Holy crap is it cold outside. I live in the Pacific Northwest and we never see temps lower than 15 degrees and so far this weekend we have barely seen over that. Blame it on Global Warming or Mother Nature PMSing, it don’t matter, it’s still cold.
Yesterday I tried to get some writing done but it was just too darn cold in my office. I have a small space heater but even that wasn’t working so I was faced with the question, “how do I write without having to sit at my desk?” The answer became clear when my spouse turned on the fireplace…I simply moved to the living room.
Many of us get pin-holed into the concept that we can only write at our desk and that is simply not true. We live in the age of laptops and tablets which allow us to get out of the box so to speak. I have both a laptop and a tablet but even I tend to fell less motivated to write once I am away from my desk. I think the reason for this is that we have gotten use to the desk as a part of our writing; we have to get over that.
Writing, thank goodness, can be done anywhere. You can write in the bathroom if you prefer (although the kids might get irritated) or you can grab your tablet and leave the house. The beauty of all this technology is that it can be a bit freeing. What you will need to do, however, is shove past the notion that you need that desk.
I challenge you this week to embrace the concept of writing elsewhere. Take your laptop or your tablet and find a quiet spot in another room. I like to write in front of the fireplace because it is warm but I can pick up and write anywhere; you can too. So grab those mobile devices and get out of your office chair! Trust me; it’s warmer by the fire right now.
© The Writer’s Advice, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.
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Tags: advice, author, book, healthy, inspiration, Inspire, Jai Colvin, Jai Farris, learning, novel, novelist, writer, writers, writing, writing process, Writing tools
I don’t know about you but here in the Pacific Northwest the weather has gotten positively scary. We got down to 23 degrees this morning! Now I know for some of you I sound like a wuss but that is darn cold here and I am staying in the house. As I sat writing this morning however I realized something else about the cold weather…it made great fodder for a short story!
This is the time of the year when the weather will chase a lot of us indoors and that’s okay as long as you don’t waste the time. The colder weather is a great time to be a captive audience to your craft…heck…what else are you gonna do? I decided this morning that I was going to insert the cold outside into my writing. I realized that tend to write about weather I know…weather I am comfortable with. Looking outside this morning I realized that the cold weather adds an element to my stories that they have never had before…the element of OMG its cold.
Using the weather allowed me to totally change up my story. There are a lot of things that happen in the colder weather that wouldn’t in the summer weather. The cold makes it harder for my detective to solve his/her case, it makes it tougher for my killer to bury the body and it challenges that serial killer who has to go out into the cold to look for victims. And what if my main character, good or bad, has never had to deal with the cold at all? Now there is a monkey wrench worth exploring.
My point is the colder weather is full of ideas and challenges for your characters. Many writers don’t really think about environment or weather or if they do it is a secondary consideration. What if you made it a first consideration? Take your main character and drop him in the snow or the wind or the ice. How much fun could you have with that???
© The Writer’s Advice, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.
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Tags: advice, bad weather, book, cold, creation of character, frightful, inspiration, Inspire, Jai Colvin, Jai Farris, learning, novel, snow, structure, summer, telling story, writer, writers, writing, writing process
These days honesty is a rare thing. We have media telling us stories with slants, we have politicians telling us crap like we are all gullible and we have writers who say they are writing a true story but in essence are still just fiction writers. So how important is it to be honest as a writer? In my opinion, honesty is everything…keep in mind I said honesty…which is not necessarily the truth. Here, let me explain…
To be honest as a writer means to be honest in your writing. Even a fiction writer has to be honest in their work even though their story is totally made up. You see, your work has to be honest in that, it is the best you have to offer and it is as real as you can get. Even fiction stories have to have an element of honesty. If you don’t personally believe in your story, your readers will pick up on it. Case in point…James Frey.
James Frey could have totally gotten away with writing a fiction work and telling everyone it was the truth. It wasn’t his story that got him caught, it was the fact that, in the end, he didn’t believe it either and it showed through. Now I am not advocating that you write a “true story” and then pass it off as such but I am saying that every story has to have an element of truth to it and you, as its creator, have to believe it. An “honest” writer pours their heart into their writing, fiction or not, so that the reader believes. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was not a “true” story but by the time they are finished reading it, most readers believe that it is possible that there is a magical place called Narnia; that was the point after all.
Putting honesty into your work is easy and it is essential to any great story. If you want your readers to enjoy your writing you have to convince them that anything is possible. Remember that your audience is primed for the truth because they get so little of it in the real world these days.
© The Writer’s Advice, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.
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Tags: advice, author, book, creation of character, honesty, inspiration, Inspire, Jai Colvin, Jai Farris, novel, novelist, organization, organize, publishing, structure, writer, writers, writing, writing process, Writing tools
Damn it! That seems to be my favorite phrase this time of the year when it comes to my writing. Just because it’s the holidays shouldn’t mean that I have to give up my writing time right? Still, for some reason it is a requirement that I stop all creative activity and hobnob with people who will ask me incredibly stupid questions about my writing. (i.e. “So do you think you’ll ever get a real job?” or “Where do you get your ideas, is there a place you get them from?”) Is there a way to balance things out so that I can write and be a good host?
The holidays are especially tough for writers because everything is so fluid. People are coming and going, the spouse is hollering come help me and the kids are all out of school. Just to find a minute to write goes quickly from really hard to damn near impossible. There is only one way to overcome this and get through the holidays without resenting your entire clan….you have to set up some agreements and everyone has to stick to them.
Agreement 1 – Your writing is important, holiday or not: You have to make this agreement with both yourself and your family. Everyone knows that your writing pays some of the bills but because you work from home it is easier to shove you aside so that Aunt Millie can be picked up at the airport. Agree with your family that things have to be scheduled around your writing, not the other way around.
Agreement 2 – Your office is off limits: I don’t know about you but for some reason everyone feels that it is okay to sit down at my desk and do random stuff. My brother-in-law sits there to make phone calls, one of the kids needs tape so they search my desk, my mother-in-law needs a quiet place so she sits at my desk and is suddenly snooping through my stuff…make all of this stop. Declare your office or workspace off limits…it’s okay…it’s yours.
Agreement 3 – It’s okay if you need to write: I know the holidays are a busy time. And I know there are extra people in the house, but here’s the thing….you still gotta pay the bills. I would say that it is reasonable that you don’t work ON Thanksgiving or Christmas Day but the rest of the time you should be able to work a bit. Last year I tried to work ahead but stuff came up and I ended up behind. Work some, it’s okay, it’s your job.
These are just three agreements that you can make with your family to ensure that you get something done AND you don’t lose your mind. Writing helps me relax and without it I might punch someone in the face, and although that makes a great holiday story years from now…I don’t want to do that if I don’t have to. Set down your agreements and then stick to them and demand that everyone else do so as well. It may take a few holidays but if you are consistent, after a while folks will get it and they will just flow into it on holidays after. You set the tone and the pace and get some writing done.
© The Writer’s Advice, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.
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Tags: advice, agreements, author, Christmas, holidays, inspiration, Inspire, Jai Colvin, Jai Farris, novel, novelist, Thanksgiving, Time, time management, writer, writers, writing, writing process
Have you ever met someone who seemed…well…cardboardish? You know what I’m talking about, stiff, boring and if they weren’t standing upright you would swear they might not have a pulse. What do you usually do when these folks are around? You leave right? You need to think about that when you are creating your characters.
Despite what non-writers will tell you our characters are real people. They have to be or the whole story isn’t believable. You characters have to ring true and the only way for that to happen is to make them as “real” as possible and to do that you have to give your characters some character.
People are not one-dimensional. In fact most of us have some sort of split personality. I know that I am different with my peers than I am my spouse and my children know an entirely different side of me. This is not to say that all of these personalities don’t bleed together; they do but if I am honest I have many, many sides. People are complicated because there are so many sides to each of us. Your characters have to have this aspect of being as well. Your main character, for instance, has to have “things” that make him/her your main character. They have to be strong and resourceful. They also have to be interesting.
So what can you do to give your characters more character? You can….
- · Give him/her a backstory – Everyone needs history to work off of. Our history is what shapes us.
- · Make sure the personality fits the name – Bob will never be a super hero but Mika will. Think about what you name your characters; it’s important.
- · Give him/her issues – We all have them…those things that we drag around with us. Emotional baggage is very helpful when defining your characters. There has to be a reason why they do what they do.
- · Give him/her a physical trait – When describing folks to other folks we often hear things like, ‘she has a limp’ or ‘he has sleepy looking eyes’. “Real” people often have something that makes them stand out from others. Make your characters memorable by giving them a physical trait that makes them unique.
These are just a few things that you can do to give your characters character. Remember that you want readers to like your characters, relate to them or downright hate them…strong emotional reaction is a good thing. So write a more memorable story by making sure that your characters are as real as it gets.
© The Writer’s Advice, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.
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Tags: advice, author, book, Character, creation of character, inspiration, Inspire, Jai Colvin, Jai Farris, learning, novel, novelist, organization, organize, plot, structure, telling story, writers, writing, writing process, Writing tools
You are a writer and writers live and die by the way that they get their work out to the readers. Sure you have written a book but what good is it to do that if no one ever gets to see it. Let’s face it, we are our only bastions of PR. If we don’t suss out the situation and then shamelessly promote ourselves….who will?
I did that today. I shamelessly announced that two of my mysteries were on sale. (See previous blog post) I have to get the work out there or folks will forget what it is I do. Now when you first put your work out there the sales come easy. Why are they easy in the beginning? Well…because the people who are buying your book are your mom, you sister and Aunt Ida. Family has stepped up at that point followed closely by friends who don’t want to be the only person at the next dinner party who hasn’t bought a copy. After you have exhausted these folks you have to actually work for your sales and it ain’t easy.
Being a writer these days involves so much more than just writing. We have to promote, market, keep records and, in the end, pay the taxes. It’s a full-time job! I would love to just write but I know that those days are long gone if they were ever really here for most of us at all.
Yes I know that self-promotion sucks but it is a necessary evil. For me personally I hit a number of venues. I advertise on Facebook and ask my friends to share the post. I advertise on my blog, website and Google + anywhere they will allow me to shamelessly shout out the virtues of my stories. I even hit Pinterest.
So before you decide to go on to the next book project take a bit to promote the work you have already done. I manage to support my new projects with my old ones by doing so and, to be honest, that’s the way it is supposed to work anyway. You write to support your writing to sell your writing to support your writing…whew, that made me dizzy. So shamelessly promote the best author you know….you!
© The Writer’s Advice, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.
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For the holidays the prices have dropped on 2 of my books so that more people can purchase them. Visit Amazon today and support the starving writer…
Visit Amazon to purchase Passion’s Revenge for just $3.
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Tags: advice, author, book, gift, Inspire, internet, Jai Colvin, Jai Farris, Kindle, Kindle Fire, Lesbian, nook, novel, novelist, sale, writer, writing, writing job, writing process, Writing tools
Holy crap is it cold outside. I live in the Pacific Northwest and we never see temps lower than 15 degrees and so far this weekend we have barely seen over that. Blame it on Global Warming or Mother Nature PMSing, it don’t matter, it’s still cold.
