I've made a lot of writing friends over the years some published, some knocking on the door and others who never quiet seem to grab the right book or opportunity. 

What I've noticed about all my published friends is they are focused on writing first and foremost. 

Increasing word counts and satisfaction at the keyboard… and no this is not an erotic post!

By Margaret Midwood

After reading a great little book ‘How to write a book in 48 hours’ by Jack Morrow, I realised, 1) there is money in self-help books and 2) you must be prepared before you sit down to write.

For me the ideas don’t spring forward the moment I sit at my blank computer screen, with fresh coffee, loads of chocolate and raring to go. For me it’s like extracting a tooth and I agonise over every word, paragraph and page, which can choke any spark I have.

But what if I’ve spent time thinking about my characters as I go through the day. I can plan what I’ll do to them, and see how they react. Think about the places I can put them, where they will be out of their comfort zone. Depending on your, memory jot down brief notes, or keep it tucked up in your head until it’s writing time.

And as Jack mentions, if you have a plan already in your head or jotted down, bare bones only, it must speed up your word count.

We don’t have to sit around wool gathering to do it either; we can do it while driving, in the shower, cooking the dinner, waiting in a line at the supermarket.

A few years back I did a workshop at an RWA conference and we practised meditation and the exercise of trying to picture your book, a scene, a point of change, and then sleep on it. We make this our final focus before sleep. Forget the cat, the kids’ lunches, the wet washing in the machine and just zone into your fictional world and see where it leads.

Another good tip to increase word count is to cut the internal editor out of the equation.

Assure your internal editor, and we all have one, you are getting words down. Thank him for his advice that your writing is crap and assure him you will edit it tomorrow–but not today.

Give it a go and maybe get Morrow’s book to see if you can increase your word counts.

Go with the flow and may the words and inspiration be with you.

 In the next paragraph you wrote *agonised* with an s, which tends to be used in Aussie English more than a z (though I learnt the z!) You can use either, just make them the same.


 Love it!!

I’m holidaying in the far south coast of New South Wales and this is the view from our deck. As always this time of year the weather is perfect, the spring blooms flowering with their rich scents filling the air, the gum trees glistening and fresh from the night’s rains.

While writing my blog it hit me that as a writer of category romance I’ve always believed emotion on every page was the rule for the short read and to keep the reader on the end of her seat but I now realise, it’s much more than that.

It’s about caring and feelings, because we need our readers to first and foremost care about our characters and want to see them succeed or learn enough about themselves that they can find the elusive happiness and contentment we all yearn for. Your characters have to be loveable and even if dislikeable to begin they need to have enough good qualities for us to want to know them better to travel their journey to the ultimate happily ever after.

This doesn't mean they have to be perfect but their imperfections have to be believable, acceptable even. We’ve all read books with heroines who take action that frustrate us because it's so stupid and you want to shake them. In these days of instant everything, readers want a fast moving story, not a story bogged down in details or lovely prose that don’t move the story along.

Enough from me I’m about to breakfast in the sunshine and feed a friendly Kookaburra who visit us, remaining within touching distance.

Do you have a special place to write, somewhere inspirational? I'd love to hear about it.
Now back to my writing.

May the words flow and the internal critic be kind.

Bye for now,
Margaret

Back again - at last!!

It's been a hectic few months, finding judges for Romance Writers of Australia's Valerie Parv Writing contest, sick kids, entering RWA 50K Callenge, left little free time... But I did manage to get my head around my characters conflicts and move forward in my story while torturing my hero and heroine and I love it!

I'm a pantser (a writer who has no outline or plan where her story is heading) but recently I've realised you have to have some sort of plan otherwise you waste too many precious words not to mention hours. I write category and with only 50K words to play with and a tight format I can't waste a single word. Last week I wrote a blog post for the lovely Melbourne Romance Writers Guild and it's called Confessions of a three chapter junkie, it's not been posted yet but worth checking out.

This month when I meet up with fellow writers and authors at MRWG we have the multi-published and wonderful author Anne Gracie presenting a workshop on Getting off the Slush pile!

In the early hours of this morning I received a newsletter from Holly Lisle which reiterated what I was thinking.

This week I wanted to share Holly's pearls of wisdom. At the end of the post you'll find details of how to sign up to her email and it's a great source of all things writing.

May the words flow and that dreaded internal critic be silenced.

 Holly Lisle's Tip -- Plot loosely
http://HollyLisle.com

No-charge course on creating a plot outline here:
http://novelwritingschool.com/free-plot-outline
 
Get your own copy of this newsletter here:
http://howtothinksideways.com/newsletters#tips