Beth Greenslade's Blog, page 74

Is It Time To Take A Break From Writing?

Writing is hard work, and whether you are writing full time or trying to fit it in around your day job, there are times where you are going to need a break.

We are told over and over again how important it is to keep writing and to write every day if possible. Also how we need to be more organized and productive with our writing time. While this is true, sometimes taking a break and stepping back from our writing can be the best thing for it.

So how do you know when it’s time to take a break from writing, and what are the benefits? Let’s take a look:

To come back with a fresh pair of eyes

It’s so easy to become so attached to our work and so embedded in it that we stop being able to improve it. We start to skim read, we don’t spot mistakes, we create inconsistencies, and we become lazy when rewriting because, quite frankly, we’re bored of it. No matter how brilliant your work, you can’t expect to read the same chapter 50 times over and still have any real enthusiasm for it. So give yourself and your work a break, ban yourself from looking at it for a few weeks, and when you return you’ll be able to get stuck back in with renewed vigor.

To stop yourself over editing.

While it is vital to edit your work thoroughly, there is a point where you need to let it go before you make a big old mess of it. Writers are natural perfectionists, but often the problem with being one is that nothing is ever perfect, and trying to find that sweet spot of ‘it’s the best it’s going to be’ before you tip into ‘I’ve changed it so much I might have to start again,’ can be difficult if we don’t step back and give ourselves a break. Give your novel a couple of thorough edits and then leave if for a while to help boost your ability to ascertain when enough is enough.

To realize how good/ bad it is

It’s incredibly hard to be objective when appraising our own work, and most of us tend to fluctuate between ‘this is the greatest piece of literature ever written’ to ‘I’m so embarrassed I wrote this I would never show it to another human soul as long as I live.’ The likelihood is that your writing is probably somewhere in between, but until you give yourself that space to emotionally detangle yourself from it, you might find this all too challenging.

And because everyone needs a holiday from time to time!

Looking after yourself is extremely important whatever your job. But if you run yourself ragged and never give yourself a break, you aren’t going to produce your best pieces of writing, and you’ll probably end up sabotaging yourself and finding it increasingly difficult to be creative. There is no point in writing if you aren’t enjoying it, so remember it’s OK to take a break, switch off and do other things from time to time too.

Taking a break from writing on occasion is so important, it can help you clear your mind, refocus and come back with a renewed energy that will make you far more productive, and proficient - and you’ll enjoy yourself more too!

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

The post Is It Time To Take A Break From Writing? appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

How To Create The Perfect Plot Twist

Writing great plot twists can be incredibly effective, but doing so is not as easy as you might think. Here are some tips to help you!

Get into the reader’s mindset.

One of the most helpful things any writer can do is try to read their story as if they didn’t know it. A successful plot twist relies on the reader being shocked because something unexpected happens, but at the same time, the twist must be plausible. By putting yourself in the reader’s shoes, you can try to see what might be obvious and discard these as potential plot twist ideas. The reader needs not to be able to second-guess the twist; otherwise it will be ineffective. So try to come up with something that will ultimately take them by surprise.

Employ misdirection

Misdirection is a smart device to help make plot twists more powerful, but it must be used with great subtlety otherwise readers will feel cheated. You can drop hints and make suggestions that something is about to happen, or bring their attention to something, or plant red herrings to guide your reader to believe something is coming that isn’t - then instead leave them gobsmacked at the actual turn of events.

Leave clues

A plot twist cannot come from nowhere, but a good one also won’t be guessed by your reader before it is revealed. How do you manage to balance this? By leaving extremely subtle hints throughout your story. These might be seemingly unimportant things that your reader notices at the time but quickly forgets, and it is only when the twist is revealed that they can join the dots and suddenly see that it was right there in front of them all along.

Make sure it’s necessary.

Not all good stories need a plot twist, so don’t put one in just for the sake of it. A good plot twist is essential to make the story work, it’s believable and makes sense. Any plot twist that is too far-fetched will merely leave your reader feeling confused and cheated of the ending they were hoping for. Readers need their emotional investment in your story to pay off. If a plot twist makes them feel deceived they won’t buy into it and you could risk ruining your whole story.

Twist a plot twist within a plot twist!

Detective fiction and crime novels often used the clever device of presenting a plot twist to the reader and then suddenly revealing another, even more, shocking plot twist later on. Just when the reader gets comfortable again and thinks all has been revealed, they are hit with an even more incredible revelation which leaves them reeling but totally hooked to your every word.

Remember not every story has a happy ending.

It’s so easy to finish your story with a ‘happily ever after vibe,’ but sometimes it’s far more effective to create an unhappy ending. If readers love your characters they’ll probably want everything to work out for them, and if your plot twist is that it doesn’t, this can be an effective way of engaging with the reader, even if they shed a tear at the end!

Don’t run out of steam.

Your plot twist will probably be revealed towards the end of your book, but don’t invest all your creativity in a mind-blowing plot twist only to them have your story limp off into the night. Make sure you have enough energy left to write a brilliant and satisfying ending too.

If you want to make your reader's jaws drop, use these tips. Doing so will help to create dramatic plot twists and keep your reader hooked on your story until the very last word!

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

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How Your Mood Affects Your Creativity

Writing productively means being at your most creative self. However, being creative when you are not in the right frame of mind is incredibly difficult. As writers, we are told how important it is to get into a writing routine, and to write every day if possible, but our mood can sometimes stand in our way.

Mood effects so much of what we do. Our relationships and interactions with people, our productivity, how we see and value ourselves and how we see and value the world. A negative mood can affect our energy, our sense of self-worth and mean that we don’t engage with people and opportunities as we should. A negative mood can also be very distracting meaning we don’t focus on what we want to focus on, instead of letting the thing or things that are bothering us take over and cause chaos.

Likewise, if we are in a positive mood, this can also change our perception and affect how we act. A happy mood can make us feel excitable, energetic and we are more likely to view the world as a positive place, to notice opportunities and to let things that would usually bother us slide. However, a happy mood doesn’t necessarily mean a productive one either. Happiness can make us dreamy and distracted too.

There is no escaping that our mood can affect how and what we write and it is therefore essential to pay attention to this and harness it to make our writing better.

A particularly foul mood might not be the best mindset to write a beautiful love scene, for example.

A furious battle or spiteful fight, however, might turn out better if we are feeling a little dark when we attempt to write it.

A particular mood could make the outcome of a story entirely different. It may spark a different sort of creativity in us and take us to places we did not think we were going. A writer in a particularly happy mood might find it so hard to access the darker recesses of their emotions that instead of writing that murder scene, that heartbreaking chapter, and so on, they instead show mercy and change the plot, so the story takes a different, more light-hearted track.

Accessing deep feelings is vital for any writer, and being able to translate how we feel into our work to make our characters emotionally engaging is a great act of creativity and skill. However, the relationship between our mood and our creativity is an elegant and delicate balance. We may at one moment feel excited and inspired, and the next feel frustrated and begin to question our ability.

Of course, an extreme mood, either way, is going to be challenging to write in. In these moments it might be best to abandon your writing project but instead, try to capture the emotions you feel separately - and see if the can be used at a later date or for a different piece of work.

Feeling confident and relaxed can be a good place to write in, though too comfortable and one’s attention may not be as focused as it could be. Heightened emotions can make us feel more poetic and creative while giving us the motivation necessary to focus on our writing at the same time

A writers creative output will no doubt change with their mood, and writers can expect to feel energized, smart, frustrated, stupid and demotivated, perhaps all in a single sitting. Perhaps the key is maybe not to battle your mood, but instead to flow with it and hope that your creativity can emerge regardless.

How does your mood affect your writing? Let us know here!

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

The post How Your Mood Affects Your Creativity appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

What Drives Your Writing?

While we writers love what we do, no one said it was easy. More often then not writing can feel like a bit of an uphill struggle. So why do we do it? What drives us to keep going even in the face of self-doubt, rejection, loneliness, and vulnerability? What keeps us motivated even when we feel like every criticism is personal? What makes us write even when our minds do everything to distract us, and we realize we haven’t taken a day off in years?!

Every so often it’s good to take a step back and remember what it is that makes us write, what keeps us passionate about our writing and stops us from packing it all in, even when the going gets tough.

While everyone has their reasons, here are some of the common drivers that keep writers writing.

Sharing our wisdom, knowledge, and stories with the world. Writers have a desire to tell people things. They want them to understand the information, to believe in the stories, to feel the benefits of the things they know, the places they’ve been,  the people they’ve met, and the things they’ve seen and done. Writers want to share their experience of the world.

To relate to our readers. There is nothing more satisfying in the world than the knowledge or even the hope that our writing has touched our readers in some way. Whether it motivates them to make a change, inspires them to keep soldiering on, heals their broken hearts, helps them move on, let go, shed a tear, smile or laugh out loud, the fact that it can relate to people on that raw and human level is a great motivator!

To find meaning in our own lives. Writing is incredibly cathartic - there is no denying that. By writing our stories, we can know ourselves better,  unlock things we’ve kept hidden, unpick the things that have confused us or to work through things that we’ve felt too scared to face. Exploring emotions, relationships and other worlds can be exceedingly helpful and healing, and enrich the writer’s life just as much as those of the people who read their stories.

To learn and improve. There is always more to learn and ways to improve our writing, to better ourselves, to experiment and find different paths to explore. Writing is excellent for that as it gives the writer limitless opportunities to express their creativity, and showing one's creative self is incurably satisfying indeed.

Writing is a gift that gives in so many ways. While it demands a great deal and can be exhausting, frightening, and disappointing it is the above that makes it so worthwhile and why writers have the drive, the passion and the desire to keep writing despite all of that.

What drives you to write? Share with us here!

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

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How Does Social Media Affect Our Writing?

The way we access our information has changed hugely over the past decade. Writers have been told time and time again that readers have increasingly short attention spans.

We also know that competition for the reader’s attention is more intense than ever before.

The rise of social media has dramatically affected the way that readers access information and absorb it. A considerable number of people who used to sit back with a newspaper or book now get their information and entertainment via a screen.

But how does this affect the way that writers write, should we adapt our writing so they can be consumed by this hungry yet distracted audience in a different way?

The answer is both yes and no.

There are always going to be readers who want to indulge in the pleasure of reading how it used to be. Those who are looking for a riveting tale to get lost in as they sip cocktails on a sun lounger on holiday. Or those who are traveling to far-flung lands and want a fantastic, inspiring story they can read as they embark on epic journeys across the globe.

However, there is a vast market ready and waiting to lap up our writing online if it is presented to them in the right way.

We scroll throughout Facebook feeds and click on things that pop up that look interesting to us, so writing attention-grabbing headlines is vital.

We read Tweets where you are restricted in how much you can reveal - so to be effective you must be able to say what you want to say in a limited number of words.

We look at Instagram where you can create stories through a collection of images that must work as one to create a lasting impression on the observer.

Writer’s don't have to change the way they write, but if they want to make an impact on social media they have to adapt and conform to its limitations, and it’s opportunities too.

A 21st-century writer must be flexible and willing to learn how to manage social media and use it to their advantage.

Teaching ourselves how to write short, impactful sentences can ensure our readers remain focused.

Learning how to turn the heads of readers whose attention was elsewhere and get them to lean in, and to want to learn more can increase our fans and our followers by significant numbers.

Discovering new trends, and creating our own, and pitching new ideas, bringing something fresh, exciting and relatable to these platforms will give us a voice that stands out.

Engaging with social media as a writer may mean adapting ones writing to communicate better via these avenues.

These days, avoiding social media only makes our job harder, and while our ideal readers might be those sipping cocktails under an umbrella with all the time in the world on their hands, if we don’t try to engage with the others we are dismissing a significant potential readership, who could be our next biggest fans.

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

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Top Tips To Help You Focus

One thing all writers need to be able to have is more focus. Whether you are working on the next chapter for your kickass novel or pulling together information to write a hard-hitting article, it is imperative that you can concentrate on the task at hand.

This is, however, easier said than done.

Many writers discover that not only finding time to sit down and write but doing so without distractions or other things getting in the way is their number one productivity problem.

So how do we teach ourselves to be better at focusing? Here are some useful tips:

Ditch the gadgets

So you might need your computer to write, and you might need the internet to research, but that is it. If possible, try to gather all your research together before you begin so you can have blocks of time where all you need to have open on your computer is the document you are writing, and that’s it. Switch off any notifications, close your email and, perhaps most importantly, turn off your mobile phone.

Take some proper time out

Scoffing down some lunch at our desks isn’t the way to keep is focused and productive. You may feel as though it’s better to try and keep working, but without regular breaks, in different settings, we soon tire, and that’s when our focus begins to wander. Go outside, take a walk, look at some beautiful things, get some fresh air. Do whatever you can to switch off for a while, and you’ll return to work feeling refreshed and ready to concentrate on the task at hand.

Make boring tasks interesting

It can be challenging to remain focused if we find what we are doing boring or repetitive. In writing, there may be parts that you don’t love, such as editing for example. The key to staying focused is to find ways to make these tasks more stimulating. This may be as simple as changing your setting (do all your editing in a great cafe for example), listening to some upbeat music or only doing short bursts before switching to something else.

Motivate yourself

Another key to keeping focused is to stay upbeat and positive. Keep telling yourself that you can complete what you need to do. Imagine how you’ll feel at the end of a productive day, and you can even come up with a rewards system to bribe yourself into working harder and achieving your goals.

Break things down

Work out what you need to do and when. Stay organized. Create a to-do list each day and tackle the harder, more time-consuming tasks first - otherwise, you’ll avoid them until you ‘conveniently’ run out of time.

Be wary of multitasking

While multitasking can be an effective way of making progress on several different aspects of your writing, if you try to juggle too much you’ll increase the likelihood of getting muddled, and feeling as though you have made no progress and are doing nothing well.

Ask yourself helpful questions

Sometimes, to keep focus, we need to remind ourselves why a task is necessary. Before you start working, ask yourself the following:

What do I need to do?

Why do I need to do this?

What do I hope to gain from doing this?

What do I need to do to complete this?

When will I finish this?

Doing so will help to summarise why the task is important and exactly what you need to do to complete it successfully.

These tips can help writers stay positive, productive and happy. So next time you feel your attention wandering use these techniques to remain focused on the task at hand, and you’ll feel so much better for it.

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

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How To Find The Right Publisher

We all know how difficult it can be to get one’s book published, and while there might be a temptation to send your novel to every publisher out there in the hope that one will bite, this could be detrimental.

Writers can afford to be a little fussy when looking for agents and publishers. If not fussy, at least informed.

The bottom line is, if your book isn’t a good fit for a lot of publishers out there, spending time and energy submitting your manuscript to such publishers is just a waste - and means you have fewer resources to put into submitting to those publishers that might just bite.

Finding the right publisher not only increases your chances of receiving a positive response, but also, should you decide to go ahead with them, will allow you to feel confident you are getting the best business deal and that your work is in the hands of professional people who are going to love and care for it, root for it and believe in it as much as you do.

So how do you find the right publisher? Here are some things to consider:

What the publisher accepts

If you don’t have an agent you can rule out many publishers simply on the fact that they won’t accept manuscripts unless they come via one. If a publisher states they don’t accept unsolicited manuscripts you might need to put them on the backburner or focus on securing an agent to help you get a look in.

Submission guidelines

Start by carefully reading the submission guidelines. If you aren’t willing or cannot follow them, there isn’t any point in submitting your novel to this particular publisher. Editors often automatically reject manuscripts that don’t adhere to their guidelines without looking at them, so don’t get caught out by something as simple as that.

Browse their catalogue

Find out what other books they have published, are they similar to yours? Look at the genres they specialize in. Your writing needs to fit in with their catalogue and be easily marketed to their established customer base. If they sell crime fiction and you have written a romance series, you know they are not the publisher for you.

Finding the right individual

You need to feel assured that there is a person or team of people who are going to feel as passionately about your book as you do. Doing your research and asking the right questions when you are negotiating with the publisher will quickly let you know whether the people have the same aspirations for your book as you do.

Understand your role

Some authors want to be actively involved in many of the decisions surrounding the book, and some publishers don’t like that. If you want ultimate control and aren’t willing to let someone else take over, or accept feedback, you should carefully consider whether this or indeed any publisher is right for you.

The contract

If you are at the stage where you get a contract it is essential you read this thoroughly and make sure you understand every section. If you don’t, you can employ a lawyer to help you. If the terms aren’t right for you, you need to negotiate, and you might find there are some deal breakers in there on both sides that may lead you to reconsider.

Remember, if a publisher is genuinely interested in your work they will be happy to answer questions and will want to reassure you that they are the best people to sell your book. Once a publisher has decided they want to represent your work, the roles are somewhat reversed. They now have to convince you that they are the best people for the job. Therefore asking questions about how they intend to do this is essential, and will give you a clear idea if they are going to do everything they can to sell as many copies as possible.

Thoroughly researching publishers before you submit just makes good sense. You’ve put so much time, and effort into getting your book to this stage- and being less thorough and engaged when looking for someone to sell your book could cost you a publishing deal. Selecting appropriate publishers saves writers time, and heartache, so it’s well worth the effort.

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

 

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Is Being A Perfectionist Holding You Back?

Writers are well known for being perfectionists, and why not? Writing a novel to be proud of takes considerable time and effort, and wanting to get it absolutely right before you send it to publishers or share it with the world makes good sense.

However, there is a downside to perfectionism if taken to the extreme. While it’s great to be contentious and thorough in your work if you won’t let it go until it’s 100% perfect you are going to come up with a rather significant problem.

No piece of writing is perfect.

That’s the truth of the matter. Even the most well-received novels and celebrated writers don’t write perfect stories, and they certainly don’t start out anything near that way. If you keep holding onto the idea that you can make your story perfect, you’ll never finish it.

How to recognize perfectionist behaviour and what to do about it:

If you are too self-critical, if you never share your work, if you edit your work so much that you aren’t even sure if you are making it any better, you may well be a perfectionist. Here are some tips to help you get past this.

Get your first draft written

Tell yourself that you can perfect your writing later, and then focus all your energy on getting that first draft down. If you can put aside your aspirations of perfection until your first draft is finished, at least you’ve got the groundwork done without letting your perfectionism get in the way.

Be realistic

Expect rejection, expect to feel uncertain, expect to look back at something you’ve written and feel shocked at how bad it is! This is all completely normal. The reality is that most writers will experience rejection and criticism and that’s OK. If you can be realistic about this and not let the fear of it happening to you block you from getting your work out there, you will at least be able to say you gave it everything.

Be willing to learn

There are always lessons to be learned when it comes to writing. From tips on how to improve your prose to information about the writing industry, be open to learning as much as you can. Perfectionists often struggle with feedback and advice so trying to open up to learning, experimenting and absorbing input from others can be so helpful.

Keep practicing

The more you write, the better you get, but also the more you write, the more you will become used to the imperfections in your writing. Keep producing material, keep tweaking it, keep adjusting and reworking and editing, and learn and grow as a writer, and editor as you do.

Learn when to stop

Accepting that a perfect piece of writing doesn’t exist is the first step. It’s hugely important to work on our manuscripts until we have created the world, the characters and the plot that we feel does our story justice.

It’s essential to redraft and edit too. These processes take time and effort and can be very challenging.

However, this hard work is not to be confused with perfectionism. Learning when to stop, when you have done enough and when you can be proud and satisfied with what you’ve achieved it so important.

As JK Rowling once said, “Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way.”

Embrace failure, accept your flaws and let go of perfectionism and you’ll be a more productive and happier writer for it!

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

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Why Are Writer’s So Self Critical?

We writers are often our own worst enemies. We put so much effort into our writing yet instead of celebrating the fact that we are out there trying to live our dreams, or the fact that we are working hard and continually improving, we instead cripple ourselves with self-doubt and criticise our work more than anyone else ever would.

Writers can be so self-critical that they end up sabotaging their work and ruining their chances of success. But why do we do it, and is there a way to change?

Writing is scary. Few professions on earth are as overwhelmingly intimidating as writing. If you want to write well, you need to be vulnerable. If you're going to be successful, you need to put yourself out there, to talk confidently about your work and to act as though you think your writing is good enough - even though you may secretly think it is not.

Writers, even successful ones, continuously suffer from imposter syndrome, worried that they will get ‘found out’ and their readers and publisher will realize they are nowhere near as good as they seem.

Being kind to yourself, however, has many benefits. If you can turn that negative attitude around, and you are more likely to be productive and successful and happier day to day too!

That’s not saying that writers don’t need to be critical. They do. They need to have a keen eye for detail and the ability to step back from their work and see when something is not working.

They need to be able to accept that an idea might not be going anywhere, that a character doesn’t quite fit in with the story or that parts of their book are non-essential and can be cut. Without the ability to be critical we don’t have the ability to edit, and that’s an essential part of being able to produce decent work.

This is different however to feeling ashamed and stupid when we receive a rejection, for feeling like a failure if we aren’t as successful as we’d like to be and being so afraid of what someone might say about our work that we don’t do anything with it.

If we take rejection personally, beat ourselves up about where we are at in our writing career, jealously compare ourselves to others and try to convince ourselves to give up altogether, we can end up not enjoying the writing process, slowing ourselves down and missing potentially life-changing opportunities too.

Changing a habit or behaviour takes time, practice and determination too. However, doing so can make a real difference. Instead of being self-critical, try being self-compassionate. It’s an important life skill to learn and can be applied to many areas, not just writing. By giving yourself more kindness and care, you are nurturing yourself, you are allowing for mistakes, and you’ll find you can be much more creatively free, notice an increase in productivity and your confidence about your work will make it easier to convince others too.

Being self-critical can be crippling. So don’t let the destructive power of negative thinking influence your work anymore. Catch those self-critical thoughts, contain them and turn them into positives and you’ll soon see what a significant impact it can have on your work, success and happiness!

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

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Top Tips To Tighten Up Your Prose

When it comes to writing a great article, no matter what the subject matter, it’s important to make sure your content is as tight and compelling as it can be.

Here are some useful tips to help tighten up your prose.

Keep sentences short and sweet.

Pay attention to sentence length. While it’s beneficial to have some variation to improve flow and readability, make sure your content doesn't contain many long sentences. Sentences that go on for too long are more challenging to read and digest, and by including too many of them, you run the risk of losing your readers attention.

Use simple language.

Don’t use language that’s more complicated than it needs to be. People appreciate the simplicity, and unless you are writing a piece specifically aimed at an audience who will understand more academic or complicated prose, it’s best to use everyday language whenever you can.

Be clear and direct.

Your article heading should reveal to your reader what it's about. Don’t promise something you can’t deliver. An excellent article will provide the reader with the proposed information in a clear and direct way. If your writing is too convoluted or overwritten, you could irritate your readers, and you run the risk of them looking for what they want elsewhere.

Take out 10%.

Once you have finished your article read over it and be strict about what’s necessary. Any waffle, any additional words, and points that aren’t relevant - take them out. You should be able to cut your content by at least 10% making for a neater, tighter, more concise piece of writing overall.

Break it down

Use headings and subheadings to break up your text to make it more scannable. Doing this also helps readers to find information more quickly and helps them digest complicated details more efficiently too.

Have excellent grammar, punctuation and spelling

Tight prose should be as flawless as possible. Errors in spelling and grammar will get in the way of a reader’s enjoyment of your piece so make sure you do a thorough check and weed out any mistakes before you publish.

Use the active voice.

The active voice is so much more engaging and will bring life and authority to your work. It’s a common error to use the passive voice without even noticing so when you have finished your first draft have a thorough check to ensure you change any instances where you can.

Don’t be lazy

We are all guilty of writing lazily from time to time. It’s easy to try and fill the page with slightly repetitive points or say the same thing twice in a different way. Make sure everything you’ve got to say is smart, interesting and will capture your reader's attention.

By following the above tips, you will engage with your audience, get your point across and eliminate waffle. So next time you are writing a piece of content use these tips to keep your writing tight, smart and ultimately more readable.

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

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