The Trendsetter

Since I blog everyday on how to write fiction, I use the advice I blog about in my own writing. I am presently expanding my short story Antara Dua Kota into a novel (it is not in English, though). And I am currently working on outlining the plot to fit it into a novel. I have set the theme as general as possible: it is about how love can conquer everything. This will help me to get a larger space for the characters to maneuver themselves.

The difference between a short story and a novel is the length. Secondly it is the focus. Usually a short story focuses on a single plot with only very few subplots and the characters don’t have much space to show who they are. The writer can only focus on one plot and are either able to solve the problem or the writer uses a cliffhanger type of solution and drops a hint what the protagonist does to achieve what he/she wants. In a novel, you have a lot of time and space to add more to the plot and develop subplots for the characters.
Read more »

Do you enjoy blogging? Or has it become like a burden since you are so busy with your other priorities that your focus on creating high quality content gets difficult? If you are in this predicament, you are not alone. Blogging comes with responsibility and you should be aware of it from the very start.

I am a newbie when it comes to blogging, yet I already feel overwhelmed by the responsibility of owning a blog. I write everyday and I strive for high quality content.

So what do you do? How are you going to make sure that you are able to produce the best content possible and at the same time tended to your other priorities?
Read more »

You have been blogging for several months or perhaps even years now. And you examine your posts to see how far you’ve been able to stick with your original purpose when first starting. Do you blog according to what you have planned beforehand? Or did you find yourself straying-off topic and blogging about something else – perhaps even on an unrelated topic? Are you inline online? I find myself asking the same questions. Do I serve the purpose I stated earlier when I decided to blog?

Bloggers usually blog with many purposes. The majority of them blog for money by placing advertising in the blog. Some bloggers do so to express their creativity. Others blog because they want to rant about something they can’t say face-to-face or seek feedback and acknowledgment.
Read more »

Most of the writing I have read mentions how emotions help to create believable characters for your fiction or memoir. Yet there are no articles that focus on the writer’s emotions and how it influences the writing process. This article is written for you, the new writer. Did you have the day where you were so fired up to write your creative writing or any type of writing? You can’t wait to get started and your ideas just flow like water. What kinds of emotions do you have when you are motivated to write? Do you feel happy, sad or angry? Then, there was the day when you just don’t feel like writing? You tried to coax yourself to start your writing yet, you just stared at an empty screen or a blank piece of paper for a long time. Again, when you have this moment, what emotions do you experience? Do you feel bored?
Read more »

Where are all the writers? I have been looking for their websites to read their experiences about writing. I find a few, but what about the others? Where have you’ll been hiding? I need to see your websites and read what you have been writing lately. So, before I give up in frustration, I just have to find them one more time. This time I used “rejection slips” as a search term to try to locate them on the Internet. Suddenly, BINGO! The google search engine returns several pages of the list of writers (well not all of them real writers) writing about rejection slips! Aren’t I lucky! I am about to write a topic about rejection slips and learned writers are so generous in sharing their experiences of receiving them.
Read more »