Procrastination

IMAGE ID: A man is sprawled face down on a couch. A laptop sits on the floor next to him. One hand is lazily placed on the keyboard.

No matter what we call it, most writers struggle with procrastination. When we procrastinate, we might consider ourselves to be lazy. Once that thought crosses our minds, the negative internal dialogue starts, and then we’re caught in a cycle that can keep us from achieving our writing goals.

We ruminate over procrastinating, feel bad, procrastinate more, and feel worse.  

Experts say procrastination is related to the regulating of emotions, not poor time management skills. A 2013 study revealed that we often choose activities that promote “short-term mood repair” over “the longer-term pursuit of intended actions.”

Humans tend to avoid inherently unpleasant tasks, whether those tasks are difficult, boring, stressful, or scary. And let’s face it, writing is hard. Stressful. Maybe even scary. After all, we writers have a lot to say, a lot to share, and when we can’t accomplish that, we feel bad. Our emotions take over.

In those moments, organizing the holiday gift-wrapping supplies sounds better than sitting down to write.

Writing is a challenging endeavor, and not every session will be productive. As Ernest Hemingway famously said, “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” However, it’s important for writers to remember self-compassion, quiet the internal dialogue, and get to work.

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Image ID: Amy, a caucasian woman with brown hair and glasses, smiles facing the camera. Behind her is a large tree.

Amy Cecil Holm is Allegory Editing’s resident Copy Editor and Proofreader. As a copy editor and proofreader, Amy draws upon more than three decades of teaching college English to help authors polish their prose. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s degree in creative writing and has worked as a journalist, technical writer, and educator. Amy has taught courses in English composition, literature, creative writing, journalistic writing, business writing, and developmental reading, among others. She has a keen understanding of grammar, punctuation, and diction and uses her careful attention to detail to help prepare manuscripts for submission and publication.

What Kindergarten Can Teach Us About the Craft of Writing

Image ID: A teacher's back faces the camera. She appears to be holding a book. A small group of children of multiple races looks at what she's holding with rapt attention.

A number of years ago, during the height of pandemic lockdown, I spent a fair amount of time eavesdropping on remote kindergarten video meetings happening in the next room. (Shout-out to the amazing Mrs. Campbell!)

It was during that time, while listening in on my son's literacy lessons, that it occurred to me what valuable lessons kindergarten can teach us adults about the craft of writing. 

1. The first draft is for mistakes.

My son is the type of kid who loves to make up stories but hates to write anything down unless he's absolutely confident he knows how to spell it correctly. And because a huge focus of kindergarten is learning how to put letters and sounds together to make words, it was important during that stage that the adults in his life didn't just feed him the spelling of a word every time he asked. On the other hand, we didn’t want him to get so frustrated, fearful, or nervous that he didn’t put anything on paper at all. It was a delicate balance. 

Of course, as adults we have the luxury of spell-check. But we let our perfectionism, fear, or doubt hold us back in many other ways.

Perhaps you're like my son and tend to get in your own way. You do such a good job of convincing yourself you can't write, it won't be good, no one will like it, and your ideas are crap, that you cross out or delete every other sentence and keep rewriting and rewriting. By the time you're done with that day's writing session, not only do you have nothing down on paper, but you're so discouraged you want to give up altogether.

Or maybe you're like me and you want to make sure you accurately describe the tree your protagonist climbs, so you waste an hour googling pictures and reading about the textural nuances of willow tree bark.

The desire to get your details, your word choice, your story, and your plot exactly right is a great instinct. It's just not what a first draft is for.

A first draft is for mistakes.

You'll have plenty of opportunities to perfect it later. That's what rewrites are for. The first draft is for letting your creativity flow free and unencumbered. It's for allowing yourself the permission to get it wrong.

My son's teacher used the concepts of a supported release of control and inventive spelling to help kids avoid getting in their own way during writing time. She taught them, “You can do this, you have the tools, and if you get it wrong, that's okay—there will be time to fix it later.”

For our purposes, I suggest a freewrite exercise. A freewrite is where you set a timer and write without stopping. You can do this with or without a writing prompt (a phrase or picture to jump start your thought process). I like to do 20-30 minutes, but you can always start smaller and work your way up. Begin writing and don't stop until the timer goes off. No crossing out or erasing or hitting the delete button or going back and circling things and making notes in the margins. Just keep writing. If you get stuck, just write "I'm stuck, I don't know what to write" until you get unstuck. You can always make a note in parentheses to yourself to fact check something later, but don't stop or spend time dwelling on it—and absolutely NO GOOGLING!

When the timer goes off, go back and read your work. Fix things, change things, and research things. You may find you're in a groove and want to keep going. If that's the case, do it. There's plenty of time to rewrite later. This brings me to number two.

2. When you're done, you've just begun.

One morning, as I walked by my son's room, I heard his teacher offer this singsongy aphorism with classic kindergarten teacher enthusiasm. The class had just finished an independent activity, drawing a picture and writing a simple sentence to go with it. She reminded them that now it was their job to go back and add more details, check their spelling, and correct any upside down or backwards letters.

If I were only allowed to give a single piece of advice to writers, I would break out my best kindergarten teacher voice and sing them Mrs. Campbell's cheerful reminder: “When you're done, you've just begun.”

One of the most common mistakes I see with newer writers is a lack of understanding of the work required to get something publication ready or query ready. It's not uncommon for authors to complete dozens of rewrites of a single manuscript.

After your initial ideas-on-the-page draft—and after you take a beat to celebrate that huge accomplishment—that's when you gotta really roll up your sleeves and get down to it.

Here are some things to look for as you dig in to rewrites: 

Is your plot well formed?

• Does it have any holes?

• Is it believable within the world of your story?

Are your characters fully developed?

• Do they have clear and strong objectives, obstacles, and stakes?

• Are the character arcs well formed?

• Do the characters change in some way by the end of the story?

• Are the relationships between characters clear?

Then there’s your setting.

• Are your descriptions vivid?

• Do they evoke a sense of place?

• Do you use all five senses in your descriptions?

• Are there enough rich details to allow the reader to picture the setting?

And of course, dialogue.

• Is the speech of each individual character distinct?

• Does the dialogue move the story forward, or is it laden with too much exposition?

• What does the way the characters speak, and what they say, reveal about them—and is this what you intend to show?

We can’t forget mechanics.

• Have you checked for tense errors?

• Is the point of view consistent?

• Have you scanned for errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar?

Before you freak out, take a deep breath with me. You do not have to tackle this all at once, and you do not have to tackle it alone. Address one element at a time before moving on to the next, and when you’ve polished it as much as you can on your own, bring in an outside eye for feedback.  

The point I want you to take away is not a panic attack. Or that finishing your first draft isn't a huge accomplishment. Because it is! Not many people finish a complete draft of a manuscript. But a whole lot fewer people complete their first draft and persevere, putting in the work to rewrite and polish the manuscript.

What I do want to impress upon you is that it’s a lot of work. This is a marathon, not a sprint. I think knowing and mentally preparing yourself for that can go a long way toward setting yourself up for success.

As Mrs. Campbell might say: Alright class, this concludes today’s lesson. Now get out there and get writing!

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Image ID: Andrea, a white woman with brown, curly hair, stands in front of a tree. She wears a blue dress and is smiling at the camera.

Andrea Karin Nelson is the Founder & Executive Editor at Allegory Editing. In addition to her developmental editing work with published novelists, playwrights, and essayists, Andrea brings a unique set of experiences and skills to her editing craft. Twenty years as a writer and theater maker has developed her keen sense of story structure, plot and character development. Her plays have been commissioned and produced across the United States and performed in both English and American Sign Language. Fifteen years as a Master-Level, Certified Sign Language Interpreter has finely tuned her ear to the subtleties of language and the nuances of human interactions. And with over two decades as an educator, her teacher's heart allows Andrea to personally tailor her work with each writer. Click here to read an interview about Andrea’s journey founding Allegory. You can contact her at andrea@allegoryediting.com.

I Finished My Manuscript . . . Now What?

Image ID: A woman with light brown skin and dark hair, wearing a navy blouse with white polka dots sits before a laptop. Her fists are raised in celebration and her expression is ecstatic.

When I wrote my first novel, I was already a produced playwright, so I knew something about the writing process—but I knew nothing about being a novelist. Unsure what my next steps should be, I attended a writers conference in San Diego.

During the event, I met a freelance developmental editor. Through our discussions, I realized she was my next step. After a long conversation about my manuscript, she said, “Sounds great. Cut 50,000 words, then send it to me.”

As a playwright, I knew how many pages I needed for a full-length script. As a novelist, I was clueless about the appropriate length for a novel. But she knew instinctively, from years in the business, that what I had was too long. My draft was 120,000 words.

Mysteries, especially those written by first-time authors with a contemporary amateur sleuth, will likely do better in the 70,000-word range.  

I went home and cut 50,000 words. I could see immediately how much better, tighter, and more engaging that draft was. We worked together on that manuscript, and I’m still using the things she taught me back then.

It also dawned on me that I wanted to understand the industry side of publishing. So I set out to do just that.

More than a decade later, I’m still learning—in part because the publishing industry is always changing. But through research, workshops, conferences, and experience, I have a strong background in understanding the query process and why and how to work with agents and editors.

There were other bumps in my writing road, including signing with the wrong agent before I signed with the right one, and even changing my name. But all that history allows me to help other writers, both to improve their craft and to help them avoid some of the pitfalls I fell into.

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Image ID: Elena, a white woman with a dark blonde pixie cut is wearing a black jacket and looking into the camera. She is smiling with her chin resting on her fist.

Elena Hartwell Taylor is the Senior Editor & Director of Programming at Allegory Editing. In addition to working as a developmental editor and writing coach, Elena is a published author. Her most recent novel, All We Buried, appears under the name Elena Taylor. The Eddie Shoes Mystery Series appears under Elena Hartwell. Prior to writing novels, Elena worked extensively in the theater as a playwright, director, educator, and designer. She has taught writing and theatre courses at the college/university level for more than twenty years. She holds a PhD in dramatic theory and criticism, a Masters of Education with an emphasis in teaching theatre, and a BA in Mass Media Communications. For more information about Elena, you can visit her website and read her blog about authors, new books, and the writing process. You can contact her at elena@allegoryediting.com.

What is Voice?

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A strong voice allows writers to convey their artistic vision, playing with language, experimenting with style, and creating a work that is truly unique. It’s like a fingerprint, making the author’s work engaging and recognizable.

Consider the flowing, complex opening lines of Toni Morrison’s Beloved, in which the third-person narrator’s voice describes a family’s house as “spiteful” and “full of a baby’s venom,” chasing its inhabitants away:

“For years [they] put up with the spite in [their] own way, but by 1873 Sethe and her daughter Denver were its only victims. The grandmother, Baby Suggs, was dead, and the sons, Howard and Buglar, had run away by the time they were thirteen years old—as soon as merely looking in a mirror shattered it (that was the signal for Buglar); as soon as two tiny hand prints appeared in the cake (that was it for Howard). Neither boy waited to see more; another kettleful of chickpeas smoking in a heap on the floor; soda crackers crumbled and strewn in a line next to the door-sill. Nor did they wait for one of the relief periods: the weeks, months even, when nothing was disturbed. No. Each one fled at once—the moment the house committed what was for him the one insult not to be borne or witnessed a second time.”

In contrast, take a look at how Ernest Hemingway begins “Hills Like White Elephants,” using a straightforward, terse voice (with minimal punctuation) to set the scene for a short story that consists mostly of dialogue after the first paragraph:

“The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white. On this side there was no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun. Close against the side of the station there was the warm shadow of the building and a curtain, made of strings of bamboo beads, hung across the open door into the bar, to keep out flies. The American and the girl with him sat at a table in the shade, outside the building.”

A strong and compelling authorial voice captivates readers, drawing them into the narrative, providing consistency throughout a manuscript whether an author is writing fiction or nonfiction. Author voice is at the heart of how we write; it allows for expression and creativity, going beyond the mere transmission of information and adding a layer of emotion, tone, and style that can enrich the experience of both writer and reader.

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Amy Cecil Holm is Allegory Editing’s resident Copy Editor and Proofreader. As a copy editor and proofreader, Amy draws upon more than three decades of teaching college English to help authors polish their prose. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s degree in creative writing and has worked as a journalist, technical writer, and educator. Amy has taught courses in English composition, literature, creative writing, journalistic writing, business writing, and developmental reading, among others. She has a keen understanding of grammar, punctuation, and diction and uses her careful attention to detail to help prepare manuscripts for submission and publication.

What Makes a Good Author Website

IMAGE ID: A black keyboard with blank black keys surrounding keys that spell out WEBSITE in blue.

Like it or not, a large part of the world happens online. While this has been the case for quite some time, the pandemic has only further entrenched the internet as a place where we connect, discover, and consume.

Literature is no exception. Many of the in-person ways that authors traditionally connected with readers have been supplanted by online mechanisms. These days, it’s more important than ever for an author to have a strong online presence. And that starts with creating an author website that stands out. 

The team at Allegory Editing has put together these tips to help you build the best author website possible. 

How to create an author website 

Whether you’re sprucing up your existing site or starting from scratch, here is a list of some important items to keep in mind.

Up-to-date content

Make sure the event listings and launch dates on your website are current.

Proofread! Proofread! Proofread!

If your website is riddled with typos, readers may assume your books will be too. If proofreading is not your strong suit, consider hiring a professional.

Image is everything

Write Westerns? Your website shouldn’t be filled with cityscapes. YA author? Make sure your site isn’t populated with only pictures of adults. You get the idea. A picture is worth a thousand words—the images on your website should reflect the content of your writing.

Keep it fresh

Nothing says stale like a website that’s never updated with new content. Routinely add new blog posts, links, and other material to your page so that visitors have a reason to keep coming back.

A designer may be in order

You know what they say about first impressions. If your website is poorly designed and clunky, visitors won’t stay long. Poor color choices, backgrounds that make text hard to read, and too-small font are among the common design errors that result in an unprofessional-looking website.

There are many user-friendly programs out there to allow people with no coding experience to create slick, professional-looking websites. But even these programs require a familiarity with technology and a decent design eye in order to turn out an aesthetically pleasing, functional webpage. Be honest with yourself about your skill set. If you and technology just don’t mix, or you don’t spend much time on the internet and aren’t confident about what a good website should look like, it might be wise to invest in a professional. The cost may be more reasonable than you think, especially if you update the content yourself.

Let’s connect

Make sure to include social media links and a way to sign up for your author newsletter. Not on social media? Don’t have an author newsletter? Well . . . that’s a conversation for another time. ;-)

Your website should also include a way for people to reach out to you directly, either by email or a contact form.

Buy, baby, buy

Your website must include links to purchase your books. End of story.

Get an expert eye

The team at Allegory Editing can help you improve your author website. Contact us today to set up your website review or coaching session! 

In short

Creating an author website that stands out is a must. Whether you’re sprucing up your existing site or starting from scratch, it’s essential to pay attention to the details. By using our list of important items when assessing or designing your author website, you’ll be off to a great start. If you want further assistance, our new Author Website Review service is an excellent tool for ensuring your website is polished and professional.

Getting Curious About Sensory Details

A black-and-white line drawing of a brain, surrounded by line drawings of an ear, mouth, hand, nose, and eye with arrows pointing from the body parts toward the brain.

Close your eyes. Describe the place where you are right now. This is not a test of your short-term memory, but rather a way to focus on all the information you have at your disposal to write that description. How do you know where you are and what is around you? Most of us pay more attention to what we see than the other information coming in through our senses. What do you hear, feel, smell, touch, and taste? Is there anything else you can “sense”?

Try writing a description using only this nonvisual sensory information. Then, write a paragraph using only the details you can see. Which engages you more? Using powerful and relevant sensory details helps us pull readers in, making them feel like they're inside our stories, and it focuses their attention on what we want them to pay attention to. Master the use of sensory details and you have your readers in your power.

There are more ways to use this information in your writing than just showing what a character sees, feels, hears, touches, and smells. Consider that when you use a metaphor, you're tapping into sensory information. If you describe something as smooth as silk, your readers’ hands, on some level, feel the sensation of sliding over silk. In the same way, describing sharp edges, knives, and broken glass can cause a subconscious sensation of pulling away from danger.

As writers, we are often so engrossed in presenting our plot that we forget to use sensory details to our advantage. As I've surveyed writing over the last few months looking for how writers use sensory information, I’ve seen some great examples. Many are  about what things smell like, and that makes sense, because smell is so connected to memory. But as I close my eyes right now, I don't smell anything particularly interesting to write about. I feel the pressure of my chair against the back of my thighs. I hear the fan in the laundry room where I'm drying a sweater. I hear my dog shift on the pillow next to me. I feel the tightness of my fingers and the crick in my neck. There is a little bit of warmth on the side of my face coming from the window, and I taste a dryness in my mouth that tells me I should go get a glass of water. None of this means anything, though, unless I can connect it to something I want to tell you about.

That's the challenge. Once we know to pay attention to all the details available, and have gathered up relevant details to use, how do we connect the information to what we want to tell our readers? It could be as simple as those sharp edges and knives in the description of a scene where we want our readers to feel the danger the character is in. And it can always be more complex. Consider the other senses we have, like the odd sense that someone is watching us, or our ability to sense gravity. Could an odd sense of pressure in the head, as if someone is upside down, signal that even though the room looks right, it isn’t?

I invite you to get curious about how your favorite authors use sensory details. Set an imaginary alarm in your head to go off whenever you see sensory information in what you’re reading. Pause for a moment and reread the passages. Pay attention to which senses are being referred to, what information they're giving you, and how that's connected to the rest of the story.

Consider why the author added those particular details, and why they put them in at that place. In the same way, become curious in your own work about the choices you make unconsciously, and think about additional conscious choices that support your story’s aims. Sensory information is the ultimate “show, don’t tell.” Use it to your advantage.

If you're curious about using sensory details and want to consider more examples, please join me on November 14, 9:00-10:30 am (PST) for Engage the Senses, Engage the Reader: Mastering Sensory Details.

Happy writing!

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Christine Pinto is a Developmental Editor with Allegory Editing. As a developmental editor, Christine draws on her experience as a fiction writer and writing instructor. She holds a Certificate in Writing for Children and a Certificate in Editing from the University of Washington. Over a decade of experience teaching writing to children and adults, she has gained a deep understanding of the craft of writing and strong communication skills for sharing that knowledge with writers. Christine’s own journey as a writer informs her editing work with deep empathy for writers preparing a manuscript for publication. Her interests include historical and contemporary fiction, memoir, romance, fantasy, non-fiction, technical, business writing and writing for children. You can reach Christine at christine@allegoryediting.com.

Tips for Standing out in the Slush Pile

Image ID: Around a dozen tall stacks of paper fill the entire frame.

Querying is tough. It’s disheartening to spend years working on a manuscript only to have it dismissed by an agent who never gets past the first chapter, no matter how “good” the rest of the book could be. 

But agents shouldn’t have to read past the first chapter to get invested in a story.

I’m often asked if writers should send their first chapter or their “best” chapter with a query to agents or editors. This question always brings me up short. Shouldn’t your first chapter be as good as all the rest of the chapters?

Writers sometimes believe that later chapters are “stronger” because the stakes are higher and there’s greater tension. They say, “But my climax is the most exciting event!”

Of course it is! The climax better be the most exciting event, otherwise it’s not a climax. But that doesn’t mean that everything leading up to it isn’t engaging too, just in a different way.

Before reaching the climax, readers have to care about the characters, be drawn in by the plot, and love the author’s voice. All of those things are what agents look for in the opening chapters of a manuscript.

They don’t expect a first chapter to be the most exciting, because that’s not the role of a first chapter. If the first chapter was the most exciting, reading a manuscript would be all downhill from there, rather than ramping up with rising action.

If a writer tells me the first couple chapters aren’t that engaging and that things really get going by, say, chapter three, my first instinct is that the manuscript actually starts at chapter three. Oftentimes, those first two chapters are what we’d call exposition or backstory.

What’s the difference between exposition and backstory? I’m so glad you asked.

Here’s how I use the two terms: Exposition is background information that readers need to know to understand the story. Backstory is information that writers need to understand to build complex characters with clear motivations.

In other words, exposition is necessary information for the reader, and backstory is information the writer uses but doesn’t include in the work.

The first thing a writer needs to ascertain about their opening chapters is how much of the information presented is too much exposition or too much backstory rather than active scenes to engage the reader.

Once it’s clear what readers need to know (exposition) and what the author needs to understand (backstory), cut the pages anyway.

“But wait!” you say. “I thought exposition was necessary information!”

It is. But that doesn’t mean readers need it all at once or right at the beginning. Try this instead. Identify what in those opening chapters is necessary for the reader. Highlight that information or put it into a separate document.

Then cut the opening chapter(s) until the point where the manuscript takes off. That’s your new starting place.

Then, as you move forward, when you identify a place where the reader needs the exposition, sprinkle that information in.

Don’t do it in a long expositional paragraph or “info dump.” Instead, add the bare minimum through action, dialogue between other characters, or internal thoughts by the viewpoint character, letting that information come in as naturally as possible.

For example, rather than an entire chapter devoted to telling readers about a character’s divorce, consider this instead: 

 Jane walked into the bakery to discover her ex-husband and his new girlfriend standing at the counter. The girlfriend looked about twenty, and Jane wondered if she could legally buy a cocktail at one of the many restaurants that she and Robert used to frequent.

 Robert looked startled when his gaze landed on Jane’s face. “Nice to see you.” It was clear from his body language that he didn’t mean it.

 Jane turned on her heel and walked out. The last thing she wanted to do was exchange pleasant chitchat with the person who broke her heart and the woman who helped him do it.

With these few short lines I have shown the reader that Jane went through an ugly divorce because her husband started up with a younger woman. That’s all readers need to know in the moment of this scene.

 That’s what we call exposition, and it’s likely far more engaging than getting an entire chapter that discusses the divorce. As a writer, I might want to know more about the divorce, but the reader never needs to know as much as the author does about events that take place before the manuscript starts.

Further, we feel empathy for Jane because we have all likely experienced that moment of running into an ex when we weren’t expecting it, only to find the wound still raw. It’s show, not tell.

First chapters are not the most exciting chapters, but agents know that is not the purpose of first chapters. First chapters must pull readers in, with all the clues in place to show them that the ending will be worth the wait.

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Image ID: Elena, a white woman with a dark blonde pixie cut is wearing a black jacket and looking into the camera. She is smiling with her chin resting on her fist.

Elena Hartwell Taylor is the Senior Editor & Director of Programming at Allegory Editing. In addition to working as a developmental editor and writing coach, Elena is a published author. Her most recent novel, All We Buried, appears under the name Elena Taylor. The Eddie Shoes Mystery Series appears under Elena Hartwell. Prior to writing novels, Elena worked extensively in the theater as a playwright, director, educator, and designer. She has taught writing and theatre courses at the college/university level for more than twenty years. She holds a PhD in dramatic theory and criticism, a Masters of Education with an emphasis in teaching theatre, and a BA in Mass Media Communications. For more information about Elena, you can visit her website and read her blog about authors, new books, and the writing process. You can contact her at elena@allegoryediting.com.