Ignited Ink Writing is dedicated to helping you transform your writing, so it lingers with readers. Writing that lingers, impacts, haunts, tugs at heartstrings, satisfies, or bares a truth is remembered, reread, and recommended.
To help you accomplish this, my videos cover all aspects of writing. You'll find videos on everything from point of view to when to use italics to book cover design to books that use specific writing techniques exceptionally well.
New videos are released every Wednesday and share my knowledge as a developmental and copy editor, fantasy writer, and creative writing instructor.
I use this book to elicit verbal production from my recalcitrant EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students. We look at one page per class (we don't spend the whole class time on it though--we do other things too!), so the overall story unfolds for the students over the course of several classes. They take turns pointing out one thing (e.g., one character) on that day's page and saying whatever they can about it. This way, all levels of students are challenged and engaged. We all love it!
Watching your video has helped me realize that I am NOT one to be writing a blog. It takes up my time that I need to write my stories. And I have left my blog to fend for itself months to a year. And I often can't figure out what to write for the blog. I'm more focused on my stories. Thanks for the video!😃
I have to respectfully [adv.] disagree with a fraction of this advice (not the latter parts). I realize the advice is aligned with much of what publishers seek these days, yet I disagree that your example omissions are more evocative (at least not for all of us). Your example of communicating the concept of "jovially" purely through dialogue, while omitting the adverb, doesn't come across to me as having only gained something without having potentially lost just as much or more. "Jovial" and "jovially" are very nuanced adjectives and adverbs implying not only cheerfulness and kindness in tone and body language but also humorous intent. There is no unambiguous way to read into such humorous intent through the subtext of dialogue alone in all but the most blatant of cases, especially given the potential gap between what the speaker finds humorous vs. the listener. I can appreciate the basics like how "spoken softly" can more concisely be replaced with "whispered", but I think we are culturally taking the idea of minimizing adverbs a bit too far. I don't mean to nitpick, but trying to eliminate "jovially" in a dialogue tag is an example in which I think we went too far. I'm speaking purely as a reader and not a writer by any stretch; I simply miss reading fiction of a sort where authors weren't afraid to liberally use adverbs in cases where they most concisely communicated ["articulated" perhaps as an alternative to "concisely communicated", yet there's an ambiguous gap between "coherent/eloquent" and "concise"; the two are not necessarily synonymous] intent.
I have too much Ezra Pound in me to disparage good writing, but what makes a writer valuable is, first, the uniqueness of his or her perspective about life. Nothing, beautifully written, is still nothing. Further: an MFA program, being part of a college environment, cultivates niceness and timid gentility. Further: It dilutes the sense of authority. You are the student, they are the teacher, and that distribution of status might seep into your mind. Further: it imposes a clock on one's writing, taking away the advantage of slow-cooking a piece for months and years - the advantage of waiting.
Thanks for the video. In my current story two of the characters will be communicating inside one of the characters' minds (not unlike how Lily Tomlin's character talked with Steve Martin's character in "All of me" after she died and was inside his head.) I've been searching for the best way to write out the conversations they are having and have been seeing so many different ways of doing it ... from italics with no quotation marks to *word* to <word>. It's hard to figure out the best method.
Hello! Thanks so much for your writing insight. Right now, I'm in the process of writing a realistic fiction story about two hugely popular 1980s pop singers, who eventually become a celebrity power couple! Y'see, my two main characters are people who were actually huge pop stars during the 1980s and 1990s. In reality, they didn't become a celebrity power couple-----but I always thought they should've! So, in my story, I'm rewriting their personal histories a bit. It's a story that I'm just writing for myself. I realize that if I wanted to publish my story, I would have to substitute their real names for fictional names. In my story, I'm mixing some FACTS with my own IMAGINATIVE FICTION, which I think is a GOOD IDEA. When I write, I much better with dialogue than exposition. I spend so much concentration on developing the conversations between my characters that I tend to neglect the description and exposition. I really would appreciate any ADVICE you could offer me.
I remember all of my past attempts to read the novel version of the novel, Gone With The Wind. That book has entirely TOO MUCH EXPOSITION, which is why I could NEVER get through it! I can't imagine what the author, Margaret Mitchell was thinking when she wrote that book. It wasn't surprising that it was her ONLY novel. HOW it was converted into a motion picture is a process that I would LOVE to hear about. Anyway, I much prefer that motion picture over the novel any day!
Why wouldn't the want to read about realistic violence? When I was 8 I read a book about a princess fighting dragons and she got all sorts of cut up and bloody. I loved it. Stakes, y'know? Everything is subjective. Some kids are more advanced, and writing this cushy nonsense feels like you're pulling the wool over their eyes.
Could you provide some contexts? "Just" is arguably the most superfluous modifier in your list. "He was [just] stupid". In most contexts like these, it's used similarly [I'm in the pro-adverb camp, BTW] to "only/simply/really", but that's already implied unless you describe other qualities. You might have a compulsion to strip away in descriptions rather than insert. We tend to have that since, for example, we might have a character conceived in our heads and so much information the reader doesn't know yet. So, "He was just stupid," seems intuitive since it strips away a lot of other possibilities. Yet if you remember that the reader has not had anything else described to them yet and is starting with a blank mental slate with no assumptions beyond what you feed them, "He was stupid" already does the trick without the need for "just".
Thank you for this! I am just getting started with author blogging vs. "life" blogging and since I am a children's author wishing to sell books, this has been helpful. I will check out some of your other videos!
Hi Caittin Berve, I'm Moses. I got enrolled at the school of proofreading and editing recently, how to use track changes in Microsoft Word was my greatest headache in doing my assignments. I was getting frustrated before I stumbled on this your particular video. You have just helped solved a huge challenge I was facing. Please accept my sincere appreciation and robust thanks giving. Be blessed and be successful in whatsoever you lay your hands upon in Jesus Name. I'm relieved and happy. I have saved this video and shall continue playing it over and over again until I master every bit of it.
Being told that ellipses are not used for pauses without having an alternative offered in the same video is extremely infuriating. This is especially so when most dialogue I've encountered in media use ellipses for that aforementioned purpose. If there is an alternative way of showing short, medium, and long pauses in character dialogue, I'd really love to know. I'm exclusively writing character dialogue, so I can't show pauses with a narrator - since there is no narrator present.
Currently I have a possible book reward for my first book pending after paying for it. Hopefully if I'm lucky the book might win it, since could certainly use the help with marketing.
I had a short erotic story published in 1996. It was 800 words in length. A 50,000 word novel.......thats a hell of a task to complete. Short stories for me I think?
Thank you, Ms. Berve! The idea of complexity is the reason that I want to work in the realm of short fiction. I am constantly told in school that I'm too long-winded. The short story (flash fiction for now) is the perfect tool to force me into a state of precision! I may branch into Short Fiction, but I wish to stay away from Novelettes for now. I'd be too pressed to fill them.
I know this video is from three years ago, but what about first person point of view. Does this ratio still apply if it's a story about a single character vs nature for example, and would internal monologue constitute as exposition or dialogue, as he/she isn't really speaking to other characters, but rather thinking with the voice in their head. Thank you in advance if you see this and could give me a quick reply. Loved your video.
There are lots of way to merchandising of the product in my case it is a book, and advertising and marketing method in my opinion So more and more people take intrest and get the opportunity to work for further.
These videos are actually VERY good. Shows that you're an Professional Writer and compared to other's, can actually explain well to those who wish to learn. 😊
Thanks for sharing your opinion about writing and speaking with anyone. So just now recently I have write a invitation letter to all the friends in social media but for me, I feel I had made mistake in writing but after that I had also trying the same paragraph writing in translation in English language which is I have already written but I wanted to know what is the actual meaning of this paragraph in Gujarati, So no problem at all it was good at all then I feel comfortable with it So it is okay with me.
Trauma came in different ways Karma spun from ancient days At the heavens praying up in space....... Encoded in my DNA Love and hate within the frame twisted in it's rails I train and could it all just be a game......? ....could I then hold back this tear Reverse my heart and what it feels heal this double helix strand that's peeled What is truth and what is real? Traveling through time but what if_ time does not exist just a dream inside the mist Pull my covers 'for a nightly kiss_and....... (TELL ME OF THIS TIME TRAVLER'S STORY) Signed by, ~Ronald D. Write~ 2023
Let the _lessons_ go, but write for _meaning._ Many kids are not looking for an escape from meaning, but actively looking for meaning in conversations, movies and the books they seek out. What is hard is to find the age-appropriate, un-heavy-handed way to to bring kids a meaningful story that wiĺ speak to their own needs. Even at 71 years old, I don't wabg to be delivered a patronizing lesson. I will feel my own arms twisted behind my back, if the story is a bitter dose of medicine I'm expected to swallow. And on top of that, I have to deal with all the other things you mention, so no guarantee that I'm going to actually arrive.
Congratulations on winning in all those categories! Happy for you. Your cover is stunning.This was the best video on the topic I have seen. Can you recommend a comprehensive resource that lists book awards online that one can access?
