It’s almost that time of the year again. Cool weather, hot coffee, chill music. And lots and lots of writing. It’s already October so anyone who has heard of NaNoWriMo knows that Preptober is all about planning.
![The Great Hunt [or where to look for ideas]](https://i1.wp.com/www.my-dreamcatcher.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/idea.jpg?fit=575%2C323&ssl=1)
It turns out that the most common reason for not being able to write – which applies to me and many, many others – is the lack of ideas or inspiration. Some have a hard time starting their story, others write themselves in the corner, others write without a problem but struggle with making the story come to life.
No matter if you’ve been writing for twenty years or if you are thinking about starting a book now – this is a question people will ask you, a question you’ll ask yourself again and again. What is a writer? How do I become one? What makes me a writer?
Resonance, when it comes to writing, is the ability to use other works (without plagiarizing) that resonate with your readers to promote your own book. The resonance may come simply from the genre you’re writing in, from the themes in your book, from similarities in names (like the book title) or characters.
![Using SETTING in Fiction [Part 2]](https://i0.wp.com/www.my-dreamcatcher.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/kevin-schmid-WR20gOgB1m0-unsplash.jpg?fit=2048%2C1365&ssl=1)
Last week we spoke about using different aspect of SETTING in our stories and namely, using sounds to enhance a scene, a character, an emotion. This week we move on to another aspect that can help us make our chapters, our scenes more realistic, more enticing – help us set mood or invoke emotion about a place or a character.
![Using SETTING in Fiction [Part 1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.my-dreamcatcher.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/freestocks-org-ZlJ70xq0pO8-unsplash.jpg?fit=2048%2C1365&ssl=1)
Recently I wrote another post called “The Role of Setting in Fiction” where we discussed how important the use of setting is and what kind of role it plays in any kind of book, especially fiction. I know that I was probably saying things you already knew but it had to be said so that we establish what our goal is before diving into the practical side of using SETTING.
As writers we have to think of so many things to get our story to work – interesting characters and places, unexpected turns and twists, impeccable grammar and punctuation and so on, and so on. There are some geniuses out there that do this on instinct (and I hate them for it) but the rest of us have to pay close attention to every little aspect of our story.
I present you the new topic – TIME. I know, it’s weird when you think of it but TIME is fundamental to a book just as much as plot or characters or a good hook. It is not as obvious or as interesting as those others components but if you mess it up – it would ruin your story.
Let’s face it – we’ve all thought long and hard about how to make our story better, how to get more readers, get more recognition and have this WOW moment when somebody says “This writer is amazing! They know how to write, the story is great and I can’t wait for more!” I know I have.