One of the things that bugs me about a lot of the writing advice that’s out there is that at some point, just about everyone says something like: “You gotta do it for the love”…

Well… yes of course.

Writing is so hard, with no garuntee of sucess, that not enjoying the process of creation is sure recipe for disaster. But I have to say, I’m not only doing this for the love…

I want to get paid.

I can live with not being paid like Stephen King, but I want to be able to say that writing pays all of the bills with a little left over to spend on the thinkgeek catalouge.

If you just want to do this for the love, that’s cool…you can wrote however you like, take a shotgun approach to editing and never actually have to finish anything.

On the other hand if you want to write for a living you need to plan for that and learn how to approach writing as the profession you want to be a part of.

Is it still a statistical long shot? Sure, so is playing professional sports, but you don’t see posters in gym locker rooms telling people “hey, you’ll probably never make it”.

If this is what you want, if you want a career as an author you owe it to yourself to try for that prize.

I found myself overbooked this week. This is because I’m a moron and didn’t use my calender. When you start writing you’re adding an extra part time job to your life (if you’re doing this seriously) and it is very easy to overload yourself with responsibilities.

Set reminders on devices that go ding! when there’s stuff*.

This goes double if you have kids. Your kids will not be understanding if you are late to pick them up from school because you got stuck into writing your protagonist’s seduction of the love interest.

* I sort of half stole this from Dr Who. I hope Matt Smith will forgive me.

If you’re reading my blog, you probably want to make a go of this writing thing. Since I’m titanically unqualified to advise anyone how to make a career of writing, I’ve been observing writers who are qualified to comment, and I’ve noticed a few things. One of the big things among successful writers is their willingness to invest in themselves. This doesn’t necessarily mean paying for a writing/synopsis/query writing course, but it does mean that they are willing to invest time and of often money in becoming better at what they do.

I chose to do CJ Redwine’s Synopsis Course. It didn’t cost much, but it’s money I could feasibly have spent on pie. Instead I chose to invest in my writing career and improve something in my writing life I’m not all that good at.

It doesn’t matter what you invest in yourself (although I recommend both time and money if you can), as long as you do it. It will be worth it.

I sometimes stumble across quick writing tips that don’t justify a full multi-page ramble, but are worthy on their own. I’m going to start posting these as often as I can, and I’ll expand on the ones I understand well enough to talk about in depth.

So…

Quick Writing Tip # 1 Poetry

I know. Poetry is for people in weird hats who like daffodils.

It’s also for writers.

Want to improve your writing’s rhythm? Your word selection? Want to read some bawdy Welsh tales that will make you blush to the roots of your hair?

Read poetry. Write poetry. Buy a book called the The Ode Less Travelled by Stephen Fry.

You don’t have to tell anyone, your secret is safe with me.

So I managed to catch Pneumonia.

For the pople that know me this actually wont come as too much of a shock. To my friends I known by variations on ‘That Guy that Gets Sick All The Time, Sicko, Sicky, Sicky Sicky Mc Sick Sick and Duck and Cover!’

That last one is a reference to something else, but it’s not that important.

I did the MC Work for my Dad’s book launch party just before I fell ill (I mean JUST before. I thanked everyone who came and six hours later I was bedridden). The book launch went great and I hope to get some photo’s up on here once I can leave my house.

Because I’m so ill I wanted to do a quick post on writing whilst ill. As writers who don’t do this full time we tend to squeeze writing around the other events of our days. There’s a real misconception, even amongst writers, that writing doesn’t take a lot out of you.

This is wrong. At least it is in my experience.

Writing is really good fun, but it does take a lot of energy. If you’ve ever noticed how drained you can feel after writing an intense scene then you have some idea of what I;m talking about. If you;re sick putting your body and your mind through something intese, or profound could drain your already low resources.

Instead, I suggest working on outline or story bible stuff. It’s not as taxing, gives you all the nice feel good creation chemicals I;m convinced we’re all addicted too, and if you’re hallucinating due to high fever you might just come up with a really freaky story idea.

Right, that’s my bit for today, I’m going back to watching Dr Who*.

* If you want a great example of horror/thriller/adventure writing for the screen that could have worked almost as well on the page go watch the episode “Blink” of the last season of Dr Who.

It’s been a very up and down few weeks, and to say I’ve done very little writing would be a gross understatement.

I think I’ve managed about a thousand words in two weeks.

This has happened before of course, life gets on top of all of us. There really are only two choices. Keep going, or stop. I don’t mean stop forever… most people who want to be writers won’t even consider stopping for the foreseeable future, but there is a temptation to say “I’ll just quit for a few months”.

This is a terribly bad idea.

We all need recharge time, and taking a planned break for a week or two is a good thing, but by the time you get to the end of that two weeks you should be itching to get back into your story. If you have to take three months off because you are so overloaded and exhausted then  something needs to be changed.

I’ve said before if you want to be a professional writer you need to treat your writing like a business. Most of us can’t quit our jobs because we’re too overloaded to do them, and there’s no way you should be quitting your writing to just take time off. I understand writing is hard, but it’s also a lot like exercise, and if you stop writing for too long you’re going to get out of shape.

I’m getting back into Brazilian Jiu Jitsu after a long lay off, and I’m dreadfully out of shape. Two rounds of sparring has me gasping for air. If I’d kept going, even once a week instead of taking time off completely, i would be in far better condition to get back on the mats now.

The same is true for your writing. Take too long off and your brain won’t be able to handle the transition back to full on writing as well as it should. If you desperately need a break to do something else, try doing just a little writing once a week to keep your hand in. When you have the time/energy/inclination to write a lot again you won’t burn yourself out nearly as easily.

Writing isn’t an easy job. For the countless hours that you put into your manuscript there’s absolutely no guarantee of a pay day. Even if you write a great book it might never catch on, or you might never even get published.

Or, like me, you might find yourself in the middle of a MAJOR (read: complete) re-write and you might start wondering why you didn’t take up bomb disposal instead.

That’s where the writing community comes in. If you’re online* it only takes a few moments on Google to find a whole host of websites and blogs that can pick up your spirits and/or help you fix what’s wrong.

There’s another side to this though. If you want to be a writer, I consider it one of your responsibilities to get online and help others where you can. It might just be a helpful comment on their blog, or a few words of encouragement on Twitter. Or, you can make your own writing advice website <cough>…

Recently I’ve been putting a lot of effort into setting up and promoting the blogs and podcasts of two of my family members.

My father, Michael Brown, has written a novel called Finding The Field, the podcast version of which is available for free at www.findingthefield.com It’s part adventure, part spiritual journey.

My Uncle Ralph Brown has written and podcasted a very different kind of book at www.thevillagethatcould.com It’s a fable about a small village in the woods besieged by problems, and how the village gets through them. The fable is a lesson in resilience and how to apply the village’s lessons to every day life.

In the process of setting up these websites and podcasts, I’ve learned an incredible amount. When I’m finally ready to promote my own book I have no doubt that the things I’ve learned by offering help are going to be invaluable. By being part of the writing community, on this site, on Twitter and on www.findingthefield.com and www.thevillagethatcould.com I’ve improved my own chances at success immeasurably.

Even if you’re inexperienced, heck even if you’re new, your homework is to go and help someone else in the writing community, even if it’s just praise. By helping them, you’ll be helping yourself.

* If you’re not online…how are you reading this?

A long time a go I remember seeing a non infomercial interview with Tony Robbins. Robbins is a life coach to the stars, and made a name for himself selling a series of self help programs.

I can’t vouch for his system, but something he said stuck with me:

“You can’t pretend there are no weeds in your garden.”

By this he means that you can’t pretend away problems in your life, and he’s right. If a four hundred pound man is punching you in the face no amount of wishing will make it stop. Trust me on this one.

It’s such a good quote that I thought I’d apply it to writing, and again, pretending there are no problems with your writing will lead you to ruination.

I’ve done it. Most of the mistakes I’ll warn you against I’ve either made or at least contemplated before*. I pretended that I didn’t need to learn anything about writing before I had a stab at my first novel. Even as I continued writing it, and it got progressively worse, I still pretended that I could keep going.

Yeah… that didn’t end well.

The lesson here is that you can’t pretend your way to publication. If you know there is something wrong with your writing, and for 99% of us there will be something, then just forging ahead without addressing it will not fix it.

So, if you will permit me, I’d like to set you all some homework. Identify a problem in your work. It could be bad grammar, clunky dialogue or even poor characterisation. Then do whatever it takes to find out how to fix it.

Once you know what to do, then VERY CAREFULLY write your next page with this in mind. Then put the page aside and go and have a hot drink. When you come back re read the page to yourself out loud and see if the problem has been fixed.

 It took me three tries to fix a dialogue problem I was having, but it worked. So give it a try with your Work In Progress and let me know how it goes!

* A possible exception is sending a dead animal to an agent. I’ve never even considered that, but I can tell you it’s a bad idea anyway.

I love character quirks.

In one of my early stories one of the characters was a one legged prostitute named Reverend Moon (it’s still in the short story section of the site if you want to read it). I’ve levered in other strange tics, everything from an obsession with numbers to a predilection for Greek literature.

It’s taken me until my current project to realise I might have been overdoing it a little.

Bizarre quirks can work, but it’s like salt. A little improves a dish, a lot makes you gag. I’ve tired to infuse my current protagonist with some more ordinary quirks. He loves cheeseburgers, especially cold ones from Big Gary’s Chip Shop (named after a burger bar I used to go to long ago). He stashes grab bags around town, because he’s in a dangerous line of work and some times needs to get out of dodge quickly.

The first quirk, cheeseburgers, doesn’t need an in story explanation. Lots of  people like cheeseburgers. That the main character likes them cold is a little odd, but not odd enough to warrant any kind of explanation.

The second quirk, the grab bags full of clothes and the odd fake ID, needs a little more in the way of set up. Without knowing that my main character frequently finds himself in peril, readers could easily come to the conclusion that he’s paranoid. Which he is, but with good reason.

The lesson here, and I wish I’d learned it before now, is that big quirks and ticks need to have a context within the story, or it looks like you’ve put them in just for the sake of having them. Smaller, more human and every day things can be sprinkled in just for interests sake.

In other news I drew Riznphnx’s name out of the hat to win January’s prize for helping out Tee Morris and Sonic Boom. I’m keeping the competition going for another two months, so if you’ve already donated, you’re already in the next two draws. If you’ve donated, just tell me and I’ll add your name to the list.

If you haven’t donated, the ChipIn widget is just to the right of this post. It’s very easy to help out in the initial rush of a tragedy. It’s harder to keep helping as time passes. I haven’t always been good at it myself, but Tee has done so much for our community I’d like to see some more donations rolling in. As with last month, if you donate and tell me you go in the draw to win one of Tee’s books from Book Depository