Welcome to the page that houses the 2019
#GBWRITESWITHOTHERS
guest blogging initiative! Established in April 2019, it was created to help boost writers at all levels in their careers through pure community effort.
Views and topics are those of their authors.
Putting Fiction into Context: An Archaeological Approach to Worldbuilding by Terence MacManus (@tcmacmanus)
During my first job interview as a graduate archaeologist, I was presented with an assortment of broken rocks and asked how I would separate the natural stones from the knapped cultural artefacts. Eager to impress my prospective employers I dove into the bag, examining each object carefully and placing them in either pile, describing to the interviewer which clues I found to discern their natures.
‘That’s all correct,’ the interviewer said afterwards, sweeping the rocks she’d taken from the car park into the bin. ‘Though it would probably have been easier if you’d just asked me the context they were found in.’
Conventional Wisdom by John C. Bruening (@jcbruening)
The phrase “stranger in a strange land” is something I thought about a lot this past February.
The phrase actually goes back about three-thousand years. I’m not kidding. It’s from a short passage in the Book of Exodus. It’s a reference to a son born to Moses and his wife (they named the baby Gershom, which means “stranger”). A few millennia later, science fiction writer Robert Heinlein borrowed the phrase for the title of his 1961 novel about a human who comes to earth after spending the first 25 years of his life on Mars. Stranger in a Strange Land was the first science fiction novel to make The New York Times best seller list for fiction, and it’s probably Heinlein’s best known book.
The “Rules” of Writing by Lenee H. (@leneeh4)
Developing your own style of writing, your narrative voice, is personal and important. It’s individual to each writer. Long before I ever came in contact with the online community of writers and authors, I had been writing on my own. I instinctively knew basic grammar and English rules from school, but beyond that I wrote however felt right to me. I told stories and created a narration exactly how I wanted and how best fit the character. My mind wasn’t filled with tips and rules invented by other writers who believed their way was the only way.
In Support of All Families by Ashley Jones (@AshleyA_Jones)
As a dance teacher, I have seen children come through my classes with all kinds of families. Just last year, I had one student in particular whose dad brought her to class every single week. Despite not knowing anything about tutus or ballet shoes, he helped foster a love of dance in his daughter by bringing her to class week after week.
Being a Novelist by Sheila M Johnson (@authorSMJohnson)
So, you want to become a successful author. Great! Well, where do you start? You might think that you need a two- or four-year degree in English Literature or even a degree in Creative Writing, but you’d be wrong.
What I Learned by Age...by Morgan Summer (@MorganSummer15)
5 - It is not a good idea to give the cat a bath, even if they are dirty. Cats don’t like baths.
The Catharsis of Writing by Tim Hendrickson (@TRHendrickson)
Stay with me while I string this together.
The most prominent memory I have of tapping into emotion with the intent of using it for my own purposes occurred in college. I had always played sports, and still remain as active and competitive as a husband and father of two allows me to be. Back when I was pursuing my degree, I played for the school’s rugby team. Teams loved to schedule matches against us because one, we weren’t very good and two, we threw the sickest parties afterwards.
The Unmistakable Aroma of Old Books by Zoe Tasia @ZoeTasia
Creative Burnout or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love to Knit by Frank L Tybush V (@FLTV_Writes)
Years ago, I saw a video of Damian Kulash from the band, OK Go, talking about why he makes ceramics as a hobby (I don’t know where the video is now, I would share it if I did). In the video, he said that the constant pressure to make the next record, or the next big video, caused him to feel burnout. He turned to a hobby that he never planned on selling to relieve his stress.
I could relate, even if it took me time to take this advice to heart.
Anxiety and Depression Are NOT Signs of Weakness by Elira Barnes (@authorelirab)
At the time of writing this, I am 22 years old, and I live with anxiety and depression.
My Hulkness Has No Gender: The Rage-Induced Case for Cancelling Charles Dickens by Jamie Thomas (@thatjamiethomas)
I never questioned the literature I read in my high school English classes. I respected it, I appreciated it (so much as a teenage girl can appreciate stories written by dead white men with primarily male characters at their center), but I never questioned it. There was, I assumed, a reason those particular pieces had been chosen; that the knowledge I would obtain from the study of them would provide the greatest benefit to my education both as a reader and writer and as a member of society. This is, after all, why we read novels.
I wondered, of course, at the shocking lack of female authors in the curriculum when there were plenty in the classical literary canon, but I never questioned the wisdom of my teachers for excluding them. I was a very different person then. Needless to say, I pissed off far fewer people than I do today and I’m not sure that’s a good thing.
Writing Under The Depression Umbrella by Erin Robinson (@flossybunny)
Here's a statistic for you: by the time you finish reading this, at least two people in the world will have lost their lives to suicide. According to the World Health Organization 800,000 people die every year. One every 40 seconds. Here's another statistic: in the USA alone, 64% of people who attempt suicide will have seen their Doctor in the last month of their life and 38% will have seen them on the same week as their attempt. Tentative scrambles for help will have occurred and for many, that help won't come. Too little, too late.
Literature and Digital Age: Flipping the Coin by Damilola Oladimeji (@DamiOladimeji)
Sighs...this follows every thought about world's reading culture as it plunges. Sometimes one does not even know what to tag as a cause to such setback. While we can consider money as a problem, distraction from the 'spoilers' that technology churns out to society is complicit. People spend a lot of time surfing the internet just for the fun of it and time is not much of a faithful friend. It leaves if you can't keep pace.
The Dreaded Writer's Block by Robin Woods and Julie Brookshier (@gracewillows201)
The dreaded writers block!
One of the hardest things a writer has to do is to fill a blank page. To start a story and make it so believable that the reader feels they become a part of the novel, is a writer’s greatest challenge. There are so many websites out there with good advice on how to defeat writer’s block, but Robin and I wanted to share our technique for successfully getting our creative ideas on paper.
What’s in a Name? Character Naming by Cynthia Vespia (@OriginalCynergy)
The time has come to unveil why the lead character of my new novel Karma is named Silke Butters.
Five Reasons Why Writing Fanfiction is a Waste of Time by Sylvie Soul (@sylvsoulwriter)
From 1998 – 2018 I wrote Hey Arnold! fanfiction.
Yes, that’s 20 years of stories about a kid with a football-shaped head.
Do I regret it? Not at all– in fact, I attribute my years of writing about the 90s nicktoon to be a stepping stone into my writing habits and style today.
How to Keep a Writer’s Journal by Alyse Bailey (@abaileywrites)
The biggest problem I deal with in my writing is disorganization.
Whether it’s disorganization of my thoughts, disorganization of my notes, or just a general disorganization of my life, I struggle with maintaining order.
This is why, of my entire arsenal of writing tools and resources, there is nothing I value more than my writer’s journal. I could manage without my laptop, my phone, even my books! But my writer’s journal? That is my one true essential.
Wolves and Dungeons and Dragons, Oh My! by Sean Donovan (@seanovan13)
Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) is a game on a sharp incline upward in terms of general popularity, thanks to shows like Critical Role and Stranger Things. But it's still rather niche, and still rather difficult to get into. It's a game of imagination, but still one with many books based solely on the rules and guidelines. Yet at its core, Dungeons and Dragons is quite simply a game that takes a problem and turns it into a story. It's a scenario facilitator.
Let's Talk About Villains by Rebecca F. Kenney (@RebeccaFKenney1)
The antagonist for your story can be almost anything—a person, a force of nature, an animal or a creature (as in Jaws), an idea, or the main character's inner self. It's anything that stands in opposition to your main character and blocks the way to the goal he or she is trying to achieve.
But today I'm going to talk about actual villains, personified.
You Have No Time to Waste by Esther Curtis, MSM-HCA (@ejhcurtis)
Are you waiting for your life to begin?
If so, today is your lucky day. I’m going to provide you with a blessing:
A smack in the back of the head.