Amazon

December 2015 Writing Prompts, New Book, Goodreads Giveaway

I hope that those of you who celebrated Thanksgiving last week had a wonderful time with family and friends and are enjoying your leftovers. If you were part of NaNoWriMo, I hope that you made your word count goals, and if not, made progress on your project that will carry on to completion soon.

My NaNo plans were prompted by a workshop that I was to be running at the local library. Sadly, participation was too low and the workshop was cancelled. Since my motivation for NaNo (wrapped entirely around working with and encouraging a group of young writers for a month) fell through, and so did my “novel.” Instead, I finished the project closest to my heart, A Journal for Teen Writers.

51fSKVUK2lL._SX385_BO1,204,203,200_The journal is filled with blank writing pages, encouraging quotes from writers, brainstorming pages, coloring and doodling pages, and 50 new writing prompts. I’m very happy with it, and especially happy that it’s been #1 in it’s category of new releases for the past week at Amazon.com. It might have been there longer, but the first day I looked at it was last Tuesday. Take a peek here. My next challenge is creating journals for genre writers. I’ve started working on one for mystery writers, but until a freelance contract and my teaching semester are done, that one is going to be on hold until the new year.

My anthology of short stories for boys, written with my co-author Jean Mills, is part of a Goodreads giveaway until December 8th. Drop by Goodreads to enter to win an autographed copy.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Dude! by Heather Wright

Hope you have a wonderful month ahead. If you have time among the holiday prep to do any writing, I hope these writing prompts give you the inspiration you need.

Use one, some, or all of these words in a story or poem:

  • music, jar, creature, forest, wise, fear
  • jump, stress, sunshine, shadow, left, wind
  • sun, photograph, last, shine, memory, river
  • rhythm, race, share, joy, defeat, call

Here are some opening sentences for you to try:

  • Stop! I can’t keep up.
  • Today Carol’s hair was blue.
  • I’d only been here ten minutes, and already I wanted to leave.
  • When I asked Henry what was new, I inwardly prayed for some positive news.
  • Where did that map come from?
  • I fell through a wall that wasn’t there.
  • I’m an astronomer. I know the skies and night–but not tonight.
  • It’s 7:15 and Henry is never late.

See if one of these titles inspires a story:
The Winder, King’s Ransom, The Fan, Bookworm, Mountain Mystic, The Club, The Story of Two Dreams, When One Door Closes, The Cats and I, Race, Tornado

See what scenes you can create from these lines of dialogue:

I’m so proud.
Of what?
Resisting the urge to scream at you right now.

Whose dog is that?
What dog?
That one.
Oh.

You don’t believe in dragons, do you?
No. Why?
I think I’ve found a way to change your mind.

Have you seen Helen’s new boyfriend?
No.
Well, neither has anyone else.

Writing Fiction: A Guide for Pre-Teens

BookCoverImageWell, the day has finally come and Writing Fiction: A Guide for Pre-Teens is available at Amazon and CreateSpace. Yay! The Kindle version should be up in a day or two, and in a few weeks, it should be available on Kobo and at other on-line retailers. A labour of love, this book has kept me inspired and busy for the past several weeks, tweaking and adding final touches. The cover photo may still change, but for now I’m breathing a huge sigh of relief. You can take a peek at the Table of Contents below.

Hope you have some fun, writerly days ahead!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Getting Started  7

Joywriting           8

What do I need to be a writer?  9

Habits and Goals              11

Choosing Your Goal         11

Writing Every Day            12

Don’t Miss a Word           12

Write with a Friend or Two          12

Pantser or Plotter: Which are you?          15

The Pantser        15

The Plotter         16

Where do I get ideas for stories?              17

What if?               18

Write What You Know   18

Pick 4 Words      20

Writing Prompts               21

Plotting Tips       23

Basic Rule of Plotting      24

Story Planning   24

Plotting with the Hero’s Journey               27

How do I start my story?               31

Who should tell the story?           33

Point of View: First Person          33

Point of View: Second Person    34

Point of View: Third Person         34

How do I describe my characters?            37

Show Don’t Tell                38

Change Is Good                39

Character List     41

How do I describe the setting?  43

Think about how much you really have to describe.         43

Use Comparisons             43

Get the Senses Involved              44

Draw a Map or Use Photos          44

How do I write dialogue?              47

How do I end my story?                51

How do I make my writing better?           53

Revising and Editing        53

Words   53

Sentences           53

Combining Sentences    54

Paragraphs         55

What do I do when a story gets stuck?   59

1. Outline.           59

2. Forget about making the first draft perfect.    59

3. Write more than one story at a time.60

4. Put the story away.    60

5. Brainstorm.    60

6. Ask “What if?”              61

7. Don’t worry.  61

Last Words          63

Bibliography       65

Self-Publishing – My Experience & Lessons Learned

A Tagxedo view of my website.
A Tagxedo view of my website.

I have fumbled my way through self-publishing over the past few years. Trying things, making mistakes, seeing how things turn out. Thought I’d share a bit of that experience.

I’ve used a couple of publishers since I started self-publishing. Right now I’m using CreateSpace  https://www.createspace.com/ and Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) https://kdp.amazon.com/kdp/self-publishing/signin?language=en_US  After I finish setting up my book in CreateSpace, I can choose for it to be sent to Amazon KDP (they are the same company.) CreateSpace will also send it to other epub distributors, too. Both services are free, though CreateSpace offers services like custom cover designs, copyediting, and marketing for a fee, if you want to take advantage of them.

I’m using CreateSpace for my second edition of Writing Fiction: A Hands-On Guide for Teens, and I’m fine with having them distribute it to Amazon and other sellers, such as Kobo. For my sequel to The Dragon’s Pearl, I’m going to go with CreateSpace and KDP only. There are some promotion options with KDP that are only available if it is the exclusive distributor for a set period of time. I’d like to try those promotions, so I’m going to give that option a try for my fiction. For 201 Writing Starters, I went to Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/ . They had a very easy-to-use product and also provide a free service. If I do another edition of the book, I will probably go through CreateSpace, though, because it offers free cover design options that I prefer to use rather than coming up with my own.

The first edition of Writing Fiction was published through iUniverse, a vanity press. I wouldn’t choose that route now for a couple of reasons. First, I want to earn more money per sale, and royalties are much better on my own. Second, I am more confident about being able to format a book that would look professional, and third, I know a lot more about the industry. I was lucky in that I took advantage of a sale offer at iUniverse and didn’t spend money on extras, and I can say that I have earned my money back. A few writers I know who took the vanity press route have realized they will never earn their money back.

I got the templates for the interiors of the dragon books and Writing Fiction – Second Edition from Joel Friedlander http://www.thebookdesigner.com/ at a very reasonable cost. You can see inside the book here to see what one of his formats looks like: http://www.amazon.com/Dragons-Pearl-Heather-Elizabeth-Wright/dp/1483954021

If you’re thinking of the self-publishing route, be aware of the new trend among traditional publishers to have their own vanity press. They make it look like you’re working with Simon & Schuster for instance, but you’re really paying to have your book published with a vanity press that is part of a large company with a very poor reputation. Read this blog from Writer Beware®: The Blog to get the details: http://accrispin.blogspot.ca/2012/11/archway-publishing-simon-schuster-adds.html To make sure that you are working with a reputable company always check Preditors & Editors, an excellent site that has a listing of publishers/agents along with recommendations and cautions.  http://pred-ed.com/

To end on a more positive note, here’s a link to a great blog post from Jane Friedman with a lot of helpful links to help you make some decisions about your publishing future.  http://janefriedman.com/2012/01/28/start-here-how-to-get-your-book-published/

Good luck!

Numbers Do Count

Yes, sometimes number do count, and yesterday was one of those times. I checked my Amazon.ca ranking and my book, that had fallen off the chart for a couple of weeks, was ranked #1 and #2 in its two categories.

If my royalty statements are anything to go by, and if you consider the size of the categories, my meteoric rise probably represented the sale of one book. But, oh how good that sale felt!

I also got my first royalty cheque yesterday, and though the numbers on it are small, they represent my book landing the hands of teenagers who love to write or teachers who love to teach them. I’m tickled pink to think that there are people turning the pages, filling in the worksheets, and writing stories or helping others write them.

My book is for sale online in the US, India, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. How neat to think that someone thousands of miles–and multiple time zones–away could be reading my book.

If this is what it means to be an author, I’m so glad that I took the risk and sent my words out there. As my ranking begins its traditional downward slide today, I’ll think of that one book, and that one reader, and be very happy. Numbers count, but no more than that one.

%d bloggers like this: