Snoggee #22 - Alyx Dellamonica
Oh boy, I didn't think I could get this excited about a blog but here I am - bouncing like an Olympian.
Let me intro Alyx Dellamonica
Cool name, cool pic, and ver cool person.
I found Alyx at the Surrey International Writers Conference in 2011 completely by accident. I went to a workshop on Speculative Fiction and Alyx showed up and gave a workshop on World Building instead. It was so good that I wasn't disappointed at all.
Then I found out she teaches on-line writing courses through UCLA's Extension Writer's Program and has blogged some most excellent posts on writing.
She's even ver kindly put them together on her website under 'Teaching' so you can link straight to them.
Be prepared to start and not want to stop - but it is well worth your time.
She covers 'Revision: from Macro to Micro', 'The Spark Plugs of Fiction', 'The Quality of Prose' - and more.
My absolute favorite is 'Eye Bookisms' which is a fabby article on a common beginner trap we writers fall into - and Alyx begins by quoting Jeanne Cavelos, who's the director of the Odyssey Writing Workshop (also a most excellent blog, especially if you're a fantasy/sci-fi writer):
"Many authors overuse words involving looking and eyes. They describe their characters looking, glancing, gazing, staring, studying, seeing, surveying, scanning, peeking, leering, ogling, noticing, watching, blinking, glaring, and just generally eyeballing everything. Characters' eyes flash, burn, linger, darken or brighten, and even change color. Characters' eyes drop to the floor (ouch!); they roam around the room (eeek!). Or characters may raise the ever-popular eyebrow." - Jeanne Cavelos
Ha! What a great list! and I haven't used surveying or eyeballing yet in my manuscript so I must go and find a spot for them ...
So don't hang around here. Go have fun on Alyx's blog!
Catch you next week - and get ready for a super duper give-away here (yes, here, on my blog) when I snog the amazing Nicola Morgan later this month. You won't want to miss it. Honestly!
Let me intro Alyx Dellamonica
Cool name, cool pic, and ver cool person.
I found Alyx at the Surrey International Writers Conference in 2011 completely by accident. I went to a workshop on Speculative Fiction and Alyx showed up and gave a workshop on World Building instead. It was so good that I wasn't disappointed at all.
Then I found out she teaches on-line writing courses through UCLA's Extension Writer's Program and has blogged some most excellent posts on writing.
She's even ver kindly put them together on her website under 'Teaching' so you can link straight to them.
Be prepared to start and not want to stop - but it is well worth your time.
She covers 'Revision: from Macro to Micro', 'The Spark Plugs of Fiction', 'The Quality of Prose' - and more.
My absolute favorite is 'Eye Bookisms' which is a fabby article on a common beginner trap we writers fall into - and Alyx begins by quoting Jeanne Cavelos, who's the director of the Odyssey Writing Workshop (also a most excellent blog, especially if you're a fantasy/sci-fi writer):
"Many authors overuse words involving looking and eyes. They describe their characters looking, glancing, gazing, staring, studying, seeing, surveying, scanning, peeking, leering, ogling, noticing, watching, blinking, glaring, and just generally eyeballing everything. Characters' eyes flash, burn, linger, darken or brighten, and even change color. Characters' eyes drop to the floor (ouch!); they roam around the room (eeek!). Or characters may raise the ever-popular eyebrow." - Jeanne Cavelos
Ha! What a great list! and I haven't used surveying or eyeballing yet in my manuscript so I must go and find a spot for them ...
So don't hang around here. Go have fun on Alyx's blog!
Catch you next week - and get ready for a super duper give-away here (yes, here, on my blog) when I snog the amazing Nicola Morgan later this month. You won't want to miss it. Honestly!