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Writing Tips: Finding Your Creative Juices
Gene Fowler, the American journalist, and dramatist said it best, “Writing is easy. You just sit staring at a blank piece of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.”
We all know that feeling. If Gene were writing today, he’d have us all staring at a blank screen instead of that awful piece of paper, but we’re still all sitting there, trying our best. Good writing, after all, does not come easily. Mostly, it’s hard work. Mostly it’s a lonely business.
Even the best writers sometimes have to go even further than Gene suggested. Blood, and sweat and tears may help to achieve that compelling prose.
When you are at your lowest and think you will never get there, it can be helpful to see how others do it.
A mentor is a great help. At Winghill, we give you the structure of a course as well as a mentor to support you.
In blogs, many other writers are generous with their time and knowledge. Look around online, you’ll find thousands of blogs covering many thousands of creative topics. Find the ones that you feel best support you in your work.
Here are some free ones that we really like. Some deal with specific topics or specialty writing tips. Others are more general in nature. They’ll all take you by the hand and help you to realize that you are not alone.
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John August is a highly successful scriptwriter with credits like the Charley’s Angels movies, Corpse Bride and Big Fish to his name. His blog is full of how-to information and up-to-the-minute trade news. If you are interested in screen writing, John’s a great guy to read.
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At Make a Living Writing, Carol Trice offers, “practical advice for hungry writers.” You’ll find lots of solid, practical tips here on how to get by in the competitive writing world.
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At Writers Helping Writers, Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi do just that. A recent blog post contains a fabulous article on how to give your fictional characters terrible emotional wounds—from which you can help them to recover, or… lacerate them remorselessly forever. Who said you have no power!?
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Jon Bard’s blog is a fabulous compilation of tips and advice on the creative process AND the business end of writing in an important specialty area – writing for children.
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An excellent blog to visit daily just as its name implies. Put your bum on your chair. Open up dailywriting tips.com Spend a pleasant fifteen minutes browsing about how other writers do it. Then start the hard work yourself…until the blood drips from your forehead! And talking of horror….
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Keith Pyeatt can evoke shudders with the best of ‘em. At his Horror With Heart blog, he reminds us that anti-heros can still be worthy of sympathy and feel, as Keith says, “like old friends.” And there’s the true heart of horror. It could happen to any of us. Aaaaaaaagghh!
