on writing – Page 18 – Ascribe Writers

Scary Stories

November 1, 2021November 1, 2021 Seana Moorhead Leave a comment

When I was a kid, I loved ghost stories. I was the proud owner of an Alfred Hitchcock’s vinyl record, “Ghost Stories for Young People” featuring him introducing his own short stories. I played that record over and over again on my red and yellow toy player. The lights would be turned off and I’d make a cave with my blankets and pillows. Armed with a flashlight, I’d place the needle on the record and listen to his stories. I always played it around Hallowe’en—one of my favourite holidays back then and not just for the candy, but because I believed in ghosts and witches and monsters.

Writing With Style

October 25, 2021October 24, 2021 Andrée Levie-Warrilow Leave a comment

“If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers,” Dorothy Parker once wrote, “the second-greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style.The first-greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.” Read more

Mixing Solitude with the Camaraderie

October 18, 2021October 18, 2021 Lori Twining 6 Comments

Lori Twining ~ Coffee at Sunrise, Elmhirst’s Resort

What writer wouldn’t love to disappear from their life and spend an entire week hidden away at a remote location? With no other obligations other than to put fingers to keyboard or pen to paper and tell a story. Maybe, a story no one will ever read? That’s a possibility. But hey, if you are a writer, you will have a strong desire to write that story whether someone reads it or not, right?

Disappearing to a remote location sounds fantastic, especially after the tough year or two we have experienced. My doctor said I was becoming a workaholic, even though I’m working from home now, and I should take a mental health break. She said something like, “Take a vacation.”

In my mind, I watched her scribble a prescription on her pad for me:

Grab Hold Of Life

October 11, 2021October 11, 2021 Kelly Babcock Leave a comment

I'm all in for adventure — Life is an adventure, right down to swimming in Georgian Bay on Thanksgiving Monday.

I love to refer to myself as gainfully unemployed. It is both true, and untrue.

I work as an IT person for a local online news outlet, the owensoundhub.org, but I’m contracted to them. I end up spending less then ten hours a month at that. But I interact with the organization and I learn lots of things about my community.

I also still do the odd job for friends that need help with their renovations or their Read more

Writing Descriptively

October 4, 2021October 4, 2021 Bernice Connell Leave a comment

Seeing interesting or impactful images makes me immediately think about how to describe them.

Not long ago, I struggled to describe a sky full of different types of clouds. What I wrote was ‘A variety of clouds filled the sky to the horizon in every direction, tumbling like a slow-motion kaleidoscope’. Despite the time and effort spent, my description fell short of capturing the image.

Believing the clouds were noteworthy was an emotional reaction to a beautiful scene. As I was not writing about storm chasers or pilots, the clouds had nothing to do with the story. What I have learned is that there are times when good descriptions are critical but I often add many unnecessarily in my writing. It is easy to be too elaborate or flowery when enamoured of an image. Likewise, being overly detailed if focusing on facts and general information can be boring.

Low in Writing Inspiration? Hit a Meeting (or a Horse Movie)

September 27, 2021September 27, 2021 Donna Judy Curtin Leave a comment

I was a horse nut as a child.

No doubt about it. I ate, slept and dreamt horses. I remember a junior school teacher asking me once if I might consider broadening my topics to complete a book report, story or project on anything other than the horse. I thought he was crazy. At the time, I took his comment as a personal slight, but looking back, he was probably just bored.

Do you remember those Participation videos; the ones with Hal Johnson and Joanne Macleod, sweating it up in their tights, encouraging us couch potato television viewers to get up and get going? As a little girl, my dream, my goal for participation, was to be able to catch my own pony and saddle it up all by myself and the day I achieved this feat brought me immense pride. Read more

The Mindful Writer & WWIV

September 20, 2021September 20, 2021 Joan McAndrew 3 Comments

Ever tried to herd cats? That question usually produces wry smiles and laughter. It’s tough when you discover a group you cherish is less like-minded than you believed.

And so it is with writers. We are all groping blindly for the path that will lead us where we want to go. Sometimes the path is 100% clear but more often, it’s just plain murky. Each time this happens in my world I reach for one of the myriad of writing books that I own. This time it was “The Mindful Writer– Noble Truths of the Writing Life” by Dinty W. Moore (2012). I reviewed his restatement of the 4 noble truths of Buddhism as they apply to the writing life and rapidly concluded that this was exactly what I needed to get back on my path. Read more

REBOOT

September 13, 2021September 13, 2021 Andrée Levie-Warrilow Leave a comment

Sometimes crap just happens.
Three weeks ago, I was happily enjoying my time in the Laurentians with people I had not been physically near to in two years. It was a beautiful day, I was striding along, possibly humming a happy tune to myself – until suddenly I wasn’t. Faster than it takes for you to read this, I flew off a ledge I hadn’t known was there, landed hard, and just like that, broke a bone in the middle of my foot. A spiral fracture. The first day of vacation! Read more

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