As you might notice, I’ve been absent for almost a week. Yes, I spent time fixing my website and putting my novel back on retail sellers, but that wasn’t the main reason I haven’t blogged for 6 days. I was sorting out priorities. I already figured out that writing is a business. Listening to podcasts, I’ve learned that one can live a decent life while being an indie author, but only if one does everything
We are entering the third week of the new year, and if you’re like me, most of your New Year’s resolutions are gone through the window and you’re back to your old routine and nothing in your life has changed. Most of our New Year’s resolutions are built around some sort of change in our lives. We want to improve our health, relationships, status, and, in general, to live a better life and to become
Sometimes, while writing we need to make a shift in our perspectives and instead of usual thinking, we need to think like a reader. Try to imagine reading your book as somebody elses, and then question what you expect from any book which you happen to read. What kind of language do you expect? Are you in for the excitement? Do you like being surprised? What kind of character wakes empathy with you? Do you
A few days ago, someone who wants to become a novelist approached me and asked for advice. I was very glad that I had the opportunity to help an aspiring author. I stressed out the importance of showing up every day, trashing the bad stuff and working hard. She came to the conclusion that writing a novel is hard work and that she isn’t sure whether she wants to write that badly. None of us
A story requires that your character goes through some kind of change. If your character is the same at the end and at the beginning of the novel, it means that your novel failed. A reader follows your character through a journey. People should be a little bit different after each journey they take. No journey means no change and it means that your reader has seen just an ordinary day of an ordinary character.
Consistency is the key to success in writing. If you want to write a novel, you must do it bit by bit, and you must do it every day. Writing is like a muscle; the more you do it, the stronger it becomes. The same way humans have difficulties to exercise regularly, they are struggling to write daily. A writer is in a constant battle with the Resistance; the force which is standing on a
If you have ever spotted me at a coffee shop, which I honestly doubt, you might have noticed that I tend to speak while I write, or simply said, I dictate to myself. Apart from making you look like a total lunatic, dictation can make your sentences shorter and significantly improve your writing. If you try to dictate your words, you will automatically stop your sentence the moment before you run out of breath. Thanks
Last night I went into bed and I pretty much passed out. It was a long and tiresome day for me. Spending 6 hours inside the classroom, with 3-5-year-olds who can’t understand a single word you’re saying is exhausting. While falling asleep I had a perfect idea for a blog post. I remember thinking, “Oh that’s what I’m going to write about tomorrow morning,” and I made a rookie mistake by not writing the idea
According to Worldmeters 2,553,820 books have been published during this year alone but if you keep looking at the numbers, you might notice that they are changing each second or so. However, the actual numbers might be even higher. The good thing about this trend is that there is a book for everybody but the downside is that picking a book has become increasingly difficult; how can an avid reader who reads 50 books per
Writing is a public work. Unless you ship it, it’s just a blueprint and blueprint can always be changed and modified. Once it’s out there, your work is going to be judged. The readers will have opinions about your work. Most of them will be kept for themselves. Some will praise your work, but there will also be those who will hate your work and their voice will be the loudest, not because they speak