The subject of fears is one we see often enough on blogs. There are probably as many fears as there are articles and books written about them. Fears, whether real or imagined, present us with many obstacles when trying to reach our goals. For authors, these fears are often strong enough to keep us from ever starting that novel we’ve dreamed about writing.

I’ve come to the conclusion over the years that writers, and artists in general, are an insecure lot. Deep down inside, we all want approval, we all want to be liked, even if the most cavalier of us say we don’t care what other people think. Authors want their books read and they want to be told it was enjoyed, performers want the applause of the audience, painters want their gallery full of admiring patrons. And bloggers? They want to know they’re not talking to an empty room.

When it comes right down to it, creative people are very sensitive, even if some have learned to hide it well.

Writing is a very personal thing. Any artistic endeavor is an expression of ourselves. Something like that isn’t easy to share with the faceless masses of our audience, fans and critics. There are always the questions lurking in the back of our minds that cast shadows of doubt over all we do.

Will my book be liked? Am I good enough? Did I make any mistakes? Did I catch all the typos? Will this sell? Am I wasting my time?

The ironic part is, you won’t find any of the answers to these questions unless you take that leap and apply actions to manifest your ideas. Instead, you’ll end up talking yourself out of a good idea before you have a chance to get started.

When “What If” Becomes The Enemy

One exercise I frequently use when I encounter a block is the “what if” scenario. This is where I ask myself what if a character were put in a certain situation and then brainstorm what might happen. I realized this could easily work against you in real life if you’re not careful.

It started when Joel Friedlander wrote a post asking his audience for their questions about self-publishing. Over the course of the conversation, one woman mentioned a common fear among new authors was what if no one was interested in reading their book? What if it didn’t sell? All the time and money invested would be a waste, so why bother?

Why bother, indeed.

With a thought like that, why bother doing anything at all? If all of mankind thought that way and followed through on it, we’d still be living in very dark caves, cold and hungry.

I don’t mean to belittle this fear. I’ve had that thought too. Only now after having written it, the question of late has turned into “What will the critics say?” It’s one thing to have friends, family and trusted acquaintances read and review your novel, but it’s quite another to send it out to total strangers who do reviews for a living.

It’s the big fish in a little pond syndrome. But you know what? Eventually, you’re going to want to leave that pond. Maybe find yourself a river that eventually leads to the ocean. That’s life. There’s always something (or someone) bigger than you out there. You move, you grow, you adapt and then you get to start all over.

The concept of “arriving” is an illusion. The moment you feel you’ve arrived and stop moving is the day life is over.

For Love of the Story

Writing a novel is a risk. A big one for most of us. We’re stepping outside our comfort zones, hoping there are others out there who share our passion for the story or message we’re telling.

To do this for anything other than the love of telling the story is where the real folly lies. Writing to get rich doesn’t happen as much as you think. For every successful author out there on the bestseller lists, there’s a ton of rejection notices and scrapped story lines piled in the background. In addition to that, there are many long hours of work writing the first draft, rewriting it, designing the book and marketing.

Success isn’t instantaneous. It just looks that way.

Believe in your story. Love your story. Enjoy the telling of it. Anything short of that will show. Your audience isn’t stupid.

Technicalities

The story itself isn’t the root of your fears. Take a look at what’s really bothering you. You may find that most of the fears revolve around technicalities. When I meet people and we get to talking about writing, it seems their fears spring from the technical aspect of writing and self-publishing.  They’re worried about structure and the actual rules of writing. They worry about how they’ll get their book produced. They worry about how they’ll get their book distributed.

These technicalities are easily overcome. And by that I mean there’s a reasonable answer and not that the actual work will be easy. Worried about your story’s structure? Get a writing coach or story editor. Need a cover? Hire a designer. Want to do it yourself and don’t know how? Take a course or find the information on the web.

In our world now we have so much help available right at our fingertips. You don’t have to leave your house to find it if you don’t want to. What it all boils down to is taking your best shot and getting that first rough draft written. After that? Find the right people to help you put that final polish on it.

Have Faith In Yourself

You never know what you can do until you try. Life is one big assortment of risks. We take risks with everything every day in so many mundane and extraordinary ways. What have you got to lose by writing that first draft? Nothing. And the possible gains? Countless.

A while back David Farland wrote a post about Keeping Writers As Pets. The post was written not for the writers, but for everyone else around them, reminding them of the things writers need from family and friends to keep going.

That’s when I took a look at my cats. Actually, it was kind of unavoidable, since one of them had planted himself between me and the keyboard and was trying to commandeer the mouse with his paw.

Farland’s “pet” theme made me think some writers are a lot like felines. The stereotypical writers (and artists in general) sleep all day, work all night, and are frequently misunderstood.

(Oh, don’t get me wrong, there are Dog Folk artists out there too, but that’s another post in itself.)

Stereotypes aside, what do we as writers need if we’re going to nurture ourselves? It’s so easy to forget about caring for ourselves and keeping those creative juices flowing properly.

So, with that in mind, I asked Cougar and Lakota, and here’s what they said:

Space. Lots and lot of space. But not just any space. Comfortable space is key. Take a look around your current writing space. Is there a window? Is your chair comfortable? Is your desk uncluttered and set at the right height for you?

Levels. When you have two or more cats in a house, you need to have levels. Levels to a cat are like rooms for people. When they need to get away from one another, they can jump and perch and get a change of perspective.

Writers need levels too. When we’re stuck or feeling creatively sluggish, a new perspective or a change of scenery can grant us sudden inspiration.

Foodies. Cats are finicky  about what they eat. Unless you’re Lakota, who thinks he’s a dog and will scarf up just about anything. This is one area where many of us writers can be more like cats. Are you hooked on caffeine and sugar? Need that Frappaccinnomochalatto to get you through a writing session or else you’re just no good to anyone at all?

So many of us neglect eating properly and reach for the quick processed stuff because we’re too tired and it’s so much easier. We forget how important drinking water is for our brains and bodies and instead opt for soda or juice.

Try adding some fresh foods to your diet and drinking water instead of sugary beverages for a week. You’ll be amazed at how much better you feel, especially when it comes to being creative.

Play Time. Playtime is more than just fun and games for cats. Playtime is learning time. It’s also hunting (aka exercise) time. A cat without any playtime is a very bored and unhappy kitty. The same goes for writers. Our brains need new challenges and lots of stimulation.

A Clean Litter Box. Alright, maybe YOU don’t need a clean litter box, but a clean house, or at the very least, a clean desk, goes a long way to help your state of mind. Cats get stressed when their box isn’t cleaned to their exacting standards, and you can get stressed too if you’re trying to work in a pile of clutter (thought I was going to say something else, didn’t you?).

Sleep. Cats on average sleep 20 out of 24 hours in a day. I don’t advise you doing the same, but you do need a good night’s rest if your creativity is going to stay at its peak performance levels.

Socialization and Boundaries. It’s a myth that cats are loners. They need attention, but they take it on their terms. When they don’t want to be bothered, they’ll either give you a swat with a paw or get up and go someplace else.

On the flip-side, when they want attention, they let you know in no uncertain terms.

Keep yourself balanced with a bit of socializing. Get out every now and then and do something different. Also let those around you know when you need the quiet alone time (hopefully without having to leave any claw marks).

The Mental Scratching Post. Scratching posts aren’t for sharpening claws. The act of scratching stretches muscles and the helps relieve a cat’s stress if they’re annoyed with something. By the same token, you need your own mental version of a scratching post. What’s the best way to do that? Learn something new. Take a class, read a book…learn something and expand your horizons. You never know when you’ll need that for a new character.

Our pets can teach us a lot about ourselves and the way we live our lives. They may not speak English like we do, but they do have a language, and once you know how to speak it, you’ll be amazed at how much you’ll learn.

If you have a pet, what can they teach you about nurturing your inner writer? Tell us about it in the comments.

When you’re in your zone doing your real genius work, time flies by and there’s very little thinking involved. All the pieces fall right into place and you’re done before you know it.

That’s how the writing of Loyalties went. Every Friday we’d immerse ourselves in the story, hours would fly by and we’d be astounded at day’s end how much was done. One day we looked up and realized we were on the last chapter. Talk about a rush. It was like we were nearing the end of a huge marathon, the crowds were cheering, the confetti was falling like snow and that finish line just gleamed in the distance.

Uncivil Wars is a different story. No pun intended…oh, alright, maybe it was. We found ourselves stuck in the mud a lot.

But we know that this kind of effortlessness doesn’t come easy. Before we could get to that point, we put in a lot of ground work to get there. We also know that with budding authors such as yourselves, you’ll go through a lot of struggle and wonder when or if it will ever get easier.

It does get easier. You just have to know when you’re struggling to push through a sticking point, or when you need to stop struggling and take a few steps back.

Back Up and Restart

As writers, and creative people in general, we all know when our work is not at its best. Your instincts tell you immediately when you’re phoning it in and not giving your all. Or maybe you are giving your all—just not in the right direction. That’s when the struggle happens. That’s when things turn to mud and you get mired in one mental block after another.

Sometimes pushing through is the answer. You get frustrated and angry enough you force your way through and come up with an amazing piece of work. Like Arnold said in Terminator 3: “Anger is much more useful than despair.” You definitely know when you’re on to something and it’s just a matter of hitting the right combination.

You also know when you are so far off the mark nothing is going to work. What do you do when this happens? What if you’ve already got half a book written? It’s hard to let go, isn’t it?

There are times when you’ll have to. You’ll have to back track a little bit and figure out exactly where the project started going off the rails. You don’t have to totally scrap everything. Some parts may be salvageable.  But when you go back, look at everything with fresh eyes. Be your own critic and ask yourself if this is something you would want to read for yourself?

If The Answer Is No, Let It Go.

Whether you collaborate with another author or write solo, one of the hardest things to do is say when it’s not working. When you reach a point like this you have two choices. You can either keep struggling to get it right or let it go.

This is where letting go and starting over will work in your favor. The moment you decide to scrap part or all of what you’re doing, you’ll feel released. And when you feel that? You know you did the right thing. The creative fire will return and it will feel like opening a window on the first warm day of Spring.

In writing, and in life, we often hold on to ideas and habits that don’t work for us. We struggle and fight every step of the way to make it work because of the time we’ve already invested in it or because it’s safe and comfortable. But is that struggling really worth it? Sometimes, yes. Other times, not so much.

You really have to look inside yourself and ask which it is. Are you having a hard time because you’re on a learning curve, or do the issues stem from something that could be done better a different way?

Only you can answer that. So go ahead, start over if you need to. Get out of the mud! If the writing flows better than before, you know you’ve made the right decision.

Shortly after Bilbo finds the Elvish sword that turns blue in the presence of Orcs and Goblins, there’s a fight with Orcs at the entrance to the hidden valley. However, the sword doesn’t glow blue. In subsequent fights with Goblins and Orcs the sword does glow blue, even when sheathed. MovieMistakes.com

When we pick up a novel from our favorite author, or go see a blockbuster movie we expect perfection. And why not? These people are professionals. They have big budgets, they have the best editors money can buy. We don’t anticipate catching a mistake.

But, the pros are only human. And so are their editors. Every once in a while a typo or inconsistency in a scene slips through. We either laugh or cringe—and if it’s your project, chances are your reaction is the latter.

Wendi and I have had our share of gaffs in our writing, right along with the great novelists like Charles Dickens and movie makers like Peter Jackson. Embracing imperfection comes with the territory. Nothing is ever 100% error free.

I recently found this site listing the mistakes in all the big movies. This should put perfection into perspective.

Top 30 Movies With The Most Goofs

Enjoy!

Wendi and I don’t work like most collaborators do. We rarely write alone. We won’t assign whole chapters to each other and wait for one person to finish before the next person jumps in. Nope, we always write together, in real time. Even the conversations between characters are done on the spot between us. We do this by writing all our drafts in a Google Document and sharing it between us.

This is improvisation. We’re in character, reacting as our characters, and never knowing what each other’s character is going to say next.

What I find so refreshing about improv is the way it challenges creativity. Often, thinking of responses on the spot makes the story so much more fresh and exciting. The structural boundaries you set out for yourself with your plot and scenes gets your brain thinking around these self-imposed obstacles.

Improv Tips and Tricks:

• No Second Guessing. Forget about the perfect line or paragraph. Many writers spend far too much time sweating over perfection, constantly over thinking and dreading the thought of committing those words to paper. You know what? So what if the words don’t come out right the first time. That’s what “delete” is for. When you play with improv, the idea is don’t think. Just do. Go with that first response, see where it leads. If it doesn’t work when you read it later, go back and fix it.
• Flip That Script. Stuck? Try removing one element of your story and replace it with something else. Flip it around, turn it on its ear. Explore a new perspective.
• I Am Joe’s Big Toe. Want to really get into a character’s head? Try writing one in the first person. This worked out well for us in Uncivil Wars. We knew we wanted to do some background on Diego, so I started writing him in first person one day while I sat outside with a notebook at the coffee shop. I had never fleshed out his life before, and once I started writing whatever came to mind in his voice, the rest fell into place. It worked and we used it.
• No Is Not An Option. In acting, “no” is not allowed. Someone asks you a question, you have to say “Yes” and add something more to it. This keeps the improv session going. Say no, and where do you go with it? Nowhere. The same applies in improv writing. Don’t say no to any idea. Follow it, add to it and see where it goes.
• Raise the Stakes. Conflict stokes the fires of any story. Throw in a new curve and then throw in another. This is especially fun for Wendi and I since we never know how we’ll react to any given conversation between characters. In Loyalties, we interrupted a conversation with a particular phone call that changed the course of the story.

Have you ever tried creative writing improv? Any of these exercises are doable if you’re writing solo, but they’re so much more fun when you do them with someone else. Go ahead, grab a partner, open a G-doc and have at it. Start with a simple premise and take turns writing paragraphs. Then come back here and tell us how you did!

For a lot of people, the back cover blurb ends up being an afterthought. You (or your designer) is laying out the cover and suddenly you realize, damn, I need something to go on the back of this thing! So, you may rattle a blurb out off the top of your head just to fill that blank space.

Stop for a second. Take your hands off the keyboard and have a think. As much as the front of your cover is all about first impressions, so is the back. Think about it, what is the first thing you do after picking up a book whose cover snagged your attention?

You turn it over to see what the book’s about. Or you look on the inside flap if it’s a hardcover. The back cover blurb is your second chance to make an impression.

Writing a back cover blurb isn’t so different from writing a query letter to a publisher or agent. Enticement in as few words as possible is the name of the game, all the while not giving away the whole juicy story. It’s not easy and takes as much thought as the story you spent months/years writing.

The Main Player(s). Who’s in this story? Start off with the main character. Who is he/she? What is this character facing? Take for example our newest release, Uncivil Wars:

For the last six months, Diego Beauchamp had been the rock-solid pillar of support for the Morgan Foundation’s newest Pack. His strong leadership brought Regina and Harry through  the most difficult time of their lives and now, he had to do the same for Cole.

Bam. Tells you right off the bat who’s involved and what’s going on.

The Challenge. What kind of challenge is your character facing? Well, let’s see:

Their trip to Portland, Maine was supposed to be nothing more than routine and protocol. Diego had gone through it a few times before with other fledglings. Cole would go before the Council and present his case, and the Council would release him to the Foundation’s custody for further training. Case closed.

Okay, sounds simple enough. But wait, there’s more…

The Stakes. Every story has some stakes involved. Without them, there’s no conflict, and without conflict, you’ve got nothing. And so, we raise the stakes and give the reader an idea of what Diego and his Pack are in for:

But this time everything goes horribly wrong, jeopardizing the very core of the Pack and threatening to expose Diego’s painstakingly protected secrets and the past he has so carefully tried to forget.

Are you hooked yet? Do you want to know more? We certainly hope so.

Keep It Simple. Don’t list every single character, every plot twist, or become bogged down in the story’s full details. Little highlights and tastes are what’s needed.

Watch Out for the Editorials. Writing things like “a rollicking adventure that will keep you on the edge of your seat”, or other phrases that sound like they belong more in a book review than a story summary are best left alone, unless you have actual reviews to add. Other than that, leave the reviews for the reviewers. Let the readers discover how much fun your story is for themselves.

No Wimps Allowed. Watch the passive language, too. Strong, confident words generate excitement.

Have you got a back cover blurb you’re working on or already have on your book? Share it in the comments section and we’ll give you some feedback.

Our risks are the risks no one sees. These are risks of the heart, they’re laying our emotions and experiences out in the open for the whole world to see. These risks are the kind that go against the expectations of society. We take risks to evoke emotion, strong emotion, from our audience. Like publicity, there’s no such thing as good or bad emotion. A scene or a character can be totally reprehensible, absolutely lovable, tortured, pitied, admired, despised, sympathetic…and what it all comes down to is they pulled a specific response from your readers. If you’ve made your readers cry, laugh out loud, scream or shout, “How could you do that?”, then you’ve done your job.

Click here to view the embedded video.

How have you taken risks with writing? And if you haven’t yet, why not?

In this TED talk, author Amy Tan discusses where her inspiration and ideas come from. Her words give the phrase “write what you know” a much deeper meaning when you realize that all of our experiences on every level are what fuel our creative machines.

What is NaNo? Total insanity, that’s what. Every November, writers all over the world are challenged to write a 50,000 word novel and complete it by midnight on the last day of November. This contest helps writers jump start those sock drawer projects and gets them fired up to do the one thing every writer dreams of—finishing a novel.

That’s right, I said finishing. Deep down, it’s not about getting published, it’s about sticking to a goal and feeling that sense of accomplishment that comes when you realize you’ve finally reached the last word of the final chapter.

Wendi had one NaNo under her belt before we began working together, but since becoming partners, there hasn’t been time for anymore.  Between writing the Bonds of Blood & Spirit series and the many articles we write for our business, the whole year is one big NaNo. Without the support of our family, friends, clients and fans, writing would be a very lonely, discouraging  journey.

For Those About To Write, We Salute You

Writing a novel is exciting, daunting and rewarding. The thrill of reaching that final chapter and the sheer joy of holding that final manuscript in your hand never gets old. We’re all writers, but we’re also something more. Storytellers. You may know nothing about the grammatical technicalities, or what passive voice is, or any of the other number of complications that come with crafting the English language…but if you know how to tell a good story, you’ve already won half the battle.

After all, if we were perfect English majors, we’d put editors out of business.

Here are three bits of advice we have for you to start with:

1. Just Tell The Story. Many creative people get hung up on perfection, so much so, that our work never sees the light of day because we don’t want the world to see it until its PERFECT. Sorry, but perfection doesn’t exist. When you start writing, just tell the story. Let it spew from your brain onto the page in one big splat. The plan is to get that idea out of your head and onto the paper. Which leads to point number two…
2. A First Draft Does Not a Novel Make. Keep in mind NaNo is just the beginning. When you’re done, you’ll have a completed FIRST DRAFT, or close to a finished one. After that, beta readers and rewrites are the next step. You’ve gotten your story out of your head, now you have to look for those plotholes and clean up the loose ends. Trust me, you’ll have a lot of them.
3. Forget About The Numbers. Don’t get hung up on word count. The moment you do that, you’ll be forcing the story. Just write. Write as much as you can each day. True, this is a competition, but it’s a competition against yourself. It’s about follow through. It’s about finishing what you start. If you don’t reach the 50k at the end of the month, that’s alright. Keep going until it’s done.

For this month, Wendi and I will be offering all kinds of encouragement to keep you NaNo’ers going. Support is everything, whether you’re doing NaNo or whether you write all year round. Our group on Facebook, The Behind the Words Studio, is designed exactly for that purpose. This group is a mastermind of writers, just like you, in a small community who share their writing experiences and learn from one another. The group is private and allows us all the opportunity to express our trials, tribulations and triumphs with writing.

Come join us, won’t you? And good luck with NaNo!