Published on Sunday, January 16, 2011 by CathyWyo1 Haystack There is little question that writing is a self-reflective process from which we learn about others, ourselves and our world.  It is in this context that the mind engages in a process of deep thought, that writing is a tool of organizing and defining our world.  It is with this thought in my mind that I start this day. Writing takes various forms throughou...

Published on Monday, December 27, 2010 by CathyWyo1 Haystack Blogs can be a phenomenal form of self-expression, of memoir, and providing information online. Blogging allows for an individual writer to pull from other individuals their commentary, collaboration, and insight into the content of the blog. If you are interested in blogging you maybe interested in seeing what other people do on their blogs I will provide y...

Published on Monday, December 6, 2010 by CathyWyo1 Haystack Writer’s Market 2011 is as big a resource to writers as it was before the Internet and I anticipate that it will continue to be so. However like any other large book there is an anatomy to it which the reader/user needs to become familiar with in order to use it effectively. Writer’s Market always seems to start with the how to’s..how to write the all import...

Published on Monday, December 6, 2010 by CathyWyo1 Haystack Entering contests can be a fun way to motivate yourself to write, however there are a few things you should know about contests before submitting your best work to them.  Many contests have very specific guidelines that must be followed in order to meet their standards and not end up in the rejected pile. Some of these require certain residency, such as state re...

Published on Thursday, October 7, 2010 by CathyWyo1 Haystack The web is a great resource for writers, however, there is more than one can ever imagine, and it’s a matter of determining what is good and useful to you as a writer rather than finding information on improving your writing.  Below is a list of websites, a journal, if you will, of what I looked at today. Book in a Week:   Has consistently been named one of t...

Published on Friday, September 17, 2010 by CathyWyo1 Haystack Writing fiction means anything goes?  You can be creative, innovative and think outside the box, anything goes right?  Well not exactly good fiction still requires that the writer demonstrates some degree of authenticity, some measure of accuracy in fact, and does his/her research.   What does research in fiction writing mean?  What and how can the writer do his/...

Published on Thursday, July 15, 2010 by CathyWyo1 Haystack I am in the process of clearing out, cleaning up and de-cluttering in the anticipation of a move ...I hope the move doesn’t happen, so nevertheless this clean up must happen. In my clean up I found a copy of a 1980 Writer’s Handbook.  I though it might be interesting to provide some tips and tricks from this book, for reflection up on what has changed and what ha...

Published on Monday, July 5, 2010 by CathyWyo1 Haystack I have purchased the Writer's Digest for many years. I am not sure why purchasing the Writer's Digest does not automatically guarantee that one will get published and that has been my experience..you must follow through with submitting, submitting, and submitting..a step I have quite gotten to yet. That being said this annually presented "writer's bible" is broken ...

Published on Saturday, June 12, 2010 by CathyWyo1 Haystack Writers need to network using social media tools as much as anyone in our web-connected world.  In order to compete in today's market a writer should understand how these tools can improve his/her writing and connections. Some of these sites are as follows: Writerface.com: WriterFace is an online social networking community and marketplace designed to help writers...

Published on Friday, June 4, 2010 by CathyWyo1 Haystack What makes writing so intoxicating, so addicting?  Well it is this thing called creative flow.  Creative flow can be your muse, your inspiration, it can also drive you to write to exhaustion.  In a provocative article in Psychology Today online, Susan Perry, Ph. D., compares the creative flow process that occurs in writing to sex! Flow is essential to the creati...

Published on Monday, May 31, 2010 by CathyWyo1 Haystack When I started out writing this blog it was my intent to illustrate how writers can use the online Guttenberg Library.  The Guttenberg Library or Project Guttenberg is a site which offers books free and online. These books can be downloaded to many portable electronic devices as well as PCs.   The over 30,000 books on Project Guttenberg were scanned by thousands of...

Published on Thursday, May 20, 2010 by CathyWyo1 Haystack Google and Google Applications, we have all heard of them and probably most of use at least one if not more of  Google Applications.  Lately I have been asking myself; what are Google Applications?  Can they help me, as a writer, to improve my writing, expand my knowledge, and make research and information gathering easier? I will provide you with a bit of a bac...

Published on Wednesday, May 12, 2010 by CathyWyo1 Haystack Proofreading and editing are fundamental to excellent writing. You can be a creative and brilliant writer but if you don't proofread and can't edit your writing will languish in the slush pile.  I must admit these two elements of writing are my weak areas. Therefore my posting today will serve two purposes; one is to provide you with resources to access to improve yo...

Published on Friday, May 7, 2010 by CathyWyo1 Haystack I have seen the term digital story telling with increasing frequency on the Web.  Actually digital story telling has been around for a long time, maybe almost as long at the Internet when users began to see it as a powerful tool to share stories.  Digital Storytelling is defined by various groups and individuals as follows: Gail Matthews-Denatale and Jamie Trayno...

Published on Friday, April 30, 2010 by CathyWyo1 Haystack Now that the nerve wracking, stress, and much of the physical exertion of a move is behind me I feel I can settle down and focus on putting together blogs for Virtual Writers on a more consistent basis.  Because of this real life move and job change I have had to deal with some real life changes and this lead me to think that this would be a good topic for this blog....