I’ve officially moved to Write It Sideways, a site devoted entirely to informative articles on fiction, non-fiction, blogging and general business writing.

Check out my latest articles:

• 7 Foolproof Ways to Get Your Manuscript Rejected
• Is Your Manuscript Making You Fat?
  
• The Labouring Woman’s Cure for Writer’s Block
• 10 Publishing Myths Exposed 
• Are Sour Grapes Ruining Your Writing Career? 
• 5 Steps to Writing Simply 
• 10 Ways to Tell You Have Author Potential
  

See you there!

I’m happy to say that, over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be finalizing the switchover to Write It Sideways .

You’ll soon be able to find great articles on the craft of writing, language and the writing life, all on www.writeitsideways.com

Don’t miss out!

I’ve been busy creating content for a new website I’ll be launching using my own domain name.

Check back soon for the link to my new site and more great writing tips.

It’s called “Novel Writing Made Easy,” presented by novelist Andrea Rains Waggener .

While the video offers some good advice for beginning writers, what troubles me more is that Waggener says novel writing can be “dumbed down to such a simple system that it becomes almost like paint-by-numbers.”

In fact, Waggener has created a whole Novel Writing Made Easy system that can be purchased online.

Here’s her promotional video:

I’m sure Charles Dickens would be pleased to know that “Great Expectations” might be little more than a fill-in-the-blanks exercise.  (Okay, maybe I’m being a tad harsh there…)

Sure, you can ‘dumb down’ the writing process.  Does that mean the end result will be good literature?

I’m not saying this system is a scam.  On the contrary, it seems Waggener has some good tips.  I’m simply wondering if it’s really fair to tell people that novel writing is easy.  I think the title is more of a gimmick than anything.

Think about it:  if novel writing is so easy, why are most manuscripts rejected? Why aren’t we all published?

Writing a novel may be easy, but writing a novel someone will want to read is not.

Let me know what you think.

~Isaac Bashevis Singer

How much of your story is missing?

When you spend hours, days, months, perhaps even years composting ideas for a novel, you’ve really created an alternate reality.  Depending on how much time you spend in this literary head-space, you may start feeling more comfortable there than you do in your own shoes.

This is great for gathering material with which to write your novel, but it makes it difficult to recognize the crucial details you may be leaving out.

Dare we call them… moth holes?  I just made up that term right now, but you know what I mean.

Just because you happen to know everything about your characters,  setting, and plot, doesn’t mean you’ve been successful in translating those details onto paper.

Sure, when you read through your draft, it all seems to make perfect sense. But then, you’re biased. Your brain is potentially filling in the missing bits.

Will an objective reader think it makes sense?

A submissions editor at a publishing company?

Best to be on the safe side.  Here are 3 ways to avoid moth holes in your story:

1. Map Motivations:  Keep track of why your characters are doing what they do and saying what they say.  Write it down somewhere and review it often.  Make sure those details are subtly woven into your story.
2. Take a Long Break:  When you finish your first full draft, put it away for a long time–at least 2 months.  You’ll have fresher eyes when you return to it.  You’ll notice things your brain glossed over before.
3. Get a Second Opinion:  Don’t get your best friend or your grandma to read your manuscript.  They’re far too nice.  Get someone honest (and someone who has good literary taste)  to read it and tell you what’s missing.

So, no need to abandon your alternate reality.  No need for those smelly mothballs either.

Just make sure your feet are on the ground when you’re editing, and your manuscript is sure to be moth-hole free.

If you want to read some truly useful information about copywriting, blogging, content creation and general writing, check out Copyblogger.

With article titles like The Art of One Butt Cheek Blogging,  Avoid Copy That Makes You Look Like An Ass , and The Winnie The Pooh Guide To Blogging, you can’t help but be interested.

Apparently, there are 40, 000 subscribers that agree with me.

Another good example of online success is Steve Pavlina.com–Personal Development for Smart People.

If you’d like to know more about how Pavlina ended up earning $1000 per day through his website, check out his article How to Make Money from Your Blog.  It’s amazing what you can do with a little motivation.

What websites do you find particularly encouraging?

So what?  Neither do I.

That doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t sit down over a cup of coffee and ask him hundreds of annoying questions about the art of writing.  It just means you might have to dig a bit for the answers.

And that’s okay.  Because you’re resourceful.  You’re motivated.  You enjoy the pursuit of knowledge.

If you ever wanted to know what pearls of wisdom Stephen King, Virginia Woolf,  Shakespeare or Margaret Atwood have to share on writing, there are a few simple ways to do just that:

1. Pick up one of their books.  Sounds simple, and it is.  Analyze their word choices, novel structures, literary devices.  Find out what makes them tick.
2. Read their biography or autobiography.  Don’t reinvent the wheel!  Find out what an author says about themselves, or what others say about them.  Learn  how they got published and what struggles they encountered along the way.
3. Research their publisher.  You can tell a great deal about a writer by looking at who published them.  Find out their submission requirements, what styles they usually accept, other famous names within their publishing list.
4. Go to their website.  Obviously this only pertains to modern authors unless someone is managing a site on behalf of a deceased writer.  Most published authors today have websites promoting their work, and even offer workshops or other resources for aspiring writers.
5. Read an interview.  At some point in your favourite author’s life, they’ve been interviewed.  They’ve been asked the tough questions, probed for information about the very things you wish to know.  All you have to do is to find one transcript or video.

From now on, you have no excuses to mourn your long, lonely pursuit of publication.  Take what those who’ve gone before you have done, and learn from their example.

So go make yourself a cup of coffee and start picking someone’s brain.

Do you have magazine credits?  Have you published a newspaper article or anthology entry?

If you’ve written and published a full novel, you probably won’t need the following advice.  However, possessing only minor writing credits shouldn’t prevent you from marketing yourself and your skills.

Consider these 10 easy ways to increase your exposure:

1. Create a blog on writing tips and resources.
2. Contact other bloggers to see if they will interview you.
3. Write guest posts for other bloggers.
4. Make a YouTube video of yourself sharing useful writing tips, and link to your blog.
5. Share with other writers the steps you took to become published.
6. Continue to build your credits by writing and submitting.
7. Interview other writers and ask them to link to your site.
8. Attend local writers functions or library events and mingle.
9. Create a Facebook group to show support for your writing.
10. Write articles for online magazines that allow you to link to your own site.

Start implementing these tips and you’ll soon recognize even minor writing credits can help make you an authority on a subject many people are dying to know about.

What are your best tips for marketing your writing?

Last week I was notified I’d been nominated for the Lemonade Award by fellow blogger, Shakespearemom.  It’s always heartening to discover that your work is appreciated by others.

The Lemonade Award exists to recognize bloggers who show great “attitude or gratitude.”  When you receive a nomination, you must then pass along the honour by linking to 10 of your own favourite blogs.

I fully intended to write a post with a list of my nominees but, after much deliberation, I was unable to come up with more than just a few blogs I actually follow.  I tend to use informational websites more often in my research and personal learning.

That said, I have come across many excellent blogs, but not ones I necessarily revisit on a regular basis.

Since I feel ill equipped to pass along the Lemonade Award at this point, I will recognize fellow bloggers by linking to them when I come across a noteworthy article.   In effect, I will follow the same procedure, just not all at once.

I look forward to sharing others’ work with you.

~Ernest Hemingway

One of the most important ways in which I’ve matured as a writer is to recognize that simplicity in writing does not necessarily equal inferiority.

In this area, some new writers make mistakes that immediately expose them as amateurs.  If you want others to know you have little experience and/or talent, you’ll want to do the following:

1. Use a thesaurus to find bigger words instead of more effective words (and without being genuinely sure of their proper usage).
2. Write unnecessary, long-winded descriptive passages, especially in the 1st chapter.
3. Show off your ‘creativity’ by overusing literary devices (metaphors, similes, alliteration).
4. Create cutesy/clever/alliterative titles that are meaningless but sound good.
5. Take the longest possible route to get to your point because you want your novel to be very thick.

When it comes to writing, Hemingway got it right with the phrase “the best and simplest way.”  It’s good to be creative, to be descriptive, to be clever, but only if you do it in the ‘best and simplest way’ possible.

When you simplify your writing, you’re doing your reader a favour.