The Best Advice I, or Anyone, Can Give to Aspiring Authors.

"What advice do you have for aspiring authors?" is one of the most frequently asked questions of accomplished, published authors. The most frequent answer you'll hear is "Never let anything get in your way; don't let anything stop you. Keep reaching for your dream." And that's totally right. But it's a tired response, and I can't imagine most people wouldn't agree. I myself have never asked a successful, accomplished author "What advice do you have for me?" Because not only did I know that's the response I'd get, but it would be moot because I never, ever let anything get in the way of what I want (integrity persisting, of course). The aforementioned response is a copout, and I believe most people know that, even if it is true. Here's the advice I have for those who are aspiring to achieve a career in writing: Expect to do the goddamned work! Expect to run into obstacles and jump them like an Olympic hurdle jumper, and expect to become significantly frustrated. Writing a book is no cake walk, not even by a long shot. There are plots to be sussed out, characters to be created (and ideally made believable), there are premises to be designed, there are character arcs that need to be worked out and resolved, character struggles to be considered, and most importantly, there are facts to be checked. If you write a book like mine, which is Historical Fiction (accurate historical fiction, I might add), then be prepared to have your work seriously cut out for you! You’d better hit the library, or the book store, and save reputable webpages to your tool bar, and you’d better have your little red pen at the ready. Even better, make it a highlighter. Whenever I write I surround myself with the books I use to help me get to where I need to go in my story. My books have notes written in the corners, they’re dog-eared, they’re marked with post-its. I have a pile of notes with written dialogue that I then have to type in order to insert them into the chapters I was working on or will work on in the future. Maybe “pile” is the wrong word. A mountain of notes is more like it, and that’s not including all of the inserts (that’s what I call them) that I’ve dreamed up and had to quickly type into my laptop and save them for later use when the time came. You’re gonna want to cry over spilt milk, my friend, and that’s okay. Please do. Crying releases stress—that’s a scientific fact. Look it up. You’re going to have to give into that hated need to open your tired eyes after you’ve crawled into bed thinking only of sleep so you can write down that magnificent idea you’ve just come up with (if you can’t do that or are unwilling, how can you call yourself a writer? ALL writers are subject to this intrustion). If you truly want a writing career, then guess what comes first. Writing. Of course you probably have a job, but if you’re like me, it’s just temporary until my *real* job, my writing career (if you're a writer and you work for a corporation to pay the bills, you have two freakin' jobs--remember that! Writing IS a job), finally takes off, and it will, because that’s the attitude I have. And I have a good job, too. But I have no plans to move up in this company. If it happens, great, but it’s still temporary so that I can supplement my husband’s income to help pay the bills and have some disposable dollar bills. And, please listen to and understand me: You’re going be lonely, and you’re going have to learn to love it or lump it. You’re going be frustrated and want to throw tantrums. Throw them—just don’t throw them at anyone. And that loneliness I mentioned? I wasn’t kidding. Expect to be a shut-in. You have friends? Forget about them. I don’t mean to say not to call them on their birthdays or just to check in, but your book, just like a real baby, comes first. You’re not going to accomplish your dream of a writing career by dropping your effort to go out dancing, and those friends you’re out dancing with? They’re not going to worry whether or not you succeed. In that respect, those friends are not friends at all. Sure, you love them like a sister (or brother), but in the end, they can’t help you, and they more than most likely won’t. They don’t care if you finish the great American novel or not. Don’t drop your dream because you want to go out and have a good time. Take it from someone who’s been there in her early 20s. God do I wish I hadn’t dated that asshole and instead had finished my novel, which I completed, by the way, and then rewrote (second draft), and then abandoned to give my time to that waste of a human being. If this sounds like a rant, then good, because I want you to understand that I’m coming at you like a drill sergeant because guess what--*I* want you to succeed. Contributing to the intellectual medium of the world is a tremendous accomplishment and a pretty decent responsibility to have on your shoulders and one you can be proud of. So yeah, don’t let anything get in your way, keep on keepin’ on. But remember what I just took the time to tell you (and as you can see I didn’t worry about my writing technique here because I’m deadly serious, and I don’t have time to make my words flow like butterflies if I want to get my point across).

The Best Advice I, or Anyone, Can Give to Aspiring Authors.

"What advice do you have for aspiring authors?" is one of the most frequently asked questions of accomplished, published authors. The most frequent answer you'll hear is "Never let anything get in your way; don't let anything stop you. Keep reaching for your dream." And that's totally right. But it's a tired response, and I can't imagine most people wouldn't agree. I myself have never asked a successful, accomplished author "What advice do you have for me?" Because not only did I know that's the response I'd get, but it would be moot because I never, ever let anything get in the way of what I want (integrity persisting, of course). The aforementioned response is a copout, and I believe most people know that, even if it is true. Here's the advice I have for those who are aspiring to achieve a career in writing: Expect to do the goddamned work! Expect to run into obstacles and jump them like an Olympic hurdle jumper, and expect to become significantly frustrated. Writing a book is no cake walk, not even by a long shot. There are plots to be sussed out, characters to be created (and ideally made believable), there are premises to be designed, there are character arcs that need to be worked out and resolved, character struggles to be considered, and most importantly, there are facts to be checked. If you write a book like mine, which is Historical Fiction (accurate historical fiction, I might add), then be prepared to have your work seriously cut out for you! You’d better hit the library, or the book store, and save reputable webpages to your tool bar, and you’d better have your little red pen at the ready. Even better, make it a highlighter. Whenever I write I surround myself with the books I use to help me get to where I need to go in my story. My books have notes written in the corners, they’re dog-eared, they’re marked with post-its. I have a pile of notes with written dialogue that I then have to type in order to insert them into the chapters I was working on or will work on in the future. Maybe “pile” is the wrong word. A mountain of notes is more like it, and that’s not including all of the inserts (that’s what I call them) that I’ve dreamed up and had to quickly type into my laptop and save them for later use when the time came. You’re gonna want to cry over spilt milk, my friend, and that’s okay. Please do. Crying releases stress—that’s a scientific fact. Look it up. You’re going to have to give into that hated need to open your tired eyes after you’ve crawled into bed thinking only of sleep so you can write down that magnificent idea you’ve just come up with (if you can’t do that or are unwilling, how can you call yourself a writer? ALL writers are subject to this intrustion). If you truly want a writing career, then guess what comes first. Writing. Of course you probably have a job, but if you’re like me, it’s just temporary until my *real* job, my writing career (if you're a writer and you work for a corporation to pay the bills, you have two freakin' jobs--remember that! Writing IS a job), finally takes off, and it will, because that’s the attitude I have. And I have a good job, too. But I have no plans to move up in this company. If it happens, great, but it’s still temporary so that I can supplement my husband’s income to help pay the bills and have some disposable dollar bills. And, please listen to and understand me: You’re going be lonely, and you’re going have to learn to love it or lump it. You’re going be frustrated and want to throw tantrums. Throw them—just don’t throw them at anyone. And that loneliness I mentioned? I wasn’t kidding. Expect to be a shut-in. You have friends? Forget about them. I don’t mean to say not to call them on their birthdays or just to check in, but your book, just like a real baby, comes first. You’re not going to accomplish your dream of a writing career by dropping your effort to go out dancing, and those friends you’re out dancing with? They’re not going to worry whether or not you succeed. In that respect, those friends are not friends at all. Sure, you love them like a sister (or brother), but in the end, they can’t help you, and they more than most likely won’t. They don’t care if you finish the great American novel or not. Don’t drop your dream because you want to go out and have a good time. Take it from someone who’s been there in her early 20s. God do I wish I hadn’t dated that asshole and instead had finished my novel, which I completed, by the way, and then rewrote (second draft), and then abandoned to give my time to that waste of a human being. If this sounds like a rant, then good, because I want you to understand that I’m coming at you like a drill sergeant because guess what--*I* want you to succeed. Contributing to the intellectual medium of the world is a tremendous accomplishment and a pretty decent responsibility to have on your shoulders and one you can be proud of. So yeah, don’t let anything get in your way, keep on keepin’ on. But remember what I just took the time to tell you (and as you can see I didn’t worry about my writing technique here because I’m deadly serious, and I don’t have time to make my words flow like butterflies if I want to get my point across).

My Article in the Bucks County Courier Times and The Intelligencer - Reacing over 620,000 Residences

This article discusses my new book #Bandita Bonita: Romancing Billy the Kid. There were a few things left out--answers to some of the questions I had been asked, but nonetheless the article was a success. http://www.nicolemdixonauthor.com/page8.html

My Article in the Bucks County Courier Times and The Intelligencer - Reacing over 620,000 Residences

This article discusses my new book #Bandita Bonita: Romancing Billy the Kid. There were a few things left out--answers to some of the questions I had been asked, but nonetheless the article was a success. http://www.nicolemdixonauthor.com/page8.html

Lost Words: REWARD, IF FOUND: Success!!!!

If you're like me, you probably read a lot. And I mean A LOT! And because you read a lot, you probably know plenty of words. You probably know so many words--SO many words that you use expensive words where a cheap one will do, and if you had a buck for every time someone stared at you funny for using those words, you'd have many bucks!
 
If you're like me, you know more words than the average person, and if you're like me, then you've probably forgotten more words than most people will ever know. And if you're a writer like I am, then you may have a slight problem when it comes to choosing the right word without a thesaurus.
 
Now, most of the time, I don't run into this problem, but there comes the occasion when I've already used the perfect word twice in a paragraph, and though they are different, they basically mean the same thing. So when it comes time to use a third word that's relative, you blunder and hit a speed-bump.
 
For example:a
 
Perhaps her words did not upset him so much, but they angered me a great deal! She had a talent for speaking passive-aggressively, the underlying nastiness quite intentional. It (angered?) me to no end!

Strike that. How about: It frustrated me to no end?  Or maybe "incited"?

Okay, that was a simple one, but the point here is to make the point—that sometimes you need to express the same emotion, or describe with the same adjective, or use the same adverb, or discuss the same noun. The trouble is, well...you can’t, or rather, you shouldn’t, employ the same anything in the same paragraph, or worse, the same sentence. That’s one of the first rules you learn in writing composition.

Two things to do are these: When you’re not editing your writing, or critiquing a fellow author’s work, and you have time to settle in and read, highlight the words that stand out—words that are so straightforward and perfect, but words that you’ve nonetheless forgotten. Then, when you’re stuck, you can revert back to that book or those books and flip through the pages to examine what you’ve picked out.

Also, you can simply Google “synonyms for________” That’s my favorite thing to do when I’m stuck because it offers so many alternatives! Using the synonyms feature in Word is fine, but the relative words are not as abundant as you find using the Google trick!