Nov 5
If you’re participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), here’s a good short YouTube video with tips for increasing your word count and that will also help you discover more of your story:
Nov 1
Congratulations! If you’re participating in this year’s Nanowrimo, today is day one of your writing success.
To help you along the way, below are two inspirational treats:
Bestselling author and writing mentor Bob Mayer has a great blog that he’ll update during the month with more posts for us Nanos. This post is about what to write.
For a quick 3-minute break to lift your spirits listen to Nanowrimo A Capella here:
I’ve just signed up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) to help me write my next novel. One of my personal weaknesses as a writer is that I think too much in my first drafts when I should just be writing. So I’m using this NaNoWriMo to help me make a breakthrough.
Even if you’re not participating in NaNoWriMo, the seven tips below can help you finish any project:
Tip # 1: Write from the heart. There will be times when you’ll get stuck. Some days, your prose will sound like garbled hamster hash. When this happens, stop and take a few deep breaths. Remind yourself what you love about your project. I have an index card on my desk with my original idea for the story—it’s the tag line that got my juices going in the first place. Then go back to your page and write from that space of passion. Read more
What’s more important: A good story or good writing?
My cousin asked me this question recently as I was giving him tips to build out a series of travel essays he’d been working on.
I want to be able to say that both are equally important, but I think a good story is the first priority. Good writing comes in the revision.
Here are a few pieces of advice I gave him as he sets out on his writing journey to ensure he’ll write a good story AND write it well.
Create a reading list. We should always be reading but when I start a writing project, I like to create a custom reading list for that project. I advised my cousin to read books in the same genre as he expects to write. I always like the “Best American Series” books, so I suggested he add The Best American Travel Writing 2012
I wrote a nonfiction piece recently that blended elements of essay with elements of narrative nonfiction. I took it to my writing group for their critique and one person expressed concern that my piece was blending two genres that shouldn’t be blended.
I thought his comment was interesting, considering he’d only read three of my five pages and didn’t know how the piece ended. In his mind, essays were one type of beast and narrative nonfiction another. In a way, he’s right. They’re both nonfiction but with different intents and purposes.
Writers have been blending genres for years and are still coming up with new combinations. When is it okay to try something new, to blend elements together that aren’t normally seen together? The answer is—when it works. As you mature as a writer, you’ll know when it works and when it doesn’t. In the meantime, get feedback from others. Read more
In my quest to improve my writing craft, I’m always saving great writing articles and pieces of advice. Like photographs we take and throw in shoeboxes until that day we’ll put them in an album, these articles and snippets of writing advice float around in boxes and folders. No more.
I’m going to follow author Chris Orcutt’s advice. Orcutt saves articles and handwritten notes from books he’s read and posts them in blank composition notebooks. They serve as a customized writer’s resource. He calls them his secret writing weapon. Read more
At the Pacific Northwest Writer’s Conference in Seattle this weekend, I attended author Robert Dugoni’s Novel Writing Seminar. During the course of his talk, he mentioned several books on writing that have a prominent place on his bookshelf and that he looks at repeatedly, including:
Sol Stein’s Stein On Writing
Lawrence Block’s Writing the Novel: From Plot to Print
Stephen King’s On Writing
Dugoni said that if you’re concerned that your character is too boring, you may be playing it safe. Many writers fear their readers will think they’re writing about themselves, that the author is really the protagonist in disguise. You have to let that fear go.
Stephen King once said that you can’t write honestly if you have someone on your shoulder watching you. Good advice from the master.
onewildword 