Writers Websites Wednesday

Writing.com has been online since 2000, bringing writers of all interests and skill levels free writing tools, inspiration, free portfolios so you can store and/or display your writings and contests.  Great website services for the writer and mostly for free. You need to join before you're let in on all the details, but it's worth giving up your e-mail address to join.

Writers Websites Wednesday - The Other Side Of The Story

I stumbled across Janice Hardy's blog, The Other Side Of The Story the other day and I must say, I like it. She offers over 500 articles on writing fiction along with online resource links, guest posts and of course info about her and her books. Lots of tips and helps in those articles and guest posts. Definitely worth a look. 

Writers Websites Wednesday - Character Personality Generator

Now here's something you don't see every day.  The Self Publishing Team offers some tools, and among them is the Mystery Thriller Random Personality Generator.  Go ahead, play with it,  have fun. Explore their site further as well.  There are other tools and tips.  Also info for those interested in self publishing.

The Well Written Path

Have you ever noticed what creatures of habit us 'people' really are? Oh, we try to fight it, we try to deny it, we give it a bad name saying we get into ruts.  Writers can be even worse.

But realistically, if you use it properly, routine is a good thing. They give us writers a path to follow and create a rhythm to our lives that leads to accomplishing things like writing books - you know, actually finishing what you began writing.
 
It's pretty damn tough, finishing writing a book.  Heck, it can be tough just posting this blog each week.  But if you get in the habit, if you create the routine in advance you'll breeze through the writing you wish to accomplish, get it done without the struggle common to so many.

And how do you do that; set a schedule, get things done? Well, the way I accomplish it is to set a time to write and stick to it. Give myself a goal and an assignment in my writing to accomplish each day and get it done.  Focus. I keep short lists of that day's writing-associated tasks by my computer. If I run up a self-imposed or outside-imposed deadline and something doesn't get done, that becomes the first thing on the list for the next day's writing assignments.

Part of the secret is to make writing part of every day.  I've found over the years if I attempt to clear a calendar day just for writing, if I make it a big deal, if I put a lot of pressure on myself to 'write' for that day, then progress is stunted and the words I produce are not as good either.  It's much better if I have my own little assignments for myself each day. Motivation can surge and evaporate. You have a book you want to get written, you're enthusiastic one day,not so much the  next.  If you have routines, schedules, little things in place to help keep you on your path and moving, you'll be much more likely to sit down and write.

A few years ago I had a student I was teaching in an online romance writing class and mentioned the idea of routines. She Emailed back that one of the things she did was to actually ritualize her writing time. She sat down, lit a candle, paused to clear her mind and then began. When she was done she blew the candle out.  Symbolic, no? It's a matter of incorporating into your day what you want to do. You might grab a cup of coffee, turn on your favorite creativity-inducing music and begin writing, then end with washing the cup. A quick entry in a journal to warm up might be your routine. Whatever works.

When I was a 'part-time' writer and held a full time job during the day, my ritual was to come home, eat a quick dinner with husband, take time to wash dishes, then skip TV and head over to my desk to write for two hours. Weekdays only. Weekends were 'us' time for me and my husband (only exception was if I got a plum assignment and there was a pressing deadline).

So put writing on your 'to do' list, give yourself an assignment, your overall goal and that smaller goal of what you want to accomplish in that small bite of time you've set aside for your writing and maybe ritualize it with some routine that signals you're getting down to writing.

Oh, and one more suggestion.  It can be tough to get rolling, get those ideas to flow when you first sit down at your computer to write so, when you're about to finish for the day, when you're still enjoying that flow of creativity in what you've written, that's the time to decide what you'll write the next time. Jot a few notes right there on the screen at the end of what you've written so you'll know what direction you were headed in and what you want to accomplish next. Make it a habit, yep, another routine.

Most writers know that finding time to write can be one of the hardest things to do. But, believe me, the more you do it, the easeier it will be.  And creating habits and routines to keep yourself on the writing path will be one of the best things you've ever done.

Writers Websites Wednesday - Author Resources

Yep, here's another website cram packed with them.  They say there's a 100 Author Resources here.  I didn't count them myself, but I believe them and no doubt you'll find a number of things here helpful to you and your writing. Marketing, self-publishing, selling, grammar support, free word processors and writer's software.  Lots to see here.  Dive in.

Writers Websites Wednesday - Search Engines for Writers

Here's a site for the writer wrapped up in research - of all kinds. It offers 60 great sites where you can find out almost anything.  Writers professional sites, research sites, reference sites, stuff for niche writers, books and more. Don't miss this one.  check it out.  I know there'll be more than one site you'll be glad you found. 

And as a side note, my book Cloud Dancer is available at 50% at Smashwords at http://bit.ly/mSefTW - use Coupon Code TX72S at check out for special price of $2.98 through March 28 along with half off my book, Stormrider, also at Smashwords at

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/15798 - use coupon code SL67D at check out.  Special for my friends reading this post here. Ebooks here are available in various formats including Kindle, PDF, Mobi, EPUB, RTF and more.

Writers Sites Wednesday - 5 Open Source Apps For Writers

The title says it all.  Here's a site cluing us in to 5 Open Source Apps for Writers and Authors.  Check it out, hard-working shoe-string authors - there might be one here to give you a hand.  And check the comments below the Apps where folks offer info  on even more that are available.

Writers Websites Wednesday - Free Online Screenwriting Programs

Into Screenwriting?  Then you might want to check out these online screenwriting programs at 5 Free Online Screenwriting Programs  and let me know what you think.  Some are simply free, some are free to try, then later buy 'pro' version. 

For Writers The Devil Is In The Details

Details, details, details.  As writers we need them, and are told time and again not to overdo them.  Both admonitions are correct.

But, we can be come such masters of our own written work, such orchestrators of our stories that things happen.  Oh, don't get me wrong, many times it's very good things, but there can be others as well, things that simply aren't expected.

As an example, have you written a story where the descriptions of your characters are non-existent or the setting one that simply disappears?  I have. When I was just beginning I wrote a story.  My then helpful Godmother/acting editor pointed out she loved the story.  Had to read it a couple of times in fact to figure out what was wrong.  Turns out she had no idea what my characters looked like.  I'd totally written the story but left out little details like short, tall, fat, skinny, long hair, short, you know, the things that let us identify with characters. 

That same thing can happen with setting. You're telling a story.  The setting is crystal clear in your mind. You, as the writer, see everything perfectly, so perfectly in fact that you forget your reader and kind of presume since you know - they know.

Well, they don't. Give your reader information as you go along. It doesn't have to be, nor should it be a long, drawn out description of where they are, but if you put your characters inside a building, in an office, let your readers know if it's an opulent office or a humble cubicle.  Is there a window or are they across the room beyond the their cubicles?  Is it comfortable or cramped, cluttered or tidy, light or dark, private or in the open with others around to hear conversations. All those details, scattered through your scene gives your readers visual clues to the setting so they don't visualize your story in a hazy, undefined white space like your unattended computer screen with a new document as yet untracked by words and punctuation. It also provides the readers of your novel or short story with opportunity to get to know your character better.

Here's another thing. If we, your readers, can't see the space the characters are moving in, it turns your characters into talking heads and that is deadly when you're writing a story and want to move it forward.

So take the time to read through your writing to see what you've provided your reader in the way of setting. Don't let yours be one of the stories with a vanishing setting - one you begin, but just trail off into nothingness. Take advantage of the opportunity to flesh out the setting to write your story to life and enjoy the opportunity to sidle up to your character and really learn what makes them tick. Read some passages from your favorite books, just pick a few at random and read. Not the different ways different writers create the texture of the background and enhance without turning it into a lengthy exposition.

Example?

Here goes -
without description

John stormed into Larry's office and slammed the door.
    "What the hell did you do?" John demanded.
    "Huh, what?"
    "You know what I'm talking about."
    "I do?"
    "The Belmont case, you threw the damn case like a bad wrestler throws a bout."

Okay, a little excitement there, just because of the confrontation.  No details, nothing to let your readers bond with your characters.

So, how about:

John flung the door open to Larry's office, stormed in and slammed it behind him rattling the glass in the door. The heels of his shoes clicked imperiously on tile flooring. "What the hell did you do?" John demanded.

Hunched over his desk Larry peered up at his friend through designer glasses and squinted eyes focusing past the bankers lamp that pooled light on his work. A malfunctioning printer clicked, whirred and stuttered on a misfed sheet behind him. "Huh?  What?"

John strode past the age-patined maple desk to the window that looked out from the 40th floor and stared out of it, not looking at Larry.  "You know what I'm talking about."

"I do?" Larry ticked the pen he held on the desk blotter.

John's shoulders slumped.  He turned and dropped into the leather chair across from Larry.  "The Belmont case, you threw the damn case like a bad wrestler throws a bout."

Okay?  So it isn't the best, but it's a hint.  Not only do you see more of the surroundings, but it brings out a bit more of the character of John and Larry. Be aware of it, play with it. Have fun.

Writers Websites Wednesday - Zoho Writer

Here's a quick one - go check out Zoho Writer.  It's an online word processor that's easy and free.  You can upload documents you want to collaborate on or ones you want to work on on the fly .  Take a look at their Screenshots tour and see if it's a tool you want to add to you collection.

Writers Websites Wednesday

The Market List, the original electronic writers market resource, was started in 1994 as an online Ezine. It offered the first fully comprehensive writers market guidelines index online from its inception. Resources to help aspiring and professional writers find markets for their fiction. It's been around a while - Check it out.

It's Writing Time

How many times have you heard fellow writers say, "I just can't find the time to write" or how many times have you, yourself, said or thought, "my writing is suffering, I can't get time to do it?" How frustrated are you in trying to carve out the time to write what you want to write? 

 

Unless you're living on a trust fund and never have to hold down a job and don't have a family to distract you, you're in the same boat as most writers. Trying to work writing into a life you already have.

Now I don't want to get trite or sarcastic, well maybe a little sarcastic, but it's really is one of those life situations where you either will or you won't - that simple.

Now don't whine at me, "you don't understand" because I do. I've held full time jobs and published novels, I've been just married, taken care of an ailing mother and held a full time job AND optioned a screenplay - more than one. So I've been there. I know all the distractions and excuses.

So, what is the solution? It's pretty basic. First, do you want to write? I mean do you REALLY want to write? Is there a story inside burning, bumping and nagging to get out? Are you desperate to get it out? Do you want to write so badly you can hardly think of anything else?

Okay, if that's true, then there are ways to work writing in and admittedly there are some sacrifices you'll probably have to make to achieve your writing goals. No, not probably. There ARE sacrifices. If you're not up to that, then go back to the paragraph above and reevaluate.

There was a period of several years when I watched no TV at all. Each evening after work (where lunch hours were dedicated to errands or reading writing publications) I went straight home, ate dinner, did what had to be done, then locked myself away for about two or three hours of writing. Oh, I spent time Saturday morning writing as well. Then I spent some quality time with friends and relatives on weekends. Now I'm not saying that schedule was never broken, at times it was, but it was what I expected of myself and I published my writing over the years with Doubleday, Harlequin, Five Star, Pinnacle Books and others.

At other times in my life my writing was done on lunch hours and breaks... and evenings. I wrote during entire vacations from my day job, read writing publications when I minded a cash register at a book store between customers.

You can find jobs that fit in with your writing. You can work things out with your family. Perhaps after you publish and generate some income from your writing you can change to a part time job which is another thing I did; and then jealously guard those precious hours for your writing. You'll discover as you carve out more time for your writing, more people will think you're not working at all and it's okay to interrupt or suggest an outing for that time or want to call you and chat or constantly text you. Do what you must to guard against intrusion with firmness and diplomacy or you'll find that writing income drying up and soon you'll be back at square one.

Other writing friends have told me how they write on buses or trains on the way to work, on lunch hours tucked away in a corner somewhere, long into the night or if a stay at home parent, when the kids are at school or watching Sesame Street. Dinner becomes an adventure in tracking down 15 minute recipes that are actually good for you and taste good.

Be creative, search your life for those bits of time when you can put them to good use writing what you want to get out. One person's way may not be yours, but with some thought and planning you can carve out some writing time in your life. It's a matter of priority. There's no right or wrong answer, no write (right) or wrong way to strive for your goals. If writing isn't a high priority then give yourself a break, let it go. If it is important to you, explore your life and realistically find the way to work the amount of writing time in that is comfortable for you.

As Yoda would say - "Do or do not, there is no try."

Writers Websites Wednesday - Chicago Manual of Style

This is a great site, the Chicago Manual of Style Online is a wonderful resource regardless.  Here the editors offer sometimes amusing answers to writers' questions.  Check it out, then mosey around the site and see what else you can learn. 

Are you a Fraidy Writer?

Us writers are a strange lot.  We love to write, we’re afraid to write.  We want to have an audience and sell books, we’re afraid of that audience. 

Oh, there are some who aren’t, but many of the writers I’ve spoken to over the years do have those fears and most of the fears aren’t so easily identified as the ones in plain sight like the urge to throw up or run screaming from a building.
No, many writer’s fears are more subtle, more difficult to spot.  Signs being thing like overperforming in an effort  to make sure you get it right (like any of us can ever get it right, since there is no ‘right’ when writing a novel).  Underperforming (see, I knew I couldn’t do this, so why bother?) or avoiding performing at all (meaning you keep talking about that book you’re going to write but you never apply butt to chair and get it written).  If you’re rewriting endlessly, if you’re afraid to submit because you might be rejected, if you just can’t find the time to write, all of these are all subtle, but fairly reliable bell weathers pointing at fear.

So, what to do?

Acknowledge it, work with it, harness it to actually promote your writing goals. 

 
You can’t silence those little voices of fear altogether, but you can choose to cease engaging with them on a  negative level.  You don’t have to allow them to run your life.  You can simply tell yourself (or someone else if you need support) that you might not write like Hemingway, but you’re going to write anyway, you might not have your work accepted at the first submission, but you won’t have it accepted at all if you don’t submit - so you’re going to!

You don’t have control over all the outside elements that have impact on your writing and publication, but you do have control over your writing. Don’t focus on outcomes (which you cannot control), and focus on what you’re doing, what you’re writing (over which you DO have control). 

There are a number of things we writers fear.  Realistically if you feel fear, you are on some level expecting danger. One human instinct is to protect ourselves from danger. One of the best ways I’ve found to deal with the fear is to have a conversation in which I talk to my fear and sort things out.  Sort of like:

Me: Why am I putting off submitting this manuscript?

Self: Because if I actually finish it and send it in in an attempt to sell it, then someone will judge it and what if that someone says no and that it’s a bad manuscript?  Better not to send it - safer that way.

Me: But what’s wrong with getting a rejection, many writers have and have gone on to great success.  Maybe I’d learn something.

Self: Nope, too painful, rejection hurts. Don’t want to risk it. Only thing I’d learn is I’m a terrible writer.

Me: Doubtful, but if I am, I can always improve. If the editor wasn’t simply having a bad day because she/he was served with divorce papers then I can learn something. If I learn something, that puts me just that much closer to where I want to be.

Usually at that point my fears quiet down and I can write or submit, or move on to whatever it is I want to accomplish. And you can have that conversation with yourself over any aspect of your writing. Fear really is the only thing you have to fear.

My advice?  Confront your fear and carry on.  You’ll be glad you

Writers Websites Wednesday - Scriptwrecked

Scriptwrecked is a great site for screenwriters and those working toward that goal. Lots of free advice and tips. Even found a recommend for The Dialog: Learning From the Masters which is a series of interviews with screenwriters and their craft. You can rent them from Netflix or get them via Amazon (via the link in this post).  If sceenwriting is or could be your thing, check this site out.

Holiday Gifts For Writers

As I was doing my snow shoveling this morning in a meditative state it occurred to me it's not to late to think about holiday gifts for writer friends, relatives, and even yourself.  And don't forget the other occasions that crop up during the year.

It occurred to me as shovel shushed through snow and I heaved it to the side  that money could be short.  It certainly is for a lot of people these days.

So, what to do?

Well, I just received a wonderful compliment on Twitter where one of my followers, StartYourNovel proclaimed me the ultimate link hunter.  I do keep my eye out for things that a writer might be interested in with the thought firmly in place that  many writers, especially those beginning, might not be cash flush.

So here's my suggestion.  Consider putting together a nice list of links that provide free or low cost help for writers.  I'll give you a few today in case the idea appeals.

There's Open Office Suite  which has word processing (including PDF conversion capabilities), draw, spreadsheets and more. It's free to download and works well.

There's Plot Shot  that offers random plot lines for those Writer's block days.

You might include Sci Fi writer Scott Card's site - Hatrack River  "Uncle Orson" offers writing lessons, articles and more for the writer.

PlotBot  is great for screenwriters a way to write screenplays online alone or with friends. You just register.

Like Random Generators  to help spark ideas for names, places, plots? There are a bunch of them here.

Know about Writers FM?   the radio station for writers by writers offering interviews and music.

Know a screenwriter who needs to read scripts, yourself maybe? Get 'em here at Drew's Script-o-rama  free.

Want a way to organize your querys, track them, and find places to send them? Query Tracker  is also free.  Read the terms.

Here's a good one - The Fiction Writers Guide to Psychology  she is selling her book, but the resources here are free.

For a great name generator try the Vitorian Steampunk Name Generator

Looking for an agent? Try Agent query 

There are a lot more out there, but you get the idea.  A great gift to give and one that would be greatly appreciated for any occasion!

Oh, and happy holidays!

Writers Websites Wednesday - Off The Bookshelf

A site worth visiting for Readers and Writers - Off The Bookshelf offers for the readers print books, Ebook, audio books and more.  For the Writer there're tools for publishing, a cover art, Ebook converter and author services.  Spend a bit of time and look around. Times they are a changin' - and fast - good to keep up on what's available.