5 Tips for Writing Descriptions

Today I got a question from a student in one of my writing classes about her characters. It wasn't about how to build them or how to make them unique. It was about how to describe them.  She had no idea where to start and it got me to thinking about how we place our characters into our stories.

How can you go about showing who they are without starting out with a long laundry list? You know that list -- you've seen it in book after book: he had brown hair, blue eyes, and a stocky build or she had blonde hair, bright green eyes and a body to kill for. One of my favorite authors (I won't mention who because she writes books that are bestsellers) but in every book the character description is the same starting with "she was a tall woman with....fill in the blanks, but it is always the same structure. Or you've seen that book where the author has the character stop in front of a mirror and examine her looks. That was the norm several years ago and writers used it so much it became a cliche.

Those options are there, but there have to be other ways too.

1. Try having another character describe your hero or heroine. Maybe the best friend admires your heroine's courage or maybe they discuss that attribute, plus others, in a conversation. This is a simple way to set the stage for what might be coming a little later. Or maybe the hero takes one look at the heroine and is drawn by her vibrant blue eyes--that tells the reader something about him and her at the same time.
 
2.  Have the character describe her/himself.  This works fine in a first person narrative.  I was always amused by how mystery author Sue Grafton would let Kinsey Milhone describe her carefree lifestyle and her lack of stylish concern.

3.  Compare characters. This can come from the character himself, comparing his strength on the football field or battle field to his chief rival, or having the heroine compare her physical strength with her sister who wouldn't be caught dead in a gym or on a soccer field.

4.  Try having the character lament the habits or looks they don't have. At the same time they can bring in the physique, looks or attributes they lack.  This can be very useful and fun if you are writing a lighthearted romance or your character is self deprecating at times.

5. Just do it! There are times when you have no choice but to be straight forward and just give the basic details. At times like that, just get it in there and get it completed so that you can move on. It might be in some of the small details as you start bringing your character to life in the first chapter or you might sneak it in as part of the opening action.

But remember, we do want to know what those look like. We want to know if she is taller than those around her and she is self conscious about it or if he is shorter than a the basketball players who tower around him as he takes them to task as their coach.

5 Tips for Summer Writing

As we move through July more people are taking vacations or spending time doing fun outdoors things. Who has time to write?  We all do and we should make good use of these warm summer months to get things done with our writing that we might not normally do.

Here are 5 tips for using the summer to get your writing in gear even while you are on vacation.

1. Visit a museum.  If you are visiting relatives out of town why not take a trip down to the local museum and study some history. You might come up with a good story idea or two or four or six. Think about all the real life characters you can learn about in a museum, not to mention coming up with interesting facts about a region that you might be able to use in a time travel or even in a futuristic fantasy.

2. Take a hike and let your mind wander.  Some of my best story ideas have come up while I am on a long walk, enjoying the scenery
. Thinking up a plot while trudging along a trail in the high country can not only make the walk go faster, but if you find yourself surrounded with a beautiful mountain view or looking for shells on a lonely beach you can also soak in the feel of the location and use that for a story in the future. Appreciate the setting and think about how you might write about it. You might even look for a way to put it into a scene in your book when you get back to your hotel room.

3. Read!  What is better to do that sitting on a beach chair soaking up the sun and reading the latest books you have been promising yourself you want to tackle. They can not only rejuvenate your brain but sometimes they can also remind you that YOU can write as well and get you going again. You might also consider reading through your latest work and look for new plot directions or pick up something you haven't work on in a while and read through it as though you were reading someone else's book. That might break a logjam in a story for you.

4. Relax! Not only is sitting by the beach or taking that long walk energizing but just letting your

mind wander with nothing to do can clear out some of the dead brain cells and get new ideas planted in your head. Even if you don't feel like writing you can still plot or come up with new ideas for characters. Sometimes being away from your writing desk can totally free up your brain to go in new directions.

5. Do some fun writing. Put away that fiction and try writing non-fiction for a change. Do an interview with someone at a place you're visiting and write up a non-fiction blog piece on the person. Whether it's a fellow traveler or the guy who's selling ice cream along the beach walkway. Think about how you might write a news feature on the person. What kind of questions would you ask? How would you tell the story?

Summer can be a great time to relax and get our writing thoughts in order. But then, eventually, we do need to get back to the keyboard or notebook and sit down and start tackling those writing subjects again. But why let all that great writing time go to waste? Enjoy the summer, but come back refreshed and ready to write!

5 Tips for Beginning Writers

As someone who has been writing novels, short stories and non-fiction for years, I am often asked how to get started or what it takes to write a book. I wish there was an easy answer. Unfortunately the answer is to write, write, and write some more. And then keep writing. But where do you start? Actually the answer to that is to you can start with your story in a variety of different ways. Here are five different things you can do to start working on your story.

1. Start with a simple idea.  This is often where beginners start. They want to write a book about their uncle who was a cowboy, or they have an idea that revolves around an event. But you need more than idea, you will need to think about where you're going with that idea. What will happen to that cowboy or what happens at that summer picnic that is interesting?

2. Come up with characters. NO story is going to be read if it doesn't have characters that grab and hold the reader. Cardboard people are not going to hold anyone's interest.  Write up a character sketch or use a character profile that will allow you to show that character and who she or he is over the course of your plot.

3. Provide a problem for that character. That is where you begin to develop your plot. Do you want your character to solve a murder, take part in a caper, fall in love? What do you want your character to do and from there you can start to work on the plot of your story.

4. Don't forget to add dialogue.  Your characters need to speak.  Just telling the story is not going to be interesting. You need to make certain you are including dialogue in your scenes or you are just telling the story. We want you to show your story, not tell it, and dialogue shows what is happening.

5. Make a plot list so that you see the scenes you have in your story. You need an opening and that can have several scenes, but what happens?  Building a plot list can help you keep your story organized. Now if you don't know where to go after the opening scene, think about what you want your ending to be. Where do you want your characters to end up? Write that down as your last plot point and then start filling in the middle. What else do you know should happen? Keep listing those things until you have a semblance of a plot. You can always change as you go along.


And once you have decided to write a story, then get busy. Start getting scenes, character sketches, ideas down on the written page.  Go back to that original premise. If you want to write a story, you have to WRITE, WRITE, WRITE!

5 Tips for Fighting Writer's Block

 It happens to all of us who are writers.  Sooner or later we hit the wall with our writing and we suffer through that old , well-known, feared syndrome called “writer’s block.”  We fear it, we try to hide from it, we fight it, but more often we give in to it.

So what do you do when it hits you?  Do you fight it? Do you give in to it? Lots of people say they know when it hits them and they try to shrug it off and get back to their writing.  For others those blank, empty days of staring at the computer screen or playing games or just ignoring the latest work can start to pile up until they fear they will never write again.

When writer’s block visits me, I try not to give in, but with each passing day I don’t write I find the fear that I’ll never write again. That in itself can drive me back to the keyboard to prove that I can still tell a story, whether it’s a fiction work, or just a blog on not being able to write.

Here are some ideas for coping with writer’s block:

1. Write something – anything – this is something I usually try first. If I find myself unable to face my characters and my latest stories, then I do work on a blog or try writing a lecture for one of my writing classes.  Sometimes by doing that I find new inspiration for the fiction story I am working on. Often when teaching a writing class I find that reading over what some of those other students are doing makes me want to work on my own writing. 


2. Look over old stories – this is always a good way to get something finished. By reading an old story that I started several months ago, I find myself with new ideas that I hadn’t thought of before – maybe even something that had given me writer’s block and stopped me back when I was working on this story. If there is something that was stopping me in my current story, I can just set it aside and work on those old things and maybe get something done. Usually finishing a work will propel into the next book or story.
3. Get away from your desk – a change of scenery can be like a breath of fresh air so try writing in some other location. Sometimes just sitting at your desk every day can seem like drudge work. I am a big fan of going to a restaurant or coffee shop with a note book and writing long hand for a while. Then when I go back to my computer and transcribe the pages it spurs me on. Of course I have also been known to take my computer to a library or coffee shop to write. Sometimes the change in scenery and just getting away from the house can spur creativity. 


4. Try a plotting brainstorming session – I love to do this with friends or a writing group. We will sit and toss story ideas around and I either jot them down or put them into the notes feature of my iphone. That way I have the ideas to refer back to later. I use this especially if I run into a knotty plotting problem that needs extra help. People love to play with story ideas when they don’t have anything invested other than offering their opinion.


5. Have a dialogue with characters – sometimes I realize that my characters are either not fully formed or I don’t know them as well as I thought I did so they are refusing to take those next plot steps. That can lead to a dead stop to the plot. I just can get that next scene written. Often a little conversation with those characters can pull out a new idea or make  me realize just what is ailing that character. Then after a while I find myself getting back on track.
    
   Sometimes it just takes getting away from things for a while. I will put something down and let it sit. Sooner or later those characters will start yelling and I’ll have to come back and finish their stories.  I’m never sure what stops me from writing, but I know any or all of these things can pull me back. Sooner or later that will lead to THE END getting written!

5 Tips to Creating Characters

Let's focus on Characters!  I absolutely love to create new characters. Creating them from scratch can seem like a daunting prospect, but you don't need to do all the work. Look around! Use what you know and who you know. This is your chance as a writer to make that boyfriend with the small irritations into a perfect man ready for love. Or you can make that awful boss over into the total idiot you think she is and next she is the one who gets killed or fired. All you have to do is exaggerate some of those terrible faults or correct the bad ones. 


Okay, that sounds like such a delightful exercise, but there are other things to consider as you go about making up new characters.  You want them to be lifelike, but what could be easier than looking around you.  Here are five tips for creating characters.


1. Use what or who you know. This is where that boyfriend or boss comes in.  Look at the people around you and by taking their worst or best attributes you can begin to frame a real person. I've never used my mother as a person in a book, but I have used some of her phrases in more than one and I often look to her personality as a basis for characters. I have often thought of her determination and gumption when it comes to creating a strong woman. She was all of 4'11, but when she got something into her mind to make happen, she was going to get it done.


2. Look beyond the obvious.  Don't think that because you show a character one way they can't learn or develop in another.  Again I return to my mother. She was quick to tears so people often underestimated her because of her size and her emotions. They thought she was frail and weak. But like I said, when she made up her mind, she could become an 8 foot wave of power. I use those traits in some of the women in my books.


3. Search for characters wherever you go.  I always try to be aware of my surroundings wherever I am and whatever I am doing, studying everything from people in the crowds to the temperature in summer and winter to the smell of different locations.  Engaging the senses helps me not only bring setting and feeling into a story, but it also helps me as I develop characters. Meeting someone new, I might be aware of their soft voice or their firm handshake. What are they wearing? What about a strange little habit that they might not be aware of, like tapping a finger or whistling under their breath.  Those can all be taken and given to characters somewhere and sometime.


4. Make up characters from people you know.  I am always thinking of new ways to use the people I know in a book, again taking some of those small traits and making them larger than life or taking a trait (like stubbornness) and giving it to a character. In a book I can change that stubborn person to realize how wrong their behavior is. (something I might not be able to teach a person I know)


5. Use your childhood heroes.  As a child in a small town I didn't get to meet people who were larger than life. I often had to make up my own heroes and heroines.  Didn't we all play make believe as children and make up people around us? We can still use some of those made up villains and heroes today as writers. Recently while I was working on a book, I remembered one of the first heroines I ever created as an imaginary friend. I welcomed her back into my life in a book.  I won't say when and where she's appearing, but she's there.


The final tip I would give is to always keep looking.  Every time you meet a new person you might be meeting the next hero or heroine in a story. And if you don't like them, you can always make them always turn them into a villain!  


Need some help with building the characters for your next book?  I'll be teaching a class starting next week at Savvy Authors:  savvyauthors.com or you can also look for my new book on characters available at Amazon.

  

5 Tips for Starting out Fresh

Every year I promise myself that I will write more this year. I am not certain if I do write more, but I know that one way or another I will be starting new projects and finishing old ones before the year is out. I will not stop and that is half the battle.

So how do we get started with fresh material and fresh ideas to start out the new year?   Well, here are some easy ideas that can help with your writing. Take a class, try a new hobby, take a trip. Look for something new to start on. Let’s examine some of those tips for getting that fresh start for 2017:

1. Look for something new to do. One thing that has caught my interest as the year closed on 2016 was writing science fiction. Oh, I’ve had the idea in the past, but this year I am going to try it. Why not? Look around at the genre you are working in. Is it growing a little stale? Have you been considering another one? Why not try it now in the new year? Play with a short story if you can’t commit to something long. Or if you haven’t written a short story in a while, do that instead of a longer tale.
2. Take a class.  I always recommend classes when people are stuck with their writing. A different perspective on your work and a different way to look at an old topic can get the creative juices flowing again. I am always on the look out for new classes to take or something new to learn. Keeping my mind active is a good way to keep young. I am not taking a class this month, but I am teaching one on plotting and I’ve already come up with some new ideas from the students who will be in my class.  
3. Take a trip.  I spent more time travelling last year than I had in the past. I never go far (well, I did go to Canada) but even short trips can be fun and exciting. In several weeks I’ll be boarding the train for a trip through the mountains in winter. I haven’t done that before and I’m really looking forward to it. The trip will not only give me beautiful views of the Colorado’s snow covered peaks in winter, but I bet I’ll meet some fun people to talk to. I always seem to find some great story ideas on the train.
4. Try a new method of researching.  One story I began working on last year required historical research and I found myself so involved in it that this past weekend I started off the new year at the library with an in depth look at the research department. I already came away with some new leads (and some new research books) that will help me get that story finished.
5. Try a new approach.  I usually write down my accomplishments from last year and set goals for the new year. This time around I am going to look at different methods of getting my writing output increased.
    
   So look around you. What do you need to do to get more done in the new year? A new schedule, a new way of editing--what didn’t you do last year? Are there things you wanted to do that you put off?  I’ve declared 2017 as the year of finishing things. And that’ just what I hope I’ll be applauding at the end of the year.

5 Tips for Starting to Write a Story

This month I am teaching a class on writing short stories and while working on it I came up with my own idea for writing a story. It's in a genre (young adult) that I haven't written before so as I sat down to get started it occurred to me I had no idea what I wanted to say or how. I had a concept, but where do you go from there? That got me to thinking about how I normally start out writing a story. I realized there isn't one set way that I start. I just do.


It's something I started learning many years ago when I started out in writing for TV news. You don't have much time to think about how you want to get started. You have to do it or the time will pass and your story won't make it on the air. So I would just start. As Nora Roberts says, "you can't edit a blank page." Anything else can be fixed. So start. How and where? Anywhere can be a beginning. You don't need to sit and consider the perfect first line.


1. Begin with a conversation. This was how I started on that young adult story. I had a concept and I wasn't sure how to introduce the characters or get their story started, so I began with two of the main characters caught up in a conversation. It isn't necessarily the first one they have, but it will explain one of their early actions. But writing the dialogue made me understand several things about each character and from there I was able to begin a character sketch. or....


2. Begin with a Character sketch. I've often done that in the past. I know what my story is about, and I have a vague idea of the character, but starting with a sketch (that can be used or discarded in the book) can be a good way to start off your writing. You get a picture of your character and even if you don't use the description exactly in a later scene you start off knowing more about you character.


3. Start off with a description of the setting. Now I say that not as the idea for the opening of your book any more than you would start off the opening scene with a character sketch. This is just a way to begin your writing. Write a scene setter so that you can place your characters there. Again, this can become preliminary work or you can use parts of it as you start to write. What you want to write down in the book is not so much this description as the "feel" you get from this description. Show it in your story.


4. Write a scene you know will be in the book.  I've even written the final scene as a way of starting off. In a mystery that can really be helpful because you then know how your main character is going to solve the crime.


5. Write the first thing that comes into your mind about the book. It can be anything -- from character to plot to a simple line about the story itself.  Again, this is just a way of getting started. Too often we get caught up in looking at that blank page and we don't know where or how to begin. Look at your notes about the story or look into your head to think about the story.


When I was writing for a newscast I'd have at least reporter notes or wire copy to go from. We never start out with nothing, and your stories are that way too. Think about what is in your head and just get started. Some times that is a good way to get started in the morning too. Don't let yourself get bogged down with worrying about how perfect the writing needs to be.  Once you make getting started a common practice you may find you don't need as much editing.

5 Tips for Giving New Life to Old Ideas

What do you do with old story ideas that seem like such great ideas at the time and then die on the vine? You know those stories. They come to you in the middle of the night or in the afternoon while you’re taking a walk and they energize you at the time, but then they seem to wither and die. You might even start writing the story in a mad rush and then enthusiasm flags and you forget about it until you’re going through an old notebook or cleaning out the files in your computer.

What can you do then? Delete the file? Throw out the old notebook you found it in? Come to think of it, why do those stories never get finished? Is it because they were going nowhere? I admit I have those type of beginnings all over in notebooks, scraps of paper, and the old computer files. Why do I give up on them? Why do you give up on them? Well, sometimes those story just runs out of energy. Sometimes they simply seem to hit dead ends. Maybe you didn’t think them through enough or perhaps the characters never developed into full-fledged people. Usually you will find you need both to really get the story moving forward and to keep the pages of written copy piling up. Here are some ideas for going back to those story ideas and bringing them back to life so you can finish them.


1. Re-think the story concept. Let’s face it—having a great idea for a character might seem like the perfect beginning. You can spend hours working on interviews with that character or developing the character’s inner feelings and outward traits, but unless you have a good plot to go with that person, you could still end up hitting that dead end. Did you come up a story worthy of your character? 

What is that character going to do with that great personality or all those emotional problems? The character still needs more than full development. You might have a wonderful person, but he or she still needs a plot to test his or her will. That character needs a story built around him or her to provide the person a reason for existing. Without the story you will reach a dead end with the character.

 2. Re-consider your characters. The same is true of a wonderful plot idea. I love to cultivate ideas from news stories or develop intricate plots in brainstorming sessions with friends who agree that our idea can’t miss. Inspired by those ideas I might sit down and write a couple of chapters. Invariably I hit a dead end there too. Why? In this case it’s usually because I don’t know how the character will react to whatever is going on around him or her. In this case there is no fully grown character to face all those tribulations.

Just like the character needs a good story to go with him or her, the story needs just the right character to tell that story. Think about the character who belongs in that story, who will be challenged by the plot.


3. Consider an Old Approach or Character. Huh? That may sound strange, but sometimes all those story ideas need is a little further development. So why try to re-construct the wheel. Look through some of your old ideas of character profiles or plots. What kind of character do you need for that great adventure? A great warrior? Who do you need to solve the murder? A detective? Maybe you will find someone who wanted to write a story about just sitting there waiting for their story in your idea folder.

4. Think out of the box? Maybe you need to go in the other direction. If you have a character you want to write, why not pick something totally different for that person. Why not set down your everyman character who is going to be most out of place in a great adventure and force him to get through it. Make that character develop and grow over the course of the journey. Take a character who will be most uncomfortable in a plot and make the character work to prove he or she is worthy. 


5. Play the old “what if” game.  Take your characters and plots and start reworking those plot ideas in different ways.  Try out several scenarios until you find the one that is right.  Then get started writing. Often it just takes some extra thoughts to make a story start working again. 


So don't abandon those files of  old story ideas. They can still be useful even if you don’t use them immediately. And don't throw out those scenes you might have written on the fly. Sometimes you can rework them and put them into a story you are already working on. For that matter use one of those ideas in your WIP. Put your current character into that situation and see what happens.

 You never know until you try out giving new life to your old ideas.   

5 Tips to Making your Characters Unique

Developing characters is never simple, and how do you keep coming up with characters after you’ve written several books?  Sometimes it seems like the characters you are working on now are just further extensions of those people you created two stories ago.

Don’t let yourself fall into that trap.  Characters need to be as individual as the people you know. Certainly the people around you all have their individual characteristics that make you laugh, make you nuts and irritate you. 

Consider doing the same thing with your characters. Here are five tips to make them unique.

1. Give them a flaw.  No one is perfect and your characters shouldn’t be either. Don’t make your hero so heroic that no one can relate to him. Give him a weak spot or a flaw that he can work on. Perhaps it is spending money or smoking too much. This can be something to keep that hero from being perfect. We don’t want perfect heroes who never make a mistake. At the same time, we don’t want a hero with such a nasty flaw they will never recover from it.  Make it simple, but give the character something to work on besides the main issue of the story.
2. Give them a real life.  No one has the same sort of life, whether it is rescuing damsels in distress or just trying to survive day to day. Give the characters a real life that gets in  the way of the story or what the character is trying to accomplish. Does her mother constantly demand things of him or her? Does her brother constantly get in trouble and she has to stop her life to bail him out?
3. Make your characters come alive through emotions. This is absolutely critical and one of the main ways to make all your characters unique.  Look for a range of emotions and determine how those emotional reactions will feed into how the character reacts to events in the story. Now you’re going to come up with a character who is different from every other cardboard character out there.
4. Give your character a secret trait – something they might not even recognize at the beginning. Is she stronger than she realizes and only the test of the story makes her discover that hidden truth about herself? Bring that out. Show the character, first at her worst and then at her best. Or show her at her best before she realizes her worth and how that trait can turn the tide in her favor.
5. Give your character a quirk. No, we are not talking about a flaw, as we did earlier. This is something different, something unique, yes, something quirky. Like what you ask? Well, what are those things that drive you crazy about the people around you? Does he tend to fall asleep at a moment’s notice? Does she always check the doors over and over to make certain they are locked? Does he not bother washing his coffee cup from the previous day, but just refill it until you take it and put it in the dishwasher? How about refusing to get rid of that old jacket he’s had for years? My Dad had a thing about cars, and he was constantly stopping at car lots when we drove through different towns, “just to check.” A few times we came home with a new car.
    
   This are all unique things that can make your characters different. They can make your characters someone memorable. Come up with some ideas of your own and then think about how to use them next time you develop a character.

5 Tips for Knowing When to Re-write

We all have to do it, even if we hate the thought of it--rewriting. Sometimes there is no way around it. Even the best plotted story can run into a roadblock, or the story written into the mist can hit a hall before you even know what is happening. Suddenly you  can't move forward. Suddenly the characters are not cooperating. We'll look at how to rewrite the story in coming weeks but for today let's look at how to figure out when you've hit a roadblock and there is no other way around it but to re-write.

1. The characters are not cooperating.  I listed that above, but that is a big way to realize that you are heading in the wrong direction. If they don't seem to work in the scenes you are writing, you may be taking them in the wrong direction. Look over what you wrote earlier, look over your character profiles, and look over the characters themselves.  If they aren't working, then you need to re-think where the plot is headed for these people. You may need to do a little re-writing that will send those characters back in the right direction.

2.  You just don't want to write. Sure, there can be many, many reasons for not being able to just sit at the keyboard and having the words flow. But often the problem is that you've hit a point in the plot where the story is going nowhere. You may need to read over your plot again to make certain that it is going where you want it. This might be a good time to re-evaluate your plot and whether it can work in the way you originally planned. It might be time to consider re-writing some of the earlier pages or planning changes in the plot.

3. The story is going in some totally foreign direction and you aren't sure why. Again, this may be

that your plot is not working. This is a good time to try re-writing a few pages and perhaps trying a new direction to see whether you like the re-write better than the original. If you do, then keep heading in that direction.

4. The villain is getting more important than the hero. This might be a function of not having the write characters in the right roles. Again, it might be time to make that hero stronger, or to change the direction of the villain. And if you're going to have a super-villain, great!  Just make certain you are setting up the story that way. That might mean a re-write of some of the earlier pages, but they might also be fun to write with this new bad guy.

5.  The motives are not coming through. Perhaps what you have your characters doing doesn't ring true. They wouldn't take those sort of risks for no reason. Perhaps you need to re-write those motives to make them stronger, or to make those changes in your characters to make them want something more. Motivation is a big factor for your characters' actions. You need to make them strong enough.

If you do find you have to do a re-write, don't despair. Next week, we'll look at how to make those re-writes work for you to come up with a stronger story.

5 Tips for Accomplishing your Writing Goals

I am always looking for new ways to keep from hitting the doldrums with my writing and to keep the work flowing.  I see so many writers who have so many excuses for why they didn't write today or why they haven't been able to keep going.

When I consider what keeps me going, other than the need to write, I think of what I have heard from other prolific writers about what keeps them going. I always refer back to people like best selling authors like Nora Roberts and John Sandford.  I once heard her tell a writer in a workshop. "It's my job..Don't you show up at your job even when you don't feel like it?"  Of course if you want to get paid, you show up and do the job, just as she said.  John Sandford pointed out that when he was working as a reporter in Minneapolis he was expected to turn out stories of at least 750 words a day. At that pace, even working only 5 days a week, you could turn out a novel in 4 months.

So how can you accomplish your writing goals?

1. Set a realistic goal.  The goal to write a thousand words a day every single day might sound wonderful, but we all need breaks every so often.  Setting up the realistic goal of 750 words a day (which is only 3 double spaced pages a day if you think about it) can be done. That can give you a novel in four months.

2. Try using a timer.  One of the people in our local writing groups says she regularly uses a timer so that she doesn't feel overwhelmed. She works in half hour segments and does 5 of those a day.  She takes breaks between them. Depending on how long it takes you to write those 750 words, you should be able to do it in the 2 and a half hours she proposes.

3. Don't stop to edit.  I find that when I stop to edit I sometimes get lost in moving the story forward. However when I am writing thing just seem to keep flowing.. Things don't need to be perfect the first time around. That is what editing is for.

4.  Re-read old pages at the start of the day. Or perhaps you set aside a half hour in the morning to read over what you wrote the day before and edit then. I've heard a number of writers who do that -- rereading old pages as a way to get in the mood for the next day.

5. Give yourself time for a plot talk.  One of the other writers in one of my groups was saying when she runs into a plotting problem she sits down and keeps talking the plot over in her head. That gives her new ideas and also helps her keep the words flowing.

The key though is to keep Nora's words in mind. It's a job and if you want to get paid, you need to write.

5 Tips for Re-energizing your Writing

We all have the problem from time to time as writers... getting the blahs and going days without writing or even wanting to write. Some people call it writer's block, some find excuses for why they can't seem to get going on a project or finish a story.


Whatever the reasons might be we all face the difficulty of getting back on track every so often. So what can you do to get yourself jump started or to get going again. Since I'm just back from a trip to one of my favorite places I can tell you that a trip certainly helps. I'd been floundering myself with my writing, mainly because I need to do a whole lot of editing and that always slows down the process.


So what can you do to get back to the joys of writing.


1. Take that trip. Go some place you have been wanting to go. Yes, I know that trip you wanted to take around the world might be out right now, or even that prolonged drive across country. But try something quick, something short, something fun. In the past I've often done weekend getaways to re-energize myself and my writing. I've gone off to hotel rooms only half an hour away and spent a weekend sitting in my room writing or exploring the area during the day and writing all night. Whatever the location, just getting away can sometimes be a good way to re-energize your writing.


2.  Take a class.  I teach lots of classes so I have to admit I had a stake in that. However, I find that sometimes the ideas I get from other students gives me plenty of ideas for my own writing. Not that I copy their ideas, but I do listen for their writing tactics or pay attention to what works for them. I also find that sometimes their complains or problem areas get me motivated again. Sometimes I will take a class myself, just to get myself back into the student mode and learn something.


3.  Take a walk.  This is a good way to get the creative juices awakened. Sometimes a morning walk can give you time to think about your latest story and where it is going right or where it might be headed in the wrong direction. It's also an opportunity to clear your head so that you can come back to the keyboard ready to right away.


4. Take break. Sometimes it's not a walk or getaway that you need but just a break from your daily routine.  Give yourself permission to take some time off and spend it just watching a movie or playing games. Look for story ideas online or read a book.  Find again some of the old excitement in old pleasures you used to have. Recently a snowy day kept me inside all day and I sat down and worked on a jigsaw puzzle. But as I worked on it I also found myself thinking about my current story and how it might go in a new direction. By the end of the day the puzzle was nearly finished and I was ready to go back to work.


5. Take a bath.  If you're not into bubble baths, then find something else that relaxes you. It's like that suggestion from above about taking a break. But make this one something that is totally relaxing, whether it's sitting in the dark at a movie theater or walking around the block. Do something that is not related to your writing so that you have time to clear your head.


Mostly don't take it too seriously. Find time to think and reflect. But then don't let yourself lose sight of the overall goal and get back to work.