This post first ran on Sunday, October 19, 2008 Any method of writing is valid if it produces something worth reading. I am a writer who outlines meticulously. But I do know that all of the different methods can work really well for the type of writer that they suit. Call it what you will - pantsing versus plotting, freewriting versus crafted writing, plus the third option (a bit of both: start with the beginning and end in mind, freewrite until you get stuck then plot your way out of it) - all these methods work somewhere for someone. Once you've figured out how you need to write to suit your personality, you've got it made. And when you do reach that point, do not let the so-called pros convince you that you're doing it wrong. Stephen King has said some nasty things in the past about writers who outline before they write. He's softened his tone, though, in the last twenty years. But I'm going to poke back, anyway, with the comment that many of Stephen King...

I’d just finished writing the first draft of yet another novel that seemed to have wandered off in several directions when I made an important discovery. I was trying to work out (in retrospect) what my theme was, and so got out my old creative writing coursework books (this was pre-Google). As I checked through my manuscript for any inkling of the theme, I realised what I’d done: I tried to fit every single thing I wanted to say about everything (except for the stuff I’d written about in a previous novel) into this one book. And because I hadn’t planned on this particular book being very long or meaty, it really suffered from the lack of focus. I opened a sticky, peeling binder and found a yellowed sheet of paper with some old notes that jumped out at me: Determine your theme for your story – one theme per story [double underlined]. New theme, new story. (Complementary subthemes are okay.) Protagonist is “pro”-theme vs “anti” Antagonist. Every additional (unrelated) theme y...

Flash fiction can be even better than journaling for working through writer’s block. Creativity and imagination require an open mind ready to receive new ideas and play with them. Many of our feelings and reactions to a situation (even a fictional one) can shut this valve off, often when we most need a creative response. Sometimes the very reason we experience a block is due to an ingrained and conditioned aversion to digging too deeply into something we don’t understand. You may be writing well when suddenly a character confronts you with a behaviour you don’t want to write about. Perhaps it’s your own behaviour, but it may be that of someone close to you, or someone who has hurt you. Flash fiction is an ideal vehicle for exploring your feelings about behaviours that you were told were acceptable but are not, or vice versa. Let your characters explore subjects for you. Prejudice, insecurity, fear, misconception and misunderstanding, rules and religious laws, jealousy, resentment, ...

This post originally appeared on Blood-Red Pencil in November 2008. One of the best things you can do to make the most of your editor's time is to ensure that you proofread your manuscript as thoroughly as you can beforehand. Does this seem like a bizarre statement to you? After all, the job of the editor is to edit and/or proofread, isn't it? But consider the issue more carefully. Many editors work on an hourly rate even if they charge per project. A good editor knows approximately how long it will take her to work on a manuscript of a certain length, and she factors this into her rates. Is the manuscript you send to your editor filled with extra spaces where you hit the spacebar too hard, rogue punctuation that has been left over from odd sentences you deleted, inconsistent use of quotation marks, characters' names in lower case because you forgot to press "Shift", simple spelling and grammar errors, and typos that are due to your fingers accidentally hittin...

If your manuscript has come back from your editor noting a lack of conflict , don’t despair. Adding conflict in retrospect is easier than you might think. If your editor has marked passages she believes would benefit from added conflict, you can tick off a third of the job already. The next steps are planning and writing the extra scenes. Change Something A very easy way to insert conflict in a scene is to create a major change in the protagonist’s knowledge, expectations, perspective, relationships, etc. For example, the protagonist could expect one outcome but be forced to deal with another , or learn something that changes her perspective and sets her on a different path. Anything that makes a major, plot-related difference at the end of the scene compared to the beginning is a conflict within the scene itself. This is also a good way to test your chapters and scenes: if nothing changes plot-wise within a chapter, it is incomplete. Inner Conflict The protagonist’s thoughts...

Unless you have the perfect writing schedule that allows you to spend only daylight hours in front of your computer screen, or you write longhand at night, the chances are your evening writing, research, or social networking sessions are affecting your sleeping patterns and therefore your health. Research suggests that limiting your exposure to blue-toned (daylight-like) lighting after sunset will reduce your risk of insomnia and other health issues caused by the disruption to your circadian rhythms . Luckily there is a solution in the form of software that can alter your computer’s range of lighting tones from short wavelength (blue-ish) to longer wavelength (red-ish) so that your screen is more in line with the lighting after sunset. I’ve been trying free software called F.lux , which I’m very happy with. It’s a small program that downloads quickly and, when run, calculates your location and time since sunset, and alters the tones of the screen accordingly (although it hasn’t p...

How to Write a Great Query Letter is a free e-book available for download here . “A layman looks at a query and sees a one page letter. An agent looks at it and scans it for [a hundred] different criteria. If you know what to look for, this mere page can tell you more about the writer and his work than you can possibly imagine.” ~ Noah Lukeman, How to Write a Great Query Letter ~ As a literary agent, Noah Lukeman has dealt with tens of thousands of query letters and decided to analyse the elements that he considers vital in a great query letter – the type that makes him so excited at the end of a long day of trawling through banal submissions that he simply has to pick up the phone and call the author right away, no matter what time it may be. The most important element, Lukeman says, is sending your query to the right person. This is research that you cannot skimp on. Lukeman has devoted another entire e-book, How to Land (and Keep) a Literary Agent *, to this topic. Lukeman ...

Many writers I know, myself included, seem to gravitate towards other writers, particularly online. I belong to several writers’ forums, a challenge group, and a critique group, subscribe to writing newsletters, friend writers on Facebook, and write for writers here and on my own website. And the support and fellowship of other writers is important and valuable. However, it can become a drawback if you’re hanging out with other writers to the exclusion of your potential readers. Yes, writers do read, and they do buy books. And they might be easier to convince to order your book from an indie bookstore. But few writers have unlimited funds and if all writers on a forum are marketing their books to each other, only a few have a chance of being bought. A few years ago I joined a parenting forum where the values and philosophy of the members matched my own. At the time I was just looking for advice and support through my pregnancy and early parenting journey, and then gradually I was...

No matter how you think you want to begin the first few pages of your book, there are other people with a vested interest in your first chapter. It may seem unfair but you first need to sell your story before it will ever be read. Your first chapter, and, even more importantly your first page, is your demonstration product for your sales pitch. Your first sales pitch will be to an agent or publisher, or both. The second sales pitch is to the buyer in the bookstore, who may read the first few pages, a whole chapter, or simply judge your book by its cover and/or blurb. You don’t want to lose a sale with a weak opening page. Agents and publishers have specific expectations of a first chapter. Although there are always exceptions, following the generally agreed guidelines as to what makes a good first chapter could improve your chances of having the rest of your manuscript requested, and eventually being offered a contract. The first chapter should begin just before a pivotal event ...

Writer, editor, and book reviewer Wendy Noble is our guest today at Blood-Red Pencil. Years ago a speaker at a writers’ workshop I attended encouraged us to build up our writing portfolio with short stories, articles and reviews. I had the short stories and articles under control but I had no idea how to get a review published. As far as I knew, newspapers and magazines had their own staff. I couldn’t see a way to break in. Neither could I figure out how to get a book early enough that it hadn’t been already reviewed by someone else. In 2004 a friend of mine, Rosanne Hawke, invited me to the launch of her first picture book, Yardil . I realised there was a strong possibility it hadn’t yet been reviewed. Time to bite the bullet! I searched Google for the terms, “magazines + book reviews” (I’ve since discovered Writers’ Marketplace ). I found Good Reading and thought, “Why not?” I sent them a query by email and to my amazement they asked me to send them a draft. I wrote an 800 word r...

Weak modifiers are usually the first words to be tackled in the editing phase , but you can improve your writing skills by choosing these more wisely in your early drafts too. Each time you select a noun or verb, and then use another word (or a string of words ) to modify it, you weaken the quality of your writing. Here are some points to consider when you plan your characters and settings and write those first descriptions: Overused Modifiers Don’t Register The beautiful girl The tall, dark, handsome man The lovely day The quaint town If you think your character is “beautiful”, show your readers what that means to you. Do you mean “inner beauty” that shines through and gives her a deeper radiance, or do you mean “superficial, airbrushed looks”? Describe what it is about her that readers need to judge her on. Here you, as a writer, give up control in exchange for drawing your reader in more deeply. Allowing readers to make up their own minds gives them ownership in the story,...

Some time ago I was reading the manuscript of a new critique partner when a punctuation mark sent me into a line editing frenzy. That mark was a period inside a quotation mark at the end of a non-dialogue sentence. But, as it turned out, we were both correct (though on opposite sides of the globe). Something that increasingly perplexes those of us who write using British English is the insistence by writers using American English on slipping unrelated punctuation into a quotation. So insistent, in fact, that it’s even been included in the Chicago Manual of Style as correct style however illogical it might seem to some of us. Here’s an example: N.Am English: Michael told me that he was too “busy .” (period within quote marks) UK English: Michael told me that he was too “busy ”. (full stop outside quote marks) For those of us using UK English rules it is very easy to determine that the punctuation mark following “busy” should occur outside the quote marks. Move the quoted word...

A few years ago I took a writing course that covered subtext because it was an element of writing that fascinated me. That course went through a lot of explanation of how characterisation, dialogue and even setting contribute to the development of subtext and instructed us to plan to build subtext into our stories. I was still fascinated, but not much clearer on exactly how one would go about “building” subtext. Subtext seemed this tenuous thing that should be left to writers of high-brow literary works. When I was offered the chance to review The Story Book by David Baboulene, I was impressed to discover that David was writing a Ph.D. thesis on subtext with the conclusion that readers and audiences prefer stories with deeper levels of subtext. In The Story Book , David clears up the mystery of subtext in a few lines: David Baboulene “Most writers think they must write subtext in order to deliver an underlying story. This is wrong... If the story is created using knowledge g...

I have to admit I’m a little bit addicted to the semi-colon. Ever since I learned how to use it properly it's seemed the perfect punctuation; it's stronger than a comma but not the full stop of a period. I even use semi-colons when I’m texting; I just can’t help myself. When one begins using semi-colons one seems to write more formally; it’s like donning a ball gown or tuxedo that makes one stand a little straighter and enunciate more clearly. Someone once said that the colon is an obnoxious punctuation mark; it orders the reader to infer exactly this from what follows: what the colon precedes is the only possible explanation. The semi-colon, on the other hand, is more polite; it merely indicates that what follows relates to that which precedes. (See what I mean about writing more formally?) The guidelines for semi-colon use are fairly simple. In a list, a semi-colon can be used instead of a comma, especially where the use of a comma might be confusing. In a sentence a se...

Word’s Track Changes feature is great for receiving comments and edits on a piece of writing, but what if you have two or more critiques to review? It’s quite easy to merge all your critiques into one document with each editor’s changes, suggestions, and comments highlighted in a different colour and labelled with their name or initials. Always make backup copies of your documents, though, just in case. Select one critiqued manuscript to be your base document and save it with a filename that reflects this status. In Word 2007/10: Click Review, Compare, Combine In Word 2003: Tools, Compare and Merge Documents... Select your base document in the first box and the next critique in the second box. You can either use your name, or a term like “Auto” to assign to the unmarked changes. This simply means that anything that Word needs to change, such as reinserting a word that one reviewer has deleted, will be labelled with this term. Combine or merge documents - Word 2007 Wor...

Staring at that screen? Do you remember the last time you looked away? How about the last time you blinked? Screen work is now one of the leading causes of dry eyes, which can lead to other eye-health problems such as eye inflammation and blurred vision, and leaving your eyes more susceptible to infection. It can also train your eyes to optimise for short distance viewing, which can compromise your distance vision. Time Out for Some Eye Exercises Turn away from the monitor. Focus on something in the middle distance. With your head still, move your eyes up and down and side to side, making sure that you move your eye as far as you can comfortably go towards the periphery of your eye socket without actually closing your eyes. Now do this exercise diagonally: look to the top left and slide your eyes down to the bottom right and back to the top left, and then look across to the top right and slide your eyes down to the bottom left and back to the top right. Now draw a slow large ci...

Working with a dash can be a little tricky. The dash is meant to be longer than the hyphen, but standard keyboards usually only provide the option for a hyphen. British and European publications have traditionally used hyphens with a space either side to signify a pair of bracketing or parenthetical dashes that indicate an aside comment (part sentence - interruption - continued sentence). American publications sometimes use a double hyphen with a space before and after (part sentence -- interruption -- continued sentence), but double hyphens “typeset closed” (with no spaces) are also popular (part sentence--interruption--continued sentence). This closed style is used almost exclusively in Canadian publications. As with bracketing commas , the second dash falls away if the interruption ends the sentence. The dash used in dialogue to indicate an abrupt interruption or stop to a character’s speech is also traditionally typeset closed and either a true em-dash or a double hyphen is re...

Last year author Lauri Kubuitsile spent a month in Egypt on a writers’ residency. I asked her to tell Blood-Red Pencil readers about her decision to apply for the residency and her experiences in Egypt. Lauri says, "I'd never thought of going on a residency before, I thought they were more for academic type writers, not an in-the-trenches, working writer like me. A friend of mine posted the El Gouna Residence on Facebook. I took a look and thought I’d try my luck, I mean who doesn’t want to go to Egypt, right? It was a huge surprise when I was chosen." Lauri made certain she was well-prepared beforehand in order to get the most she could out of her residency: "I had a project I wanted to work on while I was there, a new novel. Before I went I made sure all of my pre-work was done: character bibles, a plot map, chapter outlines. I also got about halfway through the rough draft before leaving. My plan was to complete the rough draft of the novel while in Egypt a...

It’s a new year and an excellent time to put new routines in place. One habit that sometimes gets overlooked is regularly backing up your manuscript in progress. At least some of your back-ups of your documents should be done “off site”; i.e., off your main computer and away from the building that houses your main computer. You need to cover yourself for any possibility from viruses to fire to theft. There are many options for backing up, and the more variations you use the safer you are likely to be. Some quick and easy options are to: Save copies onto an external hard drive that you or someone else keeps at their home or office. You may want to rotate two or more hard drives this way so that one is always off site and you have a drive available for backing up when you need to. Save your current most important files onto a flash drive and take it with you if you leave the house. Pay an Online Data Backup Company for storage for your most important files. (Please do plenty...

With the increasing availability and acceptance of e-readers, electronic self-publishing of fiction is a growing avenue for writers to pursue. If you would like to offer your readers the option of downloading a PDF of your novel (or just an excerpt) you may want to format a version to suit e-readers. The most common screen display size is 6 inches diagonal (152mm). This equates to roughly 3 inches by 5 inches (82mm by 120mm). Most e-readers are able to adjust, though, to suit a variety of page sizes and font and spacing options, so keep it straightforward and uncluttered. Word 2007: Page Layout Tab, Size, More Page Sizes...  Enter new width and height values under “ Paper Size ” in the Page Setup Dialog Box (Paper tab). Word 2003: File, Page Setup, Paper Tab Margins With such a small page area you will need to adjust the margins to allow more room for the text. Word 2007: An easy option is to select Narrow Margins from the Margins drop-down menu. Or sele...