21 Harsh But Eye-Opening Writing Tips From Great Authors

For many authors, the hardest thing to face is a truly cruel rejection letter. Yet most of the great writers of our time have tried and failed and failed some more. For example, Vladimir Nabokov received a harsh rejection letter from Knopf upon submitting "Lolita", which would later go on to sell fifty million copies.

In this article, twenty-one famous authors give budding authors their harsh, but useful advice. My personal favorite is #21. Don’t take anyone’s writing advice too seriously. – Lev Grossman

So, authors and aspiring authors, take a big deep breath, then read: http://thoughtcatalog.com/cody-delistraty/2013/09/21-harsh-but-eye-opening-writing-tips-from-great-authors/#f6JLMcdwKFYDHPCX.01


Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

The Pen Is Mightier Than The Keyboard

"Psychological Science" recently published a research article showing that taking notes by hand is a more effective method than typing them on a laptop when it comes to processing information conceptually. Sixty-five college students watched various TED Talks in small groups, and were provided with either pens and paper or laptops for taking notes. The students were tested afterward. While the groups performed equally on questions that involved recalling facts, those who had taken longhand notes did significantly better when it came to answering conceptual questions.

Laptop users were trying too hard to transcribe the lecture rather than listening for the most important information and writing it down by hand

Another 2012 study indicated writing is particularly important in the cognitive development of pre-literate children.

So there you are. It would appear that the pen is not yet irrelevant.

The original article is here: http://writerscircle.com/cs-longhand-benefits-research/

Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

A Novel Written By A Computer Actually Beat Human-Made Novels In Japan…

We’ve all heard about computers that operate all kinds of household appliances, ensuring that the temperature remains appropriate, lights turn on and off, and even control window furnishings that open and close at set times. But recently technology stepped up to a whole new level.

The Nikkei Hoshi Shinichi Literary Award is named after a famous, Japanese sci-fi author and it accepts non-human applicants. The 2016 prize included 1,450 novels, 11 of which were created using artificial intelligence. However, in order to criticize submissions fairly, the identity of entries (human or otherwise) was withheld from judges.

One computer-written submission made it through the first round of the competition. It was a novel called “The Day A Computer Writes A Novel”. The L.A. Times said, “Humans decided the plot and character details of the novel, then entered words and phrases from an existing novel into a computer, which was able to construct a new book using that information.”

“The Day A Computer Writes A Novel” didn’t make it to the second round of the competition, but it did freak out a lot of people with its final sentences: “The day a computer wrote a novel. The computer, placing priority on the pursuit of its own joy, stopped working for humans.”
Brilliant!!

For the full story check out, http://writerscircle.com/ai-novel/

Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

10 books that shaped the world

Long before there were books people sat around a fire and told stories. In some cultures story-telling is still very popular. Then there were cave paintings, papyrus scrolls and eventually books.

The “most influential top ten” list varies from list to list, but the Literacy Site has published its list of the ten they consider had most influence on today’s western world.

Several of them are easy to guess, others not so much.
Enjoy.

http://blog.theliteracysite.com/cs-lifealtering-books/

Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

How to Beat Writer's Block

A survey of 2,500 writers found that writer’s block was caused by high expectations, fear of failure, and unrealistic deadlines.

A group called Stop Procrastinating has published a list of 21 ways to beat writer’s block.
Some are obvious, like turning off the internet and breaking the task into bite-sized achievable chunks. Others are a little more off-the-wall. All of them are useful.

Here’s the link: http://blog.bookbaby.com/2016/04/21-tips-to-beat-writers-block/

Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

22 of the Best Single Sentences on Writing

Writing can be a very lonely career. Most people find themselves staring at a screen for hours at a time. Sometimes the words flow and fingers are pounding a keyboard. At other times the process is a slow one with far more thought than output.

Reading blogs, books, commentaries, research, can all be good and helpful, but it can also steal those precious writing hours.

Christopher Shultz has put together twenty-two one liners about writing by well-known fiction authors. They make great reading.

I particularly like, “Just about everything I learned about writing a good book I learned from reading lots and lots of good books” by Stephen King, and “Literature was not born the day when a boy crying 'wolf, wolf' came running out of the Neanderthal valley with a big gray wolf at his heels; literature was born on the day when a boy came crying 'wolf, wolf' and there was no wolf behind him,” by Sylvia Plath.

You can read them all here: http://litreactor.com/columns/22-of-the-best-single-sentences-on-writing


Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

Is “said” dead?

Recently Book Daily published a series of articles by writers about the use of the word “said”.

In the interests of full disclosure, I need to say I consider “said” the single most useful dialogue tag in fiction writing. This is because readers tend to ignore it and keep reading. That’s great news for authors trying to hook readers.
Other tags may be much more descriptive and more emotional, more arousing, more decisive and lots of other adjectives as well. But they can also pull the reader out of the story and get them thinking about the author instead of the story.

Anyhow, that’s just my opinion.

Melissa Eskue Ousley began the discussion opposing the use of “said” here: http://www.bookdaily.com/authorresource/blog/post/1771430

June Trop’s follow-up article is here: http://www.bookdaily.com/authorresource/blog/post/1819128.
There are also a multitude of comments and links attached to those articles. Go, read about it for yourself.

Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

Accepting Criticism for Authors and Readers

No matter how good the book you write is, sooner or later there will be someone who doesn’t like it. I’m not just talking about trolls who get their fun from being nasty to authors. There are people like that everywhere and they are best ignored. Never engage in dialogue with a troll because that just feeds their sense of importance.

I’m talking about a genuine reader/editor/critic who doesn’t like your book. Maybe they only like short books and yours is long. Maybe they hate historical books which yours is. Or perhaps the characters who were so real for you didn’t gel with them. Whatever the reason, accept their criticism, cry in private if necessary, and then read their comments carefully and see if there is something you can do in future to improve your writing.

A good writer can turn anything into a learning experience and/or plot point.

Never do what Richard Brittain author of “The World Rose” did, which was stalk the person who gave him a one star review and hit her over the head with a bottle of wine. He’s in jail now. It would have been much smarter of him to drink the wine, cry a little, and then get over it.

Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

Cut “should” from your writing

Marisa Goudy has written an interesting article on removing the word “should” from your writing. She says it’s preachy and divisive, telling people where they have failed instead of suggesting ways to improve.
She advises people to substitute a more evocative, specific word and watch their writing take on a new tone that invites people to learn more from the writer – the compassionate, down-to-earth authority who is always there to help rather than criticize.
The article is well worth reading and can be found here: http://marisagoudy.com/want-to-connect-with-your-reader-cut-should-from-your-writing/

Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

An excellent article re self promotion

Over and over and over again all the studies show that the absolutely best promo for an author is to write another good book. Yet the vast majority of authors still spend many precious writing hours on every social media site known to mankind, trying to build a platform, struggling to make their brand stand out, and their name lodge in the minds of readers.

Facebook has many staff whose job it is to keep rearranging their algorithms so the way your fans see your messages is via paid posts, or only if they are among the 10% allowed see any given post. Amazon has much the same way of managing things so its own books always come up at the top of a search.

Blog hits, tweets, pins and so on don’t necessarily sell books. Oh a reader here or there might be excited by what she reads and buy something or download a free book, but they’re the exception. Not the rule. How many pairs of RayBan sunglasses have you purchased because that ad keeps turning up in your Facebook feed?

Social media is meant to be just that. Social. Talking to people, getting to know their pets, their gardens, their families, and also what book they’re writing. Building relationships takes time. Hours, weeks, months even.

Delilah Dawson has written two excellent articles about author self-promotion.
“There is no road map to success here. Most of the authors seeing the results I would like have either been writing for 20 years, have publishers dead-set on a bestseller and paying mad bank to help it happen, or wrote a book better than what I believe I'm capable of writing, and all I can do is keep trying to level up.… Let's write better books. Quietly.”

Read the articles here: http://www.whimsydark.com/blog/2015/4/13/please-shut-up-why-self-promotion-as-an-author-doesnt-work
http://www.whimsydark.com/blog/2015/4/14/wait-keep-talking-author-self-promo-that-actually-works

Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

Why not end a sentence with a preposition?

How do you end sentences?
What do you use to end a sentence with?
Sentences? How should they end?

“Never use a preposition to end a sentence with.”
“This is just the kind of nonsense up with which I will not put.”

Here’s a video from “Ask the Editor” with the definitive answer about using prepositions at the end of sentences. It includes a fascinating peek back into history, reminding me why my high school made us study Latin for a year!
http://writerscircle.com/2015/03/straight-from-the-editors-mouth-the-verdict-on-ending-sentences-with-prepositions.html


Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

The Romance Industry

Laurie Kahn spent four years making a documentary about the romance industry. She’s listed ten “surprising” things she’s learned about the romance industry during that time.

Some of them will be no surprise at all to romance authors. A few of them have even finally started to penetrate the heads of businessmen, telling them how they failed to recognize an opportunity and are now playing catch up to get a foot in the door.

One such piece of information is that romance novel sales total more than a billion dollars a year—as much as sci-fi, mystery, and fantasy combined. Even as recently as five years ago men were shaking their heads and saying romance was only read by frustrated uneducated elderly single women. Apparently, they were wrong.

Another point she makes is that the majority of romance authors help and support each other, teaching newbies skills, helping them climb the ladder and finish writing that book. It’s a community of people engaged in a love of books and reading.

Romance authors pioneer new technologies and methods. They were the first to use ebooks, the first to use social media, the first to build communities with their readers, and the first to embrace self-publishing.

Her final point is that romance writing isn’t easy. Some days it seems like every second person is going to write a book. Some have even started one. But the number who have actually completed the book, had it edited, had a professional cover made, had the polished book formatted and put up for sale, is a lot smaller.
Writers are multitalented, hardworking people.

For the full article go here: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/laurie-kahn/romance-novels_b_7109458.html


Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

Be yourself

Stop comparing yourself with other authors. You know, all those lucky people whose book trailer goes viral and they make an instant million dollars. For every one of them are the other billion videos that didn’t go viral.

For every book that hits the Number One spot on the New York Times Best Seller list are a million or two that didn’t.

While you are exhausting yourself to write blog posts just like Successful Author, or make book trailers like Millionaire BookTrailer Maker, or to research and write a book exactly like Latest Best Seller, you will always fail. Every author has a voice. Write your own book. Write what is your passion. Craft your book as best you can in your own way.

Then polish it, get it professionally edited, have the cover made professionally, get it formatted properly, and then send it out into the world knowing it’s the best book YOU can offer right now.

And instead of slavishly staring at its Amazon sales rankings and biting your fingernails to the quick over clicks on your blog or every review on Goodreads, switch the internet off, put your butt in your chair, and start writing your next book with the aim of making it even better than the previous one.

There is only one you. Be yourself. Just be the very best you can be right now.

Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

What makes a language globally important?

Researchers having been trying to identify what makes a language important on a global scale. They began by identifying sources of media that had been translated into multiple languages. They included 2.2 million books that represented over 1,000 languages, tweets sent by 17 million users, spanning 73 languages, and articles on Wikipedia that had been edited by humans, not robots.

The map shows their findings about how the various languages were linked together.

Ultimately, English turned out to be the largest hub for information to be translated from one language into another in all three data sets. Other languages including Russian, German, and Spanish also serve as hubs to other languages, but to a lesser extent than English.

More than fifty percent of all communication on the internet is in English, and the internet is the way that most people are communicating now, which indicates the ability of English to connect people across all languages.

Many years ago the language that connected people was Latin. Books were handwritten by scholars, often monks, and they read and wrote Latin. The study has been completed and the results are in. These days it seems it’s English, which is good news for authors writing in that language.

To read the study go to: http://www.iflscience.com/brain/new-study-reveals-most-influential-languages

Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.