The Secret to Writing a Novel Is . . .

by Ron Vitale

My wife and I like to agree to disagree on this topic. The secret to writing a novel is fairly straightforward, but many don't like the answer. In order to write and complete a novel, it's necessary to sit one's butt in a chair (or stand if that's a position you prefer) and write. It's that simple. Say you're going to write a book and then do it. This is where my wife and I get into hot water. Obviously, there are a lot of other steps to get from "Hey, I'd like to write a book" to "Would you like to buy the book I wrote?"

I would like to share my writing process with you and define simple and easy steps to help you get from concept to completion. Will it be easy? No. Is it possible? Yes, yes, yes! Okay, let's get started.

Define Your Goal

After reading some bedtime stories to my daughter a few years ago, an idea for my first book in the Cinderella's Secret Diaries series popped into my head. I made a commitment to myself and then told my close friends and family that I was going to write a novel. Coming clean with one's goal and sharing it with trusted friends is the first critical step. There's a reason why this step is so essential. We can all have a safe little magical world in our heads in which we write a book and never do. It's a lot easier to think of the goal in that abstract way. One day we'll have more time and write a book. One day we'll get back into writing and we're going to be great. But right now, there's the kids, the full-time job, bills and so much to do. We all know the story, but it's the lie that we tell ourselves.

How we break out of the lie is all that matters. I wrote my first novel at 16, rewrote it several times and then nearly gave up on writing in my 30s. I had written one book that I had tried to get published any way I could, a bunch of short stories and then nothing. I wasted a lot of time putting all my eggs in one basket, hoping that a super magical publishing deal would descend upon me from on high and that my muse would rise up and inspire me to write more books.

I didn't write my next novel until I was 34 and that was only a first draft (a sequel to my first book) and it's still sitting on my hard drive waiting to see the light of day. Why do I share all of this with you? Because the whole story is important and not just what people want to see. Since then I have written two more books and had them published, released a collection of sci-fi short stories and am currently working on book 3 of the Cinderella's Secret Diaries series. It took me 17 years to write two books and then within the last three years I have written two books and am working on a third. So, what changed?

I defined my goal. I believed that I had an amazing idea for a book, I made a commitment to myself to write it and I told my friends and family about what I wanted to do. By telling people my dream and goal, I made it become real. I realized that in order to make my goal that I had to commit to it and put in the hard work. Was it easy? No, sometimes it sucked (I'm not going to lie to you).

A Schedule Is Your Friend

Here is the nitty-gritty of writing a book. Again, there is no magic here. It's all straightforward and something we all know: In order to complete a book, we need to write it and that takes time. The first book in the Cinderella's Secret Diaries series, Lost, is 71,000 words and the sequel, Stolen, is 86,000 words. Lost took me 18 months to write, edit, rewrite and then have published. Stolen took me 13 months. How did I cut down the time of writing books from 17 years for two, to 18 months, then to 13 months? I created a schedule and followed it.

Now before you hit the back button and say that this is too hard and you're not up for all this crazy insanity, hear me out. Please. Your creative future relies on it. Here is my schedule:

Sunday: Long run (more on exercise in a bit).
Monday: Write before work, work all day and come home to spend time with family.
Tuesday: Short run before work, work all day and come home and spend time with family.
Wednesday: Write before work, work all day and come home to spend time with family.
Thursday: Short run before work, work all day and come home and spend time with family.
Friday: Write before work, work all day and come home to spend time with family.
Saturday: Write early in the morning, chores, spend time with family.

Did I follow that schedule every day? No, but I stick to it pretty religiously now. I have trained myself to get into a pattern that works for my busy life. I have also left room in the schedule for flexibility. If I had to work late or the kids were sick or my wife was away, I could run at night on the treadmill or write after I put the kids to bed. I could skip a day of running or writing if I felt sick. I could do all sorts of things because I had a general plan, but it wasn't so restrictive that I felt trapped by trying to do so many jobs at once.

And I think that's the key: Being tenacious but also admitting that you're human and need breaks and time off. Sometimes my scheduled morning of writing wasn't for my book but a blog post and sometimes I went longer than I expected to write. I allow myself the freedom to adjust to how I feel each day. One day this past week I only wrote 453 words for my book and yesterday I wrote 1,857 words. Each day of writing adds to my total and, over time, I have a novel.

Exercise Is the Key

I started running about 4 years ago and I can say that there is a correlation between my creative output and writing. I choose to run without music and just let my thoughts fly free. By running this way, I'm able to let my imagination run wild, I get into my groove, think of my problems, life, story ideas, solving plot problems that's how I start plotting my books. I like the organic feel of how I can be free to just be and let my mind wander. Getting more oxygen in my lungs and through my body helps me feel more connected to the world and sometimes I don't even know that there is a thread in the back of my mind on how to get past a difficult part in the book.

Exercising helps with motivating me. Four years ago I did not go to a gym or have any regular exercise routine. Now I've a full marathon in the books (pun intended) along with several half marathons. Does this make me special or better? No, it doesn't. I simply wish to share that a few years ago I was struck in a loop and couldn't find out how to break out of my shell to actually do the work to make my books come to be. Start small. Walk around the block a couple of times during the week, try jogging or take a yoga class. Add regular exercises to your weekly schedule and not only will you be more creative, but it'll be healthy for you.

You Can Do It

My story is not unique. If you dream that you can write a book, then you can. By following these tips, you can achieve your goal. But beware of the traps:

• Television (cut a few shows out and there's your extra time!)
• Dreaded alarm clock (find what works for you: Getting up early or staying up late).
• It's too hard and you give up (give yourself three weeks to stick at your schedule. Habits take 3-4 weeks to form.)
• "I'm a nobody. Who will want to hear what I have to say?" (Get up, right now! Look at yourself in the mirror and say outloud: "I know I can write this book. I believe in myself. I love myself." Sound dumb? You'll be surprised with how this mantra works. Don't give up.)

There will be all sorts of reasons why you will want to give up. I took a month off while writing Lost but I got back to it. What I realized in writing Stolen is that I simply needed to push through and stick to my writing goals. The work is hard, sacrifices will need to be made, but, in the end, you will have achieved your goal. If you truly want to be a novelist, I believe my suggestions will help you make it to the finish line. Remember, there is no secret formula because it's a lot of hard work. When you start the book you're one way, but when you've finished, well, you will have blossomed into someone new and different. Don't believe me? Then why don't you try? Come on, if I can do it, so can you!

5 Reasons Why You Need to Be on Twitter

by Ron Vitale

I wrote a rather innocent post on my Facebook wall the other night: "Dear Facebook, Sorry but Twitter's more fun. Nite all!" A few minutes later I received an email from one of my Facebook friends, asking why I was leaving Facebook. Minutes later another friend wrote me an upset posting wondering the same thing. Being misunderstood, I explained to them that I was only shutting down Facebook for the night and jumping on Twitter. Then the comments started coming in as many of my friends aren't on Twitter because they find it confusing.

Maybe you're in the same situation and you're wondering: Why should I be on Twitter?

Reason #1: Twitter Is Open

I'll be honest. I despise Facebook. Not the service, but its sneaky policy changes over the years, its horrible layout and closed system. Facebook is a tool, like any other, but I find that my world is extremely limited on Facebook. I have my friends and we chat back and forth, but my world is rather small. Granted, maybe I'm not using Facebook as efficiently as I could, but I find the user interface of the service to be downright poor.

On Twitter, when I tweet, it goes out to the world. There are no ands, ifs or buts about it. I know exactly where I stand and realize that potentially millions of people could see my tweet. In reality, only thousands will, but there is the serendipity factor: By accident, over time, people interested in the topics I tweet about will begin to follow me. I will be notified that these individuals find my tweets interesting and I can then choose to follow them back. This is where I magic happens.

Reason #2: Learn What You Don't Know

I cannot tell you how important the serendipity factor is on Twitter. With more than 56 million people (following 8 or more people) actively using Twitter,  there are many people who might find you interesting, or better yet, you can learn from. Time and time again, I'll need information about writing, social media, books, publishing, you name it--and if I search on Twitter, I will find someone who has the answers I'm looking for. The difference between using Google and typing in a search and using Twitter is that you can then build a relationship with the person who has the answer on Twitter. You build a bridge so that you can learn more from that person and, in return, they might learn from you. People who have similar hobbies or interests can become friends, colleagues, writing partners, etc. My circle of friends on Facebook is limited to who I actually know, but on Twitter I can search through tens of millions of people who might be able to help me.

Reason #3: Hashtags and Influencers

The biggest complaints I hear from people starting out on Twitter is: "I can't figure it out." Or: "It goes too fast and I can't follow along." Both criticisms are legitimate and can be extremely frustrating to a new Twitter user. The trick is to use a tool such as Hootsuite or Tweetdeck. Both of these Twitter tools have the same function: Enable you to organize your message streams in an effective and easy way for you to read messages. Here's an example:

Let's say you want to follow other writers on Twitter. You're new to Twitter and have 0 followers. The easiest way to get started is to do a search on Twitter and start looking at various hashtags that fellow writers use. Let's stop right there. What's a hashtag? Simple: A hashtag is a keyword that you put a hash in front of so that Twitter knows you're earmarking a topic. If I am writing and want people on Twitter to know that, I will write:

"Working on my #wip by getting some #writing done on the first draft." 

I've used two hashtags in my example. #wip stands for "work in progress" and #writing stands for, you guessed it, "writing." People using Twitter who are searching for #wip or #writing will see my Tweet (even if they aren't following me). And here's the magic in all of this: By using hashtags that others will be searching, your message will come up in other people's search feeds. Not only will this allow others to find you and then choose to follow you on Twitter or not, but you can also be discovered by influencers on Twitter.

Now let's jump back to the simple example: You just joined Twitter and have no followers. To solve that problem, visit Twitter's search engine or WeFollow.com and do some searches for various hashtags (#publishing, #writing, #amwriting, #wip, #starwars, #LOTR, #TheBeatles, #lefthandedpeoplerock--whatever!). Click on the links to people's Twitter profile pages, see if you're interested in following them and then do so. (Word of advice: Before I follow someone I make certain that: 1. Their posts are interesting to me. 2. They have a picture rather than the generic "egg" Twitter photo as that speaks volumes as to how much they know about Twitter. 3. Their Twitter profile is completed and looks impressive.).

For me, I prefer to use Hootsuite at home and Tweetdeck on my Android Droid X for when I'm on the go. To help you get started, be sure to read through (step by step instructions and screenshots included) my "how to use Hootsuite" post.

Reason #4: Find Influencers and Be One Yourself

Twitter is about information, the sharing of ideas and connecting with like-minded people. Whatever your interest is, you want to find out who knows more than you and then follow that person. Similarly, you might also wish to start building up street cred in the fields of interest that you're an expert in and begin sharing your own content. Visit Klout.com, create an account and go through the pages and do some searches. You'll find out some very interesting things about how you are being classified on Twitter and how much your reach actually is. Let me break this down for you. I'll use myself as an example on Klout. You can see that Klout classifies me as an explorer and you can also see who I am influenced by and who I influence. Granted, the algorithms aren't 100% as I don't follow on a regular basis who Klout says I am influenced by, but the service (it's free) gives me a good sense of who I might wish to follow and what their ranking is.

With more than 100 million tweets per day zipping all over the internet, finding tools to help you hone in on the important people or topics you're interested in learning more about is critical. Of the 200 million people signed up for Twitter, again only 56 million accounts follow 8 or more people. That statistic tells me a lot about how complicated people find Twitter--they sign up, give it a try and then give up on it. But for the tens of millions who do stick it out and learn to use it, there be gold in those hills!

Twitter is about data mining and if you have the right tool to dig through all the tweets, you'll be on your way.

Reason #5: Research and Listening

After reading all of this post, you still might not wish to sign up on Twitter. It's a lot of work, confusing, and what the heck is a Hootsuite anyway? At the least, I would highly recommend creating an account and set it up with Hootsuite so that you can do research or to listen. If you're working today in PR, marketing, communications fields or wish to be a writer, the resources that are available on Twitter are tremendous. Here's something to think about: Often we surf the web, when we have some free time. Each of us has 5 or more sites that we browse to on a regular basis. Think about the time that you spend there and what you're learning: You are seeing what you're expecting to see. When I visit CNN.com, I'm seeing the news and most often, the news that's been filtered and edited in a way that will be geared toward the American public. I am only seeing what CNN.com allows me to see (as they're creating content that will bring them more eyeballs to their screen).

With Twitter, once I start following people or hashtags, I'm now able to see video, read blog posts, listen to podcasts from many more sources. For example, when CNN covered the uprising in Egypt, I could turn on the TV and see what their reporters were able to gather. Yet I quickly realized that even CNN was turning to Twitter as they were searching for on the spot reports and sharing those tweets to their viewers on CNN. But cutting out the middleman, on Twitter I was able to hear reports directly from those in Egypt and could even see video that protestors took with their smartphones (keep in mind that you have to use your bullcrap filter--are the reports you're seeing on Twitter legit--is that person truly in Egypt?)

Twitter is the world's best listening device. No matter if you choose to send out a tweet or not, using Twitter to listen to what people are saying will help you in your job, hobbies or even your personal relationships. There is a lot of great content on Twitter, you only need to listen to learn. The two best ways to do this would be through searching on Twitter (no account needed) or using Hootsuite or Tweetdeck.

Summing It All Up

 The tools are all here. It's up to you: Take a leap into the great new social experience or not? I will tell you that for the three plus years that I have been on Twitter that my knowledge of the world and of my interests has grown beyond what I could have imagined. But don't take my word for it, sign up for yourself and start small. Follow a few dozen people, set up search streams in Hootsuite and start listening. Once you do, your world will never be the same.

5 Tips for the Vacationing Writer

by Ron Vitale

So you're packing your bags and you're headed to vacation. What's a writer to do? Here are five tips to help you balance fun and being a writer:

Stay Connected with the World (to a Point)

When I go on vacation, I like to have the internet as I don't watch much TV and enjoy reading articles from the various websites and blogs that I follow. Some might say that it's important to disconnect while you're on vacation and I would agree with that--to a point. The balance between being always plugged in and using smoke signals to communicate with the rest of the world is up to you, but I offer these suggestions:

• Find out where the local wireless hotspot is. Maybe it's a Starbucks, Borders or some kind soul who has an open access point. A simple Google search before you leave for vacation will help. Of course, if you have internet access at the place you're renting or in the hotel, you're set. Though on the other side of the coin, be prepared with Plan B as my wife and I thought a Burger King with WiFi existed about 1 mile away from where we were staying. Turns out that the Burger King had gone out of business.
• If you have a smartphone, check your data plan to see if you can turn your phone into a hotspot. Both Verizon and AT&T have such plans (about $20 a month for 2 GB). I activated my Verizon hotspot feature for my Droid X while on vacation and it worked well--when it worked. I never had connectivity longer than 20 minutes at a time and going to the Verizon store to solve the problem didn't help. Be prepared before you go.
• And if all else fails, be sure to have a pen and paper to jot down any ideas you might have if you opt not to bring a computer.

Experience the Unknown

Even if you head to the same vacation spot you always go to, there is bound to be something new and exciting to see and experience. For me, last week on vacation my family and I stayed in Brigantine, New Jersey. The good news is that I used to stay on the island as a young boy and much had changed in the 25+ years since my family and I used to visit. The bad news is that there wasn't much to do with the kids outside of going to the beach. Don't get me wrong: My family and I love the beach, but we would have enjoyed more activities on the island (miniature golf that was opening during the week would have been nice). Still, we took the opportunity to visit Ocean City, NJ and have fun on the boardwalk there.

On our last full day of vacation, we went to the Ocean City boardwalk and went to Gillian's Waterpark and had a blast on all the water slides. At one point, my son and I were climbing up the stairs headed for the Sky Pond slide and we looked out over the beach town, seeing the ferris wheel with gorgeous clouds framing the view. What a great moment to relax and just kick back and enjoy the day. As a family, we had never experienced the waterpark before and all of us had a wonderful time.

When you head to vacation, what can you do that you haven't done before? It doesn't matter if you have children or not, adding in some spice and excitement to the trip will help your unconscious mind work its magic. Remember, as writers we can't be on all the time. We're human. We need rest and relaxation too. Live a little!

Time to Read

One of my favorite parts of vacation is sitting somewhere with a book and just reading. I'll read on the sofa, in a rocking chair, on the beach, wherever. I'm just not able to read in the car as I get motion sickness. But when you head off on vacation, pack your books or Kindle (Nook, iPad, etc.) and read away. Bring more books that you can read in case you happen to have more time than you expect (rainy days or staying up late). On Brigantine where I went on vacation, there were no book stores (seriously), so I was happy to have two books with me and a magazine. My wife used our Kindle while we were away and was able to buy the second Game of Thrones book. Again, be prepared.

When I'm away on vacation, I try to dial down my TV watching and last week I saw the finale to Game of Thrones (on my Droid X using HBO Go as we didn't have HBO via our TV at the house we were staying at and the Verizon hotspot couldn't handle video streaming to the laptop). We also brought a movie from Netflix with us and that's about it for watching TV all week--unless you count the snippets of cartoons I caught that the kids were watching.

If you love your TV, think smart and bring some movies with you or, if you have internet access, using Netflix's instant watching. For me, I'd rather get caught up on reading or podcast listening while I'm away.

Go Exploring

Those of you who have been reading this blog for the last year and a half know that I've taken up running. While on vacation, I ran a total of 21 miles. As the island of Brigantine isn't that large, I was able to see a good portion of it on my runs. On Father's Day, I took my long run and headed off into the unknown. I ran near 4 miles to the end of the street and then jumped (literally) onto the beach and then ran another 2.5 miles until I came to a spot in which cars couldn't even go.

I kept running until I came to the end of the island and then looked out across the water to the next bit of land. There were no people within a mile of me in all directions as off to the left (fenced over) was a wildlife protected zone. What made the trip so special is that I had been at the same location with my mom and brother when I was a young teen. Now, at 40 married and with a family of my own, I had come back to the same location and had some time to reflect on life, the universe and everything before turning around and running back home.

If you're unable to easily go exploring, look up the local rental place for mobility scooters and plan in advance. Be adventurous if at all possible.

Think, Reflect and Do Nothing

If your life is like most, you're working, writing, writing and working, trying to fit in time to read, maybe raise a family and a whole host of other responsibilities. When on vacation, take some time to do nothing. Maybe just sit on the beach and stare out at the ocean or if in the mountains watch the sky at night. Wherever you are, just be. That might be harder than you might think. Try not to think about your problems or your deadlines or other responsibilities. Just tune out and allow your mind to wander and imagine.

To sum it all up, I hope these five tips will help you when you're on vacation, they helped me a lot. But want to know a secret? You don't need to be on vacation to use these tips. Now if only I could remember that!