Adam Croft's Blog, page 42

8 tips and challenges to improve your writing

A few weeks ago, we looked at how we can improve our writing, such as by practising as much as possible and reading as much as we can. To build on this, here are a few ideas and tips that you might like to try to see if they could help your writing further. After all, no matter how good we are, we always want to keep on improving, and we never know what might help…

Try writing a story in 100 words. If Ernest Hemingway could do it in six words (For sale: baby shoes, never worn) and still pack a punch, 100 words should be more than enough for us to work with.
Try using prompts to get you started. The challenge of a prompt forces you to think before plunging in, which will hopefully make the finished piece more considered as a result. You can use anything you like: an image, a word from the dictionary, a sentence given to you by a friend. You could also use one of these – butterfly; dead tree; untied shoelaces. If you use one of them, do let me know!
Write a stream of consciousness from the POV of one of your characters.
Set yourself the challenge of writing 1000 words a day. The benefits of practice, discipline, progress and improvement are more than worth the effort.
Imagine you’re seeing your house for the first time. Write about it. Consider all the senses.
Write in a form you’re not as familiar with or don’t often use. For instance, if you’re normally a prose writer, try writing some poetry or a non-fiction piece, or in a radically different genre to your usual. Different styles of writing can flex different creative muscles and make us look at things in new ways.
Learn a new word a day. You might not use all those words in your writing, but a good vocabulary is a great thing for a writer to have.
Go back to something you wrote a long time ago and revise it. The benefit of hindsight and experience can be wonderful when it comes to making the most of past good ideas that never quite got off the ground.

Why self-publishers should consider low prices for e-books

As an independent publisher, pricing your books is one of the big issues you need to take care of. We’ve looked before on this blog at pricing books – in particular, pricing e-books – and it’s something that’s worth looking at in slightly more detail.

The issue of pricing is a complicated one. There’s a lot you need to balance: the effort that’s gone into your book, your need to find readers, the need to earn a living, the desire to build a good author platform and so on. This means that there’s no set right or wrong way to price your e-books, but it seems that independent publishers who price their books lower tend to do better than those who set higher prices for their books.

If this is an issue you’re interested in then this blog post is definitely worth a read. It’s written by Mark Coker, the founder of Smashwords, which so many of us self-publishers use to distribute our e-books. In the blog post, he says that pricing an e-book at $2.99 can help the author find up to four times as many readers as a book priced at $9.99. And, when compared with books priced over $10.00, books priced at $2.99 get six times as many readers.

This shows a clear argument for pricing e-books lower than you might initially think to, and it also highlights the potential for independent publishers to make more money out of a book priced at $2.99 than an author using traditional publishers would make for a book priced at $9.99 due to the way royalties are calculated.

Pricing is clearly an issue worth engaging in for independent publishers, and if pricing a book at a low price such as $2.99 can net you more readers (and comparatively more money), it certainly makes sense to do it.

What are your views on pricing your books?

 

Self-published authors on ebook bestseller list

It’s always nice to see fellow self-published authors doing well, and today we have further confirmation that books that have been independently published can be just as popular as books published in the ‘traditional’ way.

If you take a look at the New York Times ebook bestseller list, you’ll see that there are four self-published writers on the list – with a total of seven books listed between them. The self-published authors are Colleen Hoover, RL Mathewson, Lyla Sinclair and Bella Andre.

You can read more about the story and some of the reaction to it here. It’s great to see successful independent publishers in the bestseller charts alongside some big mainstream names, and let’s hope that this is something we’ll come to see more of in the future.

6 ways to get more out of your writing time

If you’ve only got a short time available for your writing each day, you’re not alone. Many writers have to fit their writing into any time they can find, on top of lives that are already busy and varied. It’s not unusual, and clearly it can work, but it does mean that you need to make the most of the writing time you have. Here are 6 ways to get more out of your writing time.

Set a timer

If you’ve only got, say, twenty minutes free to write in, set yourself a timer to go off at the end of the session. Not only will you want to meet your targets before the bell rings, but it also means you won’t have to worry about keeping an eye on the clock and can give your writing your full attention.

Get rid of all distractions

It can also help to get rid of any and all distractions that might prevent you from focusing properly on your writing. Get rid of that annoying ticking clock that always forces you to listen to it, turn off the radio so you don’t end up singing along to songs instead of writing, and disable the internet (or otherwise remove your own personal distractions, whatever they may be).

Make it open ended

This isn’t always an option when you’re dashing from one thing until the next, but having an open ended writing session can be very helpful. It means you don’t have to worry if the words don’t come straight away, but once you do get on a roll, you’ll be able to keep on going without worrying what’s coming next. Of course, you might find yourself still scribbling away at two in the morning, but your progress will be great.

Have clear goals

If you know what you want to achieve in each writing session – write that scene, sort out that odd bit of plot, edit that chapter – it will give you a focus and help you get down to business in whatever limited time you have available. Well, hopefully!

Learn to write anywhere

This is in contrast to the point above about getting rid of distractions, but it’s important to acknowledge that as lovely as it would be to always be able to write in perfect conditions, the likelihood of that happening isn’t great. Being able to write anywhere – in noisy cafes while you’re waiting for a friend, on the sofa while you’re watching CBeebies with the kids for the millionth time – might not be ideal, but eventually, you should start to see some progress.

Be confident in your abilities

Finally, if you’re confident in your writing skills, you should be able to get more out of your writing time. If you have confidence in your writing, you’ll have less to worry about; you won’t be second guessing yourself quite as much and can instead get on with business.

How do you get the most out of your writing time?

Developing writing discipline

Discipline is something that matters in writing. After all, if we don’t have a certain amount of discipline, we’d never manage to get anything at all done. Without discipline, that fantastic idea for your novel would remain just that – an idea.

And the good thing is that discipline doesn’t have to stifle your creativity or inspiration, but it does help you get words down on the page. Still, developing discipline over writing is something that can take time, especially when we have to fit it around so much else in our lives. There are, however, plenty of things that we can do to help get us into a more successful writing groove.

For example, many writers find that writing at the same time every day helps them. It’s a useful way of developing a habit and making progress – even if it’s just a few hundred words a day or a couple of pages edited in each session, it all helps. Other writers aim for the discipline of reaching a certain word count in each session. Again, this is a good way of seeing your progress build up and the satisfaction of watching the word count grow can help to develop your discipline and resolve to keep on going.

There’s also no getting around the fact that completing a piece of writing – particularly if it’s a full length book – is hard. Inspiration and ideas are wonderful, but they’ll only get you so far. I think it’s fair to say that there is a point in the writing of every book where the writer hits something of a wall. It becomes a challenge to keep on going, but equally there then comes a point where you get past the wall and it starts to feel a little easier.

But hitting that wall could so easily be all it takes for you to abandon that great novel. Discipline is how we get through it and keep on going to make sure we make it to the end. It isn’t easy. I’d wager that many, if not most, published writers have at least one half-finished novel in a drawer somewhere, that they started to write but then for some reason – hitting the wall, losing interest, getting stuck and not being able to fix it – gave up on.

It makes us feel bad when we abandon a project, but in a way even that can be helpful for discipline. We’ve had a taste of failure and don’t want it to happen again, and so the next time we embark on writing a novel, we vow to keep on going no matter what, just to get to the end of the draft. Of course, discipline isn’t the only factor at play. Determination and the strength of our ideas also matter, but without that discipline to sit down and write for another day, the best intent in the world won’t get us very far.

Discipline is different for everyone. For some, it might mean setting the alarm every morning to get up and write before work. For others, it might be setting a word count goal for each week or finding ten minutes here and there throughout the day to jot down a few sentences. How you decide to go about it is up to you, but one thing that’s true for all writers is that this is a skill we need to develop.

What do you think?

7 ways independent publishing gives authors more control

Control. It’s something that we all like to have over our writing, and one of the great things about independent publishing is that it gives you fantastic amounts  of control. Of course, we can’t control everything – you can never be certain how many copies your book will sell or the reviews it will get, for example – but in many other ways, it gives us tools and freedom that we might not otherwise have. Here are seven ways independent publishing gives authors more control over their work.

Write what you want

If you go indie, there’ll be no one telling you what you ought to be writing. You get to write what you want, rather than having to worry about fitting someone else’s specifications.

Write when you want

You can also write when you want. So, if you want to write and publish three books in a year, you can. And if you want to spend three years on each book, that’s OK too.

Write as much or as little as you want

You also get control over how long your writing is. You’re no doubt aware that even though traditionally published books vary dramatically in length, there are still general rules about how long certain genres tend to be. That goes out of the window with independent publishing; write something that’s as long or as short as you want.

Control your pricing

Independent publishing also gives you more control over how much your books cost and, when it’s only you involved in the publishing process, you get to keep more of the profits.

Market how you want

Taking control of your marketing can seem daunting at first, but it’s actually really rewarding and satisfying. You can decide how much or how little you want to market your work, and decide how you’re going to go about it.

Find your own system

Perhaps one of the most important ways in which independent publishing gives authors control is that it allows us to develop our own systems of working. If you want to do everything by yourself from start to finish, great. If you want to hire people to help you with certain aspects of the process, that’s also great. Developing your own model of working can help you to be more productive and really take ownership of your writing, so it’s certainly a big reason to consider indie publishing.

It doesn’t rule anything out

Finally, independent publishing doesn’t rule anything out. You’re not tied into any contracts to write more books, so if you decide to just do it the one time, that’s OK. Equally, it doesn’t have to rule out the possibility of trying to traditionally publish your work in the future if that’s what you want. That’s the beauty of it. You get to decide.

Penguin Books looks to indie publishing

You may have read in the news recently that Pearson, which is the parent company of publishers Penguin Books, has taken a leap into the world of independent publishing. The company bought Author Solutions Inc, which is one of the largest indie publishing companies.

This is interesting news for several reasons. One is that it helps to prove the fact that independent publishing has become ever more popular over the past few years, to the point where traditional publishers are having to respond. Another is that it suggests traditional publishers are looking to independent publishers for new opportunities and previously undiscovered authors.

However, not everyone is thrilled about the deal with ASI. The Society of Authors, for example, has said that companies such as ASI are somewhat misleading since they are not traditional publishers but nor are they strictly self-publishers. Despite this, we still cannot ignore the growing influence of independent publishing and companies like ASI, and the purchase by Pearson suggests that this is a serious issue that needs to be responded to by those working in the more traditional side of the industry.

What do you think about the Penguin/ASI deal? Would you consider using a service such as that provided by ASI or when it comes to self-publishing, do you prefer to do it alone?

6 ways to build your writing confidence

As promised earlier in the week, today our topic is confidence. In particular, how can you build your writing confidence? From time to time, we all doubt our ability to write and are worried that what we do isn’t good enough, but learning to believe in ourselves and our writing is a hugely important lesson – not least for independent publishers. So with this in mind, here are 6 ideas for building your writing confidence…

Practice makes perfect

It’s a rare writer who writes perfectly from the very beginning. The art of writing is something that we learn over time, and there is always something new to learn. So keep writing. If you believe in yourself enough to keep going even when you doubt yourself, you’re already halfway there.

Writing is subjective

Remember that much of writing is quite subjective. Just because one person doesn’t like what you’ve written, it doesn’t mean it isn’t good – it just means their tastes are different. Your audience is out there.

Show it to people

This is probably one of the scariest things for any writer: showing your work to someone else. However, it’s a very useful thing to do, and you do get used to doing it over time. Give your work to someone you trust; even if you’re not asking them for feedback, just the act of getting someone to read it can be very valuable and is a big step – especially when you’ve only ever written for yourself. Then, over time, your confidence will grow and you’ll be able to show your work to more people and improve your writing as a result.

Read more

One of the best ways to learn about writing is to read more. And the more you know, the more you will have to draw on in your own writing, which is a great confidence boost. So read, and then read some more.

Take your time

Learn how to improve your own work, whether it’s by improving your grammar or learning how to tell when a different word might be more appropriate than the one you first chose. Take your time to perfect things so you can be confident in what you have written. The process of editing gives us confidence that we’re improving what we first wrote, which in turn gives us confidence in our writing more generally.

Enter competitions

Submitting your work for writing competitions can be another good way to improve confidence. Even if you don’t hear anything back at first, the process of getting your work ready to send and then posting it off is a good lesson to learn. Over time, it becomes normal. And the more you write, the happier you’ll be with your competition entries and you’ll be more confident when you put them in the post.

Confidence has a lot to do with experience, so keep writing. Believe in yourself, and remember why you love writing so much – most of the time, that’s all we need to keep going. And over time, your confidence should build up naturally.

But what do you think? How did you build up your writing confidence?

Things to try when you’re stuck on the plot

I think all writers have been there at one time or another. You’ll be happily writing a story, content that your plan is sorted and knowing completely where you’re going. Then somehow, you don’t know where you’re going anymore. That tricky scene that your entire story depends on isn’t working as you want it to, or the second half of the plot doesn’t make as much sense as it did, or you’re simply not as satisfied with it as you were when you wrote the plan.

Getting stuck on the plot is not an uncommon problem. Here are a few things you could try to help get past it and move on with your writing.

Work it through backwards

If you know the intended outcome of your plot, that can be a good place to start. Look at the ending and then map out what needs to happen before it in order to achieve the outcome you want.

Have something surprising happen

If you’re stuck on a tricky scene and you can’t see a way of getting out of it, have something surprising happen. Have someone get shot unexpectedly, or have an unrelated incident happen just to get things moving again. You can always edit it out later, but for now just focusing on moving past the block.

Put yourself in your character’s shoes

Imagine you are your character. Don’t worry about any plan you might have for the time being, just put yourself in your character’s shoes. Think about the situation you’ve set up. Now, what do you do?

Write a scene later on

Sometimes, you’ve got a plan and you know what needs to be done but a particular scene is just proving difficult to write. If that’s the case, leave a space, write *insert scene about X here* and move on to the next bit. Occasionally, admitting (temporary) defeat and going back to the tricky bit at a later date is the best course of action.

Take yourself away for a while

When you’re really stuck on the plot and can’t see a way through it, try taking yourself away from the story for a while. Go for a walk, read a book, have a meal, go to sleep. Don’t worry about the plot. Sometimes we spend so long trying to work out how to fix a plot hole or how to unravel a tangle we’ve got ourselves into we lose all perspective of it. Distance can be a good thing, and hopefully you’ll come back to it fresh and ready to solve the problem.

5 ways to create suspense in crime fiction

The suspense is one of the best things about crime fiction, and learning how best to create it is one of the key skills of crime writers. There are lots of different ways of creating suspense, and as you write more and more, you will probably develop your own methods and preferred options. However, there are still plenty of popular, successful methods that you could utilise in your own work.

Here are five ways you can create suspense in crime fiction.

Keep building the mystery

One of the best ways to create suspense has got to be to keep the mystery coming. Keep layering on new little clues and twists, raising the stakes ever higher. If you do it properly, it will make your readers want to read straight through to the end without stopping.

Make the readers care

Suspense also works best if your readers care about the outcome. After all, if your character is completely unlikeable or two-dimensional and thus not very interesting, it will be harder to ramp up the tension when they are in a dangerous situation. Give your readers a good reason to root for your characters and care about what happens to them, and any suspense will take on a new dimension.

Consider foreshadowing

A great thing about good crime novels is that as we read them, we know that all the clues are there – but we still can’t put it together until the end. You can create suspense for readers by creating a tight, interesting mystery that gets them thinking but that remains a conundrum until you choose to reveal the solution.

Employ cliff-hangers

Of course, we cannot forget the cliff-hanger. These need to be used properly and be carefully deployed for best effect, but tricks such as building up the action for pages only to end the chapter on a killer cliff-hanger are eternally popular in crime fiction – and they’re popular for a reason.

Offer success, and then withdraw it

Another trick for building suspense is to make your protagonist (and therefore the reader) think that they’ve won. Give them a taste of victory and then snatch it away. And then make it so they’re further away from the truth than ever before and raise the stakes again.

What are your favourite techniques for creating suspense?