Author Archives: crymsynhart

by | May 2, 2012 · 4:08 pm

Stuck In the Mental Mud with Muses Screaming

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Crymsyn Hart

Have you ever gotten to that point in a book where you’ve gotten stuck?

I’m not really talking about Writer’s Block, but just to that point within the flow of the story where you know what direction you want to go, but you just can’t get there. A wall comes down and for some reason you either lose interest in the storyline or your muses are screaming for you to start something else. I’m at that point right now in a novel. As much as I try to force myself from the mental mud I have gotten myself stuck in, I can’t get out of it and keep sinking deeper into the mire. So what am I doing to get out of it?

The muses are screaming at me to start another book, well four new books to be exact. I’ve ignored them so far on three of those new novels. I have outlined the remainder of the book I am stuck on and that has helped some. But it isn’t the complete answer. The cacophony of voices in my head makes me feel like I’m drowning because I can’t muzzle the muses and the one who is talking to me on the book I’m caught on seems to be losing interest. I guess I’m still trapped and there isn’t a quick and easy way out of the situation.

I’m sure all authors get to this point.

If there are any authors out there who are just picking up their pens or keyboards, don’t get discouraged. It happens and even though I can’t find an easy way out of it, doesn’t mean you can’t.

Anyone have any ideas to muzzle the muses or get me out of the mud?

 

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by | April 11, 2012 · 5:54 pm

Shiny & Polished….now what do I do?

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Crymsyn Hart

So you’ve put the finishing polish on the manuscript and it’s all bright, shiny, and ready to be shipped off…somewhere. But where do you go and what do you do with it? Well, there are several options these days unlike fifteen years ago when I first started searching around for places to go.

You can self-publish. You can send your work to an agent, or you can go directly to a publisher or an e-publisher. If you choose the agent, publisher or e-publisher route, make sure you read the submission requirements for that particular place you are sending it to. Everyone is different.

Some agents say to just email them a synopsis and not to mail anything. Or if you do mail them something make sure you include a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope so you can get a reply back.  Or others will let you know that they are not taking any unsolicited manuscripts.

The same with the publishers. Only very few will actually accept any manuscripts. This is talking major publishing houses. Now if you are looking at e-publishers, make sure to also look at their  submission’s page because they too have a specific format they want, whether it is a synopsis and the first three chapters of your book, or just the synopsis.

Then there is the self-publishing route which many authors I know are taking these days, but please make sure you have edited your book or have some edited for you. That is the most important thing.

No matter which road you choose, there is always the anticipation and the butterflies in the stomach of the waiting for when you hear back. But the good thing about that is, while you’re waiting, you can be writing another book.

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by | March 28, 2012 · 5:30 pm

It’s the end for me…

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Crymsyn Hart

…now what the heck do I do?

Well congratulations, the first think you need to do is take a moment and breathe. You did it. You made it to the end of the book. Bet you never thought you would because your characters wanted to keep talking until they were blue in the face. Well you finished the story and are left with the question of where do I go from here?

The first thing you want to do is think about editing. If you’re a first time writer, then  you can think about hiring someone to edit the book for you. Of course that can cost a lot of money. Or maybe you have friend who is an English major and is good with grammar. Have them look it over. However you go about this, make sure you do your very best to polish the manuscript before submitting it to publishers or agents, depending on the route you want to go.

Polishing the manuscript of course is spell checking, punctuation mistakes, and even deleting some of the scenes you have written. Or adding them in.  It all depends on where you are going with your book. Personally I put on Track Changes in Word when I start self-editing so I can see what I’m deleting. I normally end up cutting out more than what I put back in. I have a tendency to sometimes overwrite and then have to delete the repetition. But editing is hard work and takes time, then again so does working over a book to make it the best that you can before you send it off.

I warn you ahead of time.

Your brain will hurt when you are done.

Happy Editing.

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by | March 21, 2012 · 7:59 pm

I’m in the middle…

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Crymsyn Hart

…of the book and I’ve come to an impasse. What do I do now?

It’s a logical question that any author has when they get to the middle of a book and all of a sudden your characters stop talking to you, or your muses decide to go on sabbatical. Do you force the characters to do what you want and hope they don’t hate you for it? Or do you sweet talk your muses and hope they talk to you again? I’ve come up against those very questions and if you’re a first time writer these can be daunting.

The best thing that I’ve found to do is take a step back and give it a rest. It will be there when you get back. Your character just might need to figure out where they’re going. They just might surprise you. But while you leave the manuscript behind, then you might find yourself coming up with other ideas. So remember to write those down so you don’t forget them.

I’ve had this very situation happen to me. At the moment I have three books I’m halfway done with, but other books take shape in between so I gradually work on the ones I’m in the middle of. Don’t get discouraged. Give it a couple of days and clear your mind. Then you can work on the other half of the book and write toward finishing your story. Because once you get over the hump it’s clear sailing from there. At least until you get to that final chapter.

Then all hell breaks loose.

 

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by | March 7, 2012 · 2:37 pm

Now What…

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Crymsyn Hart

…do you do after you’ve gotten your momentum going and you’ve come to the end of your first chapter?  Questions run through the author’s mind. Where do I go from here? Where are the characters going to take me? Can I run with them? What the hell am I doing? Why did I ever think I could write a book? Should I continue writing?

The first thing to do is take a breath and congratulate yourself. You’ve gotten this far. The first chapter might be a thousand words, five thousand, or somewhere in the middle. There is no perfect word count that has to be in a chapter. (If there is somewhere, please let me know.) My normal word count for a chapter is 2500-3000 words. Sometimes they run shorter or longer. It depends on where I get that happy feeling where the scene should end. But that is just me. The one rule you do want to follow no matter where the chapter ends is that you want to have a hook.

The main character could be hanging over a cliff, getting ready to be eaten by demon-possessed zombies, or maybe they were getting ready to eat a piece of cheesecake and you don’t know what flavor it is.

Whatever the hook might be, it is important to keep the reader interested.

Then you get into your second chapter and figure out where to go from there. Some people make writing look easy. I love it because I escape from reality, but over the years I have learned through trial and error the work behind the writing. And I’m still not an expert, but I hope my perspective helps.

 

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by | February 29, 2012 · 3:17 pm

So you want to…

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Crymsyn Hart

…start a book. You have this great idea and you want to transfer it onto the page. However, there is just one problem.

How in the world do you start the book? Where do you go with it once you begin? Are the characters going to lead you or are you going to lead them? These are all valid questions for the budding writing. When I started writing, I wasn’t thinking any of these things. I just had a burning tale inside my mind that I had to tell. So what do you do when you have the idea?

My advice is to write it down so you don’t forget it. I have a notepad by my bed in case I wake up in the middle of the night with an epiphany for a great plot. From there, the idea grows and you can form it into an outline.

Outlines are good because you can mold the story and have some notion of where it is going to go. You can break it down even further into chapters and then scenes. Once you have that, then the thrill starts of writing that first sentence on a page. Some authors I know have trouble writing that very first sentence and stare at the page for hours before those right words hit them. I’m of the mind to start writing anything because you have to kick off the design somewhere.  Remember you can always go back and change that first sentence or delete it even if it doesn’t work. The most important thing is getting the momentum going and running with it.

Once you get that then you are on your way.

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by | February 22, 2012 · 1:36 pm

Ten Things An Author Shouldn’t Do When They’re Sick

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Crymsyn Hart

1. Don’t start a book and expect to write three thousand words for the day. So not going to happen.

2. Don’t try out your new speech recognition software when every other word comes out as something you did not say. Ate turns into ant, sex turns into …Can’t write that word, and in between coughing and sneezing a question mark flashes with the words, I don’t recognize that word.

3. Don’t curl up under the blankets with computer and attempt to write. All you end up with is a bunch of zzzzz’s and they aren’t listed on the screen.

4. Don’t take cold medicine and try to imagine a love scene that makes the entire scene hilarious because there is no way certain body parts are going to fit into places they should go.

5. Don’t ask the husband to help reenact said love scene when he doesn’t want to be near you or touch you with a ten foot pole in the case that he might catch your germs.

6. Don’t attempt to make puppets from your tissues to reenact said love scene since husband doesn’t want to try it and the puppets only end up getting used to clear your sinuses or treats for the dogs while they steal them from the wastebasket while you are sleeping.

7. Don’t hold hot tea in your hand and try to type at the same time with your other hand. That only results in a wet keyboard and a very unhappy author.

8. Don’t wake up in the middle of the night and attempt to write about the dream you had while still on cold medicine because in the morning it doesn’t make any sense.

9. Don’t expect your characters to want to interact with you because they don’t want to get the crud you have either. I’ve seen it happen. Once one character falls to the crud, the rest of them do, and then you get a bunch of whining, imaginary people in your head. So not fun to live with.

10. Don’t expect your characters to spring to life and wait on you hand and foot. It would be great though.

What things do you do when you’re sick and wish you hadn’t?

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by | February 1, 2012 · 6:30 pm

Electronic vs. Real

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Crymsyn Hart

How much do you enjoy the feel of a real book? Do you love that wonderful scent of the paper invading your senses when you walk into a bookstore so it wraps around you and sinks into your soul? The weight of the novel in your hands when you sit and read it, curled up underneath the light, sipping on a cup of tea or whatever beverage that brings you to that calm place you sink into when you read.
Or are you more of an electronic kinda person who enjoys reading on a Kindle, Nook, or other device? Would you rather the nearly unlimited storage of the device and cutting down on the space that physical books take up?

It’s something I’ve been wrestling with for the past couple of months since I got my I-Pad 2. I love books, but let’s face it, I’m running out of room to put more bookcases in the house. I love the feel of actual books and the smell of them. But I’m rather picky anyway about what authors I buy only because I’m doing the penny pinching thing and it seems that kindle books for the mainstream authors are the same as the paperback or maybe a couple dollars cheaper and of course the small pubs set their prices lower and they have wonderful authors out there. So I’m slowly breaking into reading more e-books.

That and the virtual bookshelf is great. Breaking into the digital age is hard for me at least in regards to giving up books. But I think that I’ll figure out a happy medium.

What do you prefer?

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by | January 25, 2012 · 7:52 pm

What’s Your Story?

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Crymsyn Hart
What is it about the past that fascinates us? Is it imagining what a time was like or how a person lived back hundreds or thousands of years ago? Maybe it’s because as humans we are drawn to know where have come from. Or maybe it’s a way for us to escape the reality of our lives and imagine ourselves living the life that person lived. Or maybe when we think about them, we like to put a different spin on what their lives had been like. Think of the greats of history: Cleopatra, Caesar, the great Egyptian Pharaohs and so many more that stories have been written about.  So many tales have been penned shifting the facts around to suit an author’s imagination. I don’t know how many times I have read a story where Cleopatra ended up being a vampire.  And we all know the story of the mummy who came back to life set off by an evil curse because the archeologist descended into the tomb when the curse was clearly started above the entrance to the tomb.
What enthralls me about the past is the idea that there are so many things we don’t know.  Take Easter Island for example. The giant statues on the island are amazing, but we may never completely know the mystery behind them. Or the secrets of an ancient mummy sitting in a museum that travels all over the country.
Today I went to a mummy exhibit and even though modern technology has been applied to the mummies to identity what sex they are or if they died from a disease, there are some that those enigmas can never be solved. So it got me to thinking, what was there story? But then again, it’s like everyone else I meet on the street as well as in the past. What is their story?
I might never know, but my brain begins concocting worlds around the people, past and present. And poof, a character appears. And then I ask, what is your story?
Do you wonder what mine is?

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by | January 18, 2012 · 5:08 pm

Reviews

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Crymsyn Hart

You read a book and you end up liking it or disliking it. The feeling that comes over you is that you really have to talk about the book and give your opinion of the story. Thus you are creating a review about the story.  Of course, it could be a wonderful review and gushing about the writing style of the author or plot of the novel. Maybe something about the book could have rubbed you the wrong way and you just have to state that.

I have seen a lot of chatter lately about reviews, good and bad, and how the reviewers and authors attack one another. I figured I would weigh in my two cents. Personally, I don’t write reviews because I am horrible at voicing my opinions. I either state I like something or I don’t like it. Normally, I don’t pull apart the plot or the editing or the characters because I would get one or two sentences about the book and that would be about it whether I liked it or not.

However, I’ve had plenty of reviews good and bad. As they are opinions everyone is entitled to them. When it comes to bashing someone, I don’t think that’s right. Nor is it right for the author to answer back and start bashing the editor. It’s a two way street. If an author does respond to a review good or bad, in my opinion, it should just be short and courteous. Bashing on reviews is unprofessional and it just hurts on both sides of the reviewer and the author.

If someone likes a book, awesome or if a person doesn’t like a book and talks about it, that is good to. Just do it nicely.

What do you think?

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