“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”
-Alexander Graham Bell.
Well, that’s it. Another door has closed. StorybookgemsbyKat is officially closed.
I can’t say I’m happy about this, nor can I say that this is easy to swallow, but it’s true, and if my life has taught me anything, it’s how to take doors closing.
I can only hope and pray that God will help me find my new door soon.
Hi there! Today I thought I’d let Berlioz write about all the mysterious changes in the house, as this will be his first-ever advent and Christmas. He is about 6 months old now, and we just put the tree up, so he has a lot to say.
My people are strange, I noted this shortly after they brought me into my house, but, as they are kind, snuggly, and feed me, I forgive them their oddities. One of their odd habits is that they change parts of the house out when they feel like it. Last time they brought lots of leaves that didn’t smell right into the house, but now I fear they really have lost their minds; they brought in a whole tree!
They keep talking about how it’s getting cold, but I’m not cold, the house is as warm as ever, but when uncle leaves every morning he asks how warm it is, sighs, and puts on lots of thick fluffy clothing, and a long thing, he calls a scarf. I keep hearing them talking about how it’s going to snow again, but I don’t see anything when I look out the window.
Some things are still the same, mama still comes to get me, and snuggles me whenever I call her during the day. Grandmommy takes care of me and feeds me before mama gets up every morning. Uncle plays with me and sleeps in the room with me. And every night grandmommy snuggles me, and mama says her nighttime affirmation to me before kissing me on the head and sending me into bed with uncle.
But even the movies we watch and the music we listen to are different. Some of them are happy and make me run around with glee, they talk about sleighs, presents, and Christmas; while some of them are slower, and make me much calmer, these talk about noel, stars, and a king. Some of the movies mama watches have kings in them, but I don’t think it’s the same thing.
Mama says that I’ll like Christmas, but I’m not sure yet. Mama’s usually pretty smart but I don’t understand why they would bring in so many sparkly shiny things, and then say they are not for me to play with. I don’t know what sleighs or noel are, and I’m still not sure what Christmas is either. Mama says I’ll understand before long, that I’ll know it when I see it, but right now, I’m still a very confused kitteh.
Thanks for the read!
(Don’t worry, I’ll show him the Charlie Brown Christmas special, I think he’ll understand better after that!)
Hi there!
It’s no secret that writers do a LOT of research, and I have a fair amount of books and websites that I use for everything from giving my characters good names, to learning more about writing, to describing fashion in my books. So I thought I would share the top five websites that I would be hard-pressed to live without as a writer. I will limit my list to general story-building and research because otherwise, I would never be able to weed down to five!
I absolutely hate naming my characters, to the point where most characters are designated as X, Y, Z, etc… until the second draft. But did you know that the SSA has a public list of the top 200 most popular names leading all the way back to the 1880s? Jackpot.
You know another annoying thing I need to do as a writer of historical fiction? Make sure the words I choose to use are period-accurate. Etymology is the study of words, and this website can help you place words in their first usages, as well as trace their origins. Telling me when, and where my words come from? Amazing.
This one is a little slightly bigger stretch… but Pinterest is actually a great source for all those odd little facts you can’t find in a simple internet search. From dialog prompts, to grammar tips, and breakdowns on how far you can travel in a day by different modes of transportation, not to mention funny memes… which all writers need, right? (This link specifically leads to my writing boards, but if you can’t find anything you like, there is a wealth of other information out there.) A place to find tons of helpful information, and relatable writer memes? Yes, please.
A free online library, filled with tons of books that can help you out in the information-grab of research. I use Internet Archive when I need to find historically accurate cookbooks, but there is so much more there as well! A library that you can access in 2020, sign me up.
Remember that thing I said about naming characters? Sometimes, I need a character name that is not strictly from the US and want it to mean something. Enter Behind the Name, an amazing source name for Etymology, need I say more?
So there you go, my top five websites for general research. I hope that this list was helpful to some other writer out there!
What are your favorite websites for research? Would you like to see a part 2?
Thanks for the read!
Hello again!
This last week I’ve been working on historical research… hard research. I don’t want to go into too much detail on what exactly I have been researching, (lest I give anything away about my book) but I can say that I’ve been looking into some of the histories which were not really covered in my whitewashed history books… and it makes for some very hard reading.
My small group has been reading The Color of Compromise by Jamar Tisby for the last couple of months now, and that too makes for some very hard reading, despite being well-written. I have recently come to the difficult realization that the history in my books was not entirely true, and that which was true was very far from the whole truth. Before this last year, I would never have thought to physically type the words, “Native American history”, or “African American history”, as I thought that history was history, but now I can see that this is exactly what I need to do.
Do I have a point to this? Yes, I do. If, like me, you have a kilted, whitewashed knowledge of history, (chances are, if you are relying on what you learned in school, and didn’t take any intentionally inclusive lessons, then you probably do) then it is high time for you, and I, to start looking into the other sides of history… and I urge you to fight the urge to look away.
2020 Has been a hard, strange year for all of us… but I believe that it is also a chance to grow. I have learned a lot already, but that does not mean that it’s time to stop, nor does it mean that all I have to do is learn. Learning is one of the first steps in growth, but you don’t stop there. We need to grow, to do better, and to try our best to help the world continue to grow, from the tiny corners where we have the chance to serve.
Thanks for the read!
How are you coping with this year? What are you doing to make a change in your heart, life, or circle?
Hi there!
Today, I think I’ll talk about one of the unexpected twists in my life as a writer, specifically, in regards to finishing off the 3rd and final novel in my “A Spy’s Memory” series.
I’m almost at the half-way point of my third book, and my second is patiently waiting for me to finish writing the third, and for my betas to finish reading it. You’d expect that I’m utterly delighted to be so near finishing my first ever trilogy right? Well… that is true in part, but the other part of me is actually dreading it.
Have you ever watched a long-standing tv show, or read a book series and got so attached to the characters that you were upset by the idea that it may end, that you would no longer be able to visit that world, those characters who feel so much like old friends? Well, it turns out that it’s no easier when you’re the writer. My characters are real to me, and I’ve visited with them and watched them grow for so long now… that the idea of saying goodbye to them is difficult to face.
I do have plenty of ideas for other books, one for a series, and many for standalone novels. And it is true, that it will be wonderful to write about, and experience new people, and new worlds, with new rules. But saying goodbye to my old friends, to the friends from my first ever novel, from the first book I actually finished writing since I was maybe 12 years old? It’s going to be very hard.
Thanks for the read!
Hey everyone, just a quick heads-up, today’s post isn’t going to be very long, or upbeat.
I’m closing StorybookgemsbyKat. It’s been almost eight months, and I’ve racked up an astoundingly pathetic zero sales. I’m tired of trying to make this work, especially considering I could be spending my promotion time on something more worthwhile, such as watching paint dry.
All of my items are now discounted by 25%, and if you wanted to make any purchases, you’d better do so before January 1st, because that’s when my “doors” close for the last time.
Hello again!
Once again, I’m afraid that I took an unplanned hiatus without any warning, I’m sorry about that. During the last few weeks I’ve needed to make a few hard decisions, which I will post about here soon, and I’ve been struggling to get back into the swing of things with the 3rd and final book in the “A Spy’s Memory” series.
For this week, I thought it’d be fun to talk about a few “author preconceptions” I’ve seen online, some true, and some… otherwise. As always I can only speak for myself, but these are my feelings on the matter.
Authors enjoy torturing their readers. Honestly? This is true. I take an unhealthy amount of enjoyment out of confusing, and confounding the readers in my head, but that is not to say that I am not equally shaken up when plot twists smack me in the brain.
Authors enjoy torturing/killing their characters. NOT TRUE!!! I’ve cried more over my books, and the stuff I put my characters through then you could imagine. But when the story goes that way, there is nothing else to do… more on that below.
Authors have ultimate control over what happens in their books/to their characters. This isn’t really true, but it’s also not untrue… it’s far more complex than that. Yes, I am physically the one who types out the things that happen in my books, but writing for me, (I am what is known as a “pantser” meaning that I don’t really draft or plot for the most part.) is equal parts coming up with what happens next, and watching the story happen in my head like a movie, with the characters doing whatever they wish. Sometimes I try to write something other then what is right for the story, but trust me, my books would be a LOT worse if I wrote everything according to my own whims.
That’s it for me today. I hope ya’ll found it enlightening, or at least entertaining. If you have any questions about author life, in general, or in regards to me specifically, feel free to share them below!
Thanks for the read!
Hi there!
Remember when I promised to write a post about writing with a dog? Well, here it is.
Now, having pets is incredible, but sometimes there are a few struggles that come with actually writing with pets around; and I thought it’d be fun to take a light-hearted look at some of the pluses and minuses today. Specifically, I’ll be talking about dogs, today, as I already wrote one on cats!
They will check on you… especially at mealtimes. Have you ever unknowingly worked through dinner? Don’t worry, with a dog, that is impossible, they will make sure that everyone is well-fed.
They will make sure you get fresh air, even if it’s just so they can use the bathroom. I mean come on, who doesn’t want to walk circles in the yard and watch someone else pee?!
They will help you edit. Did you know that reading out loud can help you catch those tiny errors? Yet if you read to yourself out loud people may give you sideways glances, so just read to your dog! And don’t worry, I’m sure that the regular yawning and walking away to stare out the window are not meant personally.
All joking aside, having a furry friend to pet and play with when you can’t come up with the next plot-point is massively helpful, if only to your mental health. I can’t imagine not having a pet, as the only time in my entire life when there were no pets in the house was before I turned 2.
Thanks for the read!
Hi there!
As you probably know by now, I love history; and for that reason, I predominantly write historical fiction. But do you know how interesting history itself can be?
I’ve read more historical articles, books, and watched more documentaries than I can count. But there are still a few things that stand out in my thoughts. Did you know That Victorian ladies regularly carried pins with them, to keep their napkins from slipping onto the floor? Pretty savvy right? That a murder case was once partially solved by a ghost? Look up the Greenbrier ghost. For a twist greater then any drama you’ll see on TV, Napoleon divorced his wife because she couldn’t have kids, but left her with a house, huge garden, and a very healthy allowance for the rest of her life. And Woodrow Willson, president during WWI, predicted (more or less) WWII.
All of this is to say that history is an interesting place to take a walk through, I’ve given you a few jumping-off points here, but it’s up to you to dive in!
Thanks for the read!
What’s your favorite historical fact/event/person?
Hi there!
Did you know that I’ve been making jewelry longer then I could read? My mom started me on necklaces, (with large wooden beads, cross-stitch needles, and yarn,) when I was 2 or 3, as a way to build hand-eye-coordination... but I took to it like a fish to water.
Wooden beads became plastic, and plastic beads became glass, yarn turned to stretch-cord, and then thread, but I didn’t stop beading. My patterns started to develop from random collections of color to overly complicated many-beaded overly-colorful bracelets and necklaces. I gave almost every female member of my family at least one piece of jewelry for Christmas or their birthday... (not to mention one or two men) and most of them were kind enough to wear them, regardless of the child-like designs.
Despite my love of jewelry making, I didn’t start to learn any complicated tricks, or branch out until I was in my teens… and I also started to master colors and simplify my designs to the point where they were artful, rather than distracting.
Believe it or not, I still actively enjoy making necklaces, it’s fun to assemble patterns, but more than that, I find it incredibly cathartic to string the beads onto the thread… there’s something mindless, and yet incredibly fulfilling about putting together something physical from beginning to end, all within an afternoon.
I keep a large collection of beads just for playing around with, making seasonal necklaces and earring dangles for my clip-on-transformers… only to take them apart them and remake them later. Most people take up crocheting, knitting, embroidering, or something of that sort… but I can’t manage to get the knack of any of those (except for counted cross-stitch, and that drives me to distraction.)
There is one problem with this hobby, however, I’ve run out of people to give jewelry to! Seriously, I could make a pile of necklaces, but no one is buying the ones I have on Etsy, and I don’t know who I could make anything for, it’s a funny issue, but it could be worse… I could be knitting a sweater large enough for an elephant!
Thanks for the read!
Have you ever seen someone practice plate spinning? The juggler seems almost to defy gravity as they maintain the plates’ precarious balance with a combination of skill, speed, and occasional trickery. That’s almost how my life feels at times.
I’ve talked about my “social media Monday’s” before… well, they got much worse after I published my book, and now I’m working on creating a slightly more sustainable system. Rather than packing all of my social media prep into one mega day, I’m going to try to stay a single day ahead of the game, IE, every Monday I prep for my blog, and nothing else, and so on.
How many plates do I need to balance on a daily basis? I need to split my time between the living room, (my wall desk collapsed rather dramatically onto me a few weeks ago) and “kitten central” (my brother’s room) as we’re not quite ready to let him roam freely with the dog yet, and we can’t leave him alone for more than 2 hours lest he start crying for attention. This may seem random but it’s a little harder to work when you have a kitten doing gymnastics off of your leg, then when you can just sit and write; I can write around him (most of the time) but only if I flip the laptop over to tablet mode, (loud buttons are far too tempting to a little kitten) and I’m not quite used to using a digital keyboard for working on my book yet.
Obviously, I have to do all those little things that keep me healthy, as we all do, such as brushing my teeth, doing my exercises, and trying to consume a healthy amount of water. And I do have a few things in my regular calendar as well, such as small group; but I’m only going to talk about repeating things, that you may not automatically assume. My daily task list includes: writing 2-3 pages in my book, writing/prepping for the next day’s social media promotion, a devotional, a Bible study, monitoring my seller accounts on Etsy and Amazon, playing with/snuggling Berlioz, trying to make sure Spirit doesn’t feel left out and cleaning at least one thing (sometimes this is sweeping the floors, sometimes it’s putting away stray items around the house). And soon, I’ll be adding daily voice work practice (recording and editing audio) to this list, and if I ever make any sales, I’ll need to add making more jewelry to keep my Etsy stock up as well.
This list could definitely be longer… but it’s daunting to even look at first thing in the morning, especially when I add all the little daily things that come up, from a walk outside to bathing the dog. Right now, I’m just tired; tired of working to seemingly no avail, my Etsy shop has been open since February, and I have yet to make a single sale, and my book has been out for nearly a month now, and I’ve sold all of 4 copies. It feels like I’m breaking my back for no purpose, promoting products that no one wants, and writing books that few will ever see. I haven’t talked about this much, but it took a lot of time and effort to design and make all of those necklaces and earrings… to learn how to set up a business, and I’m now afraid that I wasted most of that time.
Sorry for the downer, but this is life, not perfectly shiny all the time… and sometimes it’s hard. Tomorrow will likely be better, but today I’m tired and sick of waiting for a result.
Thanks for the read.
Have you ever noticed how many authors have pets? Seriously, almost every author I know anything about has at least one pet (probably a cat)... and I am no exception to the rule, with one rescue kitten, and one elderly dog of my own to love.
Why do so many authors have pets? I’m not certain, but I think it has something to do with the fact that many authors struggle with social isolation, (even on a normal year!) and pets can help to alleviate that. It’s also fairly common for authors to struggle with poor self-image, and having a little (or not so little,) fluffy friend who wants nothing more than to show you that you are loved can really help.
Now, having pets is incredible, but sometimes there are a few struggles that come with actually writing with pets around; and I thought it’d be fun to take a light-hearted look at some of the pluses and minuses today. Specifically, I’ll be talking about cats, today, as I think dogs deserve a post of their own.
They demand attention of their own. As I write this, I’m struggling through a game of keyboard wrestling with Berlioz, and my backspace key means certain death for my fingers. That said, this also keeps me from bogging down in cyberspace for the whole day, as I’m sitting with him every couple of hours.
They are very “helpful.” Berlioz is quite a writer, just check out his blog https://berliozkitteh.blogspot.com but unfortunately, we have many stylistic clashes, as I don’t believe that “iJJJJJJJJJJJJJ” is a proper term… plus he is far more tech-savvy than myself, as he just got the computer stuck in full screen… and I kid you not, somehow managed to pull up his own blog, leaving me stuck on his page until I figured out how to reset the browser to a normal screen. He is now sleeping smugly on a pillow at me.
They are adorable… and distracting. Even when Berlioz isn’t competing for the noisy buttons, he’s sitting across the room watching me, or in my lap purring, and demanding pets… and I can’t quite turn him down.
Despite all of that, however, I still truly believe that the world would be a better place if everyone had a pet… even writers.
Thanks for the read!
Hi there!
Meet Berlioz; our new kitten, he’s about 8 and ½ weeks old and he first started living with us a week and a half ago. “But wait, don’t you already have a dog? Like an old dog?” Yes, we do, Spirit is 12 and ½ years old, and was only about 1 when we first got her. But to be fair to us, we didn’t mean to adopt a kitten at all. “You accidentally adopted a kitten?” Yes… yes, we did, and that’s what I’m going to talk about today.
On the 9th, my brother came in from taking the dog out to report that he saw “the cutest little kitten” in the yard. So, like the fully grown, mature woman that I am, I darted outside to see the cutie, with my mom trailing behind me. Now, there are probably thousands of stray cats in my neighborhood, so kittens aren’t the rarest sight in the world, but typically their mama’s keep them hidden until their mostly grown, such that actually seeing a tiny one during the day is a bit of a treat.
My mom actually asked if I wanted to try to rescue him, which, of course, I did. We chased that kitten, and staked him out, waiting for him to come out where we could reach him for over an hour, but he retreated under the house, and all seemed lost. We gave up and went back inside with little hope of catching him. I headed back outside and decided to see if I could see him, only about 20 minutes later… and I could, he was under the house still, but he was staring at me, from under the house.
My mom hurried to pick up a can of cat food, while I sat out with my brother to play the long game of waiting for the tiny one to calm down. Once we had a can of tuna cat food, I was able to lure him out, and ultimately catch him, with a little help from my mom.
It took him a couple of hours to calm down, but he was climbing into our arms, laps, and hearts within 2 days.
When we found him he was starving, and we’re pretty sure he was abandoned by his mom; so he’s got a pretty bad case of separation anxiety. If he’s alone for more then an hour or two, he starts calling for someone to come sit with him.
We tried to get him a good home for about a week, but no one would take the little one; and I was far too smitten with the tiny kitten to bring him to a shelter, so we kept him.
Now, he’s had a vet check, and other then a raging case of ear mites, he’s quite healthy, if a little small.
We’re pretty sure that he thinks I’m his mama, and it’s pretty darn cute when he purrs in my arms, (he’s got the cutest little squeak of a meow.) He’s cuddly, playful, and a bit of a nut… but he’s about the sweetest ball of fur that you’ve ever seen.
He and Spirit haven’t met yet, we’re waiting until he finishes a 2-week quarantine before we do that, and the process is likely to be quite slow… but we’re hopeful. And all the early signs have been good, they like to sniff each other under the door, (we’ve got truly massive door gaps), and he’s very non-aggressive.
I won’t lie, and pretend that I don’t have a thousand little (and not so little) playful kitten scratches on my hands and arms. And I won’t pretend that I didn’t have a kitten doing the cha cha on the keyboard as I tried to write this… but I wouldn’t trade any of that for the little ball of fluff who’s currently trying to play with his kibble right next to me.
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| Everyone needs a hero. |
Hello again!
Today I thought I’d talk about one of the stranger types of marketing I do; photo-based marketing via Instagram.
Now I’m predominantly tabling about Etsy marketing today, but
I do also market my book(s) and author brand on Instagram.
The pluses of using a photo-based platform for marketing jewelry are obvious, it’s a good opportunity to get my product into the eye of potential customers, and a chance to practice my photography. However, it’s a little tricky to come up with good original ideas for backgrounds every week.
So where do I get my ideas for backgrounds/photos? It varies. Sometimes I take ideas from the internet;
Sometimes I’ll have a vague concept;
Sometimes I’ll have a very specific idea of what I want and how to get it;
And sometimes I don’t have any ideas at all, so I do something quick and easy;
Despite the trouble and annoyance of retaking photos due to shadows, (I take my photos by sunlight,) it’s incredibly rewarding when I finally get a good, clear, shadow-free shot.
Thanks for the read!
Hi there!
I thought I’d come back around to my “zebra” roots for this week.
There are a lot of things about having a rare disease, or chronic illness, that may be a bit hard for most people to understand but are just another part of life for us; so I thought I’d talk about some of those things.
Having EDS means;
Having my practically life-long dream of being a ballerina taken from me at 9.
Learning my physical boundaries by age 10, better then most people know them by 25.
Going into an appointment for an ear infection and coming out with scoliosis.
Understanding my condition better than some doctors.
Watching doctors pretend to know about my condition to my face, even saying things like my bad genes were caused by not flossing, (a hygienist, although I paraphrased it a bit.) or that I’d outgrow my genetic condition, or even just mispronouncing the condition name entirely.
Waking up with my wrist swollen to twice it’s normal size, for no reason.
Smiling and nodding at a PT as she tells me things I’ve known for years.
Having to sit down because my knees just wouldn’t behave.
Learning how a storm feels in the bones, as a teen.
Not being able to sleep for 2 weeks after a dislocation because I can’t get that *snap* out of my head.
Now, with that said, it’s pretty hard to think that everything sucks when you have a chronic issue, and sometimes that feels pretty true. But there’s more to being a zebra then I can easily write down, I am a fighter because I needed to learn to fight before I turned 10. I can deal with disappointments because I’ve lived through more than you can imagine. These are hard truths, but they have also helped mold me into who I am.
My whole life, I’ve tried to keep my condition from defining me, but it would be folly to claim that I haven’t been changed by being a zebra. I don’t know who I would be if I didn’t have EDS, but I also don’t feel like I need to know. I am who God made me to be, stripes and all.
Thanks for the read!
So yesterday (Sunday) was a bit odd, and I thought I’d talk about it.
I woke up before 6:00 to find a horrible electrical smell filling the whole house, and even after my whole family looked around the house, we couldn’t find a cause… so we tripped the breakers for the house to prevent a fire.
We called not one, not two, but three whole electricians, one of whom suggested we just turn the power back to the house in one big flip, (HUGE fire hazard.) And one of whom suggested we just live without any electricity for the next week. None of them were free any time this week, let alone the same day.
We had a friend suggest trouble-shooting by flipping a new breaker every two hours, to see if we could figure out where the issue was. This worked fine, but we still didn’t have power in the house for much of the day, nor did we have any internet, so we couldn’t “attend” digital church, nor a lot of other things that we would have typically done on a lazy Sunday.
Now, you may think that we decided to sit down and sulk after this series of events… but you’d be wrong. Instead, we decided to use the lack of electronics as an excuse for a good long game day.
As you can see we chose Monopoly; and by the time we finished, I think we had played for about 6 ½ hours!
After 2-3 hours it felt as though my victory was assured;
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| My hand, |
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| My brother's hand, |
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| My mom's hand. |
A little while after this photo was taken, my mom dropped out, and then there were two;
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| House rule- when you drop out, you get to chose what happens to your hand, you can put everything back, or stack it in the middle, and whoever gets to free parking first, gets it all. |
But then, disaster! My brother decided to develop everything in sight, slowly bleeding me dry, and somehow managing to almost perfectly avoid all my properties!
I fought back, placing six houses, and hoping that the property development card would take him out… he drew and paid it; twice.
I knew that I had lost, but I wasn’t going to give up either. So we played it out to the bitter end. My brother managing the most spectacular Monopoly feat I’ve ever seen in my life; gaining all the 500 bills by the time I finally lost.
Now, don’t get me wrong the game was fun; but I think there may be a small lesson in here somewhere… or maybe it’s just been too long since I’ve been able to teach, and I’m pulling lessons out of nowhere.
Considering everything that went wrong yesterday morning, no one on earth would have begrudged us a cranky day, but instead, we decided to do something fun together, without the internet as an interruption. Sometimes life sucks, everyone knows that, but sometimes… just sometimes, you can choose to try and have a good day; even on a bad day.
I wish I could say that I was great at this, but I’m not, I have bad days just like everyone else, sometimes even more than everyone else; but yesterday, in spite of everything, was a good day.
Thanks for reading!
Alright, I’ve kept ya’ll in suspense for long enough… my extra special announcement is that… my book is officially coming out in 1 week!
It’s been 2 ½ years, countless hours, and far too much heartache, but I’m finally ready to let the world read my book!
Actually, I’m not… I’m actually freaking out, and I have no idea how to cope with the idea that PEOPLE ARE ACTUALLY GOING TO READ MY BOOK!!!
It’s been a dream for such a long time, and actually facing it is nuts but in all the best ways.
For a sneak peek, here is my front cover, and since this is my blog, I’m going to give you all exclusive “early access” to my back cover.
“One of the ironies of life is that the dreams and drama of my youth must remain a secret until my girls are old enough to understand.”
Grace had long since abandoned her career as a spy to raise her girls in safety, but there are still times she finds her mind drawn back to the missions of her youth.
She still remembers the days when rumors of Klondyke gold whipped through Chicago and the mission that led her aboard the world's first cruising submarine; following the Liberté à Jesse James gang, hoping to do her part in protecting Samuel, a man who invented a machine to detect the precious metal in the arctic conditions.
Despite a good start, she quickly found herself caught in a dangerous snag in the mission leaving her fighting her self-doubt to finish with little more than her faith in God to guide her. Was she be able to free herself and her partner from the ever-deepening water around them, or did her aspirations of espionage sink beneath the waves?
Thanks for the read!
Keep your eyes peeled for my book this time next week!
Hi there!
Today I thought I’d talk about a few tricks I use (or should use) to help me out in my writing when it comes to creating believable characters.
If you want to write believable characters then you need to understand people, or at least how they talk and behave, so I’d suggest spending time with and around people.
Obviously, spending time with people can help you build relationships, and help you to understand the people “up close and personal”, but spending time around people, not necessarily interacting with them, but rather watching them, such as in a park, can help train you to understand how people behave when they are on the move, and you’ll even start to pick up little things about them if you do this regularly.
Spending time alone is equally helpful, as you can go into your own head or the head of your characters without interruptions. Reading autobiographies can also help, as well as just watching TV/reading. Your characters will feel very real to you, but they are still characters, so watching how others make their characters “feel” real can help you as well.
Another note that I’d have would be to interact with the type of people you are writing, so you can write them convincingly. IE, if you are writing children then spend some time with children- childlike speech is often written incorrectly by people who have problems remembering the difference between 6 and 4. And if you are writing a character who has different life experiences to you, such as someone of a different race, or someone who isn’t able-bodied, try to find someone who has lived that sort of life, so you don’t make any major mistakes.
So there you go, a short list of how to keep your characters as real as possible, assembled from things I’ve seen online, as well as my own tricks. Honestly, I find that writing dialogue isn’t that hard, just remember that you are speaking for your characters and don’t feel like you need to make everyone so different in speech that they are all talking like they are from different planets unless there is a very good reason to do so.
Thanks for the read!
