Writing!

Using Visuals to Write Descriptions

We all pick up information in different ways. It depends on what type of learner we are, I think. I know I’m a visual learner. I get on Google and search for, say, 17th century English inns, and click on Images. When I find what I want, I copy and paste the image into my WIP (work in progress) at the part where I’m describing the inn my hero and heroine will be spending the night. Seeing the image helps with my description. After I’m finished describing the inn, I put it on my Pinterest board to credit the websites I used for research and to have an interesting (pinteresting?) record of my visual research.

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Characterization Point of View and Head-Hopping

One of the first writing classes I took was “Writing the Historical Romance” with Linda Shertzer. One of the lessons was on character point of view. Linda asked us to give her a sample dialogue scene for review, and for the first time in my life heard the term head-hopping. What the heck was that?

Here is an example of head-hopping from an early, unedited version of Her Lord and Protector:

Alex thought he would hit the high ceiling. “Guard!” he roared, and Katherine quickly turned to the door where John, her escort for her journey here, entered immediately and went to his master’s side. Alex’s voice was a low growl. “Remove this woman from my table.”

Quickly Katherine stood. She would not allow the wolf to humiliate her further by having his guard drag her out of the room like a sack of grain. Giving him as haughty a look as she could, she grabbed her bread, and with her head held high sailed gracefully through the room and out the door.

Alex, absently moving his hand so a servant could lay a cloth over the spilled wine and replace his broken goblet with another, took a deep breath as he watched the woman leave. Her quick reactions and direct defiance of his orders confirmed his guess that she was not at all dim.

And certainly not old.

Can you see the point of view switches?  If not, look at the same passage below with the colored font. Green denotes Alex’s point of view (POV) and red is Katherine’s.

Alex thought he would hit the high ceiling. “Guard!” he roared, and Katherine quickly turned to the door where John, her escort for her journey here, entered immediately and went to his master’s side. Alex’s voice was a low growl. “Remove this woman from my table.”

Quickly Katherine stood. She would not allow the wolf to humiliate her further by having his guard drag her out of the room like a sack of grain. Giving him as haughty a look as she could, she grabbed her bread, and with her head held high sailed gracefully through the room and out the door.

Alex, absently moving his hand so a servant could lay a cloth over the spilled wine and replace his broken goblet with another, took a deep breath as he watched the woman leave. Her quick reactions and direct defiance of his orders confirmed his guess that she was not at all dim.

And certainly not old.

If you’re not sure which character’s point of view you’re in or should be in, imagine yourself inside his or her head. You have no idea what the other character is thinking, but you can glean what they may be thinking by their gestures, expressions, and words. This guessing game is what brings out the sexual tension because in one character’s POV, she might be saying, “I can’t stand the sight of you” while wondering how the soft hair on his chest would feel against the palm of her hand.

When do you switch points of view? Generally, a scene or chapter belongs to one character, and the reader is in that character’s head for the entire scene or chapter. I say generally because it’s okay to jump to another character’s head if the scene and action warrant it; ask yourself who has the most to lose in the scene.

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Show me the Money

Being a nosy curious sort, I like to read about how much Indie authors make. On Joe Konrath’s blog for March 24, he answers some questions he gets on a regular basis. Here is one:

Q: You keep bragging about all the money you’re making. I think you’re a liar.
 
A: I don’t consider it bragging. I post my numbers to show what is possible.
 
And he does. Read his post to see how much he made on Kindle sales in 6 weeks. Got me all excited.
 

A couple of weeks ago, Amazon deposited $1,800.00 in my account. This is for a book I made a couple hundred dollars on over a five-year span until I got my rights back, redid the cover, and published it. I don’t condone hate speech toward traditional publishing because an individual is going to do what is best for him/herself, but I will say that I wish I’d listened to my heart a couple of years ago instead of being afraid of going it alone until I made the leap last fall.

So much has changed in the world of self-publishing, and I’m not really qualified to discuss it other than relate my own experience. I love to read expert opinions, though, and if you do also, let me point you to these fine people:

Joanna Penn: http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2013/05/04/bestselling-indie-authors/

Joe Konrath: http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/

Bob Mayer: http://www.bobmayer.org/

Kristen Lamb: http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/

David Gaughran: http://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/