Rob Bignell's Blog, page 312

Each paragraph I write is like the unwrapping of a wonderful gift. Treat yourself with a present today and begin to write

Most of us can recall a birthday or a holiday when we received the most incredible gift – One that was fun to play with, one that offered up a challenge from which you grew, one that provided relief from the stresses of life. Maybe it was a board game, perhaps a science kit, possibly a book that inspired you.

In many ways, writing is a gift – except it’s not one you give not to another but to yourself.

Writing delivers the pleasure of creating, of shaping something artistic. It is like a game that you play out and make choices as trying to reach an endpoint. In short, it’s fun.

Writing offers mental stimulation. You attempt to master the craft as outlined in guidebooks by masters of the profession, following their “instructions” to see if you also can build a “working model.”

Writing provides good therapy. Examining the stressors in one’s life and learning about oneself can help you work out inner demons, which is soothing and calming. It’s like reading a beloved book, which takes you to a place of comfort and joy.

Writing imparts a sense of accomplishment. Once you’ve filled a page with sentences or added a thousand words to your computer document, you point to something tangible, something measurable, that you’ve achieved. Like being the first to reach “Finish,” like hearing a radio broadcast from science kit circuits you’ve connected, like closing that book after spending the afternoon reading it, you feel a surge of self-pride.

Some psychologists say that giving a gift actually yields more pleasure than receiving one. If so, why not enjoy the benefits of both by giving yourself the gift of writing?

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 Ventura, California, or a small town like Big Ugly Creek, West Virginia, I can provide that second eye.

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Use consistent name across your author platform

As creating an author’s platform – that is, setting up all of the tools you’ll use to get word out about your book – pay close attention to the name you use. All too often, the social media sites for an author utilize different names, which can make you difficult to find.

Using a lone name to refer to yourself that is followed across your author’s platform (and then in all of your promotional materials) is a matter of branding yourself. It’s what the big guys do, no matter what product they sell, and for good reason. Consider fast food giant McDonalds. Its website is www.mcdonalds.com. Its Facebook site is www.facebook.com/mcdonalds. Its Pinterest site is www.pinterest.com/mcdonalds. There’s no confusing www.eatatmcdonalds or www.mcdonaldscompany. The idea is simple: McDonalds wants to everyone to know them with the use of one word. Type that word in a search engine or at a social media site, and you’ll instantly arrive at their site.

As an author, you should do the same. This will be increasingly important with each book you publish. Rather than have separate sites for each book, or some sites named for one book and some sites named for a second book, utilize one, consistent name in which people will be able find out about all of your books (or at least whatever is your most current book), no matter which social media site they visit.

Going with your name as an author usually is best, especially for novelists or poets. Hence, if your name is Jane Johnson, then your website should be www.janejohnson.com, your Facebook site www.facebook.com/janejohnson, your Twitter site @janejohnson, and so on. Alternately, if you publish different lines of books, especially nonfiction titles aimed at different audiences, you would use the series’ name across your platforms. So, if your series title is “59 Seconds a Day…” (as in “59 Seconds a Day to Happier You” and “59 Seconds a Day to a Smarter You”, use www.59secondsaday, www.facebook.com/59secondsaday, @59secondsaday.

Be aware that various social media sites limit the length of your “handle”; Twitter restrains you to 15 letters, for example. Because of this, before setting up any sites, you’ll want to think carefully about what your “brand” will be. Shorter usually is better, as it not only ensures consistency in your site names but often is easier to remember (After all, would you more easily remember “Jane Johnson” or “Jane H. Rubenstein Johnson”?).

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 Bakersfield, California, or a small town like Mosquitoville, Vermont, I can provide that second eye.

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Writing Affirmation: You cannot improve as a writer until actually revising something you wrote

As writers, often we are our own worst critics. We’re typically either too ruthless or not critical enough of our own stories and articles! Worse, we sometimes even hate the good parts of our manuscript and love the poorly written sections.

Of course, not everything we write is perfect the first time around. Our writing almost always needs proofreading and some revising. The challenge is to ensure your inner editor rather than your inner critic speaks to you.

Your inner critic differs from your inner editor. Your inner critic says, “This is rubbish, utter crap!” Your inner editor says, “I can write this better than it currently is.” Your inner critic says you’ve never been and never will be a good speller and crumples then tosses the manuscript because it reads flat and vanilla. Your inner editor corrects spelling errors and recognizes then revises passive voice passages.

Your inner editor understands that revising involves patching up and reworking your story, not giving up on it. Such revising may require writing new sections or even just starting over. It’s sometimes referred to as “rewriting” or “drafting.”

Imagine if a contractor came into a building under construction the day the foundation was poured and declared the structure unfit for habitation. Of course it would be. Construction workers have yet to erect the walls. Electricians have yet to install the wiring. Plumbers have yet to connect pipes.

Each draft you write is like a successive stage in this building project. You outline the plot. You add characters and dialogue. You include a description of the setting. As doing this, you notice that some of the action scenes are a little rough and so bring back in your creativity to finish that job. Then you continue with writing the climax, and so on. As the writer, you are not just the contractor but also each of the construction workers for your book.

How many drafts are required? There’s no magic number, though usually the less experienced of a writer you are, the more drafts that will be needed. When you feel there’s no way you can make the book any better than it is, you’ll know you’ve reached the final draft.

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 Inland Empire or a rural area like Loving County, Texas, I can provide that second eye.

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Robbed by bad grammar: Stick up vs. stickup

Don’t let these two words hold up your writing!

Stickup is a noun meaning a robbery at gunpoint, as in That convenience store has seen more stickups this year than any other in New York City.

Stick up is a verb in which a person raises his or her hands straight up in the air, which is what police will ask a robber to do when caught, as in “Stick up your hands!” the Los Angeles policeman shouted.

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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Writing Prompt: Revisit an old favorite

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: Re-read a poem or children’s story that was a favorite of yours in childhood. Pay special attention to the wording. Read it aloud to hear the sounds of those words. Next, sit down and write a passage in which you model that author’s wording techniques.

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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What is an ‘inciting incident’ in a story?

Q: I recently came across the term “inciting incident” in a book about fiction writing but no definition or example was given. What is the book talking about?

A: A vital part of any story is the opening lines, also known as the inciting incident. In this section of the story, we learn who the main character is, the central problem facing him, and a little about the setting.

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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 Atlanta, Georgia, or a small town like Atlanta, Idaho, I can provide that second eye.

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Five Great Pieces of Advice to Aspiring Writers

“The only way to learn to write is to write.” - Peggy Teeters

“A young musician plays scales in his room and only bores his family. A beginning writer, on the other hand, sometimes has the misfortune of getting into print.” - Marguerite Yourcenar

“The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress.” - Philip Roth

“Don’t romanticise your ‘vocation.’ You can either write good sentences or you can’t. There is no 'writer’s lifestyle.’ All that matters is what you leave on the page.” - Zadie Smith

“A writer, like an athlete, must ‘train’ every day. What did I do today to keep in ‘form’?” - Susan Sontag

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 Scranton, Pennsylvania, or a small town like Funk, Ohio, I can provide that second eye.

 

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Through the act of writing, a writer learns more about himself than he could ever imagine

For many writers, the greatest yield from their writing is not a royalties check or the adulation of fans at a book reading. Instead, it’s self-discovery.

To that end, many writers keep journals. By writing each or every few days about what occurred to them or their thoughts about some past event, they use the empty page as a friend or a counselor, describing and explaining what most bothers them, all the while making new connections to better understand their feelings, experiences and beliefs.

Even fiction writers whose focus is creating entertaining books enjoy the benefits of self-discovery. In a sense, all authors write about their past. A person is the sum of his or her own personal experiences, and bits and pieces of what has occurred to us can’t help but wind up in our writings. A character may be a conglomeration of two people we once knew, a setting may be our cousin’s house that we visited each summer, a name might be drawn from that kid in third grade just because it sounds right for the character.

In many ways, the writing seemingly directs the author. Indeed, some writers say the characters told their own story. Of course, those characters were only constructs in the author’s mind – and those constructs tell a lot about the author.

Why? Because writing allows us to reposition ourselves so we can see what is otherwise in our mental blind spots or those things about oneself and the world that we neither can see nor understand from the spot where we stand. It’s really not much different from reading a book – another person, who has a unique perspective from our own, sometimes can get us to turn our gaze to new ideas, concepts and ways of looking at things. Writing is the neck muscle allowing us to see the important stuff in our periphery.

Often as writers, we are surprised by what we learn about ourselves. It runs counter to what we we’ve thought about who we are. But it is closer to the truth.

And for those writers, the virtues of truth and authenticity outweigh their books’ value in gold.

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 Fresno, California, or a small town like Frizzleburg, Pennsylvania, I can provide that second eye.

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Thinking about book signing anxiety

When marketing your book, you’ll probably want to promote your book by getting in front of people, such as at a book reading or a book signing. For writers, who often are more introverted, that’s a daunting assignment. To prepare yourself for such a presentation, thinking a little about your fear actually can be helpful. Are you comfortable speaking in front of others? If not, what can you do to limit your anxiety ahead of such an event?

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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 Boston, Massachusetts, or a small town like Boston, Georgia, I can provide that second eye.

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Missing typos? Try editing old-fashioned way

When self-editing a draft of your manuscript, consider doing it the old-fashioned way: printing it out on paper.

Reading text on paper will allow you to catch errors that you might not spot when editing on a computer screen. That’s because we read text on computer screens differently than we do that on paper. With computer screens, our eyes tend to glaze over the text – hence, why so many website writing gurus encourage using bullet points and short paragraphs with white space between them.

When printing out the manuscript, you may need to adjust its appearance. Reading double spaced manuscript in 12-point Times Roman with black ink typically is easier on the eyes and provides space to write comments and make corrections. Use white paper as well.

In addition, use a red pen, just like your middle school language arts teacher did. Red ink stands out best against the black print and will be easier to spot later.

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 Washington, D.C., or a small town like Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, I can provide that second eye.

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Every word I write is a seed that I may nurture into a small, beautiful poem or a tall, soaring tree