Hey everyone,
So I finally got my own domain and have set WordPress up on there.
At the moment, I’m using a theme at the moment, which I quite like, but I’m still hoping to have a custom design done for me. Just waiting for my designer to free up their schedule a little.
Anyway, without further ado my new domain is http://www.elizabethcarolinesays.co.uk/
Be sure to update your bookmarks!
Thanks,
Liz.
Hi,
This is just a quick one, as I don’t have much to share in the way of resources. But I do have some links to two really useful websites.
http://www.rachellegardner.com/
Rachelle Gardner is a literary agent and she’s also worked as an editor and ghost writer. She has some great posts for new authors and here you can see her in an interview where she gives some good advice.
Interview with Rachelle Gardner
The second website is http://janefriedman.com/
Jane Friedman has had more than 15 years in the publishing industry and I find her blog an amazing resource. she covers most subjects that a new writer would need information on. I’m sure once you check out her blog you’ll want to follow!
So sorry that’s all I’ve got for you this post. I did want to add a free gift, but as I’m not actually feeling too well right now I just couldn’t think of something suitable. If you have any ideas of what would be a great gift for one lucky reader (I’ll have to devise some form of competition) then please let me know.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Liz.
Hi everyone,
Today I am going to share some common questions that I came across while I was in the process of writing my first book. If you have any other questions that you would like the answer to please let me know and I’ll see what I can do about providing you with an answer.
1. What are the different point of views (POVs) that can be used?
There are three main POVs that you can write in when it comes to writing your book.
– Third person omniscient
This is when you write the story from the POV of of a narrator who knows all the thoughts and feelings of all of the characters and he can move from one character POV to another. This is known as head hopping, as you can constantly move from one characters mind to another characters mind. I hear this isn’t the favourite form of writing for editors, as they believe it distract the reader and breaks their connection with the characters.
I suppose there are examples of good head hopping and bad head hopping, but I cant think of any of the latter. In general it’s never bothered me when the POV changes from time to time.
I think a rule to follow here if you want to write in 3rd person omniscient is not to change the POV too rapidly and definitely not mid sentence. At least leave it to a new paragraph or scene even, when you want to change.
– Third person limited
I think this is the most common form of POV and this is when you write the story from the POV of one character. Throughout the story you are limited to their thoughts and feelings. So although you are interacting with and describing the other characters, you wouldn’t normally describe how they feel unless it was in the way our main character perceives them.
– First person
Similar to third person limited, but this time you are actually telling the story from a first person POV. Rather than saying he or she as you would in 3rd person, you would use I. I do enjoy this form of story telling as it really brings people into the story as if they are experiencing themselves.
– There is another type of POV which is Second person (you), however I don’t think this is a popular type of narration and is only really used in certain types of literature. I don’t know any examples of this type of literature except for those interactive mysteries we used to get when we were kids. (Anyone remember them?)
2. Which POV is the best?
I don’t think there is a hard rule to this, it really depends on the type of story that you’re writing and the type of connection you are trying to build with your audience
I think first person can create a very intimate relationship with the protagonist as your reader is directly experiencing what the protagonist is. But this can also work well in third person limited.
Third person omniscient would probably build the weakest relationship to any one character, but its a great way to tell a complex story And bring your reader right into the middle of the action.
3. How will I know when my story is ready to publish?
The first thing I would advise you to do is to get your story beta read. You can do this by simply sharing it amongst friends and family and getting their opinions on any plot holes or mistakes. If you prefer a professional critique you can send it to somebody to read and even edit for grammar/ spelling or whatever else is needed. This can be a bit of an investment depending on the size of your story.
4. Is self publishing or traditional publishing better?
I suppose both have their pros and cons.
With self publishing the main pro is that you are in full control of the content of your story and will generally be receiving all of the profits. The biggest con with self publishing is that you will be responsible for all the marketing and audience building for you book.
This, however, is the greatest pro of traditional publishing. Whoever chooses to publish your book wants it to sell just as much as you do, maybe even more (they’ve already invested money in its printing and storing) so you don’t have to do much in the way of marketing. Once a publisher accepts your work you will normally be paid an upfront fee and then once sales reach a certain point (enough sales have been made to pay the publisher back for their initial advance) you will normally receive a fee per book sold.
I think the biggest con is that it can be a long process before being accepted by a publisher.
5. How do I go about traditional publishing?
Well, there are actually 3 ways you can do this.
– Buy a publishing firm and then simply get your book published. Definitely the easiest way if you have a few million to spare. Assuming you don’t though, there’s still hope.
– Contact the editors for publishing offices yourself and see if they will accept your book for publishing. This can be along and tedious process, and I wouldn’t recommend it unless you have done thorough research into what’s involved. Agents know how to deal with editors and will take care of all the negotiations for you. If you do decide to do this alone, be careful!
– Find an agent who will accept the task of getting your book published. Finding an agent can be a pretty long task too, but once they accept you they’ll do all the hard work of finding a publisher for you. The great thing about agents is that you don’t pay anything upfront, they’ll take their commission (normally 15%) when a publisher accepts you. The only problem here is that as they don’t take payment, they’ll only accept work they think is worth the risk for them. So make sure you refine your idea and polish your manuscript as best you can before sending it off to an agent.
6. How do I get an agent?
Its basically a case of finding agents who deal with your genre of work and asking them if they would accept yours. Normally you would need to send them a cover letter, a synopsis of the book, and the first few chapters. If they enjoy what you’ve sent so far they will contact you for more information. For more information on finding an agent visit The Writer Workshop.
I hope this has helped with any initial questions that you may have. If you have any more feel free to contact me.
Thanks for stopping by.
Liz.
Haha, so this is another hard one, (one of the reasons I’m loving this challenge). I can’t really say I’m an authority on the subject of writing, but there are experts and there are relative experts. I can safely say I’m the latter at the moment, there may be someone who’s even more of a newbie than me that I can offer some tips to. So I guess this post will be a few tips on some things that helped me when it came to writing my first book.
Show, don’t tell
This was a piece of advice I came across alot when I started reading up about writing, and it can really help you to set the tone of your piece. On first glance the meaning may not seem obvious, I mean it’s a written story that you’re telling so how are you going to ‘show’ things. Well, the meaning of showing is basically getting a little deeper that just stating a fact. Remember you’re building up a world of characters that you want people to get familiar with. So for example:
Jill was scared as she walked down the corridor – This is an example of telling, you’re simply letting them know what’s happening.
However,
Jill trembled as she cautiously walked down the corridor – I haven’t mentioned that she’s scared, but you can tell she is scared because of how she is behaving. This is an example of showing. You can use this technique to create a closeness to the story, but don’t feel you have to overdue it. Sometimes it is okay to simply tell us what’s happening.
Use a break in the dialogue
If you have a fairly long sentence of dialogue and you need to add a he said or she said, always add it as early as possible. So instead of saying:
“No, I’m going to take you all back to the house and then I’ll figure out what I should do next.” he said.
Try:
“No,” he said, “I’m going to take you all back to the house and then I’ll figure out what I should do next.”
Don’t be scared to use ‘said’
This was a big error I was falling into. I felt I always need to use a variation of the word said whenever there was a dialogue going on. So in any dialogue I would use ‘he said’ a few times but the rest of the conversation would be: he stated, she commented, he added, she remarked. I even used words like rebuked.
Okay, I’m not saying never use these words, but there is nothing wrong with just saying, ‘he said’, ‘she said’. If you want to show that the person is speaking in a rebuking way, you don’t really need to state it. The rest of the dialogue and interaction should show that they are rebuking someone.
Try to use all the senses
When you’re writing a story you really want to draw your readers into the world and the lives of the people that you have created. To do this you need to stimulate all of their senses. So you want to let them know the odor that the neighbour’s car had the day your character reluctantly took a ride with him. Or the way his skin felt the first time she brushed her hand along his face.
Always keep it natural
A great way to do this is to constantly re-read what you’ve written or have a friend read over it and tell you what they think. Alot of the time when I am writing I just type it as it comes to my head. Then I’ll go over the chapter a few times and each time I’ll find something where it doesn’t quite sound right. A few examples:
Unnatural dialogue – We’re so engrossed in trying to tell a story sometimes we forget to simply write a dialogue in the way that people really speak.
Not using contractions – It can get tiresome reading ‘I will’, ‘I can not’, ‘I will not’. Just write ‘I’ll’, ‘I can’t’, ‘I won’t’. It will let the story flow better.
Using passive voice – I don’t know how I managed to write a few of my sentences this way as it sounded totally unnatural when I read them back. But I guess as your trying to explain something sometimes they just come out passively. Always lean towards an active voice instead. An example would be:
The bin was kicked over by the boy – Passive voice
The boy kicked the bin over – Active voice
Well, that’s all I’ve got right now. I hope someone has found some benefit from this post, and I actually am going to be using this as a feature in the future where I’ll be adding any tips or advice that I think will be helpful to new writers. Thanks for stopping by!
Liz.
Hiya,
So this one was a little hard, because I’m not sure exactly what motivated me to finally start putting pen to paper (or at least hitting the keyboard). I don’t think it was any one thing, it was more like a series of small things.
I mentioned in the last post that I have always been a lover of books, and that was no exaggeration. For as long as I can remember I would have a supply of books that I was slowly making my way through. As a young girl I was very much into Dr Suess and later Roald Dahl books, enjoying the comedy and silliness of the stories, but once I started High School, my taste in books evolved (although I still do like a bit of silliness!).
I can still remember the first book I took home from the school library and how it felt to be stranded on a tropical island with a group of school boys, I even remember the sound of the conch! Yes, William Golding’s ‘Lord of the flies’ is the first book that totally transported me and is still one of my favourites.
Not that I have a really troublesome life, infact I quite like my own life. I have a great husband and some really adorable children (who are currently my number 1 fans). But it’s still great to just sometimes put my feet up and try walking in the shoes of someone else for a while and I find reading more of an escape than watching a movie. I feel you get much more of an insight into how the characters feel and their drives and motivations when you read their inner thoughts than when an actor portrays their interpretation of the character.
So I guess it was my love of stories that got me into story telling. I’ve always made up the odd story for friends, and I found my storytelling increased as my children grew older. However, attempting to write my stories for the public wasn’t something I ever considered until not too long ago. I’m naturally a very shy person, to be honest it was only certain incidents that I went through with my children that started to bring me out of my shell a little. Any mother out there would understand the new array of people that become a part of their lives after they have children. From health professionals, to educators and even the parents of your children’s friends. Eventually you have to open up a little and learn to express your opinion publicly.
But still the thought of sharing a story that I have written, what I consider the inner workings of a persons mind, would have been quite nerve wreaking a few years back. I think one of the first catalysts was the Twilight stories that came out not too long ago. I hadn’t read them at first and had heard alot of mixed reviews so when one of my nieces left a copy at my house one night I wasn’t too sure what to expect. I have to admit, I did enjoy the Twilight series!
You see I don’t believe there is one hard rule when it comes to writing. Yes, there are Great writers who can make you actually believe that you experiencing whatever they are writing about, due to their style and their voice. But there are also people who can tell a great story.
I learnt several lessons like this over time I also came across the story of the recent best seller called Fifty shades of Grey (which ironically began as a Twilight fan fiction story). Now this isn’t a book I have read or have any intention to read (absolutely no offence to the author, it’s just not my style), but I was amazed at the story of the author and how she managed to get some notes she had done on her Blackberry phone turned into a best seller. It just goes to show, if you have a story to tell, chances are there are enough people out there with similar likes and interests to you to actually want to hear what you have to say.
The final blow was when I was sitting with my children one day. We were setting up a few tasks to do over their holiday and I was suggesting they all (the elder ones anyway) write a story about something. So we found a free online course which went through how to prepare yourself, setting up your characters and story plot, and finally went through to how to start writing. I went through the course with them as an encouragement and found that I actually couldn’t stop writing once I had started. Before I knew it I had my first 23 chapter book written. I’ve been over it a few times with editions, etc and then finally took a deep breath and sent it off to an agent.
I haven’t heard anything yet (they said they might take a few weeks to respond), but I am feeling alot more confident and if I do get a rejection I’m ready for the next phase.
So that’s my story and that’s how I came to where I am now. If you had asked me a few years ago if I would be sending a book off to an agent for publishing and blogging about my progress online, I would have laughed. But things happen for a reason, so I’m just waiting to see what the nest chapter in my story will be.
Hope you enjoyed my story,
Liz.
Hi,
I decided to take the Alex Beadon blogging challenge so hopefully you will be hearing from me everyday over the next 7 days. I know I’ve started the challenge a tad late, but I’m determined to finish it, it’s time to get my voice out there so people can hear it … I am an aspiring writer after all.
So firstly, I just wanted to talk about who I think would enjoy this blog.
I guess the people who would enjoy it most are people like me! Woman who don’t take themselves too seriously and can enjoy a good piece of light hearted literature. I also create alot of young adult fiction, which I share with my two teenage daughters and they greatly enjoy my stories, so I think my target market would range from teenage girls to grown women who just want a quick escape.
The reason I aim my blog and work at these type of people is basically because I am one, and I used to be a teenager who loved books. I loved just sitting (or lying) in my room for hours with a good book and just allowing my imagination to run wild as I created the scenery and became fully immersed in whatever I was reading about. I would say that I have an eclectic taste in stories, ranging from thrillers to mystery and serious drama, but my true love is romance. My love of stories grew until I found my head became full of stories that I needed to tell.
I would love anyone visiting my blog or reading my work to just be able to take 30 minutes out of this rat race of life and escape for a while as they lived out the joys and trials of somebody else.
I hope you enjoy visiting this blog, please let me know if there is anything in particular that you would like to hear about.
Liz.
Hi everyone,
I know it’s been a while and I know I promised a brand new look aswell as a book update. unfortunately, I’ve been suffering from a bout of illness, but hopefully I am on the path back to optimal health and I intend to do a lot more posting once I am. And I am in talks with designer/developer now so hopefully good things will happen soon.
Still waiting for an answer from the first agent that I contacted about my first book. I know finding an agent can be a long and daunting task, but I decided to start off with just approaching one and praying for the best, we’ll see.
Anyway, I’ll keep you all informed.
Keep well.
Hi,
I haven’t posted anything for a long time as I have been really busy trying to finish the first story, so i thought I would give everybody a quick update.
I’m working hard on some edits at the moment trying to bring the book to it’s final draft and prepare it for publishing. But before it’s up for publishing I’ll be sure to give you a full summary of what the first story is called and what its about. Sorry for the secrecy just keeping everyone in suspense 🙂
I’ll be sure to get another up date to you shortly (as well as starting on the site refurbishment!)
Peace.
Hi and welcome to my website,
Please excuse the current look and content of the site. i will be giving the website a makeover over the next few weeks/months as well as adding content, including news about my books which are in various stages of revision and will be released soon.
Please save me/add me and look forward to recieving some updates about my progress.
Thanks,
Liz.
elizabethcarolinesays 