Lost by Karen Fainges

There are times when you just feel totally lost. Everything is too hard and there are a 100 reasons to get out of bed and none of them are worth it.

As a depressive, that is a bad spiral to get into. You feel so guilty about not doing something that you end up doing nothing at all.

Well, I just found one way to get myself out of it, read back over past successes.

I was in an online writing group and reading back over the years of posts, I could see times I wrote really good stuff, times it was full of typos and times it stunk. Most of all though, I saw that for years, I was writing and having a ball with people who became my friends. People from all over the world that I probably would never meet but I would miss when they were gone. People who I had shared jokes and tears with. People who had created an online world and let me join in. Being a part of ASR will always be something special to me.

Sometimes you need to be part of something. Writing can be a lonely business and being part of something special gives you that reason to go on.

Success by Karen Fainges

I have a to do list. Often it says the same things from yesterday because I got nothing done.

Lately I am a bit smarter about it. I have put something quick and easy at the top of the list. It gives me a win for the day and gets everything moving off on the right foot. It doesn’t have to be much, return a phone call, anything, but it lets you tick something off your list.

Same with writing. If I can write one quick blog post, an email to my sister, even a tweet, it gives me a quick win and I can go on to bigger and better things.

I’ve been trying to do one little thing then one bigger thing each day and it really is working on making my life flow a bit more easily.  Here’s hoping, some day soon, I might get one little, one big and one huge thing done…like the lounge room ceiling.

One step at a time.

 

 

 

 

“Audience” by Karen Fainges

Writing for your audience is one of the first lessons taught in Writing school. You should adapt your words, style, grammar and presentation to suit the audience you are writing for. Sometimes that is easier said than done.

I find it quite difficult to separate myself from my characters long enough to look at them with fresh eyes. If I was a new reader who had never met Lisa or Talkar before, what would I want to know about them? How about their world, it is so different from ours, should I spend ages describing it or will that just bore the audience to tears. Do you write for the average reading level or delight the delicate palate of the connoisseur?

Personally, I love it when the author leaves a lot to my imagination, sketching in broad strokes and leaving the colours to me. I also know that many find that annoying. So do I keep to my style or try for the bigger market?

I think it is compromise. You need to keep your own voice. You also need to adjust your voice to suit the circumstances. I speak differently before a class than I do before a Board meeting but it is still me in both cases. So my writing should adapt too. At least I think so, what do you think?

Your Inner Editor by Karen Fainges

My daughter recently celebrated a joint birthday party with her friends from school, all born within a few days of each other. They played games, swam, ate, talked, probably drove the poor mum who volunteered her place crazy, and read each other’s books.

It amazed me that Jess spent time at a party getting someone to look at her writing and tell her what they thought. Still, we all want that feedback, so I suppose it makes sense. What really amazed me was that Jess listened and took it on board, something she rarely does with me.

Our most critical reader is often ourselves. We look at it and rewrite, judge, pick on single words, spend ages with a thesaurus, a dozen changes big and small. Sometimes you need to tell the inner editor to shut up and just let you write. I call mine Fred. Fred gets locked in a cupboard when I really need to do some writing. I only let him out when it comes time to proof.

I wonder if I should get a stuffed toy or something called Fred so I can shove him in a cupboard for real. Could be fun. The dog would probably chew him though. …. now that’s a thought.

“Elevator statement” by Karen Fainges

Telling people all about your book in a couple of short lines is called an elevator statement – in other words, can you tell them before they have to get out of the elevator. Reviewers want it, websites want it, the book needs one for its cover and, face it, people ask you all the time and they don’t have 20 minutes to spare.

As a writer and a marketer, I feel I should be able to do this. Still my ego gets in the way. I have spent years and tears on these books and you want me to sum all that up in just a couple of lines. Well, yes, they do.

I have tried the old and true methods:

• finding the thing that makes your book different from others in its genre
• finding the one thing your main character really cares about
• thinking of tags for a website and making a sentence out if those
• Saying one line in the book that really typifies the story and why

All those sound easy, but they’re not. Any advice out there in blog land? This is driving me crazy.

“By-lines” by Karen Fainges

Using the old fail safe “Keith, what should I do for my blog” as an idea generator, I had it backfire this time.

He said, “Why not write it about getting your husband to do the blog - I write most of it anyway.”

This is not true, but he is right about one thing, I would be lost for ideas without him. So when does a person stop being an interested bystander and start deserving their own by-line? I think it all boils down to where the words come from. Having great ideas is a wonderful gift but until they get down on to the paper, you can’t share them with someone else. It is this sharing that makes a writer. Passing on the emotions, descriptions and ideas so that others can look at them and maybe even pass them on again. So Kudos to the ideas people but true praise goes to those that actually get those thoughts down and pass them on.

That’s my story anyway, and I am sticking to it.

“Reading” by Karen Fainges

Walking into a book store, the choices used to be hard back or soft. if you were very avantgarde, it may have included magazine novelisation or even graphic novels.

Now the choice is bewildering.

• Audiobooks – downloaded or on CD
• Print – soft, hard, Amazons or bookstore
• Ebooks – reader,  computer, phone, pdf, tablet/ipad

I am sure that new formats are just around the corner. So for an author, which is the best to pursue? Should you publish in print or audio, which format of ebook?

The more I look at it, the more I think the answer is yes.  We should try for every format there is. My own publishers publish ebooks in 11 different formats and have print and audio options. With the growth of ebook sales, missing out on this market seems to be like cutting off your own foot. Still, so many say they like to listen to books while jogging or in the car and too many cry that nothing beats actually holding a real book. So limiting yourself to just one format is limiting your sales.

I am just waiting until someone turns the growth of book videos designed to sell books into actual full length adaptations. Given how easy digital editing is becoming, it might not be that far away.

Getting There – by Karen Fainges

Well, as I warned you, I am starting this post with a brag on the word count. I am over the 15,000 word mark. Yay me. Then I started thinking, why is it that November always works better for me?

 

There is writing with so many others and there is the goal and deadline, but it is more than that. Then I thought about what I was writing. My first three books, I already had worked out in my head. What was published wasn’t exactly the same, but it got me started. The fourth book, she’s been a stumper. So this NaNoWriMo I decided to write down the stories my daughter was always telling me to write down. And it just started flowing. I think there is a little switch that tells my subconscious, “OK we are going to have to think of something or she is never leaving that keyboard.” And so the ideas start to flow.

 

More importantly, for the whole time I have been waiting for November, that little pot has been boiling away. So maybe the real secret is, tell your brain you are going to write that bit later and let it simmer while you write something else. Hmm, we’ll see next week if it still works.

Complete Characters by Karen Fainges

Well rounded characters are one of the main features of a good book. So how do you create them? And how do you get them on the page without boring the reader with irrelevancies?

Ever received one of those emails that asks a ton of questions like steak or potatoes, first pet and favourite TV show? Filling one of those out as your characters is a great way to really get to know them. It allows you to really get into their history and feelings. As an author, knowing your character’s favourite colour is red is important. It says a lot about them. But does the reader need to know it? Well probably not.

The important thing is to add emotions to the mix.

Her last step heading for the interview, was to reach for her red jacket. The colour was her favourite and even if it didn’t really compliment her dark looks, it did bolster her confidence and she needed all the confidence bolstering she could get.

So we learn that she gets her confidence, not from how she looks, but from having things she likes close. The jacket is a talisman not an accessory. 

Adding emotions has its own problems. What if the reader really thinks appearance is important, especially for interviews? Will they keep reading or write the character off?

Here, I doubt the impact is that great but for other issues, like saying a quick prayer, kicking a dog away or swearing at a child, those will give very strong reactions. You might want the reader to hate or love this character. Subliminal clues help in this regard, but different people have different reactions. Don’t assume that they way you think is the way they do.

What is something that really turns you off characters?

When is it too much stress? by Karen Fainges

We all have very busy lives. Sometimes it gets a bit too much. So how do you tell when you have writer’s cramp or you are just too stressed out to write?

Everyone has different symptoms. The main thing is to become aware of yours. Do you start biting your nails, or scratch at skin irritations? Do you get cold sores or catch every sniffle going around? My husband worries every time I listen to a particular piece of music or watch a certain video. For some reason I return to them like a child’s comforting blanket without even being aware of it sometimes.

And sometimes, despite taking care of yourself, things happen that make it all too hard. When that happens – you have to take care of yourself. Make that doctor’s appointment or visit to a counsellor. Stress is a medical condition just like a cold or a broken leg. Just like those, sometimes you have to take medicine and healing takes time. Don’t discount it just because it is something you can’t see.

Now those empathic ones amongst you are thinking – ah, she has had to deal with stress. Yep, diagnosed with depression. And guilty of letting it go on way too long. Don’t let yourself drag on, get help. It is actually a really good feeling when you realise, ‘ hey  a lot of people feel like this’.

It is possible to stop feeling down and get back on your feet. It isn’t just a normal part of a busy life, but something you have to work at, just like keeping to a diet, or regular exercise. And then everything – including writing becomes easier.