18 Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

Stormwriting: What It Is And Why You Should Try It

By: Brian A. Klems

Now you’re to the point where you’re ready to start crafting your book.

You’ve done a bit of brainstorming, and perhaps you’ve done some writing. But there’s something about brainstorming that’s only partly right. After years of writing, teaching writing, and talking with writers, I’ve come to realize that brainstorming is a critically misunderstood process. Bad practices have become common.

Most people have been told that brainstorming is where you sit with a blank piece of paper and you’re supposed to just, like force out new ideas. Well that’s fine, but how?

—Elizabeth Sims (You’ve Got a Book In You)

Too often we get stuck in a rigid idea of what a brainstorm is supposed to be. We figure we’re supposed to go fast, so we’re supposed to write only ideas. Single words, little phrases, just get the gist of the idea down and move on to the next. We’re supposed to ‘think laterally’, but lateral all too often winds up being shallow, a few interesting thoughts but no depth.

There is a better way.

The answer, I found, lies in the very word ‘brainstorming.’ I don’t like that word. It puts too much emphasis on thinking.

You need to use something deeper and more productive to write a good book: You need to engage your heartbrain, that is to say your whole, deepest self. When you tap into your heartbrain, you’ll be writing up a storm, which is why I call this next technique stormwriting. This is a results-driven tool that you’ll use time and again. I use it constantly.

Stormwriting is essentially a heartbrainstorm, a process by which you open your heartbrain and provoke it to not merely dump stuff out, but generate new questions and ideas that lead you to more good stuff: The stuff that becomes building blocks for your book. How do you provoke it?

Click here to read the complete article (see #1 below) 

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If you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they are again: 

1. Stormwriting: What It Is and Why You Should Try It  http://ow.ly/kn4hh via @BrianKlems
2. 10 Types of Transitions http://ow.ly/kkQE6 via DailyWritingTips
3. The 7 Types of Plots: Overcoming the Monster http://ow.ly/kmqGD via @write_practice
4. Google Edging Closer To Facebook For Social Sign-In Share (Mostly At Twitter’s Expense) http://ow.ly/kmqJJ
5. The Key to Successful Indie Publishing http://ow.ly/kmqTq via @SheilaCallaham
6. 5 Red Flags Your Story Needs Revision: http://t.co/hs5kB1EgzV @KristenLambTX RT @elizabethscraig
7. Publishing excerpts from your book to build a platform? http://t.co/EgdxN8hnRT RT @elizabethscraig
8. Use a Mood Board to Boost Your Writing: http://t.co/mQRXTnIiih @DIYMFA RT @elizabethscraig
9. The Story Template: Amy Deardon: Step by Step Writing http://t.co/sfwzq4wG5A RT @janice_hardy
10. Notes from Tabor Lane: Today's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts http://ow.ly/kn2LY
11. Are You Choosing the Best Words to Describe Your Setting? http://ow.ly/kn34s via @Janice_Hardy
12. How Leeland Artra @LArtra Is Rocking the Amazon Sales Charts with His First Book http://t.co/c6Y19ovSxa @GoblinWriter RT
13. 50 Twitter Fun Facts http://ow.ly/kn6in
14. What I Learned in My First Year as a Published Writer by Morgan L. Busse http://ow.ly/kn7w2 via Seriously Write @MorganLBusse
15. Do you need a web presence before querying agents? http://t.co/T1y8pYUacY @mayaprasadwrite RT @elizabethscraig
16. How Much Attention Should You Pay to Book Design? A Q&A With Joel Friedlander via @JaneFriedman http://ow.ly/knkle
17. The Art of Pacing in a Novel: http://t.co/5KBXpUOAU0 @elissacruz RT @elizabethscraig 
18. The 7 Types of Plots: Overcoming the Monster http://t.co/5YNqBcooA3 RT @evelyn_puerto

I’m always looking for great content to share. If you have a writing and/or marketing blog, or have a favorite that you visit often, please leave a link in the comment section. Thanks for stopping by.

Happy writing & running, Kathy

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