Thursday, December 31, 2009

A Note About The Links to Useful Writing Stuff

Just a quick note about the Links to Useful Writing Stuff. Not every method works for every writer. But these are links to info that should (at the very least) give you something to think about as you explore which methods work best for you. I am a firm believer in trying out what works for other people. Even if it doesn't work for me I usually learn something along the way about how I work best.

Here's a quick breakdown of the links I've provided.

One Pass Manuscript Revision
Holly Lisle has been writing for a long time and this is her best practice method for revising a rough draft in a single pass. I, personally, don't do it this way but the individual techniques laid out are very useful whether you apply them in one sitting or over the course of several drafts. 

The Snowflake Method for Writing a Novel

Randy Ingermanson has written a great article on how to develop novels from the initial idea into a rough outline into a detailed outline and then into a rough draft. Again, while I don't use this method verbatim, there are many useful techniques in here. And the article may help you to answer the question "I have an idea, how do I make it into a novel?"

The Absolute Write Forums

Absolute Write is a massive writers forum. They have subforums on just about anything writing related and the membership ranges from published authors to those of us still in the "aspiring" category. Even if you never post any questions yourself, just reading the conversations about writing (including genre-specific forums), agents, formatting, etc will give you an invaluable education. 

NaNoWriMo Follow-up

I included this because, while The National Novel Writing Month occurs only once a year, there are other challenges that happen year round and include everything from months to edit existing novels to posting on your blog every day for a year. Check out the bottom of the page I've linked to for info and links to a bunch of inspirational challenges. 

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey, I'm learning how to navigate blogs. Anyway, had a question about your other blog.

Do you really want to write 42,000 words a month? That's over 1,000 a day?

A.G. Carpenter said...

Yup. About 1500-ish per day.

Which (as you can see) I've had trouble getting into the rhythm of that particular goal. (And been lazy about updating my graphs.)

At the speed I type 1500 words is about a little over one hours work. If I'm working on a rough draft. (Rewrites and editing stuff comes more slowly.) So, the time commitment is not really big (for me) it's just a question of being prepared and making the time to write.

The whole purpose behind the monthly/daily goals is to try and get me into a mindset of writing like a professional, not just in terms of quality but also the quantity. Previously my idea had always been that once I sold a book then I would start writing really steady and productive amounts every day. But I realized that was a mistake. Whether or not I've sold anything yet, if I want to be a professional/published author I need to write like one. Now. Not at some future and unknown date when I sell my first book.

So. 42k a month. Even if I don't make it, I'm working on developing good habits. :)