Musical Motivation: Playlists

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Last week I asked if you wanted any other sizes for the “Write Now” posters. Here’s the template for 960×640 resolutions (iPhone). Right click the button below and “save as.” Remember, it’s all white, so it might look invisible if you click the button. Place over the image of your choice.

Here’s an image I created using the template above, as well as a black version. Download either for your phone home screen as a constant reminder.

Back to regular programming

I hope you’ve thought about what kind of music you listen to whilst writing, for now is the time to share! Here’s how you’ll do it:

What’s your playlist? The playlist you listen to while writing, or any list of songs that get you to write. Describe the mood of the playlist

What’s your genre? The genre you write most frequently, or the genre you are currently writing under. If you write straight up fiction, include the mood. How serious or goofy is your work?

What’s your theme song? This is the theme song for your WIP. It’s the song that would be in the trailer head up the soundtrack of the film version.

Leave a comment with your answers. You can add links if you’d like. I monitor my comments, so I’ll do my part to exterminate any spam.

Pssst…If you’re a writer blogger person, feel free to ask your readers the same questions on your blog, but please link back to this post so that my readers can read your post, too! Everybody gets more playlists that way 🙂

Answers de Lara

Mix: If my love life were made into a movie, Love Music would be the soundtrack. It’s a musical bildungsroman, covering little girl romance to married life. Most of the songs are by indie artists, so there’s a bit of whimsy or fantasy to them.

Genre: My current WIP is a time-traveling historical fantasy. I like to refer to it as “mainstream fantasy” because it’s historical fiction with elements of fantasy and science fiction. Like the playlist above, it’s fun and whimsical. The second book in the series has some more action and sci-fi elements to it. I’ll probably listen to the TRON soundtrack while writing that one.

Theme song: The theme song for my current work would be the oldie-but-goodie “Starlight” by Muse. Video is below, with a low picture quality, unfortunately. [Rated G]*

Want to know the videos I used in today’s image? Here you go. I can’t stop listening to these songs.

“We Are Young” by Fun. [PG—V]*

“Blue Jeans” by Lana Del Rey [PG-13—S,V]*

“Somebody That I Used to Know” by Gotye [PG—N]*

*Note: As a courtesy for my readers, sometimes I’ll include “ratings” for external links. This includes an age rating [G, PG, PG-13, R] and codes for profane language [L], violence [V], nudity [N], or sexual themes [S]. You don’t need to rate any links in your comments, but please let us know if any music or videos you link to are NFSW (not safe for work).

Write now.

The 8 C’s of Plotting: Worksheets

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8C-worksheet

If you haven’t read Part One, the introduction to the 8 C’s, read it here!

Use these worksheets to:

  • plan out the main plot skeleton of a novel
  • reduce a complex novel into one, overarching plot
  • understand the main plot of your novel, all the better to pitch with
  • get an idea of what to put in your synopsis
  • recognize how virtually all movies and novels use a similar structure
    • (and how each modifies the structure to fit its own needs)
  • make your other writer friends jealous of how organized you are

Do not use these worksheets to:

  • make money publishing or reposting my work
  • create your own blog post on the 8 C’s without linking back here
  • make paper airplanes (unless you recycle, of course)

Continue reading →

Diction: Latinate versus Anglo-Saxon

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Here for a school assignment? Click here for citations you can use. Best of luck!

Diction = word choice

Synonym = a word’s twin in meaning, e.g. “big” and “large” are synonyms.

Ever wonder why English has so many synonyms? Because it’s the lovechild of Germanic and French languages. (French isn’t called a romance language for no reason.) While having so many choices can be a wonderful thing, it can also be disastrous. With great vocabulary comes great responsibility. I’m talking to you, Christopher Paolini. Step away from the thesaurus.

You’ll notice the language split when two political candidates start campaigning and one plays the “smarter than thou” card and the other plays the “average Joe” card. Smarter-than-thou is going to try to dazzle you with an academic, million-dollar vocabulary. Average Joe is going to give you a pat on the back with neighbor-speak. Go back in time and see the difference between John Kerry and George W. Bush—two polar opposites in terms of diction.

See my post on dialogue at The Better Novel Project for an example of diction in The Hunger Games. Can you guess which quote belongs to which character?

Latinate words are sometimes also known as “purple language,” “flowery” or “five-dollar” words. These are the ones that hike up your reading level and slow down your audience. While they are pretty standard in academic works, nonfiction and romance, multisyllabic Latinate words are best used in moderation. If a reader doesn’t understand your words, your words are meaningless (to them). Jargon tends to be Latinate.

But Latinate words are also ones to spend time with. They are contemplative. They can be romantic.

Generally speaking, Anglo-Saxon words come from Germanic roots (i.e. Old English, German, and Old Norse) and are common words. They are shorter and simpler than Latinate words. Action, Adventure, and Thriller genres will use more of these because they read faster, quickening the pace and heightening the suspense. This, writers, is the kind of vocabulary you want to have your word babies with during those intense scenes.

Latinate words slow down the pace, so save them for when the action is over and the characters and readers have a moment to think.

There’s nothing wrong with Latinate words. Literary works tend to favor them, and commercial works can sometimes use more of them. Middle grade writers often use Latinate diction to introduce new words to vocabulary-voracious children.

Balance is best!

Writing picture books, humor, or commercial fiction? Use more Anglo-Saxon words than Latinate.

Has someone told you that your voice sounds “too MG” or “too YA” when you’re writing for an older audience? Try adding in more Latinate words, but keep the majority to two or three syllables, sprinkling four-syllable and longer words in less frequently.

Want a list of examples of Anglo-Saxon words and Latinate words? Wikipedia saves the day.

Watch and listen to Latinate diction from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and a mix of Latinate and Anglo-Saxon diction from The Dead Poets Society.

More resources that I found after Googling the subject:

Additional resource:

5-Minute Writing Exercise

Write down a list of 5–10 adjectives describing yourself or your protagonist. Look them up in the dictionary and see if they are based on Latin/French roots or Germanic (or Old English) roots. Then come up with a syllable for each word that comes from the other family.

For example, “masculine” is Latinate. “Burly” is Old English.

Have fun! Share here if you’d like.

Related Exercise: Analyzing diction in your favorite speech, short story, or poem

Citations

MLA:

Willard, Lara. “Diction: Latinate versus Anglo-Saxon.” Lara Willard, 21 Mar. 2012, larawillard.com/diction-latinate-versus-anglo-saxon/.

APA:

Willard, L. (2012, March 21). Diction: Latinate versus Anglo-Saxon [Blog post]. Retrieved from /diction-latinate-versus-anglo-saxon/

Chicago (Footnote):

Lara Willard, “Diction: Latinate versus Anglo-Saxon,” Lara Willard (blog), March 21, 2012, /diction-latinate-versus-anglo-saxon/.

Motivation Monday: WRITE NOW posters

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Today on Motivation Monday, I am bringing you a choice of a ton of posters that tell you to write. Now.

Well, would you look at that! A nice, big image perfect for pinning on Pinterest! (Oh yes I did.)

I’ve got romance-y images, plain posters, international patterns, grungy textures, a flower my brother colored when he was 5, writing images (that’s a typewriter), a color-your-own outline…

It’s a PDF, in case you were wondering.

Pick which one inspires you the most, and print off that page. Or print them all off and give them to friends. Distribute these as you please, just don’t make it seem like you made the original, since you didn’t. We are all creative-types. Let’s be honest ones.

Speaking of creative types, if you DO want to make your own, I’m going to give you a PNG that you can place over any image to make your very own WRITE NOW poster.

Above is the one with outlines. Click it, and it will take you to the full sized image, which you can download and keep.

If you want one without outlines, click in the middle of the white space above. It’s white, on the white background of my blog, so you can’t see it, but it’s there. Just like the wind, or Jesus. Click, and then you’ll get the full sized image.

Place on top of a picture or texture of your choice, and your image will make the words “Write Now.”

These are all for letter-sized sheets. If you’d like a different size, comment below (4 to a page? Business card size? 5×7? 4×6?). If somebody agrees with you, I’ll get you different sizes on another Monday. Hope that’s cool. Hope you’re inspired or motivated.

Next week I’ll be asking you about what music you listen to whilst writing. Think about it now, and get ready to share next Monday. I can’t promise to update on Wednesday this week, but I will certainly be posting printable plotting worksheets on Friday.

Update: go to next week’s Monday motivation post to download the mobile phone version of the Write Now poster.