writing tips – Page 5

November 12, 2014December 30, 2014

Things I’ve Learned While Revising…

1. I am way too attached to dialogue tags and particularly to the word, “says.”

2. When I draft, it’s bare bones. When I revise, I add a LOT. I’m sure a lot of writers are like this, but I always hear of drafts being LONG and when revising they need to cut. I’m the exact opposite.

RANDOM: Each draft I revised, the word count went up 10k words.

3. When I thought my book was done in May, I didn’t realize that it was too plot heavy. I had a book that had a plot and I stuck characters in there to move the plot forward. What I realized in revising is that the book needs to be about characters reacting to the plot. It’s all about the characters.

4. All characters have to have motivations and backstories that justify their reactions. Most of the time, those backstories aren’t mentioned, but if you as the author know them, writing them is more natural and the reader understands without even knowing.

5. You’re never really done. I thought I was done, and find myself re-writing two chapters today. I know that one day I just have to BE done, but I’ve learned a big difference between copywriting and novel writing. I can feel done when I complete a copywriting project and I have yet to feel done while novel writing. There is always room for improvement.

June 30, 2014February 14, 2015

An end to querying – for now

So recently, I have revisited my manuscript for a particularly exciting reason!

It’s been fun getting back into these lives that I spent so much time with. These voices that once lived in my head for a year.

It’s made me think about a lot of things, but the main thing is my manuscript is just not ready yet.

So I’m taking this incredibly opportunity and am going to stop querying until I can get this MS in tip top shape!

So for my wildly unsuccessful stats for my first time ever querying:

Queries sent: 48
Requests: 11 (10 fulls and one partial that upgraded)
R&R: 2 (one I accepted, one I did not as it was too far from my vision)

I wasn’t ready this time, but I’ll be ready my next round!

What I learned during round one?

Only send 7-10 queries out at a time. and WAIT. Yes that means this process is slower, but it will be more precise.
Wait to start getting feedback on requested materials before you start sending more queries out. For me, I started getting requests trickling in, so I got excited and blasted like 20 queries in one day. But then within a few weeks, I started getting passes and they all listed a very similar reason. If I would have waited, I would have been able to revise before continuing to send out queries.
Don’t get too excited and start querying before you’re ready. How do you know you’re not ready? Oh. You know. And I really did if I was honest with myself, but I told myself it was just nerves. It wasn’t. It was too soon and you only get one chance with agents. Don’t screw yourself by querying too early.

In the end, this is all a learning experience and it might be super weird to say it, but I’m actually really enjoying the process.

PS. rejections suck.

April 30, 2014

The process of fixing a plot hole…

Trying to fix a plot hole that just recently became obvious…

Got it!

RE-WRITE!!!!

then I read back over it and realize it makes absolutely no sense…

Oh the joys!

July 13, 2013

Struggling with Writer’s Doubt

Yesterday was a rough writing day for me.

So far this entire process has been pretty great! Sure there were a few moments in drafting it all out that I was a little

But overall things were pretty:

Yesterday though, seven chapters into my revisions, I started to feel it.

That creepy little fiend called self doubt.

I started looking at my manuscript thinking,

“This thing sucks.”

“No one will ever want to read this.”

“I am wasting my time.”

“Everyone probably just thinks I’m a dumb housewife with a stupid hobby.”

“I’m not good enough.”

“I’m delusional to think I could write a good book.”

“I suck.”

That, coupled with the fact I still can’t find another literary agency internship, just had me feeling all:

This whole process is frightening for me on so many levels because this is what I’ve always wanted to do with my life. If I suck at it, who am I? If I fail at it, I will have to completely change the way I view myself and my dreams. Talk about a worldview shift.

So what can I do to battle self-doubt?

KEEP WRITING.

Don’t give up.

Push through my insecurity and keep pushing back.

I don’t want to be blindly confidant, but I want to be grounded in courage.

Because even if I doubt myself at times and I’m scared to fail at something I love so much, the only way to get to the other side of this process is to:

July 8, 2013February 4, 2014

Tips for writing while home with the kids

Trying to write with kids in the house is my life right now since they are home on summer break.

Some days it’s super easy. Some days it’s impossible. Most days it’s a mixture of both.

The average day with my three kids (ages 6, 4 and 2) is some sort of rendition of this:

and me being like this:

Then they are all:

and I’m like:

Then they come back with:

and I go:

Okay, just kidding about that last one.

But really, it’s not the easiest thing to get creative work done when you have kids at the house.

I’ve found a few tips that help me get things done.

Make a schedule. Figure out what needs to get done that day and set realistic times in which you will be able to accomplish it. Do you need to grocery shop, write 1k words, revise a chapter and fold laundry all before cooking dinner? Schedule it out!
Don’t try to work through meal times. Just stop what you’re doing, make them lunch and sit down and eat it with them. They need too much during meals and you’ll just get frustrated if you’re trying to go back and forth from writing to cleaning up a spilled drink.
Don’t rely on the TV. Now don’t get me wrong, movies/shows are a great tool for you to get work done. What I’m saying is that you should try to save it for the afternoon or for short bursts (if your kids don’t take naps anymore.) That way, you get a good hour or two to work without them bugging you. However, if the TV has been on all day, they won’t pay attention to it anymore and you’re out of luck. Netflix is awesome for finding movies they’ve never seen that can keep their interest.
Call in the troops. If you have a deadline that you MUST meet, then you’re going to have to find a sitter. If you can afford it, I would encourage you to find a reliable babysitter to come once a week. If not, try to see if a family member will come by and pick up the kids or stay with them while you head out to a coffee shop. Sometimes you just can’t afford to have any interruptions and the only way to guarantee that is to get out of the vicinity of “MOMMY!!!!!!”
Set daily goals. This is THE most important thing for me because if I set a goal, 90% of the time I will work until I get it done. That may mean coming back to it after the kids are in bed (or before they wake up – but I’m not a morning person so that seems like torture) regardless of how you get it done, as long as it gets done, you’ll reach your goal.

Everyone has their own particular way they can get things done with kids in the house, these are just a few of mine. I also copyedit, transcribe and intern at a literary agency in addition to writing and so I use these tricks a lot!

The biggest thing is they’re your kids. They are only this age for so long. They’ll only desperately need our attention for so long. Time flies and we writers sometimes need a reminder that we can’t just live in the worlds we create. So when the kids interrupt you for the millionth time in 20 minutes and everything in you wants to go:

Just remember to:

Because the last thing you need is to give them any more fodder for hating you when they are teenagers.