Thursday, September 30, 2010

Word Play

My friend Nikki, over at MMW, read my post on Tuesday (see below) and had an idea for a contest.
So - go here and check it out and even if the last thing you like to do is write - give our contest a try. One sentence. How hard can it be? Play with the words in your brain, or in your last email. Make up an opener about some dream you had that you can't forget. We want to read it. 

And in case you missed it, here is my Tuesday post -

Easy as 1, 2, 3 . . .
I was thinking the other day (hold your comments :), about my own little writing formula. I was trying to break down the mammoth task of crafting a novel into digestible, doable steps. And just for stopping by the blog today - you get my new novel-writing recipe for free:


Step 1. Come up with one awesome, attention-getting, thought-provoking sentence.
Step 2. Repeat 10,000* times.

*Amount may vary depending on genre, publisher's preference or an author's ability to remain seated at the keyboard. Substitutions are allowed, except for the awesome part - that is pretty much mandatory if you want anyone to read and buy your book.

There you have it. I know not all sentences can be as gripping as the ones we use for our hooks or our endings, but you get the idea. Of course I 'm having a little fun here, but sometimes when I get just a smidge overwhelmed by my outline and my plot points and all the loose ends I have running around without any characters to come along and tie them, I take deep breaths and repeat the aforementioned formula to remind myself that I can take the writing one step at a time.

3 comments:

Valerie Ipson said...

I love your recipe. I will add one thing...do what you said, then edit that sentence to death. That's what I'm doing. :D

Tina Scott, author, artist said...

Thanks for sharing your recipe. Recipes remind me of food though, and now I'm hungry. Think I'll go get a bite.

Unknown said...

Great recipe. Sometimes we just need to start with one delectable ingredient and we think of other ingredients that would go well with it. Voila! The muse is taking over.

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