Be Focused and Finish Your Novel

/ Douglas W. T. Smith / 8 Comments

It’s funny. I promised I would attempt to post regularly on my blog––and it’s not the first time I’ve made that promise with my followers. Each time I apologize but this time: I’m not sorry.

Okay, maybe I am a little bit but over the past months, I devised a writing routine that works for my lifestyle and busy schedule. It has taken me a long time to work out the best and most productive writing life for me.

It might take writers and authors days, weeks, months or years to work it out but once you work it out, you don’t want to break that cycle. I don’t want to break the writing cycle I’ve created for me.

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Seven Ways to Revise Your First Draft In The Second Round of Edits

/ Douglas W. T. Smith / 1 Comment

The honest truth for my absent posts is: I’ve been writing. I have been writing a lot more than usual. There are some moments in life when you know, the amount of effort of what you are putting in isn’t enough. The effort isn’t enough to finish writing that book. I had some serious thoughts on how I could change my routine to set me up for success.

I stumble upon a Twitter account, 5amWritersClub and my problems were solved. I wake up every morning at six o’clock and I thought I’d give it a try. Wake up an hour earlier and write. At first it was hard to get in the rhythm and the gears slowly moved but the more I woke up at that time, the easier it and now my writing goals are coming within reach, closer than I anticipated. My absence from my blog is from 5amWritersClub igniting the idea and writing when the world is silent and asleep.

That is where I have been but hopefully, things should stay on track and the first draft should be finished soon.

I will continue posting writing tips but committ myself to only one post a week.

Congratulations.

You finished writing the first draft of your novel but you aren’t finished. Now comes the best part. Revisions. The good news and the bad news: it takes longer, much longer than you might think, to revise your novel and make your book wonderful.

Below are ‘Seven Ways to Revise Your First Draft In The Second Round of Edits’

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Five Ways To Stay Motivated When You’re Not Making Progress

/ Douglas W. T. Smith / 4 Comments

Writer’s block is real. Every writer, at one point or another, has experienced this debilitating inability to make any real progress in his or her work.

A lack of progress can be discouraging for anyone, and sometimes it’s difficult to maintain the motivation needed to complete a long project.

If you’re not feeling motivated, it’s not a reflection of your abilities as a writer. Creativity can seem to ebb and flow according to its own schedule, and we all have to find a way to cope with the slow periods in anticipation of the next big spark.

Below are five ways to deal with writer’s block. Whenever I feel less than inspired, I start here.

I hope you can use these same strategies to stay motivated in your own writing when it seems as if you aren’t making any progress.

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Three Rules For Food in Your Fantasy Novel

/ Douglas W. T. Smith / 2 Comments

Often I read fantasy novels that contain a lot of traveling whether it’s by foot, horse or sea. Your characters need to eat and one way to pull your reader out of your fantasy world is to write something so strange or unbelievable that they pause to wonder how that can be. One place that typically happens in a fantasy novel is when food is mentioned.

Below are three rules to avoid these mistakes and add some solid, commonsense detail to the food in your fantasy novel.

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Four Tips for Choosing the POV Character For Your Scene

/ Douglas W. T. Smith / 2 Comments

In my last post, How To Bring Lift and Fluency to Each Scene In Your Novel, I explored how to make your scenes shine like the torchlight in a dark cave.

As you tackle your scenes you should be supporting the overall point of view the story is told. Point of view can be difficult. We all know that. It’s even harder when you’re using multiple POVs.

It’s an easy call when a POV character narrates a scene that features only non-POV characters. However, when one or more of the POV characters share a scene, who comes out on top? That is, which character’s POV are you in? Who’s narrating the action?

Here are four tips that have helped me make this critical decision. Hopefully, they’ll help you, too.

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How To Bring Life And Fluency to Each Scene In Your Novel

/ Douglas W. T. Smith / 5 Comments

In my last post, How To Build Suspense In Your Novel, I explored how to create the suspense in your novel but one of the points I mentioned was to focus on the scenes in your story.

As you dive into writing, you’ll likely be working scene by scene. When you tackle these discrete sections of text in your first, second or third round of edits, you’ll want to make sure each scene supports the overall development of your story.

Below are tips on how to bring life and fluency to each scene in your novel.

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How To Build Suspense In Your Novel

/ Douglas W. T. Smith / 7 Comments

Over the past weeks, I posted mini-series for character development. I hope writers and authors took at least one or two things away from my advice. If you are unsure of what I am referring to, you can look at the last post of the series, and there are links to the other posts there.

As for this post, I wanted to roll-on from your well-rounded protagonist, you need to build suspense for you readers to finish your story. Suspense is a wonderful tool to evoke a strong emotional response from readers. Below are Three Suggestions to Build Suspense In Your Novel.

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How To Capture Your Character’s Appearance

/ Douglas W. T. Smith / 3 Comments

My mini-blog series of character development has come to its last post. Here are all the previous factors if you’ve missed out.

  1. Backstory and Flashbacks
  2. Character’s Voice and Dialogue.
  3. Values and Beliefs
  4. Goals and Motivations

In the last post of character development, I will be discussing how to capture your character’s appearance.

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How to Create Your Characters Goals and Motivations

/ Douglas W. T. Smith / 5 Comments

For the past few weeks, I have been doing a mini-blog series of character development – here are the links Backstory and Flashbacks, Character’s Voice and Dialogue, How To Build On Your Characters Values and Beliefs

In the first post of the series, I mention there are five important factors to consider building your character and a well-rounded character. These are (not in ascending importance level):

  1. Back-story and flashbacks
  2. Voice and Dialogue
  3. Beliefs and values
  4. Goals and motivations; and
  5. Physical traits.

In the second last post of my mini-series, I will be looking at your characters goals and motivations. Continue reading →

How To Build On Your Characters Values and Beliefs

/ Douglas W. T. Smith / 8 Comments

Over the past few blogs, before my honeymoon, I have been doing a mini-blog series of character development – here are the links Backstory and Flashbacks, Character’s Voice and Dialogue.

In the first post of the series, I mention there are five important factors to consider building your character and a well-rounded character. These are (not in ascending importance level):

  1. Back-story and flashbacks
  2. Voice and Dialogue
  3. Beliefs and values
  4. Physical traits; and
  5. Goals and motivations.

In this post, I will be looking at how to build on your character’s values and beliefs in your novel.

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