Category Archives: Writing

“Chicken Soup for the Soul” author Rory C. Keel book signing event.

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“Chicken Soup for the Soul” author Rory C. Keel book signing event.

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Rory C. Keel’s story The Challenge is one of the many motivational stories included in “Chicken Soup for the Soul: Inspiration for Writers.”

This anthology contains 101 stories to inspire and encourage writers at every stage of the process. Whether you’re a bestselling author or a beginning blogger this book will help you find the inspiration to write.

Join Rory C. Keel on Old Route 66 Saturday, February 15, 2014 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Lile Art Gallery, 2719 SW 6th Avenue, Amarillo, Texas 79106, (806) 664-3089.

roryckeel.com

I want to be a Writer. What Does it Take?

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I want to be a Writer. What Does it Take?

By Natalie Bright

Being a successful writer takes:

1)    Talent

2)    Perseverance

3)    Luck

And if you have any two of those three things, you’ll make it. Having all three at some point in your career is even better.  JODI THOMAS

This industry moves too slow. I want my books out there NOW so everyone can read them and then I’ll make a lot of money selling e-Books.

1)    A good writer can’t be just writing for money and expect to make it. You gotta be a writer first.

2)    And, knowing what business you’re in.

These two things go together. You gotta put those two things together, if you have any hope at having success at this thing.  JAMES SCOTT BELL via YouTube

The publishing business is too confusing. I just want to write my stories.

There’s no mystique about the writing business, although many people consider me blasphemous when I say that. …to create something you want to sell, you first study and research the market, then you develop the product to the best of your ability.  CLIVE CUSSLER

I don’t have time to learn the business and write and promote my book too because of my job and my family. There’s not enough hours in the day.

“Being goal-oriented instead of self-oriented is crucial. I know so many people who want to be writers. But let me tell you, they really don’t want to be writers. They want to have been writers. They wish they had a book in print. They don’t want to go through the work of getting the damn book out. There is a huge difference.”  JAMES MICHENER

I want to be a successful, published author. It’s a dream of mine. I’ll finish my book someday, when I have more time.

“If it’s important to you, and it’s something you really want, you’ll find the time and it’s up to you to make them understand.”  JODI THOMAS

Happy Writing!

The Submit Button

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POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

The Submit Button

By Nandy Ekle

I have one huge phobia, and that’s spiders. Yeah, that’s right. I openly admit this phobia. I always say that I am not ashamed and am actually very comfortable with my pet phobia.

There is one other thing that frightens me a little, and that is the submit button. This one little thing can paralyze me as completely as a single spider can. I can not count the times my hand has hovered over the button while my brain tries to talk me out of pushing it. “Don’t do it,” it says. “They’ll laugh.” It continues. Then the organ inside my head turns ugly. “You know the story still isn’t right. There’s gaping plot holes and unbelievable dialogue. And your grammar and punctuation are no better than a third grader.”

If my finger still aims at that little button, my gray matter turns mean and hateful. “Who are you kidding? You can’t write a story. Just listen to your so-called style. This is just a silly waste of time and paper. Are you sure you want to bear your soul to strangers so they can laugh at you and point at you? You’re nothing but a useless blob behind a computer keyboard with delusions of grandeur.”

Sometimes I believe the whole spiel. I let all that bullying talk freeze my hand and stop my breathing. Just like seeing a giant spider, my fingers curl back into my hand and I close the computer lid and do something else.

But sometimes I turn on some music and remember the promise I made to my characters to find them a home. Then I close my eyes and . . . push submit. Air rushes into my lungs and my arms feel as though they could lift a house. That’s when I know my success is not whether or not my work is accepted. My success is in squashing the monster.

Congratulations. You have just received a post card from the muse.

Music and Pictures

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Outtakes 133

 

Music and Pictures

By Cait Collins

I enjoy looking through old photo albums especially when I do not know the persons or places involved. It provides me with the opportunity to draft a story idea based on the photo. A snapshot of a meadow leading into an aspen forest might bring thoughts of a mystery. The protagonist finds a backpack on a hike through the meadow. Blood spatters stain the pack and the surrounding plants. As he follows the blood trail, he finds a hiking boot. Entering the forest he notes a fabric scrap clinging to a branch. Should he hike deeper into the woods? Or would it be more prudent to back off and call for help?

The story could take a different turn. Our man follows a trail into the forest. Birds sing and small woodland creatures scamper out of his sight. He steps into a clearing. A blanket is spread on the leaf-covered ground. A picnic basket rests on the edge of the blanket. His wife emerges from the trees. She smiles and holds out her hand.

One photograph; two story ideas.

Music is equally thought provoking. A song can help set the mood for a scene. Certain songs can set a romantic mood or be the contrast to a horrific scene. Imagine a thunder storm. The power has been knocked out by a lightning strike. The house is dark. No candle light softens the blackness. Strains of a romantic aria can be heard from a car radio. A bolt of lightning splits the night. From the picture window, we see the shadow of a knife plunging into a human form. The music rises and falls with the slashes of the blade. As the music dies, so does the woman.

Or the aria might be the background for a really erotic love scene. Either way, a good selection of tunes can get the creative juices flowing.

“Ands and Buts”

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“Ands and Buts”

 By Rory C. Keel

 

Recently I decided to do some rewriting and corrections on my novel. Wow, it’s amazing how much better I write today than months ago when I started the book.

I remember the first day I started. I was confident in my story plot, characters and setting and remained confident every day as I move the story forward. Then I read the beginning; my confidence had covered a multitude of mistakes.

Making corrections is no easy task either. One day you change the “ands” into “buts”: then on the next day after re-reading the corrections again you change the “buts” back into “ands.”

The problem is that you’re confident about the corrections on both days.

Hello Editor!

roryckeel.com

PINTEREST Inspired

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PINTEREST Inspired

By Natalie Bright

 

Have you discovered Pinterest.com?

It began as a sight to assist brides-to-be with wedding planning, evolving into so much more. Boards, which can be described as your own personal bulletin board or scrapbook,  are set-up by you, and these boards can be used to store images of anything that interests or inspires you. Your pins can be shared on your Twitter or Facebook page as well, or you can opt out of that tool.

Estimated to have around 11 millions unique visitors every month, it has quickly become an influence in eCommerce.

Authors on Pinterest 

Pinterest is a useful tool for authors to promote, organize and find inspiration for stories. Here are a few ideas:

  1. Your booklist: pin covers of your books.
  2. Your inspiration: pin the inspiration, faces, places, research for each of your books. Have a separate board for each of your book titles. Give your readers a glimpse into the creative process.
  3. Faces: celebrities, ordinary people, whatever inspires images of your characters.
  4. Research: categorize by time period or topic
  5. Rooms: can’t visualize a scene in your novel? Find the house or room and pin it.
  6. Places: find pictures of settings in your book.
  7. Contests
  8. Favorite Books: what are you reading now? Let your fans know.
  9. Clothing: wardrobes for your characters.
  10. Profile your character: personal articles, hobbies, treasured mementoes.Secret Boards

Okay I admit, Pinterest has become another fun way of wasting time instead of writing, and I admit I’m hooked, but now I really, really love Pinterest even more because of secret boards! You are the only one that can see the content of your Secret Boards. In addition, you can invite anyone you want to view these boards. One of my favorite authors mentioned in an interview that she added her agent and editor to her Secret Boards as she developed a new series and as they worked on edits. They were able to exchange inspiration, ideas and work through plot issues without exchanging a zillion emails.

Two stories are floating around in my head right now set in completely different time periods. I’ve got secret boards for each containing clothing, household items, rooms, settings, hairstyles of the time period, research links to websites, music recordings, videos, and book covers of potential research material. I’m not ready to share my ideas to the world yet. The characters and their stories are really coming alive in my mind’s eye as I research the time period. Another bonus I recently discovered is that viewing the WIP Pinterest Secret board allows me to leave the present world behind more quickly and disappear into that time period. It energizes me and puts me in the mood to write.

One More Thing

Have you found your favorite authors on Pinterest yet? Type their name into the Search bar and look for the name next to their picture. Then you know you’ve found their Home Page rather than something someone else has pinned about them.

Pin Away and Happy Writing!

The End

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POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

The End 

By Nandy Ekle

What a rush! There’s no feeling better in all the world. I actually wrote “the end” and took a deep giggly breath of air.

And it wasn’t just putting the two words on the page, because anyone could just stick “the end” anywhere. No, it was knowing where to put them. And more than just where, it was HOW to put them.

Think about it. You have the most amazing concept in the world. You think and plan, outline if you must. You discuss it with friends and research all possibilities. You start typing the words and hit a roadblock. You’ve come to the end of your comfort zone. I know a lot of very smart people who might stick “the end” on it and walk away. But not this time.

This time you’re serious about it. The characters continue to whisper and get you past the block. Then boom, the next roadblock. But you’re determined. Yeah, there’s holidays and problems, but you keep pushing that pencil on.

Then the characters stop talking. “Come on, guys,” you say. “We’re not at ‘the end’ yurt. But they’re tired and don’t want to talk anymore. I, myself, have been guilty of sticking those two words there.

But this time, when the heroine and hero stopped talking, I decided to make it up on my own. Oh, it was nothing close to good, but it was like a bucket of ice water on my little people to wake them up and get them moving again. They saw what I was writing and jumped up, yanked the pencil from my hand and the story continued.

And there it was. The glorious end of the road. I took a deep breath and boldly put my pencil to the paper. Very carefully, desperately trying not to get too excited, I wrote “The End” in exactly the right place.

Congratulations. You have just received a post card from the muse.

Stormy Nights

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Outtakes 132

 

Stormy Nights

By Cait Collins

 

Let’s face it. Sometimes we get stuck. No new ideas are screaming, “Write about me.” These are the times when I look for inspiration anywhere I can find it. And I seem to find ideas in some unusual places.

A couple of weeks ago, I was shopping for a birthday card in a local Hallmark store. There was a big sale in progress, so I roamed the displays looking for bargains. Bam! There he was, one of my favorite characters, good old Snoopy. Snoops was sitting atop his dog house, his typewriter in front of him, and a piece of paper feed into the machine. He was ready to begin his next installment of “It was a dark and stormy night.”  On the front of the dog house are two open spaces. One holds two cubes with numbers carved in the blocks. The second space houses blocks with the months carved in the sides. My Snoopy is a perpetual calendar. I grabbed that statue and headed for the cash wrap. Thank goodness I remembered my discount coupon.

I think I’m drawn to Snoopy because he is the embodiment of many characters. Some days he is writer Snoopy. Tomorrow he might be Joe Cool or the World War I flying ace. He’s also a stalking jungle animal creeping up on Lucy. Snoopy is a scout master for Woodstock and his friends. He’s loyal, a true friend, and a great listener. He even decorates a mean dog house for Christmas. He has such unlimited imagination. Snoopy is great inspiration when my mind is blank.

The Snoopy calendar sits on my desk at work. It is a sweet reminder that each day is a good day to write. After all “Happiness is a new day.” Now back to my project.

“It was a dark and stormy night. Rain fell in sheets, saturating the hillside and spilling water, mud, tree limbs, and a body into the swollen stream.”

Foundation and Details

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Foundation and Details

Rory C. Keel

Over the last year, I have been involved in planning and building a new facility for the church where I attend. In the planning, every aspect of the building has a purpose. The measurements of the foundation are laid out on paper and then the details are considered, what color of paint, what kind of flooring? Will the congregation be comfortable with the seating? What about sound quality? What happens in an emergency? Is the lighting adequate? The list seems endless.

The day came when the project started and the foundation was poured. At the end of that first day, I stood gazing at a slab of concrete that didn’t come close to looking as large as I had imagined. My mind said something’s wrong! The plans confirmed the size was correct!

Every day since, I have watched as each wall was raised and the roof now appears atop the building, and my perspective has changed. The building has been transferred from ink on paper, to a multi-dimensional object that better fits the concept I had imagined.

As a writer, a similar process takes place, only we use words as the building materials. We hold a story concept in mind with all of its grandeur and we begin to write, one page then two, our mind says something is wrong! What we see doesn’t look like what we have imagined, so we wad the paper up or hit delete.

The story doesn’t look like the grand story in your head, because it isn’t finished!

Don’t give up too quickly, create an outline, the foundation, and then build your story by filling in the blanks with the details.

roryckeel.com

Book Promotion Analysis

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Book Promotion Analysis

By Natalie Bright

If you don’t tell anyone about your book, there’s no way they can read it. It’s a basic concept, yet crucial, and with social media at your fingertips the opportunity to tell everyone about your story is endless.

In Your Face

In my opinion, it’s not an opportunity for you to hammer Facebook friends and Twitter followers with constant barrage of “buy my book”. I’ve had to unfollow several authors who take this to the excess. I’m following you as a novelist because I’m interested in YOU as well as your books. Where did your idea come from, your writing process, your hobbies, the weather where you live, places you’ve been to research stories? However, a pic of your recent surgical procedure and wound is definitely TMI. Please don’t over share. What information do you think crosses the boundaries?

Some authors feel more comfortable in keeping a low profile online. I’m always surprised when I discover a great book, but can’t find a website for the author. On the other hand, one author explained that she feels her readers are interested in not only her books, but her personal world as a writer and person. She friends and follows everyone. Two schools of thought; which one do you prefer?

Analytics

Several weeks ago, I blogged about target markets. There are so many amazing tools and apps through a multitude of social media sights enabling you to pinpoint people based on their interests, purchases, careers, etc. I receive several eNewsletters every week on the subject. It truly is mind boggling. Rather than spend a lot of time analyzing and targeting, much the same way that I feel about learning WordPress, I’ve taken a different route. I don’t want to learn how to build a website or graph a bar chart or profile my facebook friends based on their socio economic status. I just want to write. For me, promotion is an ongoing process via a myriad of social media outlets.

Keeping it Simple

One piece of advice about promotion came from Debbie Macomber, and has stuck in my mind for many years. When speaking at a writing conference in Amarillo, she highly recommended that every author add this book to their reference library, 1001 Ways to Market Your Books by John Kremer. Ms. Macomber also advised us to take one piece of advice from this book to heart and never forget: do one thing every day to promote yourself as a professional author, your work, or the industry of books and reading.

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Just One Thing

Writing this blog is my one thing, along with promoting another author’s book about marketing in said blog. That’s two things. I guess I’m done for the day. Now back to writing!

What are you using to target readers for your books? How are you spreading the word? Do you think some authors go overboard with the sales pitching?

Happy writing!

nataliebright.com