Beth Greenslade's Blog, page 67

What Every Good Story Needs

If you are starting out writing a story, it’s a good idea to put your pen down for a moment or switch off your computer and reflect a while on all the great stories you’ve read in the past and what components they’ve had in common that make them so imminently readable?

Understanding what it is that every good story needs, and weeding out the common factors that make them so can act as a sort of checklist you can use to keep your own work on the right track.

So what are some of the common elements that good stories contain? Let’s explore them.

Flair

A good story needs to be enticing, engaging and exciting. In short, it needs to have flair. Stories without flair are flat, tedious to read and downright dull. So what is it about your story that gives it flair? Let your imagination run wild, and be as bold and daring as you want to be! That’s what will make your book stand out from the crowd.

Charismatic Characters

Without charismatic characters your book can’t stand a chance of connecting with readers and unless your readers feel a connection with the characters they can’t hope to care what happens to them. How do you write charismatic characters? It’s all in the details. Think about the way they speak, act, move, their deep, dark secrets, their trigger points, their interesting features, their histories, their passions, motivations, desires. Whenever you create a character think about how to make that character someone so utterly fascinating, or loveable or repulsive that your readers can’t help but react to them.

A USP

Every good story is unique in some way. It’s okay to write in a particular genre or follow a specific already well-trodden path, but you still need to make absolutely sure that your book is unique and original in some way. Copying other writers work and blatantly stealing their ideas never works, and makes you look incompetent and foolish as a writer. So read, learn, adjust, and borrow but make sure that your work is uniquely and brilliantly yours.

Clever imagery and arresting descriptions

Writers should have a love of language, and they should get all spine-tinglingly excited when they write something that ebbs and flows and conjures such a perfectly vivid image that a reader can’t help but find themselves immediately there. Using clever imagery, and linguistic devices that draw readers into your world and immerse them in the story themselves is so important, so always think about how you can use words in beautiful, smart, compelling ways to make your story even more brilliant.

Pacing and adventure

No one wants to read a book where they feel like they are being dragged along by the elbows yawning or wandering around lost and confused. A story should be an adventure, no matter what it’s about and the pace of the plot should speed up and slow down and flow and continuously carry the reader forward until the very last page.

Including the above elements in your book can make it so much more exciting. So remember to take a moment to think about how to make your story great, and then just get on and write it the very best way that you can!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

The post What Every Good Story Needs appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

Top Tips To Stay Motivated

When it comes to writing, staying motivated can be a challenge. Many of us try to fit writing into our lives amongst other, equally pressing tasks such as our day jobs and running a busy home, and while we’d love to make writing a priority, it can be challenging to find the time.

Not only that but if you find that your writing sessions aren’t as fulfilling or productive as you wanted them to be, this can also cause upset, frustration and end up meaning that we lack the motivation or desire to continue. So what are some of the things we can do to try and keep our motivation to write high?

Use visualization techniques

Before you start writing it is essential to get into the right frame of mind. Try using positive visualization techniques to help you get into the writing zone. Take ten minutes to sit quietly and imagine yourself having a productive writing session. Focus on how you’ll feel at the end of it, the sense of achievement and self-worth. Imagine completing your novel and how brilliant that will feel, you can even imagine receiving your publishing contract or seeing your book in a shop window to help you find the motivation to keep going.

Write through the bad stuff

You are not always going to find that the words come as easy as you want them to, and that’s OK. Just as we all have bad hair days, we all have bad writing days too so just allow yourself to have those times where you’re not very good and accept them in good humor! Write through the bad stuff, see it as a rite of passage to get to the gold that you know is within you. If you stick at it and write regularly, you’ll find it gets so much easier and the time you spend dragging your heels and worrying about whether your writing is good enough will get shorter and shorter.

Start and end on a high

Try to start each session feeling energized and confident. Pay attention to the times that you choose to write and try to find slots where you are in the right frame of mind and have the energy to be productive. Ending on a high can also help as not only will you come away feeling pleased with yourself, you’ll also return the next time with the memory that you enjoyed your last session and therefore be more motivated to get going again.

Eliminate distractions and take breaks

Sometimes staying motivated is just about doing small, practical things that will help you. So turn your phone off, shut down your email and ask your family to leave you alone for a couple of hours (!). Taking regular breaks if you’re planning a long writing session can also help to keep you focused and clear-headed so don’t forget to get up, stretch your legs and get some fresh air at least once an hour.

By following the above tips, you can help yourself to stay motivated to write your book, and have more fun with it too. Staying positive and productive will help make the book writing process a pleasure, and if you aren’t enjoying your writing time you’ve got to wonder why you are bothering in the first place!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

The post Top Tips To Stay Motivated appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

Things To Do As Soon As Your First Draft Is Finished

Finishing the first draft of your novel is so exciting, but what’s next? You might want to head straight to start editing your book, but actually, this might not always be the best plan. Here are some things to try instead!

Celebrate

First and foremost go and do something fun to celebrate. So many writers never get to the end of their novels, and the fact you’ve got your first draft down is genuinely wonderful. So make sure that you give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back and celebrate in style.

Give your novel some space

Rushing into the editing process as soon as you finish your novel can be more destructive than helpful. You need to give it some space and come back to it when you have had some time apart. If you edit right away, everything will still be too fresh, and you might feel too attached to your novel to do it justice.

Get out and about

You’ve probably spent a fair bit of time chained to your desk or staring at your screen of late. So take this time to air out, and remember what it’s like to do something else other than writing!

Come up with new ideas

Now that you’ve got your first draft down you can start to allow yourself to think of new writing projects and ideas, start brainstorming what you might work on next when the editing process is over.

Read books in your genre

Never underestimate the power of reading. Using this time to read books in a similar genre can help you get in the right mindset to edit and give you some good ideas and helpful tips too.

Make a publishing marketing plan

Now is the time you should be thinking about how you’ll market your book when it is finished. Even if you hope to have it traditionally published, using social media and having a robust author platform from which to promote your book is useful. If you do want to try and get a publishing deal, start researching relevant publishers and drafting your synopsis and query letters at this time too.

Ask for feedback

Before you get too stuck into the editing process ask some people whose opinions you can count on to be helpful and fair to give you some constructive criticism which you can choose to use or not use as you start to reshape your book.

Go back to the drawing board!

OK, after all that it’s time to start editing. Remember the editing process can be grueling and sometimes even harder than writing the novel in the first place, but keep persevering and dedicate yourself to making your book the very best it can be.

By following the above tips, you can make sure that you head into the editing process feeling refreshed and ready to start to shape your first draft into something truly spectacular. So make sure you give yourself time and space to do so, and then get back to it!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

The post Things To Do As Soon As Your First Draft Is Finished appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

Is It Good To Write Using Multiple Points of View?

When you start to write your book, one of the things you will have to decide upon is whose point of view you wish to tell the story from.

One narrative device that can be used to significant effect is to tell the story from more than one point of view. This means that instead of having one protagonist who the reader follows as the story unravels, the point of view switches to give the reader different perspectives and allows them to join the journeys of many different characters instead.

Done well, using multiple points of view can be an excellent way to give your story more depth and allows your reader to get to know more of your characters. However, poorly done and multiple points of view can end up confusing the reader, or making it difficult for them to follow what is happening. In the worse instances, they end up not caring about any of the characters in your story and giving up on your book altogether.

Let’s take a look at some of the advantages and disadvantages of using different points of view.

Advantages

The reader can see the world through more than one character's eyes which can make for a richer, more exciting story.

It can add complexity to your novel, as seeing the different perspectives of each character can play with our emotions, empathy, and trust.

It opens our eyes to people from different walks of life, with various opinions and emotions. This can make for a more interesting read and gives us as the author the opportunity to describe different worlds within a world.

It keeps the narrative fresh and exciting, reviving interest and bringing us closer to and more invested in several characters rather than just one.

Disadvantages

Writing multiple POVs can be difficult as each must have a unique voice. If they all merge into one, this will bore the reader and demonstrate a lack of skill.

You run the risk of confusing your reader. If you aren’t clear whose perspective you have switched to and from it can be easy to confuse the reader, and if they have to keep flipping back and forth to figure it out, this can ruin their enjoyment of reading.

They may end up finding it difficult to become engaged with any character. By switching points of view, you have less space to allow your reader to get to know the different characters of your book. Either you end up with a longer novel which can be tough to sell, or you may not have space to fully develop each character which can leave your reader feeling a lack of empathy or care for any of them - and this is a severe problem in any book.

It may be harder to keep the pace up and action flowing if the perspective keeps switching.

In conclusion, as with any writing technique, if switching points of view is done cleverly and in a well-thought-out, considered manner it can be a great way of creating a complex, engaging novel where the reader gets to see the perspectives of many fascinating characters and the world that they live in. If poorly done, well then, it can confuse and frustrate your reader to the point where they give up on your novel altogether.

As writers, have you ever experimented with multiple points of view? Let us know here!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

The post Is It Good To Write Using Multiple Points of View? appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

Why Being Insecure Can Ruin Your Writing

All writers go through times of insecurity, of wondering whether or not they are ‘good enough,’ or of thinking that their writing just isn’t going as well as they want it to, no matter how hard they try. We all have days where we think ‘what is the point?’ Where we get frustrated and consider giving up altogether.

While it’s OK and normal for this to happen occasionally, if we let our insecurities take over, however, this can quickly become very destructive and can have a very negative impact on our writing as a result.

Here are some ways in which being insecure can damage your writing career.

You don’t trust your reader.

When you are feeling uncertain about your writing, you are more likely to over explain. It’s your way of justifying what’s happening in your book. You begin to doubt that your reader will fully understand, you worry that if you don’t explain such and such in painstaking detail, they will miss the point. If you begin to lose faith in your reader you run the risk of including lots of passages of unnecessary exposition. This can mean that your writing becomes poorer. You may begin to interject as the author into your work. If you disrupt the flow, jerking the reader out of the fictional world you have created, you'll make it hard for them to immerse themselves in your story.

You overstate everything

Overwriting, being too dramatic, and writing in a way that screams for attention - these are all possibilities that are more likely to occur when you are feeling insecure about your work. Examples of doing this might be overuse of metaphor or inserting similes into every other sentence. You might think to do so makes your writing more smart, more powerful, but in fact, makes for pretty tough going for the reader who has to plow through this ‘look at me’ style to find out what’s going on. The reader wants to feel as though they are part of the story, that they are there. They don’t care how smart you are, and they don’t care about the words you use. It shouldn’t be something that they notice or think about. Using advanced writing techniques over and over won’t demonstrate how clever you are, rather that you don’t know how to write a good story. Instead, your readers want clarity and simplicity, and while arresting imagery has its place, if you make your writing too fluffy because you are feeling insecure, this will do more harm than good.

You become too attached

Being insecure about your writing can also make you overly protective of it. You either refuse to share it with anyone, or you cannot take constructive criticism. You become too precious, too emotional to see where you could change your writing for the better. Having confidence in your book is one thing, but the ability to take feedback and the willingness to share it with others is what will make it great. If you refuse to, it becomes harder to improve.

Writing insecurities are unavoidable at times, but recognizing when you are feeling like this, and knowing how to tackle it, so it doesn’t damage your writing is critical.

What kinds of things do you do when feeling insecure about your writing? Share them with us here!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

The post Why Being Insecure Can Ruin Your Writing appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

How To Get Over Negative Feedback

When we start out as writers, we often think that being rejected is the very worst thing that could happen to us, inevitable as it may be.

However, unfortunately getting negative feedback can actually feel worse. Usually, publishers and agents, if they aren’t interested in your work, will send you a generic email or letter. They’ll keep it brief and impersonal, and simply say they didn’t think your work was the right ‘fit’ for their list, but they are just one opinion so you should try your luck elsewhere.

While naturally receiving a rejection is disappointing, we can still comfort ourselves with the fact that many now-famous authors were once-upon-a-time rejected, and that what the letter says may be true, that we just aren’t a good ‘fit’ for that particular publisher.

However,getting feedback is something different altogether. It is personal, and it is thoughtful. It is specifically written by someone who has read your work and is so moved by it that they make time to give you their opinion.

The problem is if that feedback is negative it can be crushing, not only that but if communicated to you on a public space it can put off other potential readers from buying your book too.

However, we must remember that negative feedback is also pretty inevitable and if we look at some of the bestsellers out there, you’ll notice that none of them get away with having a perfect rating - and while the majority of their feedback might be positive, they will have had their fair share of negative reviews too.

So how do you make sure that you don’t let negative feedback stop you?

Remember that art is subjective.

Remember that people can be mean and jealous without cause or reason.

It’s also a good idea to prepare yourself for feedback in the best way, by only asking for it when you feel like your work is ready; otherwise, anything negative could get in the way of you finishing. Remember to seek out the opinions of people that count, that have expertise or are at least interested in the type of book you have written, but make sure if you are looking for honest and helpful feedback that you don’t just ask people you know will tell you ‘it’s brilliant’ regardless what they might really think! Get them to be specific, to explain why they feel the way they do, and to give examples too.

At the end of the day, you have to remember that this is your work, and you should be proud of it. Don’t let negative comments stop you, don’t change your whole book based on one person’s opinion and just keep learning, improving and moving forward regardless.

What do you do to help overcome negative feedback? We’d love to hear from you!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

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How Empathy Can Help Improve Your Writing

One thing that is so important for every writer to be able to do, is to engage their reader. To engage a reader, you must enable them to relate to your story and to care about the characters and what happens to them as the story unfolds. If your readers don’t connect with your characters and aren’t fully immersed in the plot, then it is going to be impossible for them to really enjoy your writing.

So how can writers do this? One of the most helpful ways is to be empathetic. Using empathy as a tool in your writing can make it so much more powerful and emotional and can help to draw your readers in.

As Albert Einstein said:

“Empathy is patiently and sincerely seeing the world through the other person’s eyes. It is not learned in school; it is cultivated over a lifetime.”

Writers must try to see the world through other people’s eyes, and they must be able to put themselves in other people's shoes, to be able to imagine different perspectives. The ability to do this means we can use our empathy to create many different, believable, engaging characters in our stories that our readers can relate to.

Empathy is all about giving us a better understanding of the human race, of people from different walks of life and their perceptions and outlook. It’s not the same as being sympathetic or feeling sorry for someone. It’s about truly trying to imagine what they must be thinking and feeling, and if we can do this successfully and capture their thoughts and feelings in our writing we can become better at creating realistic, three-dimensional characters that contrast as well as complement one another.

If we can only see the world the way we see it, when we come to try and write our characters, we run the risk of them all sounding the same, all merging into one. Having empathy enables us to create a variety of interesting, exciting characters in our stories which our readers will not only enjoy reading about but be able to empathize with too.

So how can writers practice empathy? It’s simple really. We can do it whenever we have an encounter with someone, whenever we read a human interest story, watch the news or overhear a conversation. If we stop and really try to imagine life from their perspective, and relate to the way that they are feeling in a deep and real way, then we can start to access and process these emotions, perceptions, and viewpoints that we otherwise might not have been able to. This will no doubt help improve our writing the more we try to do it and creating rich stories with characters that provoke interest and empathy is how our stories will reach more people and become successful.

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Do You Need To Write Every Day To Be A Better Writer?

I don’t know how often I have heard the advice that you should write every day. It’s a lot. But the fact is that many writers struggle with doing so (this one included). Sometimes it is not easy to fit writing into your daily schedule, and, perhaps more importantly, sometimes you just want to have a day off!

However, the fact of the matter is that there is no getting away from the truth that the more writers write, the better they become at it. Not only that but the more regularly they write, the less it will feel like a chore or something you have to force yourself to do, and the more it will feel like a natural and positive part of your life.

Being told to write every day can feel impossible. How on earth is one supposed to fit that into their already busy life? However often writers put too much pressure on themselves and think that writing every day means having to be a good, productive writer every day - and this simply isn’t the case.

To be a productive writer you need to be able to schedule some proper time to sit down and produce your work, and some time for research, for editing, even for marketing your book if you choose to self-publish it. In short, writing takes a lot of time if you want to do it properly, and a little window here or there just won’t be enough. Besides, if you can’t have writing sessions where you really make headway, really get stuck into your book, or article or blog post, it’s going to feel difficult to move forward, or to feel like you are achieving anything, and that’s quickly going to become extremely demotivating.

However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t write every day on top of your already well-thought-out writing schedule. Don’t think of your daily sessions in the same way as when you can lock yourself away for a good couple of hours and really make headway. Instead regard them as little stretches, exercises to keep you limber and ready and raring to go next time you do sit down to write properly.

Writing every day doesn’t need to be stressful, it doesn’t need to take up any time, and it doesn’t need to be very good either! In fact, if you don't have time to have a long writing session, don’t bother to work on your book which takes focus and concentration and the ability to get into the ‘zone.’ Instead, do little writing exercises, or challenge yourself to write a ten-minute story, or create a character and write a character description for them, or just free write. Doing so can help clear your mind, inspire your imagination, help you brainstorm, process emotions, or simply get rid of all the ‘bad’ writing so that you are ready to write at your very best next time around.

So, while you don’t need to write every day to be a better writer, perhaps you should anyway. Just don’t make it a big deal, don’t put too much pressure on yourself, and you might see that your writing improves as a result.

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

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Questions To Ask Yourself To Get More Creative

All writers have times that they feel that their creativity needs a bit of a boost, but sometimes when we want to be at our creative best, those ideas just won’t come.

To get back into that creative mindset, it can help to ask ourselves particular questions. Ones which will remind us why we love the craft of writing, what our motivations are and tap into the writing methods that work best for you.

So next time you feel your creativity could do with some inspiration, ask yourself the following:

Do you care most about the finished product, or is it the writing process that drives you?

There is no right or wrong to this question. Instead, it is about understanding what motivates you to write in the first place. Writers who focus on the result are driven by the satisfaction of completing something. However, they may be simultaneously anxious about the idea of doing so because of what comes next and therefore find completing a manuscript more of a challenge. Remember, the best thing a writer can do for themselves when they’ve finished one writing project is to dive right into another one. Even if you’ve got to worry about the editing and marketing process, you can do this alongside writing your next and keep that creative process going.

Why are you writing this book in the first place?

One of the greatest creative motivators is genuinely understanding what caused you to think about writing a book in the first place. Why do you need to write? What message are you trying to communicate with the outside world? Often we don’t really explore this, and it is only when asking ourselves the question that we truly understand the deep meanings, our pathological needs as writers. If we can discover this, we can use it to our advantage and understand which approaches will best enhance our creative selves.

Are you able to fully accept the concept of change?

Often, writer's block their own creativity because they cannot get past the idea of fundamentally changing their ideas and their characters to make a better story. We can be so stubbornly attached to our original concept that when faced with an option, a pressure (be that internal or external) to make significant changes, we often shy away from these, or find it overwhelmingly impossible to do so. However, to be effective writers and to be at our most creative, we must open ourselves up to change, make important decisions, and kill our darlings for the greater good.

How do you self-sabotage?

Understanding the things that we do that make the writing process harder, the challenges that we create is hugely important. Understanding and addressing our weaknesses as writers and figuring out proactive, genuine solutions can make us much better writers, can mean that we can quickly open ourselves up to being creative, can let our imaginations flow and don’t block or criticize ourselves which can lead to self-doubt and fear.

Being as creative as possible means that you can explore so many different avenues, that you have the confidence to be creative and experiment, that you can identify when change is necessary and can write your stories in the best way possible. By asking yourself the above questions, you can try to tap into your true creative self and become a better writer as a result.

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

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How To Work With A Book Cover Designer

Starting the process to create your book cover for your newly finished novel can be so exciting, and is one of the final stages to go through before you can publish your book. However, picking a cover designer and being able to work with them successfully is often more tricky than authors realize and sometimes what should be a fantastic experience can quicky turn into a stressful one.

So what are some useful tips to help prepare you to work successfully with your book cover designer?

Let’s take a look at some of them.

Have the details clear

Before you start exploring who to choose as your book cover designer make sure you have all the details of your novel set straight. They will need to know the word count of your book (so they can predict the spine width), the title and what other information you want on the cover such as your author name and any tag line, whether your book will be available in hardback or paperback and a neat summary of what your story is about.

Do your research

Make sure that you do your research before settling on any one book cover designer. Finding out what others had to say about working with them as well as exploring examples of their work will give you a good idea of their reputation and style to see if it matches with your vision.

Have a flexible vision

Book cover designers are happy to be directed by the author. You can explain what your book is about, your target audience, the genre and themes, and can even suggest fonts that you like and give examples of other book covers you admire. However, if you are wedded to an exact vision, you’ll only end up being disappointed, and you need to allow your cover designer to have some creative freedom to work well with them.

Clarify the costs

One of the most tension-causing parts of having a book cover designed is negotiating the cost - but it doesn’t need to be if you are clear about this before you begin. Make sure that you ask your cover designer to give you a final cost, and explain how many revisions they are prepared to do. There are different levels of book cover design from getting one designed bespoke for you to choosing a pre-made but still one of a kind cover, so every author should be able to find a design that works within their budget.

Remain positive and communicative

When you receive your initial design, it’s not uncommon to be disappointed. It is after all one of the most eagerly anticipated parts of writing a novel, and if the design falls short of your expectations, it can leave you feeling flat. However, try to stay positive and constructively give your feedback. A good book designer will want to get it right for you, but you also have to be aware that they are the experts, they know what sells and it is their professional pride on the line as well. If you can communicate effectively and precisely without being insulting your designer is far more likely to be amenable to your suggestions, and vice versa.

Have trust

Any good relationship is built on trust so make sure that you try to trust your book cover designer. This can be incredibly difficult to do when handing over creative decision making powers to a project so close to your heart, but a good designer will listen to your ideas, explain their own thinking and be happy to compromise and work with you to get it just right.

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

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