The Secret to Powerful Stories

by Rachel Hauck, @RachelHauck 

This secret will change the way you craft stories. I’m not kidding. What I’m about to tell you will impact your writing all the way to the core and maybe even get you published.

I’ve been judging a contest. I feel like I could cut and paste the same comments in each one.

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Never Miss An Opportunity for A Good Argument

by Rachel Hauck, @RachelHauck

Zap-Pow! Then What Happened?

Tension is king.

Definition: Most of us hate conflict and confrontation. Even in our books. But tension is king! Donald Maass suggest tension on every page. Better yet, on every line.

Tension doesn’t mean argument. Tension means “things aren’t going well.”

For example: A conflict arises for your heroine. She gets pulled over for speeding. Instead of the officer letting her off, she gets a ticket. This upsets her. While she’s getting a ticket, her mother calls to say Uncle Ned is coming Sunday and our girl is expected at the house for dinner. She blows up. Why is Mama always so bossy? Our heroine will do what she wants for Sunday dinner. She might have plans already. Ever think of that, Mama?

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The Next Generation of “Critique” Partnerships

by Rachel Hauck, @RachelHauck

I’m starting a campaign. Time for a “second wave” critique partnership model.

“Rachel, what do you mean? I love my critique partners.”

I know! Keeping loving them. Love them well! There’s nothing like a solid critique/writing partner.

The person who faithfully answers frantic phone calls or emails. “Help! I have no idea what I’m doing.”

So here’s what I mean by “second wave” critique partner: adding craft as the key component of your partnership.

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Don’t Be Afraid of The Story

by Rachel Hauck, @RachelHauck

A couple years ago as I fast drafted a novel, I realized I had this tension in my gut.

What was going on?

Yea, it’s tough to hammer out a first draft on a tight deadline but I was pleased with my progress. I wasn’t behind schedule. Though the story wasn’t really popping.

Hmm… the tension? I concluded I was actually afraid of my story.

We talk about being afraid of the blank page, but it’s really being afraid of the story.

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Yet Another Tip On How to Write A Great Novel

by Rachel Hauck, @RachelHauck

Do you ever weary of all the do’s and don’ts of writing a novel? I do. Sometimes I get so bogged down with the “rules” and guidelines I end up writing something that doesn’t work. But in the end, it all forms together to create the novel I do end up sending to my editor. Nothing written for a novel is ever wasted. Every word becomes a layer and texture of the ultimate story. On my latest novel, I learned a valuable lesson. Reading. Shocker, right? Y’all are rolling your eyes, moaning, “Gee whiz, Rachel, and you have more than twenty novels published!? Where’s the justice?”Simmer down. I know reading is important. I’ve always read. Let me be more specific. Reading for research.

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Beyond the Craft Building Blocks: Why Does It Matter?

by Rachel Hauck, @RachelHauck 

During an edit with my former fab editor, Ami McConnell Abston, I developed a small “rule” for my characters: Everyone must have a problem.

Not so much walk on/walk off characters but those who interacted with the protagonist on a consistent bases.

Like…

The teen girl who worked in the vintage shop.

Or…

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The I’s have it. But should they?

by Rachel Hauck, @RachelHauck

Ever listen to a conversation where “I” was the predominate word? I did this, I did that, I went here, I went there… I, I, I, I.

After awhile, the picture is etched that the person talking is really into themselves.

The same idea applies to writing in first person. As the writer and storyteller, it’s easy for us to get going in the first person narrative and forget to not let the “I’s” have it.

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Drop and Give Me Twenty! Okay, One.

by Rachel Hauck, @RachelHauck

All right, writers. I’m going to say a word most of you will hate: exercise. Yeah, I know, the excuses are long and many.

“I hate it.”

“I don’t have time for it.”

“It’s too cold.”

“It’s too hot.”

“My legs hurt. My arms…”

“I sprained my eyelashes.”

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What if the HERO was the HEROINE? – Turning Your Story Upside Down

by Rachel Hauck
@RachelHauck

I started reading a great book last week and about a third of the way through a thought hit me: What if THE HEROINE was THE HERO and THE HERO was THE HEROINE?


Meaning, what if their rolls were reversed?

Suddenly the book became much more interesting and the one on my Kindle seem kind of status quo.

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An In Depth Look at the Noble Quest

by Rachel Hauck

While talking with my Mentee the other day, we were trying to flesh out her heroine’s Noble Quest. What does she want? What is this story about? What journey does she embark upon?

This is an essential part of the Hero/Heroine’s journey that is key to the story.

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It Boils Down To This… I’m A Writer

by Rachel Hauck

I had an epiphany in recent days. I’m a writer! A novelist. I write books for a living. That’s what I do!

And it’s awesome.

So what’s the epiphany, you may ask? I realized there was no joy in looking around at other things, people, opportunities, surrendering my soul to envy and jealousy, fretting and regular “hand wringing.”

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Be a Voice, Not an Echo

by Rachel Hauck

Writing in the Christian market pushes us to go beyond the realm of this life to find meaning and purpose for our characters. While we are not writing sermons and devotionals set in fictional places with fictional characters, we are imitating life.

For the Christian author, Jesus is very much a part of our every day life. We want to express Him in some way in our stories, through the lives of our characters. But often our stories sound hokey, canned, full of Christianese. How we talk in the foyer at church, or in Sunday school class does not translate into fiction.

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The Fast Draft –Yes or No?

by Rachel Hauck

I’m fast drafting a novel right now. Last night, after dinking around all day, I told myself to “get to it” and blasted out 2000 words in an hour. Give or take a minute or two.

I’m near the end of a book so I know a bit of what’s going on. I have a feel for the characters and the story. Those random conversations characters have together started running randomly through my head a few weeks ago.

Next week, I’ll end this fast draft and start rewriting. Most of the beginning of the story will change, I already know. The middle needs a lot of tweaking. With that in mind, I hope my ending is the most stable part of this fast, first draft.

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If You Don’t Know What To Do, Make ‘Em Sad

by Rachel Hauck

Riding my bike the other day, musing over my work-in-progress while also contemplating the book “The Nightingale” which I’d just finished, I realized that there is a certain sadness to the protagonist in books I love. In books the world loves.

Not morbid sadness. Not depressed. But a certain longing if you will.

Save for Elizabeth Bennett who covered her longing for true love with “snark” and piety.

In The Nightingale, the sister protagonists had a sad upbringing. Left with a minder by their father after their mother died.

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Writing Romance: No Cheating Allowed!

by Rachel Hauck

No, I’m not talking about the characters and story line.

I’m talking the author taking shortcuts to achieve a goal without motivation.

I love romance.

God loves romance. Look at human history. It’s a romance!

In fact, I was flying home from Dallas the other day, sitting behind a young newlywed couple, and as I caught them interacting, I teared up.

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7 Tips for Planning a Writers Brainstorming Retreat

by Beth K. Vogt @bethvogt

Two weeks before Christmas may sound like the craziest time to run away and brainstorm with your best writing buddies – but, hey, if the plan comes together, go for it, right?

And that’s exactly why I found myself sitting in author Rachel Hauck’s living room with author Susie May Warren – my “writing forces to be reckoned with.” We had three days off from Christmas shopping and all the other holidaze To Do’s to brainstorm our next books. Our time was so successful we plan to have an annual December brainstorming retreat.

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Backstory vs. Character History

By Rachel Hauck

“Ladies and gentleman, welcome to the first ever bout between Backstory and Character History.I’m Bill Masters and this is Sam Malone. Tonight’s bout promises to be a classic.”

“That’s right Bill. We have the champion of all novel prose, Backstory, facing off against the up-and-coming challenger, Character History.”

“It promises to be an interesting bout, Sam. Looks like it’s about to start.”

Ding, ding!

“Character History leaps into the fray, Sam. He’s bouncing, dancing, full of pip.”

“Meanwhile, Bill, Backstory lumbers to the center of the ring.Man is he huge. One blow from the champ and Character History will be down and out.”

“I’ll say he does. Looks like he’s smirking to me.”

“Well, he won’t give up his championship belt without a fight, Bill.”

“Character History bobs and weaves. He’s actually taunting Backstory.”

“That’s never smart. And, Oh! Sure enough, Character History takes one on the chin. His head snaps back and he’s wobbling. He’s against the ropes. This could be it, folks. Backstorycould take it all with a solid one-two punch.”

“But Character History’s not down yet, Sam! He ducks a slamming swing from Backstory, cuts low and lands a hard shot to big man’s ribs. Now it’s Backstory who’s stumbling—his breathing heavy.”

“Character History presses. He jabs, sends a cross—oh, and an uppercut, Bill. Backstory’sagainst the ropes. It’s not looking good. He’s going down—and out.”

***

Backstory is old-fashioned writing. It’s large and cumbersome. It’s slow, slow, slow—and most of the time, unnecessary.

But writers use it and readers endure it because it gives us a glimpse into the heart and soul of a character.

Character History is hot, lean, and sleek. It’s fast—in and out—not weighing down the story.But what if an author needs the reader to know something critical about the character for the opening scenes to make sense?

The strength of character history

For example, say in your novel’s first scene your character Billy Bob is about to go on his first police call since returning to the force after being shot while responding to a bank robbery. He’s nervous. When he gets in the bank, he draws his gun too early and almost shoots his partner.

What the reader needs is a bit of history. A line or two of prose—or even better, dialogue.

If we stick to the “no backstory rule” we miss the importance of this moment. What the reader needs is a bit of history. A line or two of prose—or even better, dialogue—that gives the reader a hint of Billy Bob’s emotional state.

The scar on his shoulder from the bullet wound burned and twisted as Billy Bob entered the bank. It’d only been four weeks. Why had he returned to the job again?

By using character history, the reader learns there’s more to the story. It ups the reader’s attachment to Billy Bob and adds tension. What bullet in the shoulder? When? Who shot him? Why?

All of those questions can be left hanging for now and answered later. If the writer wanted, she could add dialogue with his partner.

“You okay?”

“I’m here aren’t I?”

“Just wondering.”

“You do your job, I’ll do mine.”

Why did his partner ask Billy Bob if he was okay? The reader wants to find out more so he turns the page.

The weaknesses of backstory

Backstory stops the forward action and talks about things unrelated to the current scene. Sure, it’s about Billy Bob. Yes, it’s all true. But the reader doesn’t need to know about it while Billy Bob’s tracking a burglar.

Here’s a backstory blob:

“Since taking a bullet in the shoulder, Billy Bob wondered if he could still be a cop on the beat. But his dad had been a cop and his father before him. Every Martin man wore the badge. Billy Bob remembered the first time he held his father’s badge, feeling the cool metal in his palm, stroking his finger over the shiny brass. He knew then, at that moment, that he’d be a cop too, like his old man. Mother didn’t want him to be. She’d worried about Dad. But when a man puts on a blue and a gold badge, he’s invincible.”

Wow! All that while checking on a robbery call? By now, the reader’s forgotten what was going on, the burglar’s escaped, and Billy Bob’s probably shot his partner.

Readers don’t need that much information—especially in the midst of a tense scene. Save it for later.

Watch out for phrases like: “A sound brought her back into the present.” We all love to sit and reminisce, but a novel is about tension, conflict, and moving forward. Most of us don’t stop to reflect while arguing with a friend, right?

So, there you have it. The bout between Backstory and Character History. Go out writing and have a clean fight.

Ding, ding!

<sidebar>What is Character History?

1. Applicable to the current action. If your heroine can’t stand the hero, don’t let her behave irrationally rude. Drop a line of history. “Ever since seventh grade when he stole her PE clothes from her locker and she got detention, Jen couldn’t stand Colby Witherspoon.”

2. Drop in history and exit quickly. Leave the reader curious. In writing Love Starts With Elle, I had a paragraph or so of history about Elle from Sweet Caroline so the reader could understand what was about to take place. Her plan from that book didn’t work. When she let go, then she met Jeremiah Franklin.

3. Set up tension.Early in the first Indiana Jones movie, we learn that Indiana is afraid of snakes. We don’t get a bunch of lines about why and how he’s afraid of snakes, we just see his reaction to one. Then later in the movie, he gets dumped into a pit of them and our skin tingles. Who cares why he hates snakes? We just know he does—and it works.

4. Part of painting with prose. If your character is passionate about ending injustice of some kind, show us that on the page, then through dialogue or a fast line of prose, hint at why. But don’t give the reader a montage that begins when your heroine is 10 and ends when she’s 16—and then brings us back to the present.

5. Illuminates motivations. Let the history pertain to what’s happening in the current scene. If your character is dealing with an errant child, don’t stop and give a dissertation on the protagonist’s childhood and upbringing. Boring. But, do tell us her mother was kind and patient and that it frustrates her that she’s not. That’s all the reader needs to get it.

TWEETABLES

Backstory vs. Character History by Rachel Hauck (Click to Tweet)

Readers need a bit of history. A line or two of prose—or even better, dialogue.~ Rachel Hauck (Click to Tweet)

Readers don’t need that much information—especially in the midst of a tense scene.~ Rachel Hauck (Click to Tweet)

New York Times, USA Today ​and Wall Street Journal best-selling, award-winning author Rachel Hauck loves a great story. She serves on the Executive Board for American Christian Fiction Writers. She is a past ACFW mentor of the year. A worship leader and Buckeye football fan, Rachel lives in Florida with her husband and ornery cat, Hepzibah. Read more about Rachel atwww.rachelhauck.com.

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Ugly Duckling Writing

by Linore Burkard

Since surely you are familiar with the fairy-tale of the ugly duckling who became a beautiful swan, I won't bother with a recap. But what is "ugly duckling writing," you wonder?  In a nutshell, Rachel Hauck described it in a recent post here on Novel Rocket, 

"I fast draft a very ugly novel, then I rewrite. Almost from scratch. I layer and fine tune, change and deepen." Rachel Hauck

Since I wrote the lion's share of my current novel, RESISTANCE in little more than a month, the above quote fits my experience for this book. I have a first draft that is, in literary terms, "a very ugly novel." But to me, it's like  gold. Because I know that the finished novel--the graceful swan--is in there, and that I will hone the work, develop the best parts, revise and rewrite and come out in the end with a book that--hopefully--many will want to read. 

I expected to let the book rest during this past busy Christmas season, but I found myself working on it, rewriting and fine tuning.

Changing and deepening.

And, when I think about it, I realize that all of my novels started out as ugly ducklings in some degree or other. In all likelihood, whether you've got one published book or thirty, yours began that way, too. As ugly ducklings.

Newer writers often don't realize that this is not unusual. I hear from some who get so discouraged when faced with an ugly duckling novel that they want to quit. 

So here's my takeaway for them--or for any writer discouraged by a messy novel. 

Don't give up on a book just because you feel, after finishing the first draft, that it is in no shape to get published. The truth is, if you keep working on it, haven't lost your original vision for the work, and are determined to find the real story and make it work--you probably will.

   

There are times when it's right to put a manuscript away in some drawer, never to see the light of day. This is often the fate of a first attempt by writers at novel-writing, and there's nothing wrong with that. We all need to practice and learn somewhere, somehow.

My first hatchling!

But it is not a universal experience. My own first novel must have gone through a dozen drafts before it was publishable. But eventually, it became a swan. I might have given up any number of times when it looked like an awkward, ungainly fledgling--but didn't.    

How to tell if your novel is drawer-worthy or worth editing? 

I believe most books can be salvaged into good works IF the original vision is strong.

What is a strong original vision? A great story!

Do you have a great story? Something that can touch a heart, strike a deep chord with readers? Then keep working on it.

Chip away at that thing until the beauty of it shines, and your ugly duckling is a thing of the past.

After that, you can release your beautiful swan--to an agent, an editor, or to the world.   

Welcome to 2017, and happy writing!

TWEETABLES
Ugly Duckling Writing by Linore Burkard (Click to Tweet)

But to me, it's like  gold~ Linore Burkard (Click to Tweet)

Chip away at that thing until the beauty of it shines~ Linore Burkard (Click to Tweet)

Linore Rose Burkard writes historical romance and, as L.R.Burkard, YA/Suspense. Linore enjoys teaching workshops for writers, is a mother of five, and still homeschools her youngest daughter, preferably with coffee in one hand and her iPad in the other. Linore's newsletter (another labor of love) includes two book drawings per month. For a chance to win one of her novels, simply join the mailing list at either website. (http://www.LinoreBurkard.com, or http://www.LRBurkard.com)

  

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Creating Characters We Want To Have Coffee (or Diet Coke) With

by Rachel Hauck

A book is about people. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

Or, simpler, extra ordinary things.

But to feel for these people and go on the journey with them we have to see them with the eyes of our heart. Of our imagination.

How do we do that as storytellers?

Details!

Beware! I don’t mean physical details although those are great, but I mean personal, down-to-the-soul details.

Describe the protagonist life, hinting at wants, goals, dreams.

Why have they walked onto the page?

Imagine a play if you will.

The stage is dark save for the spotlight.

The main character walks onto the stage, in costume, and begins to speak.

What could they possibly say that will make you lean forward to listen?

What emotion or what story could they share that would make you care?

What opening line would grab you?

That’s how you have to build your characters before you walk them onto the page.

I used to play act as a kid, making up dialog between me and oh, you know, Donny Osmond.

We’d carry on whole conversations.

Now I do the same for my protagonist and secondary characters.

I see them in my mind’s eye.

I do my level best to get to know them in my heart.

Anyone who’s been in a writing class with me has heard the account of how I dug deeper for the characters June and Rebel in Softly and Tenderly, the book I wrote with Sara Evans.

I knew Rebel had been a cheater. And originally I decided that once he fell off the fidelity wagon, he intended not to do it again but just got caught.

Sin will do that — keep you longer than you intended to stay and take you farther than you intended to go.

But as I wrote the confrontation scene it lacked… punch. I felt like I was writing in circles.

I got up to take a break and ended up dialoging with myself, playing both characters, and I know you ALL have done it too, and came upon a break through line.

Here June is confronting him as to why all the affairs. Rebel is a high powered southern lawyer.

BEGIN

“It just got easy, that’s all.”

“Easy? Do you know how many nights I cried myself to sleep… How helpless I felt to stop you… I mentally packed my bags so many times.”

“I told you, it just got easy.”

“Does revenge taste that sweet Reb?” RH: Here’s where I learned June also had an affair. Early in their young marriage when she felt alone during Rebel’s law school years.

Rebel whipped around to face her. “You stole my son, June!” <– BREAK THRU LINE!

END

I gasped here! What does that mean? I didn’t know but I was going to find out. It felt brilliant!

So I dug around until I discovered the whole story! This bit of news popped the story wide open and created much deeper, more complex characters.

Here’s another example from How To Catch A Prince.

I created a fun, over-the-top media mogul, Gigi Beaumont. She’s both a protagonist and antagonist. I know… I know… but I like to bend the rules.

When we first meet her in the heroine’s POV, Gigi is commanding, smartly dressed with perfect hair and nails.

But when we switched to Gigi’s point of view, we see a different character.

BEGIN:

Gigi

Even when she was a girl running barefoot through the hills of her Blue Ridge, Georgia, home, Gigi Beaumont had a nose for news.

She’d collect all the best gossip by sneaking around the wizened mountain women— who had a knack for telling a yarn or two—as they talked in the Mast General or strolled the town square. Then she wrote their stories and mimeographed them on the machine she found in the church basement, producing her first newspaper at the mature age of ten.

When Mama read it, whoa doggies, she gave Gigi a walloping for the ages on account of what she printed about the mayor’s wife. But when it turned out to be true—an affair with the sheriff—Mama became her chief distributor and fact finder.

Forty-six years later, she still crawled around behind the storytellers and gossips, hoping for the scoop. The scandalous story that would turn the world on its ear.

Mercy knows, Beaumont Media needed a break. A big one. Hiring Mark Johnson was just one stealth move to reignite her newspaper’s faltering brand.

END

Here we have a bit of Gigi’s character history (which is very different from backstory!) and we see this woman is both hungry for success and gifted.

She’s following a life long passion, her superpower!

Hopefully I created descriptive elements to help the reader know who they are dealing with in this story.

We don’t need a lot of physical description here. We get it in other scenes.

What I needed in this scene was her heart. To show just who Gigi Beaumont was and why.

So, how do you know if you have a dynamic character that can rise off the page and grab the reader?

Here’s an example from award-winning author Deborah Raney’s novel, Home to Chicory Lane.

BEGIN
Still, despite his rough childhood, and a couple of wild years in high school, Chase had defied the odds and turned into a good guy. A really good guy. Their youth pastor from Langhorne Community Fellowship had taken Chase under his wing, and by the time Landyn was old enough to date, Chase was toeing a pretty straight line.

Well, except for the tattoo. Dad had come completely unglued when he heard Chase had gotten inked. She’d finally calmed him down by explaining that Chase’s Celtic cross––on his collarbone, so it was hidden under most of his shirts––was a symbol of his faith and of the permanence of God’s love for him.

END

I can see this guy, can’t you? Wild, tattooed, but wearing the symbol of his new faith. I get him right away. We see he’s “toeing” the line so perhaps he’s still trying to earn God’s favor. And the tattoo is kind of his reminder, “Behave yourself.” There are a lot of places Deb could’ve taken this. Great description.

Here’s a clip from best selling author Denise Hunter’s Married ‘Til Monday. (Great title, eh?)



BEGIN

After work Saturday Abby showered off the bakery smell, dried her hair, and pulled it back into a messy ponytail. She scrubbed the makeup from her face, exposing the freckles on her nose, and threw on a pair of jeans with her Eagles T-shirt, hating the way her hands trembled. It was just one date. Then he’d leave her alone.

END

What I love about this is her Eagles t-shirt and trembling hands. We know what kind of music she likes and that tells us a lot about the character. And trembling hands indicates she’s nervous. Funny to me she’s going on a date and trying to look her worst. No make up, sloppy ponytail. Makes me ask, “What’s going on here?” Denise took the opposite of the norm. Good idea to always flip a character or scene upside down and see what’s on the other side.

Here’s a few tips on how to create deeper characters:

1. Be specific. Get down to nitty gritty details. Tell a slice of life and use it to shape the character.

2. Utilize MBT’s Story Equation — the SEQ. Dark wound of the past, lie and fear, contrasted with greatest dream.

3. What’s your character’s happiest moment. (Be specific!)

4. Remember your story is about dealing with a specific issue (notice the word specific is used a lot) so build your details around that one event.

5. Go beneath the surface. Turn a character or situation upside down. Instead of a male character what happens if you make him a her? A character is more than hair or eye color, or skin color. More than she liked cafe mochas and the Beatles. Those are great but you must answer the question: Why does she like those things? Dig deep. Think outside the box.

Now, go write a brilliant character.

TWEETABLES

Creating Characters We Want To Have Coffee (or Diet Coke) With by Rachel Hauck (Click to Tweet)

Tell a slice of life and use it to shape the character~ Rachel Hauck (Click to Tweet)

Turn a character or situation upside down~ Rachel Hauck (Click to Tweet)

New York Times, USA Today ​and Wall Street Journal best-selling, award-winning author Rachel Hauck loves a great story. She serves on the Executive Board for American Christian Fiction Writers. She is a past ACFW mentor of the year. A worship leader and Buckeye football fan, Rachel lives in Florida with her husband and ornery cat, Hepzibah. Read more about Rachel atwww.rachelhauck.com.

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Advice to New Authors

by Rachel Hauck

In this ever changing world of publishing, e-books on the rise, the popularity of electronically self publishing, it seems the author has to be writer, promoter and marketer. When I was first published seven years ago, there were twitterings of an author spending half of their advance on promotion, but I thought those were just rumors. Heresay. What “one” author had to do.

But it’s true. Then and now. When you get your first contract, plan on setting aside a third or a half for promotion. Consider it seed money for your career. Get it out of your head now that you’re writing to earn income for the family. You’ll be disappointed if you do. You’re writing to tell great stories. You’re writing because it’s your heart and what you love. You’re writing to eventually make some money.

A novelist career is a slow build of readership and dollars. In fact, the two are tightly correlated.

What do you do with those marketing dollars you set aside? Giveaways. Subscribe to a newsletter service. Pay for a good web site design. Hire companies like LitFuse to host a blog tour for your book or run a contest for you. Give away a Nook or a Kindle. Buy business cards. Bookmarks.

You want to start touting your book about two months before the release date. Post on your Facebook and Twitter. FB and Twitter are free and a GREAT way to build relationships with readers. And I do mean relationships. Social media is a conversation not a super cyber market where you only talk about your and your books. Or try to get people to buy something from you.

If you write have a category book that has a shelf life of one month, run a blog tour that month. If you’re book is a trade and has a longer shelf life, you might consider running a blog tour the month of your release and maybe a few months later. I always run my blog tours three months after the release date. Whatever promo or marketing publisher might have done would be fading by then as they moved on to their next quarter releases so I jump in and boost my books with a blog tour.

Spend about fifteen minutes a day on social media. Twitter a few times throughout the day. Look at others tweets and retweet them. Post on your Facebook. Answer comments others might have posted. Don’t stress over it, but try to stay engaged.

Managing your time is key to success. Whether writing a book or not. Your number one job as a writer, besides carrying for your family, is to write a great book. Before promo and social media, write a great book. Don’t get distracted with other things. If your writing suffers it’s hard to pull together again and get focused. Since we all work differently and have different responsibilities, it’s hard for me to say, “This is how YOU must mange your time.”

I have no children. I can write all day. I can goof around all day. I can do pretty much what I want. So if I were to say, “write every day from noon to five,” that might not work for you.

Here’s what I can tell you. Get a hold of your time. Schedule your days. Some people can schedule down to every 15 minutes! Yowza! Not me. I schedule in blocks. Morning. Afternoon. Evening. But I know what needs to be done and about how long it will take me to do it — more or less.

Talk to your husband and kids. Figure a way to involve the family in your success as a writer. Some authors have office days. Those are the days they work on the business, answer interview questions, email, do promo or marketing. I’m not that popular of an author to really need a day to get in touch with all the throngs who want to talk to me, soooo, I answer interview questions and email as they come in.

I have a program called Concentrate that shuts off my internet for whatever time I specify. When I’m on a deadline or need to get focused and finish a project, I launch Concentrate. I have it set for 45 minutes. Every 15 minutes, this computer lady comes on and says, “You are brilliant, keep working.” LOL. It’s great. When I get the twitch to goof off on the internet for a few seconds, I realize I can’t because of Concentrate, and I keep working. Yeah, I could turn it off but somehow that feels like cheating to me.

It’s important for writers to stay involved in life, in our families, in our churches and communities. Don’t say yes to everything that comes your way. No is a good word. But pray and ask the Lord to show you what He’s called you to do.

Cut off the noise like TV. Really. Amuse is the opposite of muse which is what we must do to write. I love movies and a good TV show. I learn from them. But in my house we only watch DVDs or Netflix instant. There is no nightly TV watching or channel surfing. When I had that option, it was a huge distraction. Five o’clock? Rerun of Gilmore Girls and I’ll be if I just didn’t quit working to watch.

Stop the excuses. If you’re a soft, giving personality, learn to toughen up and say no. If you have an addiction to TV, cut the cable for awhile. If you’re doing too much, let go of a few things. Don’t feel guilty or condemned. If God’s called you to be a writer, He’ll give you time to write. He’s not called you to do all and be all to everyone else so you don’t have time to write. Or so you have to sit in a corner of the house at midnight with your laptop on your knees writing while everyone else sleeps so you can get your word count. No, He’ll give you the time. Don’t fill it up with other things.

Writing is a job. Do it with excellence. Manage your time. Pray hard.

And whatever you do, don’t quit.

TWEETABLES

Advice to New Authors by Rachel Hauck (Click to Tweet)

Get a hold of your time~ Rachel Hauck (Click to Tweet)

And whatever you do, don’t quit~ Rachel Hauck (Click to Tweet)

New York Times, USA Today ​and Wall Street Journal best-selling, award-winning author Rachel Hauck loves a great story. She serves on the Executive Board for American Christian Fiction Writers. She is a past ACFW mentor of the year. A worship leader and Buckeye football fan, Rachel lives in Florida with her husband and ornery cat, Hepzibah. Read more about Rachel atwww.rachelhauck.com.

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