Tara Maya's Tales

--> FINDING THE BEST WORD FOR THE JOB by Rayne Hall Specific words make a story vivid because they paint a clear picture for the reader. “ A woman with a dog” creates only a vague picture. By replacing “woman” and “dog” with specific   words you can bring your story alive:   “ A lady with a poodle” “ A tart with a mongrel” “ A gothgirl with a puppy” “ A redhead with a Rottweiler”   “ The man looked like a sports champion” is bland.   Show us what kind of man and what kind of sports, and the sentence becomes interesting: “ The gentleman looked like a fencing champion.” “ The thug looked like a boxing champion.” “ The salesman looked like a sumo champion.” Instead of the dull description with generic words “This garden is full of flowers of all kinds”   show the kind of flowers to paint a picture: “ This garden is full of roses, honeysuckles, and hollyhocks” - The reader sees a cottage garden. “ This garden is full...

Dr. Who by Mark Satchwill The Art of Dragon Con : "It's the last official weekend of summer. Its also the weekend that Atlanta hosts the largest Sci-Fi and Fantasy convention in the world. It's an annual event that draws thousands of people from all over the world. At Dragon-Con you will find everything science fiction and fantasy in gaming, art, film, music, comics and literature. This week's Art of the Day pays tribute to Dragon-Con, the people who participate in and attend the convention and the creativity that inspires and drives it."

A great post by John Barnes on why he hates snark. Snark, as he means it, is not all sarcasm or wittiness...so not this:  ...rather, what he objects to is a certain kind of "knowingness," like teenage dismissiveness in people who no longer have the excuse of teenagerhood: "Knowingness, of course, is not knowledge—indeed, is the rebuttal of knowledge. Knowledge was what squares had, or thought they had, and they thought that it was the secret of life. Knowingness is a celebration of the conceit that what the squares knew, or thought they knew, was worthless." Knowingness at twenty-five... is habitual laziness; it's the guy who thinks he's a polymath because he has two dismissive sentences about every subject. It's the woman who couldn't follow the story of the movie, so she nods and says, "Great cinematography." It's people called upon to be brave, compassionate, or kind who aren't, and afterward explain that they could ...

--> KEEP THE BEST FOR LAST: BACKLOADING TECHNIQUE by Rayne Hall Angrypotato's Centaur Girl by Etoli Here is a nifty technique to give your writing style more impact: Structure your sentences so the most powerful word comes at the end. The last word touches the reader's psyche more than any other, so make it count. Short, evocative nouns, adjectives and verbs are best. Here's a list for your inspiration: death, dead, kiss, lust, treachery, blood, fear, die, kill, deep, cold, heat, dark, boil, pull, grave, grip, grasp, hope, sear, scream, thrill, scar, bone, flesh, skull, wound, pray, pain, soul, child, flee, trap, teeth, curse, escape, safe, love. These words, on the other hand, have no particular effect: it, then, them, across, through, there, somehow, around,   under, of, off, for, that, be, others, his, her. Often, restructuring the sentence is all it takes, or perhaps adding, deleting or replacing one word. Before She knew...

Trying to Find The Right Words by Lardacil When you hear that some writers can hit 10,000 words a day, not just once or twice, but regularly, there are two responses you could have. 1. Hate them. Throwing a pity party for yourself that you just weren't born with as much talent, luck, time or black magic as they were also goes here. Excuses, envy, disbelief. None of these responses will help you. What response will help you? 2. Learn from them. So I've gathered the best How To Write 10,000 words a day here to read and study and emulate. Top billing goes to Rachel Aaron. This woman is my hero. ( Her novels are great too .) If you haven't read her blog post How To Write 10,000 Words , you should. Here's the heart: Side 1: Knowledge, or Know What You're Writing Before You Write It ... If you want to write faster, the first step is to know what you're writing before you write it. I'm not even talking about macro plot stuff, I mean workin...

If it really existed, writer's block would be the inability to write. If we look at this idea for a moment, we begin to notice that it doesn't make much sense. Is a person with writer's block physically unable to put words on a page? If that’s really the case, it's not called "writer's block," but rather "paralysis" or "death" or "extreme drunkenness." Luc Reid's free book The Writing Engine is a great way to rev up stalled motivation to write. It's well, researched, it's short and easy to read, it's helpful and it's hilarious. The rest of his blog is choc full of useful advice too.

I've been eagerly waiting for Amazon India, and it's finally available ! Yay! Now my friends in India can buy kindles and (most important of all) my books.   :D What does this mean for indie writers? Well, first off, it's terrific news for indie writers in India, since they can now access the US market directly. It's obviously also great news for US writers, who can access the ebook market in India. This is great news, but there are still some flags. I wouldn't call them red flags. Orange flags maybe. Not dealbreakers, but points to keep in mind. It's often bandied about that India has a billion consumers, but this isn't quite true. India has an exploding middle class. (If any of you were among those whining about US jobs going to India, spank yourselves now. It's thanks to India opening itself up to international companies which has driven millions out of the Third World and into the First.) But not all of India is there yet. The market will ...