Author: Elizabeth Spann Craig

Elizabeth writes the Memphis Barbeque series (as Riley Adams) and the Southern Quilting mysteries for Penguin and writes the Myrtle Clover series for Midnight Ink and independently. She also has a blog, which was named by Writer’s Digest as one of the 101 Best Websites for Writers. There she posts on the writing craft, finding inspiration in everyday life, and fitting writing into a busy schedule.

Keeping Track of A ‘Done List’

Motivation and the Writing Life

Smart phone shows handwritten to do list and the post title, "Keeping Track of a Done List" is superimposed on the top.

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig 

Sometimes I go through patches where I feel as though I can barely catch my breath.  I’ll be wrapping up one book, trying to promote another, answering emails, and still trying to keep up with everything at home.

I’m a huge fan of lists and I make at least two lists a day, prioritizing what I need to work on next.  I think I’m a good list-maker: I do take large tasks and break them down into smaller, more manageable bits. I make sure that I don’t put too much on my list for one day.

But somehow, it can seem so overwhelming that I can complete a full day’s work and still feel as though I haven’t really made any inroads.

That’s when I review all the items that I’ve checked off my to-do list.  Since I use a digital list (on Notepad, which comes built-into Windows), instead of deleting tasks off my list, I put an asterisk by them to indicate that I’ve completed them.  Then I can easily see how much I was able to knock out.Continue reading

The Right Way to Make Excuses

Motivation and the Writing Life

Two friends jogging on a wooden bridge are in the background while the post title, "The Right Way to Make Excuses" is superimposed on the top.

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I think it’s really helpful to know your most productive time of the day.   That way, you can arrange your calendar (if you have that luxury) to knock out the most important things while you have the energy and the willpower.

For me, it’s very early in the morning.  A normal day for me is to get up, peek at emails on my phone while getting ready (I won’t allow myself to respond, though…no one’s really up at 5:00 anyway), go downstairs, let the dog out, and start writing.  After I meet my goal, I usually schedule social media.  Then my daughter is up for the day.

When my daughter leaves for high school at around 6:45, that’s when I also hop in the car, heading for the gym. This works out really well for me.

But my daughter was sick one day recently and I started making excuses not to go to the gym at my usual time.  She was parked behind me.  It was especially cold…perhaps it would be better to go to the gym when the sun had actually come up and it was warmer.

Then I started making excuses not to stay home.  The gym would be busy later on and I had a conflict that would keep me from going in the afternoon.  I didn’t want to have to wait for a treadmill or struggle to find a parking place.  It was then or never.

I’d basically talked myself into going.  I never enjoy going to the gym, but I feel good after being there.

Every once in a while something will happen that will disrupt my morning writing routine, too.  Writing is practically muscle memory at 5 a.m, but if I’m knocked off-track, it’s harder to drag myself back.

What helps the most is to make excuses not to check social media (or whatever else is to distract my attention away from writing).  That’s actually pretty easy to do:  I never feel better about life after checking Facebook. Or I know that I’m going to regret losing that 30 minutes on Twitter later instead of tackling all the tasks that are looming over me.

This is a very simple approach, but it works because I’m a pretty simple person.

For other posts on fitting writing into your day, check out: 

How to Write When You Don’t Have Time by September C. Fawkes  (a medley of ideas, including working smarter instead of harder)

Three Steps to Begin Tiny Habits to Help You Reach Your Goals by Lorna Faith (if it’s your fears that are holding you back)

Five Morning Habits to Add to Your Writing Routine by Emily Morgan (if you want to start writing in the mornings or if you want your morning writing habit to be more consistent)

Six Simple Tips to Create Daily Writing Habits by Pamela Hodges (an article that focuses especially on the fact that small goals can help us be more productive…a philosophy that I ascribe to)

How do you make sure that you knock out your writing?  Do you ever have to talk yourself into writing?

Making Excuses to Write: Click To Tweet

Photo on VisualHunt.com

Twitterific Writing Links

Twitterific

Bluebird with beak open and 'Twitterific Writing Links' by ElizabethSCraig superimposed on the image

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 45,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers.

Have you visited the WKB lately?  Check out the new redesign where you can browse by category, and sign up for free writing articles, on topics you choose, delivered to your email inbox!  Sign up for the Hiveword newsletter here.

New Stuff to Try

Reedsy now has a free curated directory of 100+ writing exercises and prompts.    I have an entry there. :)

Here’s something a little different for anyone struggling with writer’s block or for someone who can’t move forward with a story because of a desire to edit.  Floor 23 (free for 2 weeks with no credit card needed).  Title your work, set a word goal for your session, and start typing.  The words fly away as you type…and are retrieved for you later after your session is over.  Created by Patrick Krabeepetcharat. 

Continue reading

Keeping a Series Interesting Twelve Books In

Writing Tips

A hand is flipping through a book's pages and the title of the post, "Keeping a Series Interesting Twelve Books In" is superimposed on the top.

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I’m a fan of series…both reading and writing them.  As a reader, though, it really bothered me when my favorite series would get stale or if I felt as if the writer was recycling plots and other elements.

I published book twelve in the Myrtle Clover series in January and am planning a 13th release in the same series later this year.  This has caused me to be a lot more deliberate with my plotting and with the other ‘layers’ that I include in my stories.  The last thing that I want is to disappoint readers.

Thinking it through, I made a list of elements that I either appreciated from other long-running series, or wished that those series would have used to pique my interest.   Here’s what I came up with:

Use unique descriptions for staple characters and settings.  One thing I noticed in one of my favorite series is that the author seems to cut-and-paste the descriptions of her protagonist and other recurring characters from older books to the new one.  In some ways, this can be a fun inside joke (I loved Agatha Christie’s descriptions of Poirot as having ‘an egg-shaped head’, for example), it might be good to come up with fresh ways of describing characters and settings.

Offer up any details that have never been mentioned (and immediately add these details to your story bible).  I realized I’d never actually named the street that Myrtle lived on, for example, or talked about her sidekick’s family.  Incorporating interesting details can help readers stay interested.

Dig into the protagonist’s backstory.   While this is something that would likely be tedious in book one, you have the luxury of a reader’s interest by book 12 or 13.  It’s just important that we handle it in a way that we don’t lose their interest.  I’m exploring having a friend from a protagonist’s past reappear and cause trouble in a future mystery.

Can characters grow while still remaining consistent? One good thing about being this far into a series is that you really know your characters.  It’s possible to have a lot of fun with that by putting your characters in situations that make them uncomfortable…or just new situations, altogether.  They could start a new job or a new relationship.  The most important thing to consider is … does it feel forced or natural? Does it serve the story and the reader?

Related to the above, but a bit more external: Are there new elements (new characters, new situations, new setting, new setbacks) that can be naturally added to help the characters continue growing and help the readers discover more about them?

Specific to mysteries: Make the mysteries more complex.  Have two separate murderers, change the number of victims, increase the clues and red herrings.  Add or reduce the number of suspects.  Play around with locked room  or manor house set-ups.

The point is that we should make sure that the series is still satisfying for our readers (as well as for ourselves).   By putting a little extra thought into the process, it’s really not that hard to do.

Do you have a long series?  How do you keep it fresh?  As a reader, what has kept you reading longer series?

Tips for keeping reader interest in a long-running series: Click To Tweet

Photo on VisualHunt.com

Scroll to top