Red Wolf's Room

Photo by Olga Dieterle Many writers are able to create characters that leap off the page and stay in your mind for years to come not just because of their story, but also because of their style. Before you start outlining their way of speaking and fashion sense, you need to know what your character's character is like. What is their internal thought process? How would they react to what this person says or what that creature does? And how would your character show their emotions? When you are writing characters, you're building a person from the inside out, so you need to lay down the foundation of their personality. Determining whether your character is an introvert, extrovert or ambivert will set the tone. Everything in writing is connected and that includes characters. Their personality has a heavy hand in dictating their actions and dialogue choices, although experiences and other factors play a role as well. In Diane Callahan's video, she mentions the "hidden sel...

Writers are like anyone else; they don’t like rejection. People seek to avoid rejection, which means they will also avoid opportunities and people that could have made a lasting impact on them. Whether we like it or not, life is a balance and, in that balance, there is pleasure as well as pain. Image source:  https://www.pexels.com/photo/focus-photo-of-yellow-paper-near-trash-can-850216/ This blog post describes my own experience of how I dealt with rejection as a writer. There is no quick and easy way to deal with it. Everyone deals with rejection differently. It could be slower or it could be faster than another person. Just remember to not compare yourself to others. I am sharing my story to hopefully provide you with some insight should you ever find yourself in a similar position. You are not alone.  I’m also sharing to entertain you. After all, people love stories. The Beginning In the middle of the night, I sat among the shadows of my room with my lamp’s light focus...

 Welcome Lia to Red Wolf's Room .  In a previous post, I wrote about my reasons for turning to writing and now I have asked another writer what her motivations were and are: Writing has always been my biggest passion. I grew up with stories. I was the kid who made up elaborate stories with her toys. I had a natural talent for writing, and all my teachers growing up encouraged me to pursue it. When I fully understood my love for storytelling, it quickly became something I took very seriously. With my involvement in NaNoWriMo this year, I’ve had to learn how to write under pressure. As such, I’ve noticed two key factors which help whenever I find myself struggling. Music : I’m someone who relies heavily on music, not only for writing, but for the development of my story-line. I could be sitting on the bus, mindlessly listening to my iPod, when I’ll have a revelation, inspired by a lyric or a melody, regarding a plot point that had me stuck. Music’s ...

I was a guest blogger for Lia over on her blog for NaNoWriMo to give advice on Writer's Block.  Click here to head over there. In addition to the tips I gave over on Lia's post, struggling writers can also: Do Something Else :   Changing your thoughts allows your mind to put the writing problem on the back burner and to focus on something else.   Read a book, go for a walk, do a chore or two, listen to music, work on another project, (whatever your heart desires) and return to it later in the day.   Looking at blogs can also be helpful since there are blogs on all sorts of topics (food, interior design, writing, religion...).   Check out the magazine Artful Blogging : https://stampington.com/Artful-Blogging-Winter-2016 Leave it for Another Day :   Much like the previous solution (see above), giving your mind a break so it can absorb what you've written usually allows it time to think up new ideas.   When you think you have done all t...