Writing project

They say one of the ways to fight procrastination is to make your project public. So here I am, shouting into the internet crowd: I'm writing a novella.

I'm studying the craft of writing for a few years now, and it's time to take it to the next level. I have written several short stories, some of them got nice feedbacks. I have written two novels, which stay in my drawer until I decide if they're worth the effort to edit and polish them. (There is a chance that hey will remain in the drawer for good.)

Now I'm concentrating my creativity and knowledge to craft a publishable story. So far I created the plot and the main characters. The story takes place in Brussels, Belgium, which I hope will be somewhat exotic for the readers.

And the big thing is: I'm writing a romance.

I'm an introvert by nature, and according to my wife I'm not the most romantic person in the world. Usually I read sci-fi, fantasy and thriller, but occasionally I venture into other territories such as romance and paranormal. Until now I wrote sci-fi and thriller stories, these are the genres I'm comfortable with. But I struggle with the romantic scenes. (Even sci-fi and thriller stories have romance in them, right?) I decided that I have to improve, and what is the best way to do that? Yep, jumping right into the deep water. So I bought a few how-to books on writing romance, and asked my wife to suggest some of the books she liked. And I plunged into them. At this point I cannot say if it's a good idea, but there is one way to know it: I finish this story, and ask a few beta readers for their opinions. Then I will see what will I do with the manuscript. Shred it or send it out.

I will give updates time after time on the Current Project page, I even placed a word count bar in the side column on the right.

Fingers crossed, I'm back to writing.

Learn to edit with the book by Don McNair

Editor-Proof Your Writing: 21 Steps to the Clear Prose Publishers and Agents Crave by Don McNair
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm a newbie writer trying to learn the craft. Editing is my weak point, so I purchased this book to learn wisdom from an established editor. It was exactly what I needed and expected.

There is a vast amount of information available on the internet about editing. If you follow writers' blogs you can gather everything you need about editing your manuscript. The problem is it takes a lot of time and a lot of reading. This book is a real time saver, because you can have what you need without wasting time searching and waiting for someone to drop the piece of information you just need.

The book is straightforward and full of advices what to do to tighten your prose and to weed out the words making your writing amateurish.


View all my reviews

Unblocked

Last weekend I had it. First time in my short writing life. I knew it existed, but I didn't know what was it like. I would have passed, if you ask me, but what could I do?

On Friday I was staring at the screen, reading the last chapter of the novelette I'm working on. I knew it was leading nowhere. When I planned the story, in my mind I pictured something totally different. The characters just went off-track, wondering around, talking gibberish. And I was blocked.

I always imagined writer's block as staring at the blank screen, not knowing what to write. I never have that. I always know what to write, because I have so many ideas swirling in my head I could fill books with them. So I never have to ask myself: now what? It wasn't that kind of block last weekend. I could start to write if I wanted to, I could continue the story immediately, I could fill pages with words effortlessly. But man, I knew it ain't going nowhere.

So I didn't write a word on Saturday nor Sunday. It happens anyway, when I'm too busy with the family, or I have something really important to do. Or I'm too lazy to do something meaningful.

Walk the Dog and Think - Photo: danamason06

But it was different. I didn't write, because I didn't want the characters to kill the readers by boredom. Unfortunately I had no better idea for the time being, so I had to work it out. I got my brain to work, and I was thinking hard for two days. (At least when not watching films or playing computer games). I was thinking while helping my wife to vacuum the floor, arranging boxes in the garage, or walking the dog. By the way, have you tried it? To walk the dog and think about your ongoing project. While the dog smells everything and pisses on the wooden posts, you can fine-tune plots, find out characters, even create complete sentences in your head. Very effective.

I discovered the power of thinking again. In my opinion, it is integral part of the writing process, so I spend time cogitating. I can say, I don't stop thinking as a writer. (Big words from someone who isn't published. Yet. But hey, you have to write before you publish, right? I'm just not at that phase yet.)

After two days I sat and cut the whole last chapter out. I have put it in a separate note called trash. Because it was trash. But I didn't delete it permanently, later I may use a few descriptive sentences. Then I started to write a different angle, different thread. And it was much better.

Now I keep working on this new plot, and go along with it for a while. At least until it sidetracks again.

The power of words

I saw this video, and couldn't resist to share it. It's awesome, and soooo related to writing.

Why I write 1000 words a day

The short answer is: to have something written.

The long answer is more complex. (Of course. It always is.) First I should tell you why I write at all, but I really cannot. I just have this feeling that words want to come out. I'm an introvert by nature, so it takes a while for me to make friends, I cannot just jump on the "social wagon". I'm not fan of parties, and when I go to one, I'm not easily involved in conversation. This is the way I am, and I think there is nothing wrong with that. But still. There are these words wanting to come alive, so I obey, and help them to be born. I write them down to get rid of this strange, urgent feeling. Of course, at the end, it never goes away. And I'm happy about that.

Why 1000 words? Because it is a nice round number, and there is a secret satisfaction when I go over the three digit number of word count. And because if I write 1000 words a day, I can write a book in three months. (I admit, on some weekends I have other plans, or I'm just too lazy to write, so settle with the idea of a short book.) I just finished the draft of my second novel. The first one was so bad, I didn't bother to edit it. (However the idea and the concept still poke me, and beg not to let them fall in the hole of forgetting.) This second one is more promising  and I will try to give it the shape of a worthy novel, by editing and polishing. But I did not stop writing my 1000 daily words, and I'm working on the next project. If not a book, I can write several short stories, book reviews, blog posts, you name it.

Pssst, come closer, I tell you a secret: yesterday I didn't write one thousand words. I wrote two thousand one hundred and eighty.

There is another reason why I write so many words. They say, you need to spend ten thousand hours to learn a profession. I beleive that I have a spark of talent, but I need to learn writing well, because I want to publish books. A lot of them. So every day I sit down and do my homework in the school of writing.

Do you write every day? How many words?

Change in content

I started this blog to post my book reviews, but decided to strech it a little. I will write about other subjects too, mainly writing - learning to write, that is.

I consider myself a wannabe writer. I started to take writing seriously a year ago, and I'm reading a lot about it, practically everything I can put my hands on. Fortunately valuable sources are available online. I wrote a few short stories, and I'm working on my first novel.

So here I am, learning how to write compelling stuff.

Writing Fiction for All You're Worth

Full title: Writing Fiction for All You're Worth: Strategies and Techniques for Taking Your Fiction to the Next Level

Author: James Scott Bell - he is also blogging at Kill Zone.

Description: WRITING FICTION FOR ALL YOUR WORTH contains the best of James Scott Bell's articles and blog posts on writing, easily searchable under these headings: The Writing World, The Writing Life, and The Writing Craft. You'll learn about the 6 critical success factors for bestselling fiction, how to write un-put-downable action scenes, and how to capture the interest of an agent. The keys to a dynamic opening page are revealed, and just as important, what NOT to do in the opening. There's plenty of inside information on what agents and editors say they're looking for and detailed instructions on how to write a stress free query. You'll learn what to put on your LAST page, when to use italics, how to write with courage. And a whole lot more.

My opinion:

First I found a little uncomfortable that the book is a series of earlier blog posts. (They may have been edited, may not, I didn't check it out.) But later I forgot about it because of the great content.

Usually I find a writing book worth the money if I learn something valuable from it. Well, I learned a lot of good stuff from Mr Bell. A few examples:

• I started to plan my writing time, and to stick to a weekly quota. I do it for a few weeks only, but in this way I managed to finish two short story drafts.


• I discovered that the first page of my first novel (still in the making) is not that bad.


• I will use the Bridge story structure in my second novel (once the first one will be finished).

I could continue the list, but I let you to discover the book. I really enjoyed the advices about the craft, and I liked the way James Scott Bell encouraged me to use them, build them into my writing practice, and benefit from them. Being a writer is a life of continuous learning, and the book pokes you to make efforts to grow and develop. Actually I made notes for myself in my notebook, so I have the essence of it always with me. (You know the drill: you should carry a notebook all the time with you to jot down new ideas.)

Here and there I found Mr Bell ranting about baseball, that I did not understand. (Sorry, my bad, I'm not really into it.) The author used these to lead up to the point about writing, so at the end of the day these real life examples were useful (if you play / follow baseball, I mean).

Format / Typo issues: none, of course.

My rating: five stars. The book merits it. A must read.