November 2009
10 posts
Mmm.. MediaCake
Hey guys!
As I mentioned in a recent post, Writing Without Supervision has moved to MediaCake servers! Right now the domain registration is still processing, so www.writingwithoutsupervision.com won’t be active for a few days, however you can visit the new site now by going to http://writingwithout.mediacakenetwork.comwww.writingwithoutsupervision.com won’t be active for a few days,...
Writing Prompt Wednesday
It’s that time of the week again, so get ready to fuel your creative fires and open up that word processor. That’s right, it’s Writing Prompt Wednesday!
I hope you all are having a great week so far, the weekend is finally in sight! If you are participating in NaNoWriMo then you are likely approaching the 20k mark, and if not you’ll likely be there before week’s...
NaNoWriMo Pep Talk
Week two, the beginning of heartbreak hill. Up until now you’ve been energetic, pumping out thousands of words per day, caught up in your exposition and wonderful introductions. Your cliffhanger introduction of the problem is through and now it’s time to start solving the issues and developing the characters presented in your novel. Oh hell, this is when it slows down.
Yes, heartbreak...
4 tags
The Notion of Emotion
Spending hours upon hours churning out words in an attempt to crank out 50,000 by the end of the month is sure to leave a noticeable dent in quality had you spent more time shaping your narrative.
One problem that many new writers will run into is a lack of emotional connection in their writing. You may start off wonderfully, but 15,000 words in your work may very well turn into a laundry list of...
Website Update
Hey readers and writers! We are on the sixth day of NaNoWriMo, I hope you all are fulfilling the goals you have set for yourself. I am currently at a healthy 16,200, just 400 short of my day’s goal.
Anyway, I wanted to let you all know that the website is going to be moving soon. Writing Without Supervision is getting added to the MediaCake blogs network.
MediaCake is a content publishing...
6 tags
Let your characters live!
No, I’m talking about within the plot of the book. We all know that many of you will be killing off characters that are close and dear to your heart. Alas, it’s one of the prices of great fiction.
Instead, I’m talking about taking your characters and two dimension plot devices and giving them the personality and emotion they need to truly come alive to the reader. And to come...
4 tags
Making it to 50,000 - Stay on track
It’s already five days in to November, and that means five days into NaNoWriMo. According to the statistics provided by the official website, that means we should all have 8,335 words by the end of the day to stay on track for a grand total of 50,000 on November 30th. I’m sure some of you are below that count, and some are probably a lot higher too.
The topic of today’s post,...
5 tags
Writing Prompt Wednesday #1
We’ve done writing prompts together on this blog before, and I’ve received some really great compositions as a result from a couple readers. This in mind, I’m going to be posting writing prompts every Wednesday. If you take the time to make a composition and send it to me or link me to it in the comments, I’ll happily post or link to it the following week.
If you’d...
8 tags
Show vs. Tell - Bringing Life to Your Story
I’ll start this post with an example:
The coffee shop smelled good.
OR
Pushing the antique wooden door open, the smell of freshly ground arabica coffee beans washed over Julie and her companions. Each click and clack of her stilettos on the tile floor brought her closer to the lingering sweet smells of the pastry case, silently waiting to reward her for a month of healthy eating.
Which...
7 tags
It's NaNoWriMo!
With the days that get dark before dinner and the passing weekend of debauchery, NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, is finally upon us. As you nurse your hangovers or snack away at your candy, hopefully you are typing away at your computer, crafting your next masterwork.
50,000 words in a single month can seem like a lot though, and it’s very beneficial to use some tricks to keep...
October 2009
12 posts
6 tags
Special: Halloween Writing Prompts
As you are gearing up your fangs and cloaks for the weekend ahead, I’ve decided to get in the spirit myself with a couple of Halloween-themed writing prompts.
As a note, from now on I am going to try to normally post writing prompts every Wednesday and develop a schedule of post-themes for the different days of the week. Let me know what you want to see more (or less) of! You can post in...
8 tags
Breaking The Rules in POV
It’s risky to change the point of view in a novel. Very risky. I’m not talking changing characters, I’m talking going from third to first person or vice versa.
Sometimes you need to express something that can only be expressed in the opposite POV than the one which you are using, and it presents a bit of a problem. Fortunately, there is an easy, acceptable solution.
Flaubert...
7 tags
10 Great Sites for Writers
One of the best ways to learn the ins and outs of the publishing industry is to read the blogs of those who know it best. Many agents and editors have websites where they post about exactly what they are looking for, along with tips, tricks, and funny stories.
Even if you aren’t ready to publish, there are tons of great websites out there that will help you improve your work or get through...
9 tags
Your Elevator Pitch
A common term in business, an Elevator Pitch is generally known as a sixty second summary of a job candidates resume and a convincing argument of why they are best for the job. The idea is that you should be confident and have a solid, cohesive resume that can be summarized quickly without losing any of its strength.
We, as writers, should feel the same way about our books. When someone asks you...
7 tags
Knowing your Characters
There is nothing more important than knowing your characters inside and out. You need a solid understanding of who these people are in order to make a compelling case to your readers that your characters are real, or more importantly, that their story matters.
That is to say nothing of the issue of continuity. Many times authors without a solid understanding will change character traits or even...
Six Months in Ipswich Update #2
I have received my book back from my editor and gone through the changes and suggestions she made. She truly worked wonders cleaning up my manuscript and even adding some sentences here and there that strengthened the tone while completely maintaining the voice that I had developed. I was very pleasantly surprised with the experience.
Next up is submitting to my publishing company for a final run...
5 tags
Writing Prompts
One of the best ways to get your gears turning and your fingers typing is writing prompts. Little blurbs explaining the beginning of a story or situation with an open ending that entices the imagination, these prompts can be used to craft a one liner, short story, or entire novel.
*Note: If this post gets enough comments / responses, I will consider putting a writing prompt section on this...
5 tags
Keep it Fresh
While writing fiction, many new authors fall into the trap of describing what I like to call unpersons. That is to say that the characters are being developed unrealistically (if at all) and the reader stops believing what they are reading. In a recent post over at Writer’s Digest, they discussed how it is not originality or cliché that defines the success of the work, but the way it jumps...
8 tags
Marketing!
You’ve finished your novel, published it with one of the methods discussed in my previous post, and are now ready to sell!
Hold on, partner, it’s not as easy as publishing and simply expecting people to buy it! No, you have to market yourself. Everywhere. All the time.
One of the major events new authors often coordinate to market themselves to the literati of the world is book...
8 tags
Paths of Publishing
When you have completed your masterwork and it is ready to print, you will be tempted to throw it to a service like Lulu or CreateSpace to get a physical copy in your hands as quickly as possible.
While these are all great services, you should take the time to consider your many options in publishing and what benefits each can provide to you.
Vanity Press
These are services like Lulu,...
Beta Readers and Edits
So you’ve completed a first draft. You feel extremely accomplished, maybe you even print it out just to see the stack of papers and take in your creation in a physical form. Unfortunately there is still a long way to go.
The first draft is just one of many. You are going to revise and edit more than you expect. Since you have been working with the material for so long, though, it may be...
Six Months In Ipswich Update
Hello loyal readers! As you know, my debut novel Six Months In Ipswich is currently with my editor for a final review. After I get it back from her and make the required last minute tweaks, I will send it to the publishing company I am involved with and cross my fingers for a before-Christmas release.
So you know I’ve written my first book and am working on a second, but I don’t...
September 2009
10 posts
Cover Art
This post is bound to be controversial. It is a difficult topic to discus while maintaining the integrity that an author is expected to have. The markets and way of the world however make one fact extremely clear: cover art matters.
When browsing through a bookstore, people DO judge a book by its cover. Perhaps they will put it down if the summary isn’t exciting enough or of a genre of...
Off to The Editor!
Well, it’s happened. I’ve finally sent my manuscript off to my editor. Let me take a minute and tell you about how I got to this step.
I started with the previous steps discussed here on this blog, and after writing and writing and finally churning out my first draft, I took a break.
Yes, a break. I wanted to keep going, revising, finishing, marketing, selling, all of it! Despite...
Writing Tools
Many writers from a bygone era still swear by typewriters. If you are reading this blog, however, I am guessing there is a slim chance you are one of them. Still, that does not simply imply that there is a single alternative.
The software shelves and internet are awash with writing software, with many authors opted for the tried and true Microsoft Word and others going for more specialized suites...
Writing Every Day
So you have a plot and an outline, now what? Writing of course! The hardest part about writing a novel is completing the first draft. Trust me, many times I had to force myself to write, but I was given the following advice on the issue:
1. Write every day. No matter what, always take at least ten minutes out of your day to get something down. Too often people take a one day break that leads to...
Outlines
“I just let it flow naturally”
“I don’t use outlines, they aren’t for me.”
“An outline like high school? Ha!”
If you are of any of the above mindsets, we need to have a talk. Nothing is more beneficial to the writing process than having an outline.
First of all, you can work out your story comprehensively and easily. When you make an outline you...
Inspiration
If you’re new to the writing world, like me, you may run into roadblocks as far as inspiration goes on a more than regular basis. Suddenly you are overcome with the feeling that you book is completely pointless and no one will want to read it. Or maybe you feel like you are lost in the middle and will never be able to coax yourself to complete your story.
I often run into this problem...
Writers Block and Temp Jobs
How beautiful a world it would be if we could all sit at out laptops in a rustic cafe, sipping lattes and tapping out our masterworks in the ultimate life of leisure. Perhaps a gorgeous barista would bring us our pastry with a wink and a phone number slipped on to the plate.
In reality, a majority of people are confined to office work, temp jobs, and class (if you’re a young’in like...
Brainstorming
The first thing you have to do is decide what you want to write.
What will keep you going day in and day out without boring you or tempting you with procrastination? It can be non fiction, a memoir, a fantasy or sci fi, romance, or a general appeal novel. I decided to go with the latter, so it is what we will be discussing for the majority of the blog. Keep in mind that I have no experience or...
Introduction
A little introduction is in order. Before we start going full throttle into the process, it’s probably best if you know a little bit more about me.
My name is Alex(ander) DeLuca and I was born and raised in western New York. It was there that I performed a one man show of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat for my neighborhood at the age of eight (er… yeah.)
In 2000 I moved...
Welcome!
Hi everyone. I’m Alex. It’s nice to meet you. You’re eyes really pop with that outfit you have on, bravo.
It would not surprise me if every single person reading this today has thought at one point or another that it would be a good idea for them to write a book. Plausible, even. You may have considered composing a bestselling airport-bookstore novel of excitement, a memoir...