Musings from a Writer’s Brain–A Writer’s Biggest Challenge by Author Joanna White

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Catherine Castle Musings from a Writer's brain, Christian Fantasy, Joanna White, procrastination, Shifter, writing tips

Today on Musings from a Writer’s Brain, author Joanna White is sharing some writerly thoughts on challenges we authors face. Can you guess what our biggest challenge is?

 

A Writer’s Biggest Challenge

By Joanna White

What’s the biggest challenge writers face in the actual writing process (not counting editing and marketing your book, which are the two biggest for me)?

Procrastination. Oh man, this is so bad sometimes. There are all kinds of memes and jokes about it on the internet but every writer has to admit to procrastinating at some point or another and some do it too much.

So how do we overcome this issue? How do we sit down and write a book? The advice is just as simple as it is difficult: Sit down and write!

Sometimes, I know it’s an effort to put words to paper and invent new things, ideas, and end up with a story at the end of it. It can also be mentally exhausting sometimes. That sucks, but if you’re ever going to be a serious writer or a passionate one, then you just have to force yourself to do it.

What works for me (keep in mind, everyone is different) is setting a goal of a daily word count. I’ll say, “I’m going to write one chapter every day for this book.” With some books it’s “one chapter and each one is at least 1,000 words long.” Lately, it’s been at least 4 to 6000 words every day. Set a goal, do it, and try to at least write once every day. Even if your goal is “I’ll write a paragraph or one scene every day.” That’s still better than before. Don’t give up!

Keep trying and if you fail, don’t beat yourself up about it. The only way to fail at writing is to never write the book. If you wait for the perfect conditions, you’ll never get anything done (from the Bible). And that’s also true with writing. If you always procrastinate, then your book is never going to get written.

Procrastination is a writer’s worse enemy but it can be overcome. You just have to set goals and have the determination to finish your story and never, ever give up.

While you’re procrastinating about writing or something else, check out the blurb from Joanna’s Christian Fantasy Shifter, with a little bit of clean romance. Shifter comes out July 1^st, but there’s no need to procrastinate on a purchase because you can preorder now at Amazon and have the book delivered to your Kindle when it’s released.

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Shifter

By Joanna White

Beroan is a shapeshifter, part of the dragon clan. His clan’s Alpha, Sirath, wants to watch the world burn.

For ten long years Sirath has attacked villages, killing thousands of humans and burning towns to the ground. Beroan has had enough, but his resistance will only end in suffering.

Nsi is a human living in a small village with her grandmother and cousin. Her ignorance about the existence of shifters won’t protect her for long. Her family was killed in a dragon attack when she was younger, and now dragons have come again. Now she will stop at nothing until the dragon shifters are stopped, to save humans from suffering the same fate as her family.

Together, Nsi and Beroan will risk everything to save humanity from Sirath.

Darkness is spreading through the galaxy, Corrupting one world after another, and now it has come for theirs. Sirath already belongs to the Corruption of darkness.

He will not stop until he burns down the world and leaves it covered in fire and ash.

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About the Author:

Joanna White earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing for Entertainment at Full Sail University. The Valiant series is her first published work, which first started off being updated on a website called Wattpad. She lives in the countryside of Missouri with her husband, where she continues to work on her other upcoming books. Writing has been a passion since she was ten, when she wrote her first book. Ever since then, writing has become her life outside of her family, God, and being a nerd.

Connect with Joanna on Facebook: Twitter: Website:

Musings from a Writer’s Brain–The Editing Process by Carol Browne

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Carol Browne, Catherine Castle Musings from a Writer's brain, editing tips, Gateway to Elvedom

by Carol Browne

I met with a new proofreading client recently and looked at his manuscript. It needed a lot of work. In fact, he needed an editor not a proofreader. He had no idea what the difference was any more than he knew what an editor does. As I tried to explain it all to him, it took me back to my own beginnings as a newbie author and I remembered what a shock the editing process had been. I had no idea what was involved; writing the book turned out to have been the easy part! So, aspiring writers, here is a brief description of what lies in store for you.

Let’s assume that you were able to construct a fairly presentable manuscript and submit it to a publisher with strict adherence to their submission requirements and that said publisher has agreed to publish the work. Let’s also assume that you have thrown your hat in the air, danced on the table, bought a round of drinks for everyone in the pub, day dreamed about fame, fortune and winning the Booker Prize and now await the next step. Once the excitement has worn off, the real work begins.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is what happened to me: I was told who my editor was, that they were editing my manuscript and it would then be emailed to me so I could address the editor’s changes and suggestions. I had done a fair bit of proofreading by then but proofreading is to editing what a string quartet is to the London Symphony Orchestra. Straightaway, I was shocked when I saw that most of Chapter One had been removed (“You can condense it into a small paragraph somewhere if you really must.”) and great chunks of the narrative had been torn out. Thousands of words were scattered to the four winds, never to be seen again. Thousands! The book I had given years of my life to was purged and purified. And this is what you call a structural edit.

And guess what … I ended up with a much better book. Did I manage to condense the pruned pages into one small paragraph? You bet I did! It was the sort of exercise that tones up the writing muscle. I learnt how to write more succinctly and move the narrative along without unnecessary clutter. Editors I’ve had since have not been so ruthless, but it’s probably because I have become a more competent writer.

Once the structural editing is done, it’s time for line editing. This is exactly what it sounds like: going through the narrative line by line, addressing punctuation, spelling, typos, syntax and word choice. The editor will often suggest the author uses a better word or adds some description or makes the dialogue more natural. There will be all kinds of errors or inconsistencies in continuity. Have you used the same word three times in quick succession? Perhaps a character does something incongruous and you never noticed? Did you just mention someone, having forgotten you killed them two chapters ago?

You can imagine how long and involved a process this can be, particularly if you have a book as long as mine was. (‘Was’ being the operative word!) But your editor is trying to make your book the best it can be. You may have to lose your favourite metaphor, pluck out padding you enjoyed reading, delete swathes of dialogue that made you laugh but did nothing to further the plot or develop the characters. In the end it is all worth it.

Hopefully it is at this point that your publisher will give their blessing to the final edits of the manuscript.

But that’s not the end of the process, because it‘s then that a proofreader takes over and that proofreader is very often YOU. Having worked your way through your manuscript umpteen times already until you could happily throw it at the wall and walk away forever, it is up to you to read through ALL of it carefully and look for any errors that have been missed.

Yes, the editing of a manuscript is a lot of work: Weeks of daily toil; long hours at the keyboard; chewed finger nails; bloodshot eyes; gallons of coffee. And finally, if you are lucky, your book emerges, all sparkly and beautiful, like a polished jewel!

One more thing – and this is extremely important advice for aspiring writers – you need to familiarise yourselves with the Track Changes function of Word, because you are gonna need that knowledge! I was lucky in that I had a proofreading course under my belt before I started, so Track Changes didn’t come as a complete surprise to me. This is a function that allows many people to edit and proofread a document without the changes they make to that document being lost – hence the changes are tracked, very much like sending a parcel – but Word also remembers the original document so nothing is lost (we can’t always say the same about the mail service!). Delete a paragraph, say, and it will be held in the margin in a sort of bubble. Only when the author accepts that deletion will that paragraph be completely removed from the document.

Well, this isn’t an article about Track Changes! Suffice it to say, as with many things, there are tutorials on You Tube if you really feel this is beyond you. Trust me, it isn’t. If I can manage to use this function, anyone with a modicum of computer skills will have no problem.

So, budding authors, prepare yourselves for the editing process; but don’t worry about it because it’s not all hard work and learning the craft, it can also be a lot of fun.

Gateway to Elvedom

by Carol Browne

Godwin’s adventures in Elvendom left him a changed man, and now bereavement has darkened his world.

In another dimension, a new Elvendom is threatened by the ambitions of a monstrous enemy. Who—or what—is the Dark Lady of Bletchberm?

And what has become of Elgiva?

Reeling from the loss of their Elwardain, the elves ask Godwin for help.
Transported into a strange world of time travel and outlandish creatures, will he succeed in his quest against impossible odds, or will the Dark Lady destroy everything the Elwardain fought to preserve?

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Born in Stafford in the UK, Carol Browne was raised in Crewe, Cheshire, which she thinks of as her home town. Interested in reading and writing at an early age, Carol pursued her passions at Nottingham University and was awarded an honours degree in English Language and Literature. Now living and working in the Cambridgeshire countryside, Carol usually writes fiction and is a contracted author at Burning Willow Press. Being Krystyna, published by Dilliebooks on 11th November, 2016, is her first non-fiction book.

Stay connected with Carol on her website and blog, Facebook, and Twitter.

Ten Reason Writers Need Pencils–Celebrate National Pencil Day

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10 reasons writers need pencils, Catherine Castle Musings from a Writer's brain, National Pencil Day, pencil collection, pencil humor, picture of pencils, writing humor

It’s National Pencil Day today!

This fun holiday is brought to you courtesy of Hymen Lipman, who received a patent for a pencil with an attached eraser on March 30, 1858. While pencils were once only yellow, today we can get them in a wide assortment of colors and designs.

As I writer, I collect pencils when I travel, pens too. You can see some of my pens in the front of the  pencil collection below. The soldier at the forefront is a standing pen from Colonial Williamsburg. I think he’s absolutely adorable!

Pencils are usually relatively inexpensive as mementoes, and one day I plan to have my hubby build me a display case for my slender treasures.

For now, though, I thought I’d extol the joys, and uses, of pens from a writer’s perspective. After all, we started this writing journey with a yellow number 2 pencil and that funny dotted-line-in-the-middle school paper.

Ten reasons writers need pencils

1. You don’t need electricity to use a pencil. So you can write in a storm, at the park, if you unexpectedly find yourself in a dystopian society, or any other place you might choose.
2. When you’re ready to write a word down, there’s no pesky computer delay because your CPU is too full.
3. When the lead runs out, you can throw the stub away without any hesitation. The wood deteriorates, unlike pens which need refilling and last in a landfill forever, or computers that also don’t deteriorate and require special care to wipe your personal data and stories from them.
4. When you make a mistake it’s easy to erase. Not so with a pen.
5. You also don’t need electricity to sharpen your pencil. A handy-dandy, tiny, portable sharpener is all you need. Or a knife. Don’t opt for the latter if you’re the clumsy sort though.
6. They come in an assortment of colors and designs, so when you’re experiencing writer’s block you can stimulate your muse by studying the pencil’s ornamentation.
7. When your plot or characters aren’t cooperating you can take out your frustration by breaking your pencil in half. Just be sure you have a replacement on hand for when those pesky characters finally start behaving.
8. Pencils make great stabbing utensils for use on rejection letters, that horrid first draft, and other bothersome papers related to your writing. There’s a sense of satisfaction in killing a page that has brought you grief.
9. Pencils can write upside down, in zero gravity, and in water. That means you can lay on your back, in bed, outside, or any other place you choose, and still write your book. Or if you’re planning a trip into space, your trusty pencil will work while you’re enroute and when you reach wherever you’re going, provided you’re still alive when you get there. I can’t think of a reason you’d want to write underwater though. On the water, maybe. A pencil would work well there, too.
10. A typical pencil can write about 45,000 words. That’s a novella length book. Now that’s a fact I never knew before today!

Happy Pencil Day! Take a moment today and celebrate the humble pencil. Hunt up a fresh, or a used pencil, sharpen it to a stabbing point, and write something new.