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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

You guys are pimps.

Anyway, on to the main post.

I’m not a huge proponent of chronofetishism (that’s my big word for today) but I do love New Years resolutions. At 1am on the 1st of January anything seems possible. The problem of course is at 6am on the 21st of January nothing seems possible. Getting out of bed has become a herculean task that you would write an eipc tale about… except you can’t get out of bed.

My goals this year, once I took out the odd tweak are actually the same as last year:

Write stuff.

Get it published.

Keep writing blog posts.

Be less lazy/apathetic.

These aren’t the most specific of goals I know, and perhaps they fall down a bit there, but they are the real goals I have for 2010 once the fanfare has died off and I actually consider my year ahead. If I was forced to be more specific I would have to say that the number one goal this year is to finish my book and get it out to an agent or publisher by the end of the year.

I can’t force them to accept it of course, but it wouldn’t hurt to finish the story and make it as good as it can be. So that’s what I’m doing  at the moment, writing The Downside of Being Dead. I hope to be doing more blogging/podcasting too, but the book has to come first instead of last or I’m never going to be finished. Putting the book first is going to mean making some sacrifices with my time.

I don’t agree with the idea that you have to sacrifice everything you love to be a writer. That’s a load of bollocks. You can have a family, keep fit, have a life and write. The things you need to look at cutting out of your life are the things that are actually very hard to give up.

I for one, watch far too much television.

I’m prepared to give that up to get my book done, but it has been harder than I thought. I used TV to wind down at the end of the day, to relax with my partner and to try and quiet my overactive brain. In the last month I have cut down my viewing to a few hours a week and I’m spending the time writing instead.

It’s working. I’m as happy with Downside as I’ve been with anything I’ve ever written and it’s chugging along slowly into something I think I can be proud of and all I had to do was give up blobbing out for ten to fifteen hours a week and write. I’m not saying I don’t watch anything (The Daily Show is still required viewing) but just by giving up the things I was watching out of habit I’m making more progress than I ever have before.

So the next time you think you have to sacrifice something big to be a writer, have a look at the small things you do first. Even freeing up two hours a week will give you a written book at the end of a year. Keep the big stuff in your life. Family, friends, things you love doing. All of these things will make you a better writer.

There is an interim measure though.

Instead of an outline, write a 2 – 5 page short story. It doesn’t have to be of any quality, just imagine you had to compress your entire book down to 5 pages (at the most) and go nuts.

I need to stress that this short story really doesn’t need to be good. Throw in plot points and pure descriptions. Describe your epic multi chapter final battle sequence as ‘a little scrap’ and your love scenes as ‘got it on’. The important thing is that you know where you’re going if you get stuck.

The main objection most people have to outlining is that they feel restricted by them, that somehow the outline interferes with the creative process. If you feel like this then you certainly don’t have to use an outline, or the short story method. However if you’re like me, and never finish anything, having a plan really does help.