What? But it got your attention. Maybe.
Diagrams
Are you getting lost in your story? Draw a map. No, really, draw yourself a map. It may even be a map you include in your book. Who knows?! It is especially important that you, as the writer, know where the heck you are, in location, in your story. Is your character upstairs, downstairs, or down the street? Their location can dictate events that will occur. If you are lost and put your character in the wrong place, your readers will notice. Believe me, they will. Create your diagram early in and track your characters.
Let’s create a map to the kitchen/breakroom as we wander in for a fresh cuppa and a nibble. I am leaning toward a hot cuppa tea and no nibble. Don’t worry about me. I had a wonderful breakfast of poached eggs. Yes, poached eggs. Yum. I am counting calories and am doing quite well with the numbers. Shocking. I will not tell you how much I have lost yet- but it is a notable number for only 3 weeks on this program. Check out the MyFitnessPal app and see if it will work for you like it is for me. In the beginning it takes effort on your part but worth it in the end. Like, having a smaller backend. You grab your cuppa and a nibble while I roll out the reading rug and find my copy of The Writer’s Toolkit by Bob Mayer. Keep in mind your social distancing and masks. I am a fan of masks and some of you have very pretty ones. I have a mask with The Raven from E. A. Poe. It is so cool. Eat your nibble, sip your cuppa, and then put on your masks. Thank you.
Dictionaries
But Ticia why do we need dictionaries when we have spellcheck? I am so glad you asked. It is not about the spelling it is about the meaning. You can spell a word correctly, but what if it is not the right word. At one point I confused wonder and wander. They are spelled right but mean two different things. Spell check won’t fix that. If you aren’t sure of your word choices, look them up. Do you need an actual, hand-held dictionary? That’s up to you. I love books but will hit up Dictionary.com without hesitation. Think about all the words that you can confuse…meat and meet. Wow do they mean seriously different things. You can meet someone and then turn them into meat. Ouch.
Grids
We touched on what a story grid is and what it should look like a few weeks back. It is meant to be used as a quick reference to what you have written versus what you are working on. It is a way to bounce back and forth to ensure you keep your details correct. Time, location, characters, and purpose of the scenes. It doesn’t have to be artsy-fartsy. It just needs to contain reference info so you can look things up quick, fast, and in a hurry. It is not an outline, but you can compare the two to see your progress in your storyline. Matching them up can help you ensure you don’t veer off into the wilderness of words and get lost.
Recorders– not the super loud musical instruments they gave you in grade school. Lawd, no.
I mentioned this before, voice recorders come in handy. Say you are in the car driving to…Grandma’s house when an idea smacks you in the face. Are you gonna pull over and plot it out and miss Sunday dinner? No? Well, you have a couple options, one being to use your cell to record yourself or, two, get a small handheld recorder. Someplace to dump the ideas in your head. You can brainstorm all by yourself in the car and then review your ideas later. Awesome, right!? Get one or learn how to use the recorder on your cell.
And… Books
Um, do I really have to tell you how important books are? Successful writers are avid readers. Reading is research. Reading is a skill builder. Reading is required for you to be better at writing. Get a library card and start checking out all the books you want and need. Devour everything- even the bad stuff. If you don’t wanna write crap you must read it to know what it looks like.
That’s it for todays journey. We will jump into Chapter 3 and Your Idea.
Until next time…
Polish your sparkle and keep twirling.
Find joy. Be joy. Enjoy.
I’m always looking for new friends!
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New Ink. Used Ideas. 