The Bra Street Rambler

Welcome back to Ten Week's of challenges! If you don't fancy yourself a writer and have no interest in beginning, scroll on down for your challenge. Ten Weeks of Writer's Prep Week Nine: Know Your Resources! Last time around, the second last week of challenges was dedicated to research  (see here) , this time around I'm challenging you to know your resources. It's great to be able to do research, but it's even better- and quite frankly easier- when you know where to look. Here are some easy steps to help you determine where do look. 1. Know what you are looking to develop with your research.   Are you looking to develop your characters? Are you looking to develop the setting? Personally, I love the thesaurus series by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi, but take a look at various character and setting development books and website out there and find which ones work best for you. Don't forget that you can also expand your research by learn...

Welcome back to Ten Week's of challenges! If you don't fancy yourself a writer and have no interest in beginning, scroll on down for your challenge. Ten Weeks of Writer's Prep Week Eight: Social Media Death Traps! Our last Week Eight centered around Minions (See Here) , little helpers of evil that contribute to slowing down the protagonist. This time around, let's discuss the little real life minions that sometimes contribute to slowing you down as a writer. Yes, that's right, I'm referring to various social media platforms. That might mean Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Twitter, or any one of the many others available to us today. I myself often fall victim to the many rabbit holes of Facebook. Now to be clear, I'm not saying these platforms are bad, in fact facing this years global pandemic I do believe these things are keeping us all sane and am grateful they allow us to remain connected in so many ways. However, when it comes to sitting down...

Welcome back to Ten Week's of challenges! If you don't fancy yourself a writer and have no interest in beginning, scroll on down for your challenge. Ten Weeks of Writer's Prep Week Seven: Support Systems! Hey everyone! Our last Week Seven challenge revolved around creating proper sidekicks for your protagonist ( See Here ) but what about real life? The truth is, some of us could use a little support in our writing to keep our motivation going when we inevitably experience lulls. So why not acknowledge that you are the protagonist in your own writing experience and take a look around to identify your own writing sidekicks?  These are the people who will beg you for the next chapter or book so that they can read it, they might be the individuals you trust enough to use as a soundboard when figuring out your plot and characters, they may be the people you are comfortable receiving writing notes from, or perhaps they are the people who are even willing to edit your...

Welcome back to Ten Week's of challenges! If you don't fancy yourself a writer and have no interest in beginning, scroll on down for your challenge. Ten Weeks of Writer's Prep Week Six: Getting to Know Yourself as a Writer! Greetings writers, congratulations on making it this far into your challenges! If you're like me and going through isolation at home, hopefully you are able to take advantage of this time and these challenges to get something amazing out of your head and onto paper. Now, if you're new and struggling a little as you learn the ropes, or even if you're experienced and wondering why the flow might be lacking, one of the most important things that I recommend as a writer, one of the greatest pieces in your tool kits, is learning about yourself in all of your glory as a writer. Shouldn't writing be about getting to know your story or your characters? Absolutely! But more often than not, we force ourselves on these aspects and neg...

Welcome back to Ten Week's of challenges! If you don't fancy yourself a writer and have no interest in beginning, scroll on down for your challenge. Ten Weeks of Writer's Prep Week Five: Combating Blocks! Hey there Ramblers! During our first round of Ten Challenges, we explored  Conflicts . This time around, let us explore the most devastating conflict that can occur for a writer: writer's block! It pops up out of nowhere and turns the free-flowing fountain of ideas into a white brick wall. Writer's block is a pain in the butt and there are two ways of approaching it: offensively, and defensively. What do I mean? Going on the offensive with writer's block means striking it before it strikes you. In order to do this, you must prep, prep, prep! In past writing posts, I've shared with you that my personal preference is to create a physical timeline and fill it with as many story components as I can.  I put up a string, and hang the five key...

Greetings Rambler's, I do apologize for my impromptu hiatus, something came up and I had my mental health to prioritize. As long time readers will know by now, making time for self-care is something I feel strongly about. This brings us to today's post and my return to blogging. The world has become a very scary place indeed, as we live through history in the making, and face uncertainty at every turn. It is in times like these that we must come together, to help one another, and to find new ways to keep our spirits lifted. In this moment, I would like to send a Great Big Shout Out to Italy and Spain for the videos that have been circulating around the globe proving that even while on lock down, even while quarantined, even while practicing social distancing, we can come together to create something beautiful. If you haven't seen what I am referring to, I invite you to head over to YouTube and look up the many videos of citizens singing together, playing musi...