September Continues with our Writing Decisions

 June built the novel. July wrote it. August finished the manuscript draft and checked on pacing. Last week in August we looked at our writing self: method / discipline / story sequence and the best way to get disruptions from being ... well, disruptive.

September continues with the Biz decisions every writer makes.

While we let the manuscript cook, our brains gain objective distance by planning and implementing our writing business. We have a lot of decisions to make.

Yet we don't take the whole month for those business decisions. Luckily, September has 5 Wednesdays. On the 4th Wednesday, we touch the manuscript again with the Harvest Stage. Last week of the month, we enter the Publishing Stage. Yippee!

Be proud and be loud when you finish this month. First, you've done what many will never do: you've finished a novel AND published it. Second, you've done it in 4 months.

Now that we have a LOT of decisions made, now that we know what to do, we can use Preptober to prep for the National Novel Writing Month in November. In November, we can write the 50,000-word novel that every writer talks about for NaNo. Guess what? You may publish 2 books this year!

Thanks for listening!

If you find value in this podcast, share with your writer friends and/or write a review for other writers who need guidance.

(Remember, no links are active until the day of the post.)

September 1 :: Analysis C ~ The Writing Biz

Decisions, decisions :: 2 key ones that will affect your writing biz now and five years from now.

4 jobs that you must have done before you publish.

Sept. 8 :: Analysis D ~ Space and Time for Writers

Space :: your writing space and essential tools

• ·         Efficiency methods for writing
• ·         Tools to save your eyes
• ·         Methods to save your health
• ·         Avoid distracters / Encourage concentration

Time :: your writing schedule

• ·         Setting a writing calendar that you can maintain
• ·         Commitments and obligations (including overcoming guilt)
• ·         Jobs pay the bills
• ·         What to avoid when Bum in Chair

Sept. 15 :: Analysis E ~ the Double D's

Double D’s are Designers and Deadlines (No, that’s not calenders or writing goals.)

Cover designers are essential when writers don’t also have degrees in graphic design. The first of this week’s episode covers what to expect with a professional designer.

Numbers rule publishing. Yes, words are essential, but the words are based on numbers, even for those in self-publishing.

Sept. 22 :: the Harvest Stage

Harvest ~ Revision, Enhancements, Editing

Harvesting a manuscript takes more than a single week’s worth of work. What is our focus for the three areas above?

·         What areas does revision cover?

·         How do we enhance our draft? (Motifs and Literary Devices to explore)

·         Editing Rounds (several ways) with Corrections more than once

Sept. 29 :: Presence, Promotions, Publish, and Party!

4 Jobs to get that finished novel into the marketplace.

And celebrations are always necessary.

Beginning in October, new content related to challenges and Preptober.

Since you then!

Resources and Links

Discovering Your Novel, everything you need to know to write your first novel or to rescue those story ideas that never turned into completed manuscript. Designed to write your novel in a year and set up in a weekly format, with Charts!  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PYYM2LG/ 

    We've been pushing through our summer series. Sometimes--especially with demanding jobs--we have to work much more slowly. Discovering Your Novel takes 52 weeks, working through the whole year at a non-demanding pace. This Summer Series was definitely a demanding pace.

    If you have a manuscript that you don't know where it went wrong--but you definitely know it has, use this guidebook and start with each week's work to analysis problems and develop solutions. When you work through the Foundations / Envisioning / Pacing / Harvest stages, you can create a better manuscript that you won't fear to publish!

    Here's a Post on Writers Ink NonFiction that contains all the charts in DiscNovel, including the Analysis template and the Archetypal Story Pattern (ASP) chart as pdfs :: FREE! Discovering Your Novel ~ All Charts - Writers Ink Nonfiction 

Find us!

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

Listen on your favorite podcast site:

YouTube direct link to the Discovering Your Novel playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7IjuIS4daWlkiT4jRvRmnUM

My favorite podcast is Podbean. https://eden5695.podbean.com/

Then we have Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-write-focus/id1546738740%20

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4fMwknmfJhkJxQvaaLQ3Gm?si=0GFku2PbShWXiDhRp7JaDQ

In August / Summer Series / Discovering Your Novel

 August bridges from one stage of Discovering Your Novel to another and another.

In June, our Focus was the foundations to our novels. We've worked on the building blocks: primary characters and conflict development, the Plot 7 over 2 weeks, and the essential basic documents that help us with this novel and future novels.

In July, we began the Envisioning Stages. 1st, we looked at the Whole Plot then our Whole World in the Novel. On July 28 we ventured into our Secondary Characters.

Now we're at August and nearly the end of Summer. 

August will go much farther into the novel.

1st ~  Envisioning 

(links go to the specific Podbean episode)

August 4 / Envisioning E :: Tertiary Characters.

10 Minions of Evil. The Love Interest. Trickster Characters. Walk-ons and Cameos.

August 11 / Envisioning F :: the Hardest Part of the Novel

No, we will not HINT. We're working on the hardest parts of the novel to figure out. We engage our critical brain but still demand help from the creative muse. When we're finished, though, we will have a complete manuscript that we love and are desperate to publish. Not yet, though, we have more to do.

2nd ~ Analysis

August 18 / Analysis A :: Pacing

August 25 / Analysis B :: Your Writing Self

Coming Next ~ After we skate along the Space / Time Continuum and Deal with the Double D's, we enter the Harvest stage of Revision and Enhancement before we tackle proofreading and editing. Then it's publishing and more!

Remember, no link will work until the date for the link has passed.

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please let us know, either with a contact or a review. Share with your writing friends.

Listen on your favorite podcast site:

My favorite podcast is Podbean. https://eden5695.podbean.com/

Then we have Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-write-focus/id1546738740%20

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4fMwknmfJhkJxQvaaLQ3Gm?si=0GFku2PbShWXiDhRp7JaDQ

YouTube direct link to the Discovering Your Novel playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7IjuIS4daWlkiT4jRvRmnUM  

Resource List

Discovering Your Novel, everything you need to know to write your first novel or to rescue those story ideas that never turned into completed manuscript. Designed to write your novel in a year and set up in a weekly format, with Charts!  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PYYM2LG/ 

    We've been pushing through our summer series. Sometimes--especially with demanding jobs--we have to work much more slowly. Discovering Your Novel takes 52 weeks, working through the whole year at a non-demanding pace. This Summer Series was definitely a demanding pace.

    If you have a manuscript that you don't know where it went wrong--but you definitely know it has, use this guidebook and start with each week's work to analysis problems and develop solutions. When you work through the Foundations / Envisioning / Pacing / Harvest stages, you can create a better manuscript that you won't fear to publish!

    Here's a Post on Writers Ink NonFiction that contains all the charts in DiscNovel, including the Analysis template and the Archetypal Story Pattern (ASP) chart as pdfs :: FREE! Discovering Your Novel ~ All Charts - Writers Ink Nonfiction 

Dean Wesley Smith Writing into the Dark

• his blog https://www.deanwesleysmith.com
• his speech https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/writing-into-the-dark-speech/  
• his course https://wmg-publishing-workshops-and-lectures.teachable.com/p/nov-writing-into-the-dark

  Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs explanation on Simply Psychology.

  Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey explained on Wikipedia

 Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Face also on Wiki

James Scott Bell Superstructure on his website

All July / Discovering Your Novel / Summer Series Continues

July  ~ Envisioning

All through June, our Focus has been the foundations to our novels. We've been working on the individual building blocks: character and conflict development, the Plot 7 over 2 weeks, and the essential basic documents that help us with this novel and future novels.

Now comes July.

Time to Envision the whole story we want to tell. We need true clarity in our crystal ball. What do we envision? (Click the link to go straight to the episode, or pick your favorite podcast site to listen.)

7/7 ~ Envision the Whole Plot >> the whole story, not the 7 main scenes. Plot Category with elements; exercises for writing improvement

7/14 ~  Envision the World >> Basic World, Stomping Grounds, Backstory, World Building nuts and bolts 

7/21 ~ Envision the World pt 2 >> World Building 101 :: Reasons / How-To / Basic Considerations / Society and Social Structures / Nature, inc. topography / Transportation / and a bit on magic systems.

7/28 ~ Envision Secondaries >> BFFs or not, foils and obstacles,  minions of evil

Coming Next ~ Envision other Characters and Your Writing >> additional side characters, walk-ons and cameos; launch and novel openings, writers' block and more.

 Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please let us know, either with a contact or a review.

Listen on your favorite podcast site:

My favorite podcast is Podbean. https://eden5695.podbean.com/

Then we have Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-write-focus/id1546738740%20

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4fMwknmfJhkJxQvaaLQ3Gm?si=0GFku2PbShWXiDhRp7JaDQ

YouTube direct link to the Discovering Your Novel playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7IjuIS4daWlkiT4jRvRmnUM  

Resource List

post with pdf of all charts: Discovering Your Novel ~ All Charts - Writers Ink Nonfiction

Discovering Your Novel, everything you need to know to write your first novel or to rescue those story ideas that never turned into completed manuscript. Designed to write your novel in a year and set up in a weekly format, with Charts!  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PYYM2LG/

Summer Series for The Write Focus / Discovering Your Novel

 

Summer Series ~ June / July / August and maybe into September

Discovering Your Novel

All summer our focus is the craft and process of writing. M.A. Lee shares the various stages of Discovering Your Novel. We look at the Foundations, Visioning, Analysis, and Revision & Publishing stages that bring a novel into the world.

Links for June are below.

Focus for June ~ Foundations

6/1

Introduction : What makes writing successful? The discipline of  work, through persistence, completion, learning craft, and disciplined devotion

6/2

Foundations A: Pick

story / genre / protagonist / antagonist / tagline or theme

6/9

Foundations B: Sketch

story / the protagonist's introduction / the antagonist's introduction / the setting's introduction / background

Info Dump! How to Avoid it.

6/16 and 6/23

Foundations C, in two parts: Know

Part 1: beginning / the protagonist's dearest desire / ending/ greatest stress point / the protagonist's nadir

Part 2: the protagonist's zenith / early win by evil / final battle / early twist for the protagonist / the betrayal of the protagonist

6/30

Foundations D: Build

Set up for the Manuscript's foundation: for paperback and ebook / format / MS basics (how to type it), front matter / back matter / the masterbook

Thanks for visting The Write Focus! Content copyright is 2021, Writers Ink Books.

For links for these books, visit www.writersinknonfiction.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please let us know, either with a share or a review. We're small beans; we can't advertise like the big peeps.

Listen FREE

~ on your favorite podcast site. Apple / Spotify / YouTube are below.

My favorite podcast is Podbean. https://eden5695.podbean.com/

June 1 

June 2 

June 9

June 16

June 23

June 30

Then we have

 Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-write-focus/id1546738740%20

Spotify will let you listen to all the episodes without your doing a thing to select them. They may be a little out of order, though. ;)  https://open.spotify.com/show/4fMwknmfJhkJxQvaaLQ3Gm?si=0GFku2PbShWXiDhRp7JaDQ

and YouTube, which is a direct link to the Writers Ink Books channel. >  https://youtu.be/u2w8PkjTDyc  

Enjoy!

 Resources

post with pdf of all charts Discovering Your Novel ~ All Charts - Writers Ink Nonfiction

Writing Challenge Results / for May 12 & 19 & 26

 The April Writing Challenge of 2019 -- which led to this year's daily podcast challenge in April -- was in reaction to my desperate need to write a fantasy as well as develop more titles for this pen name.

To Wield the Wind was born, based on an escapist idea from a title that gave me so much trouble the summer before (for another pen name). I sketched out the bones of a story then set it aside when the other manuscript finally took off.

The ideas that developed during that writing challenge continued to evolve, resulting in To Charm the

Wind and To Curse the Wyre, published this year in late January and early March ... and bundled together in early April as Spells of Air.

Now we have a continued celebration of the writing challenge: the audio files for the 1st chapters of each of those novellas.

May 12

To Wield the Wind

This episode of The Write Focus presents an excerpt of the result of April's Writing Challenge, the first chapter of To Wield the Wind, a fantasy novella by Remi Black.

Sprites and gobbers, rock trolls and an ice huldra, a sorceress and shape-shifting wyre, all troubles for Orielle, a wizard on a mission into the Wilding.

The next two Wednesdays in May will present the sequels that evolved from To Wield the Wind. Without the writing challenge, no trilogy would exist.

In addition, we have a check-in for the current work in progress, as well as in starting a new WIP.

https://eden5695.podbean.com/e/246-writing-challenge-result-1st-chapter-to-wield-the-wind/?token=df461a693419df94a34ec9a3a5e76a2f 

May 19

To Charm the Wind

Also contains a comment about the importance of Cliff-Hangers when writing a series.

https://eden5695.podbean.com/e/247-writing-challenge-result-to-charm-the-wind/?token=49b5523af588dc7b5dd677181d6389a4 

May 26

To Curse the Wyre

Also contains a comment about the importance of Avoiding Repetition of Obstacles when writing a series.

https://eden5695.podbean.com/e/248-writing-challenge-result-to-curse-the-wyre/?token=0640743e0f5ace68b3c469ae465f703f 

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus!

For links for these books, visit www.remiblack.blogspot.com . 

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please let us know, either with a contact or a review.

Listen on your favorite podcast site:

My favorite is Podbean. https://eden5695.podbean.com/

Then we have Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-write-focus/id1546738740%20

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4fMwknmfJhkJxQvaaLQ3Gm?si=0GFku2PbShWXiDhRp7JaDQ

and YouTube, which is a direct link >  https://youtu.be/u2w8PkjTDyc 

Writing Challenge :: Post Draft Update

 The Write Focus has won the Writing Challenge. For Write a Book in a Month, we've done it. We needed a few additional days to prep for publication, but it's done now!

Topics in this episode include ~

Final check-in :: How did the Challenge Go?

Proof-Plus

* What Is it?
* What Do we Do in Proof-Plus?
(3 Steps)

Blurb / Market Copy

* 3 Rules for Tight Writing
* 4 paragraphs
* Hit the Length.

Plans for Promotions

* After Publishing / After the Trilogy
* Passive vs. Active Promotions
* Updating Websites and Social Media Pages
* Start the Next Work

What’s Next?

* May ~ opening chapters in the trilogy that developed from the writing Challenge

* All Summer ~ Time to explore writing Craft

Listen on the following sites. Bookmark your favorite to come back daily.

Podbean https://eden5695.podbean.com/

Apple Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-write-focus/id1546738740%20

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4fMwknmfJhkJxQvaaLQ3Gm?si=0GFku2PbShWXiDhRp7JaDQ

YouTube Channel https://youtu.be/WVw5FZqw8Co

Write a Book in a Month is copyright 2020.

Topics for the Entire Month

April 1 :: No Fooling

April 2 :: Change of Plans

April 3 :: Stick with the Plan

April 4 :: Nix Distractions

April 5 :: Watch for Warnings

April 6 :: Life Rolls

April 7 :: Win-Lose-Wind

April 8 :: Critical vs. Creative

April 9 :: Eat the Frog First

April 10 :: The Tax Man Cometh

 

April 11 :: Cocoons

April 12 :: Six Words Short

April 13 :: Wonders Never Cease

April 14 :: One Project, Two Project

April 15 :: Promotions

April 16 :: Covers

April 17 :: Frittery Jittery

April 18 :: Flipping Out

April 19 :: Input / Output

April 20 :: Looking Ahead

 

April 21 :: Short Post

April 22 :: Biz Monday

April 23 :: Master Book

April 24 :: Expect the Unexpected

April 25 :: Carpe Diem as Writers

April 26 :: Nose to the Grindstone

April 27 :: Writers’ Groups

April 28 :: First Celebration

April 29 :: Writers Conferences

April 30 :: An End that’s Not an End and Lessons List

 May 5^th :: Aprés-Draft Update

Resources

Amazon links are given because it's easy, and for no other reason.

Purchase Write a Book in a Month at Amazon here.  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0848MWXGD

Also mentioned in the first 10 episodes (March 31 to April 5) ~

Patty Jansen's Self Publishing Unboxed Amazon.com: Self-publishing Unboxed (The Three--year, No-bestseller Plan For Making a Sustainable Living From Your Fiction Book 1) eBook: Jansen, Patty: Kindle Store

Purchase Think/Pro at Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Think-like-Pro-Advent-Writers/dp/1983248266/

The Think/Pro planner for writers can be purchased here: https://www.amazon.com/Think-Pro-Planner-M-Lee/dp/1983248673/

 

Dwight V. Swain's Techniques of the Selling Writer https://www.amazon.com/Techniques-Selling-Writer-Dwight-Swain/dp/0806111917/  

Anne Morrow Lindbergh Gifts from the Sea https://www.amazon.com/Gift-50th-Anniversary-Anne-Morrow-Lindbergh/dp/0679732411/

Marie Kondo The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up https://www.amazon.com/Life-Changing-Magic-Tidying-Decluttering-Organizing/dp/B00RC3ZGN4/ 

Day 30 of the April Writing Challenge

 It's Day 30 -- the last day! -- of the April Writing Challenge.

Did I succeed at my goal to Write a Book in a Month?

To find out, click one of the links below. I'll post a publishing update on May 5.

Here's the complete list of 55 lessons.

April 1 :: No Fooling

April 2 :: Change of Plans

April 3 :: Stick with the Plan

April 4 :: Nix Distractions

April 5 :: Watch for Warnings

April 6 :: Life Rolls

April 7 :: Win-Lose-Wind

April 8 :: Critical vs. Creative

April 9 :: Eat the Frog First

April 10 :: The Tax Man Cometh

 

April 11 :: Cocoons

April 12 :: Six Words Short

April 13 :: Wonders Never Cease

April 14 :: One Project, Two Project

April 15 :: Promotions

April 16 :: Covers

April 17 :: Frittery Jittery

April 18 :: Flipping Out

April 19 :: Input / Output

April 20 :: Looking Ahead

 

April 21 :: Short Post

April 22 :: Biz Monday

April 23 :: Master Book

April 24 :: Expect the Unexpected

April 25 :: Carpe Diem as Writers

April 26 :: Nose to the Grindstone

April 27 :: Writers’ Groups

April 28 :: First Celebration

April 29 :: Writers Conferences

April 30 :: An End that’s Not an End and Lessons List

 

May 5^th :: Aprés-Draft Update

Listen links are here.

Podbean https://eden5695.podbean.com/

Apple Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-write-focus/id1546738740%20

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4fMwknmfJhkJxQvaaLQ3Gm?si=0GFku2PbShWXiDhRp7JaDQ

YouTube Channel https://youtu.be/WVw5FZqw8Co