Grace E. Robinson's Blog, page 22

5 Beautiful Words

As a writer, I of course love words. I love words for their individual meanings, the way they work with other words in a sentence or a paragraph. I love how a single word at the right time can elicit strong emotion or deep thought. And some words just sound beautiful, too. I wrote a […]

So I Just Published a Book…

Not much in the way of wit or writing tips this week. Just an announcement that I published my first book! I know, there was no fanfare or promotion leading up to it. I actually wanted to keep it low-key, because I did it partly just to figure out how the self-publishing process works on […]

5 Little-Known Facts about Beatrix Potter

Beatrix Potter – the creator of the classic childhood characters of Peter Rabbit, Benjamin Bunny, Tom Kitten, and others – has long been one of my favorite authors. I grew up reading her whimsical tales of rabbits, cats, hedgehogs, and other charming creatures. Now, in adulthood, I’ve researched the woman behind the stories I’ve loved […]

What to Blog about when You’re out of Ideas

I’m sure this happens to every blogger sooner or later: your idea well dries up. It might be a long creativity dry spell, or maybe it’s just a temporary slump and you’re like “drat, I’m supposed to post tomorrow and I have nothing ready.” Well, here are some handy tips to keep you going – […]

Beginning at the End

I may offend or confuse some of you pantsers out there, but I’m really becoming a firm believer in knowing the end of your story before you finish. Most any writer who outlines at all probably has at least a vague idea of how the story is going to end – otherwise, what’s the point […]

The Value of Writing Fan Fiction

The subject of fan fiction can be a controversial one, so I may be making some people mad when I say that fan fiction is valuable and important. First of all, to clarify for those who might not know, fan fiction is just what it sounds like: stories written by fans of a particular book/TV […]

How to Write Technobabble

I’m not sure who originally came up with the term “technobabble,” but I first encountered it in reference to Star Trek. Technobabble is a staple of a lot of science fiction: the “babbling” on about fictional science and fictional technology to get characters into and out of their fictional scrapes. So what makes for good […]

How to Invent Fantasy Words

This post is similar to one that I wrote a while back for Mythic Scribes. But I wanted to write another post with some tips for inventing words and names for fantasy, and next week I’m planning to do a similar post about how to write technobabble for sci-fi. So here are some of my […]

5 Fictional Characters I’d Invite to a Summer Picnic

This week’s post is sort of silly, and inspired by Chronically Vintage’s post featuring some helpful blog post ideas. Since I was stuck for an idea this week, I’ll roll with this idea. This list could potentially go on waaaaaay past five, so for my readers’ sanity, I’ll keep it just to five. Thorn – […]

Fairy Garden in the Making

For those who don’t know, I have a fairy garden out in my back yard. It’s been a project a couple of years in the making. I initially went into inspired by various pictures on Pinterest, but otherwise not really doing any research or planning ahead. I’ve had a few people ask me lately about […]