Learning Center

I was supposed to have this article finished on Friday, but I waited until the very last minute to sit down and write it. Now it’s Sunday morning and I have about an hour to get it done. I’m pissy and agitated. Where’s my coffee? Why does my husband keep talking to me as though I’m not working? Why can’t my kids be quiet for five minutes? I’m seriously on a deadline here and I’m about to get out of this chair and open a can of whoop ass on the next person that bothers me.

At least the mayhem and looming deadline have given me this week’s article theme: time constraint and intensity, and why every book you write needs both.

This month, we’ll start a two-part article in which we’ll talk about increasing productivity by working in stages and setting realistic goals that will launch you into a whole different stratosphere in your career.

Working in Stages

The only way to stay on track with your writing career is by working in stages and allowing yourself to come into each of those stages completely fresh and eager to complete another layer to the project. In an ideal situation, a writer should go through the following steps to get a finished novel:

by Beth Daniels, aka Beth Henderson, J.B. Dane

When you think back to your childhood, which books were you grabbing eagerly? Chances are they were mysteries. If you didn’t grow up with some version of Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys, there was Encyclopedia Brown and tales were you got to choose how the story went…and it was nearly always a mystery.

Scooby Do’s gang solves mysteries, any tale involving a treasure hunt is a mystery, and Harry Potter followed clues in his adventures, too. Mysteries are more than mere entertainment when the reader tries to figure the solution out for themselves – it’s problem solving in action, and a heck of a lot more fun than problem solving questions in school.

Yup it is tax season again. Even as an aspiring author (not yet published), I took a class on tax preparation in November 2010. This article was written from notes and lectures from that class with permission by the instructor, Diane Kelly. Ms. Kelly is not only a published author, but also an attorney and CPA. At the end of the lecture, I’ll provide information on how to contact her with tax questions and a little bit about her. Since April 15^th or rather 18^th is not that far away, lets jump right in with some tax tips.

As writers, we naturally write the way we write naturally. But readers can't hear the cadence of the words playing out in our heads as our fingers fly across the keys. Readers’ minds merely decipher the little black marks on the page or the pixels on the screen. So “Mom was calling every week; Dad was emailing every day” cannot possibly convey the sense of urgency the author wants to impart because the reader can't feel it—it’s over, it’s way in the past, it’s a “was.” It’s passive.

I’m notorious for saying that writer’s block is the luxury of the unpublished. That’s not entirely true, although I think it is more common now than in earlier decades. Plenty of famous and infamous writers throughout the history of the written word have suffered from writer’s block. However, in the harsh realities of modern publishing, if you expect to keep getting published, once you’re under a regular contract, you better be able to produce regularly, on time, and with a sustained quality.

The mad ramblings of a paranormal romance author as she contemplates writing urban fantasy.

I had an epiphany while filling out an application for a SavvyU Course I’d had my eye on for the last month. The course is Master Worldbuilding and Write a Paranormal, Fantasy or UF Novel. One of the questions in the application was, what genres do you enjoy writing? I answered truthfully, and though I’d rather walk over hot coals wearing only brightly-colored nail polish and a headdress, I’ll share my answer with you:

90 Days To Your Novel, by Sarah Domet
Review by Marcy Weydemuller

“Inspiration resides in your heart; habit resides in your fingers. Inspiration propels; habit completes.” One of the premises in this book is to develop the “necessary writing habits that will help you see this project through.” That is, write daily or as near to as possible.

Sarah Domet’s 90-Day plan requires commitment, determination and energy. She suggests a schedule that demands two to three hours per day. In some instances it will be longer, especially for writers who need a little more think time. However, even if the actual schedule is not possible due to work and family commitments, the process she outlines will result in a quality first draft.