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8 Ways to Become a Better Writer

8 Ways to Become a Better Writer
by Jennifer Novotney


Write in a journal

Some writers really took journal writing to an art form. Think of Anais Nin or or Virginia Woolf. Make sure your journal is just for you. A great poem or story may come out of your journal, but the journal itself is never meant for anyone else’s eyes. Be creative. Be daring. You have nothing to lose! Write in your journal as often or as little as you like. Write as much or as little as you like. This is your private writer space to be yourself.

Get a good editor

I expanded on this idea in my post on why every writer needs an editor, but four eyes are better than two. Have someone read over your work for errors or laps in the basic elements especially if you plan to submit somewhere. A critical read may be just what you need to improve and open your eyes to your own work.

Read. Read. Read

My last post was on the virtues of reading 100 books a year, but you don’t have to go that crazy. Read the latest article on your phone. Read that romance you’ve been seeing everywhere. Read to your kids each night. The more you read, the more exposed you will become to various writing styles and genres.

Experiment

Don’t get stuck in a writing rut. Maybe you see yourself as a short story writer. So try writing a poem, even if it’s terrible. Push yourself to write a novella and really expand on a character’s motivations. Write a personal essay about an issue that matters to you. Don’t get boxed in to one way of writing or one genre. Experiment and learn more about yourself and your writing styles. You may just surprise yourself!

Find a dedicated time to write

I wrote a recent post on this one, but it is worth including in the list. No time to write equals no writing. The best way to support your writing habit is to make it one. Pick a time to write each day. Maybe it’s first thing in the morning before everyone else in the house is up. Maybe it’s when you have a fifteen minute break at work. Whenever your best time is, get out your pen and paper or laptop and write.

Set goals

This may work for some people and not for others, but eventually, if you truly want to be successful at writing, you need to set goals. Write three journal pages a day. Write for fifteen minutes every other day. Write 200o words each day. Whatever your goal is, be realistic and try to stick to it. You will feel so accomplished just for reaching your goal and become more motivated to write more often, which is the greatest goal of all.

Create a writing space

Find a little piece of heaven just for your writing time. I wrote a post awhile back about combating writer’s block with a writing space. You’d be surprised about just how focused you’ll become in your own space you’ve claimed just to write. Your mind will instinctively switch to writing mode when you get to your desk, corner, bench, or wherever you’ve chosen to write. Push all thoughts out of your mind and get to writing, especially if you have limited time. Make sure those in your family know that when you are in your writing space, it is time just for you to write and that you shouldn’t be bothered. I always say that I can only be disturbed in an emergency.

Take breaks

If you are constantly writing, then you may not have time to think out your piece. Especially with novel writing, it is extremely important to take breaks from writing to reread what you’ve already written. For me, this is valuable to evaluate the plot or conflict points. A great time to reread is either right before you start your writing session or right when you are through. Sometimes, I like to just get to writing. Other times, I want to reread what I’ve written the day before to really get into my piece. You decide what works best for you. On days you really don’t feel like writing, take a break. Maybe that permission to rest will inspire greatness to grace your page!

5 steps to editing.

An interesting post about the editing process from The Almond Press

I used to get pretty confused by the random terminology that publishers and writers use to describe the editing process. What’s the different between an edit and a copy-edit? Do I really need all of these stages? What on earth is everyone on about?

Step 1: Writing the book.

This is Draft 1 to Draft “I lost count”, and then Edit Version 1 to infinity…and you’ve written the ending! It’s done!

Now what?

Step 2: Alpha read

When you’re ready, you hand it over to someone (either a friend or an editor) to have a first read. This is usually the plot holes, “does this make sense?” and “is my story any good?” This can be a complete change of plot, or entire sections deleted; or this can be smaller details, where you’ve got most of it right already. The story might go back to draft versions at this point, or may go on to the next stage…

Step 3: Beta read

This is the character motivation, minor plot holes, small details; where the gun got left in the house yet is suddenly to hand; you forgot to mention that the hero has any skills at animal-taming yet is suddenly amazing at it; they’re in completely the wrong sector of space to have seen that star formation; and why on earth is he talking to her? He hates her! This is where the story and plot are ok, with no major holes, but there might be some smaller flaws.

That said…I’ve had stories at the beta-read stage that have needed chunks added or even complete re-writes! Every reader brings something different, and you might find that even when a story is finished…it’s not. So these two stages can be interchangeable, but you’ll usually find things have a flow; your first readers will pick up on the plot holes, and then the things will get smaller and more minor as you polish your work.

Always remember, throughout the alpha-and beta-read (and even the copy-editing stage) that you are the author: you have final say in what happens to your story. That doesn’t mean you should always dismiss ideas – take the time to think about them, because the reader has made that comment for a reason. You might dislike what they are saying, but at least give the comments the benefit of the doubt, and have a reason for their dismissal – even if it’s “I want it this way”.

Step 3: Copy-edit

This happens when you’ve got the final version and you’re happy with your story. A copy-edit is the sentence structure, the sense, the wording; a proof is spelling and any grammatical mistakes you may have made. Please, please don’t skip these stages. Even if you don’t get an external proofreader to look at your work, do a final read yourself; change the font, read it backwards, put it into e-book format…do something that means you’ve had a chance to spot that “teh” and the words that are spelled correctly, but male no scents. My personal shout-out is Red Pen For Hire; I get them to check over any work I’m sending as a submission, and they also edit my fiction. When you think you found all the mistakes, and then get the copy back with a lot of notes and highlights…trust me, it’s worth it!

Step 5: Submission or publication

And the final step, hopefully, is sending your work out into the world. This could be self-publication or could be submission; either way, it’s getting your writing over to a wider audience!

If you’re submitting to a publisher, make sure you read their guidelines and follow what they want – try reading 5 Questions To Ask Before Submitting Your Short Story for some good tips. If you’re self-publishing, make sure your work is the best you can make it, and have a look at Self-Publishing and Book Cover Design for some really good advice there.

In either case – be proud of your work! It’s finished!

13 Tips for actually Getting Some Writing Accomplished

From Gretchen Rubin

Gretchen is the author of multiple New York Times bestselling books including The Happiness Project and Happier at Home, is the host of a chart-topping weekly podcast, and maintains a popular website with hundreds of thousands of readers form around the world. When it comes to advice on being a productive writer, she is someone we should all be listening to.

One of the challenges of writing is…writing. Here are some tips that I’ve found most useful for myself, for actually getting words onto the page:

1. Write something every work-day, and preferably, every day; don’t wait for inspiration to strike. Staying inside a project keeps you engaged, keeps your mind working, and keeps ideas flowing. Also, perhaps surprisingly, it’s often easier to do something almost every day than to do it three times a week. (This may be related to the abstainer/moderator split.)

2. Remember that if you have even just fifteen minutes, you can get something done. Don’t mislead yourself, as I did for several years, with thoughts like, “If I don’t have three or four hours clear, there’s no point in starting.”

3. Don’t binge on writing. Staying up all night, not leaving your house for days, abandoning all other priorities in your life — these habits lead to burn-out.

4. If you have trouble re-entering a project, stop working in mid-thought — even mid-sentence — so it’s easy to dive back in later.

5. Don’t get distracted by how much you are or aren’t getting done. I put myself in jail.

6. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that creativity descends on you at random. Creative thinking comes most easily when you’re writing regularly and frequently, when you’re constantly thinking about your project.

7. Remember that lots of good ideas and great writing come during the revision stage. I’ve found, for myself, that I need to get a beginning, middle, and an end in place, and then the more creative and complex ideas begin to form. So I try not to be discouraged by first drafts.

8. Develop a method of keeping track of thoughts, ideas, articles, or anything that catches your attention. That keeps you from forgetting ideas that might turn out to be important, and also, combing through these materials helps stimulate your creativity. My catch-all document, where I store everything related to happiness that I don’t have another place for, is more than five hundred pages long. Some people use inspiration boards; others keep scrapbooks. Whatever works for you.

9. Pay attention to your physical comfort. Do you have a decent desk and chair? Are you cramped? Is the light too dim or too bright? Make a salute—if you feel relief when your hand is shading your eyes, your desk is too brightly lit. Check your body, too: lower your shoulders, make sure your tongue isn’t pressed against the top of your mouth, don’t sit in a contorted way. Being physically uncomfortable tires you out and makes work seem harder.

10. Try to eliminate interruptions — by other people, email, your phone, or poking around the Internet — but don’t tell yourself that you can only work with complete peace and quiet.

11. Over his writing desk, Franz Kafka had one word: “Wait.” My brilliantly creative friend Tad Low, however, keeps a different word on his desk: “Now.” Both pieces of advice are good.

12. If you’re stuck, try going for a walk and reading a really good book. Virginia Woolf noted to herself: “The way to rock oneself back into writing is this. First gentle exercise in the air. Second the reading of good literature. It is a mistake to think that literature can be produced from the raw.”

13. At least in my experience, the most important tip for getting writing done? Have something to say! This sounds obvious, but it’s a lot easier to write when you’re trying to tell a story, explain an idea, convey an impression, give a review, or whatever. If you’re having trouble writing, forget about the writing and focus on what you want to communicate. For example, I remember flailing desperately as I tried to write my college and law-school application essays. It was horrible – until in both cases I realized I had something I really wanted to say. Then the writing came easily, and those two essays are among my favorites of things I’ve ever written.

Gretchen Rubin’s latest book is Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives Follow Gretchen on Facebook and Twitter.

How Long Should a Sentence Be?

I'm a beta reader and often question authors on the length of their sentences. We all write run-ons, but sometimes one sentence can take up half a page. I found this post from Daily Writing Tips to be useful in determining the length of sentences. By the way, one of my friends felt my sentences were too short!


How Long Should a Sentence Be?


A few years ago, I wrote a post titled “How Long Should a Paragraph Be?” which argued that various pronouncements that dictate paragraph length (expounded for the benefit of beginning writers, who presumably are aided by the introduction of a circumscribed formula for success in composition) should be ignored in favor of a commonsense approach to organizing paragraphs according to the ideas expressed within; the correct answer, I argued, is that a paragraph has to be long enough to reach its end, meaning that a paragraph can be as short or as long as is required for a writer to express an idea.

Did the preceding paragraph seem too long? It’s not especially lengthy, but if it exhausted you to read it, that’s because it consists of a single sentence that is more than a hundred words long. Although I am known to write long, complex sentences, that one, which I deliberately stretched out to an excessive extent, is an example of a statement that could use some reorganization.

How long should a sentence be? Like a paragraph, it should be long enough to reach its end, but, as with a paragraph, that objective should be balanced with aesthetic considerations. A sentence can consist of one word or be infinitely long, but what will serve the reader while expressing a complete thought?

Generally, it’s more productive to provide a sequence of sentences of naturally varied length than to dictate how many words one is permitted to use in a given sentence; a succession of sentences of equal or similar length will distract readers, as will a series with wildly divergent word counts. Take care not to repeatedly overwhelm sentences with multiple forms of parenthesis (interjecting words or phrases—or entire sentences, for that matter, using commas, parentheses, or dashes). The previous sentence includes the three basic forms, but note that, aside from a single semicolon, I have refrained from introducing anything more complicated into this paragraph.

Don’t overthink the issue, of course. Write naturally, but when revising your work, attend to sentence length and combine or separate sentences that seem too abrupt or unwieldy (unless that is the effect you want to create). If you want a ballpark figure, go with a range of twenty to twenty-five words as a benchmark, though average length will vary depending on the literacy of your readership.

Yiddish, 40 Words you should know

I have a confession - I've written a Depression-era novel, MITZI OF THE RITZ, with a lovely Jewish protagonist. I filled the manuscript with Yiddish words that enriched every page. I wanted to share this post from The Yiddish Handbook

40 Words You Should Know By Michael


The Yiddish language is a wonderful source of rich expressions, especially terms of endearment (and of course, complaints and insults). This article is a follow up on Ten Yiddish Expressions You Should Know. Jewish scriptwriters introduced many Yiddish words into popular culture, which often changed the original meanings drastically. You might be surprised to learn how much Yiddish you already speak, but also, how many familiar words actually mean something different in real Yiddish.

There is no universally accepted transliteration or spelling; the standard YIVO version is based on the Eastern European Klal Yiddish dialect, while many Yiddish words found in English came from Southern Yiddish dialects. In the 1930s, Yiddish was spoken by more than 10 million people, but by 1945, 75% of them were gone. Today, Yiddish is the language of over 100 newspapers, magazines, radio broadcasts, and websites.

1.baleboste
A good homemaker, a woman who’s in charge of her home and will make sure you remember it.

2.bissel
Or bisl – a little bit.

3.bubbe
Or bobe. It means Grandmother, and bobeshi is the more affectionate form. Bubele is a similarly affectionate word, though it isn’t in Yiddish dictionaries.

4.bupkes
Not a word for polite company. Bubkes or bobkes may be related to the Polish word for “beans”, but it really means “goat droppings” or “horse droppings.” It’s often used by American Jews for “trivial, worthless, useless, a ridiculously small amount” – less than nothing, so to speak. “After all the work I did, I got bupkes!”

5.chutzpah
Or khutspe. Nerve, extreme arrogance, brazen presumption. In English, chutzpah often connotes courage or confidence, but among Yiddish speakers, it is not a compliment.

6.feh!
An expression of disgust or disapproval, representative of the sound of spitting.

7.glitch
Or glitsh. Literally “slip,” “skate,” or “nosedive,” which was the origin of the common American usage as “a minor problem or error.”

8.gornisht
More polite than bupkes, and also implies a strong sense of nothing; used in phrases such as “gornisht helfn” (beyond help).

9.goy
A non-Jew, a Gentile. As in Hebrew, one Gentile is a goy, many Gentiles are goyim, the non-Jewish world in general is “the goyim.” Goyish is the adjective form. Putting mayonnaise on a pastrami sandwich is goyish. Putting mayonnaise on a pastrami sandwich on white bread is even more goyish.

10.kibbitz
In Yiddish, it’s spelled kibets, and it’s related to the Hebrew “kibbutz” or “collective.” But it can also mean verbal joking, which after all is a collective activity. It didn’t originally mean giving unwanted advice about someone else’s game – that’s an American innovation.

11.klutz
Or better yet, klots. Literally means “a block of wood,” so it’s often used for a dense, clumsy or awkward person. See schlemiel.

12.kosher
Something that’s acceptable to Orthodox Jews, especially food. Other Jews may also “eat kosher” on some level but are not required to. Food that Orthodox Jews don’t eat – pork, shellfish, etc. – is called traif. An observant Jew might add, “Both pork and shellfish are doubtlessly very tasty. I simply am restricted from eating it.” In English, when you hear something that seems suspicious or shady, you might say, “That doesn’t sound kosher.”

13.kvetsh
In popular English, kvetch means “complain, whine or fret,” but in Yiddish, kvetsh literally means “to press or squeeze,” like a wrong-sized shoe. Reminds you of certain chronic complainers, doesn’t it? But it’s also used on Yiddish web pages for “click” (Click Here).

14.maven
Pronounced meyven. An expert, often used sarcastically.

15.Mazel Tov
Or mazltof. Literally “good luck,” (well, literally, “good constellation”) but it’s a congratulation for what just happened, not a hopeful wish for what might happen in the future. When someone gets married or has a child or graduates from college, this is what you say to them. It can also be used sarcastically to mean “it’s about time,” as in “It’s about time you finished school and stopped sponging off your parents.”

16.mentsh
An honorable, decent person, an authentic person, a person who helps you when you need help. Can be a man, woman or child.

17.mishegas
Insanity or craziness. A meshugener is a crazy man. If you want to insult someone, you can ask them, ”Does it hurt to be crazy?”

18.mishpocheh
Or mishpokhe or mishpucha. It means “family,” as in “Relax, you’re mishpocheh. I’ll sell it to you at wholesale.”

19.nosh
Or nash. To nibble; a light snack, but you won’t be light if you don’t stop noshing. Can also describe plagarism, though not always in a bad sense; you know, picking up little pieces for yourself.

20.nu
A general word that calls for a reply. It can mean, “So?” “Huh?” “Well?” “What’s up?” or “Hello?”

21.oy vey
Exclamation of dismay, grief, or exasperation. The phrase “oy vey iz mir” means “Oh, woe is me.” “Oy gevalt!” is like oy vey, but expresses fear, shock or amazement. When you realize you’re about to be hit by a car, this expression would be appropriate.

22.plotz
Or plats. Literally, to explode, as in aggravation. “Well, don’t plotz!” is similar to “Don’t have a stroke!” or “Don’t have a cow!” Also used in expressions such as, “Oy, am I tired; I just ran the four-minute mile. I could just plotz.” That is, collapse.

23.shalom
It means “deep peace,” and isn’t that a more meaningful greeting than “Hi, how are ya?”

24.shlep
To drag, traditionally something you don’t really need; to carry unwillingly. When people “shlep around,” they are dragging themselves, perhaps slouchingly. On vacation, when I’m the one who ends up carrying the heavy suitcase I begged my wife to leave at home, I shlep it.

25.shlemiel
A clumsy, inept person, similar to a klutz (also a Yiddish word). The kind of person who always spills his soup.

26.schlock
Cheap, shoddy, or inferior, as in, “I don’t know why I bought this schlocky souvenir.”

27.shlimazel
Someone with constant bad luck. When the shlemiel spills his soup, he probably spills it on the shlimazel. Fans of the TV sitcom “Laverne and Shirley” remember these two words from the Yiddish-American hopscotch chant that opened each show.

28.shmendrik
A jerk, a stupid person, popularized in The Last Unicorn and Welcome Back Kotter.

29.shmaltzy
Excessively sentimental, gushing, flattering, over-the-top, corny. This word describes some of Hollywood’s most famous films. From shmaltz, which means chicken fat or grease.

30.shmooze
Chat, make small talk, converse about nothing in particular. But at Hollywood parties, guests often schmooze with people they want to impress.

31.schmuck
Often used as an insulting word for a self-made fool, but you shouldn’t use it in polite company at all, since it refers to male anatomy.

32.spiel
A long, involved sales pitch, as in, “I had to listen to his whole spiel before I found out what he really wanted.” From the German word for play.

33.shikse
A non-Jewish woman, all too often used derogatorily. It has the connotation of “young and beautiful,” so referring to a man’s Gentile wife or girlfriend as a shiksa implies that his primary attraction was her good looks. She is possibly blonde. A shagetz or sheygets means a non-Jewish boy, and has the connotation of a someone who is unruly, even violent.

34.shmutz
Or shmuts. Dirt – a little dirt, not serious grime. If a little boy has shmutz on his face, and he likely will, his mother will quickly wipe it off. It can also mean dirty language. It’s not nice to talk shmutz about shmutz. A current derivation, “schmitzig,” means a “thigamabob” or a “doodad,” but has nothing to do with filth.

35.shtick
Something you’re known for doing, an entertainer’s routine, an actor’s bit, stage business; a gimmick often done to draw attention to yourself.

36.tchatchke
Or tshatshke. Knick-knack, little toy, collectible or giftware. It also appears in sentences such as, “My brother divorced his wife for some little tchatchke.” You can figure that one out.

37.tsuris
Or tsores. Serious troubles, not minor annoyances. Plagues of lice, gnats, flies, locusts, hail, death… now, those were tsuris.

38.tuches
Rear end, bottom, backside, buttocks. In proper Yiddish, it’s spelled tuchis or tuches or tokhis, and was the origin of the American slang word tush.

39.yente
Female busybody or gossip. At one time, high-class parents gave this name to their girls (after all, it has the same root as “gentle”), but it gained the Yiddish meaning of “she-devil”. The matchmaker in “Fiddler on the Roof” was named Yente (and she certainly was a yente though maybe not very high-class), so many people mistakenly think that yente means matchmaker.

40.yiddisher kop
Smart person. Literally means “Jewish head.” I don’t want to know what goyisher kop means.

As in Hebrew, the ch or kh in Yiddish is a “voiceless fricative,” with a pronunciation between h and k. If you don’t know how to make that sound, pronounce it like an h. Pronouncing it like a k is goyish.

Misplaced Modifiers

3 Cases of Misplaced Modifiers from DailyWritingTips

Modifying phrases are welcome additions to sentences that provide additional information, but when they are inserted awkwardly, they hinder meaning rather than enhance it. In the following sentences, the modifiers appear at the wrong point in the sentence; see discussions and revisions that clarify the intent of the informative phrases.

1. Smith told the man to close the doors while holding the weapon to his head.

This sentence implies that the man was instructed to hold a weapon to his head and close the doors, but the man had a gun to his head when he was told to open the doors, so that key information should precede, not trail, the description of the task he was given (and switching the noun and the pronoun identifying the other person provides further clarity): “While holding the weapon to the man’s head, Smith told him to close the doors.”

2. She was only with Jones for four months because he was abusive.

Technically, this sentence indicates that the woman remained with Jones for the sole reason that he was abusive, and she did so for four months. It could also be misread to imply that because of Jones’s abusive nature, the woman was with him and no one else for four months (though that reading is most likely if only follows Jones.) However, the intended meaning is that her time with him was minimal, so only should immediately precede the reference to the time frame: “She was with Jones for only four months, because he was abusive.” (Better yet, write, “Because Jones was abusive, she was with him for only four months.”)

3. As a young man, Jones recalls the 1945 parade that honored Smith as an event he will never forget.
Using “as a young man” to introduce the recollection implies that it occurred when Jones was a young man, although the tense form of recall is wrong. For an unambivalent reading, Place the parenthetical phrase “as a young man” after “Jones recalls”: “Jones recalls, as a young man, being at the 1945 parade that honored Smith as an event he will never forget.” Better yet, recast the sentence entirely: “Jones says he will never forget when he, as a young man, witnessed the 1945 parade honoring Smith.”

ICYMI, in Case You Missed It

I had to share this wonderful post from Daily Writing Tips

Apparently, I missed it: Ten years ago, the initialism.

ICYMI entered the social media lexicon by way of Twitter. Like BTW, IMO, IIRC, and others, it’s employed as an entrée to a discussion; ICYMI signals to you that the writer is going to provide context by referring to something you may not have read or heard about before. But I wasn’t aware of the initialism itself until I recently stumbled across it in an online article.

I’ve somehow managed to get by without using it and most other examples of online shorthand, including two of the earliest specimens of the form: LOL and ROTFL (and the latter’s more effusive variation, ROTFLMAO). That’s because I’m not a twit—er, not a Twitter user—and I don’t use LOL-speak in text or email messages. But many people do lean heavily on such usage, though some of these condensed expressions, like ICYMI, are less prevalent than others.

That means IAS: It’s a shibboleth. ICYDK, a shibboleth (in its original sense) is a word whose pronunciation by someone marks that person as an insider or an outsider; by extension, one’s very use of the word identifies one’s place within or outside of a social group. BTW, the meaning has also loosened up to refer to any behavior or custom that may, intentionally or otherwise, serve this function.

(IIRC, the use of this odd-looking, odd-sounding word, which refers to the part of a plant from which grain grows, stems from a biblical tale of how one Hebrew tribe distinguished members of another tribe by how members of the latter group pronounced it differently than the members of the first tribe.)

Our culture is replete with shibboleths, from slang and jargon to modes of dress and other visual cues about one’s self-identification (and one’s desire to belong). Initialisms that serve as abbreviations for standard phrases are part of the game: If you use them, you assume that the recipients of your written communication know what they mean. Anyone who doesn’t is L7 and either doesn’t belong on your blog or had better step up their game if they want to hang with the cool kids.

That’s the danger of using language that is obtusely insular: Do you really want to exclude readers who may need a little hand-holding? If you’re a publisher, whether of a quirky little blog or of a book publishing company of international scope, that’s a choice you make—a choice that will affect the future of your enterprise. So, when you write, or commission others to write for you, consciously make a choice about how inclusive or exclusive the writing style is.
I readily admit that I had to look up ICYMI (“in case you missed it,” in case you missed it). And though I was already familiar with many such initialisms, it’s not the only one I was unacquainted with before I checked out an online glossary of terms of this type. So, in a hand-holding spirit, here are translations of the other initialisms I have used in this post:

BTW: by the way

ICYDK: in case you didn’t know

IIRC: if I recall/remember correctly

IMO: in my opinion (IMHO—“in my humble opinion”—is a variation)

LOL: laugh out loud

ROTFL(MAO): roll on the floor laughing (my ass off)

L7, BTW, predates the Internet: It represents the thumb and forefinger of each hand extended at a 90-degree angle (as if to simulate a gun) and held fingertip to fingertip with one hand reversed to form a rough square. An L7 is, therefore, a square, or a conventional or uncool person.

The contributor lists some of the many other Internet initialisms. (An initialism, FWIW, is an abbreviation that, unlike an acronym, is pronounced as a series of letters, not as a word.)


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Interviewing author Jessica Cale

Author Jessica Cale is a recovering journalist writing romance novels out of a gray bedroom in North Carolina. Although Jessica is a Minnesota native, she lived in Wales for several years where she earned a BA in History and an MFA in Creative Writing while climbing castles and photographing mines for history magazines. She married her very own British prince and is enjoying her happily ever after with him in a place where no one understands his accent.

Jessica calls her works romance novels, but she can be rough on her characters. She kills some and puts the others through serious obstacles, including but not limited to poverty, kidnapping, imprisonment, mutilation, and infestation. She says it’s all in the name of historical accuracy, but perhaps she took the quote about the course of true love never going smoothly a bit too seriously. Her writing blends “gothic” romance with historical. There’s danger, suspense, dark themes, and plenty of sweet revenge.

Jess has an MFA in Creative Writing and a BA in Ancient and Medieval History from Swansea University, Wales. Under different names, she has written for BBC History, The Observer, Feedback, Plugged In, The Libertine, Subtext, the International Women’s Day Anthology (2010), and a whole bunch of other people, including an independent magazine she published from 2001 - 2011.

You originally worked as a journalist. What made you transition from journalism to fiction? Was the shift difficult or did having a journalism background has helped your writing?

Fiction was my first love, but I think I had more of a natural talent for journalism. I read constantly as a child and tried to write a couple of books as early as middle school. I found long fiction challenging at first; short stories became a way to develop my writing, and I stuck with these for a few years. Journalism felt easier to me. I started an independent magazine at fifteen and I published this all through high school and university for a total of ten years. I always wanted to write books, though, and historical romance in particular. My MFA is in Creative and Media Writing and all through university and some years after, I worked as a freelance journalist and magazine editor. It was fun, but it could be very stressful and time consuming.

I was a regular contributor to BBC History for a couple of years, but mostly I did music journalism. I also ran my magazine and had a full-time day job at the same time, so if I had a show that night, I’d run home from my day job, change, jump on a train to Bristol, Newport, or London, go to the venue, interview the band, photograph the show, and then have to catch the train back to Wales after it had finished. I’d make it home by three if I was very lucky, and then I’d have to be at the day job again by eight. It was a lot of fun and I made some amazing friends, but there wasn’t a lot of time in there to write fiction.

After a few years of this, I was pretty burned out, so when I moved back to the States, I decided to focus on my fiction and see where that went. This time when I tried long fiction, it was much easier. The voice I had developed through the journalism carried over into the fiction--as well as the finer points of pace, structure, and editing—and I had gotten used to marathon working sessions on nothing but coffee! The shift was a huge relief at the time, but there are things about it I miss. The biggest change has been the volume of music. Now I write in solitude on good equipment, but before I’d scribble notes on receipts against the windows of the late bus.

What is your writing routine? Any certain rituals that you perform or do you just jump right in? Do you listen to music when you write, and if so what kind?

It really varies. I’m changing up my routine now based on changes in my job schedule. I used to write overnight in the dark, and now it’s whenever I can grab a few hours of quiet. I like to be as comfortable as possible with water or tea nearby—it’s very easy for me to lose track of time and forget to eat or drink until it’s too late and I can’t think straight. I often listen to music. Certain songs have helped me to visualize scenes and if I need help seeing them, I’ll listen to the song, album, or playlist on repeat and see where it goes. You’d think this would drive you crazy, but you stop hearing it after a while. The longest I’ve ever listened to a single song was for twelve hours over a two day period for one particularly tricky scene. I still love that song, if you can believe it!

What was the pull of history for you? What was the attraction of studying ancient and medieval history?

I think I was born a history geek. When I was very small, Disney’s Robin Hood was my favorite movie, and this actually probably says a lot about how I turned out! As I got older, I loved historical movies and historical romance. The first one that really blew me away was Jude Deveraux’s A Knight in Shining Armor. I was so interested in history, there really wasn’t another genre of literature for me for years. It was medieval history in particular I was most interested in. I loved everything about it. The history, architecture, literature, the art.

I also enjoyed Greek tragedy and studied Latin in high school. When I applied to universities in the UK, I just applied to the programs that sounded the most interesting to me from each school – everything from different periods of history to anthropology and even French – and Swansea was the first school to accept me. I had chosen ancient and medieval history from their catalog, and that’s where I went. I’m so glad things worked out the way they did—Wales is an incredible country and I loved my school. Wales also has a truly staggering number of castles and other historical monuments, and I was lucky enough to visit many of these while I was there.

Your writing blends historical fiction with Gothic. Of the two what your favorite literary genre? What genres do you most read??

My favorite genre is historical fiction/romance, but of that genre, I most enjoy those with gothic elements. I do enjoy lighter historical fiction, but my favorite books are full of darker themes. I like a little horror in my romance.

You've written three books, The Long Way Home, Tyburn, and Virtue’s Lady are works marketed as historical romance. Can you discuss each novel? Do you consider yourself more a romance novelist or a historical novelist?

I get very frustrated that some people feel the need to distinguish between historical fiction and historical romance, as if one is inherently better than the other. I would consider myself first and foremost a historical novelist: my books are heavily researched, rich in period detail, and include real historical figures. However, in addition to the broader plot, my books have a central love story, sex, and they do have happy endings where the characters are in a committed relationship.

Apparently this romantic element is enough to get “serious” historical authors to dismiss them as rubbish. I would beg to differ. It’s deeply unfair how often romance is dismissed, but that’s a story for another day. I write these books the way I do not to fit into any particular genre, but to write the books I want to read. Every book I read, every film or TV show I watch, I am always looking for the love story, because there always is one. Historical fiction often features a love story—or several—and many even include sex, so it seems to me the only difference is that romance ends happily. I love happy endings not because I’m simple, but because I become invested in the characters and I want to feel, leaving that story, that they’re going to be okay when I close that book. So personally, I would say I write satisfying, swashbuckling historical adventures, but they are simplified as romance because of that central love story. I love romance and I’m fine with this, but the truth of it is a bit more complicated and harder to define.

As for the books:
Tyburn is the story of Sally, an alcoholic prostitute who believes she is being followed by Death. It’s a story of her quest to find her biological father in Restoration London, to escape her tragic circumstances, and to reclaim her worth after trauma. She is rescued by Nick Virtue, a tutor who moonlights as a highwayman because his employer doesn’t consider it necessary to pay his staff. They fall in love, but Sally is haunted by Death and the man who ruined her life, so she takes it upon herself to bring him to justice, knowing full well she’ll probably die in the process.

Virtue’s Lady is the story of Lady Jane Ramsey, an earl’s daughter desperate to live a life of her own choosing. Kidnapped in Tyburn, Jane falls in love with Mark, the Southwark carpenter who came to her rescue. When Jane runs away from home to find him in Southwark, Mark is horrified and turns her away. In spite of his rejection, Jane is determined to build a life for herself away from her father and struggles through starvation, poverty, long working hours, ugly dresses, a boxing match, and even incarceration to do it, proving to herself she’s more than anyone has given her credit for.

In The Long Way Home, barmaid Alice Henshawe takes up some unusual employment when she finds herself lost in France. Alice is painfully shy and almost completely mute, but through her powers of observation and sharp memory, she becomes a spy to Louis XIV in Versailles. She finds herself embroiled in the Affair of the Poisons at the same time her childhood crush turns up searching for a killer. They invent a marriage to stick together, but Alice still can’t speak to him. Murder, intrigue, and sorcery abounds, and Alice must find a way to catch the killer and escape the palace without getting herself executed for her involvement in the process.

Do you think the success of Outlander, a historical romance time-travel series bode well for works like yours?

I certainly hope so. I am writing The Southwark Saga as almost more of a series for TV than a series of books because I’m a very visual writer. I imagine everything the way it would look on film. Many historical books have been made into movies and TV series in the past several years and I hope that continues to be a trend as I have certainly enjoyed watching them. The Crimson Petal and the White was absolutely brilliant, and I also enjoyed Desperate Romantics. Neither was precisely a “romance,” but both well-written historical books. I think all of these historical shows we’re seeing—adaptations or otherwise—bode well for the future of historical literature as they generate interest in unusual periods and figures. I can’t get enough of Black Sails, The Devil’s Whore , ( The Devil's Mistress in the US) and Peaky Blinders. Of course I think my series would translate to TV particularly well, and it would be incredible to see it filmed one day.

What authors most influenced you?

It’s an odd mix. I’m drawn to voices more than anything. I love

Edgar Allan Poe

H.P. Lovecraft

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Anais Nin

Leopold von Sacher Masoch

Emily Bronte and

Oscar Wilde.


I’m also hugely influenced by great lyricists like Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, John Cale, and Tom Waits. Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen, in particular. They can fit more observation, sex, humor, and poetry into one five minute song than some people write over an entire career.

Would you consider writing a contemporary novel?

Absolutely, I even have a couple planned. My first real attempt at a novel at fifteen was a contemporary horror. It was great fun, and I’d love to go back to that someday. I’ve lost a lot of important stuff over the years, but that is one thing I have always carried with me.

You have an amazing blog named Dirty, Sexy History. Can you tell readers about it?

Thank you! Dirty, Sexy History is a new project of mine. I’ve posted several history articles on my personal blog over the last couple of years, and I’ve always thought it would be nice to have somewhere to put them. I took those and the historical guest posts I’ve had and used them for the basis of Dirty, Sexy History.

The idea is not a complicated one. I am most fascinated by the grittier side of human history—I’m always looking for the sex and intrigue behind everything—and most of my posts were on this theme. I have a four part series on contraception in history as well as posts on plague, causes of death, venereal disease, profanity, execution, infamous figures like Jack Ketch, the Earl of Rochester, and Claude Duval, and plenty of other subjects. I love history of all periods, so I wanted to expand the blog into a larger project by inviting other people to contribute articles of their own. There has been a lot of interest so far, and I’m very excited to see how the blog grows in the future.

Are there any other projects you’re currently working on that you want to share with your fans?

I have a few things I am working on at the moment. Dirty, Sexy History is the most recent, but I am also working on the fourth book in The Southwark Saga series, which I hope will be out before the end of the year. I recently joined The Bluestocking Belles, a wonderful group of truly outstanding historical authors, and we are releasing a box set of Christmas novellas to raise money for the Malala Foundation later this year. My novella in the set is a gothic Regency, and it’s also my first LGBT romance. I’m very excited to share it with the world.

If you are interested in learning more about or connecting with Jessica Cale, here are her links:

www.authorjessicacale.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Jessica-Cale/e/...

https://twitter.com/JessicaCale/statu...

https://dirtysexyhistory.com/

https://www.facebook.com/authorjessic...

https://www.pinterest.com/rainbowcarn...

7 Small Ways to Be a Better Writer

I wanted to share this wonderful article from the Problogger site by guest contributor, Larry Alton

You could be a prominent authority in your industry, with multiple bestselling books and a successful business around your writing; or you could be a novice who just launched their first blogging website – as long as writing is a significant part of your life, there’s one thing you’ll always want: to be a better writer.

There are two surefire ways to become a better writer, and they’re universally effective: reading and writing.

Reading lots of outside material helps you expand your vocabulary, sharpen your communication skills, and become exposed to new topics and perspectives that help inform your writing. Writing itself serves as practice to gradually hone your craft.

So if becoming a better writer is (apparently) so simple, why isn’t everybody on their way to becoming a great writer?

Time and Patience

Reading a book doesn’t instantly take you to a new tier of writing ability, nor does a handful of written articles instantly make you better at your craft. To be effective, you need to spend tons of time reading and writing—and only after years of commitment will you start to show the results.

Most of us would prefer something a little faster, and something a little less repetitive when our eyes start to bulge out of our skulls. That’s why we’ve come up with these seven small ways to become a better writer:

1. Talk to strangers

Writing is a form of communication. Even though it is, in many ways, distinct from verbal communication, verbal conversations can still improve your writing by teaching you new vocabulary, exposing you to new styles, and introducing you to new concepts.

Talk to strangers wherever you can—at the grocery store, at a coffee shop, or on the bus to work. It’s important to break out of your element and communicate with people outside your traditional circles. That’s the only way you’ll learn anything new.

As an exercise, challenge yourself to meet a certain quota; for example, you could commit to talking to a new person three times a week, or if you’re especially ambitious, every day. Take note of their word choices, and walk away with new nuggets of information about the world.

2. Eat healthier foods

It may not seem like eating habits could impact your writing ability, but according to a recent study, excessive consumption of processed and unhealthy foods can actually impair your cognitive abilities.
Stick to fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and whole grains when you can.

As a long-term benefit, you’ll be able to think clearer, you’ll have more energy, and you’ll be more motivated to accomplish your goals. As a short-term benefit, you’ll get a boost of energy immediately after eating thanks to your body’s pleasure receptors and metabolism.

And as long as you’re eating foods rich in complex carbohydrates and protein, you won’t suffer from a sugar crash afterward! If you can, keep a store of healthy foods in your desk, or wherever you work most frequently.

3. Work on pet projects

Don’t limit yourself to only writing for your career, or only writing for your blog. Adopt some pet projects to expand your linguistic horizons.
For example, you could commit yourself to writing poetry on the side, or start work on a novel you’ve been planning.

All forms of writing can improve all other forms of writing, so find something you’d enjoy writing about and write about it! Not only will you build and diversify your writing skillset, you’ll also relieve stress and introduce a change up to your routine—no matter how much you love writing, working on the same project ad infinitum can lead to burnout.

4. Meditate

Meditation has tons of physical benefits—it helps you lower stress, reduce anxiety, and may even help prevent the onset of certain mental health conditions.

Even putting these benefits aside, meditation can help you clear your mind of clutter and zero in on what really matters. If you practice meditation regularly, you can enter a meditative state with relative ease—which comes in handy as you anxiously prepare to write something significant. Taking just a few minutes before an article can clear your head of the clutter; with a clearer head, you’ll write more productively, and in a purer, more intelligible form.

Over the long-term, meditating daily will lead you to a more relaxed, productive, and mentally healthy existence, which can only help your ability to write.

5. Set rules for yourself

Create rules to control your productivity and limit yourself from distractions or damaging habits.
For example, in the context of writing quality, you could set a rule not to use a certain buzzword in all of your articles moving forward, or you could set a rule to avoid any first-person or second-person pronouns.

In the context of productivity, you could set a rule that you’re only allowed one distraction until you finish your current article, or set a rule that you must start working within X minutes of turning on your computer.

You could even construct rules about your habits, such as mandating that you write at least 1000 words every day, in order to reinforce behavioral patterns you wish to adopt naturally.

6. Watch lots of movies and TV shows

Most people would agree that TV is a time suck, and it can be, but it can also be a useful exercise in linguistic analysis and communication improvement, if you allow it to be.

Turn on the subtitles, and watch programs known for their exceptional writing (especially dialogue). Pay close attention to what makes the writing especially believable, compelling, or intriguing, and treat it with an analytical eye.

Even though you probably aren’t writing scripts for TV shows and movies, you can advance your skills by doing this (though, depending on your definition, this could count as “reading.”).

7. Learn a new language

You won’t be writing much in this new language, but learning the rules of a foreign language can help you better conceptualize your thoughts and speech patterns.

To illustrate, when learning a new language, non-native speakers are forced to experiment with new situations in both written and verbal forms. These situations force you to think carefully about your responses, rather than allowing you to fall back on the colloquialisms and phrasing you’re used to.

These new conversation patterns will help your mind work harder to find the right words for any situation, and might even expose you to new linguistic concepts. Plus, learning a new language will force you to re-familiarize yourself with basic concepts of grammar, such as sentence structures, giving you a bird’s-eye view of how the world communicates.

These strategies aren’t an excuse to stop reading and writing to become a better writer; they’re designed to serve as complements to those two pillars of writing success. Like it or not, you’re still going to have to read and write—often—if you want to succeed. These tactics won’t take you from “novice” to “professional” overnight, but they will help you refine your approach, clear your head, learn some new perspectives, and strengthen your command of language.

Combined with enough practice and repeated exposure, you’re sure to hone your skills in due time.

Why Readers Stop Reading a Book.

Recently, LitWorldInterviews.com conducted a survey, “Why do you put a book down?” and through the assistance of the writing community they had a good response. Here is what Ronovan Writes discovered.

First, I want to say why the survey was conducted. We wanted to help writers by giving them the information they most need. If a reader takes the time to check out your book and don’t like it, they are unlikely to give you a second chance with your next work. First impressions mean a lot.

86.30% of those responding were Female, thus leaving the remaining 13.70% Male. Considering the majority of those reading novels are Female, although not quite this extreme, I’m comfortable with sharing what we found.

There were 34 sub-categories as a result of the survey. Those results were then placed into 5 main categories: Writing, Editing, Proofreading, Taste, and Other, with Writing providing the largest number of sub-categories and results.

68.49% of those responding noted some form of dissatisfaction with Writing as a reason for putting a book down.

26.03% gave Editing.

23.29% gave Proofreading.

17.81% was Taste.

2.74% was Other.

Let’s take a look at the Writing sub-categories first.

The story being Dull was the most frequently mentioned problem with 25.29% of the mentions of the Category. Followed by actual Bad Writing, then Dull or Unbelievable Characters, Info Dump, and uses of Profanity.

Let me speak about Profanity for a moment, this along with Gore, Violence, and Sex were all mentioned in the context of being included in the story for no apparent reason. Most of those who noted it as a concern stated they know these things occur in books, and even have a place, but the problem arose when the author was using them as obvious crutches in an attempt to hide poor writing and plot.

The subcategories of Writing Concerns as identified by readers are as follows in descending order: Dull, Bad Writing, Unbelievable Characters, Info Dump, Profanity, Over Describing, Violence, Weak Narrative, Confusing Beginning, Unexpected Sex, Gore, Weak Story, Bad Dialogue, Dashes, Racism, Poor Relationships, Head Hopping, Repetition, and Writing with Dialect Accents.

What does this tell us? The first thing that jumps out to me is that we as authors aren’t putting out books with stories that are capturing the attention of the reader. With a book done with professional intent behind it, a dull story should be the reason our books are not read. That’s right, we are not read because we just didn’t do a good job of telling our story. Maybe we didn’t have the right beta readers. Maybe they were too nice. Maybe they just went through the motions. Maybe they just aren’t that good at the task. Or maybe we should recognize our work isn’t that good. How about all of the above?

Let’s look at Editing Concerns

There were four subcategories for Editing Concerns: Actual Bad Editing, Plot Holes, Sentence Structure, and No Scene Breaks for Time Lapses.

The bad thing about writing a novel is the author knows everything that is happening, even behind the scenes, the back story the reader never sees, and the in between scenes that happen. The problem this creates is hopefully caught during editing. A good editor can save a book from disaster. Fresh eyes see old mistakes that the author overlooks each time they’ve gone through each of the five drafts they’ve done.

An Editor is not responsible for rewriting a novel. I want to make that clear. They take what a writer gives them, looks for plot holes, sentence structure, weak story development, and things of that nature. They are not a Proofreader. I think people confuse the two, but having been associated with a professional Proofreader who has guest hosted here on the site, I know the difference.

If you pay an Editor they are to give you the tightest and most entertaining story they can from what you’ve given them. Of course you, as the author, can disregard everything, but that would be a foolish thing to do. I have a writing mentor who edits some things I give her at times. I take some of what she offers and disregard others because of the importance of what that means to the overall story, a story she isn’t fully aware of yet.

Notice I didn’t throw everything away, and I took into consideration what she said about the part I disregarded. I changed things to make that part seem more relevant to the story at that point, without giving anything away.

But what we get from this part of the survey is that readers notice editing of a book. The idea of not editing a book crosses the minds of Indie Authors. We’ve been through the book a dozen times. We know it’s just fine the way it is. Note the sarcasm I said those last couple of sentences with. I’m not saying it’s impossible to edit your own work, but you would have to be able to step away from the work long enough to see it with fresh eyes, several times. At least that’s my opinion. You also have to become slightly detached from this labor of love, in some cases.

Proofreading Concerns

There were two sub-categories: Proofreading (66.66%), and Grammar (33.33%).

I have to say, this is an area I notice a lot in books. If there are proofreading problems in a book, they take me out of the story, out of the world created by the writer. Every book has a proofreading error, or perhaps a printing error, not so much on the printing these days with the modern printing methods, but back in the old days of typesetting, errors happened.

I’ve read several books for the purpose of reviews and I have put some down because of the proofreading problems. I honestly don’t think there was any proofreading. You might get past the dull story, even some bad editing, but when you are constantly tripped up by spelling errors, punctuation, and all of that, you eventually become tired of it all.

Taste Concerns of the Reader

There were 7 different sub-categories placed under taste: Slow Beginning (30.77%), Tragic Ending (15.38%), Difficult Vocabulary (15.38%), Too Much Detail (15.38%), Back Story (7.69%), Genre (7.69%), and Cliffhanger Ending (7.69%).

You won’t find two readers with exactly the same taste. They may have a discussion and it sounds like they are the same, but put five books in front of them and have them read them, I would be willing to bet you would get different opinions.

Some books, due to the nature of the story and world, may require a slow beginning. The trend is to jump right into action to capture the reader’s interest, but perhaps your story doesn’t fit that type of trend. Difficult vocabulary may be part of how a certain character speaks.

But I understand what the readers are saying. Sometimes the way things are done, they are not necessary. I think when it all makes sense, a reader is fine with it, but just as when people throw profanity or gore into a story, sometimes these tastes, other than perhaps genre, are signs of weak storytelling and plot.

Other

There were only two that fell into the Other category: Having the book available for Screen Readers, and Having a Misleading Book Description.

I think these are two very valid reasons to not read a book. As my eyesight fails I know it becomes more difficult to read. Some will say just get glasses, but this is due to medications I must take. Eventually I will likely not be able to see at all. But I love books. It would be a shame to not buy a book because it didn’t work with my screen reader.

As for a misleading book description? It may be the opinion of the reader as to the misleading nature or not. If it truly is misleading, I think the book needs removing or at least the description updated.

Conclusion

What all did we learn from the survey? Good writing and story, with good editing and proofreading will make for a page turner