TOOLS OF THE TRADE PART 2

Tools of the writing trade part two focuses on two more elements of a story namely, point of view and setting.

Point of view  is the way the author allows you to "see" and "hear" what is going on. There are three kinds of point of view; first person narrative, second person narrative and third person narrative. Third person narrative consists of; third person omniscient, third person limited and third person objective. I won't go into defining the various points of view because I found a video on Youtube that explains it with examples, so I don't want to rehash what you'll see in the video.

What I will say though, is that The Boogeyman is told from a first person point of view. Reason being, the protagonist's story is a very personal story so it would be best if it is told from her point of view, otherwise it won't be believable. It is also a way of getting readers to put themselves in her shoes, to feel like part of  the story, to feel like her experiences are their experiences, to feel like her goals and her hopes and dreams are theirs too.

The setting of a story is simply the time in which the story takes place and also the place. The Boogeyman is set in 2012 and it takes place in central Trinidad, Chaguanas to be exact, to be even more accurate it takes place in Edinburgh 500 and Lange Park. Why does it take place in two different parts of Chaguanas? I wanted to have a contrast, not a big contrast mind you between where the protagonist is from and where the antagonist is from.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE PART 1

Some of you all maybe thinking, just from the name of this post that it is about paper, pens, pencils, computer, tablet etc but it's not. While they are all tools of the writing trade this post is about something more essential to writing than that, it's something that every writer uses. What am I referring to? The elements of a story: plot, character, setting, theme...etc

Part one of this series will focus on plot. According to Wikipedia a plot is;

a literary term defined as the events that make up a story, particularly as they relate to one another in a pattern, in a sequence, through cause and effect, how the reader views the story, or simply by coincidence. One is generally interested in how well this pattern of events accomplishes some artistic or emotional effect.

According to Wikipedia there are two types of plot; chronological and flashbacks. Chronological order is where all the events that occur in the story are written in the same order in which they happened. Flashbacks on the other hand...

convey information about events that occurred earlier. It permits authors to begin the story in the midst of the action but later fill in the background for full understanding of the present events. Flashbacks can occur more than once and in different parts of a story. (Study Of Literature, 2012)

The plot of  my story which is entitled The Boogeyman by the way, is flashback. The beginning of the story is actually the end of the story. I like starting at the end of the story because I think it intrigues readers more, I know it certainly intrigues me more when an author or filmmaker does that.

Quentin Tarantino's movie Pulp Fiction  is the first movie I ever saw that had flashbacks in it, it definitely stuck with me. The idea of not telling a story in the"traditional" way a.k.a. chronologically fascinates me because it has me wondering why the person would make that kind of decision, it also has me anticipating what comes next and always keeps me guessing. That is the kind of reaction I want my readers to have. I want them to start thinking about the story and be fully engrossed in the characters before they've really gotten into the meat of the story so to speak. I want to grab their attention from the get and keep it till the end of the story, to me flashbacks do that. 

I found a video on Youtube that descibes plot through song. I thought it would be fitting to add to this post because it deals with Freytag's pyramid or in other words his idea of a plot; exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution.

   

FREUD WOULD HAVE A FIELD DAY WITH THIS...

Why would Freud have a field day with this? Because I'm interviewing myself in this post. I know it's weird but it's necessary for this particular part of the journey.

What type of author am I?
At present I am a West Indian author who writesWest Indian Literature. I describe my stories as reality mixed with a dose of my imagination and they are usually dark in nature.

However it's not the only type of story I want to write, I'd like to branch out into writing romance; paranormal, suspense, contemporary, historical, you name it I want to write it. There isn't any subgenre of romance I don't want to write. Who knows I might even try my hand at mystery...the sky is the limit.

Do I listen to music when I write? 
Yes! I love listening to music while I write. I even weave some of my favourite songs into my stories. Music is a very integral part of who I am. With that being said, I should warn you all that my singing voice will not win me any awards or get me a multi-million dollar record contract but that's okay because I'm cool with my lack of singing prowess. It never stops me from belting out some high-pitched notes (think Mariah Carey) when I'm in the mood.

 I'm always listening to music be it on my ipod, or laptop via Youtube or through what I like to call my "internal deejay" which is simply me just singing random songs or mixing several songs together in my head. 

There's a saying that says eyes are the windows to the soul, while I believe that I also believe that if you listen to a persons playlist or watch their favourites on Youtube you'll get a glimpse into their soul. I believe music speaks to the soul, it doesn't care about colour, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, none of that matters when it comes to music. I'm going to share a bit of my soul with you through Youtube.

The first video I wanted to share was Lead The Way by Mariah Carey but I'm having some issues with getting it uploaded. The comment I wanted to make under that post was that most everyone agrees that the movie Glitter sucked but there was a gem on the soundtrack, this song which I love. Lead The Way is not the only Mariah Carey song I love, I love all her songs from the 90's.

Next up is Aaliyah's If Your Girl Only Knew, it goes without saying that I love this song. Aaliyah is my all time favourite singer, there isn't any song of hers that I don't love. I chose to share this video because this was the first music video of hers I ever saw, before that I had only heard her on the radio.

Karyn White's Can I Stay, what can I say except sit back and ENJOY!

I'm a HUGE rap fan and DMX is one of my favourite rappers, so I had to choose one of his videos as my last video to share. For all those who don't like expletives in their music, have no fear it's PG13 meaning all the curse words have been cut out.  

TECHNOLOGY...the coolest thing EVER invented!

When I first saw this I squealed, a squeal that rivaled all fangirl squeals EVER uttered! I don't even know the author but just the thought of what she was doing had me all atwitter because it gave birth to just a smidgen of possibility that one of my favourite author's would do something like this, hopefully in the very near future.

What has me all atwitter and google-eyed? A tweet, by @goodreads that I retweeted on September 18th, 2012.

Just a little on what goodreads is, its a site where readers can keep track of the books they have read, the books they want to read and also the books they're currently reading. Of course it does more than that but those are the things I essentially use it for.

Now to the topic at hand, what was the tweet about? Check out the screen shot below.

Ok so the tweet is about an author, Silvia Hartmann who is writing and editing a book in real time online. What bit of sorcery is she using to perform this feat? A public Google Document, I wasn't aware something like that even existed but now that I am, I've filed it away for future use. I think this is one of the best technological advancements Ever! I also think it's pretty darn cool too! Yes, yes I am quite nerdy when it comes to anything to do with books, or games, or movies for that matter. But I digress, back to the topic at hand...

I had never heard of Silivia Hartmann before, so I used  Wikipedia.com to find out about her. What do you know they had a page on her. I copied and pasted an excerpt of her biography below.

Silvia Anne Hartmann (born August 23, 1959) is a United Kingdom based author and lecturer on energy psychology^[1] and personal development. She is best known as the primary developer of Energy EFT and EmoTrance (ET)^[2][3] which has been criticised as unscientific by two senior academics.^[4] She is also known for her books on Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) as well as her fiction titles under the nom de plume Nick StarFields.^[5]Hartmann co-founded The Association for Meridian & Energy Therapies in 1998 with Chrissie Hardisty^[6] and is presently the chairperson.

Silvia Hartmann's books are not my cup of tea but I love her choice of name for the project, "The Naked Writer Project." Wikipedia explains the concept of the project well, so I added it below.

The Naked Writer Project
In September 2012, Hartmann began a project to write a fiction title using Google Docs so that readers could see the writing & editing process in real-time through their web browser^[8]. The author also used crowdsourcing to allow readers to suggest a name for the new novel^[9], and to also decide on the level of sex that it should contain.

Now that, that's out of the way I have to say that my second reaction after the squeal, was to reminsce about author/fan relations in the past. I have been a reader for a very long time, ever since I learned to. I remember when the most interaction a reader and a writer had, was through the author biography at the back of the book. For those who were lucky enough to live in countries/areas where authors had book signings and reader/writer conventions got to interact with them face to face.

Then something changed, at  the back of the book under the biography, a website appeared. From the author's website you got the link to their Yahoogroup. Yahoogroups are a way of meeting like minded readers and also a way to interact with authors as they peek in ever so often to chat. After Yahoogroups came, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter etc. 

Blogs appeared in between but I singled it out because it brought something else to the author/reader dynamic, blog tours. Blog tours gave international readers, like myself  a chance to follow a book tour albeit virtually. Other ways international readers got to interface with authors was through virtual book signings and online reader conventions. The latter one I found out about this year.

Although I love all the ways I've listed where a reader and writer can interact, my favourite is the public Google Document because you actually get experience a personal journey with the author from start to finish. I REALLY hope some of my favourite authors begin to use this document soon.

Below I've added two links. The first is the one that was in the tweet, it's an article about what the author is doing and the second is the actual document of the story.

 http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/18/watch-this-author-use-a-google-document-to-write-and-edit-a-book-in-real-time/

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AwxZlO1uVnFFKh_NWAlZ78oK2c5gxzvVCfrYbe7EOE8/edit?pli=1

 

KNOWING WHEN TO QUELL YOUR PROTECTIVE MOTHER HEN INSTINCTS

Every author, aspiring or published should know when and where to quell their protective instincts; where their work is concerned. They should also know when and where to let their inner mother hen run amok in regards to protecting said work from harm.

On September 14th, 2012, New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Lauren Dane (@laurendane) tweeted about an agent who was assaulted by a writer whose work she rejected for whatever reason. Lauren of course had advice for the author which I found quite valid...see screen shot below.

Now we get to my thoughts on the subject. I'll try not be long-winded but I make absolutely no promises on that front.

In my introductory post I spoke about feeling like my work was my baby because it is a product of me. This appears to be what the author was suffering at the time of the assault. While I understand that feeling I in no way agree with what she did. She had to have known going into the meeting that there was a 50/50 chance of rejection and as such act accordingly, that is, prepare herself  for either response to her work, be it positive or negative.

Once you make the decision to share your work with others you HAVE to be open to criticism, as long as it's constructive of course. If it's not constructive then you can unleash your protective instincts by defending your work till you're blue in the face if that's what it takes. However, if the criticism is constructive then  that feedback can be used to perfect your work so when next you submit it they'll have a devil of a time rejecting it. Besides, there is no law stating that you can't re-work and re-submit a story to the same publisher who earlier rejected it.

I guess the author was too caught up in her emotions to consider the fact that she could have used that feedback to her advantage.Or the fact that there were other avenues open to her. Or the fact that, that rejection was one person's opinion and it does not mean everyone else will react to the book the same way.

She had the option to shop her book elsewhere. She could have also chosen to self publish with Amazon.com. I know of several authors who self publish through Amazon and are quite successful. Also she could have sent the book to various blogs for review and ask them to post their review on their site and Amazon's simultaneously, thus earning her some publicity and readers, provided the review was favourable.

Traditional avenues of publishing are losing ground each day as more and more authors are choosing to self publish.Who wouldn't? The perks of self publishing are you, the writer have the freedom to write the stories you want to, you also get 70% of the royalties as well as get to set the price of your books, this is with Amazon I'm not sure about the other sites that also allow you to self publish.

The downfall is, it's a lot more work as you now have to wear different hats besides that of author. You are now charged with the responsibility of editing your books, marketing them and a host of other things that I am not even aware of that goes into publishing a book.

This is where networking and social media play key roles in getting your books into the hands of your current and potential readers/fans. Because you are not contracted to one of those big publishing houses you don't have access to editors but what you do have are friends, family, possibly fans and even other authors who can read your work, give you feedback as to what works, what doesn't work, they can even edit too.

Now to the marketing side of things. Similarly you don't have access to big bucks to market your book but you really don't need it, with the advent of social media all you need is that network of family, friends etc. You can get one of them to make a trailer for the book and post on Youtube, you can post the video on your Facebook page, do a Blog tour get your name out there, build a website and Tweet about your book. 

I have to say it again I guess she was too caught up in her protective mother hen instincts to see the other routes she could have taken to get what she wanted. Had she been thinking clearly she would also have taken into consideration the fact that her actions could have far reaching consequences.If the agent she assaulted is vindictive enough to call other publishers and tell them about her, her career could be at an end before it even has a chance to take off; which if it does happen is very sad indeed.

INTRODUCTION

My name is Timitra and as the name of my blog states I am also an aspiring author.

The reasons for starting my blog are, it's a class assignment and  it's  also an opportunity to get me to start doing what I want to do with my life, write. You may be wondering, why I haven't been doing that all the time?

Simple I procrastinate, I put off what I can do today  for tomorrow, well when it comes to writing that is. I see this blog as a way of getting me out of my procrastination rut as I will be forced so to speak to find time to write.

I procrastinate for two reasons, one of them is time, of which I have very little of during the semester, all I do is focus on my studies. However, even when I'm on break from school I still don't write.

 The reason for that can be summed up in one word FEAR. Fear of rejection, why am I afraid of rejection? Well,writing is a personal experience, you share parts of yourself, of your very soul with your reader, so much so that what you write takes on a life of its own, it becomes your baby and to put it out there like that for others to judge, to take apart, to critique takes a hell of a lot of courage.

Until recently I did not have that courage despite the fact that I had read stories I'd written in class. But, the good news is  I DO NOW. Which is why I'm about to embark on something I've NEVER done before, that is put myself out there, really out there but we'll get to that a bit later on in the post as I want to focus on the other side of my coin of fear.

Fear of FAILURE is not to be taken lightly. It has the ability to paralyse, to stifle, to snuff the life out of a dream, like a puff of air to a candle's flame. In essence it CAN and WILL kill your dream(s) if you allow it too. I admit I've allowed it to, not exactly kill my dream as it still burns very brightly within but I've allowed it to paralyse my pursuit of it, until now.

Gone are the days where I allow fear to defer my dreams. This blog will be proof of that, it is my way of facing my fear. It will help in the pursuit of my goal which is to write a short story of between 2000-5000 words, which I will submit as my entry into the Commonwealth Short Story Competition. It will chronicle the ups and downs, highs and lows of my journey with  help from my supporting cast Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia...etc.