Tips for Writing Faster

It took me close to five years to complete my first book and another two to three years to get it published. I decided that if I wanted to write professionally, I needed to find ways to speed up my timeline. There is no one right way to write a book. Here is what worked for me.

Planning and Organizing:

I write mysteries, so I like to have the story outline and the crimes plotted out before I start writing. This also helps me later when I need to write the book’s synopsis. I also find that if I have enough of an outline, then I don’t end up writing myself into a corner that I can’t get out of or ending up in a spot where I am not sure what happens next. My outlines aren’t usually very formal. There are several paragraph of what happens in each chapter. I color code the romance, clues, and humor in each section to make sure that they are spread throughout the book.

Establishing a Daily Word Count

I like to have a daily word count that I track to keep myself on schedule. I still have a day gig, so I try to write 1,000 a day on workdays and 3,000 on weekends or holidays. If I know I have a scheduling conflict, I try to write extra to compensate for a skip day. I have found that if I stick to this, I can have a rough first draft in two to three months. When determining a word count, you need to keep in mind your writing style and life schedule.

Writing the First Draft

When I start writing, I just write. I don’t spend time rewriting paragraphs or chapters. My goal is to complete the first, rough draft. If I hit a spot that needs some research, I make a note and highlight it. I’ll go back and do all the research at one time.

Mary Burton calls this her “sloppy copy.” She’s right. It’s not ready for others to read, but by the time you finish, you have a completed first draft. Then I start the revising. To me, revising is harder than actually writing the book.

Revising and Reworking

This stage takes me another 2-3 months. I print out a copy of the manuscript and read it through, making any edits. I check for inconsistencies, plot holes, and story lines that aren’t wrapped up by the end. I will do this five to seven times. I’m looking for different items such as over-used words, typos, consistencies in spelling, continuity issues in the story, etc.

When I think it’s ready, I send it to my critique partners and my critique group for their feedback. Then I make the edits and do one last read through to check for those pesky typos. Then it’s ready for my agent. (More revisions come after my agent and editors review it.)

This is the process that works for me, and I’m able to complete multiple books in a year. Try out my tips. If they don’t work for you, try another technique. You need to find what works for your style and schedule.

Who's Your Audience?

Who is your reader? When I ask new authors that, many says that it’s “everyone who reads.” Not quite. You need to determine who is reading your books or who would be interested in reading what you write. Here are some things you can do:

• Look at your social media analytics. Many offer information on your audience’s demographics (e.g. age, country of origin, gender, etc.). This helps you see who is paying attention to your posts.

• Look at your website’s analytics. This tells you who is visiting your site and when. Many of the dashboards show detailed information about your audience.

• Make a list of several authors who have books that are similar to yours. Look on major book seller sites and skim the reviews. What can you glean from those who have read these books?

• Find Facebook sites or groups for your genre. Look at the members or the “top fans” of the page. Who is commenting the most about your style of writing? I write cozy mysteries, so I look for groups, sites, and book reviewers/bloggers who specialize in my genre.

• When you create posts or ads for your books, make sure that you target your readers. Think about what appeals to that demographic. Do they prefer content, lots of pictures, videos?

• Build your social media platform on sites where your readers are. Search for social media platform demographics online. There are lots of articles that define all kinds of statistics about who is using what site. This gives you an idea where to focus more of your promotion time.

Sometimes, it’s difficult to narrow down your readers. It takes a little work, and as you build your website and social media audiences, you’ll have more data on your analytics pages.

What Have You Done to Improve Your Writing Lately?

Writing is a skill that improves, like most things, the more often you do it. I work in IT, and we are always striving for continuous improvement in our software and the ways that we work, and that applies to the writing world, too. Here are some things you can try to help you hone your skills.

• Read anything you can get your hands on in your genre. Look for trends, tropes (patterns or expectations of that genre), and what is new. How do writers describe things? How do they use dialog tags? How do they move the story along? How do they end their chapters?

• Take a class. Many libraries and writing groups have free or low-cost courses and workshops.

• If you haven’t been in school for a while, take a refresher course on grammar and punctuation. Things have changed over the years.

• Join a writing group. Many offer programs and special events for members. There are mentorship programs, critique groups, and other opportunities for writers. I was able to get my first writing credit for a short story that was published in my Sisters in Crime chapter anthology.

• Find a critique partner or a critique group to help you hone your craft. I have learned so much from my groups over the years. They have lots of suggestions and ways to improve.

• Learn to use some of the not-so-obvious features of your word processor. There is a read aloud function in Word that helps you hear incorrect word usage in your manuscript. Use the search/replace feature to find overused words and other inconsistencies.

• Hire a developmental editor to help you polish your work, especially if it is a manuscript that you plan to send out to agents and publishers. This is a pricey option, but it is a good way to refine your work and make sure that it’s ready to be queried.

What would you add to my list? How do you continue to improve your writing?

How do You React to Feedback?

There is nothing like that feeling in the pit of your stomach when you receive critiques or edits on your work. All those mark-ups. That’s when self-doubt and loathing set in. Should I just give up and quit now? Maybe I’m not really cut out to do this.

It is very hard to offer your creation to someone and then to review their comments. When I started with my first critique group, I would have to wait a day or so after the discussion to go back through the written comments to be able to look at the comment without letting emotions take over. While many were positive, my brain tended to jump right to the criticisms and all the things that were wrong.

Receiving feedback became a lot easier when I changed how I thought about it. This is not personal, and it’s not an attack on me. Feedback is actually a gift to make you a better writer. You can learn so much and improve your craft.

I appreciate my beta readers, critique partners, agent, and editors. Writing is a business, and if you want to sell your writing, it needs to be the best it can be. Writing and revising are hard work.

My critiquers have provided ideas to make story lines better, they’ve explained what worked (and what didn’t work) in a story, and they helped me learn techniques and tricks of the trade.

One of the biggest things I learned was that you don’t have to list out every mundane thing that your character does. I come from a technical writing background where you detail every step in precise order. That’s necessary for software and process manuals, but not so much for fiction.

I read through the feedback and the notes from our discussion. I make the changes. If there’s something I don’t agree with (because it alters the character or story too much or it removes a vital clue to the mystery), I may choose not to make the edit.

Writing is a business, and you need to hone your skills and constantly make improvements. Critique groups, writing partners, and editors are the best way to do this. You learn more from doing than you do from reading craft books.

What has been your experience with receiving feedback on your work?

My Revision Process

I think revising and editing are the hardest (and maybe the most important) part of the writing process. Here is what works for me.

1. The First Draft - I write the first version, and I typically don’t edit during this stage. Depending on what’s going on, this takes me about two to three months.

2. First Read Through - I print the book and do a complete read through. I look for spelling and grammatical issues and plotholes.

3. Check the Chapters - I change the view in Word, so I can see a full page. I make sure the chapter lengths are reasonable (so one doesn’t have three pages and the next one has thirty-two pages). Then I read the last paragraph of each chapter. I want them to keep the reader reading past his/her bedtime. You don’t need to give a reader a convenient place to put a bookmark.

4. Dialog Check - Read through all the dialogue to make sure you didn’t leave off any quotation marks. Are there any dialog tags that can removed? Are there any paragraphs that need dialog? Eliminate the chitchat and the boring.

5. Search for the Overused Words - I keep a list of words that I use way too much. I search for each one to see if I can find a better way to say the same thing.

6. What’s in a Name - I search for any names that I change during the writing process to make sure there are no traces of the old one still lingering. I also have multiple series. I do a search to make sure none of the protagonists accidently end up in another’s book.

7. Continuity Issues - After each major revision session, I print a new copy. I do a read-through to make sure that things that are supposed to, stay the same. I keep a big spreadsheet for each series/book for a reference for hair color, eye color, preferences, type of car, etc. Look for places where your character does things out of order (like eating before ordering). Make sure names have consistent spellings throughout the entire manuscript.

8. Read aloud - Read your manuscript out loud or have Word read it to you. You’ll hear words that are used incorrectly that you may not spot on the page.

9. Spell Check - I check the spelling after every major revision.

   I usually read the manuscript at least six to eight times before it goes to my critique partner and critique group. Then it goes to my agent and editor for more revisions.

   What is your favorite part of the writing process?

Organizing Your Website

Whether you’re creating your author website or overhauling your current one, here are some things you may want to consider.

• Determine what you want your visitors to see first.

• Decide on the number of pages that you need for your content.

• Figure out what you want on each page and where you want to put them. The easiest way to do this is to storyboard your pages. Sketch out your design on a whiteboard or a sheet of paper. It can be full of stick figures. This is a way to organize your thoughts and ideas.

• Use the site-builder’s templates. There are lots of designs that are already created. You can use these or modify them to fit your style.

• Use colors to match your branding. Figure out what you want to project and represent. Do you write dark thrillers or humorous cozies? Your colors and fonts should give your readers/visitors an idea of what to expect in your writing. To get ideas, look at other authors’ websites (in your genre).

• After you build your website, make sure to check all links and forms that you have on your site.

• Check your website on a variety of devices to see how it presents. Most web services will optimize your site for the device your visitor uses. It’s a good idea to make sure all the pictures and forms look correct. People who use a computer, will see a wider picture than those on a cell phone that tend to render websites in a tall format.

What would you add to my list?

What an Author Needs to Get Started

It’s often difficult for authors to figure out where to start building their social media and internet presence. There is so much out there. It can be overwhelming. Here are the key things I think new authors need to have to get started.

Heather’s List

• Professional Headshot – Selfies aren’t the quality you want for print and digital - This is one of the first investments I made in my writing career.

• Your Biography – This should be written in third person. For your website, you may want to have a short one and a longer one that can be used when you do events and presentations.

• A Short Description of Your Book/Work – Have a short summary of what your book is about. This could be as short as an elevator pitch or a couple of paragraphs long.

• A URL and a Site to Host Your Website – You need a URL and a site to host your website. Try to get your name or penname if possible. The website is the hub of your author platform. You want readers to be able to find you.

• A Newsletter/Email Marketing Service – You will need a hosting service to maintain your list of followers and to create and distribute your ne3wsletters. Many services are free, and others have fees based on the number of followers you have.

• Book Cover Images – You will need clear images for your website and socials. If it’s the original (giant) file, you may want to think about reducing the size to make it more optimal for mobile users. Large files take a while to load.

Here are some other things you need to consider as you start creating your author presence.

• Your Budget – Determine what your budget is for your website, tools, URL, and author photograph. Start small. You can always add on to what you’ve created.

• Who Maintains Your Sites? – If you pay someone to maintain your website and socials, it can get expensive. I like the freedom of being able to update my site whenever I want without waiting for someone else to do it. Youtube and many of the hosting companies have tons of videos to show you how to create and maintain your site.

• Your Tools – I invested in two subscriptions to help me create my graphics. You will need to include a visual with your posts on social media. There are lots of free and for a fee products out there. Do your research and check to see which ones you're most comfortable with using. I use Canva and BookBrush.

What would you add to my list?

What Grover Taught Me about Writing Mysteries

I am GenX, first-generation Sesame Street and first-generation MTV. One of my favorite children’s books was the classic, The Monster at the End of This Book.

Here’s what Grover taught me about writing mysteries.

• You need to build suspense to keep your readers engaged.

• Your readers need to like or empathize with your protagonist.

• Everyone is afraid of something, and writers need to tap into fears to build tension.

• Write strong (and fun) dialog. Make it sound like real speech, slang and all.

• Use pacing correctly. Slow down the action to build suspense, and speed it up to amp up the excitement.

• Your protagonist needs a challenge or a problem to solve.

• Your character should not be perfect. Little (or big) flaws make your protagonist relatable and interesting.

• Make sure your character is not flat. He or she needs to be a real person (or monster) with all the things that life throws in the way. Your protagonist needs to stumble and make mistakes.

• When you think your character has had enough and is close to breaking, pile it on. Add more tension.

• Don’t load up your work with a lot of narrative and back story. Readers want to stay in the action.

• And most importantly, never forget that reading is fun.

Who’s your favorite Muppet?