Lorna Faith

Clean Fiction Author

041 Writing Tips for Understanding Show, Don’t Tell with Janice Hardy

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To write unputdownable fiction, it’s important to understand how to craft your stories in a way that grabs readers attention. One of the ways to do that is to learn to understand Show, Don’t Tell.

In today’s interview, award winning Fantasy author Janice Hardy, shares her tips.  In the intro, I mention the breakthrough I had in my own writing, after an interview I had with Scott King. He offered to help me with my story deep and his insightful questions were super helpful.

I also talk about great books and resources that I’ve found helpful in the past couple of weeks, like Janice Hardy’s book Show Don’t Tell(And Really Getting It).  Also, I’ve been learning how to really show up and be more present and engaging everyday, thanks in part to reading Brendon Burchard’s book, The Motivation Manifesto. Please share what you’ve been learning in the comments below, it would be great to learn from each other 😉

Click Here to Watch the Video Interview

Janice Hardy is the Award winning author of The Healing Wars Trilogy, including The Shifter (which was a 2014 list of  Ten books All You Georgians Should Read, shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book prize and the Truman Award) and Blue Fire and Darkfall.

She’s also the founder of Fiction University, a website dedicated to help writers improve their craft. Janice’s popular Foundations of Fiction series include: Planning Your Novel; and Revising Your Novel and the First book in her Skill Builders series: Understanding Show Don’t Tell(And Really Getting it).

 

Highlights of the Interview:

  • Janice shares how she started writing Fantasy and Science Fiction, because it’s what she liked to read.
  • She started blogging about writing when her first book came out in 2009. As her audience started to ask more questions on writing and craft she began FictionUniveristy.com.
  • On Understanding Show Don’t Tell: You’re telling when you start explaining things, showing is all about dramatizing your story.
  • Why it’s important to change up the dialogue and include some small action the character is doing.
  • Janice talks about her Show Don’t Tell Writing Workshops where she invites people in the audience to give examples of: “She walked cautiously across the floor” or “He said angrily”. She says people give their interpretation of it, but she reminds her audience that you can’t act out motive. If you can physically at out what you’re trying to do, that’s showing.
  • But, sometimes telling is necessary and the most effective way to get across what you want to say.  She encourages authors to really be solid with your character POV  – that as the author you know how they think; how they judge the world around them; what they notice; why they notice what they notice; how they react to things -then you can put it in  your character’s words and her voice. This makes all the difference to a great story and draws the reader in.
  • A good rule of thumb to decide whether to show or tell that scene, is to ask yourself how important is this information to the story? The more important the information is to the story, the greater chance you should be showing it.
  • When in doubt, think of your reader. Readers come for the plot and stay for the characters. They want to see the characters experience things. Readers are compelled by these characters and something makes them want to see how this turns out for them. When you are telling a good story, readers lose themselves in your book.

 

You can find some common red flag words that will indicate you’re telling, in the back of Janice’s book. This is useful to use as you go through the editing stage especially 🙂

You can connect with Janice on her website or on Facebook or Twitter.

How to Not Quit and Other Lessons Learned from Walt Disney

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“Mickey Mouse popped out of my mind onto a drawing pad 20 years ago on a train ride from Manhattan to Hollywood at a time when the business fortunes of my brother Roy and myself were at their lowest ebb and disaster seemed right around the corner.” Walt Disney

Have you ever had so many obstacles thrown at you at once that you felt like giving up and calling it quits? I know I have.

Recently I read about Walt Disney’s life. I was inspired by his persistence to keep going. He didn’t have it easy. There were many hurdles to jump through and tight ropes that he walked in his life. I was amazed that through it all he didn’t give up on his dream. 

How Walt Disney Learned Persistence

How did Walt Disney learn to keep at it when the going got tough?

He learned persistence.

Here’s a couple of road blocks that stood in his way, as he tried to establish Disney Studios.

At 21 years of age, while working at an ad company he discovered the world of animation and began making Laugh-O-gram ad reels and animation shorts. Soon the Laugh-O-Grams Films went bankrupt and Disney at 21 years old moved to California with $40 in his pocket. In California he hoped to find work as a director, but instead got a contract for his own work and launched Disney Bros. Studios along with his brother Roy.  

A year later he was focussing on story development and directing and wasn’t working any longer as an animator. However, after several business setbacks Walt and his brother were on the verge of bankruptcy. It was in this stressful time that Walt had the idea for Mickey Mouse. He made a plan to show his seven minute Mickey Mouse Cartoon to several movie executives. His hope was that he could secure a contract and have his short films shown in movie theatres across the US.

One of the movie executives who watched the short film, didn’t laugh at the cartoon, instead he laughed at Disney’s dream. The movie executive told Walt why his dream would never work out. Kids are afraid of mice and moms don’t love them all that much either. No one is going to pay to watch a silly mouse. This will never work. With those words, the movie executive laughed at him and walked out of the theatre.

“When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable.” Walt Disney [Tweet this]

Walt Disney didn’t give up. He kept believing in his dream. He worked hard and soon had his three Mickey Mouse films completed. Those short films established Disney Bros. Studio as the leading animation studio in the country.

After he learned more about animation he took a great risk and pioneered his first feature-length film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Putting together this movie was tough. He had to direct the collaboration of more than 600 employees who drew, inked and painted the drawings. There was over 200 years (total) from employees – many of whom worked nights and weekends without extra pay. He managed to secure over $1 million dollars in funding. It took over three years of animation to complete the movie from start to finish.

Walt Disney persisted and believed that not only would people identify and connect with the animated characters, but that his hard work would pay off. When the movie was released on December 21, 1937, it was an amazing success. By May 1939, the movie Snow White, had become the highest-grossing film in American film, earning $6.7 million dollars.

Many times we give up just before there’s about to be a breakthrough. We decide to quit, just at the point when the water is rising high enough that it’s about to burst the dam.

Don’t give up on your dreams. Not when you’re so close to reaping the rewards of all your hard work.[Tweet this]

Be persistent. If you face financial setbacks or have someone whom you respect laugh at your dream, remember Walt Disney. And keep going.

Remember, not everyone will understand your dream. You need to believe in your dream even when others don’t. Having someone tell you that your dream sucks, is painful and for a few seconds you might feel like quitting.

Instead of letting doubt overwhelm you, focus on the people who are waiting for you to make your dream a reality. 

Find people who believe in you and your vision and surround yourself with them. That’s what Walt Disney did. He had people who worked for awhile without pay because they believed in his dream. 

Most importantly, believe in yourself.

Trust the gut feeling and the passion behind the desire you have to create this product, book, course or innovate or invent something new. That’s what you were made to do. It is the right thing. It might look impossible, but take another look. Dig deeper. There’s small steps you can take that will bring you closer every day to making your dream come true.

Don’t quit. Be true to yourself. Create from your heart. Do it in your own authentic voice and let it be about what you passionately believe in.

Have you had obstacles in the path to your dream where you’ve felt like quitting? I’d love to hear your story in the comments.

040 Tips for Successful Self-Publishing with Spy Thriller Author Ethan Jones

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I’m thrilled to have a super prolific and bestselling Spy Thriller Author on the show today. Ethan Jones is a really prolific and successful indie author and in this interview he shares his thoughts on writing fast and on a regular schedule, all while having a demanding 40 plus hour/week day job as a lawyer. He also shares what it takes to stand out in a crowded market.

In the intro, I share books I’ve been reading lately that have helped me be inspired and grow as a writer.

First is The Miracle Morning for Writers by Hal Elrod, Steve Scott with Honoree Corder.  This book has helped me start an early morning routine that has brought so much clarity back into my day. I’ve also been inspired by reading Christine Kane’s book, The Complete Guide to Vision Boards. I love working with poster boards and images so detailing out my own life treasure map(so to speak), has been fun. Lastly, I’ve been re-reading through Cal Newport’s book, Deep Work. This book has taught me how focussing on a single project(for a stretch of time without any distractions), helps you quickly learn hard things while also helping you produce at a high level. So my takeaway from this book, was to reschedule my time so that I batch when I do podcast interviews and blogposts and then write during other days. It’s a work in progress 😉

Listen to the Video Interview

Ethan Jones  is a Amazon bestselling author of over 15 novels. He started his publishing career with Amazon’s Kindle Select Program, but eventually took his books wide across all digital retail platforms. Now Ethan earns a four figure income every month from his self-published novels. You can check out his New Release – The Austrian Asset – here.

In this week’s interview, I chat with Ethan about how started and built his writing business to the success he enjoys today. He gives helpful tips for first-time writers on how indie authors can create a production schedule.

Highlights of the Interview:

  • Ethan shares how authors can create a spinoff series from their main series, much like what he created the spinoff Carrie Chronicles from his main Spy Thriller Justin Hall series.
  • Tips on how writers can pace themselves and learn to be wise about reaching their goals.
  • The benefits of using a different author name when you write in a slightly different genre than readers are used to reading from you. Also you’ll attract new readers to the new genre you write.
  • The importance of hitting all the usual conventions/tropes in your genre, to attract readers and keep readers coming back for more.
  • Ethan talks about his new release The Austrian Asset, and how he started the book idea by understanding how the story would end.
  • He says once he knows the starting point, as he keeps writing the characters become clearer. He uses beats and double checks that every ten to fifteen pages something really good happens that moves the plot forward in a big way.
  • On how how writers can create the discipline of a set time of day that you schedule for writing.
  • Ethan describes how he writes on the bus to work for 40 minutes one way and then on the way home again.
  • He recommends using the Pomodoro technique – which is 25 minutes of writing until the timer goes off, and then take a five minute break.

3 Action Steps for First-Time Writers…

1.Build your email list. The idea is that you let people know you have a book out. You don’t even have to have the book out before you let them know. Ask people if they’d be interested in knowing the progress of the book? Ask them if they know others who would be interested.

Get the word out about what you are doing. It’s never too early or too late to start creating an email list. Also on social media let people know what you’re doing, among other things you share. About 2x/week let readers know about your book you’re currently writing.

2.Discipline in writing. A book might seem like a terrifying thing to do. It isn’t written in one day. If you put in a couple hours a day, you can easily write 1000 words a day. So if you wrote 20 days a month you’d be able to have a book written in five or six months. That will get you started.

3.Write something you are passionate about. If possible try writing a series. In Ethan’s experience, it’s harder for readers to follow you if you only write standalone books. Readers like to follow the world you’ve created as well as old and new characters in that world.

Advice I wished I would have received when I first started writing, would have been to not let anyone set my limitations. Traditional wisdom says that it should take years to write a good book. But, it’s not how many years it takes to write a book, it’s about how many hours. So, if you could take two weeks off and write 8 hours a day, why couldn’t you finish your book in that time?  ~ Ethan Jones

 

If you want to find out more about the New Series Ethan is writing, click here to go to his Patreon page. Also, find out more about Ethan’s writing at his author website or chat with Ethan on Facebook or Twitter. 

 

Have you created the space and regular practice of writing you need to get your story into the world? Please, leave a comment… I’d love to hear your thoughts 😉

 

3 Steps to Start Tiny Habits that Help You Reach Your Goals

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When you start Tiny Habits in your writing life, it helps you reach your goals faster.

What are Tiny Habits? Dr. BJ Fogg – a Behavioral Scientist and originator of the term – says that a Tiny Habit is when you do something very, very small. Like floss one tooth, do two pushups or drink one sip of water. In his inspiring TEDx talk – Forget Big Change, Start With One Tiny Habit – BJ Fogg shares tips on how you can change your behavior for good.

Let me share with you what I’ve learned…

3 Steps to Start Tiny Habits…

I’ve needed to get out of what has seemed like a pattern of fear and procrastination. I felt like I was in Psychology 101 again, but this time I was Pavlov’s dog stuck in a repeating habit pattern.

Here’s what I’ve been learning and have come to realize about myself: Fear can be a habit. Left unchecked, fear can become a unconscious loop that goes round and round in our heads.

Many of our habits get triggered by things outside of us(smell, sounds, etc.). Each trigger in your brain results in a behavior and every behavior results in a reward. From a neuroscience perspective this is called a Habit Loop.

In other words, chances are very high that the fears holding you back from achieving your goals are possibly 10, 20 or even 30 years in the making. These fears have become a unconscious pattern that repeats itself over and over again.

Most of the time we have these fears and don’t know how to get out of it, which has definitely been my struggle. I had a elementary school teacher who told me that my writing was like chicken scratchings, and since he was the teacher I respected his opinion. I believed and accepted his words to be truth.

Since that time(many years ago), I’ve literally struggled and battled everyday to get words on the page. I’ve worked hard to push past resistance that showed up in the form of my inner critic. My negative habit loop has gone something like this: my writing isn’t good enough; nobody will read my books; maybe I should quit now, I’ll most likely fail anyway…. and much more.

I’ve had to consciously work toward getting out of this destructive habit loop.

Fear – whether conscious or unconscious – causes you to procrastinate and stops you from achieving your goals.

I didn’t want to continue to let procrastination or fear win, so in the last few months I’ve been learning more about how to get rid of both. 

I have taken steps to understand how to change my unhelpful habit loop. I’ve been choosing everyday to take work on Tiny Habits, and it’s been so encouraging. I hope it helps you too.

Here are 3 Steps to Start Tiny Habits that Help You Reach Your Goals:

1.Take a sheet of paper and write down One Fear you realize that has been holding you back from reaching your goals. Write down whatever the biggest fear is for you that you feel stops you from achieving your goals. For example: For this step I wrote down my #1 fear: I have a big fear that my writing won’t be good enough and that readers won’t want to read my romance novels. 

2.Write down One Tiny Action that you can take immediately – in the next 24 hours – that will move you AWAY from the fear you have and TOWARDS the goal you want to achieve. Think about a tiny step you could take that would move you in the direction of your goal.  Since my big fear has been that my writing won’t be good enough, it has caused me to procrastinate on writing my romance novels.

For example: My One Tiny Action that I’ve chosen to work on, is to write 250 words every single day – without judging my words, and writing those words wether I felt like writing or not. I’ve chosen to just do it.

Also, don’t forget to Celebrate your One Tiny Action 🙂

3.After you have done that One Tiny Action for 7 days, then ADD One More Tiny Habit to your daily goals. Just add something really small to the habit you’ve already started developing in your life. For example: When these 7 days are finished I will add another 250 words to the words I’m already writing everyday.

That’s all there is to it. Simple right?

Some Keys to Remember with Habits.

  • You can stack Tiny Habits on top of each other.
  • What puts most people in the fight, freeze or flight mode is when they think of the Big Goal and they think of all the things they have to do – and then feel overwhelmed. When we feel overwhelmed, our brain switches to fear of success, fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, fear of shame, etc.
  • What will happen as you build these Tiny Habits, is that you’ll start to become a person who feels the emotion of fear and then you take a little action anyway towards what you want to achieve.

Remember: Everyone feels fear. It’s normal. It’s how you handle it and what you do with that fear that matters. So take one small step anyway, when you feel fear.

You’ll be amazed and what happens as you take action on One Tiny Habit for 7 days. I hope you’ll be so inspired by your results, that you’ll want to repeat the process for another 7 days, and so on.

What’s One Tiny Habit you can begin in the next 24 hours that will move you toward your goals? Please comment, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

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