If you're writing fiction, and you're not Cormac McCarthy, chances are you're using quotation marks. But are you using them correctly?

Let's go over the recommendations of the ​Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition, the accepted style guide for American fiction.

I love National Novel Writing Month. I believe it teaches important lessons for beginning writers—and provides a reminder for more experienced writers. Putting pen to paper (literally or figuratively) is the most important things. Tough days come and go, but keeping up your writing momentum is crucial.
​

—Madeleine L'Engle

​This is that post. The how I got my agent post.

This is exciting to write, but also a little daunting—which I suppose is why I'm writing it about a year after I signed with my agent.

During the years I spent querying, these types of posts were so helpful and encouraging. She got an agent! I will too.

So here we go. I'm going to lay out the whole sordid tale, from start to finish. And it starts in a very scary place, my friends . . . high school.​
​

Whether you're a new writer just learning the basics or an advanced writer exploring different methods of storytelling, it's worth taking some time to examine your choice of point of view (POV). Most writers have one POV they feel the most comfortable with, but that doesn't mean it's the best choice for every story.

Let's go over the different POVs and the pros and cons of each.

Writing tends to follow a cyclical pattern. Anybody who has been writing for a significant amount of time knows that it's difficult—or impossible—to sustain a very fast writing pace for a long period of time. Events like National Novel Writing Month can help motivate writers to knock out a large chunk of words very quickly, but at the end of that month, it's normal to feel like you just can't write any more words—to feel drained.

That's because writing takes energy! Just because we're sitting at our desks (or on our couch, in the woods, at the pool, whatever) doesn't mean that we're resting. Writing is mentally and emotionally exhausting. It's easy for us to see that in the short term—you finish a particularly emotional scene and slump back in your chair, totally drained—but sometimes we set unrealistic expectations for our long-term productivity. If scenes are able to drain us in that way, it stands to reason that we can expect periods of exhaustion over months and years.

I like to compare this natural pattern to the tide, so let's talk about what to expect during high tide and low tide—and how to be a productive writer while taking care of yourself and ensuring you don't burn out.

​Writers—especially those working on their first books—tend to obsess over word count. Maybe that's because a manuscript's word count is one of its only truly objective elements. Character, plot, style, and voice are all difficult to define, and books change with each reader's response. But a manuscript that is 82,749 words is exactly that. So it makes sense that writers want to control this aspect that we can control, beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Word count is important, especially for writers planning to pursue traditional publication, and understanding word count goals can make the drafting and editing processes more efficient. But sometimes focusing on word count can be a detriment. Let's discuss why word count is important, how to use your current and projected word count to your advantage, and when word count should be the last thing on your mind.

[click to tweet]

​The number one nemesis to any writer struggling to get that draft written is your inner editor. She's got a grating voice and constantly nags you about your grammar, your sentence structures, your plot development. "Change this. Fix that. Make it better."

One of my favorite writing quotes is from William Faulkner:
​

​I love this quote mainly because it emphasizes that waiting for inspiration is not the way to get things done. But it also promotes a common piece of advice in the writing world: Write every day.

Like much writing advice, the "write every day" mantra is often lauded as the be-all-end-all. And like most writing advice, that is simply not the case. Although I am a proponent of writing every day in many contexts, I do recognize that the advice is not perfect for every writer in every situation. Whether writing every day is a good idea depends on the individual and can change for each individual.

Although I generally find writing every day to seriously boost my productivity, there are times that I need to slow down or (gasp) take a break. So remembering that all writing advice has positives and negatives, let's take a moment to look at the pros and cons of writing every day so you can decide whether it's the best idea for you at this specific stage in your writing journey.

On Twitter, Paula Puddephatt responded to my blog post about the myth that all writers are alcoholic, depressed, and starving.

Her words struck a chord with me. As writers, we use our experiences to inform our characters' emotions—even when their experiences are different. It's just like method acting, I thought. After all, how many times have I been in a bad mood after a writing a particularly difficult moment in a character's journey? My writing bleeds into my daily life. In a sense, I become these characters—I take on their emotions. Is that not the same as method acting?

A quick search of the term "method writing" shows that I am not the first to consider this.

I believe that we make things happen through the actions we take. Sometimes those actions are big—huge risks that either pay off or don't—but sometimes it's the smallest actions that have the biggest impact. We choose our paths through the seemingly insignificant decisions we make every day. Do we choose to spend an hour writing or working out, or do we spend that hour watching television? Do we get enough sleep at night? Or do we down a couple cups of coffee and hope that's enough?

All these small choices will eventually determine our futures. But today, I want to talk about just one choice:

​Picking up our toys.