Having Trouble Finding the Perfect Book? By Connie Vines #BWLPublishing, #Multiple Genre Stories, #Fiction Writing

 Romance, Mystery, Suspense, or True Crime—every reader and every writer has a favorite genre they automatically reach for in a book store or download as an ebook. 

While writers and publishers must label the genre of their books so booksellers know where to place them, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to define 'genre.'

Cross-genre Fiction: Romance/Mystery, YA books read by adults (labeled New Adult), and Historical SciFi (time travel) are now commonplace. 

The genres are mingling. 

Yet, the label Woman's Fiction is still alive and well. What exactly is Woman's Fiction? 

When men write novels with male characters, do we slap the label Men's Fiction on the bookshelf? No, we call it Fiction.

But I regress...  

Urban Fantasy, New Age (famous again), and Romanstasy.

Besides knowing the genre required extensive world-building, I needed to familiarize myself with this subgenre. 

Romantic fantasy (hence, Romanatasy) is a subgenre of fantasy fiction that combines fantasy and romance. It describes a fantasy story using many of the elements and conventions of the chivalric romance genre. One of the key features of romantic fantasy is the focus on social, political, and romantic relationships.

As a reader, I devour nonfiction and routinely watch PBS historical documentaries. The Chronicles of Narnia (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, etc.) were my favorite childhood novels, shoving my Nancy Drew Mysteries into second place. However, the idea of creating a new world complete with maps, rules, foods, animals, and evil bad guys would give me significant anxiety and nightmares. 

I write YA historical fiction, RomCom, Romance, and Romantic Suspense. I also love my (non-lethal) Zombies, Vampires, Werewolves, etc. 

World-building? 

Knowing me, I'd become fixated on developing a cookbook. 

Do you have a favorite genre?

Or is there a genre mashup you love to read? Tell me all about it :)

Don't be shy; add a comment or two or even three. After all, I'm probably only one of half a dozen people who liked the movie "Cowboys and Aliens" starring Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford.

Where's Connie?

To find/ follow me, purchase my books, or just see photos of my pups, the links are listed below :)

Happy Reading,

Connie

Sidebar: The January 2024 article I wrote on the BWL Insider Author Blog, "Everyone Wants to Write a Book," appears on a "for writers" Pinterest site. (full credit is given to me and the bwlauthors.blogspot.com website, along with a link).

BWL: https://bookswelove.net

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BLOG with links: Dishin It Out

Website: https//www.connievines-author.com

Follow Connie Vines, Author, on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter

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Thoughts About Writing A Novel ~ Theme by Rosemary Morris

To learn more about Rosemary and her work please click on the image above.

Thoughts about Writing a Novel - Theme

 

The theme of a novel is different to the plot. It is the subject. The plot is action, it shows the reader what happens and answers the questions, Who, What, When, Where and How. The theme is often abstract and drives the plot forward. It might focus on the cause of conflict or a main character’s goals. An effective theme should not overpower the plot. It should be used as a background - the characters’ experience, the author’s individual style and word pictures which tie theme and plot together. The beginning of the novel should indicate the theme.

Some themes can be applied to any time and at any place e.g., conflict between family members, others are specific such as an event that could only take place in a country during a particular time, for example, the London Blitz in the 2^nd World War or an issue such as women’s suffrage. Religious intolerance or another form of intolerance also provide strong themes.

Emotion is a thread which can run through a novel and be employed as a theme that creates conflict, for example, any one of the following, fear, greed, hatred, jealousy, loneliness, love, revenge.

Explicit sex is also a theme but, although my novels are sensual, it is not one of my chosen ones.

www.rosemarymorris.

 

Rosemary Morris published by BooksWeLove

 

http://bookswelove.net/authors/morris-rosemary

 

 

Thoughts About How to Write A Novel by Rosemary Morris

 

To discover more about Rosemary please click on the image above.

Thoughts About How to Write a Novel

 

I can’t remember how many times people have told me they would write a novel if they had time. Serious authors, published or unpublished, find time. It is important to establish a routine. I recommend an achievable schedule, fifteen minutes or more a day, a fixed period at the weekends, or writing a set number of words every day.

If you have an idea, don’t dream about writing. Begin with the first sentence and continue to the end. Then revise and edit the drafts until the final one, in the correct format, is ready to submit to an agent or publisher. If your novel is rejected, don’t be discouraged, either polish your novel or begin a new one.

I wrote eight novels before one was accepted. By then, I knew more about how to write. I revised five of my earlier novels. Each year, I submitted one to the Romantic Novelists Association for a reader’s report. Subsequently, each novel was accepted for publication.

Whatever you write requires self-discipline and determination. Suppose you aim to write a novel which is 75,000 words. If you write 1,000 words a day you will finish the first draft in 75 days. If you write 500 words a day you will finish it in 150 days.

No matter how good our ideas are, we need to master the art of writing.  Showing the reader what happens instead of telling is important.

 For example, the following tells the reader what happened, but it is not interesting.

‘Zoe was crying because she fell over and scraped her knees.’ 

The revised sentence shows what happened.

‘Zoe raced down the hill after her ball. She ran faster, slipped, and scraped her knees on the pavement. Blood poured down her legs. She burst into tears.”

Our first drafts require revision in which we show instead of telling. Also, we must check the spelling and grammar, and, to avoid repetition, Use the following words, which tell instead of showing, with caution. As, as if, has, has been, had, had been, very, was, said, was and were.

Check to make sure words or phrases are not frequently repeated. For example, when editing a final draft, I realised my characters cleared their throats too often before they spoke, that I frequently described the expressions in their eyes, and the hero and heroine smiled repeatedly.

Research is important. We shouldn’t take anything for granted. If we get a fact wrong a reader might lose faith in us. If we write fantasy or science fiction, the world we create must be believable.

Books on How to Write, Writing Magazines, Courses and Workshops for Writers, a Writer’s Circle, which meets regularly and offers constructive criticism, and an online critique group can helpful.

It isn’t enough for us to have a good idea for an article, non-fiction book, a poem, a short story, novella, or a novel, we must write to the best of our ability.

 

To read my classical historical romances with twists in the tale, set in Edward II’s reign, Queen Anne Stuart’s reign, and the Regency era, please visit my website to read the first three chapters

 

www.rosemarymorris.co.uk

 

Rosemary’s novels are available from Amazon and Books We Love Publishers:

https://bookswelove.net/morris-rosemary/

Can anyone write a novel?

 

https://bookswelove.net/martin-paula/

Can anyone write a novel?

One of my last talks before Covid struck was to a local book club. It was a similar talk to several I have done in the past, as I talked about my writing ‘career’, including the differences between writing in the 1960s and writing today, and then giving some examples of where my ideas come from.

At the end of previous talks, I’ve had various questions, ranging from ‘How much research do you have to do?’ to ‘How much do you earn? (to which I usually reply, ‘Probably not even as much as J.K. Rowling would earn for one page of her Harry Potter novels!’)

This time I had a different question. Someone said, “They say there is a novel in everyone. Do you think anyone can write one?’

I had to think on my feet! In the end I said something like, “First I think you have to want to write and then you have to make the time to do it, rather than just write when you happen to have some spare time or feel like writing. It can take a lot of time and hard work – not just the actual writing, but also the research you need to do, even for a contemporary novel. You might also have to learn about plotting, using dialogue, and developing your characters, and you need to have a good grasp of grammar, punctuation and spelling.”

That’s a summary of my ‘off the cuff’ answer, which I’m aware (a) might have over-emphasised the time and hard work elements but (b) at the same time, only covered part of what is involved in writing a novel.

While we were having a cup of tea and cake afterwards, someone else said to me, “I couldn’t write a novel. I don’t have the imagination to create a story.”

On my way home, I thought about this and realised this person was right. The need/desire to write (which means you make the time to do it) needs to be combined with the imagination to create characters and their story. You can learn all the other things (and indeed, we all learn as we go along).

What do you think? Can anyone write a novel? And how would you have answered that question?

Find me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/paulamartinromances

Link to my Amazon author page:  author.to/PMamazon