Quick Link: Checklist for redesigning your book cover – and maximising the marketing opportunities

by

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Fair or not, people will judge your book by it’s cover, and if it has been a while since you looked at your cover perhaps it is time for a refresh. Roz Morris at Nail Your Novel has some great reasons why you should redesign your book cover and tips to make the redesign work even harder for you.

~ * ~

Checklist for redesigning your book cover – and maximising the marketing opportunities

The key to good design, is to know what you are doing. Hiring a professional is a good investment.
The key to good design, is to know what you are doing. Hiring a professional is a good investment.

I recently changed the covers of my Nail Your Novels … and got myself a nice long to-do list as a result. But as well as refreshing the look of the books, a redesign is also a chance to smarten up the covers’ marketing potential. Here’s how.

Don’t miss the opportunity to tweak your sales wording

I’ve already blogged about changing the cover design to target readers effectively (the last time I changed the cover of book 1, as it happens). But revising the book doesn’t have to stop at the visuals. Since you published the title, have you had any standout reviews? Work them into the redesign – on the front as a teaser or the back as part of the sales blurb.

Indeed, could you add punch to the back cover copy?  Sometimes reviewers sum up our books much better than we can ourselves. A reader who really got the book might have written you a brilliant logline. Search your reviews in case.

If you have an ‘about the author’ paragraph on the back, should you update it? Perhaps you’ve published more books, or won a prestigious award.

What about your author photo? My Nail Your Novels had three different author photos according to the years they were published (and the hue of my hair), but with this reboot I decided to use a new image to make them look more current and uniform.

I also found I had room on the back for miniatures of the other books in the series – a good visual way to let readers know they’re part of a set.

~ * ~

If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Link: Facebook profile, Page, or group? An author’s primer

by

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Facebook is a strong tool in the author’s marketing toolbox. But did you know that there are three different types of Facebook pages you can create? Build Book Buzz explains the differences and how to tell which one is best for you.

~ * ~

Facebook profile, Page, or group? An author’s primer

ThumbFinal_4.9.15Of all the social networks you can use to help promote your book, Facebook might have the most potential for a few reasons.

First, it gives you several ways to interact with your target audience. Second, it reaches a wider range of people than other social networks, and those users spend a lot of time on the site. Third, it offers affordable advertising options that, when implemented properly, can be effective.

For that reason, it’s important to understand the three primary ways you and your book can have a presence on that social network:

Profile
Page
Group
Do you have a Facebook profile, Page, or group — or any combination of the three? I’ve noticed many authors using the three interchangeably, as if they’re all the same.

They aren’t.

And when you’re unclear about whether you’ve got a profile, Page, or group, you’re going to be equally unclear about how to use each to its fullest potential.

If you’re confused, you’re confusing others, too
For example, an author recently emailed me about an online discussion. She thought she had seen it here on this blog; could I direct her to the right link? I clarified that it was in the Build Book Buzz Facebook group. Since she’s a member, I suggested she go to the group and scroll down to find it because it was recent.

Minutes later, she replied that she couldn’t find it.

I suggested using the group search box.

It didn’t take her long to come back and say that searching didn’t uncover it either.

That’s when the proverbial light bulb went on over my head.

“Are you searching the Build Book Buzz group or Page?” I asked.

“Whoops,” she replied. “I was on the Page.”

A profile, Page, and group all serve different purposes. Here’s a quick primer on each.

~ * ~

If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Link: 6 Surprising Reasons Why Your Story Is Better Than You Think

by

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Are you one of those people who are very hard on themselves? I know I am, and it gets to the point where it stops me from working at my best. John Yeoman is talking directly to us when he gives us six reasons why maybe our story isn’t as bad as we tell ourselves.  Go on over to Writer’s Village for a little pick-me-up.

~ * ~

Be good to yourself. Have a kiss on me.
Be good to yourself. Have a kiss on me.

6 Surprising Reasons Why Your Story Is Better Than You Think

by John Yeoman

June 17, 2016

Have you ever tumbled into a trough of writing despair? “My stories are no good,” you say. “I’m a hopeless writer, witless and inept.” Baloney. Everybody is a bad writer – at least, in their first drafts.

More to the point, your self-opinion is wrong.

Wrong.

Wrong.

Your stories – and your writing skills – are probably a lot better than you think. Why? Let me count the reasons, all six of them.

1. You love your story – or something about the story.

If you don’t love it, nobody else will. Trash it. But if you do love it, there’s something lovable in it – which can be developed.

Maybe it’s a character.

Dorothy Sayers fell in love with her grandee sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey. Was he Sayers’ imaginary son or lover? Only Freud could say.

No matter. Her passion drove her to write 15 classic Wimsey novels plus five story collections.

Or maybe it’s a world.

Each of Sayers’ stories is a microcosm of her social world, an age when everyone in Britain had servants. If you didn’t, you were nobody. She was tacitly in love, not just with Wimsey, but with a between-wars golden age now lost to us.

(Some might say, well lost. It was no ‘golden age’ for the servants in those days.)

Build on that passion. It’s too strong to dismiss. Soon you’ll have a story – even a novel – that other readers will fall in love with too.

~ * ~

If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Save

Quick Links: 5 Tips for Empowering Description with Contrast

by

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

They say that descriptions are boring, and I will admit there have been times I have skimmed over a few paragraphs by some very good writers, just to get to the good bits.  But only if I feel that the extra text really isn’t necessary for the story. Marcy Kennedy gets it. In her post on Jami Gold‘s site, Mary gives some really great tips on how to make descriptions more entertaining and part of the story.

~ * ~

5 Tips for Empowering Description with Contrast — Guest: Marcy Kennedy

by Jami Gold

When contrast is done well, it can be very interstesting
When contrast is done well, it can be very interesting.

June 16, 2016

We’ve probably all heard (or thought!) that description is boring. The part readers skip.

There’s no question that description has a bad reputation. Yet if we’ve ever read a story without enough description and been lost at what was happening or who was doing what, we know that description is essential to clearly showing events in our story to readers.

When I first started writing, I struggled with description, mostly by including way too much of it. Pages and pages. *smile*

I eventually learned how to balance description and use it to anchor readers in a character’s point of view. However, there’s another way to make description work harder for our story, and that’s by using contrast to create more powerful and interesting descriptions.

Luckily for us, editor-author Marcy Kennedy is here with us today to give us the scoop and share five methods to empower our description with contrast. Please welcome Marcy Kennedy! *smile*

*****

The Power of Contrast in Description

Readers need description to help them imagine the story world and to keep them grounded in the story, but often it’s considered the slow, boring part.

It doesn’t have to be.

Done right, description keeps the pace moving and brings out our point-of-view character’s emotions, backstory, and conflicts. It can also add subtext, foreshadow, and build on the theme.

One of my favorite ways to bring description to life and make sure it serves a bigger purpose in the story is to use contrast. I’m excited Jami welcomed me back to share with all of you how to make this work.

All of these tips work best—in my opinion—when we write in a limited point of view because it’s our point-of-view character who’s making the comparison. The description filters through them and is colored by who they are. (Though I’m sure you omniscient writers could adapt many of these techniques as well.)

Tip #1: Contrast What the POV Character Expected with What They Experience

~ * ~

If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Save

In The News: Timberland libraries now offer access to self-published books

by
Libraries get more offerings for their patrons, authors get more exposure.
Libraries get more offerings for their patrons, authors get more exposure.

In The News – Articles Of Interest For Authors

While this is a local news item, I am sharing for the information on Self-e.  Self-e is a free program for authors and small publishers to get their books into local libraries. The Olympian is just one news organization that is highlighting the opportunities this presents for authors.  Anyone out there tried Self-e? If so let us know your results.

~ * ~

Timberland libraries now offer access to self-published books

By Ben Muir bmuir@theolympian.com

  • SELF-e is a website that lets libraries distribute the work of independent authors
  • It helps authors who don’t have publishing houses increase their visibility
  • It increases the library’s offerings for patrons

There are two ways to publish a book these days.

The first is through the six prominent publishing companies that are still the recommended route to maximum exposure.

The other is through independent publishing, an approach authors take when they haven’t signed with an agent or a publishing house, but still want their work to be read.

And there was no middle ground until SELF-e became the compromise.

SELF-e is a website that lets libraries distribute the work of independent authors, and offer an array of genres and content for subscribing patrons.

The Timberland Regional Library system has joined thousands of other libraries across the country in providing SELF-e offerings, said Timberland public relations specialist R.J. Burt.

“One of the barriers for writers is being recognized enough to be picked up by a large publishing house,” Burt said. “Libraries have broken down that barrier for writers, so they should certainly use it.”

How it helps local authors

Publishing on SELF-e is not only free but effortless, said Kim Storbeck, a library collections development specialist. After authors upload a book to SELF-e, there is a vetting process that takes roughly a week.

Read the full post on The Olympian

~ * ~

If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Links: 6 Characters Your Protagonist Needs to Have Around

by

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Every star needs a supporting cast! has a list of extra characters you might need to support your hero.  Find it all at The Write Practice.

~ * ~

6 Characters Your Protagonist Needs to Have Around

Grammar Girl, who is supported by Spellcheck Boy and their trusty companion white-out dog.
Grammar Girl, who is supported by Spellcheck Boy and their trusty companion white-out dog.

by The Magic Violinist

Your protagonist may be the star of the show, but they can’t do everything alone. Just like it takes a village to raise a child, it takes an entire cast of characters to help your hero along on their journey.

Do you think Harry Potter could’ve accomplished all that he did if it were just him on his own out there against Voldemort? Of course not. He had friends who stuck by him, teachers who came and went, and a whole assortment of villains that drove the plot forward. Your main character needs those people, too.

6 Types of Supporting Characters

Let’s take a look at the people who surrounded Harry and the roles they played in his life. Which of these character types appear in your story?

1. Mentor

This would be the Dumbledore of the story. Usually an elder, but not necessarily, they’re the one who always has some sort of nugget of wisdom right when the protagonist needs it. They teach and steer the main character away from stupid decisions (though they may not always succeed at that).

If your hero ran off without anyone to guide them, they’d probably end up in heaps of trouble.

~ * ~

If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Link: 8 Tips for Editing Other Writers’ Work (While Remaining Friends)

by

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

We have a tendency to surround ourselves with people who are like us, that have the same interests and hobbies. But when you are a writer and your friends are writer, it can get tricky. How can you tell someone you cherish in your life that perhaps their writing can use a little sprucing up.  Ali Luke posting on Helping Writers Become Authors has some great tips on how to be a good writer friend.

~ * ~

8 Tips for Editing Other Writers’ Work (While Remaining Friends)

June 15, 2016

Real friends love you no matter what your color, species, or position on the Harvard Comma
Real friends love you no matter what your color, species, or position on the Harvard Comma

by Ali Luke

Have you ever been asked to edit someone else’s work? Do you need tips for editing without ruining friendships? You’re not alone!

If you’re part of a workshop group, or if you have a bunch of writer friends, then you’ll probably find yourself acting as an editor at some point. Perhaps:

In a group workshop setting, giving feedback on a draft-in-progress.
As a beta reader, taking on a whole completed manuscript.
As a paid editor, carefully reviewing a client’s work.
Your role is a significant one: as the editor, you could well make the difference between a so-so novel and one that really lives up to its full potential.

A bit daunting?

Probably. After all, you not only want to do a good job… you also want the author to still be on speaking terms with you afterwards. You also don’t want to end up spending countless hours perfecting someone else’s prose, at the expense of your own writing.

Top 8 Tips for Editing Someone Else’s Book

Here are eight key tips to have in mind when you’re editing (or thinking about editing) someone else’s work.

#1: Be Careful How Much You Take On

Do you struggle to say “no”? Me too (though I have two small children now, so I’m getting plenty of practice!)

~ * ~

If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Save

Author Tools: Formatting Your Book With Scrivener

by

Author Tools – things to help you get your writing done

More help for Scrivener users! Katrina Archer at Fiction University shares her tips on how to use Scrivener to format your script.

~ * ~

Formatting Your Book With Scrivener

Scrivener

June 16, 2016
By Katrina Archer, @katrinaarcher

Part of the Indie Authors Series

Are you about to indie publish a book but can’t figure out how to get the formatting right? Do you already use Scrivener and don’t have the budget to shell out for a high end design app like InDesign or to splurge on Vellum? Then Scrivener’s Compile settings may be the solution for you. While not for the faint of heart, you can turn out a nicely formatted book for both print and digital entirely within Scrivener. The focus here will be on print, because it’s typically trickier, but the same techniques can be used for ebooks. (Note: this tutorial uses features available in the Mac OSX version of Scrivener. YMMV with Windows.)

Set Up Folders for Your Front And Back Matter

The first thing to do is get organized (boring, but you’ll thank me for it later). Each edition of your book may have different front and back matter, for example, to list different ISBNs or calls to action. In the Binder, add folders for each edition. I usually place my back matter folder beneath the main manuscript folder, whereas Scrivener’s manuscript format template provides an existing folder for front matter. In the examples below, I’ve created folders for ePub, Print, and Kindle editions. Within each folder, I’ve added files specific to the edition in question.

 

Read the full post on Fiction University

~ * ~

If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

 

Save

Save

Quick Links: 5 Types of Parallel-Structure Problems

by

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

I didn’t realize how complicated parallel sentences were until I read the excellent post by Mark Nichol over at Daily Writing Tips.

~ * ~

5 Types of Parallel-Structure Problems

It is all about having the sentence balance. To bad they don't have one of these for writing.
It is all about having the sentence balance. To bad they don’t have one of these for writing.

By Mark Nichol

There are many ways to botch the logical organization of a sentence. Here are examples of five variations, along with discussion and revision of each.

1. You can help not only position your organization for success when audited, but you can focus on protecting the sensitive information of your patients.

Probably the the most common of problems with parallel structure is the mangling of “not only . . . but also” comparisons. When a verb sets up both the “not only” point and the “but also” counterpoint, it must precede “not only” so that it is not bound up with the first point and the “but also” phrase can therefore share it. Conversely, when each phrase contains its own verb, as here, one verb must follow “not only” and the other verb must follow “but also”: “You can not only help position your organization for success when audited, but you can also focus on protecting the sensitive information of your patients.”

~ * ~

If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Links: Why Amazon Book Rankings Make You Nervous — And Why You Can Stop Caring

by

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Curious about Amazon book rankings? Can’t help but obsess about them?   over at The Write Life feels your pain, and shares what she has found out regarding how the rankings work and tips on how she manage to tame her ranking anxiety. One added tip, Kindle Nation Daily has a free eBook tracker tool that will pull your rankings from Amazon, store them, and show you a handy dandy chart. Full disclosure I do some consulting for Kindle Nation Daily, but I am getting nothing in return for tell you about the tool. Like I said, it is free and something I think worth value to authors.

~ * ~

Why Amazon Book Rankings Make You Nervous — And Why You Can Stop Caring

June 15, 2016

Amazon Ranking - puzzling to all except him and he will have to kill you if you figure it out.
Amazon Ranking – puzzling to all except him and he will have to kill you if you figure it out.

By Emily Wenstrom
I’m three months into selling my first novel, and I’m sorry to say, I have absolutely nothing I can report regarding my sales numbers.

My publisher delivers sales reports by quarter: January to March; April to June; July to September; and October to December. But those sales reports are delivered about two months following the end of the quarter.

So as I write this column in mid-May, all I know is that as of December — two-and-a-half months prior to my launch — I had sold seven books.

Womp.

I’m doing my best not to stress over it. From everything I’ve heard from other authors, sluggish sales reporting is pretty par for the course.

In the meantime, I’ve become unreasonably attached with the only metric for my success that I have access to: my Amazon rank.

Life by the rankings
Watching your book’s Amazon rank rise and fall — which happens several times over the course of even a single day — quickly becomes addictive. During my book’s launch, I kept it open in a browser tab and refreshed it frequently.

An Amazon ranking bump of even a place or two, up or down, drastically affected my mood.

This is no way to live, writers. And yet, it’s somewhat inescapable.

After a few weeks of living by the rankings, I realized that I could at least put this nervous energy toward something productive.

If Amazon rankings were going to affect my mental state, I could at least understand how they were determined, and hopefully do something to get more control over mine.

I embarked on a quest to learn all I could about them.

~ * ~

If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Link: All About Commas

by

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Today we head over to The Write Practice for a refresher course on commas by Ruthanne Reid. Comma placement is very important and can change the meaning of a sentence is read.  The most famous example:

A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and proceeds to fire it at the other patrons.

“Why?” asks the confused, surviving waiter amidst the carnage, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

“Well, I’m a panda,” he says. “Look it up.”

The waiter turns to the relevant entry in the manual and, sure enough, finds an explanation. “Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.”

~ * ~

All About Commas

by Ruthanne Reid

I would totally see a movie about a gun toting bad mouth snarky panda. Quentin Tarantino should direct.
I would totally see a movie about a gun toting foul mouth snarky panda. Quentin Tarantino should direct.

Today, I have just a few comma tips for you. This is nowhere near an exhaustive guide, but if you learn these rules, you’ll give a better impression with your written word everywhere you go.

The Purpose of Commas
The biggest confusion regarding commas stems from a terrible urban legend. That urban legend is this: “If you want to know where a comma goes, just put it wherever you want a pause in your writing.” (And then say “comma” three times in front of a mirror, etc.)

This is not true.

Commas serve a specific purpose; they exist to divide content by clause, to delineate list items from one another, and to indicate sentence continuation before and after quotation marks.

Generally speaking, commas only show up for clarity’s sake—and I’ll be explaining how they clarify in each of the following examples.

When to Use Commas

Use Commas Between More Than Two Items

In a list, two items never require a comma. Three or more, however, do. For example:

  • I can go to the store for milk and eggs. (No comma required.)
  • I can go to the store for milk, eggs, and bread. (Comma required.)

This applies to subjects, too. Two subjects do not require a comma; three or more do.

~ * ~

If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Save

Quick Links: Most Common Writing Mistakes, Pt. 51: One-Dimensional Characters

by

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

K.M. Weiland post comes down to two things – show don’t tell – and make the details of your characters count. In the Harry Potter stories, Harry is known for his lighting bolt scar on his forehead, but J.K. Rowling doesn’t beat us over the head with it. Instead you will find Harry being self conscious about it, or it causing pain as a warning. It adds to Harry’s character but doesn’t define him.  Read the full details over at Helping Writers Become Authors.

~ * ~

Most Common Writing Mistakes, Pt. 51: One-Dimensional Characters

Characters should be at least 3d, unless it is sci/fi and then you can add 4d
Characters should be at least 3d, unless it is sci/fi and then you can add 4d

June 13, 2016

K.M. Weiland

The most magical moment in writing is when you sit down with a new batch of characters, turn them loose on the page, and… they come to life. They spring up from that flat, white expanse of page, and they’re real. They’re dimensional. They’re organic. They’re compelling and interesting and wonderful. Except, of course, for when they’re not. Sometimes the magic doesn’t work out like that right off the bat. Sometimes you sit down, start typing, and what comes clunking onto the page are one-dimensional characters who are just going through the motions of the story.

The term “dimension” gets thrown around a lot among writers. We hear it and nod our heads sagely, “Oh, yes, we must have three-dimensional characters. One-dimensional characters are so dreadful.”

Honestly, it’s kind of a vague concept. “One-dimensional characters” is really just code for “bad characters.” But saying a character isn’t well written doesn’t do much to help you know how to write a better character.

Good news! That’s what we’re going to talk about today.

~ * ~

If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

 

Save

Quick Link: Going Beyond the Default in Your Worldbuilding

by

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

World building is the frame that holds a story together. If you have ever gone to a Disney park, you will find yourself in another world. The whole park is framed to provide an unique and delightful experience for the guest. And Walt knew what made this concept so important was the details.  Every nook and cranny of the parks is filled with whimsy that continues to pull you into the world that is specifically Disney.  That is the concept that Juliette Wade is discussing at Janice Hardy’s Fiction University, how to make your story’s setting uniquely yours.

~ * ~

Going Beyond the Default in Your Worldbuilding

Welcome to NotMcDonalds, here is your McWorld.
Welcome to NotMcDonalds, here is your McWorld.

June 15, 2016
By Juliette Wade, @JulietteWade

Part of the How They Do It Series

Creating a rich world makes for a great novel, no matter if that world is based on fantasy or the world we know. But all too often, we rely on the default setting for our genre–such as medieval Europe for fantasy–and we rob ourselves of the chance to craft something unique. To share some tips on creating interesting world, please help me welcome worldbuilding guru, Juliette Wade.

Juliette hosts the Dive into Worldbuilding show on Google Hangouts, where she uses her academic expertise in anthropology and linguistics to take discussions of worldbuilding topics beyond the default. Her short fiction explores language and culture issues across the genres of fantasy and science fiction. She has appeared in Clarkesworld, Fantasy&Science Fiction, and Analog magazines.

If you’re a fan of worldbuilding and want to take your skills further, you can also become a part of the Dive into Worldbuilding workshop. Join Juliette’s Patreon and get brainstorming prompts, research links, exclusive peeks into research topics, or even get Juliette to help you with your work directly. https://www.patreon.com/JulietteWade

Take it away Juliette…

Janice asked me to come by and talk about going beyond the default in your worldbuilding. So what exactly does that mean?

To answer that question, let’s start by talking about what “default” means. On your computer, it means an application that your computer opens automatically, without you having to do more than click. In your brain, it means the idea that you go to first, without having to think.

~ * ~

If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Links: How to Finish Your Book in Three Drafts

by

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Reworking drafts is a big struggle with me. I would much rather the excitement of a new story! So when  wrote a post on how to finish your book with only three drafts you bet my ears perked up!  So head on over to Jane Friedman‘s and check out the process.

~ * ~

How to Finish Your Book in Three Drafts

by Stuart Horwitz

Clarity in a three step program
How many drafts to finish your book? Like how many licks does it take to eat a tootsie lollypop the answer is three.

Have you ever asked yourself while writing, “How many drafts is this going to take?” That may seem like a question that can’t have an answer, but I would like to propose that it does. And that answer is three. Three drafts, provided that each draft is approached in the right spirit and we take the time we need between drafts.

Some writers assume that the difference between a first draft and a final draft is a few revisions and a solid copy edit. What I am talking about here is a process that requires more patience.

It probably already makes intuitive sense to you that you can’t work on more than one draft at a time. But here is the mantra for the process as a whole:

Know what draft you’re in.

Each draft plays by different rules, and knowing what draft you’re in can help you avoid writer’s block.

There is a literary myth that Jack Kerouac wrote On the Road in one draft—one Benzedrine- and marijuana-fueled draft—over a twenty-one-day period. It is true that he created a 120-foot roll of paper so that he wouldn’t have to stop to feed more paper into his typewriter, and wrote one of his drafts that way. But it turns out that he was working from a draft he already had in his journals. Also, if you look at that typewriter scroll closely, you can see all kinds of corrections; those corrections are, in effect, his third draft.

Three drafts, not one. Also: three drafts, not forty-nine. You may have heard this cute story about Oscar Wilde: His host asked him how his writing was going, and he said, “I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning and took out a comma.” “And in the afternoon?” “In the afternoon—well, I put it back in again.” That doesn’t count as a draft. What you are trying to do is tackle your book, not tinker with it. Because—are you ready?—the point is not to go through life writing the same book the whole time.

~ * ~

If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Links: Let’s Get Sensory: Powering Scenes Using The 5 Senses

by

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Steven King is one of my favorite writers, not just because he writes great stories, but because of how he writes. I grew up in New England, where he often sets a scene. While reading his stories, I can picture the scene so well I can almost smell it. He doesn’t just describe the environment but has the environment interact with the character.  Angela Ackerman agrees as that is one of her tips over at Elizabeth Spann Craig

~ * ~

Let’s Get Sensory: Powering Scenes Using The 5 Senses

Angela Ackerman
Kids are great at using all their senses. As soon as no one is looking, the leaves are going in their mouth.
Kids are great at using all their senses. As soon as no one is looking, the leaves are going right in their mouth.

There isn’t a writer alive who doesn’t believe description is important. We know that the key to pulling readers into our fictional world lies in how well we can describe each scene, giving it color and texture, and infusing it with emotion and substance. And one of the very best ways to achieve this is to use sensory detail: the sights, smells, tastes, textures, and sounds that our POV character or narrator experiences.

Emotion factors heavily in sensory description because the mindset of the POV character influences what they notice (which also determines what details the reader is privy to). A character sitting by a river to enjoy a happy, reflective moment after graduating university may be drawn to clusters of green shoots along the muddy bank that slant in the direction of the sun.  She might note the sharp, clean scent of pine needles and how each breath makes her feel renewed. The give of moss, the gentle breeze, and the sound of the water chuckling across stones…all of these details may lull her (and the reader) into a sleepy state of satisfied bliss.

However, a character dropping behind an uprooted tree along the riverbank to hide from her enemies would focus on different details: the poke and scrape of wood against her back and arms as she presses tight against the fan of roots. The cold river water seeping into her shoes as they sink in the mud which reeks of decay. The snap of branches, the shouts of her pursuers, the squeezing rush of her own shuddering breaths.

As writers, we can do so much with sensory detail, adding tension and painting each scene with emotion and mood. Choosing the right sensory description not only helps readers feel like they are drawing breath alongside the protagonist, it also triggers their emotional memories. A well-placed sensory detail will cause a past moment to surface, a time when the reader felt the same sensations and emotions as the character. This powerful “shared experience” is what we want to strive for as we describe, because it lays the groundwork for empathy.

~ * ~

If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.