Method of my madness

Novel Spaces is in its 10th year! Over the coming weeks we'll be featuring some of the most popular posts from our archives. This one was first published July 28, 2010.

By Carol Ottley-Mitchell

Let me share a little secret with you. I am very old fashioned when it comes to writing.

We have to keep this to ourselves because in my other life, I work with computers; I write computer software, consult on information management and create websites. When it is time to create literature, however, I find it impossible to do so at the computer, I must put pen to paper. I suspect that seeing the words on paper, the way that my readers would, provides some level of inspiration. I probably would have done very well with a manual typewriter.

This stumbling block makes writing a very laborious process since, having written the words, I must then transcribe my scrawls into an electronic form so that they can easily be edited and shared. Being a techie, I have done some research in an attempt to make this process a little less painful.

Intelligent character recognition software is one possible solution to my problem. I could scan my jottings and use optical character recognition software to electronically translate my written words into characters that can be edited with a word processing document. The problem is that no software has yet been created that can decipher my handwriting. Years of computer use have caused my writing to deteriorate significantly. The legibility of my writing is often exacerbated by the fact that I often write in the car on long commutes on bumpy roads and sometimes I scrawl a paragraph or two in the dark on the pad that I keep next to my bed.

At one point I dabbled with electronic writing tools, a pen stylus to be exact. I connected it to my computer and wrote on a Tablet. This was several years ago, and the technology may have improved considerably by now, however, I was extremely frustrated with this method. The main problem was that the software reading the handwriting relied on me to make each letter basically the same way each time I wrote it. You see the problem. When I am on a writing roll, my thoughts are often flowing faster than I can write and the last thing that I need to worry about is forming my letters.

One more option that I have considered is speech or voice recognition software, which would require me to read my work aloud into a microphone and then have my words translated into electronic text. This would work well for me, because as a writer of children's books, I find it very useful to hear the words as they would be read by a caregiver. I have not yet made the step to purchasing and testing the software, however.

I am very interested in hearing if I am in a minority in terms of writing on paper and also, how others are using technology to enhance the creative writing experience.

Writer's Crossroads

Novel Spaces is in its 10th year! Over the coming months we'll be featuring some of the most popular posts from our archives. This one was first published November 28, 2011.

By Carol Ottley-Mitchell


Three children had fallen into the crater of a volcano and I had no way to help them get out.

To make matters worse, they were my children, or they had been for the last few weeks and four chapters of my WIP, the fourth book in the Caribbean Adventure Series.

I was as stuck as they were, unable to move the adventure forward. I was suffering from the much discussed writer's block. Finally, after staring at the page for many more days, (dare I say weeks?) than I care to mention, I remembered a bit of advice about overcoming a block. That writer suggested that one solution to writer's block was to rewrite the scene, come at it from a different angle.

So, I, very reluctantly, took the kids back the way they came out of the volcano and took a second shot. It worked. This time they found a solution to that issue and moved forward to the next.

What techniques do you use to kick start your writing if it stalls?

Use of dialect

Novel Spaces is in its 10th year! Over the coming months we'll be featuring some of the most popular posts from our archives. This one was first published December 12, 2010. Enjoy!

By Carol Ottley-Mitchell

Chee Chee isn't going to Jamaica with me, so I'm pretty sure that nothing will happen."

This is an excerpt from my second book, Pirates at Port Royal. The truth is that such a sentence probably would not come out of the mouth of the average child in St. Kitts. It is more likely to look like:

"Chee Chee not going Jamaica wid me, so nuttin' gorn happ'n."

Writing direct speech for my West Indian characters has been an ongoing struggle for me. On the one hand, I do want the books to be an authentic representation of life in the Caribbean. I want my characters to seem realistic and familiar to my West Indian readers. On the other hand, I recall reading books set in Scotland and struggling to understand the dialect speech and wondering to myself how these words actually sound. I have also read books written entirely in Jamaican creole which I have to read out loud to catch the gist of the text. I don’t want to alienate my non-West Indian readers by making them work too hard to figure out what my characters are saying.

There is a little more to the dilemma in my case. While I appreciate the use of dialect, I have spoken out about the way that it is proliferating our English and questioned whether or not it is the right way to go. Many people have responded positively to my suggestions and it does seem a bit hypocritical if I turn around and write a book in dialect!

Have you had that struggle between realistic and understandable speech?

Guest Author Nerissa Golden: Beta Testers My New Must Have

I am that woman who will inbox my blogger and author friends and tell them I found an error. It isn’t to be picky but because errors distract and make it more difficult for readers to connect with your work. First impressions still count and too many errors frustrate me, and I may or may not finish the book. As many authors today self-publish and print on-demand, it is much easier to fix errors on the fly. It is even easier if you’re a blogger or your book is digital as changes can be made almost instantly.

So, I was most disturbed to find not one, not two, but more errors that I dare to confess in my first novel Love’s Sweet Joy, almost one year after it was released. Had it been edited? Yes, and I was happy with the story and the finished product. My readers clearly were too as they raved about the book, but no one said, “I found an error”, except one friend. Thanks to my sister who clearly is as anal as I am about writing, (chalk that up to having a mother who was a primary school teacher) I was able to fix a few wrongs. She did not hesitate to mark up pages of her ebook to show me the error of my ways. I was disappointed that I had to make numerous corrections and yet very relieved that I could improve on the final product.

Finally, someone was telling me the truth and not merely saying “it was great.” It took her two days to read the book due to other commitments. Back in the day (before children) a novel or two or three was nothing to read in a day. She helped me make my book truly great and hopefully now error-free. My sister also validated my work and my efforts to honor some elements of our childhood in the places and foods I wove into the story. She remarked that it was a beautiful way to honor my parents.

Beta readers are now going to be a part of my editing process going forward. These readers don’t need to be my friend or a relative but they must be willing to give me honest feedback on the storyline and also help catch those errors that an author totally misses after the tenth time of seeing reading their manuscript.

I enjoy reading and I always spot the errors in books and I would hate for people to find an endless supply of errors in mine. Do you use beta readers? What is the process you use to make sure your books are reader ready?

Nerissa Golden is the editor of Montserrat’s top digital travel and information platform Discover Montserrat.

The former journalist and international speaker is the author of seven books. In 2017, she released the first two novels in the Return to Love series of romantic fiction, set in her picturesque homeland. Follow her on nerissagolden.com or @trulynerissa on Twitter.

What Do You Know?

Over the last few months I conducted a writing workshops for a few teens. One young lady brought in a story that was quite interesting. After we read and critiqued it, she shared that the story had been a school assignment. Her teacher had asked them to write a story that included several elements including a pueblo blanket. It was clear from the list of items that the teacher wanted the students to write a story with a Native American theme. The young lady, however, decided she did not know enough about Native American culture to write comfortably about it and without the option for research she wrote something with which she could relate and in which the required elements made only cameo appearances.

I'm not sure how her teacher responded but I applauded her innate understanding of the idea of writing what you know. This is a complicated and often misunderstood concept. If it is interpreted at its most basic level it would mean the police should be knocking on Maggie King's door and let's not even begin to discuss Pynk. Writing what you know may have more to do with writing about emotions, feelings, and experiences you understand, even if they are then set on Mars, in locales you have researched but never lived in.

You may never have been accused of murder but you may have felt the injustice of being misunderstood or having your motives questioned.

You may not have lost a brother but you have felt the loss of something that meant a lot to you.

You may never have flown in a spaceship, walked on another planet, or encountered an alien race but you've probably felt the exhilaration of a new, exciting, and deliciously dangerous experience.

You may not have killed anyone but you may have felt the rage or longing that took you to the brink of committing a crime.

What has been your experience writing about locales and experiences foreign to you? What steps do you take to ensure your writing is authentic?

Writing Goals-Do You Set Them? Keep Them?

Not many writers can write full time...one has to eat after all. As a result many of us find ourselves juggling a number of hats and very often the writing is the first activity to get put on the back burner when life gets busy. With a deadline cracking its whip at my back, I have been forced to stick to a word goal even while working at marketing my existing work.

So when an image popped up on my seldom used Instagram account this week, one part of it looking a little like this...

...I was in love at first sight. I have to admit I am a journal junkie. There is nothing I like more than buying a new book with a tough attractive exterior and blank pages waiting to be filled with stories, plans, recipes, whatever is my current fancy.

On the other hand, like many people, I often abandon planners and details of my goals if life throws me off track even momentarily. However, this particular approach to setting my goals, with the grading element would appeal to my competitive nature (yes, I am aware I would be competing against myself) and might actually work.

Do you use journals to set and track writing goals? What has your experience been with this? Any successful approaches?

The Right Name

After one of my books is approved for publication I become almost maniacal checking Amazon to see when they make it available for sale. Nothing was different with my latest YA novel, Barberry Hill. I searched for the title and, what you see above is what I got: 'Showing results for Burberry Hill.' Wait what? No!


I knew going in that it was an odd name, but for me the name felt as natural as the ocean breeze and for most of the process I never considered that the book might be called anything else. I visited a botanical garden in 2013, came across the Japanese Barberry bush, and fell in love. Don't ask me why it appealed to me so, but, when I conjured up a story set on a hill in St. Kitts and decided I wanted the specific location to be fictitious so I would not be bound by existing physical constraints, I chose to call the hill Barberry Hill. I've always struggled to name places and characters in my book, and perhaps it is because the name came to me so organically that I never questioned it, never typed it into a search box, it just felt right.

There was one time, before we were ready for publication, when I considered changing the title. The book involves what we in the Caribbean call 'barrel children.' These are children whose parents live abroad usually to make a better living, and send home barrels of goodies for the children they have left behind. The book also involves guns. And so I thought of renaming it 'Through the Barrel.' The idea was nixed by editors and critical readers alike-the book focuses on the social stratification of the society as reflected on the slopes of Barberry Hill and so the title stayed.

What's your process for naming a book? I hope you are smarter than I am and you enter it into a search engine in advance to make sure your potential readers won't be directed to a completely different product.

P.S.
A few days ago it occurred to me the perfect name might be 'Barberry Hill Boys' since the story revolves around a number of boys who live on the hill. That idea excited me for a while until I realised that the first print run had already been ordered. There was no turning back.

My Travel Bug

If you know me, you know I love to travel. I tell people I will never be rich because every time I have two pennies to spare I am on a plane. My most recent trip was to Vietnam with a stop in Dubai on the way back. Vietnam was the first Asian country I had ever visited and it lived up to every expectation. With my daughter by my side, I traveled to Ho Chi Minh City, Hoi An, and Hanoi. The larger cities, Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi bustled with motorcyclists and masses of people. Crossing the street in Ho Chi Minh City is not for the faint of heart. Hoi An is a (tourist-trodden) ancient city that has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Food was everywhere, people seemed to be constantly drinking Vietnamese coffee (fantastic) and eating in markets, restaurants, and on the streets. The art work and historical sites that we were able to visit were beautiful and resonated with cultural significance. And the people. We were a bit of a novelty, first of all being black and secondly because my daughter's hair is part black and part teal which caused a stir wherever we went. But people were friendly in their curiosity and although I had to swat hands away from her hair on several occasions, it was hard to take offense to their interest.

Once a young girl, perhaps about eight-years-old came up to me and said, "Hello, my name is ..." I responded in kind. She looked at me blankly before smiling and skipping back over to her mother. I suspect that she had used up all of her English and could not understand my accent although I repeated the exact words she had said to me.

Before I left for Vietnam I had been working on a novel in my head. On my return, I felt as if something had been loosened by my travels...or perhaps it was jet lag...or indigestion. Whatever the cause, words have been flowing to the page ever since.

View of one section of Ho Chi Minh City

4th century temple in 'My Son'

Beautiful Halong Bay

Murder anyone?

This may sound cynical but I believe that most of us are capable of murder. The question is how far would the average Joe--not a psychopath or otherwise mentally ill person--have to be pushed in order to actually go through with murdering someone?

I'm asking this question, not because I have any plans to commit murder myself, but because I am writing my first murder mystery. I know that there are some seasoned mystery writers on this blog so it's a great place to look for advice.

I love mysteries. Hercule Poirot was one of my heroes when I was a child and I still love a good mystery to this day. In fact, when I recently read eight young adult murder mysteries in a row to get a feel for what's on the market, it was the best fun I've had in a while...yes, I do need to get out a bit more. :-).

For my mystery, I know the how and the who. I have a line up of suspects to keep things interesting, but the thing that I find most challenging is the why. Money, jealousy, revenge, self-defense, to protect a loved one, and to cover up a secret are some of the more common motives for murder, but despite their problems and their flaws, my characters have not quite convinced me that they would be moved to murder by any one of these factors.

This is probably my pet peeve about murder mysteries. There is nothing I hate more than to find out that the murderer killed to solve a problem that 1. could have been addressed in a much less complicated manner, or 2. remained unsolved even after the murder. I also hate if the murderer is suddenly framed as being crazy despite acting rationally until that final reveal. I do think that in some cases the problem is not the motive, but that the character of the murderer has not been developed sufficiently so the reader believes the motive. But other times the motive is the issue. Would someone risk a lifetime in jail to stop a politician from changing a law that would destroy their business prospects? Would a 'sane' person kill their brother to cover up a thirty-year old secret that would cause a ripple across society at best?

I have it a bit easier writing a YA mystery because teens are notoriously self-centered and more likely to think their problems are a matter of life and death. I don't think that gives me a pass on developing a good motive so I am throwing out the question to you. Dig deep, answer anonymously if you must...just in case... What would move you to commit murder?

Fiction-the Original "Alternate Facts"

Happy New Year and best wishes for 2017.

We have been off to an interesting start and without introducing any partisan politics at all I feel obliged to ask a question. In a world where we have incessant access to news (real and 'alternate'), do authors still have a job? Why should we as a society read fiction?

Kindergarten classes everywhere

We all learnt the definition of fiction and non-fiction. Fiction is not real. Yes, I know that you spent hours researching the history, geographic location, scientific details, etc for your book but it's just not real...or is it? Good fiction peals back the layers of our humanity and reveals the scars that we are afraid to expose in reality. One only has to look at the practice of banning books to understand the power of fiction in exposing dangerous ideology, dragging it into the light, and giving people a framework in which to express their own feelings about events in their societies. Studies have shown that when we read books covering topics that may be at odds with our own views, we read fiction with our guard down, open to new ideas; whereas we read non-fiction almost in a combative mode with our own beliefs in the forefront of our minds. As a result it is easier to influence someone's views on a matter through fiction than non-fiction.

This influence applies to all genres of fiction. A romance may open your mind the the idea of love among people from different backgrounds, races, or nationalities. A good murder mystery looks at the worst of humanity in the bad guy but gives us hope in the best as the hero/heroine risks their life to save the world. We as authors have a bigger role today not a smaller one and we must not shirk. We have to keep telling the truth through our stories and remind people of who they are.

Google--my new best friend

www.macobserver.com

I'm old enough to remember when you had to go find an actual book, preferably the Encyclopedia Britannica, if you wanted to research a topic, but I would be lying if I said that I'm nostalgic of that particular part of my past. I've become a Google junkie and I use it copiously to define words, sift around for the precise word that I need to set a particular tone, and to answer questions that come up in the course of my writing. I'm working on a crime-based story right now and some of the questions I have had to ask have been a little bizarre. Just today I typed into a Google search bar:

• Do identical twins have identical fingerprints
• Which countries do not have extradition treaties with the United States
• An undetectable poison
• How long before it takes effect
• Where do police carry handcuffs

It's one of those times when I really hope that no one (read the FBI) has cause to look into my Google search history. It's comforting to know that I am not alone. Based on the predictive Google hints that appear, I am not the first person to research many of these topics.

Are internet searches a part of your writing process?

What are some of the more bizarre searches that you have conducted?

Once Upon a Time

Dakota Fanning in the
2007 movie version of
Charlotte's Web

“Where’s Papa going with that ax?” said Fern...

This line, the first in Charlotte's Webb is one of the most famous children's book first lines.

We immediately are interested in what is coming next, we connect with Fern's concern, and get a sense of the urgency of Wilbur's plight. You can probably assign varying intonations to it. Fern might be asking the question innocently, curiously, or with full knowledge of what it means when papa picks up that ax and goes outside. Where IS "...papa going with that ax" indeed.

Fern was almost not in the book. We are told that E.B. White struggled with how to start Charlotte's Web, unsure whether to begin with Wilbur or Charlotte. Then at the last minute, he added Fern, the little girl who pleads with her father not to kill a runt piglet. Although her role in the story does not endure to the end, she adds humanity to the book in an important way.

That first line is so crucial to your writing, especially if you are not yet a well-established author. Readers often come to your work with a dose of skepticism, waiting for you to prove yourself, and that first line will stay with them and could make or break you. It must grab the reader's interest, hint at the meat of the story, the tone of the story, and give them an idea of the sort of trip they are about to take.

Sometimes finding the right first line just means a little rearranging. I recently submitted a short story to be work-shopped by a group of writers. It was a piece that I had been sitting on for quite some time and I felt pleased with the first half of it--endings are usually my biggest challenge. One of the most useful comments I received was from one author who pointed out that I had buried a particularly moving observation in the middle of the second paragraph. "That should be the first line," he wrote in large print. It was obvious once he said it.

Moving a particularly effective line to the beginning might be the best thing you can do for your piece. Other times you may need to move the point of audience engagement completely. Instead of writing a 'Once upon a time' type of opening and setting the scene, jump into the action and let the characters fill in the details of the world in which they live as they live it.

How much time do you spend crafting the first few lines of your novel, short story, poem? What approach works best for you?

A Little Musing

"If a writer of prose knows enough of what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. A writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing."

Ernest Hemingway in Death in the Afternoon

From Wikimedia Commons,
the free media repository

This 'iceberg' quote has guided much of my short story writing. I dislike heavy-handed prose and try to trust my readers to understand the many layers of the story being told and also to give them the opportunity to bring their own experiences to bear. Write from the heart and the readers will follow. I've often failed, written first drafts that left my first readers in the dark or imagining interpretations and motives which I never intended.

I recently had a writing professor who used the phrase 'risking obviousness,' by which he meant writers sometimes need to be explicit about characters' feelings and motives that the reader may not surmise; quite the opposite of what Hemingway suggests. This led me to wonder what is the 'correct' approach, if any? Is there a formula to when one can be concise and when more exposition is needed? Or is the best path, like with so many things in life, somewhere in between the two?

Snag a Magazine Gig

Making a living as a novelist is tough. This has been established. So we need to get creative.

At a recent Writers' Digest Writers' Conference, I attended a number of sessions on freelancing. They focused on pitching ideas to magazines. These were really useful and included tips on avoiding the slush pile, formatting your email submissions, locating a magazine's editorial calendar, and so on.

I came out of these sessions with a lot of useful information but no idea what to write that would tie in to my work as a novelist. I was amazed at how much attention is given to the 'author's platform.' Apparently you are expected to have ten gazillion followers on twenty different platforms to rate as an author--but that is a matter for another blog post. The point is that if you are freelancing to draw in readers and build your platform, you need to write material that links to your novel writing.

Then I happened into a session by Kerrie Flanagan. (I was actually in the session next door and snuck out--along with at least six other people--because it was so boring). She is an author, writing consultant, publisher and an accomplished freelance writer with over 17 years experience and hundreds of published articles. Her step-by-step tutorial on how to build your author platform through magazine writing was extremely useful. In her interactive workshop she instructed us to select themes from one of our books and then come up with article ideas based on the themes. So, for a frivolous example, if you wrote a book in which the protagonist loves blue grass music, you could write an article about the history of that music or its importance in a particular culture as seen through the eyes of a modern day young person, and submit it to a magazine whose readers would be interested in such an article. Your book could be the credentials that you need to get your foot in the door with the article and the article could draw readers to you and your book. Win-win!

One of these days, soon, I promise, I will give it a try... ;-)

I wandered but I was not lost

It feels so good to be writing this post at 25 minutes to midnight hoping to get it finished before Liane cracks the whip. (She says she doesn't but we all know the truth.) Up until just over a year ago I wrote regularly for NovelSpaces—an ambitious two posts a month until I got to a point where I could not keep it up. Frankly, the frequent sharing was sometimes painful. I just wanted to curl up in a corner and not think about talking to the rest of the world, to people who were expecting me to be honest about the writing life and to admit that:
…I’m not writing as often as I should;
…I’m not exercising (Amy Reade I feel your pain) as often as I should;
…I haven’t joined that critique group, finished that novel, decided what I want to be when I grow up;
…and I’m still giving lots of valuable advice away for free.

I have visited NovelSpaces only sporadically since leaving but coming here and reading the most recent posts, I’m so happy to see so many new faces. I missed the companionship, that knowledge that although writing is a pretty solitary endeavour there are people at your side on the same journey. Well, not really at your side-I can hear my daughter saying ‘That’s creepy mom,’—but you all know what I mean.

I planned to write this post about some ‘important’ aspect of writing—editing, promotional tips, some sage advice—but as is so often the case with my writing, this is what came out. Take it or leave it, I’m back!

Strategic Planning

So, speaking of author faux pas ... that is what we are really discussing when we are talking about anecdotes, right? Anyway, you may or may not know that most of my books to date have been about a monkey called Chee Chee. In my books, I portrait him as smart, funny, resourceful, intelligent, and magical. I suggest that the reason that he and his brothers raid trees for fruit is that they are hungry and need to eat.

From those readers who don't live around monkeys and so can fall for the rose-coloured lens I create, I get a collective 'Awwww, how sweet'. Unfortunately the books are set in St. Kitts where many residents don't have the luxury of seeing monkeys that way. In their reality, monkeys are willfully annoying pests who use their intelligence to thwart every effort people make to protect the fruit in their gardens.

So the conversation goes:
Me "What a lovely garden!"
Hostess (bitterly): "Thanks. A pity I never get to enjoy the fruit. Those monkeys eat it all and what they cannot eat they pick and throw to the ground."
Me: "Oh dear." (Trying to sink into the ground with the fruit.)
Hostess: "Let's not talk about that. What do you do anyway?"
Me (still frantically searching for a hole): I write books.
Hostess: "How wonderful! What do you write about?"
......

You can see the problem, right? If I had thought it through, planned strategically instead of letting the characters take control of the story, perhaps Chee Chee would have been a soothsayer cat, or a wiley mouse, or a talking bird. Anything but the mischievous, destructive but oh so lovable (I'm told) monkey.

Dead Man Talking

Happy New Year! (Even though I feel like January is already almost over.)

I had an interesting experience with my WIP, perhaps not an unusual one, but definitely new to me. I had this one planned out. I knew where the story should go, what I wanted to say. For me, getting to know the characters is key to my writing so I did character sketches, lived with my characters, and tried to really get inside their heads--the protagonist, his two buddies, his nemesis, his dad, his buddies' parents--I had it all covered. But still it went nowhere. I could not get past certain points in the plot. Then I realised the issue.

There was one character that I had not considered, had not spent time with, had not got to know at all ... the dead guy. You see the story begins with the protagonist's brother already dead and the reality is that the story spins around him and why he died and to understand why he died I have to get to know him.

It seems like every novel comes with its own challenges and idiosyncrasies. What are some unusual challenges that you have faced in writing?

Blog Hop 2

Never one to back down from a challenge, I am taking on Liane's request that I do a blog hop. I must confess that I'm still a little bleary on the details (it's been that sort of week), but here goes as much as I know about my work-in-progress.

Barberry Hill 

I came across the Japenese Barberry plant (tree? shrub?) in a beautiful garden in Virginia and fell in love. I later found out that it is an invasive plant not recommended for your garden, but even that didn't diminish its appeal. Since then I've been writing a series of books (in my head) set on Barberry Hill, a fictitious place in St. Kitts, and I have several story ideas for the young people who live there. I have actually (and literally) put pen to paper on one of them and I hope to finish it by the middle of next year.

1) What is the name of your character? Is he/she fictional or historic? 
Marcus is the main character in this Barberry Hill novel. He is fictional.

2) When and where is the story set? 
The story is set in the present day in a fictitious town on the island of St. Kitts.

3) What should we know about him/her? 
Marcus is in his mid-teens. An outdoorsy type of boy. His favorite activity is biking. He has two best friends who really have his back when things get rough during the course of the book.

4) What is the main conflict? What messes up his/her life? 
When we meet Marcus he is going through a difficult time in his life. His brother and his grandmother have both recently passed away, his brother under suspicious circumstances. The police and the community believe that his brother's death was a result of his involvement in a gang. Marcus doesn't believe this and is determined to find out the truth. He's dealing with a few other issues as well including his relationship with his parents, the social stratification on the Hill, and his changing relationship with one of his friends.

5) What is the personal goal of the character? 
He wants to be independent, make his own decisions, and to be free of the social pressures of living on the Hill.

6) Is there a working title for this novel, and can we read more about it?
In my head it is Barberry Hill, however, since there is another young lady who wants her story on the Hill to be told as well, this will have to change.

7) When can we expect the book to be published?
It should be available late 2015.

I nominate Marissa Monteilh for the next blog hop.

Judging a Book

I'm going to repost from the "Heard on the Backseat" section of my much ignored blog.

Me: You can't judge a book by it's cover.
Eleven year old daughter: Unless it's the back cover.

This comment was timely because it came at a time when a slew of emails were going back and forth about the blurb of the upcoming book Musical Youth. The blurb is one of the more important components of a published novel. First the reader checks out the cover and if that intrigues them enough, they flip it (whether in reality or online) and read the back. If you can't hook them with the blurb then you may as well give up right away.

So I'm going to write about what I've learnt about writing a blurb and how we constructed the Musical Youth blurb.

1. (Optional) An eye-catching header. We went with "Music, Discovery, Love"  centered and large at the top.

2. (Optional) A Tag line. This can be in question form, something that intrigues the reader. For Musical Youth we asked the reader their opinion "Can one summer make the difference of a lifetime?"

3. Then we briefly introduce the protagonist and characters. It's a good idea to introduce them by name, so that the reader connects to them right away. Give a bit of their essence and the relationships that make them interesting. With Musical Youth the name of the protagonist is interesting in and of itself, so we're already way ahead of the game.


Zahara is a loner. She's brilliant on the guitar but in everyday life she doesn't really fit in. Then she meets Shaka, himself a musical genius and the first boy who really gets her. They discover that they share a special bond, their passion for music, and Zahara finds herself a part, not just of Shaka's life, but also that of his boys, the Lion Crew.

4. The Problem statement. What is a book without a problem, something which affects and fundamentally changes the protagonist? The blurb should give an idea of what the protagonist has to overcome so that the reader (who now considers the protagonist among their best friends) is drawn in to the meat of the book. This was the biggest challenge in the development of the Musical Youth blurb. It was difficult to balance giving away enough to create interest and not giving away too much of the plot. Check out the end result on Amazon. #MusicalYouth

5. Finally, there is the conclusion that gives the readers an idea of the type of book that they are about to read. We could have gone with something like "Musical Youth is a beautifully crafted novel with a musical thread running through it" but someone beat us to that, unfortunately.

And that's the end of that. Of course this is just one approach. Tell me about your experience with blurb writing? How important is it in the process to publication?

Help! Social Media Isn’t Working For Me

It's Social Media month on NovelSpaces. (Wait ... isn't that every month? Every day?) Anyway, I get many subtle hints and nudges from my dear friend and media expert, Nerissa Golden about my lack of a strong social media presence. So, I figured that you all would be much better off hearing from her on this topic than from me. Here are a few of her tips on making social media work for you. Check out her most recent publication Like. Follow. Lead. Mastering Social Media for Small Business for more, simple but very useful tips on how to get the best experience and results from your social spaces.

Here's Nerissa:

With all of the attention social media gets, the message seems to have spread that it would be easy to get results and customers loaded with cash would roll right up and spend, spend, spend.

For every guru telling you they can teach you how to make a million a month using Facebook, there are a million people wishing they knew the secret for free. Here are a few tried and true ways to increase your level of exposure and gain those all-important fans and followers.

First off, social media will only work if you work it. So post frequently. You won’t get any traction and build an audience if you only log on periodically to browse or retweet someone else’s work. As an author these platforms are ideal to let your audience see how creative and quirky you are. They may not become fans overnight but as they watch your continued engagement they will become a follower and hopefully a loyal customer. Use your electronic calendar to remind you to post at specific times. You can also schedule posts on some of the social spaces so no need to feel attached to your phone or computer.

Step outside of your comfort zone. All of the authors you know say Facebook has been the missing link in making those all-important sales. You’ve tried what they’ve tried without the same results. Why not step over to Twitter or Instagram and create a new space all your own? Research the various social media and find one that appeals to you and which can help you connect with your audience in a more entertaining and meaningful way.

Spend a little to get a little. You will only get out what you put in. While setting up an account on social platforms is free, it will cost you time and money to build and position your brand. Costs can include taking ads targeted at specific audiences, having professional photos taken so you can display an impressive profile image and graphics to promote your books and products. If you don't have the time to manage your social spaces, you may need to hire someone to do it for you.

Know where your audience hangs out. Ladies tend to hang out on Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter more than men do, so if your potential customers are most likely male then find the platforms where they spend most of their time. Most popular are Google Plus and LinkedIn but check out Vine and Instagram as well. There are thousands of others so do your research.

What’s in a name? Everything. Make it easy for readers to find you on any social platform by using the same handle. Here’s an example using the handle #1author. Facebook.com/#1author, Twitter.com/#1author, Instagram.com/#1author and your website then should be www.#1author.com. If you already have a popular handle on one platform but it’s already been taken on other social sites, then find a version of the handle, which will be memorable and ensure it is visible on business cards and other promotional products. Use www.namechk.com to see which social spaces your handle is available on.

With focus and lots of perseverance you can build a social media audience which can have the long term results you are after. Grab my new book, Like. Follow. Lead. Mastering Social Media for Small Business, for more, simple but very useful tips on how to get the best experience and results from your social spaces.

Nerissa Golden is an award-winning media strategist, business coach, and author who helps her clients accelerate their business growth by leveraging high impact communications solutions and income generating strategies. She is the author of four books: Like. Follow. Lead. Mastering Social Media for Small Business, Island Days, a collection of illustrated poems about growing up in the Caribbean; The Making of a Caribbeanpreneur: Strategies for Overcoming Fear and Building Wealth as well as Truly Caribbean Woman’s Guide to Good Love.