Writers Who Kill

 

What Hampers Your Writing 

by Heather Weidner

Writers get stuck from time to time, and it takes some energy and creativity to get your manuscript back on track. Here are some of my hang ups, and the things I do to overcome them.

I ALWAYS come in under my word count (sometimes by as much as 20K words). I type, “The End,” and I am nowhere near close to being done. I write cozy mysteries, so I’m usually aiming for the low 70,000-word range. I’m one of the few people who actually gains words during the editing process. To help me get closer to the goal, I do an outline for each book. I look at the word count of the other books in the series and the number of chapters to give myself an idea of how much I’ll need for the first draft. And if I still come in under the desired count, I take a deep breath and start revising.

I love the researching, planning, and writing parts of the process. The editing and revising parts are my least favorite. I get bored, and distractions don’t help when you’re trying to concentrate on the updates. I have to break the tasks up into smaller pieces. I listen to fun playlists of upbeat music to keep me going. I also reward myself with things I like to do if I hit my editing/revising goals.

The best writing process for me is to write my first draft and not to stop and revise as I go. When I did this, I got bogged down, and it took me years to finish the first book.

When I’m writing, I have a tendency to stop and research things that I have questions about. To keep the writing momentum going, I now type my question in the draft and highlight it. This helps me to stay on task. I pick a time when I’m not writing to look up the answers to all my questions.

 

No matter how much I self-edit or read my manuscript, I don’t see some mistakes like overused words. Some of my key offenders are “just,” “that,” and “so.” Now I keep a list of my pet words and do a search and replace during the revisions.

When I decided that I wanted to write mystery novels, I bought every writing book I could get my hands on. I found that I was doing a lot of reading about writing and not much writing. I cleaned off my shelf. I kept the books that were most helpful and donated the rest to the library. You need to write and to hone your craft, and the only way to do that is to sit down and do it.

I love my critique group and writing partners. I have been fortunate to have some really good ones over the years. When I started, I thought I had to incorporate every piece of feedback into my story. I would spend weeks rewriting what they had reviewed to make sure I covered everything they said. Sometimes, the feedback was overwhelming. Other times, it was contradictory. I finally decided to read all of the critiques before I started making revisions. This helped me to see the themes and what other writers were saying. It also helped me target what I wanted to focus on and kept me from changing things two or three (or more) times.

What are some of the things that bog down your writing process?

Through the years, Heather Weidner has been a cop’s kid, technical writer, editor, college professor, software tester, and IT manager. She writes the Pearly Girls Mysteries, the Delanie Fitzgerald Mysteries, The Jules Keene Glamping Mysteries, and The Mermaid Bay Christmas Shoppe Mysteries.

Her short stories appear in the Virginia is for Mysteries series, 50 Shades of Cabernet, Deadly Southern Charm, and Murder by the Glass, and she has non-fiction pieces in Promophobia and The Secret Ingredient: A Mystery Writers’ Cookbook.

She is a member of Sisters in Crime: National, Central Virginia, Chessie, Guppies, and Grand Canyon Writers, International Thriller Writers, and James River Writers.

Originally from Virginia Beach, Heather has been a mystery fan since Scooby-Doo and Nancy Drew. She lives in Central Virginia with her husband and a pair of Jack Russell terriers.