Monthly Archives: April 2015

Tap, tap. – Is this thing on?

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Tap, tap.

                                    Is this thing on?

By Adam Huddleston

I’d like to express a warm hello to everyone out there in the blogosphere. It is an honor to be invited to join the fine authors who make up this group. After my offer to be a part of Wordsmith 6, it was conveyed to me that I would be contributing to the weekly blog. I’m pretty new to blogging but here it goes.

As a new writer, the things I desire most are those little nuggets of wisdom concerning my craft. Any bit of advice is welcomed with an open and eager mind. Of all of the tidbits I’ve received, the two that stand out the most are these:

Nugget #1: Writers write.

Though this may sound a bit trite, it doesn’t make it any less true. Every great novel, essay, memoir, or article began with an empty page. It was the hard work and determination of the author that filled that page. And here is a truth: the more you write, the better your writing will be.

Nugget #2: Writers read.

If you want to know what sells in the specific genre you are writing, you have to read it. It’s as simple as that. The more you delve into that type of writing, the more you’ll learn. You’ll get a feel for the flows and patterns that make up a published work. And, when someone asks you why you’re reading all of the time, you can simply respond: “Research”.

Hopefully these little factoids will help you in your pursuit of literary excellence! Happy writing!

You can kill the mic now.

Silly Strings

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Outtakes 191

 

Silly Strings

by Cait Collins

 

A couple of days ago, I made my annual trek to the dollar store to stock up on cans of silly string. It has become a tradition for both kids and adults to engage in a canned-string fight after our family Easter egg hunt. I enjoy the event. We can go through a hundred cans of string in a matter of minutes, and when all the cans are empty, we leave behind a lawn bathed in all the colors of the rainbow.

Using colors in our writing helps to create the setting. And with so many hues, why do we seem to get stuck with blue, red, green, and yellow. Why not experiment with different shades of basic colors? Visualize the hues listed below and if you choose, add others to the list.

Blues: pacific, cornflower, sky, indigo, midnight, outer space, cadet, periwinkle, robin’s egg, aquamarine, cobalt

Greens: inchworm, sea, pine, jungle, granny smith apple, olive, forest, spring, asparagus, emerald

Pinks: carnation, salmon, blush

Oranges: apricot, macaroni and cheese, peach, melon, burnt

Purples: violet, mauve, orchid, lavender, wisteria, magenta, plum, amethyst

Grays: timber wolf, thundercloud, smoke

Browns: sepia, tan, beige, tumbleweed, burnt sienna, mahogany, bittersweet, chestnut, beaver

Yellows: goldenrod, dandelion, almond, citrine

Reds: scarlet, brick, wild strawberry, beet, ruby

Blacks: ebony, onyx, shadow

Whites: sea salt, marshmallow, snow, ivory, antique

With these colors in mind, describe an English garden, a field of wild flowers, a thunder storm; a mountain top view, a sunset, an ocean view at sunrise, the woods in autumn, a romantic get-away, or a murder .scene. Be specific in your descriptions. Let your color choices set the mood. Let the scenes “bake” for a while before reading them. And when you do read your descriptions, can you see them?

Happy coloring.