MEASURE OF WRITING: Inborn Talent?

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In this glorious chaos of what to listen to, and what not to, I would like to invite your attention to the fantastic idea called “good writing.”

I am aware that one of the areas, a person coming to WGT might be looking for, is insights from personal experiences of other authors. Due to that very purpose, I would like to share an experience of mine here, in this ‘internet coffee house’ of a blog, as author and editor Scott Bury remarks.

Good writing is an imperative every writer pets with in one’s consciousness. Consequently, there are several myths circling this idea.                

 

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Stephen King once remarked that creative writing could never be taught in schools. He was telling the truth about ‘good writing’ too. Perhaps the biggest impediment in being a creative writer (and a good one in that) is the only boon capable of propagating one in the direction of a successful writing career—Inborn talent. But what about you, a person blessed with the gift of weaving extraordinary tales out of ordinary events in life? Are you born with “Inborn talent”?

What might be the secret of being a good writer, of selling more stories than the number of tickets for the next Hollywood blockbuster; of being the most loved and respected man of letters? The surest way to success in this dimension is perseverance.

As a writer, one might come across many external obstacles; obstacles from our day-job, obstacle in the name of family, etc. These obstacles, sometimes with our knowing and sometimes unknowing, sucks out what could be described as the surest key to becoming a good writer. I would never suggest one must wait for the right moment to pen a story or to edit a previously written manuscript. The right time for a writer is NOW.

Remember, you are here because you love reading about writing and want to learn a few techniques on improvising your writing. You have listened to your call, by coming here. You have that inner radio inside of you that could tune into the cosmic energy that is the Source of all Creation.  

If you arrived here with a desire to learn, I must tell you that you have the necessary ingredients in your DNA to make it big as an author. You are in alignment with that dream that you have nurtured throughout your life, of sitting on a table, signing books at one end of an incredibly long line of people, simply because you are reading this article.

This is not a self-help forum. Still, I would advice a new author to take perseverance as your measure when the path in front of you is not visible, when you meet a dead-end. For example, think about Dr. Viktor E. Frankl’s experiences in the concentration camp of Auschwitz. Had he not been persevering, his future and the future of psychoanalysis itself would have been something else. In such a situation, perseverance means you trust your abilities to risk every other madness around you. It results from trusting oneself. Dr. Viktor E. Frankl shares his experiences in the book titled Mans’ Search for Meaning.  

 

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The craft of good writing also stems from trusting oneself. However, I would also suggest you should not limit your trust upon the blind faith that ‘whatever you do would be good’; or daydreams about long lines of people waiting for your autograph. Although, it sounds almost naïve, I must say that one must act in order to bring success into the world of reality. This, I consider, is a valid thought for any aspiring writer. Most aspiring writers never make it to the successful line of authors. The reason for that is simple: most aspiring writers only aspire. Their aspirations are not strong enough to manifest themselves into material reality.

The next best thing to do in order to bring in your ‘good writing’ is to trust your own intuitions and write steadily. By carrying the purpose, and following the discipline required to finish specific writing projects, you are sure to succeed. In writing-life, failure has only one meaning—stopping a work. This means, essentially that if you don’t stop, you never fail.  

About The Author:

Anu Lal is the author of Wall of Colours and Other Stories, Book-1 in the Hope, Vengeance, and History Trilogy. He resides in India. His second book You Should Know How I Feel has been a bestseller in Amazon India.

Blog: http://anu-lal.blogspot.in/

Author Page: Here

Twitter: @Anulalindia

How becoming organised changed my career

By Jo Linsdell

I've never been what you'd call a naturally organised person. I'm one of those chaotic people that always has loads of different things on the go all at once and so I always made the excuse that I didn't have time to be organised. Then things got too much. You can stay afloat for a while like that but sooner or later you start to sink. That's when I decided I needed a life jacket. It was time to get organised.

I've always been a list maker. It's been the only thing that kept me remotely on course for years. The first step to getting organised therefore was to write up some lists. I made a list of all the tasks I needed to do, the stuff I wanted to do, and the things I'd need in order to do them all. This one simple task made a huge difference and I was already saving myself time and getting more done.

Now it was time to get my files into order. I got myself some of those great folders with built in transparent pockets, some note books, and some new stationary supplies. I then separated all my paperwork so that each of my projects had it's own folder. I have a note book for note taking during webinars, teleseminars etc... and for writing down tips I come across on the web. I also write down any useful tools I come across in that one. I have another note book for new ideas and one for other miscellaneous stuff. Now when I know I need to work on a certain project or task I just pull out that folder and have everything there ready. One of the biggest advantages I've found from doing this is that I don't get sidetracked. It keeps me concentrated on the task in hand and therefore I manage to finish sooner and tick more tasks off my lists. It also means that when I need something I actually know where to find it. Doing a radio interview about one of my books? I just need to grab the folder for that book and I've got all my information to hand.

Next was to declutter. I never seemed to throw anything away and even had notes scribbled down of ripped off corner pieces of paper. Post-it notes were everywhere. Pens that had run out of ink were still there on my desk and, despite causing a mini nervous breakdown every time I needed one and picked them up only to discover that they were all out of ink, they still hadn't found their way to the bin. Trust me, that's not productive or good for your mental state. Anything important was therefore written into a notebook or filed. Old, broken objects were finally binned and new, functional objects took their place... this time in nicely organised containers.

Now I had a game plan, a functional and time saving filing system, and the supplies I needed to get the job done. I also had a clean, tidy, and organised work area. I was thrilled with the results and felt more motivated than ever to get some work done. I became more productive and was able to tick more tasks off my list. After a while I even managed to start ticking off long term goals that I never thought I'd have time to do. I started to expand my marketing efforts and soon saw a big difference in both sales and author recognition. I also felt more professional and that had an impact on my mind set. I was ready to take my career to the next level and raised my personal standards accordingly.

Seeing the changes that had taken place I was motivated to organise in other areas too.  I made submission guidelines for my blogs, prepared a file for interview features, and created a solid content calendar for my blogs. Again the results were immediate. Blogging became super easy and less time consuming. I didn't need to search for last minute ideas or risk missing a post because I already had a calendar planned out. I started programming posts in advance and that saved me yet more time. Setting up guest posts, interviews, and features was a lot easier and everything was running more smoothly.

After the success of my new blogging practices I decided it was time to organise my social media content too. Up until then I'd just posted stuff as and when it came to me. I analysed my posts to see what content was getting the most response. I also looked at my most effective posting times. With this information I was able to put together a posting strategy and, yep you guessed it, there was an immediate increase in likes, shares, retweets, etc... I was getting more engagement on my posts too and so my general reach increased. I still drop by to post random stuff here and there, and always check for new comments and messages. I now don't have to constantly be on my social media accounts to be active on them though and the content I'm putting out is getting better results. This frees up more time to work on my books and other projects.

If I'd known the difference being organised would have made to my career I would have done it much sooner. The great thing is that once you start getting organised, it becomes easier to get more organised. I still have a lot of things on my to do list (I'm constantly adding to it which doesn't help) but I'm definitely more on target now.

How organised are you? What systems have you put into place that help your productivity? 

Jo Linsdell is a best selling author and illustrator, award winning blogger, and freelance writer. She is also the founder and organiser of the annual online event Promo Day (www.PromoDay.info). Her latest release Virtual Book Tours: Effective Online Book Promotion From the Comfort of Your Own Home is now available from Amazon. Find out more about her at her website www.JoLinsdell.com

The thing about fiction is...

By Alan McDermott

... it isn’t real.

Yeah, I know that’s kinda obvious, but some of the people who have read Gray Justice don’t seem to realise this.


Let’s start at the beginning.

In July 2010 I had the seed of an idea and an empty Word document, and the first thing I needed was a main character.

Male or female? Hmm, good question. I thought about it for a while and decided that as the protagonist would have an SAS [British special military forces] background, I would go with male.

Next, a name. How about Clint Power? Max Thrust? Trenton Steele? Actually, why not go with a normal name? Okay, Dave…Sid…Tom… yeah, Tom. Tom what? Tom Savage!! No, something run-of-the-mill that doesn’t build the guy up as a super hero. Something bland, something … Gray!

Tom Gray!

Okay, so I have the seed of an idea, which is that someone loses a loved one to a repeat offender and sees the punishment handed down by the court as derisory. What should he do?

I know! He starts a petition to demand tougher sentencing guidelines. He goes on Facebook and Twitter and amasses a million followers and they all sign the petition and it goes before parliament and he’s standing outside Number Ten waving a placard and…


No. Where’s the story? Where’s the action, the intrigue? He could trip over a couple of times because he made the placard too big, or…


Stop! That isn’t going to work. He has to do something unique. This is supposed to be a story that grabs readers and takes them somewhere they’ve never been. It shouldn’t read like a few column inches in The Guardian. He could mow down the killer, or kidnap and torture him, or…


Right, that’s enough, Alan! Here’s a hundred bucks, go buy yourself a proper imagination!

What would Stephen King do in this situation? I read Misery, and that was a good book. A woman finds an injured author, her favourite author, and takes him back to her home. Okay, that’s the first couple of chapters. What happens next? Does she call an ambulance and have him taken to hospital? If she’d done that, it would have been King’s shortest and worst story EVER! Instead, she breaks his ankles to stop him escaping and makes him write a novel about her favourite character, one that doesn’t see the heroine die.

Possibility of that happening? Slim to none is my guess, but it made for great entertainment. I was reading it and wondering “How is he going to get out of this?”

Okay, another few light years and I’ll still be a million miles from Stephen King, but that’s the kind of thing you need to give an audience. Put the protagonist in an unheard of situation and have the reader wonder how they could possibly come through the other end.

Okay, got it. He kidnaps not just the killer, but four other repeat offenders and holds them in a disused warehouse. He tells the government that he wants tougher sentencing or his hostages die.
Hmm, it’s missing something. The authorities would soon locate him, if they even gave a shit about the criminals in the first place. So we need a deterrent. What could possibly stop the police wanting to rush the place? Think! Think! I know, he’s planted a bomb somewhere, and if they kill him, the bomb will go off!

Now we’re getting somewhere.

Yeah, a standoff. He’s got the hostages, and the police won’t make a move. So now what? What has Tom achieved? Nothing. The news channels will report about a hostage situation, but Tom’s grievances are falling on deaf ears. The police and politicians might sympathise after what he’s been through, but it all boils down to him committing a criminal act.

Tom needs to reach the people, but how? He builds a website and streams video of the hostages, and tells the government that they mustn’t interfere with it, otherwise…What? And how long is this going to go on for?


Let’s go back to the start. We need to make Tom a man with nothing left to lose. Okay, his wife, overcome with grief at the loss of their son, takes her own life. We still have the problem of a timescale, though. Is this going to go on forever? And where’s the government’s incentive to play ball?


Got it! Tom will reveal the location of the device on Friday, then take his own life! He now has nothing to lose, so why not? But what will he have achieved by then? Think, Alan!


I know! He wants to change the sentencing guidelines, but he thinks the government won’t listen. Why not let the people of Britain vote on the changes? They can ignore one lunatic, but not the entire population! Let the people speak!

All we need now is a set of changes he wants to make, but we have to bear in mind who is creating them. This is a simple ex-soldier, not a politician. Successive governments have had numerous experts working on the perfect judicial system and it still isn’t quite there, so it would be crazy to have Tom come up with the perfect solution. It wouldn’t be in keeping with the character I’m trying to create. Instead, I’ll just have to give him a bunch of unworkable ideas and throw in some counter-arguments to balance things out.

Should I mention rehabilitation and crime prevention as possible solutions, or attacking the root of the problem at an early stage through school workshops and the like? Would anyone in Tom’s situation think like that, or would they just be damn angry and want to see the criminals punished? I’ll err on the side of the latter.

So, that’s the process. I think of situations for my characters, I give them the appropriate personalities and opinions, and let them get on with it.

Anyway, back to the purpose of this post: Some people seem to think that Tom’s thoughts and ideals are actually a reflection of MY feelings towards the British judicial system (here's a classic example). If you’re among that number, then you must also assume that Stephen King condones the kidnapping and hobbling of injured authors! Is that what you really think?

So please, when you read this book, just remember it’s a work of FICTION! Whether you agree or disagree with Tom’s ideals or methods is entirely up to you, but your argument will be with a fictional character.  

Alan McDermott is author of the Tom Gray trilogy: Gray Justice, Gray Resurrection and Gray Redemption. His blog is jambalian.

Ahnvee, coshon, and my Cajun life

The other day I found myself ahnveeing for something. The Cajun French word pronounced awn-vee means to long or hanker for something. I often have an ahnvee and just as often don’t know what I’m longing for.



As I sat quietly with my ahnvee, I started thinking about other words and phrases that I grew up saying. My family is Cajun French and Spanish, and in my younger years it was not unusual for the adults to speak French to each other. Whenever my grandmother and mother wanted to say things they did not want me and my brother to understand, they spoke in French. I only wish they had taught the language to me.



Of course, their way of speaking French had nothing to do with the way the French speak. One time when my mother and I were visiting the Oak Alley Plantation, a large group of women were vacationing from France arrived. My mother attempted to have a conversation with one of the women, but the words and pronunciations were too different for either to understand the other.



Though I’ve been gone from Louisiana for a few years, my roots are still there and I notice how quickly I slip back into the Cajun French words I grew up with. The older I get the more I realize we had our own unique way of talking.



When I was a child, everyone I knew passed the vacuum and we also passed a good time. We ate mynez (mayonnaise), put our drawz (underwear) on and petted the meenoo (cat). When something tasted good we’d say, “Mai cher (may sha) that was some good, yeh.” My godmother was my nan-nan and my godfather was my paran and I was my grandmother’s bebe (baby).



People who didn’t know what we knew were couillon (coo-yawn), which means stupid, when something was dirty it was cochon (coshawn) and we roder dayed (ro-da-dayed), which meant we ran the roads. We felt we could say anything about anyone as long as we prefaced our comment with, “Bless her heart.” Outsiders may not have understood us or our way of speaking but we all knew they were just ces’t bet (uneducated).



We also use the word “me” in many of our statements like, “I’m going to eat me some crayfish” or “I’m going to buy me some groceries.”



When I go to Louisiana to visit my momma, my family and I play Bouree (boo-ray) which is a Cajun card game, and we talk about the joie de vivre (joy in living) that is expressed in the laizze les bon temps rouler (let the good times roll) attitude of the people in that area of Louisiana.



Growing up in a large extended Cajun family was fun. Though there was a lot of pain and suffering on the inside, there was usually revelry and some form of celebration going on around me. Most weekends our home was full of family. While the children were doing their thing we could hear the sounds of laughter and fun coming from the room with the adults. We celebrated with food, drink, family stories, jokes, and games.



Very hot summer days, so humid that my clothes stuck to my body were part of life. Cockroaches that were big enough to be pets, fried frog legs for dinner, boiled crabs, crayfish and shrimp, bowls of gumbo and plates of red beans and rice were all part of my world.

(Image: Flickr member aimeeorleans licensed under Creative Commons)

I can’t think of anywhere else I would want to have grown up, because the area, the people, and the way of life were all unique. There was a time when I was embarrassed about being Cajun because we were called coon-asses. But when I grew up I fell in love with my heritage. I’m just a little Cajun girl with a license plate that says KJUNQEN (Cajun Queen) and I wouldn’t trade my heritage for anything.



Mai Cher, the universe would not be the same without you.



Peace and love ♥ Brenda

Brenda Marroy

Besides being a writer, Brenda Marroy is a facilitator of women’s groups, and writes and leads weekend seminars and workshops on communications, developing and healing relationships, and practicing mindfulness.



She is a member of the Long Ridge Writers Group and the Virginia Writers Group and has recently finished her first non-fiction book, Alchemy 365-A daily guide to personal growth and transformation. She writes a weekly blog, Streams of Consciousness. Visit her Facebook page, www.facebook.com/streamsofconsciousness.



Her articles have appeared in Cornucopia, Crone, The Journey Magazine, and The Goddess Pages in the UK. She can be reached at blmarroy@yahoo.com

What’s Not Up!

Like many authors, we recently reduced our eBook price for the holidays. Our price was 99 cents* until the end of January 2013 or so we thought. It turned out that even after our new price of $2.99 went live on Amazon; the Kindle price remained 99 cents. At first we attributed it to being the weekend, yet it continued. So I asked Amazon why this was happening.

The answer came back that Amazon consulted eBooks connect website and it showed that the Sony version of our book was still at 99 cents. So I checked, sure enough it was at that time. As of the time of this writing, the Sony price is now correct but Amazon still lists it at 99 cents. I suspect that by the time you read this the price will be corrected on Amazon.

What did I learn? First don’t say prices are going to be a certain amount until Amazon updates them on the product page. Second, allow 2 weeks for Sony to process when updating prices through Smashwords. Third, remember lesson for next time we have a Holiday sale and adjust accordingly.

Hope this has been informative to my fellow authors; it certainly was an eye-opener for me.

Lynn Hallbrooks

Co-author of Call Sign: Wrecking Crew (Storm Warning)

Co-owner of Call Sign Wrecking Crew, LLC

*All prices quoted are in United States currency.

When a Free of Charge Book Becomes a Sale

There is a saying, “Never count your chickens before they hatch.” One could also say, “Never count your money until it is in your hands.”

As authors, sometimes we forget to pay attention to the business elements of publishing. Whether you are a self-publisher or use a traditional publishing company, you spend most of your time being creative by concentrating on developing your characters, plots and superb endings. In addition, you put your heart and soul into marketing and advertising your work and hoping you will make a nice return on your book(s).

In January of 2012, I enrolled my fourth book, Wicked Intent into Amazon KDP Select and offered the ebook free during the month of January. During the first two weeks of its release, the publisher’s records showed that I had sold over 1200 copies. To my surprise, it almost sounded too good to be true. After all, no major media featured my digital book, and it was not on The New York Times Bestseller List.

Nevertheless, I had big plans as to what I was going to do with my windfall. I needed a few office supplies, and I was going to purchase some books, but a little birdie in my brain said, “Do not charge any items on your credit card until the company wires the money into your account.”

When I saw no money put into my account at the end of March, I sent an email questioning where my royalties were.

To make a long story short, KDP responded. Their records showed that I had no sales during the month of January but sales during other months. Mind you, their records, which I downloaded, showed 835 units sold in US, 55 in other countries and 384 in the UK and four in Denmark.

I replied by attaching their reports of my sales to my email and asked, “Could you please explain to me why the attached three reports indicate that 1280 copies of my ebook were purchased?”

Well, I heard from Kindle Direct Publishing, and this is what they had to say, “I see you’ve enrolled your title, Wicked Intent, in KDP Select and offered it for free during the month of January. All of the copies of your title were sold for free during this period, and therefore you’re not seeing equivalent royalties.”

KDP also went on to say, “We’re making improvements to our reports to help give the clearest picture of your sales. Be sure to check out our Help pages and Community forums to learn about the changes we’re making.”

At first, I was embarrassed for bragging that I actually sold so many copies but at the same time, vindicated when KDP said, “All of the copies were sold for free.”

~*~

About The Author

Born in 1946, Vivienne Diane Neal is a storyteller with a wicked sense of humor. Vivienne has been writing articles for over twenty years and started writing fictional short stories in 2007. She gets her story ideas from observing people, places and things and watching true TV court cases.

Now, semi-retired, she continues to write short stores and articles on love, romance, relationships and other topics of interest on her One World Singles Magazine Blog.

Follow her on Facebook at http://facebook.com/viviennedianeneal and Twitter at http://twitter.com/boomer63