M.B. Mulhall's Blog, page 19

What Writing Looks Like

So I noticed last week that my writing buddy Patty was taking part in a blog hop called “What Writing Looks Like.” I thought, “What a great idea!”  I don’t think readers and beginning authors often realize how much goes into the writing process and the kinds of corrections and re-writes we have to do.

The Blog Hop is being hosted by Sarah from The Writer’s Experiment and I’m getting in on it on the last day! All one has to do is take some pictures of the red ink that gets scrawled on the pages of your manuscripts.  Be sure to check out some of the the other blogs that participated!

I decided to use one of my early beta copies of Tears of a Clown. My great friend Kristine did an amazingly thorough job going through it, making corrections, suggestions and funny comments. I kind of love her for it.  Let me show you how much work she made for me! Ha!

See all those little flags?

How about a closer look?

Eep! That’s a lot. Let me tell you, seeing all of those was very overwhelming.

This first page and the lovely little note about how much she enjoyed it helped put me at ease. Yes there was a lot of work to be done, but at least I knew the story was a good one.

Lots of handy little comments and notes.

Final product! A big difference with a shiny new cover and none of those pesky little flags!

Help! My Secondary Characters are Running Amuck!

Well, not mine at the moment, but I’ve had it happen!  You’re writing this great story and you think everything is coming together beautifully. Then something possesses you to add a secondary character for whatever reason. Maybe your MC (main character) needs a best friend or a scapegoat or maybe just someone to talk to.  That’s all fine and dandy. It helps round out your MC and typically it makes the plot more interesting to have other people involved, right?

So what happens if that secondary/minor character takes on a life of their own, overshadowing the MC and fighting for their position as hero?

If you find this other character speaks more to you, that writing them comes more naturally, then maybe you need to rethink their roles in the story. Maybe they do deserve to be the protagonist. Could this mean a good deal of rewriting? Yes, but it could make the story much better on a whole.

If you’re not willing to switch their roles you may have to scale back on what the secondary character does.  This can be hard if they keep popping up or play a significant role, but your reader will be confused and sometimes angry if the MC is overshadowed by someone else. “I was reading a book about Edward! Why is Jacob suddenly around so much?!”  Okay…probably not the best character reference since that story is a love triangle and the guys do get pretty equal time, but you get what I mean. Jake does get more of a backseat after Bella and Edward get married but…oh God, why am I using this story to illustrate what I mean?

Let’s move on.

If that secondary character really speaks to you, it could mean they deserve a book or short story of their own. It can be a prequel, their backstory and how they come to meet your MC or how they fit into the story you’re currently telling.  It could be a companion novel taking place in the same town with characters from the first book but continuing the story from this other character’s point of view.  I kind of love to see stories like that.  The Wicked Lovely series does a great job with that, fleshing out those secondary characters by making every even numbered book about one of them rather than the main characters. It helps create a more cohesive world and helps the reader understand the main plot better by filling in what’s going on with the other characters.  The main characters still show up to a degree so you get your fix of them but they aren’t the focus.

So if your secondary characters are acting up, you either need to reign them in or promise to tell their own story so they’ll comply with your wishes in your current project.  Don’t let them take the spotlight from your main character. Offer the spin-off and move on so you can let them run wild with their own tale.

Have you ever switched up who the main character in your work was or written a second story to appease a minor character?

People Watching and Eavesdropping

As any writer knows, there’s more to writing than just putting the words down on paper/into the word processor.  There’s the planning and plotting process, there’s editing, reading, formatting and sharing.  There’s also taking note of the world around you.

When you want your story to come across as realistic and for your characters to be believable, you have to base parts of them on reality, on things you’ve experienced or saw/overheard.  But what happens if you’re kind of a homebody? The shy type who doesn’t get out much or have a whole lot of friends? A lot of writers I know are pretty introverted.  I can certainly be as well.

So how do us shy folks learn about what the party folks and others are doing?  It’s very simple. We people watch and eavesdrop.  I suppose it sounds like an invasion of privacy to some, but hey, if you’re talking loudly in public you’re free game.  It always kind of amazes me the conversations people will have in public places thinking others won’t hear them.  I’ve heard sex talks on the train, party details while at restaurants, extremely detailed one sided phone conversations about your baby’s bowel movements over cubical walls. -Cringe-

It all makes for possible story fodder.  You know this stuff happens in real life so you can write it in. Granted you may often only hear one side of it, but that can prompt you to think about what the other side of the story may be and use that to flesh out your characters and the plot to make it more realistic.

When it comes to the people watching, I like to don a pair of dark sunglasses and sit somewhere that’s heavily populated with pedestrian traffic. Places like the  Seaside boardwalk (yes, yes of Jersey Shore fame) or Penn Station.  You’d be amazed by the amount of different kinds of people who frequent those places on a daily basis.  When I lived on Long Island, I often met friends in the city so we’d plan to meet in Penn and I’d sit on the stairs leading to MSG and the people go by. I was always intrigued most by the unlikely couples. I would make up scenarios in my head about how they met and what drew them to each other.  It made for some interesting stories and aspects have certainly been worked into my writing.

I think most artists have to be observers.  Without the observations and conversations, our art would seem flat and unrealistic, unappealing to our audiences.  I caution you not to look like a lech or butt into conversations, otherwise you might walk away with a fat lip, but if it’s seen or heard in public, I consider it fair game. Use your information wisely.

Do you have a favorite place to people watch? What crazy things have you overheard and put into your novels?

It’s almost NaNo time!

So here we are, mid October already. You’re probably drowning in pumpkin flavored everything (YUM!), getting costumes together and sitting down for bad horror movie marathons.  I love all of those things but they remind me that November is looming and what comes in November? NaNoWriMo of course!

In case you’re new to the whole writing thing or you’re a reader/blogger who has always wanted to write but needed that kick in the ass, let me explain it a little.

Na-tional

No-vel

Wri-ting

Mo-nth

It’s a month where aspiring/indie/traditionally published authors strive to write 50k words of a story in the month of November.  There are kick off parties for your area, write ins, word challenges, gentle pushes and bitter name calling when you see your writing buddies are running laps around your word count. A good time is had by most!

I’m bringing it up now rather than November so people can start thinking about it and planning if they’re going to participate.  They ask that you start a new project (because you may be too attached to something you’re already working on) and NO editing is to be done until after November. Let me repeat that *NO* editing is to be done until after November.  This allows you to write and get the bulk (if not all) of the story out without stalling to re-write a chapter or eight.

I encourage everyone who has ever wanted to write a book to give it a try.  You’ll have great support and it’s a lot of fun. Last year I did a post everyday of the month relating to NaNo. Probably won’t do that this year but you guys are welcome to go back and look at the short daily posts. I named them the ABCs 123s of NaNo.

Take these couple of weeks before the 1st to think of an idea to work on. Do some research, make an outline, clip images that inspire you. Whatever you need to do to prepare.  Sign up on the site (click on NaNoWriMo above!) and check out the forms. Make friends, ask questions, check out what’s going on in your neighborhood.  I highly suggest making a Twitter account if you don’t have one so you can follow #nanowrimo and see who else is participating and participate in word challenges and whatnot.

Are you planning on doing NaNo this year? What will you be working on?

More to read is leading to less reading?

As has been discussed, I am an avid reader.  Always have been. My folks used to get annoyed I’d finish all my Nancy Drew books in a day or two and be asking to go back to the bookstore to buy more.  Owning an e-reader has opened me up to an even bigger world of books.  There are free deals every.single.day.  While I don’t always get things, I have to say I “pick up” freebies or sale books several times a week. My To-Read list is huuuuuuge.  If they were physical books, I’m sure the tower of them would be teetering over right now.

Here’s are the  problems I’m having though:

1) I don’t always read them in the order I get them.  Sometimes…okay, most of the time, I’m flipping through the “pages” on my Kindle reading titles and I have completely forgotten what they’re about. I’ve forgotten what drew me to get it in the first place.  It often ends up leaving books on the list for a long time, until I’m desperate to read something new.  A lot of times when I get to something I start and think “OH! This is good! Why did I wait so long to read it?”

As an author who took part in Amazon’s KDP program, I gave away a huge amount of my first book on my free days. I want to say somewhere between 8,000 and 9,000 copies. People probably had the same mentality as me: “This looks good! It’s free. I’ll get to it someday.”  Now my book probably sits on the last “page” of their Kindles waiting for a read.  I think this because out of all those freebies, I think I’ve gotten maybe five random reviews in different places (Amazon, Goodreads, etc). I know a lot of people can’t be bothered to leave reviews or ratings but I’d like to think the percentage out of that many people would be higher. I’m hoping when people finally get around to reading it, they’ll opt to leave a couple of words. We shall see. At the rate some people are probably going with acquiring new reads, it could be years before I see those reviews.

2) I am finding, with such a long list of stuff available for me (not even including the free deals I can find that day!) I am more picky about the writing.  I’m an Indie author. I have found a great deal of fellow Indies that I follow and love to read. I have also found a bunch of so-so Indies and some who should probably not be allowed to publish again unless they go through some rigorous training…It used to be, I’d suffer through a so-so or bad book just to see if it got better and to say I finished it. I hated to start something and not complete it. I felt like I was cheating myself by not knowing the ending. Now? I end up with the mentality of “why am I suffering when I could be moving onto something that is better?”

I have a feeling I’m not alone in this sentiment. I think it’s helped me to realize I need to be able to grab my reader’s attention and try my damnedest to hold it otherwise they’re going to move onto something else, leaving my poor story half finished.

If you have an e-reader, are you finding that having more options is leading to you reading less, whether it’s actually getting to the book you purchased or completing the ones you start?

What makes for a good villain?

I’ve talked about villains a little in some other posts, mainly during last year’s ABC’s 123′s of Nanowrimo, but a writing friend wanted to hear some more and requested it for a blog topic. So here we are!

Firstly, how about a good ole definition.  Dictionary.com has this to say:

vil·lain

[vil-uhn]  

noun

1.a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime; scoundrel.
2.a character in a play, novel, or the like, who constitutes an important evil agency in the plot.

 

I think we probably all knew that without me posting a definition, but I wanted to put it here because while it’s true, I think when it comes to writing, this is a very loose definition of what a villain is and how they play into a plot.  I think a good villain is a character you love to hate, but I think it’s good to make them “human” as well. Readers need a back story. They want to know why the villain has it out for the main character(s). They want to know that, had circumstances had been different, maybe that villain could have been a hero or at least someone who wasn’t out for world destruction.

 

A writer needs to flesh out their villain as well as their main character. Make them seem real. Show their emotions, their hatred, their rage. Show that they have their own agenda and show why that agenda is important.  I also don’t think all villains have to be “evil”. Just because they have a different ideal of how life should be doesn’t automatically make them evil.

 

Sometimes the villain doesn’t even have to be a person/creature/etc. A very odd town that doesn’t like to let visitors leave can be the villain. A haunted house that swallows people stupid enough to enter it can be the villain.M Maybe it’s a killer liquid. The Blob! Be creative with it.

 

Think about some of your all time favorite villains and the characteristics that make them stand out to you. I’ve never been a huge fan of Disney villains because I don’t feel like we really get to know them. Okay, the evil queen doesn’t want anyone to be prettier than her, but why? Is she really just *THAT* vain? I’m not sure that’s it.  In Snow White and the Huntsman, we get a better idea why the evil queen does what she does. I would love a movie about just her and what made her the way she is. Maleficent is probably the fiercest of all the Disney villains (in my opinion anyway. I mean she turns into a fire breathing dragon!) and we  know she’s pissed she doesn’t get an invite to a baby’s christening, but really, is that cause for such actions? Not in my opinion. I want to know what makes her tick. What made her strive to be so powerful?

 

Use your favorites as inspiration and don’t be afraid to write them a back story, even if you can only work hints of it into the novel, it could make for a good short prequel at another time.  They may not be your main character, but they deserve to be fleshed out and believable.  If you tell me they just want to take over the world, I’m going to be annoyed I don’t know why.  They don’t need equal billing with your main character, but remember, without them and their actions, you’re probably going to have a pretty lackluster and uneventful story to tell.

 

Who are your favorite literary villains and why are they your favorite?

Banned Book Week Sept. 30 – Oct. 6

As an author who writes on topics some might feel are “controversial” I worry that should I ever be traditionally published, some of my works may end up on challenged or banned lists.  I bet you’re probably thinking “ooh only classic out dated works that have words like nigger in it get banned.”  That’s hardly the case.  Yes, there are some great classics with that type of language on the banned list, but I bet you’d be surprised by some of the recent, well known, best sellers that have been challenge.

Firstly, what’s the difference between banned and challenged books?

Challenged Books: Books that people are trying to remove or restrict from schools, libraries, ect.

Banned Books: If a group of people challenge a book and they win, then the book is banned and removed from public spaces like schools, libraries, ect.

(Thanks to epicreads.com for the info!)

So let’s go over some books that you may have read that people have tried to get banned from schools and libraries:

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Reasons: anti-ethnic; anti-family; insensitivity; offensive language; occult/satanic; violence

Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily Von Ziegesar. Reasons: drugs; offensive language; sexually explicit

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie. Reasons: offensive language; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

Crank, by Ellen Hopkins. Reasons: drugs, offensive language, and sexually explicit

Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer. Reasons: religious viewpoint and violence

My Sister’s Keeper, by Jodi Picoult. Reasons: homosexuality, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexism, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence

His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman. Reasons: political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, and violence

Harry Potter (series), by J.K. Rowling . Reasons: occult/Satanism

Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson. Reason: occult/Satanism, offensive language

Those are just a few that you probably know, have read and very likely enjoyed. Now, imagine you’re a huge Twilight or Harry Potter fan and you go to the library to take out the latest book only to have the sad librarian tell you that the series was pulled because the people believed the books to be inappropriate. Would you be a happy camper? I doubt it.

First of all, I don’t think anyone has the right to tell others what they can and can’t read.  Should parents monitor what their kids are reading? Sure, but I think that’s a parent’s job not societies’ job to say what they feel is appropriate for their kids. I also think parents and schools have to teach kids the difference between fact and fiction and remind them that things happen in books because an author writes them that way.

Books can be educational, an escape, a wake up call, a friend, an inspiration and a revelation. Somehow, I think Harry Potter books turned a whole hell of a lot of kids, and adults, onto reading rather than occult practices.

Banning books hurts readers more than the reasons people think they should be banned for. Help support the cause. Read banned books. Share banned books. Tweet and Facebook messages that this is Banned Book week and ask others to do the same.  These works of literature deserve to be read and enjoyed.  People should be able to learn from them, escape the troubles of their own lives with them and share their stories with others.

http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/

Banned & Challenged Classics

Get avatars to show your support

Indie Chores: Building a Reliable Community

Indie authors have to wear more hats than the average author (although I have seen some major changes in online promotions lately from traditionally published authors. They might as well jump on our social media bandwagon, right?) Anywho, we’ve talked about the importance of having building an online platform and making connections and having a group of writer buds.  I want to stress today the importance of having a reliable community to turn to and to not be scared to back out of a group or from a particular person if they’re not pulling their weight.

I know a great indie author, who shall remain nameless, that was publishing a new book. To help promote the book, they searched and found someone who ran blog hops.  The blogger was contacted, a hop was set up and they took care of contacting other bloggers to participate and played the middle man, so to speak.  Time came for the blog hop to run and there were all sorts of issues: broken images in posts, changing the type of posts they said they’d write, not posting at all, etc. A regular ole cluster&*ck.

Obviously, this is frustrating both to the author and the person hosting the hop. I don’t know how well the blogger knew the other posters, if they’ve worked with them before, but those unreliable folks just made the hop runner look bad and the author will probably not look to go back to them for their next release.  We all know things come up and shit happens and there are legitimate reasons why things can’t get done, but a quick email is super helpful in those kinds of situations.

Alternatives for the author? Take the time to get to know book bloggers/reviewers and make connections so you can hand pick those participating in the hop. If you know them to be reliable, you’ll have better results. Time consuming and a lot of work scheduling everyone/thing but it’s the price you have to pay if you want it done right. It’s either that, or shell out the bucks for a promo company that specializes in such things. There are some great ones out there, but they’re not cheap.

One also has to weed through the tons of other indie authors on Twitter and Facebook and in forums, to find some who write novels similar to your own. Someone who is willing to read a rough draft, do some editing, help when you’re stuck, etc.  You will probably find tons willing to help, but they’re not all going to live up to the same standards as you. There will be some eager to swap and you, being the nice friendly person you are, will do the reading for them and then they neeeever quite seem to get to your stuff. Suddenly they are too busy on their own projects.  Yes it happens, but like all friendships and relationships, if it’s going to be a one way street, you need to get off at the next exit and look for a better rest stop.  This doesn’t necessarily make the other person bad, we all know how one can get sucked into a project and have a deadline or whatever, but those are things to think of before offering to reciprocate for someone. I have a couple great people I know I can rely on, but there are others I had to break away from. I still support them in other ways, help retweet their posts, share release info, etc. but I won’t read stuff for them anymore unless I really have the time and don’t mind doing it. I just know better now not to expect the same in return.

The same thing with beta readers. There are plenty of people out there willing to read your book for you, but many will end up not following through, or deciding they don’t like it/it’s not for them and they’ll drop off the face of the Earth before letting you know that.  Some will offer to read and post reviews and it never happens. Sometimes a gentle nudging reminder is all it takes (people do get busy and caught up) but again if someone doesn’t it like it, they might feel bad and not want to do a review, even if you told them you’re fine with any honest review.

People think writing is a solitary kind of job, but it encompasses so much more, involves so many other people. It takes time and patience, trial and error to find the perfect group of folks. These people help make your book the perfect product so why suffer through with people who aren’t as interested as you in getting your work out there.

What are your suggestions for finding the right people to be a part of your online writing community?

 

Blood Type – Release!

I think I’ve read every book this author has released and I started reading them long before I “met” and  I made friends with her. Her works are always riveting, the kinds of books I stay up into the wee hours of the morn’ finishing. I was lucky to be a beta reader for her last two novels, The Spirit Keeper and Blood Type.

I’m super excited to be a part of the release for Blood Type. Even though the vampire craze has been quite over done, it’s one of the few standouts..a different twist on the stale theme, making it exciting and enjoyable. Another I couldn’t put down. Not to mention that cover! Tell me it’s not stunning!!  If you’re a fan of paranormal and of great stories, I highly recommend picking up a copy!

Since getting attacked by a vampire, I didn’t believe in

beginnings. Only endings. Every person born to this world comes with an

expiration date, but I had never considered mine. At least not until I met

John.

 

Now the end was all I ever thought about. I woke up every morning
wondering if that day would be my last. Venom pulsed in my veins and seeped

into my bones, infecting all my vital organs and changing me from the inside

out. Slowly killing me.

 

But I’d welcome death in the end, if only because the alternative

was even more frightening.

 

Popular girl
Blake Ehlert has it all: a prime spot on the cheerleading squad, a jock

boyfriend who’s strong and sensitive, and the winning vote for Homecoming Queen

two years in a row. But when she strikes up a conversation with loner John

Kelly, her entire world starts to crumble.

 

John Kelly
is a vampire—what’s known to his kind as a Compeller. It’s his job to recruit

human Donors with a particular blood type.

 

And Blake is
his next target.

 

Melissa Luznicky Garrett is an author of adult and young adult novels. She lives in upstate New York with her husband, three children, and numerous animals. Melissa is currently hard at work on her next project. Visit Melissa’s blog or connect with her on Facebook.

 

Blood Type

is available in print through Create Space, or in print

and digital through Amazon.

 

Stop by Melissa’s blog starting September 22nd and enter to win a signed print copy of Blood Type. All are welcome to participate. The winner will be chosen and announced October 1st. Also, claim your free Kindle copy of Melissa’s previous YA Paranormal, The Spirit Keeper, on Amazon September 22nd through September 26th. *As always, please make sure it’s marked as free before you download.*

Goal Modification ≠ Failure

When I was younger, I had this schedule of sorts, that I thought my life would follow.  Graduate college, be married by a certain age, wait a certain number of years after that to have kids, etc. All to be done by the age 30 or so. HA! I was obviously an idealist and/or naive to think life would work out the way I wanted it to. Shit happens. Road blocks, break ups, terrorist attacks, etc. We definitely don’t have as much control over our lives as we like to think or hope.

It definitely still makes me sad that I’m not in a certain place at this point in my life, but who is to say I would have been happy in that “place” and that it would have been good for me? I’ll never know and it’s not really something that should be dwelt upon.  Because things haven’t worked out the way I had them planned I’ve had to change and/or modify my goals. Does that mean I’ve failed myself? I don’t think so. I think giving up completely might be considered a failure, but even then, if you do it because something else works better for you, then it’s not really a failure in my opinion.

I think, as a writer, these opportunities come up a lot. Maybe you decide you’re going to outline your whole story before sitting down to write. Pages and pages and hours of time go into it. Once you sit down to start writing, the story takes on a whole new direction and you don’t use that outline.  Is that failing? Certainly not! The overall goal is to get the story written, right? So why does it matter if your methodology changes? It doesn’t.

Maybe the goal is to be traditionally published. A great goal, indeed. You try for years and get a lot of feedback, but no one bites to pick it up. You finally decide you want your story out there by hook or crook so you opt to go the self published route. Does that make you a failure? Not in my mind.  You just changed your goal slightly. Your book will still be out there, people will be able to read and enjoy it. How is that not a success?

I guess it’s all in the way you look at things. Maybe it’s the pessimist’s way of looking at it to see a modification as a failure: the glass is half empty =s my book will be available to millions online but not in brick and mortar stores.

We can all hope things will work out according to our “plans”, but more likely than not, it won’t happen that way. Making adjustments to your goals, changing a time limit, changing the way you go about getting there is NOT failure. Keep persevering and take whatever route works best for you. Don’t be afraid to modify those goals if you’re struggling. There may be an easier way. Nothing is written in stone. Change is good. Embrace it.