Redirecting …

Moving! Come see me at: gtmproductions.com Everything after the summer of 2022 will be posted there. The new site will include all material from this location as well as restored material on other subjects. In other words, more stuff under one roof!

Cheating Writer’s Block

Some claim writer’s block doesn’t exist. If you go all Zen it doesn’t exist but then neither does the writing. I am a pantser so I have no outline or plot when I start. I also write mostly short forms and have way too many fragments that have solid potential in voice or character or situation but are stuck because I can’t see where they are going. When I’m stuck, […]

Dangerous Writing App

Here’s a unique site I keep in my writing bookmarks. If you don’t keep typing it will erase what you’ve done. If you hesitate, the font turns reddish-brown and fuzzy but it returns to normal if you begin typing again. If you don’t start typing as it is becoming fuzzier, a popup blocks you from adding any more words. https://www.squibler.io/dangerous-writing-prompt-app But, don’t worry; even after the popup there is still […]

Thesaurus Alternatives

There a group of sites that I frequently use as thesaurus alternatives. They’re all created by the same person and use the same broad structure. They all take a word or a group of words and search databases for the best matches. Think about how this differs from an online thesaurus. A thesaurus has predetermined links between words that have a strong, medium, or weak similarity to it. People have […]

Ten Sentence Prompt

This is one of my favorite structures for re-usable prompts. It’s not as easy as some prompts are to get started and can be thorny to work through but it generates material that has potential more often than any other reusable prompt or prompt structure I have tried.   (https://writeanything.wordpress.com/2009/08/17/vignette-a-writing-exercise/)   First, you need two estranged family members. Then, write ten sentences: Describe the weather Describe a sound Describe an […]

Review: The Captives

I had hopes for The Captives, by Debra Jo Immergut. Somewhere I read that it was quality prose in a thriller genre. Turns out the prose is okay, nothing spectacular (why use question marks in dialog for one character and not for the reply which is also a question?) and the story? Disappointing. It opens with promise; setting us in the grown up view of a high school crush and […]

Writing as Fiction as if it were Memoir

There was something in Mary Karr’s “The Art Of Memoir” that stuck with me. I listened to this as an audiobook from the library so it’s difficult to quote exactly but the specifics are less important than the process. She mentioned searching for a scene from her life that showed an example of her father and, something. How he loved her or some other other characteristic. Karr had a story, […]

Sixfold

I am entered in the fall 2019 Sixfold competition. Sixfold is writer-reviewed. I was assigned six stories to rank and review. I was impressed by how few grammar errors I found. The grammar quality is far above most of the submissions that come to the online publication that I slush read for. I didn’t expect that and I don’t know what this means. Are these stories well workshopped and fixed? […]

Strengths and Weakness of your writing

What are your strengths and weakness as a writer? You might look at: Characters Setting Plot How would you rate yourself on a scale of 1 – 10? How do others see you? Then, what about: Dialogue Conflict Prose Theme Description But then there’s also: Variety Flow Balance Structure And even within the elements there are sub-characteristics, such as for Character: Believablity Interest Consistency Depth And the same with all […]