Laurel Garver's Blog, page 31

Finding the stillcenter

One month from today, I will be arriving here:

photo by schurch, morguefile.comAs you might guess, planning is making life a bit hectic. It's my fourth trip to the UK, but instead of being in a college program, on a bus tour, or having a romantic getaway with my hubby, I'll be taking a family trip. It's my 10-year-old daughter's first  time off the continent of North America, and we'll be renting a car and driving. On the left side of the road. Yeah. A many of new adventures lie ahead.

My...

See, place or quote? Using sight, site and cite

In my continuing series Homophone Helps, we'll be looking at three sound-alikes I've frequently seen confused both online and in some self-published books. Getting a handle on which word belongs in which context is so important because, for the most part, your computer's spell check won't catch this sort of error.
Sight Photo credit: blackbird for morguefile.com(n.) the power or ability to see; perception; something that is seen; a device that helps the eye aim at or find the direction of an ob...

Stolen from poets: "Make it new"

"Make it new" declared Ezra Pound (1885-1972), a statement that became a rallying cry to the generation of early 20th century writers  we now call the Modernists. Nearly 100 years later, we still love a few of their favorite poetics tools to make writing fresh and zingy: neologism and portmanteau.

Don't be alarmed by the highfalutin' names. These two techniques are about breaking the rules. When you can't find the perfect word, you make one up. What could be more fun than that?

N...

Verse averse? Why you should try poetry

I'm over at Tyrean Martinson's blog today, explaining why fiction writers should include poetry reading in their craft-building self-education, in a post titled "Why read poetry?".

Poets have plenty to teach you about how to use words powerfully, how to employ sound and rhythm to undergird the action and emotion in your work, and how to conquer wordiness. You might be surprised to know that even genre-based magazines--romance, fantasty, SciFi, horror--often publish poems. So if form scares you...

Thankful

April is drawing to a close, and as I look back on the month, I'm thankful for so many things.
~My wonderful hosts for my mini-tour of Muddy-Fingered Midnights.
~National Poetry Month, making it cool to love and write poetry. 
~My critique group, who helped me get unstuck with the WIP.
~My friends who let me badger them with medical questions. (Why in-person research rocks).
~The Irish dance hard shoes given to my daughter for free. Riverdance, here we come!

~My new editing client. Excited to...

How to save your life

I'm the featured guest today on "Artist Unleashed" series over at Jessica Bell's blog The Alliterative Allomorph, talking about how to preserve your life experiences patchwork-style. You might be too young to write a memoir, but your life experiences are worth capturing now, before they lose their keen freshness. I suggest why and how in my post "Save Your Life: a Patchwork Approach."

If you ever get writer's block, this post is for you. If you think poetry is impossible to write, this post is...

Stolen from poets: ramp up emotion with vowel power

I've asserted in previous posts that studying poetry will make you a better writer, no matter what genre you aspire to master. Poetry uses a number of techniques that I believe are quite transferable to other kinds of writing.

Today, I'll begin a short series called "Stolen from poets" that explores some of those techniques and how to use them in your own writing. I'll try to keep these brief and focused, tackling one technique at a time.

Sound devices, part 1: Assonance
The thinking b...

Stories that sing

If you write fiction and have ever been tempted to try your hand at poetry, or you're simply curious about the diverse kinds of poetry out there, check out my guest post for fiction-in-verse author Caroline Starr Rose, "Stories that Sing: Poems with a Plot." It's part of Caroline's excellent National Poetry Month series serving up a daily dose of poetic treats.

In the post, I share a bit about the history of narrative poetry, explain how I crafted some of my own poems, and offer advice on givi...

Fear is your friend

What? you might think. How could fear be a friend?

As part of Jennifer R. Hubbard's guest series on facing fear, I suggest a whole new paradigm for how writers might approach and think about fear. Stop on by to learn more at my guest post "Writing through Fear."

You might be surprised to learn that it's through writing poetry that I learned this lesson. Poetry often has the reputation of being trite, dainty contemplations of flower petals and sunsets; the best poems are so much m...

In the zone with bats and stalactites?

Sometimes a project starts to gel after many months of two steps forward, five steps back. When this happens, the best thing is to head into "the writer's cave."

How did we arrive at "cave" as the best metaphor for focused work?

I guess caves work as a cozy shelter from the storm for hermit-types. But I see a place like this and expect the resurrected Jesus to tap on my shoulder.

He is not here...he is risen. (morgefile.com)
Alternately, I imagine something equally tomb-ish. Whatever you do, don'...