How to use this Page

If Bill Gates said it, I tend to believe it. The software tycoon-turned-philanthropisthas been proven right on just about everything. (If you forget the Zune and that CTRL-ALT-DEL thing.)

At the dawn of the internet, Gates published an essay that started off with this line: “Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet.”

The name of the essay? “Content is King”.

His 1996 prediction – made during the prehistoric online period of dial up modems, AOL and floppy discs – came true. From cat videos to eyewitness reports of government crackdowns– and billions of terabytes of everything in between — ours truly is the age of information on demand. As predicted the revenue followed, from eCommerce purchasing to monetizing traffic through advertising. Over the years Gates’ truism about the value of information has been stated and restated with almost religious fervor.

Yet the explosion of information is only half the story, and that’s where Blue Ash Publishing comes into play. Anyone on the planet has the potential to create the most eloquent, breathtaking, astonishing, even life-changing content. But without an audience – or more precisely the means to reach it — this rich content will never be fully appreciated.

Enter the new king – distribution. Some have likened the concept of distribution as the ‘queen’ to Gates’ king content. To rephrase the slightly sexist expression, in this family it’s the queen who “wears the pants!” Call it what you want — transmitter, network or bullhorn – it’s the vital infrastructure to broadcasting your message. Without distribution there is no discovery — no matter how brilliant the content.

Authors depend on Blue Ash Publishing for self publishing ebooks and many things but especially distribution. We’re the pipeline to help them find their readers. Just last week that pipeline just got a whole lot bigger with millions of potential new readers on the end of the line. Our retail store network leaped from 12 to over 60 retail stores around the globe.

We’ve been covering the majors for years including Amazon, iBooks, Kobo and all the majors. Now our authors’ books are featured in stores such as Spanish eBook giant 24Symbols, Waterstone from the UK and eChristian.com.

One of the reasons authors choose Blue Ash and its distribution engine BookBaby is what I term our “books without boundaries” approach to retail store distribution. We’ve been at the forefront of eBook globalization and for good reason. After all, it’s called the World Wide Web, not the Internet of the United States! The physical logistics of print books didn’t allow for such widespread international audiences for most authors. Digital truly changes everything.

I predict it won’t be long until the international English-language eBook market easily surpasses the US market. Some numbers shared by the Ebook Bargains UK (EBUK) newsletter illustrate why I’m so bullish on the global market.

Thinking about self-publishing? Blue Ash Publishing (a division of Writer’s Digest)
can provide all the tools and know-how you need to properly write, publish and
sell your book. Whether it’s digital publishing or print, Blue Ash has you
covered—and it’s completely customizable.
Click here for more details.

Let’s span the globe According to EBUK, there’s upwards of 75 million English speakers in the Philippines as we’ve mentioned already. Over 40 million English speakers in Germany. 30 million in Bangladesh. 30 million in Egypt. 25 million in France. 20 million in Italy. 17 million in Thailand. 15 million in the Netherlands. 15 million in South Africa. 12 million in Poland.12 million in Turkey. 11 million in Iraq. 10 million in Spain.

In just India, Pakistan and Nigeria, the number of English-speakers exceeds the entire population of the United States! Then there’s Brazil, Sweden, Kenya, Cameroon, Malaysia, Russia, Belgium, Israel, Zimbabwe, Romania, Austria and Greece, all with between 5 and 10 million English speakers each. That all adds up a lot of potential readers in every corner of the planet. Blue Ash Publishing is your ticket to get your book out there.

Whether you’re ready to take that journey now or need some inspiration, we’ve put together a helpful new guide to get your through the process. It’s called Self Publishing 101: The Quick Start Guide for Writers. It’s FREE from your friends at Blue Ash and you’ll gain knowledge about such critical issues as:

• Proven eBook pricing strategies and tactics
• Why authors can’t skimp on editing or cover design
• How metadata is vital to your online sales success

Whether you’re a rookie or an experienced pro in the eBook world Blue Ash Publishing’s newest guide has something for everyone who needs ideas how to create, price, sell and how to promote your eBook.

Click here for your free download.

When I compiled the roundup of reader-submitted tips, stories and advice for our “Plan Your Own Write-a-Thon” feature in the November/December 2014 Writer’s Digest, one of my favorites was from a mother who was inspired to try NaNoWriMo because her daughter was doing it. Here’s a part of what Angela C. Lebovic, of North Barrington, Ill., wrote:

I’ve always wanted to be a writer. One day, I’d actually do it—write a complete story. I just hadn’t done it yet. I had plenty of ideas, and many starts, but no completion. Then one day my 10-year-old daughter was given an assignment to write a 15,000-word novel for NaNoWriMo. I was encouraging her, letting her know that she could accomplish anything if she set her mind to it, when I thought I should put my word count where my mouth is and join her. If she could write a book in one month, then why couldn’t I, a grown woman who has aspired to be a published author my whole life?

When you read that story, what’s your takeaway? Here’s mine:

1. In encouraging someone else to write—or read—you might just find that you encourage yourself.

One of our forthcoming issues of the magazine (stay tuned!) features an author by the name of Jeff Gunhus. In encouraging his 11-year-old reluctant reader son to read, he made up a story about a hero named Jack Templar Monster Hunter—and ended up launching an Amazon bestselling series for young readers in the process. (You can read more about his story—plus his 10 Tips for Reading Your Reluctant Reader—here.)

2. By encouraging someone else’s love of words and stories, you are cultivating an audience of more readers.

Neither of my parents are writers, but both of them always supported my love of books—and words. When I had to stay home sick from school, my mom would play Boggle with me for hours on end. When we went to the store and my brother begged for baseball cards, I was allowed to pick out a Nancy Drew. When I was on summer vacation, they signed me up for a writing day camp (I still have the “I Heart Writing” button that used to adorn my jean jacket). And when I was old enough to volunteer at the library but not yet old enough to drive, they took me to and from my shifts manning the public library’s Summer Reading Program table.

Today, I’m not just the writer in the family. Guess who also buys—and shares—the most books and magazines? Guess who everyone else buys the most books and magazines for on birthdays and holidays?

As a writer, you need an audience. As an aspiring writer, you’ll need future readers. People tell us everyday that the reading public is shrinking. Why not do your part to combat that? As bestseller Brad Meltzer is fond of saying: Ordinary people change the world.

3. Good stories connect people.

There’s a reason book clubs are so popular, and it’s not just that people want to have motivation to actually read the stuff on their wish lists. It’s that people want to have an excuse to get together, socialize for a few hours and talk about a common interest.

We moved to a new neighborhood over the summer. I was eager to meet our neighbors, hoping my kids would find playmates on our street. Of all the families we’ve met, one family of four has become our fastest friends—and it’s not because our kids are the same age (they’re not) or our backyards meet (they don’t). It’s because the mom is a school librarian and I’m an editor and when her e-reader hold on Gone Girl expired before she was done reading it, I had a copy on my shelf. It’s because the dad reads presidential biographies like they’re going out of style and my husband is addicted to history-themed podcasts. We have since discovered that none of us ever feel like cooking on Fridays. A win-win for everyone, including the pizza man.

4. Sharing makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside.

My 3-year-old is a ball of energy who almost never sits still—unless we’re reading a story. Every night, he gets to pick two. We snuggle up with his stuffed animals, and most nights, my baby girl listens in, too. It’s my favorite part of the day, and I think it’s theirs, too.

The other night, he asked me whose photo was on the back flap of a picture book we’d just read. I explained that that was the man who had written the book.

“I want to have my picture in a book one day,” my son said, sleepily.

Music to my ears.

5. Whatever has influenced your own love of words, it’s important to pay that forward.

How have others shared their love of reading or writing with you in memorable ways? How do you share it with the people in your life? How could you do more of that?

Share your story in the comments below to keep the conversation going. Who knows—you might inspire someone else right here!

And for those in the midst of NaNoWriMo, to learn more about how the support of the writing community can do wonders for your word count, don’t miss the November/December 2014 Writer’s Digest, all about Writing a Book in a Month, available online and on a newsstand near you.

Happy Writing,
Jessica Strawser
Editor, Writer’s Digest Magazine
Follow me on Twitter: @jessicastrawser

At this point in the month of November, if you’ve stayed honest and true to your daily word count, you should be a third of the way to your 50,000 word goal. If you’re not, that’s still totally fine. There’s a lot of ways to pick up the pace on your word count, even on the go.

Moreover, you’ll want to pick up the pace and keep writing because the inevitable stumbling blocks await. And, during NaNoWriMo, you don’t necessarily have the luxury of waiting to break out of a dreaded period of Writer’s Block. You have to force your way out of it, especially if you’ve slacked in recent days.

How do you overcome issues and problems you run into in your writing? How do you do it during NaNoWriMo or when you’re on deadline? Do you have a trick to making sure you churn out a certain number of words? Share your techniques and ideas in the comments, because you never know when you could help out another struggling writer!

Have you missed any of the other posts in our NaNoWriMo blogging series? Be sure to check the others out:

• Meet Our NaNoWriMo Experts
• Starting NaNoWriMo: Finding the Motivation to Write
• Don’t Let NaNoWriMo Get the Best of You: Find Your Happy Place

Question: Have you run into any stumbling blocks this week? If so, how did you overcome them, and how will you avoid them in the future? 

Natania Barron: Life has a sense of humor, to be sure. I’ve been going along quite nicely until this [past] weekend, and while it hasn’t been enough of a stumbling block to knock me completely off course, I’ve lost a little momentum. First, I ran out of plot. I’m not sure when this happened, but having abandoned my typical approach of just hoping things fall in line, working with Jonathan has meant that I have to keep to a script more or less. So I stalled a bit and had to go back to the drawing board.

Then came a foot injury. I’ve been trying to maintain 10k steps a day on my Fitbit while doing NaNoWriMo. Let’s just say there was a run-in with a flying object [Sunday] morning, and it meant that I was off my feet for the majority of the day. While you’d think that would have given me plenty of time to write, the pain was a bit more intense than I bargained for. So, instead of words, it was lots of crochet.

I still plan to make my word count for the day, and I’m still tracking ahead (aiming for a 1,600 word minimum) but it’s definitely not coming as easily as it has before!

Rachael Herron: The only stumbling block I’ve run into this week is not quite living up to MY goals. I’m trying to Reverse NaNo (in which you do the majority of the words upfront and early so the end of the month is easier), but I’m a good 3,000 behind that goal. That said, I’m still ahead of the “real” goal, so the ability/desire to slack off has gotten stronger and more alluring. Take a day off, that pretty voice says. You deserve to relax, it whispers. It also tells me we need extra fuel for NaNo, and therefore sugar is on the November menu. I can’t really disagree with that. 

Nikki Hyson: The first six days were one gigantic stumbling block. Work just chewed me up and spit out what remnants of energy I had at the end of the day. I managed to write for an hour on November 1st but then didn’t touch it again until I got off work—9a.m. of the 6th. Knowing I was about 10k in the hole, I let everyone at home know I would be alternating naps with writing for the next 2 days. I have managed to close the gap, closing in on 8k when I should be touching 12k. There will be a lot of long days ahead and very little TV, Internet, or the myriad of “time sucks” out there. If I need to research something I’ll put an asterisk beside it for December. How can I avoid this next year? Hmm. Last year it was a backed up septic system that kicked off the first week of NaNo. “The best laid plans of mice and men…”

Regina Kammer: Names! I had established all the names for my main characters. Well, I thought I had. I ended up hating the original surname for my main characters (a married couple). It just did not trip off the tongue as much as I liked. And then suddenly—as is usual though, so I really should be prepared for this by now!—all sorts of characters appeared. Servants, relatives, friends, people I should have had names for all along but was too lazy when I did my outline. And to add insult to injury (so to speak), since I’m writing a Victorian novel involving British aristocratic characters, many of them have to have multiple names, e.g., “Reginald Aristocrat, Viscount Snobber, called Snobby by his close friends” or what have you.

Sometimes I just ignore the need for a name and just write [name] as a placeholder. But sometimes I’m compelled to come up with a name or else the plot will just get too complicated. I have been keeping a running list of potential character names for a couple of years now, and every time I use one I cross it off the list with a note about which book it was used in (since I write series, this is crucial). I have last names and first names on the list (not enough first names, I admit).

I also crowd-source my names by encouraging my friends via Facebook to post name suggestions. I have actually used some of the suggestions in my books (“Mason” the butler in The Pleasure Device was such a name). If anybody reading this wants to post Victorian-appropriate names to my Twitter feed or Facebook author page, please feel free to do so!

 The November/December 2014 issue of Writer’s Digest
has tips, techniques, and a wealth of resources to help you hit
your goal of 50,000 words during the month of November.

Kathy Kitts: This week has been routine, and I am grateful!

However, before I retired, I was a college geology professor and had to do NaNo while putting in some vicious hours. (One year I had a NASA mission in flight, a couple of grants to administer, several grad students, and a full course load.) So I learned to plan ahead.

I scheduled my class assignments in such a way as to have all the big projects due the third week of October. I’d grade like a madman and get it all done in time for Halloween. My students would pen new choruses for the song “Oh Poor, Poor Pitiful Me,” claiming they didn’t have enough time to properly prepare. But when November rolled around, and I was the only faculty member who didn’t ruin their Thanksgiving with a semester project, I suddenly achieved minor godhood. Each fall I had half a dozen come to my office and thank me for thinking of them and altering my schedule for them. I smiled graciously and said, “You’re welcome.” What I didn’t say was that my schedule had nothing to do with their sorry behinds. It was all about NaNoWriMo. Gotta keep the priorities straight.

Kristen Rudd: I started to run out of steam last week—I watched my word count slowly dwindle each day, falling further and further below the daily word count. I didn’t write at all on Saturday, and now I’m behind where I should be. My husband was away on a business trip, so it was just me and the kids. I found it so much harder to both make the time to write, then when I did, to not be completely brain-dead.

So now I have to make up for it by writing over the daily word count. Which, pressure, you know? It’s one thing to write over just because, but now that I have to in order to catch up? Lots of people say you don’t have to write the 50,000 words to really win at NaNo, but come on. Those are the people who have never done it.

The good news is that I learned I can write 1,100 words between 11:35 p.m. and 11:59. I don’t know that they’re good words, but hey. They’re written. C’est la vie.

Once I can start putting words on the page, I can put words on the page. That’s not really my problem. Where I struggle isn’t so much with my inner editor as it is with my inner outliner. I don’t have the luxury of time to hang out with her right now, and she keeps running up to me, her arms in Muppet flails, yelling, “Wait, wait! You don’t know where this is going! You haven’t fleshed out this character! What about your subplot?” When I ignore her, she gets really sulky and critical, points out all my writing flaws, cries, and then starts drinking. She’s totally fun at parties.

EJ Runyon: Not this week, but I’m sure I may hit snags later in the month. I’m high on the several days of creating now; me going over my daily 1,667 words daily is a hoot. Sure, that always lags a bit once the first NaNo blush fades. The good thing is that you don’t need that high, we just love the feel of it. We love racking up the Word Count. Who wouldn’t?

I’ll overcome [a stumbling block] (when it hits) by meeting a daily word goal and letting go of the overachievment. That’s easy enough to do, day by day. So I’m cool with the stumbling blocks of slowing down during some weeks until I revv back up again. It’s all about not believing we need to burn so hot for the entire 30 days.

Jessica Schley: My main stumbling block is always getting down to writing when I’m tired or there are other things going on. Since I travelled this weekend for my dad’s birthday, there were lots of other things going on! I’m a little behind on my word count as a result.

My combat technique? A timer. I used to use the software Write Or Die to get me through tough patches of writing—having something eating your words if you go too slowly is a great motivator. But over time I learned that it wasn’t the word-eating but really just the timer that was keeping me going. 25wpm is a fast, but sustainable writing pace for me over a half hour, so I set a 30 minute kitchen timer, and shoot to hit 250, 500, and 750 words at 10, 20, and 30 minutes. Then I take a short break and repeat. If I can do that, I can crank all but about 167 words in a little over an hour—and that’s an amount of time that’s actually pretty easy to find in a day.

*     *     *     *     *

If you make time to write and put away all of your excuses, could you stay on track and finish your novel in only a month? With a structured plan and a focused goal, yes, you can!

Using a combination of flexible weekly schedules, clear instruction, and detailed worksheets, author Victoria Lynn Schmidt leads you through a proven 30-day novel-writing system without the intimidation factor. Book in a Month shows you how to:

• Set realistic goals and monitor your progress
• Manage your time so that your writing life has room to flourish
• Select a story topic that will continue to inspire you throughout the writing process
• Quickly outline your entire story so that you have a clear idea of how your plot and characters are going to develop before you start writing
• Draft each act of your story by focusing on specific turning points
• Keep track of the areas you want to revise without losing your momentum in the middle of your story
• Relax and have fun—you are, after all, doing something you love

Cris Freese is the associate editor of Writer’s Digest Books.

It’s November, and that means many writers are well into their (first? second? 12th?) NaNoWriMo experience. But for many other writers, crafting a 50,000-word novel in 30 days is daunting, and they’d rather write a book over a span of a few months (or years), rather than just one.

If you fall in the latter, you can still use the month of November to your advantage. Here are five ways to modify your NaNoWriMo experience:

1. Write short stories. I began writing a novel during NaNoWriMo three years ago and made it to Day 14 before giving up (because I may or may not have almost passed out—and I may or may not be joking about that). I managed to craft a 23,000-word story. While the story makes absolutely no sense (seriously, it’s basically just words strewn together in somewhat coherent sentences), at least I wrote something. This year, I’m using that incident as motivation to write short stories instead of a novel during NaNoWriMo. (So far, I’ve written one story, and I’ve started on a second one. Go me.) This is a good way for writers to craft fiction stories without the pressure of writing a complete first draft of a novel. Maybe instead of a 50,000 manuscript, how about two 25,000-word stories, three 1,600-word stories, or a 30,000-word novella?

2. Write journal/diary/blog entries. Ever wanted to start a blog, or even get back in the habit of journaling? NaNoWriMo is a great time to do so if you aren’t ready to pen a full-length book (whether fiction or nonfiction). There are plenty of free blogging sites such as WordPress.com and Blogger.com to get you started. Or, you can go old school and simply use pen and paper. Whatever you choose, use this time to do some personal writing.

3. Write a query to a magazine. Queries are important to landing magazine assignments, so use NaNoWriMo to craft the perfect one. You can also use this time to write a complete article if you have an idea, available resources, and have done your research on said article idea.

4. Outline. If you’re a stickler for using an outline to help you pen a novel, use NaNoWriMo to write one. Then, use another month (say, January or February, after the holidays) to write a first draft with the notes/outline you created in November.

5. Rewrite and revise. Ugh. I don’t know too many writers who don’t dread this stage in the writing process, but it’s a necessary evil. If you have a completed draft and don’t want to use NaNoWriMo to write another one, use this time to revise the one you’ve already written. Keep in mind, though, that after you’ve rewritten and revised your manuscript, it’s a good idea to have someone else (another writer, or, better yet, a professional editor) critique the newest version of your draft.

Whether you plan to write a full novel, or do one of the above modifications, use NaNoWriMo to simply do what you love to do best: write.
___________________________________________________________________

Tiffany Luckey is the associate editor of Writer’s Digest. She also writes about TV and pop culture at AnotherTVBlog.com. Follow Tiffany on Twitter @TiffanyElle.

Do you have a go-to writing spot when you need to hit a deadline? Is it a quiet corner of your house or apartment? Or the stereotypical bustling coffee shop? What is it about your favorite writing nook that allows you to focus and write?

Whatever—and wherever—it is, you’re going to want to find it and take advantage of it this month. Allow yourself to get into your routine at this spot. Make yourself get into a routine. It’s probably the best way to survive NaNoWriMo. Remember: this month is not about writing when you feel like it; it’s about writing. Period. 

So find your sweet spot and let the magic happen. Just write.

Below, our NaNoWriMo experts share their writing routines and places they write from. They also share their most satisfying moment from the first few days of this challenging month.

Did you miss our first few posts from WD’s NaNoWriMo blogging series? Check out the intro post that our contributors put together, and then pop on over to the follow-up post that explains their motivation. And don’t forget to participate in the comments! We want to hear from you: how has your NaNo experience been thus far?

Question: What is your writing routine like? Where are you writing from and what time?

Natania Barron: My routine is almost exclusively evenings. I have two kids and a full time job. I’ve also decided to try to make 10,000 steps every day that I do this, to prevent the creep that happens when you do nothing but sit at a desk for all day. So I pour myself a glass of wine, turn up Spotify, and let the words happen. Jonathan was very inspiring in having me sketch out the first few chapters in outline form. That means I’m not grasping at straws so much.

Nikki Hyson: I’ve been working graveyards for the past eleven years, so my writing routine is a little varied. During the work week I try to write a little, sleep a little, and then write some more before work. Invariably I fall behind over the week and write from about 4 a.m. to 10 a.m. on my two nights off plus a couple hours more in the afternoon after a nap. My writing nook generally depends on how well the writing is going. If it’s just ripping along I can be found at the desk in my bedroom, or in a corner of the living room when the rest of the house is sleeping. If I’ve grown restless, or crabby from lack of sleep, I haunt my favorite coffee shop. A confirmed “first draft Luddite”, I hand write every NaNo so my top speed is about 750 words an hour (and yes, I do count each word after every writing session). I generally log a minimum of 80 hours over the month of November to hit the 50k finish line.

Regina Kammer: Ha! Don’t get me started about my non-existent writing routine. I’m terribly undisciplined in that regard (also, I’m really slow. But that’s another story.). However, during NaNoWriMo, I am opposite-Regina and am very disciplined, writing until I reach that daily goal, or catching up on two days-worth of words. Clearly I have not internalized the principles of NaNoWriMo in my real life, which is kind of the point of NaNoWriMo. Sigh.

I write at my desk, generally, because it’s far more ergonomic. I do have the luxury of a laptop for when I’m traveling (which I did the first weekend of NaNoWriMo) or need to be alone. I write best when I’m alone. I also write best first thing after getting up, and really late at night. Since my house is busy in the morning, and my office is the heart of that busy-ness, I have to drag the laptop off to a quiet corner of the house when I want to write in the morning. Late, late at night? I’m totally alone.

Kathy Kitts: My writing routine depends on my day, but usually I prefer to write one scene in the morning and one at night after everyone else is in bed. My average scene runs 800-1,000 words so two scenes usually guarantees I make my word count.

I write best after 8:30 p.m. I need quiet, so I attend NaNo write-ins as a reward for making my word count and to help support others. Any additional word count I do manage at the events I bank for Thanksgiving when I’m lucky if I can squeeze in 100 words while hiding from relatives in the bathroom.

 The November/December 2014 issue of Writer’s Digest
has the perfect amount of resources, tips, and advice to help
you hit your goal of 50,000 words during the month of November.

Tiffany Luckey: I usually write in the evening and at night at home. I tend to listen to some kind of water sounds—from babbling brooks to beach waves crashing. It relaxes me, yet keeps me focus. I also cut off all TV, because distraction. 

Kristen Rudd: I write in the morning. Or the evening. Or late at night. Or the afternoon. I write from my bed. Or my red chair. Or at the closed make-up table in my bedroom. Or in cafes. Or in the library. Or at my daughter’s ballet school. I don’t have a good routine. As an ML, I both host and go to a lot of write-ins and events during November, so I spend a lot of NaNo writing outside my home. This isn’t something I can sustain during the rest of the year—I think my family would miss me.

I like the idea of writing in the morning—your work gets done first thing and you can feel accomplished. You know what else I like? My bed. I used to write at night, and I do a lot of night-time writing during NaNo, but I’m worn out by then and would much rather write when I have more of myself to give to it. I found a couple of NaNos ago that I do really solid work—and quick work—in the afternoon. It was surprising. As a homeschooling mom, devoting afternoons to writing is … hard. We moved across the country recently, and I’m hoping that this year’s experience with NaNo will help me develop some solid writing routines here that carry me through the year. I have some serious expectations, and NaNoWriMo had better deliver. Or else.

EJ Runyon: Routines change from year to year. This year’s routine seems to be the daily word count goal plus a bit more. I work that in three tries. Scrivener makes that easy, because you’re looking at thing in scenes anyway. You’re not faced with just one blank page. So we’re talking about 560 words or so a try. I’ll be working every day, three times a day when it strikes me I have more to add, slow and steady. No pressure at all.

Jessica Schley: My routine is a cleared desk, a mug of tea, and a writing software called OmmWriter. I draft in that software, because I can’t see my word count until I move my mouse. Then I dump that days’ writing into Scrivener to organize later.

Brian Schwarz: My writing routine is quite simple. I cobble together odds and ends whenever possible. I do what I can to block out a time, a specific 1-2 hour range, but the reality is that I’m doing things all of the time and if I only write when I have 1-2 hours I’d never finish anything (remember, 2 years and 40,000 words). Instead I set my alarm for 30 minutes early. I wake up and drink a cup of coffee in the quiet hours and peck away at the keyboard. If I’m really rolling, I hang on to that feeling and try to carry it over to my next half hour. I come home from work having thought about my ideas for most of the day (and maybe typed a few out if it’s slow) and I skip a single episode of some TV series to peck away at the keyboard. And when all of this fails, when I hit the snooze button because it’s Thursday and I’m tired and when I get home from work and choose to take a nap instead, I stay up an hour past my bedtime and I just try to get out a few words. Nothing bold. Nothing big. Just a few. And a few turns into a few more in a flash, and pretty soon I’m staring at 5 or 6 hours of sleep and I don’t really care. Because sleep is overrated (at least in November). 

Jonathan Wood: I commute from Long Island into New York city every day. It’s an hour long train ride each way. So that provides me with the great majority of my writing time, and it has done for about 8 years now. It’s usually fairly tricky for me to write at home with a young family, so that quiet time, disconnected from the internet is perfect for me to put my head down and churn out the words. That said, I’ve never before had daily goals—some days are worse, some are better. Now I’m feeling the pressure to hit around 1,700-1,800 words a day, so if I fall short I’ll jump on the computer after everyone else in my house has fallen asleep and do the make up then.

*     *     *     *     *

“Fast Fingers” by Katie Kreuger via Flickr. (Creative Commons licensed image)

BY AMANDA L. BARBARA

The Internet has brought about a new age of experimentation in publishing, and stepping into the literary laboratory is the prolific storytelling duo, Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant.

The authors’ recent project, “Fiction Unboxed,” was a crowdfunded experiment in writing and publishing a book live in 30 days. Platt’s and Truant’s goal was to give aspiring authors and fans of their popular podcast a look behind the curtain at their writing process.

Platt and Truant are no strangers to writing quickly. They wrote more than 1.5 million words in a year and continue to publish fiction at a breakneck pace.

For “Fiction Unboxed,” they started without any characters, a plot, or even a genre in mind and careened into publishing a book in front of a live audience. This project had nearly 1,000 backers and overfunded at $65,535. Backers got to see the authors’ story meetings, watch them hammer out the plot, write, and edit the final draft.

It’s easy to see the appeal in writing a book quickly. Platt’s and Truant’s method meant they could start earning revenue from their published book right away and get to work on their next project.

But what about the average writer who isn’t used to cranking out a story at such a fast pace? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of rapid writing.

The Benefits of Writing Fast

There are a number of potential rewards to producing and publishing quickly, including:

• Reader engagement. “Fiction Unboxed” generated an enormous amount of engagement among indie authors, the duo’s nonfiction audience. But even for fiction writers, publishing quickly can help maintain readers’ interest in your work. The New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout has cultivated an enormous fan base due to her ability to quickly produce more of the books her readers love on an accelerated timeline.
• Exposure. Doing something out of the ordinary is a great way to get noticed as an author. Platt and Truant used their writing process to create a highly shareable and marketable product that gained a lot of attention simply because it had never been done before.
• Momentum. Writing quickly obviously helps you produce more work, but it also helps you gain traction from a publishing and marketing perspective. The more you publish, the more chances readers have to discover your work, and a new title can provide a boost to your entire catalogue.

Potential Drawbacks of Rapid Production

While there are a number of benefits to writing and publishing quickly, Platt and Truant are experienced writers who understand the publishing process. They know what they can reasonably accomplish, and they have a team in place to help with other aspects of book production, such as audio and cover design. 

Producing a book in 30 days probably wouldn’t work for a less experienced writer. If you’re thinking of giving yourself an ambitious deadline, proceed with caution to avoid these pitfalls:

• Lower quality: The duo’s final product, a YA Steampunk novel called “The Dream Engine,” has a 4.8 rating on Amazon. But for new authors, a tight deadline may not leave enough time for professional editing and cover design, which could result in a lackluster book.
• Public failure: “Fiction Unboxed” was a risky endeavor. What if they hadn’t completed the project? What if the book flopped?

Want to have the first draft of your novel finished
one month from today? Use this discounted bundle of
six great resources to make that happen.
Order now.

While you shouldn’t let fear hold you back as a writer, always consider how readers will receive your book.

“Fiction Unboxed” was a fun experiment, but the underlying message isn’t that you should try to write a book in 30 days. Platt and Truant wanted to show writers that storytelling doesn’t have to be a painful process and that with practice, good stories can be written quickly.

Most importantly, you have to do the work. Platt and Truant haven’t produced so many books by sitting around waiting for inspiration to strike — they’ve done it by hitting their word count day after day. Hard work is something they stressed in the book that inspired the project and in “Fiction Unboxed” itself.

There’s no one process that works for every author, but you shouldn’t be afraid to try new things. Just keep writing, and the words will come.  

Amanda L. Barbara is vice president of Pubslush, a global crowdfunding publishing platform for the literary world. This platform is bridging the gap between writers, readers, publishers and industry leaders. Follow Amanda on Twitter and Google+.

The nonfiction book proposal is a unique creature. It’s an essential package that you must create to attract the attention of publishers and “sell” them on your book, but most writers balk at the thought of spending weeks and even months developing and honing it.

But what if you could accelerate the process of creating your nonfiction book proposal? What if you could write a powerful proposal both quickly and professionally? Ryan G. Van Cleave shows you how with The Weekend Book Proposal, a practical, step-by-step guide to the nuts and bolts of faster, better proposal writing.

Here, Ryan shares three questions you should ask yourself as you start planning your proposal.

1. WHO ARE MY READERS?

Start with your mom, dad, spouse, and immediate family. Then expand this list to any aunts, uncles, and cousins who you can guilt-trip into buying a copy. Great—you’ve sold maybe a dozen copies to people who are buying it merely because they know you. Now the real work starts. Who else is going to be persuaded to buy the book?

Determine the Primary and Secondary Markets

Your primary audience is the ideal group of people who’d love to read your book. If your book is a Florida orchid-growing how-to, the primary audience is Floridians who grow orchids. If your book is a memoir about a forty-something using her renewed Catholic faith and positive thinking to create weight loss and overall health improvement, then the primary audience is health aficionados. But it might also be Catholic women’s groups. And perhaps priests. Most books have a clear primary audience, though books that cover a lot of ground (like the latter example) might have more.

Your secondary audiences are the groups of people beyond the obvious primary audience. For that orchid book? Secondary audiences might be gardeners in Florida or the entire Southeast. Landscapers. Organic farmers. Member groups of the American Orchid Society. Botanical garden gift shops. For that memoir? Any Catholic church. Catholic parenting groups. Fitness clubs. Fans of The Secret and The Law of Attraction. Active forty-somethings and senior citizens. And so on.

Books should always have quite a few reasonable secondary markets. Make sure to mention them, even if they seem fairly small. The primary market should be doing the heavy lifting, yet secondary markets that bring in a couple dozen or a few hundred sales add up quickly.

2. WHAT MAKES MY BOOK SPECIAL?

How are you going to convince a publisher that your book is special? Different? Noteworthy? Reader-friendly?

It comes down to being clear about your book’s features and benefits. But the way to do that is in the context of seeing what’s already available in print—your competitors.

Determine the Existing Titles That Compete with Yours

It’s best to start by gathering the information already out there, so early on in your proposal, include a list of the top four to six books that in some way compete with yours. Don’t be scared to admit that similar books already exist. Editors expect that. In fact, if you can’t find any books that are similar to yours, editors will be leery of taking your book on. The assumption is, if it’s a viable market, someone would’ve already tapped into it. So find and name your main competitors.

Determine Your Book’s Features and Benefits

Here’s the tricky part. Now it’s on you to think through what features or benefits your book has that the competing books don’t (or at least the ones they haven’t done as effectively as you will). Here are a few possible ideas:

• Thoroughness: If your book is the most comprehensive, authoritative book on a certain topic, you’re in great shape.
• Timeliness: Think about all the Y2K books or 2012 Mayan prophecy books that flooded the shelves before a specific calendar date. Dealing with the context of your book—the place and time—can help persuade your audience.
• Access: If your book provides special access to something or someone people want to know more about, that’s a real value.
• Skills: Are you teaching something useful, like how to safely shed two pounds a week by doing yoga in your office chair at work? I wouldn’t know how to do that without reading your book (and perhaps getting more flexible—ouch!).
• Knowledge: Are you making readers more knowledgeable? Are you promising to raise their IQ? Despite having no evidence to support the idea that they raised the intelligence level of children, the Baby Einstein DVDs sold like crazy when they came out. Why? Every parent wanted their kids to be as smart as Albert Einstein.

3. WHO AM I TO WRITE THIS BOOK?

Even if you have an amazing idea and a dynamite book proposal, you might still lose the deal if you don’t present yourself as the single best candidate to do the job. You’ll need to discuss the following in your proposal:

Your Writing Background

If you have previous training in writing or some of your writing has been published somewhere—anywhere—awesome! That’s terrific information to include. Having something you wrote that’s been published says a few things:

• You can complete a written piece.
• You can edit/proofread it to a professional standard.
• You understand how to submit work to a publisher.
• You have worked successfully with a publisher in the past.
• You take yourself seriously as a writer.
• You’re building a writing career.

All of these seem like valuable things to communicate to a prospective publishing partner, no?

If you don’t have professional writing credentials, you might decide to take a bit of time to generate some. Considering how many print and online opportunities there are these days, it’s easier than ever to get something accepted for publication. Begin with local publication opportunities to start racking up credentials.

Your Education

Here’s where you say you went to Stanford (unless, like me, you didn’t!). If you went to a number of different colleges and universities, don’t give the entire laundry list. Give the last one and/or the most prominent. If your education stopped at high school or before, leave that out entirely. Now calm down—I’m not saying you’re a dud because you didn’t go to college. People like John D. Rockefeller, Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Dave Thomas, and Henry Ford all did quite well without college, I realize. But it’s just too easy for an editor who’s never met you to have a negative reaction to your not having what’s considered to be the bare minimum of education. (If your book is about succeeding without a college degree, however, by all means, lead with that fact.)

A word of warning: Academic writers are trained to write stuffy, dense, reader-unfriendly works. So if you have advanced degrees, make sure that your entire proposal reads like you’re writing for actual people versus Socrates. Keep the massive, convoluted sentences and exotic vocabulary to a minimum. You’re writing for the twenty-first-century audience, not William Shakespeare.

Education, though, is more than just degree programs. Consider beefing up this area of your bio by taking classes at the local community college. You can find first-rate online classes through Writer’s Digest University (www.writersonlineworkshops.com), Stanford University Continuing Studies (continuingstudies.stanford.edu/courses/onlinewriters.php), and the Gotham Writers’ Workshop (www.writingclasses.com). If you go any of these routes, they’re worth mentioning.

Relevant Background Information

You might be inclined to add that you raise Yorkshire terriers or that you hold three Guinness Book of World Records records relating to bubble gum blowing. Good for you. Just don’t put it in your author bio because it’s not relevant (unless, of course, your book is on raising/hoarding dogs or bubble gum blowing, or if it’s a memoir on your life quest to get as many world records as humanly possible).

If you truly think something is interesting albeit a bit off the topic of your book, fine; just include no more than one of those factoids to give your life a little color. Such an addition might make you stand out from a slew of other authors’ proposals. It also might make sense if you don’t have much to say by way of education or writing background. You have to say something, right? I get that. Just don’t go overboard with hobbies, interests, and skills. This isn’t a job résumé or dating profile, after all.

If you choose to add a nice detail for flavor, see if it can also—on some level—suggest something that might help your cause as a writer. For instance, if you’re a freelance web designer, then you must be pretty creative and industrious. You also probably know how to use the Internet to promote yourself and your book. And if you say you get in at least three rounds of golf a week at the best country club in San Jose (Silicon Valley), it’s reasonable to assume you might have an in with high-tech innovators and dot-com entrepreneurs. If you’re writing a book about the dot-com bubble bursting, then this is crucial information to share.

–

Looking for more ways to boost your proposal-writing skills and increase your chances of publication? The Weekend Book Proposal is jam-packed with proven strategies, sample queries and proposals, interviews with publishing experts, and “Hit the Gas” tips for speeding up the proposal process. Whether you’re proposing a nonfiction book, memoir, anthology, textbook, or novel, you’ll learn how to succeed and prosper as a writer—and sell your books before you’ve even written them!

Rachel Randall is the managing editor of Writer’s Digest Books.

For some writers, the most difficult thing about writing is just getting started. For myself, I can’t think of anything more intimidating than a blank word document. I spend so much time trying to construct the perfect sentence that it no longer feels like writing. I analyze every word choice. That’s unhealthy.

Many of our NaNoWriMo experts suffer from the same thing. There’s a real difficulty in getting started the right way. And maybe that’s the heart of the issue—it’s not about starting the right way, but just starting in general. Just write. Don’t analyze or think. That can (and will) come later.

And until then, hopefully you can learn a thing or two from our experts. All of them have something important to stay, whether they’ve hit a homerun on their first swing or are still stuck in the mud, waiting to get started.

As always, feel free to respond to our question in the comments below! Maybe you have a trick to getting started and staying motivated that our writers haven’t yet shared.

[Note: If you missed the first part of our NaNoWriMo blogging series, you can find an introductory post from each of our contributors, here.]

Question: Do you find it easy or hard to get started writing? What was your motivation for getting NaNoWriMo kicked off?

Rachael Herron: This is my ninth NaNoWriMo, so I can say with some confidence that for me, writing a lot in November means writing even more than I predict I will.

When I was a kid, I had a ham radio. I could spend hours each night turning that hair-trigger tuner, a fraction of a millimeter at a time. Most stations came in fuzzy and scratchy, but then I’d hit exactly the right sweet spot, and I’d be listening to New Zealand—a whole world away—coming loud and clear into my attic bedroom. After that, it didn’t take much extra effort to lie there and listen until I fell asleep, the words streaming into my ears. That’s what NaNo feels like to me. I’ve found that I write more blog posts than normal in November. I write longer, more detailed emails to family and friends. And it’s not even a method of procrastination (I swear—I’m writing this post only after finishing my words for the day). It’s just what happens.

It’s like I tune in to something that was already there. I tune in every day, without fail, and the words flow (not without difficulty, mind. Never trust a person who says all the words come to him easily, that he’s channeling a muse. He’s lying to you. Words come at a price, but if you’re tuned in to the right frequency, they don’t have to cost so much). The words that flow onto my page in November are not the good words or the right ones; my sentences are not even remotely anything like the polished ones I’ll be proud of later, but that’s okay. I know that now. I don’t pause to fix a single sentence because I trust my ear. What sounds wrong now (so much!) will sound wrong again in exactly the same way when I’m revising, and then I’ll bring a different skill set to the work to fix it.

Don’t worry, though: you don’t need that skill set now. For November, you just need to write. That’s it. You don’t even need a plot. That will come as you write. By doing nothing more than showing up and writing every day, you tun in to the station that plays the words you’re looking for, the words that you put onto the page in black and white, the words that get you closer, every day, to a finished first draft.

Nikki Hyson: I usually find myself teetering on the edge of wild excitement and paralyzing fear before every new writing project. NaNoWriMo has never changed that for me, but it has prevented me from lingering there for too long. Minutes and hours spent wondering if an idea is any good isn’t lifting my word count.

Regina Kammer: By November 1st, I’ve been thinking about my NaNoWriMo story for so long, I cannot wait to get it down! I find it very easy to start and usually my first day is pretty productive. Halloween is really quiet at our house, so I don’t burn out—I stay up until midnight then start writing. Even if it’s only a little bit, that’s okay. I wake up later on November 1st having some words under my writing belt!

But the first days of NaNoWriMo 2014—a weekend—were challenging because of I had a mini-family reunion scheduled, so I had to get as many words down as possible those wee hours after midnight November 1st. At one point that weekend, though, my doggy and I sat in the sun (yes, we traveled to a sunny place) and I wrote a few hundred words while she slept. 

Kathy Kitts: Usually starting is easy for me, but not this time. I couldn’t get my inner critic shoved in his box for the duration. Allow me to explain.

During one of my region’s pre-NaNo events, we passed out Chinese takeout boxes on card stock. We drew or cut out of magazines something that resembled our inner critics. We crumpled them up, shoved them in our boxes, sealed them in, and promised to not open the boxes until December 1. Unfortunately, I was traveling for work and missed that event. So, I said to myself, “I don’t need no stinkin’ box, I’m a veteran. I’ve done this eleven times already. I can handle my inner critic.”

He handed me my butt and them made nasty comments on its size, shape and amount of cellulite.

On day one, after leading a workshop on NaNoWriMo for fifteen new wrimos, I sat down to write, and it took me twice as long to get to 800 words as it usually takes to make the daily word count. It was almost midnight. I had to post my anemic word count. Ah the chagrin!

So [Sunday] morning (day two), I used felt pens to draw the little [expletive deleted] and shoved him in his box. I kicked out 2,000 words in no time. (For a PDF of the foldable Chinese takeout box I made to share, click here.)

Moral of the story? I need NaNoWriMo and I still need to be reminded that you can’t edit what you don’t write.

[As for my motivation,] I was giving a workshop on NaNoWriMo and Writer’s Digest is profiling me. No pressure.

 The November/December 2014 issue of Writer’s Digest
is geared towards making sure you are ready to meet your
goal of 50,000 words during the month of November.

Tiffany Luckey: It’s actually pretty easy for me to get started on NaNoWriMo. Finishing is what’s challenging. I’m actually doing a modified version of NaNoWriMo, where I’m writing three or four short stories instead of one 50,000-word novel. I’ve been wanting to get back to writing more short stories, so I’m using NaNoWriMo as motivation to do so. That’s how I roll.

Kristen Rudd: The one thing that seems to be marking my NaNoWriMo experience this year is that nothing is consistent. I mean, it’s only been two days so far, but whatever.

The words are either flowing easily, or I’m sitting there starting at that little flashing cursor, or I’m pecking away, bit by bit. I may or may not have spent the first hour “writing” my novel this year procrastinating putting the first words down by piddling around on the internet. This is normal, yes? Something about committing—there’s no turning back. It’s scary. It’s messy. And I don’t like messes. So I wrote two separate intros, which I have to say, is very good for the word count.

I’ve seen a lot of people online question whether they should do this. I say: DO IT. Just jump in. Whatever voice is nagging you to create something is bigger and better than the voice nagging you about all the reasons why you can’t. Shut that second voice up. Write.

EJ Runyon: For me, it’s power naps that motivate me. Strangely, I enjoy the idea of starting in right at midnight. I’m a night owl anyway. There’s a tool I’m using that figures out when you need to go to bed in order to wake refreshed, so I plugged in Midnight and worked backwards from there. Got in 105 minutes of shut-eye and when I woke up I was revved and bright-eyed, very motivated after the power nap. Getting started felt like a cinch!

Brian Schwarz: Well, fellow Nanoers, two days have passed and I’m about 178 words into my masterpiece (which, by the way, is ahead of schedule from last year). Each year I tell myself the same things:

1) Don’t get behind schedule
and
2) Really Brian, don’t get behind schedule

But, unfortunately, there is no magic way to make room in your life for writing a book. Most of the time, this room comes in tiny slices, odds and ends that used to be reserved for naps or snacking or catching up on the latest episodes of your third and fourth favorite TV shows (I’m sorry, but no book will ever keep me from watching The Walking Dead or Dr. Who). If you’re anything like me, you’re probably feeling a great bit of despair right now, maybe even mixed with some anxious and gripping terror, but take a moment to take a deep breath and remember this—there are only 30 days in the month of November. For all the hair pulling and teeth grinding, the amount of physical time remains the same, and eventually it will pass and you will be staring at a really long word document. That’s how it happened for me last time, and you better believe that’s how it’s going to happen for me this time. I will write with reckless abandon. When I miss the first two days, well, that just means the next two are going to be more reckless; if I only catch up by one day, I’ll hang on to that 1,700 words and ensure I fit it into my schedule somehow. That’s the trick after all, isn’t it? Not giving in to the despair and the frustration. Not letting those negative can’t-do attitudes, the external voices or the internal voice win. Because you CAN do this.

Let me tell you what NaNo has been for me, so that hopefully you can use some of my hard-learned lessons to your own advantage.

I find it incredibly hard to get started writing for NaNoWriMo. I always start slow. Very slow. But once I’m moving, I stop counting words and struggling to hit a certain number and just start getting lost in my story. I want to get it out of me, because if I keep it inside I feel like it will never do anyone any good. And that’s what motivates me. I want to impact someone with the message that keeps burning a hole in me. But I feel like I need to get this out so that someone can hear it, find truth in it, and feel what my characters are feeling which is in part what I am feeling. In last year’s NaNo, I worked on a project (my first) that was 40,000 words in the making. It took me two years to get to 40,000 words. But after NaNo was over, I had 120,000 words, literally two times the length of what I wrote in two years. That’s why I love NaNoWriMo. It’s a great motivator (apparently it’s a better motivator of me than I am of me).

Jonathan Wood: I’ve been writing every week day, rain or shine for about 8 years now. It’s very routine for me. So getting started isn’t a huge problem. Also, Natania [Barron] and I did a lot of planning for this, which helps me a lot. I’ve got multiple bullet points outlining each chapter, so I know exactly what I need to be doing at each point in time. There’s no fretting about plot, just the act of exploring the character in the situations we’ve created.

As for my motivation—this was just the right project at the right time. I recently delivered book 4 of my Hero series to my publisher, and was casting around for a new project. I’ve known Natania for years and we’ve knocked around the idea of collaborating a few times before. But the timing has never worked out. This year it did. So far the experience has been awesome.

*     *     *     *     *

Everyone thinks about doing it, yet most people who do start a novel end up stalling out after a few chapters. Where do these would-be novelists go wrong? Are the characters dull and clichéd? Did the story arc collapse? Did they succumb to a dreaded bout of “writer’s block”? Or maybe it was all just taking too long?

These problems used to stop writers in their tracks, but nothing will get in your way after reading Write Your Novel in a Month. Author and instructor Jeff Gerke has created the perfect tool to show you how to prepare yourself to write your first draft in as little as 30 days. With Jeff’s help, you will learn how to organize your ideas, create dynamic stories, develop believable characters, and flesh out the ideal narrative for your novel—and not just for that rapid-fire first draft. Jeff walks you through the entire process, from initial idea to the important revision stage, and even explains what to do with your novel once you’re finished.

Cris Freese is the associate editor of Writer’s Digest Books.

We are only hours away from the month of November, which means many writers will be participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Whether you’re a veteran or a rookie at NaNoWriMo, tackling the goal of writing 50,000 words in a month is just a tad bit intimidating.

That’s why Writer’s Digest has brought together some NaNoWriMo experts who will be joining you in your quest this November. From a variety of different backgrounds and writing styles and genres, these folks are all attempting to write 50,000 words and will be reporting in on their progress twice per week. Currently, they’ve taken time out of their busy writing schedules to introduce themselves below. After you read their bios, be sure to check back in every Monday and Thursday during November for a progress update from our writers. They’ll have tips and thoughts on tackling stumbling blocks, hitting your goal, and more, throughout NaNoWriMo.

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo? Let us know! Give us your own bio and progress reports in the comments section!

*     *     *     *     *

Natania Barron and Jonathan Wood are, most of the time, speculative fiction writers. They share common affinity for video games, RPGs, action films, and caffeinated beverages. The rest of their lives is something of a study in contrast. Natania is a four-time participator, a two-time NaNoWriMo winner, while Jonathan’s never been daft enough to try it. Jonathan prefers an outline and a great deal of planning when writing novels. Natania prefers the “win and wait” model.

When it comes to influence, Natania often cites George R.R. Martin, but Jonathan “just doesn’t get those books”; Jonathan quite enjoys Robert Jordan, but Natania’s quite certain they’re best used as doorstops. While they’ve both published (separately) in Weird Tales and, collectively, in Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters, Jonathan’s known for his No Hero Series, published by Titan Books, which includes the tagline, “What Would Kurt Russell Do?” Natania’s debut novel, Pilgrim of the Sky, had floating mansions, parallel worlds, and absolutely no sign of Mr. Russell. Either way, they’re hoping to cobble together a weird fantasy novel, or at least the bare bones of one, during NaNoWriMo 2014.

They will be chronicling this mad collaboration at their blog, Two Brain Space.

Rachael Herron is a NaNo success story: NaNoWriMo 2006 was her first NaNo attempt, her first win, and thatbook turned into her first published novel. She is the internationally bestselling author of the novel Pack Up the Moon, the Cypress Hollow series, and the memoir, A Life in Stitches. Her next mainstream standalone, Splinters of Light, will be out in March 2015 from Penguin.

She teaches people how to stop sabotaging their own writing practices, and can’t wait for this year’s NaNo, in which she’ll start her 2016 release. She received her MFA in writing from Mills College, and when she’s not busy writing, she’s a 911 fire/medical dispatcher for a Bay Area fire department.

Rachael is struggling to learn the accordion and can probably play along with you on the ukulele. She’s a New Zealander as well as an American, and she’s been actively blogging since 2002.

Nikki Hyson writes modern fantasy with a classical twist. Currently unpublished, she’s in the process of querying agents while she second drafts a sequel. An avid support of NaNoWriMo, this will be her fifth year of literary abandon (and hopefully a 5th win). Also, for the past 2 years, she’s participated in Camp NaNo.

A confirmed “pantser,” she generally lets a question seed itself in her subconscious, germinating for weeks to determine if it has the goods to sprout. Usually, she’s just as surprised by her endings as any reader. Never satisfied with writing by accident, she loves “how-to-write” books. Some of her most used are: Tell Me (How to Write) a Story by EJ Runyon, On Writing by Stephen King, Wired for Story by Lisa Cron, and No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty.

You can visit Nikki at her Facebook page.

The November/December 2014 issue of Writer’s Digest
is loaded with advice, tips, and strategies
to help you survive—and thrive—during NaNoWriMo.

Regina Kammer writes historical, contemporary, and Steampunk erotica and erotic romance. Her short storiesand novels have been published by Cleis Press, Go Deeper Press, Ellora’s Cave, House of Erotica, and her own imprint, Viridum Press. She began writing historical fiction with romantic elements during NaNoWriMo 2006, switching to historical erotica when all her characters suddenly demanded to have sex.

Regina has done—and won—NaNoWriMo eight times and has published four of those novels (with a fifth in her publisher’s editing queue): the Amazon best-selling Victorian erotic romances The Pleasure Device and Disobedience by Design; the award-nominated erotic romance The General’s Wife: An American Revolutionary Tale; and the erotic epic Hadrian and Sabina: A Love Story.

Regina approaches NaNoWriMo with an outline leaving enough room for character flights of fancy. She frequently gets lost in Thesaurus.com, the OED online, or historical clothing websites wondering what her characters are wearing before she can get them naked.

You can visit Regina at kammerotica.com, follow her on Twitter @Kammerotica, and like her on Facebook.

Kathy Kitts (AKA Apollo16) is a retired geology professor who served on the science team for NASA’s Genesis Mission. She had dozens of nonfiction publications, from professional papers to textbooks, but is no longer interested in “what is,” but rather, “what if.” Her latest publications include short literary fiction (Storyteller’s Anthology) and speculative fiction (Ad Astra, as K. Eisert, and Mad Scientist, as K. Kitts). For more links and NaNoWriMo related goodies, visit her website.

She’s been participating in NaNoWriMo since 2003 and has volunteered as an ML, ML Mentor, Moderator, and site debugger. In 2014, she’s going for her 12th win. She’s done NaNo as a “pantser” and a “plotter.” Knowing what to write next is helpful, but Kathy enjoys the energy of making-it-up as she goes, too. Recently, she’s outlined one third of the novel, written like mad, yanked the gems from that section to plot the next third, then rinsed and repeated. It’s saved her a lot of time during revision.

Tiffany Luckey is the associate editor of Writer’s Digest whose freelance work has been published in Cincinnati magazine, Quill and on the entertainment website Starpulse.com. She’s also the founder of the humor/TV site AnotherTVBlog.com. Tiffany has participated in NaNoWriMo only once before three years ago (and has lived to tell about it!), and she’s eager to do a modified version of it this year by penning a series of short stories in November. Her favorite types of books are suspense and thriller novels, and her favorite writing-related website (besides WritersDigest.com, of course) is JungleRedWriters.com. Some fun random facts about Tiffany: She loves watching horror TV shows, but not horror movies; she has an unhealthy obsession with handbags and chocolate; if she could be anybody in the world, past or present, it would be 1990s’ Janet Jackson; the cheetah is her spirit animal; and she listens to trickling water sounds via YouTube when she writes.  

Kristen Rudd lives in Cary, NC, and is a homeschool mom by day. By night, she’s exhausted. She lovesNaNoWriMo. Loves it. This is her 8th year participating and her 4th as an ML (Municipal Liaison). She’s won four times.

Kristen writes YA and adult fiction, and has one complete, will-never-see-the-light-of-day novel and a whole passel of unfinished ones. Pretty much everyone in her life has told her to just finally finish something already, so she’s rebelling this year to work on something already in progress.

Somewhere in between a planner and a pantser, Kristen starts outlining her story, then November hits, so she panics for a little while and dives right in. Mostly, she tries to hit word count and then set up a few scenes for the next day.

A few of her favorite YA authors are Kristin Cashore, Patrick Ness, Maggie Stiefvater, and Melina Marchetta. She’s also a big fan of Rob Kroese and Wayne Franklin. You can visit her at kristenrudd.com.

NaNoWriMo’s been very good to EJ Runyon. She began in 2001, and in 2006 she quit Software, sold her house, and went back to University. Now it’s writing and coaching daily. It’s her life and she loves it.

NaNoWriMo set her on the path to writer’s nirvana. In 2012, six short stories pulled from various NaNo novels became part of Claiming One, from Inspired Quill (UK). Then, in 2013, her ’08 NaNo became Tell Me (How to Write) A Story, a writer’s guide. This year, ’03 NaNo’s became a debut novel, A House of Light & Stone.

She’s a Scrivener pantser all the way, and even created a jumpstart template for coaching clients. Cheeky, she suggests her writing site, Bridge to Story, for 52 free lessons.

It’s been everything wonderful you’d possibly dream. 2016 & 2017 will see another how-to and a novel. She alternates literary fiction with how-to guides.

Wordspeed, WriMos!

Jessica Schley is a former book publishing company peon turned grad student, bookseller, and contemporary YA writer. Though her freelance writing has all been nonfiction and runs the gamut from bible studies to test prep materials, her fiction is all about the craziness of real life of being a teen. Now that she’s almost finished with grad school, you can find her hanging out on Twitter and on the boards at Absolute Write.

When it comes to creating, especially creating fast, she’s always a bit of a “gardener,” to borrow George R.R. Martin’s wonderful analogy, but lately has discovered her books benefit from a bit of an architectural hand, too. This NaNo, she’ll be trying both—a solid outline but with freedom to run another direction as needed to keep the words flowing. 2014 will be her 10th NaNoWriMo, in which she’ll be trying to defend a (very slightly) winning record. Here’s to 50,000!

You can visit Jessica at jessicaschley.com.

Brian Schwarz is an author/musician from Minneapolis, MN. Spending most of his young adult life touring in a modern rock band, he rarely had time for writing anything more than song lyrics, let alone novels as he had so aspired in grade school

In 2013 (finding he had time on his hands for the first time in ten years) he wrote his debut novel—Shades (view the trailer here)—a 120,000 word pre-apocalyptic thriller during NaNoWriMo. His book won the NaNoWriMo and Lulu sponsored Let’s Go Wrimos award, and was debuted at Book Expo America in NYC.

This will be his second year participating in NaNoWriMo, where he hopes to finish his next project, a Young Adult mystery with a science fiction tilt. He goes about his writing as haphazardly as he goes about his life, with a general idea of beginnings and endings—making the rest up as he goes.

Recently he’s been reading Veronica Roth, Gillian Flynn, and George R.R. Martin.

You can visit Brian at BrianRSchwarz.com.

*     *     *     *     *

Find the focus, energy, and drive you need to start—and finish—your book in a month. Write-A-Thon gives you the tools, advice, and inspiration you need to succeed before, during, and after your writing race. With solid instruction, positive psychology, and inspiration from marathon runners, you’ll get the momentum to take each step from here to the finish line. You’ll learn how to: train your attitude, writing, and life—and plan your novel or nonfiction book; maintain your pace; and find the best ways to recover and move forward once the writing marathon is finished and you have a completed manuscript in hand!

Cris Freese is the associate editor of Writer’s Digest Books. He has never participated in NaNoWriMo, but has contemplated it at the prodding of his co-workers and writing friends. Whether he actually decides to try to write a novel during the month of November 2014 remains to be seen.

BY WILL LITTLE

The starting gun is set to go off for the race to 50,000 words. At an average of 1,667 words a day, NaNoWriMo participants don’t have time to waste if they’re to reach the finish line. Yet many writers do just that—waste time, and plenty of it. Distraction derails so many NaNoWriMo writers that blogging about their failure has turned into an act of mass distraction—just another activity that writers would rather do than actually write their novels.

Of course, distraction has always been the curse of the writer. The fear of filling the empty space with words that matter is enough to put even the most talented off their food. Even disciplinarian Ernest Hemingway defrosted the freezer to delay the inevitable pain of putting pen to paper. But we should especially pity contemporary writers because the 21st century has put distraction everywhere they lay their keyboards.

Our study of 1,500 writers across the U.S.—conducted anonymously to keep people honest—backs this up. Just about anything can get in the way of writing, from the Internet to pets to DVD box sets and even ice cream in November! While the need to distract may be caused by putting off the pain of creating quality work, there comes a point when the excuses have to end and the writing must begin. To begin with the best odds of writing 50,000 of your own words by November 30th, consider these survey results and tips:

Step away from the browser.
Our survey found that 52% of writers claimed to have not finished their masterpieces because they spent too much time browsing the Internet. Watching videos of parkour gone wrong or reading the daily headlines is preferable to creating beautiful prose … at least in the short term. Consider buying or renting an old-fashioned typewriter for a month and nailing shut the office door with the computer and Internet router on the other side. Alternatively, disconnect the internet with software, such as Stop Procrastinating, to write just like Hemingway. But make sure you defrost the freezer first.

The November/December Writer’s Digest magazine 
is filled with advice for keeping the words coming. 
If you’re looking to increase your productivity or planning for NaNoWriMo, 
check out a preview in the Writer’s Digest Shop, or download it instantly.

Don’t feed the animals!
Or they’ll distract you. 7% of respondents claimed pets posed a risk to undermining their writing, with cats jumping on laps being the chief culprits. Consider hiring a petsitter for part of the month if your cat is especially fond of sitting on your keyboard.

Food, glorious food.
17% of writers surveyed said they’d eaten their word-count reward before they’d reached their day’s writing goal “at least once” during the month. That’s fine a time or two, but the habit of rewarding yourself for a goal you haven’t yet met can quickly spiral into marathon snacking sessions and very little writing. If you’re going to reward yourself with treats, here are some best practices for ensuring you stick to the goal: Put your treat into a container locked with a timer so you can’t access until you’ve worked your time. Enlist a friend or family member to withhold your goodies until you’ve completed the day’s work. Or consider that the real reward is reaching your daily writing goal—nothing more, nothing less will really satisfy you.

Honey, I’m home!
Partners, wives and husbands distracted 14% of respondents from laying down the lines. Netflix binges and leisurely cups of coffee were suggested as “creativity breaks”—a fancier term for “distractions.” If this sounds like something your significant other would do, there are solutions: Lock the door. Be clear about your goals. Set boundaries. And if those things fail, put a guard dog outside your writing room or have your partner sign a contract stating that he won’t disturb you while you’re writing—with a hefty fine to be paid if the contract is broken. Be creative about the fine; it doesn’t have to be financial. A massage every day for life would do nicely.

Work, party, work, party, work party …
22% of writers said they couldn’t summon up the creative muse because they were too tired from work or socializing. Try abstaining from partying for the month of November when possible (yes, we know it’s Thanksgiving) and look forward to celebrating with the mother of all parties on December 1st. If you’re tired from work, trying doing a half hour of exercise: it clears the mind and gives you energy to push through. Remember, it’s only for 30 days and it might just be worth it. You’re worth it!

Will Little is a writer and the creator of Stop Procrastinating, the app made by writers for writers to help beat procrastination. He also manages to write when his cat Moy isn’t sitting on his keyboard. Follow Will on Twitter at @stopprocras.

When I started reading Gone Girl, I’ll admit I had high expectations. “It’s incredible,” one friend told me after recommending it and praising it profusely. “You just won’t even believe what happens …” She stopped short, looking guilty. “I can’t say any more,” she said, almost at a whisper. “I don’t want to give anything away.”

If you haven’t read the novel, I don’t want to give anything away either. But suffice it to say (and you’ve probably heard it already) that Gone Girl contains some killer plot twists. The narrative builds and builds, and then—boom—a major revelation is revealed. And then another. And another. It makes for a delicious, tense, uncomfortable, and incredibly thrilling ride.

And here’s the thing: As implausible as some of the occurrences in Gone Girl are, they’re also set up in such a way that I embraced each of them, one right after the other. They felt organic. They felt natural. They didn’t feel forced.

How do we do that when writing fiction? How do we write plot twists and turns into our stories without seeming overly obvious? How do we surprise readers without coming completely out of left field?

In this excerpt from Story Trumps Structure, Steven James presents four ways to craft plot twists that readers will never see coming.

—

PLOT TWISTS: PRACTICAL STEPS TO PULLING THE RUG OUT

1. Eliminate the obvious

When coming up with the climax to your story, discard every possible solution you can think of for your protagonist to succeed.

Then think of some more.

And discard those, too.

You’re trying to create an ending that’s so unforeseen that if a million people read your book, not one of them would guess how it ends (or how it will get to the end), but when they finally come to it, every one of those people would think, Yes! That makes perfect sense! Why didn’t I see that coming?

The more impossible the climax is for your protagonist to overcome, the more believable and inevitable the escape or solution needs to be. No reader should anticipate it, but everyone should nod and smile when it happens. No one guesses, everyone nods. That’s what you’re shooting for.

While writing, ask yourself:  

What do I need to change to create a more believable world for each separate twist I’m including?

How can I drop the gimmicks and depend more on the strength of the narrative to build my twist?

Will readers have to “put up with” the story that’s being told in anticipation of a twist ending, or will they enjoy it even more because of the twist? How can I improve the pretwist story?

How can I make better use of the clues that prove the logic of the surface story to create the twist and bring more continuity to the story—but only after the twist is revealed?

2. Redirect suspicion

When you work on your narrative, constantly ask yourself what readers are expecting and hoping for at this moment in the story. Then keep twisting the story into new directions that both shock and delight them.

To keep readers from noticing clues, bury them in the emotion or action of another section. For example, in an adventure novel, offhandedly mention something during a chase scene, while readers’ attention is on the action, not the revelation. Use red herrings, dead ends, and foils. Bury clues in discussions of something else.

While writing, ask yourself: 

How can I do a better job of burying the clues readers need to have in order to accept the ending? Where do I need to bring those clues to the surface?

How can I play expectations based on genre conventions against readers to get them to suspect the wrong person as the villain or antagonist?

3. Avoid gimmicks

Readers want their emotional investment to pay off. The twist should never occur in a way that makes them feel tricked, deceived, or insulted. Great twists always deepen, never cheapen, readers’ investment in the story.

This is why dream sequences typically don’t work—the protagonist thinks she’s in a terrible mess, then wakes up and realizes it was all just a dream. These aren’t twists because they almost never escalate the story but often do the very opposite, revealing to readers that things weren’t really that bad after all (de-escalation). Showing a character experiencing a harrowing or frightening experience and then having him wake up from a dream is not a twist; it’s a tired cliché.

How do you solve this? Simply tell the reader it’s a dream beforehand. It can be just as frightening without de-escalating the story’s tension, and it can also end in a way that’s not predictable.

While writing, ask yourself:

Will readers feel tricked, deceived, or insulted by this twist? If so, how can I better respect their ability to guess the ending of my story?

Have I inadvertently relied on clichés or on any plot turning points that have appeared in other books or movies? How can I recast the story so it’s fresh and original?

4. Write toward your readers’ reaction.

The way you want your readers to respond will determine the way you set up your twist. Three different types of twists all result in different reactions by readers: (1) “No way!” (2) “Huh. Nice!” and (3) “Oh, yeah!”

When aiming for the “No way!” response, you’ll want to lead readers into certainty. You want them to think that there’s only one possible solution to the story.

The more you can convince them that the story world you’ve portrayed is exactly as it appears to be—that only one outcome to the novel is possible—the more you’ll make their jaws drop when you show them that things were not as they appeared to be at all. If the twist is satisfying, credible, and inevitable based on what has preceded it, readers will gasp and exclaim, “No way! That’s awesome! I can’t believe he got that one past me.”

With the “Huh. Nice!” ending, you want to lead readers into uncertainty. Basically, they’ll be thinking, “Man, I have no idea where this is going.” When writing for this response, you’ll create an unbalanced, uncertain world. You don’t want readers to suspect only one person as the villain but many people. Only when the true villain is revealed will readers see that everything was pointing in that direction all along.

Finally, if you’re shooting for the “Oh, yeah!” reaction, you’ll want to emphasize the cleverness with which the main character gets out of the seemingly impossible-to-escape-from climax. Often we do that by allowing him to use a special gift, skill, or emblem that has been shown to readers earlier but that they aren’t thinking about when they reach the climax. Then, when the protagonist pulls it out, readers remember: “Yes! That’s right! He carries a can of shark repellent in his wetsuit! I forgot all about that!”

Relentlessly escalate your story while keeping it believable, surprising, and deeper than it appears.

While writing, ask yourself:

If I want to shock readers with the twist, have I led them into certainty as they try to predict the ending?

If I want readers to suspect a number of different endings, have I satisfactorily built up all the potential outcomes?

If I want readers to cheer at the ending, have I (1) created a seemingly impossible situation for the protagonist to escape from or conquer or (2) allowed the protagonist to persevere through wit or grit rather than with the help of someone else (that is, deus ex machina)?

Story Trumps Structure shows you how to shed the “rules” of writing—about three-act structure, rising action, outlining, and more—to craft your most powerful, emotional, and gripping stories. For Steven’s insights on ditching your outline, writing organically, crafting a satisfying climax, and escalating tension, be sure to check it out.

Rachel Randall is the managing editor of Writer’s Digest Books.

Photo by Jason Dunn, courtesy of a Creative Commons 2.5 License (http://photos.jasondunn.com/Logan/Logans-First-Halloween/10187418_RKHXSx#!i=701471756&k=ZMKnkbp)

This is the first year my 3-year-old has really gotten Halloween, so we’ve spent October seeking out any excuse for him to wear his costume and spend the day yelling “Boo!” As a result, at an array of fall festivals, we’ve collected a countertop full of pumpkins of assorted shapes and sizes; a small glow-in-the-dark bucket of unhealthy snacks; and, for the writer in the household (that would be me), one great reminder about developing characters.

The lesson came at a children’s Halloween parade at a local park. Costumed kids and their parents congregated by the gazebo waiting for the festivities to start. An announcement was made that the kids were to march behind a giant basketball character named “Hoopster” (how or why Hoopster became the recipient of this honor remains unclear) into the center of town, where storefronts were offering trick or treating.

We were surrounded by princesses and Power Rangers, scarecrows and jungle animals. Many of the costumes were homemade, some looking a little haggard or missing accessories, but the kids wearing them were playing their parts. The ballerinas twirled and curtseyed. The transformers stomped and zoomed. The superheroes posed, karate chopped and kicked. My little guy beamed at all of them, his fire chief’s hat on his head and bullhorn in his hand, ready to come to the rescue at the first sign of smoke or a cat stuck in a tree.

And then, at last, the moment we’d been waiting for: Hoopster appeared.

The parade couldn’t start yet, though. The ball portion of his costume was still deflated, and he stood off to the side fiddling with the thing while the kids milled around restlessly. Hoopster couldn’t get his inflating tool to work, and began tapping parents on their shoulders asking if anyone had a coin to help get the thing going. Apparently Hoopster had not done a practice run before game time.

Finally, the giant basketball took its place at the front of the pack, and the children fell into line, excited for the parade. Then, my son looked up at me, frowning for the first time all day. He seemed skeptical.

“Basketballs don’t have legs,” he said.

“True,” I said slowly, looking around. What else was there to say? It hadn’t bothered him that transformers don’t wear sneakers or lions don’t carry blankies or scarecrows don’t lick lollypops. So what had changed?

 The best instruction from Writer’s Digest on character development
is now available in a single book! Preview, order or download
Creating Characters: The Complete Guide to Populating Your Fiction now.

Developing Character So Readers Can Suspend Disbelief

Hoopster wasn’t really selling his costume, was he? He’d spent a pretty penny on an outfit that was actually a lot more over-the-top than anyone else’s. He’d probably felt like that was enough. But it wasn’t.

The problem wasn’t so much that Hoopster was having issues—most costumes have issues at some point, right? If he’d made a wisecrack about being left in the garage too long or even half-heartedly called out, “Oh no, how will I bounce now?” he probably could have saved face. But by letting the kids see that he was just a guy who couldn’t figure out how to direct the airflow into a big nylon sphere, he was inhibiting their ability to suspend their disbelief. His legs didn’t kill the authenticity; his lack of commitment to his character did.

What does this teach us about how to develop character? Well, a lot. Your character needs to be comfortable in his outfit from the very first scene. He needs to know how it fits, how it works, and who it makes him look like to everyone around him. And in order for him to pull that off, we as our characters’ creators need to know who they are, inside and out, from Page 1. We can’t let our own voices show through where we’re supposed to be writing as our characters. We need to commit to them, fully. We need them to commit to the story, fully. And only then can our readers commit fully, too.

Whether you’re writing a first draft or revising a complete story, as you work through scene by scene, make sure that your superhero has her mask tied tightly into place. Chapter 1 can’t show her off-kilter to the point that she hasn’t yet figured out that trick to keeping her cape from coming untied. And Chapter 10 can’t catch your cowboy without his hat or spurs because he got tired of messing with them and tossed them aside somewhere along the way.

You don’t want to let readers arrive for the parade to find that you haven’t yet fully inflated your lead characters. Make your characters sell the reality behind those costumes, however flawed they may be. If your characters truly believe that they are princesses, and behave as such, then your readers will be a lot less likely to notice—or care—that they’re wearing the wrong shoes or have lost the rhinestones out of their tiaras.

Happy Halloween!

Jessica Strawser
Editor, Writer’s Digest Magazine
Follow me on Twitter: @jessicastrawser

No matter what the genre, a good writer needs to set the mood for readers. Whether it’s a creaky old house or the tense moments leading up to a final confrontation, atmosphere can make or break the experience in any piece of writing. It makes the story believable.

In the following excerpt from The Art & Craft of Writing Christian Fiction, author Jeff Gerke walks us through (withexamples) using specific word choice and description to paint the kind of picture that keeps readers turning the page or glancing over their shoulder. Moreover, he shows us how we can use the same setting for three different places, but, by adding and changing detail, create drastically different moods. In this sense, the settings become different because the mood and atmosphere have changed.

*     *     *     *     *

Here’s an example in setting mood through word choice. I’m going to describe the same place three times but set three different moods. The place: a house in the suburbs. 

Example 1

A shadow lay over the yard like a grave cloth. The grass was long and unkempt. Against the bole of a withered oak lay a child’s ball shrouded by the creeping Bermuda. The features of the house shimmered in the blaze of the afternoon, blurred beyond recognition to the unwary stranger.

Okay, a bit cheesy, maybe, but you get the point. Not a fun place to go.

Example 2

Zinnias blossomed against the cherry tree beside the front porch, their sun-kissed inner circles wreathed in bashful pink. At the base of the grand oak, a mother rabbit led her furry litter out from the shade of a rhododendron’s lacy leaves. She sniffed the breeze with delicate nostrils, brushed her eye with a paw, and bounded into the sun.

Ah, a more pleasant place, yes? A Disney moment.

Example 3

The dirt showed through the grass in brown scars. The grass that remained was brittle and sharp, like a smoker’s eyebrows. Signs remained of the home’s luxuriant past—the garden path, the children’s toys, the “Home of the Week” sign out front—but they lay wasted. An American flag still fluttered on its pole, but the sun had washed it out to a milky translucence, and its trailing edge was shredded. It hung from only one tether, twisting in the wind like a castaway’s last cry for rescue.

Depressed yet?

I was describing the same place in all three passages: A yard, grass, some trees, and stuff on the lawn. But I created vastly different feelings for the scene that could then take place there.

I did this by means of three tricks. First, I selected different details to point out each time. All the things I mentioned could be there in the yard each time—the flag, the bunny, the child’s ball—but by plucking out specific details that supported the mood I was after, I was able to construct different images in your mind.

Second, I made heavy use of word pictures and comparisons. You’ll notice I never resorted to personification, in which I could’ve brought inanimate objects to life (“the weeds tried to choke the joy from the yard,” that sort of thing). The similes were sufficient.

Third, I chose my vocabulary carefully. In the first one, I used words like grave cloth, bole, shrouded, withered, and creeping. In the second, I used blossomed, furry, bashful, and bounded. (Plus a bunny—you can never go wrong with a furry bunny if you want to paint a happy mood.) In the third, I used wasted, brittle, and cry, plus images of regret and loneliness.

Actually, I did a fourth thing to create the mood I was after. This one’s so subtle I didn’t realize I was doing it until I stepped back and took a look. I used words that “sounded to the eye” like other words that helped paint the picture I was going for. For instance, I used shimmered when I was thinking shivered. I used cherry to sound close to cheery. And I used lacy to sound like lazy, as in relaxed.

Pretty cool, huh? I’ve gone a bit overboard to illustrate, but you can achieve the same effect with a less heavy hand simply by being mindful of the mood you’re trying to create.

You can do this to convey the narrator’s mood, too. Indeed, you could combine both advanced techniques in this book into one. You’ve got a viewpoint character who is the narrator, and now you want to illustrate his mood, so you do so by having him describe things in ways that reveal his inner state. Now we’re really at heady altitude.

The same house and yard might look all three of these ways at different points in the story depending on how the viewpoint character is feeling at the moment. We all see things we want to see—or fear—and your characters are no different.

So try it. Do you have a scene you want your reader to perceive as happy, frightening, or sad? Do you want the reader to arrive at the scene feeling wary, disarmed, or flush with young love? Then take out your paint kit (your thesaurus) and begin selecting your palette.

It should work the other way around, too. If you’re about to write a scene that is supposed to be scary, be mindful of the images and vocabulary you use to describe the setting. You should probably remove the happy family of bunnies, in other words.

Your words are setting a mood for your scenes, whether you think about them or not. I’m just asking you to think about them. You want your descriptions to help set the mood you’re after, not work against you.

Descriptions are like paintings. An artist will choose her tools carefully. The brushes, the canvas, the paints, the colors, and more. All of these help her convey the image and feeling she wants to create in the painting.

So it is in your fiction. It’s the words and images you choose in your description that convey the mood you want to create for your scenes. Be mindful of your tools, and paint away!

Cris Freese is the associate editor of Writer’s Digest Books.

With Halloween just one week away, we’re getting into the spirit of the season with these 13 quotes on the writing life from famous authors of horror, thriller and suspense:

1. “So where do the ideas—the salable ideas—come from? They come from my nightmares. Not the night-time variety, as a rule, but the ones that hide just beyond the doorway that separates the conscious from the unconscious.”
—Stephen King, “The Horror Writer Market and the Ten Bears,” November 1973, WD

2. “The first thing you have to know about writing is that it is something you must do everyday. There are two reasons for this rule: Getting the work done and connecting with your unconscious mind.”
—Walter Mosley

3. “I hope people are reading my work in the future. I hope I have done more than frightened a couple of generations. I hope I’ve inspired a few people one way or another.”
—Richard Matheson

4. “When one is writing a novel in the first person, one must be that person.”
—Daphne du Maurier

5. “When I write, I try to think back to what I was afraid of or what was scary to me, and try to put those feelings into books.”
—R.L. Stine

6. “[Horror fiction] shows us that the control we believe we have is purely illusory, and that every moment we teeter on chaos and oblivion.”
—Clive Barker

7. “Beauty is the sole legitimate province of the poem.”
—Edgar Allan Poe

8. “I have always loved to use fear, to take it and comprehend it and make it work and consolidate a situation where I was afraid and take it whole and work from there.”
—Shirley Jackson

9. “Writing is writing, and stories are stories. Perhaps the only true genres are fiction and nonfiction. And even there, who can be sure?”
—Tanith Lee

10. “I always wanted to be in the world of entertainment. I just love the idea of an audience being happy with what I am doing. Writing is showbusiness for shy people. That’s how I see it.”
—Lee Child

11. “I don’t think there is enough respect in general for the time it takes to write consistently good fiction. Too many people think they will master writing overnight, or that they are as good as they will ever be.”
—Tananarive Due

12. “What I love about the thriller form is that it makes you write a story. You can’t get lost in your own genius, which is a dangerous place for writers. You don’t want to ever get complacent. If a book starts going too well, I usually know there’s a problem. I need to struggle. I need that self-doubt. I need to think it’s not the best thing ever.”
—Harlan Coben, WD Interview, January 2011

13. “My reason for writing stories is to give myself the satisfaction of visualising more clearly and detailedly and stably the vague, elusive, fragmentary impressions of wonder, beauty, and adventurous expectancy which are conveyed to me by certain sights (scenic, architectural, atmospheric, etc.), ideas, occurrences, and images encountered in art and literature.”
—H.P. Lovecraft 

Want to write your own horror, thriller or suspense novel? Then learn from a master with The Writer’s Digest Annotated Classic: Dracula.

___________

Tiffany Luckey is the associate editor of Writer’s Digest. She also writes about TV and pop culture at AnotherTVBlog.com. Follow Tiffany on Twitter @TiffanyElle.

Writers are notorious procrastinators, and the trend is not limited to hobbyists or young, aspiring authors. We talk a lot about procrastination indirectly—setting personal deadlines, how to schedule writing time around life and family, how to write a draft—and fast!, how to write an outline for anything.

We also discuss wasting time rather frankly in our forum, and occasionally offer assistance to writers who don’t want to work, necessarily, but in a productive way. Sometimes we give direct examples of how to not procrastinate.

Famous time-wasters tend to fall into two camps: There’s the hedonistic band of enthusiastic lollygaggers, and there’s the anti-dillydallying brigade of outputters. The logic follows that non-famous writers follow the same pattern. For both sides, here are some thoughts and advice from the greats on the art and craft of wasting time—or not.

Pro-Procrastination

Mark Twain: “Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well.”

Marthe Troly-Curtain: “Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”

Rita Mae Brown: “If it weren’t for the last minute, nothing would get done.”

Herodotus: “Some men give up their designs when they have almost reached the goal, while others, on the contrary, obtain a victory by exerting, at the last moment, more vigorous efforts than ever before.”

Douglas Adams: “I love deadlines. Especially the whooshing sound they make as they pass by.”

Ellen Degeneres: “Procrastination isn’t the problem. It’s the solution. It’s the universe’s way of saying stop, slow down, you move too fast.”

Dorothy Parker: “Live, drink, be merry, love the reeling midnight through, For tomorrow ye may die, but alas we never do.”

Jerome K. Jerome: “Why, some of the work that I have by me now has been in my possession for years and years, and there isn’t a finger-mark on it. I take great pride in my work; I take it down now and then and dust it. No man keeps his work in a better state of preservation than I do.”

Susan Orlean: I think of myself as something of a connoisseur of procrastination, creative and dogged in my approach to not getting things done.”

Auguste Rodin: “Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.”

The Writer’s Digest Retreat on the Water is your chance to escape the demands of everyday life and immerse yourself in your craft for a few purposeful and peaceful days. Enrollment at this Retreat is limited—you’ll enjoy the close mentorship of the instructors and the attention to your individual manuscript that only an event this small and exclusive can provide.

Pro-Productivity

Pablo Picasso: “Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.”

Benjamin Franklin: “You may delay, but time will not.”

Charles Dickens: “Procrastination is the thief of time; collar him.”

Abraham Lincoln: “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”

George Bernard Shaw: “If you take too long in deciding what to do with your life, you’ll find you’ve done it.”

Oscar Wilde: “Hesitation of any kind is a sign of mental decay in the young, of physical weakness in the old.”

Victor Hugo: “Short as life is, we make it still shorter by the careless waste of time.”

J.R.R. Tolkien: “It’s a job that’s never started that takes the longest to finish.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.: “How soon ‘not now’ become ‘never.’”

Henry Ford: “It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.”

Which camp do you fall into? For myself, I’ll only say that this post was supposed to run yesterday.

Adrienne Crezo is the managing editor of Writer’s Digest magazine. Follow her on Twitter @a_crezo.

October conjures up images of crackling fires, shivering leaves, the grinning teeth of a jack-o-lantern … and, if you’re a fan of classic horror, that iconic, fanged master of the night, Count Dracula. We feel there’s no better time than October—National Dracula Month—to share some writing tips and techniques that authors can learn from Dracula and apply to their own horror stories.

As you read this excerpt from chapter one of Dracula, try reading Bram Stoker’s text first, and then go back and read it again, this time pausing to digest the annotations from Mort Castle, in red.

Thirsty for more? Writer’s Digest Annotated Classics: Dracula, by Bram Stoker with annotations by Mort Castle, is available now! More than just an annotated version of the novel, this edition presents sharply focused, valuable techniques for writers who want to learn more about the techniques Bram Stoker used—and why he applied them.

—

JONATHAN HARKER’S JOURNAL

(Kept in shorthand) [1]

[1] That Harker’s diary is kept in “shorthand” immediately reveals something of the man’s personality: With shorthand, he can record his impressions rapidly. Even a modern, ultra-fast-paced, totally plot-driven thriller has to have some characterization by finding small ways to provide “a bit of character” such as this.

3 May. Bistritz.—Left Munich at 8:35 P.M., on 1st May, arriving at Vienna early next morning; [2] should have arrived at 6:46, but train was an hour late. Buda-Pesth seems a wonderful place, from the glimpse which I got of it from the train and the little I could walk through the streets. I feared to go very far from the station, as we had arrived late and would start as near the correct time as possible. The impression I had was that we were leaving the West and entering the East; the most western of splendid bridges over the Danube, which is here of noble width and depth, took us among the traditions of Turkish rule. [3]  

[2] Stoker, had he been writing in our era, might well have launched Dracula far later into the story at a much more dramatic moment, giving us, perhaps, Harker’s escape from Castle Dracula.

Television and films frequently use a technique called in medias res, starting “in the middle of things” (from the Latin) in order to hook the audience. Then, with the hook set, the writer fills in, usually via flashback, what readers need to know to get back to “the middle of things.” (More about flashbacks later.) Modern fiction writers have latched onto this technique. Beginning writers often begin way before the true beginning of the action. It is a typical flaw. What Stoker gives us here is almost in medias res; while there is no great dramatic action, Harker is placed in a physical location at a specific time. We know he is a traveling man, and we sense that he is a man on a mission. After all, he is concerned about the trains running on time. He has, we sense, places to go, people to see, things to do.

The narrative arc of the story has just about commenced.

[3] Observe, writer, an absolutely masterful transition. Transitions get characters (and readers) from “there” to “here,” from “then” to “now.” It is easy to mess up transitions by thinking it necessary to detail every moment/movement between “there” and “here” and “then” and “now.” That is simply not so.

It will keep the story moving to simply write the equivalent of: He took the bus across town. This is Stoker transitioning a la “took the bus across town,” and it offers something more than a movement between locales: It shows Harker’s journey from the familiar Western European locales to the exotic East.

We left in pretty good time, and came after nightfall to Klausenburgh. Here I stopped for the night at the Hotel Royale. I had for dinner, or rather supper, a chicken done up some way with red pepper, which was very good but thirsty. (Mem. get recipe for Mina.) [4] I asked the waiter, and he said it was called “paprika hendl,” and that, as it was a national dish, I should be able to get it anywhere along the Carpathians. I found my smattering of German very useful here, indeed, I don’t know how I should be able to get on without it.

[4] It is with Harker’s little note to self that he begins to really come alive. This little note of domesticity reveals much of just who Husbandly Harker is. We start to like him because we are getting to know him.

A well-developed fictional character is someone who is every bit as alive and just as unique an individual as anyone we know—really well—out here in RealityLand. When a character is well done, we get to know the character so well that we like or dislike, love or hate him.

Having had some time at my disposal when in London, I had visited the British Museum, and made search among the books and maps in the library regarding Transylvania; [5] it had struck me that some foreknowledge of the country could hardly fail to have some importance in dealing with a nobleman of that country. I find that the district he named is in the extreme east of the country, just on the borders of three states, Transylvania, Moldavia, and Bukovina, in the midst of the Carpathian mountains; one of the wildest and least known portions of Europe. I was not able to light on any map or work giving the exact locality of the Castle Dracula, as there are no maps of this country as yet to compare with our own Ordnance Survey Maps; but I found that Bistritz, the post town named by Count Dracula, is a fairly well-known place. I shall enter here some of my notes, as they may refresh my memory when I talk over my travels with Mina.

[5] Time to bring it out, this Ancient Commandment for All Writers: Write what you know.

You might be thinking: But Bram Stoker never visited Transylvania.

And if a writer doesn’t know it, he or she must conduct research. We must therefore assume Stoker, like Harker, did serious research—research on a deeper level than might be provided even by that respected canon of our time, Wikipedia. It’s credibility that is at stake. (At stake … sorry. Can’t help it!) You never want your reader to think that you, the author, do not know what you are writing about.

In the population of Transylvania there are four distinct nationalities: Saxons in the South, and mixed with them the Wallachs, who are the descendants of the Dacians; Magyars in the West, and Szekelys in the East and North. I am going among the latter, who claim to be descended from Attila and the Huns. This may be so, for when the Magyars conquered the country in the eleventh century they found the Huns settled in it. I read that every known superstition [6] in the world is gathered into the horseshoe of the Carpathians, as if it were the centre of some sort of imaginative whirlpool; if so my stay may be very interesting. (Mem., I must ask the Count all about them.)

[6] With the derisive word superstition, Harker reveals himself again as a sober and reasonable man. He’s preparing us for his becoming royally unhinged not so long from now. This is foreshadowing, albeit done in a subtle manner.

Effective foreshadowing can give readers the feeling of “uh-oh” long before a character has any such feeling. It can therefore contribute to the mood of a scene and build suspense.

I did not sleep well, though my bed was comfortable enough, for I had all sorts of queer dreams. [7] There was a dog howling all night under my window, which may have had something to do with it; or it may have been the paprika, for I had to drink up all the water in my carafe, and was still thirsty. Towards morning I slept and was wakened by the continuous knocking at my door, so I guess I must have been sleeping soundly then. I had for breakfast more paprika, and a sort of porridge of maize flour which they said was “mamaliga”, and egg-plant stuffed with forcemeat, a very excellent dish, which they call “impletata”. (Mem., get recipe for this also.) [8] I had to hurry breakfast, for the train started a little before eight, or rather it ought to have done so, for after rushing to the station at 7:30 I had to sit in the carriage for more than an hour before we began to move. It seems to me that the further east you go the more unpunctual are the trains. What ought they to be in China?

[7] Queer dreams = Foreshadowing again. These are unusual dreams, somewhat disconcerting dreams, strange dreams … they are not horrible dreams that bring on sweats and shrieks. Were Harker to be in such an elevated emotional state at this early point in the narrative, it would be nearly impossible to build to the sustained claustrophobically smothering terror that falls upon him when he becomes the Count’s guest/prisoner.

[8] A fundamental writing rule: Show, don’t tell. If your words put a picture on the reader’s mental movie screen, you are following the rule. If you evoke a sensory response in the reader, you engage the reader.

Author David Morrell advises in any significant scene—that is, one meant to be memorable and not just “something happens”—that it’s a good idea to come up with three sensory triggers.

All day long we seemed to dawdle through a country which was full of beauty of every kind. Sometimes we saw little towns or castles on the top of steep hills such as we see in old missals; sometimes we ran by rivers and streams which seemed from the wide stony margin on each side of them to be subject to great floods. It takes a lot of water, and running strong, to sweep the outside edge of a river clear. At every station there were groups of people, sometimes crowds, and in all sorts of attire. Some of them were just like the peasants at home or those I saw coming through France and Germany, with short jackets, and round hats, and home-made trousers; but others were very picturesque. The women looked pretty, except when you got near them, but they were very clumsy about the waist. They had all full white sleeves of some kind or other, and most of them had big belts with a lot of strips of something fluttering from them like the dresses in a ballet, but of course there were petticoats under them. The strangest figures we saw were the Slovaks, who were more barbarian than the rest, with their big cow-boy hats, great baggy dirty-white trousers, white linen shirts, and enormous heavy leather belts, nearly a foot wide, all studded over with brass nails. They wore high boots, with their trousers tucked into them, and had long black hair and heavy black moustaches. They are very picturesque, but do not look prepossessing. On the stage they would be set down at once as some old Oriental band of brigands. They are, however, I am told, very harmless and rather wanting in natural self-assertion.

It was on the dark side of twilight when we got to Bistritz, which is a very interesting old place. Being practically on the frontier—for the Borgo Pass leads from it into Bukovina—it has had a very stormy existence, and it certainly shows marks of it. Fifty years ago a series of great fires took place, which made terrible havoc on five separate occasions. At the very beginning of the seventeenth century it underwent a siege of three weeks and lost 13,000 people, the casualties of war proper being assisted by famine and disease. [9]

[9] One more splendid transition. There is not a wasted word here, yet Harker and readers travel from 8:30 in the morning until past twilight, from Klausenberg to Bistritz.

Count Dracula had directed me to go to the Golden Krone Hotel, which I found, to my great delight, to be thoroughly old-fashioned, for of course I wanted to see all I could of the ways of the country. I was evidently expected, for when I got near the door I faced a cheery-looking elderly woman in the usual peasant dress—white undergarment with a long double apron, front, and back, of coloured stuff fitting almost too tight for modesty. When I came close she bowed and said, “The Herr Englishman?” “Yes,” I said, “Jonathan Harker.”

She smiled, and gave some message to an elderly man in white shirtsleeves, who had followed her to the door. He went, but immediately returned with a letter—

“My friend.—Welcome to the Carpathians. I am anxiously expecting you. Sleep well tonight. At three tomorrow the diligence will start for Bukovina; a place on it is kept for you. At the Borgo Pass my carriage will await you and will bring you to me. I trust that your journey from London has been a happy one, and that you will enjoy your stay in my beautiful land.

“Your friend,

“Dracula.” [10]  

[10] Here Stoker chooses to use subtle irony. Whatever Dracula is, he is no friend to Harker. As a writer, you can do a lot with irony. For example, how many patients likely heard Hannibal Lecter say he wanted to help them?

Rachel Randall is the managing editor of Writer’s Digest Books. Her favorite holiday is Halloween.

Image by Beliroz, deviantART, courtesy of a Creative Commons License: http://beliroz.deviantart.com/art/Keyboard-in-the-night-183881657

While I’ll be cheering on NaNoWriMo participants from the sidelines this year rather than joining the race, I am forever looking for ways to expand my own daily word count—not just in November, but all 12 months of the year. My goals may be more modest (while they fluctuate depending on my work-in-progress and what stage it’s in, I currently aim for an average of 1,000 words a day, six days a week), but with a full-time job and a family, they’re not easy to meet.

When people find out I’ve got a novel in progress, they inevitably stop to take in my energetic 3-year-old boy, already-almost-walking 9-month-old girl, and full-time job overseeing Writer’s Digest magazine and say the same thing: Wow, you have your hands full.

I do. Literally. If I’m not in the office, you can often find me with a giggling, hair-pulling baby in my arms, a pot on the stove (or, um, the pizza guy on the phone), and a little boy dressed as a superhero tugging on my pant leg.

So for me, pushing my daily word count is about finding ways to write in between the times when I can actually sit uninterrupted at my laptop. Here are three methods that work for me—and may just work for you, too.

1. Ms. Phone, please take a letter …

On TV commercials, people talk to their phones to find out where the nearest Chinese restaurant is or to remind themselves to buy flowers for their anniversary. I talk to my phone to record ideas for fictional scenes that pop into my head at random moments of the day. Snippets of dialogue, emotional descriptions and plot notes all get recorded to be sure they don’t evaporate before I can get to my keyboard.

On my drive home from work, I have about 15 minutes of quiet time alone in the car until I pull into the daycare. Sure, sometimes I listen to music, or NPR news. But especially if I don’t yet know what scene I’m going to tackle after the kids are in bed that night, I like to use this time to brainstorm. Hands-free, I’ll dictate what comes to me into my phone. I once “wrote” 650 words between quitting time at work and pickup time at daycare. Sure, there were lots of misunderstood words and typos to correct—no voice command app is perfect—but when I do get to the computer, cleaning up the copy is far easier than starting from scratch.

2. Go go Gadget keyboard …

There are other times—say, if a baby is napping on my shoulder—that I can get my hands free but not balance a full-sized laptop on my lap. And we’ve all had those moments when we don’t have our computers in reach when inspiration strikes—but we do happen to have a tablet or smartphone with us, so we try to peck out the words on our touch screens as fast as we can, all the while grumbling that our fingers can’t catch up to our brains.

That’s where my Bluetooth keyboard comes in. I got one for my birthday back in August, and my husband is still pretty proud of himself for how much I rave about it. For only about $30, it came with a slim case and slips easily into my purse. No matter where you are, simply pair it with whatever device you have on hand, and voila! You can actually type out a scene or notes at full speed. When I have my Bluetooth keyboard along, I no longer mind if a friend is late to meet me for lunch, or if my dentist leaves me in the waiting room. In fact, sometimes I’m secretly glad.

3. Note to self …

It is one of the stranger side effects of the writing life that I email myself perhaps more than I send messages to anyone else. But every day, no matter how busy I am, whether I’m using one of the methods above or another, I try to at the very least send myself the briefest of notes regarding what my next scene will be.

At worst, when I sit down at my keyboard later, I’ll have some kind of starting point, rather than a blank screen (and a blank brain). At best, if I’ve gotten a little carried away with my note taking, my scene might already be half-written.

What I’ve found is this: Whether you’re a “pantser” or a plotter (or, in my case, a little of both), when you sit down to write with SOME kind of notes in front of you, you’ll spend less time getting in the groove and more time churning out words.

The November/December Writer’s Digest magazine is filled with Tips and Inspiration to Write a Book in a Month, including advice for developing a write-a-thon strategy and keeping the words coming. If you’re looking to increase your productivity or planning for NaNoWriMo, check out a preview in the Writer’s Digest Shop, download it instantly, or find it on a newsstand near you.

What about you? How do you increase your daily word count? From one hands-full writer to another, I invite you to leave your own tips in a comment below—we can all use all the help we can get!

Happy Writing,
Jessica Strawser
Editor, Writer’s Digest Magazine
Follow me on Twitter: @jessicastrawser

Poet, playwright and novelist Oscar Wilde was born October 16, 1854 in Dublin. While his most famous works, The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest, live on, Wilde is most frequently remembered for his wit. Here are 15 of his best quotes for writers, readers and artists in honor of his 160th birthday.

1. All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling.

2. I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.

3. If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.

4. There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written.

5. The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means.

6. An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.

7. The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

8. I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works.

9. A poet can survive everything but a misprint.

10. Actions are the first tragedy in life, words are the second. Words are perhaps the worst. Words are merciless.

11. In old days books were written by men of letters and read by the public. Nowadays books are written by the public and read by nobody.

12. I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.

13. With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy?

14. The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates.

15. A writer is someone who has taught his mind to misbehave.

If yours isn’t listed, share your favorite Wilde bon mot in the comments!

Adrienne Crezo is the managing editor of Writer’s Digest magazine. Follow her on Twitter @a_crezo.

The 2015 Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market, now in its 34th year, is hot off the presses, and today I’m sharing ten pieces of advice from the contributors to this year’s edition. NSSWM features articles on fiction craft, getting published, and marketing and promotion, as well as more than 400 pages of listings for novel and short story writers, including literary agents, book publishers, magazines, and contests that are interested in your work. This year’s edition also features access to an exclusive webinar from best-selling author Cheryl St.John, on exploring emotional high points in fiction.

To celebrate the release of the 2015 NSSWM, I’m giving away two copies to two lucky winners who comment in the post below! I’ll announce the winners on October 22. 

10 FICTION-WRITING TIPS FROM NSSWM

1. On writing an exceptional short story:

“Outline, even if it’s the most rudimentary way. It leads to inspired deviations. … [Don’t] think too hard about ticking off [your] boxes in advance. A good story—long or short—will provide them by virtue of its being good.” —Andrew Pyper, in Jennifer D. Foster’s article “Anatomy of a Successful Short Story”

2. On writing dialogue within a scene: 

“Rich dialogue can animate and drive a scene. But good dialogue doesn’t act in isolation. The point of view of the stakeholders in the matter at hand must be provocative or interesting in some way. There must be conflict—conflict important enough to make the reader care. And then, driven by this conflict, the characters must come alive, revealing their needs, desires, flaws—their basic humanity. The dialogue itself must be distinctive and original. When it’s not working, it tends to sound clunky and artificial.” —Jack Smith, “Writing Strong Scenes”

3. On finding ideas for magic realism: 

“Ever since I began writing, I’ve been a collector. Not of things—shells, stamps, figurines, stuffed monkeys, autographs, etc.—but of possibilities. Odd happenings and images from around the world and in my dreams that could—and often do—make their way into my writing. While many might be considered mundane observances, paired with the right character in the right situation, I know they’ll make terrifically fantastic occurrences. —Kristin Bair O’Keeffe, “Making Magic”

4. On getting through the mid-draft slump: 

“A mid-draft slump is a symptom, which calls for a diagnosis before you can effectively treat it. Believing you can write your way out of this mess, that you can rescue the middle with a strong closing act, is a seductive trap, because your reader may never make it that far. When that reader is an agent or an editor, this assumption becomes a fatal one.” —Larry Brooks, “Stuck in the Middle”

5. On developing a distinct point of view and voice: 

“Practice makes perfect, and the best way to practice is by writing short stories. Flash fiction (telling a full story in 1,000 words or less) is a great training tool.” —J.T. Ellison, in Janice Gable Bashman’s interview “Capturing Readers’ Interest”

6. On Twitter “pitch parties”: 

“As informal as social media can be, Brenda Drake emphasizes that writers need to treat pitch parties as professionally as any other submission. ‘Your manuscript should be completely polished. It has to have been through your beta readers and critique partners, and you should have revised it a few times,’ she says.” —Diane Shipley, “It Started With a Hashtag”

7. On what impresses literary journal editors: 

“I’m impressed by a writer who takes our theme, shakes it around, and throws it back at us in a way we were not expecting. Catching us off guard with good writing is rewarding. We all know what we want, but when we come across something we didn’t expect, something that cuts in a new and exciting way, that is a great way to attract attention.” —Todd Simmons, in James Duncan’s roundtable “What Literary Journals Really Look For”

8. On how to choose a small press to submit to: 

“Evaluate the content. If a small press is consistently putting out quality writing, chances are it has a solid editorial team. The amount of time it’s been in existence and its general reputation are helpful indicators, too.” —Robert Lee Brewer, “Sizing Up Small Presses”

9. On hybrid publishing: 

“Diversity means survival. That’s true in agriculture. It’s true in our stock portfolios. It’s true on our dinner plates. And it’s true in publishing. Survival as a writer means embracing diversity from the beginning. And that means thinking of yourself as a “hybrid” author. … The hybrid author takes a varied approach, utilizing the traditional system of publishing and acting as an author-publisher (a term I prefer to self-publisher because it signals the dual nature of the role you now inhabit).”  —Chuck Wendig, “Best of Both Worlds”

10. On organizing a virtual book tour: 

“You may find it helpful to assemble an ‘online media kit,’ a section of your website where you can provide photos and other relevant information, such as a video trailer and press release, in one location. This way, you can give your hosts a single link instead of inundating them with attachments … .” —Erika Dreifus, “10 Tips for Your Virtual Book Tour”

You can find the articles these tips came from, as well as hundreds of listings for book publishers, literary agents, magazines, contests, and writing conferences, inside the 2015 Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market.

To celebrate the release of the 2015 NSSWM, I’m giving away two copies to two lucky winners who comment in the post below! I’ll announce the winners on October 22. 

One of the things I love about working at Writer’s Digest is the excitement each time a new issue hits newsstands. And it’s especially true with the November/December 2014 Writer’s Digest–because this special guide to Writing a Book in a Month arrives just in time for November’s National Novel Writing Month challenge. Regardless of whether you’re participating in NaNoWriMo, counting down 30 Days to Your Novel on your own schedule, or simply looking to write your next draft faster, this is an issue you won’t want to miss.

Find Writing Inspiration and Confidence

As a parent of both a baby and a toddler, I am surrounded by constant reminders that a lot can happen in a month. Still, it never fails to astonish me. A reliance on wriggling as a means of transportation turns into a full-speed crawl on all fours. A tearful transition to a new preschool becomes an over-the-shoulder wave in a rush to join new friends around the train table. Skills grow or are replaced by new ones, routines change, habits are formed or dropped.

As I compiled the November/December 2014 Writer’s Digest, filled with stories of big triumphs over short periods of time, it occurred to me that as adults, we don’t lose that ability to transform ourselves or our work—but we do tend to forget that we have it. And what a shame that is. Know this: Deep down, we are capable of taking more than baby steps. If we set our minds to it, we can cross major milestones in leaps and bounds. And that goes for our writing, too.

Writing a book in a month might sound a little crazy. In a way, I think that’s part of its allure—because write-a-thon challenges are steadily gaining in popularity. Every November 1, National Novel Writing Month’s online hub at NaNoWriMo.org draws nearly half a million writers worldwide in an attempt to write 50,000 words in 30 days. As NaNoWriMo director Grant Faulkner shares in this issue’s article “What Makes NaNoWriMo Work,” that solidarity is a big part of what keeps the challenge growing every year. Because no matter how hard you have (or haven’t) trained to prepare for this marathon, once the starting pistol fires everyone is pretty much in the same pack, throwing caution to the wind and cheering one another in one big, messy sprint to the far-away finish.

Of course, you don’t need a worldwide event to take a book-in-a-month challenge. And you don’t need to be writing a novel. Solo writers, partners and groups of all stripes do word count marathons year-round. We reached out to these writers and asked them to share their most profound lessons learned, and you’ll find the best of their firsthand advice in “Plan Your Own Write-a-Thon.” (In fact, we got more great advice than we had space to print! Read more tips and tales from the writing community in our online-exclusive outtakes, Write a Book in a Month: More Writers Share Their Experience & Advice.)

Once all that inspiration has you writing up a frenzy, we wanted to make sure you have some roadside assistance ready to help when you start to run out of gas—and that’s where Elizabeth Sims’ “21 Fast Hacks to Fuel Your Story With Suspense” comes in.

Your book idea might be in its infancy now, but take it from me—with some extra attention on your part, soon it can be surprising and delighting you with its strength, determination and newfound ability to stand on its own two feet, grinning from ear to ear.

Conquer Your Word Count Goals

Are you planning to participate in this year’s NaNoWriMo? Looking to up your daily word counts just a bit in solidarity with those who are? We’d love to hear about your writing goals–leave a comment below to keep the conversation going!

Get your copy of the Write a Book in a Month! issue on your favorite newsstand, or download the November/December 2014 Writer’s Digest right now.

Happy Writing,
Jessica Strawser
Editor, Writer’s Digest Magazine
Follow me on Twitter @jessicastrawser.

One of the things I love about working at Writer’s Digest is the excitement each time a new issue hits newsstands. And it’s especially true with the November/December 2014 Writer’s Digest–because this special guide to Writing a Book in a Month arrives just in time for November’s National Novel Writing Month challenge. Regardless of whether you’re participating in NaNoWriMo, counting down 30 Days to Your Novel on your own schedule, or simply looking to write your next draft faster, this is an issue you won’t want to miss.

Find Writing Inspiration and Confidence

As a parent of both a baby and a toddler, I am surrounded by constant reminders that a lot can happen in a month. Still, it never fails to astonish me. A reliance on wriggling as a means of transportation turns into a full-speed crawl on all fours. A tearful transition to a new preschool becomes an over-the-shoulder wave in a rush to join new friends around the train table. Skills grow or are replaced by new ones, routines change, habits are formed or dropped.

As I compiled the November/December 2014 Writer’s Digest, filled with stories of big triumphs over short periods of time, it occurred to me that as adults, we don’t lose that ability to transform ourselves or our work—but we do tend to forget that we have it. And what a shame that is. Know this: Deep down, we are capable of taking more than baby steps. If we set our minds to it, we can cross major milestones in leaps and bounds. And that goes for our writing, too.

Writing a book in a month might sound a little crazy. In a way, I think that’s part of its allure—because write-a-thon challenges are steadily gaining in popularity. Every November 1, National Novel Writing Month’s online hub at NaNoWriMo.org draws nearly half a million writers worldwide in an attempt to write 50,000 words in 30 days. As NaNoWriMo director Grant Faulkner shares in this issue’s article “What Makes NaNoWriMo Work,” that solidarity is a big part of what keeps the challenge growing every year. Because no matter how hard you have (or haven’t) trained to prepare for this marathon, once the starting pistol fires everyone is pretty much in the same pack, throwing caution to the wind and cheering one another in one big, messy sprint to the far-away finish.

Of course, you don’t need a worldwide event to take a book-in-a-month challenge. And you don’t need to be writing a novel. Solo writers, partners and groups of all stripes do word count marathons year-round. We reached out to these writers and asked them to share their most profound lessons learned, and you’ll find the best of their firsthand advice in “Plan Your Own Write-a-Thon.” (In fact, we got more great advice than we had space to print! Read more tips and tales from the writing community in our online-exclusive outtakes, Write a Book in a Month: More Writers Share Their Experience & Advice.)

Once all that inspiration has you writing up a frenzy, we wanted to make sure you have some roadside assistance ready to help when you start to run out of gas—and that’s where Elizabeth Sims’ “21 Fast Hacks to Fuel Your Story With Suspense” comes in.

Your book idea might be in its infancy now, but take it from me—with some extra attention on your part, soon it can be surprising and delighting you with its strength, determination and newfound ability to stand on its own two feet, grinning from ear to ear.

Conquer Your Word Count Goals

Are you planning to participate in this year’s NaNoWriMo? Looking to up your daily word counts just a bit in solidarity with those who are? We’d love to hear about your writing goals–leave a comment below to keep the conversation going!

Get your copy of the Write a Book in a Month! issue on your favorite newsstand, or download the November/December 2014 Writer’s Digest right now.

Happy Writing,
Jessica Strawser
Editor, Writer’s Digest Magazine
Follow me on Twitter @jessicastrawser.

From Sylvia Day’s Bared to You to Jamie McGuire’s Beautiful Disaster, new adult fiction has arrived—and it’s hotter than ever. But there’s more to this category than its 18- to 26-year-old characters: The success of your story depends on authentically depicting the transition of your young protagonists from teenhood into adulthood.

With Deborah Halverson’s Writing New Adult Fiction, you’ll learn how to capture the spirit of freedom, self-discovery, and romance that defines the new adult experience. To celebrate the book’s release, Deborah has organized a blog tour that runs through the end of the month—complete with book giveaways and prizes! If you’re curious about writing a novel for the new adult category, you’ll want to join in on the fun and learn more about crafting a story that’s fresh, unique, and wholly new adult!

Here’s what authors and reviewers are saying:

“This book is more than a marketing guide, more than a writing manual, more than a compilation of stories about successful authors. For the writer who wants to become a new adult author, or the new adult author who seeks to enrich her craftsmanship and stand out from the herd, this book has an abundance of information.” —Tammara Webber, New York Times best-selling author of Easy and Breakable

“With her conversational, engaging style, Halverson demystifies the process of plotting, writing, and marketing a NA novel…. If you’re serious about writing a NA novel you can be proud of, one that is also marketable, you’ll add this indispensable title to your permanent reference shelf.” —Blogcritics

Deborah is offering a FREE FULL MANUSCRIPT EDIT to one lucky blog tour participant. The more stops you make on the tour, the more chances to win! 

October 6: Christy Herself!

October 7: Country Gals Sexy Reads

October 8: Writing Belle

October 9: Book Bumblings

October 10: Prone to Crushes on Boys in Books

October 13: My Book Fairy

October 14: A One-click Addict’s Book Blog

October 15: A Book Addict’s Delight

October 16: The Phantom Paragrapher

October 17: deal sharing aunt

October 20: Hot Guys in Books

October 21: Julie Hedlund

October 22: Short and Sassy Book Blurbs

October 23: NA Alley

October 24: akiiKOMORI reading

October 27: KIDLIT411

October 28: eBook Addict

October 29: Pretty Girls Read Books

October 30: Coffee and characters

October 31: Quirk And Quill

October 31: Book Worms and Couch Potatoes

Rachel Randall is the managing editor for Writer’s Digest Books.

“How do I get my eBook on Amazon?”
“Do I really need both printed books and eBooks?”
“What price should I charge for my eBook?”

There’s never been a better time to be an author. It’s an oft-stated truth, as the digital technology driving the publishing revolution now enables creative people around the globe to develop and market content in truly unique ways.  But with anything new and unfamiliar, questions are sure to follow:

“Can you help me design a cover for my book?”
“How much money can I make from my eBook?”

The stigma of failure that used to be associated with self publishing is a thing of the past.

Digital delivery systems such as Apple’s iBooks and Amazon’s Kindle bring your readers right to your doorstep. Gone too are the old barriers that kept self published authors from seeing their words in print. Digital printing and POD (print on demand) have expanded writers’ horizons. New mediums are being invented and old ones are being re-invented. New devices are being created at unprecedented rates.

“What’s an ISBN?”
“How can I distribute my book to Europe and other regions?”

With all the rapid changes in publishing swirling around, there’s another less-stated truth: there’s never been a more confusing time for authors, especially the ones who have chosen to self-publish. The process of taking your finished manuscript and putting it into the marketplace can be daunting for even the most tech-savvy author.

That’s one of the reasons why Blue Ash Publishing was created. We believe that self publishing doesn’t necessarily mean going it alone. Authors can rely on the resources of two publishing industry heavyweights – Writer’s Digest and BookBaby – who have the experience and knowhow to answer all the questions posed above – and then some!

The two companies that comprise Blue Ash provide everything an aspiring author needs to take their work directly to the marketplace. Blue Ash publishing packages are powered by BookBaby, so you can sell your eBook in the world’s biggest online bookstores — including Amazon, iBooks, Barnes & Noble, and beyond. BookBaby is the sister company of CD Baby, the indie music powerhouse that’s helped musicians sell their music around the globe.

Meanwhile our writer’s resources are powered by Writer’s Digest, giving you access to their wealth of marketing and educational information. For more than 90 years, the experts at Writer’s Digest have been creating books, magazines, competitions, conferences and distance education materials for writers who want to polish their skills and hone their craft.

By providing answers to all your questions and taking care of the heavy lifting for all technology issues, we help writers concentrate on what they do best: Writing.

To help authors get a jump start on their self publishing efforts, we’ve put together a Blue Ash Publishing guide called:

Self Publishing 101 – The Quick Start Guide for Authors

It’s free to any author thinking seriously about pursuing the path of self publishing. The guide is available for download HERE.

BY AMY PARKER

“Write what you know,” the adage goes. But when my heart pulled me way outside my knowledge base to help Rwandan Frederick Ndabaramiye write his unbelievable story, I knew that I had a lot to learn.

Here are a few pointers based on what I did, what I didn’t do, and what you must do … from someone who now knows.

What I Did

I saturated myself in the culture—as much as a Tennessee girl can, anyway. I asked Frederick for photos, read Rwandan news and books set in Rwanda, and listened to Rwandan (Internet) radio. Much of that information never made it into the book, but it enriched my ability to feel the surroundings, see the scenes, and hear the voices that later would be woven into the story.

I went! None of the remote research will enhance your knowledge and sense of setting as much as seeing it for yourself. If I hadn’t, I would have never known that the whole country smells like a campfire or why—almost everyone cooks over an open fire. I would have never known the inexplicable warmth and kindness of the people, felt the breathlessness of climbing the steep Rwandan hills, or known the awe of looking into the eyes of a mountain gorilla.

You’ll learn things that the native people would never think to tell you, and you’ll discover answers to questions that you would never have known to ask. Sure, it can be costly, but it is worth every cent—or Rwandan Franc—you’ll spend.

I begged the advice of those gone before me. And I got answers about everything from car rentals and hotels to what kind of shoes and electrical adapters to take.

This proved to be invaluable, especially in hiring a driver. We tried to rationalize that particular piece of advice away (the per-day fee was as much as a weekly car rental in the States), but in the end, we caved and were greatly rewarded for our investment. Our guide Charles had actually fought with the RPF (the army that ended the genocide) and shared knowledge and experiences beyond what I could find in any book. And as for the driving, we honestly could have never navigated the steep, rutted roads ourselves.

What I Didn’t Do

Learn the language. Of course, I bought the book and practiced some phrases, but I had no working knowledge of the language. So when the Rwandan pastor said something from the front of the church that prompted the entire congregation to turn and look at us, I didn’t know whether to smile or hide. (Thankfully, he was welcoming us.) If you even think that you may be traveling to a foreign-language location, start practicing the language yesterday. I can’t imagine how much more I would have learned if I had.

Ask permission to take photos. Every. Single. Time. It’s a courtesy common to most cultures, and I asked most of the time. But the one time I didn’t—in the market, when I wasn’t really photographing a person, but a place—I greatly offended one lady. And I didn’t need to speak Kinyarwanda to know it.

What You Must Do

Keep a journal. I did this but wish I had done more, had noted more details, went more in-depth about daily experiences. Stay up for an extra thirty minutes each night and jot down every single detail you remember about your day. This will be a priceless gift to yourself, not to mention the much-needed descriptions it will provide for your story.

Try something new. I ate sambaza, best described as fried minnows. And it was delicious. I fell in love with African Tea (like a chai latte with a kick). I’m not an athlete—in any sense of the word—but I eagerly signed up for the mountain gorilla trek. I drank in the culture, and I am forever changed.

Share the experience. I quickly shared my photos on Facebook, but two years later, I have yet to compose the dozen blog ideas that I jotted down while riding in that bumpy SUV. (Okay, so I did write a book, but still.) Find the time—share your experiences.

After all, it is our duty to the world as writers. And in many cases, it’s the only way readers will experience another world for themselves—through your writing, now that you know.

Amy Parker has made her mark as an experienced and versatile writer and editor who has a particular enthusiasm for children’s books. She authored the bestselling A Night Night Prayer and has collaborated with authors ranging from a New York Times bestseller to her own son.

She is the co-author of Frederick: A Story of Boundless Hope from Thomas Nelson, which releases September 16, 2014. You can find her on amyparkerbooks.com or Facebook.

Ray Bradbury once said if you’re a writer and you’re blocked, well, you’ve picked the wrong subject then, haven’t you? At least he had a subject. For me, writer’s block was never so much about stalling in the midst of writing a story as the lack of a story idea.

Until the late winter of 2013, I had never suffered from writer’s block. If anything, I was a bit of a snob, doubting that writer’s block even existed. I thought it was an excuse on the part of writers to keep from doing their jobs – you know: The Work. I’d written hundreds of features as a journalist for a daily newspaper, and then after seguing into fiction, dozens of short stories and two novels, and they had all come easily to mind. I couldn’t fathom a loss of inspiration, and then one day my mind went blank: I had no clue what to write next. In desperation, I scoured my Idea File – a manila folder crammed with notes, photographs, newspaper clippings – even etchings on fast-food napkins – in the hope that a brilliant notion would sally forth. When it didn’t, I Googled my favorite topics: birds and birdwatchers and the American West, and visited my local library.

Yet after four months, nothing spoke to me. I began to wonder if my writing career was over. When I confided this fear to my writer friends, they said, “You’re tired, Renée, don’t be so hard on yourself. Take the summer off.” So I did. And the relief was immediate.

For weeks I did nothing more than tackle household chores and catch up on errands. I knew I’d made the right decision to take time off when I drove the speed limit day after day (o glorious leisure!), rather than race from the store to the bank and then home again, stressed that I hadn’t yet hit my word count.

But a funny thing happened during that down time: it calmly and quietly occurred to me that if I couldn’t think of a story to tell, I could tell someone else’s story. I selected a favorite, John Cheever’s “The Swimmer,” and labored to make it my own. About a month after that, I also spotted an intriguing photo on Facebook, which inspired the premise for my new novel. It seemed that giving myself permission to breathe again had recharged my batteries, but even so, I moved forward cautiously. I signed up for a workshop led by a local writer, Jodi Angel, author of You Only Get Letters from Jail. Jodi is straight-forward, articulate, and utterly devoid of the flowery compliments writers give one another. She’s also a believer in prompts – or windows, as she calls them. I’d never written to windows, and doubted this plan would work for me. Still, I was determined to learn something new, and so I forged ahead. Over the next six weeks, my workshop-mates and I wrote 1,000-word stories based on the following prompts:

• A winter coat in summer. (My first stab at writing a piece in first-person; I had to assume the point of view of a dog, just to get through it.)
• The color yellow. (This endeavor produced a slightly more daring piece on Disney inkers and painters. Side note: Disney inkers were all women in the Snow White era, earning roughly $18 per week to a male animator’s $300.)
• Intense clarity. (At this point we were halfway through the workshop, and I was getting bolder. I wrote a story about a robber who abandons his friends in the Oregon desert, thwarting his own arrest.)
• Disappointment. (This assignment induced panic on everyone’s part, since Jodi asked us to write in second person. I wrote a short-short from Pete Best’s point of view, regarding his sacking by the Beatles.)
• On week five, each writer was given a different genre, with a specific location and an article, which we were asked to incorporate into the story. My assignment: sci-fi / drug-rehab center / wig. (I wrote about a dog who morphs into a woman, in order to kill a killer.)
• In this, our last prompt, we were each assigned a random sentence from a different novel. My sentence: “She had cut her wrist with a knife.” (This produced a piece about a misfit genius.)

What I’ve learned from all of this – the writer’s block, the letting go, the need to embrace a new writing practice – is that it’s crucial to be as kind to myself as I am to others, and to cut the ties of judgment. In moving forward, I now have a strategy to deal with writer’s block: follow Jodi’s lead and pick a word or a sentence – any sentence – and know it will take me where I need to go: from paralysis to action.

Renée Thompson’s latest novel is THE PLUME HUNTER (Torrey House Press, 2011). She has placed in the Writer’s Digest Annual Writing Competition on three occasions, most recently taking 2nd place for mainstream/literary fiction. She has new stories forthcoming from Crossborder and Chiron Review. Find Renée at reneethompson.com.