All posts by Jordan

Works

Beating Writers’ Block

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This post originally appeared as a guest post on Carol Garvin’s blog, Careann’s Musings. I realized I never shared it here!

The kids are in bed, the house is clean, you’ve spent some quality time with your spouse and you’ve watched your favorite show. Now it’s your time—time to write with nothing hanging over your head. You sit at your computer, fingers poised over the keys and—

Nothing happens.

What do you do? Spend the next two hours checking email and blogs, playing Text Twist and Minesweeper, coming back to your story every half hour without anything new to add and drifting away again until you can’t face your computer anymore and go to bed, strangely empty and guilty?

No! You don’t have to succumb to writers’ block—you can fight it, and you should. What makes a writer vs. a wannabe is perseverance (and the same is true about revisions, finding an agent, getting published, selling books, etc., etc.). Working through writers’ block makes you a stronger, better, more creative writer. And here are eight ways to do it.

Come up with more ideas
Easier said than done, I know, but try brainstorming new events and directions for your story. I recently came across an analysis of the story conference for Raiders of the Lost Ark. The surprising thing about this conference is the sheer volume of ideas—the writer, director and producer threw out ideas while brainstorming, not worrying about how outlandish or stupid they might sound—you never know if it could be made workable.

Recycle an old idea
Did you have an amazing plot twist you never got to use or used in another (preferably unpublished) work, or one you love in someone else’s story? Find a way to work that idea into this story. The mine cart chase scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom originally came from the conference for Raiders, but they didn’t use it there—an instant source for later ideas.

Look for more connections within your work
I got stuck in one WIP when I needed a task for my hero. He’d agreed to do something for the villain in exchange for a hostage, but I was drawing a blank as to what that should be. I tried to think of something the villain could send him after—but finally the right answer came to me. It shouldn’t just be something, it should be something related to the plot. And I had a subplot that could tie back into the main plot (and a minimystery that could be solved) right here.

Write something
You may have to take some time away from your WIP to get the creative juices flowing. You can work on another idea—writing or plotting or planning—or you can find writing prompts to get started. Sometimes focusing on another story idea will give you the boost or idea you need to progress in your first story—just don’t get sidetracked for too long!

Write nothing
Do something mindless—like playing Text Twist or Minesweeper, or doing house or yard work. Do something creative—if you play an instrument, practice. If you do a handicraft—knitting, needlework, woodcarving, knapping—make something. Occupying your hands while letting your mind roam can have great creative rewards.

Erase
As hard as this may be, maybe you’ve written yourself into a corner. Maybe there just isn’t anywhere for the story to go now, and you need to delete the last paragraph or scene or chapter. (Ouch!) Look at where your story took a turn for a dead end and brainstorm another direction.

Read (or watch)
Look for other ideas (and beautiful writing) in other works, in or outside of your genre. You can also watch a movie or TV show and play the “what if” game—what if something happened differently in this scene. (I came up with a whole story idea this way.)

Plot
You can often avoid getting stuck if you plan out where you’re going in advance. Not always, of course—I’m a plotter, and I can still get stuck in the gray areas of my outline. But back before I started plotting out my stories, I began with an ending in mind, but sometimes I spent weeks stopped in the middle, trying to figure out how to get there. Even loose plotting can help to keep the big milestones in mind to keep you moving toward your goals. Plus you can brainstorm in advance and save all those ideas for any lulls.

Beating writers’ block can be tough, but you can do it—and if you’re going to finish, you have to.

What do you think? How do you beat writers’ block?

Photo credits: paper ball—makedonche19; blank page—Chris Blakeley;
I can’t think—Alyssa L. Miller

Marketing

Would you profile your blog readers?

This entry is part 4 of 8 in the series Marketing: blogging

When we write, whether on our blogs or in our books, we are looking to connect with an audience. In fiction, generally we do this by working within a genre. On blogs, we do this working within a niche.

But could we do it more granularly? Of course—we could breakdown our target audience by more than just the niche of “reader” or “mystery reader” or “Regency romance lover.” We could look at demographic data—whether we get that from our Facebook page (yep, it’s in there) or Amazon data, we might be able to figure out a description of our readers that’s a lot more specific.

Livia Blackburne talked about profiling readers on her blog, sharing John Locke’s teaching on a profile of his readers. Following his example, Livia wrote out this profile, which is fairly extensive:

My target audience consists of young women, from high school through early 20s. They read to be transported to other worlds, and they actively seek sword and sorcery with female protagonists. They like to read about – for lack of a better term — girls kicking butt. My readers are attracted to strong, larger than life heroines, and they like reading about my main character Kyra because of the cool things she can do. They’d love to be Kyra for a day or two. My readers shy away from situations that are too cut and dry. They’re drawn to moral complexity, hard decisions, and inner conflict. They like a heroine with a dark side (no Pollyanna heroines please), but they still expect good to triumph in the end. My readers want fast-paced action and adventure, with high stakes and lots of plot twists. They don’t want to be bogged down with things like setting details and overly flowery prose.

Livia pulls this knowledge from beta reader feedback and her own knowledge of her story and genre. And then this reader profile can inform not only your current WIP, but future works—and your blog. As Livia explains:

Once you have your psychological profile, you can come up with themes that resonate with your target audience. In my case, it might be girls kicking butt, larger-than-life heroes, and tough moral decisions. And you’d would write a blog post that encapsulated these themes. The idea is that you write blog posts that resonate with your target audience, making them curious to read your book.

As with almost all things, this is easier said than done. Knowing what kind of blog post you’re looking for is definitely a great way to start and can help you generate ideas, but I worry the connection might be a little too abstract (though obviously well-known and well-selling self-publisher John Locke disagrees).

On the other hand, that can be a strength: harping on our books all the time is definitely a negative, while providing the same emotional experience as our books is a great way to set up a promise with our books. Locke calls this a “loyalty transfer.”

What do you think? Would you profile your readers? How would you translate your profile into blog posts?

Starting today, and throughout May, every comment is an entry to win a 15-page critique from me! Winner will be drawn at random from pool of commentators from April 30 to May 31, to be announced on the blog June 1. So come join in the conversation!

Photo (person in profile) by Sean Dreilinger

Reading

Book review: Blowing My Cover by Lindsey Moran

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Okay, before I jump into this book review, I have to tell you why I read it: shockingly (um, not) my latest book is about a spy. I’ve actually written about spies a few times, but this is the first time I’ve used a contemporary CIA officer (not agent!) in one of my novels. Naturally, I had to run out and research.

As I was looking through books on the subject on Amazon, I came across Blowing My Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy by Lindsay Moran, which was touted as “a cross between James Bond and Bridget Jones!” That pretty much sounded like what I was working on, and the back cover copy promised to answer several specific questions I had in the research process. (It didn’t answer the underlying question, however: why did you leave all your research until after you wrote it??)

Best of all? My truly, truly awesome library had a copy. I snuck out and checked it out that night, and read it the next day.
Continue reading Book review: Blowing My Cover by Lindsey Moran →

Mechanics

How to write the stuff around the dialogue

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Flip open any book, and you’re sure to find them: dialogue attribution using verbs other than “said.” Breathed, whispered, inveighed, called, shouted, yelled, extrapolated, interdicted, translated, interpreted—there are literally hundreds of verbs for speech.

But despite that, “said” is still the default dialogue tag. Yes, every book on the market contains speech verbs other than said—but that’s a big reason why “said” is the default dialogue tag: because other tags are so noticeable. “Said” is practically invisible; we read it without really noticing it, while other dialogue tags call attention to themselves.
Continue reading How to write the stuff around the dialogue →

Marketing

Who are you blogging for? Connecting with your blog community

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This entry is part 3 of 8 in the series Marketing: blogging

Just like in writing, in blogging, you need to know your audience. In writing, sometimes it’s enough to know the reader expectations within your genre. In blogging, sometimes it can be enough to know your niche.

Last week, we talked about finding that blog niche, whether you center your blog around writing, your research interests, or your hilarious life. But no matter what your topic is, it’s really important to keep in mind who you expect to read your blog.
Continue reading Who are you blogging for? Connecting with your blog community →

Technique

Choosing the right POV character

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Each book, each character and even each scene requires you to make choices about what POV to use. If you have more than one POV character in a scene—as you will in many of your most pivotal scenes—you have to decide which character should control the scene, or whose eyes your reader gets the scene through. The way you use the POV in a scene and in a whole book affects the way your characters and your story are perceived. It’s important to get it right!

Today we’ll look at one aspect of POV: choosing the right POV character.

Choosing POV Characters

Sometimes it’s very easy to pick who to use as the viewpoint character—they’re our only viewpoint character in the scene. But quite often, we’ll have more than one viewpoint character in a scene and we’ll have to choose between them. Whose scene is this?
Continue reading Choosing the right POV character →

Marketing

So, seriously: should writers blog?

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This entry is part 2 of 8 in the series Marketing: blogging

If you’ve been hanging around the blogosphere for a while, you’ve probably heard arguments from every side about whether writers should blog. Yes! No! Maybe!

From the Yes! camp, we hear that writers who are seeking publication should be getting their name out there through a blog. Also, a blog is a great way to connect with future readers and other writers, possibly refine your voice, write every day and build your platform. And look! It doubles as a soap box!

From the No! crowd, the arguments are more diverse. Maybe you don’t have time to write and blog, or maybe your blog voice interferes with your fiction voice.

From the Maybe! crew, the stipulations usually relate to your blog topic: you should blog about X or Y, but never about writing, politics, religion, your family, the color yellow, peanut butter . . .
Continue reading So, seriously: should writers blog? →

Technique, News & Contests

New PDF: Character Arcs!

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This entry is part 10 of 11 in the series character arcs

Yep, I have character arcs on the brain. It happens every time I finish a book and think about how I can better align the internal journey and external plot climaxes. (I think I have it for this last one. Still have to hammer out the details.)

Since we revisited character arcs last week, it seemed like the perfect time to compile the PDF of the series, including last week’s post. Even though I didn’t look back at the original series as I was writing the new post, I was surprised at how well the new material meshed, expanding on some topics I mention in passing.

So if you’re having trouble figuring out how to found, form or finish your character’s emotional journey, check out the PDF version of Character Arcs!

More free PDF writing guides.

Photo by Riccardo Romano