How to Write Archives - Page 22 of 24 - Trisha Sugarek, Author, Playwright & Poet

How To Format Your Novel

About editing and proofing: I see a lot of self published books and sometimes the formatting is so bad I can hardly read the story. Don’t let this happen to your book. Proof the book, then proof it again, then proof it again, before you publish.

Format: you should give the reader’s eye somewhere to ‘rest’. This means you should have adequate ‘white paper’. If margins are not tight enough and too much text is on the page, it’s exhausting. When paragraphs are too long they also exhaust the reader.

Here is a link https://forums.createspace.com/en/community/docs/DOC-1482 and a format I use exclusively. Or you can just go to:
1] page layout in your doc
2] margins
3] custom margins and then put in the numbers.
4] Be certain your ‘gutter’ number is 7.0 minimum
My publishing platform offers templates for whatever book size I am going to use. So I download the template and begin writing, from the very beginning, using that. It saves so much time in formatting later. Or if you have been writing a story for awhile, you cut/paste the manuscript onto the template. But you must proof it and edit it.

Each chapter should begin on an odd numbered page. On that page the heading should be consistent; that is, 6 or 7 or 10 spaces down, but consistent. The chapter title should be centered. Don’t be afraid of the even numbered page opposite the new chapter being blank. That’s what your reader expects to see.

The header should be consistent: even-numbered page should have the author’s name and the odd numbered page, the title of the book. The pages leading up to the first chapter should NOT have headers.

Justification: Your ‘alignment’ should be ‘justify’ rather than ‘left’. This gives your document clean crisp edges so it looks more polished. But I frequently find the program will default to ‘justified’ on a line of text that has only a few words and spreads them out inappropriately across the page. When this happens, highlight the text and choose ‘left’ alignment. That will clean it up. There should be NO spacing between paragraphs.

Your copyright ‘Notice’ page: (Always on an even numbered page.) should carry weight. Many amatures list only the year of copyright, Title, ISBN number. Your page should look like this:

Notice (centered)

Copyright (c) 2016 Trisha Sugarek. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the written
permission of the Author. Printed in the United States of America. For information contact author at www.writeratplay.com.
The Library of Congress has catalogued the soft cover edition of this book as follows: Sugarek, Trisha, Song of the Yukon, Trisha Sugarek –
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and
any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales in entirely coincidental.

ISBN 978-1489558206

Cover Design by David White, Illustrator

Song, ‘Swiftly I Go’ by Gary Swindell, Composer
Additional lyrics and poetry by Trisha Sugarek (I believe you should give a credit line to each contributor on the “Notice” page.)

The author should always registering the book with the US Copyright Office $35. Protect yourself!

Questions: I welcome them. You can reach me: click here

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MY BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! Did you miss the past few months? January: Sue Grafton ~ In Memory
March: Mystery (and Western) writer, Larry D. Sweazy. April: in60Learning ~ A unique, non-fiction mini-book read in 60 minutes.

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Interview with Western & Mystery Writer, Larry D. Sweazy

Q. Where do you write? Do you have a special room, shed, barn, special space for your writing? Or tell us about your ‘dream’ work space.

LS. I have a dedicated office that I’ve worked in for the last seventeen years. It has a desk, books, and comfy places for my dogs (two Rhodesian ridgebacks) to hang out with me. For years, though, I had a little desk in the bedroom, and wrote wherever I could. I’m not sure a space creates any magic, but it can’t hurt to be surrounded by books and dogs…

Q. Do you have any special rituals when you sit down to write? (a neat work space, sharpened #2 pencils, legal pad, cup of tea, glass of brandy, favorite pajamas, etc.)

LS. No, not really. I usually grab a cup of coffee, sit down, and start writing where I left off the day before. That’s boring, but it’s the truth.

Q. Could you tell us something about yourself that we might not already know?

LS. I’ve nearly died twice in my life…third time is a charm has me a little worried.

Q. Do you have a set time each day (or night) to write?

LS. I usually write in the morning, first thing. I try to stay as close to the dream state as I can. But when I’m really in a story, I’ll write whenever I get a chance.

Q. What’s your best advice to other writers for overcoming procrastination?

LS. Just write the story. Don’t worry about agents, or publishing, or getting famous. Just write. You can’t edit a blank page. Quit coming up with excuses. If your dream is to be a writer, then sit down and write only the story that you can write. If what you write sucks, edit it, or delete it, then keep on writing. Writing is a craft. You have to be willing to put in the time into reading and writing over everything else.

Q. Where/when do you first discover your characters?

LS. Characters are everything for me. I usually get a glimpse of them at the start of a story, and my curiosity drives me to find out more about them. Most of my characters are wounded in some way, looking for a way to prevail over their current circumstances. Marjorie Trumaine, the main character in my amateur sleuth mystery series, is a North Dakota farm wife with a quadriplegic husband. She’s trying her best not to lose the farm, and the local extension agent encourages her to take a correspondence course in back-of-the-book indexing to make extra money. The USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) used to offer courses like this to farmers to generate extra income. Anyway, Marjorie’s well read, so when a murder happens close by, the sheriff asks her for help. But she still has to figure out how to run the farm and take care of her husband. She has a lot of challenges to overcome. I also wrote a stand-alone a few years ago about an aging Texas Ranger who gets into a shoot-out with Bonnie and Clyde and loses his right arm. That novel, A Thousand Falling Crows, concerns the character’s fight to go on living regardless of the difficulty of his new circumstance. What a character goes through and how they come out of it shows who they are as far as I’m concerned. We all have our battles. Characters that have something to fight for are a big draw to me.

Don’t miss Part 2 of this fascinating Interview March 9th

Marjorie Trumaine’s latest mystery, SEE ALSO PROOF will be released May 1st.
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MY BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! Did you miss the past few months? January: Sue Grafton ~ In Memory
March: Mystery (and Western) writer, Larry D. Sweazy. April: in60Learning ~ A unique, non-fiction mini-book read in 60 minutes.

Check out more Motivational Moments…for Writers!

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Storytelling…a Cultural Imperative!

What is a cultural imperative? ‘Peoples living within the encompasses of cultures associated with very different ethnicities often imbue radically different moral imperatives, through identification processes carrying across generations. Such cultural imperatives prevalent within one culture may not have any direct equivalent within another culture…’ *

Glaring examples of this are the ethnic groups who, putting themselves at risk for censor or abuse, have insisted on keeping their native language, rituals, and religions alive. ‘one culture may not have any direct equivalent within another culture…’ But the one imperative that has crossed all ethnic and cultural groups is storytelling.

What is this imperative that most people feel….to tell stories? It seems, to me, to be hardwired into our DNA.

We begin at an early age: making up stories (to ourselves) as we play with our dolls or cars. A child has no inhibitions when it comes to weaving a fantastical tale, frequently out loud, as they play.
A mother or father sits at their child’s bedside and makes up stories until they fall asleep.
A comic book writer tells his stories with a few words, facial expressions, and action illustrations.
A poet tells their stories through rhyme, lyric or free verse.
A playwright creates their story so that others can tell it.
Another storyteller sees their stories happening in the far future.
Another goes to the dark side of human nature and writes stories about things that go bump in the night.
A teacher tells a story to enhance the lesson. (I miss you, Miss. O’Connor.)
The novelist weaves a longer tale; taking their characters on adventures, discovering love, suffering defeats, and usually conquering all in the end.
……even gossip could be considered storytelling.

I have worried out loud (and written about it here) that storytelling will die, be a thing of the past. But now I believe that many of us do have that cultural imperative to tell and write down our stories. After all the synonyms for imperative are: involuntary, necessary, nonelective, obligatory, peremptory, required.
I don’t think storytellers can help themselves. We have to tell stories!

* IdentityExploration.com/Culture_Imperatives
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Improve Your Creative Writing Skills

Adam Durnham shares his article on improving creative writing skills with us.

How to Improve Your Creative Writing Skills
by Contributing Writer, Adam Durnham

Creative pieces are usually meant to entertain, but since readers often want more than mere entertainment, they expect literary pieces to challenge the mind and tickle the imagination. For some, writing or reading literary pieces could also be a form of art therapy.
Though these standards are quite simple, they may put more pressure on writers. The more advanced readers are, the higher the standards they set for the authors’ literary pieces.

Here are four tips that can help people improve their creative writing skills:

Do not underestimate your readers’ ability to understand and imagine

Leave room for your readers to imagine the backstory, the motivation of the characters, and the exposition (the elements that explain the story). You don’t have to reveal all of these in graphic detail all at once. You can give clues or foreshadow some events in the story, but be careful about revealing every element at the start of the piece. Let your readers use their imaginations and formulate theories.

Identify the key points of your story, specifically taking note of the following:

i. What is the main goal of your protagonist? Try to create a protagonist who is interesting or unique in some way.

ii. What are the relevant actions your protagonist takes towards the completion of his or her goal? The protagonist of the story could make conscious decisions that drive and direct the entirety of the story.
iii. What are some unexpected outcomes of the protagonist’s decision(s)?
iv. What are some details related to the literary piece’s setting, tone, and dialogue that can help you reveal the story to the readers?
v. What is the climax of the story?
vi. Will readers find any morals from the story?
vii. How will the story end?
Pay attention to character development
To create realistic, multifaceted characters, it is important to understand and describe characters. To help you develop your characters, consider examining one or more of the following details:
● Name
● Age
● Appearance
● Family and relationships
● Ethnicity
● Drinking habits
● Likes and dislikes
● Strengths and faults
● Illnesses
● Hobbies
● Pets
● Phobias
● Religion
● Job
● Residence
● Sleep patterns
● Nervous gestures
● Secrets
● Memories
● Temperament

Including such details can make it easier to define your characters. They can help you mold your characters, build storylines, and create dialogue. You might want to consider

● Appearance: Create a visual understanding for your readers so that they can vividly imagine what the characters look like.
● Action: Instead of simply listing adjectives to define characters, describe the characters’ actions to tell your readers what the characters do and what they’re like.
● Speech: Don’t kill the story’s momentum by explaining the plot in great detail. Instead, try to reveal the plot through your characters and their dialogue.
● Thought: Show your readers how your characters think. Show them the characters’ hopes, fears, and memories.
Create a great plot
A story plot tells us what happens in the story. Writers establish situations, identify the story’s turning points, and determine the fate of each character.
Plots are the sequence of events arranged by the writer that reveal the story’s emotional, thematic, and dramatic significance. To create a great plot, it is important to understand the following elements of the story:
● Hook: The stirring or gripping problem or event that catches readers’ attention.
● Conflict: A clash between characters and their internal selves, or between different characters, or even between characters and external forces.
● Exposition: The backstory or background information about the characters and how this background information relates to the rest of the story.
● Complication: A problem or set of challenges that the characters face that make it difficult to accomplish their goals.
● Transition: Dialogue, symbols, or images that link one part of the story to another.
● Flashback: Something that occurs in the past, before the current events of the story.
● Climax: The peak of the story.
● Denouement: The story’s falling action or the release of the action that occurs after the climax.
● Resolution: The solution of the external or internal conflict.

Writing can be challenging if you don’t know the techniques. It can be a form of art or art therapy if you come to master it. Techniques and tips can help you build the literary skill you need. Practicing them can give you the experience to produce creative, well-crafted work.

Did you miss my post on how to Format a Novel?
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My weekly BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! October: George Scott, November: Ella Quinn, December: Lauren Willig, January: Madeline Hunter, February: Mike Lupica
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How To Format Your (Self-published) Stage Play

TS. Now that the traditional publishers have turned you down, file away that rejection letter, soothe your fragile writer’s ego with a hot cup of tea, some chocolate, or whatever and self-publish your play.

It’s important to know that the correct way to format a stage play for submitting (to a publisher, agent or theatre) is very similar to the format used when publishing it. Below is a sample of the correct formatting.

List of Characters: I noticed that in the Dramatists Play Service scripts, they do not list the ages of the characters. I know from experience that a director wants to have this information immediately when choosing a play. What if they don’t have an eighty-year old, male who can act? Make-up can only go so far! Ethnicity is rarely listed but there are exceptions. But, generally, no. What if the director has a different vision for casting?

Sample:

CAST OF CHARACTERS (Place on the 3rd or 4th page after title, playwright’s name, Copyright notices.etc.)

CAST OF CHARACTERS (centered.)

Emma ~~ A young earthling girl
Stare ~~ A rhetorical owl
Donald ~~ A young fairie
Cheets ~~ a rambunctious elf
Patsy ~~ A large banana spider
Agnes & Annie ~~ the sister Aardvarks
Thomas ~~ the sea-faring sea turtle
Bertie ~~ the resident reading teacher

SETTING

The Fabled Forest

TIME

Present day.

Format Sample:

(From my published children’s play, “Emma and the Aardvarks”© ) The formatting of the Dramatist Play Service (publishers) do use parentheses when formatting the blocking. It is jumbled into dialogue even though it does not pertain to that particular character’s ‘action’. I find this very distracting but I am certain it has to do with production costs and keeping the page count down. Blocking direction is indented, italicized and in parentheses. Line spacing is 1.15 instead of single-spaced. Character’s names are all in CAPS, centered, and not italicized. Before dialogue, Characters’ names are all in CAPS with a period. Blocking is indented x 2. Scene breaks should be on the next (right) page. There are no extra line-spaces between blocking and dialogue except if there is a ‘beat’ when the same character pauses. Be certain to leave plenty of white space for the actors/director’s written notes. I prefer the format used by (my publisher) Samuel French, Inc. which you see below:

ACT II (centered & underlined.)

Scene 2

At Rise: A clearing in the fabled forest.

(EMMA and MRS. MOSEYALONG are sitting together on the grass. The PUPPIES are rolling around, play fighting, in the grass as puppies do. CHEETS is trying to get into the play. AGNES and ANNIE sit across from THEM reading THEIR book on Australia.)

MRS. MOSEYALONG

Let me assure you, Emma, we hunt and eat impala, Thomson’s gazelle and common wildebeest. Also, smaller animals such as dik-dik and warthogs.

CHEETS
(Stopping HIS play with the PUPS.)

That’s a funny word. Dik-dik. (Demanding.) Cheets wants to know what it means.

EMMA

Manners, Cheets. Perhaps you could ask Mrs. Moseyalong about dik-diks.

CHEETS

Cheets wants to know about dik-diks.

STARE

Who?

(EMMA sighs.)

MRS. MOSEYALONG

It’s all right, Emma. Sometimes my pups can be very rude. (To Cheets.) Dik-diks are a small antelope. We don’t hunt Aardvarks. We find their meat far too fatty.

AGNES
(Over-hearing.)

I beg your pardon. We are not fatty. Really! Annie, did you hear what that dog said about us?

ANNIE

Oh, I don’t think she meant⸺

MRS. MOSEYALONG
(Speaking simultaneously.)

I didn’t mean⸺

AGNES

Really! The nerve of some dogs.

MRS. MOSEYALONG
(Turning back to Emma and Cheets.)

Dik-dik live in the bushland of Africa. Sadly, they are being driven to extinction in some parts of our homeland. We try to eat other things.

PATSY
(Knitting her web furiously.)

Iii–Eee! Los pequeños, los cachorros! Mrs! Your children are destroying my web. Mira! See what they have done.

(Slowly rising, SHE crosses to where HER pups are bumping into the lower strands of Patsy’s web. SHE growls once deep in HER throat.)

MRS. MOSEYALONG

Grrrrrr⸺

(The PUPS instantly stop THEIR play and run to THEIR mother’s side, whining and kissing HER face.)

MRS. MOSEYALONG

I apologize, Miss Patsy. My pups are careless but mean no harm.

PATSY

Dios mío, qué molestia! My beautiful web. Now I will have to repair. Go away! I am very⸺how you say⸺ocupada.

(MRS. MOSEYALONG leads HER litter to the other side of the glen, where EMMA is sitting. ROGER, JAX and SERENGETI pile into EMMA’s lap and EMMA falls back in the grass, laughing. FERGUS and DONALD enter.)

MRS. MOSEYALONG

Good morning, Sir Fergus, Mr. Donald. (Turning to her pups.) Quiet down, children.

(The PUPPIES, stop their wrestling atop EMMA and sit at attention watching the adults. EMMA sits up.)

EMMA

Good morning. Sir Fergus, did you rest well?
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Do you need help Formatting a Novel?

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To correctly format your stage play for submitting to publishers, agents, directors click here.

Look Inside a script: Click Here
How To Format a Screenplay
Journals by Trisha Sugarek
Want to see some original plays? Click here.
47 Short Plays to choose from. Click here.
Fiction by Trisha Sugarek
Children’s Books by Sugarek
How to Create a Tantalizing Book Cover

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This exciting, instructional book is a collection of tips covering over twenty+ years of experience. Within its pages is a snapshot of the writer honing her craft over time.

Thirty-five writing tips that include:

That first, all important, sentence
How to develop rich characters
Writer’s Block
Procrastination
Writing process
Many more words of encouragement and tips, including quotes from successful writers such as yourself.

Takes the ‘scary’ out of writing!

Order here!

How To Write a Play Click Here
How To Format a Stage Play Click Here
How to Write a Ten Minute Play

How To Format a Screenplay
How to Format Your Novel
Want to try writing a ten minute play? Click here
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DON’T MISS MY BLOG with twice-weekly posts. Also featuring INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! with me once a month . We shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create!

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Motivational Moments…for Writers! #35

A good writer knows what repetitive words he or she uses unconsciously. A few years ago I published a novel. This week I had an opportunity to send it to a traditional publisher of some repute. I thought: ‘I want the manuscript to be as close to perfect as I can make it, so I’ll take another look at it’. Knowing my go-to words are ‘that’ and ‘just‘, the first thing I did was find out how many times I’d used the word ‘that’. 807!! With editing, I happily reduced that number to 197.

How does that happen?? Well, we all have idiosyncrasies with our language. Yes, I had an editor and she missed it too. Then I checked the other devil word, ‘just‘. 234 times when only 5-6 were used appropriately. Yikes!

Be self-aware as a writer. Know your strengths, yes, but also your weaknesses. Know your eccentricities with language.

“The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity.”~~ Walt Whitman

“Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality.
But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things.“~~ T. S. Eliot

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MY BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! Did you miss the past few months? December: British writer, J.G. Dow. January: Sue Grafton ~ In Memory

Check out more Motivational Moments…for Writers!

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Motivational Moments…for Writers! #42

There’s a reason I’ve chosen this image for each of my ‘Motivational….’. Read it! I have been there so many times. A sentence, a paragraph, even a chapter, that is perfect, that I can’t live without. But in truth, it doesn’t work as wonderful as it may be. It’s not germane to the story, IT HAS TO GO! So with time, this writer has grown to love the delete key.

It’s hard, I know, but ya gotta do it!

“Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can’t and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it.” ~~Robert Frost

“The reward of a thing well done, is to have done it.” ~~- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Genius is the talent for seeing things straight. It is seeing things in a straight line without any bend or break or aberration of sight, seeing them as they are, without any warping of vision. Flawless mental sight! That is genius.” ~~– Maude Adams
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MY BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! October: Alretha Thomas. November: Joe English. December: Jayne Ann Krentz (Amanda Quick) January: Molly Gloss and February: Patrick Canning.
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How To Format a Stage Play Script (for submitting)

Format is extremely important. If you submit your new play to anyone they will not read it if it is not in the proper format. There is software out there that offer auto-format but sadly I have not found one that demonstrates correct formatting. Notice the character names are in CAPS and centered. Setting, Rise and Dialogue are justified left. Single space between character’s name and first line of dialogue. Blocking (action) is indented and double-spaced from the line above. (The playwright gives the characters instructions on when and where to move. But, keep it short. Remember there will be a director who has their own ideas of where they want their actors to be.) If blocking is only one word, place next to character’s name in parentheses. A ‘beat’ is to enhance the pace of the speech and is in parentheses within the dialogue. Here is a formatting example:

ACT I
Scene 1

Setting: A loft studio in Greenwich Village. Late afternoon. There are many paintings but all of the same woman. Large, open windows overlook the street.

(MONTY is standing at his easel, painting. Voices are heard off stage. His clothing is paint smeared.)

VOICE (Off.)

Hey, beautiful! You’re home early.

(Brush in one hand, palette in the other, MONTY crosses up to the windows and peers into the street below.
The lilting laughter of a young woman is heard.)

SAMANTHA (Voice off. teasing.)

Hey, Mr. Murray. Your wife know you’re trying to pick up women in the street?

VOICE (off.)

No…and don’t you tell on me. My old woman would give me what for…bothering a young lady like you.

SAMANTHA (Voice off.)

Your secret is safe with me (beat.)…for a price.

VOICE (off.)

Oh yeah, what’s that?

SAMANTHA (Voice off.)

Some fresh bagels from your bakery.

VOICE (off.)

You got a deal. I’ll bring them home with me tomorrow.

SAMANTHA (Voice off.)

Thanks, Mr. Murray! I’ll look forward to it. Bye, now.

VOICE (off.)

Bye, beautiful. See you later.

(MONTY’s shoulders slump and he sighs as he watches Samantha disappear into a building.
HE crosses down to his easel.)

MONTY (muttering.)

Jeez…how can that old guy be so easy with her? (beat.) Monty, you’re pathetic. You can’t even say ‘hello’ to her in the street. What the hell’s the matter with you?

(end of sample)

Title Page of your script: Play title and Playwright’s name. Add contact info on this page if you are submitting to a publisher, agent or theatre.

Early in the script book, list the Cast of Characters. Sample:

Cast of Characters

MONTGOMERY ANDERSON: 29 years old, a reclusive artist.
SAMANTHA SPARKS: 24 years old, an aspiring actress.
DETECTIVE O’ROARKE: 38 years old, a hardened homicide detective.
(Note: Listing the ages of the characters is very important for casting.)

Place
Greenwich Village, New York City
Current
Summer

Leave lots of white space on the page. Actors/Directors will need wide margins in order to write notes and blocking when in production.
Read more about How To Write a Play

Author’s note: This formatting is approved by my publisher, Samuel French, Inc. This is what they expect to see when you submit.
Correct FORMAT if you are self-publishing. And, yes, it’s very different!
How to Format a Screenplay

Journals by Trisha Sugarek
Want to see some original plays? Click here.
47 Short Plays to choose from. Click here.
How To Format Your Novel
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This new, exciting, instructional book is a sharing of over twenty+ years of experience. This writer has honed
her craft of creative writing and ‘is still learning.’

Thirty-five writing tips that include:

That first, all important, sentence
How to develop rich characters
Writer’s Block
Procrastination
Writing process
What Not to Do (when receiving a critique)

….and many more words of encouragement and tips,
Including quotes from successful writers such as yourself. Takes the ‘scary’ out of writing!

Order here

Want to try writing a ten minute play? Click here
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To receive my posts sign up for my on the home page; enter your email address. I love comments too! Take the time to write one at the bottom of the post. Thanks!

To Purchase

Motivational Moments…for Writers! #34

The first thing that makes a buyer reach for your book is the COVER! Is it professional? Does it convey a visual story?
The second thing that keeps the book in their hand is the BACK COVER and what it says about your story!
The third thing that keeps them from putting it back on the rack (or swiping their tablet for more choices) is that all important, FIRST SENTENCE!

For example:

‘Swamp sludge dripped off the massive head while the cold, murderous, purple eye watched them.’

‘As I stepped into the street I didn’t notice the bus bearing down on me.’

‘I sat in the prison waiting room about to interview a convicted killer.’

‘Slow down, Al,” Vi screamed and laughed from the back seat of the car that was plummeting down the mountain side. “You’re gonna kill us.’

‘My first audition since I had arrived in Hollywood and what if I fail?’

‘The teacher grabbed my math work book and marched to the front of the room. He began to read my poetry aloud.’

‘As the saloon doors creaked back and forth, the trail weary cowboys backed away when they saw him saunter in.’

“Mother must be spinning in her grave. Not in her wildest dreams, or mine for that matter, would she imagine her daughter in a prison.” Kitty muttered, as her chauffeur drove up the long driveway to the main entrance of the State Prison.

Since the buyer hasn’t put your book down yet, you have to ‘hook’ them with your first sentence. Make them ask, ‘what happens next’?
*************

“No one is free, even the birds are chained to the sky.” ~~Bob Dylan

“I never could have done what I have done without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time.” ~~ Charles Dickens

“None but ourselves can free our minds.” ~~Bob Marley
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MY BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! Did you miss the past few months? September: Dylan Callens. October’s author was Donna Kauffman. In November we say hello to Rita Avaud a Najm. In December we will be saying hello to English mystery writer, J.G. Dow.

Check out more Motivational Moments…for Writers!

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New Look! New Tips! Creative Writing for Women Journal

‘From how ideas begin to how they are nurtured and written down, there to be refined until they see the light of day, this journal offers support, insight, and ideas for jump-starting the creative process.’ ~~Midwest Book Review

Journals/Handbooks for women with more instruction and quotes. For new and experienced writers alike, this Journal offers more instruction,tips and more hand-picked quotes by other authors, actors, playwrights, philosophers, and poets. Meant to inspire the creative mind. A handy size that will fit in a backpack or tote.

‘Sugarek gives you “permission” to scribble down ideas and not have to write the great American novel every time you put pen to paper. In the first couple of pages, she gets you going with examples and encouragement and she makes you realize that while writing is work, it’s not impossible work.’ D. Johnson

WHAT TO EXPECT:
How To Begin
How To Develop Exciting Characters
How To Tell A Story
How To Write a Stage Play
How To Write Poetry
How To Write Haiku Poetry

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