All about writing. Feel free to leave comments. I will reply with the best answers my addled brain can come up with.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Writing for money...fund the fiction writing!
Once again...getting back to it!
And an agent is interested in my book. I'm waiting to hear back from them, but they said my query sounded very interesting and they would like to take a look at the first three chapters. Of course, I was thrilled to hear this. It's not everyday that I get the attention of an agent.
So now that I'm on to working on a new book and waiting to hear back, I have time again to devote to my experiences with writing and how I go about this whacky process. I've learned a few things since finishing my book and I plan on sharing them soon.
In the meantime, if you have specific questions about the writing process, leave a comment and I will answer with how I go about this or that. Thanks for reading and keep on writing!
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Create your own ebooks and make money now.
I loved this and thought it might be worth sharing here. I'm probably going to give it a shot. Heck, I might even make it a goal that I will write down and shoot to finish a first draft of by the end of the month. Maybe I will start bringing in an income with this ebook product that's all my own. How fun!
You can find out more info here if you're interested. Click Here
Creating a Plot for a Novel
First, I would start brainstorming scenes that I would want to write. This will get the juices flowing and get me thinking about different aspects of the story. For example, say I'm writing a story about a detective who is looking for a murderer. I'm going to start writing on paper, which is how I do my best thinking, scenes that I'm excited about now. This would be roughly one to two sentences. Nothing elaborate here in my notes, just something that I will remember for when I'm ready to start working on the outline.
So I have my detective and he is in an alley. He sees a few kids, probably dealing drugs. What does he do? Is he the type that wouldn't be concerned with this since it isn't his main priority right now, or would he nab the kids to teach them a lesson?
See how thinking through scenes lends to asking questions. It can be questions concerning the characters, the world that they live in, the motivations for those involved in the story and it could lead to other scenes and ideas for the overall plot of the story.
Okay, so now you have some scenes, but scenes alone don't make a plot. What's next?
Second, is looping all these scenes together, and you may find that after developing so many scenes that some are better then others, or they take off in a direction that wasn't necessarily where you had planned to go. This is okay. Go with it for now. This time is all about brainstorming and coming up with ideas for scenes and plots; you just never know where the next idea is going to come from so don't stiffle yourself.
If after you have created a bunch of scenes and you still haven't figured out a strong plot, then put it down for awhile. I find that my subconsious will actually do a lot of the work for me when I'm off doing something else. I know...it sounds a little cliched to do this, but trust me it will work.
Try working on a different project. If your brainstorming this idea do something unrelated like editing a different story. In time, something will spark in your imagination that will give you the 'Aha!' moment that you have been waiting for that will tie your whole novel together.
Good luck on plotting your novel and I hope this blog helped.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
New Year and Lots of Writing To Get Done
I hope to be able to provide more information here about writing in various areas such as web writing, fiction, non-fiction, and short stories. I've had experience in all these areas and make money online from the web writing, non-fiction and short stories. Hopefully soon, I will be able to add 'Novelist' to this list.
Stay tuned. In the next few days there will be new info added at least one a week.
Cheers and get back to writing!
Sold Out
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Writing online-yes you can make money!
Like no other time is it easier to make money from your writing then now.
This twenty four page book instructs you on everything you need to know to start making money online from your writing. It includes:
Setting up your paypal account so you can receive payments.
How to write articles, ebooks, and reports.
How to make money by posting on blogs.
Blogging your way to big bucks.
Where to find the writing jobs now and start writing today.
How to make enough money to write from home full time.
How to improve your writing so you can charge more.
And a lot more! It's all inclusive and covers everything step by step so that the beginner can start earning money the first day and also has tips that the seasoned veterans may not have thought of.
If you want to start making a living at home, writing is the fastest way to do it.
If you want to make extra money from your writing, you can start making money today.
Buy this book now. It's $10 and secure through paypal. You will be able to download it immediately and start writing, and making money online now!
How to spark creativity
In a flash, you had the whole story laid out in front of you and your mind's eye.
But now you're looking at a new story and not sure where to go. Below are a few ideas on how to get started with a new story in how to spark your creativity for writing a new short story where the beginnings of a new novel.
Try jotting down ideas on a piece of paper. This is similar to what some people call mind mapping. Start in the center of the paper with one idea, usually a sentence. Draw a circle around that one sentence and start brainstorming ideas off of that. Draw lines from the first idea to the second idea, see how they relate. Possibly, there will be offshoots of your first or second circle. This is great! This is what you want. You want to have many ideas related to each other. Some of these ideas may be the main storyline for your story, while others will be subplots for the story. And some of those ideas will go off on tangents and might not be good for the story and save them anyway, you might need them later for a different story.
Many writers take a drive to clear their minds. They may take a mini recorder with them while driving as the silence and the scenes spur creativity.
Some writers like to sit in coffee shops and observe others which gives some great insight into characters and will give them great ideas for a character driven story.
The most important thing to remember here is that you may have to take a step away from your computer or your journal and get outside of your normal thinking patterns to come up with great stories.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
How to write through the middle of your book
So how do you get through writing the middle of your book?
I think it all boils down to having a good idea of what the story is about. If you have a solid story line, you should be able to work from that. Think about the character motivations, which should follow along with the story line. Then expand out from there.
What you are trying to achieve here are smaller sub plots to fill in the gaps when the main story line is slogging down and you don't know where to go with it quite yet. Here are a few things to think about.
What does character x want out of life?
What is their main passion?
Do they want to improve something in their life?
Aside from the main story line, what does x want to achieve within the context of this story.
As you can see, having a healthy idea of what and who your character is all about will benefit you greatly when trying to come up with sub plots.
To sum up: When the story seems to slow down, shift gears and punch it up with a sub plot. Just be sure to tie up this sub plot somewhere before the end of the book.
Be sure to check out this program where you will get an ebook on how to write sell and promote your book showing online places that review your book for free, 14 places to submit your book to win awards, 17 ebook directories that will send readers to your website, put two more free ebooks. Click Here to get jump start your novel writing career.
Friday, November 09, 2007
For Plots, think about what the bad guy would do.
In addition, I use this to figure out the main plot line of my story.
I start with the motivations of my bad guy and figure out why he does what he does and what he hopes to gain. Then I go about figuring out how he would accomplish what he wants to achieve.
This is a great way to 1. Figure out your subplots by taking the angle of the antagonist and 2. You can use this to figure out what you're antagonist is going to do and then reverse this so that you now know what your protagonist has to do.
It's worked for me and hopefully it will work for you.
If you don't understand this, or want to me to expand on this shoot me an email at www.popwebcity@hotmail.com.
I will try to respond to everyone just after I get my 1,667 words in for the day.
NaNo Wrimo Month
Hopefully, this will help you get to the 100,000k mark.
Just kidding...the 50K mark. Stay tuned.
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
How to write a novel
Editing your novel once this is done.
All of this is coming from my experience in writing three books, and many, many short stories.
In the meantime, here is some great writing software to get you going. Click Here
Monday, October 08, 2007
New writing book/report
So I've got some ideas for this report which includes:
How to start a novel
Outline or don't outline
The discipline of writing and completing a novel
Should characters or plot come first when writing a novel
Word counts
How to develop characters
How to develop the plot
How to get through the middle of a novel
How to finish the novel
That's all I've got so far. Please let me know what you think and if you have any other ideas that you would like to see represented in the report. From the looks of it, it's going to be more then twenty pages already! I'm thinking of selling this for about $5. What does everyone think?
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Is a writing group worth it?
So below are a few items I've noted that I've picked up along the way- it's a sort of pro's and con's list.
- If you're working on a new project it sometimes gets frustrating to be looking forward to the next scene and having people tell you what they liked and disliked about the last scene. I've found this hard to grapple with as I tend to want to barrel through the first draft of my books and not look back until I get to the editing phase.
- I've found that having a writing group on a weekly basis is almost too much as I'm constantly worry about getting my writing just so, for the next meeting. I think I focus more on how well my prose is coming out for the purposes of the writing group, instead of just telling the story and getting it on paper.
- I do really enjoy getting to spend some time every week with fellow writers. At home, I'm the only one who writes and my wife and kids don't understand the angst that I sometimes go through. Being able to share my writing experiences and find out how others go about their creative process makes the weekly meetings worth it for me so far.
So those are a few of the things that I've taken away from my weekly writers meeting. I can't say it is always productive for my writing, but I can say that I almos always leave with a refreshed feeling for my craft.
Also, if you are new to writing or would like more of a program that caters strictly to writers and helps with the creative process click here. It's great software that is intuitive and helps get writing done.
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
It's been awhile
I will be back soon with more information and insights into my creative writing and my writer's group.
In the meantime, check out this blogs-I really like them, well some of them I think I just need.
www.amazingsalestechniques.blogspot.com
www.thehealthyblogger.blogspot.com
www.the-home-worker-today.blogspot.com
I think you will like them.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Writing group #1
It was just the first meeting and the next one is a week away. I will have more to report on this after the second meeting.
Friday, February 02, 2007
Why you should outline your novel
I have tried both writing from the hip, so to speak, and creating an outline. For me I’ve found that creating an outline really keeps me focused. In addition, when I sit down to do my writing it’s the ladder that I cling to, to help me keep moving up and creating more. The outline allows me to sit down and say, “Okay, I here I am and I need to get to here, so how am I going to do that today?”
Some people think that the creativity of writing is stifled by the outline. That might be for some, but for me I like to know how things are going to pan out. That’s not to say that things will surprise me throughout the writing process, far from it actually. What I’m talking about is knowing the major events that are going to happen in the book so that there is a logical road map to follow.
I will create a thirty-page outline for a full-length novel. In this outline I have all the major events and what all the major characters are doing. Now when I sit down to write is when the magic comes out of my fingers. I don’t feel the outline is impeding my creativity since I have to flesh out what the characters are going to say and how each one would go about saying it. Second, a writing outline is just that- an outline. I might deviate away from the outline, or after writing thirty thousand words, I might add new scenes from developments that I’ve just come up with.
For me an outline is a way to know what to do next within my novel that I’m creating. It is a way to be able to defeat the horror of the blank screen or page. If you haven’t tried to use an outline, I suggest giving it a go before deciding that it’s not for you. That’s what I thought too, before I tried it, now I wouldn’t do it any other way.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Quit your job and become a writer
Before you go storming into your bosses office and telling him that your then next Hemingway and you don't need this job anymore, think about the ramifications of what your doing.
First, make sure you either have enough money stashed away to get you through for about a year and you have an agent and a book deal in the works, or you have some other way to make money while you are at home...freelance writing perhaps....
You will know when the time is right to leave your job, when you feel that you can't take the work anymore and you are losing sleep over how much your not writing while working at your day job. Just make sure that you've got a plan for the next year before you lose the only stable income that you may see for a long time.
Just remember, it is possible to make a living as a writer...not everyone is a New York Times bestseller, and those a few rungs down can still make a decent living doing what they want to do. So the next time someone tells you not to quit your day job, as your telling them about ideas for you new book, just tell them that the day jobs days are number.
I highly recommend that you take it upon yourself to learn more as a writer. Learn the techniques, proper formatting, what makes a good book, how to write with suspense, develop plot...and much more. If you want to be a professional writer you have to take on the responsibility of being one. I suggest taking in the information provided here. There are tons of a great information from beginning your book to acquiring an agent and getting the book published. Click on the link provided now and take charge of your writing.
Click Here!
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Sunday, January 28, 2007
Five Tips To Writing A Fantasy Novel
This article will show you some tips on how to write a better fantasy novel. If you’ve never written a book before, don’t think that it is too daunting of a task. On the other hand you should know that the best way to finish writing a book is to keep at it every day, and once started don’t stop until it’s done. Here are some ideas that should help you stay on track with writing your fantasy novel.
1. Make sure you know the world you are writing about.
This is one of the first places that people get strung up. You need to know what your fantasy world is like. If you can’t describe what the vegetation and trees are like in your world, you will have a hard time crafting a story that is very lifelike.
A good way to go about this is to take the time to think about your fantasy world. What is the landscape like there? What sort of creatures inhabit it? Are there any extremely different terrain features from the real world that would help make this world stand out? Think about yourself as a world builder when you are writing your fantasy novel.
2. What political factions are there?
A great way to bring more intrigue and plot lines into your fantasy story is to introduce opposing political or religious factions. Some questions to ask are: Who is the ruler of the land? Do people like him/her? Are there people who want to rule the land? What is the relation of this country to that of the other countries surrounding it?
3. Know your characters.
Often in writing text there is the section regarding the characters of the book. They often want you to write a character sketch of the person. This often doesn’t work that well for every writer. In some cases it is better to get a few chapters under your belt and see how the characters react to situations. Then go back and make notes about your characters.
In a fantasy novel, there are plenty of times where the characters have varying physical or mental qualities that are not found in the real world. This sort of attribute needs to be well thought out in order for it to become convincing to the reader. A good course of action is to have a hindrance added to a special quality that would seem to give the character an advantage over others in the story. This lends to the character being a bit more believable and is a great opportunity to add sub-plots into the story.
4. Magic
If you have any sort of magic system introduced to your fantasy world you need to do your homework here. First, think about the magic system and how it affects the world and how it affects the individual. Here are a few questions to ask yourself when introducing magic into your fantasy writing.
What are the qualities of the magic system? Can anyone have magical abilities? What about animals and humanoids? How does the average person in the world react to magic?
5. Read the classics.
It is a great idea to have read the classics before venturing out and writing your own fantasy novel. The biggest reason for this, is that you will know what sort of things have written about in the past and it will save you from becoming a poor repeat. In addition, by reading the works of those such as Tolkien, Wiess & Hickman, and more, you will come to appreciate just how tightly woven the characters and world come together and how they react with and against each other.
Writing a fantasy novel has its great advantages- you can make anything up- however, you have to be more calculated with your writing to make it believable. Click on the link provided to learn more on how to better your writing.
http://www.ezniche.com/data/article.php?l=522
Saturday, January 27, 2007
What to expect from a writing group
I'm looking forward to finding these things out about the writing group, however, I'm a little leary that it might be a waste of time. We shall see. I will post more once I've gone to the first meeting