I Can Get It All Done – Just Maybe Not Today

By Heather Blanton

If you feel like you’re writing life is about to go flying off the rails because you JUST CAN’T GET IT ALL DONE—maybe I can help.

The last year has been pretty hectic. I released two novellas and a novel. I guest blogged so many places I can’t remember them all. Like 90% of all authors, I do my own marketing, maintain my own blog, and I recently (finally) started a newsletter. I exercise four—sometimes five—days a week (because sitting is the new smoking and I don’t want my dream job to kill me). I read and listen regularly to podcasts from authors and marketing gurus. And somewhere in this crazy mix is a husband, two kids, a farm, and a Youth Sunday School class.

Allow me to share some time-saving tips I’ve picked up over the last couple of years that have kept me from pulling out my ever-thinning hair. Maybe you’ll find them helpful.

Outlining – probably the biggest improvement in my productivity. I discovered that if I sat down and actually tried to think a novel through, lo and behold, I wrote more. Faster. This from a formerly avowed pantser. No longer. I get a pretty tight outline/synopsis/storyboard going before I write the first sentence anymore.

Scrivener—let me just say, I have not been paid to endorse this wonderful, magical, brilliant, labor-saving software. However, they should pay me. I am a Scrivener evangelist. For the uninitiated, Scrivener is a word processing program that, among so many other capabilities, lets you write in scenes—even create 3x5 note cards of the scenes—and then move those scenes around simply by dragging your mouse. The ease with which I can organize and navigate through an entire novel leaves me breathless.

Evernote—Honestly, I’m just beginning to scratch the surface of what this nifty little free program does. It saves webpages, images, PDFs, audio recordings, and notes (typed or handwritten). I can write notes on images, which is awesome. I can even drop audio into the same file with the image or notes.

I tend to leave a gazillion tabs open in my browser because, you know, I might need that website in six months … if ever. Before Evernote, I kept a Word document entitled “Web Pages.” Brilliant, I know. Just a list through which I had to scan to find the desired web site. Evernote saves the URL as its own file and in various formats. Things are so much easier to find now. 

I can set reminders in Evernote, too. This is helpful when I want to schedule time to look at research or listen to a podcast.

Did I mention this app is free?

iPad—Because my iPad has Siri, I’ve started using it to dictate emails and responses to things on my social media sites while I simultaneously work on my laptop.

Help—literally, I got help. I have a dear, dear friend who works for peanuts (when I pay her) a few hours a week. She helps me with the newsletter, blog, giveaways, and a little social media. She is a godsend.

These aren’t earth-shattering, super-illuminating lifehacks, but they’ve created some extra time for me. Maybe they will spark some great time-saving ideas for your life.

Now get back to writing.

No. Seriously.

Get back to writing.

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A former journalist, Heather Blanton is an avid researcher and skillfully weaves truth in among fictional story lines. She loves exploring the American West, especially ghost towns and museums. She has walked parts of the Oregon Trail, ridden horses through the Rockies, climbed to the top of Independence Rock, and even held an outlaw's note in her hand. She is the independent bestselling author of several Christian Westerns, including the Romance in the Rockies series. She writes Westerns because she grew up on a steady diet of Bonanza, Gunsmoke, and John Wayne movies. Her most fond childhood memory is of sitting next to her father, munching on popcorn, and watching Lucas McCain unload that Winchester! Both men inspired her love of guns. Heather lives on a farm outside Chapel Hill with three boys, ages 13, 16, and 56, and too many animals to count. She can be reached several different ways:  Blog: http://ladiesindefiance.com/  SocialMedia: https://twitter.com/heatherfblanton   https://www.pinterest.com/heatherfblanton/

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How I Get to Know My Characters

By Jill Eileen Smith

Some writers are great at plotting a story. Me? Not so much. At least not when I first began to write. My sons on the other hand – they understood plot. I remember the day I was trying to write a novella, crying over the computer because I couldn’t figure out how to put it all together. My oldest said, “Come on, Mom. I’ll show you.” And he used the movie, “You’ve Got Mail” to help me. For this visual girl, watching the structure was far more help than reading a how-to book about story.

Plotting isn’t quite as daunting now, but over time I realized that I prefer to get to know my characters first. How can I tell what they are going to do in the story, if I don’t know them?

Starting a story with character development has become my favorite part of the craft. I love making what my friend Deborah Raney dubbed an “Idea Board”. I used to make them out of poster board and pictures of people from catalogs. But when I’m writing biblical fiction set in the Middle East with characters that aren’t my nationality, I’ve found the Internet a better place to search for Jewish, Arab, Persian, Egyptian, or African characters.

I don’t use poster board any longer, but I do copy and paste photos of models or actors from those countries and “cast” them onto a blank page or into Scrivener and assign them various roles. In Redeeming Grace, my main character Ruth was cast first, then Boaz and Naomi and lastly the side characters. I’ve found Scrivener a great place to write out their characteristics, their part in the story, and anything else that I initially imagine.

Those initial traits will change as I study the biblical and historical setting and culture, but the Idea Board gives me a visual to work from. As the movie, “You’ve Got Mail” gave me the visual for a romance plot, the pictures and prompts in Scrivener help me to look long at the photos and imagine. What were they thinking when this happened? How did they feel? Why did they make that choice?

As I imagine, I create paragraph summaries to interweave the plot and characters. Though I would identify myself as a partial seat-of-the-pants writer, I have to have an outline to work from. So first characters and the Idea Board, then the paragraph summary of the plot, which all comes after I’ve done at least some initial study of my subject. Then the first draft – my least favorite part begins. But this is where I solidify the “getting-to-know-you” phase with my characters. And in my experience the motives and emotions of the characters will only touch the reader if I do the hard work of trying to understand those characters, and perhaps understand myself a little bit better in the process.

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Jill Eileen Smith is the author of Desert Princess (ebook short) #1 Loves of King Solomon series, the Wives of the Patriarchs series, the upcoming Daughters of the Promised Land series, and the bestselling author of the Wives of King David series. When she isn't writing, she can often be found reading, biking, traveling, spending time with friends, or snugging her feline writing buddy Tiger. She especially enjoys spending time with her family.  To learn more about Jill or for more information about her books, visit her website at www.jilleileensmith.com. You can also contact Jill at jill@jilleileensmith.com. She loves hearing from her readers.

Lining the Story Up

By Stephanie Payne Hurt

Writers are special people in a lot of ways. We have stories and characters that run rampant inside our head. Every writer has a different style of getting the story out and ready to write. For me that means it’s time to complete an outline, well actually two. One is the story outline and the other is the character outline.

That’s when I sit down while the story is still fresh in my mind. Most of the stories come to me from start to finish, but others come in waves, sometimes I get the ending before the start, which can provide a real challenge. This is when I get started on the outline of the images in my mind.

Since I now use Scrivener to write my manuscripts I can put the outline in and expand it from there. Also, if a certain part of the story comes at me stronger, then I can work on that ahead of the other chapters. I’ve actually written the middle of a story before the first part. Amazingly, it worked out and I actually wrote faster that way.

My outline stays somewhere near me at all times on my computer, in Scrivener and printed. That way I can go back and check a scene five chapters back. Of course as any writer does, I struggle from time to time on a certain scene. It feels like I can’t get it exactly as it needs to be. That’s when I move ahead to a chapter that seems to work out better. I can always go back to the problem chapter later.

As my outline comes together I have another outline working too. The character outline is filled out as I go, that way the characters stay straight on paper, even if not my head. All writers know the horror of forgetting something significant about a character, then diving into the manuscript to find out the missing link. But with a character outline, well you have it at your fingertips. Everything from hair and eye color, to scars and how they came to be, down to birthdates and everything you’d need to know about this character. Sometimes I even add places into the character outline too. If it’s a place that will appear often in the book, then you need to keep your facts straight.

Now, don’t get me wrong, sometimes my outlines change slightly as the story progresses. A character may need tweaking and that’s possible too. The book I finished this week went along with the outline for about 12 chapters, but then something happened to change the course of the story. As I look back on the finished story now, I’m glad I made the change, but I couldn’t finish it without the original outline to keep me going.

If you have any questions about how I outline, please contact me. I’d be glad to help you out. I always say writers have to stick together!

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Stephanie Payne Hurt has been writing stories since she was a teenager, but only started publishing her work in 2012, 30 years later. The romance genre drew her in at an early age. Since 2012 she's published over 15 Romance novels/novellas. Stephanie is a busy lady. She's a Children's Minister, Accountant, wife and mother along with a blogger and writer, along with starting a publishing service called Horseshoe Publishing alongside her publisher. It's been an exciting ride and she looks forward to what the future holds for her writing. Currently she writes romance ranging from Christian, Contemporary, Suspense and Cowboy. Her work is available at many online retailers, on her website and in a bookstore in Zebulon, Georgia near her home. Come by and visit her at http://www.stephaniehurtauthor.com/ and subscribe to get updates and release dates, also her monthly newsletter!  Don't forget to join her Street Team for all the new updates and to get free chapters of upcoming books and lots of other prizes.

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/StephaniePayneHurt Twitter: @StephanieHurt4 Blog: stephanie-hurt.com

Your Allies in the Writing Life

By Kristy Cambron

“Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good."

– William Faulkner

In the modern world we live in, Mr. Faulkner’s words make sense. Focused writing time can become something of a rare commodity for writers. We often have to be as creative about the when of writing as we do the what.

As a traveling facilitator and instructional designer with a full-time career in corporate America, I spent years writing Christian fiction in the margins of life. When I became a mother of three, those middle of the night margins became almost non-existent. And when those "in front of the typewriter" moments started to vanish, I had to reset my expectations around Faulkner’s more “get it down” type of creative process.  I wasn’t willing to give up on my author dreams, so the method of writing was just going to have to mold to my corporate-soccer-mom lifestyle. It’s because of this that my iPhone became a trusted friend. It turns out that the elevator rides in downtown buildings, grocery store lines, and airport layovers that accompanied my schedule became unexpected allies in my writing career. I’d pick up my phone wherever I was and would use every spare minute to write.

The tools for on-the-go writers are as numerous as the apps are for just about anything. If you find yourself struggling with a case of writer’s block, the Brainstormer app claims to provide tactical inspiration for plot generation on the spot. The WordBook and Grammar Girl apps are robust enough to support even the most creative of writing ninjas. If the lure of social media distraction is your nemesis, Google Chrome has that figured out for you in their StayFocused extension, which can systematically block access to chosen sites when you’re up against a deadline.  Some might swear by Scrivener and Evernote– project management tools that can make the research-to-writing process virtually seamless by organizing notes, images and links for later use. (Basically, the Plotter's dream.) And for the self-professed Pantsers out there– we writers who prefer the more unscripted method of story creation– sometimes a cocktail napkin and a pen are all that’s needed to usher in some lyrical genius.

Faulkner’s is a no nonsense perspective on writing. Period. It’s not about the when or how. It’s all about the “just write” factor. Use the tools and the time you have in the right now, but don’t let a packed schedule intimidate you out of your goals.  

Ironing baskets will probably still be full and dishes may be in the sink tomorrow. You might have a business trip or project that squeezes in your schedule. But if writing is a dream, finding tools to get you there shouldn’t be daunting. Use the elevators and the grocery store lines to your advantage. Airport layovers should never disappoint again. Why? Because they’re your allies in this writing life.

Befriending them will take you far.

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Kristy Cambron is a mother of three by day and an iPhone novel writer by night. Her debut historical novel, The Butterfly and the Violin (Thomas Nelson, 2014), was named to Library Journal Reviews' Best Books of 2014, Family Fiction's Top Ten Novels of 2014, and received a nomination for the RT Reviewers' Choice Awards Best Inspirational Novel of 2014 and a nomination for the 2015 INSPY Awards for Best Debut Novel. Her second novel, A Sparrow in Terezin (Thomas Nelson, April 2015), was named Library Journal Reviews' Pick of the Month (Christian Fiction) for February 2015 and a Top Pick from RT Book Reviews for April 2015. Kristy is an Art/Design Manager at TheGROVEstory.com and holds a degree in Art History from Indiana University. She lives in Indiana with her husband and football-loving sons, where she can probably be bribed with a coconut mocha latte and a good Christian fiction read. You can connect with Kristy at: Facebook: Kristy Cambron | Twitter: @KCambronAuthor  | Instagram: kristycambron  Pinterest: KCambronAuthor | Web:  KristyCambron.com | TheGROVEstory.com