Tracey Alley's Blog - Posts Tagged "fantasy"
Why are there only 24 hours in a day?
Now it's entirely possible, no make that probable, that I've bitten off a little more than I can actually chew but it just feels like there's not enough hours in the day. I'm starting to feel like one of those mad authors you read about who stay glued to their keyboard pumping out one story after another but I've just go so much going on in my head right now that it's like I can't get the words down fast enough. I'm so excited about my new series of children's books - three so far and the artwork I've seen [all preliminary stuff] is just amazing. Then there's Slade's Destiny which I cannot wait to be ready for release - can't nag the beta readers though, very bad form. Then there's my non-fiction work which seems to be almost writing itself - of course, two years of research probably helps :)
Then I'm redecorating my house - believe me this is a project that is long overdue but I'm so hyped about it that I want to get every little thing exactly right - yes my husband is being driven slowly crazy. Plus I recently got back into my charity work which had fallen a little by the way side of recent times. Even though it takes up a big chunk of my time I absolutely love it - I guess you could say the charity was more for me :)
Anyway before I start to sound boring I'll sign off. Hope everyone is having a wonderful day.
Cheers,
Trace
Then I'm redecorating my house - believe me this is a project that is long overdue but I'm so hyped about it that I want to get every little thing exactly right - yes my husband is being driven slowly crazy. Plus I recently got back into my charity work which had fallen a little by the way side of recent times. Even though it takes up a big chunk of my time I absolutely love it - I guess you could say the charity was more for me :)
Anyway before I start to sound boring I'll sign off. Hope everyone is having a wonderful day.
Cheers,
Trace
How far can you stretch yourself as a writer?
I've never wanted, as an author, to be pigeon-holed. I've always wanted to be able to experiment with different genre's and even different styles within the same genre. I already write poetry, children's books, non-fiction work as well as fantasy and my latest experiment with flash fiction was very, very different to anything I'd written before.
The beauty of Amazon and self-publishing is that you have the freedom to do these kinds of experiments but I'm beginning to wonder if that's a 'smart' thing to do career wise. Mention the name Stephen King and people automatically think 'horror', so much so that when he wanted to branch out a little he had to write under a pen name. The same is true of Terry Pratchett - he's famous for his Discworld series and very few people even know that he actually does write other books. So does that mean that to have a truly successful writing career you have to pick a genre and stick with it?
Don't get me wrong, I love writing fantasy. I've cherished every moment I've spent in the land of Kaynos. I just don't want to be stuck there forever. Perhaps my imagination is limited but I think there are only so many good stories that I can write in that mythical land before it would become boring - for me, at least. But I can't help but wonder if I'm doing my overall writing career a disservice by wandering off into other genre's.
Or is this perhaps the new direction that writers and publishers will start to take? Is it possible that those of us who are riding the Indie train will set a new trend? Will we start to see Romance novelists writing Horror, or Mystery writers penning Westerns? And if that should become the accepted norm in writing and publishing how will readers react to that? As a reader, if you grabbed the latest Stephen King and it turned out to be a comedy - no matter how well written - would you be disappointed?
These are just a few thoughts and maybe it's just me and my own desire to try my hand at so many different things - I guess I just want to be able to tell ALL the stories in my head, not just the fantasy ones. :)
The beauty of Amazon and self-publishing is that you have the freedom to do these kinds of experiments but I'm beginning to wonder if that's a 'smart' thing to do career wise. Mention the name Stephen King and people automatically think 'horror', so much so that when he wanted to branch out a little he had to write under a pen name. The same is true of Terry Pratchett - he's famous for his Discworld series and very few people even know that he actually does write other books. So does that mean that to have a truly successful writing career you have to pick a genre and stick with it?
Don't get me wrong, I love writing fantasy. I've cherished every moment I've spent in the land of Kaynos. I just don't want to be stuck there forever. Perhaps my imagination is limited but I think there are only so many good stories that I can write in that mythical land before it would become boring - for me, at least. But I can't help but wonder if I'm doing my overall writing career a disservice by wandering off into other genre's.
Or is this perhaps the new direction that writers and publishers will start to take? Is it possible that those of us who are riding the Indie train will set a new trend? Will we start to see Romance novelists writing Horror, or Mystery writers penning Westerns? And if that should become the accepted norm in writing and publishing how will readers react to that? As a reader, if you grabbed the latest Stephen King and it turned out to be a comedy - no matter how well written - would you be disappointed?
These are just a few thoughts and maybe it's just me and my own desire to try my hand at so many different things - I guess I just want to be able to tell ALL the stories in my head, not just the fantasy ones. :)
The Life & Trials of a Writer
Hi all,
As I've been pretty sick I haven't done a blog post for ages. Just posted this one on my website but I thought I'd share it here too...
hope no one minds the double up :)
Let me say from the very beginning, it's tough being a writer whether you're published, traditionally or Indie, still unpublished and struggling. Either way it's a tough game. I've been writing for as long as I can remember and 95% of what I've written has been pure and utter junk. For twenty years I wrote poetry, short stories, novels and even a few magazine articles. To this day I have folders full to the brim of storyline ideas, plot outlines and even novel beginnings - much of which is pure rubbish and some, maybe, with some hard work could be something good. Had I bothered to keep them all I'm sure I could've wallpapered my whole house with rejection slips.
Then I wrote a halfway decent novel. It wasn't a masterpiece but it had a good storyline and seemed to flow well. I thought that was going to be 'the one'. I shopped around for agents and publishers and, to be honest, got some positive feedback but mostly outright rejections. I even had one editor tell me that I would be a good writer once 'I found my voice'. I didn't know what the hell she meant by that, I didn't even know my voice was lost. However, I'm not a complete dummy and eventually the penny dropped as to what she meant. I wasn't writing in the right genre for me. Well that wasn't a huge surprise in some ways as I'd tried practically every genre you can think of except for Westerns.
Then one day it happened. It was almost like magic in a way - I found a storyline that I really liked. I worked really hard and was, for the first time in my writing career, actually pleased with the end result. It was exciting and scary all at the same time. Again I shopped around for an agent or a publisher and this time, while I still got rejections, I also got an incredible amount of really positive feedback. Eventually I decided that if I couldn't get a decent contract via a traditional publisher - and I'd been offered a few real stinkers - then I would go Independent. I felt that confident in the novel. So, of course, was born Erich's Plea. I truly felt it was the best thing I'd ever written. I published and it started to sell, not huge amounts but slowly building over time and it's still selling.
Then I wrote and published the follow up, Ursula's Quest. I thought this book was even better than the last. It too slowly gained sales and even a few reviews. For the most part I've had hugely positive feedback on both novels and pretty impressive reviews. Mostly 5 or 4 stars out of 5, which I thought was excellent. Then I wrote the final in the trilogy, Slade's Destiny - still coming for release while I do all the final edits - and it was even better than the first two put together. And that's when I finally realised something that had eluded me for so long. Every time you put pen to paper you get better. Like a musician or an artist if you have the talent to begin with then your writing will continue to improve the more that you write.
Many of you are probably thinking 'well duh' at this point but I can be a slow learner at times. I thought talent and drive were more than enough to be a successful writer. I thought that if you had the gift then it would all just fall magically into place. It took me a very long time to realise that talent is only a small part of the life of a writer. Hard work, discipline, having a thick skin, getting real critical feedback and working at improving are all far, far more important than sheer talent or inspiration. Lots of people are talented but not everyone has the humility to work hard and keep learning. I hope that I have that humility, I hope that I will always continue to improve and yes, I hope that one day I make mega sales and become a household name. But mostly I'm realistic about the last one - I'm one of many, not the greatest but slowly gathering a following and I love each and every single reader I have. Without you, the reader, everything I've put into my work is worthless - both talent and hard work. So it's not an easy ride but it is exciting and a constant huge learning curve and I love every single minute of it.
Cheers,
Trace
As I've been pretty sick I haven't done a blog post for ages. Just posted this one on my website but I thought I'd share it here too...
hope no one minds the double up :)
Let me say from the very beginning, it's tough being a writer whether you're published, traditionally or Indie, still unpublished and struggling. Either way it's a tough game. I've been writing for as long as I can remember and 95% of what I've written has been pure and utter junk. For twenty years I wrote poetry, short stories, novels and even a few magazine articles. To this day I have folders full to the brim of storyline ideas, plot outlines and even novel beginnings - much of which is pure rubbish and some, maybe, with some hard work could be something good. Had I bothered to keep them all I'm sure I could've wallpapered my whole house with rejection slips.
Then I wrote a halfway decent novel. It wasn't a masterpiece but it had a good storyline and seemed to flow well. I thought that was going to be 'the one'. I shopped around for agents and publishers and, to be honest, got some positive feedback but mostly outright rejections. I even had one editor tell me that I would be a good writer once 'I found my voice'. I didn't know what the hell she meant by that, I didn't even know my voice was lost. However, I'm not a complete dummy and eventually the penny dropped as to what she meant. I wasn't writing in the right genre for me. Well that wasn't a huge surprise in some ways as I'd tried practically every genre you can think of except for Westerns.
Then one day it happened. It was almost like magic in a way - I found a storyline that I really liked. I worked really hard and was, for the first time in my writing career, actually pleased with the end result. It was exciting and scary all at the same time. Again I shopped around for an agent or a publisher and this time, while I still got rejections, I also got an incredible amount of really positive feedback. Eventually I decided that if I couldn't get a decent contract via a traditional publisher - and I'd been offered a few real stinkers - then I would go Independent. I felt that confident in the novel. So, of course, was born Erich's Plea. I truly felt it was the best thing I'd ever written. I published and it started to sell, not huge amounts but slowly building over time and it's still selling.
Then I wrote and published the follow up, Ursula's Quest. I thought this book was even better than the last. It too slowly gained sales and even a few reviews. For the most part I've had hugely positive feedback on both novels and pretty impressive reviews. Mostly 5 or 4 stars out of 5, which I thought was excellent. Then I wrote the final in the trilogy, Slade's Destiny - still coming for release while I do all the final edits - and it was even better than the first two put together. And that's when I finally realised something that had eluded me for so long. Every time you put pen to paper you get better. Like a musician or an artist if you have the talent to begin with then your writing will continue to improve the more that you write.
Many of you are probably thinking 'well duh' at this point but I can be a slow learner at times. I thought talent and drive were more than enough to be a successful writer. I thought that if you had the gift then it would all just fall magically into place. It took me a very long time to realise that talent is only a small part of the life of a writer. Hard work, discipline, having a thick skin, getting real critical feedback and working at improving are all far, far more important than sheer talent or inspiration. Lots of people are talented but not everyone has the humility to work hard and keep learning. I hope that I have that humility, I hope that I will always continue to improve and yes, I hope that one day I make mega sales and become a household name. But mostly I'm realistic about the last one - I'm one of many, not the greatest but slowly gathering a following and I love each and every single reader I have. Without you, the reader, everything I've put into my work is worthless - both talent and hard work. So it's not an easy ride but it is exciting and a constant huge learning curve and I love every single minute of it.
Cheers,
Trace
I wanted to be a writer not a salesman!
As many of you will know from my last post all my life I've dreamed of being a writer. A real writer with real books available for people I don't know to actually read. Well I finally got there after a loooong journey but now it turns out that there's more.
I'd honestly never thought past that magic moment of seeing my words in print. I didn't realise that after that came all the marketing and promotion. And guess what? Turns out that I'm not very good at either. I always end up feeling slightly sleazy - 'here, wanna buy my book?'.
I know that I have to do it, especially in the modern world of Indie publishing but I just feel odd about it. A little like a used car salesman but without the credibility ;) Seriously though, how do you go about getting people to read your books without being a salesman, marketing and promotions expert?? I haven't figured that one out.
So, as is my habit sometimes when things are difficult, I have so far ignored it. I interact with people through sites like this, use Twitter, FB and have a website but I'm obviously not the marketer I should be or I'd have more sales [unless I just wrote a lousy book lol]. I know of a lot of other Indie author's who seem to be really good at promotion and I'm proud to call some of them my online friends but I'm not one of them.
Basically what I'm saying is that if you've written a book and now feel a little overwhelmed at the prospect of trying to market it - don't panic. If someone as bad at it as me can start to slowly get the hang of it then anyone can do it. True we're writers not salesmen but in today's world, realistically, we have to be both.
Cheers,
Trace
I'd honestly never thought past that magic moment of seeing my words in print. I didn't realise that after that came all the marketing and promotion. And guess what? Turns out that I'm not very good at either. I always end up feeling slightly sleazy - 'here, wanna buy my book?'.
I know that I have to do it, especially in the modern world of Indie publishing but I just feel odd about it. A little like a used car salesman but without the credibility ;) Seriously though, how do you go about getting people to read your books without being a salesman, marketing and promotions expert?? I haven't figured that one out.
So, as is my habit sometimes when things are difficult, I have so far ignored it. I interact with people through sites like this, use Twitter, FB and have a website but I'm obviously not the marketer I should be or I'd have more sales [unless I just wrote a lousy book lol]. I know of a lot of other Indie author's who seem to be really good at promotion and I'm proud to call some of them my online friends but I'm not one of them.
Basically what I'm saying is that if you've written a book and now feel a little overwhelmed at the prospect of trying to market it - don't panic. If someone as bad at it as me can start to slowly get the hang of it then anyone can do it. True we're writers not salesmen but in today's world, realistically, we have to be both.
Cheers,
Trace
