A Few of My Favorite Things—Tips and Tools for Writers

by Ane Mulligan @AneMulligan

Go ahead, admit it. I've got you singing, right? But these favorite things are the ones I'm forever gathering—new tips and tools for my writer's toolbox. 

I don't think I'll ever "arrive" at a place where I don't need continual education. Lately though, I find I'm incorporating many of these new ways of writing into the first draft of a WIP. 

That delights me. It means they’ve become natural to me like using a noun and a verb in a sentence. I used to work hard at incorporating those nuances in editing. 

Because I always want each new book to be better than my last one, I read so many writer's blogs, gathering tidbits and tips. Some are new, others I already do, but the blog offers a reminder of something I might have forgotten. 

And that's what frustrates me—those I've forgotten or let slip away.

Will I ever get to the point where it flows out perfectly? I doubt it. Well, maybe in Heaven, except I think I'll be too distracted by God's glory to write.

Some of my favorite writing tools:

• Using the 5 senses 
• Power words (this is a new tool for me—think beyond verbs)
• Incorporating subtext 
• Foreshadowing 
• A plot twist nobody sees coming 

I love to twist a cliche or metaphor. Even better is writing a scene that in itself is a metaphor—something I'm working on but haven't mastered yet. 

How about you? What are some of your favorite tips and tools?

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Ane Mulligan lives life from a director’s chair, both in theatre and at her desk creating novels. Entranced with story by age three, at five she saw PETER PAN onstage and was struck with a fever from which she never recovered—stage fever. One day, her passions collided, and an award-winning, bestselling novelist emerged. She believes chocolate and coffee are two of the four major food groups and lives in Sugar Hill, GA, with her artist husband and a rascally Rottweiler. Find Ane on her website, Amazon Author page, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, The Write Conversation, and Blue Ridge Conference Blog.