Muse Guide: TN1

Penumbra open for story submission

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Musa Publishing is seeking submissions for a future issue of Penumbra magazine, a speculative fiction ezine. The theme for the December 2014 issue is“Arthurian Legend”–stories of magic mythology and mystery based on the fantastical folklore of Arthurian literature and influenced by legendary characters like King Arthur, Lancelot, Merlin the Wizard, and Queen Guinevere. Writers are invited to submit original, unpublished stories up to 3500 words. New writers are encouraged to submit. Payment: 5 cents per word. Penumbra magazine publishes a new digital issue monthly, developed around a specific theme. <a href="http://writingcareer.com/post/96257670271/penumbra-magazine-needs-speculative-fiction" target="_blank">Click here</a> for more details and submission requirement. 
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Penumbra open for story submission

Musa Publishing is seeking submissions for a future issue of Penumbra magazine, a speculative fiction ezine. The theme for the December 201...

Your story's ideal hero

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When you write your wonderful stories, more often than not we see the advent of an hero who eventually saves the day. So who is your ideal hero, a no nonsense miscreant that was just lucky to have a roughly good heart but would notwithstanding have to break the law to save the day: Or a law abiding citizen whose heroics is less of his vicious acts and antics but more of his smart moves and wise maneuve 
? More often than not our judgement of the ideals of our stories' heroes depend on some factors and these include the following. 
The setting of the story:- Sometimes the background of our story would affect the ideals of its hero. Take for example a story that was staged at the historic reign of the roman empire. If an hero should rise in such story, your fans will not expect a saint, neither a miscreant, your hero should be a blood thirsty warlord or a god-blessed super human or some invincible demigod. However if the story was staged at the British empire era as seen in the king Authur era, a miscreant would have been our ideal hero or an overzealous knight. However how ridiculous would a wizard-of-an-hero have been in such setting? Obviously it would seem very ridiculous. 
The plot:- Let your hero represent your plot, don't be the person whose hero in a magical world would be a religious extremist, in as much as your hero's ride to glory would have been justified by his God's aid; you would however have earned a long list of disappointed and bored readers. Let the struggle between your hero and villain be in line. If your ideal hero is always a stainless, smooth riding, always having his way hero? You are so not doing a good job with your hero. What bore readers most is when your hero is so stereotyped that his every conquest is business as usual. 
Your characterization:- Sometimes the attributes you give your would be hero would have a constraint on his heroics. If you have a kid hero for instance, he is expected to be imperfect and quite amateurish, his heroics would be driven around luck and deep struggle. He should rarely have a smooth ride to conquer. Give him complex attributes but ensure those attributes are less conflicting. The commonest of such attributes are often emotional dispositions like (love, anger, hatred) and the rest physical/mental challenges like (sickness, trauma, I'll luck poverty and others). The two fields of attributes above would give your hero the ideals of a true hero your fans will love. 
After tactically analyzing the above points, you should know what your ideal hero should be for your story. You might have opinions contrary to mine, may be their is this other formula working for you? Please comment with your ideas. 
Abd-afeez Abd-hamid 
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Your story's ideal hero

When you write your wonderful stories, more often than not we see the advent of an hero who eventually saves the day. So who is your ideal ...

Are you suddenly out of steam? Read this!

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Many a time we would find ourselves in a situation where by
we couldn’t find the solution to our creativity cravings. A writer would be
seen by his writing desk with his pen and paper, or his computer system; if he
happens to be a digital freak like me. How about a painter, he would stay for
hours at his work station brush in hand with a blank drawing fabric in front of
him. How about a digital designer, staring at his blank computer screen with is
CorelDraw awaiting response from him? The truth is, he who claims to have never
found himself in such circumstances lies. So as a creative individual, how do
you get around such frustrating phase in one’s prolific life of creativity? I
will be putting you through some simple steps that mostly work.</div>
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1)     
Don’t be
held hostage by deadlines:- Deadlines are like wicked commanders, they make
you push yourselves to complete missions. However they would shy away from
responsibility when you run out of gas. Take the most out of deadline by making
sure you stick to a healthy schedule. Don’t ever over work it, nor should you under
work it. When you stick to a healthy schedule, you won’t fall victim to a
knocking deadline because falling far behind schedule means deadline knocks far
ahead of anticipation, the only means to catch up would be to over work
yourself. That would only exhaust your gas.</div>
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2     
Please,
take a break:- Don’t be the workaholic that bore himself with below par
pieces because of stress. Creativity is never forced, the more your heart and
mind is into it, the more beautiful its handwork. When you discover that you
are suddenly out of gas. That should be the right time to take a break. What
should you do when you take such break? When you take such break, the sole
purpose of the action is to clear your head and relief stress. Definitely, fun,
recreation and relaxation should top your list of priorities. If you are a
proactive individual like me, you would bend such break towards fun activities
that could nudge your muse into a state of motivation or confidence. Take for
example, if am stuck on a story and decided to relax by reading an amazing
novel. Do you know you could be gifted a grand spark of motivation as such. Let
your muse dictate how you would spend your break, in as much as you would want
a drift away from the cognitively exhaustive work station, you shouldn’t wander
too far in other not be at such stance where you totally lose sight of your
impeding or half done master pieces.</div>
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3      Brainstorm yourself after the break:- Now
is the time to now brainstorm yourself so that you maximize the usage of your
newly found energy. By taking that break and relaxing amply, your muse would
have earned its lost energy. In other to maximize the usage of such energy, all
you have to do is equip your muse with nasty weapons so they would turn to
needed gangsters for that deadline.  The
weapon in question would be the new ideas from your brief brain storming
session.</div>
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4      Get back to your work station and use that
tank full of gas:- Now is the time to test how abundantly you are refuelled
for that work of muse waiting patiently in your workstation.</div>
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Good luck to you as you get to
test out my outlined solution to that moment of block. Remember the muse in you
is greater a fire than an ocean of water can quench. Keep doing the creative
stuffs you are good at and remember that MuseGuide will always be here for you
to see you through your adventure as a musing individual.  Have a blessed week.</div>
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Abd-afeez Abd-hamid for Museguide</div>
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Are you suddenly out of steam? Read this!

Many a time we would find ourselves in a situation where by we couldn’t find the solution to our creativity cravings. A writer ...

Is your comfort zone ever safe?

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I know it’s very convenient to stay in your comfort zone, to
do the ordinary and exploit the normal; to stay off the risk laden path to
extra ordinary. As safe as your comfort zone might be have you ever wondered if
it would keep you going forward or getting you stuck. As someone with an active
muse, it is expected of you to bring to life, mind-blowing masterpieces.
However these masterpieces just don’t come alive without a foundation made of
shrewd ideas. The truth is shrewd ideas comes from exhaustive brainstorming
which is often not a product of your comfort zone thinking. That is merely as
regard your sourcing for creative ideas. How about the eventuality of
transforming such ideas into the finished masterpieces your fan craves. Most
time that is even the hardest part. Severally we would have found ourselves
being able to generate one or two amazing ideas and content for our
breathtaking master pieces. However in executing these ideas, we realise; a
leap away from our comfort zone. We would realise a new approach might be
needed, or even new equipments and special skills, the sort of which we might
realise we are quite unfamiliar with.</div>
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Example can be seen with a Nigerian writer wanting to go a
bit sci-fi. Imagine how uncomfortable such premise might seem. Sci-fi to a
Nigerian writer is obviously out of our comfort zone. Definitely such writer
would find it difficult to execute his sci-fi idea. Other examples can be seen
with painters wanting to execute some 3D designs, imagine a 3D street art work.
Such ideas would be tough to execute as the issue of in experience and the fear
of its acceptance by people would be of utmost importance.</div>
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The purpose of this article is not to push you into
executing extremely out of your comfort zone ideas. Or crazy ideas like some people
will call it. However the sole purpose of this write up is to allow you to
consider trying something a bit different once in a while because the after
math of that difference no matter how minute it is might be an incredible acceptance
the like of which astound minds. 
Abd-afeez for the museguide team </div>
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Is your comfort zone ever safe?

I know it’s very convenient to stay in your comfort zone, to do the ordinary and exploit the normal; to stay off the risk laden path t...

Writer's tutorial entry; Do You Make These Three BigMistakes With Dialogue?

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Real-life conversation? It’s no excuse for 
confusing, irritating, distracting or boring our reader! In this guest post, ace copy editor Jodie Renner gives us three great tips for writing realistic dialogue that works - and keeps our reader happily 
in our story. First off, you don’t want to frustrate or annoy us by trying to reproduce regional dialects exactly as they sound. Also, I’d be cautious about using the very latest slang expressions. They could end up dating your story within a year or two. That would not be groovy! (Pun intended.) 
In-your-face profanities can lose you readers. And finally, please, leave out all the boring yadda- yadda blah-blah filler stuff! Don’t mangle characters’ speech So you’ve done your research? You know precisely how a character – regional, foreign or from an historical period -should sound? Don’t make the mistake of trying to reproduce those speech patterns phonetically. As Jack Bickham says, “There was a time, not so long ago, when fiction writers strove for authenticity in some of their stories by attempting to imitate regional and ethnic dialects and pronunciations by purposely misspelling words in their dialogue. Today such practices have fallen into disfavor.”</div>
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Why? Because it’s distracting and irritating. Not only that, it runs the risk of obscuring your intended meaning. It will throw your reader out of your story – the exact opposite of what you’re going for. Also, you could easily end up offending people from that region if you depict their everyday speech as a laughable sub-language. 
Here’s an example, from an older story about slaves and the Civil War. The passage was narrated by a slave:</div>
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“So dey jump on dey horses and gallop ‘way. An’we ain’t see’d dem since. Dey friends say dey be kilt in one o’ de firs’ battles o’ de war. Dat be good lesson fo’ we, shure ‘nuf! Black folk ain’t gonna go off ta fight in a war. Life be tuff enuf here wid’ Massa an’ his whip, widout uder buckra be shootin’ at de menfolk an’ killin’ ‘em dead.” 
And it went on like that for pages! Ouch! 
So these days, editors, agents - and discerning readers – frown on phonetic spelling, misspellings or the overuse of apostrophes to indicate missing letters, or any other deviations from standard English speech. They may get your story, otherwise compelling, rejected. How do you get your regional flavor across to your readers? Use an occasional elision (a dropped sound, indicated by an apostrophe) and plenty of regular contractions, with the odd regional word or expression thrown in. And that’s it. Don’t try to keep up with the latest slang expressions Many new authors try to appeal to their audience by using the latest slang expressions, especially in YA fiction. This is usually a mistake.</div>
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The language is changing so fast especially fad expressions, that what’s trendy or “in” today may be already dated by the time your short story or novel comes out. The moral? Be careful with using cutting-edge street talk or just-coined slang expressions. Stick to slang expressions that have been around for at least a few years. Don’t overdo the profanities Another mistake made by newbie writers is to replicate every F-word. It leaves readers wincing. Profanities and obscenities can often slide by in real life, depending on the situation, but they jump out at us on the printed page. So use them judiciously, to convey the general flavor. Don’t put them in every line. Save the worst of them for those story situations where a strong curse word is really needed to convey the emotion.</div>
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Also, consider your genre. Readers of cozy mysteries, for example, are mostly women aged 60 and up, so best to use less graphic language in those stories. The odd “Damn!” or “Crap!” or "friggin/frickin'" will usually suffice. 
Don’t reproduce actual conversations verbatim ‘Actual conversations’? I mean all the uhs and ums and ers and you knows and How are you? I’m fine, and you? In this basket I’ll put chitchat about the weather and other empty social niceties that lead up to (or follow) the real meat of the conversation. It puts your readers to sleep. And they won’t pick up your book again when they wake up. Writing gurus tell us, “Dialogue is war!” You need tension on every page. So if your dialogue doesn’t drive the story forward, add conflict or tension, or contribute to character development, take it out . In summary: oddball spelling, attempts at reproducing regional dialects phonetically, and heavy use of profanities all risk offending  omeone, whether it’s a member of a minority or just someone who doesn’t like swearing. The latest slang expressions may soon appear outdated and ridiculous. And empty blah blah is so boring, isn’t it? So be wary of reproducing characters’ dialogue exactly as it sounds in real life—it could backfire on you! 
What do you think? As a reader, how do you feel about the attempted reproduction of regional dialects in fiction - or about stories peppered with obscenities? As a writer, how do you make your characters sound ‘authentic’ without courting offence? Please leave a comment and share your views!</div>
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Jodie Renner is a renown freelance editor and this article is courtesy of her.</div>
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Writer's tutorial entry; Do You Make These Three BigMistakes With Dialogue?

Real-life conversation? It’s no excuse for confusing, irritating, distracting or boring our reader! In this guest post, ace copy editor J...

Writers tutorial entry; 5 things to stop doing (if you really want to finish your novel)

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Your novel isn’t going to write itself (I mean, if 
it were, it probably would have finished itself a 
long time ago!). Here are the five things you 
need to stop doing immediately if you want 
turn yourself into someone who stops asking 
questions about how to write a manuscript 
and starts bragging to friends about how you 
completed your manuscript. 
1. Nix the excuses. 
We get it, life is busy and writing is hard work 
sometimes. Still, excuses never changed 
anything, never inspired anybody, and never 
made any dreams a reality. Goals like writing a 
novel don’t die on their own. We suffocate them 
with our excuses. 
2. Stop trying . 
Your novel needs less “trying” and more 
“doing” from you. Like Yoda said, Do or do not. 
There is no try. 
3. Stop the Inner Critic’s crazy rants. 
Shut it down. Duct tape its mouth. Stand on its 
neck. Whatever you do, don’t let the Inner Critic 
make you doubt yourself. There’s no reason to. 
This is open range and there are no rules, no 
right and wrong. You can do Whatever. You. 
Want. 
4. Don’t overdose on caffeine. 
Seriously. I’m sorry, but it has to be said. Call it 
tough love if you want, but more writers go 
stark raving mad in espresso-fueled rages than 
any other artists (with the exception of polka 
musicians, for obvious reasons). 
Trust me on this. You don’t want your 
neighbors finding you crawling through their pet 
door at 3am in search of more coffee because 
you ran out at your house two hours earlier. 
Not that that’s happened to me. I’ve just heard 
stories. 
5. Stop thinking it should be easier. 
That’s like hoping gravity will get less gravity … 
er … ish. Less gravity like. OK, poor choice of 
words. You know what I mean. Bottom line: 
writing is what it is. Sometimes it’s easier than 
at other times. Expect it to be work and you’ll 
be thrilled when it doesn’t feel that way. 
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Writers tutorial entry; 5 things to stop doing (if you really want to finish your novel)

Your novel isn’t going to write itself (I mean, if it were, it probably would have finished itself a long time ago!). Here are the five t...

Writers tutorial entry; how to write a simple haiku 2

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HAIKU AND HOW WE WRITE IT. (PART TWO) 
Compiled By: Moses S. Olarotimi 
Help us promote #creativity by liking our page 
USE SENSORY LANGUAGE 
(6)Describe the details. Haiku are comprised of details observed by the five senses. The poet witnesses an event and uses words to compress that experience so others may understand it in some way. Once you have chosen a subject for your haiku, 
(7)think about what details you want to describe. Call the subject to mind and explore these questions 
•What did you notice about the subject? What colors, textures, and contrasts did you observe? 
•How did the subject sound? What was the tenor and volume of the event that took place? 
•Did it have a smell, or a taste? How can you accurately describe the way it felt? 
(8)Show, don't tell. Haiku are about moments of objective experience, not subjective interpretation or analysis of those events. It's important to show the reader something true about the moment's existence, rather than telling the reader what emotions it conjured in you.[5] Let the reader feel his or her own emotions in reaction to the image. 
oUse understated subtle imagery. For instance, instead of saying it's summer, focus on the slant of the sun or the heavy air. 
oDon't use cliches. Lines that readers recognize, such as "dark, stormy night," tend to lose their power over time. Think through the image you want to describe and use inventive, original language to convey meaning. This doesn't mean you should use a thesaurus to find words that aren't commonly used; rather, simply write about what you saw and want to express in the truest language you know. 
ABOVE ALL 
Be inspired 
Practice a lot 
Communicate with other poets. 
ADDITIONAL TIPS: 
•Haiku has been called "unfinished" poetry because each one requires the reader to finish it in his or her heart. 
•Contemporary haiku poets may write poems that are just a short fragment with three or fewer words. 
•A Haiku doesn't always need to rhyme. 
•Haiku originated from haikai no renga, a collaborative group poem that is usually one hundred verses in length. The hokku, or starting verse, of renga collaborations indicated the season and also contained a cutting word. The haiku as its own form of poetry continues in this tradition. 
Sample Love Haiku 
•Refreshing and cool, 
love is a sweet summer rain 
that washes the world. 
•Love is like winter 
Warm breaths thaw cold hearts until 
one day the spring comes 
•A bird flies sweetly 
on paper wings. Telling all 
of my love for you. 
•Every day I will 
love you more than you could know. 
We are here as one. 
•The softest whisper 
beckons me closer to you. 
I love you, dearest. 
•Vast as a mountain, 
my love for you shines through for 
all the world to see. 
Sample Funny Haiku 
•One shark said to the 
other when eating a clown 
fish: this tastes funny. 
•The bartender said 
to the neutron, “For you, sir, 
there will be no charge.” 
•A question for you: 
Where does Washington keep his 
armies? His sleevies. 
•An octopus went 
off to war. It’s a good thing 
that he was well-armed. 
•A wise man once asked, 
“Why, pray tell, is the sand wet?” 
Because the sea weed. 
•The best way to carve 
wood is extremely slowly, 
whittle by whittle. 
Compiled By: Moses S. Olarotimi 
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Writers tutorial entry; how to write a simple haiku 2

HAIKU AND HOW WE WRITE IT. (PART TWO) Compiled By: Moses S. Olarotimi Help us promote #creativity by liking our page USE SENSORY LANGUAG...

Writers tutorial entry; Limerick and how we write it

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LIMERICK AND HOW WE WRITE IT. 
COMPILED BY: MOSES S. OLAROTIMI 
A limerick is a poetic form that can be particularly fun to read and to write. Limericks are often humorous, mean-spirited, or pornographic. I'll explain the form, and you can d...ecide how down and dirty you want to get. 
Limericks consist of five lines. The rhyme scheme is AABBA. In other words, Lines One, Two, and Five all rhyme with each other, and Lines Three and Four rhyme with each other (in some limericks, Lines One and Five end with the same word and rhyme with Line Two). 
The limerick is a very structured 5 line poem. Originally, according to Wikipedia, limericks were a bit obscene, but that has changed with the times. The first, second and fifth lines, the longer lines, rhyme. The third and fourth shorter lines rhyme. (A-A-B-B-A) 
Creating a limerick is not that hard. The first line usually introduces a person from a place, the third and forth lines have the comic twist and the last line a conclusion. An easy way to start is to make a list of words that rhyme after you set up the first line. 
Here's an example of a classic limerick by Edward Lear, where the first and last lines rhyme: 
There was a Young Lady whose eyes, 
Were unique as to colour and size; 
When she opened them wide, 
People all turned aside, 
And started away in surprise. 
Here's another example by Lear, where the first and last lines end with the same word: 
There was an Old Person of Dover, 
Who rushed through a field of blue Clover; 
But some very large bees, 
Stung his nose and his knees, 
So he very soon went back to Dover. 
The typical rhythm of a limerick is like this: 
bah-BAH bah-bah-BAH bah-bah-BAH 
bah-BAH bah-bah-BAH bah-bah-BAH 
bah-BAH bah-bah-BAH 
bah-BAH bah-bah-BAH 
bah-BAH bah-bah-BAH bah-bah-BAH 
Let’s see a poem that help explain this better: 
There was an old man from Peru, (A) 
da DUM da da DUM da da DUM 
who dreamed he was eating his shoe. (A) 
da DUM da da DUM da da DUM 
He awoke in the night (B) 
da DUM da da DUM 
with a terrible fright, (B) 
da da DUM da da DUM 
and found out that it was quite true. (A) 
da DUM da da DUM da da DUM 
Here is a simpler way to go about writing a Limerick 
For example, I had wanted to make a poem for my brother, Ted. I made a list of words rhyming with Ted: 
Bed Instead 
Bread Led 
Red Fled 
Read Lead 
Fed Ned 
Dread Wed 
And so on….I put down the first line: 
There was a sweet guy named Ted… (after that it practically wrote itself.) 
Who would rather lead than be led 
Along came Patty 
Ted got a bit batty 
And now he follows instead. 
This is a poem and limericks especially lend themselves to poetic license. 
One of the best poets to use this device was Dr. Seuss. In “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”, he talks about how the Grinch was in Cindy Lou Who’s house and he was taking her things. 
“And the Grinch very nimbly 
Stuffed all the presents one by one 
Up the chim-bly” 
Of course the word is chimney. Many times I have my 2nd graders correct me…I simply tell them chimney doesn’t rhyme with nimbly! 
Words-places especially-can be made up to rhyme, as with this limerick (author unknown): 
There once was a girl from Devrizes 
Whose breasts were of 2 different sizes. 
One was small 
And of no use at all 
The other was quite large and won prizes. 
Is Devrizes a place? Who knows but the syllable count and rhyme work! 
The bottom line is - limericks are fun and easy to write. Try it and see! 
COMPILED BY: MOSES S. OLAROTIMI 
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Writers tutorial entry; Limerick and how we write it

LIMERICK AND HOW WE WRITE IT. COMPILED BY: MOSES S. OLAROTIMI A limerick is a poetic form that can be particularly fun to read and to wri...

Writer's tutorial entry; make your story plausible and your character real

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If you want your character to do 
something unusual, do it yourself . 
Otherwise, you will never be able to convey - 
convincingly - how the experience looks, feels, 
hears, smells or tastes to the character. True, 
you might not wish, personally, to flee a drug- 
crazed axman or abseil one-handed down the 
Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai. But if it’s do-able, 
do it. 
When I wanted my character to rescue a heron snarled high in an ancient elm, I scaled my plum tree. 
After ten feet, my hair was thick with dust, 
leaves, and insects. (I had never realised how 
dusty tree bark can become in dry weather.) 
My trousers grew green with mould and I 
became massively perforated like St 
Bartholomew with little twigs. 
Of course, I then got stuck. (Branches are never 
as close to hand in real life as they are in 
fiction.) My wife had to rescue me with the 
window cleaner's ladder. 
On another occasion, I needed a thief to climb 
an old staircase with a lantern in his hand. So I 
did exactly that. I found it was necessary to 
step on the inside of the stairwell to avoid 
telltale creaking noises and to breathe very 
slowly (ditto). I also had to tread on the balls of 
my feet (ditto) and to balance myself on the 
banister by my left elbow. (I didn’t want to 
leave tell-tale finger marks.) 
Have you ever dragged yourself across an 
attic floor, gibbering? 
In a different tale, I was minded to have my 
protagonist explore the eaves of an old castle 
in search of dark family secrets. Luckily, I live in an old house. So I dragged myself across a blanket of 18th century dust. My knee went through one of the 
ceiling planks. Below it, I found an orange - 
perhaps the lunch of some bygone builder. The 
orange was entirely hollow. Its inside had 
withered away to leave only a perfect 
mummified shell. 
It nicely symbolised my fictional family - 
immaculate before the gaze of the world but 
rotten within. 
You can't make these details up. You have to discover them. 
So if a detective finds the full mark of a flat foot 
on a dusty stair, I realized, it had probably been 
put there for a deceptive purpose. Because 
people typically climb stairs on the balls of their 
feet. 
All these little points of observation found their 
way into my story. 
When historical novelist Elizabeth Chadwick 
sets her stories in medieval castles, she visits 
them - with camera, notebook and tape 
measure in hand. If she tells you that her hero 
in 1395 wriggled out of a kitchen window of 
Ludlow Castle that was exactly 15 inches wide, 
16 feet above the courtyard and ten paces from 
the main gate, you can trust her. She’s 
measured it. 
That’s one reason she has a loyal readership. 
Apparently, some readers make a point of 
visiting the locations of her novels, just to 
check her measurements! 
Don’t imagine it. Do it. Walk your story, so far 
as sanity permits. And readers will then believe 
you - and your story. 
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Writer's tutorial entry; make your story plausible and your character real

If you want your character to do something unusual, do it yourself . Otherwise, you will never be able to convey - convincingly - how th...

Writer's tutorial entry: Haiku and how we write it

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USE SENSORY LANGUAGE 
(6) Describe the details. Haiku are comprised of 
details observed by the five senses. The poet 
witnesses an event and uses words to compress 
that experience so others may understand it in 
some way. Once you have chosen a subject for 
your haiku, 
(7) think about what details you want to 
describe. Call the subject to mind and explore 
these questions 
• What did you notice about the subject? What 
colors, textures, and contrasts did you observe? 
• How did the subject sound? What was the tenor 
and volume of the event that took place? 
• Did it have a smell, or a taste? How can you 
accurately describe the way it felt? 
(8) Show, don't tell. Haiku are about moments of 
objective experience, not subjective interpretation 
or analysis of those events. It's important to 
show the reader something true about the 
moment's existence, rather than telling the reader 
what emotions it conjured in you.[5] Let the 
reader feel his or her own emotions in reaction to 
the image. 
o Use understated subtle imagery. For instance, 
instead of saying it's summer, focus on the slant 
of the sun or the heavy air. 
o Don't use cliches. Lines that readers recognize, 
such as "dark, stormy night," tend to lose their 
power over time. Think through the image you 
want to describe and use inventive, original 
language to convey meaning. This doesn't mean 
you should use a thesaurus to find words that 
aren't commonly used; rather, simply write about 
what you saw and want to express in the truest 
language you know. 
ABOVE ALL 
Be inspired 
Practice a lot 
Communicate with other poets. 
ADDITIONAL TIPS: 
• Haiku has been called "unfinished" poetry 
because each one requires the reader to finish it 
in his or her heart. 
• Contemporary haiku poets may write poems 
that are just a short fragment with three or fewer 
words. 
• A Haiku doesn't always need to rhyme. 
• Haiku originated from haikai no renga, a 
collaborative group poem that is usually one 
hundred verses in length. The hokku, or starting 
verse, of renga collaborations indicated the 
season and also contained a cutting word. The 
haiku as its own form of poetry continues in this 
tradition. 
Sample Love Haiku 
• Refreshing and cool, 
love is a sweet summer rain 
that washes the world. 
• Love is like winter 
Warm breaths thaw cold hearts until 
one day the spring comes 
• A bird flies sweetly 
on paper wings. Telling all 
of my love for you. 
• Every day I will 
love you more than you could know. 
We are here as one. 
• The softest whisper 
beckons me closer to you. 
I love you, dearest. 
• Vast as a mountain, 
my love for you shines through for 
all the world to see. 
Sample Funny Haiku 
• One shark said to the 
other when eating a clown 
fish: this tastes funny. 
• The bartender said 
to the neutron, “For you, sir, 
there will be no charge.” 
• A question for you: 
Where does Washington keep his 
armies? His sleevies. 
• An octopus went 
off to war. It’s a good thing 
that he was well-armed. 
• A wise man once asked, 
“Why, pray tell, is the sand wet?” 
Because the sea weed. 
• The best way to carve 
wood is extremely slowly, 
whittle by whittle. 
Compiled By: Moses S. Olarotimi 
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Writer's tutorial entry: Haiku and how we write it

USE SENSORY LANGUAGE (6) Describe the details. Haiku are comprised of details observed by the five senses. The poet witnesses an event a...

Writers tutorial entry; how to craft a real fictional word

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When we craft a fictional world for a 
commercial readership, the reader wants to 
believe in our world and mentally ‘live’ in it. The 
novelist Clara Reeve made this point as long 
ago as 1785. 
‘The perfection of [the novel] is to 
represent every scene, in so easy and 
natural a manner ... until we are affected 
by the joys or distresses of the persons in 
the story, as if they were our own.’ 
For example, if you want your character to take 
a bus from Leighton Buzzard to arrive before 
her Luton office opens at 8am, use a real 
timetable. ‘She jumped on the 6.55am Arriva 
and it brought her to Luton at 
7.44am, with just enough time to buy a 
newspaper.’ 
Yes, there is such a bus! If you invented it, 
some reader would be sure to spot the error, 
discard your story in disgust and possibly chide 
you in a web forum. (Before you mention it, the 
photo at right does not depict an Arriva bus.) 
But if you are verifiably correct in all your 
minutiae (even a bus timetable), such tiresome 
pedants will not only indulge your Big Lie - the 
story itself. They may also, in admiration, buy 
everything else you’ve written . 
Authors have used this trick since classical 
times to give their stories credibility. Both 
Homer’s Odyssey and Virgil’s Aeneid built 
fables around a real city - Troy. The fiction of 
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales cites the real 
roads and wayside inns of 14th century Kent. 
James Joyce consulted Thom’s Dublin 
Directory to find a real Dublin house - vacant 
in 1904 - where he could lodge the fictive 
Bloom and Molly of Ulysses . And so on. 
Problem: It’s easy to research a place we 
know well. But suppose our story is set in a 
location - say Santo Domingo (to take a 
random example) - that we can’t easily visit? 
How can we still discover those little details of 
local colour that are so trivial they are not 
mentioned in guide books - but which are so 
accurate they will convince a Santo Domingo 
shopkeeper that we live next door to him? 
Solution: find the place on Google Maps and 
YouTube! 
The highly respectable poet, Prof Grevel Lindop, 
recently published an enchanting book Travels 
on the Dance Floor . Inexplicably, he 
journeyed around the seediest nightclubs of 
South America - at the age of 61 and by himself 
- to dance the salsa. When back in England 
and writing up his notes, he discovered he had 
forgotten some details of his nocturnal forays. 
(Strange, that.) 
So he did a keyword search on YouTube. He 
discovered amateur videos. They had been 
shot in those very bars, clubs and dancehalls 
where he had sashayed away the night. They 
gave him the local colour to put in his book. 
‘Thank heavens,’ (he must have thought) ‘I 
can’t blame the tequila. There is a pink 
elephant hanging from the ceiling at La 
Sarten! ’ 
(And there really is. I've just found it on 
YouTube.) 
Seriously, YouTube - and other video and 
‘virtual tourist’ sites - offer us powerful ways to 
populate our stories with intriguing minutiae. 
They convince because they’re true . We’ve 
been there. And all without the expense of 
travel (or tequila)! 
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Writers tutorial entry; how to craft a real fictional word

When we craft a fictional world for a commercial readership, the reader wants to believe in our world and mentally ‘live’ in it. The nov...

Writers tutorial entry; how to build subplots from multiple point views

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Multiple viewpoints provide diversion from, and 
contrast to, the protagonist’s perspective. They 
can deepen conflict, enlarge a story’s scope 
and add to a novel the rich texture of real life. 
Subplots carry those effects even further. In our 
workaday world, we do not live in isolation. Our 
lives intersect, collide and overlap. Subplots 
lend the same sense of connectivity to a novel. 
They remind us of our mutual need, our 
inescapable conflicts and our intertwined 
destinies. 
Subplots and multiple points of view are often 
linked by their very natures. When you 
introduce several point-of-view characters in 
your story, you will be presented with the 
choice to create subplots for these characters 
and weave them into the main plot. How many 
secondary characters and subplots you choose 
to create will ultimately affect the pacing and 
structure of your novel. 
Of course, subplots and multiple points of view 
make novels longer and more work, but 
rewards for that effort are there for writer and 
reader alike—that is, if they are successful. 
—By Donald Maass, 
author of The Breakout Novelist 
WHAT MAKES A SUBPLOT SUCCESSFUL? 
Choosing a subplot begins with choosing 
characters with which to work. Who among 
your secondary characters is sufficiently 
sympathetic and faces conflicts that are deep, 
credible, complex and universal enough to be 
worth developing? 
If none are to be found, it might be worthwhile 
to grow some of your secondary characters, 
depending on the nature of your novel. Do you 
intend it to be a sweeping epic? If so you 
certainly will want to construct a cast with 
plenty of subplot potential. Is it a tightly woven, 
intimate exploration of a painful period in one 
character’s life? In that case subplots will only 
pull you and your readers away from the main 
purpose. You may not even want to clutter your 
novel with multiple viewpoints. 
Subplots will not have the desired 
magnification effect unless there are 
connections between them. Thus, the main 
characters in each subplot need to be in 
proximity to one another; that is, they need a 
solid reason to be in the same book. Therefore, 
in searching for subplots, I recommend first 
looking to those characters already in the main 
character’s life: family, classmates, friends and 
so forth. 
One of the most difficult subplot tricks to pull off 
involves creating story lines for two characters 
who at first have no connection whatsoever, 
then merging those plotlines. For some reason, 
this structure is particularly attractive to 
beginning novelists. While such a feat can be 
pulled off, again and again I find that novices 
fail to bring their plotlines together quickly 
enough. Beginners often feel the need to 
present scenes from each plotline in strict 
rotation, whether or not there is a necessity for 
them. The result is a manuscript laden with 
low-tension action. 
A second requirement of subplots is that they 
each affect the outcome of the main plotline. 
Subplots widen the scope of the novel’s action, 
but if that is all they do, then, once again, the 
result is likely a sluggish volume. 
A third quality of successful subplots is that 
they range. In 19th-century sagas this often 
meant ranging high and low over the strata of 
society, from princesses to beggars, from the 
palace to the gutter. Social scale is a bit harder 
to pull off today. More helpful, I think, is to 
portray a variety of experience. Your setting 
may be restricted to one milieu, but ranging 
over that milieu in all its aspects will enrich the 
world of your novel. 
HOW MANY SUBPLOTS IS TOO MANY? 
Novels swimming in subplots can feel diffuse. 
Two or three major subplots are about all that 
even the long- 
est quest fantasies can contain. With more 
than three subplots, it becomes difficult to 
sustain reader involvement. Focus is too 
shattered. Sympathy is torn in too many 
directions. 
Readers of overcrowded novels frequently 
complain, “It was hard to keep the characters 
straight.” That is often due to the author’s 
failure to maintain strong character delineation. 
Great saga writers have a gift for creating large 
and varied casts, but it is a rare author who 
can make more than 20 characters highly 
individual and distinct. In truth, only giant 
sagas need that many characters. Novels 
begin to take on breakout expansiveness with 
little more than two points of view and as few 
as one or, possibly, two subplots. 
Proof of this can be found in some of our era’s 
greatest sagas. James Clavell’s 1975 
blockbuster Shōgun is a doorstop of a novel, 
almost 1,200 pages in paperback. It is a 
massive and immensely detailed journey 
through feudal Japan. Scores of characters 
appear, many of them with points of view. For 
all its heft, though, there are really only two 
principal points of view: John Blackthorne, the 
shipwrecked English pilot-major who saves the 
life of powerful daimyo Toranaga, and the 
beautiful and courageous married woman with 
whom Blackthorne falls in love, Mariko. Even 
so, most of the book belongs to Blackthorne. 
Similarly, Larry McMurtry’s 1985 sprawling 
cattle-drive of a novel, Lonesome Dove, tells 
dozens of colorful tales—of cowboys, 
prostitutes, swindlers and such—but without a 
doubt the novel’s primary focus is cattleman 
Augustus McCrae. James Jones’ gigantic 1951 
epic of World War II, From Here to Eternity, is 
built around just two men, Pvt. Robert E. Lee 
Prewitt and 1st Sgt. Milton Anthony Warden; 
this in a novel that fills 860 pages in its current 
trade paperback edition. 
What these master storytellers know is that a 
large-scale story is nevertheless still just a 
story. Overcomplicate it and you lose the 
essential simplicity of narrative art. Readers 
identify primarily with one strong, sympathetic 
central character; it is that character’s destiny 
about which they most care. Have you ever 
skimmed ahead in a novel to find the next 
scene involving your favorite character? Then 
you know what I mean. Enrich your novel with 
multiple viewpoints, but keep subplots to a 
minimum. 
The subplots you do include should absolutely 
amplify themes running through the main 
plotline. They should be supportive, not wholly 
separate. How can you be sure the subplots in 
your novel are doing their jobs? Here is where 
your purpose in writing your novel needs to be 
clear in your mind. Most authors launch into 
their manuscripts without giving any thought to 
theme. Breakout novelists, on the other hand, 
generally are writing for a reason. They have 
something to say. You cannot fully grasp the 
relationship of your subplots to your main plot 
until you know what they are really all about. 
If you do not know—if, say, you are an organic 
writer—then perhaps it is best not to plan 
subplots but simply allow multiple points of 
view into your story, then see which points of 
view grow into subplots. (In fact, it is not 
uncommon for organic writers to find that a 
minor story line has mushroomed out of control 
and has become their novel’s main plot.) 
Finally, it is worth repeating that not all novels 
need subplots. There are, for instance, a great 
many point-of-view characters in John 
Grisham’s The Partner. Yet out of perhaps a 
dozen major points of view, no character other 
than Patrick Lanigan has a truly separate story 
line. The entire novel is built around the 
desperation of this runaway lawyer with $90 
million in stolen money. Everyone else in the 
novel either supports him or tries to tear him 
down. 
The Partner feels like it is elaborately plotted, 
but in reality its structure is simple: It is about a 
man digging himself out of the worst 
imaginable trouble. To be sure, there are 
endless complications, but The Partner has no 
true subplots. 
It is perfectly possible to write a breakout novel 
from the protagonist’s perspective alone. So 
how do you know whether to include a 
particular subplot or let it drop? The answer lies 
in a subplot’s contribution to the overall novel. 
Is it mere diversion, as in the oft-attempted- 
but-rarely- successful “comic relief” subplot? If 
so, it should be cut. 
On the other hand, if it complicates, bears 
upon, or mirrors or reverses the main plot, then 
it adds value. 
None of the techniques I am talking about are 
easy. Adding subplots multiplies the work 
involved in writing a novel. But it can also 
multiply the rewards, both for the reader and 
the writer. Think big. It pays off in many ways. 
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Writers tutorial entry; how to build subplots from multiple point views

Multiple viewpoints provide diversion from, and contrast to, the protagonist’s perspective. They can deepen conflict, enlarge a story’s s...

Writers tutorial entry; How to make your novel emotionally come alive

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I know I overdo the smiles and sighing etc. 
Could you give me an example of showing 
internal workings rather than expressing 
something external such as a sigh or 
blush? – Samantha, Australia 
There are lots of ways that writers slip into 
‘telling’ (external) rather than 
‘showing’ (internal), especially when it 
comes to emotion. There are the obvious 
phrases such as: 
Bob held the photo of his old friend, and he 
was sad. 
That’s telling. The writer is stating the fact, 
telling the reader what emotion Bob is 
feeling. Usually it is much more effective to 
show Bob’s emotions rather than just stating 
the fact. 
Sometimes when a writer wants to show the 
emotion, she will use an external sign of an 
internal response. Some examples of these 
external signs include smiles, frowns, sighs, 
shrugs, blushes, looks (such as stares and 
glares), and my all-time least favorite, the 
furrowed brow. I’m not even sure what a 
furrowed brow looks like or what it means, 
but I seldom see a manuscript that doesn’t 
deploy at least two furrowed brows. If I’m 
editing your work, you can bet I will strike 
through it or suggest you find a different way 
to say it. I’ll probably furrow my brow as I 
strike through that phrase. 
Bob stared at the photo of his old friend. He 
sighed, furrowed his brow and began to cry. 
This is now describing Bob’s facial 
expressions, body language, gestures and 
other external physical responses to 
illustrate Bob’s sadness. It’s better than 
saying ‘Bob was sad,’ at least most of the 
time. 
Most of the time this happens when the 
writer is trying to show rather than tell, but 
it’s only a halfway step. The writer is ‘telling’ 
the reader what facial expressions the 
character is giving, and those facial 
expressions then ‘show’ the emotion. It’s still 
a step or two removed from the readers. 
There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, 
just like there is nothing inherently wrong 
with ‘telling’ the reader some things. It’s all 
in when and how something is told or shown 
that makes the reader engage with the story 
and character. Sometimes “Bob was sad” is 
exactly the right sentence. Sometimes “Bob 
frowned” may be exactly the right sentence. 
Showing will generally take a lot more 
words, and maybe it’s not important enough 
to spend any more than three words on the 
fact that Bob was sad. 
But if Bob being sad is an emotional moment 
in which readers need to empathize with 
Bob, it’s worth a few more words. Describing 
facial expressions, sounds or body language 
alone doesn’t bring the reader into the 
character’s emotions. Adding physical 
actions and responses can help show the 
emotion. 
Facial expressions are external signs of 
sadness. It could also be written with 
physical actions and responses: 
Bob’s hand shook as he stared at the photo. 
He thought of his old friend, and his 
shoulders heaved with a sob. 
Better, but it’s still missing something – it’s 
flat. It describes the physical actions and 
response. This sentence is part showing and 
part telling. The writer tells the reader that 
Bob’s hand shook, that he stared at the photo, 
and that he started crying, all of which 
creates a ‘showing’ scene. The reader is 
seeing the scene, better than “Bob was sad,” 
but the reader isn’t feeling it first-hand. The 
reader is seeing the scene from the external, 
not the internal. 
So let’s revise again, and write the sentence 
from inside Bob’s skin, inside his head, 
showing the scene through Bob’s eyes. 
The photo trembled in his hand as Bob 
remembered his old friend, and the image 
blurred behind his tears. 
Not saying this is Pulitzer Prize stuff, but this 
last version shows the reader that Bob is sad. 
It paints a scene in the reader’s mind, and 
the reader can feel Bob’s reaction – his 
internal response. The external has almost 
been completely eliminated. This last 
version doesn’t tell me if Bob is frowning or 
sighing. It doesn’t even directly tell me that 
he is looking at the photo or that his hand is 
shaking or that he started crying. Those are 
external actions. Yes, all of those actions are 
there, but they aren’t ‘told’ or stated as a fact 
for readers. This version explores the 
internal response. It puts the reader inside 
Bob as his hand trembles, he remembers, 
and the photo blurs. 
These can be trickier, but also easier to 
resolve, when writing in first person. The 
main thing to remember is that a first- 
person narrator does not see her own face to 
describe her smiles, her frowns, or her 
furrowed brows. A first-person narrator, 
like all of us in real life, don’t usually notice 
when we sigh. But in first-person, or in a 
tight third-person, the character’s thoughts, 
feelings, and internal monologue can be 
used to show emotions. 
Below are a few examples from a 
manuscript draft with the original wording 
and suggested edits. All suggested edits are 
mere examples of one way the sentence 
might be revised. There are many different 
ways of saying something, and it’s always up 
to the writer to come up with the best way 
that fits the writer’s style, voice and story. 
ORIGINAL: 
I shot her daggers and refused to dignify her 
remark with a response. She knew how 
important my career was to me. 
REVISE: 
I refused to dignify her remark with a 
response. She knew how important my career 
was to me. 
Sometimes the external signs of an emotion 
can be eliminated completely, as the 
internal thoughts, actions and dialog show 
the emotion. I eliminated the ‘shot her 
daggers’ phrase (a reference to the character 
giving a sharp glare). It’s not needed. The 
rest of this paragraph carries the full weight 
of the emotion, the character’s irritation. 
ORIGINAL: 
The security guard looked me up and down. 
‘You his mother or something?’ 
I glanced down at my suit, then back up at the 
guy. ‘Oh, sod off!’ 
REVISE: 
The security guard eyed my business suit. 
‘You his mother or something?’ 
‘Oh, sod off!’ 
I moved the reference to what she is wearing 
to the guard’s actions rather than the 
character glancing down at her clothes. She 
already knows what she’s wearing. Her 
words convey her reaction without her 
reviewing her own attire. 
ORIGINAL: 
I blushed the same way I did every time David 
quasi-flirted with me, then realized how 
inappropriate it was to be reacting this way 
with a dead guy just meters away. 
REVISE: 
Every time David quasi-flirted like this, it 
awakened the giggly, embarrassed twelve- 
year-old who still lived inside me, completely 
inappropriate with a dead guy meters away. 
The revise eliminates the blush but describes 
from an internal perspective what she was 
feeling, perhaps in a way that readers can 
relate to. It also eliminates the filter that tells 
readers the character ‘realizes’ something 
rather than just letting the realization come 
through naturally. 
ORIGINAL: 
I felt my forehead crease with surprise that 
the cop appeared to know me, and took a 
closer look at him. I may have come across 
him in my work, but nothing stood out. 
REVISE: 
How did this cop know me? I gave him a 
closer look. Maybe we’d crossed paths before, 
but nothing stood out. 
This revise replaces ‘I felt my forehead 
crease’ with the internal thought, ‘How did 
he know me?’ That expresses her surprise 
from her internal thought rather than telling 
readers she was surprised and having the 
character describe the feeling of her own 
facial expression. 
ORIGINAL: 
I sighed, slipped off my heels and trudged into 
the living room. 
REVISE: 
I slipped off my heels and trudged into the 
living room. 
A simple elimination of the sigh. Slipping off 
her heels and ‘trudging’ (a great verb in this 
sentence) captures her mood. One thing to 
remember is that most of the time, a person 
doesn’t know when they sigh. Also, people 
sigh for a variety of reasons – sad, happy, 
satisfied, perplexed, confused, resigned, etc. 
Stating that a character sighs doesn’t really 
say anything without some additional 
information to show the emotion. And once 
the additional info is there and the emotion 
is shown, the sigh becomes unnecessary. 
ORIGINAL: 
I flashed him what I hoped was a beguiling 
smile. 
REVISE: 
None. This is a very specific action that the 
character does consciously for a reason. It is 
her conscious action of flashing a particular 
type of smile that is the important point of 
the sentence. There are always exceptions, 
like this one, where a smile, sigh, or a blush 
is the important action rather than only 
serving as an external sign of an internal 
emotion. 
The bottom line – get inside the character’s 
skin, inside his or her head, and tell the story 
from the inside out, internal thoughts and 
emotions and perspective, rather than 
external only. Make your readers feel it as if 
they are the character rather than watching 
the character or being told about the 
character. It draws readers into your 
character and your story much more 
convincingly. 
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Writers tutorial entry; How to make your novel emotionally come alive

I know I overdo the smiles and sighing etc. Could you give me an example of showing internal workings rather than expressing something e...

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