Posted by on Jul 24, 2010 in
Writing Books Before you begin writing your book, you must research your idea and see if it is in-demand with readers. Who is going to read it? To whom are you trying to appeal with your words? You must have a general idea of who your intended audience will be. Check out other books. Is there a book already published that resembles your book? What will make your book unique from theirs? If there are similar books already out there, what is going to make your book different and make people want to buy it?
When you are ready to begin your book, decide on a schedule that is best for you, one that you can stick to. Your schedule should begin before your research and carry through to the completion of the book. Make a detailed outline with the main plot, events leading to that plot, and explicit detail about the characters. An outline is also a good reference point to double-check your timelines and details.
ONE IDEA IS NOT ENOUGH
Part of the reworking process is changing direction within the writing. Many beginning writers aspire to write a book. They have an idea and a vague plan to turn the idea into book. Picture a first grader telling you she wants to write a book about horses. Although you can collect a lot of information about horses to write several books, the vague idea is not enough for an adult writer to create a marketable book. To write a book, you need to start with a topic. You may or may not be an expert on the subject. After you have the first vague ideas, you need to start asking yourself questions to focus in on a specific, marketable topic. Answering those questions will lead you to more questions, and so on. Even if your original idea is unique and leads you to write new information that the world does not yet have access to, you will need to add to that original idea to create an intriguing finished product. If you are not an expert, or you have not created any new information, it will take more time and effort to produce a unique piece of writing. Fiction is the same as non-fiction. Many stories have been told before. If you want to become a published author, you need to come up with an engaging and new journey for your readers to take.
RECYCLING OLD IDEAS
There is always room in your book for old ideas. Your readers will need a familiar starting place within your writing. As you are putting together your ideas for a complete book, you will probably publish smaller pieces of work in magazines and newspapers. It is okay, as long as you cite yourself, to reuse some of that work. In that way, you can publish as you go along while still making progress towards your end goal in book publishing. After several months or even years, you will have poured out your effort and knowledge into a completed book.
You may want to turn off your editing software for your first draft. Mesh the plot, the characters, and everything together, without using your spellchecker. You can fix your grammar, spelling, and punctuation later. Most authors don’t write their books from front to back. By writing different chapters or events, it may be easier for you to come back and connect them later. Sometimes having the words on paper makes it easier to fill in the blanks.
FIRST DRAFT
You have finished your first draft. Now is the time to read it. Reading the rough draft allows you to zero in on the timeline, link the plot with the characters, and ensure everything makes sense and flows together. Once you have accomplished these tasks, use your editing software. It is time to fix your grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes. Two widely used grammar programs for authors include WhiteSmoke Software (www.WhiteSmokeSoftware.com), and a book formatting software called WizardsForWord (www.WizardsForWord.com).
Now put you book aside. Let it sit for 7-10 days or so before you pick it up again. This will give your mind time to clear. Now read the book again. Does it still flow and make sense? Do you need to add something or change it? Now is the time.
Choose someone to proofread your book for you. If possible, hire a professional editor to do this or someone with a writing or English background. Besides editing your manuscript, a professional copyeditor can also offer you unbiased opinion and advice.
Lastly, create the final draft. The final draft should be error free. This is your last chance to change anything before it goes to the publisher. Now is when all that time you spent writing a book comes together to make its trip to publication.
Unlike other areas of expertise, book writing is a different process for everyone. As you set out to write a book, you can follow some basic guidelines, but getting your ideas from your head to the page is an invention of your own. Not only will you have to get the information onto the page, but also you will have to write in a way that thousands or even millions of readers can relate to and understand.
Tags: Better, Book, write
Posted by on Jul 24, 2010 in
Writing Skills There is no doubt that a business writing skills software will enrich your skills with the english language quickly and easily. Due to the advent of computer technology, we are constantly working with text to articulate our viewpoints and insights and to relate to each other. I am confident that this brief article will end up fascinate you.
Click here for a business writing skills software!
Because of the affordability and ease of modern computers, we are accustomed to utilizing the usual word processing applications to do our everyday writing. During a web search for some type of program to develop my imperfect english writing abilities, i read a brief report that caught my eyes. At last you can take advantage of a cutting edge program that does the job of a professional editor and searches whatever you’ve written for spelling, grammar, and style trouble. Imagine a virtual ‘assistant’ that instantly lets you know about words and phrases that need attention – as you write. If you are one of the many who are confused by the proper use of its and it’s, for example, this can be a big help.
It is almost certain that anyone currently searching the internet for help with spelling, grammar, and punctuation would quickly run into this unique system. Your writing will benefit immediately, as this helpful tool gives you the power to effortlessly increase the quality of your text through the use of vocabulary and style hints. And who is this unique program designed for? Business people, artists, contractors – all professions can benefit. No doubt it’s clear by now that this helpful (and essential) utility can be enjoyed by anyone on the internet.
Seeing is believing – when you first try out a business writing skills software you will promptly realize the wonderful assistance that it brings you. Everyone would agree, a great benefit to this english grammar system is its power to help all your abilities in working with the english language. According to the creators of this solution, this solution has been put to use by many thousands of users spread out around the globe. You are now aware of the help that’s available; Why not get started with your new english assistant – you can be seeing the great results with just a few clicks of your mouse. Here’s a last tip: prior to turning in an upcoming english composition, make sure it’s correct by putting this software to use.
Tags: Business, Improve, Report, Skills, Urgent, Writing
How to write a novel the easy way? Can it be done?
Absolutely. Learning how to write a novel doesn’t have to be complicated. When you follow a step by step process, you can take the complexity of how to write a novel and “dumb it down” to such a simple system that it becomes almost like paint by numbers.
Easy novel writing is a series of connections. You know, like “the foot bone’s connected to the ankle bone.”
In the case of novel writing, your connections look like this (feel free to add the “Dry Bones” tune to this list as you read it if you know it):
IDEA is connected to
QUESTIONS, which are connected to
CONFLICT, which is connected to
STORY QUESTION, which is connected to
THEME, which is connected to
PLOT, which is connected to
CHARACTERS, which are connected to
MOTIVATION, which is connected to
CHARACTER SKETCHES, which are connected to
SETTINGS, which are connected to
SETTING SKETCHES, which are connected to
RESEARCH LISTS, which are connected to
RESEARCH, which are connected to
SCENE CARDS, which are connected to
SCENE CARD FILE, which is connected to
PACING, which is connected to
QUERY, which is connected to
SYNOPSIS, which is connected to
FIRST PAGES, which are connected to
DRAFT, which is connected to
REWRITE, which is connected to
SUBMISSION, which is connected to
SALE!
Whew! Seem like a lot. Well, it is a lot. But that doesn’t mean it’s complicated.
Let’s break it down:
1. IDEA. Your novel idea is the basic concept. For example, the idea for my novel, Alternate Beauty, was that an obese woman finds herself in an alternate universe where fat is beautiful. This is kind of intriguing, but it’s certainly not enough for a novel. So you have to start asking
2. QUESTIONS. To flesh out an idea, you need to start asking questions. Your seed question needs to be “What if”. For instance, what if the woman who was in the alternate universe began losing weight. You throw out a bunch of answers to the what if question, and then you pick one that tickles your fancy and ask another what if question. It goes like this: Once the woman begins losing weight, she ends up as unhappy in the new universe as she was in the old. So what if she got fed up with being unhappy. Etc. etc.
As you work through what if questions, you throw in “Why” questions. Why does the woman lose weight? Why is she unhappy?
Keep stringing these questions together and you’ll begin to find your
3. CONFLICT. Conflict comes from a character wanting to get something and being blocked in some way from getting what he or she wants. A good novel makes characters’ lives miserable before everything turns out in the end (either good or bad). You weave your questions together in a way that reveals your character’s desires and what obstacles preventing him or her from achieving those desires. It’s the conflict that keeps your reader guessing when you keep creating
4. STORY QUESTIONS. Story questions are the secrets you keep from the reader so the reader has questions in his or her mind. You layer the conflict, one upon the other, so the reader has to keep reading to satisfy his or her curiosity. All the story questions, when answered at the end of the novel reflect the
5. THEME. The theme is the central message of the novel-the statement you want to make about the human condition. The theme is the unifying element of everything you put in your
6. PLOT. Plot is the story-the culmination of conflict and story question. It’s not just what happens in the novel but why what happens is compelling. Plot is compelling when it’s driven by life-like
7. CHARACTERS. Characters are the people in your story. Think of them as the train that carries your plot along. Characters only carry along a plot in a compelling way when they have clear
8. MOTIVATION. Motivation is the psychological and experiential explanation for why your characters do what they do. Once you have a central motivation for each main character, you can easily create
9. CHARACTER SKETCHES. Character sketches are your character’s bios. These include everything from physical characteristics to history to personality to favorite color. Great characters are rich with detail and they live in equally rich
10. SETTINGS. Settings are the place of your novel. You can create settings that your reader can easily visualize when you create
11. SETTING SKETCHES. Setting sketches are the who, what, where, why, and how of your settings. They consist of diagrams, pictures, and other specific information to make settings unique and interesting. You get this information and every other fact you need to support the story of your novel from your
12. RESEARCH. Research will answer all the detail questions, and if you do it right you’ll have a good balance of enough information and not too much to bog down the story. Once you’ve done your research you can create
13. SCENE CARDS. Scene cards are index cards that contain outlines of every scene in your novel. Scene is a specific chunk of the story, one that is its own closed loop. Every good scene has a purpose and it leads to the next good scene. This is how you create a
14. SCENE CARD FILE. The scene card file is where you put all your scene cards. Since each scene has its own card, you can easily rearrange scenes as needed to create perfect
15. PACING. Pacing is the rhythm of the novel. You take the reader for a thrill-ride, and then you slow things down. Speed up, slow down. The story questions you created when you plotted is what helps create the speed flow. When you have your novel paced well in the scene cards you’re ready to write a
16. QUERY. The query is the one to two page letter needed to submit to an agent or editor. When you write it before you draft your book, it embeds your theme and central plot in your mind. It also helps you write the
17. SYNOPSIS. A synopsis is a narrative outline of the novel, told in a compelling way but placing all essential information in a concise package of only 10 to 30 pages or so. If you can put your story in this space, you’ll find it incredibly easy to then take the skeleton of the story, fill it in with the meat of your scene cards and write a magnificent first
18. DRAFT. The draft of your story is the natural result of all the connections that have come before. It’s simply sitting at the computer and using all the elements you’ve created to spill the story onto the page. Once it’s there, you can
19. REWRITE to polish the words to pristine perfection. Then you’re ready for
20. SUBMISSION. Submission is easy when you’ve done all the other work. You already have a query, synopsis, and polished manuscript. So you just need to hit Writer’s Market and find a list of agents or editors to whom to send your query. When the agent or editor asks for more, you’ll send the synopsis and eventually the draft, and one day you’ll get the call telling you that you’ve made a
21. SALE. This is when you scream and jump around and go out and buy your favorite meal and then be annoyingly perky for weeks on end.
And just like that, you’ve created a novel readers will love. All because you followed a paint-by-numbers system for how to write a novel.
Tags: Easy, novel, write