Tag: writer tips

Resource Tips

The Book Beautiful: Front & Back Matter (It Matters!)

Springfield Writers' GuildLeave a comment

Self Publishing Advisor

So you’ve written a manuscript, thus the ‘meat’ of your book is complete. However, you want to happily sandwich that meat between what we call ‘front matter’ and ‘back matter.’ Front matter includes things like the half-title, the title page, the copyright page, a dedication, acknowledgements, a table of contents, and perhaps other things such as an epigraph, a preface, an introduction, or a prologue. The back matter can include an index, an appendix, and other material that doesn’t belong in the meat of the book, but that you’d like to include to feel you have a complete book.

First, let’s break down what front and back matter should include and how to make them look professional and appropriate. We’ll begin by tackling the different types of front matter you can choose to include.

  • Half Title –  As writers, you’re probably (and hopefully!) avid readers yourself, so you know that…

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Resource Tips

How to Start Writing – and When to Stop

Springfield Writers' GuildLeave a comment

“The more I write full time, the more I learn about how to get started and when to stop: knowledge that makes me more efficient in a job that often is not.” (Deborah Lee Luskin)Starting.

STARTING

Start by writing a rough draft: rough– as in scrawled in a notebook or typed without consideration for spelling, syntax or grammar. Usually, doing this shakes the ideas loose in no particular order. Often, the order becomes apparent before I’ve finished turning out all the pieces, so I number the sentences but keep pushing on to what may be the end. Or not.

WAITING

Ideally, I then wait…if I’ve left myself enough time before a post has to go up or before a deadline arrives. When I can, I let the rough draft mature overnight and return to it the next day. I’m a strong believer in the process of fermentation for both writing and wine, and often while I kick back with a glass, my subconscious continues to work.

When I return to the draft the next day, I’m always surprised by what I find: sometimes it’s a welcome surprise, more often, it’s a set of notes with a workable idea buried in it, and I have to dig to find it, typically by writing another draft. And another.
Stopping.

STOPPING

The telltale signs of needing to stop are attention to email, wandering over to Facebook, staring out the window, or eating lunch one-two hours early.

How do you start a piece? And how do you know that staring at your computer any longer won’t help, so it’s better to stop?

Read the full article here

Source: Live to Write, Write to Live

Live to Write - Write to Live

Starting. Starting.

The more I write full time, the more I learn about how to get started and when to stop, knowledge that makes me more efficient in a job that often is not.

STARTING

I’m learning to start by writing a rough draft: Rough as in scrawled in a notebook or typed without consideration for spelling, syntax or grammar. Usually, doing this shakes the ideas loose in no particular order. Often, the order becomes apparent before I’ve finished turning out all the pieces, so I number the sentences but keep pushing on to what may be the end. Or not.

Ideally, I then wait. That is, if I’ve left myself enough time before a post has to go up or before a deadline arrives. When I can, I let the rough draft mature overnight and return to it the next day. I’m a strong believer in the process of fermentation

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