Why do i like writing fiction?

I was asked earlier why I like to write fiction and my answer was simply why not? I mean is there any reason out there not to enjoy writing fiction?

The thought of taking a story and making it your own, with whatever twists and turns you can come up with and never worrying that you are doing something wrong because the fact is that fiction isn’t fact, it blows my mind. If I was to write in any other genre I would most definatly stumble over legalities, what is correct and what isn’t etc. but with fiction the possibilities are endless!

I mean think about it, why can’t we have a book that starts with a romance story, then leads to introduce a vampire friend before zombies attack and it ends with a nuclear bomb destroying an alien invasion. Action packed yes although probably slightly confusing. But still possible!

I have a habit of spelling things incorrectly or saying the most stupid ideas that come to my head, do you know what that is called? Excitement. My fingers fly over the keyboard as I try to get all of the ideas out of my head and on file before they are gone forever and yes 70% of the time I will read through it later and think “What the ……” but the point is I am excited about fiction. Romance, mythological, historical, mystical, magical, adultery whatever you want to write about is possible with fiction.

My passion is to write and I write with passion. 🙂

Overcomplicated Simplicity – My article for AHA Authors Helping Authors.

Overcomplicated simplicity.

 

My last article was based on writers block and I suppose this one sort of hovers around the same topic. You see as a writer for the last lord knows how many years it has been extremely frustrating that I could not write my book. The ideas were in my head so why were they not coming out on the paper? I would have sticky notes covering the wall above my computer filled with all kinds of notes and words I found inspiring yet every time I opened my word document and tried to write the first sentence I was immediately stuck.

Dean turned to Dillan about to ask a very important question.

A simple sentence yet in my mind other questions where spiralling. “Do I need to introduce Dillan earlier? Should I explain more about his background? What if I need some background history on him later? Should I write that now? Yes I should. So where would I like this character to have grown up? A small village or a big town? Which country? Should I make him exotic? What colour eyes and hair should he have? What personality and build should he have? Maybe I should start with Dean and go from there? So where would I like Dean to have grown up? And what could have happened in his life to make him what he is today? Should I add another character to that? They could show up later out of the blue and save him? Or try to destroy him? What if the readers don’t think this question is as important as the next question. Should I move that sentence down and use it later? But then what sentence do I use here?” these questions were circling my mind constantly until I just gave in assuming it was because I had no idea what I was doing.

One day I opened a word document, and I wrote a short story. Reminding myself that if something doesn’t sound correct or make sense it doesn’t matter, it’s only a rough draft. There is always time to go over and fix the problems when you are done but if you try to do it as you go you will get stumped. The other thing to remember is that nothing will get published until you are happy with it, so relax and just have fun with it. Stop beginning a story imagining the book you want at the the end of it or you will completely forget what you are trying to say. Another thing I myself am guilty of. See my first book Awake Again is based on legend and myths from vampires to mermaids and includes awareness of my daughters rare disability, it is my way of raising awareness in a fun way instead of leaflets with statistics and facts which let’s face it just aren’t interesting. But once I started writing it seriously I started to forget that the aim was to make this disability more known about and support easier to find and began aiming on making it exciting for the reader, it grew into an exciting romance story between a vampire and a demon that began with a horrific rape scene of a prostitute and it was only after a publisher friend had read it and asked me one simple question that I realised what I had done wrong.

“That first chapter is amazing.” He had said. “You managed to make a violent rape scene inviting and enjoyable to read and I couldn’t put it down.” Obviously these words had me beaming from ear to ear. But then he continued. “But I am confused, you said you wanted this book to help raise awareness of a rare condition so other parents with children born with the same condition could feel more relaxed. How did you feel after Jessica’s diagnosis? How do you think reading a violent rape scene of a prostitute would have helped you to relax?”

I was speechless that I had made such a horrific error in judgement. I remembered the main goal was the book being for disability awareness, but I forgot that the readers I wanted would be affected by a disability. See what I am trying to say? Again I focused on the book I wanted at the end and forgot what it was I wanted to say.

My point is that wether you are trying to write a book, a short story, an essay for school or even an article for a website you must try to forget about what it is you want at the end and always remember what you want to say and that the keyboard has a delete button you can use at any time. There are no limits with writing so we do make it so difficult for ourselves? 

well… i guess thats that then!

So i have finally finished the form for last minute corrections on my manuscript, once these are done it goes straight to printers. EEEEEK! exciting for sure!

The only problem so far is the design team. Lets just say i was extremely dissapointed with the design they came up with based on my specifics. it looked like a child had drawn it! “no glowing halo outlining the rose thats far to nice, this needs to be harsher and bolder and more gothic, its a vampire book after all!” and no joke it looks like my 5 year old did it. i knocked soemthing together within half an hour that was much more appropriate! i am tempted to post the offending design (which i do not believe was done by a design company in the slightest!) but i think i will leave that untill i have a few more followers and make a bigger deal of it LOL. or am i just wishful thinking now

so anyway back to the text document. as i said that is it now, as scary as it is knowing it is gone to the printers i cant even begin to explain how relieved i am that i don’t have to read my manuscript anymore. i mean jeez, 1000 and 1 times wasn’t enough? phew! i am thinking of doing another long article style blog for you all again soon now all the writing work is calming down 🙂

Article i was asked to write for AHA authors helping authors.

How A First Time Author Overcomes Writer’s Block

 

For years I had a story line in mind for my first book. ‘Re-write the legends’ I thought, ‘it will be easy!’ I was very wrong. I would constantly stumble, falter over what colour whose eyes were. To stop forgetting minor details I tried writing them in a file titled Notes, but before I knew it I had 16 different files within that file on everything from character descriptions to character backgrounds and even building descriptions and places! There was probably more than 15 times I started writing again and stopped soon after, completely confused and frustrated at why the story was in my head and yet it wouldn’t go on paper.

When my daughter was born with a rare condition I was stuck, I wanted to fight to raise awareness but I wanted to be a fiction writer as well. Suddenly I had the idea to mingle awareness of my daughter’s condition within a fiction novel using my own experiences as leverage. Before she was born I wouldn’t have listened to statistics and numbers, I needed something exciting to grab my interest. Like a book about vampires. Inspiration struck and my passion for writing merged with my passion for making a difference. ‘I will write disabilities as though tied with the legends! Make people remember it, even if they only remember reading about some condition in a book once they can pass the knowledge on to any one they have contact with that might need it. I could really help people!’ the passion was nearly making me explode at that point! So… why was it still not going on paper?

After deciding I was going to go for it one day whether it was rubbish or not, I researched ways to help and how to move on and discovered it was a common problem known as writer’s block, so I decided to see just what writer’s block really is and if there are any tips online. What I discovered shocked me and spurred me on to get my story down and it is now being published. I can call myself an author and my dream is really happening. What I discovered is that writer’s block is only a trick of the mind and is when a writer over complicates something or writes something they THINK is rubbish and then just gives in. That made me smile.

After reading up on writers block I decided to just go for it and have fun, stop being so serious with it and just write. And I did. When people say to me now “I would love to write a book but…” my advice is simple. Open a file on your computer, write the beginning of your story and don’t stop till you have written the end. Don’t worry about characters, where they are or details or anything just write the bits that are in your head and use this as a basis to write an extended version, if you decide at that time you DO want a certain character to do something and you know what colour hair or eyes you want them to have then open another file called ‘notes to remember’ and copy the descriptions in there to use later on.

Oh and before I forget, the greatest thing I found to help my writing was caffeine. After three energy drinks and the coffee percolator on again things just started flowing, and even if it didn’t make sense when I went back to it (after recovering obviously!) it turned out I had so many terrific ideas to work from then. I found ways to spice up the boring parts and got the energy to just keep going without my eyes going blurry or closing on me half way through a sentence!

 

My book might never sell one copy, but in all honesty my dream was to see my name on the shelves as an author. That dream is coming true, that’s worth more than any amount of money in the world.  And writer’s block will not stop me again!

 

~~~~~~~~Susan Hatton. Author of Awake Again available for purchase this summer.

 

Blog: https://susanpolp.wordpress.com/