Seven Writing Links -- Volume 166

This Week's Writing Links

Sigh... Another week gone without a Wednesday post. Surprisingly, it's not from a lack of topics about which to post. In fact, I have more ideas queued up than I've had for a long while, but time is tight these days and I'm loathe to steal time away from my story-writing to ruminate here. 

Of course, I'll definitely be posting next Wednesday since it'll be the Insecure Writer's Support Group bloghop and I'd never miss that one. Alex does not tolerate slackers! :) 

Enjoy the links and have a great weekend! 

ChemistKen 


Let's Make a Detective!  
Although the article is about creating the traits for a detective, it could just as easily be applied to the creation of any type of character. 

Crafting Opening Novel Scenes That Pack a Punch

Producing Your Books in Audio Part One: Should You?

Don’t Picture Your Readers in Their Underwear: Writing Stage Fright

Who Hates Ya Baby? Creating Bad Guys Who Aren't the Antagonist

Breaking Writing Rules Right: "Don't Use 'Was'"

Fancy Free: Some Fun CSS Tricks for Ebooks

Seven Writing Links -- Volume 165

Photo courtesy of Pixabay

I apologize for the lack of activity here the last couple of weeks. Life has been keeping me busy and the weeks seem to end before I realize I've forgotten to post. When I think about it, however, I couldn't have picked a better time to slack off. It's April, which means the A to Z challenge is in full swing, so all you busy bloggers out there probably haven't even noticed my absence. 

As far as my writing progress goes, I've finally reached that point of the story where my notes for the next few chapters consist of: "MC tracks down bad guys and almost gets caught." Not a lot to work with. I plan to flesh out those notes over the weekend, but as usual, only time will tell if I succeed. 

Enjoy the links and have a great weekend! 

ChemistKen 


Kindle Unlimited: Is It Worth It?

What an Editor at a Publishing House Looks For: 6 Myths & Truths

Giving Characters the Courage to Change

Writing YA? What You Need to Know About Adolescence

Quick Scene Structuring

WHow to Request A Reversion of Publishing Rights

Middles: Keep Your Novel Moving

Seven Writing Links -- Volume 164

Photo courtesy of Pixabay

Based on the comments from Wednesday's IWSG post about my dream of becoming a full time writer, it seems a fair number of you discovered that having more time to write didn't always translate into being more productive. Point taken. I'm not giving up my day job anytime soon.  

Enjoy the links and have a great weekend! 

ChemistKen 


Show, don’t tell: Examples from books balancing both 

Editing Tips: 7 Smart Ways to Tighten Your Writing

Preparing your Goodreads marketing timeline

Stuck on Your Plot? Change Your Story Question

8 Ways to Get Honest Reviews for Your Books

Want to Write Romance? Layer Your Scenes for Success

Amazon Keywords: The Secret to Doubling Your Sales and Pulling in New Readers!

The Insecure Writer and Writing Full-Time

Today is April's contribution to Alex Cavanaugh's Insecure Writers Support Group.

Why am I an Insecure Writer this month?

Because I’m contemplating what it might be like to be a full-time author. 

Before I go any further, however, I feel it necessary to post the following disclaimer, just in case any of my bosses at work happen to stop by. 

“I’m very happy with my current job and I have no plans to leave anytime in the near future.” 

Okay, now where were we? Oh, yes. Full time writer fantasies. Sitting at the computer all day, doing nothing but writing, drinking tea, and watching your sales numbers climb on Amazon. What’s not to like? 

Since I'm such a slow writer, I often wonder what it would be like if I had all day to write, instead of relying on the random thirty minute snippets I depend upon now. Because every great once in a while, when I’m lucky enough to find a three or four hour window in which to write, I often make more progress on my story than I normally do in two weeks. 

Now it would be easy to conclude that if I had eight hours every day in which to write, my weekly progress would skyrocket. But I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t work out that way in real life. For one thing, I’m almost always thinking about my story when I’m away from the computer (much to the consternation of my wife). If I sat in front of the computer all day, I’d lose a lot of that free association time so important to my productivity. 

But that’s not the main reason I doubt my productivity would scale with writing time. Some of my ideas take a long time to percolate through my head. I mean a looooooong time. It’s not at all unusual for me to dream up better ways to write a chapter several months, sometimes years, after I think it's finished.  

In fact, just yesterday I thought of a way to change one of the scenes in my current chapter so as to increase the emotional tension between two of the characters. I can’t tell you how many dozens of times I’ve gone over this chapter in the past two months, yet this idea just came out of the blue today. I fear that writing at a faster pace would rob me of many of my best ideas and my chapters would suffer. 

In the final analysis, I suppose I’m okay with not being a full time writer, if only because I’m pretty sure that if I were a full time writer, my family would starve. So I can confidently state that I have absolutely no intention of quitting my day job in order to write. 

Of course, should I win the lottery, all bets are off. 

How many of you are lucky enough to write full time? 

ChemistKen