Yes and no. That blog title caught your attention, didn’t it?

And while most writers bemoan the fact, it’s still true that many if not most readers will indeed judge a book by its cover … and its title.

I am miserably bad at finding titles for my own work. I was young and stubborn when my first novel came out and I insisted on my version of the title—years later, I learned that the publisher had been right, but it was a little late then. My best title ever, The Illusionist, was a suggestion given by a friend. So what this all means is that I think a lot about titles.

Terri Marie has this to say about finding the right title:

The title of your book is the billboard for the words and ideas you are giving to people. Those four to seven words or so are most critical of all the words you write.

A dear friend of mine, John Harricharan, author of best-selling, “When You can Walk on Water, Take the Boat,” explained to me that the real title comes from within you, like the book. I finally understood that I did not “try” to write the book. It wrote itself. So too, will the title come from within you. What John meant, is that you must love the title you choose. Be confident with it. With that confidence, the energy of the book can come through, almost like a light shining through the window.

In other words, it does not matter so much what the actual title is. What matters is the feeling you have when you read, see or say the title. That’s the key.

Wow. Just a little pressure there. I wish I could have that upwelling of feeling about a title, but it’s never happened yet.

Fortunately for most of us, she goes on to offer some very practical advice:

1. Write down all possible titles. Anything and everything you can think of. You never know which phrase may catch and stick.
2. Pay attention to how YOU feel when you tell others your title. Do you feel proud, tentative, scared, stupid? The feeling you want is like a proud mother or father of your new little baby. Give it the best name you can. It will be called that name the rest of its life.
3. I also researched other titles on amazon. You don’t want a title that everyone has. It will get lost. You also don’t want a title so obscure or undescriptive that nothing will come up on a search.
4. It needs to have intrigue and yet be clear. “Things Your Priest Doesn’t Want You To Know,” would be intriguing. So would “Things Your (fill in the blank) Doesn’t Want You To Know.” We humans like to know what others are doing, thinking feeling etc.
5. Does your title help the reader to become a better person? We want to strive higher, yet it has to be an achievable goal without huge effort. If your title is “How to increase your IQ by 10 points, studying an extra 5 hours a day,” I’m not interested.
6. Sum up your book in one sentence. Write as many as you can of these one liners. If you get just one chance to give a message from your book to others, what would you say? That’s often all you get. Use it wisely.
7. When it all comes down to it, go with your gut.

Obviously a couple of these suggestions apply only to nonfiction books, but novelists can extrapolate what they say into the fiction realm.

Feeling better? I’m not. I currently have a novel in search of a title. While it’s true that the future publisher may change the title (and probably will), it’s still important to present something strong and compelling to the publisher. With this in mind, I narrowed my options down to two possibilities. I sent them out to my online writing community and asked for opinions, and they came back weighing in more or less equally for each of the two titles. Damn!

Over at Writing-World, John Floyd has some things to say about choosing the “right” title: it shouldn’t be dull, it should be easy to remember, it should be appropriate. Read his entire article for sources to jog your imagination.

And for a little fun, once you’ve got a title or two in mind, head over to Lulu’s title scorer to see how it might work for you!

In the meantime, I’m stuck with my title dilemma, none of my research having given me any definitive direction. I hope your quest goes better! And if you have any secrets, methods, or ideas about finding the right title, please share it here! Then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

Her secret? It’s all in the scheduling.

These days, Anastasia charts out her free time so that blocks of it can be devoted to various projects and bring them to completion within her deadlines. Sounds a lot like the time issues that freelancers in general, and writers in particular, need to deal with every day!

Do you find yourself pulling an all-nighter when your deadlines are looming? Wasting time at the front end of a project and then scrambling to get caught up? Juggling several projects poorly so that none of them gets your full attention?

Scheduling may be your problem, too.

So let’s talk about creating a schedule that works for you … and your clients, as well!

The first step is recognizing when you work best. One of the freedoms of freelance work is the ability to choose your hours … so choose them! I’ve found that I am the most focused and the most energetic in the mornings, so I’m up early and at my desk before most people have even hit the first snooze. I have an artist friend who is starting to wind down and go to bed at about the time I’m waking up. We all have internal clocks that tell us when we’re at our bast: take advantage of that and schedule your most difficult, most intense work for when you’re at your best and brightest.

Block time out for social media. I’m serious. Facebook may keep you in touch with your virtual water cooler, but checking it all day is a time sink. On the other hand, social media is about the best marketing tool that many of us have, and using it consistently and correctly is a strong path to success. So block out some time and be armed with a list for what you want to accomplish during your social media marketing periods.

Speaking of periods, many people find it easier to work in increments, rather than all at once. There are a lot of good reasons to do this. It keeps your mind fresh and your body rested. It keeps you from developing tunnel vision around a project so that you’re less effective at it. Working in pre-determined blocks of time will allow you to step away from your work, do some stretches, drink some juice, and clear your head before continuing.

While you’re blocking time out, remember to reserve some for client interactions. Again, this can take up your whole day if you let it, so resolve to check your email once an hour, and set aside the next ten minutes for responding to those emails that need instant input. Put your telephone calls together, too, and let your clients know when you’re available to them … and, perhaps more importantly, unavailable!

Scheduling your work will keep you in charge of it … and keep it from being in charge of you! Try it, and you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

But I’m here to tell you that you can find subject matter all around you, even in the dead and dark of winter when your enthusiasm is at its lowest ebb.

So sit down with a cup of coffee or tea and see if anything here inspires you! In no particular order, you can …

• Find out what anthologies are looking for essay submissions. You don’t have to write the essay, just think about the suggested topics: they can inspire you!
• Set up Google alerts for a whole bunch of subjects. Even if they’re just of peripheral interest to you, they can lead you to content that may end being inspirational.
• Did you keep a journal in school? If so, re-read it now: those emotions were intense, and they’re timeless, too—there has to be a teen publication that would be interested in your take on them!
• Read the newspaper, whether you do it in print or online. Clip and save articles that pique your interest. They may inspire you now … or down the road. (And if you write fiction as well, lots of great stories have been, as the saying goes, “ripped from the headlines.”)
• Check out current nonfiction bestsellers, and search online for nonfiction that’s going to be published in the next year. Can you tie anything that you know about or can research into that book’s release?
• Ask your Aunt Edna what’s on her mind these days. The baby-boomer generation, even in a recession, spends money on magazines, ezines, and the like: whatever is of interest to her is sure to be of interest to others, and she can even help you craft your pitch.
• Think local! Is there a business that’s about to open in town? A celebrity appearing locally? An upcoming talk at the library? All of these can provide you with material.
• Inthe same way, check out what other alumni from your college are up to, and consider writing about them for your alumni publication.
• Do something different. Go for a walk. Take a class. Try a new hobby. Not only will you feel better and more energized, you’ll meet different people who may inspire you, network with you, or becoming sounding-boards for you. And the activity itself might provide a niche article somewhere!
• The adage is, “write what you know.” Okay … but what about stuff you’d like to know about? Have you always wanted to go hang-gliding? Surfing? Find experts now in the off-season and interview them, learn about their sport or hobby …. your submission will be timely for the summer season!
• History isn’t just my passion, it’s an evergreen topic, as long as you don’t just regurgitate the same old information. Writing for the tourist trade is fun and light-hearted and slipping bits of history into your writing can add context and depth.

So there you have it: some ideas to get you thinking about other ideas. Have any you’d care to share? Do it here, and then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

***

Everyone’s life is busier every year. Work, family, friends, church, volunteer obligations—we’ve loaded our lives with so much stuff that writing is often neglected. Finishing three to four hundred pages in this chaos can seem impossible.

Yet the dream of holding your first book in your hands persists. You know you have to do whatever it takes to keep your dream alive.

Great!

This is written just for you, not for those who pay lip service to writing. Since none of those unsavory types are here right now, draw closer, I want to share some tips on finding a few extra minutes here and there for writing.

First, writing time isn’t found: it’s made, and you need to decide where you will make time. I don’t know your life, so I can’t tell you exactly where your writing time goes. You need to be honest with yourself about where you waste time during a day.

A friend lamented that she has very little time to write. Yet, almost every conversation we have includes the following questions: Did you watch such and such show? No. What about this show? No.

Don’t get me wrong I have my favorite shows, but DVRs and VCRs were invented so I don’t have to sit through twenty minutes of commercials. If you watch two one-hour long programs a week, you can recover forty minutes to write.

Are you a perpetual volunteer? I’ve done my share of time on boards and committees, but there comes a time when you have to say no. Volunteering is a monumental time vacuum. Practice saying this with me, “I’m sorry, but I can’t help this time.” Trust me, it gets easier each time you say those words.

Maybe neither of these is you. Like I said, I don’t have a crystal ball into your life. Think long and hard about the activities you participate in, and ask yourself, do I want this more than I want a career as a writer? Then scale back the activities you can’t live without, so you can fit a few more minutes of writing into your day.

At the very least, schedule a half an hour of your day to write. It shouldn’t be too hard I just saved you forty minutes, but if you’re not a TV watcher then, wake up a half an hour early, stay awake a half an hour later, or sit in your car at lunch, whatever it takes to get that half hour. Your family can live without you for thirty minutes. Shocking I know. I was mortified to find out my husband didn’t sit in stasis when I’m not around, waiting for me to come home and plugged him in again. So use that time for writing, the world will keep revolving even if you’re not supervising.

Stop telling yourself, “I can’t write because …” You CAN accomplish anything you want. When you say, I am going to do x-y-z, then x-y-z gets done. Make writing a daily activity like changing your underwear.

The only way to get to THE END is to sit down, begin, stay seated, and keep working. Writing is hard work. Writers who succeed make a commitment to their work. You can too.

Stacy Verdick Case carves her half-hour out every morning, and guards it like a lioness. She is the author of the Catherine O’Brien mystery series. The first book in the series A Grand Murder is available in paperback, ebook, and now audio from Before the Fall Books. Visit Stacy on her blog, for more information on her writing—and general musings.

Check out her book and blog, and you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

Compelling characters are characters that play a lot of roles inside their own role. They’re entertaining and engaging, those two overused words that actually work in this case: compelling characters are people that we want to see more of, learn more about, see interacting with others, watch as they navigate the situations into which they’re plunged.

To be seriously compelling, however, characters have to go beyond mere entertainment. Compelling characters are characters that teach us something beyond the storyline in which they find themselves. They force us to look at something—themselves, the world, a given issue or situation—and learn something about it.

At their very best, they force us to learn something about ourselves. The lack of limits Lisbeth Salander (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) acknowledges may make me envy her … but she reminds me in the process of the fact that my own limits are pretty firmly entrenched. Almost every character in Steinbeck’s novels is a fundamentally lonely person … and as I read about them I’m reminded of my own extremely high loneliness threshold, my desire for solitude, even as I sympathize with their need for conenction.

Phil Rickman writes novels in which the characters move fluidly from one story to another, to the point where they become very real to the reader. I’ve caught myself wondering how Moira Cairns would respond to something that happens in my own life and have to remind myself that she really only exists on the pages of his books. The recent popularity of Downton Abbey indicates that compelling characters don’t know historic or cultural boundaries, as continents of people find themselves enthralled by the joys and problems encountered by Lord and Lady Grantham, by Mr. Bates and Anna.

And how can they not hold a mirror up to us, even as we watch them live out their stories? Just as Nietzche said about the abyss, we look into the characters … and they look into us. Compelling characters create a connection between who they are and who we are, so that in a sense we can feel what they feel, imagine being them, maybe bring a slightly different sort of insight back with us into our own lives and dramas.

So … what do you think? What creates a compelling character? I’d love to hear it. And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!