Joseph Hunt's Blog, page 21

Writing for Different Genres

When you self-publish you have to pick categories and genres and that's all your readers want to know...they want to know if it's something that they'd be interested in reading.



I'd like to think that I can write in several genres because I don't think that any one writer can just by writing in one genre, well professionally they can but it does make good practice for incorporating many genres into one novel or short story etc.



I think it's important now that we're all capable of knowing at least a little something about writing in all of these different genres and just being able to incorporate a little bit of romance into your fantasy, or knowing the elements of a drama to be able to pump up the pace and action in your conflict scene.



So if you guys want to join me and agree with what I said above, then this is my schedule for next week, I'll be posting Monday, Wednesday, Friday and then the Monday after I am going to be writing blog posts on 4 genres that I like to write in and just some general tips for people.



Maybe you want to start writing in that genre or maybe you're just interested in whether or not I'm giving tips that you agree with or disagree with or you want to add to...I don't mind, I know that nothing I say is set in stone or religious text but I like to have an opinion on things.



On Monday I'll be blogging about writing fantasy novels and short stories. On Wednesday I'll be blogging about writing romance novels and short stories. On Friday I'll be blogging about writing horror novels and short stories. The Monday after I'll be blogging about writing drama novels and short stories.



That's a lot...but I hope you got it.



These are not going to be pretentious step-by-step guides where I'm all, "hey, this is what you do to write this", no, there is no definitive guide to this kind of stuff, but different genres exploit and employ certain techniques that add to the feel of the novel and also, like I said above, it's always good to know these kind of things, maybe you could add some romance in your horror or thriller.



Digressing here....What do you think of that photograph there? I took it from Google, as I do with all my photos, but I really liked this one, and I wasn't sure what to put there because it's a strategy thing, if I post an enticing picture you're more likely to look at that first and then read my blog post, or the title.



I am also a little apprehensive about writing and publishing under the same name, I write gay romance and I also write horror, both of which I've addressed in a previous post...when I say previous this was way back in September. If you're also going through, or have been though an identity crisis relating to publishing under the same name for different genres then why don't you check out my post: Pseudonym Me!



-Joseph




Comment. Follow. Share.

every follower counts

Oh, Little Bottle -- My Fiction Thursday!

My Fiction Thursday is something that I created last night after I wrote my blog post telling you all that I am creative. If you want to read that and give me suggestions on what you guys want me to post, then head there with this link - I am Creative, I really am! - oh, and remember to come back and read this little something.



Oh, Little Bottle 

I've lived so many lives, been through so many cycles, I'm not new to this business at all, and I do my job quite well, playing home to the tiny little aspirin inside of me. It's always aspirin, nothing stronger.


I'm not an aggressive bottle and I don't try forcing my aspirin on anyone, in fact sometimes I just wish people would leave me alone, but if I have to push pills, then I will! I became attached to my little 'uns while on the shop floor, 87 of them, the largest quantity I've ever held, and they each had names, there was Pain, Killer, Para, Cetamol, Over, Dose, Relief, Ache, y'know, a lot of them. But now most of them have gone down his gut, the guy that had the prescription for me and my tiny seeds of support.

I am surprised he hasn't overdosed on me yet, always dipping in and out, taking my pills like they're some kind of candy, but I'm just not that kind of bottle. It's distressing to tell anyone this, there are only a few survivors left, and once they've gone I can't see him putting me into the recycle bin, a proper burial and reincarnation, no, this looks like the end for me, life is almost over. He'll throw me into that bin beside the sink, and he looks fed up, barely gets changed, always smelling, at least I have that here, the smell of mint, it does sometime sting, and there isn't much convocation, only the pining after that the toothpaste and floss do for the toothbrush, and he's almost done for himself with his fraying bristles.

I can't wait for this eternal rest I've heard so much about, a pharmaceutical heaven, holding as much of anything you want; oh those are the days, the happy days when I don't have to keep the charcoal white aspirin inside. I might get to hold something stronger or meet some of the famous faces, like that guy, the one who held all those Acai berry tablets on the poster I'd seen inside the pharmacy, but I bet his owner had the decency to at least recycle him.

But for now, I'm stuck in the dark cabinet with a singing tube of toothpaste and floss that's constantly trying to lasso the toothbrush. I wish they'd hook-up already.


Where did that come from?





I wrote this as part of my creative writing workshop at university today. I really enjoyed writing the piece but because it was really rough I didn't share it at the time, and now it's here for you all to see! I really hoped that you liked it.


Also, 'My Fiction Thursday' will be a regular thing on my blog from now on, and I chose Thursday because I have both my creative writing seminars on a Thursday and also because there are a lot of people pushing this 'Flash Fiction Friday' that I decided I'd give the world a bit of me on a Thursday instead.



-Joseph




Comment. Follow. Share.

I am Creative....I really am!

I worry, I'm a natural worrier, so when I woke up this morning and found comments encouraging me to keep on writing I started to get a little nervous, I've planned on putting something like 'Flash Fiction Friday' in place because it's a popular thing, I've also thought about doing more things with poetry, but it's been so long since I posted anything creative and now I fear that all of my posts are all about critical things.



I do want to teach creative writing at some point in my life, and I suppose that this blog helps me do that, but I also want to self-publish and I'd like you guys to know that I am creative, I really am!



This feeling hasn't just come about overnight, I've been thinking about it for a while now, I keep on posting things about writing and the different aspects, as well as that I haven't been completely dedicated and that knocks me at times so as a belated new years resolution I am going to give you guys a bit more of the creative me...the me that is studying creative writing at university and wants to get a name for himself as being creative, writing poems and novels etc.



So I have a question for you....




What do you want to see on my blog?

More poetry? A series of short stories? Flash fiction?


I really want to know so that I don't post things nobody wants to read.

I'll even try a new genre if you request it....



-Joseph




Comment. Follow. Share

I'm a Writer...

It's a weird thing to speak out aloud and it's really strange to tell people when they ask you what you want to be or what you plan on doing when you finish university, I often clumsily word it because of how nervous I am and I don't want to come off as pretentious or anything---"I'm a writer. I write things." I think I prefer them to hear that then the excitement bursting inside me when someone asks and I just want to blabber on and talk about inspiration and creativity and planning and writing and typing on my laptop and just being able to touch people with your words.



They'd probably think I was a crazy person....and that is probably the degree of person it takes to say, "yeah, I am a writer, it's what I love doing, and yes, it's a career choice, my career choice," I always make things like that for when people try and confront me and tell me all the negativities about being a writer.



I found this picture on Google and it best describes how both my 'desk' (I don't have a desk, just loads of folders with stray papers everywhere) and the inside of my head looks.







I started writing when I was 6...or somewhere that young and I was writing on folded pages of scrap paper and I can remember fondly the dragons and the witches and the little families they had, inspired by TV and films....but I haven't always loved reading, and I didn't when I was younger, but I did love writing and trying to express myself with words that I had yet to learn and know the meaning of.



Another huge part of my life was from when I was 9 to about 12 and I used to play these hugely weaved games with my cousin and we'd both be witches or wizards with twigs in our hands and pretending that they were wands....I would still do that now, but I'm an adult and I think it would be very weird to let ALL of those inhibitions go.



And then when I was in High School, in year 10...not sure about the grade for Americans....but I was 15 and I wrote my first ever (I want to say novel, but that sounds way more than it was) major project, I'd planned it and everything, and then over 60,000 words later....it was rubbish, but it still has a file on my laptop. That year was also the year when I found out about Creative Writing courses at university and I was dead set on doing it. I couldn't wait, I had 3 more years yet before I could go to university, and one night, I remember that I couldn't sleep because of how excited I was and the potential that was, and still is in me.



I was 15 then and I'm 18 now, I'm at university now, studying English and Creative Writing and it's great. I am really glad that I went with my heart and did something that I enjoyed instead of doing something that I would later regret and all to please my family. Yes, I went through a whole host of professions before coming out and telling them all that "I am a writer...and I want to write books for a living."



I asked the question on my Facebook page (Joseph's Writing) before 'If you're a writer....why do you write?' --- the question was met with positive feedback, people giving me answers about blank pages needing to be filled and not writing is unbearable. I said this....



"I love making worlds and characters and just being able to play around with their lives and their problems....living a thousand other lives before I live my own." - Me




-Joseph




Comment. Follow. Share.

The Male POV and Me...

[image error]
I was awake quite late last night and I didn't know what to do, I'd just finished editing and my eyes felt quite strained after looking at the computer screen for so long and I couldn't focus my eyes when I was reading on my Kindle. So I put a film on and picked up my pad of paper and a pen for scribbles or notes, anything that could turn the end of the night into something productive…and it kind of ended on a productive note, I was left writing the names of each novel I had planned and the main character in each of them…that turned out to become 4 mind maps, one for each of the different main characters.


Daniel Satoria, (Lumen) the Blood Luminary series. 




Brandon Harper, (Clandestine) the Night Falls series. 





Wren Caldwell, (The Salem Gates) the Caldwell Witches series. 




Lucius Jacques, (Life Elixir) the Forever Torn Trilogy.




I started telling my friend about each of them and she asked, "why all the male characters?"





Of course this is something I'd thought about, I'd consciously made all my protagonists male, and I suppose the main reason is because I believe that I write them better, I don't think I could write as a female because in reality I'm never in the mind-set of a female. However, I do believe in challenging yourself as a writer but sometimes you just have to know what voice you can and cannot write in, and not to stress yourself out if you can't.




She continued to question me about my choice and asked again, "but why the male point of view, won't that alienate some readers?"




No, I told her immediately, in fact most of the people who have Lumen on the Goodreads 'to-read' list are actually female, and I read a lot of books written from the female viewpoint, so why should my writing be any different in the sense that it's a male viewpoint and there are female readers. The silly thing would be to try and alienate any gender or say this type of person will like such-a book because of their gender…that's silly.




She agreed then asked, "If you're writing them altogether don't the voices all merge and you end up with one character who's spread across 4 identities and 4 series?"




I held my hands up at this point, I didn't know if they all sounded the same and I liked the fact that she'd asked me such a question. So I put the same question to you. 



If you have created many characters around the same age and gender, how do you differentiate them with the voice? 





It took me a while to get an answer, but when I did, this is what I said. I can't say for definite that all my characters are different, but I do make them all different, they all have an A3 sheet of paper with notes scribbled all over the place, they all have such different up-bringing's and back stories and their futures are far from similar, and none of them look the same, plus they're from all around the world…and because of how different and real I've made the characters to me, that's how I make them real to my reader and that's why I'm reassured that they all have different voices, because they all speak to me differently.


How do you create your characters? Do you draw a picture of them---or with a picture of words? Do you start with a name and then flesh them out? 


-Joseph


Comment. Follow. Share.

Lumen -- Keep your February Free!!

I can see the end of edits on the horizon and a choir of angelic cries as the release of Lumen is there…within reach, which by the way mean I still have no clue when the release will happen, so just keep every day in February free for a huge celebratory party, we all know that it's long overdue.



I have the final edition of the cover…I know that you're all thinking, "Another cover?! Are you sure it's the final one this time?!" and to that I say, no, I'm not sure, but I'm pretty damn positive that it will be the cover you need to watch out for when I tell you all to go, pick your eReaders up and get your copy of Lumen!



I have a few things planned in the weeks to come, these things include some a little q&a with the protagonist, and yes, it's a male protagonist…so let that mix up your palette, and you'll get to know Daniel Satoria before you get to know him in Lumen, and you'll get to know a few other characters through Daniel…depending on how he's feeling and how generous of time he's willing to give away.





I'm also going to be giving away these amazing looking bookmarks...they still need printing, but if I post the picture just here, you'll be able to get a feel for them. I know that I did say I didn't like bookmarks, especially when an indie only makes eBooks, but I was encouraged to do them and a lot of people have asked for them...plus posting is uber cheap sooooo yes! This is the finished product!









Do you like them? Do you want one? Would you like them to be given away with a FREE eBook? 




I hope you answered, yes, yes, and YES!! Because a week before Lumen hits Amazon you'll be the first to know. Oh, and I forgot to ask, do you like the front cover? I think it's the best one I've done EVER!



Now that you've seen all of this, why don't you learn a little bit about Lumen via Goodreads and this hyperlink here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13219801-lumen and while you're at it, why not be a star and add Lumen to you 'to-read' pile! YAY! <3




-Joseph

Follow. Comment. Share.

Popular Culture!

I went to the cinema yesterday to watch Chipmunks 3: Chipwrecked, I really enjoyed watching the first 2 so I thought that this one was going to be just as good...apparently not. Apparently it wanted to take on a new form, and that form was an absolute disgrace!



I really would not have cared much if the film had made references to pop culture in the first two films, but it didn't and that is what I liked about the film...it was it's own, it wasn't trying to bring all these other things into it.



I also fear that this is a growing problem within fiction. I've read a few vampire books and in almost each of them they reference Twilight with some cheesy line like -- "he was gorgeous. But not like Edward Cullen" -- or some other relation to Twilight and it's stupid! It makes the author sound stupid! Yes, if you're an indie author....stop being a total bitch! Yes, you may include another author but don't be a total bitch! Say nice things to your heart's content....



I'm a little bit peeved with all this popular culture mumbo jumbo. You might want to connect with your reader but do that without bringing in your own personal afflictions into it. Also, a little warning, if you do ever write something and become an irritating narrator then your book will probably collect dust or lose it's spot on my Kindle.



A little something to let you think about....what will happen in the future when we're living in a different culture, most of the things that are in your novel will not be applicable any more, and yes, eBooks are forever, but is the content of your writing.




Are you going to think about it?


-Joseph


Follow. Comment. Share.

Popular Culture!

I went to the cinema yesterday to watch Chipmunks 3: Chipwrecked, I really enjoyed watching the first 2 so I thought that this one was going to be just as good...apparently not. Apparently it wanted to take on a new form, and that form was an absolute disgrace!



I really would not have cared much if the film had made references to pop culture in the first two films, but it didn't and that is what I liked about the film...it was it's own, it wasn't trying to bring all these other things into it.



I also fear that this is a growing problem within fiction. I've read a few vampire books and in almost each of them they reference Twilight with some cheesy line like -- "he was gorgeous. But not like Edward Cullen" -- or some other relation to Twilight and it's stupid! It makes the author sound stupid! Yes, if you're an indie author....stop being a total bitch! Yes, you may include another author but don't be a total bitch! Say nice things to your heart's content....



I'm a little bit peeved with all this popular culture mumbo jumbo. You might want to connect with your reader but do that without bringing in your own personal afflictions into it. Also, a little warning, if you do ever write something and become an irritating narrator then your book will probably collect dust or lose it's spot on my Kindle.



A little something to let you think about....what will happen in the future when we're living in a different culture, most of the things that are in your novel will not be applicable any more, and yes, eBooks are forever, but is the content of your writing.




Are you going to think about it?


-Joseph


Follow. Comment. Share.

The Benefits of Writing Prompts - Guest Post - Michelle Grogan

[image error]
Writing is not an easy thing. It can be frustrating, time consuming, mind numbing . . . and the best thing in the world!! Writing is an expressive art . . . through writing a person can express what they are thinking, feeling, hoping and dreaming for, what they are upset about, what they believe in - or don't believe in. But . . . it's not always easy - and it shouldn't be. So what do you do when your creative juices dry up? Give up? Put down the pen, close down the program, and tuck it all away until that idea sparks again? NO WAY!!!

One of the things I have found helpful when I needed a little boost to my creativity is to use writing prompts. Prompts can get your brain all warmed up and ready to come up with that great plot twist that will have your readers turning the pages. They can help you challenge yourself to take a step outside your writing comfort zone. A good writing prompt can even spark an idea for that next great book you're going to write!

Recently my creative juices ran a little dry. I had just self-published my first novel - Forbidden Love - and was immersed in the whole marketing/promoting aspect of my book, I found myself aching to get back into the writing part of writing but I couldn't seem to focus my mind on something new just yet. So instead of driving myself crazy, I turned to so writing prompts - sure, they had nothing to do with the story I had in mind - but it was just what I needed to get those creative juices flowing!!

So after all of this, you might be asking yourself, where can I find these amazing prompts? I've found prompts in books published just for this purpose, but I have also discovered a great site that has prompts not only for fiction writers to work with but for those who write poetry or even plays. Go to www.creativewritingprompts.com for some great prompts to get those creative juices flowing once again!


About Michelle Grogan 

Michelle is from Westchester Country, New York where she is a Literacy Specialist in a Special Education school for students with Emotional/Behavioral/Learning Disabilities Her writing career began early on when she used her Barbies to tell the stories that were in her head. It was in Middle School when she started to write those stories down.

Michelle's writing is inspired not just by the world and people around her, but by the books she has read – and being an avid reader, that is a LOT of books – and even by daytime television. In September of 2011, Michelle joined the ranks of Indie Authors when she self-published her first novel – Forbidden Love – on Amazon Kindle. Michelle's book is also available on the Nook, in the iBook store, for the Sony E-Reader and on Kobo through smashwords.com.






-Joseph

And if you want to guest post then just send me your suggestions to josepheastwood@ymail.com

The Benefits of Writing Prompts - Guest Post - Michelle Grogan

[image error]
Writing is not an easy thing. It can be frustrating, time consuming, mind numbing . . . and the best thing in the world!! Writing is an expressive art . . . through writing a person can express what they are thinking, feeling, hoping and dreaming for, what they are upset about, what they believe in - or don't believe in. But . . . it's not always easy - and it shouldn't be. So what do you do when your creative juices dry up? Give up? Put down the pen, close down the program, and tuck it all away until that idea sparks again? NO WAY!!!

One of the things I have found helpful when I needed a little boost to my creativity is to use writing prompts. Prompts can get your brain all warmed up and ready to come up with that great plot twist that will have your readers turning the pages. They can help you challenge yourself to take a step outside your writing comfort zone. A good writing prompt can even spark an idea for that next great book you're going to write!

Recently my creative juices ran a little dry. I had just self-published my first novel - Forbidden Love - and was immersed in the whole marketing/promoting aspect of my book, I found myself aching to get back into the writing part of writing but I couldn't seem to focus my mind on something new just yet. So instead of driving myself crazy, I turned to so writing prompts - sure, they had nothing to do with the story I had in mind - but it was just what I needed to get those creative juices flowing!!

So after all of this, you might be asking yourself, where can I find these amazing prompts? I've found prompts in books published just for this purpose, but I have also discovered a great site that has prompts not only for fiction writers to work with but for those who write poetry or even plays. Go to www.creativewritingprompts.com for some great prompts to get those creative juices flowing once again!


About Michelle Grogan 

Michelle is from Westchester Country, New York where she is a Literacy Specialist in a Special Education school for students with Emotional/Behavioral/Learning Disabilities Her writing career began early on when she used her Barbies to tell the stories that were in her head. It was in Middle School when she started to write those stories down.

Michelle's writing is inspired not just by the world and people around her, but by the books she has read – and being an avid reader, that is a LOT of books – and even by daytime television. In September of 2011, Michelle joined the ranks of Indie Authors when she self-published her first novel – Forbidden Love – on Amazon Kindle. Michelle's book is also available on the Nook, in the iBook store, for the Sony E-Reader and on Kobo through smashwords.com.






-Joseph

And if you want to guest post then just send me your suggestions to josepheastwood@ymail.com