Your First Draft Will Be Ugly

By Celeste Cox

Being the exception is tempting.

When people tell you your first draft will be ugly, you might nod while internally thinking, NOT MINE. Mine will be the exception.

Maybe it will be.

But here’s the thing. These people aren’t just random strangers on the street. Here are some of the people telling you your first draft will be ugly: 

And they all kind of know what they’re talking about.

I know, I know. But you want to be the exception. You want to go your own way. That’s great. Power to ya!

But here’s a crazy idea: Try it.

Try writing ugly. I guarantee that you will write faster, you will write more, and therefore you will get in a whole lot more practice. You will then become better, and eventually your first drafts will be the exception. Your first drafts won’t be quite as ugly anymore.

Point is, you’re a writer. You need to write.

I recently attended an ANWA writing retreat. In two and a half days I wrote 24,823 words. I even won a nifty prize. I was shocked. I never imagined that to be possible. For someone else—anyone else—yes. But for me? And here’s the kicker. Around 20,000 of those words won’t be in my novel. Another novel, or short story? Maybe.

I know you might be thinking, what a waste then. It's tempting to think that way, to turn it into a defeat, but all of that writing was practice. Practice I had no idea I desperately needed. 

It was around those 20,000 words that I finally found my character’s voice. I found my writing style and now writing is fun again. It’s not painful knowing the words are ugly. It’s almost exciting knowing that I’m a rebel against my inner critic and that I’m writing despite the ugliness. I’m writing!

It'll kind of felt like jumping off the high dive for the first time in slow motion: your stomach in knots as you wait in line; staring at your toes and the ground, anything but the actual high dive; the climb to the top; inching your way to the edge; feeling it wobble beneath you; the thought of turning back blaring in your mind; letting yourself fall and the adrenaline rush as you plunge into the cool water; the overwhelming desire to jump again and again. 

Once you get past the editor in you, you won't remember why it was terrifying or why your fears kept you from doing something so rewarding. You love writing. Bad or good, writing is an adrenaline rush all its own.  

If you spend 75% of your writing time editing, you’re an editor. 

Write, create, then edit.

Be a rebel against your inner critic. Write. Write ugly. Write good. Write gibberish. Write that ugly first draft.

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The Biggest Lie Mom Writers Tell Themselves

You're a mom. Sometimes it feels like you don't have time for anything. And how can you? How can you write when you have a to-do list longer than the Great Wall of China? If you had free time, you'd write. Right?

But you do.

I used to tell myself this because to me, writing used to mean sitting down for hours at a time letting inspiration flow through me in an almost ceremonial way. That was before I became a mom. Before I spent most of my days with cuddle fights, cleaning dishes, floors, cuts, scrapes, reading tiny books over and over. I love my busy kiddo filled days because I love being a mom, but somehow I got it into my head that that meant I simply didn't have time to write anymore.

But I did.

I'm in a Facebook group for eating healthy and a woman posted that she just didn't have enough time to make a healthy meal every single day and she felt it was impossible to eat healthy if she didn't have the time. The advice she got was pretty standard: Make a meal plan, Follow easier recipes, etc. And then I saw this suggestion that changed my life:

Put your healthy food in front of you. Get a veggie platter, fruit, or a healthy snack out of the fridge and on the counter throughout the day. That way if you don't always eat a healthy meal, at least you are eating healthy snacks.

Genius! I thought. But ahem, let me stop for a second to address that you might be thinking eating vegetables is what changed my life. Well, yes, but no. That is not the Happily Ever After I'm heading towards. It's how I used that advice that made me realize I do have time to write.

When you're going throughout your day how many times does an idea pop into your head? And how many times does a dialogue scene play out, or a plot idea? And how many times do you just let it slosh around in your brain until you forget?

The thought of opening up your laptop to write out the entire scene might not be an option. But it's not your only option!

A successful writing session doesn't have to be hours of zoning out. Just like the idea of putting vegetables in front of you to eat healthier, put writing in front of you. Make it easier to quickly jot your ideas down.

• Get a thought journal that has a pen attached to it so you're never frantically searching for one. Keep it somewhere you won't lose it and that the kids can't reach it. AND NOT IN SOME DRAWER. Somewhere you'll see it. 
  

• Use your phone. I use Google Keep because then I can access what I've written from my computer. I'd advise not to use an app that has way more cool features, because really, you just want to open it up, and get your thoughts on there before you've got a clean up on isle the kid'(s)' room. 
  
• Get a white board and hang it on the wall. Write down your thoughts there. If you don't want your whole family seeing it, or if it gets too full, take a pic with your phone and erase. And if you really don't want to miss an idea there's this, 
  
  
  
• Surround yourself with what will inspire you to write. There's no rule that says you can only keep your writing stuff in your writing nook. An awesome quote on the living room wall might just look good. Gasp. And even in the kitchen! It doesn't even have to be a quote. It could be a painting or photograph that makes you feel like a writer. 
  

• MAKE SOME TIME. There's nothing wrong with taking time for yourself. You work hard. You deserve it. And you will be happier and better for it. But as tempting as just zoning out and watching TV sounds, don't do it. Ok, you can watch some TV. I'll be the first to admit I like my shows and I'm not ashamed, but don't give all of the time you've made for yourself to TV. 
  

• Call yourself a writer. You can surround yourself with the idea that you're a writer but you have got to believe it. No, you probably aren't spending hours and hours writing unless you go to the occasional retreat, but writing is writing. No matter how unconventional your way of doing it is. 

• Something is better than nothing. If you think what you're jotting down is pointless, it's not. This is J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix on one piece of paper. 

So just do it. If this is your writing zone,

own it. 

Taking on Social Media like Bond, James Bond

by Celeste Cox

For some of us, and quite possibly all of us writers, social media is a feared concept. An it-must-not-be-named that we promise we will work on, but never really do. It’s the monster you know is living under your bed but are too afraid to face. You hope that as long as you feed it every so often and never directly look at it, it won’t gobble you up in the middle of the night.

Well, believe it or not, you don’t have to be gobbled up to be successful with social media. Nor do you have to spend every waking moment linked to it. If you have an understanding of your brand and audience you can be successful and even enjoy meeting the monster too. Not only that, you can be like the Bond of social media—yes, that Bond, James Bond.

Your Brand

Whether you’ve already written your novel, you’re in the process, or you’ve just begun, it’s important to know what makes it unique. To start, ask yourself:

• Why should an audience invest in my novel?
• What is my novel specifically offering them? Ex: Knowledge, romance, entertainment, thrill, a mixture?
• What rating should my audience expect? Ex: If there’s violence, is it mild, heavy, extremely graphic? G, PG, R?
• What’s the style and tone of my writing? Ex: Sarcastic, literary, first person, third?
• Even the formatting is part of your brand. Ex: In Jack Weyland’s novels the internal thought is always italicized.

The goal is for your reader to hear your name or see your novel, and know what to expect. Your name and novel should evoke certain thoughts and feelings for the reader. Ex: The name, Stephen King suggests a novel that is strange, scary, mysterious etc. A Stephen King fan would be confused if they picked up King’s latest novel and it were about a ballerina torn between love and her career. The most important thing to remember is to be consistent.

Your Audience

Now that you’ve got an understanding of your brand, it’s time to find the audience to match it. It’s a common misconception among writers that the bigger the audience, the better. True, a bigger audience could mean more sales, but not if the audience could care less about you or your book.

Imagine a scuba diving instructor at a Steampunk convention. He’s trying to sell his how-to book on the proper use of scuba diving equipment. Yes, there’d be a lot of people there, but it’s unlikely the scuba man sells a single book. (Unless of course his scuba gear is based on the 19th century and is powered by steam—now that would be something!) Point is, you need to start with an audience you are 80-99% sure will be interested: your target audience.

How to find and research your Target Audience:

1. Find novels you feel are similar to yours and study their audience. Don’t waste time on the big fishes. For example, if your novel is a paranormal teen romance, don’t immediately look to Twilight fans. That audience is too broad, but you can bet it started with vampire fans and lovesick teens before it became what it is. Find novels that are emerging from the woodwork. Ones that are getting more and more reviews among a smaller, specific crowd.
2. Read the reviews voted most helpful. Take note of what the readers liked and didn’t.
3. Go to the authors’ social media accounts and study what the fans are saying.
4. Understand them. They are your target audience and your potential fans. You are writing or have already written for this audience. Think of them as your investors. They are the readers more likely to take a chance on you and your novel.

SOCIAL MEDIA

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking once you put yourself out there you’ll be surrounded with that awful sound that means no one cares: silence. Maybe it’s already happening. But now you know your brand! You understand your audience. And you can face anything. Think of yourself like James Bond just receiving your gadgets. Now here’s how to use them.

1. Be interesting. If you haven't gone on any great adventures lately, that's fine. You don't actually have to be James Bond. Interesting things are things people don't normally see. Anything ranging from an image, quote, article, your own thoughts. Keep it fresh.
2. Images are your friends. People are more likely to look at them than text. Instead of excerpts of your novel on their own, add that sentence or paragraph to an image. Like a meme, for example. If you aren’t familiar with any programs to put text on an image, an easy and completely free place to do this is at http://pixlr.com. Don’t waste too much time making it pretty though. As long as the image is somewhat interesting and eye-catching, it will do.
3. Anything funny. People like to laugh. If it’s consistent with your brand, try to bring humor into your posts. And don’t panic if you’re the opposite of funny. You can always share and re-re-tweet what others have posted, though you shouldn’t only rely on that tactic, which brings me to,
4. Be original. You’ve studied your audience to try to understand them, not to completely transform yourself to be like the authors they already follow. A carbon copy is never interesting. You want to show your audience that you’re offering them something they’re likely to be interested in, while giving them something different: you!
5. Be helpful. People love to learn new things, especially if the information will help them in their pursuits.
6. Be relevant. An article on getting published won’t be as helpful if it’s ten years old.
7. Take Notes. Check out which of your posts received the most response. Try posting more of the same and continue tweaking things accordingly.
8. Remember your brand. Anything you post should reflect your brand. You can have a variety, but if your novel’s genre is horror and you’re constantly posting pictures of baby animals and Disney princesses, your audience will be confused and wander off.
9. Socialize. There’s a reason it’s called social media yet so many of us only post things with a comment and a like here and there. It’s not enough. You don’t have to engage with everything, but if you find something helpful or interesting let the person know. When you help a fellow author out, they are more likely to do the same. You might even call it networking.

And there you have it. A quick guide to taking on social media. Just remember to be consistent and have fun with it. And when it feels overwhelming and you just want to lock the door and run, remember that you are James Bond. Okay, maybe not. But you are a writer, which means you deserve to have your work read and people deserve to read it. 

5 Tips for Tackling Writer's Block

by Celeste Cox

Here's the thing: writer's block is a thing. It happens. One second the story is flowing like delicious golden liquid onto the page, and the next you feel like you might as well be staring at a three year old's drawing. In crayon. And even that would be more inspired than the gibberish you've just written.

But here's another thing: blocks can be moved. It's not called Writer's Great Impenetrable Wall. It's just a block. It doesn't have to mean the end. Just make like a lego master and move the dang thing. I know, I know. Easier said than done. So here are 5 tips for tackling that mean old writer's block:

1. Take a SHORT Break.

This is definitely the favorite amongst all writers. *Raising my hand slowly* Mine too. It's the well deserved break! We are writers. And it's our passion. But it's hard. Especially when our minds just aren't cooperating. Especially when writer's block shows up! That break is more than well deserved. It is necessary. But here's the problem with "break time". It either lasts way longer than it should. Or there are way too many of them. But I had to go and get another drink, you say. And then I had to use the bathroom. And then I needed a snack! Hey, I get it. But don't let these breaks be a lazy way out. Keep them short. You know how long you really need.

2. Get Inspired.

What inspires you? What makes your insides spark up like the Fourth of July? If it's nature, go for a walk, look out the window, or watch the Discovery channel. If it's a certain song, listen to it. Maybe it's a smell. A book, a movie, a color. Whatever it is, let it inspire you. Make it happen.

3. Write Anyways.

Yes, you have written garbage. And yes, you will write garbage again. And YES, it's okay. That's the wonderful thing about writing. You can write the worst thing you've ever written and still be happy about it. Because you're writing. You're doing what you love. What you crave. And then there's the bonus: there's always something within the garbage. A small piece of treasure. And you never would've written it had you not allowed yourself to stink up the page.

4. Work on Something Else.

You want to finish what you're working on. You need to finish it already! I know. But sometimes you just need to take a step back. Instead of completely taking a break from writing, work on something else. Preferably something fun and easy. Then go back to your work in progress and you'll find that you CAN get past whatever it was that was causing you to go a little more crazy than usual.

5. Get Help.

Read articles (like this one!). Read a book on writing. Or find yourself some writing prompts. Whenever I have really icky bad writer's block I love doing this exercise I learned in one of my creative writing classes. Here's how it works. Find a picture. Any picture that sort of speaks to you. Don't take forever finding a picture though, or now you're just dooming yourself. Here are some random ones for you. A)

B)

C)

D)

E)

F)

G)

H)

Now set the timer! I like to change it up sometimes but let's do 5 minutes. So for 5 minutes write whatever comes to mind about the image you chose. It can be a poem, short story, random facts, random sentences that don't even go together, whatever! Just write. 

AND THERE'S ABSOLUTELY NO EDITING ALLOWED. 

This is just you letting it all out. No holding back. Whatever comes to mind.

Once the 5 minutes are up, read it. Admire it. Yeah, yeah, it's probably a mess, but isn't it a beautiful mess? And look! You wrote something! You thought writer's block had defeated you, that you were incapable of writing even one more word. But you did it.

You Know You're a Writer When Part 2

1. Every social media account you open feels like ripping out another piece of your soul. In other words, you're Voldemort creating horcruxes.

2. Writer's block is the devil.

3. And you secretly know it's an excuse but you will never admit it.

4. You believe this is one of the most romantic gestures of all time.

5. And you want to just live in Belle's library. So bad.

6. These are the villains in your life,

7. You will do this before you die,

8. Let's face it. You relate to Princess Belle on so many levels.

9. You have a special writing place.

10. And sometimes you improvise.

11. You proofread EVERYTHING you write on social media because you've already shared something like this on your wall. And you can't be a hypocrite.

12. This is also true,

13. This is your favorite smell,

14. You are a psychic. Well, whenever you watch TV.

15. Which is why when you find a show that surprises you this happens,

16. You can't help but read rejections this way. At least once. Or ten times.

17. You've handled a rejection by pretending to be okay. We all have to be rejected, right?

18. But when no one's looking . . .

19. Your characters have minds of their own.

 

20. When you actually like what you've just written, you think something must be wrong with you.

21. While reading you want grab the two love interests like barbies and make them kiss already!

22. While writing you are maniacally laughing because you won't let them be together until the end of the third or tenth book.

23. Replace squirrel with bookstore and this is your life,

24. This is your internal response when people say they've boughten your book but haven't read it yet.

25. This is your reaction when someone asks you what your book is about, 

26. This is your state of being after you've written 10,000 words,

27. This is your reaction when someone says 10,000 words isn't really that many,

28. And you can't help your reaction when someone asks you why it's taking you so long to finish your novel,

Or have your work published,

29. Which is why this thought enters your mind daily,

30. Except you've already given bits of your soul away

BECAUSE YOU'RE A WRITER