best unless you first warm up and stretch. And because the biggest obstacle to writing is one’s resistance to simply sitting down and beginning, a low-pressure warm up can be a helpful way to ease you in. Write to a prompt for ten minutes before you turn to your larger project, and you may find that, like the athlete, it enables you to go faster when you do "hit the track" (work on your manuscript), and like the ballerina, it enables you to move with greater ease and grace.

2. To overcome writer’s block
Writer’s block usually has one of two root causes: hitting a wall with a project or being in a creatively dry period. Essentially, a wall or a desert. Prompts are an excellent way to step away from the sense of frustration and simply play with words. Rather than stubbornly clench your fist around a plot problem or characterization glitch that has you stuck, take a creative vacation by writing to a prompt. It will enable you to mentally relax and give your intuition space to work. And rather than despair about having no ideas, pick up a collection of prompts. These germs of ideas from other creative minds that can often kick-start your creativity.

3. To experiment in a new genre
If you’ve always written one genre, prompts can provide excellent starter ideas to experiment in another genre, to try it on for size and see if it is a fit for you. Genre experiments can also help you avoid getting stale—even if you return to your genre of choice. For example, writing a romance short could help you develop skills with adding subtext to dialogue; experimenting with horror could help you become more deft at tension building and slow reveals. Spinning a prompt in an unexpected direction will open you creatively, help you develop your problem-solving skills, and widen your writing range.

4. To deepen parts of an existing story
Many early drafts suffer from lack of development of either the characters or the plot. Prompts can be helpful tools for doing this development work. They can helping you delve deeper into who these fictional people are and what they’d naturally do in certain situations. They can also provide new ideas for conflicts and obstacles to incorporate into your story, expanding the kinds of experiences your characters have—things you might not have come up with on your own.

5. To overcome burnout
It’s not unusual while writing a novel to hit a stage that you hate your story and have no motivation to continue working on it. Or perhaps you’ve finished the manuscript and are growing weary of the revision process. Your energy has been expended in one direction so long, you feel you can’t take another step on the same path. When experiencing this kind of burnout, writing to a prompt can be a way of having a little creative vacation elsewhere. Writing about your own past—taking prompts in a memoir direction—can be refreshing. So can imagining a character from your current project in a scenario unlike anything in your novel. Let the characters reveal new facets of themselves to you, and you may find your enthusiasm returning. Or simply play in another genre, writing a short story from a prompt for fun to restore your faith in your creative gifts.

Laurel Garver is the author of young adult fiction, poetry, and resources for writers. She holds degrees in English and journalism and earns a living as a magazine editor. An indie film enthusiast and incurable Anglophile, she enjoys pulling jinx pranks at Ravenclaw alumni events and plotting how to hijack a Tardis. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and daughter.


Connect with Laurel:  Blog / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter










About the book
1001 Evocative Prompts for Fiction Writers
Ideas, emotions, images, intriguing questions, perplexing dilemmas—these are the raw materials from which great stories are built.

1001 Evocative Prompts will stimulate your thinking wherever you are in your writing journey and get you writing today. It provides story starts and writing inspiration for a wide variety of genres by focusing on emotions, character development, and pivotal moments.

You can face a blank page with confidence when you use these prompts to warm up, beat writer’s block, develop and maintain a writing habit, change up your routine, start a new project, experiment in a new genre, deepen parts of an existing story, or overcome burnout.

What are you waiting for? Dig in and get writing right now!




A Note from Tyrean: Since I started following Laurel's blog serveral years ago, I have noticed that she creates some wonderful writing prompts and great articles about writing. I highly recommend this book! 

Monday, March 27, 2017

#Hero Lost author Renee Cheung's 5 Reasons to Write in the Technomancy Genre



The 5 Reasons to Write series
proudly presents
the authors from
Hero Lost: Mysteries of Death and Life


for the month of March

Please welcome Renne Cheung!

5 Reasons to Write in the Technomancy Genre

1. The perceived dichotomy of technology and magic
There is a stereotype that when it comes to magic and technology, it’s either/or. I’m not sure where this idea that technology is the antithesis of magic came from but it seems to prevail in fiction. What’s worse is that often, it feels like technology is positioned to be the death of everything magic represents - dreams, intuition, wonder, to name a few concepts.

Perhaps this is due to technology going hand in hand with science and industrialization. After all, even Arthur C. Clarke said “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” which implies that magic is simply what science has not been able to explain yet. As a result, science and what it produces, technology, is often used as an antagonistic force in fantasy. (Anyone remember Fern Gully?) But to view something so prevalent in our lives so negatively in an entire genre is rather unfortunately, in my opinion and technomancy is a subgenre that works to correct this misconception.

2. The wonder in our lives
Were you one of those kids that went looking in the back of closets after reading the Chronicles of Narnia for the first time? I was. I remember looking at everything with wonder and trying to catch magic in my hands. Well, wardrobes don’t exactly exist anymore and instead, what we got are computers and laptops. With technology so deeply woven into our lives, why are we not introducing more wonder in those aspects?

Just as one of my fellow anthologist, Jen Chandler, mentioned once in an interview I conducted with her, I want to rekindle that sense of wonder but instead of looking at a forest and wondering if there are faeries about, I want someone to look at social media and wonder if the amount of emotion we pour out via our technology might lead to something else.

3. Social commentary on technology
The fantasy genre is often used as social commentary with the ability to highlight issues about the current society while sneaking past people’s defences because it’s taken out of context of the world as we know it today. I believe the same kind of conversation needs to happen about our technology. Just like Terry Pratchetts Discworld is such a brilliant satire on a range of topics from politics to economics and culture, I believe that technomancy fiction can fulfil a similar role about technology today.

4. An opportunity for education
Learning about technology can be boring (well unless you are a tech nerd). Technomancy is an opportunity to introduce technology, or even the workings of, in a fun way to a wider audience. For instance, I was able to introduce Slack, a chat platform, in one of my stories. I’m fairly sure that outside of the tech industry, not a lot of people know about Slack, but it is an application used widely in many workplaces. Sure, it’s not exactly accurate (technomancy is a subgenre of fantasy after all) but it may inspire someone who previously was not interested in technology to take another look.

5. Technomancy...wha…?
I am well aware that the term is not very commonly used, at least in some circles. Technomancy is a term used more often in tabletop and video games than in fiction. And that’s a reason in itself - there’s simply not enough technomancy fiction out there.


Renee uses her years of experience as a developer to write about the what-ifs of magic and technology. When she is not suspiciously peering at her computer in between her writing, she can be found roaming the streets with her family or gaming (whether it’s video games, board games or table-top RPGs) with her similar-minded friends.

Web | Blog | Twitter | Facebook



Renee wrote the story "Memoirs of a Forgotten Knight" for the 2017 IWSG Anthology, Hero Lost: Mysteries of Death and Life.

Long ago, before the Unseen migrated into servers and networks, a hedge-knight sought to save a village from a dragon. But being a hero always has its price.




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To find out more about the stories and authors featured in the anthology, 
check out the Hero Lost website!

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Monday, March 13, 2017

Ellen Jacobson's 5 Reasons to Write Fantasy


The 5 Reasons to Write series
proudly presents
the authors from
Hero Lost: Mysteries of Life and Death
for the month of March


Please welcome Ellen Jacobson


5 Reasons to Write Fantasy

1 – Imagining Different Ways Of Life
I've always been fascinated by different peoples and their cultures in the real world, which is probably why I ended up studying anthropology. What I love about writing fantasy is being able to create imaginary worlds full of people who lead vastly different lives than my own. It reminds me that humanity's strength comes from its diversity of cultures.

2 – Freeing Up Brain Space
My brain is chock full of way too many crazy ideas. As I get older, I desperately need to free up brain space so that I can remember where I put my glasses or what I walked into a room for. Getting some of my crazy ideas for fantasy stories down on paper is a great way to make room for more mundane information like how many calories chocolate chip cookies have in them.


3 – Creating New Languages
Fantasy worlds are full of things you don't find in the real world and therefore we don't have words for them. Considering how difficult I find it to learn other languages, it's fun to pretend I'm fluent in the imaginary languages spoken by my characters and come up with new words that only make sense to me.


4 – Magical Laws Of Nature
I was never very good at science. When you write fantasy, you can make up your own laws of nature. Nothing needs to conform to scientific principles. Magic is expected. Things happen in mysterious and unexpected ways in imaginary worlds which I'm pretty sure my physics teacher would tell me were impossible in this world.


5 – Escaping Reality
The news can be pretty depressing these days. Sometimes, it feels like we have no control of what happens in the world. What better way to escape reality than by writing fantasy stories where you're in control of how events unfold and where good triumphs over evil.


Ellen Jacobson writes mystery and sci-fi/fantasy stories. She is currently working on the first in a cozy mystery series about a reluctant sailor turned amateur sleuth, as well as tales set on imaginary worlds. She lives on a sailboat with her husband, exploring the world from the water. When she isn’t working on boat projects or seeking out deserted islands, she blogs about their adventures.

Ellen's story, "The Silvering" is featured in the IWSG 2017 anthology Hero Lost: Mysteries of Life and Death.

The Silvering

Could the gift of silvering become a prison for those who possessed it?

Caestu, an ordinary fisherman, disobeyed the principles which guide his people’s way of life. Fortunately, the mark of disobedience is hidden beneath his glove. Unfortunately, others know what he has done. Now he must decide whether to stay with his people or leave to search out others like him.


Available for Pre-order now!
Coming May 2nd!
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To find out more about the stories and authors featured in the anthology, check out the Hero Lost website!

If you would like to host us during our book blog tour, check out Sarah Foster's awesome google form here.

Monday, March 6, 2017

Erika Beebe's 5 Reasons Why You Should Write Your Own Hero Story


The 5 Reasons to Write Series is mixing it up with the
  Hero Lost Anthology Mysteries of Life and Death authors!






Please welcome Erika Beebe!









Five Reasons Why You Should Write Your Own Hero Story

1.)    You can tailor you own hero to your most needed moment
Maybe you don’t need someone to lift cars overhead for you, but let’s say you DO need someone to do your much needed laundry over the course of the week…well…more than that at times? Why not picture your own version of Mr. Laundry Man? It might be fun. It might actually make you chuckle while you’re folding those dreaded crinkly clothes.

2.)    Make your hero your IDEAL Hero.
As a kid I loved Tony the Tiger. He was bright. He had an awesome smile, but today, you wouldn’t see me sleeping with a stuffed orange tiger. But that’s not to say someone else wouldn’t prefer a superhero as a tiger or bear. Maybe you relate better to the animal world. Maybe your superhero is your grandmother and you want this hero to represent your own picture in your own mind.

3.)    You get to decorate them!
From the costume to the colors, what’s not to love about that?

4.)    Choose your own remote location to beam yourself in and out of their worlds.
Does the line, “Beam me up Scottie ring a bell?” Or a magic mirror into a world where you walk between them, or in and out of conflict? Maybe Krypton isn’t the place you want to frequent. Heck, technically it doesn’t even exist. But maybe a cool mirror would make your day, where you blink yourself in some orb to another choice location. A  Harry Potter subway hole or magical seam to use when the crowd presses in, you really need to disappear?

5.)    Finally, no one can argue with your hero. 
    You wrote it. End of story.


Erika Beebe: Writer, author, dreamer, she envisions the possibilities in life and writes to bring hope when sometimes the moment doesn’t always feel that way. Working in the field of public relations and communications for more than fifteen years, she has always been involved with writing, editing, and engaging others in public speaking. In 2013, her first short story “Stage Fright” published in One More Day anthology. Her two young children help keep her creativity alive and the feeling of play in the forefront of her mind.
Blog: Cloud Nine Girl @ erikabeebe.com
Twitter: @cloudninegirl1
Instagram: erikabeebe
Tumblr: CloudNineGIrl
Two Facebook Options:
My inspiration Page: Cloud Nine Girl

My author Page: Erika Beebe Author

Erika is the author of "The Wheat Witch" - one of the 12 new stories featured in the 2017 IWSG anthology: Hero Lost: Mysteries of Death and Life!


Can a lost hero find redemption? What if Death himself wanted to die? Can deliverance be found on a bloody battlefield? Could the gift of silvering become a prison for those who possessed it? Will an ancient warrior be forever the caretaker of a house of mystery?
 
Delving into the depths of the tortured hero, twelve authors explore the realms of fantasy in this enthralling and thought-provoking collection. Hand-picked by a panel of agents and authors, these twelve tales will take you into the heart of heroes who have fallen from grace.




Coming May 2017!

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

#IWSG March 2017

Started by Alex J. Cavanaugh and co-hosted this month by:

Optional March 1 Question: Have you ever pulled out a really old story and reworked it? Did it work out?

Yes, my first professionally published short story (I got paid!) "Dragonfold" was a story I had written nine years earlier and submitted to a local writer's conferience for a contest. It didn't make it then, but when I pulled it out later and revised it, it gained publication. Now that story is the title story for my first story collection - and admittedly, probably the best one in the book.


Along those lines, I read a few articles about the "10,000 hours to Mastery" idea.
Have you heard of it?
I heard of this concept back when my daughters were early homeschool students.
Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book called The Outliers - about successful people - and this concept was one that really became popular after that.
However, there is conflicting research now. Some "master-level" and world-class artists, musicians, CEOs, and athletes spend less than 10,000 hours and some spend more than 10,000 hours to get to a high level of success.


Here are the links to two articles I read about this:


Meanwhile - my fellow authors from the 2017 IWSG Anthology Hero Lost: Mysteries of Death and Life rock at marketing! Between all 12 of us, we might just get to at least 1,000 hours of marketing work in the next three to six months. Be prepared to hear more about heroes, lost heroes, heroes lost, and otherwise. :)
The Hero Lost: Mysteries of Death and Life Website already has posts up and running, as well as information about individual stories and authors.


What do you think? Is there a magic number of hours it takes to gain a mastery level?
If so, how do we apply that to our writing and marketing efforts?
Have you seen the Hero Lost website yet? Or pre-ordered an e-book?


Also, I am still recovering from my first surgery so I may take a bit to visit - and I will do that before I comment here.
 If you see random tweets from me from The Piano Guys youtube videos - well, music is helping me get through the painful part of recovery. Since I love to sing and singing is kind of painful because using my diaphragm pushes into the surgery area, I'm trying to listen to instrumentals only.