FACT: Authors often engage in unique, active, or intellectual hobbies that enrich their storytelling.
Ernest Hemingway’s big-game hunting and Agatha Christie’s archaeology, to mention a few.
Do you, as an author, include your hobbies or your personal culinary choices, etc., in your stories? Or, as a reader, are you drawn into the story because of the sensory details and "realistic'' tone?
I know my choice of location/setting is from personal experience. While the name of my city may be fictitious, it is based on a 'real-life' place.
What about your hobbies?
As a writer, do you find your heroine/hero likes to cook, play chess, or tend to a garden?
I like to include my pursuits. I find it enriches the characters of my stories. The reader will gain insite to a character. One pursuit will highlight a character's patience; another will highlight a skill, creativity, or impatience.
From a reader's perspective?
Care must be given not to "over tell" or to convert my readers.
I dislike green peas. It doesn't matter how the peas are seasoned, hidden, or blended. I will 'gage' when I try to swallow them.
There are certain 'troups' that will not follow; certain 'historical periods" I have no interest in reading.
I recognize this to be a universal truth.
Do not be discouraged. I know a "great teaser", book cover, or promo can/will entice a new reader to purchase a book.
However, dedicated fans are really purchasing "your voice". The 'author's' voice.
The way you weave your story, the tone, the humor/emotional intensity.
It is the unique way you add bits of reality into your 'fictitious world.' Making your story a reality for your reader.
This post focuses on my rose gardens.
The vivid colors, the scents, and, yes-- the thorns!
Authors, what bits of yourself do you add to your stories?
Readers, what draws you into the stories by your favorite authors?
What plot would you like to see? What hero do you adore?
Your favorite novel?
What story heroine is most like "you"?
Hobbies?
I have many.
Today, I'll share my rose garden(s).
While many of you are shoveling snow to melt, I'm dealing with a heat wave of 91 degrees / 32 Celsius.
Happy Reading and Listening, (Lynx is now an audiobook!!)
Connie
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Links:
books2read.com
https://www.overdrive.com/search?q=connie+vines
Amazon.com Search: Connie Vines ebook or audio
https://books.apple.com/us/author/connie-vines/id624802082 (audio and ebooks)
Also available at your favorite online book seller!
Where's Connie?
Instagram/Twitter (X), Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and my website: connievines-author.com
Love the roses. I still have mounds of snow covering my rose bushes. Someday. My oddest habit is watching my neighborhood and inventing stories using the characters. The murder series is filled with neighbors and their families suitably changed
ReplyDeleteLove this, Connie. I also have bits of myself in my stories. I once "did away" with a really terrible boss I had in real life. Writing is the perfect way to get away with murder. I hope you keep entertaining us with great stories.
ReplyDeleteI am a Tai-Chi practitioner and instructor, and my current series does have Tai-Chi heroines. The first book, CHI WARRIOR, came out last November. Working on book 2 to be released this November. Beautiful roses. It's also in the 90s where I live, but it's unusual. Love your roses. Thanks for sharing.
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