FREE Writing Tips – Page 11 – Write for a Reason

Seven Reasons You Need a Plan

Starting to write a novel without some kind of outline can be a mistake.

I’ll be honest – I’m not naturally a planner. I love to leap right into things and make a start!

However, I have learned from experience that taking the time to write a story plan gives me a huge advantage when it comes to actually writing the novel.

Many years ago I started writing a sequel to my first novel, London’s Gone, but I began writing with nothing but some good ideas. Result? I lost the plot, started again, then lost the plot again. And that book is still sitting in a Word document, unfinished. (One day I’ll get it out, dust it off, make a plan, and start again… please remind me!)

Making things up as you go along sounds like it’s freeing; being able to take the characters wherever they want to go is part of the creative process, surely?… well, actually they’re more likely to get lost along the way. It would be like a worship leader turning up to church on Sunday without a song list!

Here are some of the reasons I now always begin a new story with a plan, and suggest you do, too: (if you have any further thoughts, please add them in the comments!):

Pace. If you know exactly where you’re going, you won’t be wandering around with unnecessary scenes which detract from the plot and slow it down.
Tension. If you have carefully plotted your conflicts, you will build tension. So your reader will need to read on, to see what happens next!
The beginning. Have you heard the expression “begin with the end in mind”? If you know what’s going to be happening at the end of your story, you will know what you need at the beginning.
The end. So you need to plan the end!
Rounded characters. Knowing your characters well in advance of writing will help them seem real to you – and thus you can make them real for your readers.
Theme. If you have a story plan, you can keep your theme running like a golden thread all the way through. As we are writing for a reason, our theme is important, whether it’s God’s love, the power of prayer, the importance of community, justice and forgiveness…
Confidence. Having a complete story plan helps avoid overwhelm when you sit down to write. And that’s so important to getting your story not just started, but finished!

I never write, now, without having an outline. Sometimes I change things – add a spy, a twist, a scene. But the bones are there. And I suggest you do the same thing.

In the Write for a Reason Academy we work, step-by-step, week by week, on a story plan. It’s a new element of the course I introduced last year, as I realised that students were finishing the course not always sure of the next step. Now, at the end of the ten weeks, not only will you have built on your writing skills, but you will have a complete story plan ready to write. Or if you don’t like the one you’ve been working on, you can dump it and start again – but you’ll know what to do. You’ll know what you need to include, what you need to leave out, and you will know exactly where you’re going with it.

Let me know what you think! We have a Facebook group for anyone determined to get their story finished. Let me know if you’d like to join and I’ll let you in – we will be discussing this topic over there! 🙂

Every blessing to you all,

Janet

P.S. If you’re not interested in joining the Write for a Reason Academy, skip this. If you think you might be interested, here’s a little bit of information:

The next course will begin on Monday 6^th July. Registration is open now. It’s a ten week online course you can access from anywhere in the world. If you are new to writing Christian fiction for children, I designed this course for you, so you can become the novelist you dream of being and inspire children with your stories. If you know you have been given a gift, but understand you need to put that gift to work, this is for you.

Because of the difficulties we are currently facing with the global pandemic, I have made the course half price. This will probably be the last time I will do that, as lockdown begins to ease.

For further information, please click here, or don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any particular questions. 🙂

Share this:

Your View of Covid-19

Good morning! Looks like it’s going to be a sunny day today, hurray! (Sorry, we English really do have a thing about the weather. :-))

I was going to talk about story plans today, because registration for the Write for a Reason Academy is open, and as part of the course, you will be writing your own story plan. But this morning I decided to encourage you to write about the recent crisis instead, before the moment passes.

If you haven’t already been keeping a diary, why not spend an hour writing about everything that’s happened since we first heard about Covid-19, and how it has affected you?

What were your first reactions? What were your second, as the crisis began to bite? What scared you? Do you know people who caught the virus? How did that make you feel?

What were the worst things about lockdown, for you? What did you miss most?

How, if at all, have your relationships changed with God, your family, your friends, your church family, your neighbours?

What good has come out of it for you? What have your learned?

Writing down all these things could be a useful cathartic exercise, to help get it all out of your head and on to paper. It could also be useful material for future stories. It could also be fascinating reading material for future generations! Plus, of course, any writing is excellent practice.

It doesn’t have to be neat. You don’t need to edit it if you don’t want to. Just sit down and write, and let your thoughts take over your pen/fingers on the keyboard. You need to be raw, and real. I suggest a real pen and journal for that reason – it allows the creative side of your brain to take over.

For me, the first time I went to the supermarket and had to queue to get in was a shocking moment. Then hearing that my son’s fiancé was going to be working on a specially set up Covid-19 ward brought dread to my heart – she was going to be close up to the disease for hours at a time, with limited protective equipment. (She has stayed well, praise the Lord!) And there’s so much more I could say about how we set up our Bible study group, managed to keep working, the daily exercise routine, the lack of planes, our church days of prayer…

So let me leave that with you. And maybe next week I’ll talk about story plans!

Stay safe (whatever anyone else does around you), and may God bless you.

Janet

P.S. More about the Write for a Reason Academy here, as we start again soon, for the last time at half price. I’d love to help you with your stories. I probably should have told you more about it this week, but if you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact me. And if you know anyone else who might be interested, please do pass the info on to them. Thank you!

Share this:

How to Get Your Story Written Faster

Writing stories is fun! But this can happen:

You have a great idea and some fun characters

You start writing with lots of enthusiasm!

Part of the way through you realise you are starting to ramble

Then you’re not sure how it’s all going to end

And there are bits you’re not happy with

So you try to change them

Then it all gets a bit overwhelming

And you get stuck.

But you have another great idea for a story with some fun characters

So you start a new story…

Noooooooo!

It’s a bit like throwing ingredients together, hoping the end result will be good.

If you are nodding your head at this point, what you need for your next story is an excellent, helpful STORY PLAN. You know what they say: failing to plan is planning to fail!

Strangely, new writers sometimes think that a good writer will be able to sit down and just write. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Having a carefully thought out story plan on paper (or in a document!) will:

Help prevent you from getting stuck part of the way through your story
Help keep your writing tight (no waffling!)
Get you to the end.

And that will save you a lot of time, not to say headaches.

Here are some elements it’s useful to plan in advance:

Characters – goodies and baddies
Narrative voice – whose perspective will you be writing from?
Setting – having a map/plan on paper will help with descriptions
Plot – beginning, middle and end
Theme – make sure your reason for writing is clear

Plus it’s really useful to know exactly who you are writing for!

The better you plan, the easier that first draft will be to write.

If you’d like some help with your story plan, do take a look at the Write for a Reason Academy (registration is open for a few more days, and is half price at the moment). As we go through the ten modules, you will gradually build up your own story plan. You could have your novel written by Christmas! 🙂 You can read more here.

Hope to see you there so I can help you make your stories the very best they can be!

Blessings to you all,

Janet

P.S. Due to the unprecedented times, the Academy is half price right now. Click here for more info.

Share this:

Picture Writing Prompts

This week, something completely different!

Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to write about one of these pictures every day for the next seven days.

Feel free to write anything you like. Literally, anything.

This exercise is great for practice, but most of all its fun!

So here are the pictures:

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

Day Four

Day Five

Day Six

Day Seven

Have fun, and I’ll see you next week!

Janet

Share this:

Christian Content in Novels

Hello and welcome to the Write for a Reason blog!

We have a closed Facebook group, for writers who are determined to write their books (let me know if you’d like to join us – we’d love to have you in the group!). I recently asked if there are any subjects members would like us to cover in Facebook Live sessions, and one of our members wrote:

“I was thinking a video on writing books that are not only readable by believers or Christian children. I think some of your stories do that and it’s something I really feel more passionate about and I don’t know of enough writers who do that. How do you write books that the Christian market will accept and that isn’t too confusing for the ‘uninitiated’? I have thoughts on this based on my experiences in non-church schools and having grown up in that system too, but it would be good to hear your thoughts.”

This is a great question – thanks Ijeoma!

One of our modules in the Write for a Reason course is Theme. We look at the difference between subject, theme and message, and how they intertwine. At the end of the week, students decide on where they are going with these elements of their story.

But for those of you who are not yet doing the course, I’d like to offer a few quick thoughts:

All authors have a worldview, and write from that worldview. Secular writers will write from a secular viewpoint. As Christians we will write from a Christian worldview, because we believe in Jesus! There’s nothing wrong with that!
If we have a strong opinion about something, it may naturally find itself in our stories. For example, if we are concerned about ‘green’ issues, that may well spill over into the story. If we long for children to find Jesus, this will spill over, too.

But how Christian should you make your story, if you are a Christian?

Honestly, this is entirely up to you. To help you decide, I would suggest that you:

Write with one child in mind. Who would you most like to write a story for? How Christian would you make your story, for this child?
Pray. You are going to need some wisdom!
Be true to yourself. You could write a gentle allegory, or a full-blown story where one of your characters becomes a Christian.You need to be yourself. You need to do you. You need to write what you feel you have been given.

Consider C.S.Lewis’ Narnia stories! They are full of fun, adventure, hope… and point to Jesus, but in a subtle way. Other stories are more overtly Christian, like many of the books we publish at Dernier Publishing – both are great.

Secular chools may not accept your story if it has strong Christian themes (this will be different in different parts of the world), and even your own family may not like your story, but you still need to write from your own conviction.

However, Christian bookshops will sell Christian books, so even if you don’t have a schools market, you may still be able to find an outlet for your book.

Make sure your story is good fun. Your ‘spiritual point’ (if you want to make one) must be intertwined within the pages of your fun story. The book has to be about something engaging and exciting, and it must be laced with humour and drama. For example, in The Birthday Shoes, Emily Jane goes on magical adventures round Africa. She has loads of fun, makes friends, learns about crocodiles (for a school project!)… but in the pages of the story she also discovers that going to church with her parents doesn’t make her a Christian. Good, huh?

Does all that make sense?

In a nutshell:

If you want to include a message in your story, you need to weave it into your thrilling plot.
You will never be able to please everyone. Write for one child – make the Christian content perfect for him/her.
Keep writing! We must get Christian books into children’s hands while we can.

Novels should be fun to read.

Readers should be allowed to pick up any themes themselves. There’s a place for how-to books, but we’re writing novels, so the message should be part of your gripping plot. 🙂

Trust that helps!

Love to you all,

Janet

P.S. In the Write for a Reason Academy we go into much more detail about your ‘one reader’, theme, message and plot. I will be opening registration for the next course in a few weeks, so if you’d like to keep informed, make sure you’re on my email list. (If this short piece has helped you, the course will help you a lot more – I promise.)

Share this:

Descriptions: Taking it All In

Good morning! I hope this writing tip finds you well. Here we are, still under lockdown. How is this affecting your writing? Are you getting less done, or more? Do keep in contact, and if there’s anything I can do to help, please let me know.

Right, on to today’s writing tip, which comes to you as a result of yesterday’s daily lockdown exercise. 🙂 I am fortunate to be able to walk out of our house into country lanes. With the roads being quiet, it allows for reflection. Yesterday, as I was passing through an area of woodland, I did this exercise, and I recommend it to you, even if you are only able to do it in your living room or garden.

Stop and take in the scene. Listen to the sounds. What can you hear? The wind rustling the bushes; the swoosh of a cyclist passing by; birds calling? I could hear a woodpecker (which was what made me stop in the first place) and the distant sound of traffic on the M25, despite the ‘essential travel’ guidelines!

Take a good look at the scene. What three words would you use to describe the big picture? Timeless, green, growing? Take in a detail or two – ivy strangling a twisted tree trunk, a flattened coke can in the verge, rays of sun streaming through the trees. What about colours? Anything that stands out – perhaps one dandelion in a sea of green?

What can you smell? Damp earth, bluebells, smoke from a bonfire?

Does something happen as you stand there? A squirrel running up a tree? A runner in all the gear saying ‘good morning’ as she passes?

Close your eyes and feel the sun, or the wind on your face. Breathe in the atmosphere. Pull the scene together in your mind and find a word or two to describe how you feel right at that moment.

Now it’s time to go home and take one of your characters there! An exercise like this can bring life to your descriptions.

Enjoy your writing this week. Remember, no one can write your story but you.

Janet

P.S. I am planning to go live on our main Write for a Reason Facebook page at 5pm tomorrow evening (Tuesday 12th), to discuss ‘Choosing Your Theme’, suggested by writer-for-a-reason Ijeoma, who isn’t sure how much Christian content to include in her novel. Come along and bring your questions! I’m still getting used to doing this, so I hope it all works! Be lovely to see you there. 🙂

Share this:

One Quick Way to Annoy Your Readers

Have you ever frowned, when reading a novel, and thought, Really?

Quick writing tip for today: be careful that you don’t puzzle or annoy readers without meaning to, by not giving them the facts they need.

I recently read a children’s novel which was written in the first person, and it wasn’t until several pages in that I realised the character was a boy, not a girl. The author is female, so I unwittingly assumed the character was a girl. Because the character was saying me and I, (instead of a narrator saying he or she), I couldn’t see he was a boy until he met a friend who addressed him by name – and it was a boy’s name. Hmm.

The thing is, as authors, we are so familiar with our setting and our characters, we can assume things unintentionally.

Perhaps our animals can talk, but we haven’t thought to tell our readers. Perhaps the reader assumes the action is taking place on earth until a spaceship arrives from Russia! Perhaps your protagonist is a redhead, but you don’t mention this fact early on, so readers picture her differently.

Readers feel cheated if they suddenly find out some fact they feel they should have known earlier, and have to change the picture in their heads.

Clarity is key!

I’m not talking about information you are deliberately keeping from your readers, or allowing them in on bit by bit. Some facts are good to keep back – the treasure is fake, the girl is a spy, the man who said he was an uncle isn’t related to them at all…

It’s great to have a twist!

I’m talking about facts your readers should have known but you haven’t thought to tell them.

So writing tip of the week is: beware of confusing/annoying your readers.

Hope that helps! If it does, please share with your writer friends!

Janet

P.S. I’m going to go live on our Facebook page today, at 5pm (Monday 4th May), to discuss writing dialogue (as requested by writer-for-a-reason, Pam). I hope you can come and join me! This is the link to the facebook live. Feel free to bring any writing questions. Hope to see you there! (Quick warning, I need a haircut, so don’t look too closely. :-))

Share this:

How are Your Characters Feeling?

Good morning. I hope you and yours are well. It now seems that at last the Covid virus is loosening its grip a little. I’m delighted to tell you that our minister’s wife is starting to feel better, and the dad in our church who was in intensive care is making good progress. I know some of you will have lost loved ones – if you have, please accept my sincere condolences at this difficult time, and if you’re not able to write right now, tuck this thought away for the future. There’s a time for everything under the sun.

As children’s writers, we need to know our target readers’ interests, likes and dislikes, fears, hopes and dreams, so we can make sure our stories are relevant for them.

So I have a quick, but important writing tip for you today.

At a suitable time, ask some of your target readers how they feel/felt about the virus and the crisis.

The simplest way right now would be to ask friends/family with children, if they would ask your questions for you, such as: what were the best and the worst things? What were they afraid of, and what helped them cope? How did they spend their time during the lockdown?

Not only will this help young people feel heard, but their thoughts and feelings may be useful for future character development in your stories, so you can bring hope to a new generation of readers.

Trust that help!

See you next week,

Janet

P.S. If you’d like to join our closed facebook group for people who are determined to write their stories for children, let me know and I’ll let you in! 🙂

Share this:

Living in Security – Are You?

I hope you don’t mind – I’m copying this from my Dernier Publishing newsletter, because it involves us all:

“Security is a basic human need. We all need to know where our next meal is coming from; that we are safe from the enemy – if we don’t have these things, we are not at peace.

In the very depths of our souls we all long to feel safe and settled. We have jobs so we can provide for our family and locks on our doors to keep out intruders. The idea of ‘living peacefully under our own fig tree and vine’ is more than a bit appealing – we long for this at the very heart of our being and do our best to make it a reality.

As Christians we know that our safety and security lie in knowing Christ, our Rock, rather than relying on our circumstances. Some of us will have been saying it for years, and believing it. But right now, the carpet is being swept from under our collective feet – we are all being tested together.

Where does our security really lie? On what are we really depending? What gives us peace?

All of us have been touched by Covid-19 in one way or another – and it’s unsettling. We don’t know who will be next to succumb to the virus. We don’t know what our long term future will be.

Our children are also in this with us. They are on lockdown, cut off from their friends, not knowing when they will be able to go back to their school, sports, church and groups. They are watching the news. They don’t know who will be the next victim – will it be a loved member of the family?

Even as I write, the dad of a teenage girl in our church is in the high dependency unit of our local hospital. Our hearts ache for them, and for all the thousands of families who are touched by what is for them, more than news on a screen.

We need to find our security in Jesus, because we need to know that He has all things in His hands. That He is our peace. That underneath everything are the everlasting arms of the Almighty.

Our children need to know this every bit as much as we do.“

With all this in mind, may I make two suggestions, if you write for a reason?

1. Write how you honestly feel in a journal, about your own safety and security, and that of your loved ones.

2. Get over the lethargy that comes from uncertainty, and write your novel. Don’t put it off. We all need Jesus – your readers need Jesus. Children need safety and security as much as any of us – if your hope is in God, you can help them find hope, too.

If you have found this helpful, please pass it on.

Yours in Christ,

Janet

P.S. A couple of weeks ago I gave nine tips for overcoming problems with concentration. You can read them here. And here are some ideas how to beat imposter syndrome. If you have been called to write, make sure you don’t bury your talent, my friend. Somebody needs your story.

P.P.S. If you need books children on your heart (while you’re waiting to finish yours!), all Dernier books are currently half price.

Share this:

Do You Need to Change Your Plans?

Almost all of us will find ourselves with a change in lifestyle right now, and have had to alter plans. Some of us will have more time than we had a few weeks ago; some less.

Our Easter celebrations will be very different this year, that’s for sure – even though the truth of Jesus’ death and resurrection doesn’t change!

Can I suggest in these strange times, that you grab a quiet moment, pray and take stock of your writing?

What do you feel the Lord is calling you to write, right now? Do you need to carry on as you were, or change direction?

Spend some time in prayer, and ask the Lord to show you. Don’t rush away. When you know what you need to do, tell someone who will keep you accountable, then make a start (feel free to contact me – I’d love to hear from you!). Or perhaps you need to concentrate on your family right now. There’s a time for everything under the sun.

Time is precious – no one knows how long we have in this world. Let’s use it wisely!

Do hope you and all yours are well. I’d appreciate your prayers for my youngest son’s fiancée, (their wedding was to take place in June, but they have had to postpone), who qualified as a nurse six months ago. She has just been seconded to the adult high dependency unit for Covid-19 patients in the hospital where she works. Her name is Chloe. Thank you.

May the peace of God guard our hearts, and use our writing for his glory.

Janet

P.S. With Dernier Publishing I have set up some fun competitions and activities for 7-12s to do at home. You can find out more here, in case that may be of interest! Feel free to pass the info on. 🙂

Share this: