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ZARA WEST'S JOURNAL – Exploring the experience of being a writer
Exploring the experience of being a writer
Exploring the experience of being a writer
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Tags: experience exploring
It’s time to choose the BIG words that guide me throughout the year. If you have been following my journal for the last ten years (Wow! I can’t believe it’s’ been that long!), you may be familiar with my BIG …
5.1.2025 23:09Be Inspired by BIG WordsWelcome December! Does the holiday season stress you out? It does me! It’s bad enough to have all those special book events on my platter – book sales, holiday stories to write for my newsletter followers, bookish gifts to distribute, …
1.12.2024 21:2328 Strategies to Combat Holiday Stress for WritersIn reply to <a href="https://zarawest.me/2024/09/11/crafting-authentic-character-reactions-with-the-stimulus-reaction-sequence/comment-page-1/#comment-35039">Anonymous</a>. Thank you for sharing, Meryl. I loved your book!
13.9.2024 18:02Comment on Crafting Authentic Character Reactions with the Stimulus-Reaction Sequence by zarawest<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Thanks for your informative posting, Zara. As I write short paras my example is four paras giving the heroine's response to an odd situation. It is an extract from my book, <strong> ‘Broome Enigma’ by Meryl Brown Tobin, The Wild Rose Press, NY, 2023</strong>, <strong>p109</strong>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>At the holiday house, the curtains were drawn. Jodie frowned. Quickly she unlocked the downstairs door, went in, locked the door behind her, and ran up the inside stairs to the living-room. “Marc!” she called. “Marc, I’m back!”</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph --> <p> Upstairs was in pitch blackness. Jodie’s body tensed. Leaving on the lights over the stairs, she turned on the lights in the living room. Warily she walked in. “Marc, are you there, Marc?”</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She put down her overnight bag and handbag and stared into the blackness. “Marc, it’s me, Jodie.”</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>She walked to a small table nearby and picked up an empty vase. Gripping it firmly, she slowly pushed open Marc’s bedroom door and switched on his light. “Marc…?” Her voice stuck in her throat—his bed was empty though slept in. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->
13.9.2024 00:38Comment on Crafting Authentic Character Reactions with the Stimulus-Reaction Sequence by AnonymousHave you ever read a description of a character doing something in a story and felt like something was a bit off? Human beings are not only very sensitized to how other humans behave, but the way our sensory system …
11.9.2024 19:43Crafting Authentic Character Reactions with the Stimulus-Reaction SequenceIn reply to <a href="https://zarawest.me/2024/08/27/the-power-of-incubation-unlocking-creative-ideas/comment-page-1/#comment-35037">Kathleen Buckley</a>. Kathleen. Thank you for sharing this perfect example of incubation.
1.9.2024 15:43Comment on The Power of Incubation: Unlocking Creative Ideas by zarawest<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>I have indeed had a "aha" moment. In my novel Hidden Treasures (due out on 9/16/24) I was having trouble with the wrap-up. It seemed flat. So I took a break from it for a week or two. Somehow in that period, an idea came to me that seemed outrageous until I thought about it. That ending would wrap things up satisfactorily for several characters and provide some humor, although I wondered what my editor would have to say about it. I wrote it and she liked it.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->
1.9.2024 14:34Comment on The Power of Incubation: Unlocking Creative Ideas by Kathleen BuckleySnap. Crackle. Pop. Often, we expect a creative idea to burst into our heads instantly. Creativity doesn’t work that way. Sure, sometimes when we are deep in a story, and our words just pour out onto the paper, a wonderful …
27.8.2024 20:38The Power of Incubation: Unlocking Creative IdeasImagination is the mental manipulation of all our inner thoughts and ideas. We see it develop in young children when they pick up a banana and pretend it is a telephone or make up a story about a green dragon …
21.8.2024 12:11Unlock Your Creativity: Harnessing the Power of Visualization[…] This ability to let go and throw away concerns about an end product or potential failure is key in experiencing that all so important creative flow where ideas just pour onto the page like magic as experienced in fast drafting. […]
14.8.2024 15:17Comment on Fast Draft Your Manuscript: It’s NaNoWri by Improvisation in Writing: 5 Ways to Enhance Your Creativity – ZARA WEST'S JOURNALImprovisation is doing something, usually creative, without preplanning. When we “improv”, we abandon or ignore our plans and set out into the unknown. We take risks and ignore the possibility of failure. It means “letting go”, “playing by ear”, “making …
14.8.2024 15:16Improvisation in Writing: 5 Ways to Enhance Your CreativityIn reply to <a href="https://zarawest.me/2024/08/06/unleashing-creativity-the-power-of-intuition-in-writing/comment-page-1/#comment-35034">Kathleen Buckley</a>. Thank you for sharing that sparkling moment of using your intuition! Zara
7.8.2024 12:49Comment on Unleashing Creativity: The Power of Intuition in Writing by zarawest<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>I can't claim to have used any strategy to come up with the ending of my book that's coming out in September, <em>Hidden Treasures</em>. When it came time to wrap it up, the ending I had assumed would work felt blah. Reading back over what I'd written, I thought I saw a possibility and went with it. I had to go back and tweak things in places, but when I did, the twist made a satisfying (and somewhat funny) denouement. I crossed my fingers and sent it in. My editor liked the twistiness. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->
6.8.2024 23:03Comment on Unleashing Creativity: The Power of Intuition in Writing by Kathleen BuckleyCreative people are people who take risks. They go with their gut feelings. They color outside the lines. They break rules. They mess around and play with no set goal in mind. They follow strange ideas just to see what …
6.8.2024 20:38Unleashing Creativity: The Power of Intuition in Writing[…] You can also try digital ways to mind map, though I find this method more constricting because they make you worried about how the map looks. Scapple, SimpleMind, and Coggle, are inexpensive or free examples of some of the numerous digital, mind-mapping programs available. There are many more for you discover if you are interested. Here’s more on Mind Mapping. […]
29.7.2024 00:02Comment on Mind Mapping Your Story Ideas by Gain Creative Insight with Divergent Thinking Strategies – ZARA WEST'S JOURNALIt is all fine and good to talk about being open to new ideas and being flexible in your thinking. The problem is that as you write or pursue any creative work, you will have periods of energetic writing when …
29.7.2024 00:01Gain Creative Insight with Divergent Thinking Strategies[…] Piirto’s list of the Seven Is starts with inspiration. Inspiration is the external force, object, or event that compels us to […]
16.7.2024 11:39Comment on Unleashing Creativity: Exploring the Seven I-Words of the Creative Process by Inspiration, Writer’s Block, and the Writer – ZARA WEST'S JOU...Jane Piirto’s list of the Seven Is starts with inspiration. Inspiration is the external force, object, or event that compels us to start a creative pursuit. For a child, this can be as simple as a new box of markers. …
16.7.2024 11:35Inspiration, Writer’s Block, and the WriterI have long been fascinated by the creative process. First, as a teacher watching groups of students take the same directions and materials and turn them into wildly unique results. Later, as a fiber artist exploring the unique possibilities of …
8.7.2024 20:02Unleashing Creativity: Exploring the Seven I-Words of the Creative Process[…] writers should consider having is a Story Sheet to be used during the writing process. Like a Story Bible, it is a place to collect important elements related to your story. But unlike the bulky story […]
22.6.2024 19:56Comment on Story Bibles for Writers by Time and the Writer: The Importance of a Metadata Story Sheet – ZARA WEST'S JOURNAL