Tuesday - The Writer's Life - Creating a Back List #MFRWauthor #amwriting #Books

An important part of the writer's life is creating a back list. Every time you write a new book, the previous one or ones become a part of your important back list. Often when a reader likes the new book you've written, they will search for other books you've written.

A great thing to read in a review is "I'll read more books from this author." Hopefully they will and each sale boosts your numbers and your value as a writer.

How do you create a back list? By writing new books. This can be done by writing a sequel to the book you've just published. Another is to write a trilogy of time, place or characters. The third is to develop a series often using the same place and time. Characters from one book in the series can be viewed momentarily in the other books but don't let them take over. Your new characters must be the right ones.

Tuesday - The Writer's Life - Promotion #MFRWauthor #Promotion

No matter what kind of publisher puts your book before the public, promotion done by you is a must. There are many avenues you can explore. Some are free and some are costly.

There are advertisements in magazines like RT that readers like to browse and see what new books are available. There is often a review of your story to accompany the book.

There are places like BookBub where you can promote a book that generally you have put on sale. This kind of promo can be costly but many people feel the promo bit is well worth the money spent.

There are blog tours, often run by a company who sends you to other blogs where you can promote your book and also garner reviews.

There are reviewers, both pain and unpaid who can help give your book the spotlight for a time.

You can offer a prize, often a gift card or a copy of your book.

You can find people who will give you space on their blog. These are often free.

There are lists to join where you are permitted to talk about your books.

You can create a news letter to spotlight your book.

Sounds like there's a lot to do. That is very true but unless you get the word out about your book, few people will read what you've written.

For me I take a day and do what promotion I find. I also have a blog and feature one of my books every week and send word to the many lists I have on Facebook, Twitter and other social sites. Though you may hate to put yourself out there, you must grin and begin to find people who want to read your books.

Tuesday - The Writer's Life -- The Dreaded Art Sheet #MFRWauthor #Art Sheet

Your life as an author doesn't end with the contract. You will receive a note from the publisher with the Dreaded Art sheet. This concerns your cover and asks questions about your idea about what should be on the cover. To those who are visually focused this sheet can be a breeze.

The artist who will design your cover wants a description of the main characters, the setting and perhaps a scene you want to focus. Other material is also wanted like your blurb. This is a short. very short, idea of what your book is about. One way to do this is to take the two main characters and show their wants and their way of obtaining their goals.  This isn't easy and sometimes seems to take as long as the book to write. Done well this will have a reader on fire to read your book. These are short, concise and tempting. I once even sold a book on a very short blurb and little else.

The publisher may also want a short bio for the book included.

Some publishers give you a lot of leeway on the cover and others don't. Just fill our the sheet as best as you can.

Tuesday - The Writer's Life - Contracts and Sales #MFRWauthro #Contracts

If you're going to self-publish this won't help you much but if you've found a publisher who wants your book, there are several things to look at.

If a large publisher wants your book, your best bet is to have an agent who can look over the ins and outs of the conract. You could also find a literary attorney to look at the contract. Know that there are things you can change and things you can't but having a guide will help.

If you've found a small publisher, there are things you need to study. Most small publishers will ask for ebook and print rights to produce your books. There are things like audio rights, foreign sales and  movie rights to name a few that may or may not remain with yours to produce. At one point, a number of small presses only took electronic rights. Having an attorney may be a help. Also a help is other authors you know who are with small presses.

Study your contract and if you don't understand some of the features, ask someone. It's rather exciting to receive a contract but if you don't know all the ins and outs, you may sign away something you would rather not have given the rights away.

Tuesday - The Writer's Life -Query Letters #MFRWauthor #Query letters

Now you've decided where to publish your book or to seek an agent, you will need a query letter. These are dreaded things.  Why? Making your story sound like the most interesting story every can be difficult. But you must. A query letter should contain a bit about yourself and your ability to write the kind of story you have. If you have a bit of expertise in the field or have done extensive research, mention this. If you have published before mention this. Short stories, articles show who you are and what you've accomplished. Do you enjoy reading the kind of stories you've written mention this as well.

Along with the query letter, you may be asked for several things suck as three chapters. Don't select random ones but use the first three chapters. You may also be asked for an outline of the story. I'll discuss this in a later blog. Sometimes a short blurb can be worked into the letter and will grab an editor's attention. I've had this work very well. I'll talk about Blurbs later, too.

Tuesday - The Writer's Life - Endings #MFRWauthor #Writing

Once you're made your way through the snarled middle, you're nearing the end. There are things you'll need to be sure have happened before you can write those words - The End. Has one or more of the main characters had a Black Moment? Has he or she given up or have they found a way to find the way to a new manner of approaching their goal. Have they achieved the goal and how has the goal changed during the journey? Perhaps they just wanted to be married. Then they've found a special person. Have all the hurdles been leaped? Another thing to make sure has happened. Are all the loose ends tied up? Remember if you mention something in the opening of the story this has to be solved in the end. Why did the heroine's mother-in-law give her a boy's set of clothes and hinted to why she had them? If that end is left dangling the reader may just frown or perhaps they will want to know what happened. Is the ending of the book satisfactory? There doesn't have to be a happy ending but the ending must be enough to make the reader nod and smile.

So you've reached the end of the adventure of your characters, but your job isn't done yet.

Tuesday - The Writer's Life - False Starts #MFRWauthor #writing #beginnings

Now the fun beguns. You have the characters and where they are set. Now it's time to begin. The general plot is in hand since you know what your characters want and the way they will try to obtain them. So you begin. I don't know about most writers but I usually write the opening scene three or four and sometimes more times.

The first line is what's important and considering what kind of story you're writing makes you start and then start again. Does this sound like a romance, mystery, fantasy, action, suspense. My first sentences are usually boring when they are first set on the paper. Then I have to consider so much. After all those tries to have the sentence make sense, show the genre, make the character seem alive, the sentence is finally dow.

But a lot of words must follow this first sentence so I sit and write without stopping to think until I have part of a scene, Then I go back and tear it apart, And rewrite and rewrite until this bit seems to flow.

The beginning of a book has many things needed to be shown. The characters and hints to their goals. The kind of story that will take place. A lot of hints as to what will happen next. Hard to get this all done. But finally you have it then comes more fun. Where do you go from here?

Tuesday - Th Writer's Life - Settings #MFRWauthor #settings #writing

Once you have the characters, you might think you're ready to put your story into action. You know what they want and why they want that particular thing. You know the reasons others want to keep or assist them in reaching their dreams. So you start to write. You have dialogue and action between the characters.

You have scenes with beginnings middles and ends but don't make the mistake I did. The very first rejection I received said. Your characters operate in a vacuum. I'd ignored or just put bits of the setting into the story. She walked to the kitchen. But I didn't show much of the kitchen. So I tried again.

This time I had descriptions of each room or each place the characters were in. They were long and had lots of phrases and clauses. So I sent the book off to another publisher. Rejection. The settings are wooden and way too long. You need to consider what the character sees, hears and the rest of the senses. I tried again.

During the third time, I had setting down pat and sent the story off again. Was I accepted. No. This editor found another place where I could improve the story. After many times and revisions, I sent the story off an the book was accepted.

So don't forget the senses and the setting go hand in hand.

Tuesday - The Writer's Life - Do you have a system? #MFRWauthor #amwriting #system

You've finished all those books on writing and think you have a system. Don't be disheartened when the system doesn't seem to work the way you thought it should. Beginning to write a story will show you a lot of twists and turns. When all seems amiss you need to sit back and look at the parts of the story.

First you have the characters. Can you visualize them in your mind? You may need some pictures from magazines to help with this visualization. If you do, don't feel bad. That's a good way to start with seeing those tricky characters. Next, think about what they want. Is this something the reader can identify with. Do they want love, money, friends. Make your decision and make sure that's strong. Then you need to consider why they want what they have chosen. Make sure this is a strong reason. And look at all the characters who will people your story. Their wants and reasons must be strong as well. If you have a hero who's wants and reasons are weak and the heroine's are strong, the story will have problems. Next consider how they are going to go about achieving their desires. Make sure these ways fit the character you've developed. If they aren's the story will fall flat and the reader will decide the character is acting out of character.

So with characters, you need a physical description that makes the person come alive to the reader. How do they talk? What is their experience in life? What sort of job do they have? All these things and more influence the character.

You need to look at their emotional self and their manner of walk, dress and many other things. With the characters well in hand, you consider starting again. But there's one more thing you need to consider. That's Setting and next week, I'll give that a try.

Tuesday's The Writer's Life -- Plotter or Panster #MFRWauthor #Panster #Plotter

You've finished all those books about writing and you;re still trying to decide what to do. You're at a writer's group and you hear someone ask Are you a plotter or a panster?" You scratch your head wondering what they mean.

A plotter is someone who outlines their entire story before beginning to write.
A panster is someone who sits down and just writes.

I believe most writers begin as pansters. I know I did. My first book took years to write and it wasn't over 50,000 words. That's not a long novel but as I wrote and let my fingers fly I was telling a story and there were holes in the plot, deficiencies in the characters, almost no setting, dialogue with every character sounding like the other one. All these things were pointed out to me by editors who took the time to read the book. That was in the days of editors reading entire mss and making comments.

Suddenly it dawned on me that if I knew these things before I began the story the writing might go easier.  That's when I began to look at matters before I began to write. I do envy people who can sit down and write the perfect story other than for a little revision but that will never be me. Though after all my years of writing most of the planning and plotting is done in my head.

Tuesday - The Writer's Life - What's Next #MFRWauthor #writing

You've made that decision to become a writer. You've been a reader for years and have read many books. The blank screen faces you and you begin and realize this is mainly gibberish. There is no story flowing from your fingers. What's next, you wonder. Maybe you go back to re-read some favorite books, trying to figure how the writer of that story reached the end from the beginning. Still nothing except maybe a title makes sense on that blank screen. What do you do?

I can speak from my experience. You find some books that may show you the way. At the library, you find books that speak of writing and you take a few from the shelves and take them home. Does this help? Perhaps a bit but there is so much advice given and some of them are in opposition with each other. Now you are more confused than ever.

My system was to read each book and make comments in a notebook from each one and then try to make sense of what I learned. Then a sudden thought emerges. No two writers approach their stories in the same way. Confusion addles your head.

Maybe you head to a college and enroll in a course on creative writing. This may give you some more hints as to the process. Still you can't fill that blank page with words that make sense and a story that gives you hope.

My path to writing my first novel began with writing short stories. Next time I'll talk about those first stumbling moments when I learned a bit about organizing all those notes I'd made on writing and found my own way to making a story.

What about you? Did you read dozens of books on writing or find a class on creative writing? I'd really like to know a bit about how you approached the writer's life.

Tuesday - The Writer's Life - Decision #MFRWauthor #Decisions #am writing

To become a writer - This all begins with a decision. I do hope if you read this you will share your decision to start writing as a career.

Now for me. I made the decision several times. When I was in high school, I started a dozen books and most were never finished. What I did then was try to imitate those who were my favorite stories. Did you try this, too?

Unfortunately, nurses' training took most of my interest. I still read but mostly textbooks and little for pleasure. The decision had been put on a shelf to be taken out later. I graduated, got married and the second time came when I decided to become a writer.

Think of pneumonia and being sent home from the hospital with prescriptions to a lonely attic apartment. My husband was in medical school so he was gone all day. I had stopped at the library before walking home and picked up a number of books, as many as they would let me take at one time. I also bought yarn so I could make afghans for people for Christmas. My father and aunt brought me books to read. Then my sister-in-law sent a shopping bag full of sweet nurse romances. I settled down to read these and after the first five, I decided I could write a better book. Unfortunately that decision didn't stick.

The sticking one came when my husband and I, along with our first child ended up on an Indian reservation with the Public Health Service. The library there had a lot of western books and I read them all. There was little else as far as books were concerned. Though I did read a few classics, or re-read them. Then came the day I went to a college library not far from where we shopped and nearly an hour from the reservations. This time, I bought books about writing and that's when the real decision came. Learning all the things a writer has to know started then. I filled notebooks with information on plot, character, settings. So the decision had been made. I would become a writer. Several years later, I sold my first short story and the decision was finalized.

How about you? How did you decide to become a writer? Let me know.

Tuesday - The Writer's Life #MFRWauthor #amwriting

 Tuesdays have been set up for Inspiration. It's not that I've run out of Inspirations but I thought I'd choose something different for awhile. This is a look at the Writer's Life and I may be asking fellow writers for a bit of help with this segment. Now comes the start of this process.

I've heard everyone thinks they can write a book. This is probably true. I know many friends, past and present, who have decided to write a book. Someone once said there are one book writers and those who write many books. This could very well be true.

These are some things I'll look at while writing these blogs.
Deciding to write a book.
Starting the book.
Running into problems.
Finishing the book.
What to do after the book is done?
Following the road to publication.
How to reach a publisher?
Finding an agent?
Promoting the book.

I'll see how this goes but I'd like to give it a shot. What do you think?