Ask the Author: Shawn D. Madden
Answered Questions (1)
Shawn D. Madden
Two big ideas were huge for me when working on the Social Ref for almost 2 years:
1) What's Your BIG Day: When you are writing a book, when should you write? Well duh you are an author, you should write every day! Wake up early and just write and write until its done ?
I wrote most of the book in small 45 minute to 1 hour long chunks almost every day (even on vacation). If you can write all day long everyday thats amazing, but I have 3 businesses to help with and a family.
So the question is whats your big day. For me thursday was "Library day" and I literally scheduled it on my calendar and worked out of the public library. I knew I would get 4 to 5 hours on that day, no matter what else happened.
What's your big day - Do you have it on your calendar? Can you name it? Can you make sure you never miss it?
Its the only way I was able to finish a book while still doing everything else.
2) Yup - Getting Stuck Sucks
I don't know if I ever encountered writers block, but lots of moments I felt stuck and felt like no matter what I wrote, it was total crap.
One big idea always helped unstuck the situation - a bit easier for me because I was writing non-fiction:
Whenever I was truly stuck on a section or idea, I would setup a live classroom session and try and teach the idea to someone else, or to the video camera.
I would even put together a rough power point - Now I am going to teach you phase 3 - Sometimes it was great, sometimes it stunk, and sometimes whole new ideas would just fall from the sky because I was standing up and teaching live and outloud instead of stuck in a laptop and in my head.
Then when I went back to write the section everything felt different, and I even had the "lesson" on recording to recap.
Maybe this could work for fiction too? Teach my why i should care about this character? Who knows.
Hope these ideas are simple starts that can help you wherever you are right now.
SDM
#SocialRefHabits
1) What's Your BIG Day: When you are writing a book, when should you write? Well duh you are an author, you should write every day! Wake up early and just write and write until its done ?
I wrote most of the book in small 45 minute to 1 hour long chunks almost every day (even on vacation). If you can write all day long everyday thats amazing, but I have 3 businesses to help with and a family.
So the question is whats your big day. For me thursday was "Library day" and I literally scheduled it on my calendar and worked out of the public library. I knew I would get 4 to 5 hours on that day, no matter what else happened.
What's your big day - Do you have it on your calendar? Can you name it? Can you make sure you never miss it?
Its the only way I was able to finish a book while still doing everything else.
2) Yup - Getting Stuck Sucks
I don't know if I ever encountered writers block, but lots of moments I felt stuck and felt like no matter what I wrote, it was total crap.
One big idea always helped unstuck the situation - a bit easier for me because I was writing non-fiction:
Whenever I was truly stuck on a section or idea, I would setup a live classroom session and try and teach the idea to someone else, or to the video camera.
I would even put together a rough power point - Now I am going to teach you phase 3 - Sometimes it was great, sometimes it stunk, and sometimes whole new ideas would just fall from the sky because I was standing up and teaching live and outloud instead of stuck in a laptop and in my head.
Then when I went back to write the section everything felt different, and I even had the "lesson" on recording to recap.
Maybe this could work for fiction too? Teach my why i should care about this character? Who knows.
Hope these ideas are simple starts that can help you wherever you are right now.
SDM
#SocialRefHabits
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more