Today’s post is a combination of things.
I’ve been wanting to post more of my fiction, humor and semi-biographical dysfunctional drama as part of my Write Every Day challenge, so for today’s post, I’ve started a new page on the site, called “Shorts.”
Look up.
To your right.
Oooh, a new button! (more…)
Yesterday my friend John Muldoon from Monthly Experiments asked me a great question about my ongoing Write Every Day challenge:
“Hey MP. I have a question about your writing habit. From our perspective, watching your journey has been fantastic and inspiring. But how do YOU feel about all of this? I’d love to know what this journey has been like for you so far.”
Like I said, great question.
I’ve been so busy trying to stick to the parameters of the challenge (write/post something every day for as long as I can keep it up) that I didn’t really pay much attention to the side effects it might be having on other areas of my life (more…)
I make movies in my head.
When I write fiction (or even non-fiction for that matter), I visualize the action in my mind to help me get it into words. I try to imagine what the scene would look like if it was shot as a movie, which I think helps me to describe it with more realism.
This technique works well if you’re describing real events from memory, but it can also work if you’re describing fictional events from your own imagination. I think many writers do this in one variation of another, but I like to add another twist. (more…)
As a writer, you are in the business of creation. It is your job to string together words and phrases in a manner that is engaging and valuable to your audience.
So what happens when your chosen audience ignores or rejects your work?
Are you still, then, a writer?
We’ve all experienced rejection and frustration on some level with our writing. (more…)
My comparison of mind mapping software concludes here with a look at MINDMAP 7, by ConceptDraw.
At first glance, MINDMAP 7 by ConceptDraw is a much more polished product than XMind 2012. That’s not to say that XMind couldn’t be a useful tool – I think it could. The two may be very similar in features, but I suspect the major differences will come down to pricing. ConceptDraw offers a 21 day free trial for MINDMAP 7, while XMind has an unlimited time for its free version. XMind’s freeware, however, is seriously limited in the amount of features it allows, requiring the serious user to purchase the full version to get at most of the more complex tools.
XMind’s full version with all the bells and whistles will set you back (more…)
Beard Beginning – September 2012
Thirty-six days ago I decided to get rid of some excess fat that had attached itself to my body over the years. At 5’ 10” and 225 pounds, I unscientifically estimated myself to be forty pounds overweight. (more…)
I wonder what the most common phrase is that people utter right before they do something they’ll regret. I’ll bet it’s one of these:
“Come on, it’s easy!”
“I know how this works.”
“What’s the worst that could happen?”
“It can’t be that hard!”
“Don’t help me, I can do it myself.”
“Watch this!”
I especially like the last one – it paints a mental picture (more…)
Today I found out that I may have to take up to a 20% pay cut at my day job.
Pretty alarming news, when you think about it. Losing even part of your paycheck elicits feelings of instant panic and doubt about the future, unless you put things in the proper perspective.
Initially, I worried about what losing one fifth of my paycheck would mean to my family. Then I started to look for the silver lining in the dark cloud. I was able to find two reasons to maintain my calm and see the positive in the situation.
First, (more…)
Stagnation.
Every author runs into it at one time or another. That point where no ideas break loose, no words come, and the keyboard grins up at you with evil contempt. Your stream of consciousness turns into a slimy, moss-covered retention pond with a foul smell. All the brilliant ideas you had yesterday are now somehow eluding you, and you feel like you couldn’t come up with an original thought if your life depended on it.
So how do you break through? (more…)
Life is not a spectator sport.
Modern society, however, is set up to encourage spectators rather than participants.
We live vicariously through video games, reality TV and social media – and the net effect is that we build habits that keep us on the sidelines; keep us from getting in the game ourselves.
For too long, I allowed this trap to keep me from pursuing my writing. I also used it as an excuse to let myself go physically – after all, it’s a heck of a lot easier to watch a triathlon than it is to compete in one. (more…)
I used to play the board game Scattergories at my brother’s house. If you’re not familiar, it involves a 20-sided letter die that is rolled to determine a starting letter. Each player then tries to fill a card with as many answers to specific categories on the card that begin with the letter on the die. For example, if the letter is R, and the category vegetables, you could score with radish and rutabaga. If another player came up with answers that matched yours, both players would have to throw out those answers – so it paid to be original.
The rules allowed the use of generic adjectives, as long as (more…)
Before we got rid of cable, my wife and I occasionally watched Inside the Actor’s Studio. If you’re not familiar with the show, it’s an interview format where host James Lipton asks famous actors various questions about themselves and their careers, as well as allowing them to answer questions from the audience of theater students.
One of the signature segments of the program is the following list of ten questions (more…)
