Writing Prompts

Growing Through Blogging

/ Detached / 3 Comments

vintage-typewriterOne of the most daunting tasks in blogging is making a schedule for writing and sticking to it!  Personally, for me, I am a night owl and most of my writing is done late night after the family has found their pillows.  I’ve been blogging a lot over the last few months, as well as spending a lot of time on my fantasy novel which takes most of my brainpower and writing focus.

Outside of the fantasy novel I’m working on, and the increased writing schedule here on the blog all my content has been with my podcast; All Things Geekery that my co-host and I do twice a month.  Podcasting was just the next step for my co-host and I as we had both wanted to get into it for a long time.  I’ve still got a huge passion for writing and always will, but my focus has changed on how that content is published and driven.  Which is all based around the outlets I’ve chosen to create material in like WordPress, Podcasting, Twitch, Writing etc.

My love for writing started when I was a kid and has continued through my adult years and blogging was where this crazy journey really changed things for me.  Blogging is such a great way for writers to grow and connect with an audience or just have that creative outlet for the pure enjoyment of writing. This outlet gives us a way to go in-depth with our topics unlike most social media outlets, aka micro-blogging outlets like Twitter.  I’ve enjoyed blogging for years and it’s given me a place to hang out with others in my little corner of cyber-space.  If you’ve spent any time at all blogging or writing, you know it can be tough and at times brings some stress with it.

So with that being said, here are just a handful of tips I’ve learned over the years which I hope help you all in your writing adventures.

1. WRITE THOSE IDEAS DOWN

You never know when a good blogging idea is going to pop up, so hot those things down!  I personally go old school and use a Moleskine journal for my blogging ideas along with sticky notes, which I use different colors for different topics.  It may sound like madness but it works for me and helps keep me organized for my writing schedules. Especially now that most of my writing is going towards my book.

2. BACKLOG & SCHEDULING

Learn to schedule posts best you can and how they fit into what you want your writing life to look like. If you have time and can do it, schedule posts throughout the week and keep a backlog of posts if you are trying to hit a specific number of posts per week or month that you can quickly choose from.

3. GUEST BLOGGING

Find you some blogging friends that will allow you to do guest blogging, and or co-blogging as that’s a great way to market your content and grow each other’s sites.

4. STOCK UP

You never know when an idea will hit and you’re looking for an image of sorts to show off this lovely idea you want to blog about. Browse through images you want to use for your blog posts and keep a stock in a folder for future posts.  This will help with the last-minute search for an image, though lately, I’ve been making my own depending on the topic.  See what works best for you and your schedule.

5. MAKE A LIST & CHECK IT TWICE

Make yourself a list of items to check before you hit that publish button.

6. BREAK IT UP

Break up your posts into multiple parts if they are running long. This will help keep the reader’s attention and hopefully coming back to check out those next parts.

7. CHAT IT UP

Use those comment sections as it can be a gold mine.  Watch for questions and good topics for conversations and even potential notes for future posts.

8. DON’T SWEAT IT / DON’T STRESS IT

Life happens and if you are like me well then blogging is a hobby, so don’t stress if you don’t make those post counts you wanted.  The best thing to shoot for is consistency but when you can’t don’t sweat it.  I try to post twice a week but that doesn’t always happen.

9. REFURBISH THAT CREATIVITY

Don’t fret about reusing previous posts or topics either.  You don’t want to repost the same exact post you’ve already used, but when you are in a crunch and the creative juices aren’t flowing, then maybe an older post will kickstart things again….rework that thing and use it!

10. LEARN TO HAVE GRACE

Give yourself some grace. This is a journey that should be filled with fun and moments of learning, but also filled with mistakes and curveballs!  When you find that crazy typo or sentence that makes your eye twitch, or just doesn’t make sense at all…..”DON’T WORRY” Learn from those mistakes and let those moments become part of the journey, part of the fun and something that makes you want to become better.

These are my bread and butter items I use whether I’m writing a small blog post, or working on my novel series.  Hopefully, these few items will help you along your writing/blogging journey as much as they have helped me!

Creating the Inner Workings of a Fantasy Novel

/ Detached / 6 Comments

BlaugustRebornLogo2018

I’m doing something a little different again for today’s Blaugust post!  Personally I have been writing a ton on my own novel series, and I wanted to share some fun tips I’ve learned along the way about writing in the fantasy genre.

Writing a fantasy novel is great fun – you can literally let your imagination run wild.  It’s a little different when writing a novel set in the real world as unlike books set in reality where you can use real life as examples, you’ll have to invent everything in your new fantasy world.  Do you enjoy writing, are you working on a fantasy novel, or have you had the notion to start one?  I hope the next few minutes while reading this helps you no matter what stage you might be in for writing a novel.

One of the best things you could do to kickstart things is read as many classics as you can find!  No matter the type of book you begin writing this will give you a good idea about what works and what doesn’t.  Remember though that reading other peoples works is something to help with idea spawning and relax your mind.  You must take note not to simply copy the ideas you’ve read from any of the good old classics or other pieces of work you find.  If you find yourself dealing with elves, half-lings and orcs whilst being a reluctant hero on a quest to destroy a powerful item, it’s probably best to scrap it and start again. It is true that all stories are a combination of those the reader has encountered over the years. But, you should always try to find an original angle and it certainly should not be obvious what the source material was. Reading the classics will also allow you to discover how well-crafted characters interact with each other as the story progresses.

Tip 1: Use established myths and legends as the basis for your fantasy world. Think about what your fantasy world might be like.  Do your studying and find out what your world and culture is most like….Is it Celtic, Roman, a medieval world or a blend of multiple cultures with your own twist on it? Once you’ve chosen, go and read about the myths and legends that relate to those cultures. The mythological creatures and characters and their stories will give you a great basis for your new world.

Tip 2: Get to know your imaginary world – you need to be able to describe it in detail if you are going to convince your readers, for the duration of the book at least, that it exists. Be thorough and detail everything you can possibly imagine about the world you are creating.

  • Physical – what does your fantasy world look like? Think about and make a note of:
    • the colour of the sky
    • what other planets can be seen from the surface
    • whether the air is breathable
    • what the plants look like
    • what creatures live there
    • whether there are seas
    • what the landscape looks like
    • futuristic world or something older
  • Residents – decide who lives in your newly formed fantasy world. You should spend time thinking about how they look, what they eat, how they move, whether they need sleep, how they speak to one another etc…
  • Society – what kind of society exists? Do they need money to buy things? Is there a complex system of politics they follow? Do they have a police force, a king or president? Is there a religion?
  • Special powers/magic – Do the residents have any special powers or use magic? If so, what are they and why do they exist? Does everyone have use of them or only certain people?

Tip 3: Make your characters believable. This is one of the most essential parts of the book if you want to hook and keep readers interested in the story. A great way to achieve this is to apply logic to every character in every fantasy world you create. This means creating a set of rules that apply to the world and the character. The rules can be based on either real life or they can be simply invented by you.  Remember if you are creating the rules of the world, don’t let a BOX hold you back from being creative.  Sometimes creating our own ways is just the push we need to make that next step in our creative writing.

Tip 4: Make sure you keep careful notes of all the details you invent for your new fantasy world. This will help you maintain continuity throughout the novel. There are many ways of doing this, some writers like to have a set of cards with the details on, others set up spreadsheets; so play around with different systems to find one that suits you the best.  I personally use a book mapping chart I created in excel that helps me track all major parts of the book I need.  I hope these few steps help you get started, or give an idea of what steps to take next in writing your new fantasy novel!

Remember, have fun!! That is the first and foremost thing I can say when writing… Have Fun and lots of it!

Blaugust Reborn – It Has Begun

/ Detached / Leave a comment

BlaugustRebornLogo2018Today officially kicks off day 1 of Blaugust Reborn my friends!

I hope you all have plenty of snacks and coffee, or whatever drink of choice you enjoy while writing as this month is going to be amazing!  It’s going to require some focus and brain power for sure….hence the snacks and drinks.

Today we are jumping in and discussing writing prompts as one of the hardest things about blogging is that some days are mentally tough, and you’ll have writers block.  It happens to the best of us and it’s just part of the journey us writers are part of.  Checkout a write up I did years ago about Writers Block and some easy tips of how to break through.

Sometimes the opposite can happen though and you have so many ideas and topics spawning in your head that you don’t know what to do with them.  Think of it like a water dam that is partially open and only letting a small portion of the water come through.  My best advice for situations like this is have a journal or some place like a back log of topics and ideas you jot down.  This will definitely help with those thought clogs and ease up some moments of frustration when those fingers don’t know what to type.

Let’s jump into those writing prompts as blogging for 31 days in a row is a challenge no matter how long you’ve been writing.  I’m hoping these prompts will help you with ideas through the month, and maybe even break some writers block you might have or experience along the way.

Here Are Nine Random Writing Prompts

  • Write about your favorite coffee you drink while writing!
  • Write about a friendship that was made from gaming and some of your favorite memories.
  • Write about a favorite book series and a character within that book series you enjoy.
  • Write about your favorite nostalgic video game and what you most enjoyed about it.
  • Share about a passion you have outside of gaming or reading / writing.  Maybe it’s cooking, or wood working, or whatever you like.  It can be whatever you are crazy passionate about.
  • Write about your favorite movies regardless of genre and what specifically about the films you enjoyed.
  • Write about why you enjoy writing.  Why are you so passionate about it and what would you say to someone new getting into writing?  More for the veteran blogger/writer but can be a fun journey to explore no matter your experience.
  • Write about the lore of a favorite video game, or book series you are passionate about.  If you are like me, then lore is your thing and you love to research and write about it.
  • Write about upcoming technology in the gaming industry, film industry, or whatever nerdy industry you enjoy.

I hope these prompts will help you get started and open up those creative sparks for this blogging journey.  Personally I have a ton of material planned out and jotted down in my journal so I don’t have to feel crunched for time.  Take the time to prep for the month and get ahead of things best you can so you don’t feel overwhelmed by trying to post every day.  It can be a daunting task, but also an amazing challenge to push yourself in an event like this.  Don’t forget to have fun while doing this challenge, and shamelessly look through all the writing prompts the events mentors are posting as you don’t have to re-create a brand new wheel every time you want to post something.  Those writing prompts are there to help us all spawn new ideas and make this journey a bit easier.

Jump in, enjoy, challenge yourself and most of all have fun!