Writing Tips & Tricks - part 1
Today I thought I'd share a few tips that I've picked up along the way as an author. Some of it may be helpful to you, some may not. But its all things that I had to learn the hard way. So, hopefully by reading this, maybe you can avoid making the same mistakes.
PlanningOne of the things I wish I would've known before I ever started writing, is how to plan out a story. For most new novelists, planning seems insignificant - but whether you are writing a short novella or an epic 600 page novel, planning is just about as important as anything. My first few projects were hastily thrown into place in my mind just because I was so eager to get that story cranked out. Five pages, ten pages, a hundred. I remember thinking on my first unpublished novel, "Man, writing is so easy for me. I must just be naturally gifted as a writer." Little did I know, it was actually the opposite. Nothing is worse than getting halfway through a novel and realizing that it is utter trash. My first work had deeply flawed plot points, horrible dialogue, very bad character dynamics, you name it. Not to mention, it was absolutely riddled with grammatical errors. So what was my problem? Absolutely zero planning. I had a vague idea of the kind of story I wanted, but I had absolutely no idea how to actually write the thing. Now, there are some authors out there that can sit down with nothing more than a fantastical notion of adventure, and crank out a perfectly written best seller, but for the vast majority of us, that just doesn't work out. So how much planning is needed? Depends on the author, but for me i find I at least need the main characters fully fledged out, along with a pretty in depth plot line. I don't have to have every detail, but the more I have the smoother the writing tends to go. Its important to understand though, no matter how much planning you do, most novels come out at least slightly different than the way you planned them. I think its because sometimes things seem to work fine in theory, but on paper maybe it just doesn't work or flow right. Things change - count on it. Just do the best you can to eliminate the guesswork in your story. Which leads me to my next point.
EditingOne of the most annoying mistakes I've made as an writer is trying to wait until after I finished the first draft of a novel to start editing. In theory it seems smart. Why edit if you don't know what's going to be cut or revised once its all said and done? Let me tell you how it worked out for me. I spent roughly 8-10 months writing the first draft to my last novel, The Dark Forest. Once i finished the first draft I couldn't wait to start editing so I could move on to publishing. If only it were that easy. I spent the next few months going over my rough draft with a fine-toothed comb, trying desperately to find and fix the nearly infinite amount of mistakes i had made throughout my manuscript. It was so frustrating, pass after pass I had to read over what I had already read what seemed like a thousand times. And almost every time I would catch another error that i had somehow missed. It was very disheartening. And the worst part is, it wasnt because I was a bad writer or inexperienced in English and grammar, because I caught the errors easily once my attention was focused on looking for them. It was simply because humans make mistakes when they are not paying attention, and when you get into your third or fourth hour straight of staring at a computer screen, sometimes you miss things here and there that you would otherwise catch. So that's why I recommend taking five or ten minutes after every writing session to go over what you have written and do a basic error check and make any small revisions that may need to be made. It may seem like a waste at first, but it can save you so much time in the long run. If I would've followed this advice, it would have saved me probably at least a month worth of editing and revision, if not more. Do yourself a huge favor and briefly edit after each writing session.
Another quick tip about editing - always proof a paperback copy of your novel before approving a final proof. Many authors already know to do this, but many don't. It really helps to catch those inconspicuous errors in grammar and word usage that you normally pass right over when reading a digital copy. For some reason the mind seems to do a better job of analyzing when reading on paper. Don't ask me why, but it works.
MarketingOne of the biggest mistakes a new author can make is not spending enough time preparing for the actual sales aspect of their job. Most new authors just assume, naturally, that if their book is good then it will sell itself. I used to think the same way. "Only bad writers have to market their books," I thought. Boy, was that naive! The thing that I failed to understand was that, without marketing my book, not a single soul would know it existed. Why in the world did I think that someone would sift through 50,000 fantasy books on amazon in order to find my book, and then for some unknown reason decide to buy it over all the others? I just didn't really think about it like that. That was the problem. No matter how amazing your novel really is, if no one ever sees it then it will never sell. And if it never sells, you will never make it to the big time in either popularity or income - I'm assuming that's the goal for most of us. So how can you get your new book in front of potential readers? Start early. The sooner you start getting your name out there, the more familiar your name and book title will be to people. The first thing you should do before you even finish your book is start using social media. Facebook and Twitter can be great tools to promote yourself if used correctly. I also recommend Google+, Instagram, Pintrest, and as many other social media outlets as you can manage. The more people see from you, the greater the chance they will remember you. Many people call it building your "brand" or "platform". You can find tons of information out there on how to get started and build a following. I highly recommend checking out some of that info online. Starting early can be invaluable to early book sales, which is when you need it the most. I also recommend starting a blog. Even if you are only in the beginning stages of your novel, it can be great to keep the reading community involved in your process. Maybe even let them give some input or ideas.
Microsoft Word Here's a random tip, just because. If you are using Microsoft Word to build your book cover, don't convert the .DOCX document to a .PDF document within Word itself. Use one of the many online converter programs that allow you to manually set the DPI (dots per inch) of the images. There are a couple sites that let you set it as high as 1200 DPI, which will produce much clearer printed images than what you can achieve with Microsoft word. This will make your book cover look much more crisp and clear. Just make sure the images you use are high quality(300 DPI+) to begin with.
Well, that's all I got for today. Thanks for reading! I'll be back with new tips and tricks for you next time. Feel free to leave your own tips in the comments below.
PlanningOne of the things I wish I would've known before I ever started writing, is how to plan out a story. For most new novelists, planning seems insignificant - but whether you are writing a short novella or an epic 600 page novel, planning is just about as important as anything. My first few projects were hastily thrown into place in my mind just because I was so eager to get that story cranked out. Five pages, ten pages, a hundred. I remember thinking on my first unpublished novel, "Man, writing is so easy for me. I must just be naturally gifted as a writer." Little did I know, it was actually the opposite. Nothing is worse than getting halfway through a novel and realizing that it is utter trash. My first work had deeply flawed plot points, horrible dialogue, very bad character dynamics, you name it. Not to mention, it was absolutely riddled with grammatical errors. So what was my problem? Absolutely zero planning. I had a vague idea of the kind of story I wanted, but I had absolutely no idea how to actually write the thing. Now, there are some authors out there that can sit down with nothing more than a fantastical notion of adventure, and crank out a perfectly written best seller, but for the vast majority of us, that just doesn't work out. So how much planning is needed? Depends on the author, but for me i find I at least need the main characters fully fledged out, along with a pretty in depth plot line. I don't have to have every detail, but the more I have the smoother the writing tends to go. Its important to understand though, no matter how much planning you do, most novels come out at least slightly different than the way you planned them. I think its because sometimes things seem to work fine in theory, but on paper maybe it just doesn't work or flow right. Things change - count on it. Just do the best you can to eliminate the guesswork in your story. Which leads me to my next point.
EditingOne of the most annoying mistakes I've made as an writer is trying to wait until after I finished the first draft of a novel to start editing. In theory it seems smart. Why edit if you don't know what's going to be cut or revised once its all said and done? Let me tell you how it worked out for me. I spent roughly 8-10 months writing the first draft to my last novel, The Dark Forest. Once i finished the first draft I couldn't wait to start editing so I could move on to publishing. If only it were that easy. I spent the next few months going over my rough draft with a fine-toothed comb, trying desperately to find and fix the nearly infinite amount of mistakes i had made throughout my manuscript. It was so frustrating, pass after pass I had to read over what I had already read what seemed like a thousand times. And almost every time I would catch another error that i had somehow missed. It was very disheartening. And the worst part is, it wasnt because I was a bad writer or inexperienced in English and grammar, because I caught the errors easily once my attention was focused on looking for them. It was simply because humans make mistakes when they are not paying attention, and when you get into your third or fourth hour straight of staring at a computer screen, sometimes you miss things here and there that you would otherwise catch. So that's why I recommend taking five or ten minutes after every writing session to go over what you have written and do a basic error check and make any small revisions that may need to be made. It may seem like a waste at first, but it can save you so much time in the long run. If I would've followed this advice, it would have saved me probably at least a month worth of editing and revision, if not more. Do yourself a huge favor and briefly edit after each writing session.
Another quick tip about editing - always proof a paperback copy of your novel before approving a final proof. Many authors already know to do this, but many don't. It really helps to catch those inconspicuous errors in grammar and word usage that you normally pass right over when reading a digital copy. For some reason the mind seems to do a better job of analyzing when reading on paper. Don't ask me why, but it works.
MarketingOne of the biggest mistakes a new author can make is not spending enough time preparing for the actual sales aspect of their job. Most new authors just assume, naturally, that if their book is good then it will sell itself. I used to think the same way. "Only bad writers have to market their books," I thought. Boy, was that naive! The thing that I failed to understand was that, without marketing my book, not a single soul would know it existed. Why in the world did I think that someone would sift through 50,000 fantasy books on amazon in order to find my book, and then for some unknown reason decide to buy it over all the others? I just didn't really think about it like that. That was the problem. No matter how amazing your novel really is, if no one ever sees it then it will never sell. And if it never sells, you will never make it to the big time in either popularity or income - I'm assuming that's the goal for most of us. So how can you get your new book in front of potential readers? Start early. The sooner you start getting your name out there, the more familiar your name and book title will be to people. The first thing you should do before you even finish your book is start using social media. Facebook and Twitter can be great tools to promote yourself if used correctly. I also recommend Google+, Instagram, Pintrest, and as many other social media outlets as you can manage. The more people see from you, the greater the chance they will remember you. Many people call it building your "brand" or "platform". You can find tons of information out there on how to get started and build a following. I highly recommend checking out some of that info online. Starting early can be invaluable to early book sales, which is when you need it the most. I also recommend starting a blog. Even if you are only in the beginning stages of your novel, it can be great to keep the reading community involved in your process. Maybe even let them give some input or ideas.
Microsoft Word Here's a random tip, just because. If you are using Microsoft Word to build your book cover, don't convert the .DOCX document to a .PDF document within Word itself. Use one of the many online converter programs that allow you to manually set the DPI (dots per inch) of the images. There are a couple sites that let you set it as high as 1200 DPI, which will produce much clearer printed images than what you can achieve with Microsoft word. This will make your book cover look much more crisp and clear. Just make sure the images you use are high quality(300 DPI+) to begin with.
Well, that's all I got for today. Thanks for reading! I'll be back with new tips and tricks for you next time. Feel free to leave your own tips in the comments below.
No comments have been added yet.
