Procrastination

Read Ephesians 4-6

Ephesians 6:10 "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might."

There are so many other things we should be doing instead of writing. The house could always use a good cleaning and when was the last time we pulled any weeds from the garden?

Procrastination is an occupational hazard for writers. Even when writing is our day job, we still have a tendency to put off getting those words down.

Sometimes just getting started, even if we have nothing to say, can banish procrastination. Or maybe we can fool ourselves into procrastinating the procrastination.

Outline

Read Ephesians 1-3

Ephesians 2:10 "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."

Some writers work without an outline and others couldn’t start a piece without it. An outline may be easier for writers of nonfiction to create because the information is fact based and not imagination based.

However, writers of creative nonfiction may run into some of the same issues fiction writers have. Whether we’re making an outline or writing as we go, we still have to think up what comes next.

Since the creating is the same whether we are writing an outline or a manuscript, it may seem more efficient to forget about making an outline and just write. But when we start with an outline, changes are easier to implement right away and a thorough enough outline makes writing the first draft seem more like the first polish of an already written draft.

Goal

Read Galatians 4-6

Galatians 6:9 "And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."

Short pieces may not test our determination much. We may easily reach our goal of finishing the piece.

Longer pieces and especially book length pieces require our greatest resolve. We want to keep our eye on the goal of finishing the first draft and polishing and revising our manuscript.

Then we can turn our goal to publishing. We might self publish or we might need to keep a list of potential markets handy so if our work is rejected, we send it to the next market on the list before we let the disappointment of rejection stop us.

Point of View

Read Galatians 1-3

Galatians 2:20 "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."

The point of view of a story is not something that has to be decided while we’re writing the first draft. In fact, sometimes we begin writing in one point of view only to discover it’s too limiting for the story we want to tell.

We have several choices. First person point of view is when we write through the eyes of one character using “I,” “me,” etc.

Second person point of view is the narrator speaking to the reader as if the reader was the point of view character using “you.” Third person point of view has a wide variety within, from omniscient to limiting the point of view to one character at a time but often telling the story from more than one character’s head.

Biography

Read 2 Corinthians 10-13

2 Corinthians 11:26 "In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;"

When we’re writing our own short bio to appear at the end of our article or query letter, we will want to highlight what will be of interest to the reader or what will make the editor reading it decide we are the right one to write the article. If we are writing our bio to appear at the end of our book, we can be a little longer and a little chattier, but still keeping what the reader might want most to know about us in mind.

We can write a longer bio for our blog, and depending on the subject, our blog may serve as a running autobiography. But if we’re interested in researching and writing about the lives of others, we have plenty of markets to sell our work to.

Some magazines want biographies of historical people and others will want a biography to go along with our interview of a celebrity or the person of note that our article is about. For book length biographies, it’s safer to stick to historical figures because living subjects may object to our writing so extensively about them.

Showdown

Read 2 Corinthians 7-9

2 Corinthians 7:5 "For, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears."

The showdown is the final battle between the protagonist and antagonist that occurs in Act 3. It’s the culmination of all the struggles, failures, and efforts of the story’s hero.

It has to be the biggest confrontation in the story. All the gains the protagonist has had throughout the story, all the lessons learned, and all the skills acquired will be used to defeat the antagonist.

Not all stories have happy endings where the protagonist wins and the antagonist loses, but most do. When the hero is defeated, it might also mean there is a sequel or the defeat is somehow turned into a victory by the hero’s allies—possibly a sacrifice on the part of the hero to save his family or friends.

Middles

Read 2 Corinthians 4-6

2 Corinthians 6:8 "By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true;"

Middles are where the meat of a story takes place. Each solution to the story problem fails and the protagonist must come up with other plans at each failure.

This is the time to introduce any other characters who are going to have an impact on the story outcome. This is where the protagonist meets the rest of her allies and also runs into the rest of her enemies.

The middle is also time for the protagonist and love interest to begin the romance, unless the story we’re writing is a romance. There is room for some downtime for the characters before the big crisis and black moment that ushers in the third act.