I wrote 3 novels in 13 months. Here is how I did it:

Book #1: I had a great premise for a novel. I sat with butt in chair most mornings and wrote organically for almost two months until I got stuck. Something was wrong, and I couldn’t get past a certain plot point. I discovered “Story Engineering”, a “how to” book on story structure. I decided to “back burner” the entire book.

Book #2: After reading “Story Engineering” while on a road trip to New Brunswick (18 hours in a car with my husband and two kids), I decided to plan my second book, “Ravenous”, before actually writing it. After a 16 page synopsis and a beat sheet or point by point scene breakdown, I plowed into the story. Following two total restructures and major edits, I had a final draft. Next, some beta reading and consulting a professional editor, and bingo: I have a finished product.

Book #3: Before I completed book #2, I discovered NaNoWriMo. I kept seeing it pop up all over the place; on writer’s blogs, on literary agent’s websites and so forth. Finally, I discovered that it is a short form for National Novel Writing Month, a 30 day writing challenge where pros and aspiring authors come together once a year to push out original 50,000 word books, or die trying. Their slogan is “Thirty days and nights of literary abandon”. It’s free, although they accept and encourage donations. It’s open to anyone age 13 or older, however, there is also a junior program for younger writers. Word count is all that matters, and you can write pretty much any genre, as long as you meet the 50,000 word count by midnight, November 30th. What you get in return beside a pretty little badge is a book or least a draft for a book and the knowledge that you created something that most people in their entire lifetime will never achieve. How great is that!

What I found so cool about the premise is that anyone can write a novel, given the chance. The timeline and word count are helpful because most of us can accept a 30 day challenge. The worst that can happen is not meeting the target. But that’s OK too. I like a challenge, and decided to go for it. I had a new idea for a story that came up one afternoon in conversation with my husband. It was really a joke, but I asked what the world would be like if corporations ran our school system? I thought that I’d love to explore that concept. Story Engineering author Larry Brooks even gave me his Nanowrimo “how to” book, compiled from various blog posts he wrote on his own site storyfix.com. Based on Larry’s wise advice, I decided to plot my book in October, before I even got to November 1st. Story planning before the start date is well within the rules and I knew that if I waited until November 1st to write my first word, I would be doomed. On a side note, there are a group of writers on NaNo known as rebels. These folks decided to break the rules by writing memoirs, a collection of short stories or partially written stories. They have their own forum that’s just plain fun.

NaNoWriMo wants you to succeed and asks for your commitment for one solid month. Through pep talks and forums, a community of writers encourages you all the way. I found a local Toronto forum of writers on NaNoWriMo that meet all through November for write-ins, get togethers and fun events. (Toronto, by the way, is always in the top ten cities for word count.) Being a mother of two young boys prevented me from attending, but I was able to chat with other locals in the forums.

By the end of November, I completed a rough draft of my novel “Love and Cola Wars”. I left it alone to breathe until February, when I pulled it out and read the thing straight through. It looked good – not ready for print good, but certainly the best first draft I ever wrote. I’m still editing it, planning on a September 1st release date.

The follow up on NaNoWriMo’s site is fantastic. There are dedicated forums to help with editing, query letters, beta reader search and more. Also, there is a plethora of information about self-publishing, an idea that I didn’t originally embrace but now endorse.

Book #4: This July, I plan to write the sequel to my dystopian novel “Ravenous” during Camp NaNoWriMo, a summer event with the same concept as NaNoWriMo. I’m in the story planning stage, not waiting until three weeks before to get my beat sheet prepared, so that come July 1st, I will be raring to go. As the Camp NaNoWriMo slogan states, this will be “an idyllic writers retreat, smack-dab in the middle of your crazy life”.

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About the Author

Heidi Loney is a Young Adult author of Ravenous (Ancestor, Book 1), coming June 1st to Kobo. She is also completing her novel Love and Cola Wars, a high school satire set in her home town of Toronto, Canada. Heidi blogs about Toronto city politics on her tongue in cheek website, leftwingpinko.ca. When not writing, she spends most of her time raising her two young boys with her husband Jack.

Heidi lives in the city with her husband Jack and two (mostly) darling children.

You can find her at her website, on Twitter, on Goodreads, and on Kobo.

“Don’t get it right; get it written. There’s a huge psychological effect, for me at least, of getting that first draft down. Once it’s written, you can perfect your story. But, you have to get that sucker down on paper first!”

Like the protagonist of her legal thrillers, Melissa F. Miller is a practicing litigator who lives in Pittsburgh. Her Sasha McCandless series has sold over 60,000 copies and includes Irreparable Harm, Inadvertent Disclosure, Irretrievably Broken. The latest installment, Indispensable Party, was published earlier this year.

When did you first discover a love of writing? Is there a particular book that made you want to become a writer?

Like so many writers, I started writing as a young child. I was, and still am, an avid reader, but I wouldn’t say there was a particular book that made me want to write. I did write my first complete novel as an adult after a cross-country flight during which I read Michael Connelly’s THE LINCOLN LAWYER on the first leg and Paolo Coehlo’s THE ALCHEMIST on the second leg. The first is an example of the type of book I love to read and wanted to write. The second is the kick in the pants I needed to do it!

Where do you get your story ideas?

For my legal thriller series, I usually get the seed of an idea from an article, news report, or case that I’ve read (I am also a practicing lawyer). I also have an Evernote folder full of story ideas that don’t work for this series but that have been rattling around in my brain.

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received as a writer?

“Don’t get it right; get it written.” There’s a huge psychological effect, for me at least, of getting that first draft down. Once it’s written, you can perfect your story. But, you have to get that sucker down on paper first!

Do you believe in Writer’s Block?

No. I like this quote by Phillip Pullman: “Plumbers don’t get plumber’s block, and doctors don’t get doctor’s block; why should writers be the only profession that gives a special name to the difficulty of working, and then expects sympathy for it?”

But, I also have found something that Rachel Aaron says very helpful. She claims that “if writing is like pulling teeth, you’re doing it wrong.” In other words, that feeling of being unable to write or dreading writing probably means there’s something wrong with the scene you’re working on and your subconscious realizes it. Once I started thinking about it that way, so-called writer’s block became a call to reexamine my plot, structure, character development arc and try to suss out whether something was wrong.

What made you decide to self-publish?

I had written (and hidden in a drawer) one very bad novel that will never see the light of day (I call it my training wheels novel) and then I wrote Irreparable Harm. I gave it to my husband, who read it (with some trepidation, I’m sure, having read my first one!), and he loved it. It was December of 2010 and I was gearing up to send out query letters, when my husband emailed me a lifehacker.com article about self-publishing. That led me to J.A. Konrath’s website, which led me to the Writer’s Cafe on kb.com. And after having done all that research, I realized self-publishing was the better choice for me. I run a small business already (our law firm), I have NO patience, and I had actually worked in publishing for a few years between college and law school. It just seemed like a better fit for my personality to be able to plot my own course.

Are there any self-publishing tricks of the trade you’d like to share? What rules of craft or promotion do you live by?

I do think the best promotion you can do is to write the next book. That’s not a sexy answer, but I think it’s true. The more ways there are for readers to find you, the better. That’s not to say that I don’t promote, because I do. But, I try to balance things like blog tours or giveaways with writing time. It must be working. I published the first book in my series in April 2011, and to date I have sold over 60,000 copies of the series. That’s not a jaw-dropping number like some indie superstars have, but I have to pinch myself when I realize that there are many people out there who have paid good money to read my stories!

On a craft point: I would say, find what works for you. There’s no one system that’s going to work for every writer–or even every book by a single writer. Read. Read in your genre but also read widely. And write.

What is the one writing tool you could not do without?

Coffee. Specifically, fair trade, organic, farmer friendly, cafe cubano roast by Mayorga Coffee Roasters. I buy it 5 lbs at a time direct from the roaster. Without my coffee, there would be no Sasha McCandless legal thriller series. And with that, it’s time for another cup!

There are enough obstacles and limitations in the world. Why make yourself one of them?

Read the whole article here.

Remember that today the 3^rd book in Penn’s Sin series is now available, and it’s not too late to enter the “Kobo presents The Descent” contest.

Joanna Penn is a British author, internet entrepreneur and international speaker whose books have appeared on Thriller and Action Adventure bestseller lists.

Check out her author site here.

On May 23^rd at 7pm EST, click here to join the free web conference, and watch the Pitchapalooza webinar as a spectator.

Watch, listen, and learn as aspiring novelists pitch their  1-minute book ideas, receive critiques and compete for the grand prize: introduction to an agent or publisher!

“What I live by: I will produce the best work that I can with the time, money and resources that I have available to me right now.” 

Laura Shabott’s latest book, Confessions of an eBook Virgin: What Everyone should know before they Publish on the Internet, deals with the steps an aspiring eBook author will take between words on a page and a finished eBook. She lives in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

When did you first discover a love of writing? Is there a particular book that made you want to become a writer?

I have always had a love of reading but the passion for telling stories and sharing them with the world happened in my early Fifties. In 2007, I started journal writing as a daily practice. That led to a blog, a novella and my newest e-Release, “Confessions of an eBook Virgin.”

“Writing Down the Bones” by Natalie Goldberg was the book that showed me how to get out of my own way and start to put words on a page consistently.

Where do you get your story ideas?

I live in Provincetown, the oldest continuous arts colony in the United States at the tip of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

There is a creative pulse here at lands end that feeds the imagination of painters, actors and writers. A very colorful place, there is no lack of material – ever.

“Confessions of an eBook Virgin” was inspired by the power of the self publishing revolution. I had a burning desire to share what I have learned with other authors and people who dream

of writing and publishing their own work.

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received as a writer?

Cynthia Kling, my writing coach, asked me why I was always rushing. She had hit my Achilles Heel: the compulsive need to race through life. Cynthia told me to stop it, that writing isn’t a sprint. It’s a marathon. Since that fateful conversation, I have learned to love the process of creation as much as the result.

Do you believe in Writer’s Block?

I believe that fear can kill a person’s ability to create, whatever the medium: paint, dance, stage or pen to paper. Sometimes I am all used up and think I can’t do it. But if I sit down, take a deep breath and let go of the concerns of the world around me, my inner mojo will kick in.

I wrote for many years under the constraint of a weekly deadline. Sometimes I thought I would NEVER be able to do it. Deadlines are like Miracle-Gro for many writers.

If there was one writer (alive or deceased) that you would love to meet, who would it be?

I would love to have a drink with Earnest Hemingway at a dive bar in Key West, Florida.

What made you decide to self-publish?

After I had written over 100,000 words during the course of four years for a website with a million person reach, I decided to take the plunge and e-Publish a novella under a pen name. What I learned from that experience is the fodder for “Confessions of an eBook Virgin.” I was deeply inspired to help other writers save time and gain confidence in the learning curve of author/self publisher.

Are there any self-publishing tricks of the trade you’d like to share? What rules of craft or promotion do you live by?

I take freezer paper and line the wall next to my desk with it (shiny side down). Thoughts, contacts, marketing ideas and tasks inspired by Internet searches, email or social media get jotted down with a magic marker. It helps keeps me calm in the face of the huge amount of content out there about self publishing. This splatter of information gets culled into contact lists, writing ideas and task lists.

What I live by: I will produce the best work that I can with the time, money and resources that I have available to me right now.

What is next for you?

I dream about inspiring a woman in India to write that novel at the same moment a man on a subway in New York City is downloading my book onto their Kobo Glo. My next book will be about the global reach of eBooks and how writers can harness it

But sometimes emotions will escalate too high or go on too long, creating melodrama and impatience. Melodrama is when the emotional responses of the characters are so heightened and overly-dramatic that the reader is yanked out of the story because it feels unrealistic. Melodrama can break the spell, and is something to avoid at all costs.

Impatience occurs not so much from an unrealistic level of emotion, but because the escalation hits a ceiling and stays there. After awhile, the reader grows frustrated that the tension is not progressing. It feels like the moment has stalled and the emotions within the scene have reached a long, drawn out plateau.

As writers, we want to take readers on an emotional roller coaster, allowing them to experience many different feelings within the scope of the book. One way to avoid building too high and causing melodrama or hitting that flat tension plateau is to apply this idea of emotional scope to each scene. Instead of a steady, predictable rise of emotion, we give readers a jagged climb.

Let’s take an example from The Emotion Thesaurus. If we look at the entry for “Confusion” it suggests that if this emotion escalated, it might lead to feeling OVERWHELMED, FRUSTRATED, RESIGNED and INSECURE.

Now, a possible character situation to illustrate how emotions can fluctuate (I’ll name the emotions just to make them easier to spot!):

Sixteen-year-old Josh is sitting down to write his final exam in Science. The test begins and he opens the booklet. He blinks, pulls back, then brings his nose right up to the paper, baffled.  All he sees are physics questions, yet his friend Erik said the teacher told the class to concentrate on studying notes from their chemistry unit.

Then it dawns on him. Maybe Erik didn’t mention that he should study physics too because it’s a small part of the test, just the first question or so. After all, Erik knew Josh really needed to kill this exam or he might fail the class. Hope emerges and he flips a page. Then another.

Four pages later, he’s still seeing physics questions. Uncertainty lays heavy in his gut, tangoing ominously with the burrito he ate for lunch. Finally on the last page, a single chemistry question appears. Now what? he thinks, completely overwhelmed.

He glances over at the next row, where Erik is pounding on the keys of his calculator and then scribbling answers on the page.  This surprises Josh, because if they both studied the wrong things, shouldn’t Erik be upset too?

His friend looks up and catches Josh’s gaze. Then he smiles and mouths, Payback.

That smile is a punch to the gut. Josh remembers how days earlier, he left the class to go to the washroom, and when he returned, Erik was all too quick to fill him in on what the teacher had said about the exam. The same Erik who caught Josh making out with his ex-girlfriend the week before.

Realization dawns, and Josh’s face heats up in a flash of anger. He’s been duped! Well okay, maybe he had it coming, but still. Now he turns back to his exam and all he can think is, I am so screwed.

A small, simple scene, but look at the range of emotions: Josh is confused by the test, then worried. But then he begins to hope, and the reader thinks it all might turn out. That hope is quickly dashed and soon Josh feels overwhelmed.  Then comes surprise at Eric’s lack of worry, then shock of being duped. This escalates to anger. Finally we have resignation over his situation and how his own actions helped cause it.

The reader’s emotions are pulled up, then down, then up. No emotion overstays its welcome, we avoid melodrama and the emotions escalate right through to the end of the scene. A range of emotions allows the reader to experience more, and keep things interesting.

YOUR TURN: Have you ever used this jagged method of escalating emotions? Did it help to keep your reader guessing? Let me know in the comments!

* * *

About the Author: Angela Ackerman is one half of The Bookshelf Muse blog duo, and co-author of The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression. Listing the body language, visceral reactions and thoughts associated with seventy-five different emotions, this brainstorming guide is a valuable tool for showing, not telling, emotion.

These titles intend to provide a wide range of information that will leave you feeling confident, resourceful and more capable when it comes to social media.

		Google+ for Business: How Google’s Social Network Changes Everything By: Chris Brogan Google+ is quickly maturing into an incredibly valuable channel for profitable business–and, because many of your competitors haven’t discovered it yet, it offers you huge new opportunities. Google+ for Business, Second Edition, will help you grab those opportunities right now. Top social media speaker and business advisor Chris Brogan will help you get great results fast, without wasting time or money. This fully updated second edition distills the experiences of leading-edge Google+ business adopters into powerful tactical recipes for everything from lead generation and nurturing to direct sales. Packed with new examples and case studies, it guides you through using Google+ for promotion, customer service, community building, referrals, collaboration, and much more. From start to finish, the focus is on results: generating more customers and more cash at the lowest possible cost!
		Pinterest for Business: How to Pin Your Company to the Top of the Hottest Social Media Network By: Edward Swiderski, Jess Loren Pinterest is today’s hottest new social media platform–and it’s perfect for businesses with small marketing budgets. Capitalize on Pinterest today, and you’ll build a devoted fan base that keeps you “pinned at the top”…driving more sales, revenue, and profits for years to come! Two top social marketing experts show you exactly how to make Pinterest work for your company. They concisely explain how Pinterest works, how businesses are using it, and how to get started the right way–fast! Case studies and specific techniques help you choose the best approach for your business and industry–from crafts to hardware, and wedding planning to restaurants. Want free advertising and powerful viral marketing? Get it now, with Pinterest for Business!
		The Rebel’s Guide to Email Marketing: Grow Your List, Break the Rules, and Win By: DJ Waldow, Jason Falls “They” say email is dead. Baloney! 94% of Americans use email. Passionate social networkers use email more, not less. Mobile email is huge. Email offers marketers more opportunities than ever… opportunities to guide customers from consideration and trial to repeat purchase, loyalty, even advocacy! But email has changed. Email users have changed. To get breakthrough results, you must break the rules! Whether you’re B2B or B2C, Fortune 500 or start-up, this is a complete no-nonsense plan for transforming your email marketing. Discover radically better ways to handle every facet of your campaign: lists, From names, Subject lines, calls to action, social network integration…everything!

		The Social Trade Show: Leveraging Social Media and Virtual Events to Connect With Your Customers By: Traci Browne Today’s new social and virtual platforms and technologies can help you transform the way you market through tradeshows, exhibits, and events – helping you supercharge performance on every metric that matters to you. The Social Tradeshow is the first practical guide to using these new tools to reach more prospects, close more sales, and earn more profits. Renowned industry consultant and thought leader Traci Browne covers every step of the process, revealing what works (and what doesn’t). She offers practical advice, realistic examples, and actionable ideas for companies of all sizes, in both B2B and B2C markets.
		The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success (Third Edition) By: Lon Safko The Social Media Bible is comprehensive 700-plus page social media resource that will teach corporate, small business, and non-profit marketers strategies for using social media to reach their desired audiences with power messages and efficiency. This newly revised 3rd edition addresses technology updates to the iPad, apps, Foursquare, and other geo-targeted networks. New case studies and company profiles provide practical examples of how businesses have successfully implemented these strategies, using the newest social media marketing tools.
		Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Social Media, but were afraid to ask… By: Hilary JM Topper, MPA Designed for marketing professionals, small business owners, and non-profit organization executives, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Social Media, but were afraid to ask… is filled with detailed, how-to information on the sometimes complicated online world. Guiding readers through the importance of implementing social media tactics into their marketing mix to increase awareness and maintain visibility.

“I’ve always tried to give readers the same experience I get when a story makes my palms sweat in the middle of the night.”

Ernie Lindsey’s mystery and suspense novels include Sara’s Game, The Two Crosses, and Going Shogun. His latest book, Sledge, about a private investigator in a small Virginia town with a dark past that threatens her future, was published last month.

When did you first discover a love of writing? Is there a particular book that made you want to become a writer?

My first real experience with writing something that I felt was worthy enough to share happened in my second year Old Dominion University. I’d dabbled in creating a few small pieces of fiction here and there, but a single, random sentence from a friend (in a coffee shop at 4AM, nonetheless) sparked an idea for a story. I had fifteen pages of a heist caper written the next day and it got such a fantastic response from friends, my life in front of a keyboard began.

What’s your favourite book? What was your favourite book as a child?

Tomcat in Love by Tim O’Brien. The things O’Brien does with language in that book should make any aspiring writer salivate at his skill. Favorite book as a child? James and the Giant Peach. I can only wish I had Roald Dahl’s imagination.

Where do you get your story ideas?

They come from random places. A particular quote from a friend, a newspaper article, inspiration from a movie plot. Sometimes, however, I’ll start a story with no particular goal in mind. I’ll put a character into a situation and just start throwing harrowing experiences at them and see how they react. Often, I write something like I’m reading it – I think it helps with the surprise factor if I’m as shocked by what happens as a reader would be.

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received as a writer?

There are two, actually. The first came from my creative writing professor twenty years ago. I remember mentioning that I had issues with filling a story with fluff just to make a word count goal. She said something to the effect of, “Make every sentence matter.” I think that, more than anything, tightened up my skill and helped streamline the creative process.

The second comes from the great Elmore Leonard, and it ties in with the previous one. His quote, “I try to leave out the parts that people skip,” serves as a reminder not to bore your reader with unnecessary details. Readers don’t care that “John woke up and brushed his teeth.” They want to know what happened when he left for work that morning and found a bomb on his doorstep.

Do you believe in Writer’s Block?

Unfortunately, I’ve experienced it. I had my novel Going Shogun sitting at roughly 30% complete for *years* and I couldn’t bring myself to work on anything else until it was finished. Finally, I decided that I had to get the story out of the way to free up the other ideas I had floating around, regardless of whether or not it was any good. It turned out to be one of my favorite things I’ve ever written, and I’ve completed two novels and numerous short stories since. Once I tore down that wall, the words flowed again.

If there was one writer (alive or deceased) that you would love to meet, who would it be?

Dean Koontz. His novel, The Voice of the Night, caught my attention as a teen and introduced me to the world of suspense fiction. His storytelling style was such a drastic difference from the literary fiction I’d been exposed to in grade school and I poured through everything of his that I could get my hands on. He’s been a huge influence from the first day I started writing.

What’s your favourite literary genre? Any guilty pleasures?

Mystery & Suspense. As I mentioned earlier, I write like I read, and I love that heart-pounding excitement that comes from a well written thriller. One of my main goals as a writer has always been to create a physical response from the written word; I’ve always tried to give readers the same experience I get when a story makes my palms sweat in the middle of the night.

Are there any self-publishing tricks of the trade you’d like to share? What rules of craft or promotion do you live by?

Read. Learn. Sit down and write, no excuses. Don’t be afraid to follow trends and adapt when they no longer work. Continue to build your list of titles, because you never know when that one singular book is going to catch on. When it does, you’ll have a growing fanbase eager to read what’s already out there in your library.

Admissions are based on a writing sample, and the Curtis Brown Creative team will award the scholarship to the writer whose material shows the greatest potential and who can demonstrate financial need.

Further scholarship places will be offered on the 3-Month Novel-Writing course (Sept-Dec 2013) and the 6-Month Novel-Writing course (Feb-July 2014) – applications for those courses aren’t yet open, but more details will be available on the Curtis Brown Creative website soon – and we’ll certainly let you know when they are!

Kobo Writing Life and Curtis Brown Creative are both dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in writing and are united in our goal of helping aspiring writers learn not only the craft of writing but the ins and outs of the publishing industry. We couldn’t be more excited about helping three talented authors who couldn’t otherwise take advantage of such a fantastic opportunity.