It’s a Wonderful Writer’s Life

Writer Inspiration, ,

It’s a Wonderful Writer’s Life. The holiday season is filled with fullness. Days full of activities. To-Do lists full of responsibilities. Hearts full of feeling. Heads full of memories. And – for the storyteller in you – a house full of fabulous secondary characters. Whether they are in your actual residence or not, they are there. Eager to enrich your pages.

 Think of Yourself as the Hostess at a Party of Fiction Inspiration. These are your honored guests, ready to be honored further by your imagination. You are the creative force and they are the raw material for your creations. Each one is wrapped up bright and sparkly. Each one is a gift waiting to be opened by you and invited into the world of your story.

Think of Frank Kapra and It’s a Wonderful Life. He and his co-writers adapted an obscure short story into a classic. In Philip Van Doren Stern’s The Greatest Gift, the main character witnesses his world as it would be if he had never existed. Kapra and company changed his name from George Pratt to George Bailey, and the saga of a 75-year-old holiday hit began.

 Think of How They Populated George’s World. Henry Potter, the villain we love to hate.  Mary Bailey, the steadfast mate. Uncle Billy, the family screwup. Clarence, the angel second class. Who fails to smile when he appears on screen? Plus – Bert, Ernie, Violet, brother Harry, friend Sam. And Bedford falls – a town full of unforgettable secondary characters.

Each of Them is a Character Type. Each type is defined by a dominating character trait. Greed. Loyalty. Forgetfulness. Optimism. Each behaves according to the dictates of this personality definition. They do not step beyond its bounds. Their job is to maintain that predictability. Significantly, because of them, It’s a Wonderful Writer’s Life.

Recollect a Holiday Gathering from Your Personal Past or Present. A family fixture. An office party. A community event. Imagine yourself there and look around you. In your mind’s eye, tag each person with their dominant character trait. Feel free to take creative license with the portrayal. This is your Bedford Falls. Populate it with whomever you prefer.

Remember these are Secondaries – Not Your Hero. But each of them is connected to your hero and affects her life in some way that benefits your story. Find the villain first. There he is in a corner making somebody uncomfortable. Find your hero’s mate or best friend next. Smiling and taking care of things and people because that is what he or she does.

Continue this Exercise by Identifying One Character Type After Another. These folks fill the streets of your Bedford Falls. They surround your hero and move her story forward – or backward – as your storyline requires. They expand your fictional world and give it real life dimensions. They are the people of your plot and their roles are anything but secondary.

Without these Characters Your Story is a Hollow Shell. Your hero’s world is hollow also. These characters give your reader a sense of your hero’s community. They give your reader individuals to identify with, to root for or rally against. These characters make your work resonate on the page. They cause you to rejoice that It’s a Wonderful Writer’s Life.

Alice Orr Says – You Possess Storytelling Magic. Keep on Writing Whatever May Occur. https://www.aliceorrbooks.com.

Ask Alice Your Crucial Questions. What are you most eager to know – in your writing work and in your writer’s life? Ask your question in the Comments section at the end of this post.

 Alice Orr – Teacher. Storyteller. Former Literary Agent. Blogs for Writers. Author of 14 novels, 2 novellas and a memoir so far. Wrote No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells as a gift to the writers’ community she loves.

Alice’s Holiday Novel – A Vacancy at the Inn – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 3 – is available HERE. Celebrate the Season!

How to Put Your Writer Psyche on Your Side - www.aliceorrbooks.com

Praise for A Vacancy at the Inn. “Grabbed me right away and swept me up in the lives of Bethany and Luke.” “Undercurrents of suspense move the story along at an irresistible pace.” “The Miller family is rife with personality quirks, an authentic touch that demonstrates Alice Orr’s skill as a writer.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.”

 All of Alice’s Books are HERE.

http://facebook.com/aliceorrwriter/
http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/
http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/
http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/

 

Giving Thankfuls for Our Writer Lives

Writer Inspiration, , ,

Giving Thankfuls for Our Writer Lives. In our yellow house on Vashon Island the dining table was battered from years of grandkid use. The chairs had been rocked so many times Grandpa Jonathan had to bolt the legs to the frames. This was the precious place where we held hands at mealtime and practiced gratitude for our lives together. We called it Giving Thankfuls.

Our Storytelling Lives are Equally Blessed. The guests at our tables exist only in our heads but they rollick and roar and rock the chairs all the same. They give us hissy fits. But would you want to live without them for a day? We Give Thankfuls for our imaginary friends.

We Sit in Battered Bolted Chairs and Stare at the Wall. Real life plays out in front of us but we are otherwise engaged. Images peek from under the tableware. What ifs clatter louder than the cutlery. We savor the symphony of inspiration and Give Thankfuls for the scenes we see.

An Array of Plot Possibilities Fills our Formerly Empty Plates. We pick and choose. Mix and match. Consider and rethink. We alter the menu at will. Always in service of the purposes of the plot. Always hungry for what works best. We Give Thankfuls for the feast of creativity.

The Banquet Continues for Days Months Years. Our appetites are sometimes satisfied but often they are not. We may leap up from the table in exasperation. Nonetheless we eventually return and struggle again to get the ingredients exactly right. We Give Thankfuls for resilience.

At Last we Add these Luscious Words – The End. We pound the well-used table or collapse upon it. Though probably exhausted we are also filled with joy and chair-rocking energy. We laugh. We sob. However we express it we are Giving Thankfuls for Our Writer Lives.

Being Storytellers has Put Us in the Amazing Company of Other Storytellers. We honor that company for its generosity, its wit, its endless ingenuity. We find role models and helpmates there. Friends too, professional and personal. We Give Thankfuls for our writers’ community.

Being Storytellers has Put Us in the Amazing Company of Readers. The upfront readers who help us grow our work. The priceless readers who review that work after it has come of age. The readers we pray will become our fans. Who could possibly not Give Thankfuls for readers?

Each Morning Begins a New Day to Rejoice in Storytelling. What gave us this glorious gift? In my case it was Grandma. She told her stories aloud. I write mine down. Her spirit abides in me and mine in her. I shall Give Thankfuls forever for her believing in me from my start.

Today My Own Grandkids are No Longer Kids. We are all back on the east coast now. Grandparents and parents. In-laws and outlaws. Jonathan and I are still a twosome fifty years and counting. We have never stopped holding hands and Giving Thankfuls and hope we never will.

Meanwhile my Storytelling Life Continues. So does yours. We are filled with memories. We are calm or stormy at turns. We have not gone gentle into any night – good are otherwise. We are the characters we have written and become. We are Giving Thankfuls for Our Writer Lives.

Alice Orr says – You Possess Storytelling Magic. Keep on Writing Whatever May Occur. https://www.aliceorrbooks.com.

Ask Alice Your Crucial Questions. What are you most eager to know – in your writing work and in your writer’s life? Ask your question in the Comments section at the end of this post.

Alice Orr – Teacher. Storyteller. Former Literary Agent. Blogs for Writers. Author of 16 novels, 3 novellas and a memoir so far. Wrote No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells as a gift to the writers’ community she loves.

Alice’s holiday novel, for which she Gives Thankfuls, is A Vacancy at the Inn – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 3 – available HERE. Celebrate the Season!

How to Put Your Writer Psyche on Your Side - www.aliceorrbooks.com

Praise for A Vacancy at the Inn. “Grabbed me right away and swept me up in the lives of Bethany and Luke.” “Undercurrents of suspense move the story along at an irresistible pace.” “The Miller family is rife with personality quirks, an authentic touch that demonstrates Alice Orr’s skill as a writer.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.”

All of Alice’s Books are HERE.

http://facebook.com/aliceorrwriter/
http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/
http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/
http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/

Indie Publishing and You

PublishingTip, ,

Indie Publishing and You. This is the 8th anniversary year of my own 1st indie book. That memoir and the 5 following indie novels taught me many lessons. I pass the most important of those lessons on to you FYI. I hope they will be helpful if/when indie pub is your choice too.

Put Together a First Class Team. The memoir I mentioned – Lifted to the Light: A Story of Struggle and Kindness – was a solo effort all the way from cover choice to upload. I learned a lot about the process from that experience. I also learned never to do it again. IMO it takes a Team.

Produce a First Class Story. You create that showstopper on your own and make it the very best storytelling you have in you. Then you must run it past fresh eyes – fresh and talented eyes. Which means you need a strong editor who will see the flaws you have inevitably missed.

Publish a First Class Book. Start with a topnotch cover. Unless you are a gifted artist, I advise a designer pro for this job. Also find an experienced formatter and (if you are like me) an upload expert to mount you on the digital platforms you need and make certain your hardcopy book is a beauty to behold as well. All of these functions can come from a single company if you prefer that route the way I did.

Construct a First Class Post-Pub Plan. Start gathering your mailing list the day you are born. Adopt an online presence at puberty. Only slight exaggerations. The internet is the highway via which you reach and grow your readership. School yourself in everything social media. Suss out a success story and follow her example. My personal online marketing guru is Kayelle Allen.

Create a First Class Offline Act. Readers abound in real life as well as screen life. Begin with your very own peeps right here in the writers’ community. Earn our interest. Enlist us as allies by being an ally. Serve the community however you can and it will serve you generously in return. Just rememer there is an Us in Indie Publishing and You.

Concoct a First Class Long-Range Plan. Continue to market your title by any means necessary. Keep that effort going long after launch week. Use your creativity. Brainstorm new angles and clever hooks. Loose your imagination. Be bold. But be subtle. Do not badger. Never forget to benefit others while building your own career.

Capture Us with First Class Visibility. Incorporate your title into your signature and affix it to everything. Do whatever you can inspire yourself to do. Picture becoming a star-studded author and head there. Always and forever – promotion is your new middle name.

Meanwhile Manage Your Expectations. Million-dollar babies are only intermittently born in this or any other creative profession. Put your psyche on your side. It sounds cliché – but you must write for the love of it. Make your work first class for the love it. Promote your books to the heavens for the love of it.

And – Celebrate. Celebrate. Celebrate. Every move forward. Every slip back. All are part of the joy of what we do. Using our noggins and our notions. If you are new to this particular path or one of the many amazing authors marking anniversaries as I am – Enjoy!! This is the Wonderful World of Indie Publishing and You.

Alice Orr says – You Possess Storytelling Magic. Keep on Writing Whatever May Occur. https://www.aliceorrbooks.com.

Ask Alice Your Crucial Questions. What are you most eager to know – in your writing work and in your writer’s life? Ask your question in the Comments section at the end of this post.

Alice Orr – Teacher. Storyteller. Former Literary Agent. Blogs for Writers. Author of 16 novels, 3 novellas and a memoir so far. Wrote No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells as a gift to the writers’ community she loves.

Alice’s novel – A Wrong Way Home – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 1 – is a free gift for you HERE.

A Wrong Way Home

Praise for A Wrong Way Home: “The story twists and turns masterfully into danger and romance.” “I highly recommend this page-turner which is romance and suspense at its best.” “The writing is exquisite.”

All of Alice’s Books are HERE.

https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter
http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/
http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/
http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/