Issue Index - with Descriptions
1) The Secret to being a Writer - Introduction & promises.
2) Get Your Head Right to Write – The first “Keeping On Track,” and three vital elements: self-confidence, confidence & keeping it fun.
3) When People-watching is Homework – Observations on dreaming up characters, my process, and an example.
4) The Care and Feeding of an Idea File – The first of three issues introducing a writer’s idea file—and an aside on Writer’s Block.
5) A Peek at My Idea File – Part Two of Idea Files, highlighting examples and snippets from mine.
6) Ideas—How to Bring ’em Back Alive – In Part Three of Idea Files: tips on making sure ideas don’t get away, with examples.
7) Writing What You Like vs. Writing What Sells – Weighing out what to write, and choosing your genre.
8) Fiction Genres—A List – An illustrated, rhyming list of possible fiction genres for your perusal.
9) Good Books, Bad Books, and Your Ideal Reader Learning from books, good and bad, and assigning yourself as an ideal reader.
10) Benefits—and a Secret Bonus—of Writing for Kids A rhyming, illustrated tour of categories, by age, plus (shhh!) a secret bonus.
11) Pick Your Plot—An Overview Four huge ingredients about which you should be thinking: character, setting, structure and publication.
12) Pantsers vs. Plotters – Get into the weeds on definitions and debates over pantsers and plotters and decide what you are.
13) Good Conflict is Personal – Learn the types of conflict used in fiction, and see examples of how they’re done.
14) Dream up your Theme – Find out the differences between themes, morals, and motifs and how you can use ’em in your novel.
15) The Beginning of the Beginning – Cooking Up an Idea – How to nurture an idea, add conflict, and craft the start of a story.
16) Read While You Write – The importance of pleasure-reading and the benefits of writing-resource books.
17) Setting the Stage—An Overview – Ask yourself five questions—and consider three points of preparation—before you start.
18) How Will You Physically Write It? – Handwriting vs. keyboarding, and word-processing history and choices.
19) Where Will You Write? – Do you need a specific writing space—or can you write anywhere?
20) How Many Words In Total Should You Write? - Word-counts, definitions, and the perils of under- or over-writing.
21) What Time of Day Will You Write? – Pros and cons of writing at different times of day, and choice vs. necessity.
22) How Often and How Much? - Deciding between writing by time-increment or word-count, with examples from some familiar names.
23) Is Every Day Even Possible? - Late, great author Gene KoKayKo—and his enduring, simple suggestion to me (this one’s personal).
24) Self-Doubt & Writer’s Guilt - Keeping On Track #2 – On preventing us from being our worst enemies.
25) Writing Rhythm at One Year: Looking Back— & Forward – Same kinda review we’re doing here, for the first 24 issues.
26) A Contest for Writers – The 2024 challenge for readers to write a story using as many Writing Rhythm vocabulary words as possible.
27) Family, Work & Friends: How to Carve Out Writing Time – Some tips on creating fiction and working a job…and while raising a family.
28) Family, Work & Friends: Dealing with Attitude on Your Writing – How to weather the storm when folks close to you are not supportive.
28.5) 2024 Writing Contest Winner – Announcement of the 2024 contest winner: Andy Futuro, plus his prizewinning entry in full.
29) Writer’s Groups: Definitions & Types – 1 of 4 on Writer’s Groups (WR); this one offers descriptions and variety of the WR out there.
30) Writer’s Groups: Positives—Why to Hook Up with One – 2 of 4: the benefits of WRs and why you might consider joining one.
31) Writer’s Groups: Negatives—When to Stay Away or Jump Ship – 3 of 4: drawbacks…or why to bail from or avoid WGs in the first place.
32) Writer's Groups: How to Pick or Form One – 4 of 4: A whole boatload of advice and links regarding setting yourself up with a WG.
33) Pre-writing Research: How Much Do You Really Need? – 1 of 3 on PWR: Why you’ll need to do some…and how to decide how much.
34) Pre-writing Research: The Gathering – 2 of 3 on PWR: how to actually get it together, and some tools that’ll help you.
35) Pre-writing Research: Organizing and Using It on the Page – 3 of 3 on PWR: how to categorize your facts, and two ways to use ’em.
36) Character Backstory: Yea or Nay? – 1 of 4 on BS: Why to consider writing one, while monitoring how much time you spend doing so.
37) Character Backstory: How to Write It – 2 of 4 on BS: some points and lists to shine a light on a character’s past.
38) Character Backstory: Motivation – 3 of 4 on BS: Going into your own backstory to see why people—real or fictional—do what they do.
39) Character Backstory: Sneaking It Gently Onto Your Pages – 4 of 4 on BS: avoiding info-dumps, drip-feeding, & taking care with dialogue.
40) The Importance of Character – On character being the rock star of the novel, and the baby steps to take when dreaming one up.
41) What Your Character Wants: The Ins and Outs – How external and internal motivation fits in with what they need vs. what they want.
42) The Three Ingredients of Story – 3 vital concepts: Goal, Motivation and Conflict, and how they work together within characters and plots.
43) Gathering the Parts to Create Characters – Assembling characters —human or otherwise—using links or Writing Rhythm for structure.
44) Creating A Character – Putting Meat on the Bones (PMOTB) #1: The few words describing a setting that fermented into a fiction story.
45) Mining the Backstory – PMOTB #2: How I searched out a plot in my basic ideas by adding to character backstory & working in conflict.
46) Letting A Character Tell his Story – PMOTB #3: How questioning the players shaped a narrative…plus, a look at length and POV.
47) The First…and Final Draft: A Comparison – PMOTB #4: See how a rough draft transforms from warty frog to publishable story.
48) A Letter for the Bayou – The story itself.
49) Writing Rhythm at Two Years: Looking Back - A summary of intentions and a listing of last year’s issues.