Defining Pink Sauce

When you’re writing your life, you’re likely doing so for one of two reasons: catharsis (to get it off your mind) or commiseration (to get it off your chest and into others’ minds). Either way, you’re inviting your readers to share experiences. 

Consider that your readers may have already achieved some level of sophistication through personal experiences or reading. It’s up to you to be judicious with your word choices when describing your experiences. You want readers to keep pace with your stories. Yet, with global interactions, it’s easy to lose them because of the multiple meanings of words. I’ve found that the greater the sophistication of the reader, the greater the number of choices of meaning (or options for the most appropriate word). 

Take for instance my recent trip to Spain. One of my unspoken travel rules is to sample some of the local delicacies, which I look for while reading the menus. In this case, my findings included oxtail, tinto de verdana (red wine spritzer) and Iberian jamon (ham).

At times, my husband and I would rely on my dilapidated Spanish when ordering food. Keep in mind, I learned Spanish decades ago from Mexican and Ecuadorian professors, who had warned me about the differences in their languages vs. the "real" Spanish. After having been to Spain, I now know that Catalan is different than Castillian (where most words have a “th” sound), and that because of the Moor influence, there are thousands of words in southern Spain, especially, that have an Arabic heritage. So much for my "Donde es el bano?" attempt at finding a restroom. What I needed to say was "Los aseos, por favor." Who knew? 

But back to the menus and the topic of this blog post – pink sauce. There are subtle differences between every geography, but there was one consistency: whether I was in Madrid or Andalucía, in a tapas bar or in a fine dining room, there was always a translation that included “pink sauce.”

Like the words, the sauce had different interpretations: shrimp puree, strawberry cream, a mysterious mayonnaise-like drizzle on avocados, a hardening waxy shell on gelato, or my favorite, Gazpacho Andaluz. So fresh. Unfortuntely I’m not doing the experience justice with this measly paragraph. 

In trying to relay those dinner happenings, I was reminded how important being specific is when writing. It’s your role as a writer to guide your readers through your experiences so vividly that your experiences become their own through you. So let me try again.

In Seville, sitting outdoors in the moonlight, I was served the best pink sauce in my Spanish travels: a tomato-cream soup, not a sauce, with chopped onions, boiled eggs and cucumbers decorating the surface like a mosaic. The color of the soup itself was near the inside of not-quite-ripe-tomato pulp. But, the pink soup had all the fragrance and flavor of fully-ripe tomatoes enhanced with local herbs – slightly acidic, slightly spicy yet thirst-quenching. Served cold in a plate-sized bowl, it was a refreshing late-night dinner to complement the warm Spring day.

 
Can you almost taste it? If not, I recommend a trip to Spain to try it. In the meantime, be sure you take the time to define what you want your readers to experience. Watch for your generic descriptions and remember that every reader has a frame of reference from which to pull interpretations. Know your audience and know how to talk to them. It’s up to you to guide them as best you can. Adios (‘til later).

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As CEO of Write Advisors, Bonnie Bajorek Daneker helps clients express themselves digitally and in print. Author of The Compassionate Caregiver Series®, Bonnie released her seventh book, CLIMB, in November 2010, with Sandy Hofmann, President of Women in Technology (WIT). Her most recent book, Publishing as a Marketing Strategy, is co-written with five other contributors and was released November 2011. She holds a BA in Journalism from The Ohio State University and an MBA in Strategic Planning and Entrepreneurship from The Goizueta School of Business at Emory University.  

AcceleWrite Your Book: How to Write Fast Under Deadline

Okay, let’s say you made the commitment to write your book ... oh, about 60 days ago. You promised yourself – and your agent, coach or accountability partner, your critique group and your spouse – that you would finish the first draft of your manuscript on, hmmmmm, July 20th. You have exactly one month before your self-imposed deadline, you’ve written only 30,000 words, everyone is asking how your book is coming, and you’re starting to feel the pressure.

Deadlines matter. After all, you have a plan and you intend to stick with it. But somehow you got behind schedule with your writing and now it’s crunch time. You know you’ve come too far to quit. The deadline looms large and time moves seemingly at warp speed the closer you get to that deadline. What do you do?

I’ve been in this very situation more times than I care to recall. It’s a panicky, anxious feeling. As a freelance writer and author, deadlines can be a great guideline, especially at the start of a project. But as time goes on and life gets in the way, those very deadlines can seem like a nightmare designed to strangle your creativity and forever halt the forward progress of your book project. But you can get back on track.

Here are a few tips to help accelerate your writing when your deadline approaches:

Hibernate: Seriously. Sometimes you need to hide away from everything and everyone and just write, write, write until you get it done. This means no TV, email or cell phone. Ouch! I know that’s hard, but you’re under deadline, so make it happen!

Review: Take a look at what you’ve written thus far. Are there sections that can be beefed up by adding more description or greater explanation? Add content only where needed, but don’t overdo it.

Reach for your outline: You know that outline you drafted before you wrote even one word. Yes, that one. Take a look at it and make sure you’re on track to cover everything you committed to in the beginning of your book project. If you haven’t yet covered an area, here’s your chance to do so and add more content to your manuscript.

Try small bites: Break the remainder of your book into small bites; perhaps by sections or chapters. Then, focus on one section at a time and don’t quit until that section is done.

Cheat: Okay, I know that doesn’t sound good, but bear with me. If the words aren’t flowing the way you’d like, cheat a bit by writing in blurbs. These are short sentences or bullet points that describe the points you want to make. From there, flesh out the points into sentences and then paragraphs. Before you know it, you’ll have pages and pages of content.

Voice it: If the words aren’t flowing from your brain to your fingertips, perhaps recording your thoughts will help. Speak your thoughts into a voice recorder, then transcribe the recording word for word. From there, fill in the gaps with description, explanation and further insight.

Of course, the best scenario is to never get into the dreaded deadline crunch. But realistically, most writers and authors face it. So practice a few of these tips to help you finish your book by your deadline so you can breathe easy.

What are some of your strategies for writing quickly and meeting writing deadlines?

____________________________________

Anita Paul, known as The Author's Midwife, coaches aspiring authors to write a phenomenal book and helps current authors use their existing books to leverage their business. She is the author of Write Your Life: Create Your Ideal Life and the Book You've Been Wanting to Write, and is the creator of the Write Your Life program, through which she has created a dynamic system to Write Your Book in 90 Days or Less. She has owned The Write Image for 15 years, and has had her freelance articles featured in over 25 publications in the U.S. and Canada. Anita is also the host of "Book Your Success".

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Getting the Most From Your Book Production Team

Any successful published author knows that you can’t do it all yourself. It takes a team to create a top-notch book. You want a book that is well written, expertly edited, divinely designed, and professionally printed. Beyond that, you need professionals who will help you promote your book and repurpose it into an audio book, a speech, a presentation, or other information products to help you leverage your personal or professional brand. That’s a lot!


Now you see why it’s nearly impossible to produce a book that readers will rave about without the help of a few trusted experts. Finding the right people to help produce your book can be daunting. Building a book production team can be one of the most valuable time investments you can make with your book. There are thousands of choices for any of the above services and more. How do you find the team members you need?

• Get recommendations from friends or other successful authors
• Search online for experts in various areas of book publishing
• Consult a writers group
• Email me for my list of Preferred Providers in Publishing

Once you have a few people to consider in a particular category, how do you determine which professional is best for you? Here are a few questions to ask any provider:

• How long have you been in the business? 
• Do you work with authors in the same genre or literary form (fiction/nonfiction) in which I’m writing? 
• What is your process for completing a project? 
• What aspect of what you do, do you enjoy most/least?
• How many revisions are included?
• How long do you expect the process to take?
• Do you have a few references I can contact?

In addition to these questions, you should have some clear objectives for your book project. After all, you're driving this process, so be clear about the following:

• When you want the project to be complete;
• How much you have budgeted (Note: Your expenses will occur over time, not all at once, so at least have an idea of how much you’re willing to spend total);
• How you wish to communicate with your team (phone, email, Skype, text, in-person meetings);
• What you want the final product to look like, sound like, etc.; and
• How you will measure success.

Some authors run into the challenge of motivating their team; getting people to deliver on time and to their expectations. Part of getting what you want is knowing what you want. Just as important is knowing what motivates your team: is it money, deadlines, recognition, appreciation, or something else? Once you determine that, you can use those motivators as incentives to help your team "get the lead out" and produce to your expectations for an on-time delivery.

Getting the most from your book production team isn’t magic; it doesn’t take any special skills, other than clarity, focus, intention, and leadership. Your book is your “baby”; it’s your creation. Your team is here to help you produce a book that you’ll be pleased with, that readers will enjoy, and that everyone involved will be proud of.

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Anita Paul, known as The Author's Midwife, coaches aspiring authors to write a phenomenal book and helps current authors use their existing books to leverage their business. She is the author of Write Your Life: Create Your Ideal Life and the Book You've Been Wanting to Write, and is the creator of the Write Your Life program, through which she has created a dynamic system to Write Your Book in 90 Days or Less. She has owned The Write Image for 15 years, and has had her freelance articles featured in over 25 publications in the U.S. and Canada. Anita is also the host of "Book Your Success".

20 Ways to End Your Book

Stephen Covey, author of the incredibly popular leadership and time management “bible”, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, made famous the saying, “Begin with the end in mind.” And that, my friend, is what you must do when writing your book: begin with the end in mind.

Whether yours is a book about how to start a daycare center, a memoir recounting your years living in Beijing, or a spiritual guide through the practice of yoga, taking the time at the start of your writing journey to consider how you might wrap up your fantastic story will become one of the biggest favors you’ve ever done for yourself. I coach my clients and students to develop three logical endings to their books; three possible ways to wrap up the content they’ve outlined in my super simple outlining system that I teach (it totally works for any kind of book and authors LOVE it!). As the content of the book unfolds, inevitably one of those three endings will become the obvious choice. Oh sure, most authors wind up making some adjustments to the initial description, but always, as the writing progresses, it leads to one of the endings, making wrapping up the book a much simpler and enjoyable experience.

So then, the obvious question is how to develop the three endings. Here are a few to consider depending on your book’s genre. Using your creativity, you might be able to apply endings across genres, so stay open to possibilities:

Memoir and Autobiography

1. list of lessons learned

2. how it all changed you

3. reunion with someone mentioned earlier in the book
4. twist of fate
5. birth (because after all, death can be a downer!

How-To and Self-Help

6. recount the main points

7. application of the main points

8. success story of you, a client/customer or a celebrity

9. poll or survey results

10. case study or in-depth testimonial

Novel
11. reveal the hidden character (murderer, benefactor)

12. girl gets guy or vice versa (it’s overdone, but still wildly popular)

13. suspicion (leave readers hanging; allow them to decide what happens next or whodunnit; great way to make room for a sequel)

14. return of a character assumed lost, dead or otherwise removed

15. destruction, death, loss or termination

Spiritual and Motivational

16. how the insight or revelation can be applied

17. examples of popular/famous missed opportunities

18. results of others who have used the methods described in your book

19. potential outcomes of not doing what’s taught

20. why and how you continue to practice the principles mentioned in your book

Select three possible endings for your book. Describe them in as much detail as you can; this should take about a page or two each. Then, set them aside as you craft the content for your book. These endings will become a welcome support when you encounter writer’s block. Read through each ending and take the time to determine if your writing thus far is leading you in one specific direction or if what you’ve written has taken you completely off track. 

Trust the process and have fun with it!

How will you know when/how to wrap up your book?

____________________

Anita Paul, known as The Author's Midwife, coaches aspiring authors to write a phenomenal book and helps current authors use their existing books to leverage their business. She is the author of Write Your Life: Create Your Ideal Life and the Book You've Been Wanting to Write, and is the creator of the Write Your Life program, through which she has created a dynamic system to Write Your Book in 90 Days or Less. She has owned The Write Image for 15 years, and has had her freelance articles featured in over 25 publications in the U.S. and Canada. Anita is also the host of "Book Your Success".