Plot and characters. An in-depth knowledge of the world and your characters is needed to attain that. Even though I write spontaneously, and I let my fingers or pen do the thinking, before I actually start writing I need to know about the world I am creating, and have ample knowledge in order for my pen to start writing and maintain the flow. This is why we say write what you know about, and why we do a lot of research to write about something we do not know about. When you know what you are writing about the other/important elements automatically fall into place: the story-line, the plot, the arcs, the characters: They have a life of their own.
Find out what makes you write, and maintain that mood. In my case it is mental peace. And no breaks during my writing. If I am stressed I cannot write. Many writers write when they are stressed: it is a catharsis for them. That is a tip to continue writing; but to counteract the pursuit's stresses, just write mainly for your own enjoyment: don't think about being a best seller. Think about the joy of writing and why you enjoy doing so. The goal is to be satisfied with your own work first. Bestsellers can come later.
As a writer and reader I do appreciate the ebook technology and platforms. But it seems despite the fact that these platforms were made to make more books accessible to more readers, at the end they have proven to follow the same old traditional sifting method: many writers are dropped out of site in such a strategic manner just because they belong to a certain country, or write about things that don't fit the policies of amazon/kindle, and other platforms, and then many countries do not even have kindle, so marketing is useless. There is a whole lot of discrimination going on and writers are still as restricted as they were when there were only traditional publishers...perhaps even more so, taking into account how social media and digital book platforms claim to have a wider reach and more open attitudes. But at the end it is about if the books conform to their own beliefs and stereotypes or not, and if the writers are paying for their PR or not.
Not really. And at the end that does not matter. Language is made to grow and develop. Otherwise it is a dead language. And writers have creative licenses for this purpose.
I already kinda write different genres: I have written cozy mystery/romance and I have written character driven plots and I have written intense thrillers.
Been experiencing it for almost 8 years now. Both reader's and writer's block. I started experiencing it when I fell into depression almost 20 years ago. I still managed to write as I was a scriptwriter. Then I left for the UK to get my MA in script-writing and Production for the sole purpose of forcing myself to write again. Needless to say it worked: I ended up writing and publishing THE MIST series and was on a roll until my laptop's HDD gave up: that led to a loss of 2 books I was working on. Any break in my writing is fatal to my writing. So since 2015 I could never complete those two other works. And i was combating depression once again. To force myself to do something about my work, I picked up one of my old works and digitised it and out came A NOVEL, finally published this year, on NEW YEAR as a gift to myself and all the women out there. And once again I'm just not feeling it: can't get my mind's inner peace back enough to write or digitise more. So it is an ongoing struggle.
As long as I have even one reader reach out to me just because they felt the need to talk to me after reading my book I consider my work a literary success. I know the modern era is all about raving reviews and all that...but any real writer knows that plus ca change plus c'est la meme: so really nothing much has changed in the literary world for both writers and readers: genuine writers still do not do self PR the way they should, even if they know exactly what to do, and genuine avid readers still do not post reviews: they just enjoy the books they read and tell a few fellow book lovers they know about it. The look for the writer's contact at most and try to contact them directly. I have met some of the most lovely people who are now my friends, this way. They forever humble me.
I published my first book when i was still a teenager in the 90s. Suffice it to say it was locally published so no international readers, no ebooks etc. It was sent to the congress library, though, i was told. My father was the one who got it published for me. I was happy but at the same time the perfectionist in me was very ashamed and annoyed: the publishers and printers made a lot of typo mistakes and ruined everything for me. But those were times when I guess we had more readers: avid readers/genuine readers: or maybe let's say we had much nicer people. Many people bought my books and to many i gifted my books...and it was a very surprising and humbling experience that even adults stopped me to tell me they enjoyed it: that it reminded them of their childhood days when they used to read Enid Blyton. They said my book reminded them of that and of her books. I was pleased because that was what I wanted: i wanted my book to be enjoyed by kids the same way I enjoyed Enid Blyton's books as a kid. When i entered college more and more students from my college bought my book for their nieces and kids in their family, and they each said they loved it. I mean, with all that typo mistake, grammatical mistakes overlooked and weird newspaper like yellow paper and overall not a very perfect looking book, they all loved it! WOW!
But after that I made up my mind to not rashly publish my book until i was certain it was good enough quality wise. And as we can see nowadays readers are all about the appearance of the book than the actual content...so that was a wise decision on my part :D. I decided to only publish my books when I was sure that everyone concerned did it right, including me. And I thought it was better to take my time, continue studying and when i was really ready, an adult, free from studies and settled into my life a bit, then I would be able to give it the due time and diligence. Et voila!
Very surprised. But that is not what happens. What happened when i had left the media and was no longer writing scripts or producing stuff, and now, as i write books is that people suddenly call me or try to reach me on my social media. They tell me of how they heard a lot about me as a script-writer or how they have read my books and really wanted to get in touch with me to tell me how they wished they had worked with me then /how they liked my books...i find it very surprising that anyone would still know me in the field especially since I didn't work there long, and I find it very surprising that people actually decided to buy my books and read them, let alone like them. :D in all honesty, it is a bit embarrassing and humbling. I become all shy and don't know what to say.
