Trouble Spots: Quick and easy guides to help the newbie writer
Courtesy of M. T. Dremer

Introduction
 

            I just want to note before you go running into these little guides and start criticizing me about my suggestions that I am not trying to tell any of you what to do. I am not trying to say what you’re doing is wrong and my way is right. All I am doing is providing another look, in a sense.
            For example, I often had trouble describing a fantasy city in its entirety. I always saw the big fantasy writers going all out in their descriptions of these vast cities, and I would look at mine and see less than a few sentences. So rather than write description after description, I simply wrote down every possible idea I could to describe a city.
            No it didn’t make my descriptions instantly perfect, but it did help me to see what I was missing. And in many ways it just made me feel better to focus on the area where I was struggling. If you admit the area is weak and put a lot of effort into it, you might be surprised how you come out of it.
            So all these little guides are intended to do, is to open your mind. Maybe they will be completely useless to you, but you will just feel better to see another writer struggling. I know that may sound weird, but as a writer myself, I often wish I knew other writers to compare myself to; other writers who I could laugh with about my mistakes and offer the things I have learned while receiving some back.
            It is easy to feel overwhelmed when you first start writing, but the best advice I can give is to take it one step at a time. Make your goal one page, not one novel. When you take in a smaller picture it makes the goal seem less daunting and more possible.
            And so I offer you these Trouble Spot Guides. If for nothing else, then just let them be a window into the world of another writer not unlike yourself.