Friday Five Minute Exercise - Labels

1. Set your clocks/timers for Five (5) Minutes.

2. Write about Labels. Write about the close-minded identities we as humans sometimes bestow upon each other. Does labeling negate the human soul in some way? Does labeling affect your ability to write with an open and true heart? Get into as much detail as you can for the next five minutes.

3. Ready?

4. Go.

5. Finished? Review and be amazed.

I hope you had fun. Come back next Friday for a new writing prompt.

Was this exercise helpful?

Did you succeed with this writing exercise? Was it helpful? Were you able to find and write about your own ability to write with an open and true heart despite labeling? Were you able to define how labeling negates the human soul in some way?

Why or Why Not?

Writing Tips - 10 Techniques to Spark the Writing

From Gotham Writers' Workshop Inc. and from an article in The Guardian comes writing advice from the Poet Laureate of the UK, Andrew Motion.

10 Techniques to Spark the Writing

1. Decide when in the day (or night) it bests suits you to write, and organise your life accordingly.
2. Think with your senses as well as your brain.
3. Honour the miraculousness of the ordinary.
4. Lock different characters/elements in a room and tell them to get on.
5. Remember there is no such thing as nonsense.
6. Bear in mind Wilde's dictum that "only mediocrities develop" - and challenge it.
7. Let your work stand before deciding whether or not to serve.
8. Think big and stay particular.
9. Write for tomorrow, not for today.
10. Work hard.

Friday Five Minute Exercise - Self Awareness

1. Set your clocks/timers for Five (5) Minutes.

2. Write about Self Awareness. Are you a person that looks inward in order to improve yourself and the world around you? Are you aware of the repetitive behaviors that affect your daily choices? Does being aware of your spirit make you a better writer? Get into as much detail as you can for the next five minutes.

3. Ready?

4. Go.

5. Finished? Review and be amazed.

I hope you had fun. Come back next Friday for a new writing prompt.

Was this exercise helpful?

Did you succeed with this writing exercise? Was it helpful? Were you able to find and write about your own self awareness and how you are able to improve yourself? Were you able to define how self awareness of your own spirit makes you a better writer?

Why or Why Not?

Happy SITS Day to Your Writing Coach

Good morning and Happy Tuesday! The day has finally come…it’s my SITS Day! For those of you who aren’t familiar with SITS, SITS (Secret is the Sauce) is a networking website for women bloggers.it is a community of 40,000 women bloggers who provide support, share tips, and encourage one another through the journey of blogging. It’s a great way to meet new bloggers and get fantastic blogging tips and information. Interested in checking it out? Head on over to SITS here! 

Let me tell you about Your Writing Coach. It grew out of a love I have for helping fellow writers. I am an award winning author and was always being asked about how I did this or that, or if I would proofread something. I ran an editing group for a while, but It wasn't "global" enough. Our critique group was only successful if we kept it small. So, I decided to take my help and opinions and research to the Internet. Thus, Your Writing Coach was born.

I give writing tips, writing exercises, and do the research for you when it comes to how to use possessives or capitalization. I did a whole series on "The Least You Should Know about English" and it was a great hit.

I also share my posts with the Indie Writers Network as I'm a group moderator over there. One of the things I like to share over there are quotes from authors and good writing books. Check them out if you get the chance.

On the left side of my blog is a list of links to other blogs and Internet pages I think you'll like. If you have something for me to add, please let me know.

Some personal information about me. I'm married to a wonderful man, we have an American Eskimo dog and Sun Conure parrot at home along with a 400 gallon saltwater aquarium. My three children are grown and on their own and they've given me three wonderful grandchildren with a new one on the way due in November. I'm so excited!

I live in vacationland Florida and we enjoy the water as much as we can. My husband is an avid diver and underwater photographer. I paddle around on top as a snorkeler. 

I have this blog and another more personal blog called Vicki's Blog.

I am owner of several websites such as Vicki M. Taylor, author and My Balanced Life.

I also write articles for the International Bipolar Foundation. This article was written for May Mental Health Month, called What Mental Health Means to Me.

Thank you for visiting and I hope you stick around and check out my site and the four years of blogs I've written. Hopefully, you'll find something useful.

Have a blessed day!

Writing Tips - 6 Questions / 6 Rules

From Gotham Writers' Workshop Inc. comes some of George Orwell's writing tips from his essay Politics and the English Language.

A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, Orwell will ask himself at least four questions:

1. What am I trying to say?
2. What words will express it?
3. What image or idiom will make it clearer?
4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?

And, he will probably ask himself two more:

1. Could I put it more shortly?
2. Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?

One can often be in doubt about the effect of a word or phrase, and one needs rules that one can rely on when instinct fails. Orwell thinks the following rules will cover most cases:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Friday Five Minute Exercise - Relationships

1. Set your clocks/timers for Five (5) Minutes.

2. Write about Relationships. How do you achieve independence in your relationships? Do you find it difficult to remain true to your heart as you grow closer to others? Get into as much detail as you can for the next five minutes.

3. Ready?

4. Go.

5. Finished? Review and be amazed.

I hope you had fun. Come back next Friday for a new writing prompt.

Was this exercise helpful?

Did you succeed with this writing exercise? Was it helpful? Were you able to find and write about your own relationships and remain true to your heart? Were you able to define how you can remain independent while growing closer to others?

Why or Why Not?

Writing Tips - 5 Essentials for the Betterment of a Story

From Gotham Writers' Workshop Inc. comes the following advice from Edgar Allan Poe for bettering a story. *

1. Employ an unreliable narrator, preferably one who doesn't know he is insane and has no recollection of such events as digging into a grave to rip out the teeth of his recently departed lover.

2. Include a beautiful woman with raven locks and porcelain skin, preferably quite young, and let her die tragically of some unknown ailment.

3. Use grandiloquent words, such as heretofore, forthwith, and nevermore. A little Latin will also enhance the text.

4. Do not shy away from such grotesqueries as inebriation, imprisonment, insanity, and men costumed as orangutans being burned to death.

5. When in doubt, bury someone alive.

* Poe didn't really compose this advice, but, as he was fond of a good hoax, he should be pleased by this affectionate charade.

Friday Five Minute Exercise - Independence

1. Set your clocks/timers for Five (5) Minutes.

2. Write about Independence. Are you an independent person? How do you define independence? How does it relate to your writing? Does being independent make life more or less difficult? Get into as much detail as you can for the next five minutes.

3. Ready?

4. Go.

5. Finished? Review and be amazed.

I hope you had fun. Come back next Friday for a new writing prompt.

Was this exercise helpful?

Did you succeed with this writing exercise? Was it helpful? Were you able to find and write about your own independence? Were you able to define how being independent and how it relates to your writing style?

Why or Why Not?

Writing Tips - 11 Composition Principles

From Gotham Writers' Workshop Inc. comes 11 Composition Principles from the authors of The Elements of Style from which comes the wisdom of the Elementary Principles of Composition.

1. Choose a suitable design and stick to it.

2. Make the paragraph the unit of composition.

3. Use the active voice.

4. Put statements in positive form.

5. Use definite, specific, concrete language.

6. Omit needless words.

7. Avoid a succession of loose sentences.

8. Express coordinate ideas in similar form.

9. Keep related words together.

10. In summaries, keep to one tense.

11. Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end.

An excellent source of writing tips. We'll visit this tiny book again.