7 Tips For The Organized Writer

Have you always wanted to write a book? Do you see the whole tale in your head but find yourself unable to get it out on to the page? Do you begin writing with enthusiasm only to burnout before you've begun? Here are a few ideas that may help you harness a bit of that enthusiasm, and focus your creativity.

1. Outline Your Ideas
Most people need to form their ideas in some kind of outline. An outline is the easiest and best way of organizing the brainstorm of ideas into something workable and understandable. An outline also provides the writer with a framework they can refer to as the story develops, helping them to stay “on track.” It doesn't have to include every detail of your novel, just the framework. And you can always add and modify as you go along.

2. Consider Point-of-View
For each scene, decide what point of view you are going to use. I write primarily in first person, but will write chapters in third person as I need to develop the action outside of the immediate view of the hero. One thing my editor would catch me doing was called “head jumping,” or changing POV in mid-chapter. Stick with a single POV for each individual scene/chapter, and your story will flow much better.

3. Dialogue
Read and re-read the conversations aloud. It is the best way to “hear” the characters, and makes the written word more real to you. Be cautious of accents, however. There are authors that can introduce accents into a story, but I’m not one of them. I have used a description of the accent, but have never tried to actually “write with an accent. It’s tough, I’m lazy, and I avoid it if possible. However, if one of your characters speaks a foreign language, be sure to get an accurate translation before using the language, and triple check the word spelling. I used Cuban Spanish in one of my novels, and had a Cuban friend check it, and correct it, for me.

4. Concept
Imagine you are writing the back cover blurb for your novel. You have 25-50 words to excite the reader enough to want to crack the binding. If you can do that, you have a strong story concept that will satisfy both you the writer and the readers as well. If you can’t, well, try going back to tip #1.

5. Building the Drama
A good story needs conflict. But every good story builds the drama gradually over the course of the book. You should try to let the drama flow as the conflict between the hero and the villain mounts towards the conclusion.

6. Show- Don't Tell
Re-action speaks louder than words. Use action instead of description to set the emotional tone of a scene, and try to avoid the “–ly’s” as much as possible. Too many adverbs spoil the narrative.

7. Obvious Mistakes
This is actually one of the most important. No matter how great your word processing program or how many times you proofread yourself, you can always overlook misspellings, grammatical errors and incorrect punctuation. You should have someone very qualified in English or a professional editor proofread your work. In his book, “On Writing”, Stephen King recommends putting the manuscript away for a time, then re-reading it with fresh eyes. Not a bad idea, really, and one I have used myself.

Good luck, and I hope to see YOUR name on the best seller list.