5 Hard-Won Writing Tips by Linda Charles

This week we have author Linda Charles with 5 writing tips. She has a new book out this month, No Looking Back, Bindarra Creek: A Town Reborn.

Linda Charles has been reading romance since high school. Her reading life started very early, but changed direction after she read Gone with the Wind. She was born in Sydney and spent her teenage years in drama classes, and then taught Speech & Drama for many years.  She still loves to go to the theatre, but her plan was always to write. Linda lives in Newcastle and when she's not writing, she can be found walking, browsing the bookshops or planning her next holiday.

Linda Charles on the web:

Website          Facebook         Twitter 

         

Goodreads     Pinterest 

5 hard-won writing tips = do not give up! – by Linda Charles

Writing takes a while to learn and some say it’s not for the fainthearted, but, we all write something at some stage, whether for pleasure, or for work. We all want that writing to be good. There are so many arms to study – mastering description, plotting, discovering the internal as well as the external conflict, what to show, what to tell, dialogue – the list seems endless once you start. It seemed daunting to me when I first started. I loved to read and have two to three books on the go at any one time, but I soon discovered to sit down and write a book is not quite so easy.

Once you start, you’ll discover there is always something to learn. I discovered early on that when I enjoy my characters and their situations it crosses over to the scenes I write for them. If I don’t enjoy writing them I can’t imagine readers would enjoy reading those scenes.

When it comes to learning to write a story, we should live by the old English proverb for patience which is 'Slowly, slowly catchy monkey'. It means that if do not rush or if you avoid being too hasty, then eventually you will achieve your goal.

I have five things I do every week to feed my writing. It’s requires a little discipline, but after a while it becomes a natural part of what you do as part of your writing life.

Reading

This is number one for a number of reasons. Read every day because when you read you learn, you notice things and it replenishes your creative well. The brain is a wonderful thing and while you’re sleeping its working and months later it will surprise you with a scene you did not see coming, but which flows naturally from the characters you’ve created.

Write every single day

This makes sense, but is so often left to Sunday, which is too often the designated day of writing. Stop that thinking, I did that for years and when I started writing on a daily basis, everything changed in my writing. I used to kid myself Sunday was my writing day, in reality, it was my re-writing of the previous Sunday’s work and my stories (and my growth as a writer) stagnated.

Learn the specifics

Do learn what is required of the genre you like to write. If it’s romance be aware of the different tropes that are expected and enjoyed by the romance reader.

Study your words and vocabulary

This seems self-explanatory, but it gets forgotten in the excitement of writing. 

Revise

Revise, revise, revise and then some. It’s surprising how little extra words pop in a sentence, or is left out – especially in your excitement as you get caught up writing the scene. It happens very easily and some people are known to change from third person to first person mid-scene because they are so involved. Be aware of this when you revise.

Letting go is so hard to do, but at some point we have to stop tinkering and send our story out into the world.

Thank you for the invite to write this blog. I’ve been fortunate to be part of the https://bindarracreekromance.com/a-town-reborn/ and have just released the third book in the series – No Looking Back. It can be found on Amazon - https://amzn.to/303nrQW

About the book:

Sometimes it’s good to take a risk…

Hannah McKenna loves working with horses and is trying hard to keep it altogether after her first horse syndication deal turns sour. Since then she’s been careful and played life straight, and has had enough. She runs into trouble when she meets Blake Hudson – the man who put together the failed deal – who rescues her when she takes a nasty tumble from a horse.

Blake Hudson is known as Mr Nice Guy, but there are dark shadows in his past. He’s the dealmaker, the perfect go-between who puts together horse syndications and once the deal is done he moves on. Problem is, Hannah is the exception and he can’t keep away, but fears she will walk if she knew the truth about his past.

He hadn’t bargained on dealing with a mischievous third party called attraction.

When she discovers the truth, both realise they could lose everything, including each other.

No Looking Back: Bindarra Creek: A Town Reborn

Hannah McKenna loves working with horses and is trying hard to keep it altogether after her first horse deal turns sour. She runs into trouble when she meets Blake Hudson – the man who put together the failed deal – who rescues her when she takes a nasty tumble from a horse. She likes him, simple as, and finds plenty of reasons to make him want to stay. 

Blake Hudson feels like an imposter because he knows loved ones would walk if they knew the truth. He’s the dealmaker, the perfect go-between who puts together horse syndications and once the deal is done he moves on. His life takes a turn when he meets Hannah, the woman at the centre of his worst deal. Problem is he can’t keep away, but fears she will walk if she knew the truth about his past. 
He hadn’t bargained on dealing with a mischievous third party called attraction.

When she discovers the truth, both realise they could lose everything, including each other.

Buy on:

Amazon Kindle

Amazon Aust

Amazon UK