Writing
the J.J. McCall series has been both exciting, exhilarating, and a learning
process. As I take this moment to bask in the glow of my awesomeness [LOL
here], I thought I would share some of the lessons I've learned over the past
five years.
Lesson 1: Work ethic (often) trumps
talent.
I
can write anything I want on any topic I want if I work hard enough to do it.
That was a big lesson for me with A No Good Itch. I wrote COMPLETELY out of my
comfort zone. I wrote in “voices” I
didn't know I had in me. I wrote a story that exceeds the limits of my small
internal universe. I was scared and intimidated by the subject matter--I mean
who in their right mind would try to write an Italian Mafia story inside of a
Spy Thriller??? The biggest lesson I've learned? If you put in enough effort,
your talent will eventually rise to meet you at the level of your work ethic.
Lesson 2: Writing is hard, hard work--but it
doesn't feel that way (unless you're editing).
If
you want to publish high-quality stories,
writing is freaking HARD ! OMG. I mean, this is long, hard, arduous, solitary
work. It's really hard. So then...why do I love it so? I dunno. Insanity? Or
maybe...insanity? Who can say, really?
But what I do know is that no matter how hard the work is, I love every minute
of it (except for editing. I could do without editing).
Lesson 3: Outlines are not the
enemy.
I
used to be a diehard pantser. Arsty fartsy.
I'd gotten the inane idea that I had to
"receive" the story like the Holy Spirit, in the midst of the
process, in order to feel like my work was authentic, unforced, organic.
Outlines only limit you as much as you allow them to. I allow new twists and
turns and the unexpected and give myself permission to ignore the outline.
The
GREAT thing about outlines is that they keep you productive during times when
your Muse goes on weeks- or days-long
benders. Outlines give you a "next" until your creativity kicks back
in.
Lesson 4: Tools Rule.
I'm
not one of those people who doesn't feel like they don't need help or that
there's no tool that can help me make the literary magic I make. On the
contrary, I've blown hundreds of dollars this year on trying to find ways to
make this hard work easier. And there are a few tools that I HIGHLY recommend
and that no author should be without. Upon hearing of my tool usage, an author friend asked me "How do you
afford them?" And my response to said author was, "How can you afford
NOT to use them?" Anything that gets me closer to a better book is well
worth the investment--I don't care how many readers I have. If I have ONE
reader, I want that one reader to have a great experience in my books.
Okay...so
here's the tool list.
- Scrivener
-- I mostly use this for the storyboard feature. I've used it for 5 out
of the 7 books I've written and I can't really do without it now. I'd have
used it on all 7 if I had known about it sooner.
- Autocrit
-- It's an editing software. The BEST. I've used this on EVERY single book I've published. It helps
you see things in your own writing that you would never pick up on. I use
the "combo report" faithfully and it 100% of the time makes my
work better.
- ProWriting
Aid -- Similar to AutoCrit but not quite as detailed in what it picks up
IMHO. With that said it's cheaper than
AutoCrit. So, if you need something more budget-friendly, this is the way
to go and it will get your work further along than if you didn't use any
editing tool at all. ALSO--this has an acronym report and "quotation mark" report (to catch
open quotes) which I've never seen on AutoCrit. So, it does have some nice feature.
- Grammarly
-- Man, this is a godsend. It really is. This captures grammatical issues
that neither AutoCrit nor ProWriting Aid picks
up. Even after professional editing, this picks up little nits that your editor may not (they are
only human). This is one you can't afford NOT to have.
- MasterWriter -- This is a fancy thesaurus, but it's great for helping you find synonyms when nuance is important. It's got a lot of great features, but I mostly use the thesaurus features. It's easy to use and definitely more convenient than digging through the Roget's.
S.D. Skye is a
former FBI Counterintelligence Analyst in the Russia U.S.
Skye is a member
of the Maryland Writer’s Association, Romance Writers of America, and
International Thriller Writers. She’s addicted to writing and chocolate—not
necessarily in that order—and currently lives in the Washington D.C.
Web Links:
Blog:
www.authorsdskye.com
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www.twitter.com/sdskye1
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