Archive for the 'excercises' Category

How to nail your ending

Published
by
Tiffany Colter
on January 5, 2010
in How to..., coaching, craft, excercises, exercise, growing as a writer, improving your writing, marketing, success and technique
. 1 Comment

                The Pleasure of My Company

I just completed the book The Pleasure of My Company a book about a highly neurotic man on a quest to normalcy. I picked up this book because it was not only written but read by Steve Martin [yes, THAT Steve Martin], so if the writing was bad the reading would be amusing.

                I was captured by the humor and the incredible characterization in this story. As with every book I searched for ways to improve my own writing during the process of reading.

                This book had one of the best endings of any book I’ve read in a very long time. I would put it among the top 5 endings of ANY book. It was the type that cannot be shared because it would spoil the entire the book. It ended when the story ended rather than jamming in needless [and useless] words just to hit an artificial word count. The ending was incredibly satisfying and logical. There were no cheap theatrics, it simply was.

                The ending always sells your next book and this story absolutely sold the next book to me.

                Here at Writing Career Coach I spend a good bit of time telling you ways to market your writing. I interview authors to introduce you to different ways of marketing your writing and looking at your career. None of that matters if you don’t deliver.

                So here is today’s assignment, what is your ending? Where are you going? How is your main character going to grow and develop over the course of your story? Why is someone going to invest hours of their time to live the life of your characters?

                How are you going to end? Tell us some of your ideas in the comments.

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Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com

Tiffany is a speaker and teacher. Find out about available topics for your group’s next event.

Tiffany is a National Examiner. Read her articles here.

Learn more about Tiffany’s Marketing techniques on her main blog.

Common-sense money management is free at The Balanced Life website.

Read Tiffany’s award winning manuscript “A Face in the Shadow” on her fiction blog.

She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer’s Rest.

Practice your scenes

Published
by
Tiffany Colter
on November 20, 2009
in craft, excercises, exercise and growing as a writer
. 0 Comments

man_and_woman_walkingHere is an exercise to help you with your craft today. In the comments write the following scene but within your genre. Let the tone, description and pace of this small scene be guided by the time period, mood of the scene, genre of the book, etc.

A man and woman are walking outside. Both are hungry.

How much tension can you make of this prompt? How many problems could you realistically throw at them? Will it even matter at the end of the scene that they were hungry or is that just what brought them to the place of conflict? Or will a new secret be revealed over dinner.

Be creative and tell us the genre and time period you’re writing in. Have fun with it. I cannot wait to read what you write.

To try other writing exercises follow these links:

The First 3 pages: Part 1

The First 3 pages: Part 2

The First 3 pages: Part 3

 The first 3 pages: Part 4

The first 3 pages: Part 5

 

 

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at http://www.writingcareercoach.com/
Tiffany is a speaker and teacher. Find out about available topics for your group’s next event.
Tiffany is a National Examiner. Read her articles here.
Learn more about Tiffany’s Marketing techniques on her main blog.
Common-sense money management is free at The Balanced Life website.
Read Tiffany’s award winning manuscript “A Face in the Shadow” on her fiction blog.She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer’s Rest.

The first 3 pages: Part 5

Published
by
admin
on August 4, 2009
in excercises and growing as a writer
. 2 Comments

I hope this series of short blogs has helped you develop the opening pages of your book. I have given you quite a few assignments and asked many questions. I hope it made you want to look at many books in many genres. I hope it will improve your craft in those first crucial pages.
And most of all I hope you learned from my technique.
I always seek to show rather than tell my readers. That is because I am first and foremost an author. It is in my blood. Did you see how I left unanswered questions from the first day up until today? Some I answered right away [how we will use this will be described tomorrow] others were taken throughout the entire “work” of this blog series [What are the things I need to do to engage my reader? What is the valuable lesson about showing vs. telling?]
I modeled the techniques that every writer must use. I hope they have been useful to you [and for those Non-fiction writers who may have wondered on day one how this would help them, I hope I’ve now answered that as well. These 5 blogs weren’t fiction.]

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at http://www.writingcareercoach.com/

Tiffany is a speaker and teacher. Find out about available topics for your group’s next event.
Tiffany is a National Examiner. Read her articles here.
Learn more about Tiffany’s Marketing techniques on her main blog.

Common-sense money management is free at The Balanced Life website.

Read Tiffany’s award winning manuscript “A Face in the Shadow” on her fiction blog.
She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer’s Rest.
This item is copyright Tiffany Colter, Writing Career Coach. All rights reserved. Visit www.WritingCareerCoach.com

The first 3 pages: Part 4

Published
by
admin
on August 3, 2009
in excercises and growing as a writer
. 0 Comments

Last week we looked at the first three pages, now we’re going to pull it all together.
Day 1: What questions were introduced?
Day 2: What physical senses were engaged?
Day 3: What emotions were engaged?

Now think about your own book. How much do you have going on in the first pages? Are you spending so much time trying to tell the reader what happened before they opened the book that you don’t get them involved in the moment? Are we bogged down with interior monologue? Or are you pulling the reader in to the moment and making them feel, taste and experience the moment? Are they wondering about parts of the book? Are there unanswered questions that keep you reading?

How important is that to your book? We’ll talk about that next time.

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at http://www.writingcareercoach.com/

Tiffany is a speaker and teacher. Find out about available topics for your group’s next event.

Tiffany is a National Examiner. Read her articles here.

Learn more about Tiffany’s Marketing techniques on her main blog.

Common-sense money management is free at The Balanced Life website.

Read Tiffany’s award winning manuscript “A Face in the Shadow” on her fiction blog.
She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer’s Rest.
This item is copyright Tiffany Colter, Writing Career Coach. All rights reserved. Visit www.WritingCareerCoach.com

The First 3 pages: Part 3

Published
by
admin
on July 31, 2009
in excercises and growing as a writer
. 2 Comments

This week we’ve looked at the questions that pull your reader along and the 5 senses that cause you to experience each moment. Now we’re going to step in to the emotional realm. Pull out your same book and go over those same three pages:
1. What emotions are engaged? [Fear, Love, Hate, wonder, Confusion, etc…]
2. How did they cause you to experience them? [What words did they use to create the emotion?]
3. How long was it before you had an emotional experience of any kind while reading the book? [How many lines in?]
We will tie this all together next week. I hope to see you then.

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at http://www.writingcareercoach.com/

Tiffany is a speaker and teacher. Find out about available topics for your group’s next event.

Tiffany is a National Examiner. Read her articles here.

Learn more about Tiffany’s Marketing techniques on her main blog.

Common-sense money management is free at The Balanced Life website.

Read Tiffany’s award winning manuscript “A Face in the Shadow” on her fiction blog.
She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer’s Rest.
This item is copyright Tiffany Colter, Writing Career Coach. All rights reserved. Visit www.WritingCareerCoach.com

The First 3 pages: Part 2

Published
by
admin
on July 30, 2009
in excercises and growing as a writer
. 0 Comments

Yesterday we looked at the first few pages of a novel and asked three questions. Remember, the way to keep a reader moving through your book it to ask and answer a series of questions during the course of the story. You want the reader curious. This has to be about more than just the big “will the good guy win” questions, also questions like “Why doesn’t she trust people?” or “Why does he want her to come over tomorrow?” It is those little questions that keep your reader satisfied enough that they don’t hurl your book across the room. The unanswered ones keep them reading.

Today I have three new questions for you to consider. Grab the same book from yesterday and now look at the first few pages again:

1. How many physical senses were engaged in the FIRST page? [Be sure to look for very subtle ones]
2. Find one creative way they caused you to experience something physically. [Look for creative ways to describe the way something smells, tastes or feels.]
3. How long before you have a physical experience? [By this I mean how many lines in to the book before one of your 5 senses were engaged?]

Are you learning about craft? We’ll take it a step deeper tomorrow.

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at http://www.writingcareercoach.com/

Tiffany is a speaker and teacher. Find out about available topics for your group’s next event.

Tiffany is a National Examiner. Read her articles here.

Learn more about Tiffany’s Marketing techniques on her main blog.

Common-sense money management is free at The Balanced Life website.

Read Tiffany’s award winning manuscript “A Face in the Shadow” on her fiction blog.

She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer’s Rest.
This item is copyright Tiffany Colter, Writing Career Coach. All rights reserved. Visit www.WritingCareerCoach.com

The First 3 pages: Part 1

Published
by
admin
on July 29, 2009
in excercises and improving your writing
. 0 Comments

This week we’re going to do some exercises to jumpstart our writing. We are going to work with novels but this exercise is useful for non-fiction books too. These techniques over these 5 lessons will help you engage your reader and learn a valuable lesson about showing vs. telling.
Select your favorite novel [or one you like that is in your home]. As you read it you are going to ask yourself three questions AS A READER.
1. What question does the writer introduce in to the mind of the reader?
2. What promises are given to the reader? [What are you looking forward to?]
3. How do the first lines engage you?
Try this with a few books if you have the time. We’ll talk about this tomorrow.

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at http://www.writingcareercoach.com/

Tiffany is a speaker and teacher. Find out about available topics for your group’s next event.

Tiffany is a National Examiner. Read her articles here.

Learn more about Tiffany’s Marketing techniques on her main blog.

Common-sense money management is free at The Balanced Life website.

Read Tiffany’s award winning manuscript “A Face in the Shadow” on her fiction blog.

She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer’s Rest.

This item is copyright Tiffany Colter, Writing Career Coach. All rights reserved. Visit www.WritingCareerCoach.com