In his first-ever online class

You will get a Class workbook.

A downloadable companion full of supplementary information, creative writing exercises, and printable interactive resources accompanies the class.

Along with nineteen lessons! 

Here is the list of lessons from Masterclass.com

Lesson 01: Introduction
Meet your new instructor: Neil Gaiman, one of the most prolific storytellers of our time. In his first lesson, Neil explains why he loves to teach and how he wants to encourage you to tell stories that matter.

Lesson 02: Truth in Fiction
One of the central tools of literature is using the “lie” of a made-up story to tell a human truth. Neil shows you how to make your story’s world—no matter how outlandish—feel real to readers.

Lesson 03: Sources of Inspiration
Neil believes that even old stories can be approached from new angles. Learn how to create your own “compost heap” of inspiration and how to draw from your experiences to make a story uniquely your own.

Lesson 04: Finding Your Voice
Your writer’s voice is what makes it possible for someone to pick up a page of text and recognize that you wrote it. Learn how to develop your voice and how to overcome the fear of making mistakes.

Lesson 05: Developing the Story
Every story has a big idea. Learn how to find a big idea that’s meaningful to you, as well as how to create conflict and compelling stakes for your characters.

Lesson 06: Story Case Study:  The Graveyard Book
Neil uses his young adult fantasy novel,  The Graveyard Book, to illustrate how character motivations serve as the essential building blocks of a compelling plot.

Lesson 07: Short Fiction

The short story is an ideal format for risk-taking. Neil teaches you how to focus your scenes and descriptions for maximum impact.

Lesson 08: Short Fiction Case Study: “March Tale”
Using “March Tale” as an example, Neil shows you how to expand your narrative by creating conflict for your protagonist and how to bring your story to a satisfying climax.

Lesson 09: Dialogue and Character
Neil teaches you how to write realistic dialogue, how to listen to and trust your characters, and techniques to help readers remember your characters.

Lesson 10: Character Case Study: “October Tale”
Neil explains the technique of bringing a character to life by putting them in an unfamiliar situation that creates tension.

Lesson 11: Worldbuilding
Learn Neil’s philosophy of worldbuilding, including how to create compelling and believable settings for your novel, and how to avoid the common pitfalls many inexperienced writers make.

Lesson 12:  Descriptions
Neil shares his techniques to liven up descriptive prose, including cold opens, withholding information, finding emotional weight, and choosing memorable details.

Lesson 13: Humor
Neil shows how he uses humor in his work. He includes a close look at his novel Anansi Boys to illustrate his personal techniques such as “sherbet lemons” and “figgins.”

Lesson 14: Genre
Readers’ expectations are intrinsically tied to genre. Neil explains how an understanding of your story’s genre can help you provide delightful surprises to your audience.

Lesson 15: Comics
Writers don’t need to shy away from comics just because they’re not illustrators. Neil demonstrates his process of plotting and scripting a comic, using an award-winning issue of Sandman as an example.

Lesson 16:  Dealing With Writer’s Block
Every writer faces times when they’re stuck. Neil talks about some of the difficulties of the writing life and gives ideas about how to get through them.

Lesson 17:  Editing
Neil gives advice about the editing process, including why it’s important to take time away from a project and to get feedback from a trusted reader.

Lesson 18:  Rules for Writers
In his rules for writers, Neil talks about striking the right balance between humility and confidence, as well as the need to stay organized and devoted to daily work.

Lesson 19: The Writer’s Responsibilities
Neil concludes with a deeply personal discussion of the responsibilities that people who create art have to their audience and what this means for humans as a whole.

Disclaimer I am an affiliate of Masterclass.com

On this last day of November 30, 2018 I will write about CBDPure

Full disclosure I am an affiliate Of CBDPure 

This would make a great gift idea. The gift of relief.

CBDPure is hemp oil made with certified non-GMO organic-standards hemp. Grown in Colorado and is free of contaminants and additives.

Why am I an affiliate for CBDPure Hemp oil?

This is why:

“CBDPure is 100% legal and safe to consume. It does not have the psychoactive properties commonly found in recreational hemp – meaning it does not provide a “high” or intoxicated feeling to users. Our CBD oil contains naturally occurring cannabidiol, terpenes and other cannabinoids to promote overall well-being. The cannabinoid content of all CBDPure products complies with the federal law of the United States.” ~CBDPure

CBDPure Oil  worked for me. This product has a 90-day guarantee.

“If you are not experiencing the benefits you want or simply are not happy with your results, just send your order back within 90 days of purchase and we will refund your purchase price.” ~CBDPure

I have tried it. It eased my anxiety. It allowed me to relax, to stop my thoughts from racing. I used it for body aches and pains, and it worked.

Put the dosage under your tongue and hold it there for a minute. For me-  It can take anywhere from five minutes to twenty minutes to be absorbed into my bloodstream.

What it didn’t do was get me high. It is non-psychoactive, 100% non-intoxicating.

***As with anything that you ingest, you need to make sure to consult your doctor r and pharmacist about drug interactions.

Start with a low dosage.

I would recommend that you ‘always’ start with a low dosage, just to see how you react.

There is a large amount of information on CBD oil. Here are a few links.

The US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, Website: ‘Cannabidiol as an emergent therapeutic strategy for lessening the impact of inflammation on oxidative stress’
“This review discusses recent studies suggesting that cannabidiol may have utility in treating a number of human diseases and disorders now known to involve activation of the immune system and associated oxidative stress, as a contributor to their etiology and progression. These include rheumatoid arthritis, types I and II diabetes, atherosclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, hypertension, the metabolic syndrome, ischemia-reperfusion injury, depression, and neuropathic pain.”

 And here…

“Today,( June 25, 2018) the FDA approved a purified form of the drug cannabidiol (CBD). This is one of more than 80 active chemicals in marijuana. The new product was approved to treat seizures associated with two rare, severe forms of epilepsy in patients two years of age and older” ~fda.gov

CBDPure has a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee.

The only thing you have to lose is your pain, stress, and racing thoughts.

CBDPure can be given to your pets too. Here is the link  for your pets CBDPure oil 

You have written at least 50,000 words.By now you are thinking of editing your novel, others are looking into self-publishing. 

I can tell you what I will be doing. I will take all those words, and  list each scene, on its own index card.

1. I will list which characters are in the scene.
2. Timeframe.
3. Place/world
4. What is the crisis of the scene?
5. What is the desire of the scene
6. POV of that scene.
7. I will end up with a pile of sixty index cards.

Once I have all the scenes on their own index cards,  I will do a Happy Dance. Then, I will put them in order and file away scenes that don’t fit in my story, scenes that don’t move the story forward.

Check out: Day 6 Freytag for the letter ‘F’

I will make sure my story moves from the main crisis, towards the resolution of that crisis.

Check out: Day 15 ‘O’ for a kiss outline

Then, I will rewrite each scene….

• I will make sure each scene is full of sensory detail.
• And that  each scene has inner and outer conflict. (each step/scene will make it harder for my POV character)
•  That my scene reflects the passage of time
• That I am staying in the POV of that scene.
• I end with a twist or insight into the POV character.
• That the scene advances the plot.

Check out: Day 17 ‘Q’ Questing Plot asking Quem Quaeritis

When a chapter has been rewritten, I will get rid of overused and redundant words.

Last night, I realized that I had surpassed my 50,000 words. {{Happy Dance}}

‘Z ‘ for Zinker

“All creative activity begins with movement.”~Joseph Zinker

‘Z ‘ for Zenzizenzizenzic

Zenzizenzizenzic is the eighth power of a number

“Zenzizenzizenzic is an obsolete form of mathematical notation representing the eighth power of a number (that is, the zenzizenzizenzic of x is x8), dating from a time when powers were written out in words rather than as superscript numbers. This term was suggested by Robert Recorde, a 16th-century Welsh writer of popular mathematics textbooks, in his 1557 work The Whetstone of Witte (although his spelling was zenzizenzizenzike); he wrote that it “doeth represent the square of squares squaredly”.” ~ Wikipedia.org

Let’s say your number is Seven, seven to the power of eight, or 7⁸
It will  look like this:

7x7x7x7x7x7x7x7= 56 x 56 =3136

Or with 2⁸

2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2=16×16=256

‘Z ‘ for ZYZZYVA

ZYZZYVA the about section:

“ZYZZYVA’s first issue was published in 1985, under founding editor Howard Junker. In 2011, Laura Cogan became ZYZZYVA’s first new editor in more than 25 years. She and Managing Editor Oscar Villalon make up ZYZZYVA’s editorial team.”~ ZYZZYVA.org

“We accept submissions only from January 7 through May 31 and September 1 through November 19. Please send previously unpublished fiction, poetry, essays, and artwork to:…. Please note: We do not accept any online submissions.”

‘Z ‘ for Zhou
Poems by Zhou Xuanjing

The secret of the receptive
Must be sought in stillness;
Within stillness there remains
The potential for action.
If you force empty sitting,
Holding dead images in mind,
The tiger runs, the dragon flies-
How can the elixir be given?

 

Zhou Xuanjing was from the 12th century. she was a Chinese Taoist.
Read about the history of Taoism HERE:

So that is Z to the power of four. 

‘Y’ for ‘William Butler Yeats’  who was born, June 13,1865 in Sandymount, Republic of Ireland and died in Cannes, France on January 28, 1939.

He was an Irish poet, a dramatist, a prose writer he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923. His themes were on unrequited love, dreams, visions, country living, Irish history, Celtic mythology, then onto Modernist poems.

As you read, William Butler Yeats, keep in mind he wrote about his time, his life. Things and people who impressed or irritated him, places he saw, his thoughts on what was said about him, about mysticism and spiritualism. Mainly, he wrote for himself and a small amount of people.

On page 298, in ‘The Vein of Gold by Julia Cameron author of the Artist Way, Julia takes us into a “psychological space that allows you to entertain alternative belief systems” This chapter is called, “Spiritual Experience”.

Julia Cameron uses part of Yeats prose poem from, The Celtic Element in Literature, to get you to play, to dream, to dance. Cameron’s set up three points. Imagining the world lived only by candlelight.  She then tells us to experience an ethnic restaurant and see this as your normal daily life; and the third is to read and think about a specific piece of prose by W.B. Yeats.

“Once every people in the world believed that trees were divine and could take human or grotesque shape and dance among the shadows; and that deer and raven and foxes , and wolves sand bears, and clouds and pools, almost all things under the sun and moon, and the sun and moon, were not less divine and changeable…They dreamed of so great a mystery in little things that they believed the waving of a hand, or of sacred bough, enough to trouble far –off hearts, or hood the moon with darkness.”~The Celtic Element in Literature you can read the entire here for Free at Gutenberg.org.

Even more  of W.B. Yeats work HERE

In The Vein of Gold by Julia Cameron,  chapter titled: “Ceilings’ page 328.in the margins she quotes the first quatrain of his poem:

A Prayer for Old Age by W.B. Yeats.

GOD guard me from those thoughts men think

In the mind alone;

He that sings a lasting song

Thinks in a marrow-bone;

 

From all that makes a wise old man

That can be praised of all;

O what am I that I should not seem

For the song’s sake a fool?

 

I pray — for word is out

And prayer comes round again –

That I may seem, though I die old,

A foolish, passionate man.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6n–A-uHLU

Yeats usage of ‘marrow-bone’ I wondered, did he use it as religious  expression? Or is he seeing it as nourishment for the soul. Or maybe just soup.

Take in account the years that these poems were written, and that  we didn’t know that stem cells were in the marrow- filled with the makings of life.   But, a cook did.

Yeats used the word  ‘marrow’ in these poems:

“Our stitching and unstitching has been naught.
Better go down upon your marrow-bones “~Adam’s Curse   by William Butler Yeats

“And prayer to shivering prayer, until You have dried the marrow from the bone;”~September 1913

“I THOUGHT of your beauty, and this arrow,
Made out of a wild thought, is in my marrow.”~The Arrow by

https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-arrow/

Pick a name for your character that will give them a subtext overflowing with information or use that name as a metaphor; comparing your character with that old name.

A name like Xanthippe or  Xantippe 

The name Xanthippe was used as a suggestive meaning of a cruel, nasty woman. But, to be politically correct, {{SMILE}} you can use the name-Xanthippe or Xantippe– to describe a man, or a thing, or an alien from the planet ‘Pickled Beets’ its meaning will still be clear. You are writing about  a  ruthless person.

When picking your character’s names, try and muse over their personalities, then do a search on a baby-naming site. I like to search through census reports such as:
USA census.gov 

London census.co.uk

The United Nations Statistics Division

Google  to find  names for your little darlings. 

The name Xanthippe in literature:

“By this Xanthippe” (so was the wife of Socrates called, said Partridge)—“by this Xanthippe, he had two sons, of which I was the younger. He designed to give us both good education; but my elder brother, who, unhappily for him, was the favourite of my mother, utterly neglected his learning; insomuch that, after having been five or six years at school with little or no improvement, my father, being told by his master that it would be to no purpose to keep him longer there, at last, complied with my mother in taking him home from the hands of that tyrant, as she called his master; though indeed he gave the lad much less correction than his idleness deserved, but much more, it seems, than the young gentleman liked, who constantly complained to his mother of his severe treatment, and she as constantly gave him a hearing.” ~Chapter xi. — In which the Man of the Hill begins to relate his history. ‘Tom Jones’

“Xanthippe, Xantippe [wife of Socrates. Xanthippe.] A scolding or ill-tempered wife; a shrewish woman: as, “An arrant vixen of a wife scoured his domestic quiet…by the Xanthippe, he has two sons” [Fielding’s “Tom Jones” viii.11)”~ The New Century Dictionary, volume three, 1927.

Using names of characters, fictional and nonfictional, using the meanings of the names in a subtle way to describe a character. Or like Edgar Allan Poe, his poem called “An Acrostic” Acrostic poem is written with the first letter in each line spelling out a word. In Poe’s poem, Elizabeth, is the first word starting the poem, while each line’s first letter spells out ‘Elizabeth’  He changed the first letter, ‘X’ to ‘Z’ and yet, he still gave the reader a picture of the woman’s personality when he wrote:

“Zantippe’s talents had enforced so well” Read the full poem at~ eapoe.org

Xanthippos is Masculine from ancient Greek, [from Greek elements (Xanthos) “yellow” and (hippos) “horse. Name of a 5th century BC Athenian general.

Feminine version of Xanthippe: ancient Greek; the name of Socrates wife, who was very argumentative, Ill-tempered woman.

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet.” ~ Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet.

There are plenty of  articles on how a name shapes a person’s image to the world. So think long and hard when you name your children, your novel, your stories. Because, If you want your reader’s to feel the love, then don’t name or refer to your children as Xanthippe.

“Words had an energy and power and I came to respect that power early. Pronouns, nouns, and verbs were citizens of different countries, who really got together to make a new world” (Audre Lorde, interviewed by Karla M. Hammond, Denver Quarterly, Spring 1981).

This will be a short post for the letter ‘V’
Verbs.

A verb shows the state of being, the subjects action, state of being ( am, are is, have been, was seem) or equation.

A verb shows an action: runs, jumps, is going, has been cleaning.

Typically verb tenses;  past, present, or future.

Helping verbs; had and been.

A two-word main verb: show up.

Complete verb  (I am paddling in the pool) or not complete verb  (I paddling in the pool)

Voices that are active, passive, middle (when the subject of the verb does action unto itself.) and imperfect, future, perfect, pluperfect, (same aspect as perfect yet results of that action moved farther into the past, translation for pluperfect is “I had loosened”) or aorist (this isn’t a tense at all it describes indefinite or underlined action. Latin word aoristos meaning ‘without boundaries or “I have loosened”)

Verb tense aorist: “… in Classical Greek, expressing action or, in the indicative mood, past action, without further limitation or implication.” ~ Dictionary.com

Then there are the moods: Indicative, Imperative, Subjunctive, Jussive, and Optative. Optative has shown up in the New Testament as a wish/prayer or potential statement.

Many languages use one form of a verb for singular subjects and a different form for plural subjects.

Here is another ‘V ‘for today. ‘V’ For Valar.

The Valar, which are John Ronald Reuel Tolkien’s creation.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VDrqHFksX4[/embedyt]

As you are creating your own world, take some time to delve into the amazing world of Tolkien’s mythology.

The Valarare characters in J. R. R. Tolkien’s legendarium. They are “angelic powers” or “gods” subordinate to the one God they are the most powerful of the Ainur who chose to go into the World (Arda) ~ Wikipedia

U for UBI SUNT MOTIF , Latin, for “Where are….?” Some medieval European poems begin with that Latin phrase, “Where are they?” then ends with death. Very morbid

Here is the full phrase: “Ubi sunt qui ante nos fuerent?” Meaning, ‘Where are those who were before us?’

Example: “The Ballade of Dead Ladies,”
“Tell me now in what hidden way is
Lady Flora the lovely Roman?”

Dante Gabriel Rossetti [1828-1882] Read the rest HERE

Amazing as this poem is with dead ladies, I actually picked the ‘U’ for University Presses.

“University Presses generally publish books of scholarly nature or of specialized interest by authorities in given field.” From my copy of, The Writer’s Handbook, 1980

If you are looking to get your work published by one of the many University Presses, make sure to follow their guidelines to the letter. Each university press has an Author resource page stating how to submit your work.

Here is a link to the Oxford University Press- Submitting a Proposal

Confused about where to start looking? Try here at the Association of University Presses.

“The Association of University Presses has more than 140 members located around the world”~ Membership list.

Just to name a few:
University of Alabama Press
University of Illinois Press
University of North Texas Press
Manchester University Press
University of Notre Dame Press
Oxford University Press
The University of West Indies Press
Woodrow Wilson Center Press
Yale University Press

Check out the amazing list of University Presses.
Here is the link to the complete list. You will find websites, Blogs, Facebook and Twitter links.

Plan on taking your time while surfing these sites. Find what you need, make notes, take screenshots, scroll to the very bottom of the page to see even more information. and remember to keep copies of each place you submitted. Read over the information. You will have to inform them if you have an open submission sent to another

publisher.

‘U’ for University Presses.

Unicorns would have been a colorful ‘U’ or dangerous. Careful with that horn. The earliest description  of a Unicorn was in Greek literature , described as “…Onoi Monokerata (One-Horned Asses).” You can read more HERE.

I could use this as an ‘H’ if I wasn’t well past Day 8. Can you tell me who more than Mark Twain had a knack for the subtle and overblown use of humor?

Mark Twain used exaggeration and understatement in his pieces. He even set it out downplaying it, allowing the reader to ‘get it’. That humor that will hit you after you set down the book. It can be called, dry humor.

“We ought never to do wrong when people are looking,” ~ A Double-Barrelled Detective Story.” You can read that here in gutenberg.org

Exaggerations: Mark Twain called them “stretchers” ( lies) Twain, (Samuel Clemens) used those lies to stretch the truth, showing us the emotional truth, by exaggerating it, enlarging or overstating the truth.

Mark Twain used the understatement. Providing the reader just enough to imagine the scene, with the added surprise of the advice given.

“If at any time you find it necessary to correct your brother, do not correct him with mud—never, on any account, throw mud at him, because it will spoil his clothes. It is better to scald him a little, for then you obtain desirable results. You secure his immediate attention to the lessons you are inculcating, and at the same time your hot water will have a tendency to move impurities from his person, and possibly the skin, in spots.” ~You can find Mark Twain’s ‘Advice for Good Little Girls” written for San Francisco magazine the Youth’s Companion, June of 1865

And just enough humor to get feathers ruffled while tickling your funny bone:

“All Democrats are insane, but not one of them knows it; none but the Republicans and Mugwumps know it. All the Republicans are insane, but only the Democrats and Mugwumps can perceive it. The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane. When I look around me, I am often troubled to see how many people are mad.”
“— Chapter 5, BOOK I CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

Just so you know a Mugwump is: ” a person who remains aloof or independent, especially from party politics” ~dictionary.com

Thrown for snicks and grins, Shakespeare’s humor Example:

Act 3 scene 2, As You Like It, “I was seeking for a fool when I found you.”

Henry IV, ~ “Thou art as fat as butter!”

That last one wasn’t subtle or an understatement, just a humorous simile.

Yes, I know, ‘S’ Day 19.

‘S’

Sssss!

Finding a subject for today’s post was literally easy.
Just Googling: Googling the letter ‘s’ term in writing a novel

I found Scribendi : A Glossary of Fiction Writing Terms

Satire: I love this definition; “…criticize people’s stupidity or vices,..”
Setting: “place, time and condition “….a story takes place.
Simile: comparing one thing with a different thing using,’like or as’
Subject: “what the story is about”
Subplot: minor plot in a story flowing alongside the main plot
Symbol: “something that stands for something else”
Synecdoche: a word or phrase refers to a whole. Example: ‘sails’ referring to a whole ship, ‘hired hands’ referring to workers.
Syntax: Words put together to form dialogue, phrases, clauses

Those are great words starting with ‘S’ but not the one I decided to use for this example. Slayer. I read this term in ‘Story Structure Architect’  Writer’s Digest Books (2005)

This is where this word, ‘Slayer’ started along a slippery slope of selections. Even an anti-hero will choose to kill or not.

In this book, the use of ‘Slayer’ is used as a situation.

Slayer:
1. Slaying a family member for the greater good. (Justifiable homicide?)

2. Then there is the Slayer who is ‘not known’ to the protagonist, (kidnapper, serial killer)

3. Or the one that is known. (Maybe a Stalker, a neighbor, or the magic creature living in your garage)

4. Then there is the Slayer who challenges a situation. (I know this one. Here you stand up for what you believe in and get fired. )

All four of these are situations; situations used with a choice to kill, metaphoric or literally. Subplots or main plots.With  situations that needs to be overcome with Chutzpah (audacity; nerve.)

An example of this type is in the story ‘The Transporter’ where the main character goes against what he was hired to do. He decides to not follow the ‘rules or laws that harm’ this is where the protagonist’s beliefs come into play, what he or she thought was right, no longer works for the protagonist.

Think of it in terms where you got this great job and loved following the rules. Then one day you saw that your company’s beliefs, and yours, had parted company. You can’t take it anymore, and told them so. You saw something happen that could potentially hurt others and you were done with it. This would be challenging the status quo. Slaying the dragon that is your boss or co-workers, then showing the backlash of that decision.

Slayer and recognized victim: the Slayer knows the victim and believes in his core with what has to be done. Could be a little off…did I say little! The Slayer needs to have his own internal dialogue that will convince himself to do the deed.

Think of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ she has her reason for killing, vampires, demons, and any supernatural evil being and as the reader we except this Slaying, we even agree.

Slayer and unrecognized victim: a person the Slayer is hired to kill then he decides not to. Example of the victims; kidnapped a hired killer, a person who gets in-between, accidentally and now is dragged along to save their life.

These are choices that the protagonist makes that move the story forward. They are made with using life or death situation.

I thought this could also be described as the choice that changes the character for better or for worse. Their inner conflicts and dilemmas and how your protagonist chooses, but with a little more close up detail on the need and want. Where we give our protagonist a reason to take a stand. Back him or her into a corner where they have to choose. Make that hard choice to show their hearts or let the voices in their heads take over.

Once they decide they become the Slayers of their demons then the story unfolds.
Their choices can be used as a subplot as in ‘Sophie’s Choice’ Slaying of a loved one.

I bet if you tried you can see this narrative choice running through your favorite stories. Some as main storylines other as subplots.

I recommend ‘ Story Structure Architect’   The author-Victoria Lynn Schmidt- places the Slayer situation with an example of Beginning -Middle and End.