3 Ways Smart Writers Easily Manage Multiple Projects

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3 Ways Smart Writers Easily Manage Multiple Projects

Whether I like it or not, it feels like I always have multiple projects vying for my attention.

Sometimes I want to play by the rules for events like NaNoWriMo—to participate, I need a fresh story idea and a blank page on the first day of the month. Other times, inspiration simply strikes at an inopportune time.

Most of the time, I can handle keeping the story or characters that come to mind in the notes section of my phone, leaving them on the back burner until they become relevant. There are some cases, however, where I can’t—maybe there’s a deadline involved, maybe the story is simply begging to be told. Either way, I must sit down and write, regardless of my current projects. Since I’m a writer, a blogger, and a full-time student, that’s pretty frequent.

When this happens, it’s easy to lose track of the details. I don’t want to cross-contaminate projects, and I also don’t want to take on too many projects at once. If I progress too slowly, I know I might become discouraged. That’s why, whether I’m plotting or not, it’s important to stay organized as a writer.

There are three key things I’ve picked up so far that have helped me juggle multiple projects effectively. Whether you’re writing a book during NaNoWriMo, rounding out a paper or three, or just keeping them in mind for later, hopefully, these key tips will help you, too.

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How to Use “Thou” Correctly Every Time

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How to Use "Thou" Correctly Every Time

Many genres, especially fantasy, make use of anachronistic language—enough so that it’s worth taking a closer look at words like thou and thee.

Anachronistic language is, simply put, a style of speech that belongs to an era other than the one in which the book is written. While it can add a new dimension to your dialogue, use it with caution—it’s easy to abuse language we don’t see often (in prose, anyway).

Knowing how this speech was used when it was extant helps us apply it to our own writing. We can then go in and spice up our dialogue with the appropriate pronouns—we just have to be sure not to go overboard.

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How to Clearly Outline Characters’ Motivations and Goals

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How to Clearly Outline Characters' Motivations and Goals

When contrasting plot-driven and character-driven stories, I talk a lot about characters’ goals and motivations, and for good reason.

Goals are the focus of a plot-driven story. The reader wants to know how the characters get from point A to their ultimate goal, point Z. While the plot may wind through some twists and turns, the characters’ motivations tend to stay constant throughout.

Character-driven stories place a much greater emphasis on motivations. The what of a character’s actions is less important than the why, because in this kind of story plans often change as new information is revealed. As characters grow as individuals and adapt, their motivations often change as well.

There is a common misconception that goals and motivations are one and the same. After all, in daily life, we tend to use these words interchangeably.

They are not interchangeable in fiction writing.

As you plot your next work, it is important to know your characters’ motivations, goals, and the difference between them. That’s what will bring your characters, and ultimately your story, to life.

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Why Outlining Subplots is Key to Drafting Your Novel

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Why Outlining Subplots is Key to Drafting Your Novel

Have you ever heard a little kid tell a story? Did you pay attention to the way they told it? It was probably not a tale crafted to perfection. Maybe they went off on too many tangents and never got to the point. Maybe they only gave you the bare bones of the tale, revealing nothing exciting.

As a general rule, don’t write the way a child would speak.

When you write, you should give your readers more than the bare bones, but don’t abandon your plot altogether either. It can be tricky to find the middle ground, the happy medium—that’s what subplots are for.

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5 Amazing Tips to Cure Writer’s Block

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5 Amazing Tips to Cure Writer's Block

I think we can all agree that, as creative types, writer’s block is the bane of our existence. We sit down, ready to turn our ideas into reality, when… nothing. No thoughts, head empty, as the saying goes. But how do we cure ourselves of this dilemma?

Luckily, while the cause of the block may vary across writers and between sessions, the cure each time is relatively simple. To beat writer’s block, one must either get in the “writing zone” (easier said than done) or find a new angle entirely. You don’t need to pick your way through a hundred-step list to figure out how to get your writing back on track, either—just five. 

Keep reading to save yourself a headache the next time you go head-to-head with a blank page and a blank mind.

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A Comprehensive Guide to Subjective and Objective Case Pronouns

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A Comprehensive Guide to Subjective and Objective Case Pronouns

When I was in eighth grade, my Language Arts teacher taught us how to diagram sentences. Subjective and objective case pronouns, transitive and intransitive verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, adjectives, adverbs—sometimes, I thought my head would explode.

Every week, we ran through a new part of speech, until we could diagram sentences longer than even Charles Dickens would have known what to do with. Using prepositions (and not ending sentences with them like I just did), placing vocative commas, identifying the difference between direct and indirect objects—we could do all this and more at the age of thirteen. Generations before me could probably do it a lot younger. Hopefully, they continue to teach the generations after mine how to do it, too.

Cruel and unusual for a bunch of kids? Maybe. But it also made me appreciate how words fit together. After all, when you know how to use words properly, you know how to abuse them better.

And that’s when writing gets fun.

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How to Use Internal Conflict to Your Advantage When Writing a Character-Driven Story

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How to Use Internal Conflict to Your Advantage When Writing a Character-Driven Story

Earlier, we tackled the definition of a plot-driven novel and covered how to approach writing a plot-driven story of your own. If you missed it, don’t worry; you can find that post right here.

While plot-driven stories call for a lot of work on the front end—plotting, after all, is in the very name—character-driven stories require some work up front, too. Luckily for you pantsers, it’s easier to get away with minimal outlining when it comes to this type of novel.

It’s important to understand the basic elements of plot- and character-driven stories as a writer. Understanding these definitions will change how you approach your outlining and drafting process. This will cut down on the amount of revising you have to do and improve your writing in the long run.

In short, learning this stuff teaches you how to write faster and better, and that’s what’s really going to make your writing soar. 

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The Easiest Way to Start Writing Your Plot-Driven Story

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The Easiest Way to Start Writing Your Plot-Driven Story

In general, there are two main types of writers: plotters and pantsers.

I’m definitely an advocate for plotting your novel. If you do the legwork on the front end, you’ll be more organized later—you essentially give yourself a road map when you’re drafting. I’ve already written about balancing action and reaction scenes within your story, but today we’re going to look at the big picture: the overall narrative arc of your book.

When it comes to plot-driven novels, there is very little leeway; you need to know where your story is headed. You need to know how to put this kind of story together so you can build your story arc from the ground up. That’s where this guide comes in.

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47 Creative Questions to Drive Your Fictional Character Design

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47 Creative Questions to Drive Your Fictional Character Design

We writers know that creating entire people inside your brain can be hard sometimes. Really freaking hard. 

If you’re like me, plotting methods like Randy Ingermanson’s Snowflake Method can help you out, but figuring out what a character does and discovering who he is are two completely different things. There are so many things you need to learn about your character—things that often don’t make it into the story proper—to enhance your writing and truly bring him to life. Here, I’ve listed 47 sample questions you can ask yourself about each of your characters in order to bring your writing to the next level.

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The Truth About Dialogue Tags and How to Make Mistakes Writing Them

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The Truth About Dialogue Tags and How to Make Mistakes Writing Them

One of the fastest ways to tell a book was self-published, or a fanfiction was written quickly, is to look at the dialogue tags.

Now, of course, most self-published books use dialogue tags well. Many authors either do their research and know the proper syntax, or hire a professional editor, or both—but not all. And the ones who don’t? Well… The proof is in the pudding.

I hate to be a negative Nancy here, but not all dialogue tags were created equal. Some are fantastic, some are mediocre, and some are just plain bad. However, there is one dialogue tag that rises above the rest when it comes to brevity and clarity: said.

Yes. My favorite dialogue tag is “said.”

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