This one’s for the authors. What is your favorite online writing resource (whether research, inspiration, etc.)? What is your favorite trick for getting the pages done? Lastly, so much of the way we write is hard-wired. (For example, I can’t write scenes out of order. One tiny thing I may write in the current sentence could impact the entire direction the book takes – and I won’t know that until I put it down.) In that vein, are there any changes you’ve made in how you write that you never thought you would?
One thing I learned to do after saying “never” was plot in advance. I started out as a pantser, just hoping I’d get to the end and have something that made sense. After 13 years as a pro, I’ve found for me that is a totally unproductive way to write. So much time ends up being wasted in revising what wouldn’t have to be revised were it planned. It’s also unproductive for me because of the depth I can reach in both plot and character by pre-planning that I can’t otherwise.
What about you?
A couple of opportunities. This from Anna Genoese at TOR.
And from Cynthia Sterling’s Market News:
Premium Press America, a Nashville-based publisher with a 20-year history of success with non-fiction titles is branching out into romance and mystery fiction. New titles are already available in CVS and Eckerd Drug stores. The books are also available through Baker and Taylor and other wholesalers. PPA has carved out a market niche with nonfiction through specialty marketing agreements with stores such as Hallmark, CVS and Eckerd drugs, as well as corporate sales. They also have a strong oversees marketing division. They hope to publish 40 mystery and fiction titles per year, with five titles released every other month.Senior Editor Lanier Brandau is looking for both steamy and heartfelt romance and all types of mysteries. Their first group of releases includes an erotic Regency-set romance, a contemporary romantic suspense, the first in a historical series, a steamy medical romance, and a women’s fiction novel. In an interview with Music City Romance Writers, Ms. Brandau said “Most of our titles are sold in family stores; however, we like for our titles to push the envelope without causing an anti-provocative riot. We like our titles to have a great story as well as intimate relations.” She will consider manuscripts between 60,000 and 100,000 words, with 85,000 – 90,000 being the preferred word count. PPA works with both agented and unagented authors. You may query and send a synopsis to ppawriters@premiumpressamerica.com or request writer’s guidelines at this same address. The website http://www.premiumpressamerica.com is currently under construction, expected to debut soon.
On Monday, 4/3 at noon central, I’ll pick one name from those of you who comment here to win a copy of DEEP BREATH.
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My favorite research resource is The Beau Monde Yahoo (http://www.thebeaumonde.com/) group. Whenever I’m stuck, I search their archives before I search anywhere else, and I usually find what I need. Email loops (with archives) where writers share info with each other are invaluable. Also, Deb Lawson has a mindboggling list of links (http://home.insightbb.com/~d.lawson/).
My favorite trick for getting the pages done is also a change I’ve made that I never thought I would, which is, in dialogue heavy scenes, first writing the dialogue only, with no tags, no narration, nothing but what the characters are saying. Dialogue is easier for me to write than narration, so this gives me a lot of forward momentum in those scenes, and it also helps me feel that I’m writing it in “real time,” closer to the pace it would be spoken. Conversations become more natural, and I don’t lose focus of what I’m trying to accomplish by them.
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Alison, I love wikipedia.org and encylopedia mythica. All sorts of interesting things on those sites for a paranormal romance writer.
I mainly write without plotting, but I can’t say never, just because there have been a couple of books that I’ve finished lately that I did end up plotting out, to some extent. mainly just the beginning, the main conflict, and the end, but for me… that’s ALOT. A year and a half ago, I would have said, I just can’t plot anything out in advance.
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Favorite online resource would be Google because that’s where I always start. A close second would be my shopping carts at ecampus, buy.com, and amazon.
I am a very messy writer. I’ll leave it at that.
What keeps me focused? Music. I just bought an iPod (my son is in a snit because I didn’t buy him one while I was at it) and next on the “to be bought” list is in a AlphaSmart with no internet access.
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My favorite is looking for research/writing sites, and I have a comprehensive list on my blog if you’re interested. If I had to pick one, it would be Word IQ (wordiq.com). You can research any time period or item or idea and it has thousands of online texts/books.
As for making changes in the way I write, I’m still just a newbie, so I’m in the stages of developing the way I write (as far as fiction goes anyway – day job is journalism/editor).
Have a great weekend!
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Okay, I wish to retract the word “comprehensive” in describing my list of links. I just checked out Deb Lawson’s.
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Google, first; Wikipedia, second.
I have trouble writing stories out-of-order as well, since each scene builds on the one before, in my head. When I’m revising, though, I can flip back and forth between the story and add/subtract with wild abandon. I always seem to end up adding more than subtracting, unfortunately; part of this is due to the original draft usually leaving things out that I realize should be addressed. But hey, this is the purpose of revision!
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What is your favorite online writing resource (whether research, inspiration, etc.)?
I recently discovered Alltheweb, and I’m pretty much hooked.
What is your favorite trick for getting the pages done?
Morning meditation for thirty minutes before I start working. It resets my brain and sharpens my focus.
…are there any changes you’ve made in how you write that you never thought you would?
Writing from a male character’s POV always spooked me a little until I tried it a few times in short stories. That gave me enough confidence to write a novel with a male protagonist; something I never thought I’d do.
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eveyone read afternoon delight by mia zachery!!
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Google’s my best friend when it comes to research. Not sure I have a trick for getting more pages done, but I switch up how I’m writing. If I’m at the computer, I’ll grab my binder and some gel pens and sit in the living room or in the summer go outside and see if a change of scene and no keyboard gets things moving. Most times, it does :o)
I’m more of a panster writer, most things seem to put down unconsciously and stay as a thread throughout, though sometimes I do write the dreaded out of order scenes which are a pain to have to go back and put in the story.