Meredith Bond's Blog, page 17

Goal Setting

Goals! Must we, really? Well, sadly, yes. If we don’t have goals we just wander aimlessly about and don’t really get anything done, either that or we spend way too much time doing Other Things. Yes, I speak from experience.

I had a fantastic summer in terms of my formatting business, Anessa Books. I had more people asking me to format their books than ever before. It was loads of fun and sometimes a challenge to create just what my clients wanted… and it completely took over my life! I didn’t get nearly half the writing/editing done which I had hoped to finish by the end of the summer.

I actually did have a goal of getting so many books finished, but I didn’t make it concrete. I didn’t plan on how I would accomplish my goal, I just said – in the back of my mind – I’d like to get these books done. So here is the take away lesson:

1.      Write your goals down and put that piece of paper someplace where you will see it everyday.

2.      Don’t just make a goal, figure out how you are going to accomplish it. Plan for it. Allow for life to get in the way (contingencies) and figure out what you will do when that happens – how you’ll make up for it.

Doesn’t that sound easy? Actually… it is!

Setting goals doesn’t have to be difficult. Getting them done doesn’t have to be difficult. And there is absolutely nothing better than being able to cross something off of your to-do list!

So, here it is, in case you’re wondering. My goal for this Fall is to finish editing the first book in my “Children of Avalon” series and have it ready to publish in October (eek!), finish doing the overhaul of the second book in the series to have it ready to be published in December.

And how am I going to do that? By working on my writing, and nothing but my writing every afternoon from 1-4. Mornings and later afternoons are for formatting (and teaching), afternoons (my most creative time) is for writing. And if Life happens, I’ll work more on the weekend.

So, now I’ve not only written it down, I’ve made it public. What about you? What are your goals for this Fall?

 

Important!

And here’s a little extra fun – I’m looking for a slogan for my formatting business, Anessa Books. Some friends of mine have come up with the following:

Anessa Books – shouldn’t you be writing?

Anessa Books puts the art in your words.

Romance is red, erotica’s blue, Anessa formats your novel so it’s readable too.

Anessa Books — for those who want their words to look great under the covers.

What do you think? Can you come up with something better? I’m offering a free book formatting to the person who comes up with something I can use. 

My Analog Toolbox

Last week I talked about my digital toolbox – some of the computer programs I use in my work. If you missed it, you can find it here. This week I’d like to talk about what I call my analog toolbox – analog because it’s something I do (usually) on paper. It’s as low-tech as I get because sometimes there is just nothing better than plotting or brainstorming with pen in hand on a good old fashioned piece of paper. But I don’t use a blank piece of paper, that would be too open-ended. I need some guidance as I think about all the different things that have got to go into my story. These are the tools that I use (some of which can be found in my book on writing, Chapter One the others I link to at the end). 

First, I have to say that I was actually pretty amazed at how many worksheets I have and consider essential to use when I’m starting to write a new book. Honestly, just now I went through the file I have (currently in Word, but I’d like to move it to Scrivener) and I opened up all the worksheets I use – there are nine. I should probably find another and make it an even ten, but for now, this is what I’ve got:

Character Examination Worksheet: This lets me think more deeply about who my characters are and what makes them tick. I analyze their goal, motivation, conflict, noun, adjective and verb (yes, all characters have one of each of those parts of speech which describe them). This can be found in Chapter One.

Michael Hauge’s Inner Journey Worksheet: Here I’ve created a worksheet with which I can map out my protagonist’s journey from full identity to full essence. Have no idea what that means? Either get Hauge’s The Hero’s Two Journeys (I think it’s only available in audio) or I can write a blog post about it (just tell me).

Michael Hauge’s Outer Journey Worksheet – his six stage structure: This is just that in a nicely laid out format.

Hauge’s Story Element Chart: We all need an essential sentence that sums up who our character is, what they’re going for and why. This provides the framework to write that sentence.

Hauge’s Internal Conflict Questions: helps get me started thinking about that internal journey so that I can fill out the Inner Journey Worksheet.

POV Scene Grounding Exercise: This was an exercise through which Alicia Rasley led a group of writers at a talk  I attended. It was so mind-blowing, I started using it for nearly every scene I write (no, not every one, but close) .

Scene Worksheet: I also have my own scene worksheet which helps me to organize my thoughts about each scene before I write it. This one is also in Chapter One.

Story Outline Worksheet: It is just that – the story outline, but for each piece of the story (I have labeled initiating event, major turning point, etc) I have to fill in the goal, conflict and turning point or the stimulus and response – depending on which fits better with my story (yes, I’ve got two worksheets).

And finally, I’ve got a worksheet entitled When Starting a Book, Don’t Forget. It’s an incredibly useful worksheet, a cheat sheet if you will, of all of the essential pieces you need to know when you’re about to start writing a book.

And there you have it – my analog toolbox. Are there worksheets you couldn’t write without? Or would you like more information on any one of mine? I’m happy to share – so happy that I’ve uploaded all of these worksheets (those which aren’t available in Chapter One) into an Evernote Notebook. You can access it here.

My Digital Toolbox

I think this phrase was coined by Stephen King in his fantastic book On Writing – half autobiography, half writing book, both halves fantastic. Since then, many people have talked about the writer’s toolbox and what they have in theirs.  I’ve actually got two toolboxes which I dip into when I’m writing. I’ve got what I call my digital toolbox – that would be all of the computer programs I use to write; and my analog toolbox – my worksheets.  Today I’m going to tell you about my digital toolbox, next week the analog.

My newest toy, er, tool in my box is Scapple. I have to admit I haven’t had a lot of chance to play with this yet because they’ve only just released the PC version, but it looks really interesting and potentially very useful. It is basically a blank piece of paper. You can create notes on it and link them together with lines or arrows (going in one direction or both). This is terrific for people who like to mind-map (although my mind is much more top down, I can certainly see the appeal). And for me, I’m going to use it to map out my story structure because I can create a W structure with it and have it be all pretty and colorful. I’m thinking of having one style of box (you can fill in the box with a color and change the color of the text within the box) for my protagonist and another for my antagonist. This way I can map out both of their character arcs and the story as a whole and show the overlapping structures since it can be tricky to blend all the different plots and subplots of a story together. I really think this tool will be perfect and produce some pretty and more legible structure graphs than my handwriting.

My other new-ish tool is by the same company that produces Scapple, Scrivener. So many people have been raving about Scrivener for years and I’ve nodded and thought that maybe some day I’d give it a try. Well, that day happened early this summer when it went on sale and I could justify spending some money on something that I wasn’t sure I would really use. Well, so far, I’ve detailed out two books on Scrivener and I’m working on a third. Yes, they are books I’d already written but which needed extensive editing. It was really fantastic to be able to see (on the virtual cork board) how my story mapped out. I love using 3×5 cards or sticky notes on a storyboard to map out my books. This was exactly that, only in virtual form so it was easy to manipulate and shift around.

There are many more features of Scrivener I haven’t even begun to play with – keeping notes, worksheets, and pictures in one place associated with a particular book, and even formatting (although I don’t know that I could ever give up the control I’m used to having by formatting my books directly into HTML, but I think I may be able to export a Scrivener file to HTML too!).

I do have to admit, despite Scrivener’s awesomeness, I still use Microsoft Word for my editing. It has track changes and allows comments – two functions that I simply cannot live without. So, I think I’ll be doing a blending of tools using Scrivener to write my first draft (because it keeps track of word count which is awesome!) and then editing my work in Word.

And finally, I’m discovering the wonderful organizational benefits of OneNote. That’s a program that usually comes with Microsoft Office. For years I’ve been using it to keep track of shopping receipts (because it’s super-easy to highlight an internet page and save it to OneNote) and other personal information (you can add security to your notes by requiring a password to open a particular note). But recently I’ve been collecting a lot of terrific blog postings into OneNote. These range from writing tips, to publishing tips, to the state of the current market – all things which I’ll want to use in both my own work and teach in my classes. With OneNote, I’ve set up a separate notebook to hold all of the blogs and organized them into tabs by class (Chapter One, my beginning writing class which covers Characters, GMC, Story Structure and Setting; Craft of Writing, which covers Dialogue, Show and Tell, POV, Pacing, Voice and Editing; Publishing where I give a low-down of the publishing industry currently and teach how to format; and Start Write where I teach how to organize yourself for writing). Within the tabs, I’ve got sections for each topic. I just copy and paste the blog post into a new page wherever it belongs. Easy-peasy!

So, what are your favorite writing programs? What are the tools in your toolbox that you love?

Traditional vs. Self-Publishing

How do you know which way to go? It used to be so easy!

If you wanted to be published, there was little question that you would send out a dozen or so queries to agents, then hope that one of them loved your work enough to pick you up. They would then market your book to the New York publishers and, hopefully, get you a deal. You were home free and happy as a clam – well, until you had to sell your next book, then you hoped that the same publisher would continue to love you and buy your work, but that was really up to your agent to work with, you just had to deliver a fantastic manuscript.

Today authors who were traditionally published are turning up their noses at publishing contracts. They can earn more money and have more control over their work if they self-publish. Some authors, both new and old, aren’t even trying to get traditionally published – they go straight to self-publishing, but why?

There is nothing wrong with being traditionally published – in fact, there is still a good amount of cache in being so. You get get your work professionally edited without having to find your own editor. You get a cover with original artwork you don’t have to pay for. On top of all that, you usually get an advance and distribution to brick and mortar stores.

But what are you giving up? Seventy percent royalty rates (for an ebook priced 2.99 and above). The opportunity to have a say in what your cover looks like. Control over the title of your book, because too often traditional publishers have been known to change even that.

No matter which way you are published, you’ll have to do your own marketing, sadly.

But both options have pros and cons. I wish I could tell you wich way to go, which was the better option. I can’t. It’s a personal decision. I can, however, give you a few things to consider as you’re making up your mind.

First, think about why you’re publishing your work. Is it to earn money? To become famous, or at least make a name for yourself? Or is it simply to entertain people. Or perhaps to send a message through your tale. Once you figure out why you’re publishing, hopefully, you’ll be able to see which option will bring you closer to your goal.

Secondly, think about your audience. Who are they and how do they buy books? Some people have resisted the lure of ebooks. If that’s the case, you’ll need to make sure your book is in print – easy with print on demand, but even easier through traditional publishing. Where does your audience buy books? Are they addicted to Amazon (as so many are), or are they more comfortable walking into a Barnes & Noble and pulling a book off the shelf? If the second is the case, you’re only option is traditional publishing.

This is not an easy decision for some (for others, it’s a no-brainer). So, which way do you think you should go, or have you gone? Why? What was the deciding factor?

By any other name…

Why do I use a pen name? It’s a question I’ve been asked almost every semester in at least one of my classes.

I’m sitting here contemplating this because of something I read this week on the benefits of using Google+. It was a long blog article and expounded the benefits of this form of social media – because I definitely don’t already use enough forms, right? Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr, and occasionally I’ll find my way over Triberr. So, I definitely need to add G+, right? Well, according to this blogger, yes, I should.

I’d be happy to follow his advice – and I have even starting posting a link to my blog there – but I’ve just one big problem with G+. My Google account is in my real name and I can’t switch it to my pen name. There’s no way to do so. You have to use your real name if you’re on G+. Well, there goes my anonymity!

But then I began to think about it. Do I really have any anonymity? Anyone can google Meredith Bond and they’ll eventually come up with my real name. And with much too much frequency, I accidentally post something professional in my real name. I’m terrible at keeping my identity secret!

But what was the reason for doing so in the first place? Well, for one, when I started publishing Regency romances, everyone doing so had an English sounding name. My married name, very ethnically Indian, just didn’t cut it. Also when I started publishing, I had young children in elementary school. I was active in the PTA and didn’t want anyone there thinking that maybe they didn’t want a romance writer taking a leadership position – although a good number of people there did know what I did and were cool with it. Still, I didn’t want to take any chances. And finally, for some reason, they stock prison libraries with romances. I have even received fan letters from inmates. I really didn’t want my real name being given to these people (although, there is the possibility that many of them are very nice people who would never find me, I didn’t want to chance it).

So, has anything changed? Well, aside from the fact that my children are now grown (or, at least, they think so), and it’s ok now to have an ethnic name on a book, I think I’ve pretty well blown my own cover. So is there any point to keeping up the façade? No, sadly, I think not.

Oh, that’s not to say that I will stop using Meredith Bond as the name under which I publish and work. I will. I’ve established my “brand”. I’ve made a name (however, small) for myself. So, I will not just stop using it and switch to my real name. But I won’t worry about publishing my blog postings to G+.  And who knows, maybe someone will read one of my blogs linked through G+, like my writing and discover my pen name and, maybe, look up my novels.

And besides all this, I happen to like the name Meredith Bond.

So what do you think? Is it worth it having a pen name in today’s world where anyone can find you – the real you? Do you use a pen name? Would you be really upset if someone found out your real name?

Read A Romance Month

Warning!

Oh My Goodness!! I was about to put in this week’s blog post when I suddenly noticed something — last week’s post was my 100th!! This is my one hundred and first blog posting!! This has GOT to be celebrated!  Ok, to two randomly selected commenters will go a copy of any book I’ve written (and published) in any form in which it is available. Why two? Well one for the first hundred blog postings I’ve written and one for the next hundred to come, of course!  And now on to today’s blog post!

It’s nearly half way over, but it’s not too late to head over to the Read A Romance Month web site to read the blogs posted there by so many amazing authors.

The idea for this event came entirely from Bobbi Dumas, a reviewer of romance for Kirkus Reviews and, occasionally, NPR. Apparently, one day she began to wonder if there was a Read A Romance month, and if there wasn’t, why not?

Romance is one of the most read genres today. Why? Easy! Because everyone loves to escape and find a happily-ever-after and romances promise that. If there isn’t an HEA (as it’s called in the biz), it isn’t a romance.

And why wouldn’t someone want that satisfying ending. That moment’s escape? We live in a world of terrorism, revolts, senseless discrimination and people who think they’ve got the right to go out and shoot people who bother them and anyone who gets in their way. Who wouldn’t want to escape from that?

So we open a book and transport ourselves into a world where someone is fighting the good fight. Where someone is doing something to make the world – even if it’s just their little piece of it – better. There will be excitement, there will be some nastiness (especially directed at our protagonist), but in the end you know everything’s going to come out all right and two people who deserve to be together will achieve their dreams.

There are some who will say that it’s too boring. It’s too pat. What’s the fun if you know that everything’s going to work out in the end? If you already know the ending, why read the book? Well, because, as in life, it is the journey. It’s what is going to happen to these people. How they’re going to fight the fight. How they will need to grow to get what they deserve – because they have to grow and they have to give something up in order to get that HEA, otherwise, no, they don’t deserve it. That’s what we read for. The emotion. The excitement. The satisfaction. That is romance.

So now that I’ve got you hooked. Now you want to read a romance, right? J So, head over to the Read A Romance Month website and learn more about the amazing authors who work hard every day to give you that fantastic read – and one thing that I love about these blogs is that Bobbi has asked every author to recommend another author whose books they enjoyed (because, of course, all romance authors are also romance readers). Now that’s playing it forward!

Oh, and my blog entry will be at the end of the month, so stick around – at least until the 27th – to find out what I’ve written there. Thanks!

So, now tell me which author did you most love reading about? Which one are you looking forward to reading about? Or, tell me who is not there, but you think should have been!  And remember — a free book will be going to two commenters!

Teasing Your Reader

Thanks to Cienn at Wikimedia Commons.

Foreshadowing and red herrings are a staple of mystery writers, so do romance writers really need to know about these things? Absolutely! There are a good number of romance novels which are, in fact, mysteries. My husband is constantly complaining to me that he thinks I spend too much time in my romances devoted to the mystery subplot. I don’t know that he’s right, but I do devote time to these subplots. Why? Because they’re fun!

Mysteries do take up a good amount of time/space within a romance mainly because you’ve got to set them up properly. Now, I am not a mystery writer. I’ll admit that right up front. But I did have that wonderful experience yesterday that all writers of mysteries enjoy – a reader totally fooled.

As I’ve mentioned on my Facebook author page, my daughter is currently reading and editing A Dandy in Disguise for me. Yesterday, she came into the room where I was editing my next book and said very seriously, “Mom, we need to talk about red herrings.”

My immediate reaction was, “Uh-oh, I haven’t done a very good job at planting them in my Regency”. But then she went on to tell me how obvious it was the Character A was the one carrying out the illegal gambling scheme in the book. Yes, I did try to pin it on Character B, but I wasn’t doing a very good job of it. I needed to work on this mystery some more.

I was very good. I took notes on what she was saying. Nodded my head and thanked her for her ideas and then recommended that she go back and finish reading the book – because, of course she was entirely wrong in her assessment. Not that I don’t need to be sure that my red herrings are strong, but in who she thought was the guilty party.

She decided to pause in her editing just so that she could quickly read to the end to see “who did it”. It took her about twenty minutes (she’s a very fast reader). When she came back in, she had a huge smile on her face and said that she should have realized it was that person because now that she thought about it, there was foreshadowing throughout the book pointing to that character. Yes, she still thought I should add some more, just to make sure the reader isn’t completely thrown for a loop when they find out who is it, but she was tickled to have been led astray, because that is absolutely the most fun part of reading a mystery.

Tease your readers! Put everything they need to know to solve the mystery right out there for them to see – but in such a way that they don’t actually realize that that’s what it is. That is foreshadowing. Just like in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, in the beginning of the book, Harry gets a trading card that tells him all about Nicholas Flamel, but we pay no attention to it. It doesn’t seem important – until it is.

When you read A Dandy in Disguise (which I expect you will be able to do by the end of the summer, after my dear daughter has finished editing it and I have made all the corrections necessary – including adding in some more foreshadowing), you’ll see that all the clues are there. All the information to decipher the mystery is there. But still, when you get to that part of the book where the schemer is revealed, I’m hoping that you’ll hit your forehead, laugh, and say “Of course! Why didn’t I think it was…” And that is why I devote, perhaps, too much time in my romances to the mystery. Because they’re fun!

And for those of you who are interested, last week I mentioned that I would try to remember to post how much writing and editing I got done each day. To your left at the bottom of the column is a little block where I’m posting how much work I get done each day.

On Having Fun

It’s your writing, it’s your art. Stop looking for the secrets and stand up for your work.

            Dean Wesley Smith, from Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing

I love this quote. It’s so empowering, don’t you think?

Last week I wrote about getting caught up in self-doubt and depression. It’s something, I’m getting the feeling, is pretty common with writers. It’s kind of the nature of the job. And then Dean Wesley Smith comes along and writes a fantastic blog about having fun with your writing.

I am all over that one, I can tell you! I want to have fun. I want to love what I’m doing – who doesn’t? Now, that’s not to say that I agree with everything he says in his blog, because, well, he says to stop outlining, and for me, that’s the part of the fun. I love outlining my books. The plotting and planning is nearly the best part of writing—for me. Not for Smith, obviously, but for me.

But he also has a very basic, very important message in that blog and it is this: stop being afraid. If you’re not finishing your book, it might be because you’re letting your fear of ______ (fill in the blank: failure, not doing it right, no one will read it, everyone will hate it, it just plain sucks) get in your way. So, stop that. Dare to be bad.

I love that.

Maybe because my writing is bad. Sometimes. Sometimes it’s amazingly good, too. But I’m not afraid of it being bad. If I think it’s good, and I can get a few people (including my harshest critic, my husband) to agree with me, I’ll go with it. If my writing really is bad, I’ll work on it. I’ll edit it, rewrite it, whatever it takes (despite the fact that Smith thinks you shouldn’t edit your work – sorry, sweetie, you may not have to edit your work, but I sure as hell do).

But I’m not afraid of being bad, and that’s the key.

He says to stop looking for secrets. Well, actually, I kind of disagree on that one too. If I stopped looking for secrets to writing well, I would stop learning to write. I love learning how to write. I read writing articles whenever I find them.

Now, granted, a lot of the time they only say things I already know, and so I just skim them and then go on. But sometimes I find new information, good information. Stuff that will make my writing better (and by the way, whenever I find those articles, I always post them on my Chapter One Facebook page, which I’ve created for people who have taken my classes, but really, anyone can join).

So, again, sorry Mr. Smith, but I will continue looking for secrets because that’s how I learn and how my writing (hopefully) gets better.

But Smith does start off his inspirational sentence with something I believe very strongly in: this is my work. This is my writing. This is my art. It’s got my name plastered all over it and it’s got my personality thoroughly embedded through it. It’s in my voice. There is no way I can separate my writing, my art, from me. So I am going to be proud of it. I am going to stand up for it.

And so should you. Stand up for your work. Be proud of what you do. Not many people can be writers. Not many have that stick-to-it-tiveness (yeah, not a word, but I like it) that a writer needs. But most of all, as Smith says, what’s most important is that you have fun.

Just a small side note here – in his most recent blog, Smith has said that he’s going to make public just how much he writes every day. I think that’s fantastic – and brave. I’m thinking of emulating him, but I’m not entirely sure I would remember to post what I’d done that day, but I may give this a shot. It’s a great way for me to track how much I’ve accomplished in a day, and it’s also good to be publically accountable – to keep me honest about how much I’m actually working (or not). Do you think you could do that? Be totally and completely honest about how much work you got done? I’m thinking of trying this. Seriously. What do you think?

Giving self-doubt the brush off

Is it the heat? Is there a summer slump? What is it that is making a number of people (including me) so introspective this week. It’s really odd.

My sales figures—never terrific—have been particularly low making me rethink exactly why I’m doing what I do.

It is normal for someone in this job to have bouts of depression and self-doubt, but around the middle of this week things got pretty low.

I just couldn’t help thinking about something my husband said last week while we were on a college-touring trip with my 17 year-old daughter.  We were having deep conversations as we drove from one school to the next in an attempt to help our daughter think deeply about just what it is she is looking for in a college, as well as exploring possible answers to those horrendous college application essays (which almost all require a good deal of introspection, as if a 17 year-old knows herself thoroughly!).

My husband said that he had never known anyone as tenacious as me (I think the conversation was about my daughter’s ability to work really hard even if what’s required is rote memorization – she’s thinking about medical school). He pointed out that despite the fact that I keep getting rejected and constantly face criticism (sometimes from him when he’s reading and editing my work), I still manage to learn from the criticism and rejection, or brush it aside and keep going.

I figure I’m either extremely stubborn (I am a Taurus after all) or very stupid.

But it does make me think about just why I do this. Why do I torture myself this way? It’s definitely not for the money (see those low sales figures above), nor the fame – “Meredith who? Nope never heard of her.” So why don’t I just stop? I can do something else. I don’t have to keep writing and publishing and having to deal with this.

After a good night’s sleep, where I did not dwell on my depressive thoughts, I returned to my desk the following morning and realized exactly why I do do this.

It is for me, of course.

I need to write, no matter what. I enjoy the hard work of crafting a good story. I have fun figuring out the twists and turns in the plot. I especially love figuring out people – creating characters. And the magic! I love being able to put a twist on everyday life giving people the ability to do things that simply aren’t possible. The editing, ok, I could do without that. But you can’t get to a great (or even a half-way decent) book without editing it a couple hundred times. And when I’m reading my own work I always tear up at the sad parts and smile when the words sing to me from the page, and wonder at the clever things my characters say and wonder why I can never be so witty in real life – well, of course, because it’s not me talking, it’s the character. It is, in essence, that I love being a writer and could not, for anything in the world give up the happiness writing brings me.

Sales are just the whipped cream on top of the sundae of joy I get just from crafting a fun story, and whipped cream, although delicious, is something we must sometimes forgo.

So, I will enjoy my ice cream. The chocolate syrup. The nuts sprinkled on top. Deal with the banana at the bottom (the editing). And I will live without very much whipped cream (it doesn’t stop me from checking to see if there is any, but I’ll live if there isn’t).

Okay, so who else has been introspective this week? Storyfix.com, if you can believe it, and Anne R. Allen. And I thought it was funny that Joanna Penn of the Creative Penn had a guest blog called “Write What You Know” by T.J. Cooke which provides a contrast to what I said last week on this blog.

So, in the spirit of being introspective, how have you all dealt with these nasty bouts of self-doubt?

Write What You Don’t Know

Why do people always suggest that writers write what they know? That would make for either a lot of very boring books (because, face it, we all, basically live pretty boring, ordinary lives –thank God!) or a lot fewer books in the world. It would totally wipe out the Science Fiction and Fantasy genres. It would make for very few mysteries and then, most would be procedurals, rather than the good, juicy murders so many enjoy. Nope, I’m sorry, writing what you know would be just awful.

I prefer to write what I don’t know. I have to admit (although it may come as a shock to you many of you) that I’ve never been to Regency London. I have never traveled back in time to the early 1800s, and honestly, I don’t think I would like to do so – talk about stinky! Come on, people bathed once a week if they were lucky. All sorts of nasty stuff was regularly thrown right out into the street. And the most common mode of transportation was the horse, and we all know how lovely they smell.

Actually, to be straight forward, the adage isn’t to write what you know, as in what you have personally experienced, because all of my silliness above would hold true. No, it’s to write what you have emotionally experienced.

Nearly all of us have experienced love, heart-break, friendship, and disappointment. It is that, deeper emotional, human experience that you are writing about – and it doesn’t matter if it takes place in 12th century India or 27th century outer Milky Way. It doesn’t matter if the character experiencing it is a man or a vampire, the same emotions hold true. It is that which you are writing, because it is that which is the most important part of any book. Murders are fun to read about, but frustration at not being able to figure out who committed the murder is much more real and we have all been frustrated by something in our lives, even if it wasn’t something quite so exciting.

So, what about women writing from the male perspective? Or, as my son pointed out, white people writing about being African (and presumably black). How do we do that? I’ve never been a man. Do men feel things the same way women do? Do white people feel things the same way as black? I would say that it’s not your gender or race which determines how you feel, but your experience, how you were raised and how you were taught to deal with the world and all that it throws at you.

Yes, men do feel differently than women because they have experienced the world differently. Does that mean that as a woman I can’t write from a male perspective. No. Because I know men. I grew up with them, I’ve brought one into the world and I’ve lived with one for over 20 years. So I’ve got a good idea how one would think, and how one would feel. And, I imagine, that someone who knew enough of African culture could write from a black African perspective even though they were white.

It’s all in the ability to take on another persona, to open your mind to other possibilities, other ways of thinking. It’s called creativity and imagination. It is that which makes the novelist. And it is that which makes for a great book, no matter who wrote it.