http://writing.hopcott.net Writings about creative writing, story writing, novel writing, travel writing, writing help and tips and more from online writer and author Rob Hopcott Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:24:41 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en [caption id="attachment_270" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Mortehoe, Devon - a place to inspire stories of smuggling and ship wrecks."][/caption] Writing novels is great fun and it is said that everybody has a novel inside them which of course is the story of their life but writing a novel others will want to read ... http://writing.hopcott.net/2008/11/writing-novels-is-mainly-about-beginning-your-novel-and-then-fighting-your-way-through-to-the-end/ [caption id="attachment_267" align="alignright" width="300" caption="My writer's desk"][/caption] Writing services are the growth industry of the 21st century. The Internet is organised by the written word. Films and video have expanded massively but film and video cannot be interpreted by computers, human beings are needed to explain their content which can only ... http://writing.hopcott.net/2008/11/writing-services-by-stone-age-brains-using-speed-of-light-technology/ The best writing help I know is reading. It refreshes my mind, it stimulates my imagination and it incentivises me to write better to compete with the writing I have just read. It doesn't really matter what I read. It could be a travel journal, a short story, a flash fiction, ... http://writing.hopcott.net/2008/11/writing-help-from-reading-by-rob-hopcott/ A writing website is vital for authors these days because success is all about promotion and one of the easiest ways of building your writing name is to talk to your readers online and display some of your writings to show the quality of your work. However, the immense variety of ... http://writing.hopcott.net/2008/11/writing-website-recommendations-by-online-author-rob-hopcott/ Novel writing is fun but scary. With several novels / novellas under my belt, I know and still bear the scars. If you are interested, check them out at my Free Online Novels and Novellas blog where I also discuss free online novels by other authors too. Novel writing is completely ... http://writing.hopcott.net/2008/11/novel-writing-a-scary-emotional-roller-coaster-but-success-wins-you-a-friend-for-life/ Fiction writing offers much greater rewards than article writing for me because it lets my mind dream which I suspect is a common need for many writers. Nonfiction writing may offer better writing monetary rewards but, for me, the call of the wild to return to writing fiction is an ... http://writing.hopcott.net/2008/11/fiction-writing-rewards-better-than-articles-says-rob-hopcott/ [caption id="attachment_237" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Writing software speech recognition headset"][/caption] The writing software that works for me is my speech recognition software, also called voice recognition software. It is particularly useful for doing my first drafts rapidly. I have to keep an eye on whether it is interpreting what I am saying ... http://writing.hopcott.net/2008/11/writing-software-that-works-for-me-by-rob-hopcott/ [caption id="attachment_232" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Speech recognition headset and software helps my free writing"][/caption] Free writing is a technique where selected words are taken at random and sentences are constructed around these words with as little thought as possible going into where the sentences are leading. Free writing provides writers who may be ... http://writing.hopcott.net/2008/11/free-writing-using-speech-recognition-software-works-for-me-says-rob-hopcott/ One of my top writing tips is about how to make the writing of stories with a twist in the tale easier. A twist in the tail of your story is one of the best ways of making it satisfying for the reader. Quite simply, a twist in the tale means ... http://writing.hopcott.net/2008/11/writing-tips-how-to-write-stories-with-a-twist-in-the-tale-by-rob-hopcott/ [caption id="attachment_222" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Travel writing at West Bay, Dorset"][/caption] Travel writing is informative, fun to read and fun to write. It's also fairly easy to get started with because there are no complicated plots to work out, relationships to resolve or scenarios to develop. These days, I find that a photo ... http://writing.hopcott.net/2008/11/travel-writing-is-informative-fun-to-read-and-fun-to-write-says-rob-hopcott/