Tag: writing (Page 5 of 14)

Confession of an Author: Prolific Writers

November 10, 2014 / Katie L. Carroll

Confession #9: I hate prolific writers.

Yes, I’m using the word “hate,” a word–you guessed it–I hate (it’s so unimaginative and really when you think about it, rather vague). It seems every other author I’ve ever heard of is a faster writer. Yeah, I know, it’s not a good idea to compare yourself to other writers and their processes or successes because to each his own and everything, but, man, I wish I could just write faster…and that I hadn’t heard of all these other writers who have a million books coming out all the time.

Seriously, my writer friends seem to have books releasing every day. I know about all their new books because I’m constantly hosting them here on this blog and reading their amazing stories. They post about their huge word counts (I’m happy to get a couple hundred words in a day, and I don’t even write every day…not even close to every day) and they do NaNoWriMo and write, write, write. And I love these writer friends of mine, but I hate them too. Why? Because they are so prolific and I am, well, not.

And I know what you’d say to me (because you, my dear blog readers, are a wonderful, supportive group of people). “Katie,” you’d say. “You have a preschooler and a baby, you have your editing, a husband who does housework, and a wonderful, full life.” And I’d say, “Yes, that is all true, and thank you for saying so.”

I do have all these wonderful things in my life, but I only have two published books and one collaborative work on the way, and I want more published books. I want more work to put out there. I want more time to write and when I do have time to write, I want to write more. Bottom line, I want more! “Wah, wah, wah,” right?

Then I feel guilty because there are other writers who are struggling to have anything published, writers who deserve to be published. Because I remember having that kind of wanting before ELIXIR BOUND came out, and that is a whole other kind of longing.

Back on topic, even this blog post feels like it’s taking forever to write. Why can’t my brain just get the words out of my head and onto the page in a manner that doesn’t feel like losing a 100-meter race to a slug? I’m a fast typist, so that’s not the problem. I’m a fast thinker, too. I think part of the problem is how much I have to think about things before I write them down. My process is part of who I am, not just as a writer but as a person. That’s hard to change.

I have to have a really good sense of what I’m writing before I even begin to put it down on the page. And then when I do start to get it down on the page, it spawns all these other thoughts and ideas that I have to rein my brain in. Wait, I think that means I think too fast, so it’s hard to focus on the writing and just get it on the paper. My brain moves too fast for my fingers. Plus, I’m a deliberate person. I don’t just do things nilly-willy (not saying prolific writers do things this way…only a comment on myself); I need to be ready to do things before I do them. I’m not sure there’s a way to circumnavigate that.

Okay, now I’m thinking out loud on the page, and boy, that’s a scary thought because who knows what will come out next. Let me gather my focus again. I am not a prolific writer and I may never be one because it’s just not the way I work. So all you prolific writers out there, just cut it out already! 😉

Character Driven Stories With Madeleine McLaughlin Author of BEGGAR CHARLIE

September 12, 2014 / Katie L. Carroll

Another great MuseItUp author guesting on the blog today. Madeleine McLaughlin is the author of the MG adventure BEGGAR CHARLIE and is here to talk about writing character driven stories. Welcome, Madeleine!

MuseItUp, along with other publishers, likes character-driven stories. So the most important part of any story for the modern writer is the ‘character’ of the characters. It should be easy, right? Every person you meet in the real world has a character. All the writer needs to do is copy, yes? No.

A character driven story means that some personality trait of the character leads directly into the plot twists. For instance, a man who acts mean to someone who then goes to kill someone. The first guy has a problem, the writer gets to decide which one. A bad marriage, etc, something that will explain his character. The murderer has a neurotic character perhaps and the story goes along with that. Not so easy.

All sorts of things can suggest character. I once looked at an old England census of my ancestors and found that Dorcas Fletcher had written down her occupation as ‘Gunsmith’s Daughter’. That could suggest a very loving and proud daughter, secondary characteristics are to the writer’s and story’s taste.

Like the father can be demanding but fair, so she feels secure. Or insecure, whatever the story needs.

A trait in a person you know can be helpful. I’m lucky that I had a family with a lot of characters in it. All you have to do then is use your imagination to ‘visualize’ what your character would do. Not easy. No. Writing is never easy but when you do it right there’s a great feeling of satisfaction and also of excitement that others may like what you wrote them.

Knowledge of psychology is a great help, too. That can help you come up with plot twists and motivations. I have a diploma in Child Psychology so I know a bit about how children develop and what they need to grow up happy. I was able to use this in Beggar Charlie. The need for children to have a home and how they go looking for one when they don’t have one.

In studying child psychology, it’s good to study normal and abnormal, just so you can understand what a character may need.

So if you’re in the writing market of today, you’ll have to make lists. Lists of character traits, even of yourself. Or you can start with yourself. What I Like About Myself on one side, What I Dislike About Myself on another. Do this for other people, too. Then try and juxtapose the lists. One Like list against a Dislike list of another person. Can you think of a story to go with it?

Some writers ‘interview’ their characters. This helps them get a better picture of what they may be going through.

It’s not easy, but as I said, it’s satisfying and even calming. You’ve done something, you’ve created. The best feeling in the world.

BEGGAR CHARLIE blurb:

After begging on the streets of London, Beggar Charlie is kidnapped by press-gangers and given over to a merchant ship. He finds himself in a storm off the coast of China. The captain promises him shore leave and sends him, along with Hickory Dick ashore in the morning.

They find themselves in a hostile environment except for one Chinese boy who is friendly. When a rebellion starts and people start dying around them, they run back to the ship only to see it sink under the waves. Then Hickory Dick hatches a plan to get them all home.

Find BEGGAR CHARLIE at Amazon, the MuseItUp bookstore, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and wherever ebooks are sold.

About the Author:

Madeleine McLaughlin was raised in a small city by the Pacific Ocean. She left after she graduated from high school and spent a year in Vancouver. She moved to Ottawa in 1979 and has lived there ever since and has a room mate in an apartment downtown.

After working at all kinds of jobs she settled down to write and has poems and flash fiction, along with short stories published. Beggar Charlie is the second story published by MuseItUp Publishing.

Follow her on Twitter @Madoxane or her blog http://madworldca.blogspot.com/.

Join Me on the Great CT Caper

September 9, 2014 / Katie L. Carroll

Finally the time has come to let you all know about that collaborative project I’ve been teasing you about. (I know, you’ve just been dying of curiosity, haven’t you?) Drum roll, please…

Join me, 11 other Connecticut authors, and 12 Connecticut illustrators as one of our own state’s cultural treasures is about to go missing. The Great CT Caper is on! The plot will develop as each author tackles one chapter at a time, but it all starts with the missing treasure, which was on voted on by the people. And they selected Gillette Castle!

Gillette Castle was designed by William Gillette, who was actually Sherlock Holmes (on stage anyway!), as a private residence and is now part of a state park. High above the gorgeous Connecticut River, I can’t imagine a better place for a mystery to take place. As part of my research, I’ll be visiting it later this month and I’ll be sure to share my experience here on the blog.

With the Great CT Caper, the Connecticut Center for the Humanities will be the first to publish a state-specific version of a serialized story for young readers modeled after a national one done by the Library of Congress. Starting in January 2015, the story will be published online one nail-biting chapter at a time.

I think it’s going to be an amazingly fun project to work on. I’ve never collaborated on a story with so many different writers and I’m really excited to see what kind of story comes out of it. Have any of you ever co-written or done a collaborative book?

The Inspiration Behind SCAR OF THE BAMBOO LEAF by Sieni A.M.

September 5, 2014 / Katie L. Carroll

With all the great talk going on in kidlit with the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign, I was super happy when Sieni A.M. agreed to tackle a diversity topic in her guest post for her new YA contemporary romance SCAR OF THE BAMBOO LEAF. Let’s give her a warm welcome as she shares the inspiration behind the characters and setting. And don’t forget to enter the giveaway!

My mother is from a small village in Samoa and my dad is from Portland, ME. They met when he was a Peace Corp volunteer. I was born and raised in Samoa, moved to New Zealand for university, and am currently living in Israel with my husband and two daughters. My husband is ethnically Persian/Australian/Canadian, so our daughters probably have every continent running through their blood. As a result, diversity is a very normal thing in my life so its influence on my characters reflect that normality. It’s simply what I know.

In Scar of the Bamboo Leaf, Kiva is a blend of Polynesian/Melanesian, raised by her aunt and uncle with little knowledge about her parents, while Ryler is an Arab American dealing with racism post 9/11. They’re two young people trying to navigate through life. They learn and grow and have challenges just like any other teenager…bullying, loneliness, heartbreak. Despite all of that they have dreams and aspirations and goals. Although their diversity is responsible for some of their troubles, it doesn’t overwhelm the story. The messages are universal and relatable.

The setting is in Samoa because it is what I know most intimately about and can describe best in detail–the landscape, oppressive heat, the culture, people. It is also not a place most often set in novels, so it has been a joy to share this little corner of the globe to international readers.

SCAR OF THE BAMBOO LEAF blurb:

“Her heart wept when she realized that the hardest part about loving him was the idea that his love was never meant for her.”

Walking with a pronounced limp all her life has never stopped fifteen-year-old Kiva Mau from doing what she loves. While most girls her age are playing sports and perfecting their traditional Samoan dance, Kiva finds serenity in her sketchbook and volunteering at the run-down art center her extended family owns.

When seventeen-year-old Ryler Cade steps into the art center for the first time, Kiva is drawn to the angry and misguided student sent from abroad to reform his violent ways. Scarred and tattooed, an unlikely friendship is formed when the gentle Kiva shows him kindness and beauty through art.

After a tragic accident leaves Kiva severely disfigured, she struggles to see the beauty she has been brought up to believe. Just when she thinks she’s found her place, Ryler begins to pull away, leaving her heartbroken and confused. The patriarch of the family then takes a turn for the worse and Kiva is forced to give up her dreams to help with familial obligations, until an old family secret surfaces that makes her question everything.

Immersed in the world of traditional art and culture, this is the story of self-sacrifice and discovery, of acceptance and forbearance, of overcoming adversity and finding one’s purpose. Spanning years, it is a story about an intuitive girl and a misunderstood boy and love that becomes real when tested.

Find it on Goodreads and Amazon.

About the Author:

Sieni A.M. is a coffee addict, Instagram enthusiast, world traveler, and avid reader turned writer. She graduated as an English and History high school teacher from the University of Canterbury and is currently living in Australia with her husband and two daughters. “Scar of the Bamboo Leaf” is her second novel.

Website: http://sieniam.blogspot.co.il/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/illumineher

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/illumineher/

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T.C. Mckee Author of THE BONE TREATY on Letting Go

August 29, 2014 / Katie L. Carroll

Another great guest blogger stopping by today! T.C. Mckee is celebrating the release of her YA paranormal THE BONE TREATY and is sharing some wisdom on when it’s time to let go…a hard thing for writers–and really anyone–to know how and when to do. Welcome, T.C.!

First off I’d like to thank Katie for having me on her blog today. Guest posts are way new for me, but I’m certainly having fun.

With today’s post, I thought I’d address the subject of letting go. We all have to do it at some point in our lives. It may be a child you’re sending off to college, your favorite pair of jeans that someone shrunk in the dryer, or a job you saw going nowhere. Maybe it’s something simpler like watching your husband vacuum the bedroom and he’s not doing it the way you would. Not. At. All. You’ve just watched him pick up your decorative rug and place it on your bed…let it go. He’s vacuuming. Pretend you never saw the rug—the very one the dog likes to chew his bones on draped across your slumber spot. No. Never happened. After that, just so you can write your next novel or market your new book (see The Bone Treaty below) he moves on to folding the laundry. How nice. What a wonderful man you’ve married. Then your daughter informs you that Dad is placing the freshly laundered, now folded towels on top of the rug that’s still on top of your bed.

Okay, DON’T let that go!!! We all have limits. Stop that man immediately. One can ignore a rug on the bed when it’s on top of a comforter. You can break that down. Rationalize it. You will not actually touch the top of the comforter while you’re snug as a bug…no worries. I’m gonna leave that sentence unfinished. But…no way should anyone be expected to use towels on your wee parts that have been resting on top of the Dog’s rug. NO! Pat that man on his head, snatch those towels and let the novel go for just five minutes. Your wee parts demand an intervention. They deserve it.

Learning when to let go is so important, and knowing when not to let go is equally just as important. I remember writing the first draft of The Bone Treaty and wanting to immediately toss it out to the world. Between you and me I did. Thank God I called it something else back then. It wasn’t ready. Heck, it was hardly ready for a beta reader. The work continued for years after that moment. The first novel is the hardest one. Don’t know why, it just is. But I think after all those years, all those revisions, all those weak moments I placed my head in the oven, it was all for a reason. I learned so much along the way. I discovered that writing really does take a village. Honest criticism is a wonderful thing because you can grow from it. If no one tells you what’s wrong with your work, you can’t possibly fix it. And I learned that I really need a gas stove if I plan to put my head in the oven in the future.

In the end, or the beginning, I learned when to let go of my WIP. It may not be perfect. Are there flaws? Probably. But without a doubt I did the best I could do on this particular project and the time came when I needed to just let it go and move on to my next story. So that’s what I did.

I asked a critique partner once how we were supposed to know when the time was right to move on. What she said was so true. She told me that I needed to let go when I couldn’t hold on anymore. When I no longer daydreamed about the characters. When I no longer thought about them when I should have been trying to sleep. When I no longer wanted to open the WIP it was time to let go.

So I did. I hope this helps another writer who might be wondering when to just let it go.

You can find The Bone Treaty at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MLN4KQE/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1PG1TMHY7ZCK9PPAHXRC&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1688200382&pf_rd_i=507846

You can visit me anytime on my blog: blog at: http://tcmckeewriter.blogspot.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/TC-Mckee/229753570369464

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TCMckee

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8296655.T_C_McKee

I’d love to have you stop by and say hello.

T.C. Mckee is the author of The Bone Treaty; book one in the Seal of Solomon Series. She’s also the acquisitions editor of BookFish Books LLC, a small business owner, Great Dane adorer, coffee addict, and lover of random useless facts. T.C. lives with her family in Virginia.