Author Jean Davis

Tuesday, April 10, 2018

A to Z - All About Writing: Ideas

I is for Ideas

Where do writers get ideas for their stories?

Everywhere. Ideas are all around you.

Contemplate an everyday situation, what's the worst thing that could happen to change it? Write about that.

Speculate about someone you see in a store or park. What are they doing? Who are they?

Read articles and watch the news. Ask yourself what if questions and answer those with a story.

Look at an object near you. Wonder where it came from. Who made it. What did it go through before it came to you?

Google an interesting place and do a little research. Think about what kind of story would happen there and run with it.

Writers are almost always thinking. It probably looks like their just gazing off into space and ignoring you, but they just might be plotting their next story.

Where do you get your ideas?

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Monday, April 9, 2018

A to Z - All About Writing :Having A Hard Time Writing

H is for Having A Hard Time Writing

You want to write a book. Great! But where do you start? At the beginning. It might not end up being the start of your story, but you've got to start somewhere and words on a page are much easier to rewrite and edit than words bumbling about in your head. So write.

Now that you've started, how do you continue? Try to end each writing session on the edge of the next scene. That way you can ponder that next scene in your head between sessions so when you sit down next, you have the words ready to go, or at least some inking of what happens next.

But now I'm stuck on a difficult scene. We all have scenes we struggle with. Give emotional scenes some time and don't be afraid to move more slowly than you usually write. Pouring out all that internal depth takes a lot of out of a writer. A scene that might normally take you twenty minutes, might take a few days. Act out action scenes to get a good visual of how they would look and flow so you can use the right descriptive language and timing. Are your characters traveling from point A to B with a whole lot of nothing happening? Opt for either a scene break and skip right to what happens next or make something happen. Set someone or something on fire, perhaps not literally, but give the scene a reason to exist if we need to see the characters actually traveling. Is the dialogue heavy scene dragging? What's the worst thing one of the characters could say? Put that gem on the page and see where that goes. It's sure to stir things up.

But I just don't have time to write. Sure you do, you just have to find it. It might be getting up an hour early or staying up an hour late, or writing on your lunch break. While a full day of nothing but time for writing sounds like the most awesome thing ever, it's not. It's a mythical thing that, even when attained, makes few happy and productive. If you can find a full hour, awesome. If that doesn't work, grab a few twenty minute sessions throughout the day. True story, you probably do most of your best writing when you're not actually sitting down to write. It's going on in the back of your head or while you shower or fold the laundry. Maximize you keyboard time for spewing out the words you've pondered rather than sitting here for four hours with a blinking cursor, fighting the urge to re-organize your office supplies.

Do I have to write in order? No. Some of us do. I generally do. But I've talked to many writers that don't. I will say, that going non-linear can be freeing - the ability to skip to the next scene that excites you rather than slog through what happens between this scene and that one. However, I would advise at least writing a few notes to yourself along the way about the scenes you're skipping. That way, when you come back to sew the whole mass-o-chaos together, you've left yourself a map to do so.

Everything I write sucks. Welcome to your first draft, where sucking is just fine. Remember, the goal is to get the all words on the page. Once you write "The End", you can mine for the gems and get spackle and sandpaper out. You might be surprised, what seems like an endless stream of suck today, might not be half bad once you've had some time away from the finished project.

What part of writing do you find the hardest?

Saturday, April 7, 2018

A to Z - All About Writing: Genres

Welcome to the Blogging A to Z Challenge, where, this month, I'll be focusing on all things writing. This may be a random jumping around of topics within my theme, but hopefully something somewhere will be useful to someone. (V is for vague - see that last sentence.) Check out all the participants here . Lets get on with today's letter.

G is for Genre

Genre is what kind of book you're writing. The category you would go to in order to search for it. Where would you find it in a bookstore? There are a lot of genres. Knowing what your story falls under is important because genre plays into a lot of things both at the writing and trying to publish stages.

While you're writing, you need to know what genre you're attempting to fit within. Yes, you can combine genres, but do keep in mind that odd combinations make your book more difficult to sell because the audience for that is likely smaller. Meaning you might want to think twice about that Western Steampunk Mystery Romance.

Different genres have different expectations from readers. It's a good idea to read the genre you're writing to know what those elements are. You'll want to writer your story with the majority of the readers of that genre in mind with regards to word usage, characters, heat and violence levels and other types of content.

Genre plays into word count as well. Middle grade is shorter than young adult. Science fiction and fantasy have much higher word count thresholds than many other genres. It's a good idea to do a little research and know the general range to shoot for.

When you're ready to try to sell or publish your story, you'll need to know what genre it is in order to search for the correct market. You don't want to sent out your western romance to a publisher who specializes in literary fiction. That would be a waste of everyone's time. If you're looking for a publisher, you may want to know other comparable titles within your genre with which to compare your work.

What genre's do you write?

Prefer paperback? The print book goes live on April 20. Reviews are always appreciated.

Friday, April 6, 2018

A to Z - All About Writing: Facebook Groups

Prefer paperback? The print book goes live on April 20. Reviews are always appreciated.

Thursday, April 5, 2018

A to Z - All About Writing : Editing

E is for Editing

Yesterday we covered Developmental Edits, but what about the edits you do yourself before anyone else sees your work?

And yes, you should always edit before you show your work to someone else. If you're going to ask someone to read your work, you want them to focus on the story, not typos, weird formatting, missing words, or jumbled sentences. A few of those will probably slip through no matter how many editing passes you make, but putting your best work forward will get you the most useful feedback, chances of getting published, and better reviews.

Editing is best done in passes. Trying to spot everything at once is an overwhelming task so break it up into focus areas. Rather like the developmental editing we talked about yesterday, it's beneficial to start with the big stuff and work your way down to avoid making more work for yourself. Passes might look like this:

• Main plot and character(s). Does the plot move from point A to Z with a fulfilling ending? Is it engaging? Does the MC internally change from beginning to end? Are they likeable (at least in the degree that someone would want to read about them for a couple hundred pages)? Do they have agency (see day 1)? Are character motivations clear and believable?

• Subplots and secondary character(s). Are the subplots necessary? Do they benefit the main plot and characters? Do the secondary characters change? Do they add to the story? Can they be combined to tighten the story? Are they well rounded? Do they have proper motivation for their actions?

• Chapter by chapter. Does each chapter have a beginning, middle, and end? Does it build tension from one chapter to the next? Does it have a clear opening and enticing ending? Does each chapter serve a purpose to propel the plot and MCs journey (internally and/or externally) forward? Are the pacing and voice cohesive throughout?

• Description. Are all the senses being used? Is the setting adequately described in each important scene? Are the characters described enough that the reader can tell them apart? Are any world words, technology, foreign languages/words, gizmos, and anything else out of the ordinary that you threw in there clear enough that the reader is going to understand them in context and not be thrown out of the story. Are your details (character, setting, etc) consistent throughout?

• Dialogue. Does each character sound different? Does it serve a purpose? Can it serve more of a purpose/hold more tension? Does it sound natural? Is it clear who is speaking? Are there any places where action beats will serve better than simple tags?

• Paragraphs and sentences. Do they vary in length? Are there massive paragraphs that need to be abroken up or too many short ones in a row? Do they start differently (no one wants to scan the page and see every paragraph starts with 'He') Do the sentences have good rhythm? Are the sentences clear? Does the sentence phrasing vary? Reading aloud during this pass is the best way to find most of these things.

• Word choices. Adverbs - can they be switched out for stronger verbs. Adjectives - are there enough or too many? Are names clear and not to similar? Do the names (places, characters, etc) fit the story/setting/tone. Do the words being used convey the story clearly? Can any words be removed to tighten the story?

• Typos. Oh typos, the bane of our existence. This is also a good pass to do aloud so you can catch those pesky homonyms and missing/repeated words amongst many other things.

Is there anything you edit for that I missed here?

Prefer paperback? The print book goes live on April 20. Reviews are always appreciated.