I wrote one blog on the tools one can use for productivity before at and all of those tools still stand. They’re all great. What I found was that I used too many at once and that didn’t end up working well for me as I spent more time inputting and checking off than was necessary.
Over the summer I’ve been reading a lot (haven’t we all?) and I’ve realised that my reading has changed a little as I’ve started to write more and with the hindsight of what I’ve learned along the way.
We’ve all heard the first commandment for writers: never open your book with backstory. And the second commandment? No infodumps. And the third? Sprinkle that backstory throughout your book.
Novels, J.D. Salinger wrote, grow in the dark. By that, he meant that true creativity comes from the subconscious mind, from allowing ideas time to percolate below our conscious awareness.
Summer is still with us but “back to school” is just around the corner (or already here in some places) and I’ve started to assess what I’ve been up to for the past few weeks and figure out what will be my focus as fall approaches.
Some ‘old school’ authors may cling to the old adage, ‘let the writing speak for itself,’ but nowadays, it is pretty much universally accepted that authors need to maintain an internet presence to be noticed.
I was cleaning off all my emails the other day when I was suddenly struck with the number of emails I receive from my favorite writing gurus and educators. I subscribed to a variety of them and the glut of email messages they send me on any given day is overwhelming.
I’m a great believer in accountability. In my role as a coach, I spend a lot of time encouraging clients to be committed to their future. In doing so, it is vital that they appreciate that there is no one coming to their rescue (except me, perhaps – more of that later*.)
Do protagonists have to be likeable? Of course, because how else can a reader bond with your hero? Of course not, because some of the most fascinating protagonists in literature are unlikeable, or indeed, hateful.
As a business writer, I came to writing articles late in life. Eventually, from 2004 to 2013, I wrote over 400 and posted them out there in the world — on my own blogs; on other peoples’ websites, and on article banks.
To make a big splash in today’s literary world, genre mixing is essential to a writer. Like a chemist, contrarian writers must mix many story elements to produce a powerful and fresh literary work. Premise and POV (point of view) must be chosen first, but then another critical choice awaits the writer.
Consistency has never been my strong point. I’ll say that up front. So the opportunity to write about how I manage to overcome this failing is something of a cathartic exercise for me.
The first line of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick is “Call me Ishmael.” Thus begins an incredible saga told through the eyes of one of literature’s greatest narrators.
Let’s welcome back monthly columnist Catharine Bramkamp as she shares with us “Manuscript for Sale.”
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Creativity Coach for Writers, NLP Master Practitioner, and Master Teacher, Beth Barany has been there and knows how hard it can be to take your idea and turn it into a real book, that people will actually be interested, and even yearning, to read.
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