This is because I’m a pedant.

If you’re not concerned about the details you needn’t read on. You may discover I was one of those annoying kids at school who read your essay or short story and said “I like it but you missed a comma here and you’ve used the wrong instance of ‘there’ on page 4, paragraph 2, in the third sentence.” And yes, I am aware that that was a ridiculously long sentence! I would never do that on a piece of advertising or web copy or even in a novel.

But I digress.

I have often had cause to visit websites which are set up to promote a business. Some of these websites are aimed at selling the services of SEO experts (which I dabble in on behalf of Firehoop). Some of these websites are for other businesses like hotels or personal trainers. Like any person who uses the web for work or recreation, I get around a lot! Unfortunately, it also means I see typos a lot!

Sometimes I even get emails full of them – from copywriters and so-called ‘communications experts’ alike.

For any of my online copywriter friends reading this, I should point out, it’s not you. If it was a friend I would just point it out – especially if it appeared on their website! I’m not going to name any culprits but if you know me and talk to me on Twitter (or you happen to have published one of my guest posts) then I consider you a friend and it’s definitely not you!

I guess that doesn’t narrow it down much. Maybe it’s you? Maybe it’s your site that’s full of typos? Have you checked? It’s not good for business you know! Just imagine what sort of impression you’re creating.

All too often at work and in my life in general I come across bad spelling, bad grammar and sloppy typing. Some things just need a quick tidy up whereas some are almost illegible but even if you’re confident with your writing it’s worth getting somebody to take a look with fresh eyes. If they’re as pedantic as me it’ll be time and money well spent!

But what if I’m struggling to find the right mood? Where do I turn for inspiration?

I’ve always believed that any author or prospective author should read – a lot. If I’m toying with the idea of writing about something tragic then I’ll turn to one of my favourite novels by an author who nailed the emotions and sense of tragedy for me. If I want to write about travels abroad, I’ll turn to a writer I love who has written their own account of foreign travels.

I don’t copy the story, or even the style. But by reading, or remembering how I felt and what I noticed about the way a book was written, I can put myself into a suitable frame of mind. It gives me food for thought in the same way that factual research can and often inspires an equal amount of story planning and fact finding as well as actual writing.

If you’re struggling for inspiration why not return to a favourite author, or find a new one who writes in the genre or subject area you’re planning to follow. You might be surprised where the journey takes you and it may even inspire you with an idea of what you definitely don’t want to do.

Even if you read merely to distract yourself from the frustration of deleting word documents, a good book is often a strong encouragement to pick up the metaphorical pen. If you can imagine thrilling your readers as much as your favourite author thrills you, what more incentive do you need?

Writing shouldn’t be easy, but it should be fun and emotionally fulfilling. Don’t confine yourself to an empty room with just a clock and your laptop. Take a novel to the sofa, stick the kettle on, and settle down for a good read. Your writing deserves it!

A while ago I got a comment on my now defunct personal blog that made me panic. For some time now I’ve been internally debating the place of realism in my novels. I worry about how realistic they are and I worry about how realistic they should be. I worry about a lot of other stuff as well but realism has been my prime concern.

I brought the question up in response to an article on The Blood-Red Pencil. Here’s what I wrote:

I’ve written a couple of novels and I’m concerned about realism. On the one hand I think that, because they are works of fiction, I shouldn’t worry too much about making them entirely true to life. On the other hand, I don’t want readers to be put off if they think what I’ve written is completely crazy. Is it a matter of genre?

And here are some interesting excerpts from the replies:

Sometimes absurd plot points are just the ticket to get you thinking about something (think John Irving). If you build the world well and motivate your characters properly, anything is believable. And that’s your concern–believability–not reality. You are an artist with a higher point to make. Leave realism to the journalists! (Kathryn Craft)

As fiction writers, we are asking our readers to suspend disbelief. However, realism and reality aren’t necessarily the same. So Kathryn and Lee are right on when they promote, instead, the term “believability.” Whatever you’re saying doesn’t need to be probable, but it must be possible. Otherwise, you may lose your readers. (Linda Lane)What I find encouraging is the penultimate sentence from Linda – that what authors write doesn’t have to be probable, only possible. What I’ve written is at least possible if not probable.

What worries me is Kathryn’s second sentence. Have I built my world well enough? Are my characters properly motivated?

I fear it is time for another read through for both my novels – and hopefully a fresh pair of eyes!

1. I’m well prepared and I know exactly what scenes I need to write
2. I know it doesn’t have to be perfect – this is the first draft
3. No one will die if I don’t write at least 1666 words of fiction each day!  

Now, if you’ll excuse me I really must go and write 1666 words! O, and get on with my real work too!

Is writing a novel, article or poem a spontaneous act or do you prefer to plan it out like a military operation?

There are merits to both of these styles and I can remember being a time poor student, hashing out my essays in one fell swoop overnight and – miraculously- getting a decent grade for them! One of my best poems was written off the cuff with no particular thought. I just listened to a piece of music and I reacted to it.

With novels and functional writing such as web copy or advertising leaflets it is harder to take this ’seat of the pants’ approach. The novel takes a long time to write and you need to plan a suitable structure to make sure it remains interesting and coherent. With functional writing, every word has a purpose and it’s important not to deviate from or muddle the messages.

Yesterday I read an article about the snowflake approach. Some of the steps are ones I already employ myself when writing novels and some of them seemed a bit like overkill but it’s a good example of how you can start to plan your work and expand on the initial ideas.

It is the expansion that’s often the trickiest part for me. At school so many essays came back to me with the words “could expand more on these ideas”. As an adult I often get stuck fleshing out the details between ‘great idea’ and a novel or functional piece of copy so it’s useful to have a tried and tested method to help.

You can find out more about my own method at Organising Writing. In the meantime I’ll try and keep you updated with my NaNoWriMo progress! You can also follow me on Twitter @Pictors_Pen.

Random or planned? Kathryn Wright

The term blog is short for web log – a web based record which could cover almost any subject.

Some people write about their cats; their hobbies and interests; short stories and poems; offer advice; discuss topical issues and news stories and some people blog on behalf of a corporation.

You can blog about almost any subject you can think of!

And you can blog on your own or in a group. Sometimes people set up blogs on their own and then invite guest submissions!

Choosing a platform

The platform is the lovely piece of internet software that allows you to blog. 

Free and popular platforms include Blogspot and Wordpress which let you upload text, pictures, videos and links with minimum fuss. There’s no requirement for technical knowledge but you do have the option to add your own html code.

To explore other platform options just google the word ‘blog’ or ‘blogging platform’ and sit back in amazement!

Before you write

Why

Why are you writing? Is it just for fun? Is it to drive consumer interest in your business/charity/organisation or school?  Sometimes this will drive your content and you may need to think about how your writing reflects a brand image.

What

Deciding what to write can be tricky but if you have one or two subjects in mind why not try searching online for blogs that post on the same subjects.

If you can’t find any you have a niche! (Or possibly a subject no one else is interested in.)

If you find some, read a couple of posts and see what you think. Do you like it? Is it the kind of thing you’d like to write yourself? If not, what didn’t you like? How would you make it better? This will help you plan the content and style of your blog posts.

Who

Sometimes people write blogs that are just for them. They don’t think about who the audience might be or what experience they want to give them. 

That’s fine, but if you are writing with the intention of getting other people to read your blog posts you need to think about who might be interested and what they want to read.

This can affect your grammar, style, content and use of other media like pictures and video links.

Top Tips for great content!

• As with any writing good spelling and grammar are a must! Read through your post before publishing it and don’t rely on the spell check function.
• People tend to scan through articles when they’re online. Keep sentences and paragraphs short and to the point and use sub heads and graphics to break up the page and aid navigation.
• Make your content useful or interesting – but ideally both! Remember you need to attract your readers. Most blogs have lots of competition so you need to give people a reason to read and return to your blog.
• Feel free to build relationships with other bloggers and blog readers. Post comments on other blogs, reply to people who comment on your posts and reference the blogs that inspire you. Bloggers can make a friendly community and it’s often useful to share experiences and form networks for like-minded bloggers.

Be part of a blogging community! Kathryn Wright

 The art of the bullet point:

When I have an article to write like a press release or even a chapter in a novel I find the bullet point approach works best.

You will need a pen and some paper, or an open Word doc.  After a while you may find you can do the process automatically on shorter articles without writing anything down but this is a good way to start and I always use it for novels and when I’m writing anything on a subject I don’t know well.

Fiction

If you are writing a short story or other piece of fiction you may have a lot of ideas that seem random and hard to connect.  You probably have one crystallising concept that has inspired you to write this novel, specific chapter or short story which will govern the direction of the text. Write this concept down as a short bullet point.  Think what it might link to and write out the options as further bullets.  If you change your mind and want to cross out an option, scribble out or erase the point – as with the example below.

·         Bernie finds out his wife is cheating on him – how does he deal with it?

·         He keeps quiet initially, wondering about his options.

·         He sets about trying to find another woman and chats up a barmaid at his local pub.

·         The barmaid rejects him – he fumes about his humiliation.

·         The barmaid accepts him and he begins a secret ‘double-life’

·         Bernie’s wife finds out and Bernie tells her he knows about her affair.

·         Bernie kills her and hides the body, ready to embark on a new life with the barmaid. 

This will be your first draft of a novel, chapter or short story and it will be easy to see how your ideas interlink and what drives the story throughout.  From this initial overview you can make revised drafts whilst keeping an eye on the whole story and making sure it becomes coherent and well rounded.

Tip:  I sometimes find I have an idea for an event that ends up being the end or middle of a story.  Remember you can plan backwards as well as forwards!

Tip 2: Bullets can also become mind maps and vice versa. Sometimes it helps to have an extra, erratic stage in your planning to help you organise your thoughts.

 Fact

This could be a press release or a report for your manager or internal email and so on…. Let’s use the example of a report for your manager as this is likely to be the most complicated and time consuming of the example tasks mentioned.

Write down the following questions and answer them in bullets considering the information provided in italics:

·         Who is it for?

Ø  Is your boss already familiar with the subject? If not they will need a brief introduction and you must take care to avoid jargon.  Do they require it in a specific format or is it up to you to decide if a table, subheadings, graphics etc are required?  The way you present the information can make a real difference to how it is perceived, understood and even if it gets read!

·         Why is the report being written?

Ø  What is the main question, or questions that MUST be answered.  This has to be the focus of the whole report or your time is wasted!

·         What are the main points?

Ø  Go through your source material. Look for facts that are relevant to what you want to talk about in your report. If your source is in print, highlight what you deem to be relevant points.  If it is onscreen, select copy and paste appropriate points into a Word doc.  When doing this I like to print a copy of the word doc so I can refer to it at the same time as writing my report.  No annoying, confusing jumping between windows!

By now you have an idea of your preferred layout and the points you want to make.  All you need to do is write it clearly with a beginning, middle and end i.e. introduction, evidence and conclusion. 

When you’ve finished read it through and check how well your paragraphs flow.  Do they make sense in this order or should you move any?  Have you included anything irrelevant? Have you included everything relevant? Are your sentences simple enough?

Read the report aloud if you can, this will highlight any odd words or bad syntax.  If you can’t read aloud, read it with a voice in your head as if you were listening to it. Redraft until you are happy, not just with the content but also the order and layout and make sure you’ve answered all the questions coherently.

A quick word about press releases

Press releases need to be brief and the main point of the article must appear right at the top, ideally encapsulated in a single sentence.  One or two relevant quotes are also a good idea.   

 I hope this helps.  Please feel free to add comments or tips to this article!