doug-lewars

[doug-lewars]

Plot Material

If you aren't familiar with the controversy surrounding the movie Snow White and it's stars, Rachel Zeglar and Gal Gadot, you haven't paid attention to the news for some time. No matter where you stand on the politics of the thing, this is superb plot material. To the best of my knowledge, DT hasn't weighed in, but he has sufficient power to make Disney Corp. very, very uncomfortable. Right here are all the elements necessary to make either a thriller, or a satire. There are times plot material is just sitting there waiting to be used.

[doug-lewars]

Reediting

The more you edit, the better you get at it. I'm moving a number of books from Smashwords to Amazon to take advantage of their print-on-demand and as I do so, I'm reediting them. It's amazing how many things got by me even after several passes originally.

[doug-lewars]

Thriller

The fuss in the US as to whether information concerning a proposed attack on Yemen may or may not represent a serious breach of security; however, it has all the makings of a great plot for a thriller. Just have the chat intercepted by someone or some agency hostile to the US and then have them threaten to sell what they know.

[doug-lewars]

Readers

Even if you aren't trying for commercial success, I think it's a good idea to have some idea as to who your target reader might be. I'm not referring to specifics but to his or her general characteristics, what they like, where they stand on plot vs character driven stories, what might motivate them in general and what in particular they might like about your books. It just helps to have some idea who might like your stuff.

[doug-lewars]

Rules

I think it's useful to know the various 'rules' for writing so you can happily break them. Consider the 'show not tell' rule which has practically taken on an aura of holiness. I recently read a book where the author carefully spent six pages showing what he could have told in a paragraph. It was boring, boring, boring. Don't be afraid to tell sometimes in order to move your plot along.

[doug-lewars]

Subplots

I love subplots but at times the complexity can get a little out of hand. I know what I want my characters to do. Unfortunately I have no idea exactly what they are doing. Specifically I forget where I left them and constantly need to dig back through my outline or even into my WIP to figure out their status.

[doug-lewars]

Introversion

I doubt all writers are introverts but I expect a goodly number are. Introversion is no impediment to writing and may even help, but creates a problem if the author is serious about promoting his or her works. If you want to market seriously you'll need to take advantage of speaking to anyone, or any group who will listen. It may be possible to get into this gradually by promoting your work to friends and family. True, eventually they'll run and hide when they see you coming but hopefully by that time you'll be ready to deal with the public at large.

[doug-lewars]

Office Issues

Microsoft Office vs Libra Office, which should you use? Both will allow you to process documents, create spreadsheets and produce presentations. These are the principle things writers need. Libra Office is free while Microsoft Office costs a bundle. If you're just starting out I would recommend Libra Office hands down; however, if you have been using Microsoft Office for some years, conversion may not be quite as easy as you might hope for. Certainly Libre Office can handle and produce .doc and .docx documents. From a technical perspective conversion isn't much of a problem. If you're heavily into Excel macros you might have some difficulty but most writers aren't. The look and feel of the two systems is close, but not exactly the same and there in lies the problem. One gets used to doing certain things in certain ways and you probably need to make a few changes when moving to the other system. They may not be large but habits become ingrained and crossing software boundaries can result in a learning curve. Yes it can be done, but is it worth the hassle? Eventually I think I'll convert but I don't think it will be in the short term.

[doug-lewars]

Rituals

When writing magic rituals it's best to focus on the feeling of the participants and surrounding atmosphere rather than the ritual itself. Yes you have to include a few details but don't overdo. You're writing a work of fiction, not a textbook. Too much detail will bore readers.

[doug-lewars]

Interruptions

Circumstances are such there are time when you will be unable to write. Perhaps a critical project is happening at work and all your time is tied up with it, or maybe you're a student and exams are looming on your horizon. Don't stress about it but note the number of days in hour hiatus and keep the total rising. This way you will be less likely to drift into something else when the pressure eases and will focus once again on your writing.

[doug-lewars]

Privacy

What your characters do between books is their own business.

[doug-lewars]

Ready to Write

I finally finished my outline for my next book and can start writing. I may have overdone things a little. I normally like 70 bullet points but this time each point was a setting and underneath I listed what I wanted to happen. So far so good but given each point is an actual scene, 70 may be a little on the high side. I target for 80K words and checking online I discovered the average book has 50 - 60 scenes. We'll see how my approach works out over time.

[doug-lewars]

Mistakes

Editing isn't easy. The problem is, it seems easy. You simply read over what you wrote an correct all the mistakes. Unfortunately however diligent you may be you will miss something. As part of moving my books to Amazon to take advantage of their print-on-demand facility, I've been reediting them. It's scary how many things I'm finding I missed on the first four passes. Ami I catching everything now? Probably not. At least as long as they're online mistakes are easy to fix if I do find them.

[doug-lewars]

Outline

Some people prefer to jump in and start writing letting the story take them where it will. Personally I like to outline all my scenes before starting the book. If things aren't working out when I outline, I can shift lines on a spreadsheet easier than blocks or even chapters of text in a book.

[doug-lewars]

Positives

When editing, you find thing you like and don't like. The ones you don't like you'll fix; however, pay some attention to passages you really enjoy. If you can figure out why you like them so much, it will help you going forward and you produce more work.

[doug-lewars]

Complexity

When outlining a story with multiple characters or groups things can get complicated fast as they interact with one another in various ways. If you find yourself not knowing what comes next, try going to the end, listing each character or group, and deciding in what state they'll end up - alive or dead, successful or unsuccessful and what actually happened to them. From there you can get a reasonable ides of at least some of the things needed to happen for them to reach this final state and this will suggest scenes you'll need to incorporate.

[doug-lewars]

CYA

When writing, it's important to protect yourself. Make sure you have a disclaimer covering everything you can think of.

This book is a work of fiction. All characters, names, places, events, incidents and organizations in this book are the work of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events or locales is purely coincidental and is not intended by the author.

Above is the one I use. You're free to copy it. If someone accuses you of putting them in your work, deny it. Point to your disclaimer. Obviously if you are using them you can't use their real names and therefore they can't prove any form of liable on your part.