Mainly I write in my bedroom, sometimes I’ll jot some notes down in an app on my phone when I’m out and about, and sometimes I write on my front porch (though I do have to put up with some SERIOUS *cattitude*! — pictured above!).
Yes, like many other writers (or so it seems from Instagram!), I have some feline help from time to time!
A lady doesn’t reveal her age, but let’s just say this cat, Samba, has been around almost as long as my characters! And I already shared yesterday how long these characters have been with me… so yeah! ?
I have oldddddd photos of her draped over my computer when I had one of those HUGE big-back monitors!… so this little *young* lady has been around a while! ?
Samba was one of my first writing companions [Mauby was THE first – RIP Maubs!] and beta readers for my Hart & Cole Romance series!
I just did an Author Interview with a fabulous online platform for readers and writers to connect: check out Qwerty Thoughts on their website, Facebook page or Instagram feed.
She has a lot of works-in-progress and her series is based on what she believes “A marriage is not a happy ending; it’s a beginning of so much more to come.”
In the interview, I talk about my Hart & Cole series, my favourite writers, my journey as a writer, challenges as a writer, and my advice for budding writing talent!
I’m participating in the Instagram #BAWritingLife challenge by author Bethany Atazadeh and also posting to my blog. Now we’re onto Day 2: Say what your WIP (Work in Progress) ??? is about.
Darren is a serious ALPHA MALE who can control any situation and anyone he comes across… EXCEPT his wife Luisa.
?[BOOK 1 SPOILER ALERT]?…
Luisa cheated on him years ago with Gianni, and they wound up with some serious *baggage* from that affair. Baggage that’s now walking around calling Darren “Daddy”. Yup.
After an ?? EXPLOSIVE ?? scene when Darren first finds out Gianni’s back, he’s now trying to come to terms with co-parenting the child he loves with his wife’s former lover.
Luisa had no closure when she broke it off abruptly with Gianni years ago, and now she’s struggling to hold onto her heartstrings while she is forced to spend time with him so he can see his daughter.
And Gianni… oh, yeah, I love him too. But I love Darren more. Luisa may be conflicted, but I’m the writer so I get to choose who I love! …Even if he’s a righteous dick sometimes! (And oh… he IS!) ?
I can’t WAIT to share him with my readers! C’mon… don’t we all need a righteous dick in our lives? ???
I’ve lived in the UK, travelled throughout Europe and the Caribbean (with SO many locations on my “to go” list!), and now operate my business (Writing, Editing, Print & Web Design Services) for both local and international clients.
Beyond my professional skills, I WRITE. IT’S WHAT I DO.
For me, writing is an identity. A writer is just as distinct as a sexuality; a gender; a religion; a nationality. Writing is a state of being.
My first published novel “Climbing The Walls” is part 1 of my Hart & Cole Book series — Parts 2 & 3 are already written, I’m halfway through Part 4, and Part 5 has its seeds in my mind already! So WATCH THIS SPACE.
For me, writing is my journey into myself, to pull something out — something I’ve created; something no one else can create, ever. If it one day it becomes a key source of income, I’ll be thrilled — but not just for the money; but because it means I’ve shared my characters with a wide audience.
“Right now, this is not the type of book I am looking to read… mostly due to the page count.”
Er… ok. It’s not an epic 2000+ page book I’ve written… but 500+ pages — most of which is dialogue, so there’s a lot of white space.
But the page count alone was my potential blogger-reviewer’s hard “no” from the jump.
…And unfortunately, it’s not something I can change at this point. 🙁
Fair enough, when I myself saw the physical proof copy I was like — yikes, that’s a little on the large side. But I’ve got larger books in my own library — both in height/width and length in terms of pages, so it didn’t scare me TOO much.
But this particular person wasn’t even looking at the physical book. She had no idea of trim size, or font size. She just saw the page number, and took a pass.
I’m wondering — worrying, rather — now, if that’s what readers may do, too.
Have I marketed myself out of the range of the average reader’s tolerance level for a novel length?
…And let’s not go into the epic novels such as the Game of Thrones, where Book 1: A Song of Ice and Fire clocks in at a whopping 864 pages.
Of course, these were all traditionally published novels where the publishing house would have had a say in the final product… and thank God no one told any of these authors, “Yeah… er, pal… you really need to just chop your story down…”
When you’ve already got a major engine running your show, you don’t have to worry too much about length.
Size is just a number, as they say. Or at the very least — you the author won’t need to worry; someone else will do that for you!
However, when it comes to the independent self-published authors, and ebooks, it’s a whole different story.
The cold fact is, ebooks by definition are cheap, and however many words you write, you will only be able to charge a small amount for it online. There is little point in writing a door-stopping 200,000-word opus, if you can only charge $2.99 for it.
Rather than spending a year or more producing one full-length title, it may be better to spend that time writing a sequence of three or four shorter eBooks of, say, 20,000 words each. In marketing terms, publishing four times in a year is better than publishing just once.
So if you do want to dive head-first into self-publishing your work as an e-book, it’s in your best interest to “think small”.
In fact, “thinking small” is precisely how Amazon pushes it, as the printing cost gets astronomical if your book is thick. Check Kindle Direct Publishing costs here.
…But my stories didn’t have ebooks or the millennial generation in mind, when I started writing them…
The longer your book, the more expensive it is to produce. A book that costs more to produce must sell more copies before it becomes profitable.
So, while a larger book justifies a larger retail price, as an indie author/publisher, that’s unfortunately not how it works. You have to consider your reader’s attention span and willingness to:
(1) Read a long book
(2) Pay a buck or two extra for a longer book
Unfortunately, this is the one time that it pays to be smaller.
I tossed out the question to some of my new comrades on various Facebook writer groups, and got a range of responses.
While, of course, in theory the number of pages doesn’t really matter; it should be more about the content… in reality, some of them admitted that most of the books they’ve read as ebooks were about 150-200 pages.
Yikes… I’m still getting a feel of the characters by then! Nothing’s happened yet!
In terms of pacing, I myself prefer to feel like I’m invested in these characters I’m reading about, before their entire life changes in Chapter 2!
Write till the muse says stop!
Generally, I write until the story feels finished, then tighten up where I can, but apparently that’s just not the way to do it in today’s world.
A fellow author admitted she started each book as an independent work, and ended up with two trilogies! She felt “forced” by modern-day guidelines to chop her work up for the best market-ready approach.
Hmm… should I do this too?
Okay, I’m not in this for the money. I know this.
I’m in this to share my stories, to share my characters, and to fall in love with them all over again when others get to know them.
I don’t expect to become a huge success overnight. Maybe that may not happen at all. And that’s okay.
But if my readers — some of which, of course, will be millennials (and I myself am one!) — don’t want to even read the book because it’s too long… Houston, I think we have a problem.
Well, the cat’s out of the bag with Book 1, and I don’t want to cry over that split milk.
BUT… does that mean I get to rebuild/re-flesh-out Lee? ***YAY!!!***
(But then I’ll end up with two long books for “Book 2″… lol…)
…And I’ll need to stop calling it “Book 2″… it’ll be Book 2 & 3… though to ME it’s still one story, Darren and Luisa’s story. But to everyone else, it’ll be separate entities…
Oh, and I’ll need another book cover. And another name. OMG!
For now, it’s just a thought. But having all these thoughts means… back to the editorial board… 🙁
There’s a line in Pandora’s Poison (Hart & Cole Book 2), that if a certain person from my past reads it, he will burst out laughing… or at least, I hope so!
Thankfully, I’ll most likely never have to find out. I don’t think he reads much, and if he does, my book won’t be his “cup of tea”.
…And then, there’s an another event in my past that I would love to write about. But I can’t, so I don’t…
There are stories I’ve published on my Creative Writing website, The Writink that were inspired by particular individuals; and quite a few items of Poetry that were inspired by crumbling friendships; a few of these I’ll willingly reveal:
And there’s snippets everywhere, from just about everything that I’ve experienced, that may one day slip into a piece of writing.
…But some things, some things that happen to you… never make it to print. Some things, need to die with you.
Because, as a writer, you are a keeper of everyone’s secrets.
But how do you decide which you should keep, and which can be revamped into your “fiction” piece?
…Who would recognise it?
I remember I once posted a status on Facebook that upset someone close to me, who assumed it was a direct personal target. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t.
The wonderful thing about being a writer is you’re also an escape artist — you get to hide behind that film of “creative license”. And boy, do some of us just love THAT.
In my case, with that flaming one-liner inBook 2, even if the individual in question does perchance stumble on it one day, I don’t think he’d mind. He might even be flattered.
That’s a rarity.
Not everyone appreciates your/their personal history being “fictionalised” for mass consumption and perhaps even ridicule.
I’m sure everyone remembers a couple of pop culture incidents with a similar theme. Let’s just look at rap music:
Pitbull was sued for using the lyric “locked up like Lindsay Lohan“; he supposedly meant it as flattery but she took it as an insult. He eventually won the case.
Of course, as writers most of us are not celebrities, so while EVERYONE knew exactly what the reference was in those incidents, it’s unlikely readers will know if you use something from your past.
But… the person it’s about, will. So does that mean you can use it?
My rule of thumb, is to first ask yourself: “Who would recognise this?”
Have you shared the incident with your friends, has the other person perhaps done so as well?
If not, you’re on the right track so far. Hopefully, the person may smile at the reference and be thrilled to be in on the inside joke.
The next question, should be: “How much damage could this do?”
Be honest with yourself. You DO know what’s potentially inflammatory, and what’s likely to be harmless.
And finally, “How would the person feel about this?”
You may have an idea. But if you are really not sure, and particularly if it’s a potentially sensitive person, ASK.
Creative License Be Damned
Of course, you may not always get it right.
The person you think would be amused, may be pissed off when they learn you’ve lifted from your shared personal experience for your own gain.
And yes, as a writer, you do have some personal creative license.
Inspiration has to come from somewhere, after all!
My own personal preference is to use inspiration lightly — so that the person in question may WONDER, but not necessarily KNOW.
It may not be the best choice… thankfully, so far I’ve survived with this method virtually unscathed.
I know many situations, however, where this wasn’t the case.
So, be careful. As a writer, you have a responsibility to use your craft for good, not evil.
“I’m so, so, so sorry, Lee…” I’m almost in tears, as I delete an entire scene with one of my favourite characters.
But I’m down 50 pages already (woohoo!), and all the nips and tucks in the world won’t get me to where I need to go. I need to edit. I need to CUT.
“Climbing The Walls” (Book 1), was already a bit longer than it needed to be (a criticism I’ve received, and taken in stride).
I felt it myself, during the million-and-one edits, but I justified it: for the first book, you need to take a little time to introduce characters and “drop in” snippets of back stories, little kernels of jewels that you can fully pop and allow to bloom in a later installment.
But enough of Book 1.
For now, my mind and heart and soul are buried deep in Book 2…
…Of which, the first draft was already 200 pages longer than Book 1!!!
So… it’s chopping time!
What (Who?) to Cut
Lee — Alejandro Galeota — who is mentioned briefly in passing in Book 1 of Hart & Cole, and becomes a somewhat central character in Book 2 of Hart & Cole… Lee is awesome.
At 21, Lee is a big kid and brings some comic relief and support to both Darren & Luisa
He’s Luisa’s little brother, and fiercest advocate. He’s Darren’s new protégé and business partner. He’s the children’s favourite uncle; and at only 21, he’s also a big kid himself. He’s dynamic, he’s supportive, he’s sweet, he’s lovable, he’s funny, and he has some of the best one-liners.
He’s also… well, not the point.
He’s there because he needs to be; he’s the reason certain plot points can move forward, and I’ve been thrilled to build his character out as fully as I can… but now, I can’t. I just can’t.
Editing a book is similar to a film or a TV show. I remember when I watched the Behind-the-Scenes/Making Of one of my favourite teen soaps, the iconic early-2000s One Tree Hill.
There was supposed to be an entire story arc of Peyton helping a troubled young girl, and… when it came time to cut… there just wasn’t. As they explained it, in the end…
You have a certain running time, and instead of tweaking every other scene to chip off bits and pieces to string together a story that still makes sense, you go with the easier option: just CHOP one section out entirely.
And, hard luck for the poor actor/actress who was about to make their debut!
After all, I’m sure we all remember the funny scene on Friends, “Joey’s Big Scene” where Joey faked a scene for his grandma, when his character got cut entirely, after he had invited all his friends and family to watch!
When to Cut: White Spaces
Every writer has a process.
I write in Microsoft Word, on a regular 8″ by 11″ letter-sized layout. I do this because I want to have a concept of pages and flow, and in terms of content I know what my chapters should look like, in that layout.
I write EVERYTHING, to start. The story happens in my head in its entirety — every single word of dialogue, every pause, every action, every look between the characters.
Better to have a half-page blank than a few orphan lines of text
Then, I bring it into the template sized for publication (I’ve chosen 6″ by 9″ for Hart & Cole — you can download a sample template here). Here, I see where all the words actually fall, all the orphaned one-words dangling unnecessarily on a line by itself, or the very short page at the end of a chapter.
That’s where my cutting starts — tightening the white spaces.
Yes, you need to leave some of them, to be easy on the eyes, but it’s better to have a half-page or quarter that is blank, than a single line or maybe two on a page by itself!
So, some of the lengthy first draft, thankfully, gets tightened up naturally, once your goal is just to reduce white space.
How to Cut: Dialogue
I also write a lot, I repeat a LOT of dialogue. And there’s only so many times you need to write “he says/she asks”.
Yes, you need enough, so that the reader can follow who is speaking, but I focus on using their actions in between their words rather than identifying the speaker with “he/she says”.
“I am just saying… we used to be friends, Luisianna.”
“No, Gianni.” I uncross my legs and pull my feet up, hugging my knees. “We’re just two people who used to f**k, a lot, a long time ago.”
And, a little later down, when Darren and Nicole see each other for the first time in weeks:
Nicole sighs. Her eyes drop to the box at her feet. “So I’m really fired?”
“You wanted to be fired, baby girl. Be careful what you ask for.” I smile ruefully, chucking my index finger in her direction.
Not once did I use the actual words of “speech”, but you know who’s talking. That way, you can get away with getting rid of about 50% of “he said/she said”.
So… dialogue, white spaces… woohoo! You get a few pages knocked off the top that way.
The real problem comes when you realise you’ve invested 20% into a secondary character, who really only needs 10% or less — no matter how much you love every single word you’ve written for him in every scene.
…So, I’m sorry Lee. I’ll try to do justice to you sometime later on!
I don’t want to give away spoilers — particularly when I’m not entirely sure when Book 2 will be polished and ready for mass consumption, but basically:
A very, very good man [despite his flaws] did a very, very bad thing.
It’s easy to look at a character like Luisa and label her “weak”, and wonder why on earth she even makes an effort to forgive him, as she does at the start of Book 2. But you have to remember that everyone’s story is not the same.
This a man who loves his mama, and his two girls; and is raising his precocious son to be a good man.
This is a man who did the unthinkable, years ago, to try to save his marriage.
This is a woman who has always loved strong, imposing men.
This is a woman who broke THIS strong, imposing man, time and time again… and she knows this.
So, I repeat: everyone’s story is not the same.
My character is my longest relationship…
So, yes, up to the end of Book 1, I’m on board with my beta reader friend. I myself, as many women have, have been at the receiving end of a man that crossed the line.
Despite the outcome (and fortunately mine was a “good” outcome), there is that momentof fear, when you’re in an intimate setting… and you’re not 100% sure if your words are going to be enough.
So, like I was saying… there’s no excuse for Darren’s behaviour. And I wholeheartedly agree.
But, you see, here’s the thing: I LOVE Darren.
I’ve loved Darren for 15 years. He’s the longest relationship I’ve ever had.
He’s my favourite character I’ve ever created.
He’s kept me up at night. I’ve rewritten every one of his crucial scenes dozens of times over the years.
He is my Book 2 and Book 3 man, and he’s been the most fully formed character since long before Book 1even had a title.
Though we meet him throughout Book 1, he doesn’t get to spread his wings until Book 2 and Book 3.
I can’t wait to share him, in his full glory, to the world.
He may be in my imagination, but he’s my muse.
…So I’m determined to make her love him, too. I’m determined to make everyone love him.
…Which means, I’ve got my work cut out for me.
The Journey & The Lessons Learnt
That aside, our ongoing squabble about my character led me to think of how we, as writers, develop our characters.
Is it okay to just let them unfold onto a blank page?
Do we have a list of actions they need to get in, before the story’s climax?
I wish I had such an intricate plan — it would help if I had a bullet point list I could plan around.
For me, my characters control me. I have to wait till they tell me.
They tell me their strengths, their weaknesses, what they can do, what they will do in a situation.
I like to make sure that all my characters learn something and go through something to get them somewhere important in their relationship by the end of each novel.
For Book 1‘s Kris and Nicole, their tumultuous 3-4 months was their relationship’s breaking point… when they were each at their worst.
So how do you keep that in mind, while setting up all the scenes that led them there?
Start with a Premise: 4 to 5 lines
I use a premise-based approach.
My Hart & Cole series overall has a simple premise: RELATIONSHIPS. MARRIAGE. PARENTHOOD. INFIDELITY. INSECURITY. There’s a lot you can do with all of that, without writing an elaborate tale. These are things we all go through at some point in time. These are things we all understand.
Assuming you’re a writer worth even a sprinkle of your salt, once you have the smallest kernel of a story, you can build from that into so much more.
Once you’ve got the premise, you just need to mesh the premise with the characters.
I try to break my premise down to 5 lines or less, and make sure that my characters’ motivation (even though it’s never SAID directly) will trace back to the 5-line character premise.
So, here’s my Book Bible for Book 1:
First of all, you need to know that Kris always wanted kids.
…And Nicole always wanted Kris.
But here’s the thing: you can’t half-ass motherhood and still expect to keep your “perfect” husband.
Second of all, you need to remember:
Mommy forgets everything.
I Command You To Love My Anti-hero
Once you keep that clear 5-line thought in your mind as you write, it’s a lot easier to build scenes around your characters.
If you finish Book 1 of my Hart & Cole series, and then go back to the beginning two chapters (available here), you’ll realise the entire plot is covered in the first two chapters.
Everything that happens, was alluded to there.
All the themes were mentioned; the upcoming “breaking point” event (for *both* of the main relationships)… was right there.
I began with the premise, and I used the premise to help with the foreshadowing of events to come.
By the time Book 2rolls around, you soon realise Darren’s bad behaviour (from Book 1) was inevitable. Events led him to that point; he didn’t get there on his own.
Then Luisa… I had fun with her, because there’s so much about her character to dislike; she may be the least sympathetic to some readers!
But Luisa’s a good girl. That’s important to remember.
What’s more important to remember is that good girls do bad things.
And the bad girls; the bad boys… sometimes, they are the best of all.
“You’re one of the good ones, Darren Hart,” Nicole says to Darren, in Book 3.
And he is… oh gosh. I promise you, he is.
So like I was saying, I need to make everyone love Darren.
I’ve got my work cut out for me. Let me get back to it…
The question was eating me alive. So, I posted it on several of the Writers’ groups I had recently joined.
Within minutes, my phone was plinging like it was having a seizure.
Responses poured in from all corners of the globe — across the many groups, members amount to 90,000+ writers, and 2000+ of them were leaping and squabbling over each other to share their opinions!
Mind you, this isn’t a “Work In Progress” and no one specifically asked you to be a “beta reader”. Maybe Amazon just gave you a nudge and said “Hey, what did you think of this book?”
You’re a writer. You hated it. Should you tell the world?
If you can’t say anything nice…
One recurring theme, and one I wholeheartedly agree with, is:
Acts of creation take such courage, that by and large, I am hesitant to be publicly critical.
Of course, as a wise member pointed out:
If someone wants to be an author, they can’t be all…. ‘Oh here’s my baby. You need to pay your hard-earned money to read it. But if it’s awful, don’t hurt my feeeelings. Waaaa!’
And another guy was taking no prisoners:
I sharpen my blades and charge in with a lunge to the jugular and leave them bleeding in a pool of hard love.
448 comments — and this was just one group, out of several! And such a wide range of responses…
He was adamant he would want the criticism himself; after all: how can a writer expect to improve their craft if they aren’t given honest feedback?
However, is a public forum, such as the official Amazon book page, the right place for it?
Some opted for trying to get in touch with the writer to share their thoughts.
Others said there was no point: unsolicited peer feedback may rub some writers the wrong way; and also the story is done, there’s no putting the cat back into the bag.
The dilemma is… as a writer, you know what it takes to bleed a story out of you; so is it really necessary to plop a hot mess on your fellow man’s/woman’s parade?
As one member, who runs a book review blog, said:
I have to kiss a dozen frogs before I get a princess… but I just prefer not to kiss and tell.
Was it unreadable… or just unlikable, for me?
Almost everyone seemed to agree that you must separate the physical and emotional.
Physically, a book needs to have a plot, sentences that make sense, good grammar and spelling, and something to work with…
Being boring is one thing; being unreadable is another.
Emotionally, quite simply — not everyone is going to connect with every story.
So, while most would holler (whether privately or publicly) — “Hey, straighten up and fly right!” to ensure this writer doesn’t give the profession a bad name, it’s a different story when it comes to the gut reaction of a fairly-written piece of work you just didn’t like.
As one writer pointed out, reading is a “to each his own” situation:
Reviewers are like witnesses to a murder; it has been scientifically documented that they don’t know what they’re talking about because they don’t know what they saw (read).
This writer soon gained many insta-fans AND insta-haters!
I wasn’t surprised to see the many, MANY references to the “Twilight” series, and to what one member called “50 Shades of Stockholm Syndrome” 🙂 ??? “I honestly couldn’t get past the first 10 pages, and I tried. I really, really tried.”
Still, these polarising texts made shitloads of money, despite being critically panned by readers and fellow writers alike.
So somebody — lots of somebodies, in fact! — were insta-fans.
Just because you don’t like it, it doesn’t mean others won’t.
So yes, as writers, we all have to have a thick skin; but as the saying goes, opinions are like a**holes — we all have one.
And then, there’s the valid point that in this instance you put on your “Reader” hat, not your “Writer” hat.
One writer argues: “Me being an author shouldn’t come into my review. I am reviewing as someone who has read the book and is a consumer. It is not unprofessional at all.”
It’s understood that as a writer, critical reviews are part of the deal.
You can’t be a writer if you refuse to listen to your audience.
And, here’s the thing: there are also WRITERS in your audience.
At the same time, writing can be a very singular, isolating profession.
“Author” simply doesn’t have the same rules as almost every other profession whereby it’s understood the mud-slinging will come back to hit you in the face (rapper-beefs, anyone?!).
Your bottom line isn’t affected by this writer’s novel that didn’t move you. If you’re not a fan, you can quietly be “not a fan”!
As a writer, you see…
…All we have are our words.
We can, but should we really attack our own?
Weigh the nasty vs. the popularity…?
Another theme that popped up in response to my hot-button topic was the popularity of the writer, and the stage at which negative feedback is given.
It’s one thing to review someone who already has a huge following. Your nasty review isn’t taking a penny away from E. L. James or Stephenie Meyer.
You can be a terrible writer… and still be successful.
But what about the newbie independent self-published authors, who work a million times harder to scrape their soul into their work and then painstakingly shop it around?
Stephen King was NOT a fan… but, so what?
For an emerging author, your bad review — however “constructive” you think it is — can discourage them entirely, not to mention massively daunt their sales.
It seems that a lot of writers, especially indie writers, are uncomfortable messing with another indie writer’s money. Karma’s a bitch, right? Better safe than sorry…
Still, reviews are a form of social proof, and we’re more likely to buy something with a ton of reviews — even bad reviews — than we are to try something no one else has bothered to try.
It just remains to be seen whether writers think they have an objective place where they can wear both hats, or if being a writer himself/herself has tainted the lens when they read a book.
As one writer argues:
“I’m not saying NOBODY should give bad reviews; I’m just saying: as writers ourselves, maybe we should just stay out of it.”
Or, as someone compared it:
Would you yell at a co-worker in front of a client?
If you do it, do it with love…
At the end of the day, a book isn’t like a regular consumer product on Amazon; it is more opinion-based, so you don’t always need to be purposefully cruel under the guise of being kind (at least not in public)!
Saying nothing at all may be your choice so as not to hurt anyone, but it also means you are choosing to not help anyone.
So, writers, if you do decide to switch hats and bang out a review for something that ruffled you the wrong way…
Be honest, but kind and constructive.
Think:
How would you like someone to phrase it if it was a review for your book? What can you commend, instead of just rip apart? How would their phrasing it help you to improve?
If the author is worthy of the label, he or she should be able to spin that bitter lemonade into something amazing, later on.
And assuming the writer hasn’t produced UTTER trash, his/her fan base will rise up one day and outweigh the negative reviews.
Now that I can say I’ve finally, at long last, published a novel, my thoughts circled back to this TED talk by Chimamanda Adichie, one of my favourite pieces on writing.
While her focus is on the danger of the “single story”, the part that resonated with me most was at the beginning — the conundrum of writing and representation.
I experienced a similar childhood to this prolific Nigerian writer.
My father loves literature, and he would give me books by Trinidadian V.S. Naipaul… but for the most part, the books I was reading were by authors like Enid Blyton (UK) and Judy Blume (US).
In them, there was no abuse; no abject poverty; no cringing shame of one’s existence beyond tepid teenage angst.
It was a nicer world than what Trinidadian and Caribbean literature had to offer me.
Write what you like to read…?
And so, when I wrote (and I wrote a LOT as a child), I wrote for a US/UK audience. I wrote things I liked to read.
US/UK influences more dominant in high/secondary school texts
Teachers were thrilled I wrote; many children struggle to string a sentence together. So they didn’t care what I wrote…
The cultural references were rich; but notably, one key theme was the American influence on the country’s geography and economy, and on the main characters.
It felt familiar, but still foreign enough.
Now as an adult, I have a much greater appreciation for Annie John.
Exquisitely “local”
I also still love A Brighter Sun along with another popular Sam Selvon one: The Lonely Londoners (about the Windrush generation settling in the UK), which also had a theme that straddled that fine balance between “familiar” and “foreign”.
This is not to say I don’t like books that feel completely local — one of my faves of all time is Roslyn Carrington’s A Thirst For Rain, and I also loved most of the collected short stories in Trinidad Noir.
So… I enjoy reading both local and foreign texts. There’s that.
The problem is, I’m not just a reader; I’m a writer.
Write where you come from?
As a writer, your personal preferences and tastes are called into question. In my case, the foreign education that seeped into my local experience resulted in a displacement of self.
I’m also of the generation whereby the Internet and mass media suddenly heaved a heap of influence onto youth at the most critical time of their personal development.
In my house, local and foreign influences lived side by side; and as a young adult I’ve also lived abroad.
So, all in all, I’m not sure if I’ve had the “typical” Trinidadian experience to be able to comfortably, naturally, unthinkingly write something similar to the “local” or “regional” books I do happen to enjoy.
Diaspora writers; local meets foreign
Does that make me less of a “Trinidadian” writer (as I’ve stated in my official bio on my first published novel, on my website, and just about everywhere?)…
Despite being part of the burgeoning diaspora, she managed to produce a novel that straddled the divide so well, that Canadian, UK, and Caribbean schools used it for the school curriculum! Wow!
…But then, this was in 1988. It’s now 30 years later.
How likely would this feat be now, in today’s world?
If they, too, identify with that internal war, what does the future hold for generations to come, with even more and more foreign media influences?
I, myself, struggle to begin to write a “Trinidadian” or “Caribbean” novel.
I have managed to write some short stories and poetry/prose like this one, once: Big Tune.
Local writers; international audience
Even then, I wanted to call it “Big Chune” (local parlance)… but I stopped myself.
That’s the other worry — the more “local” I make it, the less it would appeal to (or be understood by!) an international audience.
That’s essentially what happened when foreign reviewers came across Robert Antoni’s “How To Make Photocopies in the Trinidad & Tobago National Archives” (included in Trinidad Noir).
I absolutely LOVED this short story.
However, if I wasn’t born and bred in T&T, well God help me!… there’s very little chance I would have understood more than a few words!
Representation & Placelessness
Is a local author obligated to “write” local?
Generally, I don’t “place” my stories. My first published novelleft out “place” entirely…
But now that I am older, and even more so now that I’ve decided to publish my writing, it is no longer good enough just that I write, but now it’s become an issue of what I write.
American and British writers can claim their heritage openly without hesitation, and can write (more or less) anything they please about any part of the world… and no one questions it.
But when you’re from a small part of the world that hardly anyone knows about… well, you’re expected to write about your unique experience of this small part of the world, right?
I have to represent Trinidad; I have to represent the Caribbean; I have to represent the developing world. I mean… shouldn’t I?
However, when you go to actually publish something, you’re forced to choose genres, and then “romance” ends up being my default fall-back option.
But I don’t write romance.
A typical romance has two single characters that squabble for no damn good reason for a few hundred pages, and wind up lip-locked or in bed by the end (depending on how “Christian” the author is — no pun intended 🙂 ).
Now, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my fair share of this stereotype, with their page-turning, swashbuckling heroes and heroines… but I just can’t write that. I don’t want to write that.
My Hart & Cole characters are married, with kids. Their day-to-day lives and dialogue make up 75% of the story. This isn’t the typical romance — but about what happens AFTER the “I do”. There’s no “for-sure” happy ending.
That’s because I don’t write romance. I write relationships. I write people.
And, once you decide that you write people, anything can happen.
My series can become anything I want it to.
I’m the writer. I get to decide how far into the light or how deep into the darkness I want to go.
You, the reader, only get to decide if to follow me there.
Don’t read my book if…
…But, if you like reading fantasy, or sci-fi, or action, or horror… for God’s sakes, don’t read my book. You won’t find any of that there!
My “idea” of my typical reader (I could be wrong) is a young to middle-aged woman who likes watching TV dramas, appreciates an easy-to-read novel with a simple plot and loads of dialogue, can tolerate a little cursing (okay, okay — a lot, by some characters!), enjoys a love-making scene that isn’t totally pornographic/erotica, and — most importantly… likes characters that are real people, and inherently flawed.
So, if you’re my audience, WOOHOO!
But… if you’re not, that’s okay too. If you know you like reading those other genres, and that’s all you like, then don’t read my book just because you want to say you’ve read it!
I appreciate the support, but give it willingly with an open mind! 🙂
And, remember… there are other ways to support your “writer friend” without enduring reading a book you know you won’t like!
We live in a shareable world driven by social media influencers, and amidst the cacophony of noise, any little nudge will help.
Or, if you’re not on social media, no prob… you can do the old-school version of this. Drop it into a convo: “Hey, so my friend published a novel…” Yeah, it’s that simple.
So, if my book isn’t your cup of tea, but you do know someone who fits the bill, just spread the word!
It’s available. ANYONE can get it, ANYWHERE in the world. On ebook or paperback. It’s OUT THERE.
I’m excited. I’m thrilled. But more than anything, I am, in a word… TERRIFIED.
I’m fortunate to be able to say I’ve accomplished a lot of great things in my life, but still — just being able to push that “Publish” button, and open the whole wide world to a piece of my mind… it’s one of the scariest things I’ve ever had to do.
I’m not kidding when I say I’ve been sitting on this book for over a decade and a half. It’s the first book I wrote for adults — and I began writing it when I was just at the cusp of being one myself, in 2002! I finished it somewhere around 2003-2004 or so, and then… I sat on it.
Well, I shared it with a few friends and family via email or hard copy, and I shared excerpts at Writers’ Guild at my uni, Lancaster University. And, that was it.
It just sat there.
Half a dozen times, I looked into publishing — more specifically, self-publishing — but I didn’t follow through. Back then, self-publishing was practically unheard of.
By 2011-2012, e-readers became ubiquitous. I regained interest in self-publishing, and fine-tuned the blurb.
It took awhile to cut it down to something that could easily capture what the book is about, without giving too much away.
Then… I sat on it some more.
The Perfect Cover
Around 2015, I felt the urge again to get back on this project, so I looked into getting a cover done.
I asked two graphic designer friends who, separately, took forever to produce nothing.
I love them still, though… and as one of them (who hadn’t read the book) scolded me:
“This is YOURS. You can’t leave it up to me to create your cover. YOU know what it needs to look like.”
Damn right.
I found this to be even truer and more relevant, when I found a professional (read: “a stranger, with a deadline, who was actually getting paid“) to do the cover, via the freelancer site Fiverr. Her first draft was awful.
I can’t blame her for that though — she didn’t know me, or my characters. But once I gave her some guidance, she delivered.
The first draft (left)… awful. She soon redeemed herself though (right)!
I had to find the photos myself — which took eons to stumble upon the main “perfect” one, and the others from which to sample.
Then, I told her how I wanted it edited — mainly, my character needed more hair. Lots of it: curly, wild, crazy hair.
I know graphics… so I know you need to be talented to be able to work with human hair! I love the final product, and I’ve used the same designer again for my Book 2 cover.
But I knew, while I was fretting and taking — quite literally — years to do a book cover!… I knew that my first book cover, my first foray into the Hart & Cole series, my Book 1 covergirl, my “Nicole” (and you get this sense of entitlement, of protective ownership about “your” characters) is mixed-race, sexy, and vulnerable.
The cover has to say all of that.
Hopefully, it did.
Getting the cover done was a huge step that propelled me the rest of the way.
I made it the screensaver/background on my phone, so that I looked at it every day — constantly, until it pissed me off that I kept seeing it and hadn’t published it yet!
Where & How to Self-Publish
Then, I did my research.
Amazon is a great publishing platform. There are LOADS of others. I chose Amazon because of its popularity. There are drawbacks, but nothing that was a dealbreaker for me.
The one thing I did find in my research worth mentioning (which many, many, many people stand by, if you are serious about being a writer) is that you should get your own ISBN.
It took me quite a bit of running around to figure this one out, and after contacting international and then regional agencies, I found out Trinidad & Tobago has our own ISBN agency in the National Public Library.
So, ISBN purchased, I had no excuse now.
All that was holding me back was myself.
I proofed my book again several times on-screen — adding comments to its PDF version with Adobe Acrobat Reader, then making the edits in Microsoft Word, and then again while I was creating the e-book version through Kindle Create.
Then, I printed hard-copy proof copies through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing and when they arrived in the mail, I proofed those several times yet again.
Proof copies – glossy/white & matte/cream… my final choice was a combination!
I chose between a range of template sizes for the book; here are some awesome tools to get what you need: KDP Manuscript Templates and KDP Cover Templates. I played around with glossy and matte covers, and white and cream paper.
Tip: White paper is a little thinner, so the cover template will be off-balance if you sized it for cream paper! (I learned this the hard way!)
I eventually settled on a glossy cover, with cream interior paper.
And, each time I printed it, I proofed it for errors yet again.
I’m sure if I proof it another time, I’ll still find things I want to change.
But…
At some point, you need to let go.
You need to let go of your characters, so that you can share them with others.
And, most importantly: you need to let go of that fear of failure.
Publishing — overcoming that fear to hit that “Publish” button — is still just only one tiny step to becoming a writer.
I’ve said it before, and it’s my professional motto: “I Write. It’s What I Do.”
I literally can’t remember a time when I wasn’t writing. As soon as I could hold a pencil, I had stories to share, things to say, things that needed to be said.
I have poems and stories and random snippets of things from kindergarten, elementary/primary school, high/secondary school, both universities, all years of employment — some creative fiction, some poetry/prose, some personal brain-dump diaries.
Some of it has been or will be published in some form — whether it’s a book on Amazon like my Hart & Cole series, poetry or short stories on my The Writinkwebsite, or even just a simple Facebook post — but most of it is scattered in copybooks stashed somewhere in my cupboard, or in draft emails/posts dangling out in cyberspace.
Or, most importantly: knocking about in that cranial space between my ears where magic sometimes happens.
Even if I don’t share it all (I think I’d exhaust the universe with the sheer force of all the words), I have been writing… forever.
A Writer vs. Someone Who Writes
So yes, I write. It’s what I do.
But don’t misinterpret the motto. Writing’s not just “a thing” I do. Writing is an identity. A writer is just as distinct as a sexuality, a gender, a religion, a nationality.
A writer’s mind is sticky, cavernous. It is a locus of constant invention and generation, but also of deconstruction and warfare.
And:
A writer understands the capacity for words to embolden, to eviscerate, to cut a man in half. A writer’s words have texture and an aesthetic – they mean one thing on paper and another in your mouth.
For me, it’s a little something like that. I think writers see the world differently. I think writers see wordsdifferently. For a writer, a word is a living, breathing organism.
Words: A Love Affair
Do you know what’s beautiful about words?
Unlike math or science, no formula will produce the exact same result twice.
The synapses, the cognitions, the connections, may ricochet and interact…
But imitation is its own flattery that cannibalises itself.
Genre notwithstanding, no two writers can independently produce the same piece.
In fact, no one writer can produce the same piece with significant lapse of time and memory.
No — each piece owns its own emotion, its own moment in time. The nuances, the perspectives. Each is a kernel in and of itself, a singular atom in spite of itself, a gem both in and out of its context.
The beauty of language, of words tumbling over each other to find their right places, of craft being created, to be witnessed by the eyes of others.
The simplicity of unpredictability is beautiful.
…Even though it’s scary, sometimes…
To put pen to paper and discover what pours forth from the intricacies of the festering mind…
I don’t want to give away spoilers — particularly when I’m not entirely sure when 
I began with the premise, and I used the premise to help with the foreshadowing of events to come.
