Alice Orr's Blog, page 6

Strong Relationships Blaze Your Story Pages

Strong Relationships Blaze Your Story Pages. “What is wrong with this relationship?” A central human issue in real life. An equally central issue in writing fiction.

Relationships are the Bottom Line of the Fiction Market. Readers want answers to these life questions. How do you find a relationship? How do you sustain a relationship once it has begun? How do your regain a relationship that seems irretrievably lost? How do you correct the flaws that undermined the relationship in the first place?

These Mysteries Haunt the Heart of Every Relationship Story. Which is why interpersonal entanglements are prime reader interest territory, and not only for women’s fiction. Any story that involves adults interacting has the potential for a relationship entanglement. That conflict – particularly if it is a romantic struggle – increases your story’s sales potential by leaps and bounds in the publishing marketplace.

Your Goals are to be Published – to Attract Readers – to Become a Beloved Author. Dramatic conflict between your characters supercharges your potential to reach each of these goals. Relationship storytelling is a very savvy choice for any career-minded author. Strong Relationships Blaze Your Story Pages.

Women’s Fiction and Book Sales Potential. Approximately eighty to eighty-five percent of U.S. readers. are women. The majority of this female audience reads women’s fiction in some form. Literary stories, mainstream commercial novels, category romance. An immense market where agents, editors and, most crucially, readers search for enthralling author voices.

You and Your Stories Can be Among those Voices. The key to sought-after-author status in women’s fiction is a heartfelt, convincing relationship that comes to fiery life on your pages. Such relationships are the backbone of this flourishing segment of the book market.

Your Story’s Primary Relationships Focus on Your Main Character. But it takes two to tangle. Your protagonist needs characters to relate with, romantically and otherwise. Reader engrossing plots, and subplots, can arise from any troubled relationship. A friendship. A parent and child. Your hero confronting her rival or her captor or her tormentor. Possible combinations of  colliding characters are as varied as your imagination.

Still – the Most Popular Story Relationships are Between Lovers and Potential Lovers. Readers seek roadmaps for navigating this problematic area of human interaction. They are also drawn to the story tension inherent in a tale of two people attempting to love one another in the face of mounting obstacles and formidable odds.

Here Lies Storytelling Paydirt. Your two central characters  collide. They struggle intensely, dramatically, powerfully. They make turbulence of their lives and excite your reader’s interest. They do so most credibly when their struggle reflects the turbulence and excitement of real human experience. Which could be based on your own experience.

Your Personal History is Fertile Research Ground for your Stories. Mine the conflicts and struggles that lie beneath that ground. Disguise them in whatever fictional form you choose, but keep the emotions real and true. Do this, and you will create stories that kindle into life, because Strong Relationships Blaze Your Story Pages.

Alice Orr – http://www.aliceorrbooks.com.

ASK ALICE Your Crucial Questions. What are you most eager to know – in your writing work and in your writer’s life? Email aliceorrbooks@gmail.com. Or add a comment question to this post.

Alice has published 16 novels, 3 novellas, a memoir, many articles and several blogs so far. She wrote her nonfiction book No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells as a gift to the writers’ community. Her latest novel – A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Suspense Series Book 5 – is available HERE.

Praise for A Time of Fear & Loving: “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “The best one yet!”

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter
http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/
http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/
http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/

 

The post Strong Relationships Blaze Your Story Pages appeared first on Alice Orr Books.

How to Write First Class Secondary Characters

How to Write First Class Secondary Characters. The Hero of Your Story Lives in a Larger World Beyond Herself. She lives in a fictional world you have created. A world populated by other people usually referred to as secondary characters. I suggest you also think of them as supporting characters because they support  your main character and her story.

Your Hero Drives Your Story. But, no matter how substantial and fully realized she may be, if her supporting cast is weak, your story will be weakened too. Your story structure will be in danger of toppling —  off your reader’s bedside table into oblivion. As Mike Nichols said of all characters. You must give your secondaries their own beating heart humanity.

Create a Full Cast of Individuals who Come to Life on the Page. Functionaries won’t do, characters who walk on stage, perform a task or two, then disappear forever. If someone makes an appearance for any reason, however mundane, they must appear again in some meaningful way. They add to the emotional truth of your story. They are not just furniture.

Some Supporters Appear Often and Prominently, Others Less So. But they all perform actions that drive the story forward or amplify your hero’s role. They may not be as fleshed out as your hero, but you, the author, still must know and imagine them to be flesh and blood individuals, complete with compelling and memorable details. Click here to learn about this detail.

Your Hero’s Support Character may be a Lover, Enemy, Friend, Whomever. He or she may lessen story tension by making us laugh now and then or enhance that tension by introducing an obstacle to your hero’s goal. Whatever the secondary character’s purpose,  they must be carefully written to have an impact and engage your reader.

The Most Readily Effective Cast is Headed by a Trio. The hero, her mate or sidekick, and the villain. The hero leads the story; the other two support the story. They are the foundation upon which the story is built. They keep your story moving. You must explore two critical questions for each. What must they do in this story situation? Where do they belong – on which side of the story conflict?

These Questions Relate Especially to the Motivation of a Mate or Sidekick. How this character responds. Why they respond. These are the essentials of their story role. Dig deep to find the best motivation ideas for this character. Determine what their resulting actions will be, and you have discovered how they will enlighten your story situation.

The Arc of the Sidekick’s Development Illuminates the Path they will Take. Make detailed notes on how they do or do not resolve the two crucial questions mentioned above. Whatever their path, these must be strong secondary characters. Their actions create dramatic events. Their interactions with the hero add emotional depth to her character, and to the story.

You are the Creator of your Story World and of Every Character’s Purpose. These characters serve your hero’s goals or impede them. You, as Creator, determine the specifics. The scenes, the action, the dialogue. Choose each of these for each character by weighing its potential to intensify story conflict. Because powerful conflict and struggle are the most essential support every successful story requires, and they are absolutely never secondary.

This is How to Write First Class Secondary Characters.

Alice Orr – http://www.aliceorrbooks.com.

ASK ALICE Your Crucial Questions. What are you most eager to know – in your writing work and in your writer’s life? Email aliceorrbooks@gmail.com. Or add a comment question to this post.

Alice has published 16 novels, 3 novellas, a memoir, many articles and several blogs so far. She wrote her nonfiction book No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells as a gift to the writers’ community. Her latest novel – A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Suspense Series Book 5 – is available HERE.

Praise for A Time of Fear & Loving: “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “The best one yet!”

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter
http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/
http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/
http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/

 

The post How to Write First Class Secondary Characters appeared first on Alice Orr Books.

How Your Main Character Builds a Powerful Story

How Your Main Character Builds a Powerful Story. You want to write the best story you have in you. A story that has you on the edge of your seat while you write it and the reader on the edge of her seat when she reads it.

Character Motivation is Key. Motivation links your main character to your plot. What your character must do, and how intensely she is compelled to do that thing, will determine how gripping your story turns out to be. The character is driven by her motivation. Her actions create your story line. They are the fuse for the fireworks of your plot.

Your Character’s Drive to Act must be Powerful and Dramatic. Otherwise, your story will not be powerful and dramatic. Here’s how to find your way to storytelling power and drama. Take these five steps and you will be dancing the path to a page-turner story.

Step One. I have prepared a list of powerful character motivations. Motivations that can catapult your character and her story into the intensity stratosphere. Choose the motivation that will produce the most drama in your story’s situation by causing the most conflict for your character. Find that motivation list below.

Step Two. For a longer, more complex book, you might want your main character to have a secondary motivation as well. A slightly less driving force than her primary motivation, but compelling enough to create story lightning all the same. Which is How Your Main Character Builds a Powerful Story 

Step Three. Drape your author shoulders in your most grand and glorious imagination cape and brainstorm three possible examples of how exactly this primary motivation might  enter your character’s life with sufficient force to drive her passionately forward page after page. Choose the one that  conjures up maximum conflict and struggle for your character.

Step Four. Brainstorm three specific examples of how this motivation might come to life and be dramatized, as in acted out, in scenes starring your character. Scenes that will capture and command your reader’s attention with sharp dialogue and riveting action. Scenes potent enough to become  pivotal turning points in your story.

Step Five. Brainstorm the specific nature of the struggle, or more pointedly, the trouble that could befall your character in each of these pivotal scenes. Keep in mind that your goal as storyteller is to plunge your character into hot water, then turn the temperature up higher, higher, and higher still. That heat is what sets  pages turning rapidly for your reader.

The Mighty Seven Most Powerful Character Motivations.

#1 – Love – A powerful motivator that can drive a character to her best and worst behavior.

#2 – Self-Preservation – The threat of danger or death is another powerful motivator. Include the preservation others here. The impulse to save another person or persons from peril.

#3 – Self-Knowledge – Be careful about making this a primary motivation in commercial fiction. It can be a bit too subtle and inward for the popular marketplace to embrace with enthusiasm. Still, it may occur as a result of your character’s experiences in your story.

#4 – Pursuit of Adventure and Life Experience – Do not let this particular motivator make your protagonist behave recklessly unless we, as readers, can identify with and support that choice.

#5 – Honor or Duty – These motives can be difficult to make believable in many contemporary, realistic stories. But, if you are writing action-adventure or fantasy, feel free to go for it.

#6 – Greed – All motivations are not honorable or noble. This is one of those. For that reason, you might not want to choose it as fuel for your preferably admirable main character’s behavior.

#7 – Revenge – Another tricky choice. Powerful and believable for sure, but unattractive. Even a character intent upon avenging a wrongful death may be contemplating a heinous act of her own, and that is a touchy storytelling choice. Greed or Revenge work better as motivations for your villain, who must also be strongly driven.

Give your Hero Character Admirable Reasons for What she Does. A smart storytelling decision because, the nobler the motive, the more significant her struggle becomes. And, the more significant we believe your character’s struggle to be, the more we care about her and about your story. Which is How Your Main Character Builds a Powerful Story.

Alice Orr – http://www.aliceorrbooks.com.

ASK ALICE Your Crucial Questions. What are you most eager to know – in your writing work and in your writer’s life? Email aliceorrbooks@gmail.com. Or add a comment question to this post.

Alice has published 16 novels, 3 novellas and a memoir so far. She wrote her nonfiction book No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells as a gift to the writers’ community. Her latest novel – A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 5 – is available HERE.

Praise for A Time of Fear & Loving: “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “The best one yet!”

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter
http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/
http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/
http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/

 

The post How Your Main Character Builds a Powerful Story appeared first on Alice Orr Books.

Alice’s Survive and Thrive Secrets for Writers

Alice’s Survive and Thrive Secrets for Writers. Whatever happens, we must make certain we survive and thrive, as writers and as humans. A learning curve to be sure, and we struggle to surmount it. Some fall by the wayside. You may worry you could someday be among them, but you can prevent that. These are my Survive and Thrive Secrets.

Secret #1 – Be the Best You Can Be In the Present. Which does not mean to bury yourself in work and anxiety-inducing responsibilities. The first step is to identify your writing career goals. Not the goals someone else makes you feel you should attain. Your own true goals, the ones that won’t stress you out and burn you down.

Brainstorm these Good Goals. Sit with a piece of paper and/or a recording device and let your imagination fly. Do not edit yourself. Do not say, “That’s a ridiculous idea.” Or, “I can’t possibly do that.” Just write everything down, and say this to your inner critic. “Get lost!” Silencing discouraging voices is crucial among Alice’s Survive and Thrive Secrets for Writers.

Review your Goal Possibilities List. Do so quickly. Read – or listen – through all of the ideas you have come up with and do so in a kind of rush. Check mark each goal idea that strikes you at heart level in a positive way as something you would really love to do. Winnow those heart-struck choices down to three at most. These are the goals tailormade for you to pursue.

Secret #2 – Stay Future-Focused. Study the publishing industry to scope out trends, not so you can chase after them, but so you are savvy about what is happening in the book-buying and book-reading marketplace. Always remember that many trends are just fads. They will fade and be gone before you can scramble onto the fad train to follow them.

On the Other Hand, you may Find Something with Legs. A trend that has taken a deep hold on the book world and looks like it will last. One that suits the way you want to move forward toward your own tailormade goals. Never sacrifice those goals for any market trend.

Secret #3 – Remain Past-Perfect. Hearken back to the basics. Do this again and again throughout your career. The basics of writing art and craft are the firm foundation upon which you must always stand. The tried and true remains tried and true. Storytelling basics do not succumb to trends.

Secret #4 – Cultivate the Art of Self Re-Invention. Exercise career flexibility. This is not a contradiction of what I have said before here. Any change of career direction you may contemplate must always take into primary account your personal tailormade goals. We are talking about an alternate route to those goals, not about abandoning their highway altogether.

Before you Contemplate any Change – Re-imagine the skills you already have. Brainstorm yet again, employing the same rules I have described above. What have you done in your writing career? What have you learned? Also, what have you most enjoyed? These are your skills.

Do Not Abandon your Skills – Adapt them. If you reach a legitimately insurmountable roadblock obstructing your path toward your goals, consider altering that path. Use the skills you have already acquired to accomplish that. This way you make your fresh start already ahead.

The Ultimate Secret – Persist Till You Prevail. Practice this proverb. “Fall down seven times. Get up eight.” Or as many times as are necessary to survive, necessary to thrive. Never give up. When you are tempted to do so, brainstorm this. Goethe said, “Be bold and great forces will come to your aid.” Yet another of Alice’s Survive and Thrive Secrets for Writers and for life.

Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com

ASK ALICE Your Crucial Questions. What are you most eager to know – in your writing work and in your writer’s life? Email aliceorrbooks@gmail.com. Or add a comment question to this post. I will be honored to respond.

Alice has published 16 novels, 3 novellas and a memoir so far. She wrote her nonfiction book No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells as a gift to the writers’ community. Her latest novel – A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 5 – is available HERE.

Praise for A Time of Fear & Loving: “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “The best one yet!”

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter
http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/
http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/
http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/

 

 

The post Alice’s Survive and Thrive Secrets for Writers appeared first on Alice Orr Books.

Get Your Writing Out There – Right Now

Get Your Writing Out There – Right Now. A colleague was in touch with me recently about a novel she has been working on for some time. The story is finished. It has been edited and polished. It is ready to go. Still, she hesitates to send it into the world.

I Understand this Writer’s Hesitation. There is always more that can be done to any manuscript, more tinkering and tweeking. But the time comes when you must decide – whether you will let your book go or most likely hang onto it forever.

A Substantial Fear Factor Resides in this Decision. I understand that also. Especially after you have worked on a story for a long time. The act of actually submitting it somewhere feels like a finality, as if it could be make or break for your career. But none of this is true.

You are merely taking a first step, seeking a professional response to your work. After that step has been accomplished, you may ask yourself, “Where do I go from here?” Meanwhile, however, your work is off your desk and into the publishing universe, where it needs to be.

We Have All Heard that Rejection is More Likely than Acceptance. This is entirely true, but you must move forward anyway. What is the alternative? You can of course collect story files, one after the other, never allowing yourself  to discover what might or might not happen to them.

This is the safe alternative, but it is also a dead end. Dead means the same thing in the writing world that dead means in any circumstance. Life is over, at least on this side of eternity. Your hours, months, years of work have been consigned to a drawer somewhere, digital or otherwise.

Instead, Let’s Address the Question “Where Do I Go from Here?” Have you researched where it is appropriate to submit this story? Have you identified other successfully published books in your genre, where exactly they were published, and who their editors might be? Get Your Writing Out There – Right Now.

You Need a List of 6 Appropriate publishers for Your Work. You need the name of a specific editor at each house who already works in your genre and has made a success of other authors there. You will go on to identify 6 more houses eventually, and 6 more after that, but this is where you begin.

Prepare Your Most Impressive Submission Package. Include first chapter and synopsis even if the submission guidelines say not to do so. A writing sample and synopsis proof of a full, compelling plot give you a fair chance to showcase your abilities. Blame the rule break on me.

Top Your Package with a Carefully Written Cover Letter. Then, let that baby go. Six submissions at a time. Be sure to mention in your cover letter, with deliberately diplomatic subtlety, that this manuscript package has been submitted to “a very select group of publishers.”

Move on, Immediately, to Your Next Book. Forget about the submissions you just made. Do not sit around waiting for responses. But when the responses do come, keep track of them in a file for that book. Meanwhile, submit to a new editor on your next six-publisher list.

Do What each Responding Editor Requests. If she asks to see something more, send it. If she suggests revisions, incorporate them and resubmit. If she turns you down but adds what she did like about the work, enhance that element further and resubmit. Thank her profusely, and sincerely,  for the inspiration her comments were for you – so inspiring in fact that you felt you must show her the result.

At Last, You may Turn to the Other Stuff. Like marketing to gain name visibility online, via the platforms that work best for you. That part of your career is important, but submitting your work must be your first  priority always. Get Your Writing Out There – Right Now.

Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com

ASK ALICE Your Crucial Questions. What are you most eager to know – in your writing work and in your writer’s life? Email aliceorrbooks@gmail.com. Or add a comment question to this post. Alice will be honored to respond.

Alice has published 16 novels, 3 novellas and a memoir so far. She wrote her nonfiction book No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells as a gift to the writers’ community. Her latest novel – A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 5 – is available HERE.

Praise for A Time of Fear & Loving: “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “The best one yet!”

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter
http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/
http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/
http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/

 

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Abundance Surrounds Your Writer Self

Abundance Surrounds Your Writer Self. Many of us lost sight of Abundance during the past two very difficult years. I certainly did. I drew myself in and held my loved ones close as was possible in a distanced, divided, doubt riddled world. Reminders of loss were everywhere, so I burrowed deeper. In my writing life I did the same. Maybe something similar happened to you.

Spring has Come Now, and We Long for New Light and Fresh Beginnings. We peer out tremulously from our hibernation places in search of what remains of possibility. As I peer out from my own writer’s burrow, the first thing I see is all of us, and what a lovely sight we are.

We are Our Great Resource. Each other – our writers’ community. Our writing sisters and brothers, still here where we have always been. Abundance of Talent – Ideas – Support. We reach out. We work together. We combine our resources and thrive together.

We Call on Each Other When our Determination gets Shaky. We remember the words of two oldish songs and sing along. “We all need somebody to lean on.” – and – “You’ll get by with a little help from your friends.” We invite ourselves to lean on one another and accept help.

We Remind Ourselves that Our Common Ground is More Precious than Our Differences. We reconcile. We listen to each other. We press on as allies because allies are what you need, not enemies. United we stand and are strong – in our writing lives and in our human hearts.

Turn Next to another Great Resource – Yourself. You are your first ally in every undertaking. You are your first fortress through any struggle. You are the Hero in Your Mirror. You are equal to whatever challenges you may face. Never underestimate that. Never underestimate yourself.

Never Underestimate Your Writer Self. Repeat these words to yourself every single day. “I have something worthwhile to say. I have something to say that is worth saying well. I have something to say that is worthy of being heard. And stories to tell that deserve to be told.

Rediscover – or Reinvigorate – Your Love for Your Writing Work. You are blessed to have discovered your passionate pursuit in life. Rejoice in the gift of that discovery. Loads of effort and creativity will be required of you, but that is the most satisfying route take. One day of diligent, delicious effort at a time. This is a journey you can be proud of making.

Finally (if you will permit me to suggest it) Turn to the greatest Abundance of all. Your Higher Power. Whatever that may be. Powerful forces for good are present in your life and in your work whether you are aware of them or not. I believe this to be true. I invite you to believe as well – and also to know that, now and always, Abundance Surrounds Your Writer Self.

Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com

ASK ALICE Your Crucial Questions. What are you most eager to know – in your writing work and in your writer’s life? Email aliceorrbooks@gmail.com. Or add a comment question to this post. I will be honored to respond.

Alice’s latest novel A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 5 – is available HERE.

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

Praise for A Time of Fear & Loving: “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “The best one yet!”

https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter
http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/
http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/
http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/

 

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Build Your Writer Platform One Plank at a Time

Build Your Writer Platform One Plank at a Time. Your Platform is the launch pad for your visibility. Your Platform gives you access to your readership. It gives your readership access to you. If your goal is to be published and read – you must build a solid writer platform.

You Do This or You Continue to Do This – One Plank at a Time. You do not have to do it all at once. You do not have to do it hurry. That will plunge you into frenzy. Frenzy is not an effective mode for accomplishing anything. Resist the urge to dash about in frenzy.

Your Social Media Presence is a Good First Plank. A pile of planks actually. Still – approach this effort one step at a time. No frenzy. No dashing about. One plank at a time means you will not become overwhelmed. Here is the first thing to remember about this first plank.

The Most Important Thing about Social Media is the Nature of Your Presence There. Your Presence as in how you Present yourself. The nature of that presence must be a conscious, even calculated choice. You think it through – or rethink it through – at the very beginning.

Begin your Thinking – or Rethinking – with This Crucial Question. Since my goal is to enhance my visibility – how is it in my best interests to be seen? Which means you must also ask yourself another question. Why am I on social media? What do I need to get out of being there?

These days I am on Social Media mostly as a Teacher. I want to attract people to me in a way that will make them open to my message. Which means it is in my best interest to be likable, approachable, pleasant. Someone you will enjoy learning from. That is my conscious intent.

You Must be Consciously Intentional Too. Be aware always that social media is not a small peephole accessible only to chosen friends and followers. Social media is a giant picture window. Everybody can look through that window at you. Decide what you want them to see.

Think Hard about What You Need Your Very Visible Presence to be. If you need to be a political firebrand – or any brand of firebrand – rant away. If you need to be a sex pot – vamp away. Be aware always that you make this choice for your writing career as well as for yourself.

Build Your Social Media Presence in a Way that Works for Your Writing Career. Which is all about building relationships. Make relationships your priority. Talk about the people you are connecting with as much – or more than – you talk about you. Put their needs ahead of your own.

Use your Social Media Presence to Serve Your Followers. They are potential readers. Pay It forward in advance to your readership. Give them – first and foremost – what they need. They will keep following you for it. They will support and encourage you and your writing career.

Lasting Relationships will be the Happy Result. Relationships that form the foundation of your solid platform. A place where you can firmly stand. A presence that works for you and your writing career. As you – Build Your Writer Platform One Plank at a Time.

Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com

Alice’s latest novel A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 5 – is available HERE.

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

Praise for A Time of Fear & Loving: “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.”  “The best one yet!”

https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter
http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/
http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/
http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/

 

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How to Notch Up Your Writer Discipline

How to Notch Up Your Writer Discipline. For starters, write regularly. Let the rich experience of creativity sink deep into your psyche until you feel out of balance without it. I used to say, “One page or one hour a day minimum.” Now I say, “Often enough to feel the need to return the next day.”

Discipline Your Work Environment. Carve out a corner of your own. Virginia Woolf talked about “a room of your own.” Crowded circumstances can preclude that. A space that encourages a writing mood will suffice. Make that space as private and comfortable as you need it to be. Keep your writing paraphernalia nearby. Notebooks, files, pens, computer, a lamp shade covered in story ideas.

Acquire Quality Writing Equipment. Do so by disciplining your spending on other things if that is necessary. Most important, do so by believing this absolutely crucial truth. You deserve what you need to succeed.

Discipline Your Commitments. Cut out every non-writing activity that you can. Ask yourself, “Is there somebody else who can do this? Does it have to be me?” Say no to new requests for your time and energy. Ease the inevitable disappointed reaction with a smile and this gentle suggestion. “Ask me again next year.”

The Exception is When You are Paying It Forward. Invest in your career by investing yourself in your writing community as often as you can manage. Find a balance that benefits both you and others. Do not hide your generosity. Serve in the spotlight, but do not brag. Graciously accept thanks and acknowledgement of your efforts.

Discipline Your Family and Friends. Post your work hours. The refrigerator door is a good place to do that. Insist on no interruptions at those times. Tell your people how important your writing is to you. Make them hear you. Eventually, they will get it. Do not back down.

Discipline Your Telephone. List your daily work hours on your voicemail message. Say that you do not take calls during your work hours and mean it. Keep a smile in your voice, but do not apologize. Mention the hours when you do receive calls. Eventually, they will get it. Do not back down.

Discipline Your Online Activity. Identify your personal online time-burners. Activities that are minimally productive to your career. If you cannot resist, do not indulge during your best brain time. Never indulge during your writing work hours. Use your online activity to build your career, your public platform, your visibility. Limit online playtime to your dim brain hours.

Escape-Write through Stress. Life is full of stressful situations. They can stop your writing progress in its tracks. Use that stress to enhance your writing instead. Powerful storytelling is intense, so is stress. Incorporate how you are feeling into a dramatic scene from your current work. Your body, breath, immediate environment. Feel it all. Adapt it all.

The Purpose of Discipline is to Carry You Deep into Your Story and Keep You There. John Gardner called this place “the dream of the book.” Discipline helps you inhabit that dream and write from deep inside your imagination. Because deep inside is where your best stories live. Discipline helps you get there. How to Notch Up Your Writer Discipline

Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com

Alice’s latest novel A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 5 – is available HERE.

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

Praise for A Time of Fear & Loving: “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “Budding romance sizzles in the background until it ignites with passion.” “The best one yet!”

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How to Step Up Your Journey on the Writing Road

How to Step Up Your Journey on the Writing Road. I last posted here about  a technique for boosting your writer’s Imagination. The fourth entry in my Attitude Adjustment series. Confession time. I did not boost. I did not adjust. I walked away.

I needed rest. Maybe you have felt the same. I am done with resting now and ready to get back to work. Please, feel free to join me. Return to a rediscovered writer’s journey. Or repave the road you never left. Here’s How to Step Up Your Journey on the Writing Road.

Life changes when you start your day writing. Wake up. Wash your face. Brew a cuppa. Begin to write. Fall into the world of your story where doubts disintegrate and make believe reigns. A world more truly real to a writer than day-to-day and down-to-earth could ever be.

Plus – something else equally enthralling. After each first-moment-of-the morning writing session, an aura of its captivation magic remains. Your mind feels less fettered. Your worries press less heavily. Even your To Do lists have lost a huge measure of their tyranny.

Need a kickstart? Try this prompt. “I would like to introduce you to my favorite self.” Or. “Meet my favorite character.” Choose the one that attracts you most powerfully. Do not ponder. Put your pen to the paper, or place your fingers on the keyboard. And just write.

Let your imagination fly free. Open your senses wide and turn up their volume. See every detail at maximum vividness. Listen to each glorious sound. Taste your words on your tongue. Smell every scent, pleasant or unpleasant. Feel it all, both outside yourself and within.

Write it down. Fragments of thought. Impressions. Dialog snatches if you hear them. The sensations. The silliness. If you catch the spark of a writing idea, record it, but only briefly. Then abandon yourself once more to your flight into this wide open moment, whatever it may be.

Think of this day every day as a jewel on the thread of your life. Know that this day, this moment, is a precious step on the extraordinary journey of your writing experience. Place your jewel artfully. Admire its beauty. Take each step with every fiber of you at high alert and maximum awareness. Recognize the wonder.

If a discouraging thought appears, let it pass. Everything you need for your journey is right here, right now, wherever you are. Each step along your road will take you toward the place you need to go. You are on your personal path to your personal writing triumph whatever it may be.

Never relinquish your Power of Enthusiasm. Ralph Waldo Emerson reminds us that enthusiasm is the energy you need to fuel yourself in life. You are energized. You understand How to Step Up Your Journey on the Writing Road. There will be no stopping us now.

Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com

Alice’s latest novel A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 5 – is available HERE.

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

Praise for A Time of Fear & Loving: “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “Budding romance sizzles in the background until it ignites with passion.” “The best one yet!”

https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter
http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/
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http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/

 

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How to Boost Your Writer’s Imagination

How to Boost Your Writer’s Imagination. Usually, I am all about discipline all of the time. Today I shall noodle a different tune. A tune I make up as I go along. Today I am all about lack of discipline all the time. Today is Distraction Day.

On Distraction Day, my imagination roams. Won’t you roam with me? Our object, if there is one, will be to see what happens, and perhaps be surprised. Our theme will be Less is More. Less careful attention. Less deliberate pursuit. Less clamor after control. Let us let go.

Instead of pushing yourself to do your very best today. Allow yourself to do whatever you end up doing, wherever you happen to be, however you happen to feel. We are not chasing achievement. We are, as the mystics say, simply being here now.

Start with your immediate environment. Where exactly are you? What is going on there? What will go on there when you let your imagination loose and follow the fantasy of whatever scenario may appear. When you allow the nature of the place to topple into the tale that unfolds.

Undiscipline your commitments. Put off your promises. The promises you have made to others. The promises you made to yourself, about what you would do in the several hours ahead. Watch it all slip-slide straight off your plate. Undo your To Do list, just for today.

Populate your presence with whomever happens to show up. Don’t turn off your phone. Don’t silence the notifications signal on your social media. If somebody knocks, answer the door. Invite everyone in by opening up to happenstance.

Stop thinking of distractions as a bad thing.  Distractions can lead us off our intended paths. Into adventure. Into unexpected venues. Around a corner we have never before turned. This is Distraction Day. A time to be carried away on whims of chance.

What are your personal time burners? The activities you ordinarily regard with guilt as a waste, especially of your declared intentions. Activities you think of as minimally productive to your career. What is the most difficult of these to resist? Desist from resisting. Indulge instead.

Welcome your own weirdness. David Lynch, frequent traveler of this territory, says, “It’s like fishing. I never know what I’m going to catch.” Take yourself on a fishing expedition. Accept anything that lands on your hook, the stranger the better. Astonish yourself if you can.

Meanwhile, there are a couple of rules to impose upon our anarchic experience of How to Boost Your Writer’s Imagination.

Open your senses wide and turn up their volume. See. Each detail around you at maximum vividness. Listen. To sounds bursting like a revelation. Taste. Any morsel that touches your tongue. Smell. Scents pleasant and unpleasant alike. Feel. Everything, both tactile and internal.

Write it all down. Notes. Fragments of thought. Impressions. Dialog snatches. Only enough to make sure you can summon back the scene, the sensations, the silliness later on. If you spot the spark of a writing idea, record it briefly. Then abandon yourself to distraction once more.

Most important, have fun. Fly free. Resolve to fly into fun again soon. Make Distraction Days a regular event in your schedule. Your unleashed writer’s imagination will reward you richly for doing so.

Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com

Alice’s latest novel A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 5 – is available HERE.

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.Praise for A Time of Fear & Loving: “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “Budding romance sizzles in the background until it ignites with passion.” “The best one yet!”

https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter
http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/
http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/
http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/

 

 

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