Useful Maps

So I already recommended you guys before to check out the site of Holly Lisle, because out of all the writing sites I visited that day, this one seemed pretty good. It really gives some great writing tips. Now I haven’t read any of her books personally, mainly because I’ve never seen them in a bookstore before (they don’t have a lot of English books in the bookstores here, which kinda sucks) but I imagine that it’s even greater when you’ve read her books. I really like authors who take the time to set up a site to help out aspiring authors or to tell them a bit about themselves and their lives and writing process.

So this is just a really quick post because I’m too busy with my exams right now to write a lot. I’ve only got a week left to study for them, so I’m stressed for time a bit. But anyway, I was checking out Holly’s site a bit and I came upon this great “map-workshop” that she put on her site. She says that she uses maps a lot in her stories and also gets a lot of ideas for stories by simply drawing a map randomly. Most of her novels were actually created by the creative spur that came from a map she’d drawn.

Personally I think maps are great things when you’re writing a story. I’ve made a few myself for the world my story takes place in. It’s really handy because you won’t easily make mistakes like mixing up the directions in which the characters travel to reach a certain city, which earlier was told to lie in the other direction. I already talked about this before in the post “Making Your Story Right”. I told you then to draw a map. Of course most of you can draw a map while you’re writing—it doesn’t have to be pretty at all, just as long as it can help you in your writing. But Holly has a very interesting way of making a map that allows you to get great ideas from it.

Here’s the link to the workshop:
http://hollylisle.com/fm/Workshops/maps-workshop.htm

Ok this post is a little short. So just for fun I’ll add some nice quotes about writing!

"Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead." --Gene Fowler

"The Six Golden Rules of Writing: Read, read, read, and write, write, write." -- Ernest Gaines

“Successful writers are not the ones who write the best sentences. They are the ones who keep writing.” – Bonnie Friedman

“Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.” -- E.L. Doctorow

“A professional writer is an amature who didn’t quit.”-- Richard Bach

“Writing is the hardest way of earning a living, with the possible exception of wrestling alligators.” – Olin Miller

“I want to live other lives. I’ve never quite believed that one chance is all I get. Writing is my way of making other chances.” – Anne Tyler

“If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.” -- Toni Morrison

Well that was all for today. Hope you liked the quotes and I hope the map drawing will help some of you out a little! And if you have a favorite quote about writing, post it in the comments!

Keep writing!

Xx LordKiwii