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5 Writing Posts to Make You a Better Author

5 Writing Posts to Make You a Better Author – where am I going with this? I found these great articles teaching writing skills. Then I thought, “Maybe other people can benefit from these. Other authors, poets, non-fiction writers and students can all learn.

So tell me if you like this kind of blog post here.

5 Writing Posts – Your First Lesson

Just kidding! I thought I’d start with a laugh. Here’s the real article next.

Yes, that’s right. This initial post covers everything you should NOT do as a writer. It’s a simple list, but it covers most of the bad things writers can do and do do.

Your Next Lesson

Now you get a video tutorial on how to structure a book.

Various plot structures

The following quickly summarizes :

1. Hero’s Journey
2. Save the Cat – 15 beat story structure
3. The Plot Embryo
4. 27 chapters (3 act structure) Each act into 3 blocks and each block has three chapters.

Do I follow these structures? Not consciously. I seek to start quickly with a tense situation, and build through each chapter. I’ll have ‘relief’ chapters where I surprise the reader with new, interesting characters and conflicts, before returning to the big conflict. The problems build through the book until they’re finally resolved in a big climax. Then I throw in a twist at the end.

I did this for each of my books:

5 Writing Posts
Andy Zach’s novels

5 Writing Posts – Your Third Lesson

Now, let’s tackle that dreaded activity–editing after you’ve written your book.

My quick summary, in time order:

  1. Developmental editing – story structure and organization
  2. Line editing – making each sentence the best it can be.
  3. Copy editing – getting rid of stupid speling misteaks and grammar errorz and punctuation!!!
  4. Proofreading – how does the final copy look on the page? Font size, spacing, paragraphs, page breaks.

I just use items 2-4. I’ve never really had anyone criticize my structure so far. My editor for edit types 1-3 is Dori Harrell at Breakout Editing. She’s worked on Zombie Turkeys, My Undead Mother-in-law, and Paranormal Privateers.

For my latest novel, Secret Supers, just published last March, I tapped Leslie McKie’s expertise.

Aside from professional editing, she’s taught middle school and disabled children. She was perfect to edit my book about seventh-grade disabled superheroes.

5 Writing Posts
Secret Supers Cover

For my layout or proofreading edit, I use Rik Hall at Wild Seas Editing. He’s formatted all my books for print and ebook versions.’

Your Fourth Writing Post

More on plotting! I dislike any structure forcing me to write a particular plot, but I follow everything it says.

Your Last Writing Tip

Naturally, I couldn’t resist publishing another joke first. Your real, last tip comes next.

What can you learn from this lady?

  1. You’re never too old to start writing.
  2. Once you start writing, keep writing
  3. Publish what you write. You may finally catch on.
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Andy Zach’s Tombstone and News From the Net

Funny Novel

Andy Zach’s Tombstone and News From the Net

As I said in my previous blog post, I’ve been busy editing and writing my third novel, Paranormal Privateers. That hasn’t stopped me from surfing the net and Facebook and finding all kinds of stuff.  Let’s start off with Andy Zach’s Tombstone and epitaph, kindly supplied by my author friend GD Deckard.  Give him a follow if you like!

For those who don’t follow article links:

Andy Zach's Tombstone

Thanks to Affordable Markers for the free tombstone design service!

For those who aren’t familiar with my Ph.D. thesis, you can read about it here.

News From the Net other than Andy Zach’s Tombstone

First, here’s a wonderful library where you can spend a day–and a night.

Please reply if you’d like to spend a night here, like I would.

Next, we have this awesome, breathtaking video:

You may not know my first love was science fiction and before that, the US space program and astronomy. I remember tracking John Glenn’s three trips around the earth in pencil on the paper map of the world on my wall. I studied my wall diagram of the solar system endlessly. Then I got hooked on science fiction.

Sometime in the 70s, I discovered fantasy, probably through Tolkein’s ‘Lord of the Rings’.

What do you like to read?

If you want to simulate the solar system, here’s just the app to do it:

Final News about Andy’s Next Book, Paranormal Privateers

I’ve sent my book to my editor, Dori Harrell. I kept detailed statistics on my writing and editing. Here they are:

November 2017 – Nanoma writing month, I began the first draft.

Words/hour  Running total of words  Running total of time
1,008.64                     50,141.00                  41:03:00

Much to my chagrin, that encompassed only about half my book! I kept writing in December, but the holidays slowed me down.

Words/hour  Running total of words  Running total of time
630.00                    59,454.00               66:02:00

I wrote 20% as many words, but it took 50% more time! I kept writing in January and finished the first draft.

Words/hour  Running total of words  Running total of time
     779.41                   97,676.00               127:15:00

I worked as much in January as I did in November and December combined!

Then I edited in February. But that’s a story for another blog post.

Paranormal Privateers in Andy Zach's Tombstone
Cropped sketch of the back cover of Paranormal Privateers

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Paranormal Animal Author Portrayed: Andy Zach

Paranormal Animal Author Portrayed: Andy Zach

Perhaps you haven’t heard: Andy Zach, THE Paranormal Animal Author Portrayed by four different interviews. Here’s the first one, from August 4th:

The original interview is at the Working Title Blogspot. Check it out by clicking on this link.

The other interviews follow in reverse time order.

Paranormal Animal Author Portrayed: Part 2

Then there was this televised interview on WMBD Channel 31 in Peoria on August 1st.

These were in advance of my release of My Undead Mother-in-law on August 5th.

Paranormal Animal Author Portrayed
Get your “My Undead Mother-in-law” book by clicking here

Paranormal Animal Author Portrayed: Part 3

Then there was this previous blog post:

This is from Mackenzie Flohr’s blog, click here to go directly. This was published July 30th.

Paranormal Animal Author Portrayed: Part 4

No interview would be complete without my original video interview with the Midley Beacon in 2016:

 

 

This interview, when published on the Midley Beacon, led that paper’s website in audience hits for over five minutes!

Paranormal Animal Author Portrayed: What’s Next?

I had a detailed online interview by Jessie Sanders on July 31st. Here’s a portion of her email, telling you when you can listen to it:

your episode of Jessie’s Coffee Shop has been scheduled for: Fri, August 25, 9pm et.

You can go here to listen to her podcast interviewing me, Andy Zach, by clicking here.

Finally, When Did Your Writing Habit Begin, Andy?

Way back in elementary school!  In third and fourth grade, for English, we would write creative stories. I loved that! Later, in middle school (junior high, as it was called then) I wrote a humorous story about the Cleveland Indians winning the World Series. It was called, “The Rise in the Fall of the Cleveland Indians”.

Paranormal Animal Author Portrayed
Andy Zach, 6th-grade school photo

Then in high school, I wrote another comedy, “Gasso: the Thing from the Fume Hood”. That was my first paranormal animal work.

In college, I took a class in satire. What a delight! I wrote a parody of Barbara Cartland, a romance author who was wildly popular.

Sadly, I put aside my writing for thirty-seven years as I worked as a programmer, systems analyst, project manager, and Six Sigma Black Belt. I wrote a lot: I wrote non-fiction training manuals and many Bible studies, and a complete harmony of the gospels. But no paranormal animal parodies–until now.

First, on October 31st, 2016 I published Zombie Turkeys:

Get Midnight Zombie Turkeys Books Free Tonight!
Zombie Turkeys Print Cover. Click to download

Then, on August 5, 2017, I published My Undead Mother-in-law:

This will make you laugh
Click here to get the print copy of My Undead Mother-in-law.

And that catches you up with my writing history! Until next time, this is Andy Zach, signing off!