Dishonesty Sucks

If there’s one thing that you really need in your writing, it’s honesty.

It’s important to be honest about who you are.

It’s also equally important to be honest about the subject you write about.

I saw a writing course last week about how to write novels quickly. But a fast Google search showed me that the person who wrote the course only had one romance novel (self) published and it didn’t look popular. So she was being dishonest about knowing how to write lots of novels and make lots of money as she was claiming to have done.

It reminded me of an incident that happened a couple of years ago when a driver stopped their car on a blind bend, which caused my daughter to run into the back of them.

The woman whose car she hit was claiming that there was thousands of dollars worth of damage to her car, even though the bump was only a bit of a tow-bar tap and her car looked fine.

She said her rear door was damaged, her bumper bar was split, and that there was interior damage to her car as well, and she went on to provided quotes for all the replacement parts.

We refused to give her any money so she took all three of us to court (my husband and I owned the car our daughter was driving so we got dragged into it too) but because the woman only had quotes for replacement parts and no proof of damage, her case was dismissed. And she was livid. It had cost her a lot of time and hundreds of dollars to bring the case to court. She was so angry that the security guard had to keep her there while we exited the courthouse first and they made sure we were out of sight before she was allowed out.

But her financial loss and humiliation was her own fault for being dishonest.

In life and in business it’s better to be honest because people aren’t stupid, and if they are then you don’t want them as customers.

Just be yourself, be honest in all you so and all you write, and it will help you to write better and earn more money.

http://ruthiswriting.com/books/7day.html

Why You’re Not Writing

Do you wake up every day inspired to write but time gets away from you and you end up doing hardly anything at all?

Do you want to write more every day but never seem to have the time?

Well, it’s probably because you don’t understand the importance of time.

Even more than that, you probably don’t understand how to efficiently use the time you have every day.

This is why I often talk about how useful it is to work in Pomodoros because they get you working quickly with better focus and no wasted time.

And if you’re like me, once you start writing, it’s easy to keep going.

Pomodoros also help because they keep you focused. And two hours of focused work is better than a whole day of distractions.

If you want to know where your time goes every day, you can time-map your days to see how you’re REALLY spending your time.

A time map will also show you how everything that you want to accomplish won’t fit into one day, which is why you’re often defeated when time gets away from you.

I’m always guilty of trying to cram too much into my days and then I get frustrated which leads to distraction and procrastination.

That’s why I love using writing systems like my 7 Day Ebook Writing and Publishing System which has clear steps to follow so that by the time you’ve worked your way through the book, your manuscript is written AND published.

http://ruthiswriting.com/books/7day.html

Not Your Mum. Not Your Milk

Last week, after going to the cinema, I was looking around for a good place to eat, and I stumbled across a place called No Moo Burgers.

It was a completely vegan cafe that had a huge range of burgers, so I went in for a healthy meal.

While I was sitting and enjoying my food (which was really delicious) I was looking around the place and noted that they really had a strong brand which was evident in everything around me.

For a start, the place was called No Moo Burgers which immediately told me that their burgers contained nothing from a cow.

The staff were wearing T-shirts which loudly proclaimed, Not Your Mum. Not Your Milk.

And every bit of writing on the menus, the walls and the front of the counter, was all about plant-based food, healthy diets and saving the planet.

They really had a strong brand and knew exactly what they stood for.

And as I ate I thought about how so many writers fail because they don’t know what their brand is.

They ‘wander' aimlessly not knowing what kind of a writer they want to be, so end up not doing much writing.

So what should they do?

The answer is to try a bit of every kind of writing to see what ‘floats their boat.’

If this is you, try it too. Try everything including freelancing, blogging, client work, books, ebooks, fiction, and non-fiction. 

One of them is bound to create a “Hell yeah!” moment.

And once you know what you want to write, just like No Moo Burgers, build your business around your best writing.

https://ruthiswriting.com/links/quickcash.html

Read my latest article about building a strong work ethic at 

https://ruthiswriting.com/articles/2019/freddy-mercury.html

What Drives A Great Novel?

We’ve all done it. Read a book and thought, “That was brilliant.”

And do you know what it usually is that makes a book great?

It’s a great character.

Novels are character driven.

This is because whatever is happening in a story is based around a main character and several other characters too.

Even in movies that seem to be action driven, there is always a character’s personal life to care about. Even in Batman there is Bruce Wayne and in Spiderman everyone wants to know what is happening to Peter Parker.

And it’s the same with a novel.

Readers don’t even have to like your characters but they do have to care what happens to them.

That’s why it’s important for you to know your characters intimately before you put them in your next novel. You need to write out a complete bio for each of them including their life history, their looks, their fears, their goals, their age, their families, their likes and dislikes, and everything else about them so that they seem real.

Then make sure that everything that happens in your novel affects them in some way.

Then readers will finish your book and think, “That was brilliant.”

And then they’ll be eager to read your next book.

Read more about writing a novel at How To Write A Novel When You Don’t Know How Or Where to Start.

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See my latest romance novel at mybook.to/TWIC

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Start Writing Your Book Today
http://ruthiswriting.com/links/writequickly.html