Tag Archive: writing advice
Eric San Juan
March 21, 2019
Contributed Post Pexels It’s extremely easy to struggle when trying to maintain a certain level of written creativity. Even the best writers experience block from time to time. Of course, to some degree this is a natural process. How can a writer be continually expressive? Not only is there a great degree of self-editing and grammar that must be adhered to, but writing can be deceptively tiring. It might not feel as immediately freeing as casting paint on a canvas. Of course, you might be bursting with ideas. It’s just that sometimes it can be hard to know where those ideas might direct you as you sit down to put words to paper, or your word processing software. Of course, a great method of simply…
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Eric San Juan
January 19, 2017
Contributed Post Writing is rewarding. It’s also very hard. Like with any creative pursuit, you have to go out and seek inspiration. We could all sit around and wait for the muse to pay us a visit, but we’d be waiting a long time. Some people believe writing is a natural talent. For the most part, that’s not true. You may not be able to teach yourself to write well in the general sense, but there are things you can do to ensure you’re the best writer you can be. Here are a few things no writer can do without! Image from Pixabay READ That’s right. To write, you need to read. You should read everything you can. Remember in Matilda, when she reads…
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Eric San Juan
May 21, 2015
I started this blog however many years ago* for admittedly cynical reasons. I wanted to be more established as a Writer rather than a writer, and by all accounts having a blog through which you connect with people was an absolutely integral part of the equation. Supposedly, blogging is just what writers do. Since that time, I’ve had some books published, five of them by traditional publishers and three via my own sweat and blood. I s’pose that’s not bad. Can’t say this blog has had much to do with any of that or that it has helped in any way, though. I fully acknowledge that I haven’t handled it well or the way you’re supposed to or whatever, but that’s neither here nor there….
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Eric San Juan
January 7, 2013
Chuck Wendig brings us an excellent blog post called 25 Things You Should Know About Plot. It’s about … well, I bet you’ve already figured that part out. Here’s an excerpt: Let Characters Do They Heavy Lifting Characters will tell you your plot. Even better: let them run and they’ll goddamn give it to you on a platter. Certainly plot can happen from an external locus of control — but you’re not charting the extinction of the dinosaurs or the lifecycle of the slow loris. Plot is like Soylent Green: it’s made of people. Characters say things, do things, and that creates plot. It really can be that simple. Authentic plot comes from internal emotions, not external mechanics. The whole post is full of great…
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Eric San Juan
July 20, 2012
Writers want to be read. That is why you write. You write to express yourself or to earn a living, yes — for me writing is as much a job as it is a joy — but it begins with a desire to say, “Look at this. These are my words.” That’s why it’s very easy for aspiring writers to get suckered into doing free work they should be getting paid for, or worse yet, for established writers to get tricked into doing the same. In the world of freelance writing especially, there are plenty of people out there ready and willing to prey on your eagerness, naivety, or desperation to get some writing work. Here’s one trick I see a lot when prowling freelance…
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