The End in Mind

This is the one thing that if you do it, it makes all the difference in attaining your goals:

Visualise the end.

See it

Hear it

Feel it

Writing goals and aims down is brilliant, but also inscribe them, etch them into your mind and go over them again and again, daily, weekly, but visualise them, in fact I would suggest you:

Draw them

Paint them

The more vividly you see, hear and feel your goal, the more tangible, the more likely you are to achieve it, so go and dream and make them real.

ZHZ. 

What Do All Writers Have in Common?

There's one thing, one thing alone all writers have in common.

It comes before a writer becomes...a writer. And it follows ever after.


It is a sort of being.


And in this being and fulfillment and song and motion the parameters are set for all the things that a writer will become later on.


Before a writer becomes a writer, they are first a

reader.


So read and read and read

And then perhaps you can write and write and write.

ZHZ. 

Editing: Super Tips

Dear Writer,



here are some golden tips for shaping your writing, whether you're polishing a short story or a fifty book series:

1. Remove dialogue tags such as "said" - most of these are redundant or to put it another way, dialogue should speak for itself.

2. Delete weasle words such as:

• very
• little
• pretty
• really
• almost
• seem
• even
• that
• up/down
• in/out
• tried to...
• reached...

3. Use positive terms, not negatives e.g. instead of "he didn't come" write "he was absent".

4. Use concrete nouns. Stay away from the abstract.

5. Remove as many words ending in -ly.

6. Remove as many -ing words as you can.

7. Construct "active" sentences - not passive. If you notice yourself writing something like, "he was thrown by the horse", switch the sentence round to, "the horse threw him".

8. Reduce the number of adjectives.

9. Avoid prepositional phrases.

10. Show don't tell, that is, paint a picture, show me what you see, hear, feel and I'll become you. If you don't you'll just bore me.

Print this small list off and I guarantee you this, by following these guidelines you'll add zing to your writing.

ZHZ. 

A Writer's Life: 16th July 2008

So where am I today in my wordsmithery? Well, I'd say I'm in the middle of lots of projects:

1. I'm writing the follow-up to the The Curry Mile .
2. I'm working on drafting my first screenplay...big budget.
3. I'm thought-showering another screenplay...small budget
4. I'm planning the next edit of a children's book

I've been in the process of moving house for the last couple of months which has meant everything's been up in the ether.

I write regularly, but changing my writing space has has affected my work and it is only today that I'm in a position to say that, "Zahid, I'm back on track, welcome back!"

Oh, it's good to be yourself ;)

ZHZ. 

How to use Robin Hood to Write Your Own Story

One of the biggest challenges any writer faces is determining which "voice" is apt to tell his or her tale.

Now, when I talk about "voice" I'm not referring to "Point of View", that is, whether a story is told through a first person narrative, a third person omniscient perspective and so on. No, I'm referring to the character behind the voice. The "voice" itself could be told from different Points of View.

ROBIN HOOD STORY

Let me clarify: if I said to you that we're going to write a story together, you and me, out here in the lonely landscape of the imagination where dreams are formed into tales by writers, young and old, fledgling and experienced...and then if we spun away allowing characters and plot and locations to coalesce...and if, to speed things up, I were to suggest using the Robin Hood tale, but I wanted you to rewrite it set in today's world, in your neighbourhood, on your street where there's a fella called Robin and a lady called Marion and a vile person called Mr. Sheriff who rules the town...I'm sure, I wouldn't need to tell you anything more in order for you to spin your contemporary tale.

USING OTHER VOICES...FOR THE SAME TALE

And once you'd written you tale, if I asked you to retell the story using the "voice" of Tony Blair or Mother Teresa or Bob Geldoff or Angelina Jolie or Nelson Mandela, each time, the "voice" would be potent and the tale would change. And if instead of using famous people you were to use people who are friends and family, aquainances or enemies, you would imbue your fictional characters with real flesh. Sans doute.

IF YOU HIT A WALL...If one of your creations is lacking in spirit think of someone who is spirited - they can be fictional characters from novels and movies or TV. If you need someone who is witty think of someone who embodies those characteristics and incorporate them into your creation.

Finding characters is actually quite easy: just open your eyes and look and feel and listen. After all what are writers other than conduits of the imagination?
ZHZ.