A WRITER’S JOURNEY Podcast #1: I Have an Idea! Nine Ways to Write a Book (Part 1)

I am excited to introduce this podcast, which is the first in a journey to help writers get from blank page to published (and beyond). In my first podcast with co-host, Sara Whitford (see her bio below), we discuss what to do after you come up with an idea for a book. In this two-part show, we delve into the different ways you can get started. I feel this is an important discussion because, as Sara points out, she lost two years just writing away before she realized her story wasn’t going anywhere. She confesses that she wouldn’t have wasted so much time if only she had tried one of these techniques. It won’t impede the creative process, I promise, to craft a novel outline. In this podcast a detailed discussion is given regarding the nine different methods writers can use to achieve this goal. Her are links to those resources we talked about:

1. Scrivener link (Sara’s favorite method)

2.  Index card link (my favorite method)

3. (ResophNotes) http://www.resoph.com/ResophNotes/Welcome.html

4. (TRELLO) https://trello.com/angelabooth/

5. (SNOWFLAKE) http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/articles/snowflake-method/

6. (SPREADSHEET) http://www.ehow.com/how_6679085_write-book-using-excel.html

7. (HALF HOUR NOVEL OUTLINE) www.creativewritingnow.com

8. (EVERNOTE) https://evernote.com  (more options: Notepad++, Zen Writer, Dark Room, and Write Monkey)

9.Three-Act Process  (write sentence summarizing beginning, then write sentence summarizing ending, and then figure out how you want to get from A – Z).

Helpful Hint: Even if you’ve already started your novel, you can still integrate one of these methods. In fact, Sara was one-third of the way into her debut novel when she was introduced to Scrivener.

Or you can subscribe to our podcast on iTunes at http://www.apple.com/itunes/affiliates/download/

About Sara Whitford…besides being one of the nicest people I’ve ever met (and a dear friend and my tech adviser and social media mentor), she is also a website designer/developer. She created my site and in fact, just did a major makeover on it last month. Didn’t she do a great job?! I still have no idea what SEO, HTML, metadata, and avatars are but thankfully she does! Sara has a B.A. in English from N.C. State and is the editor for Lookout Publishing.  And she has just completed the first draft for her first novel,  The Smuggler’s Gambit. www.sarawhitford.com

Stay tuned for our next episode of A WRITER’S JOURNEY: FROM BLANK PAGE TO PUBLISHED…