Tag: writing

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5 Tips How to Make Editing More Enjoyable

April 8, 2021April 8, 2021 ~ Jeremy ~ Leave a comment

5 Tips How to Make Editing More Enjoyable

Editing can be a very dull process. At times, it can seem like traveling across an endless ocean at 5 mph.

For those that enjoy editing, what’s wrong with them? What superpower do they possess and what nuclear waste do we need to jump into to get it?

Hopefully, these tips will help you through your editing process and make it just a little more enjoyable.

Take some time off.

What? I just finished my first draft and now you want me to step away from my story?

Yes.

Why?!

Because you need to be able to see it with fresh eyes again.

It may seem counterintuitive. You just finished and you still have a long way to go so really as far as time is concerned you really need to get cracking, but the wise thing to do would be to let it sit for a moment and get it out of your head if you can.

It is extremely useful if you can come back to your writing with fresh eyes to see all the things that need to be spruced up.

So take a week to a month. That’s all you really need to get a fresh perspective and then come back to it.

Start handing your story off to beta-readers asap.

While you take a break from your first draft, this would be the perfect time to hand it over for someone else to read, check, test, and give ideas into.

Beta readers should most certainly be a part of your editing process either way but they should really come first. (After you’ve gotten rid of most of the glaring spelling and grammar errors.)

Here’s why: when you give it to a beta reader you are going to want to change big parts of the story and this will lead to more writing which in turn will lead to more need for editing and line editing for grammar and spelling issues.

Basically, if you save beta readers for after you line edit you are giving yourself double the work since you are inevitably going to need to line edit again after the beta reads.

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Work from the big picture down to the fine details.

When you first go through just focus on big picture stuff. Does everything look good and make sense?

Then you can work your way down into chapters. Does everything in your chapters make sense and land where you want it to? No glaring errors? Nothing out of place?

Then you can work your way into paragraphs and after that into each sentence until you’re really getting down to the nuts and bolts of the thing.

You don’t have to do it exactly like this, but by doing it this way you can have a concrete plan to handle all the issues in a strategic order.

Having somewhere to start and knowing where you’ll end is helpful.

And be critical. Pretend like you’re editing someone else’s work and pretend you don’t like the person. (Not in such a way that you’d sabotage the work.) The idea is to be very critical of your work and look at it from an outsider’s perspective.

You’ll enjoy it later.

You may never love the editing process, but it can be an acquired taste.

The more you do it the better you get at it, the less it’s a burden, and then you might actually start to enjoy it.

You’ll at least enjoy the feeling of success when you finally lay down your first finished project.

If you can hire an editor that’s nice and you should definitely do so. Having that person go through gives you a big breather and helps you get big ideas that they may have but for most of us, it’s going to be the long grind of edit, rinse, and repeat.

Use someone in your corner.

You might have the undeserved favor of a significant other in your life that loves editing.

These rare creatures exist and are mostly willing to help you. It could be a spouse, friend, sibling, parent, or romantic interest.

For me, it’s my wife.

Bless her heart, she loves the editing process.

Not sure why, but I’m extremely grateful, as it is mind-numbing for me.

Don’t get me wrong, I must do a lot of editing too, but it is just helpful, especially for the peace of mind and writer’s block to have someone else with good ideas look stuff over too.

That to say if you have someone you know that likes to edit stuff, think grammar addict, then they might actually enjoy going through and finding every spelling error and missing coma, run-on sentences, and… well…you get the idea!

If you enjoyed 5 Tips How to Make Editing More Enjoyable? Take a moment and consider sharing this social-friendly image to say thanks and feel free to comment with your thoughts on the post below! 🙂

Want to get paid to write? Check out Writing Paychecks

There is a simple method over 30,000 people use to get paid for freelance writing online.
Opportunities can get started in just minutes a day, all from your home couch.
It’s easy to get started! No previous experience or degree required to start.
Exclusive job listings for writers, updated daily.

Check out Writing Paychecks to see if you can start getting paid to write today.

Interested in starting a blog of your own? Check out Bluehost.

Already own a blog? Using Adsense? Use Ezoic. Make 5X – 10X more on ads with Ezoic! See for yourself. – These ads use machine learning. Set it and leave it.

That’s all for now.

Hope this helps!

Happy writing!

Another Post you Might like:

Mythical Creatures | 7 Tips on How to Write Mythical Creatures

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5 Tricks How to Hide Your Villain Right Before Their Eyes

10 Tips How to Write Villains that Play Mind Games with Their Victims

4 Tips How to Write your Character Hitting Rock Bottom

10 Toxic Bad Habits That’ll Crush Your Fictional Character’s Relationships

How To Write 4 Scenes That Reveal Who Your Character Is Seamlessly

Other Resources You Might Enjoy:

How to Start a Blog in 11 Simple Easy Steps in 2020

How to Write a Book: 32 Tips | Your MASSIVE Guide How to Write a Book

Interested in starting a blog of your own? Check out Bluehost.

Already own a blog? Using Adsense? Use Ezoic. Make 5X – 10X more on ads with Ezoic! See for yourself. – These ads use machine learning. Set it and leave it.

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Join Amazon Prime Music – The Only Music Streaming Service with Free 2-day Shipping – 30-day Free Trial

Get Unlimited Music for Free (30-day free trial):

Free Baby Registry:

Make your Free Amazon Wedding Registry:

Want to check out a writer’s community to test your writing and get feedback?

Make sure your posts are readable. Use this readability score check

Want to get paid to write? Check out Writing Paychecks

We hope you enjoyed: 5 Tips How to Make Editing More Enjoyable!

8 Tips to Setting Your Story in a Place You’ve Never Been

April 7, 2021April 7, 2021 ~ Jeremy ~ Leave a comment

Can I Make My Story Setting in a Place I Have Not Been?

You might be feeling trepidation about where your story is going to take place.

Maybe you come from a small town and haven’t traveled much. Maybe you’re afraid to break the rule, “write what you know…”

There’s a part of you that imagines your story in amazing places, but the other part of you thinks, “I’ll look like a fraud because people will be able to tell I haven’t been there.”

Andy Weir never went to Mars.

Unless I’m mistaken Weir isn’t an astronaut and he didn’t go to Mars and yet he wrote a fantastic story about it that people love (The Martian), in fact, Weir has written lots of fanfiction about outer space, but has clearly never been there.

It sounds like he did his research and looked at many pictures and did his due diligence to make sure that the story turned out good even though there was absolutely no way he was going to be able to walk around his setting.

As long as you do your research there is not much reason why you can’t do the same. Sure, it would be nice if you could spend a month on the block where you want your story to be, but it is not completely necessary.

Places “where nothing happens” are great places for something to happen.

You might have your story set somewhere you don’t live. This might be because you imagine yourself and your characters in places you want to be. You might find your hometown boring as a setting.

I disagree with the premise, “my home town is boring. Nothing happens here.”

Think about Stephen King. He set many of his stories in places he knew in Maine. Think of Derry, Maine. Small U.S. town, middle of nowhere, just about nothing happens there. (You may not have been in Maine before. I have family in Maine, trust me, almost nothing happens there.)

But that sometimes is the best place for SOMETHING to happen. Places where nothing ever happens makes for a really interesting contrast when something weird does happen.

You don’t have to be in a place to write about it.

Maybe the shows you love happen in places you are not. Maybe this is why you imagine yourself and your characters being there.

For me, I often imagined myself being in the times of knights and dragons. This put most of my imagined settings in those eras by default.

I’ve never been there and I won’t ever be able to, but I can research them heavily (and maybe go to a renaissance fair or two.)

The point is, we can learn a lot about a place even if we’ve never been there and we don’t even have to leave our house. It would be nice, but at this point, with the information that is available to us, it is unnecessary to say to a writer you have to go there to write about it.

Go ahead and try to change my mind in the comments.

There is a simple method over 30,000 people use to get paid for freelance writing online.
Opportunities can get started in just minutes a day, all from your home couch.
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Focus on getting the senses right.

If you are going to lean heavily on the setting there are certain senses you MUST do right.

You must pay attention to smells.

How would you do this?

Use smells you are familiar with.

If your family makes a dish that is common to the area you want to write use that certain dish as an anchor for placing the reader’s imagination there,

“Eli opened his eyes and rolled over. He knew exactly what time it was. Light was pouring through his window and what always gave it away was perogies. The shop across the street started making their perogies at 6 A.M. never delayed. In winter, he would groan, gag a little at the smell, and then pull the blanket back over his head to try to forget he existed, but this was summer. The smell of perogies meant freedom.

A burst of energy filled his chest knowing all that he could do that day. He practically flew out of the bed without a second thought.”

Obviously, this needs editing, but the point here is to give an example of how you can start to anchor the reader into the setting with a familiar smell that gives more depth to the setting when it matters.

Think a lot about sight, sounds, and smells when it comes to choosing where you want your setting and do enough reading in forums and such to find out what people there see, smell, and hear on a regular basis.

Ask someone from there.

Today, it is easier than ever to join a Facebook or Reddit group and ask people from where you want to write what it is actually like there.

Ask them about their childhood. Ask if they remember the smells and feelings they would get in their homes and around their streets.

Were they afraid of certain neighborhoods? Were there stories of haunted places that filled the heads of the children in the area? Or was it pleasant with the sweet smells of a fresh ice cream shop?

Did they live by an airport or train?

Did the bus have its route on their street? Did the ice cream truck drive by at a certain time? Did they ever notice the same woman or man riding a bike every day and why?

Little details like these can take our readers to where we want them to go and it can convince any reader that they shouldn’t question whether you have been there or not.

Try to focus on the little details.

When we hone in on the little things in the setting it gives the readers the sense that only the writer would know these tiny details because they’ve been there.

“The crack in the sidewalk next to my house always reminded me of a mouth filled with sharp jagged teeth.”

If you say this to someone compared to, “I tried not to step on the crack in the sidewalk of my front door.” They are going to feel more like you’ve been there and are giving them insider details about the place that only someone that has been there could know.

The setting doesn’t carry the story but it can change the feel of the story.

Just because you set your story in a busy exciting place doesn’t mean the story is going to get points for it.

The story and setting just have to mesh and that’s it. The setting adds to the story, but a story can be translated to many different settings.

IT could have been written in another small middle of nowhere town, and it would still be relatively the same story.

Settings are more powerful of a change if changing the setting leads to big changes in the senses.

Compare your story being in Antarctica compared to NYC. Big difference there, and the setting would actually change the feel of the story completely.

It’s almost impossible to get every little detail right.

Getting every tiny little detail just right can be a big time-waster.

And writing about it isn’t helpful. Some people may notice a thing or two out of place, but as a writer, you just can’t be expected to get the hotdog vendor’s brand right but miss key components of the actual story you’re trying to tell.

Focus mostly on the story and use the setting to add to it and bring it to life for your reader.

You don’t have to do this but personally, I think creating a fictional setting based on a real place is very interesting for both the reader and the writer.

Also, if you think your hometown sounds too boring to put stories into just ask the person that doesn’t live there if they think it is boring too.

If you enjoyed 8 Tips to Setting Your Story in a Place You’ve Never Been, Take a moment and consider sharing this social-friendly image to say thanks, and feel free to comment with your thoughts on the post below! 🙂

Want to get paid to write? Check out Writing Paychecks

There is a simple method over 30,000 people use to get paid for freelance writing online.
Opportunities can get started in just minutes a day, all from your home couch.
It’s easy to get started! No previous experience or degree required to start.
Exclusive job listings for writers, updated daily.

Check out Writing Paychecks to see if you can start getting paid to write today.

That’s all for the moment.

Hope this helps!

Happy writing!

Another Post you Might like:

Mythical Creatures | 7 Tips on How to Write Mythical Creatures

Other Popular Posts you might enjoy:

5 Tricks How to Hide Your Villain Right Before Their Eyes

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10 Toxic Bad Habits That’ll Crush Your Fictional Character’s Relationships

How To Write 4 Scenes That Reveal Who Your Character Is Seamlessly

Psychopath: How to Write The Perfect Psychopath

8 Tips How to Write the Perfect Sociopath

Other Resources You Might Enjoy:

How to Start a Blog in 11 Simple Easy Steps in 2020

How to Write a Book: 32 Tips | Your MASSIVE Guide How to Write a Book

Interested in starting a blog of your own? Check out Bluehost.

Already own a blog? Using Adsense? Use Ezoic. Make 5X – 10X more on ads with Ezoic! See for yourself. – These ads use machine learning. Set it and leave it.

Free Prime Membership Trial:

Join Amazon Prime Music – The Only Music Streaming Service with Free 2-day Shipping – 30-day Free Trial

Get Unlimited Music for Free (30-day free trial):

Free Baby Registry:

Make your Free Amazon Wedding Registry:

Want to check out a writer’s community to test your writing and get feedback?

If you enjoyed 8 Tips to Setting Your Story in a Place You’ve Never Been, Take a moment and consider sharing this social-friendly image to say thanks, and feel free to comment with your thoughts on the post below! 🙂

Make sure your posts are readable. Use this readability score check

Want to get paid to write? Check out Writing Paychecks

We hope you enjoyed: 8 Tips to Setting Your Story in a Place You’ve Never Been!

How to Write for Yourself | Is it Odd to Just Write for Yourself?

April 6, 2021April 6, 2021 ~ Jeremy ~ Leave a comment

How to Write for Yourself | Is it Odd to Just Write for Yourself?

Some people are out there writing and they are REALLY good at it, but they don’t share their writing with anyone.

Well, I shouldn’t say just anyone. They might let their friend read it or their spouse, but they don’t put it out there for just anyone to read and enjoy.

Why do they write stories? Because they enjoy it simply. They literally just write for themselves.

Is this weird, strange, and odd?

Not really. It’s a personal thing. They don’t have to share their writing with anyone.

But what would happen if they did?

Magic can happen when we share.

I recently read a story.

A spouse was writing a story. They never ever let anyone read their stories.

For whatever reason, one day, they decided to let their other spouse read their story or part of it.

Nothing really came of it.

5 years later they were sitting having dinner and one spouse said to the other, “Do remember what book this is from?” and without knowing it started describing their spouses’ story that they had read 5 years earlier.

Of course, the one that wrote stories regularly was elated to hear their loved one retell their story and not realize it, as if it were some famous book out there.

It was a brilliant moment for that writer that they wouldn’t have experienced unless they let someone read their story.

Letting others into your writing can help with writer’s block.

Letting other people give feedback on a story is very helpful for getting rid of writer’s block.

You might be struggling with where to take a certain scene. If you allow someone you trust to take a look at it they can offer advice and you can ask them questions.

Where would you take this scene?

Where did you think it was headed?

Have any ideas on how this scene could be better?

There is a simple method over 30,000 people use to get paid for freelance writing online.
Opportunities can get started in just minutes a day, all from your home couch.
It’s easy to get started! No previous experience or degree required to start.
Exclusive job listings for writers, updated daily.

Check out Writing Paychecks to see if you can start getting paid to write today.

You can impact other lives with your stories.

Stories can help others and change their lives. We as a people learn from stories.

We learn what we want to be like, and how we don’t want to be. We learn from others’ mistakes, successes, and failures.

Stories can help us solve our own problems as well as others. Teachers use stories to teach life lessons.

Your stories could impact people’s lives, but only if you’re willing to share them.

You can write stuff just for you and certain stuff just for them.

If you have your own world just for you, that’s not strange.

C.S. Lewis had his own world called Animal Land if I recall correctly. He and his brother had their own imaginary worlds that were just for them in childhood.

As he became a published author none of the stories or world-building for Animal Land have been shared or published for the world to see.

In like manner, you could have a world that is completely your own. And just like Lewis, you could write stories that you are okay with sharing with others.

How to get over the fear of criticism.

Some writers say they don’t like to share anything of their writing until they are 100% ready to publish. That’s fine, but I wouldn’t personally recommend it.

There is so much to be learned about writing by allowing others to speak into your story.

Sometimes it won’t be helpful and you’ll just have to learn what’s good advice and what’s bad advice, but I have heard more than once that what the readers say about the story is sometimes better than what the author intended. True sentiments from authors.

It’s not to say that some people won’t throw in bad advice too, but as you go forth in your writing journey it will get easier and easier to weed out the bad noise.

How to get over the fear of sharing your writing.

I think in all honesty this is the biggest hurdle for writers sharing their work.

If we were honest with ourselves we would say internal, “I’m afraid to share my writing with anyone else.”

We don’t want to hear rejection or bad feedback. This is completely understandable. Sharing our writing is actually being extremely vulnerable.

For some people, it is too much. But if you can, I recommend you do.

It’ll make you stronger as a person and it will help you with your writing. It’ll help you learn to shrug off bad advice and see your story in a way you might never see without someone else looking at it and sharing their thoughts.

Enjoying How to Write for Yourself? Take a moment and consider sharing this social-friendly image to say thanks and feel free to comment with your thoughts below! 🙂

Want to get paid to write? Check out Writing Paychecks

There is a simple method over 30,000 people use to get paid for freelance writing online.
Opportunities can get started in just minutes a day, all from your home couch.
It’s easy to get started! No previous experience or degree required to start.
Exclusive job listings for writers, updated daily.

Check out Writing Paychecks to see if you can start getting paid to write today.

That’s all for the moment.

Hope this helps!

Happy writing!

Another Post you Might like:

Mythical Creatures | 7 Tips on How to Write Mythical Creatures

Other Popular Posts you might enjoy:

5 Tricks How to Hide Your Villain Right Before Their Eyes

10 Tips How to Write Villains that Play Mind Games with Their Victims

4 Tips How to Write your Character Hitting Rock Bottom

10 Toxic Bad Habits That’ll Crush Your Fictional Character’s Relationships

How To Write 4 Scenes That Reveal Who Your Character Is Seamlessly

Psychopath: How to Write The Perfect Psychopath

Other Resources You Might Enjoy:

How to Start a Blog in 11 Simple Easy Steps in 2020

How to Write a Book: 32 Tips | Your MASSIVE Guide How to Write a Book

Interested in starting a blog of your own? Check out Bluehost.

Already own a blog? Using Adsense? Use Ezoic. Make 5X – 10X more on ads with Ezoic! See for yourself. – These ads use machine learning. Set it and leave it.

Free Prime Membership Trial:

Join Amazon Prime Music – The Only Music Streaming Service with Free 2-day Shipping – 30-day Free Trial

Get Unlimited Music for Free (30-day free trial):

Free Baby Registry:

Make your Free Amazon Wedding Registry:

Want to check out a writer’s community to test your writing and get feedback?

Enjoying How to Write for Yourself? Take a moment and consider sharing this social-friendly image to say thanks and feel free to comment with your thoughts below! 🙂

Make sure your posts are readable. Use this readability score check

Want to get paid to write? Check out Writing Paychecks

We hope you enjoyed: How to Write for Yourself!

How To Know Your Story is Worth Writing?

April 5, 2021April 5, 2021 ~ Jeremy ~ Leave a comment

How To Know Your Story is Worth Writing?

I get it. You have this story idea. You’ve been thinking about it for months or even years.

So what holds you back from writing it?

Most likely, you’re worried that no one will like it or read it, and if no one likes it, why write it? What’s the point? Wouldn’t it just be a big waste of time?

While there is no 100% sure-fire way to know if a story is going to be well received there are several things you can do to see if the market will bear your story idea.

Is there anything else like it?

You might be thinking something like this, “I love my story but it reminds me too much of this other story.”

This really shouldn’t worry you. Yes, you don’t want it to be so similar that people view it this way, but think of all the stories we have now that are VERY similar to each other.

In fact, think about it this way.

When you go to watch a show or movie, do you look for movies about stuff you’ve never heard of before, or do you actually grab one because it reminds you a lot of another you liked?

If someone told you a movie they just saw was a lot like one of your favorites are you more or less likely to see it?

Have you ever had a friend tell you, “Oh if you liked that book you should really check out this book!”

The idea is you can look at your story and if it does remind you of another similar story this can actually be a very good thing and you can use that fact to promote your book to people.

In real life, and in forums, you can literally say, “If you liked this book you’ll probably enjoy my latest story.”

Use Reddit and Twitter to test the waters.

There are many places online where you can do this, but Reddit especially has a very vibrant writing and reading community where you can drop ideas about your story and see how people react to them. See what people think of your story idea before you even begin writing.

You can get help with editing scenes or you can just ask and post, “Hey, what do you guys think about this story idea?” Give a good short synopsis and see what people say.

Before you even start writing this is a great way to see if anybody would even be interested in reading the kind of story you want to write.

This might be just the thing for you to get out of your own head and get some feedback right away about moving forward.

There is a simple method over 30,000 people use to get paid for freelance writing online.
Opportunities can get started in just minutes a day, all from your home couch.
It’s easy to get started! No previous experience or degree required to start.
Exclusive job listings for writers, updated daily.

Check out Writing Paychecks to see if you can start getting paid to write today.

Is it something you want to read?

While this isn’t always necessary (many people write stuff they personally wouldn’t read, so they can still pay the bills) it actually is a helpful question when you are trying to decide if the story is worth your time.

Most often though, if you’d enjoy it, then there are likely at least 1000 other people on the planet that would like it too.

Also, I dare say many authors would say that’s a huge reason to go ahead and write it for yourself so that you can accomplish it and enjoy it.

So what if it’s not a best seller.

In my opinion, writing a story can be a huge endeavor. There are many bumps and hurdles that naturally come along the way.

But will you really be proud that you didn’t write it?

On the other hand, think of all the things you will learn, and the ways you will grow if you do start to write it.

It may not be your first big hit, but SO WHAT?

It may lead to other opportunities and possibilities that you can’t possibly comprehend right now.

The writing of your first story might be the inspiration that pushes you to write your second and third stories. After you’ve written so much maybe one of them will become a best-seller, but that wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t finish the first.

If nothing else, at least make it a short story.

I’m a big fan of first turning any idea we really like into a short story.

If the story sticks with you, you can expand on it. By writing it into a short story you will either start to get more and bigger and broader ideas about it or you will see that it just isn’t ready yet.

Taking the time, thought, and energy to write it out like this gives us a better perspective on the story and how it could turn out.

It’s a great exercise to do with any story idea, but especially those ones that we just aren’t sure if we should write into 60,000 words or more.

It’s a great starting point.

The real question: is it worth reading?

When we are asking if it’s worth writing, what we are really asking is this, “Is it worth reading?”

This is honestly a question we can’t really answer for anyone but ourselves.

Would you read it?

If you saw it on Amazon would you stop and read the synopsis?

If it’s written well and serves a certain market then I’d imagine those people would tell you they would read it.

And then if just one person tells you they like your idea and they would read it… is it worth it to you to write it?

That’s really only a question you can answer for yourself.

If you’re looking for easy money and fame then maybe not. If you just enjoy writing and serving others with your writing then it sounds like it is worth writing to you.

Enjoying How To Know Your Story is Worth Writing? Take a moment and consider sharing this social-friendly image to say thanks and feel free to comment with your thoughts below! 🙂

Want to get paid to write? Check out Writing Paychecks

There is a simple method over 30,000 people use to get paid for freelance writing online.
Opportunities can get started in just minutes a day, all from your home couch.
It’s easy to get started! No previous experience or degree required to start.
Exclusive job listings for writers, updated daily.

Check out Writing Paychecks to see if you can start getting paid to write today.

That’s all for the moment.

Hope this helps!

Happy writing!

Another Post you Might like:

Mythical Creatures | 7 Tips on How to Write Mythical Creatures

Other Popular Posts you might enjoy:

5 Tricks How to Hide Your Villain Right Before Their Eyes

10 Tips How to Write Villains that Play Mind Games with Their Victims

4 Tips How to Write your Character Hitting Rock Bottom

10 Toxic Bad Habits That’ll Crush Your Fictional Character’s Relationships

How To Write 4 Scenes That Reveal Who Your Character Is Seamlessly

Other Resources You Might Enjoy:

How to Start a Blog in 11 Simple Easy Steps in 2020

How to Write a Book: 32 Tips | Your MASSIVE Guide How to Write a Book

Interested in starting a blog of your own? Check out Bluehost.

Already own a blog? Using Adsense? Use Ezoic. Make 5X – 10X more on ads with Ezoic! See for yourself. – These ads use machine learning. Set it and leave it.

Free Prime Membership Trial:

Join Amazon Prime Music – The Only Music Streaming Service with Free 2-day Shipping – 30-day Free Trial

Get Unlimited Music for Free (30-day free trial):

Free Baby Registry:

Make your Free Amazon Wedding Registry:

Want to check out a writer’s community to test your writing and get feedback?

Enjoying How To Know Your Story is Worth Writing? Take a moment and consider sharing this social-friendly image to say thanks and feel free to comment with your thoughts below! 🙂

Make sure your posts are readable. Use this readability score check

Want to get paid to write? Check out Writing Paychecks

We hope you enjoyed: How To Know Your Story is Worth Writing!

Should I Read For Writing Advice or For Pleasure?

March 24, 2021March 24, 2021 ~ Jeremy ~ Leave a comment

Should I Read For Writing Advice or For Pleasure?

Reading for analysis and advice is somewhat distant from reading for just pleasure, but at the same time reading for pleasure is very helpful for writers, but maybe not for the reasons you’re thinking.

When you’re enjoying a book you can just read through several chapters and look at the time to see hours have disappeared and suddenly realize you forgot to eat all day.

When we read a story to study the authors writing style and intent we stop to think about commas, plot, character development, and all sorts of other things.

So the question is as an aspiring writer should we read for pleasure at all or just read for advice?

Half and half.

It should really be a healthy blending of the two. We should read some things just to enjoy them and when we do enjoy them we should go back and study them to see the nuts and bolts of why we really enjoyed them. As writers, it’s a great skill if we are able to put ourselves back into the minds of just being a reader.

If we forget what that is like to get lost in a good book that can become a detriment to our awareness of what it is like to just consume a story and enjoy it for its writing merit.

On the other hand, it’s important to be able to break down a scene and understand how to set up a good cliffhanger or know how to show what our character is feeling without just saying it.

Remember your first good read.

Can you remember the first time you read through a book and just couldn’t put it down? Do you remember reading through a book in one sitting?

I do. It was Stuart Little (I didn’t read this one in one sitting, but I remember it being the first book I couldn’t put down.) I wasn’t an avid reader (which might surprise you) in fact, I hated reading for a long portion of my life. Having ADD, just meant I couldn’t focus on a book. I would literally read the words and then wake up from zoning out to only realize I was halfway down the page and didn’t know anything I just “read.”

After rereading the same paragraph 4 or 5 times I would inevitably give up.

One day, my brother mentioned that I should try Stuart Little. So I did.

I remember little of the next 3 days except reading that book and imagining a little sophisticated mouse shooting arrows at a cat.

It’s good to have moments like this, especially if we write. We want to know and remember what it is like to just find a good book and what it is like to get lost in it.

We should be striving for that in our writing. We want our readers to get lost in a good story.

It’s hard to stop.

Once we start to analyze writing for the study of our own writing style it is EXTREMELY difficult to go back and just read for pleasure

It’s hard to just read for pleasure, but it is possible. Sometimes I’ll even find myself trying to analyze an author and suddenly I’ll realize I’m just reading again and will have missed some good analysis 😂

So it can really go both ways depending on who you are reading.

But I often find myself dissecting stories and writing on any media I’m enjoying. It’s hard to watch a show without analyzing the script, the plot, and the acting.

It doesn’t bother me. I enjoy analyzing, but I know for some writers they miss being able to just enjoy a good story without thinking too deeply into it.

So take caution. When you start to read for analysis, just know that it’ll be difficult to just read for fun.

Try to remember your spark.

Most aspiring writers love reading and writing. There are a few writers that just love writing and have to force themselves to read, but I don’t think this is the norm.

For those that start to read to study writing try to have something in place that can trigger your ability to remember what it is like just to be a reader and not a writer.

You don’t really want to write like a writer unless you are writing to writers. (Say that five times fast.)

You really want to write remembering what it is like to be a reader that gets lost in a good book.

With that type of thinking try to think of some of the books you personally got lost in.

Take time to remember what that was like. When you read most of the time you want to keep an analytic eye on what you’re reading.

But don’t forget what it is like to read a book for enjoyment.

How would you write it?

One fun and helpful way of reading is to read with an editor’s eye.

What would you change about it?

I’ll do this from time to time and it’s very helpful for my growth as a writer.

It doesn’t have to be that we think we are “better” and can make the writing better. It has more to do with our personal writing style.

When you can see how you would say something just a little bit differently than another writer, you start to see how you ARE different from that writer.

This is important and helpful for having your own voice.

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The change might be hard.

If you are an avid reader already it will be hard to put on analytical goggles. You’ll have to work at it and create a new skill.

If you’re an analytical person already, you know it’s hard to turn off and you probably analyze everything, not just writing.

Whichever you are the change will be hard for you.

It’ll either be hard to stop just reading for pleasure and start to analyze and break down other author’s writing so you can learn and figure out your own style of writing.

Once you become analytical about your reading it can be difficult for some time to turn it off and try to read for fun without automatically seeing blatant errors or how the writing could be better, in your opinion.

Take a deeper look.

After you’ve become analytical about your reading and media you’ll start to have key moments to be on the lookout for.

You’ll be reading a book and suddenly you’ll realize you were drawn in without trying to analyze or critique. It was a part of the writing you were really into and you naturally got drawn in.

When you see this happen and you realize it you should try to stop and go back and analyze that section.

What happened?

What did the author do that drew you in and made you forget you were reading?

These moments become really key in our experience as writers. Seeing the moment we get drawn in is one of the best ways to learn how to draw readers in ourselves.

Take notes.

Reading is a good time to have a journal or pen nearby.

You can jot things that stick out to you right into the margins of the book (I personally don’t like to do this. Feels like I’m making a mess in the book.)

Or you can jot things down in a journal or your smartphone.

When we take time to write down what we just noticed we are solidifying that realization in our memory.

This is an extremely helpful practice, but it does take work and it’s not very fun at first. It’ll seem more fun later when you go to write and you realize that your memory retention is getting better.

Write out your inspiration.

Another great thing we can do while we are reading is to be on the lookout for inspiring ideas.

Maybe we are watching a show and something that is said or done brings a new idea to your mind for one of your characters. Do not wait.

Pause what you are watching if you can and go write down a quick outline or short story and your new idea so you don’t lose it.

If you wait, it is likely that you won’t be able to recall it later or you will just forget to write it down altogether.

Enjoying Should I Read For Writing Advice or For Pleasure? Take a moment and consider sharing this social-friendly image to say thanks and feel free to comment with your thoughts below! 🙂

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There is a simple method over 30,000 people use to get paid for freelance writing online.
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It’s easy to get started! No previous experience or degree required to start.
Exclusive job listings for writers, updated daily.

Check out Writing Paychecks to see if you can start getting paid to write today.

That’s all for now.

Hope this helps!

Happy writing!

Other Resources You Might Enjoy:

How to Start a Blog in 11 Simple Easy Steps in 2020

How to Write a Book: 32 Tips | Your MASSIVE Guide How to Write a Book

Interested in starting a blog of your own? Check out Bluehost.

Already own a blog? Using Adsense? Use Ezoic. Make 5X – 10X more on ads with Ezoic! See for yourself. – These ads use machine learning. Set it and leave it.

Free Prime Membership Trial:

Join Amazon Prime Music – The Only Music Streaming Service with Free 2-day Shipping – 30-day Free Trial

Get Unlimited Music for Free (30-day free trial):

Free Baby Registry:

Make your Free Amazon Wedding Registry:

Want to check out a writer’s community to test your writing and get feedback?

Make sure your posts are readable. Use this readability score check

Want to get paid to write? Check out Writing Paychecks

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Get Paid to Write About What You Love

March 22, 2021March 22, 2021 ~ Jeremy ~ Leave a comment

Get paid to write about what you love.

You should be excited if you are a writer, or want to start a career as a writer. Today is a great time in history to get paid to write what you love.

More than any other time on the internet it is easier today to get paid to write than ever before.

Don’t get me wrong, it is still hard work and it will still take time, effort, and discipline, but if you legitimately want to make money and write, now you can do it.

Freelance Writer

One of the fastest and easiest ways to get paid to write is to become a freelance writer.

As a freelance writer, you can write in any niche or you can be specific and choose to be a freelancer that aims to write in certain niches.

MANY companies are hiring writers online now and you can be one of them.

You could get paid to write in:

Food
Fitness
Health
Wealth
Eco-friendly
Cars
Pets
Etc

If you can think of it, there is an opportunity to get paid to write in it.

So what subject do you love and find fascinating?

You can get paid to write as a freelance writer. Be advised, when it comes to freelancing you have the freedom to say yes or no to whatever job opportunities come your way, but oftentimes clients aren’t always looking for things in your niche. You may have to write about things you aren’t personally passionate about to pay the bills.

There is a simple method over 30,000 people use to get paid for freelance writing online.
Opportunities can get started in just minutes a day, all from your home couch.
It’s easy to get started! No previous experience or degree required to start.
Exclusive job listings for writers, updated daily.

Check out Writing Paychecks to see if you can start getting paid to write today.

Become a blogger.

Another way to get paid to write what you love is to own your own blog.

It’s not as hard as people make it out to be.

What you have to do:

Get hosting

If you want to make money on your blog, you need to own it outright. And to do that you need to buy housing services.

That is very inexpensive and it’s as simple as purchasing it and then you have somewhere to store your blog and you mostly don’t have to manage that side of it.

Get a theme

Go for something simple that just works and don’t worry about making the site flashy.

You could honestly spend days trying out different colors and landscapes and pictures, but this won’t get you to your end goal faster which is writing about what you find interesting and getting paid for it.

Create content

This is the part that will take the most research know-how, but there is plenty of free resources out there that will have you well on your way in no time. Try looking up “Income School” to start learning the essential basics right away.

They say you want to have 30 to 50 posts to really get things started and it’ll take you about 6 months on average to rank on Google, but you can start getting traffic from Pinterest right away.

-More on how to become a blogger-

Become a ghostwriter.

Another great way to get paid to write what you love is to become a ghostwriter in your preferred area of expertise.

Ghostwriting is simply the fact that someone hires you to write for them. They pay you for your writing and then they put their name on it as if they wrote it. That way, you are the ghostwriter in the background.

No one will ever know you wrote it. You are essentially selling away your rights to the work, but still getting paid to write.

Ghostwriting is good for those that want to author books but want to get paid for their time right away.

As a ghostwriter you can set yourself up to write fiction for an author and they will pay you and then the writing becomes theirs.

Ghostwriting comes in many forms. They can pay you to help edit the book. Do rewrites. Write chunks of the book to help them finish and meet deadlines. Or they might pay you to write entire books.

These are some creative ways that you can get paid to write what you love and start making money faster than if you just went the route of trying to sell your own books.

FAQ:

Can I get paid to write short stories?

Yes, places like Fireside. Fireside is a short story magazine. Thankfully they want to publish great stories and pay writers well. They pay 12.5 cents per word up to 5,000 words. They try to publish regularly and one of their goals is to publish 10,000 words per month.

Can I get paid to write poetry?

Yes, you can submit your poetry to contests and win cash prizes. You can also try sites like Agni Online to see if you can make good money writing poetry for them. They boast paying $20 per page. Chicken Soup for the Soul also claims to pay poets $200 per accepted poem.

Where can I submit my writing for money?

There are many places you can test out. Try places like Writingpaychecks, Hubpages, Teckler, BubbleWs, Dailytwocents, and ShoutMeLoud.

Does Wattpad pay writers?

They do have a paid writing program. It is called Wattpad Paid Stories. Writers can earn money for their work. Fans and readers can directly support writers through this program.

Enjoying Get Paid to Write About What You Love? Take a moment and consider sharing this social-friendly image to say thanks and feel free to comment with your thoughts below! 🙂

Want to get paid to write? Check out Writing Paychecks

There is a simple method over 30,000 people use to get paid for freelance writing online.
Opportunities can get started in just minutes a day, all from your home couch.
It’s easy to get started! No previous experience or degree required to start.
Exclusive job listings for writers, updated daily.

Check out Writing Paychecks to see if you can start getting paid to write today.

That’s all for now.

I hope this helps!

Happy writing!

Other Resources You Might Enjoy:

How to Start a Blog in 11 Simple Easy Steps in 2020

How to Write a Book: 32 Tips | Your MASSIVE Guide How to Write a Book

Interested in starting a blog of your own? Check out Bluehost.

Already own a blog? Using Adsense? Use Ezoic. Make 5X – 10X more on ads with Ezoic! See for yourself. – These ads use machine learning. Set it and leave it.

Free Prime Membership Trial:

Join Amazon Prime Music – The Only Music Streaming Service with Free 2-day Shipping – 30-day Free Trial

Get Unlimited Music for Free (30-day free trial):

Free Baby Registry:

Make your Free Amazon Wedding Registry:

Want to check out a writer’s community to test your writing and get feedback?

Make sure your posts are readable. Use this readability score check

Want to get paid to write? Check out Writing Paychecks

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Why You Shouldn’t Be Worried that You’re Stuck Writing a Scene You’re Obsessed With

March 19, 2021March 19, 2021 ~ Jeremy ~ Leave a comment

Don’t Be Worried that You’re Stuck Writing a Scene You’re Obsessed With

As writers we all do it.

It may be a certain scene or character. We get really invested in it. We spend hours and hours making sure every sentence and every moment is just right.

We literally pour our blood, sweat, and tears into it.

It has the most clever foreshadowing. The wording is perfect. The stage is set. The hook is dynamic.

We are so excited about it. We think it’s our crowning achievement.

We can’t wait to hear what the readers think about this one scene.

And then what happens?

It doesn’t stand out to our readers AT ALL. 🤦‍♂️

We want to scream out to the readers, “DUDE, look how clever this setup is. See how this thing happened here?! It’s like amazing! Come on!” 😂

But alas this would deter from what they really like.

So the question is what do we do about this writing phenomenon?

Readers aren’t going to see what you see every time.

Every once in a while something magical will happen. The “stars will align” and someone might (MIGHT) make a post or comment about your scene and talk about how clever and amazing it was.

This is EXTREMELY rare.

For the most part readers would be surprised to hear us writers talk about our writings. They’d be aloof to what scenes caused us the most grief.

They don’t see which scenes we loved and spent hours on. They don’t know our thoughts as we write them.

So unless we get on a talk show like George R. R. Martin and can relay that information to them, they are almost never going to understand which scenes we thought everyone should love compared what actually was clever to them.

Readers more likely will rally around something you didn’t expect.

This really goes to show that the most important metric in writing IS the continual act of creating and writing without stopping.

You and I can NEVER ultimately predict what story or scene will go viral and which ones won’t.

Even with my blog here I have a really hard time telling which posts will do well and which ones will take off.

I might think one post is super amazing and so clever and it’s some of my greatest work and people are going to love it! And then…crickets…

Compared to a post I wrote quickly on a whim and boom instant viral. 🤷‍♂️

The name of the game isn’t predicting what people are going to love because if it were that easy, everyone would do it.

So instead, write the scene. Make it as awesome as you can and then move on.

Don’t spend countless hours on just one small corner of your world.

Make it good enough and see how it performs.

If they like something, you succeeded.

So what?

They didn’t nerd out over the same scene you did. That’s okay!

They’re geeked out over something in your story and really enjoyed that instead.

That’s a win!

You should be excited to see that’s people enjoyed a part of your writing, even if it wasn’t the part that you loved.

You can learn from this too.

In the future, don’t spend so much energy on any one scene. And try to throw in a little more or the amount of the thing they liked about your writing that you just find out about.

Take your wins as they are and grow on them.

Use your writing wins to launch your next BIG WIN.

There is a simple method over 30,000 people use to get paid for freelance writing online.
Opportunities can get started in just minutes a day, all from your home couch.
It’s easy to get started! No previous experience or degree required to start.
Exclusive job listings for writers, updated daily.

Check out Writing Paychecks to see if you can start getting paid to write today.

Use what they liked to come up with better ideas.

When your fans rally around a scene you wrote and speculate on it you should use their speculations for your next writing.

They may come up with something better than you did. If this is the case you are definitely going to want to allow to inspire your next plot.

It doesn’t have to be a discouraging thing for them to not love the same things you did about the writing.

Instead, it could be a great new place to start the next one.

They see things we didn’t.

We don’t know if we accidentally mislead them or if they just came up with it on their own, but sometimes a reader can see the plot differently than we meant them to.

This can be good.

Pay attention and see if your reader is seeing something you ultimately missed.

Be objective. Is it a good idea? Is it better than where you were headed?

We can get great ideas from readers. Let me let you in on a little secret, “it’s okay to be inspired by others, especially your readers.”

This is why beta readers are an awesome tool!

When someone reads our writing and we give them the freedom and confidence to say whatever they want and give us ideas about where they think the story is headed or where they would take it and what they would like to see happen, this type of feedback can be extremely helpful.

Don’t be afraid to get feedback and ideas from your readers.

Don’t overlook writing you feel apathetic towards

Having an experience like this really goes to show that we shouldn’t have strong negative feelings towards any of our chapters, scenes, or posts.

Just because we don’t think it’s that great doesn’t mean someone else won’t love it.

This drives another point: Just because we don’t love our writing or we “think” it isn’t good enough doesn’t mean we shouldn’t push it out there and see who does like it.

It may perform really well and we would never know it if we didn’t give it a chance.

So when we write a scene we think is garbage we should at least hand it over to a couple of people to read and critique before we scrap it.

Who knows? People might love it.

Writers are clever. People are emotional.

Sometimes it’s good to remember this fact.

As writers, we strive and think to be clever but the majority of consumers we write for are emotional.

When we write a scene that hits all the right clever literary points we are writing to a niche group. When we write a scene that bears a lot of emotional weight we are writing to a much larger audience.

Readers love to feel something. They do enjoy a good foreshadowing every now and then, but what they will remember is if you can make them laugh or cry.

They’ll even be drawn to your writing if you can make them angry at a character that will eventually get their due punishment.

Focus on writing scenes that cause people to feel and they’ll be coming back for more.

Just because we feel something writing it, doesn’t mean they will feel the same emotion reading it.

We may write a scene and laugh or cry all the way through. This doesn’t guarantee our readers will experience these same emotions.

What triggered emotions in us may not affect them at all. They have a different life experience than we do.

So don’t rely on what you feel while writing to dictate what they experience while reading.

Try to help them feel certain things, but don’t rely ONLY on your own feelings as a guide for them.

Know that for them you will have to do the impossible and know their history and background to be able to predict how any one scene would make them feel.

Just because you had to fight writer’s block on a scene doesn’t mean it’s a bad scene.

You’d be shocked how many times writers have to struggle hard to write through scenes they consider “junk,” only to find out those scenes are the very ones their readers enjoyed most.

It is a crazy thing but it happens.

So the next time you are wrestling with a scene and you don’t know what to write and it’s not flowing the way you want it to, don’t scrap it right away.

Sometimes that forceful pressure helps the scene in ways you couldn’t plan.

Put it out there. Get some beta readers. Ask friends or family, ask your writers group to read it, and get some outside perspective before you throw it away.

Writer’s block is not always a bad sign.

What truly matters is what the reader actually thinks about it.

Not what you think the reader will think about it.

Enjoying this post? Take a moment and consider sharing this social-friendly image to say thanks and feel free to comment with your thoughts below! 🙂

Want to get paid to write? Check out Writing Paychecks

There is a simple method over 30,000 people use to get paid for freelance writing online.
Opportunities can get started in just minutes a day, all from your home couch.
It’s easy to get started! No previous experience or degree required to start.
Exclusive job listings for writers, updated daily.

Check out Writing Paychecks to see if you can start getting paid to write today.

That’s all for now.

Hope this helps!

Happy writing!

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Other Resources You Might Enjoy:

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Interested in starting a blog of your own? Check out Bluehost.

Already own a blog? Using Adsense? Use Ezoic. Make 5X – 10X more on ads with Ezoic! See for yourself. – These ads use machine learning. Set it and leave it.

Free Prime Membership Trial:

Join Amazon Prime Music – The Only Music Streaming Service with Free 2-day Shipping – 30-day Free Trial

Get Unlimited Music for Free (30-day free trial):

Free Baby Registry:

Make your Free Amazon Wedding Registry:

Want to check out a writer’s community to test your writing and get feedback?

Make sure your posts are readable. Use this readability score check

Want to get paid to write? Check out Writing Paychecks

Enjoying this post? Take a moment and consider sharing this social-friendly image to say thanks and feel free to comment with your thoughts below! 🙂

We hope you enjoyed: Why You Shouldn’t Be Worried that You’re Stuck Writing a Scene You’re Obsessed With!

How to Write a Great Sequel

March 1, 2021March 1, 2021 ~ Jeremy ~ Leave a comment

How to Write a Great Sequel

Why does writing a sequel feel like a completely different task than the first book?

It’s the same characters, just a different part of their lives. Or it is a continuation of the same big story. It’s really up to you.

If we didn’t already have a sequel in mind in the grand scheme of things then it might feel strange to even begin this idea.

Pretend it’s not a sequel.

In order for a sequel to be really good, it has to have the strength to stand on its own.

It can’t just be “the sequel” and rely on book one thinking that’ll be enough for readers to enjoy it as they enjoyed the first one.

And for goodness sake, DO NOT make it a bridge to the next book. That is the most annoying type of sequel. Its entire existence is just to get you from one major plot point to another without anything major happening. Worst idea ever. (If you can’t tell I’ve been burnt a time or two by bridge sequels.)

The best sequels are enjoyable on their own beginning, middle, and end. They have their own major conflicts. They have their own merits. While also fitting into the larger narrative.

Don’t play too heavy into recaps.

Don’t assume you have to do the readers’ work for them.

When things tie back into the book, it should be in a way that if they did the digging for themselves they’d find it. It needs to follow the history of the story but you don’t have to continually remind them, “remember how johnny said he had a device 2 months ago? Well, this is it.” -this is really a poor way to bring back up something of importance.

Instead, just bring it up naturally and expect them to put two and two together. “Johnny pulled the amulet out of his satchel and set it into the hole in the stone, “I hope this thing works.”

It won’t take the reader out of the moment and they will either remember the things you want them to or it’ll make the overall series more clever with links tying them together.

(This isn’t a rule, more like a guideline. C.S. Lewis, I think breaks rules like these at times, but it adds to his voice and style of writing a good story.)

Just fyi: this recapping is a controversial idea. Some readers like a recap chapter as the first chapter and some hate it. You’ll have to decide for yourself what’s right for you.

Sequels are tough.

In reality, sequels are hard to get right. On average they are almost always not as good as the first.

If our first story was good, there is a high expectation on our second. This often leads to letdowns.

For most of our readers, the second just won’t be as good as the first.

For me, that happened a lot with movies. The second of a movie I really loved was almost always a letdown.

But that’s why it’s important to keep going. I didn’t like the second of one thing, but I loved the third or fourth. So just don’t get stalled. Keep creating.

There is a simple method over 30,000 people use to get paid for freelance writing online.
Opportunities can get started in just minutes a day, all from your home couch.
It’s easy to get started! No previous experience or degree required to start.
Exclusive job listings for writers, updated daily.

Check out Writing Paychecks to see if you can start getting paid to write today.

Don’t get stuck.

When trying to write the sequel it can be easy to get lost in the actual writing of it.

This can lead to perfectionism and getting writer’s block because we are afraid we aren’t getting it just right.

Instead, put brackets around the stuff you don’t love and KEEP MOVING FORWARD.

It is so important not to stop for perfection’s sake. Come back and edit it later with a more clear view of the entire story and what is necessary, compared to waiting around for inspiration to strike.

It’s like waiting for lightning to strike the same spot twice. Sometimes you gotta make your own storm and push through.

It’s so much easier to fix a bad draft later than it is to wait for the perfect sentence to come about on the first try.

When writing a project, it’s so much easier to fix a bad draft later than it is to wait for the perfect sentence to come about on the first try – just get it onto the page and lean on your editing process. Click to Tweet

Being critical is important until it isn’t.

Most of us can agree. “We are our own worst critics.”

We see our work and think it’s REALLY bad. Our friends or loved ones read it and say, “I love it!” But deep down inside we doubt everything.

Even successful authors constantly struggle with self-doubt during creation.

There’s a story of an author that runs into Steven Speilberg in a mall. And Spielberg tells him how much he loves his work!

You’d think this guy would never second guess his work again, but by his own account within 10 minutes he again struggles with his own idea of being a good writer.

For most of us, we know that we are only as good as our last book or project. If the next one is a flop, welp, “I guess we really never were that good.”

This line of thinking is so subjective. It has nothing to do with potential. So what if we wrote one success and then the next one flopped. Learn what didn’t work and start on the next one.

Maybe even throw the world a curveball and self-publish an edited version of the flop and give the audience what they really wanted. Nobody is doing that. They try to sweep their mistakes under a rug of social minutia like, “They didn’t like my writing because their “sexist, racist, bigot, homophobic, non-religious, too religious, heterophobic, they smell funny, their grandma told them it was bad!”

It’s time for us to stop expecting everyone to like everything.

Just because a person or company creates a story revolved around certain social issues doesn’t mean the entire world has to praise and support it.

That’s just lazy writing.

If we are in the storytelling business, some people will like it and some people won’t. Don’t be so over-critical of yourself that you get paralyzed and can’t write anymore. On the flip side, don’t worry so much about what other people say that you stop writing altogether.

And don’t be so arrogant as to not take any criticism whatsoever.

If you wrote something niche that only a few people and yourself like, then enjoy it. If you want to appeal to a larger audience then you have to SERVE larger audiences with your writing.

At the end of the day when we are writing a sequel, it’s not about us. It’s about entertaining our main audience.

If we flip the script on them, we shouldn’t be surprised when we get some pushback.

If we want to write a great sequel we need to give them more of what was given in the first book and we need to make it worth their time.

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Happy writing!

Other Resources You Might Enjoy:

How to Start a Blog in 11 Simple Easy Steps in 2020

How to Write a Book: 32 Tips | Your MASSIVE Guide How to Write a Book

Inspiring Quotes | 101+ Inspirational Quotes to Motivate You Today

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Are There Really Writing Rules and Should I Break Them?

February 27, 2021February 27, 2021 ~ Jeremy ~ Leave a comment

Are There Really Writing Rules and Should I Break Them?

It came up in a discussion recently that there aren’t any formulas or rules to writing or else robots could just write best sellers and people could have computers do it for them.

In my opinion, this just isn’t true. There are certain rules and formulas to writing and following them is helpful for starting out.

The real question here is should they be broken and when?

Our answer is: it depends. Let’s get into it.

Destroy all adverbs.

Have you heard this rule before? I know I have, plenty of times. Never write, “I wrote down my idea excitedly!”

Instead Write, “the author got excited about his idea so he wrote it down.”

What rule is this? “Never use adverbs!”

Is this a rule to follow or break?

I think this rule should be considered but can definitely be broken.

We don’t have to NEVER write adverbs in our stories. In fact, I would say they are helpful and not distracting at times. But the rule here should be considered.

If our writing becomes loaded down with adverbs that’s probably too much and it’s going to get distracting for some readers.

Instead, maybe sprinkle in an adverb or two where you really add to the moment and it didn’t overdo it.

Any writer that says, “you can never write adverbs or you will fail as a writer!” never read Harry Potter.

Know the formulas.

This step is pretty important. If you don’t know the rules or the formulas you can’t break them.

It’s important to do research and to learn what makes a great story and what makes great writing.

Then when the time comes you will see a writing formula and know that the story needs to follow it or needs to break it.

If we don’t educate ourselves then we won’t know whether we are just using sloppy writing and trying to push work that is more distracting to our audience than enjoyable.

We want our writing to be enjoyable and for that, we need to know what formulas in the story give what reactions.

For example, if you want to give people a feeling of satisfaction then your story will have a resolution at the end.

If you want them to feel unfulfilled you leave a cliffhanger.

If you want them to feel turmoil or sadness it might end in tragedy.

If you want them to feel horror or uneasy, it will end with no resolution and maybe still a foreboding problem.

These are simple but effective tools for creating stories and plots with the idea in mind of how you want your audience to feel at the end of your story.

Formulas are important for how you want readers to feel, not because they are formulas but because how they help you understand how your overall story will be received and looked for.

When someone is looking at your stories, what feeling do you want them to be chasing after? Horror? Satisfaction? Happy ending? Curiosity? Sadness? Etc.

You can break these formulas, but by doing so you should know at the end WHY you broke the writing rule and how that contributes to your reader ultimately enjoying your story more because you broke it.

You don’t have to know every rule to start writing.

This is important because you might think, “I don’t know what rules I’m breaking so I better not start till I do! Ahhhh!”

This is an unnecessary thought and task.

It would be better to start writing and learn the rules as you go. This way you are increasing your knowledge and practical skill at the same time, thus increasing your wisdom in writing rather than just having the head knowledge and doing nothing with it.

It’s better, in our opinion, to write something bad and fix it later rather than write nothing at all.

It’s kind of fun to be able to look back over years of writing and see how one has grown and changed as a writer. Your writing voice will change and mature over time. If you start writing right away you will be able to see that change first hand.

Waiting to write just doesn’t make sense in the long run.

There are differing opinions about rules and formulas.

Some people don’t believe in certain “formulas” for writing, whereas they do believe in good writing rules.

For me personally, I can definitely see certain “skeletons” or foundations for stories.

In most good stories there’s a beginning, middle, and end. There’s usually an introduction of characters and a major conflict. There’s usually a good climax before the end.

Most good stories have these “formulas,” if you will. And sometimes ignoring these facts leads to stories or plots that fall flat in the majority of the audiences’ eyes.

I’m not saying you MUST follow them, but if you don’t you are heading into territory that is harder to achieve a successful story compared to writers that don’t try to “reinvent the wheel.”

Break them cleverly.

Don’t break the rules just because you don’t like them. This would be silly.

Instead of you are going to break them at all, break them in a clever way that leads to more enjoyment for your readers.

Maybe you write to an audience of writers? In that case, you can break the rules in meta and your audience will get why you broke it and they will see what non-writers can’t see.

Breaking the rules should have a level of intelligence to it, not just rebellion. Rebellion for rebellion’s sake is popular with no one. But well thought out, clever rebellion is appealing to many.

I’m personally not clever enough to break the rules cleverly, but you can bet if I was, I would. 😏

“Good writing can’t be taught”

We definitely disagree with this sentiment. It’s almost like saying “good writing can’t be studied.”

As someone that loves the art of storytelling and thoroughly enjoys studying it, I have to particularly and harshly disagree with EVERYONE that tries to tell you that good writing can’t be taught.

It most certainly can, you just have to find good teachers and dodge the bad ones.

BE AWARE there is bad advice out there. Don’t just take what anyone says to heart without researching it and studying it for yourself (even what I say here. If I say something you don’t agree with, that’s fine. You don’t have to agree with me. I encourage you to study things for yourself! Because in the end, the real truth wins out; not people’s opinions.)

What works out for you, doesn’t always work for others.

What works for me and my style of writing, might not work for you.

You have to figure out your own journey with writing and how it does or it doesn’t work out for you.

So as you study writing and write yourself, you get to choose what formulas to follow or not follow.

And you get to choose what writing rules to break or not break.

This ultimately leads to your own unique style and writing voice compared to other writers.

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Are There Really Writing Rules and Should I Break Them?

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Are There Really Writing Rules and Should I Break Them?

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That’s all for now.

Hope this helps!

Happy writing!

Other Resources You Might Enjoy:

How to Start a Blog in 11 Simple Easy Steps in 2020

How to Write a Book: 32 Tips | Your MASSIVE Guide How to Write a Book

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Inspiring Quotes:

Inspiring Quotes | 101+ Inspirational Quotes to Motivate You Today

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Are There Really Writing Rules and Should I Break Them?

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