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You’re in a relationship and your significant other has left you. Man or woman, the breakup is not easy on you. You don’t feel happy and are down in the dumps. How do you build your confidence up especially when you feel like a failure that it didn’t succeed. Also, if you were living with the other person, then you may be thinking of looking for another home or an apartment. However, most importantly you can’t concentrate on your writing. So how can you get your confidence in writing again?First, you are going to have to take time to heal...

Normally this exercise would be extended only to sci-fi writers who set their narratives in space, but the genre of cosmic fantasy may take place just as heavily in the stars as it would planetside. Space operas can also be composed likewise, and it is something on JWC’s agenda for a later time, so, for now, we will just have at it. Photo by Ardi Evans on UnsplashIf you don’t wish to focus on this side of world-building or you feel no need for it’s complexity in the story you’re trying to tell, then delete or otherwise omit, but don’t put...

Relationships aren’t perfect. There is not one day in a relationship where you can say that I just want to go to a Starbucks or a coffee shop and write. If you’re in a relationship and you are a writer, you want that alone time to write, and go somewhere where you can concentrate. It doesn’t work that way. You will have your significant other complain, saying he/she wants to go out with you. Sometimes it’s because they don’t trust you and want to keep an eye on you. Being the attentive partner you are, you give in and next...

Throughout countless years, Amazon has provided me with easy access to hard-to-find products, which has saved me a lot of time and trouble. I've always found their customer service representatives to be polite and helpful. The supportive crew at Amazon's KDP recently helped me publish my first ebook. When I came across complaints about Amazon's Community in its forums and Quora, I was dumbfounded by the contrast between their claims and my positive experiences.The writers were uncomfortable – not with Amazon's Community Guidelines or with its policies – but with its lack of communication. The posts claimed that The Community's automated system left...

I doubled down on my dreams after some years of darkness and uncertainty, and out of this friendships, partnerships, and new realms of the muse opened up to me. I got into Podcasting heavy-duty, creating an experimental network (Olk n’ Us Network) in order to explore what could be done. Since boyhood I was fond of making radio shows on cassette tape, having the most fun fooling around with friends making dramas or time capsules. That secluded prototype network developed some fun content, but never went public. My channels were cool and of a wide demographic variety, even so, they were test...

Imagine being a writer and feeling down all the time and not having the motivation to write. Imagine having a depression that prevents you from doing anything. Writing was something that you enjoy, but you don’t feel like you felt the way you were before. When I faced depression, it was like being stuck in bed for days and not wanting to get out. It was utter misery. I didn’t want to hear from anyone who would have helped me out and I lost interest in my craft. Why does something like this happen where we lose our confidence and...

Now that you have been through JWC Paragraphic Rifts steps 1 through 10, which seeks to examine points of clarity and or obscurity in a text, JWC Paragraphic Nexus looks to focus on those points concerning characters and concepts. This is all building up to something, so bear with all this overview. ; )At the core of our subject’s cosmic duality lay that which is creative, and that which is adaptive. In the symmetry between these hides various patterns, some camouflaged by mystery, and others so elegant and beautifying that one can scarcely forget them, even if such were desired....

The Shining Finally, that spooky, chilly, and wonderful time of year has arrived! After a rather miserable summer here in the south, I am so excited for the fall weather to commence, even if it does come with allergies. The pumpkin patches are open for those who love the vibe of cutting your own pumpkin off the vine. Sort of like cutting the umbilical cord, right? If that's not quite your scene, you can find already harvested pumpkins at your local garden shops, grocery stores, and large retailers. If you have a farmer's market, generally, you can find some top-notch...

 Today, I would like to talk about how certain elements in writing can contribute to enabling a reader to show emotion in reaction to what the author has put on the page.  Sometimes the author has the ability to make the reader laugh out loud due to a rather character's sarcastic tone or simply a bit of slapstick .  Other times the reader can be trapped in a scene based on what’s happening to a particular character in the book. A reader will sense a feeling of fear as to what is happening in between pages, notably in the horror...

Life had been bleak for a while, and as always a way into light was provided. Gratitude for that way and for the stars to be so aligned, my creative obsession somehow turned to podcasting. To catch us up... I was all about making radio shows on tape as a boy, and for many years my heart wished for a career in radio. I listened avidly to the airwaves since the nineties, not just songs but to talk radio as well as spoken word, getting political while learning words and phrases. A dream of hosting my own talk show, or even...

There is a disturbing, at least to me, the trend over the last decade or so that says that a Hero or Main Character has to have a flaw or they won't be interesting. What a bunch of balderdash. There are plenty of characters that people love that don't have a fault that sticks out like a third arm. These people are just ordinary folks, living their lives until something comes along and destroys that idyllic time.Every day heroesA crisis in the lives of our hero. That's what is most important in a story. There is an old formula for...

9: Have you checked for redundancy in your text? What is Textual Redundancy? Redundancy is the poetic variety and the targeting of repeated words/phrases. Systemically, redundancy in a text is often attributed to insufficient literary influence. In other words, a writer hasn’t read enough, hasn’t reread to study, hasn’t typed up preexisting manuscripts, hasn’t played stenographer, and certainly does need to make some adjustments or else face the editor’s solemn wrath. Refrain is repetition with purpose, normally attributed to lyrics, poesy, or dramatic flair, and is, outside of classical or formalist writing, considered to be fit only for song. It used to be that...

If the print industry had its wild west, the ebook industry's is currently experiencing a major hurricane. The rising tides are pushing past the dunes and reaching into the streets. As a first-time Kindle author, I'm having trouble finding solid ground. Reading Twitter promotions about new publications on my phone every other minute are inciting me to question my survivability. The popular book-bloggers that require two months of lead time - not for a review of a book - but for the consideration of a review, seems to me a prediction that more high winds on are the way.  Jeff Bullus' comments...

Today I want to talk about the very essence of why you’re reading this post. You might be interested in sports, politics, movies, or books. Whatever the topic of culture that has encapsulated your attention, there's a blog about it. Yes, you’ll find most of what other people like to talk about, argue, and go back and forth with each other until they’re blue in the face. Blogging has so many purposes and I not only want to talk a little about these topics, but how they can relate to your muse and overall writing style. Also, I want to...

7: Have you imposed narrative Temporality?  What is narrative Temporality?  Temporality and impermanence go together, for such is measured by the ticking clock, the circling shadow, the palpitating heart, or a single tear streaking down a lovelorn face. Sometimes a single moment can weigh more than the world.  Into everyone’s life, a little rain must fall, yet rain is also needed in order to preserve life. Vitality spills from the elements and is tried by them, and then passes back into them, energy dancing in and out of existence’s frame. A mere blink and being comes and goes, with each...

I have been writing off and on about an Anomalist named John Pentgram since 1978. He has changed a lot over the years. At first, he seemed to be a Scottish knock-off of Sherlock Holmes in modern times. He even had his own Dr. Watson, in the form of Amos McConnell. In 2016, I decided to move his home and entire history to South Central New Jersey. This involved a complete re-write of every story and novel, plus the backgrounds of every major character. This would be a major challenge, and I jumped at the chance to create a more...

8: Have you checked narrative Continuity? What is narrative Continuity? Narrative Continuity is the coherency of forms or concepts in the narrative flow. As the project is completed many updates will be registered and accounted for, and this should be done through an outlining process so that such data is organized and always at hand. Just as a character would, an author must reckon all that has happened to them and network conscious mind to unconscious mind in order to sort out the details. A creative obsessor is always in a twilight awareness between their adaptive life and their creative...

I have always been moved by legends, myths, folklore, and ancient scriptures, finding such material wondrous to contemplate. Seeking escape from an unwanted world, my thoughts often turned to other worlds where my spirit felt freer or more at home. Joe’s Writers Club’s Consciousness Altering Books aims to bring timeless suggestions concerning books that can literally change your life. I came to realize why we are here… To be inspired and or transformed by stories from the other side of mythic firelight, and to be grateful for the heroes in those tales. Where they go and what deeds they do,...

The views expressed herein do not reflect the opinions of Joe's Writers Club and its members. They are the views of the writer, but I'm sure that JWC would agree with me. Wink, wink. “Comedy. It's A Difficult Concept” - Lt. Saavik, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan What makes you laugh? Whether it's the verbal genius of Groucho Marx, Bill Cosby or, to a far lesser degree, the work of Adam Sandler or Bill Hicks, comedy based upon words needs little else but the comedian to work. On the flip side, just one look at Buster Keaton, the master...

Long before computers, tablets, and phones, writers wrote and edited on paper and with a pencil.  Pulling sheets through rubber rollers, dabbing glue on drying ink, and jabbing at springy keys, typing was a laborious affair. Unable to rely on spelling and grammar checks, the typewriter was reserved for final drafts only. Under these hostile conditions, writers identified issues with language by subjecting their texts to Read-Aloud Reviews. Photo by Pereanu Sebastian on Unsplash Using spoken presentations to check a text helped authors back in the day address problems with clarity, syntax, and diction. Alison Davis' article on the Read Aloud and a...