E.A. McKenzie's Blog, page 2

Is every word important?

Not only that, every sentence and every paragraph. The first few draft of a project, we write like we talk. For some, that might suffice, some people's talk is meaningful and compact. One of the joys of writing is tightening what you've already written. It amazes me how many different ways a sentence can be phrased. The challenge is keeping it real. Every paragraph has a sentence, and every sentence has words, so how important is every word you write? I suspect, pretty important. If three wor...

On the Home Stretch

Good news, I'm almost done with my second draft of "That Girl." I've had a little time off work and I've worked hard to get so much done. So it's proud of myself, I am. The third draft will be the one where I work on the presentation, so to speak. For that, I'm going to do a lot of reading.

Does anyone else get stuck when trying to describe what actions and mannerisms a person uses while talking? Some authors seem able to divers away from the norm. I find when I read a lot, I get a better...

Reading not on the best seller's list and censoring

I've come to enjoy free ebooks. What did we do without them. Free is always good and made better because it's, well, free. Something about a free book just makes it a good read, no matter how labor intensive it is to get through. I wish I could read all the free ebook, but I've already got bunches I haven't gotten to yet.

Hey, what about Pay Pal censoring what they deem to be immoral books? They are a private company and I guess it's okay if they censor, though it seems un-American to me. We ...

More complaining about second drafts

I feel like I've written four or five books, instead of three, though only one of them is published. Consider first drafts, for instance. I'm sure there are a lot of people who write first drafts and then don't turn around and totally rewrite the second. For me, the first draft is one to just get down on paper as quick as possible so as to get 'er done, as Larry the Cable Guy would say. The second draft is where I start the weeding process. I prune it and prune it until there's hardly anythin...

Finding the right words

As we age, changes start to happen. When you're young, you think you can beat the odds. I don't want to burst anyone's bubble, but you can only beat them for awhile. Having said that, I'll go on record by saying, attending to your health can prolong the aging process immensely. Eat a lot of Omega3 and Omega6 product, pop a bunch of pills like fish oil and flax seed to fight off the free radicals in your brain. I do the flaxseed because the fish oil comes back at me (eew) even the burpless one...

Dates and Consistency

It's important to write and write and write. Word count is key to writing, but so is consistency, specifically dates and times. As your WIP progresses and evolves, it's easy to forget those tiny details. It can be frustrating to keep track of if you don't develop a method. There are several ways to manage this. You can keep a calender of events, plot an Excel work sheet, use your word processor's document map or spreadsheet, use a writing software package like yWriter, which is free, or Randy...

Rewrites and Second Drafts, Is there a difference?

Well, of course there's a difference between rewrites and second drafts. Not for me. I haven't written a book yet that the original first draft resembles the finished product. I write, at least, three books per story. But what if the first draft was the best one? On one of my books, one I haven't published yet, I could change the title and characters and make two books, they are so different. I might just do that.

The problem I'm having with my current WIP is finding what I want in and what I...

Trying it again

It's so easy to break a good habit and so hard to break a bad one. For me, the good habit was keeping up my blog posts, the bad one was staying away. I don't know why it happened. I love my blog, I've worked very hard at it, but in the last, say, six months or so, I've dreaded the thought of posting. Don't know why, depression, I suppose. So I'm setting up a schedule, starting next Thursday morning, Once a week, I will determine to post on this blog. As I get back in the habit, I'll get my en...

10 Laws of Productivity

These laws are as true for writing as they are everything else. Enjoy.



Here are 10 laws of productivity we've consistently observed among serial idea executors:


1. Break the seal of hesitation.A bias toward action is the most common trait we've found across the hundreds of creative professionals and entrepreneurs we've interviewed. While preparing properly as you start a new project is certainly valuable, it's also easy to lose yourself in planning (and dreaming) indefinitely. We must...

Just wanted to say, Thanks

You know what I love? It's you guys. I've been going through a rough spot in, it seems, everything. My life is changing in so many small ways. There seem to be more things to conquer, more things to achieve, and less time to do it all.

This is how naive I am--was. Up until around five years ago. I believed the older you got the easier life got. I'm not talking health wise, at least I know better than that, I mean in general. Things would become easier, I'd mellow out and let things be, well, ...