Tipsday: Informal writerly learnings, Oct 23-29, 2022

Welcome to November! This will be the last tipsday until December 13th (!) That’s right, I’m NaNoing again and foregoing curation until December. Get your fill of informal writerly learnings now!

You could always peruse the archives if you miss tipsday too much 😉

Vaughn Roycroft presents Murphy’s Law—the unboxed writer’s version. Elizabeth Havey: what was that phrase about authenticity? Kelsey Allagood shares what horror teaches us. Then, Sarah Penner is making the most of Canva with these seven design ideas for writers. Victoria Strauss explains when new isn’t better: the value of experience. Writer Unboxed

Clive Barker’s weirdest monster. Tale Foundry

C.S. Lakin stops by K.M. Weiland’s site: how writers can infuse mood in story settings. Helping Writers Become Authors

Over on her own site, Susanne discusses writing about difficult emotional experiences. Live, Write, Thrive

Then, Susanne explains how to quickly establish the setting in scenes. Elizabeth Spann Craig

How school makes you a bad writer. Answer in Progress

Kris Maze offers the ABCs of school author talks: how to engage kids. Eldred Bird: writing horror vs. writing terror. J. Alexander Greenwood is making a podcast love connection. Writers in the Storm

Why the Bechdel test isn’t enough. The Take

Manuela Williams suggests some revision strategies for your poet’s toolbox. Then, Dominique Richardson wonders, should you write a YA series today? John Matthew Fox lists five ways movies sabotage your writing skills. DIY MFA

Don’t force your characters to ask leading questions just so you can deliver exposition. Nathan Bransford

Ann-Marie MacDonald on her new novel Fayne and the stage adaptation of Fall on Your Knees. CBC’s Q

Elizabeth Sims lists 20 reasons everybody should write short stories. Then, Michael Mohr reveals the secret sauce to being a good writer. Jane Friedman

Rayne Hall explains how to write a spooky ghost story. Fiction University

Why ASL was banned in America. Otherwords | PBS Storied

Tiffany Yates Martin discusses peopling your stories (and your world) with individuals. Fox Print Editorial

Colleen M. Story shows you how to tell if you’re self-publishing your book for the right reasons. Writers Helping Writers

What makes a good story idea? Shaelin Writes

Chris Winkle shares lessons from the entitled writing of Yarnsworld. Then, Oren Ashkenazi analyzes five stories that fail at human resources. Mythcreants

Sir Salman Rushdie has lost sight in one eye, agent Andrew Wylie. BBC

Thank you for spending some time with me. I hope you took away something to support your current work(s) in progress.

Until Thursday, keep staying safe and well.

Caturday Quickies: The further adventures of hardy northern chick

So.

After my adventure getting down to Toronto last week, I thought I’d had enough of an adventure.

Seems the universe disagreed with me.

On Monday night, I got stuck in one of the hotel elevators for an hour and a half.

This was a first for me. I’d heard of, and I’ve know of, many people who have been stuck in elevators over the years.  I’ve seen it countless times on television and in movies.

Another experience for the idea file 🙂

Now, anyone who knows me, knows that I’m laid back. I’ll apologize in advance for the true story not being exciting, but here it is, for the record:

I was on the twelfth floor. I called the elevator, it arrived, I got on, and pressed the button for the main floor. The elevator descended, stopped, and then nothing happened.

I pressed the main floor button again, just in case. Nothing. I pressed the open door button. Nothing.

Swearing silently at my luck, I briefly considered hitting the “Alarm” button, but figured that it would only be loud and irritating, and I’d only be able to handle that for a handful of seconds before I went crazy.

So I looked around for some kind of call button, or an intercom. There was a phone behind a brass door beneath the button panel. I picked it up.

It connected me to the front desk. I explained my situation, and the desk clerk advised that he was sending his colleague down to reset the elevator in the control room.

They did that twice. I received three more calls from the front desk with status reports. I think I was expected to be claustrophobic, freak out somehow. The first reset had failed, and the second. They had called the service technician, but he was 45 minutes out from the hotel.

So I hunkered down on the floor and tried to get comfortable. What would be the point of When life gives you lemonsgetting upset?  I kind of dozed, but it was about as useful as trying to sleep on the red-eye back from Vancouver last fall.

The desk clerk called back as the technician opened the door to tell me that the technician had arrived. Um, yeah.

The technician advised me to jump for it. He was funny.

So that was my Monday night adventure.

It made for a great story in class the next morning: so what did you do last night?

And when I told Phil, he laughed at me. Nice one, dude.

By the way, what do you think of my first attempt at using Canva (for the picture)? From the user perspective, it wasn’t bad. Just getting used to the interface. Not sure if the wordage works either. It reflects my personality, but it’s a bit past its best before date 😛

Caturday Quickies