Writers' Cavern

What is purple prose? It is when you have read 20 or 30 pages and the character has not yet finished brushing their teeth. Well, I agree with you that never happens in a novel. I exaggerated. But you get my point. It’s when you let your plot stagnate -- for longer than required. People used to sew purple patches to clothing to show pretentiousness in wealth, since purple dye was an expensive rarity. And, Roman poet Horace compared writing such prose (wordy) to sewing purple patches to clothing. Should every word in your novel drive the plot? Not necessarily. And I agree, you must describe the environment so that the story doesn't take place in a white background in the reader's mind. But don't make your work wordy. How to determine whether your work is wordy? According to Majesta Maxwell, author of Trials, “It is hard to actually put your finger on what purple prose looks like because everyone has such different views on what constitutes as ‘too much’ detail...

IN DARIUS FOROUX'S book, Do It Today, there’s a chapter called “How perfectionism is destroying your productivity.” Reading that, I felt it’s a problem most of the budding writers face, including me. Let me share the content of the chapter with you. I hope it benefits you as well. He says, “If you are a perfectionist, you’re just a procrastinator with a mask.” When you constantly worry about getting things right, you are nurturing doubt in your mind. Doubt causes indecision, and indecision gives birth to procrastination. And perfectionism is not as innocent as you might think. Research specifically shows that perfectionism is closely related to depression and low self-esteem. And there are two types of perfectionists: i) The one that never starts (because of doubting themselves) and ii) The one that starts but has too high standards (they set their goals so high, work too hard, when they have burned themselves out they feel helpless, and feeling helpless force them to ...

C liff-hanger, simply put, is when you end your story on a dramatic and exciting incident at the end of a chapter or book. For instance, in 'Sherlock: The Lying Detective', it was the moment when Eurus Holmes pointed a gun at Watson and squeezed the trigger. It drove us nuts for a week. We were desperate for the next episode. As you can see, cliffhanger is one of the most powerful literary tools. However, what writers often forget is that it is a double edged sword. Ending each chapter on a cliff-hanger will eliminate the possibility of your book being replaced in the shelf. Right? Let's see. There's no doubt cliff-hanger leaves your audience in suspense and anxious not to miss the next chapter or book. But like every other tool, it too becomes blunt when improperly used. Imagine this. You are lying on your back after a muscle tearing and lungs squashing trek. You reach for your bottle and have a sip. How do you feel? On a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being the highe...

T hey say, you can never plan the future by the past. And when I look back, it makes sense to me. There I was, sitting in my counsellor’s room, during my summer vacation – when I was supposed to be a bird set free from cage, though momentarily – with a mind choked by the vexing tentacles of OCD: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, thoughts which are beyond one’s control. It consumed all the productivity left in me. ‘Read a book,’ she said, ‘You need to relax your mind.’ To be frank, neither of us knew, a simple solution as such would make me an author 4 years from then. By this post, I want to strip off from your mind a few of the common myths about becoming a writer – a published one – to enable you to live your dream. #1 YOU NEED TO READ A LOT BEFORE YOU WRITE: Reading and writing are two different processes. Let me define these two actions in a sentence for clarity. Reading is a way of downloading data into your brain. Writing, on the other hand, is a way of uploading d...

I s there any single proven formula to write a gripping story? As you have guessed, no. Here are a few elements which I feel makes a story great. HOOK: Dangle an irresistible curiosity before the readers within the first few chapters or the first 20 pages. You might have the best dramatic twist in the history of literature unfolding on page 107 of your book. What use is it if someone replaces your book in the shelf after going through a few of the initial pages? Literary agents generally appoint someone to go through the slush pile and try to find a piece of work that is publishable. And chances of them going through each and every page with patience till page 107 is non-existent.  CHARACTERS: Make your readers invested in your characters. And how to do that? Make them mysterious, make your readers want to read on and find out what is going on in their heads. I will be doing a detailed post on character development in the future. CONFLICT: Great literary ...

As the title of this post serves as an ample preamble, let me share with you a few sketch pens to help you make your 365 pages of 2018 more colourful 😊 ·       TRY USING A HABIT TRACKING APP : If you’ve never tried a habit tracking app before, give it a try in 2018. There are a ton of these out there. The one I’m familiar with is Fabulous . It is designed to help you build, maintain and track your new habits. And, I find that using such apps is useful, especially to a writer, because the act of marking down when you make progress in your writing creates a streak. And when you look back on that streak, you won’t be comfortable breaking it. As Peter Drucker once may have said, “What gets measured gets managed”. ·       CREATE PRE-PLANNED BLOCKS OF WRITING TIME IN YOUR SCHEDULE: The power of focusing on one task for a long, uninterrupted period of time is unfathomable. But a lot of times it’s real...

Here are the notes I took in Daniel Jose Older's class on  SkillShare . He talked about the fundamentals of storytelling: Character, Conflict, Context and Craft. Hope it helps. Character ·           Have a crush on your character. ·          Mention what details about them matter to their fellow characters. ·          These details will also matter to readers. ·          Your character must have a desire – it’s the engine of your story. ·          We don’t actually have to like a character. Conflict ·          Backbone of story. ·          Crisis is the element of conflict. o    What’s at stake? o    Why does it matter? o    What’re the consequences? · ...