Category: Magical Words

Writing Exercise: Animals

Erin Penn

Photo by Dessy Dimcheva on Unsplash

Have you ever been held up driving because of an animal in the road? Sheep, goat., dog, cow, cat, rabbit, squirrel … just to name a few that have given me and my car pause over the years. It’s like there is a world of life out there unrelated but overlapping with humans.

Misty Masey brings up the topic of “Critters in Fantasy” (and other works) in the Magical Words post from September 11, 2012. For the purpose of this writing exercise, I’m focusing on the final question “Are there animals in your stories?”

The URL for the original article is: http://www.magicalwords.net/misty-massey/critters-in-fantasy/

WRITING EXERCISE: Look over your body of work. Have you ever written an animal WHICH IS NOT a pet or an animal that is normally a pet? Do you regularly have animals when describing outdoor scenes? Today either comment about a time you wrote about animals, or create a scene with an animal. It doesn’t have to be a major part of the scene, but it could be.

My attempt: Ok, wow. I don’t write much with animals and when I do, it is usually a dog (Following a Lead) or a cat (The secrets of cats). My characters don’t tend to have pets, since with my own allergies, I’ve never been able to have them. I do have frogs and crickets mentioned in Moon Reflections. I need to work on adding flora and fauna to my white boxes.

Magical Words: Blind Trust

Erin Penn

Photo by Gun Kimm on Unsplash

On a starship, an engineer reports over the comm to the bridge. “Captain, we have a problem.” “What is it, Tools?” “I can’t describe, come down here.”

Really, what the ever-loving frig? The captain is on the bridge, that is where she should be, the center of command, gathering information from all parts of the ship. So she should drop everything and head to a DANGEROUS area by herself to eyewitness something the EXPERT in the matter cannot deal with? Every.sci-fi-TV.show.e.v.e.r.

Fantasy. Romance. Every single genre has the “no time to explain, just follow me.” Like parents telling children, “don’t ask questions, just do what I tell you.”

Misty Massey wrote a full blog (with the related responses from experienced published authors) on the subject for Magical Words on 10/18/2011 called “Blind Trust.”

I’m totally with her on this on how LAZY and UNREAL the lack of explanations is.  – the URL http://www.magicalwords.net/misty-massey/blind-trust/

Writing Exercise: V is for Voice

Erin Penn 4 Comments

Photo by João Marinho on Unsplash

Find your voice. In writing, in singing, in the world. Candence, rhythm, volume, smoothness, word choices – these are your own and no one else’s. Claim them.

Your Voice might change between blog posts and novels, talking to adults in a professional environment and children on the playground, singing blues or rock. But still, at the core, it’s your Voice.

It takes time to find your Voice. Understanding. Writing a lot of words or singing a lot of different songs. My voice has children and playfulness, short phrases haphazardly put together, and then weird asides of scientific thought.

If when people say, “I heard you read when I read your novel.” your speaking and writing voice are the same and it’s coming through (yay!). But sometimes the speaking and writing voice are completely different. As is genre changing things up and your different characters might have different personal voices (wait, no MIGHT – they SHOULD have different voices).

Kalayna Price has a wonderful blog posting “On Voice and Timing” in Magical Words (10/1/2011). URL: http://www.magicalwords.net/kalayna-price/on-voice-and-timing/

WRITING EXERCISE: Think about your writing voice and write down what you know about it. Is it short and sweet or long and detailed? Political or fluffy or introspective or…? What writing strengths do you have – dialog, action, characters, etc.?

Now, write one paragraph with a voice aimed at Fantasy (your choice of Urban, High, Sword & Sorcery, etc.) and a second one for  “real life” type genres (Murder Mystery, Thriller, Horror Contemporary, Disaster, Romance Contemporary, etc.). Have the scenes in the paragraph be similar number of characters and situation. How did the Genre Voice change the paragraph … and what things remained the same between the two scenes that could be your underlying voice and how does that match up to your initial thoughts about your voice?

Magical Words: F is for Fast

Erin Penn

Photo by Jonathan Chng on Unsplash

Writing fast, especially to a deadline, is required to go “pro” (i.e., actually attempt to make a living through words). A to Z for April is just a taste of the day-in day-out delivery required to pay the mortgage and bills for the roof over the head and the food on the table.

In the December 6, 2011 Magical Words post “Abandoning Standards,” Diana Pharaoh Francis, discusses abandoning her normal methods to get the Zero Draft done so she can turn in her book on time … in January, just a month away. Her answer – concentrate on getting the action down on paper.

Or, if I was following this advice, get my dialog down. I don’t see action first, I hear people talking. Whatever you need to do to get words on screen so you can edit them.

Forget the deeper characterizations, themes, set design – all these can be added during the second pass to flesh things out. First pass, get the plot down through action or dialog or whatever gets you beginning to end the fastest. Live life in the fast (writing) lane.

Again the URL for the post is: – be sure to catch all the comments. Many of the responders are other pros making a living at writing, and the hints are wonderful.

Writing Exercise: Conflicting Wants

Erin Penn

Photo 16115879 © Olaf Speier | Dreamstime.com
Anyone still have their New Year resolution in place to lose weight, or has the joy of fat, sugar, and salt won the year, yet again? One of the basic conflicting wants – eat healthy & be healthy vs joy of eating and joy in life.
Your characters have these conflicts too. Two mutually exclusive, yet base level things. Defining these wants can really help bring a character to life.
Edmund Schubert made an amazing Magical Word post on May 28, 2011, “What Else Does Your Character Want?”
We are going to do his challenge as a writing exercise, so be sure to read the whole thing. Don’t look at the comments yet, but after the exercise, go over them to help you think about this. Again, the URL is:
WRITING EXERCISE: Take a major character from one of your present WIP (work-in-progress) and define two conflicting “wants” the character has, and tell us in the comments below how those wants impact your story.
My Attempt: I’m presently working on expanding the Quest for True Love. The unnamed main character loves gaming and wants to win the game, especially having defined the goal “To find my true love.” BUT they also want to escape the game and get back to the real world.