Tag: Writing tips

How to Hook Readers into Your Story

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If you’ve ever gone fishing (I admit I have not), you usually need something to lure your catch, such as a worm. You need to do the same for readers (minus the worm). Author K.M. Weiland describes it best:

“Unless you hook readers into your story from the very first chapter, they won’t swim in deep enough to experience the rest of your rousing adventure, no matter how amazing it is.”

Hooks are used to get reactions from readers and entice them to ask questions about what’s happening on the page. There’s some suspense connected with hooks too because they hint at the action to come, prompting readers to keep reading.  

A recent webinar by Contemporary Romance Writers outlined the most common types of hooks. I’ve described a few of them below.

1. Show some action – The easiest way to hook readers is by engaging characters in some type of action. That doesn’t mean it has to be violent or mysterious, like a car chase. But something should be happening on the page. Maybe someone is cleaning out the attic and finds an old diary. Or the character is baking a cake to prepare for a wedding. Or someone else is in the middle of a presentation to their work colleagues. Avoid cliches such as waking up from a dream or a description of the weather because frankly, they’re overused and boring, and do nothing to engage readers. And that’s the ultimate goal of a hook.

2. Introduce a unique character – Introduce a character with unique characteristics. It typically is the protagonist but not always. Show how that person is different. Do they have a unique job or hobby, or unique skills, like seeing dead people? Do they have an odd habit, like being perpetually late for appointments. Or maybe your character is like John Singer, the deaf-mute man featured in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers, who befriends the lonely people in a small town while struggling with his own feelings of loneliness.

3. Form an emotional connection – Try reading the opening pages from several of your favorite books. Do they make you feel any specific emotion, such as sadness, anger or guilt? Does the action make you feel anxious for the character because they might be in danger? Establishing an emotional connection with readers will ensure that readers stay engaged and will follow along on the character’s journey.

4. Pose a question – Sometimes the hook may come in the form of a formally asked question: “Why did I think I could get away from this?” (That’s not a real opening hook; I just made that one up.) Readers will want to know who the narrator is and what they were trying to get away with. The most important question readers will have though is something they ask themselves:  “What happens next?” As long as they keep asking that question, they’ll keep reading to get the answer.

5. Share a surprising or shocking dialogue – Opening scenes may feature a conversation between people, but the subject or tone may be shocking. For example, in Nutshell by Ian McEwan, a married pregnant woman and her lover discuss plans to murder her husband, and every word is overheard by the woman’s unborn child, who narrates the story. Who wouldn’t want to keep reading to know more about what happens next?

6. Include humor – Making readers laugh from your opening scene is another great way to hook them into your story. Humor can be found in the way a character behaves or in a witty exchange. In the opening scene of The Love of My Afterlife by Kristy Greenwood, the young protagonist chokes on a piece of bread and is convinced she is about to die. Her mind goes into overdrive with assorted worries and fears, some quite irrational, but Greenwood does it in such a way that makes you laugh out loud. When done well, adding humor can suffuse any tension. 

7. Foreshadowing – The hook may hint at some sort of conflict or action that will take place  later. For example, in the opening prologue in The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn, a mysterious stranger looks on from a distance as Eleanor Roosevelt welcomes a Russian sniper to the White House. The stranger is clearly angry, and readers sense that a confrontation will occur at some point between him and the sniper, which entices them to keep reading.

8. Describe a surprising situation – One thing all these hooks I’ve discussed have in common is the element of surprise. Something surprising or unexpected occurs in the opening scene from the overheard dialogue to someone choking on a cheap hamburger. Its impact is to jolt readers to attention, and ask the question, “What happens next?”

I’ll add one more hook to this list, courtesy of the experts at Master Class. The title of your story serves is the earliest opportunity to grab readers’ attention. It serves as a “mini-hook” using “emotionally loaded language or surprising combinations of words to hint at the story within its pages.” Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets offers a clear hook. You know right away from the title who the story is about and what they’ll be looking for. 

Hooking readers doesn’t end with the opening scene. You need to keep hooking them throughout the novel. Thriller authors are adept at doing this. One technique often used is to introduce a new question every time the previous one is answered. Also try opening each chapter with a teaser – some action, dialogue, an intriguing new character – much like you do to start your story. That keeps readers engaged until the end. 

Your story and its genre will dictate what kind of hook will work best. Experiment and see what works. As long as you keep the action moving, readers will ride along on the journey until they get to The End.

Building Your Story From First Line to First Draft

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No doubt you’ve heard about the importance of the firsts in writing—the first line, the first paragraph, the first page, the first scene, the first draft. Each “first” has its own role to perform. It must contain certain elements for the story to work, just like pieces of a giant puzzle. Every element must fit together.

Why are they important? How can you make them as compelling as possible so your manuscript doesn’t end up in the editor’s slush pile? Here’s what you need to know about each of these “firsts” to readers, agents and editors won’t stop reading.

The first line

There is some debate about the importance of the opening sentence. Some say it has to grab the reader from the get-go and hint at the conflict to come. Others say it’s more important to focus on the first paragraph which gives readers more information about what’s to come.  

“The first sentence alone doesn’t give readers enough information or the writer enough room. The paragraph gives enough room and direction to write your book,” says John Matthew Fox in a guest post on JaneFriedman.com.

I’m inclined to agree with Fox. I’ve read a few doozies of opening lines for some wonderful stories, but most of the time, opening lines are rather lackluster. I still kept reading anyway, and the stories were just as readable.

I see the first sentence as the first blow of a balloon. You won’t see much result from your effort of blowing, but with sustained effort, that first line serves as the starting point for something bigger.

The first paragraph

The first paragraph should make a strong first impression, stronger even than the first line. It should give readers enough information about the story to decide if they want to keep reading.

John Matthew Fox says opening paragraphs contain four critical elements:

  • Characterization – Readers need to learn something about the main character. It could be a dilemma they’re grappling with, some deep emotion they’re feeling or some puzzle they’re trying to solve. Readers need to know something about them that makes them relate to the character, or makes them want to root for them in the story.
  • Energy/tone – The first paragraph should bring a certain energy to the story. A rom-com, for example, will be written with a light-hearted tone, while a horror story might have a darker, creepier tone
  • Mystery or conflict – The opening paragraph should hint at some question or conflict that needs to be resolved. For example, why a complete stranger is watching someone else from a distance.
  • Emotion – Finally, the first paragraph should exude some emotion to hook the reader, whether that’s fear, grief or disappointment.  


The first page

At an average length of 250 to 300 words, the opening page has to do a lot of things in a short amount of time to kick the story into high gear. It’s the heavy lifter of all the firsts.

In a recent weekly newsletter, Karyn Fischer of Story & Prose outlines the common elements of the first page.

* Character and desire – What does the character want? The first paragraph might have hinted at this, but the opening page goes into more depth.
* Conflict and stakes – What or who opposes the main character in getting what they want?  * Voice – Fischer says it’s often difficult to pinpoint voice, but you might detect it through the way they speak or think. Does their voice sound true to life?
*Setting and world-building – The first page should give readers a sense of where they are in the story. Perhaps it’s a birthday party in someone’s home, the site of a car accident or a courtroom. Don’t overload the story with setting details, but sprinkle them throughout to give a sense of time and place.
* Action – Make sure the character is doing something, whether it’s baking a cake or being chased by thieves.
* Genre – Depending on the genre, the opening page should hint at the type of story people are reading. In historical fiction, for example, the first page might have visual cues that show time and place.

First scene/first chapter

I’ve combined the first scene and chapter into one section for a couple of reasons. First, they consist of the same elements and strive to accomplish the same goals. Second, a chapter may consist of a single scene, or several.

While the first page does a lot of work to prepare readers for what’s next in the story, the first scene or chapter ramps up the effort. In addition to doing what the first page does, the first scene or chapter does more, such as:

* Introduce other compelling characters that will either support or antagonize the main character.
* It grounds the reader into the story, providing more details about what the protagonist is dealing with.
* It continues to build on the tone established in the first page.
* It provides the hook that will keep readers turning the page.
* Depending on the story, the first chapter (not necessarily the first scene) should contain the inciting incident, the situation that gets the story moving.

By the end of the first scene or chapter, readers should know enough about the main character and their plight to determine if they like the character and empathize with their situation. If readers don’t find anything to like about the character, it’s likely they’ll give up on the story.

First 50 pages

The first 50 pages are important because it’s those pages that many editors and agents will review to determine if it’s worth reading—and publishing. It’s also a litmus test for readers. If the story loses its steam, readers will lose interest before they get to that 50-page mark. More specifically, the first 50 pages:

* Give readers, agents and editors an impression of your writing style.
* Includes the inciting incident and shows the raising of the stakes
* Shows the initial progress in the protagonist’s character arc. How will they grow or progress as the story moves forward?

First draft

When you finish writing your first draft, you might think your work is done. But it’s only just starting. The editing and rewriting process is where the real creativity begins, experts suggest.

The first draft, in all its messy glory, should contain the spine of the story—namely the who, what, when, where, why and how. It has three main goals:

* Helps you get all your ideas down on paper, from characters and their backstory to setting and dialogue.
* It helps you lay out the major plot points.
* It provides a road map for how to proceed during the revision process.  

If all goes well at each of these “first” elements, then it’s only a matter of time before you enjoy the next first in your professional writing life—publishing your first book.

Neither a Plotter Nor a Pantser? Try Becoming a Puzzler

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Writers usually fall into one of two categories: the plotter or the pantser.

Plotters prefer to plan out every aspect of their stories ahead of time, from the setting, character, theme, structure. They will plot out every scene from the opening paragraph to the final resolution. They have to know every detail in advance before starting to write. Plotting allows writers to view their story from all detailed angles. They know exactly what they want to write before writing it.

I’ve tried this plotting approach once before early in my fiction writing. It was the first story I attempted to write. I quickly gave up on it because I found it limiting. My plotting didn’t allow for new characters to show up, and I struggled to find the right place in the story for new scenes as I thought of them.

Still there are plenty of authors who have plotted their way to success. Fantasy author K.M. Weiland is a big proponent of outlining and story structure, and goes into a deep dive on these subjects on her blog. She’s also written several books about plotting if you want to learn more.

One disadvantage I see is the extra time it takes to get the details “just right.” It can take the wind out of your creative sails too. By the time you’re done plotting, you could lose interest in your story because you feel you’ve already written it in plotting form.

But not every writer works that way.

Then there are the pantsers . . .
I always believed I was a pantser, also known as a discovery writer, because I enjoyed discovering my story as I wrote. With only a vague sense of main characters and a few scene ideas, pantsers tend to begin writing if only to see where the story takes them, or whether there’s a story at all.

The advantage of writing by the “seat of your pants” is that it gives the imagination free rein. The story, without the limits of plotting, can go in a multitude of directions, and it can be fun to discover new characters and settings that you didn’t think of initially. Writers feel free to explore their story world without the limitations of a set of rules or structure.

The downside, however, is that by the end of the drafting phase, what writers have is a ton of material with no cohesiveness between scenes, characters or plot. That only makes the editing phase much harder because there’s so much material to dig through, and much of it will land on the cutting room floor anyway. As I quickly learned, pantsers usually have to do several rewrites to get the story to where you want it to be, which can be a drain on time and energy, not to mention patience.

What if you’re neither a pantser nor a plotter – or you’re a little of both?
While I’ve experimented with both of these approaches, I realized that I don’t fit neatly in either one. While I love exploring plots and characters organically, I also recognize that I need to plot my story to some extent so I know where it’s going. Otherwise, I’m only spinning my wheels, editing and rewriting sections until they feel right.

Enter Puzzling.

The Novel Smithy Lewis Jorstad explains that puzzling works by bringing elements of plotting and pantsing together.  For example, perhaps you have a brilliant story concept and can visualize several scenes in your mind, have a rough idea of characters and an inkling of how it will end. Using index cards or post-it notes, jot down each individual scene – one idea per card. You may not think of every scene right off the bat. You may only have three or four scenes to start. But that’s okay. What you are doing is creating a puzzle with various pieces that will eventually fit together. This is the discovery part.

Once you have a collection of scenes on index cards (or post-it notes), spread them all out on a table or tape to the wall so you can see them all at a glance. Then rearrange them in the order you think they should go. This is the plotting aspect.

Once the cards are in some story order, review them again. Note if there are any gaps in the sequence. Wherever there is a gap, insert a card indicating a scene to come.

The advantage to puzzling is that it allows you to generate scenes on the go. You don’t have to think of every scene before writing. You can write the scenes you do know, knowing the rest will come eventually. You don’t have to follow any structural rules.

Even while drafting, you may still come up with new scenes. When that happens, jot them down on a card and insert them where you think they might fit in the story. You can add or delete scenes and change the order of them as you go along. It gives you more control and flexibility than a straight plotting structure, which can be limiting to those who want to give their imagination free rein.

Another benefit is the ability to review your story at a glance scene-by-scene and make adjustments to the timeline. You can also identify which scenes are the key plot points of your novel.  I suspect this approach results in fewer rewrites.

Are there any downsides? So far, I haven’t found any, though I just started working with it for my current work in progress. In the short time I’ve been using this puzzler approach, I’ve learned a few things:

  1. It has helped me maintain my interest in the story. With previous approaches, I’ve invariably lost interest in my manuscript and given up on it, or got lost in the muddling middle.
  2. It allows me to assess my scene sequence and rearrange them as I see fit, without  having to rewrite anything.
  3. It helps me stay focused on one scene at a time. With one scene per card, I know what I’m writing next and I’m not left staring at a blank screen. The cards give me a clue and keep me on track.

    If you’ve tried plotting or pantsing, and they haven’t provided the results you want, give puzzling a try. You may find that being a puzzler makes you a more productive writer.  

Dictate Your Way to Publishing Success

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Writers are always looking for ways to work smarter and get more done in less time.

Enter dictation.

When I think of dictation, I think of the old-school way of recording correspondence back in the 1980s. Managers would dictate letters and other correspondence in a recorder with a tiny cassette, then their secretaries would play it back to transcribe them.

Fortunately, as technology evolved, so did dictation and transcription tools, making it easier for writers to draft larger projects, like full-length novels. Several well-known authors routinely used dictation to help them draft their novel, including Dan Brown, Henry James, Barbara Cartland, and Agatha Christie. TV executive Sidney Sheldon reportedly dictated novels for several hours in the morning and then had his secretary transcribe them later.

I must confess I have never used dictation to draft any of my own stories, but I know that option is available. You can’t overlook its value to authors. While writing 1200 words can take a couple of hours, with dictation, it takes roughly 30 minutes.

Sarah Elizabeth Sawyer of FictionCourses.com who writes Native American historical fiction, also teaches courses about dictation. Of her 19 published books, at least 10 have been created by dictation.

Sawyer cites several benefits:

* Improved health – With dictions, there’s less strain on the eyes, back and shoulder.
* Better time management – You can dictate while waiting for appointments or walking the dog.
* Improved speaking skills – With practice, you speak more confidently which helps prepare you for author readings.
* Experiment with character voices – You can test out character voices with accents and dialects, and inject personality into their voices.

Users have noted several blocks to getting started with dictation. Some said the practice just didn’t work for them or they felt their brain didn’t operate that way. Others cited the cost of dictation software, although there are plenty of free options available, or the software was difficult to use. Still others said they drew a blank when they pressed the record button.

There are other downsides, such as messy punctuation. That only means you have to be prepared to review and edit the drafted material more carefully afterwards. The software may not recognize unusual spellings and pronunciations of character and location names, especially those you might find in science fiction and fantasy novels. Like any new skills, there’s a learning curve before you’re able to do it well.

Still if you have the patience and determination to try to produce creative work in less time, dictation might be worth a try. But which software and apps work best? Do you need any special equipment?

Jason Hamilton at Kindlepreneur shared the best dictation tools, giving the pros and cons of each.

  • Dragon – By far, Dragon software performed the best though the cost may put off many potential users. The Professional Individual version cost $500 while the Home version is $200.  
  • Windows Speech Recognition – free option that comes with most Windows computers
  • Apple Dictation – a free option for Mac users
  • Google Docs Voice – a free option with the power of Google
  • Otter.ai – a free trial is available for new users. I’ve heard mixed reviews on whether this works for long form documents like novels. That said, I have used it for transcribing notes from interviews.

No matter where you are in your writing process or what kind of projects you work on, any tool that can help you produce more words in less time is worth checking out.

Story Starter Scenes Can Spark Creative Storytelling

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Ever have a scene idea strike you from out of the blue and get stuck in your head, but you’re not sure what to do with it? You’re sure that it’s a brilliant idea because you’ve never seen it in any book before. No matter how hard you try, the idea sits with you, often for days, weeks or even months. Yet you can’t seem to settle on a story around it. Nor does it fit any of your current works-in-progress.

What you’ve got is a story starter. Some say a story starter is a type of writing prompt, something to get your imagination “started.” In a recent post at Writer’s Digest, author Andrew Welsh-Huggins describes a story starter as a “lightning bolt of inspiration.”  

“The fun thing about a story starter scene is the freshness it brings to the creative process; so much more invigorating than staring at a blank page yearning for inspiration. The challenge is following up on that novelty,” Welsh-Huggins says.

I know what he’s talking about. I’ve had a story starter scene stuck in my mind since at least 2018. The scene features a woman who wakes on the morning of her birthday and sees the face of her deceased mother in the bathroom mirror.

I know there’s a story behind this scene somewhere, but for months I couldn’t figure out what it was. Since that image began haunting me (pun somewhat intended), I’ve played with different plot lines. The first novel I tried to write with that scene changed so much after several revisions that the scene no longer seemed appropriate. I set the scene aside, but never dismissed it.

Lesson learned: Never, ever dismiss a story starter idea. When a new plot idea inspired me last fall, I knew I had found the right place for my story starter scene.   

What Welsh-Huggins shared and what I’ve learned shows that these random scenes from out of the blue can serve as the impetus for creative story telling in ways you can’t imagine.

Here are a few of my tips for using these random story starter scenes especially when the right novel concept is nowhere in sight.  

* Keep a notebook of writing ideas. You should be doing this anyway for all of your novel and short story concepts. When you get that image of a particular scene and you can’t get it out of your head, write it down in that notebook. Write out the scene as you see it in your mind, describing every detail and nuance and emotion. Even if you do nothing more with the written scene at that moment, getting it down on paper will help you remember the details later when you need them. You can always refer back to your written scene later when you begin a new project to see if there’s a place for it.

* Review current works of your own or any manuscripts that are tucked away in a desk drawer to see if the story starter scene might work in any of them.

* Draft a short story around that story starter scene. Starting with a smaller writing project might spark other scenes or evolve into a larger, full-length novel.

* Brainstorm possible scenarios and actions that could be happening in your story starter scene. For example, let’s say you keep imagining a man sitting down to play the piano in an auditorium, but realizes suddenly that he cannot play. Create a bullet point list for each of the following details:

  • Who is the man? A musician? A piano tuner? A building custodian with a hidden talent?
  • Why is the man on the stage? Is he supposed to perform? Is he fixing the piano? Is he pretending to be a prolific musician?
  • Why can’t he play? Maybe he doesn’t know how. Perhaps he has amnesia or some other illness or has a physical ailment, like arthritis. Let your imagination fly.  

    The next time a story starter scene strikes you from out of the blue, don’t dismiss it. It can be the start of something fresh and unique.

Helpful Websites and Resources for Writers

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If you read my blog, you’re likely embarking on a writing journey, whether it’s toward publishing success or simply trying to finish your first draft. Wherever you are on your journey, there’s plenty of help and advice from writing and publishing professionals. We’re all here to learn from one another.

Over the years I’ve followed numerous writers and editors to understand how to navigate the publishing world. Even though I’ve learned a lot since my own journey began, I still turn to the experts for guidance whenever I feel stuck.

I’ve compiled a list of my favorite experts which I follow regularly on social media or subscribe to their newsletters. No doubt you’ve heard of most of them or even already follow them. If you haven’t, feel free to check them out to see what they offer. Every little bit of advice helps, and reminds us that in our solo writing journeys, we’re never completely alone.

Jane Friedman (www.janefriedman.com). Jane is a former editor at Writer’s Digest, so she is well connected in the publishing industry and has a good, strong handle on the latest trends and news. While she writes some of the posts on her blog, most posts are provided by regular contributors such as Tiffany Yates Martin and Allison K. Williams. Best of all, she hosts numerous online workshops at reasonable prices, some as low at $25.

Janice Hardy (www.janicehardy.com). Janice is another writer I follow regularly. She’s an award-winning author of teen fantasy books as well as the Grace Harper urban fantasy series for adults. She has also published several non-fiction books about writing, revising and plotting. Sign up for her newsletter, and you’ll get something in your inbox every day, from writing tips to guest posts. 

K.M. Weiland (https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/). If you want a deep dive into plotting, story structure and character arcs, Weiland’s website and newsletter is the place to go. Her specialty is archetypal characters, which may be more detailed that you might need for your own writing projects, but they might be worth a look to see if her insights work for you.

C. Hope Clark (https://chopeclark.com/). Clark is a veteran mystery writer and speaker with a weekly newsletter that is chock full of helpful insights about the writing life. The newsletter also includes resources, such as writing contests, fellowships, freelance opportunities, and publishers. While I have not directly benefited from any of the listings, I do find her insights and support inspirational and uplifting for those times when I feel discouraged.

Kat Boogaard (https://katboogaard.com/). If you’re serious about starting a freelancing business, check out Kat Boggaard, a veteran freelancer who has earned six-figures most of her career. She is incredibly down-to-earth and practical about the business. In her  newsletter, (now distributed monthly) , she is very open about the ups and downs of a freelancing career as well as work-life balance issues while raising a family, which makes her relatable. Check out her website, where she offers numerous forms and checklists that she uses in her own business. Sign up for her newsletter or follow her on LinkedIn.

Brooke Adams Law (https://www.wearewritingbrave.com). Author and host of Writing Brave, Law occasionally hosts a free online summit focused on the emotional aspect of writing, working through fear and self-doubt. It’s a topic that’s rarely touched upon and one that most writers I know deal with frequently. If you’re looking to Write Brave, check out Law’s site.        

Writer Unboxed (https://writerunboxed.com/). This community of writers offers an array of perspectives about the writing business. I especially enjoy the insights of Kathryn Craft and Donald Maass, who are masters of storytelling. Check out the weekly Flog a Pro feature, which highlights the opening page of a current bestseller and asks readers if they would read the book based on the those opening paragraphs. (More often than not, it’s a resounding “no.”) If you’re serious about writing fiction, this is the place to go for valuable tips and motivation.

The Brevity Blog (https://brevity.wordpress.com/). So you say fiction isn’t your thing, but narrative non-fiction is? You should feel right at home at The Brevity Blog. Similar to Writer Unboxed, it’s a community of writers that specialize in writing memoir and narrative non-fiction. Many of the articles, submitted by members of their community, deal with the challenges and triumphs of the writing life. Even if you don’t write literary non-fiction, this site is worth checking out.  

Writer’s Digest (https://www.writersdigest.com/).  WD is the go-to resource for any kind of writing you care to pursue. While they offer numerous online classes and webinars, they can be a bit pricey, and if you sign up for their newsletter, you’ll get a lot of promotional ads for their products. Still, the magazine is top notch and their weekly Monday Motivation is well worth reading.

Reedsy (https://reedsy.com/)  You don’t have to use Reedsy’s online writing app to take advantage of its various publishing resources, such as a weekly writing prompt. Check out their YouTube channel for their backlist of webinars and online discussions about the publishing business. They also lead live write-in sessions, editing sessions and first-line critiques, so even as they assist other writers, you can learn too.   

Writing and Wellness (https://writingandwellness.com/). Writing isn’t just about getting published. Sometimes, it’s also part of a wellness plan, to deal with emotional and mental health. Activities like journaling, writing poetry or personal essays are outlets to deal with anger, grief or sadness. Writing can also help you deal with physical pain, backaches and burnout. Freelance writer and author Colleen Story hosts this site to help writers deal with these issues, and put fear and self-doubt in the rearview mirror.

Hope you find these sites helpful in your own writing journey.

Conquering the Scariest Fears about Writing

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Happy Halloween! In honor of this occasion, I’m reposting this story from a few years ago. It’s my treat to you.

If you’re like most people, you’ve probably made a myriad of excuses for not getting any writing done – lack of time, fear of failure, too busy, no privacy, nothing to write about, etc.

Below are the seven most common excuses I’ve heard from people (and sometimes I’ve used them myself) for not writing. I call them the Seven Deadly Excuses because they can kill a person’s writing practice before it has a chance to blossom. Many of these excuses are influenced by negative messages and assumptions you’ve heard since childhood. By reframing these messages and taking positive action, those fears could diminish over time.

Excuse 1: “I don’t have time to write.”
A lack of time is the most common excuse people make about not writing. If this is your biggest fear, chances are your writing practice has never gotten off the ground, or you write in fits and starts. You always talk about wanting to write, but you never do anything about it.

The problem isn’t that you don’t have time to write, but the expectation of how much time is needed for writing. If you expect a writing practice to take up two, three or four hours every day, that is unrealistic. No one has that kind of time, unless you are a professional full-time writer. With outside jobs, clients to manage, families to care for,  and other important responsibilities, there’s little time left over for writing.

The truth is, you don’t need hours at a time to write. When you’re just starting a writing practice, only ten or fifteen minutes a day will suffice. For example, while working as an attorney, A Time to Kill author John Grisham set a goal of writing one page per day, roughly 200 words. Grisham shows it is possible to fit writing into your schedule.

Excuse #2: “I’m too busy.” 
When people say they’re too busy to write, what they might actually mean is that writing isn’t a top priority compared to other responsibilities. Work, school, taking care of family and a household take up more of your time. Why begin a writing practice when these other priorities compete for your attention?

Perhaps you learned in childhood that school work and household chores came first before you could entertain yourself by reading and writing stories. Naturally, that attitude and habit carried over into adulthood. It’s no wonder writing hasn’t become priority.  

When you make writing a priority, you’ll find it’s easier to begin a regular writing practice. Remember, you only need 15 minutes! If you can make room for 15 minutes in your schedule for writing, that’s time well spent, no matter how busy you are.

Excuse 3: “My writing isn’t good enough.”
From the first moment you put pen to paper, your writing probably won’t be very good.
That’s normal for most beginning writers. But it’s true for experienced ones too. Kristin Hannah, author of The Nightingale, writes as many as 10 drafts of each novel because she knows the first draft isn’t her best or final work. It’s simply the starting point that she can build on.

If you continually tell yourself that your writing is not good enough, ask yourself why you feel that way. What is your writing not good enough for? Publication? For other people to see?

Instead of berating yourself for not writing well, make a plan to keep improving. Read authors whose work you admire, so you can learn from them. When you write something, ask for feedback. Constructive criticism can help you spot recurring errors. Most important, write, write, write. That’s really the best way to improve your craft.

Excuse 4: “I don’t know what to write about!”
Do you suffer from blank page syndrome – the act of staring at a blank page or computer screen with no idea what to write about?  Or when you do come up with a story ideas, do you dismiss them as uninteresting?

When faced with a blank page, you may be overlooking the best source of story ideas: personal experience. You have plenty of life experience to draw from, so explore those events from your past and turn them into stories, either as narrative non-fiction or as fiction.

One way to access this reservoir of life experience is with writing prompts. You can find hundreds of prompts on sites such as Writer’s Digest.

Excuse 5: “I don’t have a private space to write.”
If you share a home with a spouse, three children, a dog and two cats, it may be difficult to find a quiet, private space to write. Others believe that without ideal circumstances, such as a desk and comfortable chair, their favorite coffee mug and favorite pen, they’re just not able to write.

You need to ask yourself if the problem is an actual lack of space, or the expectation that you need a lot of space to write. I’ve drafted blog posts on breaks at work, on buses and trains or while waiting for doctor appointments. If you wish you had ideal surroundings and your current environment is far from ideal, you may be waiting forever to start writing. The truth is, your environment does not need to be perfect to begin writing. Look around you. I bet you can find a space to call your own that is perfect for creating stories.

Excuse 6:  “I might fail.”
Another common excuse writers make is “What if I fail?“  The answer depends on how you define failure. What does failure look like to you? Not getting published? Not finishing your current work-in-progress? Not having anyone read your work? Not having anyone take your writing as seriously as you do? Everybody has their own definition of failure, but in reality, there is only one true failure: not writing at all.

To remove that fear of failure, it might be helpful to start small and work your way toward bigger projects. Start with 100 words, then increase it to 200 words, and so on. Every week or so, add to your daily word count. When you reach these smaller goals, you gain confidence in yourself and you achieve small successes that you can build on.

Excuse 7: “What if I’m successful?”
While fear of failure is common among writers, others suffer from a different malaise:  fear of success. “How can anyone be afraid to succeed?” you ask. You’d be surprised at how many people fear success, myself included.

Fear of success might manifest as an unfinished project – or two, or three or ten. You have several projects in various stages of completion but never seem to finish any of them. In your mind, finishing one of them means you’ve achieved success. Then you worry about what happens when you finish that project. Perhaps you edit your piece over and over again, never fully satisfied with what you’ve written – a useful delay tactic preventing you from finishing your work.

If you fear success, then you may need to rethink what success means to you. What does it look like? It may look and feel differently to you than to your spouse or your best friend. Are you defining success on your terms or someone else’s?

For some people, success means getting published, while for others, it simply means sitting down for a half hour every day to create stories with no thought of publication. There is no right or wrong answer. Write according to your definition of success, whatever that means to you.

When you manage your expectations to conquer your fears, the writing life won’t seem so scary.


Best Tips from the Writing Brave Summit             

~ The Regal Writer ~ Leave a comment
Photo by Roy Reyna on Pexels.com

Recently, I attended The Writing Brave Summit, a virtual meeting hosted by Brooke Adams Law. The event featured interviews and webinars by authors, editors and publishing experts who shared insights and tips about writing. The summit covered fiction, non-fiction and memoir writing so participants could pick and choose the sessions that they were most interested in.

As a fiction writer, I walked away armed with renewed enthusiasm for my work. I’ve compiled some of the best tips I heard from these professionals and share them with you below. Hopefully, they can help you as much as they’ve helped me.

Tip 1: If your story is stuck, it may be a problem with your protagonist not the plot. It’s not about raising the temperature in the story or adding a new plot twist, said editor and book coach Daniel David Wallace. What may be needed is to raise the temperature on your protagonist. Make sure your main character is fully engaged with the action, making decisions for good or bad about what to do next. That will keep the story moving forward. Focus on developing the character first, including goals and motivation, then develop the plot.

Tip 2: Write scenes from perspective of one POV character. It’s easier to write a story when you have one Point-of-view character per scene, said Savannah Bilbo, developmental editor and book coach. When you switch POVs within a scene with no defined break, it can be confusing for the reader.

Within each scene, give the POV character a goal, something they want to achieve. That could be getting advice from a friend or gathering some key information or take care of a problem. Also make sure the POV character has agency, that they are the one dealing with the conflict and making decisions.  Without that mini-goal and decision-making role, the character isn’t realistic and can’t engage with the action of the story (which piggybacks onto my previous point.)

Tip 3: Use interiority to get into the mind and heart of the POV character. Make sure the POV character reacts internally to everything that happens in the scene, not just what they think and feel, but what they plan to do about the problem they face, said Karyn Fischer with Story and Prose. Interiority matters for several reasons:

  • It provides context for the action
  • It’s the inside story
  • It leads to character transformation.
  • It allows readers to feel the emotion
  • It allows readers to follow the logic of the POV character
  • It connects to the character’s voice

    Tip 4: Create conflict between characters by developing opposing personality traits. Writer and book coach Kat Caldwell described the Big 5 personality traits of POV characters: conscientiousness (highly vigilant vs. complacent), agreeableness (People pleaser vs. cranky curmudgeon), Extraversion (outgoing and engaging vs. reserved), neuroticism as a reaction to stress (anxious/worrier vs. laid-back); and openness to new experiences (willing to try anything new vs. fearing change of any kind)

To use the Big 5, Caldwell suggested creating a main POV character who is out of balance with one of these personality traits. Then develop a side character or secondary lead character with the opposite trait. Alternately, you can choose a different imbalance for a side character. For example, a POV character that ranks high in agreeableness and wants to please people while her best friend is more open to change and will try anything new and thus encourage the POV character to try new things.

Tip 5: Try intuitive outlining to plan your story. If you’re not a fan of plotting or using formulas to plan your story, try intuitive outlining. This is a hybrid approach that combines the power of your own innate creativity and intuition with a loose, flexible plotting structure.

Not everyone has the ability to plan their story from scene A to scene B to scene C. Maybe you think of individual scenes but you’re not sure in which order they should be presented.  That’s okay, says Lewis Jorstad, The Novel Smithy.

“Our brains have a natural way of telling stories,” he said. Over our lifetimes, our brain has acquired an  innate sense of storytelling because it’s been exposed to different stories over the years—through books, movies, TV shows, verbal exchanges, author readings, blogs and social media, podcasts, etc. We’ve all learned how to tell stories. We just may not understand how to put them together.  

In intuitive outlining, the focus is on developing scenes as you think of them rather than developing them to fit some kind of pre-ordained formula. You let your intuition guide you.

That leads into Tip 6.

Tip 6: Think and write scenes rather than chapters. Scenes are where the action takes place while chapters are merely arbitrary breaks in the story and can sometimes contain more than one scene, which can make it difficult to work with and reorganize.

Because scenes are smaller, self-contained pieces, that makes them easier to write. They’re like puzzle pieces that can be mixed and matched and moved around. Jorstad suggests writing scenes as you think of them, then arranging them in the order they might appear in your story. Then if you see gaps in the story’s action, write additional scenes as needed, but not to complete some arbitrary formula.

Do any of these tips resonate with you? Have you learned any cool writing techniques that have helped transform your writing?

Lost Your Creative Flow? Here’s How to Find It Again–and Keep It Going

~ The Regal Writer ~ Leave a comment

Photo credit: The Regal Writer

Be sure to visit my website for the latest writing prompt.

We’ve all been there before. Staring at a blank page in a freeze, unsure where or how to start writing. Or you’ve taken a break from your writing and lost momentum in your work-in-progress. Even just starting a routine writing session can feel like a sludge through mud.

In those moments, you realize you’ve lost your creative flow and you wonder if you can ever get it back.

Call it a creative mojo or being in the zone or having a zen moment, creative flow occurs when you enter a state of total immersion, when all outside stimuli fade into the background, and all that’s left is you and your creative work. It’s that moment when you feel most productive and innovative. It’s when you become most in tune with your essence and where you feel most alive.

Like all good things, creative flow can come to a crashing halt. When that happens, you can feel lost, unsure how to get it back.  

When you lose your creative flow, think about why it’s happening. Maybe you’re feeling stressed about the project you’re working on, which can make you feel blocked and unproductive. Do you have too many distractions and interruptions in your daily routine? Then it’s time to do something about them to limit their impact on your creativity.

Whenever I lose that flowing feeling, I try one of the following techniques to find it again. While they may not work for everyone, they’re worth a try.

1. Turn off your electronic devices. Shut off the TV or radio. Close out any apps you use, and put your phone away. Just sit alone with your story idea and let your imagination work with it. Then when you’re ready, begin to write. I prefer writing longhand with a pen and paper because the ideas seem to flow more easily from my brain to my hand and onto the page.

2. Do a brief warm-up exercise. Just like singers warm up their vocal chords before a live performance or an athlete runs sprints or rides a stationary bicycle to loosen their muscles before a game, writers need to warm up their writing muscles too. Writing is a different kind of performance. The page or screen is our stage. Working with a prompt, freewriting one whole page, or writing in your journal are ways to warm up your creative muscles. Once you’re warmed up, you might find your creative energy flowing.

3. Seek a quiet, secluded place to write. To be at my best, I need a quiet place to work, to think and to create. I try to limit distractions as much as possible, though I will answer only the most urgent emails, phone calls or texts. Similarly, I remove any clutter from my desk because I believe a messy desk clutters my creative thinking. If you’re used to working in a busy coffee shop (good for you), but you’re not finding your flow, try writing in a quieter environment and limiting distractions.

4. Write in short bursts. Any people seem to believe that you need several hours to get into your creative flow. But sometimes less is more. When you know you’ve only got 20 free minutes, sometimes you can get more done in that short time than if you had an entire morning. With a longer session of two or three hours, there’s a tendency to stare at the page, take more breaks, answer messages or do research. Sometimes it can seem that you get less done in longer writing sessions because of the constant switching up of tasks. It’s easy to get restless and bored too. Start with a 20-minute session, then if you’re flowing well you can always extend your writing time.

5.  Seek support from fellow writers. Every creative person loses their flow at some point. Just ask any writer, artist or musician. They’ve all figured out how to get it back too. So ask friends and fellow writers how to get back into the creative flow. We can all learn from each other.

6. Read what you’ve written before. The writing could be from your previous session to get you caught up to date, or it could be something you published previously. Reading your work can put you in a success mindset and inspire you to keep writing. Sure, you might be tempted to make some edits in your work-in-progress, but that’s a sign that your brain is kicking into high gear. It’s revving the creative engine. When that happens, you’ll be ready to start writing.

7. Use pen and paper. I’ve mentioned this technique in Tip #1. I find writing longhand with pen and paper to be the fastest, easiest route to connecting with your creative self. When I write on a screen, I’m more tempted to stop to read what I’ve written, to make corrections or to look up some important detail on the internet—all deterrents to creative flow.

Here are a few tips from other writers:

8. From Copy Posse, identify your most creative time of day. When do you feel most productive? Is it early morning? Late afternoon? Before bedtime? We all sense when we feel our best, physically and mentally. If it’s possible for your schedule, block out that creative time of day and put it in your calendar. Then make time during those periods to take advantage of your natural creative flow.

9. From The Young Writer blog, practice self-care. That means getting enough exercise, eating right and getting proper sleep. When you feel well physically, you’re able to tap into your creative flow more quickly because it flows more naturally. You won’t have to work as hard to get it back, and you’re less likely to lose it at all.

10. Also from The Young Writer and perhaps most important of all, have fun. Avoid overthinking your writing. Simply relax and enjoy the process of creating. When it stops being fun, then you need to consider whether it’s time to stop writing (but hopefully, you won’t).

Remember creative flow is an ideal experience that we’d all like to achieve the moment we sit down to write. But truthfully, it’s not realistic to expect it to happen at a moment’s notice. Sometimes you have to work at it, and hopefully, these tips will help you.

Creative flow occurs in fits and starts; that’s the nature of it. When it comes, savor the feeling it gives you and use its energy to your advantage.

Writing Advice from Agents and Published Authors

~ The Regal Writer ~ Leave a comment
Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com

It’s the dog days of summer, and I’ve gotten a bit lazy. The last thing I want to do this week is research and write a new and lengthy blog post.

Still, there is so much valuable insights and advice to share about the writing process. So this week, I’ve compiled some of the best tips from literary agents and published authors as they shared with the editors of Writers Digest magazine. After all, we can all use a little bit of help, no matter where we are in the writing process.

Enjoy! And have a safe holiday weekend.

Advice from published authors:

“….. write the thing that you feel urgently compelled to write. Write the thing that you feel drawn to write, and write it in a way that only you can do it and trust your instincts.
Brandon Taylor, author, The Late Americans

“There’s no need to plan everything out beforehand. Part of the fun is setting up high stakes without knowing the outcome. This way you’ll be right there with your protagonist, struggling to come up with solutions, even as the walls close in deliciously around you.”
Julia Bartz, novelist, The Writing Retreat

“But self-doubt is incredibly valuable. If you didn’t ever doubt yourself, you’d be a psychopath. Sometimes doubt is what helps me as a writer say, ‘This isn’t working right.’”
Chuck Wendig, author, Gentle Writing Advice: How to Be a Writer Without Destroying Yourself

“One thing I value about writing and publishing is that it’s not as ageist as some other industries. It’s hard to become a movie star maybe at 50…. It [publishing] is something you can break through at any time. There is room for reinvention, whether that means emotional reinvention, new opportunity, or just room for growth.”
Steven Rowley, author, The Guncle Abroad

“…find as many writer friends as you can because these are the people who will completely, 100 percent understand how difficult it is to break into publishing…Reach out and find your community.”
Jesse Q Sutano, author, Dial A for Aunties

“Understand that your book is a product that needs to garner broad support… Make sure you have a core group of diverse test readers who will give you honest feedback. It doesn’t mean they’re always right, but if half of our test readers think the beginning of your book is slow, you probably need to revise it.”
Pamela Samuels Young, author, Anybody’s Daughter

“…when people ask me my advice about these things, I say, write a novella, write a short story. Be wild and free and be able to accept failure by your own terms before you commit to spending three or four or five years on something that might fail.”
Ian McEwan, author, Atonement

“You need to give yourself permission to be bad when you are drafting… This is where you need to embrace the suck. Let yourself be bad. It’s okay. Everybody’s first drafts are bad. My first drafts are terrible, but once you have a bad first draft down, you can fix it. You can edit it, you can polish it up….”
Kate Quinn, author, The Diamond Eye

“There are so many things you can worry about when you’re writing that are all irrelevant… The important thing is a book that you write is your book and it’s you, and you put yourself into it and don’t listen to any of the interference from anywhere else in the world.”
Lisa Jewell, author, The Night She Disappeared

“I’m a big believer in being in a workshop or class, working with other writers, which is not to say to just take anybody’s advice. When you’re in a classroom or a seminar, it makes you write because you know you’re going to go there Thursday. It kind of forces you to do the work.”
Alice Hoffman, author, Practical Magic

“But the thing I always say to writers is that you never should forget the lame that made you want to write this. It is better to have a strangely proportioned beast that burns and is alive and stalks across the page than a perfection proportioned corpse on the page. That is what you run into the danger of. It’s possible from too much feedback [and] too much confusion that you wind up taking out whatever is at the heart of your work.”
Jean Kwok, author, Girl in Translation

“Find a way to make your writing process a discipline in the way that musicians practice their instrument.”
Tommy Orange, author, There There

“Characters live in the moments of quiet we often rush to yell over, so take some time to let them be heard.”
Mazey Eddings, author, A Brush with Love

“If you want to make a living as a writer, approach it like a business from the start. You wouldn’t open a corner store without a business plan—don’t just wing it for your author business!”
Jessie Kwak, author, Ghost Pirate Gambit

“The biggest thing is to read a lot so you can innately understand story structure. This even comes from watching movies and TV, and thinking about why it was great and what points did it hit and what aspects of it resonated with you….”
Alyssa Cole, author, One of Us Knows

Advice from literary agents:

“Share your work with multiple readers. Consider their feedback, especially their questions. Heed only the advice that resonates. Save a few readers for subsequent drafts so they can have fresh eyes to catch anything you or your regular readers might miss.”
Jennifer March Soloway, Andrea Brown Literary Agency

“As an agent, I want to fall under your spell. I want to read past my bedtime, be haunted by your work, be captivated, lifted, [and] spirited away by your story. If your work can deliver this magic, it makes me envision all of the opportunities we can conjure together to make the ultimate connection to the readers.”
Rachel Letofsky, CookeMcDermid Agnecy

“Remember you are interviewing the agent as much as (if not more than) they ae interviewing you. Bring a list of questions and don’t be afraid to ask tough ones.”
Kesia Lupo, The Bindery Agency.

“A rejection does not mean that your writing sucks. It simply means it’s not a good fit for that particular agent. You need to find your match, someone who clicks with your book in a unique way that’s not unlike dating.”
Rachel Beck, Liza Dawson Associates

“Know what kind of writer you are: a sprinter or a marathoner, and let yourself be that kind of writer. Don’t be afraid you’ll forget your great idea. If it’s a great idea, it’ll stick to your ribs no matter how much you try to shake it off.”
Liz Parker, Verve Talent and Literary

“The key to success is being delusional enough to think that what you write is necessary, but humble enough to listen to informed feedback.”
Michael W. Bourret, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret, LLC

“Remember that ideas are cheap! You are more than one project, and there is inspiration everywhere if you look for it.”
Molly Ketcheson, Wolfson Literary Agency

“Being able to say what your novel is about in one or two sentences really helps. It’s not a question about what ‘happens’ in a novel, but it’s a question about what the heart of the novel is.”
Catherine Cho, Paper Literary

“Writing should be fun. If you’re getting to a place where it’s not anymore, take a break and let yourself fall in love with your writing again.”
Saffron Dodd, Ash Literary