Story development

A dilemma I found myself in yesterday, what direction do I take my characters in, one in particular I had several ideas and found myself bogged down trying to write everything down and melding all my ideas together. So I thought I'd share a couple of tips I've come across with you all. In some ways I think this can be a main cause for writers block especially for me.

The first is something similar to a method drummed into me for revision when I was at school. I drew a flow chart tracking all of my ideas and how they would map out, with everything clear I could pick the best thread for my work.

The second and slightly more unusual method suggested to me was using tarot cards to map out a possible path for the character. Now you have to bare with me I did find this strange to start with and more than a little odd but gave it a go anyways. Now it's not fail safe and not one that I would use often but it did give a some ideas and a different perseptive on how my character may react to different situations and problems.

The third method is another I subject my partner to (I think a part of me must be a sadist) I take my rough manuscript and get him to read it. Sometimes a fresh set of eyes can give a new persepctive and also if you have an honest victim they can tell what is working and what isnt. If any of you are like me you know exactly what you are trying say but don't always get it down in the right way the first few times.

Happy  reading and writing all.....

Lauren xxx

Dealing with writers block

The bane of all writers the dreaded writers block....
I know like many of you we get hit by this from time to time and the frustration it causes can make you want to turn the air blue with cursing and want to throw your lap top or pen and paper across the room. I got hit by this lately and thought I'd share my tips for breaking down writers block


1) Put the pen and paper down or turn the lap top off the more you try to force it the worse it gets.

2) Take a break for about half hour and chill don't think about writing or anything of the like.

3) Look for inspiration else where, read, draw, watch a movie something you know helps you get the ideas flowing. Yesterday Song of the siren covered by this mortal coil did the trick for me.

4) Talk your ideas through with someone, sounding your ideas out can help a lot. My partner is the guinea pig for many of my ideas.

Hope these tips are helpful if you ever do get writers block in the mean time I hope the writing and creativity flows

Lauren

4) Music my greatest salvation sometimes all it takes is a few notes or lyrics to spur the creativity on

A beautiful weekend

What a beautiful weekend it has been this week. I've not done much in the way of writing been a little distracted by my sisters wedding. It was an amazing day simple and sweet with just close family and friends. Half way through the ceremony I was struck with divine inspriation and had a flash of an idea for my next book to work on. I dont know about you but I find ideas strike me at the oddest moments more often than not in the middle of the night. I reach for my trusty iphone and its note pad and put them in there before I can forget. (I would be lost without my phone)
My health has been a litte up and down lately and I know I have spoken about if before but I find writing a great escape and a great therapy. It doesnt matter what is going on in my world there is always a place that not only can I escape to but also have complete controll over.
With all these ideas in my iphone sometimes its difficult to keep focused on one project at a time I think excitement at starting something new can almost get the better of me.

At the moment I'm working on part two of my first trilogy A Ravens Tear. I've put the first chapter on here on an earlier post. Part two has a bit of a way to go yet but I'm hoping to have the prologe on here in the not to distant future. I would like some feed back on the atmosphere I'm trying to create in that openeing scene. Like all writers I am keen for feedback the postive and the negative so I can see where my strengths and weakness' lie.
As a closing thought if you are interested in supporting indie authors and their work the best thing anyone as a reader can do is leave feed back and reviews, Amazon, Goodreads and author blogs are a great place to start.

Wishing you all a fantastic week
Lauren x

Music, writing and marketing

With all the drama of the Olympics I must confess I've been distracted from more than just my writing. I am a great lover of of music and my vinyl collection as well as my pen has been idle. I often have music on when I am writing it gives me a sense of rythem and of flow. I often find my best ideas come to me while I'm listening to a piece of music or doing something compeltly inane. An iPhone has been a good send as I can tap any ideas as soon as I get them.

Marketing is another thing I've been distracted from, one thing I've found is that writing the book was the easy part marketing is another thing all together. Like most of us I'm happier behind a keyboard or with pen and paper in hand but that doesn't sell books. I thought I'd share a few of my ideas that don't cost the earth to help promote your work.

1- Make a business style card for your book and for your self Moo.com have good deals for new customers. I put the cover of my book on one side and twitter and email info on the back. I've given these to bookshops, left them at my local hair dressers and coffee shops along with some flyers I made.

2- Get in contact with local newspapers and local radio they are always interested in stories that involve real people from their area.

3- Email news programs there's no guarennte you'll get a rely but what have you got to lose.

4 - Contact libraries arrange readings

5- Volenteer to do a reading at local hospitals, children's wards if it's a children's book bring some happiness and spread the word

6- Posters where ever you can get them put up community notice boards are a good start

7 - Blogs and reviews get in contact with forums and blogs build a repur and then ask if they would do a review or a piece on your work

These are just a few ideas I've had and am trying out. My best advice be creative marketing doesn't need to cost the earth. Best of luck to all of you with your writing

Olympics and peeves as a reader

Wow what an Olympic games its been and not just for team GB but for others involved. I must confess it has distracted me from writing and blogging. I'm not afraid to say writing has been a struggle this week but the words are flowing again now and my health has taken a step on the up for the time being so I'm going to take advantage.
 I saw a piece on Facebook today and thought I'd take the point and expand it further on my blog. As a reader (not a writer) what really puts you off a book or puts you off reading further so I thought I would share a few of my bug bears and I hope you share yours as it will help not just me but anyone whos reading and wants to be a writer:

- My main peeve is clunky plots that dont flow, sometimes a book starts with such promise but then looses it's sense of direction like it forgets what story its trying to tell.

- Characters I can't relate to, like everyone I love a good battle between good and evil but I like the murkey areas in between heros shouldnt be whiter than white and villians shouldnt be blacker than black

- Description for the sake of description just to fill pages, I like the scene to be set but I want to know what is happening to my character and their thoughts and feelings thats what we want to know. clothing and surroundings do not need to be described but not down to the atom. Its atmosphere that works from me.

What are your peeves as a reader?

My radio interview on-line

I had my 1st radio interview this sunday just gone and it has been played on local radio this morning. If you would like to listen in click on the following link that will take you directly there.
I speak about my writing and my fight with ME, enjoy :)

www.jack106.com/news/audio-hitchin-author-battles-me-to-publish-fantasy-novel

A question and answer session with a fellow author James Tallet creator of The four part land

 James Tallett

When and why did you begin writing?

 I was sitting outside one morning on a beautiful summer’s day chatting to my mum about books, primarily fantasy, and she said something along the lines of “You’re a good writer, you’ve read enough, why don’t you give writing a fantasy book a try?” It seemed like such a good idea we sat down and built a map for a continent, and jotted down the names of the major cities. An updated version of that map is here, and the place names are still the same. I’ve been writing in the setting we created that day for about eight years now, give or take a few months.

Did you know straight away that it was what you wanted to do?

Not really. Writing was a very on and off process for me at first, and it still is to a great extent. I’m well aware it’s never going to be my primary career, but I do love to spin a good tale, and I’m trying to average one published novel (and one smaller work) every year.

What inspired you to write your first book?

Being told I should give it a try. The setting arrived over the next couple weeks, and by the end of the first month I more or less had the idea for the story in place, or at least the opening chapter. The beginning of Tarranau has changed very little in plot from when it was first conceived, although I didn’t yet know where the rest of the story was going to end up.

Do you have a specific approach to you writing? (plotting, scheduled writing times etc)

I plot out every story before I write them (well, every story longer than about 5k), and I generally try and write in the mornings before I go to work, but aside from that, there isn’t a lot of structure in how I write. Everything is in order though, I always start at page 1, scene 1, and write from there to the end of the story.

How did you come up with the title / name of your main character?

I borrowed the name of Tarranau from an online gaming colleague of mine during the high school days. He was an Englishman who had the username Tarranau, and when I asked him what it meant, he told me it was Welsh for thunder. I liked it so much that years later I remembered the name, and the main character has had it from the first day he hit paper.

 Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?

If there is, it’s not there intentionally. I don’t want to bring conscious moralizing to a story, I want to tell a good story. If there’s a message in there, it evolves out from how the tale is written, and the actions of the characters. And each of them has their own outlook on the world that usually isn’t the one that I have. My stories would be pretty boring if all of the characters were carbon copies of me.

What made you choose the independent route for your writing?

Time and royalty rates, mostly. And control. As an indie author, I control the art, the publishing, when it goes on sale, marketing, etc. It’s nice to have control over all these aspects of the novels, but it also means a lot more work in some respects. And the money is more visible in coming out of (and hopefully going back into) my pocket.

If you had to choose, which writer(s) or what book(s) has inspired you the most?

The first true fantasy story I can ever remember reading was Lord of the Rings, in 3^rd grade. It’s almost certainly the tale that kickstarted my love of reading and writing fantasy. But in terms of time spent reading, it’s probably the Wheel of Time. I can still remember the bookstore where I got the very first book in the series when it was published. At the time, there were little free teaser novels they gave away that had the first couple chapters in them. I grabbed one, read it, and went right back for the huge tome that was the first book. I’ve read every one since, for the last twenty years.

You reference three different novels on your website, but with a series called the Four Part Land, can readers expect another novel?

There are six novels and one anthology plotted for The Four Part Land. I know, it doesn’t fit in with the whole Four ethos, but it wasn’t planned that way. The story is currently unfolding as two different trilogies. Tarranau is book #1 of the Tarranau trilogy, while Chloddio (the next book to appear) will be book #1 in that trilogy. I’ll be alternating the publishing of each series, so overall Tarranau’s series will be books #1, #3, and #5, while Chloddio will be books #2, #4, and #6. They run concurrently in the setting’s time, and there is a fair amount of overlap. For instance, Tarranau takes Chloddio’s job when he gets fired, for various reasons.

Finally, the last book is Unfolding a New Continent, and is the anthology collection of all the short stories and novellas that I’ve written about The Four Part Land. Longer tales from this will be published individually in ebook formats, as well as the final print collection.

What can your readers expect from you once The Four Part Land series of complete?

Well, there’s a few things going on and planned, but I already have plots for 4 short novels in the Arhosa setting (a grim fantasy setting), Our Land (a gunpowder fantasy novel), a SF setting as well, and whatever else catches my fancy between now and then. There’s a lot I’ve got in mind, and it’s a matter of which gets written.

What do you find to be the most challenging aspect of writing?

Staying committed. The words come fairly easily if I take the time to sit down and hammer away at the keys, but keeping myself at the keyboard and writing has always been the hardest part. I either come up with a new idea, or get distracted, or burn out on the current story.

The creation of Deepwood Publishing has done very little to help, but it has slowed down the process of burning out by giving me many more things to work on in small doses.

Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?

That I need to plot more when writing. Or, at least, that I write more skillfully when I plot the story out beforehand. And that if you give me a setting, I will create plots till the cows come home. It’s almost more fun than actually doing the writing itself, since each plot is a story in miniature.

Do you have any advice for other writers?

Write every day. It makes the writing smoother, easier, and more connected between sections. Letting the writing lead where it must is also important. I have never plotted the death of a main character. But sometimes they die, and that is how the story should be.

Also, I try and provide some writing tips on my blog here. They’re usually focused around various aspects of creating a fantasy setting, and what I do that might help others.

Do you have anything that you want to say to your readers?

A story isn't a complete story until it's been through the hands of the writer and the reader. I've put a strong framework into place, but until the reader's mind fills in all the little details and scenes and fleshes the world out, it doesn't truly come alive.

That's why readers are so much fun as an author – they bring the world alive again for us as well. After eight years poking around the inside of The Four Part Land, I can see every mound of terrain and the daily lives of the people so well it's like wandering around my local town – it's all so normal I don't notice the extraordinary. Questions and comments from those who see the world for the first time bring back the magic for me.

Thank you for the support and the kindness you’ve shown over the years.

Another day, another battle

Well what  week it has been the olympics have been amazing, not without its ups and downs but such is life. I just had my first radio interview today for local radio my hands were shaking and thought I would go blank but all in all it went really well.
It got me thinking about why I write, which in it's self seems a simple question but the more I thought about it the more I realised that it's far more than just the joy of writing. I suffer with severe M.E which leaves me in pain and exhausted beyond words along with other debilitating symptoms including muscle twitches and spasms which can make for interesting typing. I realised that writing (which I do as often as my symptoms allow) gives me a release, a goal and a sense of freedom that no other actvitiy on this planet could give.
My characters also reflect parts of me and of people I've met into both the dark and the lighter parts of my life. I feel like writing helps me make sense of not only the world now but also my past and what ever the furture has for me.
So the question why do I write, took me a little longer to answer than I first thought...

First radio interview...

I know it has only been a couple of days since my last post but had an exciting call today and just had to share it. A local radio station is coming to record an interview with me this Sunday. This feels like a massive leap forward for getting word of my book out there.
I have been emailing people and stations about my work loads since my book came into print and was inspired to keep going after reading an interview Wayne Coyne gave (Lead singer of my fav band The Flaming Lips) who spoke about getting people together for his colaboration album Heady Fwends. He made it his mission to keep asking and pestering until it got to the point that it was easier to accept his request than it was to do anything else. This made my smile and spurred me on to do a similar thing and it has paid off.
Keep plugging away people breaks only happen if you make them happen, I know I still have a long way to go but each step forward is a massive postive and insentive to take the next step.