Tara Maya's Tales

This tip is from 30 Day Novel .    Writer’s block is almost always a red flag warning you about some problem with the novel. (The only other cause for writer’s block is severe personal stress, which may be negative, like a divorce, or positive, like a move, but either way absorbs all your mental energy. However, that’s outside the scope of these Tips. If you are in such a situation, give yourself a break and take care of the issue first.) One of these red flags, and one that I’ve faced many times, is Ignorance. You sit down ready to write a scene…it’s right there in your outline… it should be no problem. You lift your fingers, like a piano prodigy, to wrest sweet story music from your keyboard, and… Nothing.  The scene is not working because there’s something that’s stumping you. For me, it’s often something like the place and time of the scene. Sometimes it’s a deeper problem though. Occasionally, it’s something god-awful like a Plot Abyss At The Heart of the Whole Da...

 With any luck, you know that wonderful pressure at the back of the head that comes when you are almost finished with a book and you HAVE TO FINISH IT NOW! I’ve experienced that. (So has my family, poor schmoes.) However, I’ve also had to reverse problem, rather more often. In fact, I’m having it right now. I’m almost done writing out my Tips, and because I’m ALMOST done, some whacked part of my mind feels as if I AM done. Imagine a marathon runner who comes within sight of the Finish Line and says, “Ok, I see the end. I’m done here.” And stops running before he crosses the line. That’s me. I see the end in sight and something deep inside says, “Right, then, let’s get on to the next project.” Then Something Shiny distracts me and I’m off. Forcing myself to finish those last three chapters, or that last 5,000 words or the final showdown between the white hat and black hat…. Holy Gamoly, Batman! We’re doomed! 7 Tricks to Beat Fear of Completion To en...

These are my personal tips for NaNoWriMo. You know the drill. Take only what works. One of the keys to writing fast is to be in the flow. Inspired by the muse. Possessed by the demon. Drunk (with inspiration). One of the hardest things to do is to make yourself write when you are not inspired. When I was in high school, nothing could stop me from writing. I wrote all the time, always in a fever of inspiration. It was joyous, it was brilliant, it was unquenchable. The worst torture in those days was that I never had as much time to write as I wanted. A weird thing happened once I became a full time writer. Even though I now had all the time to write that I wanted, I often sat for hours diddling at my computer, or worse yet, diddling for hours away from my computer, feeling uninspired and depressed and guilty about it. Ugh. What happened? I analyzed what had changed. One thing I realized was that when I was in high school, although it felt like not...