Bev Pettersen's Blog, page 33
March 14, 2018
National Write Your Story Day.
Today is National Write Your Story Day.
This is something dear to me so, I thought I’d do a quick drive by blog.
Many, many stories are lost because they were never written down or even shared verbally. People think their stories aren’t important. I feel they all are. Every single one.
Please do this and encourage family members and friends to do the same. Doesn’t need to be fancy. Put your memories into words on the page so they won’t be lost forever. Years ago my dear sweet Auntie confided...
March 13, 2018
Finishing the Damn Book
Do you know that feeling when unfinished tasks plague you and you feel like you’re haunted by the things you haven’t completed? Turns out there’s a scientific reason for that. It’s called the Zeigarnik effect.
Psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik noted that waiters could remember orders in incredible detail, but as soon as they completed the task (i.e. the customer paid) those memories were gone. This effect is used in marketing to try to get people to do something by feeling like something has b...
March 8, 2018
My Muse is an Angsty Teenager – How to Handle Writer’s Block
As writers, at one time or another, we experience writer’s block, that hair-pulling, empty-brained void 
filled with silent characters, standing around doing nothing. They wait, and you wait for inspiration. Oh, wherefore art thou, muse?!
I envision my muse as a teenager (maybe because I live with some of those taciturn creatures). When my muse is happy, energized and “up”, she dances the night away, spewing witty dialogue and jumping into dramatic, compelling situations. When my muse is ap...
March 6, 2018
The Great CP Search (Reprisal from April 2017)
If you’ve been a Ruby blog follower for a long time, you may recall my March 10th, 2011 article on critique partners — AKA cattle prods. If you didn’t read it, you might want to now as it’s relevant to this post.
During the RWA national conference we heard from many writers looking for a CP. I won’t spout hearts and rainbows here and say finding a compatible CP is easy. It’s not. It’s a relationship that develops over time and requires a lot of questions at the beginning and some honest...
March 1, 2018
Coastal Magic Reconnaissance!!
Over the years, I’ve heard great things about the Coastal Magic Convention. As it says at their website, Coastal Magic is “a super casual, urban fantasy, paranormal, and romance focused convention in Daytona Beach, Florida.”
Casual? Great. Super casual? Even better. Florida, during the winter? Please, tell me more!
As The Most Introverted Author on the Planet
, I’ve never attended Coastal Magic myself, so my friend and Midwest Fiction Writers chaptermate Nancy Holland, who just returned, has k...
February 27, 2018
Closing Ceremonies for the 2018 Winter Writing Festival!!
Just like the Olympic torch, the flames of creativity have burned brightly during the WWF. But once again, we’ve reached DAY FIFTY! That means this is our final Check-In Wednesday, and time to extinguish the famous Writing Festival torch for another year. You still have ALL DAY today to work towards your goals–nothing ends until midnight your time. (As always, the Festival is always about YOU.)
And we know everyone who stuck with the Festival is finishing up with LOTS AND LOTS of fabulous wr...
February 25, 2018
I FEEL THE TEARS
With the close of the Winter Writing Fest only days away, the Ruby sisters can feel the spirits of those who’ve participate dwindling. We feel the same. We love the company and the enthusiasm that our writer friends bring with them.
Like the Olympians Ruby Vivi referred to in her blog on February 9th, we worked and we achieved our goals —some even blasted them. And now, also like those champions, we need to carry on. We need to set the bar a little bit higher in the next few months and afterw...
February 22, 2018
Share a Snippet 2018 – ROUND TWO!!
Our first round of Sharing Snippets was really fun….so let’s all be brave again today and SHARE SHARE SHARE. In one of the comment boxes below, post a paragraph (or a few) or even just a favorite line that you’ve written sometime within the last...
February 20, 2018
It’s the Winter Writing Festival Week 6 Check In!!
We’ve made it to the end of SIX weeks, and we’ve got ONE WEEK TO GO!!! Some once-hardy explorers have fallen by the wayside, but a solid core are still with us, scaling to the peak of the mountain. If we all reach deep and make one final push, we can achieve our goals!! The Chat Room is busy over at rsswwf.com/iChat. Take advantage of the regular schedule while you can! And of course we’ve got our usual fun Festival swag you can win if you leave a comment today telling us how your week’s prog...
February 18, 2018
Building Worlds
World building is the creation of detailed settings for out characters. Think – “giant terrarium” where 
we, writers, get to play God! It’s one of my favorite parts of being a writer. A story’s world is more than just a setting. Setting, like the two-dimensional background on a stage, lacks depth, history, emotion and all those other imperative aspects to a great book. World building goes beyond a date and location. It surrounds the reader, sucking them into the world’s society, culture, and t...
