In this episode we cover: 

• What NaNo is and how to participate
• The community of NaNo
• Tips and tricks for setting yourself up for NaNo
• Methods for keeping going
• NaNo Mindset

This week’s question is: Have you ever done NaNo? or will you do NaNo this year?

Recommendation of the week is: Darkest Night by Alessa Thorn

Amazon UK

Amazon USA

***this show uses affiliate links

Links I mentioned are:

FREE summit Escape the Plot Forest

Find out more about Grant at:

Author Website

Pep Talks for Writers

Rebel of the Week is: April Jones’s husband’s friend

If you’d like to be a Rebel of the week please do send in your story, it can be any kind of rebellion. You can email your rebel story to rebelauthorpodcast@gmail.com

1 new patron this week, welcome and thank you to Paul Worthington. A big thank you to my existing patrons as well. If you’d like to support the show, and get early access to all the episodes as well as bonus content you can from as little as $2 a month by visiting: www.patreon.com/sachablack

THIS EPISODE IS SPONSORED BY KOBO WRITING LIFE

Visit Kobo Writing Life here, read the Kobo Writing Life blog here, and listen to their podcast here.

The post 160 NaNoWriMo for Indie Authors with Grant Faulkner appeared first on Sacha Black.

It’s that time of the year again, as the Northern hemisphere slips into the burnt orange hues of autumn and the Southern hemisphere whips out its sparkly hot pants ready for spring, writers around the world receive their annual knicker-twitch. It’s time to dig deep, feel the burn, polish off the whiskey in brazen midnight flurries of word vomit and author tears. NaNoWriMo is back bitches. But how to prepare? NaNoWriMo is a towering Everest. A giant fire breathing dragon. How the hell does one write 50,000 words in a month anyway? Fear not young wordsmith, I am here to help. This is 6 ways to prepare for NaNoWriMo.

Way 1: Up the Ante with your Craft Learning

Hear ye, hear ye, there’s never been a better time to brush up your craft skills. We all know NaNoWriMo is fueled by the food poisoning of writing. It’s a race to see who can purge their author-guts the fastest and get as many words down as possible. There’s no time to stop and edit, no time to polish. So then, it makes sense to brush up before you start NaNo, to ensure your craft —even when you’re churning out the words—is as good as it can be.

I have the perfect polisher for you.

I’ve just launched The Anatomy of Prose The Senses course. The first in an on going series of craft courses designed to help you write better stories, characters and descriptions.

What will you learn?

• You’ll discover the pillars of all good sensory writing and how to implement them in your own work.
• You’ll learn the psychology behind sensory descriptions, how to use psychology to your advantage and the impact it has on the reader.
• You’ll receive a detailed breakdown of how to create rich descriptions for each individual sense.
• You’ll learn when you should and shouldn’t use each sense.
• You’ll get a raft of tools, tips, tricks and techniques to help you improve all five senses.
• You’ll identify why published examples of sensory description work and how to use the same techniques in your own work.
• You’ll understand the mistakes many writers make with the senses and how to fix them.
• You’ll receive course exercises to put lessons into practice.

Find out more about The Senses course

Way 2: Sprint Those Words, Baby!

NaNoWriMo Bootcamp hosted by Daniel Willcocks is a team effort. Don’t be alone this NaNoWriMo. Work in a virtual office with other fellow NaNoers. Together you’ll set the timer, sprint till your fingers bleed and then go at it all over again. NaNoWriMo Bootcamp is a twice-weekly gathering of fired-up writers all with one singular goal: to SMASH 50,000 words in 30 days.

Guided by international bestselling author, Daniel Willcocks, this 30-day Boot Camp guarantees to hold your feet to the fire and get that book written in time for NaNoWriMo—at least the first draft, anyway.

Join NaNoWriMo Bootcamp

Way 3: Connect with NaNo Buddies

No one will deny that doing NaNoWriMo is fifty shades of brutal. It’s one thing to write a book, but to write it in 30 days is quite the feat. Support is vital if you want to reach the finish line. Having friends, fellow writers and NaNoers to help you celebrate and push you on during those tricky days can be the difference between hitting 5 words and 50,000 words.

Ask your friends to connect with you, to “buddy” up and invite them to join you on the NaNoWriMo website.

You can find my profile here.

Way 4: Top up Your Craft Book Collection

Kevin J Anderson has curated an ENORMOUS bundle of craft, marketing and business books. In fact, this StoryBundle has a whopping 17 books in it and a course worth $150.

For StoryBundle, you decide what price you want to pay. For $5 (or more, if you’re feeling generous), you’ll get the basic bundle of five books in any ebook format—WORLDWIDE.

• The 5 Day Novel by Scott King
• Stop Worrying; Start Writing by Sarah Painter
• The Well-Presented Manuscript by Mike Reeves-McMillan
• Simply Synopsis by Michelle Somers
• Business for Breakfast Vol. 13: NaNoWriMo for the Rest of Us by Leah Cutter

If you pay at least the bonus price of just $20, you get all five of the regular books, plus ELEVEN more books and a $150 video class!

• WMG Publishing Presents: How Can Your Business Survive the Downturn? by Dean Wesley Smith
• Turning Setbacks into Opportunity by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
• Essoe’s Guides to Writing Action Sequences and Sex Scenes by Joshua Essoe (two books in one!)
• Audio for Authors by Joanna Penn
• The In(s) and Out(s) of Series and Story Guides by C. Michelle Jefferies
• Mastering Amazon Descriptions by Brian D. Meeks
• Writing Better Fiction by Brent Nichols
• Killer Subject Lines by Andrea Pearson
• 13 Steps to Evil: How to Craft Superbad Villains by Sacha Black
• 10 Steps to Hero: How to Craft a Kickass Protagonist by Sacha Black
• The Nifty 15 by Honorée Corder and Brian D. Meeks

Tell me more about the StoryBundle

If you only want one or two books, then here are four of the craft books that have had the biggest impact on my writing.

The Emotion Thesaurus and The Emotional Wound Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi 

These thesauri are exceptional. They give you ideas and suggestions for how to show rather than tell emotions. Ways to connect theme to your hero’s wounds and flaws. Methods of digging deeper and looking at body language and long term effects of sustained emotions. They are truly phenomenal.

Get the Emotion Thesaurus at: Kobo, Apple, Amazon UK, Amazon USA

Get the Wound Thesaurus at: Kobo, Apple, Amazon UK, Amazon USA

The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Maass

This book changed the way I look at emotion in fiction. The thesauri are fantastic for showing emotion, but this book took my emotional writing to a deeper level. It gave me insight into humanity’s relationship with emotions and how to push characterization to a deeper level using emotion.

Get the Emotional Craft of Fiction at: Kobo, Apple, Amazon UK, Amazon USA

The Anatomy of Prose by Sacha Black

This book I wrote, but the learnings inside changed the way I write forever. The book focuses on sentence level craft, giving you a raft of tips and tricks to help you improve your descriptions, dialogue, characterization and more. If you like dark humor, learning through examples and want to create perfect prose, then you’ll love this book.

Click here to read The Anatomy of Prose

Way 5: For the Outliners

Look, I know everyone gets stroppy over the great plot-pants debate. But guys, it really doesn’t matter whether you plot, pants or stumble like a bumbling drunk through the weeds of your novel. What matters is that you get to the end. That said, I’ve got some useful tips for both camps.

For the outliners, I love Libbie Hawker’s method of outlining. If you don’t want to buy the book, then start with this cracking and mind-blowing episode of The Rebel Author podcast where I grill Libbie all about how to outline better.

She has some fantastic tips that help you outline more effectively. She also dishes out some tasty tricks to help those who, like me, get stuck part way through their outlines.

If you’re not an audio girl, then try reading K.M. Weiland’s 10-part blog series on outlining or her 12-part series on structuring your novel. She has some fantastic graphics and timelines that help you plot out that story to perfection.

Way 6: For the Writer Who Writes into the Dark

For those that don’t like to outline but trip off the high of “who the fuck knows” while they write, I recommend a couple of things. First up, there’s a great book I read by Dean Wesley Smith a few years ago called Write into The Dark. It gives you some home truths and some great tips for when you hit stumbling blocks.

Get Write into the Dark at: Kobo, Apple, Amazon UK, Amazon USA

Next, if you don’t fancy reading, then my biggest tip is to create an inspiration bucket. For example, I often create playlists to write to. You can find a playlist of music I wrote my first book, Keepers, to on Apple Music. The reason I did it is because sometimes having music can help jog your ideas. It helps keep you in the “mood” and mindset of your story.

Listen here

If you’re not into music, then how about making some aesthetics to remind you of the mood and feeling of your story? I use Canva and choose two colors I want to represent my story. Then I find images that best suit or match the feeling, atmosphere, locations and characters. I sometimes print them and hang them up or use them as phone or computer backgrounds and go back to them anytime I’m stuck.

The aesthetic on the left is from the novel I’m currently working on, The Scent of Death.

Please note, I do use affiliate links. This means that should you choose to purchase something based off my recommendations, I will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. These things help feed my coffee addiction! Also note I only recommend things I personally use and love.

The post 6 Ways to Prepare for NaNoWriMo appeared first on Sacha Black.

It got me thinking about just how similar being a parent is to being a writer. Here’s why:

ONE

I love my son unconditionally – even when he’s been naughty.

I love my WIP unconditionally – even when it’s been naughty and won’t finish a scene or keeps changing things

TWO

My son is extremely unpredictable – apparently he already has a mind of his own

My WIP is extremely unpredictable – it is prone to change its mind suddenly, adding an unexpected twist or killing off an entire character mid scene

THREE

My son drives me to insanity – when he doesn’t know the right words to tell me whats wrong

My WIP drives me to insanity – constantly when it halts suddenly in the middle of a scene and refuses to tell me how it ends and all I can do is sit and wait patiently until it decides to play ball

FOUR

My son exhausts me – keeping me up in the middle of the night

My WIP exhausts me – keeping me up in the middle of the night either writing it, or waking me up having thought of ideas

FIVE

I am extremely proud of my son – every time he does something new or smiles, or breathes for that matter!

I am extremely proud of my WIP – writing novels is hard work, and I am really proud to say that I amongst my crazy life I still find time to write actual novels

SIX

My son costs a shit load of money!

My WIP costs a shit load of money – I buy software and dozens of ‘how to write books’ thinking it will help me write better, not to mention the obsessive notebook collection I have going or the expensive research field trips!

SEVEN

My son makes me repeat myself constantly – ‘eat with your mouth closed, it’s YES not yeah, don’t pull the cats ear…’

My WIP makes me repeat myself constantly – remember those pesky crutch words I spoke about? in the secret to the quickest edit you can do? There are just some words that I can’t help but repeat!

EIGHT

My son makes me shout at him – when he’s been very very naughty like when I picked him up from the childminder the other day and he bonked another kid on the head and then tried to bite his leg!

My WIP makes me shout at it – in frustration when it won’t play ball or it made me write something silly AGAIN, or tricked me and made me rewrite a chapter for the 5th time.

NINE

My son needs a lot of attention – he needs love, and kindness and story time.

My WIP needs a lot of attention – spent tapping away mindlessly at the keyboard, or hours researching or editing.

TEN

My son is a cause for celebration – the first time he walked, his first word… hopefully his first poo on a potty!

My WIP is a cause for celebration – and toasting the end of the first draft – the end of the first edit… hopefully one day…publication?!

If you’re a parent – how does your WIP compare to parenthood? Or if you’re not a parent – what does your WIP do to you?

This marks the last day of NaNo – if you participated – did you win? Was your target 50K? 

Next week, because NaNo is over I’m back to normal posts deconstructing the writing process see you then

The post 10 Reasons Why Being A Writer is Like Being A Parent appeared first on Sacha Black.

I have tried on a number of occasions to set lots of objectives for the new year, and generally speaking failed, or taken two years to complete them!

However, I am going to set some resolutions anyway.

1. Read a book a month (trying to read more non-fiction)

2. Give £5 to charity every month. I actually started this in November, donating to Movember, and then to NaNoWriMo in December.

3. Finish a first draft of my novel

4. Spend more quality time with the wife and kid.

5. Get to my goal size… (this is the hardest, chocolate addiction is a hard one to break)

What are your New Years resolutions?

The post New Years Resolutions appeared first on Sacha Black.

HELP…

I have a wonderfully rare gift tomorrow. A day off from work, almost entirely child free that I intend to dedicate to writing. Whilst I am acutely aware I now have an overdue assignment, tomorrow is dedicated to my novel. But I have a problem.

I have 50 something thousand words written – that need a heavy edit, I have some major character development needed too, and probably before I carry on. I have also lost a bit of confidence due to the mis-timed feedback and I’m not sure how to get it back. But it has knocked me significantly off track, and now I feel like I need to go back and edit major storylines, sub-stories and character lines.

But here is my question, Should I go back and spend the time I have between life admin editing the 50K? Or do I spend a couple of hours on character development and then soldier on with the story and edit at the end?

Now – before you all charge in and tell me to plough on (because thats what everyone has said without exception)

There are a few caveats –

I need to either raise my confidence with what words I already have down on the page or I am not going to be able to continue, OR someone needs to provide me with an extremely rational logical argument as to why I should continue.

Listen to me. I already know the answer, I am inviting you to tell me to continue, but I am stuck. Stuck wanting to edit, to critique and perfect what I have before carrying on… the urge to edit is overwhelming.

Also now I haven’t looked at my novel since the 26th Nov when I completed NaNo, the usual ‘carry on to keep the flow going’ doesn’t really apply, as I am a bit out of the flow now anyway.

So what do I do???

Answers on a blogpostcard!

The post To Edit or Not to Edit? That is the Question appeared first on Sacha Black.

It’s official, November 26th took me to a staggering 50,070 words… I celebrated and then promptly wept into my repetitively strained fingertips at the realisation I still had another 30-40K to go dawned on me. Did I mention the need for several redrafts?

KILL ME NOW.

I am also at the point where I can’t decide whether to add in a twist, which would fundamentally change an aspect of the book.

hmmmm.

Anyway, good luck to all those still NaNo-ing. As Dory would say “Just keep swimming, Just keep swimming”

The post Winner Winner Chicken Dinner… Or NaNo?! appeared first on Sacha Black.

Writing a Novel has always been on my list of to do’s in life. Ok, its top of the list, but it just never happened. I was too busy being sucked into planning to actually ever get any words down so I decided to suck it up, and get on with it. As a first timer to NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. But this is how I see it:

Week 1: And we’re off… The thrill of NaNo, everyone’s ahead. Loving life, love NaNo. Chat NaNo, talk NaNo, bore people to death with NaNo, have no problems with plot, structure or characters, on a role, “I can do this shit” euphoria. Taptaptaptaptaptap, burn taptaptap still buzzing, shovel sugar in, tell EVERYONE about it some more, chatter chatter excitement excitement more sugar.

Week2: We’re riding the high, riding the high, riding the high….. put on 2lbs in sugar and chocolate – thats ok, its only 2lbs, can lose it after. Riding the high of NaNo….

CRASH, BURN, DIE. I HATE MYSELF. I’M SHIT AT WRITING. I’M SHIT AT EVERYTHING.

Writers block, unblocked, blocked again, Shovel more chocolate in to cure depressive writers mentality. Self criticise. Stupid NaNo. Suddenly remember why you started the challenge, tap tap tap, chocolate, crisps, hate on work for getting in the way of writing, tap tap.  Feel the burn, feel the slump, can’t do it any more, for the love of god why did I start this… Stupid idea. Hate my story anyway, It’s shit, I’m shit. Row with the husband/wife/partner for writing too much and not talking to you despite their full support at the beginning of the month. Tap tap, Oh I made it to the end of week 2.

Week 3: NaNOOOOOOOOOO burn, exhaustion, head cold, sore throat, RSI, Neck ache, back ache, everything fucking ache, chocolate, ready meals, ready meals, more ready meals too busy writing, forget to bath the kid, put on another 3lbs, HATE my book, but come too fucking far to stop. Someone says something annoying on stupid forums, hate them, hate work, fight the urge to throw laptop, throw something else instead, fight the urge to delete story, tap tap tap, tap tap tap, I’m behind (hate life), I’m ahead (love my story), I’m behind (hate life), I’m at par (thank god for that), tap tap tap, I’m behind (fuck my life).  More chocolate, seen midnight every night this week, I’m ahead, oh its the end of week three…. Love my story.

Week 4: Baring in mind we’re not there yet, here’s how I am hoping it goes:

Oh My God, It’s the start of the last week. SHIT it’s the start of the last week, WAIT…. it’s the start of the last week…. it’s nearly over…. I CAN DO IT…. burn, more chocolate more sweets, M.U.S.T. keep typing, tap tap tap, late night writing, lunch break writing, writing on my phone in the work toilets, writing on the train, writing sentences in meetings on my notebook. Feeling the burn, can see the light, just three more days, tap tap tap, love my book, tell everyone how close you are to finishing, tap tap, chat about NaNo, love my story…. one more day, tap tap I can DOOOO IT.

MADE IT MADE IT MADE IT. Thank god its over I’m never doing it again…..

335 days later… Repeat cycle.

The post NaNoWriMo – The Dirty Truth appeared first on Sacha Black.

Killing off characters…

Whilst I might not be an accomplished published writer… yet and therefore not necessarily have the right to say what I am about to, I am a prolific bibliophile, which does give me the right as I may well read your work one day too! Just as a caveat, this isn’t meant as a slur on anyones work, just a lowly readers opinion.

So, killing off characters….. lots of people do it, in fact most authors kill off a character or two… Sometimes it helps to shimmy your plot along… Great, do it… but what about when you kill off a main character…?

George RR Martin does it all the time you say, well if game of thrones can do it then so can I.

No. No you can’t.

I mean, you could. But word of cautionary warning… don’t just kill off main characters without a irrefutable reason. I will give you an example.

Spoiler alert: Veronica Roth & Divergent

If you intend to read Divergent then skip to another post!

You spend three long books getting to know, investing in and falling in love with her main character Tris. Then she offs her a few chapters from the last book. Fatal mistake. I know I am not alone in thinking this either. Most of my friends who have read her are equally as pissed off. Heres why:

1. She spent three books making us fall in love with her character, ‘feel’ for her character, get to know her inside out, as well as we know ourselves.

2. We were invested in her

3. It came out of the blue – I had to re-read the page in which she killed her off three times before I understood that she had in fact killed her off, at which point I genuinely said out loud “Are you fucking kidding me?”

4. Three books close to a thousand pages of reading about a character and then the last couple of chapters end without her in it.

5. Secretly most people want a happy ending for the characters they love, unless the whole book has lead you to a different ending, which this didn’t.

6. She wrote the first two books from the main characters point of view, in the first person, and then split the last book chapter by chapter to two different characters POV – annoying. Do it the whole way through or not at all.

7. She tricked us, into thinking she was going to have a happy ending with ‘four’ her boyfriend and live happily ever after.

This all adds up to being NOT ok. It’s sloppy writing, in fact it is down right lazy writing. I feel like she couldn’t be bothered to work out an ending so she just offed her main character. Who does that???

Another point to note is POV. Veronica Roth writes in the first person. *SLAPS FOREHEAD* you simply can’t write three books in the first person and then kill your character off. I mean obviously thats why she split the last book to write from two characters view points, but still wrote in the first person. It was tough going and annoying. But explains why she was able to kill off her main character.

She made me invest in a character and then tricked her readers (me) out of the ending we had been expecting and wanting. It’s not ok to do that. Whilst Veronica Roth wrote an outstanding first book, which has clearly made her millions, and an ok second book, she utterly massacred the last one, with an ending thats pissed off every reader I know. It has certainly put me off reading any of her future work. What it does show, is that she can certainly make her audience talk about her work, and feel emotional about her work, I mean, if angry counts? Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t meant as a character assassination on Veronica Roth or the Divergent series. I am just trying to show you how not to really irritate your readers.

DON’T CHEAT US OUT OF AN ENDING YOU LED US TO.

 Obviously, if you have led us down the road of knowing the main character is going to die, then fine. But if you haven’t, then please be careful, think about what your readers would want and expect, and hope for, for your characters ending.

The one thing I do have to thank her for, is she inspired me to get off my arse, and write a better story, with a better ending. I’m not saying I am a better writer than her, I’m clearly an unpublished nobody. But, she made me want to write a story with a better ending. I was that annoyed! and here I am in the midst of NaNoWriMo, several thousand words deep in my book….

The post Writing Tips #5 Killing off characters appeared first on Sacha Black.

Saw this, thought it was brilliant, now have it everywhere to keep me on track!

Enjoy

The post NaNoWriMo Calendar Checker appeared first on Sacha Black.