Inaugural Episode Transcript ~ 7 Newbie Writer Mistakes

 Welcome to the inaugural episode of The Write Focus, a podcast for writers on productivity, process, tools, and craft.

Listen on YouTube > Glitch city. No problem with the mp3 file. No problem with the mp4 video file. Uploaded to YouTube AANNNNNDDDD problems.

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This is episode 1 (but actually 1:3). You may find 2 earlier promotional episodes for a book. Those were actually practice podcasts to force me to take this leap.

The Write Focus is a production of Writers Ink. I’m M.A. Lee, here to share what I’ve learned in my years of writing and teaching writing as well as my years of pursuing publishing. My first books published in 2015, and I haven’t looked back since. I write both fiction and nonfiction, and M.A. Lee is just one of my pen names.

Because, you know, we change names to protect the innocent.

The topic for this episode is Newbie Writer Mistakes. I have 7 to share with you.

First, a little context. This list of 7 along with the following 3 Notta Mistakes arose from a question that a newbie writer asked on a forum hosted by a national writing organization. She wanted to know what the published writers wished we have known as we launched our careers.

Usually I skip past these questions. I don’t know why I answered the question this time. I offered encouragement and hoped she avoided a lot of the newbie mistakes that I had made--you know, before I became older and wiser but still mistake-ridden. Then I admitted my mistakes as well as those 3 Notta Mistakes because 7 + 3 gives me 10, a nice round number.

I’m sharing my response to her with you. Because—well, this is full of lessons about productivity and craft and more!

Here's Mistake #1. (1:35)

I'm an eclectic reader and writer, so I'm writing fantasy and romance and mystery and two types of nonfiction. What I should have done is focus on one genre (or series) rather than scatter my writing time--which slows down publication.

No, I didn't think anticipate that problem.

I claimed I was after publication, but I wasn’t acting professional about it.

My lens focused too broadly on what I like to read rather than what my writing self should create.

There’s the lesson, and it’s called Author Branding. Before we finish that first manuscript, we need to know what our writing self will be. That writing self will guide the direction of our writing.

I’m still too scattered. That’s a mistake I continue to make. I have tempered the effects by using three different pen names for my three divergent interests. In the world of 20 to 30 books before Discoverability, this greatly slows down my attainment of that goal.

Newbie Mistake #2.l (2:32)

My sales copy didn't intrigue and told too much plot.

Okay, let me back up. The sales copy is the description in an online book store or on the back of a paperback or the flyleaf of a hardback book. In the publishing world, the book description is often called the BLURB. That’s the term I learned years ago. Sales Copy is the better term.

What makes people buy books from writers they don’t know? Well, ads and word-of-mouth information.

If we writers are looking at books spread out on a table, what can we see that makes people pick up a book? The cover, first. Cover tells genre, hints at story or character, and gives the tone of the book. Even browsing an online store, people will see the cover first.

Then comes the book description.

In my early book descriptions, I wanted readers to know the exciting parts of the story. But if we writers share too much of the exciting parts of the story, why will the reader than buy the book?

People buy books for entertainment. Entertainment is based on surprise and curiosity.

My blurbs killed both surprise and curiosity.

Dean Wesley Smith calls this the Author Problem. When I finished his class on Fiction Sales Copy, I realized how BAD all my original blurbs are. Now I am rewriting Every. Dang. One.

Look for links to Mr. Smith’s blog and his Teachable courses, managed by WMG publishing, in the show notes.

Newbie Mistake #3. I call this one “My Arrogance.” That’s capital letters, people. (3:54)

I understand story structure. I taught it. I taught it from the analytical side and from the writer side. Therefore, I arrogantly thought I knew how to hook a reader.

The class on Fiction Sales pointed out that my books are actually slow starters.

Books should start with that same surprise and curiosity to lure in readers.

Some writers can do this with great first lines. Others do it with immediate action. Pro writers usually say something like “start the book at the first moment when things become strange.”

Basically, we should consider the best vivid start for each book. That happens on the first page. Don't bury it three pages in. This is a lesson that I have learned in the past few years, and I am trying to apply it now.

Newbie Mistake #4 ~ Trying to do It the Way Other People Do (4:45)

I keep trying to outline when I know—KNOW—it cages my creativity.

Writing is fun. And writing is hard. I keep looking for ways to make it simpler and faster.

There is no simpler method than to put one sentence after another. You can dictate to make it faster. A lot of writers use Dictation and the like for their sketch of the story which they then tinker and revise into a manuscript. That’s a writing tool you may want to investigate.

I use the voice recorder on my phone app for sketching ideas when I have to. I don’t like to because then I have to transcribe … and for that there HAS to be a better way. I’ll be looking for that, and I’ll share it with you when I find it. Transcription is no fun.

However, a one-page transcription can turn into six or seven or 12 or more pages of a manuscript.

Newbie Mistake #5 (5:42)

For several, several years I looked for a good critique group to help push me to the next level. One day while I was sitting in a critique group, listening to my fellow newbies pick apart a best-selling novel for story structure and character development, I realized that I was in the wrong room.

Publication is the goal. Why was I listening to people who were not published?

The FIX: For improving my writing, I needed to find veterans who are STILL publishing--not the ones who had published 1 or 3 books and were done. So I have found my veterans and follow them closely.

I have writing groups that I follow on social media, usually as a lurker. I choose those that have multiple writers actively pursuing publication, ones that are inclusive and welcome indie writers as well as the traditionally published.

I avoid the literary fiction groups. My encounters with those have taught me that they do not really want the kind of writing I am after. Most have writers who merely want you to sit quietly while they read their enlightened drivel then applaud politely and gush at the end of it.

I hope your encounters with literary fiction groups are better than mine. There have to be good ones out there.

Newbie Writing Mistake #6 (7:00)

In the past, I had nebulous goals about yearly / monthly / weekly / daily writing.

I would say, “This month I want to work on my novel.” But I didn’t say how many chapters I would attempt to write, or how many pages or words. I didn’t consider what development the story would take. I didn’t think about turning off the TV or getting off social media and spending an hour each evening at my writing desk.

When I started doing that, an hour each evening after work, whether I wrote a couple of sentences or a couple of pages or more, that’s when my indie dream started becoming reality.

It took a year, but I began to become specific with my goals. I’m slow. I know.

Once I started setting up my plans with such specific goals, tinkering was needed to learn how to work this new method, but eventually I figured it out. How long would it take to write a complete manuscript? How long was the manuscript going to be? How did that translate into chapters and pages and words? How could I break those chapters and pages and words into months and weeks and days? That’s what we have to figure out.

The only way we writers can achieve our goals is to set a specific weekly word count based on daily possibilities.

Also, I need to write every day or impetus is lost. I can write a lot of words or just a few, but I need to know that I am working for the completion of a manuscript. I still get derailed. I still struggle with daily writing, but last year I wrote over 800,000 words--best year ever. I published 5 nonfiction titles, three mysteries, and one fantasy novella.

Specificity is not a word, but it creates success.

So the FIX: Look at the week ahead with its planned distractions and disruptions, then set a realistic daily word count. When I go over the count, I keep going. I don’t consider the extra words part of the next day’s words. I start over with the next day’s words on the next day. Something will happen to throw a spanner in the works, to use a cliché, so those extra words that you’ve written will cover those times.

Here’s the last Newbie Mistake … #7 (9:10)

Over several years—before I started my self-publishing journey—I tinkered with the idea of being a full-time writer. I would play with a story until it became difficult then jump to another. I accumulated a lot of story starts.

Eventually, I heard the advice about finishing what you start. If we only write story starts, we never learn to work through the dreaded middle or achieve the climatic ends. I still remember the first novel that I wrote from beginning to end, all 50 pages of handwritten story.

For years I played with story starts. Gradually, more manuscripts got finished. Now all of them get finished—although sometimes that’s an eventually finished rather than currently finished. When I’m slogging in the middle of a manuscript, sometimes I take a break to think about an upcoming book, but it’s a one-day break, not several days. Then I’m back to the sloggy middle of the manuscript.

Which means that other story ideas start percolating in my brain, and when I finish this MS, another one is ready to be poured onto the page.

So, here are those 7 mistakes once more.

1.       Figure out your goal as a writer and determine your WRITING SELF as you are finishing that first manuscript. Focus on that writing persona rather than scattering your efforts.

2.       Learn how to write Sales Copy. Remember, it’s the second thing that convinces readers to buy your book. The first thing is the cover.

3.       Just because you’ve learned the lesson doesn’t mean you understand the lesson. Apply the lesson. My lesson to apply was starting stories on the first page, not the third page. You may know it, but you may not have heeded that lesson.

4.       Find the method that works for you. Admit writing is hard. It’s also fun. It’s not easy. But it is rewarding. Don’t force yourself into a working process that doesn’t fit you. If the words are not flowing and everything else in life is fine, then the working process may be the problem. Don’t cage your creativity peg by forcing it into round holes.

5.       Pay attention to the advice of published writers, and don’t be enthralled by NONpublished writers. Find a couple of good sources along with a couple of welcoming organizations, and stick with them.

6.       Be specific with your goals. Know what your project will be. How many chapters? How many words? How many words can you accomplish in a week – realistically? How do those words translate to the chapters? Set your goals for the year, then the season, then the month, then week by week.

7.       Finish what you start. Then start the next one.

That you for listening to the inaugural lesson for The Write Focus. Remember to check the show notes for links.

Dean Wesley Smith's blog site.

WMG Publishing courses on Teachable