Tag Archives: story ideas

I Write What I Want to Write!

The other day someone asked me what kind of stories I see myself writing in the future. For me, that’s not an easy question because, honestly, I don’t know.

I can’t see myself only writing in one genre. Yes, there are authors who only write novels that involve detectives and serial killers. And some writer’s pen only romance or historical sagas. But, I can’t see myself limiting myself.

My first novel WINDFALL was a dramatic thriller. However, next year when I write its sequel, I’m not going to limit myself to writing another dramatic thriller. It might end up being a dramatic thriller but it might be something entirely different. Right now I don’t know. I’m giving myself options.

This year I’m writing two novels. One is a coming of age story. The other is a paranormal romance.

I suppose if I was younger I might want to focus on one genre and become famous for that. Like Stephen King did with horror, or John Grisham did with novels about lawyers.

But I’m 60. At this point in my life I’m not going to limit myself.

I’m a writer, sometimes novels and sometimes screenplays, and I’m going to write what I want to write.

Writing Devices for the Blind in 1913 (Library for the Blind)

I Entered MoviePoet’s 2012 Logline Contest

In January, MoviePoet conducts their annual logline contest. For those of you who do not know what a logline is, think “blurb” from a t.v. guide. A logline is a sentence or two that hopefully entices us to want to watch the movie. For me, writing a logline is more difficult than writing a screenplay. It is difficult to condense 110 pages into a couple of sentences.

Because I’m so busy with two novels, I wasn’t going to enter this year’s contest but this morning I woke up with an idea I couldn’t turn my back on.

The MoviePoet logline contest is the first stage of a feature-length screenplay contest. The top 30 loglines advance to the second stage where the first ten pages of their screenplays can be submitted. The top ten writers in this stage advance to the third stage, where the entire screenplay is presented.

I have entered this contest twice before and my logline has NEVER advanced.  I have always considered three my lucky number so we’ll see if my logline progresses to the second stage of the contest this year.

Looking Back on Self-Publication

Since publishing WINDFALL, I’ve had a couple of false starts on my next novel. In fact I’ve even changed projects and put FINDING VERITY on the back burner once again because, at this point in my life, FINDING VERITY was a little too dark.

So I’ve settled into a story that’s a big lighter and I’m happy to announce I finally made it to chapter two. Word count is at 4,628 words. I still don’t have a title for it so I’ll be referring to it as CURRENT NOVEL. Now ain’t that a fanciful  title?

I’m back to creative writing and it’s tortuous. Words don’t flow out of me, they are coaxed. And there are so many decisions to make, it’s more than a bit overwhelming. But, I figured out where and when to start the damn story and I’ve found a voice and, hopefully, in a years time I’ll have another one ready for self-publication.

So, shall we talk about self-publication? My experience is this… self-publishing is not as hard as you’d think it would but, at the same time, it’s a lot harder. I know, I know, that makes no sense at all but it will… please pay attention here.

The problem is, right now, the publishing world is in an extreme state of flux. The indies are truly battling with the large publishers and, unfortunatley, the large publishers still have the upper hand. Even on Amazon, the playing field between the indies and the major publishing firms is not equal.

 I read articles about self-publishing and I did what I thought I was supposed to do. I made WINDFALL book trailers and a web-site specific to WINDFALL.  I published in both a paperback and an e-format. I sent out press releases. I gave my book away to local bookstores. I donated several copies to the local library. I  bought advertising on Facebook and Google and received sufficient “clicks.”

I’ve had a few sales but nothing to write home to mom about. But am I giving up? No way. I’m working on CURRENT NOVEL. Right now, the world of self-publishing is evolving. My first novel’s performance may have been less than stellar but CURRENT NOVEL might change all that. My dream is still alive. Whether you write novels or screenplays or both, never give up, keep plugging away.

I found the following saying on Face book.

Many thanks to Optimism, Inc.

It says alot about I’m going through right now!