Angela Booth's Writing Blog

Freelance Writing: 5 Ways To Meet And Beat Your Deadlines

Your essential strategy: whether you’re a newbie or an experienced pro, commit to meeting and beating your deadlines.

Let’s look at some easy ways you can do that.

1. Look on each client as a doorway to more clients

Are you a new freelancer? You have concerns and doubts, but relax. Building your business will never be as challenging again, because you’re starting from zero.

Your first client changes everything: someone has hired you to write. Moreover, each project you undertake brings the promise of more clients. (See “create your own goldmine” below.)

Each client is a doorway. Consider this. When a client has a need for your services, chances are that he’ll need you again. In addition, you can ask for referrals.

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Writing Fiction: Outlining Tips For Pantsers

Is writing fiction more challenging for pantsers?

We discussed whether writing fiction is more challenging for pantsers.

In some ways it is, because:

• Revision takes longer;
• Chances are we’ll hit a dead end at least once per book;
• Not knowing where you’re headed is frustrating and stressful. It’s tempting to procrastinate when we have “blah” days: “I’ll write tomorrow, because I can’t focus today…”

Since strategies for outlining and pantsing are highly subjective, what works for one author may not work for you.

Here are several tips I found useful.

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Write A Book: Get Started In 3 Easy Steps

Here are the three steps. They’re questions you ask yourself. Write down the answers.

The first word you write means that you’ve started to write your book.

1. What kind of book? (You can change your mind at any time)

Oddly enough, this first step can be the most challenging. Authors say: “I have too many ideas. I don’t know which to pick…”

Answer this simple question first. Are you writing fiction or nonfiction?

Decide. Write your answer.

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Love Jane Austen? Books You Shouldn’t Miss

Fiction and nonfiction

On the fiction side, you have her own novels, of course. I reread Pride and Prejudice every few years and always manage to find something new in the book.

More fiction: the 2019 Sanditon TV series is on my download list, so I want to reread Sanditon again before I view the series.

In nonfiction, if you love the Regency period, you’ll enjoy Ian Kelly’s immensely readable Beau Brummell: The Ultimate Man of Style. Also fun: I’m listening to Lucy Worsley’s Jane Austen at Home: A Biography as an audio book while I sew. (BTW, if you sew, check out the article Sew Like Jane Austen.)

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3 Ways To Write Fiction From Your Life

Someone once said that if you’ve survived your childhood, you have more than enough material to write all the novels you want.

You can turn your life into fiction, or nonfiction. Your choice. Your memories, your ideas, and your emotions, come together as creative inspiration. It’s a natural process; no effort required.

Emotions are key. Readers read novels to be entertained; to feel, rather than to think. They also read in order to make sense of their own lives. Novels are not real, they’re constructed. However, they can feel intensely real to readers, and this is what readers what: an emotional experience.

An important point: you’re not using your life as it is, or was. Real inspiration lies deeper than your thoughts and even your memories.

The best way to get started writing your novel is just to start. Let’s look at three easy ways to do that.

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4 Vital Storytelling Tips To Increase Sales

2. Write in scenes to maintain suspense

Scenes are the building blocks of your fiction. In the 21st century, every reader understands drama. TV and movie stories are delivered in scenes. If you want lots of readers, you need to learn to deliver your stories in scenes too.

Readers are impatient. They just want the story. Deliver. Show, rather than tell. “Showing” means writing in scenes.

Devote time to learning how to write scenes. Include these elements in your scenes to maintain suspense:

• Setting;
• Character development;
• Sensory details — sight, sound, and more;
• Plotting — movement on the story question.

via www.angelabooth.com