Somers, J. (2018) Writing without rules: How to write & sell a novel without guidelines, experts, or (occasionally) pants. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer's Digest Books.
Write and read all the time. It doesn't matter what you read - it works/stretches the muscle that creativity requires.
"Cluelessness isn't laziness"
"Research is a grey area - necessary, but only to a point"
"Feedback loop can become self sustaining" - feedback isn't always what a creative journey needs (to an extent). You can end up tailoring your manuscript to a few narrow tastes. It dilutes your voice.
Pg 24. Somers describes his process as heuristic. Some things don't work, others do.. The only way to find out is by DOING it.
Pg 50.
Pantsing: Writing/making it up as you go along.
Plotting: Outlining events before you start to write.
Pg 77.
"Characters are a collection of traits and actions"
It's good to have some traits/actions that distinguish your characters in some way, but too many make them less plausible. Many great characters come from observing the people around us - it makes them more authentic and gives us some solid groundwork to build on.
- Each character in a story needs a PURPOSE or a PROBLEM to solve
- Be careful of overpopulation. Guests in stories can "stink after about thirty pages"
Pg 174. Self publishing is hard and requires a lot of extra work. You have more control in general.
Usually you cannot self publish a novel and then sell it traditionally later. COMMIT to one strategy.
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