First Word

You’ve been sent home to work. Maybe you already work at home, so it doesn’t make much difference to your schedule. Or you have been temporarily furloughed. You have some extra time on your hands—and you have to stay indoors so it’s not exactly like a vacation. If you’re a writer, I have a great suggestion for you. Time to get to your desk and work on your project you may have put off. It’s perfect—you’re indoors and you’re productive. I’m here to help support you and get you moving forward. So, click off that NetFlix’s series you’ve been binge watching and get down to the business (and productivity) of writing. As your co-host and leader of Writers Who Mean Business, I’ll help you do any of the following services (at no charge until March 31 st ): 1.      One-hour consultation on your book project and publishing options. 2.      Analysis of your first chapter and 300-word book summary. 3.    ...

If you're struggling with getting your novel out of your head or even finishing it, here are some tips to get your fingers tapping on that keyboard again. Just do it - sounds like a Nike commercial. Just do this... well, just putting something into action helps create what? A verb called doing! Even if you don't know what you're going to write, grab your cup of Joe, plant your bum in the chair, prepare your hands, and start typing. Just write whatever comes to mind. Let your imagination run wild. You will be surprised if all of a sudden all of that so-called random rambling turns into a real story! Eight pages a day keeps your novel on its way - yes! Give yourself a page count goal. Stephen King has one - eight pages. He writes eight whole pages and then goes to do what he wants for the day. I'm sure he writes more if he's so inclined, but setting a goal is always good. So, set up your daily page count and make the goal before you move on. I personally write an en...

Yesterday's blog discussed eliminating exposition (AKA minutia) from your writing to help quicken the pace of the story. Today we're going to talk about the distractions -- those words and extra, unnecessary thoughts that bog down the story-telling process. The reason I am focused on these details is because I am doing the final revision on my novel Body in the Trunk so I am paying extra attention to these things myself. What do some people consider distractions? Let's put a simple one in context with dialog. You can have too many "he said's, she' said's" and all those extra said's or ask's or whatnot can distract the reader from the actual flow. So here is the tip: if you've set up a scene clearly with two speakers you need only occasionally identify the speaker to keep it clear . You do not need to identify the speaker every sentence. In the scene set up, identify your speakers and then sparsely add the identifiers. Also, another tip: ...