Tag Archives: writing books

by | May 1, 2013 · 2:47 pm

Ten Things about Being a Writer

All of these things have happened to me on more than one occasion. I’m sure that there are many more things to list and other authors have different experiences, but one thing remains constant. We write because we have to or we might go insane. If we already aren’t, of course. 🙂

 

  1. You wake up in the middle of the night with ideas, write them down, and in the morning either can’t read your own handwriting or you look at the idea again and wonder what you were thinking.
  2. Write until your fingers cramp and your brain feels like it’s crispy.
  3. Procrastinate by making playlists to listen to while you write.
  4. Scratch down ideas on anything you can find wherever you go, even if it’s on the back of a receipt.
  5. Keep all your rejection letters until you have enough to wallpaper your bathroom with.
  6. Stay up late at night claiming you’re writing, but secretly you’re watching your favorite movie.
  7. You have conversations with your characters and argue where the plot is going to go and they change directions on you without warning.
  8. Your characters have conversations without you and no matter what you do, they won’t be quiet.
  9. You write one book and another idea pops into your mind so you just have to write that one too.
  10. You want to spend more time with your characters then you do with real people.

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by | August 29, 2012 · 10:33 am

When the room is spinning….

by

Crymsyn Hart

After finally recovering from an inner ear infection that left me reeling for six weeks, I think the room has finally stopped spinning enough for me to focus on things. It was hard though to make the ground stay put when I was on vacation a couple of weeks ago, but I firmly told it not to move and it did. At least for a little while.  However, it did not work so well with my characters.

While all I wanted to do was write and let my muses have full run of my hands, that did not work out so well. Every time I sat in front of the computer, it went a little fuzzy and my eyes seemed to cross. So I recommend when you are dizzy not trying to type anything out unless you can deal with the spinners.  It gets even worse when your muses decide to twirl and twirl inside your mind, which made me even dizzier and then they wanted to talk to me and write. So I ended up with a pen and a notebook.

In many ways writing by hand is cathartic and I enjoy it a lot. On the other hand, I can only do it for so long before my hand cramps up and I get more work done by typing rather than by writing longhand. But it is great because that is all I used to do when I was writing in high school.

So my lesson while being sick, even if the room is spinning and your muses resemble a whirling dervish, writing is still possible, even if I can’t read my own chicken scratch.

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by | July 25, 2012 · 4:54 pm

Two or More Names

 By

Crymsyn Hart

Writing can be hard and it can be fun depending on how are characters are doing that day. If they are in a bad mood, then good luck trying to woo them. Sometimes, the characters break into multi-personalities and make life interesting.

Besides the characters, even the authors can have a bad day or we can split into other personalities as well. It seems that is what is happening to me lately. Other authors write under different names for various reasons. Some is to protect their personal identity. Others do it because they write in different genres and it would clash with another identity. That is where I’m at.

I don’t write under my own  name because of the industry I work in. Besides that I write erotic romance novels and also horror. Erotic Romance and Horror don’t really mix so I’ve had to come up with another name for the horror genre as it is more explicit. So we will see where it goes.

I never thought I would want to write under another name because I could not think in another personality. However, that has been happening lately. It’s hard to have another voice inside my head. Some people think I’m crazy. Maybe I am. *Evil Laugh*

But now I have two personalities that will be inundating the market. I can only hope that I won’t have another personality spring forth. Others do, and that is awesome. I just wonder if I’ll be able to juggle three.

We shall see.

 

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by | March 7, 2012 · 2:37 pm

Now What…

by

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 9, 2012 · 10:08 am

Tips for getting your own book written in 2012

by Gail Z. Martin

So you want to write a book?  Congratulations.  Now it’s up to you to bridge the gap between “wanting” and “doing.”

The hardest part of writing a book is making the commitment to set aside the time to do what needs to be done.  That’s not just the writing; it’s also making sure that it’s proof read and as well-edited as possible.  If you decide to go the traditional publishing route, you’ll need to research and pitch your proposal to agents, and once you sign on with an agent, he/she will then pitch your proposal to publishers.  It can be a lengthy process.

If you decide to self-publish, you’ll need to format the book properly, determine things like cover art, and decide whether you’re going to do a paper book print-on-demand or just create an e-book (and handle the conversion, either or both ways).  There will be plenty of research and decisions involved.  And once your book is complete, you’ll need to plan for promotion, even if you have a traditional publisher.  Writing the book is only the beginning!

Still want to do it?  Good.  Here are six things you’ll need to do to make your book a reality this year:

  • Set aside time each week to write, and set a weekly goal of how many pages you want to write.  You may not always reach your goal (or you may even exceed it sometimes), but the goal keeps you on track.  You can always do more, but try not to do less.
  • Start researching now.  Start learning about what agents and editors do, what types of ebook formats are out there, how print-on-demand works and who the major players are.
  • Think about how the book fits into your business, and whether you’re willing to change your business model to take full advantage of the book (for example, adding speaking engagements to your calendar, making time to create and send press releases, write articles, be a guest blogger or pitch yourself as a radio guest.
  • Make connections with other authors and ask plenty of questions to see how they got published, what they would do over, and what they’ve learned the hard way.
  • Consider using a “book shepherd”, someone knowledgeable about the publishing industry who can help you finalize your book, determine your publishing options, and even pitch it to agents if that’s the route you want to go.
  • Take a hard look at the time and effort you’re willing to put into this project, as well as the money you can invest.  The price of book publishing has come way down with print-on-demand and ebooks, but it still requires some investment to hire a book shepherd, get an editor (if you self-publish or need help with the fine points of grammar and punctuation), format your book and create a cover (if you self-publish), and promote your book.

Writing a book is a fantastic step toward achieving your dreams, promoting your business and exploring your creativity.  Make this the year that you make your dream come true!

“Like” my WinterKingdoms page on Facebook and enter to win a prize package of signed books, foreign editions and rare Advance Review Copies  https://on.fb.me/yRGfHD

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by | January 19, 2012 · 10:04 am

What’s your writing resolution?

by Gail Z. Martin

If you’re a writer,  what’s your writing resolution for 2012?

Is this the year you’re going to finish your manuscript?  Find an agent?  Self-publish?

Whatever your resolution, when are you going to get started?

I know, things are busy right now.  But here’s the truth—things will always be busy.  There will always be some reason why you can’t work on your book—unless you decide to make it a priority.

The truth is, writing a book based on your area of expertise can be a fantastic way to promote your business.  Just by virtue of the fact that you actually wrote and finished a book (and published it), you can claim the title of ‘expert’.  You can promote your book (and your expertise).  You can even give away your book as an expanded calling card.  You can package your services or products as an extension of the book.  But that only works if you actually sit down and write the book.

So here’s my 30 day challenge to you:  Write something every day.  And by this, I mean a good faith effort, not just jotting down a single word or a single sentence.  Set aside just 30 minutes a day and use that time to outline, to write a few paragraphs, or maybe even, on a good day, a whole page.  My bet is that by the end of 30 days, you won’t want to stop.  It will be so much fun, such a creative release, so invigorating, that you’ll want to keep on going.  Or maybe, you’ll even have a draft completed.

Remember that there is no official definition of how many pages (or words) it takes to make a book.  Your book could be 10,000 words, or 50,000 words or maybe event 75,000 words.  It doesn’t matter.  It’s all about how long it takes to say what you want to say.  And it all begins with the commitment to begin.

So how about it?  I want to know what you do, so please comment and let me know what you’re going to do in the next 30 days to get started on that book you’ve always meant to write!

Go for it!

“Like” my WinterKingdoms page on Facebook and enter to win a prize package of signed books, foreign editions and rare Advance Review Copies  https://on.fb.me/yRGfHD

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by | March 3, 2011 · 10:08 am

Caught Between Zones

by Gail Z. Martin

When I’m actively working on a book, I’ve found that I don’t like to read epic fantasy.  Part of it is not wanting to be subconsciously influenced by anything I’m reading.  Part of it is probably a desire for something different from what I’ve spent all day working on.  The difficulty is, now that I’m writing two fantasy books a year, it either means I have to figure out a new way to approach the problem or I won’t get to read any epics at all!

Lately, I’ve been enjoying urban fantasy, paranormal mysteries and cross-genre stuff like the Undead and Unwed series (a little of both with some paranormal romance thrown in, though with an emphasis on action/humor).  Since I often spend my time mentally living in the middle ages, it’s fun to spend my free time reading books that are so thoroughly modern.  Although, as I’ve mentioned to a couple of my friends who write paranormal mysteries, what is it with the Internet?  How come people don’t just Google what they need to know, like in real life, as opposed to saying, “Gee, we can’t catch the bad guy because we need to know something and the library is closed until Monday!”  I often will check the copyright date if characters in a book are stuck with only the library as a research tool or if they don’t use a cell phone.  I’ve also chuckled at some of the ways authors have managed to avoid a slam-dunk rescue by putting the hero out of cell phone range or making a point that the cell phone is dead.

On the other hand, over on the epic side of things, I often have to face the reality of how slowly information could get from one place to another in the pre-telephone/telegraph/email days.  Throughout history, battles were often fought weeks after the treaty had been signed because no one could get the word out to the troops in time!  As someone living in the modern world, I have to constantly remind myself that it would take weeks or months to send the fastest messenger, meaning that there’s no way characters separated by distance can know what’s going on with each other (unless there’s a magical alternative).

Writing books set in a time period other than the one I live in does make for an interesting feeling of being caught between zones.  Don’t even get me started on word origins

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