Hi, All! I hope your holiday season is going great.
I’m still struggling to find gifts for two guys. That
struggle reminded me that I should tell the writers among you about
opportunities to achieve success.
If you’re looking for gifts for writers or you’re looking
for gifts for your writing self, we have opportunities that will help you
throughout 2023 to achieve your goals.
First Off ~ Planners
After 7 years of self-publishing and the 3 previous years of
converting to a professional writer mindset (yes, it took 3 years. I know I’m
slow), planners specifically for writing are the best success that I’ve found.
For several years I used the standard weekly planners to record my work sessions and word counts.
Beginning in 2016, I decided to make my own templates.
After chucking what didn’t work and developing what did over
the months and months of that year and into 2017, I created my first planner
for writers.
The Think/Pro planner is based on that first workable
design. Sized 8 x 10, it features a two-page weekly spread with task lists
and running word counts and an inspirational quotation. The days use
vertical columns.
Monthly & Seasonal Review/Preview pages check progress
and focus the current projects. Preview the year at the beginning. At year’s
end, a Yearly Review lists the successes and failures while a facing-page
Yearly Preview plans for the next writing achievements.
Retained are the two-page weekly spread for planning tasks
and the running word count. I’ve worked in extra room at the bottom of both pages
for more notes about the writing week.
Also retained are the Monthly & Seasonal Review/Previews,
this time with more emphasis on projects than on transforming into a committed
writer. New are the Seasonal Project pages at the beginning and the SMART
Writing Business planning at the end.
Not every writer needs an in-depth planner. Some merely want to record tasks and word counts. Other want benchmark word counts throughout the year.
Word Trekker: A Writer’s Word Count Planner meets
those criteria. To create the benchmark goals, the planner utilizes every hiker’s
dream: the three massive trails that are the Triple Crown of Hiking. These
three trails are the Appalachian Trail with its extension into Canada, the
Pacific Crest Trail (the featured transformative setting in Cheryl Strayed’s Wild),
and the length-challenging Continental Divide Trail.
Writers can set a word-count challenge, such as a
quarter-million (250,000 words), a half-million, a million, or more. Word
Trekker is a convenient 6 x 9 size.
The heart of this planner is the two-page spread, with a
project list and notes on the left. The right-side features horizontal columns
for the weekdays. Stripped-down Monthly & Seasonal Review/Preview pages
kept the focus on words and projects.
Track words weekly, monthly, and seasonally, then record progress
on the front pages that feature the mileage for each of the three massive
hiking trails. At the back are project spirals for publication goals.
Most people set resolutions and follow them persistently for three weeks in January. Then LIFE occurs.
Scientists who study behavior claim that 22 days are needed
to break a habit. Sixty-six days (66!) are needed to develop a habit.
So, for writers, Writing Nest and Word Trekker will give that
additional boost to achieve your writing goals.
Second ~ Learn about the Writing Craft
The Discovering series offers guidebooks for a wide range of craft issues.
Discovering Your Novel is based on my experiences trying to focus
on writing while holding down a stressful work-world job. Only one or two hours
could be squeezed out of my daily schedule. Often, that was only a half-hour. DiscNovel
offers the wisest way to use that time.
Many writers also
second-guess themselves as they draft. Or they discover that they need background
information but don’t know what info is best to develop. And what steps need to
occur when they finish their manuscripts?
·
From hatching idea to character sketches and
story plan, the Foundations and Visioning sections will guide the
novel’s start.
·
If you have a half-completed manuscript that
you’re lost in, use the Visioning and
Analysis sections to work out of the labyrinth.
·
When you complete the manuscript, what do you do
next? The sections on Harvesting and Finishing guide you through those next steps, all the way to publication.
Learn the devices and definitions that pro writers have
swirling in their heads. Maintain the discipline and preparation that keeps pro
writers at work, no matter the interruptions.
With the goal of completing a
novel in 52 weeks, this guidebook can be self-paced or tracked week by week for
persistent success.
Available in electronic format, I
think the better purchase is the 8 x 10 paperback, so you can make marginal
notes and make copies of the charts and templates.
Paperback, $12 / ebook 9.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PYYM2LG
https://books2read.com/u/boakv9
Discovering Characters and Discovering Your Plot are comprehensive guidebooks.
Five areas comprise Discovering Characters. Dip in and out, skim around. When you reach locked rooms, come back to explore the keys to well-developed characters.
1. Starting Points ~ templates and character interviews
2. Classifications ~ common and uncommon ways of discovering characters
3. Relationships ~ couples, teams, allies, enemies, mentors, etc.
4. Special Touches ~ progressions, transgressions, and transitions for character arcs
5. Significant Lists ~ archetypal characters and much more
At 44,000-plus words, Discovering Characters serves as an excellent guide for new writers as well as those wanting to up their game.
Ebook, for 8.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19
https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB
The comprehensive Discovering Your Plot covers story structure and the necessities of genre expectations so we writers can anticipate what readers want.
· It is NOT a list of tropes by genre or even a list of tropes that every novel should have.
It explores the six most common plot structures.
· It is NOT a list of characters for plot or story. It is not a list of the “17 characters your novel needs” or the “characters used by famous authors”, as listed on social media sites.
It is a detailed examination of the major sections of a novel.
· It is NOT a word-based or page-based formula of a novel’s structure.
By the end of Discovering Your Plot¸ writers will have the adaptable tools to construct a story as well as diagnose problems with pacing, tension and suspense, and sequencing events.
Ebook, for 8.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838PTN49
https://books2read.com/u/bOJK6K
While character and plot are macro elements for any story-telling, what are the micro elements to improve writing? The guidebook Discovering Sentence Craft provides explanations and multiple examples for writers to practice and apply.
Micro elements focus on the very words and sentences of the text. These work for fiction and nonfiction. They are the rhetorical devices, in both the concept/figurative realm and the schema/structural realm.
Rather than falling into the trap of “big words” and “convoluted sentences” to improve the text, writers should work with the classic methods that build meaning, emphasis, and memory. Areas of focus include the following:
Concepts
I: Figurative and II: Interpretive
Structures
III: Inversion / IV: Repetition / V: Opposition / VI: Sequencing
Ebook, for 4.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZQXKY87
https://books2read.com/u/3yaklv
Lastly, every writer has heard about branding, but what are the steps to focus the brand for your book and your series and your writing self? That’s the premise that developed Discovering Your Author Brand.
How is this guidebook different from the others in the marketplace?
1st ~ It’s packed with examples based on highly successful writers.
Face it, in today’s marketplace, our competition is our peers and every other writer who has come before us. Agatha Christie, Ray Bradbury, and Arthur Conan Doyle aren’t on the best-seller lists, but they sell more books than the ones touted on the lists. These authors have the cachet of quality that new and recent writers struggle to achieve.
So, we’ll look at successful brands and analyze the secrets of their success.
2nd ~ Discovering Your Author Brand understands that the browsing readers will only give a few nanoseconds to our books.
We explain the three main glances that hook the readers before they swim down the river. We also look at the keys to unlock those glances. With the right keys, the brand is revealed, and the door to the reader opens.
3rd ~ We have something the other books don’t have, another way to catch the attention of that swimming reader. Video trailers!
Advertising claims that consumers have to see something seven times—7!—before they’ll buy. Static ads and promo posts are all well and good, but we writers need an extra oomph to get that seventh look. Enter the video trailer. We have an easily adaptable script to fit any genre, including nonfiction.
Elevate your promotions after you absorb the explanations and lessons in Discovering Your Author Brand.
Ebook, for $3.99
Finally, Characters, Plot, Sentence Craft and Author Brand are bundled into the massive 8 x 10 compendium of Discovering Your Writing.
Available as a paperback for $14.99, or an ebook for$12.
Only at Amazon, because the other aggregator doesn't take bundles or paperbacks (yet).
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S
Wow, that’s 3 planners + 5 craft books & 1 bundle = 9 books that are wonderful gifts for any serious writer.
Check them out. Pick a planner, buy DiscNovel and DiscWriting or whichever craft book you need, and you are set for 2023 and the years following.
Have a wonderful holiday season, and start the New Year with fresh plans and inspiration.
M.A. Lee
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