Essential Writing Concepts: ADD

Courtesy of Chris Corwin at Flickr

There are many writing concepts that, once pointed out are so obvious that you are sure you knew it all along. This is one of those. It is the clarification of an idea, a marking out the boundaries of something so obvious that you will instinctual know it. However, in realising it intellectually, you will be able to assess your writing anew and with more insight. 

All prose is made up of three things: A D D (which doesn't actually stand for Attention Deficit Disorder, in case you were wondering).

Action: Mary picked up the glass and threw it at his head.

Dialogue: "You pig. How dare you bring her here?"

Description: The room was brightly lit, and the expensive sound system played hits from the 90's. Waiters with champagne glasses on silver trays paused, and peroxided ladies in glittering dresses held their breath. 

That's all there is in a novel, the combination of bits of action, dialogue, and description. Sometimes description can include action, or action description, but the division of the two is necessary for understanding pacing. Action moves a story forward, while description is pausing to look around.

At different points in the history of prose, and in different cultures, the ratios between these three things have varied. As previously mentioned, I'm working to edit and develop a piece written by my great grandfather over half a century ago. The first thing that struck me was that the manuscript has a very large amount of dialogue, and almost no description at all (which, by the way, is quite annoying as I can fill in the dialogue, but have more trouble developing the description of early 20th century Scotland.) Discussing it with my grandfather, he pointed out that it used to be considered the height of sophistication to be able to move a story along by the dialogue, without the need for description. But nowadays so much dialogue leaves no room for the imagination. 

Each genre has its own requirements for how much of each you should use. Take action/adventure, Matthew Reilly as an example. To keep the pace up, the books have large sections which are just action and dialogue, with reduced description. Then, move across to the romance genre, and say Georgette Heyer, and you get long descriptions of every article of clothing worn. 

Similarly, a writer's particular style is developed from how they choose to use these three elements.

In another post I will look at how to utilise the three in your pacing. But as a basis, writing should be made up of equal parts of the three. In peaks of tension, you might have more action and dialogue, and the troughs of your story will generally be more descriptive. However, over all, most pages should have some of all three. 

Exercise:

Now if you are editing a work, try this exercise to better understand your own writing.

Take three different coloured highlights: one for action, one for dialogue and one for description (this can also be done with the highlight feature in your word processor).

Go through your entire manuscript highlighting every part into one of the three.

Are there pages that are predominantly one colour? This is a bad sign, and you probably need to break this up a bit. (This is one of the big problems with "The Ill Made Mute", a book I loved, but there were pages and pages of nothing but description, which I ended up flicking past until I say the next set of quotation marks.)

ROW 80 Goals:

So, last Monday I set the following goals:

- Finish the first run through of Bootcamp and sent it off for a structural edit.
- Started editing After The Winter.
- Create the cover for Bootcamp (I want to play with the one I already have a bit), and start a Goodreads Giveaway for the hard copy, giving myself a deadline for when it will come out.

How much of that have I done? That would be none.

Instead I dedicated this week to getting all those other life errands fixed that require time and energy. I got my car cleaned, picked up the screws I needed to fix my desk, went to Ikea to get more storage for my room, put my car into the mechanics, finally got my hair done, and organised my little flat a bit more. And somehow that was my week gone.

So, the only solution is to try again this week. Wish me luck!

A Writer's Portfolio: The Author Bio

Get in early creating your author identity! (image courtesy of Umut Kemal at stock.xchng)

 
As writers, we often spend so much time thinking about the piece we are working on, that we neglect the other essential little bits that are required to be an author.

How often on conferences or in courses have you been told to sit down and take time to write up your author bio? Well, for me, never.

Whenever I go to publish something, be it on Amazon, or a guest blog post, or even entering a competition, I am suddenly faced with churning out around 250 words about myself.

Writing about yourself, summing yourself up in 250 words, is difficult. At first, almost impossible. The trash that I've come out with still haunts me at night.

So I am now challenging you to put aside whatever you are working on, and take some time crafting and forming this very important piece of writing. Having a good description of yourself, practiced a few different ways, polished up and ready to go, is an essential part of the writer's portfolio.

The question is, how to go about it?

Sitting at a blank computer screen telling yourself to write about yourself is the hardest possible way to go. Actually, sitting in front of an internet form at midnight, with Amazon telling you to write about yourself before you can publish your book might be slightly harder. Eitherway, you can definitely make life easier for yourself.

First we are going to get some ideas and models. You need to know what to include and what not to, what style works well. Should it be in the first person, or do you write about yourself in the third? Do you mention your pet cat, or focus only on your qualifications for writing in this field?

This varies across what genre and style you are writing in. This is why you should do some research.

Start by working out who you are writing your bio for, who is your audience and what do you want to tell them? If you are a self-help writer you may want to give some credentials. If you are writing humorous fiction your audience might expect your bio to also be funny. A romance writer? Your audience is interested in relationships, and so probably want to know more about you as a person, not just your books.

Next I recommend going to Amazon and reading the bios of authors writing in your field. Note what person they write in (first or third?), the types of details they give and what they leave out. Find a few that really appeal to you, and work out exactly what it is that you like about them.

Now you need to start writing. This is not going to be a once off, polished, done affair. The greater number of different ways you write about yourself, the more chance you have of finding the perfect combination of information and tone.

So I want to challenge you, over the next week (yes, across Christmas), take a few minutes everyday to jot down another version of your personal bio. Try focusing on a few different aspects each time. Also, try adjusting your wording, keeping the same content but changing the style. At the end of the week, sort through them all and pick out the parts that work the best, then start to polish. You should make a slightly longer version, around 250 words, and a much shorter snappier version, down to 50 words.

Then you will need to keep playing with it and updating it at various intervals. Your information is going to change. Maybe your cat died, or you won a great award. I highly recommend keeping a list of all your editable bios (such as your Amazon author page, your blog about page, etc.) so that when you have a new achievement or detail to add, you know where to go.

Remember, you need to give yourself time and permission to do on this. It is all part of your work as a writer, and shouldn't be left to the last minute.

One week, seven attempts, great start for 2014 being your year of writing!

An Overview of How To Build A Killer Online Platform

 

This is the first in a series on how to build an online platform, particularly aimed at writers/authors but also useful for anyone else out there. (There are people who aren't trying to be writers? Seriously?)

The aim of building a platform is to get your writing out into the big, bad world, get as many people as possible to see it and hopefully like it and/or follow you. You might or might not also want to generate income from the platform through advertising, affiliate links etc. (on top of getting book deals). That's up to you. But either way, you need to be prepared to promote yourself, in the nicest possible way.

Since you want to get as much possible traffic you can't just go in there with a happy-go-lucky attitude hoping you will magically be discovered. You need to be canny and purposeful in your positioning and targeting. 

The Internet is just like real-estate, it's all about location, location, location. And in Internet terms, that means having a site that is easily found by the search engines.

Sound all too commercial and selling out your art form? Well, just depends, do you want to change 5 peoples' lives, or 5 million peoples? With the right position and promotion you can reach almost imaginable numbers of people. And if you love your writing, really think it is of value to people, have put months and years into writing it, why not spend an extra year maximise it's potential reach? You do not have to monetize the actual platform if that makes you feel better.

I personally intend to, because I think I offer great value on my platform as well as in my books, and everything I offer through affiliate links will be helpful and won't cost my readers anything extra. So, I don't feel bad to have people pay nothing extra and bless me with a small side income that will allow me to keep writing in between the book deals (when the book deals come). But I understand that some bloggers do push it and make their readers uncomfortable, please let me know if I ever do that!

So, regardless of whether it is for the money, or for the exposure, let's start looking at how to build a successful online platform!

Today, I'm just going to lay out all the steps, so if you are super excited and know what you are doing you can jump straight in.

Over the next few weeks, I'll go through each of the steps and outline them in detail, and probably add more steps and then link back to this as I go, so don't be surprised if this page changes. (Will make this it's own page tab as I start working through the steps and linking to them).

The following is based on a collection of the steps in Gary Vaynerchuk's 'Crush It!', as well as advice from Pat Flynn over at the Smart Passive Income blog, Bob Lovich at Christian Personal Finance, and a good dose of Buffy mixed in there (and maybe a few other things I've read places and now claim as my own because I can't remember where they are from).

1. Identify your niche area.

Every author wants a blog about themselves. But until you are already famous, that might not be the best approach. If you market your blog towards particular area, people will be more willing to read it. For example, would you read a blog about Mary Jane doing her house work? Or Mary Jane's tips on how to become a top selling young adult author?

2. Make sure you can think of at least fifty awesome blog topics on that area.

Having a stock pile of posts ready to go, or even just a list of topics you want to work through (like a contents page of a book) makes a big difference. It also ensures you have enough to write about in your niche. If you can't think of 50 posts, find another niche.

3. Name your personal brand.

Two things to keep in mind here: it needs to be catchy and concise, and it needs to pick up on keywords people search for to maximise your chance of being found. Ideally it would be a short statement that summed you and your approach up neatly. Gary uses the example 'The cool guide to young adult books boys will love to read'. Pretty clear and targeted.

4. Build your Home Base!

If you are spending money: buy a domain name as close to your brand name as possible. Exact match domains are great. Then get it hosted and start building the site. 

If you want to do it for free: start up a Wordpress, Tumblr, or Blogger account with as close a match as possible. (Will discuss the pros and cons of these two options).

5. Choose your medium.

We are all writers, so we naturally think in terms of a written blog. But you can also make an audio podcast about writing which people can listen to as they go to work, or a video blog where you can be much more interactive with your audience. Of course, you can include elements of all three as Pat Flynn does on his site. (am going to start adding video blogs soon, just because I want to experiment, so watch out for those, and if you don't see them soon, call me up on it!)

6. Design your webpage.

Gary suggests hiring a web designer, and if you are not really good with technology this could be money well spent. However, it is easy to learn if you are patient and ready to ask for help.And it's not necessarily all or nothing, you can do most of it yourself and just pay for help with the harder bits.

7. Create a Facebook fan page. 

I've just done this! (like, literally, yesterday). I haven't added much content yet, but join my page! 

Just to note, this is not your ordinary FB profile, this is a special page separate to that.

8. Start posting content! 

Yah! You need to get some solid content up before you really start driving people to your site.

9. Sign up for apps to distribute your content across various social media platforms such as Facebook and twitter.

10. Start creating a community.

Leave comments on other people's blogs and forums and reply to comments on your own. (Events like ROW80 is a great way to meet people in your area, just saying... :D)

 

11. Start creating back links to your website.

There are a couple of ways to do this, but basically you want to your content and name to appear in as many places as possible, all pointing back to your home base site. There are two levels at which you can do this, and I'll discuss both. Some of you reading this will have come through articles and Hubpages that I've put up around the place, so you know it works!

12. Use Twitter Search.

This allows you to find as many people as possible talking about your topic and communicate with them.

Okay, for the sake of full disclosure, I'm not yet on Twitter, and so will be learning how to do this as I'm telling you.

13. Similarly, use blogsearch.google.com to find more blogs that are relevant to your subject. Then become a regular, with such great, insightful comments people just have to know more about you!

14. Keep posting content! 

You need to be consistent, and posting about 3 times a week. I post a bit more here because I want to build up a good stock of content and practice my writing.

15. Join as many active Facebook fan pages and groups relating to your blog topic as possible.

16. Guest Post!

Write epic content and see if you can get other, more established blogs to feature it, driving their readers towards you as they will be blown away by how awesome you are.

17. Bribe people!

Run a giveaway or a contest which encourages people to interact with your content.

18. Set up a email subscriber list. 

As they say in the online business: the money is in the list. You don't have to directly sell anything through your list, but you could use it as your invite list to your first book launch, or to ask for reviews on Amazon, or even just to show an agent and say 'hey, I've got 500 people signed up to my list who already like my writing.' (would be better if it were 50,000 but we are still only up to step 18, not 992!)

19. Produce an ebook. 

While you are waiting for a publisher to snap up your first great novel, how about writing another one that will be fun and entertaining, which you can offer to your readers either as a free gift for signing up to your email list, or to buy for the price of a cup of coffee. (Yes, you will be seeing me doing both of these things in the coming months, so enjoy!)

20. Show me the money!

After about 6 months, you can start thinking about monetizing your platform if you want to.

I agree with Pat and the others when they say not to jump in too fast to monetizing, as the aim is to build up a really good community first. Once people trust you and love your content, then they won't mind you have a few ads here or there, and a few affiliate links.

21. Keep learning!

There is so much to know about Search Engine Optimization, new media, things that are trending etc., and if you want to stay on top of it all you need to dedicate time on a regular basis to learning. I've been listening to the Smart Passive Income podcast, which is completely free and I don't get any money for referring you to it, I've just learned so much from Pat that I want to point other people his way. I'm also investing in books such as Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion (that is an affiliate link through to Amazon, just to be open. The book was useful, and good for the very beginner, but after 52 episodes of Pat, I knew quite a bit of it already, just to let you know).

22. Finally, keep posting epic content. 

Did I mention you should be posting great value content? 

No? Well, you should always post high quality content and get a reputation for giving great stuff away for free.

And that's pretty much it. Not that hard, really. Right? 

Don't worry if some of that sounds unfamiliar or overwhelming, because you know me - I'm definitely going to take you step by step (it's the teacher/lecturer/preacher in me, I just can't help it!)

So, get excited, because you are going to be huge!

Good night for now,

Buffy. 

Why You Need To Build An Online Platform

Everyone nowadays needs an online platform. Especially if you want to be a writer. Where else do you think you are going to get your readers of the future?

For those not clear, an online platform is a way for people to find you, find out about you, and follow you. Blogs and websites are one of the best ways for a writer to get know.
 
And yes, this blog is part of my online platform, so me writing about how to create an online platform sounds like I think I have it all worked out. But actually I see it more as that I'm about 6 months ahead of you and passing down all the cheat notes I'm writing for exams!

I should admit, though, that I'm pretty proud of this blog. I think it looks shmicko, and I've worked hard to have some great content on here. I also have some great followers and commentators, and try to do my bit by giving back to all those who support me through fundraising and giveaways (which will never stop! The bigger I get, the more opportunity I have to give things away :D).

I have been building this blog, my first born, my favourite (shsh, don't tell the others!) for 6 months now. And to be honest, despite posting almost five days a week, trying to write interesting content, getting out there, facebooking a bit, etc., it is only now that I'm starting to see some rewards. My pageview count is slowly increasing, my followers and email subscribers have started to multiple (yeah, lots of my friends are having babies, what can I say?) and I'm even starting to get some of you to comment!

And from what I'm learning, this is pretty common for most people. It takes at least six months for a blog/website to start taking off and usually a year before it is really getting somewhere. And in between there is a lot of hard work. (So, pretty much, it's really like writing a novel. You spend hours and hours and hours working on it with absolutely nothing but a word count to show for it. But the more you put into it at this early stage, the more likely it is that it will be picked up by a publisher, and be a hit on the book stands.)

Why am I telling you this? You don't want to hear this just yet, you are struggling to write your first draft!

Well, basically you already want your platform skyrocketing by the time you are approaching literary agents and publishers, so you need to start it at least a year before you finish your novel.  That is to say, you need to start now. Whenever 'now' is in your process, it is the right time to start. As they say, the internet is pretty forgiving, it doesn't mind you playing around on it to work things out. However, ignore it at your peril.

So, to help you out with this next stage of development as a writer (and you do need to think of this as all essential parts of being a writer) I'm going to do a series every Monday on different aspects of building your own online platform. I've been reading a lot about it, listening to great podcasts, testing things out myself in different ways and am actually super excited. I want to share with you all that I've been learning, and let you see as I test things out on this site.

Also, for all I know, this might be the most people will ever see of my writing. This blog and the other online writing I'm doing might be my publishing platform. So, I want to do it as well as I can, just in case.

In future posts I'll start with the basics of keyword research and why you need to do it, look at starting your blog/website, how to get yourself out there, and how to be everywhere. There is a lot I want to cover, but I'm just going to do it section by section and be applying it to some of my own blogs etc. so I can give authentic feedback on whether it is working.

These are exciting times my friends, exciting times.

For a good explanation of why a writer needs a platform, and to get ideas of what sort of things you can do, Folio Literary Agency have put together a video with one of their best selling authors. It's quite long, but definitely worth a look. Have a look at the 'thank you for submitting your manuscript' page from FolioLit

Finally, if there are things you are dying to know right now, ask away and if I don't know, I'll do some research!

(Don't forget: ROW 80 starts today!)

Better Than Setting Goals

 

By Photos public domain.com [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

It is the end of 2012, just a few more days until the beginning of 2013. So if you haven't already started thinking about goals, resolutions, how to be better next year, now is the time to do it.

Anyone who has read even a small number of personal development and motivational books will know how important it is to physically write (or type) your goals out, and have them displayed somewhere you will see them throughout the coming year (until you are so ridden with guilt that you tear them down...). 

The books then go on to give you useful tips such as using the acronym SMART.

For example, my goal might be:

Specific - By Dec 31st 2013 I will have written another 20 drafts of novels. 

Measurable - On NYE 2013, can I see 20 drafts on my computer? Yes. In June 2013 will I be able to know how I'm going? Yes, either I have 10+ drafts and am on track, or less than 10 and I'm behind. So all good. 

Attainable - Okay, so based on this year, in 5 months I worked on 8 or so different drafts, but only 2 of them were completely finished, and only another 3 or 4 were close. So, it is going to be difficult, but I also know a lot more now about writing, so is possibly attainable...with a stretch. 

Realistic - Very possibly not, to be honest. I'm spending more time on my blogs, trying to build these up, provide you with more good quality content (and a few other secret things that will come out soon), as well as hopefully spending more time dealing with literary agents and publishers, getting articles and some short stories written and published, and you never know, 2013 might be the year I find a nice, suitable, tall, dark and handsome hero for my own little story. However, in this case I'm not going to let that worry me. You, on the other hand, should try to be realistic. 

Timely - Does it have a specific time frame? Yes, I'm trying to do one draft every 2 weeks. As most people work best to deadlines, focusing on one every two weeks is more likely to be effective than 20 by the end of the year. It stops me from foolishly convincing myself that I can slack for the first half of the year and then try to catch up. 

So, that is the method you will hear in a lot of places. And it is a good method, if you already have quite specific goals that are very important for you to meet. 

However, if you don't have such a specific goal in mind, here are my suggestions for creating a positive outlook on the coming year with opportunities to achieve which will make you feel good, but not make you feel too bad if you don't do them.

1. Focus on personal development and the underlying desire  of your goals.

The reason I'm doing this entire challenge is not to have 100 drafts per se, as that is just silly if I don't do anything with them, or don't learn anything along the way. 

The actual desire behind this challenge is that I want to become a much better, faster, more prolific and satisfied writer. Writing 100 drafts will help me a lot in this, but by focusing just on that, I could miss greater opportunities to reach my real desire. 

To be a prolific and good writer, I need to write a lot, yes. I also need to read a lot. I need to identify weaknesses and improve them, I need to nurture my creative spirit, I need to communicate and laugh with other people going through the same thing, etc. 

If I give up going to a writing conference in order to stay home and write, have I actually gotten closer to my goal of being a long-term writer? 

So, look at your desire and mind map how you can achieve it. And challenge yourself to work across different areas. 

2. Give yourself a 2013 bucket list. 

With one or two huge goals/desires such as mine, it is easy to forget about everything else in life. But adding in more goals, trying to split your focus and be a famous writer, chef, personal trainer, and belly dancer might all be a bit too much. 

So, to ensure that I still do a broad range of things that excite and challenge me, but don't distract too much from my major goals, last year I created a bucket list. It had 80 items, divided into 8 categories that ranged through 'creative', 'fitness', 'domestic' etc. 

Examples of some of my items included:

- learn to cook sushi.

- complete 10km in (under) an hour. (it was originally 'under', but as I only managed 1:00.23, I crossed out the 'under' and it was all good!). 

- eat at a Korean BBQ.

- join a writer's group.

And every week I would look at my list, pick a few things that I would see if I could cross off, and actually looked forward to doing it!

Now, at the end of the year, I have to openly admit that I have not completed the list, I adapted quite a few, and even then am probably only halfway through, because things change. But I still did 40+ new things that I would otherwise never have done! And had a great sense of achievement throughout the year as I ticked things off. And some of the left over things will just be moved across to this year's bucket list. Simples. 

So, feel free to make goals, but think about the actual desire behind the goal and whether your goal is the only or best way to achieve it. And just for a life of adventure and fun, make a 2013 bucket list. Go on, I dare ya.

Finally, just to put myself on the line, I'm going to open up my 2013 bucket list to your suggestions. 

Comment below things that you want to do in 2013 and if I'm game enough, I'll join you. Or you can openly admit you aren't game to do it, but would love to see if I would. I'm just insane enough I might take it on.

 

Tips On How To Make Writing a Habit

You may have heard that it takes 3 weeks, or 8 weeks, or any number of weeks to form a new habit. Well, there is no strict formula for every action. How long it takes for the action to become so hardwired into your brain that you can start without expending any will power is affected by three factors:

 

1. How difficult the habit is.

2. How often you do it.

3. How much it clashes with your old habits.

Therefore, while making writing a habit has its difficulties there are steps you can take to make the process a whole lot easier. 

To start off, you want to make the new action as easy as possible. It is much easier to train yourself to write for 15 mins a day and then train yourself to go from 15mins a day to 30 mins a day, than it is to go straight to trying to write an hour a day. 

So play around and find the maximum amount of time you can write for wthat doesn’t scare the socks off you and make you want to hide under your blanket at the very thought. It may be even only five minutes to begin with. Just before going to sleep you will jot down all the ideas that have been going around in your head about your story. That’s okay, make that a habit. It’s much better than not even doing that. Then, once you have that down pat, you can try extending it.

Next, the more often you do it, the easier it is to form it as a habit. Research has found that in forming new habits the more faithful you are in performing the habit at the beginning, the easier it is for it to become automatic. (See BPS Research Digest: How to Form a Habit). Their advice is: try to do it every day, though missing one or two here and there won't hurt but don't let them add up. 

 

Add to this thought our previous discussion on becoming an expert writer:  you want to be knocking over hours and words so you build up your bank of practice. The more time you spend doing this, the faster you will become an expert!

Finally, are there ways to minimize how much it clashes with your old habits?

The first step is to look at your usually daily routine (your 'real' daily routine, not the one you hope you stick to) and find a place to slip it in where it won't be forcing you to give up too much just yet. Love your Deal or No Deal? Well then, put your writing time after that so you know you go straight from Deal to Writing, without feeling you've missed out. 

 

Or my favourite, add it in somewhere instead of something you don’t like doing. Hate cleaning your house? Pay someone to do it and for that hour or so, sit down and write (but you can only not clean the house if you are writing). Though always check this with partners first, as they get a bit touchy if you give up doing all the chores to work on your masterpiece when they have to pick up the slack.

Anyone else have good tips on how to make writing everyday a habit?

Words, Words, Words: Why You Should Get Them Out

Stephen King used to say in interviews that he wrote everyday except Christmas and Easter. He reveals in ‘On Writing’ that this is a lie. He writes everyday, full stop. He aims for 2,000 words a day.

Dorothea Brande recommends writing 1,000 words a day.

Ray Bradbury in his book ‘Zen in the Art of Writing’ states that he has written 1,000 words a day since he was eleven.

But why? Should we all be doing this if we want to be writers? Is it the daily factor that’s important, or the word limit, or both? Can we write 2,000 words every second day and still get results?

From my research into motivational methods, development of talent, and sports training, I think there are three major aspects behind the commands to write everyday (I’m leaving myself some leeway in case I think of more later).  Hopefully spelling them out will help you to devise a writing program that will turn you into the best possible writer.

First, as pointed out by Writing Excuses Season 1 Episode 3: your first one million words are probably going to be crap. Only after that will you get better. So, might as well get them out of the way as soon as you can.

Second, if you want to become an expert at anything, studies across the fields show that it takes around 10,000 hours of good practice. That’s three hours a day for 10 years. It’s not just words, but amount of time actually practicing that pays off.

Finally, writing is like any exercise: one day off and you notice, two days off and your critics notice, three days off and even your fans notice. Your abilities to find the right word, express things just so, keep in the voice of the characters etc. start to fade much faster than we would like to think.

So, it seems that there is good evidence to support writers’ claims that you should write everyday and aim for a specific number of words that seems high to you.

And by writing a draft every two weeks, I’m hoping to speed up the process. I’ll have my first million words out in a year (not counting all the words I’ve done already, or the words I’m doing for blog posts, emails, work etc) and hopefully knock over my 10,000 hours in the five years while I’m at it. Just need to get myself more into the habit of writing everyday.

Next time I'll do a post on essential tips for forming a habit.

Practical Implications of Writing as Worship

So, today as I was walking to work I thought about what it would practically mean to try and live out writing as worship.

Now this blog post is going to use a lot of Christian terminology, but the principal applies just the same in a secular context. 

Imagine the big sports game is coming up (pretty easy for Melbournians, as Grand Final is on Saturday). Think of your anticipation, you've put in your footy tipping bets, got the esky, beer and snacks, cleaned up your house so you can actually get to the couch, checked on the standing of all your favourite players. Anyone injured, unable to play? Then, on the day, you stock up on ice, putting on your jersey and sit down in front of your wide screen TV not to be disturbed. 

Just taste your pleasure as the game comes on, as those men in way too tight shorts run through those banners. 

Imagine if sitting down to write was THAT exciting. That you would put up a big 'do not disturb' sign on your life for hours.

Or if football/sport is not your thing, imagine shopping. You've worked hard all week and told yourself that on Saturday you are doing to the shopping centre. You get up early, try to wear something nice because it is always depressing looking at beautiful clothes while dressed like a dag and you drive out there. You enter the sacred halls (I'm picturing Chadstone here, but whatever works for you) and you buy your favourite smoothy which has become a sort of ritual. You wander through the shops, your fingers just softly gliding over the silky satins. 

These are all forms of worship. Guy (that's his name, not just some random guy, but my Guy, that is my pastor Guy, Guy Mason) defined worship as ascribing value to something. With the Footy, dedicating your Saturday afternoon, when you could be doing anything, to watching those beefed up men running around after an inflated bladder, you are saying this is the most valuable thing you could be doing with your time. When you look forward to shopping all week, and spend hours passing through all the shops, you are saying that this is important to you. 

So what I'm arguing is that I should be ascribing value to my writing, because I think it is something God has called me to do. Not in that whole 'everyone must read my books because they are a revelation from God.' They might never get published. It might just be a discipline and learning experience for me. But that is enough. If God says it's valuable, than I should think it is valuable too.

Okay, so after that super long set up, I'm going to continue with the Christian stuff, but try if you can to apply it to your situation and worldview, whatever that may be.

The following is from a post from 2009 on Crossways Baptist Church's and is titled How To Prepare For Worship (topical, no?) I'm going to copy it here and then see if it works for writing.

"Αcceptable worship doesn’t happen spontaneously- you must prepare yourself. Let’s look at Hebrews 10:22. “Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” That verse begins with the phrase “let us draw near”-it is our call to worship. What follows are four checkpoints to help you prepare for worship.

The Checkpoint of Sincerity – We are to draw near “with a sincere heart.” That speaks of a genuine heart, devoted to pursuing God. It is hypocritical to be worshiping God when you are really apathetic or preoccupied with self. Draw near to God with your whole heart.

The Checkpoint of Fidelity – We are to draw near “in full assurance of faith.” ... [cut bits as not highly relevant to this] You too are to be fully assured that God accepts your worship, not because of what you do, but because of what Jesus did in providing atonement for you.

The Checkpoint of Humility – We are to draw near to God “having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience.” That is, you come to God with the knowledge that you are unworthy to be in His presence. The only reason anyone can come to Him is the blood of Christ, which was shed on the cross as a cleansing for sin.

The Checkpoint of Purity – We are to draw near having “our bodies washed with pure water.” That refers to the daily cleansing by the Word of God. The process of sanctification ferrets out sinful thoughts and exposes sinful behavior. Before you worship, confess the sins that God uncovered through His Word so you can draw near in purity."

The first aspect that needs highlighting is the whole drawing near thing. I actually have to come to write in order for this whole thing to work. 

Action: Make appointments to write and keep them. 

Sincerity: I'm drawn to the whole 'don't be apathetic or preoccupied with self.' It's true, these are really detrimental to writing (and watching sport: if you are thinking about work the whole time, everyone throws things at you and tells you to get off the couch.) 

Action: take a few minutes before starting to drop all thoughts of self, and find my excitement in the exercise. 

Fidelity: For me this means trusting in my Muse. I do the turning up faithfully and trust that he is doing the rest. (Sort of like my whole thing with Walking on Water with Tap Shoes.)

Action: Trust my Muse.

Humility: Just as we are humbled that we can't play as well as those men can, or that we can't design and makes clothes as beautiful as the ones we see in the shops and must have, so in writing as worship, I need to acknowledge that I can't actually write brilliantly myself. Any gifts I have are from God. And the purpose of this is not to make me feel bad or worthless, but grateful for what I have been given. And relieved, because the pressure is not on me.

Action: Admit that any good writing I do is from God, and let that release me from fear.

Purity: For me concerning writing, this means letting go of all thoughts of writing for the money/fame/men (who wants more women? I have plenty of those, bring on the good looking men!). I need to approach my writing with a purity of intent that focuses on telling a story because it should be told, even if there isn't a 'market' for it at the moment, etc. 

Action: Focus on the story and the process, not potential results. 

Those are my thoughts on worship. What they actually amount to in practical terms appears to be:

1. stopping before I sit down to write, 

2. put aside my worries for the day, 

3. listening to some worship music (this just helps me focus my mind) and 

4. laying my heart before God. 

Then going from there. Tried it tonight and I think it worked sort of well (have more words, though now have three starts to the Secret Railway, which really would have been better if I had moved forward with just one of them. Oh well).

I don't know, do you think I am stretching this all too much? Do you have another interpretation?

Small Piece of Advice With Big Consequences

A small piece of advice I would offer to anyone who is thinking of spending a couple of hours a day writing: start chewing gum while you write.

I am not a gum chewer, and I think it should not be done in public, ever. Except possibly on planes to stop your ears popping.  However, I found out the calorific way that when I write, my mouth likes the distraction of chewing.

I started bribing myself to sit down and write by saying I could eat chocolate while I did it. Now, I'm a suck on it until it melts kind of chocolate eater, so I was shocked to find that while I was writing, I would just keep popping it into my mouth and crunching down. When you are writing for a few hours straight, the amount of chocolate you can go through like that is just plain scary.

I have since switched to sugarfree chewing gum (along with giving up chocolate and caffeine completely). The chewing does seem to help my writing thought process, and also it stops me from eating anything else.

Seems like a small piece of advice, but saves me hundreds of calories a day, which would result in possibly an extra two kilos a month, making me 24kgs heavier each year that I write. So, after five years of working on this challenge, I would be three times my current weight. Chew Gum.

Born to Write?

So, as mentioned previously, I'm trying to see if there is a connection between long distance running and writing novels. Both are insane, when you think about them. However, both are very natural: we are made to run, we are equally made to tell stories. Kids know this, they love to run, will run even when you tell them not to. And they love stories. They love hearing them, and they love telling them. Give a kid a toy, and it is suddenly a brave knight on a quest to slay the wicked dragon.

Therefore, my logic works that a book about how to run naturally might have some tips for writing not found in more conventional places, such as books on writing. It seems as good a theory as any, particularly for the type of writing I'm doing: lots of long distances.

The following extract is from 'Born to Run' by Christopher McDougall (which completely coincidentally, I think, is the last name of one of my characters in the book I'm currently working on), from the section where the author is going for his first jog with 'The White Horse' (Caballo Blanco), a man that has been living in the wilds of Mexico and just running.

' “Lesson two” Caballo called. 'Think Easy, Light, Smooth, and Fast. You start with easy, because if that's all you get, that's not so bad. Then work on light. Make it effortless, like you don't give a *&^% how high the hill is or how far you've got to go. When you've practised that so long that you forget you're practising, you work on making it smoooooooth. You won't have to worry about the last one – you get those three, and you'll be fast.'”

(Swear word bleeped out by me, just in case I have any young and/or innocent readers.)

My theory is that the same can be applied to writing. A lot of people have this image that writing should be slow, torturous work. That the writer should agonise over the exact ordering of the words, or choosing the perfect metaphor. And my reply is 'yeah...nah....'. All that can be done in the second draft. It is too soul killing to do in the first. Even if it produces a good work, it will have caused so much pain, the next novel will be entered into with trepidation. But if writing a draft is seen like going for an afternoon jog, how bad can that be? Obviously only if you are sort of fit already, I remember a time when an afternoon jog sounded like freely lining up to have someone pour molten lead into my legs and give my lungs a good brushing over with sandpaper. This likeness of fitness to writing is suggested by Dorothea's exercises which recommend you should practice towards writing for longer and longer periods.

So, I think I have reasonably good general writing fitness. This has largely come from years and years of writing essays of growing length and strangely in reducing amounts of time (yeah, in first year, I was one of the people that would start writing their essays weeks before it was due, by third year of my first degree, I was doing all nighters to get them done start to finish). Given a general level of fitness, I am currently working on thinking of my writing sessions as: easy, light, smooth.

General update on my writing: the fortnight is almost up, I have just tomorrow, and I think that this might be the first draft that I do not finish in the allocated time. Sad, but I'm not going to let it get me down. I have learnt a lot of really useful things from doing this draft (first of a completely unknown book at the very beginning of a series), and have also taken some much needed time off.

I'm currently at just over 50,000 words. Story-wise... I'm not exactly sure where I am. I think I'm ¾ of the way through, but it depends on how the end actually plays out (because I don't know what it is yet). Therefore, I will write what I can tomorrow, though am meeting up with my writing group in the morning, which is fantastic as we only meet once a month and are still pretty new. At the end of the night, I will just plot out where I think the story will go and leave it. I have decided that if I do not finish a draft on time, I just move onto the next story all the same. If I get a chance, if I'm ahead and feeling inspired, I will go back and work on it and hopefully finish it off. If not, I'll see whether the idea catches someone's attention, and finish it off if demanded.

So, that's the plan. Easy, Light, Smooth – Finish and/or Move On. 

A Writer's Recreation

I have to admit that occasionally I feel like saying to you all 'yeah don't bother reading my blog, just read Dorothea Brande's book' because of the number of times I refer to her. I am still working my way through it slowly, just reading a few pages before I start writing every few days. Having said that, in my insane writing craze I can definitely tell you which parts are most important to take note of, and this is definitely one of those parts.

I'm now in my fifth week of writing 3-4 hours a day, roughly 6 days a week, along with working 6 hours a day 4 days a week in a job that requires me to read large amounts of information and summarise it into key points. I'm also trying to follow Stephen King and others' suggestion that as a writer you need to read a lot (which is completely true and what I am going to say in this section does not negate that.) For the past four weeks, the only time I have basically not been reading or writing has been when I've been asleep or at the gym (where I do sometimes take a book). 
 

At the end of last week and the beginning of this week, I was finding more and more that I had to pause in my writing and just sit back because my mind felt totally dry, like I was trying to suck water out of a desert.

Then Dorothea came to my rescue and pointed out my mistake.

A writer works with words. Therefore, a writer needs recreation which is wordless. Sounds simple, doesn't it? But the truth of it has much more depth than you would think. Dorothea challenges her reader to test this out. Try to spend some time with no words: do not pick up a newspaper or magazine to read it, or even turn on the radio. She appears to be including even spoken words into the equation, so no TV or nattering away to friends. Try and be completely wordless for as long as you can. And very soon, she argues, you will find your mind overflowing with words again. It can get drained of its words if used too much, but quickly refills to overflowing if given a chance.

And I have tested this unintentionally myself while away at a retreat. We were given the challenge of not speaking from the end of dinner to the end of breakfast, while staying in a group. It was strange because you were constantly interacting with people, but had to just smile and nod and not say a word. Much more quickly than I would have thought possible, I could not shut my mind up from having conversations with itself. It made me realise that I would never find peace in silence, though now I think I could find writing inspiration.

So, on Wednesday, when Jenny came over to stay the night, I was explaining this concept to her and we started thinking about the variety of activities that you could do that were wordless. Dorothea notes a few writers who practiced this, citing one who started off lying on his back looking up at the sky for two hours a day, until he found his family saw that as an invitation to disturb him because he was obviously not doing anything important, so moved to sitting on a bench in the park feeding the pigeons. Another she referred to used to knit, rather like Penelope in the Odyssey, using the same piece of yarn, and when she got to the end, if she hadn't solved the problem in her story yet, she would undo it all and start again.

Unfortunately for me, I have finished knitting my two large throw rugs and need a new project that will take longer, as I cannot bring myself to unweave them and start again. I am also working on a rather large cross stitch, which I am less than halfway through, and probably has a couple of hundred hours already dedicated to it. But it does take more concentration which is good at times but not at others.

Jogging, rowing, swimming, those repetitive actions are meant to be great for releasing the mind. I have found at the gym if I watch TV while doing them the mind freshening properties are lost but listening to music is completely fine. Perhaps it would be even better if I listened to music without any words, but I haven't tested that theory yet and see some problems with doing so.

Jenny pointed out the usefulness of gardening in this respect: it is productive and healthy, and can take hours without people complaining for you to do something else. It is, therefore, a pity I live in an apartment.

I understand that for some people cleaning and ironing probably have this value, but they are strange, strange people.

I do think cooking works for me, and my sister suggested it might work even better if I didn't use a recipe. As long as she is prepared to eat the disaster at the other end, I'll try it on Wednesday and report back.

My other hobby which I have not done at all since I started writing (and actually for about year now for various reasons) is painting. My verdict is still out on doing another creative pursuit like that, which works on a lot of the same fears I have about writing (that I will stand at the canvas and won't be able to produce what I see in my mind, or that I will stuff it all up etc. etc.) and draws on a lot of the same will power to get myself going. I hope at some stage to take some classes, because I think actually knowing what I'm doing might help a lot. But until then, I might put it on the back burner to my writing.

Another activity which I used to do, which was very strange, but was satisfying beyond all measure of its usefulness or creativity was going through magazines and cutting out pictures of houses, furniture and gardens etc. that I liked and sticking them into folios. (As a habit it used to drive my mother mad, who would open her house magazine to find large gaping holes, but what use was it just lying in a magazine anyway?) How this had the ability to make me so happy, I don't know. I assumed it was through the recognition of beauty and the search then ordering of it. So, I might try that again.

But for now I have decided to try and rearrange my schedule just slightly. It takes me 30 mins door to door to get to work if I train. In just under an hour I can walk it. It's also a very nice walk, most of it along beside the river. I have been put off this recently because of the cold and the wet, and the fact that it was already getting dark by the time I left work. The times that I did do it, I took it as a chance to listen to podcasts on writing and sermons etc. I now realise this would be a perfect opportunity to factor in some wordless time everyday. No one disturbs me as I walk (except for cyclists who think it is cool to zip past as close to you as possible) and I have no other obligations than to arrive at the other end. Also, added bonus, it saves me a train fare, which is a hot chocolate a day (as well as having burnt the extra calories for it. Win-win!). The only downside is that it means finishing writing 30 mins earlier each morning and starting 30 mins later each night. But, if I am more refreshed and have the words bubbling out of me, it might be worth it. So will try walking at least one way, with no podcasts or lectures to listen to, for this week and report back on how it goes.

As to my own writing. On Wednesday morning I did probably only 1,000 words, and then realised that I really was just worded out. So I spent the rest of the afternoon doing my cross stitch and then some cooking, Jenny came and we went to the gym, and I never got back to writing for the rest of the day. Thursday morning I got up and had only 40 mins to write because I needed to get to work early. Was a bit depressed that it was Thursday and I only had 5,000 words written. Was meant to be tutoring Thursday night (which is why I had to get to work early) but college cancelled at the last moment, which meant I could come back and write. Managed to get just over the 10,000 mark by the end of the day. Compared to the weeks before, I should have done a lot more than that, but compared to the few days before, it was a big improvement.

Friday morning just could not get myself out of bed until I was already running late to work (had to buy breakfast at the train station I was that sort of late), and didn't get to sit down to write until after 8pm because I went out for work drinks. However, just over two and a half hours later, I was just over 15,000 words.

Today I sat down for three hours in the morning/early afternoon, and then 2.5 hours this evening, and have added another 10,000 words. So, feeling it is slowly coming together. Am writing from beginning to end at the moment. The other thing I learned today which I will share quickly is to trust your characters for help.

Had one character which I really didn't understand, couldn't work out why he was acting like that or what his motivation was. So just got one of my other characters to ask someone else saying 'I don't get him, why does he act like that?' The other one replied 'not really sure, but what if it is because this and this happened to him?' And from that came out a beautiful explanation of this character's motivations and a possible part of the ending for the book. Glad someone knows what I'm writing about!

If you have any suggestions for wordless recreation, please feel free to share, unless it's dirty, then just keep it to yourself.