Blog Post: Top Ten Writing Tips

AgentPete

"Titles", anyone?

  • AgentPete
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Bluma Bezbroda

And so I'm here

  • Bluma Bezbroda
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I've taken to writing down words and ideas as they occur to me, as there's nothing worse than having them come flapping in like raggedy winged vultures long after you've finished a story, squawking 'remember me?'

I haven't found a way round the phenomenon of words coming to me in the middle of slumbering. I did some editing before going to bed last night, after noticing that I'd used the word 'cover' rather too many times in my WIP. I altered a few of them, assisted by a thesaurus, but others resisted my efforts to find replacements. Turning over in my sleep in the early hours, the word 'concealment' flashed into my noddle as being perfect for a particular sentence—thanks very much brain, I was having a nice dream I wanted to return to.

I don't think that I'll use a notebook by the bed, as my one attempt at recording dreams in a journal during the night, to use as inspiration for short stories, produced pages of scrawled writing that looked like a seismograph chart for an earthquake!

I've also tried remembering things using the loci system that memory experts have used for centuries. This is also called the 'memory or mind palace' and, briefly, involves using a mental map of a house known to you to place objects in that you need to recall later, making connections that are mnemonic. I like this idea, but only get so far with it, as my mind wanders looking out of the windows and thinking 'hmm, the grass needs cutting', losing the connections I've established. Instead, I rely on one memory drawer, a small wooden one for holding pens in my teen years writing bureau where I did homework. If I need to store something for later use, I pop it in this drawer where it stays until I have a rummage.
 
Carol Rose said:
I don't know who said never carry a notebook, but I envy them. If I don't write down ideas as they come to me, ten seconds later they're lost.
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I believe it was Stephen King.

When you're Stephen King, I guess you can get away with not carrying a notebook, but I have far too many snippets of stories that one day will make it into my books to remember them all. And I do go through them. If I'm no longer interested in one, I get rid of it.
 
Nicole Wilson said:
I believe it was Stephen King.

When you're Stephen King, I guess you can get away with not carrying a notebook, but I have far too many snippets of stories that one day will make it into my books to remember them all. And I do go through them. If I'm no longer interested in one, I get rid of it.
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Carol Rose said:
Stephen King must have a great memory. :)
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He is credited with saying that — the reasoning is that if your idea is good, really good, you'll remember it as long as it takes and won't need a notebook. But I don't think that follows.

How many awesome ideas have you had just as you were falling asleep, and had to jump up and write them down? How many have you lost because you fell asleep before you got the chance?
 
It's ok to forget good ideas. If you are creative or imaginative, you tend to have an abundance of ideas, most of them really bad or not leading anywhere, but every so often a gem is found rummaging around in the slagheap of your mind.

The slagheap is there, all the time, morning, noon or night.

Now I must get back to my WIP about a coal minner who finds love in a 1killometer shaft.
 
Paul Whybrow said:
I've taken to writing down words and ideas as they occur to me, as there's nothing worse than having them come flapping in like raggedy winged vultures long after you've finished a story, squawking 'remember me?'

I haven't found a way round the phenomenon of words coming to me in the middle of slumbering. I did some editing before going to bed last night, after noticing that I'd used the word 'cover' rather too many times in my WIP. I altered a few of them, assisted by a thesaurus, but others resisted my efforts to find replacements. Turning over in my sleep in the early hours, the word 'concealment' flashed into my noddle as being perfect for a particular sentence—thanks very much brain, I was having a nice dream I wanted to return to.

I don't think that I'll use a notebook by the bed, as my one attempt at recording dreams in a journal during the night, to use as inspiration for short stories, produced pages of scrawled writing that looked like a seismograph chart for an earthquake!

I've also tried remembering things using the loci system that memory experts have used for centuries. This is also called the 'memory or mind palace' and, briefly, involves using a mental map of a house known to you to place objects in that you need to recall later, making connections that are mnemonic. I like this idea, but only get so far with it, as my mind wanders looking out of the windows and thinking 'hmm, the grass needs cutting', losing the connections I've established. Instead, I rely on one memory drawer, a small wooden one for holding pens in my teen years writing bureau where I did homework. If I need to store something for later use, I pop it in this drawer where it stays until I have a rummage.
Click to expand...

You remembered the word, so your brain was doing it's steady mulling job ... giving you the time to recall what you already knew. Go brain!
 
KG Christopher said:
It's ok to forget good ideas. If you are creative or imaginative, you tend to have an abundance of ideas, most of them really bad or not leading anywhere, but every so often a gem is found rummaging around in the slagheap of your mind.

The slagheap is there, all the time, morning, noon or night.

Now I must get back to my WIP about a coal minner who finds love in a 1killometer shaft.
Click to expand...

What's it called: The Big Boast? Or: How I fell for a Monster Miner? :)
 
Does anyone use a voice recorder? I have one, and I do use it, especially around the house.
 
KG Christopher said:
It's ok to forget good ideas. If you are creative or imaginative, you tend to have an abundance of ideas, most of them really bad or not leading anywhere, but every so often a gem is found rummaging around in the slagheap of your mind.

The slagheap is there, all the time, morning, noon or night.

Now I must get back to my WIP about a coal minner who finds love in a 1killometer shaft.
Click to expand...
I really agree with this. I work on the principle that there's plenty more where that came from.
 
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AgentPete

"Titles", anyone?

  • AgentPete
  • Replies: 29
Bluma Bezbroda

And so I'm here

  • Bluma Bezbroda
  • Replies: 32
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