Welcome to November!

With November being National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), many are writing furiously, getting those awesome stories on paper as quickly as possible. That’s great!

But how do we know how to tell a story? How did we learn to tell a story? By example of course! We know from reading them, what we like, what inspires us and what leaves us yearning for more. So we write!

What is that we have gleaned from the literature that inspires us or from that which we don’t like? That’s the big question because that forms the basis of how we tell our stories. We can take writing classes on composition, critical analysis and grammar but it’s what we subconsciously learn that prevails.

So for this month, we’ll be sharing what we think are some of the best and worst pieces we’ve read. This is done in the spirit of learning, making us better writers, as we examine what works and doesn’t work for each of us. In a previous post, Stillness – How Shall I Write Thee?, I asked how one could write about stillness and reflection in a way that was engaging because our characters may need to take time to reflect on a situation. I explored how Wordsworth captured contemplation in his poetry because the English Romantic writers so successfully captured ordinary moments and imbued their writing with deep meaning. It is in this spirit that we write this month’s posts.

Whether we read stories and literature form either current or by-gone eras, we are subconsciously considering what we like, what we think works and what kind of story we’d like to tell – or not.

So, sit back and partake of what we’ve gleaned from the stories we’ve read. And this month, look for a special post about Superstars Writing Seminar’s scholarship.

May your writing (and reading) be productive!