Saving Some Time - Keeping Momentum

     You're on a roll with a good story.  As you write, the name of a particular town escapes you.
You stop writing, go online, and look up the area where your story takes place in hopes of coming across the  town you can't remember. OR...
     You're writing a series and working on Book Two. You can't remember the name of the friend of your main character's sister. So you go into your saved files and retrieve the manuscript for Book One and attempt to search for the friend's name by looking up every reference to 'friend' since the name has been forgotten. This could take minutes or it can take an hour.
     Sometimes when we interrupt the flow of the story with research, we lose the momentum.  It's better to jot down what you need to look up on a piece of paper and tape it to your monitor or in a place you'll be sure to see it later on.  Then keep writing and simply type..............for the forgotten name of the person or town.

     In my case it was the name of a horse in my Book One Amish novel that I needed to carry over into Book Two. I couldn't use the 'find' feature in WORD, because, as in the example above, about the sister's friend, I forgot the name!
    Instead, I typed..................to indicate where the name of the horse should be, made a note of what page this was on, and kept writing. Later on, when writing time is over, I can look up the horse's name.  Or perhaps the next day, but certainly before submission. And especially if you are an independently published author and don't belong to a critique group.
    I came across an Amish series novel recently where in Book Two, the author used a different female name for what was supposed to be the same character from Book One. They both began with a 'D' but the name had been changed. Deborah became Dina. At first I thought it was another girl. The point is, to remember to go back and make the changes and/or fill in the blanks you reserved for research at a later time. Otherwise you'll have many baffled readers. In the meantime, enjoy the momentum and save the blank spaces for later.

   Note to self: Page 18 - hero's town needed. Simple enough.

  

Some Great Quotes About Writing-

     Sometimes it's encouraging and satisfying to read the thoughts and advice of other writers. I am sure many of us can relate to a few (perhaps all) of the following quotes taken from an online article by Zachary Petit , an award-winning journalist, the senior managing editor of Writer’s Digest Magazine.
 

 “Just write every day of your life. Read intensely. Then see what happens. Most of my friends who are put on that diet have very pleasant careers.”
—Ray Bradbury, WD

 “Write. Rewrite. When not writing or rewriting, read. I know of no shortcuts.”
—Larry L. King, WD

 “We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”
—Ernest Hemingway

 “I don’t care if a reader hates one of my stories, just as long as he finishes the book.”
—Roald Dahl, WD

 “The road to hell is paved with adverbs.”
—Stephen King

 “The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book.”
—Samuel Johnson

 “If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can’t allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative.”
—Elmore Leonard

 “I would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career that before developing his talent he would be wise to develop a thick hide.”
—Harper Lee, WD

 

 “Keep a small can of WD-40 on your desk—away from any open flames—to remind yourself that if you don’t write daily, you will get rusty.”
—George Singleton                                            

“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is … the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”
—Mark Twain

 “Plot is people. Human emotions and desires founded on the realities of life, working at cross purposes, getting hotter and fiercer as they strike against each other until finally there’s an explosion—that’s Plot.”
—Leigh Brackett, WD