Finding The Plot

Paulo Coelho is credited with saying,

'There are only 4 stories...a love story between 2 people, a love story between 3 people, the struggle for power and the voyage.'

I am reflecting on this statement, which really pares back plot, and thinking about where the story swirling around in my head fits.

Several of my friends have finished big creative projects and they are in that flat space between ideas. (hey guys, how about combining all of those...)

Recently I heard a well established fiction writer say that he gets all his ideas from non fiction and that is all he reads between his novels.

On Facebook we are joking with Brian Falkner, a friend of ours who writes excellent YA Science Fiction thrillers, about new discoveries last year in Science, Brian had already invented them as plot devices in his books. If he dreams it up suddenly it becomes reality.

Ideas, plots, conspiracy theories and character motivation all swirling around in the blogosphere this week.

Truth is Stranger than Fiction.

Susan Kaye Quinn is interviewed on her new series...which began when she had one of those high concept ideas while traveling and she had to interview her own muse to find out what happens next.

K M Weiland talks about why you should steal from other writers.

Hugh Howey is being referenced all over the blogosphere again...this week it’s his three rules for writing...

Orna Ross looks at the Vanity Publishing vs Self Publishing. Are they the same? It is all about value.

The brilliant Joel Friedlander has added three new non fiction style templates to his fiction book design templates. If you are looking at POD check out what Joel is doing...very brilliant stuff.

M J Rose is looking at the book launch that happens when your books are not in the book store because of a dispute....Perfect is the Enemy of Good. Great post.

  

In the Craft section,

7 types of Narrative conflict

How to plot wrong in 3 easy steps

7 steps to writing a story readers won’t be able to put down

POV –whose head should I be in

Great fiction goes for the guts- Kristen Lamb with a straight to the point  blog post.

In Marketing,

Pinterest for authors...Jane Friedman takes a look at how you can use this social media site.

Getting it up and keeping it up-The conundrum for Indie authors

Bibliocrunch has a how to submit your book to various ebook sites post.

To Finish,

Neil Gaiman has addressed publishers directly at the London Book Fair to tell them what he thinks they should be doing...making mistakes.

The publishers will probably think he has lost the plot.

maureen

Pic from DH Wright

Life is like...

Spring Spring Spring. The buds are on the trees. The sun is warmer. 

The Spring storms have hit with a vengeance. Today landslips (from all that rain) caused two trains to collide north of Wellington...no serious injury. At least the snow has stopped and the rain has kept the hay fever down.

We are in the middle of school holidays and I find my good intentions of getting some writing done have being hijacked by either dispute resolution or transportation imperatives.

So it is a rather patchy collection of interesting links for your delectation this week.

Debbie Redpath Ohi has enjoyed some well deserved success this year and in a great post on time management and creativity she outlines how she juggles the many projects she does and keeps her sanity. One of her advice gems is to get an accountability partner. This is a good strategy that I have made use of now and again...nothing like having to justify why you are so slack, to get you moving again.

I have been looking at my Mars story and trying to isolate where the plot is going to go...I can head off in a few directions and I really need to nail down one direction to get the story finished. With this in the back of my mind I have found myself spending more time looking at back story and prologues trying to pull out the essential information and work it better. Two great posts on these topics this week have caught my eye.

Kristin Lamb part of Bob Mayer’s Warrior Writers group has written an excellent post on 7 Deadly Sins Of Prologues If you are tempted at all by using a prologue....take a look.

Laura Pauling has written a nice post on how to use backstory effectively and she links to Story Sensei who has a more in depth analysis of backstory writing.

In my quest to uncover marketing gems for you, gentle reader, I have often read lots of posts on blogging. I don’t usually share these as I figure each writer will find their own way if they want to blog. However I do read a few writer blogs and I know they read me so in the spirit of sharing interesting stuff on writing blogs, Tribal Writer has a post entitled How Fiction Writers can Turn Into Badass Bloggers

Problogger always has useful ideas on blogging and publishing and this week they have a great post on 11 Ways To Convince Readers To Buy Your eBook. (If you have an eBook...or even an eReader...) eBooks are just starting to appear here in New Zealand so if you are a sneezer (an early adopter of technology who shares the experience around) or a ‘wish I had the money to be a sneezer,’ you might be interested in this post.

Over on Craicerplus ( My Amplify Page)

In Defense Of Dead Parents In Children’s Literature.

5 Things A Writer Always Overlooks...(brilliant)

Giving Stuff Away Is Not A Strategy

Finding The Perfect Collective Supernatural Noun...(a very funny list)

Joe Konrath – The Acquisitions Editor. (This satire will make you laugh and make you think!)

Over at Adventures In Children’s Publishing they have a YA Giveaway happening and our own Brian Falkner has a book review on their site and a book to give away. Nice One Brian!

And for those counting down to the end of November there is a new Movie Trailer up.

enjoy

maureen

pic is chocolate....points for those who get the quote reference

Celebrating The Brilliance...

I have been contemplating publicity over the last couple of days...in the light of the NZ Post children’s book awards shortlist coming out.

First there was The DomPost, Wellington’s newspaper only printing the Wellington finalists...how parochial is that...we should be celebrating our collective national brilliance...then there was The Herald, Auckland’s newspaper making a right hash of the shortlist putting the wrong illustrators with the wrong books and leaving poor Melinda out completely.

I have passed several bookshops lately none of them have the list displayed in the window...ok they are chain stores but come on....celebrate the brilliance people!

So feeling a little disheartened about it all I started looking on the web at my usual link sites for some inspiration and to feel better as I broke my toe on Wednesday....

The lovely Madeleine of The Buried Editor came to my rescue with a brilliant post on author publicity from an editor and publishers perspective. She has her own little imprint at Blooming Tree Press called CBAY (Children’s Brain’s Are Yummy.) Here is a little snippet of what she has to say.

Besides, your book will never be as important to your publisher as it is to you, especially with your first book. Your book is most likely the only one you have coming out that year. Even at the smallest of presses, this is unlikely to be the case. With the big houses, you could be literally one book out of dozens being produced that month, much less over the year. And even at the small houses where your editor may have read the manuscript dozens of times, he/she still has not put in the kind of time, effort, or love that you have. And the house publicist may not have read the book at all. You are the best advocate for your book. You should take this responsibility seriously.

So, here are some things you can do to market your book:

Go and read the rest of her post Here.

This morning I heard our esteemed patron and all round good keen man, Jack Lasenby, speaking on National Radio, the interviewer asked him only question about his book, Old Drumble. I thought to myself ‘huh DomPost, I bet you want that interview I did for you on Jack now....’ They didn’t run it because they didn’t have space last June when Old Drumble came out. But it was an attempt to celebrate the brilliance...

I thought that I would post the book trailer that Brian Falkner has made for The Tomorrow Code because I think it is brilliant and he is shortlisted and really just to celebrate the brilliance...

maureen

Brain Falkner and The Tomorrow Code

Brian Falkners book 'The Tomorrow Code' launched in the English speaking world....on the 28th and his Cool Book Website also went live.

What I like about Brian's website for the book is his attention to detail.
You want to know about some of the science...it's there
morse code...it's there
The Haka...a video shows you how to do it....

Brian....Well Done Mate!....(you know that conference we are having next September....)

It's really great to watch a Kiwi having a crack at the world book market...and such a great children's writer makes it all the sweeter....

maureen

I know I said I’d never...

Post more than once a week and here I am with another post BUT
I thought that I would share this as it relates in a way to the last two posts and the mini marketing series I am doing for authors....

Readergirlz are a group of YA (Young Adult) writers who have got together to share a website and market their books on MySpace etc. They host on line chats, do school visits...all the things that the average YA author in the states has to do to get noticed. Scary stuff for us down under but it will come...They are hosting an online chat series for a week as part of their promotion and TeenRead Week.

So here is a YouTube video promoting their online author chat series...


Now I am posting this to show what is currently happening in promotion and marketing YA books by the authors themselves.

I dropped into Brian Falkner’s website this morning. Such a cool web site and now that Brian’s latest book ‘The Tomorrow Code’ is being released in the states...I wonder if he is going to have to ramp up his already cool website for a US audience.
Congratulations Brian, on the great Kirkus review.

maureen