Writing is Hard: My Writing Must-Haves While Editing My Novel

The number one issue I have while I am editing is keeping myself motivated. Writing on a schedule has never really worked for me. It didn’t work in school, which led to many a late night, turning in papers at the last minute.

So how do I keep myself motivated to keep going on something where I have no true deadline? Writing is hard. Yes, creative writing does come pretty easily to me, and I love love love doing it. That doesn’t mean that it is always easy. I still have to utilize different ways to keep these creative writing juices flowing. Here are three things that I use to keep me motivated when I am trying to write.

1. Ambiance

Whether it is indoors watching movies, outside listening to music and the wind, or curled up on my bed, I’ve got to have a good writing environment. This usually varies from day to day for me, however. Some days I need to be around a lot of people to get anything done, and other days sitting inside the Treehouse (my new apartment) is really all I need. Changing this up can help with my writer’s block, which I also talk about here.

But ambiance is so much more than just the area I am in. Sometimes I need it to be quiet, with only natural noises around me. Sometimes I need loud, powerful music to keep me distracted from things around me and focused on the writing in front of me. My favorite things to listen to are the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtracks. They are that one thing that really gets me going when I am trying to write, and it has always been that way, ever since college.

Kinda poetic.

I also tend to use some essential oils to help me stay focused. I have a couple that I use for my anxiety, shown here in the picture. One of them is also really good at keeping me focused. The Worry-Free Synergy can keep my head from wandering, so I put that one in my diffuser bracelet whenever I need that extra boost of confidence and focus.

2. Food. Just…food.

No, my snacks aren’t always a handful of chocolate chips…or maybe it is. I can’t drink coffee, so I have to get my tiny little bit of writer’s caffeine from somewhere…right? It’s in the job description! I always try to keep some sort of good snack type food on hand. Something that is easily eaten while using my computer.

And healthy.

Maybe.

Since I can’t drink anything with caffeine in it, I drink lots of herbal teas. One that I have found that keeps me motivated and focused is a turmeric tea. I started drinking because of back issues, and found out that it also helps me focus!

3. Tools

Hello, my name is Erin and I have a post-it note and notebook addiction.

This isn’t even half of the post-it notes I have, and we just won’t talk about how many empty or slightly used notebooks that are sitting in that box in my bedroom. I do eventually use them, but it does take me a while to get through things…

However, I have found that getting some of these new office things can actually help my motivation levels! Sometimes I will even just get a new pen or pencil. I have a lot of writing tools. And, even if it seems to waste like ten minutes to set up, I get all of these items out when I write. There’s just something happy about it to me. It won’t take me as long as soon as I get my writer’s nook set up in the Treehouse!

Now, all some of these things won’t necessarily work for you. Every person is different and because of this, different things motivate us. That doesn’t mean that new ideas or tips aren’t helpful.

Do you have something that motivates you to write? Do you perhaps have a set way of doing things that helps your fingers fly across that keyboard? Let me know by commenting below!

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Sources: Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack

First Person Point of View: Why did I Choose it?

His eyes hold something distant. I can see a tinge of doubt in them. There is something he isn’t telling me, but maybe I’m just creating things because of the strange attitude he had earlier these past few weeks. I shouldn’t worry.

– Excerpt from Princess of Waterman Bay

When NaNoWriMo came up that year, I had no idea what I was going to write other than I wanted it to be a pirate story. I had written a story about pirates before, a little short novel, and figured out a good idea for this one, one that would hopefully lead to at least 50,000 words.

But why in the world did I choose First-Person Point of View (POV)?

Well, that actually is an easy one to answer.

First-Person POV is written in a different form.

Writing in first-person POV fascinated me. I had read Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games right before coming up with this idea. It seemed difficult and challenging, and I decided that I wanted to take that challenge. It posed a new idea that I wanted to try.

Books that I have read, and written, in first-person always feel different. I think that it is because they usually hold a different form than a typical book that is written in the most common point of view: third person omniscient.

In my quote from my novel above, that is the form first-person usually takes. You are inside the protagonist’s head. You are hearing their

How to Catch Your Reader’s Eye: 4 Tips to Keep Them Reading.

There are a lot of things to think about when you write. What are you writing? What are your characters like? What is your entire plot line?

Yeah, all big and good things to think about, but here comes the big question….will your reader even get to your second chapter?

It’s one thing to have a catchy title, and another thing to have a catchy book. I can’t tell you how many times I have read the first five pages in a book, never to read it again. There just wasn’t enough in these books to keep my mind interested.

But how do you keep a reader interested? How do you get them hooked on those words, and have them finish the book? How do you provide the things needed for the reader to share this book with others?

Here are five things that I have utilized in my own writing, but have also experienced with other great books.

Tip #1: Write a Memorable First Line

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” – A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.” – The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

These are two lines that I am sure most of you know extremely well. These are opening lines of some pretty great novels. They got you hooked, and for some of them, they live on over 100 years later. There’s a great list of the classics which you can find here.

So, how do you come up with this line?

I have no clue.

Unfortunately, only you can come up with this. It took me a long time to come up with how to write that perfect first page of my novel. Even then, I have edited parts of it.

“Today begins an adventure. Here is my first day in this new role, my role of captain. We are setting off to seek new lands and to keep these waters safe. I leave you, my wife and children behind in Waterman Bay, but I keep these treasures with me. My daughter cried as I left, my dear little Felicity.”

And who knows, this might not even be the final version of my first line. The most important thing is to test it out on people. See what they think, and not just super supportive husbands. Ask friends and more distant family. Unless you have brutally honest family members, then sure. Ask them.

Tip #2: Create Relatable Characters

I love creating characters. Most of the time, I come up with my stories by first coming up with new and fun characters. I have a couple of ways of doing this.

1. Create a Character Sheet
2. Reference Back to Character Sheet Often

I have character sheets for each of my major characters. I used these pages to help build up my protagonist from a two-dimensional character, to a fully developed character. This helps me focus intently on each person, and make sure that they are the best that they can be. Kinda like writing a bio about yourself.

That is how I make my characters relatable. I write down all of their fears, their wants, their mannerisms. I reference back to these sheets often in my writing, just to make sure that I am keeping up with how they would act in a specific situation. I also update it when I have a plot point that may make an attitude change, or a shift in the person’s personality.

Tip #3: Make a Strong Villain

I use this same character sheet strategy when it comes to creating my villains. It is extremely easy to make a weak villain. In my first manuscript that I ever wrote, I have this issue. That is why it is on the back-burner while I work on Princess of Waterman Bay. 

So, how do you write a strong villain?

1. Give them human wants
2. Don’t always make it a teary story

And this next one I think is really important:

3. Make sure, that if the book was written from their point of view, that they would be the good guy in their own story

Perhaps in the next week or two, I will lay out the villain in my story for you. Show you how I grew him from a flat character who just wanted power, to someone who really believed he was doing the right thing. If that is something that you, my readers, would like to see?

Tip #4: Write a Good Plot-line

This pretty much goes without saying, but your story has to be written well, and it needs to be interesting. If your story doesn’t have an interesting, or at least a relatable plot, the reader isn’t going to keep going. I have read a couple of books that started out great, but then the story just wasn’t good enough for me to keep going.

How to you prevent this from happening?

I plot down every single thing I want to happen in my story, and then I make sure it all flows together. You want to make sure your novel makes sense, and that the story is exciting and at least somewhat relatable.

Also, try to avoid your typical story-lines. You know the ones, the epic love story, the zero to hero story. If you do write this kind of story, it has got to be different than every other one out there. I have read so many different versions of the same story, and I wanted to make sure that mine is different. Hopefully, this means that it is unique and will keep my readers interested!

So, there you have it. A few ideas to get you started as you begin writing or editing your novels. Also, a few reminders to myself as I continue this journey of editing my novel.

Challenge, try reading a bad book all the way through. Is it a really boring book? Or just a poorly written one? I have read a couple, and I am glad that I did. It helped me as a writer. Now, I can keep up with these problems, and use what I learned from it to make my novel better.

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Sources: American Book Review

My Guide to Exercising Those Creative Muscles: Writer’s Block Edition

Writer’s block. The bane of my existence.

You won’t be a writer for long before you inevitably hit that bump that is writer’s block. This ailment of the writer is simply when you want to, or need to, write, but the words won’t come. This happens to me more than I’d like.

If it’s inevitable, and if it’s no fun at all, how do you prevent it? How do you heal it when it happens?

That is what my guide is for. These are the 4 ways I have found that help me overcome writer’s block.

Tip #1: Go somewhere new.

The number one thing to try, is moving to a new area. Don’t write in the same place that you have been. This has definitely helped me in the past. I do most of my writing at home, but I have noticed that when I try somewhere new, I tend to write more. I at least write faster.

This can be anywhere. You like a quieter
working area? Library. Little more noise, plus it smells like food and coffee? Coffee shop. Is it sunny? Go write outside!

I have two places that I love writing when I don’t feel like sitting inside the apartment. One is sitting in the cafe in the building my husband works in. I haven’t been there in a while, since my anxiety is locking me

Coming Up with a Synopsis, and Why it is Important.

Lazy cat days…I feel ya, Ultron. Super chilly days like today call for mass editing and blog writing! Today, I have been working on a synopsis for my novel.

This has become one of the hardest things I have had to come up with while writing my novel. I know what my book is about, but I have a hard time describing it to people.

“Oh, it’s just a book about pirates.”

That’s easy to say, but that doesn’t tell you the details of the story. Just saying this, you don’t know that it’s about a girl. You don’t know that it’s the journey of a girl to help free her country from the tyrannical rule of Commander Pettigrew. As I work towards
finishing this book and figuring out how to get it published, I know that I need to start working on a kick-butt synopsis, or summary.

A synopsis is a summary of your story.

It tells the basic story. For example, here is one that I made up for a story named “In the Shadow of the King”.

Slave to Counselor.
Follow the story of a young boy who grows up in Chandelier Palace. Dormanu was born into slavery, but that doesn’t keep him from dreaming of bigger things.
Dormanu makes his way through the ranks, starting from chamber pots and rising up to chief counselor of the king. However, the story isn’t that simple. Conflict from other slaves, loves, and his family will make Dormanu’s path a difficult one to overcome. He will have to work hard to grow from the miserable life he currently leads.
Dormanu wants to leave the shadow, he no longer wants to walk in the shadow of the king.

This synopsis is short, but intriguing. The idea of the story is shown, without being too

Princess of Waterman Bay: The Story of How it Came to Be.

My novel. A whole month of my life written in over 50,000 words.

I started writing this novel for fun during NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, just over three years ago in 2014. I didn’t think I would make it far. The first novel manuscript I wrote, I started when I was 15 and only finished it right after I turned 21…and it still needs a TON of work. Isn’t it shocking that I don’t like what I wrote when I was in high-school?

Anyway, I was able to write over 50k words in a month, and it birthed this novel. Princess of Waterman Bay. After writing all of this in a month, I didn’t look at it again