How reading encourages diverse thinking
Posted: April 10, 2019 Filed under: Books, Children's Books, Diversity, Fiction, Growing Bookworms, Reading | Tags: Children's Books, Diversity, Growing Bookworms, Reading, Robbie Cheadle, Writing to be Read 27 Comments
We all want our children to grow up to an environment free from bias and discrimination. We want them to have opportunities to achieve their dreams and to believe they can accomplish anything. We also want our children to feel included and loved in all situations, from school, to home to religious institutions.
The best way to achieve this is to weave diversity into the fabric of our children’s lives. We can do this in many ways, one of which is by providing our children with a selection of multicultural books which allow them to imagine experiencing life in a different way and from a different perspective.
When you read multicultural books you are transported to a different culture and are exposed to new ideas about housing, food, schooling, transport and religion. I always remember when I read the books written by Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë as a teenage girl. These books were my first real exposure to the poor treatment of children and women during the Victoria era. I was horrified by the terrible conditions the orphaned girls experienced at Lowood School and the terrible illnesses that ravaged the learners. Later on in my life I read books about the lives of several female Victorian writers and I came to realise just how restricted their lives were. Female’s were not considered to have the intelligence or seriousness necessary to write novels. My own mother experienced discrimination as a young girl when her father refused to buy her a school uniform when she won a scholarship to attend a local grammar school. He didn’t believe in educating girls.
As I have walked my path as a reader, I have read a wide variety of books about life in numerous countries from the great cities of the USA, London and Paris to country towns and rural villages in Africa and Asia. Through reading, I have experienced life in Japan, China and Chile. I have tried to share these experiences with my own children by reading them abridged versions of classic stories like The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting, a story of an empathetic doctor who travels to Africa and has adventures on this great continent, The Last of the Mohicans by James Fennimore Cooper, set in Upper New York State during the French Indian wars, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee set in Alabama and Oliver Twist set in Victorian London. They have also read a number of more recent books set in various countries.
Multicultural books teach us about other peoples cultures and religious beliefs and helps to instill positive attitudes about acceptance and tolerance. Some of the books that spring to mind that I read to my pre-teen boys are Fattipuffs & Thinifers by André Maurois which teaches children about segregation in an entertaining and light hearted way, I am David by Anne Holm, the story of a boy who escapes from a Bulgarian communist concentration camp and makes his way to Denmark, and The Diary of a Young Girl written by Anne Frank, that tells of her life as a young Jewish girl growing up in the Netherlands during the Nazi occupation. These sorts of books help teach children that while we all have different religions, celebrations and traditions, we are actually all the same. We all need to eat, drink and sleep. We all aspire to an education, job and happy family life.
While it is good for children to understand history and learn from the mistakes of the past, it is best to select titles that present a variety of points of view so as to prevent stereotyping.
The modern world is becoming more cosmopolitan and diverse due to the ease with which people can travel and communicate. My son plays computer games with friends from all over the world including India, the UK, the USA and Dubai. His school provides a boarding option and caters to boys from all over the world and a variety of different backgrounds, including Chinese, American, British, German, French and a number of African countries. There are Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and Christian boys all attending classes together, doing activities and sports together and enjoying themselves as a group. Diversity is a popular topic with many modern authors and I have recently read three lovely picture books aimed at teaching children about acceptance in a fun and simple way.
Myrtle the Purple Turtle by Cynthia Reyes is about Myrtle, a turtle who is purple and, as a result, she and her family are different from other turtles. You can read my review on Goodreads here: Goodreads review of Myrtle the Purple Turtle.
Kids get it by Sally Huss is a story about self-worth and the equality of all children in the eyes of God. You can read my Goodreads review here: Goodreads review of Kids Get It.
The cover of Who do I see in the Mirror? by Vese Aghoghovbia Aladewolu shares “the important message relayed to children is to love the skin they’re in.”. You can read my Goodreads review here: Goodreads review of Who do I see in the Mirror?
There are also a large selection of non-fiction books for children which describe the cultures and lives of the people of the world.
What do you think about the role of books in promoting diversity? Let me know in the comments.
About Robbie Cheadle
Hello, my name is Robbie, short for Roberta. I am an author with six published children’s picture books in the Sir Chocolate books series for children aged 2 to 9 years old (co-authored with my son, Michael Cheadle), one published middle grade book in the Silly Willy series and one published preteen/young adult fictionalised biography about my mother’s life as a young girl growing up in an English town in Suffolk during World War II called While the Bombs Fell (co-authored with my mother, Elsie Hancy Eaton). All of my children’s book are written under Robbie Cheadle and are published by TSL Publications.
I have recently branched into adult horror and supernatural writing and, in order to clearly differential my children’s books from my adult writing, I plan to publish these books under Roberta Eaton Cheadle. I have two short stories in the horror/supernatural genre included in Dark Visions, a collection of 34 short stories by 27 different authors and edited by award winning author, Dan Alatorre. These short stories are published under Robbie Cheadle.
I have recently published a book of poetry called Open a new door, with fellow South African poet, Kim Blades.
Find Robbie Cheadle
Blog: https://bakeandwrite.co.za/
Blog: robbiesinspiration.wordpress.com
Goodreads: Robbie Cheadle – Goodreads
Twitter: BakeandWrite
Instagram: Robbie Cheadle – Instagram
Facebook: Sir Chocolate Books
Want to be sure not to miss any of Robbie’s Growing Bookworms segments? Subscribe to Writing to be Read for e-mail notifications whenever new content is posted or follow WtbR on WordPress.
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Developing imagination and creativity through reading
Posted: March 13, 2019 Filed under: Books, Children's Books, Growing Bookworms, Reading | Tags: Children's Books, Creativity, Developing Creativity, Growing Bookworms, Reading, Writing to be Read 32 Comments
“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Einstein
It takes imagination and creativity to make the leaps of logic, faith and inspiration necessary for new inventions and technological development. As the human race stands on the brink of the digital revolution which is already changing the way we live, work and relate to each other, we need to empower our children with the skills they need to cope with an increasingly faster paced and continuously changing world. The development of critical thinking skills and creative problem solving abilities are essential in order for our children to thrive and excel in the work places of the future.
How do we go about instilling these vital skills in our children?
Creative and imaginative play is an excellent way of developing “out of the box” thinking skills in children. Another important way of developing imagination and creativity is reading.
Reading books and hearing stories stimulate a child’s imagination through the adventure, characters and illustrations. Books introduce children to new ideas, experiences, concepts and behaviours that they may not encounter in their own lives. Encouraging children to read a wide variety of genres of books, including fantasy, non-fiction, comedy, poetry and historical fiction, opens up their minds, allowing them to explore new information, emotions and cultures and lead to greater understanding and empathy.
Reading forces a child to use critical thinking skills and logic to process what is being read and understand the concepts and ideas contained in the book. While you read, you create images, thoughts and opinions in your mind.
Reading is exercise for the brain, the more you read the better your concentration will be and the better you will be able to think in a clear and concise way. Reading completely absorbs the mind as it takes effort to read the words, comprehend what is being said and to analyse the deeper meaning and why the author has written about a particular subject in a specific way.
Reading aloud empowers children with better vocabularies, sentence structure and communication skills, enabling them to share their imaginative and creative ideas better.
It is the ability of human beings to be imaginative and creative, to experience great emotion and passion and to invoke these same feelings in others, that ensures we will never become “robotised”. People who have these characteristics will always be valuable to our society and that is what we all strive for, to raise children that will add value to society and, by doing so, lead happy and fulfilled lives.
About Robbie Cheadle
Hello, my name is Robbie, short for Roberta. I am an author with five published children’s picture books in the Sir Chocolate books series for children aged 2 to 9 years old (co-authored with my son, Michael Cheadle), one published middle grade book in the Silly Willy series and one published preteen/young adult fictionalised biography about my mother’s life as a young girl growing up in an English town in Suffolk during World War II called While the Bombs Fell (co-authored with my mother, Elsie Hancy Eaton). All of my children’s book are written under Robbie Cheadle and are published by TSL Publications.
I have recently branched into adult horror and supernatural writing and, in order to clearly differential my children’s books from my adult writing, I plan to publish these books under Roberta Eaton Cheadle. I have two short stories in the horror/supernatural genre included in Dark Visions, a collection of 34 short stories by 27 different authors and edited by award winning author, Dan Alatorre. These short stories are published under Robbie Cheadle.
I have recently published a book of poetry called Open a new door, with fellow South African poet, Kim Blades.
Find Robbie Cheadle
Blog: https://bakeandwrite.co.za/
Blog: robbiesinspiration.wordpress.com
Goodreads: Robbie Cheadle – Goodreads
Twitter: BakeandWrite
Instagram: Robbie Cheadle – Instagram
Facebook: Sir Chocolate Books
Want to be sure not to miss any of Robbie’s Growing Bookworms segments? Subscribe to Writing to be Read for e-mail notifications whenever new content is posted or follow WtbR on WordPress.
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Alternating reading with your child
Posted: February 13, 2019 Filed under: Books, Children's Books, Growing Bookworms, Reading | Tags: Children's Books, Children's Stories, Growing Bookworms, Reading, Robbie Cheadle, Writing to be Read 53 Comments
When my son, Michael, was in Grade 2 at school we discovered that he had an audio processing problem and this was inhibiting his ability to read fluently. It took Michael longer to read a book or perform an activity in class than his peers and his teacher was concerned about his ability to cope in Grade 3. The work load increased significantly when the children moved from the pre-prep (ages 5 to 8 years) to the prep school (ages 9 to 13 years) and they needed to work faster in order to keep up.
I was more concerned about my son’s mental well-being and confidence. I had noticed that my little boy was becoming withdrawn and reserved. I took him for a series of test by a child psychologist and together we decided that Michael would benefit from a remedial school. We enrolled Michael at a good remedial school in Johannesburg the year he turned 9 years old. This was an excellent decision for all of us as the remedial teachers at the school also gave me a lot of advice about helping Michael to develop a love of reading despite his learning barrier. I desperately wanted Michael to love books and reading as much as I did so I was delighted to embrace their advice which was very successful for us.
One of the methods of assisting Michael with learning how to read faster and more fluently was for me to alternate reading paragraphs and pages with him. Michael would select a book of his choice. In the beginning it was always Winnie the Witch or Horrid Henry books. He would read one page and I would read three. I would help him when he got stuck with a word and sometimes read with him if a sentence was particularly complex. This method enabled Michael to enjoy the story and it moved along at a pace that was fast enough for him (and me) not to become frustrated and forget the beginning of the story before we reached the end. If the book Michael selected was a bit more difficult than usual, we would alternate reading paragraphs instead of whole pages to ensure that frustration didn’t set in with Michael. In this way he was able to read the occasional book that was above his reading level at the time.
I encouraged Michael during these early years of learning to read fluently, to choose books comprised of a few short stories rather than full length chapter books. Despite the alternating reading, chapter books took longer for us to read together and Michael would sometimes lose the thread of the story before we reached the end of the book.
We continued with alternating reading for two years until Michael’s reading was sufficiently fluent and well-paced for him to start reading entirely on his own.
During this two-year period, I also read to Michael every evening after we had finished the alternating reading. The books I read to Michael were more challenging books than the ones we read together, and they appealed to his sense of humour and adventurous spirit. Michael loved being read to and it taught him good concentration and listening skills which I believe will benefit him for the rest of his life.
Alternative reading is beneficial for all learning readers and can also help a strong reader with their word pronunciation and vocabulary enabling them to move on to more challenging books more quickly.
About Robbie Cheadle
Hello, my name is Robbie, short for Roberta. I am an author with five published children’s picture books in the Sir Chocolate books series for children aged 2 to 9 years old (co-authored with my son, Michael Cheadle), one published middle grade book in the Silly Willy series and one published preteen/young adult fictionalised biography about my mother’s life as a young girl growing up in an English town in Suffolk during World War II called While the Bombs Fell (co-authored with my mother, Elsie Hancy Eaton). All of my children’s book are written under Robbie Cheadle and are published by TSL Publications.
I have recently branched into adult horror and supernatural writing and, in order to clearly differential my children’s books from my adult writing, I plan to publish these books under Roberta Eaton Cheadle. I have two short stories in the horror/supernatural genre included in Dark Visions, a collection of 34 short stories by 27 different authors and edited by award winning author, Dan Alatorre. These short stories are published under Robbie Cheadle.
I have recently published a book of poetry called Open a new door, with fellow South African poet, Kim Blades.
Find Robbie Cheadle
Blog: https://bakeandwrite.co.za/
Blog: robbiesinspiration.wordpress.com
Goodreads: Robbie Cheadle – Goodreads
Twitter: BakeandWrite
Instagram: Robbie Cheadle – Instagram
Facebook: Sir Chocolate Books
Want to be sure not to miss any of Robbie’s Growing Bookworms segments? Subscribe to Writing to be Read for e-mail notifications whenever new content is posted or follow WtbR on WordPress.
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The Beginning: The benefits of reading to young children
Posted: January 9, 2019 Filed under: Children's Books, Growing Bookworms, Reading, Writing | Tags: Children's Books, Growing Bookworms, Reading, Robbie Cheadle, Silly Willy, Sir Chocolate 34 Comments
I have always read to my two sons. My reading to them started during my pregnancies. I read somewhere that reading to your unborn baby helps sooth the fetus and get him/her used to his/her parents voice. Any excuse to read was acceptable to me and I read the entire Jean Auel Earth Children series to Gregory during my second and third trimester.
Gregory was a difficult baby. He was born with a defect that resulted in him having eighteen operations between the ages of 1 and 6 years old. When he was crying and restless I used to read to him. It always helped him settle eventually and it calmed me too.
During my pregnancy with Michael I had a two year old toddler to read to. The unborn Michael was entertained by a series of books for small children like Rupert the Bear, Paddington and the Mr Men series.
Both my boys have grown up to be readers. It wasn’t as easy with Michael as he has an audio processing barrier which required some intervention but we have overcome that and he is now a prolific reader. Gregory was one of four boys selected to represent South Africa in the Kids Literature Quiz held in New Zealand in 2016.
My own experience in reading to my sons and to my nieces, nephews and any other children who are interested in being read to has illustrated to me the following benefits of reading to young children:
Bonding
Reading to your children helps you bond as mother or father and child. I have always had to work and it was wonderful to cuddle up to my boys after dinner every evening and read to them for an hour. It was a lovely time that we all looked forward to each and every day.
Develops concentration skills
Reading to your young child helps them to learn to concentrate for longer periods. I started off reading to Gregory for periods of about 15 minutes when he was fifteen months old and this gradually built up to an hour or more. I used to take Gregory with me to the doctor for my checkups during my second pregnancy and sometimes we had to wait for up to two hours to see the doctor. He would sit next to me quietly while I read to him and never gave me a moments trouble.
Develops discipline
Reading to your child encourages discipline as they learn to sit quietly and focus and listen. The receptionist at the doctor’s room used to comment on what a good boy Gregory was while we were waiting and how well disciplined he was. I believe that my training him to sit and listen to a story contributed greatly to his developing this important skill which plays an even greater role in his life now that he is in high school.
Encourages imagination and creativity
When you read to your child, they must use their own imagination to picture the characters and happenings in the story. It is not provided to them as with other forms of entertainment like television. You can help develop your child’s imagination and creativity by discussing the characters and setting with them and providing your thoughts on what they look like. You can also use mediums like lego to build the settings in the book you are reading and make the story more alive.
Develops language skills
The more your child hears different words and spoken language the more vocabulary and understanding of language they will gain. Reading a variety of different fiction and non-fiction books to your child will give them an extensive knowledge of words and concepts. Reading to your child also helps develop language fluency.
Develops empathy
Reading fiction to your child will assist them in learning how to react to different situations and expose them to different and more adverse circumstances than their own. It helps children learn empathy and understanding for those less fortunate than themselves.
In addition to the above benefits, reading is an essential skill to achieve success in most areas of study. If you can’t read and comprehend effectively, for example, you will struggle to answer a complex word problem in mathematics. Reading to your child and developing a love of reading goes a long way to achieving academic success.
About Robbie Cheadle
Hello, my name is Robbie, short for Roberta. I am an author with five published children’s picture books in the Sir Chocolate books series for children aged 2 to 9 years old (co-authored with my son, Michael Cheadle), one published middle grade book in the Silly Willy series and one published preteen/young adult fictionalised biography about my mother’s life as a young girl growing up in an English town in Suffolk during World War II called While the Bombs Fell (co-authored with my mother, Elsie Hancy Eaton). All of my children’s book are written under Robbie Cheadle and are published by TSL Publications.
I have recently branched into adult horror and supernatural writing and, in order to clearly differential my children’s books from my adult writing, I plan to publish these books under Roberta Eaton Cheadle. I have two short stories in the horror/supernatural genre included in Dark Visions, a collection of 34 short stories by 27 different authors and edited by award winning author, Dan Alatorre. These short stories are published under Robbie Cheadle.
I have recently published a book of poetry called Open a new door, with fellow South African poet, Kim Blades.
Find Robbie Cheadle
Blog: https://bakeandwrite.co.za/
Blog: robbiesinspiration.wordpress.com
Goodreads: Robbie Cheadle – Goodreads
Twitter: BakeandWrite
Instagram: Robbie Cheadle – Instagram
Facebook: Sir Chocolate Books
Want to be sure not to miss any of Robbie’s Growing Bookworms segments? Subscribe to Writing to be Read for e-mail notifications whenever new content is posted or follow WtbR on WordPress.
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Halloween: Scary, but Fun
Posted: October 31, 2018 Filed under: Dark Fantasy, Dystopian, Fiction, Gothic, Horror, Paranormal, Reading, Speculative Fiction, Stories, Thriller | Tags: Dead Man's PArty, Facebook event, Ghost Stories, Halloween, horror, marketing, Scary stories, Short Fiction Leave a comment
People love to be scared, especially within a safe environment. That’s why the horror genre will always be popular. Sitting around trying to scare one another by telling ghost stories or urban legends is a passtime enjoyed and induldged by young and old alike. It’s one of the reasons Hallowen is a favorite holiday for many, with haunted houses and ghost stories and a monster around every corner.
But telling ghost stories to pass the time on a stormy night isn’t any type of new passtime. In fact, two hundred years ago, on a damp and dreary night, Mary Shelly’s Frankenstien was created on just such an occassion, when a challenge was issued to see who could invent the best scary story. Today’s monsters may be digitally enhanced, but we still enjoy sharing their stories, searching for an inkling of fear or a rush of adrenaline to get our hearts pumping.
That’s why I hope you’ll all drop in and join in the fun at the Sonoran Dawn’s Dead Man’s Party today on Facebook, where myself and other authors will be reading scary stories, playing games and holding giveaways. Many of the authors from the Dark Visions anthology, which I reviewed this past month, including Writng to be Read team member Jordan Elizabeth, and AtA panel member, Dan Alatorre, who compiled and produced the anthology which climbed up the ratings for best horror anthology rapidly following its release. I gave the anthology five quills and it is well worth the read. I’m excited to be reading a few of their stories for them, as well as my own The Haunting of Carrol’s Woods, and can’t wait to hear the audio recordings of the other’s stories, too. I hope you will join us. It may be scary, but it will be fun.
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The Writing Process: You’ve Got a Story Idea, Now What?
Posted: October 1, 2018 Filed under: Ask the Authors, Books, Fiction, Interview, Nonfiction, Reading, Writing, Writing Inspiration, Writing Process, Writing Tips | Tags: Amy Cecil, Art Rosch, Ashley Fontainne, Ask the Authors, Cynthia Vespia, Dan Alatorre, DeAnna Knippling, Drafts, Inspiration, Jordan Elizabeth, Lilly Rayman, Margareth Stewart, Mark and Kym Todd, Mark Shaw, RA Winter, Reading, research, Tom Johnson, Writing Goals, Writing Process 8 CommentsAsk the Authors (Round 2)
This is the first segment of Ask the Authors (Round 2), and the topic of discussion is, as if you couldn’t guess from the title, the writing process. You can meet each of our panel members in my introductory post from last week. For those of you who didn’t catch the first round of Ask the Authors, here’s how this series works. Our panel members are published authors and they offer their answers to my questions on the topic each week. If one of their answers piques other questions for you, please leave your questions in the comments, and we will respond to them in the final segment, or sometimes indivual panel members may respond to you directly on the blog. (It has happened.) The point being that comments are welcomed and even encouraged.
The writing process. Hmmm. Let’s see. That could encompass a lot of different things, from inspiration and developing an idea into a story, to pre-writing activities, to plotting, to everything that comes right up to setting pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard. It can include rituals to get into the writing zone, or how we set atmosphere before we begin.
There is no right or wrong to this, and every author does things differently. There is no secret recipe or magic potion that garuntees a good book will result from your efforts. What works for some may not work for others. With that said, we have fourteen authors who have taken the time to answer some of our questions regarding the writing process and what works for them. Lets find out what they have to share.
Why do you write?
I’ve always had a calling for reading and telling stories. I briefly considered going into computer programming or psychology, but I really don’t have the patience for either.
To make readers stop and think about important issues.
Depends on who we’re writing to. We both write for love but also for money. For love, it’s when we have an idea in our heads that won’t shut up until we write it down. If we’re lucky that might fit something we decide to submit on spec. For money, it’s often service journalism and then the deadline determines when we write and when we’re done.
Like a lot of girls, I kept a journal/diary when younger, detailing my hopes, dreams, pain, and fears. I found writing poetry came naturally and helped me release pent-up emotions. The same is true today in my writing, which allows me the opportunity to share with an audience things I hold near and dear to my heart.
Mainly because I enjoy it. There are so many stories running through my head that writing gives me an outlet to share them.
Art Rosch
I have no choice. My mind is analogous to a cow’s udder. It fills every day with words and I have to milk it or I go insane. This insanity takes the form of depression, anxiety and the delusion that I am a nuclear submarine commander. So…as you may perceive, writing is imperative. I am forced to write or my brain will burst like an udder that has not been milked for weeks. I assure you, it’s very painful.
I write for the joy of telling stories. I’ve been creative my entire life and without using that creativity in some manner life just seems dull. Building worlds and developing characters that I bring to life on the page, that resonate with readers, that’s why I write.
I write because I have to. The stories keep pummeling me all day until I can finally sit down to get them all out.Tom Johnson
I blame that on my mother. She read fascinating fairy tales to me as a child, and they must have tickled a writing bone somewhere. If I’m not writing, I’m reading.
Dan Alatorre
Gratification.
For a long time, I wrote posts on Facebook that were like very short little vignettes, and they were pretty well received. People kept telling me I should write a book. Eventually I did, and without getting into too much detail, I learned this is something I can do – and do well. Not everyone can. Something like 80% of Americans want to write a book and never do. The ones who start, most of them don’t finish. The ones who finish, most of them don’t get it published. So I realized I was in a unique position to do something that most people would like to do and probably would never do, but also the people who read what I wrote found it really entertaining and they wrote me letters to tell me that – and that was very satisfying.
Once I did that for a while, I wanted to try different things to see if I was any good at them. So I wrote a time travel adventure story (The Navigators) and I wrote a romance (Poggibonsi) and a paranormal mystery (An Angel On Her Shoulder) and children’s books (The Zombunny series, Stinky Toe, Laguna the Lonely Mermaid)… I recently was invited to be part of a 20 book anthology with a bunch of New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors, so I had to write a murder mystery (Double Blind) for that. My critique partners say it’s my best work to date! So in the ensuing years from my first book to now, I learned a lot and my writing has improved, but it’s still about reaching out to one person and trying to entertain them. Connecting. And so I write because I feel like I have stories to tell and they’re worth telling, but it’s just a way to entertain and I like it.
Lilly Rayman
I write for mainly for the pure enjoyment that I get from putting together a story that my readers enjoy. I also write for my own pleasure and the stress release that I get from writing. As a fiction writer, I can escape from the reality of every day life and relax in the world and characters that I create.
My Muse
By Kaye Lynne Booth
My muse is always trying to inspire in every way.
She dances and sticks out her tongue, enticing me to play.
She knows just what inspires me
And she tries to make me see
A world that’s filled with beauty, everywhere I go.
Inspiration is all around, my muse does surely know.
On days when I am feeling down or am busy as can be
I don’t always take the time to see what she wants me to see.
By the time I’m ready to be inspired,
Of this game, she has grown tired.
She may be sulking in the corner, or in the other room
Seeking inspiration, she might be staring at the moon.
Listening to my muse is the wisest choice, I’ve learned.
She knows how to stir the inspiration, which within me burns.
The miracles of nature; a flower or a bird
Are brought to my attention, but she never says a word.
She shows me how the morning dew, on the grass does glisten
She fills my head with great ideas, if I will only listen.
Where does your inspiration come from? What can you tell us about your muse?
I was unsure of my muse for a long time. I’ve heard other writers talk about that, but in different terms. “I don’t know what to write.” “This story isn’t working and it doesn’t really feel like me.” That kind of thing. But I’ve taken the time to really sort through what connects me to a story, and it’s simpler than I thought it was: in order for the inspiration to flow, I have to find a way to care about the things going on in the story. I kept trying to force myself to write things that I didn’t really feel connected to, or that I didn’t have strong feelings about. I care about a lot of things, but somehow I was managing to find a million story ideas that I didn’t care about, and stories kept dying as my muse helpfully derailed my imagination in order to work on something–anything–that I did care about.
With The Reporter Who Knew Too Much about Dorothy Kilgallen and Denial of Justice, the follow-up book to be published In November, she was my muse, my inspiration, my guiding light leading me to details about her life and time and her mysterious death.
We both come from journalism backgrounds, so we learned a long time ago not to count on inspiration to carry us through. For our last project, which was a creative nonfiction book, the publisher gave us a one-year turn-around deadline for street release. (Our muse was more of a harpy in that instance, but we got it done on time.)
I draw most of my inspiration for a story from real events. All it takes is one little spark and the wildfire of words follows!
My husband. He is the perfect idea man. And his ideas take me outside of my comfort zone and allow me to venture into different genres.
Cynthia Vespia
I don’t use the term Muse. I get inspiration from ideas which are all around me. Snips of conversation, a quote, a name, those can all spark what we call a “plot bunny” that I either develop or it falls to the side.
Jordan Elizabeth
Most of my inspiration comes from dreams. I wake up in the morning, think back to the wild adventures of the night, and know what my next book is going to be about. I also draw inspiration from real life. Something will happen and I just stop to blink. Yes, that would be perfect for a novel.
Tom Johnson
Inspiration has come from many areas. Dreams come to mind. When I’m not dreaming about the military, I have some real doozies. Aliens, UFOs, and spaceships filtering into my dreams will give me many plots. TV is another inspiration. I’m sure all of us remember The Equalizer. One episode featured a young boy with AIDS living with his grandmother, and the local rednecks wanted them out. After harassing them, the boy calls Robert McCall, thinking he is his comic book hero. That episode sparked a three-novelette story arc. I wondered why the pulp magazines never had a hero that protected children. The Masked Avenger was born after that episode.
Dan Alatorre
My inspiration comes from all kinds of places. Hmm… that’s not really helpful, is it? They say that there are 20 good story ideas around us every day and a good author will see two or three of them. I think that’s right. I think if you are looking for things to inspire you, they will. But I also think there’s a lot of hard work that forces a person to sit down and write every day whether they feel like it or not, because atrophy is real and writers block is real for some people, and the more you let things affect you, the more they will affect you. If you instead say, “I’m just gonna muscle on through,” you learn a certain discipline that really helps you find more inspiration.
So my strength has always been prolific and being able to find what’s funny or unique in the normal situations that we are all extremely familiar with, so that my reader finds themselves suddenly turned on their head over things that they that are commonplace to them.
As far as a muse… Well, it’s like this. I believe several things make a story really powerful. Being able to bare your soul and put it on the page – that will allow your pain or love or passion or whatever, to connect with the reader. I actually think we even choose different types of words and different sentence structures when we are emotionally “in” the mood the scene needs. The word choice somehow seems to carry the spirit on the page and converts to the reader. You want to write to one person, so that he or she gets it; then everything else seems to fall in place. It’s a way of being disciplined and not trying to do as Vonnegut warned: don’t open the window to make love to the whole; you’ll only catch pneumonia.
I write to one person. That’s my muse.
Lilly Rayman
I often joke that if I knew where the ideas came from I would turn off the tap. In all seriousness though, I love that my mind is so active that my imagination can be sparked from any number of things. I shake my head that my two little girls (3 and 5) enjoy watching a particular movie again and again, and then suddenly I’m hanging out the washing and a whole new story idea drops into my head based on a retelling of a Disney classic. Sometimes my muse can be my fellow authors, they approach me with a story idea that would be fun to explore for an anthology and then I find myself with the story half written in my head before I can blink. I then have to find the time to sit down and write. My readers themselves can be my muses. They ask me questions about the characters that I write about, “what would they do if…”; “What would happen….” And then I find myself exploring those ideas further and my stories evolve, and my series grows with bonus content.
Research is a part of the pre-writing activities for most authors, whether it is historical research for setting or time period, traveling to location in order to write about it, or people watching to observe behavior. It can be reading all the works of a given author in order to immulate their writing style, immersing oneself in a culture or subculture or digging deep to uncover the facts for a nonfiction work.
What kinds of writing do you do and what types of research are required?
I mainly write fiction. Most of my research is reading a book on some subject before I start the story, or even as I’m writing the story. I used to be really intimidated by having to do research, but I decided to make a habit of reading more nonfiction that I found interesting, just completely outside of the need to research something for a story. I used to rarely get around to nonfiction, despite having good intentions to do so. Now nonfiction books are in my regular rotation. Somehow this has made me more comfortable with research in general.
Even for fiction, we generally situate our stories in realistic locations and try to maintain enough verisimilitude in our world-building so reader’s don’t shatter their willing suspension of disbelief. That means we spend time researching and fact-checking the plausibility of our scenarios. Our novel All Plucked Up quickly developed into a story that needed a protagonist who was an antiquities black market con artist, which we knew nothing about. But we soon became knowledgeable about this (appalling yet fascinating) racket.
How much, if any, research I conduct depends upon the story. For example, I did extensive research for my post-apocalyptic series yet nary a search for other books.
The genres that I mainly write in are historical, contemporary and erotic romance. I’ve dabbled in fantasy and want to do more of it. Depending on the story, my research is extensive. I read a lot about the topic, watch movies and documentaries that pertain to that particular subject matter.
Art Rosch
Every writer should be…no..MUST be…a psychologist. I don’t mean a shrink or doctor, I mean a keen observer of human nature. When sci fi writer Philip K. Dick was asked what he wrote about he had a concise response. “I write about two subjects,” he said. “I write about what is real, and I write about what is human.” That pithy reply has guided me since I first read it many years ago. Whatever the genre, whether I’m writing fantasy, science fiction or literary fiction, I’m always writing about people. I write about their behavior and their motivations. I write about the secrets they keep and the fears that dominate their lives.
My research begins with myself. My own behavior has been like a laboratory experiment. The genres of fantasy and science fiction draw me repeatedly to the creation of new worlds and the testing of new concepts. I’ve been using myself as a research subject since I began to behave in ways that I perceived as abnormal. I didn’t think that taking LSD at age sixteen was abnormal. I thought it was a reasonable response to a world gone mad. I grew up in the aftershocks of World War Two. I grew up viewing images of concentration camps, charnel houses and smudges that were once people before they were vaporized by atomic bombs. I didn’t think I was crazy to take risks with my fragile mind using powerful drugs.
I only began to think I was crazy when I started to eat vast quantities of food when I wasn’t hungry. I was suffering from bulimia. In the late sixties this wasn’t in the vocabulary of psychiatric afflictions. There was no awareness of eating disorders. I had a monstrous eating disorder that lasted several years and still hangs on with vestigial persistence. I knew that something was wrong with me. I looked for help, but couldn’t find help that didn’t resemble control and imprisonment. I read Freud, Jung, James Hillman, Alice Miller and Heinz Kohut. I read obscure occultists and classic Buddhist literature. I read everything on the subject of Consciousness. It seemed like the most important subject to study.
I also did more conventional research. When I was creating the world of my fantasy novel, The Shadow Storm, I read about The Balkans, Albania, Russian history and the civil wars in Yugoslavia. By this time I had the Internet, a vast magic trove of information. Got a question? Ask the internet, the ultimate research tool.
Cynthia Vespia
I write mostly urban and high fantasy, but I have different genres cross through the threads of each novel…it just happens that way, I don’t plan it. Any research I do would be based on a specific story. For instance, alot of the work I’ve been doing lately revolves around advanced weaponry so I’ve been researching alot of sci-fi and fantasy movies, books, and TV shows to see what others have come up with for example. Also, you’d be surprised what’s already in R&D in the real world!
Jordan Elizabeth
Most of my writing involves a fantasy setting, so I don’t tend to do research when working on one of those manuscripts. I do write some historical fiction, and I’m obsessed with research then. I don’t want anything to be inaccurate (if I can help it). When I’m done with a piece of historical fiction, I try to find people who are into that time period to read it for anything that seems off.
Tom Johnson
As a pulp magazine collector I have read all the hero pulps. While writing for ALTUS PRESS, the publisher asked me to collect all my research into half a dozen books. They became some of my best selling books. I also wrote Intros and Forwards for ALTUS PRESS books, plus I wrote fiction stories for the publisher while doing my research into the pulp magazines. Remember, my wife and I had published a pulp hobby magazine for the 22 years, so I had plenty of data on hand.
Dan Alatorre
I write everything, and I research as much as is required for the book I’m writing, but a lot of that research has kind of been going on my whole life. For example, figuring out how to tell a joke to a group of friends, they’re your friends, so they kind of know your sense of humor – and you know what makes them laugh. Writing a scene so that a joke turns out funny to a reader who has never met you and doesn’t know your sense of humor, and you don’t know theirs – that requires a lot more in the product development phase of the writing!
When you write a detective story, you have to research what kind of guns detectives carry, and how they check their clip to see how many bullets they have before they kick in a drug dealer’s door, that kind of thing. But, while that is important, that’s not as important as caring about the characters. And that’s what I say is the lifelong study thing. Why did you care what happened to Harry Potter? Why did people care that Oliver’s heart was breaking at the end of Love Story? Why was it tragic that Leonardo DiCaprio drowned at the end of Titanic? You had to care about those characters or nothing else mattered. So part of that is your lifelong experience, what you care about and how you convey that to someone you’ve never met. How do you do that? Practice. You bare your soul, and you put it on the page, and you put it out there with the full expectation that everyone in the world might laugh at you – but you summon the courage to do it anyway. Some of the best stories in the world never make it out of the desk drawer. Writers swallow hard and show that intensely personal piece of themselves again and again and again, until the next thing you know, people are telling you that something you wrote changed their life. Which is freaking awesome.
Lilly Rayman
I write paranormal romance and historical romance. I’ve also touched on other genres by working with others in anthologies. My Unexpected series involves vampires, wolves and faeries. My research for this series included looking into the history of Rome and setting the “birth” of my wolf nation within the whole myth of Romulus and Remus, the twins suckled by the she-wolf Lupa, who later went on to be the founders of Rome. My vampires are set within ancient Egypt and their many gods. I like to bring in an element of ‘this could totally be true!’
My research also falls into the mundane of simply seeing what trees and other fauna are indigenous to the area my story is set.
Which writing groups do you belong to? What are their benefits to you?
I belong to Pikes Peak Writers, which is the writing group that I “came up” in. They took me out of being a baby writer into a writer, if that makes sense. I got to meet my first ‘Real Writers’ and listen to them talk about what they did and how, and just to grasp that they were people and not mythological figures. I gained a lot of basic knowledge there and always end up meeting new people at their events.
I belong to groups on Facebook and in the past (as in before my current day job), I was into CritiqueCircle.com. I enjoy connecting with other authors and sharing experiences. I’ve learned marketing methods I never would have considered.
I joined Scribophile.com a few years ago while looking for feedback on a novel. I browsed other sites but Scrib blew me away. Over time, I’ve gained friends, colleagues, and collaborators. Scrib has a sense of community where authors connect with like-minded individuals with one goal in mind- the best product an author can produce. The forums provide a vast amount of knowledge, resources, and experienced authors’ input.Tom Johnson
My wife and I started a writer’s group in town, most of the members were retired teachers, and the majority wanted to write poetry. I could handle that, no problem. What I didn’t like was the attitude of the members. The writing group was something they came to if there was nothing else going on. We tried to make them understand that writers needed to be dedicated to the craft, but so many meetings consisted of just my wife and me. We finally quit and turned the group over to another member, but it didn’t last long. Unfortunately, where I live doesn’t have good pickings. Let’s face it a turtle crossing the yard is more interesting than the writer’s club.
Dan Alatorre
This is gonna sound bad, but I don’t belong to any writing groups. I used to belong to an online critique group, and I learned a lot there and met some good writers there, so I asked those people to work with me and left the group. I kind of outgrew the group, and I really felt like I was doing a lot of teaching and not a lot of learning after a while. But that may just be arrogance on my part.
Since then, some very impressive bestselling authors have come to me to critique their stories, and they critique mine, and we kind of have our own little group. I would say there are three or four people who, if they read and like my story, everybody in the world is going to read and like my story. If you can belong to a writing group and draw some benefit from that, terrific. That works for you. That didn’t really work for me after a brief period (although you could say in a sense I just created my own writing group) and the biggest difference is, we in my group know all the basic stuff, so we don’t waste time teaching each other the rookie stuff to avoid or fix. We are pushing each other to keep going to the next level. We’re not worried about hurting feelings or anything, we are worried about trying to write great stories.
There are benefits to being in a writing group, though, and the biggest one is this: by pointing out how other people need to improve their stories, you will develop a sharp eye to help you make yours to be better. For that reason alone, it’s worth it to join a writing group. Online or in person, you’ll figure out what the garbagey comments are, and you’ll learn to dismiss those, and you learn to seek out the people who aren’t just giving you undue praise but who are actually trying to help you become a better writer.
Lilly Rayman
I am a follower of Booksgosocial and try to remain an active participant within their regular blog tours and newsletter content sharing programs. I am also actively involved with a newly established Hybrid Publishing company and enjoy the interaction that comes from discussing not only our craft, but elements of our every day life. I’ve found myself with a support network of people happy to share my posts and retweet me on social media. They also share in my celebrations and support me in my endeavours.
Do you belong to any writing forums? Tell us what their value is.
I don’t use ’em. I just lurk in FB groups. Writing forums seem like an invitation for “experts” to harass other writers in order to feel good about not getting any actual writing done. I may just be bitter after a couple of bad experiences with online writing forums. But that was a long time ago, and people may have learned from mistakes in order to build something better by now. At one time I was a member of a few online groups yet found the entire “online” community too impersonal.A professor of mine once said, “You should read at least 100 books a year to get a good idea for your genre.” Author and Freelance Writer De Anna Knippling claims to like to read at least 100 books in any genre before trying to emulate it in her own writing.
How much do you read? What do you like to read?
Hey, that’s me! I’m shooting for 200 books this year. I’m already pretty close, but some of those are graphic novels and manga. I’m strongly of the opinion that if you don’t like to read, you’re going to have disadvantages as a writer. You won’t know how stuff gets done with the written word, you won’t know what expectations you’re meeting or missing in a genre, and you won’t know what kind of writing you really, truly love. That doesn’t leave you with a big toolbox for writing different types of stories. You can really end up writing yourself in a rut, especially in series, if you’re not packing in a variety of stories.
During the past year or so, my reading has been restricted due to completing three books. When I am able to read, mysteries are a favorite genre.
We’re both avid readers, and always have a couple books going on the side at the same time. Fortunately, our pleasure reading usually coincide with our genre-writing habits, so we treat that as market research and a way to keep a handle on what’s trending. A hundred books? No way, but we do each read about a book a week. Mark likes hard(-science) SF, and Kym likes adventures, and we both love mysteries and noir (which we don’t write). As a wife, mother, employee, and writer, my free time is nonexistent, yet when I snatch a few minutes here and there, I read from many genres except erotica.
Oh, I easily read 100+ books a year. But I can’t read when I am in writing mode. It just doesn’t work for me.
Art Rosch
I would write a hundred books a year if I could, but it seems more like it takes a hundred years to write a book. My revisions are so extensive that some passages are written a hundred times. I’m serious! Read the first chapter of my Confessions Of An Honest Man. That passage was revised so many times that I couldn’t possibly speculate on a number of iterations. Yet…and here I become utterly shorn of modesty…I got where I needed to go. It’s beautiful! It does what must be done for the first chapter of a novel. It evokes a sense of danger, reveals characters, excites curiosity, elicits a bit of laughter and swings open a gate on the narrative that is to come.
Lately, I’ve been fascinated by crime novels. I think that Patricia Cornwell is one of the most brilliant writers I’ve yet encountered. I’m in the unfortunate situation of having read all of her novels in a short period of time. I’ve run out of Cornwell! So, now I read Robert Crais. He’s very good. I love James Lee Burke. I’ve read all of his books, too, and he’s so old that I’m not sure how many books he has left in his gorgeous literary soul. The element that all three writers have in common is their emotional honesty. Their soulful-ness. They write with passionate intensity and their prose contains bits of profound wisdom. They are writing about the human condition by utilizing themselves as models, probing their own condition. They are, after all, human beings. I think….
The writer who has had the most influence on my work is fantasy writer Jack Vance. No other writer captivates me in quite the same way. Every five years I re-read the work of Jack Vance. I never grow tired of it. I remember reading his classic “The Dying Earth” when I was ten years old. I was reading in the family car as we drove from St. Louis to Mexico. It was an ambitious family vacation. I spent most of it reading science fiction and fantasy. Mexico, itself, proved sufficiently weird that I looked up from my books from time to time, absorbed the ambience, then returned to Vance, Heinlein, Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov. In more recent years I’ve read and re-read David Foster Wallace. There is so much pain in his dense, highly intelligent fiction that it may as well be an extended suicide note. Losing DFW was tragic. As was losing Robin Williams and Anthony Bourdain. Depression has no respect for success, wealth, fame or achievement. It strikes wherever it wants to strike.
Cynthia Vespia
I don’t read as often as I should but I’m trying to rectify that. When I do read I stick with fantasy, self-help, or biography.
Jordan Elizabeth
I used to read a book a day, but with my current day job, its more like a book a week. I’m obsessed with young adult novels, any genre, and I’ll gobble up historical fiction in any form. Recently I’ve been into religious historical fiction. There’s something about the sweet, romantic plots that make the books the perfect end to a busy day.
Tom Johnson
I usually read a couple books a week, although books are constantly getting longer every year. The 120-page novels I grew up with are now four-and-five hundred page monsters. Every time I get one of those monsters I pray that the author writes so smooth the book will read like a two hundred page novel. Age has one advantage, and it’s this: I’ve been reading for 65 years or more, and I’ve always read genres I wanted to write.
Dan Alatorre
Pfft. That’s crap. Stories are about connecting with characters and going on a journey. If I had to read 100 books a year – two a week – I’d never have time to write anything.
I read a lot only because I do a ton of critique work for other authors, but I’d be happy not reading at all. I pick up on insights very quickly, and TV shows and movies are just as good at giving us the keys to amazing storytelling. The answers aren’t only in books. I don’t need to see something dozens of times to get it, but that doesn’t mean I don’t study the heck out of something when it connects with me, regardless of the method in which I received it. People say reading a 5000 word chapter of mine is like reading 3000 from someone else. That’s pace. That comes from seeing Steven Spielberg cram 400 pages into 2 hours. I can’t often get that in books.
But!
I work with people who read a ton, so it’s a little like cheating off the smart kid at school. They gain those insights and hold my work to that standard. I bring other stuff to the table. The collaboration works.
What do I like to read?
My critique partner says I read stuff to learn how to be a better writer. Not “How To” books, but other writers: King, George R R Martin, Rowling, Portergirl. I study the masters in storytelling, on Tv and books and movies.
But what do I LIKE to read? Hmm. I’ll go with Green Eggs and Ham. Everything you need to know about storytelling is there. Pace. Lack of back story. No rambling prologue, just jumps into the story. It has great conflict and plot… and it shows how to wrap it up as fast as possible after the climax. If you can’t say it in 32 pages, you need to rethink your story (said the guy who writes 90k consistently).
Lilly Rayman
I’m not sure how many books I read, honestly. I do read as much as I write though. And I enjoy immersing myself in someone else’s craft, especially well constructed craft.
What goals do you set for yourself in your writing?
Ugh, I used to set myself daily personal wordcounts, which was lovely. But I’ve gotten so far behind in getting stories submitted or published on the indie side that I’ve had to cut back on that a lot. I’m at 500 words a day now for my own writing, which feels like a snail’s pace. I write a lot more than that for my ghostwriting clients, but I don’t track that right now.
My #1 goal is write 60k words in a month and I track it daily. I know how many words to write in a day and make sure that I keep myself on track. If I don’t discipline myself in this way, I’d never get anything written.
At the moment I have a specific time frame in mind for when I want to finish the sequel to my superhero novel Karma. My other goals probably reflect any other author. I want to be able to write full time, land a publisher, and agent, a simple dream of mine is to get published in the traditional paperback that you see on most bookshelves. But I guess my main goal is to just finish writing all the ideas I currently have waiting for me in my notebook.
My goal is to finish the book and have people enjoy reading it. I get a bit twitchy if a book takes longer than usual to finish just because of things going on in my life. I don’t want to set the book aside and suddenly lose my place in that world.Tom Johnson
To write a thousand words a day. I usually end up writing two thousand words a setting.
Dan Alatorre
Keep the reader from falling asleep!
Really, I just want to connect with my reader. I want them to realize that all of a sudden they are completely immersed in a world that I created and they care about these characters so much that when the character laughs, the reader laughs. When the character cries, the reader cries. And I have a goal of getting you really involved and then BOOM it turns out that what you thought all along was wrong. I give you a plot twist, and all of a sudden you’ve been pulling for the bad guy. I have a goal of always giving you and ending that has you sitting there saying, “Holy cow!” in complete satisfaction. That’s my goal. That, and a yacht in the Caribbean.
Lilly Rayman
To write something that is entertaining as well as thought provoking. I also try and improve my writing each time I write. I take note of faults that reoccur in my manuscripts from my editors, and then do my best to avoid them when I write again, or at least to take note of them and be able to self-edit as I write.
Ultimately though, my main goal is to provide a story that the read can sink into, feel like they are a part of the story and can relate with each and every one of my characters, whether that be to love them or hate them. I want to evoke the reader’s sense of smell, sight and touch as they read.
What is your favorite setting to write in?
At first I thought you meant what historical era!!!
A corner of our dining room.
The world falls away when we become immersed in the writing zone, so ambience is irrelevant. Long ago, we started writing on our bed (in a small, cramped house) away from the kids when they were smaller. That’s pretty much stuck even now the house is larger and the kids gone.
My computer room is downstairs which offers a lot of privacy. At night when everyone is asleep and my kitty is curled up purring next to my keyboard is the That’s a tough one. I really don’t have a favorite setting. But I fully immerse myself into whatever setting I am writing in.
Anywhere quiet. I used to need to be alone in my room, with the door shut, and everything silent. Now my house is filled with my husband watching TV, my toddler running amok, and my cat begging for food. I’m satisfied with whatever time I get to write.Tom Johnson
My bedroom, with the door closed, and no sounds from outside sources.
Dan Alatorre
I have the most awesome writing office. I have rich mahogany furniture and dark green walls and a chandelier; book cases lined with the classics and a window that looks out onto a lush green yard filled with massive oak trees. One door opens into my daughter’s play area. It’s the best.
Lilly Rayman
I actually do the majority of my writing at my local library. The library manager jokes that she is lucky to have a writer in residence. There is something inspirational about being surrounded by so many literary works, and it certainly makes research easier, I just jump up and grab the required book from the shelf.
Atmosphere is important. What do you do to get into the writing zone?
I disagree; atmosphere stopped being important to me after a certain number of deadlines forced me to write (and EDIT) when I didn’t want to. (Trying to get into the editing zone on my own writing is harder than writing, in my opinion.) But because I don’t always write in the same place or I have to write when I’m in a bad mood, I’ll have specific music to remind me of what world I’m writing in and what I like about it. It’s funny, because sometimes my brain will play that music for me when I’m supposed to be writing and I’m putting it off, or when I’m brainstorming.
Focus on the task at hand blocking out all the noise of the world.
I make sure I have coffee, my computer and either music playing or the TV on. I can’t write without some type of noise in the background. And most importantly I stay away from social media.
Margareth Stewart
This is as important as the writing process in itself. I have to get my coffee or tea ready, make sure I also have my mobile next to me and a bottle of water. Besides all that, I usually need the living room to be clear either with sunshine or artificial light, plus a comfortable pillow at my back. I sometimes have some background classical music – only classical music with no words or lyrics as for me they interfere with the voices within the narrative. Under the table, I keep a kid´s chair that I use to elevate my legs, otherwise they go dormant. The word font must be 12 and never enlarged, or I lose track of the text. Then, I write two or three pages and I stand up for coffee or toilet every fifteen or twenty minutes. And, that may go on for two or three hours, and even more if possible. There are weekends that I take a whole Saturday or Sunday to write, and that rhythm is kept for eight hours at least. Once when I was talking to a friend who is painter, she summarized it all: “It takes more time in the get-in-the-mood-get-ready process than it takes to actually paint or write”. I felt that was so true for me-and once we are there into a scene, into the book: nothing else matters. For instance, I am usually late to pick up my kids, and the fault is all due to my characters; they love to start acting when I really must go (lol).
Tom Johnson
I’m usually in the mood to write. I don’t watch TV any more, and I only listen to music at night before going to bed. So if the mood hits me I close myself off from everything else and write.
Dan Alatorre
Treadmill. Nothing gives me ideas to write faster than when I have to run a mile on my treadmill. It’s magic.
Other than that, I get up early, like 4:30, and write when it’s quiet. I’m always in the writing zone. I can dash off insightful pieces on a whim, and I’ve done so. But like training for a marathon, that came from practicing and building up to it – and from having the confidence to know when a piece is finished and ready to be seen.
Some authors outline, others use a screenwriting tool called a whiteboard, where you place all your plot points on the board and then maneuver them until you have them in an order that works for the story. Some authors use the same concept with notecards, and others use a graph to plot out their story.
What planning tools do you use to prepare before actual writing begins?
Depends on whether I’m writing for a client or for myself. If a client’s involved, I’ll usually have an outline I’m supposed to be following, although it doesn’t always work out that way. (I try to deliver the same emotional content, but mysteries often balance on such delicate clues that the order stuff gets put into the book can vary greatly, especially in the last third or so.) For myself, it depends. I’ll often test an idea by plugging it into a short outline, then ditch the outline before I start writing. On short stories, sometimes I’ll have a certain short story in mind before I start writing, so I can explore a certain plot technique, but I haven’t been able to do that with novels yet.
I don’t use any sort of tools. I let the story flow organically. This works for me yet does have a few pitfalls. Sometimes I have to re-read through sections to recall the eye/hair color of a character, or the sex of an animal. In one of my older books, I inadvertently changed the sex from male to female in the main character’s cat, and hawk-eyed readers caught my mistake!
I use a storyboard. Similar to the whiteboard, but it’s just handwritten on a form that I created with boxes that signify each chapter in the story. My story doesn’t always stay on target as sometimes it has a mind of its own, but it definitely gives me a starting point.
Art Rosch
I’m lazy. I don’t use outlines, story boards, notes, prompts, post-its, diminutive butlers or portable tape players. I just write. I have a goal, a broad concept of what I hope to achieve and I simply begin to write. I start off rusty, clumsy, impaired. I write at my desk, where my computer sits and a stack of USB drives snake their cables under my feet. Some day my mummified cadaver may be found, strangled by USB cables, swathed in black and gray wires running out the window and across the carpet. My fictional detective, Dizzy Tilton, will solve the mystery of my demise with his sidekick, Haakon Wyre. “His fiction killed him”, they will declare. “We must arrest his fiction and put it on trial. No doubt a clever lawyer will find a loophole and get his fiction off the hook for murder, or cop a plea for the lesser crime of Authorcide. We can’t bring him back. Let his genius speak from beyond the grave!”
I write from scene to scene. So long as I know what the next scene is to be, I can move the plot forward, I can develop my characters. My books take decades to write. I’m now seventy and my most recent book has already taken ninety years to write. I hope to finish it before my next incarnation.
I don’t like over planning because it kills the spontaneity for me and then I don’t enjoy writing the story. I want to be surprised like the reader will be. So the most I plan will be major plot points and then a heap of descriptive elements for the character including backstory. These things I’ve laid out on note cards or even just a sheet of paper. For characters I’ll often find a picture of an actor I could see playing them in the film/TV version and I save it for inspiration.
I’m horrible at planning. I start off with a general idea of the plot and just go for it. Characters evolve as I write. The setting takes shape before me. The only time I write down notes is if I want to remember an obscure character.Tom Johnson
I don’t outline. Once I have my plot I create my characters, and I know what the beginning and ending is before I start writing. I am in control, and my characters become chess pieces that I move about the board. They move on my command, not theirs. I always have the end in sight and move the pieces accordingly. When writing continuing characters, however, I have file cards with descriptions. I’ve seen too many blondes become redheads by mistake, or men five foot nine become six foot two from one book to the next.
Dan Alatorre
Wow, all that stuff sounds like a lot of work. I’m don’t use any special tools; they aren’t necessary. What I do to come up with a story is I definitely, definitely, definitely create an outline. Too many writers think an outline stifles their creativity. It’s just the opposite. An outline channels your energy so you stay on track and don’t wander all over the place and you end up where you’re supposed to end up.
Now, just because you say we’re going to go from here to there, that doesn’t mean that’s the only places you go, and it doesn’t mean that’s where you have to end up. But having AN ending doesn’t mean it has to be THE ending. It’s just when you start, that’s the direction. Halfway through, if you decide you have a better ending in mind, change it and use the better ending! But if you don’t have that moment of brilliance, you’re at least going to end up in a good place. Too much “writers block” – a condition that doesn’t usually exist – comes from not having a destination you were writing towards. By having an outline, every day you have a series of writing prompts.
My process is, I’ll get a story idea and I’ll dash off a few lines about it. Three or four things that give you the essence of what the story is about. Then I throw it in a file, and as I am doing things throughout the day/days, I’ll keep getting good ideas about the story. Like maybe in a murder mystery, the guy who’s running for mayor, his opponent committed the murder. Or it’s his campaign manager, and the campaign manager wants it to look like the opponent did it. Something like that. So I’ll just list all these ideas down, one after the other, and I just kind of collect them for a while. They don’t come in any particular order; I’ll get a great idea for an ending, and then I’ll get a great idea for a beginning.
Right now I have the great idea for a political murder mystery called Primary Target. It starts out with an assassination attempt. So that’s how that’s chapter 1, but that’s all I know about chapter 1. Chapter 2 will probably be with the detectives who get called to check out the assassination attempt. But I know I’ll want three or four other things to happen in the story (subplots) so I’ll think about those and eventually write them down, but for now that’s my outline, those handful of bullet points.
Here’s what people don’t understand about outlines. Here’s the outline for Romeo and Juliet:
- Boy and girl want to get together
- their parents don’t want them to get together
- the boy and girl get together anyway
- everybody dies
That’s it. Those four points are an outline. Nothing stifling there. You know what’s going to happen and you know how it’s going to end. Go ahead and start writing.
My process starts out with about four points, and then I’ll realize I have 10 good ideas that can go on in that first major point. So I’ll flesh those out, and as I do, my outline evolves. Sometimes I look at one of minor points and say, “No, that doesn’t work anymore” and it comes out. My outline gives me total creative freedom, but I’m guiding and funneling my energy. That’s why everybody should outline.
I read lots of stories every year from lots of new authors. Usually, he ones where they didn’t outline end up wandering around and getting BORING because they lose their way. You don’t want that.
Use an outline, keep your chapters short, keep your characters interesting, and keep the dialogue witty. But using an outline is probably one of the most important things you can do for yourself.
Lilly Rayman
I’m a bit of a pantser – I write from the seat of my pants – I don’t always plot, unless I have a tight word count and need to plot how my story runs. Sometimes I simply write a short synopsis of my story plot, something I can refer back to, especially when I have several different works in progress at once. Surprisingly though, I haven’t found any of them overlapping.
Some writers can take an idea and run with it, while others need to have a good portion of the story worked out before writing can begin.
How much of the story do you know before the actual writing begins?
Nearly all of it, the beginning, middle and end and how I want to touch the emotions of readers, the single, most important aspect of any writing.
We verbally explore for a week or two if we think we have enough story to make a novel. Then we write a five-page outline to see if the idea leads where we think it’s going. After that, we outline no more than a chapter or two before we start fleshing it out. Doing any more is, for us, a waste of time since the actual writing often changes where we thought we were going.
I know the general idea. For example, with GOAT CHILDREN, I knew that I wanted to write about a girl taking care of her grandmother with dementia. The first chapter would be about the girl discovering her grandmother’s diagnosis. I started writing and suddenly, I was on the last page.Ashley Fontainne
Once the idea hits me, the story unfolds so fast inside my head it is like watching a movie, so I just close my eyes and type what I see inside my mind.
Amy Cecil
As long as I know how it’s gonna begin and how I want it to end, I usually can run with it.
Tom Johnson
I take the idea and run with it.
Dan Alatorre
Uh… both. I take an idea and run with it, yes, but I usually also bring in some ideas I’ve been kicking around.
For Double Blind, my new murder mystery, I knew it was going to be a murder mystery – which is new ground for me – but I wanted some nice twists. So the murder mystery idea was new. Then I said okay, I’m gonna have readers think THIS – and then pull the rug out from under them later, so I had to plan how to give certain pieces of information without tipping my hand. I’m pretty good at that, but since I’d done it before, I kind knew how to do that, so that was an existing thing for me. Then I also had the idea of having a man and woman working together who had lots of rapport like two good friends, but who were not romantically involved. I’ve been kicking that around for a while, so when the murder mystery came up I had the detectors be a man and a woman who were good friends.
So on one hand, the murder mystery was a short idea that I ran with; on the other hand, I brought in these characters that I have been working on for a while. The whole first draft of 92,000 words took about six weeks to write. I spent probably another three or four weeks refining it with input from critique partners. It’s an amazing story, and it’s available as part of that 20+ book anthology called Death and Damages, with all the New York Times bestselling authors.
For The Navigators, another simple premise: some people discover a time machine. From there, I wanted to have as much conflict as possible and not do a conventional time travel story. So there’s lots of intrigue and action, because the fun part of the time travel story is actually going back in time. But the other fun part of storytelling is having lots of conflicts happen that get in the way of the characters’ goals, and each of the characters in The Navigators had different goals, and a different story arc, so it was really nice combination.
Lilly Rayman
I need a character and the idea and then I simply run with it. I’ll mull the idea over in my mind throughout the day, either whilst washing dishes, or milking the cow, and then I find the words dropping into my mind. I then can’t wait to find the time to sit down at the computer and get those words out. On the rare occasions that I take a couple of days until I can stop and write, then those scenes simmer away in the back of my mind until they are so well developed that my fingers fly over the keys as soon as I have my manuscript open.
How many drafts do you make before considering a manuscript ready for publication? What are the differences as you write each one?
One draft and one cleanup pass to address issues and infelicitous wording, unless there’s something off about my assumptions about the story. Then it can become a real train wreck. With ghostwritten books, you generally have to write pretty cleanly the first time or the client will lose patience.
With most of my books, there have been at least 200 drafts or more. Each time the story is enriched in some manner. Usually three or four drafts: We write a scene in one sitting, and then revise it before we go on to the next scene (on the next day). A read-through when we put it all together, fixing typos. A revision after beta readers have at it. And then another draft if a publisher wants something added or changed. By then, we can’t see typos or missing words anymore, so we feel useless with galleys, and let the publisher’s copyediting eyes give it the final go.
Just one. Once I am done writing, I send it to my BETA readers. I make their suggested changes to the storyline and plot. They also help with continuity and then it goes off to my editor.
So, here’s how I do it and it might seem a little weird. But, I write the first draft long hand on a legal pad…it’s just easier that way, it always has been because to me it doesn’t feel as permanent. I’m not distracted by Word telling me something is misspelled, etc. Once I have a first draft, then I’ll go in and put it in the computer. At the same time I’ll be doing edits on what is essentially a second draft. But I couldn’t give you a definitive answer on when it will be ready for publication…its ready when its ready. I write it all, then I read back through, editing as I go. I show it to my critique partners, edit based on their comments, and then off it goes to my agent or publisher.Tom Johnson
Hmm. I write the first draft, then I go over it line by line. Then I turn it over to my wife who runs a grammar check and looks for words I may have wrong. I might go over it again after my wife is through. We try to make all necessary corrections before we submit the manuscript to a publisher. But I’m not using publishers any more. We are doing our own publishing, and we are the editors. I can use verbs, if I want. We do make mistakes. On one of my recent short novels we did all the above, and I ordered 25 paperback copies for book signings. By mistake I uploaded a first draft for the paperback printing! Money wasted. We heard from a reader that there were several typos. I checked and found the first draft was used instead of the final edited version. It was a costly mistake. I’ve been trying to give the paperbacks away, with a note about the typos. I can’t sell the darn things!
Dan Alaltorre
Ha! None. I usually think my manuscript is ready for publication after the first draft – even with the typos and things in there. I always think what I’ve written is awesome. The differences I make between the drafts? I try to find the typos.
Lilly Rayman
I’m a perfectionist as I write to begin with, so even my first raw draft tends to be fairly free from errors. I see those red or blue squiggly lines and I fix them up. That said, I still like to at least have three read throughs of my work, saving each one as a separate draft at the start. The first read through might catch wrong words, and maybe tweak synonyms to get the best feel for the scene. I might remove sections or add more. I then like to do a typo and grammar check. Then a final proof read before it goes off for editing.
What’s the hardest part of the story for you to write: beginning, middle or end?
The wrap-up after the climax. UGH. Suddenly I have to remember the entire story and every plot point I ever mentioned and wrap that all up in some kind of interesting fashion. I sometimes wish I could just write a checklist:
The first sentence is the hardest. Luckily, I have not encountered a hard part yet. I’m sure I will some day, but for now, once I have the beginning and end worked out, I usually have no problem getting from point A to point B.
Art Rosch
The hardest part for me is just to begin. To sit, put my hands on the keyboard, and write a few pages. Once the cobwebs clear I can write quickly and the story develops as if I am a psychic medium, a channel. I get dictation from an entity called WaldWen. He writes most of my fantasy material. The number of drafts is endless. A manuscript is never finished. I merely succumb to exhaustion. “Good enough,” I think. “It will do. Or…..maybe another revision…no…leave it alone….the manuscript has peaked….but…but Chapter Two Thirty has a clunky feel to it….no..forget it. No one reads your stuff anyway.”
Let me be honest. Sometimes it seems as if someone is dictating chapters to me. Seems. It’s actually just me and my compulsion to write. It feels as if I’m channeling something mysterious and when I read back my material I wonder, “How the hell did I do that? Where did it come from?”
The answer is quite ordinary. It came from years of reading, researching, experiencing, filtering, transforming, warping, skewing, observing and participating in the activities of human beings. I find these activities sometimes incomprehensible. I view myself as if I am an alien from another world and this life is a fiction, a script that was crafted as a method of instruction. My life is a work of fiction designed to teach me about consciousness and the intelligent control of matter. Who fashioned this script? A guide, a spirit, a Being, a WaldWen? An Arthur Rosch. A man who writes with a modicum of coherence and has thus far been able to avoid imprisonment for my strange behavior. I sure as hell haven’t sold many books, but some day I will. Some day.
Seems like I always get stuck in the middle. I lose momentum, start to doubt myself, or I have written myself into a corner. In that instance its good to do some rereading and figure out how to jump back in. The end is always the hardest for me. There’s so much more I want to write, but I know I need to cut myself off before it evolves into 900 pages.
I guess it is the beginning, I think, or at least for me! The beginning is the starting point, when everything is set and must interest the reader. The book should capture the reader´s attention at once. It is the “do or die” kind of thing, just like “love at first sight”. The opening sentence of a book is that element that we should pay lots of attention to – to make the reader willing to turn and read the next pages.Tom Johnson
I have to say the beginning. I want to capture the reader’s attention, and sometimes you really have to work those beginning words to enter the adventure.
Dan Alatorre
The beginning the story is the hardest for me to write, but not for the reason you probably think. For most writers, the middle gets mushy. They have lots of good ideas that get everything set up, and maybe have an idea of how it’s going to end, but tying all that together in a cohesive manner without getting boring is the mushy middle that you’re always trying to avoid.
For me, how I avoid that is I just try to get through it as quickly as possible, and make something interesting happened in the middle of the mushy middle. Maybe a plot twist, maybe somebody dies, but that keeps the mushy middle from getting mushy
But the reason the beginning of the story is hardest to write is because it’s also the easiest to write. Like I said, in my next murder mystery, the opening chapter – the opening sentences – are going to be something like “The assassin watched his prey through the rifle scope” – something like that. So right away, your first sentence is gonna be somebody’s about to get killed and we’re watching it happen!
But the reason the beginning is hard is because most the time you are starting a new story with new characters, and you don’t really know those characters until you are a few chapters into the story. And by the time you end the story they’re gonna be different (because the story arc). For that reason, you have to go back and look at the first three chapters and have the characters be fully formed on page 1. That’s a little harder to do, to give them their personalities on the first page, and most writers don’t do that, so that’s why I say that’s the hardest – for me and for everybody else. But once you realize that, you know you need to do that. Then it’s like proofreading. Is the character fully developed on page one? No? What do I need to make him or her be there? Write that.
Lilly Rayman
Depends on the story. I like to continue writing in sync – in other words, from beginning to end. I know some people like to write a scene as it comes to them, but for me I find that can cause too many plot holes as the story is stitched together. If I have a specific scene in mind and it’s stewing away in my mind, I sometimes find the hardest part is not rushing through my story to get there, to make sure my story is of a consistent strength the whole way through.
It’s all fun, right? 🙂As a writer, what is the biggest challenge for you? What’s the biggest reward?
The biggest challenge is knowing when to stop. We don’t want to wear out our welcome, so we try to trust the reader to get where we’re going without beating the ending over their head. Our first book in the Silverville Saga, Little Greed Men, saves the most important clue until the very last sentence. But once we published the book, our publisher wanted to know if we were going to take the next logical step in the sequel. But we held firm and said no – that’s up to the reader to see where they wanted to take that final, surprising information, not us.
Biggest challenge: Marketing. Marketing. Marketing! (Spoken in the Marsha Marsha Marsha tone from The Brady Bunch!). I detest that side of writing so much I really don’t delve too much into it.
Biggest reward: The biggest reward is knowing something born inside my head connects to the heart of a reader!
Amy Cecil
Biggest reward: The biggest reward would have to be the fans. When I see the reviews start to cumulate on a release or when a fan messages me saying they loved a book that I have written totally makes my day.
Art Rosch
My fantasy epic, The Gods Of The Gift revealed its ending to me as I was driving home to my North Bay mansion. I knew the ending, and then WaldWen began speaking in my head, so I drove and took notes simultaneously.
Biggest Challenge: The biggest challenge was writing the book.
Biggest Reward: The biggest reward was writing the book.
Biggest Challenge: The biggest challenge is to write something that will attract readers.
Biggest Reward: The biggest reward is to see a nice review, or have someone say they were entertained by my story. My main goal is to entertain.
Dan Alatorre
Biggest Challenge: The biggest challenge? The biggest challenge is marketing. Sorry. If I can get somebody to read two pages of my story, they will read the whole story – and love it. Getting more people to figure out how to find me to read those first two pages? That’s the hardest part for almost every writer. All the hard stuff about writing the story is actually the easy stuff. The marketing is the hard part.
Biggest Reward: The biggest reward is definitely writing something funny and having people email you or see you and tell you how funny it was. Writing a scene that made you cry while you were writing it and having tears dropping on your keyboard, and having people come up to you later or email you and say how emotional they got during that scene. Putting a little Easter egg type of thing in there and having a reader “get it.” You’re like, “Yeah!” and you’re fist pumping, because they got it. Those rewards are huge. Just making that connection and putting something out there and having it having work.
Another big reward is, and I love this, is having a plot twist. Like, in chapter 10 there’s a big twist, and your critique partner is going along, and they read chapter 8, and they read chapter 9, and then all of a sudden you get this email that says OH MY GOD. That’s awesome. That’s so much fun – for the writer and the reader. That’s the rollercoaster they want, and that’s what I give them.
Lilly Rayman
Biggest Challenge: The biggest challenge for me? That would be find enough time in the day to actually sit down and write. I have to balance my home life as a wife and mother with my life as a writer. And that can be a challenge when my mind is brimming full of story ideas and scenes begging to be written.
Biggest Reward: The biggest reward? To hear that a reader couldn’t get enough and wants more. I love those 4 and 5 star reviews, where the reviewer is practically begging for more. But most especially, I love it when they have picked up on the subtly of a plot line and pulled it out from the story.
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Writing for a YA Audience: LEND ME YOUR EAR…OR YOUR LENDING LIBRARY
Posted: July 18, 2018 Filed under: Books, Reading, Writing, Writing for a YA Audience, Young Adult | Tags: Books, Lending Libraries, Reading, YA, Young Adult, Young Adult Fiction Leave a comment
Lending libraries are the new craze. Basically, you build this little wooden box on a pole and stick it in your front yard. Most of the time, the little wooden box has a little glass window. People walking by leave a book and take a book. Lending libraries encourage neighborhoods to connect and read more. Plus, if you’re like me, they’re a great way to give away books and know they’ll go to a good home. The lending libraries can also be found outside of churches, schools, community pools, anywhere you might find a group of readers hungry for new books.
(For those who feel the need to DIY, here are some simple instructions to build your own.)
Lending libraries pull me in, and I’ve frequented quite a few. There’s one in Old Forge, Westernville, and New Hartford, all towns in Upstate New York where I live. Recently, I dropped off signed copies of my novels to the one in New Hartford.
Lending libraries, however, cater more toward adults than to young adults. Each one I’ve been to has never contained a young adult novel. I’ve seen some picture books for kids, but nothing in the young adult genre. The books are all well-worn copies of religious non-fiction, popular chick-lit or obscure fiction. I’m not knocking any of those genres, but let’s build up some interest for teenage readers.
The news is often talking about how teenagers aren’t reading enough. The news talks about how teenagers focus on their phones instead of getting out into the world. Lending libraries meant for young adults, or lending libraries with YA titles mixed in, would “fix” both of those issues. Teenagers would be reading more. They’d be introduced to more options. They would also be getting out into their neighborhoods. A great way to make lending libraries more interactive is to leave a note or bookmark inside the treasure you drop off. I like to include a thought about why I enjoyed the story. It helps to connect the readers, even if they live in a different town.
I’m all for dropping off a young adult title or two in the nearest lending library. Who is with me?
Jordan Elizabeth is a young adult fantasy author. Her latest book, a post-apocalyptic novella entitled ROTHAM RACE, released July 14th fron CHBB. You can connect with Jordan via her website, JordanElizabethBooks.com.
