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~ Random thoughts on writing and life

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Tag Archives: #amwriting

Story telling dilemma…

18 Friday Nov 2016

Posted by Janey Rosen in I'm just saying ...

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#amwriting, Book, Story Ideas, Writing

You meet someone purely by chance at a dinner party; a lovely couple who seemingly live the perfect life: beautiful period cottage, longevity of marriage (30+ years), retirement mapped out.

Within a month a terrible tragedy occurs that destroys not only their ordered existence but life itself!  Like a house of cards, so their world tumbles.

As if that isn’t shocking enough, you then discover that their entire public persona was a lie.  All was not as it seemed from the outset but only half of the couple knew all along. That person’s life was then to be snuffed out.  Suddenly.  Violently.

This really happened to me.  I was at that dinner party.  I did meet that couple.  The dilemma is that it has presented such a wonderful story to tell.

The dilemma is, do I write their story or is it not my tale to tell?

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Sensory writing…

28 Sunday Aug 2016

Posted by Janey Rosen in I'm just saying ...

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#amwriting, Sensory, storytelling, Writing, Writing senses, Writing tips

Here is an owl.  A barn owl.

Screen Shot 2016-08-28 at 15.27.29

Unable to credit photographer as Anon.

What is a barn owl doing on your page, Janey?

Great question!

Yesterday I witnessed the joy and emotion on the face of a girl without sight when a barn owl flew onto her gloved hand.  A barn owl is an exquisite creature, particularly in flight as can be seen in the photo above.  Yet, the blind girl seemed to experience as much enjoyment from her experience as a sighted person.

We have five senses.  Use them all in your writing!

The point of sharing this with you is to remind us that all five of our senses are a gift.  If we lose one, our bodies compensate with the others.  Touch, taste, smell, sound and sight: all enrich our experience of life, none is dependent upon the other.  When writing, we can bring our stories to life for readers by utilising senses.  Crucially, with the introduction of audio books, it’s vital to also consider how these senses are invoked through the spoken word.

Using all five senses brings the story to life whereas using only sight, for example, renders it one-dimensional and isn’t true to life.  Even if we can’t see the ocean, we can taste the salt on our tongues, feel the sand – powdery or scrunching between our toes.  We can hear the squawk of a careening seagull…and so on.

What did the girl feel as the owl perched on her gloved hand?  

‘Magic,’ she said.

Write on!  🙂

Janey x

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Why stories matter…

28 Sunday Aug 2016

Posted by Janey Rosen in I'm just saying ...

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#amwriting, Childrens stories, creative writing, Imagination, Parenting, storytelling, Writing

Once upon a time, there was a small girl with yellow hair and blue eyes and an inquiring mind.  The girl––let’s call her Janey––lived in a house with her parents and a brother who poured milk over her head, and threw spiders at her.  Janey loved her family, even her brother, but the one she loved most of all was her friend who lived in a Marmite jar.  ‘Friend’ was a pebble.  The pebble and the yellow-haired girl flew on magic carpets to whimsical lands…

Screen Shot 2016-08-28 at 13.28.07

Stories matter.

I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t submerged deep inside my own mind in a world of fantasy – where the impossible was achievable and where my made-up friends were never perfect but always fun.  Don’t get me wrong, I had lots of ‘real’ friends and we often made up other worlds together but there was something special about ‘Pebble’ and the possibilities that my imagination afforded me.  Us.

When I became a mum, I delighted in making up worlds for my children, places that together we would go to at bedtime or in the car.  The story of Bobelie the fairy became so real to my daughter that she would search for her in the spring flowers in our garden.  I would always begin a new story, my daughter would then pick up the thread and let her imagination facilitate the story’s direction and the fairy’s journey.

Why do stories matter?

Stories matter because life is a tough ride.  Who doesn’t daydream in the middle of a challenging day at work?  Our minds want to lead us to a place that is calmer, or where we can be all of the things that once we had dreamed that we would be.  Or to take us to places that perhaps seem unreachable in our everyday lives.  Without stories, life is flat – one dimensional.  Stories can unravel in our minds or can be absorbed through the written word, on TV, at the theatre.  We are sponges from birth with an enormous capacity to soak up all the possibilities that we learn about and to project ourselves into scenarios and worlds at our own behest.

Stories matter.

(I no longer have Pebble).

Write on!  🙂

Janey x

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Writing is not just a hobby…

23 Tuesday Aug 2016

Posted by Janey Rosen in I'm just saying ...

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#amediting, #amwriting, Author, Hobbies, Mums who write, Things stuck up noses, Writing

 

Screen Shot 2016-08-23 at 15.59.26

Copyright Anon.

Announcement: Writing is not my hobby like needlecraft or stamp-collecting or walking the cat.  Writing is more than this.  It’s what I need to do, or the story people inside my head would multiply and multiply until they literally CRAWL OUT OF MY EARS! And that would be weird…it is not a hobby.

If I am writing, do not discuss politics (yes my hubby, I’m looking at you!) Also, when I am in my story world I am not aware that the children have stuffed small items up their noses or that my daughter has transformed her little brother into a red-lipped porn star.  I need that half an hour.  Again, I refer you to the paragraph above – writing is not my hobby.

So, writers, protect your time!  You deserve it and you need it. 

Write on! 😉

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Writers Digest Conference, New York…

23 Tuesday Aug 2016

Posted by Janey Rosen in I'm just saying ...

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#amwriting, #WDC16, Kwame Alexander, Literary, New York, Newbery Medal, Writing

Well, what a conference it was again – The Writers’ Digest Conference, 2016, in New York City.  I have flown home from my third conference with so much new knowledge and motivation!

Screen Shot 2016-08-23 at 15.22.17

Kwame Alexander, Keynote Speaker

Where to start?  There is only one place, and that’s with my personal favourite hour with the keynote speaker, Kwame Alexander.

I won’t list Kwame’s extensive writing career on this post but you can find his Wiki entry here.

Kwame is a world-renowned writer of poetry and children’s fiction and the winner of the Newbery Medal in recognition of his outstanding contribution to American children’s literature.  So, he was more than qualified to do the keynote!  It really was an honour that he shared his time with us writers.

He was hilarious!  Funny and inspirational.  The thing is, Kwame knew the pain of rejection in the literary world.  Even his father, a publisher, said no to his first book!  So many would give up in the face of rejection, yet Kwame developed his own ethos which was to say YES! to everything and anything.  Honestly!  Every opportunity was met head-on with a ‘can do’ attitude.

The lesson I learned from Kwame was this:  We should open our minds on our writing journey.  New paths will open up ahead and, if we take them, even though we have no idea of our destination––will we fail? If we fail, how the hell will we pick ourselves up?––we should say YES!  If we don’t, then we will always be limited by our own fear and lack of confidence.  This was my interpretation of his talk, others might have taken away a different message and that’s okay.  We each take from experience and from life, that which we personally need at this stage of our lives, and that’s the beauty of really listening and learning from others.

There were many other incredible speakers, too many to list here.  Yes, some seminars gave conflicting information to other seminars (e.g. to outline or not to outline) but, again, it goes back to taking from something like this what you want.  What sits well with you is what is important.

Aside from the speakers, I had the privilege of meeting other writers and what a fabulous group they were!  Again, too many to mention but a wave across the pond to Ron, Kent, Erin and so many others.

One special lady I met who deserves the biggest hurrah! is the Statue of Liberty.  I’d wanted to see her for so long and finally did so!

Screen Shot 2016-08-23 at 15.44.38

Finally, I’ll spend some time now collating all the information I brought home with me.  I think I’ll go again next year although I hope it’s back at the Roosevelt.  🙂

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Book trailers…

01 Wednesday Jun 2016

Posted by Janey Rosen in I'm just saying ...

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#amwriting, Book Marketing, Book Trailers

Do you have an amazing book trailer that you’d like to showcase here?

Screen Shot 2016-06-01 at 09.18.29

In the process of having one created, I’ve been watching quite a few over the past few days and have been staggered at how creative and fab many are!

Mini movies about books.  Thirty seconds or a minute is a small window to encompass the entire premise of a story, it does offer a tempting teaser though.

Has your book trailer boosted sales?  Has it generated a book-buzz?  I’d love to hear from you so please do comment.

Janey x

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Do you worry about criticism?

30 Monday May 2016

Posted by Janey Rosen in I'm just saying ...

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#amediting, #amwriting, Authors, Book Reviews, Writing tips

Oh, you didn’t like my book?

Screen Shot 2016-05-30 at 14.14.08

You’re so mean!

Have you published a book?

Did you slave over that book for all of your best years, and now you can never get those years back?

And, after you gave so much of yourself, someone left a bad review? (in bold to emphasise the anger and hurt you feel––I could EVEN CAPITALISE AND ADD BOLD AND ITALICS, BECAUSE THE PAIN IS REAL!)

It’s like someone calling your baby ugly, right?

If you show someone something you’ve written, you give them a sharpened stake, lie down in your coffin, and say, ‘When you’re ready.’––David Mitchell, Black Swan Green.

Stop.  Smile.  If the fool who left a damning review took the time to do so, then guess what?

You are a winner!  You gave that reader something to think about, to connect to, to have an opinion on, to take time to write about those feelings and to share them with you.

How often have you simply discarded a written piece, a book, an article, a blog post, and not cared less about it?  More often than not, we don’t take the time or feel strongly or passionately enough to bother leaving any feedback.  They lost us.

We’re out of there faster than Donald Trump in a barber shop!

A review–both rave and terrible–means that you have held that reader’s attention, that your writing was worthy of their feedback, even if disclosing this wasn’t their intention in submitting the review.

There is a saying, ‘No publicity is bad publicity,’ and the same is true of book reviews.  While people are talking about your work, your novel, word is getting out there about your book.  There can be elements within the review that, while the reviewer nearly passed out over, another potential reader might like.

“It was smut, smut, smut and more smut.  Filthy rubbish!”

“Ooh, I like the sound of that!  I think I’ll download that to read by the pool in Malaga.”

You see?  One person’s idea of hell is another’s heaven.  If you take a look on Amazon or B&N, you’ll see mixed reviews for even the literary greats and I guarantee that the literary Gods who wrote them did not have their writing careers ended overnight by any one of those negative reviews.

But it still hurts!  And isn’t it tempting to retort?  To let them know that they clearly didn’t get the entire premise of your story?  To hurt them back?

Screen Shot 2016-05-30 at 14.45.41

Do not do it!  Scream, cry, make a Voodoo doll of them and stick pins in the eyes, but do not respond to negative reviews!  Know that there will be a positive review right around the corner.  It will boot the bad review down the list and restore your faith in your skill.

When I self-published my first book and it went live it felt the same as if I’d stripped naked and run through the supermarket.  Exposed.  Vulnerable.  Then I received some 5* reviews.  This was unbelievable.  Until the first negative review landed on my book’s Amazon page and my heart broke in two.  They hadn’t even read past the first few pages!  I wanted to scream at them, ‘You didn’t even get to the good part!’  I knew I couldn’t respond, I did–fleetingly–consider creating a fake reader account and leaving myself a good review or begging my grandma’s neighbour’s first-cousin-once-removed to do it.

What’s the point?  What would it achieve?

I realised that, actually, the fact that the reader had bought the book and taken the time to leave a review was not entirely a bad thing.  It dawned on me that I can’t please all of the people all of the time.  I like Marmite and cheese sandwiches, others don’t (their loss).  I had to accept the following:

Book reviews do not define you, your book or your writing talent.

They are individual preferences and tastes.

As always, I’d love to hear from you!  As a writer, how has a negative book review made you feel?  As a reader, are you influenced by reviews when making reading choices?  Please comment.

Janey x

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Dear writer, do your readers like me? Love, your antagonist…

29 Sunday May 2016

Posted by Janey Rosen in I'm just saying ...

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

#amediting, #amwriting, antagonist, Hitchcock, protagonist, Psycho, storytelling, Writing

(Insert evil cackle)

We all love to hate the bad guy in a movie, in a book, in life!

Screen Shot 2016-05-29 at 15.48.48

I’m looking right through the screen at you!

Let’s take Mr. Norman Bates as an example.  Creepy guy without a doubt.  I’m sure that you have seen the film Psycho, 1960, brought to us by the portly terror-peddling genius, Alfred Hitchcock.  Am I alone in actually feeling empathy for Norman by the end of the film? (If so, then that makes me weird so let’s pretend you felt for him too).

I cared about him!  He loved his poor, rocking, dead mother so very much that he used to cross-dress in her frocks––that’s love!

Screen Shot 2016-05-29 at 15.57.06

I love you Mommy, mwahaha

His backstory was heartbreaking.  Misguided as he was in slashing doe-eyed ladies in full makeup in the shower (I mean, do not try this at home!), I could sort of understand how he was as psychotic as he was.  If I hadn’t known about his mother’s love then I would have pegged him as a nasty piece of work who slaughtered without motive.  I wouldn’t care what happened to him!  He could have had his eyeballs chewed out by mice and I’d have applauded, or worse still I wouldn’t have cared.

Screen Shot 2016-05-29 at 15.55.56

Who turned off the hot water?

A wise owl, the wonderful Ms. Paula Munier,  told me recently that readers need to be invested in our antagonist as well as the protagonist.  This made sense to me.  I don’t necessarily have to like the baddies in the books I read, but I need to understand their motivations.

Antagonists need to have something to lose and something to gain also!

What does Norman Bates have to lose?  He never got over the death of his sweet mother who butchered her lover then killed herself.  Desperately trying to continue his abstract life where his mother lived on, he hid her body in the fruit cellar (as you do) and created her inside his own mind (he could be a writer!).  With his altered personality he became two people and it was the real Norman towards whom viewers empathised.  We became invested in him and that emotional investment meant that we cared about him, even if we didn’t like him.

And, as Norman Bates finally got his comeuppance, sitting in a police cell, his dead mother’s voice could be heard protesting that the murders were her son’s doing.  That she wouldn’t even ‘harm a fly!’  Poor Norman.  His devotion to his mother was impressive and yet, when the s*** hit the fan, she turned on him like a rat.

We want our protagonists to rise up gloriously at the end of our stories but, in order for their achievements to be monumental, we need to see them overcome our antagonists and for the battle between them to be real, to be emotional, for all to be at stake on both sides.

What have you thrown at your antagonists?  I’ve wept for my baddy when I threw her off a high building, have you cried tears over yours?  I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!

Janey x

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Patchy tables and burning the midnight oil…

28 Saturday May 2016

Posted by Janey Rosen in I'm just saying ...

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#amediting, #amwriting, creative writing, Space to be me, Writer, Writing

When I first started writing I was determined to create a ‘me’ space, a place where I could be shut away from the noise and needs of the kids, of my husband.  Not in a selfish way, but it seemed to be the only way that I could clear the clutter from my mind in order to enter the worlds of my story people and hear what they had to say.

Writing is not a matter of time, but a matter of space.  If you don’t keep space in your head for writing, you won’t write even if you have the time. –– Katerina Stoykova Klemer

I went to Ikea, bought a swanky white table, set it up in the spare bedroom.  I chose a chair.  Everything was all set, I had my own private place to write.  I sat and stared at the keyboard, feeling very smug that the world could continue to spin outside the bedroom door and I wouldn’t care or be pulled by its magnetism back into reality.

Then, nothing happened.

The kids were too quiet and the house on the other side of the white door became a whole new world of which I was no longer a part.  What were they up to?  Was I being selfish as a mum in removing myself for an hour or two?  Guilt crept in and wagged its finger in my face.  I couldn’t concentrate because the shut door was always there: a barrier between them and me.

Gathering up the plethora of writing essentials (chocolate, drink, phone in case of emergencies that never came, laptop, notebook and pen),  I plonked them unceremoniously down on the dining table.  Our dining room is actually just an open space that nestles between the kitchen and hallway.  It is the arterial route through which our family pulses in constant quests for snacks and drinks and homework.  I found that I relaxed in spite of, or perhaps because of, the constant throughput of children.  I was visible if not entirely approachable.

That was a few years ago, and the reason that I write this now is that today my table is going.  The worn stain where my constant cuppa has sat beside me.  The hours and hours and hours spent sat at it, tapping away.  The seedlings of stories that were nurtured right there.

shutterstock_92502325

Going.  My table is going and it could be loved or chopped up as firewood.  I realise though, that it doesn’t matter.  It never mattered.  Space isn’t found in furniture, in a room, in our environment.  Space is inside our minds and we have the ability to withdraw into it if we allow ourselves to.

Where do you find space to write or simply to be ‘you?’  Let me know in the comments.

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