Rob Bignell's Blog, page 306

Create playlist to write your story by

Create a “playlist” for your characters and story, selecting songs that help you get into your character’s frame of mind of the scene’s tone. Then play those songs as you write. Do you find that you’ve started writing again? Selecting the songs forced you to think about your characters’ personalities, motivations and goals as well as the story’s plot.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like New Orleans, or a small town like Searchlight, Nevada, I can provide that second eye.

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Five Great Quotations about Craft of Writing

“Resist the temptation to try to use dazzling style to conceal weakness of substance.” - Stanley Schmidt

“Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it - and delete it before sending your manuscript to the press.” - Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch

“No tale tells all.” - Alexei Panshin

“A story isn't about a moment in time, a story is about the moment in time.” - W. D. Wetherell

“Child, to say the very thing you really mean, the whole of it, nothing more or less or other than what you really mean; that's the whole art and joy of words.” ― C.S. Lewis

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Orlando, Florida, or a small town like Beer Bottle Crossing, Idaho, I can provide that second eye.

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Let your characters write their story. They actually know what you want to say.

Novelist Truman Capote once quipped, “You can’t blame a writer for what the characters say.”

Sometimes when writing, you’ll feel as if your characters are directing and controlling their own fate rather than you being the one who shapes them. All of them seem to tell you what they’ll say and do. Sometimes their choices may even startle you!

This occurs because if you’ve created characters with specific needs and motivations, to be logically consistent they must react and respond in certain ways. They also must act within the constraints of a standard plot structure. The universe they exist in may further limit or allow for various behaviors and decisions.

Of course, you do not live in the universe you’ve created (though it may be an analog for the one you do live in!). Neither might you have the same motivations and desires as your characters, and certainly your life isn’t restricted by a series of complications followed by a climactic scene in which all the world is set right. That your characters make choices you wouldn’t shouldn’t surprise you. They wouldn’t react any more like you than might your own sibling (In fact, sometimes your brother or sister may actually make decisions that are more similar to yours than your characters!).

That this occurs only points to the beauty of creating. Just as a parent delights at a child growing up to become his or her own independent, self-reliant person, so you should take pride in your story when the same happens. It’s a sign that you’ve done well as a parent!

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Portland, Oregon, or a small town like Papa, Hawaii, I can provide that second eye.

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On website, text is king, design is queen

There’s a lot of great stuff out there about what a website should look like and how to build one. Yet the most important element of any website is the words conveyed on it.

After all, the reason people go to a website is for information – about products, about services, about you as a person – to see if what you offer is the right match for them. Pictures make what you’ve written easier for readers to visualize and the website’s design makes navigating the pages easier for the audience, but in the end what matters are the words: The price of a product, the synopsis of a book being that can be ordered, the description of the services offered. A website with only pictures and a sexy design does little except to show you’re high on style but low on substance … and substantive products or service is what your customers want – and where the words come in.

Indeed, well-written websites also tend to drive more traffic, which means more business for you. Such websites contain the rights words that allow potential customers to more easily find your webpage via a search engine.

None of this is to denigrate a website’s design. Undoubtedly, it is the visual aspect of your website that first grabs the page visitor. And a poorly designed webpage – even with great information on it – will drive away potential customers.

Ultimately, a good web page consists of both great design and great text. All too often, though, we give the text little attention in favor of the design. While there’s much truth to the notion that “Content is king,” I prefer to think of a good webpage as “Text is king” and “Design is queen.” They’re partners in this endeavor, and for the kingdom (or your webpage) to succeed, they need to work in tandem, complementing one another’s strengths.

The challenge facing you when writing website text is to convey what needs to be said in as few words as possible. Many readers stay on a site for only a few seconds, and if the website writer doesn’t select the right one or two words that best appeal to your potential customer, you’re sunk. Once you do have webpage visitors hooked enough to stay longer, then you need to have set of words to convince them your product or service is worthy of their dollars. If you don’t, there are hundreds (and in some cases thousands) of other websites that they can click on to seek what they need.

In short, don’t favor design over text when constructing your website. If you do, you’ll just be wasting your money. In future entries, we’ll explore exactly how to write perfect text for your website.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Richmond, Virginia, or a small town like Red Cloud, Nebraska, I can provide that second eye.

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Self-published authors may need EIN

Authors who self-publish generally don’t need an Employer Identification Number (EIN).

Should you ghostwrite books or freelance, however, you probably will need one. That’s because anyone who pays you more than $600 annually to a client needs to file a 1099 form with the Internal Revenue Service. As part of that form, the client will need to know your EIN.

Another instance where you may need one is if opening up a special bank account for yourself as a sole proprietor to keep your author earnings and spending separate from your personal bank account. Most banks will require that you have an EIN to open such an account.

For the person who hired you, giving them your social security number rather than an EIN is perfectly fine. An EIN, however, probably gives you more protection against identity theft.

An EIN is obtained solely from the IRS. It is free and can be applied for online. There’s never a need to pay a service for obtaining an EIN for you.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Milwaukee, Wisconsin, or a small town like Dry Prong, Louisiana, I can provide that second eye.

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One or three? Nonetheless vs. none the less

You may recall one or two of elementary teachers advising you to spell a word the way you would say it. While that didn’t work for knight, it does work for nonetheless.

Because this adverb is really a collection of three words, many writers like to spell it as such with a space between each syllable. However, we actually speak the three words as if it were one, typically cutting a tic out of our pause between words in a sentence. So, nonetheless is the correct spelling.

In addition, when punctuating, a comma always goes after nonetheless. To wit: Nonetheless, Los Angeles is taking steps to become more cultural with the addition of new museums. If nonetheless appears in the middle of a sentence, the word is set off with commas on both sides of it, as in: The mayor of New York City, nonetheless, maintains that no American city can match his for cultural attractions.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Reno, Nevada, or if you come from a small town Why, Arizona, I can provide that second eye.

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Writing Prompt: Emotions of personal turmoil

Suffering from writer’s block or need to add some spunk to your writing? The problem may be that you need to change up your routine. To that end, try this tip: Think of a time you’ve faced personal turmoil in your life. Write a page about the emotions you experienced during that difficult time.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from an urban area like California’s Orange County or a rural area like Loving County, Texas, I can provide that second eye.

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Avoid stalling as approaching crucial event

One common plotting problem novice writers experience, especially in the first draft, is that of stalling.

Stalling consists of including here-to-there scenes prior to when a crucial event is to occur in the story. Usually these stalling scenes are superficial and unnecessary.

Suppose that a story’s climactic scene involves five soldiers holding out in a fort against a much larger force. Stalling scenes might include how one soldier filled his canteens, how another one went to a building in the fort for sandbags, and how a third brewed a cup of coffee.

While the soldiers may very well have done each of these things, none of the scenes are emotionally charged. Rather than build suspense by delaying the presentation of the final battle, they decrease the tension by slowing the story.

This is not to say any of those scenes, if properly developed, couldn’t further the story, however. Perhaps while filling canteens, a male and a female story come close to expressing their suppressed love for one another, even though both know neither may be alive by the time the sun rises. Perhaps the lack of sandbags forces the soldier to improvise how he sets up his foxhole, and this improvisation gives him the clue to the strategy the small band needs to follow to be victorious. Perhaps as brewing the cup of coffee, we learn something about that character’s cool as the author holds up the value of grace under pressure. Comparatively, simple here-to-there scenes would be unsatisfactory, even if just listed in a line or two.

The term stalling was coined by CFSW’s David Smith.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Memphis, Tennessee, or a small town like Eastabutchie, Mississippi, I can provide that second eye.

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Five Great Quotations about Biographies

“Biographies are but the clothes and buttons of the man. The biography of the man himself cannot be written.” - Mark Twain

“In writing biography, fact and fiction shouldn't be mixed. And if they are, the fictional points should be printed in red ink, the facts printed in black ink.” - Catherine Drinker Bowen

“Great geniuses have the shortest biographies.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Once you touch the biographies of human beings, the notion that political beliefs are logically determined collapses like a pricked balloon.” - Walter Lippmann

“Always live your life with your biography in mind.” - Marisha Pessl

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like St. Louis, Missouri, or a small town like Cheesequake, New Jersey, I can provide that second eye.

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Writing Inspiration: A story is like a child – though it arises from us, it is its own being

If you’ve ever been a parent or just an astute observer of your niece or nephew, you’ve probably been struck by how much a child is like his or her father and mother. At the same time, though they share physical traits, interests and patterns of behavior, the child is unique and his or her person.

Likewise, your story is a creation and reflection of you…yet, it is a creature all its own, too.

The universe and characters of your story arise from deep inside you, as if elements plucked from your unconsciousness. You construct the world in a way that your everyday life hasn’t yet needed to, and so the story can surprise, leaving you to wonder, “Did I really write that? Do I really believe it?” Similarly, a child also has a mind of his own, one that shares memories and maybe even genetic inclinations to think in ways that the parent does, yet it’s still a mind that is separate and distinct, that is essentially unknowable, much like our own unconscious.

At times, the universe and characters you’ve created are seemingly alien, as if you had nothing at all to do with it. A fictional universe that is sufficiently developed will begin to operate by its own rules simply to be logically consistent, and you may not know all that may occur in the tale, just that it must obey certain, seemingly unknowable laws. Almost all parents have had some experience in which their child did something entirely inexplicable, something that baffled them. But if you could know all that’s going in that child’s mind – each of her thoughts, each of her feelings, each of her synaptic connections – it probably would make perfect sense, or at least be explainable.

You’ll really feel as if your book has taken control of its destiny when readers respond to it. Each reader is like a classmate, a high school sweetheart, or a coworker that a child meets as entering the broader world, interacting with your “creation” in ways that you might not fully comprehend or even be aware of.

All too often, writers think of their story as a machine that they have total control over, that they can fine-tune and redesign. What if we instead thought of our stories as children, who we can guide from birth to maturity, though? What if rather than attempting to fix every problem we approached writing from the attitude of compassionate detachment, intervening when necessary but allowing the story to naturally unfold?

Would our stories then be less of a cookie cutter of ourselves and instead be more real and human to the reader?

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like San Diego, California, or a small town like Eek, Arkansas, I can provide that second eye.

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