Category: Magical Words

Other Cool Blogs: Magical Words 2/24/2010

Erin Penn

Image courtesy of winnond at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The magic advice so often given: Write what you know. And its immediate corollary: Write what you love.

Of course there is always just the simple all hopeful authors need: Write.

Blake Charlton provided a new one to the mix: Write what scares you.

Think on that. We are not just talking horror, but all genres. Write what scares you. This is “Write what you know,” because what you know is emotions – the need to get into the reader’s head and make them feel with their heart. Exploring what scares you can do that. Scared of demagoguery, or racism, or trusting people only to be betrayed, or a big rock falling out of the sky and changing everything? Bring it to the keyboard.

This is part of the human condition. Don’t use fear for fear’s sake but face it, explore it, and figure out how to conquer it or live with it. One of my recent flashes, Thebe Loses Day Job, lightly touches on the fear we all have in exploring something new taking away what we know. Will the new job provide enough income to pay the bills? What will happen if the new job doesn’t work out? Yes, these fears are presented within an erotica storyline, but that is part of what makes people enter the story. Something just about moist, mushy, and manic is okay. But something which pounds a pain center while being moist, takes things to the next level.

Write what scares you.

See the whole blog here (and be sure to look at the comments): http://www.magicalwords.net/specialgueststars/todays-special-guest-blake-charlton/

Other Cool Blogs: Magical Words 2/26/2008

Erin Penn

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Shameless self-promotion. Author, artists, and many others use this term, like self-promotion should be shameful. Yet, when you are your brand – you are the marketing department – promoting yourself is required.

Every sale is a job interview, whether at a convention panel or at the signing table. Authors go on book blog tours, with a ton of behind the scenes begging to market the book. Job interviews are about self-promotion; sales are all about marketing.

Should something be shameful when it is an essential part of your job? Does a chef shamelessly wash dishes after cooking? Does the mechanic shamelessly change oil? Does a teacher shamelessly return graded papers back to students? No, they simply wash dishes, change oil, and grade papers. Authors should be able to self-promote without embarrassment.

Catie Murphy covered the topic in more detail at Magical Words under “shameless self-promotion”.

Other Cool Blogs: Magical Words February 13, 2008

Erin Penn

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It’s February, the very beginning, and there are never enough hours in the day to do taxes and write and edit and eat and sleep and socialize enough to stay sane. Something has to give. I can feel sounds like impacts, and paranoia is rising every time someone walks by my tax location with a hand full of papers (are they tax papers? are they coming here?). Then I go home and my computer lights are blinking, asking me to write instead of sleep. Friends? I think I have some, maybe. Art? I’m actively not looking at my embroidery basket right now, and my garden likes its weeds better than me.

David B. Coe describes some of the things he did to stay healthy and sane as a full-time writer back in 2008 when he blogged at Magical Words with A Full-Time Writer’s Top Ten List. Central, of course, is treating writing like a Job – a Real Job. Otherwise things slip.

This applies even when working a full-time job, like taxes, and doing other stuff like sleeping.

Since I do editing and writing, why do I continue to do taxes and day-job?

  1. Money – Editing and writing don’t cut it yet. Not with car repairs, mortgage, and student loans. They might never cut it, however hard I work and wish it … but I still may do taxes because …
  2. Discipline – I’ve discovered I need to touch base with answering to someone else, clients and bosses, to remind myself how important showing up to work is. Day-in-day-out. Tax time provides me discipline and structure after losing both over the holiday season. And I do lose them, every holiday season. I come out of New Year’s wondering what happened to all the time since Thanksgiving, every.single.year.

As hard as these four months are, they allow me to focus on writing and editing the rest of the year. And during that time in 2019, I will approach editing as a full-time job. It nearly became one in 2018, and I will focus writing and editing for 2019.

David’s list is perfect to hone the focus during the editing season, and for any work-from-home position. Exercise and eating healthy seem like no-brainers, until you’ve stared at your screen for six hours without moving. Realistic Daily Goals to prod yourself to always move forward is not just good advice, the Goals are talisman against depression. Time off, away for the keyboard, allows you to bring new stuff to the keyboard. Look over the list and think about what top ten works for you. I need to make mine … later, after I sleep.

Again, you can see David B. Coe’s full list and the related comments here: http://www.magicalwords.net/david-b-coe/a-full-time-writers-top-ten-list/

Other Cool Blogs: Magical Words Feb 11, 2008

Erin Penn

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Authorship is a solitary task, except when it isn’t. 

This makes for a dichotomy of skill sets – one, the ability to spend hours and hours alone with the voices in your head, and the other, hours and hours in the middle of the crowded floors of conventions networking with fans and associates. For many introverted writers, the second skill set a work in (non)progress in desperate need of development.

Being around others is uncomfortable. For some writers, it is shyness. For others, fear of people finding out their hacks (not that the author is a hack, just one of the voices in their head says they are – Note, not all the voices in authors’ heads are marketable characters. They have all the normal voices people have (good and bad) PLUS potential books). In my case, I hate to be a bother.

So how can one overcome the discomfort? Faith Hunter suggests an excellent path – write your way out of it!

See the full post here: http://www.magicalwords.net/faith-hunter/part-twodifferent-subject/

Other Cool Blogs: Magical Words March 23, 2009

Erin Penn

Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Chapter Breaks – Stepping Stones in a Story

“Why Divide Your Book Into Chapters?” was asked of the Magical Word crew in 2009, and David B. Coe responded giving insight into how books are structured.

The most direct answer is seeing all those words strung together without any breaks exhausts a reader before they even start.

The working answer is writers get exhausted thinking about writing all those words at once. For plotters, outlines and chapters can walk hand-in-hand.

The more subtle answer is dividing the work up provides clues and prompts to a reader’s mind which can be exploited by authors. 

Breaking down the basics from the post:

  1. Maintaining narrative flow: POV changes, jumps in time
  2. Escalating narrative tension: changing narrative threads, critical beats/cliffhangers
  3. Keeping readers interested: provides breaks to take care of business, gives chunks to think about as a unit
  4. (From Comments) Selling points: editors ask for a chapter, being able to offer the first chapter for free
  5. (From Comments) Editing for word count: helps visualize word count
  6. (From Comments) Voice: length of chapter can affect the narrative voice, helps focus
  7. (From Comments) Serialization: offering the story via podcast, magazine, etc requires breaking things into narrative chunks but remaining true to a complete novel.

If you would like to read the full post and related comments, go here: http://www.magicalwords.net/david-b-coe/why-divide-your-book-into-chapters/