Laurel Garver's Blog, page 20

The gift of hardship: honing your storytelling in times of trial

Photo credit: RoganJosh from morguefile.com How often are you going happily along in your routines when—BAM!—some misfortune or difficulty derails you? One's natural instinct is to get through, get out, get away from the hardship as soon as possible, looking neither to the left or the right.

But there’s another way to think about life’s rough patches—as opportunity.  This perspective is something I’ve been raised with, but didn’t always appreciate. A mishap with the pl...

Two habits that will cultivate creativity

I don't know about the rest of you, but August can be a very chaotic month for me, with vacations and back-to-school preparations and a total lack of routine in far too many areas. My daughter's dance lessons are "drop ins" and her guitar teacher shifts days around, some church activities don't meet, while others are more frequent.

But even when I feel this scattered, I have a couple of routines that help me not lose all track of my writing.

Walk Image by jorgeyu, morguefile.comA fifteen to thir...

Beyond to-do: how do you use lists?

Photo credit: xololounge from morguefile.com 
Instead of dispensing advice this week, I'm seeking feedback from you, dear readers. This will be short but sweet because I'm heading to the Catskills with the family later this week, in part for my daughter to compete in an Irish Dance Feis. We figured we'd make a mini-getaway out of it.

I've been busily working on a productivity writing resource I hope to wrap up in the coming months. Among other topics covered will be brainsto...

No stamp required: epistle brainstorming

“Epistle” is a fancy word for letter or correspondence; coming from the Greek, it means “send news.”

Epistle brainstorming is a method in which you write imagined correspondence by a character or even between characters. Since it’s imagined, you can conceive of exchanges happening slowly, as with postal-service mail or rapid-fire, as with texting or instant messaging.

Photo: SRCHEN from morguefile.comThe goal is to get characters speaking in their own voices. It’s a great warm up...

Expertise is everywhere: why and how to use interviews to research fiction

Book and Internet research can provide you will all kinds of wonderful facts and details, as well as stimulate your thinking about possible story events, locations, and people to inhabit your fictional world.

But this sort of research isn’t interactive. It also typically isn’t customized to your specific needs. Thus, you can spend a great deal of time wading through reams of information to get to the facts and details you truly need.

Many times you’ll get the very best information most quickly...

Creatively burned out? Grab a pen (or crayon)

Photo by clarita at morguefile.comIf you’re suffering from serious stress, so much that stringing sentences together feels impossible, try taking a purely visual route to writing. Pick up your favorite writing utensil and doodle instead. It can be a wonderful way to brainstorm elements of your story.

The images don’t need to be great art. Go as silly or serious as your mood dictates. The goal is to get in touch with your the intuitive part of your mind. The jury is still out regarding whether...

Writer on the road: researching setting

photo by deegolden at morguefileIf you're heading out on the road (or air or sea) for some much-needed rest and relaxation, you don't necessarily need to lug along your laptop to keep your hand in your writing. Just grab a small notebook and a pen, and you can easily use you leisure travel time to build a repository of details for use in a current or future project.

One of the most fun things to research through observation is setting. If you plan to set a story in your vacation destination,...

In which I geek out

Karen Gillan and Matt Smith in PHILLY! I don't typically let my geek flag fly as much as some bloggers do, but when I learned that the 11th Doctor and his companion Amy Pond were going to be in MY city, well...it was something that could not be missed.

This was my very first Comic Con. I don't read comic books. Superheroes...I can take 'em or leave 'em. Other than Wii Fit and online puzzle games, I don't really play video games either.

Waiting for the Dr. Who panel with the fourth Doctor!B...

Getting past the myth of "enough" time

By Tyrean Martinson

Photo credit: kconnors from morguefile.com We all find ourselves believing in the myth of “enough” time. With busy schedules, work, family activities, and much-needed relaxation time all competing for time in our lives, we often find ourselves wishing for a few more hours in a day or a week so that we could have “enough” time to pursue our writing or other creative pursuits. We chase the myth of “enough” time.


I homeschool my kids. I volunteer at my churc...

Making the past new again: time travel fun with C.M. Keller

Today special guest C.M. Keller is here to share insights into writing series and to tell us more about her latest release, Screwing up Alexandria. If you like learning about history, and also love an adventure story with a touch of humor and fantasy elements, you're sure to enjoy C.M. Keller's Screwing up Time series.

Could you tell us a little about Screwing up Alexandria?Screwing Up Alexandria is the third book in the Screwing Up Time series. Here’s the blurb:

Time traveling has never broug...