Angela Booth's Writing Blog

This week's writing technique: got emotion?

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By the time some of us have reached adulthood, we're pretty much out of touch with how we FEEL. Some poor souls can be so repressed that they feel nothing - they're numb.

If we feel anger or rage, we're quick to repress it: we're convinced that we shouldn't feel anger at all. And if we love something - like writing, for example - we're good at denying it, either because we don't want others to know too much about us, or because it makes feel vulnerable.

This week, keep a notebook, and assess your emotions. When you're in the middle of a strong emotion, write down how you feel. What are you experiencing in your body? What's going through your mind? Write a list of emotions you felt during the day, and what caused you to feel each emotion.

Here's a list of emotions.

The purpose of this notebook is to help your writing, whether you write fiction or nonfiction. Fiction is all about arousing emotions in the reader. If you can't FEEL your own emotions, you've got no hope of arousing them in others. You need your emotions when you're writing nonfiction too, otherwise no one will read your work - it will be too dry and dusty.

Experiment.

Technorati Tags: Writing Tip

Stop trying to write

Are you "trying to write?" It's an expression many new writers use. "I'm trying to write a novel"; "When I retire I'm trying to write"; "I'm trying to freelance" etc.

It's an expression I've never heard dyed-in-the-wool writers use, whether they're professional writers or hobbyists. Professional writers bitch about their low daily word count and editorial crimes. Hobbyists bitch about their Work In Progress (WIP.):-)

You've been writing since you were six years old
If you think about it, you've been writing in one way or another since you were in kindergarten, so you KNOW how to write. There's no way you can "try" to do something you've been doing so long.

Writing is simple. I always say that there are only two parts to the writing process: generation and organization. Neither is hard. Just generate some text, and then organize it.

So stop trying to write and just write. :-)

Technorati Tags: Writing Tip

NaNoWriMo QuickStart 4: Write a character journal

In NaNoWriMo QuickStart 3: Your characters' professions we discussed choosing professions for your characters.

Now choose one character. This may be your primary character, your hero or heroine, or it may be the antagonist - the person who has it in for your hero/ heroine, and opposes him/ her. If you're writing a murder mystery, for example, your antagonist would be the murderer.

For the next few weeks, write a daily diary from the point of view of the character you've chosen. You're not writing your story. In terms of fiction craft, you're developing a character.

Write around 200 words a day, just as your character would write: "I ran into Jeff this morning at the supermarket. He ducked his head when he saw me - I know he saw me, and he's definitely avoiding me." Etc.

Writing character journals is fun, because you never know what will come up. Pretend you're the character, and write his/ her journal.

You'll use all this material when you get started on your NaNoWriMo marathon.

Technorati Tags: creativity, fiction, practice your writing

Blog housekeeping notes: comments and feeds

On a housekeeping note:

* Comments - thank you for your comments, they're ALWAYS appreciated, as are trackbacks. However, because of the prevalence of spam, comments are still moderated, that is, they don't go live until I read them. Spam has slowed down, but there's too much of it, so it means that comments need to be moderated or the blog would turn into a pharma-advertising wasteland;

* The RSS feeds are now set to excerpts only, because of content theft.

I know that comment-moderation and trimmed RSS feeds make reading this blog harder than it should be, and I'm sorry for that. I hope you'll bear with the hassles until karma catches up with spammers and scammers. Of course, this may not be in this lifetime. :-)

Technorati Tags: blogs, scams, spam, Web-spam

Content theft - it's widespread

Whether you have a Web site or a blog, or both, you'll soon find yourself up against content theft. This occurs in various ways. Someone can republish ALL your content as their own, or "scrape" the content, usually via an RSS feed.

Although some writers don't mind their content being scraped, I completely agree with Amy Gahran at Contentious:

In a nutshell, someone who republishes your content without authorization is stealing from you. Don’t fall into the fallacy of, “It’s publicity, so it’s good for me.” If it’s a splog or otherwise unsavory site, and if they don’t even credit you or link back to you, then they’re getting all the benefit from content you’ve worked to create. With nothing for you. Plus, they’re probably damaging your reputation.

The reputation-management aspect is what concerns me. I don't want my name and content to be associated with sleazy sites.

What can you do about scrapers? Not much, unfortunately. It's up to Google and the other search engines to manage splogs (spam blogs) but since they're gaining revenue from them, the incentive isn't there.

Technorati Tags: brand management, spam, Web publishing, Web-spam

Changing times of the writer

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I love this painting from Rijksmuseum: A Writer.

The detail is wonderful. The more things change, the more they stay the same. :-)

Technorati Tags: images, writing

You're a writer. You can do anything

Great article by Po Bronson "Do Writers Need Community?"

Quote:

Tessa made the most amazing transformation. She’d started life over in San Francisco after getting divorced in London. Not long before she found us, she’d been cleaning houses as a maid in order to get by. She’d only written a couple articles before we met, but she was soon writing for all the British and Australian magazines. That gave her great confidence, and, buoyed, – this is the amazing part – she remembered that she’d always wanted to be a jazz singer. If she could become a journalist, maybe she could become a jazz singer. She was in her early ‘40s and hadn’t sung since she was a young girl. "I was always told I had a great voice," she said. So she moved to Manhattan and two years later had a famous singer as her mentor and was represented by a top manager and sang to packed audiences and was not just singing, she was composing and everything.

When you find success (even minor success) and you have people around you who support that success, it gives you the confidence you can do anything.

If YOU want to write, write. That desire you have guarantees your success. I know that because it's true of every writer. Every writer starts by wanting to write and learns by writing. However, you need a community of people who believe in you. That community is part of the reason I write this blog. Blogging helps writers. If you want to build your own community, who believe in you and your writing dreams, create a writing blog. Get started blogging with my ebook Writing Success with Blogs, by Angela Booth.

Technorati Tags: blog your writing, practice your writing, writing, Writing Tip

Writers' Mac: Best Mac programs for writers

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I'm a Mac switcher - I waited way too long to enjoy all the benefits and creativity of a Mac. The past 15 months of Mac ownership have been the most fun and the most productive of my life.

So here we go, my Top eleven Mac apps for writers:

* Max OS X operating system
As an operating system, Mac OS X is outstanding. Coming from a Windows world, I'm bedazzled. As advertised, everything "just works", and it takes so few steps. Everything happens without a fuss, and Windows extras are built into the Mac OS itself.

* RapidWeaver - create a Web site in minutes
Superb. Even if you've never created a site before, RapidWeaver makes creating a gorgeous site easy. There's a bustling forum too, with kind, generous people who give their time freely to help newbies. RapidWeaver is perfect for creating your writers' Web site - or for creating several of them. Ten out of ten for sheer ease of use and brilliance.

* Curio - creativity tool
How to describe Curio? Curio is a mixture of a database, a drawing program, a project management tool, and an outliner. As the Web site says, "Curio is the ultimate brainstorming and project management application — a flexible and powerful environment which promotes visual thinking for gathering and shaping your ideas, while managing all the notes and documents associated with your project."

* Mori - outliner/ note keeper
An outliner, and much more. It reminds me of an old DOS and PC outlining tool called GrandView. However, it's much more than just an outliner, it's a note manager too. I haven't used it to outline and work on a book yet, but I'm looking forward to doing that.

* Journler - journal PLUS
Much more than a journal program, Journler organizes your Mac life. You can use this program as the hub of all your activities on your Mac. Want to add a voice note? Click the red icon and talk. Add images, folders and files just as easily. Smart Folders make the program a joy.

* NovaMind - mind maps
Gorgeous mind mapping on your Mac. If you love mind maps, you'll love this program.

* OmniOutliner - outliner
An outliner and organizing tool. Excellent.

* Pages - word processor
An Apple program, a cross between a word processor and a publishing program. Drag and drop simplicity for all your print document needs.

* EasyCrop - crop photos
As the name suggests, crop and resize images - with drag and drop ease. Then drag the cropped image to wherever you want it.

* Jer's Novel Writer - write a novel
Writing a novel? Try this program. Another gem.

* ecto - blog
Desktop blogging for the Mac, and Windows. If you manage more than one blog, you need ecto.

Technorati Tags: Mac Tiger, software

Writers' Self-sabotage - 10 ways to sabotage your writing

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Do you sabotage yourself? Of course you do, unless you're a writing saint.

Here are some ways you may sabotage yourself:

1. You always put off writing until tomorrow, when you have more time, don't have a headache, have made up with your spouse, your computer stops making that weird grinding noise, you can get a whiteboard for your mind maps...

2. You judge your writing. There are two parts to writing - generation and organization. Only two. Don't judge. You're a lousy judge of your own work.

3. You don't follow up. An editor asks to see more of your work, and you think it's just a rejection, so why bother? Follow up, please.

4. You don't communicate. If no one knows you're a writer, how will you get readers?

5. You never finish a piece of writing. You start an article, novel or screenplay and never get beyond page 1. Complete it, whatever it is.

6. You think everyone else is a better writer than you are. They're not. If you're interested in writing, that's a sign that you can write WELL, with some experience and practice. Rotten writers aren't interested in writing or reading.

7. You want to become a freelance writer, but you never send out your work to people who could buy it, or -

8. You stop at the first rejection. When should you stop sending out your work? When they toss the first clod of earth on your coffin.

9. You listen to the advice of people who are not writers, AND you listen to the advice of people who are writers. You know your work. Chances are that if you've only written a draft, most of your work is still in your head. Take your own advice. Listen to your intuition. Who should you listen to? To people who are paying you - editors, or clients if you're copywriting.

10. You allow yourself to be ruled by your emotions: you have to be in the mood to write. News flash: you get in the mood by writing. The writing generates the "writing mood". Try it. Start writing at a time you're "not in the mood". You'll shock yourself - after ten minutes, you'll be in the writing flow.

Technorati Tags: 100 ways to be more creative, be more productive, Motivation

Fab Freelancing Blog: build your freelance career

Visited the Fab Freelance Writing Blog yet? It's my new blog, devoted to helping you to build your freelance writing career.

Technorati Tags: copywriting, freelance writing, get started freelance writing

This week's writing technique: use what you know

You're a writer, so you're always learning something new. It's a rare project which requires no research.

So this week's technique is to use what you know. What do YOU know? Whichever stage of life you're at, you already know a lot of stuff. Even if you're working at your very first job, you've survived your childhood, your family, and your education.

Each day for the next week, make a list of five topics you know something about. For example: fishing, riding horses, dogs, needlepoint, and food.

Pick one topic, and without thinking about it too much, write a 600 word essay in an hour -- or 90 minutes, maximum. Write FAST.

You know the topic, so the key here is to write FAST.

I'll give you a couple of titles to kick start you:

The Top Five Ways To ____ (a sub-topic of your topic)

What ______ (your topic) Taught Me About Life In Five Minutes

Useful:

* Be a Five-Minute Writer

* Writing From Your Life

* Writing basics: How to write narrative essays

Technorati Tags: 100 ways to be more creative, practice your writing, writing

Writing scams: yet another scam?

Heh. Thanks to "A Writers Life" for the link to Victoria Strauss's post "The Sobol Award".

I agree with Victoria's comment "I'd never advise a writer to pay $85 even for a contest of proven, unimpeachable reputation. In my opinion, contests are usually a waste of time, anyway; most writers would do better simply submitting their work for publication."

If you want to enter a contest, watch for contests by publishers in the genre in which you're writing. The benefit here is the editorial attention. If you enter a contest that's run by publishers like Avon and Harlequin, it's a way to get known by editors.

Legitimate publishers do occasionally run contests. They're fun to enter, and they're FREE. (The key word is FREE.)

Here's how to avoid all publishing scams: remember that publishers pay you. You never, ever, ever - for any reason - pay a publisher. Or an agent. If your work's any good, they'll make more money from it than you will anyway. :-)

Technorati Tags: fiction, scams

Avast m'hearties - don't miss Talk like a Pirate Day

Aye... I missed Talk Like a Pirate Day on September 19...

If it's still the 19th in yer neck o' th'woods, 'ave a scoggin o' grog fer me. Yo-ho-ho! Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Technorati Tags: humor

Why blog? How a blog helps your writing

I've just released a new blogging ebook which helps you to make a career, or a business, out of a blog.

Blogging still hasn't caught on with many writers, and I'll answer the most common questions asked here. It saves me repeating myself. :-)

Q. What's a blog?

A. A blog is a Web site, a way to instantly publish your words online. Unlike standard Web sites, your blog entries are published on the site in reverse chronological format. The latest entry is always at the top of the page.

Q. How does a blog benefit a writer?

A. The primary benefit is that your blog gets you to WRITE. Many writers get stuck. They put a lot of pressure on themselves, and consequently produce much less than they could. This applies to part-time writers, as well as full-time writers.

My ebook "Top 70 Writing Tips To Help You To Write More" helps writers to write more, but even in that book I didn't emphasize the value of a blog sufficiently. A blog helps you to write, and writing begets writing.

The second benefit of a blog is that it helps you to sell your work, if you're aiming to make a living out of your words.

The third benefit of a blog is that it helps you to get known as a writer.

The fourth benefit of a blog is that your blog stops you from being precious about your words. I always get on well with magazine and book editors because I've got the attitude that "It's just an article/ book" - in other words, I'm easy to work with because I don't think any of my words are written in stone.

Q. How do I start a blog?

A. Go to Blogger.com and just create a blog. You can do it in two minutes or less. Just do it. If you decide after a day or two or a month that you hate that blog, abandon it and start another one.

I started my first blog in 2002, without know why I was doing it - I just thought that blogging would be important. Intuition is creativity, so I try to follow my impulses, otherwise I'm choking my creativity. That blog is long dead, but it helped me to grow as a writer, and to have FUN.

So just create a blog. A month, or a year, or five years from now, you'll be glad that you did. A blog will take you places that you can reach in no other way. I know that's cryptic. But it's true. Both publishing and media are changing fast. A blog helps you to keep up.

My ebook, "Writing Success with Blogs -Take the first steps into the new world for writers: instant publishing on blogs", helps you to make the most of your writing blog.

Good luck - and just DO IT. :-)

Technorati Tags: 100 ways to be more creative, be more productive, blog how-to, how to blog, how to blog your business

(Mac) Mori - outliner, note keeper, information manager and WORD COUNT

What does a writer need in a writing program? Here's my short list: a way to create and manipulate structure, a great search utility, and WORD COUNT. Word count is a must.

Since I've now got four active blogs, I've been looking for a new outliner/ word processor for fast, quick blog items, so I can make a quick note, and carry on with whatever I was doing before inspiration struck. I need a small app that I can keep open all day, as I work.

I downloaded Mori today, and paid for it within an hour, because it's got every item on my short list of requirements:

Mori's got structure - it's an outliner
I love MS Word primarily for the Document Map feature. I can go to any heading with a single click. Any writing tool without a document-map-like feature is useless to me.

Mori's got great search
It's a Mac app, and you can find your notes easily with the Search button on the top of the program window, and of course, with the Finder, if you're not sure which Mori notebook you stashed an item in.

Mori's got word count
Yes!

Technorati Tags: GTD, Mac Tiger, software, writers' software