CornerScribe

Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category

If you’re not reading Paperback Writer, you ought to be. Her blog is witty and informative, but this compilation of questions and answers if really great.

I wanted to take this opportunity to invite you all again to post links that you’d like me to include on my resources page. The link can be your own or someone else’s. It just needs to be of good quality.

Post your links here, or email me at cornerscribe AT cornerscribe DOT com. Put “resources” in the subject line so I won’t miss it.

In case you missed these last year, here are some of the most popular posts on the blog. Enjoy!

Get Ready for NaNo

Two Great Market Resources

Short Story Markets

Writing Tools

What’s Holding you Back?

Novel Writing Tips

Finding a Novel Idea

Writing Helper: Lose vs Loose

 Markets: Non-fiction

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Here in the middle of NaNo, I thought it would be fun to link to some other interesting sites.

Punctuation fun on flickr. Think about how you’d punctuate it, or simply read it aloud.

Design Your Life

What would you do if you could do whatever you want each day. Although this article isn’t specifically directed at writers, it certainly is something to think about. What would your writing day be like? Think about what you want your days to be like, and what do you need to do to make it so.

SEO Tips for Bloggers

This article gives some great tips, and some great advice for optimizing your blog.

How to Write Faster, Better, and Easier

That’s a great title, and a great post. ‘Nuff said.

I’m looking for a new laptop, and I have been for some time. Here’s a run-down of what I’m looking at (with links). If you’re looking for something similar, I hope you find it useful.

HED has an article on the Alphasmart, which brought it back to my attention. Here is the official site where you can order one. What I like about it is the price (around $200), size, battery life, and durability. What I don’t like is the small screen and the inability to use software of your choosing. I’m concerned that I’d spend a lot of time converting my work and reformatting.

I’m seriously considering the Asus eee. It’s coming out in October, and it’s also a great price (about $200).  It’s more of a traditional laptop, but it’s a bit light on processor, memory and storage. It runs Linux, which is fine by me. It’s small (screen is 7 inches diagonal), so it’s the size I’m looking for. My biggest concern with this one is the reviews; many people have complained that the keyboard and trackpad seem very cheap. I’m worried that it’s not as sturdy as I’d like.

Another option is the Nanobook. It’s pricier than the other options (about $600), but it’s the right size for what I’m looking for. It also has a better battery life than the eee.

What I’m looking for is something smaller and lighter than the traditional laptop without the very high prices that usually accompany that size. This is going to be a writing machine, so I’m not as interested in the bells and whistles that come on laptops. I’m leaning toward something that lets me install my own software, so that puts the alphasmart line at a disadvantage, but they’re not out of the running yet.

If you’re using one of these, let me know how you like it. Also, if you have any other suggestions, I’d love to hear it.

For those who might have missed them, here are some recently popular posts you might want to read.

Short Story Markets 

Markets: Non-fiction 

Finding Blog Post Ideas

Use Trackbacks to Build Blog Community

If you’re reading this blog, I assume that you have at least some interest in making money from your writing. Maybe you’re very optimistic and hoping to support yourself completely or simply looking to supplement your income or buy dinner once a month or so.
So, what are you doing about it?

I know quite a few writers, both online and in the real world, and many claim to want to publish and make money writing. However, very few even manage to make anything, let alone enough to live on. Why is that?

The Artist

The artist won’t compromise his work for anyone or anything. To complicate matters, proofreading, editing, and rewriting all seem to fall under the large umbrella of “compromises” that he won’t make. Forget working with an editor, this person refuses to change the most egregious errors. None of the really great writers are appreciated until after they’re dead anyway, right?

The Chaser

The chaser will compromise her writing for nearly anything. What’s the latest bestseller? She’ll start a novel that’s similar. She reads that children’s literature is booming; she’ll write a children’s book. Never mind that she has no interest or background in the genre, she wants in on the action. When asked about her “voice,” her most honest answer is “Whatever you want it to be.”

The Perpetual Novel

This is the novel that sits in the writer’s drawers (not those drawers!) and gets pulled out occasionally. A paragraph is tweaked, a sentence is labored over, the novel is stroked, loved, admired, and slipped back in the desk. It must be perfect before going out in the world. As everyone except the writer knows, nothing is perfect, so this novel is doomed to be admired by one.

The Almost Writer

These are the folks who sit down and scribble on a poem or story for a few minutes, and then weeks or months go by with no writing. Still, they hope to one day write full time or publish. They’re sure they can do it, when they get the time.

The Sprinter

These writers start strong on a work and then fizzle out. Sometimes it’s the work that doesn’t quite make it, but often it’s the writer’s stamina that’s at fault. Novels are a marathon, not a sprint. Persistence and stamina count.

Fixing it

Okay, maybe these are a bit tongue-in-cheek, but I bet most writers can see a bit of themselves in the descriptions. I know that I can. What do you do to fix it? How do you get on the path to writing success?

1. The Artist. Get over yourself. If you want to publish and/or make money, then what you really want are readers. If you’re writing for yourself, it’s one thing. Be as attached to your work as you like. However, if you’re writing for someone else, you need to take others’ opinions into consideration.
2. The Chaser. Don’t look at the bestseller list. Skip those articles that talk about the next hot genre. Write only what you’d enjoy reading. Given time, you’ll develop your own voice. Besides, you can’t predict what’s going to be popular, and by the time it IS popular, you’ve missed out on the trend.
3. The Perpetual Novel. Finish it. Set a deadline, and declare it finished as of that date. Send it out to an agent on that very day, and absolutely resist the urge to rewrite until an agent or editor tells you to. Then, start another novel!
4. The Almost Writer. Write every day. Not a couple days a week, not most days, every day. When you’ve really developed a strong writing habit, you can take a day off here and there, but not until then. At a bare minimum, write every day for thirty days.
5. The sprinter. Do you have a novel that’s partially finished, AND that’s promising? Dig it out, and spend time every day finishing it.

In short, stick with it!

I think most writers, at some time, struggle to find the time to write. Whether you’re a freelancer, novelist, or blogger, that’s probably true of your situation as well. Here are some tips that I use to salvage some writing time from my schedule.

1. Ask for help. I wrote a post about this last week. It’s probably the single most important thing you can do to for yourself. Get in the habit of it.
2. No perfectionism allowed. Whether it’s housework, yard work or your writing itself, you don’t have the time or luxury to be a perfectionist. Run the vacuum in five minutes, not thirty. You don’t need to pull out every piece of furniture. Likewise, don’t spend hours editing the same passage. Are you really trying to make it better or avoid working on something else?
3. Hire it done. If asking for help isn’t enough, then consider paying someone to do some of your work. Can you get someone to mow, clean house or run errands?
4. Do it online. From banking to shopping, doing business online can save you lots of time. Set up payments online with your bank and you’ll never have to write and mail checks again. Get your statements online so you don’t have to deal with a lot of paper mail.
5. Establish an errand day. Set aside a day to run all your errands. Instead of spending time each day going to the store, post office, etc., do it once or twice a week.
6. Be flexible. Take some of your novel along for editing while waiting for your kids at practice. Do the same when you head to the doctor’s office or anywhere you’ll have some waiting time. Take a laptop or paper notebook along for some writing or brainstorming time.
7. Take along the camera. For bloggers, this is especially important. Take photos for the blog or inspiration.
8. Don’t fall behind. Do a load of laundry every day, not ten loads on the weekend. Make sure the sink isn’t overflowing with dishes. Even if you spend only 15-30 minutes a night straightening up, it will keep things from getting out of hand. When things get really bad, you’ll be more focused on the mess than your writing, and it will take twice as long to clean up! The same goes for paying bills, running errands, etc. If you fall too fall behind, you’ll be too stressed to have productive writing time.
9. Keep meals easy. Use your crockpot, make sandwiches, soup and salads. When you cook, make double and use the extras to keep from cooking another meal. Along these lines, use paper plates and cups (paper, not styrofoam). Use aluminum foil for cooking for easier cleanup. If washing dishes consists of throwing them away, that’s a little more time you have at the keyboard.
10. Make writing as important as other things you make time to do. Often writing ends up being one of the last things we get to in the day. Raise the priority of your writing and let some other things slide for a change.

It can be difficult to manage your responsibilities — home, work, family — and still have time to write and manage your writing business.

After all, if you’re going to make money writing, then you have to treat it much like a business.

How do you find time to do everything else you need to do AND manage a business?

You get help, of course.

Ask for help with non-writing tasks.

Whether it’s paying bills, housework, errands, or whatever, ask for help. Remember though, there’s a right and wrong way to do this. One will likely get you the help you need, the other is just as likely to start an argument as anything else.

Ask for help. Don’t nag, guilt, demand, whine, etc. Asking for help means saying things like…

1. Would you take out the trash?

2. Will you take care of dinner tonight? I have a deadline.

3. Can you pick up the dry cleaning tomorrow?

There are a few things you can do to get better results.

Ask for something specific. Don’t ask for help with housework or something else equally generic. If you’re the one who usually handles it, you’ll need to ask for specific help if you’re delegating.

Don’t nag or play the guilt card. Saying things like, You never help me with the kids isn’t going to make anyone eager to lend a hand. Likewise, whining about having to do everything or complaining won’t help either.

Say thank you. Yes, I know it’s not just your job to take care of these things. However, don’t you appreciate a thank you, even when what you did is really your job? Everyone does. A thank you can help ensure that you get the help you need the next time around too.

You’re a writer, but you’re also interested in making a few bucks (or more than a few) from your writing. Here are a few paying markets.

Tales of the Talisman is looking for sci-fi, fantasy and horror. $10 per story. Up to 6000 words.

Leading Edge is looking for science fiction and fantasy. They also take longer works of up to 15,000 words. Pay is .01 per word.

Necrology Magazine is looking for fantasy, horror and sci-fi. They take stories up to 15,000 words and pay $10-$25. I have a story submitted to them now, in fact. They prefer Lovecraftian horror, so if you’re a fan like me, this may be a market to look at.

On the Premises is a contest based magazine. You’ll need to check the site for the current premise. First prize is $130.

Greatest Uncommon Denominator takes a wide variety of genre and literary fiction. I’m not sure I quite follow their payment setup, but they do give you a cut of what they make.

Okay, so none of these will make you rich. In fact, given the time it takes to put together a good story, you’re not even looking at minimum wage, or anything close to it. However, it is rewarding to get a little payment from your work, even if it is very little. Having a few published short stories is also a terrific way to build up your credentials before approaching agents and publishers for a book.

I hope the market listings are useful. I’ll put something together next time for the non-fiction writers out there. If you enjoy this type of post, let me know, and I’ll try to make it a weekly feature. I’ll also try to mix it up a bit so there are a variety of market listings to choose from.

These are some commonly confused words. I rarely hear them mixed up, but I see it in people’s writing all the time.

Breath and Breathe

Breathe is a verb. The ea sounds like eat or easy.

Breath is a noun. Here, the ea sounds like egg or death.

Examples:

He took a slow breath before answering.

She gasped, barely able to breathe.

Bath and Bathe

Bath and Bathe follow the same basic pattern.

Bathe is a verb. The a sounds like able or ate.

Bath is a noun. The a sounds like cat.

Examples:

I want to take a relaxing bubble bath.

Whew! You need to bathe.

I see that a several of the Writing Helper posts remain some of my most popular. Even though they’re short, I’m not surprised. When I taught English, my students usually appreciated this type of lesson much more than standard grammar.

Enjoy!