Guest Blogger: What Makes A Great Writer? Top 5

For today's blog I have another Guest Blogger!  I am excited to have my Beta beta reader to blog today about what makes a good writer. I have to say that I totally agree with her Top 5 What Makes A Great Writer (and how happy it makes me that she thinks I'm a great writer)!

Like Katrina I love a good story. I am not a snob when it comes to reading but I have my favorite authors. Here are the tops 5 things that keep me coming back.

1. A great writer draws you in from the start. Get my attention right away and hold it until the story begins to unfold. A great writer pulls me in from the first page and makes me to want to read on. I always finish what I start but if I’m not enjoying the read from the beginning I might read only a page or two a day and I probably won’t read another book by that author again.

2. A great writer has a beginning, middle and an end. This one is pretty self explanatory but for those of you who don’t get it, your story needs to flow. Also don’t leave me hanging. Having a book 2 or 3 is no excuse.

3. A great writer stays focused. I enjoy side stories woven throughout a book but leading me too far astray is frustrating and annoying.

4. A great writer uses at least a grain of truth and does his/her homework. Threads of truth help me believe in what I'm reading. Futuristic stories can reference some truth even if it is just with the use of logic. There is nothing like reading a story set in a particular time period or a real place and knowing the writer didn’t do the proper research. Especially today when with a little help from the internet everyone can be a fact checker.

5. A great writer writes with depth. I want descriptions but not so detailed that half a page goes by before the story picks up again. Being able to picture where the characters are is important. I want to feel like I know the place. Set the stage and move forward. Write characters I want to care about. I want a clear picture of what they look like, what they wear, their quirks and their personality. If you do it right I’ll feel like I know them or want to meet them or in some cases never want to meet them. Writing with that kind of depth is where the magic happens!

There really is something wonderful about reading a book. For a while I get to escape into a world outside my own. I can meet people real or imagined that I might otherwise never have the opportunity to meet. I can travel to places I might never otherwise see. I can live in a time not my own. I can be informed and sometimes expand my vocabulary. A truly great writer can make that kind of magic happen.

Guest Blogger: Michaelbrent Collings

So... I cannot tell you how very Very excited I am to have a "real" writer as a guest on my blog today as I try to "catch up" on my NaNoWriMo project. And his subject is one that I, yes I did, asked him to talk about.

Typing Down and Dirty – Gettin’ ‘Er Done Fast, Gettin’ ‘Er Done Right

By Michaelbrent Collings

Something I’m often asked about is how I manage to write so quickly.  I’m also often asked about how I manage to murder with a smile on my face, and why Honey Boo-Boo is so popular with the American public.  Two of these questions are Deep Mysteries, only answerable by God and perhaps certain network television execs.  One of them, however, is within my grasp and understanding.

And no, it’s not the “murder” one.

It’s the writing thing.  For those of you who don’t know me, I’m a full-time writer.  I’m a bestselling novelist and produced screenwriter who has had the great honor of having major Hollywood studios butcher his screenplays for borderline obscene amounts of money.  I’m one of the bestselling horror writers on Amazon.com: my latest horror novel, Apparition, has been sitting pretty on the bestselling “ghost horror” books there pretty much since it came out, and my YA series The Billy Saga has been doing great business for two years straight.

So I write.  That’s my thing.  It’s what I do.  And I do a lot of it.  In the past two years, I’ve written over a dozen books, plus an additional dozen screenplays.  That’s on top of countless articles, guest blogs like this one, and basically a caboodle (that’s classy talk for “a buttload”) of other writings, short and long.  That sandwiched in among conventions, author signings, and other promotional events.  Plus I occasionally try to show up and be a good dad and husband.  ‘Cause that’s how I roll.

It’s not unusual for me to crank out 10,000 words before dinner.  Sometimes closer to 15,000.

Now, I know it’s the middle of NaNoWriMo as I type these words, so some of you might be looking at your computer screens and wishing you could reach through them and throttle me via the magic of the internet.  Luckily for me you can’t.   And for you, too, because my point in all this isn’t to brag.  It’s to bring a message of hope, and a statement of belief: I believe that most of YOU can write that fast.  I think that many people sell themselves short when they write; that they believe less of themselves than they are capable of.

Don’t get me wrong.  I don’t think that you’re going to finish this article and start instantly blasting out thousands of quality words.  I’m not magic.  You want that, you go to Tony Robbins.  But I do think I can whisper a bit of a secret to you, the elusive secret that so few writers seem to know, the secret to writing fast, and writing good stuff fast.

Ready?

The secret to writing fast is… writing fast.

Okay, don’t get out your special Mob Kits (only $49.95, patent pending) and come looking for my blood.  There is a method to this madness. What I mean is this: very often on the best days of writing, the more you do, the better you write, and the better you write, the more you do.  It’s the opposite of a vicious cycle, it’s a “happy cycle,” for lack of anything better to call it.  A lot of authors look at it as some rare visitation of their muse, but in reality it is just them getting out of their own ways, letting themselves do what they’re already good at.

So you… let’s say you do an average of 3,500 words a day during NaNo.  So tomorrow when you type, worry less about quality than quantity.  And yes, you read that right.  Go for 4,000 words.  Even if it’s crap.   Crap is okay, that’s what God invented the delete key.

But here’s the thing: if you start writing, if you just let go and start “feelin’ it,” just movin’ and groovin’ and letting your fingers do the talking, I bet when you hit that 4,000 word mark you’ll look back and be amazed at how few words need serious revision.

There’s a lot of craftsmanship to writing.  A lot of practice, a lot of effort.  But like most things, once you’ve learned to a certain level the secret isn’t concentration, it’s getting out of your own way and letting yourself perform at the level you’ve trained for.

10,000 words?  Bah.  Watch me hit 15,000 tomorrow.  The only real limit is how fast I can type.  And I’m not even so sure about that one.

Michaelbrent Collings has written numerous bestselling novels and is a produced screenwriter and member of the Writers Guild of America, Horror Writers of America, and a couple of other fancy-sounding things.  His wife and mommy think he is a can that is chock-full of awesome sauce.  Check him out at www.facebook.com/MichaelbrentCollings or michaelbrentcollings.com.