Writing exercise -making it part of your daily life

Writing- you get better the more you practice.  We all know this but finding the time is hard.
I don't always have time to practice traditionally because I spend a lot of my time sitting at the ball park for my son's games and practices. I cannot whip out my laptop or notebook there but there are plenty of times when my son is on the bench and I get a little bored cheering for the other parents' kids.  Nothing against the kids I just do not like baseball. I know, very un-American of me.  During these times I love to practice my writing.  How do I do this when I can't use my laptop or a notebook?  I observe the people around us, the location, listen in on conversations and write them in my head.  Bear with me here and you will be doing this soon yourself.

As I sit and cheer mindlessly with the other parents I image how I would describe the scene; the cool breeze chilling the metal seats as it wicks the heat from my body, the sounds of the younger siblings playing around the bleachers, the grandmother knitting juxtaposed next to the grandmother who is pretending she is too young to be a grandmother.

I don't limit myself to "writing" only at the ball park. Today at lunch I watched an employee walk by the open door and instantly started "writing" how I would describe his gait if he was a character in my book.  Here is what I came up with: ...his feet shuffled resistently along the carpet as his bulky hands worked like paddles moving him laboriously towards his destination  Or worked like paddles as he lumbered towards his destination.

I love some of the things I have come up with during these sessions and have quickly jotted them down or secreted off and recorded them into the voice recorder app on my phone.

I have heard some interesting conversations, observed some interesting behaviors and people and paid more attention to my surroundings.

Writing in my head, creating scenes, using bits of dialogues as prompts, creating character back story, and describing what I am seeing have all helped me exercise my writing muscle and I am a better writer for it and my time in line, at the baseball park, on long drives, etc. all go by more quickly.

I hope you find this technique helpful too.  I can't wait to hear how it has worked for you.

Happy Writing!

Y is for yWriter

When I first started writing I sat with a notebook and paper.  Then after having to transcribe my scribbles and try and fit things into the already full note page I began writing directly in Word.

I had 30,000 words of my novel in there and it was working great.  I used heading, titles and subtitles for chapters and scenes and named them with descriptions of the action taking place so I could find what I was looking for.  It was working out quite well.  I had a separate document for my locations and one for my characters and one for my timeline.  I would have to open all these documents every time I was working and toggle between them as necessary.

I was talking with another writer about my timeline issues and then mentioned I wish I could remember what scenes I felt were complete and which were still in an early draft or second draft or final edit status. That is when she explained to me that there is software for writing and I could purchase Scrivner, which was not that great in her opinion and as the only writer I knew I was taking her opinion as gold, or yWriter, which was her preference.

yWriter is free to download and it was written by an actual published author Simon Haynes, Hal Spacejock series.  Here is his website: http://www.spacejock.com.au/  Simon is an author who happens to be a programmer so both sides of his mind work equally well. (I am a not so lucky or well balanced, I am very right brained.)

I downloaded the program and voila I now had a place to keep all my work for my novel(s).  I could easily click on the character tab and review their bios, click on the location tab and look at the descriptions and scenes in which that location is used.  But for me at the time the piece de resistance was that I could label the scene status as outline, draft, 1st and 2nd edit and done!  I could also put in the scenes point of view, upload photos, drag and drop scenes where I wanted them, insert scenes, and so much more I haven't even figured out yet.

I thought I was doing fine with Word until I realized how much better I could be with yWriter.  I went back and paid for the software- he does allow you to make a donation and I thought it was definitely worth what I would have paid for another software.

I go to cnet for any advice about computers or phones so here is their review for yWriter.

http://download.cnet.com/yWriter-5/3000-2079_4-77524.html

 I am very happy with the organization I have with the program.  I have six projects in it and can flip between them and no glitches so far.   I make sure that I download my entire project, very easy to do each night to the cloud or a thumb drive just to be safe.

If you are in need of a great way to keep your writing organized and to help you spend less time trying to keep together all the bits and pieces of your novel (character bios, inspirational photos, location details, notes for scenes, etc.) so you can spend more time actually writing then this software is your answer.  I hope you find it as helpful as I have.

Thank you Simon Haynes.

Happy writing!

X is for X-factor

The X-factor is that something that makes you special and different.  This (X) is the reason that an agent or publisher should sign you, why a consumer should buy your book.  Your uniqueness.

This X-factor is also something you need to discuss in your query letter.  But what is it?

To figure out what makes you special you have to be well read in your genre and find what makes your work and what makes you different from the rest and what makes you sale-able?

Make a list of your best qualities focusing on what makes your writing different and then one for what makes you different; both aspects are important because you are a packaged deal.  Make a list of all your best qualities that you think would appeal to an editor, agent or publisher and then use these attributes to your advantage when you market yourself and your work in your query letter.

If you have a hard time coming up with items ask your friends and your writing group what they think your best qualities are or for some adjectives they would use to describe you.  They may come up with items you would not.

Good luck and happy writing!

Q is for Question

Looking  for the Like a Virgin Blog Hop please scroll down to the post below this one.  Thanks.


Q was going to be for query but since I changed P to pitch, which is a key part of your query I thought I would go with a less repetitive post.  So Q is for Question.

A lot of books that I like, including the one I am currently unable to put down, Tom Perrotta's The Leftovers started with a 'what if' question.  What if.. half the people on the planet just vanished, what if super heroes had to go into hiding?  Let your mind wander and embrace these wacky trains of thought you never know where they might lead you.

I was asked by a fellow author if I had questioned if my story would work better in the first person point of view, instead of the third person.  I thought she was nuts to suggest changing how it was written, especially when I was already 50k words into it, but taking her advice seriously and running the exercise proved to be an incredible help to my story.  Sometimes we are so close to what we are doing we don't question the basics and these things we take for granted may be exactly what we need to change to let your work soar.

Ask your beta readers and writers specific questions.  Don't just ask what do you think?  You know where your concerns are and unless you ask very specific questions you won't get the answers you need.  Is the pacing okay?  Are the main characters names too similar or hard to pronounce?
What do you think motivated my main character to leave her true love?  You get the point.

Happy Writing!

F is for Finding Life

'Finding Life' is the working title of my book.  I say working because if I go with a publisher that could change and there is one other book out there with this title.

I love this title because I think it fits the story perfectly and because it is what happened to me when I discovered writing.

I had given up so much of myself for my children, especially my creative endeavors.  I could not work on stained glass while I was pregnant, then I couldn't have trays with shards of glass around with a toddler nor could I have paints or an easel.  I also had to give up scuba diving when I was pregnant and constantly trying to get pregnant.  It is something we still haven't had added back to our life because it is a full day away and the cost of diving and the sitter are exorbitant.  Plus we would have to travel for the really good diving and that is out of our budget, thanks to kids sports and day care costs.  

It took me a while to notice that I no longer had creative endeavors.  The artistic photos I used to take had been replaced by photos, many photos, of my children doing everything.  All of my stained glass equipment had long since been forgotten and even if I dragged it out I didn't have time to sit around and work on it or any place safe to leave out projects in progress.  While sitting at one of my son's many long and boring practices I started writing.  The words poured out of me and when I was home and had time to think about my day I realized it was the first time in a long while that I felt fulfilled.  I was not tired and worn out I was anxious to get back to my notebook.

Writing itself has helped me get back my creative energy and fulfilled my life but then when I joined the community of writers I have met and made friends with the most amazing people.  Something none of my other creative endeavors had ever done to this extent.  The writing community is wonderful.

Even if I never progressed forward and published anything I am so fulfilled and happy with the time I spend writing and the people that I have met that is all the reward I need.

Thanks to everyone who has joined and helped me on this journey.

D is for Defining your Audience

Defining your audience is key to helping you sell your book.  It is also key to editing your book and choosing your beta readers.

My husband is a voracious reader but he has never read a romance story or a book about a female's take on mid-life crisis or a book about family relationships.  He is not my audience and is not going to be a good beta reader for me.

Women over forty who enjoy reading romance or contemporary fiction are my audience and they have made the best beta readers.  I do have a wonderful male writer in one of my groups who read the chapter where my lead characters meet and all five of the women loved it exactly as it was but he thought it needed more sex and that the description of the woman should talk more about her breasts.  "NO!"  was the resounding response from the women in the group and they are my audience so their opinions are the ones that count.

Knowing my audience also helps to define my comparison authors and books.  It helps me know where to advertise my book as well.

Defining your audience is one of the first things you have to do when you have completed the first draft of your story.

C is for Comparison

I know when I began writing I believed my work to be wholly and completely unique and my own. Why would I want to find other authors to whom I am similar?  Why would I want my book to be like someone else's story?

As I learn about publishing and what it will take to get my baby out into the world I discovered that it is actually important to know which authors and which books are similar to you and your story.  It is also very important to know how your story is different from these comparison authors and books.

When you are pitching your story to an agent, a publisher or a potential buyer you have to be able to tell them your story is like an author or book that they already know and love and then how your book is different so they know they have not already read your story and now they know why they want to read your book.

Take a moment to read the reviews of books, the book synopsis, the blurbs, and you will see many of them contain comparisons to other popular books or authors.

If you are an unknown author knowing your comparison author or story are very important to selling your book to the right audience and helping your audience find you.

Go to your local bookstore and ask the staff what books they have that are similar to yours.  Purchase them and start reading.   When you find the one that you think is the best comparison you can go back to the bookstore or go to Amazon and see the recommendations that pop up for people who bought that story. Then read those books.  Now you have your arsenal full and can talk with agents and publishers intelligently about how your book compares and is different to these other wonderful published books.

Happy reading.

Best Laid Plans (Theme Reveal)

I am not a planner.  If you have done NaNoWriMo then you know the term pantster and I should be the poster child for that term.  

If something is going to be a lot of effort, is very important or will require the help of others I try so hard to plan ahead.  But I usually find myself running around at the last minute saying, "I meant to do this two weeks ago.  Where did that time go?"

But not this year, oh no.  I was all prepared and ready to go for Blogging A to Z.  I had my theme and all my work and research done.  I just had to start writing the blog posts this weekend and then...

I had the most amazing, uplifting, exciting phone conversation with David Henry Sterry of the Book Doctors the other day and all my planning- which I never do and was feeling so accomplished and responsible adult about- has been shot to hell.   Please realize that I am not, I repeat, not complaining.  David gave me some very favorable feedback- which I am tempering with a lot of realism as he has not actually read my manuscript - but this feedback has re-energized my interest in my first book, which I hadn't touched since November because I wrote another book during NaNoWriMo.  I also set a deadline for myself and it may not have been realistic but I told him it would be done in a month; right in the middle of blogging A to Z.   Do you see my problem here?

So my theme will go away- and I was really excited about it so I will make it part of my normal blog instead- and blogging A-Z will follow the challenges of getting my manuscript ready to go.

The Book Doctors are available for consultation and I recommend reaching out to them through their website if you need professional advice.  I love my writing groups but none of us have ever been published and one of my groups couldn't find a bad thing to say about a tornado if it had recently torn through their homes and left them homeless and destitute. Super wonderful group, God bless their hearts, who I love dearly but my book and everything I write cannot be as fabulous as they say.

Working with the Book Doctors through seminars and personal consultations has given me a lot of very helpful and useful as well as realistic information about writing and publishing my book. 

http://www.thebookdoctors.com/

I can't wait for Blogging A-Z and a chance to have some of you cheer me on as I work tirelessly to shore up my manuscript and get it out into the world.  I am sure I will be needing some encouragement.

I look forward to all the new blogs I will discover and some new friends along the way.  

Happy blogging everyone.