 The dreaded sixth grade writing assignment has arrived.
"Write a Story," his teacher said, and Riley dove in excitedly!Okay, you are permitted to ask yourself, "Sixth Grade? Is she kidding?!" Bear with me, I think this will be relavent for adult writers also.
Riley is currently writing an Action-Adventure Novel, so this was the perfect way to see how it was going with the toughest critic he could find...his Language Arts Teacher!
First, he wanted to understand the parameters:
- How long does it need to be?
- When is it due?
- How many drafts will be required and graded?
Okay, as adult authors, our parameters might be a little different, but these actually correlate quite well, since they speak to the two most important elements: deadline and audience.
Understanding the parameters allowed him to sit down and write a three page first draft story/scene from his novel in about an hour, after finishing his math and science homework, of course. Keep in mind, he has not actually started writing his novel, he has only created character profiles in Scrivener. He has written most of his novel in his head, however, which leads to his first tip:
- "Your story starts in your imagination", and it has to live there for a while for you to love it and write it. NaNoWriMo aside, we need to have digested our stories a bit before we actually start writing them, otherwise, we have no framework from which to create something coherent. The longer you live within the world you create, the more you know its possibilities and limitations - but don't die there!
- "Decide how your story talks" by choosing how to start it. Is this first person, third person or narrative? Does it start in the middle of the action, or does someone tell you what they see?
- "Write what you hear, see and smell" when you are in your imagination story write as if you are actually there. This is easy if you also read books in the genre for which you write.
- "Have a beginning, middle and end" that keeps people waiting to see what happens next, and is consistent with the world you created. Don't forget that your characters' actions need to be consistent within that world, too!
These tips may seem elementary, but we all need to come back to the basics when we start getting too hung up on semantics, publishing details, formatting, cover art, day jobs, social media, and our family life.
As for Riley, he got the critique he needed, along with a surprise. He received 100% for his efforts, and the teacher asked if she could read it to the class as an example of how to write a great story! She also asked Riley if she could copy it to share with future sixth grade classes. Riley smiled sheepishly, and said, "Sure."
This 11 year old writer is floating on cloud nine, and motivated to write the rest of the book. We haven't talked about publishing yet, but I'm confident that MommyLoves Publishing will work out a deal!
Do you ever stray from just writing freely from your imagination? If so, what do you do to get yourself back on track? Thanks for sharing your ideas!~Mary Kathryn Johnson
Author ~ Entrepreneur ~ Mom
@SayBumpandTweet
MommyLoves to Chat!
Everything MommyLoves
Say Bump and Take a Left
Okay, if my 10 year old can use this software to write his books, so can you! It's called Scrivener, and it's developed by Literature Latte' so how can it be anything but smooth and satisfying?! You've probably already heard of it from some great authors like Joanna Penn and Stephen Woodfin, but I thought I would add my thoughts.
Since I've only met one author who actually writes linearly - from the beginning to the end of the story - most of us fragmented people who call ourselves authors will find Scrivener very intuitive. Since I'm a Mac user, the Mac version of this software feels very natural. Here are my favorite parts: The Project Templates and Interactive Tutorial
You can always start with a blank page in Scrivener, but that huge white space usually terrifies most writers. No worries, many templates are waiting for your creativity to fill them.
- Fiction has three templates: Novel, Novel (with Parts) and Short Story
- Non-Fiction has seven, from Chicago Style Essay to General to Undergraduate Humanities Essay
- Scriptwriting formats your writing for Radio shows, Screenplays or Stage Plays, but I can't wait to play with the Comic Script template
- Poetry & Lyrics - great for that unique form of writing
- Miscellaneous templates has my next project waiting for me...a Recipe Collection
Whichever template you choose, the formatting is ready for your content. The current Ghost Writing project I'm writing called for the non-fiction template which came formatted with Title Page, Contents, Forward, Chapter folder, Endnotes and Research Folders at the ready. The entire manuscript can be viewed at a glance as note cards on a cork board or written outline form. There are many icons, formatting and organizational options to satisfy my anal-retentive side, and the freedom I crave for my creative side. Ready, Set...Compile!
The compile feature is just like the export feature of Pages on my Mac, only 5 times better...literally! First, you can format your manuscript as the following:
- Ebook
- Outline
- Paperback Novel
- Synopsis
- Proof Copy
- etc.
Then, you can compile your formatted copy into the following:
- Print
- PDF
- Rich Text
- Word
- Plain Text
- ePub (iBooks)
- Mobi (Kindle)
- html (Webpage)
- etc.
I currently have five projects going in Scrivener. That shows you how scattered my mind is. My 10 year old son has two. He's following right along in mom's footsteps.
If you are a writer hoping to be a published author, or a writer who already is published, Scrivener might just be the best tool in your self publishing arsenal. It certainly makes my self publishing life a lot easier!
Happy Writing!
~Mary Kathryn Johnson
Author ~ Entrepreneur ~ Mom
@SayBumpandTweet
MommyLoves to Chat!
Everything MommyLoves
Say Bump and Take a Left
 I have a dear friend who is getting ready to publish her first novel, and I am one of her Beta Readers.
I have been a Beta Tester for a Beta Launch or Beta Version, but a Beta Reader for a novel? What a novel idea - I love it!
If you are ready to self publish, right before you hire an editor, you might seriously want to consider finding some Beta Readers of your manuscript to ensure the best possible success of your hard work. Before you simply go ask Aunt Martha to read your book, and give her your pile of college-ruled, lined paper filled with your one-of-a-kind, handwritten brilliance, here are some things that might make the experience actually worth your (and your Beta Readers') time:
- Choose your Beta Readers carefully - Unless the aforementioned Aunt Martha is a professional copy editor, and can do double duty as editor and Beta Reader, you might want to find five to seven other people who love to read and/or write the type of book you have written. If your audience is primarily one gender, your Beta Readers should be also. Remember, you are asking these people to provide constructive feedback on your baby - make sure you feel their comments will possibly improve your book.
- Provide a format that is both easy and functional for your Beta Readers - I received an Adobe Acrobat version of Clare's book, which allowed me to add my comments by using sticky notes and the like. Joanna Penn, on the other hand, printed a version of her first novel and provided it to her Beta Readers for hand written notes. Whichever you choose, think of the ease of use for your Beta Readers, and be prepared to read your book many times with many comments.
- Give clear instructions and a deadline for your Beta Readers - You are looking for usable feedback, so provide usable instructions. Ask your readers to read as if they themselves bought the book. Have them look for plot/timeline confusion, character concerns, "speed bumps" that make the reader stop and question, factual errors, tone or voice confusion - any comments repeated by two or more Beta Readers tell you that a rewrite of that section is probably wise.
- Be prepared and have a plan for another red pen markup of your perfect baby - Many of us writer-types wed ourselves to passages, dialogue or scenes, and if those are questioned, we fight for our darling tidbits. If only one person questions one of your wedded verses, maybe they just didn't get it, but if two or more people question it...kill it! Which is more important...the success of your novel, or that one brilliant verse?
It is common practice for serious self publishing novelists to ask for feedback before the final stage of publication. Joanna Penn, Self Published Author of two Best-Selling thriller novels and voice of The Creative Penn says Beta Readers are essential to successful publishing. Find Beta Readers and use them wisely; you will be happy you did.Have you used Beta Readers prior to self publishing? How would you characterize the experience - Successful? Painful? Please share ~~Mary Kathryn Johnson
Author ~ Entrepreneur ~ Mom
@SayBumpandTweet
MommyLoves to Chat!
Everything MommyLoves
Say Bump and Take a Left
 “Geez, looking back on draft 1, I can really see how some of the scenes and dialogue were really not going anywhere, but I guess that happens when you write (by) stream of consciousness. I am almost done revisiting your summary report and want to praise you on your expertise. You really pinpointed all the problems and boy, were there a lot.”
These kind words were sent to me by an editing client who wrote the first draft of her first novel by the seat of her pants. She had an awesome idea, wanted to write a book, sat down, and did it. And it is a really cool concept that I look forward to helping her promote once it’s completed. As much as I admire and respect her ability to just go for it without any prior experience, courses taken, or even reading a “how-to” book on writing a novel – this approach did create many challenges: the main one being the amount of loose ends and a lack of a tight, cohesive story where everything has a purpose within the plot. There were other issues, too – but for the purposes of this blog post, I wanted to focus the attention on plot creation.
My client enjoyed writing stream of consciousness and was a little leery at my suggestion of creating an outline for a more structured story. But, I assured her that she didn’t have to choose between writing extraneously versus structured.
“I think as you fine tune your writing skills, you'll be able to utilize your impulse writing with your initial ideas and notes, with a more structured approach to creating the actual manuscript. It's sort of like the difference between planning a trip and just getting in the car and going. Of course, if you decide to just get in and go, it's probably helpful to at least have money and a map.”
Instead of choosing one technique over the other, she could combine the two. How so? By simply beginning her writing projects stream of consciousness. All initial ideas can be written down as they come. No rhyme or reason, just off-shoots of each other. Then, once a specific idea has been chosen, that’s when the gears can be switched to a more structured approach. The idea being that you are constantly going back and forth between these techniques of stream of consciousness for ideas and then structure for bringing those ideas to life within a story.
Here’s a great article by David Carr from The Book Designer website that I recommend for assistance on how to create a story outline. And don’t worry…there are no Roman Numerals involved.
Do you write stream of consciousness, structured, or a combination of the two?
I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject.
--
Andrea Bandle
Writer/Editor, Co-Founder
editor@helpmeselfpublish.com
@HelpMeSelfPub
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