René Allen ~ Author: stories

Thursday, January 18, 2018

Beyond the Red Door By René Allen

BLOG SESSION

January 18th, 2018

Good Evening Blog Readers, Followers & Visitors ~ Welcome back to another fascinating Blog Session. Tonight we are going to enter into a new zone. It is a place where all Writers at one point or another step right onto the threshold of...

Grab your Journals for your notes on tonight's Session ~ make a note in your Journal about this interesting discussion that is going to take you "Beyond the Red Door".

What is this place?

This is the place where you hesitate. This is the place where you have doubts about your writing skills. Here is where you have to take stock of the stuff you are made of.

If you know you have a book or several books inside of you, then here is where you begin to work on getting the books to come alive. You have to take one step in the direction where your story begins -- The title.

Name your story. Make the name of your story pull the Reader closer. Whatever you call your story should make you want to write it, and keep writing it until you finish. If you are really good at writing your story, then you may even want to make it a Series.

Here is the beauty of coming up with your story title ~ you begin to watch the plot appear, then the location and scenes will jump out at you. And the next thing you know, the characters will come to life.

Those characters are something else! They all have personalities. Some of them will even have different quirks that make them very real, because you will find some aspect of them in someone you have met once upon a time in your life. Rest assured that those characters in your story will tell you their names and all about their lives. Some of them will be very chatty, others of them will be introverted. You may have to dig details out of some of them because they may not open up easily to you.

You can't have people coming to life without running into issues and circumstances. And, you can't blink, because if you do, you may just miss the turn your story takes when you run into sticky situations. Oh, and I forgot to mention -- there may be an argument or two, or a fight somewhere in the midst.

Well now, why not just step right on up the first step. . . you don't have to stress about the first step, because once you take it the next step is even easier . . .

Dear Writer: Be sure to join us back here for the next Blog Session to learn more.

OUR NEXT BLOG SESSION:

After the first step . . .

Writers, be sure to bring your Journals with you!

Peace, Love & Light

By René Allen

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

About Editing

About Editing

BLOG SESSION

November 14, 2017

Writers, Authors, Novelists, Poets, Journalists, aspiring authors, emerging authors, as well as all Blog Readers, Followers, and Visitors, we are back here for another exciting Blog Session!

Our Session today will be about the Writer's favorite topic ~ Editing.

We can't head into the editing process without first doing the initial proofreading. Our stories are always wonderful to write, but we must not forget to proofread, and then proofread again. It is good to have someone who you know has a good eye for correcting grammar and other errors that you may otherwise miss when you proofread your story yourself.

Writers, here is a good visual for you to place someone on your desk or copy and add to your Writing Notebook so that you never forget these steps . . .

Writer's Cycle

The Writer's Writing Cycle goes like you see in the diagram above. A Writer will first "think" about the story they are planning to write. This process includes all the details, the storyline, the characters, the scenes, the background information, and all research. Once this process is complete, the next step is the "Write" your story. Once you have written your story out, if you are like most Writers, you will re-read your story over and over to adjust any needed items. You will also proofread your story and correct all errors. This step will lead you to the next step in the Writer's Cycle, which is called, "Edit".

When you edit your story, this process involves preparing your mind to read over your story for the purpose of correcting anything and everything that makes your story cumbersome to read. Your editing process will involve correction, condensation, organization, and a host of other modifications that will produce correct, consistent, accurate, and most importantly ~ a completed work. Your editing process as the Author will begin with your idea for your work itself. This process will be a collaboration between the Author and the Editor. If you are serving as both Author and Editor, then you will need to be extra careful about your editing process. It is always good to have a second set of eyes edit your story. Some writers choose to hire a professional Editor to do this for them.

Editing your story

The final stage of editing involves the "polish" of your story. Polishing your story is essential. Getting your story to the point where it flows well, and your storyline is extremely interesting and inviting to the Reader is not always as easy as it may first appear to be. However it is necessary, and it is possible. When you finish polishing your story, and you know you have done a good job, you will breathe easy ~ lean back, and be proud of yourself!

OUR NEXT BLOG SESSION:

A peek at NaNoWriMo

Friends, until our next Blog Session...

Keep your Novel ideas flowing ~