For example, tech companies use iteration all the time. They produce software and release a version of it so people can test it. People use that software, find and report bugs, and the tech company in turn releases a 2.0 version. People use that new version, find and report bugs, and then a 3.0 version gets released. And on and on we go.

But iteration far predates the tech world. In fact, Samuel Beckett said: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” Failing better is iteration in a nutshell.

So, what does this have to do with writing? Just like tech companies might use iteration to improve their software, we can use iteration to improve our writing process.

I think of iteration as a cyclical process. Iteration is vital to innovation, and VITAL is an acronym. (If you’ve been in the DIY MFA ecosystem for thirty seconds, you know that we love our acronyms.) Iteration is a cyclical process by which we can refine and improve our writing process. (It’s a bit meta, I know.) Here’s how it works.

• V = choose a variable
• I = collect information
• T = set a tripwire
• A = analyze the data
• L = learn and decide what’s next

We start with choosing the variable, then work our way through the VITAL process until we get to “L,” at which point we decide whether we’ll keep testing the same variable, or try something new with a different variable. Let’s walk through the process step by step with an example.

V is for Variable

To start off the VITAL process, you need to choose a variable. Actually, you’ll choose two: an input variable and an output variable. The input variable is the thing you’re testing, while the output variable is the result you’re measuring. The input variable can be any condition you put on your writing—time of day, location, background music, etc. The output variable needs to be something concrete and easy to measure. In writing, that usually means either time or word count. Note: word count tends to work better if you’re in the drafting stage, while time can be a more effective measure of your progress during revisions.

Suppose you’re deep into drafting your book and you want to determine where you do your best writing: at home or at a coffee shop. Location is the input variable. Word count would be our output variable. Then all you have to do is write a few times at home and a few times at the coffee shop, then compare your word counts.

I is for Information

Once you’ve determined your variable, the next step is to run a mini-experiment on yourself. You do a series of writing sessions—some at the coffee shop, some at home—and then you measure your output to see where you’re most productive. The key at this stage is to make sure you have enough data points at each location. After all, you can’t base your analysis off of only one or two data points because they could be outliers.

Generally, I recommend a total of 10-12 data points, split evenly between the two locations. (I know, I know, this won’t give you a statistically significant result, but we’re not trying to publish this experiment in an academic journal. We’re just looking for a pattern.) You’ll want to mix up the order of when you write in each location to account for days of the week or other factors. Basically, try to choose your location as randomly as possible.

Now, all you have to do is write. Do your writing sessions and record your output. You can record word count, time, and even calculate words-per-hour if you want to get super nerdy.

T is for Tripwire

Sooner or later, you have to stop collecting data and start analyzing it. That’s where the tripwire comes in. The tripwire is a signal to yourself that tells you when to start your analysis.

The reason the tripwire is so important is because (as my late, great violin teacher used to say): “Practice does not make perfect, it makes things permanent.” If you keep repeating the same writing behavior for long enough, it can eventually become a habit. That habit may not necessarily be good for you, and if you make that habit permanent, it will be all the more difficult to break that habit down the road. This is why you want to analyze your results before the behavior becomes ingrained in you as a habit.

Research says that it can take anywhere between 21 to 90 days to form a new habit. This means that you want to try to fit your 10-12 data points in before that 21-day mark. You’re aiming for a sweet spot: enough data points where you can see a pattern, but not such a long stretch of time that you create a bad habit.

A is for Analysis

From here, you simply look at your data log and try to spot a pattern. On average, which location gave you better results? Which location was less productive for you? The key at this stage is not to judge the data (they’re just numbers, after all) and to stay as objective as possible. No value judgments allowed.

L is for Learning 

Once you’ve done your analysis and you’ve gotten a sense for what’s working and what’s not, now you have to make some decisions. If something’s working for you… keep doing it! Don’t fix something that’s not broken. If something’s not working for you, then you should consider trying to change things up. At this point in the process, you also need to decide whether to retest the same variable (like maybe this time you want to try coffee shop vs. library) or whether to choose some entirely new variable to test.

There are so many variables you can test through iteration. Time of day. Day of the week. Writing by hand vs. on the computer. The computer software you use. Background music vs. ambient noise. Diffusing essential oils or lighting a candle. These are just a few ideas, but I’m sure you can think of dozens more.

The Meta-Mindset

In the end, the purpose of iteration is for you to take on a meta-mindset. You need to step back and look at your writing process with objectivity, figuring out how you do your best work. We need to be intentional about this process because it’s very easy to get sucked into the writing itself and not see the forest for the trees. When we build iteration into our writing process, we automatically make room for that meta-mindset and that ability to see the bigger picture of how our process really works.

Now, I’m curious: Are you going to use iteration? If so, what variable do you plan to measure first? I myself have used iteration to test location, writing implement (write by hand vs. computer), and background music vs. ambient noise. Where do you plan to start with iteration?

Until next time, keep writing and keep being awesome!

P.S. For more info on Gabriela Pereira, the founder and instigator of DIY MFA, check out her profile page.

The post Writer Fuel: How to Use Iteration in Your Writing appeared first on DIY MFA.

That’s what this essay is all about: how to make the most of the resources we have, and how to know what to invest in next. Today, I’ll walk you through my signature “double-take” method for absorbing materials, so you can multitask while you learn, but still zero in on the things that matter. I’ll also give you some suggestions on how to vet resources before you invest in them, so you can make sure your time and money are well spent. Let’s dive in.

The Curse of Being a “Good Student”

I don’t know about you, but I’m a “Hermione” through and through, so when I take classes I go all in. I do all the assignments (including extra credit!) and I turn my schedule upside down so I can attend as many class sessions as possible. I take school very seriously.

But being a good student like this can take its toll. Sometimes, we get so caught up in cramming all that knowledge into our heads that we forget to make sense of it and implement what we learn. This is why at DIY MFA there is no such thing as “falling behind” in our courses. Wherever you are is where you’re supposed to be. The point of workshops and classes is to help facilitate learning and encourage implementation. It’s not about hoarding information while we pet it and whisper to it “my precioussss.” It’s about putting what we learn into practice.

So, if you’re a “good student” like me, I recommend shifting the paradigm. We need to recognize that it’s not the knowledge we acquire, but what we do with that knowledge that makes all the difference. Yes, being a “good student” can be a positive thing. (After all, Hermione and her smarts saved Harry and Ron’s backsides on more than one occasion.) But when that “good student” impulse overshadows implementation, that’s when things can become a problem.

This is why at DIY MFA, we place emphasis on practice rather than just learning the facts. Our courses have lots of implementation exercises, and our focused workshops include writing prompts. The goal is always to give writers ample opportunities to put what they learn into action. Many of us, after all, learn by doing, not just by studying.

We need to make the most of our writing resources—be they courses, books on the craft, webinars, summits, or anything else. But how exactly do we do that? This is where my “Double-Take” Method comes in.

Use the “Double-Take” Method

My daughter, Lady Bug, is in fifth grade and is learning how to annotate her reading. As part of her reading assignments, she’s tasked with highlighting her book in three different colors. One color indicates facts she wants to remember. Another color is for text that conveys the author’s opinions. The third color represents passages that she can relate to her own life. One of the skills she’s had to practice is learning not to highlight everything. After all, the whole purpose of highlighting is for some items to stand out over others, and that won’t happen if you highlight all the words on the page. 

The same thing is true when we take in information. It’s very easy to fall into the trap of trying to capture everything. Like good students, we take copious notes and we try hard not to let any details fall by the wayside. (As someone who is both a recovering “good student” and a perfectionist, this approach is totally my jam.)

The point of the “Double-Take” Method is to break you out of that pattern. With this method you let all the information wash over you and catch just one or two pieces that really make an impact. Here’s how it works.

You start by taking in the information via a format that allows the material to wash over you. For me, that’s listening to lessons in audio form, usually while I’m multi-tasking like riding the subway, out for a walk, or doing things around the house. I multi-task on purpose—not as a distraction, but rather to prevent myself from stopping every thirty seconds to take copious notes. While I’m listening, I’m paying attention and trying to capture 1-2 of the most important points conveyed in that lesson.

After listening, I let the lesson marinate in my brain for a little while, then I go back and revisit it, this time with a notebook in hand. (Hence the name “Double-Take.”) But this time, I don’t consume the entire lesson—I fast-forward through it and stop to listen only to those spots where those 1-2 most important points come up. That’s when I take notes, but I’m not taking notes on everything, just the most important things.

This “Double-Take” Method is based on the Pareto Principle (or 80/20 rule), which is the idea that 80% of results come from 20% of the input or effort. There’s debate about whether those percentages are exact, but the point of the Pareto Principle is that a small percentage of input will yield a large amount of output, while the rest of the input won’t lead to very much. So, when we use the “Double-Take” Method, we’re allowing a small percentage of the information gained to have a big impact on our overall learning.

But how do we know that we’ve picked the right 20%? What if we choose the wrong 20% and then we’re learning something that’s completely irrelevant?

The beauty of writing is that it’s subjective. The 20% of information that’s relevant to you might not apply to me, and that’s okay. The point isn’t to pick the “right” 1-2 pieces of information to focus on, but to prevent ourselves from getting bogged down in our learning. After all, while learning is great, it is time spent away from writing. We want to make sure that the time we spend building our craft is productive, useful, and efficient, so we can get back to writing as soon as possible.

Revisit Your Learning

One of the other habits that can be very useful to us as writers is to revisit things we think we already know. Periodically, I’ll pull up a learning resource I’ve already consumed (maybe a lesson from a course or a PDF download) and I’ll skim through it again. Inevitably, I’ll see something new in that resource, something I hadn’t noticed before.

That’s the great thing about learning. Some pieces of information might not be relevant right this minute, but if we come back and revisit that lesson down the road, those will be the pieces that stand out as most important. This is one of the reasons why we offer continuing access in our signature courses, because we know writers may need to come back to the materials again and again.

One of the things I’ve heard over and over from various course alums is “I skipped such-and-such module the first time I did the class, but now I’m taking it again and that module is exactly what I need.” In other words, different lessons or pieces of information will be relevant to us at different points in our journey. This means every so often we should revisit the writing resources we have to see what new insights we might gain from them.

Vet Resources Before You Invest

If you’re anything like me, your computer is probably overflowing with webinar recordings, writing summit replays, PDF freebies, eBooks on writing, and other learning materials. With so much information at our fingertips, it’s really easy to get overwhelmed, and when that happens most of us end up ignoring those resources altogether. So, how do we know where to invest our time (and money)?

The way I go about it is to find some trusted advisors. There are certain people in the writing space whose taste and judgment I trust, and when they recommend something, I’m likely to give it a second look. You need to find a couple of writing experts whose recommendations you trust. I hope DIY MFA can be that resource for you, but I also encourage you to look to other people so you can get a broader range of perspectives.

Now, I wouldn’t advise you to include too many experts in that inner circle of trust, because then the volume of recommendations and opinions will be dizzying. Choose 2-3 people whose work you really admire and follow them. Watch your inbox for their emails, and when they recommend something, give it a closer look.

Don’t get me wrong, you can still follow other experts and be on other people’s newsletter lists. That’s great! Just choose 2-3 people who really resonate with you and follow them more closely. Those are the recommendations you should really pay attention to, and when they share a resource, there’s a good chance that it may be one where you want to invest.

Again, it’s all about finding that small amount of input that will yield the most output for you. In this case, instead of paying attention to dozens or hundreds of experts, you choose two or three. You can still keep other experts on your radar, but those 2-3 “inner circle” experts are the ones where you’ll really focus your attention.

What you’ll find, when you emphasize a limited number of resources is you’ll actually make more progress than when you scatter your attention across the board. That 20% of effort and attention will yield 80% of your results, and by zeroing in on a few key resources or experts, you’ll actually have the bandwidth and energy to implement what you’re learning rather than simply stuffing your brain with information.

Make Time for Implementation

 The last thing I’ll share with you is about the importance of implementation. All that learning you do will mean nothing if you don’t put it into action. This is why at DIY MFA, we make a point of including implementation exercises in our courses and writing exercises in our workshops. We believe that in order to learn, we can’t just talk about writing, we have to do the writing.

Whenever you take a class, go to a conference, participate in a summit, or consume any sort of writing resource, make sure you schedule time for implementation. Put it on the calendar. Carve out 30-40 minutes after you’ve consumed the information and use that time to implement what you learned. Don’t just take notes, but spend time actually putting the concepts into practice.

There you have it, a series of tips to help you make the most of your writing resources. Use the “Double-Take” Method to zero in on the most important parts of any given lesson or resource. Also, go back and revisit different materials from time to time to see if you get new insights. Make sure you vet the resources you consume, and the best way to do that is to follow a couple of experts whose taste and judgment you trust. Finally, remember to schedule some time for implementation so you can put what you learn into action.

Until next time, keep writing and keep being awesome!

P.S. For more info on Gabriela Pereira, the founder and instigator of DIY MFA, check out her profile page.

The post Writer Fuel: Make the Most of Writing Resources appeared first on DIY MFA.

That makes sense. We all have a story to tell – and really, more than one story. Which can make it super hard to narrow the focus of a book, and make it a manageable project.

Writing a book is no small feat, and it doesn’t happen overnight. Narrowing the focus of your book is the first step in making it possible to complete the manuscript. Remember that writing one page each day leads to a pretty hefty book in a year’s time, which makes the project seem doable – if you have a clear focus of what you’re writing about.

But how to narrow your focus? Consider these tips for focusing on a book project you can’t wait to dive into.

1. Free-write all that you could write about.

You may have great ideas for a lot of books, but how do you get them written and into the world with everything else you have going on?

Just because you have ideas doesn’t mean they will all make it into book form. 

Sit in a place where you won’t be distracted and write (by hand!) freely about the topics you’d like to write about. Set a timer for 10 minutes. Write without judgment and without reviewing what comes out. Just write.

• What could you write about?
• What stories do you have to tell?
• What incidents have you endured?
• What obstacles have you overcome?
• What lessons can you share with others?
• What inspiration can you offer?

Be as specific as you can and see where the brainstorming takes you. Right now, you’re just cultivating ideas and capturing possibilities.

2. Review your notes and highlight finite options.

After the brain dump, use a highlighter to identify topics that are specific enough to tackle in one book. Periods of time or individual incidents.

You likely generated enough ideas for more than one book! Now that they’re on paper, you can always go back to them for the next book. That frees you from trying to cram everything into one manuscript.

The more narrowly you focus your topic, the more detailed you can get, and the more time you can spend on particular events that move the narrative along. You can pay attention to dialogue, establishing setting, building depth in your characters. All of these components make a book come alive.

3. Choose one focus.

Consider which topic you want to tackle in THIS book. On a new sheet of paper, write this topic at the top and jot down specific events, a timeline, or key turning points.

In the margins of each event, day, or point, write 3-5 specifics: 

• Where were you? 
• Who was there? 
• What was the weather like? 
• What emotions did you feel? 
• What is important to move the story along?

These details will be pivotal for your writing. When you have a starting point, it serves as a prompt to generate compelling writing. The more specific a scene can be, the more universally relatable it becomes.

4. Create an outline of chapters.

When I write a book, I outline the topics for each chapter, then write one chapter a time. When you narrow down your book’s overarching topic, you can narrow it even further by outlining chapters and writing in steps. That makes the project incredibly manageable.

Think about what has to happen from beginning to end of your story to take the reader on a journey. 

• Where do they start? 
• Where do you want them to end up? 
• What outcomes or revelations should they have by the end of the journey? 
• What pivotal points will help get them there?

As you outline your chapters, consider examples, anecdotes, or case studies to include throughout the book. Small stories to illustrate a larger point help connect the author to the audience at every step of the journey.

5. Set weekly goals.

Now that you have a road map for writing, build a structure toward success! Set weekly goals for when you will write, where you will do your writing, and how much you want to churn out in a week’s time.

Perhaps you start with time of day and location. If you can, choose a writing place away from where you do your normal work. It should be a space that sparks creativity and that, in time, when you sit down there, your creative juices will just start flowing!

It can help to adorn your writing space with little items that encourage creativity. Perhaps you light a candle to signify the start of your writing time. Or, when you achieve the number of pages you set out to write that week, you buy yourself a bouquet of flowers to display on the desk next to your laptop.

Designate a set goal for your writing. A chapter by the end of the week, or 10 new pages, or whatever feels reasonable. 

Remember, a page a day leads to a book in a year. One page is approximately 300 words – that’s not hard to do. And, most writers, once they get going, produce more than a page. 

You can do this!!

Lynne Golodner is the author of 8 books, with her ninth due out in February 2021. A former journalist, she is the host of the Make Meaning Podcast (www.makemeaning.org), a book coach, and a marketing/PR professional (www.yourppl.com). Lynne lives in Huntington Woods, Mich., with her husband and four teenagers.

The post #5onFri: Five Tips for Narrowing Your Focus appeared first on DIY MFA.

Hold on a minute. Before you can tackle those fears, you have to write. Dorothy Parker once described writing as “the art of applying the ass to the seat.” You’ve got to do the work and do it regularly to build writing stamina. No worries, though. There are techniques and tips to get you started.

Techniques to Train Your Writing Brain

Free writing

Our fear–of making a mistake or sounding silly–robs the blank page of our words. Free writing is an excellent way to exercise your writing muscles.

In free writing, there are few constraints. Write simply and without a thought to grammar, spelling, punctuation, or style. Write whatever comes to mind. If nothing comes to mind, write about the nothingness. After your free-write session, harvest your work for repeating patterns, interesting phrases, or ideas to seed other writing sessions.

The DIY MFA article, Stay Motivated: 8 Writing Tools To Keep Words Flowing, lists eight websites to warm up your free writing muscles. A number of them, like Written? Kitten!, Written? Bacon! and 750 Words, offer you rewards (pictures of kittens, bacon, or badges, respectively) for consistent writing.

Timed writing

A variant on free writing, timed writing gives you a finite boundary to how long you’re going to be tortured, i.e. write. Start small. Give yourself a minute, five minutes to write. Don’t put restrictions on what it has to be. Perfection is a fantasy. None of us are whole and perfect, much less our writing.

Writing groups

A writing group also helps you flex writing muscles. Formal groups offer structured opportunities to develop craft by introducing new techniques and forms. They often host write-ins, where you can write alone together with other writers. You can find formal writing groups through your local library, college, or writing association.

If joining a formal group scares you, start your own writing group. Your friends, writing acquaintances, and you can band together to improve your writing skills. If it’s difficult to meet in person regularly, try a group call, video or chat conferencing to get your group together and writing. There are a number of free apps or websites which make teleconferencing doable.

Two great DIY MFA articles, Writing Groups: How to Talk to Other Writers and Writing Groups: Backyard v. Inbox, explain how both existing and DIY writing groups help writers. Another DIY MFA article, A Writers Group Tale: From Ashes to Success Through Trial and Error, gives you a look at how to bring new life to a waning writing group.

Writing Igniters to Help You Start

If you find free writing a little too unstructured to spark your writing regimen, try the following ideas to get started. Or use DIY MFA’s Writer Igniter for an endless supply of writing prompts.

Dreams

Use your dreams. Rework your most vivid ones into poems. Or if poetry is not your favorite writing form, think flash fiction/nonfiction and write it as stream-of-consciousness. Set a timer for 10 minutes and dive in.

After some time has gone by–say a day, a week– write it in another form. Put it into constraints. A new perspective breeds new ideas. If you wrote your piece as formless stream-of-consciousness, try reducing it down to poetry. Use one of three specific poetic forms–free verse, pantoum, or prose–to get started.  They are closest to everyday speech but impose enough constraint to challenge without overwhelming you.

If you began with poetry, why not write it next in short story format? Work to enlarge the piece–with corresponding detail and atmosphere–in each written iteration. Clean up grammar and spelling when you move to each new format.

Nonfiction

When you don’t know where to start writing, begin with nonfiction. Use today’s (or yesterday’s) events as story fodder. Write the event as precisely as you can, making sure not to leave out any detail.  Make sure your writing has all the rudiments of a complete story–a beginning, middle, and end.

Fanfiction and family tales

We read books, see movies, and imagine how it should’ve unfolded. Try your hand at fanfiction. Create one-page scenarios with your favorite movie, TV, or book characters and settings.

Family tales lend themselves to constructing what-if alternates. What if your impatient great-grandmother had stayed for the town meeting in that Viennese square in 1939? Would she have disappeared like half of her neighbors did? We all have apocryphal family memories. They offer another opportunity to hone your writing physique.

Take something that already has a story arc–beginning, middle, end–and rework the ending. You get to delve into imagination without having the full weight of creation to hamper your writing. Retell the whole story but change the names, setting, or ending.

The Renaissance Secret?

“The desire to write grows with writing.” Renaissance scholar Erasmus could easily have substituted stamina for the word desire. There is no shortcut to training your writing muscles but short forms–poems, flash fiction, short stories–help ease your writing fears.

Brenda Joyce Patterson is a poet, writer, librarian, and lover of short writing forms. Her poetry and flash fiction have been published in Vayavya, Gravel Magazine, and Melancholy Hyperbole. Along with works by Maya Angelou, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Alice Walker, her travel essay “The Kindness of Strangers” appeared in Go Girl: The Black Woman’s Guide to Travel and Adventure.

The post Tips and Techniques for Training Your Writing Brain appeared first on DIY MFA.

No matter how naturally talented you are, there are always tricks that can make you better.  Here are five quick writing tips that can keep you on track and sharpen your writing as you write your novel.

1.  Start with a hook

Make your first sentence or at least your first paragraph compelling.  Make the reader want to read the book!  In Against the Sky, my newest Romantic Suspense, the first sentence is, “Earth to earth, dust to dust, ashes to ashes…”

Everyone recognizes these words as part of a funeral service.  The paragraph goes on to explain that the hero, Nick Brodie, and his twelve-year-old neighbor, Jimmy Evans, are standing around the boy’s father’s grave.

With any luck, this will intrigue the reader enough to keep reading.  It’s also important to end the chapter with something that will push the reader into reading more of the book.  In the example above, by the end of the chapter, we are in young Jimmy’s point of view, a kid who has seen his father murdered and is in very big trouble.

Maybe he’d talk to Nick tomorrow, ask for his help.  That would give him a little more time to think, try to work things out in his head.

Tomorrow, he told himself. 

But when he went over to Nick’s the next day, the house was locked up tight.  Nick Brodie was gone.

2.  Enter late and leave early

In the earlier example, we’re starting in the middle of the scene.  We’re not arriving before the funeral starts, then standing around waiting for the service to begin.  We are charging forward.  Remember the reader isn’t interested in “Hi, how are you?”  “I’m fine, how are you?”

At the end of the scene, get out as fast as you can and move forward.

3.  Make sure there is conflict in every scene

This doesn’t necessarily mean violent conflict.  It can be man against nature, man against man, man against himself, anything that makes the reader interested in finding out how the conflict is resolved.

In my example, the conflict in the opening scene of Against the Sky is merely Nick’s battle with himself.  He’s quit his job as a homicide detective.  He doesn’t want to be embroiled in Jimmy Evan’s trouble.  On the other hand, he’s worried about the kid and he wants to help him.  What should he do?

4.  Stay in the active voice whenever possible.

Try not to use the word was too many times.

Here’s the second sentence in my example.  A rumble of thunder in the sullen gray sky blotted the reverend’s next words.  I could have written The sound of thunder could be heard in the distance. The sky was a sullen gray.  That’s passive voice.  It’s important to stay active.

I have to work at doing this.  I often go back and change from passive to active after I write the scene.

5.  Write characters that grow and change.

Writing a character arc, it’s called.  It means your characters learn something or do something that changes them.  Nick Brodie has quit the police force.  He doesn’t want anything to do with violence and murder, but what is he going to do with his future?  What will make him happy?

It’s a problem Nick has to figure out, and in doing so it will change him.

There are a lot of great tips to writing.  The five above I learned from studying very successful authors.  Dean Koontz wrote a wonderful book called How to Write Bestselling Fiction, but it’s out of print and hard to find.

All the authors I’ve studied and read have helped me immeasurably over the years.  I hope their tips will help you, too.

Best of luck with your writing and all good wishes for success.

Warmest, Kat

……………………

New York Times bestselling author Kat Martin is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara where she majored in Anthropology and also studied History. Currently residing in Missoula, Montana with her Western-author husband, L. J. Martin, Kat has written sixty-five Historical and Contemporary Romantic Suspense novels. More than sixteen million copies of her books are in print and she has been published in twenty foreign countries. Kat is currently at work on her next Romantic Suspense.

The post #5OnFri: Five Basics That Will Sharpen Your Writing appeared first on DIY MFA.

OMG, right? Here at DIY MFA we are so excited to share this with you because it’s been secretly in the works for the last six months at least.

Honestly, I don’t know if I could have kept the secret much longer.

We’re scheduled to launch our first episode next Wednesday so get ready for some audio awesome coming your way.

What’s the podcast going to be about? In a word: writing. But it’s so much more than that.

What is DIY MFA Radio?

DIY MFA is a podcast designed to help you write more, write better, and write smarter. I’ll be sharing tips and techniques of my own, plus interviewing authors, agents and other industry professionals.

The seed of this idea was planted last fall when we ran our speaker series. While running that series, I discovered that I love speaking and interviewing smart people. I’m one of those people who hates being on camera so video wouldn’t work for me, but talking into a mic felt natural and fun. That’s when the idea for a podcast started tickling my brain, but it wasn’t until this past spring that I started piecing it together and putting this plan into action.

One of the main reasons for this podcast is that I’m a firm believer that writers should get information straight from the source. That’s why whenever something falls beyond my area of expertise (e.g. writing craft, study of literature, etc.) I’m the first to send writers to someone who can speak to that topic. I love doing interviews with authors and industry experts because not only is it a blast to have a good conversation with smart people, but I learn so much from it too. So I thought, why not create an audio program where I can share my knowledge, but also let you hear from top experts in writing and publishing? And so DIY MFA Radio began.

Here’s what you can look forward to with this podcast. We’ll have a new episode every Wednesday where I’ll dig deep into one technique or area of writing. In the fall, we’ll start bringing in guest authors for interviews, so you can hear all the nitty-gritty behind-the-scenes of what their writing process is like. We’re also looking to bring in book industry pros who can share their wisdom about publishing, book marketing and the like.

Last, but certainly not least, want to introduce a new member of the DIY MFA team–Elisabeth Kauffman–our producer for this podcast. Elisabeth and I joined forces in late spring and started hammering out ideas for this show. Since then, she has helped shape this podcast from making it look and sound fantastic. You might not hear her on the show itself, but she is an integral part of it and I’m so delighted that she’s part of the team.

It’s exciting to see DIY MFA Radio finally nearing the launch. I am truly honored to share this new project with you and hope you enjoy listening as much as I’m enjoying the creation of it. First episode launches next Wednesday.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Introducing our Podcast: DIY MFA Radio appeared first on DIY MFA.

Since then, I’ve split my time between writing for various media publications and sending fiction shorts to literary magazines. I call myself a storyteller, but the truth is, storytelling comes in many different forms.

Being a reporter is rewarding: Besides the byline, you’re informing the public of what’s going on in the community and writing about real people, real stories. But being a reporter can also be difficult: You have to stick with facts, and you have to tell them in the most compelling way. Surprisingly, one of the best things about being a journalist has been learning skills that have also helped me be a better creative writer.

Research is Essential

Before I begin a story assignment, I take about 20 minutes to do background research on related issues and prepare for interviews. Who are the key players – members of the town council? The school board? What impact does the issue have on future policy decisions? I also read recently written articles to make sure my angle hasn’t been covered yet. This helps me understand the issue better, so that when I pick up the phone and start making calls, folks on the other line know I’ve done my homework.

As tedious and boring as it may seem, research is important for every writing project – even novels. Delve into the background of your characters. Look up the meanings of different names. If your novel takes place in, say, Boston, then find out what the most popular hangouts are and what the city is best known for (thank goodness for the internet). If your main character is a sports fanatic, then you’ll need to know where Fenway Park is and who’s on the Red Sox team. All of these details will affect your characters and their daily lives as they are unfolded in the story.

Good Writing Starts With a Punchy Lede

Your third grade language arts teacher was onto something when she told you, “Hook the reader from the very beginning.” I used to start every news article with a cold hard fact: “On Saturday, the town council voted unanimously on Bill X, which will affect such-and-such.” Bor-ring! It wasn’t until I started writing weekly feature articles for the local newspaper that I learned how to write a good beginning. Short sentences are better than long-winded ones. Appeal to the reader’s senses and universal experiences. Word play can be effective as long as it’s not too, well, punny.

Fiction is no different. Good stories start out with a “punchy lede” that the reader can somehow identify with. Sometimes, I open up a story with a character anecdote, or start right in the middle of an action scene. Dialogue easily catches a reader’s eye. A punchy lede provides just enough information to lock your readers in and keep them intrigued.

Here is the opening of my short story, “The Colors of Sound,” which was published in the spring 2012 issue of The Collegiate Scholar.

“People tend to think that when you’re blind, you also can’t hear. Or talk, even. Sometimes when I catch those whispers over my shoulder I feel inclined to tell the whisperers that I’m Helen Keller’s twelve-year-old twin. I know there’s really no point but it’s kind of interesting to sense their astonishment through the silence once they find out I’m just like them. Almost, at least.”

Deadlines and Timeliness Matter

Journalists thrive on deadlines. The rush keeps them going. They receive an assignment at noon, hunt down the story and find a way to have copy in their editors’ hands before the paper goes to press the next morning. The story itself needs to be timely as well. I mean, news isn’t news if it does not report what’s happening right now.

You may wonder what deadlines have anything to do with creative writing. After all, your story is fiction – not breaking news. Ask any NaNoer what the most important part about the writing challenge is, and he or she will say, “Speed. Time. Getting the words down.” As an avid NaNoer, I agree. Without creating a timeline for myself, I would have never reached 50,000 words on Nov. 31, 2008. I resolved to write 1,700 words every day, and sometimes wrote whole chapters in one sitting. All that mattered was reaching that 50k mark by deadline.

While quantity over quality may not be everyone’s motto, time is still a crucial factor that can make or break your literary success. When you plan to send a short story to a literary magazine, you have to meet a submission deadline. If you resolve to self-publish a novel by Christmas, you’ve set a target date. Procrastination isn’t an option, unless you want to push everything else – the editing, the cover design, the promo events – back a month or two or three. Without pacing yourself and checking your progress as time passes by, that novel may never get done.

While some days are harder than others, I love being a storyteller. On face value, journalism and creative writing may seem like polar opposites that require different talents: Journalists get to the point and strive to be objective, while creative writers are anything but. Still, they use similar skill sets for their respective crafts – they both use words to transport their readers elsewhere. They both need to know how to persuade you and grab your attention. Above all, they’re both good communicators. Perhaps they aren’t so different after all.

Wendy Lu is the entertainment editor for Blue & White magazine, a former book publishing intern and a NaNoWriMo 2008 winner. She writes a little bit of everything and blogs about creativity and happiness at wendyluwrites.blogspot.com. Her work has appeared in The Daily Tar Heel, The Collegiate Scholar and Chapel Hill Magazine’s The WEEKLY.

The post Creative Writing Lessons from a Reporter appeared first on DIY MFA.

1. Finish new draft by November
2. Edit during December
3. Send my first query in January

I kept the first goal. By November 1, I had a draft. A month of edits and I would be ready to go, right?

Wrong.

E.B. White once said, “The best writing is rewriting.” It’s a phrase that ranks up there with “Kill your darlings” and “Write what you know.” And, like most cliches, it’s a cliche because it’s true. I was setting myself up for frustration and failure by not making a realistic plan for re-writing. If I had, the process would have been quicker and more fruitful. Here’s a few ways you can make the most out of your re-write by giving it the respect it deserves.

Give Yourself a Break

Have you ever spent too much time with a friend, and grown sick of each other? You save your friendship (and your sanity!) by giving yourselves a break. The same holds true with a story. By the time you finish a first draft, you’re so in the world it’s hard to see it. You might be sick of it. You might be on a writing-high. But, either way, you are not objective about it. Editing requires objectivity.

Taking a week away can be hard, but it will give your mind and book the space to breathe. Think of it as a reward: during that week, you don’t have to stop writing, but you can work on something fun and different. You can catch up on reading. You can organize or decorate your writing space. And when you come back to your manuscript, you’ll be ready to re-write.

Read With New Eyes

One of the best pieces of advice I ever heard was from Stephen King, who said, “Write with the door closed; edit with the door open.”  When you’re writing that first draft, thinking about audience or editors or agents can stifle your imagination. Doubt crushes creativity. So shut the door, don’t listen to anyone and go for it. Sometimes the best ideas come at the end of a string of ridiculous ones.

But, when re-writing, it’s time to invite some other people into your world. You have to be the critic. This can sound harsh, but  we need to be prepared for people to have negative reactions to our work. Before you start re-writing, re-read. All of it. Start to finish. And begin considering what an editor or a reader might think. When you are looking at a scene, a character or even a plot-line, ask the tough questions. Here’s a few I ask myself:

1. Is this (scene/character/plotline/description) necessary?
2. Does it reveal character or move the plot forward?
3. Is it a reflection the character’s goals, and not mine?
4. Does it make sense?
5. Can it be said more concisely?

If the answer is no, make a note of it. I print out and bind each draft, and then make notes in the margins. You can also easily do this with Track Changes in Microsoft Word or Scrivener. Don’t start writing yet. Just observe. Take the project as a whole. Threads and problems will start to reveal themselves to you, and you’ll save time in the long run by not stopping to fix every little thing you see.

Create a Hospital

“But I love that scene!”

It’s the cry of the re-writing writer. A scene or a character or a plot-line needs to go, and you don’t want to let it. Fair enough. It is, to use another cliche, your darling. So, don’t kill it. Create a folder and label it “Hospital.” You’re the doctor, and this scene is very, very sick. Cut it out, paste it in a separate document, and save it in the hospital folder. It’s not dead; it’s on bed-rest. It will be there if you ever want to revive it.

And, in the meantime, your manuscript is getting leaner, cleaner and maybe–just maybe–doesn’t need that scene after all. But having the option of putting a scene back in can help the re-writing process be less painful.

Set Concrete Goals

With the excess cut, you’re ready to start the actual re-writing.

When you’re drafting, it’s easy to set goals: a page a day, or a word-count a day. Re-writing is less easily defined. Revising one chapter can take a week; revising another can take a few hours. It all depends. It can be easy to lose sight of the progress you’ve made, or where you’re headed, when you’re in the throes of re-writing. It’s helpful, before you start, to set goals. I try to make mine:

1. Challenging — It’s always good to push yourself. You do, after all, want to get this thing finished! So keep in mind, when you are setting your goals, to push yourself.
3. Obtainable — That being said, it’s no use to set goals you can’t keep, either. If you almost never are able to keep the goals you set, you’ll find yourself getting discouraged and not wanting to continue.
5. Sustainable — Re-writing takes a while. The standard (so they say!) is around three months for a 60,000 word book, but this can vary wildly. For me, it took a year and four months. But no matter how long it takes you, it’s important that the goals you set are ones you can keep over an extended period of time.

I make a list of tasks, by chapter, and label them as one-day, three-day or one-week tasks. Each one day task gets one line. A three day task gets three, and a week task gets seven. That gives me a line to check for every day. A simple system, but it’s very effective for keeping me motivated, and also for understanding at the progress I’ve made.

Bess Cozby writes epic stories in expansive worlds from her tiny apartment in New York City. By day, she’s an Editor at Tor Books, and Web Editor for DIY MFA. Her work is represented by Brooks Sherman of the Bent Agency. Tweet her at @besscozby, contact her at bess@diymfa.com, or visit her website at www.besscozby.com.

The post The Rewrite Rules! appeared first on DIY MFA.