I go through five phases when writing a book.
1.) THINKING - You gotta think about your story, mull it over, jot down notes. Basically, you want to be able to watch your story in your head at any time; just like watching a movie.
2.) WRITING - Only when you not only know what you want to say, but how you want to say it, I write a book in its entirety. I know it's tough. Just do it. You're gonna edit it later. This stage combines a bit of reading, thinking, and editing, but bear in mind, this is still writing. When finished with your masterfully crafted piece-of-wordsmenship, sigh and take a break, though we're not done yet. Far from it, in fact.
3.) READING - I can go about two weeks (tops), before my fingers start twitching, and I long to scrawl a short, poem, song, or even a scene from an up-coming novel. During that time, I read about three to six novels, depending on their length. Fiction. Non-Fiction. Poetry. Prose. News articles. Doesn't matter. Point is, I love to read nearly as much as I long to write. Whilst reading, I keep a notebook and pen handy. Anytime I come across a word that I don't know, I scribble it down. But, not just words I don't know, I also jot down words I think I know, words I know but don't use that often, and even quotes. I also study the way other authors write. I note appealing phrases, and though I don't use them verbatim, I'm greatly inspired by other authors. But, that's the point.
4.) ERUDITION - In case you didn't know, erudition means a period of deep (sometimes theological) learning; studying. After I have my vocab sheets from the books I just read, I alphabetize my words, go through the dictionary, and write down the definition. I find this method far-more effect than simply trying to memorize a myrmidon of words. I also use this time to research things. Let's face it folks, if you wanna be a writer, ya gotta know what you're talking about. And that means research.
5.) EDITING - This is by-far the most tedious and pain-staking tasks of all. You have to sit down, and read through your novel paragraph-by-paragraph, line-by-line, sentence-by-sentence, word-by-word. If you followed these instructions properly, this should be more than a few times you've read your own book. And let's face it, how many times do you really read a book? If it's simply amazing, at most, twice, or once a year as some eccentrics do. You can pay for fancy-shmansy editors, and I suggest you do (just for professional feed-back). In the end, as exasperating as it may sound, you'll want to make the final edit yourself. Why? Because it's your book, damnit! Don't you want it to be the way you always pictured it in your mind?
That's enough free advice for now.
P.S. I've noticed some of you eAuthors have been trying to get a hold of me (not literally of course). Somehow, readers can send me emails directly (or filtered to), my personal email account. But I don't know who these savvy, young folken are. I simply receive a message and am proffered the opportunity to reply. Please send links to your sites. I love reading (and reviewing). By-the-by, as I've stated in a previous blog, if I review your work, and it's not sterling, don't get all huffy. This is free advice (which I paid a hefty sum for), and am doling out to you.
Take it or leave it.
No comments:
Post a Comment