Comments to writers

I’ve heard writers get asked this question or assumed it’s true. I’m sure many of you have even seen posts with pictures or various types with this. “Writers must be the best liars.” Personally I’ve never agreed with this. A writer will look at all angles of a comment or action by a character they have created. That character might be a liar or be tempted to lie depending on the circumstances and the personality of the character. That doesn’t mean the writer is a liar.

If a writer is going to sound convincing they need to decipher why the person would lie, what is their motivation or purpose to. They need to think like that person and make it sound convincing to the reader. It means they have been able to displace them self from the situation and look it over for what it is. If they tried to lie in their own lives they may or may not be able to do it. When writing you have time to ponder over it repeatedly.

Otherwise it would be the same as saying a crime writer must be good at committing illegal acts or a paranormal writer is a ghost, vampire, werewolf or something else. The list could go on.

The second thing is, “it must be easy to write, I should go home and write something.” While not wanting to discourage someone on either end of this comment. Writing isn’t always easy. Sometimes it’s not the physical writing at all but the distractions around the writer and yes sometimes the brain simply does not want to comply at the moment or for a while and you cannot write.

Writing is not easy and yes truthfully anyone can sit down and write something but is it good? We’ve seen television shows that are produced and you wonder how the hell did that ever get put on television? Everyone can write but truthfully not everyone is a good storyteller.

Third which is a huge one. “This genre is a popular one are you going to adapt your book to it?” Speaking from personal experience I don’t do that. I write the style I enjoy reading and I happen to naturally write for YA. Over the period of time while writing my series I have seen this genre come in and out of popularity. I write about vampires and quite frankly Halloween keeps anything paranormal alive during this time. As I write this erotica is very popular right now and so is dystopian literature but it’s simply not my style. I write whatever I’m in the mood for however my writing style always remains the same. Regardless of what happens to be popular, people will either love, enjoy or hate my writing and that is their right to feel that way.

Fourth comment is about reviews. “If you get a horrible or negative review are you going to quit writing?” Hell no. everyone at some point during their writing career will get a negative and if this weighs down on you to much or you allow the stress of it to hold you down. Maybe you shouldn’t be a writer. Stephen King, Anne Rice, Cassandra Clare, J.K Rowling, James Patterson, J.R.R Tolkien and Nora Roberts have all had negative reviews along with amazing reviews and they still writing. Some either love or hate their writing and it’s a matter of personal opinion. 

As a writer you need to ask yourself, is my story understandable, clear of any distracting wording or spelling errors. If there are no physical flaws in the book then the writing is perfectly fine. Many negatives are simply from difference of opinion or simply not their true genre to read. Personally I don’t care for overly descriptive writing. I get bored with the book and won’t finish. If the author is known for being wordy I won’t buy any more of their books. It doesn’t mean their writing is bad or anything is wrong with it. It simply is not my style of book that I enjoy reading.

If you need more convincing about personal opinion then look no further than this survey. http://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/the-lamest-authors-of-all-time on this website it has Stephanie Myers almost at the top of worst authors but honestly did she really earn that? 

Her books were enough to spin a movie franchise off from. That’s nothing to look down on. She had a lot of fans and it wasn’t a small cult following, it became pretty mainstream so it obviously wasn’t that bad. If all people can do is complain about the vampires being sparkly then they could rip Buffy the Vampire Slayer and say the vampires on there were not blood thirsty enough and yet years after the show has ended you still have cult followers who are dedicated to the show and its characters. Even Cassandra Clare apparently has an obsession about her characters eyes. There will always be something drawn out of the book if someone wants to find something to complain about even if there is nothing actually wrong with it.

Enjoy the readers who do love your writing and most of all make sure its something you as a writer love!

Simple writing tips

Simple writing tips

1.  Have fun

If you’re not enjoying what you’re doing especially what your writing, this will come across in your writing. If you don’t enjoy your writing than how can you expect your readers to? This can go for bloggers also. Not everyone will be interested in the same topic but there are so many ways of describing the same thing and making it interesting depending on the audience you are approaching. It helps to have a readable book. It doesn’t mean it needs to be dumbed down and even using a word that isn’t used very often in a sentence when the reader can understand what  the word is simply from the sentence, however it can get frustrating if you are whipping out your dictionary all the time. People want flow and there isn’t any if they are constantly stopping. It might be fun to use unusual words however keep your reader in mind and don’t go overboard or you will lose the audience you are trying to get the attention of.

2. Don’t force yourself

When you force yourself you tend to miss the little pieces that your thought process would have come up with that makes either a blog or novel more interesting. Stories tend to be rushed while interviews miss either vital or interesting questions. It’s nice to have a goal but make sure it’s not a concrete goal. If your story seems forced and the direction doesn’t seem natural, this is when you want to be flexible and let the story take on a life of its own. It might surprise you where your story or interview takes you. You want to make sure this is your best quality of work. Too often people wish later after their novel is out there for the public to see, they would have added something else or had the ending vary a little differently. Yes now you can change things later on but your readers have already seen it in the original form. Changing it later doesn’t really leave a professional impression and if you want people to take you seriously as a writer you need to take your work seriously also.

3. Take pride in your work, it’s a representation of yourself

As I slightly touched on earlier, you want to keep a professional attitude and work ethic. Your work is a reflection on you and what your reader sees they will be judging any future work based on this. You might get lucky and have someone read your future work before your earlier work. Everyone is going to grow as a writer however this should only make you a better one and not where the reader wonders, did they really write this drivel from before? If readers do not like your work they more likely than not will not like anything else from you. I’ve read tons of books and several I could not finish because it was so horrible and I would never read another book from that author again. There are far more readers with this view point then not.

4. Don’t let all the rules to writing make it hard for you.

Throw out the rules. If everyone stuck to the rules then all stories would be the same. If all books sounded the same coming from the same point of view, the same timelines, the same concepts for paranormal or regular characters, the same grammar content, the same plot lines. Otherwise it makes the books boring and pointless to read another authors work if it all sounds the same. Even these last few sentences sound boring simply from using “the same” several times to get a point across which I could have used another description or wording to do so. If you get tied up with all of the writing rules it might frustrate you too much making writing no longer enjoyable or more of a chore than anything else.

Everyone is different when and how they write. It’s important to find your writing style, what you’re comfortable with and what makes your story appealing to you. I generally compare my writing this way when I think of others reading it. I generally give great gifts because they are what I would want myself. I write what I enjoy and what I love to read and know that there will be those out there that will love it also. I have read so many books by so many different authors and I’ve found which ones write the way I like and which ones that I don’t and for the reasons why. The best way of becoming a great writer is to be a great reader. We don’t always have massive amount of time but it is important to read and write.

A couple of side notes and not exactly to do with writing tips.

Your personality: 

If you seem argumentative, sloppy, rude, disorganized, hate talking to people. All of these things will count against you. Especially if you are an independent author. You will need to get to know your audience and be friendly not only with them but other venues that you intend on selling your book with. Once you start talking about your book or its published it has become a business and needs to come across professionally if you want anyone to take you seriously. It is extremely important that you be organized otherwise if you are fortunate to be busy or have book signings it will help you keep all the dates, places, what is required to travel along with you and who you might be speaking with. It helps to plan these things ahead of time. It helps to allow flexible changes but if these don’t happen then you are ready with what you prepared.

Reviews for your book:

In some point during your writing career you will get a bad review. Well established authors who have sold millions of copies or have huge followers have negative reviews. Not everyone is going to like your writing, it might not be their style, or there are errors which can be fixed, to long of a book, to short, they didn’t like the direction your characters took, inconsistent story-line or the basic reader who doesn’t like your genre but gave it a try. Those are all legitimate complaints.

The ones that most worry about and writers really need to let these go. For one thing when a potential reader sees the words, “don’t read this book or worst book ever.” They are going to read the review to see why they wrote that. If a person writes after that stating the book was just horrible and nothing more. That’s not enough to go on and will be ignored. Also there are people who thrive on being mean. They simply leave a mean, nasty reply because they can and not that the book warrants it. If they compare these comments with others they will find this person either didn’t read the book at all or are being rude for the sake of it.

Don’t let negative reviews get you down or stop you from writing. Find out if there is something you can improve with your writing but if its negative for the sake of then let it go. It has no basis on your ability to write and convey a story. If you have doubts, find someone you trust and have them read your book. Getting a second opinion always helps but I will warn you. Before sending your work to an editor, publisher, friend, reviewers online or anywhere else. Make sure you have it copy written. Ideas cannot be copy written however a written story can be protected from someone else putting their name on it.

Place to write your book:

Find a place and time that works for you. Not everyone can devote eight hours a day to writing. With reality around us, family, pets, jobs, noisy neighbors, concentration issues, lack of sleep, poor diet, physical and mental ailments are a few and there are many more reasons to add to the list. Personally I write in the dark after everyone is asleep in bed and taken care of, in my bed. I write for 15 minutes a day. I read while I’m in the bathroom for that few seconds I’m in there. I’ve learned how to keep three nails wedged just right on the wall so I can balance a book while I shower or if I want to write during that time I’ll take a tape recorder. Some need the noise or life happening around them to write while others need silence and personal space. We don’t always get what we want but if we have that desire to write we will find time to squeeze it in. If you have time to be on the internet, watch TV or listen to music then you have time to read and write.

I’ve been asked if it’s alright to ask a spouse to leave while you write. I told them HELL NO! They have as much right to be there as you do. If they are intentionally stopping you from writing then you need to find another place to write. It’s incredibly selfish to ask someone to leave the house so that you can write. If you can plan maybe when they do the grocery shopping, watching a movie or during something they might be out. That would be fine but to say I want to right so you have to leave. Its showing you have more concern over your writing then the person you made vows with and being disrespectful of them. It doesn't hurt to arrange time before hand but make sure they have something they want to do otherwise your making their situation more uncomfortable and this is a person you want on your side. This person is your cheering team! Perhaps they can take up a hobby also. My husband and I are fortunate that both of us love writing. We both pick the same time to write and he generally writes in the living room while I write upstairs, occasionally we switch to keep our situation from being stale. 

Yes it is a great thing to be passionate about writing but with anything in life don’t forget what a real priority is and what promises you made before you started to write. Don’t be selfish. You can live your dream without being selfish!