Writing Advice and Tips

What Do I Read? Who are My Favorite Authors?

/ kellyfbarr / 1 Comment

What do I read?  I read my Bible and some inspirational nonfiction books.  My favorite books to read are fiction and of those I prefer mystery/suspense, mystery/romance, general or mainstream fiction, Christian romance, classics and a very few horror/suspense.

Now, I will clarify my answers to the previous question by listing my favorite authors and/or the book they wrote which is my favorite, for some of my favorite books are the only book I read by that author:

Danielle Steel

Jeanette Oke

Frank Peretti

Dee Henderson especially her O’Malley Series

Charles Dickens

William Shakespeare

Maeve Binchy

Laura Childs’ Tea Shop Mysteries

Terri Blackstock

Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights

Jude Devereaux’s A Knight in Shining Armor

Nicholas Sparks

Dean Koontz (I like a lot of Dean Koontz’s books, including the Brother Odd books, but Watchers is my absolute favorite)

This is not an exhaustive list by any means.  I read A LOT of books, but I don’t often read many books by the same author unless I really like something that I read by that author, or unless it is part of a series.  Lately, I have taken to downloading free e-books and reading them on my tablet.

I believe every author I read has an influence on my writing, especially the authors I read a lot.  I enjoy reading as much, if not more, than writing and I look forward to one day being able to put more hours in the day into these two activities.

What authors and books do you like to read?  How do you think they influence you?

Let’s Talk About My Writing/Stories

/ kellyfbarr / Leave a comment

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you may have read my novella and short story that I posted here.  These were sort of experiments for me for several reasons:  1)  I never wrote mystery/suspense stories before, though those are my favorite types of stories to read; 2) I never posted stories online before; 3) I wrote these stories on my blog right off the top of my head, and the only editing I did was to read back over what I had written to correct spelling, grammar and maybe some wording here or there, right after writing, before hitting the “Publish Post” button; 4) I wanted to see if I could attract readers.

I thoroughly enjoyed these two exercises and attracted quite a few readers.  I had a couple of friends and relatives absolutely glued to my novella, anxiously looking for a new post each and every day.  That made writing it, so much more fun.  I didn’t seem to have that same response with my short story, though I still attracted a fair amount of readers.

Now, let’s talk about what I think is right and what I think is wrong with these two pieces of writing.  Let’s start with the novella, Dangerous Secrets.  I enjoyed writing this story and receiving everyone’s encouragement to keep going, but in the end, I was more disappointed with this story than I was with the short story I posted later.  Here’s why:  I could have continued the story into a full-length novel with the number of characters I introduced and the situations I put them in.  The good thing about this story, is that I did a good job at holding my readers’ attention and seemed to always leave them wanting more at the end of a day’s post.  But, in the end, I had both a friend and a relative tell me that I could have done so much more with the story, and I was well aware of that, but I did not want to put a full-length novel on the blog for everyone to read for free.  (If I am going to write a full-length novel, I hope to have it published or put it in an E-Book and earn some money from it.  I don’t think that’s selfish.  I think it’s realistic, and writing a full-length novel is a lot of hard work.)  Because of all of this, I ended the story too soon.  Yes, I tied up the loose ends and I believe the ending gave closure, but it definitely has the potential for me to re-visit it and turn it into a full-length novel someday, if I choose to.

Now, about the short story, Out of the Pit.  I didn’t get as much feedback from friends and relatives on this story, but I really liked this story.  I was pleased to keep my cast of characters at a number that was very workable in a short story, so by the time I ended the story, it felt more like the story was over and not like I could do a lot more with it.  I liked my characters in this story better, felt that I had developed them better and that I knew them better.  So, where did I go wrong with this story?  In the “point-of-view”.  I have never written a story in the first-person.  It isn’t comfortable for me.  I find it too confining.  However, I stretched the third-person point-of-view beyond the limits in Out of the Pit.  You see, it is best to write third-person “limited”, which means stick to telling the story from the main character’s point-of-view, or at the most, from your main character’s and one other important character’s points-of-view, by using a page-break or writing every other chapter from the other character’s point-of-view.  What did I do wrong?  I wrote from many characters’ points-of-view.  I let them share their thoughts, and this caused the story to jump or bounce around too much.  It gave the readers a jolt each time a change in point-of-view came, and this can cause readers to not get as involved because they don’t get to really know and care about the main character or two main characters, because they are getting too much information from minor characters.  I may go back and edit this story sometime, because I still really like it.

So, be aware of whose point-of-view you are telling your story from.  Limit whose thoughts and feelings you choose to share and be sure to create characters that your readers will really care about.

I learned of my point-of-view problem from a publishing consultant, who was gracious enough to look at my short story and offer me feedback.  So, I would like to take a minute here and let you know that WinePress Publishing has a great opportunity for writers.  You can work with a professional writer or editor for six months, and they will help you write a novel, and then you can publish your completed novel with WinePress Publishing.   It is a self-publishing publishing company.  Visit their website for more information at:  http://www.winepresspublishing.com/.

You may also be interested in The Story Cartel Writing Course.  Visit:  http://course.storycartel.com/.

Why Do I Write?

/ kellyfbarr / 1 Comment

I have loved books ever since I learned to read.  I have always been a voracious reader and just love good stories.  When I was in school, a couple of my teachers encouraged my writing, after I handed in writing assignments.  I remember my seventh grade English teacher telling my mother to encourage my writing.  She said I had a talent.  So, I began writing stories.

I have written many stories that I have not shared with many people.  I have also taken two correspondence writing courses in the past and continue to read about writing, as well as continually reading the type of books that I would like to write.

As a homeschool mom, I teach my children the importance of writing well and encourage them to read and write.  My oldest son has a strong love of reading and writing and has had his writing praised by many people.  He has even done some writing for others and has done a couple of public speaking events, and he wrote his own speeches.  He has encouraged me to return to my writing because he said, “Mom, you taught me to write, so my writing talent has grown and flourished because of what you taught me, so you have a talent as well.”

I enjoy writing, and sometimes I just feel that if I don’t write, I will burst.  Therefore, I write because I enjoy it and because I feel a need to write.  Now, I also write because I want to share my writing with others and hope they will find enjoyment, adventure and/or excitement in my writing.  I hope that readers can relate to my characters or that my characters can teach, inspire or give hope to my readers.  I write for my own pleasure, and hope that others will find pleasure in reading my writing too.  I write in hopes of providing clean entertainment filled with hope in a world where so much of what is out there is filled with inappropriate language, indecent scenes, hopelessness and despair.  I think we have enough of that stuff in the real world and see it or hear it daily in the news, so I think we need a respite from all of that and hope that my readers will find that respite in my writing.

Why do you write?

What is Your Worldview and How Does it Affect Your Writing?

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What is your worldview?  Your worldview consists of five major items:  1) Your concept of the most real thing in existence (your notion of God or of ultimate reality); 2) Your view of the essential nature of the external world (ordered or chaotic, material or spiritual); 3) Your idea of who we and others really are (your concept of human nature); this includes your idea of how you know and your notion of what happens to us after we die; 4) Your understanding of the good (ethics); and 5) Your understanding of the meaning of humanity’s sojourn on earth (the meaning of history).

Your worldview is like a map in that it may fit what is really there or it may be grossly misleading.  The map isn’t of the world itself, only an image of it, more or less accurate in some places, distorted in others.

*Note:  the information in the above two paragraphs come from How to Read Slowly by James Sire, part of the Starting Points world view study.

How does your world view affect your writing?  Some people will say they can write a story without a specific message, to which I would respond that you may not consciously intend to include a message in your writing, but whatever your belief system is, it will show in your writing.  You cannot turn off your belief system to write, or to do anything else.  Your belief system is part of who you are and you can change it, and, therefore, change the message that comes through your writing, but you cannot be void of a belief system.  Even if you say you believe in nothing, that is your belief system, and it will show through your writing.  You cannot completely separate yourself from your characters or your story.

Therefore it is important to know what your belief system is.  As a Christian, I do not believe that every story I write has to have a message of salvation that is blatant and loud and clear.  A story may have a need for that, but I believe most stories will be more appealing if the message is subtle and not in-your-face.  I do not sit down and decide what message to put into a story before I begin to write.  As a matter of fact, most times I do not think about the message at all.  I concentrate on my characters.  I want to create characters that create emotions within the reader; characters that the reader can identify with, relate to, sympathize or empathize with.  At some point, I stop being the creator of the characters and the characters begin to tell me the story.  They let me know their thoughts, feelings, emotions, desires and the things they are going to do and say and where they are going to go.  And, there is always a message:  a message about relationships or about a character realizing who they really are or what they are meant to do, a message of hope or of despair or of love or of family or community, or loss, etc.

Your world view comes out in the words you choose to use to tell the story and in the actions, thoughts and dialogue of your characters.

Who Do You Write For?

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One of the first things I was taught, as a writer, is that you have to determine who your audience is — who do you write for?

Recently, I have read quite a couple of blogs and participated in a writers’ discussion group which now teach that, as a writer, you should write for yourself.

Who is right?

As I see it, it needs to be both:  1) You have to write for yourself, in so far as, you won’t want to share your writing with anyone if you don’t like it, and 2) You have to determine a larger audience if your goal is to sell your writing.

To determine your audience, you need to be able to answer some basic, simple questions:

1)  What age range do you feel your writing is best suited for?

2)  Will your writing include themes, language or scenes that are acceptable                      for and appealing to that age group?

That’s really all you need to determine to decide upon your audience.  However, because you will be writing from your personal worldview, (this will be expanded upon in my next post), there are some things you will also have to determine and realize.  My next post will explain this better, as I discuss worldview and what that means for your writing.

How Do You Decide What Genre to Write?

/ kellyfbarr / 1 Comment

Most authors write in only one genre, though some may write the same genre for two different age groups, such as adults and teens (otherwise known as young adults).

It is best to write in the genre you know best and are most familiar with.  In other words, in the genre you READ the most.  When you read, you become familiar with the way an author writes that genre of story.  You become familiar with how they create their characters and what style they write in, how they structure their story. You become familiar with the way their story flows, how they write the conflicts and the resolutions of the story.  You really get to know how that particular genre is written because of the books you read.

What if you like to read more than one type of genre?  Say you like two particular genres better than the rest, though you may occasionally read from other genres.  So maybe you read a lot of books in these two different genres.  You could try writing both genres and see which one works best for you.

When you are starting out, you should really focus on writing one particular genre and really getting good at it before you attempt to write another genre.  Once you have established yourself in a particular genre, you may want to see if you can then write something good enough to publish in the other genre.  There are published authors who have successfully written in more than one type of genre, but for the most part, an author typically sticks with one genre.

Where do my Ideas and Inspiration Come From?

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I love to watch people and have enjoyed doing this for as long as I can remember.  Some of my ideas come from things I see people do or simply just from a person I see.  Sometimes as I am people watching, I catch bits and pieces of conversations, not because I am deliberately eavesdropping, but just because of the close proximity, and some of my ideas come from overheard pieces of conversation.

Sometimes I get ideas from songs I hear, books I read (no, I don’t plagiarize), but I can get an idea from something I have read.  Sometimes I get an idea from a movie I see or a character I like or from what I hear or read about someone famous.

Sometimes I get ideas from conversations I have with people.  Many ideas come from people around me, the area I live in, and my life experiences.  Ideas are all around me.

Inspiration is a bit more difficult, and no, I don’t think that ideas and inspiration are the same thing.  Ideas are quick, simple and can be found anywhere, whereas, inspiration is something that stimulates my thinking or makes me feel something or sparks my creativity.  Inspiration is stronger and harder to find than an idea, and though an idea can start me writing, inspiration compels me to write.  Inspiration comes from something or someone who sparks a passion in me.

A good story can be written from either an idea or inspiration, but I believe that it is easier to write a good story from inspiration.  I also believe the story will flow, keep me writing and be finished faster than a story that starts from an idea because something I am passionate about holds my attention longer than a mere idea.

Writing from either an idea or inspiration is still hard work.  It requires time, commitment and dedication.  It requires re-reading and re-writing to get to my best possible finished story.