Looking for that unique, thoughtful gift for your valentine?
Has your loved one always wanted to write but didn’t know how to begin? Does he/she write in a journal? Write poetry? Write short stories? These journals include ‘how to’ sections, inspiring quotes from other writers and lots of blank pages for your own creative writing.
This ‘Creative Writer’s Journal is the perfect gift.
Reviews are in for my series of Journals/Handbooks for men, women, and students who WRITE!
‘I just got my copy and my first thought (after I need to start using this) is; What a great gift this would make for anyone who is a writer or who shows an inclination in that direction.
Trisha 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 w
ith examples and encouragement and she makes you realize that while writing is work, it’s not impossible work…in fact, it can even be fun work.
With tips for lots of different writing types and encouragement from writers across time and genres nestled in the margins, this journal encourages you to get those words down on paper.
Sure, you’ll use a computer for the final heads down working sessions to get a finished work done, but for day-to-day fun “I can do this” writing, this journal and handbook is a great motivator.’ ~~D. Johnson
and this from Midwest Book Review!
Creative Writer’s Journal and Handbook begins where so many writer’s guides should: with the basics of how to pursue a dream job as a writer. The problem with most writers’ guides is that they assume some prior degree of excellence or experience; but this handbook poses something different: the opportunity to begin with no prior skill level or experience. All that’s needed is the desire and passion to be a writer, and everything flows from there.
So if you ‘scribble’, if you like words, if your stories ‘find’ you, and if you aspire to be something more (say, a published blogger); then here’s the next step in the process. From how ideas begin to how they are nurtured and written down, there to be refined until they see the light of day (i.e. other readers), this journal offers support, insight, and ideas for jump-starting the creative process and linking it to action.
White, lined journal pages offer a workbook approach that augments white space with inspirational quotes on the process from other, successful writers. So while you’re staring at the usual journal blank pages, inspiration can spark from others’ experiences and insights.
This isn’t just about prose, either: Sugarek includes sections on different formats, from Haiku Poetry to writing a stage play.
Each section 
offers inspirational insights into format, structure, and writing challenges – then uses the journal/quote format to encourage readers to put something down on paper. So if it’s nuggets of information spiced with the encouragement of fresh lined, white space that is needed, Creative Writer’s Journal and Handbook offers a success formula beginners can easily absorb, all packaged in a survey that assumes no prior familiarity with writing. ~~D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer for Midwest Book Review
and…….
‘….Before meeting and working with you, I had a very skewed view of what being a writer was. I thought you had to be independently wealthy, or somehow hypnotize the publishers into giving you a huge advance, or be a teenager still living at home, or do it on the “5pm to midnight shift” (meaning you get home from work and have no personal life).
But seeing your work, and seeing how you adapted to the web format and allowed that to become part your professional presence was a revelation. It allowed me to imagine a way where my writing would not just be for fun or some cool party trick that set me apart from the usual anti-social geeks at work, but the core of what I had to offer.
And if not for YOU, that wouldn’t have happened…’~~Leon Adato
‘This is a beautiful and sturdy book with some of the best quotes out there to motivate you to dream bigger and write better. It would make a great gift for your female friends and family. ‘ C.Strain
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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS!
In addition to my twice weekly blog I also feature an interview with another author once a month. So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create!
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There’s a BLOG out there that is dedicated to the art of writing and honing your craft. Yep! I’m talking about mine and this is a shameless promo. You won’t be disappointed.
For three years now I have published my posts twice a week and it’s always something about being a better writer. Once a month I interview best selling authors such as Dean Koontz, Sue Grafton, Jeffery Deaver, Sherryl Woods, Anne Gracie, 
Raymond Benson, Lee Goldberg, Charles Bukowski and dozens more. My goal is to inspire other writers to write more, tell their stories, try writing a play, or maybe some poetry.
Sign up on my home page and receive an email with each day’s post. Delete it if it doesn’t interest you. It’s that simple. Recently I have developed a series of ‘creative writing’ journals with ‘How To’ tips and famous quotes to inspire my fellow writers. https://www.writeratplay.com/category/a-writers-take/ Continue reading “Attention! All Writers Out There!”
Actor, director, playwright, author, Trisha Sugarek has created 305 pages of ‘How To’, Tips, Quotes, and 275 blank, lined pages for your writing. ‘I have created this journal for writers of all genres. Taken from my personal experience in the writing process, I hope it kick starts new writers to begin and more experience writers to continue.’
~~This spirited journal is designed to help writers open their hearts and minds. Much more than a journal for your creative writing, this handbook provides the writer with the ‘how to’s’ of writing. Tips, instructions and prompts to help you to hone your writing skill. Each blank, lined page has writing tips and quotes from other famous authors.~~
Available at www.amazon.com
A writer is only a writer when he or she is writing. Thinking isn’t writing, research isn’t writing, doing anything other than writing isn’t writing. 
NOW ON SALE!!! This new, innovative Journal and Handbook.
This spirited journal is designed to help writers open their hearts and minds to their own creative possibilities, while honing their craft. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced writer, you will find this journal will quickly become your constant companion.
Much more than a journal for your creative writing, this handbook provides the writer with the ‘how to’s’ of writing. Over 275 of blank, lined pages for your creative writing that includes more tips and insightful quotes from famous authors.
What’s Inside:
“How Do I Begin?”
“How to Develop Exciting Characters”
“How to Write Fiction”
“How to Write a Stage Play”
“How to Write Poetry”
“How to Write Haiku Poetry”
You can order this Journal here in my book store or go to Amazon.com
Teachers and Students: Go to Facebook and ‘Like’ this page if you think this is something you would like to own. Future special offers to educators and students.
Yes, the snobs of the literary world might have scoffed at her pink signature Chanel suits, her poofy hats, her Pekinese dogs, and her silly romantic stories. But, they can’t quite get around her fifty plus years of writing, resulting in over 1,000 million books sold, or the fact that she spent her life making the world a better place.
Her name was Barbara Cartland. I know I must have started buying her books somewhere around 1972 because one of her letters to me was dated 1975. So I have been reading her historic, romantic fiction up until about ten years ago. Collecting hard covers when I could find them! I would send them to her and she would autograph them and always, always send a nice note and a little gift back to me. Most treasured gift was a gold-gilded oak leaf from an oak tree on Barbara’s property. The “Deer Oak”, which is said to have been planted by Queen Elizabeth the First in 1550, at the spot where she killed her first deer, is on the estate.
Continue reading “The Grande Dame of Historic Fiction was so much More!”
More from Charles Bukowski……..His insight is pure truth but who among us would think in quite this way? Never a glass far from his hand, never a woman far from his arm, never a stubby pencil far from his fingers…the genius wrote and wrote and then wrote some more… and very little of it was false.
it’s strange ©
it’s strange when famous people die
whether they have fought the good fight or
the bad one.
it’s strange when famous people die
whether we like them or not
they are like old buildings old streets Continue reading “He Always Makes Me Smile…and Think!”
Ideas have come to me in the visiting area of a state prison, a haunted lighthouse, my days in Hollywood, or listening to stories of my mother, growing up with 13 siblings ….. the ideas come to me in a little kernel of truth and I am inspired to write.
I am frequently asked ‘how can you be so prolific?’, and ‘how do you write so many plays?’ ‘where do you get your ideas?’
So I thought what a perfect time to give my readers nine tips about writing their first stage play. After all, 45 play scripts ago and seventeen years earlier I began writing my first play script. And that led me to create the Creative Writers’ Journals and Handbooks which include ‘how to write a play’ and ‘how to create exciting characters.’ I went on to create a book of writing tips.
NINE TIPS TO GET YOU STARTED … and more
1. Format is very 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 offers auto-format but I found them lacking. The character’s name is centered. Blocking (action) is indented and placed in parentheses. Setting (indent once), Rise
(indent once) the Dialogue is far left. Double space between the character’s name and the first line of dialogue. Blocking (action): is placed below the character’s name in parentheses. (indent x 3). A ‘beat’ is a dramatic pause to enhance the pace of the speech and is placed in the dialogue where you wish the actor to pause for a beat or two. Or you might want to buy a play script from a publisher. Concord Theatricals used to be Samuel French and is still the best. It seems little has changed except the name.
2. Each page represents approximately one minute of time on stage. So if you have a play that is 200 pages long, that won’t work. Audiences aren’t going to sit for more than one and a half hours unless you are providing a circus, a fire drill, sex, and an earthquake. Audiences are even reluctant to sit through “The Iceman for Cometh” a classic by Eugene O’Neill. full-length to 3 hours. You should keep your full-length script to about 100 pages which equals 1.6 hours of stage time. For a one-act divide that by 2. For a ten minute play your script should be from 10-15 pages. These times and figures are debated by others but this has been my experience as an actor/director/writer.
3. Leave lots of white space on the page. One day when your play is being produced, actors will need a place to make notes in the script during rehearsal. This is a sample of an actor’s (mine) working script. The 
actor usually ‘highlights’ their lines and writes the director’s blocking in the margins. (in pencil, as blocking frequently changes)
4. The blocking is indented, in parentheses, and directly below the character’s name. This is where the playwright gives the characters instructions on when and where to move. But, keep it short and sweet. Remember there will be a director who has their ideas of where he/she wants the actors to be. Be aware of costume changes in your writing. An actor can’t exit stage left and enter stage right, seconds later, if you haven’t written in the time it will take for them to accomplish a costume change.
5. Your script has to work on a stage. If your story takes place in more than one locale, you have to be aware of the logistics of set changes. So keep it simple to start. If you are ambitious in your setting buy a book on set design to research if your set is feasible. Some wonderful ‘envelope’ set designs unfold when you need to change the scene. But you have to consider the budget; would a theatre have the money to build it? Always a worry.
6. Dialogue: Now here’s the sometimes hard part: everything you want the audience to know about the story and the characters, is
conveyed in the dialogue. Unlike a short story or a novel, where you can write as much description as you’d like, a play script has none of that. No description. Here is a Sample.Dialogue.Sugarek of dialogue demonstrating how to move the story forward.
7. The ‘Arc’ of your story: The Oxford English Dictionary defines a story arc as ‘(in a novel, play, or movie) the development or resolution of the narrative or principal theme’. Story arcs are the overall shape of rising and falling tension or emotion in a story. This rise and fall are created via plot and character development.
Simpler Examples: In Parkland Requiem the ‘arc’ of my story is when the teacher leaves the safety of his classroom to reconnoiter the position of the shooter.
In My Planet, Your Planet, Our Planet the ‘arc’ is when the activist students march in a worldwide March defying all the rules of the school.
8. How To Know When to Change Scenes. When there is a date/time or character/scene change is a good guide. But be careful, if the time/day changes and there is a costume change needed, always remember the audience isn’t a patient creature and they will not sit and wait for very long. A director can and will set up an area backstage for those quick changes and often the costume mistress will be there to help with shoes, zippers, etc. To save time, you should write the actor entering from the same side as they exited (when possible) to save the time it would take for them to hurry to the other side of the stage.
9. Your play should have a conflict. Your main character should have a conflict that he or she must solve quickly. No conflict = no play. Say you want to write your first play about you and your siblings growing up. That’s easy; have them argue about something. Be certain there is a resolution before your play ends. Imagine you want to write a love story between two people. There must be a conflict somewhere in the love story.
Did you miss my post about Publishers?
How to Format your novel
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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
Want to try writing a ten-minute play? Click here
How to Create Tantalizing Book Covers
Do you need help Formatting a Novel?
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Instruction on:
How To Begin
How to Write a Play
Formatting your Play on the Page
How to write Dialogue
How to Create Rich, Exciting Characters
Stage Terminology
Purchase NOW. Click here
‘How To’ Journals and Handbooks for all of your Creative Writing, including how to write a stage Play!
275 blank, lined pages for your writing. Tips and famous quotes from authors, playwrights, directors, actors, writers, and poets to help inspire you. Look Inside
WANT TO LEARN MORE?? … These new Journals/Handbooks offer a total of 14 points of ‘how to’.
Available on Amazon.com B&N, and all fine book stores.
If you’d like to try writing a ten-minute play? Click here
How To Format a Screenplay
How to Format Your Novel
How to Format a Stage Play
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)
Takes the ‘scary’ out of writing!
(MORE)
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DON’T MISS my with 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! 
