Most writers make a major mistake in the way they write first drafts. Here Lee Pound tells you what that mistake is and how to correct it.
Visit Lee’s story writing ideas site for more on how to create and use stories in your writing.
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Just wanted to let everyone know that I’ve challenged myself to a yearlong plan to write one story a day. They’ll be posted on my 365 Stories in a Year blog. Just go there, enjoy and learn because each store will illustrate the lessons I talk about here. By the way, leave a comment when you drop by. This may seem like a pretty useless skill in today’s information based society. Who has time to tell stories when we’ve got so many facts to get out to the world? Truth is, the world is inundated with facts, so much so that nobody can absorb even a tiny fraction of one percent of all that’s out there. The problem is not how to get your word out. That’s easy. Put it up on the Internet and it’s out. The problem is getting anyone to read it. Test this on yourself. Go to half a dozen blogs and note down which items you read and which ones you passed over. Ask yourself why you read some and not others. Be honest. There are no right or wrong answers. I’ll bet some of the reasons went like this:
And a whole lot of others. By the way, I’d love to hear from you in the comments about what reasons you wrote down and why. As you think about it, notice that the decision to read was a snap decision, reached in just an instant. This snap decision was based on a slight surge of emotion, a quick desire to learn more, or some resonance with the subject line. This is the key to why stories are important. Both stories themselves and the structure of stories create an emotional reaction just like the one you experienced earlier. (If you didn’t do the exercise, go back and do it now so you can experience this). The first step in story structure is the attention getter. If the blog post headline was written correctly, it raised a question in your mind that you wanted answered, the same as the title or first line of a novel will do. You then read at least part of the post. If the subject interested you, the headline gave you that cue and drew you in. Stories consist of a lot more elements that create emotion, keep you reading, increase tension, and raise the desire to know more. When you learn how to write them and how to embed your facts in them, your writing will take on far more power that you ever dreamed possible and you will start to stand from that crowd of fact purveyors who never get read. Lee Pound shows you how to overcome the inertia that stops most people from writing their book. By using these simple steps you can be on your way to publishing your book in a few short months. For more tips, go to http://www.bookwritingtips.org
One of the most important reasons to write every day is that it will make all of your writing projects much easier. I’ve found that when you write often, you exercise your writing skills in much the same way that practicing the piano or football exercises your musical or sporting skills. Too often we think that we can get good at a task by doing it every so often. Yet regular exercise of any skill is the path to mastery. In golf, the best pros practice every day with a coach. In music the best performers practice every day to enhance their skills. In writing, the professionals write every day to build their skills. The more you think about doing something, the less time you actually spend doing it. This is particularly true of writing. Waiting for inspiration is like waiting for the piano to start playing itself. You have enough inspiration for a lifetime of writing right now. All you have to do is use it. Take a few minutes right now to make some decisions. If you want to write a book, make the commitment right now to write it with consistent daily action. If you want to create a successful blog, make the commmitment right now to post as often as you can, every day if possible. If you are marketing a product, work at your marketing every day. There are two kinds of entrepreneurs. The first are the ones who sit back and wait for the business to come to them. The second kind are the ones who go after the business with everything they’ve got. Your writing will help you create the kind of business you want to have right now. Writing is not a game. It is a serious profession. Start writing every day and make yourself the professional star that you want to be. This will be a quick post. It seems that sometimes life does get in the way of writing and this is an important lesson for all of us. I keep saying to make sure you write every day or at least as often as you can. Consistent writing makes quite a difference in your writing skills. At times though, there are problems that come up that have to be dealt with, in my case a bad plumbing problem and a hot water leak as well as a big presentation. When we decide we are going to write as much as possible to get our books out, we make a committment to ourselves and our businesses that we will do everything possible to do what is necessary to attract the clients we want to attract. I consider speaking a form of writing and in my case I was speaking Thursday night. So even though there was no blog post yesterday, there was a lot of verbal writing on books and publishing for a select group here in Orange County. By the way, if you ever get a chance to attend one of my presentations, I would love to have you there. They are listed in my monthly newsletter that you can subscribe to in the right column of this blog. And here’s the biggest reason to write: To exercise your mind so that you keep thinking in depth about your business and craft in a way that helps you help your clients in more and better ways. When I write this blog, I have to think about writing and write as well. That’s why I love doing this blog, since it gives me a chance to help others, share writing skills, and exercise my mind as well. Enjoy your weekend. You’ll find several more posts here over the weekend. Yesterday I showed you how to start an emotionally powerful story. Today I’ll give you some strategies that will make the middle of your story come alive and create the emotional response you want. The first key emotional point in your story is when the opposition surfaces after your character attempts to solve his or her problem (see yesterday’s post). The middle of the story is an ever increasing cycle of attempts to solve a problem met by opposition that stops the character from succeeding. This continues until the climax, when the character finally succeeds and a new status quo is established. The number of steps will vary depending on the length of your writing. A blog post or short article will have only one to three steps. A testimonial or case study may have only two steps. A full-length novel or movie may have 10 to 20 steps. Here are five stragies that will make this section of your story (often called the ‘great muddle’ for obvious reasons) grab your reader’s attention and never let go.
If you use all these techniques, you will create a story that drags your readers in and pulls them through to the end. They will want to know more at every step of the way. They will identify with the character and pull for him or her to succeed. I promised everyone a few posts on stories since they are so important in persuasive writing. Learning how to write a story correctly is one of the most important skills a writer can master. Of course novels are pure story but the techniques are exactly the same as those you use in non-fiction stories. In non-fiction, a story is usually either a personal story, a testimonial, or a case study. These are true stories about real people and are used to place your product or ideas in an emotional context that shows exactly what it does and how it affects people. A non-fiction story starts at exactly the same place a fictional story starts. Here are the key elements found at the beginning of a non-fiction story:
Every story you write must contain these steps. In many cases the writer will condense the opening into just a few sentences or a paragraph. When you begin a story this way, you pique the reader’s curiosity, give them a character they can identify with and understand, and get them emotionally involved in the process. Most of what we do is automatic. We do it without thinking, as a routine part of our lives. Think of your daily routine from morning to night. What do you do every day at about the same time? Are there actions you take that you don’t even think about? Of course. Driving is automatic. How many times have you arrived at your destination and couldn’t remember anything about the drive? How often do you eat the same thing for breakfast? How many times do you go to a favorite restaurant and order the same meal? These are all habits and for the most part they make our lives easier because they eliminate the need to think about many of the routine actions we must handle every day. One of the keys to success is to establish habits that help you build your business, make your job easier, and get necessary tasks done. For a professional or a marketer, writing is one of those necessary tasks. We write articles, ads, books, pr0motions, emails and speeches. Many professionals struggle to get it all done because they have not made writing a habit. If you are working on a book, the most powerful action you can take is to write every day, even if it is just a few pages. Set aside one hour per day, whenever convenient, and write. But, you say, what if something else comes up? Here’s the answer: Do any of those other things interrupt your strongest habits? Of course not. We still get up, shower, eat, have lunch, eat dinner, watch certain TV shows (not everyone does this), and go to bed. The only way to establish a habit is to practice it. Your start by writing a few paragraphs today. It doesn’t matter what they are. Write a few more paragraphs the next day, even if it feels weird, even if you want desperately to be somewhere else. This is normal. The urge will lessen. Each day, keep your appointment with your two paragraphs, day after day. Eventually you will find yourself relaxing when you start writing. You will start to look forward to your two paragraphs and may even write more. Your words will make more sense as you progress and you will find yourself doing whatever it takes to write every day so you don’t break the string. It make take a month or two but soon you will find that at the given time, you walk to the computer and start writing without thinking. Your new habit is officially launched. Your book won’t be far behind. This may be one of the most important posts I’ve written for writers. Lots of people want to write a book. Lots of people want to write a blog, post articles, and so forth. Yet very few actually do. Writing a book is rather easy. If you write one page a day, you will have a 365-page book in a year. That’s a glacial pace, extremely slow, and it produces a big book. Most of us don’t need to write that much. In fact, 150 pages will do just fine. Think about how many tasks you do every day. There’s basic stuff like eating and bathing, driving to work, and doing whatever tasks your job or business requires. You may be able to think of hundreds. Yet getting anyone to write every day is almost impossible. The excuses surface very fast, everything from having no time to not knowing what to write, to just doing it tomorrow. No wonder so few people write books. The irony is that writing a book and giving speeches are the two best ways to create the aura of expertise that draws clients to you in an economy where every client matters. This is the prime marketing tactic of all marketing tactics and most people never get around to doing it. I’ve dealt with a lot of the excuses in past posts. Let’s just say that excuses are just that, ways to avoid doing what you know you need to do. You will notice that there is post on this blog every day this month. In addition, I am writing chapters for the Profitable Social Media book every week and editing my other book, Adapt or Perish. I could easily put all of these projects off. However, they are important to me and to my potential readers. This blog has gained a decent readership in a few short days and people are looking forward to these posts. How do I do it? Simple and so difficult most people never do it. I schedule my writing. I set a specific time when I will write on each book and when I will write this blog. Then I do it. This is the big humungous secret. Just sit in front of that computer and punch the keys for a specific amount of time. Put some words on the screen. Then put some more words on the screen. The only thing that creates a book or article or blog post is you, taking action. It’s not hard to do a task that is important to you. Make your writing a part of your life and you will do it every day. Sit down the minute you read this post and start to write. You’ll be amazed at what happens. And be sure to tell me about your results. |
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