Not knowing where to start? Perhaps you have the drive to write but the end result looks dauntingly far away? The following will help you to sit down and start writing  immediately.  You only need to follow below guidelines and you are on the way of becoming an author!

I will forgo for the moment all the preliminaries that need to be taken care of before you can sit down and write as they only make everything look complicated and therefore would present a psychological burden. Like your frame of mind, the location of writing, your expectations, the list goes on. Because you re geared to ‘get on with it’, with the actual writing, that is.

If you are a self-publisher, you can also ignore the correct form of double spacing, headers and footers, pagination,  which publishers require. And you do not need to bother with a business proposal and introductory letter, however, an automatic word count is a handy instrument, freely provided by most word processors  

Immersing into the writing part you enjoy the wonderful world of painting with words and style of sentences. Later on, you may transform your finished manuscript in to the correct layout with all the trimmings for an ‘official’ presentation. But your creation will always be the same.

There are three things you need to take care of to enable you to put words together into sentences and get somewhere, namely towards the end result:

1.    SYNOPSIS

The first is the writing of a synopsis, that is, exactly what the book is about. A love story that leads through a lot of difficulties and tribulations, a thriller with sudden and unexpected surprises, a historic work, containing newly discovered facts, your own past you wish to enlighten the world with or addressing your family and close friends, you understand what I am trying to say. In this short description, the persons are named, the actions are laid-out, the story is explained to an unsuspecting reader or publisher.

Having this synopsis before you, you cannot get astray- it will guide you through the other pieces of pre- writing that you require.

2.    CHARACTER OUTLINE

Now, having your book outlined and printed out before you, it will be easier to identify the various characters that appear in your story. Write them down by their name, what they are and describe their main characteristics. This comes  easy if you manage to think of a relevant screen character you know – perhaps you can manage to paste into this a picture of this actor, as this will assist you later on in slipping into this persons personality and acting out on paper a very realistic behaviour. Which will make your story so much more believable and fascinating!

This goes, of course, not only for humans, but animals too and even sceneries you are describing can be from a well-known personal experience or from a movie. This would bring so much more immediacy to your writing.

3.    CHAPTER OUTLINE

Now the story unfolds in a concise way and in segments. From the begin you dive into the story and deal with who does what with whom, where they met, and on the story goes all portioned into chapters

There is now law requiring certain amount of chapters, but normally a chapter is somehow self contained, like in a theatre, where a change of scenery indicates a new act. And the beauty is that you can change things around as you recognise improvements in your story whilst working on this outline. Complicated situations are put down on paper as well twisted emotions and reasoning thereby straightening out your train of thoughts

With these three requirements, namely synopsis, character outline and chapter outline, printed out before you, it will be so easy to start your story. Now, writing down  the words as they come to your mind will be easy and after a while your surroundings will disappear and you are in your own world, created by yourself. I shall soon deal with more tricks of easy writing, if you only bring the determination and discipline. And now – off to create your own publication!

PETER FREDERICK

www.life-on-the-road.com

peter.frederick@life-on-the-road.com

By writing stories, I mean writing fiction. We all draw from our vast storehouse of images and memories when writing. This sifting of the soil means that new life will literally spring from the garden of our mind. New ideas come to us. These ideas aren’t just applied to the writing itself, but to living; possibly the greatest art of all.

I noticed this during a very dry patch in my life. I was stuck in the middle of nowhere, and starving (literally and figuratively). Then it came to me to simply simplify my life. I did. I began to write 1000 words each morning; I stopped worrying whether I was going to be published or not. I simply wrote one thousand words of fiction. My TMJ disorder got better, my mind became more clearer and I generally felt more empowered to live my life.

It’s a practical thing; writing one thousand words a day. It’s like exercise in that if you don’t do it, you get fat. Then you stop being functional. Writing fiction can in fact aid you in being functional. It can help your life to bear fruit.

The other thing is: it makes your mind more absorbant. You are able to read more clearly, and movies make more sense. You sense the underlying meaning behind it all. You even begin to sense the underlying meaning behind your own life; the substratum of it all.

Start Writing!

P.S: This prescription is not for everyone. Nothing is ever that simple. Everyone responds to things differently

Being overly clever is seen as arrogance

You’ve probably come across writers who try too hard to impress their audience. You will agree that they often seem condescending and annoying. The reader’s usual reaction is often, ‘What, does this writer think I’m dumb?’

By being too clever, you’ll alienate your audience, who won’t be too pleased at being subjected to a write-up that seems to insinuate that they are ignorant. Instead, speak to them the way you would to a respected colleague and don’t simply assume that you know better.

Being critical can ruffle the wrong feathers

There are writing styles and topics that call for a writer to use a critical tone. Satire, for example, is very often critical. However, really great writers still manage to inject good humor into the writing, which is actually a sign of genuine talent.

When writing reviews, for example, you also need to be critical in order to inform the reader the positive and negative points of the person, event or product being reviewed. Being critical could be harsh but if you can phrase your sentences well, your write-up will be easier and more fun to read.

Be like Shakespeare

No, it’s not about iambic pentameters and rhymes but being able to state the obvious without doing so. Instead of confronting the issue upfront by being clever and critical, find ways to describe, illustrate, critique or opine. You can add words, omit some, use metaphors and other tricks of the language. The key here is to produce a well-written piece. Just don’t overdo it, though or people will know you’re trying to be clever.

Avoid strong language

You don’t have to be offensive just so people will know that you have something to say. Sometimes, writers can’t help using strong language when trying to be critical about something.

Some writers may even use strong language in the hopes of preventing boredom in their readers. However, this trick often backfires since not everyone is appreciative of language used only in B action movies and street fights. If you use strong language out of context, your readers might think that you are either trying to be clever or being overly critical.

Instead of falling into this trap, turn to useful references such as a dictionary or a thesaurus for better alternatives. You’d be surprised at how well you can write copy that expresses exactly what you want to say using well-chosen words. You’ll gain more respect for it.

Use humor instead

Instead of being clever and critical when writing copy, consider appealing to your readers’ funny side. Some of the best writing ever produced used humor to express opinions and ideas even about the most serious of topics. Doing so will allow you to explore a different aspect of your subject and to offer your readers a means to see things in a different light.

Let’s suppose you want to write a scene that displays anger. Maybe the story is about abuse, a mom and dad arguing, or sibling rivalry. Maybe it’s about a girl breaking up with her boyfriend because he was playing around on the side. If the scene is intense, you have to get into the mode. I mean red, piping hot angry.

Remember the guy or gal that dumped you 30 years ago? Remember the time you had a bad dream about your mate and you wouldn’t speak to him all day? How about when you got steamed at the boss, or got into a heated argument over politics, world affairs, abortion, women’s rights, etc.? As a writer, you must capture those emotions again and write them into your scenes. It should be so real that you will need to attend anger management classes to get over it.

Do you need to be happy? Then think of some very happy occasions. Sing really crazy! Laugh like an idiot! And when you begin laughing at yourself, it’s time to write that joy into your scene.

Another way to develop the needed emotions is to imagine yourself as the character and write entries in a diary from his/her point of view. Live the make-believe life. Do whatever it takes to crawl into your character’s skin. You can’t write effectively what you don’t know or aren’t in the mood for. (You can, however, write a draft for the scene and come back to build it in a more realistic way later.)

Remember that your protagonist (main character, hero) and antagonist (villain) must be three-dimensional characters. They must have a past and a future; they must have problems in their lives and they must work through those problems like real, live people. Those characters should be real enough to walk off the page in your reader’s mind and sit next to them. If the reader can’t identify with the characters, they aren’t likely to stay with the story.

I remember when my daughter was 16-years old. It was not uncommon for her to sit on the floor Indian style, and bawl her eyes out over a drama TV show. One night I winked at my husband and said, “That actress is playing her part really well, isn’t she?” He picked up on it and we talked back and forth about the actress’ career and wondered out loud what movie they would play in next.

Our daughter turned around, tears dripping off her cheeks, and said, “Quit it, you guys. You’re ruining the show!” But what she really meant was, “I’m into the character. I feel what she is feeling. Don’t move me out of the scene.”

If your characters aren’t three-dimensional, you’ll lose your readers. Put yourself into the mood and into the groove. Live what you write.

See Christmas $ale below!