How To Start Writing Your Book

Like most writers, you’re probably an avid reader. Maybe you have your own story percolating your brain right now! But how do you sit down and start writing that story? How do start a task as daunting as writing a book?

Jeff Goins, author of The Art of Work, says book writing is best accomplished in three phases: Getting Started, Doing the Work, and Finishing. I’ve added my own tips below within these three phases:

1.  Getting Started

Sounds simple, right? Wrong. This is often the toughest part. You’re probably wondering how you’ll transfer the vibrant story in your head to the blank page in front of you.

First, pick a genre, and decide what the story is about. Do you like crime? Memoir? Nonfiction? Historical fiction? Romance? What is your basic storyline?

Map out your characters. Characterization is one of the most important parts of writing, so don’t cheat this one. Roughly map out your characters, their traits and their transformations in your story. Even go as far as writing biographies for your characters. If you don’t truly understand them—and you created them—how will your audience understand them?

Start from the end. Endings can make or break your story. Decide how you want to tie up your story in the end, and then work from there. This way, you’ll be able to craft your plot with the end goal in mind and not end up with the dreaded Deus Ex Machina (unless you’re going for the M. Night Shyamalan thing).

2.  Doing the Work

Now, it’s time to get down to business.

First, we need to make an outline. I’ve always hated making outlines, probably since I first learned to write essays in elementary school. It’s a step I always want to skip, but I know I’m so much more productive when I have a map to follow later on. You don’t have to include every single detail of your book either! Make it easy on yourself, and type up an outline that works for you. I’d suggest including a brief overview of each chapter, the main struggle of your story, important character interactions and plenty of room for improvisation.

Set a total word count. And while you’re at it, decide how many words you plan on writing each day. Come up with a schedule, and stick to it!

Write, edit, rewrite. As Hemmingway said, “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” I wouldn’t go as far as saying there’s nothing to writing, but this should be the fun part! This is the part you love, after all.

Find some friends. Get feedback as early as possible, just so you know your work is making sense. You don’t want to have to go back and do a massive rewrite, do you? Feedback can be scary, but sometimes nothing propels you further in your craft like critique and validation.

3.  Finishing

It’s time for final edits. This is the nitpicky perfecting and polishing that will really make your book shine. It seems tedious, but is crucial to the process.

Commit to publishing. Please, please, please don’t go to all this trouble to let your manuscript sit in a drawer. I know it’s daunting to release your story to the world, but if you don’t, what’s the point?

Celebrate and start planning the next one. Take some time off if you need it, but start thinking about what you want to write next. Don’t let this project zap you of your creativity and keep you from future writing.

If you’re still struggling with creativity, inspiration and motivation, I highly suggest reading Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert. Liz, author of Eat, Pray, Love, is an incredible writer and knows a thing or two about writing books. The thing that sets apart Big Magic from other writing self-help books is her focus on living and enjoying a creative life. She taught me how to truly love my work and not fall into tortured artist persona that so many adapt. It’s a quick read, but I promise it will change your work, mind and life.

I’ll leave you with a Big Magic quote from Liz herself: “The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them.”

Go find your jewels, and write your story.

Maranda Wiggins Joins the J. Kenkade Publishing Family!

🎉🎉We welcome Ms. Maranda Wiggins of Hall Summit, Louisiana to the J. Kenkade Publishing Family!
-
We are excited to be publishing her upcoming book, a children’s novel of the divine love shared between a child and her best friend, her father, the police officer!
-
Maranda hopes that her book will show that not all police officers are bad or uncaring.
-
This book was inspired after three law enforcement officers lost their lives in the line of duty in Baton Rouge, LA. 
As a wife of a good and loving police officer, Maranda hopes to show the good side of the law.

Help us welcome her to the family!

www.jkenkade.com 
(501) 482-JKEN

Weekly Pointers: Commonly Confused Words

The English language is tricky; there’s no way around it. Sometimes when it comes to grammar and usage, there are a few rules rather than patterns to memorize. Today we’re tackling some commonly confused words.

Affect/Effect

Affect is a verb, whereas effect is a noun. You can affect change to bring about an effect.

Among/Between

Among typically expresses the collective relationship of several items, whereas between typically refers to the relationship between one thing and another or many other things. Alice found her phone among the clutter in the floor. Alice’s text message were between her and her friend, Grace.

Assure/Ensure/Insure

Assure means to confirm, usually with another person. Ensure is to make sure something is accomplished or completed. Insure means to protect from harm. Jenny assured the buyers that the newly purchased home was insured. She ensured this by giving them a thorough insurance policy.

Farther/Further

Farther refers to distance, while further refers to time. Do not go any farther until you’ve received further notice.

Historic/Historical

Historic refers to something that is monumental. Historical refers to something related to history. The speech given on Friday was a historic event. On Saturday, we put on our historical costumes for the play.

Its/It’s

Its is possessive. It’s is a contraction meaning “it is.” It’s about time we clean the house before its remodel.

Lay/Lie

Lay refers to putting down an object. Lie refers to reclining. He lays the magazine on the ground as he lies out to tan.

Lead/Led

Lead is present tense (pronounced LEED) or the element (pronounced LED). Led is the past tense verb form of lead.

The chemistry teacher leads the class as he discusses the element lead. Afterward, he led the class through their homework assignment.

Loose/Lose

Loose refers to the free state of something. Lose means to misplace something or to fail. The girl with the loose ponytail thought she would lose her basketball game.

Principle/Principal

Principle is a value or belief. Principal is either an adjective or a noun. As an adjective, it refers to something that is most important or comes first. As a noun, it is the person in charge of a school or organization. The school’s principal announced the principal reason for the new handbook rules. The rules adhere to the school’s values and principles.

That/Who

That refers to objects, and who refers to people. The boy who lost his homework found it had been turned into the bin that was on the green wall.

Then/Than

Then refers something that comes next, while than means a comparison. Then, I asked if peanut butter was better than jelly.

There/Their/They’re

There is a noun meaning a place. There is a possessive pronoun. They’re is a contraction meaning “they are.” They’re traveling to their grandma’s house over there.

Who’s/Whose

Who’s is a contraction meaning “who is.” Whose is a possessive form of who. Who’s going to the party later? Whose car are we taking?

Hopefully these few tips will be found helpful in your writing. If you need extra help on any other commonly confused words, see the link below!

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/usage/commonly-confused-words

Judge a Book By Its Cover: The Importance of Good Design

We’ve all been told not to judge a book by its cover. However, if you’re seeking to publish a book any time in the future, I want to urge you to throw that advice out the window. I cannot stress enough the importance of good book design.

Whether or not we like it, we do judge a book by its cover, the second we pick it up. So, let’s turn that around: If you want people to pick up your book and feel compelled to read it (and I’m assuming you do) they need to know in those first seconds of viewing the cover what to expect on the inside. Your cover design is your visual representation of all the work you put into the meat of your book, so don’t cheat it. Use it to its full potential.

If your cover is not an intriguing and accurate depiction of the writing underneath it, then you are throwing away book sales. Think of your book’s cover as clothes—I mean, they do call it a “book jacket.” You have a sense of style that reflects your personality, and you (hopefully) dress accordingly. You choose items that communicate to others who you are without you actually having to speak to them. Your book is the same way. Choose for it a style that reflects the tone and vibe of the words within.

You not only want a design that echoes the book itself, but also a design that is stylistically sound. This means the text must be easy to read both in person and online, and in a professional and appropriate font. Color theory also comes into play here. What do the colors used on the outside of your book say about the mood of your story? Do your graphics, images and illustrations look like an expert’s or an amateur’s work? Is everything working together in a meaningful way?

All in all, a poorly designed cover can be off-putting and can cheapen the actual work inside. When publishing a book, make sure you work with a designer to come up with a clear design that you love and that represents the quality of your story. No matter how strong the writing is, your cover is your sales pitch, if you will, to your audience. Make sure you really sell it!

Weekly Pointers: Parallel Structure

If you’re anything like me, you love a good list. But what happens when lists in our writing don’t quite match up? Most likely, you have an issue with parallel structure.

What Is It?

Parallel structure or parallelism is the matching of items in a written sequence to ensure they are structurally and grammatically sound. This means using the same tense and pattern of words to make sentences more precise. If one or multiple words or phrases do not match, it would be considered shifted construction or faulty parallelism.

Writers often get into trouble with parallelism when trying to diversify their words and phrases. Although variety is great in writing, keeping parallel structure within a sentence gives rhythm, emphasis, organization and clarity.

Take the sentence above. If we were to restructure this sentence with faulty parallelism it might say something like this:

Keeping parallel structure within a sentence gives rhythm, emphasis, organizes your sentence and clarity.

This is difficult for readers to follow because the items in the sequence do not structurally match. Our brains when reading are constantly trying to make sense of words and phrases. Sentences like this can be distracting and disrupt the flow of one’s reading.

Let’s try a few more examples:

Incorrect: Last summer, I traveled to California to go hiking, shop and visiting family.

Correct: Last summer, I traveled to California to hike, shop and visit family.

If you’re having trouble with parallel structure, try to find the list within your sentence. In this case it would be: hike, shop, visit family. If these words in your list don’t match up, ask yourself a few questions.

Are they past or present tense? Are they gerunds (-ing words) or infinitives (to + verb)? Do the nouns, pronouns and modifiers remain consistent throughout? Does it match the voice of the surrounding sentences?

Famous speakers such as Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. and Winston Churchill were absolute pros at using parallel structure to utilize the power of repetition and emphasize phrases.

Let’s look at a Churchill quote for our last example:

An incorrect version would read: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toiling, tears and sweating.”

Instead, Churchill correctly used parallel structure and said: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”

Always remember to edit for parallelism—it might make the difference in sounding like an amateur or professional writer.

Why It’s Time to Rewrite the Story of the “Starving Artist”

The story of the Starving Artist goes back hundreds of years. I imagine Florentine painters in the Renaissance, absorbed in their work as they subsist in a meager studio that doubles as a living space. I imagine 17th century German composers furiously scrawling down sheet music, not sure how they’ll pay for their next meal. I imagine British romantic poets living in shacks by the water, nearly freezing to death at times while they spend their days sipping tea and pondering words.

Part of me loves these stories. They are beautiful and romantic, and the idea of “art for art’s sake” is a noble one. There seems to be a notion that the more impoverished or unpopular an artist is, the better their work will be. That’s why we all try to listen to Indie music, right? But this story doesn’t translate well to our current society.

In the 21st century, those who are artistically inclined are encouraged to “get a real job,” and would be considered lazy by most if they chose to pursue their passion. But why do we still have this idea that artists will never make any money? Why do we believe they must settle for monotonous, uninspiring work in order to survive?

It's time for a rewrite of the Starving Artist story. People everywhere are pursuing creative careers, and yes, they are making money. These jobs aren’t traditional, but they are all around, with more being created every day. They may look like side gigs or part-time jobs or even remote positions—little things that Creatives can stack on top of each other. They may look like short-term or long-term projects rather than 9 to 5 jobs. They may have paychecks that vary in size with irregular paydays. But they’re getting paid nonetheless. It’s time to accept that you can pursue your trade and put food on the table. It’s time we start pushing for the Thriving Artist.

The "Thriving Artist" is everywhere you look, so pervasive that you could not go a single day without encountering their work. The "Thriving Artist" looks like bloggers and writers, graphic designers and painters, musicians and sound technicians, photographers and filmmakers. These careers are booming, and the "Thriving Artist" is able to do what they love and survive. They are able to find fulfillment and pay their bills. We need them to carry on, which is why the nay-sayers need to change their tune. We need to support them in their work.

Why? Because humans need art. It’s what separates us from other living things. It’s what gives our lives depth and meaning. It’s what future generations use to remember us. Art reflects humanity, and humanity, art. Without it there is no deeper thinking, no exploration of the human soul. Many have taken initiative and started building creative careers that never before existed, and you can join them as a creative professional. Here’s to believing in the power of the Thriving Artist.

---

Check out the links below for a more extensive look at creative careers:

https://www.theartcareerproject.com/careers/

https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2015/article/creative-careers.htm

New Release!! "The Girl Behind the Wall"

🎉🎉New Release!!

Purchase Your Copy of "The Girl Behind the Wall" authored by Elizabeth Barnes today!

This book retells the growing pains of a young woman. She has struggled psychologically from the sexual abuse of family members, pregnancy, mental abuse, and suicidal thoughts. ...
One after another, the devil has tried to keep the growth of Elizabeth hindered. But God said, "No more!

After choosing to turn to God and faith, she has now recovered her life from behind the wall of turmoil the devil created for her.
Help us Congratulate Elizabeth!

Journaling: A Writer’s Best Friend

What is Your Most Prized Possession?

What one material thing holds your heart over all others? What is the one item (not including people or pets) that you would save in the event of a fire?

For me, it’s a black Moleskin journal that I received a few years ago. Its edges are worn and dirty, and I’ve stuffed so much into it that it bulges in the center and is impossible to stand up on a bookshelf. Nevertheless, this is the item I want to keep with me forever and then pass on to family after I’m gone.

Why?

Because this is the first journal I’ve ever seriously filled out. I was gifted this journal on a bus in Iceland, the very first day of my semester abroad. It was a requirement to fill it with at least 30 entries, but I became obsessive about writing in it. As we traveled through Iceland and England, Scotland and Ireland, France and Belgium, I scribbled down the events of nearly every day for three months. My journal traveled eight countries by bus and plane, boat and train, taxi and bicycle, (and even horseback) as I filled its pages with memories.

Now, it’s been nearly three years since my great adventure, and the memories in my head have started to fade. It wasn’t until I was home that I became so grateful something inspired me to write everything down. My journal is full of precious stories, photos, ticket stubs, lists, maps, notes and even a few receipts, and I hope I’ll have it forever.

After this Journal...

I started carrying journals with me wherever I go. As a writer and a sentimental person, I love being able to jot down ideas, images and inspirations whenever I come upon them. And to all you writers, I challenge you to do the same. I fully believe that journaling can benefit you in almost every one of your life’s endeavors. Not only does it allow you to decompress after an experience and store memories, but it also allows you to remain in your creative writing mindset more often.

It is strange at first to get used to pausing to write down a few simple words. However, I promise later on in your writing and your life, these words will keep you going in this creative journey.

I promise, these small words are the big things. The things you thought seemed so miniscule or even petty. The things you never dreamed you would remember as important.

Look up. They are.

They are important, and they are grand, and they are beautiful. They are the little details of life that may go unnoticed by most. But not you anymore. You, who call yourself writers. You, with your sentimental glances that try to take in each individual pixel of what they call “the big picture.” You, with your black journal in hand, ready to write down anything you fear might slip away. You, with your outstretched arms looking to embrace this moment, this feeling, and live in it for a while.

Milestones

Most of the time we live our lives for milestones. Huge moments lined up one by one. A bucket list ruled by society, family, friends, religion. Check, check, check. The milestones remind me of those toys in waiting rooms, the ones with the little colorful plastic beads that you can slide down the metal wires. And you take one and move it down the curly line until it reaches the end. Then you grab the next one and the next until you’re all out of beads. But then they’re all smashed together, and there’s no more room to breathe. There’s no room for error. There’s no room for what you thought were small words.

The quiet mornings before anyone is awake when you sip tea and read a book, and a cat snores next to you. The hours spent talking in a dimly-lit coffeehouse. The poem written on a Tuesday night because you had to. The afternoons alone in a museum. The conversations in the car when you should go inside but don’t want to. The bubble baths and fluffy comforters and hotel cappuccinos. The rain droplets on a bus window and the cold wind that takes your breath and threatens to push you, to move you.

Let it.

Just Write

Let it pick you up and move your feet farther than the milestones and planned out futures and bucket lists. Hit the end of the wire, and go past it. Live in these moments. Wrap yourself in them. A dear friend of mine told me that once. Pick up that cozy blanket you love and wrap yourself in this feeling right here, right now. It’s not small, and neither are you, writers.

Take your black journal with you everywhere. For thoughts and ideas, for bits of conversation and quotes from books that give you chills, for little details like the kind blue-green eyes and the red lipstick. And write it all down—don’t forget a thing. Because these are the big things, my friends.

Look up.

You don’t want to miss them.

So, I Lost My Writing Voice…

Whenever I come back to writing after a long break, I feel as though I just sent the first text to a friend to whom I haven’t spoken in a while. I feel that reaching out with awkward timidity. How are things going? I’m still here. I still care about you.

    And it can be awkward to get back to writing and develop your voice again. We work so hard to find that voice in the first place.

    But we all tend to get busy and stop writing for ourselves at some point. Life gets in the way, and we cease to come to the little blank space we enjoy on a computer or in a journal. This space where we pour out our innermost musings sits empty for a while. We are the friend who drifts out of touch.

    Most of the time, when I stop writing, it’s because life has gotten too hectic, too demanding or too heavy, and you might be in the same boat. You might be dealing with grief or anxieties or life circumstances that threaten to shatter you. I often get frustrated with myself at this point because I can’t seem to put my words on paper in a meaningful way. I get angry that something I know I love to do is still this hard. I stop writing for a while not exactly because I don’t want to, but because I simply can’t make myself. Even if you are used to processing life through writing, blogging or journaling, there are times when it just won’t happen.

    In the past, I confided in a friend about the loss of my writing voice, and she shared these words with me:

“I think there are times to write about what has happened to us, and then I think there are times to allow what’s happening to us to just happen. No writing it down. No trying to make it eloquent. No forcibly documenting it for the world to comment on.”

    These words of a favorite writer of mine, Hannah Brencher, completely encapsulated this time in my life. I was tired of trying to make everything eloquent, to make it beautiful when it wasn’t. There are times when you need to pause, even from art, and learn how to take care of yourself. There are times when you need to learn how to take care of others who need you. There are times when you need to sit with the bad however uncomfortable it may be.

    I feel as though too often I try to make good come out of the bad, even though I don’t believe it has to be this way. Sometimes there isn’t a reason for everything, and sometimes it’s okay to feel hurt without immediately jumping up and recounting the lessons you learned from the experience. Sometimes, you just have to put your head down and keep trucking until it’s better. Sometimes, you can’t write through it because you just have to live it.

            But just know that you will get your writing voice back. It might be a little hoarse, but eventually it will pick up again. Like riding a bike, you won’t forget how to write, even if it needs a little refining to work out the kinks at first. Sooner or later, writing will continue to be what you need it to be—work, therapy, connection, art. Even the greatest artists have gone on hiatus a time or two. Know that it’s okay for you to do the same.

How to Avoid Wordiness in Your Manuscript

As writers, we all secretly love crafting long, winding sentences and epic descriptions for our readers. But do you ever reread your writing and struggle to understand your initial meaning? Or do you ever find yourself drowning in your words as you attempt to get through a sentence in one breath? If so, you might be suffering from wordiness.

The consistent use of this type of writing can be detrimental to your work and can irritate your audience. We all want the world to know that we know a lot of words and how to use them; however, the key to great writing is subtlety and selectiveness with those words. As Strunk and White said in Elements of Style: “Vigorous writing is concise.” And concise writing is a product of a mature writer and self-editor.

As soon as you finish your latest piece of writing, take a step back, let it breathe and then go in for a proofread with these things in mind:

 

1. Get rid of passive voice.

Instead of saying, “The dinner was eaten by Edna,” use an active verb and say, “Edna ate dinner.” Use strong verbs (not weak such as “was” and “is”), and always, always, always try to have the subject of the sentence doing the action.

 

2. Delete fillers.

Bloated language occurs when writers use unnecessary fillers—generic words that don’t mean anything, are not specific or don’t add to the overall meaning.

Wordy: “Due to the fact that the family moved, Anna dealt with culture shock as a result.”

Concise: “Because the family moved, Anna dealt with culture shock.”

3. Avoid Redundancy.

Now you’re looking for the “fluffy” stuff. These are words you could have said once, but stated again anyway. There is, however, a difference in emphasis and redundancy.

Wordy: “We came to the mutual agreement that we could no longer have an amicable and cordial relationship.

Concise: "We agreed that we could no longer have an amicable relationship."

 

4. Remove extra qualifiers.

Many. Really. Definitively. Actually. Extremely. Very.

These words can be removed from almost every sentence they are used. While adverbs and adjectives can be great for descriptions, these types of qualifiers are vague and don’t enhance the meaning. They can often be replaced by a single, more poignant noun.

Wordy: “Jeff is extremely sad.”

Concise: “Jeff is devastated.”

Writing and more importantly, editing like a concise writer will give your writing a variety of sentences and vocabulary that wasn’t there before. Ernest Hemingway was famous for his to-the-point style that he picked up working as a journalist. Hemingway believed that cutting unnecessary words allowed the reader’s imagination to provide the rest and be fully immersed in the story. You aren’t writing for word count, but for content. So, write vigorously, edit concisely and choose those words wisely.