[HelenParticipant]

Hi Robin

I believe it starts ‘officially’ week commencing 17th August.

[HelenParticipant]

Yep. If anyone is looking to join the main TW Facebook group you can request to join by following this link:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/tribewriters/

Within the main TW FB group there is a ‘File’ section and in there is a number of resources including a list of the TW Speciality groups you can link to.

Hope this helps.

[HelenParticipant]

Hi Rick, the fiction group is a closed on. I am in it and have just checked with Joan who leads it about the best way for people to join from here. When I have a response I will let you know.

Not sure about the main TW group. This is the url - see if it works. http://www.facebook.com/groups/tribewriters/

I will pop into the group there too and ask an admin and get back.

Helen

[HelenParticipant]

Hi Susan

Thanks for your lovely comments. I like your tag idea. I’m quite excited to see where the Mind Waltz will take me, or should I say, I will take it! And yes action is required. Lots of it.

Helen

• This reply was modified 1 day, 15 hours ago by  Helen.

• This reply was modified 1 day, 15 hours ago by  Helen.

[HelenParticipant]

Is this what you are looking for Harmony?

Discovering Your Voice

Once you decide what you want to write about, you need to figure out how to say it.

Your blog should have a “voice” - a unique way of communicating your message, so that people will immediately recognize your writing when they read it.

Your blog can be unique from you in its voice. Since it’s the online version of you, feel free to be playful and allow the blog to bring out a certain aspect of your personality that others may not see.

This is a chance to be vulnerable and creative, to try new things and see how people respond.

Any professional writer will tell you that writing voice is important, but really this is essential to all communication. Knowing who you are and how to represent yourself is important to being understood and clearly conveying what you want to say.

So learning how to hone your voice early on in blogging is essential.

Try This Exercise
• Describe yourself in three adjectives.
• Ask yourself: “Is this how I talk?”
• Imagine your ideal reader. Describe him in detail. Then, write to him, and only
him.
• Jot down at least five books, articles, or blogs you read. Spend time examining them. What about how they’re written intrigues you?
• List your influences. What movies do you watch? What kind of art or music do you like? Are you using these as references in your writing, or avoiding them? Try using them more.
• Ask other people: “What’s my voice? What do I sound like?” Take notes of the answers you get.
• Free-write. Write however is most comfortable to you. No editing. Then go back and read it. Is it different from what you usually publish?
• Be honest with your own writing. Ask yourself: “Is this something I would read?” If not, change your voice.
• Do a personal inventory: do you love doing this? If it feels like work, you may not be writing like yourself.
How do you feel?
Worried? Nervous? Afraid? Good. You’re on the right track.

If you’re completely calm, then you probably aren’t being vulnerable.

Try writing something a little more dangerous, something a little more you. Fear is good. It means you’re being yourself (which is always a little scary).

One Absolute Non-negotiable

e yourself.

Don’t try to be Donald Miller or J.D. Salinger. That’s already been done.

If you’re messy, be messy. If you’re playful, have fun.

Don’t try to sound like someone else or do what someone is already doing. Don’t force yourself to write in a certain tone if it feels unnatural. Be sensitive to how your reader will receive you, but above all else, you must be yourself.
• Be unique.
• Be different.
• Be you.
Because no one else can do that.

So what are you waiting for? Write something unique that only you can write. And write it today.

Now, go do something risky. And do it in your voice. Let me know how it goes.

Best wishes,

Jeff
goinswriter.com

[HelenParticipant]

Thanks for your feedback Caroline.

I haven’t seen the film yet. I will probably end up watching it when out on DVD knowing me. But interesting to note.

I’m planning on using the waltz as my branding and using it as an example of the cyclical pattern of the mind etc.

This thread has given me lots of sparks I am working with. Good to brainstorm.

[HelenParticipant]

Thanks Tyerone and Peter. I’m good, it’s just my odd sense of humour! I have been flexing my writing muscles with fiction writing, but I’m concentrating on non-fiction for a bit. I’m liking the group energy already, I think we are going to enjoy ourselves, even if things get tough. We can do this.

[HelenParticipant]

Wow, so many here already. I would love to comment on you all, but I’m exhausted just reading all your wonderful intros. So I will just put a big HELLO. I love the energy we have going on already. I have made some great friends through TW and I look forward to making some new ones this time round. Let’s Do This Thing.

[HelenParticipant]

Thanks Harmony and Peter.

I love they way you are both thinking. The dance themed tagline with the positive wording.

It definitely is a case of not seeing the wood for the trees when working on your own stuff a lot of the time.

That’s one of the things I love about this community, having fellow tribers refocus your eyes and minds.

Have a great day

Helen

[HelenParticipant]

Fellow animal lover here. I have three furbabies - a Golden Retriever, a mixed breed hyper-active, live life in the fast and happiest lane and another mixed breed that is quite complex, she is a Rottweiler disguised as a fluffy cutesy, but she is lovable to me.

My voice is rusty at the moment, but once it has been oiled I plan to write light-hearted and occasionally flippant, but in a field that can get quite serious and depressing. My angle is to address the subject with a smile, laughter and hope. If my reader gets me, we will be on the same wave-length and I will hopefully be what they are looking for. Fingers crossed.

[HelenParticipant]

@robinstaley Robin. You picked a good forum to join for your first one. One thing you’ll find is that the TW is full of wonderful and generous people. Enjoy and look forward to getting to know you.

• This reply was modified 5 days, 13 hours ago by  Helen.

• This reply was modified 5 days, 13 hours ago by  Helen.

[HelenParticipant]

Thanks Harmony & Caroline. Harmony, the link worked a treat. All updated. Ready to get going now. I look forward to sharing the TW journey with you and always love a bit of fairy dust. Helen

[HelenParticipant]

Hello

I’m Helen. I’ve been around for a while but wanted to join TW2 to go through the updated course as I didn’t finish it the first time round. I belong to the TW Fiction Group on Facebook and finished my 1st draft of my 1st novel in April but I am letting this rest for a while as I am just embarking on a new blog which is not related to fiction writing, so this is perfect timing for me. I’m very excited to be here again and see faces old and new. Good luck everyone. I look forward to sharing this journey with you.

[HelenParticipant]

Adam, I have just shared your links with the Tribe Writer’s Fiction Writer’s FB group. Useful to know, although I am UK based so not sure your rules would apply to me but there are lots of US fiction writers there, and a couple I know of that write detective novels.

[Author]

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