3 Ways to Head Off Writer’s Block Before You Get Halfway through Your Manuscript!

Writing (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

1.    Get a Vision for Your Book.
What is it about? What is your theme or message or issue that your main character(s) have to deal with? Where and when does your book take place? Who are your characters and why do they have to deal with a certain issue? How are they going to deal with that issue (or issues)? Does it work? (I hope not or you have a very short book!) How do they deal with disappointment or challenge to their goals not being met? What do they do in order to finally conquer? (Did you notice all those ‘W’ and ‘H’ questions? Works great for a book plot!)

2.    Set Goals for Your Writing.
You need daily, weekly, and even monthly goals. How many words do you want to write a day or a week? When do you want to get this book done? Don’t forget to plan time for editing.

Instead of word count goals, you might consider completing a set number of scenes per day or week. Include writing in your daily ‘to do’ list. Don’t forget to bring a computer or notebook with you so you can write yourself notes. Leave yourself text messages, whatever. Give yourself time to do research and have fun with it!

3.    Get Down to the Business of Writing.
I know that some people get an idea in their heads and can sit down and just write. That works for them. It does not work for me. (Some people can do column upon column of math in their heads, but I can’t do that either!) To make my life and my writing easier, I outline. It’s not set in stone and my characters and plot have taken some interesting left turns on me, but I think of it like a journey. I know where I’m starting. I know where I want to end up and I have a basic idea of how I want to get there.

However, living in Chicagoland, I’ve learned that MapQuest or my navigator app on my I-phone doesn’t always get you there. Sometimes, there are road closures. You have to make a U-turn. You have to get there a different way. That’s okay, so long as I get there.

It’s the same with writing. I have a basic outline with some ‘high point’ scenes sketched out. I have to figure out how to get my characters to those points and what to do if my character suddenly does something crazy (or my plot decides to throw in a dead body or two!). That’s okay with me, so long as I can get to my happy ending. This is where getting down to the business of writing happens. It’s where the fun begins. I like the curve balls. After all, isn’t writing really just about taking your readers the ‘scenic route’?

How do you head off writer’s block at the pass? Let me know in the comments!

He Can Roar But He Can’t Hurt You!

Roaring lion (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Guest Post by: Nathaniel Austin, one of our Blog Post contest winners.

A few days ago I saw a video that at first made me jump, and then made me smile.  A little girl was at a zoo and a lion was roaring, pawing at the window, ready to attack her, and the little girl stood there.

At this particular zoo there was glass between the animals and people instead of the usual bars I am used to and so it was all the more heart jumping action as I wondered just how strong that glass was. I  remarked to someone after watching the video how that little girl was amazing, and seemed to have no fear.

An angry, hungry lion in full-on attack mode and three-year old Sofia stood her ground. You can see the video clip here.

Fear Not!

How many times as Christians have we heard those words. Fear Not! Seems like over the years maybe thousands of times? Yet, a storm will break out, a trial will come upon us, and our faith is shaken, our fears rise to the surface, and we wonder how we are going to make it.

It has been said that the phrase ‘fear not’ appears in the Bible 365 times. I am not sure of the accuracy of that, but between other similar references it is very clear that we are told to not be afraid of what may come along.

As Christians our banner is Faith, and so it would be logical that we cannot have faith and still be fearful, but we too are human and fall into the grasp of the faint of heart when trials and tests come our way. I too fall prey to my fears at many times. It is easy to do.

However, one would think that over time, and many trials we would begin to realize that no matter what happens we are going to be okay.

Oh Ye Of Little Faith

Those were the words that came out of Jesus’ mouth when He was awakened by His disciples to calm the storm on the Sea of Galilee. Now, if anyone should have faith, you would think the very ones who walked and talked with Jesus, even ate dinner with Him should have faith. They should know everything was going to be okay. But falling into their own doubts, after a great miracle I might add, they woke Him to ‘Master, careth not that we perish?’

How many times have we done the same thing?

We love the worship, the singing, the dancing, the shouting, but let a little storm come into our life and we wonder where is God?

Right There With Us

Matthew 28:20 states, ‘Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.’  He is right there in every situation with his protecting hand to shield us from harm.

Little Sofia knew that glass was between her and the lion. Sure, at first she reacted to the roar, but she stood her ground. She knew she was going to be okay.

Many times in life, the enemy comes roaring and pawing at us, ready to destroy us. His roars get louder and his attacks seem more fierce as we face him, to the point it looks like he will devour us.

1 Peter 5:8 says the ‘devil goes about as a roaring lion seeking who he may devour.’ He would like to destroy us.  He wants to wreck our life, but more importantly, destroy our soul. He doesn’t like the freedom we can have in Jesus.

We can sugar coat it if we like, but there is a devil and he doesn’t want us having what he cannot. So he might come into our lives, roar and paw at us to try and get us to break. If can get us to stop believing in the power of the cross, the blood of Jesus and His love, then perhaps he can win.

Standing Firm

Galatians 5:1 says, ‘stand therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.’  We have freedom and liberty because Jesus Christ took our sins and hung on Calvary that we might be free from the bondage of sin and death. We can take hope that His grace truly is sufficient for us.

If we have taken on Christ, and are covered by His blood, nothing can shake us. Isaiah wrote, ‘I have engraved you in the palms of my hands.’ We are protected by our Creator against any attack of the enemy.

Just Keep Standing

That lion kept roaring and pawing at little Sofia in the video. It wanted to attack her or at the very least scare her. A lot of us would have run crying, maybe even screaming from that lion. But she seemed fearless. Why?

She knew that between her and the lion, there was a protective barrier. That lion could not touch her. No matter how much the lion roared, it was not going to get through that barrier.

Our enemy is the same way. He can roar, he can paw, he can do all sorts of things to make us afraid but he cannot do anything to us when we are protected and bought with the blood of Jesus Christ. The enemy is powerless against the blood.

The End Of The Story

I am not sure how it all played out after, but at the end of the video clip, the lion is standing there watching that little three-year old girl.

I wonder what was going through its mind?

This tiny creature who he could probably eat with one bite, stood there against the roar, against the pawing. There was nothing the lion could do.

It is the same with our lives. The enemy can roar at us, but cannot do anything when we are protected by God. Just a bunch of noise, and in the end, we will still be okay.

Sofia wants to go to the zoo, again, for her 4th birthday.

Dyin' Inside, Guest Post

Reblogged from Christina Li:

This is from one of our Blog Post contest winners.

Dyin’ Inside

I’m the kind of girl who hates to cry I cover up with a laugh but really I’m dyin’ inside I’d stay up late into the night Crying because I couldn’t face the light, I was dyin’ inside Dyin’ inside

Mia put down her pen and began strumming on her guitar; her lips moved as she silently mouthed the words of this first verse of a song she was writing.

Read more… 898 more words

This is a terrific story!

List of Blogs to Help Writers

 Have you read this month’s edition of Self-Publishing: Carnival of the Indies? Several of my blog posts are included! http://bit.ly/wfp57A

Articles include tips on marketing, cover design, indie publishing, being a better writer, etc. Be sure and check it out!

You ARE a Writer

Recently, I received a review copy of You Are A Writer (So Start Acting Like One) by Jeff Goins. I must say, this is a terrific book. He is honest and forthright about what it takes to be a professional writer. He focuses on not only how to get there, but the mindset necessary to make it happen.

Being a writer is about first of all accepting and believing that you ARE in fact a writer. You have to believe it before anyone else will. He says that you should write for love, not for money. You should write what you are passionate about. Then, it doesn’t become drudgery. You have to push through your doubts and down times and just keep writing.

As for getting professional, paying jobs, he discusses how to do that as well. The focus there is on helping others rather than trying to convince people of how great you are. As you take the time to focus on other people and their needs, they will be more likely to listen to you and hire you. He is very up front about how hard it is to go pro in writing. It takes time and discipline. There are no short cuts.

He gives practical ways to build your brand and your platform, including starting a blog, and other ways of simply reaching out. It’s great to be writing, but it matters little if no one knows your work exists. Jeff Goins gives ways of ‘practicing in public’ so that you can make connections with fans, fellow writers, and future patrons of your work.

One of the things that I like the most about his book and why I follow his blog is that he is encouraging. He’s honest about the ups and downs of writing professionally, yet he also makes you feel like he’s on your team. He wants you to succeed as badly as you do–maybe more!

I recommend this book. Jeff will have You Are a Writer available on Amazon kindle soon, sometime after April 27. His prices are very affordable (well under $10). Check it out.

Related articles

• The Writer’s Manifesto: Stop Writing to Be Read and Adored http://goinswriter.com/writers-manifesto/

Building a Great Story Using Dominoes, Lynchpins, and Butterflies

Do you want to make your fiction sing? Do you want to add subtlety and intrigue to your writing? Here are three ways to do just that.

1. The Butterfly Effect. Recently, I’ve been studying up on a phenomenon called the ‘Butterfly Effect‘. This is where a small change in one place can affect what happens somewhere else, even on the other side of the world. “The name of the effect, coined by Edward Lorenz, is derived from the theoretical example of a hurricane’s formation being contingent on whether or not a distant butterfly had flapped its wings several weeks before.” (taken from Wikipedia ‘Butterfly Effect’) This has been used many times in writing, especially in time travel stories. However, you don’t need to have your characters going back and forth in time to use this technique. Simply know your story well enough to put a small change or decision made by one of your characters that has huge consequences later on. Note, the butterfly, by flapping its wings does not cause the hurricane. It is merely part of the conditions that lead up to it. For instance, you could have a character choose to go a new way to work one day and have that affect someone else in a big way. Because they weren’t in one place, it affected the traffic patterns in another place. You can take this in all kinds of directions in your fiction.

2. The Domino Effect. “The domino effect is a chain reaction that occurs when a small change causes a similar change nearby, which then will cause another similar change, and so on in linear sequence.” (taken from Wikipedia ‘Domino Effect’) Put a chain reaction in your story. One event or choice leads to another, which leads to another, which leads to another. In this case, your ‘dominoes’ fall fairly quickly and relate much more closely than in the butterfly effect. Think chain of events.

3. The Lynchpin. This is” a fastener used to prevent a wheel or other rotating part from sliding off the axle it is riding on. The word “linchpin” is also used figuratively to mean “something [or someone] that holds the various elements of a complicated structure together.” (taken from Wikipedia ‘Linchpin‘) The Christmas story ‘It’s a Wonderful Life‘ is a terrific example of this. Why not try it in your own fiction writing?

As you craft your novels, have fun with tools like these to flesh out your story. Don’t be afraid to experiment a little. Above all, enjoy!

Related articles

• Looking for a Lynchpin! (christinacli.wordpress.com)
• How to Make a Difference in a Big Way – The Butterfly Effect (christinacli.wordpress.com)

What Are You Waiting For? You Can Do It!

Who is your worst enemy? Is it that nasty person at work? A difficult in-law (or out-law)? Or is it that little voice inside that whispers, Why try? You’re only going to fail? This blog is dedicated to people who want to write, those who care about others and want to take that next step into actually getting their words out there. There is plenty of room for more writers, more authors, more bloggers. Whether you make a living at writing, it’s a side job, or you do it only as a ministry, it’s an incredible thing. Today, I just want to encourage you. It’s okay to dream. But…

Don’t stop with just dreaming. I’m pretty typical when it comes to being female and shopping. I like it. What I like most is how easy it is to shop online in today’s world. I especially enjoy being able to get all sorts of writing/publishing/marketing books through Amazon and Smashwords and other places, many of them for free. (I’ll blog about that later.) However, I noticed a little problem recently.

I was shopping and getting all kinds of books about writing, but I wasn’t actually writing. I was just…dreaming. Now, that’s not necessarily wrong–for a little while. It’s when that’s all I’m doing that it becomes a problem. You see, I wasn’t just dreaming, I was escaping. I was avoiding writing. To be honest, I’m not even sure why. Perhaps I was just tired or being lazy. Could be I was feeling insecure, a little unsure of myself. Maybe I just wasn’t getting enough sleep. Who knows?

Anyway, the point is, it’s good to dream. But…

Don’t stop there.

Put feet on your dreams.

Go ahead and read great books on writing or whatever your dream may involve. Educate yourself. But…Don’t stop there. Get down and write. Put those fingers to the keyboard and work out some of those dreams in writing. You have something to say and I want to hear it. You have insights and ideas that I can’t see, because I can’t see through your eyes. The only way I can is for you to share yourself. I know it’s hard, but how can a dream come true if you never get out from under the covers?

Writing is hard sometimes, but it’s such a wonderful learning experience, putting yourself out there and growing as a person. It can be humbling sometimes, but as we learn and grow from our experiences, we get better.

The stuff I write now is so much better than the stuff I wrote years ago. I’m glad for that first book I published, but my next books are better. As I allow myself to obey the call that the Lord has placed on my life and write, not only do I get the privilege of blessing others, I am blessed as well.

So…Dream, but don’t stop there. Get out from under the covers and put feet to your dreams and see where the Lord takes you! It will be amazing.

Related articles

• The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success (teleread.com)

 

5 Ingredients for a Great Scene

What makes for a great scene? Below is a brief clip from author, Sonya Noble’s book, We Fight Together. This is part of a young adult science fiction series based on the clone girl, Pariah, and her military squad mates. In the scene below Garn, one of her fellow squad mates is walking with her for a meeting with her commander. It’s not urgent, so they decide to have a snack on the way.

After walking through the darkened hallways for fifteen minutes they finally ended up at the cafeteria.

“Why’re we stopping here?” Pariah wondered aloud.

“Because I’m hungry,” Garn whispered. “Aren’t you?”

Pariah heard her stomach growl and tiptoed behind Garn. “You realize we could just walk right in without all this sneaking around,” Pariah pointed out.

“But it’s no fun!” Garn whispered back. “I wanna know if they caught us on tape tomorrow!”

The first ingredient for a great scene is immediacy in setting. In this scene, you immediately have a feel for exactly where you are. With just a few words, author Sonya Noble shows us that it’s late, they’re inside some sort of compound, and the lights are low. You know that it is quiet because of a lack of sounds. Also, through Ms. Noble’s use of opposites, the phrase ‘Pariah wondered aloud’ shows us that the two have been quiet for the last fifteen minutes.

The second ingredient for a great scene is snappy dialog. Ms. Noble uses her dialog tags to further her scene as well as make her characters come alive. By having Garn whisper, the author keeps you in the moment and stays in this quiet setting. By having Pariah speak out loud (not loudly, notice), the author shows that Pariah isn’t really afraid. The dialog is friendly and fun. Notice the contractions, ‘why’re, I’m, aren’t, it’s,’ as well as the word ‘wanna’. These indicate that these two characters aren’t scholarly, they’re just real people. Garn tries to get Pariah in on his adventure and because she is hungry, she goes along.

Pariah shook her head and strangled a laugh. Garn was right, it was more fun to slink around in the shadows and pretend to be on a top-secret mission instead of just waltzing in like you owned the place. “We’ll sneak into the kitchens and grab something to eat,” Pariah hissed.

“Great plan,” Garn whispered back. He held his hand up in a fist commando-style and whispered, “Phase One of Operation: Food Grab go!”

Pariah rolled her eyes and imagined the layout of the cafeteria. Ten rows of tables, five in each row. She heard the sound of a boot scuff across the concrete floor of the cafeteria and froze. “What was that?” she whispered, searching the darkness with her eyes. They’d nearly adjusted to the darkness, but it was still pitch-black. The ‘shadows’ she could be seeing might’ve just been her imagination.

The third ingredient is affective details. You don’t need to go into grave detail, explaining every nuance about every scene to get people involved. Through just a few well-chosen words here and there, you are pulled into the scene and feel like you could whisper a few words to Garn or Pariah yourself. Here Ms. Noble uses words like ‘cafeteria’. That immediately puts a picture into most people’s minds. Another affective detail is ‘ten rows of tables, five in each row’. This shows that the room is fairly large. ‘The sound of a boot scuff across the concrete floor’ also generates in us a sense of immediacy. The author uses most of our senses to suck us in. She uses sound and sight. There is also a sense of sterility and hardness (touch) through her showing us the concrete floor. She even manages to generate in us a sense of smell and taste with her next line about the ‘mystery meat’.

“It was just me, now come on! There’s leftover meatloaf in the fridge that the chef hasn’t mixed into the mystery meat!”

Pariah exhaled slowly and continued to follow Garn. She heard another sound, like feet pounding across the ground, towards the light switch.

The fourth ingredient is affective pacing. At the beginning of this scene, there’s no sense of urgency. It’s just a quiet walk in some dark hallways and then a dark cafeteria. As the scene goes on, there’s a sense of adventure and fun. They want to see if they can sneak into the cafeteria and kitchen without being caught on camera. Then, with just a few well-chosen words, Ms. Noble conveys a sense of urgency, ‘now come on!’ Garn is hungry and wants to get to the meatloaf before it’s gone. There’s an aura of mystery conveyed by the darkness, shadows, and some strange sounds that are dismissed as Pariah’s imagination.  At the end, those sounds are intensified.

The lights were suddenly flipped on and, much like the welcoming party that Pariah had received when she was accepted into Zeta Squad, all eight of her squad mates, Tison, and Colonel White jumped out and yelled “SURPRISE!”

Pariah yelped in surprise and jumped nearly four feet in the air.

“We scared her!” Angel cried in triumph.

“No, I just wasn’t expecting that,” Pariah corrected. “What’s going on?”

“It is your birthday, isn’t it?” Hope laughed.

“I guess, but not very many people know that!” Pariah raised a skeptical eyebrow. “How did you all know?”

The fifth ingredient is scene arc. Each and every scene should have its own arc, beginning, middle, climax, and end, smoothly transitioning into the next scene. Just as you have a story arc over the entire book, each scene should have its own ‘mini arc’. Every scene in your book needs a purpose that fits in with the overall arc of your book.

In the scene above, it hits its climax as Ms. Noble takes the reader into a surprise birthday party for the clone, Pariah. As the scene ends and the next one begins, the author takes us into it nicely with a simple question, ‘How did you all know?’

There are many different types of scenes in every book. However, with the possible exception of snappy dialog, all great scenes have these ingredients, immediacy in setting (the reader needs to be sucked in), affective details (not too little, not too much), affective pacing (we need to go somewhere), and scene arc (having a beginning, middle, and ending which should smoothly transition into the next scene).

If you plan out your book beforehand or you write first, edit later, take a look at every scene in your book and make sure they all have these ingredients. Mixed together you’ll come out with a great scene—and a great book!

We Fight Together, by Sonya Noble, copyright 2010, used with permission.

Sonya Noble is a fourteen year old writer and musician. We Fight Together is her second book in the Clones Saga series.

Related links:

http://sonyanoble.wordpress.com/category/clones-saga-stuff/

http://sonyanoble.wordpress.com

 

One Hundred and Forty

This was written by Cory Boyte, another one of the winners of the “Blog Post Contest.” This is his post.

The number 140 holds more power than any other number.  It limits thoughts, it is the barb-wired fence of ideas, it is the cataclysmic death to a train of words formed together to make a sentence. Unlike most other social media sites, 140 commands a person to use word combinations to prove a point in a way that requires skill, determination, and a perfunctory grasp on whatever language they speak (if you’re like me, we can both forget about that last statement).  You may have a world-changing idea. You may have a universally renown invention just waiting to be shared with all mankind. You may hold a thought that will absolutely revolutionize your surroundings. If it ain’t 140 characters or less, baby, it ain’t gonna happen. Unless of course you go ahead and post that idea and then all of your followers have to click on a link that takes them to a special page where they can view the entirety of your message, increasing the chance of picking up spam by, oh let’s say, 36%. I mean let’s face it. Who clicks on those links anyway? If it ain’t under 140, Skippy, I ain’t gonna read it.

And now they are storing every tweet. Yep. Big brother. Eagle eye. Conspiracy central. Logging. Every. Tweet. Imagine what that will look like. I wonder who’s job it is to have to read and file Paris Hilton’s drunken tweets, Miley Cyrus’ gleeful thank you’s for another sold out show, words of unspoken love that make one want to puke (hey, I’m guilty of this one), President Obama’s calls for changes, or your pastor’s encouraging words?  Could it be possible that the whole world that Jesus talked about in Matthew 28 may be able to be squeezed under the microscope of social media and be seen as 140 characters? And last time I checked it was in our job description to reach this whole world. Could it be done in 140 characters? The chances are looking very good my friend.

I was reminded of the power these 140 characters have several months ago after the passing of Steve Jobs. Inspiration hit. I was ready. I was determined. I whipped out my iPhone (thank you Mr. Jobs) and pecked away.  So I tweeted:

“The creator of the iPad, iPhone, iTouch, and iMac now faces the iAm.  Life is short folks.”

And that was that.

And then I got retweeted. And retweeted. And retweeted. People I didn’t even know retweeted me. People who are so far out of my league in ministry. Yet they liked something I said good enough to retweet it to hundreds of other people. Would it have been effective if it had been more than 140 characters? Absolutely not.

I believe a true Christian will behave in a 140 character fashion. Concise, readable, inspiring, captivating, retweetable. Not having to look to other people to get their  “rest of the story” but rather they write their own story. And the words of their story cannot be found on the pages of black and white, phones, or computer screens. No. Their story is written in Red, dipped in the ink of the Blood of the Lamb, forever changed. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.

To the reader of this post, you just may be 140 characters from changing the world. Use them wisely.

Read an eBook Week

Just to let you know, my friend, Sonya Noble has her sci-fi books available this week for free as well. (Warning: She’ll hook you so you don’t want to put them down!)

We Stand Together

We Fight Together