Writing

Tom Cannon    @Tcbcannon

Dixie Jarchow  writing as Daisy Jerico

Habits and Tips  (many from writing conferences)

1.  Find the best time for you to write.  Keep trying to make it a habit.  If you miss a day, you still get to be a writer.
2. Keep some sort of journal, even if it is a word document to recycle writing you’ve deleted.
3. Instead of using- he paused- insert and action
4. Visual movement for reader- 
   1. Move the reader’s eye-  Hemingway, Mccarthy, Cormett (the crossing)- make cinematic scenes
   1. He looked at the time on his phone and then down the road at the oncoming truck.

•  before you write your story, write the query letter to keep yourself focused.
• Touch an image once.  He was a big tall guy-  no  he was a tall guy
• Every page access 3 senses
• To be a successful writer
  • write the life you are in,  you will never have more time than now
  • The thinking mind is not your friend-  just keep writing.
  • Everything is material
  • be conscious of maybes.  Make them yes or no.  maybes are stagnate
  • be a meaning maker, don’t look for meaning
• Distractions take more than time, it takes away thinking power

Readying  your  manuscript:

Online software that you can run your work through to evaluate and edit:

1) Grammarly

2) Stylewriter

3) Prowriting Aid.com- 

 Free if you just use are checking  small passages at a time.I suggest you log into the sight so that you can edit 3000 words at a time. 

This program teaches you to avoid:

-ould words

-just and only

-Passive verbs-

-words you used too often

4) Critique Circle-   CritiqueCircle.com and other online critiques

This is a free site where you critique other’s manuscript and they critique yours.  There are different genre sections.

Places to find publishers and agents

1. Query tracker
2. Agent Query
3. Duotrope
4. Submission grinder

Query letters

1. 1)the hook  2) the book   3)  the cook
2. put title in all caps to draw attention
3. no more than 2 paragraphs about the story
4. do not give ending away
5. tell what is the biggest choice the main character has to make and who is stopping her.

Have an elevator pitch ready to present and use

-quick, specific, appealing

-A sentence or two to entice

-everyone wants an elevator pitch when you talk about your story.

Books on writing (We Like)

 Donald Maas  Writing the breakout Novel

1. What is one thing that your protagonist would never say? ____________
2. What is one thing he/she would never do?_________________
3. What is one emotion that your protagonist would never feel__________________
4. Come up with 3 moments that your protagonist does those three things.  If he/she would never act that way, why do these moments work?
5. TENSION ON EVERY PAGE
6. In each scene people have opposite goals-

How to Write a Novel: The Snowflake Method

          Randy Ingermanson

                Dwight Swain calls “Motivation-Reaction Units.” He calls them MRUs for short.

On Writing Stephen King

    – Stop watching television. Instead, read as much as possible. Stephen King

Novelist’s Boot Camp: 101 Ways to Take Your Book From Boring to Bestseller

Anne Lamott. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

               -Write shitty first drafts.