Time To Write Week 20

 We are at CHAPTER 20...Or hopefully your last chapter for this week! Seriously for those of you working on a 20ish chapter story you are almost done!!

Look back...you are there. You are almost there. 

For those of you who are writing more than 20 chapter hopefully this is a halfway point for you or you are continuing on! Keep it up. We are all getting there!!!

We have one week coming up for those chapter 20ish ending folks. 7 days. 7 plus hours and the ending to write. Go forth and get it done!!!!

20 plus wind down chapters this week!! 

YOU SHOULD BE PROUD!!!

Summarize Story Ideas

Summarize your story/arc
Define your characters motivations/arc
Define your story's plot
Outline your story by scenes quickly
Fill in more on the outline even the little things

Now begin writing a scene that is very strong even if out of order. I know this may totally toss plotters off a bit but hang with me here. Write a scene you vividly see from beginning to end. The idea here is that must be an impact full scene that you are excited about...that's the key to each scene. Honestly, that scene that you know already must be worth it or it wouldn't have been in your thoughts. So write it. Don't worry about typos and every minute detail....just get it typed or written. 

Now that you have it...that could be the starting point of your book or maybe it is somewhere in the middle. Now build around it. Pansters this may be easier for you unless like plotters you write in order or plan well before writing. Plotters just work with it. Or maybe that opening is your first major cool scene. Work with that if it feels better. 

So for starters just get the basics of the scene down. Then go back and fluff for better sentences, better words. Better dialogue. Better setting etc. This is still rough draft. Don't spend time here making everything perfect. 

Some have asked how long a scene or chapter should be. Thoughts and ideas can vary. I go for 3500 to 5K for a chapter. Every story is different. 

Things to think about with that first scene/chapter:

1. Opening Line. This needs to grab readers right away. Bam what happened or is about to happen. Suck that reader in. If you have a boring first line you will lose readers. 

2. Get the words down in the first chapter. Let your mind and fingers flow. THIS IS NOT TIME TO EDIT OR CLEAN UP.  This is just keep writing until this scene has all you wanted in it. 

3. Look back. Yep permission granted to give it a quick read and correct but no lingering for long. Does this chapter hit with a bang? Does it hold your attention? If not it wont hold the reader. Up the ante if not. Time to add more if needed. Or let it sit for a few days so you can think on things. Do not skip writing days just work on another scene for your hour a day.

Time to Write Week 19

 Whoa...this is a busy time of year. I have teens. One about to finish 9th grade and she is busy with color guard plans for summer practice. And my oldest is graduating HS....how did it all happen so fast?

So I am really having to plan life well to get each day to my writing. So I told my family. If I need ro have you somewhere or sign something. You have to find me and make sure it's on my calendar and bring me what you need signed. They know this now for year but it still gets crazy. 

So we are on chapter 19.....and pushing for 20ish and the ending. Wow...we are almost there!!!

This is when you need time. An hour a day is good but could you pull off a full Saturday at writing. Or could you give it a full weekend? Negotiate for an escape to stay in the story if you can. 

So working on chapter 19 this week and toward thr finishing chapter 20. YOU CAN DO IT!

See ya best week for the wind up! Follow here and on FB!!

Only 500 words a day...can do this!

So who is struggling in keeping up? Ya know what? That's OK. Please don't bail on this blog and the attempt in finishing your book. This blog should have pointers and help for you no matter if you keep up or not....but let me put it in numbers. 

500 words a day. 

500 words each hour a day. 

Could you do that and keep that pace? I think anyone who wants to write can. So let's look at the breakdown. 

I am asking you to write one scene or chapter a week. Just one. 

500 words each day for seven days is 3500 words. Perfect for a chapter give or take. This is doable don't you think?

And if we look at 500 words each day for 30 days then you'd have 15K words...about 3 chapters. That is why in planning this blog as we go we will look at about 3 chapters a month to focus on. 

So what does 500 words a day for 3 months look like?
90 days and you have 45K words. You gotta full story by that word count. Fluff a little and you have that magical 55K some houses want
 
But let's do 6 months at 500 a day and you'd have 90K. That is my sweet spot on story. Of course most of mine are longer. And I read recently that houses are looking for more than 55K and the sweet spot is 80K. 

I have set up this blog to post every Monday what to work on for the week and every Thursday some kind of helps will post. In between I will have some other random posts to help us all finish a book in 6 months or a year. The speed is your decision. 

Some will write faster than others and by all means don't let this blog slow you down. But for others the struggle to keep up may be real. But 500 words a day....we should all be able to do that. If you miss a day because there are no days off then make up the 500 word loss. Hold yourself to be accountable. Report in daily here if it helps. 

You want to finish the book or you wouldn't be lurking here on this blog. 

And please pop on over to my Author Kim Turner Facebook page where I will post more helps and encouragement each day. Together we can do this.

Time to Write Week 18

 

It's May Ya'll. We have been at this for 5 months....seriously. I challenge you to take a look back at how much you have accomplished even if you have not made it to chapter 18. If you have made 5 chapters....keep going. If you have made 40 chapters...wind that puppy up and start editing. Progress is progress and while we have a plan here to follow sometimes life does happen. 

I will also challenge you to wind up your 20is chapter work if that is the plan you were on. We are at chapter 18....and as you wind up the last 3 chapters...take a look at details as your write. Has the story arc come to be as it should? Is the plot like you pushed for? 

How about each character, are they now changed somehow because of what happened in the story? Did they grow? If not these are things you may have to fluff snd fix when we get to edits. 

But for now focus on Chapters 18 thru the ending of your book. Pull it all together but don't short happening to make sure you end at chapter 20. If 2 more chapters are needed write them. 

If you are not stopping at chapter twenty to carry on!

Have a great week and post how things are going! Don't forget the fun stuff we csn share and chat about on Facebook and here.

Random Acts of Writing

Yes I am weird and unique at writing a scene that may or may not go into a work in progress or one waiting to be the next in progress. 

I think I have mentioned before about how I do not write in order a lot of the time. I am also not the author who keeps track of my writing but page or word count. If that's you then that is great but I can't seem to do that very well. 

I am a multi failure author with trying to Nano in November. For those who have been successful God bless you and Nano but I have never been able to write 50K words in the month of November. And all I need is one more social type app to pay attention to. So I won't be attempting Nano again. 

So how is it I manage to write out of order by scenes?

It seems from having a full time job where I do some days manage to write on my Galaxy Note one partial scene at lunch break. Yes...I write on my phone. The note app is fantastic and so I will never go iPhone for that feature alone! Total Android girl here and no interest in MAC anything. But that's a side bar. 

I sit for 30 minutes on my lunch break...I bring my lunch to the hospital mostly so all I have to do is warm it up and sit to eat with my phone. A quiet corner in the cafeteria or outside or at my desk. I like the at my desk most. 

So first I spend the morning drive in to work thinking about what scene I know I will have in the story. Usually that may begin thoughts in my head where the characters begin speaking. Or where ideas there seem to be what may or may not come next in the story. But I whirl and idea and again Start on it while at lunch. 

To make the most of my time on my Galaxy Note...I type the story just like texting. The note feature does have a pen but I am fairly fast at it. I just type everything out with no indents for the sake of saving time. I mean a thirty minute sprint at lunch isn't long. So I don't bother with quotation marks or big punctuation thing. I so start new paragraphs but again no indents. I sometimes do not add dialogue tags which saves time as well. I just push to get the scene down. 

So if I don't finish a scene then I pick it back up that night when I write at home. Or I finish it at lunch the next day. And it might even take several days. But once it is done. That is a finished scene.

So when I am done I simply email the text to myself. Then later when I am working on my story on my laptop I go into my email and copy that scene and paste it where is goes into my document. If I am not sure where it goes then I make sure to title it and then past it at the bottom of my story so I csn grab and place it later. 

But...when I do add it where it goes...editing is required on several things. First I add the paragraph indentions and quotes and dialogue tags...all the things I didn't worry about when scrambling in 30 minutes to finish. And now in my document maybe a few things don't fit or go with what is happening in previous story. So I edit to make things fit even if it takes a bit of rewriting or changing exactly how something happened.

At times I have scenes but they don't connect to the chapter before or after them. So...I then think what do I need to happen for it to flow into that scene I already have. Weird I know but it so works well for me. Have I ever wrote scenes I didn't use? Yes. Many. But I save those scenes in another file in case I do end up using them in this story or another. Yep I do that too if the scene will work well there...just gotta change the names. That is sort of rare for me though. 

It's how I began stealing writing time no matter where I am. I did that at the soccer field with my girls when they were young. I do it while at the beach. I am prone to getting Carrick if I read in the car but I can do a little on my phone if we are traveling and I take Bonine to stay off being sick. I wrote a full scene the other day while standing in line to vote. I write in store lines and I write when I am anywhere that gives me a few minutes and its allowed. 

What I have found is those scenes that come to me are sometimes my best because what I keep playing around with in my head leads me to really nice exchanges between characters. Some of my best really intense scenes have happened this way. And I'd venture to say some of my shorter stories happened fully on my Galaxy Note. 

So I'll challenge you to see if this works for you. Come on just one scene. Think about your story in progress. There has to be a scene you know that will come much later on and you already know what will happen. So write it....yes now. See what happens and how you like the scene. If you let your characters speak in your head and you get it all down. I promise you will love the scene. So try it on a second scene another day. 

What I end up doing is writing those scenes where I do know what's happening or what's coming and saving them. Then I write what is needed in between to connect everything. You won't know if that will work for you unless you try. Just once give it a go.

Time to Write Week 17

 

Another 7 hours or I hope more behind us. Who got in their hour a day? KUDOS FOR THAT!

SO this week Ch. 17 is the focus. Pull out your notebook and check what is still needed and see if you can pull the story to make that mark. 

You may want to read up on writing the final chapters of your story and how to bring in the closure. It may depend on the Genre you are writing and it may also depend on how you write. 

Sometimes as I pull together my ending I cannot type or write as fast as my mind wants to go. But I would encourage you that this is the time to let your fingers fly. You csn Fox stuff later. Even major typos and skipped lines or crazy extra letters. Just keep rolling so you don't miss the good stuff. 

Roll on into chapter 19 and 19 if you can. Remember you csn choose your path on how to utilize this blog. One chapter a week or several as we go. 

So get to it on making chapter 17 one to remember...if could be you'd like your big moment to take place and the next 3 chapter up to 20 are what comes after?? It's up to you. 

Tell us how you are doing on writing journey. If you want share the idea of your story. It'll be fun to see what everyone is up to. 

Ready. Set. Go!!!

See ya on FB