Anna Bendewald
Hudson-Ivy Press

  How To Write a Book: Do You Edit While Writing? Wow! This is a question fraught with danger. Trying to edit while writing can keep you from ever getting much on the page. There are two people at work while creating a book. The first should be the artist. The critic has to come much later after the artist has had all the time they need to create.   Think of each chapter as a sculpture garden. First put all your words down to build the size and very rough shape of your sculpture. Leave it alone and start building the next one so it will be harmonious to the last one in size and rough shape. Move on to the next.  After about four chapters are roughly drafted, you can go back and read with fresh eyes. At this stage I make some changes but don’t try to refine. Move on and create the next few draft chapters. You want the words to flow through you [see How Do I Write for how the Muse works insert link] 

  Let's back up to one of the first questions people ask immediately after divulging they'd like to learn how to write a book: "Where is the ideal space to write?" An excellent and fundamental question. Their second question is: "Where do you write?" My answer is that I don't write in a specific place, but in order to write, my environment must be free of distractions and limit people's ability to interrupt me. I write my books on a laptop and can park myself on a sofa, propped up on a bed, in a coffee house, airport, on a plane or train, even in a parked car while my family is on a hike. The only critical aspect is that I must have an expectation of privacy to enter my character's world and let their experience flow through my fingers and onto the proverbial page. "How do you write productively in an airport or on a train?" they often ask as if I've scandalized them. "Noise-canceling headphones," is my reply. It's tr...

How To Write a Book: What's your POV? I recently read a book written in first person that made me unsettled. A bit like a baby must feel when strapped to someone's chest facing forward. No. Really. Like I was dangling out there as the action was happening. The immediacy had me slightly unnerved throughout the read and it wasn't until afterward that I put my finger on the fact that it was a memoir of someone to whom bad things happened and I felt as if they were happening to me. There are 4 types of POV in writing 3rd Person Omniscient: Little did she know she'd become the queen in twelve short months. Popular for children who need this kind of foretelling to keep their attention. 3rd Person Limited: She felt awkward with the crown perched on her head. This most popular point of view has someone telling us the story pretty much as it happens. 2nd Person: You are the master of your domain and self-care can be a priority. With you as the focus, I think of this as most ef...

  How to Write a Book: Avoid the Improbable Now, by improbable I don't mean you can't write fantasy or surprise. No, I'm urging you to avoid your character "racing" everywhere when you mean getting from one place to another with purpose. Or considering something "for a minute". Do you know how long it would feel for someone to leave you in silence for an entire minute? How about this passage from a famous writer:  He selected a fine cigar and after lighting it, he tossed the humidor at the doctor. "Cigar?" First, selecting and lighting a fine cigar takes a number of steps involving snipping the end, and touching flame to the other end and puffing I think. Was he holding the humidor that entire time which means he did that all with one hand? What was the doctor doing while this was happening? And humidors aren't wiffleballs. I don't think you toss a humidor containing fine cigars at someone. The passage doesn't say he warned the doc...