So you want to write a book? (Kathy Pritchett)

Are you sure? Do you want to dedicate hours, days, weeks, months and even years to make what is in your imagination come alive for others? Do you want to hear criticism, both constructive and just plain mean, about what you have poured your soul into? Okay, if your answer is yes, plow ahead for some advice from someone who has been there.

First of all, write. Every day. Make it a habit. The more you do this, the easier it will become for the words to tiptoe out from hiding and show themselves. Sadly, this is a piece of advice I seldom heed. I guess, though I have considered myself a writer from the age of 14 (that’s a lotta years; don’t bother with the math; we deal in words!), I also suffer from the fear that this gift that has been entrusted to me will be taken away, and the words won’t come. Even the main character in More Than a Point of Honor and The Judas Seat (and more books, if I can just let them out), successful novelist Richard Matthews, fears the words not flowing.

Second, do your research. I just read another book in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series. Like all of her books, it teams with minute historical, medical, psychological detail. You smell the unwashed people, feel the sweat run down your back, tremble in fear of hanging, and want to run from the white sow. I don’t know how she knows so much medical information or the minute details of Colonial dress and toilet, but it sure adds to the story. Her detail, rather than slowing down the flow, adds to and is an integral part of the plot. Tom Clancy’s and even J.R.R. Tolkien’s detail bogs me down at time, but not Diana’s or Frank Herbert’s. Good writers are like good painters. Every brushstroke takes you closer to the picture they want you to see.

Third, edit, rewrite, then edit and rewrite again. Listen to beta readers and critics. Comments that are from left field might safely be ignored, but if several readers have the same complaint, look closely at the issue. See what you can do to fix it. Though writing is considered a solitary task, it really isn’t. A writer, except perhaps for Emily Dickinson, doesn’t write for her or himself. A writer writes to communicate with readers. Richard mentions this in his address to a writing conference in Honor. If readers don’t understand what you have tried to tell them, don’t blame the readers. Try again.

In short, if you want to write a book, do it. Be prepared to give up time with friends, other hobbies and often, your sanity. But do it. Write, research, and edit. Over and over. You may write several books that never see publication—author Jodi Thomas call it your “under the bed” book—but you will learn more than a Master’s program in the writing of it. As a critic told me once, “keep at it and you’ll get there.” Even though that was back in the days of typewriters, it’s still good advice.

Critic Schmitic

In catching up on my fellow WARA writers blogs, I found my soul resonating with Pat’s. I have many reasons for why I write, but reading badly written books is a real motivator.

I just finished a small historical romance. It took me three days. Normally, I can do it in three hours. This one was sadly lacking a few things. You may wonder, why continue reading it? Because I’m one of those goofy people who always thinks it will get better. I must be an optimist. Movies, books, you name it. If I start it, I finish it. Stupid way to be, but that’s what I do.

This particular book turned out to be ninety percent history and ten percent story. The history was a nice refresher, but I didn’t pull it off my shelf for that reason. I wanted swept up in the romance amidst danger. I wanted to get lost in a more exciting and intriguing world than my own. It didn’t happen.

The ending made me slightly bonkers. The hero suddenly quit being a spy in the middle of the Revolutionary War. No explanation. No hint of how he managed to extricate himself from the British army without someone noticing. No nothing. He shows up at the heroine’s house and supposedly explains everything to her father. I say supposedly because the reader is left in the dark. At least this reader didn’t get it. I can only assume the author had used her allotted word count. Story ended, readers unhappy, but book ended with the right number of pages. Aacckk!

I couldn’t decide whether to throw it away or push it off on some other unsuspecting sucker. Since I abhor throwing books away, I opted to pass it on to my mother, complete with ample warning. Let her throw it away J

The oft-found inconsistencies in books and movies have always made me crazy. I would run to whoever had the bad luck to be near by and rant about whatever idiotic thing I just saw or read. I have to wonder if all my ranting will come back to bite me when my books get published. Writing is hard work. There are hundreds of details to remember. I can see how things can slip through the cracks. I’m sure I’ll make mistakes along the way.

Little boo boos are one thing. A complete loss of coherency or logic is another. I can never decide if the writer had brain freeze or the editors neglected to read the story before they chopped it up. Either way, poorly written stories are a good motivation to write. As long as you produce something better. But, that will be for your readers to decide J

Let Me Count The Ways . . .

April’s subject for our blog is why we write. Over the last couple of weeks I've thought of numerous reasons, jotted them down somewhere, and lost every note.  So, as of today, why I write is apparently to add a little more frustration into my life. J

I could also say it’s because I like having ten piles of papers littering my computer room. One for this manuscript, one for that WIP, one for ‘have to do now,’ one for work, and on, and on, and on. With each year of writing, I seem to add another pile. But, I do know where most of my stuff is. It’s in my nice blue room with pictures of the ocean adorning its walls. Somewhere, waiting for Nina to come and organize it.

Sometimes I write to get the voices in my head to shut up. If I get it out on to black and white, then I don’t have to rehash that particular scene over and over. I type it all out and have peace, until the next scene starts forming. Unless my brain decides it can do it better and demands a rewrite. Then it’s back to square one.

I began writing to see if I could do it. I've made stories up in my head my entire life, but I wasn't sure how to get them out of my brain and on to paper. One day I just sat down and began. I had an entire story written before I ever joined WARA. After joining, I learned how to turn that story into a book. 

Writing is also a source of pleasure for me. On the days when I’m not totally fried, I’ll write instead of sit in front of the TV for some down time. Sometimes I write anyway, but it’s more of a struggle. Writing when I enjoy it is easy.  I like discovering where my characters are going and how they will get there. It’s often a surprise and I find myself asking, “Where did that come from?”

Another reason I write is the joy that comes from knowing people like my books. Even though I’m not published* many people have read my stories. The favorable responses have far outweighed any negatives. Those that have received emotional healing through them make it all worthwhile. Writing is a lot of hard work, long hours and personal sacrifice.Knowing you've impacted someone’s life for the better is an awesome incentive.

When I first started on this journey I was hoping to earn some cold, hard cash for doing something I enjoyed. Hasn't happened* but that’s okay. My goal is to write the best stories I can that are a positive influence on those that read them. If money comes with that some day, then great. If not, I’ll live.

I’m sure there are many more reasons why I, and others, write. Please share some of yours with us.

* YET!

Why I Write by J Vincent

The topic for April is Why We Write. In the beginning wrote because I had to.  I was driven to by the characters in my mind who would not stop talking, by the stories that kept growing and blooming, prodding and pushing until they were on paper--in the good old days--and in the word processor now.  I can still recall how the first book I ever wrote took shape in my mind.  Once the concept occurred to me each day brought  a new scene to mind and more dialogue sprang to life.  Incidents caused chain reaction chapters. I had to start writing it down even though I thought I was an idiot to try and write a book.  After all how do you explain voices in your head to people who don’t have them in theirs?  The characters in my first book didn’t quiet down and go away until their story was done.  And so it was with the next story, my first regency.

That first regency which later was published as The Bond of Honour, got rejection after rejection.  Frustrated, I sat down and made a list of what the editors wanted in a regency.  This was the first time I wrote to SELL.  I finished the book. and sent it off.  The next day I looked at the first chapter and frantically wondered how I could get it back.  That it was drivel and poorly written were only some of the things I thought.  Two weeks later I got a call from Vivian Stephens at Dell Publishing in New York.  She loved it.  She bought it.  Thomasina. 

Three years later what was “in” changed.  My stories were out.Three growing children, orthodontia bills and all that sent me back to teaching.  When I retired from teaching I wanted to know if I could write an entire book again. So I wrote just to see if I could still do it.  I started with a plot that I had described to my daughters with such detail when they were small they still remembered the plot as adults.  I had only begun that book when my characters once again took charge.  They killed my villain way too early putting me in a dilemma as how to proceed.  From somewhere, I’m still not sure where, came what turned into the Honour Series. As I continued what became the first book, Honour’sDebt, six other stories  for the series came to me in full detail.  I wrote four of them.  The fourth was begun when I was having increasing trouble with health issues.  These issues became so serious I was unable to continue writing.  When I was well enough to return to that book, I read what I had written,  scrapped it, started over.  Shortly after I finished it I was again too ill to continue writing.

Somewhere along the line of unending medical bouts these past years the voices grew quieter. less insistent.  The stories are no longer prodding and pushing to be told.  These days I am the one who has to pull out the whip and get myself into writing.  BITHOK we say--Butt in chair, Hands on the keyboard.  It is very good advice.  Even when the characters were demanding, I found tenacity and perseverance to be a writer’s, at least this one’s, best friend. If the book doesn’t get written no one can read it.

Does it matter why I write?  Why anyone writes?  I don’t think so mainly because the “why” is a kaleidoscope of reasons determined by our environment, our mood, where we are at in our lives, and many other things.  Sometimes I write simply to prove I can.  At other times it is to experience the flow of words, the beauty of vocabulary.  Or I write simply because I made a commitment--as in this blog.  I write because others, my sister in particular, expect it.  Through all or despite all of the reasons I write, I learned that writing satisfies something in me.  Last week I started on the fifth book of the Honour series.  With a goal of only a page a day, it’s a pretty wimpy effort, but the voices are growing stronger, the story more demanding.  Sometimes BITHOK is the only way I write.  Whatever works as they say!

Success, praise, whatever you want to call it is another reason to write.  Who isn’t thrilled when someone tells them their book is terrific, or that it helped them through a rough time? I recently received a reminder of this from a compliment on Never to Part, my regency paranormal released last month. Also  Honour’s Choice Book 2 in the Honour Series which is now available was given 4 stars by Donna Brown in May’s RT Book Reviews.  There’s more suspense than romance in the second entry to Vincent’s Honour series, but both keep the reader on the edge as finely-wrought characters tell an exciting tale. Unresolved circumstances leave the reader eager for book three.  
These are some of the reasons I write.  Are some of them your reasons too?