Images use are free use and not subject to attribution. Image by manseok Kim from Pixabay
As writers, we are always doing research on many topics. Impact Radio USA offers a new program, “Parenting 101 Plus,” dealing with issues raising children, including case studies of drug use, truancy, anger, etc., for those of you who write family issues, particularly issues with children and how to deal with the behaviors. The show is based on host Paul W. Reeves, Ed. D‘s book, A Principal’s Family Principles.
Parenting 101 Plus
Join Paul W. Reeves, Ed.D – a longtime teacher and school principal, and the father of three children – and his guests, as they discuss the world of parenting your children, from birth through age 100! Also included are excerpts and discussions of Paul’s parenting book, “A PRINCIPAL’S FAMILY PRINCIPLES – Raising Your Kids to Be Happy and Healthy, While Enjoying Them to the Fullest”
“Parenting 101 Plus” drops a new show EVERY Thursday morning at 9:00 am ET; then each episode airs for seven straight days at 9:00 am ET and 5:00 pm ET.
On today’s show, in addition to reading the chapter, “Be Aware of UNDERWEAR?” from his book, sharing wisdom from others, a bit of humor, and more, Paul played Part 1 of his interview with Claude Larson.
CLAUDE LARSON, a retired teacher from New York, one whom mostly worked with teenagers, will join us to discuss her book, “The Power of Choice: A Teen’s Guide to Finding Personal Success Kindle Edition“.
Episode Two
On today’s show, in addition to reading a chapter concerning sibling relationships from his book, sharing wisdom from others, a bit of humor, and more, Paul played Part 2 of his interview with Claude Larson.
CLAUDE LARSON, a retired teacher from New York who mostly worked with teenagers, will join us to discuss her book, “The Power of Choice: A Teen’s Guide to Finding Personal Success Kindle Edition“.
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Paul W. ReevesEd.D
Paul W. Reeves, Ed. D. is an author, radio talk show host, educator, composer/arranger, and professional musician.
Please visit his website for more information regarding Paul’s career or his books and CDs.
Images use are free use and not subject to attribution. Image by manseok Kim from Pixabay
As writers, we are always doing research on many topics. For those of you who write family issues, particularly issues with children, Impact Radio USA offers a new program, “Parenting 101 Plus,” dealing with issues raising children, including case studies of drug use, truancy, anger, etc. and how to deal with the behaviors. The show is based on host Paul W. Reeves, Ed. D‘s book, A Principal’s Family Principles.
Join Dr. Reeves and his guests—parents, and educators—as they discuss how we can raise healthy, happy children.
Parenting 101 Plus airs Thursday at 9:00 am ET on Impact Radio USA.
The show repeats daily repeats daily at 9:00 am and 5:00 pm ET and is available on podcast.
Welcome to IMPACT RADIO USA, where we strive to provide the best in news, talk, sports, and music 24 hours a day, 52 weeks per year. Our goal is to keep you as the most informed and entertained Internet Radio audience.
As we are continuing to add content on a daily basis, please feel free to click on the “LISTEN NOW” button at the top of the page to hear us 24 hours a day. While you are here, please check out all of our links to our shows, our podcast page, our blog, and learn how YOU can host your own show with us. Thank you for listening to IMPACT RADIO USA!!!
In our quest to assist writers in becoming the best they can be and remain motivated, we would like to introduce you to John Chuback, M.D. A cardiovascular surgeon, Dr. Chuback found his goals waylaid by his lack of motivation.
In a series of interviews with Paul W. Reeves, host on Impact Radio USA,Dr. Chuback continues his discussion of the tools leading to success with his book “Make Your Own Damn Cheese: Understanding, Navigating, and Mastering the 3 Mazes of Success.”
Please click on the link below to hear Episode #27 of SUCCESS PHILOSOPHIES WITH DR. CHUBACK, the first episode in the second series, and start enhancing your journey toward success today.
DR. JOHN CHUBACK, a cardiovascular surgeon from New Jersey, is the author of, “Make Your Own Damn Cheese: Understanding, Navigating, and Mastering the 3 Mazes of Success,” “The Straight A Handbook– The 50 Most Powerful Secrets For Ultimate Success In And Out Of The Classroom” and other books.
DR. CHUBACK joins HOST PAUL W. REEVES weekly to discuss his books, “The Straight A Handbook – The 50 Most Powerful Secrets For Ultimate Success In And Out Of The Classroom” and “Make Your Own Damn Cheese“, each of which explores the human mind and becoming all that you can be.
Throughout this portion of the series, Dr. Chuback will discuss “Make Your Own Damn Cheese“, and the research behind his success philosophies.
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Audiobooks on Audible
The Straight a Handbook: The 50 Most Powerful Secrets for Ultimate Success in and Out of the Classroom Audible Audiobook – Unabridged
Written by John Chuback, M. D. Narrated by Paul W. Reeves, Ed. D.
Dr. John Chuback was born and raised in Bergen County and graduated from the Dwight Englewood School. He earned his medical degree from New Jersey Medical School at UMDNJ, in Newark. Dr. Chuback then completed a five-year General Surgical Residency at Monmouth Medical Center (MMC). Dr. Chuback is the author of Make Your Own Damn Cheese, Kaboing, and The Straight A Handbook.
All books are available on Amazon. com.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Impact Radio USA
Welcome to IMPACT RADIO USA, where we strive to provide the best in news, talk, sports, and music 24 hours a day, 52 weeks per year. Our goal is to keep you as the most informed and entertained Internet Radio audience.
As we are continuing to add content on a daily basis, please feel free to click on the “LISTEN NOW” button at the top of the page to hear us 24 hours a day. While you are here, please check out all of our links to our shows, our podcast page, our blog, and learn how YOU can host your own show with us. Thank you for listening to IMPACT RADIO USA!!!
In our quest to assist writers in becoming the best you can be and remain motivated, we would like to introduce you to John Chuback, M.D. A cardiovascular surgeon, Dr. Chuback found his goals waylaid by his lack of motivation. In a series of interviews with Paul W. Reeves, host on Impact Radio USA,Dr. Chuback discusses “The 50 most powerful secrets for success in and out of the classroom.”
Please click on the link below to hear Episode #15 in the series, and start enhancing your journey toward success today.
DR. JOHN CHUBACK, a cardiovascular surgeon from New Jersey, joins us in this series to celebrate the release of his book, “The Straight A Handbook– The 50 Most Powerful Secrets For Ultimate Success In And Out Of The Classroom”.
Throughout this series, they will cover each of the 50 chapters in detail, each of which will guide you toward success in all that you do in life.
On this segment, Dr. Chuback and Paul discussed chapters 34, 35, and 36.
Dr. John Chuback was born and raised in Bergen County and graduated from the Dwight Englewood School. He earned his medical degree from New Jersey Medical School at UMDNJ, in Newark. Dr. Chuback then completed a five-year General Surgical Residency at Monmouth Medical Center (MMC). Dr. Chuback is the author of Make Your Own Damn Cheese, Kaboing, and The Straight A Handbook.
All books are available on Amazon. com.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Impact Radio USA
Welcome to IMPACT RADIO USA, where we strive to provide the best in news, talk, sports, and music 24 hours a day, 52 weeks per year. Our goal is to keep you as the most informed and entertained Internet Radio audience.
As we are continuing to add content on a daily basis, please feel free to click on the “LISTEN NOW” button at the top of the page to hear us 24 hours a day.While you are here, please check out all of our links to our shows, our podcast page, our blog, and learn how YOU can host your own show with us. Thank you for listening to IMPACT RADIO USA!!!
Writers Unite!’s mission is to offer a haven for writers to share their work and hone their craft. As the writing process is our focus, author, and WU! admin, Lynn Miclea has created a series of “tips, tools, and tidbits” about writing for our members or anyone interested in writing to help improve their writing. Check the menu bar for any tips you may have missed.
Lie versus Lay
Many people often mix up these words, and it is helpful to learn to use them correctly. Lie and lay are not interchangeable — they have different meanings and should be used properly.
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LIE means to rest or recline. It is intransitive, which means it does not take an object.
Examples: I need to lie down. I will lie on the couch. He lies on the floor. She wants to lie down and take a nap. Let the dog lie where he is.
Present tense: lie, lies. He lies down. Past tense: lay. Yesterday, he lay down. Present participle: lying. He is lying down. Past participle: lain. I have lain in bed too long.
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LAY means to put or set an object down. It is transitive, which means it takes an object — you lay something down.
Examples: I lay the book down. She lays her pencil on the table. He wants to lay down the law. They can lay the tile in the bathroom. Please lay the papers on the counter.
Present tense: lay, lays. She lays the book down. Past tense: laid. He laid the packages on the table. Present participle: laying. She is laying the pen down. Past participle: laid. I have laid the books on the counter.
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Please view the two charts that help explain it further.
Writers lead exciting lives. We can sit in the safety of our homes or cafes or wherever we choose to write and have amazing adventures through our words. As George R. R. Martin wrote in one of his novels,
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies…. The man who never reads lives only one.”
A writer lives those thousand lives as well.
Who are we who call ourselves writers?
We are ethnically diverse, from all socioeconomic backgrounds, but share a passion for writing. We publish. Some of us are highly successful, some not. Many published authors would refer to themselves as professional writers. The question is, are we?
What is a Professional?
Merriam-Webster defines professionalism as the conduct, aims, or qualities that characterize or mark a profession or a professional person.
The attributes of a professional:
Appearance
Demeanor
Reliability
Competence
Ethics
Maintaining Poise
Phone Etiquette
Written correspondence
Organizational Skills
Accountability
These attributes should be self-explanatory. We should, in all circumstances, be neat in appearance, calm and respectful, reliable in completing tasks or arriving for meetings, and all the other skills listed. All are important, but competence requires considerable study and experience in our chosen profession. Whether accountant, nurse, musician, or writer, this behavior should be our norm.
The Pathway to Writing.
Words are an author’s musical notes, brush strokes, or accounting formulas, surgical techniques, grammar rules, or any other skill required to become successful in a profession. If, as writers, we consider ourselves artists, then we need to gain competency in our art and develop the attributes that represent professionalism.
Perhaps as a child, you exhibited An aptitude for playing an instrument, singing, or drawing. While not all children with demonstrated talent will become professional musicians, singers, or artists, the training for those who do invariably begins at an early age.
The path for artists is an arduous one. Countless hours of instruction and practice are required to learn the instrument, steps, or shapes and perform with others. Years of preparation, mentoring, and often formal study at a university are required for a career in music or art. A career in music or the arts does not require higher education, but the additional training only increases expertise. Also, artists often have another hurdle before they can perform. They may be required to audition to join an orchestra or dance company.
But what about writers? In truth, writers also begin training at an early age. Primary and secondary education provides the basics of grammar, vocabulary, and creative writing. Some may continue to college, where they can major in creative writing or journalism.
Those who choose not to pursue an academic path to writing can find a myriad of articles and lessons on the Internet. Enter ‘how to write dialogue’ into a search engine, and the number of articles offered is staggering. The issue becomes which of those articles are credible and which ones are not. With the voluminous amount of material available, sorting through it to find what works for you can be daunting and confusing but necessary.
The Impact of Self-Publishing on Professionalism
With the advent of self-publishing, the number of authors choosing that route has reached an all-time high. An article by Dan Balow from The Steve Laube Agency website states, “Traditional and self-publishing generate over one million new books every year in the U.S. alone, according to RR Bowker. Two-thirds are self-published.”
That’s a lot of authors, and the question is how many have taken the time and effort to hone their writing craft. Unfortunately, it appears many have not. The areas of greatest impact on the level of quality for published books according to Barlow are:
Collegial control. A give and take relationship between publisher and author where negotiation is required to produce a satisfactory agreement for both.
Traditional publishing can take as long as eighteen months. Self-publishing can happen soon after “The End” is typed onto the manuscript.
Quality of the manuscript. Editing a manuscript is never completed, but all efforts should be made to create a flawless Often, self-published authors do little editing.
Length of manuscript. There are industry standards based on what readers expect that the self-publishing world often ignores. This alone can create dissatisfied readers.
Book cover. One of the essential components of a novel, the cover, attracts the reader to pick up the book, read the blurb, and be interested enough to purchase. Too many self-published authors do not take proper care with the creation of their cover and shortchange themselves.
These are all crucial issues that all authors need to be cognizant of, even with the assistance of a traditional publishing house. To be a professional when presenting yourself as a writer, these are all issues that you must address as part of the competency attribute.
One aspect of publishing that many authors, traditionally published or not, has to deal with is the most important task they undertake—marketing their book.
We welcome others buying our novels for enjoyment. Marketing is a requirement to accomplish that goal. If we are fortunate enough to have an agent or a traditional publishing house represent us, we might have help in offering our product to our readers.
The cold facts are that total marketing support is rare for today’s authors unless they are already proven revenue generators. Many writers turn to self-publishing or small independent publishers where marketing more than likely falls to the author, and few are qualified to promote their books. How we accomplish that task can define us professionals and establish how the marketplace perceives us as authors.
The Interview
There are numerous avenues open to marketing books, but interviews are personal and effective. Print media, online media, television, radio, and podcasts provide excellent resources for an author to become known to their fans. Making a strong connection with the journalist or host is imperative.
The hosts of these media platforms offer their services, expertise, and the most important commodity, their time. While some media organizations charge, their services are usually free for authors.
These media services provide a tremendous opportunity to communicate with potential readers, lead to repeat interviews, keep the author in front of the public, and keep their book and future books in the spotlight. An essential tool for any author to utilize.
A common lament among these hosts is that authors do not respond to emails or messages, are not available at the time of the interview, or cancel at the last moment without a valid reason. Some answer the written interviews, returning the questions without bothering to edit. Some do not follow through on promoting the interview across social media. Not only necessary for the author but also for the host who has provided the service.
However, the most disturbing behavior to these hosts was how many authors they interviewed never said thank you.
We discussed the attributes of professionals. Here are how those attributes relate to writers.
Appearance – Dress appropriately for a face-to-face interview or a book signing/reading.
Demeanor – Be respectful, considerate, pleasant, and have a good sense of humor.
Reliability – Be on time, provide materials requested
Competence – Learn your craft.
Ethics – Your reputation is at stake. Always maintain integrity.
Maintaining Poise – Be prepared for uncomfortable questions by hosts or readers. Stay calm.
Phone Etiquette – Interviewing by phone requires you to answer clearly and concisely, then pause, and wait for the host to speak so that you do not talk over them.
Written correspondence – Bios should be as short as possible and written in third person. Interview questions should be answered thoroughly and edited for good sentence structure and grammar.
Organizational Skills – Be prepared, have whatever notes you need with you, and practice answers to questions that could arise about your book, your writing style, etc.
Accountability – You have agreed to submit answers to written questions or be available at a specified time for an interview or book signing and should honor those commitments.
And one last thing: A simple thank you to your host is respectful and will build a bond between you and a person who can be valuable to your future as a writer.
Are Writers Professional? We Can Be.
In this era of self-publishing, anyone can publish a book. Have a laptop, and you, too, can be a published author. You don’t need a college degree, or an editor, or a book cover designer. You can do it all. But if you want to approach your writing as a professional, study your craft through an educational facility or study information available on the internet. Use an editor so your manuscript will be as error-free as possible, focus on a quality book cover, and be prepared to market your work. Most of all, be kind and say thank you to those who are helping to make you a success.
In our quest to assist writers in becoming the best you can be and remain motivated, we would like to introduce you to John Chuback, M.D. A cardiovascular surgeon, Dr. Chuback found his goals waylaid by his lack of motivation. In a series of interviews with Paul W. Reeves, host on Impact Radio USA,Dr. Chuback discusses “The 50 most powerful secrets for success in and out of the classroom.”
Please click on the link below to hear Episode #13 in the series, and start enhancing your journey toward success today.
DR. JOHN CHUBACK, a cardiovascular surgeon from New Jersey, joins us in this series to celebrate the release of his book, “The Straight A Handbook– The 50 Most Powerful Secrets For Ultimate Success In And Out Of The Classroom”.
Throughout this series, they will cover each of the 50 chapters in detail, each of which will guide you toward success in all that you do in life.
On this segment, Dr. Chuback and Paul discussed chapters 28 and 29.
Dr. John Chuback was born and raised in Bergen County and graduated from the Dwight Englewood School. He earned his medical degree from New Jersey Medical School at UMDNJ, in Newark. Dr. Chuback then completed a five-year General Surgical Residency at Monmouth Medical Center (MMC). Dr. Chuback is the author of Make Your Own Damn Cheese, Kaboing, and The Straight A Handbook.
All books are available on Amazon. com.
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Impact Radio USA
Welcome to IMPACT RADIO USA, where we strive to provide the best in news, talk, sports, and music 24 hours a day, 52 weeks per year. Our goal is to keep you as the most informed and entertained Internet Radio audience.
As we are continuing to add content on a daily basis, please feel free to click on the “LISTEN NOW” button at the top of the page to hear us 24 hours a day.While you are here, please check out all of our links to our shows, our podcast page, our blog, and learn how YOU can host your own show with us. Thank you for listening to IMPACT RADIO USA!!!
In our quest to assist writers in becoming the best you can be and remain motivated, we would like to introduce you to John Chuback, M.D. A cardiovascular surgeon, Dr. Chuback found his goals waylaid by his lack of motivation. In a series of interviews with Paul W. Reeves, host on Impact Radio USA,Dr. Chuback discusses “The 50 most powerful secrets for success in and out of the classroom.”
Please click on the link below to hear Episode #12 in the series, and start enhancing your journey toward success today.
DR. JOHN CHUBACK, a cardiovascular surgeon from New Jersey, joins us in this series to celebrate the release of his book, “The Straight A Handbook– The 50 Most Powerful Secrets For Ultimate Success In And Out Of The Classroom”.
Throughout this series, they will cover each of the 50 chapters in detail, each of which will guide you toward success in all that you do in life.
On this segment, Dr. Chuback and Paul discussed chapters 26 and 27.
Dr. John Chuback was born and raised in Bergen County and graduated from the Dwight Englewood School. He earned his medical degree from New Jersey Medical School at UMDNJ, in Newark. Dr. Chuback then completed a five-year General Surgical Residency at Monmouth Medical Center (MMC). Dr. Chuback is the author of Make Your Own Damn Cheese, Kaboing, and The Straight A Handbook.
All books are available on Amazon. com.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Impact Radio USA
Welcome to IMPACT RADIO USA, where we strive to provide the best in news, talk, sports, and music 24 hours a day, 52 weeks per year. Our goal is to keep you as the most informed and entertained Internet Radio audience.
As we are continuing to add content on a daily basis, please feel free to click on the “LISTEN NOW” button at the top of the page to hear us 24 hours a day.While you are here, please check out all of our links to our shows, our podcast page, our blog, and learn how YOU can host your own show with us. Thank you for listening to IMPACT RADIO USA!!!
Writers are human and humans require motivation. When we set a goal, the motivation to accomplish our desires is the force driving our actions. For many of us, finding the correct path to follow and maintaining that driving force can be difficult.
In our quest to assist writers in becoming the best you can be and remain motivated, we would like to introduce you to John Chuback, M.D. A cardiovascular surgeon, Dr. Chuback found his goals waylaid by his lack of motivation. In a series of interviews with Paul W. Reeves, host on Impact Radio USA,Dr. Chuback discusses “The 50 most powerful secrets for success in and out of the classroom.”
Please click on the link below to hear Episode #10 in this series, and start enhancing your journey toward success today.
DR. JOHN CHUBACK, a cardiovascular surgeon from New Jersey, joins us in this series to celebrate the release of his book, “The Straight A Handbook– The 50 Most Powerful Secrets For Ultimate Success In And Out Of The Classroom”.
Throughout this series, they will cover each of the 50 chapters in detail, each of which will guide you toward success in all that you do in life.
On this segment, Dr. Chuback and Paul discussed chapters 22 and 23.
Dr. John Chuback was born and raised in Bergen County and graduated from the Dwight Englewood School. He earned his medical degree from New Jersey Medical School at UMDNJ, in Newark. Dr. Chuback then completed a five-year General Surgical Residency at Monmouth Medical Center (MMC). Dr. Chuback is the author of Make Your Own Damn Cheese, Kaboing, and The Straight A Handbook.
All books are available on Amazon. com.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Impact Radio USA
Welcome to IMPACT RADIO USA, where we strive to provide the best in news, talk, sports, and music 24 hours a day, 52 weeks per year. Our goal is to keep you as the most informed and entertained Internet Radio audience.
As we are continuing to add content on a daily basis, please feel free to click on the “LISTEN NOW” button at the top of the page to hear us 24 hours a day.While you are here, please check out all of our links to our shows, our podcast page, our blog, and learn how YOU can host your own show with us. Thank you for listening to IMPACT RADIO USA!!!
I am one of those nerdy types constantly looking for new information. When I decided to start writing fiction again after many years of writing business and marketing-related materials, I scoured the Internet for every morsel of writing advice I could find. The amount of material I found was overwhelming, but I dove in without taking a breath. I wanted to learn.
What I found fulfilled my needs, but I also found that, apparently, everyone who has ever written considers themselves an expert. The myriad of articles, blogs, podcasts, and YouTube videos are mind-bogglingly confusing, with almost all of these ‘experts’ saying the identical thing. The difference is how they offer their “expertise.”
My background is in science, so I took a rudimentary approach. I had taken creative writing in high school and college, but I decided to start with general information. I researched topics such as writing fiction for beginners, components of a good fiction novel, and how to write mysteries or science fiction. After looking at overviews of the craft, I pared my searches down to the basics.
Among my first questions were these:
How to write an opening sentence
How to write a hook
How to write an opening paragraph, a first chapter
Well, you get the idea—totally back to basics.
I wasn’t a novice, but years of writing nonfiction suck the soul out of writing fiction. I needed to relearn how to put the reader into the story for more than information. I needed them to feel the emotion of what they were reading. I searched for information on developing characters, plots, world-building, voice, structure, and grammar, among other topics.
Whether a beginning writer or one who believes in continuing education, the resources available to us are amazing. We can have information from the Internet in seconds that could take hours to find the conventional way open to us—libraries.
Libraries had librarians. Those individuals who spoke softly and always found the answers you sought. If you needed information on any subject, there would be stacks of books or periodicals in front of you, ready for exploration within a blink of an eye.
Today, while my love of libraries will never wane, my librarians are more often Internet search engines. The process is not as personal, but the information is instantaneous. It is also confusing.
There are basic steps to writing. While all of us like to be creative individuals, the art of storytelling is an ancient one and varies little from the beginning of the spoken and written word. Stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end. That pattern does not change. Our creativity is in how we construct our story.
With the Internet’s assistance, we can learn the basics and the nuances of storytelling by asking questions. For example, I typed in this search request. How to write an opening line for a novel.
The result? “About 373,000,000 results (0.67 seconds)” was the response from the search engine for all results.
For videos? The results were—“About 3,720,000 results (0.46 seconds).” That is a lot of videos for a very narrow topic.
I admit to a love-hate relationship with writers and videos. There is one author who I came across a few years ago whose advice I found to be excellent and delivered in a fun and irreverent manner. I followed this author and her advice for a long time, until recently. Her videos have become solely marketing tools for her books and merchandise. There is nothing wrong with promotion, and she has built her following and has every right to market her work to them or anyone.
However, when I am going to her for advice on a topic, having her book discussed before she addresses the subject is annoying, and she lost me as a follower. Not like there aren’t more writing advisors out there. Unfortunately, there are.
For example, one author is bright and cheery but distracted during her rushed delivery. Her camera fell during a taping and, instead of starting over, she frantically grabbed the camera, placed it where she had it, and kept talking. It was annoying and distracting, and she should have stopped and started over, but she did not. Another time, she yelled at her dog for barking. If you want me to respect you as an expert, conduct yourself like one. Her advice was nothing we haven’t heard before, so delivery and connection to the audience are imperative.
There is another famous video writing guru who has produced many YouTube videos. This is more of a personal quirk of mine, but please don’t talk down to the listener and don’t declare how proficient you are on a topic, prove it. In one video, she discussed outdated genres and tropes and noted that some genres are dead in traditional publishing but do well in self-publishing. As her focus and her professed expertise concern traditional publishing, her bias is there as well. If a genre is not selling one place but selling in another, it is not dead but subject to other markets and readers. As a writer, never forget, your success in traditional publishing is at the whim of agents, publishing house editors, and marketing staff. Your novel may be exceptional, but if it does not fit their cubbyholes, the odds of receiving a publishing contract are slim. When reaching out to find qualified advice, read the author’s bio and listen to their intent, as not all advice applies to your situation.
I am not saying that any of the abovementioned writers’ videos don’t have good advice. Advice is subjective and how we learn varies from one person to another. However, I want to offer a word of caution as many authors imparting their ‘knowledge’ do not provide sound advice.
To appear unique, people want to take the basics of writing and spin the ideas into a new way of thinking or processing the information. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but when two plus two equals four, there is little room for stating that fact any other way. Overembellishing a process often leads to confusion, especially for a novice writer.
There are hundreds of processes offered as the way to write the best novel ever. The list is endless. There are numerous character development or world-building forms, specialty writing programs, name or plot generators, and different ways to plot—all ways to accomplish the same goal we all have, to write a novel.
When researching the writing process, you should read all the information you can but be wary of who you are listening to when you take lessons away from your reading. The first Internet search results will be the most popular ones, and often you will see the same writing websites or blogs listed. Popularity does not always mean quality, but if writers use the same sites for advice, there is a reason. You should read all the articles, watch all the videos, take a writing class, and read books with one thought in mind. Take the information that you gather and apply it to your writing process to fit your style. You should be unique, not the person providing writing tips.
The US Navy came up with an acronym, KISS, which stands for Keep It Simple, Stupid. It applies to writers. Learn all that you can about your craft but remember the basics of writing. There is a beginning, a middle, and an end, and only you can write your story.
Audible Audiobook – Unabridged
Writers Unite! 