Dwayne Phillips commented on my post How to Generate Hundreds of Writing Ideas to say: I find lots of short story ideas in the Bible. As someone once said, “The copyright has expired, so you are in no danger.” I agree that the Bible can be a very rich source of ideas. This doesn’t just … Read more
The first Short Story Competition was a success. We had almost 80 entries, and on the grand final more than 5,000 people took the time to cast a vote on their favorite story. Both competitors and readers sent us several emails mentioning that they loved the competition, and that they were looking forward to the … Read more
One of the best books I’ve read on writing recently has been Save The Cat by Blake Snyder. Snyder is a screenwriter who has has his share of both failures and successes and he shares what he has learned about the way to construct the perfect script. The intriguing title of the book comes from … Read more
If you’re an aspiring novelist, but have yet to write your masterpiece, you might want to consider joining in with NaNoWriMo. Say what? NaNoWriMo is short for “National Novel Writing Month” (though, technically, it’s international). Every November, writers around the world join in a fiction-writing frenzy, aiming to produce a 50,000 word novel in just … Read more
Daunt [(dônt] is a verb meaning “to discourage, to frighten.” The adjective daunting usually has the sense of “intimidating.” Putting together the Cubs playoff roster will be a daunting task for general manager Jim Hendry and manager Lou Piniella, and though both say they haven’t even thought about it yet, you know they have a … Read more
For thirty years, the mid-term exam for Dr. McAnelly’s Biblical Literature class was always the same essay question: “Describe the wandering journeys of the Apostle Paul.” So a college football fullback and his roommate decided they wouldn’t study anything else, thereby leaving them more time for other attractive pursuits. Imagine their surprise when the question … Read more
Everyone knows the cross-hatched symbol #. For some it’s the “pound sign” because it has been used by greengrocers as a symbol for “pound” on the little signs pricing fruit and vegetables: .75# (seventy-five cents a pound). For some it’s the “tic-tac-toe sign” because of the game that uses it as the playing area. Automated … Read more
I’ve been thinking recently about the ways in which writing and gaming are mingled online, after a Daily Writing Tips reader wrote in to introduce us to a site which he and his brother have recently launched, called “Vote Pages”. This site aims to make the writing process both collaborative and game-like: A votepage is … Read more
Political discussion these days often slips into the area of religion, particularly a belief in something called the “Rapture.” This might be a good time to look at some Christian theological terms and their definitions. eschatology [ĕs’kə-tŏl’ə-jē] 1844, from Gk. eskhatos “last, furthest, remote.” – As a theological term it means the study of “last … Read more
My five year old is now reading fluently and as a result is asking all sorts of questions about the meanings of words. The other day, she asked why fluorescent bulbs were so named and I realized that I had absolutely no idea, so I set out to find out more about this suffix. It … Read more
Some writers love dialogue. They find that they have a natural ear for how different characters speak, and that the dialogue races along, carrying the story with it. Others struggle over every word of a dialogue-heavy scene, feeling that the characters sound stiff and unlifelike. Fortunately, there’s a huge amount of great advice on writing … Read more
If you’re reading Daily Writing Tips, you’re probably a writer of some description. And being a writer means, in the vast majority of cases, that you have – or at least want to have – readers. So, have you thought about your Ideal Reader? What is an Ideal Reader? Your ideal reader is a construct … Read more