A cozy cottage for writers and book lovers
Hi guys! Welcome to the first challenge of World of Horror. I wanted you to write a horror story in two sentence. Just TWO. Because this is the first challenge there are no rules to limit your writing.
I’ll announce the winners tomorrow night.
Good luck đ
Amir.H.Ghazi
Author Ben Mears returns to âSalem’s Lot to write a book about a house that has haunted him since childhood only to find his isolated hometown infested with vampires. While the vampires claim more victims, Mears convinces a small group of believers to combat the undead.
Amir.H.Ghazi
1. NOVELS!
If you want to write fiction, youâve got to read fiction. A whole freaking lot of it.
Start by reading any and every short story and novel you can get your hands on. Donât worry about taking notes or thinking too much into the stories. Just read. Chances are, youâve already done a lot of it. All writers come to writing through reading first.
Spend as much time as you can spare browsing new book stores, used book stores, and ebook stores. Free ebooks are a great resource that cost very little and theyâre all over the place. There are a lot of great free titles out there, especially some of the classics that are in the public domain.
2. Notebooks
Carry notebooks with you as often as you can. I like the solid dependability of a large Moleskine Classic, but buy whatever kind of notebook pleases you the most. This is your happy place.
Immediately make a habit out of journaling. Write every day, even if itâs just about the weather or what you had for breakfast.
This is a judgement free zone, so donât worry if what you write sucks or doesnât make sense. Just fill the pages, and when you get to the end of that notebook buy another one, and then another, and then another.
When it becomes harder not to write than it is to write, youâve accomplished your goal. Youâve made writing into a habit.
3. Software
Journaling is all well and good, but itâs not very productive.
Once you start writing stories youâll want to use a word processor. Weâre beyond typewriters, so I donât mean those. I mean word processing software.
With the rise in ebooks, doing things digitally first makes a lot of sense and saves you extra work anyways. Donât commit yourself to the pain of writing longhand in the 21st century. Though writing longhand has its own therapeutic benefits, typing on a keyboard is much faster.
Thereâs a number of word processing software options out there, so Iâm going to go through the common ones first:
Microsoft Word â I think they killed that chummy paperclip guy, but Microsoft Word is still the most popular word processor. It gets the job done.
Pages â This is the word processor that comes with Mac OS X. Like Word, it gets the job done, but itâs not great.
Open Office â Just as good as Word or Pages, but free. I can condone that.
And now the king of word processing software for fiction writers:
Scrivener â Scrivener changed my life as a writer. Itâs easy to use, easy to keep organized, infinitely flexible, and for those long-term thinkers, you can compile straight to any format, including ebook formats that are ready to publish on Kindle and various other ebook platforms. It has character and setting sketch templates (weâll go into more detail about character and setting sketches in the next two articles), it autosaves your work, and it rarely ever crashes (unlike the options above). I could go on for days about Scrivener.
4. Grammar and Style Guides
Every writer needs a firm schooling in grammar doâs and donâts as early as possible.
English grammar can take a lifetime to master, which is why there are these handy style guides you can keep around and reference while youâre doing your work.
These guides, plus a dictionary and a thesaurus (I like dictionary.com for those), are a must have for every writerâs toolbox.
Iâve written in detail about these three essential style guides for writers. But for easy linking, here they are again:
The Elements of Style by Strunk and White
The Star Copy Style by The Kansas City Star
The Tools of the Writer by Roy Peter Clark
5. Study of Craft
Now that youâve studied grammar, read the kind of fiction you want to write, kept a journal, and found the right software, you should take a step back and study the craft of writing fiction by reading some nonfiction books on the subject.
6. Writing Groups
Writing groups are my favorite tool of all. Theyâre a great way to meet other writers and put your skills to the test. Being a part of a writing group and workshopping your stories is, in my opinion, the absolute fastest and most surefire way to learn how to write fiction.
Writing groups provide:
Moral support. Other writers understand when you complain that writing is hard.
Like-minded people. Share your hopes and dreams with like-minded people.
Feedback. The invaluable critique that comes with workshopping manuscripts. They will give you honest feedback even when you donât want to hear it.
Healthy competition. Seeing other people produce work is the best motivation for a writer who is not writing.
Amir.H.Ghazi
Some content on this page was disabled on January 8, 2019 as a result of a DMCA takedown notice from Dimitrios Stefanis. You can learn more about the DMCA here:
On highways across America, a tribe of people called The True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmlessâmostly old, lots of polyester, and married to their RVs. But as Dan Torrance knows, and tween Abra Stone learns, The True Knot are quasi-immortal, living off the âsteamâ that children with the âshiningâ produce when they are slowly tortured to death.
Haunted by the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel where he spent one horrific childhood year, Dan has been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his fatherâs legacy of despair, alcoholism, and violence. Finally, he settles in a New Hampshire town, an AA community that sustains him, and a job at a nursing home where his remnant âshiningâ power provides the crucial final comfort to the dying. Aided by a prescient cat, he becomes âDoctor Sleep.â
Then Dan meets the evanescent Abra Stone, and it is her spectacular gift, the brightest shining ever seen, that reignites Danâs own demons and summons him to a battle for Abraâs soul and survival. This is an epic war between good and evil, a gory, glorious story that will thrill the millions of hyper-devoted readers of The Shining and wildly satisfy anyone new to the territory of this icon in the King canon.
Amir.H.Ghazi
Jack Torrance, his wife Wendy, and their young son Danny move into the Overlook Hotel, where Jack has been hired as the winter caretaker. Cut off from civilization for months, Jack hopes to battle alcoholism and uncontrolled rage while writing a play. Evil forces residing in the Overlook â which has a long and violent history â covet young Danny for his precognitive powers and exploit Jackâs weaknesses to try to claim the boy.
Amir.H.Ghazi
Creative visualization is the fundamental technique underlying reality creation. It is the process of using your thought power to consciously imagine, create and attract to yourself that which you intend to experience in your life. Mastering creative visualization grants you direct control over your thoughts at the subconscious level. While there are several ways to programme the subconscious mind, visualization is the most effective and its results the most rapid.
The visualization techniques outlined here will enable you to harness the creative power of your thoughts to change your circumstances and consciously choose the life you create. There are five basic steps to visualizing your intentions for reality creation: Relax – Imagine – Feel – Believe – Detach.
Step 1 – Relax: The first step is to relax your body and empty your mind. Find a comfortable seat, sit upright, breathe deeply and steadily, count down slowly from 25 to 1 while relaxing all your muscle groups from head to toe. Empty your mind by focusing on your breathing.
Step 2 – Imagine: The second step in the creative visualization process is learning to imagine your intended outcome. Your imagination is the engine of your thoughts. It converts your thought power into mental images. Imagine your ideal reality in the present moment, bring your pictures to life as if watching a movie, concentrate your thoughts with laser like precision and indulge all your senses.
Step 3 – Feel: The third step is to really feel what it would feel like if you already had that which you have mentally chosen in the present physical moment. Where imagination is the engine of your thoughts, your feelings are the fuel. Your e-motions are energy in motion – they bring your images to life.
Step 4 – Believe: The fourth step is to believe that you already have your mental intentions in the present moment. The words of Jesus Christ were clear on this in Mark 11:24, “What things soever you ask for when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them”. This is not about wishful thinking or lying to yourself. It is about knowing the scientific truth behind reality creation and having the kind of faith that is the “evidence of things not seen”.
Step 5 – Detach: The fifth and final step in the creative visualization process cannot be emphasized enough – detachment. Detach yourself from the outcome you intend to see manifest in your life. Whenever you are attached to someone or something, you effectively strip yourself of your authentic power to consciously create the life you choose. You cannot be grateful or feel unconditional love or enjoy peace of mind when you are attached to the unfolding of a specific outcome, so detach, detach, detach.
Practice is Key: You must practice, practice, practice. Set aside a time each day for your creative visualizations, preferably once in the morning upon waking and once in the evening before you go to sleep. Both these times are ideal as your mind is already in a semi-relaxed state. Once you have mastered this simple five step process, you will see your life transforming in miraculous ways.
Getting On With It: Once you have completed the process, get on with the rest of your day. To bring yourself back to a normal waking state, simply continue to breathe deeply and rhythmically and count up from 1 to 5 consciously waking yourself from the relaxed state and slowly opening your eyes. Alternatively, if you are visualizing while in bed, you can allow yourself to drift off to sleep although it is perferable that you do not.
Leave the How up to the Universe: The focus of your visualizations must be on the outcome, not the process. Once you accept the truth about your thought power and that you are one with the One Universal Mind, you will be able to release any need to control the process. Instructing the all-knowing Universe “how” you want things to come about is telling Omniscience that you know better.
Take Inspired Action: Although the creative visualization process is one based on relaxation, physical action is required to successfully manifest your mental intentions. The key to taking action is to take only inspired action. This is not to sit and wait for the proverbial penny to drop and nor is it to run around in a frenzied state doing everything you can possibly think of doing in the hope that something works. It is about being calm and deliberate in the action you take, knowing that it is taking you toward your intended outcome. It is about listening to your intuition and following your natural instinct.
The Mind Works With Feedback: The more feedback you give your mind the easier it is to accept and internalise a new concept. If you are new to the idea that you create your reality with your thoughts, then it is natural that your mind may demand some proof. It is a great leap of faith to go from the belief that “things just happen to me” to “I make things happen”.
Amir.H.Ghazi
For years, Thad Beaumont has been writing books under the pseudonym George Stark. When a journalist threatens to expose Beaumont’s pen name, the author decides to go public first, killing off his pseudonym. Stark isn’t content to be dispatched that easily, though. Beaumont’s alter ego comes to life and begins to stalk those responsible for his demise. The police suspect Beaumont is responsible for these violent crimes.
Amir.H.Ghazi
You’ll be happier once you start living your life FOR YOU and you stop caring about what others have to say about you.
Another year passed
I’m not a talkative person but I want to make a wish for all the people around the world.
I wish a world without war. A world at peace…
Congrats to all girls & boys who turned 22 at this day.
And especial thanks to you, my followers & my visitors who helped me improving my blog.
Love you all:)
Amir.H.Ghazi
The residents of Little Tall Island are in the worst blizzard any of them have ever had to deal with. Cut off from the rest of the world, they must also deal with an evil stranger who has murdered one of their elderly residents and even while being held prisoner continues to cause harm. In order to stop this, they are forced to make a choice which no one should have to make. Give him what he wants, and he will go away but what he wants is inconceivable. The consequences of their choice haunt their lives for years to come.
Amir.H.Ghazi
What Causes Writer’s Block
Writer’s block is often caused by conflicted feelings. We want the writing to be perfect and we want the paper done as soon as possible. We know what we know but we don’t know what our readers know. We know how the memo should sound, but we don’t have all the facts we need. We know everything about the software, but we don’t know what an article should look like. We know what we have to say but we are afraid that it won’t measure up to our expectations or to our readers’ expectations.
All of these feelings are natural and normal. Everyone finds writing a challenge. Many writers, however, compound their problems by employing weak writing strategies. When these methods fail, they give up.
Weak Strategies for Dealing with Writer’s Block
Using trial and error
Since our short-term memory is limited, trying to juggle in your head all the possible ways to phrase something usually means we repeat the same rejected phrases over and over. One way to avoid this is to make a quick list of alternative phrases.
lnsisting on a perfect draft
Perfectionism is the surest way to writer’s block. Expecting everything to come together at once leads to paralysis and heartache. Insisting on a perfect first draft is really much slower than writing several quick drafts focused on different goals.
Waiting for inspiration
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. What seems like inspiration is usually the result of internalized hard work. In a moment we’ll talk about some useful strategies for pushing “inspiration” along.
Using words looking for an idea
We all know those phrases which click so easily into the keyboard but then go nowhere:
due to the fact that…
it is imperative that…
a wide variety ranging from … to….
These phrases can be building blocks but they won’t help much until you know what you’re building.
Effective Strategies for Avoiding Writer’s Block
Taking notes
Jot down ideas and phrases as they occur to you. Free yourself from paragraphs and sentences for the moment–use flow charts, arrows, boxes, outlines, even pictures. Right now, you are worried about getting things down before you forget them.
Freewriting/Brainstorming
When you’re not just blocked, when you’re stonewalled, try freewriting. Sit down for ten minutes and write down everything you can think of about your topic. The object is to write without stopping for the whole ten minutes. If you can’t think of anything to say, write “blah, blah, blah” over and over. If other things occur to you as you write, go ahead and record them, even if they are not directly related to your topic. These distractions may be part of what is keeping you blocked.
Freewriting is good for uncovering ideas–it’s a good way to nudge “inspiration.” But the main purpose of freewriting is to get you moving! Most of what you write in those ten minutes will go in the recycling bin, but you’ll be warmed up and your serious writing should go more smoothly.
Brainstorming resembles freewriting but is more goal-directed. You start not only with a topic, say PROFS, but also with a goal: What do new users need to know about this system? Then allow yourself to jot down ideas for a set amount of time without censoring any possibilities and without striving for perfect prose. When the “storm” has passed, you can rearrange ideas, put thoughts into complete sentences, edit, and polish.
Piecework
Sometimes, starting at the beginning induces Perfect Draft Syndrome. It may be easier to get started if you approach the task sideways. If you’ve got a plan for the article or manual, choose a section from the middle or a point you know well and start there. Then do another section. After you’ve gained some confidence, you can work on the opening and smooth out the transitions.
What I Really Mean Is (WIRMI)
When you’re stuck in a quagmire trying to find the perfect phrase, switch to What I Really Mean Is and just say it the way you think it. Once you know what you mean, it is easier to refine the phrasing.
Satisficing (satisfy + suffice)
You “satisfice” when you take the first reasonable solution instead of searching endlessly for just the right word or sentence. If you’re unhappy with the choice, you can bracket it and promise yourself you’ll fix it later.
If you liked the article and wanted to know how to cure writer’s block instantly, please tell me in the comments section.
Amir.H.Ghazi
World of Horror 