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If reading is like eating words…
If reading is like eating words and digesting ideas, writing must be like cooking. If you think that way, your piece of writing will turn into food you could make in a million different possible ways. Food for thought or food for the mere delight of savoring words.
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SMART Goals and SWOT analysis for writers
To avoid that or to cope with the overdose of business self-help literature I’ve consumed, I repurposed or reimagined a lot of ideas I’ve read in those books. And today I wanna do the same about SMART goals and SWOT analysis… for writing.
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how to organize your writing life today
How do you organize your writing life? I'm gonna talk about the things that work for me, which means you don't have to follow everything like a rule or something, but I’m sure I’m gonna help you with this post.
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july is here
— July is here, the kids have winter break at school, I’m working from home, so we may spend some time in the country for a few days. And it’s inevitable, my brain starts thinking of lists for everything. So, let me share that with you. ▶︎ READING This month, for #BeardyReads, we decided to read REBECCA by Daphne Du Maurier. But first, we chose a genre for our month: classic thriller. And those in the group who already read REBECCA chose to read the other runner-ups: THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY, by Patricia Highsmith, and WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE, by Shirley Jackson. I’m reading all three. But…
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when you don’t have ideas to write
You wake up one day with an urge to write something. A story. “A book”? And then you sit in front of the blinking cursor or a piece of paper and nothing comes out.
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writing tools
Hey, the sun is back. It has nothing to do with today’s topic but I just wanted to say that first. I’m happy. It’s been a gray week, and it’s good to finally see the sun doing its thing outside my window. Alright, back to the Beard… remember that reel I made about writing tools? I’m convinced that the tools we use have a direct impact on our writing flow and creativity. I know it affects me, at least. Like the trigger effect or the environment we discussed on that post about writing at coffee shops, you know? I know I need three things to work: vibe, focus, and a…
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gimme six hours or seven years
Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the ax.
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how to write a novel like an architect
This will help you get out of whatever you’re calling a writer’s block. You know what an architect does, they design buildings and some have an interior designer role too. Imagine you’re an architect like that and your next book is a construction project. Now, think of a story as a floor plan first. We’re gonna draw it together here. Can you hear the scratches of the pencil on the paper? Listen to it. And keep that sound in your head. Here’s gonna be the beginning room, then you enter this door to find the middle room. It’s a large hall with many doors. We draw a big hall here…
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what are the rules for focused success in a distracted world?
Do you follow any productivity strategy? For work, study, writing? If you do, tell me about it. How does it work?
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your characters’ speech makes them real
In the previous post, I talked about a book that explores language as a way to influence and exert power over people. And that only happens because the language used for that purpose is somehow familiar to the ears of the influenced ones or it resonates to them in a way they believe in what’s told to them. The way a character talks, their lingo, their idiolect, their accent, it all makes them real to the reader for the same reason. When writers write dialogues and even narratives with “an accent” or when they use jargon in the speech of their characters, we believe them more. I love that as…
