Karen Woodward

Monday, January 16

Write a Book in 15 Days: Part 3 of 3

This is the third and final post in a series on how to write a book in 15 days. In the first and second posts I talked about picking a topic for your book, creating an outline and the importance of finding the right subcategory for your book. Here are the links:

1. Write a Book in 15 Days
2. How to Pick Categories for Your Amazon Book

Now that we’ve picked a topic and created an outline it’s time to decide on a title.

Craft the title.

You might be wondering why I’m advising you to choose a title now rather than after you’ve finished writing. It’s because I find knowing my title helps keep me on track because it contains the promise of my book.

For example, “20 Idyllic Scuba Diving Locations That Won’t Bankrupt You” or “20 Christmas Cookies Your Mother-In-Law Will Love.”

These titles make a promise to the reader. For example, “20 Idyllic Scuba Diving Locations That Won’t Bankrupt You” promises that if you go to one of these spots to scuba dive, you’ll have a wonderful time but spend less than if you went anywhere else.

Do Market Research

The single most important thing you can do to help sell your book is to look at bestselling books in the categories you’ve chosen.

I won’t go into market research in any depth here, the topic is too big, but here’s the gist:

a. Find your target categories.

I went through an example of this on Friday. Here are the categories I came up with:

Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Business & Money > Entrepreneurship & Small Business > Small Business

Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Business & Money > Entrepreneurship & Small Business > Home-Based

Books > Business & Money > Small Business & Entrepreneurship > Home Based

b. Use the top 5 books in each category as examples.

Buy and read the top five books in each category. Look at how these books are structured, what topics are covered, what tone the authors adopt (comedic, impassioned, detached, and so on).

The idea is to get a feel for what books do well in your chosen categories as well as why they do well. (If you can, buy and read one or two books in each of these categories that aren’t doing well. Ask yourself, Why is this book not doing well? What is the difference between the two)

c. Look at the covers.

As far as I can tell the single biggest determiner of a book’s success is its cover. It may sound odd to put it like this, but the actual content of the book doesn’t sell the book, it sells the next book.

Look at the covers of the bestselling books in each category and break them down into their component elements. Does the cover contain text only, or is there an image? Is the image a cartoon or a photograph? Is there a focal image? That is, does one image clearly dominate the cover? If the cover primarily contains text, is the text bold or italic? Which font was used? (If you don’t know which font it is, try sites like identifont or fontsquirrel.) And so on.

For example, if you look at the "Thrillers & Suspense" category most of the top ten books prominently feature photographs. On the other hand, many self-help books contain only text.

I want to stress that the idea is not to copy the cover. We just want to understand what characteristics are common to the covers of the books that sell the best in your categories. Of course you want a unique and distinctive cover, but the idea is for it to be easily recognizable as the cover of a certain kind of book.

Write the book.

If you write 2,000 words a day for 15 days you’ll have 30,000 words. If writing 2,000 words a day seems daunting, keep a couple of things in mind.

First, you don’t have to write 2,000 words a day! If the most you’ve ever written is 200 words a day, 2,000 might seem impossible. In that case shoot for 200 a day and after you feel comfortable, try increasing it to 300, and so on. Even if you only write 500 words a day it will only take two months to write a book!

Or perhaps you can write a considerable number of words in a day but can, say, only write one day a week. In that case, one would need to write 3,500 words in one sitting once a week. At 1,000 words per hour, that would only take 3.5 hours!

Second, write a Zero Draft. A Zero Draft is what I like to call a vomit draft. The idea of a Zero Draft is to get your unfiltered thoughts down on paper as fast as you can. Don’t worry about spelling or grammar. Research is a must, but put off as much of this as you can until the next draft. For example, if you’re not sure about something like the spelling of a name or a date, just put in a placeholder and, if it survives into the next draft, do the research.

Why? If you’re anything like me then as much as 25% of the words you write for the Zero Draft won’t find their way into the next draft. If you pause to do detailed research on this 25% then that is time wasted.

Write an introduction.

After you’ve finished writing the book, write the introduction. Since the introduction is all about what you’ve written, even if you do write it first, chances are you’ll have to completely rewrite it. Why? Because the only way to know exactly what you’re going to write is to write it!

In the first part of the introduction tell your readers why yours is a book they need to read. People have ‘pain points,’ areas that prevent them from fulfilling their goals, from accomplishing what they want. What are your readers’ pain points? Do they want to plan the perfect vacation but are feeling overwhelmed by all the information, all the possibilities? Or do they want to learn ways to unleash their inner vagabond while not completely blowing their budget?

Tell readers how your book is going to help eliminate these pain points.

For example, let’s think about someone who shops on Amazon and who is interested in German dessert recipes. Perhaps she’s not German herself, but her significant other is and that means going home with him for the holidays. Which means that you have to cook something to present as a gift. The question: what to make? Well, cookies made with German culinary traditions could help remove that particular pain point!

Hire the best editor you can afford.

It’s 15 days later and you’ve written 30,000 words. You have an introduction and you have 10 or so chapters.

What you need to do now is send your book-baby off to the best line editor you can afford.

Before you do this, though, put your manuscript in a drawer and leave it for a week. If you can’t stand to leave it for a week, then put it in a drawer for a couple of days.

When it’s time for your manuscript to come out of the drawer, read the manuscript through. You can also have your computer read the file to you—this functionality is build into both the Mac and PC. Try to make the manuscript free of grammatical and spelling errors.

Then, and only then, send it off to a line editor or proofreader—someone who will make sure that you’re using the appropriate words in the appropriate places, someone who will double-check your spelling and grammar, and so on.

I kid you not, every time I send a manuscript off to an editor I’m sure I’ve caught everything and every time they have pointed out mistakes I made that would have been embarrassing.

Should you use a pen name?

There are many reasons to use a pen name.

Discovery. If you write in several genres, or if some of your books are fiction and others are non-fiction, then using a different pen name for each genre can help keep readers from being confused. For instance, if a person likes reading sci-fi, they know what name to search for.

Privacy. Also, using a pen name gives you privacy. Readers have been known to use an author’s name to track them down in real life. Even though most of these people are harmless it can be disconcerting for an author to open their door to a stranger who seems to know all about them. Even if you’re not worried about being stalked, if you write in sensitive genres such as erotica, you might want to keep that information from your family or your boss.

But there are also reasons to use your real name. If you use a different pen name for each genre you write it makes it more difficult for readers to discover all your books (sometimes folks want to read, or at least look at, whatever you’ve written). Granted, this deficit can be largely overcome by listing all your books on your author website, but these days some authors are electing not to have one. Instead, they share everything through their various social media accounts.

If you would like to read further about this, I’ve written an article on the subject: Should You Use A Pen Name?

Create an eye-catching cover

You have a manuscript but it’s off with the editor so you’re left twiddling your thumbs. Now’s the time to work on your book’s cover. You have the title, you’ve decided what name you’re going to publish under, you know what you want your cover to look like, so what are you waiting for?

Note: Look on pinterest.com. Google the subcategories you’re interested in and see what sort of images folks have pinned.

Should you create the book cover yourself or have an artist create one for you?

If money's no object, definitely get an artist to do one for you. If you can’t spend a huge amount of money but can manage $200 or so, think about using 99designs.com.

If money is tight and this is your first book and you’re just testing the water, then I would suggest you try to create the cover yourself and see how it goes. GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free image processing program that’s quite powerful.

Here’s a link to an article I wrote about where to find free, public domain images: Bloggers: 10 Sites With Public Domain, High Resolution, Images.

That’s it! The next step is formatting your manuscript and uploading it to Amazon. If anyone wants me to continue this series by talking about how to do that please let me know! If enough folks would be interested in me continuing this series, I will!

UPDATE: For your convenience, here are links to the other articles in this series:

Part 1 of 1: How to Write a Book in 15 Days
Part 2 of 3: How to Pick Categories for Your Amazon Book
Part 3 of 3: How to Choose a Title, Create the Artwork and Write the Darn Book!

Friday, January 13

How to Pick Categories for Your Amazon Book

This blog post is a continuation of a series I began on Wednesday (Write a Book in 15 Days). Today I talk about a topic entire books have been written about—how to select subcategories for your book—so I can't go into anything in depth but hopefully I’ve been able to communicate something helpful.

In what follows I only talk about Amazon. That said, I’d wager what I say, below, is true of any online retailer.

One more thing before we get started. There’s an invaluable (free!) resource I’ve found on the web called the Amazon Sales Rank Calculator. It will do exactly what the name says. If you give it the Amazon Sales Rank of a book it will tell you approximately how many copies of the book are sold per day.

The importance of categories and keywords.

The single most important thing you can do for your book is choose effective categories and keywords. You could write the best book in the world but if folks can’t discover your book, they’re won’t be able to buy it!

Genre and categories.

By this time you should have an idea for a book. Your idea will no doubt be refined over time, but you should have some notion what general topic you want to write about. For example, let’s say you want to write about how to start a website.

1. Think up search terms.

We want to find books about how to start a website. That is, books that are similar to the book you want to write. Why? Because we want to (a) see what keywords these sort of books use, (b) what categories they’re in and (c) how well they’re doing.

Bootstrapping: To start off, we need to think of a few possible search terms. Let’s try “website.” If that doesn’t work we can use “website create” or “website launch.”

2. In the categories “Books” and “Kindle eBooks” search for the keyword.

In our case this keyword is “website.” So head over to Amazon and search for “website” in the category “Books.” If you just want to click a link, here it is.

2a. On the left-hand side of the page you’ll see “Show results for.” Just below this is “Any Category” and under that is “Books.” Under this you’ll see categories listed. For example:

Computers & Technology
Web Development & Design
Blogging & Blogs

And so on. Now pick a category—something you think might be a good fit for your book—and drill down (by which I mean, click on the category to expose its subcategories). What sort of books are coming up? Are they similar to the one you want to write? If so, you’re on the right track, keep drilling. If not, try another category.

2b. Now do the same thing we did in 2a only change the parent category to “Kindle Store.” Here’s the link.

As before, take a look at the categories returned. Which ones stand out to you as being the best fit for your book?

After playing around a bit, looking at various categories, I chose these two:

Subcategory One: Books > Business & Money > Small Business & Entrepreneurship > Home

Subcategory Two: Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Business & Money > Entrepreneurship & Small Business > Small Business

3. Find example books: For each subcategory you chose, search on your keyword, sorting by RELEVANCE.

The keyword I’ve been using for my example has been “website.” If you’re not sure what I’m talking about just click the links, above, and you’ll see what I mean.

Now look at the books that came up. Note: These won’t be ordered by how well the books are selling. Don’t worry about this right now. We’re looking for books like the one you want to write because we’re interested in what categories they’re in.

For example, for “Subcategory Two” the first book listed (this will change over time so the first book might be different when you try it) is “Websites: How To Generate Online Income While You Sleep.” We’ll look at this book in more detail in (4), below.

4. For each example book look at (a) its Amazon Best Sellers Rank and (b) the categories it’s doing well in.

For instance, “Websites” has a Best Sellers Rank of 276,667 and is doing relatively well in the following subcategories:

Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Business & Money > Entrepreneurship & Small Business > Small Business

Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Business & Money > Entrepreneurship & Small Business > Home-Based

Books > Business & Money > Small Business & Entrepreneurship > Home Based

You’ll want to do this for AT LEAST 10 books. For each of these 10 books write down their title, their Best Sellers Rank and the subcategories they’re doing well in.

5. For each subcategory, find out which has the most popular books.

How do you do this? Well, frankly, it’s a bit tedious. That said, this is the most important step.

Go to each subcategory. On the first page, the books will be numbered from 1 to 20. The number 1 book will be the best selling book in that category while the number 20 book will be the book that sells worse than number 19 but better than number 21. The thing is, the number one book for a subcategory can have a really bad Best Sellers Rank. It can be, say, 200,000! If that’s the case, this isn’t a category you want to write for because even if your book lands at number 1, chances are you’re not going to sell a whole lot of copies!

On the other hand, if the number 1 book has a Best Sellers Rank of, say, 200 then that means that books in this category might be popular. Now you want to look at the Best Sellers Rank of the number 20 book. What is it? If it’s 200,000 then it looks like only one or two books are going to be lucrative which makes this subcategory not very attractive.

But imagine that the number 1 book has a Best Sellers Rank of 200 and that the number 20 book has a Best Sellers RAnk of 8,000. That’s good! Keep going. What’s the Best Sellers Rank of the 40th book? If it's under 50,000 then it looks as though this category is popular with readers.

In general, for each subcategory, compare the Best Sellers Rank of the 1st book to the Best Sellers Rank of the 20th book. If the 20th book has a sales rank of LESS THAN 50,000, then look at the Best Sellers Rank of the 40th book. If that book has a sales rank of less than 50,000, then look at the Best Sellers Rank of the 60th book. And so on.

But, we're not done!

6. For each subcategory, find out how many books it includes.

If a popular subcategory has oodles of books then that subcategory becomes less attractive because the competition is fierce. On the other hand, if a popular subcategory has the same amount of books (or fewer books!) as a less popular subcategory then that’s an opportunity. These books are popular and, relatively speaking, there’s not much competition. I’m not sure how long that state of affairs would last, but it’s something to notice.

How you can tell if a book is selling well.

The lower a book’s Amazon Best Sellers Rank the better. A Best Sellers Rank of 1 is the best selling book on Amazon. A rule of thumb is that if a book has a Best Sellers Rank of 100,000 then it sells about one copy a day.

Let’s say that after you’ve done all this research you determine that the categories your book fits with the best aren’t that lucrative. Even the best selling book sells only about one copy every three days. Here are your choices:

a. You could write and publish your book.

The topic you’ve chosen could be one you’re passionate about and you don’t care how many copies it sells. If this is the case, go for it! Or it could be that you have a popular website and feel confident that you can drive traffic to your book. Again, if this is the case, go for it! That said, one thing you might consider is that if the overwhelming number of sales are going to be driven from your website, why not sell the book from your website? That way you don’t have to pay Amazon a royalty!

b. You could go back to the drawing board.

You could go back to your essential concept and tweak it until you find a more lucrative category.

There’s no wrong choice, it's completely up to you and what your goals are.

Looks like I won’t be able to finish this post today! I’ll wrap the series up on Monday when I’ll discuss how to choose a title, how to actually write the book. I’ll also talk about the pros and cons of using a pen name as well as how to create an eye-catching cover.

Stay tuned and good writing!

UPDATE: For your convenience, here are links to the other articles in this series:

Part 1 of 1: How to Write a Book in 15 Days
Part 2 of 3: How to Pick Categories for Your Amazon Book
Part 3 of 3: How to Choose a Title, Create the Artwork and Write the Darn Book!

Wednesday, January 11

Write a Book in 15 Days

When someone writes a book in a week it's usually a nonfiction book, though it's perfectly possible to write a novella in 15 days. After all, many people write 2,000 words a day for NaNoWriMo, writing 2,000 words a day for 15 days will get you 30,000 words. Depending how you look at it, that’s either a long novella or a short book!

Pick a topic.

Everyone knows a lot about something: computer repair, day trading, painting, marketing, cooking, baking, traveling, home repair, woodworking, scrapbooking, film, music, fitness, weight loss, relationships, sports, raising kids, and so on.

What interests you? If you’re on Pinterest what are most of your pins about?

Not sure what you’re good at? Ask yourself: What do your friends ask you for advice about?

Narrow the topic.

Okay, so, now you know what kind of book you want to write but the topic still needs to be narrowed down. For example, if you’ve decided to write about cooking, what kind of cooking? Vegetarian, Vegan, food for omnivores, eating local, eating raw, the Paleo Diet, gluten-free cooking, and so on.

Since you’re writing a very short book, even that doesn’t narrow things down enough. You’re only going to be writing a about 30,000 words or so, therefore you have to get specific.

For example, if your current passion is eating vegan, then you might want to write about how to create a delicious vegan meal in 15 minutes or less. Or perhaps even something like 40 delicious, gluten-free, avocado recipes. And so on.

Or if baking is your thing, what kind of baking? Do you love desserts? Or, even more specifically, cupcakes? You could write a book about your 20 favorite chocolate cupcake recipes. Or perhaps your 20 favorite cupcake recipes inspired by halloween. Here are a few more ideas:

15 minute meals for folks trying to lose 30 pounds in 30 days.
20 delicious German gluten-free cookie recipes.
20 French dessert recipes that melt in your mouth, cost under $5 and won’t blow your diet!
20 Japanese meals for the North American palette ready in under 15 minutes.

The possibilities are infinite!

Create an outline.

After you’ve decided on the general topic and then narrowed it down it’s time to create your outline.

How is this done? For example, if you’re working on a book about rock climbing (a subject I know nothing about) there is going to be equipment unique to that sport.

Also, just about every sport has beginners, folks who want to try it out but don’t want to look silly by knowing nothing about the subject. These people have never, say, gone rock climbing before and would like suggestions about how to ease themselves into the sport. Should they start climbing indoors or outdoors? Does it matter? What kind of equipment should a beginner buy, if any? How can one find a qualified teacher? And so on.

If you want to write a 30,000 word book, then plan to have each chapter come out to about 3000 words which means you’ll have 10 chapters. Of course this could change a bit as you write, but it is very helpful to have as detailed an outline as possible before you begin writing.

The idea is for each point in your outline to become a chapter, or subsection of a chapter. For example:

- Introduction (to be written last)

* What pain points do your readers have? What do they want help with? Talk about how your book will help. Talk about what value your book has for your audience.

* Tell your readers what you’re going to tell them.

- What is rock climbing?

* The history.

* How rock climbing has changed over the years.

* Why rock climbing is a fun sport that’s good for you both physically and mentally.

- Your first rock climb.

* How old do you have to be to rock climb?

* Is rock climbing okay for seniors, or should they consult with a doctor first?

* What equipment is absolutely necessary for rock climbing? Can you rent it or must you buy?

* What kinds of rock faces are best for the beginner? Indoors or outdoors?

- How to become a better rock climber.

* Are there exercises one can do? Perhaps a special diet?

* Must one practice frequently?

- Competitive rock climbing.

* Are there clubs devoted to rock climbing? Competitions?

* How much per year can one expect to spend if one becomes serious about the sport.

- Extreme rock climbing.

And so on.

I hope what I’ve written, above, makes sense! I’ve never gone rock climbing and know nothing about it. But that's exactly why I picked it: I wanted to show completing an outline doesn’t require any specific knowledge. It's the other way around, you use the outline to see what research needs to be done.

That’s it for today! I’ll finish this post up on Friday by talking about categories and keywords, how to craft an eye-catching cover and many other things. Till then, good writing!

UPDATE: I've finished this series. Below are links to all the articles:

Part 1 of 1: How to Write a Book in 15 Days
Part 2 of 3: How to Pick Categories for Your Amazon Book
Part 3 of 3: How to Choose a Title, Create the Artwork and Write the Darn Book!

Monday, January 9

Writing Resolutions for 2017

I usually don’t make writing resolutions, but this year is different. There are several things I would like to improve and the New Year is as good a time as any to start.

1. Make more time for writing.

Mornings are not my best time. It often takes me an hour before I’m fed, sufficiently caffeinated and ready to write. I want to get that time down to, say, half an hour. And I think I can do it if I’m more organized, more focused.

Which begs the question: How does one become more organized? There are a lot of techniques one can use but one thing I’ve found helps is to record everything I do for a week. It’s difficult at first—I’ll forget to keep track—but after awhile I get better. At the end of the week I’ll have recorded enough of my activities to get a fair picture of how I spent my time.

Whenever I do this exercise what I discover always surprises me! In the past, one of my big time-wasters has been, believe it or not, research. I used to do a lot of detail work on my first draft then, when I end up cutting half the material, all that precious time I spent researching is wasted.

What I do now: On the first draft I use a placeholder for what I don’t know. If a sentence makes it into my second draft, then I do the required research.

My resolution: Have my butt in my writing chair half an hour after I get out of bed.

2. Embrace my voice.

First of all, what do I mean by "voice"?

In researching this article I came across a wonderful description of what we mean by “writer’s voice.” Rachelle Gardner writes:

“To me, your writer’s voice is the expression of YOU on the page. It’s that simple—and that complicated. Your voice is all about honesty. It’s the unfettered, non-derivative, unique conglomeration of your thoughts, feelings, passions, dreams, beliefs, fears and attitudes, coming through in every word you write.

“Voice is all about your originality and having the courage to express it.” (What is Writer’s Voice?)

Developing One’s Voice

I’ve talked before about the advantages of writing a Zero Draft. One of these advantages is that since this is a vomit draft—a draft I will never, EVER, show anyone else—I’m free to explore (and perhaps develop!) my voice, my unique writing style.

After all, no one will see my zero draft and, if anyone does sneak into my office and take a peek ... well, then they can hardly complain!

(NSFW -> Chuck Wendig wrote a terrific article about a writer’s voice: 25 Things Writers Should Know About Finding Their Voice)

My resolution: On my zero draft, take more chances. Be more expressive.

3. Try something new.

I’ve been writing non-fiction since 2010 in the form of blog posts. For most of that time did I think about publishing a nonfiction book? No! Why? I have no idea.

We don’t know whether a particular kind of book will be popular until we’ve tested the waters. That doesn’t mean writing and publishing the book, it means getting in touch with your readers and asking them what they want. What are their pain points? What can you help with? Granted, this method isn’t foolproof. Sometimes folks will say they want something but then your book doesn’t sell. That’s okay! It’s part of the learning process. I believe that old saying: If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything.

Also, you often don’t know what you’re going to be good at before you jump in and do it. So try new things! Experiment.

My resolution: Try one of the things from the following list.

Things to Try:

- Try writing in a new genre. Or, if you’ve only written fiction up to now, try writing non-fiction (and vice versa).

- Make your creative work available in a different medium. For example, if your books are only available as a Kindle download, make them available through CreateSpace as well. If you don’t offer an audio version, record one of your books as an audiobook. If you’ve done all that but you don’t podcast, give podcasting a try!

- Make your creative work available in other locations. For example, if you haven’t used Kindle Unlimited, try it! Or if you’ve only sold books through Amazon, take one of your books and branch out. Offer it through Smashwords, Kobo, etc.

- Try new ways to market your books. Never tried BookBub? Do it! Never used free days (or discount days) on Amazon? Do it!

- Try different price points. If you’ve only offered your books for $1.00 each, try $2.99. Or, alternatively, if you generally sell your books for $2.99 each, try a higher price point. Or try to get new readers by offering your work for free, at least for a few days.

- Write about something that terrifies you, something that makes your heart beat faster and your palms sweat.

- Write every day. Set a schedule and write at the same time every day for a certain amount of time. To start off, this might only be five or ten minutes. After a few days of meeting this goal, increase your writing time by a minute. Do this until you’re writing, say, 1,000 words a day. At that rate it would only take about 2.5 months to write 80,000 words!

- Read eclectically. Read in a genre you normally don’t. Don’t read the newspaper? Read it! Don’t watch TV? Watch some! Don’t see movies? Go see one! But don’t read (or watch) passively. Be critical. Dissect the stories. Diagram them. Read critically.

- Experiment. If you prefer writing in the first person, try writing a piece of flash fiction using the third person perspective. Alternatively, if you prefer writing from a subjective viewpoint, if you like laying your character’s thoughts and emotions bare, try writing from an objective (fly on the wall) perspective.

Or try writing in a genre that is more ‘hard-boiled,’ one that traditionally favors an objective perspective, switch things up and try something like free indirect discourse. And vice versa. Urban fantasy or horror often employs a subjective viewpoint so that the reader will feel all the thrills and chills the viewpoint character does.

- Mingle. Reach out to other writers in your area. Go to a writers’ convention (if you do, I've found it helps to print out business cards with your name, email, website address and social media hangouts).

If none of these options appeal to you, create your own! I’d love to know what your New Year’s resolutions are.

Every post I pick a book or audiobook I love and recommend it. This serves two purposes. I want to share what I’ve loved with you, and, if you click the link and buy anything over at Amazon within the next 24 hours, Amazon puts a few cents in my tip jar at no cost to you. So, if you click the link, thank you! If not, that’s okay too. I’m thrilled and honored you’ve visited my blog and read my post.

In the Shadow of Lakecrest, by Elizabeth Blackwell, reminded me favorably of Mary Stewart’s work. As a teenager I loved Stewart’s writing but then wandered away. This book was, for me, like re-discovering the kind of stories Stewart created. It was a lyrical, immersive, read. From the blurb:

“The year is 1928. Kate Moore is looking for a way out of the poverty and violence of her childhood. When a chance encounter on a transatlantic ocean liner brings her face-to-face with the handsome heir to a Chicago fortune, she thinks she may have found her escape—as long as she can keep her past concealed.

“After exchanging wedding vows, Kate quickly discovers that something isn’t quite right with her husband—or her new family. As Mrs. Matthew Lemont, she must contend with her husband’s disturbing past, his domineering mother, and his overly close sister. Isolated at Lakecrest, the sprawling, secluded Lemont estate, she searches desperately for clues to Matthew’s terrors, which she suspects stem from the mysterious disappearance of his aunt years before. As Kate stumbles deeper into a maze of family secrets, she begins to question everyone’s sanity—especially her own. But just how far will she go to break free of this family’s twisted past?”

That’s it! I’ll talk to you again on Wednesday. Until then, good writing!

Wednesday, January 4

7 Ways Positive Thinking Can Help You Be a Better Writer

I've been mulling over the benefits of positive thinking and came up with seven ways changing the way we think can help us not only be better writers but live happier lives:

1. Believe in your ability to succeed.

This is where optimists have the advantage. It sounds odd, but many folks who have succeeded, who have done great things in life, have had an unshakable confidence in their ability to succeed. They believed in themselves, in their ability.

You might be thinking, “Well, what if I don’t? Am I doomed?” Of course not! But if you truly believe you will succeed, I think it’s easier to brush it off when things go wrong.

2. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

One problem an inveterate optimist might run into is being so sure the best is going to happen that they neglect to prepare for failure. But there’s an easy remedy! Hope for and expect the best, but use your big brain to also prepare for the worst and to mitigate the effects on your writing if it happens.

3. Never give up! Pick a path and stay on it.

Let’s say you write a chick lit book set in the wild west and (surprise, surprise!) it doesn’t sell. Since you were probably hoping the book would sell this failure will come as a disappointment. But that doesn’t mean you should give up and stop writing. Instead, learn from your experience, from what worked and what didn’t.

For example, get someone you trust to give you their opinion why it didn’t sell. Also, ask them how you could improve your work. Perhaps you could invest in new cover art or use the services of a copywriter. Perhaps a complete rewrite is in order.

Whatever the case, the important thing is to keep writing. You’ve discovered something that doesn’t work, but I’ll bet you’ve also discovered a few things that do work. Apply that knowledge.

4. Think positive.

We each have the power to change how we view the events that happen to us. I’ve found folks tend to fall into one of two camps: people who view a glass as half full and those who view it as half empty (I am squarely in the ‘half-empty’ camp!).

Each of us has to decide how we want to frame the events that affect our lives. We can decide whether to interpret something as a total failure or as a learning experience that will help us do better next time.

5. Fake it till you make it.

You are what you do. If you’ve been, say, writing three novels a year for the past five years then you are definitely a writer. But what about when you start on that first novel? You probably wouldn’t feel like a writer, you might even feel like a fraud. You’d have all sorts of doubts, all sorts of anxiety. The solution: push through.

Hardly any successful writer felt like a writer when they started out. Sure they wrote every day, sure they honed their craft, but it’s a big step from that to being a professional writer, one who can (say) pay their rent with their work.

6. If you’re not making mistakes then you’re not doing anything.

I’ve written this on a sticky note I’ve taped to my monitor where I can see it. And it’s true. No one is successful in everything they do 100% of the time. It is SO EASY to let a mistake sidetrack you. Believe me, I know! When you make a mistake learn from it, then shake it off and keep going.

7. Prioritize your health, both mental and physical.

This isn’t about positive thinking, but I find it is intimately related to having a positive mental attitude.

Spending time writing is, of course, important but I’ve found that it’s vital to maintain my physical fitness through exercise. If I don’t get enough exercise I feel rundown. Also, it’s easier for me to get sick and if I’m sick then I can’t write.

The problem: exercising takes time that could be spent writing. And that’s painful! But it (for myself at least) is necessary; daily exercise has become a keystone habit, one that helps me lead a more fulfilled life and accomplish my other goals.

That’s it! I’ll talk to you again on Friday. In the meantime, good writing!

Tuesday, January 3

6 Inspirational and Informative Writing Podcasts

I love podcasts! Especially writing podcasts. I first started listening to them because I wanted to make the most of my time.

Because of podcasts, instead of just doing mindless housework I could (for example) dust and learn about how to be a better writer! And what used to be a mind-numbingly boring walk to the store turned into an educational foray into the finer points of publishing.

Basically, podcasts enable me to resurrect dead time. (Sounds deliciously gruesome, doesn't it!)

If you don’t listen to podcasts and suspect those who do are slightly—or perhaps more than slightly!—odd, I think the best way to explain them is by saying they're a bit like radio—if you could determine the content and then listen to the programs on the phone/computer/overlord device you carry with you everywhere.

If you're still on the fence, here's another incentive: podcasts are free! Download a few episodes and see if you like them. If you don't, fine! There's no commitment. If you do, subscribe to the podcast and your app will automatically download new ones as they become available.

To take advantage of this bounty, you will need to download some sort of podcast app. I use the one that came with my phone, helpfully named, "Podcasts." I'm sure there are better options out there! One app I've heard consistently good things about—in fact, because of the research I did for this article I've decided to try it out—is Overcast for iOS (that's NOT an affiliate link). If you're part of the android ecosystem, here's an article for you: 10 best podcast apps for Android.

Okay! You've downloaded your app of choice and are ready to get started. Or perhaps you've been listening to podcasts since they came out. Either way, here are ...

Six writing podcasts I listen to and have found enormously helpful:

1. Writing Excuses

From the website: “If you’re serious about letting Writing Excuses help you become a better writer, listen to one episode, and then stop listening, and start writing. Do the homework! Use the writing prompt.”

I love this podcast because of the back and forth discussion between the writers as well as the many interesting—and occasionally provocative!—points of view discussed. This podcast is educational in a multitude of ways, from going over the finer points of the craft of writing to getting a feel for the larger issues that affect the community.

2. Story Grid Podcast

From the website: “Join Shawn Coyne, author of Story Grid and a top editor for 25+ years, and Tim Grahl, struggling writer, as they discuss the ins and outs of what makes a story great.”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to sit in on a discussion between a senior editor, one who has seen it all, as he shows a newbie the ropes. Excellent podcast.

3. The Creative Penn Podcast with Joanna Penn

From the website: "Podcast episodes will be posted every Monday and will cover interviews, inspiration and information on writing and creativity, publishing options, book marketing and creative entrepreneurship."

Joanna's podcast is inspirational and informative. Through her website and podcast, she has been a wonderful inspiration to me over the years.

4. Authority Self-Publishing

From the website: "Steve Scott is an Amazon bestselling author with over 60 self-published books on habits, productivity, and entrepreneurship. He’s built a consistent six-figure income as an author and now teaches other authors how to create a sustainable business around their books with his course called Authority Pub Academy."

5. The Writership Podcast

From the website: The Writership Podcast, a show focused on helping indie authors master self-editing skills. Come aboard and get ready to find the treasure in your manuscript with hosts Leslie Watts and Clark Chamberlain.

6. Kobo Writing Life Podcast

From the website: “Our main focus is on the craft & business of writing, providing valuable writing & publishing insights from some of the brightest minds in our industry.”

By the way, if you listen to a writing podcast that has helped improve your writing please let me know in a comment.

Friday, December 30

Blake Snyder and the Six Things that Need Fixing

In Save the Cat, Blake Snyder writes:

“The first 10 pages is also where we start to plant every character tic, exhibit every behavior that needs to be addressed later on, and show how and why the hero will need to change in order to win. She's an isolated writer who lives in a make-believe world (Romancing the Stone); he's a hip, slick, and savvy foreign-car importer who's as glib as he is cold (Rain Man); she's a ditzy airhead who doesn't appear to have much substance (Legally Blonde).

“And when there's something that our hero wants or is lacking, this is the place to stick the Six Things That Need Fixing. This is my phrase, six is an arbitrary number, that stands for the laundry list you must show — repeat SHOW — the audience of what is missing in the hero's life. Like little time bombs, these Six Things That Need Fixing, these character tics and flaws, will be exploded later in the script, turned on their heads and cured. They will become running gags and call-backs. We, the audience, must know why they're being called back! Look at Big and its primary set-up: "You have to be this tall to go on this ride." On the list of Six Things That Need Fixing there are other needs besides a height requirement. The kid in Big can't get the girl, have any privacy, etc. But in Act Two he gets all those things when he magically turns Big. And those call-backs only work because we have seen them in the set-up.”

I had heard about this idea of Things that Need Fixing before I read Save the Cat—Dwight V. Swain talks about tags and traits in his book Techniques of the Selling Writer—but I like the way Blake Snyder spells it out.

A Thing that Needs Fixing

1. A tag or trait the protagonist has and wants fixed, or ...
2. A tag or trait the protagonist doesn’t have but wishes he did.
3. Something that needs to be shown in Act One and then ...
4. Used as a running gag or call-back in acts two and three.
5. Resolved in Act Three.

(If you're unfamiliar with a three act structure, see: A Story Structure in Three Acts.)

Let’s look at each of these in turn:

1. A tag or trait the protagonist has and wants fixed.

Blake Snyder mentions Big and that movie does contain terrific examples. The protagonist wants to be taller, wants to be able to talk to girls, wants to have privacy, and so on. During the course of the movie he has each of these desires fulfilled but things don’t turn out quite they way he thought they would. The end result of experiencing these changes is, toward the end of the movie, a renewed appreciation for being a kid.

2. A tag or trait the protagonist doesn’t have but wishes he did.

In The Matrix Neo wants to meet Morpheus and learn the truth about The Matrix. Throughout the rest of the movie Neo has this wish fulfilled on various levels. At the Lock-In he learns, physically, what The Matrix is—it spews his physical body out and, in the process, nearly kills him. At the next level Neo enters The Matrix and learns, in a limited fashion, how to control it. Then, at the end of the movie, Neo transcends the matrix and can alter it in any way he wishes.

3. Something that needs to be shown in Act One and then ...

When the protagonist—or any main character for that matter—is introduced, they are introduced doing something (even if this is just talking to someone), they are introduced with some sort of initial goal, and we give them tags and traits. In this opening scene we somehow manage to show the audience, get them to understand, the protagonist’s deep desires. (Generally a main character will have an internal and external desire, but one will take precedence over the other in the plot.)

4. Used as a running gag or call-back in acts two and three.

In Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones is afraid of snakes. It’s a character tic, and it’s called back in Act Two when he’s thrown into the Well of Souls along with a few hundred snakes.

5. Resolved in Act Three.

Continuing from the last point, Indy’s fear of snakes is never (to my knowledge) resolved, but I wouldn’t want it to be! It is a minor weakness in an otherwise courageous character, something that makes him more human. In Big, though, the protagonist realizes that, despite all the things that irritated him about being a kid, he wants to go back. Now, because of his adventure, he sees himself in a new light.

That’s it! I hope you have have very merry and safe Happy New Year! I’ll talk to you again on Monday. In the meantime, good writing! :-)

Wednesday, December 28

Flash Fiction Writing Prompt: What Scares You The Most? Describe Yourself Confronting It.

Happy Holidays! How was your Christmas? I hope it was filled with love, laughter and great food.

I'm feverishly working on my new book, on track for a soft launch by January 3. SO! Today I thought I would share a writing prompt, something to keep our collective muses happy as we head into the New Year.

The Challenge: In 250 words or less write about:

What scares you the most? Describe yourself confronting it.

That's it! Please share your creative scribblings.

Friday, December 23

Writing a Review

In elementary school I dreaded writing essays. I had no idea how to proceed.

That all changed in high school. I had an amazing teacher who made essay writing understandable, even simple! Here’s the key: the rule of three.

The Rule of Three

This rule dates back to Ancient Greece. Don’t ask me why it works, but it does. For instance, pretty much everything has a beginning, a middle and an end. People, events, stories and even essays.

The Structure of an Essay

Beginning: Say what you’re going to say.

Middle: Say it.

End: Say what you’ve said.

Let’s look at this in more detail. Let’s say you have to write an essay about what makes Gadget1 a better gadget than Gadget2. Breaking this task down:

Beginning

The beginning one or two paragraphs (it depends on how long your essay is) contain your thesis statement. This is your claim, your statement, the idea you are going to argue in favor of. For example, let’s say that you claim:

Gadget1 is better than Gadget2.

Of course this isn’t enough. Why is it better? Just stating that one thing is better than another isn’t going to convince anyone. We need to give reasons. Here again we draw on the rule of three. Here’s the complete thesis statement:

Gadget1 is better than Gadget2 because it costs less, works faster and is more aesthetically appealing.

So, for instance, the opening paragraph might go something like this:

Gadgets are ubiquitous in our society. At this point it’s not possible to get through a normal day without relying on one gadget or another. Two of the gadgets people use most are Gadget1 and Gadget2. Both of these do pretty much the same thing which raises the question: Which is better? After rigorous testing I can definitely say that Gadget1 is better than Gadget2. As we will see, Gadget1 costs less, works faster and is more aesthetically pleasing.

Of course by stating this we’re implying that any gadget that costs less, works faster and is more aesthetically appealing is better. But that’s okay. That’s a defensible claim. If I need to buy a can opener and was presented with two can openers and the first cost less, worked faster and was more aesthetically appealing I would definitely buy it! So, moving on.

Middle

At it’s core an essay is an argument about an issue that isn’t easy to settle. If you and a friend disagree about what year World War II ended, a quick internet search will settle the matter. Why? Because there is a simple, straightforward and universally accepted answer.

In the case of our example, though, it’s not quite so straightforward. Different folks may receive slightly different results from their testing. Different folks may appreciate different things in a gadget. In this sort of question rational people can disagree and in this sense there is no one universally correct answer in the same way as there is for the start and end dates of WWII.

Here, we’re not concerned with coming up with the RIGHT answer, as much as we are interested in coming up with a REASONABLE argument.

So, what are our reasons?

Gadget1 costs less than Gadget2

This is simple and straightforward ... or so it seems! How many stores were surveyed? Was Gadget1 less expensive at every single one? It’s important not to cherry-pick results, mentioning only those that help support the thesis statement. But if, say, the price was checked against that of a major online retailer (*cough* Amazon *cough*) and it was markedly less expensive, that’s significant.

Also, the size of the price saving is significant. Would you save less than 1% of the purchase price by going with Gadget1 as opposed to Gadget2? If so, that’s hardly worth mentioning unless Gadget1 and Gadget2 are very expensive.

Gadget1 works faster than Gadget2

How much faster? 10%? 5%? 1%? Did it ALWAYS work faster or were there certain conditions in which it was slower? Many of the same questions we raised above are relevant here as well.

Gadget1 is more aesthetically pleasing than Gadget2.

So far we’ve talked about fairly objective measures. This one is subjective. That said, you and others have your reasons for feeling one looks better than the other. Give them, be specific, and your readers will likely agree.

End

Summarize what you’ve said. There really isn’t more to it than that.

Depending on the kind of article you’re writing it can be nice to take a chatty informal tone. As with everything, make it your own and try to have fun with it.

Every post I pick a book or audiobook I love and recommend it to you. This serves two purposes. I want to share what I’ve loved with you, and, if you click the link and buy anything over at Amazon within the next 24 hours, Amazon puts a few cents in my tip jar at no cost to you. So, if you click the link, thank you! If not, that’s okay too. I’m thrilled and honored you’ve visited my blog and read my post. :-)

I’ve read and reread The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller, by John Truby. For those of you who are more pantser than plotter, you will find Truby’s books a breath of fresh air. From the blurb: “John Truby is one of the most respected and sought-after story consultants in the film industry, and his students have gone on to pen some of Hollywood's most successful films, including Sleepless in Seattle, Scream, and Shrek. ”

That’s it! Have a wonderful Christmas! I’ll talk to you again on Monday. In the meantime, good writing!

Thursday, December 22

The Structure of Change

The Hero’s Journey and Change

Ages ago Chuck Wendig wrote an article about story structure [1], focusing on the Monomyth. It’s one of my favorite articles on the subject. I bring it up here because of one of the many compelling points he made: each story has its own unique structure.[2]

I agree! 'Breaking' your story and seeing how it compares to a universal structure such as the monomyth can be a terrific way to help writers check whether their plot has gaps, to see if their main characters could be more fully fleshed out, and so on. But it is vitally important to take any talk of universal structure as a guide, a suggestion, and NOT as rules carved into stone.

No one writes a story because they want to manifest a universal structure, the point is for each story to incorporate a CHANGE on a fundamental level. Keep in mind that the idea of a universal structure for a story is an abstraction. It’s like saying the average resident of New York owns 1.2 dogs. The statement is meaningful but we’ll never see 1.2 dogs peeing on a fire hydrant!

Editing

I’ve found it’s often best to save thinking about story structure for the editing process. I need to first let my creative self have it’s way with the story (which, for me, means writing a Zero Draft) and then, when I sit down to transform my Zero Draft into a First Draft, I break the story and to where the plot holes are, where it’s misshapen, and so on.

I find that puzzling out a particular story’s structure is an invaluable editing tool. (Shawn Coyne talks about this in his wonderful book, The Story Grid: What Good Editors Know.)

What do I think about when I’m actually writing a Zero Draft? I think about change. That’s what I try to keep in the front of my mind and (hopefully!) by so doing, incorporate change into the story on a fundamental level.

To sum up. In my view it is important to understand the Monomyth. Not because you’re going to incorporate all—each and every one—of its twists and turns, but because you will, inevitably, incorporate some.

Zero Draft: The Structure of Change

So what does this look like? What is the structure of change?

Most importantly—and Dwight V. Swain and Jack M. Bickham picked up on this in their (wonderful!) books on writing—the protagonist must do something. Which means the protagonist must WANT something. Which means there must be obstacles—both internal and external—that keep the protagonist from achieving what she desires. (After all, if she wanted something then immediately got it, that wouldn’t be interesting!)

In any case, from my recent perusal of scripts, especially TV scripts, most particularly screenplays from Supernatural, here is the story progression that occurs:

Teaser

In the beginning of the story the characters are introduced. The audience sees their pain points, their desires, their flaws, their strengths, and so on. But how does this happen? In TV often the first glimpse we get of the characters is in the teaser.

In the case of Supernatural, a monster attacks someone; sometimes this person is killed, sometimes they are just taken. There is usually darkness, fear and a lot of blood. The Teaser often sets the concrete goal: hunt and kill the monster that did this.

Protagonist’s larger problem

The protagonist has a problem, a thorn in the flesh, something that runs deep, something that can’t be shrugged off. Perhaps she feels responsible for the death of a loved one, perhaps she feels wronged—betrayed—by a loved one and those ill feelings are festering. Often a deep dark secret is involved with the protagonist’s problem, a secret she actively protects for whatever reason. Perhaps the secret is of something embarrassing, perhaps the secret is simply something she wants for her own. Letting go of the secret, opening up about it, is often necessary for true healing.

State the story’s thematic premise

We’ve seen, above, that the protagonist has a problem. Because of this problem he wants something. Granted, this want can be somewhat nebulous (e.g., to be loved, to get justice for the death of a loved one, and so on). This want becomes the theme of the story. For example, in the first episode of Supernatural after the pilot (Wendigo), Sam feels guilt over his girlfriend’s death. In a dream, he visits his girlfriend’s grave and says, “I should have protected you, I should have told you the truth.” He deals with his guilt by throwing himself into his search for her killer. In the process Sam becomes uncharacteristically angry when Dean wants to help folks along the way.

In “Wendigo” the theme was explicitly stated when Dean asks Sam: What are we supposed to do? What does Dad want us to do? The answer: hunt monsters.

In “Skin,” Sam wants to keep in touch with his friends from Stanford but Dean tells Sam that’s just not possible in their line of work; his friends wouldn’t be able to understand what they do or why they do it.

In each of these episodes (Wendigo and Skin), Sam’s desire (and, perhaps, Dean’s reaction to it) sets the theme. Although, again, not every story needs an explicit theme (for example, the episode “Hook Man” isn’t as strongly themed as some of the others).

Have a specific, concrete, goal

Have what the character wants be specific. To solve a specific murder, to win first prize in the pie eating contest, to demonstrate your best friend’s innocence, and so on.

Throw obstacles, internal and external, into the protagonist’s path

An example of an external problem would be: the evil critter locked Sam and Dean in a cell. If they don’t find a way out they will die. An internal obstacle might be that, because of Sam’s guilt over his girlfriend’s death, he’s vulnerable to a certain kind of monster who is attracted to people who carry around a lot of emotional baggage.

Plan

Make it clear how your protagonist’s actions are intended to bring about achieving the concrete goal. The reader may see that what the protagonist is doing is extremely unlikely to yield the result the protagonist wants—other characters in the story may see this as well—but as long as the protagonist is convinced he will (and as long as this conviction makes sense for the character in the context of the story) it's okay.

Stakes

Make it clear how your character's plan could go right as well as how it could go completely, terribly, wrong. In other words, make the stakes clear to the reader. Spell it out. Also, raise the stakes at least twice, preferably three times. And make it clear whenever the stakes are raised. Right before the climax the stakes should be the highest in the story and it should—at least for a moment—seem completely hopeless.

Synthesis

Often the protagonist will overcome his great flaw with the help of synthesis. By this I mean the synthesis of the theme and the B Story.

The synthesis is not something that occurs in every story; it can be tricky to pull off. Sometimes a flaw is just a flaw and the protagonist fails because of it. This failure can work well in a series where another character can save his bacon, giving the protagonist time to work out his issues. In a later story you can have the protagonist finally synthesize the moral from the B Story with the theme and emerge victorious.

If you can setup a satisfying synthesis then, in my opinion, you can construct an ending your readers will love and remember.

Climax

There needs to be an element of finality about this conflict. Perhaps the protagonist and antagonist have fought previously and both walked (or limped, as the case may be!) away, but that’s not possible this time. This time one of them is going down.

Every post I pick a book or audiobook I love and recommend it to you. This serves two purposes. I want to share what I’ve loved with you, and, if you click the link and buy anything over at Amazon within the next 24 hours, Amazon puts a few cents in my tip jar at no cost to you. So, if you click the link, thank you! If not, that’s okay too. I’m thrilled and honored you’ve visited my blog and read my post. :-)

I’ve seen the movie The Big Short (starring Christian Bale and Steve Carell) and loved it so much I wanted to read the book: The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, by Michael Lewis. I have it and it has been on my To Read list for ages. Perhaps that will be one of my New Year's resolutions: read The Big Short! Have you read it? If so, what did you think? Was it as good as the movie? Better?

That’s it!

Notes:

1. NSFW --> 25 Things You Should Know About Story Structure, by Chuck Wendig.

2. Another wonderful point Chuck Wendig made was that structure should adapt to the story, not the other way around. I agree! That’s something I don’t stress enough.

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