- Use writing prompts to work your way out of writer’s block.
- Write for your readers not for success.
- Avoid adverbs whenever possible. Adverbs tell and don’t show because they draw a conclusion. Here are a few examples of adverbs: Sweetly, beautifully, hatefully, and suddenly.
- Avoid using dialects or phonetic spelling. It takes the reader out of the moment.
- Cut it if you, as a reader, would skip it.
Joe: “What do you call a person who cheated on every test in school and college?”
Pete: “I have no idea, what?”
Joe: Hopefully, not your doctor.”
If one wants to keep growing and learning, one has to take on new challenges. Don’t fear the challenges. Embrace them, they’re bringing out the best in you,
My Delight and Thy Delight
Robert Bridges
My delight and thy delight
Walking, like two angels white,
In the gardens of the night:My desire and thy desire
Twinning to a tongue of fire,
Leaping live, and laughing higher;
Thro’ the everlasting strife
In the mystery of life.Love, from whom the world begun,
Hath the secret of the sun.Love can tell and love alone,
Whence the million stars are strewn,
Why each atom knows its own,
How, in spite of woe and death,
Gay is life, and sweet is breath:This he taught us, this we knew,
Happy in his science true,
Hand in hand as we stood
‘Neath the shadows of the wood,
Heart to heart as we lay
In the dawning of the day.
Joe: “I walked into my doctor’s office with a cucumber in my nose, a carrot in my left ear, and a banana in my right ear.”
Pete: “What did the doctor say?”
Joe: “My doctor said I wasn’t eating properly.
Disappointments are part of life. Any time we fail to get something we really want, disappointment comes knocking at the door. With each disappointment we can either retreat or push ahead. Learn from disappointments – they offer life lessons. Don’t give up, each disappointment may be the key to something better. Push ahead!
Simplify your life. Don’t waste the years struggling for things that are unimportant. Don’t burden yourself with possessions. Keep your needs and wants simple and enjoy what you have. Don’t destroy your peace of mind by looking back, worrying about the past. Live in the present. Simplify!
~ Henry David Thoreau
Adopt the three-act novel approach. In this first act, introduce plot and character. In the second act, develop both your characters and the plot. In the third act, tie up loose ends.
Smile at everyone who passes by. Be kind to everyone. Let love be your guide 24/7. Always believe that today is good and tomorrow will be even better. You’ll make our world a better place.
