So, you have a story, an idea or an inspiration fresh in mind but have no clue how to even begin putting it on paper in the form of a novel...well not to worry because I have been writing for enough years to guide you through this process and help out.
From what I understand now, there's several ways to go about it when beginning a first draft, and it's up to you to see what works best for you. Writing in a single flow This method works best if you have your story completely thought through before you begin writing. It is really a simple process of just sitting down and writing everything down as you imagined it, making it as close as possible to your final product from the very beginning. If you prefer doing your best with your first draft to reduce the time you might have to give it in the future to edit, then this is your best option. On the down side, though, you might face writer's block a bit too often since you refuse to write anything but what comes next, and if you can't think of what to write on the next page, you might end up sitting there for a while. (But don't worry too much, my next blog is about fighting writer's block!) Starting with a mindmap If your work is a complicated one, then it helps a lot to start of with a kind of mind-map. Just get some paper and go crazy scribbling down everything you know you have to write. Then sort out the order of events into chapters and so on till you have everything you want to write in front of you on paper! Different writers do it in different ways; flash cards, sticky notes, bullet points, doodles, scribbles... anything is acceptable as long as it works for you. Then, once your guideline for the story in front of you, you can begin typing it out. It will make you write a lot faster if you already have notes on what to write next in front of you! Writing your favorite passages first This is a unique method I tested out recently and actually like a lot. The way I went about it was opening a blank Google/Word document and making a list of chapters of my novel and left blank space under each of the chapter names. After that I would type down my favorite scenes, ones that I couldn't wait to write and was too enthusiastic about, in whatever order I felt like. All I did was make sure each scene was under the title of its respective chapter, hence it was chronological regardless of me typing it down randomly. Finally I opened a second document and began to write the story in a flow by copy-pasting my favorite parts where needed and filling in the gaps between those scenes. If you also have moments of enthusiasm for writing certain parts first, then I recommend you try this method for sure! Beginning with a summarized version This method is like writing in a flow but faster at first. The difference is that you skip the unnecessary details in your first draft and then come back later to add them once you've finished the first draft. Basically, you just write and write without worrying about how good you are writing the first time; just get that plot on document! It's also similar to writing your favorite passages first since you might end up skipping a lot of unnecessary details the first time. I think it works best if your priority is finishing the first draft as soon as possible; you'll have to come back to edit it either way so why not leave some details for later. And so you see how there's many ways to go about it. It really about what you're most comfortable and happy with. I would suggest giving all methods a try till you find yourself working most efficiently on your future book. Best of luck! I hope this blog was helpful, do go through my other blogs for similar posts and follow to show your support. Also comment something you'd like to see me write next and I'll do my best to keep making these blogs for my fellow aspiring authors out there!
0 Comments
One of the most exhausting steps in writing is rewriting. You would think your work is done after you complete your manuscript, but then you must proofread it, edit it, and sometimes go over it so often that you might have to scratch the whole thing and rewrite it. Yet perfecting is an never-ending process and every time you find yourself receiving yet another rejection for your work, like myself, it only means that you should go back and open your document again and see what you could do to make it better.
This is when I discovered the difference in editing your writing and rewriting. When I keep going over something I wrote, all I find are little mistakes to fix and perhaps a sentence here and there to improve, and then I think that there's nothing more to improve than change everything I have already written. But it occurred to me that maybe I could do better if rewrote some parts completely and just let go of some of my original text. And so I present to you an example of a text from an old manuscript that I pulled out yet again with hopes of publishing it in the near future. Though, I lost the very original text, below is what it looked like when I only edited and then when I decided to rewrite it completely. I leave it to you to analyze the difference and improvement. EDITED VERSION Amongst the crowd, walking on the sidewalk alongside the stores were two teenage girls who were doing nothing more than window shopping. They seemed to be close friends but just by appearance it could be noticed how contrasting the two were to each other. One girl talking nonstop, the other silently listening. One dressed in trendy black clothing, the other in a basic light blue dress. One alertly noticing the things around her (whilst chatting), the other distracted by her phone. The girl chatting without pause was an energetic looking teenager with dark, shoulder-length hair and excited reddish-brown eyes. She was wearing black skinny jeans under a dark blue dress-shirt with a black shrug over it. Her only accessory was a chained locket around her neck that was hidden under her shirt. Her shoes, short summer boots with holes cropped in them, seemed stylish enough though perhaps over-used. As for makeup she only had a light reddish shade of lipstick and thin eyeliner decorating her features, but her nails were coated with many colorful strokes of nail polish that barely consisted of one matching shade to go with her clothing. Her fashion sense may have been slightly on the darker side but the vibe she released was clearly that of a bright and positive personality. Her friend, on the other hand, seemed to be her polar opposite. She was a simply dressed, composed and quiet looking girl. Her thin framed rectangular glasses added to her serious and disciplined appearance. She had flat-straight, light brown hair tied into a high ponytail that fell all the way down to her waist. She wore a light blue dress with off-white sleeves and collar, and her shoes were matching flat pumps that she wore over knee length white socks. REWRITTEN VERSION She was amongst the window shoppers on the sidewalk; a noticeable set of dark brown hair bouncing through the crowds as the body that held them skipped through. She was dressed in a trendy black outfit, one that gave her style points but was a questionable choice for a sunny afternoon. She was not by herself, though, but rather accompanied by her quiet friend who politely attempted to pay attention to the never-ending chatter of the energetic dark-haired teenager. Her friend was a taller teenage girl with a high ponytail of long golden-brown hair. She contrasted against her friend not only in how she behaved but also how she dressed; a pastel blue colored dress that was less fashionable but more appropriate for the season. She also had a set of thin framed rectangular glasses over her nose that added to her slightly serious demeanor in comparison to her cheerful looking friend. Step One; Follow my blogs to stay updated with tips, tricks and other stuff you need to know about becoming a writer/novelist. Follow my journey, learn from my experience, use my ideas and more. You can find a lot of detailed blogs to help you with your writing journey on the table of contents right here --------> Step Two; Before you start writing, you need to know what you are getting yourself in to. Do research...lot's of research. I've always dreamed of being a writer but didn't know at all about how publishing works during most of my early life; i imagined it as a trip to some office, giving them the manuscript and expect the novel in stores in a few months or something. NO! Luckily just before i became serious i thought to google everything i could about the writing career. I suggest you do the same. What if the process includes something you are not ready for? You better know all this before you start writing because afterwards quitting would mean hard work gone to waste. I had to do tons of research before this but i think i may have made this easier for you by summarizing what I know and sharing my knowledge here. Step Three; Get yourself time; special time dedicated to story-thinking, planning and writing only! I know I needed to spend peaceful nights thinking the story from beginning to end; my therapist told me to officially call in creative time that I should give myself before going to bed to help with my sleep routing. Similarly you will need to figure out what works for you and fit this creative time and writing time into your schedule. Step Four; Noting down stuff, like a mind-map...or a summary, maybe a list of chapters, important dialogues and other stuff you fear you may forget by the time you start writing. Just begin scribbling before you start officially writing. Of course the technique varies from person to person but it's always better to have a rough outline before you start making the real masterpiece. I also had a bonus habit of doodling; this way i would never forget a scene and i could just look at what I've made and describe it. Hence, just keep a pen & paper around and start taking notes of all the ideas you have for your final writing. Step Five; BEGIN WRITING! Get everything you need (perhaps a personal laptop, a writing desk, notebooks etc), set up a timetable and start writing your story. You may start short...add details later, or maybe you'll have a whole novel written in a smooth flow. Either way, just start working on your manuscript, don't waste time, don't let the writer's block get to you and just get it done! Step Six; While you are still writing or when your first draft is complete, research on literary agents (i.e if you are not self-publishing) and if you think you have find a few suitable people...add them in bookmarks. Also begin to prepare a draft query letter, synopsis, hook etc but do not send it till the book is completed. In the time you get you can edit your letter till it reaches perfection. Step Six; Novel ready...or almost done, Hit SEND on you query letter and wait. Since reply to these letters take a while, it would be okay to send it before you edit or add details to the story and then begin proofreading and editing while you wait for a positive response. Keep polishing your manuscript, don't just think it's over once you've reached 'the end', keep working on it! Currently, this is the point where I'm stuck at and as much as I want to give up on my story after several rejections I know now that there's always room for improvement and I'll make most of the time I have to make my story better till it is accepted. So, I hope you found this blog helpful, best wishes - Iman Malik Deciding to work solo can be a challenging decision. It may seem appealing to imagine not working for anyone except yourself, but it is also a risky road.
I discovered the ups and downs of this path when I decided to pursue a career of a fiction novelist. I knew that my choice to focus on writing novels was questionable. Many think that it is not a serious career; it can just be a hobby, they said. Being an introvert, it always felt like an alluring path as I would have minimum interactions and would just focus on doing what I love while hoping to earn from it. It is not easy though. I may have gotten far enough to have my own novel published but I’m still along way from making a living out of it. I am currently in the process of learning first hand what it’s like to be your own boss. Whether you are an artist, a writer, a businessman or some kind of entrepreneur, one thing is for sure, you are not working for anyone anymore. You are your own boss! And here are four things very important things that you need to know about this choice.
From deciding your work schedule to setting priorities, you are in charge of all the rules and decisions. It is hard to say whether being in charge of everything you want to do is a beneficial factor or not. Honestly it can work either way, it all depends on you. Take setting up your schedule for example, you might go too easy on yourself and not give as much time to your intended work as you would have if there was someone constantly keeping check on your progress. If you are your own boss, you have to act like one too; be hard on yourself, push yourself to do your best, meet deadlines and make sure you don’t get lazy. Originally I had the same problem. If I was on my own then I would get too relaxed. I knew I could have written plenty of books during my year off from school. The fastest I had written a novel was within the three months of a summer break but later I let myself slow down too much. I didn’t follow a regular schedule. If I had then I probably would have completed my novels faster. On the up side though, if you do it right you can plan things the way they work best for you. Nowadays I write everyday during all the spare time I have. The only time I take breaks is when I feel symptoms of stress or exhaustion from working for too long. This is the best part of having your own schedule; I take breaks exactly when I need them, I lie down, relax, munch on some snacks, and get back to work as soon as I am feeling better. If you make strict rules for yourself and follow them with discipline then nothing should stop you from achieving your goals. The only thing that stands in your way is you.
In the beginning and maybe even later, it will be a very lonely road. Again this can have both advantages and disadvantages. For me it always feels best when I am left to do my work on my own without interruption or disturbance. Yet at the same time, since humans are naturally social creatures, it is hard to survive on your own. Eventually you will realize that you will need someone to help, guide and support you. Not to long after that, you will be hit with another realization; there won’t be many people committed to helping you out. Maybe you would have to hire help when you need it but you can only do so if you can afford it. To add on to that, there's also the struggle of doing things where you are inexperienced or unskilled. My personal example to explain this struggle would be self-publishing. After struggling to get a literary agent for years, I decided to take matters into my own hands and publish my own book. It was hard! After all, I was only a writer, but to self-publish I had to illustrate the book myself, put it on platforms myself and market it myself. There was so many situations where things got too technical for me and I found myself constantly making mistakes because it was just nothing I had done before. I may have made a print version of my book Bonds of Friendship on my own but I still struggle at selling it. In the end I found myself going back in search of literary agents to help me publish my latest book.
It’s like a flip of a coin; heads or tails, win or lose. When you work for someone, you have a contract; you know what you have to do and how much you will earn for it. If you are trying something on your own though, it’s an unpredictable roller-coaster ride. In an independent business or career, there will always be a risk of loss. Yet on the flip-side, if things go too well, you could be a millionaire! I really can't say what can guarantee your success, far too many variables.
“This is not a get rich quick scheme,” says Joanna Penn, a writing entrepreneur, “I started writing in 2006, left my job in 2011 and it was 2015 before I was making six figures. I now have 25+ books, a blog, a podcast and a number of other income streams. The author business model is a marathon, not a sprint.” If you are at that point in school where you now have options for subjects and a plethora of options to choose from, then I'm here to help you make the right choices regarding subject selection especially if you are an aspiring writer!
For a university/college level major or degree, of course you should focus on Creative Writing, but I have to admit the subject is hard to find on a Bachelor level or below outside of USA. If that's the case, most would go for English Language or Literature degrees. There is also the matter of whether you need to study to become a writer at all. Many would say to focus your education on a different subject and do writing on the side. I don't fully agree nor disagree with the matter, especially since I ended up giving up on college education and dedicating my full focus to writing, but if you really have to study something than wouldn't you rather take a subject that will help you in your aspirations to become a writer. I will tell you that no knowledge will go to waste so why not pick something you are more likely to benefit from in your future as you pursue your dream of becoming a writer, even if you took it as a minor! So anyways, here's my advice on subjects you can take as a writer if you can't choose. 1. English Language; most people will give up English as soon as it is no longer compulsory or they would think of it as an easy A or they'll think that Literature is better or good enough. WRONG! Don't for a second think of this subject as useless or unimportant and it definitely won't be as easy as you might think. I'm telling from my own experience of taking English Language during A levels that this subject proved to be better and more helpful than literature while it also made literature easier. No aspiring writer should underestimate the English subject nor should they take it for granted. Trust you'll benefit the most from it. 2. English Literature; the best way to learn writing is reading but reading books at home is nothing like reading literature at school. You will discover that there is more in books than you can think and analyzing books will definitely expand your imagination. Reading classics will also be beneficial as you'll come to understand how to write in various ways, how to make your books a big hit and of course you'll get more inspiration from it. 3. Psychology; if you ever read classics and sometimes even nonclassical underrated books you will discover that the best books will at some point explore human psychology. If you take this subject alongside literature it would definitely help because you will keep on finding connections between stories and the stuff you will learn in psychology. Besides, stories about abnormalities, mental illness, depression, madness always seem more interesting... At least to me they do. 4. World History; I never took history but I've seen those who take it have an advantage it literature class. Just like psychology history is connected to stories at all times and so knowing history is great for aspiring writers. Also let's not forget history is just his-story i.e a story one can take inspiration from. What better way to seek inspiration other than looking at real life stories that once took place. 5. Other Languages; being multilingual is also a great thing for writers hence taking another language subject could help you in understanding English better in a way. Also if you read literature of a different language then you would surely come across something you never found in English hence more inspiration. If English was never your first language in the first place then I further encourage you to go and study literature of your first language like I did, it'll help, I'm sure. There can be other subjects useful as well like I think sociology may be good but I don't know much about that subject, so far the ones I named are actually supposed to be a writers priority. I took the first three that because I found a lot on internet about those three subjects being best for me and they were but it's up to you on deciding whats best for you. What do you think, any suggestions? Feel free to comment below. Questions about anything writing related are appreciated. So you've finished your book, even edited it thoroughly to the best of your ability, so now what? Should be easier that completing the manuscript, right?
Wrong. I'm sorry to hit you with this demotivation so early on your writing career, but it's a fact; getting published is one heck of a struggle. I should know. I've finished my first book back in...2015, yeah, it's been 5 years and that story still saw no light. I finished many books since then and continue writing today but have just one novel actually out there for people to read. I've even tried self publishing recently as well, and so I have experiences in all fields to let you know, none of it is easy! The Severe Competition The first problem is something that almost everyone would face in any field; competition. It gets annoying how many people exist in the world trying to do the same things as you but you have to face it, you're no special butterfly in the garden. Everyone out there who is writing is probably doing so for a reason, I'm sure many are great at it while many have great stories to tell, but at the end of the day there can only be so many books out there that people would actually read let alone become bestsellers. The problem isn't with you, I've come to realize, the problem is with the overload of competition. You need to really shine hard and prove yourself to be perfect to even get a chance in today's world. Whether you are selfpublishing, investing with publishers or seeking the help of a literary agent, you won't be able to outshine other writers that easily. It's harder with literary agents, as they won't even consider your work unless it is a diamond in the rough of their query letter pile. The Personal Disadvantages Another problem in today's world is the unfair system where your hard work and talent doesn't help you succeed as much as some privileges do. If you have a lot of money to invest or professional support or perhaps some useful contacts that can sneak you past the line in your career than suddenly it becomes a lot easier. For example, publishing a book online for free is an option but to market it you need to invest and you need to get professional help to make sure your work is worth marketing in the first place. In the case of publishing through literary agents, you need to have an advantage of either contacts or an impressive writing credentials that may take years to build up. But you can also take advantage of this unfair system by seeing what path is better suited for you as some things may be harder than the rest but there might be a way for you to make it if you have the right plan. Maybe you are more capable of investing time in building a bio that will make literary agents more confident about working with you or perhaps you would rather save and invest on publishing and marketing your book so that you can quickly gain readers without having to wait for a literary agent to do the job for you. The Need To Be Perfect Like I mentioned before, your book really needs to outshine the rest of the library for you to dream of becoming a bestseller like how I wish for it. Even if you think your book is done, even if you went over it so many times that you are sick of it, even if your friends and family told you it was great... you still need to keep improving to the point of perfection that no one can doubt. So what do you do? First, don't just write it, really work on it. Dedicate good amount of time to give your writing your full focus. Perfect each line to the best of your ability, edit and re-edit as long as the manuscript sits there unpublished, get reviews and ask for harsh comments to improve every tiny fault in your work and if you can, invest in professional help and editing services. Just never stop working on it! I know it's a struggle to give so much of your time to something that might never make it out there any time soon, but if you dared yourself to start on it then it's only fair you give it your all before giving up...and for all you know, after several years of waiting and working, you might actually end up with an instant hit! So yeah, the most important step after writing your story is writing that perfect query letter. Everything else literally depends on nothing else but that one important letter! In the past few years God knows how many letters I sent out for my past stories and failed. During that time I kept on discovering ways to improve my letters and hopefully now with my other story I'll do a better job. My point is that by now I know a lot about query letters and as promised I'm here to share my knowledge to help you!
So there are four parts of a query letter; Into, hook, story description, and bio. INTRO; the intro paragraph is the start of your letter which will consist of the general info about you and your story. It's the introduction, so start by introducing yourself of course! I usually go for the basic 'my name is...and I'm writing...' Too much irrelevant info about yourself is extremely discouraged, just tell your name and move onto the story because that's the real thing that matters. In the intro tell the name of your book, the word length and genre plus any other important basic info. Also MOST IMPORTANT, include something about the literary agent in the intro too, they mostly ask you to tell them how you heard of them and why you decided to query them. This is very important because it helps personalize your letter according to each literary agent and it's always good to start off on a friendly note and make them feel slightly flattered. HOOK; the hook is something that you can even entwine into your intro or you can begin your story description with it. The hook is basically that one line intro to your story that is supposed to get the agent's attention. I personally encourage to write that one quote or dialogue in the book that defines your story, think of it as that one (probably first) line in a movie trailer that is meant to make the viewers interested in it. STORY DESCRIPTION; then you get into a one paragraph description of your story. It's just a brief interesting introduction to the story of your book. It is said that the story description mostly starts of with 'when this this happened then...' And then you just write about briefly telling about the main plot and the main characters. It is supposed to be short and to the point. Think of it as if you don't have much time but you are gonna give your best to impress the literary agent in just a few words. BIO; finally comes your biography. Basically this is where you professionally introduce yourself and show off your strengths and achievements. But please only talk about what's relevant to writing and your story. No one is interested at the moment about where you come from, what you do or even who you are; telling things like even your age is discouraged as it is only a waste of time for the agent. So keep it brief and to the point and only talk about your previous writing related works, any writing related achievements, any previously published work, any writing related degrees and that is it! And of course in the end you thank them for their time and sign off with a polite salutation. Well that's all, hope I was of help, feel free to ask anything in the comments, I'll help you out. Follow me for updates on the book I'm hoping to get published and wish me luck! Meanwhile, check out my eBook; Bonds of Friendship and help it reach a 100 sales so that it can be available in bookstores soon! I remember back to when I prepared my query letters for the first time and got ready to email some literary agents, when suddenly something made me hit the breaks...oh wait, they are all asking for a synopsis along with the query. And henceforth, I had to go back, do some research and recall what a synopsis is. So here's what I found out;
In simple words it's just a (good) summary of your story. It's basically something brief but interesting. I have a better way to put it, if you are having a conversation with a friend and you mention writing a book and they ask oh what it about... The summarized, interesting, to the point, spoiler free summary you would tell them in like five minutes is probably the same thing as a synopsis. In fact, that's exactly what a synopsis is, something you'd tell your literary agent briefly and interestingly in a short time to gain their attention. So if you get the general idea, I'll move on to the main points about writing a synopsis,
Am I the only one struggling as I find myself asking this question; how do I categorize my story into the appropriate genres?
Well I did my research for it and so I'll share what I understood with you... First you need to understand that categorizing is important for the following reasons; 1. It helps you find the appropriate agent who is into the type of story you wrote 2. It helps the literary agent understand your story through your query 3. It helps you decide your target audience If you mess this part up then it can be bad. Consider this for example; if you labelled your story as horror without much thought but to your readers it wasn't really scary then it would obviously be rejected by literary agents who were actually looking for something spooky. Get what I mean? So basically there are a few steps of categorizing your story that I'll talk about below. If you decide the genre of your story by looking at the points below then your query letter would probably say, My novel XYZ is a 1(f/n.f), 2(m.g/y.a/adult) of a 3(SciFi/lit/F/H), 4(*) genre. Personally my own stories are usually genre bending or multi-genre and I feel that failing to classify my last novel was one of the reasons I failed to get it published. I've done a better job now so if you have the same problem this blog might be helpful.
In the end my own new story ended up something like; a New Adult (fantasy) fiction with Gothic elements and slight magical realism. So yeah, hope this helped. Wish me luck for my new book and check out my eBook for sale on Kindle and Nook! Also follow me for more updates and help on writing. Feel free to ask anything writing related in the comments. Other than writing their story to be published as a book, there's a lot more a writer can do to keep their skills polished. Which brings me to some of the habits and hobbies that I suggest are best for all aspiring writers;
1. Journal/Diary Writing; this is a very good habit even for non writers that everyone must try to do regularly. What makes your diary/journal better is if you pretend your life is an interesting story and try writing it how you would write a novel for publishing. It is one of the best habits to adopt and a great way to practice writing. 2. Blogging; like what I'm doing here, you too should start a blog, write about whatever you like frequently on your very own blog to stay polished. Blogging is also helpful for your bio in your query letter that you send to literary agents, if you mention that you have a good popular blog then the agents can check it out and judge your writing skills and capability from it. 3. Writing Online; whether its fanfics, short stories or some kind of article, writing online can really be helpful in improving you writing skills especially when all kinds of criticisms are waiting to be written in your comment section. Don't be afraid, criticisms can help you do better as you can learn from your mistakes and attempt to remove your flaws. 4. Scribbling; this is one good habit that I lack but I found it in my friend and it seemed to be a great thing. Always keep a paper and pen nearby and when bored scribble whatever comes to your head; a small poem, a cool quote or an idea that can be used for a story. This way you can always make sure to have a record of ideas to refer to when writing and use them whenever you like without forgetting them. That is all I can think of now, let me know if this is helpful and feel free to ask me anything you want about writing and becoming a writer. Also follow me for more useful posts like this, thanks |
AuthorWelcome! My name is Iman Malik and I am an aspiring novelist who is dreaming to be a bestseller one day who can be well known as writer Iman Malik. Archives
September 2021
Categories |