Writing in the Tiny House

Welcome to this week's episode of Writing in the Tiny House. A complete transcript of this episode will be provided after these few links.

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Check out the podcast The Writer's Way, hosted by Laurie Wright.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-writers-way-how-to-market-your-childrens-book/id1438673311

Here is the affiliate link to today's book review of The Ivies, by Alexa Donne.

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And here it complete transcript of this episode.

S1E18 Getting Started

[00:00:00] Devin Davis: And for the next few minutes, we're going to go way back before any of this was text, before any of it was paper. Before any of it was a book. And all of it was simply an idea baby. Today on Writing in the Tiny House.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to Writing in the Tiny House. I am your host Devin Davis, and I am a single father of boys living in a tiny house in Northern Utah. And I am here to talk about your idea for writing a book. [00:01:00] And I am here to show you that it is completely possible. In this episode we are going to go over the process of simply developing the idea before we even need to worry about getting into a normal writing schedule or before we know anything about writing structure or any of that, today on Writing in the Tiny House.

But first, let me tell you about a podcast I recently discovered. I discovered The Writer's Way, which was hosted by a woman named Laurie Wright. She is a best-selling author, and this entire podcast is dedicated around children's lit. So if you want to write a children's book this would be a very good resource for you. Be sure to pop over to the Writer's Way. I will have a link to that in the description of the show notes. [00:02:00] And i'm sure that will be an additional resource that all of us would enjoy.

So I want you to take just a minute and think about all of the different book ideas that you have likely had throughout your adult life, or maybe even earlier than that. Perhaps you had ideas for stories or for instruction projects or something in high school or junior high, or even earlier. I don't know, but I am sure that almost all of us has had the idea for a book at some point in time, whether it is fiction or whether it is non-fiction, whether it is a children's story, whether it is an adult story, whether it is kind of a certain activity for dummies. Who knows, but think back to that special idea that you had once upon a time. And we are going to talk about that.

We are going to talk about what it takes to develop an idea [00:03:00] and everything that you should at least have started. Before you sit down and put pen to paper or start drafting something in your word processing document. So let's first talk about nonfiction. What likely happened was you thought to yourself, I really wish that there was a book on this subject. And you looked around for it and that book didn't seem to exist. And if it did exist, perhaps it approached the problem in a way that you didn't like very much, or in a way that didn't work well for you, or it was an approach that was kind of off base.

And was just different. And you thought to yourself, you know, I bet that I could do a better job with this book, and then you thought about it and then you didn't do anything more about it with writing nonfiction. It's fine if it starts out [00:04:00] this way, in fact, with fiction, it starts out in a similar way.

If it is fiction, you likely saw a book missing. At least this is how it was for me. There wasn't a book that I wanted to read. And so I decided, or at least I read a meme online on Facebook somewhere that said, write what you want to read.

And so for me, I sat there and I thought this through and I was like, what do I want to read? I was sick of adventure novels. It seems at the time, it, especially in fantasy, there are a million adventure novels, and I wasn't interested in reading another one. I also didn't want to do first person point of view. I didn't want to read another first person point of view story. And I wanted something with a more [00:05:00] complex storyline with heroes that mattered and with bad guys that were relatable. All of these different things. I wanted that. And so this is what got me started with writing the book that I started back in December.

I just wanted that book to be available. I wanted that book to be on the shelves. I wanted to read that book. And so I decided to write that book. So once you have your idea, there are a million different ways to develop that idea. And for me, it involves talking to others. For other people, sometimes it involves research and for me, it also involves research.

So there are a lot of different parts. It can be research, it can be talking it out. It can be outlining, it can be journaling. It can be doing a [00:06:00] blog or a poll on Facebook or on your social media or whatever it is. Now that that seed is in your brain, it's time to flesh it out and see if it is worth pursuing or to see if you know how to pursue it.

So with nonfiction, It can be talking to your friends and family, talking to your mom. Most importantly, though, talking to somebody who needs it. So if you are a person writing something on baby care or on raising small children, it would be valuable to speak to mothers who need that type of information or to newlywed couples or to divorced moms or divorced dads or whatever. It wouldn't seem to be the very best to speak to grandmas or people who are no [00:07:00] longer raising children. Or teenagers. Hopefully they're not raising children either. So it's important to find at least a selection of people who would be in your target audience.

Or at least your target customer for that book. And to see if this would be something valuable and discuss it with them. There are reservations about sharing ideas with other people. Like what if somebody rips me off or if somebody tries to steal my idea? Here is the reality of that, friends. When it comes to the premise of a book. Now with the instructional books, it's different, especially since we live in a world that is constantly growing and changing and people need to have specific instruction for some of these new things. But when it comes to other genres like self-help, or just fiction in general, there are.

A million different [00:08:00] formats. There are a million different themes and all of them have been written before. You can find a million different books that have a love triangle. You can find a million different books that are adventure novels. You can find a million books of enemies to lovers or whatever.

These different themes in literature, we call them tropes. You won't be able to find one that has not been done before. And so even if you are talking about your idea in a very high concept way, odds are, you're not saying anything original quite yet. And even if you get down into the nitty gritty of what the plot would actually be.

See originality comes in the execution of that idea. The originality comes when you write it and you yourself tell the story or explain the thought or develop the [00:09:00] concept.

It is not very probable that somebody is going to steal your ideas just because writing is such a hard job to do. It's such a big deal that I personally wouldn't worry about somebody stealing my ideas, just because then they would have to draft your book and then they would have to edit your book and then they would have to do the beta readers for your book.

And the list goes on and on. So we don't really worry too much about people stealing our ideas, especially when it is such a new idea. So you make sure that the ideas appear to be thought out enough for you to get started. It is absolutely. Okay. . If the concept of approaching your book gives you hives that having the entire book planned out is not a good idea.

That is how I am with my books. I don't plan out everything. I simply know where I need to get in each section of my book. I do not plan out the dialogue. I [00:10:00] don't plan out the other things. This is some people call it "pantsing." Flying by the seat of your pants when it comes to writing. Other people call it discovery writing.

And I actually prefer that term, though I think that both terms are kind of dumb, but this is when you simply know where you need to go. And so you sit down and let that organically happen. You let that spill out of your brain onto your word processor. And you get there, you know the bare minimum of where your story is headed and you discover everything along the way.

You don't need to have the entire novel mapped out from start to finish. And I would imagine for most big projects you don't have to, that is why it's possible to revise stuff. I would imagine that even with non-fiction work, if you sit down and start, it is possible that other things will come up; additional research or another point of view or another application to whatever you are trying to do. [00:11:00] Different things will come up and you'll want to include that in your manuscript.

And that would require you to go back and add it in. And so revision is an integral part of every big project like this. So it's okay to just kind of get started. It's okay to be at a place where you think that you have enough pieces to put together those first few pages. And I'm not going to go over the actual writing in this episode, but I will say the first few pages of your manuscript are going to be the ones that you revise the very most, and they are the ones that you will want to revise once you are started. Once you don't have any more than six pages written, you're going to want to go back and revise and revise and revise until those six pages are perfect.

I'm going to tell you that it is not time for that. [00:12:00] Let the future you worry about revising that first chapter or that prologue or whatever you're doing for your book, just because the future you, after you have finished this first draft, knows your story better or knows the content of your non-fiction book better than you do now.

And they will be in a better way to write that really important introductory first chapter or prologue or whatever it is for you. So it's kind of a shorter episode today, but this is what I did for my book. I shared with you guys last week, that for the book I'm currently writing, I wrote the prologue probably two or three years ago.

I had the idea bubbling around in my brain. I alluded to the fact that I wanted this type of a book to be on the bookshelves and I couldn't see where that book was yet. So it was up to me to [00:13:00] write it. But I had these six pages written. I had the premise kind of figured out, how the narrator fit into the story.

It was structured differently and it was fun and it was entertaining. And the people that I brought in and read that first prologue to really liked what I had written. And they really liked the premise of my ideas, how it was all starting and where it was all going. It seemed to be a promising thing.

But it wasn't until last December that I finally decided to tackle it. And the way that I did it, the way that I chose to develop my storyline enough so that I could get started with writing, I went over to my friend's house. And. I brought over scraps of paper and we wrote down names and we wrote down events and we just started to piece together the way that this complicated timeline would work out.

And then other nights I [00:14:00] came over and I brought over my watercolor set and my friend went on Pinterest and started a Pinterest board so that we could get the visuals of what things looked like of what the colors were like, of what the textures were like. And so she was putting together a Pinterest board while I was watercoloring what a green house would look like and what this woman wearing a gray dress could look like and whatever else.

And I had those things, I've kept those things. And then I felt that I had prepared enough to get started. Like I said, I am not the person who will sit down and plan out every little bit of my book from beginning to end and then start drafting. I am the person who will prepare just enough so that I have something to write right now.

And there is a certain [00:15:00] amount of joy and excitement that comes with discovering the book along the way. So that is how I have approached my first drafts. That is how I have approached my story ideas. And that is how I would do it if I were writing a non-fiction book. So let me know what your ideas are.

Be sure to message me. You can direct message me on Instagram. My handle is @authordevindavis.

And very quickly just to wrap things up, I do want to do a very short book review. The book that I want to mention on today's episode is The Ivies, by Alexa Donne. This book is a young adult boarding school thriller of people trying to get into college into the Ivy league colleges. And it is fun. It is a wild [00:16:00] ride. It has wonderful memorable characters. Everything in it was completely believable. It had a nice, fast pace. And for a YA boarding school thriller I definitely give it four out of five stars. Go ahead and check it out, guys. Thank you for tuning in to this episode.

Again, don't forget to check out the podcast The Writer's Way, hosted by Lori Wright. It is a podcast dedicated towards uh, children's authors so if you are hoping to write a children's book this should be a good resource for you. If you wish to support this podcast and help me out with producing it in that way, by offering money, go to. patreon.com/writinginthetinyhouse and become a patron.

Otherwise be sure to join the Facebook group [00:17:00] of Writing in the Tiny House . It's a pretty small group right now, but it will get bigger the more people join. So thanks again. Guys, and we will see you next week on Writing in the Tiny House.

Welcome to the show notes of this episode of Writing in the Tiny House. In this episode Devin takes things a bit deeper with his relationship with creative writing. He shares the experience of his first story, the silly things he wrote in college, the awesomeness of releasing his second book just six weeks after getting married, then how creative writing has served him throughout the difficult time of his divorce.

If you find this podcast to be valuable, consider becoming a patron so it can keep growing.

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Here is an overview of today's episode.

00:00--Intro

00:18--It's Pride Month! This week's question is "What are your thoughts about writing diversity?"

05:42--How I get across the finish line.

06:32--We're having a special at the end of the month with my friend Whitney, and it's going to be about the benefit of Bookstagram in promoting books!

06:57--8 Practices. These are not recommendations, simply what I do.

08:01--Set goals and deadlines so progress can be measured.

09:05--Develop a routine and prioritize that routine.

09:51--Stretches, because keyboarding is hard on the body.

10:35--Progressively improve my word count. Before I was only capable of about 500 words; now I'm up to 2k and counting.

12:20--Eating healthy food made at home and getting enough sleep.

13:45--Read. A way to improve writing is to see how others are doing it.

14:37--Know when to throw your goals out the window, and create a bare minimum goal. For me, it's two shitty pages. That is achievable every day.

18:26--Try new ways to get things done, and let it be okay if those things don't work. This gives you more possible ways to accomplish your goals.

20:55--Book reviews. The first book is Beartown. Here is the link.

Amazon US

The second book is Us Against You. Both of these are by Fredrik Backman.

Amazon US

Be sure to leave a review, and follow me on Instagram @authordevindavis.

Here is an overview of today's episode.

00:00--Intro

00:14--New logo! Please let me know if the old one is what you see so I may fix it.

01:12--Importance of self-care and seeing old friends, especially after this past year of isolation.

01:52--Last week's question was "How do you deal with an increased workload?" And these were the responses to that.

03:32--This week's Question of the Week is, "What are you doing today to measure your success?" Please send a response on today's Instagram post @authordevindavis.

04:44--Goals have changed because my entire book has changed.

05:34--Art is a pull to self-express. When pour so many hours of our lives into it, it can feel like this project is our baby. But when we hope to sell our art it becomes a juggling act of our self-expression mixed with what people actually want. "Kill Your Darlings" means being willing to change or abandon a project to meet market requirements.

11:17--Revision is another form of practice, and practice is how we get better at anything.

12:37--Tranditionally published author Alexa Donne showed that a break-out novel is usually 100,000 words. People write longer than this, but not with their breakout novel.

15:35--For a debut novel, publishers push for 100,000-word manuscripts because they are more affordable to print than longer books.

16:22--The realization that my book was far too long. But I'm willing to pivot and to be flexible.

18:00--Restructuring my novel so one of the subplots is now its own books. Scrivener made this restructuring easy.

19:40--New things to figure out. Pacing to fix. Ideas to further develop. And a new character that I'm not acquainted with yet.

23:08--Outro. Leave a review on your podcast app. And follow me on Instagram @authordevindavis

Krissy Barton, owner of Little Syllables

www.littlesyllables.com

Instagram: @littlesyllables

In today's episode:

00:00--Intro

00:12--Announcements. May was a shout-out to Editors, and we conclude that with this special.

01:02--My IG handle has changed back to @authordevindavis and will stay that way. Question of the week: How do you responde to increased work load? DM me on IG and we'll discuss this next week.

04:08--Word count goals. The setbacks have been realistic, and it's cool to know that.

06:18--This show will have new artwork starting next week, or maybe the week after that! So look for the new asthetic.

07:11--Interview Intro

07:52--Krissy introduces herself and gives her background.

09:08--Publishing is complicated. So many people have a book inside them. Don't skimp on the editor.

10:30--Krissy describes three of the four types of editing. Developmental Editing is big picture, like plot and character arcs. Line or Stylistic Editing is flow and pacing. Copy Editing is mechanics.

17:21--How to guage a client. Krissy speaks about the project with the client, and requests a sample edit.

19:55--Common easy things that can be picked up on a sample edit include dialogue issues, repetative phrases, "ly" adverbs, and more.

23:05--Proof Reading is the fourth type of edit. They are the final eyes on the project before the project is printed. It's all about format and typos. In this section we talk about formatting, including the program Vellum.

28:19--The expense of a good full edit is 1 to 3 cents per word. Beware of flat-rate editing packages. A good edit for a 100,000-word manuscript should cost between $1,000 to $3,000.

34:15--Budget! Self-pub is doing it all on your own, so start a setting aside money for your editor NOW! And if you're querying an agent, your manuscript should go to copy editing before querying.

38:37--Working with Authors. Editors work FOR and WITH you. Almost all changes are tracked inside the manuscript to be approved. Expect your editor to be positive, honest, and encouraging.

45:06--Editors are coaching the author to improve their writing. They will put together a style sheet, and you need to hang on to that for your proofreader!

52:30--Outro! Please leave a review for Writing in the Tiny House on your favorite podcasting app!

Here is a breakdown of today's episode.

00:00--Intro

00:11.5--Introducing our guest, Whitney. She is a bookstagrammer, and she will be doing a special with me next month on the value of bookstagram in promoting a book. @read.ridinghood is her handle.

01:12--Outline of today's episode.

02:08--A one-minute spot from writer and editor Elizabeth Suggs. Here is her information.

Elizabeth Suggs, Owner of Editing Mee, www.editingmee.com, ctpfiction.com

03:00--The value of horror. When it's not just blood and guts and cheaps boos, but a look at the serious darker parts of life. Mentions the Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor.

07:12--BAD ADVICE, with Whitney! We share with you the WORST WAY to write a horror novel by sharing some cliches and some tired tropes of the genre.

10:03--The book review of World War Z, by Max Brooks. Please use one of these affiliate link to check out this book and help this podcast at the same time!

Or use this link:https://amzn.to/3hBvBHL

13:12--Outro. Please help the podcast out by leaving a review. 5 stars is great!

13:51--Bloopers!

Follow me on instagram @writinginthetinyhousepodcast

This is why any thinking person should read short stories.

Here is the Amazon affiliate link to today's book review.

Here is the information to today's editor, Kirsten McNeill:

[email protected]

www.kirstenmcneill.com

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This episode is all about why good dystopian fiction is so awesome!

Also, May is the month we celebrate editors! This episdoe includes a spot from Suzanne Kimball Rekow. Here is her contact information:

Suzanne Rekow

www.suzannekimballrekow.weebly.com

[email protected]

801.427.6438

Be sure to contact her for all your editing needs.

Also, follow this link to access the book collection in today's review:

Follow me on Instagram @writinginthetinyhousepodcast!

And leave a rating on the app through which you listened to this episode!

See you next time!

The good that comes from reading quality romance.

Today's book review:

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Why you should read Mysteries!

The book review for this episode is A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. Check it out by following this link:

Follow the links for more info.

https://authordevind.carrd.co/

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