Megan Morgan's Blog, page 61

M is for Megan

This post is part of the Blogging from A to Z challenge–blogging every day in the month of April (except Sundays!) with each letter of the alphabet.

Many authors use a pseudonym. Each author has their own reason for this: some don’t want people in their everyday life knowing what they write, some want an aura of mystery, some just want a different persona for themselves as writers. For me personally, my real name is silly and easy to mispronounce and misspell. Thus I picked a simple, easily-spoken, easily-spelled name that was also somewhat catchy with its alliteration.

And thus I became Megan Morgan.

I’ve gotten all sorts of reactions to this name change, both from people who know me and people who don’t. Friends have asked me why I picked that name. Some have asked HOW I picked that name, and it’s hard to explain. All my life I’ve suffered from having my name mispronounced and misspelled–it’s really quite aggravating. I finally wanted something that was easy. Once, a woman asked me how my mother felt about me changing my name. My mother has been dead for twenty-five years.

A lovely gentleman once asked me if I was Welsh, too. I suppose I did pick a very Welsh name, didn’t I? My real name is German.

It doesn’t matter what you call yourself, as long as you own it and accept it as who you are. I am Megan Morgan. Some people in my everyday life even call me Megan instead of my real name. It doesn’t change who I am, it just makes me more of the person I am when I’m writing.

How about you, do you have a pen name? How did you choose it?

Filed under: A to Z Challenge Tagged: blog hop, me, personal life, writing

L is for Love

This post is part of the Blogging from A to Z challenge–blogging every day in the month of April (except Sundays!) with each letter of the alphabet.

As a romance author, I write a lot about love. I also write urban fantasy, which, while it’s not exactly like romance, love relationships tend to trickle in. And, I also write erotica, which of course is more about sex, but love can certainly play a part too.

But is writing about love solely the domain of the romance author?

I would argue that love trickles into just about every kind of entertainment we consume. All genres of writing can include love elements. It stretches beyond that to movies and TV, too. Oftentimes, in the most ‘non-romancey’ pieces of entertainment love still leaks in–the action movie with a hero who is doing it all for his wife and family, the mystery novel where the detective wants to avenge his murdered girlfriend, the sci-fi loner trying to rescue the space princess. Many stories would be romances if they were told from another character’s perspective. Try it sometime with your favorite non-romance book or movie: can you find the character that’s living in a romance novel?

Love seeps in to all our entertainment because human lives are filled with it–pursuing love, finding love, making love, keeping love. We are creatures in love with love and we all want someone by our sides. Maybe life is a whole lot less glamorous than a romance novel, but then, maybe you’re not looking at it through the right character’s eyes. Writing about love is just a natural extension of ourselves.

Where do you find love popping up in a non-romance context? Do you agree that life is full of love, and so is our entertainment as a result?

Filed under: A to Z Challenge Tagged: blog hop, erotica, romance, urban fantasy

K is for Killing (a character)

This post is part of the Blogging from A to Z challenge–blogging every day in the month of April (except Sundays!) with each letter of the alphabet.

Sometimes in the course of writing a story we come to that dreadful point where, in order to advance the plot and make things work, someone has to die. Maybe it’s someone who deserves it and we could all see it coming. Maybe it’s someone who is innocent and it will rip the hearts out of your readers–and out of you, as well.

Killing a beloved character is never easy, but sometimes it must happen. As I work on this entry I’m also doing edits on one of my books, and I’m actually at the part where I had to kill such a character. I didn’t plan these things to coincide, they just did. It gives me some perspective on talking about the subject.

Killing off one of your precious babies is never easy, even the villain, because they’re all beings you’ve created and grown yourself. You understand the nuances of each character and it’s always a big deal, no matter how important or insignificant their role. People in the real world die every day, and when it’s people we don’t know it doesn’t affect us, but it affects someone. Every death is mourned. Even if your readers are happy to see a character go, you have to mourn them–and live with the fact that you’re the one who killed them.

Some genres have a lot more deaths than others. You’ll probably find characters dying more often in say, a mystery than a romance. Sometimes that makes it worse, if you have to kill off a character in a genre where people don’t often die. A death has to have purpose and be handled with finesse, so the readers don’t come after you with pitchforks.

Have you ever had to kill off a character? Was it a beloved one? How did you feel about it?

Filed under: A to Z Challenge Tagged: blog hop, writing

J is for Jealousy

This post is part of the Blogging from A to Z challenge–blogging every day in the month of April (except Sundays!) with each letter of the alphabet.

When you’re an author, published or not, the best advice you can take is “keep your eyes on your own paper.” By that I mean, focus on your own work and not what other authors are doing. I don’t mean ignore what they’re writing, though. I’m not telling you to turn your back on the industry or don’t read. I mean, don’t compare your success to the successes of other authors. As soon as you start doing that, you’re going to stall yourself.

It’s hard to feel proud of your own humble work when you compare yourself to a New York Times bestselling author, if you are not yourself one. By all means read the top author’s works, for it helps you know what’s selling and shows you how the people at the top of the heap are writing–but don’t use their work as a benchmark for yourself. It’s okay to want to improve, but it’s not good to self-hate or trash your own work just because someone is better than you. There will always be authors who are better than you. You will be better than some authors, too. More important is to learn, grow, improve, and take advice. All those things are hard to do when you’re feeling lost in someone else’s shadow.

I’ve suffered plenty of jealousy over the years, sulking when other writers won the contest, got the contract, sold more, published more, got better reviews–I think it’s impossible to eradicate all jealousy from your life. But when I feel the green eyed monster trying to get loose, I remind myself of a few things:

– Someone else’s success does not invalidate your own, nor does it mean you won’t be just as successful in the future.

– Celebrating, rather than turning your nose up at the successes of others makes you feel better about yourself–and can make you friends, too!

– Feeling inferior is an opportunity to look at the inadequacies that make you feel that way so you can learn how to improve.

How about you, do you get jealous of other authors? How do you deal with it?

Filed under: A to Z Challenge Tagged: blog hop

I is for Inspiration

This post is part of the Blogging from A to Z challenge–blogging every day in the month of April (except Sundays!) with each letter of the alphabet.

Before you can put words on paper (or screen), or create characters and worlds, or build stories, you need one key ingredient: inspiration. A writer’s well needs to be full of inspiration at all times, or at least, have a little bit in it to slosh around in. Sometimes it feels like the well has run dry and those are the agonizing times that come along with writing, the times when you get scared and doubtful and start to worry that you’ll never write again. It’s easy to panic when inspiration is nowhere to be found, and conversely when there’s plenty of it to be had, you want to dance and sing and shout.

Where can you get a fill up on inspiration when the well is empty? Here are a few of my go-to filling stations:

Music: Music is my number one inspiration. I make playlists for all my longer works (and even some of the shorter ones) and a single song can inspire entire chunks of writing. Music gets the gears turning and helps me find a mood. I can come up with ideas from just a few lyrics from a really good song. If I need to work out a scene, sometimes I put on appropriate music and hash it out in my head to the beat.

Reading: Nothing makes me want to write a story more than reading a really good one. I’m not talking about imitation, but borrowing inspiration from your fellow writers. Sometimes tapping in to someone else’s magic helps you get your own flowing.

Taking my mind off writing: Occasionally the problem is your head is too deeply buried in your work. You can’t see your way out, or around. That’s when it’s time to take a breather and give your brain a break. Hang out with friends. Binge watch some Netflix. Work on a hobby that has nothing to do with writing. Get out and clear your mind.

Revisiting old stuff: Sometimes reading over old stuff you wrote will spark an idea. Visiting something you’ve written but haven’t looked at in a while may impress you and make you feel good about yourself–or make you realize how far you’ve come–opening you up to your creativity.

How about you, how do you get inspired? Is there something special you like to do to jumpstart your creativity?

Filed under: A to Z Challenge Tagged: blog hop, creativity, inspiration, writing

H is for Happiness

This post is part of the Blogging from A to Z challenge–blogging every day in the month of April (except Sundays!) with each letter of the alphabet.

The biggest source of my happiness in life is, of course, my writing. Nothing else makes me feel the way writing does. When I’m writing I feel relaxed, I feel engaged and creative, I feel both calm and exhilarated at the same time. When I’m writing, I feel like I’m doing what I should be doing. I feel like I’ve tapped into some inner energy that flows through me and all is right with the world–yes, even when the story is giving me trouble.

I’ve always been certain I was ‘meant’ to write. When people talk about having callings I believe them, because writing is my calling. I started when I was young and it instantly clicked for me. I was fortunate I never had to go looking for a purpose in life, it came to me. I stand in awe of that, and I think it’s a spiritual thing, and no one can tell me otherwise.

Being called to the page is a special gift for me and it brings me joy. Many times over the years I became disheartened, despondent, and a few times even foolishly proclaimed I was giving it up, only to have it come creeping back up on me. I’ve done this far too long to give it up. It’s a part of me now, as essential as any of my internal organs or my name or the color of my eyes. I’ve railed at the Universe before, trying to turn my back on that purpose when it got too hard, but the Universe knows who I am and it gently brings me back to where I should be. Writing is my happiness.

How about you? What is your happiness, your calling? How long have you known?

Filed under: A to Z Challenge Tagged: blog hop, me, personal life, writing

G is for Google

This post is part of the Blogging from A to Z challenge–blogging every day in the month of April (except Sundays!) with each letter of the alphabet.

One of the most invaluable tools in my writer’s tool kit is Google. Not just the search function, though that too is amazing. I’ve been writing for a long time and I remember when ‘research’ meant going to the library, checking out a bunch of relevant books, poring through them, and taking notes. You might get what you’re looking for on the first try, you might have to go back. Now I can type in anything I need to know about and instantly get thousands of results. You still have to do some picking and searching, but I never have to leave my house.

Is there a nostalgia for the old way of doing things? Certainly. Is the new way easier? Absolutely. Would I go back to the old ways for nostalgia’s sake? No. We look back on nostalgic things fondly because we know we don’t have to do them anymore.

Google has another extremely useful feature for the writer–Google Maps. Google Maps has a brilliant function called Google Street View. This means I can see what virtually any spot in the world looks like at ground level. I think we become so used to technology that we don’t stop to think about how utterly brilliant and magical this is, how we live in the future now, how such an amazing thing is possible and so accessible to us. I can write accurately about places I’ve never been. I can stand on a street with my characters in some far-off place and see exactly what they see. I can build worlds based on accuracy. I’m a visceral writer, so being able to grasp the ‘feel’ of a place is immensely useful to me. Until the day I can just blink myself there, this is the next best thing.

How about you? Do you find technology useful in your writing? What futuristic things are in your tool kit?

Filed under: A to Z Challenge Tagged: blog hop, technology

F is for False Starts

This post is part of the Blogging from A to Z challenge–blogging every day in the month of April (except Sundays!) with each letter of the alphabet.

If you’ve been writing for a long time, you know that not everything that drips from your fingertips is gold. If you’re new to this, you will discover it soon. It’s a hard pill to swallow, but occasionally, you’re going to spend a lot of time on a piece of writing–days, weeks, months, even years–only to find out it doesn’t work and that you have to shelve it.

Over my many years of writing–almost three decades now–I’ve had this happen more times than I can or want to count, especially in the beginning. I wrote entire books, even revised and rewrote them several times, only to have them end up rotting away on 3.5 disks and actual paper somewhere in my closet, never to be seen again. I have whole notebooks of stuff I wrote back in highschool that I can’t even look at now without cringing.

What happened? Did I not have passion for these works, did I not want to see them through? Not at all. I loved each and every thing I wrote, at the time I wrote it. I believed in it and tried to sculpt it with tender loving care, but at the time, I didn’t have the proper tools to do that sculpting with. This happens with most writers. We learn by trial and error, by doing, by writing. Lots and lots of stuff.

All those pieces of writing that got discarded along the path, I consider practice. They helped me grow and learn, to find my voice and style, and most importantly, they taught me the discipline of writing. I have at least eleven (terrible) books rotting in my closet. I loved each one of them, but they will never fly. Yet, if I can write eleven (terrible) books, I know I’m a writer. I know I can produce the work and put the time in. I know that sometimes, I can just do it for the love of the writing, which is the important part.

And lest you think once you get published it doesn’t happen anymore, think again–I recently wrote a 30,000 word novella that I now realize is flat and needs to be put away. It still stings, even after all these years.

How about you? Do you have works that fell by the wayside over the years? How do you feel about them? What did you learn from them?

Filed under: A to Z Challenge Tagged: blog hop, writing

E is for Editing

This post is part of the Blogging from A to Z challenge–blogging every day in the month of April (except Sundays!) with each letter of the alphabet.

No one writes a book, story, article, or even a poem perfectly the first time (or a blog post–hilariously I made a mistake in this first line when I went back over it). That is, the first draft of any piece of writing never comes out pristine. If you can do this, I don’t trust you because obviously you’re from another realm, or have magic powers, or have sold your soul. For the rest of us mere mortals, we have editing.

From self-editing and rewriting, to having a friend go over your work, to professional editors, our stories need to go through a bunch of plucking and polishing before they’re fit for public consumption. I used to hate editing, but I eventually grew to enjoy the process of rearranging and cutting, making things better and learning more about my craft at the same time. Here are some types of editing:

Self-editing: After you throw the first draft down, you have to fix it up. This is where a lot of rearranging and finagling comes in, and a lot of chopping and adding and rewriting. This is where you get to smooth things over and not worry about anyone judging you. But your eyes can get pretty blurry after reading the same lines 500 times, so it’s best you–

Have a second opinion: Let a friend look it over. A critique partner. Your writing group. A beta reader. They can catch the things you can no longer see and show you where you’re sagging, so you can prop those spots up and do yet another round of rewriting and editing.

Going pro: Once you’ve polished as much as you can, it’s time for the professionals to take over. If you’re traditionally published you’ll get one of these complimentary from your publisher, but if you’re indie you should definitely invest in one yourself. Indie or pro, there are different kinds of editors out there: lazy ones, adequate ones, and great ones. Hopefully you’ll end up with one of the great ones. Great editors will not only pick apart your words and show you the way, but teach you more about the art of writing. I’ve learned so many invaluable things from great editors over the years and I am eternally grateful.

So how do you feel about editing? Love it? Hate it? Have you ever worked with a great editor and learned something new in the process?

Filed under: A to Z Challenge Tagged: blog hop, editing, writing

D is for Deadlines

This post is part of the Blogging from A to Z challenge–blogging every day in the month of April (except Sundays!) with each letter of the alphabet.

Most writers face deadlines–whether self-imposed, because of contests or calls, or given to them by their agents and editors. Deadlines can make you sweat, especially if you still have a lot of work to do as they approach. They can also be wonderful, motivating things. Even when you’re tearing your hair out, here are the reasons they can be a blessing:

D is for Deadline, but also Discipline: It’s easy as a writer to also be a slacker. Writing is wonderful, but so many other things in life pull your attention away. Some are important: your day job, kids, family and friends, bills, errands, pets. Some are completely indulgent: a new episode of your favorite TV show, a movie, a new level on Candy Crush, a new recipe that you can’t wait to try out. Deadlines make you put your butt in the chair and write. It’s so easy to find reasons not to write–but deadlines give you a very important reason to stop dawdling and put your nose back to the grindstone.

Deadlines help you organize: If  you have multiple deadlines–a contest entry, a short story call, your next book is due to your publisher–which do you work on first? You can feel harried and scattered. Deadlines help you decide. Which needs to go out first? Second? Deadlines help you put projects in order of importance.

Deadlines make your writing a real job: If there’s something at stake, a time limit, then it’s work that has to be done. Writing is no longer a hobby but a job that has to be completed within a certain time frame, just like real work.

Deadlines help you focus: It’s much easier to get the world out of the way when you know you have to produce something by a certain time. You can say more easily, “Not today, I’ve got something to write!”

How about you? Do you like having deadlines, or do they make you want to scream? How many deadlines are looming on your horizon right now?

Filed under: A to Z Challenge Tagged: blog hop, writing