Instructionals: Writing With Your Rhythm

Previous Article - Writing Technology

Once you've got your ideas, outlines, desk environment, schedule, and goals all together, it's time to stop procrastinating, and start writing! The only way you're ever going to get your project finished is by sitting down and actually writing! And of course, you'll start with a first draft.

Drafting is sometimes the best part of writing-- you can put the pieces any way you want, throwing together all of your ideas in a mad hurricane of words, pages, and deadlines. But sometimes, it's difficult to sit down everyday (or however often you write) and focus on pushing out the words. It's a pain, especially if you impose word counts and deadlines on yourself.

Writing daily is important, and in most circumstances, regular practice is the only way to continue to grow your skills. You should at least sit down and write something each day, whether it's a blog post, a journal entry, a NaNoWriMo entry, or a school assignment. Putting your thoughts into words and sentences is easy-- but putting good thoughts into good sentences, and crafting a consistent writing voice, will take some work. Although I admit to not writing everyday, I know I should, I know I want to, and I know that my writing gets better when I do. That said, I strongly encourage you to find something to practice on every day to keep your creativity at its highest, and your skills growing.

Book List: "The Three Musketeers"

"The Three Musketeers" by Alexander Dumas is a very long-winded, wordy book, but nonetheless, immensely enjoyable! It takes you back to a time period where haughtiness was normal, women fainted, and where swordsmanship and loyalty were the only skills you required to become a great, rich man. My friends and I have been reading this together, and creating videos on out vlog, SweetCranberrys.

September 5th: 3Ms - D-Artagnan is Funny

Instructionals: Writing Technology

Previous Article - Helpful Writing Math

Writing is one of the most versatile art forms--you can write anywhere, with anything. Pencil and paper, notepad, computer-- anytime, anywhere. Sometimes, half the battle of daily writing is finding a good system. Most writers today type, to allow for easy editing, changing, spell-check, and updating, but a small few like to handwrite, then type it up (I'm not sure why). Whichever you prefer, it's important to find the system that works for your project. For me, poetry is easiest to write by hand, but it's ridiculous to write a 50,000 word novel with a regular pen.

Word Processors & Beyond

If you prefer to type for your larger projects, like normal people, the first place to start is a simple word processor. Notepad or Microsoft Word for Windows computers, TextEdit or Pages for Mac. Also, look into Google Docs, which is based in the cloud to use on any computer, along with any other cloud-based word processor, like Evernote, or Simplenote. This is best if you don't have a computer, and regularly use library computers or friend's computers.

If you want to try something more powerful than a simple text editor, there are other options. One of my personal favorite writing tools is Literature & Latte's Scrivener. It's a computer program designed for large writing and research projects, but it's extremely flexible! It has so many helpful features, and it's easy to use. NaNoWriMo winners get a discount on this software, even though it's a very inexpensive program. Scrivener allows you to organize your text documents in a hierarchy, for chapters, scenes, acts, etc. It also allows you to import webpages, PDFs, images, and more into the program, for things like research and notes. Not only does it work well for large writing projects, but it would also be good for organizing school notes, work projects, and other large projects.

Instructionals: Helpful Writing Math

Previous - How to Plan Your Project

Once you have a writing project planned out and you're ready to start writing, it's a good idea to run a few calculations ahead of time, so that you're aware of how much you're committing to. These numbers include word goals, time spent writing, page count goals, and scheduling.

Word Goals

Many writers work toward word count goals. This allows you to estimate how long your project will be in the end, and gauge where you should be in your story. If you want "Act 2" to take up about 2/3rds of your book, then estimate it based on your total word goal.

In a NaNoWriMo competition, the goal is to write a 50,000 word novel, which is about the size of a purse-sized romance novel, in a month. This means that you would write at least 1667 words each day.

This article from Fiction Factor on word count can give you an idea of how long different word counts will turn out-- Also, look around the rest of the site, as Fiction Factor is a great resource for writers. Here is a short summary of the article:

• Micro-Fiction = 0-100 Words
• Flash-Fiction = 100-1,000 Words
• Short Story = 1,000-7,500 Words
• Novellette = 7,500-20,000 Words
• Novella = 20,000-50,000 Words
• Novel = 50,000-110,000 Words
• Epics/Sequels = 110,000-∞ Words

Word counts are great to help you get an idea of how large your book or piece of writing will be, but they can also be stressful. Some writers don't want to have to worry about making their word goal, because they want to focus on getting their point across through their story. Some writers like a word goal because it gives them perspective, and helps them focus on getting to the end of your story. It's up to you.

Book List: "I Am NOT A Serial Killer"

Because his book was short, I shall keep my response short as well.

This book is great!!

"I Am NOT A Serial Killer" takes on a very unique perspective-- a young boy who obsesses over serial killers, and dreads that his sociopathic tendencies might take him too far. I love the storytelling; Dan Wells is a great writer and story-designer. He constructs every detail possible for the characters, and fearlessly incorporates enormous texture into the mind of this young, abnormal teen. Not only does he craft excellent characters, but his plot twist in this book was literally unbelievable. I couldn't tell if the character was hallucinating, if it was a dramatization, or if it was actually real, until almost the end of the book. The story was a roller coaster that just kept climbing up, with a tiny downward spiral at the end-- but it kept me intrigued the entire way up!

Instructionals: How to Plan Your Project

Previous Article - How To Begin A Piece Of Writing

Once you've set up your commitments and goals from the Previous Article, you can begin the planning and research phase of your project!

Some writers are able to miraculously sit down with an idea in their head, and write their entire piece from beginning to end, without any plans or forethought. But for normal people, this is not the case! There are many different methods that allow you to organize your thoughts and plan out your story or message before you put your first sentence on the page. For my writing, I usually end up with a messy hybrid of several techniques-- it's up to the writer to decide the best way to plan!

Planning can come in many forms-- a concise one-sentence summary, a  massive mind-map of the different characters, topics, subplots, or chapters, and your basic numbers/bulleted outline are just some of thousands of planning methods. Some people will plan out every detail of every scene, writing up detailed documents for every setting, drawing sketches for every character, and doing extensive research for every concept or topic presented. Others will simply take a note of their initial idea, and begin at page one, word one.

3 Things Your Church is Lying About

I was listening to a sermon this past Sunday, and I realized how very much I disagreed with what the pastor was preaching. No, this was not my church-- it was a friend's church, so I feel safe to reject his message. But it has been an eye-opener for me this week, and I hate how often we find sermons like these in today's church.

1. You're Not A Good Enough Christian

This particular pastor used a visual aid to demonstrate their principle, which they conveniently issued to every congregation member inside their program. It was a triangle, with 8 different levels inside. Each level, or "tier", represented a level of faith, starting at the bottom with "Faith - a decision to believe," then going to "Moral Excellence," then "Knowing God Better," then "Self Control," all the way up to "Godliness," then to "Radical Love For All." Most of the sermon was dedicated to this triangle. The pastor encouraged his audience to continue to climb the triangle as much as they could, so they could ultimately reach the top level; Agape, or radical, love for everyone. This is the kind of love God has for us.