thejccollective473

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If You can’t trust Pizza…things bad! By Semaj Now, I have been an avid fan of tv for years. (Have you seen how slim she’s gotten over the years?

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Literary Wri-Actors

Each action has an equal but opposite reaction. – Sir Isaac Newton’s third law of physics. But what that gotta do with writing tho? Everything! Okay I see the sea of lost faces. Let me explain. For the majority of us, we don’t write about something unless it bothers us ennit? I’m not talking about when we dip into the annals of our imagination (although, we only create the scenes we wish to see…

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Coasting William Wordsworth, meet Kamille 'Beth' John and her contemplation upon birds.

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Interview with the Author Behind....

Interview with the Author Behind….

Leonard Q1. So tell us about Leonard? Answer: Leonard is that guy, you know what I mean? He’s the cool guy; he’s easy-going, knows what’s up and is really down to earth. He’s from Melanjé which is loosely based on the Caribbean and a few other places, so he’s definitely got that chill guy vibe. On the other hand, he’s a bit complex because he’s sort of unpredictable even to me. I just knew that I…

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Interview with the Author behind....

Interview with the Author behind….

Leona Sheridan Q1. So tell us about Leona Answer: Leona is the daughter of the president of LaHao and she has that pampered princess thing going on. She’s one of those people that you love to hate cause she’s got a lot going for her: looks, money, and she’s pretty smart too. But despite having so much, she feels like a part of her life is missing so she’s trying to fix that. Q2. How did you come…

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Interview with the Author Behind...

Interview with the Author Behind…

Ilyana Q1. So tell us about Ilyana. Answer: Ilyana is an unassuming young lady who is much tougher than she appears. She’s not one to share much of her emotions so when she does, you can tell that it’s something deep and genuine. She’s fiercely loyal to her cause and to the people in her life… Unless and until they provide her with grounds to do otherwise. Q2. How did you come up with the…

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Interview with the Author Behind...

We talk to the young writers behind the Granted Series!

Gwen Q1. So tell us about Gwen. Answer: Gwen is an eighteen-year girl, from the continent of Panoutres, with the power to control electricity. Q2. How did you come up with the character? Answer: Ooooooooh. Gwen went through so many different versions of herself until this one just happened. It wasn’t planned that way, but I’m sure that’s what needed to be written. Because that’s what came out of…

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New Video Alert! So have you seen it yet? Infinite, an inspirational spoken piece by Brandon aka SpAw, dares you to dream, to challenge yourself to.... You know what, just click the link and check out the video.

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Interview with the Author Behind ...

Interview with the Author Behind …

Aaron Q1. So tell us about Aaron. Answer: Aaron is a young, intelligent man with a curious mind who is fighting to establish his way in the world. He is ultimately looking for his father’s approval which pushes him into achieving perfection (which he interprets as excellence) in all that he does. Of course, this isn’t always possible, and so he has to learn to manage the expectations he has for…

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Granted: Book 1 - Kick-Start

Have you read Granted yet?!

Word from the authors! It’s been a bit of a challenge for us undertaking this project; writing nine characters with ten chapters each has been tough. However, as we wrote, the characters became more and more real to us, so much so that even though we should be taking a break, we’re already working on book 2. So, we really hope you take the time to read the stories (there’s no rush)! We just want…

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Ways to un-stick a stuck story

Do an outline, whatever way works best. Get yourself out of the word soup and know where the story is headed.

Conflicts and obstacles. Hurt the protagonist, put things in their way, this keeps the story interesting. An easy journey makes the story boring and boring is hard to write.

Change the POV. Sometimes all it takes to untangle a knotted story is to look at it through different eyes, be it through the sidekick, the antagonist, a minor character, whatever.

Know the characters. You can’t write a story if the characters are strangers to you. Know their likes, dislikes, fears, and most importantly, their motivation. This makes the path clearer.

Fill in holes. Writing doesn’t have to be linear; you can always go back and fill in plotholes, and add content and context.

Have flashbacks, hallucinations, dream sequences or foreshadowing events. These stir the story up, deviations from the expected course add a feeling of urgency and uncertainty to the narrative.

Introduce a new mystery. If there’s something that just doesn’t add up, a big question mark, the story becomes more compelling. Beware: this can also cause you to sink further into the mire.

Take something from your protagonist. A weapon, asset, ally or loved one. Force him to operate without it, it can reinvigorate a stale story.

Twists and betrayal. Maybe someone isn’t who they say they are or the protagonist is betrayed by someone he thought he could trust. This can shake the story up and get it rolling again.

Secrets. If someone has a deep, dark secret that they’re forced to lie about, it’s a good way to stir up some fresh conflict. New lies to cover up the old ones, the secret being revealed, and all the resulting chaos.

Kill someone. Make a character death that is productive to the plot, but not “just because”. If done well, it affects all the characters, stirs up the story and gets it moving.

Ill-advised character actions. Tension is created when a character we love does something we hate. Identify the thing the readers don’t want to happen, then engineer it so it happens worse than they imagined.

Create cliff-hangers. Keep the readers’ attention by putting the characters into new problems and make them wait for you to write your way out of it. This challenge can really bring out your creativity.

Raise the stakes. Make the consequences of failure worse, make the journey harder. Suddenly the protagonist’s goal is more than he expected, or he has to make an important choice.

Make the hero active. You can’t always wait for external influences on the characters, sometimes you have to make the hero take actions himself. Not necessarily to be successful, but active and complicit in the narrative.

Different threat levels. Make the conflicts on a physical level (“I’m about to be killed by a demon”), an emotional level (“But that demon was my true love”) and a philosophical level (“If I’m forced to kill my true love before they kill me, how can love ever succeed in the face of evil?”).

Figure out an ending. If you know where the story is going to end, it helps get the ball rolling towards that end, even if it’s not the same ending that you actually end up writing.

What if? What if the hero kills the antagonist now, gets captured, or goes insane? When you write down different questions like these, the answer to how to continue the story will present itself.

Start fresh or skip ahead. Delete the last five thousand words and try again. It’s terrifying at first, but frees you up for a fresh start to find a proper path. Or you can skip the part that’s putting you on edge – forget about that fidgety crap, you can do it later – and write the next scene. Whatever was in-between will come with time.

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The kid is driven! Always working out the next step! #SpAw #Driven #inspiration #Ondatgrind #spokenword #artist #poet #JCC

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Pushing (A little encouragement)

You're not going to get anywhere in life unless you push 

I’m not going to pretend to be some kind of Guru or have all the answers; nor am I going to really tell you anything that you don’t already know. What I am about to do, is talk to you. (It gets lonely sometimes, humor me a lil bit.) You’re not going to get anywhere in life unless you push   You might have to push some buttons, push past some obstacles or just plain out pushing yourself to the…

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Life in HD

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Non-spiration

So you want to write… I mean really want to write. It’s like a burning sensation that starts in the vicinity of your chest and moves outward towards the palm of your hand, prompting you to grab a pen and paper or your tablet or laptop. You find the perfect spot; good lighting, just enough silence and you. You wrap your fingers around the pen, splay your fingers along the keyboard, about to lay…

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Saviour Syndrome

Deus Ex Machina! Okay no… This is not an incantation of some sort… But yea, this ain’t English. It’s Latin for god in the machine. Self-explanatory eh… No? Okay let me set that up. You’re writing the story about a dog; i.e. the dog is the main character of the story. The dog gets lost in the forest somewhere. But instead of having the dog find its way out of the situation, a random man pops up…

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Itz A Challenge! So here at the JCCollective it's not just about what we can create. We know that many of you are writers and we want to see what you can do.