On my Kindle: WRITE EVERY DAY: How to Write Faster, and Write More and 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love by Rachel Aaron
Musetracks recommends… how-to books for the keepers shelf!
You probably don’t know this but I am a book-on-writing addict. I have at least a hundred of them, read all of them and keep reading more. Last week, I was glad to stumble on two very good short Kindle books that gave me great tips to help me write faster.
The first one 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love by Rachel Aaron is a pretty short book and what I believe a follow-up on a blog post that you can also read here.
Ms. Aaron tells us that you need three things to really boost your productivity, one being excitement about everything you write. It sounds obvious and while I thought I was excited about all my scenes, it turns out that I didn’t always know why I cared about writing some parts of the story. I decided to give her advice a try and wrote a one line “FF (Fun Factor – my words)” at the top of each of my scene (like: FF: it shows the hero is really really super sexy”) to remind myself of what I truly enjoyed in that scene.
It works. As I first read that before starting my edits, I get really exited about the scene and can’t wait to show my reader how fun this part is. I stall a lot less with dread and fear in front of my page.
Speaking of fear, the second book, which goes much more in depth about why we sometimes avoid writing, is by multi-published author Cathy Yardley, and titled WRITE EVERY DAY: How to Write Faster, and Write More.
Ms. Yardley knows what it’s like to be busy with a kid, a day job and trying to write on top of it all. She tackles all our “problems” in layers. Solve the issue of time first, then go to the next issue of energy. Then figure out your fears before tackling your process. I truly got a lot out of this and experienced little light bulb moments from reading various passages such as….
“… if you have to wait until you’re making enough money or getting enough recognition to justify the time to write… you’re never going to have the time to write.”
I discovered why some of my fears were actually trying to protect me, such as how the fear of my family’s criticism is actually a protecting me from having the writing taken away from me. I was glad to have discovered this book through the Amazon Kindle recommendations, especially to see that Ms Yardley has also a great blog of smart writing advice called Rock Your Writing which you can find here is you are interested. I promptly added it to my blog feed reader.
Much love,
Marie-Claude xoxox
Disclaimer: I do not know those two authors personally, found both books via Amazon Kindle Recommendations and purchased the books myself.
Location:Seattle
