Category: Writing tips

Writing Tips: the importance of craft

Hi, kids–

I have a spiel I use with new-ish authors with regard to the craft of writing. I tell them that there are certain rules that apply to writing. Rules of grammar, rules of spelling, rules of sentence structure, paragraph structure, story structure. Back in the day when public education was actually education all over the country, I learned all of these rules in both elementary school and high school. I diagrammed sentences out the ying-yang, and took courses in high school that delved into the origins and roots of words (in the English language).

These are things everybody should be learning at least in high school English.

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Back Up: ergonomic inclinations for writers

Hi, kids–

As writers, we sit. A lot. At least, the vast majority of writers that I know do that. Their workspaces are generally chairs and desks or chairs and tables. Point being, the workspaces involve chairs. And keyboards. And holding our wrists in specific ways. And sitting.


source: Productive Writer (resized here)

However, I rarely hear my writerly colleagues talk about proper positioning at a workspace, or a chair that properly supports their backs, or a keyboard pad to help writers keep their forearms and wrists in good form. And that’s a shame, because sitting is one of the worst things that Americans do to their backs. And writers have to do that a lot.

Read on.

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The productive writer…

is the writer who writes. I know, I know. You’re thinking: DUH. But there’s a lot that goes into writing, and putting your butt to the chair and clicking away at your keyboard doesn’t necessarily mean you’re productively writing.

I caught Ann Aguirre’s blog over at Writer Unboxed the other day, and dang, she’s right (or write, as the case may be).

She offered 5 productivity tips. I’ll paraphrase here:

1) Don’t multitask
2) Know your next scene
3) Writer’s block could indicate a problem
4) Set goals, be accountable
5) Turn off the interwebs

What does it all mean? Come with me, Grasshopper…

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Turn it off, take a break

Hi, all–

I don’t really do resolutions, because I’m constantly setting schedules and goals based on my publishing contracts and other stuff going on. I tend to “shoot for a realistic goal” rather than make a list of resolutions, because I’ve gotten much better at figuring out how I work and what really is doable given my schedule and day-to-day. Which is not to suggest I don’t sometimes overreach. I do. But I don’t beat myself up about it if I don’t quite make the goal. Instead, I assess what the hang-up might have been, and adjust my schedule accordingly.

I know a few writers who feel guilty if they’re not writing every day. To them, I say, make a schedule. If you’re balancing family, work, and daily time, pick a day and a set time and make that your “for sure writing” time. Or try every other day, for an hour before bedtime or wake up an hour earlier. Keep in mind that your writing time is YOU time, and it’s always important to carve out YOU time.

One of the things, though, that I absolutely recommend for writers is to get away from the interwebs. Author Anne Lamott had a great piece recently in Sunset Magazine about making time. One of the things I completely agree with in that piece is turning things off. Stop obsessing over Twitter and Facebook. Get away from the interwebs and go sit yourself in your writing place and have at. Really. Twitter will be okay without you for a few hours. So will Facebook. It’s important for you to get away from those things and immerse yourself in your writing, even if it’s just an hour a day or an hour every other day. That said, it is okay, as well, to take a break from it.

Writing, like, say, a sport or a musical instrument, requires daily attention and/or as much practice as you can get in. Also like a sport or a musical instrument, I’ve found it’s okay to take a break from it for a day or two or even a few days because otherwise, I start to look at it not so much as a joy, but as a chore, and when I start feeling that way, I know it’s time for a break. Or if you’ve got personal stuff that comes up that needs to be dealt with, it’s okay to put that ahead of writing for a bit, though some of us do use writing as a way to balance stress of dealing with whatever else is going on in our lives. Just remember — it’s okay to take some time off from writing so you can get things back in balance. The muses will understand.

Ultimately, what writing requires is not just discipline and scheduling, but also self-awareness. You need to figure out what works best for you, and you need to apply a schedule (practice time) in accordance with your own rhythms. So if you’re running around all day every day and making excuses not to write, then maybe you’d better have a look at the reasons you’re writing in the first place. Could be you need a break from not just writing, but from the pace of your life, and maybe you should think about a retreat for yourself. Even just a day or a half-day of YOU time can help recharge your batteries and give you new perspective.

To that end, turn off the interwebs for a day during the week. Get away from the constant stream of information (which often proves unfiltered and useless) and get back to yourself. You just might find that doing so frees up some writing time and helps you make even more YOU time.

Happy reading, happy writing, and happy Saturday!

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Tuesday Writing Prompt

Hi, all–

Whew. Hope your T-Day was awesome (if you celebrate it — if not, hope your weekend was awesome). I was on the road enjoying some groovy sights n’ sounds but here I am! Back again!

Anyway, I think you need a writing prompt. Try this one, from Writer’s Digest:

A close friend asks you to help him kill his wife and, to his surprise, you agree without hesitation—not because you particularly dislike his wife, but because she’s the only person who knows this one deep, dark secret that could ruin your life forever. Write about how you confront her and how the murder plays out.
Source: Writer’s Digest

A little on the macabre side, yes? Some of you, I’m sure, will dig that. And speaking of macabre, how about 10 ingenious ways to get rid of a body, from 10 different movies? That might help you…um…”flesh out” your scene that the prompt above provides. 😀 And if you just wanna find out about some horror books and news from the horror genre, try Greg at the Undead Rat. He’s always got great info about books and writing in horror. He’ll steer you to places you never thought you’d go. MUAH HA HA!!!

Now if that doesn’t say holidays, I don’t know what does. hee hee!

Okay, kids. More later this week. Take care and happy writing!

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NANO NANO!

Hi, folks–

So some of you, I’ll bet, are doing NaNoWriMo. That’s National Novel Writing Month, and it takes place every November. I’ve participated twice, and each time completed it, much to my pleasure. It’s a great opportunity to set a writing goal for yourself, and to achieve it. Plus, you’ll meet lots of other people who are also engaged in it, and established authors offer pep talks and advice throughout.


source: NaNoWriMo

It might be just the thing you need to get off that idea you’ve been sitting on and commit it to paper.

Need some inspiration? Check with author Chuck Wendig. He posted The Inkslinger’s Invocation to provide just that. Check it here. Note–if you are of a more “delicate constitution,” Mr. Wendig may not be for you. Too bad. He’s a veritable smithy o’ words.

Want more, ah, staid inspiration? Here’s Lynda Barry from last year.

The point is, NaNoWriMo is a vast cornucopia o’ anxiety-ridden, excited, jump-on-the-document authors, whether established or not, whether you’ve been dreaming about putting your idea to words or you’ve just been trying to work out the next plot for your next novel. It’s a circus of writing delirium, the kind of milieu that only those who engage in this absurdly profound (profoundly absurd?) pursuit can understand. It’s a slap-happy, punch-drunk commiseration festival, and should you crank out your 50K words by the end of November, it’s a silly, grinning, drink-raising toast to the mighty you, who conquered the demons at the door to your muses’ private quarters.

So if you are an aspiring writer, and you’ve been looking for the opportunity to finally get that manuscript written, NaNoWriMo might be just the ticket for you.

So good luck, word bandits! May your drafts flow effortlessly from your fingertips.

Happy Wednesday!

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Writing tip: “could” be passive

Hey, kids–

Hope this week has started out well for you. Anyway, how about a quickie writing tip?

The word “could” sure gets a lot of (over)use. And what it tends to do is make your writing passive, especially when used in combination with some variant of the verb “feel.”

Example:

She could feel the pain in her ankle when her booted foot slipped off the rock.
vs.
Her booted foot slipped off the rock and pain lanced through her ankle, bringing tears to her eyes.

Do you see the difference? Better yet, do you feel it? That’s the key to showing and not telling. When you use the helping verb “could” too much, you’re pushing your reader out of your character’s head and telling her what your character felt, rather than allowing her to feel/empathize with her.

Another example:

He slowed down because he could see the road was wet, since it had been raining
vs.
Streetlights glinted off the rain-slicked road and he took his foot off the accelerator.

See that? We all know what a road looks like when it’s been raining. But it’s kind of blah, if you will, to tell us that with a “could” construction and, in the next phrase, using “it” to refer to the condition of raining. SHOW us with your words what that road looks like and what the driver might do. Most of us, if we’re not being chased by zombies, will slow our vehicles accordingly.

Author Lori Lake has a great piece on passive voice and words to watch out for right HERE. You can find part 1 of that article here.

Do a search in your manuscript to see how often you use these forms of the verb “to be”: is, was, are, had been, have been, be, become, could be, would be, could have been
(see Lori’s article at the link above)

Yes, you might be adding words to your count. But you’ll also enliven your writing and bring a reader into the story, rather than leaving her outside, with a barrier of passive word-age between her and the characters. I’ll come back to this later. Don’t worry.

In the meantime, happy writing and happy reading!

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This n’ that and happy Labor Day

Hi, folks. I blogged about the history of Labor Day over at Women and Words. You can see that HERE.

I’d also like to remind you that I do have some “pointer” blogs here that might help you in your own writing. Here are a couple on anthologies.

Here, I blog about submitting stories to anthologies. If you’re looking to do that and you haven’t ever, maybe check that one out. If you do that regularly, maybe have a look anyway to make sure you’re covering yer bum, y’know.

And HERE, also at Women and Words, my co-editor on our pirate story anthology, Skulls and Crossbones: Tales of Women Pirates, R.G. Emanuelle and I spell out for you how that anthology came together and the process we went through to create it.

All right, happy Monday, happy writing, happy reading!

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Weather or not: Writing Prompt!

Hi, kids!

Well, it was a crazy weekend for some of you. And the effects of Hurricane Irene may still be a problem (i.e. flooding and power outages). Regardless, glad you made it and hope you’re unscathed or at least able to fix the problem easily.

Along those lines, thought I’d give you some writing prompts/tips. I thought about this because I was worried about all the people I care about who were in the path of Irene, and I got to thinking about how climate and weather can determine what we do and where we go. That got me thinking about the 1948 Humphrey Bogart film, Key Largo, in which Bogart plays a guy who goes down to Key Largo to visit a friend of his. Turns out the friend was a hotel owner, but when Bogie gets there, a gangster has taken control of the hotel. Well, you just know these two are slated for a showdown and the catalyst turns out to be a hurricane.

Or, more recently (though not much, if you’re a youngster), think about how a thunderstorm played a role in a pivotal scene in the 1994 movie The Shawshank Redemption. Here’s the scene, when character Andy (played by Tim Robbins) makes his escape. You’ll see the role the weather starts to plays at around 1.00 (and not just creepy, tense atmosphere).


link

And that, in turn, got me thinking about writing prompts.This one, I’ve found, is particularly good if you’re having some trouble coming up with ideas or you just want to work on your powers of description.

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Writing tips!

Hey, peeperinos–

Here are a couple of good writing tip links. Here’s Jeff Abbott, award-winning international suspense- and thriller-writing guy over at Amazon’s Omnivoracious talking about how to “build a hero” in your mystery/thriller books. Abbott talks about how he comes to embrace a hero in his books, and the characteristics a hero should have.

And here’s Writer’s Digest, with 5 most excellent tips for building a story.

Here’s a flavor (Quote):

1. Orientation:
The beginning of a story must grab the reader’s attention, orient her to the setting, mood and tone of the story, and introduce her to a protagonist she will care about, even worry about, and emotionally invest time and attention into. If readers don’t care about your protagonist, they won’t care about your story, either.

So, what’s the best way to introduce this all-important character? In essence, you want to set reader expectations and reveal a portrait of the main character by giving readers a glimpse of her normal life. If your protagonist is a detective, we want to see him at a crime scene. If you’re writing romance, we want to see normal life for the young woman who’s searching for love. Whatever portrait you draw of your character’s life, keep in mind that it will also serve as a promise to your readers of the transformation that this character will undergo as the story progresses.
source

And there are four more with great explanations. Check ’em out and have fun!

Happy writing, happy reading, Happy freakin’ Thursday!

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