Tag: how to

How to Write a Novel in a Week

Want to challenge yourself to write an entire novel within just one week? It will take intense focus and dedication, but following these tips can help you draft a complete manuscript at a rapid pace:

Plan Extensively First

Spend a few days thoroughly plotting and outlining your entire novel so you have a detailed roadmap before beginning writing. Flesh out characters, settings, chapter summaries, etc.

Set a Rigorous Writing Schedule

To complete a 50,000+ word novel in a week, you’ll need to write at least 7,000 words per day. Block off at least 5-6 hours each day solely for writing.

Eliminate All Distractions

Turn off your phone, internet, TV, etc. and create a distraction-free environment so you can maximize your writing time.

Keep Scenes Short and Descriptions Sparse

Write short, punchy scenes that propel the plot forward quickly. Trim any unnecessary descriptive passages – keep the prose simple and direct.

Don’t Stop to Edit

Resist the urge to go back and edit as you write. Just power through getting words down on the page. Leave editing for later.

Use Writing Sprints

Try intense 25-30 minute writing sprints to hit your word count goals each day. Sprints help boost productivity.

Keep Momentum Going

Don’t lose steam! Maintain forward momentum even during late nights. Snacks, coffee, and upbeat music can help keep you alert.

Get Supportive Accountability
Share your challenge with writing buddies who can check in on your progress and cheer you to the finish line.

Reward Yourself

Schedule relaxing, fun rewards for when you achieve certain milestones like finishing a chapter. Small incentives keep motivation high.

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How to Write Compelling Urban Fantasy Fiction

Urban fantasy is an exciting genre that interweaves fantastical elements into contemporary, real-world settings. If you want to craft an engaging urban fantasy story, here are some key tips:

Choose your supernatural creatures wisely – Vampires, werewolves, witches, and faeries are common, but you can pick more unique monsters like Japanese yokai or reinvented legends.

Build a believable fictional world – Craft a setting that feels like a real contemporary city but flesh out how it functions with supernatural beings.

Create strong rules for your magic system – Urban fantasy magic should have limits, costs, and established rules that you follow consistently.

Strike an atmospheric tone – Aim for a gritty, dark vibe with moments of wonder and humor rather than an overly whimsical style.

Use quick, cinematic pacing – Urban fantasy favors brisk, vivid action that propels the plot forward scene by scene.

Give your protagonist relatable flaws – A charming but flawed hero who struggles with their supernatural identity can connect with readers.

Use supernatural elements sparingly – Drop in small details like a vampire nightclub rather than inundate every scene.

Build an eclectic supporting cast – Surround your protagonist with unexpected allies like a technomage hacker or fairy informant.

Research real-life urban legends – Mine historical city folklore as inspiration for magical plot points.

Keep an open-ended conclusion – Urban fantasy series tend to end books with loose threads to explore in sequels.

With vivid worldbuilding, high-stakes action, and a dash of gritty romance, you can craft a compelling saga that will thrill urban fantasy readers. What are your favorite elements of the genre? Share your best urban fantasy writing tips below!

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The Art of Blackout Poetry

Blackout poetry is a unique literary artform that creates new poems and meaning from existing texts. The concept is straightforward – take any text, whether an old novel, magazine, or even road sign, and redact words with a black marker. What remains becomes a found poem distilled from the source material.

Part of blackout poetry’s appeal is how it lets anyone find poetry in unexpected places. You don’t have to be a talented wordsmith to craft a blackout poem. Simply scan a text, manually blacking out words or using digital tools, until only an interesting poem remains. The selected words present themselves in new, surprising arrangements.

Blackout poetry is also a powerful critical thinking exercise. It pushes readers to closely analyze a text to determine which words carry the most meaning. By redacting language, you reveal the hidden poetical essence buried in the original. The remaining poem may convey a very different tone or perspective than the full text intended.

Educators often use blackout techniques to engage students with analyzing literature. Students can create their own blackout poems from classic texts as a playful way to distill themes and literary devices. The hands-on process sticks with them better than standard annotation or explication.

Blackout poetry is endlessly variable. You can create erased poems from a single page or passage. Or ambitiously redact entire novels, newspaper archives, or other collected works. This variability keeps the practice fresh and challenging.

If you want to experiment with this compelling poetic form, simply grab a text meaningful to you. Scan for words and phrases that jump out, tell a story, or convey emotion. Blackout the rest, and shape what remains into a found poem.

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How to Generate Unlimited Story Ideas

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Do you want to write but don’t have anything you’re excited to write about? Missing that something that makes you want to put your butt in chair and get started? Do you have writer’s block?

Goal: To come up with 10 story ideas every day.

For a month.

At the end of a month, choose your favorites for future writing.

Ready? Grab your journal. Let’s do this…

Break each day into a different theme, something you are genuinely interested in and want to write about, or include in your current work in progress.

Themes can be zombies, mermaids, dystopian setting, whatever. Choose a subject that you can conceivably come up with multiple story ideas.

To find out more themes: What’s your favorite book? TV show? Movie? For example, if you are into Game of Thrones, come up with a list of ideas to write your own dark fantasy filled with political intrigue and backstabbing. If Star Wars is on your list, come up with ideas for a Space Opera setting, filled with numerous worlds and unique alien species, with a powerful enemy out to rule the galaxy.

Since I write in multiple genres, I make a category for Sci-Fi, Horror, and Fantasy, and then apply my theme of the day to each category.

Try to do this every day, for at least a month.

Write out a concept for each idea, so when you revisit it in the future, you’ll have an idea of what you originally came up with.

If you struggle with coming up with 10, can you come up with ideas to apply to, say, a romance arc? Or an antagonist story arc?

Some days, take a break from writing fiction ideas and try a day of marketing ideas.

Choose your one or two of your favorites each day, and add it to a second list, one of your best ideas that you’re excited about and want to actively pursue.

Don’t throw out the other ideas.

Can they be combined with your favorite ideas for other story arcs, whether for the main story or for secondary characters?

Can they be made into short stories?

This was not by any means something I came up with. I found it on another website that was written primarily for blogging, and found it works great for fiction development.

 

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10 Tips on Writing – and Writing More

NUMBER 10 – Write in Bursts

One of the biggest keys to being a productive writer is to make time to write. If you want to be really efficient, set aside blocks of time to write. Most of us (according to all of the productivity articles on the Lifehacker website) have trouble being efficient for longer than 60 to 90 minutes at a time.

Knowing this is a writer’s kryptonite, grab your timer and set it for 60 to 90 minutes, whatever is the longest you can achieve. Don’t go longer than that, the mind gets fatigued. Take at least a 20 minute break if you want to keep going.

The other important factor is isolation. Make sure you’ve got your research out of the way. Stay away from Social Media as long as that timer is going. Even one burst with a timer will very likely get you 2000 words for the day on the first pass.

 NUMBER 9 – Track Your Word Count

Every day, get your word count put into a spreadsheet and track your productivity. You will also be able to see if your writing is getting faster. It will also help you to know if you are meeting your personal goals.

 NUMBER 8 – Take Breaks

This goes along with number 10. Take breaks. Give your mind a chance to recover. When you walk away from your work, you might find inspiration and discover new things to throw at your protagonist. It doesn’t matter what you do with your time, and if you are like me, you’ll keep thinking about the book anyway. Go outside, take a shower, go for a walk. Give your mind a break from the writing and let it dream again.

 NUMBER 7 – Write Where You can Be Alone

Okay, I know some of you like to work in coffee bars or around the public. I, however, find it better to work someplace where I can let my work affect me. I am sensitive to the emotions within my writing, and I don’t want others staring at the stupid faces I’m making while writing. If I have to block out my emotions because I’m writing around others, I’ll probably block out being able to properly express those emotions in my book. I don’t like to be disturbed.

 NUMBER 6 – Put Emotion in Your Book

Do you want people to remember your book? Put emotion in it. Fill it with feels. Loss, Pain, Love, Angst, Fear, Hope. Lay it on thick. Who cares about your conflict if the reader can’t feel it too?

 NUMBER 5 – No Worries

Want to never finish your book? Worry about what the reader will think of the book, or worse, you (!), before you’ve ever finished it. You are not your art. Create it and let it stand on its own.

If you really don’t want to worry about what others think, hurry up and write another book. It’s easy to be married to one book. If you write multiple titles, you’re not tied to the likes and hates of that single title. You’ll move on. It’s rough getting a bad review, but not so bad when it’s just a fragment of your catalogue. And here’s an obvious secret – your writing gets better the more you write. Your next book will be better than your last. That’s how it works.

 NUMBER 4 – Don’t Worry About Book Length

NaNoWrimo says a novel is 50,000 words. Publishing Houses like 80,000 words. Guess what? Many readers also like 20,000 word books. I’m one of them. So what if it’s not novel length? Paintings come in different sizes too. Don’t worry about norms. You may have to write to the length of how you plan to sell it. I self-publish so I don’t worry.

 NUMBER 3 – The Rewrite

There’s probably something missing from your book. You’ll know it by the time you get to the last chapter. It may feel daunting to do the rewrite, but it’s not so bad. Most of the writing is done. Get in there, put in the missing details, and make your work shine.

The rewrite is a big deal because when I first start writing, I would let myself get bogged down that I didn’t have a perfect book on the first pass. Don’t even bother sending it to your editor and proofreaders until you’ve done that first rewrite. You’ll be wasting everyone’s time. Don’t settle for that first pass “good enough”.

 NUMBER 2 – Finish What You Start

So you are a writer, huh? How many works in progress do you have? I have a ton of WIP’s too, and eventually you have to settle on getting one of them done. You can have an entire harddrive full of unfinished works of stories that sounded great in your mind. They’ll never know greatness if you don’t do something about it.

 NUMBER 1 – BIC

BIC means Butt in Chair. Just write. You’ve seen the quotes – It’s that simple, and that hard. All of the other tips support this one. Find out what works for you and do it. Do whatever makes you write. There are a million distractions. Don’t look for excuses not to write, find excuses to write.

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