Change The World With Words

An article in yesterday’s USA Today asked writers to remember a favourite book they received as a holiday gift. Suzanne Collins (author of The Hunger Games) remembers receiving The Dictionary of Classical Mythology by J E Zimmerman when she was “9 years old and obsessed with Greek Mythology”. Patricia Cornwell picked How The Grinch Stole Christmas, a holiday gift when she was “maybe 7’, and Janet Evanovich chose The Black Stallion by Walter Farley, which she received when she was 9 years old.

If you’re looking for a book to inspire a child, consider some of these books. If you’re looking for books for writing friends, the following are some of my personal favorites. Click on the links to see more information, read reviews and buy. All links go directly to Amazon. If you buy through one of these links you are helping support Change the World with Words (see how here). Thank you.

Ten Great Books For Writers

Writers Market 2012. You can never go wrong with buying a writer the very latest version of this book. It’s thoroughly updated every year so a new one is always valuable.

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, by Anne Lamott. An old classic and I love it. Read a full review here.

Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg. Another classic. Can’t beat the classics.

This Year You Write Your Novel by Walter Mosely. Just came across this in 2011 and it has really helped me with my novel in progress.

On Writing, by Stephen King. King’s fans will love this. His detractors will often be genuinely surprised by it. Read more here.

Writer Mama by Christina Katz. I love all Christina’s books. She actually has a new one out soon, The Writers Workout. It’s not ‘officially’ part of the list as the print version isn’t out until January (find out more here) but you can pre-order it now, and the Kindle version is already available.

Write-a-Thon: Write Your Book in 26 Days (and live to tell about it) by Rochelle Melander. For all NaNoWriMo writers who may have failed or gone insane trying, this book will help you do better next time.

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. This isn’t a book about writing, but it is one of the books that has had the most impact on my writing career recently. Now I’m familiar with Gladwell’s 10,000 hour theory I’ve finally realised than none of my writing is wasted, even if it doesn’t find a publisher.

The Greatness Guide, by Robin Sharma. As above. Not a book about writing but a great book for writers who want to be great at what they do. 101 short (mostly just 2 pages) chapters with titles ranging from The Steve Jobs Question, to Life Lessons from SpongeBob Squarepants (this guy has a wide range of heroes). 

Write Good or Die, the best value book I’ve read all year. OK, you can’t really get away with giving this as a gift – It’s free! (You all know how much I love a freebie, don’t you?) But you can certainly reward yourself with it when all your holiday shopping is done

Please consider doing your holiday shopping at our online book store, powered by Amazon. It has sections on writing, publishing, world changing, fiction and non-fiction. Browsers are welcome, and encouraged.

Check back frequently this holiday season (or subscribe). There will be free gifts for everyone.

November is  National Novel Writing Month and we’re celebrating with a series of interviews with NaNoWriMo participants here at Change The World With Words. This week’s interview is with Alison “A.J.” Walkley.

Tell me a little bit about yourself.  How long have you been writing, and what sort of writing do you do?

My name is Alison “A.J.” Walkley and I have been writing since elementary school when I put together Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen Detective Zines for my family and friends. My passions in life include social justice, writing, sexual rights, LGBT rights, books and film. I used to write for a newspaper back in Connecticut before becoming a United Nations correspondent in New York City. I love writing for the young adult audience, though I’ve recently gotten into nonfiction. On top of NaNoWriMo 2011, I am also working on a script based on the life and wrongful conviction of Elizabeth Burke, a Texas inmate I’ve been corresponding with for nearly 3 years.

Is this your first attempt at NaNoWriMo? If not, what happened to the novels you worked on during previous Nano events? Have they found publishers/agents/been self-published? Or were they “just” a learning process?

This is my 3rd NaNoWriMo attempt. I finished my first two and aim to do the same this year. My first attempt became Choice, which I self-published with iUniverse. It won the Barnes and Noble Rising Star Award and was placed in B&N stores across the east coast.

How much planning did you do before you sat down to write that novel-in-a-month?

My first attempt I began with a mere idea in mind about writing a book with two endings. There was no planning at all, essentially. I went for the 1,667 words-a-day count and made it past 50,000 words by November 30th. My second attempt I made it to the end, but I didn’t have a complete novel, just the first half. I’ve yet to finish that second novel, but it will happen some day!

What’s your strategy? Are you writing every single day? Aiming for a set daily word count? How long each day do you/will you spend writing?

This year I’ve gotten some co-workers in on the challenge. I’ll be writing at least 1,667 words a day, plus holding workshops for myself and my co-workers three times a week before/after work. I expect to work on NaNoWriMo for at least 2 hours a day.

Do you/will you connect with other participants (apart from your co-workers), either online or in person?

I’ve never connected with other participants in the past but, now that I live in the LA-area, I hope to attend at least one writing session or kick-off party this year.

What advice do you have for other Nano writers, or what’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given so far?

 Stick to it, write every day and, if you don’t win the challenge, keep writing! November is just the beginning!

Alison “A.J.” Walkley is a 26-year-old producer, writer and casting director for Mahalo.com with a background in journalism, film studies and creative writing. Originally from Connecticut, Walkley currently resides in Santa Monica, CA. She is the author of two self-published young adult novels: Queer Greer (2009) and Choice (2009). Choice was written during NaNoWriMo 2008. Walkley served in the U.S. Peace Corps as a health volunteer in Malawi, Africa after graduating from Dickinson College in 2007.

 Find out more at AlisonWalkley.com and AJWalkley.com  or on YouTube at  http://www.youtube.com/user/AJWalkley?feature=mhee

If you’re participating in NaNoWriMo 2011 and would like to be featured in this series, see this post to find out how.  Struggling with your NaNo attempt? I’m still reading Write-A-Thon: Write Your Book in 26 Days, (And Live To Tell About It) by Rochelle Melander and finding it really helpful.

NaNo friends and followers? Please tweet/share/forward.

A bad writing day can make you lose one of your most important freelance writing assets – your sense of humor. Cheer yourself up with these funny writing quotes.

I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.

 - Douglas Adams

A critic is a man who knows the way but can’t drive the car.

 - Kenneth Tynan

I’m writing a book. I’ve got the page numbers done.

 - Stephen Wright

I just wrote a book, but don’t go out and buy it yet, because I don’t think it’s finished yet.

-Lawrence Welk

A blank piece of paper is God’s way of telling us how hard it to be God.

- Sidney Sheldon

All the words I use in my stories can be found in the dictionary – it’s just a matter of arranging them into the right sentences.

 - Somerset Maugham

Copy from one, it’s plagiarism; copy from two, it’s research.

 -Wilson Mizner

No fathers or mothers think their own children ugly; and this self-deceit is yet stronger with respect to the offspring of the mind.

- Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamppost how it feels about dogs.

 - Christopher Hampton

A good many young writers make the mistake of enclosing a stamped, self-addressed envelope, big enough for the manuscript to come back in. This is too much of a temptation to the editor.

-Ring Lardner

A young musician plays scales in his room and only bores his family. A beginning writer, on the other hand, sometimes has the misfortune of getting into print.

-Marguerite Yourcenar

Writing a novel is like spelunking. You kind of create the right path for yourself. But, boy, are there so many points at which you think, absolutely, I’m going down the wrong hole here.

-Chang-rae Lee

Most writers can write books faster than publishers can write checks.

 - Richard Curtis

It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous.

- Robert Benchley

Writing a novel is like paddling from Boston to London in a bathtub. Sometimes the damn tub sinks. It’s a wonder that most of them don’t.

 -Stephen King

Being a writer is like having homework every night for the rest of your life.

-Lawrence Kasdan

Everywhere I go I’m asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don’t stifle enough of them.

-Flannery O’Connor

It’s a damn poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word.

-Andrew Jackson

There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.

 -Somerset Maugham

Your manuscript is both good and original, but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.”

 -Samuel Johnson

Looking for a freelance writing book with a funny slant? I like Too Lazy to Work, Too Nervous to Steal and My So-Called Freelance Life.

November will be here before you know it, and it is, of course, National Novel Writing Month. If you’re participating in NaNoWriMo 2011, and want to promote yourself and your books here at Change The World With Words, I’d love to post an interview with you.

The system is simple. Just answer the questions below, add a bio, copy and paste into the body of an email and send it to me at karen at changetheworldwithwords dot com (or use the contact form). Sorry about the odd email address formula but it is an anti spam tactic. If you want to include a photo of yourself or perhaps the cover art of one of your books, go ahead. If you don’t, no problem.

Your bio can include up to three links. They can be to your blog, writer’s website, Twitter profile, Facebook fan page, or anywhere you promote your writing online. One of them can even be a link to a previous book’s sales page at Amazon or elsewhere online.

You can also include a couple of links in the text of the interview as long as they’re relevant (so if for example, you mention in the interview something that you’ve expanded on in detail in one of your own blog posts, include a link). Please put all links in full directly after the text you want them to apply to. I will imbed them as anchor text.

Answers can be as short or as detailed as you want but remember I want to provide useful insights to my readers (many of whom are new writers or article/short story writers who have yet to break into writing book length projects) as well as providing a platform for you to promote yourself.

I plan to publish all responses, but I reserve the right to refrain from publishing any piece that I deem to be unsuitable or unhelpful. Depending on the number of responses it may take a while before all interviews are published. I will tweet/share/promote all interviews and let you know when yours is up so you can join in.

Here are the questions. Have fun with them. Humor is appreciated and encouraged here at Change The World With Words.

Tell me a little bit about yourself.  How long have you been writing, and what sort of writing do you do?

Is this your first attempt at NaNoWriMo? If not, what happened to the novels you worked on during previous Nano events? Have they found publishers/agents/been self-published? Or were they “just” a learning process?

How much planning did you do before you sat down to write that novel-in-a-month?

What’s your strategy? Are you writing every single day? Aiming for a set daily word count? How long each day do you/will you spend writing?

Do you/will you connect with other participants, either online or in person?

What advice do you have for other Nano writers, or what’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given so far?

I look forward to reading (and sharing) your answers. Have friends and followers who will be participating in NaNoWroMo? Please share /forward/retweet this post.

Every now and then I take a look at my writing career and ask myself a few questions. These are the ones I’ve been asking myself recently. I’m fairly happy with my answers but there’s always room for improvement. How about you? How are your answers to these questions looking? Don’t worry. I won’t be keeping score. The only prize for ‘correct’ answers is a writing career that stays (more or less) on track

Do you love writing?

If you don’t love it don’t do it. There are (much) easier ways to earn a living. By all means be realistic. No-one loves writing all the time, and we all have days where we don’t even like writing (though we still love the feeling of having written). Generally speaking though, if you’re meant to be a writer, you’ll never have that sinking Monday morning feeling. If you do, maybe it’s time to try something else.

Are you doing the right kind of writing (for you)?

I’ve written (and published) short stories, articles and essays. I’ve also written web content, handbooks and reports. I’ve written part of an adult novel and most of a children’s book. There are many ways to earn money writing and until you try them you don’t know what might be a good fit. I didn’t plan to blog (or know what a blog was) when I started freelance writing, but here I am, writing a blog post. Keep an open mind and be willing to find out what the perfect type of writing (for you) is.

Are you writing about what you’re passionate about?

If not, why not? I’ve written articles about travel, parenting, home schooling and the environment. I’ve written a short story with an environmental theme. The children’s novel I’m working on also has an environmental theme. (Yep, I’m a tree hugger). The point is, being a writer allows you to explore your passions. Even if you have assignments that take you away from them, try and make time for side projects that are important to you.

Are you subscribed to the right sites/blogs/newsletters?

I’m constantly signing up for new newsletters and RSS feeds. And constantly unsubscribing as well. There’s so much information out there, available for free. Some of it’s valuable. Some isn’t. You can’t always tell. If I love a site or blog with a free newsletter or subscription offer, I sign up. Every now and then I have a ‘cull’ and only keep what is really useful to me.

Do you need to take steps to improve your writing?

I do something every month to improve my writing. I read a book or ebook, take a course or workshop, or get a critique. It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. Free ebooks and ecourses count (as long as they are high quality enough to learn from them). Ebooks that cost less than $10 count. Library books count. If you’re looking for ebooks and books to improve your writing check out our resources and book store. If you’re looking for freebies check this page and this post. If you want to ‘swap’ critiques and get free feedback take a look at Scribophile.

Do you need to develop other related skills?

Skills that can be useful for writers include editing and proof reading, photography (here’s a great website to get you started), blogging, web design, self-publishing and marketing.

Are you building a platform?

Good writing without good marketing is almost as useless as good marketing without good writing. Are you publishing work around the web? Are you blogging? Are you active on Twitter and other social media sites? If you don’t have the first clue about platform building I recommend Get Known Before the Book Deal by Christina Katz.

Do you have a career plan?

Do you know where you want to be 6 months from now? Or three years from now? Your plan doesn’t have to be set in stone (mine changes all the time), but it helps to set some goals so you know what you’re aiming for.

If you’d like to answer any of these questions (or ask some of your own) please do so in the comments.

 I collect inspirational quotes, especially quotes for writers. I get so much inspiration from them, sooner or later I have to pay it forward. Enjoy these and feel free to share your own in the comments.

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

 Ben Franklin

Writing is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to those who have none.

 Jules Renard

Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights but you can make the whole trip that way.

E.L. Doctorow

 Success comes to a writer, as a rule, so gradually that it is always something of a shock to him to look back and realize the heights to which he has climbed.

P. G. Wodehouse

The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is you really want to say.

Mark Twain

The way to get good ideas is to get lots of ideas and throw the bad ones away.

Linus Pauling

Writing a novel is like making love, but it’s also like having a tooth pulled. Pleasure and pain. Sometimes it’s like making love while having a tooth pulled.

 Dean Koontz

If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have time to write.

 Stephen King
 

There’s a word for a writer who never quits… published. 

 Unattributed

When I sit down at my writing desk, time seems to vanish. I think it’s a wonderful way to spend one’s life.
 
Erica Jong

A true piece of writing is a dangerous thing. It can change your life.

 Tobias Wolff

Words can sometimes, in moments of grace, attain the quality of deeds.

 Elie Wiesel

There are many rules of good writing, but the best way to find them is to be a good reader.

 Stephen Ambrose

The way you define yourself as a writer is that you write every time you have a free minute.

 John Irving

When we commit ourselves to writing for some part of each day, we are happier, more enlightened, alive, light-hearted and generous to everyone else. Even our health improves.

 Brenda Ueland

Begin at the beginning and go on til you come to the end then stop.

 Lewis Carroll

If there’s a book you really want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.

 Toni Morrison

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.

 William Wordsworth

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.

Scott Adams

You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.

Maya Angelou

Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn’t.

Mark Twain

Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader—not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.

E.L. Doctorow

Read a lot, finding out what kind of writing turns you on, in order to develop a criterion for your own writing. And then trust it—and yourself.

 Rosemary Daniell

Start early and work hard. A writer’s apprenticeship usually involves writing a million words (which are then discarded) before he’s almost ready to begin. That takes a while.

David Eddings

I write as straight as I can, just as I walk as straight as I can, because that is the best way to get there.

H.G. Wells

The difference between reality and fiction? Fiction has to make sense.

Tom Clancy

However great a man’s natural talent may be, the act of writing cannot be learned all at once.

Jean Jacques Rousseau

I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.

 Douglas Adams

There are two kinds of writer: those that make you think, and those that make you wonder.

 Brian Aldiss

A best seller was a book which somehow sold well simply because it was selling well.

 S. Boorstein

Either a writer doesn’t want to talk about his work, or he talks about it more than you want.

 Anatole Broyard

If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor.

 Edgar Rice Burroughs

It is perfectly okay to write garbage–as long as you edit brilliantly.

 C. J. Cherryh

There is no idea so brilliant or original that a sufficiently-untalented writer can’t screw it up.

 Raymond Feist

Words are the most powerful drug used by mankind.

 Rudyard Kipling

You may be able to take a break from writing, but you won’t be able to take a break from being a writer…

 Stephen Leigh

A blank piece of paper is God’s way of telling us how hard it to be God.

 Sidney Sheldon

By writing much, one learns to write well.

 Robert Southey

The first chapter sells the book; the last chapter sells the next book.

 Mickey Spillane

Originality does not consist in saying what no one has ever said before, but in saying exactly what you think yourself.

 James F. Stephan

We write to discover what we think.

Joan Dideon

The fastest way to write is to pretend you have all the time in the world.

Philip Gerard

Nobody reads a book to get to the middle.

Mickey Spillane

Check back in or subscribe for a post of funny quotes for writers, coming soon.

Have you checked out the online book store yet? It’s full of books about writing, publishing and changing the world. Browsers welcome

I’ve been reading Really Important Stuff My Kids Have Taught Me, by Cynthia Copeland Lewis. It’s a compilation of ‘quotes’ that the author’s three kids have come out with over the years, but her skill at pulling out the good ones has resulted in a book full of perfect childlike observations that really are metaphors for life (and writing).

Here are some of the ones that struck me as being particularly applicable to writers and writing.

“If the flowers you draw don’t look like anyone elses, that’s good.”

Also applies to your writing voice. It’s supposed to be unique. By all means learn from and be inspired by other writers, but don’t imitate them. Make your writing style your own.

“If you’re going to bother wetting the soap and messing up the towel, you might just as well go ahead and wash your hands.”

If you’re going to bother researching potential markets, and outlining an article and writing a query letter, you might just as well go ahead and submit it.

“Always have something in your lunchbox that you can trade with.”

This is why I’m always working on improving my saleable skills and building relevant experience. Never miss the chance to add something new to your skill set. Always have something to trade.

“Don’t expect a stranger to wipe your nose.”

Or find you a writing gig, edit your work, promote your blog or give you a free copy of their ebook. Build relationships first, then ask for favors (especially messy ones).

“Shortcuts aren’t always.”

Ain’t that the truth?

“You can either keep pedaling, get off the bike, or fall over.”

There really are only three options. You can keep going, quit, or fail. So (for me) only really one option

“Some weeks you really need Saturday on a Wednesday.”

And we all have those weeks!

 “You think your book bag is the heaviest until you pick up someone elses by mistake.”

We all think our workload is the heaviest, our job the hardest, our time the shortest. Yet most of us have fairly average challenges. Stephen Hawking wrote A Brief History of Time, and John Morrow has achieved more than most freelance writers ever do. Your problems probably aren’t as insurmountable as you think they are.

“Getting up early gives you more time to play.”

I try to get up early and get some work done before my kids wake up – so I have time to play with them when they do. I always thought of this as getting up early so I have more time to work, but now I’ve decided to think of it differently, and it’s definitely easier that way.

“Who cares what happened last week.”

Rejection? Failure? A bad critique or a drop in blog traffic? That was last week. Anything could happen this week.

“It doesn’t count if your swing is going highest if you’re getting pushed.”

This puts me in mind of highly successful “celebrity authors”. Don’t get me started.

“Three hops gets you just as far as one leap.”

And if, like me, you’re a busy parent as well as a writer, sometimes three hops is all you can manage.  If you can’t leap, take one small hop a day towards your goal.

“If you don’t like the birthday girl, don’t go to the party.”

Or the book signing, or the blog. Don’t follow her on Twitter either. Surround yourself with the writers you admire and want to emulate and don’t waste time criticising those you don’t like.

 “You’ll have a lot more respect for a bird after you try making a nest.”

And a lot more respect for an author after you try writing a book.

“Using a word you don’t understand can be embarrassing.”

Enough said.

“Even babies like to grab for something just beyond their reach.”

It’s natural. You will (and should) always be striving for the next level. Pitch that high paying market. Submit that manuscript. Set a new goal and go for it.

“The end isn’t always where it should be.”

I think that’s why my novel needs a rewrite.

“The teacher can always tell if you did your homework on the bus.”

Your editor can probably tell if you did the rewrite on vacation in Hawaii, and your blog readers can tell if you wrote your latest post in front of “Big Brother”.

“Just because you can’t spell doesn’t mean you can’t write a good story.”

So true. But please use spell check, a good dictionary and/or a professional editor.

“Being Captain doesn’t mean you’re the smartest one. It just means you’re the one with the boat.”

Editors, publishers and other gatekeepers don’t always know best, but they still own the gate. Unless you self-publish. Then you own the gate. (I guess if you want to be Captain you have to buy the boat.)

“Getting lost teaches you how to read a map.”

Getting lost while writing a novel teaches you about plot, story structure and the importance of rewriting.

“Silence can be an answer.”

Especially to a critic, or anyone else who is negative about your writing in person or online.

“Poems don’t have to rhyme.”

Which means I don’t have to throw mine out!

“A pencil without an eraser might just as well be a pen.”

It’s fine to make mistakes. Just make sure you have the tools you need to put them right. It’s fine to write a shitty first draft, as long as you develop (and use) strong rewriting/editing skills.

“If you can’t swim, wade.”

If you can’t write a novel, write a short story. If you can’t write a whole article (today) write the outline.

“Sometimes you can’t tell if you’re leading the group or being pushed.”

This puts me in mind of some well-known writers, especially the blogging and social media ‘gurus’, many of whom have a fairly limited body of actual published work.

“Sometimes you clap just because everyone around you is.”

A phenomenon that explains some of the books that get on the bestseller lists.

“You’ll never catch a frog if you’re worried about getting your shorts wet.”

Or find an agent if you’re too scared to send your manuscript out.

“You can be whatever you want when you grow up.”

Thank God for that. I’ve always wanted to be a writer.

Has your kid ever inadvertently given you career advice? Please share in the comments.

Huge thanks to freelance writer, author, and writing coach, Christina Katz, for today’s guest post.

Prospering in the Gig Economy: Simple Habits for Writers That Pay Off Quickly

By Christina Katz

Money is what writers earn for their time and energy. Furthermore, writing careers are built over time not overnight. So don’t put your career in jeopardy by paying attention to everything else at the expense of your bottom line.

Here are nine prosperity-increasing tips that can quickly become habit and put more money in the bank for the same number of hours you already work or maybe even less:

1. Make a list of paid work vs. unpaid work, if you don’t have one already and update it monthly. Add to-dos like upcoming deadlines and prep for future efforts, to make sure you don’t have to scramble later.
2. Prioritize the work you do that is paid over the work you do that is unpaid. This doesn’t mean the unpaid work is not important or doesn’t need to get done. It simply means that you will get the paid work done first and then tackle the unpaid work.
3. Spend time with other writers who make money writing. If they are too busy (making money) to spend time with you, sign up for their newsletters, read their blogs or connect with them via social networking whenever possible. When contacting successful writers, keep your expectations realistic. There’s a reason they make the big bucks and it’s not because they are just hanging out all day. When you are working, whether online or off, be aware of folks who drain your energy or co-opt your time. You simply don’t have time for those people when you are supposed to be working.
4. Don’t confuse “nice” people with profitable people. Let’s say one writer invests all of his time trying to make sure everyone knows what a great guy he is, while another writer invests his time landing assignments, delivering on deadlines, and landing the next gig. Who is the more successful writer? I’d say it’s the more productive writer (the second example). And he’s the one I’d be more likely to trust, as well. So go ahead, broadcast your success!
5. Tackle the types of assignments that pay directly. Forget about any kind of writing job you “might” get paid for. Also don’t count writing you do for exposure as “paid.” And when someone offers you vague future money for today’s actual work, take twice as much time to carefully consider the offer. Why not just take on the sure-thing assignments, which are the projects that pay you directly for your work? If you keep things simple, you are more likely to prosper in both the short run and the long run.
6. Spend the most time doing whatever you do best even if that means doing a few different things. For example, I don’t only write because if I only wrote all day, I’d soon be bored out of my mind, no matter how interesting the topics were that I was writing on. A restless person like me needs to do a variety of things. So I also teach and speak and the three efforts feed each other and increase my overall value as a writer.
7. However, don’t spread yourself too thin. I do a lot of different things but I’ve noticed that I can only do so many things before I hit overload, especially since I am a busy mom and wife, as well as a working professional. This overload point is going to be different for everyone and can change with your life circumstances, so adjust your expectations accordingly. You want to do everything you do well, not just scrape by.
8. Capture all of your business expense receipts as the year ticks along so that you can benefit from every deduction available to you when you pay your taxes. I am not the queen of filing things, so I just get a big basket and toss all my receipts in there until I’m ready to sort and report. If you need a primer on the specifics of what you can and can’t expense, pick up the March/April issue of Writer’s Digest magazine and check out the article, “Taxpertise For Writers” by Bonnie Lee. In fact, the theme of the issue is, “Your Economic Survival Guide,” so why not read the whole thing?
9. Be timely. Seek and adopt the simplest systems to help you meet your deadlines, pay your bills, get your taxes submitted, etc. It doesn’t matter which system you use. What matters more is that you make good use of the systems that work best for you and switch when one method stops working for you.

I bet you want to spend as little of your time as possible being inefficient, so that you can get back to writing. So keep things simple: write, earn and prosper. An efficient writer is a profitable writer.

And now if you’ll excuse me, I have some writing deadlines to meet.

Christina Katz is the author of three books from Writer’s Digest: The Writer’s Workout, Get Known Before the Book Deal, and Writer Mama. Her writing career tips and parenting advice appear regularly in national, regional, and online publications. A “gentle taskmaster” over the past decade to hundreds of writers, Christina’s students go from unpublished to published, build professional writing career skills, and increase their creative confidence over time. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Columbia College Chicago and a BA in English from Dartmouth College. A popular speaker on creative career growth, Christina presents for writing conferences, literary events, MFA writing programs, and libraries. She is the creator and host of the Northwest Author Series in Wilsonville, Oregon, where she lives with her husband, her daughter, and far too many pets. Learn more at ChristinaKatz.com.

My novel edit continues, and right now I’m looking at dialogue, so I’m trying to pull together everything I’ve read, heard, and been taught about the art of writing good dialogue. Here’s the checklist I’ve put together for myself. As always, feel free to share your own dialogue writing tips in the comments.

1.  Make your dialogue realistic.

It sounds obvious, but it’s important to write how people speak. A common mistake when writing dialogue (and one I definitely slip into from time to time) is to have your characters speak in long complex sentences.  Have you ever noticed how short most spoken sentences are? In his book Writing Dialogue, Tom Chiarella suggests trying to get most spoken sentences down to three words or less. It won’t always be possible but it’s an interesting exercise in making your dialogue sound more like real speech.

2.  But not too realistic.

Real life dialogue is full of pauses, digressions, unfinished sentences and repetitions. A little of this reflects real speech patterns. Too much becomes incomprehensible. Finding the balance is sometimes tricky.

3.  Be careful with speech tags.

“He said” is fine. It’s also OK to vary your speech tags a little by allowing a character to whisper or shout, but a string of characters exclaiming, pronouncing, stuttering and ejaculating is… distracting, at best.

4.  And even more careful when omitting speech tags.

It can be very effective to have a piece of dialogue where there are no speech tags at all, but make sure it’s obvious who is saying what. This technique works well for short exchanges, but can get confusing during long exchanges or when there are more than two characters speaking (trust me, I’ve tried it).

5.  Give characters definitive speech patterns and pet words and phrases.

This helps with making dialogue sound realistic and can really help keep it clear who’s talking when you want to leave speech tags out.

6.  Use a short burst of action instead of a speech tag.

Have someone do something (anything from a nervous tic to a sip of coffee can work) just before they speak. This can indicate who is speaking without adding a tag.

7.  Be careful with dialects and accents.

Again, a little brings realism to the dialogue. Too much makes it incomprehensible. Try creating the sound of a dialect through speech patterns, as much as (or more than) through misspelling.

8.  Give information (without sounding like you’re doing it).

Dialogue is a great way to present information to the reader but sometimes it’s really hard to do it without sounding obvious. You can end up with sentences like:

“Hi John, are you feeling better? It was a tough year for you last year, what with the divorce, losing your job, your daughter being abducted by aliens and you ending up in rehab.”

Generally speaking if you have characters ‘telling’ each other stuff they should already know, you’re probably overusing the ‘dialogue as information’ technique.

9.  Reveal character.

Having a character say something obnoxious or racist is far better than stating in the narrative “X was an obnoxious racist”.

10.  Get the punctuation right.

According to one of my early writing tutors (who happened to have been an editor) this is one of the biggest peeves editors have with dialogue. People punctuate it incorrectly. I know I used to (and I usually consider myself a bit of a grammar geek). Look up how to do it properly (there’s a good “nuts and bolts” section that covers this in Writing Dialogue), or just study how it’s done in a published book.

OK, back to editing for me. If you have friends and followers who might appreciate this post, please share or forward. Thanks

“Writing is rewriting. A writer must learn to deepen characters, trim writing, intensify scenes.  To fall in love with the first draft to the point where one cannot change it is to greatly enhance the prospects of never publishing.” 

- Richard North Patterson

Editing your own book is a challenge. The first piece of advice any responsible publisher or experienced writer will give you is probably “pay for professional editing services”.

Badly edited work is a common reason for rejection, and unfortunately self-publishers who also decide to self-edit may find their book stands out for all the wrong reasons. But what if you have to edit your own book? What if you genuinely can’t afford professional editing services? Or what if you just want to get your book in the best possible shape before sending it off to an editor? I’ve been working on editing the first draft of my first novel and have put together a checklist for myself (please feel free to add to it in the comments section). Asking yourself the following questions as you edit can help you do the best possible job of self-editing. This particular list applies mainly to fiction writing. (A post on editing non-fiction is in the works. Please subscribe if you don’t want to miss it.)

1. Did you leave a suitable amount of time between finishing the project and the edit? The longer the project, the longer you need. For a full-length novel, you probably need at least a couple of weeks.

2. Did you use some of that time to read something that will help you in the rewrite? (I recommend the rewriting section of Stephen King’s On Writing or  Get Your Writing Fighting Fit: Editing Secrets Revealed.)

3.  Have you started with a kick ass first sentence? Think Orwell’s 1984 “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” Ask yourself if your book would make it onto a book reviewer’s list of ‘great/surprising/compelling first sentences’ in your genre.

4. Is the beginning where it should be? Does the story grab the reader’s attention from the very first words? Have you started in the middle of the action or wasted two pages setting the scene?

5. Is it clear straight away who the main character is? Generally speaking, readers expect the first character they meet to be the main character.

6. Is it clear fairly quickly what the main character’s problem is? And his motivations for solving it?

7. Is there someone (an antagonist) and/or something (a situation or obstacle) working against the main character?

8. Is the antagonist’s motivation as strong as the protagonist’s – and just as clear?

9. Do the protagonist and antagonist both have something vitally important (to them) at stake?

10. Will the reader be able to identify with the main characters?

11. Are all the characters realistic (remember no-one is ever all good or all bad)?

12. Is the protagonist out gunned? The easiest way to create lots of conflict is to have a character battling more or stronger characters, with bigger or better weapons (literally or figuratively).

13. Are the villains strong enough to cause the protagonist real problems? Often authors don’t really like their antagonists, which is understandable, but it can lead to them creating weak characters.

14. Is your dialogue realistic?

15. Does each character have a distinct voice?

16. Do you need every scene? Are some scenes slowing the story down? Can they be edited out or cut shorter (or broken up to disperse the information in them throughout the book?).

17. Do you need to lengthen or add a scene to keep the stakes high, or add information to the story?

18. Are your transitions quick and effective?

19. Have you transitioned neatly in and out of any flashbacks?

20. Is your setting clear to the reader?

21. Have you edited out all unnecessary words, sentences, passages and scenes?

22. Have you checked to make sure you didn’t edit out something you later refer to?

23. Does every sentence move the story forward?

24. Does anyone do something ‘out of character” for the sake of the plot?

25. Did you foreshadow any coincidences or plot twists?

26. Did you look for themes that crop up throughout your book and emphasize them?

27. Did you fact check everything you present as factual?

28. Is the ending satisfying?

29. Are all your loose ends tied up?

30. Will your final chapter make readers want to buy your next book?

Finally, even if you self-edit, it really helps to get someone else to look at your work. Consider an online or real life critique group, or a writer’s workshop where you will get some of your work critiqued. I’ve just come across the site Scribeophile, where authors can critique other’s work in return for getting a critique of their own. It looks like an interesting concept, and basic membership is free.

What’s your favourite editing tip? Feel free to share in the comments.