Tag: Writing

Helpful Tips to Help with Writing

On By CandaceIn Creativity and Inspiration, On Being a Writer, Thoughts and LifeLeave a comment

This is just a short list of a few things I have found that (for me at least!) are helpful to remember and do when I am sitting down to write.

  • If at all possible, turn off your internet. The internet is such a major distraction when you are trying to turn out the word count!
  •  And keep your smartphone far, far away. In fact, you could even have someone you know hid it from you for a while as long as they will remember where they put it!
  •  Alternately, you could use your smartphone as a timer. I do this. That way you can jerk yourself back to reality or remember that you had only planned to research the train routes in World War I France for so long! 🙂 Continue reading “Helpful Tips to Help with Writing” →

The Case for Research…

On By CandaceIn Creativity and Inspiration, On Being a Writer, Thoughts and Life3 Comments

I want to start out this blog post with the premise that research can be fun! (Trust me for a minute here!)

You just have to make like Sherlock Holmes and repeat over and over to yourself, “Elementary, my dear Watson!”

Just kidding. 🙂

Please don’t tell me that I am the only one out there that absolutely loves research for my novels, stories and short stories. My family laughs at me when I am researching because I have so many eureka moments! 🙂 Enthusiasm is definitely key to enjoying the research when you would rather be writing. But if you like what you are writing about, the research can be nearly as fun as the actual writing!

my all time favorite detective:

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What would they have thought?!

On By CandaceIn Creativity and Inspiration, On Being a Writer, Thoughts and LifeLeave a comment

Sometimes, when I am discouraged with my writing, to distract myself, I like to think about what a famous author of the past would have said if they were alive today and could see how we write now days.

George Washington: What do you mean you no longer practice penmanship in schools? How can one even think of doing away with such an important accomplishment?

Jane Austen: Emails? But what about love letters?! *Gasp*

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Naming Your Characters

On By CandaceIn Creativity and Inspiration, On Being a Writer2 Comments

Naming my characters is one of my most favorite parts of being a writer. You get to pick out the names of your best friends! (Some would say imaginary friends, but we know better 😉

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A Few Minutes or an Hour?

On By CandaceIn Creativity and Inspiration, On Being a Writer, Thoughts and LifeLeave a comment

How much time should you spend writing each day? That question is something that I have asked myself over and over again so often. Finally, it got to be where it wasn’t funny anymore and I needed an answer to that annoying little question.

You see, several years ago, I was only working part time and so I had several hours on my hands each day to plot, write, dream and research. I wrote my first full length novel during that time and though it still sits as a rough draft, I actually wrote it all in about two years time. (I am not including the year or so that I spent outlining and telling myself that, yes, you can do this!)

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Whispers of Spring

On By CandaceIn Creativity and Inspiration, Nature, On Being a WriterLeave a comment

“Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing.”
― Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

Michigan state flower - Apple Blossom (Victorian meaning - "preference, better things to come, good fortune, promise"):