Instructionals: Series Table of Contents

I've just completed my Instructionals series about narrative and fiction writing! This series includes nine posts that take you from the idea process, all the way to an editor-ready manuscript. I will most likely be continuing this series in the future-- I am about to embark on the next stage of the process myself, and will be gathering experience to share! I'll be working with an editor, and looking into publishing (or not publishing), and I'll be able to write more on those topics soon. For now, here are the posts for the first half of this series:

1. How to Begin A Piece of Writing
2. How To Plan Your Project
3. Helpful Writing Math
4. Writing Technology
5. Writing With Your Rhythm
6. Writing Communities
7. Building a Scene
8. The Mechanics of Writing
9. Are You Showing or Telling?

Instructionals: Are You Telling or Showing?

Previous Articles - The Mechanics of Writing

Two weeks ago, in my article How to Build A Scene, I talked about the necessity of putting vital information in your scenes. I talked about starting with the most important information, and working your way out to more details and texture during a rewrite. In this article, I'll go over how to add in those textures and details to make your story come to life!

Instructionals: The Mechanics of Writing

Previous Article - Writing Communities

I would like to start this article by stating that I am probably the world's worst person to tell someone else about grammar! I am pretty good at spelling, and I can usually tell if something "sounds right," but I admit to never taking a formal grammar course. Thus, I don't employ extremely accurate grammar rules on a regular basis.

That said, I am well aware of the fact that having good grammar, as a writer, is enormously important. It makes your writing professional, and concise. As a writer, you are a role-model of the English language, and you should represent to the best you can.

Sometimes, grammar correction should be left until editing. Many times, though, it is easier on yourself, your editor, and your readers to simply start writing with good grammar in your first draft. In my case, I do the best I can to come out with my best draft, then I encourage my editors and proofreaders to find all of my mistakes. Again, this is because I severely lack grammar knowledge!

Instructionals: How to Build a Scene

Previous Article - Writing Communities

I came across an amazing blog post by Laura Cron this week, and she included several gold nuggets about writing good scenes, and avoiding bad scenes. She was making sure every writer has fulfilled their original intentions for their piece of writing-- Making sure that everything in the author's head is really communicated through the text.

She mentioned a few strategies to help perfect your scenes, and to improve the reader's understanding of the emotion and motivation behind it, as well as to continue moving the action forward and giving a rich context. I went ahead and expanded on her ideas, and wrote my own cheat-sheet for writing good scenes.

Instructionals: Writing Communities

Previous Article - Writing With Your Rhythm

As a writer, you can be part of a huge community of writers and readers. You don't have to be a part of the group if you don't want to, but being active in a writing community comes in handy when you need encouragement, advice, and motivation.

In Real Life Writing Groups

Many writers have a group of fellow writers that are there for constant help and support. John Green, a young adult novelist, worked closely with Justine Larbalestier, Maureen Johnson, Lauren McLaughlin, and Scott Westerfeld, a group of other popular, published writers in his genre. They were not collaborators-- more of a support group. Writing is a lonely job, so having a group of friends that will work with you is extremely useful.

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.

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.

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.

Instructionals: How to Begin A Piece of Writing

This is the first article in my "Instructionals" series! I hope to help you become a better writer by offering step-by-step advice and helpful resources along your first writing journey.

Why do you want to write?

This is a major question, because it helps you to set goals. If you have a story you want to tell, then your main goal will be to tell the story as accurately and as entertainingly as possible. If you want to teach a lesson, then you want that lesson to be clear and understandable, and, possibly, as artistically conveyed as you can. Are you writing for yourself, or someone else (audience)? Understanding these things will help you set guidelines for your first (or second, or third, or infinite) writing project.

I suggest putting a brief answer to the question "Why do I want to write?" on the wall above your desk, at the top of your computer screen-- somewhere nice and visible. When you get frustrated, look back to the answer; why do you write?