Creative Writing Advice & Tips
WRITING FICTION -- Mystery & Other Creative Forms
>> GENRE HOPPING - Should You Do It? Articles by Suzette Saxton
Genre Hopping - Should You Do It?
John Grisham does it. So does Orson Scott Card. So, what is it? Quite simply, genre hopping is writing books in more than one genre.
When is it okay to genre hop?
Rumor has it that genre hopping is frowned upon in the publishing industry. This is not the case. In fact, there are two times in your career when genre hopping is encouraged.
* One: Before you ever get published
According to the brilliant Ms. Jessica Faust of Bookends, "Part of the publishing process involves discovery--discovering your voice, which genres suit your voice best, and which genres you really have a passion for--and until you get that magic publishing contract in hand, there's no one out there telling you what you can or cannot do. For the unpublished, you should use this point in your career as a time of exploration and growth. And you should have fun with it."
* Two: After you have successfully published multiple books in one
For an explanation, I'll defer to the ever-popular Mr. Nathan Bransford: "Here's the best method: first you become hugely successful. It's really, really hard to break out in one genre. It takes mountains of time, effort, luck, perseverance, luck, effort, perseverance... time... The kings of genre fiction have worked for years to steadily build an audience (and a brand) within the same genre. You make it even harder for yourself when you splinter your time, attention, learning curve, and, eventually, your audience by jumping around to different genres. Genre hopping should really only be undertaken in close consultation with your agent and after a lot of soul searching."
Are there exceptions?
Absolutely! The most notable being Children's Literature. Of all audiences, this is the one with the most wiggle room. Take author Cynthia Jaynes Omolou, who writes picture books, YA, and everything in between.
I have this talk with my agent all the time, and her answer is "write what you love." -Cynthia Jaynes Omolou
Annnnnd if you want to get really sneaky…
You can use a pen name to write (and submit!) in more than one genre.
>> HOW TO UNLEASH YOUR CREATIVE GENIUS
How to Unleash Your Creative Genius - Six Tricks to Capturing Dreams
Few realize the way dreams have shaped our world. I'm not talking about the aspirations of visionaries, but the literal dreams people have had while sleeping. If you are like most people, your dreams are forgotten within moments of waking. Here are some tricks to help you capture - and make the most of - your creative power.
Trick One - Stay in Bed
The average human spends one third of their life sleeping. Twenty percent of that time is spent dreaming. Dreams are a good source of new material for writers, but how can you capture them? The first step is to stay in the half-awake state for just a few moments longer. Keep your eyes closed. Think about your dream. Try to run through it from beginning to end; this will help you remember it later.
"I woke up from a very vivid dream," says Stephenie Meyer on her website regarding the origination of her book, Twilight. "Though I had a million things to do, I stayed in bed thinking about the dream." Later that day she penned it in its entirety. Readers will recognize it as the now-famous meadow scene.
Trick Two - Write It Down
Otto Loewi nearly failed to capture the dream that led to his earning the Nobel Prize. He dreamt of an experiment that would prove once and for all how nerve impulses were transmitted. He woke up long enough to scribble his idea on a scrap of paper, but the next morning couldn't read his own handwriting. The day that followed was, he later said, the longest of his life because he could not remember his idea. When he dreamed of it the following night, he jumped from bed and went straight to the lab to conduct the experiment that made medical history.
Take a lesson from Loewi. Write legibly or use a computer to record the details of your dreams.
Trick Three - Look Deeper
Don't be afraid to look for a deeper meaning in your dreams; the answer to a problem may be just under the surface. Albert Einstein dreamed he was sledding down a hill at night, faster and faster until the stars blurred as he reached the speed of light. This dream gave birth to his Theory of Relativity.
Trick Four - Expand and Expound
Robert Louis Stevenson gleaned many plots from dreams, most notably that of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. His wife related how, one night, Stevenson cried out so horror-stricken that she roused him. "Why did you wake me," he protested, "I was dreaming a fine tale!" She described how the next morning he awoke exclaiming, "I have got my chilling shocker, I have got my chilling shocker!"
Stevenson discovered he could dream complete stories and go back into the same dream on succeeding nights. If you have a dream you want to expand upon, or a plot in which you have reached an impasse, think about it as you fall asleep. You may be surprised when you wake with more material or a solution!
Trick Five - Pick a character
Have you ever started out as one person in a dream then seamlessly become someone else? Some experts believe we play all the characters in our dreams. For writers, this means we can expand our repertoire endlessly. Pick a character (any character!) from your dream, and you should be able to understand their viewpoint and motivations.
This trick gives you as an author great versatility. That boogie-man that chased you in your dreams the other night? You already know how he thinks, and can nail his or her voice in your writing.
Trick Six - Invigorate and Inspire
You may be surprised to learn that Thomas Edison invented, among other things, the power nap. He renewed his creativity by curling up on his workbench to sleep for twenty minutes at a time, often gaining great flashes of insight on a particular problem that had been plaguing him. He trained himself to remain in that in-between sleep state for as long as possible.
Artist Salvador Dali took this technique one step further. He napped with a fork clenched in his fist, held out over a plate he'd set on the floor. As he began to doze, his grasp relaxed and the fork clattered onto the plate, waking him. He would immediately sketch the images he had seen in his dreams.
While you don't need to go so far as finding a workbench or plate and fork, a short snooze will give you a burst of energy and some fresh inspiration to go along with it.
Why It Works
The dreaming mind is free of all the creativity blockers that are usually present in the conscious mind. While you sleep, the power of your creativity has free reign over your brain. Dreams take you to new and exciting worlds. Your writing will be more vivid; as far as your brain is concerned, you are writing about places you have been and events that have happened to you, albeit while dreaming.
Don't be surprised if ideas come to you in their entirety. "...because I had dreamed it, I couldn't believe I had written it," said Paul McCartney of Yesterday after waking with the song in his head. "I thought, 'I've never written anything like this before.' I had the tune, which was the most magic thing!"
Apply It!
Keep a dream journal and write your dreams down. If you don't have time to log the whole dream, write down a few details. You may be surprised when you come back to your notes and discover that you can recall the dream in its entirety. Refer to your dream journal often, most especially when inspiration seems to run dry. It's possible to weave many dreams into a single story.
Now, close your eyes, dream big, and let the magic of your own creative power come to you!
>> FROM GRIEF TO GOLD Turning Bad Memories into Good Writing
You pen the most heartbreaking scene of your entire novel, sure your story will move readers to tears. When you're done, you read back over what you've just written… and not only is it totally lacking depth, it's so overwritten that it's comical. The only tears anyone will be shedding are tears of laughter.
You're devastated. You need to be able to write sad stuff, and you want to write it well. But how does one do so? This article will show you ways to utilize your own misfortunes in order to make your writing more believable.
Every one of us has lived through some sort of difficulty in our lives. It is normal to want to put memories of these times behind you, never to be revisited. But bear in mind that these events have shaped who you are. Furthermore, there are ways to tap into your misfortunes and use them to your advantage.
You can take yesterday's tragedy and turn it into today's inspiration!
First, you need a recollection to draw upon. This could be:
• Loss of a spouse, family member, or pet
• Bullying, harmful teasing, or other painful childhood memories
• Loss of a job, your health, or even of a sense of safety
• Any difficult times from your life
You may wish to compile a list of these so that you can refer to them for writing purposes. (If you are new to this type of memory-tapping, be sure to start with a benign recollection. You can work your way up to more difficult memories later.)
Now let the magic begin! You'll be surprised by how truly simple this is.
Sit somewhere comfortable with pen and paper in hand, or at your computer with your fingers on the keys. Think of a scene in your story that needs to be written, or perhaps rewritten. Now select a memory that contains the mix emotions you want to portray. Close your eyes. Take a deep, relaxing breath.
Keep in mind that this memory can no longer hurt you; in fact it can help you, so don't be afraid. Put yourself back in time, back into your own shoes (or someone else's!) and let the recollection run through your head like a movie. Allow yourself to really feel what occurred.
Now, open your eyes and immediately start writing the scene for your story. Don't worry about errors, just let the emotion pour out. If necessary, slip back into your memory for a refresher. When you are done, read back over what you have written. You might be surprised; the depth of your grief has been translated into depth in your writing.
Let me give you an example of how this technique worked for me. Several years ago I needed to write the separation scene of my two main characters. I was very attached to them. They loved each other. I had hoped (along with them) that they would spend the rest of their lives together. But it wasn't to be. After writing a lovely day for them that included their first kiss, I put on a very sad song. I closed my eyes and thought about a time in my life when I had been permanently separated from one I loved dearly. I thought about what it would have been like had I been given the chance to say goodbye. And then I wrote that goodbye, with all the tenderness and sorrow that would have been mine if I'd had the chance.
Though this type of immersive writing can be be emotionally draining (you may need to rest after trying it) there is a bonus to this kind of exercise. You may notice your own grief easing.
Baroness Karen Von Blixen-Finecke lost her father to suicide when she was only nine. Her marriage ended in divorce, she suffered lifelong health problems, and the love of her life died when his biplane crashed. Her beloved coffee plantation failed and she was forced to return to the land of her birth. It was only then that she began writing. She adopted the pen name Izek Dinesen; Out of Africa is considered by many to be her most acclaimed work. I think she said it best:
All sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story or tell a story about them.
Now, go tell your story. The world is ready for it… and so are you!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: I am a freelance writer with both fiction and nonfiction publishing credits. Most of my books target the very youngest of readers and often stem from time spent playing with my own children. My story, The Bone Setter, was published in the Summer 2008 edition of Mindflights ezine and recently re-released in their Volume 3 print edition. You can read the story online at mindflights.com.
>> The Art of Creative Writing Articles by Tom Evans
There are two really common reasons why authors get writer's block. The first is a lack of inner confidence about their writing ability. The second is a belief that they simply don't have the time to write.
The blocks caused by lack of confidence can be caused by an innocent criticism of something written earlier - like an essay that got a black mark at school perhaps and has created a deep and lasting belief in their ability to write well.
The solution is to identify the old behaviours and beliefs and replace them with new beliefs and patterns that are much more resourceful. This can be done at either a conscious or unconscious level and can sometimes be as simple as turning a belief around from 'I can't write creatively' to something like 'the more I write, the more creative my writing becomes'.
To deal with the second type of block, there are many excellent books on how to improve your time management. Books like this are brilliant at pointing out where you can claw back time by better managing your day. Additionally, I would like to propose a more lateral and fundamental approach to time management - and that's to change the perceived speed of time itself.
Now this might seem far fetched, or in the realms of Doctor Who or Back to the Future, but scientists are coming to the conclusion that our reality - our space and time - are linked to our consciousness. In fact, it's more accurate to say that it's our very consciousness that actually creates our reality. So all you need to do to change time is to make a change in your consciousness.
I am sure you have heard about athletes who have been "in the zone" - a sort of timeless place - or perhaps you have had a light bulb moment where in less than a second, you get a flash of inspiration - a whole picture for a new idea. If you were able to MRI scan your brain at this moment, you would see both the right and left hemispheres light up in synchronism. For that split second you were Whole Brain (or even Whole Mind) Thinking. A brain scan would show that your brain was generating alpha and probably even theta waves.
Now you can access this state while meditating. When I mention this to authors, their first reaction is that they don't have time to meditate. I know it sounds counter-intuitive but I can testify that 20-30 minutes meditation before a writing session will deliver not only the time back by a factor of 3 or 4 but also much better quality writing.
"But I can't make my mind go quiet," is normally the next protest swiftly followed by, "I'd like to meditate but I don't have time to learn how." Well, if you hear yourself saying this, help is now at hand. You don't need necessarily to enter an ashram for two months. Although, if you did, it might well be time well spent ... Meditation machines are now available that help get you into both alpha and theta states. I have been using one for over a year now and even though I am reasonably adept at meditation, I can testify that they really do work.
I've written a free companion guide for users of meditation machines to specifically help authors through writer's block and to tap into their creative muse. After a few weeks of use, you will even find it easier to enter the meditative state without a machine and while you are in what is normally thought of as the waking state.
For a writer, this becomes significant as time seems to stretch out so that in a single hour you write what would normally take a whole morning or afternoon.
The benefits to your productivity are therefore immense and you will be amazed at your output in all areas of your life. People who have used machines even get comments of how well they look.
>> How to Write a Book with a Best Selling Title
I believe that having the perfect title for your book from the outset is really important. Visitors either enter a web site or go elsewhere within 10 seconds.
In the same way, readers decide if they want to know more about a book based on the title, in a similar amount of time.
An evocative title will resonate with the reader and make it easier to remember, share and recommend.
Jerzy Kosinski, the author of Being There said, "I always start a novel by starting its first page and last page, which seem to survive almost intact through all the following drafts and changes."
Once you get that perfect title and those opening and closing words, the rest just seems to flow.
I have been able to channel for my own writing for some time now. Recently though, I have started to do this for my clients and some amazing stuff is happening. Once you get going in this way, a chain of quantum entanglement is set up that leads to a sequence of coincidences that get your book written, published and just in the hands of the right readers ….
>> Do you want to write a book - what's stopping you?
It's a commonly held belief that it's difficult, or well nigh impossible, to get published. This misconception stops many people starting to write in the first place.
The reality is that it has never been easier and as inexpensive to get published. To get into the written and publisher quadrant, all you need to do is to write and then use the numerous options and routes now open to authors to getting your words in front of readers.
With new print on demand technology, you can even have a printed book in your hand within a week.
Better still, if you upload your writings to one of many ebook aggregator sites and you can 'publish' instantly. You can also upload your book so it can read on the new breed of ereaders from the likes of Sony and Amazon. The new breed of smartphones also allow 'books' to be read on the move.
There are several authors who have blogged their books and have got advances from publishers as a result. There are even some intrepid scribes who are now using Twitter to the same end.
Even the traditional publishers are now getting in on the act and have set up social networks for writers to pre-publish their work. The ones that get the best reviews get picked up by editors and get commissioned.
It's important though not to put the cart before the horse though . Before deciding on your route, or routes, to publication it is important that you discover what exactly are you going to write ... and why? In my free Ebook - How to write a book and get it published - I talk more about this subject plus further information on the pros and cons to the many routes to publication.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Tom Evans is an Author and Business Mentor who specialises in helping aspiring authors to write and publish their own books. Tom offers a range of services including writer's workshops, home study courses, 1:1 mentoring and epublishing support. Sign up for my FREE ebook entitled How to Write a Book and Get it Published
>> See THE GREAT CULINARY MYSTERY SERIES - From Peter Abresch's KILLING THYME to Melinda Wells's KILLER MOUSSE - All the Great Culinary Mystery Series...