Month: February 2014

Refining Your Fiction

On By Robert EvenhouseIn Writing TipsLeave a comment

When you first start writing it is all about getting words on the page. When you’ve been writing for a while you begin to stretch yourself to refine these words into a novel, short story, poem or nonfiction piece. There are many ways to do this but one of my favorite ways is to review and replace the words that I use too much.

If you look over your work carefully you will find you default to certain words. Your default words can be anything. Perhaps you are describing a lawn and you always write that it is a lush verdant landscape or you have a constantly roaring sea or roaring villain.

Time and time again I find myself using the same word or phrase and do my best to weed it out of my writing. I want to write good fiction and not have the same rehashed descriptors. It might be a pain to look through my book or short story to kill my darlings were it not for Word Frequency Counter fromWriteWords.org.uk. 

Word Frequency Counter is one of my favorite free tools. Simply copy and paste your work to the box on the webpage and press submit. It does not matter the lenght. I did it with my novel of 90,000 words. It will give you a list of words and you can also search for repeated phrases. Some of the general words are unavoidable like proper nouns or personal pronouns. But as you scroll down you will begin to see the default words.

I’ve provided the link to the website below.

Whatever you do this weekend I hope you look ahead and find some time to write. I’d say don’t kill yourself by staying up late or getting up horribly early but, if you want to get your work done, you just might have to do so! Godspeed my writing friends!

http://www.writewords.org.uk/word_count.asp

Cheers 

Bob

 

No Matter What, Write Every Day

On By Robert EvenhouseIn The Writing Life13 Comments

I wrote in a journal for my first two children every day for the first year of their life. I am doing it for my son now, he’s 6 months old. I love the fact that the last thing I do each day is write and write about something that matters very deeply to me. 

I don’t pretend to be C.S. Lewis in my ponderings, I just try to intermingle my sons daily activities, milestones, and offer advice and thoughts about life. It might not be brilliant, but I hope it shows how much I love my children and how much I want them to have a deep rich life. I love doing something I love and using it in a way to honor my family.

I can also see the benefits of writing every day.

I believe writing is a lot like learning a language. Take the Spanish I used to know for example. While I took classes in high school and college and even went to Mexico and Honduras, now, I can barely bumble through a conversation. Sure it might come back after a while but for the most part it’s gone my friend. 

When I could speak Spanish I was learning and speaking it often. I was immersed in the language. Our creative muscles work a lot like that too.

Scriptorium
We have it way easier today

If you can’t find the time to write for a good chunk of time each day, though I’d argue we could all find at least an hour, keep a note pad by your bedside and write each day before you go to bed. Write four sentences. Write a page. Do what you can but do daily so you train your mind and don’t lose those writing muscles. After all, if your goal is to be a writer and to write for a career it might be wise to see if you can both do it and stomach it.

Write 500 words today.

Cheers,

Bob

I Put Writing Last

On By Robert EvenhouseIn The Writing Life10 Comments

For the last month I’ve written a total of zero posts on my blog. Those who’ve written books about maintaining a blog say if I want tokeep an audience, you’ve got to keep blogging. Fairly simple idea. The last two months, however, I’ve had to shift my efforts to work and, when I had writing time, to my novel.

I work in sales. I equip accountants and other tax professionals with tax forms, folders, etc. The months of December and January are about 35-40% of my year and tend to get a little busy, brutally so. My appetite to come home and look at a computer screen was sapped by 10am. I like to write and connect with others who share the same dream and passion, but I just didn’t have it in me.

There are times when I feel guilty for taking a break. I shouldn’t be out at a movie I should be writing! I should be writing instead of shopping for jeans! Who needs pants?! These are the thoughts that haunt me when I’m not writing consistently. My passion becomes some horrible guilt ridden flash mob that could strike at any moment.

Thankfully, I learned two things from this break.

1. That I burn bright and fast instead of marching on at an even pace. For those who don’t know me that well, this is nothing new. If I have any goal this year it is to be more pace oriented so I don’t burn myself out all of the time. I’d make me a better husband, father, and person.

2. That I love writing more than I thought. When you get distance from something, it allows proper perspective. You are not as emotionally involved and can be honest. I was and found I craved writing more than I did before my self imposed break. I’m excited to focus on it again.

How about you? Have you put writing down for a bit? What made you go back to it? Are you still not writing? What would it take for you to pick it back up again?

Keep Writing.

Cheers,

Bob