Announcement! Writing Marathon

Starting tomorrow, July 1, 2010, a writing marathon will commence here at pen-n-quill.  I know this is similar to National Novel Writing Month's November writing frenzy, but I am staging my own marathon to motivate wannabe writers (like me) to write a novel and get it finished!

Start your brand new story writing as fast as you can with few edits.  Every day write at least 1000 words, about 5-7k a week, and within three months you will have finished the rough draft of a novel!  Each week you will post your word count by 11:59 p.m. on Saturdays.  I will post mine first (before 11 p.m.), and you can place your word count as a comment to my posting.

Each winner who writes at the minimum 75,000 words receives space for an elevator pitch to their story at the end of the marathon on September 30, 2010.  This elevator pitch will be included in my next post on October 1, 2010, after the results are in.  Because there is no monetary gain, this writer trusts your word count as the true amount.
Please join me in this marathon to achieve a lifetime goal, and who knows?  Maybe in the near future we will see our stories in print!

Notes from a workshop

Last night I went to a writing workshop. The speaker, Debbie Fuller Thomas, is an accomplished author, and her books laid neatly stacked and fanned out on a table at the back of the meeting room. Before the meeting, I perused her website http://www.debbiefullerthomas.com/ and discovered lively writing at its best, so I was more than intrigued to come and take notes of this busy writer’s life. Although I already knew many of the suggestions presented, it was the additional emphasis on these monumental landmarks to a future career in writing that I craved to embrace. The outline below highlights a writer’s way to finishing a novel, working with agents and publishers, and finally, marketing your story.

• Start out small, writing articles or short stories for periodicals in order to secure your credential as an author.

• Your own website increases networking traffic, and adding books to sell and other writing paraphernalia plunks more money into your pockets.

• Get business cards printed from a reputable firm. Handing out your business cards to family, friends and acquaintances help promote future liaisons between agents, publishers and customers.

• Lock onto a good agent. As the author said, “A bad agent is worse than no agent at all,” research the agent’s credentials and find out their experience in handling publishing houses and other authors’ books. This author remarked after signing up with a certain agent, she found out the agent had never read her book but was willing to present it to publishing firms. She was advised to fire her agent and get a new one, which caused a lot of stress and anguish but helped her in the long run.

• Don’t write in a genre different than what makes you comfortable. I have tried to write nonfiction stories from the dictates of my mother and found my writing stifled, not speaking her voice into the projects. It’s like I must interject my own thoughts and emotions to carry the story through with some pizzazz.

• Sometimes the genre we write about is narrow and filled with a lot of rules. Play by the rules and you will most likely be picked up as an author.

• First write fast, as much as you can. Worry about details in the editing stage. Writing fast also helps bring out your feelings into the story. Edit later to polish it.

• Networking with other writers and people in your life can break the monotony of writing and researching all the livelong days. Then, a fresh approach back to your writing may uncover some needed edits and rewrites to top it off before submission.

• Honing your craft before embarking on a lengthy novel will ease your way into an agent’s world, as careless grammar, punctuation and spelling errors could damage your reputation from the onset of your career.

• Writing is serious business. Carve out a sufficient time slot each day for your writing. If you work fulltime, try writing after dinner and jotting down notes during lunch time. If you are able to stay home fulltime without going bankrupt, choose any comfortable hours during the day in which your mind is at its perkiest best. If you have children, write during their naptimes or bedtimes or when they are visiting their friends or are at school. In any case, announce to your family that this writing business you are taking very seriously is your career.

• Writing is hard work. After the publication of your first book, don’t think your life is now going to be all easy with roses minus the thorns. Usually, if a publishing house likes your book, a second story is already fashioned in their minds about a year away. You cannot rest easy but be plunking at the old keyboard again until the second book is ready out the door.

• Getting into a critique group is essential to success. But be warned some may want to whittle down your story to a cute representation of their own ideal story. It is noted that if most of your group has the same opinion in their edits, the populace should win in this respect and a change imminent in the process.

• Study writing books and other teaching materials to hone your craft.

• Register for conferences and workshops like this one, especially ones with published authors, agents and editors. You will gain writing expertise, possibly land a new agent for your new book, and/or win an editor’s heart for your finished story.

• Remember that creative writing is different from nonfiction. Suffering to follow all your p’s and q’s down to a “t” in nonfiction does not generate an impressive review from editors or readers for contemporary fiction. Creative writing does not follow all of the rules of grammar as it is most important to stress a creative flow and emotions in which to pull the reader into the story.

• Do not forget to write an outline or quick summary of your story, emphasizing descriptions of things throughout so as not to wind up becoming senseless, duplicating things or circumstances, or even names of people. Follow this rule after each book is published so the subsequent books do not carry the same names, cities, events as the previous ones.

• After your book is published, now comes the marketing part: it is up to YOU to market your own book! There are only a few publishers who will risk advertising your jewel of a book in order to bring in the customers, and most likely your precious gem is not one of the prized. Marketing your book involves speaking at workshops/seminars, networking with other people, hosting events with prizes such as winning an editor’s critique of your story, advertising online with popular websites such as Amazon.com, giving your book away to influential people to read and pass on to others, and more. It is not advisable to give book signings at book stores, as most stores are not willing to risk purchasing a lot of books for the event.

• Be courteous to your readers. Invite them online to share their comments about your books. Praise other authors’ books, as this lends support to their writing efforts and wells up your day with good thoughts.

• Do not forget to acknowledge all the people who have assisted you in writing your story in your newly crafted novel.

• If your story is too way out or passé, do not throw it out the window or burn it in the fireplace! It may have possibilities in the future, you never know.

• Humor can fall flat on your face because gestures and tones are not included in the writing. Be very careful with this possible lethal substance and sway far away if you cannot pass this genre over well in the physical world before attempting it on paper.

• Posting on your blog could have tremulous results if written during the wee hours after midnight and up to eight in the morning. What sounds fine at this time could have devastating conclusions with your network of followers.

• Practice elevator pitches on your book—a summary of your story. These succinct pitches must entice the reader to purchase the book, advertise it to a would-be agent, or grasp an editor headlong into desiring to read your manuscript. The pitches can also accomplish its task in queries before submitting your manuscript to agents or editors.

Personality Traits

Everyone has character, little quirks about themselves. There is no such thing as a “normal” person. No one is average; we are all at least a little bit if not a lot different from each other. This is what makes us unique.

Take writing. No person writes exactly the same as another. We may generically use other authors’ styles of writing, but it still boils down to our own personal traits blooming in the four corners of our papers. For example, although a person finishes a novel with perfect grammar, punctuation, and spelling that even an English teacher who swipes the words with her white gloves never finds a smidgen of a verb, adjective or comma out of sync across the virginal papyrus, there may still be something lacking in the story: the author himself. Don’t get me wrong; some novels do well with plain, simple words for easy expression. The novel may be an ordinary story, but the string of words displayed in an easy-going manner pull the reader into its world and the reader can’t escape and must find out the ending. Other novels weigh heavy in description, such as Jack London’s stories, and the reader cannot help but fall into its story trap until the finale.

My drama class teacher taught us a lot, but foremost the rule was to act naturally, and if needed, insert your own words to fit closely within the scene. This does not mean to change the entire lines, as the next actor may forget his or her lines, but to paraphrase them, add a little stuttering, maybe some trite phrases of your own to add to the whole gamut of the scene. In writing, the same goes forth, as synonyms can replace the usual words, and a glimmer of surprise awaits the reader.

First, write YOUR words down quickly, without stopping to correct the grammar, punctuation or spelling. Let the words rise out of the depths of your soul. There is something to be said for letting go of oneself, to let the freedom of writing pursue itself with words loud enough to shout through the walls of standards. This inner core must speak boldly, come forth willingly and honestly in words heavy in expressive thought.

Next, embellish on these thoughts. Add descriptions of scenes or things of value; lesser descriptions where it is not needed. These treasures should stand out in 3-D form in eclectic style, like a mannequin without a head or with rebar arms and legs. Experiment with this unique style before bleeding it thoroughly on the open page.

Last of all, editing is most critical at this point. Put on the editor’s hat and start whittling away at drawn- out passages that may ho-hum the reader. Slice away at redundant phrases and words. Pull out those extraneous commas and either re-word the sentences or cut those intrusive curves dangling aside wary words altogether.

In any case, don’t forget to have fun writing to your heart’s delight before slashing away all those cumbersome words and thoughts. - Signed, Linda

Repeat, Repeat, Repeat

Have you found yourself repeating the same word in a sentence or paragraph? Omitting articles like "the" and "a" and some verbs, do you have a habit of duplicating the same word from the sentence before, or including it in the same sentence?

When I begin writing something, many times I repeat myself in a sentence or paragraph. This is where synonyms replace those "weedy" words and thoughts. But those "weeds" seem to grow and multiply right before my eyes! The problem transforms itself into not only repeating words, but repeating thoughts, also. It's like writing legal mumbo-jumbo, where the same thoughts and words are expressed over and over. Wants to make you gag and stop reading the boring material.

If you still find yourself repeatedly employing the same words, try turning the subjects, verbs and objects around in the sentence. Make sure your spell checker is on to catch grammar you might overlook in your quest to write the perfect sentence. Now read the sentence and paragraph aloud a couple of times to hear the effects on the reader.

How do I stop repeatedly repeating words and thoughts?

"Practice makes perfect." How many times have you heard that phrase, and yet we all know it's true. Write, write and then write some more! Practice writing the correct way over and over again. This is what you did in grade school, right? Your homework involved the same types of problems, yet in myriads of forms. In high school, our learning approaches were dwindled down to possibly two or three practices on similar problems, and in college the homework, tests and projects were our only avenues of learning identical thoughts.

Another way to squash those duplicated dribbles is to read good books emphasizing metaphors and similes. Reading novels longtime on bestseller lists or the great classics can grow your writing immensely, as the visual reading connects with your brain and prompts copying the writing forms. Pick genres you enjoy reading to your heart's content rather than ones that are good textbook usage.

Last of all, creative writing is an ambiguous form of writing, and sometimes repeating words IS necessary to buoy a rhythmic effect on your audience. Cage this medium especially when writing for children. Children love the flow of words arranged in a musical or sing-song form, as it guides the child along on a whimsical journey.

If after agonizing over the words and thoughts there is no other recourse but to embellish on the expressions and you do not feel the piece is worthy to wave before a promising editor, then another way to deal with this situation is to put the piece down. Come back to it tomorrow, or the next day. Sometimes just letting the piece go on the wayside and returning to it later springs forth fresher ideas, and a whole new way of looking at it.

In any case, look at the overall picture in which you are trying to convey to the reader and decide for yourself which method to employ. Happy writing to all, Linda

Time-Wasters

Time-wasters. We all like to play, to do something other than housework, homework or work-work. In the case of a freelance writer, discipline is the key factor. Without discipline and striving to finish your writing projects, your writing will go slowly or the projects never get done.

Getting a room to yourself is the ideal location for your writing adventures. This will allow you to write almost any time of the day, unless, of course, your wee ones bang on your door for attention or whine what’s for breakfast or beg a shoe to be tied. Then it’s back to waking at the crack of dawn or plunging your thoughts down in the black of night, when your eyelids barely stay open. If you cannot use an extra room for your writing purposes, then write at a time when most of the noise or distractions are at a minimum.

One of the main problems to wasting time is keeping your desk or work area clean, void of extraneous mail or bills begging to get paid. Any distractions can keep you from the love between you and Muse writing together along the wings of time. Or, if there is no other place to keep your financial matters except at the desk where you write, set a time to dispense your payouts, such as twice a month when the paychecks pass through cyberspace to your bank’s URL, and two-minute daily walks through online debits and credits.

Place websites of your writing resources, freelance writing, dictionary and grammar on your desktop for quick reference and as a reminder of your goals. A bookcase of writing instruction, grammar books like the Chicago Manual of Style, MLA and APA, a thesaurus, current Writer’s Market, and books on English and American Literature are all good examples of a writer’s library. Feel free to add others to your library complementary to your own genres.

Another distraction I found was games. So many of us love computer games, but five minutes can spread to two precious hours, and your time allotted for writing has now disappeared. Because of my obsession with a particular game, I asked my husband to temporarily disable all of the games on my computer so that I would not be tempted to ride its plains at this time. I desire wholeheartedly to give this writing bug a try.

Facebook, Twitter, text messaging, IM messaging – these can all be purveyors of time-wasters. Sure, it is good to keep in contact with humanity, but this can also lead to an obsession. Limit your time with your friends so that you can get back to your passion. Announce to them your goal of writing a book or articles and your desire to finish these projects.

Everyone loves the television set. Who can tear themselves away from a gripping mystery, passionate romance, or creepy thriller? To prevent this all-known time-waster, the best deal to make is to leave it off until sunset or wait until the weekend and watch away to your heart’s desire.

We can find many kinds of ways to distract ourselves and waste time instead of fulfilling our life’s purpose. Don't hesitate any more.  Now is the time to write!

Writing is NOT a chore

Writing is NOT a chore. But unless Muse is riding on your shoulder, the words tumble out slowly, hitting jagged corners along the way, and may bounce right off into the deep end; they are so useless.

One way to remedy this is to find a quiet time to write. If that means getting up at five o’clock in the morning to jot down your thoughts or write an article, go to bed earlier to rise with the sun peeking over the horizon. The dawn of a new day can awaken those juices ready to burst out of the depths of your soul. Program your coffeemaker the night before so the smells of java come wafting through the house in the wee hours, and a cup with an egg and toast will bolster your body to start the day fresh.

Now sit down and get all quiet for a moment. Open your patio door and listen to the birds singing, leaves on the trees swaying, hum of bees or hummingbirds, and traffic rounding the bends in the road near your house. Walk outside with your coffee and smell the drifts of morning, the sun glowing in its corner and brightening God’s creation for all to see. Bask in this wonder for a few minutes, sipping your coffee slowly. Now go inside and write down whatever comes to your mind. This may or may not be what you just saw, but the moment of taking a whiff of daybreak awakened the Muse in you.

Some writers enjoy writing at night. For me, this is the time my senses start shutting down, and I do not feel the urge to caress words across the pages, but find it a chore instead. In any case, if you write at night, a few cups of java might keep those senses burning alive in your soul and the words tumble out with ease. Some people prefer writing in the sleep zone because their senses come alive from their nine to five grind. They are all wound up and writing releases the tension built up over the ten hours of commute and work.

If you ride the train to work, this is another place you may take your writing passion. Writing a novel while bumping along the tracks can prove to be either too distracting or a time-saver for your story. A writing pad, netbook or laptop is most handy for writing in this location. Look at the people around you. They are either reading a book, eating a breakfast bar, drinking a cup of coffee, chatting with friends, or writing on their laptop like you at this moment. People are very interesting to watch! Write down on a side note what you see and hear. There may be an unruly child and a mother either paying no attention or reprimanding the youngster. Describe what the people look like, what they’re wearing, the things they do. These can all be useful now or later in your project.

In any case, the goal here is to write at a regular time when Muse is most likely to appear. Don’t hesitate! Now in your life is the time to write.