I was a reluctant non-fiction writer so how was I ever going to write a novel? It was not something I ever thought about. One day in about 2006 or 2007, I was having a half day of prayer. While I was praying, two ideas for novels dropped in to my head. I was horrified. “Lord, the last thing I want to do is write novels. I don’t have time for such things. Writing non-fiction was hard enough but I…
I have just read a brilliant (5 star) book. Next time I plan a novel I will be using Lisa Cron’s method from her new book ‘Story Genius’ Here are some of the points she made that I found so helpful. Story is not the same as plot. Plot is the external happenings but story is the internal journey that the characters make. Story is what the protagonist has to learn and to overcome (internally) to solve the external plot…
This is the second part of a post on how I planned my novel using the “Snowflake Method” created by Randy Ingermanson. This continues with my comments in italics under the final five of his ten step method. Step 6) By now, you have a solid story and several story-threads, one for each character. Now take a week and expand the one-page plot synopsis of the novel to a four-page synopsis. Basically, you will again be expanding each paragraph from step…
I am a planner by nature but writing a novel was something totally new. I went looking for something that made sense to me and settled on what is known as the “Snowflake Method.” I will let the original article explain each section and then make some of my own comments in italics. Some people don’t do up front design and planning. They just start writing. That is not me. The creator of this method, Randy Ingermanson, uses 10 steps….
When we read the work of writers, we read the successes. We usually do not know the whole story. The reality is that many writers have written far more than what they publish. Like learning to practice a musical instrument, there will be years of practice involved. My non-fiction writing journey started well before the publication of 1-2-1 Discipleship. Looking back now I can see I was honing my writing with the discipline of weekly letter writing (age 5 until…
Possible motivations:- You’ve always wanted to be a famous author You want to make money writing You want to prove someone wrong who said, “You can’t do it!” You can’t help writing You want to promote a point of view or share something you’ve learned You don’t care about any of the above, you’d write whether anyone read it or not There might be many reasons for writing but should there be different motivations for Christians? In other words, does…
Many years ago I remember hearing the advice that there is no substitute for simply writing. The advice suggested that aspiring writers write a daily diary. I didn’t intend to be a writer but I did end up doing a lot of writing. From the age of five I was in boarding school and we had to write a weekly letter. These started in Grade 1 with simply copying a sentence or two from the board. By Grade 4 we…
The years since writing the draft of my first book in 2007 have been a steep learning curve. I started, like most people, totally ignorant about things relating to writing, publishers and marketing. I have learned many things since. This part of my blog will share some of those things. Things that I have found helpful on my writing journey. My journey so far has included – self printing two volumes of poetry – 2 non-fiction titles published through traditional…
The 2009 version of this article was sent to me by a publisher before they subsequently accepted my manuscript for publication. It was designed to show me the realities of the publishing world. I think it is a good thing to share up front. I will paste the whole thing here and then make my own comments in ‘italics’ below each of their ten points. 10 Awful Truths about Book Publishing Steven Piersanti, President, Berrett-Koehler Publishers Updated April 15, 2014…