Write That Book

By ARWA

You want to write that book…but how?

 

    Writing is a process…made up of many parts.

    To celebrate our thirty-fifth anniversary, the Alberta Romance Writers' Association (ARWA) has put together this book on how to write a novel.

Here, you will discover insights into idea development, creating conflict, structuring plot, designing characters, effective pacing, and how to edit and prepare for publication.

 

Let ARWA inspire your writing journey.

 

The Alberta Romance Writers' Association (ARWA) is a non-profit society dedicated to helping writers learn their craft in an open and non-judgmental environment. Many of our members are published with years of experience in both fiction and non-fiction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alberta Romance Writers' Association
• Release date: Aug 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201049331

Book preview

Alberta Romance Writers’ Association

August 2022

Copyright © 2022 The Alberta Romance Writers’ Association

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

ISBN: 9798839306486

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Published by:

Alberta Romance Writers’ Association

2612 14A Street SW

Calgary, Alberta  T2T 3X7

www.albertaromancewriters.com

Editors: Diana Cranstoun, Jessica L. Jackson

Cover Design and Section Titles: Cassandra Arnold

Interior Formatting: Bret Cousins

Project Team Leader: Liz Grotkowski

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The purpose of ARWA is to promote excellence in fiction writing and provide support for its members through professional development.

Dedication

If we are lucky, once in a lifetime a person comes along who alters our life path. They inspire, encourage, and teach. One of these people is Judith Duncan, multi-published author, teacher, mentor, and friend. This book is a testimony to her diligence, her friendship, and her willingness to share her writing passion and knowledge. The Alberta Romance Writers’ Association, its hundreds of writing alumni, and by extension this book, exist thanks to her. Damn it, Judy, this one’s for you.

Mahrie G. Reid

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Thirty-five years.

From that first day when Judith Duncan put together a presentation at a local library in Calgary, the Alberta Romance Writers’ Association has thrived. The group continued to bring in knowledgeable writers to instruct its members on the finer points of writing a good story. Eventually, the experienced members themselves became the tutors for each new crop of budding writers who joined the group over the years. Today, we are still a success, bringing to our members workshops on the many different aspects of writing across all genres.

My introduction to ARWA came in 2016. I had let loose my imagination and written an epic novel, bypassing learning the craft through short stories. It was reviewed by an ARWA member who pointed out some of the pitfalls I had fallen into. Through a series of ARWA workshops, I discovered what I was doing wrong and, just as importantly, what I was doing right. Since that time, I have written six full novels and several short stories, stretching myself across genres and becoming one of the experienced members who lead workshops on topics I have excelled at.

After so many years of workshops and presentations, it was natural for our expertise to be compiled into a book. Write That Book is a testament to the strong skillset present in our organization. If you ever wanted to write, but not sure how to start, this is the book for you. Let your inspiration for a novel, short story, memoir, or a non-fiction tome, be guided by the years of experience and success of ARWA members.

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Bret Cousins

President, Alberta Romance Writers’ Association, 2022

Table of Contents

Part One - Find Your Path

Motivation—For the Writer: How to get your Butt in the Chair. Suzanne Stengl

Memoir: The Stories of Our Lives. Sue LeBreton

Research Your Book. B.G. Cousins

Writing Humour. R.L. Ryder

Game Chnagers: Exploring the Magic of Arts Grants. Sarah Kades Graham

Part Two – Paint Your Big Picture

OMG, What Am I Going to Write About? Jessica L. Jackson

Brainstorming: Asking Questions to Jump-Start Your Book. Darlene Maynard

Why Your Book Needs a Logline. Allison Gorner

Using Theme to Brainstorm Your Novel. Diana Cranstoun

Bring Your Hammer and Your Saw, Because We’re Going World-Building. Jessica L. Jackson

Part Three - Cast Your Characters

Point of View. Sue LeBreton

He Did What? Character Development Before and Through Your Story. B.G. Cousins

Five Types of Supporting Characters. Allison Gorner

Part Four - Craft Your Plot

Plotting In Five Acts, or How to Get Your Readers to Binge-Read Your Story. Allison Gorner

Write Your Scenes. Cassandra Arnold

Conflict. Grace Panko

Deconstructing Pace. Elizabeth Whitton

Raising Emotional Stakes. VI Peace

Description, Narrative Summary, and Dialogue. Mahrie G. Reid

Part Five - Prepare to Publish

Write Stronger—Edit Your Work. Mahrie G. Reid

Book Formatting. B.G. Cousins

How to Write a Back-Cover Blurb. Allison Gorner

A Self-Publishing Checklist. Mahrie G. Reid

Crafting Query Letters. Allison Gorner

Part Six - Discover ARWA

The Alberta Romance Writers’ Association: Thirty-Five Years of Success. Mahrie G. Reid

What ARWA Means to Me. Del Simon

Returning to ARWA. Shaa Dickson

One Last Word

Contributors

How to Find Us

Part One

Find Your Path

It is only when we are no longer fearful

that we begin to create.

J.M.W. Turner

Motivation—For the Writer:

How to Get Your Butt in the Chair

Suzanne Stengl

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There are a lot of hard things about writing—like understanding point-of-view (POV) or scene structure or tension—but one of the hardest things about writing is Getting Started or Getting Started Again.

Here are 15 approaches you can use to motivate yourself.

1.  Just Do It

Yes, as the Nike ad tells us. Simple, right? Unfortunately, this doesn’t work for most of us.

2.  The Deadline

If this works for you, use it. Of course, you don’t need to wait until you have an actual Editor deadline. You can create a deadline for yourself with a contest.

A search on the Internet will find a lot of writing contests and they all have submission deadlines. Pick one that suits your genre. If the feedback from this contest is important to you, you’ll meet the submission deadline. You could even look for a contest where you need to pay the entry fee several months before submitting your work. Submit it on time or lose that entry fee!

But, if a Deadline does not work for you, don’t use it. For a lot of writers, a Deadline is a deadline.

Soft Deadlines are generally a good thing. In this case, you are not committed to anyone but yourself.

3.  Put the Project Aside?

This only works if the project is finished, and you don’t want to think about editing. Not yet anyway. Set the project aside for a month and come back to it with fresh eyes. But if the project is wallowing—unfinished—don’t stop now.

4.  Set a Date

For whatever reason, you’ve stopped. You had something go wrong, either in your life or your writing, and you are out of practice. Life or your writing has thrown you and you need to get back on the horse. But you are shying away from it. You may be listing reasons why you can’t write, but you know they are just excuses.

Admit to yourself that you are afraid to get back on the horse. Just admitting that to yourself will make you feel better. Then... Set A Date.

Write it on your calendar—knowing that you are setting your life up to start writing—again—on this date.

And as that date approaches...

5.  Set up your Environment

We all have a toolbox. We know what we need: from dictionaries and keyboards . . . to candles and music and pictures. Mary Balogh (who says her writing is very chaotic) keeps her external environment controlled. She has a pen—just so.

Sometimes we need a change of environment. Not your usual writing place, but the backyard, or the library, or a coffee shop. Or, in extreme cases, when housework is calling to you, an out-of-town retreat.

But retreats are expensive, so it’s best to learn to manage our environment here. And remember: we are socialized to clean. One of the Truisms of the Writing Life is: the amount of writing you get done is inversely proportional to the amount of housework you get done.

6.  Mix with Other Writers

. . . to get the writing bug again.

Join a writing group and volunteer. But don’t get Overcommitted. Remember: it’s volunteering not conscription. There is a time to volunteer and a time to clear the slate. You will know what you need.

7.  The Writing Buddy

Send your buddy an email and say, I am sitting down to write. An hour later, write another email and say what you have done. You have ONE HOUR to report back.

8.  Discipline

The Secret to Discipline is to start small. If you can’t write first thing in the morning for an hour—write for five minutes. And make it a habit.

Pick the time and place and project and Show Up—whether it’s first thing in the morning or 20 minutes of your noon hour. It helps to have a usual place since it’s one less thing to think about. Repeat for 21 days, and you’ve made it a habit.

The idea of discipline as motivation does not seem motivating, but it is, because Discipline is basically simple. The problem is we all feel like we don’t have discipline. Or enough discipline. But we do.

Which brings us to...

9.  Discipline and Writing Badly

Nine times out of ten, Discipline is not the problem. We already have all the discipline we need. And THAT is the problem. The very thing that allows us to write at all—the discipline and the time management—gets in the way when it is time to write. Because now here you are, in your allotted time slot: the kids are taken care of; the chores are done; you’ve got a break from your paying job.

And nothing is coming out of your fingers. And since nothing is happening, it all seems just useless. So, we might as well do Something that is productive, since we all are productive people. At this point, we check the email. Or we put in a load of laundry. We can at least get that Done.

No.

We need to get out of the time management and work habits paradigm and Do Nothing. Or, as the famous saying goes: Don’t just Do something, Sit there!

Give yourself permission to Write Badly. Write anything. Good sentences, bad sentences. Un-sentences. Anything. If you don’t write the dribble, you won’t be able to occasionally write the good stuff.

10.  Morning Pages

When the words aren’t coming, we can try Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages, or W.O. Mitchell’s Free Fall. These are tools for sorting your mind. Many of us do this anyway. But . . . we have a novel to write, and we can’t free fall a novel. Not usually.

Some writers claim they only have so many words in their head, so they don’t want to waste words on free fall. They just write. A lot of unplanned things happen that way, and that’s okay.

So, although morning pages can be for sorting your mind, if you don’t want to waste words on that...

11.  Sort Something

Sort a jar of coins, the linen cupboard, de-clutter. Clean a drawer. You don’t need to decide what to throw out. Just empty out the drawer and put it all back.

Sorting calms us. This is also useful for ADD kids. Note: games like solitaire are sorting games. They calm your brain and separate you from the world. But, due to their addictive nature, use them with caution!

12.  The Timer and Trickery

Tell yourself it’s only for 10 minutes. You can tolerate anything for 10 minutes. But make it a nice timer. Something with a nice DING. That way, if you get in the flow, the timer won’t snap you out.

13.  The Swiss Cheese Method

You can’t stand the thought of going into the story—for whatever reason—so poke holes in the project. Do something related to it.

Do the things you enjoy: cut out pictures; make clothing charts; create a binder for the project, or a collage.

Writer Cherry Adair calls these Displacement Activities. Time Management Expert Alan Lakein calls it the Swiss Cheese Method.

14.  One Step at a Time

Move one step at a time. That’s...One Step at a Time. Turn on the computer. Open the Book file. Open the draft page. Scroll back to what you wrote yesterday. Read to the end of that page. Fill in the blanks as you go along. Write the next sentence.

Every day, do it in the same order. Step, step, step. Don’t worry about writing a book. The goal, at this point, is NOT writing a book, but rather, moving to the next step in the sequence.

15.  The Time Record or The Milestones

For some writers, it’s motivational to see the pages add up. Make yourself a chart with columns for date, time spent, and pages added. You might want to include comments about where you are in the story.

Writing is a slow process, like watching a glacier melt. But if you make a little note each day of where you are, you can soon see how far you have come.

The Time Record is also useful at tax time if it becomes necessary to prove how much time you are spending on your writing business.

However, for some writers, keeping score is not motivating. Nora Roberts can’t tell you how long it takes her to write a book. But she doesn’t have problems with getting her book finished. If you do, you might want to try this.

At the very least, make yourself a Milestones Page. Write down where you are at the first of each month. Write down when you send off a query or a partial. Write down when you attended a workshop. Write down when you got some good feedback. Write down when you start a book...or when you put it away.

Often you will forget when you