Writing exercises to start your day

Have you ever sat at your computer staring at a blank screen thinking that you just cannot write today? The words won’t come, any that do certainly aren’t the right ones, and you feel that you have lost the ability to write; maybe you’ll never write again.

What you need to do is write something, anything, and get your creative mind warmed up. Writing anything that comes to mind will be effective however for some it can be difficult to write without a focus or purpose.

Below are five exercises you can use before your writing sessions to get warmed up. When you attempt them do not think about spelling, grammar, or even finding just the right word. Just start writing and don’t stop until you have finished.

Set yourself ten minutes for each exercise; use a timer if you have one.

1)      Imagine you have just walked into your local shop to discover there is no-one else there. You look around but it is completely empty of people. Describe the scene. How do you feel? What do you do? Do you know why the shop is empty?

2)      You are about to take an exam; you hate exams but you need to pass in order to get a much wanted promotion. There are others in the room, each wanting the same thing – the job you are after. Some people you know some you don’t. Describe what you are thinking as you walk into the room, look around and take your seat.

3)      Write a character profile for a hero. Your hero is about to take on a multi-national food company. Your hero believes that this food company has been using illegal and potentially harmful chemicals to improve the look and taste of their food products. Consider their age, background, motivation, flaws and any other characteristics that will make your character come to life.

4)      You have just seen an alien spaceship land in your back garden. You try to tell others but no-one believes you. Write a dialogue between you and a person you are trying to convince that immediate action needs to be taken.

5)      You are driving home one night; there is a detour sign and you have to take a different route. As you are driving you realise that you do not recognise anything you see despite this being only minutes from home. You are unable to find your way. Write a passage or two about this journey.

You can reuse these exercises several times using a different approach each time. Give them a go and warm that creative mind up. You’ll be back to your project in no time.

Happy writing.

The Power of Words

Have you ever read a scene or passage from a book, website or leaflet and felt totally engaged with the text, transported to the location, the pain of the character or even inspired to make a change to your life.

Those writers have grasped the power of words.

 

Using the right word to express meaning or emotion adds strength to your writing. Avoid unnecessary adverbs or adjectives and your writing will come alive.

Consider the list below; the words are similar (though not the same) however they will incite very different emotions in the reader.

Change – transform

Gather - remove – harvest
Annoy – agitate
Send – dispatch
Speed – velocity
Essential – vital
Spiteful – malevolent
Tired - weary

Consider whether your text is description or speech, you may choose different words for different characters to show strength, weakness, their sinister side, or other characteristics.

Take a paragraph or two of your own writing. Remove all adverbs and adjectives. Arm yourself with a dictionary and thesaurus and replace nouns and verbs with the strongest and most powerful word you can find. Compare this to the original. Your work will have come alive and be closer to publication.

Repeat this exercise throughout your work; this will tighten your writing ensuring it draws the reader in until they are well and truly hooked.

 

Happy writing.

Free book available for Kindle

Write it! - how to write your book in 30 hours or less is available as a free download on Amazon from Thursday 23rd May until Saturday 25th May 2013.

Happy writing.

The Writer’s Mindset

Having the right mindset when writing can increase both your productivity and success rate; if you have ever sat staring at your computer screen or notepad waiting for inspiration or given up partway through a project because you can’t see a way forward then you will understand that feeling of self doubt.

Let me assure you that you can succeed. You just need to address your attitude towards your writing.

1)      Prioritise your writing – it is important to you therefore give it the time it deserves. Do your writing first. If you wait until all else has been done you will never write.

2)      Do not listen to negative messages – these may come from your own inner critic or from those around you. You can become a good writer and you can make money from your writing. Tell yourself this whenever doubt sets in.

3)      Produce of plan of what you are going to write over the next five days - if you know exactly what you are going to do then “writers’ block” is less likely to set in. Set realistic goals and achieve them.

4)      Write every day – the surest way to write something that will make you money is to write something. This can be anything at all. You might like to invest in a book of short writing exercises; complete one each day before you start working on your main project. As a starting point try taking any fairy story (you don’t need to reread it), select one character, and write a description of that character in today’s world; if you want to make some notes on the events in their life. Who would a modern day Cinderella be with a step-mother and step-sisters? What about the Ugly Duckling? You could end up with an idea for a short story or even a novel.

5)      Never give up – always complete what you have started even if you do not intend to sell it at this stage. You may choose to write a shorter version than you originally planned but make sure you finish it. This way you will train you mind to complete your writing tasks and from there you can start making money by selling your writing.

 

I have recently published Write it – how to write your book in 30 hours or less as a paperback as well as being available for Kindle.

If you would like to purchase a printed copy please click Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com.

Publish your book using Print on Demand (POD) for free

Whilst many self-published writers choose to publish their book as an ebook on Amazon’s Kindle store,  Smashwords or Apple’s iBookstore  there is still nothing quite like holding a copy of your printed book in your hands.

Publishing to print also gives you considerable freedom over how your books are formatted. You have control of font type and size, tables and images as well as other formatting features that do not work with ebooks.

Publishing printed copies of your book provides additional sales opportunities including:

• Selling your book at your training or public speaking events.
• Raising your profile, and increasing sales, by donating your book to a prize draw or other charity raising event.
• Making your book available to buy in high street stores, your local shop or tourist gift shops.
• Giving away copies at events or delivered with magazines; use the opportunity to promote your other books.

There are some excellent POD services that enable you to publish your work as a printed book for free. Many offer a range of options including book size, paper colour and binding options. Most also offer distribution through their own retail sites and, through extended distribution, large book retailers.

The process is simple:

• Format your book to the correct page size.
• Create a front and back cover (there are free online cover creators available with some POD companies).
• Upload your documents.
• Preview. Order and check a proof copy.
• Make changes if necessary.
• Publish.

Two popular POD services are Amazon’s CreateSpace and Lulu. Have at look at both of these sites, compare the services offered, decide on the best approach for you, and print that book.

For further information on self-publishing have a look at Publish it! - How to self-publishyour book for free using Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), CreateSpace andSmashwords.

Happy writing.

Plan your book and increase your writing speed

Have you ever been sat at your computer staring at the screen or had pen in hand yet the words just wouldn’t flow? Perhaps now is the time to try planning your book before you start writing. Many writers prefer to start with a blank page and let the story develop as they write, if this works for you fine, but what if you find that your daily word count is low because you don’t know what to write next then give planning a try.

This method works for both fiction and non-fiction.  Not only will you know what comes next you will also know what areas require additional research; this could be hours saved trawling the internet.

Non-fiction

Divide the subject of your book into main topics/chapters. If your main subject is gardening throughout the year you might divide your chapters into months. If you are writing about your local area you might choose to have chapters on history, people, places to visit, etc. Aim for 10 – 12 chapters.

Under each topic/chapter list what you need to cover. For your gardening book you might have common areas e.g. jobs to do, plants in flower, the vegetable patch. For your local area this might include lists of who, where and what needs to be covered.

For each item on your list write what you already know, this could be note form or longer sentences. Each point will form a paragraph; each paragraph should be 50 – 100 words long.  Set chapter lengths at 1500 – 10,000 words long. Using these word counts makes planning easier however it is your choice, you could decide to produce a book of 20 chapters each of 500 words.

Look through this rough outline to see if you have any particularly long or short chapters. Ask yourself if long chapters can be split into two or whether shorter chapters can be combined. It is OK to have different chapter lengths if needed.

You now have your outline

• Main Subject
• Chapters
• Subheadings
• Paragraphs

Start writing and filling in the gaps. You do not need to write from the beginning to the end – just dip in depending on your knowledge or mood, and research areas as needed. Before long you will have a completed draft.

Fiction

The best way to plan out a piece of fiction is to divide the complete work into scenes. For a novel you are likely to need 50 – 100 scenes each of 1000 – 2000 words long. Individual scenes may be longer or shorter than your average.

It can be useful to plan each scene on a small card, the type found in a card index box. On each card note the basics of the scene: characters, location, main event, purpose and a hook. The hook may be a question raised by the scene.

Once you have notes of each scene you can then decide on which order they should be in the book; depending on the type of novel it can work well to alternative fast scenes with slower ones. Do not worry about chapters at this stage.

Start writing each scene. You do not need to write them in order and you can change the order of the scenes if you feel this would improve your book.

Before long you will have a completed novel.

Happy writing.