Why I started writing.

Our August topic is: What started you to write?

I can’t actually remember a time when I didn’t write. I was always scribbling something, somewhere. First with crayons, then with pencils and finally, joy of joys a fountain pen. The typewriter and computer came much, much later!

What I wrote seemed to be of far less importance than what I wrote with. My writing efforts were simply not appreciated by my family. At twelve-years-old, I was allowed to have the Girl comic as it was vetted and approved of by my parents for its educational qualities. From this source I began writing adventure stories for girls, one being a series about Virginia, Girl of the Golden West. My recollection of those early stories is that they were more than lurid, and I forgive my parents for their outright laughter on reading them.

I told stories to my children when they came along and we had tremendous fun with what we now call brainstorming. Each child had their chance to pick a topic, or start a story and off we would go, following the thread wherever it led us. I suppose I had always had a good imagination partly, I think, from being an early reader myself. I always had books around and made sure my children did, too. Because my daughter was into ponies, I decided to write a story about them for her thirteenth birthday.

I had no idea what I was doing, of course. I mistakenly thought writing chapters would be like writing lots of short stories and putting them together. Instead, I found it was hard work and I finished the book in time for my daughter's fifteenth birthday. But that whole process of putting a story together, like fitting pieces of a jigsaw together, fascinated and satisfied me like nothing else. I can only say I tinkered with writing from then on, cramped by a lack of confidence and no one to really share my ideas with.

It wasn’t until my late husband signed me up for a writing course that I got to grips with writing again. I found people who ‘got’ me, and I them. From small starts, I took up novel writing and now am happily working on book number eleven. Not a huge body of work, but one that satisfies me.

Visit these authors to see what inspired them.

  

Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/
Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea
Judith Copek http://lynx-sis.blogspot.com/
Dr. Bob Rich https://wp.me/p3Xihq-1ke
Beverley Bateman http://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/
A.J. Maguire  http://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/
Fiona McGier http://www.fionamcgier.com/
Margaret Fieland http://margaretfieland.wordpress.com
Rhobin L Courtright http://www.rhobinleecourtright.com

My Best Seller Badge

I am so proud to have been awarded a Books We Love Best Seller Badge! This is the culmination of a lot of hard work - not just by me as the author but also by my publisher, Jude Pittman. Jude's dedication to Books We Love is beyond anything I ever expected when I signed with the company.

Yes, I'd gone the find an editor/agent, traditional publisher route and never quite hit the right moment. As a senior, and two-times breast cancer survivor, I was also very much aware of what I wanted to achieve in what time I still have. Take note, not what my lifetime expectancy may be, but what I have now.

Getting published was my dream. Holding a book with my name on the cover was what it was all about for me. The fact that I might earn an income from it was a secondary consideration at that time. With each book I have written I have tried to make it better, which brings me to a comment I frequently hear when I talk to people about writing - 'Oh, I could write a book.'

Yes, you could. Anybody can but - and there is a but - are you prepared for the long haul? Big name authors, like big name actors, tend to not happen overnight. Some are truly gifted writers but they still have to put in the work of getting the story out of their heads and onto paper. Even though all writers have a different process, writing is a lonely occupation. I have only ever once met one author who could talk and write at the same time - during a very lively conversation around a table with several people involved she produced about 3000 words worth of work. I have no idea how much it needed to be edited, but the point here is that she got that many words out of her head and onto the page.

And there's another point - your work always needs to be edited and preferably not by you. Spell and grammar check are good but not perfect tools. The more you have learned your craft by reading, attending workshops and conferences, or being part of a writing group, the better your writing will be. You can learn to edit your work, especially to get rid of things like passive voice and filtering, the overuse of 'was', 'had', but those other eyes will spot things that you can and will miss. Cognitive science explains that a neural pathway is created when we do something right. Too bad that also happens when we do something wrong.  This builds both good and bad habits so it's easy for our minds to slip by default into existing neural pathways.

For me, writing is exciting. I'm not a fast writer by any means, but when the work is done, the cover revealed (thanks to Michelle Lee, Books We Love's artistic director) I know I've done the best I can. I may never be a New York Times best selling author, but my Books We Love best selling author badge means everything to me.

My guest this month. . . by Victoria Chatham

I am so pleased to introduce to you this month author A.M. Westerling. Not only is she a very good friend of mine, she is also one of my eagle-eyed critique partners.

We first met at a Calgary Association of Romance Writers of America (CaRWA) information evening, held at the Memorial Park Library in Calgary. Both of us had attended in the hopes of finding out more about the craft and business of writing romance. It was shortly before CaRWA hosted its first conference, Crossing the Publishing Threshold, in November 2004. Much has flowed beneath the bridge since then and, as well as I thought I knew Astrid, some of her answers surprised me!

1.     When and why did you start writing? What is it about writing that satisfies you the most?

Unlike a lot of authors, I never had a burning desire to write. I was quite happy to be a reader and I read one or two books a week. I discovered historical romance and I devoured every one I could get my hands on. The genre was popular at the time and publishers were pumping them out as fast as they could which meant the quality got diluted and some of them were so bad, I couldn’t even finish them. In fact, some of them were so bad, it occurred to me I could do better! But life was busy and I never pursued it any further.

Then in the early nineties, my husband and I started an engineering company which meant I was in the office with time on my hands as we didn’t have a lot of work in those early days. That was when I started to write. Our company became successful so I put that book aside and didn’t pick it up again until 2001, when we sold the company and retired. I did sub that book to a couple of editors but it didn’t sell and it’s my proverbial “manuscript under the bed.”

The thing that satisfies me the most is creating a new world and bringing new characters to life. If I do my job properly, they take over the story and what happens depends on them.

2.     What is one subject or genre you would never write about and why?

Erotica. Quite honestly, I don’t see the appeal. That’s not to say I don’t write sex scenes, I do, but I would consider my work as sexy historical romance and you could skip the scenes and not lose the thread of the story.

3.     Have you had a defining moment in your writing life that changed everything for you?

I had the opportunity to work one on one with author and writing instructor Mary Buckham (www.marybuckham.com) on my third manuscript. I learned so much from her about the craft of writing and she pointed out mistakes in my own work that I never noticed. ie: passive voice, raising story questions and who knew my characters actually needed goals?! My work improved leaps and bounds after that and this exercise turned into The Countess’ Lucky Charm.

4.     How did you feel when you held your first book in your hands?

A feeling of disbelief, as in, is this really happening to me?! Also pride in what I had accomplished.

5.     Do you read your reviews? If so, how do you celebrate the good and get over the bad?

I absolutely read my reviews and I’ll tweet or FB about it if I get a good one. I use the comments as learning tools, even the poor ones. Bad reviews don’t bother me at all because I don’t like everything I read either. As Jo Beverley said in one of the first workshops I ever attended, “not everyone will get my magic.”

6.     Have you ever judged any writing competitions? If you have, what about the process surprised you the most?

I judged the Emerald City Openers for a few years. What surprised me the most is how much I enjoyed the opportunity to provide helpful (I hope!) feedback and encouragement on what I had read. I could tell some of the entries came from beginning authors and I liked the feeling of being a mentor.  

FUN QUESTIONS:

1.     What keys on a keyboard do you not use?

The Function keys.

2.     Are you a glass half full or half empty kind of person? Or is the glass just malformed?

Definitely the glass is half full. Life is an adventure - try something new, follow your dream, smile at a stranger, make time for friends and family. Yes, I have my down days but every dark cloud has a silver lining. J

3. Which of the four seasons do you like/dislike the most and why?

I love spring. I love the feeling of renewal and the soft green of new growth. I love spending time out in the garden and getting dirt under my nails after a long Canadian winter. I love planning what I’m going to plant this year and deciding what little yard project to tackle. Besides, summer follows it and then I can enjoy the fruits of my labour!

4.     What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Camping with my sweetie. Anywhere, but particularly in northern British Columbia.

SPEED QUESTIONS: Straight YES/NO answers, unless you want to add a few words to qualify the answer. Have you ever:

1.     Lied about your age? No

2.     Won a contest? Yes. Earlier this year I won sideline passes for a Calgary Stampeders home game in the upcoming season.

3.     Ridden a motorcycle? Yes, as a passenger. Scared me silly, especially going around the corners!

4.     Watched the stars at night? Definitely yes! J See my above answer re: camping.

Please join me tomorrow, May 16th,  to check out some of Astrid's title. I promise you won't be disappointed!

Don't Waste Your Words by Victoria Chatham

To summarize for the round-robin topic: How does wording choice develop a story's character? How do you use and select your words?

I suspect all authors have had those wonderful moments of pure inspiration. That brilliant phrase that jolts you awake at 3 a.m. a line of dialogue sparkling with wit or characters so real you can feel them. You write as fast as you can to transcribe the images into words on the page. But what words do you use?

My word usage depends very much not only on the characters themselves but in what period I have set them. Contemporary settings require the use of very different words to those I would use in a historical setting. When I build a character, I consider what their family was like and what education they received, whether formal or not. Is my character a 19^th century Lord or Lady? Or is he a cowboy? Two sets of characters but requiring totally different words to describe them. The skill here is to pick the right words and only constant practice can serve, both from reading and extending your own vocabulary as you read.

We all know the devil is in the details, especially if you do not want a one-dimensional character. Picking a detail and embellishing it to paint a word picture takes time and balance. In my first ever attempt at a romance novel, a contemporary set in England, I wrote that ‘rain fell on London like a dirty sheet’. However, my critique partner pointed out that a dirty sheet was hardly romantic.

The same applied to ‘sunshine slid down the wall like melting butter’. My critiquer’s comment? Ugh, messy imagery. So what you as the writer might think descriptive may actually convey something entirely different to your reader. And just so you know, both phrases were deleted. Choosing the right words to convey what you see is the art and skill of writing. but then there is also the danger of going too far and boring your reader if you have tried to be too clever. When teaching an introductory creative class I encourage my students to use similes, but sparingly.

Tools I use for choosing words are Marc McCutcheon’s excellent book ‘Building Believable Characters’ which includes forty-eight words for describing noses. Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi have penned several books together beginning with ‘The Emotion Thesaurus’. Both books offer lists of words if you find yourself coming up short on a character’s details. If I feel I am coming close to repeating myself, I look for synonyms. Is there another word I can use without being a lazy writer? By that, I mean the buzzwords and phrases that crop up time and again particularly in romance novels.

In one book I read by a very well known NYT best-selling author, the heroine ‘shattered’ so many times I thought the poor girl, like Humpty Dumpty, could never be put together again. ‘Going over the edge’ and ‘her toes curled in her slippers’ are also done to death clichés. There are times when a cliché is the exact right combination of words to use, at others less so.

As writers we have vivid imaginations, it’s where a story comes from. But then comes the task of putting those stories into words and making the most of what tools we have to string those words together in a way that best entertains our readers.

I hope you’ll visit these other fine writers for their opinions.

A.J. Maguire http://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/

Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea
Marci Baunhttp://www.marcibaun.com/blog/
Margaret Fielandhttp://margaretfieland.wordpress.com
Beverley Batemanhttp://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/
Dr. Bob Richhttp://wp.me/p3Xihq-OB
Rachael Kosinskihttp://rachaelkosinski.weebly.com/
Judith Copekhttp://lynx-sis.blogspot.com/
Helena Fairfaxhttp://www.helenafairfax.com
Rhobin Courtrighthttp://www.rhobinleecourtright.com