BreakThruWriting Interactive

The Red Piano

breakthruwriting — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 04:30:30 +0000

Author, Erin Goseer Mitchell, has written a new essay, The Red Piano. You can read it at Erin’s page on BreakThruWriting.com. Enjoy!

Writing Quote

breakthruwriting — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:11:28 +0000

Barbara Kingsolver: “There is no perfect time to write. There is only now.”

breakthruwriting — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:12:46 +0000

trapezemag has published Carma’s micro fiction “Nanobots” on Twitter and on its blog trapezemag.wordpress.com. The blog also features an interview with Carma and three of Carma and Scottie’s image-poems.

Look for another micro story and a poem at trapezemag on August 28th and 31st.

Enid’s Writing Tip #6

breakthruwriting — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 14:46:21 +0000

When you have a lot of characters, you have to decide what circle people occupy in relation to the viewpoint character. There are going to be some in the inner circle, others a little farther out, and some fairly distant. Decide who is core and who is peripheral, and that will help you know how much space to give to a particular individual. It’s a matter of proportion.

Enid’s Writing Tip #5

breakthruwriting — Mon, 24 May 2010 07:19:58 +0000

Some people are overwriters, who throw everything in, including the kitchen sink. Then they have to go back and take out what doesn’t fit. Others are underwriters, who write more skeletally and then have to go looking for what’s missing, even the kitchen sink, because they left it out and discovered that they need it. Both types think they do it wrong. There is no right way.

Wednesday, May 19

breakthruwriting — Sat, 22 May 2010 01:54:25 +0000

Leilani read a few pages. We are closing in on the end of her novel. I’m very curious to see how it ends, but Leilani isn’t giving anything away.

Elyssa read a new draft of a story. We agreed it was much improved.

Autobiography in Five Short Chapters

breakthruwriting — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 06:56:21 +0000

Tonight Enid gave us each a copy of this poem to use as a basis for our prompt, but the final chapter was cut off. Fortunately, I was able to find it on the Internet. Sigh. I love the Internet.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY IN FIVE SHORT CHAPTERS

by Portia Nelson

I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk
I fall in.
I am lost … I am helpless.
It isn’t my fault.
It takes me forever to find a way out.

I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don’t see it.
I fall in again.
I can’t believe I am in the same place
but, it isn’t my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.

III

I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in … it’s a habit.
my eyes are open
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.

I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.

I walk down another street.

Shakespeare

breakthruwriting — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 12:42:54 +0000

Today is Shakespeare’s birthday.

Enid’s Writing Tip #4

breakthruwriting — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 12:42:59 +0000

Read your work aloud in private. You see/hear things you might otherwise miss. You stumble over infelicitous wording. You may even bore yourself, and then you know you have to make a change.

It helps especially to read your dialogue aloud even before you write it down because you’ll speak it more naturally. Once you’ve committed the words to paper it seems as if they were written in stone. Re-read it after you’ve written it down as well.

Writing Down the Bones

breakthruwriting — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 03:10:06 +0000

Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. Several of us own and love this book about writing.