Evelyn Jules: Tuesday Two Cents' Worth

Welcome to Tuesday Two Cents' Worth! Today, the very talented Evelyn Jules is shelling out some great writing wisdom. Read on!

Hello, all you writers out there! Teresa was kind enough to invite me to her blog to share some writing wisdom with all of you. You ready? Okay!

If there was one piece of writing advice I could share with others, it would be this: take risks. If you don’t take risks, you won’t make mistakes. If you don’t make mistakes, you won’t learn from them. Sometimes a risk can be something as simple as reaching out for a critique partner to look over your work. I know without a doubt I wouldn’t be where I am without my crit partner and fellow Team Awesome member, Margaret Ethridge. I never write anything without running it past her first, and the same goes for her.

You know that old expression—two heads are better than one? It’s never more true in the world of writing. We can read and re-read our own work until we’re ten seconds away from lighting it on fire and sprinkling the ashes over our morning toast. Or, on the flip side of things, we might think it’s the best. Thing. EVER. No one has ever written anything quite this awesome before, so I’ll just wait till all the big name publishers knock on my door and fight over it. Yeah...no. That only happens in Hollywood. Have a friend look it over! Yes, it’s agonizing having someone criticize your work, but why not make it the best it can possibly be before moving on to the next step? Odds are, you’ve invested a chunk of time and effort into your manuscript, so don’t cut corners at the end.

Last but not least, don’t give up. It’s so easy to throw in the towel. One bad writing week can turn into another and then another. You need to make time for it. Even if it’s only thirty minutes in your day. Even if you only manage to write 100 or 200 words, it’s something. How many words are on a blank page? ZERO. Just write! And remember, you are awesome! :)

Bio: Hailing from the Great White North, Evelyn Jules loves curling up on the couch with a hot toddy and a steamy book. Nothing warms a girl up faster than a little hanky-panky. When she’s not reading deliciously erotic tales, she’s weaving her own in hopes of warming her readers’ hearts and other parts! 

Thanks so much for listening! If you’d like to get to know me better and be friends and stuff, you can find me at the following locations:

My blog: http://evelynjules.blogspot.ca/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/EvelynJules

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EvelynJules

And here’s a link to my Amazon page filled with all my published titles: 

http://www.amazon.com/Evelyn-Jules/e/B008QP0PPG/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_

Weekend Writing Warriors: April 25, 2015

               Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly bloghop. Each week, participants sign up HERE at wewriwa.com, then post 8 sentences of their work, published or unpublished, to go live between noon, Saturday, and 9:00 AM Sunday EST. Then we visit each other and read, comment, critique, encourage--all those things that do a solitary writer's heart good. 
                 Snippet Sunday group from facebook--not us, but many of our participants do both, can be found HERE  

This is Chapter 2 from my SFR WIP, Across The Night Sky  where we're introduced to the male main character, Kuylrh--second in line to the throne in the Rialtan Empire.  The previously posted hunting scenes now segue into his meeting with the female MC. He's been collected (abducted) by an alien ship.  He's injured.  It's not important to know what a Sezketchee is right now. It's explained over the next two chapters in fleeting references. I've also changed the name of the beasts they are hunting from "abzions" to "ferabests" Final sentence last Sunday was: "He didn’t recognize the dialect of Sezket she used; in fact he was fairly sure, even with the lack of clarity accompanying the throbbing ache in his head, that it wasn’t Sezket at all.""

"Without warning there was movement directly in front of him. A blur of teeth, claws, and tangled fur came at him from out of the murksome space. The woman jumped between him and the attacking ferabest, swinging a stick, or maybe it was a lance or a sword? 

A Sezketchee warrior?  He really was confused.There was no such thing."

That's it. What works. What doesn't? I went to my latin dictionary to find a better sounding name (ferabests). Does that work--or have any suggestions? :-) I'm grateful for every comment you leave. :-)

Tanya Reimer: Tuesday Two Cents' Worth

Welcome to Tuesday 2 Cents' Worth, where authors and writers answer one question: If you could share one piece of writing advice with other writers, what would it be?

      I'm pleased to introduce you to Tanya Reimer, talented author, generous supporter of fellow writers--and owner of a great sense of humor. She'll be sharing her two cents today. 

      Take the stage, Tanya!

     I lived by this motto for a long time: Write because you love to, because you absolutely have to, and worry about publishing when it’s time.

     But what happened when I ironed out the technicalities and was staring at something that was… done? I discovered that while writing might be art, publishing is business. Writing and publishing are often thought about as one, but they aren’t the same. Many write and never publish. Some write to sell. Others fall somewhere in between. I’m glad I gave myself the freedom to create without the worry about selling. In other words, I wrote with dreams, and now, I publish with goals.

     When I left the comfort of my artistic world and ventured into the business realm, I got conflicting feedback. For example, I had a publisher ask for more setting and another wanting it cut. I thought about these things with both my creative and my business hat on. They were opposites. Which meant from a creative point of view, with a few tweaks, the book could be published. From a business point of view, my creative piece would not sell without a few tweaks. Even if I decided to self-publish, I was going to need a team of support from editors to readers and how many tweaks would they ask for? It put my creativity to question. Sure I am always willing to make more than a few tweaks, but! BUT! I was suddenly knee deep in the mud wondering why I couldn't just write for the market to begin with? Does creativity work that way? I reflected on my goal and my dreams. My dream was to be creative, but my goal was to publish. Can creativity be marketable? Should I force a piece into a particular market just to see it sold, and if so, which one?

     So what’s a writer to do? No matter what anyone says, despite the doubt and the panic; you are the artist. When you write, you learn about the creative side, (everything from grammar to plots) and when you’re ready to journey into that business aspect of writing, you must take the time to learn all you can about the business (everything from the market trends to which stories will compliment and drive your sales). Understand it as well as you did the creative aspect. This will allow you to stay in control of your work and make the right choices for your career.

ABOUT:

Tanya Reimer is the author of Ghosts on the Prairies published with Elsewhen Press (2014) and Petrified published with Sunbury Press (2014). She lives on the prairies where the tranquility inspires her not so peaceful speculative fiction. She is director of a non-profit Francophone community center, where she offers programming and services in French for all ages. She teaches social media safety for teens and their parents and offers one-on-one technology classes for seniors. 

Website: www.tanyareimerauthor.wix.com/books

Blog: www.tanyareimer.blogspot.com

Weekend Writing Warriors: April 19, 2015

               Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly bloghop. Each week, participants sign up HERE at wewriwa.com, then post 8 sentences of their work, published or unpublished, to go live between noon, Saturday, and 9:00 AM Sunday EST. Then we visit each other and read, comment, critique, encourage--all those things that do a solitary writer's heart good. 
                 Snippet Sunday group from facebook--not us, but many of our participants do both, can be found HERE  

This is Chapter 2 from my SFR WIP, Across The Night Sky  where we're introduced to the male main character, Kuylrh--second in line to the throne in the Rialtan Empire.  The previously posted hunting scenes now segue into his meeting with the female MC. He's been collected (abducted) by an alien ship.  He's injured.  It's not important to know what a Sezketchee is right now. It's explained over the next two chapters in fleeting references. This is very early in the story and I want to exclude as much back-story as possible. Final sentence last Sunday was: "He collapsed, closing his eyes to the dizzying pain."

"Hurried footsteps grew louder. A shadow appeared and then came to a stop in the doorway. Sweet Giver above, somehow in my dying hour, a Sezketchee has found her way to me. He could see her pale face, her eyes open wide while she scanned the area he was in. When she saw him, their eyes locked for just a moment. Then she moved toward him through the dusky space, walking on the balls of her feet, barely making a sound.

She knelt next to him and spoke, a question he thought,  indicated by the raised pitch at the end. He didn’t recognize the dialect of Sezket she used; in fact he was fairly sure, even with the lack of clarity accompanying the throbbing ache in his head, that it wasn’t Sezket at all."

That's it. What works. What doesn't? I'm grateful for every comment you leave. :-)

Susan Stuckey: Tuesday Two Cents' Worth

Welcome to Tuesday 2 Cents' Worth, where authors and writers answer one question: If you could share one piece of writing advice with other writers, what would it be?

      I'm pleased to introduce you to the very talented Susan Stuckey who will be generously sharing her two cents today. 

      Take the stage, Susan!

Teresa asked me if I’d be interested in writing a post answering the question “If there is one piece of writing advice you could share with other writers, what would it be?” I said yes, because Teresa is such a sweetheart--who could say no?

One minute (actually is was more like a couple of seconds) after I hit send on my acceptance, panic set in. Who was I to give writing advice to anyone? What could I say but reiterate one of the same memes as everyone else? Read! Write every day!, etc.

Then I realized that the answer could be found in two of the disciplines I studied in college: sociology and psychology. I considered our age of “internet interaction” filled with the flame wars, bullying, and negativity. I realized that my advice would not directly be about writing, but something related.

I went back to one of my favorite poems -- specifically the last two lines of this verse:

"The ill-timed truth we might have kept--

Who knows how sharp it pierced and stung?

The word we had not sense to say--

Who knows how grandly it had rung!”

[from The Fools Prayer by Edward Roland Sill]

     My advice is to have sense, and say those truthful words that “grandly ring” to everyone but especially fellow writers. Offer other writers help and support. Helping someone else promote their publication does not diminish your possibilities of sales, it increases them.

     Perhaps you don’t believe you can promote their book to your fans because you write YA or MG and theirs is erotica or adult horror or ??? There are other ways to say the word that rings grandly. Buy their book. Leave a review. Attend their Facebook party. Congratulate them on publication for a job well done.    There are untold ways to show the “kind heart” and give support.

     And when someone supports you, either verbally or by action, THANK THEM!

     Small kindnesses make large waves.

*****

BIO: Currently (mostly) retired, but 'back in the day' Susan was a meek, mild-mannered, self-effacing accountant/auditor but after 5:00 her imagination broke free. She either played with historical stories, or in the magical World of Aldura she created.

Besides playing in fantasy worlds and/or historical times, Susan dabbles in various hobbies, loves to try new recipes, and is the servant of multiple fur-children (both feline and canine).

LINKS:

Website/blog: http://susan-stuckey.storytellersinn.com

Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Susan-Stuckey-Author/405863746200970?ref=hl

Twitter handle: @SusanStuckey3

Amazon US Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Susan-Stuckey/e/B00F961U04/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1392130321&sr=8-1