Manuscript Surgery Revisited

Posted on July 29, 2026 by Terry Odell

Manuscript Surgery Revisited
Terry Odell

I hit “The End” on the current WIP, which is really “The Beginning.” Because I’m on deadline now, I’m revisiting a post that appeared several years ago.

I think in surgical terms when I tackle my draft. First, the major medical. The current manuscript came in longer than I wanted. Although I firmly believe that a story should be as long as it needs to be, the operative word is needs, and I check to make sure that every scene pulls its weight and advances the story. I confess that as a non-plotter, I often find things that never got followed up on, or were just fun scenes to write. If they don’t connect to the overall story, they get cut.

Purely practical note. At Amazon, there’s a “delivery fee” for ebooks based on file size. Longer books, bigger cut for them. Example: for my three-book box sets, they slice from 25 to 27 cents per book. They take about a dime from my “normal” length books. For those who go wide, B&N, Kobo, and Smashwords don’t have these fees. D2D keeps about 10% regardless of book length.
In print, the cost to produce the book via KDP is based on page count. More pages, bigger cut. I don’t sell enough print books to check out the other distributors, so I can’t speak for them.
For the indie author: Editors often charge by the hour or by the word. Cutting excess can save you money.
If you’re going to produce the book in audio and pay a narrator, the longer the book, the greater the cost.

These, to me, justify excising ugly fat. If you want more advice from the real experts, check this out.

Back to cutting plot threads. Should be easy, right? Patient has appendicitis, you cut out the appendix. In the manuscript, you find the threads that don’t need to be there and remove them. My characters often meet at a neighborhood dog park. I’d originally included two scenes where they met new people and their dogs there, thinking it might be strange to have them be the only two there. One of those new people might have been involved in shady dealings that affected my characters. The other did nothing more than show the dogs playing. The shady dealings never transpired, so I cut both of scenes. Easier to pop in a line about how the dog park was usually empty at the time my characters were there.

Threads don’t exist in nice, tidy packages. There will be places where you’ve foreshadowed, places where you’ve followed up, and places where you’ve made a reference, almost in passing, to something that happened or a character who appeared in that now defunct thread. Like the time my character apologized for being late because of a flat tire and explained how he had to get it repaired due to a nail. At the time, it foreshadowed a bad guy tampering with his car, but that never happened. I cut that paragraph. But a page later, he was thinking that the flat had put him behind schedule. Had to get rid of that, too.

A tip: Watch your transitions. It’s more than likely the scene before the one you cut led into it. That will have to be adjusted. Likewise the one after it. If you ended the scene with a page-turning cliff hanger, that cliffhanger now sends readers into an abyss with no bottom.

If you want the patient to recover, you have to make sure nothing’s left behind when you close him up.

Deleting a paragraph can create a dominoes effect. Watch what happens right before and after, and smooth out the edges. Critique partners, beta readers, and editors are helpful here, because they haven’t read the manuscript seventy-eleven times.

Moving on to the microsurgery.

Words that don’t add anything to the story need to go. They might even add distance, keeping a layer you don’t want between your readers and the characters. Or, there might be awkward bits.

I’ve talked about using SmartEdit before. It’s great for finding those pesky adverbs, repeated words and phrases, and another source of extra words: redundancies.

As with any automated program, you have to review every “suggestion” it makes. These programs don’t write genre fiction. SmartEdit suggests possible redundancies. I’ve run chapters and scenes through Grammarly as well, and find the same problem. Many of their suggestions don’t apply in context. However, they deserve a second look. Fortunately both programs show you where each “offense” occurs, so you can move through the manuscript quickly. Some examples of my overused phrases:

Outside of
Whether or not
Ask a question
Advance warning
Off of
Open up
Shut down
Temper tantrum
Major breakthrough
Basic essentials
Stand up
Fall down
Advance notice
Burning embers
Shrug a shoulder

I remember my high school Latin teacher complaining about advertising wording. “From its earliest beginnings to its final completion.” Or “Free gift.” He also said “up” is an overused word. I’ll never forget class clown Leon saying, “So what’s the bank robber supposed to say? This is a stick?”

Then there are the clunkers. Sometimes the eye catches them, but having Word (or your program of choice) read the book aloud to you will help you find them.

Listening calls attention to repeated words. Plus, you can hear words that aren’t really repeats, but echoes, such as this passage I discovered:

His mouth dropped. “You’re saying you’re going to wash my clothes?”
She sighed. “Apparently.”
It took several heartbeats for his mouth to close….

Did you spot the ‘clunker’? If not, read it out loud.

OK, TKZers: What are your tips for performing surgery on your manuscript?

Find me at Substack with Writings and Wanderings

Deadly Ambitions
Peace in Mapleton doesn’t last. Police Chief Gordon Hepler is already juggling a bitter ex-mayoral candidate who refuses to accept election results and a new council member determined to cut police department’s funding.
Meanwhile, Angie’s long-delayed diner remodel uncovers an old journal, sparking her curiosity about the girl who wrote it. But as she digs for answers, is she uncovering more than she bargained for?
Now, Gordon must untangle political maneuvering, personal grudges, and hidden agendas before danger closes in on the people he loves most.
Deadly Ambitions delivers small-town intrigue, political tension, and page-turning suspense rooted in both history and today’s ambitions.

Terry Odell is an award-winning author of Mystery and Romantic Suspense, although she prefers to think of them all as “Mysteries with Relationships.”

What IS That Smell?

Posted on July 20, 2026 by Sue Coletta

We all know how distinct odors can enhance a scene. What does buttery popcorn evoke in you? What about freshly baked apples? Or steamed lobster? Or a campfire?

Those are all wonderful smells that make us feel happy, excited, or content. However, fiction shouldn’t only include pleasant or comforting scenes, or the narrative feels fake. Real life isn’t all rose petals (another great smell). So, why do some writers shy away from rank or offensive odors?

“Odors have a power of persuasion stronger than that of words, appearances, emotions or will.”

— Patrick Süskind, author of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

I’m one of those strange people who love the smell of blood. When I read “a metallic” or “irony” stench, it doesn’t elicit a shocked or fearful response in me. You know what does elicit a visceral response? Stress sweat.

Stress sweat has a very distinctive smell, which only occurs during times of “flight or fight.”

I heard a reference to it recently in a movie. One character said to another, “Why does stress sweat stink worse than regular sweat?” And I thought, huh, they’re right. Why does it smell worse?

Down the research rabbit hole, I dove. What I discovered blew my mind. Now, I’m sharing it with you because, y’know, that’s what writers do. Perhaps you can use some of this research to add realism to your story.

Stress Sweat

Stress sweat has a unique pungent odor because it’s produced by the apocrine glands (located in the armpits and groin), rather than the standard eccrine glands used for heat regulation. Triggered by adrenaline, this sweat is thicker, milky, and rich in proteins and lipids (fats). Skin bacteria feed on these nutrients, and produce volatile, odorous compounds.

The Science of Sweat

When we are hot or exercising, our body uses eccrine glands to cool down. This sweat is 99% water and salt, with almost no odor. However, psychological stress triggers our “fight or flight” response, which releases hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones activate the apocrine glands, located in areas with high concentrations of hair follicles, like underarms and groin.

The resulting stress sweat stands out due to the following reasons:

Nutrient-Rich Fluid: Unlike watery exercise sweat, apocrine glands secrete a thick, milky fluid packed with proteins, lipids (fats), and fatty acids.
The Bacterial Feast: The bacteria naturally living on your skin thrive on these fats and proteins. As the bacteria consume and break down these nutrients, they produce volatile organic compounds that emit a sharp, foul odor.
Massive Volume Increase: When our body enters “fight or flight” mode, our underarms can secrete roughly 30 times more sweat than when we are at rest. This creates excess food for the bacteria, which intensifies a sudden concentration of body odor.

Several factors, including sex, genetics, age, and diet can influence the type of odor that an individual emits. In fact, it has been suggested that, like a fingerprint, every individual’s body odor is unique and may be partly determined by genetics.

Ever lost a loved one and clung to their pillow, hoping and praying their scent would never fade?

Men have larger sweat glands and generally produce more sweat than women.

Fun Fact: Deodorants contain chemicals that kill skin flora and block production of stinky byproducts. Antiperspirants reduce the amount of sweat by clogging sweat glands. Many contain aluminum chloride, which creates a gel-like substance that forms a plug at the sweat ducts in the skin.

Biological Triggers for Other Offensive Body Odors

Sickness/Infection Odor (Volatile Organic Compounds)

Diseases change body chemistry. Diabetic ketoacidosis smells like rotting apples. Liver failure smells musty or fishy. Infected wounds smell sweet and sickeningly fruity due to specific bacteria. For some reason, I can detect the infection smell quite early. Not sure why I’m sensitive to it, but I’ve helped more than one animal before the infection spread enough to be noticeable. Maybe that’s my superpower. 🙂

In early stages, humans cannot detect the smell of cancer, but dogs can…

Dogs have up to 300 million scent receptors compared to humans’ 5 or 6 million, allowing them to detect scents in parts per trillion. They detect cancer by smelling specific Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) released by bodily tissues when cancer alters the body’s metabolism and cellular chemistry.

Often, what people detect as a “cancer smell” is actually a side effect of chemotherapy. Patients receiving treatment may excrete chemical byproducts through their skin and fluids, leading to odors described as metallic, like burnt hair, or like ammonia/chlorine.

Starvation/Dehydration Breath (Ketones & Decreased Saliva)

When someone’s saliva dries up, anaerobic bacteria multiply, causing a dead, sulfurous breath. If they enter starvation, their body burns fat for fuel. This creates chemical or metallic acetone breath.

Plants & Animals

Flowers produce fragrances as an evolutionary strategy to attract pollinators and ensure reproduction, and many species of insects, fish, and mammals emit peculiar odors to attract mates. In fact, male brown lemmings can tell whether a female has ever mated simply by her odor.

The Evolutionary Purpose

Scientists believe stress sweat served an evolutionary function. In early human history, stress sweat acted as a chemo-signal to warn others of danger. Studies have shown when humans smell the stress sweat of others, their brains automatically become more alert and are more likely to perceive neutral cues as potential threats.

Chemical Signaling (Olfactory Communication)

Humans evolved to unconsciously detect the chemical composition of fear and anxiety. When others detect these specific odors, it triggers increased alertness and vigilance in their own brains, warning them of unseen dangers.

Enhanced Grip for Survival

Sweating on the palms and soles is an evolutionary adaptation intended to dampen the skin, which improves friction and grip when we need to run, climb, or fight for our lives.

Predator Deterrence

Some evolutionary biologists theorize that putting off a sharp, unappealing scent when terrified may have helped startle or deter predators evaluating the vulnerability of prey.

I found more information on how the aging body’s chemistry changes (i.e., the smell of nursing homes), but I had to stop before this post turned into a book.

For fun, what’s your favorite smell? What smell churns your stomach acids? Are there any smells you’re overly sensitive to?

Eyes Reveal Our Age at Death

Posted on July 6, 2026 by Sue Coletta

Forensic science is always evolving to better aid in the apprehension of criminals. What if a killer leaves his victim with no fingertips, DNA, or teeth? One way to determine the age of a victim is by examining their eyes.

Sounds bizarre, doesn’t it? The soulless eyes of a murder victim allow investigators to determine their age at the time of death. This process is called Radiocarbon Dating.

Radiocarbon Dating

You’re probably familiar with how to tell the age of a tree by examining a split piece and counting the number of rings. Same basic idea when examining a victim’s eyes.

How is this possible?

Each of us, whether we realize it or not, have been exposed to naturally occurring levels of radiation. Most prominent in the 1960’s and 70’s, particles of radiation released into the atmosphere while testing nuclear weapons. Over the years — decades — these particles have fallen to trace proportions. However, there still remains naturally occurring levels of carbon in the air. Different forms of carbon are ingested every day, introducing trace elements into our system. Many carbon compounds are crucial to our way of life. Others are toxic (like cyanide, a carbon-nitrogen bond).

Radioactive particles and naturally occurring carbon settle in the crystallins of the eyes, and Radiocarbon Dating is the process of detecting this manifestation.

What are Crystallins?

Crystallins are microscopic proteins that bind together and collect on the lens of the eye. According to Explore Forensics (one of my favorite sites), crystallins got their name because of how they react under a microscope – like crystals, allowing light to pass through. From the time of conception (conception! Let that sink in…) until age two, these crystallins form in and around the lens of the eyes. At which point the formation stops. When this happens, trace elements of carbon permanently fuse in between the crystallins.

So, when an investigator – usually a scientist or pathologist – conducts a Radiocarbon Dating examination, they’re looking at levels of the carbon fused with the crystallins. To calculate age, they subtract the current levels of radioactive carbon in the eye from the naturally occurring levels of carbon in the atmosphere today. By comparing the levels of radiocarbon in the crystallins to the atmospheric levels they can determine the precise year of a victim’s birth.

Cool, right?

Determining the Sex of a Skeleton

There are many differences between the two sexes, and the variation runs as deep as our bones. This is especially important for corpses in advance stages of decomposition. All that might remain is the skeleton, perhaps teeth, and possibly some hair. Even if the pathologist has teeth and hair to work with, that doesn’t mean enough material remains to ID the victim’s sex

This is where the skeleton offers more information. The only exception would be that of a pre-adolescent, where sexual dimorphism is slight, making the task much more difficult.

The most common way to determine a skeleton’s sex is by bone size. Not the most accurate, but it’s a starting point. For the most part, male bones are larger than female bones because of the additional muscle that increases on the male through adolescence and into adulthood.

Another good inclination of sex is the pelvic area.

The sub-pubic angle (or pubic angle) is the angle formed at pubic arch by the convergence of the inferior rami of the ischium (loop bone at the base) and pubis (top of loop) on either side. Generally, the sub-pubic angle of 50-60 degrees indicates a male, whereas an angle of 70-90 degrees indicates a female. Women have wider hips to allow for childbirth.

Subpubic_angle,_male — Male sub-pubic angle

There are also distinctive differences between the pubic arches in males and females. A woman’s pubic arch is wider than a male’s as is the pelvic inlet, to allow a baby’s head to pass through.

The pubic arch is also referred to as the ischiopubic arch.
Incidentally, this difference is noticed in all species, not only humans. Same with Radiocarbon Dating.

The area around the pelvic inlet (middle of the pelvic bone) is larger in females than in males. A female skeleton who has given birth naturally will be identifiable because this space widens during childbirth. Even though it contracts afterward, it never fully returns to its original size. In the picture above notice the heart-shaped space.

Other Body Clues

The acetabulum — the socket where the femur (thigh bone) meets the pelvis — is larger in males. Also, the head and skull have several characteristics indicative of one sex or the other.

In males, the chin is squarer. Females tend to have a slightly more pointed chin.
The forehead of males slant backward, where females have a slightly more rounded forehead.
Males tend to have brow ridges. Females do not.

These differences and more tell the pathologist the sex of the deceased.

What Do Forensics and Skeletal Differences Have To Do With Writing?

Everything! Use the differences between male and female skeletons to add realism to fiction. Let’s say, a body is discovered in the blistering heat of the summer. The victim hasn’t been found for months, leaving only the skeleton. By showing the pathologist or Medical Examiner measuring the pelvic inlet, arches, and angles, we’ve essentially ensured our reader isn’t going anywhere.

Same holds true for the lab conducting a Radiocarbon Dating Test on the eyes of a murder victim. Adding forensic details is a lot of fun, too, for the writer and the reader. The trick is to disguise the research in a compelling storyline rather than dumping the information all at once.

Why is the hanging skeleton in doctors’ exam rooms always named Fred? Half the time they’re female. If they make me wait too long, I’m more apt to bring it to their attention. “Fred might need a new name, considering that’s a female skeleton.” And this always surprises them! They’re also less likely to leave me unattended for long in the future. 😉

What Is One’s Shadow Self?

Posted on June 22, 2026 by Sue Coletta

I’ve been researching one’s Shadow Self for a different site, but it’s such an intriguing topic, I thought I’d share what I learned with you, as well.

First, let’s rewind to how I landed on this topic.

The other night, I was listening to 100 Sleepy Facts About Psychology on the Sleepy Science Channel to fall asleep. Might as well learn a few things while sleeping, right? Many facts slip by me — first and foremost, my objective is to sleep — but my unconscious mind is taking notes. You never know what might resurface in the WIP.

On this particular night, I caught the narrator veer into a segment about how writers’ minds differ from others. I love brain science, evident by this post, and this one, and here, as well. Many people can’t access the unconscious mind without guidance or psychological help, but writers tap into it all the time while in the zone. It’s how we write scenes that we have no memory of writing.

I’m sure many of you have experienced this scenario…

After the first draft is complete — before or after the manuscript cools to create critical distance — you return to page one and read till the end to assess continuity. And 9.99 times out of 10, you’ll come across at least a few scenes that you don’t recall writing. If you’re a writer who regularly accesses “the zone,” you might find entire chapters that feel unfamiliar, like someone else wrote those parts.

Ever notice a recurrent theme, crime, or character type across an author’s entire body of work? The writer might not even be aware of the similarities. Consciously or not, they’re re-probing these areas to make sense of them. When our unconscious mind takes over, it’s often our most authentic writing. Hence why we often strive to reach the zone.

One’s Shadow Self lives in this space between our conscious and unconscious mind, and the zone helps us access it. Most people try to suppress their Shadow Self. Writers explore it to help us craft villains, characters we would hate in real life, and/or the ugly side of humanity.

Readers can also access their Shadow Self; they’re more self-aware than non-readers.

Fiction provides a safe, liminal space to confront repressed emotions, fears, and taboo subjects. If a reader is engaged in a storyline that evokes strong emotional reactions, like anger, envy, jealously, greed, etc., the book acts as a mirror to reveal hidden parts of the reader’s personality — parts they may not be aware of till the author forces them to face their Shadow Self.

Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung introduced the term Shadow Self. Rodney Luster, PhD at Psychology Today said, “His perspective, however, may have taken inspiration from Austrian Neurologist Sigmund Freud, who had explored this aspect of the unconscious mind and used words like shadow, melancholia and projection to depict how people might act on repressed issues.” Luster also added:

In Jung’s disposition, he believed the shadow aspect of our self as “a thing a person has no wish to be” (Perry, 2015). He also described it as the part of our psyche containing the hidden aspects of our personality that we reject or hide from others, even ourselves. These hidden aspects often include our impulses, desires, and personal qualities that society may deem socially negative or unacceptable (Jung, 1953). Essentially then, the shadow-self is considered by many to be the darker, looming side of our personality that we are less willing to engage or recognize (Lonngi, 2024).

Shadow Theory, also coined by Jung, defines the “shadow” as the unconscious, repressed, or unacknowledged aspects of personality — both negative (anger, greed) and positive (creativity, passion) — that the conscious ego rejects. These hidden traits are often projected onto others and, if unintegrated, can dictate behavior.

Light and darkness reside within us all.

Jungian expert Robert A. Johnson, author of Owning Your Own Shadow: Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche, added more clarification about one’s Shadow Self:

It is possible to project from the shadow the very best of oneself onto another person or situation. Our hero-worshiping capacity is pure shadow; in this case, our finest qualities are refused and laid on another. It is hard to understand, but we often refuse to bear our noble traits and instead find a shadow substitute for them…Our own healing proceeds from that overlap of what we call good and evil, light and dark. It is not that the light element alone does the healing; the place where light and dark begin to touch is where miracles arise.

So, TKZers, have you heard the term “shadow self”? If so, are you able to access it while writing?

What Writers Can Learn From Nursing a Sick Chicken

Posted on June 8, 2026 by Sue Coletta

When we love something, like writing, or somebody, be it a friend, partner, or pet, we persevere through good times and bad. Quitting is not an option.

Last week, as I mentioned in my previous post, I moved my six adult chickens from Massachusetts, where I had a coop at a friend’s house, to my yard in New Hampshire. During the hour-plus drive, one of my chickens — Biffy, an unfortunate pet name that stuck — was accidentally smothered by two of her sisters. When I lifted her from the crate, I thought for sure she was dead. Though she bounced back, they’d injured her crop.

Biffy

For those unfamiliar with bird anatomy, the crop is above the right-side of the breast. Food and water travel down the throat to the crop where it’s processed before dumping into the stomach.

About 24-36 hours later, I noticed Biffy seemed off. She sat alone in the coop while the others enjoyed the yard. She wasn’t eating and felt cold to the touch.

Uh-oh, is she dying?

I researched everything from accidental smothering to her cold body temperature. An impacted crop seemed to be the general consensus. When I felt her crop, it felt like a golf ball. Not good. In fact, it’s often a death sentence. I refused to except that, so I learned how to perform crop massages to break up the food that had hardened into a mass.

Several times a day, I marched outside to massage her. And soon, she recovered. But because her body had gone into shock from the move (hence, the cold body temp), she then became egg-bound. Another death sentence diagnosis.

Everyone told me she would die. Some suggested to mercy kill her, that it’s the kind thing to do. No, dammit, I’m a writer. I don’t quit. And I’m certainly not giving up on her.

So, I set up a hospital coop in my house. Again, I knew nothing about how to help her, but I researched everything I could find.

Epson salt baths to relax her stomach muscles.
A crushed Tums to give her the calcium she lost by not eating.
Olive oil on her vent or cloaca, where eggs come out.
Honey water to give her an energy boost.
Greek yogurt mixed with chick food to create an oatmeal-like mush.
Lots of love, patience, and understanding.

For four straight days, I did all the above several times per day. Still hadn’t laid the egg but it had moved into laying position. When I didn’t find an egg the following day, I crawled inside her hospital coop and stared deep into her eyes. “Tell me what to do, Biffy.”

And somehow, I knew she missed her flock.

Carrying her out to her regular coop was one of the hardest things I did. An injured chicken could get stomped to death. Survival of the fittest, and all that.

When I checked on her later that day, I found her hiding behind a straw bale, though her flock wasn’t harming her. I’d sneak in to administer the same treatment, except the baths. If the others caught me, they might retaliate against her for getting all of Mom’s attention. In between rounds, I ensured everyone felt special, but I still feared the worst.

Another three grueling days past. The egg moved even closer to her vent — so close yet so far!

Most chickens would have died a week ago. Not Biffy. She has the heart of a lion and the endurance of a cheetah. On day 8 or 9 (I lost track), I walked around the corner to the coop — Biffy was in the yard with her flock! Behind the bale of straw, I found two eggs. Not only did she pass the stuck egg but laid another.

Two weeks after she was almost smothered to death in that crate, she’s egging every day, eating, drinking, playing, roosting at night with the others, and has re-earned her #2 spot in the flock hierarchy.

What can writers learn from this?

Keen observation
The necessity of isolation for growth
Pacing

The Power of Micro-Observation

Chickens are prey animals. They instinctively mask their illnesses until they are critically ill. Chicken moms and dads learn to look for subtle cues: a drooping wing, a change in posture, or a loss of appetite.

Writer Lesson: Think of it as building subtext and writing characters whose internal pain is revealed through micro-actions rather than exposition.

The Importance of Quarantine

The first priority with a sick chicken is to remove her from the flock to prevent her from being pecked or stomped to death.

Writer Lesson: We can draw a parallel to our own creative process… we must detach from friends, family, and online activities to write. With an early draft or a deeply personable project, step away from the noise of critiques to give it the critical distance needed to develop it later through clearer eyes.

Prioritize the Essentials

When nursing a sick bird, basic hydration and warmth take precedence over complex medical interventions.

Writer Lesson: This mirrors the process of editing… strip away the clutter, focus on foundational structure, and ensure the core narrative works before worrying about elaborate prose.

Patience and Managing Expectations

Reviving a sick bird requires time, hourly monitoring, and the harsh realization that not every story has a happy ending.

Writer Lesson: Learn the delicate balance between fighting with a difficult draft and knowing when a concept must be shelved.

Today (written last Friday), I’m moving my 11 chicks outside to their junior coop. By the time this posts, I’ll finally have my house back. Though I love them dearly, it’s time. Yeehaw!

What other lessons can writers learn from my and Biffy’s story?

New Research Tool for Writers

Posted on May 11, 2026 by Sue Coletta

Pat’s excellent post last week got me thinking about a new-to-me research tool to help writers “write what you know.” Though I agree with Pat’s advice to contact a consultant, this tool can help when you’re unable to find one and/or help you understand what they tell you.

First, a quick story about how I discovered this tool.

I found myself in a quandary of needing to learn Associated Press (AP) Stylebook, like, yesterday. Google didn’t help. Neither did Siri. The differences between AP Stylebook and Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) cannot be discovered by a quick search. I needed to dig into AP Stylebook and discover the differences for myself. But how? Buy the style guide and read it with my highlighter? Maybe later, not now. As I mentioned, I needed this knowledge as soon as possible.

For those unfamiliar with AP Stylebook…

The Associated Press (AP) Stylebook was created specifically for journalists to ensure consistency, accuracy, and clarity in news writing. First published in 1953, it originated from earlier internal guides designed to help Associated Press correspondents standardize spelling, punctuation, and usage across media outlets. It is considered the Bible for reporters, editors, and photographers, focusing on concise and clean writing.

While designed for news reporting, AP Stylebook has evolved into the leading industry standard for public relations, marketing, and corporate communication. Most organizations and company blogs also use AP Stylebook now.

For me, if I didn’t learn it, I could kiss goodbye a high-paying, permanent writing position that aligns with my passion to help animals and allows me plenty of free time to write fiction. To “fake it till I make it” was not an option. Too much at stake.

At this time, a dear friend was cramming for a test to obtain another job-related license. When I saw him studying on his phone, I said, “Do you have the three-ring binder in ebook form?”

He said no. “It’s Quizlet.”

“Quiz what?”

“Quizlet. It’s a learning app.”

“For just your field?”

“No. For any field.”

The proverbial lightbulb blazed on.

I brought up Quizlet.com on my phone. Sure enough, they offered several courses in AP Stylebook. They also offer courses in CMOS, if any of you need to brush up on grammar, comma usage, abbreviations, punctuation, or how to handle things like professional titles, expertise, or rank. Even with an editor, the writer should know our industry standards.

Quizlet

Created by Andrew Sutherland in 2005 (released in 2007) to help him study for a French vocabulary test, Quizlet has grown into a widespread education company.

Quizlet is a leading global learning platform and app that offers AI-powered study tools, digital flashcards, and interactive games to help students practice and master various subjects.

See where I’m going with this as a research tool?

Used by millions, Quizlet enables users to create custom sets or utilize millions of existing, user-generated materials, including study guides, practice tests, and spaced repetition.

When you go to the site, type in whatever it is you want to learn. Scroll down the list. Often, there are several types of courses in that field. Click on the course that covers what you need.

In my case, I didn’t need hardcore reporting rules in AP Stylebook. Because I’ve had CMOS drilled into me, I really only needed to discover how AP handled punctuation, titles, and comma usage. I studied a lot more than that to be safe — no one will catch me under-prepared — but a lot is similar.

Does your main character have a unique skillset or profession? Take a Quizlet course so you can write with some authority.

Need to add fingerprint analysis to your scene? If you can’t attend Writers Police Academy or find a consultant, both of which I highly recommend, take a Quizlet course.

Or maybe, you’ve always wanted to learn a different language for an upcoming vacation.

Quizlet works because it’s global. The site is packed with information on just about every topic. What I love most is the positivity. If you answer a question incorrectly, up pops a message, “That’s okay. You’re still learning.” Then it’ll give you the same question later. When you answer correctly, the message reads, “Way to go! You got it this time!” And it will continue to give you that question until you answer correctly a few times. After which, you’ll see, “You’re really getting this!” or “You’ve got this now!”

The messages lift you up and make you want to keep studying, but Quizlet will also tell you to take a break, drink water, and stretch, if you’ve studied too long.

Key Features and Study Modes

Flashcards: Digital, interactive cards that support images and audio.

Learn: Adaptive study plans gauge how much you know about the topic. Check “Yes” you know that already or “No” you don’t. And it will build your study plan and flashcards from there.

Test: Once you feel ready, take a test to gauge how well you’re doing.

Study Games: I haven’t used this feature. Evidently, it’s an engaging, fast-paced game like “Match.”

AI Integration: AI tools generate study guides and explanations from user-uploaded notes. On something I continued to answer incorrectly, I asked for an explanation. Wasn’t impressed with it, so I looked it up myself. Quizlet’s explanation was, in fact, correct. It just didn’t give me enough information to connect the dots in my mind.

Quizlet Live: A collaborative, multiplayer classroom game. I’ve never gotten involved (not my cup of tea), but maybe you’d enjoy it.

All in all, I love Quizlet. It’s a fantastic tool for those of us who love to learn.

Yet More Short Story Words of Wisdom

Posted on May 2, 2026 by Dale Ivan Smith

Despite all the changes in publishing, new short stories are still appearing in print and digitally. Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen magazines continue to publish short stories, as do various anthologies, and of course they are also an option for indie authors.

Short stories can also be a proven way to level up your writing, helping you improve existing skills and forge new ones in just a few thousand words. Typically much less writing time is at stake with short stories versus novels, and even if your latest story doesn’t work, it can teach you something in the process.

Today’s Words of Wisdom reaches into the archives for insights on writing short fiction from posts by James Scott Bell, Reavis Wortham, and John Gilstrap.

As you know, we’ve been celebrating the release of Fresh Kills here on TKZ. It’s been a pleasure working with my blogmates, pros all, to bring you these new stories, at an attractive price. Look for Fresh Kills at amazon, scribd or smashwords.

My contribution to the anthology is “Laughing Matters,” a title that has more than one meaning, as you’ll find out. And that’s sort of what the best short stories do; they work on at least a couple of levels.

Certainly, the literary short story is like that. In college I got to take a writing workshop with Raymond Carver, and that’s what his stories are famous for. They have something going on up top, on the surface, but when you finish you realize there’s a rich layer underneath that you’ve missed (and I have to confess, I usually did, and would have to re-read each one a couple of times).

In the suspense or mystery category, you need to deliver a story that has a surprise in it somewhere, to keep the reader guessing. Jeffery Deaver has written two volumes of such tales in his Twisted series, and even challenges the reader to try to outguess him. It’s cool when it works, but it’s hard to do. Which is why this kind of story is every bit as challenging as the literary sort.

The germ of “Laughing Matters” came one day when I was thinking about all the standup comics in LA who never make it. I must have just seen some clip of a comedian doing post-Seinfeld observational humor (one of thousands) and just thought, this is dull. This is derivative. This guy’s not going to go very far.

Which reminded me of a time when I was living and acting in New York, and went to a comedy club for “open mike.” There were some funny guys, and then there was this one kid who was obviously onstage for the first time. The sort whose grandmother must have told him, “Sonny, you are so funny! You should go tell your jokes on television!”

Anyway, the kid comes out, he’s nervous, and tells a joke. It fell to the ground with a thud that echoed through the club. He got rattled. And you know what happens when you get rattled in front of the 11 p.m. crowd in New York City on open mike night? It was brutal. The kid made it through maybe two more jokes, neither of which worked, and then froze. As the crowd piled on with jeers and snorts, he stood there, choking the mike stand, unable to move or speak.

The emcee, noting what was going on, jumped in from the wings with his big smile, clapping his hands, shouting “Let’s hear it for _____ !” and then took the guy’s arm and guided him off the stage.

There must have been public hangings easier to watch.

So all of that came to me as I wrote the opening lines:

He died.

Pete Harvey, “The Harv” as he billed himself, just flat out died in front of the 11 p.m. crowd at the Comedy Zone.

Then I have Pete sitting at the bar afterward, drowning his sorrows, when a most interesting gent sits down next to him. And the story came to me in a flash, twists and all. This is, I’d wager, how the best short stories usually appear. But then you write, re-write and polish, and hopefully come up with something that works.

I’ve reclaimed my love of the short story, and have decided to keep writing them. Maybe I’ll put out my own collection sometime. It’s nice to have a market for stories again. Because short stories matter, it seems to me. A good story can deliver a hugely satisfying reading experience in small span of time.

FWIW, here are some of my favorite short stories, based on the wallop I felt at the end:

“Hills Like White Elephants,” Ernest Hemingway

“Soldier’s Home,” Ernest Hemingway

“The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze,” William Saroyan

“A Word to Scoffers,” William Saroyan

“A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” J.D. Salinger

“The End of the Tiger,” John D. MacDonald

“Chapter and Verse,” Jeffery Deaver

James Scott Bell—February 7, 2010

Joe laughed and took a sip of iced tea. “There’s your short story.”

I came home thinking about it, but haven’t yet written it down. But it’s there, perking along until the day I write the first sentence, “The boys finished their Schlitz beers and decided they were going to meet Elvis Presley, come hell or high water,” or something like that.

Those stories come easier than I expected. Maybe it’s because I write mini-stories every week for my newspaper columns in The Paris News, Country World, and now for Saddlebag Dispatches magazine. They come to mind as a single sentence, and then I watched as my fingers type out 950 words in one sitting that will “go to press” the next day. They’re mini-short stories, a snippet of time or experience, in which I give readers a quick glimpse into the view from my own hill.

When we’re working on novels, authors create whole new fictional worlds and can revel in taking their time to describe these worlds and establish character backgrounds and settings. In a short story, we create a can of condensed soup in a sense that, if we wanted to, could sometimes expand into a novel.

I think of them as that tiny world inside a globe, those glass spheres containing a tiny piece of a mythical world. In this case, these miniature scenes don’t always have snow, unless it’s essential to the plot.

Essential to the plot. In short stories, every element, word, character, and bit of dialogue has to be informative, moving the story forward, and must relate to everything else. The logic of the narrative has to be short and concise.

To me, it’s like flipping through the pages of a novel and picking out the necessary bits and pieces to write a book report. A quick read of what could be more, but isn’t.

There’s no room for sweeping descriptions and extensive development. In my view, the author has to know the character’s entire backstory at the outset, and the setting’s history that’s revealed by bits of information dropped in a sentence or two, or as action dialogue tags.

Readers must be swept into these juicy stories with the right words, phrases, and pacing. I suppose it’s like satisfying our need for immediate satisfaction these days. In other words you have about 6,000 words to set up the story arc, very short Acts 1 and 2, before that last couple of pages in which the bombshell drops. In fact, some authors set off that climax bomb in a couple of paragraphs, or even one breathtaking sentence.

Writing short stories is an excellent way to warm up, to refill the creative basket between novels, and to achieve the personal satisfaction of a job well done.

Reavis Wortham—April 12, 2025

“All Revved . . .” is, hands down, the darkest story I’ve ever written. You can find it in the recently published anthology, Bat Out Of Hell, edited by Don Bruns, and the story is inspired by the title of one of the songs on the famous Meat Loaf album from the 1970s. The story tells the tale of Ace Spade, an off-duty firefighter and search and rescue operator who’s trying to impress a young lady with his four-wheeling skills in the back woods of West Virginia when things go terribly wrong. After he wrecks his Jeep in the middle of nowhere, the man who they think is there to lend assistance turns out to be a killer who wants to hunt them down and kill them.

As regular Killzoners know, I don’t outline, so even I was surprised by the lengths to which our characters would go to stay alive. I don’t want to give to much away, but let’s just say that in the end, everyone acts in his or her best interests.

As a writer who’s carved a niche for myself by writing stories with moral clarity where good triumphs over evil, it was kind of refreshing to clean the creative pipes with a story where there really are no good guys–just . . . survivors.

Here’s my take on short stories: They’re not really part of an author’s permanent record, in the sense that I think they don’t necessarily reflect their true storytelling sensibilities. In a short story, I can feel free to kill a cat or cavort with vampires. I could even write a romance–even though I don’t think I’m actually capable of doing that.

This is why I cringe when I hear writerly advice given to newbies that they should cut their teeth writing short stories before they take on the burden of a novel. To me, that’s like telling a budding cook that they need to perfect the art of scrambling eggs before they bake Thanksgiving turkey. One has nothing to do with the other–or where the skill cross, the intersection is so tangential as to be meaningless.

It’s equally important to note that novel-writing skills can get you in trouble when crafting a short story. I was fortunate that submission rules asked for an approximate submission length of 8,000 words for Bat Out of Hell. If I’d had to turn in flash fiction, or anything under, say, 3,000 words, I would have considered myself unqualified from the start.

John Gilstrap—August 20, 2025

***

There you have it, three more insights on writing short stories and why short fiction matters.

Here are links to the two previous Words of Wisdom on Short stories: https://killzoneblog.com/2024/01/words-of-wisdom-short-stories.html and https://killzoneblog.com/2025/05/more-short-story-words-of-wisdom.html

***

Do short stories matter to you, and if so, how?

If you write short fiction, have you ever started from an event you witnessed or experienced personally?

Do you agree with John Gilstrap short stories don’t count on your “permanent record?”

Your Antagonist’s Response to Fear

Posted on April 27, 2026 by Sue Coletta

When we think of fear as a response, we often think of the protagonist. Well-rounded villain’s also feel fear. Rarely discussed but equally important. Please help me welcome back our friend, Becca Puglisi, to discuss just that. And look — a new book in the Emotional Thesaurus series! This series rocks. IMO, it belongs on every writer’s bookshelf. Welcome, Becca!

When we talk about debilitating fears in storytelling, the focus is mostly on how it impacts the protagonist. We build stories around their fear—the way it binds and constricts them, how they gradually become aware of it, and their journey to eventually facing and defeating it. This process is essentially a change arc, and it applies to most protagonists.

But we don’t often talk about fear’s impact on antagonists. And we should, because fear is also limiting, motivating, and transformative for these characters.

What’s interesting, though, is the antagonist’s relationship with and response to fear isn’t like a protagonist’s at all. Villains and other adversaries will claim they’re impervious to fear, but this just isn’t true. Everyone feels fear, and characters who deny it are wearing a mask that shows them as strong, powerful, and in control. It’s often their refusal to remove that mask that ultimately leads to their undoing.

So let’s look at how protagonists and antagonists differ in their treatment of this universal emotion.

The Protagonist’s Fear Arc

These characters are often aware of their greatest fear because it’s kept close via emotional shielding, like a thick cloak they pull around themselves. The material is heavy and restrictive but functions as a constant reminder that threats are always near and something to be wary of.

At some point in the story, though, the protagonist’s shoulders begin to ache. They feel encumbered and overheated. They’re limited by the cloak’s weight, forced to give up opportunities too difficult or risky to tackle in their state.

One day it hits them that they’re unhappy, and if they didn’t have this burden, they might feel lighter and find it easier to get around. It’s not easy, but they make the choice to let the cloak fall, even though it exposes them. They understand that while life contains danger and emotional risk, letting go of fear leads to freedom, self-empowerment, and joy.

The fear pattern for protagonists: Fear starts as protection, but the character soon learns it’s also limiting. Deep unhappiness from unmet needs forces awareness. The character chooses to be vulnerable and cast aside fear so growth can occur.

The Antagonist’s Fear Arc

For antagonists, much is the same. The weight of their fear is just as heavy, and they wear the cloak for the same reason their counterparts do. But when their unhappiness surfaces, they become resentful and angry that what they want is out of reach. Rather than remove their cloak, they cinch it tighter and continue to manipulate situations, control people, and steal power to achieve their goals. Their inability to let go of their fear and accept emotional risk as a part of life ultimately destroys them.

The fear pattern for antagonists: Fear begins as protection, but it also limits. Unhappiness and unmet needs spark resentment. The character clings to fear for a sense of control, but it makes them weaker and imprisons them, resulting in failure.

This is how fear causes an antagonist to perceive events and people differently than a protagonist, leading to vastly disparate actions and choices. We see this at work when we compare the hero and villain from Stephen King’s Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (spoilers ahead).

In 1947, banker Andy Dufresne is framed for his wife’s murder and lands in Shawshank State Prison. Everyone and everything there is controlled by Samuel Norton, a corrupt religious fanatic who believes harsh discipline is the way to inmate salvation. The irony is that the warden uses his position to commit a host of crimes. He takes a shine to Andy for his banking and accounting knowledge and uses him to embezzle money and commit tax fraud. As warden, he’s the king, and his greatest fear is losing his power and control.

Andy is determined to prove his innocence, but he’s repeatedly victimized in the brutal prison system. He earns protection when the warden realizes what Andy can do for him, but this means trading one form of pain for another, since Andy’s fate now depends on protecting the warden and hiding his criminal activities. Along the way, Andy’s greatest fear develops: becoming institutionalized and losing all sense of himself and the will to fight for his innocence.

Andy and the warden handle their fear in different ways. Andy pushes against fear by holding onto hope that he will eventually be free. He finds small joys to sustain him—reading, carving, building a library for the inmates, encouraging higher education, and planning his escape. The warden feeds his own fear by using intimidation and violence to run the prison and force Andy to help hide his crimes. From his position of authority, he consolidates power and deploys cruelty, even murder, to neutralize threats.

Andy is innocent, and the warden knows it. But once he declares that he’ll never let Andy go, Andy knows it’s time to “get busy living or get busy dying.” If he doesn’t escape, he’ll never leave Shawshank, and his hope will die with him.

Andy uses the tunnel he’s been digging for over a decade to get away, but not before stealing the warden’s ledger. Once free, he sends evidence of the warden’s activities to the authorities, who come for him at Shawshank. Rather than face accountability for his crimes, the warden ends his life.

These two characters are bookends, one using the fear of hopelessness to push him to risk everything and gain freedom, and the other using a fear of exposure to push him to do anything to hoard power and control. Fear impacts both characters the same way, but they respond to it differently.

Common Antagonistic Responses to Fear

Just like every protagonist is unique, the same is true of villains, which means they each will react to fear in their own way. Here are some ways an antagonist driven by a deep fear may respond.

· Never becoming aware of it

· Actively refusing to acknowledge it

· Accepting it as something beneficial that should be nurtured

· Using unacceptable or unethical methods to keep their biggest fear from being realized

· Redefining their moral code as needed to keep their worst fear from happening

· Weaponizing other people’s fears against them

A hero is only as strong as the antagonist standing in their way. To make that adversary truly formidable, ask yourself: What’s motivating them? Why do they do the things they do? How will they respond to fear in general but also when confronted with a deeply personal fear? The answers to questions like these will help you build an antagonist who is powerful and authentic, requiring the hero to be strong enough to face and overcome them.

For more information about the universal nature of fear and its individual impact on characters, check out The Fear Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to What Holds Characters Back.

Becca Puglisi is an international speaker, writing coach, and best-selling author of The Emotion Thesaurus and other resources for writers. Her books have sold over 1.4 million copies and are available in multiple languages, are sourced by US universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world. She is passionate about learning and sharing her knowledge with others through her Writers Helping Writers blog and via One Stop For Writers—a powerhouse online resource for authors that’s home to the Character Builder and Storyteller’s Roadmap tools.

When You’re Right, You’re Still Wrong

Posted on April 22, 2026 by Terry Odell

When You’re Right, You’re Still Wrong,
Terry Odell

top of a bald man's head

I’ve been dealing with writing stuff I know little about recently, and I’ve turned to reliable sources for research. As so often happens, I end up relying on “It’s FICTION” as I write. My philosophy is it has to be plausible for the situation.

This brought to mind something from years and books ago. I had written the following:

Touching base about the accident. I noticed a couple of units pulling away from the scene not long ago. Wondered if you had anything you could share. The Yardumians are concerned about the missing woman. Told them I’d see where things stand.” Okay, so that was a boldfaced lie. But he figured the Yardumians were concerned, and if they’d asked him to, he’d have called.

When my critique partners got their eyes on it, one suggested either barefaced or bald-faced, which he thought were the “right” usages.

I’d thought I’d used a correct term, so I looked it up. I discovered all 3 usages could be considered correct. (You might like to read the article for yourself.) Curious, I posed the question on my Facebook page, and a short time later, I’d had over 1000 views of that post, and over 40 comments. (To put this in perspective, if I get 150 views of a post, and a dozen comments, that’s a lot.) Granted, Facebook isn’t a scientific sample by any means, but I found the results worth thinking about. It wasn’t the number of hits that was of interest to me, or the number of comments—rather, it was that there was no consensus. Boldfaced and Bald-faced were almost tied with 18 and 16 “votes” respectively, while Barefaced had 7 people saying that’s what they were used to hearing.

What does this mean for a writer? Clearly, no matter which term I used, there would be a whole lot of readers who thought I got it “wrong.” And, as my first critique group used to say, “Just because it’s right doesn’t make it good.”

This can happen a lot, given how many regional differences we have in our language. But it’s not only language; sometimes it can be a ‘fact’ that you get right but readers believe the truth lies elsewhere. Getting police investigation and forensics procedures right when your readers believe what they watch on television is reality can make them think you don’t know your subject.

An author friend who wrote historical novels used the term technology in her book, and her editor called her on it. Although she could document the word’s usage in that time period, she decided to change it simply because readers probably wouldn’t take the time to look up the word’s etymology.

When I was writing Finding Sarah, I wanted to thwart her efforts to get away, so I made the only car she had access to one with a manual transmission. People who drove stick shifts years and years ago (myself included) know that you can start the car by “popping the clutch.” I made sure the car was parked facing a tree so Sarah would have to use reverse, which complicated that solution. However, in reality, in modern cars with manual transmissions, you can’t even start the car unless you’ve got the clutch depressed. Sarah didn’t know that, but critique partners who’d driven stick shifts back in the day thought I was “wrong” when the car didn’t start.

What are the solutions? For Sarah, I had Randy explain it to her later. Readers might have thought I was ‘wrong’ at the beginning, but I hope they understood when it was explained. For cop procedures, it’s nice if you can have either another character or some internal monologue to explain that “life doesn’t work like television.”

As for my bold, bald, bare dilemma? Rather than have over half my readers think I’ve got it wrong no matter which word I chose, I did a write around and said ‘blatant lie’ instead.

How do you deal with people thinking you’re wrong when you’re right?

Find me at Substack with Writings and Wanderings

Terry Odell is an award-winning author of Mystery and Romantic Suspense, although she prefers to think of them all as “Mysteries with Relationships.”

We Become the Stories We Tell Ourselves

Posted on March 16, 2026 by Sue Coletta

The idea for this post began with a quote attributed to Michael Cunningham in A Home at the End of the World…

“We become the stories we tell ourselves”

This is especially true of writers. If you tell yourself, “I’ll never find an agent” or “My writing isn’t good enough to score a publishing contract,” chances are you won’t. Why? Because you’ve adopted a negative mindset.

Same principal applies to, “I can only write on weekends.” If you tell yourself you can only write on weekends, you’re already making decisions about your ability to write Monday through Friday, so if you slip behind the keyboard on a weekday, it’ll be more difficult to write. You’ve handicapped your creativity with a fixed (negative) mindset.

We’ve discussed fixed vs. growth mindsets before. I want to revisit the Mental Game of Writing *shameless plug for JSB* from a different angle, because it’s not discussed enough in writers’ circles.

RAY EDWARD’S THOUGHT EXPERIMENT

Imagine you’ve been given a treasure. This treasure, like all magical treasures, comes with conditions. While it’s an unlimited treasure, each day you can only take one gold coin. Just one. And every day you suffer from amnesia. When you forget you have this treasure, you lose a day of unlimited value.

How will you remind yourself to take the coin? Leave a note? Set an alarm? Phone a friend and ask them to remind you? How will you remember not to waste a single coin?

You already own this treasure. It’s called life. Consider this your reminder. Each new day offers endless possibilities, in life as well as writing. What will you do with your coin today? Will you squander it by scrolling through social media for hours? Or will you cash it in for its full value?

Look. We’re all guilty of procrastination from time to time. The trick is to prioritize your writing.

Every morning, I watch the sunrise. Not only does it inspire me, it grounds me with a positive mindset for the day. If you roll over and slap the snooze button, dreading the day ahead, you’ll start the day with a negative mindset. Things tend to roll downhill from there.

Have you ever heard a writer complain about being a lousy writer? That’s a fixed mindset. Their mind is made up. They will never write well. Period.

A growth mindset is positivity based. If that same writer said, “I may not be the best writer today, but I will be” they’ve flipped the script. Because now, they know if they continue to show up, they will improve.

See the difference?

The writer with the growth mindset is moving forward. The writer with the fixed mindset would rather complain about writing than study, hone, and implement their craft.

Writers aren’t the only ones who fall prey to a fixed mindset. It’s easy to do.

Do these excuses sound familiar?

Too much to do today. I’ll write tomorrow.
Can’t write now. I just worked an eight-hour shift.
Too tired to write.
Not in the mood to write today.
I’m not inspired.
I have writer’s block.

Every excuse is steeped in negativity, yet this is common rhetoric in the writing community.

Let’s pull back the veil on each one.

TOO MUCH TO DO TODAY — I’LL WRITE TOMORROW

When life shakes the to-do list in your face, it’s easy to avoid the keyboard. The problem is, tomorrow never comes. If you are a professional writer, or striving to become one, then you must prioritize your writing.

Can you carve out thirty minutes in your busy schedule today? How about fifteen? How about five? No one’s too busy to write a paragraph.

CAN’T WRITE NOW — JUST WORKED AN EIGHT-HOUR SHIFT

Writers all over the world work a full-time day job. Lee Child wrote his first novel during his commute to and from work. If you’re driving, can you dictate into your phone? Hands-free, please! I don’t want to cause any accidents.

Or write on your phone during your lunch break.

Or start supper fifteen minutes later than usual — after you’ve hit the keyboard.

Priorities, priorities, priorities. How bad do you want it? If writing full-time is your ultimate goal, you must continue to show up.

If you train yourself to write for fifteen minutes when you arrive home from work, the word count will continue to grow. An ever-increasing word count leads to confidence, excitement, and joy. There’s no downside. None. If all you have is fifteen minutes, you must protect that time. Tell your family and friends how much writing means to you. The house won’t burn down if you disappear for fifteen uninterrupted minutes, nor will your children starve.

Some days the words will flow. Other days they won’t. That’s okay. You still made progress. Don’t get caught up in evaluating your writing or hitting a certain word count right away, or you’ll backslide into a negative mindset. Celebrate the fact that you showed up.

TOO TIRED TO WRITE

With all the snow blowing I’ve done this winter, it’d be easy for me to use the “too tired” excuse. Battling Mother Nature does wear me out, but I also have multiple writing projects that need my attention. I take time to rest, enjoy a nice hot cup of tea, then hit the keyboard. If my hands hurt from squeezing the handles of my snowblower (a common problem), I may only squeak out 500 words that day — self-care is equally important — but at least it’s something.

NOT IN THE MOOD TO WRITE TODAY

If we sit around waiting to get in the mood to write, the WIP will languish on the hard drive for months, even years.

“The only way out is through.”

—Robert Frost

Here’s where having a solid writing routine in place makes all the difference. For me, it’s sliding on the headphones. Once I crank the music, the world fades away, my focus narrows on the screen, and I’m transported into my story. It’s a form of self-hypnosis. When I hear that playlist, my creativity soars.

Find a routine that works for you and stick with it. You may be surprised by how quickly you can jump into the zone.

I’M NOT INSPIRED

Seriously? I’ve never understood this excuse. What are you waiting for, a lightning rod to shoot from the sky? Lemme tell ya, watching cat videos on social media won’t inspire you, either. Stop wasting precious writing time. Slide on the headphones, or whatever works for you, and write something, anything, even if it’s only a paragraph.

If you don’t know what to write, review your writing from the day before. It’ll come to you. If you’re still stuck, go for a walk. Alone. And think about your story.

Planners may have a slight advantage over pantsers in this regard. If I know my next milestone in the story — first plot point, first pinch point, midpoint, etc., etc. — then I’m able to say, “Okay, the MCs need to wind up doing this or that. How do I get there from here?”

The answer may require research. Or the introduction of a new character. Or better yet, kill a character. Nothing kickstarts creativity faster than raising the stakes.

I HAVE WRITER’S BLOCK

Pah-lease. Writer’s block is nothing more than a negative mindset with a title attached. You’ve convinced yourself you cannot write for whatever reason. Flip the script in your head, and the words will flow like Niagara.

Perhaps, you’re overwhelmed. It happens. Take a breath. You’re okay. Move on.

Or maybe, real life has given you more than your fair share lately. Or you’ve written yourself into a corner. Figure out what the root cause is, but please don’t call it writer’s block.

Burnout is something else entirely — been there, done that, got the scars to prove it — the subject of which has too many variables to discuss now. Want me to cover it next time?

Maintaining a positive mindset takes work and perseverance, but you can do it… if you want to.

Therein lies the rub.

How will spend your treasure today?

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