Rules, Rules, Rules by Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

 

https://www.bookswelove.com/donaldson-yarmey-joan/

Rules, Rules, Rules.

Ever since I began writing I have been told how to do it. There are rules on how to begin the story, what to have in the story, how to end the story. So I have listed some of the rules I have found and not necessarily followed.

Here are a few Don’ts.

Don’t assume there is any single path or playbook writers need to follow.

Don’t try to write like your favorite writer. 

Don’t worry about whether you should outline or not, whether you should write what you know, whether you should edit as you go along or at the end.

Don’t ever get complacent about the basics: good spelling, healthy mechanics, sound grammar.

Don’t ever write to satisfy a market trend or make a quick buck. By the time such a book is ready to go, the trend will likely have passed.

Don't try to follow some set plot formula.

Don't put in a lot of fluffy, unimportant stuff that the reader is going to skip.

Don’t ever assume it will be easy.

Don’t ever stop reading.

Don’t be afraid to give up … on your present manuscript. Sometimes, a story just doesn’t work. But, don’t ever give up writing. Writers write. It’s what we do. It’s what we have to do.

Here are some Do's.

Do grab the reader's attention at the beginning by establishing the protagonist, the setting, and the mood.

Do have everything in a story caused by the action or event that precedes it.

Do have the story about a person who wants something but cannot get it.

Do have a vulnerable character, the right setting, and meaningful choices. Tension is at the heart of story and unmet desire is at the heart of tension.

Do create more and more tension as the story continues by having setbacks, crises, and antagonism. You won't have a story until something goes wrong.

Do have the protagonist making a discovery that will change his life by the end of the story.

Do the writing first then worry about inserting breaks and chapters.

Here are some rules on the personal side.

Don’t spend your time waiting to hear back from an agent or publisher. Get to work on your next book or idea while you’re querying.

Don’t get mad at someone for the feedback they give you. No piece of writing is perfect.

Don’t forget to get out once in a while and enjoy the other parts of your life.

Here are a few dubious rules, which I have seen broken in many best sellers.

Don't open your book with weather.

Don’t have a prologue.

Don’t use any other word other than said to carry dialogue. (I personally find it very boring to read said all the time. How does the reader know if the character is angry if he says 'said' instead of 'shouted'? "Get out of here." can be said softly, said through clenched teeth, said angrily, shouted). You need to show emotion.

Don’t use an adverb to modify the word said. (see last statement) Keep exclamation points to a minimum. (Again see above).

Avoid detailed description of characters, settings and objects.

And now some quotes about writing from famous writers.

“The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress.”—Philip Roth

“Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.” —George Orwell

“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”—Ernest Hemingway

“Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works.”—Virginia Woolf

“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book.”—Samuel Johnson

“If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can’t allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative.”—Elmore Leonard

“Write. Rewrite. When not writing or rewriting, read. I know of no shortcuts.”—Larry L. King

“There are no laws for the novel. There never have been, nor can there ever be.”—Doris Lessing

“Style means the right word. The rest matters little.”—Jules Renard

“Style is to forget all styles.”—Jules Renard

“I do not over-intellectualize the production process. I try to keep it simple: Tell the damned story.”—Tom Clancy

“Don’t expect the puppets of your mind to become the people of your story. If they are not realities in your own mind, there is no mysterious alchemy in ink and paper that will turn wooden figures into flesh and blood.”—Leslie Gordon Barnard

“Plot is people. Human emotions and desires founded on the realities of life, working at cross purposes, getting hotter and fiercer as they strike against each other until finally there’s an explosion—that’s Plot.”—Leigh Brackett, WD

“The first sentence can’t be written until the final sentence is written.”—Joyce Carol Oates

“When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done.”—Stephen King

“You do not have to explain every single drop of water contained in a rain barrel. You have to explain one drop—H₂O. The reader will get it.”—George Singleton

“When I say work I only mean writing. Everything else is just odd jobs.”—Margaret Laurence

“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is … the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”—Mark Twain 

“People say, ‘What advice do you have for people who want to be writers?’ I say, they don’t really need advice, they know they want to be writers, and they’re gonna do it. Those people who know that they really want to do this and are cut out for it, they know it.”—R.L. Stine  

“Beware of advice—even this.”—Carl Sandburg

What's In A Name by Victoria Chatham

 

AVAILABLE HERE

The origin of names goes so far back into history, there is more than one truth or theory, depending on the era, the culture, and what part of the world a character comes from.

 What is clear is that names mostly stemmed from a need for identity and connection within families and communities.

People were often named for the trade in which they were skilled like the English surnames Smith, Baker, Archer, and Tyler, or after the towns or countries from where they originated like York, Hamilton, or French.

First names were often handed down from father to son, mother to daughter, which could get confusing if you had a long line of Edwards or Marys and even more so if, like the boxer George Foreman, all his five sons were named George. Today it seems anyone can name a child anything and often seems more by fancy than reason.

As an author of historical romance, I have most of my work done for me as all I need do is Google the popular male and female names for any given year and go from there. Please note: Google is a starting point, not the be-all and end-all for any type of research. I have also used parish records and names found on tombstones to be full of information, too.

Light from Beyond
All-free-download.com

Because my settings are mostly English, I can pinpoint the county my characters populate and run a list of names for that area. My next Regency romance is set in the New Forest in the county of Hampshire, England, so I am currently researching surnames from that area in the early 1800s.

Once I have a list of names, I consider how easy those names are to pronounce and if the first and second names not only fit together, but also suit my characters. Into that mix I must consider the intricacies of the British peerage if I include lords and ladies in my books. Burke’s Peerage is an invaluable resource for this.

One thing that I find frustrating is when I come across a name in a book and have no knowledge of how to pronounce it. In this instance Google is my friend, as you can search ‘how to pronounce’ whatever the name is and listen to the result. That is why I would never use an invented name in any of my books unless I can qualify it in some way for my reader to easily understand it.

In my current work in progress, a contemporary western romantic suspense, my female character is Callie. Where did that come from? Her mother (like mine!) loved calla lilies, so I have worked that into the story. It is just a small detail which I think (hope) gives my character a little more reality.

​Victoria Chatham

  AT BOOKS WE LOVE

 ON FACEBOOK

 MY WEBSITE

A summer festival gone awry - Dean L. Hovey

 I sat, fingers poised over the keyboard, ready to write the next Whistling Pines cozy,  but nothing came to mind. NOTHING. My perceptive wife looked at me and asked, "What's wrong?" I explained my dilemma and she thought for about two seconds and said, "You've never written about a Two Harbors summer festival."

Moments later she'd found a Two Harbors website featuring a pirate ship with Scantily clad wenches lining the deck and beefy pirates hanging from the sails. The text below listed an upcoming date, a weekend of activities, and a list of bands performing. There were contests, foods, liquor, and a clothing-optional sailboat cruise.

I froze, perhaps literally. "Um, dear," I said. "We live near Lake Superior, and sticking even a toe in the water at any time of year is painful. The deep waters of the Lake Superior never rise more than a degree or two above freezing in the height of summer, and sunbathing cruises seem...wrong." We rechecked the date of the festival. It was set for June, still part of the possible snow season in northern Minnesota, and early enough in the year that it would be foolish to assume there wouldn't be ice fishermen walking on the lake rather than sailboats full of sunbathers. It was then we realized she was looked at the website for Two Harbors on Catalina Island.

Ideas flew around my head like billiard balls. We're all coming out of Covid isolation and people are looking for things to do. Tourists will search for Two Harbors summer festivals and would find this interesting site. Missing the small detail of the California area code as we had, they'll be making motel and campground reservations in Two Harbors, Minnesota. Calls will be made to the local chamber of commerce requesting information. Wanting to capitalize on the tourism surge, the chamber of commerce, fraternal organizations, and churches will put together their own Buccaneer Days festival for the same dates.

I started writing. Peter Rogers, my protagonist who is the recreation director of Whistling Pines senior residence, sets up activities to mirror the town's plans. He puts together pirate and wench costume contests, a pirate sing along, and more. 

At this point I paused, struggling to think of other possible festival activities. I contacted my tuba playing Two Harbors consultant. His wife answered the phone, I outlined my book to her and asked if I could consult with Brian. "Oh, yes, please. I'll get him from the tubararium." Moments last Brian was on the phone. "What's a tubararium, Brian?" I asked. He explained that it was his soundproof room where he practiced playing his tuba. He's designed it to keep the neighbors from complaining to the police.

After explaining my lack of activities, he started firing off ideas. "The city band does concerts in the park, the Sons of Norway have a summer picnic including a lutefisk dinner, the Rotary club has a fundraising pancake breakfast. You can gather them all into one big festival. There have been rumors about the Sons of Norway planning a lutefisk tossing contest, but they've always backed off when someone points out it might be illegal for lutefisk bits to wash into the lake."

I laughed, included the lutefisk toss to the list, then fired off an email to my other consultants requesting other ideas for the festival. Within a day I had dozens of other ideas, and encouragement to include a naturist cruise, promoted by the Whistling Pines residents. I wrote a pirate-themed murder, added a Lake Superior regatta, and wrote until my fingers bled (figuratively speaking).

The eBook version of Whistling Pirates is available for pre-order ahead of the May 1 release.

Yelena, an oysterman's wife caught in the crossfire, by Diane Scott Lewis

  

"Ring of Stone (former title) is an entertaining read, combining accurate historical details with a fast-paced plot and a number of credible characters." Historical Novel Society" Review for Rose's Precarious Quest.

Diane Scott Lewis grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, joined the Navy at nineteen and. She writes book reviews for the Historical Novels Review and was a historical editor for an online press. She lives in Western Pennsylvania with her husband and one naughty dachshund. 

To purchase my novels and other BWL books: BWL

Find out more about me and my writing on my website: Dianescottlewis

In my upcoming novel, Ghost Point, my heroine, Yelena, struggles to better her life while her husband, Luke, is in the middle of the Potomac Oyster Wars in 1956. He toils, dredging for oysters on the Potomac River. Does she still love Luke or has she outgrown him? A girl from a higher class family, everyone warned her not to marry a gruff waterman's son.

 After she obtains a bookkeeping job in the local used bookstore, a mysterious man with a foreign accent catches her attention. Is he attracted to her, or after information on her husband's illegal activities? His suave demeanor enchants her. The town begins to whisper that she is leaking evidence to the hated inspector.

She is caught between her wish for a fancier life and her youthful love for Luke. And what about their little boy? He will suffer in the consequences. 

Yelena must choose, tear her family apart and chase the unknown, or stay put and fix the issues with her husband.

The Potomac Oyster wars, between Maryland and Virginia where watermen fired and murdered one another, was a real event in the small coastal town of Colonial Beach, VA in the 1950s..

Inspiration for Writing Arranging a Dream: A Memoir, Life Storytelling

 

Arranging a Dream: a Memoir by J.Q. Rose

Click here to discover more books by JQ Rose 

on her author page at BWL Publishing 

Hello and Welcome to the BWL Insiders Blog! My name is JQ Rose.

BWL Publishing released my memoir, Arranging a Dream, in January 2021. Launching the book and getting readers' reviews has been so much fun. 

Readers most often ask, "What inspired you to write Arranging a Dream?" BTW, that was not the first title of the book. The working title was JQ Rose Memoir. Catchy, huh? So, after much thought, I came up with Pink Petals and Baby Poop. In my mind, it was a real keeper. 

My writers' group laughed at that one. When I told them I was serious, their laughter turned to concern. I dropped the Pink Petals, etc., but I still like it because it summarizes what the book is about. Starting a florist and greenhouse business and the joys and concerns of motherhood.

Question mark
Image courtesy of Peggy Marco on Pixabay

Back to the question about why I wrote this memoir. I have several reasons.

1.   1. I have presented workshops on writing life stories for years. I encourage people to record their stories for their family and friends all the time. I thought it was about time for me to do what I preach.

2.    2. I wanted to pen this slice of my life for our daughters and grandchildren.

3.    3. I look at our story as a guide for readers now and in the future. As I wrote the manuscript, I realized it was a story about having a dream and turning it into reality. People bury their dreams due to the many obstacles they must overcome to achieve them. I don’t want anyone to look back at their life and have regrets for not trying to have a career in something they are passionate about. Reading through the pages of Arranging a Dream, they can be assured we overcame problems to have an extraordinary, ordinary life, and they can too. 

Woman writing at her desk
Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

     Have you considered writing your life story? Oh, I know that sounds overwhelming. I don't mean to write the entire story of your life from birth to the present. Your life story is made up of lots of little stories. Just think of the experiences you have had. Your brain is a storehouse of memories. Our memories are all tangled together, but once you pull out one, you will begin the untangling. One will spark another and another and another and so on.

      Filter through those memories and pick out one. Write it or make a video with you telling your story using your mobile phone. Start with a story that you often tell your family and friends about the good 'ole' days. Or choose to write about a family member like your grandma and what a great cook, seamstress or game player she was or is.  Give yourself time to scribble down the basics of the story. Don't try to write an award-winning novel. Do not edit. Take 10 minutes to just begin.  Choose a time to sit in a comfy place and set aside a few minutes or an hour every day. You can share it, or not. 

     You are the author of your story! Have fun with it. Life storytelling rewards you with new perspectives you gain about events in your life seen through the lens of time.

    Please leave a comment and let us know if you have thought about recording your story, have already begun or actually have a published life story or memoir. You can do it!

 Click here to connect online with JQ.

Author JQ Rose

E 

k

 

Challenge, Hop, or Blog by Helen Henderson

 

Windmaster Legend by Helen Henderson
Click the cover for purchase information

 

After the past year, and since this is April (more on that below), one topic seemed a natural to write about, "Challenging oneself as a writer."

 

One definition of a challenge is, "a call to take part in a contest or competition." This is especially appropriate for April. For the past two years, the month has been dedicated to posts based on the AtoZ Challenge. Like the name implies, each day during the month of April (except Sundays), bloggers write a post using a different letter of the alphabet as the topic. Which got me to thinking about challenges. Instead of my usual focus on history, this post is more of my philosophy as a writer. 

 

As a rule I don't like to write about myself, nor reveal too personal details, so these challenges can be, yes, I am going to say it, challenging. However, that doesn't apply to the characters whose tales are told in the Windmaster Novels. Their words, actions, dreams and fears are all fair game.

 

Where the AtoZ Challenge is once a year, writing challenges can also be weekly, monthly or even daily. Since romance tends to fight fantasy for top element in my works, I also participate in various writing hops for romance writers. One monthly hop has a topic that you have to write to. The weekly is more challenging in that each author chooses the subject. Other hops start with inspiration suggestions. Some are book related, others can be more personal. Answering an inspiration doesn't necessarily mean you will write a full-blown post for release. The purpose is often is to help a writer break through writer's block or a dry streak, expand their horizons as a writer, or just to journal a thought or two.

There are different reasons to do a challenge, sign up to receive inspirations, or participate in a blog hop. It can be to get your books in front of readers by having other authors in your genre list your name and topic on their post. A reader goes to their favorite author, then hops from one to another post in the list. Hopefully they will stop at yours and something will catch their fancy. When there are several hundred participants organized by genre (and a downloadable list that can be customized,) the potential recognition and exposure is significant.

 

How do blog hops and challenges try a writer? Working an excerpt into a post based on the letter of the alphabet, a specific word, or topic forces you to look at your writing from a different perspective. And to make the posts more interesting, finding or creating appropriate images.

April isn't finished and there are still several more posts to go. Click on the link to my blog to check out the excerpts and posts that go from A to Z and to see if I make it through the entire alphabet. And be sure to check back here, because as I said the month isn't over yet and there are still interesting posts by other BWL authors.

 

To purchase the Windmaster Novels: BWL

 

~Until next month, stay safe and read. Maybe use your favorite BWL author's works to help you meet another type of writing challenge, one where you dare yourself to read a given number of books in a year.

Find out more about me and my novels at Journey to Worlds of Imagination.
Follow me online at Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter or Website.

Helen Henderson lives in western Tennessee with her husband. While she doesn’t have any pets in residence at the moment, she often visits a husky who has adopted her as one the pack.