Posts Tagged ‘creativity’
Posted on October 7, 2009 - by Monica Valentinelli
Writer’s Block? Check out this Horror Plot Generator
It’s often funny how I get ideas from the weirdest places. Last month at a writer’s meet-up, we were presented with some word lists to help foster our creativity for character types. Before I went to the meeting, I was having a terrible week. (I’m sure you all know what I’m talking about.) I was [...]
Posted on April 14, 2009 - by Monica Valentinelli
Not Happy with your Writing? Pick Up a Pen instead of a Keyboard
One of the things that I’ve discovered, is that if you overload yourself on the business of writing and the essentials of everyday life, your writing can be affected in ways that you don’t even realize. I find that this is especially true if you “rush” toward a deadline.
If you find you’re not enjoying your writing anymore, or if you realize that your writing has become crunchy and mechanical, I recommend putting away your keyboard and picking up a physical pen instead. Sometimes, all it takes to create a great story, is to channel the writers of old by getting back to the basics of writing implementation. Sometimes, all you need is a great pen, a journal or an old typewriter and some fancy paper to remind yourself that writing is not just about typing away on your computer. Often, the way we put the words down on the page can have as big of an impact on us as what we’re writing.
Posted on March 28, 2009 - by Monica Valentinelli
Book Trailer for Argentum, My Online Serial Novel
This is the first time I’ve delved into producing video. I’d appreciate you providing me with feedback if you have the time to check out this short book trailer for Argentum, Book One of the Violet War series I’m writing.
Posted on March 14, 2009 - by Monica Valentinelli
Genre Fiction and Why I Can’t Look at a Piece of Pie
As a writer, I’ve found that I really enjoy experimenting with different themes in fiction. My personal preference is to write in the horror, dark fantasy and science fiction genres because of the freedom and flexibility they provide. The settings I create (or write for) offer me the chance to explore heroic and villainous characters in new and interesting ways. You won’t find me writing a lot of gore or stories about “abuse.” I’m more interested in that little bit of light that resides in all of us — even the characters you least expect to see it in.
Posted on March 6, 2009 - by Monica Valentinelli
The Importance of Chasing Rainbows
“Chasing Rainbows” is a phrase that describes someone who’s going after a dream that’s impractical and foolish. The phrase has often been used to describe writers who have unrealistic expectations of how well they can write and what they are worth. “He thinks he’s Hemingway, but he’s never published anything before. He’s just chasing rainbows.” “Can’t believe she thinks she’s going to make $100,000 off of her first book, she’s just chasing rainbows.”
No one can catch a rainbow, right?
We’ve all known writers who had unrealistic expectations. By “unrealistic” I mean that they expect to make millions of dollars on an uncompleted project or believe that they’re famous and everyone knows who they are — even though they’ve only written one short story for a free magazine. We’ve laughed at them, we’ve made snarky comments privately, and we’ve all rolled our eyes at them — up until one of them does “make” it. Then we wonder how the heck that happened. Was it luck? Fate? What?
Posted on February 14, 2009 - by Monica Valentinelli
Happy Valentine’s Day! Enjoy Your Love Haikus!
Happy Valentine’s Day! Today’s the day to celebrate all things love and I can’t think of a better way than to share with you the love poetry from Twitter.
Poetry is a great way to get those creative juices flowing, especially if you need to flex those “descriptive” muscles. Here are the love haikus from [...]
Posted on February 5, 2009 - by Monica Valentinelli
Spread a Little Love with Haiku Day on Twitter! #littlelove
Posted on January 19, 2009 - by Monica Valentinelli
10 Things You May Not Know About Me
It’s been pretty frigid here the past couple of weeks, and I spent a lot of time embracing Twitter and Facebook moreso than I had in the past. Part of that “social media” hug was to keep up on the tools since I’ve been using them for work. The other part to that online touchy-feel [...]
Posted on May 11, 2008 - by Monica Valentinelli
How to Infuse your Creativity by Researching Tropes, Myths and Beliefs
As promised, I’d like to give you all a little exercise that my fantasy author friends might appreciate and immediately recognize. This is an example of how I do my research, and I’m offering it to you to put more questions in your mind than answers, to challenge not only what you write—but how.
For [...]
Posted on January 6, 2008 - by Monica Valentinelli
How to Manage Creative People, Part Two
In Part One of this article, I covered why it was important to have different management styles for creative people, and I addressed some management tips that can help shape projects in positive ways. Here are some more tips and the conclusion to this two-part article:
If you know you’re a micro-manager, speak to strengths The [...]
Posted on December 30, 2007 - by Monica Valentinelli
How to Manage Creative People: Part One
As writers, we have a unique perspective into creativity because we have to filter our inspiration through a funnel to write and organize words in order to convey a message. Because of the nature of writing, many writers run the gamut between “out there” creative or scientifically rational. The difference, of course, is not necessarily [...]
My Recent Releases
The Queen of Crows
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Family Games: The 100 Best
Order through Amazon.comBuried Tales of Pinebox, TX
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