You’d think writing a book about your life would be easy. You’re just sharing the stories of your personal experiences, after all. This isn’t an epic fantasy novel where you’re inventing whole new worlds to write about. Writing a memoir is just about remembering what happened, and then writing it down. Easy, right? Wrong. As
We’re having a discussion in one of my Facebook groups, after someone asked how much they should pay to hire a freelance writer to do some ghostwriting for them. I suggested $500 for 50K. That’s not a lot of money, at all. Some people in the group are frustrated by people (like me) devaluing the
BRILLIANT! Positively BRILLIANT. Most comprehensive outline I’ve ever seen anywhere. Thank you Derek! A few years ago I made the Plot Dot (now free on Amazon!) – my simple 8-point novel writing template, with the major dramatic twists most stories need to hit. I always wanted a more in-depth book outline and plotting cheatsheet, but...
Let’s get serious for a moment: writing a book is a long-term project and it’s not going to magically happen for you until you stop browsing useless listicles that focus on everything except the actual writing part. You know the ones – they focus on motivation or lifestyle organization and give pithy highlights like...
I’m not a fast writer. And I’m not a pantser. I need to outline first and no exactly what happens in the story. But once I have that part, the problem becomes motivating myself to sit down and fill in the outline, consistently. I usually feel drained after writing for 15 minutes, and if I
In the writing community, there are two basic ways of writing books. Pantsers just write, not knowing where they are going to end up. Plotters go into it with an organized plan and chapter outline. Neither (I believe) is inherently better. However, I do think:A) it’s much easier to finish a book if you plot it
Since finishing my PhD in literature, my wife and I are truly location independent and write full-time. One of the biggest productivity hacks I’ve found is to put myself in beautiful and inspiring environments (that are mostly distraction free). While some argue they can “write from anywhere” – I’m a firm...
Yesterday I went for sushi with a friend of mine who’s clever and tongue-in-cheek witty. She loves Haruki Murakami and has dark humor. Today I read a blog post from another friend – a simple scene about relationship conflict (who’s going to pay the bill) but written in a fun, engaging style. I don’t doubt that
This is a guest post from my friend Sean, who’s an expert on writing books by dictation. I asked him to send me some more information, since using dictation to write books is potentially much faster and may help avoid writer’s block. Simply put, Tonguenastics™ harnesses the power of your tongue and the spoken word
I know one of the biggest challenges for writers is A) coming up with creative ideas for their writing and B) going back through their writing to self-edit, rewrite, improve and restructure. These are vastly different skills which need vastly different mind-sets. But there’s a simple and easy trick you can use to switch between
Preparing for Nanowrimo 2011, I’ve been reading Alan Watt’s The 90 Day Novel: Unlock the Story Within. I love it. Alan coaches you on how to relax and get the work done. Here are a few of the most important tips if you’ve been wanting to write a novel but can’t seem to find time. 1)
When I was a teenager, I used to argue with my mom about having a fall-back plan. “Making a plan for when you fail,” I would say, “is planning to fail. To be successful, you can’t allow failure to be a possibility.” I kept that mentality for a long time. For nearly the past decade,
