Here are all the posts from 2018 A 2
Z Blogging Challenge, you have no idea how long it took to transfer these here.
I have officially signed up for the A to Z Blogging Challenge 2018.
I didn’t do the challenge
last year, and not awfully sure if I did it the year before, but I have done it
in the past, in a now defunct and deleted 50 plus Teenager Blog on Blogger. I
decided that I would give it a go again this year. If you click on the picture
above, you will be brought to their page that tells you all you need to know
about the challenge.
As sometimes there is swearing on my page, and in my novels, and violence (a
demon being taken down, or a deserved ass whopping), and the odd intimate scene
(don’t hold your breath), I will be creating an Adult Content badge to add to
my header. Oh and I’m number 62 on the list of signed up bloggers.
Feel free to follow along if this is your bag. It starts in April and continues
for the month. Please see the various links to where you can follow me in all
my amazement…um, amazing writing…
Elephant's
ChildMarch 5, 2018 at 9:11 pm Edit
I am far too lazy to do the A-Z.
I will enjoy reading the work of more disciplined (and talented) people though.
The Wicked Writer (aka abydos6)March 6, 2018 at 9:18 pm Edit
lol, that’s exactly the reason why I am doing the challenge, I have gotten very
lazy with the blogs I am hoping that this will get me moving again.
A to Z theme reveal
Right, am I still on time
to do this…checks clock…checks date…yup, so here goes. My theme for the A to Z
blogging challenge is…queue drum roll….’writing a novel and getting it
published as an e – book (ish)’…ta da…
Not to much of a shock there is it…lol. I have the ‘sort of ‘ list made out.
This should be interesting. 13 thoughts on “A to Z theme reveal”
jrvincenteMarch 20, 2018 at 1:36 am EditAwesome! I’ve self-published two novels,
but I’m sure I still have lots to learn. Looking forward to April!Liked by youReply
The Wicked Writer (aka abydos6)March 22, 2018 at 10:36 am EditIf you have published two novels, I am
sure that you would be able to teach me a thing or three. Congrats on that, and
thank you for commenting.LikeReply
Elephant's
ChildMarch 20, 2018 at 4:23 am EditThis reader is looking forward toyour take
on the A-Z.Liked by youReply
The Wicked Writer (aka abydos6)March 22, 2018 at 10:37 am EditEC I am so happy that you are along for
the ride.LikeReply
HopeMarch 20, 2018 at 11:39 pm EditWell my theme on one of my blogs is
blogging, so that isn’t too far off. Although I won’t be talking about book
publishing, etc.Liked by youReply
The Wicked Writer (aka abydos6)March 22, 2018 at 10:38 am Editoh, well I definitely have to follow you
so. I haven’t a clue what I’m doing LikeReply
The Wicked Writer (aka abydos6)March 22, 2018 at 10:42 am EditHi Hope, I tried to follow you, but there
is no link on your page, and Bloglovin’ doesn’t seem to be able to find you.
Let me know how I can follow you in the A to ZLike
HopeMarch 22, 2018 at 11:23 am EditHi, you can go to http://hopesthoughts.blog/feed,
or http://feedpress.me/bloggingsimply,
and add that to your RSS reader. I do have an experimental blog here on
wordpress.com but I’m not going to be participating with that one. I don’t have
any of my blogs set up on Bloglovin, mostly because they do everything inside
an inline frame, instead of taking you to the original site when you click a
link. If you use Feedly or something like that though, it will definitely work.
I don’t have email updates set up yet, as I need to figure out which mailing
list provider will give me RSS to email for free.Liked by you
HopeMarch 22, 2018 at 3:02 pm EditWell if you’re on Twitter you can follow
my tweets! That should work fine. You can also sign up for a feedly
account https://feedly.comLike
MistressoftheInkMarch 22, 2018 at 4:28 am EditGreat theme! Good luck on your blogging
challenge! Liked by youReply
The Wicked Writer (aka abydos6)March 22, 2018 at 10:38 am EditThank you MistressoftheInk, much
appriciated.Liked by 1 personReply
MarquessaMarch 31, 2018 at 3:41 am EditLooking forward to checking out your posts
this upcoming month!Marquessa @simplymarquessa from The Next
Chapter
Visiting from the 2018 A to Z ChallengeLikeReply
A is for….
Hi all and welcome to my
first A to Z blogger post. I will be blogging about ‘writing a novel and
getting it published as an e – book (ish)’. As I am a whole day late, I won’t
waste any more time.
A is for…
Achievement, this is when you decide to write your piece of work, it is
also when you finish the drafts that it takes to complete a readable work of
fiction, or indeed non – fiction, and when you finally see your name in print
whether it be on a paperback in a shop, a journal, e-book sellers site.
Action, which isn’t just blowing things up in a novel, nope, this lovely
little A word is not just confined to loud noises and body counts, nope, it’s
actually anything that moves the plot forward, and it is when the writer sits
down at the computer and begins her novel, she is finally taking action to
making her dreams come true, and trust me, you are never too old, or too young.
Agent, among writers there is much debate as to whether or not an agent
is actually necessary. Well I believe one is, if you want to traditionally
publish, or someone wants to make your novel into a movie, then one might be
handy, so far, in my opinion, the boat is still out on whether or not you need
an agent if you are going down the E-book trail. Either way you are going to
have to do most of the grunt work yourself.
Author, What is an author, lets see, as far as I am concerned, an Author
is a person that has a book published, whether it be as a traditionally
published book on a shelf in a brick and mortar book shop, or on a shelf on
Amazon, or Barnes and Nobles, or Easons, or any other shop that has their own e
– readers. A writer is someone who writes, and doesn’t yet have anything
published.
In all honesty, I’m not 100% sure that this format is going work, what do you
all think?
Elephant's
ChildApril 2, 2018 at 8:58 pm EditLooking forward to reading more.
And this reader is so very grateful to authors.LikeReply
Jeanne
Bryan InsalacoApril 19, 2018 at 3:35 pm EditGreat A to Z… I have a novel Story I’ve
been working on/ although more of it sitting on the back burner!LikeReply
B is for…
So, two posts in one day,
mainly because I missed yesterdays, lets see how we do now.
Today’s journey begins with as you guessed, beginnings, these can
be quite difficult, staring at the screen and watching the cursor flicker away
at you while you try to figure out what it is that you want to begin with…well
now see, what you put down at this stage, doesn’t really matter.
Okay I can hear some of you yelling at your screen already, demanding to know
what kind of demented soul I am by saying that, when you have sweated blood
over your opening sentence…to you I say, bravo but only if you have it and been
able to figure out where to move to after that.
The thing is, some writers can become so het up with trying to find that
perfect opening sentence, or paragraph that they kill the flow of their
imagination and creativity. Now unless you are some writing protegee, you will
have several drafts to get through before your work is publishable, so you can
use all those draft beginnings to construct the perfect opening sentence or
paragraph.
Begin where you feel the story should begin, and if halfway through the book
you have started too soon, or not soon enough, then you can make a note and
start at the point that makes more sense to start at. Bear in mind at this
stage that some writers will begin with an outline, that they will flesh out
until it resembles more of a first draft than an outline, then work from there,
each draft building upon what has gone before.
What I am trying to get across to you, the writer and soon to be published
author, is that when you are beginning this journey, don’t have a whole set of
rules in your head just yet. I read someplace recently that a first draft
should be ready to be seen by other people such as Beta Readers who
are asked to read through your almost ready to be published novel and give
feedback, I call hogs swill on that one. I’ll get back to first drafts later,
but at the beginning you should try to relax and let the story flow out. Just
make sure that you have it backed up, the cloud seems to be
most peoples go to at the moment, I like to use the Cloud, Dropbox, and my
portable hard drive and because I’m just that little bit anal at times, a hard
copy of each draft to work on.
Question:
Do you prefer this kind of format? Let me know in the comments.
Elephant's
ChildApril 2, 2018 at 9:00 pm Edit
This format is working just fine for me.
And yes, to the don’t cage yourself in rules. For writing and for life.
C is for….
At the moment it is
difficult to type, my hand is in a restraint, due to the fact that I think that
I may have sprained it and won’t know until this afternoon and a visit to the
doctor, but I digress…today’s letter is C…
In the last post I talked about beginnings and how some writers will begin with
a plot outline (more on that later), which over the course of several drafts
should flesh out into a workable novel or book. But I believe that in order to
write up and flesh out an outline, or begin just to write you need Characters,
people who will inhabit the world you are writing about.
Now if you are writing non – fiction you may think that you won’t need to
create any characters, but that isn’t always the truth, some stories based in
real life, will sometimes require you to ‘create’ a character that is different
to the real person you are writing about in order to protect the innocent, or
avoid libel. In the world of fiction, sometimes a writer will create a
character from a mixture of a real life, person they met and a multitude of
characteristics they want portrayed by their character. Now if you don’t have a
base in real life, you may create that character from the air.
Now this isn’t as difficult as it sounds, creating a character in the beginning
is all about noting down how that character looks and speaks, what they like
and dislike, where they work, what they like to eat etc., over time (usually
the duration of writing your novel), this character will become more fleshed
out, more real. In order to help with this there are several sites that offer a
blank biography which you can fill out however much or little you desire. Main
characters take more work than say someone that is just a sidekick, or a
passerby.
In order to create well rounded, three dimensional characters, the writer needs
to remain committed to her writing, it can become so easy to
be distracted. I read someplace (feel free to let me know who said it so I can
credit them with it).
‘You must treat your writing as a job, get up, get dressed and go to work, even
if it’s in an office in your home, or at the kitchen table.’
The commitment is not only to the characters, but also to yourself as a writer,
some even go so far as to create a written contract that they sign and then
stick to. Writing of any sort takes time and commitment, even if it’s ten
minutes a day, because you are working in a 9 to 5 job, or lifetime of looking
after children, you still need to commit yourself to your writing.
Once you have committed yourself to your writing, and have worked through
several drafts, had feedback from beta readers, and are ready to publish, you
will be looking at publishing, either traditionally, or by yourself, either
vanity, print on demand, or e-book. Traditional Publishing still have people
who create the perfect (in their eyes) Cover for your novel,
which is good as it’s all part of a package and you get to say yey or ney.
Vanity print, print on demand and e-book doesn’t give you this option, so you
will need to look into having one created by someone who knows what they are
doing, and who will charge you for it, or making one yourself.
Can I just say using paint unless you are very good isn’t really a great idea,
sometimes the art work can look a little amateurish…using Photoshop unless you
know what you are doing can produce the same kind of thing, but when you get it
right it is awesome. May I recommend Cava, a program that has a free version,
and a paid version. It allows you to upload your own images and create some
beautiful covers, or use one of their own.
The art work, or images you use in any of these programs, must be royalty free,
and also if you are short on cash as most starting out Authors are, free full
stop. There are sites out there that have free images that you can use, which
is helpful, but might be worth while paying for a yearly subscription. There
is, also your own photography.
The last thing…(still here, well done…) that I want to mention in this post
is Critique. Over the course of writing your novel, and creating
your cover art you will probably send it, or give it to people to read and hand
back feedback. Personally I’d wait until I’d at least three drafts of the novel
/ article / book, done before I handed anything out, but if you must, you must.
Anyway, if you are a member of a writers group that you trust you can see if
anyone will read it for you, if you aren’t a member of a writers group, maybe
see if there is one nearby and join up, if you don’t like it, look for another
one and leave. Other wise you can search online and see if there is an online
beta group that will take it and read it, FB and Goodreads both have beta group
pages.
Remember one thing about Critique, if they haven’t trashed your book, but
pointed out one or two things that could do with a tweek, or questioned one or
two things in the plot, or article, or book, it doesn’t mean that your work is
rubbish, it just means that it isn’t ready and these issues, if mentioned by
everyone that read the piece, need sorting.
Well, that’s C tackled…I hope you enjoyed it, let me know in the comments
below.
Elephant's
ChildApril 4, 2018 at 10:19 pm Edit
Lots of important C words. I think the link between creativity and commitment
is often understated. The ideas might appear from the air, but bringing them to
fruition is work.
D is for….
As I would think almost
every writer knows, that time spent staring into space, or Daydreaming, is
not wasted time, like an artist contemplating their next piece, a writer uses
this time to think of what they are going to write, it is the idea, or
characters, or world gestating until it is ready to hit the fingers and be
brought kicking and screaming, or purring into the world.
Staring out windows, people watching, nature watching, and even sometimes
gaming, can be considered work time. A writers brain, like that of an artist,
is rarely switched off from writing, they are always noting things in their
mind that may make their way into their writing, rushing around looking for the
memo section on their phone, or tablet, a piece of paper, a pen, or even word
document, in order to jot down something they just saw or heard that might make
it into their writing.
Please note that many writers don’t ever stop daydreaming, nope, they continue
right into their own writing, even when Developing Their
Idea into a work of fiction or non fiction, they still will spend time
staring out the window, picturing in their minds eye what it is they need to
put down on paper, and how they are going to do that.
Developing their idea can take many forms, it can begin with noting the
characters and creating a biography for them, it can be developing the world
(sf/fantasy) that the characters or story will take place, and then working out
the beginning, the middle and the end, before outlining the chapters, and then
fleshing them all out.
There are several methods to doing this, you can keep your information stored
on your computer (always back these up), using questionnaires that you fill in
that you got from the net, these can be printed off and kept in a folder in
your desk, filing cabinet, or even plastic box. You can also use a program that
most writers seem to swear by which is called Scrivener, this will cost you
some money to purchase, but it does keep track of changes, also allows you to
develop your characters and writing, while keeping track of any changes that
you may make.
A lot of times the question will arise as to how many Drafts do
you need in order to complete your novel, the school is most definitely out on
this subject as no two answers are ever the same. Some say by the third, some
say it will take nine or ten, others have proposed 12, here is an image
that I found online…
I think it depends on the
writer, and whether or not they need someone to edit their novel, or not, but
here are some links to pages I found that discuss this. I don’t think it
matters, as long as it ends up going through three of them before you let it
out to be looked at by the betas.
https://brevity.wordpress.com/2015/09/21/how-many-drafts-must-a-writer-draft/
How Many Drafts Did You Do Of Your Book?
https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/26257/how-many-rewrites-should-a-writer-expect-for-a-novel
How Many Drafts Does it Take to Finish a Novel?
Well there you go, I’m up to date on my A to Z blogging challenge, hope you are
enjoying it so far, I have to go visit some of your blogs later on this
evening, but for now it is time to sign off and go see the doctor. Leave me
comments after the beep…cheers.
Elephant's
ChildApril 4, 2018 at 11:04 pm Edit
I do hope the doctor’s visit gives you some relief.
And yay for dreaming. A girl HAS to dream. Well this girl does.
E is for…
E –
books, while becoming more acceptable,
e-books are still viewed in a lot of circles as being less than traditionally
published books. This is, from what I can figure out, down to the fact that a
lot of books available in this format, have only gone through one draft, not
been beta-ed or edited in any shape or form. the covers do not
look professional, which in a way could be creating a whole new type of cover
acceptance.
Why are they wiggling into general acceptance, you might find yourself asking?
Well that is a relatively simple answer. Their rising acceptance is due to the
fact that electronically available reading material is actually becoming a
thing, even down to some schools trailing tablet devices in their schools to
cut down on the amount of books young kids carry, and ease of homework.
even some libraries have gotten on board and lend out digital books. then there
is the fact that you don’t need to have a publishing house, or agent to use
this method.
If we want the service to change we must all, as users of the service, insist
that the work we share there is the best possible work we can actually do. In
other words, we need to do several drafts but we also need to edit the book
ourselves, or pay someone to edit for us. As https://www.nownovel.com/blog/editing-novel-drafts-pro-tips/
‘There are different types of book editing. [..sic..]
Editing:
Addresses sentence-level problems (e.g. spelling, grammar, punctuation, or
word choice)
Is typically not a process of dialogue (when you work with a novel editor
rather than self-edit) – an editor finds mistakes and creates effective
substitutions
Each type of editing serves an important purpose for your book:
Proofreading: This is the lightest form of editing.
Proofreaders only focus on minor errors. This eliminates embarrassing
textual errors such as typos. These can include grammar errors (such as
incorrect tense use), punctuation errors (such as inappropriate use of colons,
periods and apostrophes) or spelling and word use mistakes
Copy editing: This type of editing also includes editing
for style (making sure the elements of writing such as word choice fit the
subject and target audience, for example). Copy editing spruces up your writing
more
Substantive or developmental editing: This is the most
comprehensive kind of editing. Substantive editors work on your novel as a
whole. Problems in your structure, consistency, coherence and style may be
edited, both within sentences and paragraphs and between chapters and other
divisions. Because this is the most complex and thorough form of book editing,
its also costs the most
Some handy sites to help with Editing…
http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/there-are-no-rules/7-tips-for-revising-a-novel
https://www.thecreativepenn.com/2014/08/11/editing-writing-craft-tips/
https://jerryjenkins.com/self-editing/
https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/category/editing-your-novel/
I was going to do a longer post including Ego and Epilogues (getting ego out of
the way and if you should ever use Epilogues, which I do myself). But due to
the fact that I’m wearing a splint, and need a coffee before moving onto the
letter F…I’m going to stop right here…
Question…are you finding these posts helpful?
howikilledbettyApril 9, 2018 at 3:46 pm EditYes I am! This is brilliant … again. It’s
clearly a bit of a minefield out there in the world of writing. Thanks. Katie
Elephant's
ChildApril 9, 2018 at 8:54 pm I am a bit of a
dinosaur and much prefer paper books. And have to stop myself from writing
‘real books’. You are so very right about the need for professionalism whatever
mode of publishing is adopted though. And have more than once read (or started
to read) an e-book which had obviously had less than optimal editing.
F is for…
Final
Drafts…when I reach this particular draft,
i have a mixture of emotions, happiness that I have actually reached this
stage, and a feeling of dread, because the next stage is publishing. So, what
do you look for when editing this draft before you publish or send to
publisher…
- Does the lead
grab the reader?
- Can you
summarize the main theme of your article in a title and subtitle?
- Is your theme
clearly encapsulated in your hook? Is your hook “high” enough?
- Does each
paragraph or section flow easily into the next?
- Is
everything that belongs together placed together?
- Does the
rhythm move the reader along?
- Does your
ending tie it all together?
- Have you
written to the right length?
Examine
each point you make with these questions in mind:
- Does what
comes next logically follow? (If not, you have what is known as a non
sequitur—an unexpected, and disconcerting leap from one point to the
next.)
- Does the
evidence you present actually support your point? Look for logical leaps
and factual holes, for what lawyers call “assuming facts not in evidence.”
- Have you left
out something that “everybody knows” when “everybody” really doesn’t? Do
you introduce new terms and ideas at the proper points, or must the reader
skip around to understand what you’re saying?
- Does
everything read as if it belongs to the same article? In short, do a unity
check. This means being alert to nuances of tone and style as well as
spotting content that simply doesn’t belong.
More about these, and
where these were taken from visit: http://www.writersdigest.com/a-checklist-for-your-final-draft
Writers digest is actually a good site for all kinds of writers queries….
First Drafts, although not actually the first thing you write,
that is usually the idea, which can become the outline, it is the one where you
just let the story flow out of you and onto the page.
Now there is a school or two of thought that believes that a first draft should
be ready to be read, I don’t think so, nor do the majority of writers. Your
first draft is the one where you are telling yourself the story, where you are
working out the plot and letting the characters come to life. This draft, by
the time you reach the last draft will be unrecognizable, and should not be
shown to anyone. Maybe by the time you have written the third draft you can
consider letting others read it, but until then, nope as its still developing.
I also believe that when you are writing the first draft of anything, you
should not edit yourself, you need to tell that little voice to shut up until
you finish it and start on the second draft. Self editing at this stage can
lead to many months (yes you read that right), of editing, re-editing, and re,
re-editing each paragraph until you get it ‘right’…t here is time enough for
that later. For now…just blurt it out onto the page.
Well that’s F done…
howikilledbettyApril 9, 2018 at 3:36 pm EditCrikey … I had no idea about writing a
book, clearly! Thanks for sharing this information… I’ll have to have a bit of
a rethink if I’m going to get beyond the blogging stage. Katie
The Wicked Writer (aka abydos6)April 9, 2018 at 9:27 pm.But, if it is
something you want to do…
Elephant's
ChildApril 9, 2018 at 8:57 pm I have a friend who
considers himself a writer who would benefit from reading this. However he is
emphatically NOT a reader (or taker of advice).
G is for….
Genres…what are genres? Simply put, they are the types of stories we are
telling in our novels, the areas into which publishers and readers see them as
fitting. There are many different types of Genres and sub-genres these days,
whilst way back when writers were drawing pictures on walls and then scrawling
their imaginings on paper and wax, there were only a few.
Mystery, Thriller, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Romance and Non – Fiction are all
the parent genres, these are the ones that seem to be the most important
and the ones that all others will be placed under. Genres are important not
only to writers but also to readers, for readers Genres signifies what kind of
novel they are picking up and if that novel fits in with what they like
to read. Though in my opinion that can be rather limiting.
When someone decides to write a book, they usually write in their favorite
genre, or classification of non – fiction book that they are used to
reading because as the adage goes, ‘write what you know’. As readers and
writers i would recommend that people join sites like Goodreads,
that list all types of books and give writers a platform to interact with
their fan-base, or even build a new one.
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/ this site if
you are not a member yet, is fantastic, it can help you find that book you read
when you were in your teens, it helps you list the books you’ve read, and ones
you want to read, as an author as I said it gives you a chance to connect with
people and advertise any books you have put out into the world. Each book also
carries a link to a place, or places where you can purchase them, thereby
supporting your favorite author. Every year, they run a personal contest (as in
the only prize is the knowledge you have succeeded) as to how many books you
can read in a year. Why not check it out which leads nicely into the whole idea
around GOALS…
Goals are something important that you want to achieve, such as finish your
novel, short story, article or non – fiction piece. We all have goals, things
we’d like to achieve, to complete, with me at the moment, I want this damn
splint of my hand so that I can continue with A to Z and also Campnanowrimo.
But given the painful aches of trying to type these few posts… that might not
happen.
In order to set yourself some goals, why not follow these simple steps that I
found online, now where online escapes me, but I have it copied into my bullet
journal and am now sharing with you.
- What do you
want – Be specific
- Why do you
want it – what will you gain / how will life change
- What is
holding you back – what obstacles will you face
- Go for it,
TAKE ACTION – break down big goals into small tasks – create a game plan
– tackle one small task at a time.
What are your writing
goals?
Elephant's
ChildApril 9, 2018 at 8:58 pm
I have discovered that I much prefer reading books which refuse to be
sandwhiched into one genre. Which must make marketing them difficult.
H is for….
How long is a piece of
string? Well that is the question that all writers and authors find them selves
asking.
Now they don’t actually want to know how long a piece of string is unless
it pertains to the story they are writing…nope, what they are looking for, most
often when they are only starting out, is how long should the chapter, novel,
article, short story excreta be.
If you are writing in chapters (Terry Pratchett didn’t), then according to the
internet, between 3 – 5,000 words would be quite sufficient. But to be honest,
some authors write long chapters, others write short ones, just be consistent.
‘As for th e length of a Novel, that comes in around 300 – 400 pages
which is 80,000 to 100,000 words long,
general fiction for adults should come in at 100,000 words. But
genre books (fantasy, sci-fi, or historical fiction) are often longer;
around the 125,000 word mark.
Giants of the genre (e.g. George R R Martin) might come in closer to 300,000
words, but established authors can get away with a lot more than debuts. As
with general fiction, for a debut it’s best to err on the side of caution and
stick to 100,000 words where possible.
For literary fiction, it can go the other way; anything from 55,000
to 100,000 words is acceptable.
For young adult fiction, the word count is once again lower, with
the ideal being 55,000 – 80,000 words.
Younger still, middle grade fiction (ages 9-12) should come in
between 30,000 and 55,000 words.
Books for readers aged 5-8 typically sit around 20,000 words.
And lastly, picture books can have as few as 100 words, and in any
case certainly fewer than 1,000 words.
Find out more here:
https://www.writersandartists.co.uk/writers/advice/33/preparing-for-submission/how-to-find-a-literary-agent/how-long-should-my-ms-be
As for Articles and Short Stories etc., if you have been asked to write one,
or doing the short story for a competition, then the rules will tell you
how long they should be. If your short story is longer than 10,000 words, then
it isn’t a short story, it’s on it’s way to being a novella.
Well, that’s me all caught up with the A to Z, I have no idea how to catch up
on the novel just yet. I may have to let it go, but I will remain hopeful.
Jean
DavisApril 9, 2018 at 1:36 pm EditKnowing the general target range is
helpful. I’m always torn between advising new writers to know the length of the
genre they are writing and just telling them to write the darn story and worry
about the length later. Sometimes its easy to get caught up in the how to do
something rather than just getting it done. In this case, length does matter,
but only once you are ready to submit/publish.
The Wicked Writer (aka abydos6)April 9, 2018 at 2:05 pm EditI would agree with the last sentence you
wrote in the comments, when you get to the final draft, or the one just before
it, then take note of your length. Up till then just write and edit. Thanks for
the feedback.
howikilledbettyApril 9, 2018 at 1:41 pm EditThat’s a great post … I had no idea! This
might be a really obvious question but presumably there is a way of the
computer counting these words for us?! What on earth did they do historically?
Katie
The Wicked Writer (aka abydos6)April 9, 2018 at 2:03 pm A lesson in backing
up, I had a wonderful reply typed, pressed a button to edit and it
vanished…lol. Most writing programs have word counts or stats, and there is
also online apps that you copy and paste your document into. In the old days
they would count the words very carefully, much like the following piece I
found online states…’Well, the 500-word essay length depends on several
factors, particularly on how big you write or the font that you use in your
500-word essay. You may be wondering how many pages this number of words will
take. Usually, handwritten 500-word essays are about 2-4 pages long (4 pages if
your writing is colossal)’…hope that helps.Liked by 1 person
howikilledbettyApril 9, 2018 at 3:16 pm Brilliant! Thanks …
Looking forward to reading more of your posts … Katie
Jeanne
Bryan InsalacoApril 19, 2018 at 3:28 pm
Interesting on the word count! One of my blog posts was almost 5000 words – I
know it was too long but as I wrote it for myself to print, I wrote long posts!
I is for….
One of the things you get
asked when you first let people know that you are a writer, besides…”I have
this story I would like help with…” is ‘where do you get your ideas?’
to people who don’t write the getting of ideas seems very daunting. but like
other artists out there such as musicians, and those who paint or draw for a
living, the answer is…everywhere.
Now to us it seems like
such a simple comment, because for us it is true. our ideas come when we are
daydreaming, when we are people watching, reading, watching tv, doing dishes
and yes, even sitting in the bath…everything is capable of giving us an idea
for a novel, or short story.
While watching the news
one day there was a piece about a disease that could harm pregnant women in i
think Brazil. My imagination took hold of that and created this idea…one i am
sure had been thought of several times before, by various writers and told in
their way.
THE END OF MAN
- VIRUS ESCAPES
LAB
- VIRUS ATTACKS
MALES ONLY
- MALES START TO
DIE OUT
- SPERM FROM
THAT GENERATION IS NO GOOD
- IT BEGINS TO
ATTACK STORED SPERM IN CHEAP VAULTS
- A METHOD OF
PROTECTION IS CREATED FOR WHAT STORED SPERM IS LEFT
- YEARS LATER,
WHEN MALES ARE DEAD, AND IT IS SAFE TO USE THE SPERM, A LOTTERY IS CREATED
That is as far as I got
with it. I realize looking back that it is another version of ‘A Handmaids
Tale’ but with men being the ones with the virus. Reading other writers work
will also spurt ideas, a line that the Author has written can raise a what if
question. A line from a song can make you wonder what would happen if a knight
from long ago was to arrive in our time? how did he/she get here? how do they
get back? what do they do? This can be so many things…a comedy (most would
write it that way), a romance, a thriller, a fairy tale, a horror, a fantasy…all
you need to do is get your brain working, and if its having issues, give it a
kick start use the Internet.
The internet is both the
savior and the bane of modern writers, in the old days we would have a library
full of reference books, that we would have to visit, or our own collection at
home, if we could afford them. Now it is all available at the touch of a
button, and with it also new distractions.
We writers who publish our
own books and at times even those who have been picked up by traditional
publishing, are expected to build our own platforms online (more on that
later), while maintaining these our selves we can often find ourselves falling
down various rabbit holes and neglecting the actual novel writing. there are
apps available that can stop you sneaking onto the web, sounding an alarm if
you go over a set time limit.
One such app is
this: https://forestapp.cc/en/ it plants a
tree and if you don’t stay focused it kills it, available free as a chrome
extension, which i will let you know more about when i get a chance to use it.
Well that’s today’s
letter. Thank you for all your comments.
Elephant's
ChildApril 10, 2018 at 9:06 pm Edit
Definitely interesting.
Ideas are like butterflies aren’t they? Ephemeral magic.
J is for….
Journals…aka notebooks….
All writers are supposed
to have them, tucked away inside their coat pockets, their bags, and sitting
beside their beds in case of that spur of the moment idea. They can be any
shape or size, expensive or cheap, but they should definitely be part of your
writing life.
In 2018, with smart
phones, smart watches, tablets, netbooks and laptops, journals aren’t
necessarily needed to be brought everywhere. Instead little memo apps are the new
journals. These little apps either come pre installed, or you can download them
free. They are basically there for making quick notes.
If you want to get more
technical, with the actual Journal or even digital Memo, you can section them
off, compartments for character descriptions, Plot ideas, people watching,
location descriptions, research, things heard to be used later…that kind of
thing. As far as digital memos go, you can open up new memos with each of these
things and others as headings, or invest in OneNote, or evernote, or other
tabbed devices like that.
I prefer the feel of
paper, and seeing my own handwriting, but in a pinch I will use the memo
program on my phone, I just forget to transcribe it when I get home.
As a fantasy writer, I
have several ‘journals’ for different sections of my novel building, I have
character bios, world building, organisations, Novel / Series Outline, Notes on
Beta Draft, TG Bio, Novel Outline, Research_Cover_Inner pages_Blurbs. Each one
is extremely necessary and extremely useful. Though I am thinking of moving
them to plastic folders which won’t take up as much room on the desk…decisions,
decisions.
K is for….
Killing Characters and
Keeping Drafts…
One of the most difficult
things to do, unless you have already pre – determined who is going to die, is
to kill off your characters. let me put it to you this way, you have written
this characters bio, you know them better than you know your nearest and
dearest, and now, you are about to send them to Hades, or heaven, or the
summerlands, or where ever. They are to bite the bullet…
But…how can you do it, how
can you end the life of this person…for a lot of writers it can be difficult
for the above reasons, you’ve become attached. You’ll squirm your way around
it, then apologize profusely to the character as you have the place explode, or
the cave ceiling fall in on them. Others don’t find it so hard, the character
that has to die, is based on someone they don’t like, someone that has annoyed
them beyond belief, so it for them is a simple matter of typing the words
gleefully as they end their fictional lives.
The one thing I will say
about killing characters is that you should make their deaths count for
something, a mystery solved, motivation for Lillian or even hero, the start of
a mystery…make it count, because if you have created a character, one that not
only you, but your readers are going to become attached to, you better have a
damn good reason to end them.
Other characters are easy
to kill, these don’t get much of a bio, they are there to move the villain /
hero forward as well, we don’t have as much vested in them. In their creation
we have only spent moments, their lives may or may not link with the hero, or
the villain.
Drafts of your novel
should be kept in print on your book shelves (the first one, and the last one),
as versions 1 – ? on your computer, saved to the cloud with the novel name, and
the draft version number, as well as backed up onto another hard drive. I keep
a version of all my novels on my computer and on my portable hard drive, as
well as saved to the cloud. Every time I start a new draft at the beginning, I
copy and paste the previous version to a new blank document, then promptly save
that with Draft 1, or 2, or 3…you get the idea.
It is important for me to
do this, as I can look back on these drafts and see if I missed anything, or
how good / bad it’s become.
L is for….
Libricide and Loving what
you do.
What is Libricide? It is
something that every single writer and reader is fearful off, it is the killing
of books. Now when I looked this up, some of the various sites indicated that
writing in books, and bending pages back, and folding down corners was just as
terrifying as banning them or burning them.
That is NOT how I view the
killing of books. Let me tell you what I think, and please, remember these A to
Z posts are mostly my own opinion, unless otherwise stated. I think how books
are killed is burning, deleting, and not passing on the love of reading to the
next generation and yes I am including E – Books in this.
Making notes in a book,
underlining a section, putting down a corner is not destruction, to me it is
love. My dad passed a few years ago, he left a load of books, inside them were
various things used as book marks, receipts, scratch cards, and cardboard
book marks with the shops names on them. Some had folded corners, which I’ve
left folded down, none had writing in them, which I found a little upsetting as
I would have loved to have known how he felt about them, and kept that
reminder. On reading some, directly after his passing, I have written my own
little missives inside.
My kids may or may not
keep these books when I pass, if not I hope they leave my little messages
alone, so someone else can read how I felt on reading those precious memories
from my father. In other instances, cookery books, with notations of how the
chef / cook changed each recipe to suit themselves or their families are a link
to the past and the mind that once owned them. I do know that people think this
is destruction as the inks or lead will corrupt the page, but I don’t, I see it
as a connection, a piece of historical reference…always have, and I doubt if
that will change at this stage.
No, Libricide to me is the
wanton burning, and ripping apart of books, it is deleting a book from
existence because you don’t agree with it. I can’t even watch scenes in movies
where you see book burning during the second world war, or a fire in a library,
or people even using books to make art. I still mourn the loss of Alexandria.
Killing books also happens when we as parents neglect to pass on the love of
reading to the next generation, to our children. They don’t have to read
fiction, just have a love of reading books. We should bring our children to the
libraries, spend the day with them, or at least an hour, picking books to read
at night, or during down time from computers and such. But, that’s just me.
Loving what you do, it
seems to be such a given thing. I mean, if you hate reading, hate the process
of writing, then why do it? Can you love a thing because you expect it to earn
you money? I don’t know and personally I don’t think so. There needs to be a
love there, a love of the subject, a love of the writing, of reading the
finished product. Sure writing is time consuming, and yes it is generally spent
alone tap, tap, tapping on a keyboard while staring at a screen or a blank
sheet of paper, but in order to do it well, I think someplace, along side
seeing it as a job you also need to be in love with it.
Once again, I will use
what I love as a reference. I love the world building, the outlining, the
initial drafts, tinkering with the story and the plot. When it is flowing, I am
so in love with what I do that I get one heck of an endorphin rush. Then when
it’s not flowing, when it refuses to move ahead no matter how I approach it, I
would love to chuck the computer out the window, I still love it, just not as
much. I guess it’s like any good relationship. It won’t always be flowers
and nights out, cuddles on the couch cooing to each other, nope, sometimes its
a silent slam of the door, a glare across the room, an ‘I’m not bloody talking
to you until you apologize’ moment. Where you don’t pack your bags and leave
because it’s not violent, and not manipulative, and not abusive, but still
loving, just not talking.
To do what we writers do,
does take love and I for one j’adore writing.
M is for…
Marketing…
Oh boy, Marketing…hands up
everyone that hates this part of the job? Yup me three. Marketing them selves
as well as the books they have written has become something that all writers
have to do now days.
When you get into the
whole writing business you are told that you need to set up yourself a writers
platform. Now you ask yourself, all fresh and new to the business, what on
earth is that. Well my new little beauties, it’s where you set yourself up a
whole slew of media accounts online.
Facebook:
It is recommended that
every writer has an authors page. Now this can be quite difficult at the moment
when a few people are leaving facebook as it takes up their time and gets in
the way. My Author page is directed at other authors, at fantasy / urban fantasy/
women centered book pages, beta readers, nanowrimo pages, A to Z challenge
pages, blogger pages, critique pages, publishers…that kind of thing which helps
you build a fanbase.
Twitter:
Twitter is basically there
to add more groups and writers etc., it allows you in only 240 characters to
tell the world about your book, your process and build a base of followers.
Instagram:
This one works by also
allowing you to add people in the above categories, but also allows you to take
photos of things pertaining to your life of writing and share them with your
expanding fan base.
Good Reads:
Allows you to create an
authors page, especially if you already have a novel / book written. This is
another way to build a following. It also allows you to follow other writers
and find books you’d long forgotten about.
Pinterest:
Now when I first read that
I should build an account on here I was over come with a ‘but why would I do
that, it’s all about pinning images and stuff’ but I recently found out, that
it is handy for creating an online mood board, someplace where images
pertaining to your novel (or images that remind you of characters, places
etc.,), can and do reside. It might also help expand that fan base.
All Author:
This is a new one for me,
this site helps you to promote your book, and also allows readers to find your
book. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Website:
You can either build a
free one (check out other Author sites to see what they have on them and copy
what works on them to suit yourself), I use WordPress as you can see for my
Website, once again, its all about marketing not only your book, but yourself.
All these sites can also
give you personal pages, but I would recommend (advice I need to take for
myself), that you have not only a Author page, but a private one as well, that
way the Author page stays the ‘work and marketing’ page and the private one is
just what it says on the tin.
So there you have it, any
questions, just ask.
N is for….
Nanowrimo, and Notes….
I’ve mentioned Nanowrimo several
times in various posts on here, and some of you might think, well what is that,
it is simply a thing whereby every single November you sign up to write 50,000
words in that entire month. At the end if you succeed you will get a
certificate and the knowledge that you have an awesome first draft done, then
in April and I think June you get a chance to go to Campwrimo (which I’ve
failed this month) in order to work on that draft, or another one…https://nanowrimo.org
Now if you lose, you still
have a piece of work to work with, and that’s good as well. During this process
you will have made tonnes of notes (right!), in your notebooks and
possibly even have a rough outline made.
You will have the base of
a character outline, a world outline, and the rest of the things we talked
about in Journals. So that when campwrimo rolls around,
you have something to work with.
I love notebooks, my
darling wife is always asking me why I need so many, and I ask her why does she
need so many canvas’ or paint brushes, or sketching pencils…then I think she
kinda gets it till the next time.
Isn’t there something
about a pretty notebook that gives you the writer/author a thrill are you like
me, do you touch the paper inside to feel how smooth or rough it is, do you
smell it? Is it the cover that sells it to you? I’ll let you in on a little
secret, I do all of these…and another secret, I have a beautiful A4 notebook
that I have no idea what to write in it, but it’s just pretty…lol. Worse than
the pen / pencil fetish.
O is for….
Opening Scenes and
Outlines….
Ah the opening
scene…how many writers have sat at their desks, staring at blank pages and
trying to figure out what the perfect opening scene is? I’m here to tell you
that you don’t need to do that (please don’t scream at me, just keep reading),
well not yet anyway. When you begin to write, just write, get it started, then
you can come back and sweat blood about it if you so desire.
We are fed in school, so
many brilliant opening scenes and told so often that unless we have one our
book will fail because no one will ever buy it. Well that wouldn’t work on me
as a reader because I’m one of those flick to the last page and read purchasers…sacrilege….but
I never claimed to be ordinary.
I personally love the
‘open with a bang’ idea, start with action and keep on going with it. By action
in this instance, I actually do mean Action…people fighting, running, a murder,
a theft…things like that. But don’t let it weigh you down if you don’t. Start
as you think it should start, and keep going, and as I said before, come back
to it and rework it. I mean, once upon a time, on a dark and stormy night,
other beginnings were popular, and no longer are.
Besides which, if
you outline your book, you will have a fair idea (hopefully)
as to how your book should start and if not how, at least where. Now some
people don’t like outlines, I didn’t really in the beginning either, like most
I believed that it would halt my creativity, it would crush my imagination,
stifle my writing skills and lead to blandness…but once I realized that the
outline is NOT carved in stone…but only a list of guidelines, subject to change
(more than once in some instances), I was able to create my first one, and you
know what I haven’t stopped since.
OUTLINE:
Short Version of Story
Woman is in train
accident, family thinks she’s dead, she wakes up in a cryo tube years in the
future, an experiment that is now being hunted by the decedents of the systems
creation for fun.
Chapter One:
- introduce
character
- driver is paid
to create crash
- train crash
- fake medical
services arrive, there is a countdown
- real medical
services arrive
Chapter Two:
- family goes in
search of daughter do not find her
- her apartment
has been trashed
- investigations
begin
- investigator
is warned off, tells family he has no idea
Chapter Three:
- Cryo lab where
woman and others are frozen
- medics debate
where bodies came from
- boss pays off
all involved with a hitman
- bodies are
stored in various sites around the world
Chapter Four:
- World War 3
begins
- everything
falls apart
- some tubes are
destroyed
- people
starving, all goes bad
- cryo creater
becomes big wig, his kids are spoilt
Chapter Five:
- Woman’s tube
opens,
- hunter in
room, she almost gets killed
- stranger saves
her
- she escapes
both
- on the run,
the sights, sounds, disbelief, goes home
Chapter Six:
- building of
home destroyed
- discovers
family is dead bar one
- person who
saved her says they might help her, if she helps them…
And so on, this is a very
basic outline, it has loads, and loads of wiggle room. This is also a story I
don’t think I’ll ever write as I have so much more to go on with. But you never
know.
P is for…
Preparing to Publish,
Prologues and Proof Reading….
When you look on the
internet there are a whole load of sites that offer you guides to publishing
your book, or rather, guides that will help you prepare to publishyour
book, such as https://www.wikihow.com/Write-and-Publish-a-Book which
seems to cover from getting your idea to the printed copy and it comes with
pictures too. Then there is https://www.thebookdesigner.com/2012/06/10-quick-tips-to-get-your-manuscript-ready-for-publication/ which
lays out ten rather decent steps to cleaning up your manuscript before you send
it onto a book designer, https://www.standoutbooks.com/getting-your-book-published/ has
more ideas all lined up for you to write and prepare to publish your book. All
three sites are worth bookmarking for future reference. As with all things,
researching what to do is always the best option. Find out what works for you
and then go do it.
Prologues seem to be getting a bad rap these days. They are no longer in
fashion, but that doesn’t stop writers like myself from using them. Some
writers maintain that a prologue is simply a first chapter, I would tend to
argue that most prologues are several years / centuries and even months before
the start (official start) of the book. They are setting you up with the
information that you need to know in order to continue reading. Which in
fantasy and Sci – Fi can be rather important. Also bear in mind, even in the
movie world these days more and more prequels (prologues) are being made to
explain or explore characters or stories backgrounds. I personally have no
problem with them, and rather enjoy them.
Proof
Reading is another thing that is rather
important, it is when you hire someone, or you yourself go through the finished
manuscript and search for errors, and here you need to actually make a note of
things, such as blue eyes in chapter three, and same character having green
eyes in chapter 10, now unless they have put in contacts that won’t fly. Proof
reading will also catch the spelling of Alien Names, or / and grammar. As with
anything else, a search online will bring up some sites, also bear in mind,
that there are apps that you can get for free, or purchase that will help you
with proofreading your document, but they really can’t beat someone that is
trained to do the job professionally. Here are some sites that I found…
- https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/Proofreading.html
- https://creativewriting.ie/proofreading/
- https://www.thoughtco.com/top-proofreading-tips-1691277
Well I hope they help you
out.
Q is for….
Query Letter and Quitting…
When you have reached your
last draft (some writers will say before that), you can, during your down time,
attempt to tackle, especially if you are going down the route of traditional
publishing, or paying to have your book published by vanity press or one of the
other kinds of self – publishing houses, you may need to get acquainted with
writing a Query Letter or two…
Now, what is this thing
you may ask, and I would answer it is what it says on the tin, a letter
enquireing of an agent, or of a publishing house, if they would like to take on
you and your book to publish. As mentioned before, if you are going down the
traditional publishing route, you may and most often do need the hand of an
agent to help get you through the door. Writing these letters seems to strike
fear into the hearts of some writers, but it’s worthwhile trying your hand at.
I haven’t done one yet, because I chose to e-publish and a query letter wasn’t
necessary.
Here are some sites that
will help you find your way through this maze.
- https://www.janefriedman.com/query-letters/
- https://nybookeditors.com/2015/12/how-to-write-a-darn-good-query-letter/
- http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/successful-queries
- https://blog.reedsy.com/how-to-write-a-query-letter/
They can be difficult to
get through, but I am sure that if you do your research, and follow the
guidelines that each has in common, you will succeed with a decent query letter
that will get your book noticed in the right way.
How often as a Writer and
as an Author have you felt like throwing in the towel? I know I haven’t written
as much as I should have, or even when I should have, self – doubt and
depression has crippled me for years, but I’ve never quit, I’ve
never thrown my arms up in the air and screamed that I cannot possibly do this
anymore…sure I’ve felt like it, but I haven’t yet.
Quitting writing to me
would be like cutting off an arm, my head swims with way too many stories, my
characters are to me like my long suffering children, clamoring to be written
down and sent out into the world, and so far I’ve only put one out there.
Sometimes I feel like I should draw her back in and rework her, but I’m being
good and leaving her where she is, even if I’ve had no comments good, bad or
indifferent. I’ve sold a few, just no one seems to be reading it.
Which, when working on
this second novel in the series makes me wonder sometimes if I am fooling
myself, the answer is no, I’m not, I’m going to keep going and each novel will
be better than the last one, as I said, quitting doesn’t really appeal to me
where my writing is concerned. If it appeals to you, then maybe you aren’t cut
out for it. Maybe it’s time to look at something else…or simply to change genre
or audience age grouping…
But, if writing and
publishing are things that make your blood rush a little faster through your
body, make you happy and leave you feeling fulfilled, then maybe you should
just step away for a little bit, maybe all you need is a break, a holiday. If
that doesn’t bring you back on track, then maybe it really isn’t for you and
you need to look at doing something else.
R is for….
Reading and Research….
Both my topics for this
post are relatively the same thing, and completely different in other
instances. It has been said that in order to write one must read,
and read widely. As authors of one genre or another, we are also told we should
be reading what we are writing, and by such I mean reading Young Adult books if
that is what we are writing, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Sci – Fi, Romance,
Horror…etc.,
The reason behind this is
that we cannot be proficient (so it goes), in our chosen genres if we don’t
have a clue what others have written before us. Now that does in the most part
hold up, but what if its one of those new little, offshoots of genre, one of
those barely known little segments? Well then I guess you are kinda on your own
aren’t you? So where you can, I personally would recommend that you read what
you are proposing to write, just to show you the various styles of the writers
in your genres. It has also been said that while you are in the act of writing
you should read anything but the area you are writing, in case your words begin
to reflect the author you are writing (even if copying is the best form of
flattery), it can be rather annoying as well.
Reading in the area you
are writing about can also be considered to be research, and it can be
considered such when you are reading to figure out how to do it, or how it is
written and if there are any particular rules you must follow. Otherwise, it’s
simply fun. Research can be both, personally, I tend to get sidetracked (which
is why I usually have a notebook with the question or thing I am researching
written down clearly in case I loose track), because I love finding out new
things and you never know when they might be useful…but…we need to learn in
that case to draw ourselves back and bookmark that area for further reading
once we’re finished what we are doing at the moment.
There are various ways to research
something,
- People,
professors, historians, and experts in many fields if they are amenable to
being interviewed on their chosen subject.
- The Internet
in 2018 is the most used source we have, everything you ever wanted to
know about everything (and somethings you didn’t want to know) are openly
available.
- Books, Yes
those heavy things that your parents had in the house called
encyclopedias, handy for historians, there are also books on every single
subject you can, or would want, but they cost money, though some older
books, can become available as a free PDF, or free e-book which is back to
digital media.
- Magazines, one
for almost every single subject you could be looking for.
- Maps, of
houses, localities, the earth, the solar system…
- Libraries as a
resource for research contain all of the above.
It is a lot easier these
days to research a subject, but when looking to have something historically
correct, you must ensure the site, or the author of the site, if searching
online, actually knows what he / she is talking about and accurate.
To do this you should
check the following…
- Look for Sites
from Established Institutions. …
- Look for Sites
With Expertise. …
- Steer Clear of
Commercial Sites. …
- Beware Bias. …
- Check the
Date. …
- Look at the
Site’s Look. …
- Avoid
Anonymous Authors. …
- Check the
Links…(https://www.thoughtco.com/gauging-website-reliability-2073838)
also check out this site
for more info on how to check sites https://blog.webnames.ca/how-to-determine-if-a-website-is-a-fake-fraud-or-scam/
S is for…
Self Publishing, Short
Stories and Synopsis…
There always has been a
lot of debate around Self Publishing vs Traditional Publishing, most of it has
tried to tell authors that there is only one way to be truly considered an
author, and that is to go down the route of Traditional Publishing, where by
the writer and hopefully soon to be published Author gets an Agent and together
they proposition Publishing houses in order to get the newly finished
manuscript published. This can take anything from 6 months to a year or two,
providing you have been accepted and your manuscript hasn’t made it out of the
slush pile.
Self Publishers have
maintained that publishing e-books, publishing on demand (POD), paying to have
your book published and vanity press is the way to go, especially in the age of
computers, smart phones and smart tv’s. For these you don’t necessarily need an
agent, they can be done by the writer (WITH CAREFUL RESEARCH TO MAKE SURE YOU
AREN’T BEING TAKEN FOR YOUR MONEY). E – books like Kindle don’t cost anything
to upload, if you use cover apps such as Cava you can create beautiful front
page images, and now you even have the option to Print On Demand.
Some well known authors
are now having their books updated into e-book format.
In the world of writing
Short Stories seem to be making a bit of a comeback, it could be debated that
the rise in popularity again could be caused by low attention spans, and the
desire to finish a story quickly. Short Stories are even shorter for the most
part, than Novellas, which are shorter than Novels. A lot of Authors are writing
short stories to put into their own anthologies, or other group anthologies
where they share the fame with other writers. A short story is about 10 pages
long, or 30,000 words.
When you have finished
writing your piece you will then have to write a Synopsis, this is when you
give a brief (very brief) summery of your novel that you will send to the
prospective publisher of your new book. Some sites I looked at have said that
you can actually write these before you even start writing your book, but then
I would personally call that your ‘story idea’. Some writers panic about
writing these, I haven’t had to personally do one as of yet as I am an e-book
publisher.
T is for…
Time Outs, Travel Writing
and Trust.
Time
outs are important in writing, they
are the down times in-between drafts where you let the story rest, and let your
imagination wind itself back in again before you take it out and start the re –
drafts / writes. Time outs are also important if you have a case of writers
block, the kind that happens when you are stuck on a scene and can’t move any
further, at these stages if you take a break and go for a walk it can clear
your head, if not then come back and open a clean page, then interview the
character, or characters (you could even add the villain) about the scene that
has you stuck, this could do the trick. If you find yourself trying it, let me
know if it works for you.
So what do you do if you
are traveling and writing at the same time? This is where the likes of one
note, or Dropbox, or any of those online little notebooks/ programs come in
handy as you can take your work with you no matter where you are. Also, when
travelling, if you like to write the odd blog post, or article on travelling,
you can use your portable app to help out with that. Personally, being paid to
go and do Travel Writing does appeal to me, I wonder how you
get into that job?
One of the biggest things
a writer / author does is to trust people, they trust that
beta readers will give them accurate and credible feedback, they trust that an
Agent won’t take them for every penny and will have their best interests at
heart. They trust that if they are paying to be published that the company they
have chosen will actually do as they said they would, and that those who read
the books will leave reviews and let others as well as the writer know what
they thought about it. Writers and Authors also trust that what they have
written will be good enough for people to read.
U is for…
Understanding the Process
and Underestimating your Audience
From start to finish the
process of writing and publishing your piece of work is a long and sometimes
arduous. Many writers fail at the first hurdle, they either overwork their
manuscript, or don’t do anymore than one edit of the first draft. A writer must
Understand the entire process of writing from where they get their ideas from,
how to do research, if they are going to outline or not, what is needed
to world build, how to flesh out a character, that it takes more than one
draft, sometimes an editor is needed and whether or not they want to go down
the traditional publishing route or choose one of the other methods of self
publishing.
All this takes time and
practice. Most of us aren’t able to write a novel in one sitting, not a decent
one. And I don’t mean working and reworking each sentence until it’s perfect,
because no matter what you think, you are still drafting, redrafting, and
redrafting again, the only difference between this method and the one that I
choose to use (the whole thing first, then work on it for several more drafts
in it’s entirety), is that I work on the entire manuscript until I’m satisfied
of it’s completion.
Which brings me to another
point, which is do not underestimate your audience. The people who read your
books aren’t stupid, so don’t treat them as such. You don’t need to explain
everything to them, or as the saying goes ‘draw them a picture’ the trick is to
try and figure out what needs more in-depth explanation, and what doesn’t.
Using the adage that you write what you know, why not aim your explanations in
that area as well, if you have had to research it, maybe a short explanation is
needed in the novel, with more showing than telling.
V is for…
Viewpoint and Voice
Viewpoint is a persons opinion or point of view, where as Voice is
the authors style of writing, and sometimes they both get mixed up.
When you begin writing
your piece of work, you must figure out who or what is talking, what kind of
narrator you have. The simple method is this…is it in YOU, is it in I, is it in
SHE, HE, IT, or is it a view point that comes from everywhere? When you have
decided, then you can start writing, usually I write in the She, he, it style
and alternate chapters to give the view points of my various main characters,
sometimes two good guys, and the villain…sometimes a little more.
One of the hardest
viewpoints to write in is the ‘I’ viewpoint…though once you get the hang of it,
it can be fun. What viewpoint do you favor?
The authors style of
writing, or Voice is something that is developed over time, it’s how you write,
what brings your work to life, breathes air into your characters. It can be
difficult to find at times, especially if you are copying other writers in
order to learn how to do it. I think, and it’s just what I think mind you, that
you should write as you mean to go on, sit down, and write. If you have read
widely, a style that you like will develop, stay patient, it’s in there, it
just needs to wake up and get out.
W is for…
Write what you know…
Now this is a big one…this
is one that got me staring at my blank pages for a long time in my 20s and
early 30s trying to figure out what exactly did I know. I mean, if I wrote what
I knew, really knew, then it would be extremely short, and there would be
nothing there. Then I had a light bulb moment.
I liked to write sci – fi
/ fantasy mix, slash fiction about superheros and shows I watched, as I had
watched them, and read some books based on them, then for the sake of argument,
I knew them. So I could write about them with confidence.
Then I got another
realization, I was writing fantasy, sci – fi, urban F and Fi, and building
worlds, and creating characters from scratch, having read tonnes of Sci fi,
urban F and Fi, and fantasy books, I knew about them, about those worlds, so
all I needed to do was take what I knew and adapt it for my worlds, my
characters and try to work my novels that way.
Once I had that figured
out, the block I’d built up fell away, I realized I knew more than I thought I
knew and what I didn’t know, I could research and learn it. I was still
sticking to the ‘write what you know’ adage, but now I was learning new things
every single day, I was becoming an expert in pub quiz levels of knowledge and
in actual comprehension of a subject level (though now the wo pause is active I
find the brain a little soft).
So you see, ‘write what
you know’ covers a whole range of stuff and if you read, or surf the net, you
already know a lot more than what you think you do.
X is for…
Xenagogue and Xerox…
Now to be honest, to be
completely and utterly honest, I was stuck with X, and Z but I found some words
that I could use, you’ll have to wait until Z for those ones, but for now lets
tackle Xenagogue, now what does it mean? Go on, I’ll wait…
Xenagogue means guide, and
that is what I hope this A to Z Blogging Challenge here on ‘The Road to Being a
Published Writer’ has been for you out there. Although a bit jumbled, and
probably not making much sense in some places (mail me if this is the case for
you, or message me and I’ll get back to you), but a guide none the less.
In the world of writing,
and being an Author, the best guides for writers are those written by other
writers, on subjects such as characters, viewpoints, villains, costume, being a
private eye and poisons…to name a few. Other guides are websites that belong to
writing groups, writing magazines, publishing houses and sometimes Authors
themselves that will contain information that you may require.
As for Xerox, we actually
covered it in C…or was that B, or D…anyway, what it means is Copies, and you
should have a copy of your manuscript saved to the cloud, portable hard drive,
memory stick, and of course, in hard copy. Keep your copies numbered, version,
or draft number helps, as well as start and finish date. Also if you wish you
should make notes in a notebook regarding how many pages you’ve written, what
needs to be done, version / draft…etc.,
Y is for…
Young Authors (YA) and
Yield!!
Writers for Young
Authors are writing for the age grouping of 12 to 18 years of age,
although a good many readers now days are also adults. If you propose as an
adult to write in this genre you should read as much of it as possible. These
books usually have a teen as a main character and deal with most teenage
situations (some in the fantasy/ sci – fi/ horror/ mystery realms among
others).
What you may ask do I mean
by Yield, well I mean we as writers need to recognize when our work
is done, when the manuscript that we have slaved over is finally ready to go to
the editor / proof reader for the last time. It is at that stage that we must
Yield to that that knowledge and tell the nerves and the negative committee in
our heads to shut up and sit the feck down.
Z is for…
Zazzy and Zone…
Well folks, that’s it. I
did what I didn’t think I could do, and finished the blogging challenge, now
there are no physical or monetary awards, but a sticker I can put here on the
blog, and the achievement.
At the moment with
writing, anything that is too flashy is frowned upon, writing must have
purpose, each sentence and paragraph sculpted to the nth so that it can be read
precisely. Back in the day novels such as the penny dreadful, and the
dime-store novel were zazzy in nature, flashy, Gothic and filled with tales of
daring do, death and blood.
As for Zone, this is the
wonderful zen like state you enter into when you are writing and everything is
pouring out of you and onto the page with no need of editing or correcting,
everything is perfect, even the temperature in the room, and you feel no pain
in your sore wrist while you type, so unlike me at the moment, so I will just
stop there and go put my brace back on, safe in the knowledge that I finished
at least one thing this month.
To those who have followed
me through this, thank you for sticking with me, for those who have just joined
me, welcome, I hope not to disappoint, please feel free to comment and ask any
questions you may have.
To you all…
I am done for today, I
will see you all soon.
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