I keep telling myself that as I frantically prepare for NaNoWriMo , which is suddenly only a week away. I am nowhere close to having a tale to tell, so any bit of help is a blessing. I'm not talking about maid service or a private chef, though both would be nice. I just need something to help me focus and simplify what seems like a huge challenge this year.   Available on Amazon To that end, I was enormously pleased to dig into a gorgeous and tightly written eBook called The 30-Day Novel by Merrie Destefano .  It's a short book, hitting all the usual highlights of planning a novel, but in a brisk and concise way. Under 100 pages, some of which are clever MidJourney AI steampunk images and pages for notes, the book covers these topics: Chapter One: Make A Commitment  Chapter Two: Make A Plan  Chapter Three: Plotting Versus Discovery  Chapter Four: Story Building  Chapter Five: Character Building.  Chapter Six: World Building  Chapter Seven: Ma...

Traditional publishing requires that you find an agent who submits to publishers and hopefully finds a home for your book. As a traditionally published author, you still have to write, revise, proofread, submit, get accepted. But your work isn't done there. You still have to revise and edit per the publishers instructions. They design the cover and come up with the promotional materials and some promotional opportunities, but you are still in charge of self-promotion. With the publishing market in flux, many writers prefer to self-publish. Doing so involves you donning not one but five hats. 1. Crafting the Product Writing a really good book means endless rounds of critiques, revisions, editing, and proofreading. If you target a specific genre, and understand it, you are half-way there. Learning how to write is a skill set. Your very first draft of your very first book will not be a best seller. Studying the craft of writing and practicing it is job one. Once you have a manuscript ...

Wow, the month of May slid by and here I sit, looking back and wondering what happened to all that time. Time seems particularly slippery during these shelter-in-place months. Back in March, I thought I would get so much done . Let's just say it didn't work out as I'd planned. Time doesn't stop while sheltering in place. Image by xaviandrew from Pixabay As I write this, my mind wanders to various musical pieces that have to do with the passage of time. The first few songs that come to mind are some personal favorites: George Harrison's All Things Must Pass   Simon and Garfunkle's A Hazy Shade of Winter   The Beatles' A Day in the Life   Pink Floyd's Time   Oh, let's not forget As Time Goes By  from the movie Casablanca . This leads me to wonder if there might be lists of songs that have "time" as a theme or element. Time for research! Here's some of what I found (the first two lists have embedded YouTube videos so...

When I pondered what to write about for this month's theme of "Best writing hacks ever," it occurred to me that better minds than mine have probably made lists and offered suggestions on the topic. I decided to do a little search and see what I could find. As you might imagine, I found plenty! Without further ado, here is a random compendium of offerings from the vast world of the internet, in ever-ascending numbers of suggestions per list... From Learn How to Write a Novel: 3 Hacks to Write a Rough Draft , by Michelle Griep From Freewrite: 6 Neuroscience Hacks to Beat Writer's Block (This one includes additional links to articles in Psychology Today , The Guardian , etc., about writing and writer's block.) From Positive Writer: 6 Weird but Awesome Hacks for a Happy Writing Life , by Shanan Haislip From Lifehack: 8 Great Writing Hacks Every Creative Writer and Blogger Should Know , by Ivan Dimitrijevic From The Writing Cooperative: 12 Writing Hacks Yo...

the1thing.com It's easy to make resolutions and proclamations in the new year. This year will be my Best Writing Year Ever! Alas, that statement will die as quickly as your weight-loss promises. Why? Because the statement has no focus. It's not broken into achievable steps. That's where the work really begins, and where the objective becomes daunting. It's easier if you break your focus down to the simplest denominator. What is the one thing you can do right now to make this the Best Writing Year Ever? Let's try a short exercise, just for fun and practice. No pressures. No commitments. Think about these points: If you could only work on ONE writing project, what would it be? If you could pick just ONE indispensable tool for working on that project, what would that be? If you could choose only ONE time and place to work, when and where? Finally, who best would support you in this ONE focused project? Now take a deep breath, and simply as ...

Welcome to 2020! This year we have an extra day to finish a new book. What are your writing plans to make it the Best Writing Year Ever? Please leave us a comment. Feel free to right-click on this meme to save it to your computer and to share it on your social media sites.

In September of 2018, I wrote a post for this blog about Write for Kids and Writing Blueprints, a system of tutorials and worksheets to assist writers in mastering the various aspects of writing, editing, and getting published. That Resources for Writers post needs updating, because site master Laura Backes and her husband Jon have new blueprints by a variety of instructors. Visit the 2018 post for more information about how the program began and the manuscript revision/editing blueprint I explored. To bring you up to date, I was given access to a few of the newer offerings for review. First up is Mary Kole ’s Manuscript Submission Blueprint . Her bio from the website: Mary Kole has served as literary agent for Andrea Brown Literary Agency and as senior literary manager for Movable Type in New York. She is now a full-time book editor. She is the creator of Kidlit.com and author of Writing Irresistible Kidlit from Writer’s Digest Books. She has an MFA in creative writing from t...

While I've edited a lot of books and articles in the number of years I've been a professional, I've never done anything quite like my latest project, which was working with another writer to put his newspaper columns into a book. But before I tell you about that, let me back up to the beginning of this whole thing. Four years ago, I was contacted by Arcadia Publishing , asking if I would do a book about Winnsboro for their Images series. I think they found me online, which shows that an online presence can pay off, and they wanted my small town included in the series. Since I am relatively new to this area – sixteen years – I told the editor that I would be happy to do the book if I could work with the Official Winnsboro Historian, Bill Jones. They agreed, and Bill agreed, so we worked for a little over six months to put the first book together - Images of America, Winnsboro. As the title suggests, it is a book comprised mostly of photographs. After that book came o...

I have always been first and foremost an actor. Yes, I’m writing this but I’m an actor who writes. To be precise a comedic actor. I am never happier than when I’ve earned the audience’s laughter; it’s a giant hug of warmth. Comedy isn’t easy. It’s all about timing. Say the line too fast and you lose your laugh. Say it too slow and you get the same result. Not getting an expected laugh is rather like tripping; you’re not hurt, but you feel rather foolish. That said (or wrote, I suppose), every audience is different. Although smaller audiences are less likely to laugh, once they get started, they’re fine. The getting started part may take time, though. Everyone is afraid they’ll be the only ones laughing. I’ve known actors who get people to come and laugh so the risk of being the first to laugh is taken off the table. Seriously. People do this. It’s a thing. You also can’t get a laugh by yourself (unless you’re doing stand-up, of course, which is a unicorn of a completely di...

I have a confession to make. I am a writer. Well, I was before life stepped in. Well, I was before I let life step into my home and make itself comfortable while my writing wilted in the back of a stuffed closet. And, yes, I write here for Blood-Red Pencil, I write in preparation for teaching, I write in my journal, but you all know what I mean, write, er, right? I'm talking about the writing that transports you into a new world that you create, a world full of angsty characters and obstacles and drama and love and hate …and all the other wonderful components that go into making a story. THAT's the writing I HAVEN'T been doing. And when you are a creative at heart, this is painful. When you have characters and ideas taking up space in your mind, but your heart isn't moved to write, this can be extraordinarily painful. Right now, I'm at an impasse. There has been NO progress in my writing life, and there will be no progress until I stand and make a ...

In 2010 ( a | b ), 2011 , 2013 , and 2015 , we at BRP wrote posts on writing resolutions. I even wrote a piece in 2010 on envisioning your writing career by making resolutions . Parts of Happy New Year 2016 image by IceHawk33 at Free Digital Photos used ’Tis the season to make resolutions, yes? A new year often begets new goals, new resolutions. Unfortunately, by the end of January, many of those resolutions are left in the far, dark recesses of our mind. One reason resolutions often fail is we resolve to do something, but we don’t set out a strategy to actually complete the task. Whether you use the term “resolution” or “declaration,” it’s important for you to understand what you are resolving or declaring in your writing goals, and developing the structure to bring your goals to fruition. Let’s think about resolutions for a minute. Merriam-Webster defines “resolution” in the following ways: the act of finding an answer or solution to a conflict, problem, etc. : the...

Write every day . The above statement is often given as advice to writers. It’s good advice—for the right writer. I say this because every writer has his or her own way of getting the words on the page. Some of us are daily writers. Some of us set specific days to write, and some of us write when the urge strikes. The problem with writing when the urge strikes, however, is that sometimes—for long moments of time—the urge is dead. At least the writer affected thinks so. Whether you call it writer’s block or a drought (or whatever name you come up with), most writers have moments when the urge to write just leaves. You wake up, and there’s a Dear John (or Johnetta ) letter from writing ... to you. It’s not you; it’s me , writing states. You feel like a failure, you wonder if you will ever write again, you hear or read advice like “write every day,” and you think you can’t possibly be a writer if you can’t write every other day, let alone every day. I’m sure you kno...