A writing student contacted me today. She’s a Web writer, who’s writing a novel. Unfortunately, she’s stuck.

To paraphrase, she says she’s almost halfway through the novel, and can’t see her way forward. She’s been working on the project for almost two months. Should she just give up and delete the material and start something new?

Here’s my response.

No, don’t delete anything at all.

It’s common to get stuck. Professional writers plough on regardless. They know that sooner or later they’ll pick up steam and will get inspired again.

They write anyway, no matter how they feel about the material. They know that they can always go back and delete material, but if they stop writing, the project is over.

You can move forward in many ways.

Here are some ideas.

* Choose a scene you’ve written , and then write the scene in the first person, from the point of view of a secondary character.

This gives you another viewpoint, which may jolt something loose.

* Give a primary character a secret, which he/ she is desperate not to reveal.

You’ll tend to procrastinate on a novel if the characters bore you — sometimes your story people won’t come to life. Giving someone a deep dark secret helps.

* Have you plotted out scenes from the rest of the book? If you haven’t, plot one scene — make it exciting — and then write the scene.

If you do this, you’ll want to go back and revise some of the scenes you’ve written. Don’t do that. Just keep writing scenes until you complete the book.

* Use your dreams — they can help you to write.

Tonight, as you’re falling asleep, think about your story people. Imagine them interacting. This can be enough to inspire you with some fresh ideas.

If you remember a dream in the morning, write it down.

Imagine characters in your novel for every night for a week before you fall asleep. You’ll be amazed: your story will come to life, simply because you’ll start caring about your story people again.

Write more – become a pro writer

Yes, you can write more and become an expert writer – even if you’re a world-class procrastinator.

Did you know that when you write more, your writing improves? Many of my writing students experience this. They find that when they write more, writing is easier for them – they’re not dominated by their inner editor.

My new writing class, “Write More And Make More Money From Your Writing: Develop A Fast, Fun Productive Writing Process” is based on lessons I developed for my private coaching students to help them to write more, improve their writing, and make more money writing.

If you’re struggling with your writing, the class will help. The techniques you’ll learn in class with help you write fiction, nonfiction, and copy for business.

Discover how you can write more, improve your writing, and sell more of your writing to higher-paying markets.

Here’s an excellent article from the Guardian, “Ten Rules For Writing Fiction”. Actually, the article contains many more tips than that. Read the entire article, it’s well worth your time.

In the first part of the article, Ten rules for writing fiction | guardian.co.uk my favorite tip is:

“Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose. If you have the knack of playing with exclaimers the way Tom Wolfe does, you can throw them in by the handful.”

FWIW, here’s my own two favorite tips:

Don’t bore them

How will you know you’re boring people? A good clue is that you’re bored yourself. If you’re bored, spice it up. Your readers will appreciate it.

Don’t annoy them

How can you annoy readers? One of the ways is by using exclamation marks.

Another way is by using synonyms for “said” instead of just writing “said” when you need to.

If you can avoid boring and annoying readers, you may just write a great book.

Write more – become a pro writer

Yes, you can write more and become an expert writer – even if you’re a world-class procrastinator.

Did you know that when you write more, your writing improves? Many of my writing students experience this. They find that when they write more, writing is easier for them – they’re not dominated by their inner editor.

My new writing class, “Write More And Make More Money From Your Writing: Develop A Fast, Fun Productive Writing Process” is based on lessons I developed for my private coaching students to help them to write more, improve their writing, and make more money writing.

If you’re struggling with your writing, the class will help. The techniques you’ll learn in class with help you write fiction, nonfiction, and copy for business.

Discover how you can write more, improve your writing, and sell more of your writing to higher-paying markets.

Everyone has time to write a book — yes, even you.

When I read this morning that Sir John Mortimer was dead, I remembered his wonderful autobiography, ““Clinging to the Wreckage”.

If you think you have no time to write, consider that Sir John not only worked as a barrister, but was also a hugely successful writer. Either career could have filled all his time, had he allowed it to.

Finding time to write is always simple. You choose to write over the option to do something else:

* Rather than watching TV, you choose to write;

* Rather than sleeping until an hour before you leave for work, you get up an hour earlier and use that time to write;

* Rather than lazing around on the weekend, or doing chores, you choose to write.

And so on. There is always time to write — just claim it.

Read the NYT’s obitJohn Mortimer, Creator of Rumpole, Dies at 85 – Obituary (Obit) – NYTimes.com:

“His memoirs, including ‘Clinging to the Wreckage’ (1982), ‘Murderers and Other Friends: Another Part of Life’ (1994), drop dozens of names of the theater and movie people he spent time with. There are trays upon trays of cocktails in his stories, and interviews late in his life note the presence of what was described in one as a ‘comfortably large Guinness that he is drinking for his health even though it is still a long time until lunch.’”

Recession-proof your freelance writing career

“Write More And Make More Money From Your Writing: Develop A Fast, Fun Productive Writing Process” gives you all the tools you need for a thriving writing career, no matter what the economic climate.

Three weeks after completing the class one student wrote:

“Thanks Angela, for all your help and advice in class. I’m quitting my job next week. I printed out my letter of resignation tonight after landing a contract writing job that will pay me more for three months part-time work than I earned in from my day job in the whole of 2007! You were right – the great gigs are out there, and now I’ve got the skills to land them. Your class opened my eyes. Bless you…”

“Write More And Make More Money From Your Writing: Develop A Fast, Fun Productive Writing Process” shows you how to thrive as a freelance writer. Would you like to write five times more than you’re writing now, and sell to higher-paying markets? Take the class.

Are you wondering how you’ll make money while you’re writing a book? Since the writing can take several years, you need ways to survive while you’re writing. Even more importantly, you need creative ways to build buzz, so that there are eager readers waiting for your book long before it hits the bookstore shelves.

Let’s look at three ways in which you can not only make money while you’re writing your book, you can also market it. Your innovative marketing skills will make your book more attractive to a publisher, so you may even get a book contract long before your book is finished.

By the way: here’s a big tip. Realize that marketing your book is always up to you. Publishers do not market for you. While they may pay for author tours for prospective bestsellers for which they’ve paid million dollar advances, 99 per cent of authors market their books themselves. Before a publisher gives you a contract, your editor will want to see your marketing plan for your book.

Hence, if you’ve been marketing your book from the beginning, you’re much more attractive to a publisher.

1. Publish your book on your blog while you’re writing

I’ve written about blogging your book many times, so I won’t go over the same ground again: it’s essential. Moreover, your blog can earn income for you as you use it for promotion.

2. Publish magazine articles based on your book while you’re writing

Another way to build buzz for your book is to write magazine articles based on it. All magazines give you a byline, and a mini bio, in which you can say something like: “Sara Jane Masterson-Edwards currently hard at work on a book tentatively titled ________. Read her blog at _________.”

When you find checks from magazines in your mailbox every month or two, they help to defray your costs as you write, and of course they build buzz for your book, making you irresistible to publishers.

3. Publish ebooks based on your book while you’re writing

Finally consider whether you can publish ebooks based on the topic of your book while you’re writing it. Hint: fiction doesn’t sell well, so rather than publishing a chapter of your mystery novel as an ebook, publish an ebook using the research for your novel, viz: “Ten Ways to Protect Yourself from Identity Theft”. or “49 Clever Ways to Market Your Book.”

Your ebook spin-offs may surprise you: you may make more money from your ebooks than you eventually do for your book.

OK — there you have three great ways to make money while you’re writing your book, and to generate buzz too.

Discover how to make money online in your spare time with Angela Booth’s Sell Your Writing Online NOW training Not only will you discover how to write and sell ebooks, you’ll get complete training in how the Web works, so you can take advantage of the unlimited opportunities.

For free weekly writing tips sent to your Inbox, subscribe to Angela’s Fab Freelance Writing Ezine and receive “Write And Sell Your Writing: The Power-Write Report” immediately.

Novels take commitment. A book you can read in three hours can take anywhere from three months to three years to write.

Here’s a cute idea for you if you can’t get started writing: use Twitter.

How to Start a Twitter Novel suggest a plan to write a “Twitter novel”:

“1. Throw Out The Manuscript

Twitter is instantaneous. Serializing a manuscript may be easy, but trying to contract and make logical sense of it in 140 character bursts is not. By doing this, you limit the flexibility that Twitter grants in presenting your fiction. Start fresh.”

Now, of itself, a Twitter novel may be close to useless. However, it can provide you with inspiration to write if you outline your “real” novel 140 characters a time in Twitter.

Responses from your followers will help.

Recession-proof your freelance writing career

“Write More And Make More Money From Your Writing: Develop A Fast, Fun Productive Writing Process” gives you all the tools you need for a thriving writing career, no matter what the economic climate.

Three weeks after completing the class one student wrote:

“Thanks Angela, for all your help and advice in class. I’m quitting my job next week. I printed out my letter of resignation tonight after landing a contract writing job that will pay me more for three months part-time work than I earned in from my day job in the whole of 2007! You were right – the great gigs are out there, and now I’ve got the skills to land them. Your class opened my eyes. Bless you…”

“Write More And Make More Money From Your Writing: Develop A Fast, Fun Productive Writing Process” shows you how to thrive as a freelance writer. Would you like to write five times more than you’re writing now, and sell to higher-paying markets? Take the class.