Avoid the January Writing Blahs by J.L. Greger
I like to curl up in January and forget
my writing. Big mistake! Do you lose energy during the cold days of winter? Maybe
these tips will encourage you to make progress on your writing projects in
January.
1) Write every day. My definition of
writing includes: researching topics, composing text, editing, and publicizing
the work. The advantage of writing a bit every day is I’m forced to think about
my plot, characters, and style frequently.
2) Organize your writing. I’m more of a pantser than a plotter, but I keep a running list of
characters (with short profiles) and a timeline. These tools make it easier for
me to quickly pick up my writing every day.
3)
Edit. I know a few authors claim they only need to edit their work once;
I'm not that good. I find the editing task less daunting if I break the process
into three steps and do each after I complete a chapter or two. (Of course, I
still have to edit again after I complete the first draft.)
These
questions should be considered during a content
edit. Are the facts (scientific, historic, geographic) correct? Are
locations described vividly and accurately? Are the characters interesting and consistent? Do major character
"grow" during the arc of the story? Is the timeline realistic?
The style edit is
hard to define but important. Novels are generally more interesting if
dialogue, action sequences, and psychological development of characters are
interspersed so that the pace of the novel varies. The point of view should be
clear in each scene.
The edit for word
choices, grammar, and typos often seems like an endless process. I try to reduce the use of "overused” words,
replace weak verbs with action ones, tweak sentences to be active not passive,
and check for spelling and grammar errors (which I euphemistically call typos).
4) Read. When I’m stumped on how to present a scene or develop a character, I read
someone else’s fiction—short stories or novels. As I read their work, I try to
imagine how they would handle my “problem.”
I hope you’ll want to check out, my latest thriller,
I Saw You in Beirut. It’s
available at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1610092201.
In I Saw You in Beirut, a
mysterious source of leaks on the Iranian nuclear industry, known only as F,
sends an email from Tabriz: Help. Contact Almquist. Intelligence sources
determine the message refers to Sara Almquist, a globetrotting epidemiologist,
and seek her help to extract F from Iran. As Sara tries to identify F by
dredging up memories about her student days at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison and her work in Lebanon and the Emirates, groups ostensibly
wanting to prevent F’s escape attack her repeatedly. She begins to suspect her
current friendship with Sanders, a secretive State Department official, is the
real reason she’s being attacked.
Bio: JL
Greger’s thrillers and mysteries feature
a middle-aged woman protagonist, Sara Almquist. She includes travel to exotic
places, tidbits of science, and lots of action in her novels because she is an
inveterate traveler and a biological scientist. Her novels include: Malignancy
(winner of 2015 Public Safety Writers’ annual contest), Ignore the Pain, Murder:
A New Way to Lose Weight, and Coming Flu. Bug (shown in the
picture) rules their house and is a character in all her novels. Her website
is: http://www.jlgreger.com
Goodreads Giveaway:
Comments
Thanks for hosting me.
SIgn up to win a copy of I SAW YOU IN BEIRUT at: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/166390-i-saw-you-in-beirut.
Enjoy
Janet