My Writing | Meg North's Historical Fiction

Shop on My Facebook Page

2011-10-15T13:06:00.002-04:00

Have you visited my Facebook author page? If not, click here to visit it. You can click the "Like" button to become a fan and follow my up-to-date happenings as a writer and historian!

Yesterday I implemented a new feature on my Facebook author page - a "Shop Now" link! Now you can purchase a paperback copy of Daniel's Garden right from Facebook. It's tres cool.

Daniel's Garden is my Civil War novel that has already received six 5-star reviews on Amazon. It took me ten years to write and is a great story for yourself, a military family member or anyone interested in history. Pick up a copy today! :)

Daniel's Garden Book Trailer!

2011-10-07T19:26:00.002-04:00

Watch the video I made for my novel, "Daniel's Garden!"

Writer's Block Sucks

2011-09-30T10:41:00.000-04:00

Yes, yes it does. I've been in it for almost two months, except for finishing Chapter 1 of "The Heart of a Lie." That was more a freak stars-lining-up moment, since I haven't been feeling up to writing anything for so many weeks.

Writer's block is a block .... a block of stone that sits heavily in my mind and shuts out any good light. It's nasty, it's insipid, it traps and pins me. It's all tied up in deep emotional crap like self-doubt, lack of confidence, feeling alone, feeling the weight of failure. I wish I could never feel like that again.

But I will, since it's the dark part of being a writer. How can I get out of it next time? How can I at least ease the passage? It's a time of rest. It comes in its own time and stays as long as it wants. It's a shadowy and unwanted guest. It disregards goals.

I'd already been suffering under it in August, so when the new September month dawned I made the goal of finishing my novel. It seemed rather easy, and also coincided with a New Moon on August 28th. I was ready. But I wasn't ready for all the emotional drama that hit me in September, from personal to my career. My publicist dropped me due to my inherent artistic temperament (read: moody), and said she wasn't prepared to deal with me. I am still hurt, but I am starting to feel better. I know my strengths, and being a publicist for my own works is not a strength. My strength is writing.

But now September is coming to a close and October is around the corner. These eight weeks of writer's block now is starting to feel like a newly dug pond, where I can return again and again to fish out the deep emotions I need for getting to the heart of my stories. But the pain of digging it has both exhausted and renewed me.

My writer's block has sucked. Now it just may be the thing to help me.

Chapter One is Finally Finished

2011-09-15T12:20:00.002-04:00

Well, I'm giving myself a pat on the back today. I've finally finished Chapter One of "The Heart of a Lie." Whew, what a relief. The first four chapters are completely finished now. Chapter Five needs another scene written, but Chapters Six, Seven and Eight are ready. Many other chapters are done, some need minor tweaking, but I'm well on my way to finishing this thing!

I write out of order, not from page 1 to page 300, but all over the place. So much of the book is done, but Chapter One was giving me a headache.

I woke up to a rainy cold gray day, I lit a candle, warmed up my coffee and the rest of those scenes in Chapter One just poured out. I haven't felt like writing in "The Heart of a Lie" for several weeks, so I'm not surprised it all came tumbling. I really love this story. Esther's voice is so clear in my head.

The mood of this novel is so important. It's a New England Gothic story with these strange and sinful secret undertones that run throughout. The bright days of summer were not conducive to writing a story about darkness, but the rain helped today. I'm glad, for it's time I finished.

I can see it and the end is near. It feels good. Pretty soon I'll be able to hold this book in my hands, as I have been able to hold "Daniel's Garden." There will be a second novel to sell under my name through Amazon and Kindle. I love working on my stuff. It's such a feeling of deep contentment and satisfaction. Everything lines up inside and I'm not fighting myself.

I am simply being and doing what I'm meant to.

The Heart of a Lie Cover

2011-08-29T10:20:00.002-04:00

Here is the updated and better version of "The Heart of a Lie" cover. I'm much more pleased with this cover and I'm getting better at designing covers, too. Covers are kind of hard because I need to find a striking image that conveys the story while also grabbing a reader's attention.

Would I want to pick this book up off a shelf and read it? Yes, I think I would!

The power of a good cover speaks volumes (haha book joke). It is designed to whet the reader's appetite for what's inside, to tell a little bit of what the book is about, to hint at the genre and theme. Plus I have to fit the title and my name in there somewhere. It gets confusing!

But I'm happy with this cover. Others may be more difficult (or easy?) to design, but this one captures the story: my version of a historical New England Gothic tale, complete with scandalous back story, a locked bedroom, family secrets and an uber-hot bachelor.

I'm almost done, too! :)

Donation Request

2011-08-11T13:26:00.003-04:00

I want to attend the Self-Publishing Book Expo in New York City on October 22nd, 2011! I'm raising $350 to feature "Daniel's Garden" as a new author and would appreciate any financial help. Click the "Donate" button below to donate via PayPal.

Thank you all so much! :)

Pics of Plaistow

2011-08-07T11:50:00.003-04:00

Awesome book signing yesterday in Plaistow, New Hampshire! Here's me and my good friend Christina at the signing table.

Thank you to all who came and the fantastic event!

Plaistow, NH Book Signing!

2011-08-02T23:15:00.001-04:00

Come see me this Saturday, starting at 11:30 a.m., at Well Read Books in Plaistow, NH. I'll be bringing my Civil War dresses and doing any personal signings. Thank you so much!

Fort Knox book signing

2011-07-21T22:27:00.002-04:00

Come see me at Fort Knox on July 30th! I'm uber-thrilled to be part of their Civil War encampment event and even more thrilled to be making my first author appearance. It's a huge milestone and one that means so much to me.

Thank you to my husband, Erik, for his unending support, to Alexa, my amazing publicist for her jaw-dropping fearlessness, and to Leon Seymour, the Fort director, for taking a chance to have an unknown come and chat and sign. Also thank you to my readers and commenters, for sticking by me for a long time while I've been on the long road to getting this going. It's amazing.

Oh, and happy 150th anniversary of First Bull Run/First Manassas! Today was the day the VMI cadets showed their stuff, Stonewall Jackson got his famous nickname, and the North realized they probably shouldn't picnic near a battlefield! :)

Top Ten Authors I'd Love to Meet

2011-07-12T14:11:00.002-04:00

Allie posted her top ten authors she'd love to meet. I got so inspired and thought I would, too!

1. Louisa May Alcott - Oh, we'd have a jolly good time. Sharing stories about sisters, growing up in New England, money struggles, the Civil War, the whole thing. She got a bit grumpy towards her fans at the end, but I know I'd bring out her funny side. We'd be great friends, kindred spirits and keep each other laughing.

2. Jane Austen - Similarly funny, but in a different way. She was a bit more zingy and ironic, with a sparkle in her eyes as she gossiped about the ladies and gents in her life. Would love to have a cup of tea and tell her how much I admire her for making parlor conversations page-turning.

3. Mark Twain - Can you tell I love Sagittarius authors? Oh, he would be so funny, too. We'd swap travel stories, since he was restless and went everywhere, and chat about boyish pranks and his amazingly gorgeous house in Hartford, Connecticut.

4. Henry David Thoreau - One of the most influential writers I've encountered, and quite off the beaten path. He'd be spiritual and practical at the same time, so fascinating and so quirky. We'd talk about the modern environmental movement, both scorn materialism, and I'd tell him how much nature has taught me personally. A fascinating man.

5. John Keats - the poetic soul, so young and so gifted. Just to be in the same room with him would be extraordinary, let alone hear him talk about ... anything, really. I'd go all fangirl, blushing and doing my best to be quiet and let his observations guide the conversation.

6. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - I feel as if we're old pals anyway, since I've been giving tours at his childhood home for several years. Much to chat about, including his big family, his teaching days at Bowdoin or Harvard, and his amazing circle of friends. He was a genuinely nice guy, too, and would be pleasant to converse with.

7. Charles Dickens - I was thinking about him the other day, wondering if Scrooge was based on a real person. Of all the writers, his brain is the one I wish was in my own head. To create such characters, to weave their lives in and out of each other, is such an amazing gift. I'd tell him how his stories are still popular today, and I think he'd love Harry Potter!

8. Charlotte Bronte - An interesting woman to talk to, and I suspect quite strong. I'd want to ask about Monsieur Heger, the real-life inspiration for Mr. Rochester, and her sisters, too. Of course, I'd ask about Jane Eyre - how she wrote it, where she would go, if she liked to write at night or in the morning.

9. Lewis Carroll - A fellow Aquarius, and quite the oddball but such an amazing guy to chat with. We'd go off on silly adventures looking for dodos, nasty queens and white rabbits, then trade wacky poetic verses. He would definitely bring out the little kid in me, encouraging me to let my imagination run wild!

10. L. Frank Baum - I wanted to be a writer after reading Baum's many Oz books, so I'd be over the moon to meet him. He created so many amazing creatures and the Land of Oz itself. So much fun swapping stories about fantastical places, fairy tales and keeping adventure alive. His books had so much influence on me, and he was a big theatrical kind of guy. It would be a wonderful conversation.

Blogger vs. WordPress

2011-07-09T13:43:00.004-04:00

So, this blog is a free one through Blogger,, while my official site is a paid blog hosted using a WordPress platform. I thought I'd write a little bit about the pros and cons of each, since I've been using both platforms for well over two years now.

BLOGGER:

So easy to use and FREE. Just login to Blogger.com with your Google account information and away you go.

Get started right away. EVERY WRITER SHOULD HAVE AT LEAST A FREE BLOG. If you don't, then how can editors and potential agents find you? Get one!

Plenty of templates. There are free ones offered through Blogger or try another. My Blogger template is from Our Blogger Templates and looks great.

Great introduction to learning about CSS and HTML. I've uploaded my own header, fixed my own fonts, customized all the colors and made this blog my own. Understanding CSS and HTML basics is pretty important.

Blogger Dashboard is easy to use. I change my site a lot and the Dashboard is simple and straight-forward enough for beginners.

Can buy domain through Google domains. If you want, you can change your http://yourname.blogspot.com address to your own domain. I think it's $10 for the domain, too.

One of the few Blogger drawbacks is the number of pages. I wish I could have more than ten!

Blogger blogs LOOK like a blog. Not as easy to get that professionally designed look.

WORDPRESS:

The free WordPress.org blogs you get are a good intro to WordPress. Set one up and see if you like the Dashboard layout.

Unfortunately, WordPress free blogs are NOT customizeable the same way free Blogger blogs are. This was a big drawback before I bought my name as a domain.

BUT ... once you buy your domain and your hosting, WordPress is absurdly simple to set up through your hosting.

Extremely professional look without doing any funky coding.

The SEO options through some WordPress themes are extraordinary. Definitely for the professional author who needs to be known.

Sky's the limit as far as designing your own templates and themes. WordPress themes just look better than Blogger themes, too.

WordPress Dashboard layout is not as easy to follow as Blogger, but it's usable and fairly friendly.

You can have as many pages as you want and put them in any order.

WordPress sites can function as your main website. You can code them to look like a website, too. I removed tags and comments on my main site to make it look more like a website.

So, it's up to you whether you'd like to have a Blogger blog or a WordPress blog/site. I wish I could merge Blogger's fantastically easy Dashboard layout with WordPress's professional look and SEO capabilities. Put the Blogger back end with the WordPress front end! Sort of like a blog centaur. :)

As you can see, I use both. I like Blogger as my play-around site, featuring lots of silly images and a few pages. But WordPress is my professional site I have listed on business cards, show to potential book buyers and such. You may prefer to have both, as I do!

Good luck. :)

Daniel Stuart

2011-07-02T13:55:00.003-04:00

I came across a fascinating online collection as part of the Library of Congress Civil War archives. The Lijenquist Family Collection has some of the best antique ambrotypes, daguerreotypes and tintypes of soldiers I've ever seen.

I love browsing through old photos, since it gives me a great visual when constructing characters. I found one that pretty much nails Daniel Stuart, my main character from Daniel's Garden. Take a look:

He's not in the correct uniform, since this is a daguerreotype of a sailor, but the face is darn near perfect.

Gotta love that. :)

Fun with Avatars

2011-07-01T13:10:00.006-04:00

I was playing around on a funny avatar website last night and created some silly cartoonish depictions of both myself and my hubby, Erik. So, here we are! :)

And here we are in real life, enjoying a fantastic time in Ireland on the sunny Dingle Peninsula. Click on the pic to see a larger view.

Using Tone in Stories

2011-06-26T15:26:00.002-04:00

The incredible landscapes of Ireland are starting to become the past (how quickly they do!), and my mental fuzziness and physical exhaustion from such a great trip are winding down. I'm easing back into the slow and steady pace of my life, which is good. If there's one unexpected thing Ireland taught me, it's how much I love being home in Maine. It's important to love where you are. For all of its castles, its old mossy stone that I wish was here, its stunning beaches and winding roads, Maine is home.

My story "The Heart of a Lie" also got a peek at yesterday. I didn't work on it at all while I was gone. I did write a bit in "Daniel's Lions" in Dublin and I thought about Mary from "Daniel's Garden" throughout the trip.

As I was reading over "The Heart of a Lie," I was happy with some scenes and not happy with others. But overall, I felt the story isn't capturing the tone I want to convey, the mood that I feel when I listen to a minor piano song that captures Esther (my main character) and her personality.

The story tone is dark, moody, an undercurrent of deep fog that runs throughout the bottom of the story, like a storm on the sea's horizon. Right now, the story tone feels too nostalgic, too quaint, too "oh, isn't that sweet and cute." It needs to be edgier, darker, the shiver you get when you peel back normal layers and see the bit of madness underneath.

In stories, tone works with the mood. It is also different than mood, for mood is more about individual scenes, whereas tone carries throughout the novel. "Wuthering Heights" has scenes that vary in mood, from passionate to gripping to sadistic, while the overall tone of the story is an isolated bleakness. With "Little Women," the overall tone is nostalgic quaintness and the warmth of family.

So, how do I add tone to this story? It means going deeper, uncovering character motives and heightening the tension. My husband suggested I read some Southern Gothic to get more of a feel for the spooky, moody tension that pervades Flannery O'Connor and William Faulker's work. I've not read pretty much anything from either of them, so that's on the list.

As for working on the story, my most important character besides Esther is the main antagonist, Aunt Lucia. Digging deeper into her backstory and uncovering more of her motives will bring further tension.

This story is not horror, nor is it even traditionally Gothic in an Edgar Allan Poe way. It's more about how the Gothic elements of life - alienation, moodiness, sadness, sorrow, atonement, selfishness, sinning, betrayal - permeate the lives of ordinary people and cause ripples of immoral behavior to slowly and steadily rip families apart. The rotten core at the center of my story is an act of immorality and shows a weakness of character.

Esther is intricately tied to this rotten core, but she is trying desperately to get out of its whirlpool-esque turning downward. If she can just make things right, then the rotten core can have a chance to heal. Or, can it?

That's what makes tone so important. It's almost the silent soundtrack, heightening the emotions and the motivations behind those in the scenes. The silent music in "The Heart of a Lie" is bleak and foggy.

I still have a lot of work ahead of me ... :)

Using Foils in Stories

2011-05-29T12:14:00.003-04:00

I first learned about foils when studying "Jane Eyre" in highschool. Foils are two or more characters that show opposite characteristics in similar situations. In "Jane Eyre," Mr. Rochester and St. John are foils. They are different men but both play Jane's romantic interests. St. John's personality makes Jane realize she cannot live without love and so she returns to Mr. Rochester.

I personally love using foils. They show character growth and help the main character solidify what he/she feels, thus giving them an extra reason to go after what they want.

In "Daniel's Garden," Catherine and Mary are foils for Daniel. Both women play similar romantic interests for him, but they are completely different. In the beginning of the story, Daniel is 'ready' to marry Catherine. But after discovering she only cares about him because of his potential to be a law partner, his feelings for her wane. By the end of the story, he falls in love with Mary - not because she wants him to be anybody different, but because she accepts him for who he is: a soldier.

I'm currently working on some scenes in the beginning of "The Heart of a Lie." I have two male romantic interests for Esther - one is a playboy farmhand and the other is a playboy rich businessman's son. Both are charming, both are suave, both have confidence and ease. There is nothing underneath the farmhand's playboy charm that indicates a deeper character or a willingness to mature and accept responsibility. Whereas, the playboy businessman's son is putting on a facade of charm to hide the fact that he lacks confidence in himself to assume the role he's meant to play. When Esther convinces him he has everything he needs, then he is able to fully accept responsibility and become the great man of the city he's meant to be.

I also have two mother figures, two father figures and two sisters. Each pair acts as a foil for Esther, presenting different challenges for her as well as different blessings. In many ways this novel has been more difficult to write than "Daniel's Garden" because the character development of each person has to be real.

In "Daniel's Garden," I relied pretty heavily on 'stock' characters - the religious soldier, the bookish soldier and the courageous soldier. I fleshed them out as much as I could, but they were ultimately there to serve their purposes.

Whereas, in "The Heart of a Lie," the lines between protagonist and antagonist are blurred and the characters are more like real people. It's been a challenge!

Writing this story has given me GREAT respect for Jane Austen. Nothing 'happens' in her stories - there are no voyages or quests, no war, nothing huge or upheaving. Her scenes are constructed around conversations and dances. And she was a genius at making ordinary everyday living compelling and page-turning. That's hard to do!

So, using foils help give more oomph beneath the surface of my characters' motivations. They generate more conflict and more depth, transforming conversations and dances and dinner parties into page-turning scenes. When it comes to character development in "The Heart of a Lie," I need all the help I can get! :)

"Daniel's Garden" Book Signing!

2011-05-27T12:20:00.000-04:00

I have a book signing scheduled for "Daniel's Garden." It's at Well Read Books - on Saturday, August 6th at 11:30 a.m.

Please come and mark your calendars! I'll have music and readings, too. Spread the word - I'd love to have you there!

---------------------------------------------------

Directions from Maine and the north:
Take 295 South to I-95 South into Massachusetts. Take exit 59 towards I-495 South towards Worcester, MA. Take the RT-125 exit 51 toward Plaistow NH/Haverhill. Take the RT-125 N exit 51B toward Plaistow, NH. Turn slightly right onto Main St/Rt 125. Turn right onto Plaistow Rd/Rt-125, crossing into New Hampshire. Well Read Books, address 37 Plaistow Rd is on the right.

Directions from Massachusetts and the south:
Take I-95 North towards Boston. Merge onto I-495 North via exit 6B toward Worcester, MA. Merge onto RT-125 N/Main St via exit 51B toward Plaistow, NH. Turn right onto Plaistow Rd/RT-125, crossing into New Hampshire. Well Read Books, address 37 Plaistow Rd is on the right.

Resurrecting Old Stories

2011-05-13T13:29:00.004-04:00

Sometimes, all it takes to breathe new life into an old idea is to make it interesting to me. As I write more and more (and the writing flows more and more), it becomes apparent that I simply can't work on something that doesn't at least have some sort of emotional tug on my heart. If I don't care, then I don't write and the work languishes - sometimes for years.

This spring I have been writing like a banshee! I have written 50 pages in "The Heart of a Lie" since April 1st. The rough draft is galloping along at breakneck speed, considering it took me years to write the same amount in "Daniel's Garden." It's not fair to compare the two, since I was just learning about the 19th century, but still ... ! I'm extraordinarily pleased with my progress and have about 70% of the rough draft done.

So, as I come to the close of this new story, I'm perusing my works-in-progress to see what the next novel will be. And an older story I've had brewing in the works for a number of years has surfaced and called out my name: "Fields of Lavender."

It's an 1899 Edwardian tale about a 14-year-old snobby rich girl from Gilded Age New York City whose mouthiness is not to be borne by her family or their uppity circle, so she's packed up and sent to live on a farm in Maine, where she quickly gets her comeuppance and more. Think "Anne of Green Gables" with an even more sour Mary Lennox from "The Secret Garden."

I myself worked on a farm for several summers, so I used many of my own experiences for my heroine, Edy. Well, I created this story idea many years ago, when I was still in highschool. Now, at last I seem to have gotten the linchpin I needed to make this story soar. I was so excited about this new story twist I spent several hours this week drafting notes and fleshing out characters and the plot. I'm uber-pleased and am looking forward to adding scenes later this year.

Another older story of mine, "The Magic Pen," is the first full-length chapter book I ever wrote at the age of ten. I still have it, though it is sadly not something I could publish today. It's not reflective of my current style. But I have fished it out and am reworking it to make it more my style - adding a darker setting, more fleshed-out characters, a scarier villain, more symbolism, better theme integration, and setting it squarely in the 1880's instead of the modern era.

I have never thrown anything away that I've written creatively. (Old college papers and math tests don't count!). I keep it. I reread it from time to time. These old stories are like steadfast friends who have seen me through countless changes. The good ones have the potential to be encased in covers and sitting on a shelf next to "Daniel's Garden" or "The Heart of a Lie." But they may not have a deep emotional pull in their current form.

So, I rework them. I figure out how to care about them as much as I care about my grown-up stories. It's okay to update a story that I came up with when I was a child or a young teen. It's not okay to let them languish forever, unpublished in any form. Not every story idea I've had as been a good one.

But if solid bones are there, I'm more than willing to breathe life into them once more.

"Daniel's Garden" in a 4th Bookstore!

2011-05-09T11:50:00.001-04:00

I just received a fantastic email from a friend who is helping me market "Daniel's Garden" - it's now available for sale at Mr. Paperback in Augusta! I'll swing up there soon to sign the copies, but this is exciting news! That means that FOUR stores in Maine now carry my debut self-published novel. It's pretty awesome. :)

Have you checked out my Facebook author page yet? Become a fan and receive constant updates on books, the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, 19th century research, and more. Can't wait to meet you!

~ Meg

Thoughts About Authors and Endings

2011-05-08T13:39:00.002-04:00

So, yesterday I read an interesting and thought-provoking article about Elizabeth Gilbert on the Atlantic Monthly website, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. Something about it has struck me as odd - odd enough that I wanted to share my thoughts.

Gilbert is the author of "Eat, Pray, Love," which I haven't read. As a wannabe-famous author myself, her success is certainly the golden parachute to shoot for - millions of copies sold, a movie starring Julia Roberts, and name recognition. Sounds like everything I want! She even has the enviable position of being an author that inspires her readers. Readers come away from her books feeling more fulfilled, more ready to take charge of their own lives, more aware of the beauty inherent in their lives. Again, I haven't read it but so many thousands wax poetic about this book.

So, imagine my surprise when this article states that she's 'walking away' from it all. She's saying goodbye to the very thing that has launched her career with meteoric success. She'd rather work in her garden. The article author opens the article by saying "Some successful artists know when to put it on a shelf."

Well, I frankly have to disagree. I guess I'm one of those other not-successful artists who will NEVER put any of my works on a shelf, so to speak! I'd give anything to inspire readers, to boast a million-copy bestseller, to share my work with packed rooms and eager listeners. No, Elizabeth Gilbert - I could never be like you. I could never want to say goodbye to "Daniel's Garden," "The Heart of a Lie," or any other of the dozens of novels in the works.

How could I? I care too much. It's a downfall, maybe, since it makes me so frustratingly uber-sensitive to criticism and putting myself out there. But it's also a blessing in disguise, for I just can't stop caring. And it is precisely my caring-so-much that would keep me from doing what Gilbert has done.

I love "Daniel's Garden" SO MUCH I would never want to stop talking about it, never want to stop exploring its motifs and characters, never stop chatting about how others have perceived it.

I think you take your success for granted, Ms. Gilbert. You have forgotten how joyous sharing your work can be. Instead of being a 'successful artist putting her work on a shelf,' to me you come across as someone who misunderstands her role as an author. Your mission is to share. Your mission is to inspire. Your mission is to touch others - and you're doing that!

I am an idealist, so this is perhaps too unrealistic for a successful author with dozens of speaking engagements and millions of fans who want to pick her brain at every turn. I'm also a textbook introvert, so puttering in the garden as opposed to facing a huge crowd of people does sound appealing.

But I also never want to stop sharing my work. It IS me, it IS what I have to offer this crazy nation so in need of more conversations about its history. It IS what I have to share with fellow readers who are interested in Daniel's or Esther's or any other main character's tale as much as I am.

So, Elizabeth Gilbert, an article like this about me would never be written. My books may have an ending, but my personal story of authorship never does. There is no "The End" in Meg's tale.

There are only more conversations!

Mary IS a Great Name, Isn't It?

2011-05-07T22:18:00.000-04:00

Throughout the writing of "Daniel's Garden," I had a few ... experiences. Coincidences, more like it. Often, it felt as if I were merely dictating Daniel's story. But that couldn't be! He wasn't a real person. His friends are fictional, too! And so is Mary Daley, the Irish nurse he falls in love with.

So, imagine my surprise when, while perusing Borders' new fiction section, I come across something a little eerie. Maybe even downright creepy. It's a brand new novel from Robin Oliveira, called "My Name is Mary Sutter." I HAD to buy it, so I did.

It's about a Civil War nurse named Mary. Not only that, but she works at a Union Hospital in Washington, D. C. Which, for those of you who have read my story, is the same hospital I chose! Hmmm ....

So WAS there a nurse named Mary working at a Union Hospital in Washington, D. C. during the Civil War? Who knows! Probably, since Mary is a common name.

I can't wait to dig into Robin's novel. It will seem eerily familiar ... yet new ... yet not ... all at the same time. Since we both chose a main female nurse character named Mary, I think it's safe to say great ideas come to those writers who are passionate about their subjects.

Sometimes even the same great idea!

Daniel's Garden in 2 Bookstores!

2011-04-26T14:23:00.001-04:00

News! My novel "Daniel's Garden" is now available at the Bull Moose store in Scarborough and Bangor.

I also just ordered another five copies and it will be featured at the Nonesuch Books South Portland location, too.

Press releases will also be sent out to local publications here in Portland, Maine. It's pretty cool and is definitely coming along. I'm thrilled, since this year kicks off the 150th anniversary of the Civil War - so what better time to feature a Civil War novel?

Progress is coming along quickly with "The Heart of a Lie" as well. I wrote another few short scenes last night. I don't have a projected end date, but am happy with the steady writing.

Cheers to selling books and banging out prose!

~ Meg

Perry Farm

2011-04-22T12:15:00.003-04:00

In The Heart of a Lie, Esther Perry becomes the owner of Perry Farm. It is the most beautiful farm in her little village of Bayview, Maine.

I found these images of a farm here in Maine. I don't know where, but this is such an idyllic place:

Here is how I describe it in the novel:

"The Perry Farm was nestled in the shadow of the Camden hills, within a quarter mile from a large and clear blue pond that cupped the sky and the hills in a continuous blue and green reflection. I'd swam in the pond as a little girl, and though it had a local name I always called it the Hill Sky Pond. It seemed to be like a living sky surrounded by embracing hills.

Our home was large and white, built more than one hundred years earlier by some of the first settlers of Bayview. They knew good land when they saw it, for most of Bayview's shore and soil were littered with rocks like currants in a scone. Thanks to the towering pines and the relative safety from the sea wind by the hills, this land was good, the soil rich and fertile, the wind not quite as fierce as closer to the sea. The large gray barn sat back from the house, connected to our rear kitchen by a series of woodsheds and outbuildings. Fenced pastures gently sloped away and down towards the distant forest and the pond."

The Century I Live In

2011-04-21T16:55:00.001-04:00

When does literary inspiration stop and my own personal voice take over?

It’s a question that’s been on my mind lately, since I’m working on “The Heart of a Lie,” my second historical fiction novel. I’m about halfway through the rough draft and making excellent progress. I wrote two scenes last night and several new chapters last week.

The story is about two sisters who are orphaned when their mother dies, they are forced to sell their Maine farm and end up in Portland, Maine with relatives they don’t know.

I was definitely inspired by “Bleak House,” a fantastic 2005 miniseries about Dickens’s interesting and character-packed novel. I didn’t know anything about the story and viewed it on Netflix one quiet wintry week two or three years ago. I really loved the story, bought the novel and read it, too. The novel is more like a series of vignettes rather than a coursing narrative, so the miniseries brought the story to life in a much more story-like way.

Another inspiration for “The Heart of a Lie” is Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility.” The 2009 miniseries starring Hattie Morahan is just delightful. I also own the Emma Thompson/Kate Winslet movie version and watch it several times a year.

So, my story is a combination of these two classic novels, with an American twist of setting it in Maine three years after the Civil War. Obviously, the country is trying to recover from this immense tragedy. My main character Esther’s father was killed in the war, so he’s not around anymore to run their farm.

When I first began this story, I really felt as if I was borrowing way too heavily from past authors. The close-sister motif popularized by Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott, the Gothic twists I’m adding that are reminiscent of “Jane Eyre,” “Bleak House” and Hawthorne – all of this weighed on my mind as being too reminiscent of 19th century novels.

As much as I love that century and that time period, I also want to stand on my own as a literary voice in this time. The one main difference between me and Austen or me and Charlotte Bronte is that I’m not repressed by my social era. I have freedoms those ladies could only dream about. I can give my characters as many burdens and obligations as I want to (and I do!), but I’m not living that situation. I’m not drawing from my own life in that sense. The problems and driving energies behind my writing have more to do with the love of the genre than to lay out my memoir-esque experiences.

For, as much as I adore Austen, Dickens, Bronte, Alcott, Hawthorne and the rest – they LIVED the social climate they wrote about. It was their world. Except for Hawthorne, who ventured into Puritan territory with “The Scarlet Letter,” they didn’t write about other time periods. So, their lives lend such an authenticity to their novels.

I don’t know if I could write about the 21st century the way they wrote about the 19th century. My social freedoms don’t lend themselves to creating enough conflict for a main character, especially a female one. That may be the reason I don’t put iPhones or divorces in my story. But the pressures, moralistic obligations, financial situations and extenuating circumstances facing men and women in the 19th century make for way better novels! There’s so much conflict built into the social structure that I can lay it on thick – and THAT keeps pages turning!

Well, once the story is finished I will definitely reach out to readers and ask if the story stands on its own 21st century legs. I’m still not sure if it draws too heavily from past authors and classic works, but the elements of good storytelling are definitely there – a strong and well-defined main character, a simple but deep plot, great villains, wonderful supporting cast, intrigue and mystery, secrets, lies and a whole lot of motivation bubbling under the surface.

My particular take on classic novels is to make them exciting for today’s reader. Update them with a more modern style and more visceral details. I’m not afraid to peek under corsets, but neither am I willing to buck all traditional convention. It’s okay to make 19th century characters human – really human. It’s okay to add post-Freudian psychological depth to villain motivation. It’s okay to break antique teacups in the quest for the truth.

That may be the best thing about being a 21st century writer: my social era gives me courage.

Writing is Like Diving

2011-04-11T20:34:00.004-04:00

Hi everyone, just wanted to drop in and let everyone know I'm plugging away at "The Heart of a Lie." I have about 40% of the scenes done and have written quite a bit in it the past week. I also rearranged some of the scenes and created a scene file. Thankfully, I have finished chapters one through four, which is cool. I'm now moving forward and working on other chapters. The whole novel is 27 chapters.

If I wrote one scene per day and there are roughly thirty-five scenes in the novel, then theoretically a rough draft should take me about five or six weeks. I could definitely see myself writing a book every six months or so, if that's what I was exclusively doing and not writing articles for money.

"Daniel's Lions," meanwhile, only has about 10% of the scenes done. I don't have a firm idea of what Daniel's life is like in Richmond, so Act Two has gaping holes. At least I can work on the Gettysburg and love scenes. I can also work on the meeting Marcus Reed scene, and maybe some scattered dialogue here and there. Details and place names can always be added, but it's difficult to write about a historic location I've never been to.

Once the completed rough drafts are done, then I read through them and write notes for myself in red, like: Add more feeling behind Esther's reaction. Flesh out this scene. Research what the buildings were on Middle Street. That kind of thing. Once I've added the notes, then I start working through them. That process takes several weeks and is pretty cumbersome because I'm dealing with the whole novel rather than just an isolated scene here and there. The novel is definitely my preferred creative medium, but they are large! After I've tackled the notes, then I do a final read-through or two and the book is done.

I know the book is done because it feels done. I don't have any eh-feelings about a scene or a character. What I read on the page matches what I have in my head, and that is such a feeling of satisfaction. The closest metaphor I've ever found to writing is diving. I'm continuously diving into myself and pulling out words to describe what I see in my head and feel in my heart. The stories are so abstract until I'm able to put them into words and actually describe what's going on inside me.

It's such an oddly personal and wrenching process. I'm not using physical materials like a sewer or a potter. I'm not mastering a tool like a pianist or a computer programmer. I'm more like a dancer, in that every expression I show comes entirely from me and my body. However, novels are more permanent than a dance and so in the end, I do have a physical representation of this wrenching process.

But it takes an unbelievable amount of practice. I put in my own 10,000 hours writing Daniel's Garden and so this process of notes, scenes, rough draft, notes, editing, finishing seems comfortable now. I'm familiar enough with it to expect it and to embrace its structure.

I'm also amazed at how free I feel now that a friend of mine is acting as my publicist. Erik made the wry comment last night that I may make more money now that I'm not thinking about money! I simply sit down and write as innocently as I did as a child, with no thought as to how to market or sell or look at my work as a product. Someone else can do that.

Meanwhile, I'll just sit here and practice my inner diving. And when at last the words bubble to the surface, I'll catch them and write them down. Scene after scene, the novel unfolds and grows. One day, I finish the final sentence and realize it's complete. That is, until the next time to dive and write again.

Who Knows

2011-04-07T14:34:00.003-04:00

I have this funny little song I sing whenever I think about death. Death is the great unknown, the great who knows. I guess I half-believed the heaven idea but when I saw my friend in his coffin lying there last November, any fantasies about death or angels or whatever flew out of my head forever. All I could think of was that he wouldn't laugh with me again.

So, I started singing this little song, and in the great spirit of death, it's called "Who Knows."

Who knows if heaven's got
Chocolate bites as a treat, snoring pugs at my feet
A Saturday dream, hot coffee with cream?
Who knows if heaven's got
Warm arms to hold when nights turn cold
Books with fresh pages, theatrical stages
Who knows if heaven is even above?
But I do know ... heaven ain't got our love.

Who knows if heaven's got
Amusement park rides, strolls by the tides
A new piano tune, the yellow harvest moon.
Who knows if heaven's got
The glasses we clink as you and I drink
To the nights we've had, good times and bad

Who knows if heaven is even above?
But I do know ... heaven ain't got our love.

Who knows if heaven has any of this. None of us do. But I do know that heaven doesn't have my friend and I laughing together or Erik and I hand-in-hand on a Florida beach or snoring pugs at the end of my feet. Here is where they are. Here is where they all are. This life, as it is now, even if it snows in April - here is where the things I love, the things that make my world go round, reside.

I'm not going to bank my happiness on a simple but unfounded idea that the best times in my life are after I say good-bye to everything I know. Paradise comes in funny packages, and maybe the funniest thing of all is that we never left. It's here.

It's always here.

Movies vs. Books

2011-04-05T09:25:00.005-04:00

When it comes to novels and films, most people have the clear and decisive opinion that the book is 'better' than the movie. The book explains more, gives more insight into the main character's head, fleshes out the plot more, etc. It's plain that when comparing the two, the book comes out the winner.

Or does it?

Let me play on the movie's team and stand up for my teammate for a moment. The movie's greatest strength over the book is visuals. I can picture amazing scenes from fiction in my head, to be sure, but to see it projected on the big screen is an unforgettable experience. I never tire of it. "The English Patient" is jaw-droppingly beautiful and so is "Girl with a Pearl Earring," both exquisite novels in their own right.

The second huge strength for movies is their score and soundtrack. Books don't have music, and music can add so much color and emotion to scenes. John Williams' deft score for "Memoirs of a Geisha" brings that world to life, and while I read the book I can hear that score in my head. Same for "Little Women" and "Pride and Prejudice." I can hear the music from the films while I read along.

The third movie strength is length. I'm a fast reader, but I can't get through a novel in less than two or three days. Whereas, I can quickly pop in a movie and even the longest ones are three hours. I can also zip to a scene in the movie and re-watch it if I only want to see that scene.

A fourth movie strength and a definite bonus, is the ability for remakes. New versions of "Pride and Prejudice" and "Jane Eyre" come down the pike at least once a generation. New faces join the cast of "Little Women," new actors become Mrs. Macawber and Oliver Twist, new advances in technology make blood spatters, Victorian London, and opening credits pop off the screen.

I'm standing up for movies because they are an important literary contribution to story-telling. Yes, literary. The best movies, the most heart-breaking films, are not a separate category from their textual counterparts sitting on bookstore shelves. They work together. They complement one another. It takes an extraordinary collaboration between screenwriter, director, producer, actors, composer and crew to put a book on screen. When they do it well, I'm in awe.

I watch far more movies than read new fiction. It's the truth. I'm not ashamed to admit it, either. If the movie is based on a literary work and I love the movie, then I'll put the book on my to-read list. For example, "Water for Elephants" is coming to the theatres in a few weeks. I haven't read the book, but the movie trailer piqued my interest and it definitely looked like something up my alley - romantic love story, retro setting, a stunning and colorful visual look and a dramatic plot. All of those elements hook me and bring me right in. So, I'm more than happy to curl up with the novel.

It may be blasphemous for a novelist to watch the movie version first, but I get so much enjoyment out of films. I also realize that inspiration and good story-telling can come from anywhere. I get inspired by movies, by soundtracks, by people, by things that have happened to me. Heck, my two biggest inspirations are "Phantom of the Opera" and "Les Miserables" - both musicals! I am truly a product of a swirling creative multimedia environment, a golden age of storytelling where good stories can come from the page, the stage or the screen.

So, the next time you see the movie version of a book you're interested in is coming to a theatre near you, try not reading the book first. Try the movie out. See the movie as the director did and enjoy it as a writer, not an audience member. Enjoy it as a literary work.

Someday, there will be movie versions of my novels. I won't grump and grouse about script changes or the 'wrong' actor cast. The movie version will stand on its own as its own work. My story was the inspiration but not the final telling.

Let my stories inspire, whatever form they take!

Love Only Knows

2011-04-01T11:46:00.002-04:00

Josh Groban is my favorite modern artist - in fact, we're going to see him in concert in Boston in July! I can't wait. I was sitting in a Subway as a freshman in college eating a sandwich when this voice of an angel came drifting through the speakers. I HAD to know who he was, and I've been a fan ever since. :)

His newest album "Illuminations" came out last November and has been on repeat in both my car and my computer ever since. My favorite song on this album is "Love Only Knows," and it reminds me of Daniel and Mary from "Daniel's Garden."

Love only knows
If we'll give into fear and choose life under cover ...
Love only knows
If it's special enough that we'll choose one another ...

Yes, love only knows if we do choose fear or choose each other. It's a beautiful song. :)

Writing Book News Releases

2011-03-25T11:16:00.003-04:00

How do you like the new Amazon.com slideshow? Pretty cool, eh? You can purchase the paperback edition for $14.95 or Kindle edition for $2.99 - get a copy and read!

Oh, and take a look at my revamped website - you can purchase copies of Daniel's Garden directly from me through the site. It's pretty darn cool. :)

Speaking of cool, I've teamed up with a good friend and she and I are going to start hawking this book about town. There are already four signed copies in the Maine Historical Society gift shop (boo-yah!) and I'll chat with the Longfellow House visitors about it this year.

So, yesterday, I drafted up a sample press release for my book. It's pretty simple. They are structured like a combination of book jacket copy and a newspaper article. You include the four W's, your contact info and exactly what's going on. Here's my sample release:

Meg North
22 Brook Rd
Portland, ME 04103
(207-415-5855
zuel_88@hotmail.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 25, 2011

DANIEL'S GARDEN
by Meg North

From the luscious world of rich Boston to the bloody battlefields of the Civil War, "Daniel's Garden" is a sweeping epic novel about one young man's journey. Told in a memoir-like style, you will be there with Daniel Stuart as he decides to leave his cushioned past, joins three remarkable friends and they become soldiers in the Army of the Potomac.

Through visceral battles that shock him awake, tender friendship and blossoming love with an army nurse, Daniel rejects everything he's learned about how to live. His amazing friends - brash Andrew, studious Matthew and gentle David - become his new brothers at war, comrades until the end.

Portland writer Meg North spent ten passionate years researching America's turbulent war, walking battlefields and chatting with historical experts. "Daniel's Garden" is her debut novel.

Signed copies are available for immediate sale at the Maine Historical Society gift shop at 489 Congress Street. You may also purchase copies on the Amazon.com website.

###

Don't forget to add the three #'s at the end of the release. I'll bring it to my 'publicist' tomorrow morning. It should be a lot of fun!

Psychological Reversal

2011-03-23T11:32:00.003-04:00

I read yesterday about psychological reversal. My greatest dream is to be a nationally published author and have my books be bestsellers, right? But then why don't I work on these novels? Why don't I push forward towards this dream?

I haven't written anything new in a week, which in the life of a writer (especially me, since I write at least something every single day) is a friggin' eternity! There are many novel-ish things on my to-do list, but every time I think about it, I go back to puttering about something else. In the case of the past week, I got an unexpected burst of nonfiction writing done for my job. I like the money in the bank, but I'm not doing what I love to do. Grrrr!

It's a matter of psychology. The negative programming about being a writer as a career is so strong it overcomes my biggest dream. So, I sabotage myself by not going after my dream and not pushing forward through my fears. There is psychological reversal. The programming that writers never make any money, so I'll be doomed to starve, and I'm shy and don't have social skills and will never be good at marketing are both strong enough to keep me from having the personal power to go after my dream.

When I feel deeply and to the core about something, it certainly shows up in my actions. My strong opinions about money have propelled me forward into the frugal life many times, even going so far as to sell eBooks about it! So, where is that motivation with my writing?

I want deep and strong feelings about being a writer to push me forward and propel my actions. I want my writing emotions to be so strong that I don't even think about it. I just feel deeply about what I feel, and so I take action. It doesn't occur to me to second-guess myself - why would I?

I feel to my gut that once I get my psychological reversal under control and I go after that writing dream with as much heart and enthusiasm as I put into living frugally, then everything else will fall into place. My moodiness will lessen, my income will expand, my life will align, my priorities will be in their proper place, and I will have the blessing of the gods. I have Leo in the third house (astrologically speaking), so I know that queen-power is within me. I have the ability to be the top of my field, not because I want to step on anybody, but because it will be living in my light.

I am motivated to do this. I want good feelings about writing. I don't want bad feelings anymore. I want to associate only good with my writing, to look at setbacks like rejection letters or the months a novel requires as all par for the course. The cost of doing business, and it motivates me to try harder. I don't want to shrink and make myself small anymore.

If J. K. Rowling (a Leo herself!) had made herself small, I wouldn't know about her and I wouldn't have been able to read her books. Same with my favorite authors. To be small is to limit my voice and miss out on the opportunity to pay it forward, to move the passion of writing and books forward to another new set of eyes. I am like a channel, where words pass beneath my eyes, enter my heart and my mind, then are transformed into new stories and passed along to new eyes.

To get this psychology reversed as fast as possible (for I am not the patient sort!), I put a StickyNote on my computer desktop that reads:

"Writing makes me feel so good that I go after my dream with heart and gusto."

---------------------------------------------------

We all do what makes us feel good. People who are on a naturally healthy diet don't need a motivational coach to stay on that diet - the proof is in the way they feel, so they keep doing it. I'm of the firm belief that motivational input ain't needed if what you're doing makes you feel good.

Let's not live small. Let's not live in the dark, outside of our light. Be big and dream big. Go after the dream that makes you feel the best, and that's where the good stuff is.

That's where you shine the most! :)

The Illusion of Author Support

2011-03-18T22:03:00.006-04:00

It's 10:00 at night now, my favorite time to write. My last post talked about how I write at night. My freelance writing article work was done earlier today in the spring sunshine, but the night belongs to me and my thoughts on what I have seen and thought throughout the day.

Tonight, I watched "Creation," the incredibly deep and complex story of Darwin 'birthing' "The Origin of Species." He was creating a book and it caused him to turn from the Creation theory. Some have called it an inaccurate title, but what else is writing or thinking a new thought, but creation?

The thing that struck me the most was not the scientific vs. religion struggle Paul Bettany's Darwin felt (for he was not immune to it either), but how it played out as a personal conflict between him and his wife, Emma, played expertly and vulnerably by Jennifer Connelly. She feared for losing his soul and he feared he'd made a mistake in marrying his cousin.

During the entire writing process of "The Origin of Species," he wasn't supported by his wife. She didn't see his work as anything he should be spending time on; in fact, it took him away from his children. Even when he gave it to her to read (and she was the first reader), she did not return it with enthusiasm or luck. He wasn't supported by the local vicar or anyone else in the town. There were only two who bolstered his work: Joseph Hooker, an extraordinary scientist in his own right, and Thomas Huxley, a fellow evolutionary biologist.

Darwin was nearly alone and had such a tiny and fiery support system it's a blooming miracle we have any of his "Origin of Species" and other similar evolutionary and natural selection works.

Today, we tend to lean towards the support-system theory of art: that if we're well-supported in money, friendship, and general resources, then we will produce the greatest of works. "If only I had more money, I'd be able to create that." "I need you to support what I do."

Well, that's an illusion and a myth. Even when those who create and continually push themselves do finally receive buckets of money and accolades, their work can become lax and not have the heat or passion that it once had. Oddly, you see this with rappers a lot. Their early songs are alive with raw heat and power, yet after they become wealthy and cushioned it's a hollow search for what to sing about next.

Let my craft be forged in the fire of living, of struggling to keep going, keep pushing, keep trying. Let my need for support show itself for what it really is: a cry for sympathy when the going gets tough.

No. I need it. I need the toughness, the fire, the will to push deeper and go bigger each time. I rise to the challenge and I slice through the illusion of supported authorship. I get comfortable with discomfort, for that is when I know I am pushing and going.

The sign of Aries will be here on Monday, yet already I can feel its burning energy. It shoots up through the ground and lights the world alive again. Only in Aries can our spirits be renewed and the exhaustion of Pisces laid to its true rest. It feels good to shake off the rain and the snow and to awaken with fresh vigor.

Alight in me, and give me strength and energy to push forward. Arise and alight the fire in my belly. I am ready.

Inward and Outward

2011-03-15T19:37:00.004-04:00

Sometimes I think writing is not pen to paper, but eyes opening or eyes closing. When eyes are opened, I see the world. I look at what is around me. I project and interact and am 'out' there, in daylight and looking at others' eyes. When eyes are closed, I am tuned in to myself only. I am 'in' here and looking only to myself for guidance. I stay within and turn from the daylight world to night, needing none other.

I work at home, and so nearly every day there are hours of eyes-closed time. Time I sit in the sunshiny silence of the kitchen, looking out the window to the backyard. Yesterday a black-capped chickadee alighted on the back porch, and several weeks ago I saw the first robin. It may be daylight, but without the sound of others' footsteps and only the comforting hum of the running dishwasher, it is like the dead of night with silence. Nobody walks by the window, nobody comes to the door.

Some writers write in early morning and I have done that only once or twice in my life, usually from arising so early it is dark.

I write at night. I need eyes-closed time, I need the comforting cloak of night about me. It is time to look not out but in. Black is one of my favorite colors. Some say it is the absence of color, but I believe it is every color. For doesn't night embrace everything in her darkness? The earth does not disappear when night comes, but instead is absorbed into her eyes-closed arms. She is a good friend to me, like a gentle hand upon my shoulder and a murmuring voice: "I have closed off the world so you can listen ... listen to yourself."

Inward or outward. Do I go in today, to listen to myself? Or do I go out, armed with books to place upon a shelf, a smile for a visitor to the Longfellow House, a hand to clasp another?

Spring is coming and the earth's eyes-closed months are ending. The time of Pisces will end soon and I will be renewed with a blast of Aries energy as the world erupts to riotous color and sun. From cool water to sunny fire I go, and so the days of eyes-open will begin.

But I will not keep my eyes open for long.

The Commitment to Write

2011-03-10T10:38:00.004-05:00

I read a blog article this morning about finding your passion as a writer, which for me is the easy part of writing. I can't NOT be passionate about the 19th century, even if I tried! :)

However, there was one part of the article that really stuck out for me: Remove the Roadblocks. It's about removing tolerations from your life that have been sapping your energy and attention.

For me, unfortunately, these roadblocks often consist of unwanted commitments. I want to please people, so I'm not very good at saying "no" and setting boundaries. I like to participate and, combined with my enthusiasm at starting something new, this often pulls me into commitments I'm not comfortable with nor help my emotional state. These commitments can be anything from a toxic relationship to a responsibility I have undertaken to more tasks at work.

I dream of bookshelves full of my novels, not my name as editor on such-and-such newsletter or webmaster of such-and-such website. I've left unfinished projects and emotionally draining responsibilities by the wayside because, truthfully, my heart hasn't been in it.

But where does that leave my novels?

Second place, third place, fourth place. They slip farther and farther down the totem pole of priorities, until they, too, become part of the unfinished flotsam cluttering my hard drive and my heart. Pretty soon, I begin to think of myself as someone who NEVER FINISHES ANYTHING, when that isn't true at all. I DO finish things - but I finish the things I care about! I DO make commitments, but I make commitments to the things (husband, dogs, friends, home, writing, music) that I care about.

I should take it as a clue when my interest starts to wane about something that I should never have said YES to it in the first place. A NO would have been better, would have freed my time up for the other things I WILL make a commitment to.

I'm not superwoman, and nobody is. We need to set boundaries and say NO to the things that sap our writing time, our me-time, our commitment-time for the things that DO matter.

It's funny, that when I truly make the commitment to something that matters, it doesn't feel like a commitment. It doesn't feel like a burden, it doesn't feel like something I have to do. It becomes something I want to do. I'm fully present, no details slip by the wayside, and, miraculously, things get done. Scenes get written, chapters get finished, and soon completed rough drafts sit on my hard drive, ready to edit. The dogs get fed, walked and taken out and snuggle with me on the couch in the evenings to watch period dramas and Red Sox games. My husband and I share a laugh over a funny picture on the internet, chat about Top Chef and politics, and look forward together to our June Ireland trip!

My real commitments bring me joy and deep love, day in and day out. If I didn't care, I wouldn't put in the time.

Someday, thanks to my "no's" to the things I don't commit to, that bookshelf with those novels will be real. It is my castle in the sky and picturing it in my mind brings me joy and deep love.

I make the commitment to my dream.

Historical Professions

2011-03-05T17:48:00.004-05:00

I seem to have become obsessed with professions lately! Goodness. Well, anyway, even my female characters of the 19th century had to do something with their lives. I don't think I've invented anyone who lays about and looks pretty. Grin! :) So, let's roll up our sleeves and take a look at historical professions:

Actor/Actress, Artist
Baker, Barkeep/Bartender, Barrister, Basketweaver, Blacksmith, Bricklayer, Butcher, Butler
Cab Driver, Candle/Soap Maker, Captain, Carpenter, Chimney Sweeper, Clergy - Parson / Preacher / Priest / Minister / Friar, Clerk, Conductor, Cook/Chef, Cooper, Cowboy
Dancing Girl, Doctor/Physician
Editor - Magazine/Newspaper/Printing
Factory Worker, Farmer, Farrier, Footman, Frontiersman, Furniture Maker
Gardener, Glass Blower, Glove-Maker, Gravedigger, Grocer, Groom, Gunsmith
Herbalist, Housekeeper, Housewife
Indentured Servant
Jailer, Jeweler, Journalist, Judge
Lawyer, Librarian
Maid, Mail Carrier, Mapmaker/Surveyor, Mayor, Merchant, Midwife, Miller, Milliner, Musician
Nurse
Piano Player, Pioneer, Poet, Policeman, Politician - Senator/Congressman/Governor, Potter, Printer/Publisher, Prisoner, Professor, Prostitute
Robber - Bank/Train/Graves
Saddler, Sailor, Seamstress, Servant, Schoolmaster, Sculptor, Silversmith, Singer, Ship-Builder, Shepherd, Shoemaker, Shopkeeper, Slave, Soldier, Stable-Boy, Stonemason, Surveyor
Tailor, Tax Collector, Teacher, Telegraph Operator, Tinker, Toy-maker, Tycoon
Wainwright, Watchmaker, Weaver, Woodcarver, Writer

-------------------------------------------------

Whew! That's quite a few! Many of them are still around today - newspaper editor, doctor, lawyer, and the like. Others are definitely a sign of the times - milliner (made hats), cooper (barrel-maker), shoemaker, tinker (made objects from tin), wainwright (wagon-wheel maker). It's fun to research.

Copy these occupations if you like and give them to your characters. :)

How to Modernize an Antique Recipe

2011-03-03T20:58:00.005-05:00

I have gorgeous antique cookbooks that I've collected, plus who doesn't love Mrs. Beeton and her recipes for crazy amounts of manc blange? And just what is manc blange anyway and how does it taste?

Well, I decided I'd love to find out how to modernize an antique recipe. It took a bit of imagination and I haven't made anything yet, but I was able to come up with the general steps. In addition to the antique recipe, you'll need some notepaper, a pencil and a calculator. Google helps, too! Here's how you would go about it:

STEP 1:
Select a recipe to update for the modern recipe format. It is best to start with an easy recipe that requires fewer than five ingredients.

STEP 2:
Write down each sentence of the recipe in separate sections. For example, an antique recipe for mashed potatoes reads: "Boil the potatoes or steam them, peel and mash them." Write down, "Boil or steam potatoes. Peel, quarter and then mash." Update the language for today's cooks.

STEP 3:
Write down the ingredients and amounts needed for the recipe. If no ingredient amount is listed, then find a comparable modern recipe and copy the amount. In the antique recipe for mashed potatoes, a quantity of 2 lbs. is given.

STEP 4:
Update antique cooking methods for modern electric and natural gas stoves. When a recipe lists, "moderate oven," then the temperature is 350 degrees F. When a recipe lists, "gentle fire" or "gentle heat," then that means to cook at a medium-low temperature on the stove.

STEP 5:
Calculate the exact time the recipe needs to cook. Some recipes give vague cooking times, since most antique kitchens did not have clocks or timers. Either find a comparable modern recipe or research approximate cooking times for the recipe's ingredients.

STEP 6:
List all of the cooks' tools needed in the recipe. Hand mixing can be replaced by a stand mixer and finely chopped ingredients can be put in a food processor. If a dish needs to simmer for more than two hours, it can be put into a modern crock-pot.

STEP 7:
Write down the updated recipe. List the ingredients first and then the method. Add the exact cooking times and temperatures. Incorporate the cooks' tools as well. The recipe is now ready to try.

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What do you think? Of course, to truly modernize an antique recipe is to get rid of such nuggets as prerefrigeration preserving methods. Instead, write: "Refrigerate for X number of hours."

Okay, ladies, a word of warning as well: Please research any unfamiliar ingredients to make sure they are not harmful or illegal. Adhere to modern safety precautions and cleanliness standards. We don't want to poison ourselves, dears. :)

Happy cooking!

The Perfect Writing Software

2011-02-24T22:21:00.008-05:00

Every once in awhile, I start thinking plain ole WordPad and boring tan Windows folders are a silly way to write novels. I can't think why this is, since that's basically all I used for Daniel's Garden ... but my inner tech-geek likes to browse the latest writing software and see what's out there. I mean, heck, if I could somehow do better than Times New Roman and WordPad, I'll try - you know?

But most writing software suffers from an eensy, teensy, little problem:

They don't organize novels in story arcs.

They're so focused on the chapter structure of the story they forget that a story has arcs made of scene sequences that flow from one chapter to the next, interweaving with the subplot(s). A novel is not like a calendar, with one square block followed by another. It is more like a person's life, with chunks of time spent as a toddler, then elementary school, then middle school, then high school, then college, then jobs, then marriage, then kids ... and so on and so forth. Our lives are made of arcs and so are novels.

If I was to design a novel-writing software, it would look like a colorful mass of bubbles that progress on an ever-moving line. This mass would take up about 80% of the screen. The other 20% would be notes for each section of the story, linked to text on the main visual diagram. So, for example, you'd see the main character "Daniel" written on the top, you'd click it and all of his information, including his entire role in the story, would pop up on the side of the screen. He'd have a coordinating colored line that would appear to show his character development throughout the story.

Now that would be the best writing software ever! It would be colorful, interactive, creative, and clearly show the top five things that are the hardest about writing a novel:

1. Gradually developing character over a long period of time
2. Characters' changing moods per scene and scene sequence
3. Adding enough subplot to give the story depth but not so much that it takes away from the main plot
4. Sticking to the hero's journey and regular mythic story structure
5. Setting a great pace - not too fast and not too slow

What do you think? How would you design the perfect writing software to solve your writing problems?

The Less I Plan, the More Creative I Am

2011-02-23T16:12:00.004-05:00

Rose: "When the ship docks, I'm getting off with you."
Jack: "This is crazy!"
Rose: "I know! That's why I trust it."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I'm listening to the Duchess soundtrack (egads, Rachel Portman is such an exquisite composer!) and something crossed my mind today that was quite odd but deliciously exciting:

The less I plan, the more creative I am

Now, this may not work for you, but for me, plans suffocate. They wrap their hands around any future spontaneous moments and squeeze the life out of them! Yes, I'm being overdramatic, but this is something I've struggled with for years. I want my life to be so orderly and continuously productive, like living on a bell curve. One step leads to the next, which builds onto the next and the next until ...

Until what? Until I become what I originally wanted in the first place, I guess. To live in my own light and make each day count in my own silly, quirky, old-soulish way.

Planning actually seems counter-intuitive, and what's more, I have so many examples of times I was truly bone-deep happy and fun-fancy free WITHOUT a single penciled-in thing in my calendar. Times I frolicked in a toga (yes, a toga!) at a historical conference with a bunch of other past-lovers, times I raised a glass and kicked up a heel at a pub, times I looked into the eyes of the sweetest little puppy and said, "yes, I'll take her," times I thought I'd like to see that movie/read that book/listen to that music and was so swept away I forgot who I was ... and just was me.

Planning can create a 'no' before 'yes' even has a chance to get here. No, I can't go to that __________ because I already said I'd do _____________. Now, this is not to say I won't attend any large event that does need planning for the future (like another conference!), but the more vast snowy white space in my dayplanner, the better I seem to do.

And whose square blocks of time am I living in, anyway? My Aquarian nose wrinkles at such blatant conformity, so I shed it and say, "I'm on my own time now, and it's elastic." It stretches to wrap around the project I'm currently working on, which right now is copying old Civil War soldier diaries into a Word file so I can use them for future scenes in the DG sequel. That's what my 'time' is about, anyway. Jane Austen lived within a calendar of six novels. I think that's a great way to measure time.

So, that is my new calendar. Who knows if it's Monday or Saturday, January or May. Who knows if it's two in the morning or ten at night, which happens to be my favorite time. I forego it and leave the planning to other people who like that sort of thing.

Meanwhile, I'll be over here, trusting the craziness of a life with little planning and not feeling any the less for it. Rose learned to embrace life and live each day to the fullest, so I join her and gain strength in the process.

Someday my calendar will close and the square-block days will be over. Before then, I picture a bookshelf with a bunch of great stories. A dayplanner in literary form. It whispers, if you lean in to hear:

this is how I spent my time

Historical Hunks

2011-02-21T16:08:00.010-05:00

History is fun, sexy, adventurous, real, and there's no better way to enjoy it than with a historical hunk! "Titanic" was on TV yesterday, and I hadn't seen it in awhile, so it was such a pleasure to re-fall back in love with Jack Dawson, like I always do! He was definitely the historical hunk who helped me not only want to be with him, but want to spend a huge part of my life in his time period (Edwardian and the earlier Victorian).

I love watching period drama montages on YouTube, since it's so inspiring to see how many people really do love history, though they may not know it. All it takes is a historical hunk to speak words that we want to hear, flash his winning smile, adjust his cravat, and stroll right into our hearts.

My love affair with historical hunks began not with a hunk, but with a tortured genius whose music made my heart soar and ache:

I thought I could be the one to reach his fragile inner beauty and be priveleged to know the real him beneath the mask. Sigh! The Phantom is just one of the many 'beast' characters as part of the 'Beauty and the Beast' fairytale, and here's a second example: Edward Rochester. He captured my heart when I first read the story in highschool English class, and the 2009 movie is delightful.

Another historical hunk who caught my eye truly embodied the adventurous aspect of history as he galivanted after bad guys:

Oh, and the two historical hunks playing Mr. Darcy could stop traffic with their Regency goodness:

Then there's the historical hunk-next-door, the guy who is totally cute and totally loves you:

Or he could pick up his sword and fight to the death for you, if only to be reunited with you after so many years:

Yes, the historical hunk will do anything for the lady he loves, even if he can't prevent fate or his own lowly situation:

So, what historical hunk is your favorite? Have I missed him here? Do let me know ... and keep watching those romantic period dramas and reading good literature - for you never know when you'll see him - and then you'll know. :)

Love for Art Renewal

2011-02-20T16:36:00.012-05:00

I was just browsing one of my favorite sites of all time - Art Renewal Center and I wanted to share my love and appreciation for this remarkable website. It has the extremely lofty goal of becoming the largest online art museum, it promotes the return of classical painting and classic art styles pre-modern, and to provide a joyous celebration of not only classical art but today's artistic works done in a classical style.

I search this museum constantly for paintings about the 19th century. For me, the 19th century was vibrant and colorful, an impression I don't often feel from antique photographs that are grainy and stark. But when I see something as sensual and amazing as this:

"A Harem Beauty Seated on a Leopard Skin," by Frederic Louis Leve

Then I know I'm in the presence of a time that really was as vivid and vibrant as it is in my mind's eye.

Or how about this? John William Godward at his finest, painting Victorians in togas. What a niche subject and he did it so well that I can smell the perfume of this remarkable woman and hear the water flowing:

In this remarkable painting, I can't help but feel the candle glow and see the simple warmth that lights this humble but typical 19th century scene:

Here's a lively scene of movement and color as these ladies journey about their lives:

Of course, there are the great 19th century masters like Monet, van Gogh, Renoir, Degas, and Cezanne: all household names. It would be a less beautiful world without their waterlilies, sunflowers, roses, ballet dancers, and oranges.

The Pre-Raphaelites included some of my favorites: Rossetti, Burne-Jones, and Lord Leighton's lovely napping lady:

And so, to Art Renewal, I give a lot of love. Thank you for posting some of the greatest creative expressions of mankind, thank you for inspiring me, thank you for providing beautiful artworks for my computer desktop, and thank you for bringing life and color to my beloved 19th century.

"Daniel's Garden" for Sale!

2011-02-17T12:39:00.005-05:00

I stopped in to the Maine Historical Society yesterday, chatted with Melissa, the gift shop owner and a great fan of my story, and now I have four copies in the shop! It's the first time this hard-working author has had physical copies of one of my stories in a retail environment and available for sale. "Daniel's Garden" will also be available on the MHS online store, so folks can purchase it from anywhere. And, on my tours this year, if visitors ask about what I do, I can tell them I wrote a book and it's ready for sale!

What a milestone!

I'll even get a few dollars' profit out of it, which won't be huge but it will be something trickling in now and then. Coffee money - or for more books! :)

I also chatted with Allan, who is a fellow tour guide and writer. He said I should call the South Portland Borders and get DG in there, and also I could get it into other Maine bookstores, like Longfellow Books. Since the story is set in Boston, I could also potentially sell it in those bookstores, as well as the gift shops at the battlefields of Second Manassas, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. It's a decent-sized market, really.

Little by little.

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Some days I feel as giddy as Jo March must have felt when she got that $100 for her story in the newspaper. Other days I'm a disappointed John Keats after Endymion didn't sell, or Thoreau when he complained about Walden's sluggish sales.

There is so much work for so little material reward, and it has been a major struggle separating my desire for reward from my innate driving desire to write. Sometimes in defiance, I shove the writing aside and say I'll go after this or do that or just sit and pout and hate it for awhile. But then I wake up at 3:00 in the morning with a brilliant insight for that new chapter in "The Heart of a Lie" ... or I'll smack my forehead during my morning shower and say out loud: "God, that symbol is perfect for that story!"

And so it goes. I run back to the work as if to a boyfriend I've recently broken up with, but I don't have to beg for a story to take me back. I just need to re-enter it with music playing and fingers happily tapping. There was one incredible week a few summers ago where I wrote the entire Fredericksburg section of "Daniel's Garden" in one week. Thirty pages in three days, and almost none of it needed editing. If I could plug myself into an electric socket I would, if only to have such explosive output.

But those weeks are rare. Days like yesterday - delivering copies to a bookstore - are rare. They are the days to live for, but they are not the norm. Most days are like every other day: little by little, just keep going. Another page here, another chapter there, another scene done, another section researched, another character motive discovered, another book read, some more research, some more drafting, rinse and repeat over and over and over again. Maybe somebody cynical like Samuel Beckett would say I'm just deluding myself and distracting myself from my eventual mortality.

But I'm not cynical. I'm just as starry-eyed about author fame as I was as a ten-year-old, marveling at how somebody like L. Frank Baum or Lewis Carroll or Louisa May Alcott, dead for decades, could still have the power to inspire, delight, and entertain. Long after I'm gone, the story stays. Is there not something delicious in that fact?

There is, and so I go back to work. I still have a lot to do. But one day, I will walk into Borders and see an entire bookshelf of my stuff. That's definitely something to work for. :)

Zodiac Character Development

2011-02-15T10:33:00.030-05:00

In the Create a Character Wardrobe post from a few days ago, I mentioned the astrological signs of several characters:

Esther Perry - TAURUS
Olivia Tate - PISCES
Trixie Snow Blue - SCORPIO
Daniel Stuart - CANCER

I have been intrigued by astrology for years and find it not only fascinating for my own horoscope, but also when building characters for stories. The zodiac gives you twelve personality types from which to help form a character's basic nature. Manipulate those zodiac types and you can also create villains!

Zodiac personality types establish a character's core nature, give clues as to what they value and what they want, tell me who they'll be compatible with and why, who they will clash with and why, a description of their physical appearance, and even some story themes.

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ARIES -
The Aries character is forceful, confident, pushy, and arrogant. But they can also be tremendous fighters and inspiring leaders. Aries is a fire sign, so anything with heat, speed, or bold colors suits them. Aries main characters are adventurous and daring, with occupations like a soldier or general, gladiator, boxer, pirate, captain, race car driver, cop, Medieval warrior or Amazon queen. Aries Villains are egotistical, harsh, nasty and bloodthirsty - a schoolyard bully, a vengeful warrior, a tyrannical boss or heartless general.

TAURUS -
The Taurus character is steady, dependable, a rock, and also sensual. They love nature, cooking, building, and music. Taurus is an earth sign, so they're in their element with flowers, gardening, landscaping, farms and the outdoors. Taurus main characters are the glue that holds their family together, quiet and reliable, with occupations like a farmer, stonemason or bricklayer, bank manager, landscaper, housewife, chef, carpenter or opera singer. Taurus Villains are stubborn and bull-headed, like a tycoon, gluttonous, or pig-headed.

GEMINI -
The Gemini character talks fast, moves fast, has multiple interests, excellent manual dexterity and a winsome manner. They love amusement parks, sales, puns and wordplay, whimsy, and anything Lewis Carroll-like. Gemini is an air sign, so they need freedom to roam around and do their thing, like human butterflies or parrots. Gemini main characters add life and sparkle to stories, with occupations like a reporter, news anchor, actor or actress, salesman, magician, comedian or pilot. Gemini Villains are con-artists, thieves and wolves in sheep's clothing, using their ways with words to double-cross and deceive.

CANCER -
The Cancer character is a homebody, an excellent parent, warmly funny, and motivated by security. They love good food, antiques, decorating, babies, their home, and money. Cancer is a water sign, so they are emotional and unusually attached to the ocean. Cancer main characters often appear in romantic comedies or small-town stories, with occupations like B&B caretaking, teaching, crafts, chef, photography, antiques dealer, or running a daycare. Cancer Villains are like Cinderella's stepmother, a dominating matriarch, or Scrooge, a stingy miser counting coins while others go hungry.

LEO -
The Leo character is a showman, a P.T. Barnum type of glitz, power, drama and warm charisma. They love the theatre, creativity, productions, parades and anything large and full of life. Leo is also a fire sign like Aries, so they have warmth, charm, and tons of energy. Leo main characters often appear in musicals or epic stories, with occupations like actor or actress, CEO, president, king or queen, explorer, entertainer, publicist, agent, gambler or professional athlete. Leo Villains are like kings and queens with too much power - dominating, selfish, cruel and power-hungry. They're also divas!

VIRGO -
The Virgo character is quiet, hard-working, conscientious, detailed, clean, and capable. Like Sherlock Holmes, they never miss a detail and can be single-minded when focused. Virgo is an earth sign like Taurus, so they love herbs, green grass, tasteful bouquets and meadows. Virgo main characters can also be verbally quick and critical, with occupations like a nurse, doctor, gardener, chef, secretary, detective, office worker or clerk, food or book critic, decorator, editor or pharmacist. The Virgo Villain is severe, cynical, a micro-manager, and a fussy critic who never praises.

LIBRA -
The Libra character is charming, bright, good-looking, romantic, loves to debate, and has a strong sense of fairness. They love beauty and like to wear nice clothes, look at art, decorate their homes, and listen to fine music. Libra is an air sign like Gemini, but they use their natural chattiness to debate and discuss with cutting comments. Libra main characters often star in romance novels or legal thrillers, with occupations like a lawyer, judge, romance writer, model, fashion designer, interior decorator, florist, wedding planner, and the owner of a boutique or gift shop. The Libra Villain is meddlesome, hard-nosed, and has to be right, like a snaky lawyer, scheming coworker, jealous romantic rival or artistic perfectionist.

SCORPIO -
The Scorpio character is mysterious, driven, deep, sexy, intense, and hard to get to know. They love investigating dark places and are pretty fearless; once they have their eye on the prize, there's no stopping them. Scorpio is a water sign like Cancer, but they hide their seething emotions behind a mask of poise. Scorpio main characters are detectives or wounded souls, with occupations like a detective, surgeon, mystery or horror writer, cave diver, assassin, seductress, femme fatale, film maker, spy or hit man. The Scorpio Villain is vengeful, cold, and unmerciful, striking swiftly and without remorse. They are hurt deeply with pain and anger.

SAGITTARIUS -
The Sagittarius character is lively, cheery, restless, clownish, an animal lover, and as silly as a puppy. They love travel and often take off without telling anyone for the next adventure, but they can become very wise from seeing so much of the world. Sagittarius is a fire sign like Aries and Leo, with energy, charisma, and natural people skills. Sagittarius main characters are great for action or adventure stories, with occupations like travel agent, tour guide, teacher, jester, clown, animal rights activist, equestrian, veterinarian, mountain climber or boat captain. Irresponsible and absent-minded, Sagittarius Villains neglect commitments and leave others in the lurch, so others have to clean up their mess.

CAPRICORN -
The Capricorn character is responsible, capable, a hard-worker, respectful, and steady climbs the mountain of their career. They live for the office and can find it hard to relax, but have plenty of money and prestige to show for their hard work. Capricorn is an earth sign like Taurus and Virgo, represented by mountains, forests, and earthquakes when they get angry! Capricorn main characters revere history and are extremely tasteful in their habits, with occupations like president, CEO, minister or pastor, investor, sheriff, historian, socialite, antiques dealer, stockbroker, society maven or politician. Capricorn Villains are icy, severely ambitious, and chauvinistic, like a repressed minister, an egotistical father, a frozen husband, a hard-driving boss or an arrogant CEO.

AQUARIUS -
The Aquarius character is kooky, curious, brilliant, weird, a tech nerd, has tons of friends, and is a natural scientist. They are like Einstein - absent-minded and creative and a total genius. Aquarius is an air sign like Gemini and Libra, so they need freedom to live their own strange life, but are humanitarians at heart. Aquarius main characters stir the pot, invent crazy contraptions, and shake the status quo, with occupations like scientist, inventor, environmental or animal rights activist, grassroots politician, film maker, science fiction writer, astronomer or astrologer. The Aquarius Villain is the mad scientist, plotting world domination through their nasty inventions, poisons, and mind-control technology.

PISCES -
The Pisces character is dreamy, artistic, sympathetic, passive, kind, a bit mystical, and noncommittal. They love myths, folklore, ancient songs, and seem to have been born in another time. Pisces is the last sign and the last water sign, like Cancer and Scorpio, so they have a penchant for the water. Pisces main characters are compassionate artists and support other characters, with occupations like mystic, holistic healer, shaman or medicine man, artist, hippie, painter, poet, songwriter, therapist, minister or pastor, bartender or fisherman. The Pisces Villain is a shark, turning their compassion to coldness and slipping away into dark waters.

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So, now that you've met the twelve signs, you can see a little as to why I chose the zodiac signs for the following characters.

Esther Perry - TAURUS
She's dependable, has brown hair and brown eyes, lives on a farm, loves music and takes care of her family.

Olivia Tate - PISCES
She's dreamy, passive, easily manipulated, has long wavy hair, wears Pre-Raphaelite clothes, and looks like a mythical maiden.

Trixie Snow Blue - SCORPIO
She's confident, intense, opinionated, smart, has black hair and a deep gaze, wears dark clothing, and her story is quite Gothic.

Daniel Stuart - CANCER
He's duty-bound to his family, is wealthy, patriotic, loves his garden and the sea, brown hair and blue eyes, and his story is about home.

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Here are some zodiac Villains of my stories:

Lucia Curtis - CANCER
Dominating matriarch, pushes her daughter towards a wealthy man and drives her husband to become a workaholic, lack of love and a distant father have made her overly cold and cruel and too obsessed with money and security.

Maxine Gilbert - LEO
Selfish diva, keeps the heroine from the guy she loves because Maxine wants him for herself, egotistical, power-hungry, has to have the spotlight, loves male attention until it backfires and her reputation is ruined.

The Red Fairy - ARIES
Fire queen, has pushed the real queen off her throne and into submission so the Red Fairy seized her power, put a curse on the land, fights for everything, selfish, arrogant, won't back down or submit.

Erik Stuart - CAPRICORN
Head lawyer, assumes position after his father dies, ambitious and doesn't understand passivity, usurped by a Gemini Villain (Mr. Washburn) who played the 'friend' card but secretly evil, when ruined Erik wants nothing more than his old power and prestige back.

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It's fun to create characters based on their zodiac signs. I'm an Aquarius (my 29th birthday was February 9th) and have a couple of kooky Aquarius oddballs throughout my story.

My favorite signs for main characters, however, are earth and water signs: Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn, Cancer, Pisces and Scorpio. They are either capable and dependable, or tender and emotional. Fire signs make great villains and air signs make great sidekicks and best friends.

This definitely gets me in the mood to keep creating characters!

Organizing Novel Stuff

2011-02-14T08:00:00.015-05:00

Every writer has their own ideas about how to organize their miscellaneous writing notes, research files, reference books, and so on. I can't say that what works for me will work for anyone else; that's as individual as you are. I just wanted to share my own method.

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WEBSITES:
My research invariably starts with websites, blogs, You-Tube videos, and Amazon.com books, all of which need to be organized within the huge hulking mass of my Favorites Folder. So, I create a new folder with the novel's title as its name and dump the websites into the folder for future reference. I right-click, select "Sort by Name" and voila - everything is sorted alphabetically. Most of my research is done online, so I need to keep track of the various websites.

FOLDERS:
I have a "Novels" folder that sits on my desktop. Inside is a folder with each novel's title. Each of these novel folders contain the notes files, image files, and rough draft files. My "Daniel's Garden" folder has more than fifty items. It took a lot of research and a long time to write!

IMAGES:
I also search for images throughout the web that can help with my writing. I may find pictures of actual places, paintings, maps, and photos. So, in the novel folder on my desktop, I store the images. I only use my generic "Pictures" folder for images that have nothing to do with stories. While I'm writing a particular scene, I may select that image and use it as a desktop background for an added boost of inspiration.

WORDPAD:
I actually don't have Microsoft Office installed on my Dell. I use OpenOffice for spreadsheet files and Wordpad for writing. I don't care for Microsoft Word's constant formatting, since I tend to write with sentence fragments and other grammatical no-no's. I write in plain Times New Roman, size 12 or Arial size 14, depending on the story. I always have a Notes file in the novel folder, which is a general catch-all for story notes, like plot, character bios, and reference bits.

ACTION OUTLINE:
Action Outline is a Windows-Explorer type program that cost me about $40 several years ago and is indispensable for organizing story ideas, future stories, and general reference notes like my 'Victorian Names' file. It's a simple program with no crazy formatting and an easy drop-down style that allows me to see what I'm working on at-a-glance. It's the best software program I've ever bought for writing. I can also import the text into an RTF file if I want to.

STICKY NOTES:
This is a Post-it Note type program that came with my computer, which sticks a yellow note on my desktop for daily to-do lists. I keep ongoing projects organized in Action Outline, but the Sticky Note lets me know what to do next. Of course, being the passive agressive rebel I am, I usually ignore it and do my own thing! :) But the Sticky Note helps with gotta-do-it-right-now stuff.

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It seems like I'm uber-organized, doesn't it? Well, not really! Haha. I usually 'lose' a few reference materials during the long, long process of novel-writing. It's pretty inevitable. Oh, and this doesn't take into account computer crashes, of which I've had so many I've lost count. For that, I use zip drives to back up my stuff.

Books present another problem to a writer struggling with organization. Even though I'm a fast reader, it's a slow process to read a book when I'm also taking notes for a story. For this reason, I've tried to be as picky as possible when choosing books. I could also spend a fortune on reading material; you should see how many Civil War books I amassed during Daniel's Garden's ten-year odyssey! I even have books on Grant, Sherman, and Lincoln, who don't appear in DG.

In the end, I want to streamline my reference and research material as much as possible to extract the most relevant tidbits for my stories. Sometimes my fishing net gets cast over a huge area in order to grab the most prized fish, but that's part of the fun (and frustration!) of writing historical fiction. There aren't any Victorians walking around to tell me how to operate an 1889 letterpress, so it's time to dig. No Civil War soldiers, either, to tell me exactly what the rebel yell sounded like. My imagination fills in the gaps - but I try to minimize the gaps as much as possible!

The great thing about researching one specific time period is that I've amassed such a natural amount of reference that I can usually write entire scenes without cracking open a book. I know what it feels like to wear a corset, I have an intimate knowledge of Civil War army organization, and I know that the Edwardians may have owned a lightbulb or two, while Victorians almost certainly wouldn't. Thankfully, this is research material I don't have to organize!

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Like I said, you will come up with the system that works best for you. But ultimately, the most important thing is getting that rough draft done as fast as possible. Everything else is second to that. :)

Titles

2011-02-13T13:00:00.013-05:00

Book titles encapsulate the story and give a name to it that must encompass the book's entire 'life,' from page one to page three-hundred. Picking a title is akin to naming a child of mine: I must test whether the name fits the beginning, middle, and end appropriately. For me, the best titles are strong enough to jump out at you from a shelf, subtle enough to convey theme, and vast enough to carry the book's weight in its cradle.

Coming up with titles is sometimes really difficult. Here's a look at several of mine:

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DANIEL'S GARDEN
The Genesis biblical references, over-arching Paradise Lost theme and central character of Daniel Stuart combine into the title. Although this story predominantly takes place during the Civil War, it's really a memoir of Daniel growing up and leaving his personal Eden. The story is actually an allegory of Paradise Lost, John Milton's epic poem about Adam and Eve cast out of Eden, and quotes are sprinkled throughout the story. The garden refers to both the allegorical Eden and the literal garden Daniel escapes to behind his Beacon Hill home. I came up with this title as a sixteen-year-old and never thought of changing it. It's striking subtle, while not betraying the fact that it's a war novel. Normally, I'd try to include a war-word in a title, but this story is an allegory.

THE MAGIC PEN
Another title I came up with years ago, this time as a ten-year-old. It's a fantasy story, which the word 'magic' conveys. The magic pen could refer to the magical penning of the story, but in this case there is a real magic pen in the story. PEN is also an acronym for Pixies-Elves-Nymphs, which are three magical creatures Trixie, the main character, encounters on her journey. The title marks the story as fantasy, introduces the main object that everybody wants in the story (similar to "The Maltese Falcon"), and also plays into the magical creatures. The magic pen introduces Trixie to the Land of Possibilities and is a central object in the story, so it works as a title.

THE HEART OF A LIE
I deliberately made this title subtle, since the story is a mystery and I didn't want the reader to know the mystery on page one. I read somewhere that "the truth is at the heart of every lie" and thought that would make an outstanding title. Suffice to say, the title works and how it works is revealed at the end, in true mystery fashion. The title is also a bit Gothic and moody, which fits into the mood of the story. This is not a rollicking fantasy; it's a story about manipulative family members, long-lost secrets, buried love, and identity. Esther, the main character, learns about her past in astonishing ways and doesn't know who to trust. The title conveys her confusion and also her pivotal role.

THE CURTAIN FALLS
I'm talking about titles today because "The Tate Legacy," a story I came up with last spring, has recently been renamed "The Curtain Falls." Olivia Tate is the main character and the curtain falls on her life when her father mysteriously dies and she has to live in a theatre garret with her acting mother. The curtain falls obviously also refers to the theatre setting and its actors; also, another character - Julian Sterling - is also living behind a mysterious 'curtain' of a false identity. This story has elements of mystery like "The Heart of a Lie," but the plot is not a mystery plot. It's actually a relationship story between Olivia and Julian. The story climax is a performance, so the curtain falls refers to that, too.

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Titles can be settings, like "Mansfield Park," "Northanger Abbey," and "Bleak House." I have three stories that use settings as the title: "Magician Manor," "Plum Nelly," and "Atlantasia." The stories specifically revolve around these three settings, so the titles fit extremely well. Setting titles can be a bit cliche, but if the setting is interesting enough, it works.

Titles can be a character name, like "Jane Eyre," "Emma," "David Copperfield," and "Oliver Twist." I actually don't use this technique with my titles, since I haven't written a Bildungsroman like Bronte and Dickens. In the future, if I decide to write a lengthy and detailed 'autobiography' of a character, then I'll use the character's name as the title.

Titles can indirectly refer to characters, like "Pride and Prejudice," "Sense and Sensibility," and "Little Women." This is one of my favorite ways to come up with titles, since you can play on words. "The Nightmare Brigade," a young-adult fantasy story I've come up with, indirectly refers to the band of central characters. This title works best with ensemble casts.

Titles can refer to something intricately connected to the main character, like "The Scarlet Letter," "Moby Dick," and "The Red Badge of Courage." These titles are physical things, like an embroidered 'A' and a whale, and also represent larger themes that add depth and weight to these novels. I do this with "Daniel's Garden" and it's sequel "Daniel's Lions." The garden is a central theme and also a physical place that means so much to Daniel.

Titles can be a funny play on words, like "As You Like It" and "Much Ado About Nothing." Shakespeare was a master at punning and his comedic titles are quite funny. This works best for comedies, so I did this with two light-hearted stories. "Motorcars and Mayhem" is an alliterative title that introduces the adventurous aspect of the story. "Typeset" refers both to the letter press in the story and the 'types' the two main characters are attracted to.

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I've come up with hundreds of titles. Sometimes it's easy and sometimes it isn't! Here are some titles I've created that I may or may not use in the future:

For My Country - this one tentatively belongs to a Revolutionary War story I've started and set aside.
To Measure a Match - some future romantic story, with both 'measure' and 'match' having double meanings.
Stitching Our Stories - poetry/short stories based on 19th century quilt patterns, like Log Cabin, Shoofly, Bowtie, Wagon Wheel.
Noir Nouveau - one of my favorite titles, either a title for a Gothic romantic story or a collection of dark poetry.
Requiem for a Rose - another Gothic story involving a Victorian ghost girl and a childless couple.
The Dream-Matcher - fantasy story about a gypsy who matches people's dreams, meets a girl with a magical gift about dreaming.
The Constellation Garden - children's story about a garden filled with plants that are also found in the heavens: sunflower, cosmos, moonflowers, star flowers.
The Kettle and Pen - Gilded age comedy about a tea shop/gentlemen's club where women congregate and gentlemen articulate. Three or four couples involved.

Create a Character Wardrobe

2011-02-12T17:10:00.022-05:00

I wish I had more than one lifetime to pursue my many passions! And, oddly enough, one of those passions is fashion. Um, not the jeans and T-shirts of today (though I adore being comfortable), but historic fashion!

When creating characters for my novels, one of the first things I do is start imagining what they would wear. Clothes make the man, as they say, and nothing gives more punch to historical fiction than describing the clothes. It's a pity Jane Austen delves so seldomly into describing those fabulous Regency Empire-waist dresses, for I dearly would have loved to know what Lizzie Bennet's favorite color to wear was .... If I'd been penning that story, I'd at least have put such a spunky heroine in rich blues, greens, and yellows. Earth tones with pep, so to speak.

However, I'm not Jane Austen and so I do like to talk about what my characters wear in their stories. I couldn't believe my own personal transformation once I put on Civil War hoops and I felt so beautiful all glammed up on my wedding day. Dresses are important and so are fashion extras, like little bags, parasols, button-up boots, stockings, corsets, mitts, gloves, hats, and jewelry. There's so much!

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ESTHER PERRY -
My heroine from "The Heart of a Lie" changes her dresses to suit her economic status. It's 1869, so hoops are starting to fall out of favor and are not used around the house as much, especially on a rural farm in Maine. Esther is a practical, steady Taurus girl with a good head on her shoulders; her literary ancestor is Elinor Dashwood from Austen's "Sense and Sensibility." In the first chapter, her mother passes away, so she trades her farmgirl browns and blues for black mourning. Upon arriving at the fancy upscale Curtis house in Portland, her regular rural wear will not do, and so she is encouraged to wear fancier dresses with lace, crochet, and less mud. But Esther will not trade her practical self for someone dignified and so remains true to herself by wearing plain blue and brown calicoes. Later in the story, she goes to the fabulously wealthy Vallencourt mansion, where her wardrobe immediately gets a boost and in the most pivotal scene in the book, she wears a rich green silk that makes her rather unnoticeable features glow. Esther will never be anything other than who she is, but it doesn't go to her pretty head. Thank goodness!

OLIVIA TATE -
In contrast to self-assured Esther, Olivia in "The Curtain Falls" is meeker, quieter, and more feminine. She and her mother are dirt-poor, living on handouts and holed up in a drafty garret above the Portland Stage Theatre. Olivia is a dreamy Pisces, trapped in a Cinderella-esque situation with a drug-addicted mother, so she must do all the chores. She wears cast-off costumes and mended hand-me-downs from her best friend Hetty, that she's embellished with bits and baubles from the costume shop. Her wardrobe is Pre-Raphaelite, and she wears her wavy auburn hair long with circlets and loose braids. She looks like a long-lost medieval heroine or an artist muse, an early version of a Bohemian. But by the end of the story, she has received some money and also some backbone. Her dresses become more fitted and less glitzy, she walks more self-assuredly, and the pale lavenders and pinks have given way to earth tones. In her final scene, she wears a cotton blue dress and an oatmeal wool shawl, looking less like a lost heroine and more like a woman of integrity and grit.

TRIXIE SNOW BLUE -
"The Magic Pen" has a Gothic edge, so its heroine's wardrobe is predominantly black, gray, and brown, with a single red ribbon featuring a cameo for a choker. This young Scorpio is also quite the know-it-all, similar to Hermione Granger but without an ounce of tomboy-ness. Her plain dark dresses match her confident personality and she has no problem finding her way around the craggy bleak landscape of the Land of Possibilities. But by the time she reaches Sandalphon Castle, her wardrobe has lightened to gray and tan. And, by the end of the story, she wears white and cream, a visual shift in both temperament and story tone. I use Trixie's changing wardrobe as a clue that the land is healing. As the Cynic's Curse is lifted, Trixie's dresses change color. Also, in the beginning she is represented by the blackbird and in the end by the dove.

DANIEL STUART -
Yes, it's important for guys to also have defining wardrobes! What would Sherlock Holmes be without his tweed and pipe? Daniel's long journey in "Daniel's Garden" began in the upper-crust world of Boston, so he wore immaculately tailored suits with white kidskin leather gloves, hats, and a walking stick. At his mother's birthday gala, he wears a fine hand-made tuxedo suit. But at war, his civilian clothes and handkerchiefs disappear, replaced by a shapeless blue wool sack coat, sky-blue wool trousers, and clunky uncomfortable leather shoes, called brogans. His gloves and walking stick are replaced by a canvas haversack and rifled musket, and his hat is now the Union blue forage cap of a private. I included plenty of references to the clothes he wears, for it's such a telling detail in the shift of his life. By the end of the story, he can't remember what it was like to wear nice clothes and his war wardrobe reflects his inner transformation as well. Oh, and by the way, he was a Cancer, the sign of home and family. :)

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I use clothes to show personality. Practical characters wear earth tones like blue, brown, and green, with plain fabrics like wool and cotton. Dreamy or wishy-washy characters wear pastels with floaty fabrics and impractical details.

I use clothes to show story arcs and character growth. A character who is 'in the dark' or villainous may wear dark colors and concealing clothing. An innocent character will wear lighter colors and softer fabrics.

I also use clothes to show economic status. Calicoes and rough wool belong to characters that live on farms or are servants. The rich wear lustrous silk, satin, and heavy jewels.

Obviously, I use clothes to show time period and a sense of what it was like to live in the 1800's. Rough wool, calico cotton, corsets, lace-up boots, parasols, gloves, and stockings aren't really worn any more. Our modern clothes are full of synthetic materials designed to make them comfortable. Clothes in the 19th century really weren't that comfortable.

I love creating character wardrobes and it's one of the most helpful tools as a writer.

The Mask and the Muse

2011-02-11T19:08:00.001-05:00

With my own novels, the greatest influence has been the theatre. It was on stage that I first beheld the 19th century in the form of musicals - Les Miserables and The Phantom of the Opera.

Although Les Mis has a somewhat happier ending than Phantom, it tells a remarkable epic story with a love triangle in the middle, and several plots. The main plot is between Jean Valjean and Javert, one of the greatest literary villains of all time. Javert is the policeman and he hunts Valjean through the years. He is driven, ruthless, and an absolute authority in his position. Valjean is cunning, compassionate, and does the right thing, if not always with the outcome he expects. He saves both Cosette and Marius from different fates, helps out on the barricades, becomes the mayor of a town, helps the destitute factory worker Fantine, and saves that man from the runaway cart. Even though he evades the law for years, he does so many good things that he is the hero of the novel.

The Phantom Erik, by contrast, is a typical Byronic anti-hero, the Heathcliff pining for his Catherine. He is both blessed and cursed - the gift of music and the disfigurement of his face provide two facets of his personality that are immediately recognizable and that shape his entire life. He secludes himself away beneath the Paris Opera House, preferring to be a ghost with power over his managers. But he is cruel, and murders several people throughout the story. His aching love for Christine is the main plot of the story, with Raoul’s innocent love providing the secondary plot to keep the main plot going. The Phantom manipulates his managers and Carlotta into giving Christine certain roles, propelling her towards stardom. But he can’t let her go and wants her for himself, to hide away in his dungeon forever. If there is a hero in the story, it is probably Raoul, but his personality is very cookie-cutter romance novel-ish, not as fascinating, complex, or deep as the Phantom’s. But the Phantom’s persona of ghoulish murderer is quickly stripped away, to be nothing more than a mask to hide a lifetime of hurt, rejection, and betrayal.

Les Miserables is a story standing on its own, but the musical has certainly cemented its immortality. Otherwise, it might be just another semi-read half-forgotten chunky Victorian novel that people have heard of, but most have no idea what it’s about.

The Phantom of the Opera is a sensation novel from the Edwardian age, a melodramatic pot-boiler thriller that is written with all the pulp of a literary comic book. It does not profess to be great literature, and the pomp and circumstance of the musical certainly plays upon that with its overly dramatic scenes, lavish production stage shows, and epic overture. Even without the musical, its 1920’s film adaptation with Lon Cheney is enough to secure its place in the minds of all those familiar with the story. But the musical kicked life into it in a way that only theatre can - by taking the music out of the imagination and making it real.

With Les Miserables, the music helps tell the story; in Phantom the music is the story. Without the Opera House, there is no story. Without the sound of the Phantom’s voice, the story loses something. Without his voracious organ-playing, his erotic score of Don Juan Triumphant, his singing lessons with his protégé, those character traits are gone.

It is music that gives an emotional depth to a story that otherwise doesn’t exist. If Les Miserables had been just a stage show, it would be different than having all the songs and the constant musical themes running through the show. If the Phantom had been just a novel, then perhaps it might still be just another old-fashioned pulp story. But with both stories, the music and the visuals of costume, props, and sets propel the viewer into the 19th century world of Paris in a way that no history textbook can hope to attain.

If I was a history teacher and we were doing a unit on 19th century Paris, then I would show both musicals. In fact, an entire course of study could be conducted around them both. How do they show Paris? What can we glean from 19th century life from these musicals? What is present? What is missing?

As a child of five and six years old, I drank it in with fervor. I have given up trying to figure out which has been my favorite. They have both influenced me and continue to do so. Neither one is better. Neither, in my life, is complete without the other.

My Writing Playlists

2011-02-10T15:26:00.004-05:00

I would have loved to be a writer of the 19th century, scribbling away by candlelight or oil lamp, no typewriter or laptop in sight. But I admit it would have been pretty dull to not have music to write to.

To say I love music is kind of like saying I love my husband or I love my dog. It doesn't encompass the feelings I have for the way music makes me feel. I've come up with scene ideas and entire new sections to my stories based on a song or a single instrumental track.

When researching or doing mundane tasks, I like to listen to melodic singers and musicals. I sing along with them and have accomplished many boring things thanks to the power of their voices.

But when writing, I listen to soundtracks and instrumental New Age and classical. Something about the sweet lilt of Mozart and Thomas Newman or the epic pounding of Beethoven and Hans Zimmer or the fantastical whimsy of John Williams and Danny Elfman adds life and heart to what I'm working on. There is true emotion there, and I can tap into it in no quicker a fashion.

It's extraordinary how deep and vast I feel when I put on "Hymn to the Fallen" from the Saving Private Ryan soundtrack, or that amazing marching melody of "Glory." All at once I'm there with the soldiers, feeling what they felt or dreaming what they dreamt. Gabriel Yared's "Anthem" and "Ada Plays" from the Cold Mountain soundtrack are responsible for some of the dearest scenes in "Daniel's Garden." I couldn't have tapped into that tenderness, love and sacrificing heartbreak Daniel feels for Mary without those melodies.

With the Pirates of the Carribbean and Harry Potter soundtracks, I'm off on an adventure to battle evil wizards and sea monsters. I could dash off a fantasy novel with a playlist filled with Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, and Peter Pan tracks. I've also fallen in love with the rich pounding and epic scope of the Inception soundtrack. That movie was incredible, too! "The Pelago Legacy," "Magician Manor," "The Nightmare Brigade," and "The Magic Pen" will be written in no time thanks to these rollicking soundtracks.

Yet for light and homey stories like "Fields of Lavender", "Plum Nelly," and "Typeset," nothing beats the Jane Austen film soundtracks to 2005 Pride and Prejudice and 1995 Sense and Sensibility. Such sweet English country melodies that remind me of verdant pastures and Regency homes. The "Little Women" soundtrack, so dear to my heart, also evokes the feel-good emotions of these stories.

The richer and more Gothic stories of drama and intrigue, like "The Heart of a Lie" and "The Tate Legacy" deserve full-bodied minor chords to go with their plots. "The Heart of a Lie" is evoked by Chopin nocturnes, the Moonlight Sonata, and a great Gothic piece called "A distance there is." The "Titanic" and "Back to Titanic" soundtracks brings the sweeping nautical themes and the aching love story from "The Tate Legacy" to life.

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I think I'll add a page at the top for writing playlists, because I think it's important. I couldn't write as well as I do without the music to help me go deep inside myself for the emotions I need. Writing is hard because it requires all of me. I can't hold back.

My deepest thanks to the amazing composers of my time and centuries earlier. I owe my stories to you.

And now, since I am working on a new Civil War novel, I need a track to help me go there. Help me turn back the years and find the heart of this time period.

This one will do just fine:

Civil War Research - Soldier Diaries

2011-02-09T13:11:00.007-05:00

I've started researching the sequel to "Daniel's Garden," called "Daniel's Return." I found the following two diary entries online, which helped enormously in writing DG.

Hutchinson's diary gives a general overview of the 11th Massachusett's movements throughout 1862 and 1863, ending with the Spotsylvania campaign. His diary is useful for a broad spectrum as to where the regiment was stationed and under whom.

Blake's diary is much more colorful and details abound, such as what he thought of officers, comments on the weather, and fun facts like calling heatstroke 'sunstruck,' the 19th century term for it. And many did suffer from sunstruck, especially marching into Gettysburg in the summer of 1863.

"Daniel's Return" picks up in May 1863, just after Chancellorsville. Daniel has been wounded at the end of "Daniel's Garden," so the first scenes take place in the field hospital outside of Chancellorsville. Luckily, his bullet was completely removed and his abdomen is healing. But, troops are on the move again and Colonel Blaisdell, the leader of the 11th regiment, says he'll go with them.

At the end of DG, Daniel made a promise to his friend Andrew that he would find him and bring him back to the 11th. He was captured by Confederates during Chancellorsville. I'm not sure which Confederate regiment they were fighting, so I've dug out my excellent book on the battle: "Chancellorsville 1863: The Souls of the Brave," by Ernest Furgurson. This is one of the best books on the war, let alone the battle.

On the early morning of May 3, 1863, the night after Jackson's famous push against the 11th corps, Daniel's regiment, the 11th Massachusetts, was stationed next to the Chancellor Mansion. They watched its destruction as it was shelled by artillery.

The 11th Massachusetts was part of Sickles' corps and faced a part of the Stonewall Brigade, mainly the 30th North Carolina and the 12th Georgia as part of Paxton's brigade.

I'll need to read it, but I found another diary account of a Union lieutenant who was captured at Chancellorsville and then taken to Libby Prison. We'll see how it goes!

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Researching the Civil War is time-consuming not just because of the vast amounts of reading, but also the logistics. It's hard to figure out when and where troops were at a particular time or even in a single battle. The same regiment could move from one end of a battlefield to another in a single day. So, tracking troop movements has been an extraordinarily huge part of my research.

Luckily, diary entries REALLY help with logistics. I may not be able to locate their exact position without cross-referencing, but at least the best diary writers give noticeable and unique landmarks. Thanks to both Blake and Hutchinson, I knew the 11the Massachusetts's exact whereabouts for 2nd Manassas, Antietam, Fredericksburg, the mud march, and, of course, Chancellorsville.

Their help is invaluable!

Marketing Advice from a Pro

2010-12-14T16:38:00.004-05:00

It may seem kind of silly to write about marketing on a blog that showcases information about children and young adult writing ... but I say that a writer needs to understand how the marketing world works if she hopes to be famous!

I watched one of the most informative videos I've ever seen today, starring marketing wunderkind Seth Godin. He said that people only notice something if it's remarkable. Not just unique, but something to remark about. This idea is just another way of saying, "It's not what other people say, it's what they repeat."

Seth also says that no matter what we do for a living, we're in the fashion business. It's about change, it's about trends, it's about fads - it's about what's new and different. It doesn't have to be aesthetically pleasing, it just has to be unique. This is all for the purpose of spreading new ideas.

I want to be in the fashion business as well. I love new things and I even go to fashion websites over and over, looking at the newest stuff. Why? Because it is unique. In fact, I used to love J. Jill because their fashions were kind of quirky and artsy. But now they've become just another upscale women's boutique, their palette has changed to more dull colors, they've gotten rid of their unique pieces ... and I don't like their stuff as much anymore. I go to Etsy all the time to browse the clothing and the new remarkable items I've never seen before. I may not buy from that person, but they've caught my eye.

Market products to innovators and early adopters, people who are NOT part of the mass market. The mass market is average and tired. But the fringe groups, the niches, the geeks and nerds and steampunkers and fantasy geeks and 'unaverage' groups eat it up. They WANT things that are custom-tailored to their niche, and they'll pay for it.

Once I market to this group of innovators and early adopters, this niche group, then they tell their friends and the idea spreads. Obsession is the new thing in products, and even in books, too. Harry Potter and Twilight fans are obsessed. The more obsessed they get, the more products they buy in relation to their obsession - movies, clothes, jewelry, Etsy stuff. Obsession leads to buying, because obsession is actually a sign of caring. These obsessed fans CARE about what they're buying. Super-dedicated fandom is the way to go.

It's about them BECAUSE it is a niche product. Average people don't buy geeky stuff, but geeky people buy geeky stuff and love that someone took the time to make something for them. Comic-book fans eat up the new movies, because they're finally being honored with great material. And so, what happens is that the niche market tells their frends and brings non-fans to see the movie. But the movies are good! So the non-fans start telling others that the movie is good ... and the market expands to include extra people.

Honor your fanbase by creating well-executed quality products (stories, movies, etc). They will eat it up, then tell their friends, and their friends will tell others outside the fanbase - and pretty soon, your niche market has expanded. Go from the inside out, and don't try to be universally appealing to everyone. Just nail your fanbase.

It's actually counter-productive to be 'safe' and try to make something or tell a story that appeals to all people. This is the big mistake I've been making. I've been trying to meet everyone's needs. But what if I became obsessed about ONE thing and then talked about it ad nauseum to my fanbase? It's less risky, I'll reach more people, I'll spread my ideas, and I'll sell more books. The big thing to watch out for is boring. Deliver well-executed and remarkable products that will be talked about by a loyal fanbase.

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As an example, let's look at the Batman movies. The first Batman from 1989 with Michael Keaton was pretty decent and was certainly a change from the cartoonish TV show with Adam West. Batman Returns, from 1992, was different but kind of scary and certainly didn't overshadow its predecessor. The quality was getting slightly weaker and the product was not as well-executed. Batman Forever was weaker and Batman & Robin was so weak it lost money. Yikes!

So this amazing story that was SO incredibly popular with its comic book and TV show fans, this immensely obsessed fan base - wasn't getting its proper treatment of the story. The story was ridiculous and cartoonish, not dark and Gothic like it really needs to be. The animated series was better than the movies!

Understandably, the franchise was scrapped and no studio wanted to put out the money for making another Batman movie. Years passed and, though Batman was still incredibly popular in comic books and animated, no movies.

Then, along came director Chris Nolan who wanted to revamp the entire persona. Make it darker, make it Gothic, make it gritty -- and bring in the acting talent! Cartoonish antics and ridiculous villains were set aside and Batman Begins emerged, resetting the tone for the story. Nolan knew the fanbase was still there, as evidenced by the comic book popularity. They just needed to come out of hiding and spend their money on a project that delivered the goods.

Batman Begins was a top-grossing success, surpassing all expectations. Dedicated fans came out in droves, then they brought their semi-dedicated fans, and those semi-dedicated fans brought newcomers. The niche market of comic-book readers mushroomed into a huge mass market based on the strength of Batman Begins. Quality product met niche market obsession and won everyone over.

Needless to say, the Batman Begins audience came out again in droves for The Dark Knight. Chris Nolan nailed it with a stellar cast, a gripping script, amazing score and fabulous production. It's a pleasure to watch, not just for the obsessed fan base, but for other target markets like myself, who appreciate darn good storytelling. I love the Dark Knight and thought it was one of the best movies I saw in 2008. I don't read comic books, but I sure recognize an awesome story when I see one.

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For a bad example, all I have to do is mention the Star Wars prequels. My husband (along with several billion other people) fell in love with the original movies when he was just a kid. They're an amazing mix of science fiction and fantasy, and are rock-solid examples of the Hero's Journey, something every writer should know. I'm not as obsessed as Erik is, but I'll watch them simply because I like the good stories they portray.

However, the Star Wars prequels, especially The Phantom Menace, were terrible. George Lucas has one of the most obsessive and loyal fanbases in the world - Star Wars fans. And he didn't do his fanbase justice by putting out a well-executed product like they wanted. He under-delivered, to such an extent that it tarnished the Star Wars name, most 'true' Star Wars fans rarely talk about them, and it ruined a lot of the magic and mystique about the Star Wars franchise. It was an enormous letdown and, even though the prequels made money, they didn't reach even a fraction of the success of the original three films - all of which are in the top grossing movies of all time.

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So, as a writer, to be successful and create something of extraordinary value and popularity, start with your niche group. Start with the fanbase first. What can you give an obsessed fanbase? Whatever answer you come up with, make it a well-executed product. Put in the time and effort to really craft your story well - memorable main characters, cool plots and interesting settings.

Once your story is the best it can be, market it to its niche group. Be enthusiastic about your story and go right to the people who will become as obsessed about it as you are.

If you get enough people talking, then they will tell their friends about it ... and if you're lucky, your target market will begin to expand. Little by little, your story will go viral, until you end up with a successful and popular book.

Then, if you get even more lucky, you'll be able to keep writing and giving your obsessed fanbase the awesome stories that they want and not only retain your popularity, but watch it grow even larger.

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J. K. Rowling's niche started out as 8-10 year old kids who went to a British boarding school and read fantasy. The quality of her Harry Potter books was so well-thought and executed that her niche eventually mushroomed into millions of readers.

Stephenie Meyer's niche started out as normal teenage highschool girls who felt lonely and wanted a sexy awesome boyfriend. Her fanbase is totally obsessed about the Twilight books, catapulting the author into massive popularity.

Nicholas Sparks's niche started out as female romance readers between 18 and 25 looking for a deep lasting love. Nowadays, his massively popular books satisfy his obsessive fanbase again and again, while expanding his market.

Pixar's niche began as animated movies for 7-12 year old children. They nailed their fanbase and also satisfy other movie viewers: the children's parents. Pixar's winning combination of excellent storytelling and animated fun drives their box office sales through the roof.

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Do NOT write just to please someone. Write about what you love, then find the niche where your story fits.

Do NOT write for the general public. Be unique. Be original. Being safe and writing for the general public is boring.

Do NOT skimp on the quality of your story. Give the story legs it has to stand on. Keep writing and keep writing better.

Find the niche where your story fits - and there's where you'll find your success!

A Happy Writer in 2011

2010-12-12T14:46:00.003-05:00

I want to be a happy writer! I am happy with the long-term things I write, like novels ... but I want to be happy in the short-term, too. I think being happy is about enjoying the moment while still building something amazing over the long-term. :)

It's almost the new year - almost 2011! Let's see if we can build something of value together!

2011 will be about embracing all aspects of creating a happy life while we're building our project, whether it's a novel, a blog, a website, an online community, or a writer's group.

So, in 2011, we will live more meaningfully and passionately by concentrating on these areas:

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The BIG Dream

Because this is what excites us. This is what keeps us going. This is the big picture we strive for, the one that lives like a shining castle in our minds.

I want to be on the New York Times Bestseller List.

This is my dream. What is yours? What is so big that it makes you tingle just to think about it?

Living

The big dreams keep us going, but the daily living also needs to be happy, or we'll get discouraged on our journey. An awesome time out with friends, a creative twist to cooking dinner, sharing a moment with a family member, relaxing with a good book and our favorite cup of tea ... daily living infused with joy.

Mentors

We can get there together, and we aren't alone on our journey. Who influences us and helps us? Who is there as a mentor ... and if we don't have one, who can become one? Have we thanked the people in our life lately for helping us? Heroes need mentors, and we are heroes on this path.

Relationships

Who lights up your world? Who could use a hug or a phone call? Whose comments on a site really touched you? Reaching out to others and building relationships builds a better life for yourself, too. It's like tithing for people, by giving back through interest and listening.

Enthusiasm

I like enthusiasm more than passion, because it's so rare. Be an enthusiastic beacon of your work. Toot your own horn and share that enthusiasm with others. Spend your time doing things you're excited about, in both the immediate future and the long-term.

Destination

Where are you going? Your destination, your mission, can be part of your BIG dream, or a smaller milestone. Keep crafting your life towards your destinations, whether tangible or a representative place.

Deliverables

What is the next step in your long-term project? What is the next short-term step? What are you delivering each year that contributes to moving towards your destinations and BIG dream? Since we're living both in the now and in the future, it's easier to focus on what you're producing, rather than by a specific calendar schedule.

Growth

Growth is not the same as struggle and, when welcomed as part of the flow of life, is not a painful process. Have faith in the good process of growth, and develop your long-term projects to the best of your ability. Don't feel as if you have to sacrifice or give up something to grow. Some things may need to be let go, but trust in the process and keep moving forward.

Tangible Measurements

How do you measure your progress? I tend to measure how well I'm doing by chapters. Chapter 1 is complete, then Chapter 2 and so on until the book is finished. My entire writing life could be summed up as a series of writing chapters. You could measure your blog by how many posts you write in a month, how many subscribers you have, and trackback links.

Your Writing Legacy

What is this long-term project you're building? What are you creating that will be an awesome contribution to the world? Short-term is where we live, but long-term is where we plan, create, and deliver. What will you contribute?

It's Not Just About a Laser Printer

2010-12-11T12:47:00.001-05:00

This video is particularly awesome and kind of made me tear up in a few parts. Some of the best writing 'advice' really is summed up here ... and it's not just about a laser printer. :)

Two Bears Video

2010-12-10T21:28:00.002-05:00

I love this little video - I admire the 'writer' bear's chutzpah to think he can become a bestselling writer ... kind of reminds me of how I was as a little kid (but not now!)

p.s. in other news, I've started the first chapter of one of my new YA stories. How fun!

Recovering Me

2010-12-10T11:58:00.034-05:00

After years of being an adult (a decade or so), I still don't really feel grown-up. But neither do I feel like a kid anymore. I guess I feel like an older teen, like someone who has responsibilities (mortgage, dogs, marriage) but also retains a huge sense of wonder about the world. I love mythology, fairies, fantasy adventure movies and candy.

To write for kids (ages 8-10) and tweens (ages 11-14) is to dig deeper into my autobiography and see what was going on in MY life during those years. What was I feeling? What was important in my life? Who were my friends? What did I love doing? What was my daily life like? What about my family?

AGE 10:

When I was 10, I was living in Gorham, Maine, in a duplex sharing a bedroom with my younger sister, Lisa. Our bedroom was pretty large and we used a bookcase to split the room in half, so I technically had my own space. I remember it being sunny and fairly quiet. I spent a lot of time in my half of the room, listening to records on the record player (or tapes in the tape player!), reading in bed or playing with toys. My favorite toys were Legos, small nature animal toys, and skeletons. I loved reading and was often curled up with a book, like the Oz books by L. Frank Baum, Alice in Wonderland, anything by E. B. White or Roald Dahl, or whatever we happened to be reading in class.

I was in fifth grade and played clarinet in Mrs. Matthews' band class, walked to school every day, since it was just around the corner. My best friend was a quiet girl named Jenn Allen, and I had my first serious crush on my next-door neighbor, Brooks, who moved in the beginning of fifth grade.

I didn't really get along with my sister, except if we'd play together. She kind of bothered me and spent a lot of time playing with her friends. My mom and stepdad weren't married yet, but my future stepdad lived with us. He was cool - he'd help carve our pumpkins at Halloween or help me put jigsaw puzzles together. We had a lot of pets, too - two mice, a guinea pig, a shetland sheepdog named Mac, a ferret named Weasy, and two cats - Smokey and Yoda. Smokey was gray and white, with double front paws and a kinked tail. He was my kitty!

My parents were divorced and Dad lived in Old Orchard Beach, in a tiny apartment across the street from the ocean. My sister and I would play on the beach or go swimming in his pool or watch cartoons during the weekends he had us.

Both sides of my family were involved in theatre. My mother was in a lot of plays and so was Dad, so I spent a huge amount of time at the theatre attending rehearsals and performances. I even went to cast parties.

So, that was life when I was 10!

AGE 12:

We moved to Michigan the summer after fifth grade, so by age 12 I was living in a double-wide trailer in a large trailer park in Rochester Hills, Michigan. At first, I shared a bedroom with my sister, but I really wanted my own space, so I helped Mom and my stepdad clean out the den and I moved in. I painted the walls white and enjoyed my small cozy space, with my books and clothes and stuffed animals.

By 12, my reading material had gotten darker so I was going through a Stephen King/Christopher Pike/R. L. Stine phase. I also read fantasy, like Piers Anthony, and dabbled in historical fiction by reading "Clan of the Cave Bear" and the "People of the Wolf" series. I was just starting to get into classic literature, but read child versions rather than the actual stories.

My stepdad moved out with us, but they hadn't married yet. He was working for our trailer park as a landscaper and my mom got accepted to Wayne State University grad school, so she drove to Detroit every day. Living in an enormous and wealthy suburb was so different from small-town Gorham. We had little money, but my grandparents lived in the same town, so they helped us out. I'll never forget the day my grandma took me clothes shopping and bought me the prettiest outfit I'd ever worn. She also bought me my first really cool bike - a purple Schwinn! I rode around the park and was even old enough to ride the two miles to the nearest K-mart strip mall, where I'd buy lipgloss and candy.

The girl across the street was my new best friend, one year older than me and not the nicest person I'd met. She was bossy and authoritative, pushing me around and constantly talking about boys. I honestly wasn't that interested, except for this one guy Jesse. God, I liked him so much! I spent a lot of time thinking about him. :)

I still did well in school, but wasn't the smartest fish in the sea anymore. My grades were high and I liked my teachers overall. My middle school was enormous, with wide halls and lockers, a huge gym and a pool. Most of the kids I went to school with were quite rich, with name-brand clothes and the latest toys like Walkmans and Sega video games. There was a mall in our town, plus several others in the area, so kids went shopping all the time. I had a couple of acquaintances and didn't eat lunch alone, but felt awkward. I got braces and glasses in January of my sixth grade year and was one of the tallest skinniest girls in my grade. Add to that was puberty, which was painful and awkward. I was flat-chested, so didn't need bras like the other girls, and when I tried shaving I would cut my legs. Getting my first period hurt a lot, too. But I'd kept up playing the clarinet and was the best in band, so that helped my self-esteem.

Life at home was pretty lousy, since my mom complained that my Dad cut off child support when I turned 12. Lots of fights about money and stress about finances. My mom didn't get along with my grandparents, so whenever they'd show up it was stressful. I was jealous of my sister's carefree and busy social life, and didn't really like my future stepdad either, since he was also tired and stressed. I'd try to talk to Mom, but she'd complain I was too needy and once, when I showed her a story I was working on, she accused me of writing something too dark. I was reprimanded for not making enough friends, not helping enough around the house, and even scolded for asking for new jeans, since I was growing so much my clothes didn't fit. It was a tough time.

We'd had to leave my cat Smokey behind in Gorham when we moved to Michigan, but on April Fool's day of my 6th grade year, my mother brought home a fluffy black and white kitten with golden eyes who soon became my new cat, Zuel. I loved him to pieces! We still had Mac, our Sheltie, but we no longer had the ferret, the mice or the guinea pig. Instead, we got our first bird - a cockatiel named Lucky. He was kind of cute, but neither my sister or I fell in love with him like Mom did!

So, that was life when I was 12!

AGE 15:

We were still living in the trailer park in Rochester when I was 15, but life had gotten a little better. There were still fights at home about money, but Mom had graduated from grad school and gotten a decent job, so at least our finances had somewhat stabilized. My sister and I were in two different schools, so we only saw each other at home and didn't really hang out or were close. My grandfather passed away when I was 14, so my grandma now lived by herself. Mom was angry that Grandpa never apologized to her for the way he treated her, so his passing was a bit strange. My cat was now three years old and I loved him so much I wanted to be a vet when I grew up and take care of animals.

By 15, both of my parents had re-married so I had two new step-parents - Geary and Lorna. Dad and Lorna had moved out to Michigan very briefly, but then moved back to Maine and were living in Bangor. Even though Mom was really happy with her marriage to Geary, he and I didn't see eye to eye. He'd try to tell me what to do, which I've never liked! We bickered a lot. Our old dog Mac passed away when I was in 8th grade, so we got a new puppy named Puck. At some point, we also got a second cockatiel named Beaker and both my sister and I got hamsters.

I wasn't doing a lot of creative writing when I was 15, except for school, but still was a voracious reader. Now I'd really gotten into classic literature, especially Dickens and Jane Austen. I also was interested in screenwriting and, the day after Christmas of my 10th grade year, I saw Titanic, which changed my writing forever after. I wanted to write a story like that!

I was still playing clarinet and had tried out for the high school marching band - and got in! So, the summer before 9th grade, I went to band camp at Michigan State University and met a great group of new friends. That was an awesome week and I had so much fun learning the drills in the hot sun. I started crushing on a sophomore named Sean, one year older than me and the fastest runner on the cross-country high school team. He was amazing! My new good friend Amanda also crushed on the same guy, so we'd giggle about him together all the time.

Rochester High School was a huge new place and I remember being intimidated by the seniors with their highschool jackets dripping with medals, their cars, how tall they were, and how the guys were shaving and the girls looked like women. It was awe-inspiring to me. I no longer was the tallest or the skinniest, so I felt better. My height and weight stabilized, so I was finally able to go an entire school year without growing two or three inches! It helped enormously with clothes and shoes. In fact, I'm still the same height and shoe-size that I've been since I was 16!

School was easy, like it had always been, so my grades stayed pretty high. I was heavily involved with marching band, pep band, pit band for the school musical of "Oklahoma" and jazz band, so my evenings were busy and I went to all the football and basketball games. I had a great group of friends I'd eat with at lunch and my sense of humor started to flesh out, so I was one of the clowns of the group and kept everyone laughing. I felt a bit left out since I went to the school dances by myself and didn't have a boyfriend, but I had a lot of guy friends.

I'd started running track in 7th grade, but for my freshman year, because of my crush on Sean, I switched to running long-distance track that spring and had a great time. Ooh, those first weeks were always so sore and I'd limp from class to class. But then I'd limber up and running was more fun. I ran practice with this shorter girl named Amanda and a sophomore named Becky. At the athletic awards at the end of my freshman year, I even got my school letter! That was cool and I felt so proud, to get a letter even though I wasn't super athletic. I still have it, actually. :)

So, that was life when I was 15!

GROWING UP:

Growing up was hard, but I don't know if at the time it really registered that it was hard. I lived in the moment, only seeing what was right in front of me and not understanding or looking at the big picture. My parents were overworked and didn't have much time to explain or help, so I spent a lot of time alone with my own feelings. It wasn't until high school that I finally felt a sense of truly belonging and got my feet under me in terms of school, friends, and hobbies like music and writing. Life at home buckled and strained under the stress of finances, but at school I could forget all that and simply play my clarinet in band, giggle with my friends in the hall, or ace a test.

WRITING FOR THIS AGE GROUP:

As a young reader myself, I read to escape. I wanted to join adventurous children on voyages of their own, like the Pevensie kids into Narnia, Alice into Wonderland, Dorothy into Oz, or James aboard his giant peach. Their situations seemed so much more exciting than living with divorced parents who argued amongst each other, fought over money, and moved around. Their friends seemed more welcoming and friendly than snotty middle-school girls who teased me or had more money than me. Their problems seemed more surmountable than trying to fit in, find my own identity, distinguish myself, or just be happy.

And isn't that the beauty of writing a story for young adults? I can take them away from their problems and yet, at the same time, present them with a character who has his/her own worlds to live in, own friends to make, and own problems to overcome.

I hold out my hand and beckon them.

Come! Come with me! Forget your fights with your mom and your dad, your jealousy of your sister, your loneliness and awkwardness and pain and confusion ...

Come with me. Let us journey together. Let us feel happy and alive ... with a story. :)

My Mind Movie

2010-12-09T10:28:00.002-05:00

I've wanted to be a bestselling author for a long time ... so someone suggested the other day that I make a vision board. You put pictures of what you want on a bulletin board and look at it every day, trusting you'll receive what you want.

Well, I decided to take this a step further - so I created a mind movie. :) I thought I'd share this with everyone ... so here it is!

Digital Writer Resources

2010-12-03T23:20:00.000-05:00

Here's a list of digital writer resources that you can use to create digital content, transform plain content into eBook content, read digital books, and more.

Brainstorm eBook Ideas:
DtBits - desktop sticky notes
List of tools for creating ideas
Microsoft OneNote - note taking
MindGenius - mind mapping software
StickyNotes - virtual Post-it Notes

Create Digital Content:
The Journal 5 - Journal Software
Liquid Story Binder XE - Novel Writing Software
PageFour - Creative Writing Software
StoryBook - Open Source Writing Software
Microsoft Office
Open Office - free word processing and spreadsheet software

eBook Formats:
Adobe Digital Editions
Amazon Digital Text Platform - create Kindle versions
Calibre - change eBook formats
Cute PDF - create PDFs for free
Stanza - iPhone/iPod Touch eBook reader

eReaders:
Amazon Kindle
Apple iPad
BeBook eReader
Blackberry Smartphones
Kobo eReader and eBooks
Microsoft Reader
Mobipocket eReader - for Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and Palm
Nook eReader, by Barnes & Noble
Scribd - great place to distribute free PDF eBooks
Sony eReader

eBook Platforms:
Book Locker
Fictionwise
Google Books
iBooks for the iPad
iTunes Audiobooks
Kindle Apps - free!
Mobipocket Online eBookStore
myPadMedia - eBooks for the iPad
PubIt! - publish eBooks for the Nook
Scribd - great place to upload and distribute free PDF eBooks
Sony eReader Store
Windows Mobile - can read Microsoft Reader and Mobipocket

Free Books and Research:
The Free Library
Girl eBooks
Google Books
Wikipedia

Online Writers' Groups:
Authonomy by HarperCollins
Red Room - Where the Writers Are
NaNoWriMo - National November Writing Month

Online eBook and Story Publishing:
Author Solutions - publish eBooks for the Sony eReader
Broad eBooks
East of the Web Short Story Publishing
OR Books - POD publishing with a progressive twist
Smashwords - eBooks from indie authors

Successful Digital Writers:
Leo Baubata, of Zen Habits
Seth Godin
Chris Guillebeau, the Art of Nonconformity
J. A. Konrath
Robin Sloan

Print-On-Demand:
Amazon's CreateSpace
Lightning Source
Lulu

Blogging:
Blogger
Wordpress

Learn HTML/CSS:
HTML Code Tutorial - highly recommended (this is how I learned HTML)
W3Schools: HTML Tutorial
HTML.net - Free Tutorials

Thank you for being patient - update!

2010-12-03T11:12:00.002-05:00

Thank you everyone for stopping by and wishing me well. One of my closest friends - more like a family member - unexpectedly passed away, and it's been really hard on me ... So, thank you again for being patient.

I will continue with the creative writing class and other writing-related posts, but my focus has changed. I apologize if you were onboard with the digital-writing bent, and I obviously will leave it in the archives.

But, what's ended up happening is I've gone back to writing young adult and children's stories, which was my first writing-related passion as a child myself. So, this blog will gradually take on more of a fantastical, whimsical, and youth-centered look and feel. Less business-like and more fun. I've kind of been a literary party-pooper - so it's time to liven things up a bit!

Thank you again for sticking on-board with me as this ship has sailed on different waters and for your kind words and thoughts. I'll be back tomorrow!

A Short Break

2010-11-14T20:00:00.002-05:00

Hi to all my readers ... I have been going through a really rough time lately and will take a break from this creative writing class. I'm not sure how long, maybe about a week or less. I apologize to those of you diligently following along, but I'll be back soon.

Thank you for your understanding.

Character is You

2010-11-14T08:00:00.002-05:00

We've had a fun week exploring characters, haven't we! We've learned about the five major types of characters (main character, villain, main character helpers, villain helpers, and background characters), studied character archetypes, and even dabbled in psychology to uncover character motivation.

But everything we've talked about this week with character is not really about the fictional person we'll create on the page, but the real person writing the story.

Yes, character IS YOU! Character is you and me and your coworkers and your friends and your family and the people who live in your neighborhood and the other drivers on the road and the people who work at the grocery store, mail your packages, fly airplanes, fix roads ... and everyone in between.

Character is us. Even if you only write science fiction and fantasy and never write about 'humans', your characters will, in some form or another, be human.

Character Development

2010-11-13T08:00:00.000-05:00

Free Fiction Friday! November 12

2010-11-12T08:00:00.003-05:00

As part of my Free Fiction Friday series, here's the first chapter of a work-in-progress tentatively called Hyde-Land. It's a twist on the Jekyll and Hyde story, one of my favorites. :)

Hyde-Land, Chapter 1
by Meg North

“Good God, Arthur!” My old colleague slammed down his glass of punch, nearly spilling it. His handshake was warm, vigorous. “It’s been too long!”

“Ah, Preston, it has.” I smiled broadly, glad to see him. “The years have been good to you, old friend.”

“The years, the years. Are you still teaching?”

“Of course. I’ve made it to Oxford.”

“Really?” Preston surveyed the busy ballroom. “An Oxford English professor gets to mingle with the London bluebloods? I’d never have thought that possible.”

“My cousin,” I explained. “He throws lavish parties.”

“Indeed. Well, connections hold more weight these days than pounds, it seems.”

Preston was dressed very well, and I had no doubt he’d enjoyed his late parents’ fortune. I was surprised he wasn’t still gallivanting about the Continent, but home had a strong hold on us. Preston was a handsome fellow, always had been, a Grecian profile and a haughty stance. But I felt a little uneasy as I beheld him now. His eye was a little too shifty, his laugh a little too regular. I couldn’t put my finger on it, so I tried to shrug it off.

“Well, Arthur, shall we grab a cigar? If you haven’t changed, that is.”

“Not at all.” I rummaged in a breast pocket and handed him the second one.

Preston laughed. “To the terrace, then.”

I followed him through London’s fashionable crowd. My cousin Marcus Roddingham’s estate was grandly illuminated with enormous chandeliers and gas-lit globes. The air was heavily scented with perfume and oils, and the taste of expensive champagne lingered on my lips. Miss Virginia Rackham descended the enormous central staircase, and I caught her saucy smile. She dipped her fan beneath those beautiful green eyes and managed a slight curtsy to me, without her elderly escort knowing. I would as soon bring down the very stars to see that smile again. Was she to marry the Baron Tillings? I couldn’t bear to see it. Yet, why join me in my dusty study with my dusty books, chattering on like a magpie about dead writers and poetry feet? I couldn’t cage my lovely firebird.

“If I have to hear another waltz, I’ll start a duel with the conductor,” Preston groaned.

He closed the French doors behind me and I joined him in taking the air on the side terrace. The night was beautiful, a lovely English spring. Already the lawn had begun to green and the buds on the garden vines were full and egg-shaped. I struck a match and we enjoyed our cigars. Below us in the front drive, a caravan of carriages and open-air motor cars sat idling, servants and chauffeurs chatting amongst one another.

“Do you remember Miss Rackham?” I said.

“She’s bait for a baron now, Arthur. But I wouldn’t forget her, either. You are a fool, but a fool I sympathize with.”

“You’re right, Preston. What lady dreams of being a professor’s wife? None but a librarian, I suppose.”

“What drivel are you shoving down the throats of brats these days?”

“Our spring term began with a novel of our own isle. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”

Preston blew a full cloud of smoke, misting into the air about him like a shroud. His brow wrinkled, and his eyes gained a faraway look.

“What are you thinking of?”

“I thought I should tell you what I have been doing the past ten years. It was all well and good to attend school, but I needed adventure.” He set his cigar down and gestured widely with both hands. “And I found it, Arthur!”

“No doubt, Preston. You always had a taste for the theatrical.”

“Let me explain, old friend. Arthur, the world has grown faster and faster in the years of this dying century. We embark on a new era, and in less than eight months 1900 will be upon us.”

“Quite right,” I said.

“There is far more technology and scientific achievements since the time of our great author. We should take him up on the challenge!”

“Take who up?” I said, confused by his frantic tone.

“Robert Louis Stevenson, of course!”

“Preston, you’ve had too much punch. Stevenson is dead, and has been for five years now.”

“He had a capital idea, Arthur. That a man can be both absolute good and absolute evil. You know of this, for Pete’s sake. You’re teaching the damn book.”

I chuckled. Another of Preston’s wild fancies, like when he suggested we search for pirate treasure in Canada, or dig up Shakespeare’s grave to see if there really was a curse.

“I see what you’re saying. You wish to see if the experiment can be reenacted. A fine idea, good for a novel. If you happen to write it, I’ll teach it, if that suits you.”

“Well, if it’s money that’s stalling you, you know I have connections.”

“Then why bother me with the proposal, Preston? I am a professor, not a scientist.”

He stubbed out his cigar and threw his arm about my shoulders. I thought he had been drinking, but I couldn’t smell the liquor on his breath.

“Arthur, I ask you why not? Why can’t we? We could rid the world of evil, as Dr. Jekyll wanted it.”

“You mean, as Robert Louis Stevenson wanted it.”

“Of course, of course. The author holds the key!”

I could see there was little use trying to dissuade him. Perhaps there would be little harm in maybe forming a group of some sort to read the novel.

“A Club, perhaps,” I mused out loud. “You can form a Club of those interested.”

“Yes!” Preston exploded. “Fine idea. I have three intelligent persons in mind, for this will be an exclusive Club. No-one is to know of any other’s doings, and no-one else is to ever find out. I shall document it precisely, and you – dear Arthur – are to know that book like the streets of London herself.”

To humor him, and to perhaps give myself something to do other than grade papers and discuss grammar styles, I agreed. Preston dropped a bit of cigar ash into our palms and we shook on the proposition of forming a Club to investigate the J-H experiment. Code language, passwords, secrecy, and diligence would be our companions.

“I’ll come by your office after class on Friday next,” Preston concluded. “Good evening, old friend. May our endeavor be blessed by ghosts!”

His parting shout was unusual, but I bade him good-night and headed back into the ballroom. He’d vanished as quickly as I’d come upon him, but I was curious of his whereabouts, so I lost no time in seeking out my cousin.

“Good evening, Marcus.”

“Hello, Arthur.” He stepped away from his pretty wife and tipped his head to me. “Thank you for coming tonight.”

“A pleasure, Marcus. You spoil your guests well.”

He finished his wine. “All in a day’s work.”

“Speaking of guests, I was wondering of your connection with Preston Woodward.”

“Who?”

“Preston Woodward,” I repeated. “He and I were friends, or colleagues rather, as part of an early business.”

“Perhaps Paulina invited him,” Marcus shrugged. “We are of no relation or friendship. Is he still here?”

“I was just speaking to him on the side terrace, but he has left now. I am sorry if he was uninvited.”

“No matter. Ah, you must excuse me. Paulina calls.”

He left my side and returned to his wife. They were speaking to Baron Tillings, perhaps on his new land holdings in the north. I sighed and peered around for Miss Rackham, but did not spy her. A strange evening, and Marcus hadn’t met Preston? I thought to myself that perhaps my life would be better suited in my office with all my dusty books and their dead authors.

I felt more blessed by their ghosts than haunted.

The Character Bio

2010-11-11T08:00:00.006-05:00

Just like every person lives their own autobiography, so does every character! The Character Biography is an important tool that aids in character development over the course of your story. I love creating character bios and constantly use them for reference. They are a snapshot of your character's physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual characteristics. I also include a one or two paragraph description of the character's development through the story, just to make sure I'm on the right track.

Character bios are fun to create, too! It's creative and you get to pick and choose the characteristics you'll include.

Here is the format I use, along with an example of the main character I'm crafting for a future story:

CHARACTER NAME (Archetype/Story Role)
*Physical description, birthdate, zodiac sign, few words for general description
*Likes and dislikes, objects that represent character
*Situation when story begins, few words of backstory and family life
*What character wants to do about situation, driving wish
*Paragraph description of character's role in the story
*Description of character growth and development
*Any other miscellaneous notes

TRIXIE SNOW BLUE (Protagonist)
Age 12, short, pale skin, dark eyes, black hair, born November 2, 1859, Scorpio, only child, dresses in black and gray because of mourning her mother

Animal lover, had a pet garter snake named Sneaky Snake back home that she nursed back to health after being attacked by a hawk

It's January 1871, Mother (Eva Snow Blue) has died, Father (Nathaniel Blue) is taking Trixie down to Boston to be with her Aunt Lavinia and Uncle Oliver at the Snow mansion

Trixie doesn't want to go to Boston, misses her mother, her best friend and her collection of pets and animals, driving wish is to have a happy family

Trixie is unhappy (similar to Mary Lennox), Snow Mansion is enchanting, sees a red rose blooming in the snowy garden, meets and becomes playmates with Louis (French maid's son), makes friends with blackbird (Trixie's symbol), finds Magic Pen, gets in trouble, sent to room, uses Magic Pen to open window and escape, enters Land of Possibilities, meets Mr. Fennek, rescues Beo, journeys to Sandalphon Castle, saves Queen Cassiella, journeys to Flame Forest, defeats Red Fairy, saves L of P from Cynics Curse, reunited with Louis

Trixie grows from unhappy little girl into a young woman embracing both gentle (Queen Cassiella/Eva Snow Blue) and strong (Red Fairy) parts of herself to meet challenges and not live in despair and depression

Trixie symbolized by blackbird, blackbirds appear throughout story, also called 'The Black Angel' because she dresses in black, as story progresses dress changes from black to gray to finally white at the end

Combo of Secret Garden/Alice in Wonderland/Wizard of Oz, fairy tale/fantasy

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The character bio can help flesh out your Main Character, Villain, and minor characters so that you know them through and through. You want to know these bios so well that you practically memorize them!

Why? Well, when you sit down to write the rough draft, you don't want to get stuck during a scene! You want to keep going, and deeply knowing your characters' motivations prevents you from having to go back and delve. In short, the deeper you know your characters, the faster you'll write your rough draft!

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What Today's Class is About:

Creating character bios by including the character's physical description, emotional makeup, what they want, and their role in the story.

What You Can Do:
*Create a one-page character bio for your Main Character, Villain, Main Character Helpers, and Villain Helpers.
*Semi-memorize the most important characteristics for each of your major characters.

Character Archetypes

2010-11-10T08:00:00.004-05:00

Character archetypes are symbolic descriptions of character based on both their unique characteristics and the roles they play within your story. Example archetypes include the warrior, the scholar, the waif, and the nurturer.

My favorite book for character archetypes that I have read so often the pages are falling apart is "The Complete Writer's Guide to Heroes & Heroines: 16 Master Archetypes." If you want to pick up one book about character, I urge you to get this one! My copy is ripped, dog-eared, and penciled-in. It's a much-valued friend when I create and work on character.

Archetypes are useful because they represent universal elements that we can all relate to. Archetypes are the basic building blocks for creating character - she's not just the Heroine, she's also a best friend or a mother or a teenage girl. He's not just the Hero, he's also a scholar or a company CEO or a captain.

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HERO ARCHETYPES:

The CHIEF - a dynamic leader, he has time for nothing but work.
*Mr. Darcy from "Pride and Prejudice", Julius Ceasar, the King of Siam in "The King and I"

The BAD BOY - dangerous to know, he walks on the wild side.
*James Dean in "Rebel Without a Cause", Huck Finn, Holden Caulfield, Mr. Wickham from "Pride and Prejudice", Mr. Willoughby from "Sense and Sensibility"

The BEST FRIEND - sweet and safe, he never lets anyone down.
*Mr. Knightley from "Emma", Mr. Bingley from "Pride and Prejudice", Laurie in "Little Women", Ron Weasley in the "Harry Potter" books

The LOST SOUL - a tormented being, he lives in solitude.
*Rick from "Casablanca", Erik from "The Phantom of the Opera", Heathcliff, the Beast from "Beauty and the Beast", Edward in "Twilight"

The CHARMER - a smooth talker, he creates fantasies.
*Jack in "Titanic", James Bond, Ferris Bueller, Petruchio in "Taming of the Shrew", Peter Venkmen in "Ghostbusters"

The PROFESSOR - coolly analytical, he knows every answer.
*Spock, Sherlock Holmes, Harry Potter in "Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone", Jeff Goldbum in "The Fly" and "Independence Day"

The SWASHBUCKLER - Mr. Excitement, he's an adventurer.
*Robin Hood, Indiana Jones, Peter Pan, Zorro, Tom Cruise in "Top Gun", Han Solo, Westley in "The Princess Bride"

The WARRIOR - a noble champion, he acts with honor.
*King Arthur, Batman, Superman, John McClane in "Die Hard", Luke Skywalker, William Wallace in "Braveheart", Sir Lancelot

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HEROINE ARCHETYPES:

The BOSS - a real go-getter, she climbs the ladder of success.
*Katherine in "Taming of the Shrew", Princess Leia, Amy March in "Little Women", Queen Elizabeth in "Elizabeth"

The SEDUCTRESS - an enchantress, she charms to get her way.
*Scarlett O'Hara, Cleopatra, Becky Sharp from "Vanity Fair", Lolita in "Lolita", Eva Peron in "Evita"

The SPUNKY KID - gutsy and true, she is loyal to the end.
*Lizzie Bennett in "Pride and Prejudice", Lois Lane, Sandy in "Grease", Meg Ryan in "Sleepless in Seattle" and "You've Got Mail"

The FREE SPIRIT - an eternal optimist, she dances to unheard tunes.
*Alice from "Alice in Wonderland", Emma from "Emma", Ariel in "The Little Mermaid", Lucille Ball in "I Love Lucy"

The LIBRARIAN - controlled and clever, she holds back.
*Hermione Granger, Jo March in "Little Women", Fanny Price in "Mansfield Park", Rosalind in "As You Like It", Dana Scully in "The X-Files"

The WAIF - a distressed damsel, she bends but does not break.
*Cosette from "Les Miserables", Rose in "Titanic", Juliet, Guinevere, Dorothy Gale, Cinderella, Anne Eliot in "Persuasion", Bella in "Twilight"

The CRUSADER - a dedicated fighter, she meets commitments.
*Athena goddess of war, Joan of Arc, Jane Eyre, Erin Brokovich in "Erin Brokovich", Ellen Ripley in "Alien"

The NURTERER - serene and capable, she nourishes the spirit.
*Belle in "Beauty and the Beast", Elinor Dashwood in "Sense and Sensibility", Mary Poppins, Meg from "Little Women", Demeter Greek goddess

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Are you excited about creating your character archetypes? These are from the archetype book that I use, but you can use any other archetype that you like.

What is your favorite book or movie? List the characters and then try and find their archetypes. Is there a way you can craft a story using the same archetypes? I'm convinced that the stories we love the most - the ones that deeply touch us - have a strong pull because we identify with the archetypes.

Spend time writing about archetypes in your notebook. Try and find both the virtues and the flaws in each archetype. For example, the PROFESSOR character is smart, witty, and his brains are assets in a pinch. But, he can be cold, analytical, and uncaring.

I could spend an entire month just posting about character archetypes! They are fascinating. But remember - they are only building blocks for character. It is up to you to delve deeper beneath the symbolic archetypal surface and really give us a compelling character with identifiable characteristics!

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What Today's Class is About:

Discovering the basic building blocks of character in archetypes, then exploring archetypes and seeing how we can create character.

What You Can Do:

*Pick a character archetype for your Main Character.
*Pick a character archetype for your Villain.
*Pick two character archetypes for your Main Character Helpers.
*Pick two character archetypes for your Villain Helpers.

Five Character Types

2010-11-09T08:00:00.011-05:00

There are five types of characters you will create and include in your story:

1. The Main Character/Protagonist

2. The Villain/Antagonist

3. Main Character Helpers

4. Villain Helpers

5. Background Characters

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THE MAIN CHARACTER/PROTAGONIST:

The Main Character or Protagonist is the most important character in your story. They're the torch-bearer who carries their secret wish with them the entire story and fights with the Villain to either obtain that wish in the end or die trying.

You will spend the most amount of time in the story with your main character, they will appear in 75% of your scenes (if not all of them), and will essentially live in your head as closely as a spouse or best friend throughout the duration of your writing ... so I suggest you come up with someone that interests you!

The Main Character can be anyone - young, old, fat, skinny, male, female, blond, brunette, redhead, rich, poor, athletic, intellectual, creative, silly, serious - but they must be compelling.

Some Favorite Compelling Main Characters:
Cinderella
Luke Skywalker
Harry Potter
Dorothy Gale
Frodo Baggins

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THE VILLAIN/ANTAGONIST:

The Villain or Antagonist is the second most important character in your story and must be as compelling as the Main Character but in an opposing way. Think of your Villain as the anti-Hero, their shadow side. If your Main Character is a straight-laced prude, then the Villain could be a charmer who loves life. If your Main Character is poor, your Villain could be disgustingly rich or immensely powerful.

Not all Villains are inherently evil (although some amazing ones are!), so you may want to create a complex Antagonist instead. Your Villain is another character you'll spend a huge amount of time with, so make him/her compelling as well.

Some Favorite Compelling Villains:
Cinderella's Stepmother
Darth Vader
Voldemort
The Wicked Witch of the West
Sauron

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MAIN CHARACTER HELPERS:

Main Character Helpers assist and are friendly to the Main Character, offering him/her advice and magical objects that will aid them on their quest to defeat the Villain and get their wish.

The Mentor is a famous Main Character helper. Mentors are elderly characters like fairy godmothers or wizards who pass on their knowledge, but rarely join the Main Character on their journey.

The Sidekick is a humorous and fun-loving Main Character Helper. He/she provides comic relief, athletic assistance (for action heroes), or their particular gift helps the Main Character in a pinch.

Other Main Character Helpers could be a best friend, a sister or brother, a neighbor, or an animal.

Favorite Compelling Main Character Helpers:
Cinderella's animal friends and her fairy godmother
R2D2, C3PO, Han Solo and Princess Leia
Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley
The Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion, and Toto
Samwise Gamgee, Aragorn, and Gandalf

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VILLAIN HELPERS:

Before the Main Character faces the Villain in their final showdown, he/she must get through a slew of Villain Helpers. Villain Helpers are also Mentors and Sidekicks, but are working against the Main Character.

Villain Helpers can act as Gatekeepers, guarding a passageway or door the Main Character must go through. The Main Character must pass through this Gatekeeper first.

Villain Helpers assist the Villain by fetching a magical object or weapon. Villain Helpers may Shapeshifters, seemingly on the Main Character's side but betraying them in the end.

Favorite Compelling Villain Helpers:
Cinderella's Stepsisters
Stormtroopers
The Death Eaters
The Flying Monkeys
Orcs, Sauron, and Uruk hai

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BACKGROUND CHARACTERS:

Background characters are actually some of my favorites, since they add such color and flavor to the story. Usually nameless and often grouped together, background characters are necessary for the story to feel real for the reader.

Don't give too much 'stage room' to background characters, for it could detract from the more prominent characters. Keep them mostly in descriptions, with occasionally some dialogue or a small action to perform.

Background characters include soldiers, crowds, coworkers, animals, people walking in the street, other passengers on a train or boat, patients in a hospital, etc. They are usually neutral, meaning they don't work for either the Main Character or the Villain. They may become victims of the Villain's power or they may cheer on the Main Character at the end.

But it's important to include them, for not every scene you write will have just the other four types of characters!

Favorite Background Characters:
Other people at the Prince's ball
Different creatures and aliens in the Star Wars movies
Other kids at Hogwarts
The Munchkins and Winkies
More Riders of Rohan and hobbits

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What Today's Class is About:

The five types of characters you'll create for your story - the Main Character, Villain, Main Character Helper, Villian Helper, and Background Characters.

What You Can Do:

*Brainstorm each type of character and who they will be in your story.
*Think of scenes that would require background characters.

The Most Important Element in Your Story

2010-11-08T08:00:00.010-05:00

Your plot could be the simplest or lamest in the book, your setting could be as exotic as Antananarivo or as simple as a farm in Vermont, your dialogue could be stilted and weird, and your descriptions could be vague and contain 90% weather ... but your readers will still keep reading your story IF YOU HAVE A COMPELLING MAIN CHARACTER.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, if there can be a 'secret to great writing,' it lies in the main character. And so, we kick off the second week of our month-long creative writing class by exploring the most important element in your story:

CHARACTER
Please repeat after me, class:

Character is the most important element in a story.
Character is the most important element in a story.
Character is the most ...
Character is ...

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Okay, we understand character IS the most important element in a story. How? Why? And ... how can we create a compelling main character?

I'm thrilled you asked, since we'll talk about characters all week. In a nutshell, though, character is the most important element in a story because the most satisfying thing for a reader is to see a character undergo change and development on their way towards wish fulfillment. Remember we chatted about wish fulfillment back in our first class?

Readers CRAVE compelling characters because they are fascinating, identifiable, interesting, complex and (in essence) just like us. Readers will return again and again to a story because of the characters. A juicy plot adds to the appeal, cool settings showcase the drama, and interesting objects like ruby slippers or lightsabers or Elvish rings or a Quidditch Snitch make the story unique ... but character is the most important of them all.

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Your most important job as a writer is to create compelling characters. There really is no easy way to go about it, except to do two things:

1. Read ... A LOT.
2. Study human psychology.

In your writer's notebook, write about the characters YOU love. I could spend hours and hours with the March girls from "Little Women", Lizzie Bennett from "Pride and Prejudice", Anne of Green Gables, Alice from "Alice in Wonderland" or Jane Eyre. I wish they were real - they each seem so interesting and fun to hang out with. It's okay to include film characters, too. :)

Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, and Shakespeare were MASTERS of compelling characters. Who can forget Scrooge, Mr. Darcy, or Hamlet? These 'people' are basically members of an alternate fictional human race, aren't they? When your character becomes as famous as a celebrity, then you know you've made it as a writer!

Studying human psychology is much more subtle. Writers need to be the most curious people in the world, constantly asking why. Why did he say that to her after she rescued his dog? Why would they leave everything behind and drive off without telling anyone? Why did he betray her even after she helped his mother? What the heck was going through his head when he said that at the wedding, in front of all those people? And why, for God's sake, does she ALWAYS think that about me?

Also, make it a habit to read the newspaper, where you'll find all sorts of real examples of what people are doing and why. The best thing a horror writer can do is read about real murders and crimes! Read about hometown heroes, read the human interest stories, read the "Dear Abby" section, read the op-ed section, read the obituaries, and even read the horoscopes. Keep your notebook handy while you pay attention to the people behind these letters and stories. Why would they write that? Why are they doing that? Why is this story even mentioned in this newspaper? Is there an element from this piece that I could turn into fiction?

These questions (and thousands more like them) give you an idea about the motivations behind human thoughts, words and actions.

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What Today's Class is About:

How character is the most important element in story-telling, and studying books, movies, and newspapers for clues to creating compelling characters.

What You Can Do:

*Read a lot of books and watch a lot of movies. Study the characters and ask yourself why they're so compelling?
*Get a newspaper subscription and read about real people.
*Write down character notes and ideas in your notebook.

Stories as Slice of Life

2010-11-07T08:00:00.002-05:00

As we segue from the basics of writing (take a look at all of the class posts so far) into characters, let's think about the connection between the main character and yourself.

Stories do not just feature main characters or are made up of characters. Stories depict honest emotions and real actions that are entirely human-based. In essence, stories are a mirror of the real world - the world that we all inhabit. But stories practice careful selection of the real world, picking and choosing from its myriad of components in order to show character (human) growth and development over a finite period of time. Stories cannot 'go on' forever, so they serve as a slice of real life.

Since stories have to choose a particular section of a character's (person's) life, then as writers, our goal is to showcase that slice to the greatest of our ability.

In theory, the story you write has a backstory and an endstory as well. Even in fantasy worlds, the story you create is only a small section of what could possibly by shown.

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So, the question I'm asking today is: why choose that section? What is so important about this particular slice of life that it would make a great story?

It's up to us, as writers, to answer that question AND to bring the story to its fullest potential through character growth over a finite period of time. Unfortunately, not every story idea we'll have over our time as writers will 'work' as a story.

The reason is that not every idea showcases that particular slice of life to its best extent. Real life can afford to have boring events, people that drop in and out of our lives, strange happenings with no explanations, and stretch over long periods of time. But stories must have direction. From page 1 to page 300, there must exist a definable path of character development.

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Developing a story idea is the first essential step to writing a story. This is where we use our notebooks to make story notes. A fully-developed novel cannot rely on mere inspiration, though; there must be hard excavation into the main character's motivations. A short story could be built upon several smaller elements, depending on the length of the story.

So, while you're trying to figure out what to write - what your next story idea will be - eliminate all ideas that will not effectively capture the slice of life that would be most interesting and most appealing to readers. Only the most pertinent information should remain.

Let's say you decide you want to write a love story. The story wouldn't start with the main character's childhood, showing how her parents were divorced, how she fought with her sisters and brother, how she did in school, what homes she lived in ... Of course not! These details are great for YOU as the writer to know, but the audience doesn't need to know. In a love story, you structure the story around the most pertinent event - in this case, meeting and falling in love with a boy.

Knowing the difference between an idea that will work as a novel and one that won't have enough weight or contain the most important events in that main character's life will help streamline your writing.

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What Today's Class is About:

Thinking about stories as not just fiction, but as a slice of a main character's life. Then, developing that slice of life to its fullest potential to show that character's growth over a finite period of time.

What You Can Do:
*Take out a sheet of paper or flip to a new page in your notebook and practice developing a story idea.
*What are the most pertinent events of your own life that could be strung together to make a good story?
*How could you incorporate your real life into a fictional world?

Just Keep Going

2010-11-06T08:00:00.001-04:00

Yesterday, my husband and I went to pick up my dead laptop, which bit the dust on Tuesday. I've had a roller-coaster week, but most of my files have been saved ... except for ten years' worth of written journal entries. I'm going to keep my old laptop and send it in to some professional data people at some point in the future, but for now, Gordon (my old laptop) rests in peace.

As Erik and I were driving along the misty cold November roads of Maine, our conversation happened upon a subject I've been thinking a lot about this year - overcoming discouragement at not achieving small victories, and instead sticking it out over the long haul, even if there could be no chance of a huge payoff.

It's a bit discouraging, don't you think? He and I were talking about how regular school doesn't really prepare students for real life, since real life is rather quiet, unglamorous, and requires sustained effort. Whereas school rewards small victories and short-term goals like acing a test each semester, passing in short papers, completing short essays. These small goals boost self-esteem, but also give you the false impression that you'll always have small goals that will be easily obtainable, readily available, and a cinch to tuck under your belt, so that you can just move on to the next one.

Well, uh, that isn't the case ... especially with writing.

The most successful writers are not the smartest, or the ones with the most talent, or the kindest or the 'best.' They're just the ones who stuck it out. No matter what. No matter what.

To tell the truth, I've had a lot of disappointments this year. I've had a lot of disappointments overall with my writing. When I started my first major novel when I was sixteen, I thought I'd be the next Stephen King (not with horror, but you know what I mean!). I dreamt big. I wanted my stories known around the country, my characters famous, my books made into movies and beloved by millions. Kind of like the world writers like Stephenie Meyer, J. K. Rowling and Nicholas Sparks are living in right now ...

Has it happened to me? No. Will it? I still hope it will, 12 years after dreaming that teenaged dream. But it hasn't yet.

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but so is failure. I haven't quit writing, and my love for it was only reinforced to such a deep soul-level this week as I stared at the blank screen of my computer and wept for my lost files.

Writers, you just keep going. Sometimes that's all I can tell myself, as the months tick by and my dream seems farther away than ever. Sometimes those three words - just keep going - are all that separates me from deleting everything and throwing in the towel. I keep writing. I keep going.

Writers, don't fall victim to chasing short-term goals and tiny victories. Don't think that just because you sold one copy means that the second one will sell. Don't stop. Just ... keep ... going.

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What this Class is About:

Understanding that the real key to writing success is not being the smartest writer or the wittiest writer, but the writer who kept going.

What You Can Do:

*Think of your biggest writing dream. The really big one. The one that makes your little inner cynic dig in her heels and say, "Wait, no, that's too big." Yeah, that dream.
*Now work towards it. Every day.
*Just keep going.

Free Fiction Friday! November 5

2010-11-05T08:00:00.002-04:00

As part of my Free Fiction Friday series, here's a cute story I wrote when I was ten. My fifth grade teacher liked it so much, she showed it to our school principal. That was a great moment!

The Move
by Meg North

George and Mr. Wacko were two small elves. They had heads of long soft hair and small bodies. George’s hair was red and curly and Mr. Wacko’s hair was straight and white.

George and Mr. Wacko lived in a small hole underneath an enormous oak tree. They had been living there for a very long time. Both of them were getting pretty tired of living in the same place almost all their lives. They wanted to move out of the country and go live in New York City.

It was in late May, a perfect time to move. It was either now or next year. George strolled over to where Mr. Wacko was seated on the floor munching an acorn.

“Mr. Wacko,” he began calmly, “its time for us to move.”

“I’m getting a little tired of this hole, anyway. All right, we’ll move as soon as possible.”

So George set off that night in search of something to travel in. He returned three hours later with an enormous helium balloon and a wicker basket.

Mr. Wacko found some string and lashed the two objects together. He then tied it firmly to the ground so it wouldn’t cause problems.

“George!” Mr. Wacko called. “We need another balloon and basket!”

George went out that night to find them. He came back with another balloon and a basket, exactly like the ones before. Mr. Wacko tied them together, so that the miniature hot air balloons were identical.

There wasn’t much furniture in the hole, except a pile of acorns, two small beds, and a hole dug in the ground with water in it.

Mr. Wacko dug some clay from the ground and shaped it into a cup shape. Then he carried it up a little stairway and set it out to dry in the sun.

When it was completely dry, he lugged it back downstairs and filled it to the brim with clear sparkling water. With George’s help, he put it into the first hot air balloon with mud around it to hold it steady. When the mud turned hard, Mr. Wacko put acorns around the cup. In the second basket, he put the two beds and the rest of the acorns. Finally, he added a sign that said ‘Home Sweet Home.’

George came over to help Mr. Wacko carry both balloons outdoors. In about ten minutes, the two balloons were resting on the grass, under the stars.

Mr. Wacko then taught George how to steer the balloon, a not-too-difficult task.

They climbed into the balloons, and leaning over the edge, George and Mr. Wacko bit the string with their sharp teeth. Immediately, the two aircraft shot straight up in the air, but Mr. Wacko was calm, so they weren’t worried.

Mr. Wacko checked his compass and called to George, “Follow me!”

And so they flew, on and on. When dawn came they had left the country and were now in the suburbs.

“We’re landing!” Mr. Wacko called to George. He steered towards the left and expertly landed the balloon on one of the branches of a monstrous oak tree. He then threw a small rock over the side and climbed out, while George did the exact same thing.

“Look!” cried George. “There’s a hole in the tree!”

“What a coincidence,” Mr. Wacko murmured.

“We can camp there today, and get a fresh start this evening,” George explained.

“That’s a good idea,” agreed Mr. Wacko.

So, he helped his best friend carry the water and the two beds into the hole, and then brought in the balloons, so they wouldn’t be seen.

“I’m tired,” George yawned.

“Me, too,” Mr. Wacko said.

So both of them crawled into their beds and were soon lost in sleep.

* * *

When George woke around 8:00 the next evening, Mr. Wacko was still snoring away. While he slept, George ate his breakfast of an acorn and placed his bed back into the second balloon.

Ten minutes later, Mr. Wacko roused himself and put his bed alongside George’s. He gobbled up his acorn and George helped him carry out the hot air balloons. They climbed in, bit the string and were on their way again.

It took them the rest of the night to reach New York City, but when they saw the skyscrapers, they knew the long trip was worth it.

They circled around Manhattan and saw Central Park, but it had no oak trees. They circled once more, and then George’s sharp eyes spied a scrawny oak tree growing next to a large office building. The two creatures slowly let the air out of the two balloons as they descended down to the tree. In a few minutes they had come to rest on one of the higher branches.

Mr. Wacko decided to save the deflated balloons, so he put them into the first basket. George scouted the whole tree and he announced to Mr. Wacko later that morning he had spied a hole near the very top. He also explained that he had explored it and seen a roomy home, smaller than their previous one, but comfortable.

Mr. Wacko went with George back to the new hole and thought it a very nice place to live in. So he and George pulled the two baskets up to the hole and put them inside. It was nearly nine in the morning when they finally finished fixing up their new place. It was a miracle they weren’t seen by humans, because they were as thick as flies around the streets.

George and Mr. Wacko lived a comfortable life for the rest of the summer, but something happened towards the end of August that made them change their minds about some things.

Now they were running low on acorns, so George had been going out for hours every night to try and find some other food for them. One night, however, he found something more than food.

He was exploring the garbage cans in an old alley when he heard a high-pitched mew. Having never heard nor seen a cat before, he couldn’t tell what it was.

But he could tell where it was coming from, so he followed the sound, wandering all over the alley in his search. He finally squeezed behind the garbage cans, turned a corner, and saw a large cardboard box. He rushed over and peered in, very curious. And there, in the farthest corner was a little orange kitten mewing with all his might. He stopped, however, when he saw George.

“Oh hi,” the kitten said, a little fearful. “My name is Sammy and I was wondering if you knew a place where I can get some fish, ‘cause my mom’s been gone for hours and I’m starved.”

“Why, yes, as a matter of fact, I do know where you could get a bite of fish. But I have to get it for you,” George replied.

“Oh boy!” Sammy exclaimed. “If you’ll do that for me, I’ll be very grateful.”

And so, George soon found himself at a nearby fish market about a block away. Getting a can of tuna fish at eleven at night was a little risky, but he returned triumphantly. After opening it with his teeth, he watched in fascination as Sammy gobbled it up.

“That was excellent,” Sammy said, cleaning his whiskers. “Thank you ever so much.”

“No problem. Say, do you want to come with me?” George asked. “I’m sure my friend Mr. Wacko won’t mind. By the way, my name’s George.”

“Oh, I’ll come with you,” Sammy answered.

“Okay, then. Follow me and try not to let the humans see you,” said George, as he took off down the alley.

He led Sammy through the winding streets until they arrived at the oak tree about an hour later. George was amazed when Sammy expertly climbed the tree and was relieved to find the doorway was a perfect size for the kitten.

After George introduced his two friends, they took their seats and began to discuss their situation. Mr. Wacko pointed out that they were running out of food, so he wanted to move back to the country. George agreed to this and said that they could make a wagon out of the baskets and harness Sammy to it. The kitten didn’t object to this idea; actually he seemed to like it.

George went out into the city the next night and returned with two large fish for the journey, which would be Sammy’s. Luckily, there were just enough acorns left in the house to return to the country, so it worked out okay.

Mr. Wacko found more string and tied the two baskets together, one on top of the other. Then he made four wheels and tied them on. He also fashioned a sort of harness so that they could leave the next evening.

George and Mr. Wacko loaded the ‘wagon’ with the food, beds and the ‘Home Sweet Home’ sign. Then they harnessed up Sammy and the kitten declared he was ready.

Finally, they climbed onto his back and they were off. It was a long, rather pleasant and uneventful journey back to their old home at the base of the oak tree, but they didn’t run out of food. It took a whole week, but it was worth it, as they had learned their lesson: there’s just no place like home!

Be Honest and Real

2010-11-04T08:00:00.004-04:00

There are many 'rules' about writing floating around in the stratosphere, and one that I've personally never liked too much is:

Write what you know.

Well, I write about fantasy worlds with talking animals, Civil War battlefields, and the 19th century. Um, I have never experienced any of this so how can I be writing what I know?

So, I chucked the ole 'write what you know' garbage out the window and have replaced it with a 'rule' that EVERY writer should follow, to the best of your ability:

Be Honest and Real.

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Be honest when you write. It's surprisingly difficult, but necessary to write a deep and true story. Not true in the sense that you're writing a memoir, but true in the sense that the characters do things in alignment with their nature. Be honest.

You can become a more honest writer by studying people and why they do what they do. In essence, writers use psychology to figure out human motivation. You can also inject a lot of honesty in your characters by creating their biographies, which I'll talk more about in the next week. The deeper you know your character and WHY SHE DOES WHAT SHE DOES, the more honest your story will become.

Being honest is all about exploring character motivation, which is one of the most important foundations for storytelling.

For example, Harry Potter's parents were murdered when he was a baby and he's been raised with cold and nasty relatives, so his primary character motivation is to find a loving home where he belongs.

The more honest you are about your own feelings towards the people and events in your life, the more honestly you can write and create deep, complex characters that are meaningful and grow and change throughout your story.

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Be real. Make your story-world real, with real details. If you're writing fantasy or sci-fi, then concentrate on world-building and nail down as many details as you can. Writing historical fiction is like engaging in a gigantic research project into the past. But the more details - weather, clothing, how fabrics felt, the smell of gas lighting, what carriage wheels sound like on cobblestones - the more real I can make my world.

Being real also has to do with projecting your own experiences into scenes. Not every scene you write will be exactly true to life, but you can create the illusion of realism. For example, in my story "Daniel's Garden," I had a lively abolitionist rally scene. Well, I've never been to an abolitionist rally, but I've been to a hard-rock concert! That would be kind of like the same thing - a bunch of people jostling and bumping into each other, the place pulsing with excitement. So, when I wrote the rally scene, I imagined Daniel being at a rock concert. It worked surprisingly well and gave the scene the energy it needed!

Project that same realism into your own stories - put your broken heart into the emotional love scenes, put your feelings of joy at an amusement park into a character wins the day, put your experience of leaving home and moving to college in a character who enters a new world. Use similar emotions to fuse the real of your own life into the fictional world of your story.

Be real!

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Today's Class is About:

Not just writing what we know about, but being honest and real in our stories.

What You Can Do:

*In your writer's notebook, start thinking of creative ways you can turn the real people and real events in your own life into fiction.
*When you write, keep asking yourself: "Is this character being true to himself? Would he honestly do that, given who he is?"

A Writer's Enemies

2010-11-03T08:00:00.000-04:00

We fight against enemies - yes we do! There are many! Let's see what dragons lurk around here and try the best to avoid them, shall we?

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Bad Procrastination - Not to be confused with good procrastination! Good procrastinating is writing when there are dirty dishes in the sink. Bad procrastinating is doing the dishes before writing! Your writing is your priority, not whatever else seems to be. Actually, it's quite fun to practice good procrastinating, for then you know that whatever else you thought you had to do is just not as important as getting that character dialogue out of your head. Avoid bad procrastination - you can try out that new recipe/read that blog/check your email/clean your office later!

Boredom - Specifically, your own boredom. If you don't want to keep turning the pages of your story, then a reader surely won't either. Your poor story will die a slow death and eventually become just a cold Word document sitting on your computer desktop, if you don't find ways to keep the fire alive. Writing is hard not because creating paragraphs and scenes are hard, but because it's hard to keep the passion going day after day after day, for months on end. Prevent too much time from elapsing between working on your story, and use your notebook and other tools for inspiration. A consistent writing schedule also helps. Fight boredom!

Staleness - If boredom kills your story from the inside, then staleness kills it on the outside. When your book is sitting quietly on the 'New Fiction' table at Borders, SOMETHING has to grab the reader enough so she will pause and pick it up. The cover may do it, but the ball is also in your court. Create excitement and enthusiasm for your story right from the get-go. Write a timeless story that will appeal to people no matter what the decade or century. Go deep and write about real characters with real emotions. Put hooks at the end of each chapter, so the reader keeps turning those pages. Jazz up your opening chapter as much as possible. The worst thing that can happen to a book is readers simply don't pay attention to it. Keep staleness at bay.

Distance - Not paying close enough attention to your story creates moments of distance between you and the reader. It's probably happened to you before ... you're reading along in a novel, and all of a sudden something jars you enough to take you out. It may be a historical fact that's wrong, a hero does something out of character, a plot twist is just too convienent, or bad grammar and spelling problems. Whatever it is, do everything possible to create a great story that encourages the reader to settle in and stay immersed. Double-check your historical facts, make sure your character motivation translates into plausible action, don't throw in weird coincidences, clean up technical problems, and get plenty of feedback before submitting manuscripts. Fix it, so that distance doesn't deprive you of a great book.

Well-meaning People - If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, then so is the road to not finishing a novel. Some of the most charming and loving people - your husband or wife, your kids, your parents, your good friends, even writing group peers - become serious writer enemies at the drop of a hat. And it's because of their questions. "So, when am I going to read it?" "Honey, why can't we go out tonight?" "Hey, Meg, what's going on with the book these days?" Ugh. It's enough to make you wish good intentions never existed. The best thing to do is develop answers to these questions, deflect their attention away from your writing, and don't bring up your writing in conversation. People are amazing, people are nice ... and people can be a pain!

Talking Away Your Story - This is one of the most insidious enemies. It is possible to talk about your story too much - so much, in fact, that you think you're writing when you're actually just discussing. Don't discuss your story, don't talk about future plans with your story (you'll probably just change them anyway), keep your lips zipped around other people (who may cut your story off at its knees), and for heaven's sake don't show your rough draft to anybody. Keep your story hidden and secretive while working. It keeps the fire alive ... and you'll also not have to explain to anybody if you suddenly decide to change the setting from the Congo to Thailand.

Household Distractions - The latest episode of 'Dancing with the Stars', taking the dog out, getting dinner on the table, laundry, dirty dishes. Most of your draft writing will be done at home, so you must learn to separate it from your work. Yes, it truly doesn't matter that there are dirty dishes in the sink while you've got a perfect scene idea between two characters in your head. The book comes first! You may never become famous for the best housekeeper, but novels live a lot longer than dirty laundry, don't they? So, throw the load of laundry in to wash and then get to work.

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Today's Class is About:

Identifying and deflecting writer enemies.

What You Can Do:
*Read over this enemy list and find ways to keep these enemies from harming your work.

Your Notebook and Pen

2010-11-02T08:00:00.004-04:00

A writer's notebook is one of the most important things you'll ever have while creating your story. It's like your personal treasure chest, capturing and holding all of the wispy thoughts, definite bits of dialogue, musings, wonderings, moodlings, and impressions you feel and experience throughout your days.

I like simple cheap notebooks, because then I never feel too bad about marking them up with scribblings, writing in the margins, and throwing them in a bag or purse. Those marbled Composition books work well, as do unlined blank sketchbooks. Choose a format that is a nice size to carry, like 5" x 8.5", and has a great texture for the paper and a rather sturdy cover.

Even if you are a techy-type writer and compose both rough and final drafts by computer (I do!), I encourage you to keep a notebook. There is nothing like freeing your mind from the QWERTY world and hearing the scritch of a pen as it skitters across the page. Notebooks balance on laps easily, notebooks look nice sitting on airplane tray tables, notebooks jam inside purses for doctor's offices and coffee shop visits. Notebooks make a writer LOOK like a writer. Head bent, pen curving and looping, focused and intent.

The great thing about a writer's notebook is its informality. Let your thoughts run wild - write sideways, diagonally or upside down. Write bits of poetry that remind you of that rainy walk in Central Park, make sketches of the terrifying monster your hero will fight, put in song lyrics that will play in your heroine's head as she thinks of him ... In my notebook, I also keep a list of inspirational quotes, websites, and YouTube videos that remind me of the mood of my story.

The notebook becomes your personal inspiration to yourself, by serving as a visual and textual keepsake. During the long slogging-through-the-murky-draft phase, you'll appreciate having a notebook to reignite the embers.

Writers gather the world around us, like a bird gathering bits of string and twig for a nest. We create an environment, where characters eat dinner and make phone calls and cry into their hands and make plans and take naps and decide on what to wear and read the mail and drive. The notebook is a place for capturing your story's particular flavor.

Oh, and you'll need a pen, too! I'd suggest taking your time trying to find one, for I am one of the writers convinced that pens are extremely important. The right flow of ink, the right size and shape of the barrel, the right sound of scritching on the paper. I wrote in black ink for a long time, then switched to blue when I realized I liked seeing the colorful loops of my handwriting.

Write in purple or pink, maybe try one of those silly teen glitter pens for a day - and what about a mechanical pencil? Some writers still swear by a box of newly sharpened yellow #2s - the smell of shavings and the grind of a hand-crank pencil sharpener brings me right back to elementary school. If you're a children's writer, pencils just may do the trick to capture the gleeful and fun world of a child.

Have you ever tried a quill or fountain pen? There is something about the long sculptural nib and the thick black ink, like you're creating glossy streams of text. A bit too formal for rough drafts, but perfect for a love letter between chracters if you're writing a Regency romance or historical fiction tale.

I write in extra-fine, for the pen nib gives me a bit of extra work and the scritchy sound is delightful. The skinny line of blue ink is a pleasure to see, as well.

Seek out your notebook and pen like you're looking for a gift for someone special. In essence, you are - you're gifting yourself with the tools of a writer. These tools will shape, guide, inspire, and inject your story with wonderful details, separating it from other stories and really giving your reader a sense of living in your story.

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Today's Class is About:

Using a writer's notebook and pen to capture the world around us, providing a source of inspiration and creating a treasure chest for our works.

What You Can Do:
*Buy a notebook.
*Get a pen or pencil.

Wish Fulfillment

2010-11-01T08:00:00.005-04:00

Welcome to my Creative Writing class! This first week we'll talk about the basics of storytelling. Writing is not just setting words to paper (or Word document), but a daily commitment to yourself to get the inner story inside you out into finished form. They ain't lying when they say it's hard - it is!

But it's also amazing, since it inspires you to truly reach deep inside yourself and present us with a great tale. How fun that you get to join me as we spend the next 30 days talking about the joys and travails of trying to get all the gunk out of our heads and into completed form. It's a struggle ... but you know what? The struggle IS the story. Stories would not be so magical if they did not contain deep struggle.

Before we put pen to paper, before we start a new Microsoft Word document, before we brainstorm, before we pick a main character's first name, before we do any of that ... we'll spend time thinking about how our story will relate to the larger picture of storytelling and what makes stories so meaningful to readers.

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WISH FULFILLMENT

I feel the spiritual function of stories and story-telling is: wish fulfillment. Stories appeal to us and will always be a part of human culture because they represent deep and meaningful wish fulfillment.

What is wish fulfillment?

Wish fulfillment comes from every person's deep desire to be happy and live up our greatest potential. Boys get to be heroes, girls get to be princesses, love triumphs, the good are rewarded, the evil are punished, travelers return home at last, wealthy and prosperity reign, all amends are made, and conflicts are resolved.

Stories are the written and visual worlds where readers escape to see their own greatest wishes come true. Wish fulfillment gives stories their magic!

Wishes are emotional and spiritual desires that are met through storytelling. The main character becomes each of us on the road towards obtaining these deep wishes.

To come up with a good story idea, we need to name OUR greatest and deepest wishes. The more universal and appealing the wish is, the more a reader will be engrossed with our story, murmuring to themselves:

"I want to be like her!" "I want to be him!"

Whenever I watch 'Titanic', I want to BE Rose. I don't just want to watch her story; I want to be her and live it out for myself. This is the greatest connection between writer and reader - the ability to make your reader WANT to live in your story.

Little boys want to be Harry Potter, Luke Skywalker, Superman or Spiderman - heroes who have magical powers and fight the bad guy to save the day.

Little girls want to be Cinderella, Snow White and Jane Austen heroines - princesses-in-the-making who get princes, castles/homes, happy families and true love.

These stories tap into deep wish fulfillment, and are thus popular with millions the world over.

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YOUR DEEPEST WISH:

What is your deepest wish? When you picture your ideal life, what are its treasures? What rewards have you received? If a genie appeared and said he would grant you one wish, what would it be?

Children have no problem answering this question! It may seem a childlike question ... but it's important because YOUR wish will be transformed into your story so that your character obtains this wish.

Our readers will connect with our stories because they, too, have secret deep wishes. An unhappy wife may want a better marriage, but what she's really WISHING for is true love. A man stuck in a nowhere job may want a better position, but what he's really WISHING for is to be a hero and accomplish work he's proud of.

Your deep wish will come through your story via the main character. We'll talk more about characters next week, but for right now think about how main characters fulfill wishes and receive rewards at the end of their stories.

We'll continue with the basics of creative writing throughout this week!

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Today's Class is About:
Wish fulfillment and how it relates to storytelling. Boys get to be heroes, girls get to be princesses, love triumphs, the good are rewarded, the evil are punished, travelers return home at last, all amends are made, and conflicts are resolved.

What You Can Do:
*Find your deepest wish.
*Think about how that deep wish relates to storytelling, and how a main character could be wishing for the same thing (and receive it!).

All Hallow's Eve!

2010-10-31T08:00:00.002-04:00

The Wheel of the Year brings
The darkness close by.
For the chill in the Air,
Means the world will die.

Away flees the Sunlight
And all that is Warm,
But I embrace the deep Night
And Join those who Mourn.

For Death is our Neighbor
Without us ever Knowing
When He'll come to call,
With his Reaping and his Sowing.

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Happy Halloween, everyone!

Tomorrow, we'll start a free Creative Writing class, so I can't wait to have you join me!

Creative Writing Class 101

2010-10-30T08:00:00.002-04:00

We've been talking so much about the 5-stage plan of selling eBooks, that I feel we need to balance all of our goals and planning with some deep, thoughtful, and imaginative creativity! The theme of this blog is all about BALANCE, so what better way to balance the writer and the seller with some creative writing?

Also, November is the month for NaNoWriMo! If you are not familiar with this annual internet event, then please head to their website and check it out!

So, in light of all that is fun and crazy about banging out a novel in 30 days, I'm launching a FREE and open Creative Writing Class on this blog all month! We will cover every aspect of creative writing, from brainstorming through ideas to editing and preparing manuscripts to turn into fictional eBooks (or have them ready to submit to a literary agent, if you want to go that route!). I'll also touch each genre, too - horror, fantasy, sci fi, etc. - so I'm pleased as punch to have anyone join! Just comment at the end of each post and start the conversation.

Once the class is 'finished,' I'll post all daily courses up at the top of this blog so that anyone who drops by can read them and follow along. How fun!

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So, here's the overview for our class for November 2010:

November 1 - 6: The Basics

November 7 - 13: Characters

November 14 - 20: Plot and Obstacles

November 21 - 27: Rough Drafts

November 28 - 30: Editing

Free Fiction Fridays will continue as planned!!

Free Fiction Friday! October 29

2010-10-29T08:00:00.004-04:00

As part of my Free Fiction Friday series, here's another piece I wrote in college and the first story I ever published. It's a Civil War tale.

September Sunlight
by Meg North

A reb musket ball struck Eugene Belden’s leg ten minutes after the fighting started. Falling endlessly, away from pain and life. The twisted hard form of a musket butt became his pillow as the gun’s owner slid in the grass. A macabre lullaby of screaming, shell shot and popping minie balls induced Eugene into a hazy lull.

He awoke facing another New York man. A comrade - nameless, homeless, dead upon a field. Eugene could not remember him, vaguely recalled he’d been a drunk, now dead without a drop of his favorite rum in sight. A half-hidden listing gaze stared at Eugene from a bloody face. Stared out at the sunlight-washed men and bodies and soil.

A blue sea of flattened New York corpses rolled and flowed with the wind upon the lit field. All from Newark Valley, Binghampton, Richford. Tiny rural towns clustered in a huddle between the Niagara River valley and the unquiet streets of New York City. A sickle of shot and shell had been thrust upon the men and papery corn stalks bent to their awesome weight. Three lone shoots wavered against a September breeze, skinny yellow against unerring blue. Trees whispered in the forest behind Eugene. Eugene waited for the breeze to pause and peered around the limp form of a redhead boy who had come to the New York regiment only six weeks earlier. Blood leaked into the Maryland soil.

The fighting had shifted south, away from the cornfields and buckled acres of the Miller farm. Artillery exploded grape shot half a mile away and the ground shook and voices shouted. Fingers of dead men trembled. Eugene waited on the wet earth, half-sitting, half-lying sideways. Final moans, cries for Mother and water, and all around him silenced. He was alone in his own small section of fallen men.

He held onto the dead redhead’s body with one arm and twisted his torso backwards. God, his leg looked bad. Below the knee his calf reclined limply, like a dead animal. He wasn’t bleeding badly, but he was hurt. He grunted and got to his knees and his stomach heaved. Nothing to eat or drink for hours. His mouth felt lined with cotton.

He tried to stand. His wavering body crumpled and fell with a soft thud upon the redhead. Still warm… He shut his eyes away from the dead boy’s open-mouthed stare and crawled to an open patch of ground. A fitful bout of swearing issued from his cracked lips as he struggled to stand. His legs felt full of cannonballs, and he’d never been so heavy, so wearied.

Alone and standing, he bent his body against the breeze and rested a knee on his musket. Men screamed from a distant valley. Perhaps others would gain the ground, the good ground, Eugene thought. For his own general had been wrong, his commands fruitless. Back and forth swept the fighting across the length of the cornfield and ground was not gained. The division failed. Forgotten and dying, regiments were abandoned in the cornfield and a new slice of Maryland landscape was now war territory.

The redhead’s body at his feet slowly stiffened as noon approached. Eugene shifted his weight and the calf didn’t bother him greatly. He could not stay here. The pain was ebbing now. He feared the fighting would come back, him standing helpless as Rebs charged their weakened lines. He fought at Manassas twice and did not want to fight here twice.

Eugene checked his cartridge box. Not much ammunition, but enough to kill a few Rebs before his body fell again. He limped across the twisted mass of dead New York men and followed the sounds of faultless artillery shells. Man, not machine, deserved blame for this ugly September morning.

A wagonless path greeted him as he emerged from the slain cornfield. He took to the faint road. Using his musket as a crutch, his arms gripped the skinny barrel. In this apelike manner he continued through a small grove of sunlight-speckled trees bordering the left-hand side of the cornfield. He had not passed many yards before a screaming, chaotic mess of men and horses burst in from a nearby field and galloped towards him. Eugene grabbed his musket and ran to the side of the road. His torn coat snagged a bush and he sprawled to his knees.

“Private!”

Eugene peeked around the edge of the bush. One of the men on horseback pointed a saber at him.

“I will have you shot for desertion!”

Eugene struggled to his feet and came out into the road, saluting the officer. He showed his lame leg.

“Sir, I was wounded at the cornfield… Sir, I couldn’t stay. The Rebs might’ve come back.”

The man grunted, shouted orders to the adjutants on horseback for supplies and ambulances, then addressed Eugene again.

“So you survived the cornfield. God damn, Private.”

Eugene didn’t know what to say. The officer looked back the way he came.

“We’re going to win this one. You need to get to the church, you hear? And stay away from the lines! Hyah!”

He spurred his little brown mare and galloped as fast as he could back through the trees. Eugene was shaking, the buttons on his coat rattling together. A church? Where can I find a church? he thought. But the order was to get to the church, and he’d fought in the Army of the Potomac long enough to obey orders. He picked up his musket and limped down the road.

The path curved sideways and as Eugene made his way through the trees soldiers came crawling through the brush, choosing to die beneath Maryland oaks and not Maryland sun. Blue and butternut coats alike littered the edge of the road but Eugene walked in the middle, his eyes straight ahead.

“Do ye have any whiskey?” came a voice.

A soldier’s voice, calling to him. Eugene’s hand automatically went to the little silver flask tucked within his wool coat. He bent near the grizzled face by the side of the road, startled by the childlike hands reaching for the drink.

“Aye ‘tis good, very good.”

The man was from an Irish regiment; Eugene could see the shamrock embroidered on his kepi. He tucked the flask away.

“Do you know where the church is? I’m ordered to go there.”

“Church, boyo?” The Irishman gave a lilting laugh, not unlike breezes skipping across spring hills. “An’ what will ye say to the blessed Lord on such a day as this?”

Eugene brushed him off with a scowl and stood up. “I have the order to go to the church and…”

“All who visit that place today aren’t goin’ home, that’s for sure. ‘Tis where all the fightin’s been past two hours or so.”

Eugene’s heart fell. Why had the officer sent him to a doomed place of battle? Had he not known that the fighting had shifted fields again? The Irish private reached for Eugene’s arm.

“Will ye help me up? I were hit in me shoulder…”

Eugene lifted the soldier, letting his wide and wounded shoulders rest upon his own. The two men stood silently for a moment. The valley, so loud and chaotic earlier, now had quieted to match the cornfield. Artillery still fired shells, but the booming was now far in the distance.

“Seems we lost the road,” the Irishman said. “That’s where I were fightin’. That damned bloody road.” He winced. “’Tis a damn shame, a real damn shame.”

The men started along the path again. They moved quickly beneath the trees. Eugene’s limp had lessened, but his arm was soaked with his companion’s blood. The Irishman’s strength was fading, his shoulder bleeding too profusely for it to be less than a mortal wound. He gripped Eugene’s body. Eugene felt the man’s weight slipping, and they collapsed in the road together.

“We’re almost near a field,” Eugene gasped. “Can you make it to the field?”

“That’s the place I were shot, boyo.”

“I can get you an ambulance, or a stretcher…”

The Irishman let his head fall back in the dust. “’Tis no use for that. I wouldn’t want any a doctor lookin’ at me.”

Eugene gripped the man’s jacket collar. “I’ve been ordered to go to the church, and we must go. We must get there.”

“Oh believe me, I’ll get to yer church,” said the Irishman. “I’ll stand there in the presence of the Lord an’ ye know what I’ll say to Him?”

Eugene buried his face in the man’s coat.

“I’ll thank Him for the sunlight…”

SEO for The Writer

2010-10-28T08:00:00.003-04:00

What is SEO and why is it useful for a writer?

SEO stands for "search engine optimization" and I think of it as the keywords that others are searching for so they can land on my stuff! As online digital writers, we want to fill everything we write (blog posts, web pages, comments, online articles, eBooks, eBook descriptions, stories, etc.) with nice rich keyword-heavy content that relates to our personal brand.

We talked a lot about personal branding in the IDEA and CONTENT stages of our 5-stage plan, right? We've built up our personal brand based on what we write, from developing our logo to our eBook design.

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Now, it's time to shift gears from developing our visual brand to filling our textual brand - the stuff we write - with keywords.

Keywords are the cars and trucks of the internet, driving traffic to our website and our blog and our eBooks. The more relevant keywords we have in our text, the more readers we'll attract from all over the internet.

You've probably used thousands of keywords yourself, when searching Google, Yahoo, or another search engine. The most popular content comes from having popular keywords that many people search for.

For example, let's say we write a light romantic story. As part of the eBook description on our website, we could include a phrase like "romantic beach read" and also include those keywords in every eBook description on the platforms where we sell the stories.

When generating keywords for our eBooks and stories, we need to think of three main attributes: Reader Attributes, Genre Keywords, and Key Brand Values.

Reader Attributes are the words that describe our target reader. If you answered the questions about your target reader in the MARKETING post, then pull them out and start thinking about your target reader. What do they read? Who are they like?

Genre Keywords are the words that describe our particular genre, like romantic beach read, dramatic love story, horror story, tech articles, and others. Don't think only of the one genre you write in, but brainstorm where your eBook and story would be in a bookstore. If your target reader searched for your genre, what words would they use?

Key Brand Values are the words that describe what you, as the author, bring to the table. It's kind of like a mini-resume, where you describe your story with credentials. Keywords like great story, bestseller, popular story, and others help bring value and trust to your brand.

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Sample Reader Attributes Keywords

independent
creative
book reader
bibliophile
literary lover
book lover
clever
silly
sweet
romantic

Sample Genre Keywords

historical fiction
horror
romance
true love
happily ever after
modern romance
period romance
scary
coming of age
literary fiction
adventure
action-adventure
teen romance
teen drama
historical romance

Sample Key Brand Values

great story
well written
satisfying read
bestseller
popular author

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So, now that you've met SEO and learned about keywords, it's time to apply them to your own stuff!

Take out a sheet of paper, divide it into three columns, and label the first Reader Attributes, the second Genre Keywords, and the third Key Brand Values. List your own keyword phrases for your target reader. Take as much time as you need, and keep adding to these lists when you think of more keywords.

Once you've generated keywords, then add them to your content. Here are some ideas:

*Construct blog posts with keywords in the post title and keywords in the content.
*Write eBook descriptions using keywords.
*Add keywords to each of your web pages.
*Put keywords in your author bio.
*Put keywords in eBooks - introduction, chapter content, etc.
*Write online articles using keywords.
*Twitter using keywords.
*Use keywords on Facebook.
*Use keywords when commenting on other blog posts.
*Fiction writers use keywords when pitching, describing, and talking about stories.

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Keywords help drive traffic to your stuff, which makes more viewers, which makes more buyers, which makes more readers! SEO and keywords become part of our digital writer bag of tricks when we embrace them and use them wholeheartedly in our content.

A Writer's Home Office

2010-10-27T08:00:00.005-04:00

Now that we've explored each of the 5 Stages (IDEA - CONTENT - PRODUCT - PLATFORM- MARKETING) and written out our business plan involving not just these stages, but the finances involved as well, it's time to set up the business in our personal home office space.

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THE SPACE:

Virginia Woolf pointed out that all a woman needed for creativity was a steady annual income and a room of her own. Might I add a solitary room of our own! We need a space to call our own, with a desk, a place for organized paperwork, some basic office supplies, a small bulletin board for inspiration and pertinent info, a bookshelf or bookcase for reading material, and a place for our computer.

Since I'm personally quite a casual writer, I like to write in bed or on the couch. My paperwork is kept in a few folders on my husband's desk in his office, and most of my information is stored electronically on my computer. I have a day planner and a small box for receipts.

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THE COMPUTER:

I find the greatest need for organization for a writer (especially an eBook writer) is on the computer. We need a digital calendar to keep track of our daily tasks, internet bookmarks for pertinent sites (including this one!), various Microsoft Word and Excel (or Open Office) documents, and plenty of folders to store creative texts, cover artwork pictures, eBook ideas, finished eBooks, and spreadsheets.

Put a folder on your computer desktop and label it "eBooks." Then put all of your files that you'll need inside this one folder. Keep your most current project on the desktop, along with its notes.

You can keep track of your tasks using Windows Calendar or Google Calendar. Set it up so that it reminds you daily of what you're doing!

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THE DESK:

What's the best place for you to write? If you already have a desk, then take an extra hour or two to organize it best for your eBook writing, with pictures for inspiration, a nice clean desktop, and files nearby at the ready.

I actually write in bed! So, everything you read on this blog (and in my eBooks ... and novels, too!) comes from the comfy cozy right-hand side of our queen sized bed. There's a window behind me that lets in light, my laptop balances on my knees, and I often have a small tray with a cup of coffee or tea. Books, files, folders, and dayplanners often burrow under the covers and my pug sleeps at my feet. She snores quietly while I work. It's heaven!

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THE PAPERWORK:

Well, every writer must have their files organized, but I tend to not be quite so into filing with file folders and such. I usually purchase colored pocket folders, label them, and keep them all stored in a box. It makes it easier to see which files belong in which folder - green for finances, red for ideas and brainstorming, yellow for marketing, and blue for people like graphic designers and web marketers.

However you choose to organize your files and papers, please try to at least have some sort of system that works for you. A writer's life can get cluttered very easily!

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THE HOMEY TOUCHES:

Whoever came up with the idea of using gray gray gray all around us at work must not have been a creative person themselves! I can't imagine working in such an environment, when elementary school classrooms and our own bedrooms are so much livelier! Be sure to hang inspirational pictures, have a funky lamp that you love, maybe a scented candle or potpourri to add scent to your workspace. Treat it like a place where you'd love to be, and it will help generate ideas and motivation.

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A writer's home office needn't be grand or expensive. Jane Austen did just fine with a little slanted writing box and a tea table; Emily Dickinson had a teeny 16" square side table. It's the output dearie, that matters - your raw, fresh, rough draft content that makes you a writer.

So, set up your little space and do be sure to close the door, turn on your favorite music and slip into the trance of writing. It's those moments we live for. And it's those moments we must welcome.

The Master Step-by-Step Plan

2010-10-26T08:00:00.001-04:00

I. IDEA
A. Week 1: Visit a bookstore and check on Amazon Kindle and New York Times Bestseller Lists to see what's popular.
B. Week 2: Fill out eBook idea worksheet, pick an eBook topic to write about, and brainstorm ideas for personal author brand.

II. CONTENT
A. Week 3: Copy Book Structure module, create Productivity Schedule, and set up Rough Draft writing files.
B. Weeks 4-10: Write Rough Draft. Write quickly, and do not take any more time than necessary.
C. Week 11: Organize Rough Draft into chapters.
D. Week 12: Hire professional editor or start editing process yourself.
E. Weeks 13-14: Edit content, either yourself or professionally.
F. Week 15: Receive edited draft back, polish content.
G. Week 16: Print three review copies and review questions, find three reviewers.
H. Weeks 17-18: Give reviewed copies to reviewers, wait while they review, receive reviews back.

III. PRODUCT
A. Week 19: Download Kindle App for PC, read eBooks and take notes on what makes them good products.
B. Week 20: Brainstorm logo ideas, set up eBook costs spreadsheet, and find a photographer for headshots.
C. Week 21: Have author headshots taken, research graphic designers, and review their portfolios, pick graphic designer.
D. Week 22: Meet with graphic designer to sign contract and plan logo, receive headshots back from photographer.
E. Week 23: Graphic designer designs logo.
F. Week 24: Meet with graphic designer to discuss logo, approve or tweak, give author headshots to graphic designer to tweak (optional).
G. Week 25: Research printing places for marketing materials, receive finalized logo, talk to graphic designer about designing cover.
H. Week 26: Research and find cover designer (optional), upload logo and design business cards, finalize and pay for business cards.
I. Week 27: Graphic designer designs cover, upload logo and design letterhead, thank-you notes and address labels, finalize and pay.
J. Week 28: Receive finished cover, tweak or approve, give text to graphic designer to format (if using PDF) using text, fonts, and logo.
K. Weeks 29-30: Receive busines cards, letterhead, thank-you notes, and address labels from the printer.
L. Week 31: Receive finalized copy of eBook from graphic designer.\

IV. PLATFORM
A. Week 32: Research 5 potential platforms and answer questions about each, bookmark them.
B. Week 33: Create and fill out platform spreadsheet, decide to hire web designer or not.
C. Week 33: Purchase domain name, set up account at free blogging site, create accounts at platform sites.
D. Week 34: Purchase web hosting, translate eBook into different formats, add first entry to blog.
E. Week 35: Set up website with web pages, logo, photo, and other info, set up blog posting schedule.
F. Week 36: Upload eBook into first platform, set price for each eBook, write weekly blog entries.
G. Week 37: Upload eBook into second platform, set up Paypal or e-Junkie account, write weekly blog entries - continue writing blog entries each week.
H. Week 38: Upload eBook into third platform. Purchase eBooks from each platform, including own site.
I. Week 39: Upload eBook into fourth platform. Add purchasing info to personal website.
J. Week 40: Upload eBook into fifth platform. Create accounts for POD and audiobooks, if applicable.
K. Week 41: Upload eBook into sixth platform. Upload eBook into POD website.
L. Week 42: Upload eBook into seventh platform. Find website or place to record eBook. Purchase POD copy to review.
M. Week 43: Upload eBook into eighth platform. Record eBook for audiobook.
N. Week 44: Upload eBook into ninth platform. Review POD copy and purchase 20.
O. Week 45: Upload eBook into tenth platform. Put recorded eBook on website. Put POD information on website.

V. MARKETING
A. Week 46: Create specific marketing plan for each eBook, find eBook genre or genres, and post info about it on website, write 3-4 blog posts, comment on 4-6 sites.
B. Week 47: Fill in Target Market Info Sheet for each eBook, post eBook on at least one free site, write 3-4 blog posts, comment on 4-6 sites.
C. Week 48: Find 2-3 places to submit 'physical pieces' and write down submission guidelines, start posting regularly on Twitter and Facebook, write 3-4 blog posts, comment on 4-6 sites.
D. Week 49: Write and edit one submission, post on Twitter and Facebook, write 3-4 blog posts, comment on 4-6 sites.
E. Week 50: Submit 'physical piece' to online short story publisher or contest, find 1-2 online groups and join, post on Twitter and Facebook, write 3-4 blog posts, comment on 4-6 sites.
F. Week 51: Get business incorporated as sole proprietorship, set up Facebook business account, participate in online group, post on Twitter and Facebook, write 3-4 blog posts, comment on 4-6 sites.
G. Week 52: Post book review on own site or Amazon, add eBooks to Facebook business account, participate in online group, post on Twitter and Facebook, write 3-4 blog posts, comment on 4-6 sites.

-----------------------------------

Fifty-two weeks. If you started next week, on Monday, November 1, you'd have one eBook written, published on a platform, and marketed by November 1, 2011. That's awesome, isn't it?

FINANCES: Goals

2010-10-25T08:00:00.000-04:00

We've spent so much time talking about our five stages (idea - content - product - platform - marketing) that we have yet to mention money! That's definitely part of our overall master plan! We want to be able to make a comfortable living from our writing and selling, don't we?

Um, that's a loud YES!

In terms of finances we need to do three things:

1. Track expenses.
2. Track income.
3. Make a profit.

-------------------------------------

TRACK EXPENSES:

We are not just writers, but business owners and we need to think professionally about our finances. We need to keep track of our expenses. This goes for every expense we've incurred on all the five stages. We separate expenses into two categories:

1. Fixed
2. Variable

Fixed expenses are the unchangeable costs that go into creating, producing, and distributing eBooks. The fee that our platforms require and our web hosting are fixed expenses. They stay the same.

Variable expenses are the lion's share of our expenses and will be the changeable costs like graphic and web designer fees, cover costs, marketing costs, POD costs, and audiobook costs.

Designing an expense sheet is a lot like creating a household budget. We must accommodate every single possible cost associated with eBooks. Also, keep track of all business-related receipts.

---------------------------------------

TRACK INCOME:

Every sale we make must be tracked - both because it's fun to see how many books we sell, but also so we're heading in the right direction.

It's pretty easy to track income. Tally up the amount of sales at the end of each month, quarter, and year. Compare this year's sales to last year's and so forth.

----------------------------------------

MAKE A PROFIT:

We must make a profit; otherwise, we'd be losing money every month and not be able to sustain ourselves. Our eBook costs must be offset by both our eBook price and the volume of sales.

Profit is what is left over after expenses have been subtracted from income. Don't be surprised if you don't make a profit for months - even up to a year or two! Most small businesses and endeavors don't make a profit when they first start out. But, of course, it is the eventual goal.

----------------------------------------

FINANCES SPREADSHEET:

The easiest way to track expenses, income and profit is to create a spreadsheet. There are plenty of business finance spreadsheets to help you.

Set aside a specific time during the week to update your finances spreadsheet. It is just as important, if not more so, to see what direction you're heading. You can also see if you're spending too much in one category or too little in another.

---------------------------------------

FINANCE GOALS:

Goal: Create finances spreadsheet.
Timeframe: 20 minutes to create, 2-3 hours to fill in.

Week 1: Create finances spreadsheet.

MARKETING: Goals

2010-10-24T08:00:00.005-04:00

We've explored each stage of our 5-stage plan, creating the overall vision of this step-by-step process from idea to finished eBook:

IDEA - CONTENT - PRODUCT - PLATFORM - MARKETING

We've also established that our goals for each of these 5 stages require a specific outcome and a timeframe.

So, let's create our goals for this final step:

-------------------------------------

STAGE FIVE: MARKETING

Goal: Create specific marketing plan for each eBook by answering the following question: This eBook helps (this target audience) who want to (problem to solve) get (the solution I provide).
Timeframe: 1 hour for each eBook.

Goal: Hire online marketer/publicist to help promote eBooks (optional).
Timeframe: 1-2 hours to find online marketer, 2-4 hours for meeting, connect several times a week.

Goal: Find your eBook genre and put info about it on website.
Timeframe: 1 hour.

Goal: Fill in Target Market Info Sheet for each eBook.
Timeframe: 1 hour for each eBook.

Goal: Find free website like Scribd to post free eBook.
Timeframe: 1-2 hours to upload eBook in their format.

Goal: Stick to a blog posting schedule, writing 3 or 4 a week.
Timeframe: 2-4 hours each week to write, edit, and publish posts.

Goal: Comment on 4-6 relevant sites per week.
Timeframe: 1-3 hours per week.

Goal: Submit 2 'physical' pieces a month to online short story venues or contest.
Timeframe: 1 hour to find place to submit, 2-5 hours to write and edit piece, 20 minutes to submit.

Goal: Post at least one tweet on Twitter a day about what you're offering.
Timeframe: 10 minutes each day.

Goal: Post at least three times a week on Facebook about eBooks.
Timeframe: 15 minutes a week.

Goal: Set up business as sole proprietor with local city hall.
Timeframe: 1-2 hours.

Goal: Set up Facebook business account (optional).
Timeframe: 15 minutes to set up, 20-30 minutes to track and update each week.

Goal: Join 2-3 online groups - writers, readers, etc.
Timeframe: 1-2 hours to find groups, 10 minutes to join, 20 minutes to interact online each week.

Goal: Post 2-4 book reviews on your own site or Amazon.
Timeframe: 2-3 hours per month.

----------------------------------------

OPTIONAL MARKETING GOALS:

These goals will fluctuate and change with your own situation, but I thought I'd include them here so they can help you as you grow and expand your writing business.

Goal: Hold an interview of a fellow eBook writer.
Timeframe: 1-2 hours to find writer, 2-3 hours to send out interview and receive questions back, 20 minutes to upload to site.

Goal: Set up email subscribing on your website and send out a monthly email (optional).
Timeframe: 20 minutes to set up, 1 hour a month to write email, 20 minutes to email to everyone on the list.

Goal: Set up a donations button instead of offering eBooks for purchases (optional).
Timeframe: 20 minutes.

Goal: Hold an annual online fundraiser instead of selling (optional).
Timeframe: 1 hour to create and set up, fundraiser lasts 1 week.

Goal: Donate percentage of sales to charity (optional).
Timeframe: 20 minutes to choose charity, 30 minutes to add message to website, send donations to charity once a month/quarter/year.

Goal: Teach online class (optional).
Timeframe: 2-3 hours to write syllabus and create class, 1-2 hours to set up class, can be four weeks, six weeks, etc., take payment

Goal: Participate in a webinar or conference (optional).
Timeframe: 1 hour to find webinar or conference, then join and participate.

Goal: Create personal video and post it on website.
Timeframe: 20 minutes to think of video topic, 1 hour to write short script, 1-2 hours to record video, 20 minutes to upload.

----------------------------------------

GOALS SUMMARY:

Week 1: Create specific marketing plan for each eBook, find eBook genre or genres, and post info about it on website, write 3-4 blog posts, comment on 4-6 sites.

Week 2: Fill in Target Market Info Sheet for each eBook, post eBook on at least one free site, write 3-4 blog posts, comment on 4-6 sites.

Week 3: Find 2-3 places to submit 'physical pieces' and write down submission guidelines, start posting regularly on Twitter and Facebook, write 3-4 blog posts, comment on 4-6 sites.

Week 4: Write and edit one submission, post on Twitter and Facebook, write 3-4 blog posts, comment on 4-6 sites.

Week 5: Submit 'physical piece' to online short story publisher or contest, find 1-2 online groups and join, post on Twitter and Facebook, write 3-4 blog posts, comment on 4-6 sites.

Week 6: Get business incorporated as sole proprietorship, set up Facebook business account, participate in online group, post on Twitter and Facebook, write 3-4 blog posts, comment on 4-6 sites.

Week 7: Post book review on own site or Amazon, add eBooks to Facebook business account, participate in online group, post on Twitter and Facebook, write 3-4 blog posts, comment on 4-6 sites.

----------------------------------------

Our goals for the final stage five: MARKETING are ongoing, as you can see! Sometimes it feels there aren't enough hours in the week to accomplish what we need, but thankfully we can pick and choose between tasks. We can try marketing ourselves, then hire a publicist later to help with the details and scheduling. It looks like we'll need all the help we can get!

Oh, and don't forget these five stages are cyclical! So, as soon as we've completed and started marketing one eBook, we must return to the idea stage to select our next eBook topic to write, edit, turn into a product, and market. It keeps continuing on and on for as long as we desire to be eBook writers.

For me, this is my life journey. This is the path I'm walking, so I embrace it whole-heartedly. I identify with the great writers of the past and present - Jane Austen, the Brontes, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Lewis Carroll, Ernest Hemingway, Stephen King, J. K. Rowling, etc. - and follow in their footsteps the best way I can in this modern Digital Age.

There is no one secret, as we have seen while exploring these five stages and their goals. There is only movement forward. Our plan, in its simplest form, is just to keep going. Move from one step to the next through the five stages, then repeat the cycle until we have a website stocked with eBooks, eBooks cluttering up the platforms we choose, and healthy financial amounts arriving in our checking accounts each month.

Speaking of finances, let's take a look at our financial overview and goals tomorrow!

Then, we can draft an entire master plan with all of the goal steps, enter it into our personal calendars ... and BEGIN!

------------------------------------

TARGET MARKET INFO SHEET:

I write:
My target reader is:
He/she loves:
Sites they visit:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Blogs they read/write:
1.
2.
3.
How can I market to these sites/blogs?
1. Post comments
2. Interact with readers
3. Visual ads

PLATFORM: Goals

2010-10-23T08:00:00.007-04:00

We've explored each stage of our 5-stage plan, creating the overall vision of this step-by-step process from idea to finished eBook:

IDEA - CONTENT - PRODUCT - PLATFORM - MARKETING

We've also established that our goals for each of these 5 stages require a specific outcome and a timeframe.

So, let's create our goals for this step:

-------------------------------------

STAGE FOUR: PLATFORM

Goal: Research each potential platform for information and bookmark them.
Timeframe: 1 hour to browse each site, 30 minutes to answer questions about each site.

Goal: Create a platform chart as a spreadsheet. Include the name of the platform, website address, information, username and password, fees, costs, eBook formats, etc.
Timeframe: 1-2 hours to create, 30 minutes to update each week.

Goal: Decide whether you want to set up a website yourself or hire web designer.
Timeframe: 20 minutes.

Goal: Hire website designer (if applicable).
Timeframe: 1-3 hours to browse online portfolios, 1-2 weeks to set up meeting and payment info, 2-3 weeks to design site.

Goal: Purchase your own name as a domain name.
Timeframe: 1 hour to purchase, 2-3 days to implement.

Goal: Find and purchase 6 months of web hosting (or 1 year if better package is offered).
Timeframe: 20 minutes to find web host, 20 minutes to purchase, 2-3 days to implement.

Goal: Start a blog under domain name - create account at Blogger, Wordpress, or Typepad.
Timeframe: 10 minutes to create account, 1-3 hours to attach account to hosting.

Goal: Upload author photograph and logo to blog/website.
Timeframe: 10 minutes.

Goal: Create personal web pages - Home, About, eBooks, Free Stuff, Reviews/Testimonials
Timeframe: 3-5 hours to flesh out each page.

Goal: Set price for each eBook, if not already done so.
Timeframe: 20 minutes per book.

Goal: Provide a way to sell eBooks from site through PayPal, e-Junkie, etc.
Timeframe: 20 minutes to set up account, 2-3 days to implement.

Goal: Download Calibre and translate eBook into different formats.
Timeframe: 10 minutes to download, 1-2 hours to translate.

Goal: Find first platform and upload eBook to platform.
Timeframe: 20 minutes to choose platform, 2-4 hours to upload eBook and complete process, 2-3 days to implement.

Goal: Find second platform and upload eBook.
Timeframe: 20 minutes to choose platform, 2-4 to upload and complete process, 2-3 days to implement.

Goal: Find third platform and upload eBook. Repeat with as many platforms as possible.
Timeframe: 20 minutes to choose platform, 2-4 to upload and complete process, 2-3 days to implement.

Goal: Purchase copy from own site and document process.
Timeframe: 20 minutes.

Goal: Purchase eBook copy from each platform and document process.
Timeframe: 10 minutes to purchase from each.

Goal: Add purchasing instructions to website for each platform.
Timeframe: 1 hour.

------------------------------------------

OPTIONAL GOALS:

You can create different versions of the same eBook by branching out to POD and audiobooks. Incorporate these goals if you wish.

Goal: Submit eBook to POD online publisher (Lulu, CreateSpace, etc.)
Timeframe: 1 hour to set up account, 2-4 hours to upload eBook and finish process, 20 minutes to purchase copy, 2-3 weeks to wait for physical copy.

Goal: Promote POD copies on website.
Timeframe: 1-3 hours to create web page and upload information.

Goal: Purchase 20 copies of POD version to have on hand for sales.
Timeframe: 20 minutes to purchase, 2-3 weeks to ship.

Goal: Record eBook to sell as audiobook.
Timeframe: 1 hour to find recording place, 4-6 hours to do recording, 2-3 hours to transfer format and upload to website or platform to sell.

-----------------------------------------

GOALS SUMMARY:

Week 1: Research 5 potential platforms and answer questions about each, bookmark them.

Week 2: Create and fill out platform spreadsheet, decide to hire web designer or not.

Week 3: Purchase domain name, set up account at free blogging site, create accounts at platform sites.

Week 4: Purchase web hosting, translate eBook into different formats, add first entry to blog.

Week 5: Set up website with web pages, logo, photo, and other info, set up blog posting schedule.

Week 6: Upload eBook into first platform, set price for each eBook, write weekly blog entries.

Week 7: Upload eBook into second platform, set up Paypal or e-Junkie account, write weekly blog entries - continue writing blog entries each week.

Week 8: Upload eBook into third platform. Purchase eBooks from each platform, including own site.

Week 9: Upload eBook into fourth platform. Add purchasing info to personal website.

Week 10: Upload eBook into fifth platform. Create accounts for POD and audiobooks, if applicable.

Week 11: Upload eBook into sixth platform. Upload eBook into POD website.

Week 12: Upload eBook into seventh platform. Find website or place to record eBook. Purchase POD copy to review.

Week 13: Upload eBook into eighth platform. Record eBook for audiobook.

Week 14: Upload eBook into ninth platform. Review POD copy and purchase 20.

Week 15: Upload eBook into tenth platform. Put recorded eBook on website. Put POD information on website.

----------------------------------------

As you can see, the PLATFORM stage goals have several different variants: you can either set up a website yourself if you're technically savvy or hire a website designer, and you can offer your eBooks as POD or audiobooks. You are the author of the original content, so it's up to you to decide what you would like to do with what you've written.

It pays off to spread yourself nice and wide to attract as many fish into your reading net as possible. You'll get more sales and be able to reach your target audience that much easier.

Free Fiction Friday! October 22

2010-10-22T08:00:00.001-04:00

As part of my Free Fiction Friday series, here's another story. I wrote this in fifth grade and it was my first fairytale and still one of my favorites.

The Stolen Princess
by Meg North

Once upon a time there was a poor old woman who lived in a small hut. She had one daughter, Elsa, who did all the chores. One day, the old woman had to go to the nearby village and buy some food for them. She told Elsa to do the chores and use the last can of soup for supper. She said she would be back in a couple of days and left.

Then Elsa was alone. She hummed and sang with her beautiful voice, and all her wild animal friends crowded around her as she did her chores. It was still light out when she finished, so she decided to take an afternoon stroll. She packed her basket with the can of soup and bread and butter. Then she set out. She hadn’t gone far, when she discovered she was lost!

“Well,” Elsa said to herself, “this isn’t the worst that can happen. I’ll just retrace my steps.”

But it wasn’t that easy. Elsa did retrace her steps, but found herself back where she started!

“Oh no,” she moaned. “I’ve been going around in circles!”

She sat on a log, put her head in her hands and started to sob. She was feeling so sorry for herself that when she finally stopped crying, the sky had grown pitch black and the stars were out.

“Oh boy!” Elsa said, exasperated. “Now I have to sleep out here tonight. Well, I’d better start looking for a place to rest.”

So she finally found a tiny, unused path and started upon it, walking briskly. In almost no time at all, she spotted a faint yellow glow among the trees. She eagerly ran towards it and soon happened upon a pair of rusty iron gates that were glowing in the strangest way. She looked beyond the gates and saw they separated her from a sinister castle on top of a high rocky hill. Two human skulls at the bottom of the hill guarded a gloomy path.

Elsa shuddered. She had never seen a spookier place. But she bravely stepped forward, knowing it was better than nothing. Her heart sank when she realized the gates were locked with a rusty iron chain.

She was about to turn away when she had an idea. She had heard somewhere that when oils and fats were rubbed on locks and chains, they would break down the metal. So she dug around in her basket and finally pulled out the stick of butter she had packed.

“I hope this works,” she muttered, and began rubbing it all over the lock and chain. To her delight, the lock split and the gate swung open.

Elsa, her heart filled with joy and courage, stepped through the gates and up the rocky path. Right away she discovered this was no easy task. There were cracks and sharp stones that cut and scraped her sensitive feet. After a lot of pain and suffering, she finally reached the top.

After resting on a rotted wooden bench, she strolled over to the immense double oak doors and pounded on them with her fist. After a few minutes, a cruel face with burning red eyes and long black hair peered out.

“I’m the Red Sorcerer. Who are you, and why have you come here!” The face demanded in a screeching voice.

“I’m Elsa,” the poor girl stammered, “and I was wondering if I could spend the night here. Also, I forgot to bring a can opener for my soup. Could I borrow one?”

The face narrowed her eyes at Elsa, studying her very carefully.

“All right,” the sorcerer finally agreed. “But you have to stay here and do my chores for three days, or else be thrown to the vultures.”

Three days! That was too long to stay up here, but poor Elsa had no choice. She accepted it with a heavy heart, wishing she had found her way home instead. What she didn’t know was that the Red Sorcerer planned to get rid of her before those three days were up.

Elsa slaved away at the sorcerer’s chores. There were quite a few, so she was busy all day. Meanwhile, the sorcerer tried everything she could think of to get rid of her unwanted guest. But every time Elsa escaped unharmed. The third day, though, she wasn’t quite so lucky.

Not too far from the castle, a young prince was riding his horse though the woods. He spotted the castle and rode up the path. When he reached the summit, he was surprised to find a piece of cloth from Elsa’s dress. He peeked through one of the windows and was horrified to see that the Red Sorcerer had tied Elsa up and was dragging her towards a catapult!

Stunned, the prince watched as Elsa was placed in the bowl of the catapult. She would soon be thrown into a pot of something hot and bubbling if she wasn’t rescued. He knew he had to try and save her, so he gathered his strength and launched through the glass! Not wasting any time, he untied Elsa and grabbed her and the surprised Red Sorcerer. Then he leapt back through the window, and was seen astride his horse riding off into the woods at top speed, the sorcerer draped over the rump!

They galloped so fast through the forest they were through in half an hour. Along the way, they picked up Elsa’s mother who was traveling home from the village.

They soon arrived at the palace where the prince was visiting. He presented Elsa’s mother to the king, who recognized her at once. A long time ago, she had been a magician and had turned the Queen into a toad, stealing the infant princess. But here she was, and Elsa was the stolen princess!

She was then dressed in royal clothes, and given a place to live in the palace. Soon after, the Prince and Princess Elsa were married and lived happily ever after!

By the way, if you see the Red Sorcerer, BEWARE!!

PRODUCT: Goals

2010-10-21T08:00:00.005-04:00

CONTENT: Goals

2010-10-20T08:00:00.003-04:00

IDEA: Goals

2010-10-19T08:00:00.006-04:00

From Vision to Goals

2010-10-18T08:00:00.006-04:00

We're moving through a five-stage process that transforms us from writers to professional digital authors with multiple eBooks selling on multiple platforms and making us a tidy income.

We are different from traditional authors in that we wear many hats - creator, writer, editor, brand developer, small business owner, web master, blog author, book reviewer, marketer, publicist, and salesman. We work with professional editors, graphics designers, cover designers, web designers, web marketers, and others to deliver a product from ideas in our head to the reader.

Here is the five-stage path we're following:

IDEA - CONTENT - PRODUCT - PLATFORM - MARKETING

--------------------------------------

THE PLAN BECOMES REAL:

Now that you've met each of the five stages, we can start setting goals based on each of these stages. If you remember in our beginning post, we came up with a master overview breakdown:

1. Create a plan. In much the same way a potential business owner starts off with a business plan, we need to create a professional-digital-writer plan.

2. Break the plan into steps. What comes first? What goes next? Move from abstract to tangible.

3. Transform the plan-steps into goals. What are we striving for? What's the BIG VIEW at the top of the mountain we're dying to see?

4. Put those plan-steps and goals into our daily schedule. What can I do on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays that meet my Friday goals?

It may be hard to believe, but we've only been following steps 1 and 2! Now it's time to move to step 3 and transform our plan-steps into goals.

It may seem as if we've been creating goals this whole time, but that's not true. We've just been exploring each stage in our overall vision from idea to marketing. Goals are comprised of doable action steps we can take in the real world, day after day, week after week, until these five stages are completed.

As we read in the blog posts about each step, there are many smaller actions to take. We can transform those smaller actions into goals by establishing two things:

1. A Specific Outcome
2. A Timeframe

--------------------------------------

A SPECIFIC OUTCOME

What is our objective, with each step? What do we want to accomplish that is tangible and can be completed in the real world of schedules and dayplanners? How can we transform our planning into reality?

A TIMEFRAME

Every step we take towards our goals must be able to both fit in our scheduled amount of time, and be completed in a timely manner. We just can't vaguely think we'll get step 1 done at some point this month: we gain control by scheduling.

HINT: While I'm setting the timeframe to accomplish my goals, I love to use Egg Timer, a simple website where you just type in the amount of time you need and the timer starts. It's great to use!

Tomorrow we'll start going through the goals set up for each stage. It takes a lot more room than just one blog post!

--------------------------------------------

YEAH, THERE'S A LOT OF PLANNING!

It may seem like we'll NEVER get through planning before we start our eBooks and see those golden dollars flow into our bank accounts month after month.

But, as they say, those who fail to plan, plan to fail. Planning takes a lot of time, effort, and deep thinking because we want to set ourselves up for success. And, believe it or not, success comes from a successful plan, not from doing this by the seat of our pants. If we just set out with no direction, we may waste time, miss an important step, or get discouraged because we don't seem to be making any progress.

So, let's avoid that and keep planning until our goals are set up and in place in our dayplanners and calendars. That way, we can stick to this plan day after day, week after week, and make our own success.

I know we can do it!

Stage Five: Marketing

2010-10-17T08:00:00.010-04:00

We're veering from the traditional publishing plan (idea - manuscript - query - agent - editor - bookstore - reader) and following our own 5-stage digital author plan:

IDEA - CONTENT - PRODUCT - PLATFORM - MARKETING

-------------------------------------------

We've found a number of fantastic PLATFORMS for our work, including national brands like Amazon, Google, and iTunes, and also created our own blog/site for readers to get to know us better and purchase from us. Now it's time to find those readers - through MARKETING! Marketing is not a bad word nor a bad practice. It's simply finding your target audience, getting your target audience to trust you, and then having them purchase your eBooks. They want what you write! So, let's go find them and entice them to come visit ... and read!

--------------------------------------------

OUR MARKETING PLAN:

Traditional writers rely on their agents, editors, book publicists, and book marketers to put their books in catalogs, bookstores, and online for their target readers.

Digital eBook writers, on the other hand, have the distinct advantage of providing their stuff on internationally-known platforms, in different formats for different eReaders, and marketing it ourselves.

Yet, this can all get very confusing, very muddled, and very disorganized quickly. What we need is a marketing plan specific to each eBook.

We will evaluate what we've written in order to showcase it in its best light. We have to stand behind our products with enthusiasm and believe in them enough to have others read what we've written.

Take a sheet of paper and write down this sentence:

This eBook helps (this target audience) who want to (problem to solve) get (the solution I provide).

In a nutshell, this is the basis for our marketing plan for this eBook. You may want to hire an online marketer/publicist to help you promote your eBooks and tailor your marketing plan. Their expertise and input will help you make more sales.

-------------------------------------

THE TARGET READER:

Every eBook genre has target readers. Kids read kids' books, cooks read cookbooks, entrepreneurs read business books, and so on. There are romance, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and literary readers that read those genres. We need to reach our target reader through marketing to their target genre.

First, fit your eBook into a genre, if you've not already done so. Your eBook platform should have different genre categories, so that's where your eBook is displayed. On your own website, explain to readers right on your home page what your genre is and what you write. That way, if a horror reader lands on your site and you write fantasy, they know their genre probably won't be there.

Second, list online places where your target reader would be. Find the websites where they go, and the blogs they write and read. Find at least ten places where you know your target reader hangs out and list ways you can market to that site.

I write:
My target reader is:
He/she loves:
Sites they visit:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Blogs they read/write:
1.
2.
3.
How can I market to these sites/blogs?
1. Post comments
2. Interact with readers
3. Visual ads

Keep brainstorming ways to reach and appeal to your target reader. The more you know about them, the better you can tailor your eBook to what they're looking for, whether it's entertainment, escapism, or information.

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GIVING BEFORE SELLING:

We want our target reader to trust us, since trust is needed before they purchase. The internet, frankly, is full of scammers. Everybody wants everybody else's money, so internet shoppers are a bit wary.

When I walk into a store, I can pick up a product, hold it, touch it, sample it, try it on, and imagine myself using it. But the target reader only has a cover and a blurb to go by with our eBooks.

So ... it's best to give away as much of our stuff as possible. I've mentioned this several times throughout the stages, but it's an integral part of establishing your reputation as a writer.

Provide a section of your website or blog devoted to free stuff, give eBooks away, post them on Scribd and other sites, and be generous.

A lot of marketing is give-and-take. Share your time with others. Read others' stuff, too, and provide free reviews and testimonials for their sites. Offer to exchange links, exchange marketing, and promote each other. Finding fellow digital writers in the same boat may create new readers, too! The more people you can help by giving away your stuff and your time, the more it comes back to you ... and in big ways!

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OWN YOUR ONLINE PRESENCE:

The more visible you are in the online community, the more readers will remember your name and associate your books with that name. Be active and don't disappear or drop off the radar. Establish your online presence and take steps each week to do something to keep your name in the headlines.

Here are some easy ways to stay in the public eye:

1. POSTING
Post, post, and post some more. Write lots of blog posts. Do not fail your readers - stay visible and keep posting. Offer guest posting and also encourage others to post on your blog.

2. COMMENTING
Comment on others' sites and blogs. Participate in the virtual conversation. Offer thoughtful comments - don't bash or burn bridges.

3. SUBMITTING
Submit your stuff to online places, contests, and other venues. Even if you're an eBook writer and provide finished copies of your work to sell, you can still submit stuff.

4. SOCIAL NETWORKING
Set up Facebook and Twitter accounts, then link them. You can also set up a Facebook business page to market your eBooks. Build up your networks by following and commenting on others' material.

5. GROUPS
Join online writers' groups, readers' groups, and other groups. Be an active participant - show up and provide your input, plus take in the input of others to keep the group going.

6. REVIEWS
I mentioned this earlier in this post, but it's pretty easy to post book reviews. You can do so on your Amazon account or on your site. Establish your reputation as a thoughtful and insightful critic and soon others will begin to trust your opinion.

7. INTERVIEWS
Offer to hold interviews with fellow eBook writers on your site. You help feature someone, and they get to share their work! It's a win-win situation for you both.

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SUBSCRIPTIONS:

One great marketing trick that works well is exclusivity. Those who are in the know get access to exclusive content not available for others. You can use this with your own eBooks by creating subscriptions. Readers can either subscribe to an email list with free offers, or you could make your website a subscription site.

To provide email subscriptions, think of what you would like as a customer. If you signed up on an email list, what would you like to receive? What would be the content? How often would you like the email delivered? Use the answers to those questions to draft your emails, then send them out to dedicated readers and those who subscribe to your site.

Do the same thing for your subscription-based website. What would you specifically offer that your target reader is looking for? Advance copies of your eBooks? More free content? Discounts? eBook bundles? A special podcast?

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FUNDRAISING and DONATIONS:

Fundraising for eBooks? Isn't that just for nonprofits?

Not at all! Fundraising is a great way to receive pay for your eBooks without actually selling them. Robin Sloan is a successful digital writer who uses fundraising to his advantage. Month after month he provides free stories on his website. Then, once a year he holds a week-long fundraiser, where his readers can donate an amount of money. He makes quite a bit of cash from these annual fundraisers, and has gladly discovered his readers love donating for what they've been reading all year. People like to pay for quality stuff.

Set up a donations button from Paypal on your website and ask for donations. "Like what you see? Donate $3 for a cup of coffee!" Or, hold an annual fundraiser like Robin and invite your readers to donate for their annual reading. It may be an alternative to selling that helps you.

Another way to establish trust and your online reputation with readers is to donate a percentage of your sales to charity. Pick a charity that is close to your heart or one that is close to your readers' hearts. Then, either a portion or all proceeds from that eBook can go to the charity. You'll make money for the charity and also make sales, too.

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TEACH and SHARE:

Most of these marketing tips will help establish your reptuation as a great writer and trustworthy eBook seller. In return, take your knowledge and your newfound expert status and teach others.

Teaching and sharing knowledge through coaching, webinars, and conferences is a way of marketing, because you're marketing yourself. Readers trust eBook writers who love to share their secrets and are generous with their knowledge.

Set up an online class where you teach writing, teach your eBook topic, or teach others how to market. Participate in a webinar or conference as well. The more you appear to be in the know, the more readers will see you as a great writer and purchase your eBooks with confidence and enthusiasm.

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ENTHUSIASTIC READERS:

Marketing is, in essence, about instilling the same level of enthusiasm that you have for your eBooks into someone else. Enthusiasm comes from confidence and trust, and leads to sales. If I'm enthusiastic about a fabulous meal I had at a restaurant, I'm going to recommend it to others! My experience was so great, I'm willing to spread the word with the people I meet.

Conversely, a negative experience can really harm your chances to be a successful eBook writer. Eliminate as many negative experiences and, if you encounter one, be as generous and respectful as possible for the customer.

Make it as simple and fun as possible for your customers to like you! The selling process should be easy, the eBook graphics and visual representation should be spot-on awesome, the content should be both accessible and informative, and your online presence should be humble, generous, respectable and mature. All of these factors add up to enthusiastic readers and customers. And they, in return, will come back and want more from you!

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Marketing begins with you. Cultivate enthusiasm for your eBooks, find their target readers, and pitch your stuff. Think of what you would want if an eBook writer was trying to reach you as a customer, and then provide a great selling experience. Build trust by giving away free stuff and sharing your knowledge. Own your online presence through posting, commenting, submitting, and social networking. The more out there you are, the more readers will come to know you and purchase from you.

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What We're Doing:
Marketing our eBooks by maintaining an online presence, being generous, using fundraising or donations, building trust, and instilling product enthusiasm in our customers. We don't want our readers to just be satisfied - we want them to love what we offer and want more.

What You Can Do:
*Develop a marketing plan specific to each eBook.
*Find your target reader, the sites they visit, and the blogs they read and write. Write down ways you can pitch your eBooks to these readers.
*Own your online presence by posting, commenting, submitting, social networking, joining groups, conducting interviews, and being visible.
*Create subscriptions to emails, podcasts, or your whole website. Offer exclusive content and products to subscribers.
*Set up your website to accept donations or fundraising.
*Teach and share your knowledge, by hosting online classes, joining webinars or conferences, and coaching.

Stage Four: Platform

2010-10-16T08:00:00.003-04:00

We're veering from the traditional publishing plan (idea - manuscript - query - agent - editor - bookstore - reader) and following our own 5-stage digital author plan:

IDEA - CONTENT - PRODUCT - PLATFORM - MARKETING

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The intensive work it's taken to transform our plain text into an eBook, complete with our own logo, author photograph, and marketing materials completes the PRODUCT stage ... so now we're ready to take it to our readers by finding a PLATFORM. Just like a theatre stage showcases the play for the audience, a platform showcases our eBooks and features them directly in front of the viewing reader. Luckily, we're living in a miniature golden age for digital writers: the Kindle, Nook, Sony eReader and Kobo ereader devices are portable libraries for our readers. We can hop on the back of iTunes, display our stuff on Google Books, or even create our own site. Platforms are everywhere!

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WHAT ARE OUR OPTIONS?

Before we chose a topic for our eBook, we scoured bestseller lists to discover what was popular. Before we wrote our content, we looked at a finished published book. And before we created a product out of our content, we read eBooks to compare their layouts and graphics. See a pattern here? We look at what's out there, and then custom-tailor it for our particular needs.

We'll do the same thing with platforms, by seeing what is available and then dabbling in these digital places. Specializing in only one virtual location may work against us. Amazon may seem to be the all-encompassing one-stop shopping spree for eBooks ... but what about Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iTunes, or your own site? Why not scope each one of them out and then add our jewels to the treasure chest?

J. A. Konrath, a very successful fiction eBook author, is doing exactly that. His stuff is in a bunch of places, and he's selling thousands of copies a month by spreading himself far and wide.

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THE PLATFORM CHART:

Traditional authors set up a submission chart for their query letters and book proposals: Where is it going? Who has it? When did I submit? When can I expect a reply? They track their progress.

As digital authors, we're going to set up a platform chart. We're not submitting our work to just one platform or just one place. We're spreading our stuff nice and wide so that it pops up in as many places as possible. We want PC and Mac users to easily click and buy. We want Internet Explorer, Safari, and Mozilla Firefox users to have no problem viewing and reading our stuff. Our content may not be suitable for everyone, but our platform strategy will reach as much of our target audience as possible.

It takes planning and coordination to keep track of our rampant eBooks, so we must stay organized.

Create a spreadsheet with the platform name, website, information, your username and password, fees, costs, eBook formats, and so forth. It makes it much easier! You may also want to set aside a special folder in your browser's bookmarks section just for platform websites.

Once we've created the spreadsheet, we'll update it every time we upload a new eBook or sell a copy. We can track our progress over time, seeing which platforms perform better. We can ask easily discover why Amazon is better than iTunes or vice versa. We can be informed about our own marketing strategy.

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YOUR OWN PLATFORM:

We also want to provide a cohesive watering hole for enthusastic readers to connect with us, learn more about our stuff, and possibly purchase directly from us. We can create our own platform.

There are plenty of books to help you set up a website, or you could make it easy on yourself and hire a website designer. Register your own name (or pen name) as the domain name, purchase web hosting, and carve out your own virtual real estate. Add your logo, author photograph, particular fonts, and other custom graphics to make it your personal brand.

Basic web pages include:

*HOME
Author photo, logo, and a paragraph introducing yourself. Lots of links to other pages within the site.

*ABOUT
What do you write about? Provide a brief bio and personal reasons for writing your genre.

*EBOOKS
Upload pictures of your eBook covers, link to Paypal or Google Checkout, and provide descriptions. Create your own virtual book catalog.

*FREE STUFF
In the beginning (and, for that matter, throughout your digital writing career), the majority of your stuff will be given away for free. Blog content, online articles, fiction, poetry, recipes - whatever it is that you write, you must be willing to provide your reader with plenty of examples. Trusting the customer with your free content makes them feel like they trust you. It's a karmic trick of the Internet that the more you give away, the more sales you get.

*REVIEWS/TESTIMONIALS
This is where you get to post all the lovely reviews you received from your readers back in the Content stage! Highlight the best of what they've said and also include review snippets next to the actual eBooks.

Obviously, you don't have to stick to this particular site format. You can set up a blog at Blogger or WordPress and fill it with content before an actual website. You can also turn a blog into your main site.

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EBOOK STORES:

Brick-and-mortar bookstores stock traditional books, whereas digital eBook stores stock eBooks. Smashwords is one of the more popular, as are eBook Mall, Book Locker, and the Sony eReader Store. Read about their submission guidelines, format requirements and the fee percentage.

You may have to do some number-crunching to decide whether these places are worth paying the store fee vs. your own payment. Take a look at what they offer, and if you write what their readers are predominantly looking for, you may sell a number of copies.

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EBOOK FORMATS:

As you browse through eBook platforms, you will undoubtedly notice different platforms require different software versions of your eBook. Some take PDF, some take .ePub, some take Microsoft Word, some take Rich Text Format, and so on.

In order to appeal to the widest amount of readers, you will need to translate your eBook's content in different formats. Calibre is a free software program you can download that easily switches between formats. That way, you can easily upload the format to match the platform.

Also, keep your eBook content (especially fiction) in a plain format, like .txt, .rtf, or .doc extensions. That way, when you upload your content, the platform can translate it into their particular format.

For eBook covers, keep the graphics files in both .jpg and .png formats; that will make it easier to upload the covers, too. Work with your graphic designer to adhere to the platform's cover size and pixel-size specifications.

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PRICING AND PURCHASING:

Each eBook platform will charge a certain percentage of the sales as a fee. Put each platform's fee amount in your platform spreadsheet, so that you know how much will be deducted from each purchase - and what will be left over for you!

Based on the platform's fees, set your eBook price. You may have already set it, as I suggested in the PRODUCT stage. You may also decide to give your eBooks away for free until you build a following of readers. That is great!

Once you have set the price and uploaded the particular eBook format into your platform, follow any additional instructions to set up purchasing. You may have to link your account to Paypal or provide bank account information. It depends on the platform.

When your eBook goes live on the platform, purchase a copy. How easy was it to purchase? How long was the download wait? You may want to provide a walk-through for each platform, to post on your website or blog to make it easier for customers to purchase.

If you are also running your own platform site, then purchase a copy from your own site. Was it easy? Tweak the process if necessary and provide complete and thorough instructions for customers who use both PCs and Macs. We do not want to discourage customers from purchasing!

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PRINT-ON-DEMAND:

I've tried print-on-demand through both Lulu and Amazon's CreateSpace, and I'm more a fan of instant eBook downloads. But, there may be times when you want a physical copy of your completed eBooks. You may want to provide a nice photo of them on your website, give them away as gifts or promo offers, or merely line your own bookshelves - hey, you're an author, too!

POD is different than eBooks, and not just in a physical way. POD requires many more specifications than Kindle or other ereaders: the book must adhere to a specific typeset format, and the covers have to be a specific size. You may need to rework your eBook cover with your graphic/cover designer.

POD books also require an ISBN, whereas eBooks don't necessarily. Some POD sites, like Amazon's CreateSpace, provide ISBNS. Name yourself as the publisher since you are!

Some POD sites, like Amazon's CreateSpace, reach quite a wide audience. Other sites, like Lulu, feature their own platforms where readers can purchase books specifically.

The best way for an eBook writer to take advantage of POD is to promote it on your own website or blog. Set up the printed copy as separate from your eBooks and make it easy to buy. Keep ten to twenty copies of the POD version on hand for these particular sales, so that you can ship them yourself through the post office, FedEx, or UPS. Some readers do like to have a physical book in their hands, so you can provide that for those customers.

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AUDIOBOOKS and PODCASTS:

Transform your eBooks into audiobooks and podcasts! Like with POD, this is another way to sell the same content from an eBook. Your eBooks will be a different version which you can either sell from a platform or from your own site.

Audiobooks can be sold on iTunes and other audio sites. Have your eBook content edited and ready to go, then get the equipment (microphone, audio recorder, etc.), save your file in .mp3 format, and publish it.

Podcasts can be a weekly or monthly series of short fiction pieces, featured recipes, essays, or whatever else you write. You can either post them for free or sell them through a podcast site.

The more platforms we can find - and the more versions of our stuff - the more sales we can make. Audiobooks and podcasts are worth looking into!

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Finding different platforms for your work is like working with twenty major bookstores for promotion! It's almost unbelievable how many places your eBook can appear - at very little cost to you. Each eBook you write can be sold in digital, physical, and audio form. Once you start thinking of your work as a product, the potential for growth becomes enormous. Explore each platform option, be patient while you change your eBooks to different formats, keep track of the information on a spreadsheet, and don't be afraid to try new online avenues, like featuring your eBooks on someone else's website, bundling eBooks together into packages, or giving them away for free. Digital platforms are almost better than bookstores!

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What We're Doing:
Showcasing our finished product eBooks on internet platforms to reach the widest number of customers. We're using as many platforms - Amazon, Google, iTunes, etc. - as possible, instead of specializing in just one.

What You Can Do:
*Research the platform market. Does the bestseller list change from platform to platform? Take a look at the available market.
*Create a Platform Spreadsheet - include the platform's name, website, your username and password, fee charge, eBook formats, etc.
*Set up your own website or blog. Register your name as the domain and purchase web hosting. Add your author photo, logo, eBooks, and purchasing information.
*Purchase eBooks from different platforms and your own site to judge how easy it is to do it.
*Translate your eBook into different formats using Calibre or other software, to make it easier to upload into the platform.
*As an option, consider making audiobooks and podcasts of your eBooks.
*Try print-on-demand as another option to feature on a POD platform or your own site.

Free Fiction Friday! October 15

2010-10-15T08:00:00.003-04:00

Continuing with my Free Fiction Friday series, here's another story. This is a short story I wrote in college about a slave auction.

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The Slave Block
by Meg North

The boy stood on the steps of the big house and waited for his father to prepare the carriage. Fields stretched out before them. White cotton heads sat on long green stalks. Brown shapes moved among the cotton. They stood up and bent over. They stood up and bent over. Their hands picked the cotton. Their large brown hands picked the white cotton. The boy stood on the steps of the big house and watched the slaves in the field. It was a morning in summer and it was hot. It was hot enough for the brown shapes in the fields to blur. The boy squinted. The father was not ready yet.

“You’re coming with me today,” said the boy’s father.

The boy didn’t say anything. He looked at the small white slave houses on the edge of the field. A baby cried from inside the big house. Its mother was a slave and worked inside the house.

The boy’s mother came out onto the steps and stood by the boy. She had a parasol and white gloves on and a wide skirt. She had the money for new slaves in a small bag and she also had pieces of paper with information about the slaves they were selling. She gave these things to the boy’s father and kissed her son and went back into the house.

“Now for the wagon,” said the father.

The slaves were all standing up in the field and watching them. None were bent over any more. The boy’s father was angry.

“Don’t stop your work!” he said to the slaves.

The slaves listened and they bent over and stood up and bent over again as they picked cotton. The boy’s father was not angry and he whistled. He connected the carriage with the wagon. In the wagon were two young male slaves. They had dark eyes and crinkled hair and squinted in the heat. The boy stood by the wagon and watched them. No one spoke.

The baby in the house cried again. The boy’s mother came back out onto the porch and looked at the wagon. She was not alone. She had brought out a young female slave. The boy knew it was the baby’s mother.

“This one goes too,” said the boy’s mother. “She can’t cook.”

“Put her in the wagon,” said the boy’s father. “I can get a profit.”

The boy watched his mother lead the female slave towards the wagon. The female was smart. She knew that the wagon took people away who didn’t come back. She knew that the wagon always brought new faces to work in the fields and work in the big house. She knew this and she did not want to leave her baby.

The boy climbed onto the seat of the carriage and sat down. He turned away from the screams and he did not listen to the whip cracking. He did not flinch at its sharp sound. When he looked at the wagon again, the female slave was inside, huddled beneath the two males. The boy’s father threw the whip on the grass. The boy’s mother stood on the porch and watched them.

“She won’t be stubborn any more,” she said.

“Good,” said the boy’s father. “Goodbye.”

He climbed onto the seat of the carriage and took the reins. The carriage moved away from the big house. The boy turned around in his seat and watched his mother go back into the big house.

The town square was busy. People shopped and talked about business. In the center of the town square was a statue of a bald eagle. The boy stared at the statue as the carriage drove into town. People looked at the slaves in the wagon and shouted prices to the boy’s father. The people offered good prices, but the boy’s father turned them all down. He wanted a profit.

A platform was set up in the town square. Two large male slaves stood on the platform. Their feet were tied to a wooden peg and their hands were bound with black chains. They wore white loincloths and were splashed with oil. Their skin shone in the heat.

The slave owners stood on either side and showed their wares. They had large wooden paddles and slapped the skin of the slaves. It made a loud whap when wood met flesh. The people gathered around the slave block and shouted prices. They shouted for the best slave. The slave on the left had broken fingers and did not fetch a good price.

The boy watched the slaves. He did not trust them. He did not trust their black eyes and pink-gummed smiles. He did not like their grunting language and their chanting at night. He thought the slave baby was ugly and its mother was ugly, too. She sat in the back of the wagon and pointed at the slaves on the block.

The two slaves on the block had been sold and they were led off by their new masters. The boy’s father had rope and he opened the wagon door. He tied rope around the ankles of the two males and took them to the block. He tied their ankles to the wooden peg and stood off to one side. The boy stayed by the wagon and watched the female. She stayed in the corner of the wagon, far away from him. She hated him and he hated her.

The two males stood on the block and people shouted prices at them. They did not have broken fingers or bruises. They could not read or write or speak English. A fat man in a brown suit thought that was good and he bought both of them for a good price. The boy’s father was happy. The males sold well.

It was time for the female to be on the block. The boy had been watching her and she did nothing. She sat there and stared out with hating black eyes. Her flat nostrils twitched. She was ugly and angry. The boy’s father had rope and he came over to the wagon.

“Open the door.”

The boy knew the female was angry. He knew she hated him and he knew she hated his father. He went over to the wagon door and opened it. The slave screamed. She pushed past the boy and the boy’s father and leaped out of the wagon. She ran into the crowd.

“Stop her!” shouted the boy.

“Shoot her!” shouted the boy’s father.

The fat man in the brown suit who had bought the two males saw the female slave running. He held the slaves’ ropes in one hand and pulled out a pistol. He took aim and fired and shot the female slave dead. She lay in the dirt in the street. The boy stood over her and saw that her blood was as red as his own.

Stage Three: Product

2010-10-14T08:00:00.039-04:00

We're veering from the traditional publishing plan (idea - manuscript - query - agent - editor - bookstore - reader) and following our own 5-stage digital author plan:

IDEA - CONTENT - PRODUCT - PLATFORM - MARKETING

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Stage three is where the CONTENT becomes the PRODUCT. This is the first stage where we're starting to think like a retailer, rather than just a writer. The traditional author at this stage starts writing query letters and book proposal packages ... but we're going to work with graphic designers, eBook software, and online tools to create a packaged product from our content!

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WHAT'S ALREADY OUT THERE?

Thankfully, when it comes to eBook design, we don't have to reinvent the wheel. There are already thousands of great eBooks that sell thousands of copies and have professional graphic design, interactive maps, photos, embedded videos, links, and other snazzy additions.

If you have an ereader like a Nook, Kindle, or Kobo, then you can use that or download the Kindle App for free from Amazon's website. Read eBooks. Set aside a budget of $20 or $30 to purchase, download, and read the bestselling and popular eBooks. Regardless of what you write, read both fiction and nonfiction eBooks. What are digital writers already doing? Is it working? Was it easy to read for you? Would you want to read this book again or are you thinking even $2.99 was too high a price for the crappy experience?

Take notes on the eBook titles you read. Write down the title and what worked and what didn't. Be a critical reviewer of your market. How would your stuff fit in with this digital world?

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BRANDING & TARGET MARKETING:

Remember when we talked about our personal brands in the IDEA stage? Pull out your notes on that now. Compare your personal brand with the text eBook content that you've written. How can you meld the two?

We're striving to create a cohesive blend of graphics and textual content that we will use in everything we present to the public: logo design, website design, marketing material design, and book design. The more cohesive we are in building and spreading our brand, the more memorable we will be in the eyes of our readers. When people picture our names, we want our stuff to be as clear as day.

When I picture J. K. Rowling, for example, I don't think love stories. I don't think historical fiction. I don't think of craft books or tech manuals or cooking. I think teen wizards and witches in a neo-Gothic setting. Her personal branding is so strong that millions of people will remember her stories long after she's gone. It's extraordinary.

What's equally extraordinary is that we can choose our personal brand! We don't have to compromise if we don't want to. It's just us building our professional writer image from the ground up, so we have final say. Our brand reflects what we write in a visual way, enticing the reader to want to read our content ... and then come back for more!

One key thing separates the serious professional writer from the rest and that's: strong personal branding. We talked about it a little bit in the IDEA stage, but now we're really digging in and using this personal brand to take our raw text to the next level.

It starts with graphic design.

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YOUR LOGO IS WHO YOU ARE:

Before we put our eBook text into a visual format, we need to establish our logo. A logo is an instantly recognizeable visual cue that links the reader's eyes to your text. We want a reader to see our logo and think: "Awesome eBooks written by Meg North. She's the best!"

Hahaha! Well, you get what I'm going for! Logos combine color, image, and text in a simple, small and easily reprintable format. The Nike swoosh is a genius artistic logo. With one graphic brush-stroke, that artist captured athletic movement. It's brilliant!

Think about what you write (I write romance ... I write cookbooks ... I write tech articles) and then start equating images. Romance is pink and bubbly and rather light-hearted. Gothic and horror are dark and grungy. Tech is silver with modern fonts. Cookbooks have earthy colors, mouthwatering images, and a sense of coziness.

I write historical fiction about the 19th century. My logo has antique-style fonts, rich colors like black and deep red, Victorian scrolls, and a clip-art graphic of a fountain pen. My author photograph has me pictured with antique books. My logo, blog design, and author photograph work together to create a cohesive image. The whole thing gels together, so that when people visit my site they think: "Old-fashioned, romantic, antique, historical". That's me!

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YOUR NEW BEST FRIEND:

A good graphic designer is a writer's best friend!

The best graphic designers are true artists: representing ideas and emotions in a visual way. What I do with words, they do with images. As a writer, I have limitations. It would be rather boring for me to present my stories in text form, when the internet world teems with exciting visuals. It would be like offering a pencil drawing in a gallery of Monets!

A graphic designer will be to you what a literary agent is to a traditional author: someone who establishes your reputation. Choose your graphic designer wisely, and provide them with strong decisions about your branding. The more you can give them, the better they can help you.

Graphic designer costs vary, so do some research before you take the plunge. This person will be responsible for not just a one-time gig, but future needs as you build and grow your image. You're going to create many eBooks, not just one! So, it may be best to pick someone locally, so you can have face-to-face meetings.

The graphic designer must be deeply familiar with:
*Logo designing
*Adobe Photoshop and/or other digital software
*Book design: typesetting, layout, etc.
*Cover design (you may want to hire someone separately)
*Online marketing and packaging

Do NOT take your choice of graphic designer lightly. It would be a waste of money and time if you found the wrong person, and may even discourage you from pursuing life as a professional digital writer. Please, for the sake of the time spent crafting wonderful written content, treat your stuff with the respect it deserves. Save your money and pay for the professional graphic designer.

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TYING IT ALL TOGETHER:

Now that we've been thinking about our personal branding and our logos, we can hire a graphic designer with a pretty good idea of how we want to present ourselves to the visual world of the internet. Work with the graphic designer to create your logo and then build your personal branding from there.

YOU NEED:

1. Author photographs - have your headshot photos professionally taken (I got mine done at the mall!), and bring props that represent you. I took antique books. Wear clothing that represents you - travel writers would look great with their backpacks and travel clothes. A graphic designer can add embellishments to your photo in Adobe Photoshop. They can also incorporate your photograph into your logo or business card.

2. Website design - every professional digital writer needs a website. You don't have to hire a website designer right now, but you definitely need to mention your graphic design needs. Website design includes fonts and images, and may also be blog design, too.

3. Marketing materials - business cards, letterhead, thank-you notes, address labels, etc. Even in the online world, you need these materials. A personal thank-you note sent to your graphic designer certainly provides an excellent touch! Also, when you're out and about amongst your readers, you'll need business cards. Face-to-face marketing still works!

4. Book design - here is where the professional digital writer really shows his/her thoughtfulness. Our eBook designs should NOT be random. It's about tying our cohesive look to the book design. We are our own publishing company, after all! Usually, the publisher and book designer make the branding decisions, but not in the digital world. For each eBook, we will work with our graphic designer to incorporate our logo and personal branding in the fonts, cover, and images.

5. Cover design - as an option, you may choose to hire a separate cover designer for your eBooks. But only do so AFTER you've created your logo and personal branding with the graphic designer. Then the cover designer can craft unique covers that incorporate the eBook's content with your logo.

6. Other graphic design needs - you may require additional graphics, like for a Twitter background, Facebook photo, book tour website, eBook storefront page, Amazon author page, and more. Let your graphic designer know what you may need in the future, and keep them informed!

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EBOOK DESIGN:

Our eBook designs are not random - they represent our personal branding to the online world. In the CONTENT stage, we discussed the book structure module:

Cover
Copyright page
Title page w/ Publisher info
Acknowledgements/Dedication
Contents
Preface/Prologue
Chapters - bulk of the book
Epilogue
Bibliography
Appendix
Index
Back Cover

Bring this module to your graphic designer and work with them to turn your text into a visual eBook. For nonfiction books (especially cookbooks and design books), incorporate photos and interactive videos. For fiction, make a great eye-catching cover and include fonts that are easy-to-read on a digital ereader.

With today's emailing capabilities, we can easily send documents back and forth. Our graphic designer turns our content into a PRODUCT, which is the package we present to the reader.

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SET A PRICE:

Once our eBooks have been designed using our logo and personal branding, it's time to set a price on the finished product.

Hopefully, you've been keeping track of the expenses required to create the eBook. Now set the price. J. A. Konrath has found the price of $2.99 to be a good one. Chris Guillebeau prices his eBooks at $24.95. Both men are selling their stuff like hotcakes. It's up to you.

For now, do NOT incorporate your price into your eBook design. Don't add it to the front or back cover. Just set it aside. We'll be adding prices later.

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This stage is all about becoming our own professional book designers. The digital writer doesn't need a literary agent or editor to create our brand - we do it ourselves! The digital writer does need a visual artist to help us turn our text into something artistic for the internet, so we hire graphic designers. Our eBooks are products that must be user-friendly, eye-catching, and a pleasure to read. Our logo lets readers instantly know who we are and what we offer. We create a cohesive visual representation of ourselves.

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What We're Doing:
Using writer-specific personal branding with a graphic designer to create: a logo, a website/blog, marketing materials, eBook designs, and other visual representations of us. We're turning our text into a visual product.

What You Can Do:
*Have your author headshot photos professionally taken. Bring props that represent you.
*Take your time finding and hiring a graphic designer. Clearly communicate your author needs.
*Create a logo based on your personal brand.
*Create marketing materials with your logo: business cards, letterhead, thank-you cards, address labels, etc.
*Use the book structure module with your graphic designer to design your eBook.
*Design the eBook cover - may need to hire separate cover designer.