WTF? Where is my coffee?

Here I am, sitting at Starbucks, trying to make the most of the time I have to spend waiting in town. I ordered my coffee… It took a while, I wanted a Cappuccino… the lady thought I spoke Italian to her… Then I said “small” because I want the cheapest one. And she understood… well, what did she understand? In Starbucks, “small” is already “tall” so…

Three tries later, I got to pay the price I wanted to pay, well not exactly, rather the one I could afford tonight, and once I removed the foam, I was left with one-third of a cup…

Where the f&%*” is my coffee? All this hard work to get a few spoonfuls of the liquid in my massive looking cup? No really, the photo does not do justice to the sore looking coffee! Darn! I swallowed it in one second, and now, I have to spend 2 hours looking at an empty cup… unsatisfied! Darn!

Share a nano secret

There are many things we need to do every single day:

– get up

– get ready

– fix breakfast

– feed pets

– go to work

– smile to people we don’t know

– love people we know

– make/eat lunch

– finish work because the day is going to end

– go home

– clean up

– check on homework

– fix dinner and feed pets

– talk and exchange, which turns into give orders and get listened to

– clean the table, dishes, kids, self

– put kids in bed

– check tomorrow’s tasks

– go to bed, sleep, dream

That is on a normal day, then there is of course, washing clothes, ironing, dusting, vacuuming, mopping, shopping, and there are the days we don’t work, and the days the kids don’t go to school etc.

But come November, there is this one thing that I don’t mind adding to my task list: NaNoWriMo!

My motto is write write write… and I must ask, even if it does not make complete sense, just keep writing. This is my secret to you, write away, don’t think too much, you are just going for the word count, not for the beautiful prose. That, you can always fix later.

My second advice is to set a story line. I spent the first few days of NaNoWriMo writing the synopsis. Just explaining what will happen in every chapter. Now I know where my story is going and I can keep it on leash!

After doing that, I had a feeling that my story was finished, so it may appear counter productive, but I found this great site, with advise on plot, characterization, setting etc. And I use it to make my writing grow.

If you find yo have trouble keeping on task or seeing where you are going with your writing in the mist of all the daily tasks, use this fabulous organisational tool

Good luck!

 

I write, I publish, I live…

Great story, hey!

How wonderful to sit at my desk, in my PJs, look out the window, type on my keyboard and make a living… Is this a dream only or can it become a reality?

I just read Angela Booth’s newsletter. Whatever she writes is so simple and clear, it always gives me a push in one direction or another. This time it clicked again: YES! Let’s write about ONE thing, and one only.

During the past weeks, I kept reminding myself that my first ever self-published eBook was in serious need of a revamp. A few months back, I updated the French version, and separately corrected the English version. Now I have two versions that do not match.
Might I ask: does it matter? I always thought that these books had to match, but why, really? Do people read it in French, and then go through the English version to check if they match? Probably not! So, who cares if I have two different versions? The topic is the same, the wording is distinct… it suits me fine today.

The priority for me now is to make the title of this blog work for me. I need a sale page, I need a catchy website, I need sales! So, back to the keyboard, back to my e-marketing sale pages, there is an urgent need for action!

A Strategy Group

I was about to write a post called “It’s working” when it all fell apart. I had placed an ad in a local forum, asked for two writers to join me in a fabulous strategy group.

To my surprise, after many weeks of silence, three people wrote back. I started to feel energised and typed up an agreement. It seemed necessary that we would all agree to the same objectives and basic rules. I also had a hidden agenda to dismiss future passive members before we started. After sending this out, two of our new group members bailed out. They had two different reasons: one is already writing and making money with it, hence she has no time, the other has not started writing and was looking for a writers’ group.

I don’t want to sound too defeated or negative, but my feeling is that people who actually read stuff more or less related to their field of interest do not actually read. At best they scan the article, at worse, they only read the title.
My other realisation is that people will also join groups to see what they can get handed over for free. Writers: Be the change you want to see in the world! is what I want to claim. Stop sitting by and waiting to be spoon-fed. Give and you shall receive!

Now, for the happy ending: I found one person who has understood my quest, who is willing to participate and is active about it. Hooray! My venting stops here.

A strategy group?

Would it not be great to form a group and help each other out with strategies and ways to take our writing career to the next level? The reason why I am not making any money with my writing is simply because I don’t treat it as a job… or rather I need a day job to live so I steer away from writing too often and this impedes my plans to have a career in writing.

Years ago, in 2005, I bought my first laptop computer (well, actually the first computer to my name) and discovered WDC. After a few months browsing around and taking part to several contests, I created my own group. It was then called The Terrace. I loved that virtual place and met several very good virtual friends. One of them was my dear Judy, who supported me with my writing and so many other aspects of my life I can’t begin to express here.

Judy has gone to heaven now, and the living world is missing a wonderful human being. It has been two-and-a-half year and still, every time I sit to write, I feel her presence, I hear her words, and I seriously feel like I fail my dear friend by not doing anything serious about my writing.

So, here it is: a word out to our community of readers and writers: Would two of you join me in a Writing Strategy Group? It would mean getting together every second month or so to discuss our individual goals and the steps to take. I believe the idea of discussing a strategy with someone else is strength enough. It would also mean reading each other’s stories and giving feedback. This can be done easily through google / gmail etc. We can be anywhere in the world to support each other.

I am waiting to hear from you. Don’t be shy! I know Judy would join me in a heartbeat. God bless you, my dear friend, I miss you.

Yep, as is

Totally right, it has been a very long time since my last post. I am not forgetting the second part of the lesson, long pending… But today, I watched so many videos about 9.11, said a couple of prayers for the victims and their families, and I feel I should just not say anything else about my writing and my hopes, at least for today.

So many people lost their lives, and many had to wait there until it was actually taken from them. How tragic! It is a sad time in human history, since that will certainly not teach a long-lasting lesson, as we are made in such a way that we forget in order to go on. How could we do otherwise?

A moment of silence in memories of those who perished, and a moment to think of their families. May God and all his Saints keep you under his loving eyes.

The Five Elements (Part 1)

As I sit down and write…

Do I ever have an idea of what I am writing about? Who my characters are? Where the story is going? Unfortunately not. Every story has five elements and if I want to ever make it as a writer, I must remember that, and so should you!

I usually sit and start writing. I read a sentence or I have an idea and it triggers something in my mind that makes me want to open my Haley P. (my laptop) and start writing. After a while, the characters take over. No matter what I had in mind to start with, I digress. Most times, I can’t get back on tracks, the story has a life of its own… hence no life.

Let’s take an example: the story I am writing at the moment. I read a prompt: “The cold of te night would soon arrive.” I decided to use the prompt and combine my experience with narcissism and domestic violence to write a story on a topic I know well. Slowly but surely, the story went a different way than I had imagined.
I will try to fix it with this series of tips.

What are the five elements?

Character: the hero
Setting: when and where
Problem: a sum up of the story plot: Event 1, Event 2 and Event 3
Conflict: the hero’s struggle and which forces are up against him. Lesson or Message: the morale of the story

Important Rules:

Now, you have the story, with all five elements, but in order to make sure you hook your reader, you will need some fine tuning. Think about it: would you have kept on reading The Mortal Intruments if Valentine had not shown his ugly face or if there was not a doubt that Clary and Jace were indeed not brother and sister? Would you have been so captivated if Katniss had not been shot on the wide-screen?
When writing there are certain rules to follow, like in everything, you can decide to ignore them, but just know that, if they are called “rules” it is probably for a reason. Once you get over your teenage revolutionary outburst, get on with the rules.

Rule of three: a nice balance, despite all odds, and you are welcome to bend it, just as Alexandre Dumas did with his Three musketeers, who were indeed four…
You see it in the children’s tales (Three Little Pigs…), even in modern tales (Twilight and The Hunger Games…) and you see it in many other stories, three characters, three events, three-word motto…

Someone to spoil the soup and someone to help: and don’t let that bug you too much, they are interchangeable. The spoiler can end up being a helper and vice versa, rendering your story even more breath-taking. The helpers will get you out of dead-ends, because they have “magical powers” or they are know-it-all nerds… They can be living or non-living, small or huge, the possibilities are endless. They come in handy at one point or another.

Hiro must save the world: yes, a noble task or someone to save. If you don’t have a goal, don’t bother. There are experimental stories with nothing to tell, no one to rescue… the bottom line is: who wants to read that?

When to close the chapter: if the story goes on and on, you will have to cut it in chapters. You already understood the rule of three, so, make your own assumptions here. The ending of a chapter is a transition. It closes the door on what has been said and opens the window onto what is coming next. You must give your reader the satisfaction of knowing that what he was reading came to an end, and also give him the motivation to go on reading. This rule also applies to series.

Coming up: how to fix an existing story with these tips…

 

Voki says hi!

A friend just introduced me to this lovely host. I like it a lot! She will be here on my posts to entertain you…

Write and get Published (VOL 2)

You read it everywhere: write every day, write about what you know, write write and write some more. Easier said than done, if you ask me, mostly because I spent five years in a dry spell. I tried the NaNoWriMo in order to motivate myself, and I spent countless hours calculating how many words I should write in one day if I were to become succesful in my NaNoWriMo novel. I spent more hours doing that than actually writing. So, how do writers do it? How do you get down to writing?

So, here is the down to earth truth.

Should you write everyday? YES! Reasons range from because your need the training, to because it becomes easier with each passing day, and because if you don’t write today, why is tomorrow going to be any different?

How many words per day? I remember listening to a speech by the famous Joanna Penn. She said that writing 1’500 words per day was a minimum, or was the minimum length for a short story, something like that, I can’t really recall. But what I remember is that, when I read it, it sounded daunting. How could I write THAT many words in one day. Now that I am training myself, I find out that, when I have something to say, 1’500 words is truly a minimum.

What should I write about? I found out in high school that I could only write well about topics I actually cared about, things that moved me, upset me. I started out writing articles for magazines. I was happy at first, then I felt kind of stuck in a box. The editor would give me a topic (not what I liked best, but rather what was available) and I would drain my creativity to write something interesting about this topic. I must admit that this is not the best way for me to write, because of the pressure. What I very much prefer is to find a prompt, and go with it, let it flow. For example, I went on fanstory Website and found a prompt one afternoon. It has turned into a now 5’000-word project and it is still flowing (see below for an excerpt)

What is all these words amount to nothing? Then, you will take this just like a 5-kilometer Nordic walk. You got nowhere in particular, you are back to where you started (Because you left your car there! Duh!) but it feels so… so good! So, write as much as you can.

How to start writing an eBook and get it published? Make use of all the words you write everyday and check it out to see if there is anything that can be exploited. See if you can combine startings and endings. Draw Mind Maps to help you out… and keep writing some more.

 

An excerpt to the future Best Seller by FT Colette (working process…)

Chapter one

The cold of the night would soon arrive (that was the prompt!), and I had no idea where I should go. Behind me laid the tormented road of past mistakes, in front of me stretched the unknown.

Given the choice, I would certainly pick the unknown rather than go back to what made up for a miserable life. But did I have a choice to make? He was still walking. I could see him on the horizon line, his leg dragging behind him as if to force him to slow down. Still, he could not take a hint, so he kept on walking, dragging his broken limb determined to catch up with me.

– “Keep trying, you moron!” was all I could volunteer. I spat the words in his direction. I did not recognize my voice, it was spiteful, full of hatred.

I wrapped my arms around myself. It was getting colder as the sun fell on the other side of what used to be my world. It was getting darker too, still I saw it. It looked like an abandoned gas station, with sand flying around its walls and no one in sight. I needed water, my tongue felt like sandpaper grinding against my teeth.

I started to walk in its direction, then hesitated. If there were people here, they could turn out to be even more dangerous than the one chasing after me. Was it worth the danger of ending up worse than I already was? Would I have the energy to deal with it? I glanced behind, he was now about three hundred meters from me.

Maybe just a sip from the well… I was faster, after all, both my legs were fine, and I only had a broken nose. My vision was blurry at times and I could feel my left eye swelling up where the bat had caught up with my head. I started towards the well.

– “Go away!” an elderly man came out, gesturing nervously and waving me away, “Go away, do you hear?”

I kept my head down, maybe I would reach the well and get a mouthful of water before he did anything to force me off his property. I heard the unmistakable click of a shotgun being loaded, and froze in my sandals. What the…?

– “We have nothing for you! Go away! Don’t stop here!”

– “Please, Sir, I pleaded, just a drop of water!” I kept my head down. My target had suddenly shifted from the water to the gun. I was fantasizing holding the weapon and shooting one or two bullets in the thick skull of the man who had destroyed my life. The thought brought a smile on my face.

– “Yeah, smile! Consider yourself lucky I have not killed you yet!” the ancient man shouted.

– “Please, Sir… please, have mercy!”

I heard his footsteps getting closer. Time was running. The other slug was surely closing in on me. Keep coming closer, old man!

– “No mercy! You travellers are all the same. You come, you take, you go and we are left with nothing.”

– “It’s only a drop of water Sir, only a drop, nothing much… you have a well…”

– “I know what I have now… What I will have left after you leave is another story!”

The light footsteps grew louder, then they stopped.

– “Oh, and you brought company?”

I looked up, panicked. If John caught up with me now, this old man would be no match against his wrath. Startled by my sudden movement, he adjusted his gun in my direction. I knew he was looking at John, though. What a sight this would be!

– “What the heck happened to this poor soul? Was he in an accident?” Then he took in the sight of my torn clothes and battered face, “Did you do that to him?”

I imagine what John looked like in the sunset. His leg twisted with the knee bone sticking out, his face gross and bloody, some of his hair pulled out on the one side of his head and blood sticking in lumps on the other side.
His clothes burned and torn…

Yes, I did that! This was what happened when you drove your woman to the ground, day after day, year after year. This was what happened when you did something irreparable.

I straightened up and stared at the man’s eyes with pride.

– “I did!”

The old man spat on the sand.

– “Well, I don’t know who I should shoot first… I thought it would be him, but I have doubts now.”

– “Why would you have to shoot anybody? Can’t you see that we have enough going on already?”

He did a double take and shrugged.

– “Go away! Go away do you hear? There is nothing here for you!”

OK, so back to that then…
I could smell the smoke emanating from John’s clothes now. He was not more than twenty meters behind me. I had to act fast if I wanted to live. I launched myself towards the old man, grabbing the gun. I saw his eyes catching mine in horror. He was much older than I thought. I pulled the canon of the gun towards me with all the strength I had left after this day of battle, and immediately realized it was probably the wrong idea to be at the open end of a loaded gun. The old man resisted the pull with all his might and held onto his side of the gun and then, I heard it.

I heard the unmistakable click of the gun unloading on me.

Chapter two

Raya looked down at her dirty hands for a long time, and took a deep breath. Mom would tell her to go and wash them. Mom? She straightened her dress, and patted her hair around the side of her face.

– “Mom!”

The emptiness echoed back “Moooooommmm”
She had to get off the path, she was way too easy to spot. She entered the bush on the side of the path, and when she considered herself hidden and safe, she fell on her knees. How long had she been walking for? The sun was setting and she had to find a proper shelter, one that he could not discover, a haven to protect her from her father, the man who had tried to kill her today. By now, he must have found out about her escape and he would be looking for her. Oh, he would be so mad. Mad enough to kill her. She chuckled. Like he needs a reason for that!

She heard a sound behind her. A branch cracked on the path where she had walked just seconds before. She stopped breathing, her heart racing in her chest like it wanted to jump out and throw itself at the intruder. Someone’s there!

Walking on all fours, she hid further in the bush and remained still. Maybe she had fantasized hearing the sound. She was hungry and hunger could play tricks on the mind, her Mom taught her that when they took long walk through the forest to get away from his wrath. She did not dare to look over onto the path to check if she could actually see someone, but she soon heard another crack. The sound bounced back off the still tree trunks. Someone’s there!

She placed her face in her hands. If I can’t see anything, no one can see me! She used to play the ostrich game with her Mom. They would chase each other around the yard, and when she hid her face in her hands, Mom would call out:

– “Where did you go? I can’t see you if you can’t see me!” and she would suddenly grab her and lift her up in the air. Their giggles would travel across the fields around the house, scaring the old rooster which tried to fly away but could not, because they had clipped his wings, so he ran like mad in circles around the yard.

Another crack, closer this time, maybe two arm lengths away. Was she supposed to start running now? Would this trigger a scary chase around the woods? One that she would of course lose, she was only six years old and not a fast runner. Mentally, she went over her options, die there and then from a heart attack, like Grand-Pa, but she realised that this could not be intentional, so she could not really act on it. Make a run for it and be caught within seconds, minutes if she was lucky. Stay right here until a powerful hand grabbed and pulled at her. The latter is exactly what happened, as if Raya could see into her future.

There was a noise, very close to her, the swishing noise of leaves being pulled apart, she clenched her hands tighter on her face, Oh, please God, please make it all go away!, and before she could take another breath, a hand grabbed at her dress and pulled her backwards, against the bush. She fell on her bottom, and felt the branches tearing at her arms and legs as she tried to resist, but there was no way, the hand was too strong. She was being pulled out of her hiding.

She kept her eyes closed and waited for something terrible to happen. She hoped it would be fast… and painless. She did not want to feel that pain again. It hurt when he hit and it hurt the whole night and the whole day after that. Sometimes, she would still hurt after a few days, until the bruises became pale. Her Mom would nurse her, sing lullabies and blow softly on the cuts. But Mom was not there anymore, she had seen it with her own eyes and could not un-see it anymore..

– “Say goodbye to Mommy!” her father’s eyes were wild with rage as he screamed and raised the bat again and again. She saw the shape under the blanket go still after a couple of blows. She saw the blood soaking the cloth. She blocked her eyes with her hands but the horrid vision would not go away. She wanted to run and see her Mom and hug her, but she was scared of the blood and scared to see a dead person for the first time, even if this person was her Mom.

She was still being pulled across the forest. She gave in. She was not fighting back anymore, it was pointless. If she died now, she would be reunited with her Mom again, so this was her choice. The hand pulled at her dress and her body followed lazily, nonchalantly slamming into stones and trees as they whirled around a wild path. What was taking him so long? Bravely, she opened her eyes and let her mind flow. She looked up at the treetops, all the leaves were dancing with millions of colors. It was truly beautiful. Raya loved the forest. Her favorite pastime was to come here and lay in the grass under the canopy, looking at the treetops and whistling with the birds.

There was no whistling today and she did not notice whether birds were singing or not. She was tired and somehow, even pulled around like a rag doll, she fell asleep.

The cold woke her. She opened her eyes and it was dark. She was lying on the ground and it felt wet and cold. She brought up her knees and sat up. Her eyes stretched, trying to see something in the obscurity. She seemed to be in a cave of some sort. She heard water nearby, maybe a stream. She was thirsty. Suddenly, the noise of something being dropped to her left startled her. She jumped and let out a shriek. Quickly she controlled it. Calm down!

Her eyes became accustomed to the dark and she could see the opening of the cave, she recognised the sky outside. She felt with her foot near her where she had heard something drop. It was a bottle. She grabbed it and opened it nervously. She sniffed it. Water! She drank with avidity until she choked herself.

– “Calm down!”

Was this a voice? Did she hear it or imagine it in her mind? She heard a movement to her left. Someone’s there!

Write and Get Published (Vol 1)

Amazon Kindle

I bought a Kindle for my birthday but did not see the potential for me as a writer until I read about Kindle publishing on an online community forum. I had been writing for years, sent manuscripts to publishers. What followed were the normal ups and downs for an aspiring writer: either negative discouraging answers from top-notch publishing houses, who did not “need” me, or positive answers to self-publishing with an upfront investment, which I did not have. In between were all kinds of feedbacks, from pen-lifting to all kinds of frustrating.

In 2005, I set up a writers’ group with the goal-orientated motto “I’m getting published!” and some of us did get published, me included, and I received my first paycheck as a writer.

After that, five years of writer’s block trapped me in silence, during which I wondered every day if I would ever get more checks or more opportunities in my writing career. Today, I am back on track with full energy. I write every day, I blog and I will try and inspire you to do like me, because it also helps to help others.

Write your e-Book

Jump in, write an e-Book!

It does not have to be a best-seller. My first published book was a 17-page self-help manual on how to leave a narcissist. I wrote about something that was important to me at the time, something I felt would help others, hence challenged my writer’s block. It took me a whole day to write it in its entirety (yes, I’m not kidding, just one full day!). I did not spend days editiing and reviewing, instead I immediately bought a cover image, because at the time I had no idea how to do this myself, and I opened the kdp page on Amazon.

Signing up was easy and for once, I did not need to be living in the US or the UK to start earning copyrights. Then, it took another couple of days to format the eBook. Again, I used a professional, which cost me about US$25 because it was a very short e-Book.

Now that I know other platforms, I claim publishing on KDP was the easiest way to get my eBook published.

If you follow Amazon’s KDP on twitter, you will be astonished to see how many e-Books are published every hour, many of them self-help books. It is humbling. Should that stop you from trying it out? Certainly not. Hundreds of e-Books are published every day and thousands of people are buying e-Books every day. It is a use and discard industry.

One where you can thrive if you dare… so, dare!