Words

This is fun. My birth year yields a lot of different words, like brainiac, gigabyte, electronic mail, blood-and-guts, G-rated, sleep apnea, smashmouth,…

Story Empire

Hey, SE Readers. Joan with you today. Since it’s summer, and a time to be a little more laid-back, I thought we might have a little word fun.

One of my earliest posts for Story Empire was titled “Words – Old and New.” I talked (wrote) about how we’d become more casual in our conversations, using acronyms such as SCOTUS, FLOTUS, and POTUS. I listed some “trending” words, new words, and a few antiquated words. If you’d like to read that post, click here.

I thought it might be fun to compare new or trending words from 2017 until now. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find links on the Merriam-Webster site. However, I did find something that I thought was both fun and interesting. It’s called Time Traveler.

You can select the year you were born (or any year) to see when words were first used in print. The results might…

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Murder – Tuesday Use It In A Sentence #tuesdayuseitinasentence

As he hiked through the woods, he suddenly heard the raucous cawing of a bunch of crows. Curious, he followed it to a small clearing where he spotted the murder grouped around a body. He drew closer, and as the crows parted, he noticed the gunshot wound. He sighed, disappointed to have his day off ruined, and pulled out his cell phone and called the precinct to report the murder. Then he started investigating the scene.

This post is part of the Tuesday Use It In A Sentence prompt, “murder”:

https://stephaniecolpron.wordpress.com/2021/06/29/tuesdayuseitinasentence-murder/

Writers – Remember Good Things Grow In Tough Writing Times #MondayBlogs

Writing Motivation Killers Are Out There – Let’s Discuss Three of Them

Story Empire

Unsplash photo by Fab Lentz

Hi SEers. John here with you again. I hope you all had a great weekend and are looking forward to the week. Okay, I know that sounded a little bit desperate but having a post responsibility on a Monday is a little like doing stand-up comedy at an 8:00 AM session of a funeral directors’ convention.

Today I want to talk a bit about our motivation and our writing. No, I’m not going to give tricks on how to motivate the writing experience. I have already done that number. On the contrary, I want to take a few minutes to discuss a few of the motivation killers to become recognizable.

I know we try to convince ourselves that we don’t need the motivation to write. We love doing it so much that all we have to do is sit down at the keyboard, and we…

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12 Questions to Ask Your Character to Bring Setting to Life – by C.S. Lakin…

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

on Live Write Thrive:

Too often, writers ignore setting. Look—we live in the physical world. We respond to and interact with every single setting we are in.

External elements affect us, our mood, our health, our perspective. Weather, quality of light, feel of the air, smells … all factors that contribute.

Fiction writers are all about manipulating readers. We want our readers to feel certain things, come to specific conclusions. We should know what our objectives are for every scene. So taking time to decide on setting is important and shouldn’t be overlooked.

Continue reading HERE

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Create Memorable Characters the Pixar Way

Nicholas C. Rossis

No Film School has published some of Pixar’s tips for creating memorable characters.

From Woody to Nemo, Pixar’s characters have a unique way of sticking with you, whether it’s due to their hilarious banter or heartbreaking humanity. But what is it that makes them so memorable? StudioBinder offers up an explanation in this interesting video:

The video mentions 4 rules but personally, I would sum it up in 3:

1. They all have a clear want,
2. They all have an unconscious need, and
3. They all have character arcs.

They all have a clear want

Woody wants to be Andy’s favorite toy. Bob Parr wants to be Mr. Incredible again. Joy wants to make Riley happy.These are all examples of a character’s external “want“, and all characters have them. It’s what drives them to do what they do throughout the movie.

Or so it seems. Because they also have…

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Writing Tips For Action Scenes

K.M. Allan

While you might not be a writer of action-based books, chances are if there’s any type of conflict in your novel, you may have to write an action scene.

I did, after starting my YA series, Blackbirch. For a book about teens with magickal abilities, there ended up being a few scenes that required me to pen some action, and to my surprise, I found it fun to write.

Does that make me an action writer who knows how to pull off grand-scale battles? Definitely not. But I have learned a thing or two about putting an action-packed scene together, and if you’re interested in doing the same, these tips might help.

Make Every Action Scene Unique

If you have more than one action scene in your book, set them apart. Even if your MC is coming up against the same foe every time…

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Tips for Developing Story Writing Ideas – by Melissa Donovan…

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

on Writing Forward:

Short stories, flash fiction, novels, and novellas: there are countless stories floating around out there — and those are just the fictional works.

It’s no wonder writers get frustrated trying to come up with a simple concept for a story. One look at the market tells you that everything has been done.

But what makes a story special is your voice and the unique way that you put different elements together. Sure, there might be something reminiscent of Tolkien in your work, but so what? Echos of Lord of the Rings can be found in some of the most beloved stories of the 20th century: Harry Potter and Star Wars, for example.

I’m not saying J.K. Rowling and George Lucas intentionally used elements of Tolkien’s work in their stories. Maybe they did; maybe they didn’t. But I would bet both of them read and appreciated Lord…

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The other sister

Story Empire

Hi gang, Craig with you again today. We’re going to talk about something that could really help in your stories. I’m going to use the analogy of two sisters.

We all know Suspense. She’s pretty, gets invited to parties, and can carry a story all by herself. Readers are drawn to her like bees to honey. “Any more at home like her?” Funny you should ask. She has a sister.

This sister can really fill in the gaps in your tale, but she’s hard to get close to. She takes a bit of practice. Her name is Tension.

Your first attempts to talk with her might feel clumsy and forced, but it’s worth struggling through. She’s a powerful friend if you take the time.

She works like this: Things shouldn’t be comfortable for your main characters. Suspense can make them flip the pages, but if everything between the turning points…

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Fundamentals of Writing: Power Words #amwriting

Life in the Realm of Fantasy

When we put the first words of a story on paper, the images and events we imagine as we write have the power to move us. Because we see each scene fully formed in our minds, we are under the illusion that what we have written conveys to a reader the same power that moved us. Once we’ve written “the end” it requires no further effort, right?

I don’t know about your work, but usually, at that stage my manuscript reads like a laundry list.  

The trick is to understand that, while the first draft has many passages that shine, more of what we have written is only promising. The first draft contains the seeds of what we believe we have written. Like a sculptor, we must work to shave away the detritus and reveal the truth of the narrative.

One way we do this is by injecting subtly…

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