Writing Questions

Should I Edit as I Write? Plow Ahead? Help!

March 26, 2018 by Lisa Tener

“Should I edit as I write?”

“Should I really write a crummy first draft? It feels so raw and uncomfortable.”

“I keep finding myself wordsmithing and then I get so little writing done. Is that okay?”

There is a difference between writing and editing.

The short answer is that everyone finds what works for them, and you’ll need to experiment and see what works for you.

Generally, I do encourage emerging authors to write a rough first draft and edit later. There’s a freedom and power to getting it all down and then working with the raw material. However, not always. Here are my…

[bctt tweet=”Rules for When to Edit—and Polish—as You Write” username=”LisaTener”]

You’re not sure whether what you’re doing is working. If you have doubts about the book—whether your doubts are about the content, tone, structure or something else, it can be important to get feedback early on. Ask someone in your target audience what they like and what doesn’t work for them. Where do they confused or bored? What do they want more of? Ask an open ended question as well, such as, “What other feedback do you have?”
Should I edit as I write?

You’re writing a book proposal. Write a rough first draft of your sample chapter(s). Then, rather than writing the whole book, focus on polishing those one or two chapters for the proposal. Your agent or publisher may have changes to the book, so it will save you time not to write the whole thing in case there are dramatic changes in the book concept.
Your gut tells you to polish each chapter before moving on. I’m a big believer in each of us having internal processes that work for us. If it really works for you to fine tune as you go, listen to your intuition. However, check in and see if it’s really your intuition speaking and reassess to make sure your strategy is working.

If none of the three above apply, try writing rough drafts and keep moving. It will give you such momentum and freedom to get it down in draft form and later go back to perfect.

If you are editing, you may enjoy this post with 7 Quick Writing Tips, and this post with additional editing tips for tightening your writing.

Finding Your Writing Voice by Taking Risks on the Page

May 22, 2017 by Lisa Tener

[bctt tweet=”Finding Your Writing Voice: from Meek to Bold” username=”LisaTener”]

rhea discovering her writing voice — Rhea at Machu Picchu

At 72, Rhea Atwood found herself in her comfortable California apartment feeling her bed was “too soft.”

“I decided to listen to my bed and waited a few days for it to tell me what to do about it.”

Rhea spent the next four years following in the footsteps of the French Huguenots across the globe, visiting 17 countries and 5 continents, and surfing on a number of couches through couchsurfing.

Previously a cautious risk taker, Rhea became, in her own words, intrepid. At times she had no money and no place to stay. Can you imagine? And yet she persisted.

Now, Rhea is writing a book about her experiences.

Although Rhea has written a walking guide and a book of historic photographs–Boston’s French Secrets and Upper Beacon Hill–her current project is her first foray into more narrative writing (the self-help memoir). With a change in genre comes the search to find her writing voice.

My advice? “Take risks on the page. In the same way you took risks by traveling alone at 72 through 76, not knowing where you’d stay or sometimes how you’d pay for it, you need to be adventurous on the page.”

How to Take Risks on the Page

Experiment with syntax: try super-short sentences or paragraphs in one chapter. Play with rhythm. Write a prose poem in one chapter. Or think jazz in Paris, African beats in Morocco.
Play with dialogue: try a whole chapter around dialogue.
Imagine: If you don’t remember how you felt or what you did, ask yourself, “What might I have felt?” You can always change it later, but this exercise can open the door to memory.
“Get Carnal” (Mary Karr‘s advice in The Art of Memoir): Keep asking yourself how something felt in your body, where in your body you felt it, how your body reacted to something, what you did with your body. These questions will help your readers experience the event along with you, as first hand.
Practice another point of view: The hotel concierge in Rome, the archivist in Transylvania, the stray dog in Nice.
Innovate around features: How about offering creative exercises, questions for reflection, sidebars, videos or cartoons?
Try on new forms: a prose poem in one chapter, a song in another.

These are experiments. Some–maybe many–of them will fail. Perhaps, miserably. Yet, in the experimenting, you will find your voice.

How Risky Should I Get?

I found myself in a related conversation just an hour later with another client, a therapist, who is about to speak with a publisher interested in his book. He admitted that he tried to retain a fairly neutral voice. After all, that’s his training.

He wondered though:

What if he didn’t hold back so much?
What if he put himself out there?
Was he doing the right thing by meeting his readers where he assumed they are?
Or should he be bolder, more vulnerable, share his spiritual orientation?
Would he alienate his readers if he shared his religious and spiritual side?

Would the more prescriptive book have broader appeal? Or should he share his deeper thoughts and experiences?

We agreed he would pick one chapter and experiment. He could always change it back. But if he never tried, he’d never know.

He can explore this question again with his acquisitions editor, once he signs a contract, but just playing with a chapter and seeing what happens is the perfect place to start, to take a risk, to see writing as a true adventure.

My Turn, Your Turn: Take Risks Together

Me in Bangkok taken with the world’s worst phone camera (Samsung J3)

In less than 48 hours I begin my second trip to Bangkok to teach another writing workshop and do some writing of my own.

Last trip was an adventure in spontaneity and trust. The same intention I brought to my travels opened up my writing. I tried things I’d never tried before. Some of it didn’t work at all. Other parts, I’m kind of excited about.

So this trip, I’m tempted to return to the places I visited. To look with more trained eyes. To go deeper. So I can write in more detail.

But I’m letting go of that.

Aside from the day I teach at NIDA Business School, I’m going to play, be open to adventure and see what happens in my travels and my writing.

I’m bringing several writing projects but planning on working on none or all or some. I don’t know. I may just journal.

I’m enjoying the sense of freedom of allowing myself to not know, to be open to infinite possibilities, to wait and see what draws my eye, my ear, my pen.

How about you? Any risks you feel inspired to take? Any adventures that helped you find your writing voice? Please share your comments.

Writing Composites: Why Write Real First

May 8, 2017 by Lisa Tener

Writing Composites: Is it Legal? Ethical? Dangerous?

Therapists, doctors and coaches often worry about including client cases in a book. Should they be writing composites?

What if the client recognizes herself?
What if the someone else recognizes the client?
Is this even legal?

They’re right to be concerned—legally, ethically and morally. And what might the effects be on someone who sees herself in a book? Or someone who recognizes someone he knows?

Option 1: The Waiver

You have several options to address these concern, however. If you have a great story and think the client may be amenable (and it’s not prohibited by a law like HIPAA) then you can ask outright for permission. Get this permission in writing.

Make sure the person understands they will not be paid for their story being shared. Publishers often have specific waivers for you to use but you can also get a waiver from an intellectual property attorney if you are self publishing.

Option 2: The Composite

Another option is to create composites: take a true situation and client; combine the facts with other cases. Change the gender, characteristics, personality, job and geography of the person. Meld it with another client case, perhaps.

Voila, a composite is born.

Here’s the kicker: If you turn a story into a composite too soon, you make squeeze out all the juice. It can end up sounding dull or even fake.

Earlier this morning, I spoke on the phone to an aspiring author who wants to write his memoir. We talked about changing some details of the people in the story and also, perhaps, leaving out some details that might make certain people look badly.

I advised him to write everything in while no one else is reading it. He can change details later, when sending the book to beta readers or an editor: “Just write the truth, without leaving things out, at first.”

[bctt tweet=”Benefits of Writing Composites after Writing The Original Story” username=”LisaTener”]

There are 5 benefits to this method:

In the case of memoir, it can be healing to write your truth—uncensored.
Once you start censoring, you inhibit the flow for the whole work. In a first draft of a memoir or story, the critic or editor should not be engaged. You want to write from your heart, again—uncensored.
While revising and adding detail, you want to remember all the specific things—and sometimes that doesn’t all come in one draft. Keep in original names and details until you feel you’ve gotten the whole story down with all the details. Only then can you go back and create a composite, disguise identities or leave out some aspects that might hurt others or harm your relationship with them.
When you write the full truth and then take some piece out, there’s a way in which your writing is still energetically complete. I know this sounds woo-woo, but it’s something I’ve discovered over my years in editing and writing coaching.
It’s easier to cut something than it is to add it in later.

My advice, then, is to write the original story in your early drafts that only you will see. After you’ve written the juiciest parts of the story, anecdote or case study:

a) Think about whether certain details stick out as revealing of the person. Change those details first.

b) Also, think about details of other people you know that might lend themselves to the story: an interesting way of walking, a certain mannerism or colorful speech pattern. Or an interesting career.

c) Also think about story details you can embellish. Perhaps another client has a similar story and you can mesh the two—or even three.

Questions about writing composites or writing in general? Ask away and I will do my best to answer.

Writing a Compelling Self-Help Book: 3 Tricks You Can Borrow from Bestselling Novels

July 12, 2016 by Lisa Tener

You’re writing a self-help book. Is fiction relevant?

I believe so—and not just in order to justify my recent habit of staying up late reading beach novels. (Good ones, of course. The kind you can’t put down.)

Hear me out.

I’m still thinking about the characters, wondering how the plot will resolve in Beatriz Williams’ A Hundred Summers as I make my morning smoothie. The book stays with me. I want to get back to it and find out what happens next.

My friend, Robin Kall, introduced me to Williams’ novels through the Summer Reading with Robin author event at the Dunes Club last year (and again this year).

One reason Beatriz’ books are so compelling is her mastery of suspense. Both A Hundred Summers and the Along the Infinite Sea alternate between past and more recent past, two periods in time. As the more recent story unfolds, we get closer and closer to the distant past that has led us to the current situation.

So, how does this all apply to writing a self-help book? Here are 3 tips you can borrow from Beatriz Williams—or another adept novelist.

Get your readers to care. A novelist gets us to care by creating characters we relate to, characters who are both believable and vulnerable. You can get your readers to care by sharing stories of real life characters. Their stories take the information you share and bring it to life. The more of a picture you develop of the people in your anecdotes, the more your readers will connect and care. Another way to get readers to care, when you’re writing a self-help book, is to invite your readers to reflect on their pain or passion. Perhaps offer an exercise or journaling prompt where readers can explore why they want and need this self-help book—and what results they hope to achieve.
Be intimate. An academic tone keeps your readers at bay. Invite your readers in with a conversational tone and warmth. Imagine you are writing to one specific person (rather than a roomful of people) and your tone will naturally be more intimate.
Create suspense. You may wonder, “How do I create suspense with a self-help book?” Don’t give your readers everything at once. Teach step by step. Hint at what readers will discover later in the book. Lead up to the gifts of the final chapter. Not only will you create some suspense but your book will be better organized and more accessible. After all, readers can only digest so much information at once.

What are some of your favorite devices of a good novel? How might you employ them in writing a self-help book? I know I’ve only touched the tip of the trilogy. I invite you to think about additional secrets of novelists that you can engage to make your self-help book compelling—and share them here on the blog as a comment!

“Can I Really Write a Book People Will Want to Read?” What to Do About Self Doubt and Fear

May 16, 2016 by Lisa Tener

Self Doubt: The Plague of Writers

Do you sit at your desk when it’s time to write and berate yourself with self doubt and thoughts like, “I have nothing new to say that hasn’t been said 1,000 times before,” or, “Who am I to write a book?”

Just about everyone experiences moments of doubt when writing a book. For some people, it’s a passing mood. For others, self doubt can cause them to shelve a book for months or years–or forever.

Here are some of the many questions I’ve heard from aspiring authors over the years:

“Am I really a good enough writer?”
“Do I have anything new to say?”
” Will anyone ever buy my book?”
“Am I enough of an expert?”
“Should I just quit now?”

Have you ever asked yourself any of the these questions?

I asked a version of all five when I wrote my first book–and some of these still pop up from time to time.

And here are a few ways to answer the questions above:

Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
No way, Jose (did you used to say that as a kid or was that just a 1970’s Queens, NY thing?).

How You Can Write a Book People Want to Read

Okay. maybe you need a little supporting evidence and guidance to get on board. Here we go.

“Am I really a good enough writer?” You may not be. That’s what editors are for. And a good editor can also coach and teach you to be a better writer.
“Do I have anything new to say?” My guess is that the true answer is “yes” and “no.” Even Shakespeare pointed it out that there’s nothing new under the sun. When you work with your “muse” – your inner creative source, you can find ways to make your wirting,s tories and wisdom relevant, tight and even playful. When you share true-life anecdotes, you’re bound to draw readers in–once you learn how to make your stories come alive with details.
“Will anyone ever buy my book?” This is your leap of trust. I hold a strong belief that if we have a strong yearning to do something, the desire is there for a reason. Someone will read–and benefit from–your book or you wouldn’t feel a pull to write it.
“Am I enough of an expert?” Maybe you are. Have you acheived the goals your readers want to reach? Have you solved similar problems to theirs? Have you helped others with such challenges? If not, consider interviewing experts for your book. And if you’re writing a memoir, congratulations–you have to be an expert on your life!”Should I just quit now?”
“Should I just quit now?” In your heart of hearts, you already know the answer to this one. Yes–Quit!

Lisa, Did You Say, “Quit”?

Yes:

Quit putting it off.
Quit putting everything else above your book on your priority list.
Quit your excuses.
Quit beating yourself up.
Quit questioning and doubting yourself.

And just get writing:

Trust in your passion and inspiration.
Trust your inner muse to show up when you sit down to write.
Trust yourself to know when to get support, guidance or help.
And be grateful for the choice to write.

While planning a collaboration with my friend and colleague, Linda Joy, I came up with a small antidoate for those aspiring authors who question their ability to write a book people will want to read.

I call it Your Sacred Permission Slip to Write Your Book, Shine Your Light & Transform Lives. Your Sacred Permission slip is part of my new Inspired Author Support Kit. The kit includes updated versions of the 7-days of book writing lessons you received when–and if–you signed up for my Free Author Toolkit in the past, plus:

A template to create your heart-centered book vision, intent and manifesto—so you stay inspired every day.
Book Writing Starter Course: 7+ valuable lessons to help you get started with the right book.
A Message From Your Muse: Your Sacred Permission Slip to Write Your Book, Shine Your Light and Transform Lives.
Writing in the Zone (meditation audio)
Meet Your Muse (guided visualization audio)

You can get it here: Inspired Author Support Kit

Target Market for a Book: Do I Go Broad or Niche?

February 24, 2016 by Lisa Tener

I’m often asked about identifying the target market for a book. Here’s my answer, in a nutshell.

Do you want to impact the greatest number of readers possible? Does it seem to you that your book could benefit just about everyone?

That was my orientation when I co-authored The Ultimate Guide to Transforming Anger. I soon learned from my more experienced co-authors and several literary agents that the audience needed to be narrowed down. While people outside a defined market may well read your book, you still need to target to a defined market. That’s how you reach them.

Writing a Book for “Everybody”

In a phone consultation with a client in my Bring Your Book to Life Program the other morning, I found myself in what is for me a familiar conversation. The writer has medical and scientific information that can help people with virtually any health issue, people of all ages, all demographics, preventatively or even if they have some kind of health condition.

And, of course, wanting to help as many people as she can, it’s tempting to make the audience as broad as possible.

The problem is, people tend to buy a nonfiction health-related book based on one of two things:

I think this book will help me solve my problem.
I think this book will help me reach my goal.

Sure, sometimes curiosity or inspiration fuels a book sale, but, by far, the majority of sales, particularly for a health-related book come from the above two motivators.

If the title is too broad, it’s going to be hard to get the reader’s attention. A diabetic is looking for a book about diabetes. A pregnant mom looks for pregnancy books. A parent with an autistic child will look for a book with “autism” in the title and will likely search for “autism” on Amazon or in a bookstore.

While some broad titles do make it big, it’s much easier to go niche, especially if you do not already have a big following or mailing list.

Know Your Book’s Market

Amazon dominates book sales. If you want your book to do well in that dominant market, you need to think about what keywords readers will type in to find your book. And, in general, the more specific the keywords, the more likely that readers will find you on Amazon.

While your book’s title will attract core readers to the book, researching your book’s market and knowing your core audience will also help you write to that audience in a voice and tone that resonates for them. Knowing your target audience will also help you market and sell books, because you’ll know–or can research–where such readers “hang out” online and offline–news sites, websites specific to a disease or problem or goal, association websites.

Are there ever reasons to go broad? Absolutely. I always counsel my clients to educate themselves on the market and then listen to their inner promptings. If the inner voice counsels differently, don’t ignore it. Explore it.

What questions do you have about writing a book? Ask away.