Alex Thompson's Blog

Here it is!

I put the whole thing together in a book – just for you!

Writing Your Book: I did – You Can!

Now available as a paperback on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3LrRHvp

It’s this entire blog and probably more. All in one package.

There was a little snafu getting the ebook version out for who knows what Amazon reason but when it’s available, I’ll let you know.

I will continue to get out the posts here. Don’t fret.

I don’t believe just those with credit card room need the entire thing. But I wanted to get it out there in case you were dying for the info.

The book will take you from blank page to published – just how I did it and includes monster lists on how to market your masterpiece and where to get help.

Scurry on over and take a looksy.

Now I’m behind getting out novel #2 in the Ozark series. You know where I’ll be!

Write on, hero!

The post I Know You’ve Been Waiting… appeared first on Write Your Book.

As promised – The rest of Part 1

Those are the classic, three act, big picture ideas. Here are some extra details. Every television program and most books start with a hook. On tv, they don’t want you to change the channel. So, before the first commercial, they grab you with some major incident that it will take the rest of the program to resolve. In Star Wars, the Princess is taken by Vader and the droids escape with a mysterious item given to the droid, R2D2, by the Princess. In a book, the author wants you to read that first paragraph or back cover and simply have to know what’s next. It is the first call to the reader of my goal I call Turn the Page. For me, I call this opening hook Act 0. It is the setup. Some authors refer to it as the inciting incident. It’s what drives the characters and the reader forward. For the opening scene in my book, Kal & Julie, Julie leaves the high school reunion to discover Kal is being pinned in the parking lot by Julie’s husband. In Ozark Puzzlement, the Sheriff discovers a dead body in a car floating three feet off the ground. Act 0 gives you a few more words. That is one of the reasons why I start with the low end of the word counts by genre. I will fill in words with some extras like this Act 0.

Then after the big finish of Act 3, I put in another extra, Act 4. It ties everything together in a bow, resolves any outstanding issues, says what happened to any characters injured or missing during the final climax in Act 3. For me in my happy-ever-after universe, it is the sigh of relief, life continues ending. It doesn’t necessarily mean champagne and roses. They’re still humans with issues but they got through the trials of the book, maybe with a limp, but through. At the end of Ozark Puzzlement, I then added a final teaser after Act 4 that segues between Ozark Puzzlement and the next book, Ozark Trouble. I do want readers to want to get to the next book in the series! Just watching that word odometer click higher with a smile on my face.

Here’s a look at the word counts needed for each of the three Acts for each genre. Don’t sit down to type just yet. I combined Romance in with the Thriller/ Horror/ Mystery/ Crime genres not out of a perverse sense of humor but because they have the same total word counts!

Table 2: Words Needed per Act for Each Genre ActsTotalGenre123 Romance -or- Thriller/Horror Mystery/Crime17,50025,90026,60070,000Sub-genre Romance10,00014,80015,20040,000Sci-fi/ Fantasy22,50033,30034,20090,000Mystery/Crime20,00029,60030,40080,000Young Adult12,50018,50019.00050,000Act Percent of Total25%37%38% 

And you’re waiting to see how to break the Acts down into something your fingers and keyboard can get leverage on. You knew there was more coming, clever human. Fear not. This was Part 1 of the plan. Read on, intrepid hero. The final part of our plan awaits.

P.S. In case you’re wondering why I talk about books I write and insert examples of my writing, it is not because I am a friggin narcissist or think they are the absotively best you could read. Don’t get me wrong. I think they are good samples, and you can find tons more in your favorite books or by searching the internet. I use mine for two reasons. First, I am sitting here with my computer in my lap and all my writing handily available a mere cut and paste away from this document. Easy-peasy. Besides, I know exactly how the subject of a given section relates to something I’ve written. Second major reason, I only have to ask the mirror for copyright permissions. No legal hassles. I wrote it. I can use it. Simple and clean. Not going to sue myself.

Another P.S. Just can’t stop writing…

In case you’re wondering why the delay in getting this out I was editing two books. One you may find of particular interest is in the hands of Amazon’s review board. It is so cleverly called Writing Your Book : I Did – You Can!. I suppose you can guess the topic.

More coming soon, friends.

The post The Plan – Part 1 B appeared first on Write Your Book.

Before the math career, I was a theater major. Go figure. So, I lived and breathed the classic Aristotle three act play. Now, I and many others write in three acts. You may know it as the beginning – the middle – and the end.

Act 1 – The Setup

This is where we learn about most of the characters that will play in the rest of your book, be it any genre (except self-help, I guess, though maybe you’d be writing about the person reading the book and why they need the book). It’s going to last for about 25% of your book. So, take your genre total words times .25 and voila, that is how many words you will create for Act 1. In my mystery genre, that means 70,000 words times .25 equals 17,500 words. Better already. Don’t get crazy with your calculator. I have done the arithmetic and will include it later. In Star Wars Episode IV (the 1st movie), we meet Lord Vader, the Empire, Princess Leia, the droids, the hero Luke, his aunt and uncle, and Obi Wan. It’s a busy act.

Act 2 – The Exposition

We learn more about who the protagonist (the main character) is, what they want, what is stopping them, and their fears. Things happen that move the protagonist(s) forward to a major plot point. It’s about 37% of the book. Again, take your genre word count times .37 to get the word count for Act 2. In my case, 70,000 words times .37 equals 25,900 words. In Star Wars, Luke’s aunt and uncle die and he as the hero is called to action. We meet Han Solo, Chewbacca, escape Tatooine with the Empire hot on our trail as the Princess is interrogated by Darth Vader. The Empire destroys a planet. The Death Star captures the Millenium Falcon. Solo and Luke rescue the Princess. Obi Wan passes to the next plane of existence. Solo and company escape the Death Star. See how the tension ramps up?

Act 3 – The Confrontation

The protagonist(s) faces the ultimate, overcomes the obstacles, arrives at the climax. Another 38% of your words land here and you are done. One more trip to multiplication land. Your genre count times .38 to get the word count for Act 3. For mystery, 70,000 words times .38 equals a final 26,600 words for Act 3. In Star Wars, a lot of scenes escalate to the ultimate showdown between the tiny rebel force and the Death Star as the Death Star targets the rebel base. Solo returns for the save and Luke shows his Force potential as the ultimate hero. P.S. If you ever want to write a hero’s journey epic novel, Star Wars Episode IV is a pure example of one. Wikipedia has a great write-up on the stages of a hero’s journey that you can model any plot after, be it something classic like Star Wars, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, or a love story.

Voile! Your plot dinosaur has been chunked down almost small enough to handle into three acts.

I will continue with this fascinating subject later…..

use it. Simple and clean. Not going to sue myself.

The post The Plan – Part 1 appeared first on Write Your Book.

Did you realize that the war against the Ukraine has been going on for a year?!

Incredible. And terrible.

Let’s step up. My friend, Misha Collins, has asked us all for a brief note of support to the brave people there.

It’s quick. It’s easy.

Twitter #StandWithUkraine.

If you don’t have a Twitter account, get one. Ignore the 1%er who runs it. You’ll need an account to talk about your book anyway.

You can look up what I did or what Misha and a host of big named stars did.

Happy weekend, readers and writers!

The post Call to Action appeared first on Write Your Book.

A very good question. Now you’ll understand why you answered the genre question first.

Every genre has different reader expectations as to how long the book should be. Too short, you’re cheating the reader. Maybe glossing over plot points and descriptions because, after all, you know what’s what. Mustn’t do that for any retail price. Too long, the reader may get bored, a veritable sin. Books probably pile up unread at library sales and half-price bookstores due to that. Don’t want to end up there. As a former mathematician, I have problems with too short. You know, “it follows that equation-equation-equation QED”, done. I am always looking for words without making things b-o-r-i-n-g or missing the plot entirely. I won’t let you stray from the path. Here are the general, expected word counts by genre:

General Classification

Flash Fiction: 300–1500 words

Short Story: 1500–30,000 words

Novellas: 30,000–50,000 words

Novels: 50,000–110,000 words

Fiction Genres

Mainstream Romance: 70,000–100,000 words

Sub-genre Romance: 40,000–100,000 words

Science Fiction / Fantasy:

       90,000–120,000 (and sometimes 150,000) words

Historical Fiction: 80,000–100,000

Thrillers / Horror / Mysteries / Crime: 70,000–90,000 words

Young Adult: 50,000–80,000

Children’s Books

Picture Books: 300–800 words

Early Readers: 200–3500 words

Chapter Books: 4000–10,000 words

Middle Grade: 25,000–40,000 words

Non-Fiction

Standard non-fiction (Business, Political Science, Psychology, History, etc.): 70,000–80,000 words

Memoir: 80,000–100,000 words

Biography: 80,000–200,000 words

How-to / Self-Help: 40,000–50,000 words

This does not mean you get to add mystery at 70,000 words and subgenre romance at 40,000 words together to get 110,000 words for your mystery paranormal love novel. Hold it at the higher of your two genres, for this example, 70,000 words for the mystery length. Though I applaud your wordiness.

Notice I do not list a page count. Page count is dependent on the font, the font size, how many lines per page, margin width, the ebook format, and a bunch of extraneous factors that have nothing to do with your book. Microsoft Word and Apple’s Pages both show word count as you type. Stick with that constant measure that doesn’t change from font to font or iPhone to iPad reader.

Now, if you’re staring at those numbers, mind totally agog thinking how in the galaxy can I ever get that accomplished, I have a plan that will get you painlessly there. Think of my simple mystery novels. At 70,000 words and doing my typical 1,000 words a day pace (I’m retired with zero responsibilities. Goody for me, right?), that’s a mere 70 days. Even taking a few days off for sunshine and lollipops, it’s a raw book every 80 days. And I have a backlog of ideas. Lookout. So, if you take your genre, you can figure out when you might have a raw product. If you can crank out about 1,000 words in a writing session, knock off three zeros from the word count and you have how many writing sessions it should take you to get your raw book. Less than a year with work, responsibilities, and time off for bad behavior, right?

Being a mathemagician, here’re my calculations so you don’t have to:

Table 1: Number of Writing Sessions to Complete a Raw BookGenreWord CountNumber of Writing SessionsRomance70,00070Sub-genre Romance40,00040Sci-Fi/Fantasy90,00090Historical80,00080Thriller/ Horror/ Mystery/ Crime70,00070Young Adult50,00050

I’ll leave you to figure out Children’s and Non-fiction.

You may be curious about why science fiction/fantasy and historical have higher word counts in general than the other genres. I have an opinion (of course). It is also what makes them more difficult to write and make believable. In those genres you are creating everything: the worlds, the peoples, the politics, the religions, the clothing, the languages, the workplaces, the environments, relationship structures, and literally the sciences. Similarly in historical, it takes a few more words to transport someone from today back to a time pre-computer, pre-phone or even pre-city. People on an asteroid mining colony won’t be saying raining cats and dogs, now, would they? You have to create whole new sayings and mannerisms. Takes a boatload of words to describe aliens and humans living together communally against a backdrop of competing corporations trying to own whole planets or whatever you design. Try to describe the bar scene from Star Wars Episode IV (the 1st movie) in enough detail someone who hadn’t ever seen the movie could envision it and you’ll see a mountain of words before any dialogue starts.

This gives you the size of your plot dinosaur and about how many writing sessions it will take to tame it. Fear not, hero. We will not attack this big bad dino with a full-frontal assault. I have a plan. Let the wizard lead you bravely ever onward.

P.S. Sorry for the delay in posting. Had to take time out to deal with the KS Dept of Revenue saying I owed back taxes. I don’t but needed to find paperwork to convince them. sigh…

The post How Long Should Your Book Be? appeared first on Write Your Book.

I’m clocking in at 66% done with my 2nd Ozark Mystery.

I got rave feedback from a reader who can’t wait for book 2 announcing that to other friends on a Zoom meeting I was in. This is someone I respect. I turned pink. Talk about motivation. Now I have to follow it up with something better. Eek!

But that’s the game, right?

I hope your Valentine’s was as romantic as you wanted and your writing is going well.

Check you later.

Please sign up for my email list.

I promise no spam.

The post Pushing Hard … appeared first on Write Your Book.

I have 2 entries in Inkitt’s Romance contest (Inkitt.com and it is FREE). One is a sci-fi story called Hajerkira and one is a fantasy one named Dragon Tale. Love to stay in the running there! Thanks.

The post By the way… appeared first on Write Your Book.

So. What species of plot monster are we seeking? What are you writing? That is your first decision. If you don’t know what you’re writing, you can hardly start. And I pity the reader if you don’t know! This is the major thrust of your plot. You may certainly have sub-plots weaving through your story, but one biggie stands out. What is it? Here’s a short list of possible genres, also known as categories, of writing and a few authors and titles you may have heard of.

General Classifications

Flash Fiction: really short stories

Short Story

Novellas: short novels

Novels

Fiction

Mainstream Romance –

       Nicholas Sparks, Nora Roberts

Sub-genre Romance –

      50 Shades, LGBTQ+, paranormal, historical, erotica

Science Fiction / Fantasy –

       Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, Jim Butcher

Historical Fiction –

        Ken Follet, Sarah Waters

Thrillers / Horror / Mysteries / Crime –

           Agatha Christie, Kathy Reichs, Nevada Barr

Young Adult –

          Twilight Saga, Vampire Academy

Children’s

Picture Books

Early Readers

Chapter Books

Middle Grade

Non-Fiction

Standard non-fiction (Business, Political Science, Psychology, History)

Memoir

Biography

How-to / Self-Help

            Just thinking about the mystery/crime genre could keep you busy for a lifetime. I mean, there are procedural mysteries using bounty hunters, private investigators, police, FBI, CIA, Counter-terrorism. There are cozy mysteries with little old lady sleuths or kids or cats. There are medical, historical, legal battles, forensic, psychological, and some that combine science fiction with one of these. And there are authors that specialize in each area.

But, wait. There’s more!

I can’t leave well enough alone. So, I cross categories by tossing a little sub-genre romance (LGBTQ) into a procedural murder mystery (police). I do the same in my science fiction and my fantasy books. I like the human (or human/alien) element that feelings add to a story. Can’t do that so much with non-fiction, obviously. I am toying with a sci fi/mystery/romance. Oh, stop me. I’ve lost my mind. You can call these sub-plots if you like, but they have a place in there.

You get the picture. Your plot will tell you what the dominant theme of your book is going to be. This will also help down the line when it’s time to market it because Amazon, Google, Apple, and everyone want keywords to identify what a reader will search for.

So, if a reader wants to read a romance, that’s what they’ll look for. You need to identify your romance novel as one. Just like you look for stuff on the internet or on Amazon or Apple Books. The closer your plot aligns with a genre; the more readers will align with you. This is not to say you shouldn’t develop your own niche, but your plot will probably start in one of these broader categories listed.

Speaking of which. Must pause now for another commercial I don’t get paid for. Amazon has some great books on How to Write . My go-to is Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel by Hallie Ephron & Sara Paretsky but it’s not the only book on writing for the mystery genre. And there are books on writing romance, science fiction, history. You name it. My position is the more information, the better. I know, homework. But your aim is to be a good writer, correct? To have readers waiting for your next book? Sorry. Getting ahead of myself here. These writing for a specific genre books will delve in-depth into how to structure a plot, develop your characters, and maybe where to market your book. Think of this book as turning the key to get your engine started. Those books will supercharge it.

So, have your genre(s) in hand? Given your plot and subplots some thought? Let us move on to the next big issue-which will be my next blog post.

The post Identify Your Plot appeared first on Write Your Book.

Hey gang!

I just got accepted to present at the National Women’s Music Festival in Middleton, WI July 6-9, 2023!

The topic is Ready, Set, Go! Kick Starting Your Writing.

It will cover a lot of what this blog is about.

Middleton is a suburb of Madison, Wisconsin and quite lovely in July.

The festival is open to men and women and children and this is its 47th year.

I will be autographing my books there, too.

Love to talk with you IRL!

You can check out the festival deets at NWMFinfo.com

The post Now Presenting … appeared first on Write Your Book.

My Dragon Tale is trending in the Romance section on Inkitt.com.

Please consider giving it a read.

It’s short, sexually explicit in a couple of scenes.

But some say they enjoy it.

Let me know what you think.

Inkitt is totally free. So, enjoy.

The post WOW! appeared first on Write Your Book.