Time to get busy writing, not get busy charting
Just do it.
Those guys at Nike got it right when they created that slogan. It applies to many things we procrastinate about, especially writing. During my journey as a middle grade/YA author, I’ve met countless aspiring writers. The number of people who want to write a book, or have an idea for a book, or know someone who wants to write a book still surprises me. I’ve met people who have outlines, character sketches, plot diagrams, and more. One woman had the entire wall of her bedroom covered with charts. What continues to surprise me about these aspiring writers is the fact that many of them have yet to write a single word. They have not put pen to paper or, in our technological world, put fingers to keyboard. Amazing.
When I wrote Muskie Attack, the first book in the Up North Adventure series and my first book ever, I didn’t create an outline, didn’t make character sketches and didn’t draw any charts. I knew how I wanted to start the book, knew how I wanted to end it, and I knew who my audience was. My goal was simple: I wanted to write a book that a nephew who hated to read would like, so I sat down and started writing. I have a journalism degree and worked as a newspaper writer and editor for years, but I had never written fiction. I suppose I approached that first book as I would a newspaper article. I wrote until I had a question or hit a roadblock and then researched and interviewed my way through it. I still work in much the same way today.
Of course I made mistakes in that first book. My main character lacked emotional growth, I head hopped all over the place, and a subplot went nowhere. But all the errors were nothing that a good editor and a few rewrites didn’t fix.
So, aspiring writers out there, take that Nike slogan to heart and just do it. Just start writing. Don’t let “the process” hold you back. Heck, don’t even have a process. Let the story and the characters take you where they will. Research as you go. Create characters as the story dictates. Writing needs to live and breathe. Let it loose from all those charts and go.
Happy writing to you!
Blurb:
For Corbett Griffith III, divorce and two busy parents mean goodbye city life, hello great outdoors. With their busy Chicago careers and schedules, his parents just don’t seem to have any time for him. When his mother sends him to his uncle’s Wisconsin fishing resort for the summer, Corbett feels that there’s no one pulling for him or caring what happens to him.
But all of that changes at Whispering Pines Lodge, Corbett learns he is never really alone, thanks to his Uncle Dell, who takes care of him, and his new friend Pike, who pulls him into one mischievous adventure after another. It’s a summer of change for ten-year-old Corbett–even his name changes, when a cute girl calls him “Griffy,” a nickname he likes enough to keep.
When Griffy catches two elusive walleyes, he is surprised to discover how much he likes fishing. Eager to test his newfound skills, he and Pike are stunned to hear that a seventy-pound muskie is on the loose. They resolve to catch the ferocious fish, no matter what. For Pike catching a world record muskie would be about the sport. For Griffy it would be about something more. Maybe, just maybe, if he caught that fish is parents would take notice.
Think alligator. Think prehistoric beast. Think mean.
Will they be able to catch the muskie and stop it from attacking anyone or anything?
Genre:Â YA / MG crossover
Published 3/11/2012 by Amazon Digital Svcs.
BUY LINKS:
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Muskie-Attack-North-Adventure-ebook/dp/B007JCUMU0/
Paperback: http://www.amazon.com/Muskie-Attack-North-Adventure-Volume/dp/147500429X/ref=tmm_pap_title_0
B&N Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/muskie-attack-gm-moore/1101078596?ean=2940014319126