Story maps and little books
Talking to my oldest son about “story maps”, he told me he did them at school and I remembered that for Footprints I used a handmade orange Italian leather book to jot down all my ideas. I poured my entire imagination into that little book and didn’t realise how much I had put in it. Flicking through the pages I can see some of the ideas that died an author’s death and how a single world in some cases flourished into main story aspects. It was quite odd looking at the pages as I could pretty much recall where I was when I did most of them.
But oddly enough in the same (very battered zip folder) I found a little “red” book. No it wasn’t anything saucy, it was Whispering Shadows! Well at least the foundation ideas of what I wanted to do with Jack James next. There’s only a handful of pages done in there but instantly reading the ideas I could see where I was going to continue Jack’s development and made me remember a lot I had pushed to the cobwebbed corner of my mind.
Luckily I was on a computer based training day today and had time to mull things over for what I’d like to do next. I’ve obviously got the Origins Of The Magdon on the burner for the kids but I have decided I need to aim that for a young 10+ audience so the need for novel-length chapters and depth isn’t quite as necessary. In itself a challenge as I am more used to building longer stories that grow slowly than something more concise and aimed at children.
I’m going to blow the dust off the red cover and dig out the erasable pen (a very useful tool for getting rid of some of the more “really bad” ideas). I think I’ll start jotting some more down and see if I can build further on the world I started.
Don’t get me wrong, in the respect of Footprints I have hardy made it to the realms of best seller. I’m happy I’ve made it to double figures of sales in only a few days but I know most of them come from friends and family. I would love to find a way to spread the word and am trying my best to interact beyond the Facebook page. Twitter seems to be a slow going progress but from 0 followers to 41 (sure some may be obligatory follows) at least I am engaging with some people, somewhere. If only to set the word of mouth going in the hope that I will be able to draw in an audience.
Marketing wise I expect alongside the GoodReads promotion starting 1st February 2016 where one of three copies can be won, I will run other promotions where I see it as best appropriate but need to keep researching into what is best and how best to get my idea out into the wider world.
