Are you a writer? Would you like to contribute to Little Miss Literature’s A-Z of writing by leaving a tip beginning with the next letter of the alphabet? If so, please get in touch via Twitter (@lilmsliterature) or email: littlemissliterature@gmail.com
Ali McNamara
A is for…Author
I’m an author or so they tell me. An author seems an awfully grand title. I much prefer to call myself a storyteller. Because that’s what I think of myself as, someone who takes the stories she invents in her head and writes them down on to paper. An author to me is someone that’s very good at the art of writing. I’m not that at all, I can just tell a good yarn 😉
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Ros Rendle
B is for…Bloomin’ Block!
I’m sure we’ve all had it. My trouble was it came first to me with the opening sentence of my first novel
– a slight drawback, you might think. Well, yes! Everyone had said ‘that first sentence is SO important. You need a hook. You need to captivate the reader. You need to draw them in.’ Well, yes to that too but I found it very intimidating.
I thought and thought. I even looked on the internet for inspiration. Then I remembered an artist friend who gave me a lesson once. He said, ‘when faced with that blank piece of white paper make a splodge, any mark, on it so that it is not so pristine or daunting. You can go over it later.’So I did. I wrote my first sentence, and my next and the next and then I couldn’t stop! I did go over it and re-wrote some of the words but that was much later.
Everyone will have a block from time to time but it can be overcome, sometimes with a remembered wise few words or a little help and a lot of will-power. Subsequently, if I’ve had a block, I’ve remembered that previous experience but my arsenal is also growing. Bloggers (alternative B – but more of that another time) sometimes have little competitions for writing the most words in one hour, for example. It has got me over the bloomin’ block before now. Eating chocolate and upping my sugar level has always helped, of course, and trying hard not to procrastinate or put it off through too much Twitter or Facebook activity. That really is just not facing up to ‘the elephant in the corner’. Ultimately will-power does work! Good luck and best wishes!
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