How to speed up your writing

Writing Styles 

We all have a different style of writing. What works for one person might not work for everyone, but it's always worth a try to see if it is something new can be helpful.

This week I was asked the question how can I speed up my writing. I put some thought into this and decided to do a blog post. This way I can share with others and then you can also share with your writer friends, so they can try out some of the things that works for me.

Time with God

First thing I would tell anyone is to pray. Ask the Lord to bless your brain your time anything to do with your writing and not just one day try to pray this at some point every day.

Putting the Lord first is a blessing. It can make the rest of your day go smoothly. Even if it's just a morning prayer, or a verse you read.  The Bible says to seek first the Kingdom of God and all things will be added to you. We all need a blessing over our work, sales, brain, and definitely our time.


Everyone can do a basic outline

I always try to outline a book. Even if the characters don't follow every line it's a help on when to know I'm getting close to the end of the book.

I also find this is a good way to try and keep my books shorter. I like to do a 225 pages so my books are cheaper to print. If I know what page I'm on it helps to try and pull in the muse. :)

I love Work flowy it's a great way to outline. You can easily make a free account. Here I have all of the lines open so you can see them all but when you're inside the app, they are all closed unless you mark them to be open. It's a great writers tool. I use it daily, for prayer, keeping up with yearly tasks you should try it out.

Early Morning Writing 

I think every author should have one day or two during the week (or month) that you sit down and write first thing, well just after prayer of your verse reading.

Have two hours blocked off. Turn the phone off, turn off notifications.  I've read we have a couple of hours that we do our very best work, so when I can I write in the mornings, but most of the time it's later for me. I'm not a morning person but I do try to write in the morning at least once a month. Gauge yourself and try it out, see if you're more productive in the morning?

Place your writing in God's hands 

Another thing is put your writing in God's hand. Write it out there no matter if it makes sense. Trust God to help you with your work. For him to get you off that limb that you write yourself out on.

I never know what the crime is going to be it just comes to me, or the plot. I just start writing and give the rest to God. We can do too much thinking and worrying . . . try turning the book over to God. Ask Him to guide your story line.


Trouble Shooting 

If you're having trouble finding something to write about, watch a movie or read a book in the same genre you're writing in. I always get some kind of an idea when I do this.

Take notes all the time, keep up with calendars if you do a series. Make a list of names you've used before so you don't use the same names in your books. Also it's a good thing to have a story board, be it on paper or on your wall. Anything that helps inspire your writing is a good thing!  Just don't spend too much time in the planning stages get in that chair and write!

Save time with your book covers too

The best way to save time here is find the couple or image you're going to use first, then write the book around
the image.

Sometimes if you're doing a Series with other authors you may have to use an image they've chosen, but please don't spend hours and hours looking for the perfect image that matches the characters in your mind. Find a good image that suits the book. Some thing that is eye catching. Every time a reader reads a book they use their own imagination to figure out what the character look like, so in the end it's a huge waste of time to spend weeks or days trying to find an image of the guy or gal in your head. PLEASE just find a good image that will suit your characters and then write the story around them. It will save you a lot of time that you can spend with your children, pets, or writing!!

Genres: Write what you know

To save time write books in a topic/ genre or area that you know a lot about. This will hold down the amount of research you have to do.

Research takes a lot of time. I know now and then you'll have to look something up but if you stay in an area that you're familiar with that is a huge help.


Distractions 

Also, when you sit down to write, Turn the TV and or radio off. Get
something to drink so you don't have to stop your train of thought. If you can turn the phone off or write at a time when no one will call that is a huge help.

Though I would like to write in the morning. My best writing is late at night when everyone is gone to bed and no one calling. If you have kids or pets, try and find them a sitter so you don't have to worry about what they are into, or keep getting up and down to let your pets in and out.  I know not all of this is possible all the time but we need to look at our writing as a business not just a hobby.


A few more thoughts 

Keep your writing area clean and free of clutter, If your desk looks neat and has some appealing flowers it will make you want to sit down more often and it will help you get more writing done.

Another thing that helps greatly is to use a word file that is all ready formatted just the way it's going to look in the book be it paperback or e book.   I have the spacing - font - formatting - everything exactly as it will print out in a paperback book. I want all of my chapters to start on the right side so each page I turn I know where I'm at, how many  pages I have written and how many words. It's a great help to pace you correctly and so you'll know at what part of the book you're in at the moment.


Another time saver is like today with this blog. An author asked me a question and I give her a very detailed answer so I turned it into a blog post. I always tell author so blog.  I don't think it matters how often, or on what topic but you need to blog.

I'll do another post soon on Blogging and why authors should blog!!
I hope that you have found this helpful!!

Blessings
Samantha

Website 
Facebook Group 
Contact Us
Samantha Fury is the author of  the Street Justice Series.  
She's written many articles on book covers, for Indie Authors.
She operates several Indie Groups. Editing Services, Cover
Artist, Helpful Indie Facebook Groups. 

Jason Tobias Interview Part Three

Our first interview with Jason Tobias, was a huge hit.  He's been on many covers and will soon grace my new cover.  Here is the exciting part two of the interview. :) 

Check it out and look for more Interviews!!!
Part One Model
Part Two Actor 
Part Three The Man

Over the next few months I'll be hosting interviews with those in and around the Indie Business of Self Publishing.  We may interview a model. a photographer, or a musician.  We'll be reaching out to editors, artist, actors, and authors anyone that plays a hand in our huge publishing industry. 

It is our goal to reach out to those in our business, be a light and share our faith with those in and around the Publishing Industry

All of our guests may not be Christians, but they are willing to share a part of their life with us and we hope that by sharing and showing them the Love of Christ that we'll make a difference in our industry one person at a time. 

Jason Tobias Interview Part Two

Our first interview with Jason Tobias, was a huge hit.  He's been on many covers and will soon grace my new cover.  Here is the exciting part two of the interview. :) 

Check it out and look for more Interviews!!!

Part One Model
Part Two Actor 
Part Three The Man

Over the next few months I'll be hosting interviews with those in and around the Indie Business of Self Publishing.  We may interview a model. a photographer, or a musician.  We'll be reaching out to editors, artist, actors, and authors anyone that plays a hand in our huge publishing industry. 

It is our goal to reach out to those in our business, be a light and share our faith with those in and around the Publishing Industry

All of our guests may not be Christians, but they are willing to share a part of their life with us and we hope that by sharing and showing them the Love of Christ that we'll make a difference in our industry one person at a time.  

Interview With Jason Tobias Part One

Over the next few months I'll be hosting interviews with those in and around the Indie Business of Self Publishing.  We may interview a model. a photographer, or a musician.  We'll be reaching out to editors, artist, actors, and authors anyone that plays a hand in our huge publishing industry. 

It is our goal to reach out to those in our business, be a light and share our faith with those in and around the Publishing Industry

All of our guests may not be Christians, but they are willing to share a part of their life with us and we hope that by sharing and showing them the Love of Christ that we'll make a difference in our industry one person at a time.  

Our first interview is with Jason Tobias, he's been on many covers and will soon grace the cover for Samantha Fury and her new release. We'll talk about that in the coming weeks, but for now check out our first part of a three part Interview with Jason Tobias.  Click on the interview below to learn more about Jason!! 


Part One Model
Part Two Actor 
Part Three The Man

Showing genre capturing and looking like a pro Cover advice

Genre and Capturing those readers

Intro

This will be a post on showing genre and looking like a pro. I'd just like to suggest a few things that will help present your books in a more professional manner. We're all in this to make money and that means spending money. With the amount of authors and new books that are out there we are going to have to do our best to make a big splash in the Amazon pond. Here is some tips that will get you on the road to doing just that.

Ebook size One thing that stands out to readers is when your eBook is not the proper size, or isn't the same size as your other novels. When they go to your Author Central page and all of your books line up side by side they need to be the same size. This will have nothing to do with the size of your paperbacks. We're just talking about e books.

Series Branding

Series seems to be the key to getting a lot of sales, so I'll address a few things I've noticed. We don't always set out to write a series and many books reflect this problem. Books don't look anything alike. They don't have the same fonts, same theme, or a logo that ties them all together. If writing a series the author needs to try to connect the books in every way possible. One of these things is to go back and add book one, and a series title if you did not the first time around. Also, using a series logo is a very important way to connect the books. Something that let's people see the book is in a Series.

Fonts and placement

I used the image above to show the good and the bad. all of my logo's in this image are in a line and look great. But you can see I got my name off on the last image. This makes the book stand out and it causes the whole series to look a bit off. But I am using the same fonts, the same theme of two couples and the same type of images. The people take up the biggest part of the cover and none of the couples are looking at each this shows the reader this will more than likely have some romance but is not a pure romance novel. Also using an image of a woman or a man is a good way to draw in readers. The expression on a models face can make or break if a person will buy your book.

Pure Romance If your book is pure romance, boy meets girl, gets girl looses girl, etc. I highly suggest a couple on the cover. Use the amount of romance that you have to guide what the couple is doing. If it's what I call pure romance then show the couple kissing, or about to kiss. If your novel is not all about Romance then have the couple standing beside each other or back to back. Use the couple to help readers see what your book is about and how much romance is inside.

My California trilogy are all pure romance, in the Surprise Engagement there is some issues with the couple more so than most so I showed a tension on the cover. Still the couples are close and it shows romance.

Experience

I love talking about covers and have learned a lot since 2009 when is started making my own. You'll notice my Street Justice Covers reflect that the books have some romance but it's not all about romance. I also was

sure to get a handsome man with a gun to try and show this has some suspense in Charlie's Angel.

Wrap up

These are just some quick tips of what I see Authors doing that is not going to help their sales. Your books present you, if they are all kinds of different sizes, or the covers don't match in a series, if your fonts are not all the same. If there is not a series Logo or theme, readers will notice.

Money well spent

I always tell authors, what you spend on your cover shows. If you just toss words on a one image cover, readers will notice and sometimes they could even think it's non fiction and go right on by - not even stopping to see your book is fiction.

Genre

Genre can and should show on your cover. Your cover is the first and most lasting impression on readers. You only have seconds to get their attention so your cover needs to be the best, it can be. You need to spend a good amount of time thinking and planning what will be on your cover. If you want couples, on your cover, pick the couple first and then write the story around them. This will save you HOURS of time.

Cover Artist

Also please consider saving up for an artist and an editor. Yes it will take you more time, but in the long run it will be well worth it. You don't have to

spend 500 dollars on an artist. There are a lot of great pre-made covers out there, and a lot of artist willing to work at reasonable rates.

Everyone is not an artist, please know your limitations. If you played with crayons and painted from the time you were a kid you might be able to make your own cover, but if not it will show and it will hurt sales.

Thanks for your time

Thanks for listening and I hope this helps you in some way to look more like a pro and gain you more sales and more readers, that will stay with you for years. I do cover design, but that's not why I do these blogs. I do them because we all want our books to sale, we all want to make money, and sadly if you don't have a great cover that will stop a reader in their tracks you're wasting valuable time.

Blessings, Samantha Fury

Website 
Facebook Group 
Contact Us
Fury Cover Design 
Samantha Fury is the author of  the Street Justice Series.  
She's makes paperbacks and e-books for Indie Authors.
She operates several Indie Groups. Editing Services, Cover
Artist, Helpful Indie Facebook Groups. 

Alexa, do you really know how helpful they can be.

Alexa 
Echo Dot I know some tablets come with Alexa, but my Alexa sits on my desk. I have three of them through my house. I love to turn the music on and have stereo sound. 



Alexa / echo dot will cost you about around 49.00. If mine quit working, I would buy another one seconds later.  We love them so much I've bought 4 of them for family members. 





I love the automated options.  Every day at noon and at midnight Alexa automatically tells me the weather.  Every week on Wed evening she tells me it's time to take out the trash. She tells me every day at 11.00 it's time to take your medicine. 

Any time I want to hear the news, I just say Alexa play the news. I have her set up to tell me these things when I ask about the news. 

NFL update 
New things to try with Alexa
Bible verse of the day 
Rush Limbaugh Update 
The news from fox 
Then she gives me Two Tennis updates 
Then she tells me the weather. 

Did I mention you can pair her to your blue-tooth speakers.  I love Alexa

I also use her daily for timers, and reminders. I ask her a lot what's the high for the day or the low. There are several options for where you get your weather and news.  You can listen to pod casts, music. I even listen to Rush Limbaugh through tune-in. I love that I can be washing the dishes and just turn around and say Alexa play Christmas music, or play the Joyce Meyer podcast. It's great. 

I won't get into detail here, but you can also set it up to play your own music or if you're an author your own audio books by using google drive and My Pod aps. It is just so amazing I wish everyone could have an Alexa.  We also have Prime so that means we get a lot of music options.  Blake Shelton is one of my favorites and I guess she hears Alexa play Blake Shelton more than she hears anything. 



There are so many cool and fun apps. Don't even get me started on the store list, the To do list, or google calendar. I love the option tell me what's on my agenda for the day.  If you are like to listen to audio books, or music, or need a reminder when to take something out of the oven you have got to get at least one Alexa. 


Right now we're up to three of them in the house and if my house was bigger I'd have more. I'm always joking with my husband that I just wish I could get her on my smart watch so I could take her everywhere. Though you can take her on your phone around here in the sticks we don't have great cell service so for now I'll just be happy to have her in just about every room of my house. 

Thanks for listening and oh get an Alexa for someone you love, and no I don't get a dime if you do, just the satisfaction that you'll be getting a great tool for your home that will help you do so many things, you too will say Alexa is the best thing since sliced bread. 

Website 
Facebook Group 
Contact Us
Samantha Fury is the author of  the Street Justice Series.  
She's written many articles on book covers, for Indie Authors.
She operates several Indie Groups. Editing Services, Cover
Artist, Helpful Indie Facebook Groups. 

Any Pod Great skill for pod casts via Alexa

Do you like pod casts 

if so here is a great way to listen.  I'm not a huge pod cast listener but I wanted a way to use Alexa to listen to Joyce Meyer and Joseph Prince.  Well Praise Heaven I found it. Don't you just love Alexa. 

I'm sure there will be a lot of other pod casts you can listen to if you know their name, and I think there is a way to have your podcast added to the list, if it's not there. There is a lot of helpful information on the Any Pod site  



If you want to listen to podcasts say "Alexa, enable AnyPod skill.”

Then you say something like this “Alexa, ask AnyPod to play Science Fiction & Fantasy Marketing Podcast.  Most of the time she will say did you mean you wanted to listen to (name of pod cast here), and you just say yes. Sometimes she will just take right off and start playing. 

It is possible that you will also need to set up an Anypod account. I can't say for sure because I did do this weeks ago.

You can also enable the skill .... Click here Amazon Link
Then you can create an account here at  Click here Any Pod Link






I found another helpful blog post with many other options they are as follows
Subscribe to a podcast  “Alexa, ask AnyPod to subscribe to [insert name of podcast].”Play a specific episode:  “Alexa, ask AnyPod to play episode XX of [podcast name].”

Jump to the first or last episode   “Alexa, ask AnyPod for the [newest/oldest] episode.”

List your podcast subscriptions:    “Alexa, ask AnyPod, ‘What are my subscriptions?’”

Skip forward or back an episode   “Alexa, play the [next/previous] episode.”

On The Ambient Blog post HERE   you can also learn how to use Alexa using tune in, and how to add pod casts to your routines lots of helpful things. so please also check out his blog post you will find it very useful if you use Alexa.

Images by Javier Brosch from depositphoto.com

Website 
Facebook Group 
Contact Us
Samantha Fury is the author of  the Street Justice Series.  
She's written many articles on book covers, for Indie Authors.
She operates several Indie Groups. Editing Services, Cover
Artist, Helpful Indie Facebook Groups.