What I Learned From… Adversity

April 7th, 2009

This is the first group write project I’m taking part in. The “What I Learned From…” groupwrite is a monthly project by Robert Hruzek at Middle Zone Musings and the Adversity theme is outlined here.

So, why do these? For a few reasons:

Firstly, it will be a challenge to me as a writer and will [...] Continue Reading…

Saladin Akara Group Writing Projects

Disbelief? Suspend it!

April 6th, 2009

Following on from my previous post on realism, I was reading an article by Vicki Hinze on the Fiction Factor website. It discusses suspension of disbelief when writing fiction.

But, what is this idea of suspending disbelief? It’s all about making your readers be able to believe that what you are writing is, or could [...] Continue Reading…

Saladin Akara General Writing, Hints and Tips , , ,

My First E-publication

April 5th, 2009

Having seen George Angus’ review of the e-book publishing service Smashwords over at Tumblemoose Writing Services, I knew I just had to give it a try. E-books, while still only making up a very tiny percentage of book sales, are a growing industry. The proliferation of such gadgets as the Sony Reader and the [...] Continue Reading…

Saladin Akara General, General Writing, Roleplaying , , ,

Twitter As a Writing Tool

April 3rd, 2009

For the past two or three weeks, I’ve been getting myself involved with Twitter for the first time. It’s certainly an interesting beast: 140 characters to get your message across. Anything from what you are doing at any given moment, to chatting with other Twitters in the ‘Twitterverse.’ Think of a heavily simplified Facebook [...] Continue Reading…

Saladin Akara General, General Writing

Writing in Collaboration

April 2nd, 2009

A couple of days ago I was discussing with a few people over on Roleplay Gateway about an idea to write something collaboratively, but with a slight twist on the usual roleplaying basis. The main jist of the idea can be found here and a thread for discussion here.

Essentially, myself and four other writers [...] Continue Reading…

Saladin Akara General Writing

Critiques: A Writer’s Best Tool?

March 31st, 2009

Jamie over at How Not To Write wrote an interesting article on Sunday about receiving a critique from an external service, and his view on the critique given was certainly enlightening.

It can be difficult at times to take criticism. To be told that something we have spent time, effort, sweat and maybe even blood [...] Continue Reading…

Saladin Akara General Writing, Hints and Tips

Reality in Fiction

March 27th, 2009

Browsing through a website designed for fiction writers like myself, I found an interesting article about the use of horses. This got me thinking about my own writing and that of others. Despite writing fiction, we must remember that certain rules still exist.

Whether the world we are writing is full of vampires, demons, elves, [...] Continue Reading…

Saladin Akara General Writing

Young Writers and Confidence

March 19th, 2009

The past couple of days, I’ve been catching up on the blog archives of Joanna Young’s Confident Writing blog, which centres around developing confidence in writing. This got me thinking about the numerous young writers I see on various roleplaying forums.

It can certainly be intimidating to join a writing community where there are more [...] Continue Reading…

Saladin Akara General Writing, Roleplaying

The First Step

March 19th, 2009

This is the first step of my journey as a writer. My first blog entry! I’d like to thank primarily Joanna Young over at Confident Writing for inspiring me to actually write a blog.

The purpose of this blog is to document my progresion as a writer. My thoughts, inspirations, problems (writer’s block and what [...] Continue Reading…

Saladin Akara General