SquawkRadio Comments

Great post! I went to school in the day before “keyboarding class” and computers. In fact, I’m not even sure there were electric typewriters...yes, the dinosaur days. The only girls in my school who took typing were kind of scary...think a darker version of Grease, big teased hair, white lipstick and knife fights over most anything. So, right off the bat, I’m flunking your helpful list as I peck with approximately 4 odd fingers, none of them on or near home row. I’m still pretty fast however, at least fast enough for MY brain! Thank God for spell-check. Good advice though. I should have listened to my dad when he wanted me to learn how to type so I’d have “something to fall back on.”

Facinating! Love the typing part, it’s worth doing..I’m not sorry I took those &^%$ classes in H. School..and I’m not even a writer!
Wondering...do writers ever work on more than one book at a time? I am an artist, and always have several projects running at once..would that get too crazy for writers? I was thinking about series, in particular..Too many voices or plots etc..?
Love hearing about other’s processes..!

Susan,

So great to have your advice & input! Do you, like many other writers, pour out the first draft (as Nora Roberts says - vomit it out) and then go thru and start editing? I find myself, in the middle of my book, refining instead of finishing the dang thing. Do you start with basic action & dialogue then in layer emotion, details, etc. on the second pass thru?

I have the opposite problem.  I can type like the wind--well over 100 words a minute--but I don’t think it’s ever made me write faster because I still spend a lot of time staring blankly at the monitor. 

But I love the idea of having a pushy idea waiting for me when I’ve finished the current WIP!

I have three teenagers who are on the computer all the time but not one of them can really type/keyboard, whatever.

In today’s age of computers I think it should be mandatory for school age children to take a keyboarding class. 

I have a friend who recently separated from her husband and wanted to learn to keyboard so her business skills were well rounded for employment opportunities.  She took a typing program I had and practices everyday for about a month now and she is up to 32 wpm.  That may not sound like much but a month ago it wasn’t even 10wpm. 

I also believe it is like riding a bike, once you learn you will always know how.  You may not be as fast but practice routinely and your speed increases significantly.

As far as writing fast - what a wonderful idea.  Would you talk a little about the mistakes you make?  Do you mean typing or just getting ideas out but maybe not the way they will eventually appear?  To what extent do you plot prior to sitting down and speed typing?

Thank you for sharing your methodology and “secrets”.

In the early 70’s my fifth grade teacher told us that the best thing we could ever do would be to learn to type--little could she know how prophetic she was.  I did take a typing class in high school and every job I’ve had since has required that skill, and while my job is that of an administrative assistant, I know I don’t type anywhere close to 132 words per minute so I’m quite envious of your speed Susan.

Ashefrog, you might be interested to know that my niece in 3rd grade is required to learn keyboarding. 

I remember the first time I saw keyboarding as a high school class requirement for my son, I thought--Wow, that’s cool that the kids get to learn how to play the piano.  My son quickly pointed out how behind the times I was.

Wow Susan, very inspirational! I’m so impressed on your dedication and your passion as a writer!!

I’m not a writer but rather a reader but boy do I procrastinate *lol*

doomed, Susan, I’m doomed. I hunt and peck about 40 wpm at tops. But I like the ideas of pushy stories and short attentions spans b/c god knows I have that, and if I can’t get those to work for me I really like my new fall back position (excuse). I don’t type fast.

except I know Susan and I know the next thing that’s coming is, “Why don;t you set aside 20 minutes a day to learn keying?”

sigh

Greetings Miz Mallery!
You love to write. I love to read but abhor writing. Just don’t like to put the effort into organizing thoughts. So I have the very utmost admiration for authors

My piano teacher recently said to me when I was struggling, “
You know how *you* feel when you’re sitting at the piano?”
I said, “you mean like totally inept and confused?”
She said, “ That’s how I feel at the computer”
She’s probably in her 60’s and is attempting to join the 21st century, lol.

It’s never to late to learn, piano or computer keyboard

When I graduated from college with a B.A. in English, my only marketable skill was typing, thanks to a high school class and many, many papers.  So I’m a speedy (but not that accurate) typist, too, and I write very quickly.  I get hung up on trying to get each sentence the way I want it, instead of getting my thoughts on paper and going back and correcting.

I really like hearing about how everyone writes!  I’m looking forward to reading your books, Susan.  A trip to the bookstore to buy SIZZLING is on my list of things to do.

132 wpm?  Well, at least it gives me something to shoot for.

I am horrid with the keyboard. Can’t even type without looking at it, and then there are still mistakes at least every other word.

And does anyone else find that you make the same ones all the time?  Like ‘thinking’ always turns out looking like ‘thinkign’.  or ‘something’ is always ‘soemthign’.  And my personal favourite, ‘because’ which never shows up on the screen as anything but ‘becasue’, even though I swear I’ve typed the letters in proper sequential order.  I mean, it happens Every Single Time. It’s very disheratenting-- er, I mean disheartening. 

Ahem.

But I do like the idea of thinking ahead to the next project, because (yes, I just fixed that word) I get bored, too (which is probably yet another reason why I was rejected and was told my characters weren’t ‘popping’ off the page).

But my question for Susan is what about outlines?  Do you map things out in great detail and stick to your plan come hell-or-high-water?  I know I would probably get so much more done that way, and much more efficiently too, but I am petrified that the disadvantage with the Detailed Outline is I will get bored with knowing the whole story ahead of time, and that boredom will ultimately show in the finished product.

I just don’t want any more of my characters to die needlessly… of boredom.

Teresa - what a delight to know that even sucessful authors stare at their screens waiting for the right words or phrasing to pop out of the inner recesses of their minds. (We’re just sorting thru the myriad of great word combinations we have and just can’t make up our minds....yeah, that’s the ticket!)

About type typing thing...if you’re not good and want to be, I swear a good typing program will really help. That’s how I got so fast. I loved all the little games. Plus, what a cool way to waste, um, spend time. Also, I have an ergonomic keyboard and that increased my speed about 20%. It’s the one with the raised center. It took me about 3 days to get used to it, but there’s so much less movement for your fingers that you get faster quickly.

My mistakes in the manuscript are usually typing mistakes. I do mess up story stuff, too, but I am the typo queen. That’s a whole different blog!

As to the process...I’m a big believer in pre-writing. It works for me and I’m lost without it. I do a synposis first, which is what I sell on. Then I spend a couple of days figuring out who on earth these people are and why I thought they were interesting. Then I start on my story outline.

I literally go scene by scene, chapter by chapter through the whole book. First I break it down into chunks, figuring out what scenes I know about go where. Then I fill in. By the time I’d done, I have basically a really, really short draft. For a single title book, I’ll have about 30-45 single spaced pages of plotting. There is everything from scene location to point of view to bits of dialogue. That takes me about a week to do.

Then I start to write. For those of you who are authors, can you think of a day when the writing just clicked because you knew everything that was going to happen? It was just a matter of getting it down on the page? I make sure that all my writing days are like that with my detailed plotting. The worst thing in the world for me is writing when I don’t know what’s going to happen. I just sit there and sit there and sit there.

However, there are writers who can’t know what’s going to happen because if they do, they don’t want to write the book. It’s over for them. So we have to pay attention to what works for us.

As for working on more than one project...I can’t. If I get a copy edit or line edit, I may have to stop and deal with that book, but I don’t ever go from story to story in my writing. There are too many people floating around.

Typing was the only class my mom made me take in high school.  I knew I was going to be a nurse; why did I need to take typing?  But she insisted.  Thank God. 

I have no idea how many WPM I type, but I’m fairly fast.  I type a LOT in my job now, besides things like this blog and messageboards and the like.  It’s one of the best moves I ever made. 

Thanks, Mom.

I keep telling Connie it’s never too late to learn how to type, especially with all of the fun software they have now.  Maybe she’ll believe YOU, Susan!

Isn’t Susan amazing? I would never do the outlining like she does, I hate it, but she has showed me the value of a comprehensive synopsis used well. Being around her is like being behind a jet—you can either get sucked into the engine or you can use her to cut the resistance and fly.

chickie said...” ‘thinking’ always turns out looking like ‘thinkign’.  or ‘something’ is always ‘soemthign’.  And my personal favourite, ‘because’ which never shows up on the screen as anything but ‘becasue’, even though I swear I’ve typed the letters in proper sequential order.”

All right, I don’t type 132 wpm, but I still make gobs of mistakes and I know the answer to this one. If you use a word processing program, and I assume you do, use autocorrect (or your program’s equivalent). If you always misspell a word—for instance, I always misspell “Chrisitna”—I go to the drop down menu, get autocorrect, and fill it in with the word spelled wrong, then the word spelled correctly. I have a LOT of words in there. I spell it “fo” a lot, so the program changes it to “of.” “Ot” becomes “to.” Etc. I figure out which words I always misspell and put them in there. There’s a lot less time spent on spellcheck.

I also use autocorrect for character’s names. For instance, my current heroine’s name is “Tasya,” so I type “ta” and the program fills it in. Her last name is “Hunnicutt” so I type “h” and keep going. A note here: I can’t use “t” for “Tasya” because the program reads it when I use contractions and fills it in. As in, if I type “can’t” it promptly becomes “can’Tasya.” My last heroine’s name was Ann, so I typed it out, but without the capital “ann” and the program fixed it for me. I’m all about cutting out steps, making the work of writing go quickly so I can create.

Auto-correct is a miracle. Christina turned me on to that! I had a heroine named Francesca, which I could never spell. Auto correct saved me!

Connie, you need to learn to type. Seriously, it will change your world!!

I had a terrible time with “Portia” in THE VAMPIRE WHO LOVED ME.  I invariably typed it as “Porita”.

132 words per minute - WOW! That’s amazing!

Thank you so much for the insight. Oh, BTW, your comment that ‘After about six weeks, I get squirmy. After eight, I want everyone dead.’

That would be the funniest thing to read - an author getting mad with her characters and killing them off in weird ways to finish the story....I’ve just realised I have a rather scary mind.

orannia

PS I’m on the hunt for the remainder of the Marcelli series and also the books about Jordan’s brothers. Also, does it matter if read Sizzling first or should I start at the beginning of that series? Many thanks

Orannia--Sizzling will stand on its own, so feel free to read it first. FWIW, Delicious and Irresistible are still available, so you can order them fairly easily.

The Haynes brothers aka Hometown Heartbreakers will be more of a challenge. Those books are over 10 years old and loooong out of print. I would suggest starting with a good used bookstore in your area. You’ll probably have more luck there than online. I’ve seen some of the Hometown Heartbreakers going for ridiculous amounts.

Orannia--

There was a Will Ferrell/Emma Thompson movie with that premise I’m just dying to see—STRANGER THAN FICTION.  I missed it in theaters, so I’m waiting for the DVD.

There’s also a phenomenal sci-fi mystery called BIMBOS OF THE DEATH SUN by Sharyn McCrumb.  It’s from about 20 years ago and may be out of print, but it’s a hoot.  One major plot point involves the author of a 20+ book fantasy series and the depth of hatred he has for the character (and fans) who made him famous.

Hi, Susan—thank you so much for the writing tips, and the blogs!

Mike

I’m not a writer but I found this very interesting.

I constantly misspell Mayne. My fingers automatically go to maybe. *sigh*

Thank you very much Susan! I think I saw Sizzling in the book store, so I will race down there on the weekend with my precious book tokens! (OK, I’m counting my chickens [tokens] before they’re hatched, but only by 2 days.)

As for Hometown Heartbreakers, well, I like a challenge And if Holly and Mistletoe is anything to go by they will be more than worth it! Living in New Zealand means that quite a few book take a while to wemble (OK swim) this way so I’m used to going hunting...(FYI I’m STILL waiting for PFP BTW Eloisa, but I’m steering clear of any spoilers). http://www.bookfinder.com here I come!

Thank you so much for posting and all the best with your next 100 books!

orannia

Ohhh, and Mike - thank you! I don’t think that movie has got here yet, but it sounds good!

orannia

Ok, first off, let me say it does my heart immeasurable good to know that all of you PG’s out there (that’s ‘Published Goddesses’... yup, still sucking up for that unpubbed gig) make, as Chrisitna, er-- Christina put it, ‘gobs’ of mistakes. Oh, wait. Is that bad? That sounds bad.  I probably shouldn’t admit that publicly, but really, I don’t mean it in a negative way. (Well ok, I kinda do, but that’s just me being my nasty, petty self.) It’s just… the thought of Teresa Medeiros Herself having to correct poor ‘Porita’ every day really just begs the question in my own mind:  Is there hope for me yet?

But, a-ha! It would seem there is, in the form of ‘autocorrect.’ Thank you so much Christina! Who knew such a lovely little contraption lived inside my very own computer? I will no doubt have a list of words longer than my own arm (& written arial, negative -4) to enter into my equivalent program, but I am definitely going to try it.  And lemme tell ya, ‘becasue’ (insert diabolical laugh here) will be my first vicitm… uhm, yeah. Immediately followed by ‘victim’.  Sigh. I might as well just open the OED at the a’s & go from there.

And I did want to say thanks so much to Susan for so graciously sharing her outlining process. I’ve never done a really detailed scene-by-scene outline before (and I have to admit the thought kinda terrifies me), but I am definitely going to break everything down and map it all out before I begin this time. As an aside, I should mention that I actually just bought, on the recommendation of a friend, a book that shows step-by-step how to create a first ‘draft’ (really, it’s a detailed outline) in 30 days. I just know I need something to keep me focussed and on track!

Thanks so much again to one and all for answering all of my questions and for being so gracious in sharing your tips & tricks and processes with all of us. This is the number one reason I’m hooked on Squawk~!

Yes, we writers sometimes do work on more than one project at a time.  Like Susan says, I have the attention span of a gnat.  I’ve been trying to be more disciplined and finish one book before I start another, but it isn’t always so easy.  My characters are even more impatient than I am!

And 100 books, oh wow.  That’s my long-term career goal.  My tally of 11 feels so tiny in comparison.