Muse Guide

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...

Poet's corner entry; phoenix on hellish isle

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phoenix on hellish aisle.. 
Since tommorow worries had been an occupant, 
that fogged my mind's sight as it seems bleary, 
parallel i couldn't breathe, it's a hell in the pant, 
i ducked peril throws as it advanced fiercely, 
a fixture was drawn betwixt me and my heart 
grants, 
conjugating success, achievements ovary also 
was hairy, 
so i pull'd the last strand of hair; Godly warrants, 
all the way thither has made the body certainly 
weary. 
.......... 
Slunk i did the earth with my garden fork, 
tilled the crust for greatness with vim and 
boastful vigour, 
galivanting steadily as our visage seemed hot, 
when you aimed a soup of gold in pot, 
and a brunch feast of crystal munch, 
a bloke will strive to loom creamly groom'd, 
adjoin'd being prettily cautious, 
a bulky purse, sweats of post lone moon, 
a winking vault of silver coins against all odds. 
....... 
Slewing at rear crews running to catch up, 
their crows rang as it screeched on my guts, 
many rare events whilst hopelessness is 
obvious, 
i'm clearing that path for you, please hang on, 
without the chase their wont be a why for me to 
move on. 
....... 
Shrilled was my haste to kill these gods, 
slay their hearts and taste their bloods, 
visible lords spanking inviscible flogs, 
sharks of wraths, of frauds, of fugitive words. 
I've planted revenge in my heart deep sore ruts, 
the very one your evil doings habitating within 
has formed, 
in this heart i etched the sentiments of thy 
wrongs, 
it makes me dogmatic and fiery, like a tunnel 
vision, like an arch-demon, 
unleashing our humdinger fistful thrust in their 
unruly mob, 
carnivores clamped with diamond studded claws, 
varying reptiles of sulphuric hoarded venoms, 
all to tussle this impiety at war front, 
favourably safer shall be our future throng. 
......... 
Seeing this phoenix would thread on hellish aisle, 
rebirth in heap of ashes on funeral pyre, 
piercing daggers flow in lyrics of lyre, 
a spasm of 'minax', a thou of eyes for an eye, 
all milords should wear their soul greaves, 
these hiccups easily wont be mimed, 
i hail'd my rabbi's grit, that voiced through his 
words dried, 
he shalt scour'd theft with special smelted 
spears till traces died, 
morale of his like had built a fortress in my mind, 
and I shall step on every footprints he left 
behind. 
....... 
Stronger my helm has smeared proves, 
as i resist their libels with diamond slanderproof, 
they hurt their tendon while marking mine 
Achilles heels, 
quaking hoofprints, greater than horse' is my 
hooves, 
i will pay in ducats of grief and ruled this 
dukedom as it's my fief. 
This tufted ears show my ambition as i 
chameleon'd a lynx, 
my womb host plunged me in a sacred ocean 
greater than 'River Styx', 
think never these heels as my from-birth effetes, 
this kid is kinda invulnerable, no abscess in his 
wish. 
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Poet's corner entry; phoenix on hellish isle

phoenix on hellish aisle.. Since tommorow worries had been an occupant, that fogged my mind's sight as it seems bleary, parallel i c...

Writers tutorial entry, How to write haiku

HAIKU AND HOW WE WRITE IT. (PART ONE) 
Compiled By: MOSES S. ROTIMI 
(1) Know the sound structure of Haiku. 
Japanese Haiku traditionally consist of 17 on, or 
sounds, divided into three phrases: 5 sounds, 7 
sounds, and 5 sounds. English poets interpreted 
on as syllables. Haiku poetry has evolved over 
time, and most poets no longer adhere to this 
structure, in either Japanese or English; modern 
Haiku may have more than 17 sounds or as few 
as one. 
When you're deciding how many sounds or 
syllables to use in your Haiku, refer to the 
Japanese idea that the Haiku should be able to 
be expressed in one breath. In English, that 
usually means the poem will be 10 to 14 
syllables long. 
(2) Use Haiku to juxtapose two ideas. 
The Japanese word kiru, which means "cutting," 
expresses the notion that Haiku should always 
contain two juxtaposed ideas. The two parts are 
grammatically independent, and they are usually 
imagistically distinct as well. 
• Japanese haiku are commonly written on one 
straight line, with juxtaposed ideas separated by 
a kireji, or cutting word, that helps define the 
ideas in relation to each other. The kireji usually 
appears at the end of one of the sound phrases. 
There is no direct English translation of the kireji, 
so it is often translated as a dash. Note the two 
separate ideas in this Japanese haiku by Bashō: 
“how cool the feeling of a wall against the feet — 
siesta”. 
• English haiku are most often written as three 
lines. The juxtaposed ideas (of which there 
should only be two) are "cut" by a line break, 
punctuation, or simply a space. This poem is by 
American poet Lee Gurga: 
fresh scent— 
the labrador's muzzle 
deeper into snow 
CHOOSE A SUBJECT 
(3) Distill a poignant experience. Haiku is 
traditionally focused on details of one's 
environment that relate to the human condition. 
• Japanese poets traditionally used haiku to 
capture and distill a fleeting natural image, such 
as a frog jumping into a pond, rain falling onto 
leaves, or a flower bending in the wind. Many 
people go for walks just to find new inspiration 
for their poetry, known in Japan as ginkgo walks. 
• Contemporary haiku may stray from nature as a 
subject. Urban environments, emotions, 
relationships and even humorous topics may be 
haiku subjects. 
(4) Include a seasonal reference. 
A reference to the season or changing of the 
seasons, referred to in Japanese as kigo, is an 
essential element of haiku. The reference may be 
obvious, as in using a word like "spring" or 
"autumn" to indicate the season, or it might be 
subtler. Example: poem by Fukuda Chiyo-ni: 
morning glory! 
the well bucket-entangled, 
I ask for water 
(5) Create a subject shift. 
In keeping with the idea that haiku should 
contain two juxtaposed ideas, shift the 
perspective on your chosen subject so that your 
poem has two parts. For example, you could 
focus on the detail of an ant crawling on a log, 
then juxtapose that image with an expansive 
view of the whole forest, or the season the ant is 
currently inhabiting. The juxtaposition gives the 
poem a deeper metaphorical meaning than it 
would have if it were a simple, single-planed 
description. 
Sample Nature Haiku 
• An afternoon breeze 
expels cold air, along with 
the fallen brown leaves. 
• Cherry blossoms bloom, 
softly falling from the tree, 
explode into night. 
• The warmth on my skin. 
Fire falls beneath the trees. 
I see the sun set. 
• Summer here again. 
Music plays sweetly, drifting. 
And life is renewed. 
• A winter blanket 
covers the Earth in repose 
but only a dream 
• An ocean voyage. 
As waves break over the bow, 
the sea welcomes me. 
Compiled by: MOSES S. ROTIMI
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Writers tutorial entry, How to write haiku

HAIKU AND HOW WE WRITE IT. (PART ONE) Compiled By: MOSES S. ROTIMI (1) Know the sound structure of Haiku. Japanese Haiku traditionally co...

Thesaurus entry; sadness

Sadness is the wonderful emotion that helps 
you let go of things that aren’t working 
anyway. Most of us avoid sadness as if it is 
the thing that created the loss in the first 
place. It isn’t. In its healthy sate, sadness is 
evoked by the fact that you need to let go of 
something. Listening to sadness can help you 
let go of things that don’t work so that you 
can make room for things that do. 
The internal questions to ask for sadness are: 
What must be released? and What must be 
rejuvenated? Remember to ask both 
questions; sadness is not just about loss. 
Sadness clears away things that don’t work 
so that you can make changes in your life 
and make room for things that do work. 
Let’s organize some vocabulary to help you 
welcome the gifts that sadness brings you. I separate sadness into Sadness, 
Despair, Despondence, Grief, and 
Depression. These categories are reorganized 
here under the general category of Sadness. 
Soft Sadness 
Regretful ~ Disappointed ~ Disconnected 
~ Distracted ~ Low ~ Listless ~ Wistful 
Mood State Sadness 
Sad ~ World-weary ~ Down ~ Melancholy 
~ Mournful ~ Weepy ~ Grieving ~ Gloomy 
~ Dejected ~ Downtrodden ~ Heavy- 
hearted ~ Forlorn ~ Sorrowful ~ 
Dispirited ~ Discouraged ~ Drained 
Intense Sadness 
Despairing ~ Bleak ~ Despondent ~ 
Depressed ~ Anguished ~ Inconsolable ~ 
Grief-stricken ~ Hopeless ~ Heartbroken 
~ Morose ~ Bereaved 
If you’re in intense sadness, or if your mood- 
state sadness is continuous and repetitive 
(and doesn’t respond to a good cry), it’s 
important to check in with your doctor or 
therapist. Sadness has a powerful physical 
component that drops you downward — and 
if it stays activated for too long, it can 
interfere with sleep, eating, and your 
hormonal regulation — which then leads to 
more sadness and more disregulation. Just 
as it is with any other emotion, sadness 
shouldn’t hang around forever. It should do 
its job and move onward. If it doesn’t, and 
you’re in a constant sadness feedback loop, 
please seek help. 
Note for the grieving: Though grief is 
different from sadness, I’m including it here 
for ease of categorization. However, it is 
quite normal (and healthy) for grief to last a 
much longer time than simple sadness. This 
is because grief arises not merely when you 
need to let something go — grief arises when 
you have no choice about letting go, and 
when you’re losing something over which 
you have no control. Grieving is a slow and 
languid process that takes its own time. 
If you’re grieving, contact your local hospice 
agency for grief support. There, you’ll find support for your grieving process, and you won’t be hurried or shamed out of your honest emotions. Grieving is a 
vitally important process — it’s not the 
opposite of happiness — and it takes its own 
time.
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Thesaurus entry; sadness

Sadness is the wonderful emotion that helps you let go of things that aren’t working anyway. Most of us avoid sadness as if it is the thi...

Graphical muse tutorial entry; en grisaile

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Painting is about creativity, even as such special mastery of the hue value must be ensured. Value in paintings, designs, or drawings, presents a scale of light - dark hue for each selected colour. It hence helps in giving a painting the virtue of richness and a feel of depth. To be considered is a painting style known as grisaile, a painting which exploit the art of using value to paint exclusively on the grey scale. These sort of paintings can be as beautiful as ever if the artiste is indeed creative. Check the caption image, study it, and see if you can draw, paint, or design using the grisaile technique. Always remember to be creative. Enjoy your day. 
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Graphical muse tutorial entry; en grisaile

Painting is about creativity, even as such special mastery of the hue value must be ensured. Value in paintings, designs, or drawings, pres...

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...

Musical muse tutorial entry; 10 tips to help maintain your voice

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Some people spend hours at the gym or 
pounding the pavement to keep their bodies in 
shape. But beyond singers and actors, who 
worries much about their voices? 
You should, say Norman Hogikyan and 
colleagues at the University of Michigan 
Health System. 
"Your voice is your ambassador to the outside 
world," Hogikyan contends. "It portrays your 
personality and emotions. People make 
assessments about you based on your voice, 
so it is very important when you're speaking or 
singing to think about what people are really 
hearing. Problems with your voice also can 
have a tremendous impact on your life." 
According to the American 
Academy of Otolaryngology. 
Hogikyan and colleagues have put together 
the following 10 tips to help keep your voice in 
shape: 
1. Drink water to keep your body well 
hydrated, and avoid alcohol and caffeine. Your 
vocal cords vibrate very fast, and having a 
proper water balance helps keep them 
lubricated. Important note: Foods containing 
large amounts of water are excellent 
hydration-conscious snacks, including apples, 
pears, watermelon, peaches, melons, grapes, 
plums, bell peppers and applesauce. 
2. Allow yourself several "vocal naps" every 
day, especially during periods of extended use. 
For instance, teachers should avoid speaking 
during the breaks between classes and find 
quiet ways to spend the lunch hour rather than 
talking in a noisy staff room with colleagues. 
3. Don't smoke, or if you already do, quit. 
Smoking raises the risk of throat cancer 
tremendously, and inhaling smoke (even 
secondhand smoke) can irritate the vocal 
cords. 
4. Don't abuse or misuse your voice. Avoid 
yelling or screaming, and try not to talk loudly 
in noisy areas. If your throat feels dry or tired, 
or your voice is getting hoarse, reduce your 
voice use. The hoarseness is a warning sign 
that your vocal cords are irritated. 
5. Keep your throat and neck muscles relaxed 
even when singing high notes and low notes. 
Some singers tilt their heads up when singing 
high notes and down when singing low notes. 
"The high notes are on the ceiling and the low 
notes are on the floor," Rosenberg says. "Over 
time, you'll pay for that"—not just with strained 
vocal muscles but also by causing future limits 
on the vocal range. 
6. Pay attention to how you speak every day. 
Even performers who have good singing habits 
can cause damage when they speak. Many 
skilled singers don't continue their healthy 
habits when they speak; indeed, says Herseth, 
"many people—including singers—should have 
much more breath flow when they speak." 
7. Don't clear your throat too often. When you 
clear your throat, it's like slamming your vocal 
cords together. Doing it too much can injure 
them and make you hoarse. Try a sip of water 
or swallow to quench the urge to clear. If you 
feel like you have to clear your throat a lot, get 
checked by a doctor for such things as acid 
reflux disease, or allergy and sinus conditions. 
8. When you're sick, spare your voice. Don't 
talk when you're hoarse due to a cold or 
infection. Listen to what your voice is telling 
you. 
9. When you have to speak publicly, to large 
groups or outdoors, think about using 
amplification to avoid straining your voice. 
10. Humidify your home and work areas. 
Remember, moist is good for the voice. 
Further, warming up the voice is not just for 
singers, the researchers say. Think of it like 
stretching and loosening up before exercise. 
Easy, daily warm-ups for your voice: 
1. Do lip or tongue trills in the morning (try it in 
the shower or on your drive to work) to 
facilitate better use of airflow and breath. 
2. Perform gentle humming and cooing to 
warm up your voice in the morning. 
3. If you do more vocally complex warm-ups 
too, such as vocal scales, do the simple 
warm-ups first. 
4. Repeat these exercises throughout the day 
to reduce muscular tension in the neck, 
shoulders and jaw. 
5. At the end of the day, perform a cool-down 
of the voice with similar vocal tasks. 
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Musical muse tutorial entry; 10 tips to help maintain your voice

Some people spend hours at the gym or pounding the pavement to keep their bodies in shape. But beyond singers and actors, who worries mu...

Scenerymania entry; Predator and prey part 2

The feast I had with Oduduwa was a wonderful one, but like I promised the rest of the events shouldn’t be hidden from you. So the hefty men continued, carrying a Falade oblivious of what his crimes are. They walked through endless paths until they reached an abandoned hut in the middle of a forest. There they dropped him like a bag of filled sack. The men left him still tied and gagged, they only slid the blind fold just over is moon so he could see. He saw them leave and for a long time nothing actually happened. Then later they return with a man, the man asked them to untie him and sit him down. Falade sat looking at the man, “Sir! I don’t seem to know you. How on earth have I wronged you?” 
The man let out an annoyingly long chortle that echoed through the huge forest, “You of all people shouldn’t ask me that question, don’t you know me.” 
“Sir, I don’t know you. Please how have I wronged you. I know I haven’t wronged so many people in my life, and even if I had, It shouldn’t be as terrible as to warrant being kidnapped. That is why I need you more than not to tell me my crimes. The man now drew out his own chair, faced Falade and said, 
“I remember six months ago you revealed to your people that you had a dream that says that people should stop buying maize grains that come from the west that they are the major cause of the diarrhea that has been affecting your people for a long time. I being the greatest farmer from the west felt the greatest impact of your revelation as your people stopped buying maize grains from me. Now your being here means, you are going to spend a month with us as a warning so that when you return back home you’ll reverse your revelation, because if we grab you like this again. You might just disappear forever you know.” 
“Falade was more shocked by the man’s words than scared. He wouldn’t imagine the little help he rendered for his people being his own headache. “Sir, I wouldn’t know how to reverse this to my people, since I made that revelation, the diarrhea incidence among my people has drastically reduced. However to go back there and tell them to resume buying maize grain from the west might not be a welcomed idea.” 
“Mr Falade, I don’t care how you do it. Just ensure your people resume buying grains from me.” 
“I won’t do that, my spirit even tells me it is your grains that specifically caused the diarhoea.” 
“Mr Falade we shall see about that, just know you’ll be eating a great deal of the grains, durinh your stay with us.” 
“And if I don’t?” 
“Believe me you won’t have any choice.” 
The man gave his men the nod and they strapped Falade to his chair and left him there to rest. 
The six hunters on the kings’ team laid at the feet a big tree; resting. It was late in the evening and the deep gloom that now ruled the green environment was quite intimidating.  The men were utterly rough and exhausted; they swept through a large part of the forest and couldn’t even find a trace of the lion. While the others rested, Rali stood guard and looked out for trouble. Night crawled upon them gently, and the crescent moon that hung on the star-lit sky wouldn’t help as it sullen darkness kept the forest cryptic. The voices of the nights then joined in, the owls, frogs, crickets and other nocturnal noisemakers voiced out and their sounds reverberated all through the dark forest. Then towards midnight, with their camp fire slowly losing its strength and a wearied Raji about to summon his replacement; a roar erupted further down the forest. Every of the sleeping men were jeered back into consciousness and even though they saw not what roared, they so knew what did. They right then knew where their journey should take them the next day. So when cock crewed the men held tight their weapons, and they then headed south towards the sound source. As they advanced, they notice a thinning in the denseness of the forest. Fewer trees now existed replaced by the forage plants. The men further advanced until they found themselves in the middle of a rough terrain, the place was much bare with only patches of copses here and there; until they opened into a strange remoteness. This place was like a little spring surrounded by low highlands. The place was like a strange abandoned Eden, the lion evolved from a little cavern that sunk into the southern end of the highlands. The lion charged at the men, and they were so prepared for him that recurrent shots was fired at him, a combination of Dane gunshots, arrows and then spears. The lion dropped dead before it could actually strike down any of the men. The lion lay dead, its blood dripping into the thin spring creating a tiny stream of red. The men then went further into the cavern to check out if anymore lion hides within; however they only discovered an ancient cave of medieval witchcraft and idolatrousness. So they left the place making sure they carried with them the dead lion. At nightfall they were already back in their village with the village men welcoming them with chants of appraisals. The men headed to the king’s palace where they were rewarded and designated but when mid-night fell the worse actually occurred. The men unknowingly as they entered the tavern had violated the sanctity of the sacred place and the bounded evil spirits there within were given the freedom to roam the forests and free to roam beyond. So they found it easy to discover the little village and they ventured into it, ready to damn some more living souls. So that mid-night, the night shook with scary strange sounds, many a man were forced to  venture out to check out what went wrong, others were too scared to so they locked themselves in their homes waiting for the morning to come to their rescue. It was a long night and when finally morning came. Many bodies laid plagued, half dead half alive, on the dusty grounds of the village. The bodies were covered in dusty grimes and were only left with feeble heart beats. The king rose, toured through his land to evaluate the havoc that befell his people. He commanded his guards to collect the plagued bodies and carry them to the town most skilled medicine men. The medicine men were, baffled by the alienage of the disease. They couldn’t proffer any solution. They therefore reported their dead ends to the king who, out of frustration at not knowing what else to do remembered Falade’s warning. Now he wished he had listened to him. He commanded his messenger to summon Falade for him. Falade however was not found, he was unavailable and that further heightened the fear in the mind of the king. Night was rapidly approaching and the villagers knew soon, another session of horror begins. So they all made sure they were inside their homes even before nightfall and they all bolted up. Unlike the previous night, immediately night came the horrors took over the village. 
Falade was tied legs and hand, he was given a mat to sleep on and as he slept, he dreamt again and this time, He had series of dreams, the first being that his kidnapper’s maize grains were not the cause of the diarhoea then, rather a natural, infection of the stream which later cleared, however the dream was meant to ensure the present situation he is in. The second dream revealed to him the ordeal his people are going through back home. The third dream directed him to a tree very close to his holding village and that tree, is a necessary ingredient for the ritual that shall drive the demons back home. The fourth dream revealed to him the abode of a powerful Ifa priest he needed to see to complete the request. The fifth dream then revealed to him the way to the ancient tavern. The next morning, less casualties were recorded in the village. Falade narrated his dream to the man and he also promised to help him out. They first went to the tree to get the leaves and then the Ifa priest next. Just as in the dream he was wearing the same cloth, he explained the situation on ground and the Ifa priest understanding the nature of the cleansing ritual followed them to the cave to perform the ritual. On getting to the sacred low land on whose end lies the tavern, he unveiled a calabash from his bag, and requested Falade hands him the leaves. He cupped out water from the little spring below their feet and squeezed the leaves and its green juice spread through the water. He after wards unveiled a fibrous sponge from his bag, then he led them all into the tavern. There, he located the ritual gouge, there he washed thoroughly with his drenched sponge. The priest afterward sprinkled the leaf-water juices all around the ritual room, in between which he chanted incantations. See,incantations are my fantasies, every Ifa priest knows this, the more he chants it, the more i'll be willing to help. Finally, when he was through with it, he asked everyone to face the exit and warn them non of them should look back. He threw back the sponge over his shoulder. They then left the tavern, though as they left, they could hear soft whispers and wails jamming together, but they’ve been warned not to look back so they all heeded. Falade thanked the Ifa priest adequately and promised his kidnappers that he’ll undo what he did by telling his new dream to his folk. Falade returned home to the arms of his fear-stricken village men, but then, Falade returned not just with a reassuring words, he rather returned with a guarantee that everything would be alright from then on.  That day, falade was nothing but a true hero. I always like happy endings like this. From that day on with our help Falade ensured his people remained alright, even when chaos threatens.
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Scenerymania entry; Predator and prey part 2

The feast I had with Oduduwa was a wonderful one, but like I promised the rest of the events shouldn’t be hidden from you. So the hefty men ...

Scenerymania entry; predator and prey part 1

Predator and prey 
 
Men, they would never stop amazing me with 
their disbeliefs. My name is Orunmila and if you 
should ask a Yoruba man who I am, he would 
ask you to ask the next Ifa priest you see. So 
that faithful afternoon the sun that glared across 
the dense forest that I peeped at was a real 
bother. Falade was there, at the lighter entrance 
of the forest. He was pointing to the dense 
undergrowth, just beneath a tall dongoyaro tree; 
“the lion shall appear from there,” he told them. 
They looked at where he pointed, it was barely lit, 
and the undergrowth only got a fraction of the 
initial sunlight from above. Then beyond the 
thick denseness were further darkness, it wasn’t 
that dark further inward as the undergrowth 
faded, but see, nobody dared explored as falade 
mention of a lion scared everybody. Falade was 
indeed a demi-god as we made him one, the 
skeptical minds of humans, believes only a man 
born of a god can be a demi-god, but see; we 
can bestow a common man the power of a demi- 
god and he becomes one. I remember that 
meeting that we held at the god’s chamber at the 
beautiful rainbow cloud, I remember I and 
orunmila merging our powers to create a light, 
however it was not just any light but a visionary light. 
So we looked through our telescope and saw 
falade, he was sleeping in his room and we saw 
nothing short of his heart of good. We imagined 
that if he wields that power he would do nothing 
but help a whole lot of people out of their earthly 
mysteries. So that night, as he slept calmly in his 
room, we let the visionary light descend upon 
him, it impacted him, merged with his soul and 
behold; a new demi-god was born. He himself 
didn’t know except from then on, he had dreams 
that came true. So everyone saw him as some 
kind of shrink, and visions as you know are not 
always positive and when he had those negative 
visions and he let them be known, Confused men 
thought he was their source of bad luck, like his 
imaginations somewhat created their reality. So 
even with his very good heart Falade began 
having enemies. They seemingly waited for the 
right moment to get at him. The three men 
though founding falade’s procurement to be 
ridiculous as the existence of any lion within that 
area ought to have been reported long ago. They 
yet couldn’t help it but want to see it through, so 
they waited patiently even though the soon 
falade claimed was getting too long to be soon. 
The sign falade was waiting for was the fall of a 
huge brown leaf and the sign had already shown 
thirty minutes ago. In his dream the lion showed 
like just five minutes away from the falling of the 
huge leaf. However what he failed to realize is the 
fact that the time frame in a dream land is so 
disproportionate and is often graded with our 
own imagination. So, one minute in a dreamland 
could be actually more or less depending on how 
we assumed it was when we wake. The sky was 
getting a mild overcast and the resulting gloom 
was getting the waiting men on an edge but see; 
They couldn’t see what I see as the lion was 
already nearbyas it showed its mane leaden 
face, in pursuit of a very big mole. The men, 
seeing the lion was actually surfacing screamed 
and took to their heels and the startled lion too 
dashed to the comforting gloom of the forest. 
Falade however stood his ground, he knew there 
would be no causalities, however he needed to 
show some of his village men what dangers 
impends in the forest and that they needed to be 
careful when they venture into the forest. So after 
the day’s event, Falade receded home to enjoy 
the comfort of its serenity. The next day however 
he was awaken by the sound of the village 
square gong. 
Falade rose grudgingly from his bed and headed 
straight to the village square, the village square 
gong was hardly sounded but when it was, 
important information was to be passed across 
to village men. He found himself among some 
hundred men and he was quite indifferent from 
the others as his shabbily look adequately 
pointed to the fact that most off the men were 
actually woken by the sounded gong. 
The village king, the old man with the golden 
crown; everybody respects him, especially as he 
serve his men heartily. However we the gods 
aren’t that pleased with him as he was of low 
beliefs. He ascended the village square’s VIP 
platform, a raised platform built by the village 
youths, out of the oak trees that filled the forests 
surrounding the village. He found the royal 
corner, where stood a fancy crane chair which he 
heaved into to face his village men. 
“My people,’ his royal voice rattled, It was 
brought to my attention that a vicious animal 
now roam the forest of Igando. The animal we all 
call lion. Therefore I had arranged for a team of 
hunters that will help us hunt down this animal.” 
He swiveled his head left to the sturdy Otun, he 
then signaled somewhat to him. The robust man 
simply signaled and of course the men he 
signaled to understanding him perfectly walked 
out of the crowd to ascend the platform. “Here 
they are; he said pointing to the armed men 
standing in a line facing the crowd. The men were 
all middle aged and Raji, the most skillful of the 
men was a respected hunter as he had hunted 
down several big animals in the past. Everybody 
cheered the men that stood in front of them 
except Falade, He blamed himself for risking the 
life of the little lion. “Tomorrow, he continued. 
The team will set out on the hunt. All they need from 
you are your good wishes. May they return safe 
and victorious. 
“Amen” the crowd echoed. 
The king returned to his palace, the team 
descended and the crowd dispersed. Minutes 
later Falade was back home, but see; this young 
man was very troubled. He was still bitter about 
the king’s decision. Obviously, our claim that he 
holds a heart of good is now what turns vivid to 
you. He exposed the existence of the lion only to 
save his people, however he didn’t expect them 
to hunt down a lion that’s done nothing wrong 
yet. 
That night, Falade dreamt again, he saw the lion 
being killed and then certain darkness, crawling 
upon the village. That scared him; the next day 
he was the first to knock on the king’s door. The 
man was on his throne, enjoying the company of 
his royal entertainer, he gave Falade a deserved 
audience, though personally he didn’t like Falade 
that much. He once thought and many more 
times; that what if one day, Falade approached 
his people and tell them about a dream that 
claims his reign would bring sorrows to his people 
eventually, what if? 
“So Falade, what brings you to my palace this 
morning? You want to give a send forth gift to the 
departing team?” 
“No your highness, I actually come to warn you 
about the danger involved in this hunt, you 
see…………..” 
“Oh! I understand your fear, but this team is quite 
capable. The men are up to the task.” 
“No! I didn’t mean that your highness but rather 
that killing the lion will bring unexpected chaos 
into the land.” 
“How do you mean?” the king inquired. 
“Your highness, I had this dream that after your 
men killed the lion that a terrifying darkness took 
over our community.” 
“A dream! Falade haven’t you learned that not all 
dreams are visions, even if like we all know you 
actually do receive those visions; what if this 
one is purely your imagination?” 
“This is no imagination your highness, I feel 
certain boisterousness when I get these visions. 
Your highness, you got to trust me on this like 
you’ve always does.” 
“I’m sorry Falade, but you’ve given me no 
adequate reason to want to call my team off. I 
see no way in which killing a lion would cause a 
chaos.” 
I felt where I was, a certain jostle of my crimson 
cloud, now I realized I’ve almost forgotten that 
Oduduwa invited me to a feast. I smiled; my 
humble cloud is always there to remind me. So 
soon, I shall leave for the feast. Falade though 
sees some of these visions; however it is not in 
his power to seek the details. He only knows the 
little we want him to know. In as much as we’ll 
prefer a good time for our mortals and all, yet we 
must let destiny and fate have their stay. 
Falade left the king’s palace utterly disappointed, 
if you’ve got good eyesight, you’ll see those 
worry gather on his face. Falade wished he could 
actually just find a way to reach out to the lion 
and warn him. However he didn’t know his 
greatest of worries was yet to come. He could 
her drums, gongs and the villagers ‘songs as 
they send off the hunters. Not long after they left, 
he heard a knock on his door. “come in,” he said. 
Then three hefty strangers came in, they had 
bare chests and had linen-cotton underpants 
tapered by raffia leaves. The heftiest of the men, 
grabbed him like a little piece of log and flung 
him unto his muscle leaden shoulder another of 
the men held his kicking legs and then the third 
gagged his mouth very tightly and blindfolded 
him afterwards. The third man handed the 
second a tape with which they tied his leg and 
Falade was then carried off on the first shoulder. 
My cloud trembled again I smiled at the events 
down below me, I’ll go for the feast now. When I 
return, you shall get the rest of the event. 
To be continued………………………………………
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Scenerymania entry; predator and prey part 1

Predator and prey Men, they would never stop amazing me with their disbeliefs. My name is Orunmila and if you should ask a Yoruba ...

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...

Thesaurus entry; happiness

Happiness is a lovely rest stop and a lovely 
emotion, but it’s not the only emotion you 
need. Each of your emotions has a specific 
purpose and a specific place in your life. 
One of the biggest tricks to learn with 
happiness is to let it come and go — and to 
not treat it as better or more important than 
your other emotions. Every emotion has its 
place. 
If you treat happiness as your go-to emotion, 
you’ll suffer unnecessarily when your other 
emotions arise. You need anger, fear, 
sadness, jealousy, envy, guilt, grief, shame, 
and even depression (etc.) at times. If all you 
know and all you want is happiness, you’ll 
tend to avoid, ignore, suppress, or mistreat 
your other emotions, and then guess what? 
You won’t be happy very often. 
What I notice in working appropriately with 
the supposedly “negative” emotions is that 
when we work with them skillfully, we often 
feel happy, contented, or pleased afterward. 
It is as if happiness arises to tell us, “Good 
job! You’re getting the hang of emotions 
now, aren’t you?” 
I separate happiness into three 
categories: Happiness, Contentment, and Joy. 
In this list, we’ll look at them all together, 
just as we did with Anger and Fear.
Soft Happiness 
Smiling ~ Upbeat ~ Peaceful ~ Calm ~ 
Amused ~ Open ~ Friendly ~ Encouraged 
~ Hopeful ~ Inspired ~ Jovial
Mood State Happiness 
Happy ~ Glad ~ Content ~ Optimistic ~ 
Cheerful ~ Joyful ~ Satisfied ~ Lively ~ 
Delighted ~ Rejuvenated ~ Pleased ~ 
Gratified ~ Excited ~ Gleeful ~ Merry ~ 
Playful
Intense Happiness 
Elated ~ Exhilarated ~ Manic ~ Giddy ~ 
Euphoric ~ Awe-filled ~ Blissful ~ 
Enthralled ~ Rapturous ~ Jubilant ~ 
Ecstatic ~ Overjoyed ~ Radiant 
In the area of intense happiness, I included 
mania to remind us that there can be 
difficulty in the area of happiness. Intense 
euphoric experiences are excellent and 
fleeting, and they can change your entire 
outlook on life. However, they tend not to 
mesh well with activities that lead to your 
everyday happiness and security, such as 
attending to your relationships, working 
toward difficult goals, and paying the bills. 
Intense euphoric happiness is excellent in its 
place, but part of its beauty is that it is (or 
should be) comparatively rare.
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Thesaurus entry; happiness

Happiness is a lovely rest stop and a lovely emotion, but it’s not the only emotion you need. Each of your emotions has a specific purpos...

Writers tutorial entry; Novelist guide to writing only what they know

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In my novel One Amazing Thing, nine 
characters are trapped by an earthquake in the 
basement of a high-rise building. When they 
realize there’s no escape, they begin in their 
panic to lash out at one another. After a bad 
fight that brings down chunks of the ceiling, a 
student named Uma urges them to focus their 
energies on something positive by each sharing 
a story from their lives, something they’ve 
never told anyone. When one of the other 
women protests, saying she doesn’t have a 
story, Uma insists that everyone has at least 
“one amazing thing.” 
I, too, believe that we all have stories, 
wonderful, amazing ones floating around us—or 
even inside us—like magical spores. I have long 
relied on “found” stories—or snippets of them— 
to create my fiction. I’m not alone in this. Most 
of us bump up against amazing things more 
often than we realize. If we can remain in a 
state of openness, ready for the great story that 
might come to us any moment, and if we can 
learn to identify these moments of power, we’re 
off to a great start. But how to transform these 
moments into successful fiction? To create 
stories that are ours , that ring with authenticity, 
that have personal depth—but that are not 
restricted by the autobiographical? I’m going to 
share with you three techniques that have 
worked for me. 
—by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni 
1. Meld disparate experiences into an 
unlikely fictional unit. 
Sometime back, while on a visit to Kolkata, the 
Indian city of my birth, I went to see a friend in 
the old, northern part of the city. As we were 
chatting over tea, I heard a series of explosions. 
My friend explained that the old Chatterjee 
mansion on the corner was being demolished, 
to be replaced by an apartment complex. We 
went to the balcony to look at this beautiful, 
dilapidated home, with its aged marble exterior 
and its green-shuttered, floor-length windows. 
Even as we watched, a wrecking ball shattered 
a wall. Generations of families—grandparents, 
parents, widowed aunts, married sons with 
their wives and offspring—had loved and 
quarreled and outsmarted one another in that 
house. Its demise signaled the end of a way of 
life. 
That night I lay in bed and imagined residing 
within such an orthodox home as a girl. What 
would I have loved? How might I have felt 
restricted? What might have caused me to 
rebel? A single protagonist alone could not 
express all the reactions one could have to this 
world-within-a-world, filled with traditions and 
secrets. What if there was another girl, a 
cousin? What if she responded vastly differently 
to the same rules? What if she discovered a 
secret too terrible to tell her beloved cousin? 
These what-ifs (crucial to the writing process) 
fired up my imagination. I didn’t get any sleep 
that night, but by the time the hawkers on the 
street below started calling out their wares, I 
had the idea for my novel Sister of My Heart . 
During the rest of my visit, I went to as many 
old homes as I could. I mystified relatives by 
asking to see prayer rooms or storage areas 
under the stairs or old-style bathrooms with 
claw-footed tubs. I stood on terraces and 
recalled the games my cousins and I used to 
play. I looked down on the street below and 
tried to imagine how a young woman, restricted 
by orthodoxy, might feel as she viewed life 
passing her by. But in spite of all my field 
research, I still didn’t feel ready to write the 
novel. Something was missing, something 
pungent and powerful, a conflict that would 
impel the story forward. 
Back in the U.S., I continued searching for that 
missing something in newspapers, in 
magazines, in my daily interactions with 
people. A frustrating year passed. Then one 
day I came across a TV program that 
discussed the problem of fetal sex selection, a 
significant issue in India that had troubled me 
in the past. Pregnant women (often coerced by 
their in-laws) would go to prenatal centers to 
learn the sex of the unborn child. If the fetus 
was a girl, it would often be aborted. As I 
watched the grainy footage of dimly lit centers 
where women kept their faces averted, I began 
to imagine those faces—and how the women 
they belonged to might have felt. In my mind, 
suddenly, a face came into clearer focus: that 
of one of the cousins in Sister of My Heart. 
What would happen if she found herself in such 
a clinic? Who could she turn to? If her only 
choices were to have the abortion or to walk 
out of the marriage, what would she do? And, 
just like that, the missing chunk of the plot fell 
into place. Two very disparate experiences 
from my life, one personal and emotional, one 
objective and intellectual, had merged into an 
unlikely fictional unit. 
To take one personal experience that is 
meaningful to you and let it inspire or inform 
your work can be powerful. To translate more 
than one of them into a single work can be 
exponentially more so. After all, while you will 
likely come across many people who can relate 
firsthand to any one of your life’s experiences, 
only you have lived them all. Find innovative 
ways to revisit and reinvent these meaningful 
moments in your fiction, and you quite literally 
will be writing the story that only you can write. 
2. Take sides—against yourself. 
Sometime before I wrote “Mrs. Dutta Writes a 
Letter,” now my most anthologized short story, 
I had become aware of a growing problem in 
my community: the reluctant immigration of 
aging parents to the U.S. from India. Deprived 
of their familiar support systems, these 
immigrants did poorly in their new environment, 
often becoming depressed or ill. The issue 
made me uncomfortable. I knew I’d face a 
similar situation soon—my own widowed 
mother in India no longer had immediate family 
there. Indeed, a few months later, she came to 
our home on an extended visit. 
It was not a success. My mother found it 
difficult to adjust and resented being expected 
to change lifelong habits at her age. She was 
bored and lonely when my husband and I went 
to work—and sad, though I didn’t realize it 
then. 
I, too, was full of resentment. My life was 
disrupted by her demands. In addition to my 
work responsibilities, I ran around doing things 
for her all day—or so it seemed. By evening, I 
was too exhausted to even think of writing. 
Worst of all, nothing I did made her happy. 
When she returned to India, declaring that she 
would rather die there than live here, I felt both 
angered and guilty. 
To heal myself, I decided to write a story about 
the experience. I had an arsenal of details: How 
my mother would criticize me for asking my 
husband to share the household chores. How 
she would rise before dawn and clatter around 
the house, waking us all. How she refused to 
use the washer and dryer and would instead 
drape her hand-washed saris over the 
backyard fence, so that I lived in fear of 
complaints from our neighbors. 
But the more I dwelled on these facts, the 
worse I felt—not just as a person but as an 
artist. The characters in my story were wooden 
and unsympathetic. The mother was a 
harridan. The daughter was self-righteous and 
whiny. I threw away draft after draft in 
frustration. But I had to write this story! Go 
where the pain is , a writing teacher had once 
told me, and I knew from experience that she 
was right. 
I finally realized that the story wasn’t working 
because I had an agenda: to prove that I (thinly 
disguised as the fictional daughter) was a good 
person who had done her best with her 
unreasonable mother, the story’s villain. But in 
doing this, I was misusing the story form. 
Stories are for understanding the nuances of 
life, for empathizing with characters in spite of— 
or perhaps because of—their exasperating 
frailty. If I wanted my story to succeed, I had to 
give up my identification with the daughter and 
become the opponent. 
It was when I made old Mrs. Dutta the point- 
of-view character that the story came together. 
It wasn’t easy. But I forced myself to plunge 
into her homesickness for India. I finally began 
to feel her loneliness, her bafflement at being 
trapped in a country where the rules had 
changed overnight. And the story came to life. I 
understood this, too: The story did not need a 
villain; most stories don’t. Mrs. Dutta’s 
situation was compelling enough by itself. 
Your real-life conflicts are full of riches to be 
mined for your fiction. After all, conflict is what 
drives plot. But you may find, as I did, that 
you’re too close to the subject matter of your 
life’s battles to achieve the objectivity you need 
to tell the story with the complexity it deserves. 
Try stepping into your adversary’s shoes with 
honest empathy, and you may find the fresh 
perspective your story needs. 
3. Use your secret expertise. 
When I was planning my first novel, I knew I 
wanted it to be about immigrant life in America, 
its challenges and joys. The subject fascinated 
me because I was living it myself; it surrounded 
me on every side in my Indian-American 
community. But I didn’t want a realistic 
documentation of daily life to portray the ways 
in which we were changing America and being 
transformed by it. I’d already done that in my 
debut collection of stories, Arranged Marriage . 
This time I wanted something unusual and 
unexpected, something to astonish readers into 
delight and attention. 
The answer came to me one day when I was 
cooking. As I opened the steel container that 
held my spices and their pungent smells rose 
up to greet me, I thought of how recipes 
containing them had been passed down 
through generations of my family—not just to 
gratify the palate, but for their medicinal 
properties and lucky powers. I knew that 
turmeric was a germ killer that could be 
smeared on fish to preserve it until frying time. 
Considered sacred, it was also used in prayer 
ceremonies. Fenugreek soaked in water 
soothed stomach ailments. Red pepper thinned 
the blood, mitigated colds and guarded against 
the evil eye. All of this was common knowledge 
in my ancestral village. But here in America, this 
information was rare, even exotic. What if I 
created a character who truly understood 
spices? Who had studied them all her life and 
now used her knowledge to help her 
community? Where would I place her? 
It came to me that one of the most magical 
places I have encountered in this country is the 
Indian grocery store. Stepping into one is like 
stepping into a separate world. The shadowy 
aisles are crowded with mysterious substances 
—mysterious, that is, unless you possess a 
special knowledge. I visualized a woman 
walking the aisles, plunging her arm into a bin 
of coriander, tucking a stick of cinnamon into a 
lonely customer’s turban to bring him friends. 
That was how the idea, protagonist and setting 
for my first novel came to me: Tilo, the owner of 
the spice store, had special powers. She could 
look into her customers’ hearts; she could 
commune with the spices and ask them to do 
her bidding; in exchange for this power, she had 
promised never to fall in love. Suddenly I could 
see the plot structure: Many people would 
come to Tilo for assistance, and their problems 
would help the reader understand the 
immigrant community. I also had my conflict: 
Tilo would fall in love with one of the customers 
and be forced to choose between her power to 
do good and the love she craved. The resulting 
novel, The Mistress of Spices , became a 
bestseller. 
The things that are second nature to you, or 
that have fascinated you since childhood, can 
be some of your most authentic, amazing 
things—and yet authors often overlook them, 
hidden in plain sight. In fact, drawing on your 
secret expertise is perhaps the most natural 
way of all to write what you know. 
These techniques have helped me take the raw 
material of my life and shape it into fiction that 
no one else could have written. I am confident 
that if you experiment with them, you will be 
equally pleased with the results. 
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Writers tutorial entry; Novelist guide to writing only what they know

In my novel One Amazing Thing, nine characters are trapped by an earthquake in the basement of a high-rise building. When they realize t...

Featured profile entry; Tom Clancy (RIP)

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Thomas Leo Clancy was born in Rosedale, Maryland, U.S on the 12th of April 1947. He was a reknown novelist in the genres Techno-thriller, crime fiction, non-fiction and spy fiction, from 1969 until 2013 when he died. He wrote several novels 17 of which were best sellers. His latest novel was due to release this december. He was a joint partner in the establishment of Red Light Entertainment later bought by Ubi soft which saw to the release of the classic Tom Clancy games which includes: 
The Rainbow six series 
The Ghost Reckon series 
The H.A.W.X series 
The Splinter Cell series and 
The EndWar series. 
Death 
Clancy died on October 1, 2013, after a brief 
illness at Johns Hopkins Hospital , near his 
Baltimore home. Clancy is survived by 
his wife, Alexandra; their daughter, Alexis; 
and four children from a previous marriage 
to Wanda King: Michelle Bandy, Christine 
Blocksidge, Kathleen Clancy, Ph.D., and 
Thomas Clancy III.  The Chicago Tribune 
quoted Pulitzer Prize-winning author 
Stephen Hunter as saying, "When he 
published The Hunt for Red October he 
redefined and expanded the genre and as a 
consequence of that, a lot of people were 
able to publish such books who had 
previously been unable to do so." 
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Featured profile entry; Tom Clancy (RIP)

Thomas Leo Clancy was born in Rosedale, Maryland, U.S on the 12th of April 1947. He was a reknown novelist in the genres Techno-thriller, c...

Writers tutorial entry; Use character signatures to make minor characters memorable

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One secret of crafting a great story is to make 
your characters strong and memorable. That's 
no trick when you're introducing a major 
character or 'protagonist'. But what about 
those little people? 
When introducing minor characters, especially 
in a novel or long story, give them a ‘character 
signature ’ on their first appearance. This helps 
the reader to remember them later. 
When we first meet a person in the flesh, we 
note their physical shape, face, dress, manner 
of speech and behaviour. And usually in that 
order . Involuntarily, we tend to ‘file’ our 
memory of that person by the characteristics 
that we first noted. 
Of course, as we get to know that person - as in 
the case of a major character in a story - our 
first impressions are overwritten by all manner 
of other things. The character ‘develops’. 
But if we rarely or never meet that person 
again, as with a minor character in fiction, our 
initial memory sticks. That is a ‘character 
signature’. Here are some ideas for crafting one: 
a. Physiognomy or body shape. 
Be imaginative in your ‘signature’. Readers are 
unlikely to remember, merely from your 
description at the outset, that a person is tall, 
short, thin or fat. But they will remember ‘he 
heaved into the room, as massive as a bank 
vault door’. 
You can then remind them of his bulk later with 
variations on that signature eg: ‘he eased his 
weight into the chair’; ‘he smiled, and the vault 
creaked open; ‘his face slammed shut’, etc. 
b. A facial quirk. 
In his Dr Thorndyke stories, Austin Freeman 
makes his amiable inventor Polton 
unforgettable with one word. Every time Polton 
appears, his eyes or face ‘crinkle’. 
c. A habit of dress. 
We tend to prejudge people by their clothes. (If 
we didn’t, the fashion industry would collapse.) 
So any peculiarity of dress can give our 
characters a ‘signature’ eg: ‘her scarf was a 
piece of chewed string’. If the woman appears 
later, we need only make a reference to 
someone wearing a ‘chewed-string scarf' to 
identify the character. 
d. A tic of speech. 
Almost all of Dickens’s minor characters have 
some oddity of speech. Remember Sam 
Weller’s Cockneyisms and his pronunciation of 
‘v’ as ‘w’? Perhaps one of your minor characters 
could reiterate a distinctive phrase eg: ‘it 
cannot be denied’ (with later variants like ‘it is 
undeniable’, ‘nor can I deny it’, etc). 
I once gave a dotty old squire the 
catchphrase ‘as you say’ so that his 
friends could mercilessly lampoon him by 
echoing it: ‘as you say’, ‘would you say?’, 
‘do I say, sir?’, etc. Someone would only 
have to whisper with a wink 'as you say' - 
and the reader would know that the squire 
was about to appear! 
To make a character repulsive, of course, you 
could have him or her mindlessly repeat the 
word ‘whatever’. (Or whatever...). 
e. Some oddity of behaviour. 
How would you feel if a colleague at work, 
whom you’ve known for twenty years, greeted 
you every morning with a handshake? Gratified 
or nonplussed? It depends on your culture. 
What similar foible of behaviour might - 
instantly - add a personality (or cultural) trait 
to a minor character? A habit of chewing their 
beard? Of inspecting their nails? Of covering 
their mouth while they speak? Of invading 
another person’s body space, intentionally or 
not? Of backing away from other people? Of 
avoiding eye contact? Etc. 
Add this 'signature' to a minor character - and 
echo it whenever they appear - and the reader 
will be reminded of their personality. 
Just be careful not to overdo 'signatures' when 
portraying major characters. The key players 
in a story should quickly become so rounded 
and individual, like Sam Weller, that the reader 
will be unable to forget them! 
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Writers tutorial entry; Use character signatures to make minor characters memorable

One secret of crafting a great story is to make your characters strong and memorable. That's no trick when you're introducing a m...

Musical muse tutorial entry; Musical frustration

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Are you musically frustrated with yourself? Are 
you not the musician that you want to be? Or 
not as good as you could be or should be? Do 
you look with envy at other musicians who are 
doing what you wish you could be doing? Does 
reaching your musical goals seem out of reach? 
I think just about everyone has had these 
thoughts go through their mind from time to 
time. Fortunately, you are not alone and there 
are things you can do to combat the negativity 
of frustration. Many of the great masters of 
music have been frustrated at times with their 
own musical abilities. I've provided four (4) 
examples from famous classical composers: 
1. Ludwig von Beethoven (1770-1827) worked 
for long periods of time on his compositions 
before completing them. He revised his pieces 
over and over again, reworking them, doubting 
his original efforts. This was almost unheard of 
in Beethoven's time. Many of you may already 
know that Beethoven gradually became deaf 
later in his life. Because of this, Beethoven quit 
performing as a pianist in 1814 (13 years 
before his death). He stopped composing in 
1815. 
2. Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) was so 
frustrated with his composing abilities that he 
spent twenty-one (21) years composing his 
first symphony! He felt as if he could never 
compose a symphony as well as Beethoven. 
Brahms kept starting over with his symphony, 
revising it, abandoning it, starting over, 
reworking it, etc. 
3. Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) (master of 
symphonies), revised his symphonies and other 
works after having doubts about what he had 
composed originally. Mahler kept revising his 
works until his death. It must have been 
frustrating to keep revising pieces that were 
already published. 
4. Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) actually stopped 
composing for about 30 years because he felt 
that he had run out of new musical ideas. He 
doubted his abilities to compose anything 
worthwhile at the height of his popularity. He 
worked on new music for those 30 or so years, 
sketching his ideas during the day and 
throwing them away every time. That is some 
very serious frustration! 
Beethoven began composing again in 1817. 
Many of his most important compositions are 
from this last period in his life. Beethoven broke 
new ground and had done things never before 
done in music once he began working again. 
Had he continued to let the frustrations of his 
deafness paralyze him musically, Beethoven 
would not be as highly regarded as he is to this 
day. 
After the twenty-one (21) period of composing 
his first symphony, Brahms felt relieved. The 
shadow of Beethoven was lifted enough to 
allow Brahms to move forward. He finally found 
a way to move on and deal with his 
frustrations. He completed his next symphony 
in less than one year. 
Frustration can be help you or hurt you 
depending on how you deal with it. As you can 
see, Beethoven and Brahms eventually found 
positive ways to deal with their frustration and 
overcame it. Unfortunately, Sibelius never did. 
He is perhaps the most extreme example of a 
person who let frustration destroy him 
musically. Sadly, he died without finishing any 
substantial music compositions during the last 
30 years of his life! 
When I was a teenager, some friends of mine 
(all guitar players) and I went to see Yngwie 
Malmsteen perform in Chicago. After the 
concert had finished, some of my friends made 
comments about how they felt depressed after 
hearing Yngwie and that they just wanted to 
quit playing guitar completely. We were all 
young and knew how much better Yngwie was 
as a musician than we were. The main 
difference between their reaction and mine was 
they let their awe for Yngwie frustrate them to 
the point of feeling hopeless in their efforts to 
become better players. Many of my friends 
stopped playing their guitars for several days, 
one of them actually did quit completely. 
My reaction to the event was quite different. I 
used my awe for Yngwie as a massive positive 
inspiring force. I was so inspired that I went 
straight home and practiced through the night 
until I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. 
The point here is not to seek to avoid 
frustration, but to use it to your advantage. I 
have always turned my own musical 
frustrations as the biggest source of 
motivation. I was always looking for other 
players to jam with that were better than I was. 
Of course that was easy to do when I was a 
beginner and became increasingly more 
difficult over the years that followed. I got a lot 
out of those experiences. 
In a past article I wrote on perseverance, I 
wrote of the importance of believing in yourself 
and not giving up. I don't want to be too 
redundant here, but those points are worth 
mentioning briefly again. 
Too often players don't ever reach their own 
potential because they feel they couldn't 
measure up to other players or their own 
expectations. Why compare yourself to others. 
Does it really matter if you are, or are not, as 
good as someone else? Of course not. Music 
should not be thought of as a competitive 
sport. It is, and should be, an art. All that really 
matters is how well you are able to express 
yourself. Therefore the only question should be 
this: Do you currently have the skills to express 
yourself fully in music? 
As much as I have never liked or respected 
Nirvana's singer/songwriter/guitarist Kurt 
Cobain, I must admit that he was able to 
express himself fairly well. Despite the fact that 
Kurt's musical skills were primitive and very 
limited, one could hear his personality come 
through his music. It didn't matter that he was 
not a good guitarist. It didn't matter that his 
knowledge of music theory was probably close 
to zero. It also didn't matter that he played out 
of tune and had an absolutely sloppy guitar 
technique. Fortunately for him, what he wanted 
to express didn't require any of the skills that 
most musicians generally consider to be good 
and necessary. Had Kurt wanted to express 
anything more significant or complex he would 
have been extremely frustrated because he 
didn't have a lot of musicianship skills beyond 
what could be heard in his music. So in the end, 
it worked out well for him and my guess is that 
he probably wasn't very frustrated with himself 
musically because he wasn't trying to be a 
better guitarist, songwriter or singer than 
anyone else. He didn't make those types of 
comparisons between himself and the rest of 
the music world. 
This is, in my opinion, the only significant thing 
to that we can all follow. Of course Kurt 
Cobain's approach to not caring about those 
comparisons is certainly not a new idea, 
countless others before and after him have also 
done so. He is used here as an example 
because most everyone during our time knows 
him. 
In my own life, the thought of quitting guitar 
early on did occur in my mind (although never 
very seriously). As a teenager, I too was 
frustrated when I thought I may never become 
a virtuoso guitarist (like Yngwie or Jason 
Becker) and may never become a master 
composer (like Bach or Chopin). When I 
stopped trying to compete with everyone else 
and made new goals of self-expression, 
everything changed. I stopped making 
comparisons to other guitarists, composers 
and songwriters, because with my new goal, 
those comparisons did little or nothing to serve 
my new quest to simply express myself fully 
through music. I felt liberated from the burden 
of having to compete with the rest of the world. 
Beginning in the early 1990s, my only focus 
was on gaining more of the skills, tools, etc. 
that I would need to express what I had inside 
me. 
In my case, what I want to express does 
require a high level of guitar and compositional 
virtuosity, musical complexity and integrity, etc. 
Because I need those skills, my journey to 
reach a higher level of musicianship has taken 
a lot more time, effort, studying, etc. than it did 
for someone like Kurt Cobain who had very 
different needs to express himself than mine. 
Most musicians who will read this will have 
much greater musical ambitions than Kurt 
Cobain and so for you, you will feel frustrated 
whenever you feel limited by your abilities. The 
key is to use that as a positive force in the form 
of motivation and inspiration. Masters of all 
types of art have gone through what you are 
going through. Today you are at whatever skill 
level you are at. Through your frustration and 
motivation, you will eventually reach your 
current goals. As you reach those goals you 
will probably still feel frustrated because your 
desire to improve even further will make you 
establish new goals for yourself. And so the 
cycle will go on and on. But you too are 
progressing and improving on and on. 
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Musical muse tutorial entry; Musical frustration

Are you musically frustrated with yourself? Are you not the musician that you want to be? Or not as good as you could be or should be? Do...