Owner: How to Plan, Write, and Develop a Book URL:http://HowtoPlanWriteandDevelopaBook.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Sun, 21 Sep 2008 07:33:18 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Book doctor, teacher, award-winning author shares practical tools: find your book's best platform, how to keep writing, storyboarding and editing, submitting, publisher/agent advice. Site statistics:Click here
Brainstorm Your Way to a Book! Simple List-Making Technique Works for Fiction or Nonfiction 2008-09-19 14:22:43 A book could be just a list away. This week's exercise encourages you to start a simple list in your writing notebook: possible topics you could write about.
Ask yourself, What could become a scene or section or small moment in my book?
Your challenge: add three items to your list each day this week. Watch your book build.
Go wild: Allow yourself to include t Read more:Brainstorm
, Simple
, Works
, Fiction
, Nonfiction
Do Book Writers Need the Right Brain More Than Other Writers? 2008-09-16 08:42:18 How do you use your right brain as a book writer? The right brain brings a writer ideas for theme, emotion, and deeper levels of meaning in a book. The challenge is to activate it.
This week's writing exercise: Take five minutes to watch this amazing video. Let your right brain follow the shapes and movement, then write for 10 minutes. Do new levels emerge? Does Read more:Writers
, Right
, Brain
Writing Exercise of the Week--Ethan Canin's Storyboarding 2008-09-09 08:45:56 A blog reader from Minnesota sent in this great link to an interview with author Ethan
Canin (America, America)--where he talks about his writing process. He storyboards (one of the main techniques I teach in my writing classes). She writes, "He uses color-coded index cards on a big piece of foam core. Neat!"Click here to view and listen. Read more:Exercise
Weekly Writing Exercise--Your Minimum Daily Requirements for Getting Your Book Written! 2008-09-02 07:44:00 It's back-to-school time. I can smell those sharpened pencils. Are you set up for getting back to your book?This week, think about what you would need to have in place, in your life, to get your book started, to keep going, to finish it. Be very specific.Examples from writers in my book-writing weekly classes:privacy (where my daughter can't use my computer)dedicated time to write each week/each d Read more:Exercise
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Are Most Writers Introverts? Nancy Okerlund's Excellent E-Newsletter on the Subject 2008-08-26 11:03:17 Nancy Okerlund, of The Introvert Enegizer newsletter, studies how the introvert brain works--and how writers who are introverts often feel better after they spend time writing."Compliments of the way we use the parasympathetic nervous system," Okerlund says, "introvert bodies are designed to let our busy brains focus and concentrate deeply for long periods, which makes them feel alert and happy. . Read more:Writers
, Nancy
Writing Exercise of the Week--Music to My Ears 2008-08-26 08:00:01 To access theme in your book, you may need to talk with the nonlinear side of your brain, sometimes called the right brain. So do something nonlinear: For this writing exercise, listen to a favorite piece of music without doing anything else. Write for twenty minutes about what you heard and felt as you were listening. Then write anything that comes that answers this question: How does my Read more:Exercise
, Music
Writing Exercise of the Week--with thanks to Carol Bly 2008-08-19 07:12:57 List your most important life values (refer to Carol
Bly's wonderful book, The Passionate, Accurate Story, for more information on this exercise). What means the most to you? Are these values represented in your writing? Are they demonstrated in your book?For me, writer's block can come from not aligning my book writing with what I hold dear in my life. Writing about something superficial, for ins Read more:Exercise
Red Smith's "Opening a Vein" versus Stephen King's "Do It for Joy" 2008-08-15 13:55:07 When Walter Wellesley “Red” Smith
said, “There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein,” he was talking about the vulnerability a writer must bring to the page. What does that mean? Vulnerability for writers is how much they reveal, show, let the reader see about themselves. Some writing teachers call it “showing up at the page.” Many of us st Read more:versus
, Stephen
When You're Stuck--Here's a Unique Way to Get Yourself Moving! 2008-08-12 11:50:22 A writing friend sent me this great video. Watch it for a break from your book today! It's sure to get you moving.Click here, get on your dancing shoes, and turn up the volume.Then let me know:What unique things do you do...to get yourself moving when you're stuck on your book? Read more:Stuck
, Yourself
, Moving
Writing Exercise of the Week--Waiting for Inspiration? 2008-08-12 10:02:47 This exercise only takes 10 minutes. Try it right now. First, list 5 reasons you don't take time for your writing. Anything that comes to mind--other people's demands on your schedule? not enough privacy? feeling stuck? eating too much ice cream? Remember: write whatever you think of--no matter how small or silly. Pick one of these reasons. Write 3 antidotes to it. Let these 3 antidotes sim Read more:Exercise
, Waiting
, Inspiration
Good Advice If You're Looking for an Agent--from Chuck Sambuchino and Victoria Strauss 2008-07-31 07:24:01 Is your book ready for an agent? There are some great web sites out there, to help you find the right person--and to educate you on all the pitfalls.A favorite is by Victoria Strauss
. Click here to visit her website.Another great site is the Guide to Literary Agent
s--click here.Or Chuck
Sambuchino's WritersNet's agent directory lets you search by your genre and topic. Click here.What other great s Read more:Good Advice
Writing Exercise of the Week--with Thanks to Carolyn See 2008-07-29 08:00:04 Write a thank-you postcard (just a few lines) to five people whose books you really loved. Tell them how they changed your life. You can mail it to the publisher's address or google the author to see if you can get a real address for them.I did this when I was eleven, for a book called The House of Thirty Cats by Mary Calhoun. I loved cats (and still do). I was astonished when I got a hand-written Read more:Exercise
, Thanks
, Carolyn
Writing Exercise of the Week 2008-07-22 07:14:01 Imagine a year from today. Write about your book, in the present tense, using as much detail as possible, with as much loving attention as you can muster.What would you like to have happen with your book, by then? What dreams could you imagine being fulfilled?How clearly can you imagine it? Read more:Exercise
Do You Have Book-Writer's Block? 2008-07-20 12:29:01 Do you relate to this question, from reader Eleni Turner? "Please write about writer's block--I'm currently suffering from lack of inspiration on the storyline I'm most serious about. I know exactly what I want to write, but when I try, it becomes either too boring or too rambly."What's your best technique for handling writer's block?Is it real? (Some writers poo-poo the idea, but those of us wh Read more:Writer
Fabulous Writing Books to Help You Write a Book 2008-07-17 15:17:36 Vivian Gornick talks about “the situation and the story”—the two elements of good prose. What happens and why it happens. Because of her simplicity in describing this complex idea, The Situation and the Story became one of the truly influential writing books in my life.Carol Bly’s The Passionate, Accurate Write
r taught me about writing of consequence and how to stay unembittered while wo Read more:Books
Jane Levin's New Poetry Chapbook 2008-07-17 15:04:41 Jane Levin
's new poetry chapbook, Legacy, has just been published. Jane was a student in my writing classes and began publishing her poetry with great success.This is her first book. Congratulations, Jane! I've reviewed her book in The Alsop Review. To read this article (and some great poetry), click here. Read more:Poetry
Writing Exercise of the Week 2008-07-15 08:22:36 Begin a dialogue on paper with an aspect of your book that you dislike or don't "get" or can't move forward with. A reticent character? A chapter that won't come together? Something you just can't write, no matter how hard you try?Ask it why it is in your book--and your life. Write down whatever comes as an answer. Read more:Exercise
Writing When You're Traveling--How Do Book-Writers Do It? 2008-07-10 20:07:00 So far it's been a summer of intense travel, living out of a suitcase, and trying to write in internet cafes, sending book chapters-in-progress to myself by email.Each trip, I try not to leave behind these books I'm writing. A colleague once said, if you stop writing for three days you have to start over again. I get that. Losing the flow of my characters' voices, losing the ideas of how to struct Read more:Writers
, Traveling
Get Those Ducks Moving! A Poem-Writing Exercise of the Week for Book Writers 2008-07-10 18:14:22 Step 1: Create one sentence for each of four plot points in your book (peak moments, external movement, change).Step 2: Create one sentence for each of four different character’s shifts (internal change in the character, realization moment).Step 3: Create one sentence for each of four different setting details (with something from the five senses associated with each).Step 4: Create one sentence Read more:Writers
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, Ducks
Exercise of the Week for Book Writers 2008-07-01 08:20:09 Here are some questions to think about, as you work on your writing and your book this week:What kind of reader do you see in your mind's eye or heart, as you write: Women over fifty? Boys under fifteen? Guys who love fishing?Is your language, tone, and style going to engage this particular reader?Is the pace of your narrative (how fast it moves) going to make them want to read more? Or will i Read more:Writers
, Exercise
Tuning Your Ears--First Step in Developing the Right Pacing for Your Book 2008-06-29 20:00:02 My first visit to the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, I saw Puccini’s Turandot. There wasn’t a moment during Puccini’s music or story when my attention wandered. That’s exactly what good pacing does. It doesn’t let the reader wander.Start tuning your writer’s ears by re-reading books you love. Pick three in the genre of your book. ● To study how the writers deliver informatio Read more:Right
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Bits and Pieces--Is That OK? 2008-06-25 09:35:21 Is this how you are feeling about your writing sometimes? Like you're in a forest of bits and pieces where nothing makes sense enough to be a book?A reader wrote me about this common dilemma: " I feel like a have a big mess!" she said. "I like what I have written, but I don't know how to add to it at this point. I'm constantly thinking about writing. Constantly putting it off. My question is...
Exercise of the Week for Book Writers 2008-06-24 19:43:15 Book writers (and all writers!) need to be able to hear both the random, illogical side of their creative selves, as well as the structuring, logical part. Clues about how to improve our writing come from both. If you have some difficulty listening to all parts of your creative self, ask the questions below. If you find one of the questions harder, it might tell you that you are using an unfami Read more:Writers
, Exercise
Great Group for Creative Writers Opportunities 2008-06-20 07:10:01 About a year ago, I joined a free Yahoo group called CRWROPPS--B (Creative WritersOpportunities
List). Agents often encourage book writers to get their novel excerpts, short stories, poems, essays, articles published ahead of time (before submitting their entire manuscript) to help develop that "platform" and this e-list is a good resource for writing contests and journals looking for submission Read more:Great
, Group
Pace Yourself: An Exercise to Create Rhythm in Your Writing 2008-10-07 08:50:22
Like changing seasons that move elegantly into each other, a good book has an almost invisible rhythm called pacing.
Excellent pacing creates music a reader can resonate with. Pacing makes writing memorable.
An Important Tool for Your Writing
Pacing is one of the most complex and exciting tools in book writing. It’s the speed of the story, the balance of anecdotes and concepts, the ebb Read more:Yourself
, Exercise
, Rhythm
It's Often What You Don't Say That Counts--A Weekly Writing Exercise about Negative Space 2008-09-30 12:34:43
Painters know the concept of “negative space.” I learned it in art school. Negative
space is everything that is not the main object in a still life or portrait.
(If you can't imagine this, picture a painter getting ready to capture three yellow apples on a fuscia plate, with blue cloth as background. To the painter, the apples are the main objects. Plate and blue cloth are negative space.)
Read more:Exercise
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Your Weekly Writing Exercise--Pick One Memory 2008-10-28 09:03:48 A writer from Minneapolis emailed me: "I just came across an idea for your writing exercises. You may have heard of it already, but it's a new one to me and has me quite intriqued as to how I'll write about it. It was in the [Minneapolis] Star Tribune under theatre performances."Here's the exercise, from Workhouse Theatre Company: "You are passing through to eternity, and you must select one memor Read more:Weekly
, Exercise
, Memory
Does Your Writing Show or Tell? Learn from Robert Olen Butler 2008-10-21 08:05:00 Anton Chekhov wrote, “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.”
Showing is a demonstration of emotion through specific details. Telling can bring in an almost intellectual assessment of what happened. Showing, the opposite, requires very little intellectual language. It relies instead on sensory detail (smells, sights, sounds). While tellin Read more:Robert
, Butler
Your Creative Vocal Chords--How to Warm Them Up 2008-10-14 07:48:01 William Wordsworth said, "Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart." We're not all poets. But all of us have these breathings of the heart, which some call voice.
Voice is your passion, your style, the things you must write, the way you must write them. But voice can easily be squelched. It can go through silent passages, coming out in a mere whisper. The big Read more:Vocal
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