Posted by on Jan 23, 2012 in
Writing Books There are more difficult things in this life to be sure, such as scaling Mount Everest backwards and blindfolded, but writing a novel is up there when it comes to challenging tasks. The primary problem is that novels are long and contain lots of words. This presents an immediate obstacle because many people who want to write a book think they don’t have much time and aren’t good at language.
Ouch! What then? Sorry to say, there’s no Holy Grail to take you by the hand and guide you through the wilderness until a finished book with your name on it sits on someone’s shelf, but there are a few tips on novel writing that could be of some use.
Got no time to write a book? Welcome to the club. No beginning writer actually has time to write an entire novel. Bothersome factors interfere – sleep, television, job, family, cats throwing up in the living room. Before you know it, another 24 hours have sped past and you haven’t added a single solitary typed word to the blank document on your monitor. Can’t make the day longer, so what do you do? Here’s the solution. Create writing time by getting up one hour earlier. I don’t care how early you already get up. Move your rising time back one hour and use it to write – to really write. Get up and sit down at the computer immediately.
Or maybe your schedule is more conducive to evening writing. Wait until the kids and spouse are in bed and get busy creating your written fantasy world then. And don’t try to tell me there is no extra time in your life. That is plain and simple horse puckey. Almost everyone can find a wasted hour somewhere. Most of us sit down in front of the television to mindlessly vegetate. Or indulge the daily phone call to Mom complaining about every single little hideous detail of the day.
How important is it to write that book? Not very if you can’t give up anything else to make time.
One of my favorite tips on novel writing is to begin with the goal of producing a single page a day. That’s it. One tiny little page of writing. Accomplish that simple daily task for a year and, guess what, you just wrote a book. How easy was that? And if these book writing tips seem to difficult to implement, you might consider staying in “Wish I could-ville” and continue to pretend like you want to write a book.
Writers write. It’s that simple.
Tags: novel, Tips, Work, Writing
Posted by on Apr 14, 2011 in
Writing Books How can book writing software help you with continuity in your novel? Indeed, even before we start talking about that, we need to discuss what I mean by continuity in your novel and why that’s important in writing a novel. You might be aware of websites which share the various mistakes that are bound to be found in movies. And there are always loads. Making a movie is a hugely complex process, and mistakes creep in.
Thing is, though, writing a novel is also a massively complicated process and mistakes creep in there too, such as continuity mistakes (I’m borrowing that term from the movie industry). An example of a continuity mistake might be something like having Character A hand Character B a glass of wine, and then two or three lines later, having him hand her a glass of wine again. That is actually one that I made – I am just lucky that my editor spotted it! Or even more subtly, you could have a character receive a glass of wine, take only a sip or two, and another character is filling up the glass again even though there’s no room for it. I’ve read novels where characters changed names half way through with no explanation.
These sort of continuity mistake are very easily done. There is so very much to keep track of when you’re writing a novel. You have to keep track of the plot, any subplots, make sure clues are dropped where necessary, look after your character arc and development, keep the timeline straight and keep track of any important ‘props’.
It’s very hard to pick up on these mistakes yourself, as we all have a tendency to read what we expect to read. We see what we think will be there, rather than what IS there. The problem is that readers, of course, come to the novel with no preconceived ideas, and then genuinely see what is there, mistakes and all. And continuity mistakes can really spoil their pleasure in the story.
One solution to this problem is to make sure you are super organised, so you have the right information to hand. I know writers can shudder at that prospect (I’m prone to doing that myself!), wanting to just enjoy being in the flow of the muse. But a novel is a very complex construct – with as much science as art in it – no matter how much we might like to think otherwise, and needs to be handled as such.
You can use index cards or post-it notes to keep organised. Both of these options are much, much better than keeping all the details in your head. But they can get lost, or out of order, and shuffling through a whole pack of cards (say) to remind yourself what colour eyes the hero has, is time-consuming. And so a modern option would be to use book writing software. The simplest of these acts like a virtual index card system, but one which is much easier to keep track of than real ones. And the higher-end products have other facilities such as timelines and mind maps.
The essential issue though, no matter which option you choose, is to make sure to check for continuity, and ensure there are no errors in your novel.
Tags: Avoid, Book, continuity, Helping, Mistakes, novel, Software, 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
A writer’s desire to put words into sentences, sentences into paragraphs and paragraphs into stories is by no means a mechanical process. It is a force to be reckoned with. You can’t create it, if it isn’t in you and you can’t get rid of it, if you’ve got the bug to write. But turning our vivid thoughts and imagination into solid form can be both challenging and inspiring. The style that you use will depend on whether you have chosen to write a fiction or non-fiction work.
Before you even start writing your book, it is wise to do some research. Do you know if the topic you have in mind is hot right now? Are there similar books on the market and are they selling well? A good way to find out is by reading newspapers, magazines, newsletter and ezines that cater to writers. Join writer’s groups and forums, as well talk to other people in the writing and publishing field. It is wise to be sure you have a potential audience for your book ahead of time.
FICTION WRITING
Fiction writing is base on imagination and if you have a good one, your story will be good. It can also be plot-driven, or based on an idea or concept. The thing to remember as we go through each aspect of fiction writing is that although your story is fantasy, it must still make sense.
The next thing to consider is the physical setting of your story. It must be authentic enough to be believed and include everything from scenery, to atmosphere and perhaps even weather. These elements might have a profound affect on the actions or moods of your characters.
For instance, does your story take place in a run down factory, a dance hall or spaceship? All of these evoke extremely different images. Then you need to ask yourself, do I want my setting to be simply a background or something more powerful?
Choosing the right ‘point of view’ and ‘narrative voice’ for your story is also very important. Writing in the first person, gives the reader the impression that you are personally invested in your story. A third person ‘point of view’ is more detached.
Time is another element that must be established. First of all, what time of day is it? Although you don’t need to specifically state that it’s 2 p.m., your story must indicate through other details that it is mid-afternoon. Different time periods immediately create pictures in the minds of readers. For instance, there is a world of difference between Washington in 2006 and Boston in the 1800s.
Next, the characters in your story must be considered. Are they the primary focus, rather than the plot? Who is the main character and how will you write your book to show that this person is the most important? A good way to answer these questions is to write down character outlines. Describe not only how they look, but also their character traits (strengths and weaknesses), personality, views and moods.
Your main character will be the one who is most affected in the story and/or plays the biggest role. He or she will be the one with the most force of action, the biggest problem, the most painful hurt or seeking to accomplish the most tantamount goal. This is the character that you want your readers to know best, to perhaps identify with and to care about. Then unless you are placing yourself in the story, decide which character will tell the tale. This is the ‘viewpoint character’ and the reader will experience the story through this character’s eyes. It is also possible to have more than one ‘viewpoint character.’
Next, consider the plot or story line. How will you let the plot unfold in a natural way and follow it through to the end? Where and at what point will the climax occur? Will there by semi-climaxes as the story moves along and at what points? If you are writing a plot-based story, the intricacies of the plot will be what create the most interesting tale. This, of course, will take some planning. In this case, it helps to write out your game plan ahead of time.
Dialogue is a vital aspect of any written work, as it can really bring out the personalities of your characters. It can also serve to fill in necessary information, without just stating it, it can be used to establish the time and place, and also to develop conflicts between characters. Whatever its purpose, writing dialogue is something that can be difficult to create, if you haven’t done it before. Don’t try to recreate actual conversations, as they’ll likely be very boring and annoying. For instance, most people repeat certain phrases and non-words like ‘um,’ ‘aha’ or ‘you see.’
I’m sure you’ve heard the term “double speak” at some point. In dialogue, it means that what your characters say and what they really mean are two different things. What are your characters saying “between the lines” or “subtext?” This can happen when one or more of your characters don’t really understand themselves or their own motivation. Showing a different side to a character through dialogue will tell the reader more about him or her than if you just outright said it. Knowing how to write this kind of dialogue can set you apart from other writers.
Also if your character has a slang or accent, don’t overdo it. Dialogue should also flow, without a lot of ‘he said,’ ‘she said.’ Also try to intersperse your conversations with associated actions. Finally, always remember to begin a new sentence each time another person speaks and put their words in quotations.
NON-FICTION WRITING
Non-fiction writing is based on reality, but is not necessarily factual. This genre includes recreations of true stories, biographies and autobiographies found in such things as books, magazines, newspapers, advertisements and reference books. You might also want to write a how-to book. There are many of them out there on everything from how to loose weight, dance, find the right mate and build a birdhouse, how to improve your golf game, learn to dance, read sheet music or improve your Internet marketing skills, start a business and even how to write.
Non-fiction also includes medical, travel, space books and whole host of other texts. Obviously, the most important aspect of non-fiction writing is to write about what you know best. You must do your homework and become an authority on your subject matter.
You must also have an angle or purpose. Why are you writing it? In answering that question, you must answer the questions: who, what, why, when and how. For instance, if you are writing on how to balance your budget, your purpose is to help people gain control over their finances. You must decide whether you are aiming at the poor, middle class or wealthy. What do they need to know and why? When should they begin their financial planning and how?
For general non-fiction writing, you must decide on the right ‘point of view’ and ‘narrative voice.’ For instance, if you are writing about a personal and painful experience of your own, you might want to present it in the first person. However, if you are not ready to tell the world it was ‘your’ experience, you will need to write it in the third person. If you’re writing an academic book, you might want to write in the third person in a ‘professor’s’ voice. If it is a book about a conspiracy, you might want to adopt a ‘suspicious’ tone.
Next, choose your setting, which for non-fiction writing should be an actual place. If this is not possible, you will need to recreate the setting as closely as possible. Then establish the time element and your character outlines. Again, these must be factual or as close to it as possible. You must then decide on your characters and who is the primary character. What is the plot and how important is it? Will there be actual dialogue in your non-fiction book? If so, make sure that all words, expressions and accents are authentic in relation to the time element. What genre does your book fall into and are you being true to form for that genre?
Finally, although your non-fiction book should be based on facts, you can be just as creative as a fiction writer to keep your writing from being too dry and boring. Don’t be afraid to spice it up a bit, but at the same time stick to the facts.
**************************
Assuming that you know what genre or category your writing falls into, there are a few things to consider. You must be aware that there are certain conventions of structure, character and conversation that automatically come with specific genres. For instance, writers of science fiction often use the term “faster-than-light travel” or “warp speed.” The sci-fi writer needs to know how and where such terms are used, if he or she intends to use them. In mystery writing, the plot generally begins with a discovery, such as a dead body and ends when the mystery is solved. A great way to become familiar with the conventions of your particular genre is to read similar books by other writers.
There is much a beginning author needs to know about manuscript style, dealing with writer’s block, tricks to unleash the imagination, writing query letters and book proposals, using photos, the importance of editing and book covers, how to find a publisher and/or book agent, copyright, why you should get a literary critique, book contracts, marketing, advertising and so much more.
Tags: Fiction, Nonfiction, novel, write
Posted by on Jun 13, 2010 in
Writing Books How can book writing software help you with continuity in your novel? Indeed, even before we start talking about that, we need to discuss what I mean by continuity in your novel and why that’s important in writing a novel. You might be aware of websites which share the various mistakes that are bound to be found in movies. And there are always loads. Making a movie is a hugely complex process, and mistakes creep in.
Thing is, though, writing a novel is also a massively complicated process and mistakes creep in there too, such as continuity mistakes (I’m borrowing that term from the movie industry). An example of a continuity mistake might be something like having Character A hand Character B a glass of wine, and then two or three lines later, having him hand her a glass of wine again. That is actually one that I made – I am just lucky that my editor spotted it! Or even more subtly, you could have a character receive a glass of wine, take only a sip or two, and another character is filling up the glass again even though there’s no room for it. I’ve read novels where characters changed names half way through with no explanation.
These sort of continuity mistake are very easily done. There is so very much to keep track of when you’re writing a novel. You have to keep track of the plot, any subplots, make sure clues are dropped where necessary, look after your character arc and development, keep the timeline straight and keep track of any important ‘props’.
It’s very hard to pick up on these mistakes yourself, as we all have a tendency to read what we expect to read. We see what we think will be there, rather than what IS there. The problem is that readers, of course, come to the novel with no preconceived ideas, and then genuinely see what is there, mistakes and all. And continuity mistakes can really spoil their pleasure in the story.
One solution to this problem is to make sure you are super organised, so you have the right information to hand. I know writers can shudder at that prospect (I’m prone to doing that myself!), wanting to just enjoy being in the flow of the muse. But a novel is a very complex construct – with as much science as art in it – no matter how much we might like to think otherwise, and needs to be handled as such.
You can use index cards or post-it notes to keep organised. Both of these options are much, much better than keeping all the details in your head. But they can get lost, or out of order, and shuffling through a whole pack of cards (say) to remind yourself what colour eyes the hero has, is time-consuming. And so a modern option would be to use book writing software. The simplest of these acts like a virtual index card system, but one which is much easier to keep track of than real ones. And the higher-end products have other facilities such as timelines and mind maps.
The essential issue though, no matter which option you choose, is to make sure to check for continuity, and ensure there are no errors in your novel.
Tags: Avoid, Book, continuity, Helping, Mistakes, novel, Software, Writing