Showing posts with label Writing Tips Wednesdays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Writing Tips Wednesdays. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Writing Tips Wednesday: Music to Listen to While Writing

Writing Tips Wednesdays ,
Writing Tips Wednesday: Music to Listen to While Writing

Many book-lovers are also music-lovers. Books and music go hand-in-hand as a sort of general artistic/emotional expression. Change the music that you listen to with a book and the reading experience will be completely different. For example, if you are reading to a child’s story and play happy music, it will feel light and fun. But if you change the music to eerie, creepy-sounding music, the story will feel terrifying. Music really can influence how a story feels.

In fact, I know of a few authors who specifically create soundtracks for their books and recommend that readers listen to that music while they read the story. I haven’t done this on a regular basis, but I bet it could enhance the reading experience by quite a lot. There are definitely a lot of authors who use music while writing to help focus the feelings they are trying to convey in a scene.

I read once that Douglas Adams listened to the Paul Simon album “One Trick Pony” while writing The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Using music to influence writing is quite effective, at least for me. I love putting on background music when I am trying to write (even for work). I tend to choose music that has interest but isn’t distracting. Some of my favorite writing artists include:

  • Frightened Rabbit
  • Mumford and Sons
  • Deadmau5
  • Biffy Clyro
  • Mozart
  • Bach
  • Band of Horses


If you love the music/book combo, then you won’t want to miss these 12 hit songs inspired by literature. And these songs were all inspired by The Hobbit or LOTR. When you look, you can find thousands of songs that were inspired by authors, writing, or literature. It’s an amazing world out there for a book lover!


What are your favorite songs to listen to while writing? 
Brenda is a fellow book-lover and coffee-addict. She is a freelance writer, punctuation nerd, and grammar enthusiast. Her favorite book genres are Science Fiction, Fantasy with a Twist, and Dystopian. Brenda blogs about books, writing and more at Daily Mayo. Find her here on CaW for Writing Tips Wednesdays the first Wednesday of every month.

Follow Brenda on Facebook and Twitter or subscribe to updates from Daily Mayo to keep up with all the exciting things in her life; ranging from drinking coffee to get through the day to drinking coffee just for fun.
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Wednesday, November 5, 2014

5 Signs of Weak Writing

Writing Tips Wednesdays ,
5 Signs of Weak Writing

We all do it sometimes. We throw together something quickly- whether it is a book or blog post, and let it out into the world. But writing becomes so much better if you take a bit of time to eliminate weak writing.

Weak writing says, “I am new to writing!” Even if you aren’t new to writing, your content will be passed over if it overuses weak writing.

So, what is a sign of weak writing? Eliminate these weak elements and your writing will improve dramatically and you won’t have to work much harder at all! That is something I call a giant win.

Tons of Adverbs and Adjectives

Adverbs and adjectives are useful tools in writing, and often necessary, but when your writing is peppered with adverbs and adjectives, it can start to sound like a Thesaurus. If your big, brown, knarred, oak tree waves its weighty branches weakly in the cool, soft, autumnal breeze; then you don’t have a story, you have a dictionary.

Overuse of a Single Word

This particular weakness drives me crazy. I know it is fun to show off your favorite word of the week in your writing, but if every paragraph uses the word “surreptitiously” then the reader will get bored.

“Telling” Actions

This is where the writer states a fact, rather than telling a fact. One of my favorite quotes talks about this issue. If Stacy just feels “sad” that her grandmother died, the story will be rather flat.

Too Many Passive Sentences

I love a good passive sentence, but too many will make the reader feel like she needs to take a nap. I don’t think that passive sentences should always be avoided, but try to have a mix between passive and active.

Too Many Lazy Words

What is a lazy word? Lazy words are vague and boring. Some of the most common offenders are:
  • Stuff
  • Went
  • Was
  • Got
  • Very
  • Are
  • A lot

You won’t be able to eliminate all of these words all of the time (nor should you), but watching out for them can prevent your writing from sounding generic.

You want people to read and enjoy what you write, right? That is why eliminating signs of weak writing in your content will benefit you in numerous ways. You will write better and become more popular when you eliminate weakness in your writing.



Brenda is a fellow book-lover and coffee-addict. She is a freelance writer, punctuation nerd, and grammar enthusiast. Her favorite book genres are Science Fiction, Fantasy with a Twist, and Dystopian. Brenda blogs about books, writing and more at Daily Mayo. Find her here on CaW for Writing Tips Wednesdays the first Wednesday of every month.

Follow Brenda on Facebook and Twitter or subscribe to updates from Daily Mayo to keep up with all the exciting things in her life; ranging from drinking coffee to get through the day to drinking coffee just for fun.
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Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Writing Tips Wednesday: Tips for Writing Horror from 5 Horror Masters

Writing Tips Wednesdays ,
Writing Tips Wednesday: Tips for Writing Horror from 5 Horror Masters


It’s October, which means it is the scariest month of the year! Today, I am going to talk about how to make writing sound scary- in case any of you are interested in picking up some horror writing tips.

Now, I am not talking about writing that is scary because the grammar and spelling is so bad. Nope, today, we are going to dissect some of the writing from the horror masters and see what it is about their writing that makes them successful.

Now, everyone probably has their own personal interpretation of what makes writing scary, but I have identified five categories below that many horror writers employ. These categories are suspense, unexpected things, weird things, and gross things.

Many of my favorite horror authors, including Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Edgar Allen Poe, and HP Lovecraft employ these elements in their stories.

Suspense

If you state something abruptly, there isn’t time to develop fear for it. Suspense is a necessity in any horror story. The Tell-Tale Heart is quite short, but it spends at least half of the story building up suspense. Take a look at this passage- this is just after the narrator has come into the room to murder the man:

“Presently I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was the groan of mortal terror. It was not a groan of pain or of grief --oh, no! --it was the low stifled sound that arises from the bottom of the soul when overcharged with awe. I knew the sound well. Many a night, just at midnight, when all the world slept, it has welled up from my own bosom, deepening, with its dreadful echo, the terrors that distracted me. I say I knew it well. I knew what the old man felt, and pitied him, although I chuckled at heart. I knew that he had been lying awake ever since the first slight noise, when he had turned in the bed. His fears had been ever since growing upon him. He had been trying to fancy them causeless, but could not. He had been saying to himself --"It is nothing but the wind in the chimney --it is only a mouse crossing the floor," or "It is merely a cricket which has made a single chirp." Yes, he had been trying to comfort himself with these suppositions: but he had found all in vain. All in vain; because Death, in approaching him had stalked with his black shadow before him, and enveloped the victim. And it was the mournful influence of the unperceived shadow that caused him to feel --although he neither saw nor heard --to feel the presence of my head within the room.”

The Unknown

What is the scariest thing? Fear. And if you know what something is, you fear it less. So, the longer a story goes without telling you want the scary thing is, the scarier the final reveal will actually be. The Turn of the Screw is a prime example of building up the fear of the unknown:

“But it was a comfort that there could be no uneasiness in a connection with anything so beatific as the radiant image of my little girl, the vision of whose angelic beauty had probably more than anything else to do with me restlessness that, before morning, made me several times rise and wander about my room to take in the whole picture and prospect; to watch, from my open window, the faint summer dawn, to look at such portions of the rest of the house as I could catch, and to listen, while, in the fading dusk, the first birds began to twitter, for the possible recurrence of a sound or two, less natural and not without, but within, that I had fancied I heard. There had been a moment when I believed I recognized, faint and far, the cry of a child; there had been another when I found myself just consciously starting as at the passage, before my door, of a light footstep. But these fancies were not marked enough not to be thrown off, and it is only in the light, or the gloom, I should rather say, of other and subsequent matters that they now come back to me.”

Unexpected Events

When something unexpected happens, it is scarier. This is a common technique employed by horror writers. One of my favorite examples is from The Lord of the Flies:

“Maybe there is a beast… maybe it's only us.” 

The idea that every person is capable of indescribable horrors is one of the most terrifying ideas of all.

Weird or Shocking Things

Most characters in horror novels are insane. Their insanity makes them unpredicible, which is why they are terrifying. Most of these insane characters have sadistic views and twisted likes. For example, take the character of Patrick Bateman from American Psycho:

"My pain is constant and sharp and I do not hope for a better world for anyone. In fact, I want my pain to be inflicted on others. I want no one to escape."


Gross Things

Gross things are always scarier than non-gross things. That is why, for example, a mummy is scarier than a leprechaun. Take for example, this passage from The Road:

“He started down the rough wooden steps. He ducked his head and then flicked the lighter and swung the flame out over the darkness like an offering. Coldness and damp. An ungodly stench. He could see part of a stone wall. Clay floor. An old mattress darkly stained. He crouched and stepped down again and held out the light. Huddled against the back wall were naked people, male and female, all trying to hide, shielding their faces with their hands. On the mattress lay a man with his legs gone to the hip and the stumps of them blackened and burnt. The smell was hideous.
Jesus, he whispered.
Then one by one they turned and blinked in the pitiful light. Help us, they whispered. Please help us.”
This scene has many gross words that incite all the senses: stench, coldness, damp, nakedness, stumps of flesh, burned skin, stained mattresses, and flickering light bulbs. You can’t help but be frightened by all the ugliness and gross. 


And to wrap things up, the horror master himself has this to say about what makes a story scary:

“The 3 types of terror: The Gross-out: the sight of a severed head tumbling down a flight of stairs, it's when the lights go out and something green and slimy splatters against your arm. The Horror: the unnatural, spiders the size of bears, the dead waking up and walking around, it's when the lights go out and something with claws grabs you by the arm. And the last and worse one: Terror, when you come home and notice everything you own had been taken away and replaced by an exact substitute. It's when the lights go out and you feel something behind you, you hear it, you feel its breath against your ear, but when you turn around, there's nothing there...”
--Stephen King

What are your favorite scary passages from literature?

Brenda is a fellow book-lover and coffee-addict. She is a freelance writer, punctuation nerd, and grammar enthusiast. Her favorite book genres are Science Fiction, Fantasy with a Twist, and Dystopian. Brenda blogs about books, writing and more at Daily Mayo. Find her here on CaW for Writing Tips Wednesdays the first Wednesday of every month.

Follow Brenda on Facebook and Twitter or subscribe to updates from Daily Mayo to keep up with all the exciting things in her life; ranging from drinking coffee to get through the day to drinking coffee just for fun.
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Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Grammar Rules As Explained by Internet Memes

Writing Tips Wednesdays ,
Grammar Rules As Explained by Internet Memes
Grammar can be a confusing mess of rules. If you don’t remember the rules, it can be difficult to write with the meaning you intend. Luckily, the Internet has made it easier to remember common grammar rules thanks to grammar memes. Here are my favorite _ grammar memes to help you remember commonly ignored grammar rules:

The Oatmeal offers a variety of helpful grammar memes, including my favorite of all time, the semicolon meme. Visit the source link; it's hilarious.



Here is another helpful Oatmeal meme:



The easiest way to remember whether to use who or whom:



You’ll never find me on the side against the Oxford Comma, and here is why:



Grammarly knows all the fun grammar tips, including this one about commas:



This is probably my biggest grammar peeve right now:


Just remember, even though you feel like this for correcting someone’s grammar,




This is how they will feel about you. So be kind!



And here is a cheat sheet to make it all easier:


What are your favorite grammar memes? 

Brenda is a fellow book-lover and coffee-addict. She is a freelance writer, punctuation nerd, and grammar enthusiast. Her favorite book genres are Science Fiction, Fantasy with a Twist, and Dystopian. Brenda blogs about books, writing and more at Daily Mayo. Find her here on CaW for Writing Tips Wednesdays the first Wednesday of every month.

Follow Brenda on Facebook and Twitter or subscribe to updates from Daily Mayo to keep up with all the exciting things in her life; ranging from drinking coffee to get through the day to drinking coffee just for fun.
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Wednesday, August 6, 2014

6 Songs That Were Made for Writers

Writing Tips Wednesdays ,
6 Songs That Were Made for Writers

This month, I have songs about books on the brain. Last week on Daily Mayo, I made a list of 12 hit songs that are inspired by books.

Today, I decided it would be fun to look and see if any songs feature the writing process. Although a lot of songs have literary themes, few that I found actually were specifically about writing.

The best songs about writing that I uncovered are listed below:

Party for the Fight to Write-- Atmosphere



This song is about the writing process- mainly about the struggle to be a good band, but much of the lyrics can also apply to prose writers. The chorus and a few significant lines feel like references to the writing process- and in one line he references the book The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton.

Biggest reference to writing: “And he said some got pencils and some got guns, some know how to stand and some of them run; we don't get along, but we sing the same song – party for the fight to write, and write on.”

Open Book – Cake



This song is more about a boyfriend not knowing how to read his girlfriend than it is about actually writing, but there are plenty of lyrics that could be taken literally.

Biggest reference to writing:

"She's writing, she's weaving
Conceiving a plot
It quickens, it thickens
You can't put it down now
It takes you, it shakes you
It makes you lose your thought"

Losing It—Rush



Losing It is basically about the fear of failure and never quite reaching your dreams- as it happens to most people. In the song, a dancer and a writer are both mentioned. Rush sums up the point of the song with the lines:
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