10 Motivating Things Writers Should Do

#1. WRITE BECAUSE YOU WANT TO WRITE, NO MATTER WHAT ANYBODY ELSE SAYS

And I mean anybody. Don't let anyone get you down, not your parents, not your friends, not your teachers or that stranger on the internet who probably sits around eating cheetos on a greasy keyboard and can't spell to save his life.

No, writing is about YOU and your life and desires and story. If you have something to say, say it. Never stop. That is the most important thing I have learned. NEVER STOP.

#2. SET OBTAINABLE GOALS, AND GIVE YOURSELF ROOM FOR FLEXIBILITY

On January 1, 2013, I made a New Year's Resolution: write a book by January 14, only two weeks later.

I had personal reasons.

The point is, I met my goal. I finished when I said I would because I knew I could. I had a completed 151,000-word first draft and I couldn't ask for anything else. The feeling was amazing. I was that much closer to being done. Then I set a new goal, to finish editing the second draft by April 1st.

So I took a break, collected myself, and then got back to work. I edited and edited and edited EVERY SINGLE DAY until I was done. I know most people don't have the kind of time I do, but again, the point is to MEET THE GOAL. I actually beat my goal. I finished on March 28th.

My manuscript was reduced to 122,000 words.

Set goals. Meet goals. You will feel WONDERFUL. Completing goals is such a rewarding experience.

#3. START A BLOG AND WRITE USEFUL POSTS

I'm not trying to pat myself on the back. I'm saying blog what you learn, just as you should actively use what you learn. I write from experience. I want to help people, and that is part of what keeps me motivated. If I don't learn, I can't offer advice.

#4. FIND WRITING COMMUNITIES ON FACEBOOK AND OTHER SITES

I happened upon a Facebook page called Go Teen Writers while doing a lazy Google search one day way back in January 2013. Let me tell you something: the people there are fantastic. Everyone helps each other. You'll see comment threads with 20...30...40 comments just to talk about one specific part of writing. And everyone has become, more-or-less, friends. We'll talk about random things, like Harry Potter and what our favorite fantasy land is, and you'll see us posting pictures of our writing spaces and makeshift book covers.

Go Teen Writers is great. Jill and Stephanie do an awesome job, and are always in touch when you want to talk to them. Thank you so much for being awesome!

#5.  MAKE COVER ART, OR DRAW PICTURES FROM YOUR BOOK

What is writing, really? Writing is taking pictures in your head and describing what you, as the author, see. Writing is putting together jumbles of words and creating people and worlds that live inside you.

But words don't always have to be the only way to get those visuals out. Draw. Paint. Photoshop. Whatever you have to do, bring your world to life so other people can see it. Make a cover for your book, even if you don't end up using it. I made my cover in February, and two months later it's the cover of my proof copy and everyone who sees it gives me great feedback.

This is your story. Draw a picture and show us what you see before someone else decides to see it for you.

Eddie Utherwise (click for link)
Copypright 2011 Thomas Taylor

#6.  REVISE...REVISE...EDIT...AND GET CRITIQUED

What's the difference between "revision" and "editing?"

Okay, revision is taking your story and working with the plot, adjusting scenes, changing pace, crafting the story from the first draft...or the second draft...or however many drafts it takes to tell the story how you want it to be told. I've still got lots of work to do tweaking things here and there and making Embassy juuuust right.

Editing is stuff like grammar, punctuation, spelling, finding that missing word...your basic proofreading stuff. Pay attention, and have several pairs of eyes look at your work. Seriously, once you get past the fear of people hating what you write, you'll find that comments and suggestions are the best way of editing and revising a story, and I mean THE BEST way.

If you want to publish a book, that means you want hundreds or thousands of people to see it. So start small and get a general opinion. You'll thank yourself later. And people in writing groups love to help as long as you help them.

#7. TAKE TIME TO YOURSELF...AWAY FROM WRITING

Me? I go for long bike rides alongside Pittsburgh's three rivers. The wind and trees and ducks and geese and sights and people and the Pittsburgh skyline are wonderful. Biking, or going for walks, or sitting in the middle of Market Square lets me empty my mind and just feel at ease. I don't have to think about writing. I don't have to feel stress. I can just be.

Everyone needs a break. Do yourself a favor and do something you love besides writing. Inspiration will come from the simplest places when you aren't even looking, and stick with you when you leave.

#8. TAKE TIME TO BE WITH FRIENDS...AND DON'T TALK ABOUT YOUR WRITING

Unless, of course that's what you and your friends do. But my friends and I will play soccer, or Mario Kart, or Frisbee, or walk Downtown, or grab some coffee or a bite to eat, or watch baseball. Doing this helps you because you can experience society and interaction and guess what? That will help you write better books!

#9. READ, READ, READ, READ, READ

"But I don't have time to read if I'm writing and hanging out with friends!"

Ahem. Excuse me? I think it was Stephen King who said: "If you don't have time to read, you don't have time to write." Why do you want to write? So other people can read what you wrote, and to express yourself.

Study what works. Don't look at one book, look at many. See the various forms, line structures, elements, character interactions, dialogue sequences...everything. Adapt and create your form.

Published books are published for a reason. Successful books are read for a reason. Blockbuster books are known by millions for a reason. That author wrote something that worked.

#10. DON'T EVER BE AFRAID

Yes, this is similar to #1 and is last for reason. I want to leave you thinking: What can I do, and what could I have done? The world of writing is probably the hardest job out there. Success is NEVER guaranteed. Publication is NEVER guaranteed. Writing the next blockbuster NYT Best Seller is NEVER guaranteed. But none of that will ever happen if you don't try.

Get out there and be shameless. If you are writing, make sure people know. I tell everyone I can. Random strangers I meet at the airport, people walking Downtown, my professors, friends, friends of friends....the point is to not care. You'll write better if you know people will read it. If you hide it away all the time and don't let anyone see it, no one is going to care, EVER. It's nerve-racking, telling people you wrote a book. But once they see you've actually written one, they WILL be astounded. I speak from personal experience.

And remember, if you write because you want to, and tell people about it, you'll have readers. If you have readers, they'll help you by offering suggestions and comments. If they're helping you, you're becoming a better writer. If you're becoming a better writer, people will CONTINUE to read what you write.

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Is it Necessary to Sexualize Characters in YA Fiction?

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Also be sure to check out my Get it Write Tonight ebooks, Characters and Edit! That! Book!

While you're at it, check out my New Adult Science-fiction novel, Embassy.

5 Ways to Intentionally Improve Your Story's Quality

Today's entry will be about improving the deeper qualities of your story. This will mostly be about line edits. What are line edits? A close examination of what you are writing…a.k.a. paying attention to the words you put on the page.

This post was inspired by one of my Fiction Writing Workshop classes. I read through critiques of the poem I had workshopped and found that almost everyone had similar reactions and questions. One observation that my professor made was that the style and format of the poem seemed very intentional.

The comments my classmates made were literally split 50/50. Some people thought my choice of rhymes fit well, and others disagreed. Some people liked that I chopped the lines in the last two stanzas, others didn't. Almost everyone asked why I italicized the word preserve when no other words were italicized. Only one person caught onto the fact that there is one line, in the fifth stanza, that didn't rhyme with any other lines.

Then something caught me off-guard: except for the people who I told the subject of the poem to beforehand, almost no one knew what the poem was about. This struck the loudest. So then someone told them and a chorus of "Ohhhhhs" spread around the room. It made complete sense once people knew the subject of the poem.

But what I found—and what I was aiming for—were the observations and questions people had. Almost everything in my poem was intentional, from the choice of words, to the (seemingly-forced) rhymes and messy style at the end.

So, after you excuse that long introduction, I give you...

5 Ways to Intentionally Improve You Story's Quality

#1. WRITE WITH INTENT

Anything you write, whether it be poetry, prose, music, eulogies....anything....should have a purpose. Writing should present a message. It should mean something to you. So put your heart into the job.

Let your work speak to readers. They want to go on an adventure, learn a lesson (I'm NOT looking at you, school books), and be entertained. Speak to your reader through your words. Develop characters and scenarios that resonate in the reader's heart. THAT should be your goal.

I'm not sure Mr. Darcy will approve of polygamy, though.

#2. CHOOSE YOUR NEXT WORDS CAREFULLY...

Seriously. You don't have to sit there for ten minutes before you write something, but after you put words on the page, go back and look at them. What do they say? Okay, now what do they really say? Read them out loud. Read them sarcastically. Read them angrily. Read them joyfully.

What fits best? Okay, now what words present the tone you are trying to convey? There are different words, heck, different syllable-counts for different emotions. Short, tight sentences with one-syllable words generally show negative emotion. Longer sentences with longer words can express positive emotion. Of course there are exceptions. But take the following example:

Amy looked at Greg and pushed him.

Amy glared at Greg and slapped him.

Amy smirked at Greg and nudged him.

The first sentence conveys a neutral tone. "Looked" is a neutral word. It doesn't show too much. You don't sense anger or joy. It just is. The same thing with "pushed." Not too harsh, not too light. It falls in the middle.

The second sentence conveys an angry tone. "Glared" is negative. We usually associate glaring with anger and resentment. Then she goes so far as to "slap" Greg. Yup, right in the face. Again, you probably related the slap to a negative emotion.

The third sentence conveys a light, happy tone. "Smirked" is associated to a playful grin. "Nudged" is interpreted as a playful bump, maybe on the arm or in the ribs. Something you might do when someone makes you laugh.

You can see how these three sets of words (looked/pushed, glared/slapped, smirked/nudged) all convey different meanings. Each presents a different scenario and fills your chest with a different feeling, even though the same kinds of motions are made in each. The first sentence is kind of boring, while the other two each have action present. Why is she angry? Or, conversely, what did he do to make her laugh? Simple word choice can change the meaning of sentences. Pick your words wisely.

#3. EMPHASIZE DIFFERENT WORDS...CHANGE THE MEANING OF AN ENTIRE SENTENCE

In the example I'm about to give, watch how the meaning of the sentence changes depending on the word that is emphasized. This alone shows why texting is the least-effective form of communication (especially during arguments).

I never said she stole my money.

I never said she stole my money.

I never said she stole my money.

I never said she stole my money.

I never said she stole my money.

I never said she stole my money.

I never said she stole my money.

Read those? Did you emphasize where I told you to? See how the sentences have seven different meanings? That's what emphasis can do. Sometimes it doesn't work (yes, there are sentences that don't change all that much, but this one is pretty effective).

Pay close attention to how and where you emphasize. It makes a BIG difference. You can use this in poetry to strengthen points. Do that. Practice this element.

And then there's this devil spawn.

#4. EXPAND SENTENCES TO RAISE QUESTIONS AND ADD ACTION

You'd be surprised how many times people think "this is enough" when it's not. As I'll explain in Point #5, every sentence should mean something. This point will just show you how to think about structuring sentences.

You want to convey as much information in every sentence....AS PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE. This is where run-on sentences become a problem. Some people just don't recognize where to put a period. You might have read a friend's essay and just prayed that it was some kind of a sick joke.

Trust me, I have.

Some people's writing is atrocious. Periods where commas should go, semicolons when none are needed....heck, whole words that have no relation to the sentence at all. But run-on sentences seem to be the biggest crime. Don't cram too much stuff into a sentence. Make one point per sentence and be done. Just make sure it's really done. Take this example:

Amy glared at Greg.

Amy glared at Greg and slapped him.

Amy glared at Greg and slapped him because he laughed.

Amy glared at Greg and slapped him because he laughed at her dress.

Okay, look at how the tension rises. First you get that she is peeved. Then you find out she is angry. Next you find out she is angry because he’s laughing…but why? Finally you find out he’s laughing at her dress.

Clearly, there’s an argument on the horizon.

#5. EVERY SENTENCE SHOULD MEAN SOMETHING

In regards to writing poetry and prose, I like to say, "If you can't explain why you wrote something, don't write it at all." Every sentence, every line, and every word should serve a purpose.

This is a culmination of the above pointers. Think about why you chose to write what you did. In poetry, you don't always have that much time to tell a story, create emotion, and reach into the reader. This makes every word important. In prose, you have a bit more leniency, but the more words that mean something, the stronger the connection with your reader will be. Here are some tips:

Avoid "generic" words. It, they, is, was, had, been, too, so, else, everything, everyone, all, a lot, etc, etc. Try to find formal substitutes. Name objects and actions to strengthen flow and clarity. This can also prevent the phenomenon known as “pronoun syndrome,” where you have characters giving vague answers in order to have other characters ask what they’re talking about. Unless the situation calls for pronoun syndrome (and not many cases do), you’re just wasting words.

Avoid excessive use of adverbs. Basically, don’t turn write the next Twilight. Bleh. You’ve probably heard it called “purple prose.” Avoid words that end in "-ly." (There are other forms of adverbs, but these are good to plug into your CTRL+F function on a word processor). Common culprits include suddenly, immediately, quickly, and usually. Adverbs are just messy. They distract the reader and pull him/her out of the story.

She literally uses the same descriptions hundreds of times.

Use proper emphasis. Don't just emphasize just to throw the pace of the paragraph for a loop. Do it to convey emotion and importance. As I showed above, emphasis on various words manipulates sentences in all sorts of ways.

Whenever possible, avoid gerunds. If it ends in "-ing," there's a good chance it will weaken the sentence. There are other ways to make the same point that looks much cleaner. And the sentence will sound better when you read it aloud.

The best way to convey emotion, other than word choice, is to utilize appropriate sentence length. Short sentences with short syllables show negative emotion VERY well. Longer sentences with multi-syllable words are found as neutral/positive sentences.

You don't need exclamation points ("!") to show every bit of excitement or outburst from a character. More times than not, it will seem awkward. Choose your words carefully and the whole sentence will come alive just as it needs to. I have written sentences that shout in my head because I used words common to "shouting language." Sometimes sentences feel whispered. Switch around your diction and see what happens.

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Is it Necessary to Sexualize Characters in YA Fiction?

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How to Create a Vile Villain

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Also be sure to check out my Get it Write Tonight ebooks, Characters and Edit! That! Book!

While you're at it, check out my New Adult Science-fiction novel, Embassy.

5 Ways to Engage Readers...with Style

I recently read The Book of Jon. It's a short memoir by Eleni Sikelianos, about 100 pages long. Took me maybe....three hours to read.

No, not even that.

If you have the time, I highly suggest you give it a shot.

It's not your typical "novel." It's a memoir. But the style is still so much different from any memoir I've ever seen, and adds to the reason why it was such a quick read.

The paragraphs are broken. There are poems. Flashbacks. Listed, one-paragraph stories.

It taught me something about engaging the reader, and I went through some other books to see what sorts of styles were used. More often than not, any books told in the 3rd-person had longer formats, and books told in 1st-person had shorter formats. What's going on?

The authors (and publishers and editors and anyone else involved in the science of books) fit the paragraph sizes and formats to match the flow of the story. There is a system to this. And now I'll give tips to show you how to move your own stories along at any pace you want.

5 Ways to Engage Readers Using Style

#1. WANT TO SLOW DOWN? THROW IN A LONG PARAGRAPH OR SENTENCE

It's simple. Our eyes and brains work alternately when it comes to reading. Your eyes, believe it or not, tend to stay 3-4 words ahead of what you are reading....unless you consciously stop and force yourself to read slower. When you're immersed in a book, this has been found to be the average.

So if you want to slow people down, don't give them something that they can easily jump through. Throw in that ten-sentence paragraph. Take some time with detail. What you want to do is show observation here. Pick things apart and describe them...like the situation, or the surroundings, or a person. Something. Anything. As long as it moves the story forward, characterizes, or puts things into perspective.

#2. WANT TO SPEED UP THE READER? CHOP THINGS APART

So you've reached your action scene and you want to show the action as it happens, yet keep it exciting. (In my story, there are a few instances where I have to show my MC's thought process when he gets anxious. Same thing.) The best way to start this is to use an engaging format that is easy to follow yet details the situation...thanks to how fast the pace is.

Chop up the story. Make short sentences. Boom. Crash!

Keep paragraphs short, yet concise.

If you find you need to slow down the pace, you can throw in a long sentence. Maybe add another to give emphasis to what is going on and let the reader recuperate and organize what is going on in his head. But once you think enough is enough...

Get right back to it. Make it exciting again.

Show the action. Put them in the fray. Show the erratic thoughts.

Short.

Sweet.

Trust me, it will speed up the pace. Give it a try. You'll see just how much different styles can affect the story.

#3. SHOW THE CHARACTERS' THOUGHTS...WHEN NECESSARY

Put the reader in your characters' heads. If you're writing in 1st-person, you probably already do this. But make more of what you have. Try to show how a character feels. How they react. How nervous or excited or sad or angry they get.

Use specific thought patterns to drive the point. If they are nervous, use erratic styles (like the example above). If they are sad/mellow/sentimental, slow the pace down and stuff their thoughts into one or two big paragraphs. If they are angry, use medium length sentences in paragraphs that are 2-4 sentences long. Different styles evoke different moods, so show what you can with more than words.

#4. SHORT WORDS CAN BE MAD WORDS

If you have an angry character, yelling and screaming is an obnoxious way to show that, unless you really think they'd be yelling and screaming and there is no other option.

Try short words. One-syllable...maybe two. Words that convey tone through sound. Sound can change flow and mood.

Now go back and reread that last sentence. I bet you didn't have a happy, higher-pitched voice in your head like you might right now. You probably read it with a voice reminiscent of Professor Snape. Try reading it faster and happier. Awkward, huh? And this whole paragraph so far, you've had a loopy voice going through your head like the ever-flamboyant Gilderoy Lockhart. (If you don't get the references...that's okay....I guess.)

What I'm trying to say is I chose specific words to use in specific styles. When I wanted a monotone...tone?....I used negative sounds and shorter words as compared to when I wanted a "faster" read, even though the paragraph was longer. See? Switch things up. There are infinite possibilities.

#5. PUNCTUATION IS CRITICAL

Don't go throwing around commas and periods and semicolons and colons and ampersands and exclamation points and question marks and en-dashes and em-dashes and ellipses without a battle plan.

Throw them in strategically.

In case you're wondering, an en-dash is ONE dash (-) and denotes a break in a thought that will be continued (usually on the same line), or conjunction of words, like "light-year." Aka...an en-dash is a HYPHEN. An em-dash is TWO hyphens (--) and denotes a break in thought that will NOT be continued. (This is the basic rule to follow, especially in thought patterns.)

Use periods ( . ) and commas ( , ) and semicolons ( ; ) to slow down pace (I hate semicolons though).

Use ampersands ( & ) at your own discretion. Try to keep it in business/band/product names (Johnson & Johnson), and that's it.

Exclamation points ( ! ) should only be used when necessary, like, when your life truly depends on them. Use the correct language patterns (discussed above and in another one of my posts) and you won't need that pesky point.

Question marks ( ? ) ask questions. But try not to ask too many questions. Sometimes a period will fit, because you might actually be asking a rhetorical question. Check it again and figure it out.

Ellipses ( ... ) denote pauses in thought or speech and are a good tool when you want to drag out a point or let something sink in...especially in dialogue and thought.

That's what I've got to say on the specific use of paragraph, sentence, word, and punctuation styles. Experiment with them whenever possible. You'll find that there truly are an infinite number of ways to use them together and create the mood and pace that you want to convey, which greatly enhances the reader's experience.

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Enjoy this post? Check out these others:

5 Creative Ways to Enhance Your Story

The Most In-Depth Query Letter Advice on the Internet

How to Create a Vile Villain

5 Query Letter Mistakes You Should Avoid

6 Tips to Hook Readers in the First Chapter

10 Effective Writing Rules

Also be sure to check out my Get it Write Tonight ebooks, Characters and Edit! That! Book!

While you're at it, check out my New Adult Science-fiction novel, Embassy.

10 Effective Writing Rules

Earlier today I came across a Daily Writing Prompt that said: "Write your top 10 rules for writing fiction." I immediately sat down and did so. Perhaps you've already seen the picture of my rules floating around on Pinterest.

You can find this list
on Pinterest.

Well I want to expand on those and give detailed descriptions to each so that you can have a grounded basis for why those are my Top 10 Rules. So without further ado...

S. Alex Martin's Top 10 Rules for Writing Fiction

RULE #1. USE THE SIMPLEST WORDS POSSIBLE

When it comes to reading a book, people want it to be two things: easy and clear. Unless you are a scholar studying ancient or classical literature, you'll probably stop reading a book that has huge words that you keep opening a dictionary to figure what they mean.

Let me just lay this out for you: the other day I was browsing Facebook and came across a post on a writing group where the person was trying to sound professional and important...but done in such a ridiculous way that he lost all credibility in one paragraph. The post has since been deleted, but I've been using it for examples of what not to do. I'm copying it exactly how the person wrote it, so here it is:

"I read some stuff you guys wrote here with venerate. I joined this group for a reason, You see I have been vacuous for some time now, my mind is undulate I can't write no more. It's a bit confusing for me has anyone else here been through this feeling?

my thoughts were ubiquitous and now my mind seems numb of ideas. I think my mind transmuted. What i wish to know is as you all are writers and you all know the beautiful feeling to put down emotions on a paper, how wonderful it is."

Be honest. You brain hurts, too. Not only did he use those huge words incorrectly, but they just wouldn't make much sense to begin with even if he had used them correctly. It's a struggle to read that. Writing should be easy. Use simple words with strong meanings. Don't say, "I took the gun from him." Say, "I swiped the gun from him." It conveys so much more meaning and is still easy to read.

A good rule to follow is: when writing fiction novels, keep the writing at a fifth-grade level. It doesn't have to be complicated to be good. Don't fall into the trap. You'll just look silly if you start spouting out words you don't even know the definition of.

RULE #2. DON'T INCLUDE EVENTS OR DETAILS THAT AREN'T IMPORTANT TO CHARACTERIZATION OR PLOT

This is easier said than done. Especially when we write early drafts, we tend to stuff in as much information as possible. It might be our innate instinct toward world building. We want to stuff our readers' heads full of the world in our story. We want them to know EVERYTHING.

Well...sometimes less is more. The people critiquing my novel, Embassy, made good work of pointing out things that just weren't important. For example: is it important to learn that the home city of Arman, my MC, has two libraries? What's more, is it important to find that out more than halfway through the novel, after they've flown away from that planet? No. The fact that Cornell has two libraries doesn't matter one single bit.

Try to include details that characterize or advance the plot. When you meet Glacia Haverns, my FMC, she is described as "...Cornell's ambidextrous Hologis junkie....in fact, she's so well known that six people groan when she walks into the waiting room." That's eight pages into the book, and it's all you need to know about her for a while. You understand she gets a thrill out of Hologis (a futuristic sport in my book) and she has a reputation surrounding it. Those are the details you want to include.

(Since then, Embassy has been edited 13 times)

RULE #3. USE ACTION TO EXPLAIN EVENTS WHERE POSSIBLE

Which would you prefer to read: a paragraph explaining the climatic fight scene, or several pages showing the injuries and punches and bullets flying? The second one, right? Should be.

Action is exciting. Not just fight scenes, but seeing interaction between characters, an argument, a race, a living maze...draw these events out and make them come alive. Show us what happens as it happens. Gets our hearts pounding. Make us smile. Let us hear the angry voices.

Readers want to get as much as possible out of books, so learn what's important to show over a couple pages and what's acceptable to describe in a paragraph.

Just please don't take lessons from Michael Bay.

RULE #4. WRITE AT LEAST 90% OF THE STORY IN THE ACTIVE VOICE

I'll keep this one plain and simple: statistics show that books written somewhere between 90--95% in the active voice sell better than books written with any lower percentage. Passive voice is wordy. Say what you want to say, and be done with it. If you want to see an example of active vs. passive, it's your lucky day because I'm about to give you an example.

Example One

ACTIVE: "She carried the bucket to the barn."

PASSIVE: "The bucket was carried to the barn by her."

Example Two

ACTIVE: "I'm not selling those books."

PASSIVE: "Those books aren't for sale."

What? Wait. Why is the passive voice of the second example wrong? Okay, to be honest, this is one of those that you can be lenient about. It means exactly the same thing as its active voice equivalent--except in one way. Nothing is doing the selling in the passive voice. The books aren't being acted upon. That's what's wrong.

RULE #5. DIALOGUE IS THE STRONGEST FORM OF CHARACTERIZATION

There are so many ways to characterize through dialogue, it's not even funny. Speech patterns, quirks, stutters, slurs, screams, whispers, catch phrases, monosyllabic word choices, evil words, heroic words, funny words, sad words. All of that and more inside a pair of quotation marks. It's literally a perfectly acceptable form of telling.

Of course, don't do too much telling. You still want the speech to sound natural. But that's the beauty of it all. Get to know the ways each character talks, and the characterization possibilities are endless. Harness that power. Use it wisely.

RULE #6. MAKE SURE SOMETHING CHANGES BY THE END OF THE STORY, PREFERABLY THE MAIN CHARACTER

If you send readers on a journey with a character who learns nothing whatsoever...you're going to lose a lot of readers before the end. Something has to change. Whether it be a power struggle, a noble death, coming-of-age...doesn't matter. If readers can compare and contrast the characters as they were in the beginning of the story versus how the characters were in the end, you've done your job right.

Make the changes and transitions natural. Don't rush. People don't usually change overnight. A series of events happens and they learn things from those events. Oh, and make the change logical. Think of Star Wars. Anakin was supposed to become a Jedi, but the way events unfolded made him succumb to the Dark Side.

RULE #7. IF YOU CAN'T AVOID A CLICHE, DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT WITH IT

These days, you see all these books with love triangles. The girl can't choose which guy she wants, blah blah blah. Or the MC is actually some prophecized hero who will one day save the world. Or a guy falls into a vat of radioactive acid and becomes a superhero/villain. And then what happens?

Events unfold EXACTLY as we predict they will, making the story boring.

The love triangle becomes the focus of the book. The hero develops the most powerful abilities any character in the world has ever seen. Another guy happens to develop superpowers at the exact same time as the guy who fell into the acid. Didn’t see THAT one coming, did we?

Get creative, people. If you have to recycle plots, add your own twist. Please. I beg you.

RULE #8. IF YOU CAN'T DECIDE WHETHER YOU LIKE WHAT YOU WROTE -- REWRITE IT

You're going to have days where you write a scene, maybe a few pages...heck, even a full chapter, but it just doesn't feel right. Something doesn't fit, or this stretches too far or completely deviates from the plot.

Imagine it like this: you've been looking forward to seeing a movie, but when you walk out of the theatre, you don't really have anything to say about it. You want to like it because you waited so long, but when you're honest with yourself, it just wasn't that great. THAT is the feeling I'm talking about.

If you aren't sure about what you wrote, go and rewrite it. Maybe change everything, maybe tweak a few things. Let yourself find the flow of the story. I deleted 190 pages of Embassy in the fourth draft because they didn't fit...and sometimes as I made the rewrites, I found things I still didn't like. What did I do? Scrapped them and rewrote those scenes.

I probably rewrote close to 250 pages of Embassy out of the final 300 pages (aka almost everything after page 146) by the time everything was said and done. The plot had changed and things just didn't fit like they did before. But now I like what I have and it works so much better.

RULE #9. FIND OUT WHAT TIME OF DAY YOUR IMAGINATION REACHES ITS PEAK AND MAKE SURE TO ALWAYS WRITE DURING THAT TIME

If you want to be productive as a writer--this is crucial. First off, I encourage you to write every day, and whenever you can every day. But if there's one point of the day that you MUST write, it's when your imagination reaches its peak. This is pretty easy to figure out: what time of day do the words just spill off the tips of your fingers with ease?

My imagination reaches its peak between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. So every day between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. you'll find me writing. Something. Anything. Homework. Book. Whatever. My mind is a broken dam between those hours. The ideas and words literally flood my head. I don't have to worry about being "uninspired." That's the sure-fire time for me to write. Even if I've gone all day with zero ideas, I can GUARANTEE the minute 11 p.m. rolls around, my imagination will explode.

And there goes your brain.
Sorry.

To be honest, I've reached the point where I can turn my imagination on and off at will, but 11 p.m. is my "primetime" writing hour. Which leads me to the final point....

RULE #10. KEEP A ROUTINE UNTIL YOU FINISH THE DRAFT

Keep a schedule. I repeat: KEEP A SCHEDULE. When you write a book, the best thing to do is set aside time every day to write. Try not to change the time. If two o'clock in the afternoon to three o'clock is the only available time you have, make sure you write in that hour. Maybe on the weekends you can set aside a block of four or five hours to write.

Whatever your plan, STICK TO IT. Discipline is essential. You're going to hate it some days, but who cares? That's life. Finish the draft, whether it be the first, second, or fourth, and then give yourself a well-deserved few weeks (or months, if you'd like) away from that project. Go out for a fancy dinner. Pat yourself on the back. Eat some Ben & Jerry's. Go watch a sunset.

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Enjoy this post? Check out these others:

5 Creative Ways to Enhance Your Story

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How to Create a Vile Villain

How to Create a Magnificent Main Character

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Also be sure to check out my Get it Write Tonight ebooks, Characters and Edit! That! Book!

While you're at it, check out my New Adult Science-fiction novel, Embassy.