Pick a genre

Genre

What's right for you?

So, you want to write a novel.  One of the first things you need to decide is what genre is right for you.
there are several different genre to choose from these days as well as a mixture of two or more genre.  Let's look at a few of the most common genres, shall we?

Romance:
Romance is a big seller and there are numerous titles out there that fall under this category.  Romance has a large number of fans and sells more books every year than any other genre out there.  It isn't unheard of for romance lovers to read several books per week.  The only thing that is a MUST is that the man and woman live happily ever after.  There is a formula that is typical for a romance novel that you should at least look at before diving in.
A great site that goes into detail about the romance formula can be found here:  How to write romance fiction 

Paranormal Romances:
This a a genre that blends both paranormal and romance, obviously.  This genre can have ghosts, witches, whether good or bad, demons, vampires, etc.  Basically, anything can happen in this genre, but like I said romance must outshine all else.

Contemporary romance:
This is a love buds forth in today's world.  There's a lot of witty dialogue when it comes to contemporary romances.  Many of the humorous romance movies set in modern times (I know you've seen at least a few) are contemporary romances.  This genre can be steamy and have heated love scenes or be more of a sweet love with no more than a few kisses.

Historical Romance:
As the name implies, this is a romance that is set back in the past.  Have you watched Pirates of the Caribbean?  That would be a historical romance.  The pirate, Jack Sparrow, is bad in a good way, handsome, and funny.  Will Tanner is the descendant of a pirate.  He is handsome, well groomed, funny, and intelligent.  In a historical romance the heroine is fiery yet reserved.  She's strong yet somewhat delicate.

Fantasy:
This genre needs an imaginative author to bring it to life.  It can take place in another dimension or on another world.  There is really no limit when it comes to this genre, which is why I love writing this particular genre.  It doesn't have to have the element of love or it can have a blossoming romance the steams up the pages.  It is completely up to you.

Science fiction:
All novels of this genre have an element of realism or possibility such as aliens or the future.  In this genre, the writer can explore all possibilities that circle around science fact.  If you have ever hear of "The sixth day" or War of the worlds, then you know science fiction.

I'm going to stop here and let you think about these genres for a while, but I will be back tomorrow to go over several other wonderful genres for you to choose from.

Look forward to reading about:
Different mystery genres
Psychological novels
Thrillers
Horror
Historical fiction
contemporary fiction
Mainstream fiction

Until next time, happy scrawling.

Memorial Day

Memorial day

In memory of

This is not about books or writing.
This is a day to remember our loved ones who have left us behind, to remember all those who have fought and died for our country, and for all those who have changed out lives with their heroic acts and inspiring words.  For those who are now gone, but who remain in our hearts now and always, we remember you and send you our love.

Book cover OMG!

Choosing a cover design

OMG!  How hard is it to have a book cover approved?  I wonder if all authors go through this nightmare.  When my novel was reformatted for book form, there were some formatting issues we had to work out, which has taken a week.  The cover was changed again per my request.  The first choice just didn't look right.  Now it's in the review process again to make certain it is formatted correctly and therefore will print correctly.  Holy crow!  I'm so tired and just wish this was over all ready.  I really want to finish my second novel and submit it.

Finally published...twice!

Fantasy/Romance

Novel

I finally received a copy of "Hell Happens" in hard copy.  I now have to proof it, making sure I'm happy with the cover and such, then it's available in hardback as well as e-book form.  I was also published in Ezine Articles for my article "Reborns.  How adollable!"  You can view it here:
Reborns.  How adollable!
My novel is available in e-book form here:
Hell Happens
Available soon in paperback.

Writing challenge for the creative writer.

Choose a word and create a synopsis.  

It's fun and stimulates your creativity!

Challenge

This is my first web page and I can say anything I want in here - I do that by putting text or images in the body section - where I'm typing right now :) Here are a few single word titles and what I challenge you to do is write a synopsis for a short story using one title of your choice. Simple, right? I guess we'll see.

Title 1: Extrinsic
Title 2: Risque
Title 3: Celestial
Title 4: Tryst
Title 5: Text
Title 6: Stark
Title 7: Afar
Title 8: Succumb
Title 9: Storm
Title 10: Wither
You may post your synopsis here for others to comment on or simply use for exercise purposes. Always challenge yourselves guys and gals and above all keep scrawling.

Popplet

Popplet.  creative, fun, and just plain cool!

If you haven't tried this, you've gotta.  I just love it.  It keeps your thoughts organized and I think can help when brainstorming an idea for a new story.  Try it out guys.

My Popplet:

http://popplet.com/app/#/313918

Now get one for yourself:

 http://popplet.com/

Hell Happens

New novel "Hell Happens" is now available at Amazon.com

Check it out now!

At Amazon.com and on Kindle

Letting you know that "Hell happens" will be available on Kindle Mother's day.  Keep an eye out for it!
Hooray for me!

Mother's day!

Happy Mother's Day!

This has nothing to do with writing except the occasional Hallmark card or sweet letter from a child to his/her mother.  I just want to wish all the mom's out there a very happy and wonderful Mother's day.  I hope all is great for you on this day and the sun shines down on us all.

Dialogue

Dialogue, dialogue, dialogue.  Get it right!

Be sure you tag your dialogue correctly.

When writing dialogue, I have seen common mistakes that many people make, even I had made many of them when I had first started.  Not a lot of books go over the dialogue tags,  so I am going to give you a quick lesson in how to write these correctly.
Here is an example of dialogue tags:

He said
She said
He snapped
She spoke eagerly
He said in a grudging voice
These are dialogue tags.  The trick is to write them correctly.  For instance;

Wrong:   "Let's get outta here."  He said. 
Correct:  "Let's get outta here," he said.  

Notice how I added a comma after what he said then ended the sentence AFTER the dialogue tag.  The only time you will end the sentence before the dialogue tag is when you are using one of these;  ! or?.  There are other exceptions as well, however.

Example:  "Should we get outta here?"  He asked in a husky voice.

You want to end the sentence BEFORE the dialogue tag then space TWICE and add dialogue tag as its own sentence.
Another mistake people make is when the character is quoting another person.  You should always use the single quotations around the quote.

Example:  "You know, Amy," he began.  "Confucius says 'to go beyond is as wrong as to fall short.'"
This may look strange, but you do need those single quotes in there.
There are a number of other rules that are a must when writing a novel.  I found a great site that explains pretty much ALL the rules of writing dialogue tags.  I suggest all of you check these rules out if anything, to be certain you are writing ALL of them correctly.
Writing World.com
Be sure to check out the rest of there site because they have great information there.  Happy scrawling guys and if you have any questions about dialogue tags, be sure to ask.

Idea!

Book idea for the creative writer.

Are you stumped for a story idea?  Here's one to get you started.

My father was a very intelligent man and his last contribution to this world was to be a story to help teens become better, more spiritual people.  He had an idea to write a story about a handful of teens fighting demons and it had to be written in such a way that the reader believed they were fighting actual demons, but in the end, would find out that they were fighting their own internal demons.  He was planning to write this story, but was over-come with heart failure before he could make that happen.  I am writing about this in hopes that one of you will have an idea of how to write this story in such a way that would make my father proud.  I would write it, but I think it would be better to have a fresh pair of eyes on this one.  It's my fathers idea and I just don't think I can create the type of work that he would have.  I write very differently.  Perhaps there is someone out there who thinks the same way my father did and will write this story the way my father would have if he had the chance.  He never liked books that had flashbacks in them or that went from one character to another all the time.  He felt this type of writing confused the reader.  He read the Urancia all the time and believed completely in its teaching, so someone who had the same beliefs would be great for this task.  I leave this up to all of you in hopes that I will someday see this story on the shelves.   If you do take the time to write this story, please make a small dedication to my father, "John Rambish"  in it.  You don't have to, of course, but it would have made him very happy.  Thank you all and happy scrawling everyone.

coming up with a story idea

Book ideas.

How to get your creativity flowing.

Use your imagination to form ideas for great stories.  Keep a dream journal.  Your dreams are your imagination hard at work and you never know when something from your nocturnal world will bring forth an amazing idea for a story.  This is where you can take a normal, recently widowed woman and have her try to drown herself only to find an impossible alternate world as in the wonderful story, "Sea Changes" by Gail Graham.  Some of the best authors use their imaginations to write amazing stories like J.K Rowling and her "Harry Potter" series or Collins and "The hunger games." 

Use reality as your muse for a wonderful story.  Use ideas from your own life or watch the news. scan the net, or read the paper for great story ideas.  Watch the people around you. listen to the "old timer's" stories (which can be terrific stories) they have so much to say and have seen a lot more.  Some of J.K Rowling's writing is from reality as well.  Look at her "Harry Potter" series for instance, Rowling was a teacher, so she added a school and therefore already new a bit about schools, how they're run as well as a teachers roll in the educational system then she put a huge spin on it.  All you need is a small spark to ignite an entire idea.

Although you may NEVER use exact text from other people, you may still come up with a great idea from something you've read.  I have received inspiration from novels.  Some writers will even mention other authors characters in their own stories.  Of course, you should ALWAYS receive permission prior to doing this.

I've even picked up ideas from the Thesaurus.  Yes, you can come up with great ideas from a mere word.  Those words have complete definitions behind them and those definitions can go a long way toward helping a writer.  After all, great writing first starts with words.  You can't have a story without them.