Scribe’s Writing Desk

Three Easy Ways to Motivate Yourself to Write

by Will Kalif
Writing is a wonderful, yet sometimes, very hard thing to do. Often it is very easy to not “make the time” to write and nobody is going to motivate you. You have to motivate yourself. Here are three techniques that will get you writing.
Technique 1: Modify Your Internal Dialogue
The biggest reason why a […]

Posted by: Scribe on Wednesday, 17 Oct 2007

The Lure of a New Project

If you visit a lot of writers’ websites, you’ll soon find a large majority of them openly admit to starting more stories than they finish. There are several reasons for this, but I’m going to talk about only one of those reasons today - the lure of a new project.
Yesterday, after a strong fight […]

Posted by: Scribe on Wednesday, 10 Oct 2007

How to Murder Your Muse

A muse is similar to a witch’s familiar, which is usually associated with a black cat. The cat is a companion to the witch, but it doesn’t do the work of the old hag (although it can be a pair of extra eyes, which I suppose she could find helpful). A muse on […]

Posted by: Scribe on Friday, 24 Aug 2007

How to Get More Writing Done

This is another topic that is inspired by Chris Baty’s No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days.
Chris said that after the first year of NaNoWriMo he discovered an urge to seriously write the next best seller. He quickly arranged for three months off work so that […]

Posted by: Scribe on Tuesday, 21 Aug 2007

Enforcing a Deadline

On Friday night I actually started reading No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days.
Chris Baty, the author, is the founder of NaNoWriMo and starts off by telling us the history of the project. He wrote about the first year NaNo came into existence and how there […]

Posted by: Scribe on Monday, 20 Aug 2007

What I Learned

This month, because of Mini-NaNo, I learned something about myself as a writer.
I don’t like to write every day. And I don’t intend to write every day again (unless I do another Mini-NaNo, which is highly likely, but I doubt I’ll wait until next Novermber).
Every writer is different. Some like to […]

Posted by: Scribe on Tuesday, 28 Nov 2006

Recipe for Successful Writing

If nothing else, participating in this year’s NaNoWriMo (or a mini version of it) has taught me a valuable lesson. And I’m only on day 4!
As a reader, when I read, I need to be feed excitement on every page. I need a reason to want to turn the page and keep reading. […]

Posted by: Scribe on Saturday, 4 Nov 2006

Failure

There is no failure - except in no longer trying.
- Elbert Hubbard

I believe this is true. You haven’t failed until you stop trying. We all know that the publishing industry is hard to break into, yet some writers still think they will get published within a few months of finishing their manuscript. […]

Posted by: Scribe on Thursday, 27 Apr 2006

Love and Skill

When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece. ~John Ruskin
Love of the story and of the craft itself, together with the learned skill of writing can be a powerful commodity. One without the other can lead to poor results, which can then lead to misery, depression and, worse of all, hatred for […]

Posted by: Scribe on Thursday, 30 Mar 2006

Getting over the Hurdles

Are you stuck? Are you finding it difficult to put words to paper? Maybe it’s time to turn your focus to something else for a short time. Here are some exercises to help you start writing again. Don’t worry about quality, just focus on getting words on paper. Let your […]

Posted by: Scribe on Monday, 20 Feb 2006