Writing Tips

Is Your Writing Project Stalled?
First Draft Rehab
a.k.a
when a promising early draft hits the skids
Blog Post by Annette Yourk, Sept 5, 2016

Your manuscript is tucked into its box. There’s more work ahead, but you’re feeling good. You’ve gone the extra mile; tidied some sloppy sections, tinkered with spelling, and punctuation. You’ve built this story with knowledge, the raw material of memory, and your own imagination and unique view of the world. You know your material by heart. The hard work is behind you now and you can see the summit; where the perfect convergence of idea, motivation, complication and conflict […]

Identify Your Audience as a First Step in Your Writing Project
It Determines Content, Voice, Tone and Language
Writing is a complex form of communication. You’re speaking to people who must decipher your ideas through the filter of their own perspective, experiences, culture and education level. But, unlike a conversation, if your book or blog post doesn’t deliver they can walk away.

So who is your audience? Answering this question should be one of your first considerations. Start with a generalized statement about a broad spectrum of readers—and then get specific. Make notes, because writing causes us to think in more depth.
Make Notes […]

A New Draw for a Free Manuscript Review has been Launched!
Jane Wilson’s plans for retirement from a high stress social services job included writing. It’s in her blood. Her older sister Jocelyn Reekie has several books in print and Jane’s an avid reader. But two years passed by without any headway. (Sound familiar?) There’s her acreage in Saskatchewan’s Qu’Appelle Valley, quilting, the odd round of golf, her grandchildren and her critters to fill Jane’s time. Meanwhile, her ideas for a historical fiction piece kept brewing. She had a complex tale in mind, with intriguing characters to match. The problem […]

Nonfiction Writing is Enhanced by Memorable Characters…but Details about People from the Past Can be Hard to Find
1. Create a timeline of the important events of your main characters’ lives, with all the known details: race, nationality, marital status, education, religion, profession.

2.If there are photographs, document how she looked.

3. What are your assumptions and feelings about this person? (Try the exercise described with the  photograph below. For some historical figures a picture or two and some superficial details is all there is to work with–forcing you to speculate.)

4. Write short (2-5 pages), no frills, biographical sketches of each of the characters.
Revisit Research Materials in […]

Where to Start with Writing Memoir or Family History
You’ve got a story that snaps with vigor in your imagination—but you can’t seem to get started writing. Sound familiar? This is the issue—above all others—that stymies students in Annette’s and I’s writing classes. We explored some of the usual causes for ‘writers’ block’ (and solutions) in a post: http://thescribes.ca/1271-2/. The most common gremlin among these is being stumped by where the narrative should begin. Consider this:

There’s a lot riding on the first few sentences–and, indeed, on the first chapter–which exerts pressure. We must captivate readers right from the start, but the perfect sentence(s) and story flow can […]