Don't hide from your story

Why do we always end up having countless untold stories and ideas just sitting around? They are the Post-its littering your desk; the two line word documents floating about your computer; the scribbled remarks in that blue notebook sitting by your bed named “ideas”; or maybe they are 10 line long ideas from your MFA in Creative Writing program. Wherever they are it really doesn’t matter. All that matters is that they are untold stories waiting to be written.

So why are they pushed aside? If we have so many stories and ideas, why aren’t we sitting at our desk at 2:00 a.m. typing away? We hide from our stories. In the beginning we are filled with so many ideas but once we decide on one, we get to a point that we just don’t know where to go. Then we all know what happens to that story — it goes into hiding. They build up in our bank of untold stories never to be looked at again.

There is always going to be a time in our writing that we get stuck on where to go. That doesn’t mean we stop with the story. This is actually when you push yourself to continue. We are all different in what inspires us but when you hit this point, you need to get yourself past by finding your inspiration. It might be a change in direction of the story, rewriting chapters or just adding new characters to give the story more depth.

You have to remember that you’re not going to come out with a bestseller with your first draft. More often than not, first drafts are crap. The characters might lack depth or the relationships might seem superficial. Your first draft will not get your story picked up by a publisher. You will need to revise it and sell your story idea. But it’s important to get it finished. It’s easier to revise your story than to have no story at all.

My advice to you is simple: don’t hide from your story. Go riffle through your bank of stories and push yourself to finish your first draft. Who knows, that story you are hiding might be Spectacle Publishing Media Group’s next published novel. 

www.SpectaclePMG.com

Book Review: 90-Days to Your Novel

Can you be a novelist in just 90 days? Many well-known authors write their novels in just weeks according to 90 Days to Your Novel – A Day-to-Day Plan for Outlining & Writing Your Book by Sarah Donet.

Can it be you? It all depends on your commitment to your project. 90 Days to Your Novel will require you to push yourself to invest two to three hours per day for the twelve weeks. At the end of the twelve weeks you will have a first draft of your novel but be warned, this book does not guarantee a great end product, only that you will have your draft finished.

Can reading a self-help book really create a bestselling book? Not a chance. What this book will do is breakdown how to create your outline as well as give you different techniques for writing. Do you know the difference between the Note-Card Technique vs. the Signpost technique? If you are new to writing novels, probably not and in the end, it really isn’t that important to know the difference. The most important thing you will take from this book’s Part I is figuring out how you want to start your writing process. What you are comfortable doing. What it’s called really doesn’t matter.

Part II is the “90-Day Writing Challenge”. The book advises you to not start reading the rest of the book until you can commit to the scheduled two to three hours a day for writing. When starting this book, your first three weeks are mixed with assignments that don’t necessarily pertain to your novel on the surface but if you really think about what you are writing, eventually you could incorporate those events, people or places into a scene of your story. An example of this is assignment #1, which is to brainstorm as many memories as you can on people, places and things from earlier moments in your life.

It’s important to remember in your first three weeks you are in the brainstorming, chart making and outline designing time period. If this wasn’t your first novel, you could probably skip over the first three weeks but really if you have already gone through the novel-writing process, you don’t need this book. It isn’t until week four that you start getting into your novel so you will need to have the patience to stick to your schedule.

Do you really need an assignment based, step-by-step guide to write your novel? Maybe, maybe not. It’s all about your commitment to your project. Your success of writing your novel has nothing to do with the how-to book you read. It has everything to do with the fact that you have committed yourself to sticking to the two to three hours per day of writing. If you can do that, why do you need a book to tell you what to write and when to write it? Well for those you are aspiring novelists who just don’t know where to begin, this book will help you organize each writing process to completing your novel.

The Broken Hearts Club

The romance genre is only for those in the Broken Hearts Club…right? Wrong! Romance is one of the largest and best-selling genres in North America.

The stereotype of the typical romance reader has been extremely distorted. You will not find us curled up on the couch, hair stuck in five different directions still in a week old gray sweatpants that used to be white, crying into a book because our own love life is in the pits. We are young adults still in high school trying to understand our own emotions. We are adults who are educated, sometimes with multiple post-educational degrees, just looking for a creative escape from our stressful daily lives. We are women and men (yes we know you are out there, your secret is safe with us). We are full-time workers, stay-at-home parents or just your everyday average Jane or Joe.

So where does the stereotype come from? It comes from those who don’t understand the genre. The romance genre is not all about sex, sex and sex. It can be said that it just as hard to make someone fall in love as it is to scare or shock someone. Think about it. We all know what the average person is scared of, right? But what can make someone fall in love? That is a hard question. Writing a best-selling romance novel is more than just writing about: boy meets girl, boy loses girl then gets her back and they live happily ever after. If it were just that easy then every romance novel would be a best-seller.

Those who criticize romance believe that every novel has two perfect people who fall in love—end of story. A good romance novel is more than that. A good romance has imperfect characters that are perfect for each other. A writer has to make their characters identifiable with the readers. Who can identify with someone who has everything going for them, never has any problems and has everything handed to them on a silver platter? Readers identify with the characters that have a struggle but work hard at whatever they do. The writer has to focus on who will be reading the novels and what is the perfect romance to them. It could be about two best friends, neighbors or just someone met at the rest stop on the Pennsylvania turnpike.

The best thing about the romance genre is that there are numerous sub-genres. As a writer, you can hand pick which sub-genre you would like to write in. Do you like writing about drama—you have suspense romance. Do you like writing about fantasy—you have paranormal romance. The possibilities are endless.

My challenge to you is this, try it. Look at your current writing style. Now think about a true romance (do some research on best-seller in the romance genre) and ask yourself how you can combine your genre into a love story? Who wouldn’t want to be a part of one of the largest and best-selling genres in North America? I know I do.

Beginnings...

I think there comes a time in everyone's life that they wake up and say to themselves..."Am I at the point in my life that I want to be at in 5 years?" By this I mean, am I doing today what I see myself doing in the future? As for me, my answer was no.

I am considered the type of person who balances between the right side and left side of their brain. I am creative but yet logical. I like arts and photography but at the same time I love Math and logical problems. Because of this balance, I really have found it difficult to find something I am truly passionate about and sticking to it.

One thing that I have always been passionate about has been romance novels. I can still remember the first books I started reading back in high school. They were the Love Story young reader series. They were about high school loves. 

So one thing I have decided I would like to do is write romance novels. What is to stop me? No one ever said it would be easy but I know I have the type of determination that it will happen for me.