Writing Tips
Taste Tells: Part 2 of Writing with Sensory Details — Sandi Somers
“The Taste Test” was part of my English as a Second Language unit on food. I brought to class samples of celery, potato chips, chocolates, cinnamon hearts, peanut butter on a cracker, pickles, cubes of Jello and popcorn. Students described each food: its shape, texture, colour, how it sounded while chewing, its hardness or softness,… Read more »
Fiction Writing 101 – Part Six – Setting (or giving your character a leg to stand on) — Janice Dick
A smile formed on Callie’s face at the sight of Tom. It had been so long. “Welcome by to the land of the living,” she said. “It’s good to be back. What have you been doing in my absence? I hope you managed to keep out of trouble.” “Of course, what do you think?” She… Read more »
I Want To Write A Book — Carolyn R. Wilker
A cartoon depicted a character saying: “I’m going to write a book and someday I will be famous.” Is fame the ultimate goal? Have you been reading the tabloids lately? A client of mine, still learning English, decided to write a story about her life in the country she came from. Fair enough. When I… Read more »
Develop the Killing Instinct: Reducing the Word Count — Pamela Mytroen
How does a writer keep to the posted word count without losing all those inspired phrases? And why does it matter? Editors have reasons for setting a maximum word count. Besides the premium of space in a publication, a stipulated word count attracts and creates writers with clear and effective writing. Slashing words from a… Read more »
Who Owns Your Little Gray Cells? — Brenda J. Wood
Agatha Christie wrote 80 crime novels, many collections of stories, 19 plays and six novels under a pseudonym. Her books are only outsold by the Bible and Shakespeare. By any standards, she is a successful writer so maybe we can learn a thing or two from her.
Dialogue — Janice Dick
“He said,” and then “she said,” and then “they said…” The preceding is a good way to lose our readers. How can we, as writers, make our dialogue exciting, compelling and unique to the characters?
Creating Authentic Characters — Janice Dick
There are many methods for creating fictional characters. We’ll look at how to: create characters from our imaginations use people we know and alter them to be unrecognizable create conglomerates using characteristics from a number of people use actual people
Genre in Fiction — Janice Dick
Before we begin talking about plot outlines, character development and setting, let’s discuss a little concept called genre. The word is pronounced john-ra or zhon-ra, and it simply means kind or variety. In our case, it refers to the kinds of stories we read and write.
The Basic Elements of Fiction — Janice Dick
When I present a talk on novel writing, I often ask the audience for their input on the basic elements of fiction, and they come up with several immediately: plot, setting and character. Let’s begin with these. Plot, according to James Scott Bell in his excellent how-to book Plot & Structure, is: “1) a small… Read more »
Adding Texture to your Writing — Sandi Somers
It has been said you write your first draft for yourself, and the second for your readers. This was vividly brought home to me as I was writing about Calgary’s recent flood for an online course. My first essay focused on my experiences during the critical first day as I visited sites, watched raging floodwaters,… Read more »