Dawn Brookes

Author

writing

Crime Writers’ Daily Writing Habits

Crime Writers’ Writing Habits

I thought it would be fun to select a few crime writers and discuss their writing – or not – habits! Much emphasis is placed on ritual and routine when it comes to art, but as these few examples show, every writer is different.

Ian Fleming (1908-1964)

Ian Fleming described himself as a writer rather than an author and writing in an article on the topic or writing he suggested that writing 2,000 words per day, five days a week for six weeks enabled him to produce his first draft for his Bond novels.

The novels he produced were around 60,000 words which is acceptable in series writing even to this day.

Agatha Christie (1890-1976)

Agatha Christie didn’t have a special room to write in and carried notebooks around and jotted down plots, labelling her notebooks. She wrote longhand and then typed it up later. In later life she dictated her books. She never had a daily routine of writing and would nip off to write when the opportunity presented itself it.

Strangely, it appears that Agatha Christie was the only one of these four to admit to having difficulties writing with the process causing her much stress at times. And yet it is Christie’s works that are among the world’s top bestsellers with her estate claiming she is third only to Shakespeare and The Bible. Her books are still enjoyed today with Miss Marple and Poirot being crime mystery staples. I remember seeing The Mousetrap on stage in London, the longest running play in London still enjoyed by so many readers today.

Dorothy L Sayers (1893-1957)

Dorothy L Sayers wrote at night as she worked full time for a London advertising agency.

I couldn’t find  anything written about her habits but would assume that as one of the first female graduates of Oxford she was methodical.

Sayers moved away from crime writing after WWII, her last being published before the war’s outbreak. She later concentrated on writing Christian drama for which she was well regarded.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930)

Arthur Conan Doyle, one of the earliest writers to use an agent claimed not to have much of a routine once money wasn’t an object.

In an article, he explained he would spend a whole day on a work if he was engrossed but less time if he wasn’t. He seemed to intimate spending less time writing his short stories (Sherlock Holmes novels seemed to be short stories to him), and was also less concerned with their accuracy as they were a product of what he termed, fantasy.

Conclusion

It seems from just these four examples that routine isn’t everything and yet so many writers today swear by it.

I personally set myself a goal of 2,000 words when writing but don’t write every day. I’m perhaps more akin to Ian Fleming at this point in my career although I will be much more like Arthur Conan Doyle as I develop I think. It pays to remember there is no such thing as one size fits all.

If you would like to read more about writer/artist rituals, the two books listed here might be worth a read. Daily Rituals: how artists work seems to be out of print but is available as an audiobook.

Dawn Brookes is author of the Rachel Prince Mystery series of cozy mysteries and the Hurry up Nurse series of memoirs.

Spring & Seasonal Reading

Spring is Here!

Spring is probably my favourite season. As that first flower emerges, new life starts to appear after the winter when everything that lay dormant comes to life again! I always feel invigorated at this time of year, and renewed energy helps me focus on new ideas. I like to write ideas down as they come to me and have a notebook for this purpose.

Seasonal Stories

Some authors write seasonal books, not only to generate sales all year round, but also to capture the feeling of the season or month they are in.

Dawn Brookes

My plots continue all year round and are not intended to be seasonal. That said – quite by chance, I have written a couple of children’s books inspired by the seasons. Ava & Oliver’s Bonfire Night Adventure obviously centres around November 5th. I wrote that one as I’m not a fan of Halloween, and the traditional bonfire night appears to be waning. Ava & Oliver’s Christmas Nativity Adventure focusses on preparations for a church nativity play using real animals, I love that book! My favourite, because its based in my favourite season, is Danny the Caterpillar. Seasonal books for children not only sell books, they help children learn about nature and the traditions that we all cherish as part of our culture, and that’s why I think they’re important and there remains a place for them.

Spring Cruise for Rachel Prince!

My Rachel Prince mystery series is based on a cruise ship, and despite Rachel being able to travel the world through all the seasons, they are obviously holiday focussed. That doesn’t mean they can only be read on holiday, though. The latest book, Killer Cruise follows Rachel on a spring cruise – get the gist! It’s not my intention to make the books seasonal, but to some extent they will be set in different seasons. I will be writing a Christmas centred plot for later this year, that will be Book 5 in the series. Other than that, they are all year round reads – who wouldn’t want to escape on a cruise on dark winter nights?

What Next?

Bluetit

Nature will always inspire me, and as I have a bird camera box in my garden where a bluetit has just finished building her nest, I can’t help but think that I will have to write a story for children about bluetits! This is one idea I jot down in my future notebook as I’m currently working hard on the Rachel Prince Mystery series and starting a new Private Investigator series. I’m also trying to finish the third in my Hurry up Nurse series that readers have been patiently waiting for, and which is long overdue!

As you can see, like so many others, I’m busy being productive all year round, but it’s good to take a step back, breathe in fresh air and pause for a moment to appreciate the wonders that go on around us every day.

If you are interested in reading books relevant to the seasons, then Killer Cruise is available on preorder and will be released on 9thApril. Danny the Caterpillar is available on Amazon and can be ordered through bookstores. If you’re not a seasonal reader, grab any one of my books at anytime. I like to read historical fiction and this can be read at any time of year!

Writing a Book Outline

Writing a Great Book Outline and Writing to Target

I have recently finished my debut novel so don’t consider myself an expert on this but I was greatly helped by using a system for writing the book. This system kept me to time and was just what I needed. The system I used I have adapted from one I learned from a course on Udemy called Reverse Engineer Riveting Fiction

The first thing I need to say is that I did veer off but not hugely and you will see what I mean when I explain it.

Storyline

Obviously before you can develop a plan there needs to be a story in your head. My story evolved but I had the basics of the plot before I started writing.

I had a main character (initially it was 2), sub-characters important to the plot, a scene (set on a cruise ship), a theme – murder mystery (initially thriller but turned out to be cosy as I don’t do graphic), a beginning, a middle and an end (I had two in mind).

Word Count

The next thing was to decide on a rough word count. There is some debate over words needed but in general they are as follows:

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Word Counts are not written in stone

Depending on what you read there are different opinions on how long a book should be so I have gathered a few together but they are just guides. Publishers will have minimum and maximum word counts for different books and generally frown on shorter novels and those that are too long.

  • Novel 40,000 words or over (generally 60,000 for mystery, 90,000+ for non-series novel). Some authors and publishers recommend 50,000+ with a maximum of 120,000 but Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix is over 250,000 words!
  • Young Adult 40,000 to 80,000 words
  • Biography & general non-fiction 50,000 to 120,000 words
  • Memoir & self-help 40,000 to 90,000 words
  • Novella 17,500 to 39,999
  • Novellette 7,500 to 17,499
  • Chapter books for children start at 16,000
  • Short story under 7,500
  • Flash fiction 500 to 1,000 words
  • Children’s picture books 400 to 800 words (some of mine are 1,200)

Splitting the Story

Splitting the word count to write the book

In my case I opted for 56,000 words (it has ended up being nearer the 60,000). As this was my first novel and I wanted to keep to time, I decided to aim for the same number of words per chapter using a table system.

The book had to have a beginning, a middle and an end and I wanted tension to build until the climax so this had to be factored in.

The grid or table includes the number of chapters split into one quarter for the beginning, one half for the middle and one quarter for the end. These quarters are then divided into 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and so on, depending on how long the book will be and how many chapters you want to include.

So for example for a 60,000 word book using a 6 grid system 6 x 4 or 24 chapters.

60,000/24 = 2,500 words per chapter (guide only, can be flexible)

There would need to be 6 chapters in section 1, 12 in section 2 and 6 in section 3

In this example there will need to be at least 24 chapters of 2,500 words each split into sections.

I outlined each of the chapters with points that would be included in each, building on the story and adding tension as the story developed. By the halfway stage the tension was building and by three quarters it was higher with no resolution in sight. The final quarter then built on that tension but arrived at resolution.

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Writing in this way kept me to time 

I used 56,000 with the 5 grid system 5 x 4 or 20 chapters 

56,000/20 = 2,800 words per chapter. 

Writing the outline for each of those chapters helped me meet the target of writing the 2,800 per day. I didn’t stick to 20 chapters and have ended up with over 30 but that didn’t matter. The system helped me write the required number of words per day because I knew what I wanted to include in each of those grids.

Writing at a slower pace or writing more words

If you want to write at a slower pace you can write half the amount per day e.g. 1,400

If you want to write a much higher word count you will want to choose a higher number of grids resulting in more chapters. For example:

9 grid system 9 x 4 = 36

100,000/36 = 2,778 (give or take) words per day or half if you want to write slower

Conclusion

This is a system that has helped me and I hope that it helps you. If you want to learn more about this system check out Reverse Engineer Riveting Fiction by Geoff Shaw where he explains it much better and outlines plot building within the system.

7 Habits authors should develop in order to become better writers

Posted on 15th May 2017 inIndie authors, Writing for authors

7 Habits Authors Need to Develop in order to become better writers

Introduction

Successful authors are like successful people in all areas of life, they do things in common that contribute very much to their success. So how can we learn from such authors in order to help with our own success? This article will suggest 7 habits authors need to develop in order to become better writers.

We can start by developing good habits. This article outlines 7 good habits that potential authors may find helps them break through writing barriers.

Habit 1: Write about something that brings out your passion

Whether writing fiction or non-fiction, it is important to write about something you are passionate about. Most successful authors have an emotional connection to their content or story. If you write fiction, it might be worth writing from a place of emotional familiarity. A genuine experience will come through in the writing that helps readers to connect with the story. If you are writing in the non-fiction genre, it is important to choose a topic you are passionate or enthusiastic about. A subject that you are knowledgeable about obviously helps and thorough research is required. Authors devote a lot of time to their writing, therefore you should include passion, sentiment and enthusiasm.

Habit 2: Step outside of your comfort zone

You can afford to experiment when you write. This is particularly true of fiction; you can develop characters that are blown up out of all proportion if you want to. The characters can go way beyond what you would do in real life and they can take risks. Your characters can make decisions that we would not have the courage to make in our own lives. After all, it’s not about what we would do, it’s about allowing our imagination to develop a character that enables our readers to take notice.

When writing non-fiction, it may be that for you, it’s time to speak out. Take a view and stand by it, presenting the case with confidence. It doesn’t matter if the view is controversial, in fact you may attract more readers by being controversial. People tend to listen to someone who is clear in their views. You can be brave in your writing and don’t be afraid of criticism.

Habit 3: Plan & Outline

Developing a plan is probably the most important part of writing a book. Planning is essential part of success. You will find it much easier to finish a book if you take the time to plan the story.  at The more planning you do, the more enjoyable and structured the writing procedure will be.

Whether you are self publishing or traditionally publishing, treat your plan as if you were having to write it for a publisher. Include chapter outlines and a brief synopsis of what each chapter will contain. If you are writing fiction include details about the protagonist and what their hopes and dreams are. There will also be an antagonist who seeks to stop the hero/s from achieving their dream.

Habit 4: Write every day (or most days)

There will be times when you are not in the mood, but if you treat writing like any other job you must commit yourself to writing. By all means take a break, sometimes you may want to use your phone or an audio-device to make a change. Many successful authors write every day, including Christmas Day, although this might be a bit extreme, even authors deserve holidays. However you achieve this, it is important that writers write because that is what they do.

Habit 5: Work at it

Being a successful author involves hard work, there are deadlines to meet, promotional commitments and other marketing activities. Some authors are prolific writers and publish many books in a year, others produce one or two but either way it is hard work. An author has to work hard to get noticed among the thousands upon thousands of others out there. Once your name is established it is a bit easier because you have a following but you will still need to work hard to produce more books. No matter what way you look at it, if you dislike hard work, you will not be a successful author.

Habit 6: Perseverance

Almost every successful author has found that their success is due to perseverance and determination. It is not unusual if going down the traditional publishing route to have agents reject work and if this is the case, unless it needs a rewrite, submit it again to someone else. It is a well known fact that J.K Rowling was turned down by numerous publishers before the first Harry Potter novel was picked up by Bloomsbury. There is rarely overnight success in writing but if it happens to you, enjoy the ride. Authors that succeed are those who keep knocking on doors until they do. It’s not easy but don’t ever give up unless your own mother tells you she wouldn’t buy your book! Those who have never failed have never tried.

Habit 7: Keep Writing

When you have finally written your book and have either submitted it for publication, or self published it, move on to the next one. If you’ve done the best you can with your work and it is the best it can be you need to trust that it will draw the readers you hoped for. Regardless of whether your work has been accepted or rejected, keep writing. Once you finish one manuscript, have a short break if you need to and then start on another. If the one you’ve sent is picked up, the agent will be happy that you’ve got something else in the pipeline, and if not you’re well on your way to finishing your next manuscript. If you self publish, once your work has been proofread, edited and published you will follow the same principle of moving on with the next project. You will have the additional burden of marketing which is why some self published authors don’t publish until they have a series ready to market and then they drip feed those books onto the market.

Conclusion

In this post I have discussed 7 habits that authors should develop in order to become better writers. These seven habits will help any would be author to develop good writing habits. This article hasn’t really discussed the marketing aspect of writing a book because that is another subject that every author needs to be aware of whether they are going to be traditionally published or self published. The writing habits discussed in this article are aimed at encouraging writers to develop sustainable practices. Anyone can and probably should write one book but being a writer requires a bit more perseverance, good habits and perhaps a bit of luck.

Dawn Brookes is the author of Hurry up Nurse:  Memoirs of nurse training in the 1970s and Hurry up Nurse 2: London calling, as well as Children’s books and property investment books. For more information about Dawn Brookes visit the website.

KDP Platform

How to Publish on Amazon’s KDP Platform

Are you publishing your own ebooks on Amazon’s Kindle platform?

If so, then I am sure you are excited about the simplicity of publishing a book in this way but that is only the beginning. The ebook market is huge and is only getting bigger. In some ways these days, it is a little harder to break through int this rapidly growing market, but at the same time, there are all kinds of tools and resources available to you. The industry has changed but we need to remember that we are now building the world’s online library.You wouldn’t be alone if you do not fully understand what is going on. It is kind of obvious with digital books being published that we have a digital library building up. How to Publish on Amazon’s KDP platformis a simple yet complex process. To put this in perspective, the process is quite easy but there are quite a few things to be taken into account. In the coming years, there will be fewer printed books and more and more digital books so not publishing on the platform could be writer suicide. 

eBook Growth

The above should tell you as an aspiring author that you are taking part in the beginning of something, and so, whilst it comes with some caveats, growth in the eBook market represents a bigger opportunity than most people think. I am not one of those people who thinks that print books are dead because for many of us die hard reading fans, we still like the look, feel and smell of physical books. If you look around though at how the next generation are reading you will se that it is usually via a screen or with earphones (audio-books is a new growth area I believe).

How to Publish on Amazon’s KDP Platform

Account Set up

Like with everything in life it is easy to publish an ebook once you know how. You first need an Amazon Kindle Self Publishing account before you can start uploading your first title. The account can be opened using your current Amazon buyer’s email and password and takes a few minutes to set up. The longest bit of the account set-up is completing the online tax form but the instructions are clear enough, even for someone like me. 

Files (formatting & conversion)

Once the account is set up, it is not quite as simple as uploading your book as a file, because you do need to ensure that the ebook is adequately formatted or it can look terrible on the screen. If you look at what most other authors do, you will realise that the formatting is not that difficult once you have learned the skill. I don’t have the time here to go through formatting in detail but may do so in the future as I format my own. If you don’t want to do it yourself then you can outsource the task through an outsourcing platform such as Fiverr. For Amazon the file (once formatted) needs to be converted Mobi format and for other platforms it needs to be in ePub. There is freesoftware that will do the conversion for you from a word document. Once you have converted the file to Mobi you need to save it to your computer and it can then be uploaded to the KDP platform through your account. 

Tables & Photos

Tables do not convert well to eBook and so they have to be saved as JPEG images and then re-inserted into the word document before converting the file.If you include images in your book, make sure that you reduce the size before publishing or you will lose out on royalties due to the costs of the download. 72 dpi is adequate for eBooks but not for print books which need to be minimum of 300 dpi, so you will need different image files for both if going to print. All of this is best done in photoshop and you can buy photoshop elements for reasonable costs if it is something you will be doing a lot of.As a general rule of thumb, don’t use the handles in word to resize images.

Don’t skip editing & proofreading

You will also need to ensure that your book is professionally proofread and has a professional cover design. These are all things worth paying for and most of these services can be outsourced. I made a big mistake with my first book and had loads printed, thinking the book was good to go. I immediately noticed grammatical errors and then paid for a proof reader who was worth every penny I spent. I had to discard more books than I care to remember! Don’t make the same mistake. 

Book description

The one thing that people read in detail is the book description and I have learned many lessons over the past year about writing a good sales copy. The description needs to be captivating and it needs to stand out. The problem with the KDP platform is that if you just enter the text straight into the description box it looks quite boring and doesn’t stand out. Spaces and headers are not taken into account unless you use HTML which is allowed. I have learned some basic HTML for writing better book descriptions and a sheet is available here. 

Keywords

The most important part of the process when uploading a book is choosing the right keywords. Keywords are everything in terms of getting the book to show up on the right page and to improve your ranking. You will need to research keywords for your book that are high traffic generating but low competition which is not always easy. There is not enough time to go into this here but I will produce an article or video in the near future. 

Publish

Once you get your book and cover uploaded, it is time to hit publish and start the marketing. Many people say you should get your family and friends to buy as many books as possible so that the market pays attention. However, do not focus on this too much as it can actually skew your books ranking. For instance, if your friends and family do not normally buy in that genre then the books that come up in the ‘also read’ or ‘also bought’ sections of Amazon will list books that are totally different to yours and yours will be listed alongside these which makes it hard for Amazon to categorise it properly. You do need as many reviews as possible though so you will need to weigh up the pros & cons.

Marketing

What you need to do is market your book in a variety of ways. Promotion on social media is a must. Do you have your accounts grown yet? If not, it’s okay because you can grow them at the same time you are publishing. Make sure that you have an Amazon author page set up and a separate Facebook page for your writing. You need to set up separate author pages on UK and USA Amazon. You also might want to pay attention to Amazon Marketing Services. They let you run two different types of ads:

  • Sponsored Product
  • Product Display

They are cost per click ads. You set up your own ad and once it is setup it is submitted it for approval. It will then show up on your ad campaign dashboard as part of your KDP account, which is below your sales dashboard. You can see how many impressions your ads get and how many clicks. Currently this is mainly for the US market although there is a UK platform but this is not linked to KDP at present and therefore you can only promote paperbacks limiting the ads to Headline Search and Product Display ads which most people say are not as effective as Sponsored Product ads.You do only pay for the clicks, and you set beforehand how much you pay per click and how much you wish to spend each day. The dashboard also shows you your sales based on clicks. There are also free book promotions and a ton of advertising sites you can use after launching your book.

Conclusion

Are you ready to start your publishing career? If you are, then you need to start getting that book ready. This article on how to publish on Amazon’s KDP platformshould help you get started. As you do, plan out all of your first steps for advertising at the same time so that you are ready to make the right moves. Dawn Brookes is author of:Hurry up NurseHurry up Nurse 2Buy to let: 7 steps to successful investingProperty Investment: how to fund your retirement with a buy to let property pension.