writers block
The [Writer’s] Block-Buster
If You Build It, They Will Come
On this blog, I write a great deal about the importance of editing, using proper grammar, and fine tuning your writing skills. I suggest advice and resources without ever pin pointing any real academic options for how to improve your writing abilities. I came across an awesome academic writing option in early June that I have been meaning to share with you.
Murray State’s MFA program in Kentucky is offering a free community writing workshop this summer on July 11th and July 12th. Julia Watts is the faculty member responsible for the workshop and explains that the goal is to “generate work and spark ideas to develop stories.” Any time you are given an opportunity to get out and learn from someone who has ‘been there,’ Watts has authored thirteen novels, you take it. I think the deadline to sign up for the workshop (if you happen to live in or be in the area) has already passed (but, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still try). Despite the passing deadline, there still is a lot we can learn from something like this.
One, many opportunities like this exist all over the world. Do some research and find out what writing resources are available in your area. The value of getting out there and talking and working with other writers (even just once or twice a year) is priceless.
Second, you can listen to Watts talk about her workshop, it’s goals, and process, through the interview clip in the article. Maybe you can get some of your writer friends together and do your own workshop. Or perhaps you are more adventurous and want to try hosting a larger writing workshop in your own area. If you can’t find a workshop that works for you, build one- if you build it, they will come.
Lastly, Watts highlights the importance of many things I talk about right here on my blog- maybe I am not talking senseless gibberish after all. Watts points out that many people have great ideas for beginnings and endings to their books, but find it hard to finish the work and add the “in-between” stuff. She recommends, yet again, writing down all the thoughts and ideas that come into your head. Just sit down and write what you are feeling in that moment, even if you know you will likely end up throwing it all away. As Watts says, every first draft is imperfect- that’s what the editing process is for. But first, you need to get your words on paper.
Watts also teaches the importance of writers supporting other writers, which is really great to hear. We need to learn how to support each other, instead of tearing each other down. We need to be able to objectively look at our fellow peers writing and evaluate, continually improving their writing and our own. Watts also recommends having an editor look at your work, even if you are self-publishing. Polished work should not be underestimated.
As writers, we should always be learning, evolving, and helping. Write on.
The [Writer’s] Block-Buster
The [Writer’s] Block-Buster
The Romance Of It All
Romance is a hugely popular genre in the audio market. Listeners seem to crave romance above most other topics. Add some sexy steam to it, a few shirtless dudes, and a happily ever after- you’re golden. But, the hard thing about the romance genre is that there are so many different types of romances. There’s contemporary, historical, erotica, new adult, regency, gay/lesbian, western, paranormal, and the list of sub-genres can go on and on. Which one should we focus on? Where is the biggest market/audience? What qualities lock a book into a particular category? Is one category more perceptible to audio than another? The answers to these questions are often complicated, long winded, and often changing. But the one thing we always know is that romance sells, whether you are a sexy duke, hot cowboy, or irresistible vampire.
The same problems/challenges can also come up when writing a good romance novel as well. There are so many possibilities, how do you know where to start? Which category do you want to lock into? Do you need to pick one? Or is there potential for a crossover? Unfortunately, I can’t answer those questions for you. You need to feel what you write. You need to write from your heart, staying true to your own interests, and go from there. But, there is always room for advice- especially from those with more experience. That’s why I was pretty excited to run across an article in The New York Times Magazine by Malia Wollan, entitled “How To Write A Romance Novel.”
My mind immediately went, BINGO! Right? Well, sort of. There’s obviously a lot that goes into writing a romance novel, or any type of book, but this article gives some great advice to help get writers to where they need to be.The article featured Jayne Ann Krentz, a New York Times bestseller romance author, and her advice to romance authors.
Krentz immediately points out that romance novels end happily. No matter the struggles that the characters go through within the story, they always need to end up together at the end. You might think, well that takes the suspense out of it- right? But think about it- would it really be a romance novel if it ended without any happy, sappy love?
She also recommends reading many different types of romances before starting to write. Figure out where you fit within these categories, but don’t get bogged down by it. Krentz wants writers to remember that romances focus in on one particular relationship and “every twist in the plot must create a twist in the relationship, and vice versa.”
Krentz encourages writers to send their work to editors, but don’t shy away from self-publishing, especially if you are a new author. Romance is a vast genre and there are many other writers out there doing the exact same thing you are. Taking the self-publishing route can actually make you stand out. It opens up the possibility to brand yourself better, which is really important. I can’t tell you how many totally different romance books I get on submission that pretty much have identical covers from each other. At a certain point they all start to blend together and you don’t even know what you are looking at anymore. When you self-publish, you control that image. It’s the first impression that readers get of your book- make it count.
The best part? As Krentz mentions, you can brand yourself as many times as you want. You can create different pen names if you want to branch out onto other romance platforms. Self-publishing gives you an immense amount of flexibility. She also cautions against using too many alias’ because it does create double, triple, or quadruple the amount of work for yourself. If you can’t give each name your 100%, then don’t do it.
Her bottom line is that sex sells. Don’t be afraid to add it in and have some fun with it. But, don’t lose sight of the what romance novels are all about, “The heart of the romance novel is animated by the classic heroic virtues like honor, courage and a belief in the healing power of love.” I couldn’t put it better myself. Write on.
Write Your Heart Out
The majority of my posts focus on writing longer works of non-fiction or fiction- novels or even short stories. But, most writers do not just write novels and/or stories. Most writers try to write all the time, which is hard to do when you are only writing longer books. Therefore, many writers are contributing columnists to some type of magazine or newspaper or have their own blog. It’s no surprise- writers like to write and to be writing all the time.
The more you write the better you will become. Writing a bunch of novels may have the same effect in the very long term, but many writers want improvement right now. They want to build skills that they can transfer over to their longer works and use to produce their best possible product. My suggestion, for the most accessibility and practice, would be to start your own blog and just write. Write about anything- it could be serious or funny, pointless or meaningful. Write about what you love or whatever is on your mind at the moment you sit down at your computer. Don’t over think anything and just write.
An article from the website, Business 2 Community, was recently published by Stacey Miller. She touched on ten important content factors writers should focus on whenever they write about anything in any form (novel, short story, blog post, or newspaper article).
Stacey gave ’10 Content Writing Fundamentals,’ all of which we should practice every time we sit down to write. The more we write, the more good habits we will learn:
1) Make content habitual, not just an occasional activity. Write all the time. Every day you should write something– a story, an explanation, or some form of review.
2) Be focused on your topic while being brief. All content pieces need a specific goal, achieve that goal in the shortest period of time. If you take too long to get where you are going, you might not have an audience once you finally get there.
3) Use everything and anything to gather better information. Eavesdrop on people’s conversations while traveling, read comment sections, or listen to pundits. You need to get your own content and you need to get a lot of it in any way possible.
4) Do not get bored of your topic. If you are bored the reader will be able to tell and mostly likely will become bored his or herself.
5) Use colloquial terms. Do not use too much excess jargon. Explain your content with the simplest terms and get to the point. Make your writing relative enough that anyone can pick it up and get at least one thing out of your work.
6) Be original. There is so much content available to us with the internet that sometimes this can prove hard to do. If you search anything, you will probably find an article about it from ten different perspectives. But, it is also easy to take a completely different perspective or spin on content that might already be in front of you. Originality is the essence of content. If you do use other sources, make sure you mention them.
7) Use your audience to shape your content. Read things and listen to people that are similarly interested as you regarding specific subjects and topics. Figure out what they are interested in superficially and use that to form your content.
8) Use visuals, “visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text alone.” Content will be more successful with imagery and is much more powerful that way.
9) Have a good headline. A great headline will generate more readers, “a good headline presents a mystery that can only be solved by reading further. It is persona, insightful and shareable.”
10) Make your content an experience. Using descriptive words and entertaining stories might not be enough to gain a loyal readership. Maybe you should include photos or GIFs in your work- anything to keep readers coming back.
This is just a brief, general synopsis of what Stacey said. There is a lot of other great information in her article, so I suggest you check it out yourself.
All ten points are spot on with what all writers should preach and the truth is we have something we can all work on. I know for myself that I should take some of these to heart and practice them, especially #10. Write on.
Bypass The Block
Suffering from writer’s block sometimes feels like the worst thing in the world to have happen to you, especially if you are on a deadline or if you only have a short amount of time each day to work on your writing. Fortunately, there are many things that writers can do to get their creative juices flowing again. Some of these suggestions include getting some form of exercise/take a walk to clear your mind and get some fresh air or distract your mind by reading a book or magazine unrelated to your writing (mentioned in my previous post). Sometimes, breaks like these just don’t work so I was really happy when I caught an article today in The Huffington Post which focused on getting kids to ‘like’ creative writing. I think the tools/exercises mentioned in the article will also help to get any writer, of any age, out of a ‘funk.’
The article is titled ‘2 Great Exercises to Help Kids Love Creative Writing’ by Brett Murphy Hunt, a College English Lecturer. In the article she talks about two techniques to improve children’s interest in creative writing. The first technique that she offered is called “Word Association Exercise.” The way it works is that someone (or the teacher) is supposed to give you a series of words and then the writer is to write down the first word that pops into his or her head, next to the word given to them. After all the words are given, the writer is supposed to circle a group of words that create the strongest visual for them and hopefully this will inspire some free or new writing/ideas.
If you don’t have someone to do a similar exercise like this with, I have a solution. Look at a random newspaper, magazine, or online article or a bunch of different articles. Pick out some words out of an article and then next to the words you select write the first word that pops into your mind. This exercise will be helpful for people who just need to jump start their creative juices and wake their mind up again.
The next exercise that Brett presents to her students is a “Partnered Story,” which is exactly what you think it is. The teacher writes the first line of a chapter then passes the notebook to the student, who then writes the second line. The teacher and student go back and forth like this for as long as needed, until the imagination is flowing again.
Again, you will need someone else to do this exercise with- a friend, sibling, parent, or even pen pal. If you don’t have someone to do this exercise with then I would suggest using the internet as your other person. Go to a comment section of any article you can find and take a comment that you find interesting and add a second sentence to it. Odds are (if it is an interesting enough comment) you will get a response, and then you can keep on going with it. The sentences don’t have to relate to anything you are writing or something you would ever want to write, they just need to rev your mind back into gear. They could be completely funny and out of context just to elicit a visceral response from an unsuspecting reader. The more fun you have with it, the more you will gain.
Although both these exercises are described to be used in the context of students in a classroom, I think they are both wonderful exercises for writers of any age. They will certainly help to ignite a spark in the creative mind and help get stuck writers unstuck. The hardest part of being stuck is getting unstuck and any help we can get is always appreciated. Write on.