Category: Writing



How to Write a Novel: Advice and Tips from a Full-Time NovelistHow to Write a Novel: Advice and Tips from a Full-Time Novelist by Simon Haynes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was quite informative and not only ways to help write a novel more efficiently, but also great hints on how to use yWriter better.

It is fun to hear Simon Hayes’s voice. After reading a lot of his Hal Spacejock stories and enjoying them to the max, it is fun to hear the rhythm of how he speaks matches the cadence of his fiction.

I have written quite a few novels myself, mostly for NaNoWriMo (17?) so I highly recommend Simon’s methods to write. I am learning some things from this book, that I wish I could have had in my writing wheelhouse all along. It is a very helpful book.

I plan to buy the Kindle and perhaps paper version too so I can refer back to the books often. I highly recommend this book!

View all my reviews


Per Linda:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is โ€œght.โ€ Find a word that contains the letters โ€œghtโ€ in that order, and use it any way youโ€™d like. Bonus points if you use three or more different words containing those letters. Have fun!

 

Night is the time I get creative. There is no right and wrong of when, where, or how to do NaNoWriMo.ย  It is a process I have bought into, hook, line, and sinker, except I don’t fish, except for words. I haven’t started writing for today but the latest count is 13,349. Hopefully, by the end of today, I will have at least the requisiteย  15,003. Try as I might I can’t seem to get into it. For once it is easier to write here on the blog than any other place.

The light is good. Wish it were more bright. No, it is the thought process that is broken. I will need to fight for this day’s words. The biggest fright for me is to get behind in the wordage. Other people seem to do a ton of words and can catch up easily. Not me. I could run a marathon more than makeup words. The height of my days in November is when I post my tally and no I am ahead of the goal. Even better, to be caught up in the blight of my characters’ dilemma and the words don’t quit. The sight of a page filled with story that was fun to write is the best feeling ever!

Okay, time is getting tight.

Happy Nano! Happy Stream of Consciousness Saturday!

One-Liner Wednesday


When is a novel not a novel? On Halloween Eve, and Halloween also known as NaNo Eve.

EDIT:ย  Oops. I forgot to pingback. One-liner Wednesdays are a product of Linda G. Hill. Come join the fun! This the easiest prompt out there!

Meaningful Monday


Anyone else getting ready for NaNoWriMo?ย  Yeah. Me, too! There have been very few years since I heard about it that I haven’t tried. And most of the ones I attempted I finished (won) I believe what has helped me most is the Sprints/Sprompts that you find on Twitter or Facebook, and the numerous Virtual Write-Ins on YouTube. The first one for this year will be October 30, 2019, for a prep.

I love the excitement of writing a story. Even when it feels like crap. I love the thrill of the 1,666 word-goal a day. Even when you think you don’t have one lying around in your head.

What I don’t like is facing NaNo with a computer that has a screen that seems to go all white unless I fix the lid just so, and finally, I might get a couple of minutes.

My husband is the best! Hands down! He knew how frustrated I was about all this, so he got on the phone and made sure that by Thursday, I will have a working laptop! And I don’t have to relinquish this piece ofย  @#$@#!@. I can face midnight on Halloween with courage and a bit of an idea what the story is about and a way to move it all slowly to the newer machine. I’ll write more about that as it becomes a reality.

So I played with my characters a bit and now have a few. Even a semi-working title Balter’s Dance Studio. And it does seem to be in Haven’s universe on Crim. Where we learned about Dusty’s Love Lair. Yeah, not exactly what you might think. Mostly sci-fi with fantasy and lots of imagination. Sorry I haven’t brought that novel onto the website. Yikes! I haven’t even finished uploading the first book. Dusty’s is about five novels since that one.

I always start prep with WriteItNow. I like its prep-ability. Character development works well in that program. Especially when I use:

The Writer's Digest Sourcebook for Building Believable CharactersThe Writer’s Digest Sourcebook for Building Believable Characters by Marc McCutcheon

 

 

I play random numbers on the characteristic to build the physical and then the personality of each character. My writers’ group back in Reno and I would call out numbers and then write down the results. Now without them, near I have numbered the items on each page then use the random number generator to select the characteristic. So now I have Walter Balter nearly standing in front of me. I know a lot about his mental health just from the physical. I will continue making him live and then work on the rest of the family. Hopefully, the characters and a minor outline will be ready for Midnight Thursday.

How do you prepare? What are your methods of writing NaNo or other novels?

Haven Chapters 1-4


Just added chapter four to Haven. The whole book can be found on Wattpad.


I’ve been busy but have been inspired by some of these prompts. When things settle down a bit I will start working and sharing what I’ve done. For now, maybe this site and some of her prompts will inspire some of you!

How did you get on yesterday? Did you write a story? Remember, set your own rules, and stick to them. If you miss a day, donโ€™t try to catch up. Just keep moving forward! The Prompt WRITE IN A GENRE YOU DONโ€™T USUALLY USE Itโ€™s easy to get stuck in a rut. Writing in a โ€ฆ Continue reading “2019 Day 6 โ€“ A Fresh Genre”

Source: 2019 Day 6 – A Fresh Genre | StoryADay


The Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is โ€œfall from the sky.โ€ Write about anything that falls from the skyโ€“real, imagined, or idiomatic. Have fun!

These are some of the scariest words for me. We can see the small airport from our front windows. Especially these early days of spring there are a lot of small planes touching down and taking off. I assume they are the crop-dusters for all the alfalfa fields around here. I hope what they are dumping from the planes is healthy for people, pets, and livestock. I would not want to see something fall from the sky this close to the runway.

There will be a time, unfortunately really soon, I will be happy if water or other fire retardant falls from the sky on any fires nearby. They are already doing a great bit of ‘controlled burns’.

The other things that seem to fall from the sky are eagles, hawks, and ravens. As long as they divebomb the nearby fields and get the mice or gophers or snakes, I don’t mind. But they are part of the reason the dog isn’t allowed to go out without us being nearby. Still, as long as they live their lives cleaning up the varmint nearby, they are fun to watch soaring high and gliding on the drafts.

One of the prettiest sights out here in the country is when it snows and those big fluffy snowflakes fall from the sky. But that season has passed (I think, I hope).

Gees, I never really thought about how scary the thing I love best about the desert, the sky, is. But then, it isn’t the sky that falls, unless you are Chicken Little. It’s all the rest that can give you an ulcer if you let it. Ah! Nature!

Stream of Consciousness Saturday is the brainchild of Linda G. Hill!

 

Chicken and Coyote


I am trying to make sure I write a little more each day. I liked to write nearly two thousand words a day. But suddenly I don’t know what to write. Maybe I should write about the abduction of Clucky (All five chickens look the same and have no idea who is who). By the way, I wrote this yesterday.

It was early morning. Master David came out just after the sun to feed us. I thought it a bit early and I squawked it, but he doesn’t understand squat! We assumed he knew that it was okay to go outside. I thought it shivery. But around here it is hard to tell. So I decided to go out to the dust bowl of the front yard. I love to take my bath out there. It is easy to get caught up in the bath making the dust fly every which way.

Suddenly, something has me by the throat. At first, I thought it was too much dust. But no. I couldn’t breathe or even let the others know I was out there. I was dragged across the street. I know we aren’t supposed to go there but I was being dragged, no choice. It was just too much.

Finally, that chicken quit wiggling! Can I help it that my pups are hungry? I saw the open driveway and the dust flying about. No one saw this sweet chubby hen out there. She looked like breakfast to me. My pups won’t go hungry today. Can I help it that the Master didn’t shut the gate? Can I help it that the chicken lost feathers along the way? Not my problem. Pups gotta eat.

***
So a semi-true story in that I really don’t know what the coyote and chicken were saying, but I’d swear it if I needed to. The photos are from Pixaby. But the chicken looks like our chickens and the brush looks like our area. I didn’t see the coyote. I have seen them walking down the street. But didn’t witness this. It is all my imagination. Unfortunately, a chicken was killed. ๐Ÿ˜ฆ

A2Z, Z, CampNaNo 20190430


Zero to 51,365 in thirty days. CampNaNo has been fun for me this month. I love it when characters and story seem to be using me as the typist. Most of the time with this latest novel that was how it was. Just type as fast as the story comes to me. It was like reading a book in that I didn’t know what was happening next until the muse told me.

The hardest part of this month was the A-to-Z Challenge and combining it with my story. And even that was okay until the first Sunday when the challenge wasn’t in effect. That made the writing harder. Only because I did want them to reflect each other. The rhythm of the writing got a bit of a hiccup. So for that reason, I don’t think I will combine them again.

In fact, I think I won’t do it in April ever again. I will do my own rebel challenge in February. At day twenty-six I will be done and save the last two or three for something else, who knows.

As for the writing, I am determined to keep working on my novel from this month, editing and lining it up with the rest of the series (that also needs editing), But I think I will keep writing. I don’t know what. I just know that this habit of writing 1,667 words a day is so helpful and mostly fun when I stay with it. It is horrid when I have to reestablish the habit. But I say this every time. Let’s see if I can maintain. I will probably report here my word count or in some way use this to keep me honest with myself. I guess this will be a journal of the writing and other parts of my day. I write my reviews because I needed to keep track of what I read and what I thought about the read, and what I was doing at the time that influenced how I felt about the read. Well, this will be the same, just for writing. That was my original thought about blogging.

When I had four children using up my day I found lists were not only unproductive but depressing. At the end of the day, when I was so tired from adulting and parenting, I would look at a list and think, I didn’t do a thing all day! My husband would come into the home after work and see me exhausted and the house a mess. He, too, wanted to know what I did with the day. I decided to keep a journal of what I did. Surprise, surprise I wasn’t sitting and watching soaps and eating bonbons! That list went on and on. My husband’s day ended when he left work. I never left work. Anyway, listing what I’ve done has always helped me feel better. Accomplishment is what it is all about. If organizing by the future works for you, good. I just need to keep working and it shows in the long run without extra stuff done, I don’t need to do.

You know the neatest part about zero? If you put then next to any other number it grows or shrinks. I hope I’m on the right side.

A2Z, Y, CampNaNo 2190429


Yarn is fun whether telling or knitting/crocheting. My yarn telling is pretty well finished. If you take yWriter’s word for it I ended with 50,584. If you take Word’s word for it I ended with 51,336. The validating machine must be broken because neither amount sent me to the winners’ circle. I only need 50K darn it!ย  Maybe too many are hitting that validator at the same time, though I’ve never had this problem any of the 10-16 times I’ve finished novels on NaNo or CampNaNo. I wrote to the company to see what’s up but they say they don’t get back to you for 2 business days. Well, that takes me past the final date for this NaNo. Well, at least it took my fact page to the finality with the arrow in the target at 100, all the graphs stating I made it, so…I’m satisfied. I will try to write a bit more tomorrow and see if the machine is working.

Though I haven’t stopped knitting during this month, I have done far less than normal. I have a lot of stuffed bodies and body parts that need to be stuffed and sewn together. I finished several little baby hats that need those last bits sewn closed and labeled to go to the people who need them. I’ll try to post the pics as I finish a few. The leader of the Hugger Hats group told me to make more of the dolls as she has a doctor who wants to give them to stroke patients as they are helpful tactile comforts for them.

I’ve been happy with the story I was able to write this month and feel encouraged to get all the books in the series up and edited to the best of my abilities. As much as I read, I think I am feeling accomplished with my stories It feels different enough to not feel like the same ole story as what’s out there, yet the energy I feel as I read them make me want to read them again. Does that make sense? I’m not trying to brag. Not at all. I’m trying to review with the same kind of eye as when I read other books. I am so grateful to have these characters growing and dictating to my struggling fingers the pictures they give me. I hope as I edit the more poetic words or phrases will appear as I know that writing fast leave my vocabulary and grammar wanting.

Did anyone else do CampNaNo how’d it go for you? How did you like doing the A-to-Z Challenge? I will put my thoughts on that on tomorrows post? As I am picking up and looking around think of me as waving to all of you. What’s happening in your life while I was buried in wordage?

Godinterest

Godinterest for Churches, Ministries, Businesses, Creators, and Believers Worldwide

moon.child โ™ก

๐˜š๐˜ค๐˜ณ๐˜ข๐˜ฑ๐˜ด ๐˜ฐ๐˜ง ๐˜ฑ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฆ๐˜ต๐˜ณ๐˜บ ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ฎ๐˜ข๐˜ฅ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆ๐˜ด๐˜ด

venture

"Collect moments, not just destinations. Travel well."

Sebastian Stead - My Photography Blog

Hi! my name is Sebastian (You can call me Seb!) ...welcome to my Blog. I'm a photographer from Worcester, Worcestershire, England. Thanks for dropping by! I hope you enjoy my work.

My Awesome Blog

โ€œLog your journey to success.โ€ โ€œWhere goals turn into progress.โ€

Life of Chaz

Books, games, music, and life โ€” filtered through the mind of a writer, drummer, and philosopher who thinks too deeply about all of it. If it moves something in your chest, I'm interested.

Pieces Of My Heart

"Words & Wonders - Where thoughts meet art

๐Ÿ’ซThe Afterlove Voice๐Ÿ’ซ

Poetry, Justice,Spiritual,Astrology,Tarot,Healing

Amin Academy

Education, Information, Motivation

Luso Loonie โ€” Devin Meireles

Exploring Portuguese Culture, Azorean Heritage, and Luso-Canadian Identity Through Writing

UNDER THE WILL... OVER THE DRAMA...

Inheritance. Narcissism. Turf. Welcome to the family.