27 December 2015

Techniques for setting tone

Departing for the unknown

Setting the tone for a novel and staying true to that tone throughout can have a profound impact on everything that happens around it. The characters you develop, the words you use, and pictures you paint all have to fit into that chosen tonality.


23 December 2015

Opening lines



What's the point of an opening line? Is it to intrigue someone so much that they must continue on? Is it to set the tone for the rest of the book?  Is to make someone stop and think or pay attention right from the start? Or is to paint a picture in which the story will unfold?

Perhaps it's a little of each of those things.I've been practicing writing opening lines for images posted on Twitter by iAuthor.  

Here's an opening line I think will work in a future novel I am planning to write.

"My past held a very bright future. Then, life cast its shadows on my prospects." 

My story is going to take place on land but told from the perspective of being at sea.  It's going to reach into the deepest darkest places of someone's soul, but it will come out into the light in the end. At least that's the plan.

09 December 2015

Stoking the imagination

As I near completion of my first novel, I am searching for the topic for my next one. For the next one, I have decided, is going to take every ounce of my effort to craft the fine literary novel.  The book that Joseph Conrad or Hemingway would have written.  I want it to be short, poignant and beautifully written. But what should I write about?


30 November 2015

Fishing for success


Today I entered my first writing competition. I entered a flash fiction piece, the first I have ever written.  I submitted it to Fish, the anthology publishers for first time writers. I didn't even know such a genre existed a few months ago, yet somehow it captured my imagination. To get across in 300 words a complete story with an emotional edge to it was an interesting challenge. I loved writing it.

It sprang up on me. I didn't know that story was inside me until I started writing it. Now I wonder if they'll think it was worth reading. I'm hoping they will, but I'm dreading they won't. So long to wait. At least I'll have four months of hope to cling to.

Competitions are different from just straight publishing. It's not just about your work. It's about being judged against all others who have submitted. That's different. Tougher in a way. But if you succeed, you'll be a winner.

Somehow, I feel like I've already crossed the line, though. I submitted it.

19 November 2015

Standing still


If we lay down on the earth and let our brains just take in the sky throughout the night, this is what we would see.  In a carefully chosen spot on Mount Teide aboard the island of Tenerife in the Atlantic Ocean,  one would see the stars moving across the night sky. The procession of stars around the north celestial pole creates an other worldy scene. Would our mind's eye be able to see this image, recreated from the slowly etched impressions on the film in our brains? Or does our mind sift through and retain only those fleeting snapshots that make an instant exposure? I don't know the answer, but it's food for today's thought.

Credit to Daniel Lopez http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100618.html. 

09 November 2015

Forecast for writing

Yesterday's weather was partly awful. Today's weather forecast is dire. Tomorrow's is worse. The day after continues poorly. The time is ripe to write.

I find joy and glee in a dire forecast. It means I won't be tempted to go outside and garden or romp in the fields. No. I will write. Yesterday, today and tomorrow, too. I may even finish the first draft of my first fiction book.


Writing productivity ≧ Weather x Duration / Speed + Creativity

27 October 2015

Nom de plume -- why a pseudonym?




Many famous authors throughout history have written under pseudonyms that became vastly more well-known than the authors’ real names — Konrad Jozef Korzeniowski wrote under the pen name Joseph Conrad, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson wrote as Lewis Carroll, Eric Arthur Blair wrote as George Orwell, Alisa Zinov’yevan Rosenbaum wrote as Ayn Rand, and Samuel Clemens took the name of Mark Twain. They all had their reasons for choosing a different name.

What's in a Word Count?





Counting words seemed to me initially to be a counter intuitive concept. After all, is it not about the quality of the words rather than the quantity? Yet the guidelines for first-time authors to be accepted into established categories are rather strict. A novel must be over 40,000 words, but most publishers need 80,000-100,000 words to charge a standard amount of money and compete on a bookshelf. Thrillers are even longer at 100,000 to 175,000. I suppose it is a value per word marketing proposition.

                            Classification Word count
                    Novel over 40,000 words
                     Novella 17,500 to 40,000 words
                      Novelette 7,500 to 17,500 words
                     Short story under 7,500 words


04 October 2015

Inspiration

I've had several sources of inspiration recently which have spurred a period of creativity like I have not experienced in some time. Three were book signings with readings -- one of a novel, one of a collection of short stories, and one of poetry.  In each case, the authors/speakers inspired me to feel rather than write again.

I have since written two short stories, two poems and one piece of flash fiction, as well as adding another 10,000 words to my novel, The Naked Truth -- all in the past week. My husband calls it verbal diarrhea. I call it inspiration. Whatever it is. I love it!

Bring it on.

17 September 2015

Finding inspiration in the weather


I am a firm believer that you have to experience the bad to appreciate the good. And I believe that changes in mood inspire creativity.  Ergo, a change in the weather should induce a change in mood, thereby inspiring creativity.


13 September 2015

When Joseph Conrad may be your uncle

My birth name was Daria Olena Korzeniowski. I was born in Philadelphia, PA in 1954 to immigrant parents who left their country, a part of Ukraine at the time ruled by Poland, during World War II.  The town my parents hailed from was near Lviv, called Yaroslaw. But my father, Marian Korzeniowski, originally came from Peremyshl.  Przemyśl in Polish [ˈpʂɛmɨɕl] ( listen) (Ukrainian: Перемишль, Peremyshl, German: Premissel) is a town near where Joseph Conrad was born and raised.

28 August 2015

I cannot not write


Books are fun to write, for me at least. Whether writing non-fiction or fiction, I love to get wrapped up in a subject and look at it from the perspective of my prospective audience. What are they looking to learn from me? What will entice them to spend their precious time with me? How can I share my knowledge and entertain a little, too. These are the kinds of questions I ask myself throughout the process. I don't want to let them down, and yet I know I cannot satisfy them all.