Category: Tips and Tricks

Tips and Tricks, WordSmith Musings, writing

FREE Writing Consultations For a Limited Time

Rachel Smith

Interested in starting a novel, short story, blog, essay, thesis? But you’re just not quite sure how? Or do you have a few questions about a piece of writing you’re working on? Want to go over title ideas? Writing help of any kind?

Thanks to the coronavirus and the current “shelter in place” order, I am currently giving away free 15 minute writing consultations for those subscribed to my mailing list! You’ll get advice, critiques, or just a listening ear, whatever you need as you write. Join my mailing list below if you haven’t yet (you’ll get exclusive content and opportunities like this)! Otherwise, check your emails soon to sign up for a time slot!

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.
Tips and Tricks, writing

Quick Tip #11

Rachel Smith

Writing a villain?

Within the first meeting, include these three things to make them terrifying but utterly compelling to readers.

  1. A dangerous or “evil” conviction they hold and why
  2. Something they have lost as a result
  3. Something/someone they love (not obsessed, that’s different) or care about deeply (people are generally best but it still works with objects)

 

Tips and Tricks, writing

5 Tips for Making and Maintaining a Writing Schedule

Rachel Smith

Writing isn’t easy. I think most writers will agree with me. Some days, words seem to fly from your fingers and other times, you stare at the screen blankly. I get it. One of the best ways to combat that is to have some sort of writing schedule. Now, this should be extremely customizable to your lifestyle and schedule, but it needs to exist. Or else, you may find next week that you haven’t looked at your writing once in the past seven days.

Here are my five tips for making and then maintaining your schedule.

 

1. Put it on the calendar

This one may seem simple, but it can have a great impact. Sit down with your planner, google calendar, phone, whatever it is and find the times where you have free time. Whether it is for a half hour or three hours, put it in as an event. By making it something physically scheduled, you’ll be less likely to forget or ignore it.

 2. Tell others about it

One of the leading causes of distraction can be other people. And it may just be that they don’t realize what is going on. Make sure the people around you know what you’re doing and that it’s important to you. If they know that from 9-10 am, you’re writing, they won’t bother you (hopefully). But if you don’t tell them, they won’t know! Plus, it’ll create some great accountability on top of being distraction-free.

3. Be realistic

If you haven’t written in a long time, planning to write for five hours straight is probably not feasible. Know your limits. Schedule an hour or two and gauge from that. If you set your goals unrealistically in the beginning, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment which can lead to completely forgoing any schedule. Instead, set your goals conservatively and then you can expand from there as you see your capacity.

4. Outline your time

There should always be flexibility in your writing schedule, but it can be extremely helpful to have a general outline of what you want to do. Every week, I try to write a to-do list of things I want to accomplish. “Write four chapters of The Lightbringer”, “write a short story about Asena“, “journal twice”, “write a story from a prompt“. Things like that can help me have focus and allow me to check things off, which can be extremely motivational!

5. Don’t edit

This can be one of the most detrimental things to a writing schedule. If you are not to the editing stage (completely finished your first draft), editing simply is a rabbit trail that you can get lost down. You’ll spend hours fixing this one thing, that leads to the next and suddenly its been a month since you’ve written anything. Finish writing your first draft before you edit. Editing will be necessary then, but if you don’t have the bones to work with, you’re just rearranging things and not writing! Often times, editing prematurely can end with a half finished book that never sees the light of day or a final chapter.

 

I hope these helped. If you have any ideas, please share them in the comments below. If you’re looking for more Tips and Tricks, check out some of my other articles!

Tips and Tricks, WordSmith Musings, writing

5 Tips for Writing About Covid-19

Rachel Smith

It seems like everywhere I turn this past week, someone is writing about Covid-19. And I get it, there’s a lot to figure out and understand in this unprecedented time. People’s lives are being changed, whether they now have children at home for the next few weeks or they are working remote or their college classes are suddenly online or they are in quarantine or worse, they’re sick. It is a lot of change and everyone is trying to figure out and write about what comes next.

As bloggers and writers, we have a few things we should keep in mind. Below are my five steps to writing about Covid-19.

1. Fact Check

One of the most important things to do right now is fact-check your posts. If you are writing about statistics, accounts, cases, reactions, or ways to prevent, make sure you are using reliable sources. Right now is not the time to be using questionable resources to try and drive followers. (There is never a good time, let’s be real) Your followers will be implementing the ideas you write about, or telling these stories to friends, relatives, and acquaintances. You want them to be spreading true and helpful information, not something that could get someone sick or worse. Bonus points for linking all of your sources!

2. Keep your audience in mind

This is not the time to be dumping loads of information on your readers that is not relevant to their lives. Trust me, they are being overloaded right now. Make sure your articles are targeted specifically to your niche and audience. If you write about parenting, talk about things parents can do with their kids during this three week break. If you write about food, talk about meals that can be made with your regular staple ingredients. If you write about travel, talk about what travel looks like right now. Stay in your niche, as tempting as it is to post about anything and everything.

3. Share your story

Don’t be afraid to tell people that this is affecting you as well. People want authenticity and ideas. In blogging, it tends to be helpful if your audience relates to you, but especially now. Covid-19 is affecting you somehow. Don’t whine, but be factual. It can be a single post or it can be small tidbits to sprinkle in a bunch of posts, whatever feels natural.

4. Don’t try to break news

A blog or website is not the place for breaking news updates. People are receiving this through news sources and the posts will time out. There is little re-read value for these type of posts so you will see little traffic on them after the first few hours. Instead, write articles for your readers about what they can do in regards to the news being brought. If you’ve just been informed that K-12 schools are closing, talk about what parents can do. Don’t try to be the one to inform people that schools are closing.

5. Don’t make every article about Covid-19

Yes, Covid-19 is impacting many areas of life, but if the only thing your blog is talking about is Covid-19, people may stop listening. We are being inundated with information right now and that can be overwhelming. Try instead to have it be a single piece or something mentioned within your articles, rather than a focal point of your stories.

 

I hope these tips help as you write and continue to think about writing about Covid-19. If you have any other tips or thoughts, please share below in the comments!

Book Review, Tips and Tricks, WordSmith Musings, writing

Five Great YA Book Series To Get Lost In

Rachel Smith

I love a great written series of books where I get to follow the characters, fall in love with them, and see a much larger journey than any stand alone book can give.

BUT, I hesitate to start series I don’t know much about because they can be some big time commitments and, by the end, it might just not be that good. Well dear reader, I am here to help you with that! Here are five of my favorite series that you can’t go wrong with!

 

1. Heroes of Olympus

Now, Rick Riordan has a large amount of series that I would recommend. His original Percy Jackson and the Olympians series is great, but the tone is for a slightly younger audience. His second series, still featuring Percy, but bringing in a slew of other characters and perspectives, is The Heroes of Olympus. This follows the Greek god Poseidon’s son and the Roman god Jupiter’s son in intertwining tales as they fall into each other’s world and must reconcile the two. With a phenomenal cast of characters that are diverse, fun, and courageous, this series weaves stories together to create a plot that is magical, fun, engaging, and will keep you on your toes!

 

2. The Inheritance Cycle

For fans of Lord of the Rings and DnD, I give you the Inheritance Cycle. Set in a medieval world filled with elves, shades, dragons, and men, we embark on one young farm boys adventure. Eragon discovers a dragon egg, which hatches to become the beautiful and fearsome Sapphira. As the evil king hunts for him, he learns he is one of the only dragon riders left. The four books build a fantastical world that is full of intricate politics and breathtaking magic. We get perspectives from other characters as well, two of my favorite. A young farmer fighting to save his love from evil beasts, who becomes a fearsome leader and warrior. We also get to see a young woman who becomes one of the rebel leaders and is forced to be tough but the perspective allows us to see the soft side as well. It’s masterfully done.  (Please feel free to ignore the movie Eragon, which doesn’t do the first book justice)

 

3. The Pendragon Series

Bobby is a normal high school kid until one day his adventurous uncle comes into town and whisks him away down a flume. Discovering that the world is much bigger than his one planet, Bobby travels to worlds all around Halla, attempting to stop the evil member of their order who is attempting to destroy each world. We read much of the story as letters/journals he is writing to his two friends back on Earth. This series is really interesting because each book sends us to a new and different world. We get to learn what makes this place interesting and different at the same time Bobby is. This has a few interesting and well developed relationships and will keep you on the edge of your seat. It is ten books so if you’re just interested in checking it out, you can find the first book here.

 

4. The Lunar Chronicles

For anyone who loves sci-fi and classic fairy-tales, this is the series for you. Each book tells the twisted fairy tale, beginning with the classic Cinderella. Cinder is a cyborg with the evil step-mother figure, the dreadful daughters, and a charming prince to boot. But, this is a technologically advanced world, with a colony on the moon full of people able to influence the mind. Each book follows a different heroine, but weaves together their stories. We will meet Scarlet (Little Red Riding Hood), Cress (Rapunzel), and Winter (Snow White). There’s also two short stories diving into our villians’ past. While each story has many of the key components from the classic fairy tale, the Lunar Chronicles will keep you guessing at the twists and turns. With four classic love stories to root for, this is a fun series to read.

 

5. Graceling Series

This series features strong woman learning to become more of who they are. Katsa is a fierce warrior, blessed as a Garceling, a person with an extreme talent. Katsa has been Graced with killing, which has led her to become the thug of her uncle, the King. But when strange things begin happening in her kingdom and those around, she meets people she never expected and uncovers a deadly secret. The second book travels over to a kingdom across the mountains, hidden from the Graceling Realm. There we follow Fire, an unbelievably beautiful woman with the ability to control the minds of people. We see her struggle with her power and the fiercely negative view everyone has of her in the kingdom. We’ll meet a familiar face from Graceling and root for Fire time and again. The third and final book brings us back to Graceling, following the young Queen from the first book. She’s smart and strong, but young and the pressures of the crown and her advisers is unrelenting in her kingdom being rebuilt. Disguising herself, she meets the rougher side of her city and learns that all is not what she thought. Each of these three women are strong in their own different ways and you’ll heart will relate to the struggles they go through.

 

There are probably dozens of other phenomenal series. What are some of your favorites? Add them in the comments below!

 

The above includes affiliate links. If you purchase something from them, I may receive a small part of the profit. My affiliation does not affect my recommendations tho. If you have any questions on this, please let me know. 

Tips and Tricks, writing

Quick Tip #9

Rachel Smith

If you need to re-read your story to remember exactly what has happened, don’t re-read more than three to five pages. Instead, try to write descriptive headings for your chapters or section breaks (you can make them clever later). Read the headings and don’t get sucked into your own story or the desire to edit what you’ve already done. Just keep plugging on.

Check out more Tips and Tricks for your story!

Tips and Tricks, writing

Quick Tip #7

Rachel Smith

Worried your characters might sound too much alike? Each character should have a way of speaking, phrases or words they use specific to them. They need to be distinctive because in a novel, their words are one of the main things readers have to understand their personality. You don’t want five of the same characters running around just with different hair color. That’s a boring story.

Try this:

Copy five or so phrases from each character into a separate word document. 

Don’t use any names and jumble the order of the phrases.

See if you can tell who the speaker is each time. 

Ask a friend or fellow writer to do the same.

If no one can tell the difference, they probably are too similar. Edit!

 

Check out more Tips and Tricks for your story!

Tips and Tricks, writing

Quick Tip #6

Rachel Smith

If you’re suffering from writer’s block, try this tactic.

Take a break for a few days (3-5) from your specific story.

Each day write for 10-30 minutes about anything but be descriptive. No distractions, no phones, nothing but you and your keyboard or journal. Write about the way the light is coming through the window, the sound of your neighbor’s dog, the scratch on your desk. Don’t write a story, just write.

By the time three days has passed, your brain will have gathered a lot of imagery that will hopefully kick start your story.

Check out more Tips and Tricks for your story!