Can You Really Teach an Old Dog New Tricks?



It's been nearly two hours since I started my search for the meaning (and purpose) of an RSS feed.  I know, I know...I can see your eyes roll.  But for this old lady, RSS was just as foreign as FLK or AFK would be to anyone outside of an ER.  (Oye, the acronyms!)  Finally, my head is wrapped around the concept.  However, the process still eludes me. 



Finding a safe place in the ever-evolving cyber world of online communication and information exchange is daunting to say the least.  I realize that I'm not the first to blog about this issue - just the first in my own household. 

Writing the book(s) is easy.  Marketing and getting them "out there" is not.  Research and becoming savvy to the processes required to market a product in this era can be a full time job.  Personally, I'd rather hire someone else to do it.  Alas, finances doesn't allow this.  Fortunately, there are resources for people like me who struggle with understanding just what the "next step" would be. 

Create Space (Amazon's publishing house) has provided amazing resources to those of us who seek assistance with our marketing plans.  Their free assistance to marking for fiction is invaluable - providing links to everything from website design to website analysis to retail wholesale companies (the people we market to). 

My past few years has been focused on target audiences that center around my series genre:  Paranormal Historical Romance, Fiction and PIRATES.  The efforts have been rewarding , fun and eventful bringing in profits which have been notable.  However, these avenues are limiting.

Finding time to learn "new tricks" necessary to succeed in current markets is a key element to sharing the amazing story found in the Deja vu Chronicles.  I supposed, with the prospect of "getting it out there" through cyber tactics, learning a new trick or two won't hurt this old gal!

How To - Writing, Step 3

Your notebook is gapes open with scores of ideas scribbled in no particular order - organized chaos speaking volumes to the author.  An outline beckons you to fill in the gaps and fatten its skeletal framed entity into a fat, juicy story.

...Now for the fun part....

Today is a day of genesis - the birth of your characters.  In stillness, take your mind and spirit to sit with the main character of your story.  What does he/she/it look like?  What is their scent?  What does this character eat?  How do they cry and what do they laugh over?  (or can that character laugh?).  Describe every single detail as if you were living that character's existence.  Experience in completeness the very being of the character.

Write it down.  Write and write and write until each and every nuance of that character is recorded.

Then do it again...with the next character and the next.  Be sure to leave space to include detail that may inadvertently crop up as the manuscript unfolds.  Keep intricate notes and know these characters intimately.  It's imperative!

There is very little that will be as rewarding as the actual creation of the characters in your story.  You assume great responsibility, almost altruistic in nature, when you create these beings.  You are meant to relish the experience, savor creation at its fullest.  Enjoy!

Now...go create.....

 

 

How To - Writing, the First Step

"So Marti, what is the very first step to writing a novel?"

If I had a dollar for every time I've been asked this question....but what an honor to be asked!  The same question escaped my lips not many years ago as a fledgling-author attending the first writer's seminar of my life.  My guess is that every writer has been similarly perplexed at some point during their career.  Fortunately, we are all part of a thriving team of creative thinkers seeking the same "correct" process.

So what is the first step?

Anyone asking that question will receive as many varied answers as there are stories waiting to be written.  Let me give you my take on the subject.

To begin, open your mind and lose any expectations.  I say this because stories have a magical way of weaving their own tale when the author is willing to step aside and allow the plot to evolve.  Ideas are genuine and valuable even when they make no sense at all.  Eventually, the fabric of creative thought weaves itself into a beautiful quilted story.  Because of that phenomenon, it is critical for every author to be prepared to capture ideas, thoughts and images as they reveal themselves.  The method for being the "tool", whose job it is to capture these revelations, varies with each author.

As a "tool", I chose to write with a pen on actual paper held within the confines of a plastic cover...aka: a notebook.  Indeed, I keep a notebook with me at all times and have been known many-a-time to pull over while driving to jot down dialogue that suddenly sounds or an image that appears, all within the confines of my very active mind. 

The notebook - my lifeline within the pool of imagination I swim in daily.  There is freedom that comes with having the ability to allow creativity at any time, in any place.  This freedom comes with having some way to facilitate the ideas that present themselves.  Of course, if the "tool" is not predisposed to writing long hand, anything else that allows some form of note keeping works.  It is simply a means to record the ideas as they come to mind allowing the author to draw on these documented ideas at a more convenient time. 

To say that my notebook is invaluable to my writing is the grossest understatement.  So many revelations are inscribed there.  I am thankful daily for the chance to preserve creative thought as it is gifted to me. 

And so this is my offering - the first step - a keeper of ideas documented within a journal. 

Happy writing and may creativity be gifted daily ~
Marti