Random Recommendation: 25 Questions To Ask As You Write

It's a very nice! High five!

NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, officially kicked off today.  In case you don't know, this challenge is to write 50,000 words of your novel during the month of November.  (Your ultimate goal may vary, but 50,000 words is approximately 200 pages.)

Many of the participants crazy enough to sign up for this challenge are probably going to be lost in a fog of words somewhere around November 15th.  So before that happens, I decided to offer a blog post recommendation as a beacon for this month and to get you to ask the important questions about your writing.

The post, "25 Question To Ask As You Write" at Terrible Minds, addresses important topics such as theme, your writing voice, and the purpose of each and every scene.  You'll also be asking yourself if you're as ready as you thought you were (the clock is ticking).

Keep in mind, Chuck occasionally uses profanity.  Okay, he has quite the potty mouth, but if you can overlook some colorful language, you'll get some really great advice.  If nothing else, it's always entertaining to read his stuff.

Anyone who compares writing to "brushing the teeth of a meth-cranked baboon" has got my vote any day!  Enjoy!

Are you also doing NaNoWriMo this year? Yes? Stop reading this and write already!

Also, stay tuned for December, I will be featuring Thursday Thirteen posts on my blog.

Random Recommendation: M.E. Anders

Today, I recommend M.E. Anders' Blog.  She loves the thriller genre and is currently writing a psychological thriller.

Her site is quite diverse and includes articles ranging in topics from fitness to psychology and religion.  She is an aspiring novelist and is generously sharing her journey writing her first novel.  She has an interesting approach to plotting you may find useful.

One of the more entertaining features of her blog is a weekly guest interview.  (Here comes the shameless plug:) 

This week I have the honor of appearing on her blog for an interview.  Please check it out:   M.E. Anders.

You can access my regularly scheduled blog post once you've been thoroughly entertained by Mindi's site:  Can You Bribe Your Inner Critic?

Thanks for visiting!

Random Recommendation: 10 Difficult to Write Pieces

Whenever I face a daunting challenge, (how about that crazy cube at left?) I remind myself that the world is full of amazing people who make the impossible seem like child's play.  This post is dedicated to all those super humans.

I read this great article that shows us just how amazing people can be when put in extraordinary circumstances...or who simply wanted to challenge themselves – beyond what us mere mortals would consider difficult.  If you think solving the Rubik's Cube blindfolded is impressive, wait until you read this post.

The article ranks ten works of literature based on how difficult they were to write.  From a novel written without the letter, e, to a successful novelist who was still years away from puberty when she wrote her first novel, to a memoirist who emerged from a coma to dictate an entire book exclusively with his one eye, this blog post is nothing if not inspirational.

Reading the list also will give you some perspective when you're searching for an excuse not to write.  Enjoy it here:

10 Works of Literature That Were Really Hard to Write

Let the hero worship commence.  I bow down to all you amazing people out there who keep me humble.

Happy Writing!

Random Recommendation: An Occurrence at Owl Creek

Do you love to read stories with twist endings?  Do you strive to write compelling and memorable stories?

If so, then read the story, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek" written in 1890 by Ambrose Bierce.  Simply put, it is an amazing story.  For its time, it was truly ground breaking.  Movies, such as American Beauty (1999), owe Bierce a debt of gratitude for paving the way.

You can read this masterpiece online here.

If you haven't read it before, I encourage you to do so.  Even if you have, read it again...I give it a giant Thumbs Up!

Random Recommendation: Autocorrect

National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, is nearing its end.  Writers around the world join in the NaNoWriMo challenge to write 50,000 words of a novel before the end of November.

While most Americans will be sleeping off all of that extra serotonin after Thanksgiving dinner, many writers will be frantically trying to finish their Novel before month's end. 



This recommendation is dedicated to all of those NaNoWriMo writers out there:

"Autocorrect is your friend" is a wonderful blog post that explains a creative way to use the AutoCorrect feature of your word processing software.

Many of us have crutch words that we repeat while writing our pieces.  We may also overuse adverbs...like the dreaded "ly" words.  The author shows us how we can kick these habits as well as save some valuable keystroke time.

Great article!