Tag Archives: motivation

Finding your voice.

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There is always talk about voice. But there isn’t a great description of what it is.

I’ll give it to you easier.

Voice is that part of your writing that is you. That little part that sounds only like you.

Here’s how I do it.

I only have the things I’ve experienced, the life I’ve lived and I pull from those things.

We each have the moments we’ve experienced in our lives. Each of us can only think like ourselves, with those thoughts, we’re able to find our voice.

When you think about how life was growing up, when you’re thinking about what that time you ate dinner at your friends house and their family interaction was vastly different from your own, those are the types of moments you should pull from.

The awesome thing is, you can write with that type of knowledge in every genre. Everyone gets uncomfortable at their friend’s house. All of have been there at some point. Use it.

How you perceive the world around you is different from how I do or anyone else. Use that perception and build your characters with it.

While building you’ll discover a voice that is authentic to only you.

A journey to get done…

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Recently, I’ve become aware of the improvement in my writing.

It happened by my wife reading the first chapter of the book I wrote in December.

She commented on how different and how much it improved upon a separate fantasy novel I wrote a couple of years ago.

To see my wife, who has shared my writing journey as my biggest supporter, pushed me the hardest to improve on how far I can push the scare factor or the limits of what scares me to put on the pages, enjoy and compliment me on improvements, makes me smile.

As a writer who is working toward publishing, this year if everything works out, I believe being honest and working on what you’re afraid to write is important.

I didn’t always feel that way.

I didn’t want to write what scared me. I didn’t want to push the boundaries of what I was comfortable with.

Now I am.

Pushing the limits of our own creativity is important. To me it is singularly the most important thing we can do.

I’m working on something new and if you follow me on Instagram, you know where I’m heading with this one.

I have a lot of stories to write and I hope you’ll continue, or begin to follow me.

Happy writing!

Update and all that.

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So, it’s been a couple of weeks, alright, it’s been more than a couple.

Anyway, here’s the update on the book I’ve been working on, and that I’ll be querying this summer.

It’s in its 4th draft, 4.2 to be exact. I’ve taken my wife’s notes, gone over them. Fixed consistency errors, grammar errors, and issues with the story. She also suggested things about a certain character, which I fixed.

As of this morning I’m at 60k with this draft and will be starting the third section when I write today.

In the beginning of the editing, I got stuck.

I misunderstood my wife’s suggestions.

Believing, incorrectly, that she was recommending a full rewrite. At that moment, I wanted to cry.

I didn’t want to rewrite 80,000 words.

We talked it over and I had it wrong, which was a huge relief to both of us. The worst part about it is I’ve been misunderstanding what she was asking through all of the books I’ve written. Yep, all 7 that she’s gone over.

She’s started on the one I wrote in December and should be done with it by August.

In the meantime, I’ll be querying this one over the summer.

I have an idea for the next book and I’m super-excited!

Have a happy rest of your week and happy writing.

Editing break

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I’ve been thinking about taking a break for a while.

Now that I’m staring at a self-imposed deadline for the current novel, I realized in order to get it where it needs to be, I have to focus on one thing.

This will be my last post for a while.

I plan on taking at least two months to get the novel where I want it, though it may take longer.

If something amazing happens, I’ll drop in, but after this post, I’ll be working to finish the horror novel I wrote in August.

I hope you all have a pleasant and productive spring and early summer and hopefully I’ll see you in the summer.

Finishing books.

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Last summer I queried a book to 13 agents.

It was the first book I’d ever queried. I’ve submitted stories to magazines, receiving rejections on all of them.

I may have figured out why last year’s queries failed.

I spent time working on the novel, but I didn’t get it as good as I think I could have.

I wrote 2 rewrites and revision for it but I don’t think I learned how to dial in a draft, or what it takes to do so until the past couple of months.

The writing group showed me this as well as the improvements I’ve witnessed.

I don’t know what changed, maybe I’ve become less fearful of editing.

I used to look at it as something I knew I should be doing, but also as a thing I dreaded. Agents should just love it it’s current form, right?

That’s what I believed. Why should I change my story? They should adjust to what I’m writing.

Now, I’m looking at my writing and I see what needs to change. I’ve also read a lot in the past year. That changed my thoughts as well.

I’m putting away new projects to work on making this one book the best it can be.

I will either get an agent this year or publish it myself.

I’m hoping for the former.

Happy writing.