by Jason Joyner | May 30, 2012 | Blog, May-hem, motivational tricks, Writing Wednesday
Welcome back.
I’m talking to me, not you. Sorry if that confused you.
(Not to be rude – I’m glad you’re here too!)
It has be a crazy month, with a major event that basically sucked up a lot of time, emotion, and mental energy. Thus the blogging has been a low priority. The writing has been a little lower.
So what do I do if I have a major interruption to my projects?
I usually take months to get back to it.
This isn’t the recommended method, so I’m trying to discard it today. I don’t have a lot of good advice for this, except to say that I don’t want my writing to be another casualty of the month of May-hem. (Couldn’t. Resist. Pun.)
Even though I don’t have a witty piece of advice or a fantastic writing story, I’m at the keyboard. I’m getting something out there. Thank you for your indulgence as I get back on track. The first step to getting back?
Writing.
At least that part isn’t rocket science.
—
by Jason Joyner | May 30, 2012 | Blog, May-hem, motivational tricks, Writing Wednesday
Welcome back.
I’m talking to me, not you. Sorry if that confused you.
(Not to be rude – I’m glad you’re here too!)
It has be a crazy month, with a major event that basically sucked up a lot of time, emotion, and mental energy. Thus the blogging has been a low priority. The writing has been a little lower.
So what do I do if I have a major interruption to my projects?
I usually take months to get back to it.
This isn’t the recommended method, so I’m trying to discard it today. I don’t have a lot of good advice for this, except to say that I don’t want my writing to be another casualty of the month of May-hem. (Couldn’t. Resist. Pun.)
Even though I don’t have a witty piece of advice or a fantastic writing story, I’m at the keyboard. I’m getting something out there. Thank you for your indulgence as I get back on track. The first step to getting back?
Writing.
At least that part isn’t rocket science.
—
by Jason Joyner | May 9, 2012 | Blog, borrowed content, links, writer's block, Writing Wednesday
Okay, due to personal circumstances this week is kicking my butt. BUT, all is well or will be soon.
I missed Monday’s post and didn’t have time for an orignial Writing Wednesday post.
However, I can point to an excellent blog post from Rachelle Gardner, 9 Ways To Outwit Writer’s Block. It is a keeper, and I highly recommend it. I’d like to see what my two main characters would do during an alien attack.
—
by Jason Joyner | May 9, 2012 | Blog, borrowed content, links, writer's block, Writing Wednesday
Okay, due to personal circumstances this week is kicking my butt. BUT, all is well or will be soon.
I missed Monday’s post and didn’t have time for an orignial Writing Wednesday post.
However, I can point to an excellent blog post from Rachelle Gardner, 9 Ways To Outwit Writer’s Block. It is a keeper, and I highly recommend it. I’d like to see what my two main characters would do during an alien attack.
—
by Jason Joyner | May 2, 2012 | alliterate much?, Blog, writing, writing craft, Writing Wednesday
I think I’ve gone a long time as a writing blog without having a post on “write what you know.” I had second and third thoughts on whether I should bother. I’m sure there are 4.634 gazillion blog posts on the subject.
The term write what you know is considered a good adage to follow. If you quilt, you can write compelling fiction about a team of quilters. If you like motorcycles but hate quilting, let the first group do the quilt stories.
There are people who rail against this advice. “If we only wrote what we knew, we wouldn’t have any science fiction. Or historicals. Or sparkly vampire love fests.” (Maybe that last one wouldn’t be a bad thing.)
I would say, they’re both right.
|
| I didn’t have to eat durian to describe it |
I work in medicine. I spent two months in Thailand. This may have have some influence on my WIP involving a medical student traveling to Thailand. It makes it easier to start there, as I have background in it. When I’ve had critiques, people comment on the sections where I use the tropical location, or have a suspenseful scene with medical overtones. These parts seem to resonate more.
Writing what I know seems to be paying off right now.
The rub is that I don’t know if I can write the same stuff forever. I haven’t been to every country, and I don’t think everything I write will be set among tropical breezes and exotic fruit. Obviously authors write about many things they don’t know firsthand. They do their research, use real world experiences as references, and play off of them to write something new and unique to them.
Brandilyn Collins has an excellent three post series on her old blog where she can take anyone and put them into the mindset of a murderer. If we wrote what we knew, a lot of mystery and suspense writers have some skeletons in their closets. Maybe literally. But Brandilyn’s method helps an author go to a place they would never reach otherwise (we hope).
There you go. I’m officially on the fence. Sometimes you need to write what you know. Other times demand something original, but you can still find analogies in your life to make it pop.
What side of the fence are you on?
—
by Jason Joyner | May 2, 2012 | alliterate much?, Blog, writing, writing craft, Writing Wednesday
I think I’ve gone a long time as a writing blog without having a post on “write what you know.” I had second and third thoughts on whether I should bother. I’m sure there are 4.634 gazillion blog posts on the subject.
The term write what you know is considered a good adage to follow. If you quilt, you can write compelling fiction about a team of quilters. If you like motorcycles but hate quilting, let the first group do the quilt stories.
There are people who rail against this advice. “If we only wrote what we knew, we wouldn’t have any science fiction. Or historicals. Or sparkly vampire love fests.” (Maybe that last one wouldn’t be a bad thing.)
I would say, they’re both right.
|
| I didn’t have to eat durian to describe it |
I work in medicine. I spent two months in Thailand. This may have have some influence on my WIP involving a medical student traveling to Thailand. It makes it easier to start there, as I have background in it. When I’ve had critiques, people comment on the sections where I use the tropical location, or have a suspenseful scene with medical overtones. These parts seem to resonate more.
Writing what I know seems to be paying off right now.
The rub is that I don’t know if I can write the same stuff forever. I haven’t been to every country, and I don’t think everything I write will be set among tropical breezes and exotic fruit. Obviously authors write about many things they don’t know firsthand. They do their research, use real world experiences as references, and play off of them to write something new and unique to them.
Brandilyn Collins has an excellent three post series on her old blog where she can take anyone and put them into the mindset of a murderer. If we wrote what we knew, a lot of mystery and suspense writers have some skeletons in their closets. Maybe literally. But Brandilyn’s method helps an author go to a place they would never reach otherwise (we hope).
There you go. I’m officially on the fence. Sometimes you need to write what you know. Other times demand something original, but you can still find analogies in your life to make it pop.
What side of the fence are you on?
—
