Things are gonna be changing around here…

Three blogs are too many blogs.  Plus there is the constant pressure of coming up with content for all three of them that is specific to the niche that I’ve established for each of them.  Grist for the Muse: Writing ideas and inspiration; The 15-Minute Writer – Finding time to write and time management techniques and tips for writers. And this blog: Flash Writing – Devoted to providing content that is for writing anything less than 1000 words long. These are all very narrow focuses, and I’m finding that I have a lot to say that exists in between these niches.

The best writing blogs give you a glimpse into the writer’s mind and life and lets you get to know him/her. The have good days and bad days. They have opinions. They rant. They rave. The express their doubts and fears, as well as their successes. But none of my blogs have that kind of energy right now.  At times I dread looking at them because I know they are defective and diseased, but yet feel I need to nurture them even though they are clearly rabid and need to be put down. So I’m putting them down.

Good writing blogs are about two things: The writing life and making money with it. So the new focus of Flash Writing moving forward: Write Fast. Make Money.  I’m not promising that I won’t change focus or change my mind on the other blogs.  I will keep them online for a while and redirect them here to this site, as well as take the best content on them and republish it here

Flash fiction is interesting to me, but I’m not sure that I can become a definitive destination site for writing all things that flash. There are other sites out there that do a much better job of this.  FlashFiction.Net for example does a great job providing resources, interviews, stories and other articles surrounding flash fiction… But as I’ve always said, the principles of Flash Writing can be used for any writing project, so I’m going to build upon this concept and focus on growing one site well instead of three sites poorly.

I have content that fits none of these niches that will be of interest to writers everywhere, so I want Flash Writing to be that destination from now on.  So go there for your Writing Topic Tuesdays and Provocative Phrase Fridays, Muse Reviews and all of the other content you've been seeing on Grist for the Muse over the past several years.

To head over to Flash Writing click HERE.

Gift Ideas for Writers: 10 Years of Writer's Digest on DVD

It's that time of year again.  Time to figure out what to get the writer in your life.  You can buy them high-quality pens, fancy journals in leather-bound covers, or an Amazon gift card.  But here is a deal that I stumbled across that I just had to share. 

On the Writer's Digest website, as part of a warehouse sale, they are offering 10 years worth of Writer's Digest magazine, 100 issues originally published between the years 2000 and 2009. For less than the cover price of a copy of Writer's Digest on the newsstand today: $3.99.  All of the files in a searchable and printable PDF format. 

I bought a copy for myself and downloaded several issues to read on my Kindle Fire, so this is a great gift for a writer in your life.  Buy it here while supplies still last: 10 Years of Writer's Digest: 2000-2010 .

You can thank me later.

What If - The Two Most Powerful Idea Generating Words for Fiction: Part 1

What if represents endless possibility. It represents all that will or can be. The first level of what if is to ask what if as it might apply to you, the writer.  These what ifs can be ordinary or fantastic. You know yourself and can create endless stories from pairing the words what if with an endless variety of interesting situations. 

Pick up any newspaper or magazine select a story and ask yourself what if you were entangled in that ordinary event or story?  How would you react? What would you do? How would it impact your life?

• What if you lost your job tomorrow?
• What if you were accused of murder?
• What if you found yourself as a victim of a kidnapping on a family vacation?
• What if there was a catastrophic earthquake in your town today?
• What if you suddenly lost your hearing?
• What if you witnessed a crime that required you to become part of Witness Protection?

You can also look at it as an imagination game, and ask yourself what if using fantastic ideas and events that don’t seem possible or believable.

Courtesy of Colin Kinner via Flickr

• What if I wake up tomorrow and the zombie apocalypse has begun?
• What if you discovered that you could use magic?
• What if you could go back in time and change one thing about your life?  What would it be?
• What if you suddenly got a huge promotion at work, but it has a catch?
• What if you won $200 million dollars in the lotto?
• What if you encountered Bigfoot during a walk in the woods at a state park?
• What if you had dreams that could predict the future at times?
• What if your intelligence doubled overnight?

These are just a few examples of what if questions.  Come up with a list of your own with you in the starring role.

Muse Review: Fiction Writer's Brainstormer by James V. Smith

Fiction Writer's Brainstormer by James V. Smith

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Fiction Writer’s Brainstormer by James D. Smith Jr. is an excellent book although somewhat misleadingly titled. It does indeed have some excellent brainstorming exercises, but it's great strength is in the many checklists that uses to help define and structure critical areas of fiction.

Chapter 16 entitled: Bonus! The Eighth Habit of Highly Effective Writers, has miscellaneous tips in it that make it worth the cover price of the book. I love how it uses miscellaneous techniques to help writers with description issues. It also shows several dialogue tricks which will help any writer improve his dialogue writing significantly.

The brainstorming portions of the book provide tools that any writer could use. One called the Bracketing Tool forces you to think of the many different solutions to specific problems and provides good examples of how they are used. It uses similar techniques for coming up with titles of stories or books, create specific images, and coming up with plot resolutions.

But probably the greatest strength of this book is the use of checklists throughout its. Instead of using brainstorming techniques it uses standard checklists to take a look at various story elements and helping make the book rates one example is that has a checklist for determining whether that you have a good story idea what should happen in the first hundred words, the first thousand words, 10,000 words and in the last 10,000 words. The specific checklists give you something to think about when looking at your story analytically. This book also uses a list of blank forms that you can photocopy out of the back to help you with writing tasks, scenes in your story, character information and even readability of your story. The book is broken down into many series of check boxes and bullet lists explaining what elements of fiction need to be in each area such as plot, seemed, character, conflict, and even good story ideas.

This book does an excellent job of hitting all the critical points of fiction. By providing some tips on how to improve without going overboard. Originally started reading this book to be a comparative title for the book I'm currently writing: Creative Thinking for Creative Writers, but found the book to include much more.

This book delivered much more than I expected, and definitely earned 4/5 stars and is well worth adding to your writing reference library.

Rating **** (Buy on Sale/Discounted)

About Ratings: ***** -- Well Worth it at Full Retail Price; **** — Buy on Sale/Discounted; *** — Buy Used; ** — Borrow It from the Library; * — Waste of a Good Tree

View all my reviews

Free Writing e-Books Recommended by Jane Friedman

I met Jane Friedman at the Columbus Writer's Conference several years ago. She was friendly and approachable, and took the time to review the manuscript for Flash Writing: How to Write, Revise and Publish Stories Less than 1000 Words Long.  Even though it wasn't a fit for Writer's Digest Books at the time, she let me know the specific reasons why (flash fiction was still too much of a niche market back in 2004, and the book was just too short).  She didn't have to take the time to do this, but she did and I am still grateful for it.

Her Twitter feed and blog is a must read for anyone in the "Word Business."  She is one of the most brilliant minds out there on all aspects of writing and publishing. She speaks at writers conferences all over the country and if you get the chance to see her speak, take it. You won't be disappointed.

Here is her link to the 5 Free e-Books that Every Writer Needs.  Check it out!

Taming the Dragon (NaturallySpeaking) that is...

I purchased Dragon NaturallySpeaking Speech Recognition Software because I was pleased with the performance of the free iPod Dragon Dictation app. So I am playing with it right now, trying to learn how the application works and if I can teach this thing to write faster than I can type. I definitely think this has a lot of potential and I like the opportunity to have another way to write. Even if it's just to get the raw ideas down on paper. 

I wonder how many people are out there who would choose to be writers but their keyboarding skills are not letting them pursue their dreams. 

Where did I hear about Dragon?  From a doctor who treated me for pneumonia in urgent care last December. When he found out I was a writer he asked me if I used it. That is what helped him get through all of the writing tasks he had to do in medical school. 

So I downloaded and started playing around with the Dragon Dictation app, and I was  impressed with its accuracy. The only drawback was that I could only use it when I was in a place with a strong wireless signal that my iPod Touch could pick up.  Which isn't convenient since that place happens to be either in my family room or dining room, which between dogs barking, SpongeBob blaring, kids arguing, the phone ringing... you get the picture.  I needed something a little more powerful.

It is hard getting used to using your voice to command your computer. This is something right out of Star Trek or as I remember it, the device Commander Adama (the Lorne Greene one, not the Edward James Olmos one) used in Battlestar Galactica.

First impressions - Pros: 

• A great way to capture ideas quickly and efficiently. 
• Probably good for writing junk documents such as lists, chat sessions and some e-mail
• The voice commands work well and it will be interesting to see how much you can do with them.

Cons: 

• Will definitely need to proofread carefully. During these early "training" days, the application misses some of the words and leaves out important little ones like articles and prepositions occasionally.
• Because I've done very little training with it., And it seems to miss a lot of the words that I'm trying to enter. 
• The voice commands work pretty well, but not all of the time.
• I think this tool might make my writing wordier, unfocused, and more unpolished when using it. 

So tune in the coming weeks to get the answers to these questions. Does the Dragon work well for him? Does Michael end up losing his voice trying to write?  Has he gone insane with frustration and irritation? Watch this blog for updates and a final verdict!

Guest on the Writing Show podcast!

I just finished an interview for the Writing Show about Flash Writing! So thrilled about being asked to be a guest on one of my favorite podcasts!  Let's see if audio editing can make me sound like I'm a coherent, focused guest speaker.  It was fun, but like a lot of my classes, a bit rambling and a bit repetitive, but (hopefully) informative and interesting.

I'll let everyone know when it is released! In the meantime, check out some of the other episodes at http://www.writingshow.com/index.htm

Harper's Index Now Online!

I do not read Harper's Magazine often, but when I do, I LOVE the Harper's Index, a luscious potpourri of statistical trivia goodness. What a great FREE resource of offbeat facts and stats.

Here is a small example of the bounty within:

6/07 Minimum number of different books sold in the U.S. last year, as tracked by Nielsen BookScan: 1,446,000

Nielsen BookScan (White Plains, N.Y.)

Number of these that sold fewer than 99 copies: 1,123,000

Nielsen BookScan (White Plains, N.Y.)

Number that sold more than 100,000: 483

9/07 Number of goats that Chattanooga, Tennessee, has rented to roam city land and clear kudzu: 12

City of Chattanooga Public Works Department

Number of llamas it has had to rent to guard the goats from neighborhood dogs: 2

City of Chattanooga Public Works Department

So if you are looking for an oddball statistic to use for a story-starter, or idea, the free Harper's Index is the place to go.