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Angela Cavanaugh

Angela Cavanaugh

Tag Archives: write

Writing Wednesday – Deadlines

16 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by angelacavanaugh in Writing Wednesday

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Tags

advice, author, deadline, how to write, write, writer, writing

Last WW: The All Important First Draft 

Love them or hate them, at some point, you will have a deadline.  Maybe it’ll come from a publisher, or maybe it’ll be self-imposed.  Either way, sooner or later, it’s something every writer must face.

Why we hate them:

  • Deadlines are scary.  Many writers feel like they have to be in the mood to write, that a muse takes hold of them and lets the words flow.  I know I write my best when I’m writing because there’s an idea inside of me that simply must come out.  Sometimes, however, we have to find other things to motivate us.  Deadlines are one such thing.
  • It feels awful to miss it.  In many cases, it’s not the end of the world if you miss a deadline.  If it’s a contest, yeah, you’re probably in trouble.  But in most situations, the person who gave you that deadline will be lenient.  Unless that person is yourself.  When I give myself a deadline and I blow it, I’m really angry with myself.  It sort of destroys me and I have to take a few days to recover, which often pushes me even further off course.

Why we should love them:

  • They speed things up.  It’s great to write when the inspiration takes you.  But if you only write when it does, then it could be years, if not decades, before your book is finished.
  • They’re necessary.  If you go traditional, expect a lot of deadlines.  But they’re equally important if you’re indie, and for the same reasons.  It allows you to plan for marketing and promotions.  It enables you to give your readers answers, and they are usually a hungry bunch eager for your next book to come out.  It lets you know when you need to buckle down, and when you need to crack the whip.
  • It’s professional.  Going from Writer to Author requires a lot of follow through.  If you want readers to stick with you, they have to know that they can trust you.  This means making plans, like deadlines, and delivering on them.

They’re are many more reasons why deadlines are both good and bad.  In the end, I believe that they are a good thing.  For example, I have a story due on Friday.  While I am a bit of a procrastinator, I’ve been working on it.  It’s actually already gone through two drafts, and I’m finishing the third, which is more of a rewrite than anything.  There’s a lot that I need to do on it between now and then.  But rather than spending all day tomorrow watching reruns or movies, I’ll be butt in chair and working.  Why?  Because I have a deadline to keep.

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Writing Wednesday – Timelines

26 Thursday Feb 2015

Posted by angelacavanaugh in Writing Wednesday

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Tags

advice, how to, non-linear story telling, timeline, write, writing

Last Week’s WW: The Best Laid Plans

BTTF timelines and linesSometimes in story telling it’s essential that you tell things out of order.  Maybe you’re writing a time travel story, or a murder mystery, or you’ve got some sort of Memento thing going on.  Whatever your reasoning for having a non-linear story line, you still need to know what happened, when.

I recently started plotting out a new serial and it will include some flash backs.  So, one of the first things I did was write out a timeline.  (Not the one above, that’s Back to the Future)

Having a time line for any story, especially a non-linear one,  helps insure that there won’t be any confusion, that the story is consistent, and there’s an easy thing to reference when needed.

 

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Writing Wednesday – Finishing

22 Thursday Jan 2015

Posted by angelacavanaugh in Writing Wednesday

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

can you do it, fear, finish, finishing a first draft, how to write, life, perfectionism, revise, write, writing advice

Last Week’s WW: Trying for Success

You’ve probably heard this advice before: finish your first draft.  Obviously, if you ever want to publish you need a finished project.  But if you want to be a writer, this step is important for more reasons.  And there’ll be a lot of things trying to stop you along the way.

Continue reading →

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Writing Wednesday – The Hardest Part

08 Thursday Jan 2015

Posted by angelacavanaugh in Writing Wednesday

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

advice, agents, amazon, ARC readers, author, beta readers, edit, editing, edits, first draft, hard, hardest part, how to, how to write, kindle, marketing, promo, promos, publish, publishing, query, reviews, revision, self-publishing, the hardest part of writing, write, writer, writing

Last Week’s WW: For Love or Money

Some people will tell you that writing the first draft of a book is the hardest part of the process.  Others will tell you that it’s doing revisions, or waiting for your book to finally come out.  Everyone has an opinion on which part is the hardest part, but in my experience, everyone is wrong.  Continue reading →

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Writing Wednesday – Finding a story in a universe

18 Thursday Dec 2014

Posted by angelacavanaugh in Writing Wednesday

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advice, author, craft a scene, find your story, how to tell a story, how to write, scene, story, tell the right story, write, writer, writing

Last Week’s WW: Dealing With Rejection and Looking for ARC Readers

Recently, I was writing a short story, and when I finished the first draft, I realized that I was telling the wrong story.

Continue reading →

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Writing Wednesday – Getting Attention

04 Thursday Dec 2014

Posted by angelacavanaugh in Writing Wednesday

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

advice, amazon, attention, booktrack, facebook groups, how to, kboards, kindle, kindle scout, market, marketing, publish, wattpad, write, write on, writing

Last Week’s WW: Scrivener

hotlist4

OTHERWORLDERS

Hey, look!  I’m on the “Hot and Trending” list! 🙂

But how did I get there?  Continue reading →

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Writing Wednesday – Line Edits

07 Friday Nov 2014

Posted by angelacavanaugh in Writing Wednesday

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Tags

advice, edit, editing, editor, examples, finished, how to, line edits, revision, write, writing

Last Week’s WW:  Narrative and Style

Sorry that this is a day late.  I meant to post yesterday, but I sat down to finish my edits and formatting on Otherworlders, and wound up at my computer until 5am.  By that point, I was a bit tired and cranky and just ready to be done for the day.

If you have a project, I highly recommend getting an editor.

I can’t imagine how impossible it would have been to do all that work myself.  Honestly, I probably wouldn’t have been able to.  There’s just still many technical things that I’m not skilled enough to know or I am too close to my project to see.

I sent mine off and when it came back it was beautiful.  But that doesn’t mean that I was done with it.    Continue reading →

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Mention Monday – NaNoWriMo

04 Tuesday Nov 2014

Posted by angelacavanaugh in Mention Monday

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

nanowrimo, national November writing month, write, write a novel in thirty days, writer, writing

It’s that time of year again.  I’m sure that by now you’ve heard, and possibly even participated in Nation Novel Writing Month.

After much debate with myself, I’ve decided to participate in NaNoWriMo.  I was hesitant to do it because I’m in the middle of a few things.  But I’m not going to stop working on my other projects. Which includes:
-Polishing a full length novel, Otherworlders.
-Working on writing 3 more books in my Sleep Saga serial project.
-Doing a second draft on a short story story (which is quickly turning into a novella).
-And, of course, posting to this blog.

Maybe I’m crazy?

Here’s my story:

After the End

“A mismatched group of teens must come together to figure out how to survive after life as they know it, as well as most of the population, is destroyed by a biological weapon. Unbeknownst to them, they haven’t been left unchanged. The biological weapon has made them something more than human. But there’s another side to the evolutionary coin, and they’re being hunted by it. They must form new alliances and put aside old prejudices as they race against time to save one of their own as he threatens to turn into a murderous subhuman.”

There are some people who don’t like NaNoWriMo.  They think that what’s produced from it is junk.

Continue reading →

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Writing Wednesday – Narrative and Style

30 Thursday Oct 2014

Posted by angelacavanaugh in Writing Wednesday

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

advice, first person, how to, how to write, narration, narrator, point of view, pov, style, third person, write, writer, writing, writing style

Last Week’s WW: Invincibility Kills

When I first started writing, and for some time after that, I found that I had trouble developing a style that I liked.  What’s worse, is that I had problems describing what specifically I didn’t like about it. Continue reading →

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Awake is finished

13 Monday Oct 2014

Posted by angelacavanaugh in Random

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

advice, blank page, block, finished, finished project, getting through it, how to, how to write, motivation, serial, series, write, writer, writer's block

Yay!  I finished Book 2 of my current project.

I’m especially relieved because I had been facing bad block.  Well, I hesitant to call it writer’s block.  I knew a lot of what I wanted to write, and had a rough outline.  But I was intimidated by the project.  It was so far out of my comfort zone.  It was mostly a story of internal conflict.  The guy goes crazy, so I was using an unreliable narrator.  Plus, this story has themes.  I know, all stories have themes, or they’re not really stories.  But I normally don’t come at a story with themes in mind.  I usually write the story, find the themes in it, and fluff them up more later.

I had a lot of challenges with this book.  Like I said, way out of the comfort zone.

(my guy also points out that by turning, what theoretically could be 1 novel into 5 different stories, it’s extra difficult, because there has to be 5 different, complete stories, as well as an overall arch).

But I did it.  It’s done!  Since I was so scared of this project, I found that it helped to get outside accountability.  I started posting my word meter to my facebook page.  It really inspired me.  It tore down my walls and let the words run free once more.  I wrote about 10,000 words in 3 days.

So don’t be afraid of any project.  If you’re not pushing yourself, you’re not growing and improving.  Do whatever you have to do to motivate yourself.   It’s worth it!!

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