Category Archives: ADD/ADHD

Writing: it’s Not About the Hours

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We’ve all heard it before—the old “10,000 hours to mastery” idea. It’s everywhere, from writing advice blogs to motivational speeches. And like a lot of popular ideas, it’s been simplified to the point of nonsense.Because here’s the truth: simply putting in 10,000 hours doesn’t automatically make you a master at anything. You could hole up in a cave and write for 10,000 hours and still feel stuck if you’re not practicing deliberately.

The “10,000 hours” concept actually comes from a 1993 study by Anders Ericsson and his colleagues, which Malcolm Gladwell popularized in Outliers. But the original idea wasn’t “just do something long enough and you’ll be brilliant.” It was about how you practice. There are three key parts to real skill development:

  1. Have a goal. You need to know what you’re working toward so you can measure progress.
  2. Use deliberate practice. That means focusing on the things you struggle with, not just repeating what you’re already good at.
  3. Get feedback. Improvement doesn’t happen in a vacuum. You need outside perspectives.

This post came from conversations I’ve had with writers who tell me, “I’ve been writing for years, but I’m not getting anywhere.” Often, the frustration comes from setting goals that aren’t actually within your control, like landing an agent, getting traditionally published, or hitting bestseller lists.

You can’t control whether an agent picks your manuscript or how many people buy your book. But you can control your craft. Goals like improving your dialogue, tightening pacing, deepening character arcs, or writing more vivid settings those are within your power.

When I first started writing, structure was my biggest struggle. My brain moves fast like, a thousand miles an hour in a thousand directions and trying to wrangle all my ideas into something coherent felt impossible. Then, while taking a class on teaching special needs students, I discovered mind mapping. The software I used doesn’t exist anymore, but the method changed everything.

Mind mapping let me capture my chaotic ideas on paper before I tried to organize them. It gave me a visual roadmap for my stories and helped me make sense of the whirlwind in my head. If you struggle to get your ideas out in a linear way, try it. You don’t need fancy software just pen and paper will do.

So, how does this tie into the 10,000-hour theory for writers? For me, it was about focused, deliberate practice. I didn’t just write drafts, I studied story structure, I asked for feedback, and I restructured entire books. Over time, that kind of practice made me better.

When I felt like I’d finally gotten a handle on structure, I moved on to deepening character development. I studied, read everything I could, took classes, and applied what I learned to my next book. One of my NaNoWriMo novels, Double Six, came out of that process. It’s one of my favorites, and it even won the 2020 Goldie award for Erotica. But it wasn’t magic. It was focused effort and feedback, applied over and over again.

Here’s the thing: you can’t control external success. But you can control how you approach your craft. Writing is a skill. It’s something you can improve through study and practice, even if progress feels slow.

So if you’re feeling stuck, here’s what I want you to do:

  • Step back and look at your writing with clear eyes.
  • Pick one area—just one—that you want to improve.
  • Study it. Practice it. Ask for feedback.
  • Apply what you learn in your next project.

That’s how you grow. Not by clocking hours, but by being intentional with your time and effort.

And please, please, don’t sell yourself short. You’re not “bad at” structure or dialogue or description; you’re just still learning. Everyone starts somewhere. Folks with Neurodivergent brains, creative people, those of us who don’t process or think like everyone else,  are often told to “settle” or “give up,” and that breaks my heart. You don’t have to settle. You can absolutely improve. It might take longer, or look different, but you can do it.

So, don’t let those inner critics, or outer ones convince you to stop. You have stories to tell. You have a voice worth hearing. And the only way to get better at writing is to write. Not just read about it or talk about it, but sit down, open that document, and start.

Every hour you spend deliberately practicing moves you closer to mastery. You get to define what success means for you. You get to decide what growth looks like.

Now go write your next 10,000 intentional hours. I’m cheering for you,

Until next time, Happy Writing!

Want more writing advice? Tune into my podcast Writing While Distracted, available wherever you listen to podcasts or click here

https://writingwhiledistracted.podbean.com/e/create-before-you-consume-a-neurospicy-guide-to-writing-when-the-worlds-on-fire/

 

Mud Flat Revelations

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Hello Writer

It has been a minute since I wrote a blog post to y’all. In fact it was April to be exact. And I apologize for not writing. I spent most of this spring and summer traveling, even sending out my reader newsletter was a struggle, one that I won, but I was remiss in not writing a blog post because this is supposed to be a space of encouragement offering tips and suggestions to help you along the writing journey.

I think my most profound revelation when I realized I had not written a blog post was that I wasn’t writing myself much. I don’t write when I am traveling with my family, choosing to enjoy that time with them. My kids are growing up and I know once a kiddo leaves home, life just becomes a series of comings and goings as far as family goes.

That said, I was also struggling with my own frustrations with AI, and piracy and the state of the world in general.  So that even when I was home I didn’t write. I question why I was spending time of what in the moment seemed frivolous. I spent a lot of time journaling and thinking, and reading.
I didn’t start writing to make oodles of money, I started writing because I couldn’t find the kind of stories I wanted to read. That said, after the first few years I made enough money to break even and pay for the necessary things (website, newsletter service, and Bookunnel subscriptions) and have a little bit left over for conferences. That amount has decreased steadily over the last three years, for many reasons, the largest one is that times are hard, and folks don’t have a lot of extra cash to splash out on books, and the market is flooded with AI creations that keep readers from finding real authors. This all led to a creative crisis on my end. Do I keep going? What is the point if folks are not reading? Or if AI allows folks to rip everything off? What is my ‘why’?

I figured it out staring out at mud flat on salt river in Maine. My original ‘why’ still stands. I wanted to write books for folks who wanted to read them, who wanted my kind of stories. If my stories reach ten people, or ten thousand it doesn’t make any difference in my ‘why’.

All of this to say. If you know your ‘why’ you can lean on it when you are struggling, and wondering if it is worth it. No matter how much AI tries it will never be original, never have the soul of a human written book. So I am not quitting. I am embracing that a rest was all I needed, time to remember my why.

The most important book I read when I was trying to figure out my way forward as a creative was Aime McNee’s book We Need Your Art

I found her book just when I needed it, and it reminded me why we need to keep going, even when it feels like we are shouting down a well.

This month’s podcasts speak to the struggles many writers and creatives are having right now. Give them a listen. Share the episodes with folks who might need to hear them please. Creatives need each other right now. Keep going. Keep writing. I am cheering for you.

Until Next time,

Brenda

Links for Podcasts

How to Keep Writing When You Want to Burn It All Down https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-ffp6c-18735eb

 Unplug, Boundaries, Write: Five Ways to Carve out Creative Space                               https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-gacb5-1960f30

How to Keep Writing

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typewriter is on top of a blue table

How to Keep Writing

 This blog post is a response to so many friends I have that are struggling right now to maintain their creative endeavors. They are despondent and feel there’s no point in continuing to write. They believe it doesn’t matter at the end of the day.  

These feelings and beliefs are due to a convergence of many events. For many the rise of AI generated novels combined with the appalling piracy of Meta, who books off the Internet and used a known pirate site to train its AI this has made writers feel superfluous This thievery was done without any authors consent and without any renumeration.

To be clear this is theft on a grand scale. The theft of all your work in such a way, and that while Meta knew exactly what they were doing, many writers would not have known without the ongoing lawsuit. It is beyond disturbing. If someone steals your money, you usually know about it. Stealing an author’s work that they hoping to get paid for is the same as taking a dollar bill right out of their pocket. Who knows how much revenue was lost by writers whose work was pilfered?

While there are those people who believe all art should be free to be enjoyed by everyone, I would submit if those people do a job they get paid for, that takes them away from their family and requires them to have certain skills they expect to be paid for their labor. Artist, writers, painters, composers, musicians, and every other creator you can name has the same expectations. We deserve to be paid for our time, skills, and work. And it is work to create. If anyone could do it they would. Many writers have quit and others are on the edge of quitting.

To all of you who are feeling that way, please hear me: Don’t do it. Don’t give in. Don’t quit. Don’t give up on your writing dreams.  If you want to take a rest, if you need to take a break, if you need to step back a moment and figure out why it was you started this whole thing in the first place, do that.  I often have to take a step back and ask myself: why did I start writing books?

The short answer is I started writing books because I wanted to put out stories in the world that featured people who were not usually featured in most books. I wanted to have people to be able to read books with happy endings because for those of us under the rainbow. We still don’t often we don’t get happy endings and many forms of art and entertainment. The kill your gays is a real trope.  I’ve mentioned this before and if you have been reading this blog a while it’s not the first time you’ve heard it.

            For those of you out there thinking of quitting please don’t. Take a break. Get some rest. Think about your why and for all that is good step back from social media. Most everywhere you are on social media everyone is screaming the sky is falling for indie authors and small presses. While I’ll admit the sky is looking a little dicey and everyone’s revenues are for the most part down, it is the result of many forces. While it is good to be informed, it is not healthy to obsess over it. To protect your creative self, limit your social media.

I log out of social almost every weekend from Friday evening until Monday morning.   Sometimes I sign off for two weeks. It depends on how much of a break I need. The point is  include breaks from social media in your self-care. It’s okay to disconnect from the world. It’s healing to get back in touch with yourself and to interact with your friends and family. Do things in real life.  Read a hard copy book. Play a game. Puzzle. Cook. Walk outside. Get out of everyone else’s  life and into your own.

It is so easy to get caught up in all the drama on social media. No one needs more drama. Take a break, get your feet back on the ground, touch some grass as the young folks say.

I get that it is very difficult to keep making art if you’re not getting paid for it. I get it. I get it on so many levels. I also understand that if you stop writing/creating/ making art, you don’t have anything to sell and nothing to get paid for, so itis a real issue. If you are finished, really ready to stop creating, after thoughtful consideration, then that’s okay. We all have different roads we follow at different times and sometimes you are only on a path for a season.

It’s okay to quit if that’s what you really want to on a soul deep level. Quit. But if you’re responding out of fear, if you’re responding out of despair, if you are giving up because it all feels like it’s just too much. Don’t quit. Take a break but don’t quit. The world needs your stories even if you don’t think they do they do. If no one else tells you your work is valuable, I am telling you your writing matters. Don’t let the world and its ugliness silence you. Rest when you need to and then get back to work. Writing is the safest place to work out your feelings about most things, the page will never judge you for continuing to write with the world on fire, even if others do because they don’t understand, that writing/creating/ making art is resistance.

If you want to hear more advice on this topic,  I have included a link for my podcast “How to Keep Writing When You Want to Burn It All Down that is companion piece to this blog post. I would love it if you would give it a listen. It will address creative frustration, and how to keep working when you’re just sick of whatever it is that you’re working on and/or there has been a major life event that makes you want to just set everything on fire and walk away.  

I go into more depth offering more ways to help yourself, but the second thing that I recommend in this post and in that podcast is to get in touch with your why. Take time examine why you started writing. Explore your reasons and put your reasons in context with your current circumstances. I wrote all of my life but seriously started pursuing publication in 2012. My why has for the most part stayed the same but my life has changed considerably. If you have been writing for a while remind yourself why you started and why you want to continue.

 Remember why you started creating, memorize it, etch it into your soul, and then get back to work. That might sound harsh, but I believe working your way through a creative crisis is the only way out of creative crisis.

Wishing you all the best with your writing craft and everything else that’s going on in your life and I’ll talk to you again next month, Until then happy writing.

Creating Compelling Characters

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an old fountain pen resting on a manuscript

Today on the blog, I’m going to dive into a topic that often confuses new writers: the difference between character arcs and story arcs. I’m sure you’ve probably heard about story arcs and character arcs, and it’s very easy to get the two mixed up. So I’m going to clear things up.

First, story arcs and character arcs are not the same, even though you will hear people say that “character is story.” What they mean by that is the character’s development is a huge part of your story, whether your novel is character-driven or plot-driven. Even in a plot-driven story, your character’s changes over the course of the novel make it more readable and relatable.

Your story arc is what happens overall—the sequence of events in your novel. It’s the plot. It’s how your characters deal with the plot that is the story arc. It’s the “what happens” in your story, both in the environment around your character and what happens to your character.

The character arc, on the other hand, is all about what happens to your characters as they navigate these changes—the internal changes. It’s about their personal growth and development, or even their downfall, which is a popular literary trope, as a result of the story’s events.

So, you’ve got two different arcs to think about: the story arc and the character arc. Both of these arcs need to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. For a deeper dive into story arcs, I have podcast episode and a blog post dedicated to that topic. I’ll link those in the show notes for you so you can have another reference.

It can be a complicated topic and one that trips up a lot of new writers or writers who have a hard time keeping all the threads together. Many neurodiverse authors struggle to keep their storyline straight because many of us are pantsers, not big plotters. Having a firm idea of what these arcs are will help you develop a storyline and understand, during revisions, whether something falls under the story arc or the character arc.

Ask yourself: am I making it clear to my readers what’s happening in the story as well as what’s happening to my characters as a result of the events in the story?

Now, here’s the thing about character arcs—they’re not limited to just your protagonist or main character. If you have multiple characters in your story, each should have their own arc, especially if they are point-of-view characters. Even if the change is small, having your characters go through different changes makes your story richer and more readable.

Nobody changes in a vacuum, and changes in your character often bring about changes in others because the character is no longer acting the way they did in the past. Other characters will notice and react to these changes. You don’t want your other characters to feel like window dressing or placeholders. I’m not saying that every minor character needs a fully developed arc, but the people your character interacts with on a routine basis should have some kind of acknowledgment.

Think back to books you’ve loved. Everyone in those books was impacted by the events of the story in some way, even if the story was told from a single point of view. You often get a glimpse into how other characters change through the narrative, and that’s the kind of depth you want to bring to your own writing.

To figure out how your character will change throughout your story, doing some background work is essential. I’ve got a free workbook on designing characters, which I’ll link below.  It’s based on Deborah Dixon’s Goal, Motivation, and Conflict and Eileen Cook’s fantastic book Build Better Characters (Links below). Both of these are great resources to help you flesh out your characters and make them as real as possible.

When your character’s actions make sense, your story resonates more with readers. There’s nothing worse than a character doing something completely out of character without a good reason. Now, we sometimes love a surprising twist, like when the most hated selfish character suddenly sacrifices themselves for the group but even then, we want to see hints of that change coming. It’s those subtle, gradual changes that make a character and your story feel authentic and relatable.

For neurodivergent writers, this process can be especially rich. Many of us have faced unique challenges, often from a young age. Those experiences can be a treasure trove for character development. We’ve often had to be more observant of the world around us, whether to survive, to mask, or to simply understand social cues. This heightened awareness can really help when creating characters who feel real and multidimensional. So lean into that and take advantage of those skills.

Now let’s talk about how to effectively show your character’s change in the story. Because remember, we’re going to show, not tell. That’s what makes a good book. We want to see what happens to the characters. And when I say “see,” I mean we want scenes that demonstrate a character’s change and development. One of the first things you want to do is establish your character’s starting point. That’s the beginning of their character arc. Who are they at the beginning of this story?

Now, don’t info dump. Don’t spill out a bunch of stuff and list every place they’ve ever gone to school and everything else in their lives up until that point. Show us who they are through their actions and their interactions. There’s a great book called Save the Cat by Blake Snyder  that explains how to do that, and I will link to that below as well. It gives examples from movies and screenwriting that show scenes filmmakers include to illustrate where a character starts. And they often do this with interactions with other characters—an elderly person, a child, or a random stranger. How they treat other people reveals much about who they are as a person.

The next part of showing your character’s development is the inciting incident—the thing that kicks your novel off. Both the story arc and the character arc are launched here, but they’re viewed through different lenses. There’s the large action happening in the background, the event that pushes your character into the story, and then there’s how your character reacts to that event.

How does your character get pulled into the story? Was it by chance? Did they seek it out? This event sets the story and the character arc in motion and complicates their life with various obstacles. Watching how they deal with these challenges shows us their growth, or lack of it.

Some stories feature a character who never changes, and that’s still a valid arc. It may be a flat arc, but it’s a conscious choice, often used for side characters. Even so, you need to show how others around them react to that lack of growth. Sometimes this kind of stagnation can be just as telling as dramatic change.

So, how do you show those moments of crucial self-realization where the character becomes aware of how their actions are affecting their life? When your character finally starts understanding what’s going on around them, that’s when we as readers see their development. Usually, this happens at the midpoint of the story.

Supporting characters play a vital role here. Remember: Showing how your character interacts with others shows a lot about who they are and how they’re changing. If you’re writing a romance, for instance, this is especially crucial. You want to show both characters realizing they belong together, and their reactions to that realization drive your story forward.

The climax of your story may not always align with your character’s arc. Sometimes, a character’s big change happens after the plot’s resolution, when they take a moment to reflect on their behavior.

For example, in the movie Backdraft, the main character’s development culminates when he honors his dying brother’s request to keep a secret for the sake of the fire department. This significant change happens after his brother’s death and marks a decisive departure from who he was at the beginning of the story.

For longer stories, especially in series, a character’s arc might stretch over several books. If you’re writing a series, you can plot out your character’s development over time. Think of your character’s arc as starting in the first book and concluding only at the end of the last. You can give readers glimpses of that progression along the way, with each book presenting new challenges that keep your readers hooked.

This allows you to stretch out the character development, especially in genres like science fiction and fantasy, typically longer works,  where you have more space to explore deep character growth. Even if your character’s growth spans several books, you need some resolution in each one, something that shows their development to keep readers engaged and wanting to know more.

Now, focus on those key moments that will keep your readers hooked and turning the pages. You want your character to be relatable but not predictable. You want surprises and challenges that make readers say, “Wow, I didn’t expect that!” If your character becomes too predictable, readers will lose interest and stop reading.

When you revise, this is the time to polish your characters. Add scenes, dialogues, or events that showcase your character’s progression throughout the story. Make sure your characters’ actions are consistent with who you’ve shown them to be and that their development feels natural.

There are two different kinds of character arc when you’re thinking about revision. There’s a positive arc where the character starts off flawed and grows into a better version of themselves. That is a classic character arc.

You can think of Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, who goes from a quiet homebody to an adventurer. And you can also have a negative arc where a character starts off in a very good place and then descends into darkness and becomes the villain of the story and a person you never expected them to become because of events in the story.  You can have a flat arc where the character doesn’t change much, but the story around them does. Their reluctance to change and their resistance is also a story. Think about all of this when going through the revision process.

If you’ve sorted your story arc and fixed any problems with your structure, it makes it easier to fit you character’s arc into those events.   If you think of them as nesting one inside the other, that can also give you a sort of mental model for how they fit together. They don’t have to exactly align, but they should be close, because your character is changing because of events in the story. So get your story events nailed down first, and then look at your character development. How has that character changed because of events in your story? Are you showing their change or lack of it clearly?

Again, I’m going to include a link in the show notes for a free PDF with 60 ways to show your character’s arc and build that into your manuscript to make your character’s development  and clear and compelling.

There are a lot of ways to do show character arc and it can be overwhelming or frustrating at first when you’re just starting out as a novelist, that’s one of the finer points of the process. It is stressful because  it’s one of those things where, if you don’t get it right, people close the book. If your characters are not compelling, they close the book—they don’t finish. Or, if you’re trying to get representation, the agent stops reading.

The challenge today is that so many people are submitting, either seeking representation or for publication. If you’re an indie publisher, you have about five pages to capture your reader’s attention. You need to do that by showing a character in those first five pages that intrigues your readers enough to keep turning the pages to find out what happens.

Common author advice used to be you had the first ten pages to hook your readers. In my opinion it’s now down to five, because of attention span reduction, that’s been documented. It is also because of the plethora of available reading materials.  The reader can just close the book and go to the next book.So, take your time. Build characters that are compelling and show how compelling they are in that first five pages.

 Lastly, I want to touch on a crucial point of character development and creation. Be careful of stereotypes when creating characters. I’ve touched on this in several blog posts and another podcast I have about character development.  Stereotypical writing is lazy writing. It does a disservice to your readers and your story. If you’re writing characters outside of your own lived experience, please do the research. Hire sensitivity readers. Talk to people who’ve lived that experience. Don’t rely on stereotypes to fill out your novel. It’s another way to end up in the rejection pile, because readers and editors are not looking for stereotypes. Editors and readers are looking for colorful, creative characters that are compelling, authentic, and nuanced. Creating authentic and nuanced characters is what makes a book relatable and memorable. Think back to those characters that you still carry with you from books you’ve read. The characters you wish you could meet in real life, or those you’re really happy you never have to.

Please, take your time, use your tools, and keep your characters real. I’ve listed a bunch of resources below. Be sure to check out the links list below for resources mentioned in the post.

Until next time, happy writing.

Resources

Sign up for my newsletter for free resources for Writers: https://www.brendalmurphy.com/resources-for-writers.html

Follow me on my socials for quick tips and updates: https://www.instagram.com/writinghwhiledistracted/

Struggling with character development? Check out my free character building workbook: https://BookHip.com/HDPNDMX

Here is the free resource 60 Ways to Show Character Arc: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/xjcaam4085

This is my podcast is all about structure: https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-ckhgh-167fd45

Eileen Cook’s Build Better Characters:  https://eileencook.com/non-fiction/

Debra Dixon Goal Motivation and Conflict: http://www.debradixon.com/index.html

Save the Cat: https://savethecat.com/books

Writing While Distracted Blog on Story Structure/Story ARC https://blog.writingwhiledistracted.com/?p=2295

Novel Pacing the Key to Engaging Readers

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Pacing what do we mean when we talk about pacing in an novel? Pacing is how the reader perceives the speed of the story so when we talk about pacing we’re talking about the readers experience and how they feel reading through the novel. Whether they feel breathless, whether they’re comfy and cozy, whether they’re titillated and excited or if they are bored because you’re pacing is off. Pacing that is off will yank a reader out of their experience and has led more than one reader to finish a novel.

Writers who excel at pacing often get reviews from readers who say “I couldn’t’t put this book down.” “I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next.” “I stayed up all night reading this book because I wanted to know how it was going to turn out.”  “This book is like a warm hug I didn’t want to end.” “It was wonderful to settle down into the story and feel the world disappear around me.”

            That’s what excellent pacing can do for your novel. The primary tools for pacing your novel are sentence length, scene length, chapter length, word choice, and fiction length. No matter if you are writing flash fiction or a 900-page novel, what the point is the length of your work affects how your readers experiences it and what expectations they bring to the story. If you are writing genre fiction this is particularly important.

People who read thrillers want to be thrilled. They don’t want to be mired down in the middle of the book wondering why their thriller isn’t thrilling them. Thriller readers want the story to have rapid pacing that drags them along, ready or not. If you write cozy mysteries, you’re going pace your story differently because cozy story readers want to experience the story like a warm comforter on a winter night. They want to wrap themselves in the narrative trusting the auth rot tell them the story at a pace that is comfortable for the reader. They are reading cozy stories whether it’s cozy fantasy or cozy mystery because they want to be tucked into that world and enjoy their reading experience at a leisurely pace.

            Romance readers, depending on the reader want different paced story. Some want a slow burn, others want a story want to get the naughty exciting bits right away. Some want the pacing of a romantic thriller, and others want a cozy romance. Science fiction and fantasy readers tend to enjoy long stories that are well paced with wonderful world building where the exciting bits the stuff that makes you turn the page.

            This is where knowing who you’re writing your story for comes into play. Knowing what story you want to tell is really going to help you with your pacing.  

When trying sort the pacing of your novel use your past reading experiences. Think of those books that kept you up all night long no matter what your obligations were the next day. And those books you slugged reading through because it was required reading for a class, other times because you were into torturing yourselves finishing a book you weren’t enjoying. As I’ve gotten older I do that way less often. If I am not feeling a story, I’ll just stop. I may go back to the book later because I might be the frame of mind to finish it. Which is something to remember. You don’t know what frame of mind or expectations your reader is bringing to their reading experience. You can’t control or anticipate their attitude but you can do is provide your reader with well written, well-paced story.

For me choice word choice is one of those things so many new writers overlook. The words you choose affect your reader as much as anything in your book. When I refer to word choice when I say asphalt versus black top, they’re basically the same word if I say parking lot, that’s a slower word choice. Parking lots can be made of just about anything, packed dirt, asphalt, grass, pavers, brick, loose stones, concrete, it slows the reader down as they sort through the various kinds of parking lots to come up with one that fits their idea of the story, which takes time.

The length of words how snappy they sound affects pacing. Languid is one of my favorite words, because you feel it you say it. Languid is sensual word and that conveys and taking your time to do something at a leisurely pace. If you write that your character strode down the street you story moves at a different pace than it does if you write your character strolling down the street.  Both of those words feel different to your reader and influence how the story moves along.

No less important is sentence length. Long drawn-out sentences make your reader slow down because they have to concentrate to focus on what you’re working to convey in that sentence. Complicated sentences require more focus than short snappy sentences. Short direct sentences allow your reader to move quickly through the paragraph and on to the next thing.

 If you’re writing a fight scene, skip the paragraph length sentences. If you’re writing an argument or break up or any other intense negative emotion you want to lean into snappy sentences for the dialogue. If you are explaining details of a crime, that might be the time for long sentences. The length of sentences affects the readers experience of the characters experiences. For example a scene that involves grief. Do you want your characters and the reader wallowing in grief? Write long detailed sentences about the characters loss, the drive out to the graveyard and the burial. Do your characters want to ignore or skip over their grief, do they just want to put it behind them? Write short sentences and paragraphs, showing how they are avoiding their grief, These are the details that often escape new writers, but pacing is one of those things that will bring people back to your books, if they like how they felt while they were reading. If they enjoyed the sensation of being so swept away in your story they couldn’t’t wait to get back to your book or they couldn’t wait to find out what happened nest. If they couldn’t’t stand leaving the world and the characters they immediately read you book again or slow their reading down because they couldn’t wait for it to be over.

 Many cozy readers love to return to their favorites work because they enjoy the safe cozy feeling of knowing what to expect.

The next tool in your pacing took kit is scene length. Short scenes versus long scenes versus medium scenes. A scene can be as long as a paragraph or longer. It can be two pages three pages, or five pages. It depends on what’s going on in the scene and how you want your readers to experience the scene.

Is it a pivotal scene? The big reveal?  Is it something you want them to remember or understand? The thing to remember with scene length is that not all the things you want to your reader to know need to go into one scene. Many new writers and particularly neurodivergent writers, fall into the category of writers who know volumes about their subject.

They’ve done hours of research and they’re carrying it all around in their head and they want to share that knowledge with you. Or they have written pages long back story for each of their characters and they want you know what they know about them.  Sharing details and information is for many neurospicy folks a love language. We want you to know all the things that we know because we think is so cool we want everyone to know it. All of that information is rambling around in our head. Neurodivergent folks are prone to info dumping, all at once all the things that we know often overwhelming our family, friends and random strangers and if we are writers, our readers.

 While may want your reader to know all the cool things you found while researching your novel, or the amazing backstories of your charters, dumping all of the information out in one scene or chapter is not the way to do it. It is the number one thing I see new writers do that trashes their pacing and negatively affects their narrative They have great stories to tell, they’ve done amazing research, and really created wonderful characters and they want you to know it, so they spill it all out in blocks of text that don’t have anything to do with the stories plot or character development.

It is fine to share your research and character backstory with your readers, but you want to use the sprinkle method. That’s where you sprinkle your research throughout the book for your readers to absorb it in small bits. It’s overwhelming to absorb any large volume of information all at once but trickle it out over your narrative, in little bits backstory, and pieces of observations and research, that you’ve done also respects your readers time and focus.

We talked about length of scene now let’s talk about the length of your fiction. Flash fiction absolutely astounds me. It is amazing, the emotions that can be generate in so few words. The same can be said for short stories as well. I love a good short story.  I like a good novella. I love shorter novels and I love longer novels when I’m in the mood. I’ve read several fantasy works that the books top out right around 700 pages and I enjoyed all 700 pages because the writer was so good at pacing and I was sucked in and couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen on the adventure.  

Maintaining pacing over a long novel no different than maintaining pacing for flash fiction. Every word choice, sentence length, scene length and other choices count. Every scene counts and that’s really what I’m trying to get you to understand, of all the choices you make when writing, your pacing choices matter most.

I want you to embrace that idea when are revising your novel, because revisions are where you fix the pacing.  I am a firm believer in a fast rough first draft and believe that is the only way many writers are going to get their book written. They have to just write it. Get it out of their heads and then fix any problems.

 I fix pacing at the same time I’m fixing structure as the two are very intertwined. I image structure as the trellis that pacing grows on, as your story progresses. I’ll link my podcast about structure in the show notes. I’ll also add a link for a free pdf of thirty pacing tools and how to use them as well as a link for the book Make a Scene by Jordan Rosenfeld. It explains offers a wonderful explanation how structure and pacing work together in scenes and your novel scenes. Novels are made up of scenes and writers need to understand how they work together to move your reader through your story.  

The final thing I want you to consider is how important your pacing is so that readers finish your book.  Nothing will make a reader give up on story faster than wonky pacing. Even if you start out strong with great first couple of chapters, if pacing falls apart in the middle, readers will stop reading.  Cut the scenes that don’t do anything.  Insert scenes or revise scenes that don’t move the story along. Make sure every scene is doing its job, to move plot along or show character development. If your mind is wandering reading through your manuscript, you’ve got a problem and you need to fix it. You fix it by going back and looking at your word choices, your sentence length, your scene length, and your chapter length. Read through your narrative, are you telling an interesting story that’s going to encourage your readers to turn the page? Have you told an entire story in each chapter and not left them wondering what happens next?

Each scene should end on an event that makes you want to read more. Make something happen particularly at the end of a scene or paragraph that makes the reader go “wow, I wonder what’s going to happen next?” That’s the experience you want your readers to have, that’s what keeps readers coming back to read your next book and the book after that. Mastering pacing can be challenging but it part of the craft of novel writing and can be learned. Keep at it. Use these tools to keep your readers turning pages and until next time keep writing.

Don’t forget your free pdf on novel pacing here: https://BookHip.com/RXVGPCX

If you have not check out my podcast you can find it on most podcast listening platforms, or check it out here on Podbean: https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-fwtcv-1661a39

Structure: the Bones of Your Story

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This month’s blog post covers the first part of the revision and editing process after you have completed your rough draft I wrote about last month. If you missed that post, here is the link for it: https://blog.writingwhiledistracted.com/?p=2289

Revisions and editing are what I consider the fun part of writing. You are about to take your wobbly messy first draft and shape it into something that resembles a novel. For a lot of people who struggle with distraction issues and executive function, crafting the structure of our novels is one of the most difficult parts of writing, because every scene has to have a beginning, a middle, and an end in order to tell a coherent story.

Our brains don’t always work that way. Our brains are really good a filling in the blanks in our stories in our minds but those thoughts do not always make it to the page.

It is often what makes many people with distraction issues struggle with basic editing. Either we read fast and skip over what is not there, or we get distracted during reading and miss that our story is incoherent. In order to meet story telling conventions and create a novel that has a clear beginning, middle, and an ending that makes sense we need a simple way to look at our story overall, a helicopter view of our novel.

The best way I have found to do this is objectively to create a reverse outline from your manuscript.  In creating a reverse outline, you work from your manuscript as it is and create a list of scenes in each chapter. As with anything you are outlining you can make it as brief as detailed as you like. The minimal things that need to be in the outline for each scene are

  • The setting, where does the scene take place?
  • Who is in the scene?
  • What point of view is the scent told from?
  • What is the point of the scene? What occurs to move the story forward, or show character?

Ideally a scene will both move the story forward and show the reader character development.
Here is an example: Exterior of a burned building. Fire inspector Mel is conducting an interview with a businessman who doesn’t want to talk to her and is acting rude/weird/anxious. Mel ignores his rudeness and is kind. The man relaxes and reveals he upset because he is afraid he will be exposed as having an affair as his car has been blocked in by the fire equipment and he will be very late getting home.

When you are finished with the outline, read back through it. It will become clear if you have left things out, or if you have scenes that don’t move the story along or show character development.  If a scene does not meet those requirements, no matter how much you love it the scene needs to go or to be incorporated into another scene. Wherever possible have a scene do both things, it will really tighten up your writing.

The point of a reverse outline is you should be able to read through it and understand a short coherent version of your story.  A reverse outline will also demonstrate if your chapter lengths are correct for the pacing of the story. If you have one chapter that is sixteen scenes long and the other chapters that are one scene long, you might need to configure those chapters to even out the pacing of the story. Think of a chapter as break in the story for your readers to consider what has already occurred and what might happen next.  There is nothing wrong with a one scene chapter if it fits the novel. If it is a very long scene or if it’s a pivotal scene and you want to set it apart, you can decide where you want your scenes in your book. Sometimes if my story is very broken I will take my reverse outline and transfer it to 3×5 cards.

It is not my normal practice but if my structure majorly flawed, I need a strong visual to be able to sort it I will.  Folks with distraction issues and other mental health issues that affect our executive functions often struggle with organization. Our brains may organize something in a way that makes no sense to anybody else, but it makes sense to us. The problem with this is if you’re writing a story you hope will be read and understood by more people than just you, you need to take the time to make sure your story makes sense.  It is the very first step in organizing a rough draft.

The two parts of story structure you want to look at are plot, the things that happen in your story, and character arcs, the changes your character undergoes because of the things that happen in the story.  As much as you want to make sure the plot of your story makes sense you want make sure you show your character’s development because your character should change over the course of the story. Even your character does not change their behavior, showing they had the chance to change and turned away from it can be just as compelling.  The mantra of writers is show don’t tell and that can be the hardest thing for new writers to grasp. Sandra Gerth, aka Jae has a fantastic book about showing versus telling in writing and I recommend it if you are struggling to understand how to do it.  https://www.amazon.com/Show-Dont-Tell-descriptions-characters-ebook/dp/B01LXFJ0AC/

Your characters journey should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Some people may argue that if you’re a genre fiction writer and you’re writing the same character over again, for example if you have a detective series or some kind of thriller series or any kind of series where you are working with the same set of characters and they have different adventures over the course of the series it’s not necessary.

I would submit having your character change, even in small ways over the course of your series is going to make your books much more entertaining and much more readable. As much as we appreciate characters who are always the same as there is some comfort in familiar and knowing a character, as a reader you can’t wait to see how they will behave in a new story, in a new setting, and with a new challenge,  submit stories that bring the same character, but have them change over the course of the series are infinitely more readable and addicting.

That’s my opinion, your mileage may vary, but if you have an opportunity to have your characters change over the course of story do it.

If you’re writing standalone books, character arcs are the heart of your story so making sure you have appropriate scenes to show the development of the character, and their internal and external struggles is a vital part of story structure and compelling story telling.

I wrote about prewriting here: https://blog.writingwhiledistracted.com/?p=2274 and how important it is to build a solid foundation for your story. If you unsure about how your character would behave in a scene, go back to your prewriting and your character worksheets and compare them with your reverse outline. Has your character changed? At what cost?

            Make sure you have scenes that demonstrate what they have to sacrifice to attain their goals. Sacrifice is what drives story whether it’s an internal such as giving up or modifying their self-image, or an external sacrifice, such as forgoing monetary rewards by not developing land down by the marsh the character had planned to build luxury condos on that their love interest is working hard to protect as a nature preserve for waterfowl.

            Character growth and development draws readers in. This the point in the revision process where you fix any issues and tweak the scenes to demonstrate those changes and plot points that are key to understanding your story. This is when you fix all the broken issues in your story so take your time here, especially if like me you work from a loose outline and write a discovery draft, if you’re a pantser and don’t work from any outline, you need to make sure you have developed the story and character arcs in a way that makes sense and your characters stay in character.

Nothings worse than reading a book and all of a sudden there’s some wacky change in a character. If you’re like me you raise an eyebrow and say, sometimes say out loud, “What the heck? Why would she do that?” Sometimes several chapters later some bit of character history comes to light that explains why the characters behavior, but in the worst case the reader is left wondering, ‘did I miss something?” which does not lead to an enjoyable reading experience. It can lead to folks not finishing the story because as an author have lost them by your character behaving out of character without explanation.

This your opportunity to correct any major issues with your novel, because if you have to fix problems later, when you get your copy edits back from your editor, or your beta reader, and they have commented “What the heck? Why did she do this?”  It’s going to take a lot more work at that point in the book writing process versus taking the time to restructure and add in scenes to make you characters behavior and your story make sense.

Another tool that you can use for examining your structure is to listen to your book. There are ways that you can have Microsoft Word and other Word processing programs read your work back to you. If you’re someone who has with audio processing or needs a different method of work for whatever reason listen to your story and make notes of what needs to be corrected in your scenes.

            I usually listen to my work, either reading it out loud or having my word processor read my story to me when I’m working on dialogue, but there is no reason why you can’t use the same process to reverse outline your story. Use whatever method works for you.

            Many neurospicy folks become overwhelmed and disheartened when they begin the revision process. They remember the struggle it was to complete the manuscript, look at all the work they have done, and can’t imagine doing more. Take the same approach to revising a novel as you did when writing it.

Be consistent, about the time you spend, focus on one project until you get it done, and don’t quit. When you run across those things that don’t make sense, where you’ve got things out of order or jumbled don’t be discouraged, make notes and then act.

For folks with distraction issues and people with poor executive function, this will be the hardest part of the writing process.  Organizing our thoughts and our words in a correct and orderly fashion is excruciating at times. The best thing you can do for yourself is take your time, work in short bits of time, and be kind to yourself.

Take the time to create a reverse outline, it will make your efforts so much easier because you will have your story laid out in front of you, you will know where you’re going with the story, why you wrote the scenes you did. If you question why you had your character behave in a certain way, go back and read your pre-writing, read your character worksheets, look at whatever notes you made about your characters until you figure it out.

This will work for both character driven stories and a plot driven stories.  Even plot driven stories are still about character because we read to connect with other ideas, and other people. We imagine ourselves in a different world. We read to discover how characters are going to handle whatever situations they face in the book.

It is entertaining, it keeps readers turning pages even in a plot driven story where you are trying to defeat the big bad, or find the bomb before it goes off, the characters who are trying to find the bomb are still people. They’re going to have things happen to them and they’re going to change over the course of trying to find the bomb before it goes off and you should keep this in mind while working on your novel structure.

If you are writing genre fiction this is the time to make sure you are meeting genre expectations. If you are writing a mystery make sure you have clues scattered in your novel so your readers can solve the crime with your detective, or if you are writing a thriller that you are maintaining tension throughout the story. If you are writing romance be sure your scenes convince your reader The couple in your story belong together no matter what.

So, if you are at the starting line with revising and editing your novel, overwhelmed and freaking out, or if you have been revising and feel stuck, please try creating a reverse outline by hand or listen to your draft and take notes paying attention to structure and character development.  Once your structure is nailed down, you can go back and do what I call the window dressing, which is where you work on word choice, description, and dialog. That will be the subject of a future of a future blog post until then keep writing.

Revisions and Editing aka The Fun Part

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Revisions and editing are to me, the fun part of writing. As giddy as I am writing my first draft, not caring if it will meld together at the end, I am even more stoked to start revisions. Revisions are the time to sort all the things that were unclear in the draft, find ways to shine up the prose so it reflects and shows what you want to communicate.

For folks who edit as they write this list and post will most likely not make sense or will seem unnecessary or redundant. However, if you are like me and start your writing process with a fast rough as hell draft, this will post will provide insight on to how to organize the revision and editing process. As someone who struggles with executive function having a list and guidelines helps me to stay on task and not overlook important items.

In my workflow revisions and editing are different mindsets. Revisions are when I take a hard look at story structure, pacing, character arcs, story continuity, and attending to genre conventions, i.e.  Is the crime solved? Is the bad person caught before the bad thing happens? Does the romance hit its beats? etc. During revisions I also attend to all of the notes I made to myself while drafting about items that required research. Revisions are the heart of creating the story, it is the opportunity to focus on telling the story you want to tell in the way you want to tell it.

Editing is when I correct spelling, grammar, punctuation, review  language, word choice, replace overused words, repetitive phrases and refine my prose. Editing is also when I examine dialogue, scene descriptions, character descriptions, and continuity. Did you see that continuity is in there twice? That is because it is so easy to miss.

 To recap the process, I use to get my rough as hell draft to a finished product to send to an editor, publisher, or out on submission is:

  1. Round1: Revisions: structure, pacing, character arcs, genre conventions, continuity, and sorting items that require research.
  2. Round 2: Language: word choice, refining prose, pacing, dialogue, scene descriptions, character descriptions, continuity.
  3. Round 3: Proofing: Grammar, spelling, punctuation, copy edits, line edits formatting for submission or publication. Copy edits, line edits.
  4. Round 4: Final proofing read through before submission or publishing.

This is the routine I follow for every novel, novella, and short story I have ever written for submission and publication in order to increase my chances of being accepted for publication and in the case of indie publishing having a product I am proud to put my name on. Taking the time to ensure that your work is edited to the best of your ability is key to increasing your chances of your work being read and accepted. A poorly edited work will be an auto rejection. It won’t matter if you have written an outstanding novel if it is riddled with errors and misspellings. This goes for indie published folks too. I have stopped reading more than one promising story because the writer could not be bothered to attend to grammar and spelling. No manuscript is without errors, but taking the time to strive for as error free as possible is not a waste of your time.

At this point you may be wondering where editors and beta readers fit into this process.  Developmental editors vary in what services they provide. Jane Friedman has a great article on hiring a developmental editor here (https://janefriedman.com/before-you-hire-a-developmental-editor-what-you-need-to-know/) Her newsletter is one of my favorites and always contains helpful information and links. The definitions for what is expected of copy editors, line editors, and proof-readers are for the most part straightforward.  Copyeditors focus on formatting, spelling, punctuation, grammar. Line editors are concerned flow, meaning, sentence structure, and rhythm of language. Proofreaders are tasked with catching any formatting and errors in the final copy before the work is published.

My process with beta readers is to send them the draft after revisions and language edits, and right before copy edits.  Why? Because for me that is when I would be able to fix any problems I overlooked in Rounds 1 and 2 without tearing the book apart.  I also want them to have something that most resembles a proper book. I know other folks who send their beta readers  first drafts, and those who work with beta readers while drafting. As with most things in writing, you will find what works for you. It should also be clear to you that having beta readers is not required. Many folks work without beta readers.

I don’t always work with beta readers. If I am submitting to a publisher I most often do not work with a beta reader. For my indie published work I always work with beta readers.  Some people work with them on every story, some people never work with them. The decision to work with beta readers is a personal one, as is finding a beta reader you trust to give you honest feedback. I treasure the beta readers I work with, I appreciate their generous surrender of their time and energy to help me with book production.

Finally, I know that some of you are looking at the list of rounds of editing above and freaking out. It is a lot. I get it. But it is not impossible, You can to learn how to do be mindful of all the things that go in to producing a novel. Do not be discouraged. There are tons of books and sources to help you learn how to self-edit, including the next series of article on this blog. Over the next six months or there will be posts that will focus on different aspects of revisions and editing before we get back to the book writing process as a whole. I’ll offer my best insights for how to organize each step and will include book recommendation and resources.

Until next time,

Happy writing!

Will it Novel? How to evaluate a fiction premise

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       This is the second blog post in my Steps to Writing a Novel Series. You can find the introduction to the series and the list of steps to writing a novel here. For most writers coming up with an idea is the easy part. In love with their premise, convinced it is a brilliant concept they are compelled to start writing.

They fly along, the words flowing until they hit a bump, maybe at 20k into the manuscript or 30k, most often in the middle of their work. At this point many folks abandon their project and move on to the next shinny idea. This leads to piles of unfinished projects and sadness. Unfinished manuscripts are most often unfinished because time was not spent on the front end of the project to examine the novel’s idea.

         A strong premise and supporting ideas are necessary to carry the length of work. It is the number one question to answer before you start writing, particularly in genre fiction because you are working within an expected framework, i.e., in romance there is a happy ever after or a happy for now, in mystery novels you solve the crime, etc. the way you arrive at the expected outcome is the most important part. Readers know how the book ends, it is how creatively a writer arrives at the ending that draws readers to your work.

 A premise that might work wonderfully for a short story, will fall short of holding a reader’s attention in a novel length work unless it is expanded and your main characters lives are complicated by events that block their path forward. If this sounds like I am about to talk about plotting, I am.

Although I am a discovery draft writer, I always take the time to examine my idea and then work out a loose plot line based on the initial premise. For example, the idea for my novel Music from Stone came to me one night while we were sheltering in our basement due to a tornado warning. What if my main characters met because they ended up in a basement together during a storm?  From there I used the ‘what if/and then’ method, asking myself questions until I believed the idea would support a book length manuscript.

Step one in evaluating any idea is to know what length story you want to write. If you are writing genre fiction, you have to know expected lengths for your genre.

Here is a list of lengths by genre. Caveat: This is a guide, but if you are planning to submit to an agent/acquiring editor/publisher sticking to the expected length can go a long way toward getting your work read by agents, and publishers. If a publisher takes direct submissions, there will be a page with submission requirements, including expected word counts. Stay within the word counts. It will increase your chances of acceptance.

  • Mainstream women’s fiction: 90,000–100,000 words
  • Thriller: 90,000–100,000 words
  • Romance: 65,000–80,000 words
  • Mystery: 80,000 words *cozy mystery is usually a bit shorter, 70-60,000 words
  • Science fiction: 100,000–120,000 words
  • True Crime: 90,000–100,000 words
  • Historical fiction: 100,000–150,000 words
  • Memoir/Bio: 70,000–90,000 words
  • Literary fiction: 80,000–100,000 words
  • Young Adult: 70,000–80,000 words
  • Middle Grade: 40,000–50,000 words
  • Novella 17,500-40,000 words
  • Short story 1000-15,000 words

Step two is to use one of the two ways listed below to explore your idea. I have use both of them. Each has its benefits depending on how your mind makes connections and where you are in the story process. I recommend you try each of them to see what fits for you.

  1. Mind Mapping. Mind mapping is a non-linear way to capture ideas. I use often. My mind tends to go off on tangents before coming back to the central issue I am exploring and in the tangents lie the gold. To assess your premise using a mind map, start with a blank piece of paper. You can do this on your computer, but I find that the keyboard and structure of mind mapping applications slows me down and I lose my line of thinking.

To construct a mind map, write your premise/ idea in the center of a large sheet of paper. Keep it to bare bones, using one or two sentences. When I say large I mean use a poster size sheet of paper.  If you write small you can do this on a smaller sheet of paper but I find using a large sheet of paper frees me from rejecting ideas because I have run out of space. If you know the ending of your story because you are writing genre fiction write that in a far corner of the page to keep it top of mind. Once you have the page set up ask yourself the following questions. Write the answers to them around the main premise:

What do my characters do for work?

Do they love their work? Or hate it?

How old are they?

What do my characters want?

Why can’t they have it?

Who are their friends/helpers?

Who are their adversaries?

How do my main characters meet?

What will they do to get what they want?

Where are they?

What time period/setting for the story?

What do they hate?

What do they love?

Why do they want what they want?

What successes have they had?

What failures haunt them?

How deal they deal with failure/success?

What is the lie they tell themselves?

What is the lie they tell others?

*Any other questions you feel are necessary for your project, as related to your characters/story. For example, for my fantasy/paranormal stories I always include questions about magic and its costs, questions about power dynamics, and political systems.

Once you have the answers to the questions completed, draw lines that connect them. From those connection lines write a list of scenes that would show those answers. Example. Your character has failed many times at starting a business. She still believes she can succeed with the right idea. You would list a scene using one or two sentences showing her in conflict with her mother when she asks to borrow money for a new venture provides an opportunity to show her optimism and her conflicted relationship with her mother in the same scene. Here is visual of a mind map with just a few of the questions listed but you can see how answering the questions in scene form allows you to see if the premise lends itself to expansion.


I structure my novels by scenes and plan them that way. As a discovery writer I don’t always know what is going to happen in a scene but I know what the point of the scene is when I sit down to write it. Most of my scenes run about 1000 words.* I am able plan the length of my work by how many scenes I need to tell the story. For a seventy thousand novel I need about seventy-five scenes. {*Your mileage may vary, everyone has different average scene lengths, once you know yours plug those numbers in for how many scenes you will need for your project.} Pro tip: It is okay to have more scenes listed than you need to tell the story, you can pare down the number of scenes once you sort them into a narrative. Learning to mind map has saved me more than once from starting a novel without enough ideas to keep the story from bogging down in the middle.

  1. Playing ‘what if’/ ‘and then’. This method can be done by hand or on the computer. At the top of your page/document write out your premise. Keep it to one or two sentences.

Ask yourself “and then” and write out your answer. If you get stuck, switch to ‘what if?’ and keep writing using a stream of conscious type flow. Don’t worry about spelling or punctuation just keep moving. Stop when you have exhausted all of the ‘what ifs’ and ‘And thens’ you can think of. This exercise works well as a way to revive unfinished projects too.  Be as dramatic/silly/wild/over the top/ as you can with your writing. Once you are finished, put it aside for a day or two, when you look at it again, make a scene list/outline from your ideas. Here is a short example.

Idea: A high powered lawyer returns to a small town to settle her father’s estate and meets the woman of her dreams.

What if they meet because the woman is fostering her father’s dog?
And then they have a one-night stand?
What if the lawyer had a bad relationship with her dad?

What if his business accounts reveal missing money?

What if she goes looking for his account ledgers?

And then she finds his diaries instead and reads them.

What if they reveal he was having an affair with a married woman?
And then someone tries to kill her by burning her father’s house down.

What if the woman she had a one-night stand with offers to let her stay for free at her house? What if she falls in love?
And then loses her job?

What if another attempt is made on the lawyer’s life and the woman saves her?

I also use this method if I get bogged down in the middle of a manuscript or if I feel if the story feels flat.

There are other ways to evaluate your story ideas, but these are the two methods I have found work well for folks with non-linear thinking patterns. Both methods support and harness the creative power of individuals whose thoughts spiral out from ideas and who are tangential thinkers. As helpful as it is discussing your ideas with trusted writer friends, having a record of your plot ideas and a scenes list is essential. It is not a question of if you will get stuck at some point in your manuscript, it happens to everyone, what is important is what you do to get unstuck. When you take the time to evaluate your story idea before you begin you can save time and avoid frustration. Evaluating the idea/premise for a story is a key element for writing success and manuscript completion and is the first step in my list of 12ish steps to writing a novel. Use these methods to keep you writing until you reach those magic words THE END.  I hope you found this post helpful. I’ll be back next month with the second in the series. Until then

Happy Writing!

Shortish List of Steps for Writing A Novel.

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This month’s blog post is going to be a little bit more nuts and bolts on how to write a book. There are numerous books that list steps for writing a novel. Many of them, while well-meaning simplify the process beyond to the point of being unrealistic.  Going forward I will post more technical blog post for steps in the fiction writing process.  Some steps will overlap with non-fiction and memoir. I’ll point out where the steps diverge and offer practical tips for those steps as well.

This is my list of steps for writing a fiction book. * Keep in mind this is my list. Your list may/will vary once you finish your first book. For most writers it is a process that they refine as they improve at the craft, the most important part of all of it is to start, keep what works for you and discard the rest. * This is a short list, but each step in the list is a project itself. Going forward I will explore each of these steps in longer blog posts with links and how-tos for each one.

  1. Idea. This is the kernel of thought that grows into a novel. It can be anything, an overhead sentence, a fragment of a song, a video clip, a person you see/meet, or a dream, anything really. The ideas I’ve found most worthwhile to investigate and expand on are the ones that stick around.  Keep a small notebook or other means of recording record these snippets of ideas, so you never run out of things to write about.
  2. Expansion of the Idea. This is where you take the time to work through the initial idea and ask what if questions. Identify/create your main characters. This is where some folks get bogged down, deciding they don’t know enough to write about their idea and spend all of their time doing research for their novel. My advice is this, novels are ultimately about people and their interactions, no matter what type of novel you are writing. Do enough research to get started, to give you a rough idea of what details you may need later in revisions but set a time limit for your research and stick to it. You can come back later and fix things during revisions.
  3. Pre-writing: Character sheets, Goal, Motivation, and Conflict sheets. Plotting/ Scene list/outline. Decide on the length of your story. Set a deadline. If you haven’t downloaded my character workbook you can get it here: (https://dl.bookfunnel.com/ofxxsx32dj)
  4. Write first draft.

             4a. Once you have completed your first draft, celebrate!

              4b. Set the draft aside for one to two weeks (seriously do not look at it!).

  1. Read over first draft. make revision notes about structure, dialogue, plot, character ARCs and setting/description, also any research that needs to be done to fix things and add in details.
  2. This is where you fix all the problems from the first draft and refine your manuscript. Use your notes to fix plot holes, repetitive words, and add in or correct details from your research.

                 6a. Send draft to beta readers if using them. Work on the next project while waiting for their suggestions.

                 6b. Start the next project! Why start the next project now?  Three reasons: 1. So you don’t sit around and freak out about the what ifs surrounding your book while it is out to your beta readers or copy editor. 2. So that you can remind yourself that you are a writer and writers write. 3. Once you have your book out on submission, if the publisher, acquiring editor, or agent replies, “I like this, what else do you have?” you will be ready to take advantage of their interest.

              6c. Review beta suggestions, change things if you need/want to.

  1. Edit final draft.
  2. Read one more time. Send to your proofreader if you are using one.
  3. Format for Submission * Indie publisher this is when you format for the various vendors.
  4. Submit to editor, publisher, or agent. *Indie publisher this is when you publish.
  5. START NEW PROJECT! Not kidding here, iIf you didn’t start the next project before do it now! See the reasons under 6b for why you need to get back to writing.

This is not a definitive list but it is a place to start. Once you have written a book or two or three you will have your own list. Treat this list as a way to get started and break what is a large undertaking into manageable stages/activities/journey markers. This list focuses on the fiction writing process because most of the people who have asked for my advice or help with writing have been fiction writers and was generated for people who are considering submitting their work to an agent, publisher, or acquiring editor. I have indie published a small amount of my work and am not an expert on the process.

 Luckily for folks who want to indie publish there are many more steps that go into this list. There are websites that have a ton of free information on how to indie publish and what steps you should follow to indie publish your manuscript. Here are three that I have used and value the information they provide.

Joanna Penn’s website (https://www.thecreativepenn.com) is loaded with free information. The folks at the The Creative Academy for Writers offer many events, writing sprints, craft workshops, and helpful workshops for indie and traditional writers and you can find them here: https://creativeacademyforwriters.com .  The 20books to 50K Facebook group is also chock full of information,  https://www.facebook.com/groups/20Booksto50k/ .

Writing a book is marathon. For folks with ADD/ADHD and other mental health challenges, it can feel like scaling a mountain just to get yourself to sit down and write. My goal is to offer suggestions that will work for folks that struggle with organization, executive function, and motivation. So many folks burn themselves out treating it like a sprint or they give up before they start because their brains do not function like everyone else.

My goal in presenting these topics each month is get you to the place where you’re ready to send your polished finish manuscript off to an agent, or an editor require a publishing house or you’re ready to go enter the steps that you would take to indie publish.

These are some helpful tools/websites/books for you to explore. Full disclosure: Some of these are affiliate links and I get a small commission if you use the link, it does not affect the price you pay for the item or service.

 Scrivener (https://www.literatureandlatte.com/)  I love Scrivener. It has a learning curve but it also has multiple tools that help me keep track of all my scattered thoughts and ideas that eventually become a book. It has helped my process more than anything else I have invested in since I started writing.

 Learn Scrivener Fast (https://murphy.krtra.com/t/6hyUmVf9MYlF)   The best investment I have made in my writing career. This course helps you get the most from Scrivener and Joseph’s teaching style is wonderful. Use the code on the first page for a discount.

Goal, Motivation, and Conflict by Debra Dixon. (http://www.debradixon.com) Conflict is story, and Debra Dixon’s Goal Motivation and Conflict is one of the best writing books I have ever read. She offers free tools on her website that will get you started with knowing your characters on a deeper level, and crafting story arcs that will keep your readers turning pages.

Scrappy Rough Draft by Donna Baker. ( https://www.amazon.com/Scrappy-Rough-Draft-strategically-motivate-ebook/dp/B07XNK536B/ ) : This book is the one to read if you are struggling with getting yourself to start. Full of great ideas and motivation treat yourself to this book that feels like your bestie is right there beside your chair cheering you on as you write.

Build Better Characters by Eileen Cook. (https://www.amazon.com/Build-Better-Characters-psychology-backstory-ebook/dp/B07XN1VJ6T/ )  Compelling characters and their change/growth are an essential part of fiction. Elaine’s book helps you get to the nuts and bolts of why your characters do the things they do. Chock full of helpful worksheets and ideas, this book is well worth your time.

Make A Scene by Jordan Rosenfeld. (https://www.amazon.com/Make-Scene-Revised-Expanded-Powerful-ebook/dp/B077KGM44N/)  This book radically changed how I develop my storylines. A book is a collection of scenes and this book lays out how to string your scenes together to have your readers anxious to read what comes next. The best book in my opinion if you are struggling with the infamous “show don’t tell” writing advice. For those of us who are freaking out at the idea of writing an entire book (all those words!), working scene by scene helps with perspective. On those days I struggle overwhelm, I can remind myself I can move the novel forward one scene at a time.

I hope you will find some or all of these resources helpful,

 until next time

 Brenda.

When the Words Won’t Come: Writer’s Block and the Distraction Connection

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There is a strong link between writer’s block and distraction. Often when we feel like the words won’t come we have plenty of ideas away from our desks but the second we sit down to write we just can’t get them out of our brain. When our stubborn brains refuse to generate anything new or even edit something have already written often it is because we have deep distractions and intrusive thoughts that combine to strangle our creativity. The source of these distractions vary but this post is going to discuss the big three: worry, fear, and boredom.

Worry

Sources of worry are multifold. It could be a time in your life where you have a million real life things, important things, you are responsible for, so playing with your imaginary friends really is not top of mind. We can also be distracted because we are at an uncomfortable part of our story.  When we are working through very difficult parts of our novel maybe were touching on things that are sensitive in our lives, we worry about how our words will be received.

Preemptive worrying is worry on steroids. Our words remain locked in our minds because of worry. This is perhaps the hardest part of writer’s block. One solution is to remind yourself that you are writing a draft and you are not required to show the draft to anyone.

If the block is related to a particular scene, try breaking that scene out, write it as a separate document, or writing it out by hand, or dictating it can free you to write whatever you want, without worry that someone will see your work before you are ready to show it to them. Caution: When you do show your work in draft form, be careful who you show it to when you do. Not everyone has your best interest in mind. Choose your beta readers wisely. You want folks that are honest but not folks who use that an excuse to be unkind.

FEAR

Fear is worry’s bigger sibling. Fear is the heart of writer’s block. Fear our work sucks. Fear we have nothing to say. Fear we are going to look foolish. Fear we are wasting our time and are shirking our responsibilities.

Leaving aside the fears linked to Imposter Syndrome (our work sucks, nothing to say, looking foolish) we are going to focus on the fear we are being irresponsible when we spend time writing.

Everyone has responsibilities, what is particularly difficult for folks with Attention Deficit (Hyperactivity) Disorders (ADD/ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is managing them because we struggle with Executive Function skills. If your Executive Functions are intact you have the ability to plan, manage, organize, and control your actions in order to accomplish tasks, and complete goals. Executive Function skills include time management, organization, accessible working memory, and self-monitoring.

The worst part for those of us who struggle with Executive Function is we know we when we fail and why.  We know we are struggling. We often have shame about how hard it is for us to do things that other people accomplish without issues.

Our fear of missing/forgetting/disappointing others because we did not do something we must/ should /could /promised to do stops us cold. And because we struggle with working memory, we freeze in place because of the nagging fear we should be doing something else besides writing. Driven by that feeling of dread, we close our document, or spend precious writing time staring at the page as our brain shuts down, refusing to generate anything because of fear.

The most helpful solution I have found for dealing with this fear is having a notebook where I write down everything, every task that needs to be done, every deadline, every thought about things to learn, or check out, thing that I want to learn, try, do, see, purchase, or quit. The most common term for this is a Brain Dump.

 I spent some time researching the term Brain Dump, but I was not able to find the original source of this idea. The idea is to dump out your thoughts like you would empty a file drawer.  In a document or notebook, record everything in your mind without judgement.  Write down all those undone tasks/projects/want-to-dos taking up space in your thoughts.

Write down every single thing. Do Not Rush. Or Judge. After the list is written you can go back through and evaluate if you really need to, or want to do things on your list.  Seriously, please do not rush making this list, the mental health benefits that come from freeing yourself from trying to remember all the things is enormous.

The first time you do this list it will be massive and overwhelming. Set it aside for a bit, get a beverage of your choice and read back over it. Add deadlines to those things that have them (like taxes, purchasing birthday gifts, etc.) Decluttering your brain will help you attain clarity about what actually is important and what needs to be done.  Now add dates next to those things that don’t have a firm deadline but you want to do (learn a language, declutter the junk drawer, etc.).

What does any this have to do with writing? Now that you have a list you can assign those thing specific dates, so when you sit down to write you have freedom from those fears. If that voice pops up insisting you stop because you should be doing something else, you can remind yourself you have it scheduled.  You don’t have to surrender to the fear of not doing the right thing at the right time. This list also helps with sorting out what things really are important, because our lives change, and things that may seem important in the moment are not six months later.

Warning: You will need to rewrite your list.  I suggest rewriting it every twelve weeks or so, as that is a manageable period of time. If you wait longer the fear of forgetting will creep back into your life. This is one of the simplest and most powerful solutions for self-management.

Boredom

Boredom is kryptonite for folks with ADD/ADHD. We like new and challenging. Often when we are blocked it is because our brains are bored with our storyline, or we are in the soggy middle of the novel. Most people like new and exciting things, whether or not you struggle with ADHD/ADD. For many writers when we get to the hard part of the story, every other story in our brains start waving their hankies seductively, asking you to come and write them. It is hard to resist them because it’s a lot more fun to start writing something new then it is to slug through getting to “the end” on a story that you are working on.

These intrusive thoughts, because that is what they are, sudden involuntary thoughts, are the hard to deal with, if you also are coping with other mental health issues your intrusive thoughts may not be related to writing, and can be even more distressing.

 Intrusive thoughts can derail that best of plans. Even when folks with ADD/ADHD are not bored, intrusive thoughts occur. When we are bored, they come fast and heavy. It is one of the reasons I write shorter novels and short stories. My ability to focus is what it is. If I become bored writing a story, because I know how it ends, it is a struggle finishing it. This is one of the reasons I am a discovery writer and shudder at the thought of detailed outlines.

By the time I get to proof edits of a novel, I want to set the entire manuscript on fire because I’m so tired of working with it. It’s not because I don’t like the story. It is because of intrusive thoughts that make focusing on editing difficult.

As we touched in other blog posts, the only way to finish a project is to keep working on the same writing project. You have to finish your draft. It is the only way to get it off your desk and to your beta reader or your editor, or you publisher. You can’t get anywhere with your writing career unless you actually finish the book, the article, the blog post, whatever it is you’re trying to write.

One solution I have found for coping with intrusive thoughts is to capture them. Unless I get them out of my head, I can’t get back to work on the project at hand.  Sometimes the thoughts are so loud, and so insistent, demanding to be written, they are overwhelming. The only way to move on is to acknowledge them.

Allow yourself to stop briefly write down the kernel of the idea. Have a notebook or document specifically for new ideas and thoughts. Use caution here because opening a document can lead to abandoning what you were working on to work on the new shiny thing.

If you don’t find a self-limiting way to record the plot bunnies/ideas/thoughts, like a notebook or 3×5 cards,  unless you have a lot of self-control, you will most likely end up with a bunch of half-finished stories sitting around on your hard drive. Don’t do this to yourself.

I hope you find some of these ideas helpful. Nothing is harder for creatives than being blocked. If you are struggling with writer’s block, please try some or all of these tools. Please don’t give up, the world needs your stories.

That’s it for me. I’ll be back next month with a new post on Imposter Syndrome. Until then happy writing!