Tag Archive | writing

Author Confessions: Too Much Heart

Sep23
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Author Confessions: Too Much Heart

I’ve been talking about a lot of words but the past few posts were about verbs. Let me spend some time talking about the most overused word I’ve found (and have used in my own writing) in romantic fiction.

Heart.

Her heart raced.

She treasured it in her heart.

Her heart sped up.

Her heart ached.

Because emotion is often centered in our heart, authors tend to focus on that alone when they describe scenes. However, there is an entire body that can react to emotion and the book The Emotion Thesaurus can be helpful regardless of whether the emotion is love, jealousy, anger, loneliness… I highly recommend any author purchase that book and the companion pieces on positive and negative traits.   They are valuable resources. Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi have some more in the series that I just ordered and look forward to having on my bookshelf as resources.

Let’s try some different ways to say the examples above:

“Her heart raced.” Let’s try this instead: She couldn’t catch her breath.

“She treasured it in her heart.” How about: She closed her eyes to capture the moment.

“Her heart sped up.” Maybe instead: She placed a hand on her chest in a futile attempt to calm herself.

“Her heart ached.” Perhaps this: Tears welled in her eyes and she blinked back the tears.

Caveat:

You don’t have to eliminate every instance of the word heart in your prose. Especially when a character is speaking or perhaps texting or writing something. We often tend to use the word heart, but there is an entire physical and emotional body of description to draw on to add depth and color to your story and keep the reader engaged. Avoid writing with too much heart, at least in terms of words. I hope your efforts to put words on the page are filled with an overflowing passion for your work-in-progress.

Author Confessions: Show and Tell with Verbs

Sep9
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Author Confessions: Show and Tell with Verbs

Yes, verbs that tell are not listed in the previous post about the types of verbs, but they are the more common defaults for authors to use. The reason these are telling verbs is that they tell the readers something without showing them what’s happening, externally and internally the character whose point of view we are in. I realize I did a similar post on this but this one is specific to verbs.

Here are the most common ones I flag in my own novels and watch out for in those I am editing and some options for substituting the telling words. Sometimes it is good to be more descriptive, and other times it is better (or easier) to substitute a similar verb.

See/Saw

This is simple. Instead of telling me that they see something, describe it to me. Seeing could also be an inward understanding, so describe that instead of using the word if possible.

Telling: She saw the birds fly past.

Showing: The flock of fifty Sandhill Cranes flew overhead.

Telling:  She saw the danger ahead.

Showing: She understood she must warn her friend to be careful of that man.

Hear/Heard

Describe the sounds that the character is hearing or the information gained.

Telling: She heard the birds.

Showing: The cranes called out in a raucous chorus sure to wake the neighborhood.

Telling: She overheard them plotting murder.

Showing: Her spying revealed her neighbor was plotting murder.

Know/Knew

Instead of telling me what the character knows or knew, since you are in the character’s head you can simply skip that word and state the facts. Sometimes the word know/knew can be substituted with other words like understand/understood, was aware, perceive/perceived, realized, recognized…

Telling: She knew there were cranes flying overhead.

Showing: The long stretched out neck and brown color indicated the birds were Sandhill Cranes and their squawking confirmed it.

Telling: She knew it was the right thing to do.

Showing: Deep in her spirit, she became convinced this was the right decision.

Look/Looked

Telling: The birds looked agitated.

Showing: She wasn’t sure what triggered the frantic flock to call out as they did.

Telling: She looked for that keys everywhere.

Showing: She searched for the keys everywhere. (just a stronger verb)

Feel/Felt

This is tricky because feel/felt can be a physical sensation or an emotional one. Emotionally it would be better to describe the emotion, and if it is a physical, you want to describe the sensations: prickly, soft, course, comforting…

Telling: She felt delight at seeing the cranes.

Showing: A shiver of excitement overtook her at the cranes flying overhead.

Telling: The blanket felt soft.

Showing: She wrapped herself in the silky blanket and contentment filled her soul.

Have/Had

Now these words can be used in a variety of ways so how does it get used to tell? Here is an example and how to correct it.

Telling: She had a headache.

Showing: Her head throbbed and she winced in pain.

Telling: She had to go to the meeting

Showing: She must go to the meeting. (gives a little more importance)

Exceptions

We can’t show everything so sometimes it is acceptable to use these words. They do not need to be eliminated from a story completely. Especially in dialogue they are acceptable because that is the way we talk.

“Look!” can be a directive.

“I see.” Is an affirmation.

“I heard from Grandma today,” is a report of something, probably proceeding the sharing of the content.

“I knew she wouldn’t come, she’s notorious for that.” This is acceptable.

Playing show and tell with verbs is just another one of the challenges that an author grapples with when writing in a way that hopefully will keep the reader engaged without boring them.

 

 

Author Confessions: All the Verbs!

Sep2
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Author Confessions: All the Verbs!

Did you realize that all verbs are not created equal? I didn’t even realize that there were so many different categories of verbs. Where was I in those high school English classes I loved so much that this seemed new to me?

Here are the eleven types of verbs that are used in the English language and some examples of them.

Action Verbs

As you might imagine, these refer to action.

  • Physical actions:  run, walk, jump, kick, eat, sleep, push
  • Mental actions: think, talk, speak, try, study
  • Management actions:  advised, counseled, planned, headed

Stative Verbs

These are more about a state of being or condition and describe qualities , opinions, beliefs and emotions and well as the state of existence.

Examples: feel, appear, have, smell, need, see, appreciate, and look.

Linking Verbs

This is technically a subcatogory of a stative verb. Also known as a copular verb, linking verbs establish a relationship between the subject and the rest of the sentence.

Common linking verbs include: do/did, feel/felt, get/got, has/have/had (told you this would show up again!), seem/seems/seemed.

Transitive Verbs

These verbs require an object to receive an action, aka direct object.

Examples include: address, borrow, bring, raise, offer, pay, write, and have. (wait, wasn’t have also a stative verb? Hmmm. Just wait, you’ll see that one again!)

Intransitive Verbs

Not needing a direct object to make sense, intransitive verbs can answer questions like where, when hoe or how long. They don’t make sense with an object attached to them.

Examples are: yawn, live, cry, laugh, stand, wait, disagree.  They can be modified by adverb, adverbial clauses or prepositional phrases.

Helping Verbs (Auxiliary)

These verbs are just really helpful. Who doesn’t want some help? Apparently, the English language does!

They work with other verbs and include: am/be, has/had (told you this would appear again!), was/were/would, did/do/does, can/could.

Modal Verbs

This is a subgroup of helping verbs that give a mood to the sentence (shouldn’t it be moodal verb then? Just saying…).

These include: can/could, may/might, must, ought to, shall/should, will/would.

Regular Verbs

These verbs have the distinction of having a past tense ending in -d, -ed, or -t.

Examples include: act/acted, fix/fixed, help/helped, beg/begged, sleep/slept, cry/cried. The spelling can slightly change when going to the past tense.

Irregular Verbs

These are the opposite of regular and do not end in -d, -ed, or -t.

These include:

      • Be – am, is, are, was, were, being, been
      • Eat – ate, eaten
      • Fly – flew, flown
      • Catch – caught
      • Set – set

Phrasal Verbs

These amazing verbs combine with an adverb or a preposition to generate a new meaning.

Some examples include: bear with (be patient), break off (end a relationship), zone out (dissociate from a situation, wrap up (cover in paper), go ahead (proceed).

Infinitives

Now why include this when these are not even verbs? Hmmm? Curious minds want to know! They might be better called costumed, or disguised verbs, or perhaps pretending verbs. The most common marker seems to be the use of the word “to” to proceed the verb.

Examples: to proceed (as used in the previous sentence), to plan, to run, to walk, to dance, to sing…

Overused Verbs

Are you as confused as I am about all these verbs? The reality is some can be overused in a manuscript so understanding how a verb is used can help the author find alternative verbs that might be substituted for the more commonly overused ones that include: see/sees, hear/heard, feel/felt, had/have, look/looked, know/knew.

Sometimes with all the verbs available, an author can default to more common, simple ones. Verbs move a story forward so using them wisely can make the more enjoyable for the reader.

 

Author Confessions: Attributions in Dialogue

Aug26
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Author Confessions: Attributions in Dialogue

When an author is writing a story he will often include dialogue and there are two ways to give information about not only the tone of the conversation, the activiting surrounding it, and the person speaking.

Dialogue Attributions

When referring to who is speaking it is called a dialogue tag. An example might be: “Welcome to my party,” Meghan said.

If it were a question it would be written perhaps something like this: “Are you coming to my party?” Meghan asked.

There are some uses of a tag within dialogue as well. For instance: “The car lights,” she explained, “aren’t bright enough to drive at night.” These should be used sparingly because they slow the reader down.

There is a debate amongst some who say that you should only use said (or perhaps asked if it’s a question) for a speaker tag and nothing else. I personally disagree. The speaker tag can give so much more information when used appropriately. I have a lot of different images I’ve collected over the years on my Writer’s Toolbox board on Pinterest and I invite you to check them outas some pertain to this topic but don’t translate well to posting here.

There are a lot of other words that can be used to describe what is going on in a scene using dialogue tags.

“How dare you?” Harry threatened.  This says a lot more than said would have done, right? You get a different feel for what’s going on between the characters in a scene by the change of one simple word from said to threatened.

“Why won’t you come over?” Sarah pleaded. This has a different tone than simply asked.

There are over 190 different words to use as tags instead of said.

Having given that information, it is not necessary to put a dialogue tag on every instance of diaglogue when characters are conversing. This can be a bit of an art. As long as you can’t lose track of who is talking it isn’t necessary. If someone refers to the other person by name, for instance, as they talk, we know who is and isn’t speaking. Sometimes too many tags can drag the conversation down and we don’t want the reader to become frustrated.

Action Attributions

Another way to give information about a scene and to keep the reader informed is through an action attribution or tag. Sometimes this is good because we don’t necessarily want them to be stagnant as they converse, even if they are on the phone someone can cough, or rustle papers, click a pen, take a sip of coffee.

For example: Jill twirled around the room, and expression of pure bliss on her face. “I love French toast.”

Or: “If you don’t  get this thing out of my face…” The corner of Gary’s lip pulled back in a sneer.

Both of these examples not only tell you who is speaking but some action and adds a depth of emotional color to the scene for the reader to enjoy.

Beats

I was confused when I first heard an author use tags and beats when referring working on edits to a story. I had no clue what she was discussing. It took some time before I began to understand that she was going through and doing the attributions. Whether it was going to be action or dialogue tags she was considering the “beats”, or rhythm or pacing of the story and how best to keep it moving forward during those scenes with speaking. The author doesn’t want to drag down the reader with too much action or description and definitely don’t want to detract from the content of the dialogue when giving attributions.

Caution

I’ve done this more than once where I put an attribution before a dialogue. For instance, this would be wrong.

Percy yelled, “Hey, get out of there!” Why is this wrong? Because he hasn’t yelled yet.

The better way to write it is: “Hey, get out of there!” Percy yelled.

What do you think? Should a writer only use “said” for an attribution in dialogue, or do you agree with me that the variety can add so much more to the telling of the story if the writer can use those skillfully?

 

 

Author Confessions: Repetition and Redundancy

Aug19
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Author Confessions: Repetition and Redundancy 

Hmmm, isn’t the title itself a bit redundant? Why would I use both words to describe an issue most author struggle with from time to time? Let me explain.

Repetition

When a writer is penning that first draft they often use a word several times, whether it is to describe and object or action. It’s easy to do because the brain just had that word at it’s fingers and it was easier to grab that than search for a slightly different word. Another phrase for this is duplicate words or phrases.

Granted, sometimes it can be hard to find alternate words for things like, a door, for instance. You have a door, or a portal, or opening, entrance, exit, hatch, egress… There are more descrptive nouns as well that could be used but if you are writing a historical tome, a portal might come across as a tad too fantastical for the reader. Stairs and steps can pose problems as well. When I typed in either word to an online thesaurus I got nothing but a link to a definition.

An author has to almost have a fully functioning thesaurus in their head but alas, a rough draft will take forever if the author has to police every time she uses a word more than once, whether it be a noun or verb, or even a phrase. There are online software programs, which for a fee, can help you find all those words. Two of the better programs out there are AutoCrit and  Prowriting Aid. They require a subscription to utilize all their features but for a beginning author, their feedback can be valuable. I used AutoCrit for years as a new editor and I learned a lot that helped me (and the authors I worked with) hone our writing skills. I tried Grammarly for a time but often their feedback wasn’t correct so I ditched the free version I had downloaded. Not sure how good they are now. The programs are automated so the author still needs to make wise choices how much to heed with suggestions that might be made regarding a manuscript. You can edit story too much and lose your voice. Alas, I digress.

Winter Watch was written by a friend of mine, Anita Klumpers. It is a riviting romantic suspense. A physical pocketwatch is central to the story. Imagine how that program flagged the word watch! The struggle was real as we tried to find ways to not always use the word watch since the object was mentioned on practially every page! (It’s an awesome book by the way so go get a copy!)

So why two  words? Repetition and Redundancy?

Redundancy

This is a different matter where one says the same thing more than once but perhaps not using the same terminology. This often happens during the first draft because the author is spitting out as much as they can and they might have forgotten they already mentioned a concept or phrase to describe something. Sometimes it is as simple as two words put together that mean similar things. The reality is, readers are smart and don’t often need things to be told to them over again. This can be a challenge in dialogue if a character is telling her story to multiple people over chapters. That is when it is often better for the author to write, “She relayed her experience,” or something like that.

While normally we want dialogue in a story, it could become kind of like a person who tells the same story over and over to people in almost identical words and phrases. It gets exhausting to listen to if you are there for each of those tellings. Same is true in a book, whether it is a similar word from the first or a similar phrase or concept, the author needs to be willing to cut out the redundancy so the story doesn’t get bogged down. I think Charles Schultz in his Peanuts cartoon shows this better than I could.

It’s not that we can’t refer to previous events or things in a story but we need to be careful to not bore the reader with words, phrases or concepts that get recycled without moving the story forward.

Repetition and redundancy are challenges most authors need to struggle with and it can be a challenge within a full-length novel to eliminate any of that completely. Sometimes it is necessary and the author and the editor need to make sure that it serves the story to have it there on the pages. Readers have abandoned books for less and we don’t want to lose our readers.

 

Author Confessions: Those Alluring Adverbs

Aug12
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Author Confessions: Those Alluring Adverbs

In case you haven’t played MadLibs lately, adverbs are words that modify a verb, adjective, or another adverb in a sentence. Using them in a piece of fiction, however, can be a sign of a weak verb. Adverbs can suck the meaning and intention from your words. Not all adverbs end in -ly and as some adjectives end in -ly so that’s not necessarily a way to tell for sure. There are five types of adverbs. Did you know that? I was proabably taught that long ago in some English class but it’s amazing how those little details get lost in the mind filled with life. There are:

  • Adverbs of manner that tell us how something happened. Examples: fast, loudly, quite, carefully, happily.
  • Adverbs of place tell us where. Examples: here, near, outside, there, upstairs.
  • Adverbs of time tell us when. Examples: again, early, never, now soon, tomorrow.
  • Adverbs of frequency tell us how many times. Examples: always, daily, often, rarely, generally, seldom.
  • Adverbs that modify or describe adjectives, verbs, clauses, and other adverbs. Examples: very, not, more, here, always, correctly

Many of these can be essential in a story but a few tend to be overused.

One example:

Using an adverb: “He was really angry.”

Better verb:  “He was furious.” (stronger verb)

More descriptive of the emotion: “His fists clenched and his face grew warm, and his pulse excelerated.”

That was one sentence. Imagine if you will, needing to evaluate every sentence and paragraph in a novel to root out these alluring adverbs that tempt the author to take the lazier route to getting a story written. I’m not saying this is wrong, because a first draft is meant to be edited so having adverbs in there can be useful to get the bare bones of a story on the page, and they can be modified later.

Sometimes the author will decide to keep the adverb. They are not necessarily evil. Or should I rephrase that? Adverbs are not wicked devices devised by satan himself. They are a legitimate part of our English language and they do have a place. Having stated that, it is wise for any author to be aware of these alluring adverbs and work to widen their vocabulary to include stronger verbs that paint the image they want in the the mind of the reader.

Here are a few of the alluring adverbs to be on the watch for. This is not an all inclusive list.

Actually         Totally

Completely     Continually

Constantly     Continuously

Literally     Really

Unfortunately    Ironically

Incredibly   Hopefully

Finally

When an author is doing edits, much like weasel words, the author needs to assess how essential the adverb is in the sentence. Is there a stronger verb that would be more descriptive, or perhaps describing things in more detail?  In dialogue these will be more commonly found and oftentimes remain because that is the way we speak and the writing should reflect that.

If you read last week’s post you are probably surprised I didn’t include SERIOUSLY in this list. There are many adverbs that could be considered. The challenge for the author is to vary their prose to use a wider vocabulary to keep the reader engaged in the story and not annoyed because of weak verbs modified by those alluring adverbs.

Author Confessions: Weasel Words

Aug5
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Author Confessions: Weasel Words

Do you have any weasel words in your speech? I go through phases at times where a certain word pops up more often than others. For instance, a few years ago I seemed to be continually surprised at God’s work in fashioning my relationship with my boyfriend (now husband), Ben. I was often heard to say “Seriously?”

This was so automatic that when he proposed, and I realized what he was doing, that was the first word out of my mouth! Seriously? Followed by “Get on with it then!” A funny memory. Of course, I said yes.

Some people have weasel words or phrases almost as a tick or space holder. “I know,” or “Um,” or “Ah,” This can be annoying to a listener when used too often.

As writers we often have weasel words that can creep into our stories. These words don’t really add anything to the story and often are not necessary or can be substituted with something else.

This is not an all-inclusive list:

Just

That

Suddenly

Very

Every

Some

Most

But

OK/Okay

Different genres might have their own as well. Since I work mostly with romance, I find that heart is often way overused in the books when there might be a variety of other ways to express the emotion going on in the “heart” of the character.

As a writer of Regency romances I found the phrase “a bit” would often creep in and was easily deleted without changing anything of value in the sentence or paragraph.

These are simple little words and every author has a favorite. As an editor, if a word keeps popping up over and over and doesn’t need to be there I might flag it for the author or delete some of them. Trying to police these words can be hard because we often don’t even realize we’re reading them. It’s not that you have to get rid of every instance of these words and sometime they are appropriate, hence this becomes a judgement call and subjective.

OK is an interesting one. Pelican Book Group has a house rule where we use OK instead of okay in our stories. What amazes me is how that stands out so much when going over a text. It can become a bug-a-boo or weasel word as well and sometimes as authors we need to find other ways to express what is going on in the narrative or dialogue.

How does an author decide how to get rid of weasel words?  Three questions can be asked to help make that decision:

  1. Will my sentence make sense without it?
  2. Does it sound natural? Sometimes in dialogue it might be better to keep it.
  3. Do I need it? Does it improve or hurt your writing ?

Always go with what is best for your story.

Weasel words are subtle and sneaky but something every author needs to watch out for so that our stories can be as clean and readable as possible. Not always an easy job to do but one that must be done. In speech or in writing, what words tend to be your most used weasle words?

Author Confessions: Why Authors Hate Marketing

Jul29
Reading Time: 4 minutes

 Author Confessions: Why Authors Hate Marketing

Maybe it’s an exaggeration to say authors hate marketing. We’re expected to do it. I’m sitting here writing in a blog as part of a larger marketing plan. Gone are the days where an author can squirrel themselves away in a lovely little cabin and pump out book after book. Maybe a book signing here and there to meet their adoring public. Back in the olden days (before I ever started writing for publication), publishing houses did all that work.

The advent of the internet and those who are self-publishing has created a lot more content and choices for readers. Some publishing houses are struggling to stay afloat in a highly competative industry and authors are making less money as a result. It’s only a tiny percentage of published authors who write more than one book  who rise to the top as far as popularity and book sales. Those with big names don’t need to be all over social media to get readers to purchase their next best-seller. If you are already famous and write a book, they might do a few interviews on national television and then that’s it, voila, best-seller.

Now this isn’t about book sales, per se. But the reality is we live in a noisy world. I admit to getting sucked into social media, reels, videos, and posts. Sometimes I think life was better before I ever joined Facebook, and I’m not on there as much as you might think. I hired a virtual assistant for a time to help with some of that and I learned a lot. The goal was not to need him anymore. I still have one helping me for the moment with this blog, but she doesn’t write the posts. She does all the back door stuff and offers a ton of encouragemet (I love you, Bonnie!)

TIME

I don’t hate marketing. What I dislike is the time it takes away from writing. Part of this is as I’ve learned new things I’m dipping into my back catalogue of content to put together my media content. That takes a lot of time as I’m skimming books to get quotes, or looking on line for reviews to use to help people perhaps take interest in a particular title. And I can’t be all about sales either. Who wants that? So I search for cute images with quotes about reading, books, faith, or sometimes something silly to post to encourage my audience. Eventually I won’t have to do all that again, except for new titles, so getting it organized right now is the big investment. If I were to line up interviews or books signings that takes even more time (and money). Thankfully, if I plan well, I can post all of that in advance. Still, it takes time and planning.

INTROVERTS

The majority of authors are introverts. We are not necessarily out for attention. I’m supposed to do videos to promote my books and I’ve done a few, but I hate doing them! They are short, sure, but they take more time than you think and I can be pretty critical of my performance. I can do live videos and be fine with them if they are less scripted but it still is not a comfortable thing to do. I don’t want this to be about me–but about the stories. I write fiction so I have to try to show you, the reader, the value there is in reading my made up tale. That takes time and creativity to put together in something that’s only 30 seconds to a minute long with a moving background. As you can guess, I’m not on TikTok. My life is mostly private. Sure I share some stuff on Facebook, and maybe if I think of it, on Instagram, but that’s about it. I want to live a life away from a computer screen as much as possible.

MONEY

I have paid marketing experts to help me but in reality it wasn’t just paying someone to do the job, it was paying them to teach me how to do it. It’s not cheap and doing the job myself I can see why. It takes time and that is a valuable asset. So is money. My husband spent his life in marketing and sales but it was for a physical product and he would do the sales at a home with an appointment. It’s as different thing to sell content like a book. So I invest money (and time) and it might be years before I see a real return on my investment. It’s a step of faith to do that and many authors do pay others for the help, but even with that assistance they often have to pitch in by providing content to the assistant. Those assistants work hard. Book signings can come with a cost as well for the spot at a craft fair, and maybe goodies for those who come whether it be snacks or give-aways.

The reason why authors hate marketing is because it’s outside of our wheelhouse and takes away from our primary craft of writing. I don’t mind doing images and posting or playing around to creat my own unique images, but it takes time. My publisher does some stuff to help market books but the primary weight of this for most authors, falls on their shoulders. And if you want to be published, you need to have that audience already established, even without having a book to sell. Crazy, right? Unfortunately, that’s the reality most authors face as they try to get a book ready for publication.

Author Confessions: Reaching One vs Many

Jul15
Reading Time: 4 minutes

Author Confessions: Reaching One vs Many

As an author it would be lovely to have a best selling book. Except that how do you measure that? By overall sales? Well, that’s one way. My book Pesto and Potholes was offered for a week at an extremely discounted rate and it shot to number one on Amazon and stayed in the top ten that week for the catagory it was listed in. A friend asked me how it felt to be a “best-seller.”

Weird. Surreal.

It wasn’t real. The reality is most authors, this one included, do not make a liveable wage from writing books. Having said that, I’m doing fine. God has given me a calling and I’ve striven with His help to follow where He has led on this journey to publishing. He has provided for my physical needs. On paper, I make a small amount of taxable income but that is usually because I will not always include every deduction I possibly could when I file my  taxes. Too many losses when self-employed makes the IRS think it’s just a hobby.

Writing, for me, is not a hobby. As I said, it’s a calling. Sure it would be nice to have the accolades like other better-known, authors have. Oh, to have the income of a Richard Castle! Granted, he is fictional, but still, what a delightful fantasy to have that kind of financial resource to do whatever I wanted to do, go wherever I wanted to go, and live without any worry over investments, inflation or anything else. The only battle he had was against himself and writer’s block. And maybe his vanity? Or how about Jessica Fletcher in Murder She Wrote? Not so much living the high life but definitely not worried about her finances, although it seemed she found foul play around every corner. Not the kind of life I would want.

Oh, maybe I need to be writing murder mysteries? Or erotica. They do seem to sell well.

Nope. That’s not what God has called me to do. I write romance because the best romance is the one we have with our Savior. It’s real. It’s personal. It is life-changing. By His grace we have been given real-life love that reflects or mirrors that of our relationship to God.

I digress, but it was an important point.

The reality is, when I get to heaven, God isn’t going to ask about my book sales. He’s not even going to be worried about how many books or blog posts I’ve written. He will only be concerned with whether I accepted the free gift of salvation found only in Jesus Christ.

After that all the rest is a reward based on my obedience and the lives I influence for HIS glory while here on this planet.

That isn’t always reflected in book sales.

That might be the interaction I have at a craft fair with a young teen who loves to write. He or she may not even purchase my one of my books but I encouraged them to pursue their passion. If nothing else, good writing skills will always be an asset in any career field. It might be a friend I sit with to listen, love, and pray over. It might be the small group of people who meet in my home to study the work of another writer that encourages us to grow in our faith. It might be a student in a writing or theology class I’ve taught. None of which has anything to do with any book I’ve written.

None of that translates into book sales, does it?

I can do all the marketing, pay lots of money for ads, do interviews, and blog tours and it still might not make me or my publisher any more money. My books can be high quality without having a huge readership and income.

If one person’s life is helped. If they are encouraged in their faith or finally understand God’s love for the first time through a story God led me to write. That’s priceless.

The down side? That doesn’t help pay the bills for myself, my editor, publisher, cover artist, marketing person, or virtual assistant.

Maybe I’m not doing this marketing thing right. I’ve hired help and I’m working hard but I’ll admit to occassional discouragement when I see only two reviews on one of my favorite titles. Great reviews but I’m sure more than two people read that book. Reviews help others find great books. Sales also help. Even if you pick up my book at a church library or the public library, a review is sooo helpful to an author. Yes, it’s encouraging to know people love my stories. Reviews help other people find them as well.

I used to pay more attention to reviews and sales than I do now. They are not a reflection of my worth of value as a follower of Christ or an author, although some might make that corralation. Ultimely, I really won’t know the value or impact my words have had until I get to heaven.

In the meantime I’ll keep writing. I have learned over the years that it is the time spent with people, quality time, one-on-one, listening to their story, encouraging them, praying for them, that has greater eternal value. I’m not minimizing the hard work that I put in to writing and editing a novel or novella. It can be grueling at times. It takes discipline and saying no to other great things I might like to do. Reaching one vs many is the tension I live with but when the scales are off balance, I suspect it will always be in favor of the one.

Author Confessions: It’s All Been Done Before

Jul8
Reading Time: 5 minutes

Author Confessions: It’s All Been Done Before

Ecclesiastes 1:9 famously states: What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.

This collides horribly with our desire to be unique or feel like we are special or that no one has ever gone through what we have gone through. It’s a tightrope to walk between realizing the truth of that as not minimizing the struggles, challenges, traumas, that we all go through at one time or another on a world cursed by sin. Ouch.

In writing a story we are told to try to be unique, yet when it comes to marketing we are to compare our stories to similar authors or tales, while at the same time explaining why our book is different and the world needs this manuscript to be published. While this is more for non-fiction, it is sometimes applied to fiction as well.

As we learn and grow as humans we have “Aha” moments, right? Moments when we discover a truth or a unique hack that makes life make more sense or better. Often we don’t share those things because it may be foolish to others because “I was today-years-old when I learned….” Have you been there? I sure have!

Like when I found out that the best way to dry out my children’s wet shoes was to stuff them with newspaper. By morning they were dry. Amazing!

Social media has exposed us to so much information, so many “hacks”.  Lots of stories of personal triumph and tragedy. It can be overwhelming. But after a while it all starts to sound familiar, doesn’t it? People get sick. People die. Someone is grieving putting down a pet. Someone has a cancer. Someone is struggling financially. Someone has to move or is looking for a job. The list goes on but if you spend any time on social media you are familiar with pain and struggles. And the sales pitches.

When it comes to writing however, familiarity also rings true. While the exact combination of words and characterizations might be unique, there are similar story lines. The term used for them is plots. The more a readers consumes fiction, the more he or she will understand that there are some overarching plot lines. There is not a definitive list but here are some I’ve come across:

In Romance there are a few, called “tropes” that stand out as well and many overlap with the above plots:

I’ve put as many of my books into some of these categories but as you might be able to tell, there can be overlap and more than one “trope” in a book! This is not an exhaustive list by any means. There is a reason that some people love Hallmark books and movies, because they have a formula for their plots that works and for many that similarity is a comfort.

All that to say, hopefully the writing, in spite of any tropes, is good enough to keep the reader engaged to enjoy the journey even if it is perhaps similar to one someone else has read. As an editor I’ve had to reject books that were too similar to other books I was aware of. One especially was too similar to another by a famous author, and while I can’t accuse her of plagiarizing the work it was too similar for me to be comfortable with, which was sad because the writing was great.

There’s nothing new under the sun, yet as creative people, authors are still trying to create something fresh within the reality that it’s all been done before in some form or fashion. It is gratifying when a reader will tell me how a book surprised them. Even if something’s been done before I hope my readers will find enjoyment and perhaps learn something as they read my stories. If you find that an author has surprised you and you really enjoyed a book, please help them out by writing a review on Amazon so others can enjoy it as well. It really does help!