Sacha T.Y. Fortuné's Blog, page 26

Writing & Fictionalising Personal Experience

There’s a line in Pandora’s Poison (Hart & Cole Book 2), that if a certain person from my past reads it, he will burst out laughing… or at least, I hope so!

Thankfully, I’ll most likely never have to find out. I don’t think he reads much, and if he does, my book won’t be his “cup of tea”.

…And then, there’s an another event in my past that I would love to write about. But I can’t, so I don’t…

There are stories I’ve published on my Creative Writing website, The Writink that were inspired by p...

Editing is Massacre: The Chopping Block

“I’m so, so, so sorry, Lee…” I’m almost in tears, as I delete an entire scene with one of my favourite characters.

But I’m down 50 pages already (woohoo!), and all the nips and tucks in the world won’t get me to where I need to go. I need to edit. I need to CUT.

“Climbing The Walls” (Book 1), was already a bit longer than it needed to be (a criticism I’ve received, and taken in stride).

I felt it myself, during the million-and-one edits, but I justified it: for the first book, you need to ta...

Character Development: The “Book Bible”

First of all, you have to remember that Darren loves Luisa.

…To hell and back.

And she’s taken him there, so she knows.

Second of all, you have to remember that Luisa owes Darren.

Even when he behaves badly (and oh boy; does he!)… she owes him…

* * *

My friend and beta reader was determined to dislike Darren, after the end of Book 1 of my Hart & Cole series.

I don’t want to give away spoilers — particularly when I’m not entirely sure when Book 2 will be polished and ready for mass consumption...

Writers: when you read, do you leave bad reviews?

The question was eating me alive. So, I posted it on several of the Writers’ groups I had recently joined.

Within minutes, my phone was plinging like it was having a seizure.

Responses poured in from all corners of the globe — across the many groups, members amount to 90,000+ writers, and 2000+ of them were leaping and squabbling over each other to share their opinions!

Mind you, this isn’t a “Work In Progress” and no one specifically asked you to be a “beta reader”. Maybe Amazon just gave yo...

Writing & Representation: Finding Your Voice

Now that I can say I’ve finally, at long last, published a novel, my thoughts circled back to this TED talk by Chimamanda Adichie, one of my favourite pieces on writing.

While her focus is on the danger of the “single story”, the part that resonated with me most was at the beginning — the conundrum of writing and representation.

I experienced a similar childhood to this prolific Nigerian writer.

My father loves literature, and he would give me books by Trinidadian V.S. Naipaul… but for the...

Genre & Audience: “It’s romance… but, not really…”

“So, you wrote a book, huh? Congrats! Er, hmph… romance? Ahh… not my cup of tea…”

Let’s get one thing straight. As I clarify in my Hart & Cole Author Q&A, I am not a romance writer.

Or, at least, I never saw myself as a romance writer.

But it’s easy to see how genres blur into each other and become something else.

After all, the now-infamous erotica trilogy started out as “Twilight” fan fiction, and readers (who perhaps never even knew it was ever fan fiction!) may spend months arguing over...

The Publishing Journey: Fear & Procrastination!

So… Hart & Cole Book 1.

It’s officially out. It’s published.

It’s available. ANYONE can get it, ANYWHERE in the world. On ebook or paperback. It’s OUT THERE.

I’m excited. I’m thrilled. But more than anything, I am, in a word… TERRIFIED.

I’m fortunate to be able to say I’ve accomplished a lot of great things in my life, but still — just being able to push that “Publish” button, and open the whole wide world to a piece of my mind… it’s one of the scariest things I’ve ever had to do.

I’m not ki...

“I write.” – A Love Affair With Words

I’ve said it before, and it’s my professional motto: “I Write. It’s What I Do.”

I literally can’t remember a time when I wasn’t writing. As soon as I could hold a pencil, I had stories to share, things to say, things that needed to be said.

I have poems and stories and random snippets of things from kindergarten, elementary/primary school, high/secondary school, both universities, all years of employment — some creative fiction, some poetry/prose, some personal brain-dump diaries.

Some of it...