Tag: Advice

Tiny tales: Wise words

angietrafford3 Comments

My grandad was a smart man. One day he took me clothes shopping in a charity shop to buy what other people had thrown away. "Look after the pennies," he always said, "and the pounds will look after themselves." He was right. I shop nowhere else, and now I'm rich. I wrote this inspired by [...]

Adopt A Story Part?

angietraffordLeave a comment

I like the idea of this in principle, but some of the things that they ask you to adopt are incredibly detailed… To me, it would just feel like I was writing somebody else’s story and that would feel wrong.

The idea of adopting a first line is something like that is enough to get the creative juices flowing.

A character is something that I would never be able to adopt, or give away, because I spend a lot of time building up that character and I know everything about them. However, it is in each to their own kind of idea.

Writerish Ramblings

I came across a section in the Nanowrimo forums titled Adoption Society. Under this category were many adoptable story parts. It’s meant to help writers who need some inspiration or ideas. It had everything from Adopt An Opening Line to Adopt An Antagonist. There were threads for plots, setting, creatures, back story, dying words, magic systems, titles, names, characteristics, etc.

What I’m wondering is would you find them helpful? There are several different ways to see this:

  • Are these threads simply prompts or would you feel like you’re stealing an idea?
  • Can they inspire or would it be restricting?
  • If you wrote a great story using one would you be thankful or feel guilty?
  • Would you prefer the entries to be detailed or vague?

For me it depends. If the adoptable part isn’t very detailed than it’s exactly like looking up writing prompts. If it’s very detailed then not only…

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Writing and Body Language

angietraffordLeave a comment

Handy little list to keep referring to. It can be very difficult to describe a piece of body language or emotion while writing… your character could end up doing the same thing repeatedly, which could annoy your reader!

Jens Thoughts

I find one of the most talked about topics in writing is “show don’t tell”. It doesn’t seem to matter how much I try not to I still do, and I also find myself repeating words or not describing actions well.

I stumbled on this list of body language for us to keep near us while writing.

body-language-for-writers

he lowered his head
she hung her head
he ducked
she bowed her head
he covered his eyes with a hand
she pressed her hands to her cheeks

she raised her chin
he lifted his chin

her hands squeezed into fists
his hands tightened into fists
she clenched her fists
she balled her fists
he unclenched his fists
her arms remained at her sides

he shrugged
she gave a half shrug
he lifted his shoulder in a half shrug
she gave a dismissive wave of her hand

she raised a hand in greeting
he…

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