Jacqui Murray's Blog, page 147
August 15, 2014
My Summer with David Rosenfelt
I discovered David Rosenfelt, creator of defense attorney Andy Carpenter, love-of-his-life Laurie, supremely persuasive investigator Marcus Clarke, and best-dog-in-the-world Tara (though she’s actually the second-best dog in the world–Rosenfelt hasn’t met my dog) through my Amazon Vine reading. I’d just finished Robert Crais Suspect, about a military dog named Maggie with PTSD who’s handler is killed in Afghanistan. It’s a wrenching story of how this one-man dog, bred to defend her pack, survives her failure and creates a new life. At times, we see man’s world through Maggie’s loyal, unselfish, focused eyes. I wanted more of Maggie, but Crais hasn’t cooperated. When Tara’s story arrived in my email box, I grabbed it.
I read Hounded and bought the other ten. Carpenter is clever, humorous, smart, human (he’s afraid of everything so brings his ex-cop girlfriend for protection). His characters, while typical for a defense attorney story, are uniquely-constructed with traits that are appealing and fascinating (for example, Marcus barely talks, communicates what he must with ‘Yunh’ and ‘Nunh’. Don’t expect long-winded explanations from him).
The plots don’t always revolve around dogs, but they always include Andy’s life with Tara. She’s his confidant–he hashes out cases with her while they take walks. Long walks–an hour or more. He feels she’s a good listener which inspires him to unlock mysteries.
Now, I’ve finished all of Rosenfelt’s books. Still, Crais hasn’t published a Maggie sequel. I’m flailing. Anyone know of a good dog-as-main-character book I can read?
By the way, if you’d like more information on Rosenfelt’s books, here’s a link to Tara Foundation (named for his book’s dog character) and an interview on Talking Dog.
More dog articles:
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. In her free time, she is editor of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer.
Filed under: book reviews Tagged: dogs, pets
August 13, 2014
8 Steps All Writers Follow When They Edit
Every author has a different approach to writing. I know this because I read Rebecca Bradley’s wonderful series on how writers do their thing. Each author she spotlights adds a personal twist that intrigues me.
Not so surprisingly, no one’s approach is like mine. Here’s how I write a novel:
Draft out events for the novel in a spreadsheet program like Excel. This gives me room to add columns and rows with new information, new ideas, notes to track an event through the story. Here’s what my spreadsheet for my latest WIP looks like:
JK Rowling’s is low-tech, but still an obvious spreadsheet:
Convert the draft to a word processing program like MS Word. Mine is usually 70 pages.
Add details about timing, setting, characters, clothing, transitions, chapter breaks.
Start at the beginning and read for flow, timing, pacing. Edit diligently. I do this a day at a time. I finish a day’s worth of editing and start over the next day, repeating the process. Eventually, when I read to edit, it sounds fine (kind of) so I move on to the next part. I like this because I get some sense of continuity for the story. Otherwise, I forget what happened when. It sometimes takes until the third or fourth day of editing the same section to realize the character’s voice changed or s/he wouldn’t have said whatever I have coming out of his/her mouth.
Continue until I finish the entire manuscript
Search for obnoxious words like is, was, that, there, thing and change them. I’m identifying words that make the story passive, difficult to understand, and/or boring. I actually have a long list of them so it takes me a full twelve-hour day
Repeat the edit process(often, three-six full read-throughs) until the flow, pacing, and timing are fine and I feel it’s ready to submit.
99.9% of you are saying, Gee. That’s not how I do it. And that’s OK. There are rarely two writers who follow the same method and lots are successful. Find an approach that works for you and use it until it doesn’t. But, there are eight editing tricks we all use in some form. See if you agree:
Ignore the fat lady if she starts warming up. Keep writing. You know what you’re doing and you’re going to do it well.
Keep your pet snake around to greet detractors. Or tarantula, or scorpion. Whatever you have that will keep naysayers outside your orbit.
Expect other people to get out of your way, do your chores, bring you coffee to keep you going as you prepare your Baby. Whatever they’re doing couldn’t be as important as writing a d*** novel.
Repeat this mantra–Editing problems are only opportunities with thorns.
When you scream at your mate (when s/he interferes with your writing) and s/he accuses you of needing anger management, remind her/him that the only help you need is for them to shut the F*** up
Offer a crazed smile when people interrupt. That’ll back them off.
When distractions call, let them go to voice mail.
If you get unwanted visitors, quote Oscar Wilde–“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.
Lest you think I’m the only one who writes like this, check out Gina Holmes at Novel Rocket or Adam Blumer here.
More about editing:
How to Edit Your Novel (according to Yuvi)
10 Tips Guaranteed to Rescue Your Story
Book Review: Self-editing for Fiction Writers
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. In her free time, she is editor of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer.
Filed under: editing, writing Tagged: spreadsheet
August 11, 2014
Writers Tip #71: How to Write a Novel
When you read your story, does it sound off, maybe you can’t quite put your finger on it, but you know you’ve done something wrong? Sometimes–maybe even lots of times–there are simple fixes. These writer’s tips will come at you once a week, giving you plenty of time to go through your story and make the adjustments.
These tips are from Martha Carr, thriller writer extraordinaire, author of three books and weekly columnist on politics, national interest topics and life in general.
Start with a character not a plot idea. Write down everything you know about the main character or characters including physical description, schooling, family tree, where they live, likes and dislikes and peculiarities. Do they hate seafood because they once threw up an entire shrimp dinner from Shoney’s? The more the better for this exercise. You will probably not use everything you write down but having it handy will keep the character’s actions in line and if you have to take a break from writing for awhile, having the list handy will make it easier to get started back up again. If you start with a plot idea you are more likely going to come across as strident or preachy because you’re interested in pounding an idea into the reader rather than telling a story. Give the attributes to the character and let them act it out instead.
Write the ending first. You’re the author not the reader, which means you’re the driver of this bus. You have to know the final destination even if you’re figuring out some of the map along the way. Knowing the ending is also one of the best ways to avoid writing yourself into a corner where you run out of plot. Some refer to this as ‘writer’s block’ when it’s more likely that the ending hasn’t been reasoned out yet. Take the time, regardless of the genre, to parse out the ending.
What big thing happens to the main characters in the plot? If you can’t easily answer that question you have a little more homework to do. A novel has several arcs in it but there is usually one or at the most two big moments of no return where everything changes. You already have the ending so you know where it has to get to and that will help you figure out the main arc. This will also be a big portion of your ‘elevator’ pitch when you start looking for an agent or a publisher.
Use only one or two telling adjectives to describe anything. Here’s a handy rule of thumb for any genre of novel. If a reader can skip more than a page without missing any of the story, you went on for too long and it’s become a distraction. If you can’t stand to cut your own writing, you’re not going to last very long in this business. Editing is a necessary tool for any writer no matter how long they’ve been writing. Ask yourself if those long, beautifully written paragraphs add anything to the story and be honest. If not, cut and paste them into another document in case you find a place for them later. Frankly, after several books I’ve yet to use any of it later but you never know.
Here’s the last two to get you started. If you can’t think of the very first words to type onto the screen, start with ‘Once upon a time’. Most of us grew up hearing fairy tales and it unlocks a part of us that expects a story. I’ve given this tip to a lot of new writers who found it easier to finish that sentence. You can edit those first four words later. The last tip is don’t get up from writing at the end of a chapter. Write at least the next paragraph of the next chapter before you shut the file. That way, when you return even if its the next day, you won’t be starting cold. There’s already an entrance into the next part of your story that you wrote while your creative brain was still warm.
Okay, so there was one more thought I wanted to give you but it’s encouragement more than a writing tip. Remember that if all you did was one double-spaced page a day, and even took off the weekends, by the end of the year you’d have a finished product. Just one page a day.
For more on Martha Carr, here’s information on her popular character, Wallis Jones.
More tips on writing from writers:
Writer’s Tips #64: From Kurt Vonnegut
Writers Tip #68: Three Tips From David Shenk
Writers Tip #69: 5 Tips From Cory Doctorow
Click to have Writer’s Tips delivered to your email box
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. In her free time, she is editor of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer.
Filed under: authors, writers tips, writing Tagged: martha carr, novel writing, writers tips
August 8, 2014
Book Review: Third Rail
Third Rail: An Eddy Harkness Novel
by Rory Flynn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Rory Flynn’s debut crime novel, Third Rail (Houghten Mifflin Harcourt 2014) was promoted as “in the tradition of Robert Parker”. That got my attention. I love Robert Parker‘s novels. Sadly, this wasn’t my conclusion–more on that later.
Third Rail is the story of Narcotics Detective Eddie Harkins whose talent for reading a crime scene fuels his meteoric rise within the department–until he is blamed for a civilian death on a case he’s working. He’s thrown out. This could be the end of his career until he receives a lifeline from a friend in another city. Instead of solving high-profile cremes that no other detective can unravel, he accepts the position to police parking meters, happy to have an opportunity to heal his emotional wounds while hopefully rebuilding his career. Nagog is a quiet town, a seeming dead end for any policeman, where they go to retire, but Harkins uncovers a seedy underside of drugs and violence. When he tries to expose it, many around him try to stop him. Unfortunately for them, Harkins can’t give up. It’s just not him.
Dialogue is authentic. Characters are interesting. Harkins has that ‘Mentalist‘ personality of Independence of thought and action, tolerated by his fellow crime fighters because he notices details no one else does (though it doesn’t show up often on his parking meter patrol).
So this sounds good. What is so different about Third Rail and the novels Parker wrote about NFN Spenser, PI? Eddy Harkins is much darker, more damaged by life than Spenser. Where Parker’s character was content with the hand life dealt, always played it with a sense of humor, Harkins constantly rails against it, trying to change it, thinking he’ll fail. Spenser would never think that.
My recommendation: Read it, but don’t expect a return to Parker. Third Rail stands on its own, as Flynn’s worthy start to a new series.
For a slightly different take on this novel, check out Rabid Reader’s review. She gets into several details my short approach to reviews left out.
To find out more about Rory Flynn, check out his website.
More book reviews:
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. In her free time, she is editor of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer.
Filed under: book reviews Tagged: detectives, vine
August 6, 2014
#IWSG–Am I a Storyteller?
This post is for Alex Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writers Support Group (click the link for details on what that means and how to join. You will also find a list of bloggers signed up to the challenge that are worth checking out like Kate and Rebecca who inspired me to begin). The first Wednesday of every month, we all post our thoughts, fears or words of encouragement for fellow writers.
This month’s insecurity inspired by ChemistKen–I can write nonfiction, but can I tell a story? What a great question! I have dozens of non-fiction books published, but can’t seem to get any of my fiction pulled together enough to make the cut. Every time I think I’ve unlocked the mystery and love the way the story is coming out, a re-read disabuses me of that notion. I find as much wrong with my new Perfect Prose as its predecessors.
I’d like to say I need a fresh start. I have three-no, four–novels I’ve been working on for years. One for well over a decade. I still am inspired to write them, but they don’t seem to get any better.
Part of me wants to believe this is just me being a perfectionist. But what if it isn’t? What if I really am NOT a storyteller?
More IWSG articles:
Am I good enough? Does it matter?–#IWSG
Fear of Saying Dumb Things Scares Me to Death
#IWSG–The World is Changing–Can I keep up
Will I Find Employment if I’m an Older Job Hunter?
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. In her free time, she is editor of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer.
Filed under: writing Tagged: insecure writers group, iwsg, opinion, writers
August 4, 2014
8 Tips for Horror Writers
I don’t get horror stories. Who chooses to be scared stupid? Is that uplifting or do you learn to solve life’s problems better by doing it while your hair’s on fire? I’ll read chick lit over horror any day of the week.
But lots of people disagree with me. I went in search of why people subject themselves to a plot that destroys any sense of security that the world will continue to spin nicely on its axis and found one overwhelming reason: Because it’s there (thank you, Johnny Compton, for making this clear). The world is not a nice place. Bad things happen. Horrifying events are out there.
If you are one of those who aspires to write horror, here are tips to help you be the best at that:
start scared and stay scared throughout your story. If life calms down, fix it
everything’s scary. That includes the plot (of course), characters, setting, motivations, themes, subplots–you name it
put lots of people in danger, not just the main character
people like to be frightened. Give them what they like
flesh out your characters before you place them in a horrific circumstance. Or readers won’t care about their fate
constantly have readers asking, ‘What happens next?’
horror is about fear, tragedy, and whether the character can prevail. It is NOT about understanding the human condition, the meaning of life, saving the world, love found and lost and repeat. Sure those can be included, but they aren’t central to the plot
the subplot of every horror story is that bad things are coming. That drum beat starts softly, but gets louder the closer you get. It never goes away
BTW, as I was searching for an answer to why the h*** people write this mind-numbing fear-inducing, terror petri dish stuff, Ivan Ewert offered another excellent reason: Because agents and publishers are looking for it. Yeah, I get that. For more on writing horror, visit the Horror Writers website and Chuck Wendig’s Terrible Minds.
More about writing genres:
7 Tips for Literary Fiction Writers
8 Tips for Creative Nonfiction Writers
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. In her free time, she is editor of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. C
Filed under: Genre tips, writing Tagged: horror
August 1, 2014
Book Review: My Evernote
My Evernote
by Katherine Murray
5 of 5 stars
Part of my Amazon Vine reviews
Evernote is a popular FREE note-taking app that stormed onto the internet consciousness a couple of years ago and quickly became the standard by which all competitors were judged. It enables you to copy snippets of webpages, images, audio files, and more into personal collections (called ‘notebooks’) that are not only shared across all digital platforms–desktop, laptop, iPad, smart phone–but with friends of your choice. A little like Google Docs, but easier, faster, and more accessible. Despite daunting competitors like MS One Note and Google Notebook–and smaller ones like Diigo and ReQal, Evernote has amassed over 11 million happy users. If you’ve been promising to try it, but were waiting for a magic wand to clear up all your questions, it’s arrived.
Katherine Murray’s new how-to book, My Evernote (Que 2012) has an awful lot of the answers, enough that I now have my Evernote up and running like a leopard across the African savannah.
Let me back up a moment. I got My Evernote because I got stuck. I downloaded Evernote, tried it out, and somewhere between installing and using, lost my way. Yes, I managed to snip website pieces, share documents from my computer, but I failed to accomplish the one thing that motivated me to download it: I wanted to collaborate on documents with friends. I muddled around on my own for a while, decided it was too d*** hard, and put the program aside. I planned to research more later, but instead forgot about it.
Until I found this book, and the answer to my problem.
My Evernote is a well-organized, clear and concise summary of this popular program. Chapters include:
Getting started
Capturing and tagging your first notes
Editing and Formatting notes
Adding images
Inking notes (using a scribble pen)
Grabbing web clippings and Webcam notes
Recording audio notes
Creating and managing notebooks
Sharing notes with others
The book includes a good summary of what most people want out of a note-sharing program. I decided to test the book by returning to my rarely-used program and see if I became inspired. Here are a few of my thoughts:
Evernote has become a more robust program since I first tried it. It now offers every conceivable method of clipping-and-saving from the internet to your personal cloud. As such, what was once probably a fairly intuitive widget has become a fully-featured software program that takes some thinking to get it to work. Therein lies the value of buying a book like this, that covers all of them.
The proverbial Killer App–creating and sharing notebooks–is well-detailed by Murray.
Two tools I didn’t know were available until reading this book are creating tables and ToDo lists (complete with check boxes). Very nice.
Love the audio notes. They’re quick to access and record, no fumbling blindly to find the right button amidst a line-up of look-alike buttons.
Another favorite I learned about from Murray: Ink notes. I can think of numerous uses for these at conferences.
Being a teacher, I’m always looking for education applications. I found a big one, thanks to this book: Evernote for link sharing. I’ve considered and rejected many link sharing programs–like StumbleUpon and Pinterest–because of their lack of privacy for young minds. Evernote for Schools solves that by being completely private, easy for new technology users to understand (click the icon on the toolbar), and collaborative for projects–a critical feature in today’s education environment.
Overall, My Evernote is thorough, easy-to-understand, and motivating. I am re-energized to use it for a long list of useful purposes that will organize my life–and my husband’s. I can’t wait.
Oh–the answer to my ‘collaborate with a friend’ problem: That’s only possible with the paid version. Because ‘collaborate’ is such an internet buzz word, I bet that will soon be moved to the Free column.
More tech in writing:
Book Review: Google Apps Meets Common Core
Book Review: Talking Back to Facebook
Book Review: Facebook for Business in 10 Minutes
Book Review: Digital Forensics With Open Source Tools
Tech Tip for Writers #59: Shortkey for the Copyright Symbol
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. In her free time, she is editor of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer.
Filed under: book reviews, teacher resources, tech tips for writers Tagged: evernote, note-taking
July 28, 2014
Writers Tip #70: Dump Your Spouse if They Complain About Your Writing
When you read your story, does it sound off, maybe you can’t quite put your finger on it, but you know you’ve done something wrong? Sometimes–maybe even lots of times–there are simple fixes. These writer’s tips will come at you once a week, giving you plenty of time to go through your story and make the adjustments.
I just re-read James Frey’s outstanding How-to book for thriller writers, How to Write a D*** Good Thriller (St. Martins Press 2010).
I learned more about writing in my genre from these 246 pages than I’ve learned since I began writing. Each genre is different. If you try to apply rules of, say, literary fiction, to your thriller, you’ll bore your audience, not to mention drive them away. Thrillers are fast paced, less introspective and more moral than other genres. Don’t mix that up with exploring global warming or the political correctness of current labor laws.
I wanted to share a truncated list of tips he has at the end of the book. These are reason enough to purchase this book.
Commit yourself to creating strong conflicts in every line of every scene
Decide you will have fresh, snappy dialogue and not a single line of conversation (read the book to see what that means)
Decide to write quickly when drafting. Fast is golden (hard for me to do)
If your significant other complains your thriller writing is taking up too much of your time, get a new significant other
Trick the expectations of the reader and create nice surprises from time to time
Have powerful story questions operating at all times
End each scene or section of dramatic narrative with a bridge, a story question to carry the reader to the next one
Try to be fresh. Don’t use the same old cliches. Be sure your prose is colorful and sensuous
Keep the clock ticking and the excitement mounting right to the climactic moment
About #4–try to educate him/her first. It’s hard to find good mates.
Click to have Writer’s Tips delivered to your email box
Questions you want answered? Leave a comment and I’ll answer it within the next thirty days.
More for thriller writers:
Writers Tip #61: Advice From Elmore Leonard
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. In her free time, she is editor of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer.
Filed under: thrillers, writers tips Tagged: frey
July 25, 2014
Book Review: The Kill Switch
The Kill Switch
by James Rollins and Grant Blackwood
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“The Kill Switch” (William Morrow 2014) is the first in James Rollins’ and Grant Blackwood’s new series about former Army Ranger Tucker Wayne and his working dog, Kane (#2 planned for next year). In this opener, Wayne is asked to get a scientist out of Russia so he can share his secrets with the Western World. It’s presented to him as routine, but quickly deteriorates to anything but–toxic comes to mind. Every step of the way, Kane is integral to success whether it’s rousting bad guys, avoiding death, or determining what Plan F looks like. It’s a procedural on working dog as partner. By half way through, I couldn’t imagine any policeman would prefer a human over a working dog. We even see the world through Kane’s eyes occasionally. Invariably, it’s an exciting, loving, single-minded existence where Kane lives to defend his pack of one.
There are some great lines–
“The man’s eyes settled nervously on Kane. The Shepherd sat upright in the seat opposite Tucker, panting, tongue hanging.”
“You’re the owner of that large hound, aren’t you? The one that looks smarter than most people on this train.” Wayne replies, “Owner isn’t the word I would use…”
“Tucker had come to appreciate certain parts of the Buddhist philosophy, but he knew he’d never match Kane’s Zen mind-set, which, if put into words, would probably be something like ‘Whatever has happened, has happened’.”
Best of all: Tucker constantly refers to Kane as ‘his partner’.
I picked this book because 1) I’ve never read anything by either of the authors I didn’t like, but more importantly, 2) the cover features the silhouette of a dog. I am still waiting for Robert Crais to publish the next in his series about Maggie the retired working dog. He doesn’t seem as enthusiastic to write it as I am to read it. Go figure. In his absence, I’ve read pretty much everything David Rosenfelt has written on Andy Carpenter and Tara (Defense Attorney Carpenter is crazy for his dog–confers with him on most legal cases. Here’s my review of Hounded). Those dozen books done, I found Tucker Wayne and Kane.
D*** this was good. I want to read it again for the first time.
If you’re interested in working dogs, here’s a great post from Behind the Crime on that topic, and another from K9 Pride on how you can adopt a retired working dog. This one I wrote a few years ago on how the military uses working dogs.
More posts that respect animals:
Finally–a Memorial for War Dogs
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. In her free time, she is editor of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer.
Filed under: book reviews Tagged: animals, dogs, lawyer
July 21, 2014
Writers Tip #69: 5 Tips From Cory Doctorow
When you read your story, does it sound off, maybe you can’t quite put your finger on it, but you know you’ve done something wrong? Sometimes–maybe even lots of times–there are simple fixes. These writer’s tips will come at you once a week, giving you plenty of time to go through your story and make the adjustments.
Today’s tips come from Cory Doctorow, author of With a Little Help, For the Win, Makers, and Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. He’s also the co-author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Publishing Science Fiction.
Cory is a Canadian science fiction author, but also a blogger who serves as co-editor of Boing Boing and a tweeter with over 323,000 followers. That is a profile most writers I know can relate to–we write our novels, but also have active blogs and Twitter worlds. How have you (and I!) never heard of him?
Here’s what he says about writing:
Write every day. Anything you do every day gets easier. If you’re insanely busy, make the amount that you write every day small (100 words? 250 words?) but do it every day.
Write even when the mood isn’t right. You can’t tell if what you’re writing is good or bad while you’re writing it.
Write when the book sucks and it isn’t going anywhere. Just keep writing. It doesn’t suck. Your conscience is having a panic attack because it doesn’t believe your subconscious knows what it’s doing.
Stop in the middle of a sentence, leaving a rough edge for you to start from the next day — that way, you can write three or five words without being “creative” and before you know it, you’re writing.
Write even when the world is chaotic. You don’t need a cigarette, silence, music, a comfortable chair, or inner peace to write. You just need ten minutes and a writing implement.
If you write science fiction, check out Jean Lane’s interesting tips. You also might be interested in this free (I think) course in writing science fiction from Jeffrey Carver.
Click to have Writer’s Tips delivered to your email box
Questions you want answered? Leave a comment and I’ll answer it within the next thirty days.
More tips on writing science:
32 Tips on Writing Science Fiction
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. In her free time, she is editor of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer.
Filed under: authors, writers tips Tagged: science, science fiction, writers tips
