Sprinting to Write

In the novel writing world, SPRINTING is writing as fast as you can in a set amount of time to see how many words you can write. 

Usually, you are sprinting with another writer. It's a contest, but not really. When we sprint, we always congratulate the other person on their accomplishments. I first learned about sprinting through NaNoWriMo, but I found a group on Facebook that I joined, which I prefer over Twitter. 

Now, of course, you COULD write utter nonsense. 

However, if you think about or brainstorm what you want to write ahead of time, sprinting can be the best way to allow your brain to just take off running with that topic. You'd be surprised what your brain will come up with in such a short amount of time. 


Last Saturday, in 1 1/2 hours or 3 sprints, I wrote 1800 words. If I did this every day, I would write about 10 books a year! 

That's a bit unrealistic, considering I don't write every day.

However, if you sprinted once a week for 1 1/2 hours and averaged 1800 words each time, you'd write a novel a year. That's not bad for an hour and a half of writing every week!

What Strategies Do You Use When You Get Stuck As a Writer?

As a teacher of writing, I get this all the time from my students. It's difficult to get unstuck, but sometimes, especially when you're writing a novel, you have to let your ideas bounce around in your brain and run into other ideas and thoughts until your characters work out their struggles for you. Or you could just go with the flow of your writing, and not resist what the characters want to do.

For instance, one scene I just finished tonight, I had actually envisioned when I first tried to write the chapter, but I edited it from my mind and tried to come up with something different. I wasn't listening to what my character had to do, what he was driven to do. Maybe I just didn't want him to fail. But I knew he had to fail to put everyone in more peril than they were previously. 

There are some strategies that I use to get myself unstuck. Here they are:

1. Read another book. Get completely immersed in another world, the language of the author, the flow of ideas. Now look to see how many other books that author has written. Have they written more than you? Then, start writing again, so people will get immersed in the worlds you create and your language.
2. Brainstorm in a journal. I think about the place, the senses, and what I envision happening in that place with a certain character or characters. Sometimes the act of writing in ink in a book, another medium, can get your mind working differently, less editorially, more creatively.
3. Freewrite. I did this a bunch of times with this chapter. It really helped me because I was so stuck, I didn't even have anything envisioned in some places. So, I typed as fast as I could for five or ten minutes. If you're a NaNoWriMo writer, this would be referred to as a "writing sprint."
4. Go to a movie based on a book you've read. Similar to getting immersed in a book, but seeing someone else's interpretation of the author's words may get your mind thinking more like a director. You see the big picture or you see details brought to life in a different way to convey the same idea, emotion or scene. I recently saw Divergent by Virginia Roth.
   
5. Take a shower. My best ideas come to me in the shower. I actually read an article on the Internet about why taking a shower or driving seems to open up creativity. Both are kind of routine activities, which puts your mind into an Alpha state.(I've read a lot about brain activity because of my main character, Cassie, and her mind-reading abilities.)  Alpha brainwaves are more relaxed and open to think about ideas without censorship. Theta brainwaves lead to drowsiness and possible extrasensory perception. 

HOW I MADE MY NEW BOOK TRAILER FOR DREAMING DANGEROUSLY

Because the book trailer was outdated, I decided to redo my book trailer for DREAMING DANGEROUSLY. I used my MacBook, so I could use iMovie. I've found the program to be much easier to use than Windows Movie Maker. If you are interested in the book, just click on the book title link above.

1) I made all of my pics 1024x768 using pixlr editor, a free site for creating images. Most of my pics were from either those I bought from Shutterstock.com or free images from other parts of the internet.

2) I uploaded all of those pics into iPhoto.

3) Next, I put all of the iPhoto pics in iMovie. I arranged those like a story board. 

4) I wrote a script in Word because I knew I wanted to narrate instead of using text only.

5) On Garage Band, I recorded my voice using an echo effect, so it sounds like the voiceover is coming from Cassie's mind. I saved the file, and it appeared in iTunes.

6) Then, I imported my voiceover from iTunes into iMovie. Next, I made all of my clips the correct length for the narration. This took a lot of time because you have to do each one individually.

7) Next I looked for royalty free music, and found it at incompetech.com. The cool thing about getting music here is that you can search by type of music as well as by emotional impact. I chose "The Complex" by Kevin MacLeod in the Soundtrack genre.

8) I just adjusted the ducking so that the music didn't drown out my voiceover, and then I saved and uploaded to iTunes at Dreaming Dangerously book trailer 1080p

9) I also uploaded it to my Amazon Author's Page for DREAMING DANGEROUSLY.

 I love how it turned out. It's amazing how much I've learned about video making since the last time I made a book trailer. It took me a total of 8 hours, at the most. 

I taught myself how to use pixlr editor from watching Youtube videos a few months ago. That's how I was able to redo my book covers. I just didn't like the thought of having to pay someone $300 for a pre-made book cover. I didn't like any of the covers I saw, so I started playing around with making my own. I became proficient at iMovie when I helped my daughter with her History Alive project last year about how the Beatles impacted American history.

If this post was helpful, please leave a comment. If you are interested in knowing when my next book will be out, subscribe on the right side of my blog. I only send out newsletters when I have something to release, so I won't spam your email every day, I promise.

Also, I have a Facebook page called Dreaming Dangerously: Children of the Psi Series, go there and show your love by liking the page!

Look at the Difference 3 Years Makes!

Just received the proof for my 3rd edition of DREAMING DANGEROUSLY.  I won't be updating the paper back book anymore,  but as I publish new books, I will link them in my eBook version. I wanted to recreate the cover because the book just wasn't selling well, even though it had wonderful reviews. I think the new cover captures the theme and genre of the book so much better.

NEW BOOK COVER for DREAMING DANGEROUSLY!

I just spent this evening redesigning my book cover for Create Space, so that my eBooks and my paperback books have the same "look." It's so much easier to design an eBook cover because all you have to worry about is the front cover, and you don't have to worry about edges nearly as much. I had to rearrange my name, move over my title, etc. I also came up with a more succinct back cover blurb. 

Whoops, I just remembered that my inner book pictures will have to be changed to reflect the new covers! AAAGH! That will be my next project!

New Cover Reveal Friday

I am so excited to be revealing the new covers for the Children of the Psi series! 

In order to have covers that reflect more of the theme and genre of the books, I decided to redesign them. I bought images from Shutterstock.com. It took me hours to search for just the right images for Cassie and Will. Then, I learned how to use Pixlr Editor, which is a free program you can use on-line to edit images. I've learned how to layer images, add text, etc. 

Youtube has been my source for learning how to use Pixlr Editor. If you have some graphic art ability and cannot spend money on professional covers, this program is a wonderful resource. I can even control the number of pixels, which I couldn't do on Microsoft Publisher. I did finally end up using Microsoft Publisher for all the text because I know the program better. Then, to add any additional effects, I used Pixlr Express. Because I have many more books I want to upload this year, I wanted to keep my costs low, and the images are really not that expensive. 

By the way, I have to give props to Susan Kaye Quinn, whose book the Indie Author Survival Guide, has been an incredible resource. 

Thanks, Susan! 


 Here's a link to her book on Amazon.com:

Update on Book 3 of Children of the Psi series

So excited! Almost finished with first half of book! 

My advice to anyone who writes. Don't wait for the muse to strike in order to write. Just write, even if it's horrible. Even if it's only 500 words at a time. I've been averaging 500 words a night after being a teacher all day, a mother all afternoon and most of the evening. If I can do it, so can you!

Pinterest for Dreaming Dangerously

I've created a new Pinterest for DREAMING DANGEROUSLY.


You can view it here:

Children of the Psi Series: Dreaming Dangerously Pinterest

NaNoWrimo Winner!

I just finished my Na No Wri Mo, 50,000 word challenge for Book 3, When Dreams Will Come! Yeah!!

Amazon YA Book Marketing Experiment #1

Through Hoot Suite, I hand scheduled tweets for every half-hour starting at 9am until midnight later today. Weekend sales are supposed to be better on Amazon. We shall see. Anyway, my starting number for this month on KDP sales is 11 of DREAMING DANGEROUSLY. I want to see if the number goes up just from tweets alone.

I will report back on here tomorrow after midnight as to whether or not my experiment worked. Who knows? I might just annoy the hell out of people instead. We shall see.

Exciting News!

If you live in the Port Richey Area:

I will be at the Booksamillion on July 14th from NOON-3PM 

for my first Book store book signing!

Dreaming Dangerously WILL BE available.

All paperback books are now available on line at 

my eStore for $10.95:

• Dreaming Dangerously
• Darkness Descends

Winners of the eBook contest are in. I have sent the winners emails asking which book they'd like to receive for a total of nine eBooks given away.

Congratulations winners!

Other exciting news:

I'm on a blog tour at Enchanting Book Tours. 

Here's the link: Dreaming Dangerously Blog Tour

For participating in the tour, you can win:

• One Dreaming Dangerously t-shirt
• one signed copy of  Dreaming Dangerously paperback

• and one signed copy of Darkness Descends paperback!

Total value of contest  $50.00 worth of prizes!

My First Interview!

Win a free copy of DREAMING DANGEROUSLY by entering the contest at Young Adult Book Haven!

I've been interviewed by Kristin the webmaster of Young Adult Book Haven. Check out the ten questions she asked me to get some insight into how I wrote Dreaming Dangerously. Then, enter to win!

Young Adult Book Haven Review

Is your Indie Book Ready for Publication?

It seems like no matter what part of the writing process in which I find myself, I am always dealing with new ideas. Currently, while revising Darkness Descends, my second book, I continually devise new ideas and refine the old ones. That's what revision is all about, I realize. However, sometimes, I have to just shut off the noise and get the book finished.


So,if you are an indie author, like me, how do you know when your book is ready to publish?


Here's six ways to know you're book is ready:


1. You've read it and read it and read it again, and nothing makes you cringe (unless you're going for that effect).


2. You've cut/refined until your story sings on EVERY page.


3. All of your scenes make logical, cohesive sense within the realm of your world that you've created.


4. Every scene has tension, with maybe a bit of release, but not too much.


5. You've tortured your main characters enough, and you're ready to allow your readers to live vicariously through their adventures.


6. You listen to a friend who's read the book and given you specific feedback on what is good and what is crap. Eliminate the crap.


Crap can defined here as: anything that does not move the story along.


Since my book is still bothering me, i.e., making me cringe in places, I still have not completed my latest revision. The cast of this book has grown much bigger, and thus more complex. I don't want it to fall into melodramatic, after school special. (I write Young Adult fiction.)


However, it is almost there. It's the last 1/3 of the book that I need to refine. So close.

Pandemonium

Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book did not disappoint. Well-written and well-plotted. Lena changed so much in this book and really grew as a character. I really did not want her to open her heart to another person, but Lauren Oliver did a good job with showing how a person could actually be grieving someone and falling in love with someone else at the same time, blurring the lines between who that person really loves.



The ending chilled me, but I kind of predicted this would happen. The only thing that I didn't really get was Lena's mom. That part went by a little to fast, and I didn't really feel like Lena thought about that as much as she should have. Maybe another paragraph or so, not pages. But I do like Lauren's tighter writing in this book. It moves quickly and is full of action. Sometimes that's a trade-off.



Usually book 2 is just a means to get to book 3, throwing in more complications, which ultimately don't really mean a whole lot. But this book shows Lena's growth and strength of character. At first, I didn't like the switching back and forth of Now and Then, but once I got used to the book's structure, I loved that Oliver chose to tell the story this way. One thing I did miss was her quotes from the Book of Shhh with every chapter, but maybe that's because Lena isn't really reading it anymore.



I can't wait to see what Oliver has in store for us for book 3.



If you haven't read the Delirium series, you should!!! It's one of the best series I've read, right up there for me with Shiver, Hunger Games and Twilight.



View all my reviews

Learning How to Use Social Media

I am learning very quickly that social media is the direct pipeline to my audience. Without it, no one knows I've written a book or what that book is about. Before I published my novel, I started blogging, but never had many followers because, quite honestly, I didn't know a blogosphere from a black hole. Seriously.

Dreaming Dangerously would not have sold as many copies as it has WITHOUT social media. Most of my audience and buyers of my book are on the Internet.

There are so many ways to connect to your audience, but the most important way, is one reader at a time. Make that personal connection. Talk to people who follow you on Twitter, comment on Facebook or message you on Goodreads. Let each person know you care about his or her opinion and what they want from a writer, even if you don't happen to agree with the person. Give away a free eBook or two. That personal touch goes a long way. You are not just looking for people to buy ONE book. You are looking to build a relationship with your audience.

I'm currently learning how to use Twitter effectively. It's all a learning curve, but check out the Indie Book Collective at:
for some wonderful tips.

Dreaming Dangerously broke 200 in book sales!

I'm so happy to announce that so far, I've sold over 200 copies of Dreaming Dangerously. This is with no real advertising budget and mostly word of mouth. Of course I am looking for more ways to expand, but I'm also writing Darkness Descends, which I hope to have out before this summer! Will is dying to tell his story!

The Midnight Rose, a short story I wrote

I haven't posted in a long time because I really didn't have a lot to post and I'm trying really hard to meet my own deadline for book 2. I want to finish the revision and final edits by the beginning of April. This is so I can work really hard on launching it in late May. Anyway, in the meantime, here's a link to a story I wrote for Halloween.

Enjoy: 

The Midnight Rose

Title of Book Two Release

After writing an extremely emotional scene from the second book of the Children of the Psi series, I have decided to release the name of the book. This is the name of the sequel to Dreaming Dangerously. Tell me what you think. Comment below.

Darkness Descends

A Scene Per Day and Sexy Science

I'm doing really well with this goal of writing or revising ONE SCENE per day. Tonight was an especially difficult scene, because I had to include technical information. It had to seem organic, and my character's quest for answers had to sound like they were coming from a seventeen year old guy! I may have to revise that one again because it is a brand new scene that I've never written before. He had to do research about the Human Cognome Project, which is similar to the Human Genome Project, except that the former, HCP, is about mapping human-thought processes and where they are generated from in the brain. Really cool, but highly scientific. I've been reading a great deal about it lately as research for the Children of the Psi series.

By the way, Psi, has several meanings, and some wonderful connectivity between those meanings and how it relates to this series. For those of you who have studied the Greek alphabet, psi Ψψ, is the 23rd letter. Psi is commonly used in physics for representing a wavefunction in quantum mechanics (Wikipedia). Now, I happen to believe that psi abilities are possible because of quantum physics, as do many other people. The psi symbol is often used in psychology and especially parapsychology, in particular, the use of extrasensory perception or ESP, which would include mind-reading, clairvoyance, premonitions, telekinesis and other mind over matter kinds of phenomena. In biochemistry, psi represents a kind of RNA substance (which is genetics). It's even the name of a superhero (I just found this out) in the comic, Monochrome, Psi is a mentally disturbed character.

When I originally named the series, The Children of the Psi, I only knew two of the above items, that psi is a letter in the Greek alphabet and that psi was connected to ESP. That's it. But tonight's research kind of freaks me out because it almost seems like I knew all the other stuff BEFORE I knew all the other stuff. Yeah, like some kind of unconscious premonition, if that's possible. Okay, enough of the psi talk for tonight.

By the way, I think science is sexy. Anyone want a little fiction with their science?

Procrastination and Writer's Block

Like every writer, I get writer's block quite often. But sometimes, it's not really a block, but more of a procrastination. Unfortunately, one of the ways I have been procrastinating lately has been building this blog, making comments on other blogs and posting on Facebook. I know this is important to connect with my readers, since I can't do this in the book store; however, I need to be writing my second book, too.

During NaNoWrMo, I found out that I could actually write three scenes in a single night, if I focused. Well, I don't really want to write three scenes a night, but ONE scene should be my new goal. ONE scene each day. That's how I wrote my first book, and the first drafts of my second book. So, now that I'm revising my second book, this will be my new daily writing goal. If I write more, great, if I write less - well, I need to remember what my readers want, which is the second book and SOON!

So, writers out there - here's a bit of advice:

1. read your last scene
2. decide what you want your characters to accomplish in your next scene
3. then write it!

When I am seriously facing a writer's block, I go to my journal and brainstorm my ideas about the scenery: like where the characters are, what it looks like, who else is there, and other sensory details as well. This gives me a starting point and I write from there, either in long hand or on the computer.

I make lots of lists. Lists of character actions, lists of places, lists of characters. The key to this list making is to use it as a jump start to writing. Don't just end with the list or make another list (unless you need to) - write a couple of paragraphs. Another way to break writer's block is to listen to music and write down some words that stick out in your mind. Then, try to weave some of  those words into your writing.

In fact, I write with headphones and music in my ear to block out the rest of the world. It helps me get beyond the lists and the first few lines of text that I've typed and into the zone where I can see and hear my characters interacting, just like a movie in my head. Once I'm into the zone, I can keep writing until I finish the scene.

Now, I need to stop procrastinating and actually revise my next scene!