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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Scott King
Read between
June 10 - June 15, 2019
Assignment: Decide you are a writer. Assignment: Decide why you want to write the novel you are about to write. Assignment: Decide you can write a novel.
Assignment: Make a commitment to your writing, promising to stick with it until it’s done. Assignment: No matter if you plan to do it in five days or thirty, make the time to write your novel. Assignment: Be aware of what an author’s voice is and start trying to figure out what yours might be. Assignment: Decide what you want to write about, and if you don’t know the subject well enough to write with authority, then learn more about it.
Assignment: Form the main idea for your novel. Assignment: Pick the genre(s) your novel will fall into. Assignment: Create your protagonist.
Assignment: Write a pitch for your novel. Make sure to include your protagonist, what they want, what is getting in their way, and the genre of your story. Assignment: Choose the POV and tense your novel will be written in. Assignment: Outline your novel. Assignment: Flesh out the cast of your novel. Pay extra attention to your antagonist, co-stars, and the setting. Bonus Assignment: Start writing your 5 Day Novel!
Assignment: Don’t allow yourself to edit while writing. Assignment: Make sure you take breaks to move around and exercise. Assignment: Make sure you eat and drink
right to stay healthy and energized. Assignment: Cut online distractions so you don’t fall down research holes nor get bogged down by social media. Assignment: Make sure your distraction-free safe zone is ready so that you can write your 5 Day Novel. Assignment: Make sure that exercise, breaks, snacks, and meals are a part of your preparation for writing a 5 Day Novel. Assignment: Start or continue writing your first draft and write as much as you
can without hurting ...
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Assignment: Listen to your characters. Assignment: Don’t let small problems slow you down. Assignment: Stay calm and deal with any big problems.
Assignment: Finish your first draft. Bonus Assignment: If you get it done at a reasonable hour, start working on DAY FOUR!
the big problems are those that break the plot.
The next most crucial task to deal with is making sure that all the characters work.
MICE Quotient,
If you are struggling to fix a character, try what I did with Beasily. Start by establishing their wants and needs and flesh them out from there. What is their existence like outside of the scenes
with the protagonist? What things are they passionate about? Do they have things they are passionate about?
say. At this stage, you should be able to look back at the earlier parts of your novel and realize that the character voices weren’t as clear as they became by the end of the novel.
Assignment: Make a list of all the problems in your novel and how you will address them. Assignment: Fix the big holes in your plot and make sure the theme and message you
are trying to get across comes through loud and clear. Assignment: Fix any character problems that you find after evaluating the story. Assignment: Make a dialog pass on your novel, cleaning it up and fixing character voices. Assignment: Double check your POV to make sure it doesn’t need to be dialed back or fleshed out. Assignment: Check the flow of your tone throughout the novel. Assignment: Finish fixing and doing all
the high concept rewrites for...
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know, line editing is when you go through and look at every sentence in your book.
Line editing is about making sure the descriptions are clear, removing any clunky bits, and perfecting your word choice.
That, Even, Equally, Jump, Charge, Run, Walk, Leapt, Shamble, Turn, Look, Glanced, Reach, Instead, Down, Was, Were, Is, Am, Had, Have, A Lot, Then, Thing, Big, Small, Got, Almost, Nearly, Really, About, Actually, Began, Started, Better, Saw, Thought, Also
Scott King's list of words he overuses.
passive voice,
Passive voice can be used?
Passive voice gets a bad wrap.
Passive voice is when a sentence is structured so that the thing being acted upon comes before the thing that is performing the action.
Passive voice works well when you want to be mysterious or hold something back so that the reader doesn’t discover something until the end of the sentence.
that the reading level for many famous books fluctuates between 6th and 8th grade.
What I can do is make sure that my prose is clear and not distracting.
Assignment: Figure out which words you overuse so that you can remove any unnecessary ones while you line edit. Assignment: Figure out the weak verbs you overuse.
Assignment: Decide how you will handle passive voice when doing your line edits. Assignment: Check your use of colors and overall vocabulary to make sure they are on par with where you want them and don’t distract from the story. Assignment: Understand that there are exceptions to grammar and style rules, and you should line edit in a way that fits your voice as an author. Assignment: Line edit your novel!
Coming out of the challenge, it felt like I had time traveled to the future. I hadn’t been on social media. I hadn’t gone to Brew-n-Bake. I hadn’t talked to friends or family on the phone. I hadn’t played board games! I felt out of loop with the world.
If I had a redo, I wouldn’t have shot for doing 50k words in one day. I
I think writing Ameriguns over the course of twelve to fifteen weekdays would have been perfect.
What I gained most from doing the 5 Day Novel is a sense of confidence. I know my limits as a writer. I cannot type more than 30k words in a single day, but I learned I’m capable of doing more than the 5k–7k words that I usually do.
I have no regrets about attempting the challenge. Doing so allowed me to streamline my workflow and learn my limits. I’m glad I did it.
