Yes, You Can - Writing Challenge Day 3

I am using this book to help me focus. I get so excited about writing that I jump from one idea to another. Then I don't know which to work on. This dovetails somewhat into the idea that Nancy suggests in her book. This is to turn your weaknesses into strengths. But how do you turn a weakness of jumping about from one story idea to another into a strength? That she doesn't address.

So I will focus on what she does suggest. As an example, if you love to read books then use that love of reading to see if you can do a book review. That sounds doable to me. As I read lots of children's books I could see about doing a book review column. I have sent out queries to 6 ezines with that suggestion. Next I will try some local sources. What I am learning here is that writing entails research for not only your ideas but new sources where they can be placed. It is getting me to think outside the box as to other ways of writing.

The Benefits...This is getting me to focus on writing the dreaded "query" email. I re-wrote it three times from the first email to the sixth one. I also discovered there are a lot of ezines out there that already have book reviews, but that isn't stopping me. Even if I don't get a column I can still write reviews on Amazon and other sources. This will continue to hone my writing skills.

What's in a Name?

As authors we get to choose our characters names so the names fit the character. Naming your character assists in connecting the reader to the story. If I am writing a story for young children I will use names with which they are familiar. Let's say the story is geared to 8-10 year olds. I will go to the U.S. census and find what the most popular babies names were for that year. One of the most popular names was Ashley. This gives some context to the reader as they will probably know someone who has that name. They will begin to put a face to that character from what they know. This draws the reader more into the story.

I also did this when I was writing a folktale. I wanted my characters names to describe who they are. So I went online to find a name that meant beautiful. I found several choices but the one I chose was Milana. It's fun to look through the meaning for names and where they originated.

You may not always find a name for the word description you list. I tried to find a name that meant one who is slow and one who is lazy. I guess that's a good thing. Could you imagine how you might feel if you discovered that was the meaning of your birth name? Can you say petition the court for a name change?

Here's a great link if you want to look up names for fun or for writing... http://babynamesworld.parentsconnect.com/