We talk about:

• The pillars of creating suspense and tension in your story
• Sentence level tricks for creating suspense
• Mistakes to avoid when creating suspense
• Tips and tricks for the beginnings and endings of your chapters
• Resources and recommendations for more

This week’s questions is:

 What’s keeping you sane during lockdown?

Book recommendation this week is comes from Katie Forrest who recommended Untamed by Glennon Doyle.

Grab your copy on Kobo https://www.kobo.com/ebook/untamed-132

And don’t forget you can preorder your copy of The Anatomy of Prose in ebook, paperback and hardback here:  https://books2read.com/anatomyofprose

Listen or Watch NEXT LEVEL AUTHORS

Watch on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXnvkIvvQvHBbrO_RtUnlVA

Listen on your Podcatcher https://nextlevelauthors.podbean.com

Join the Next Level Author Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/nextlevelauthors/

Listener Rebel of the Week is Meg Cowley

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 or tweet me @rebelauthorpod

If you’d like to support the show, and get access to all the bonus essays, posts and content, you can from as little as $2 a month by visiting: www.patreon.com/sachablack

This week’s episode is sponsored by Kobo.

Find out more about my guest Christina Kaye on her

Website: www.topshelfedits.com 

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/topshelfeditingllc

The post 027 How to Write Suspense with Christina Kaye appeared first on Sacha Black.

You’ve written ‘THE END’ on your first, second, eighth – or if you’re me it will mostly likely be my third draft. You know it’s not perfect, but you’re happy you have taken your manuscript as far as you can. What next?

Alpha / Beta readers

As I approach the end of my first draft this concept is becoming more than just a twinkle in my eye. It’s quietly growing into the elephant in the corner of the room.

What are beta readers? How do I get one? How long will it take? Will they tear my work to pieces?

I resorted to asking some seasoned pros for advice and they really have given some amazing helpful and comprehensive answers. Please welcome Geoff and Dylan

Why use a Beta reader at all?

GEOFF – You need someone to tell you the story hangs together. That is what I want. Not a clean up on typos and grammar though that is useful, but is the plot engaging, do the characters work, does the story flow, make sense etc. to me a beta reader is not a paid for editor who could do the same job but a friendly help mate who is prepared to offer a view, possibly in return for you reading their work. Ideally, it is someone you know and trust to tell you as it is without some other agenda. But I’m not sure there’s any difference between a beta reader and the right sort of editor – clearly you need an editor as well for grammar and typos but that is different to a beta reader.

DYLAN – As a writer you are too close to your work. Even when you leave a manuscript to rest for a few weeks before going back to it, you know the story intimately. You know the character’s motivations and their backstories. You need beta readers to tell you what you’ve actually written, rather than what you intended to write. They give you insight to things you’ve missed out, things you’ve never thought of, plot holes, characterisation issues and so on.

How do you find your Beta readers?

GEOFF – Word of mouth, brazenly asking people, posting about the book and asking for help – personally I have found people love to help albeit that sometimes they don’t realise quite what is involved.

DYLAN – By asking people nicely.

When choosing a Beta reader, do you look for a certain type of reader? i.e. someone who does or doesn’t read your particular genre, and why?

GEOFF – I want someone who will take the job seriously. Ideally they will have a fondness for the genre but they must be open-minded. My first work – a comedic book – was easy enough to place. For my current WIP I had three aspects where a specific Beta would be useful. I found someone to cover two of the three.

DYLAN – I think it’s important to get a spread of people who are likely to view your work differently. Try to get writers and readers, those that are immersed in your genre and those that aren’t. Most important, get people who aren’t afraid to tell you the truth.

How long do you expect a Beta reader to take to read your work – do you agree a time?

GEOFF – I always tell them when I need the results by and I’m realistic to make sure I give them at least a month and often longer.

DYLAN – I try to set them a deadline of around a month, giving them warning beforehand, but they get as much time as they need.

How much feedback do you expect to receive or give when going through a beta reading process?

GEOFF – Piece of string. I tell Beta readers that I want more than ‘well done’ but then they know that. I try and give them at least three things to have in mind as they read. In all honesty I’m grateful for whatever I get, given they aren’t being paid and if they are shit I don’t ask again. I have the luxury of no deadlines so if I find the Beta reader or Beta readers I have asked aren’t any good I can circle back and recalibrate my timings.

DYLAN – Each beta reader is different. Based on their background and inclination I like to give an overview of how I felt about the book and then break it down into plot, setting, pacing and characterisation.

Do you set any guidelines or ask any specific questions of beta readers before giving them your work? 

GEOFF – Yes to questions, no to guidelines. I want the Beta reader to work as they feel comfortable. If they ask for guidelines then I discuss with them. Recently I had a Beta reader respond in three parts – plot, dialogue and other but that was their choice and they were looking at my writing about American characters hence dialogue as a separate topic.

DYLAN – I’ll ask them to cover the areas I mentioned above beforehand, and occasionally point them to a specific scene I’m concerned about, but otherwise I leave it to them. Any feedback is gold dust and I don’t want to either restrict them or steer them too much.

What does beta read feedback look like? Or maybe more importantly feel like?

GEOFF – I don’t think there is one way it is set out. The best is someone who will take a word version and annotate it with comments and changes but an email explaining is just as good. I don’t feel feedback – that’s far too spinach and quorn for me.

DYLAN – Again, it’s different depending on who the beta reader is. I like my beta readers to be blunt and honest. I don’t need the feedback sugar-coated because it’s important I get both their thoughts and emotions at the time of reading. All I ask is that it’s constructive. I always say “don’t tell me it’s shit, tell me it’s shit because…”

How do you receive feedback? All in one go or chapter by chapter? In a word doc, or hand written scrawls across the page?

GEOFF – See above; I had all sorts. I prefer not hand written scrawls and I prefer not face to face. I want to absorb their ideas. Some however prefer to explain themselves. There I have learnt to button my lip and not ask anything unless I really don’t understand what they are trying to say.

DYLAN – Most send me feedback electronically. Some like to give general thoughts, others a more detailed chapter by chapter run through.

Have you ever been stung or pleasantly surprised by beta reading?

GEOFF – My first Beta reader – my wife – hated it. I realised how hard it was and after that have always been grateful for whatever is said, even if it pulls something apart. No one, yet, has been obviously out to destroy so I take whatever they say in good faith. Have I been pleasantly surprised? Once; my current WIP contains a lot of the science of genetics and I had two biology graduates from oxford read it. They both made the same points and both complemented me on my understanding; since I stopped biology aged 12 I was quietly pleased!

DYLAN – I’m always pleasantly surprised by the feedback my beta readers give me, even if it’s pointing out terrible writing or major errors.

What’s the best advice you could give someone about to embark on the Beta reading phase?

GEOFF – Ask anyone who you think might be good, if they’d do it. Even if you don’t use them there will be another occasion. Work hard to make them feel comfortable; they know how much this means to you but if they are really going to be helpful they need to be made really comfortable that you’ll not eat them or, worse, if they are friends, you’ll not hate them. Remember: once you give them your manuscript it’s no longer yours, it is theirs and anything they say is right. Treat them with kid gloves and respect; if they haven’t understood something, chances are you haven’t told it very well. However if they suggest a solution be very wary about accepting it. Only you know your own book.

DYLAN – For the writer, be very grateful for the feedback you receive, positive or negative, and remember that any comments the beta reader makes is because they want to improve the book. You don’t have to take all points on board but you should read and consider each one carefully.

For the beta reader, be honest and constructive. These are your opinions so they can’t be wrong. And yes, we’ll still be speaking at the end of this!

***

So here are my top 10 tips for the Beta reading stage:

The post 10 TOP TIPS For the BETA Reading Stage appeared first on Sacha Black.

How do you read? What happens to you?

Drifting off into another world when reading might be wonderful for the joy of the story. But it presents significant problem for me if I want to learn anything from the author.

When you read, are you reading as a reader or a writer? I always read as a reader. Allowing myself to be completely absorbed, to feel what the characters feel, smile at their wins and cry over their losses. But how do you stay consciousness enough to pick out the points you can learn from and still read like a reader?

There are the obvious things all readers like:

• Gritty multi-layered characters with hopes, dreams and faults.
• Characters being tested to their limits
• Pace – enough to keep you interested
• Story arc and a climax
• A statisfying ending
• Some kind of antagonist or bad guy
• An absorbing world

There are more, but you get my point. I don’t want to write a blog post telling anyone to suck eggs, or whatever the phrase it. These points are standard. It’s the more subtle things that I want to learn from. The nuances, the individual word choices in a sentence that give vivid imagery. Or the sentences that make me catch my breath and read faster, faster, faster because I just HAVE to know what happens. Or the actions a character takes that make me fall in love with them a little more.

There’s no magic to my method. I try to read a fraction slower than normal – hard if it’s a pacey book. I keep a pencil, highlighter or trusty index finger to hand depending on how I am reading. If on my kindle, then I use the highlighting function to highlight any I pick up. To ensure I keep buried in the book, I use my emotions as a flag system. If I smile, I check myself – why did I smile, a quick scramble back through the previous paragraph and hey presto, I just learnt a new trick. If I find myself scanning faster and faster, feeling desperate to just know, then I do the same. If I cry, if I feel anything, I stop and try and identify why.

Some of these might seem odd given you wont have any of the few hundred pages of context I had. But I thought it would be helpful to share some of the things I highlighted from the last book I read (End of Days):

1. ‘…can see the frustration stiffening the lines of his shoulders.’

Why did I highlight it? I guess because it painted wonderful images, in one sentence I knew exactly how he felt, and what it did to his body, I saw and felt the emotion.

2. ‘I put my hand over my mouth to keep from calling him.’

That’s the protagonist speaking, and a display of physical action showing her innocent love for the male lead. I thought it was so sweet an innocent and a beautifully honest depiction of what a teen might do to stop herself from calling out to the boy and admitting something she didn’t want to.

3. ‘The October wind tugs at my hair. Dry leaves float by, lost and abandoned.’

As I admitted in my post describing my writing process I’m still developing my ability to do description. This is a great example of weaving atmospheric description into the story – plus it gives away a piece of description about the protagonist too – which can be difficult when writing in the first person.

Some questions from me to you, I would love to know the answers to:

1. What do you naturally pick up on when you read your favourite stories?
2. Why are they your favourite, as a writer why do you appreciate them?
3. Do you collect and highlight pieces of text? If not, do you do something else to gather your favourite excerpts or ‘lessons’?

The post Read Like A Writer – Collect Words. Collect Sentences. appeared first on Sacha Black.

I don’t mind admitting I’m a selfish reader. I’ve always read exactly what I want for no other reason than, I felt like it. So I never paid much attention to whether or not it was useful or beneficial. But now, as a writer, whilst I still need some of that escapism by falling into a good book, I’ve come to realise I also need to read to aid my writing – and I’m not just talking about non fiction books that teach you writing skills. This is part one in a two part series, looking at reading like a writer – reading what you NEED and reading what you WANT.

When I was at school I hated Shakespeare. I didn’t get it. I didn’t understand any of his wordy sentences, or the elaborate metaphors. I figured he was just another drunk writer that got famous after he died. But then, my discontent was probably more to do with the prescription of school and the incessant deconstruction of texts, than Shakespeare himself. It wasn’t until I voluntarily picked up Shakespeare in my teens that I really grew a deep appreciation for him.

I outlined my writing process and 8 steps to discover your own perfect process last week. I’m drawing close to the end of the first draft of my novel and as a result have started to think about second and third drafts and what might need doing, which led me to Shakespeare. In my second and third drafts come the detail and description.

Whilst I have lots of ideas and a vivid imagination to create plots worlds and characters, as someone who primarily learned to write academic stuff, actually being able to convey the images in my head with enough poetic description to conjure fantastical worlds for readers, takes more practice than I’ve had. I need a parrot constantly sitting on my shoulder barking “Context, Context, Description,” reminders at me. I’m referring to similes, metaphors, and descriptively evocative passages.

So as a writer, that’s what I NEED to read. I need to find novels, passages, and poetry that are spectacular examples of creating vivid imagery through context and description. Who better than Shakespeare himself. (yes there are lots of writers I could have looked at, but I fancied a bit of Shakespeare today!)

Do you know what your weaknesses are as a writer? Could your dialogue do with a brush up? Maybe your characters aren’t quite as full of life as you would like, or maybe your world hasn’t come across the way you thought it would. None of us are perfect. So there will be something you can work on. If you don’t know what you need to develop, then ask someone else. Ask a trusted person who won’t crush you, but will be honest at the same time. When you work out what you need to practice, research writers who excel at it.

It’s ironic that I hated the thought of deconstructing Shakespeare at school, and now that’s exactly what I am about to do! Although there’s a lot we can learn from Shakespeare, for the purposes of this post, and in support of thinking about my next draft I’m focusing specifically on his poetic style and ability to create spectacular imagery.

My favourite passage of Shakespeare’s depicts this beautifully. It’s slightly dark but I adore the imagery and tragic metaphors in it. I give you, Macbeth’s final soliloquy:

She should have died hereafter;

There would have been a time for such a word.

— To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

To the last syllable of recorded time;

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury

Signifying nothing.

— Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5, lines 17-28)

I’ve bolded the bit that I really love.

‘Life’s but a walking shadow’ in other words life’s just an illusion. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s a powerful image. It reminds me of Peter Pan’s shadow, prancing around mocking the kids in Wendy’s nursery. I think the way he takes ‘life’ such a complex concept and uses such a simple comparison to draw a powerful image is quite frankly awe inspiring. But that’s the point, right? Use imagery to turn complex concepts into simple images. Sounds simple… *slaps forehead, pulls at face – wishes it was that simple*.

‘a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more.’ A poor actor who struts and worries for his hour on the stage and then is never heard from again. Such a sad image; an actor who works slaves for lifetime, practicing through the blood sweat and tears to finally get a break and then, only gets 15 minutes of fame. Forgotten forever, like the army of hopeful thespians who came before him, and the budding recruits yet to come. Sad, yet cuttingly true – not everyone can be famous.

The last line, ‘It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury Signifying nothing.’

Life is a story told by an idiot, full of noise and emotional disturbance but devoid of meaning. Not sure how comfortable I am with the sweeping generalization we’re all idiots! But I get his point. We do get caught up in the mundane, or caught up in the shallow intricacies of fads and social hierarchy, and that ultimately is meaningless. Does he really mean that life is meaningless? I hope not, I like to think he is making a point that Macbeth’s life was pointless – he spent it doing despicable acts, and if you do the same, then at the end, life becomes meaningless. Macbeth lived the life of a shadow, an illusion of life.

Isn’t that a wonderful image? Ok, I read into a lot, and the average reader skims through words at a thousand knots trying to get to the end of the chapter, see what happens next. But if I can convey even a slither of that imagery I would be a happy lady.

Tell me in the comments below: do you know what your weakness is? If so, what is it? And what authors do you (or will you) try and learn from?

The post Learn To Read Like A Writer – Read What You NEED appeared first on Sacha Black.

I don’t think I am alone in obsessing over reading blogs about writing, but all it does it confuse me. I mean, how much attention do we really pay to understanding our own writing process?

Until recently, when I had an epiphany, I’d spent a long time thinking there was a right way… a right writing process I should be following. There isn’t. I decided to sit down and really give my process some thought, because if I can understand my own process, then I can shape it and tweak it to maximize my effectiveness. I hope this post helps you do the same.

Everyone’s process will of course be different, but if you are in any doubt about your own method, if you’re blocked or just feel something isn’t right, then I strongly recommend you do your own version of this to understand your process. Because I love visual things, I have depicted it in a pyramid:

 ***

Usually I prepare and organise till I’m blue in the face, lists run in my blood. But it wasn’t working for my writing, so I let go of doing most ‘preparation’ to write this novel. One thing I couldn’t let go of was an outline. I need it, for my sanity! For me, it doesn’t have to be massive, but because getting the timeline/action down is the most important thing in my first draft, I need a paragraph outlining each chapter. I never follow the outline to the letter, things get moved, cut completely and then changed again, but it’s a guide.

Step 1: Decide what you need before you start – an outline, a synopsis, masses of research or just an idea.

***

PLOT

This is where you figure out what is most important to you to get down on the page first. This will also be dependent on how you work out and develop your characters.

Step 2: Decide what’s most important to you in draft one.

Here are my questions to help you work out your own process for draft 1:

• What do you like doing first?
• How do you develop your characters? Do you know them before you start writing or do you see how they develop on the page?
• How well do you know your setting before you start?
• Do you need to do lots of research?

I tried to use character sheets and interview each one before I started, but it didn’t work for me and trying only made me tie myself in knots worrying I was a shit writer because I couldn’t answer the questions.

So I sacked the preparation off and let the characters develop on the page. For me draft one is all about timeline and action. I need to get the basic plot down on the page. There’s only a little bit of creativity and imagery woven in to the story at this stage. I can’t get everything perfect in the first draft, so I don’t even try. I don’t worry about the chapter, three chapters ago, that Ive decided needs a rewrite, I just keep going. But how do I combat this incessant need to edit?

Step 3: Create an editing map.

I create one place, with a designated section for each chapter. Dump decisions or notes about chapters or characters or whatever you like under the appropriate chapter section. That way you keep your thoughts and decisions ready and organised for when you want to edit.

The benefit of an editing map is it will allow you to pattern spot your thinking. If you find you constantly put notes about characters then you know that’s what needs to go in the next draft. If you comment about setting then work on that next and so on.

***

CHARACTERS

Have a break before starting draft two, the longer the text the longer the break should be, but its up to you to decide how long is right for you. I imagine I will put my manuscript down for a month or two – or as long as I physically can.

Here’s where I hack the manuscript or story to pieces, I focus on finalising the timeline. Moving chapters or scenes till they are right, but I get it right here. Once this draft is over I don’t want to have to move the timeline much more. Whilst I do this, I study the characters. Picking up on their salient traits, emphasising or minimising them, checking consistencies and making very rough notes about each one, so that I get consistency across the whole story – bit like an editing map but for the characters – let’s call it a character map.

Step 4: Check your editing map for patterns of your thinking before you start editing- whatever is most salient is what you should work on next.

Step 5: Create a character map – it can look like whatever you want, and be as big or small as you want but should have relevant or key bits of information about your character to ensure consistency when editing.

Step 6: Once the timeline is finalised plot a loose map of chapters / scenes so you can easily find bits you need when editing.    

The character map ensures I check their back story and history and start weaving in detail.

Finally I start thinking about the world and environment. I know a lot of detail about my stories world before I start writing, so I don’t need to do much work to create it, more weave the detail in, in draft 3.

***

WORLD-BUILDING

Have another break before starting draft 3.

This is world-building time. I know for some people this will be the first draft stuff. But not for me, world-building comes in as a finishing touch – madness given the genre I write (fantasy/dystopian), but my world building is really done before I outline. The world in my current novel is what came to me first, so even though I only start to weave the detail in now, I already know what needs doing. My other focus in this draft is to finalise characters, detail, backstory and ensuring all the foreshadowing is in the right place.

Step 7: Check your editing map again

Ask yourself:

• What’s left to perfect?
• Have you checked details?
• Is your world complete?
• Are your characters perfected?
• Do you need to foreshadow?
• Does your timeline work?

***

PERFECTING THE MANUSCRIPT

I’m rubbish at proof reading. But I have to at least attempt it before giving it to beta readers and editors. So I proof read, check everything, over and over till I feel like I have done as much as I can do. I check:

• Characters
• Timelines
• Consistencies of: characters, world, locations, storyline, descriptions etc
• Grammar/spelling/word order/sentence structure etc
• General errors
• Story arcs / character growth

***

BETA FEEDBACK

This is the bit where you crap your pants a little – your hand shakes as you tentatively give your manuscript over to be critiqued by beta readers.

Once you stop crying! You edit in your feedback and hey presto you’re ready to pay a developmental or copy editor or seek an agent or whatever you feel your next steps should be.

 ***

RESEARCH

Step8: Research along the way, don’t get stuck making all the decisions before you start

There’s one section I haven’t mentioned. Research, and that’s because I research constantly. From before I pick up the pen, right through to the end of draft 3. I don’t worry about having all the tiny details before I start, or I would never start, plus I change my mind too often to decide everything before I begin; so I research details along the way.

***

This post is not meant to be a guide to the only writing process– the complete opposite in fact. This post is just my personal method of writing, my process. It will only be right for me. But what I hope it does do, is help you get some insight into discovering your own process. 

What does your pyramid look like?

The post 8 Steps to Discover Your Perfect Writing Process appeared first on Sacha Black.

Do you ever need just five more minutes in your day? Maybe you want to edit another post, or write a short, or a piece of flash for a competition. But you just don’t seem to have enough time. I’m writing this post, because I always need more time. I’m pretty good at being efficient. But I could be better. I know I could squeeze another half hour out my day. But how when I’m a busy worker bee, mother, wife, friend, chef, cleaner…. Etc etc?!

Cheat – thats how!

Find work arounds, life hacks, and quick fixes. For the sake of simplicity I am going to break this down into three categories. Work – because lets face it, most of our day is spent there, Home because that’s where the rest of it is spent and Technology, because that’s where your quick wins are. Snatching 2 minutes here, 4 minutes there, they all add up. I guarantee if you start thinking differently and use your time wisely, you can start churning out the words.

Work

There are lots of things you could be doing at work to squeeze a few extra minutes into your day. You need to stay switched on, mind. None of this taking a leisurely half hour to re read what you wrote last time (I do this). You need to be on top form for this to work. For the sake of ease I am using a typical office work environment, hopefully you can translate to your work environment.

1. How do you get to work? Drive? Walk? Bus? Cycle?

Walkings obvious, you can write notes, stories or pieces of flash on an iPad or phone. But what of the other methods – what happens if you drive? Ever thought of a Dictaphone? Can’t afford it? Ok, what about dragon dictation it’s free app, and as you talk it converts your speech to text.

2. Cars parked.You pick your bag up and walk into the office. But what do you do on your walk to your desk? Scratch your nose? Pick a wedgey out? Bimble around? Chat to co-workers? Or do the worst… check facebook, twitter or a number of other social media sites?

STOP.

Get your phone out yes, but have a notes app, a writing app or find a pen and piece of paper and write. Write notes, work out a character problem, write a piece of flash. Can’t write without reading what you wrote before? Fine, start a new chapter, write a character bio, do something different, damn, you could just think about your novel if you really wanted. But do something rather than nothing. Because nothing, doesn’t get your novel written.

3. What about when your laptop is loading? My work computer takes at least five mintues to load. How do you use those five minutes?

4. What about when you walk between meetings? Same principle applies. Focus, write. Walking to the toilet what do you do? What about sitting on the toilet… other than the obvious! Some people spend an age on the loo, why not use that time productively?

 5. Ever stand in the lunch queue? What do you do on your lunch break? Have a social? Catch up with friends? I’ve started taking my laptop, leaving my desk, finding a cubby hole, setting a timer and furiously writing for 25 minutes. If I don’t, I end up eating at my desk and working through lunch. Well, we all need a lunch break, it is allowed you know! I get between 300 and 750 words done in that time too. That’s a lot of words I might not have written if I didn’t take my lunch.

6. Ever sit and wait for people to turn up for a meeting? write notes, take a spare notebook, write a story. What about when you are in a meeting? I mean, ok, you need to pay attention to the work, but do you ever pay attention to the people? To the body language? What about a heated exchange at work? Use it. Steal ideas for characters or scenes from your coworkers.

Home

There are simply hundreds of ways to get more time at home.

7. Cook?

I’m, the chef in our house. But I find myself mindlessly stirring the cooking pot like a zombie. Why not put a note pad next to the oven, and use it. Yes you need to cook, but there’s no harm in writing the odd note here and there.

8. What about when you do the housework?

Are you mindful when you do it? What do you think about? Why not think about your novel, construct sentences and plot lines. Blue tac a piece of paper to the door of every room in your house. When you come out of the room having finished cleaning, challenge yourself to write 5 bullet points or a subplot, 3 dialogue sentences or maybe 3 straight sentences from your current story.

I talked about the loo earlier, why not remove the magazines and leave a note pad instead?

9. Own a dog? What do you do when you walk the dog?

If you have a phone why not write, spend time considering your next plot twist. Dogs basically walk themselves anyway right? :p

10. Wifi

Now here’s the biggest time waster for me. The bloody joyous procrastination tool that is, the internet. More specifically, social media. It’s fitting then, that I take my own advice and cut down. I have 30ish thousand words left of my first draft of my novel. I’ve decided to drop down to just 3 posts a week until the bloody thing is finished (well a first draft anyway). But more than that, I am taking another drastic move. I do solemnly swear to switch the wireless off on my laptop when I sit down to write, and only turn it back on for research purposes. I shudder to think the amount of time I have wasted on various social media sites when I could have been writing. Or worst when I went to research something and a notification came up which I thought ‘I’ll just check it quickly.’ The thing is, I’ve tried to be good before. But the only sure fire method of ensuring I don’t procrastinate is by switching it off.

Technology

I don’t need to list it all here, there are dozens of tech blogs that can do it better than me. I mentioned Dragon Dictation earlier. But there are lots of apps and programmes that sync up between phones and iPads and laptops, like Evernote.

Here’s The Top Ten Apps For Writers from the Huffington Post.

Here’s the 20+ top iPad apps for writers from the Daily Genius.

And because I’m not biased to iPhones (I am) here’s a list of the top android apps for writers.

And last but not least The Best Apps for Any Kind of Writing from Lifehacker.

Did I leave anything out? What are your most efficient tips and tricks for more writing?

The post 10 Life Hacks For The Efficient Writer appeared first on Sacha Black.

But first – audience participation required:

Who are your favorite antiheroes? And more importantly why? Are you writing about one? Have you read about one recently? What do you or don’t you like about them?

So What Is An Antihero?

Your typical hero is charming, wonderful and full of positive attributes. But antiheroes are the opposite, Wiki says: The antihero archetype can be traced back at least as far as Homer‘s Thersites. So they have been around a while, which means there must be something that makes them appeal to us that goes beyond fads, and fashion. There must be something classical about an antihero that means they work time and time again.

Typically an antihero is a protagonist who has specific characteristics such as:

• Imperfections that are deemed unheroic – like, arrogance, or selfishness and self-preservation.
• Bad behaviors – such as adultery, murderous tendencies, gossiping, sexism, etc.
• They lack positive traits like courage or strength or remorse.
• Often but not always they lack a heroic stature and physique, they are ugly.
• Usually, they have traits that can be found in villains – greed, amorality and violent behavior.
• They have complex, messy motivations ranging from revenge through to love and honor.
• Last – but most importantly – they have at least one redeeming quality. Such as noble albeit confused motives (like Dexter) or perhaps they love something so much they would sacrifice themselves for them.
• This redeeming quality is what gives them their character arc and turns them into a hero by the end of the story.

Antiheroes blur the line between villains and heroes. What tips them into the hero category is that there is often a line, usually a moral or ethical one that they just won’t cross. They still have their humanity. But this leads them to a mess of contradictions and confusions.

What Makes an Antihero Different?

Antiheroes make mistakes, lots of them. They are so often motivated by personal interest rather than altruism that if put into a corner, and forced to choose between right or wrong, the antihero will often choose wrong because they are weak, it’s easier and it gets them what they want quicker. Often antiheroes think the end justify the means, and they will pursue that end by any means possible.

Why Are They So Appealing?

It’s evolution 101 find your own species attractive. To find them appealing. Well, antiheroes are the truest reflection of ourselves. Not all of them granted – hopefully, most of you don’t want the murderous side to Dexter. But elements of their behavior and personalities are.

Antiheroes embody humanities darkest secrets and desires. They blur the line between what dark and twisty parts of us really want, and what society says we should actually want. They have the affairs we cant; they stab their boss in the eye with a fork because of they’re an arse, they cheat, lie and steal and all to pursue their own desires. Antiheroes have their cake, and they con their way into eating it. Antiheroes fulfill your darkest desires and still ending up as the good guy.

It’s the ultimate fantasy. What’s not appealing about that?!

Need An Example of A Good Antihero? Here’s A List of Some of My Faves:

• Beetlejuice from Beetlejuice
• Jordan Belfort from The Wolf of Wall Street
• Jason Bourne from the Jason Bourne trilogy
• Chev Chelios from Crank and Crank: High Voltage
• John Constantine from Constantine
• Judge Dredd from Dredd
• Hellboy from Hellboy and Hellboy II: The Golden Army
• Jack Reacher from Jack Reacher (film)
• Shrek from the Shrek (series)
• Captain Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean series
• V from the movie V for Vendetta
• Theodore “T-Bag” Bagwell from Prison Break
• Jack Bauer from 24
• Edmund Blackadder from BBC‘s Blackadder series
• Chuck Bass from Gossip Girl
• Nicholas Brody from Homeland
• Basil Fawlty from Fawlty Towers
• Saul Goodman from Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad
• Peter Griffin from Family Guy
• Jimmy McNulty from The Wire
• Veronica Mars from Veronica Mars
• Dexter Morgan from Dexter
• Tony Soprano from The Sopranos
• Walter White from Breaking Bad
• Dean Winchester and Sam Winchester from Supernatural
• Batman
• Catwoman
• Magneto from the X-Men series
• Wolverine

If you would like more antihero examples here’s a list of 50 antiheroes.

***

If you liked this post, why not get even more awesome tips in the book 13 Steps To Evil – How to Craft Superbad Villains

OUT NOW

Click this link and just click the logo of your device or regular bookshop and it will take you to the right page.

You can also get a FREE villains cheatsheet and a villain’s short course by joining my mailing list just click here.

Amazon Book Blurb:

Your hero is not the most important character in your book. Your villain is.
 
Are you fed up of drowning in two-dimensional villains? Frustrated with creating clichés? And failing to get your reader to root for your villain?
  
In 13 Steps to Evil, you’ll discover: 
 
+ How to develop a villain’s mindset
+ A step-by-step guide to creating your villain from the ground up
+ Why getting to the core of a villain’s personality is essential to make them credible
+ What pitfalls and clichés to avoid as well as the tropes your story needs
  
Finally, there is a comprehensive writing guide to help you create superbad villains. Whether you’re just starting out or are a seasoned writer, this book will help power up your bad guy and give them that extra edge.

These lessons will help you master and control your villainous minions, navigate and gain the perfect balance of good and evil, as well as strengthening your villain to give your story the tension and punch it needs.
 
If you like dark humor, learning through examples and want to create the best villains you can, then you’ll love Sacha Black’s guide to crafting superbad villains. Read 13 Steps to Evil today and start creating kick-ass villains.

You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Goodreads

The post Secrets of Antiheroes – Master Villains or Master Heroes? appeared first on Sacha Black.

There used to be a time when I would accept nothing less than perfection. I still fight the frustration when I’m not completely perfect.

I’ve come to believe perfectionism it’s a disease. An infection that slowly eats away at your skin until it buries itself into your bone and spreads to every corner of your body like an angry cancer. The growing niggle questioning whether perfectionism is something to be strived for, or maybe, abhorred has become a raging monster, and now, a blog post…

As writers creative people we torture ourselves striving for something that deep down we all know is almost impossible to achieve. And if we somehow do achieve it, we spend our lives endlessly searching for that golden thread of genius within us so we can create another masterpiece. It’s like a drug, an addiction, a sought after high impossible to replicate.

But what is this blind search for perfectionism doing to our mental health and psyche? I talked about the shocking truth behind creativity recently, where there was an underlying point from Gilbert about depression in creative people.

Creative people in particular seem to suffer a high prevalence of depression, suicide and other mood disorders, including most frequently, bipolar disorder. Van Gogh was Bipolar and suffered tremendously until his suicide at 37. Syvia Plath, another sufferer with a mood disorder and eventually she committed suicide to at just 31. There are others, who vehemently argue against this trend of depression in creative people, and if you read enough research then like everything you can find enough studies that you end up sat on the fence completely befuddled.

I’m ignoring most of the science and am speaking from experience, with just a little science thrown in; from knowing many a creative person and seeing the effect of creativity gone awry, and from experiencing it myself.

My focus is on writers and one of the earliest studies of creativity and mood disorders focused on writers. It showed that 80% of writers had some variant of mood disorder. But why? Are we predisposed to mood disorders? Do we have hormone imbalances? Is it because we spend so long lost in our thoughts, pondering, reflecting, dissecting our every ideation and decision? Do we spend too long deliberating and judging ourselves? Does that lead the creative into a spiralling depression as we deconstruct ourselves and examine each tiny piece of us and our stories?

I know for me, boredom, and the restriction of my creativity is extremely bad for my mental state. I can end up in a very dark place if I am not allowed to thrive as a creative person. And yet equally, I can drive myself literally insane in the pursuit of that winning story, that character that makes someone cry, or laugh or fear for their safety. I can be so critical of myself its self destructive but especially for my sanity. I’m trying to pursue something I know I will never be able to achieve.

Despite constantly striving for perfection, I don’t believe it exists.

Will I ever be able to put the pen down, stop tweaking? Can you? I doubt it.

There’s just one more tweak? One tiny edit, a comma? A sentence? Sound familiar?

We grind ourselves down, wear down all our drive and pick and nag at our creative minds until we leave ourselves in a creative black hole. I think over striving for perfection gives us writers block and depression. If we pursue a concept that doesn’t exist we set ourselves up for constant failure.

Society is the same. Kids today think Barbi is perfection. (Yes that really is a real woman)

Kids think that plastic fantastic is acceptable and something to aim for. But sometimes when you get a little too hooked on achieving the impossible on too much plastic this happens:

Ok, maybe I’m being a little facetious but you see the point I’m making?

I wrote a poem last #1000speak, so this time I decided to share something personal. I have edited this, removed some of the bits that made me cringe, but it’s mostly intact. I wrote this piece when I was just coming out of a dark hole, it’s an odd piece of writing, more of a stream of consciousness rather than a story or anything much, but I think it makes the point, creative depression is not good by any standard:

Phantom Limb by Sacha Black

I am watching my life through his eyes, at his mercy.

My glass was always half empty, its why I never noticed the cracked cup, the leaking liquid. He didn’t arrive with the grandeur entrance I expected. He snuck quietly into my life like the silent thief, slyly changing the minutia, stealing my belongings until he consumed everything.

I can never see the world through those precious rose spectacles I used to have. The virgin eyes I owned are gone. Stolen. He took them for himself, replaced them with his dark and twisted ones. I didn’t even notice. Not until I was already exhausted from staring through his shadowy specs.

I understand what numb is; to really feel nothing.

It’s infinite.

He took my feelings away one by one. Every happy thought tarnished by a rusty anesthetized memory.

I am left watching my life play out through him.

I am his phantom limb. I see my life, but I’m not really there. I used to be present, alive, able to breathe. But now I’m surrounded by a vast suffocating nothing.

He torments me with the life I could lead. I am ashamed of him. I am meant to be strong. Unbreakable. Instead I crumbled like an ash statue. He blew over my life, and I drifted apart piece by piece.

He is the dirty little secret I punish myself for.

I’m tired of being a phantom limb.

I will not do it any more.

No matter how foggy his spectacles get, I will smear the lenses until I can see the tunnel in the distance. I know there is a light at the end of it.

***

I’m not suggesting we should stop striving or aiming for the top. I’m saying sometimes we need to take a step back and remember, perfection is usually impossible. What we create may well be someone else’s idea of perfection. You will be someone’s favourite author. I highly doubt whatever I create, no matter how many drafts or how many edits I do, I will ever be truly happy with it. So why not accept that? And be kind to ourselves?

We need to start believing that just because ‘WE’ don’t think something is perfect, doesn’t mean somebody else won’t. There is no perfect – perfect is unobtainable because what you think is perfect, I won’t. No two concepts of perfect align. Our own concepts of perfectionism are dangerous, and unrealistic. Praise yourself, nurture yourself away from that pedestal. Perfection isn’t all that anyway, it’s boring, outdated. It’s the goody two shoes at the front of the class, the ‘know it all’ everyone sniggers at when they finally get a question wrong.

Isn’t that the point? Humanity is interesting because we are full of mistakes and problems. Aren’t the best characters the ones who fuck up, and make mistakes? Isn’t that why we secretly like the anti-hero?

Nurture yourself. Stop striving for the unachievable. No body likes Miss Perfect anyway.

But more important than anything, don’t forget…

The post Nurture Yourself in the Pursuit of Perfection #1000speak appeared first on Sacha Black.

There are dozens of books designed to help you write, to help you with style, structure and grammar. But this book is the book I see referenced by countless editors and professionals alike. I am appalling too, I don’t understand half the rules. I try, desperately to learn them. Sometimes, I even think I might have learnt one. But as always these days, In order to learn one thing, something else gets shoved out to make space… usually a comma rule!

If you’re American, or writing for the American market, and you don’t own the book then I strongly advise you buy one, and you can do just that here: The Chicago Manual of Style: The Essential Guide for Writers, Editors and Publishers. But, what about us poor old British writers? What’s the equivalent of the Chicago Manual of Style for us? I looked for a very long time and found nothing. So I decided to ask an editor, who told me the reason I hadn’t found an equivalent is because there isn’t one.

But they also told me not to despair. There is an alternative you can use. Actually there’s three. I’ve bought all three, and they recently arrived. So I thought this was a good point to share them particularly because they are proving extremely useful so far. I have put photos, links and blurbs of the collection below.

First up:

Amazon says this about the New Oxford Style Manual (Reference):

The New Oxford Style Manual brings together two essential reference works in a single volume. New Hart’s Rules, Oxford’s definite guide to style, consists of 20 chapters and gives authoritative and expert advice on how to prepare copy for publication. Topics covered include how to punctuate and hyphenate accurately, capitalization guidelines, structure your text coherently, how to use quotations and citations clearly, how to provide accurate references, UK and US usage, and much more. The guidelines are complemented by the New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors which features 25,000 A-Z entries giving authoritative advice on those words and names which raise questions time and time again because of spelling, capitalization, hyphenation, or cultural and historical context. Entries give full coverage of recommended spellings, variant forms, confusable words, hyphenation, capitalization, foreign and specialist terms, proper names, and abbreviations. The dictionary also includes superb appendices for quick reference including proofreading marks, countries and currencies, and alphabets.

Combining these two updated works and drawing on the unrivalled research and expertise of the Oxford Reference and Dictionaries departments, this volume is an essential part of every editor’s and writer’s toolkit.

Second:

 Amazon’s blurb says this about Oxford A-Z of Grammar and Punctuation:

Readers of all levels will find this excellent guide essential. Including examples of real usage taken from the Oxford Corpus, this handy volume provides clear information about grammar and punctuation that we need on a day-to-day basis in over 300 entries. Arranged alphabetically, it contains entries for standard grammatical terms such as pronoun, synonym, or transitive verb. It also discusses related questions of usage, for example how to distinguish between ‘may’ or ‘ might’, ‘that’ or ‘which’, and ‘it’s’ or ‘its’. For ease of use, over 40 feature entries on master headwords like adverb, hyphen, and spelling include diagrams listing related terms.

Revised and updated, The Oxford A-Z of Grammar and Punctuation offers accessible and coherent explanations across a broad range of topics, and is the first port of call for any reader seeking clear, authoritative help with grammar and punctuation.

Both easy to use and comprehensive, it is an essential tool for writing at home, in the office, at school, and at college.

Last but by no means least:

Amazon says this about Oxford Guide to Plain English (Oxford Paperback Reference):

Plain English is the art of writing clearly, concisely, and in a way that precisely communicates your message to your intended audience. This book offers 25 practical guidelines helping you to improve your vocabulary, style, grammar, and layout to achieve clear writing. It gives expert advice on all aspects of the writing process: from avoiding jargon and legalese, to organizing written information in print and online. It also shows you how it’s done with hundreds of real examples, including ‘before’ and ‘after’ versions. All this is presented in an authoritative and engaging way.

Completely revised and updated, this essential reference work is now even more useful: the word lists have been expanded; a new list of clichéd and troublesome words to avoid has been added; and examples of real-life stories have been replaced with more recent ones. An improved design gives the book a fresh feel.

The post 3 Essential Books Every Writer Needs appeared first on Sacha Black.

But is it really that strange? I’m starting to wonder if I am missing a trick by succumbing to the ease and speed of my keyboard, and the slap slap – edit, check, delete, Ctrl C, Ctrl V.

This topic is extremely close to my heart. Six years ago, I was awarded a scholarship in Sydney to do a PhD on Distributed Cognition (DC), it was the wrong time, wrong place so, I didn’t take it (much to my wife’s disgust, who was so desperate to live there and had already booked a visa interview!).

But the topic still fascinates me, and it has come to the fore of my mind again because of the writers I have met who write by hand. I used to be totally against DC, but in my age, I have mellowed and as much as I hate to admit it (and I really do hate to admit it) I was wrong. I am going to ask you a series of questions throughout this post, to try and help you work out how DC can help you with your writing. How many of you write your first drafts by hand? Why? Why do you write by hand, and not type on the computer? For those of you that don’t, why don’t you? To understand DC first, we must understand what cognition is:

Dictionary.com says cognition is: Noun

1. The act or process of knowing; perception.
2. The product of such a process; something thus known, perceived, etc.
3. knowledge.

Google says:

1. The mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses
2. A perception, sensation, idea, or intuition resulting from the process of cognition

The origin of Cognition is from the Latin word – cognoscere ‘get to know’ which I think is a much more pertinent definition when we think about DC, it is the process that is important. Not the knowing, but the action of getting to know. Traditionally, cognition was thought of as ‘thought processes’ which were until recently accepted as being confined within the constructs of brain, skin and cells. Defining Distributed Cognition is somewhat harder. Partly because it is an academic topic, so I am trained to give definitions of essay length, and filled with complex arguments. Let me see if I can give you two working examples.

But first, I want to ask you another question: When you have a problem, a messy, awkward and causing you ball ache kind of problem, how do you go about figuring out a solution?

• Are you an introverted problem solver? Do you need time out from everyone to think and ponder and speculate whilst you devise a plan? Do you need a pen or pencil to draw squiggly diagrams?
• Or, are you an extroverted problem solver? Do you need people, or a person to bounce and spark ideas from to provide challenge?

Example One:

I’m an extroverted thinker, I think with my mouth… literally. You know that awful phrase ‘think before you speak’? Well, to me, it’s incomprehensible. Introverts say stuff like that, because they can think before they speak. I’m not attacking introverts here, not at all. I wish I could think before I speak, it’s a skill I admire and respect. But that’s just not how my brain works.

I process physically, with my mouth, in real time, and that’s the key phrase. As the words form it is my brain forming them, just physically and verbally rather than silently. My words are a physical representation of my thought process, which means I ramble, I am messy and I jump to and from conversations. But, eventually, I will form a coherent sentence which makes sense and solves the pesky problem. Nine times out of ten I don’t know what I think until I say it. I don’t have a mechanism for consciously processing in silence. I find myself saying things to my wife or colleagues like ‘Don’t write this down I’m just trying it out…’

Example Two: Are you a doodler? Do you ever get frustrated when trying to explain something? Do you sigh and reach for a pen and piece of paper to draw a diagram? Perhaps you are problem solving and need that comfort of pen and paper to physically draw out that solution of how to get from A to Z. This happened to me the other day.

Ironically I needed to explain how I like to approach a project (ironic because I was explaining why I needed ‘people’ around me)… Don’t laugh, here is my doodle. I am circle A and trying to get to Z. I want to follow that straight line. That big squirly circle next to me with arrows pointing in, is where I need people to bounce ideas off so that I can follow the arched arrow from A straight to Z. It’s where my thinking happens to create a path from A to Z. If I don’t get that input at the start and at key points in between I follow the turquoise line, sh*t hits the fan I back track and go round the houses to get to Z. It’s inefficient. So What Is Distributed Cognition?

I already said; Cognition was until recently thought of as purely ‘thought processes’ which were accepted as being confined within the constructs of brain, skin and cells. But what if it wasn’t confined to your brain? What if thought, conscious physical thought didn’t have to be restricted, confined even to your brain. What if we could think together, as one, at the same time? Have you ever had a friend that can finish your sentences? How can they do that? Is it because they know you so well they can predict what you are saying? Maybe. But I think there’s more to it; what if you are both sharing thoughts? Thinking together? There’s that wonderful phrase ‘Oh your on my wavelength’ what if the wavelength was real? A thing out there in the physical space between you, interacting with affecting your own thought process. What about the pianist whose fingers think for him when they strike keys and create symphonies?

When you use a pen to draw a diagram, it’s more than just a physical representation of your thoughts on the page. It is your thoughts. It’s in real time, and if you weren’t drawing you wouldn’t have come to that conclusion. Writing is an insular job. Too often, we are afraid to talk to others about our work. We are afraid to commit our ideas to the air. Afraid of them not being good enough. Afraid of being judged, of theft, and a million other reasons all stop us from committing anything to the world before we are ready. I’m challenging that.

Use Distributed Cognition to help you write, and write better. This can work even if you are an introverted thinker. If You Are An Extrovert Thinker: Share those raw ideas, those infantile thoughts with someone you trust, or someone you know will challenge you. Allow yourself to be affected by others. Let them spark you, question you, get on your wavelength. If You Are An Introverted Thinker: Just try it. Talk through your ideas with someone else but then go away take their thoughts/questions and points and digest them alone. If that terrifies you, then pick up a pen, and figure it out just you and a piece of paper. Next time you have a spot of writers block or a sticky character problem stop banging your head against your laptop. Stop trying to figure it out alone. Let yourself distribute your cognition. Instead of being caught in the same old cycle of: Think it, Write it, Share it. Try: Sharing it, Thinking it, Writing it… See what happens…. Afterall, didn’t your mother ever tell you a problem shared is a problem halved?

If you liked this post, why not get even more awesome writing tips in the book 13 Steps To Evil – How to Craft Superbad Villains. Click this link and just tap the logo of your device or regular bookshop and it will take you to the right page. You can also get a FREE villains cheatsheet and a villain’s short course by joining my mailing list just click here.

Read Keepers, the first book in my Young Adult fantasy series now. Or to hear more about the release of the sequels as well as get regular CogMail updates you can do so here.

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The post The Best Kept Secret To Improve Your Writing – Writing Tips 19 appeared first on Sacha Black.