creativity

Because There Are Lies, Secrets, and Scars

Lynette M Burrows

The plot is what happens to your character. The story is about how your character reacts to the things that happen. It’s simple cause and effect, right? Hold on there. It’s not quite that simple. For the most effective story your forces of antagonism (see this post) and your character’s lies, secrets, and scars (see this post) are interwoven. Easy for me to say. Difficult to do. Until you have the golden ticket. What’s that golden ticket? Because there are lies, secrets, and scars and opposition, there is a unique plot. Writers often worry about a story being “done to death.” It’s easy to believe there are no new stories in the world. One look at all the titles in Amazon can overwhelm you. Let’s rephrase. There are no new story concepts in the world. A story concept is reducing the story to the basics. Concepts include: the revenge plot, the detective story, the space marine story, and so on. There are hundreds if not millions of stories about revenge. That’s the test. If it’s a concept, there are lots of other stories like it. So how is a writer to make his story stand out? You make choices. Your […]

Energize Your Imagination: Be a Child

Lynette M Burrows

Everyone tires eventually. The details of life and the repetitiveness of routines dull our senses. Still, we push aside imagination and play for more important, more adult duties. And that is a disservice to our selves. We need reminders. Being an adult doesn’t mean you have to ONLY be an adult. Energize your imagination: be a child. Recently, I’ve fallen into this trap of always adulting. I’m a caregiver, responsible for all the household stuff, and caring for my dogs. I’ve been preparing for the publishing and launch of my novel. And I’m taking a short online course. In all the doing, I’ve not written new fiction for a month. And that made me cranky. My online class challenged me to do a video and publish it on my site. That reminded me that a friend had recommended a free website called Lumen5. I checked out the website and decided I’d do my assignment on it. But I hit a creative wall. What do I make the video about? I decided to use an old post This video, more accurately slideshow, is a re-imagination of the post called, Be a Child. It was a timely reminder for me. BE A CHILD It wasn’t difficult, […]

Inspiration Never Gets Old--a brief introduction to the Later Bloomers webite

Inspiration Never Gets Old

Lynette M Burrows

For this week’s post, I want to introduce you to a website full of inspiration. I’m talking about LaterBloomer.com by Debra Eve. Its tagline is “Creativity never gets old.” That’s true, but it’s also a site where Inspiration never gets old. Debra calls herself a proud later bloomer and possessor of many passions. On her website, she profiles a later bloomer once a month. According to Debra, “Being a Later Bloomer has nothing to do with being late. Like the pomegranate tree that fruits in fall, we all bloom in our own time.” The folks she profiles are sometimes famous, sometimes not. All her profiles are about people who find their creative path after 35 years of age, many were older than 50 when they found their life’s work. Her profiles include artists, athletes, explorers, and writers. And while the stories of artists and writers are among my favorites, the category near and dear to my heart is titled, “Women.” Athletes I love her profile on Olga Kotelko, an athletic prodigy who at age 77 hired a coach then went on to set records and win medals. Olga was one determined lady! Debra’s blog posts cover her own journey and […]