Writing Prompt

This week I'm at my parents house, dog-sitting. In honor of that, I thought I'd make it real simple on myself this week and give you another writing prompt. Remember to share your outcome in the comments section below, or forget that and try to get it published!

Write a story, article, poem about dog-sitting and/or house-sitting. Throw in some babysitting, too, if you're feeling ambitious. A twist to make it a bit more interesting is to set it either in a fantasy world or on a distant planet.

Have fun with it! Until next week, keep reading and/or writing.

Fear (or Writer's Block)

One thing writer's always must fight against is fear. It strikes different writers in different ways. Some writers might fear the blank page. They're afraid that as they stare at it, a little paper monster will pop right out and bite them on the nose. No, no, I kid (though that'd make a pretty cool story). They're afraid that if they start writing on that blank page, the words won't be profound, won't be interesting, won't be salable. As soon as they start marking up the page (or typing words on the screen), the masterpiece that could have gone there will now no longer be able to ever fill that spot. Some people never become writers because of that fear.

Some writers might fear ridicule. When someone else reads their heart-felt laughter will greet the author, squashing the very soul of the author. For that reason, words might not make it out, or if they do, the work itself might never leave the would-be author's possession.

Some writers, on the other hand, might fear success. If this work comes out great, another will be expected that should be better than the first. People will want a piece of the author. Fame will surely follow. Is it all worth it?

Fear is a part of everyone, and writers have their own special cases. If the words build up into you, and you won't be happy unless you can release them, you must ignore the fear. Turn off your inner critic and write. No one has to see these words until you're ready for them to. When facing a blank page, you're still a long way off from needing your inner critic. Your muse is the one you should be listening to. Is it difficult to fight through your fears? Absolutely. Is it impossible? Not on your life!

What fears have you had that made your writing feel miserable at times? How did you work through it? Or are you still fighting those demons? If you'd like to share, please leave a comment! Until next time, keep reading and/or writing.

Writing Prompt

This week I'm going to throw a writing prompt out to you. It's something I've decided I may do from time to time. I think writing prompts are excellent ways to get started on short stories, articles, poems, or whatever.

Go outside after dark. Look up into the night sky. Write about the first thing you see.

If you feel like it, post your finished product in the comments section below. Or take it and try to get published. Or use it as simple writing practice for no one else to see. Whatever you do, just write! Until next week, keep reading and/or writing!

Updates to My Blog

I've added a few things today. First, at the top right, you'll see a badge for the "500 Words a Day Challenge." It's not a contest or anything, but just more of a promise to myself to write 500 words a day. It is from Inkygirl.com, and I think an excellent reminder to get my buns into my writing desk and get moving on my novel, which I'm using the challenge for. I'll be writing short stories and non-fiction pieces (not to mention blogs, twitters, and response posts), but I'm only counting words on my novel for this challenge. Started on Monday, and so far I'm batting 1000!

I also added a link to blogs I read. They're on the right hand side of the screen. Just scroll down a bit if you don't see them. I also added the search gadget in case anyone wants to search through what I've written about. And at the bottom of the page I have a guest book which you can sign. I'd be thrilled to get some more people in there. That's it for this week. Until next time, keep reading and/or writing.

Submitting Work

Today I want to bring up the subject of submitting work, be it short stories, novels, articles, or whatever. The most important thing is to appear as professional as possible. Read the guidelines. I can't state that clearly enough. Make sure you read those guidelines until you understand exactly what that publisher or agent wants. If you send something in that is contrary to their guidelines, guess what? Your work isn't even looked at. Maybe it's a perfect fit, but if you can't be bothered to send it how the publisher or agent wants it, it gets no chance.

In the guidelines, an important thing to look for is how the publisher/agent wants the submission. Do they want it sent in standard manuscript format? Do they only want a query letter? Do they only accept work through the standard mail, or do they want it via email? If they want it via email, do they want an attachment, or do they want it all in the body of the email? If you can't follow these instructions, you have little to no chance of even getting your work read, so make that first good, professional impression.

Also make sure you're targeting the correct market. A title of a magazine, for instance, might look like the perfect fit for your article, but in reality it might be about something else altogether. I'm not one that believes you absolutely have to read a magazine you are submitting to (though it can't hurt), but you have to at least know what the content of that magazine is (or what types of books a publisher publishes, or what types of work an agent represents, etc.). Read the entire guidelines; go to the Internet site; go to the library and leaf through the magazine or a book by the publisher (and read at least a bit of it if you've gone to that length). Don't show how unprofessional you are by sending a chilling horror story to a happy romance magazine. Do your homework.

One final thing I want to mention is to keep a log of where each of your stories/articles/novels have been sent. Sometimes it takes dozens of different tries to place your work, and it can go on for years. Don't forget that you've already sent a story to one place and send it back there. Just take a minute each time you send a story out to record where it's going. And when it comes back rejected, send it right back out to the next place. That's all for this week. Until next time, keep reading and/or writing!

Writing Without an Outline Pt. 2

I've discovered something about myself that I sort of figured. I can't write a long piece without an outline of some sort. The novel I talked about last week that I was winging just isn't happening. I've written myself into so many corners that I have to keep pasting entire writing sessions in a different file (the I don't like but don't throw away file). This seems counter-productive to me. I want to have freedom to play with the words, with the story, with the characters, but I'm learning that no outline is just too much freedom. It works for some other writers, but not for me. I don't like the idea of making a huge, elaborate outline with no wiggle room for fun writing time, but I do need something to keep me on track. My little writing exercise experiment has failed, though it really hasn't because I now know what doesn't work for me. That's a good thing.

While I get back to the drawing board, if you feel so inclined, add a comment about how you write. Are you a seat of your pants writer? Do you use an outline? Is it a bare-bones outline, or do you outline each chapter/plot point? Until next time, keep reading and/or writing!

Writing Without an Outline

I've found writing my latest attempt at a novel to be a strange experience. Not that I've tried my hand at many novels--short stories have been my forte so far--but when I have, it has been with an outline. This newest one, however, I just took an idea and ran with it. I sort of tricked myself into getting going on it. I've tried writing a novel without an outline before, but I always bog down, thinking I'm just going to mess things up for later since I don't know where anything is going. But this time I just told myself that it was a writing practice exercise, and it's seemed to work so far.

I write all my short stories without outlines. Almost every time I set out to write one, I just have a vague idea, and I make it happen. Occasionally I'll know exactly what's happening and where everything is going, but that's pretty rare. That's why I really wanted to write a novel without an outline. Novels and short stories are two different beasts, but I thought I could probably make it work. It's still a work in progress, but I'm pretty happy so far.

As I'm writing, I decided that I'd make a separate word file with revision ideas. I can see things that I'd rather do, but instead of stopping momentum by going back and fixing it right away, I can do so in the revision process when the first draft is done. I also have a file with about ten pages or so of a few scenes that were taking the story in the wrong direction. Instead of just erasing it all, I decided to save it in case I can fish out some good ideas from it during revision. I doubt I will, but why not keep it around just in case?

Writers work in many different ways. I'm still not certain how I'm going to go about writing the novel after this one. If this process continues going well, I may just write it from the seat of my pants again. I doubt I will write a full outline, as I find that my writing doesn't have any room to have fun to flesh out unknown parts of the story, but I my write a partial outline. I'll see what I decide to do when this project is done. Until next time, keep reading and/or writing!

Writing for Children

When I write my stories for adults, I don't really have any interest in writing anything that doesn't have some sort of genre twist, be it horror/paranormal/fantasy/science fiction/or whatnot. You get the idea. I don't like to read straight literary or contemporary work (there are exceptions, of course, but usually not), so therefore I don't like to write stories in non-genre categories. It just doesn't interest me.

I'm finding, however, that when I right for kids, I have no problem leaving out the fantastical element. Depending on the age group--usually the very young--normal everyday things can have the air of the fantastic. A simple story about hats can be a fun thing for me to write--which just so happens to be what I'm working on now. I've sent out two children stories to publishers so far, and one is a picture book/young reader about a brother and sister on a fun treasure hunt that their mother designed, and the other is a very short story about a child looking in a mirror. Neither have my normal genre twists, yet both were quite fun for me to write.

I'm finding that for older children, my genre preference is still shining through. I'm working on a middle grade novel that has plenty of paranormal activity and elements of the fantastic. It's a blast to write. It's much different from the genre stuff I can write for adults because I really have to censor my word usage/visual images. Don't want blood and guts to be flowing all over the place in a story for 10 year olds, while that would be fine in a book for adults. It's a nice new challenge for me.

So I guess the point of my post today is to try something new when you're writing. It'll free up your mind in ways that will create fun new challenges for you. Until next time, keep reading and/or writing.

Weird Happenings

If you've been following my other blog, Weird Happenings, which is a ghost story told in blog format, you might be interested to know I'm wrapping it up. For now. I envision at least two more posts, possibly more, in order to tell the ending. When I'm done, feel free to let me know what you think. It's very possible (probable, even) that I'll have some more in the future, but for now I'm going to stick with what's there. It'll be the same main character, but different adventures. If you haven't yet read it, go on and catch up. There are 16 posts so far.

My writing tip for the week is to make sure you always have finished work out making the rounds in the marketplace. Right now I have a dozen or so short stories for adults, one short story for young children, one short story for young adults, and a picture book manuscript out in the world looking for homes. Once they are gone, I just forget about them until I hear back from the editors and then ship 'em out again. This way I can focus on new stuff instead of the old. If something keeps getting rejected, and the comments on it aren't favorable, I'll consider retiring it, but I have so many other works that one casualty doesn't bother me very much. Other than that, they keep going out. I recently placed a short story that I wrote over ten years ago, so if I really believe in a certain work, I'll keep sending it out. That's all for this week. Until next time, keep reading and/or writing.

Words to Watch

I've noticed too often lately words being used incorrectly. It happens all the time on message boards, Twitter, blogs, and other places where people write (obviously). I'm not going to take too much time to go over this today, as I've seen this topic in other blogs, but it still happens, so I want to just take a post to go over it. I'm just going to take a few simple ones that should be the easiest to avoid.

One such pair of words is its and it's. This one is easy enough with just a bit of memorization. If you remember that it only gets an apostrophe as a contraction, you're good to go. It's is the equivalent of it is. If you want the possessive, there is no apostrophe.

Problems with your and you're also seem to be popping up all over the Internet. This one is even easier than its and it's in my opinion. The contraction, you're, is the same as saying you are. The apostrophe is simply taking the place of the "a" in are and the space between the words. The simplest way to describe your, however, is to call it the possessive form of you. Instead of the apostrophe used to show possessive with you, your is used instead. For example, we wouldn't say you's jacket, we'd say your jacket.

One more I want to cover is actually a trifecta: their, there, and they're. Their is the possessive form of they. For example: It is their lunch. They're is a contraction for they are. The apostrophe takes the place of the a in are and the space between the two words. There is a bit more tricky to explain. It can be an adverb, pronoun, noun, adjective, or interjection. You can click here to see its many uses. Basically, since I'm keeping it real simple today (we can go into more depth in the comments or via email if you want to get deeper into this subject), just know you're pretty safe using "there" if the word you're looking for is not a contraction or the possessive form of they. Obviously it's more in depth than that, but for quick first-draft type writings, that'll get you through just fine.

I still often type the wrong words when I'm trying to get through something quickly. Usually when you do that, it's fine to just wait for your revision before you fix it. But if you're doing something like a blog, twitter, or message board post where your first draft is your final draft, follow these simple rules to help yourself with these sometimes tricky words. There are plenty of other tricky words that I've notice causing problems out in cyberspace, as well, but remember these three for now. Until next time, keep reading and/or writing.

Write Or Die!

I started using Dr. Wicked's Write or Die program earlier this week. I've found it to be a great help to get me writing. I usually start strong in my writing sessions, but as I go, my attention tends to wander, and I want to check out different Internet sites, either for research or to just avoid the current writing session. As you can imagine, the words don't come quickly or easily.

With Write or Die, though, there is no distraction. It's a bare-minimum word processing program, basically just a notepad writer. The trick is you have to keep typing in order to keep the consequences from lashing out at you. Instead of me telling you what the consequences are, just go check out Write or Die from my above link. It's quite self-explanatory. I usually use "gentle mode" because I tend to have my speakers off when I'm writing, although so far the red background warning of the coming consequence has been enough to get my fingers typing again.

This is a great program for first drafts of any kind. It forces you to keep your fingers on the keyboard so you'll actually get words down. Make sure you save your work before you close your window, as it does not auto-save it for you. Anyway, I just wanted to let those writers who don't know about this handy website that it exists and is easy to use. I hope it will help with your output. You can also brag about how many words you wrote by clicking a button on the "Done" screen. I posted my word count on Twitter just a few minutes ago. Anyway, that's enough for this week. Until next time, keep reading and/or writing.

Twitter

I've found Twitter to be a very handy tool for writers. I'm following a bunch of different authors, publishers, and the like, and very often they post great links to articles, blog posts, and other great material that helps with various phases of writing. Check various writing sites to see if they have a link to their Twitter page. Often writing sites offer the best Twitters because they're the ones giving the tips, not tweeting about what's for dinner or the like. When you look at the links they post, check the site for more Twitter feeds. You can get a good list of writing people to follow in a short amount of time. And, hey, maybe you'll pick up a good number of followers, too, so when you post things about your own writing, you'll have people that can check your stuff out. Easy networking, right? For example, I use Twitterfeed to get a link over to my blogs when I finish updating. After the initial set-up, it goes in automatically every time I post here or at Weird Happenings. Simple.

My advice is get yourself going in Twitter as a writer. If you already have an account, great, find some writers and publishers to follow (for example, Writer's Digest is a great place to start). If you want to follow me, feel free. My handle on Twitter is therav.

That's it for today. This was just a quick intro to get you to some of the great articles you may have missed other places online. There are a ton more ways to make Twitter work for your writing. Have fun in the Twitterverse! Until next time, keep reading and/or writing.

General Stuff

This week's post isn't anything exciting. I've caught myself in the trap this week of listening to writing podcasts instead of doing more constructive work. Not that the podcasts are bad--I'm learning and being inspired--but I should be writing more. I set myself a goal that I will write each day for at least 1 hour. That doesn't count constructing plot, character, and all that good stuff for projects, but actual words on paper. So far I've written this weeks worth of Weird Happenings story/blog posts--they're ready to be posted on the appropriate days. Yesterday and today's have already gone up, and I'm planning on posting again on Friday and either Saturday or Sunday, I'm not sure which.

Speaking of Weird Happenings, I'm enjoying writing it. It is starting a bit slow on purpose, but I have plans to really knock it up a notch. I'm sort of giving a bit of foreplay, so to speak, for these first few posts, and then I'll really run poor Jason through the grinder (who knows, maybe literally before it's all said and done).

I also sent out a bunch of short stories this past weekend, so I'm checking my email many times a day waiting for replies that probably won't come for a few months. I got one rejected the day after with a personal attack in it--my first, so that made me laugh. The editor didn't like my story but said I was free to send another story if I ever got an original idea. Made it seem to me that he wasn't holding my breath that it would ever happen. Amazing what he could tell about me from just one flash fiction submission, eh? Ah well, he missed the mark and didn't hurt my feelings, so it's all good. It's a good reminder to anyone submitting any sort of work out there--have thick skin. If you let people get to you, you'll never survive, so just dwell on it for a minute or two and then forget about it. (I know, I know. It sounds like I'm dwelling on it because I'm typing about it in my blog, but honestly it just popped into my head when I thought about checking my email for responses so often.)

Anyway, that's it for this week. Please check out Weird Happenings and let me know what you think. Until next time, keep reading and/or writing.

Blog Ghost Story

I started my new blog today. It's called Weird Happenings. It's a story about 16 year old Jason Bellows who lives in what he believes to be a haunted house. I'm telling the story from his point of view--Weird Happenings is his blog that he started to keep track of the, well, weird things happening in his house.

I don't know how long I plan to continue this project. I can see going for years to come. I don't have an overall story in mind yet other than Jason living with ghosts. I'm just going to write from the seat of my pants four or five (maybe more) times a week. If I get to a point where I see a neat conclusion, maybe I'll write it and start something else. If I keep getting ideas for Jason and his ghosts, I'll keep going with this. I have some vague ideas about where I'd like to ultimately go with this, but I also only have vague ideas about where I'm going to be with it in a week or two. I find this prospect exciting. It'll be seat-of-my-pants writing!

As I said, I plan to update it multiple times a week, but probably not more than once a day. Feel free to bookmark that page and check often to see if I have anything new. In addition, I have a Twitterfeed hooked to it (as well as this blog), so if you want to follow me on Twitter, you can do so at http://twitter.com/therav

That's it for now. My first "chapter" is up now at Weird Happenings, so go check it out. I'd love to hear comments as I go, so feel free to let me know what you think. Until next time, keep reading and/or writing!

1st Draft Done

I finally finished the first draft of my novel. I did a good job of writing 5000 words a week, so really the story didn't take as long as I'd hoped because the entire story ended up to only be about 40,000 words, about half as long as it needs to be to be marketable as a novel. I'm putting it away for a month or so before I get back to it. Basically I want to go at it with fresh eyes when I go back to it. I want to add some to the story, but I'm not sure how much yet. I've read that the e-book revolution wants novellas, which this basically is at this point. I'm not sure if I add too much if it will mess up the story I have now, so I may not want to add too much. Also, after I add content, I'm sure what I have will also be trimmed because of wordiness, so that will cut the word count.

Basically, what I'm saying is I'm thrilled that I finished the first draft, but the real work will begin in a month or so when I pull it out again. I'm happy with it; I think it has promise, but it is in no way marketable yet. I can't imagine I'll add enough to make it a true novel, but I hope to add, subtract, and polish enough to make it a marketable novella. Hopefully some day all of you will have a chance to read it!

I'll have an announcement about a new project I will be undertaking coming soon. I don't want to say too much yet, as I don't have all the details pounded out in my mind yet, but I'll let everyone know soon. Basically it will be a story told in blog form. More on it later. Until then, keep reading and/or writing.