Beth Greenslade's Blog, page 54

How To Ensure Each Chapter Starts With A Bang!

We all know that if you want your readers to keep on reading, it’s imperative that you pay careful attention to how you end your chapters. Each chapter is a natural break in the story where a scene or certain events conclude. However, if you don’t end each chapter making readers want too read on, your book will fail.

However, it is perhaps, even more important, therefore, to begin each new chapter by reassuring your reader that they can get stuck right back into the story, and hook them further into the plot. So how do you make sure that you make the start of each chapter count? Here are some useful tips:

Start with urgent action

Start each chapter in the middle of the action or ensure that the action begins as soon as the chapter does. If your reader feels like they are waiting around for things to get going they’ll soon find it difficult to engage. Here is a fantastic example of how action at the opening of a chapter can immerse your reader from the outset.  

Anthony Doerr’s ‘ All the Light we Cannot See’, titled ‘Leaflets’:

At dusk they pour from the sky. They blow across the ramparts, turn cartwheels over rooftops, flutter into the ravines between houses. Entire streets swirl with them, flashing white against the cobbles. Urgent message to the inhabitants of this town, they say. Depart immediately to open country.

The action here is incredibly compelling as it has immediacy, visual excitement and also hints at critical impending action i.e. the evacuation. It moves the story forward and is clearly of importance, therefore the reader wants to know more. 

Set the scene

Each chapter beginning should clearly establish where the characters are, both in time and space. The reader needs to be able to anchor themselves in the story and doing so quickly, especially if they are picking up the book from where they left off, is important. 

Start a conversation

Another exciting way to open a chapter is by immediately writing a dialogue exchange between two characters. This can be a great way to introduce new characters into the story, and doing so when they are in mid-conversation can also help to create intrigue in the reader, as they’ll immediately be curious to know who these people are and what they are talking about. 

Jump in time

A new chapter is also an opportunity to skip in time, taking the story in a different direction, revealing something about the past that’s affecting the present, or flash forward to future events that bring greater meaning to the story. Leaping over days, months, years can be an exciting way for the author to exercise creativity. Just make sure that the reader is able to keep up. 

Use vivid imagery

Great writing is all about enabling readers to picture the events of your story in their mind's eye. A great visual image could quickly immerse them in your world, shock them, please them, frighten them - whatever it is, it should strive to evoke an emotional response from there reader as well as

move the story forward.

By using these tips, you can make sure that you start each chapter in a way that will engage your reader and keep the pace and action of your story alive! Do you have any tips about how to start your chapters with a bang? Share them with us here!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

The post How To Ensure Each Chapter Starts With A Bang! appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

How To Better Organize Your Story

 When it comes to writing a novel, it pays to be organized. If you use a novel planner you’ll find it so much easier to keep track of notes, timelines and plot and character development. This can mean that when you sit down to write, you can be at your most productive, and far less likely to freeze when confronted with the dreaded blank page!

So what can you do to ensure that you plan and organize your novel to greatest effect? Here are some useful tips:

Select novel planning software and get familiar with it

Do some research before choosing novel planning software, read reviews and try to decipher which one might be the best one for you. Look at the features and benefits and once you have decided on one, take the time to really learn how it works to ensure you get the most out of it.

Take the time to properly plan

We know that starting to write your novel can be exciting, and you’ll no doubt be raring to go. However, if you take the time at this first stage to brainstorm, plot and plan in as much detail as you possibly can, you’ll reap the rewards later. Research shows that writers who bother to properly outline their stories are more likely to persevere and achieve their dream of finishing a novel, so it’s well worth doing. 

Use visual diagrams

Visual diagrams can be incredibly helpful when it comes to story planning. Sometimes it can be difficult to stay on top of all the content you’ve accumulated from various sources and a well thought out visual can help give you clarity and focus and centralize your ideas. 

Collect exciting inspiring secondary sources

As you plan and research your novel, you’ll no doubt come up with lots of external secondary sources that inspire you, but you won’t have time to go into too much depth with them. Use your novel planner to store clippings, links, and notes as you plan so that you can easily refer back to them later. 

Remember your plan is flexible and will change as you write

Your novel plan shouldn’t be a rigid thing, rather a fluid, progressive document that you should take time to update as you draft your novel to keep it useful and relevant. 

By following the above tips, you can hope to organize all those thoughts in your head and plan your novel so well that you can’t not succeed! So invest in a good novel planner and use it to plan, research and plot and you’ll find it so much easier to visualize your book and understand where your story needs to go. 

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

The post How To Better Organize Your Story appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

How To Test Your Book Idea

When an idea for a story strikes, it can feel like you have hit the jackpot! They come to you at the strangest times, and it can feel exciting and exhilarating with your mind suddenly whirring at a million miles an hour and a rush of adrenaline coursing through your veins as you start to explore it, clinging onto every detail to ensure you don’t forget it.

A story idea, however, is very different to a plot, and before you get ahead of yourself, it is essential to test it out, to put some flesh and bones on it to ensure that your idea is something that can be built upon. Remember, the novel-writing process is not something that should be rushed, so it’s essential that you spend some time checking that your idea can actually pull together to form a proper plot outline for your book.

So what do you need to do to test your idea out?

Reveal its potential

Doing some simple exercises can help you to work on your original idea to see if it has legs. Try the following to help you:

Challenge yourself to write a page about each of your main characters.

Your story must have interesting, exciting, relatable characters. Make sure you have an idea of your main characters before you start to write your book. Begin to get to know them by taking the time to write a page about them, who they are, their particular traits, and how they fit into the story.

Create the central idea and theme

Every good story has a solid theme that pulls it all together. You need to be clear about what yours is before you start to write. Take the time to consider what overarching messages and common threads you book will reveal, what are you trying to say?

Construct the beginning sequence

Write the very beginning of your story. Focus on action and detail and consider how you will create immediacy and draw your reader in from the outset. This will give you a feel for your writing style and tone and also help you to remain confident that you can begin writing the story.

Plot out the major events

Make sure that your idea really is going somewhere by mapping out all the major plot points that will come together to form a loose structure and reveal how your novel intends to unravel. Make sure that the major plot points are compelling and dramatic to ensure continued reader interest.

Consider your ending

How will your story draw to a close? If you can figure out your ending, you are well on your way to being confident that your story idea is one worth writing about!

Create a summary of your story

Another reliable test is being able to summarise your story idea in one or two lines succinctly. If you can encapsulate the essence of your novel in a sentence or two, this demonstrates that you have a firm grasp of the concept and a clear idea in your mind of what your book is about.

Doing exercises such as the above is like taking your idea out for a little test drive, putting it through its paces, and ensuring that it is robust enough to pursue. However excited about your idea you are, and however certain that you can craft it into a bestselling novel, this is always worthing doing - just to be sure!

How do you flesh out your story ideas? Share your processes with us here!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

The post How To Test Your Book Idea appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

What’s Causing Your Writer’s Block?

Writer's block is a condition that, unfortunately, most writers will suffer from at some point during their careers. Basically, if you write regularly and for long enough, there is likely to be a point where you try to sit down and get on with things, but you just can't.

Writer's block affects a writer's ability to produce new material or even to modify existing work. It slows down the creative process, often stopping it entirely, and it can be very challenging to overcome.

Experiencing writer's block might involve feeling unable to come up with new ideas, losing confidence in your writing skills, and being generally unable to be productive, or move forward with your writing, despite your best efforts.

Lots of famous writers spoke out about writer's block and how they suffered from this affliction.

Authors such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Joseph Mitchell, and Herman Melville, who stopped writing novels altogether a few years after writing the revered Moby-Dick all suffered from writer's block.

Knowing the cause of writer's block can often be the first step that's necessary to help retrieve it. It has several reasons, and exploring these can get a writer to the root of the problem and enables them to tackle it head-on.

So what might be causing your writer's block? Let's take a look.

A lack of inspiration

Sometimes the work itself is the issue - an idea falls apart, or the story seems to dry up.

Distracting events

If you don't create a harmonious working environment or are easily distracted writer's block can occur

Adverse circumstances

Significant life events can knock confidence or mean it becomes impossible to write.

Physical and mental illness

A debilitating illness can have a considerable impact on one's ability to write.

Deadlines and pressure

If a writer puts themselves under too much stress, the brain can react with the classic 'fight or flight' response. This can massively hinder a person's creativity, leaving them stuck and unable to progress.

Happily, there are several tried and tested ways to overcome writer's block, and once you know the cause, it is far easier to treat oneself.

Some treatments include joining a class or discussing your writing with your peers, asking yourself questions about your writing process, free writing, finding a support group to encourage you and help boost confidence in your ability to write, and setting more achievable deadlines.

It has also been proven that writers who break down their work into smaller, more manageable chunks are less likely to be affected by writer's block and better equipped to deal with it if they do.

By understanding the cause of your writer's block, you can take the most appropriate course to recovery. The sooner you understand why this is happening to you the sooner you can take action against it. Remember, writer's block happens to almost all of us, but it's about recovering from it and persevering that counts.

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

The post What’s Causing Your Writer’s Block? appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

How To Create Conflict Between Characters

Creating conflict between the characters in your novel is a great way to build tension and ensure that your readers remain interested in the story. The bigger the battle, the more tense and dramatic the scene, which will encourage your readers to care about your characters and root for the protagonist to overcome the troubles they face to reach their desired goals.

Conflict is a natural part of life, so including some will help to make your story feel more authentic and believable; it gives your characters flaws. It makes them more human, more relatable, which is so vital if you want your book to be a success.

So how do you create conflict between characters in your story? Here are some different approaches you can take.

Personality clashes

Your characters should all have distinct personalities, and to create interest and contrast, some of the different figures you include will clash against one another, causing arguments, tension and conflicts that can build and then explode onto the page. Just as in life, we meet people who think and act the opposite way to us, in your novel use these experiences to pit characters against one another. Make one super organized, and practical, another goofy and forgetful, one kind and forgiving, the other rude and brash. Of course, you can take a more subtle approach and simply have two characters that, despite their best efforts, don’t quite gel. This could build tension or be used for comedic purposes too.

A conflict of interests

Another simple way to ramp up the drama is to create two characters who have competing needs, desires, or interests. If people want a particular object for different purposes, perhaps, or they want a different outcome from individual events to one another, this can again be used to create scenes of amusement or high-drama too.

Internal conflicts

Of course, characters don’t necessarily have to have a particular desire or personality to feel as though they are working against one another suddenly. The conflict could be more subtle, more internal, and emotionally driven than that. Everyone has internal struggles and the different things that each of your characters finds challenging can have a knock-on effect on others.

Communication problems

Barriers to communication are often the reason why conflict occurs (just ask anyone in a long-term relationship). Things can be misheard, misunderstood, or simply processed in a way that they weren’t meant, and doing so can lead to vast amounts of unresolved anger, frustration, confusion, and hilarity. Use miscommunication between characters to build tension or humor in your book.

Remember, for your book to be readable, it is essential to create conflict between your characters. These issues and events that unfold add depth to your story and build up layers that provoke interest and intrigue. So if your novel doesn’t have enough conflict in it already, use the tips above to help inspire you!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

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Want To Start A Content Writing Business? Do This!

If you are hoping to set up a content writing business, you need to have a proper plan in place. The better informed you are, and the more organized and detailed you can be, the more likely you are to hit the ground running and ensure your continued success. So what are the steps you need to take to set up a successful content writing business? Let’s investigate.

Set up your website and brand

If you want to look professional, you need to set up a slick website that showcases your skills. Your website should include what you can offer potential clients, a bit about you and your experience. Reviews and testimonials and a portfolio of clients you’ve previously worked with and published work are essential too. You don’t need to make your site overly complicated but do make it look businesslike and be vigilant about checking and rechecking any copy before you post it. A copywriter who can’t spell won’t look great!

Decide whether to specialize

You might consider focusing on n a particular type of writing. If you have a hobby, skill, or passion, you could be well placed to write about it and perhaps will find that if you do specialize you can become a leading expert in your field.

Make a business and financial plan

Setting up a business is not just about landing clients and delivering work; you also need to manage all aspects of your finances and ensure that you have a solid business plan which lays out what you want to achieve and how you’ll grow. Be meticulous and careful when producing these documents and make sure you have an excellent system in place for logging and managing your finances in the future.

Learn how to market your business

You can offer the best services in the industry, but you won’t get anywhere unless you’re seen by the people that require them. Taking the time to learn how best to market your business is imperative, and you need to be prepared to set some money aside as a marketing budget too.

Continue to learn and grow

Even if you hit your targets, you need to continue to learn and grow. In the future, you could hire freelancers to work for you to help manage your workload, and your company will expand from there. Always take the time to revaluate and reassess your goals and keep moving forward and getting bigger and better as you do.

So there you have it, by following the above steps, you should have all the groundwork in place to ensure your content company goes from strength to strength. So what are you waiting for? Get started, and good luck!

The post Want To Start A Content Writing Business? Do This! appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

How To Ak Your Clients For A Pay Rise

As a freelance writer, you are in charge of your own business. This means that you have to create your own schedule, award yourself holiday days, and also manage your finances.

It would help if you had a goal of how much money you wish to make, and you can reach this goal by taking on more clients, taking on better-paying clients, or asking your existing clients for a pay rise.

If you have been writing for the same client for a while now, you might wish to consider approaching them to ask for more money. Doing this can feel daunting. However, you need to remember that if you were working for a traditional business, you'd expect to receive more money year on year, so it's perfectly OK to seek a higher amount of pay from your clients too. Remember, if they keep re-hiring you, it's obviously because they feel you do an excellent job for them, and so there is no reason why they wouldn't want to keep giving you work, even if it's for a slightly increased fee.

So what's the best way to approach your clients for a pay rise?

Do your research first

It's a good idea to understand what people who do similar work to you are getting paid, as well as researching the company, their average salaries and how they have grown since you started working for them. The better you understand this, the easier it will be to see whether you're being paid in line with the average and what you should be asking for.

Explain why you're worth it

Your employer is far more likely to agree to your pay rise if you can support your request with good evidence that you are an asset to the business, and your contribution is helping them grow. Talk about your commitment to them, the length of time you've worked for them, your experience, and so on to ensure that you are giving plenty of reasons for them to say yes.

Be polite but confident and clear

Don't be arrogant when you ask for a pay rise, no law says your employer has to agree to it and being a freelancer means it is even harder to secure additional payments then if you were hired on a contract. However, make sure that your client takes you seriously and don't apologize or beat around the bush. You might feel nervous, but coming across as confident and explaining what you want and why you deserve it in as straightforward a way as possible will be the best route to success.

Be prepared to negotiate

Your client might not be able to give you the increase you desire and could come back to you with a lower figure. They could also say no outright. You have to decide what your next move is. You could go back with a counteroffer or think about other benefits you could negotiate (if you work as a freelancer for a company you could ask for some paid holiday, for example). If the answer is no, you should be able to ask for an explanation and inquire if there is likely to be a point in the future where a pay rise would be possible. If your client isn't willing to offer you an explanation or says they can't ever consider upping your fee, you have to decide whether you want to continue to work with them or not.

If you've proven yourself to be a reliable and consistent writer, and have been working for the same client for some time, consider asking them for a pay rise. Just make sure you do your preparation. At worst you'll be no worse off than you were before, and at best you could make considerably more money. What have you got to lose?

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

The post How To Ak Your Clients For A Pay Rise appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

How To Negotiate Your Publishing Contract

If you have been offered a publishing contract, you are probably feeling on top of the world. However, before you sign on the dotted line, it is important to make sure you are happy with the terms. It can be all too easy to sign away because you feel so lucky to be in the position of being offered a traditional contract, but doing so too hastily could mean that you regret it in the long run.

So what can you do to ensure that you end up with the contract you want? Here are some useful tips:

Read the entire agreement thoroughly

Once you’ve signed your contract, that’s it, so don’t simply gloss over it and assume everything is OK. You need to read every line and make sure you understand what’s being said. Make a note of anything that you aren’t sure of or are uncomfortable with and ask your publisher to explain further until you are absolutely clear on what it means.

Get professional help

It can be a good idea to have a lawyer look over your contract. If you do enlist the services of a lawyer, make sure it is one who specializes in book publishing contracts specifically. They will know what’s normal and acceptable, understand the industry, and will be able to look after your best interests.

Your payments

According to the Authors Guild Fair Contract Initiative, it is right and fair to request half of the net proceeds for royalties on e-books. You should also be able to request quarterly payments. Your publisher may offer you an advance, and you won’t start making money on sales until enough copies of your book have been sold to cover this. At the end of the day, only you can say what percentage feels comfortable for you, but it is vital to get your fair share if your book does do well. Also, look out for clauses which say what will happen if your book gets turned into a film and so on - if you sign away all your rights you could end up hugely out of pocket if your book becomes a massive success and there is merchandise and movies and so on to come.

Copyright

Lots of publishers will request life of copyright, which means that they will have control for the lifespan of the author and an additional 70 years after their death. You should be able to have the final say on this, and if you’d rather a fixed amount of time, this is something that can be negotiated.

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Remember there is a balance

While negotiating your contract is entirely within your rights, if you drive too hard a bargain or request clauses that are unheard of, you might end up putting your publisher off. Remember, they have every right to withdraw their offer, and they are a business too, so it’s essential to be flexible and realize that you might have to make some sacrifices to ensure the deal goes ahead.

By following the above tips, you should be able to finalize your publishing contact and feel satisfied and excited for what’s next! Congratulations, and good luck!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

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How To Create Believable Fantasy Characters

If you are writing a fantasy story, it can be all too easy to focus so hard on being imaginative and otherworldly that you forget your characters need to be relatable and engaging too.

Fantasy characters can be werewolves, vampires, or giant talking octopuses wearing sparkling hi-top trainers. It doesn't matter how strange they are; they still have to speak to the reader and make them care about their journey and their goals. If this fails to happen, your book won't generate interest, and people won't bother to keep on turning those pages. 

Making characters relatable in any novel can be challenging, but it's even harder when that character is one that's completely fantastical. However, you must do so if you wish your book to be successful, and with that in mind, here are some helpful tips.

Pay attention to physical descriptions

Readers want to be able to visualize characters in their mind's eye, so paying attention to how you describe them is essential. If a reader struggles to picture your character, they'll have trouble believing they exist. This doesn't mean they have to have human qualities, but they do need to look like things readers have seen before. So use colours, textures and proportions that can be easily conjured in the imagination. For example, saying that your character was as tall as a tree and as wide as a truck helps your reader gain some perspective, and even if they have 30 wriggling green arms and one giant, gaping black eye, they'll still be able to picture them which, in turn, will help them feel authentic.

Give them human problems

Giving your fantasy characters human problems and struggles is the easiest way to ensure that your reader can find a way to relate. By having them deal with human emotions such as love and hatred, jealousy, anger, bereavement, trust, and so on, the reader will be able to empathize with what they are going through which will naturally make them care more about what happens to the characters as the story unfolds.

Draw inspiration from the real world

While your fantasy world may only exist in your head and on the page, if it is so otherworldly that it's unrecognizable in any way to the human world, the reader might struggle to find their place in it. The real world has so many instances of beauty, of horror, and everything in between, and these real-world issues can be reflected in the fantasy world to help readers resonate with the characters that live there. Take a step back and look at the things that are happening all around us, from your local community to huge global concerns. By drawing on these themes and integrating them into your story, you can hope to pique your reader's interest and keep them hooked throughout. 

By using the tips above, you can ensure that your fantasy characters are believable and relatable, however weird and wonderful they might be!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

The post How To Create Believable Fantasy Characters appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

How To Create Believable Fantasy Characters

If you are writing a fantasy story, it can be all too easy to focus so hard on being imaginative and otherworldly that you forget your characters need to be relatable and engaging too.

Fantasy characters can be werewolves, vampires, or giant talking octopuses wearing sparkling hi-top trainers. It doesn't matter how strange they are; they still have to speak to the reader and make them care about their journey and their goals. If this fails to happen, your book won't generate interest, and people won't bother to keep on turning those pages. 

Making characters relatable in any novel can be challenging, but it's even harder when that character is one that's completely fantastical. However, you must do so if you wish your book to be successful, and with that in mind, here are some helpful tips.

Pay attention to physical descriptions

Readers want to be able to visualize characters in their mind's eye, so paying attention to how you describe them is essential. If a reader struggles to picture your character, they'll have trouble believing they exist. This doesn't mean they have to have human qualities, but they do need to look like things readers have seen before. So use colours, textures and proportions that can be easily conjured in the imagination. For example, saying that your character was as tall as a tree and as wide as a truck helps your reader gain some perspective, and even if they have 30 wriggling green arms and one giant, gaping black eye, they'll still be able to picture them which, in turn, will help them feel authentic.

Give them human problems

Giving your fantasy characters human problems and struggles is the easiest way to ensure that your reader can find a way to relate. By having them deal with human emotions such as love and hatred, jealousy, anger, bereavement, trust, and so on, the reader will be able to empathize with what they are going through which will naturally make them care more about what happens to the characters as the story unfolds.

Draw inspiration from the real world

While your fantasy world may only exist in your head and on the page, if it is so otherworldly that it's unrecognizable in any way to the human world, the reader might struggle to find their place in it. The real world has so many instances of beauty, of horror, and everything in between, and these real-world issues can be reflected in the fantasy world to help readers resonate with the characters that live there. Take a step back and look at the things that are happening all around us, from your local community to huge global concerns. By drawing on these themes and integrating them into your story, you can hope to pique your reader's interest and keep them hooked throughout. 

By using the tips above, you can ensure that your fantasy characters are believable and relatable, however weird and wonderful they might be!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

The post How To Create Believable Fantasy Characters appeared first on Writer's Life.org.