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For those of you who don’t know, yesterday was my birthday. Not only did I get The Writers Market 2010 (which I’m going to review at a later time), my aunt, who happens to be a fairly big editor, also gave me a black journal; almost empty.

At first glance, it may seem like nothing, but upon further examination, it’s actually extremely valuable.

What she did was buy a journal, and write the first paragraph of a story (78 words, to be exact). In return, I wrote 85 words, and in the next day or two, she’ll write the next paragraph and so on.

It may seem like we’re going pretty slowly, but actually, at this rate, we should be done in about six months. That’s less than the average novel, and this should be about 60,000 words.

We also don’t tell each other the plot or where we’re going with the story, so we really have to make it up as we go along. That normally wouldn’t be a good idea, as the story wouldn’t hold itself together and it would be very difficult to continue the story, however, as we’re only writing a paragraph at a time, it’s pretty easy to move forward, even without planning.

This can be really great practice for a writer, because it’s easy to write; not only because you’re writing only a paragraph at a time, but because you don’t have to come up with all the ideas–only half. You also definitely don’t want to let down the other writer and not continue the story.

Writing a book like this with a writing partner can keepy you motivated, keep writing fun, and make it easy to finish a book.

What I’m also doing with this is I’m typing it up and editing it as we go along. Because we’re only writing a paragraph each, we tend to leave out a lot of detail’s that could be included. It’s easy to edit two paragraph’s at a time very carefully, so it’s very possible to publish the book.

In the coming week’s and month’s, I’ll be posting the chapter’s of the book as they come. I can’t wait to share with you how it end’s up, and I highly encourage you to do the same. In my opinion, for five or ten minutes a day, it’s well worth it.

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The Key King of Writing: The Plot

by Daniel Johnston on May 9, 2010

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It’s not a secret that almost everyone wants to write a book. According to a recent survey, around 79% of people want to write a book. 40% of them want to write fiction.

It’s also no secret that pretty much nobody actually gets there. While most want to write a book, the truth is that only around 2% (or even less) of people actually do sit down and attempt to work on their book.

The people who do that are already way ahead of most of the game. However, there is one crucial step that most people fail at.

Plot vs. Idea

Sure, people who want to write something usually have an idea. The problem is that just an idea on it’s own isn’t a book. That would be called the plot. The plot is when you actually bring all of those ideas together into a series of events that make up a book.

A plot is probably the hardest part about writing a book; if you have a good plot but bad writing, editors often will accept you anyways. The reason for this is that good writing doesn’t sell books; the actual events in the story do. You can be the best writer in the world; the next Shakespeare, King, Grisham, etc. all boiled into one.

But if what you’re writing about isn’t interesting, people won’t care.

I have seen several authors who are awful at writing published because they have great ideas. Even I still buy their books, because they’re fun to read. In the important step of the plot, everything is decided.

My Plots

Over the past few years, I’ve worked on developing well over thirty plots for different ideas. Some, I’ve discarded. Others, I’m working on currently. For every plot, I’ve developed it and gotten the idea in a different way.

So I want to share what I’ve done you. Later today, expect my first piece of advice in just an hour or two.

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Nellie’s Boss/Uncle: The Man in Black (Fiske Cahill)? Nellie’s Mother: Hope Cahill?

April 14, 2010
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In The 39 Clues Book 8: The Emperor’s Code, a lot more is revealed about the secretive Nellie Gomez: She has a “secret mission,” a powerful “boss” or “uncle,” she’s reporting to an unknown source (“In Russia they ran ahead of me on purpose. This is different. Dan knew we were in the square, waiting [...]

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The 39 Clues Book 9 Cover: Fiske Cahill and the Mysterious Madeleine

April 14, 2010
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A few days ago, the title and cover for The 39 Clues Book 9: Storm Warning. The description is something I’ll talk about a little later, as the information it reveals isn’t even close to other sources. However, the cover reveals many pieces of information which could be crucial to the quest and certainly shows [...]

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The 39 Clues Book Eight: The Emperor’s Code

April 7, 2010
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Jonah claims he’s making phone calls to Amy and Nellie and trying to track them down. However, when Amy and Nellie ask him if Dan is with him, he lies and says he isn’t, and was never making calls. When Dan meets Jonah’s mom, Cora Wizard (the leader of the Janus branch), it becomes apparent that the Wizard family is just trying to use him. They even claim Dan is from the Janus branch! Unfortunately, that prompts Dan to respond with the following:

“Janus? I’m no Janus! I know exactly what branch I am!”

“I’m a Madrigal!”

Read more!

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Why Should You Write a Book and What Does it Take?

March 12, 2010
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Here at The Readers and Writers Paradise, I give you advice on how to write a book. But why should you write one? What does it entitle?
Writing
Writing a fiction book is something which, in school, we’re never conditioned to do. Why? Sure, it’s partly that you do have to be a little crazy to put in [...]

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My Book is Too Short! The Fantastic, Easy Art of Stretching Out Your Writing

March 10, 2010
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When I finished two chapters of one of my current book projects a few weeks ago, I was worried at how short they were; around thirteen pages altogether, and the word count would be that of a novella, not a novel.
Recently, I discovered why.
I was very befuddled at this new turn into the problem-filled world that [...]

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Protecting your Writing: 1 Simple Thing you can do to Make Sure your Writing is Safe

January 30, 2010
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This tip is a quick one, but if you don’t use it, you are putting yourself at danger to your writing being destroyed…

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What is Amy and Dan’s Branch?–The 39 Clues

January 29, 2010
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I think that you can tell where I’m going with this: Amy and Dan are of different branches.

I think that’s where the clues above lead, and it would definitely be devastating enough.

To see why I think this and what branch Amy and Dan are part of, click on post headline above!

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My Thoughts After a Week of Using Dragon

January 28, 2010
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You may remember about two weeks ago I wrote about protecting yourself from diseases such as Carpal Tunnel Syndrom, RSI, and Tendonitis which are caused from being on the computer a lot.
In that post, I mentioned a speech recognition program called Dragon Naturally Speaking, and recommended to not use it because it hurts your writing.
You [...]

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