Ksenia Anske's Blog, page 51
November 2, 2014
The urge to change your book once it's published
So a fellow writeraskedabout the urge to change things in your book once it's published, and since I have just published IRKADURA (Yes! It's done! Here! I'm still working with Stuart on free files, so hang tight...), I have brushed with this terrible beast whilst scanning through my book after my editor has sent me the final final version. I have read that final final file and ended up cutting out 1K more words. As if this was not enough, I stumbled on a mind-blowing ar...
October 29, 2014
How to write a good book summary
A book summary is basically a hook. To hook the reader. And this is the only thing I know about it. YOU CAN LAUGH NOW. I keep telling you that I have no clue what I'm doing. No clue how to write books, how to market them, how to anything. Well, this post is the scariest of them all for me to write. Because I have no bloody clue how to write a good book summary. I will attempt to dissect it here, and, in writing it out, hopefully get a better idea.
You might want to peck...
October 25, 2014
Revealing plot twists: TO HELL WITH SUSPENSE!
You are welcome to pull out that rusty ax from behind your shed, because what I'm about to tell you will certainly scratch that itch in your psyche, that nagging wish to hack me to pieces and watch me bleed and die. Because. Oh, my glorious hamsters! Because I will blasphemise (is that even a word?) your previous beliefs in stretching out the suspense for as long as possible, salivating over your keyboard in feverish anticipation of hooking your reader on the mystery of...
October 22, 2014
Resisting the temptation to edit your first draft
Photo by Ana Luisa Pinto
Nanci asked: "How do you fight the temptation to reread and revise before finishing shitty first draft?"
Since I just finished writing the 1st draft of CORNERS and it was the first 1st draft of any of my novels which I actually didn't edit at all while I was writing it (I used to go back over what I wrote the day before to get myself into the mood, speed-editing), this seems like a very timely topic. Plus, NaNoWriMo is coming up. So yeah, how do you do it?
1. Write...
October 17, 2014
On writing, reading, and THE ART OF ASKING
I held a heart in my hand for a couple of days. A real beating heart. Bleeding, too. It was a book. I was reading THE ART OF ASKING by Amanda Palmer, and I was bleeding with her. I couldn't believe that there was someone out there who got me. And I mean, really got me. It was one of those rare moments you experience when you read a book and you want the author to be your best friend. No, better. You actually think the author is your best friend already. You think alike. You have the same ide...
October 15, 2014
How to write your first draft in 20 days
Photo by Laura Zalenga
I know you NaNoWriMo junkies are freaking out about this right now. This. This thing of being able to write a whole novel in 1 month. You bite your nails and elbows and neighbors and whatever else you can bite, wondering, "Can I do it? Can I? Is there a magic formula?" Well, I am NOT doing NaNoWriMo. In fact, I've never done it. But I'm doing my own NaNoWriMo in that I'm writing the 1st draft of CORNERS right now, and by my calculations the whole thing will be done i...
October 11, 2014
Your writing style is YOU
Photo by Ana Luisa Pinto
For starters, what the fuck is this beast, writing style? You hear everyone shout about it on every corner and read about it in every book on writing and watch it drop from the mouths of big famous authors talking about it like it's their comfortable underwear. You try to understand it when you start out. And that is wrong. Because. Here is the deal.
YOUR WRITING STYLE IS YOU.
Now you can toss all those smart books on style out the window. You don't need them. What y...
October 8, 2014
CORNERS excerpt, Draft 1
Photo by Joel Robison
Time is just flying like crazy, no? I took a 2 month break from book-writing and did ghostwriting, and now I'm back to book-writing, and I have started writing like mad. Seriously. At a pace of 6K words a day. I hope I can keep this up, because now I'm on a schedule. Have to finish 1st draft by November 5th, before going to OryCon, and have to finish the book before March 2015, before going on my Amtrak train adventure. Yes, they have finally reached out to me and I'm...
October 3, 2014
HOW TO EDIT: hack your draft to pieces
In the frenzy of preparing to write my 6th novel, CORNERS, or 4th, really, counting SIREN SUICIDES as 1 story, I've been asked about editing. "How?" Cried a fellow writer. "How do you edit?" "Oh." I said. "It's very simple." I petted the writer. "Please stop tearing out your hair. When you get rich and famous, you'll have none left." Indeed. What a question. We all do it. Writers, I mean. Right? We all edit. Write and edit and edit and edit to death. But how? How do w...
October 1, 2014
The secret to 5-star book reviews
This will blow your socks off, so you better hold on to them. Ready?
DISCLAIMER: What follows is a total off-the-wall idea so please don't view it as some kind of an ultimate truth because it isn't. Nothing I say is. Quite the contrary. Everything I say is a big fat lie. I hope you have learned this lesson by now.
Still with me? Excellent. Let's hop on this ruckus wagon.
READERS TEND TO GIVE 5-STAR REVIEWS TO WRITERS THEY KNOW.
Or they think they do.
You don't need to start...
