Blog by Toby Welch

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The Trend of Verbifying Words

October 14th, 2015
    One trend I've noticed with writers in the new millennium is to verbify words. The practice involves taking a noun and making it into a verb. When Clint Eastwood mock-interviewed Barack Obama in 2012 and acted like the U.S. president was sitting in the empty chair beside him, “Eastwooding” was an often-used verb for months afterward when people referenced talking to an empty chair. “Xero ...
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The Challenge of Self-Imposed Deadlines

August 21st, 2015
I struggle with self-imposed deadlines. When I'm working on an article for a magazine editor who has given me a deadline, meeting the deadline is never a problem. In my mind it is carved in stone and it is non-negotiable that I meet or beat the deadline. But when I set deadlines for myself, I know they're not rigid so I often have trouble sticking to them. This obviously affects my writing ...
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The Math of Writing

July 17th, 2015
I have always loved numbers. In fact I have a university degree in accounting. There's something about the perfection of numbers I am addicted to, likely the fact that they are black and white with no grey areas, unlike the rest of life. Two plus two always equals four. The circumference of a circle is always Pi multiplied by the radius squared. The likelihood of me craving chocolate on any g ...
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10 Ways to Make Your Writing Sparkle

June 5th, 2015
Writing that pops is so much more fun to read than boring words that belong in a 1940s textbook. But how can you make sure your writing is electrifying? Here are a few tips: Start with a bang. Draw them in immediately. Use action verbs. "He crumpled to the ground" is more powerful than "He fell." Use adverbs sparingly. Use active voice instead of passive, if possible. Use vivid imagery. ...
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Writing Poseurs

May 3rd, 2015
We've all met them - cocky, opinionated people who claim to be writing the next great novel that will rock the literary world. Yet they don't mention that they haven't penned more than one word in the five years or five decades that they've been making their ridiculous claims. Such people try to soak in the glories of the writing life while not actually writing anything. Almost as bad is the ...
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Stories of E-book Success

March 26th, 2015
Stories of e-book success are inspiring. Take Paul Pilkington, a British university lecturer. He self-published The One You Love, the first book in a mystery trilogy. He offered the book for free and went on to sell more than 150,000 copies of book two and three in the series, books he self-published himself. Once he hit the top of the Amazon Kindle US and UK charts, literary agents started c ...
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Firsts

March 16th, 2015
As a writer, you have many exciting firsts. The first time you see your name in print. The first time your byline appears online. The first time you get paid for your writing. The first time you receive a letter or e-mail from a reader. My favorite was the first time I was paid to fly to the Caribbean to write an article. I figured that after eleven years in the industry, my chance of having ...
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Literary Lunatic

December 26th, 2014
I've always been a “live and let live” kind of person. Humans are strange creatures that make decisions that I rarely understand. But I don't judge, I just shake my head in puzzlement before putting it out of my thoughts (or tucking it into the back of my mind for writing fodder.) I have more patience for writers than I do for regular humans. I respect the creative process and know to the ma ...
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Time Management Tips for Writers

November 22nd, 2014
A decade as a full-time freelance writer has taught me a thing or two about managing your time in order to meet (and exceed!) your writing goals and deadlines. These are my top tips: Turn off the bloody TV. Sometimes you get more done when you take a break from writing. Only surf for specific things on the Internet; mindless surfing is a waste of time. Stopping to smell the roses and look ...
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"Write What You Know About"

September 7th, 2014
I have always struggled with this piece of writing advice and I get disheartened when writers take it as gospel. Sure, I can see the merits of it in many instances. When you have been to the place that is the setting of your story, the writing will ring true. If you've slept on the 1,000 thread count sheets that your heroine swears by, you can describe the feeling with authenticity. But ther ...
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