Quick Links: This is the Reason you Need Writing Goals and How to Implement Them

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

So the writing frenzy of NaNoWriMo is over and the holiday craziness of December hit and I have already fallen off the wagon with my writing goals!  Good thing I have Rachel Thompson over at Bad Redhead Media to get me back on track!

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This is the Reason you Need Writing Goals and How to Implement Them

By Rachel Thompson

Most writers (myself included) find it difficult to stick to any kind of a writing plan, especially as the year goes by. Well, let’s make a plan right now, before the year starts. No need to wait until January with all that resolution crap. Let’s start right now, in December. If you did the #NaNoWriMo thing, then you’re done starting December 1 and you can breathe a sigh of relief — you can go back to writing All The Things. If you didn’t do NaNo and don’t even know what it is, cool: this post will focus on helping you meet all kinds of different writing goals (books, articles, blog posts, and social media).

Speaking of goals: let’s make them and meet them. Multiple studies have shown that if you make goals, you complete them. In fact, “over 100 separate studies in a wide range of experimental situations have come to the same conclusion: people who explicitly state when and where their new behaviors are going to happen are much more likely to stick to their goals.” (Source: James Clear)

You don’t have to share your goals with anyone (some say you’re less likely to succeed if you do). This is purely to get you going NOW.

This exercise is for you (and hey, for me, too — I’m putting my goals in writing right here and now so thank you). Let’s deconstruct.

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Quick Link: Cause and Effect: Telling Your Story in the Right Order

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So we have all heard the writing tip “show don’t tell” but there is another really good one from at Writer’s Digest. Write the cause then the effect. It makes for much tighter writing. Check it out and see for yourself.

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Cause and Effect: Telling Your Story in the Right Order

By: |

 A game of billiards begins with the cue ball striking the racked balls, which then scatter across the pool table. After that the players take turns trying to clear the table by pocketing another ball (either stripes or solids), all while keeping the cue ball out of the pockets.

We all understand that the game must start somehow. Normally that happens when one player hits that cue ball to break the triangle of racked balls. And from then on, every time a ball hits another, that contact results in an effect.

It’s the same with a story, as you’ll see in this excerpt from Troubleshooting Your Novel by Steven Jame

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Quick Link: 10 eye-opening tips to add impact to your storytelling

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Sometimes it is the little things that make a good story great. That is what Roz Morris, owner of Nail Your Novel, is talking about.  She has some great tips on how to nudge your story a little bit and make it greater. What tips do you have?

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10 eye-opening tips to add impact to your storytelling

by Roz Morris

When I work with a writer on their first serious novel manuscript, there are certain aspects they usually get right on instinct alone. There’s the content – a believable story world, characters with solid backgrounds and stuff to do. They usually write fluently too. But there are other, more hidden levels of craft that they usually haven’t noticed in good books, but will make an immense difference to the quality of their work. So here are a few.

1 Keeping the reader’s curiosity

When we’re kids we’re taught we must finish any book we start. Like eating every morsel on the plate, even the detested Brussels sprouts. But a reader will not persevere with a book out of politeness. So writers have to be relentless showmen (within the expectations of their particular genre, of course). Curiosity is the name of the game. Compelling writers will prime the reader to be curious about everything they show – a character, story development, back story or historical context. How do you learn this? Read with awareness. Analyse what keeps you gripped in books you enjoy. (Often when I point this out, the reply is: ‘I get so swept up that I don’t give it a thought’. QED. I don’t want to spoil your enjoyment, but learn to read with primed antennae.)

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Quick Link: Writing in Third Person Omniscient vs Third Person Limited

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Over at Reedsy they have a great post describing the differences between third person omniscient voice and third person limited. It is really well done so if this is something you had questions about, go check it out. I know I learned a lot.

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Writing in Third Person Omniscient vs Third Person Limited

November 17, 2016

You may have a clear vision for what or who your book is about — but do you know how to tell your story? One of the first major decisions you’ll face as an author is determining the style of narration in your book. Is your story best served by writing in first person, third person, or — if you’re feeling adventurous — second person?

In this post, we’ll be looking at the options available to authors writing in the third person: omniscient and limited. In third person omniscient narration, the narrator has a god’s eye view of the story and is privy to all characters’ thoughts, as well as knowledge of the past and future. Then there’s third person limited, where the narrator’s scope of knowledge is intimately tied to a particular character — very often the protagonist.

For those of you who understand images better than words, we have included a fun graphic mystery that illustrates the power of both viewpoints. If you’re ready to start, just scroll on down!

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Quick Link: 6 Ways Grammarly Can Improve Your Writing And Editing

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Have you tried Grammarly? I read about it from over at The Creative Penn. It is a program that is supposed to help your writing by checking your grammar as you work. There is a free and a paid version and both come with browser plugins and even a download to work with MS Office. If this works as advertised it would be quite useful. Nothing replaces a professional editor for eBook work, but perhaps you could at least cut your costs a little by fixing what you can first.

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6 Ways Grammarly Can Improve Your Writing And Editing

Cause you don’t want your editor to need a red pencil this big.

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We rarely see the errors in our own writing, which is why I’m a super fan of using professional editors to improve my own books.

But there are things we can do to improve the manuscript BEFORE sending it to an editor.

Grammarly is one of those useful tools that can sort out the basic errors, enabling you to improve your writing and learn as you go. It can also help with emails and online writing, where paying a pro editor isn’t cost effective.

Why consider a tool like Grammarly?

As indie authors, we are 100% responsible for producing books that are not only readable and entertaining / informative but also ones that are mistake-free. When readers are distracted by misspellings and grammatical errors their reading experience is going to suffer. And that means your reputation as an author is going to suffer as well.

The Kindle also has a function for readers to report typos and if you get too many of these in a book, you’re going to get a quality notification.

For this reason, we always want to use professional editors and proofreaders when we’re publishing our books. Nothing can replace the editing and proofreading of a human being, especially one who specializes in your genre.

However, the messier a manuscript is when you send it to a professional for proofreading or editing, the more it’s going to cost you to improve and fix.

This is where the online app, Grammarly, steps into the picture.

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Quick Link: Need More Time to Write? Plan a DIY Writing Retreat

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

So with the busy holiday season I had to post this article because doesn’t a writing retreat sound like heaven right now? Where should we go? I will bring the wine! Head over to The Write Life to read ‘s article and we can all dream together!

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Need More Time to Write? Plan a DIY Writing Retreat

July 25, 2016 By
Can we have spa at our retreat too?

Finding uninterrupted time to focus on your craft is tough. That’s why attending a writing retreat or residency is often a highlight of a writer’s year.

Writing retreats and residencies alike can be a fantastically rewarding experiences, but not everyone has the time or money to commit to one.

But if right now isn’t the right time to head away for a writing retreat or residency, that doesn’t mean you can’t still enjoy uninterrupted time on your work.

You can create your own DIY writing retreat without even having to leave home.

Is a DIY writing retreat right for you?

Before planning your own DIY retreat, make sure it’s right for you. Decide what you’d like to gain from the experience and evaluate if you can get that experience from a DIY retreat or if another option would be better.

If you’re yearning for some uninterrupted time to work on a project or time to do some deep thinking about your next career steps, a DIY retreat could be perfect for you.

But if the primary reason you want to go on a writing retreat or residency is to meet other writers and creative types, a DIY writing retreat will likely not offer the results you’re looking for.

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Quick Link: 4 Simple Tips To Catch More Errors When Proofreading

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I am always so jealous of people who can edit their own work, quickly. That is why this article written by from Stand Out Books caught my attention. Even if you are one of those clever people who can edit on the fly, you still might find something worth reading.

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4 Simple Tips To Catch More Errors When Proofreading

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Proofreading will make your story better. There are few guarantees anyone can give about art – even fewer that apply to every individual – but that’s one of them. Proofreading, in fact, is the single most effective way to make your story better; a magic bullet that can transform a piece of writing from unpublishable to unbelievable.

It’s a shame, then, that it’s something from which our brains seem inherently repulsed. If you’re an author, you’ve probably had the experience of sitting down to proofread a piece of work and ending up doing anything else. Writer’s block is a piece of cake next to proofer’s block. What’s more, our brains hate proofreading so much that they’ll even convince us we can’t do it, or that it doesn’t need doing, or that it doesn’t need doing yet – anything to avoid carrying out this onerous, completely necessary task.

As an editor who has proofread many different works, I’ve got some experience in convincing my brain to stop complaining and get to work. Some of that is training, some is experience, and some is minor tips and tricks that make the whole endeavor easier to pull off. In this article, I’ll be sharing four of those basic tips and explaining how they can make your proofreading easier, more effective, and more likely to happen in the first place. Before that, though, I need to clear something up.

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Quick Link: 5 Ways Independent Authors Can Advocate for Themselves

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We all know there is a bias against self-publishing. While there are now more indie authors than ever, there is still a struggle to legitimize the choice of doing it yourself.  Brooke Warner has some great thoughts on how indie authors can help themselves as well as the rest of us.

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5 Ways Independent Authors Can Advocate for Themselves

by Brooke Warner

Earlier this month I moderated a panel at the Bay Area Book Festival called “The Future of Book Publishing.” We had an esteemed group of panelists from all areas of the industry, with Jack Jensen, publisher of Chronicle Books as the traditional figurehead, and Mark Coker of Smashwords representing the self-publishing contingent.

A question surfaced from the audience: Do some people avoid self-publishing because they don’t qualify for awards?

Jensen was the first to respond, telling the earnest woman that anyone can submit to contests — just submit. I almost felt bad to have to inform him of his industry’s bias — that no, you can’t just submit, and that countless awards programs bar self-published authors (and any author, in fact, who’s invested in their own work) from entering.

Jensen was shocked, and I was shocked that he was shocked. And yet gratified too. Even someone with such illustrious credentials who’s been in this industry nearly four decades thinks policies like these are bullshit.

A couple days later I was being interviewed for a podcast. The host started talking to me about the topic of bias in the industry, which seems to follow me everywhere I go (because I’m vocal about the aforementioned bullshit factor). She said she suggests self-published authors have their own imprints and submit wherever they want to and say that they’re published on a “small press” (their own) and no one will be any the wiser.

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Quick Links: Brood For Thought: On The Enduring Appeal Of The Moody Male Lead

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Today’s post focuses on stereotypes, more specifically the stereotype of the moody leading male. Think Wolverine from the movies, or even Mr. Darcy. Rosalind Moran, at Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America shares some deep thoughts about this topic. Let us know who your favorite moody male lead is or if you just disagree.

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Brood For Thought: On The Enduring Appeal Of The Moody Male Lead

by Rosalind Moran

Works of Science-Fiction and Fantasy routinely suffer genre snobbery. Clichés are identified down to an infinitesimally small degree, and then torn apart with grim satisfaction. Neither unlikely boys with great destinies nor elderly men of genealogical significance are spared.

It’s a tough time to be an archetype.

Yet while authors are aware of heightened scrutiny and increased demands on originality within genres framed by convention, they nevertheless continue to write certain characters – such as male leads – in forms often adhering to well-worn moulds. Take the dark, troubled hero: he remains prominent in stories ranging from Twilight (pardon my language) to A Game Of Thrones, even if these have supposedly grown more nuanced since the I-carry-five-foot-swords-on-my-back era of the 80s.

And why is this the case? The moody male lead is widespread throughout all genres, but it can be difficult to see why anybody would want to spend time with him. He’s brooding, exceedingly individualistic, melancholic, and disposed to hanging around outdoors during thunderstorms for no good reason beyond cultivating his mystique. Furthermore, despite possessing attributes such as introspection, sophistication in some form, and intelligence, he is also typically rather unpleasant.

So what’s underpinning his enduring presence and appeal in fiction?

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Quick Link: Selling Books on Social Media: 4 Steps to Less Wasted Time

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Want some help getting your social media responsibilities under control? (This is coming from someone who just spent way to much time on Pinterest.) Chris Syme has some great tips on how to make the most of your social media marketing over at Anne R. Allen’s Blog.. With Ruth Harris.

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Selling Books on Social Media: 4 Steps to Less Wasted Time

by Chris Syme

A mind-boggling 78 percent of Americans have a social media profile. And a little over half of them are on more than one channel. It is a given that authors can develop loyal audiences and sell more books with the help of social media. But how many social media channels are enough?

Even though it may be true that you have potential readers on every social media channel, it is a waste of your time and resources to try to connect with people everywhere. As the emphasis in social media marketing switches from number of fans (reach) to connecting and building loyal fans (engagement), it’s time to build a social media strategy around developing a troop of engaged followers that will help carry your valuable content to their friends.

It’s time to learn how to get more engagement with less social media.

Four Steps to Less Wasted Social Media Time

There are four key steps to building this new less is more strategy with social media marketing: find your audience, designate your primary channel, build your outpost channels, and upgrade your content quality. Before we dig into the four steps, let me define the terms primary channel and outpost channel.

What is a Primary Channel?

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Quick Link: 3 Ways to Improve Your Storytelling

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The always impressive Janice Harding has a great article on what to do to improve your storytelling.  These tips work well with a bare bones outline approach we talked about in a previous post. Head on over to Fiction University to learn more!

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3 Ways to Improve Your Storytelling

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

This week’s Refresher Friday takes another look at three ways to improve your storytelling. Enjoy!

My high school creative writing teacher had the best definition of story that I’ve ever seen.

A story is interesting people, solving interesting problems, in interesting ways.

The genius is in its simplicity. Interesting is subjective and open to so many possibilities, which allows for everyone to approach it in their own creative way. But the core idea is solid. People solving problems. At the heart of every story is a problem to be solved (the conflict).

To improve our storytelling skills, all we have to do it focus on the three things that make a story a story.

1. Interesting People (The Characters)

Even in formula-heavy action stories, character stands out. Everyone knows James Bond, or Harry Potter, or that gal Dorothy Gale from Kansas. A great story has characters who offer something interesting to readers.

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Quick Link: 3 Simple Ways to Win the Argument with Your Inner Critic

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I don’t know about you, but I definitely struggle against my inner critic. And since you can’t always silence them with chocolate and wine, check out Lauren Sapala‘s post on winning arguments with that nagging little voice.

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3 Simple Ways to Win the Argument with Your Inner Critic

by Lauren Sapala

If you’re an artist or a writer—or both—then you know what I’m talking about when I say “inner critic.” It’s not just a way of describing a tendency toward self-judgment. For us, the inner critic is a loud, nasty, disgusting creature who invades our thoughts, whips us mercilessly, and sometimes decides to chain us up in the dungeon.

That might sound extreme, but if you’re an artist or a writer, you know how accurate that description is.

When you’re in that kind of critical head space it can make you feel insane, and like you’re the only one who’s ever gone through this. But, as a coach who works with highly creative people, I can assure you the inner critic visits all of us. Not only that, but it uses the same three arguments over and over as a form of attack. Each one is surprisingly simple, which is probably why they work so well. They have universal appeal to the most vulnerable parts of any human personality.

Here are the Big Three:

You’re Not Working Fast Enough/Doing Enough Work

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Quick Links: How to Write (and Not to Write) an Author Bio

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At Fiction University, guest poster Gail Carriger writes on how to give your author bio a little pizazz and make it part of your marketing tools instead of something to just check off your to-do list. On a personal note, I am a big fan of Gail’s Parasol Protectorate series. If you like humor, steampunk, and a little romance check them out!

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How to Write (and Not to Write) an Author Bio

By Gail Carriger, @gailcarriger 

Part of the How They Do It Series

I still have readers who tell me they purchased my first book because they liked the bio. Sure, the cover got them to pick it up, and the description got them intrigued, but they bought it because of the bio. I think this is uncommon. I took a risk with my bio and it worked.

But first, here’s what most authors do…

Your Fill-In-The-Blank Author Bio

[Name] lives in [City] where she pretends to be a [pithy comment on boring day job] when she would rather be writing. She spends her free time [standard hobby] and [less standard hobby]. She also likes to [quirky and slightly off base skill – like fencing or black belt in some combat thingy ]. She lives with a [tolerant, saintly, long-suffering] spouse/partner and two [witty descriptor] [cats/children] and a [dog/garden].

So, that’s your formula.

Why would readers pick up a book written by someone who doesn’t have the imagination to come up with a unique bio?

My recommendation? Break from tradition.

How?

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Quick Link: How To Vividly Describe a Setting That You’ve Never Visited by Angela Ackerman

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One way to get around having to deal with settings is by having a completely fictional world. But even then, most writers are inspired by real places around them and not all genres support this. At Romance University,  shares great tips on how to find useful information to fill in scene details.

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How To Vividly Describe a Setting That You’ve Never Visited by Angela Ackerman

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Woohoo! Angela Ackerman is back in the house with another fabulous post! Do not miss this one!

One of the big decisions writers are faced with is whether to choose a real location for the backdrop of their overall story, or create one of their own imagining. Crafting a world from scratch is a lot of work (requiring a deep understanding of the society, infrastructure, rules, governmental influence, as well as a million other details). But it also avoids a big problem associated with real-world locations: reader bias. This is when the reader’s own emotional ties to a place influence their reading experience.

Imagine your character is living in a neighborhood that a reader grew up in. Even if you carefully researched the setting, perhaps visited it yourself, people and places still change over time. Stores close, schools are torn down. Streets are renamed. Readers will expect the story world to match what they remember, and this isn’t always the case, causing a ripple in their reading experience.

Bias aside, there are many great reasons to place your story in the real world. Readers can slip into the action easier when they understand it takes place in Chicago or Amsterdam because they recognize these areas and can fill in blanks as far as how “big picture” society works.

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Quick Link: How I Use Skeleton Outlines to Write Faster

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I confess to being partial to today’s post because using skeleton outlines is how I like to write. To me it is almost magic how the story unfolds and almost creates itself. So if you are interested check out ‘s post on All Indie Writers.

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How I Use Skeleton Outlines to Write Faster

by | Nov 6, 2016

A fellow writer mentioned that client projects sometimes took longer than they’d hoped, and they wanted to learn to write faster. While there are plenty of ways you can increase your writing speed, one tip I gave them was to try using what I call “skeleton outlines.”

I worked through the beginning stages of one while they watched just to show how quick the process could be. And today I’d like to share the resulting example I created so you too can give this technique a try.

This post kicks off a new series where I’ll highlight some of my favorite writing resources and strategies, showing you exactly how I use them, and occasionally sharing my personal tools that I’ve created to use in the day-to-day running of my business.

Let’s take a look at what skeleton outlines are and how they can help you get through writing projects big and small.

What Are Skeleton Outlines?

A skeleton outline is a high-level breakdown of your content. It lets you know what’s coming — what you have to write — without you actually thinking about the meat of that content.

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