Lana Pecherczyk's Blog, page 5

A little Taster of Playing God – Coming May 1st

Ever wondered how the author sees her characters? I created these images to help me visualize what I was writing. Take a look at the main characters from the first book in the Game of Gods series, Soul Thing. Did you picture them any differently? Want more? Playing God comes out May 1st 2018 Order the book on Amazon now ... Read More

Character Artwork for Soul Thing (Game of Gods, 1)

And the Winner of the Urban Fantasy Print Book Giveaway is….

Thank you to all who entered this competition to celebrate the launch of Soul Thing. Without further ado, the winner is Misty. Congratulations Misty, an email has been sent to you to confirm your winner status. I will follow this up with a private email to gather your postage details. Don’t be sad if you missed out! You can still ... Read More

The Devil Inside is up for a sneaky Pre-Order

That’s right, folks. The next book in the Game of Gods series is up for pre-order and due for release March 6th. That’s only a few days away! Hear the next part of the story from the view point of both Cash (our devilish hunter) and Marc (our cheeky and brazen god-of-the-in-between). Click here to view The Devil Inside on ... Read More

Soul Thing is Live!

Now live in the Amazon store around the world, you can claim your copy of Soul Thing for only 99c. If you’ve already pre-ordered, the book should hit your kindle any minute. If you’re in the US, or another part of the world apart from where I live (Australia) your copy might be a few hours away. Here’s the blurb ... Read More

Fall in Love with Urban Fantasy Print Book Giveaway

To celebrate the relaunch of Soul Thing, the first book in the Game of Gods series, I’m hosting a giveaway! I want you to fall in love with Urban Fantasy as much as I have, so I’m giving away the first in a series from my favorite UF authors – in old school print! One lucky person will win: A ... Read More

It’s Finally Here – Soul Thing up for Pre-Order

This story has gone through a massive evolution. As my debut novel, it took some time, a lot of feedback and some industry know how to get it to where it is today. Soul Thing started its life as Hunting for Witches, but has now had the story has been re-edited and had the plot tightened for your reading enjoyment. ... Read More

Your Character Will Fall Flat Without the Right Motivation

M is for Motivation – Romance Writing from A to Z

It has been said by many that to write a riveting story, your character must have a great Goal, Motivation and Conflict (GMC). As such, there must be a strong GMC in each character, scene or chapter. Having a strong motivation for your character’s choices is on way to set your novel apart from the others. Knowing the GMC of your book and characters will not only help you write an awesome novel, but will come in handy when it’s time to write that pesky blurb or synopsis. When I first started writing, I got confused between the goal and the motivation, so I’ll outline the differences below.

How is the motivation different to the goal?

The goal is what your character wants, and the motivation is why your character wants it. So, think about the stakes and what will happen if she/he doesn’t achieve her goal. To help you understand, you can put the word ‘because’ in between your two sentences (one sentence for goal, one for motivation). I’ll take an example from my Urban Fantasy novel, Soul Thing: Roo wants to be left alone because if her mysterious powers are discovered, she’ll end up burned at the stake. Then you can add the ‘but’ which signifies the conflict (what stops the character from achieving her goals). So my sentence would then become: Roo wants to be left alone because if her mysterious powers are discovered, she’ll be burned at the stake, but when a witch publicly attacks, she must expose her powers to survive.

Motivation is what makes a goodie or a baddie

Robin Hood steals, but his motivations are to feed the poor. Your bad-boy CEO might be a jerk, but it’s because he’s been hurt so many times he’s only trying to protect his heart. Okay, that was a bad example, I hope you can come up with something more original. Think about your favorite books and movies, and write down the main hero and heroine’s motivations. Like Robin Hood, having a goal and motivation that seem like their opposites can have an intriguing effect. The same goes for your baddie. Perhaps your baddie is trying to create peace on earth, but when you dig deeper, you discover their motivation is to rule over the new mindless hoard.

Nailing your motivation will help you stick in character

As your book progresses, you can constantly return to that motivation to keep the plot moving forward. Motivations can change throughout a book, but choose this detour wisely. Would Harry Potter be the same if he decided half way through that he doesn’t want to end Voldemort because he changed his mind? If your character doesn’t have a strong motivation, there is nothing driving them to make choices, instead the events of the plot happen to them, making a passive and boring character.

Romance Note on Motivations

If your hero and heroine have differing motivations or goals, it makes for interesting conflict. For example, your hero wants to bulldoze a forest because his career is riding on the development he plans to put up. Your heroine wants to save the forest because it’s the only place that grows a herb she’s discovered that will ease the suffering of her grandmother.  Pit these two differing goals and motivations together, and you’ve got explosive tension and conflict.

Don’t let your character fall flat, give them a strong motivation that drives the story forward.

Read the Romance Writing from A to Z Series
About the AuthorLana Pecherczyk Facebook Twitter

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Lana Pecherczyk is an author, artist and bookshop marketer from Perth, Western Australia. She's the Webmistress for Romance Writers of Australia (and no, that's not Spiderman's lover). Is a fan of 'pro-caffeinating' and writes in many genres, including romance, comedy, fantasy and paranormal. She also loves Sailormoon. No judgement.

The post Your Character Will Fall Flat Without the Right Motivation appeared first on Author Zoo.

Why Having a Dedicated Author Website is Good for Business

Announcing my new, shiny, author website

Visit lanapecherczyk.com

Although I love this website – AuthorZoo, it’s mainly for talking about writing with my writer pals. I needed something dedicated to readers that was straight to the point. I don’t want my readers to get overwhelmed with all the noise not relevant to their purchase.

I’m always learning, and I hope I never stop until the day I die. When I designed my dedicated author website, I did a tone of research. I looked at what other authors are doing, I spoke to many, and came up with my new site. I created it myself using self-hosted WordPress, and the X-Theme (you can get this at themeforest). And I connected my Mailchimp account for the newsletter sign up, and I used Jotform for my advance reader team sign up. Google any of these businesses and you’ll find them easily on the web.

5 Important things to have on your author site:

Newsletter sign up: Capture their details immediately, then you can resell to them at a later date. Offering a free book or hosting a giveaway (I’m going to use the plugin KingSumo)
Books you’ve written: Having the blurb, buy details, and sales copy works well. Make sure you put these in reading order if you have a series.
Contact details: include your social media details so people can connect with you everywhere
About page: Your author bio should be short, sweet and reflect the kind of writer you are. I add some personal touches so readers can see I’m a real person at the other end of the line.
News/Blog: You don’t have to blog massive articles, like I do here, but sharing news and directing people to your site for that news (such as a cover reveals) makes google love you and boost your natural page rankings. Check out Anna Hackett. She does it great! The idea is that on all your other platforms, you only give a teaser of the information and direct them to your site for the full article. You can see because she’s got hundreds of comments. She won’t mind you snooping, because she’s a friend.

Anyway, that’s all for now.

All the best with your own author site.

 

The post Why Having a Dedicated Author Website is Good for Business appeared first on Author Zoo.

Welcome to my new Author Website

It’s finally here! I feel so authentic. Some of you may have already been following me for the past few years on my writer blog, Author Zoo. I thought this year is the year I’m getting serious about my  books so of course, I needed a snazzy website to showcase my upcoming works. The focus for my books this year ... Read More