Bre Faucheux's Blog, page 56

Writing with Confidence

This is a topic that arguably, I have no right to talk about. I am as insecure as they come when getting around to believing in my work. But then I remind myself of a few things. Things that most writers need to keep in mind. So here is my two cents:

- Writing anything, especially a book to completion is an accomplishment. I can’t even begin to count the number of times I have told people that I am a writer and they say, “Oh, I want to write a book.” Or “I have this idea that I haven’t finished yet.” Getting through one, even if you finish and decide it’s not good enough for publishing, you are on the right track. A track that not many people are brave enough or persistent enough to travel.

- Not knowing where your current work in progress is going is perfectly okay. I am the kind of writer who attacks a story from the side. I often start with a scene from the middle of the book. Sometimes I don’t know how it begins until I reach the end, then I map out all the connections between characters from there. Trying to work out all the details from the very start is just too damn daunting for me.

- For every person who dislikes your story, there will be someone else who loves it. Half the people reading your work and giving it bad reviews might not be into that genre to begin with.  Books and stories are a lot like physical attraction to various people. No one likes just skinny people, muscular men, curvy women, etc. Tastes vary in all aspects of life, including stories. I just finished reading a very popular contemporary novel that was well written and a good read, but very forgettable to me. Others devoured it and gave it rave reviews. But here’s the thing… I’m not that into contemporary work. So my opinion of it is subjective.

- How you feel about your work is more important than what everyone else thinks. Sure, you need to make sales and other people need to enjoy it too. But that energy you get from writing, the feeling of doing something worth while, and putting time and effort into an idea that excites you is more important than anything else. At least in my opinion.

- Don’t judge your work by its first draft… because that is a kiss of death. I heard it once said (and this is totally and completely true), that good writing happens in draft two or three. Not the first draft. The first draft is supposed to look awful, feel awful, and make your cringe when you look over it. But the most important thing to get to get first draft done and on paper. Out of your head and in a place where you can mold it into something beautiful. So stop deleting those scenes you don’t like or erasing the whole damn thing! Just make a separate folder for pieces that might need to go or that you can revisit. I have an entire folder entitled “Deleted Bits,” because sometimes there are days when I get done writing and think, “I can’t really see where this fits, if it does at all.” But that is the point. You don’t need to have those answers right away.

- Failure is not a bad thing. I have plenty of works that I never completed or that I got bad peer reviews on. And it doesn’t matter. Because writing is like exercising a muscle. But instead of lifting weights, you are exercising your mind. And it will get stronger even though maybe your last two or three stories weren’t something worth showing the world. That muscle is still getting there and continuing to build upon itself. One of my old writing teachers put it perfectly when she said that writing is like one of those Chinese building constructions with the bamboo around it for support. Sometimes those buildings collapse during the process or just fall through. But the bamboo is often still there, standing tall and strong. The works you don’t like are that building, and your writing skills are the bamboo. They are still strong and getting stronger even though the building may have collapsed. What you have left is a skill that will remain and just get better.

Hell of a pep talk from someone who could take something from her own advice, but these are the things I feel writers tend to forget. Including yours truly. So here they are for you out and in the open. Remind yourself you are awesome. And we all need the occasional self-pat on the back.

Why I Hope Vampires Never Die

Needless to say, vampires have gotten a rather bad rep lately. Mostly because of tween fandoms that scream whenever the name Edward Cullen is uttered. And the whole horrible sparkly thing. And I say that as someone who enjoyed the first three Twilight books. (Not the movies. Let’s face it. They were comical. And book four, I am not acknowledging that even happened).

I got into vampires back when Anne Rice was the Queen of vampire fiction. I admire her stories and imagination. And let’s face it, Lestat was badass.

I knew I wanted to write my own vampire story for a long time. So I did. It will never be huge. It will probably get bad reviews because people won’t understand what I was trying to do, but it was my first ever story that I enjoyed writing and I liked it. I hope to write more on it for fun in my spare time.

I am talking about this because the ‘Dracula Untold’ trailer was leaked yesterday and I had an epic fangirling moment that strongly resembled Jeremy Renner’s epic fangirl moment. For those of you who have seen that .gif, you know what I mean.

Partly because I have a huge celeb crush on Luke Evan (and no, I don’t care if you tell me he is gay…as long as he keeps making films, I don’t care)! And partly because it looks like the whole scenario for vampires might, just MIGHT, be turning around. The trailer was dark, Gothic, and Luke Evans looked great. I mean yummy. I mean the acting looked great. I mean….yeah…all of it.

I miss vampires when they were dark, mysterious, dangerous, and got all the dark and creepy feels going. Am I am hoping that this film gets them back on track and doesn’t make them into teen girl icons. As well as cementing Luke Evans as a movie star so he gets more work and I can spend my hard earned money going to the movie theater so I can spend hours just looking at him. Win win….right?

I have made it as a goal to read the original Dracula before the film comes out, which I know I have to read because it’s a crime for a vampire fanatic not to have read it. I hear it is written in really old vernacular, which is fine with me because I spent years reading that kind of material for college. So here’s to my reading slump ending soon.

Meanwhile, I am having a hissy fit over the fact that the studio pulled the trailer and I can’t share it with you. Because it was epic and everything I want the vampire genre to encompass. So here is the next best thing.

Reading Slumps

As of this month, I have experienced my first reading slump in quite a while. I am not one of those people who can read ten books in a month. For a great portion of my life, if I read one book a month, I considered that an accomplishment. But with joining the BookTube community, I have noticed that I feel pressure to read more books. I know it’s not really expected and no one is going to chastise me for not doing it. But it started feeling a like a personal homework assignment about a month ago.

And then this awful thing happened. I remembered that reading was supposed to be fun and relaxing, not work.

To be fair, I have not had the most of relaxing of ventures lately. Loved one had to go back into the hospital again, I got a rejection a job I desperately wanted and was more than qualified for, and hurt myself really badly (as mentioned in a previous post). I am sure that all these things culminated in stopping me from reading.

If I can’t relax, I can’t read. I will go over a page three or more times, then realize that I don’t know what the hell it said. The last two books were good, but I couldn’t connect with any of the characters. And not to the fault of the writing or the author. My heart just wasn’t into reading.

I have also been trying to get the first 1/3 of a new book (a full length novel) written down. I have had trouble writing more nearly a year now. I haven’t been unproductive in that area, but I am very aware that quality is lacking. With this current WIP in my mind all the time, I find that my mind wanders into that world as well rather than the one I am reading about. Which arguably is a good thing because I am getting some work done at least in one portion of my life.

So here’s to having a more productive month in July.

 

Top 10 Music for Writing

Lately I have been watching a lot of interviews with successful authors. One of my favorite currently being Maggie Stiefvater. She has wit, a great personality, a wicked sense of humor, and I recently started reading her book ‘The Raven Boys.’ I am only fifty pages in, but her writing style already impresses me.

In one of her videos on YouTube, she discusses her top ten songs/music pieces for writing. I agreed with a lot of her choices. So therefore, I decided to compile my own. Some are the same as her’s, others are different, and some are broken records that I have already talked about endlessly.

Without further ado, these are the writing pieces that I love to write to and that have inspired me in the past.

1.) Last of the Mohicans. This score is incredible. Movie was good, but I can’t watch it because a few of the images are a bit too gory for me. But the music!! Holy cow!! Love!!

2.) Hanz Zimmer. Particularly his Inception score. Many of his other pieces as well. He is truly a master.

3.) James Newton Howard. Several of his pieces, but my favs come from the Peter Pan movie.

4.) Alexandre Desplat. Between Atonement and Girl with the Pearl Earring, his music is completely breath taking and original. Who would have thought that using a type writer in a movie score could be so utterly unique?

5.) Florence + the Machine. Yes, I had to include Florence Welch. For obvious obsessive reasons. Can’t do without her.

6.) Trevor Morris – A Historic Love. This was used for the Tudors (a mediocre series that drove me crazy for its inaccuracies). But hey, the music was beautiful. I love this piece.

7.) Coldplay. Pretty much anything by Coldplay. Been listening to Magic and Princess of China a lot lately. Just gets the creative juices flowing a bit.

8.) Crucify by Tori Amos. I first heard this song in college, and then one of my writing teachers played it for us weeks later for a writing exercise, completely taking me by surprise. I guess that was a sign that it has significance for writing and my love for it was not unwarranted.

9.) Lindsey Stirling – Her orchestral version of Elements, along with several others are just pure magic.

10.) Epic trailer music. The second Catching Fire trailer has music that is now in my car. Along with the second Divergent trailer song. And many many others. I love those epic scores that just make you feel like you are outside yourself.

And there you have it. Those are some of mine, but I am always looking for new tunes. Are there any pieces out there that you have been loving for writing lately that I should check out?

 

Writing Under Duress

Drama Drama Drama… let’s count the things that happened in the last week or so.

1.) A relative that I have been caring for was hospitalized and we found out this said person has an incurable disease. FUN!

2.) Saturday morning – a drunk/intoxicated driver at 7am on a Saturday morning went out of control and crashed through our front lawn, took out two trees, and slammed into our neighbors house. Nearly took out their nursery for their one year old baby. (Which could have been bad…SO VERY VERY BAD!!). No one was hurt, but we just found out that this prick doesn’t have car insurance. FUN!

3.) Middle of the night, my dog got sick. I rushed her out of the room so she wouldn’t puke on my bed and bashed my foot into the corner of the door. Boom! Two fractured toes and a blue/purple foot. MORE FUN!

4.) Said sick relative got sicker. GAH!

5.) My brother got a new job only to go to the wrong building on his first day and they threatened to fire him. Just for that alone. HIS FIRST DAY!! WTF?

Aside from all of this, caring for this relative (who remains unmentioned for privacy reasons) has been a full time job for quite some time now. The limits of this illness causes said person to be rather nasty due to imbalances and there is nothing I can do to help but cook, clean, and take care of all the home necessities. I am emotionally exhausted 90% of the time and wonder for my own sanity sometimes.

How do others write under these kinds of conditions? I always think of that line in ‘Silver Linings Pkaybook’ when Dr. Patel tells Pat, “You must overcome, you have no choice. Excelsior.” I wish I could do this. I wish I could just get my shit done regardless of how I feel. I am emotionally drained. And when that happens, I can’t write. Or when I do try to write under these condition, I end up with total garbage.

I like writing novelettes and novellas, so in theory if I had all the time I needed, I could put out one every 2 weeks. Or even less. Such is needed to get my career going. But I just can’t muster the energy. Then I feel guilty because I am not working. Which breeds self-loathing. It’s just a plain awful cycle.

I read about writers like Jasinda Wilder. She and her family were about to go under and she managed to bring them back up and out of the threat of poverty by working her ass off and writing regardless of how she felt or how bad things got. How do people get that kind of energy? Where does it come from? I would like to think I am not a lazy person, but damn! How do these writing ninja’s do it?

Rant over.

Sex in Books | Champagne Thursday

*****

Ariel Bisset’s video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpWoMsyjXv0

Megan Olivier’s video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1t6ZwGW9WE

My Books are Available on Amazon, iTunes, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, etc.:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Bre%20Faucheux&sprefix=Bre+F%2Caps&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3ABre%20Faucheux

My beauty channel :https://www.youtube.com/user/TribalFaerie

Blog: BreFaucheux.wordpress.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorBreFaucheux

Twitter: Bre_Faucheux

Instagram: tribalfaerie

GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7258303.Bre_Faucheux

Royalty Free Music – Boogie Lights

Is this the age of “me”?

So an interesting thing happened to me this week. And last week. And the week before that. It’s not so much interesting as it is annoying actually.

I take great pride in the fact that I can say that I am a writer and I actually got over that hump of saying that I wrote not just one book to completion, but several (even though some are serials that need future books). But lately I have not been able to say this. I have been saying that I am an editor or that I work in publishing. Which is part of the truth because I do in fact engage in both, but they are not the whole picture of what I do.

Why?

Because I have not been able to tell people that I am a novelist or a writer without the topic of THEM coming up almost immediately. I get people who desperately want me to be a ghost/phantom writer for them or they want me to write about their life. They suddenly have something amazing they had happen that needs to be documenting and published so people can have a moment of awe that they lived through something quite difficult, or they want me to write a story they have in their head and reek all the profit. Or at least half.

This angers me to no end. They don’t ask me , “What is your book about?” Or “What genre do you write in?” They just want something from me. It becomes about them almost immediately. Which shouldn’t be the case. If I knew someone who was a writer and I didn’t happen to be one, I would want to know more. I would want to buy their books and find out what makes them tick as a writer because writing a whole gosh darn book is something of a feat. At least to me it, but I digress.

Is it safe to say that I am a writer? Or have I just run into several people who don’t have the courage to sit in front of a computer for hours on end and put out the words themselves? They say they don’t have time, or they are too lazy. Well, then I can’t help you. Because believe it or not am working on my own writing and I don’t want to work for someone who simply can’t find the time to do something. That ultimately means that they won’t have the time to look at anything I write for them anyway.

This baffles me. Is this just an age of “me?”

To other writer’s out there, what do you say when people ask what you do? Do you take pride in it? Do people say the same thing to you as they have to me? And more importantly, why is this a world of talking and not listening? I firmly believe that if someone cannot listen, they cannot be a writer. Because listening and taking time out to actually read is what writers are generally made of.

Smashwords Rant

So… a couple of weeks ago, I put the few of books I recently published onto Smashwords, and a few that I had unpublished BACK onto Smashwords.

Why?

Long story!!

Basically, I noticed that my books weren’t selling a few months back. Smashwords had exactly ZERO records of me making ANY sales. I figured, “I guess that is a sign that I need more promotions, so I will go back to Amazon KDP Select.” Then, nothing. I didn’t get many sales on Amazon KDP, if any. Maybe a few here or there. But that was all.

Then a couple weeks ago, Smashwords sent me the record of me previous SALES. Yes, that’s right. My Sales! I made money from Barnes & Noble. I sold books there and even got a five star review that I knew nothing about. WTF!!

So now when I look at my Smashwords sales report I think to myself, “This isn’t a real representation of my sales. Like…at all! Just wait a couple months and you will see the real deal.”

So naturally, I am anxiously awaiting to get my books off Amazon KDP Select, which they will be in the coming weeks and get everything onto Smashwords and Draft2Digital so I can have outlets for my books in more place. But I can’t even begin to express the rage I felt when I realized that Smashwords didn’t tell me the whole truth. I feel like the beginning of our relationship was built on a lie. Boo hiss!

I have already felt the pain over the potential sales I lost and I am not best pleased with Smashwords. But hey, I am going to keep my books on there even if the site moves like a freaking slug because if I am making sales, I can’t really find much room to complain. Just a little irritated.

Although, Smashwords has done one good thing for me. As much I hate using their Style Guide and putting my work through the “Meatgrinder” as they call it, it makes the formatting for my Amazon Kindle uploads very pretty. Much prettier than they are just through uploading a regular word document. So that is something good to come out of it.

It’s not much, but from Barnes & Noble, I made nearly $20.00. Again. Nothing to hit the ceiling over, but for me, that is a big deal. That is the most I have ever made in a single month and I did it back in December without knowing it. So yipe!!

Rant over.

The Kick Butt Girl In My Head

There! I said it. I have an alter ego of a girl who looks like me, sounds like me, even walks like me. But she isn’t me. She is basically everything I wish I was. An adventurer. Nearly fearless. Doesn’t care what others think. Is better at martial arts than me…by a long shot although I am still working on my skills. And she is smart. Smarter than me. Confident. Self-assured.

DAMN HER!

I think her name is Eva.

I would love to write this character down. But I have this idea in my brain that I fear is too much like other fantasy series out there. It is kinda a cross between Narnia and LOTR. I have never written a high fantasy, and I keep telling myself that I haven’t read enough of it to merit writing a good one.

Excuse? Or legit? I dunno.

Maybe I need to buy some books on how to write high fantasy. Or do some more brain storming. I am one of those weird people who considers a day of day dreaming to be a complete WORK DAY because I like to let my stories brew in my head before actually writing them down. And then I get down on myself for not having written that day.

I must be a crazy creature. But I am told that other writers are crazy creatures too, so maybe I have company.

*goes to listen to more EPIC scores to get ideas churning* People truly underestimate the power of good movie trailer music.

 

Sapphire Blue by Kerstin Gier – Book Review

Sapphire Blue by Kerstin Gier – 4.5/5 stars

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. There was never a dull moment. I particularly love the relationship between Gwen and Gideon. It is a really general thing that in sequels, relationships start to see a few arguments and some rocky times. Gier managed to make their problems not corny, but legit and curious. 

I could sympathize with Gwen and her feelings toward Gideon. Nothing is worse than a guy who shows you affection in private and then among others, you are told that you need to take a step back because you are overly obvious and the other person appears cold to you. I understood Gwen’s frustrations. I have heard other reviews stating that she fell in love too quickly and sounded like a little girl in love. I completely disagree. Being the type of person myself who falls rather quickly, I could relate to a lot of Gwen’s thoughts and concerns.

I am surprised that this story takes place over such a short time frame. Most books that happen this quickly can’t pull off the proper world building or the relationships between characters. Gier manages to do this flawlessly. I love the fashion designer, Gwen’s snobby aunt, the dialogue between Gwen and the Count. It was very well constructed. And I can’t wait to see where the plotting goes because there are still a few loose ends from Ruby Red and this one. 

The epilogue was exciting and cemented my interest in finishing the series.

The only reason it loses a star (and technically half a star because GoodReads doesn’t have a half star feature) is because I enjoyed it ever so slightly less than the first one. Which isn’t even the fault of the author. I just liked the excitement of everything being new to Gwen in book one. I was getting introduced to the world of time travel just as she was, which made the whole thing just slightly more intriguing.