Comments on: Brainstorms and Tips

By: CreativeA

CreativeA — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 22:32:23 +0000

Great post! Very true, all of it.

“Shadowy conspirators push him into a meaningful choice — and there’s no going back.”

This part made me LOL so hard. I see stuff like that all the time, drives me crazy.

-Mandy

By: 100 Sentences « Like Fireflies in the Brain

100 Sentences « Like Fireflies in the Brain — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 19:13:43 +0000

[...] suggested to me. They are represented by Mary Kole of Andrea Brown, who wrote a blog post about brainstorm ideas. One of the ideas there is to write 100 declarative sentences about your MC. 100 Declarative [...]

By: I lied, as usual « Inarticulations

I lied, as usual « Inarticulations — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 14:01:06 +0000

[...] ooh and here’s the link: Brainstorms and Tips [...]

By: Adventures in Children's Publishing

Adventures in Children's Publishing — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 15:04:04 +0000

Love the idea of declarative brainstorming. I’m going to go put a link back to this article on our blog post right now. Thank you for sharing!

By: Alice

Alice — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:04:51 +0000

I’m new to this site but I’m finding it entertaining, helpful and comprehensive in info. The descriptive character exercise above is so simple, but I can see the value in pushing past the ‘usual’ stuff to what lies beyond…
Reading about the importance of details i.e. “That Bellmeadows, the town where Claire lives, has three car dealerships but no gas station.” makes me want to go and revise my work now!

By: Natalie Rompella

Natalie Rompella — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 02:15:41 +0000

Like one of the earlier comments, I use photos to help me. I had changed a boy character to a girl in my book and I just couldn’t figure out her character traits. After poking around on google, I found her! I was so helpful to give her a face.

Something else that helps me is http://www.cul.co.uk/creative/ranword.htm It’s called the random word technique. When you’re stuck on a plot issue, you write down that problem. The site gives you a key word (or pick out a random word from a dictionary). Write down anything you can think of related to that word. Then, work to tie your problem with your free associations. Sometimes it really gets me thinking outside the box and gets me going again.

By: Tabitha Rees

Tabitha Rees — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:01:11 +0000

Thanks for all the information here. As soon as I return home to my computer, I’ll be sure to interrogate my character like crazy. As for the word choice, I guess I can do my best to edit that.

By: Mary Danielson

Mary Danielson — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:36:12 +0000

Okay, I absolutely love the 100 Declarative Sentences tip - that is just the kind of thing that I know would jumpstart ideas, if I were stuck. And since I’m stuck right this moment, I may have to go try it out! I’m also another one who finds reading aloud very helpful when revising. There are always little words left out or awkward sounding sentences that I don’t notice with just a read-through.

Thanks for the tips!

By: Pamela Tuck

Pamela Tuck — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 20:32:01 +0000

I enjoyed this article…it gave me that extra “umph” I needed to flesh out my middle-grade novel. I appreciate the tips and how they all work together in the building of character development, creating the sensory details of the setting and also word economy. This article has given me a sense of direction and now I know what things to target in my novel. Thanks for sharing.

By: 100 Declarative Sentences « After the first draft

100 Declarative Sentences « After the first draft — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 16:00:23 +0000

[...] in Uncategorized. Leave a Comment Gotta give credit where credit is due: this idea came from Mary Kole over at the KidLit blog. I’m gonna do it for my new protag. Here [...]