10 Reasons Why Being A Writer is Like Being A Parent

Today is my son’s 2nd birthday. Even though I’ve written this in advance, trust me when I say, I cannot believe that two years has passed. Time has always seemed to fly by, but its at moments like this that I really get shocked at just how much has slipped through my fingers without me being mindful. I look at him with his curls bouncing under 3 feet of body, yeah – he’s already over half my height!  I still wonder where on earth he came from, and how he can have been inside my tummy and yet, in two short years, talks and giggles and poops like a machine!

It got me thinking about just how similar being a parent is to being a writer. Here’s why:

Writespiration #68 The Odd One Out

Often, heroes are the odd ones out because they think outside the box and solve mysteries or problem. But this challenge isn’t confined to heroes. You could write about inanimate objects, or kids or animals, maybe the black sheep in a family. You could write about any number of things that are odd or unusual.

This week there are two parts to the challenge. 1. write a story or poem about the odd one out. 2. do it in 200 words or less.

Here’s mine:

Warning: These 10 Top Tips Will Help You Write Seriously Authentic Lesbian Characters

After my rant last week about the lack of LGBT characters in mainstream fiction, I thought I really ought to make some kind of suggestion as to what the differences are, (and there aren’t many) in order to help writers who want to write LGBT characters but haven’t plucked up the courage yet.

I really did have to rack my brain to find something useful to say because there isn’t much. We are human just like the rest of the world. For those looking for tips on writing gay male characters, I’m not going to be helpful in this post. I’ve stuck to what I know…lesbians. 

Interview with Author Terry Tyler

I said before that there might be one more author interview, and there is, and what a whopper to go out on. Today I give you, the truly fantastic, utterly prolific author, huge supporter of fellow writers, Zodiac queen and twitter mogul Terry Tyler. I am genuinely honoured to host her and her recent book release The House Of York. You can find Terry on: Twitter, Blog or Amazon.

Writespiration #67 – 60 Second Stories

Yes, I know. I’m  cheating massively this month with writespirations. But hey, I am doing NaNo, and I know lots of you are too. So after the rather hard task of horror last week, this week is nice an easy. We have done it before.

Get a timer, set it for sixty seconds, DON’T click through to this post until you are ready to write, the word is at the top of the post this time. Look at the word, write for 60 seconds…. Ready? GO!

Where Are All The LGBT Characters?

Can anyone tell me a blockbuster famous novel they have read with a main character that was either gay or lesbian? Don’t worry, I’ll wait whilst you scratch your head to think… still haven’t thought of one? No. Me neither. Anyone else got an issue with that? Because I really do.

Writespiration #66 2 Sentence Horror Story

One of my ongoing series is about villains and creating the scariest, most evil of all bad guys. A friend showed me this concept somewhere else so I thought it would be nice to break up the NaNo-age with a bit of a trip to the dark side.

Two sentences… make em as scary as you can… Here’s mine:

Evoking Memories – A Writers Must

I spoke a little about evoking memories recently in my post: 5 Reasons Why Writers Should Be Secret Agents. But I wanted to delve a little deeper into the science behind how senses and in particular smell can evoke memories, why it can be so powerful and more importantly, why writers need to exploit the use of smell in their work.

Do you have a smell, or ‘thing’ that makes you recall an incident or memory vividly? If so what is it? Let me know in the comments. Is it a sound? Or smell? Or maybe the feel of a certain fabric?

Interview With Author Kevin Morris

This week we have Kevin Morris, who takes the honour of being the last formal author interview, next week we may have a guest interview running along these lines, but for now, this brings an end to the author interviews. I want to thank everyone who took the time to participate and share their world wisdom with me. I have learnt loads from you all. I am still open to the occasional guest blogs/posts, but I am putting a pause on these author interviews temporarily whilst I focus on getting novels written. Without further  ado, I welcome Kevin.

You can find him on his website and amazon.

Writespiration #65 Six Word Stories

I’ve done this challenge before, but hey, it is NaNo month, and I know most of you will be focusing on bashing out novels. So I thought I would do the quickest challenge there is this week.

As I said before one of my favourite writing procrastinations is the Six Word Memoir website. It does what it says on the tin and asks you to write a memoir or story in six words. So I challenge you to do the same, right here, right now, and I will post it with next weeks Writespiration. While your at it, why not post on their website too?

Here’s mine: