3 Writing Exercises with Music

Sometimes you need to take a break from your main writing project. Spending all your writing time on just one project can get overwhelming and you might notice that your coffee fuel starts draining faster the longer and more often you spend working on one particular story. When it comes to my writing for Fiction’s Lie, schoolwork and essay writing has forced it aside. And when push comes to shove, my actual novel writing topples out of the once beautiful picture.

But, putting the school work and non-creative writing aside, it’s important to take breaks. And one of the best ways spending those breaks is working on another writing project. It doesn’t matter what kind of writing that is. It can be a poem, a random scene, experimenting with characters, dialog, action scenes, description, you name it. I call these writing breaks writing exercises because not only do you give you a fresh mind and some time away from your big WIP project, they also strengthen your writing, so that when you come back to your WIP after that break, you’ll feel rejuvenated and armed with some skills or scenes or new ideas to add to your manuscript.

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6 Tips for Being a Productive Writer

Sometimes being a writer requires, well, writing. (Who knew?) But sometimes all artists have a hard time making sure to make art consistently. Obstacles of all sorts appear frequently and our creativity sometimes seems under Loki’s influence. So we must learn to push through the road blocks, even when we’re not feeling particularly creative or inspired. A little stubbornness and self-determination will build up persistance in getting the thing done. But in order to do that, we sometimes need to eliminate or add certain things to our lifestyle. So here is some advice on how to stay productive, organized into six different points.

The Bookish Q&A Tag

Miranda Kulig, over at the blog Dreams and Dandelions, posted The Book Habits and Currently Reading Q&A Tag and tagged me to do so as well! Thanks Miranda! Don’t forget to check out her blog. Now, onto those questions and I’ll tag some fellow bookworm bloggers at the end too!

Writing Main and Secondary Characters

A few days ago, I ran a poll on Twitter, asking fellow readers and writers what kind of characters make up the majority of their favorite characters. 32% voted “Protagonists/MCs,” 15% voted “Antagonists,” and 53% voted “Secondary characters.”

Movie Review: Black Panther

Black Panther was fantastic. Picking up from where we saw T’Challa last, in Civil War, It was refreshingly different for a Marvel movie, with emphasis on the African culture of Wakanda, its myth, and its people, as well as the breaking of racial and gender stereotypes, which I LOVED. Many movies and TV shows with main characters of color today usually have a plot focusing on racial tensions, a hot topic in current world politics. But Black Panther had none of that. The entire story was focused on Wakanda, its ruler, and the tensions coming from the aftermath of not only T’Chaka’s death, but also the revelation of N’Jadaka, Erik “Killmonger” Stevens, T’Challa’s first cousin and nemesis.

Book Review: Colors of Fear

Aaaaand we’ve got another five-starrer by Hannah Heath! I’m so excited to share this story with you. Colors of Fear is written by my best friend, which automatically makes it very special to me, but putting that aside, the story in and of itself is so beautiful and unique. At only 60 pages long, this short story is a brilliant introduction of the main character in the soon-to-be published novel, The Stump of the Terebinth Tree.

Preparing to Kill Your Darlings: 4 Questions to Ask Yourself

Well, it’s time to kill a character, you say.

Wait! Stop! First, identify your reasons. If you’re killing simply because you’re frantic for some impact or looking for a way to get your readers to respond to your story emotionally (just ’cause you do, usually doesn’t mean they will), or if you’ve hit writer’s block and you just need something to happen, then it’s time to step back for some reconsideration.