Thursday, July 29, 2010

Writing and Reality

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You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.

- Ray Bradbury
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Saturday, July 24, 2010

Plagiarism: One of the Biggest Ills of Writing

What makes people copy others without properly recognizing the original author? Does it have something to do with how society functions? How people are educated? Read more in this article, and take heed:

DON'T COPY WITHOUT CITING!
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Monday, July 19, 2010

Here's Your Last Triad!

Your final triad exercise is an essay, and it will involve three things that you might want to keep in mind as you embark on your year of novel writing.

1. An old book on your bookshelf
2. The novel that you intend to write
3. A book that is comparable to the novel that you want to write.

How you will put all these together is up to you. You can compare the three different books, or you can vow to trump the other books and come up with a revolutionary literary piece.

When you are done, post your work in the Comments section. You have as many words as you need at your disposal, so feel free to write as much (or as little) as you please.

Good luck, and happy writing!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

This is still NOT Your Last Unblocker

A lot of the exercises are going for their last run, but you will always need your unblocker to keep you in the race. You need to clear out your mental cobwebs and get yourself prepped and ready for your next round of writing.

Today's unblocker is your preparation for the next few months (days, weeks, or years) as you write your novel. Take a sheet of paper or open a blank document on your computer and use this as your prompt:

"I am going to start writing my novel soon."

Don't bother about grammar, spelling, punctuation, or syntax. Forget the rules and just write without stopping to think. Clear your mind by pushing all your frustrations, fears, and insecurities out. Don't stop until you're huffing, puffing, and too tired to proceed.

Your year of novel writing is about to begin.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Your Last What If

It's time for you to get your novel started, so it's also time to get rid of all your exercises and get working! Today's exercise is fairly simple. You only need to find a mirror and talk to yourself.

Now, don't be afraid. Find a place that has a mirror where you can be alone for at least 5 minutes. In this exercise, you will pretend that your novel has already been published.

"What if my novel was published and it made me famous?"

Pretend you're on a talk show. Talk about what you did to get your novel started, what you did to keep the momentum, and what you did, in detail, if possible. Be candid. Be funny. Think of the future.

Your novel will be finished and you might actually be famous because of it. Think of this exercise as practice.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Two Questions Before You Begin

This will be the last creative, mind-digging Complete It before you start off on your journey toward literary greatness (or at least before you start off your journey to a big literary exercise). Complete the two sentences below:

1. The thing I fear the most about writing my novel is ____________________.
2. The thing that excites me the most about writing my novel is _________________.

Examine what you fear the most and see how you can cancel it out what excites you. Moreover, find a way to feed on that excitement. Your reason for writing will change from month to month, perhaps even from hour to hour, depending on how well your novel writing is progressing. This exercise will appear several times, and it will help you examine how you are doing and what you may need to proceed further.

Good luck! It's almost time to get started!