10 Writers read excerpts from their latest work for the Writers’ Mastermind Mash-up 2020! Sample a wide variety of new, groundbreaking fiction in a scope of genres from around the world.
Tia Wojciechowski/Bia Bella Baker 00:20 Hecctropssippy 2 – The Will of the Dark Creator (to be released)
Ross Jeffery 07:18 Tome – Amazon https://amzn.to/38M6FbS
Clennell Anthony 15:50 Fractured (novel, unpublished)
J.A. Cox 22:47 Fulfilling a Vow, Searching for Answers (novel, to be released)
Patty Lesser 29:02 The Devil, Angels, and Demons (novel, to be released)
Sara Cristia HJ 35:46 Witch’s Amulet (short story) https://www.instagram.com/p/CIjdyp_AihC/
Mollie McClure 42:02 Talking to the Moon (novel, unpublished)
Dan Markowski 50:42 The Last Ride (short story) https://www.wattpad.com/user/lefthandDan83
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Have you ever asked yourself this question and truly answered it?
This is important to define for yourself, the quality of your work. The past few years have been filled with chaos, fear, and upheaval. As things normalize, it’s the perfect time to let the dust settle and get laser-like focus on why you write and how you’re going to get your words into the world.
It’s not easy to be an aspiring writer. Just tell someone you want to become a successful fiction author and their reaction will be something like:
Laughs awkwardly until they realize you’re serious.Shows concern about your mental healthSays, “Really? Uhhh… Good luck with that.”
It’s the same look adults gave you when you were six years old and you told them you wanted to grow up to be a pegasus.
That’s because writing fiction is a time and energy-intensive pursuit that never guarantees a big material reward.
As a marketing strategist for authors, I see many writers approaching their writing career with a “lottery mindset.” They scribble out a book, feverishly upload it to Amazon, and wait for overnight success.
When they don’t wake up on the bestsellers list, they give up.
This the paradox:
Only by NOT writing for money or fame will you possibly become a successful author because once you begin writing for sales, your words will lose their magic.
You must have a deeper reason than to become wealthy and famous. You need to think about who you’re writing for and how you want them to think and feel after reading your work. Either that, or writing must be so satisfying for you that it is its own reward.
Maybe you write because it’s therapeutic, allowing you to express yourself and make meaning of your experiences. Maybe you want to make people laugh and forget their worries. Maybe you just want to scare the hell out of them.
Whatever the reason, I suggest you create your own writing manifesto that states your big-picture reason for writing. Rewrite it till it’s powerful and succinct. Read it each day before you begin working on your stories. Click here for an example of how powerful a writing manifesto can be.
Not only will a writing manifesto help you on the hard days when nothing is working, keeping your mission in mind will inspire you to produce stories that will impact your readers and the world.
To say that 2020 has been a crazy year is an understatement. What we’ve experienced is stranger than fiction, and whatever plans we made for this year surely were disrupted in some way.
Now that we’re about to close out 2020, it’s important to process all that happened (or didn’t happen) for us as writers this year.
We need to find out what worked and what didn’t, so that we can double down on the things that brought us results and eliminate whatever is draining our time, energy, and creativity.
Author Year-End Review
What worked for you? What didn’t? Let’s analyze.
What reasons do you have to celebrate?
What helped or hindered your creativity?
How close were you to your writing, publishing, and sales goals?
What daily habits and mindsets are holding you back?
If you want to make 2021 your best year ever as a writer, then the Author’s Year-End Review will help you 100%.
Did you “win” NaNo? Are you already intoxicated by the sweet smell of success? Congratulations—you’ve earned it!
Let’s talk about what you should—and shouldn’t—do for your next steps. Don’t make these mistakes with your NaNoWriMo Novel.
Congratulations! You Won NaNoWriMo! What’s Next?
Those who didn’t make it learned some valuable lessons about writing, themselves, and their approach to writing—so truly, there is no such thing as NOT winning NaNoWriMo because whether you make that 50,000-word count or not, you’re a better writer now than you were a month ago.
So whether you’ve already finished your first draft or you expect to do so sometime next year, here are three things you shouldn’t do when you cross the finish line:
1. Don’t throw anything away.
Is your 50,000-word first draft ready for publication? Of course not—but neither should it be deleted from your hard drive. Yes, allegedly there are writers who do that, but please do NOT become one of them.
Even if you’re a writer who believes the act of putting your butt in a seat for 30 days and churning out the bones of a novel is enough of a reward without having to ever read what you wrote, please believe that you’ve written some gems.
Okay, maybe you’ll delete some—or most—of those 50,000 words, but save them in a separate folder. In a month or two, you may reread a well-turned phrase you’d forgotten about and will have a brainstorm for an entirely new scene . . . or character . . . or novel!
2. Don’t begin editing your manuscript.
You’ve spent plus or minus thirty days with this manuscript—and if you outlined in October, that number goes up. Believe me, now is NOT the time to begin editing. You’re too close to your story, and let’s face it—you’ve had an exhausting, emotional month.
Do a happy dance, pat yourself on the back, announce to the world (or at least your Facebook friends) that YOU DID IT, and then put your manuscript away for a while.
For how long? Opinions vary on this one, but long enough that when you open it up again, the story feels new and fresh in that “I can’t believe I wrote this” way. That might be a month or a year, but it shouldn’t be tomorrow. Give yourself some time away to gain a little perspective, and you’ll have more clarity once you being to edit and revise.
Taking a very rough first draft and molding it into a saleable novel will require some ruthless revising and self-editing, so give yourself enough time away to gain perspective.
3. Don’t stop writing.
If you’re like most NaNoWriMo authors, you’re pretty excited about ending November with 50,000 words—maybe you have the first draft of a novel, maybe only a third of a longer manuscript, but nevertheless, you’ve written a bodacious number of words in 30 days, and you’ve accomplished something pretty spectacular.
So why quit now? You’ve proven to yourself that you can make the time to write every day, so wrap your mind around that new reality and keep writing.
In my book, every writer who even attempts NaNoWriMo is a winner. And although I know it will be a few months before those drafts are polished enough to make their way to an editor, I’m already looking forward to the day when that happens. For an editor, the thrill is in peeking under the hood, so to speak, and helping to polish a novel that was only an idea in your head a mere month ago. I can’t wait!
