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Guest Post by Samantha March : Reviews

Then came the two star. A short little blurb on Amazon that said there were too many heavy topics and my main character was “contradictory.” Not much more was said – only six lines, so I really didn’t know what to take away from the review. It wasn’t really constructive feedback in my opinion, because it was so short and didn’t explain why they thought this. But hey, that’s okay. And you know what? It really was okay. I honestly expected myself to have a meltdown when the first “bad” review came in. I thought I would cry and yell and tell myself I would never write again (okay, maybe not that last one, but you see what I mean). But…I didn’t. I was strangely calm. So strangely calm I wondered if perhaps I was getting sick. Or if I didn’t read the review properly. Or something – anything!

Guest Post by Aida Brassington

Ask a group of writers about how they create characters, and you’re likely to get dozens of different answers. Some people prefer to “pants” their way through a novel, or sit down with a vague idea of what the story is and who the characters are and just start writing. Some take a more structured approach.

I believe in the structured approach.

 When I was preparing to write Between Seasons, a paranormal novel that tells the story of a ghost who falls in love with the woman who buys his house forty years after his death, I started with my main character. Name and physical appearance are important factors. I knew I wanted his family to be Irish Catholic, so I picked a good Irish Catholic name: Patrick Boyle. I have a different approach when it comes to physical appearance – I go searching for a photo online, someone who at least vaguely resembles the person in my head. It helps to solidify what I’m thinking. In Patrick’s case, I found a photo of a guy with feathered hair. Patrick dies in 1970, so the right hair was imperative (something I never thought I’d say!). And then it’s time to write it out: scars, eye color, hair color, jaw-line, nose, body type, height, weight, how he walks, his favorite words, nervous habits.

I’ve read arguments that this kind of stuff  is useless, a waste of time. Maybe for some writers. For me, giving a character detail breathes life into him. And when there’s a fully fleshed out character beating on the inside of my head, I’m going to be able to write him well. Sure, I could have sat down and started writing Patrick’s story, but he wouldn’t be half as real – to me or those who read the novel.

Read a review of Between Seasons, and you might see people talking about how they were touched by his loneliness, confusion, and despair but taken with his quirky late teen attitude. They like the true to life characters and real feel of the dialogue. I doubt I could have managed that without serious work up front on characterization. Patrick is engineered in a very specific way.

What do I suggest for good character building, regardless of whether you’re a pantser or a plotter?

• Make a decision about your character’s ethnic background before you choose a name. No one is going to believe a sixteen-year-old Amish girl is named Shaniqua D’Amico.
• While detailing physical attributes is good to do before you start writing, at least write down these details as you make them up during writing. Why? It stops you from giving your main character blue eyes in one chapter and green eyes in another.
• Decide up front if your character is going to have any speech affectations or nervous reactions – a lisp, a word he or she uses frequently, the habit of chewing his nails when he’s nervous, a face twitch when someone says the word “moist.” Again, it helps with continuity and reduces the need for edits later on.

Nothing’s worse than reading a book that begins with a character who speaks like he’s in the third grade but suddenly switches fifty pages in to a character who comes off like he’s a Harvard educated Ph.D. Don’t let yourself get caught in that trap!

Want to judge whether Patrick Boyle is well-written as a character?

Try: BETWEEN SEASONS

$3.99 in electronic formats at Amazon US  | Amazon UK | BN  | Smashwords

$12.99 at Amazon in paperback

Guest Post by Samantha March: My Characters Did What?

I am in the process of writing book number two. Like I mentioned in my previous post, I didn’t give myself a lot of details before I started writing. I planned on the main character and a few of the supporting characters, I knew what I wanted to happen with my plot and some key scenes I felt needed to be included, but otherwise, I was just gone with the wind. Seeing where my writing takes me. And oh boy, has it taken me places.

Guest Post by Ella Slayne

 From One Writer To Another…

(I admit that a lot of this is easier to say rather than do but the tips below are things I try to work towards.  I don’t always achieve it but they serve as reminders and hopefully keep me on a relatively sane track – LOL!)

Believe in yourself.

Writing takes guts.  So if you’re already doing it on a regular basis, or even on and off, you should give yourself a pat on the back right now!  As writers, we expose our creative selves and that can leave us feeling vulnerable.  We take part in critique sessions and submit query letters, always hoping for some positive feedback, for some praise, ultimately a publishing contract!

And if we get a rejection or some negative criticism, we try and suck it up and move on from it.  But somewhere in between taking the feedback and pushing forward we may find that our self-esteem take a little knock, and over time those knocks create a bit of a chip or dent which can get bigger and bigger until it seems that although we keep writing, we begin to doubt ourselves and the worth of our work.

So I say this: don’t look to others for validation that your work is worth something.  Criticism is vital, yes but don’t make the mistake of thinking that a rejection for example, somehow means your work is not valuable or that you have nothing to offer.  You do!  And the biggest trap you can fall into is self-doubt.  So take a moment to give yourself self-worth because after all your own self-belief is the most important.  Without that, you have nothing to offer the rest of us!

Don’t be stubborn though.

Believing in your work doesn’t mean that you should be stubborn or a stick in the mud!  It’s easy to be attached to the manuscript you’ve written and you should be, I mean if you don’t care about what you’ve written, why should anyone else right?   We all have paragraphs, descriptions, character development or a plot twist that we’re proud of and that’s great, but if you are consistently given the critique that something’s not working or that you should cut a significant section of text, don’t just flap it away as irrelevant because you particularly like that bit, or it took you hours to write it. You won’t learn anything by simply disregarding feedback you disagree with.

Instead I try to be flexible (and this is not always easy I admit).  I take time to explore why the reader may not have felt the same way. Usually there is a reason and it may just be that I need to rewrite it or move a piece of text to a different place in my book (maybe even save it for a different book altogether).

Ultimately a writer’s goal is to communicate efficiently and to as many people as possible.  We don’t always get it right and that’s why the opinion of others is imperative in helping us hone our craft.

Network by all means, but do it your way!

This is a real problem area for me because I’m naturally quite shy, even in cyberspace, so ideally I would prefer just to publish my books and then shut-up!  And I could do that, it’s true, but in reality very few people would know about my book, let alone read it.

We all know it’s out there, the new-age of social networking: Facebook, Twitter, blogging etc. Even if they are not your thing, you can’t avoid them, so it seems to me the best option is to embrace them.

I started a blog, signed up on Twitter and created an author Facebook page in an online networking frenzy!  It felt great at first, I was tweeting and updating my status all the time and doing a lot of online socializing!

Then I read articles and blogs about the do’s and don’ts from writers and the publishing world and I became frustrated and confused. Because just like many aspects of writing, it’s all subjective; when one agent says they don’t like to connect via twitter, another will happily do so, when one writer says they welcome all comments on their blog, another will say don’t bother to comment unless you have something meaty to offer. What’s the famous phrase? “You can’t please all of the people all of the time….” 

These online forums can be a brilliant resource, but they are not without pitfalls because it can be a nightmare trying to navigate around online networking etiquette.  You can drive yourself crazy trying to worrying about whether you should return every Twitter follow or comment on every blog you come across.

I think the key here is to do what feels right for you; create your own networking style and be true to yourself.

Find High-Heels and Slippers and connect with Ella at:

 www.smashwords.com , www.barnesandnoble.com and in paperback at www.amazon.com.  For more info please stop by her website: www.highheelsandslippers.com or leave a comment on her blog: http://ellaslayne.wordpress.com/.  You can follow her on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/EllaSlayne or check out her Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Ella-Slayne-Author/268625979835390  Stop by and say hi, she would love to hear from you!

Guest Post by Tony Timbol

Why Single Mom’s are my heroes

Many authors write fiction because they want to entertain and not lecture when telling truths they believe in. The story below is fiction but based on some hard truths I and others have learned…

Walking up to the checkout lanes I could see I was in a race to get to the cashier ahead of my competition. The floor manager had just opened Lane 5. The smiling clerk said, “Over here! I’ll take you,” and waved me over even before she switched the lane light on. I picked up my pace. Holding on to the bulky paper towels saver pack and sweaty milk carton I looked again at my competitor and could see her closing fast. But I had a lead on her. I knew if I kept focused, I would win the day and get there first. Then I saw that she had stopped, dropped her Walmart reusable bag to the floor and started to kneel. I heard her say, “It’ll be fine sweetheart.”

I slid to a stop. The cashier waved again. But inside my head a voice said is that *Allyson? Turning I faced the woman and looking closer saw it was the single mom my wife and I had counseled four years ago. The tall, pretty blonde had bent down on one knee and soon had her arm around a sad faced girl child.  I could not recall the little girl’s name. She was just a toddler then. I remembered Allyson, though, the woman whose lost smile eventually returned. Her story began to change my attitude about single moms.

Allyson’s divorce hit hard. The partnership she thought she had was one-sided. Her husband’s words of commitment spoken in passion and financial plenty faded as his gambling debts piled up. His addiction strained the relationship. 18 months of fruitless 12-step meetings became too much for her, his heart never seemed invested. Finally get help or get out was her demand, fair enough he said. Out he went with his truck leaving dark tread marks of a high speed exit from their lives.

During the first few counseling sessions, Allyson’s sunny view darkened and she worked hard work to see any light, let alone credit God for any of it. Church and religious people were the first, not to help, but to blame. The now available young mother, still thin and attractive, was soon isolated in the family values world of suburban religion. I was among those to cast the first stone, even as a trained counselor, whose was supposed to see brokenness and not simply behavior. She talked much about the poor cards God had dealt her until she began to recognize the game she had been playing and the men she had been drawing. It took time and many tears for her to find some peace. Eventually she accepted her history remarking in one session, “the past does not have to determine your future, but it sure pushes you hard in some directions.” I began to see my own past and judgmental eye. She vowed to break the pattern committing to a more spiritual course even though she was not sure what exactly that meant.

 Her warm smile and kiss on her daughter’s cheek began melting the child’s frown. Picking up a few pieces of the wrapped mini-Kit Kat bars off the floor, the child’s bag had torn; Allyson placed them into the reusable bag. Glancing at the other pieces on the floor, she said, “Honey, it will be fine. The bag you had only took you this far, let’s put them into the sack and let’s get home. They’re not ruined, just a little dented.” The girl looked at her and smiled.

Standing up, Allyson saw me and beamed a grin. Taller than me, she approached and leaned over giving me a warm hug then looked around the store, “Is Serena here? It’s been so long since I’ve seen you and her.” I told her that she was home. She introduced to me Gabby, still smiling.  We went through the checkout lane together. I offered to buy the small items she had.

“No, it’s okay, we doing fine. The first few jobs after the divorce sucked but I have a great job now with a good boss, two years last month. Even have a little savings, maybe for a house soon!” she said as she looked down and patted Gabby on shoulder. Exiting the store, I walked them to their car and caught up on news as much as we could before we said our goodbyes. Watching her and Gabby drive away, both smiling and waving, my spirit lifted.

Standing there waving, I nodded my head. Allyson was typical of the single mom’s we had counseled. Most had a lioness’s heart and a willingness to change. Despite wandering males strutting through their lives, they cared and protected their young and did what they had to do. Yes, Allyson and her sisters changed my attitude about single moms, now hero’s in my book.

Tony Timbol

Author, Cybil Raven Chronicles

www.cybilraven.com

www.tonytimbol.com

*Allyson is a composite of multiple single mothers and is a fictitious name so as to respect confidentiality.

Plotting the Story: Samantha March

Every writer will have a different way of plotting their novels. Some craft the characters, the scenes, the turning point, the climax, and the resolution before beginning to write. Others just start writing. Many fall somewhere in between. With my first book, Destined to Fail, I had a lot planned out before I started writing. I knew who I wanted the main characters to be, the conflicts that would arise, and how the story would end. That was for draft one. Draft two was changed slightly and draft three was completely different than what I had originally penned out.

Name

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