I can’t blame it all on my ADHD because I also have several businesses that I run from this office, and things are usually in here and related to those businesses. Not to mention writing for several blogs. The demand of everything requires that I take organizing things, such as my time, seriously.

Will I clean it and try to keep it clean? Sure.

Do I think better with a clear desk or a chaotic one? That’s a toss up. Clear and clean is optimal because I don’t see something and remember something else, but chaotic is a sign that I’m focused on what it is I’m doing at the moment.

When writing, I’ll pull out my outlines and pictures and whatever else I need. Do I stay here and write? Not always. I have been known to go to other places in the house to write. My bedroom being one. In fact, I’ve done this recently. It just depends on the mood.

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Developing characters when I’m writing utilizes a system that I learned when reading a book a long time ago. It was to create a note card with the information for each of your characters. This is something that you can refer back to multiple times as you are writing.

A huge issue is when there is a discrepancy between what happens at the beginning to what happens later. Eye colors change. Hair colors change. Name and name spelling changes. Yes. I’ve seen all of these in books that I have read recently. The way to solve this is to have it clarified at the beginning. As soon as you are creating these characters.

Create a template that you can use that keeps track of all of the pertinent information. Then use it.

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I had listened to co-workers discuss the fact that they worked better with a deadline, even though they did much of it last minute. For me, I gave myself a deadline. Usually, I give myself 30 days. I have a writing count spreadsheet that I use, and I give myself a set number of words I’d like to reach. For example, 50,000. If I go over, that’s good. If not, I look to see where I can add more detail. This gives me a deadline that I can see when I put in my daily word count.

To help with my writing, I also have a notebook that I carry around religiously. It’s a Mead Five Star Notebook that has two halves and some pockets in the middle. The first half I use for ideas and snippets to include. The second half is for my daily To Do Lists and important information that doesn’t relate to writing. With my ADHD, I’m screwed without it.

Each evening, I spend time writing. I flip through my notebook and add in any ideas, conversations, or writing that I may have started. Any bit of free time, I’m writing. I even spent time during my planning and lunch to write at work, so when I came home in the afternoons, I could easily transfer that to my document.

With writing, I have found that you have to be consistently working. You have to maintain your focus and keep up with your stamina. Case in point: my newest work that I’m writing. I haven’t been consistently writing due to so many other things going on, and I can tell the affect. I’m struggling to get back into writing the book. It’s difficult after taking such a huge break. My writing doesn’t flow the same. How will I fix it? Probably go back to reading books that are similar to what I was writing to get me back into the mode of writing I was working on. I mean reading paranormal wolf shifter romances is miles away from writing young adult and middle grader novels.

Oops!

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One thing that I’ve done lately has been to go back and reread some books that are currently in the genre in which I am writing. Each time I’ve reread the books, I have made sure to pay attention to specific details. My first pass at a series was to see the connections among each book within the series. Another pass was to pay attention to setting. Another pass was on dialogue.

Reading, along with your writing, can provide you with the tools that you need to write better. Not only will it enhance your vocabulary, but reading will keep the creative juices flowing.

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As for my writing routines, I decided to focus on those blogs that generate the most traffic and ad revenue. Once I grow those up to where I want them, I should be able to start to hire a team to assist. At this point, I’m not even close. Think of my traffic currently in the lower double digits. We’re talking another year or more before I reach that stage of growth. If then.

All of these changes means that I can now choose a day to focus just on writing, a day to focus on scheduling social media, and the rest will be for sewing or creating. I don’t have to worry about what I can and can’t do. I don’t have to worry about if I have time. I don’t have to pick and choose. It’s a lot to think about when you are trying to deal with 10 websites. It’s less when it is 8. Now, it’s better with 6.

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This week I decided it was time to change my routine. I gave every day (including weekends) a designated work assignment. I would alternate between writing and sewing. On days where it was a writing day, if writing ended or I was unable to write for eight hours, I could stop and do a sewing related activity. That seemed like a winner, right? I would still be working on a business activity either way.

The biggest problem is not the day designation. The problem is I enjoy sewing. I’ll find any excuse to go sew. At least on days where my depression doesn’t seep in and cause me to be listless while my anxiety re-examines every awkward incident and event in my life.

So today is a writing day. If I can manage to find my thumbdrive (I don’t know why it isn’t where it is supposed to be) I may actually have time to work on my novel. That’s another reason why I needed writing days. I have much to write and finish this summer. My goal is to have my book finished by the end of July. I’m certain I can do it as long as I can stay focused.

The post WIP: Changing Routines appeared first on Martha L. Thurston.

Point of view in a story is very similar. Out of your characters, the story will be told differently based on who is telling it. A first person point of view told through the eyes of one character will see their world based on what they can observe. It can be biased depending on the situation, but the fact will remain that the view point will be limited. The same thing goes for a 3rd person limited omniscience. While an omniscient narrator has a larger view point, it is still only limited to that one character, unlike a 3rd person omniscient narrator who knows all the ins-and-outs of everything that is happening in the story.

Think of Point of View like a camera angle. Our 1st person POV is going to be close to the character seeing everything through their eyes. We have more of their inner thoughts as they try to navigate the world around them. This can do one of two things. It can either bring the reader closer to the character or it cause the reader to question the character’s motives. With a 3rd person limited POV, we are above the character with a little more of a view of their life and what is happening around them. While everything is still focused on that character, we get to see them interact with everything from the inside. And the 3d person omniscient POV is where that camera can jump around from character to character and show us everything that is happening in the story.

The biggest thing to remember when it comes to POV is to choose one and stick with it. If you must follow every character in the story, choose a character per chapter. Not all over the place. Following every character in the story for every chapter can be too much. Your reader will never develop a bond with a character. The emotional bond is part of the reading experience. While we may recall a story, most of the time, it is the character that makes it memorable for us in the journey of reading.

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I know what it is that I am going to have to do to get myself out of this mess. I need to go back and look at my outline and make some changes. I need to figure out how to write my way out of the corner I placed myself into. I don’t think that I anticipated this, but then again, I began writing this novel without an outline. It kind of bloomed on its own. That’s why I’m suddenly stuck. I did find my handwritten notes yesterday when I began to clean out my old file cabinet that I will be chunking. Those may help me some, but I don’t know how much. As much as I don’t want to admit it, I think I had an unlikely hero rise up, and I don’t really want him to be a hero. I need him to remain helpful, but not be the rescuer. I need my heroines to rescue themselves. They need to know that they can overcome this. I don’t even want mom and dad to come to their rescue.

That’s my WIP for this Wednesday. What are you currently working on? Let me know down in the comments.

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The downside to this is that if you have many scenes, you will have many chapters. However, organizing your book this way means that you can create an outline that specifically states the scene, so if you become lost on what you need to write, you can refer to your outline and know exactly what you are writing about at the time. This also provides you a way to jump around in your book and write various scenes if you know what you want to write about for a particular scene.

Another technique is to write about a specific event per chapter. Think of this much like J.K. Rowling’s style of titling the chapter and ending the chapter with that event. By doing it this way, you can include several scenes that lead up to the big event of the chapter.

Either way that you choose to write out your chapters, make sure that you are consistent throughout the book. If you name your chapter by the big Ah-Ha within the chapter, your reader will expect that each time they come to a new chapter in your book. They will begin to anticipate what will come next and question why the chapter is titled as such. When writing Young Adult and Middle Grader novels, this is an excellent way to provide them with a purpose for reading the next chapter. They have a question in their mind as to why they are reading. They want to know what is going to happen next, or what the author means by “X” when they haven’t mentioned it before.

Play around with the ideas above. Try out the two and tell me what you think in the comments below. Out of the two different methods above, I do prefer Patterson’s method over Rowling’s. Writing in the smaller chunks of scenes per chapter gives me a sense of accomplishment when I finish a scene, even if the scene is a small one.

The post Tip Tuesday: Scenes and Chapters appeared first on Martha L. Thurston.

I have created character profiles in one document or sometimes I have separate documents for individual characters. I list personality traits, looks, clothing, and even quirks that a character may have. Everything that is individual to that character is placed in this file.

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