Category: How to

Have a Routine to Writing

~ Philip Shepherd ~ Leave a comment

I’ve had a great start on an idea for a novel. I’ve got nearly thirty-two thousand words into it.

And then I got another new idea for a more exciting project and that is reffered to as, ‘The Shiny New Idea Syndrom’.

I have five or more unfinished novel starts on my computer. I call them my skeleton stories, and I do ask, occasionally, if they will ever be covered in some flesh and have some guts.

Henry Miller seemed to have the same issues. As he was working to finish his first novel, Tropic of Cancer, he wrote a set of eleven commandments to keep himself from racing off into every new novel idea.

“One: Work on one thing at a time until finished,” Henry Miller directed himself.

“Two: Start no more new books, add no more new material to ‘Black Spring.’

“Ten: Forget the books you want to write. Think only of the book you are writing.”

As you’re writing, I’m sure you’ve discovered more ideas for all the other projects on which you could work. Maybe you’ve considered some short stories you could write, or blog posts you could craft, or even other novels.

Those are probably all great ideas to have on hand. So don’t forget them! Write them down in that notebook and pen you always have on your person.

But, don’t get distracted from your current project: writing this first draft.

There will be time enough when you’re finished with this to play around with your hundreds of other concepts. But, if you make it a habit to quit a project halfway through, you’ll never finish any of the books you want to write.

I’m now set on a daily schedule that helps me write five thousand words a week. Unquestionably, some busy days come along and keep you away from your work, but make up for them within the same week.

I Love a Deadline

~ Philip Shepherd ~ Leave a comment

I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.

—Douglas Adams

Deadlines are meant to induce stress. I know none of us wants more stress in our lives (do you?), but most writers I know struggle with two things: discipline and focus. A reasonable deadline helps with both.

A little bit of stress focuses me on completing a task. A definite deadline can keep your bottom in the chair and your fingers on the keys much better than “inspiration,” that fickle muse, ever could.

How do you set valid deadlines, so they don’t just whoosh by as they did for Douglas Adams?

As I have found by completing more of my first draft in a month and a half than the previous year, you fix a penalty for not achieving a word count. I do dislike word counts as they become a target and I am an underwriter, so I usually fall short of any desired word count and add fluff words just to pan things out and use words.

Having put all that into consideration, I would recomend that you set up deadlines and don’t make a self-reminder or self-incrimination act to reprimand yourself for missing it. What you need is someone else to carry out the forfeit. Money is usually the best way to do this. Give someone £100 and have weekly deadlines, say Fridays so that you submit work every Friday and if you miss more than two Fridays they get to keep the £100.

It works fine for myself.

Day 45 of 100 Days to a Book

~ Philip Shepherd ~ Leave a comment

I am within the 7th week of this 14 and a half week course, and things are getting harder. I usually write at least 1,000 words every weekday and have the weekend off, except for Saturday morning when I spend about 4 hours Saturday morning critiquing 3 to 4 people’s submissions that they had updated on Fridays.

We have to submit every Friday somewhere in the region of 2,500 to 7,500 words each week. By the 19th June which is the final submission day, we should have 65,000 words. Moreover, a finished first draft of our novels.

I did start my novel by pantsing it, and after about 15,000 words I did not know where the story was going. So I stopped and thought that I should outline the story of my novel. I also looked at the different genres of crime fiction and opted for the hardboiled detective.

The Write Practice has given me room for thought on where my novel is set and where I get my ideas. It is true that if you help other writers by critiquing their submissions, then you receive help back from them. The outline is relatively basic, so when I come to write that section, it is still open to a significant amount of change that comes to my mind when I go through the scene.

Unfilter Your First Person POV

~ Philip Shepherd ~ Leave a comment

The first-person point of view is actually told like a diary entry, a personal narrative, or a running annotation of the first person’s thoughts. The reader does not see this character from the outside but only through the character’s eyes which have access to thoughts and feelings.

There’s a danger to watch out for, though: filter words.

Filter words put distance between the reader and your first-person character, filtering that character’s encounter. Let’s look at an example to get a better sense:

This was magic school? I stood and stared at it; I thought it seemed to be set up to depress us. I saw the green hill rising from the earth like some cancer, and I could hear the voices of students on the wind, chanting soullessly, as if the wonder and awe of true magic had been whitewashed from their lives.

Not sure what to look for in the paragraph? Here it is with the filter words removed.

This was magic school? It seemed to be set up to depress us. The green hill rose from the earth like some cancer, and the voices of students carried on the wind, chanting soullessly as if the wonder and awe of true magic had been whitewashed from their lives.

What was removed? I thought, I saw, I could hear. In other words, the words that were removed were anything that had you, the reader, looking at her looking at things, rather than looking at the things she saw.

This is the true first-person: being behind the character’s eyes. I have to say in my First Draft, it is riddled with these filters. I have more words to delete.

My First Draft Update

~ Philip Shepherd ~ 1 Comment

This update is about my progress to my first draft of my first novel in crime fiction. I am on Day 38 of 100 on a course called Write a Book in 100 Days, by The Write Practice.
Here are my observations:
1. The course is $100 more expensive, but if you complete your weekly deadlines of posting the 4,500 words you wrote during that week for 15 weeks, then you will have the money returned. While you reach a total of 65,000 words after 100 days.
I have to say, this type of deadline pressure does help you find the time and actually to meet the word count. Although, you can miss two deadlines of the course and still receive the $100 refund.
2. There are about 140 students on this course, and we are embedded in groups of 10 people. Each week on Fridays I have to submit my chapter. Before the next Friday, I have to read at least three other people’s submissions and critique their work.
This critique of 2000 to 7000 words is not as easy as it sounds. As it is a first draft then spelling, grammar and punctuation is not an issue. Not even ‘Show, don’t tell’ is an issue you can highlight.
I often write at the top of my submission that all I am interested in is how fast it is progressing and what the voice of the narration sounds like to the reader.
I have to congratulate Joe Bunting in creating such a helpful course.

The Characters within your Story

~ Philip Shepherd ~ Leave a comment

Character Traits

At the end of the day, the characters are the most critical part of your story. They’re the ones with which your readers empathise; they’re the ones your readers will finish the book to follow. Some people have told me to write backstories and investigate every detail of their lifestyle so I can use them in a way that is consistent.

Here’s my simple principle: whatever makes it into the window frame of your story has to either impact your characters somehow or at least impact a role in a way that will grab your reader’s attention.

Build up your new world. Play and have fun. Go crazy with them. Then when it comes to your story, just make sure that the parts are seen through the window frame matter to the characters. It’s not who the characters are at the beginning, it’s what they do within the timeframe of your story. Their actions are what people see of them. A personality whom is merely upset and looks downwards is very different from a character that stands tall and slaps the face of the other actor that said something nasty.

Different Story Hero Types

~ Philip Shepherd ~ Leave a comment

Hero Types

Out of the novels, tv series and movies that contain heroes. It has been pointed out to me that there are only three different types, and they are:

The Classic Hero
In the most sense, these protagonists are people that comprise all the best natures of our society. Some may have superpowers like Spiderman, Wonder woman, Superman and Batman. Everyone trusts them to be victorious over the evil antagonist. The writer must then put considerable obstacles in front of the protagonist to make the work more difficult for them to succeed.

The Every Man Hero
This hero is every one of us, but just in the wrong place at the wrong time. We find that there are some things that we all regularly do and connect with them on that particular level. The work to become our spokesperson within the land of courageous action. Some of these heroes include: John McClane from Die Hard, Tom Cruise in A Few Good Men or Harrison Ford in Six Days Seven Nights.

The Anti-Hero
This character comprises all the rotten things in our society. They are the nasty villain but are also on the right guy’s side. They are likely to be the favourite character because the story arc is the most hottest. An Anti-Hero I appreciate is Riddick from Pitch Black. Also, I think humour plays a part as I also like Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers.

The Police Procedural Novel

~ Philip Shepherd ~ Leave a comment

Police Procedurals: are the Crime Fiction sub-genre that focuses on the police methodology. This includes true-to-life details about forensic investigations and a medical examiner, other police roles.

It is most often told in first person narration from one of the specialists.

Pros:
In modern-day events, you could excite your reader with the flashy terms used and the equipment that reveals the truth about what really went on in a crime scene.

Cons:
There is a lot of research needed to be done beforehand, so you are familiar with the correct usage of the flashy terms used. But don’t use too much and imply that the reader is stupid. As we already know from previous posts that the reader is intelligent.

Your Sleuth’s Dark Past

~ Philip Shepherd ~ Leave a comment

On your sleuth’s obscure and deep past:

While your sleuth has a mysterious and profound past, this raises the stakes. Every time out, your sleuth not only determines the crime but they also take an individual journey that includes a lot of struggle so they can get it right this time around.

There are many sleuths with emotional impediments such as:
Columbo – Oh the famous and very loveable Columbo; the best homicide detective there ever was. The only problem was he did not like hospitals, flying in a plane or sailing on small boats. He was forgetful with the location of his pen. This meant that with all these disadvantages, he was just an average guy like me or you. Most people could relate to the problems he had and therefore connect. It is this connection that makes a protagonist likeable.

How to Write a Critique

~ Philip Shepherd ~ Leave a comment

As I have already said, I am on the 100 days to a First Draft. This gives me deadlines and word counts to meet each Friday. The writers are in groups of ten, as there are actually over 150 writers on the course.
Every Friday I submit a chapter with a word count between 2,500 and 7,500 words. So, on the 19th of June, I should have at least 65,000 words and completed my first draft. The course also adds critiques, so as I submit my chapter, I also have to read chapters by three other writers and critique them.
Critiquing 4,500-word chapters is not easy. Not only do you have to read them but you have to understand and give judgment on what you have learned. The Write Practice would like use to use a sandwich critique. This is where we first comment on something that we prefer and is good. Second, we mention on the constructive criticism. Then thirdly we end with a good comment on what we enjoyed.
This approach does put critiquing in a suggestive comment approach and not the, ‘It’s alright.” club.