To the corner with you bad words.....

No, I am not speaking on those curse words we often use when someone cuts us off in traffic. I am not even talking those words falling close to this line where if you are my children….you understand and live this list. The list I speak on are those words which, when constructed into a sentence, should immediately be removed. The best book I have seen with a starting list for you is Ken Rand’s “The 10% Solution”. It is a link under “Crazy Must Haves”.

When writing, never lean on this list! Write freely and when the editing bug kicks in pull the list out and walk your document in search for these bad children. PULL THEM and restructure the sentence. Believe me you will feel better. Here is my list (again I pulled many of these from Ken Rand’s book so in no way do I take ownership of this idea). Create your list today and live it.

ly <-- any word ending in!

of

that

very

about

by

like

but

self <-- any word ending in!

     

I'm a BookMark Hoarder!

Are Bookmarks like clothes? If you have not used it in a year should you get rid of it? :) I have so many writing bookmarks I could never traverse this vast terrain of garbage to figure out what is helpful and what is wasteful. I wonder how many other crazies have gathered a litany of sites which lead to every type of writing community, marketing bonanza and publishing must haves.....

I may start tagging the names with dates indicating when I bookmarked the site so when they hit a year and I have not clicked on it, off it goes to an archive folder. But how long do I keep it there? I wonder if goodwill takes bookmarks? :)

Yeah it is Friday night and I started to go through my marketing spreadsheet finding several sites listed which drew me to my writing bookmarks. The true sadness behind my madness is before I started to write this I bookmarked three new sites. Bookmarking for me is like befriending everyone on FB or following anyone on Twitter. I CAN'T STOP! I wonder if there is a bookmark support group or a social disorder around us who cannot delete bookmarks never used. You never know when Woot! will have something you may need!

Twitters weekend sales. Must act now.....

  Why the title? :) Because I just popped Twitter open and was instantly barraged with "Read my blog to find the top five no-no's...." and "Click to see what agents don't want to hear" and "Top ten things to do at a book signing". To me each one says (remember use your radio voice) "Friday, Friday, Friday! This Friday, Saturday and Sunday selling bonanza! This weekend only. 20! no 30! no 40% off all items red tagged!"

  Yeah I know I am exaggerating but sometimes the quick twitter tags are more interesting than the post. At least there were a few stating "Hey, I am at my book release party come and stop by if you are here" or "Do not forgot to spread out your character's mischief if writing a series". I prefer it versus the midnight sales pitch. Of course, marketing and catchy lines is what it's all about...right? :) "Getting Close to the Crazy!"

Always improving the flow!

I am always reworking or "rewriting" my stories. I use double quotes around the word rewriting because it is not necessarily rewriting but improving grammar, punctuation, sentence structure and he said, she said structure. Really overall, I am improving the flow so the reader does not get interrupted by the sentence. Yes you can easily be interrupted by the sentence. My biggest pet peeve when reading a book is to be interrupted by the writer because they went, too far, with the he said “followers”. What are the he said “followers”?

            “You’re a bad boy Johnny,” he said with an indignant smile and chagrined chin.

Yes, I have seen this before in a book and it made me gag. I almost put the book down because I already understood the mood of the character and the body language he had on his face. TOO MUCH! I do not always need the scene written after he said something.

 This is also MY biggest worry. Not to feed too much so that the reader is disturbed or even worse, wants to gag! I also do not want the reader to skip lines because they appear to be just "fillers" for the scene. UGH, another bad word but for a different time.

So, if you ever hear me say "I am rewriting chapters" this really means I am working the flow. Hhhmm, maybe I should start saying what I mean. This could help. :)

It's called Focused Writing! Oh look a shinny penny....

I was asked by a friend the other day to explain how I go about writing a novel. How do I stay so focused on each chapter to make sure it fulfills the story? By the time he finished the last sentence my mind had drifted to a penny on the ground as we walked back to the car. I laughed. He asked what was so funny. I answered his question by picking up the penny and saying “shiny!”

I don’t know about the rest of you crazies but this crazy has a hard time staying focused on one chapter at a time. I mean yeah, you have an outline and so the story weaves its way along its string but staying focused on one chapter at a time is impossible. My method so far has been get chapter’s 1 thru 3 completed since this really lays the ground work down for the book than at this point I often drift ahead to a part of the story that is begging to be written. Heck, half the time I have no idea what chapter I am writing all I know is that I am writing. Once I have exhausted this period I scan the outline and inspiration steps in.

I hardly focus! Ok yes I focus on writing and the story but while I am writing a chapter my mind is instantly wandering forward on the new things screaming to get out. Oh and also often floating in reverse to areas wanting and desiring improvement.  :)

So, story focused yes. Chapter focused no. Needing the end to get closer – EVERY DAY! Not to finish it but to get the next novel going.  :)