Press releases are a great way to let the entire internet world know about something big that just happened or something big that is about to happen. Maybe your organization has just won a major award for something. Or maybe you are about to launch a new product. Press releases get indexed by the search engines and help you to achieve your number one goal and that is to drive traffic to your site or sites. Personally I use press releases just before I am about to start a new article series. Many of my series are 10 to 20 articles long.
The Body
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE should always be your header. You need a headline. It should be in bold writing, it should be short but powerful. Never send a press release without a dateline. Now you have the body. It only needs to be a couple of paragraphs to be effective. First paragraph should answer who, what, where, when and why. The second should give a few more details. Your boilerplate should remain the same on all your press releases. It gives a brief description about who you are and what you do. Finally you should put your contact info in. This should include name address, phone number, email and website.
Keywords
Remember that its not only humans but machines reading your press release as well so your going to want to make it compatible to both. Keywords are the key. Make sure there relevant to your press release and remember no more than 5 percent of your writing should be key words. Also make sure you know how to place your keywords into header tags.
Now You Want To Promote
The most effective way to promote your press releases is through on line press release services. There are many out there. Go ahead and search “press release submission”. Another way is that you can send them to your editors by email or just create links off of your site to them.
For me press releases have become a great source of traffic. Especially when I am about to start a new article series. Anyone who has read my prior series usually watch for the next one to come out and with the right keywords anyone looking for something in particular might come along my release thus adding another potential client.
Thanks Dale Mazurek
Dale is an expert author with EzineArticles with more than 60 articles published. http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dale_Mazurek You can also check out two of his up and coming interactive blogs at http://fishingtutor.blogspot.com/ and http://relationshiptidbits.blogspot.com/
This is the second article of two on how and why you should issue press releases. It is just another very helpful tool that can be used to promote your business greatly if used properly
Monday, March 26, 2007
Saturday, March 24, 2007
How To Write An Internet Press Release (Part 1)
Press release are a great way to let the entire internet world about something big that just happened or something big that is about to happen. Maybe your organization has just won a major award for something. Or maybe you are about to launch a new product. Press releases get indexed by the search engines and help you to achieve your number one goal and that is to drive traffic to your site or sites. Personally I use press releases just before I am about to start another large article series. Many of my series are 10 to twenty articles long.
Why Should You Write Them
Writing press releases can be very beneficial to your business in so many ways. Many editors will look at your press release. If they feel it is going to get people interested then they will publish it into their ezines. By doing that you are ensuring yourself free traffic. It is also another link to your website and most of us know what that means. The more positive links you have to your site the more times the search engines are going to pick it up thus moving it higher in the rankings. Finally I would like to think you are running an honest no scam business. By issuing press releases you can keep your business fresh. Your loyal customers will see the growth and remain loyal while knew customers will realize that this is possibly something they should be looking at.
How Should I Write Them.
Well practise does make perfect. The more you write the better you will get at it. The most important thing you have to remember is that a press release is not meant to be an advertisement. If you want to put it out that way chances are it will get rejected and even if it does get released publishers won’t be interested because they are looking for content that will provide value for their readers. You’re not writing a book. You want to keep your releases to one page and two at a maximum. Don’t wreck your credibility with the publishers and readers. Just be honest. You can use some hype but don’t lie or embellish. You also want to be straight forward and to the point. A press release isn’t the place to pretty up your story. Write it in a way that everyone can understand. You have to remember your going to have everyone from teenage dropouts to doctors reading your press release. I don’t care what you are selling you need to make your press release go out to everyone. If it is directed towards a certain audience it’s going to look too much like an advertisement.
For me press releases have become a great source of traffic. Especially when I am about to start a new article series. Anyone who has read my prior series usually watch for the next one to come out and with the right keywords anyone looking for something in particular might come along my release thus possibly adding another customer.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is quickly becoming known for his articles and straightforward business sense. He is an expert article submitter http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dale_Mazurek
He has also started two interactive blogs that are getting lots of new traffic. http://relationshiptidbits.blogspot.com/ and http://fishingtutor.blogspot.com/
This is the first article of two on how and why you should issue press releases. It is just another very helpful tool that can be used to promote your business greatly if used properly.
Why Should You Write Them
Writing press releases can be very beneficial to your business in so many ways. Many editors will look at your press release. If they feel it is going to get people interested then they will publish it into their ezines. By doing that you are ensuring yourself free traffic. It is also another link to your website and most of us know what that means. The more positive links you have to your site the more times the search engines are going to pick it up thus moving it higher in the rankings. Finally I would like to think you are running an honest no scam business. By issuing press releases you can keep your business fresh. Your loyal customers will see the growth and remain loyal while knew customers will realize that this is possibly something they should be looking at.
How Should I Write Them.
Well practise does make perfect. The more you write the better you will get at it. The most important thing you have to remember is that a press release is not meant to be an advertisement. If you want to put it out that way chances are it will get rejected and even if it does get released publishers won’t be interested because they are looking for content that will provide value for their readers. You’re not writing a book. You want to keep your releases to one page and two at a maximum. Don’t wreck your credibility with the publishers and readers. Just be honest. You can use some hype but don’t lie or embellish. You also want to be straight forward and to the point. A press release isn’t the place to pretty up your story. Write it in a way that everyone can understand. You have to remember your going to have everyone from teenage dropouts to doctors reading your press release. I don’t care what you are selling you need to make your press release go out to everyone. If it is directed towards a certain audience it’s going to look too much like an advertisement.
For me press releases have become a great source of traffic. Especially when I am about to start a new article series. Anyone who has read my prior series usually watch for the next one to come out and with the right keywords anyone looking for something in particular might come along my release thus possibly adding another customer.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is quickly becoming known for his articles and straightforward business sense. He is an expert article submitter http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dale_Mazurek
He has also started two interactive blogs that are getting lots of new traffic. http://relationshiptidbits.blogspot.com/ and http://fishingtutor.blogspot.com/
This is the first article of two on how and why you should issue press releases. It is just another very helpful tool that can be used to promote your business greatly if used properly.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
MOTHER KNOWS BEST
Jackie is a mother of three, a wife, a house wife and a manager of a convenience store so technically she is also a cook, chauffer, dog walker and probably about 100 other occupations that could be listed here. She has always been the kind of person to never complain. She is always the lady who would do anything to help some one out but never accept help herself. All around Jackie is probably one of the sweetest most loving people in the world.
All of the things listed above are all things that Jackie loves to do but there is one thing in the whole world that she loves more than anything. That is her writing. She has only ever written one thing in her life and that one thing is a very detailed diary of her life for the last 20 years. The day her oldest boy was born was the day she started writing. After that first day she has never missed a day of writing. Some of the entries are long and some are quite short but never the less they are all very detailed.
As you can very well imagine 20 years worth of diary entries turns out to be a lot of paper. There are only a few people in the world that knows about her diary. One being her husband, two being her kids and thirdly her best friend. Out side that tiny little circle absolutely no one knows about these papers. Now Jackie has never considered her self a writer nor has she ever had the ambition to even think about writing anything other than her diary. One thing you do have to remember is that these entries are very detailed. She can go back to any entry in the diary and remember exactly what she did that day and because it’s so detailed whenever she reads these old entries it feels like she’s right back on that day. Another thing is that these pages are full of happy thoughts, sad thoughts, trials, tribulations and just about every emotion that can be experienced.
Well one day Loretta, Jackie’s best friend was over visiting. They were having a few drinks and reading some of the entries in the diaries. They were laughing, crying and then laughing again. Through out the night Loretta asked Jackie if she would ever consider writing a book about her life. Jackie just laughed at the idea. In no way did she ever think she had a life that was interesting enough to write a book about. That was pretty much the end of the story. It wasn’t brought up again.
About 6 months later Jackie was again having one of her normally busy days when her cell phone rang. The voice on the other end introduced himself as a member of a huge publishing company out of New York. He then explained to her that her friend Loretta had submitted some work to him on Jackie’s behalf about six months prior. He explained to Jackie that he had some interest in possibly making a book out of it and invited her and her husband to New York all expenses paid to discuss a possible book deal. Jackie hung up the phone ten minutes later with an appointment to see this gentleman in a week.
A week later Jackie and her husband landed in New York and were quickly met and picked up in a limousine and taken to the publishing agency. Once inside all the formalities took about 15 minutes and then a man named Blake got down to business and started talking book deal. Jackie couldn’t believe the numbers that were coming out of this guy’s mouth. Potentially at the end of the day Jackie and her husband could walk out of the agency with a check for half a million dollars and if the book went as well as the publisher thought it would then Jackie would make at least three million more dollars in royalties.
Jackie and her husband couldn’t believe what was happening. After all these years of struggling they would be able to not have to worry about anything ever again. So about 4 hours later Jackie and her husband walked out of the agency with check in hand and a signed contract to let the publishing company go ahead and use her diary to write a book. All this time. 20 years she never realized she was writing her family’s future but she was ecstatic that it turned out that way. The day turned out to be better than perfect. However there still was one thing she needed to do and that was get back to the hotel and put today’s entry into her diary.
All of the things listed above are all things that Jackie loves to do but there is one thing in the whole world that she loves more than anything. That is her writing. She has only ever written one thing in her life and that one thing is a very detailed diary of her life for the last 20 years. The day her oldest boy was born was the day she started writing. After that first day she has never missed a day of writing. Some of the entries are long and some are quite short but never the less they are all very detailed.
As you can very well imagine 20 years worth of diary entries turns out to be a lot of paper. There are only a few people in the world that knows about her diary. One being her husband, two being her kids and thirdly her best friend. Out side that tiny little circle absolutely no one knows about these papers. Now Jackie has never considered her self a writer nor has she ever had the ambition to even think about writing anything other than her diary. One thing you do have to remember is that these entries are very detailed. She can go back to any entry in the diary and remember exactly what she did that day and because it’s so detailed whenever she reads these old entries it feels like she’s right back on that day. Another thing is that these pages are full of happy thoughts, sad thoughts, trials, tribulations and just about every emotion that can be experienced.
Well one day Loretta, Jackie’s best friend was over visiting. They were having a few drinks and reading some of the entries in the diaries. They were laughing, crying and then laughing again. Through out the night Loretta asked Jackie if she would ever consider writing a book about her life. Jackie just laughed at the idea. In no way did she ever think she had a life that was interesting enough to write a book about. That was pretty much the end of the story. It wasn’t brought up again.
About 6 months later Jackie was again having one of her normally busy days when her cell phone rang. The voice on the other end introduced himself as a member of a huge publishing company out of New York. He then explained to her that her friend Loretta had submitted some work to him on Jackie’s behalf about six months prior. He explained to Jackie that he had some interest in possibly making a book out of it and invited her and her husband to New York all expenses paid to discuss a possible book deal. Jackie hung up the phone ten minutes later with an appointment to see this gentleman in a week.
A week later Jackie and her husband landed in New York and were quickly met and picked up in a limousine and taken to the publishing agency. Once inside all the formalities took about 15 minutes and then a man named Blake got down to business and started talking book deal. Jackie couldn’t believe the numbers that were coming out of this guy’s mouth. Potentially at the end of the day Jackie and her husband could walk out of the agency with a check for half a million dollars and if the book went as well as the publisher thought it would then Jackie would make at least three million more dollars in royalties.
Jackie and her husband couldn’t believe what was happening. After all these years of struggling they would be able to not have to worry about anything ever again. So about 4 hours later Jackie and her husband walked out of the agency with check in hand and a signed contract to let the publishing company go ahead and use her diary to write a book. All this time. 20 years she never realized she was writing her family’s future but she was ecstatic that it turned out that way. The day turned out to be better than perfect. However there still was one thing she needed to do and that was get back to the hotel and put today’s entry into her diary.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Great New Program I Joined
Hello to all
Well for my loyal readers and all my new readers something excited has happened to me today. As most of you know I love writing. It is my passion but lets be realistic at the end of the day its nice to see some dollars signs along with your hard work. Well I found another tool to ad to my arsenal. It is called blogvertise.
How it works is simply put you gegister your blog with http://www.blogvertize.com/ You then have to wait for an approval process but once approved you will start getting assignments that they pay for. The pay starts at 4 bucks and gets way higher than that. I have emailed blogvertize to see if I can list more than one blog and hopefully I will get an answer soon. So for now I am sitting on pins and needles waiting to see if i get approved or not so remember if this is something you think you can do just go to http://www.blogvertize.com/ and sign up.
Well for my loyal readers and all my new readers something excited has happened to me today. As most of you know I love writing. It is my passion but lets be realistic at the end of the day its nice to see some dollars signs along with your hard work. Well I found another tool to ad to my arsenal. It is called blogvertise.
How it works is simply put you gegister your blog with http://www.blogvertize.com/ You then have to wait for an approval process but once approved you will start getting assignments that they pay for. The pay starts at 4 bucks and gets way higher than that. I have emailed blogvertize to see if I can list more than one blog and hopefully I will get an answer soon. So for now I am sitting on pins and needles waiting to see if i get approved or not so remember if this is something you think you can do just go to http://www.blogvertize.com/ and sign up.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Urban Legend Number 1
Aliens Among Us
Only a few months after the recovery of alien bodies and the debris from their space craft at Roswell in 1947, President Harry S. Truman created MJ-12, a top secret organization to collect intelligence on UFOs.
In 1954 President Dwight D. Eisenhower expanded the mandate of MJ-12 by founding the clandenstine Jason Society, a hand picked group of scholars charged with evaluating dataabout UFOs and contact with alien life forms. Members of the secret society have included Allen Dulles, director of the cia; Dr.Zbigniew Brzezinski, president of the Trilateral Commision from 1973 to 1976;and Dr. Henry Kissinger, the mastermind of Americas foreign policy.
MJ-12 funded by profits from the drug trade (MJ-12 members insist the drug trade is simply a tool to eliminate the weaker members of society). The power of MJ-12 has grown to the extent that it manipulates the CIA and the FBI; early in its history it monitored individuals through the mail and telephone, and today it uses the latest computer technology to accokpish the same task.
Through a project code-named SIGMA,MJ-12 first made contact with aliens. MJ-12s PLATO project established diplomatic relations with several alien civilizations and even secured formal treaties with them. Special operatives known as Men in Black are responsible for the security of all aliens and alien space craft currently on earth.
Only a few months after the recovery of alien bodies and the debris from their space craft at Roswell in 1947, President Harry S. Truman created MJ-12, a top secret organization to collect intelligence on UFOs.
In 1954 President Dwight D. Eisenhower expanded the mandate of MJ-12 by founding the clandenstine Jason Society, a hand picked group of scholars charged with evaluating dataabout UFOs and contact with alien life forms. Members of the secret society have included Allen Dulles, director of the cia; Dr.Zbigniew Brzezinski, president of the Trilateral Commision from 1973 to 1976;and Dr. Henry Kissinger, the mastermind of Americas foreign policy.
MJ-12 funded by profits from the drug trade (MJ-12 members insist the drug trade is simply a tool to eliminate the weaker members of society). The power of MJ-12 has grown to the extent that it manipulates the CIA and the FBI; early in its history it monitored individuals through the mail and telephone, and today it uses the latest computer technology to accokpish the same task.
Through a project code-named SIGMA,MJ-12 first made contact with aliens. MJ-12s PLATO project established diplomatic relations with several alien civilizations and even secured formal treaties with them. Special operatives known as Men in Black are responsible for the security of all aliens and alien space craft currently on earth.
Write Your Novel Step By Step (Part 20)
Well here we go. This is going to be the twentieth and final excerpt in my series on how to write a novel. Go ahead and copy these lessons or save them however you want. I will leave them on line until I am finished with my eBook and then pretty much exactly what you are reading right now will cost. I wanted to offer my advice for free at first because I want people to feel the same passion for writing that I do and feel the tingling inside your body after you finish your first novel.
96. Do This Properly
You have to go out and get a Fed Ex package and get ready to send your book out. Make sure you’re not sloppy about doing this. Take the time to make sure everything is sealed up properly. Make sure it is all squared up. This package is going to be the first impression that a would be agent is going to see and if done sloppily things could go wrong for you right off the bat.
97. Give Your Novel Away
Okay whether you believe it or not the next step was the hardest one for me. I had to give my book away to someone I didn’t know. Remember this was my first book. It almost felt like I was giving one of my kids away. But you have to trust Fed Ex. After all this is what they do. Make sure you keep your receipt. Now you may as well forget about your novel because it is very, very rare that you ever hear anything sooner than 2 months.
98. Kind Of Fun
You have worked hard to get your novel written and submitted so now you can have some fun with it. It’s time to relax and let your hair down. Go ahead and have a drink or something and think about the future of your book. Imagine that it gets picked up for a movie. Start thinking about which famous actor is going to play the lead. Think about who is going to play the other parts. Just remember this is all in fun but in life you have to allow yourself to dream.
99. Just Forget About It
Remember you have to wait at least two months and in several cases you will wait longer for a response if one even comes. Do not even think about doing anything before two months. If after a couple of months you haven’t heard anything then by all means you can send a short letter to the agent. I do mean short. Make sure it is just an inquiry letter and not something that is going to look like your pleading your case.
100. This Sucks But Its Normal
Rejection does suck but you have to turn it into positives. At least you know your work is getting looked at. Follow through on the suggestions that most agents will send with rejection slips. Don’t forget that most of the famous authors out there were rejected numerous times before their works were published. If you take it personally then I can guarantee that your writing career is over so instead of pouting while you are waiting go ahead and start your next novel. You will be surprised how much easier the next one will be to write.
Well now it is time for this series to come to an end. I hope everyone has enjoyed it and even more I hope you have started using it. Please keep watching for more writing tips from me. I will be doing a couple of more long series but I will also be doing a lot of shorter How To Write lessons on several different topics. So now I will sign off and let you get you novel going. Remember you write for yourself first and everybody else second.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ and lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
96. Do This Properly
You have to go out and get a Fed Ex package and get ready to send your book out. Make sure you’re not sloppy about doing this. Take the time to make sure everything is sealed up properly. Make sure it is all squared up. This package is going to be the first impression that a would be agent is going to see and if done sloppily things could go wrong for you right off the bat.
97. Give Your Novel Away
Okay whether you believe it or not the next step was the hardest one for me. I had to give my book away to someone I didn’t know. Remember this was my first book. It almost felt like I was giving one of my kids away. But you have to trust Fed Ex. After all this is what they do. Make sure you keep your receipt. Now you may as well forget about your novel because it is very, very rare that you ever hear anything sooner than 2 months.
98. Kind Of Fun
You have worked hard to get your novel written and submitted so now you can have some fun with it. It’s time to relax and let your hair down. Go ahead and have a drink or something and think about the future of your book. Imagine that it gets picked up for a movie. Start thinking about which famous actor is going to play the lead. Think about who is going to play the other parts. Just remember this is all in fun but in life you have to allow yourself to dream.
99. Just Forget About It
Remember you have to wait at least two months and in several cases you will wait longer for a response if one even comes. Do not even think about doing anything before two months. If after a couple of months you haven’t heard anything then by all means you can send a short letter to the agent. I do mean short. Make sure it is just an inquiry letter and not something that is going to look like your pleading your case.
100. This Sucks But Its Normal
Rejection does suck but you have to turn it into positives. At least you know your work is getting looked at. Follow through on the suggestions that most agents will send with rejection slips. Don’t forget that most of the famous authors out there were rejected numerous times before their works were published. If you take it personally then I can guarantee that your writing career is over so instead of pouting while you are waiting go ahead and start your next novel. You will be surprised how much easier the next one will be to write.
Well now it is time for this series to come to an end. I hope everyone has enjoyed it and even more I hope you have started using it. Please keep watching for more writing tips from me. I will be doing a couple of more long series but I will also be doing a lot of shorter How To Write lessons on several different topics. So now I will sign off and let you get you novel going. Remember you write for yourself first and everybody else second.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ and lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
Friday, March 16, 2007
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Hello to everyone
First I would just like to say thanks to everyone who has taken the time to drop by and have a look at my blog. The series on how to write a novel is quickly coming to an end so I suggest you guys use it however you want because shortly after its done on my blog I plan on formatting it and making an e book out of it. However for now it is still free to my readers so enjoy. Some of the things that are coming up in my blog are more short stories. I have no shortage of them in fact I am at about 1000 written with plans for another 1000. I will also be giving tips on anything from writing poetry to writing an effective resume, business letter, short story, thesis, book report and many other writing topics. So there will be a great mixture of learning going on inside my blog.
Another exciting thing that is happening is the launching of my two newest blogs. I am fine tuning them right now and hope to have them open to the public by the weekend. One is about fishing for the everyday guy and the other is about relationships. I am very excited about both of them. I also wouldn’t mind if you took a look at the site that I promote. It does make me a lot of money on the internet. Some people consider it the best training tool available for working on line. I will leave that link at the bottom of the page.
So for now I will once more say thank you and hope you keep enjoying coming to my blog. I would also ask that you tell your friends and family about my writings because I hope I could have many interesting things for different people.
Remember every second you don’t use is a second you can never have back no matter how hard you work.
Here is the link to my ProfitLance site http://stcajo.profitlan.hop.clickbank.net
And here is the site to my very popular affiliate marketing blog. http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
Thanks Dale Mazurek
Another exciting thing that is happening is the launching of my two newest blogs. I am fine tuning them right now and hope to have them open to the public by the weekend. One is about fishing for the everyday guy and the other is about relationships. I am very excited about both of them. I also wouldn’t mind if you took a look at the site that I promote. It does make me a lot of money on the internet. Some people consider it the best training tool available for working on line. I will leave that link at the bottom of the page.
So for now I will once more say thank you and hope you keep enjoying coming to my blog. I would also ask that you tell your friends and family about my writings because I hope I could have many interesting things for different people.
Remember every second you don’t use is a second you can never have back no matter how hard you work.
Here is the link to my ProfitLance site http://stcajo.profitlan.hop.clickbank.net
And here is the site to my very popular affiliate marketing blog. http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
Thanks Dale Mazurek
LAST CIRCUS
John was on his way to his most favorite thing in the world. He was on his way to the circus side show. Some people might ask how a circus side show could be a full grown mans favorite place to visit. What most people didn’t know was that this side show was no ordinary side show, and for some reason you knew it wasn’t ordinary then chances are you wouldn’t be around to talk about it. Even john had no clue as to why he was still around. He guessed it was because he could keep his mouth shut and the people at the show knew it.
Today was like any other day. John was excited as he walked around the back of the circus tent. There was a long line up of people waiting to see the side show as there usually was. John knew that once inside there was two ways to go. Most would go to the right but for those very few that took the other route; this would be the last time they would ever wait in any lineup again anytime anywhere.
Once inside John knew which way he wanted to go. He took a left through door marked maintenance and almost immediately found himself sliding down a very long dark tunnel. He knew he was getting close to the bottom because the screams were getting louder. Now these were the sounds he looked forward to all year long. Finally he hit bottom and the zombies started coming at him until they realized who it was that just came through the chute. Almost immediately they turned back forgetting he was even there. Then they continued on with the events happening right in front of john.
Gathered around a circle shaped cage were about 30 zombies. The undead that kept this freaky side show running. Hollywood was right on with their renditions of what zombies should look like. In the middle of the cage there was3 adults screaming. They had body parts missing; they were bleeding profusely, while begging for their lives. The zombies were taking turns entering the cage to get pieces of these humans. They would then leave to eat while the next one entered. This vicious cycle would carry on until there was no food left. Then they would have to wait for the next person to come sliding down the chute.
John had been coming down here for over ten years now. He didn’t know what kept him coming but for him it was some kind of crazy turn on.
A few seconds later another unsuspecting victim came sliding down the chute. Almost immediately everything changed for john. He had never felt the experience he was feeling right now. For the first time in ten years he didn’t want this girl to be eaten. He had seen many pretty ladies come down this chute but none that have ever given him the feelings that he was experiencing right now. The girl looked directly into his eyes as she was being pulled away to be thrown in the cage.
John knew there was nothing he could do. The entire time this girl was being ripped apart she never said a word. She never whimpered in pain but instead just stared at John until there was no longer any life left in her body. This did something to him. Something that made him rethink his last ten years.
He knew there was nothing he could do at the moment, however at that moment he decided that once he got out of there he would finally some way put a stop to this insanity. Immediately he knew he was in trouble. What he hadn’t known all these years was that these zombies could read his mind. They all started coming towards him. John tried getting away but only through his instincts to live. He knew it was a waste of time. He quickly realized that not now or ever would he see the light of day again.
The pain was excruciating as the zombies started taking turns at ripping his body parts off of him. He had absolutely no idea why but his very final thought as a living human being was at how this year’s circus side show was a let down.
Dale Mazurek
Today was like any other day. John was excited as he walked around the back of the circus tent. There was a long line up of people waiting to see the side show as there usually was. John knew that once inside there was two ways to go. Most would go to the right but for those very few that took the other route; this would be the last time they would ever wait in any lineup again anytime anywhere.
Once inside John knew which way he wanted to go. He took a left through door marked maintenance and almost immediately found himself sliding down a very long dark tunnel. He knew he was getting close to the bottom because the screams were getting louder. Now these were the sounds he looked forward to all year long. Finally he hit bottom and the zombies started coming at him until they realized who it was that just came through the chute. Almost immediately they turned back forgetting he was even there. Then they continued on with the events happening right in front of john.
Gathered around a circle shaped cage were about 30 zombies. The undead that kept this freaky side show running. Hollywood was right on with their renditions of what zombies should look like. In the middle of the cage there was3 adults screaming. They had body parts missing; they were bleeding profusely, while begging for their lives. The zombies were taking turns entering the cage to get pieces of these humans. They would then leave to eat while the next one entered. This vicious cycle would carry on until there was no food left. Then they would have to wait for the next person to come sliding down the chute.
John had been coming down here for over ten years now. He didn’t know what kept him coming but for him it was some kind of crazy turn on.
A few seconds later another unsuspecting victim came sliding down the chute. Almost immediately everything changed for john. He had never felt the experience he was feeling right now. For the first time in ten years he didn’t want this girl to be eaten. He had seen many pretty ladies come down this chute but none that have ever given him the feelings that he was experiencing right now. The girl looked directly into his eyes as she was being pulled away to be thrown in the cage.
John knew there was nothing he could do. The entire time this girl was being ripped apart she never said a word. She never whimpered in pain but instead just stared at John until there was no longer any life left in her body. This did something to him. Something that made him rethink his last ten years.
He knew there was nothing he could do at the moment, however at that moment he decided that once he got out of there he would finally some way put a stop to this insanity. Immediately he knew he was in trouble. What he hadn’t known all these years was that these zombies could read his mind. They all started coming towards him. John tried getting away but only through his instincts to live. He knew it was a waste of time. He quickly realized that not now or ever would he see the light of day again.
The pain was excruciating as the zombies started taking turns at ripping his body parts off of him. He had absolutely no idea why but his very final thought as a living human being was at how this year’s circus side show was a let down.
Dale Mazurek
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Write Your Novel Step By Step (Part 15)
This is going to be the fifteenth excerpt on writing your novel. I am going to try and put these editions out as quickly as I can but that is only when time allows. I love writing and that is what I am doing all the time. Am I a good writer? I don’t know. What I do know is that I am getting to be a better writer with every word I put on paper and you too can become a good writer. To write your novel just follow these steps that I am laying out and at the end you will have something that at least you are proud of.
71. Read And Cut Some More
Clichés are terrible. First of all there not original. Secondly they sound tacky and there really is no room in your story for them. They may sound all cutesy at first but trust me your readers won’t get to read them because the story will never get past the publisher. So make it easy on yourself and get rid of them. Once in a while there is a time to use them but not too often.
72. ( /?)&! Too Many Is No Good
Now you are going to go through your story and get rid of all the unnecessary, annoying exclamation marks and such. Because in truth if you write well then your readers will know that your characters are yelling without having 6 exclamation marks at the end of a sentence. That may be alright if you are writing in your diary or a letter to a friend but believe me when I say it just doesn’t work in your book.
73. Use Proper Language
There may be a few people who enjoy reading vulgar, or sexual language but most people detest it in their readings. This kind of language has a place in certain books and magazines but not in most. Fancy words that no one understands are not great things to use either. Your reader wants to understand what’s being said. Remember the story has to flow. It has to be real life and not many people use these words unless in specialty stories that most of the general public are not going to read any ways.
74. While You’re Cutting
You may as well get rid of the useless phrases that you put in your story just to fill pages. If a book is 20 pages shorter when you are done that’s okay because we all know the old saying that quality is better than quantity. Just keep reading your story and you will for sure pick out the things that just don’t belong.
75. Read It Again
This time you are going to read your entire book into a tape recorder. Read it the way its suppose to sound. Make sure the emphasis is where it is suppose to be. Then you are going to listen to your tape and see what it sounds like. If the words don’t flow naturally then this is the time to fix them.
I know a lot of this seems like it’s going nowhere but trust me I write this from experience. Writing a book is no easy task. I wish someone would have helped me out like this when I first started writing. I will tell you one thing. Now this relates to me and it could to you but you have to want it to. No matter how hard the writing got I never disliked it. I still love writing and maybe this is a pipe dream but I hope to be able to retire and live totally off the money I earn from writing. Okay this is the end of lesson 15. I hope you are enjoying it so far. I also hope you are taking advantage of the opportunity to print this out because if all goes well I will make this into an e book so take advantage of it free.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ and lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
71. Read And Cut Some More
Clichés are terrible. First of all there not original. Secondly they sound tacky and there really is no room in your story for them. They may sound all cutesy at first but trust me your readers won’t get to read them because the story will never get past the publisher. So make it easy on yourself and get rid of them. Once in a while there is a time to use them but not too often.
72. ( /?)&! Too Many Is No Good
Now you are going to go through your story and get rid of all the unnecessary, annoying exclamation marks and such. Because in truth if you write well then your readers will know that your characters are yelling without having 6 exclamation marks at the end of a sentence. That may be alright if you are writing in your diary or a letter to a friend but believe me when I say it just doesn’t work in your book.
73. Use Proper Language
There may be a few people who enjoy reading vulgar, or sexual language but most people detest it in their readings. This kind of language has a place in certain books and magazines but not in most. Fancy words that no one understands are not great things to use either. Your reader wants to understand what’s being said. Remember the story has to flow. It has to be real life and not many people use these words unless in specialty stories that most of the general public are not going to read any ways.
74. While You’re Cutting
You may as well get rid of the useless phrases that you put in your story just to fill pages. If a book is 20 pages shorter when you are done that’s okay because we all know the old saying that quality is better than quantity. Just keep reading your story and you will for sure pick out the things that just don’t belong.
75. Read It Again
This time you are going to read your entire book into a tape recorder. Read it the way its suppose to sound. Make sure the emphasis is where it is suppose to be. Then you are going to listen to your tape and see what it sounds like. If the words don’t flow naturally then this is the time to fix them.
I know a lot of this seems like it’s going nowhere but trust me I write this from experience. Writing a book is no easy task. I wish someone would have helped me out like this when I first started writing. I will tell you one thing. Now this relates to me and it could to you but you have to want it to. No matter how hard the writing got I never disliked it. I still love writing and maybe this is a pipe dream but I hope to be able to retire and live totally off the money I earn from writing. Okay this is the end of lesson 15. I hope you are enjoying it so far. I also hope you are taking advantage of the opportunity to print this out because if all goes well I will make this into an e book so take advantage of it free.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ and lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
Write Your Novel Step By Step (Part 14)
This is going to be the fourteenth excerpt on writing your novel. I am going to try and put these editions out as quickly as I can but that is only when time allows. I love writing and that is what I am doing all the time. Am I a good writer? I don’t know. What I do know is that I am getting to be a better writer with every word I put on paper and you too can become a good writer. To write your novel just follow these steps that I am laying out and at the end you will have something that at least you are proud of.
66. Reading Your Work
Now everybody is going to go back and read their entire book from cover to cover. Don’t get your eraser and pencil out yet because it’s not quite time for that yet. I want you to start reading your book out loud. You’re going to find stuff in there that you don’t like but that’s okay. Don’t fret it. Just make a mental note and keep reading. Very important. Don’t start crossing stuff out yet or adding stuff because the most important part you are trying to determine is how the book is going to flow.
67. Cutting Your Story
Ok now the time has come. You are going to go through your story paragraph by paragraph. I will guarantee there is going to be stuff you want to cut and stuff you want to add so now is the time. Go ahead and start editing. Get rid of the good for nothing phrases that you put in there as fillers and add the content that you forgot or came up with later.
68. Read Again
You already read your book out loud once and now you’re going to do it again but this time you’re going to do it one page at a time. You will stop at the end of each page. You will read that one page as many times as you need to so that you can get rid of poor sentence structure or maybe you are going to add something. Don’t go on to the next page until you are happy with the last one. I am warning you that this can get redundant and even boring but you have to keep excited because this is all parts in writing a book.
69. Excessive Stuff
Now you want to have a look at your work and cut all the unnecessary stuff. Too many metaphors or similes. The similes will kill you. However it is important that you don’t cut stuff you’re going to regret. So once again I stress that you take your time and make sure everything sounds good.
70. Cutting Tips
Here’s a little trick when you are cutting stuff from your story. It is almost a guarantee that you have put too much meat into your paragraphs so this is what you are going to do. You are going to go ahead and cut either one adjective or adverb out of each paragraph in your story. Remember this isn’t a hard fast rule. You might have a paragraph that you can’t afford to cut but I am willing to bet that most paragraphs will be able to be cut.
I know a lot of this seems like it’s going nowhere but trust me I write this from experience. Writing a book is no easy task. I wish someone would have helped me out like this when I first started writing. I will tell you one thing. Now this relates to me and it could to you but you have to want it to. No matter how hard the writing got I never disliked it. I still love writing and maybe this is a pipe dream but I hope to be able to retire and live totally off the money I earn from writing. Okay this is the end of lesson 14. I hope you are enjoying it so far. I also hope you are taking advantage of the opportunity to print this out because if all goes well I will make this into an e book so take advantage of it free.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ and lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
66. Reading Your Work
Now everybody is going to go back and read their entire book from cover to cover. Don’t get your eraser and pencil out yet because it’s not quite time for that yet. I want you to start reading your book out loud. You’re going to find stuff in there that you don’t like but that’s okay. Don’t fret it. Just make a mental note and keep reading. Very important. Don’t start crossing stuff out yet or adding stuff because the most important part you are trying to determine is how the book is going to flow.
67. Cutting Your Story
Ok now the time has come. You are going to go through your story paragraph by paragraph. I will guarantee there is going to be stuff you want to cut and stuff you want to add so now is the time. Go ahead and start editing. Get rid of the good for nothing phrases that you put in there as fillers and add the content that you forgot or came up with later.
68. Read Again
You already read your book out loud once and now you’re going to do it again but this time you’re going to do it one page at a time. You will stop at the end of each page. You will read that one page as many times as you need to so that you can get rid of poor sentence structure or maybe you are going to add something. Don’t go on to the next page until you are happy with the last one. I am warning you that this can get redundant and even boring but you have to keep excited because this is all parts in writing a book.
69. Excessive Stuff
Now you want to have a look at your work and cut all the unnecessary stuff. Too many metaphors or similes. The similes will kill you. However it is important that you don’t cut stuff you’re going to regret. So once again I stress that you take your time and make sure everything sounds good.
70. Cutting Tips
Here’s a little trick when you are cutting stuff from your story. It is almost a guarantee that you have put too much meat into your paragraphs so this is what you are going to do. You are going to go ahead and cut either one adjective or adverb out of each paragraph in your story. Remember this isn’t a hard fast rule. You might have a paragraph that you can’t afford to cut but I am willing to bet that most paragraphs will be able to be cut.
I know a lot of this seems like it’s going nowhere but trust me I write this from experience. Writing a book is no easy task. I wish someone would have helped me out like this when I first started writing. I will tell you one thing. Now this relates to me and it could to you but you have to want it to. No matter how hard the writing got I never disliked it. I still love writing and maybe this is a pipe dream but I hope to be able to retire and live totally off the money I earn from writing. Okay this is the end of lesson 14. I hope you are enjoying it so far. I also hope you are taking advantage of the opportunity to print this out because if all goes well I will make this into an e book so take advantage of it free.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ and lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
Hello To Everyone
Hey everybody. I am just writing to say thank you to everyone who has come on and read my series on writing a novel and my short stories. I am sorry I havent posted mre personally but I am making that commitment to all of you right now. I hope everyone is enjoying what they are reading. The novel series is about three quarters done and the short stories will go on forever. I am working on a whole lot more of writing tips that I will start posting once the novel series is done. Remember you have to love writing to continue writing. presently I work full time in the oil patch but all my off time is spent enhancing my income on the internet. I have to say that things are looking pretty nice right now. I am supplementing my income nicely. If anyone is interested in some of the other things I do on line then email me at stcajo2009@yahoo.ca Personally I hate autoresponders so you wont be getting one when you email me so please be patient and I will definately get back to you.
Thanks Dale Mazurek
Thanks Dale Mazurek
Write Your Novel Step By Step (Part 13)
This is going to be the thirteenth excerpt on writing your novel. I am going to try and put these editions out as quickly as I can but that is only when time allows. I love writing and that is what I am doing all the time. Am I a good writer? I don’t know. What I do know is that I am getting to be a better writer with every word I put on paper and you too can become a good writer. To write your novel just follow these steps that I am laying out and at the end you will have something that at least you are proud of.
61. Time To Read
Okay is this thing you have written a novel. You may have about 300 pages done but does it look like something somebody would want to read. Are all the pieces there and by that I mean three main pieces. The beginning, the middle and the end. So now that you have read it does it look like you have asked the question and then answered it? If you think you have done this then it’s time to move on to the next step.
62. Vital Importance
There is no better way to turn off a reader, publisher or editor then having to read a book that is full of spelling errors. Many a book has been lost for this exact reason. First of all it makes you look very sloppy as an author, it makes you look like you don’t care and it puts you on the lowest class of a writer. Long time ago when there were no computers this was a daunting task but now with spell checker this process has become very easy so you even look lazier if your submission comes in full of spelling errors.
63. Ink And Paper
Now you have to make sure you have a bundle of paper and a couple cartridges of ink. The time has finally come to print out your first nook. Of course this is the first printing. The unedited version but when those papers are rattling off your printer tray it still gives you a huge sense of accomplishment. Let me tell you the first time I printed my book I was like a kid in a candy store waiting for each page to come through so I could pile them nice and neat.
64. Did I Write A Book
What you want to do is find a nice safe place for your newly printed book. You want to put it there and forget you ever wrote it. That’s right I want you to leave it alone for a few weeks. I don’t want you to look at it, feel it, read it or even think about it. It is of the greatest importance that you try and clear your mind and forget that you even wrote the darn thing.
65. This Is Tough
You have now been away for a while and now it’s time to come back and start editing. Let me tell you this is probably the most frequent time that would be authors give up on their books. Editing your book is as tough as it gets. This really distinguishes the fact of do you really like writing or is it your utmost passion. I read my book 15 times cover to cover before I finally said to myself that this can’t get any better.
I know a lot of this seems like it’s going nowhere but trust me I write this from experience. Writing a book is no easy task. I wish someone would have helped me out like this when I first started writing. I will tell you one thing. Now this relates to me and it could to you but you have to want it to. No matter how hard the writing got I never disliked it. I still love writing and maybe this is a pipe dream but I hope to be able to retire and live totally off the money I earn from writing. Okay this is the end of lesson 13. I hope you are enjoying it so far. I also hope you are taking advantage of the opportunity to print this out because if all goes well I will make this into an e book so take advantage of it free.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ and lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
61. Time To Read
Okay is this thing you have written a novel. You may have about 300 pages done but does it look like something somebody would want to read. Are all the pieces there and by that I mean three main pieces. The beginning, the middle and the end. So now that you have read it does it look like you have asked the question and then answered it? If you think you have done this then it’s time to move on to the next step.
62. Vital Importance
There is no better way to turn off a reader, publisher or editor then having to read a book that is full of spelling errors. Many a book has been lost for this exact reason. First of all it makes you look very sloppy as an author, it makes you look like you don’t care and it puts you on the lowest class of a writer. Long time ago when there were no computers this was a daunting task but now with spell checker this process has become very easy so you even look lazier if your submission comes in full of spelling errors.
63. Ink And Paper
Now you have to make sure you have a bundle of paper and a couple cartridges of ink. The time has finally come to print out your first nook. Of course this is the first printing. The unedited version but when those papers are rattling off your printer tray it still gives you a huge sense of accomplishment. Let me tell you the first time I printed my book I was like a kid in a candy store waiting for each page to come through so I could pile them nice and neat.
64. Did I Write A Book
What you want to do is find a nice safe place for your newly printed book. You want to put it there and forget you ever wrote it. That’s right I want you to leave it alone for a few weeks. I don’t want you to look at it, feel it, read it or even think about it. It is of the greatest importance that you try and clear your mind and forget that you even wrote the darn thing.
65. This Is Tough
You have now been away for a while and now it’s time to come back and start editing. Let me tell you this is probably the most frequent time that would be authors give up on their books. Editing your book is as tough as it gets. This really distinguishes the fact of do you really like writing or is it your utmost passion. I read my book 15 times cover to cover before I finally said to myself that this can’t get any better.
I know a lot of this seems like it’s going nowhere but trust me I write this from experience. Writing a book is no easy task. I wish someone would have helped me out like this when I first started writing. I will tell you one thing. Now this relates to me and it could to you but you have to want it to. No matter how hard the writing got I never disliked it. I still love writing and maybe this is a pipe dream but I hope to be able to retire and live totally off the money I earn from writing. Okay this is the end of lesson 13. I hope you are enjoying it so far. I also hope you are taking advantage of the opportunity to print this out because if all goes well I will make this into an e book so take advantage of it free.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ and lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Write Your Novel Step By Step (Part 12)
Okay fellow writers. I am about to enter the 12th excerpt into my step by step novel writing process. We have just passed the halfway point of this series and I hope it is beneficial to each and every one of you who read it. I am presently trying to get my first novel published and am working on my second one. I use each and every one of these topics to help me get through. Remember though you have to maintain passion for the art of writing or you’re just wasting your time. I can give you all the pointers you want but if you don’t have the drive and desire then they are no good to you. Okay time to move on.
56. Hold Your Reader
There are three major points that combined work together to hold your reader. The first one is be specific. Anything you do in your novel it’s important not to be vague. This isn’t a short story where you can get away with that. When decisions are made throughout your story be definite about them. There are no maybes. Maybes only get you in trouble because it gets the readers confused. And finally any information you give has to be concrete. You want the foundation and everything above it to be solid. Any weak points and that’s where your book comes tumbling down.
57. Your Book Doesn’t Get All Your Time
I don’t care how you want to do it but once in a while you need to take time away from your writing. What I personally do is take 2 full days away every week and once a month I make one of those two dayers into a three dayers. What you are going to find when you come back to continue your novel is that your mind is story fresh. That’s going to go a long way in the success of your novel.
58. Can You Make Your Reader Cry
Sympathy sells. All over the world everyday in every language possible stories are being written and sold with sympathy as the main angle. If you can get your readers to buy into the emotions of your characters then you have them reading to the end of the book and looking for your next one. I say sympathy but it can be any emotion provided it is done right. Sympathy is an easier one but fear and anger are also two big ones.
59. Feelings
Hers another great tip. You can not and I stress can not tell your readers how to feel. You have to make them feel how you want them to feel. If you want them to be scared then write something scary enough. Even though it may seem just like words on paper. When I read “Needful Things” by Stephen King he had me turning lights on and looking up every time I heard even the smallest noise. So are those just words? I don’t think so that is a brilliant author bringing a story to life and scaring the pants off of me.
60. The Meat
So by now you should have anywhere from 80000 to 120000 words written. There tat wasn’t so bad now was it? Now comes the hardest part of writing. At least it is in my opinion. Now you get to start rewriting and editing your novel. One things for sure you better not be tired and you better have a clear head going into this stage of writing your book.
I know a lot of this seems like its going no where but trust me I write this from experience. Writing a book is no easy task. I wish someone would have helped me out like this when I first started writing. I will tell you one thing. Now this relates to me and it could to you but you have to want it to. No matter how hard the writing got I never disliked it. I still love writing and maybe this is a pipe dream but I hope to be able to retire and live totally off the money I earn from writing. Okay this is the end of lesson 11. I hope you are enjoying it so far. I also hope you are taking advantage of the opportunity to print this out because if all goes well I will make this into an e book so take advantage of it free.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ and lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
56. Hold Your Reader
There are three major points that combined work together to hold your reader. The first one is be specific. Anything you do in your novel it’s important not to be vague. This isn’t a short story where you can get away with that. When decisions are made throughout your story be definite about them. There are no maybes. Maybes only get you in trouble because it gets the readers confused. And finally any information you give has to be concrete. You want the foundation and everything above it to be solid. Any weak points and that’s where your book comes tumbling down.
57. Your Book Doesn’t Get All Your Time
I don’t care how you want to do it but once in a while you need to take time away from your writing. What I personally do is take 2 full days away every week and once a month I make one of those two dayers into a three dayers. What you are going to find when you come back to continue your novel is that your mind is story fresh. That’s going to go a long way in the success of your novel.
58. Can You Make Your Reader Cry
Sympathy sells. All over the world everyday in every language possible stories are being written and sold with sympathy as the main angle. If you can get your readers to buy into the emotions of your characters then you have them reading to the end of the book and looking for your next one. I say sympathy but it can be any emotion provided it is done right. Sympathy is an easier one but fear and anger are also two big ones.
59. Feelings
Hers another great tip. You can not and I stress can not tell your readers how to feel. You have to make them feel how you want them to feel. If you want them to be scared then write something scary enough. Even though it may seem just like words on paper. When I read “Needful Things” by Stephen King he had me turning lights on and looking up every time I heard even the smallest noise. So are those just words? I don’t think so that is a brilliant author bringing a story to life and scaring the pants off of me.
60. The Meat
So by now you should have anywhere from 80000 to 120000 words written. There tat wasn’t so bad now was it? Now comes the hardest part of writing. At least it is in my opinion. Now you get to start rewriting and editing your novel. One things for sure you better not be tired and you better have a clear head going into this stage of writing your book.
I know a lot of this seems like its going no where but trust me I write this from experience. Writing a book is no easy task. I wish someone would have helped me out like this when I first started writing. I will tell you one thing. Now this relates to me and it could to you but you have to want it to. No matter how hard the writing got I never disliked it. I still love writing and maybe this is a pipe dream but I hope to be able to retire and live totally off the money I earn from writing. Okay this is the end of lesson 11. I hope you are enjoying it so far. I also hope you are taking advantage of the opportunity to print this out because if all goes well I will make this into an e book so take advantage of it free.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ and lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Write Your Novel Step By Step (Part 11)
This is going to be the eleventh excerpt on writing your novel. I am going to try and put these editions out as quickly as I can but that is only when time allows. I love writing and that is what I am doing all the time. Am I a good writer? I don’t know. What I do know is that I am getting to be a better writer with every word I put on paper and you too can become a good writer. To write your novel just follow these steps that I am laying out and at the end you will have something that at least you are proud of.
51. Think The Ridiculous
Now this is going to seem like one of the stupidest things I say. But believe me it helps to write books and it helps to make them believable. How was your childhood? If it was bad I truly hope you turned out alright but guess what that bad childhood will help you write great books. Books are a great form of escape from reality. Now if your child hood haunts you then you can use your writing to escape from the bad memories and establish tons of new ones. Now this is going to be a lot tougher for those of you who had a great childhood but the same can still be accomplished. You’re just going to have to be more imaginative. Imagine what it would be like to live with an alcoholic mother, really live the part and then try writing and see what happens. I bet you will be surprised.
52. Working Together
You have heard about bringing your characters to life but now you have to make them interact with the other characters and it has to be real. You’re not going to have any scenes if you just have a bunch of characters walking around and not doing anything. You have to make them communicate. How you do this is by thinking about how you communicate. How you communicate with family, friends, co workers, pets and even enemies. Of course there’s always going to be different twists added but trust me this will work.
53. What A Reader Wants
You have to always be thinking of ways to create tension. The reader always wants more. You ask how do I do this? By asking questions. Why did? Who did? Was it?
The reader will keep reading to find the answers. Don’t worry if you put too many in at first. We will edit later and get rid of the ones that sound tacky.
54. You Have To Learn To Describe
Practice describing. How do you do that? With research. When you want to describe what a rose smells like you have to make sure the reader will smell it. This is how you research. Go to the library or use the internet and read true life books like gardening or flowering. These authors have truly mastered the skills of making their reader make their senses work just from the words on the page. Without description you may as well have stick men for characters.
55. Wording
I can’t even begin to explain how important the uses of words are. Making sure you use the right words at the right time but yet making sure you don’t use too many. Using verbs are the heart to your story. Without the proper amount of verbs you are going to flop. If a sentence looks weird read it out loud and see what it sounds like. You will know immediately if you have the wording all wrong.
I know a lot of this seems like its going no where but trust me I write this from experience. Writing a book is no easy task. I wish someone would have helped me out like this when I first started writing. I will tell you one thing. Now this relates to me and it could to you but you have to want it to. No matter how hard the writing got I never disliked it. I still love writing and maybe this is a pipe dream but I hope to be able to retire and live totally off the money I earn from writing. Okay this is the end of lesson 11. I hope you are enjoying it so far. I also hope you are taking advantage of the opportunity to print this out because if all goes well I will make this into an e book so take advantage of it free.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ and lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
51. Think The Ridiculous
Now this is going to seem like one of the stupidest things I say. But believe me it helps to write books and it helps to make them believable. How was your childhood? If it was bad I truly hope you turned out alright but guess what that bad childhood will help you write great books. Books are a great form of escape from reality. Now if your child hood haunts you then you can use your writing to escape from the bad memories and establish tons of new ones. Now this is going to be a lot tougher for those of you who had a great childhood but the same can still be accomplished. You’re just going to have to be more imaginative. Imagine what it would be like to live with an alcoholic mother, really live the part and then try writing and see what happens. I bet you will be surprised.
52. Working Together
You have heard about bringing your characters to life but now you have to make them interact with the other characters and it has to be real. You’re not going to have any scenes if you just have a bunch of characters walking around and not doing anything. You have to make them communicate. How you do this is by thinking about how you communicate. How you communicate with family, friends, co workers, pets and even enemies. Of course there’s always going to be different twists added but trust me this will work.
53. What A Reader Wants
You have to always be thinking of ways to create tension. The reader always wants more. You ask how do I do this? By asking questions. Why did? Who did? Was it?
The reader will keep reading to find the answers. Don’t worry if you put too many in at first. We will edit later and get rid of the ones that sound tacky.
54. You Have To Learn To Describe
Practice describing. How do you do that? With research. When you want to describe what a rose smells like you have to make sure the reader will smell it. This is how you research. Go to the library or use the internet and read true life books like gardening or flowering. These authors have truly mastered the skills of making their reader make their senses work just from the words on the page. Without description you may as well have stick men for characters.
55. Wording
I can’t even begin to explain how important the uses of words are. Making sure you use the right words at the right time but yet making sure you don’t use too many. Using verbs are the heart to your story. Without the proper amount of verbs you are going to flop. If a sentence looks weird read it out loud and see what it sounds like. You will know immediately if you have the wording all wrong.
I know a lot of this seems like its going no where but trust me I write this from experience. Writing a book is no easy task. I wish someone would have helped me out like this when I first started writing. I will tell you one thing. Now this relates to me and it could to you but you have to want it to. No matter how hard the writing got I never disliked it. I still love writing and maybe this is a pipe dream but I hope to be able to retire and live totally off the money I earn from writing. Okay this is the end of lesson 11. I hope you are enjoying it so far. I also hope you are taking advantage of the opportunity to print this out because if all goes well I will make this into an e book so take advantage of it free.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ and lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
Write Your Novel Step By Step (Part 10)
This is going to be the tenth excerpt on writing your novel. I am going to try and put these editions out as quickly as I can but that is only when time allows. I love writing and that is what I am doing all the time. Am I a good writer? I don’t know. What I do know is that I am getting to be a better writer with every word I put on paper and you too can become a good writer. To write your novel just follow these steps that I am laying out and at the end you will have something that at least you are proud of.
46. You Will Get Tired
There is going to be days that you are exhausted. I love writing and it is my passion but some days you do wonder why you are putting yourself through the mental exhaustion. Not only do you have to develop the story but you also have to live the characters. So if your main character is a murdering trapeze artist then that’s what you become in your mind. Writing is extremely harder than my day job but my passion is stronger for writing. Just like anything else you have quitting days but I get up the next day and again I am excited.
47. Numbers Don’t Matter
I am going to warn you right now not to try and figure out how much money you’re going to make on your book. First of all if you’re doing it for the money then you better quit right now because you are not going to make a red cent. The first rule is right for passion and everything else will fall into place. Too many people read how to get their book published before they even have the first paragraph on paper. And to be totally honest with you there is a good chance your book never gets to market but that brings us back to writing for passion. I love writing and firstly that’s the only reason I do it.
48. Don’t Let No One Stand In Your Way
I never listened to anybodies negative comments. And if you do your book will never get done. Persistence is the secret. In fact negative comments make me work harder. They give me the drive to succeed. Most of the time the negative people are just jealous because they don’t have what you have, the drive and persistence.
49. Do Something Else
You have to do something to get yourself away from your writing. Not only will this rest your mind but it will open up a whole new pot of ideas. My get away is fishing. There is an old saying. “A bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work.” That is so true. I go fishing and my mind leaves everything else in my office. When I get back to work I am usually ten times productive and everything is clearer.
50. You’re Number One
I want you to always remember that. Writers are a dyeing breed so it’s up to you to make sure they don’t go extinct. I always want you to think that you are the best. No one is going to tell you that so take it upon yourself to believe it. You are a writer, an artist. What you do with your words is incredible. I don’t care if no one ever reads your work it’s still the same at the end of the day.
I know a lot of this seems like its going no where but trust me I write this from experience. Writing a book is no easy task. I wish someone would have helped me out like this when I first started writing. I will tell you one thing. Now this relates to me and it could to you but you have to want it to. No matter how hard the writing got I never disliked it. I still love writing and maybe this is a pipe dream but I hope to be able to retire and live totally off the money I earn from writing. Okay this is the end of lesson 10. I hope you are enjoying it so far. I also hope you are taking advantage of the opportunity to print this out because if all goes well I will make this into an e book so take advantage of it free.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ and lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
46. You Will Get Tired
There is going to be days that you are exhausted. I love writing and it is my passion but some days you do wonder why you are putting yourself through the mental exhaustion. Not only do you have to develop the story but you also have to live the characters. So if your main character is a murdering trapeze artist then that’s what you become in your mind. Writing is extremely harder than my day job but my passion is stronger for writing. Just like anything else you have quitting days but I get up the next day and again I am excited.
47. Numbers Don’t Matter
I am going to warn you right now not to try and figure out how much money you’re going to make on your book. First of all if you’re doing it for the money then you better quit right now because you are not going to make a red cent. The first rule is right for passion and everything else will fall into place. Too many people read how to get their book published before they even have the first paragraph on paper. And to be totally honest with you there is a good chance your book never gets to market but that brings us back to writing for passion. I love writing and firstly that’s the only reason I do it.
48. Don’t Let No One Stand In Your Way
I never listened to anybodies negative comments. And if you do your book will never get done. Persistence is the secret. In fact negative comments make me work harder. They give me the drive to succeed. Most of the time the negative people are just jealous because they don’t have what you have, the drive and persistence.
49. Do Something Else
You have to do something to get yourself away from your writing. Not only will this rest your mind but it will open up a whole new pot of ideas. My get away is fishing. There is an old saying. “A bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work.” That is so true. I go fishing and my mind leaves everything else in my office. When I get back to work I am usually ten times productive and everything is clearer.
50. You’re Number One
I want you to always remember that. Writers are a dyeing breed so it’s up to you to make sure they don’t go extinct. I always want you to think that you are the best. No one is going to tell you that so take it upon yourself to believe it. You are a writer, an artist. What you do with your words is incredible. I don’t care if no one ever reads your work it’s still the same at the end of the day.
I know a lot of this seems like its going no where but trust me I write this from experience. Writing a book is no easy task. I wish someone would have helped me out like this when I first started writing. I will tell you one thing. Now this relates to me and it could to you but you have to want it to. No matter how hard the writing got I never disliked it. I still love writing and maybe this is a pipe dream but I hope to be able to retire and live totally off the money I earn from writing. Okay this is the end of lesson 10. I hope you are enjoying it so far. I also hope you are taking advantage of the opportunity to print this out because if all goes well I will make this into an e book so take advantage of it free.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ and lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
Monday, March 5, 2007
Write Your Novel Step By Step (Part 9)
This is going to be the ninth excerpt on writing your novel. I am going to try and put these editions out as quickly as I can but that is only when time allows. I love writing and that is what I am doing all the time. Am I a good writer? I don’t know. What I do know is that I am getting to be a better writer with every word I put on paper and you too can become a good writer. To write your novel just follow these steps that I am laying out and at the end you will have something that at least you are proud of.
41. Thought Writing
Of course you can’t sit at your desk 14 hours of the day to write your book. Especially since this is your first novel and you probably have a day job or you have to take care of kids or something like that. This is what I do when I can’t sit down and write. I think write. I think about my book all the time. Some may think this is boring but it’s actually quite exciting when you come up with some good lines and ideas. What think writing does is make fewer drafts possible. You mark my words the more think writing you do when you can’t sit down the less editing you will have to do.
42. Grow Your Character
You need your character to become real life. You ask how do I do that? First of all you have to give action to your character. Even though a book is words in order to make it successful you have to make your readers see things through your words. And secondly the more you make them see the more you’re going to make them believe. If you can your readers believing in your characters then you’re going to have them believe they are right in the middle of the story.
43. Story Kidnapping
What does this mean? It means you want to get your readers attention in the very first ten seconds of your story and you never want to let him go. You want to keep him for the entirety of your book. You don’t want them to go back to their family or friends and the only way you will allow them to leave is by finishing your book. You better make your novel interesting or your kidnapping career will be very short.
44. Rejection Is Cool
Don’t sweat a rejection because if you do any amount of writing you damn well better get used to rejection. Rejection doesn’t necessarily mean your work is bad. It could get rejected for any number of reasons. Maybe it doesn’t meet guidelines; maybe the publisher isn’t accepting anything new right now. The best thing is getting a rejection with comments. Firstly that means someone pretty important and high up read your book and you can use the comments to fix anything that may need to be fixed.
45. Garbage
If you’re going to add things to your story then make sure they belong. Everything should have a place. I can’t stand it when I read gibberish that was only put in for one reason and that reason was to make the story longer. Trust me your reader would rather read a shorter book then have to read garbage and there only going to put up with so much garbage.
I know a lot of this seems like its going no where but trust me I write this from experience. Writing a book is no easy task. I wish someone would have helped me out like this when I first started writing. I will tell you one thing. Now this relates to me and it could to you but you have to want it to. No matter how hard the writing got I never disliked it. I still love writing and maybe this is a pipe dream but I hope to be able to retire and live totally off the money I earn from writing. Okay this is the end of lesson 9. I hope you are enjoying it so far. I also hope you are taking advantage of the opportunity to print this out because if all goes well I will make this into an e book so take advantage of it free.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ and lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
41. Thought Writing
Of course you can’t sit at your desk 14 hours of the day to write your book. Especially since this is your first novel and you probably have a day job or you have to take care of kids or something like that. This is what I do when I can’t sit down and write. I think write. I think about my book all the time. Some may think this is boring but it’s actually quite exciting when you come up with some good lines and ideas. What think writing does is make fewer drafts possible. You mark my words the more think writing you do when you can’t sit down the less editing you will have to do.
42. Grow Your Character
You need your character to become real life. You ask how do I do that? First of all you have to give action to your character. Even though a book is words in order to make it successful you have to make your readers see things through your words. And secondly the more you make them see the more you’re going to make them believe. If you can your readers believing in your characters then you’re going to have them believe they are right in the middle of the story.
43. Story Kidnapping
What does this mean? It means you want to get your readers attention in the very first ten seconds of your story and you never want to let him go. You want to keep him for the entirety of your book. You don’t want them to go back to their family or friends and the only way you will allow them to leave is by finishing your book. You better make your novel interesting or your kidnapping career will be very short.
44. Rejection Is Cool
Don’t sweat a rejection because if you do any amount of writing you damn well better get used to rejection. Rejection doesn’t necessarily mean your work is bad. It could get rejected for any number of reasons. Maybe it doesn’t meet guidelines; maybe the publisher isn’t accepting anything new right now. The best thing is getting a rejection with comments. Firstly that means someone pretty important and high up read your book and you can use the comments to fix anything that may need to be fixed.
45. Garbage
If you’re going to add things to your story then make sure they belong. Everything should have a place. I can’t stand it when I read gibberish that was only put in for one reason and that reason was to make the story longer. Trust me your reader would rather read a shorter book then have to read garbage and there only going to put up with so much garbage.
I know a lot of this seems like its going no where but trust me I write this from experience. Writing a book is no easy task. I wish someone would have helped me out like this when I first started writing. I will tell you one thing. Now this relates to me and it could to you but you have to want it to. No matter how hard the writing got I never disliked it. I still love writing and maybe this is a pipe dream but I hope to be able to retire and live totally off the money I earn from writing. Okay this is the end of lesson 9. I hope you are enjoying it so far. I also hope you are taking advantage of the opportunity to print this out because if all goes well I will make this into an e book so take advantage of it free.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ and lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
Write Your Novel Step By Step (Part 8)
This is going to be the eighth excerpt on writing your novel. I am going to try and put these editions out as quickly as I can but that is only when time allows. I love writing and that is what I am doing all the time. Am I a good writer? I don’t know. What I do know is that I am getting to be a better writer with every word I put on paper and you too can become a good writer. To write your novel just follow these steps that I am laying out and at the end you will have something that at least you are proud of.
36. A Hint For Interest
What you want to do to get your readers to turn to the next page is do something exciting on every page. When I say do something that can also be a description of an exciting place, character or event. It doesn’t have to be a fight scene or murder scene every page because that will get redundant and work against you. It’s not always going to be possible to make it happen every page but trust me you don’t want to go more than three pages. This can be something as brilliant as describing how beautiful the moon looks on a dark starry night.
37. Don’t Be Long Winded
Just because you have a computer now which authors of past didn’t doesn’t mean you have to write a 600 page book. Keep things simple. Rather than having a whole pile of elements in your story have less, better described ones. All the means you have is going to tease you into writing more and more pages. Personally I think about 200 pages is plenty. That keeps your reader interested. Plus if you absolutely have more to write then save it for your next book. Maybe you can even write a sequel.
38. Don’t Over Describe
You want to make sure that your characters are true to real life. You can very easily put them over the edge by putting too much description into them. Your reader wants to think of your character as someone they know. Maybe it’s their next door neighbor or some one like that. They won’t relate well if this character is some kind of mole that lives in the middle of the earth. That’s okay if your story is about a mole from the middle of the earth but you will have more success with more realism.
39. Start Your Own Trend
You might have an author that you just adore. You might want to write like him and that’s okay. What’s not okay is copying him. I don’t mean plagiarism but rather writing about all the same things he writes about. Your audience doesn’t want to see Joe Shmo writing about the same things as Dean Koontz. So go ahead and have your favorites but remember to be successful you have to develop your own style.
40. Build A Pyramid
You have to start at the bottom and work your way up one rock at a time. Don’t jump all over the place. Take your time and make those rocks fit nicely into place. Don’t leave any hanging out because not only are you wrecking the look of your structure but you’re also stressing the integrity of the pyramid. By doing things like that you take the chance of the entire structure coming tumbling down. Are you willing to take that chance?
I know a lot of this seems like its going no where but trust me I write this from experience. Writing a book is no easy task. I wish someone would have helped me out like this when I first started writing. I will tell you one thing. Now this relates to me and it could to you but you have to want it to. No matter how hard the writing got I never disliked it. I still love writing and maybe this is a pipe dream but I hope to be able to retire and live totally off the money I earn from writing. Okay this is the end of lesson 8. I hope you are enjoying it so far. I also hope you are taking advantage of the opportunity to print this out because if all goes well I will make this into an e book so take advantage of it free.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ and lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
36. A Hint For Interest
What you want to do to get your readers to turn to the next page is do something exciting on every page. When I say do something that can also be a description of an exciting place, character or event. It doesn’t have to be a fight scene or murder scene every page because that will get redundant and work against you. It’s not always going to be possible to make it happen every page but trust me you don’t want to go more than three pages. This can be something as brilliant as describing how beautiful the moon looks on a dark starry night.
37. Don’t Be Long Winded
Just because you have a computer now which authors of past didn’t doesn’t mean you have to write a 600 page book. Keep things simple. Rather than having a whole pile of elements in your story have less, better described ones. All the means you have is going to tease you into writing more and more pages. Personally I think about 200 pages is plenty. That keeps your reader interested. Plus if you absolutely have more to write then save it for your next book. Maybe you can even write a sequel.
38. Don’t Over Describe
You want to make sure that your characters are true to real life. You can very easily put them over the edge by putting too much description into them. Your reader wants to think of your character as someone they know. Maybe it’s their next door neighbor or some one like that. They won’t relate well if this character is some kind of mole that lives in the middle of the earth. That’s okay if your story is about a mole from the middle of the earth but you will have more success with more realism.
39. Start Your Own Trend
You might have an author that you just adore. You might want to write like him and that’s okay. What’s not okay is copying him. I don’t mean plagiarism but rather writing about all the same things he writes about. Your audience doesn’t want to see Joe Shmo writing about the same things as Dean Koontz. So go ahead and have your favorites but remember to be successful you have to develop your own style.
40. Build A Pyramid
You have to start at the bottom and work your way up one rock at a time. Don’t jump all over the place. Take your time and make those rocks fit nicely into place. Don’t leave any hanging out because not only are you wrecking the look of your structure but you’re also stressing the integrity of the pyramid. By doing things like that you take the chance of the entire structure coming tumbling down. Are you willing to take that chance?
I know a lot of this seems like its going no where but trust me I write this from experience. Writing a book is no easy task. I wish someone would have helped me out like this when I first started writing. I will tell you one thing. Now this relates to me and it could to you but you have to want it to. No matter how hard the writing got I never disliked it. I still love writing and maybe this is a pipe dream but I hope to be able to retire and live totally off the money I earn from writing. Okay this is the end of lesson 8. I hope you are enjoying it so far. I also hope you are taking advantage of the opportunity to print this out because if all goes well I will make this into an e book so take advantage of it free.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ and lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
JAKES MAFIA
This was the fifth year in a row now and business was better then ever. Jake started his black market business at camp five years ago. When he started it involved mostly chocolate bars and other candy products but over the five years the business has grown tremendously. Jake now stocks anything from the original candy bars to now being able to get cam corders, computers and even items as big as 52 inch televisions. Jake had a partner at camp. His name is Brian. He also had several partners outside of camp. He never knew their names and never wanted to. Two months at camp, Jake and Brian could make enough cash to get through the entire year until next years camp. That how ever didn’t stop them from working their business in the off season it’s just that this was their primary selling season. What Jake and Brian didn’t know was that things were going to go bad this year. There were going to very bad.
The boys were well in to their first out of nine selling weeks. Sales were great. Hell it even looked like it would be a record year. What you have to remember was that Jake was selling to some of these kids for five years now. The kids came to camp prepared to spend money. Hell even some parents gave their kids money to get them items. Of course they would never admit it but Jake knew what was happening. And honestly he didn’t care where the items were going as long as the cash was going in his pocket.
On the seventh day Jake noticed a dramatic down fall in sales. He decided to not sweat it and see what happened the next day. Well the next day was worse so he knew that he had to investigate to see what was going on. So now he and Brian were on a mission. It took no time at all to find the problem. Another camper had moved in on their territory. Jake was furious. The guy selling was a friend of Jakes. Well an ex friend now. When Jake went to approach him two of the other campers stepped in front of him. Gary the new kid on the block wouldn’t even acknowledge that Brian and Jake were there. He just kept on selling as if nothing was going on. At that moment Jake decided that walking away would be the best thing for now but he also knew that in no way was he done.
That night Jake lay in bed wondering how he was going to deal with the situation at hand. He figured if he could get to talk to Gary one on one that he could make things right. Jake was a little worried because all his product was bought on credit and the guys he bought it from weren’t very nice guys. They trusted Jake because he always made good but he knew they wouldn’t hesitate to deal with a situation that may go bad. Sleep was very limited that night. However when Jake woke up in the morning he felt like it would be a good day. Little did he know that today would be the day that the snowball started rolling down the hill.
Jake got up and had a shower before he made his way over to where Gary was working. He decided to get it over and done with instead of procrastinating. Once he got to Garys venue once again the same two guys stepped out in front of him. Jake was very nice about the situation. Inside he was boiling over but he knew that at this point anger wasn’t the solution. Jake asked that he be allowed to talk to Gary for a few minutes. One of the big dudes went over and said something before coming back and letting Jake through. Jake was excited. He was sure he was about to get this thing resolved.
It didn’t take long for Jake to realize that this conversation was going to get nothing resolved. Jake was nice about things at first. He reminded Gary that this had been his gig for five years. He reminded him that friends don’t screw other friends over. Jake even offered Gary a share of the business next year but this year he had obligations to fulfill and with the new business this was going to be very tough to do. There was no hesitation, no sympathy, absolutely no caring from Gary. He reminded Jake that it was a free world. He told Jake that he didn’t care about his problems and there was no way he was going to quit what was now filling his pockets with more cash then he had ever known.
Jake snapped. He tried to get at Gary but was very surprised at the quickness of the two guys that were there to guard Gary. The guys hauled Jake out of the area. The entire time Jake was making promises of retribution. He promised Gary that this wasn’t over and that by the end of the week there once again would be only one guy selling here. The two brutes warned Jake not to come back to the area unless he was coming to do business.
Jake now walked away. He was defeated for now but he knew he wasn’t going to take this laying down. He did however wonder what the business had come to that his competition was actually using body guards. For Jake it turned out to be a long day. His business had dropped about 80 percent. On top of all that he had to make a product payment. This week was fine because he had a great week but what would happen if he couldn’t get his sales the following week. He didn’t want to think what would happen. He was never in that position before but he knew that his suppliers weren’t nice guys.
The next week rolled around and Jakes business was even worse now. He had no where enough cash to pay his supplier. He decided to be honest and ask for an extension and see what happened. Jake was quite surprised. His meeting went well. The guys he owed money to reminded him that they were a team and that they would help him out in any way possible. Jake was impressed. Maybe things were looking up. He slept the best he did in a week. Come morning however everything would change. All of his endeavors would be hoisted to a new level.
The following morning Jake was awakened by first the sounds of screams and secondly a commotion building out side his cabin. He quickly got out of bed to see what was going on. What Jake saw next was enough to drive him over the edge. This was something that only happened in the movies. There on the side of his cabin were Garys two body guards. It was quite obvious they were dead. There eyes were missing, there hearts were lying at their feet and they were nailed to the wall. Jake knew immediately what happened. He didn’t want to believe it but there was no denying it. His suppliers had decided to help him but in a million years Jake never thought it would come to this. All around him people were crying, throwing up and screaming. Then all at once Jake noticed something funny going on. He saw everybody moving away from him. He didn’t want to think it but he could see how they would. Everybody thought that this was Jakes handy work. After all everybody did hear him threatening Gary.
Minutes later the cops arrived. Jake was sure things would get straightened out now. He was totally wrong because at the end of the day it was Jake that was hauled away in hand cuffs and charged with two counts of murder. It seemed like there was nothing he could say that would make the police think any different.
3 weeks later Jake had his trial. The evidence against him was so over whelming that even he would have convicted him self. Obviously the jury was thinking the same thing because they only needed an hour to come back with a guilty verdict. Jake was sentenced to 50 years for both murders with no chance of parole. After all was said and done Jake guessed that it was his suppliers that set him up so when the guards told him that Gary was there to visit him it was a little surprising.
The conversation went quite well. Jake tried to convince Gary that he was innocent. Gary wouldn’t have any of that but he also knew that their conversation was being monitored. Their talk lasted another 10 minutes before Gary told Jake that he had to leave. He told Jake that his business was thriving. Then Gary did something he knew he wasn’t suppose to do but he also knew that he didn’t need to ever come back to this place. Gary bent over and asked Jake if he liked his handy work he had left on the wall of the cabin. Gary was immediately escorted out. Jake just sat there with the wind knocked out of his sails. He would have never thought it if he didn’t hear it for himself.
Dale Mazurek
The boys were well in to their first out of nine selling weeks. Sales were great. Hell it even looked like it would be a record year. What you have to remember was that Jake was selling to some of these kids for five years now. The kids came to camp prepared to spend money. Hell even some parents gave their kids money to get them items. Of course they would never admit it but Jake knew what was happening. And honestly he didn’t care where the items were going as long as the cash was going in his pocket.
On the seventh day Jake noticed a dramatic down fall in sales. He decided to not sweat it and see what happened the next day. Well the next day was worse so he knew that he had to investigate to see what was going on. So now he and Brian were on a mission. It took no time at all to find the problem. Another camper had moved in on their territory. Jake was furious. The guy selling was a friend of Jakes. Well an ex friend now. When Jake went to approach him two of the other campers stepped in front of him. Gary the new kid on the block wouldn’t even acknowledge that Brian and Jake were there. He just kept on selling as if nothing was going on. At that moment Jake decided that walking away would be the best thing for now but he also knew that in no way was he done.
That night Jake lay in bed wondering how he was going to deal with the situation at hand. He figured if he could get to talk to Gary one on one that he could make things right. Jake was a little worried because all his product was bought on credit and the guys he bought it from weren’t very nice guys. They trusted Jake because he always made good but he knew they wouldn’t hesitate to deal with a situation that may go bad. Sleep was very limited that night. However when Jake woke up in the morning he felt like it would be a good day. Little did he know that today would be the day that the snowball started rolling down the hill.
Jake got up and had a shower before he made his way over to where Gary was working. He decided to get it over and done with instead of procrastinating. Once he got to Garys venue once again the same two guys stepped out in front of him. Jake was very nice about the situation. Inside he was boiling over but he knew that at this point anger wasn’t the solution. Jake asked that he be allowed to talk to Gary for a few minutes. One of the big dudes went over and said something before coming back and letting Jake through. Jake was excited. He was sure he was about to get this thing resolved.
It didn’t take long for Jake to realize that this conversation was going to get nothing resolved. Jake was nice about things at first. He reminded Gary that this had been his gig for five years. He reminded him that friends don’t screw other friends over. Jake even offered Gary a share of the business next year but this year he had obligations to fulfill and with the new business this was going to be very tough to do. There was no hesitation, no sympathy, absolutely no caring from Gary. He reminded Jake that it was a free world. He told Jake that he didn’t care about his problems and there was no way he was going to quit what was now filling his pockets with more cash then he had ever known.
Jake snapped. He tried to get at Gary but was very surprised at the quickness of the two guys that were there to guard Gary. The guys hauled Jake out of the area. The entire time Jake was making promises of retribution. He promised Gary that this wasn’t over and that by the end of the week there once again would be only one guy selling here. The two brutes warned Jake not to come back to the area unless he was coming to do business.
Jake now walked away. He was defeated for now but he knew he wasn’t going to take this laying down. He did however wonder what the business had come to that his competition was actually using body guards. For Jake it turned out to be a long day. His business had dropped about 80 percent. On top of all that he had to make a product payment. This week was fine because he had a great week but what would happen if he couldn’t get his sales the following week. He didn’t want to think what would happen. He was never in that position before but he knew that his suppliers weren’t nice guys.
The next week rolled around and Jakes business was even worse now. He had no where enough cash to pay his supplier. He decided to be honest and ask for an extension and see what happened. Jake was quite surprised. His meeting went well. The guys he owed money to reminded him that they were a team and that they would help him out in any way possible. Jake was impressed. Maybe things were looking up. He slept the best he did in a week. Come morning however everything would change. All of his endeavors would be hoisted to a new level.
The following morning Jake was awakened by first the sounds of screams and secondly a commotion building out side his cabin. He quickly got out of bed to see what was going on. What Jake saw next was enough to drive him over the edge. This was something that only happened in the movies. There on the side of his cabin were Garys two body guards. It was quite obvious they were dead. There eyes were missing, there hearts were lying at their feet and they were nailed to the wall. Jake knew immediately what happened. He didn’t want to believe it but there was no denying it. His suppliers had decided to help him but in a million years Jake never thought it would come to this. All around him people were crying, throwing up and screaming. Then all at once Jake noticed something funny going on. He saw everybody moving away from him. He didn’t want to think it but he could see how they would. Everybody thought that this was Jakes handy work. After all everybody did hear him threatening Gary.
Minutes later the cops arrived. Jake was sure things would get straightened out now. He was totally wrong because at the end of the day it was Jake that was hauled away in hand cuffs and charged with two counts of murder. It seemed like there was nothing he could say that would make the police think any different.
3 weeks later Jake had his trial. The evidence against him was so over whelming that even he would have convicted him self. Obviously the jury was thinking the same thing because they only needed an hour to come back with a guilty verdict. Jake was sentenced to 50 years for both murders with no chance of parole. After all was said and done Jake guessed that it was his suppliers that set him up so when the guards told him that Gary was there to visit him it was a little surprising.
The conversation went quite well. Jake tried to convince Gary that he was innocent. Gary wouldn’t have any of that but he also knew that their conversation was being monitored. Their talk lasted another 10 minutes before Gary told Jake that he had to leave. He told Jake that his business was thriving. Then Gary did something he knew he wasn’t suppose to do but he also knew that he didn’t need to ever come back to this place. Gary bent over and asked Jake if he liked his handy work he had left on the wall of the cabin. Gary was immediately escorted out. Jake just sat there with the wind knocked out of his sails. He would have never thought it if he didn’t hear it for himself.
Dale Mazurek
IT’S A BIRD, IT’S A PLANE, IT’S A DEVIL
When Jakes little sister came running in the house he immediately knew it was going to be trouble. He could see the evil in the kitty. But he also knew there was no sense arguing with his mom and dad because they had already told Courtney that she could have it. From experience he knew that his sister was a spoiled brat and anything she wanted she got. So Jake decided he would keep an eye on this cat and the first sign of anything bad he would take care of the problem himself.
The days went on and even though nothing seemed to be happening Jake still grew more and more suspicious of the cat. He didn’t know what it was but there was no doubt in his mind that someone in the family was going to find out. The weird thing was that the cat looked at Jake as if it knew what he was thinking.
A few more weeks had gone by when Jake had almost let his guard down the first event finally happened. First of all this cat was growing a lot bigger than it should have but that didn’t seem to matter to anyone. Jake was walking past the barn when out of the corner of his eye he spotted something moving on the fence. When Jake looked up it was the weirdest thing. It was as if the cat had been waiting for him because to Jake it looked like it smirked before jumping on the back of one of the laying hens and killing it almost immediately. Jake was terrified and frozen which in turn gave the cat time to get back to the house before Jake could. When Jake got back to the house he tried to tell his mom and dad what he saw but of course Courtney got all cranky and denied everything on behalf of her cat. Jake took his dad out and showed him and he couldn’t believe it when he blamed the dead hen on either Jakes dog or coyotes.
Jake was furious and decided that he was going to take care of this problem him self and he was going to do it tonight. So later on in the evening Courtney was playing with her dolls, mom and dad were watching television and Jake knew the cat was still out side so he decided it was time to make it disappear. Jake knew it would be sleeping on the deck so that’s where he headed and sure enough there was the cat. Jake walked up slowly behind it and just when he was about to grab the little sucker it turned around baring fangs that not even a cat should have. Jake stumbled back. He was terrified. He knew this was no normal cat. He just had to figure a way to get rid of it or get someone to believe him. Either way there was going to be nothing easy about either task.
Through out the next couple of weeks a lot of things were happening that Jake knew was a result of the cat. More chickens were found dead, dogs, calves and even pigs were found dead. However it wasn’t just happening on Jakes farm but on the neighboring farms as well. Jake had tried to use the gun on the cat a few times but it seemed that it was always one step ahead of Jake. Jake was at the point where he didn’t care any more. He knew that the cat slept in Courtney’s room and tonight he and the cat would have a show down. He knew his little sister would be there but right now that was irrelevant.
The rest of the day seemed to drag on forever. Jake just wanted to get this over with. He knew he was going to be the bad person after this was finally over and done with. He couldn’t figure out why everyone else was so blind to this. Hell the cat was as big as a bobcat and why no one found this strange was beyond him. Every time he tried to talk to some one about it they would look at him strange. It was as if he was the only one seeing this. Why was he always around when the cat carried out its evil doings? Why was he the only one to ever see the things that were happening? Oh well it didn’t matter anymore because one way or another it would all be over with tonight.
Finally the time came. It was about 2 in the morning. Jake had been lying on his bed holding the gun he had planned on using on the cat. He checked the clip probably about 20 times just to make sure it was loaded. Each time it was the same thing. All the shells were in the gun. Now that Jake was convinced everyone would be sleeping it was time for him to get done what he new he needed to do weeks ago.
So his plan was to walk in find the cat, aim the gun and let the shot go. There would be no hesitation. He couldn’t allow something or someone to get in his way. He would worry about the consequences after because at the end of the day he knew he was doing the right thing. All his plans would change as soon as he walked in the door of his sister’s bedroom. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. There on the bed, the walls, the floors and everywhere he could see there was blood. So much blood. In front of him the cat was walking on the obviously dead body of his sister. Now he was enraged. Jake picked up the gun and just started shooting. He didn’t even see the cat walk past him. All he could do was shoot the gun. He kept pulling the trigger until there were no bullets left. Right after the last shot was fired he seen a bright light, felt something hit his head very hard and he fell to the floor.
A little while later Jake woke up. He was lying on a gurney and he was handcuffed to the rails. He didn’t know what was going on but whatever it was he knew it couldn’t be good. About a minute after he woke up someone realized that he was up and all of a sudden he was being swarmed by his parents and a number of police officers. They were all asking him the same question. They were asking him why he would kill Courtney. The only two words he could muster was “the cat.” Then Jake noticed something. His mom was holding the cat but now it was small again. There was no doubt that it was the same cat only now it really looked like a kitten. How could this happen? What the hell was going on? The officer asked Jake why he would want to shoot his sister. The question confused Jake for a moment and then he realized something.
Jake went back to all the incidents and reminded himself that he was the only one there. Could he have been the one that did this? The officer told him that his sister died from being shot 3 times. Once in the head and twice in the chest. Then he realized it. He couldn’t believe it but the facts were all pointing at him. He couldn’t believe he had done all these terrible things. What else could it be? As he was being loaded into the ambulance he tried talking to his parents but that seemed to now be a relationship broken forever. How could he blame them after all it looked like he had just killed their daughter?
Just as the doors to the ambulance were being closed the last thing Jake saw was Courtney’s cat in his mothers arm. What he saw last was the answer to his fears even though he new it wouldn’t help his case. There was no doubt in jakes mind that the cat smirked and blinked at him just before the doors closed on his freedom forever.
Dale Mazurek
The days went on and even though nothing seemed to be happening Jake still grew more and more suspicious of the cat. He didn’t know what it was but there was no doubt in his mind that someone in the family was going to find out. The weird thing was that the cat looked at Jake as if it knew what he was thinking.
A few more weeks had gone by when Jake had almost let his guard down the first event finally happened. First of all this cat was growing a lot bigger than it should have but that didn’t seem to matter to anyone. Jake was walking past the barn when out of the corner of his eye he spotted something moving on the fence. When Jake looked up it was the weirdest thing. It was as if the cat had been waiting for him because to Jake it looked like it smirked before jumping on the back of one of the laying hens and killing it almost immediately. Jake was terrified and frozen which in turn gave the cat time to get back to the house before Jake could. When Jake got back to the house he tried to tell his mom and dad what he saw but of course Courtney got all cranky and denied everything on behalf of her cat. Jake took his dad out and showed him and he couldn’t believe it when he blamed the dead hen on either Jakes dog or coyotes.
Jake was furious and decided that he was going to take care of this problem him self and he was going to do it tonight. So later on in the evening Courtney was playing with her dolls, mom and dad were watching television and Jake knew the cat was still out side so he decided it was time to make it disappear. Jake knew it would be sleeping on the deck so that’s where he headed and sure enough there was the cat. Jake walked up slowly behind it and just when he was about to grab the little sucker it turned around baring fangs that not even a cat should have. Jake stumbled back. He was terrified. He knew this was no normal cat. He just had to figure a way to get rid of it or get someone to believe him. Either way there was going to be nothing easy about either task.
Through out the next couple of weeks a lot of things were happening that Jake knew was a result of the cat. More chickens were found dead, dogs, calves and even pigs were found dead. However it wasn’t just happening on Jakes farm but on the neighboring farms as well. Jake had tried to use the gun on the cat a few times but it seemed that it was always one step ahead of Jake. Jake was at the point where he didn’t care any more. He knew that the cat slept in Courtney’s room and tonight he and the cat would have a show down. He knew his little sister would be there but right now that was irrelevant.
The rest of the day seemed to drag on forever. Jake just wanted to get this over with. He knew he was going to be the bad person after this was finally over and done with. He couldn’t figure out why everyone else was so blind to this. Hell the cat was as big as a bobcat and why no one found this strange was beyond him. Every time he tried to talk to some one about it they would look at him strange. It was as if he was the only one seeing this. Why was he always around when the cat carried out its evil doings? Why was he the only one to ever see the things that were happening? Oh well it didn’t matter anymore because one way or another it would all be over with tonight.
Finally the time came. It was about 2 in the morning. Jake had been lying on his bed holding the gun he had planned on using on the cat. He checked the clip probably about 20 times just to make sure it was loaded. Each time it was the same thing. All the shells were in the gun. Now that Jake was convinced everyone would be sleeping it was time for him to get done what he new he needed to do weeks ago.
So his plan was to walk in find the cat, aim the gun and let the shot go. There would be no hesitation. He couldn’t allow something or someone to get in his way. He would worry about the consequences after because at the end of the day he knew he was doing the right thing. All his plans would change as soon as he walked in the door of his sister’s bedroom. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. There on the bed, the walls, the floors and everywhere he could see there was blood. So much blood. In front of him the cat was walking on the obviously dead body of his sister. Now he was enraged. Jake picked up the gun and just started shooting. He didn’t even see the cat walk past him. All he could do was shoot the gun. He kept pulling the trigger until there were no bullets left. Right after the last shot was fired he seen a bright light, felt something hit his head very hard and he fell to the floor.
A little while later Jake woke up. He was lying on a gurney and he was handcuffed to the rails. He didn’t know what was going on but whatever it was he knew it couldn’t be good. About a minute after he woke up someone realized that he was up and all of a sudden he was being swarmed by his parents and a number of police officers. They were all asking him the same question. They were asking him why he would kill Courtney. The only two words he could muster was “the cat.” Then Jake noticed something. His mom was holding the cat but now it was small again. There was no doubt that it was the same cat only now it really looked like a kitten. How could this happen? What the hell was going on? The officer asked Jake why he would want to shoot his sister. The question confused Jake for a moment and then he realized something.
Jake went back to all the incidents and reminded himself that he was the only one there. Could he have been the one that did this? The officer told him that his sister died from being shot 3 times. Once in the head and twice in the chest. Then he realized it. He couldn’t believe it but the facts were all pointing at him. He couldn’t believe he had done all these terrible things. What else could it be? As he was being loaded into the ambulance he tried talking to his parents but that seemed to now be a relationship broken forever. How could he blame them after all it looked like he had just killed their daughter?
Just as the doors to the ambulance were being closed the last thing Jake saw was Courtney’s cat in his mothers arm. What he saw last was the answer to his fears even though he new it wouldn’t help his case. There was no doubt in jakes mind that the cat smirked and blinked at him just before the doors closed on his freedom forever.
Dale Mazurek
Write Your Novel Step By Step (Part 7)
This is going to be the seventh excerpt on writing your novel. I am going to try and put these editions out as quickly as I can but that is only when time allows. I love writing and that is what I am doing all the time. Am I a good writer? I don’t know. What I do know is that I am getting to be a better writer with every word I put on paper and you too can become a good writer. To write your novel just follow these steps that I am laying out and at the end you will have something that at least you are proud of.
31. Don’t Confuse Your Reader
Make your decisions early and stick with them. If you don’t your firstly going to confuse your reader and secondly your going to lose your reader. Changing point of views half way through the story could and probably would be a disaster. This way to the reader gets early clarification of how the story is going to run and gets no surprises later on.
32. Don’t Be Scared To Write
This is huge. You have to learn to write all the time. For most of you writing your novel isn’t your full time career so you have to take advantage of any spare time you get. Make sure you always have your notepad with you. During lunch you can write. If you’re waiting for a meeting to start go ahead and write. Just anytime you have a spare moment go ahead and write. 15 minutes here and there might not seem like much but you would be surprised at how many pages it results in.
33. What’s Next
You have to keep the readers wanting more. So one of the biggest parts of your fiction novel is suspense. The readers always want more so keep your book suspenseful and keep the suspense exciting. Always be leading up to something. You have to get rid of the boring parts because I don’t know about you but as soon as a book gets boring I lose interest and probably never pick it up again. Maybe it gets good again later but once I'm gone I'm gone.
34. Silent Communication
Don’t forget to use body language in your novel. This can be a great way to describe characters. Let’s say you have a love scene. Well there really is no better way to describe a love scene other than body language. Oh sure you have to decide where the best place to use it is. How you do that is take your time to think out the scenes and decide if they could be made better with the use of body language.
35. Two Forms Of Writing
When I wrote my novel everything was done with pen and paper first. This is what I would suggest for you as well. Ya sure it may seem like it takes longer but I promise you when you are writing everything flows a whole lot smoother with pen and paper. You just write. You don’t worry about neatness or spell checking. Once your finished writing then by all means go ahead and start putting your work on the computer. Once again you can have a look at the small stuff like obvious spelling mistakes but just go ahead and type. This way you have already been through your story twice before you even start editing.
I know a lot of this seems like its going no where but trust me I write this from experience. Writing a book is no easy task. I wish someone would have helped me out like this when I first started writing. I will tell you one thing. Now this relates to me and it could to you but you have to want it to. No matter how hard the writing got I never disliked it. I still love writing and maybe this is a pipe dream but I hope to be able to retire and live totally off the money I earn from writing. Okay this is the end of lesson 7. I hope you are enjoying it so far. I also hope you are taking advantage of the opportunity to print this out because if all goes well I will make this into an e book so take advantage of it free.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ and lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
31. Don’t Confuse Your Reader
Make your decisions early and stick with them. If you don’t your firstly going to confuse your reader and secondly your going to lose your reader. Changing point of views half way through the story could and probably would be a disaster. This way to the reader gets early clarification of how the story is going to run and gets no surprises later on.
32. Don’t Be Scared To Write
This is huge. You have to learn to write all the time. For most of you writing your novel isn’t your full time career so you have to take advantage of any spare time you get. Make sure you always have your notepad with you. During lunch you can write. If you’re waiting for a meeting to start go ahead and write. Just anytime you have a spare moment go ahead and write. 15 minutes here and there might not seem like much but you would be surprised at how many pages it results in.
33. What’s Next
You have to keep the readers wanting more. So one of the biggest parts of your fiction novel is suspense. The readers always want more so keep your book suspenseful and keep the suspense exciting. Always be leading up to something. You have to get rid of the boring parts because I don’t know about you but as soon as a book gets boring I lose interest and probably never pick it up again. Maybe it gets good again later but once I'm gone I'm gone.
34. Silent Communication
Don’t forget to use body language in your novel. This can be a great way to describe characters. Let’s say you have a love scene. Well there really is no better way to describe a love scene other than body language. Oh sure you have to decide where the best place to use it is. How you do that is take your time to think out the scenes and decide if they could be made better with the use of body language.
35. Two Forms Of Writing
When I wrote my novel everything was done with pen and paper first. This is what I would suggest for you as well. Ya sure it may seem like it takes longer but I promise you when you are writing everything flows a whole lot smoother with pen and paper. You just write. You don’t worry about neatness or spell checking. Once your finished writing then by all means go ahead and start putting your work on the computer. Once again you can have a look at the small stuff like obvious spelling mistakes but just go ahead and type. This way you have already been through your story twice before you even start editing.
I know a lot of this seems like its going no where but trust me I write this from experience. Writing a book is no easy task. I wish someone would have helped me out like this when I first started writing. I will tell you one thing. Now this relates to me and it could to you but you have to want it to. No matter how hard the writing got I never disliked it. I still love writing and maybe this is a pipe dream but I hope to be able to retire and live totally off the money I earn from writing. Okay this is the end of lesson 7. I hope you are enjoying it so far. I also hope you are taking advantage of the opportunity to print this out because if all goes well I will make this into an e book so take advantage of it free.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ and lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
Write Your Novel Step By Step (Part 6)
This is going to be the sixth excerpt on writing your novel. I am going to try and put these editions out as quickly as I can but that is only when time allows. I love writing and that is what I am doing all the time. Am I a good writer? I don’t know. What I do know is that I am getting to be a better writer with every word I put on paper and you too can become a good writer. To write your novel just follow these steps that I am laying out and at the end you will have something that at least you are proud of.
26. Writing Goals
This is a very important decision in writing your novel. You have to set a goal for your self. How much are you going to write everyday? I don’t care if your goal is one page or fifteen but let’s make sure we make it realistic. Some days you may only write half a page and other days you may write ten or fifteen. When I am working on my novel my goal is about 5 pages a day. Again this isn’t set in stone. It’s not like you are going to go to writer’s hell if you don’t write enough but it is nice to get on a schedule and try and stay there the best you can.
27. Get Things Straight
Okay even though your novel is fiction you’re going to quickly turn readers off if your facts are wrong. Like don’t say a little town called Great Falls in New York when we all know clearly that Great Falls is in Montana. It’s so easy these days to keep your facts straight with a little bit of research. There are so many options available to you and for the most part they are free. Firstly you have the internet where you can find just about anything you need but for the more conservative person you can probably find anything you need at the public library. I can’t stress how important it is for you to keep your reader reading by getting things straight.
28. Make Sure Your Reader Is In The Story
So so important that your reader knows who is talking in the story. Dialogue will help keep your story moving forward and strong. If the reader feels like he is in the middle of the action he is going to want to be there the entire time. Don’t talk too much about what is going to happen in the future but instead let it happen and your reader will fall right into it.
29. Use Yourself
Here's a little character trick. Who do you know better than anyone else in the world? Of course the answer to that question is you. So why not make yourself the main character in your book. Use one of the pages in your scribbler to describe yourself. Get very detailed. Write down your hair color, eye color, your weight, favorite television shows and everything you can think of. Make sure you write down all your good and bad habits as well.
30. You Can Do It
I just want you to know that there is no doubt in my mind that you can write your novel. I also want you to stop thinking that you can’t write it either. The only person that is going to stop you is yourself. Oh sure some people may write quicker or slower and some people may write a little better or worse but we will get into editing later. All you have to do to make sure you complete this project is to make a commitment to yourself. So go look in a mirror and promise yourself that no matter how long it takes you are going to finish your book.
I know a lot of this seems like its going no where but trust me I write this from experience. Writing a book is no easy task. I wish someone would have helped me out like this when I first started writing. I will tell you one thing. Now this relates to me and it could to you but you have to want it to. No matter how hard the writing got I never disliked it. I still love writing and maybe this is a pipe dream but I hope to be able to retire and live totally off the money I earn from writing. Okay this is the end of lesson 6. I hope you are enjoying it so far. I also hope you are taking advantage of the opportunity to print this out because if all goes well I will make this into an e book so take advantage of it free.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ and lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
26. Writing Goals
This is a very important decision in writing your novel. You have to set a goal for your self. How much are you going to write everyday? I don’t care if your goal is one page or fifteen but let’s make sure we make it realistic. Some days you may only write half a page and other days you may write ten or fifteen. When I am working on my novel my goal is about 5 pages a day. Again this isn’t set in stone. It’s not like you are going to go to writer’s hell if you don’t write enough but it is nice to get on a schedule and try and stay there the best you can.
27. Get Things Straight
Okay even though your novel is fiction you’re going to quickly turn readers off if your facts are wrong. Like don’t say a little town called Great Falls in New York when we all know clearly that Great Falls is in Montana. It’s so easy these days to keep your facts straight with a little bit of research. There are so many options available to you and for the most part they are free. Firstly you have the internet where you can find just about anything you need but for the more conservative person you can probably find anything you need at the public library. I can’t stress how important it is for you to keep your reader reading by getting things straight.
28. Make Sure Your Reader Is In The Story
So so important that your reader knows who is talking in the story. Dialogue will help keep your story moving forward and strong. If the reader feels like he is in the middle of the action he is going to want to be there the entire time. Don’t talk too much about what is going to happen in the future but instead let it happen and your reader will fall right into it.
29. Use Yourself
Here's a little character trick. Who do you know better than anyone else in the world? Of course the answer to that question is you. So why not make yourself the main character in your book. Use one of the pages in your scribbler to describe yourself. Get very detailed. Write down your hair color, eye color, your weight, favorite television shows and everything you can think of. Make sure you write down all your good and bad habits as well.
30. You Can Do It
I just want you to know that there is no doubt in my mind that you can write your novel. I also want you to stop thinking that you can’t write it either. The only person that is going to stop you is yourself. Oh sure some people may write quicker or slower and some people may write a little better or worse but we will get into editing later. All you have to do to make sure you complete this project is to make a commitment to yourself. So go look in a mirror and promise yourself that no matter how long it takes you are going to finish your book.
I know a lot of this seems like its going no where but trust me I write this from experience. Writing a book is no easy task. I wish someone would have helped me out like this when I first started writing. I will tell you one thing. Now this relates to me and it could to you but you have to want it to. No matter how hard the writing got I never disliked it. I still love writing and maybe this is a pipe dream but I hope to be able to retire and live totally off the money I earn from writing. Okay this is the end of lesson 6. I hope you are enjoying it so far. I also hope you are taking advantage of the opportunity to print this out because if all goes well I will make this into an e book so take advantage of it free.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ and lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Write Your Novel Step By Step (Part 5)
This is going to be the fifth excerpt on writing your novel. I am going to try and put these editions out as quickly as I can but that is only when time allows. I love writing and that is what I am doing all the time. Am I a good writer? I don’t know. What I do know is that I am getting to be a better writer with every word I put on paper and you too can become a good writer. To write your novel just follow these steps that I am laying out and at the end you will have something that at least you are proud of.
21. Rough, Rough Draft
Get one blank page out of your character scribbler and write your entire story on it. I want you to write the first paragraph, the last one and then the entire body of your story in between. Obviously as an author this may sound dumb but it gives you a very brief outline of what you’re writing about and it’s kind of cool to look back at it later and see how the two actually compare.
22. Know Where Your Going
Do not and I mean Do Not start writing yet. First you have to make sure you are absolutely clear about your characters. You need to know their roles and know who they are and you absolutely have to make sure it is written down in your scribbler. Trust me when I say you can’t just start a story and let the characters write it for you. Only a select few writers can get away with this. I know, I tried and failed miserably.
23. Decorate Your Writing Room
Okay now all those pages in the scribbler that you filled. I want you to take them all out and hang them on the walls. I don’t care where you’re writing this is an absolute must. You can’t just put them in a drawer. You need to be able to refer to them at a glance.
24. Get Serious
Now I want you to sit down, rack your brain and write your first paragraph. I want you to take your time with this. I want the paragraph written just as it is going to stay in the story. Eventually you are going to edit a lot of parts in your story but I never want this first paragraph edited. Your entire novel is going to hang on this. So I don’t care if it takes you all day and night to write that first paragraph.
25. Your Map
Now you have a map of where you want to be. Your characters are built. The commitment is made. You have a strong starting paragraph. You have outlined the story. You have built direction for yourself. All of your tools are ready for quick use. Now all you have to do is write your novel.
I know a lot of this seems like its going no where but trust me I write this from experience. Writing a book is no easy task. I wish someone would have helped me out like this when I first started writing. I will tell you one thing. Now this relates to me and it could to you but you have to want it to. No matter how hard the writing got I never disliked it. I still love writing and maybe this is a pipe dream but I hope to be able to retire and live totally off the money I earn from writing. Okay this is the end of lesson 5. I hope you are enjoying it so far. I also hope you are taking advantage of the opportunity to print this out because if all goes well I will make this into an e book so take advantage of it free.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ And lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/ or http://stcajo.netsalaries.com
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
21. Rough, Rough Draft
Get one blank page out of your character scribbler and write your entire story on it. I want you to write the first paragraph, the last one and then the entire body of your story in between. Obviously as an author this may sound dumb but it gives you a very brief outline of what you’re writing about and it’s kind of cool to look back at it later and see how the two actually compare.
22. Know Where Your Going
Do not and I mean Do Not start writing yet. First you have to make sure you are absolutely clear about your characters. You need to know their roles and know who they are and you absolutely have to make sure it is written down in your scribbler. Trust me when I say you can’t just start a story and let the characters write it for you. Only a select few writers can get away with this. I know, I tried and failed miserably.
23. Decorate Your Writing Room
Okay now all those pages in the scribbler that you filled. I want you to take them all out and hang them on the walls. I don’t care where you’re writing this is an absolute must. You can’t just put them in a drawer. You need to be able to refer to them at a glance.
24. Get Serious
Now I want you to sit down, rack your brain and write your first paragraph. I want you to take your time with this. I want the paragraph written just as it is going to stay in the story. Eventually you are going to edit a lot of parts in your story but I never want this first paragraph edited. Your entire novel is going to hang on this. So I don’t care if it takes you all day and night to write that first paragraph.
25. Your Map
Now you have a map of where you want to be. Your characters are built. The commitment is made. You have a strong starting paragraph. You have outlined the story. You have built direction for yourself. All of your tools are ready for quick use. Now all you have to do is write your novel.
I know a lot of this seems like its going no where but trust me I write this from experience. Writing a book is no easy task. I wish someone would have helped me out like this when I first started writing. I will tell you one thing. Now this relates to me and it could to you but you have to want it to. No matter how hard the writing got I never disliked it. I still love writing and maybe this is a pipe dream but I hope to be able to retire and live totally off the money I earn from writing. Okay this is the end of lesson 5. I hope you are enjoying it so far. I also hope you are taking advantage of the opportunity to print this out because if all goes well I will make this into an e book so take advantage of it free.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ And lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/ or http://stcajo.netsalaries.com
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
Saturday, March 3, 2007
GREED
Jake was devastated at his grandmothers funeral. He and granny were always very close. She did live a good life. Granny was 93 when she died and the only cause of death was heart failure due to old age. The other thing Jake knew was that granny was loaded and she had promised him a very generous gift at her death. So when he was asked to attend the reading of her will he was obviously excited as any one of us would have been. Jake was very careful not to show his enthusiasm. Whether people liked it or not Jake truly did love his granny and he truly wished she were still alive. Never the less she wasn’t still alive so why shouldn’t he be excited about the promise that his granny made to him.
At the reading there were a number of relatives present. They were all getting small things like furniture, arts, crafts and some even got some small amounts of money. Finally the lawyer got to Jake and it was everything he could do to hide his enthusiasm. About two minutes later the joyous enthusiasm turned into a very quiet lonely anger. The lawyer read out that granny left the most important gift to her grandson Jake. This was her treasured bible. He told her that granny was quite adamant that this book was her most prized possession. The bible was about 80 years old and Jake knew that granny had probably read it from cover to cover a number of times. However Jake knew that he wouldn’t be following in grannies footsteps. He knew he would never read the bible. Jake left the lawyers office with a smile on his face but extreme anger in his heart. When he got home he threw the bible in the bottom of his closet and that’s where it sat forgotten about until about 3 months later.
Jake got home from school to find that a water line had busted in the house and pretty much formed a river running right through his bedroom using his closet as a dam. When he opened the closet a ton of water came flooding out along with all kinds of ruined possessions of his. Along with those possessions was the bible that his grandmother had given to him upon her death. At first glance he didn’t think anything of the bible. He started picking through his stuff to see if there was anything salvageable. When he got to the bible he was about to throw it in the garbage when something caught his eye. There was a piece of paper sticking out of the middle of the water logged pages. Jake pulled the paper out and was surprised to see that it was completely legible. The water had not ruined it like it did everything else. The pages in the bible were all turned to mush. Jake realized that the paper was a letter from his granny. He sat on the bed to read it.
Dear Jake:
Hi there sweetie. Well if you’re reading this letter then obviously I have died. First of all I would like to say thank you for always being there for me. You didn’t wait until I was sick to visit me like an obligation or something. I promised you a special reward at my death and this letter will explain to you how to retrieve it. There are a number of clues throughout the bible. You have to put the clues together and after that you will be able to retrieve your reward. Jake I want you to know that this book was my most prized possession. I promise that once you get all the clues it will be very easy to figure out the riddle and then you can collect your reward. Jake the reward is what’s left of my estate which is a total of 3 million dollars. I would in no way be happier knowing that you got the money and that you are enjoying it. However Jake there is one catch to this and that is you have to claim the money in 60 days or it will be forever lost to you. In the event you do not claim the funds I have set it up so that the funds are evenly distributed among the homeless in our country. So Jake the final words you will see from me are I hope you enjoy, thank you and I love you.
Signed: Granny
Jake opened up the bible and saw that there was barely a legible word left in the book. It wouldn’t have mattered if there was because granny had been dead for over three months now and the dead line was sixty days.
Jake just started laughing. He remembered how pissed off he was. Now in retrospect he realized exactly how greedy he was. He also realized that the biggest rewards could come in the most unusual packages. He couldn’t stop laughing as he walked out of his bedroom tossing the ruined bible into the garbage can on his way out
Dale Mazurek
Dale is aspiring to make a living totally on line. His passion is writing. You can find some of his stories at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ He also blogs about online fundamentals and you can find that at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
And lastly have a look at his program. http://stcajo.netsalaries.com
At the reading there were a number of relatives present. They were all getting small things like furniture, arts, crafts and some even got some small amounts of money. Finally the lawyer got to Jake and it was everything he could do to hide his enthusiasm. About two minutes later the joyous enthusiasm turned into a very quiet lonely anger. The lawyer read out that granny left the most important gift to her grandson Jake. This was her treasured bible. He told her that granny was quite adamant that this book was her most prized possession. The bible was about 80 years old and Jake knew that granny had probably read it from cover to cover a number of times. However Jake knew that he wouldn’t be following in grannies footsteps. He knew he would never read the bible. Jake left the lawyers office with a smile on his face but extreme anger in his heart. When he got home he threw the bible in the bottom of his closet and that’s where it sat forgotten about until about 3 months later.
Jake got home from school to find that a water line had busted in the house and pretty much formed a river running right through his bedroom using his closet as a dam. When he opened the closet a ton of water came flooding out along with all kinds of ruined possessions of his. Along with those possessions was the bible that his grandmother had given to him upon her death. At first glance he didn’t think anything of the bible. He started picking through his stuff to see if there was anything salvageable. When he got to the bible he was about to throw it in the garbage when something caught his eye. There was a piece of paper sticking out of the middle of the water logged pages. Jake pulled the paper out and was surprised to see that it was completely legible. The water had not ruined it like it did everything else. The pages in the bible were all turned to mush. Jake realized that the paper was a letter from his granny. He sat on the bed to read it.
Dear Jake:
Hi there sweetie. Well if you’re reading this letter then obviously I have died. First of all I would like to say thank you for always being there for me. You didn’t wait until I was sick to visit me like an obligation or something. I promised you a special reward at my death and this letter will explain to you how to retrieve it. There are a number of clues throughout the bible. You have to put the clues together and after that you will be able to retrieve your reward. Jake I want you to know that this book was my most prized possession. I promise that once you get all the clues it will be very easy to figure out the riddle and then you can collect your reward. Jake the reward is what’s left of my estate which is a total of 3 million dollars. I would in no way be happier knowing that you got the money and that you are enjoying it. However Jake there is one catch to this and that is you have to claim the money in 60 days or it will be forever lost to you. In the event you do not claim the funds I have set it up so that the funds are evenly distributed among the homeless in our country. So Jake the final words you will see from me are I hope you enjoy, thank you and I love you.
Signed: Granny
Jake opened up the bible and saw that there was barely a legible word left in the book. It wouldn’t have mattered if there was because granny had been dead for over three months now and the dead line was sixty days.
Jake just started laughing. He remembered how pissed off he was. Now in retrospect he realized exactly how greedy he was. He also realized that the biggest rewards could come in the most unusual packages. He couldn’t stop laughing as he walked out of his bedroom tossing the ruined bible into the garbage can on his way out
Dale Mazurek
Dale is aspiring to make a living totally on line. His passion is writing. You can find some of his stories at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ He also blogs about online fundamentals and you can find that at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
And lastly have a look at his program. http://stcajo.netsalaries.com
Write Your Novel Step By Step (Part 4)
This is going to be the third excerpt on writing your novel. I am going to try and put these editions out as quickly as I can but that is only when time allows. I love writing and that is what I am doing all the time. Am I a good writer? I don’t know. What I do know is that I am getting to be a better writer with every word I put on paper and you too can become a good writer. To write your novel just follow these steps that I am laying out and at the end you will have something that at least you are proud of.
16. Believability
It doesn’t matter if your character is evil or good. What does matter is that your reader believes he is real. When I write I make believe I am the character, I talk out loud and I take my time to imagine what he is doing next. Your characters actions will define his purpose. Your story is going to be a lot harder to believe if you have way too many characters. Some authors can pull it off but not a lot. So you are better off having a few characters of which you can make your audience focus on.
17. Your Best Friend.
A writer’s biggest challenge is developing a protagonist that is consistent through out the entire story. You have to remember this is your main character. Basically your story lives or dies off the actions of your protagonist. If your reader doesn’t care about the protagonist then he isn’t even going to make it from cover to cover.
18. Character Development
You have to figure out who you need for characters. You have to figure out what these characters are going to mean to one another. In some stories the characters love one another and in others they hate each other. You have to ask yourself what your readers want. Sometimes you have difficult choices to make. For example a character that you and your readers are in love with might have to be killed off to make the story take that next leap. Don’t get stuck on your decisions because if you do then that is where your story will end. Sometimes you have to be hard but that’s part of the business. I would recommend trying a few different things with your character. However don’t go with your heart. In this case you have to go with what you know is going to work. It’s your chance to play devils advocate so take the chance and run with it.
19. “Why”
As you get further into your novel you’re going to have quite a character built. You’re going to have the pages on your scribbler just filled with different points to your character. By now you should even know your characters shoe size and what color underwear they like to wear. Always ask the question why of your character. Secondly what’s even more important than that is answering it in your scribbler.
20. Be You
So many new writers like to try and make themselves sound like some one else. My favorite writer is Stephen King and I enjoy writing the same genre as he does but I can guarantee the two of us don’t sound anything alike. When I write I talk it out. What I am trying to say is I write out loud. Some of your work is going to get very ugly and awkward but you can deal with that later. So make sure you develop your own style and your own voice.
Okay this is the end of my fourth lesson on my step by step series on how to write a novel. Remember not everyone is going to write the perfect novel but at the end of the day if you keep following these steps I guarantee no matter what you will have something that you are proud of.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ And lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://www.7dayebook.com/?hop=stcajo orhttp://stcajo.profitlan.hop.clickbank.net You can also contact him at stcajo2011@yahoo for any info on his writing or products.
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
16. Believability
It doesn’t matter if your character is evil or good. What does matter is that your reader believes he is real. When I write I make believe I am the character, I talk out loud and I take my time to imagine what he is doing next. Your characters actions will define his purpose. Your story is going to be a lot harder to believe if you have way too many characters. Some authors can pull it off but not a lot. So you are better off having a few characters of which you can make your audience focus on.
17. Your Best Friend.
A writer’s biggest challenge is developing a protagonist that is consistent through out the entire story. You have to remember this is your main character. Basically your story lives or dies off the actions of your protagonist. If your reader doesn’t care about the protagonist then he isn’t even going to make it from cover to cover.
18. Character Development
You have to figure out who you need for characters. You have to figure out what these characters are going to mean to one another. In some stories the characters love one another and in others they hate each other. You have to ask yourself what your readers want. Sometimes you have difficult choices to make. For example a character that you and your readers are in love with might have to be killed off to make the story take that next leap. Don’t get stuck on your decisions because if you do then that is where your story will end. Sometimes you have to be hard but that’s part of the business. I would recommend trying a few different things with your character. However don’t go with your heart. In this case you have to go with what you know is going to work. It’s your chance to play devils advocate so take the chance and run with it.
19. “Why”
As you get further into your novel you’re going to have quite a character built. You’re going to have the pages on your scribbler just filled with different points to your character. By now you should even know your characters shoe size and what color underwear they like to wear. Always ask the question why of your character. Secondly what’s even more important than that is answering it in your scribbler.
20. Be You
So many new writers like to try and make themselves sound like some one else. My favorite writer is Stephen King and I enjoy writing the same genre as he does but I can guarantee the two of us don’t sound anything alike. When I write I talk it out. What I am trying to say is I write out loud. Some of your work is going to get very ugly and awkward but you can deal with that later. So make sure you develop your own style and your own voice.
Okay this is the end of my fourth lesson on my step by step series on how to write a novel. Remember not everyone is going to write the perfect novel but at the end of the day if you keep following these steps I guarantee no matter what you will have something that you are proud of.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ And lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://www.7dayebook.com/?hop=stcajo orhttp://stcajo.profitlan.hop.clickbank.net You can also contact him at stcajo2011@yahoo for any info on his writing or products.
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
Friday, March 2, 2007
Write Your Novel Step By Step (Part 3)
This is going to be the third excerpt on writing your novel. I am going to try and put these editions out as quickly as I can but that is only when time allows. I love writing and that is what I am doing all the time. Am I a good writer? I don’t know. What I do know is that I am getting to be a better writer with every word I put on paper and you too can become a good writer. To write your novel just follow these steps that I am laying out and at the end you will have something that at least you are proud of.
11. What You Know To Start
When you first start your book it’s important to write about things that you are familiar with. Places that you have lived at, worked at or just visited. Things that you know a little bit about. Maybe you work in the oil path so you want your story to be on a rig. Lastly maybe you know some interesting people that you could use some of their traits to build an exciting character.
12. Characters First
Since your characters are harder to develop you should work on them first. Remember your readers are going to want characters that come to life. Another thing is that your character can’t really change half way through the story. Look at your character kind of like a snowball. He starts off small and eventually becomes big. The plot could change in your story half way through but not your character.
13. Know Your Characters
When you’re done with this exercise you will know your characters intimately. Choose a couple of females, a couple of males and some kids and start building your characters. I use a loose leaf book and use one page per character. You want to build your characters traits. What do they look like? Are they fat, skinny, tall, short, what color are their hair and eyes? Maybe they are bald. Do they have hobbies? What do they like to eat? Are they normal or do they have a sick or sadistic side to them? It doesn’t matter if these are main characters or small part characters. By giving them a life of their own it will help your readers relate to them.
14. Formula
You are going to want to build yourself some sort of formula for a story. Let’s say your writing about a fictional serial killer. You’re going to want to decide how many people he will kill. Will these people be female or male? Will he kill during the day or night? What happens if you run into problems with your story? For me when I was writing my serial killer novel and I ran into a road block I just killed someone else. By that time I was usually past my road block.
15. Plot And Characters
Now that you have your characters built you can start building your plot around them. You already know what you want to write about but you have to make sure that your characters and plot don’t go in the opposite direction. The characters and plot have to move to the ultimate finish together.
Okay this is the end of my second lesson on my step by step series on how to write a novel. Remember not everyone is going to write the perfect novel but at the end of the day if you keep following these steps I guarantee no matter what you will have something that you are proud of.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ And lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://www.7dayebook.com/?hop=stcajo orhttp://stcajo.profitlan.hop.clickbank.net You can also contact him at stcajo2011@yahoo for any info on his writing or products.
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
11. What You Know To Start
When you first start your book it’s important to write about things that you are familiar with. Places that you have lived at, worked at or just visited. Things that you know a little bit about. Maybe you work in the oil path so you want your story to be on a rig. Lastly maybe you know some interesting people that you could use some of their traits to build an exciting character.
12. Characters First
Since your characters are harder to develop you should work on them first. Remember your readers are going to want characters that come to life. Another thing is that your character can’t really change half way through the story. Look at your character kind of like a snowball. He starts off small and eventually becomes big. The plot could change in your story half way through but not your character.
13. Know Your Characters
When you’re done with this exercise you will know your characters intimately. Choose a couple of females, a couple of males and some kids and start building your characters. I use a loose leaf book and use one page per character. You want to build your characters traits. What do they look like? Are they fat, skinny, tall, short, what color are their hair and eyes? Maybe they are bald. Do they have hobbies? What do they like to eat? Are they normal or do they have a sick or sadistic side to them? It doesn’t matter if these are main characters or small part characters. By giving them a life of their own it will help your readers relate to them.
14. Formula
You are going to want to build yourself some sort of formula for a story. Let’s say your writing about a fictional serial killer. You’re going to want to decide how many people he will kill. Will these people be female or male? Will he kill during the day or night? What happens if you run into problems with your story? For me when I was writing my serial killer novel and I ran into a road block I just killed someone else. By that time I was usually past my road block.
15. Plot And Characters
Now that you have your characters built you can start building your plot around them. You already know what you want to write about but you have to make sure that your characters and plot don’t go in the opposite direction. The characters and plot have to move to the ultimate finish together.
Okay this is the end of my second lesson on my step by step series on how to write a novel. Remember not everyone is going to write the perfect novel but at the end of the day if you keep following these steps I guarantee no matter what you will have something that you are proud of.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ And lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://www.7dayebook.com/?hop=stcajo orhttp://stcajo.profitlan.hop.clickbank.net You can also contact him at stcajo2011@yahoo for any info on his writing or products.
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Add to Onlywire
