Category Archives: Book outlines

Against Their Will – Will the Pressure Ever Stop?

Posted on by under authors, Book outlines, Book pitch, character development, Choices, editing, Encouragement, hooking readers, Independent Publishing, Mankind's Faults, marketing, publishing, Self Publishing, Uncategorized, writing, Writing success

As I rush to conform to the demands on my shoulders, two traits, perfect and quick, are holding me back! I feel the need to be perfect in my words and ideas so maybe, just maybe readers will get hooked and keep reading, or even better recommend the book to a friend who buys a copy and so on. You work every spare moment of every day (and night in my case), and just when you think you’ve got it right, something else causes you to stumble and question everything you’ve ever considered in trying to write, promote, and sell your work. Most any writer can relate to this unless he or she has superpowers and can bypass this obstacle!

Pushing forward to produce work worthy of selling, I keep desiring quick; quick results, quick rewards, and quick everything related to my goal of creating work worthy of being read. Yet, unexpected bumps come along, as they do for any writer working to get their work seen and appreciated. There seems to be some detail or issue about your book you never thought in a million years would be a problem. Deadlines get changed without warning, and new demands, insisting you “market yourself and your work” get added to the mix of stomach-churning, acid-burning stress that clinches your insides with anxiety and keeps you awake at night.

The person who can develop, find, or produce a cure for this will be worth millions to those who benefit from their cure! But, one cannot let his or her guard down once your work starts to get noticed. That’s just the beginning of deadlines, pressure, and stress. And, when it looks promising that it will be picked up by a publisher, don’t think you’re home-free just yet!

“Oh, we need a revised and edited manuscript by next week. You can do that, can’t you?” I groan just thinking of this. Then there is the other applecart upset of the week, “We can’t publish your book, this year. The budget isn’t big enough”, or “We need to see more interest in your book”. The clincher for me is, “We need someone who can invest more time and money in their project.”

Okay, this is just a glimpse of what it is like to try to make it in the world of publishing. Not all aspiring authors face this. Some are truly blessed to be noticed and acquired without jumping through a world of hoops and other obstacles. So, how do those of us not so blessed; those who feel as if they’re constantly vibrating from stress constantly streaming through their veins survive?

Survive, that is the word. And, it is one I’m still working to achieve. Somedays, I’m on a cloud, so elated that something promising happened that pushed me one step nearer my goal, that I can’t stop grinning. Then a day or so later, I’m as low in the dumps as one can be because that promise of publishing, or getting an agent, or a contract for a movie script all fell apart with little more than one big sneeze.

Ah, so is life. If one is not stressed through one aspect of their work, there is certainly another job that can produce even more stress. And when that wave washes over me I’m just as destroyed as I would be if it had been a giant tsunami.

Stress is not limited to aspiring authors. It happens to all of us at one time or another. It’s a fact of life. How we survive it, is by our perspective on the big picture. Sometimes we have to give ourselves permission to fail, learn from it, and move forward with revisions made to our game plan. If we want something bad enough we won’t give up. If we do throw the towel in, then we believe we aren’t worthy of the reward of what we were chasing.

For me, all this is true. But, I do have one person who’s on my side, who truly cares for me and wants only the best for me in all things. And, in my love for Him, I am grateful that He sees a much bigger picture than I do. The fight is all in His ability to get me to see, hear, and listen to what He wants. For, He alone knows what works best, both in the plot and in life.

Who is He? Jesus Christ, my Lord and my Savior. In the end, it will all work out according to plan and it will be good.

How Not to Write a Book

Posted on by under authors, Book outlines, Book structure, books, Choices, Uncategorized, writing, writing style

Off chasing yet another tangent

Off chasing yet another tangent

From time to time I am asked where did I get the inspiration for and how did I plot Against Their Will. The answer is one that often surprises people, especially those who are preparing to write their own books. I simply started with a couple of people I could visualize, adapted a real life event in my own life and inserted them into it. After that event concluded, I had no idea where the book was going next or where it would end up. I just had two characters who had experienced a cataclysmic event in their lives. For those organized and perhaps anal writers, this is not the way to start! But, I will admit, I am a free-thinker, and being creative, I don’t want to be “boxed in” by parameters, especially those set by others. My husband often accuses me of deliberately doing the opposite of what I am told to do, just because I can. And, I do! It drives him crazy, but I’m happy.

When I started on my first novel (long since buried in the trash can), I wrote what I liked to read. I still do. Reading a variety of other works, and a good dose of those that fall into the same genre as what I am writing in, helps me to develop my own voice and style. This initially didn’t help me with the plotting conundrum, but as I have learned to step back and analyze my work, what I learn from other writers makes a big contribution to my own development. I’m not advocating any kind of plagiarism, but rather the studying the styles and methods of successful writers is a way, especially for new writers but also more experienced ones, to see the types of things that work and those that don’t work. .

Because I love thrillers and suspense novels and those are the books I want to write, I asked myself what could I do next to surprise the reader. Nineteen chapters and one prologue later, my novel was born.

Despite the challenge and fun of creating a story in this manner, I would never suggest to another author to use this method. Using an outline as a skeleton and then adding “meat” to it would be my preferred method. However, I am the kind of author that gets “lost” in the created world I am developing and it is just more fun to let the tangents rule and follow their trails in unknown directions. A pre-defined story map is often limiting to those of us who let their creative sides trump the more structured side of their writing minds.

One big set-back to the tangent writing style is the fact that it can get complicated keeping the story straight. This caused a lot of re-writes and edits in my case. It also necessitated a content edit to be sure all the dangling events were tied together and resolved.

Although I still utilize the Tangent Style of writing in my other books, I have incorporated a new method to help me focus. That is, I write the ending just as soon as I have the opening scene completed. This gives me a “finish line” or goal to achieve and helps to keep my wandering ways in check. It also helps when I get “stuck” or blocked. I re-read the ending and visualize what the characters would have had to do to get to that point. Soon after, the creative juices get flowing again and my fingers are tapping away on the keyboard.