Author: Judy L Mohr

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Creating Focus for Your Writing

I don't know about anyone else, but I have a large number of writing projects on the go. Every time I turn around, there's another idea that pops into my head that calls my attention. However, one needs to find a way to focus their writing efforts, so they actually complete their projects.

Developing focus is one of the topics that I have found myself talking about with my mentoring clients and in my personal writing groups. There seems to be a general consensus. If you are wanting to eventually turn your writing into a way of making a living, you need to tackle this issue by compartmentalizing your writing.

Let me explain further.

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Assassins, Spies and SAS. Oh My…

In a recent post, Fight Scenes: Instinct & Perspectives, I spoke about emotional engagement and the perspectives used for writing fight scenes. I touched onĀ fight-or-flight, and how a writer can use that to their advantage. However, I also spoke about believability. If elements of your fight scene delve into the unbelievable, you will lose your reader.

While most people are able to easily visualize how the average Joe will respond in a fight, what their actions would be, and their capabilities, there is one type of fighter that is often used within fight scenes that majority of people can't truly relate to.

I'm talking about those characters who are highly trained to be assassins, spies and special forces soldiers (or SAS, as they are known in some countries). While all of these characters will have different backgrounds and different skill sets, there will be commonalities to the way they behave. Their reactions to a given situation can almost be predicted.

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Easter

Easter is exactly when it should be…

Every year, I hear someone complaining aboutĀ how Easter is too late, or Easter is too early. And the number of people that complain about how Easter can't seem to have a fixed dateā€¦ Every year, I respond to these complaints in the same fashion.

"You do know how Easter is calculated, don't you?"

The blank stares are borderline hilarious.

Easter is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox.

(Okay, the Spring Equinox for the Northern Hemisphere.)

It's a simple calculation really, or at least one would assume so, until they discover the truth behind the equation. While the description appears to be one based on astronomical events, it's really not.

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Fight Scenes: Instinct & Perspective

Recently, I have found myself in multiple situations where Iā€™ve been shoulder-tapped to look over the fight scenes of others. Itā€™s ironic that Iā€™ve developed a knack (and a love) for those action-pumping scenes that often result in carnage and death. Iā€™ve come a long way since my husbandā€™s single feedback line of my high fantasy novel (feedback given back in 2010): ā€œYour fight scenes suck.ā€

(Geezā€¦ Love you too, hubby.)

However, as much as that original critique strung, I persevered, and analyzed to death what makes a good fight or action scene. (Pun intended.) Now, all these years later, those action-filled scenes that get the heart pumping pour out of me with easeā€”and the body count rises significantly.

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Heart in Turmoil: A Poem from 1996

In digging through some old notebooks, I came across a stack of free-form poetry that I wrote when I was in college. For an engineering student, they possess emotion that is so unusual for an engineer. (What is wrong with the world? An engineer revealing emotion?) I thought I would share just one of those poems now. I hope you like it.

The following free-form poem was written in 1996.

Heart in Turmoil

Love is funny. You sit around waiting for a dream. Yet, there's another right there.

But it's the dream you want, even though you know it won't last. You keep asking yourself, "How long must I wait?" Yet, there's another right there.

The dream you've known for years. You know his thoughts, his actions, his dreams and fantasies. You know him so intimately that you even know what he is thinking before he does. But he's only a dream, and there's another right there.

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