I’ve been doing a lot of writing lately. Another self-help book for my readers and fans. Trying to share the practical, no-nonsense tips that others forget or don’t think to share. My approach being down-to-earth, pragmatic, and helpful (I hope). That which has grown out of my years…no… decades of creating books. Starting from scratch, like you, not knowing the first thing.
So I find myself weary after putting the final touches on this book, just newly released on Amazon.
I frequently go to Charles Bukowski for renewal, for refilling my tanks. Strange but true. So thumbing through my much read copy of The Flash of Lightning Behind the Mountain I came across this:
Did you miss my Interview with Bukowski?
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My weekly BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! October: Life Coach, shaman, author, Jennifer Monahan, November: Susanne O’Leary, December: Mimi Mathews, February: Jennie Goutet To receive my weekly posts sign up for my
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(Some posts deserve another airing. Thought I’d share this again from July, 2013)
Most of the authors that I have interviewed are avid readers like myself. We seem to all agree that is what makes us better writers. I was reading Caroline Leavitt’s, ‘Is This Tomorrow’ and it struck me how very different our writing styles are. Caroline writes pages of beautiful, meaningful description with a few lines of dialogue. Much like Edna Ferber did.
My fiction has tons of dialogue (probably as a result of my being a playwright) and just enough description to set the time, location and who my characters are. I have to repeatedly check myself to make certain that I am giving my readers enough description.
Why am I telling you about this? I need to be sure that you realize that there is no WRONG way. If you tend to write in story telling form, a narrative, that’s great! If, like me, you write a lot of dialogue and let that method tell the reader what your characters are doing, what the weather is like, who just showed up at the house, who she/he is in love with, who died, (well, you get the idea). That’s okay too.
Aspire to write better every day….but don’t worry about your ‘style’, if it turns out that an author you really respect writes differently than you do. It’s a DIFFERENT style but that doesn’t mean that your writing style is wrong. Or that their writing is right. It’s just about style, and what we feel comfortable writing.
If you are more a descriptive writer be certain that you keep your paragraphs short. Don’t ramble on and on in one paragraph. The eye of the reader needs a rest.
And double, triple check your grammar!
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NEWLY RELEASED! I’ve just finished some final editing on my latest “How To…” book and it is now available on Amazon.com and all other book outlets.
I’ve tried to create a handbook that will lead the writer, step-by-step through the self-publishing world. Topics such as picking the right size for your book to advice on choosing a title. Manuscript formatting tips to recommending self-publishing programs. From royalties to creating a dynamic cover for your book. And much, much more.
This book is available at your favorite book store and on-line.
My weekly BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! October: Life Coach, shaman, author, Jennifer Monahan, November: Susanne O’Leary, December: Mimi Mathews, February: Jennie Gautet To receive my weekly posts sign up for my
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We can all agree that historic, Victorian romances are a dime a dozen. Some writers are better than others and the market place doesn’t seem to care. Unless, of course, the reader stumbles upon Jennie Goutet (as I did).
Ms. Goutet writes with an uninterrupted elegant flow. She never drops out of the genre with a more modern turn of phrase or word. The formality of this period deserves a formal treatment when writing the story. It takes great talent to never break the flow, never break the cadence or flavor. And until you have read Jennie Goutet, Grace Burrowes, and Mimi Matthews, the reader will not notice the glaring difference.
Selena Lockhart comes with neither dowry nor connections, and she knows better than to expect Society to give her a welcome—especially after her father gambled away his fortune, precipitating the family’s sudden fall from grace and Selena’s betrothed to break off their engagement. It therefore comes as no surprise that her new neighbor, Sir Lucius, treats her with disdain. Why should he look beyond appearances when her own promises so little?
A Fall From Grace was a speculative purchase on my part, having never read anything by this author. I am so relieved that I didn’t miss this author or this book. I look forward to reading some of her other books, which I have on order.
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My weekly BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! August: Veronica Henry, October: Life Coach, shaman, author, Jennifer Monahan, November: Susanne O’Leary, December: Mimi Mathews, February: Jennie Goutet To receive my weekly posts sign up for my
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In writing my sample of a writing sprint (for this blogging session) it WORKED! I had been ‘resting’ from my creative writing; fiction, scripts, etc., but writing every day, my blog, etc. But after writing a couple of ‘sprints’ I seemed to have kicked aside whatever was holding me back and wrote a short, one act play in less than a week. And returned to an unfinished novel in my true crime series.
If you want extra accountability, start your writing sprint by posting “Starting a 30-minute writing sprint” on one of your social
A new short play
media sites (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook) with the hashtag #writingsprint.
Before you start, double check one last time that you have everything you need to do your writing sprint. Preparation is critical to a successful sprint.
Once you are ready, start your timer. As soon as you start the timer, start writing and don’t stop until the timer stops. Don’t pause to consider word choice. Don’t stop for a sip of water (or wine). That can wait. Don’t think about what to do next (hopefully, you have planned it out earlier, so just implement your plan). It doesn’t matter what you write as much as that you keep your fingers or hands moving and words going down on the page or screen.
You can always edit your writing later. Remember: “Writing is not a calling; it’s a doing.”(t. sugarek)
Stop only when the timer goes off. Then celebrate your successful sprint (and motivate others) by posting your word count achieved on social media and in any group forums if you are participating in an event.
Finally, record your sprinting session to track your progress.
When to Do a Writing Sprint
There are certain times where writing sprints can be extremely useful.
• When you have writer’s block
• When you only have a limited amount of time to write
• When you want to increase your writing speed
• When you want to reach a specific word count goal by a specific time
• When you want to break out of editing mode
There is no right way or wrong way to do writing sprints. So you can’t write 500 words in fifteen minutes. So what? Just do your best. Stop over thinking it and just write as fast and furiously as you can. Put words down and see what happens. That blank page isn’t going to fill up by itself.
Did you miss Part I of this post?
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My weekly BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! August: Veronica Henry, October: Life Coach, shaman, author, Jennifer Monahan, November: Susanne O’Leary, December: Mimi Mathews To receive my weekly posts sign up for my
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Writing sprints are timed writing sessions of usually 15-60 minutes where writers try to achieve a specific word count or write as many words as possible. Just like running sprints, writing sprints aim to maximize results in minimal time.
We are going to explore exactly how to do just that…every time.
Why Writers Do Writing Sprints
There are many reasons why a writer might conduct a writing sprint. But the most helpful is to cure writer’s block.
A writing sprint can be an effective way to break out of a writing slump. Writing sprints, with their focus on high intensity pace and word count over quality, can be just the kickstart a writer needs to shatter writer’s block.
Ok, that’s all well and good, but how do you actually do a writing sprint?
Start by deciding whether you want to do a writing sprint alone or as part of an event with other writers. Solo sprints are more flexible because you only have yourself to think about, but tandem sprints or group sprints can be incredibly motivating and fun.
Select a writing goal, usually a set word count or number of pages if you want to complete. Usually this number is between 500 and (gulp) 1,000 words.
Next, choose a time limit between 15 and 60 minutes. Obviously, make sure the time limit is reasonable for the goal! You don’t want your hand to fall off.
If possible, remove all distractions. Choose a quiet place to conduct your sprint so you won’t be disturbed or interrupted by noise or other people. (Of course, some writers thrive off ambient coffee shop sounds or music, so do whatever works best for you!)
Prepare your writing tools. Gather your pencils, pens, paper, timer, laptop, writing software or apps, etc. It’s a good idea to have backup writing tools and to ensure that your computer is fully charged with a charging cable available in case you need it.
If you are using a timing device like an egg timer, get that ready and ensure that it is fully charged or has batteries with backup batteries available. Make a writing plan. Either have a prompt (or series of prompts) ready or create an outline for the scene, chapter or sequence you want to write. A little bit of preplanning can make all the difference in your pace during a sprint.
Choose a time of day when you know that you will have high energy and few distractions. Some writers write best in the mornings, others do better at night. If you have a choice, pick the optimum time for your sprinting.
Following is a sample of my own writing sprint. Four hundred words in 15 minutes. I used only one punctuation, the period. As I intended to use an edited version of this in my current book-in-progress, I threw in quote marks out of habit. A habit hard to break.
Detective Phoebe Sneed knew she had one shot to make people believe that she was under age, no more than seventeen. These men liked ‘em young if reports were to be believed. She put on her big eyed innocent look and walked through the door of the mansion. She heard music coming from somewhere in the back of the house. She found a hallway leading back of the house and walked down it. the music intensifying. Stepping through a doorway, she entered what looked like a small ballroom. Some furniture bordered the walls leaving a sizable space for dancing. The girl she met last night rushed up to her. “Where’d you go last night?” You disappeared.” Phoebe sighed and pouted, “I got sick. I ate at a bodega for lunch and it hit me. Something must have been bad.” “Well, come join the party. I told Geoff all about ya. He wants to meet you. He’s fond of brunettes. How old are ya, did you say?” “I’m sixteen.”. Phoebe waited for the incongruitous laughter but the girl just nodded and grabbed her by the wrist. Pulling her onto the dance floor, she began to gyrate in front of Phoebe and they joined the dancers. Meanwhile, a small knot of middle-aged men stood in a corner watching the young dancers. It was reputed that Geoff Wexstein collected princes, politicians,
Tune in tomorrow for the conclusion. In the meantime try your own writing sprint.
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It’s that time of year….Auld Lang Syne and as the poet, Robbie Burns wrote, “old long since”. And I’m in the mood to tell a story.
Mother, Violet, on right, circa 1922?
In a very ‘Auld Lang Syne’ kind of mood, I remembered things from my long ago youth at holiday time. Especially my mother’s traditions in the kitchen. Christmas dinner was a big stuffed turkey with all, and I do mean all, the trimmings. Dinner began with a ‘shrimp cocktail’. If there was fresh shrimp (there had to have been; we lived in the Pacific Northwest for goodness sakes); my mother had never heard of them. Canned shrimp filled two third’s of a martini glass, topped with her homemade cocktail sauce. A sprig of parsley on top and the glass was then placed on a paper doily covered saucer. On the saucer was ONE, (never two or three) Ritz cracker.
The sage, giblet stuffing, made from scratch and that means my mother saved the heels of bread loaves for weeks. I’ve never tasted dressing as good since. She would make the usual trimmings, gravy from the turkey drippings, green beans (out of a can, of course) flavored with bits of boiled bacon, baked sweet potatoes, and jellied cranberry sauce. She considered whole berry cranberry sauce savage. Home made biscuits and mashed potatoes. And then the pièce de résistance………..her oyster dressing. (Fresh oysters) Heaven in a bite!
Mom & me
Not being a particularly religious family the blessing was be short. If my Dad could get away with it, he would add: “Pass the spuds, pass the meat, for
Godssakes, let’s eat.” We would toast each other with Manischewitz wine. A wine connoisseur Mom was not! And I never knew why a Kosher red wine was part of her tradition.
As dishes were passed around the table, someone would always mention my mother’s off colored joke about a “boarding house reach“. A stickler for good manners, she would instruct us that a ‘boarding house reach’ was when you could ‘reach’ for something on the table and at least one butt cheek remained on your chair. That was an acceptable ‘reach’ and not bad manners. Otherwise, you must ask politely for someone to pass down the dish you wanted.
the flapper days
I was never certain whether she had run a boarding house or had just lived in one sometime during her 1920’s flapper*bar owner*professional bowler* speckled younger days. If she had run a bordello it would not have surprised me! Miss you, Mom!
My weekly BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! August: Veronica Henry, October: Life Coach, shaman, author, Jennifer Monahan, November: Susanne O’Leary, December: Mimi Mathews To receive my weekly posts sign up for my
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Catherine Ryan Hyde’s brilliance as a story teller knows no bounds. In Boy Underground she creates wonderful characters that the reader loves
and cheers for by page three. Secondary characters shine with believability. While the reader may hate some of them, Hyde gives the reader some insight to why they are such terrible parents, friends, and classmates. Dross and riffraff of a small town.
While weaving this wonderful story about four high school misfits, Hyde brings forth a time in America’s history that should drip with shame for all of us. Woven through this fiction is non-fiction history about social norms and the betrayal of US citizens, on so many levels.
(Note: This is as much as I am willing to say about the story to avoid, as I do, spoiler alerts.)
This book is a must for your library; to read and read again and then to keep on the shelf that holds your most treasured books.
Now available at your favorite book store.
Did you see my Interview with Catherine Ryan Hyde?
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My weekly BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! August: Veronica Henry, October: Life Coach, shaman, author, Jennifer Monahan, November: Susanne O’Leary, December: Mimi Mathews To receive my weekly posts sign up for my
On the home page, enter your email address. Thanks!
Q. What comes first to you? The Characters or the Situation?
MM. Both. The ideas for my novels usually start with a single disconnected scene. I imagine the characters in a specific situation. That scene helps me to understand them and their motivations, but it also helps me to understand the goal of my story as a whole.
Q. Do you ‘get lost’ in your writing?
MM. At the best of times, yes, when the words are flowing and the story is unfolding without too much mental anguish on my part. It’s one of the primary reasons I write. Because of my spine injury, I suffer a lot from pain. When I’m lost in a story, I can forget the pain, at least temporarily. For that reason alone, writing is incredibly therapeutic for me.
Q. Are you working on something now or have a new release coming up? If so tell us about it.
MM. I’m really excited about my upcoming January release, The Siren of Sussex. Set in Victorian London, it features Ahmad Malik, the half-Indian tailor from my Parish Orphans of Devon series, and Evelyn Maltravers, a bluestocking equestrienne who hires him to make her daring riding habits. Siren is the first in a new series I’m writing for Berkley/Penguin Random House. It will be out on January 11th.
Q. When did you begin to write seriously?
MM. I wrote my first novel at thirteen. At eighteen, that novel got me my first literary agent. That novel didn’t sell, nor did the next one I wrote. After that, I took a very long break from writing fiction while I went to college and law school, traveled a bit, and did some other exciting things. It was only my spine injury that brought me back to writing fiction again.
Jet trying to find the delete button
Q. Do you think we will see, in our lifetime, the total demise of paper books?
MM. Gosh, I hope not. I love the look, feel, and smell of books—both old books and new ones.
Q. What makes a writer great?
MM. I love an author who can tell a compelling story that grabs hold of you from the start and won’t let you go. Beautiful prose is a bonus.
Q. and the all-important: What does the process of going from “no book” to “finished book” look like for you?
MM. For me, the process involves lots of work and lots of writerly angst. It usually starts with me loving my characters and ends with me being sick to death of them. Seriously, by the time a book is finished, I’ve reread it so many times I can’t take it anymore. Hopefully, all those rereads and revisions result in a polished story that my readers are going to love.
Q. How has your life experiences influenced your writing?
MM. My own experience with a life altering injury has a huge impact on the stories I tell. I write a lot about people who are experiencing similar life altering circumstances—a devastating loss, a debilitating physical injury, or a change in fortune. My characters have to work through these situations, to adapt and grow in order to ultimately find happiness again.
Stella
Q. What’s your down time look like?
MM. I’m terrible at down time. My laptop is often open on my lap, even when my family is watching a movie. Shutting off technology and learning to relax is something I’m struggling to get better at.
Q. Have you or do you want to write in another genre`?
A. Yes! I recently indulged the urge to write a Victorian gothic vampire novel. I had so much fun. Not sure I’d do it again, but I loved that I could—and that some of my readers even enjoyed it.
Q. Note to Self: (a life lesson you’ve learned.)
MM. Be kind, both to other people and to yourself.
Did you miss Part I of our interview with Mimi Matthews?
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My weekly BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! August: Veronica Henry, October: Life Coach, shaman, author, Jennifer Monahan, November: Susanne O’Leary, December: Mimi Mathews To receive my weekly posts sign up for my
On the home page, enter your email address. Thanks!
This beautiful journal/handbook is now available in Hardcover. Here’s a little of what you can expect inside. Plus hundreds of blank pages for your own writings and plans for a stage play.
1. Format is very important. If you submit your new play to anyone they will not read it if it is not in the proper format. There is software out there that offer auto-format but I found them lacking. The character’s name is centered. Blocking (action) is indented and placed in parentheses. Setting (indent once), Rise (indent once) and Dialogue is far left. Double space between character’s name and first line of dialogue. Blocking (action): is placed below the character’s name in parentheses. (indent x 3). A ‘beat’ is a dramatic pause to enhance the pace of the speech and is placed in the dialogue where you wish the actor to pause for a beat or two.
2. Each page represents approximately one minute of time on stage. So if you have a play that is 200 pages long, that won’t work. Audiences aren’t going to sit for more than one and a half hours unless you are providing a circus, a fire drill, sex, and an earthquake. You should keep your full length script to about 100 pages which equals 1.6 hours of stage time. For a one act divide that by 2. For a ten minute play your script should be from 10-15 pages. These times and figures are debated by others but this has been my experience as an actor/director/writer.
3. Leave lots of white space on the page. One day when your play is being produced, actors will need a place to make notes in the script during rehearsal. This is a sample of an actor’s (mine) working script. The
actor usually ‘highlights’ their lines and writes the director’s blocking in the margins. (in pencil, as blocking frequently changes)
4. The blocking is indented, in parentheses, and directly below the character’s name. This is where the playwright gives the characters instructions on when and where to move. But, keep it short and sweet. Remember there will be a director who has their own ideas of where he/she wants their actors to be. Be aware of costume changes in your writing. An actor can’t exit stage left and enter stage right, seconds later, if you haven’t written in the time it will take for them to accomplish a costume change.
5. Your script has to work on a stage. If your story takes place in more than one locale, you have to be aware of the logistics of set changes. So keep it simple to start. If you are ambitious in your setting buy a book on set design to research if your set is feasible. There are some wonderful ‘envelope’ sets that unfold when you need to change the scene. But you have to consider the budget; would a theatre have the money to build it? Always a worry.
6. Dialogue: Now here’s the sometimes hard part: everything you want the audience to know about the story and the characters, is
conveyed in the dialogue. Unlike a short story or a novel, where you can write as much description as you’d like, a play script has none of that. NO description.
Here is a Sample of formatting your script correctly. (Click link for details.)
Journal includes instruction on:
How To Begin How to Write a Play
Formatting your Play on the Page
How to write Dialogue
How to Create Rich, Exciting Characters
Designing a Set
Stage Lighting Stage Terminology
and more….. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My weekly BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! August: Veronica Henry, October: Life Coach, shaman, author, Jennifer Monahan, November: Susanne O’Leary, December: Mimi Mathews To receive my weekly posts sign up for my
On the home page, enter your email address. Thanks!
The radio and then the rain comes down glorious and violent,
