Writing Tips and Tricks-World Building

Building a world for your characters to live in is really, really important. You can have the most complex and beautiful world EVER in your head, but if you can’t get your readers to see it, it won’t matter. Everyone has their own way of doing this, but I’m going to talk a little about how I like to do it.

When I’m reading, I hate being bogged down with paragraph after paragraph of descriptive writing. Even the most talented writers can really slow themselves down with too much descriptive writing. That’s why I like to be sneaky about my description. A single, well placed world can tell a reader a whole lot about a character or situation. I often slip descriptive words into conversations or short thoughts. It’s like shaking a little seasoning on the writing. A little here and there goes a long way.

Subtly blending descriptions into the story also lets the reader use their imagination to fill in whatever gaps you choose to leave in the story. And readers love using their imaginations.

That doesn’t mean, however, that you can completely ignore the whole description thing altogether. Every book needs description to ground it and make it real. Sometimes I struggle with exactly how much too add. Building an interesting world for your stories is sort of a balancing act between giving information and letting your readers create their own information. It really boils down to figuring out what works best for you.

Writing Tips and Tricks-How to Create Tension

Today I’m starting a week long basic writing series. I thought I would start with one of the most important aspects of story telling-tension. Sure, stories need characters and setting and a plot but if you don’t have tension, everything else is going to be flat. Boring.

Tension is really what keeps people reading. If there are risks, if your character needs to achieve something, you’re much more likely to have people stick with your characters. So how do you accomplish this?

There are a lot of techniques out there, but the easiest way for me, is to give my character a goal. Make your character want something. It can be anything, simple or difficult. Maybe they have always dreamed of being a rock star or they just want to cross the street. Readers want to see someone accomplishing something, or at least trying. Give them what they want.

This is just the first step though. The real key to building tension is putting obstacles in between your character and the goal(s) they want to accomplish. More obstacles=more tension. Just don’t go too crazy or your story won’t be believable.

I’m going to give you an example just to try and clarify my point. We will start with a character, let’s call him Character X, for now. And let’s pretend he wants something. Maybe he’s hungry and wants to get something to eat. I could just show him eating a sandwich, but instead I’m going to show him trying to get a bite to eat. Maybe Character X goes to the fridge first but his fridge is empty. There’s his first obstacle. In order to overcome that obstacle, he has to leave his house. And the story just became slightly more interesting. Once he leaves the house to go to the store, he tries to start his car but the car won’t start. There’s another obstacle to achieving his goal. And a little more tension is added. I think you get the idea.

Every road block you throw at your character helps move the story forward, because you force you character to make choices. And that’s what makes stories interesting. Characters need to make decisions, take risks. Otherwise books would just be long, descriptive messes. Tension will allow your character to shine and help your plot develop. It’s what moves things forward and what keeps them interesting. So please, please, please make life as difficult as possible for your characters. They will be much better people for it.

Facebook Author page

Just wanted to post a quick note to let you know that I now have a Facebook author page. You can check it out here. I'm hoping to do a giveaway when I get to 25 likes- and everyone likes free stuff!

Also, I'm hoping to do a week long writing series soon because a lot of people have been asking me for writing advice. I'm not sure how helpful i'll be since I still consider myself a newbie at this writing game but hopefully I'll find something worth sharing. Anyways, keep an eye out from my upcoming posts and head over to the FB page if you get a chance!

Promotion Tips for Authors

Nowadays, authors are expected to invest a lot of time and energy in promoting their books. While some people hate this idea, I think it’s a great chance to be creative. Besides, it’s YOU you’re trying to sell. No one else will be able to do a better job. So here are a few promotion ideas I’ve come up with while trying to think of ways to promote my upcoming book. I hope they will be of some help to other people as well.

1. Print up promotional material. This takes a small financial investment on the authors part, but the potential for sales can easily equal a long term profit. I plan on printing up a few hundred business cards with my books title and a link to Musa’s site. I’ll be able to pass them out to people, leave them at certain businesses, and give them to other people to pass out.

 I may also print up some flyers/poster to hang up on local bulletin boards. Grocery stores, laundry mats, and college campuses all usually have places for people to put up material. This is basically free advertising space. You might as well use it. Just ask permission first.

I’m also going to look into having a T-shirt made up with my books information. Every time I wear it, I’ll be a walking billboard. People will often approach someone wearing an interesting T-shirt, so it’s a great way to start up a conversation about your book. These also make great give away items because everyone loves free T-shirts. Plus, everyone who wears a shirt with your information on it will be advertising for you.

If you’re not sure about how to go about doing this, I’ve used Vistaprint in the past and have been please with the finished product. If you’re really crafty, you can probably do all of this with your own computer.

2. Recruit your friends and family. That doesn’t mean harassing them, though. Just give them the option to help you. Post a link on Facebook, or Twitter- if you’re lucky, people with repost it to help you out. I would also recommend giving them some business cards to hang onto, in case they run into someone who is interested in your book.

 

3. Join online forums. You can find forums discussing almost every topic under the sun. Many of these forums will let you leave a link to your book in your signature (the thing that appears at the bottom of every post you make.) Every time you say something, you’ll be leaving a link to your book. It's free and easy to use. Just be careful not to spam them with self promotion. Engage in conversation and get involved in the community. The Kindle boards are a great place to start because a lot of potential readers hang out there.

4. Take out advertising space in a local paper. There’s a small free publication near me that gets delivered to thousands of homes. I know a lot of people read it. They only charge around ten dollars for a short add. Some may even let you do a free announcement if you play up the fact that you’re a local author.

5. Throw yourself a launch party. This one can be expensive if you aren’t careful but it will get people talking about your book. You can invite close friends and family, editors, and even members of the press. It’s really up to you how big you want to make it.

6. Talk to local book stores and libraries. Many of them will let you set up a signing or speaking event. I was just at a library signing where the author sold every book she brought. Even if you don’t sell a bunch of copies, you will get your name out.

7. Blog. Most of you are probably already doing this, but participating in blogs is a great way to get your name out there. Join blog hops. Do interviews. Put up blog posts about other authors. The blogging world is huge, influential, and always growing. Don’t let it go to waste.

The Fear of Failure

Something interesting happened when I made my official FB announcement about signing a publishing contract. Along with happy congratulations, many of my friends, family members and acquaintances started confessing (to my surprise) that they were writers. Many admitted that they someday want to have a book published. “I’ve always wanted to do that,” they said. I’ve been trying to encourage them as best as I can, and point them to sites that might be helpful.

Another thing many of them confessed to me was that they are afraid of having someone read their writing. “Aren’t you terrified of putting your writing out in the word?” they asked.

Of course I am. I’ve always been pretty secretive about my writing. If I’m working on something and a family member (or anyone) walks into the room, I close the laptop. I don’t want anyone to know what I’m doing. I have no idea why.

So the idea of putting my hard work out in the world to be read and judged by everyone is really, truly, scary. I know everyone isn’t going to like it. I mayfail and fall flat on my face. There are going to be bad reviews, critics, and people who just don’t get it.

And I don’t care. Or at least I’m pretending not to. At the end of the day, I’ve created characters and a world I love. All I can do is hope a few other people feel the same way.

Do you write? If so, are you afraid of sharing your writing with others?

Exciting News!

So I got some exciting news this week- I've sold my first novel, Nightfire, to Musa Publishing! I'm still kind of in shock about the whole thing. I keep waiting for an e-mail saying something like "sorry, we meant to offer that contract to someone else," but the signed contract is still sitting in my e-mail box. Musa is a fairly new E-publisher, but they have some great books for sale and are really author friendly. I'm pretty honored that I'm going to be sharing virtual shelf space with their authors (some pretty big names have signed on.) So, If you haven't checked them out-you should.  I don't have any real details yet, but I'll be sure and post updates when I know something!

Time for another poem

So it's been a really long time since I've posted anything here, mostly because my summer has been so busy. But I'm hoping to get back to posting more frequently. Since i've been so bad about posting, I thought I would start back up by posting another poem. This is one of the more personal ones i've written, so it's a little strange sharing it, but it's better than having it just sit in a drawer somewhere.


Almost

The creases from the lines of your body

Still linger on our cotton sheets

In the dark of night I’m sure I can still hear

The faint sound of you hearts beat

I can almost feel the warmth from your breath

And your dreams soft song

Until I reach out for your touch

And remember that your gone.