Advice for Career Writers (and NaNoWriMo Two Months Late)

 

cartoon robot breaking nanowrimo machine

Image by Davidd/puuikibeach

 

Way back in November, Bob Clary of Webucator emailed me about writing a piece for their NaNoWriMo promotion. They even wrote questions for me to answer so it would be nice and easy. But because I am lazy a successful copywriter in high demand, I failed to write and publish said blog until now! Oh, as they say, well. Apologies and thanks to Bob and co.

 

What were your goals when you started writing?

I wanted to write the kind of book that I liked to read. I wanted to do to other readers all the things my favorite authors did to me.

I also wanted to be a child genius who published the next great American sci-fi novel at the precocious age of 13, became rich and famous and got to co-direct the film adaptation. That didn’t happen and I got over it.

What are your goals now?

Finish my novel. Get it traditionally published. I have growing respect for the indie publishing world, but for now, at least, I’m still aiming for traditional. Though I may be beginning to doubt my trust in the gatekeepers of the literary world, there’s still something inside me that wants their stamp of approval. Sort of third-party confirmation that yes, this novel is a real piece of literature and not merely an amusing hobby that has stolen years of my life.

What pays the bills now?

I’m a copywriter at a Texas marketing firm. I write everything from billboards to blog posts about everything from cowboy boots to wound care. Every day is different, and I enjoy it tremendously.

Assuming writing doesn’t pay the bills, what motivates you to keep writing?

I’ll rephrase this question to: “What motivates you to write fiction when you already spend so much time writing copy?”

I need to write fiction to feel like myself. I rarely feel like writing when I have time to write, but if I let a weekend go by without working on the old WIP, I feel incomplete. I can even be cranky.

What advice would you give young authors hoping to make a career out of writing?

For copywriters:

  1. You’d better really enjoy playing with words; even the menial tasks like translating technical jargon into human-speak, and writing product descriptions.
  2. Read a lot and write a lot. You need to be able to recognize and fix confusing copy.
  3. Start a blog. A topical blog, not a personal blog. Pick a subject you’re passionate about and know something about. There’s a big push toward content marketing in the ad world and it will help if you have experience planning, developing, publishing and promoting content. Follow the blog at Copyblogger.com to learn more about it.
  4. Read Luke Sullivan’s Hey Whipple, Squeeze This.

For fiction writers:

  1. Don’t do this for the money. Do it because you love it, but don’t be heartbroken if you can’t make a living out of it. Few can.
  2. Don’t wait until you’re in a “writing mood” to write. The thing that separates the hobbyists from the real writers is that we put words on paper even when we don’t feel like it. Anyway, sometimes the writing mood doesn’t come until you’ve already been at the keyboard for a few hours.
  3. A lot of people will give you writing advice. Be careful whose advice you trust. Half of them don’t know what they’re talking about. Look for tips from storytellers who have proven themselves multiple times – like the Neil Gaimans and Joss Whedons and Pixar writers.
  4. When it comes to critiques of your work, drop the attitude that “they don’t like it because they don’t understand it.” Sometimes that’s true, but most of the time it’s because your work actually stinks. Cry and rant for a little while, then sit down and figure out how to fix it.
  5. Writing a novel is the hardest thing you will ever do (and good luck emerging from the experience with your sanity intact). Still, it’s worth it.

Feel free to post your own answers to these questions in the comments; you can also read answers from other writers.

 

What I’ve been doing instead of writing Friday posts (it’s a good cause!)

Lots of folding.

Lots of folding.

Okay InMonsters and all BeKind readers: I need your help with something and all it takes is a click.

As most of you know, my day job is copywriting at the Balcom Agency in Fort Worth, Texas. This year for Christmas, we broke up into teams to create Christmas trees from found/recycled objects (we couldn’t spend more than $20 on materials). Each team is playing for a charity: the team whose tree gets the most votes gets a check from Balcom for their charity.

My team’s charity is the Humane Society of North Texas. They help animals who are abandoned, injured or mistreated. They also spay and neuter cats and dogs (for free in many circumstances). My team folded more than 300 origami cranes to create our tree (one of the things I’ve been doing instead of writing new Friday posts…sorry). 

All the trees are really cool. You can see them all here (click each picture to see more pictures).

Here’s where you come in.

I’d be ever so grateful if you’d vote for my tree! All you have to do is click: no personal info required!

Shameless plug, I know. But it’s for a good cause and it will only take you a couple of seconds.

Just click here, and then click the big green VOTE button under the origami crane picture in the bottom right-hand corner. Voting once is great – but if you are so inclined, you can vote every day through the end of the contest (and that would be phenomenal).

Are you doing anything charity-related for the holidays? I’d love to hear about it!

20 great FREE online resources for writers

Photo by Rocky

Photo by Rocky

I’ve amassed a lot of resources over the years – here are some of the best ones I use both for copywriting and fiction writing. Some you’ve seen in previous posts; some are new!

 

Staying Sane

Evernote

I sometimes refer to Evernote as my best friend. It’s a notebook program you download to all your computers. I add a note from work, and when I get home, there it is. I have separate notes for blog post ideas, prompts, story ideas, daily life to-do lists and more. All bundled in one notebook and accessible with one click. This program saved me from sending myself email notes all day.

Tick Tock Timer

A simple online timer. Set it for any amount of time, and it alerts you with three gongs when the time is up. You can use it to block out time for writing, cleaning, whatever. I use it to remind me to look away from my computer screen every hour or so.

 

Finding the Right Word or Phrase

Thesaurus

I love MS Word, but its synonym tool isn’t very good. This online synonym finder is far better. I use it several times a day.

Thsrs (The Shorter Thesaurus)

If you are specifically looking for a simpler or shorter version of a word, this is the thesaurus for you. I sometimes use it for writing Google or Facebook ads (which have tiny character limits).

Idioms at The Free Dictionary

Enter a word and get a list of common phrases in which the word appears. Another tool I use daily, mostly for writing headlines. But it could also be used for story, novel, and chapter titles as well. Anything that requires a play on words (change the original idiom slightly to give it a new and witty meaning).

WordHippo

This tool does several things, but I mostly use it for the rhyming dictionary and the “words that start with” feature. I use it mostly for writing headlines, but I imagine it would be super useful for poetry.

Urban Dictionary

This user-generated slang dictionary is 90% crass. However, you can use it to ensure a word or phrase you are using doesn’t have a secondary meaning that is negative or disgusting. If the term you search does come up with a bad meaning, check the number of user votes it received. If there are more thumbs down than thumbs up, you’re probably still okay to use it.

 

Fun & Inspiration

My Favorite Word

A long list of fantastic words. People submit their favorites, usually with explanations why. I chiefly use it for naming projects.

Wordsmith’s Anagram Generator

Enter a word, it scrambles the letters into other words. Use it to come up with names or aliases of characters or places. Or just type in your own name for a laugh. I’m Anti-Sheep, apparently.

Six Word Stories

Inspired by the story Hemmingway reportedly considered his best (For sale: baby shoes, never used.), this site allows users to submit their own six word stories. The good ones get posted on the main page. Read for inspiration – and submit a few of your own.

 

Rules & Grammar

Daily Writing Tips

This blog will grow your vocabulary and improve the way you use it.

Grammar Girl

Quick and Dirty grammar lessons. I go here when I can’t remember the difference between affect and effect.

The Elements of Style

The free online version of the writer’s bible, penned by Strunk & White.

 

Character Development

Meyer’s-Briggs Personality Test from HumanMetrics

Answer a few yes-or-no questions on behalf of your main character, get a detailed outline of his personality traits. So insightful.

Baby Names

To name all those characters!

 

Getting Published

Duotrope

Helps you find a literary magazine to publish your short stories.

Miss Snark

A literary agent ruthlessly tears apart query letters submitted by her readers. She’s no longer snarking, but the archives are a gold mine for those looking to learn how to write a good query.

Query Shark

The savior for those bereft of Miss Snark, this lit agent is still critiquing queries with gusto.

Agent Query

A database of literary agents with an easy-to-use search that makes it easy to build your submission list.

Preditors & Editors

The site writers have long relied on to ensure agents aren’t con artists. Look up your agents here before querying.

What are your favorite online resources? Share in the comments!


AIDA aftermath: 4 ways the last few blog posts have changed my novel

bang head against wall

photo by Eamon Curry

In case any of you are agonizing over changes you have to make to your work in progress due to something you learned in the AIDA blog series, rest assured: I am drinking bucketfuls of my own medicine.

Title

I’ve been holding onto the same vague title for years. It sort of means something if you’ve read the book. Sort of. By itself it is unremarkable. I know I can do better.

First Chapter

  • Trimmed some fat from my opening scene – including most of my main character’s physical description – to make room for actual character development, punchier dialogue, and an extra layer of depth that makes the perfect precursor to the rest of the book.
  • Cut a net total of 1,304 words from that chapter.

Second Chapter

My second chapter is actually the beginning of the alternate story – one that connects to the main story but not perceptibly until much later. I offer no explanation at this point. We are simply following one character and one story in the first chapter, and an entirely different character in a different setting in the second. Mere days after realizing this egregious error, I heard one of my beta readers found it disorienting.

Why is it beta readers never seem to tell you what’s wrong with your work until after you’ve figured it out yourself?

Anyway, I added some explanatory narrative at the beginning to introduce the new story and hint at the connections without giving anything away. I also cut a few hundred words.

The Entire Middle of the Whole Bloody Book

In the midst of my quest for tips on writing a page-turner, I realized something life-changing and consequently left this sentence in my Evernote app:

ONE AT A TIME, DUH!

Translation: the order in which I introduced the five characters in the main story was all wrong. I’d made my main character the last to join the group, which meant she met all four others within paragraphs of one another, and I had to pour out oodles of backstory about who each one was and how they got there and where “there” was and what they all thought of each other and how they reacted to meeting her.

I was shooting myself in the foot with a bazooka.

So I’m both changing the order and spreading things out. She’ll spend a few days with the first person she meets, actually experiencing a couple of things I only summarized in previous drafts, and meet additional characters over the next few chapters – instead of over the next few sentences.

In short, I’ll be permanently cutting several scenes I’ve rewritten dozens of times, and adding other scenes I have never written before. I’m angry, excited, exhausted, and relieved all at the same time.

 

In case you missed it here’s a rundown of the whole series:

Attention

Interest

Desire

Action

Has the AIDA blog series led you to make any painful changes to your WIP? Rant in the comments!

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