Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Other people's blogs!


So today's blog is two in one. A little while ago I wrote a blog for Maggie Elizabeth Writes and thought you might like to read it. The link is here:  Maggie Elizabeth Writes
While you are there take a look at the rest of her site, it's a well put together site with thoughts and tips designed for the writer. Below is an excerpt of the post I wrote for this months theme of The Lifestyle.
As an author I dabble in several genres, although my main focus is women’s fiction with a deeper message. I have a few approaches to outlining depending on the type of book I’m writing. If it’s non-fiction I write a careful chapter by chapter outline – which I usually change as I go along, but I like to kid myself that I’m approaching non-fiction in a professional manner. 
I have a paranormal series on the go, with the first book in the series just published. A series is a different discipline where you have to be organized in order to keep characters and events under control. So for that series I have an outline for each book and a separate outline for the entire series. Again, it’s fluid and changes as I go but in this instance I have to remember to change it for the entire story and not just for that book. I have a file on each character (including a little drawing with eye and hair colour etc.), which I keep alongside the full outline. Both the character file and the full outline are in notebooks and not on the computer. For some reason I can better keep track of the storyline when it’s written by hand. I even used colored pens to denote each character as I check my full story outline against what I just wrote.
However I’m primarily a women’s fiction writer, contemporary women’s fiction is another, more specific name for my style of writing. I like to take issues that are important but difficult to write about, and incorporate them into a piece of fiction. In the case of my latest book, Letters To Myself, I have taken the issue of co-dependent relationships and used it as the base for the story of Cassie. 
The second blog is one written by Cori Dyson. She writes about the female protagonist, primarily in fantasy books, but she made an exception for Cassie because she was impressed by the way she was written (go me!!). I love this blog she wrote, and I hope you go to read it and while you're there check out the rest of Cori's page. Here's an excerpt from her blog: 
This next review will be a slight departure from my usual genre, but I am including it here because the main character exemplifies one aspect of a female protagonist that I discussed in my last post, New Concept in Creating a Female Character. Writing about a character experiencing suffering without becoming engulfed with suffering may be one of the more difficult aspects of writing a well balanced feminine character. Sheryl Lee allows her character to descend into depths of suffering and then ends with Cassie rising above and beyond the suffering that threatened to engulf her.
Letters to Myself is a new form of fiction: educational fiction. It presents a factual representation of what it is like to live in a co-dependent relationship inside a fictional story. This is far more powerful than a list of co-dependent signs or symptoms. She relates this in a personal and relational way, as if she were telling you this over a cup of coffee. The story is also powerful, difficult to put down, and the right amount of emotion without becoming overwhelming.
Here is the link to the blog: Write A Female Character You Can Be Proud Of
I'm getting around aren't I? I am a writer first, I'm good at it, it fulfills me. But a writer can't make a living from it without marketing and that is what I am not good at. I'm learning though, making new contacts and learning new ways to promote myself and the books. It's a slow process but there would not be the saying 'it takes a long time to be an overnight success' if it wasn't truth.
And every time I think I will give up I remember that it's always the hardest just before success comes. So I keep on trying, looking for different ways to get the word out there. 
I won't write much today, you'll have plenty to read in those two blogs, again, please go read them both. You already know my style of writing, however I got a thrill seeing my words on someone else's blog. And I was fascinated to read another person's take on Cassie.
This is me, don't think I'll ever be able to totally shamelessly self promote!

This is the meme I think about whenever I'm tempted to give up - I want my diamonds!

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