As authors, we’re constantly looking for more and better ways to gain visibility for our books. This is why I was so excited when Andy Peloquin contacted us about a review possibility that I didn’t know existed. Because it might be news for you, too, I’ve asked him to our blog today to give us the particulars.

For most authors, the majority of our time is spent trying to find ways to sell more books. Author interviews, promo blitzes, and Facebook Party takeovers—there are so many ways to get the word out. But we all know that when it comes to gaining new readers and getting them to buy our books, one of the most important factors is the reviews.

Courtesy: Thad Zajdowicz @ Creative Commons

Book reviews are key because they tell readers and potential buyers what to expect. They’re the unofficial rating that serves as the thumbs up or down. Because of their importance, there are literally THOUSANDS of book review websites, directories, and blogs out there—many of which are flooded with requests from authors. Reviewers often can’t keep up with all the requests they receive, so they’re stuck choosing only books that grab their interest, meaning other books (possibly YOUR book) are going to be sent to the “hopefully sometime in the future” or the “I just don’t have time” piles.

But I’m here to tell you about a review resource that few authors know exists: YouTube. Here are some stats you might not know:

• 1 billion people use YouTube
• There are 4 billion video views on YouTube per day
• 6 billion hours of video are watched every month
• 300 new hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute
• People will spend an average of 40 minutes on YouTube

But here’s the real kicker: less than 9% of small businesses (yes, authors fall into that mix) use this platform for marketing. Which is sad, since YouTube has a great marketing tool for authors that most aren’t aware of in the form of Book Reviewers.

YouTube book reviewers aren’t as common as book bloggers or review websites; the reason for this is that it’s hard to make book reviews interesting when they’re being filmed on video, so it takes a special type of person to do this well. There are a handful of YouTube channels dedicated specifically to book reviews, and while they receive plenty of requests, they get nowhere near as many as the more popular review sites. This means your book has a much higher chance of getting accepted for review.

How do you pick a book review channel? The best option is to visit the channels (see the list at the end of this post) and scroll through each reviewer’s videos to see if they read books like yours; this will narrow down your options to the most likely candidates. You also should check out their submission guidelines to make sure they accept your type of book. You can submit to as many review sites as possible, but if your time is limited and you only want to try the higher profile channels, check out their subscription stats and number of views; this data is often listed on the About page.

How should you submit your books for review? Each channel has its own guidelines on the kinds of books they accept, how to submit, etc. For example, Mercy at Mercy’s Bookish Musings asks you to simply email her with your book details. You can do this for Ariel Bissett, too, but only if your book is traditionally published.

To find out how to submit and what is/isn’t accepted for a given reviewer, simply visit that YouTube channel’s About page. There, you’ll find the submission email address and other necessary information—similar to the way you’d submit to any website or book blog.

What if your book is accepted? How can you capitalize on a good YouTube review? You can tell the world about it. Link to it on all your social media sites, blog about the review, embed it on your personal bookstore page, post it on your Goodreads author profile or Amazon Author Central page—there are so many ways to let existing and potential buyers know that your book has been well received. And the good news is that nearly every site is compatible with YouTube, so the process is fairly simple.

Where do I find these channels? I’m so glad you asked! Here’s a sample listing of book review channels that can be found on YouTube:

1. https://www.youtube.com/user/MercysBookishMusings/about
2. https://www.youtube.com/c/arielbissett/about
3. https://www.youtube.com/c/bazpierce/about
4. https://www.youtube.com/user/abookutopia/about
5. https://www.youtube.com/c/hailsheartsnyc/about
6. https://www.youtube.com/user/booksbetterthanfood/about
7. https://www.youtube.com/c/booksandquills/about
8. https://www.youtube.com/user/missloopylouful/about
9. https://www.youtube.com/c/peruseproject/about
10. https://www.youtube.com/c/jessethereader/about
11. https://www.youtube.com/c/polandbananasbooks/about (likes Throne of Glass–ergo, dark fantasy)
12. https://www.youtube.com/c/jeanmbt/about
13. https://www.youtube.com/c/impressionblendofficial/about
14. https://www.youtube.com/c/chapterstackss/about
15. https://www.youtube.com/c/ashleybbooks/about
16. https://www.youtube.com/c/pimpbookreviews/about
17. https://www.youtube.com/c/lovingdembooks/about
18. https://www.youtube.com/c/thereadables/about
19. https://www.youtube.com/c/unboundbookreviews/feed
20. https://www.youtube.com/user/bookwormstalk/about

These are just 20 of the channels that do reviews, but there are many more (I’ve found close to 50). You can find them for yourself by searching for “Book Reviews” on YouTube, or drop me a line at [email protected] and I’d be happy to send over the rest of my list. Best of luck!

Andy Peloquin–a third culture kid to the core–has loved to read since before he could remember. Sherlock Holmes, the Phantom of the Opera, and Father Brown are just a few of the books that ensnared his imagination as a child. When he discovered science fiction and fantasy through the pages of writers like Edgar Rice Burroughs, J.R.R Tolkien, and Orson Scott Card, he was immediately hooked and hasn’t looked back since. Reading—and now writing—is his favorite escape, and it provides him an outlet for his innate creativity. He is an artist; words are his palette.

His website is a second home for him, a place where he can post his thoughts and feelings–along with reviews of books he finds laying around the internet. He can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

The post The Most Neglected Resource for Reviews: YouTube appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

When you’re writing a character, it’s important to know why she is the way she is. Knowing her backstory is important to achieving this end, and one of the most impactful pieces of a character’s backstory is her emotional wound. This negative experience from the past is so intense that a character will go to great lengths to avoid experiencing that kind of pain and negative emotion again. As a result, certain behaviors, beliefs, and character traits will emerge.

Characters, like real people, are unique, and will respond to wounding events differently. The vast array of possible emotional wounds combined with each character’s personality gives you many options in terms of how your character will turn out. With the right amount of exploration, you should be able to come up with a character whose past appropriately affects her present, resulting in a realistic character that will ring true with readers. Understanding what wounds a protagonist bears will also help you plot out her arc, creating a compelling journey of change that will satisfy readers.

Being So Beautiful It’s All People See

NOTE: We realize that sometimes a wound we profile may have personal meaning, stirring up the past for some of our readers. It is not our intent to create emotional turmoil. Please know that we research each wounding topic carefully to treat it with the utmost respect. 

Basic Needs Often Compromised By This Wound: safety and security, love and belonging, esteem and recognition, self-actualization

False Beliefs That May Be Embraced As a Result of This Wound:

• my only worth is in my looks
• I will never be respected for my hard work, brains, or skills
• people only want to be close because of how I look and what my beauty can do for them
• no one really cares what I think or believe in
• everyone believes my life is wonderful no matter what I tell them
• being beautiful is what matters; without it I am nothing
• no one knows (or cares) who I really am
• I can only be what others want me to be, not live for myself
• I must choose a career in the beauty industry because it’s expected
• Many of my (same-sex) friends secretly hate me
• I can’t have deep friendships with members of the opposite sex because I am only a sex object to them
• I have to keep personal pain/hardships to myself because people will just believe I’m attention-seeking or narcissistic

Positive Attributes That May Result: cautious, charming, courteous, cooperative, disciplined, easygoing, extroverted, flirtatious, friendly, generous, gentle. honorable, idealistic, introverted, loyal, kind, mature, obedient, organized, perceptive, persuasive, playful, private, proactive, protective, sensual, sophisticated, uninhibited, unselfish, whimsical

Negative Traits That May Result: abrasive, addictive, catty, childish, cocky, cynical, defensive, dishonest, extravagant, flaky, frivolous, gossipy, haughty, hypocritical, impatient, impulsive, inhibited, insecure, jealous, judgemental, lazy, macho, manipulative, materialistic, melodramatic, pretentious, promiscuous, rebellious, reckless, self-destructive, self-indulgent, spoiled, subservient, temperamental, vain, withdrawn, workaholic

Resulting Fears:

• fear of stalking, violence, and sexual assault (especially women)
• fear of being taken advantage of
• fear of being trapped by one’s own beauty (life choices, career, opportunities)
• fear of aging or losing one’s beauty
• fear of illness and disease
• trust issues–fear of trusting the wrong person
• fear of retribution or sabotage via a jealous peer

Possible Habits That May Emerge:

• meticulous health and beauty regimes
• dieting and working out
• questioning and second guessing one’s choices (a deep need for approval or fitting in)
• people-pleasing
• avoiding close relationships (over doubt as to if they are “real” or not)
• not complaining because people will react with a lack of empathy
• seeking out activities where beauty doesn’t matter (working at an animal shelter, getting out in nature, sport activities, volunteering for a specific cause)
• acting the way people expect to make life easier
• being very safety conscious; avoiding dangerous places
• working hard to be likeable to negate “primal” resentful feelings with the same-sex
• fighting or hiding low self-esteem issues behind smiles/forced confidence
• keeping secrets, rarely divulging one’s deepest feelings and desires
• depression and engaging in behavior to cope with it (medicating, withdrawing from relationships, choosing to be alone, cutting in areas that won’t been seen, etc.)

TIP: If you need help understanding the impact of these factors, please read our introductory post on the Emotional Wound Thesaurus. For our current list of Emotional Wound Entries, go here.

For other Descriptive Thesaurus Collections, go here.

Image: Alexas_fotos @ Pixabay

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The post Emotional Wound Entry: Being So Beautiful It’s All People See appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Can you believe it’s August already?? Some of you, I know, are getting ready for the new school year while some of us in the north have a little more summer left. I admit that after living in Florida most of my life, it’s a little weird to not go back to school until September. Not that I’m complaining; my family and I put together a summer bucket list, and we’ve been having a blast doing things like going to a chocolate factory,

visiting the grandparents in Alabama,

and picking our own berries.

I’m not sure we’re going to finish everything in the next few weeks, but we’ll do our best. My kids made up most of the list, and for some reason, critiques didn’t make the cut. But they’re on my own personal list, so

It’s Critiques 4 U Time! 

If you’re working on a first page and would like some objective feedback, please leave a comment that includes: 

1) your email address. Some of you have expressed concern about making your email address public; if you’re sure that the email address associated with your WordPress account is correct, you don’t have to include it here. But if you do win and I’m unable to contact you through that email address, I’ll have to choose an alternate winner.

2) your story’s genre (no erotica, please)

ONLY ENTRIES THAT FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS WILL BE CONSIDERED

Three commenters’ names will be randomly drawn and posted tomorrow. If you win, you can email me your first page and I’ll offer my feedback. Best of luck!

The post Critiques 4 U! appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

When you’re writing a character, it’s important to know why she is the way she is. Knowing her backstory is important to achieving this end, and one of the most impactful pieces of a character’s backstory is her emotional wound. This negative experience from the past is so intense that a character will go to great lengths to avoid experiencing that kind of pain and negative emotion again. As a result, certain behaviors, beliefs, and character traits will emerge.

Characters, like real people, are unique, and will respond to wounding events differently. The vast array of possible emotional wounds combined with each character’s personality gives you many options in terms of how your character will turn out. With the right amount of exploration, you should be able to come up with a character whose past appropriately affects her present, resulting in a realistic character that will ring true with readers. Understanding what wounds a protagonist bears will also help you plot out her arc, creating a compelling journey of change that will satisfy readers.

NOTE: We realize that sometimes a wound we profile may have personal meaning, stirring up the past for some of our readers. It is not our intent to create emotional turmoil. Please know that we research each wounding topic carefully to treat it with the utmost respect. 

Courtesy: Pixabay

Examples: Getting through childhood can be difficult enough when life isn’t overly complicated. But having a sibling with chronic, long-term, or complex medical or emotional issues that require a lot of financial and physical attention from caregivers can have an impact on other children in the family. Some examples of these issues include

• a traumatic brain injury
• an undiagnosed illness
• a failing organ in need of a transplant
• congenital heart problems
• seizure disorders
• cancer
• AIDS
• cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, and other long-term illnesses
• life-threatening eating disorders
• mental retardation
• a physical disfigurement (loss of a limb, visible scarring, skin disorders, abnormal growths, etc.)
• blindness, deafness, or muteness
• mental disorders (OCD, depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder)

Basic Needs Often Compromised By This Wound: safety and security, love and belonging, esteem and recognition, self-actualization

False Beliefs That May Be Embraced As a Result of This Wound:

• Someone (oneself, the sick child, a parent) must have done something wrong and is being punished.
• It would have been better if he/she had never been born.
• My parents love him/her more than me.
• It doesn’t matter what I do; he/she will always be more important than me.
• This (losing one’s home, parents divorcing, being unable to do something one loves) is all his/her fault.
• I’m a horrible person for feeling anger/resentment/frustration about the situation.
• It should have been me.

Positive Attributes That May Result: adaptable, appreciative, calm, curious, diplomatic, easygoing, empathetic, generous, gentle, honorable, idealistic, independent, kind, loyal, mature, nurturing, passionate, patient, pensive, philosophical, protective, responsible, sentimental, socially aware, supportive, tolerant

Negative Traits That May Result: apathetic, callous, catty, childish, cynical, dishonest, disloyal, frivolous, grumpy, humorless, impatient, insecure, manipulative, martyr, melodramatic, morbid, needy, nervous, oversensitive, perfectionist, pessimistic, rebellious, reckless, resentful, self-destructive, selfish, spoiled, subservient, temperamental, uncooperative, ungrateful, vindictive, volatile, withdrawn

Resulting Fears:

• The same thing is going to happen to me.
• My sibling is going to die.
• My life is going to be like this forever.
• I’ll never be able to do what I want to do.
• My parents will never love me as much as him/her.

Possible Habits That May Emerge: 

• Avoiding the sibling when in public
• Acting out as a way of getting a parent’s attention
• Overachieving as a means of earning a parent’s love
• Becoming independent out of necessity
• Maturing early emotionally
• Taking on adult responsibilities to care for one’s sibling
• Empathizing with others who are ill
• Engaging in social activism to raise awareness for the sibling’s illness
• Becoming overly subservient so as not to overburden one’s parents
• Hiding one’s true feelings because one feels guilty (about being angry, impatient, etc.)
• Getting upset over little things
• Distancing oneself from the family unit
• Becoming anxious about oneself or a parent falling ill, too
• Exhibiting hypochondriac tendencies (in an effort to get attention or out of the fear of oneself getting sick)
• Rebelling against authority; becoming defiant
• Difficulties at school
• Difficulties focusing and concentrating
• Acting out whenever the sibling’s circumstances interfere with one’s plans (when one has to stay with a relative, when a party or playdate has to be cancelled, etc.)
• Shyness
• Blaming all of one’s misfortunes on the sibling’s illness
• Looking to others for love and affection
• Self-medicating

TIP: If you need help understanding the impact of these factors, please read our introductory post on the Emotional Wound Thesaurus. For our current list of Emotional Wound Entries, go here.

For other Descriptive Thesaurus Collections, go here.

The post Emotional Wound Thesaurus Entry: Growing up with a Sibling’s Chronic or Complicated Illness appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Hi Everyone!

I know, it’s summer and you guys are all taking a bit of a break, enjoying family, friends, sunshine and possibly the occasional adult beverage. That’s awesome! 

But, while you’re on this writing hiatus, it’s also a great time to think a bit about things that there’s never enough time for…like how to better reach readers and sell more books!

One of the best things you can do to boost your success is market to your exact reading audience

AND, one of the really terrific ways to do THIS is to determine who your influencers are (the people who already have great relationships with your readers) and build a relationship with them.

That’s why I’m over at Jane Friedman’s blog today, discussing Authors, Do You Know Who Your Influencers Are?

So stop in and find out what an influencer is, what you can learn from them, and how to reach out to then and build a genuine relationship that will benefit you both.

(Please feel free to pass the link on to any other authors you know who might also need help reaching their readers, too!)

Cast Your Vote & Choose The Final Entries Emotional Wound Thesaurus Entries

As I mentioned in the last post, we’re going to retire the Emotional Wounds Thesaurus soon on the blog so that in a month or two, we can begin turning it into a book. Now the word “retired” caused a bit of panic, so let me be clear that the entries will remain here on the blog for the foreseeable future–you’ll have access to them. We just won’t be “adding” to the entries each week here on the blog, make sense? All new entries we write will be added to One Stop For Writers first, and then turned into a book.

So, hopefully that eases some concern.

We do want to put up a few last entries before we retire the thesaurus, and thought it would be fun to have you vote on which ones we do. So based on all the terrific suggestions the last few days, Becca and I have narrowed it down to 10 choices:

1. Being bullied
2. Being the victim of a toxic relationship
3. Being rejected by one’s peers
4. Unrequited love
5. Growing up with a sibling with a complicated medical condition/chronic illness
6. Growing up with parents who fought constantly
7. Losing one of the five senses
8. Growing up with a parent who is a pariah (is reviled in the community)
9. Being so beautiful it’s all people see
10. Living with mental illness

So, give us your top 3 choices in the comments (by number please), and starting this Saturday, we’ll profile the ones with the most votes!

Image 2 via Adam McGuire @ Pixabay

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The post What’s One Of The Best Ways To Reach Your Readers? appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Becca and I have been profiling Emotional Wounds for quite a while now, and it’s getting to the point where we need to retire this thesaurus and start a new one.

I know some of you might be upset. The Emotional Wound Thesaurus is truly one-of-a-kind, tackling a topic that is difficult to master in writing.

The good news is this: while we’re retiring the thesaurus, it’s for a good reason…so we can develop it further into a full-fledged book.

So, think of this thesaurus as merely being “on hold.” Down the road we’ll have a new resource for you that will be unlike anything else in your writing toolkit.

Before we wrap things up, we want to give everyone an opportunity to let us know what wounds they wish we would cover. This is your chance to let us know what wounds you want to see in the book!

Here’s another reason to leave us a wishlist of Emotional Wounds in the comment section:

Becca and I are going to create a short list from the ones left in the comment section and let you vote on the final entries we profile on the blog before we retire the thesaurus.

So, release the hounds! Er, the Emotional Wounds.

Tell us which wounds you would like to see us tackle, which wounds are difficult for you to portray on the page. Maybe we can help!

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The post The Emotional Wound Thesaurus Is Retiring Soon appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

A long way from home!

Hi everyone! I hope everyone is getting some good R & R in during these warm, flower-filled summer months. In fact, I thought it might be fun to post a check in, to catch up on how everyone’s summer is going.

As some of you know, I’ve been out of the country for the last 3 weeks, visiting Malaysia, Thailand, and Korea. I love travel, and I am sure some of you do too, so here are a few highlights of the trip. These pictures are untouched (sorry Instagramers!)

Yep, I climbed all those stairs!

When we travel to these far-flung locations, we usually go on a group tour, one that really immerses a person in the culture while taking care of the flights, transfers, hotels, and many of the activities, so you can just enjoy, participate, and soak everything in.

We started off in Malaysia, checking out local markets, visiting war memorials, the palace, Muslim temples & Buddhist shrines…and so much more.

The Gibbon babies are orange when born, and slowly turn black. The cuteness!

We also hung out with monkeys and gibbons, saw fireflies, visited a tea plantation, ate some crazy stuff like jellyfish (like eating cartilage…not a repeat!), learned how to shoot darts with a blow gun, and went on a jungle hike to find a rare fungus-flower.

(The hike in the jungle was tough, and I’m pretty sure I got heat stroke–it was incredibly hot out. I also fell off a 5-foot high boulder and bashed up my legs quite bad, but luckily no broken bones.)

The main house

The highlight of Malaysia was a “home stay” visit where we lived with a Muslim family for a few days at the Suka-Suka Lake Retreat, where they owned some lovely property at the edge of the water.

You could swim, fish, kayak, walk the nature trails or hang out in a hammock and read (which I did and it was BLISS).

My oldest son and I did a cooking lesson here and learned how to create some popular Malaysian dishes. Later, we dressed in sarongs and ate dinner in the traditional style: on the floor, using only our right hand. Messy, but fun!

The visit was extra special as we arrived at the end of Ramadan which is also the beginning of the Muslim New Year. So there was much celebrating, fireworks, and socializing, and what a treat to be invited into the locals’ homes and experience another culture’s celebrations first hand.

Railay beach…usually the water is crystal clear, but we’ve come during the rainy season.

In Thailand, we started out at Krabi, just beating out a monsoon that showed up after we left. We traveled to the world-famous Railay Beach, and loved all the rock formations that reminded us so much of Halong Bay in Vietnam.

Ironically, while in the water here I was stung by a jellyfish…I guess it was karma for eating a relative a few nights earlier!

Hubs with one big Buddha!

We also saw a ton of Buddhist temples and ruins, often traveling around on tuk-tuks or by boat.

We stopped to see the famous bridge on the River Kwae and swam in a 7 level waterfall filled with fish (the small ones liked to go after our feet in a “Au natural” fish massage, lol). It was hilarious to see the reaction of our tour mates who have never felt fish nibble at their feet!

One night we stayed on a floating house that was pulled out by tugboat to a private island on a lake. We swam, kayaked and drank Chang beer as the sun went down.

Very tranquil

There were geckos EVERYWHERE too, living on the floating house, chomping down on all the mosquitoes. I’d fall asleep watching them skitter back and forth across the ceiling of the boathouse, chasing their dinner.

At the end of our time in Thailand, we spent a day at an Elephant Rescue Park, one that was truly a rescue, with no riding, no tricks for tourists, just a sanctuary for elephants to roam and live free.

They would nuzzle our pockets, trying to grab the sugarcane we had there, haha!

The elephants there were purchased by the sanctuary’s owners from circuses, tourist riding attractions, and illegal logging camps, saving the elephants from a lifetime of misery and abuse.

This one loved it when I scrubbed his trunk!

We spent the day feeding three young elephants bananas and sugarcane, accompanying them on a walk, and finally bathing them in a river.

It was something I will never forget.

After this, it was time to leave our group and set off for Korea, then home.

We arranged a 10 hour layover, enough time to see a bit of Seoul.

While we didn’t have time to visit the DMZ, we did venture into the city for a bit of site-seeing.

All of us enjoyed the time we spent there and I could see us heading back again for another trip.

Because, Korea!

I tooled around the market too, and found these gems:

We continued our marathon travel back home, (about 38 hours all told). Exhausting.

I came home to roughly 1000 emails, and a nice surprise…more foreign editions from Japan, this time, The Positive and Negative Trait Thesaurus books.

While the covers seem unusual to me, I know they must make perfect sense for that market.

Our Japanese publisher made us two beautiful books–they are just incredibly well laid out in the interior, and you can feel the quality.  I’m really happy with them and hope they are as popular as the Emotion Thesaurus is over there.

And, as if this coolness wasn’t enough, I also came home to The Writers’ Guild of Alberta’s magazine…and a familiar face on the cover. Crazy right?

Inside there’s an interview with me written by phenomenal YA author Janet Gurtler, and what’s so fun is that they used a bunch of my photos from my last big trip (Australia) in the article. Seeing this sort of made my vacation feel like it had come full circle! Such a wonderful homecoming.

So, that’s been my summer so far! What about you? Are you relaxing? Gardening? Traveling? Writing? Reading? Let me know all about it!

I managed to get a few books read during my trip–the second and third book in the Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children series (so terrific!), and also the mammoth novel Dune (an oldie but a goodie.)

Your turn. Fill me in on your summer plans!

Oh and before I forget, a few guest posts published while I was out and about. So, if you’ve ever struggled with Describing a Setting in a Place You’ve Never Visited, you’ll want to check out the advice and mother-lode of helpful researching links at Romance University.

Also, if you’re wondering How To Show Readers What Your Character Is Hiding, Be It A Secret or Emotion, I hope you’ll stop by The Romance Times’ Author Portal.

Happy Summer!

Angela

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The post Summer Check In + Writing Links appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

When you’re writing a character, it’s important to know why she is the way she is. Knowing her backstory is important to achieving this end, and one of the most impactful pieces of a character’s backstory is her emotional wound. This negative experience from the past is so intense that a character will go to great lengths to avoid experiencing that kind of pain and negative emotion again. As a result, certain behaviors, beliefs, and character traits will emerge.

Characters, like real people, are unique, and will respond to wounding events differently. The vast array of possible emotional wounds combined with each character’s personality gives you many options in terms of how your character will turn out. With the right amount of exploration, you should be able to come up with a character whose past appropriately affects her present, resulting in a realistic character that will ring true with readers. Understanding what wounds a protagonist bears will also help you plot out her arc, creating a compelling journey of change that will satisfy readers.

Courtesy: Pixabay

NOTE: We realize that sometimes a wound we profile may have personal meaning, stirring up the past for some of our readers. It is not our intent to create emotional turmoil. Please know that we research each wounding topic carefully to treat it with the utmost respect. 

Examples: Escaping or being rescued from being held captive. This entry deals with the long-term effects after having escaped a kidnapping. For more information on the wounds one would experience while being held captive, see this entry.

Basic Needs Often Compromised By This Wound: safety and security, love and belonging, esteem and recognition, self-actualization

False Beliefs That May Be Embraced As a Result of This Wound:

• If I don’t watch out, it could happen to me again.
• I’m an easy mark, a target.
• He’s out there watching me, waiting for another opportunity (if one’s kidnapper remains at large)
• My life as I knew it is over.
• I will never be whole again.
• The others didn’t make it out; I shouldn’t have, either. (survivor’s guilt)
• My captor wasn’t all bad. (Stockholm syndrome)

Positive Attributes That May Result: alert, appreciative, bold, cautious, disciplined, empathetic, independent, industrious, inspirational, meticulous, observant, patient, persistent, private, proactive, protective, resourceful, socially aware,

Negative Traits That May Result: addictive, callous, compulsive, controlling, devious, evasive, flaky, frivolous, hostile, humorless, ignorant, impulsive, inflexible, inhibited, insecure, irrational, manipulative, morbid, needy, nervous, obsessive, paranoid, possessive, prejudiced, promiscuous, rebellious, reckless, resentful, self-destructive, subservient, suspicious, temperamental, timid, uncommunicative, uncooperative, volatile, weak-willed, withdrawn

Resulting Fears:

• I can’t take care of myself, much less anyone else.
• I can’t survive on my own.
• I’ll never readjust to live in normal society.
• No one could ever love me now.
• I’m crippled; I’ll never be able to achieve my dreams.
• I’m not worthy of anyone’s love or affection.
• No one is trustworthy.
• The only person I can count on is me.
• I need someone else to take care of me.

Possible Habits That May Emerge: 

• Becoming overly cautious
• Hyperawareness of one’s surroundings
• Sensitivity to trigger stimuli (the smell of the captor’s cologne, sounds from one’s captivity, etc.)
• Withdrawing from friends and loved ones
• Difficulty trusting others
• Fatigue due to nightmares
• Becoming obsessed with security (taking self-defense classes, getting a gun, buying a dog, etc.)
• Taking steps to leave one’s past behind (changing one’s name, moving, etc.)
• Depression
• Losing interest in hobbies and interests one used to enjoy
• Being overprotective of one’s children
• Difficulty adjusting to changes that have occurred in the world since one’s abduction
• Being evasive or dishonest out of a desire to protect one’s privacy
• Reliving certain traumas over and over
• Self-medicating
• Thoughts or attempts of suicide
• Flying under everyone’s radar so as not to draw attention to oneself
• Feeling empathy for one’s kidnapper, followed by feelings of guilt over one’s empathy
• Self-loathing over things that happened or one’s inability to escape or stop them from happening

TIP: If you need help understanding the impact of these factors, please read our introductory post on the Emotional Wound Thesaurus. For our current list of Emotional Wound Entries, go here.

For other Descriptive Thesaurus Collections, go here.

The post Emotional Wounds Thesaurus: Being Kidnapped (the Aftermath) appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Well, it’s summertime in my neck of the woods and I’m having a blast—sleeping in, spending time with my kids, and enjoying the weather. Now if only I had some good reading material…Aha!

Courtesy: Pixabay

It’s Critiques 4 U Time! 

If you’re working on a first page and would like some objective feedback, please leave a comment that includes: 

1) your email address. Some of you have expressed concern about making your email address public; if you’re sure that the email address associated with your WordPress account is correct, you don’t have to include it here. But if you do win and I’m unable to contact you through that email address, I’ll have to choose an alternate winner.

2) your story’s genre (no erotica, please)

ONLY ENTRIES THAT FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS WILL BE CONSIDERED

Three commenters’ names will be randomly drawn and posted tomorrow. If you win, you can email me your first page and I’ll offer my feedback. Best of luck!

The post Critiques 4 U appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

When you’re writing a character, it’s important to know why she is the way she is. Knowing her backstory is important to achieving this end, and one of the most impactful pieces of a character’s backstory is her emotional wound. This negative experience from the past is so intense that a character will go to great lengths to avoid experiencing that kind of pain and negative emotion again. As a result, certain behaviors, beliefs, and character traits will emerge.

Characters, like real people, are unique, and will respond to wounding events differently. The vast array of possible emotional wounds combined with each character’s personality gives you many options in terms of how your character will turn out. With the right amount of exploration, you should be able to come up with a character whose past appropriately affects her present, resulting in a realistic character that will ring true with readers. Understanding what wounds a protagonist bears will also help you plot out her arc, creating a compelling journey of change that will satisfy readers.

NOTE: We realize that sometimes a wound we profile may have personal meaning, stirring up the past for some of our readers. It is not our intent to create emotional turmoil. Please know that we research each wounding topic carefully to treat it with the utmost respect. 

DISCOVERING ONE’S PARENT IS A MONSTER

Examples:

• A parent convicted of being a pedophile
• The discovery that one’s parent has committed murder
• Having one’s parent outed as a serial killer
• A parent who abuses children (physically, emotionally, or both)
• A parent who likes to cause animals pain or kill them for fun
• Finding out one’s parent is poisoning people to make them sick
• A parent who is a kidnapper
• A parent who police discover has captives on the property or in a hidden basement area
• Discovering one’s parent is a human trafficker
• A parent who exploits vulnerable people for personal gain
• Finding out that one’s parent practices sacrifice and taboo blood rituals
• Discovering one’s parent is also a cannibal
• Finding out one’s parent likes to torture others

Basic Needs Often Compromised By This Wound: physiological needs, safety and security, love and belonging, esteem and recognition, self-actualization

False Beliefs That May Be Embraced As a Result of This Wound:

• I should have see this about (mom or dad). My judgement can’t be trusted.
• Everything I know is a lie
• My (mom or dad) isn’t human. Maybe I’m not either
• With (mom or dad) as my parent, I am defective
• I can never lead a normal life
• People will judge me no matter what I do because who (mom or dad) is, so why try to fit in?
• My (mom or dad) never loved me–how could they and do what they did?
• I should stay away from people for their own protection
• My dreams are dead. I can never go on to do great things with this hanging over me
• People will only see me as the son or daughter of a (pedophile, serial killer, madman, etc.) so I must keep this a secret from everyone

Positive Attributes That May Result: appreciative, calm, centered, courageous, disciplined, focused, generous, gentle, honorable, independent, industrious, introverted, just, kind, loyal, merciful, nurturing, patient, pensive, protective, responsible, socially aware, spiritual, supportive, wise

Negative Traits That May Result: addictive, antisocial, compulsive, confrontational, cynical, defensive, dishonest, evasive, fanatical, humorless, impulsive, inhibited, insecure, jealous, martyr, morbid, needy, nervous, paranoid, pessimistic, rebellious, resentful, self-destructive, temperamental, timid, uncommunicative, uncooperative, withdrawn, worrywart

Resulting Fears:

• Fear of genetics
• Fear of oneself and what one might be capable of
• Fear of one’s past being found out
• Fear of being universally hated
• Fear of reporters, the media, and information gathering systems
• Fear of the public eye
• Fear of trusting the wrong person with the truth
• Fear of becoming a mother or father, and passing defective genes along

Possible Habits That May Emerge:

• changing one’s identity
• moving frequently or when one feels threatened (even if it is just in one’s own mind)
• keeping secrets
• avoiding relationships
• keeping to oneself, not engaging with neighbors or one’s community
• avoiding family members and friends from one’s past
• avoiding social media
• avoiding places and situations that remind one of what one’s parent did
• googling oneself to see if anything comes up
• beating oneself up for normal urges and thoughts, believing them to be indications of something sinister
• Refusing to read books or watch TV/movies with situations that hit close to home (Or, obsessively watching/reading in hopes of insight & answers)

TIP: If you need help understanding the impact of these factors, please read our introductory post on the Emotional Wound Thesaurus. For our current list of Emotional Wound Entries, go here.

For other Descriptive Thesaurus Collections, go here.

Image: Isabellaquintana @pixabay

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The post Emotional Wound Entry: Discovering One’s Parent is a Monster appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

This is a bit weird…I’m writing this, but by the time you read it, I’ll be wearing a backpack somewhere in Asia. So, really, it’s like I’m reaching out from the beyond. I’m a ghost!

*ghost noises* Okay, maybe that’s a bit dramatic.

Anyway, I just wanted to mention that before I ducked out the back door and left Becca with all the work (sorry Becca!) I did a mad hop across the internet, guest posting all over the place.

And heck, there might be some good nuggets out there waiting for you. : ) So I’ll leave a few links below in case you want to check them out.

First up, do you know what the 5 Biggest Mistakes are when it comes to describing the setting? Just head on over to DIY MFA and find out!

Are you writing a protagonist who has been wounded deeply and now has a hard time trusting other people? I wouldn’t be surprised. Many characters have vulnerability issues, and if yours is one of them, you might find Vulnerability In Fiction: Teaching Jaded Characters How To Trust helpful to read.

Are you drafting a new novel and feeling a bit insecure? It’s okay if you are–many of us feel that way at times.  That’s why I designed this writing pep talk:  Be Braver Than You Ever Thought Possible.

And finally, one of the biggest decisions you will make for each scene is where the action will take place. Setting can make or break your scene, so stop by Kobo Writing Life and read Writing Powerful Scenes: Why Choosing The Right Setting Is So Important.

Happy Writing!

Angela

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The post Great Writing Links You Don’t Want To Miss appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

When you’re writing a character, it’s important to know why she is the way she is. Knowing her backstory is important to achieving this end, and one of the most impactful pieces of a character’s backstory is her emotional wound. This negative experience from the past is so intense that a character will go to great lengths to avoid experiencing that kind of pain and negative emotion again. As a result, certain behaviors, beliefs, and character traits will emerge.

Characters, like real people, are unique, and will respond to wounding events differently. The vast array of possible emotional wounds combined with each character’s personality gives you many options in terms of how your character will turn out. With the right amount of exploration, you should be able to come up with a character whose past appropriately affects her present, resulting in a realistic character that will ring true with readers. Understanding what wounds a protagonist bears will also help you plot out her arc, creating a compelling journey of change that will satisfy readers.

NOTE: We realize that sometimes a wound we profile may have personal meaning, stirring up the past for some of our readers. It is not our intent to create emotional turmoil. Please know that we research each wounding topic carefully to treat it with the utmost respect. 

Pixabay

Examples:

• Being kidnapped and held for ransom
• Being kidnapped and held captive for an extended period of time
• Being kidnapped and sold into slavery
• Being kidnapped by one’s biological parent or other relative and taken underground

Basic Needs Often Compromised By This Wound: physiological needs, safety and security, love and belonging, esteem and recognition, self-actualization

False Beliefs That May Be Embraced As a Result of This Wound:

• I’ll never get away.
• If I had done X (paid more attention, not talked to the person, left work 5 minutes later, etc.), this wouldn’t have happened.
• I’ll never be safe.
• I’m a weak person (because he targeted me, because I’m too afraid to attempt escape).
• Specific beliefs that arise as a result of brainwashing by one’s captor: No one is looking for me/cares about me; this is a punishment for something I’ve done, etc.).

Positive Attributes That May Result: alert, cautious, discreet, nurturing, obedient, observant, persistent, private, protective

Negative Traits That May Result: apathetic, childish, cynical, devious, evasive, flaky, forgetful, hostile, humorless, inattentive, indecisive, inhibited, irrational, morbid, needy, nervous, obsessive, paranoid, reckless, resentful, scatterbrained, self-destructive, subservient, suspicious, temperamental, timid, uncommunicative, uncooperative, volatile, weak-willed, withdrawn

Resulting Fears:

• Fear of never being able to escape
• Fear of not being able to adjust to the real world after escaping
• Fear for the safety of one’s loved ones
• Fear that the things endured during captivity will cause loved ones to stop loving one
• Fear of men (if one’s kidnapper is a man)
• Fear of specific triggers (smells, sounds, etc.) associated with one’s captor or prison

Possible Habits That May Emerge: 

• Becoming extremely subservient; losing one’s will
• Wanting to please one’s captor
• Clinging to one’s captor
• Withdrawing into oneself
• Decreased reactions to stimuli
• Becoming emotionally numb
• Hyper vigilance
• Startling easily
• Impaired concentration, focus, and memory
• Depression
• Suicidal thoughts
• Sleeping longer than normal
• Insomnia
• Feeling powerless
• Becoming fearful or anxious
• Regressing into a childlike state
• Difficulty telling reality from fantasy
• Becoming addicted to drugs or alcohol (if one’s captor is using them as a controlling factor)

TIP: If you need help understanding the impact of these factors, please read our introductory post on the Emotional Wound Thesaurus. For our current list of Emotional Wound Entries, go here.

For other Descriptive Thesaurus Collections, go here.

The post Emotional Wounds Thesaurus: Being Held Captive appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Hi, everyone!  Angela and I are taking a leisurely summer this year, with no big projects or deadlines looming, enabling us to enjoy the weather, spend time with family, and relax. I hope you’re enjoying the season—whatever it is in your part of the world!

That’s not to say we’re just sitting around sipping cocktails and sunbathing. Oh no, my precious. We’re still getting SOME work done. For instance, Katie Weiland has generously allowed me to take over her blog today to talk about choosing the right setting for a scene. Katie is a genius blogger with tons of incredible content—particularly in the area of structure. Have you seen her Story Structure Database? Oh my gosh, people. It’s a must-see. Right after my post, of course.

Angela’s also got a humdinger going up at the Kobo Writing Life blog.

Lastly, R.K Grow is celebrating 200,000 views at her blog, and we’re giving away an ebook of either the Urban of Rural Setting Thesaurus books (winner’s choice!) to celebrate. She’s giving away a bunch of other stuff, too, so head on over to check it out.

The post Becca at Katie’s blog appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

When you’re writing a character, it’s important to know why she is the way she is. Knowing her backstory is important to achieving this end, and one of the most impactful pieces of a character’s backstory is her emotional wound. This negative experience from the past is so intense that a character will go to great lengths to avoid experiencing that kind of pain and negative emotion again. As a result, certain behaviors, beliefs, and character traits will emerge.

Characters, like real people, are unique, and will respond to wounding events differently. The vast array of possible emotional wounds combined with each character’s personality gives you many options in terms of how your character will turn out. With the right amount of exploration, you should be able to come up with a character whose past appropriately affects her present, resulting in a realistic character that will ring true with readers. Understanding what wounds a protagonist bears will also help you plot out her arc, creating a compelling journey of change that will satisfy readers.

NOTE: We realize that sometimes a wound we profile may have personal meaning, stirring up the past for some of our readers. It is not our intent to create emotional turmoil. Please know that we research each wounding topic carefully to treat it with the utmost respect. 

Discovering One’s Sibling Was Abused

Examples:

• witnessing the abuse first hand (seeing or hearing it occur)
• discovering the abuse after the fact only when one’s sibling opens up about it
• knowing one’s sibling is taking the abuse to protect oneself or other loved ones
• hearing a rumor about abuse involving one’s sibling and discovering it to be true
• being abused and realizing up to this point, one’s sibling has allowed herself or himself to been victimized in order to shield
• discovering the abuse when one’s sibling attempted suicide and left a note
• being told by a friend or family member that one’s sibling was abused

Basic Needs Often Compromised By This Wound: safety and security, love and belonging, esteem and recognition

False Beliefs That May Be Embraced As a Result of This Wound:

• This is my fault, I should have done something
• I should have protected my sibling
• I should have seen what was happening
• I failed as a sister/brother and should have shielded them from this
• I should have been stronger and taken the abuse myself
• I am unworthy of love, respect, and trust
• I can’t help others; I will only fail or let them down
• I cause other people pain and shouldn’t be close to anyone
• I am weak and deserve only pain and unhappiness
• I can never make up for my failure, I deserve the darkness of this guilt
• I can’t protect the people I love
• I don’t deserve to feel safe and secure, not when my sibling had that taken away

Positive Attributes That May Result: affectionate, alert, appreciative, courageous, empathetic, generous, honest, honorable, humble, introverted, loyal, kind, merciful, nurturing, obedient, observant, patient, perceptive, persistent, private, protective, resourceful, responsible, spiritual, supportive, tolerant, unselfish

Negative Traits That May Result: confrontational, cowardly, humorless, inhibited, insecure, nervous, paranoid, promiscuous, reckless, self-destructive, subservient, suspicious, timid, uncommunicative, violent, volatile, withdrawn workaholic, worrywart

Resulting Fears:

• fear of trusting people
• fear of being responsible for others
• fear of letting others down
• fear of one’s children also being abused
• fear of misreading people and missing a threat
• fear of being left alone with people who make one uncomfortable or who intimidate
• fear of helplessness
• fear of secrets or fear that secrets are being kept from oneself
• fear of exploitation
• Fear of people who trigger reminders of the “type” of abuser

Possible Habits That May Emerge:

• subservience to one’s sibling to make up for a perceived past failing (the character will feel guilt, even if they were not in a position to help or didn’t know it was occurring
• anger and outbursts, even violence
• refusing to speak to those who one blames, even if they were unaware themselves of what happened
• a desire for revenge
• second guessing one’s decisions, especially when one is responsible for others
• Growing overprotective of loved ones
• Digging for secrets if one suspects they are there, seeing even the smallest one as toxic
• wanting to know where one’s loved ones are at all times
• placing oneself in risky situations that increase the likelihood one will be hurt out of a deep sense of guilt and believing one deserves it
• deep feeling of shame keeping one from being around one’s sibling
• self-harm, medicating with alcohol or drugs, or engaging is self-destructive behavior from guilt

TIP: If you need help understanding the impact of these factors, please read our introductory post on the Emotional Wound Thesaurus. For our current list of Emotional Wound Entries, go here.

For other Descriptive Thesaurus Collections, go here.

Image: 422694 @pixabay

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Super thrilled to have author Diane Rinella with us today, who has a ton of experience with audiobooks and has put together some great information for anyone looking to take the leap. Audiobooks are a completely different animal than ebooks or print, and this post can save your a lot of time, heartache, and money.

Plunging Into Audiobooks

I love audiobooks. Many find the convenience of listening to them nearly anytime and anywhere a virtue. But for me, the appeal is how I get to listen to another person’s dream.

For years, hearing your book come to life was a fantasy reserved for top-selling authors. But we live in an amazing age where technology makes yesterday’s imaginings today’s reality. Not unlike how Amazon helped drive the Indie ebook revolution with Kindle Direct Publishing, they are at it again with Audio Creation Exchange. However, much like the trials of ebook publishing, sharing your book with listeners is not as simple as reading it aloud. Thus before hiring a producer, or biting the bullet and self-producing, a few things are worth considering.

Before moving forward, let’s define a few roles:

Producer – The person who records and masters the material. This may be the same person as the narrator/voice actor.

Narrator – The general term for the person performing your book.

Voice Actor – May also be referred to as narrator. However, this person can also bring multiple voices to life and expresses emotion.

FIRST, DON’T RUSH INTO THINGS

Take a deep breath, because there are a few things to consider before you look for a producer. Remember everything you did (such as editing and formatting) to give consumers the best reading experience? Now you need to determine how to give them the best listening experience.

Pay Per Finished Hour or Royalty Split

Just like any other project, what you can afford will guide your decisions. ACX offers a great program called Royalty Share. The author provides the book, the producer records it, the author approves it—both split the proceeds. However, some producers will only accept projects paid by the finished hour. (If the producer spends forty hours on a project that comes in at eight hours long, you pay for eight hours.) All sales proceeds go to you. However, a finished hour can range between $50 and $200. Most novels are eight to ten hours long. Will your budget cover $400 to $1600? If not, you might consider a royalty share or self-production. (We will return to that can of worms later.)

Narration versus Acting

Would your book benefit most from narration, or should a voice actor bring the characters to life? Are you dead set about how the narrator, or any of the characters, should sound? These questions led me to a dilemma. Scary Modsters … and Creepy Freaks, was written in three, first person POVs, two of which are male and one of those is from East London.

I wanted multiple actors, not to mention a proper accent.  However, I quickly found my dream scenario required hiring four people and heavy editing. Since the price tag would be at least a hefty $400 per finished hour, the only cost-effective option was to go with one, very talented producer. Fortunately, Hollie Jackson came to the rescue. Hollie is a partner worth her weight in gold. Partners can make or break a project. (More on partnerships later.)

Books Are Meant To Be Read, Not Heard

Writers often give visual clues that do not translate into audiobooks. Are you willing to consider changes that improve the experience, or must the audio version match the original text without fail? Some things can enhance the listening experience, either by adding or removing them. One of those is dialog tags.

The visual characteristics of a quoted sentence ending and a new paragraph beginning with another quoted line is an accepted cue a new person is speaking. If the conversation is two-sided, a dialog tag may not have been deemed necessary. If an actor uses vocal changes to represent new characters, a dialog tag may still be unnecessary. However, in the case of straight narration, where all voices sound alike, adding one would eliminate confusion.

Conversely, when a character’s speech spans multiple paragraphs, writers often add the clue, “he continued.” However, when a character is read with a distinct voice, not only do these clues become unnecessary, they become pace-breaking distractions.

Italics are often used to stress a word or to reflect deep thought. Stressing these items is part of a narrator’s job. However, quoted italics can reflect hearing a person’s thoughts, such as during telepathy. If you did not use dialog tags such as, “he thought”, translating the idea of telepathy into audio may be difficult, and changes should be considered.

Consider making listening-enhancing revisions before submitting your manuscript.

Ready? Let’s Dive In!

Let’s get to the fun stuff! There are many ways to create an audiobook. To keep this simple, I will focus on two methods; using ACX to hire a producer, and the self-production method—both of which I have experienced.

ACX: MAKING HIRING & PARTNERSHIP DECISIONS

Whether you seek a royalty split or to hire someone per finished hour, here are some things to keep in mind when pursuing talent and when listening to auditions:

Reputation – Simply stated, never jump into a partnership without ensuring it will be a strong one, and never hire a person you don’t want to work with. I turned down numerous offers for many reasons—some of which were less than stellar reputations for delivering the basics. Do not be afraid to ask your friends for recommendations or producers for references.

Voice and Characterization – Does the narrator have an appealing tone? Does she “feel right” for the part? Is the accent appropriate yet understandable? Determining voices and narration style before signing a contract is key. While the writer must be comfortable with the presentation, nitpicking over a performance is best saved for the actor. Both need to set realistic expectations. My partner, Hollie Jackson, summed the characterization process beautifully. “I truly think the absolute biggest thing is to trust your narrator, particularly in regards to characterization. If an author can provide notes to give us a direction to point our voices, it takes a huge load off of us trying to figure out how a particular character sounds. But by that same token, sometimes a character will strike a particular reference chord, and things might sound a little different compared to the voice in the writer’s head. Being able to work with that is a huge part of the process.”

Quality/Mastering (hiss, pops, clicks, timing) – Inadequate mastering can ruin a brilliant performance. While ACX has strict submission requirements regarding noise floor (the level at which hiss is heard) and level variation (a whisper and a yell need to be close in volume), there are no stated requirements regarding pops and clicks. Listen for these, along with timing. Timing is not only the pace at which a book is read, but also how lines are delivered. For comedy, the outstanding timing of Robin Williams and George Burns had us rolling in the aisles. Dramatic timing is just as important. The demo’s timing should fit the book’s genre.

Eliminate Surprises – If part of the audition seems unfitting, yet you still suspect the voice actor could be a match, express your concerns and request a new audition. Re-reads are not unreasonable and may save both the writer and producer many headaches.

Building A Partnership – I cannot stress the importance of this enough, especially if you wish to do multiple projects with the same person. I tell Hollie all the important things up front and then let her work magic. As a fellow actress, I completely agreed when she said, “Micromanagement is the hugest creative buzzkill around.” However, she also respects my concerns and will quickly make changes when things go awry. The bottom line is, if you are concerned that a producer will not give you the end results you desire, either find someone else or self-produce.

DIY: SELF-PRODUCTION

I will preface this by saying I have decades of acting experience—stage, screen, and voice. Since my husband is an Indie film director/producer, resources are at my disposal. Still, it took quite a bit of working with sound engineers before I could produce a solid audiobook.

The absolute basics to home recording include: a room with a low noise floor (I lined the quietest room in my house with moving blankets.), proper equipment (A good microphone, a pop filter, a pre-amp, a Mudguard, and a stand will cost several hundred dollars.), and editing software (I pay $20 a month to use Adobe Audition.).

In a nutshell, recording two takes without outside sounds (birds, pets, kids, cars, planes) generally gets you what you need. Edit these into one good take before removing pops, clicks, and rustling. In my case, I also have to remove background hiss. Top all of this off with balancing the levels. (By the way, you might want to consider that it takes Hollie about two hours to record and master one finished hour while it takes me three or four. Be prepared to invest some time.)

Have I scared you out of the self-production method yet? Learning the recording and mastering process is a hurdle, yet producing audiobooks is simple compared to other types of sound engineering. While I highly recommend ACX’s video series on recording, the installment on mastering falls short of providing usable information. Thus, you might want to consider hiring someone to master your files. However, if you really want to give it a go, ACX does have an Audio Masters class.

HYBRID: SELF-PRODUCTION & HIRING A PRODUCER 

ACX does not offer the option to hire a producer, only to master files. Thus, you will need to pay someone outside of their system. Professional sound services can be expensive and offer more than you need for an audiobook. I strongly suggest contacting local filmmaker groups (Here in San Francisco, we have Scary Cow.) or colleges to seek emerging talent at a reasonable rate. Though there are also services that will perform this task for you, I’ve yet to find an author who has done this, thus I cannot make a recommendation.

 This is a lot to digest, but once you get your head around the process, it’s actually a lot of fun. I have to say that having done this with a partner and now producing myself, I prefer the partner route. Then again, I struck gold with Hollie. With a little determination to find the right person, you can too. Either way, bringing your book to life is a rush akin to the time you held your first novel in your hands!

The benefits to partnering with an experienced producer are no learning curve, a faster turn around, often better talent than an inexperienced performer can provide, and a built-in audience, as many often have their own fanbase. The con is you may not get the creative control you desire.

The benefit to self-production is full creative control. The cons may include steep learning curves in voice acting, recording, and mastering.

Diane Rinella

Enjoying San Francisco as a backdrop, the ghosts in USA Today Bestselling Author Diane Rinella‘s one hundred and fifty-year old Victorian home augment the chorus in her head. With insomnia as their catalyst, these voices have become multifarious characters that haunt her well into the sun’s crowning hours, refusing to let go until they have manipulated her into succumbing to their whims. Her experiences as an actress, business owner, artisan cake designer, software project manager, Internet radio disc jockey, vintage rock ‘n’ roll journalist/fan girl, and lover of dark and quirky personalities influence her idiosyncratic writing. Hang out with her on Twitter, Facebook & Goodreads and find more audiobook projects here.

Hollie Jackson

Taking her own love of storytelling, not just for her own work, but that of others, Hollie (aka Narratrix) found her true calling in the vocal booth. From the innocent to the risqué, the snarky to the serious, Hollie’s voice brings characters of all types to vibrant, compelling life, letting you sit back and allow the words to wrap around you and work their resonant magic. With over 300 audiobooks narrated and produced to date, Hollie enjoys an eclectic range of genres and has worked with authors/publishers who are both Indie and NYT/USA Today Bestselling.

Want to check out Scary Modsters yourself? here’s a soundbite:

Rosalyn possesses a sunny personality that is laced with quirks. Although she seeks acceptance in a world where she lives out of time, what she gets is ridiculed for her eclectic wardrobe and unconventional music collection.

One fateful night, Rosalyn bewitches Niles, a stylish man whose offbeat character perfectly complements her own. Unfortunately, he possesses a critical flaw that means relationship suicide for him and pretty much anyone.

While under the influence of insomnia-impaired judgment, Rosalyn summons Rock ‘n Roll deity Peter Lane back from the dead. Not only does he spin her hormones into a frenzy, Peter is also the precarious puzzle piece that brings sense into her world. When Niles learns that he can overcome his life-long challenge by helping Peter avenge his death, how far will he go to secure Rosalyn’s heart?

Have an Audiobook Production question for Diane? Her brain is stuffed with knowledge and experience, so let us know in the comments.

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Happy Monday, everyone! Angela and I have been so focused lately on the launch of our setting thesaurus books, it feels like that’s all we’ve been doing for months. So we’re excited to get back to the normal Writers Helping Writers routine with a guest post by Kate Foster. She’s here today to talk about how to get readers falling in love with your characters on the very first page.

Plot and characters are both vitally important to a good story, but I’ve always been drawn to the people in the story more than to the story itself. In my opinion, characters are the all-important key to sinking your teeth into your readers and tearing out their hearts. Dramatic, of course, but fundamentally, it’s the reader’s heart you want to win over, and the characters are your bow and arrow. Get them right, and you’re on a pretty smooth course to writing an engaging book.

After you’ve profiled your character and know them better than your own family members – and definitely do this detailed, time-consuming background work; I promise it will make all the difference – it’s time to put pen to paper and let them take over your words. Because it’s no longer you telling the story; your character should be in the driving seat.

What makes your character different or interesting?

But don’t wait until the end of chapter one, or chapter two, or even page two to showcase their personalities, who they are, and what they do. No, smash it straight in there on page one, paragraph one. Lure, hook, intrigue. Let the reader hear the character and get to know them right off the bat; give your audience an important detail as to who this person is, what he or she does, what’s happened in the past.

To clarify this, here are a few examples of authors who showed readers on the very first page who they were getting involved with.

‘Bradley Chalkers sat at his desk in the back of the room—last seat, last row. No one sat at the desk next to him or at the one in front of him. He was an island.’ (There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom—middle grade, contemporary— by Louis Sachar)

Bam! From the very first line, we know in three sentences that no one wants to sit with Bradley, and probably because no one likes him. We know how Bradley feels about this too: isolated. And just like that, we’re touched, we’re sucked in. We’re sad. We want to know why. What is it about Bradley that’s so wrong, so terrible that he sits at the back of the class, alone?

‘The door would splinter off its hinges with a swift kick from his boot like the previous dozen he’d blasted in over the years. But bashing in doors was noisy and drew the wrong kind of attention.’ (Poor Boy Road by James L. Weaver)

Straight away we know we’re dealing with a tough guy—someone violent, someone who’s been doing this for a while. Kicking in doors isn’t an unusual experience for this character, which sets him apart from normal people as, let’s face it, most of us use the doorknob. But we also know that he doesn’t want to get caught. So, who is he? Is he working alone? Voluntarily? Is this his day job?

What these authors have done in their opening lines is dropped in sneaky clues to show (rather than tell) that their characters are different—definitely not run-of-the-mill—which prompts the reader to start asking questions. They’ve injected intrigue and interest in their first pages. And this is essential to make a reader keep reading. What authors mostly want is for their readers to invest time, and money, into their characters. Making this happen from the very first page is critical, and with deft characterization, it’s fairly simple.

As the book opens into that life-changing moment, ask yourself:

• How can I show the reader that my character is different than other characters? What’s unique about him/her, what’s important for the reader to know?
• How can I show the reader my character’s personality and voice through his or her reactions (physically and mentally) to the current scene?
• What emotion is my character experiencing as the book opens?
• What secret is my character hiding that sits at the root of his/her motivation?

Questions like these will help you to really know your characters before you write your book. And knowing them well—their flaws, strengths, habits, speech patterns, every puzzle piece from the past that has created this imaginary person—is important to being able to make them real, make them whole. Only then can they shine from that very first page.

Bio

Kate is an Englishwoman who lives on the sunny Gold Coast in Australia with her tribe of ‘lads’ – three sons, husband and male spoodle! She is the editorial director at Lakewater Press as well as a freelance developmental editor and loves nothing more than teaming up with authors to improve their raw manuscripts. She has been a writing judge and mentor for numerous writing contests, including Freshly Squeezed Reads, Nest Pitch, Fic Fest and Pitch Wars. Kate also dabbles a little with her own writing! You can find her online at www.katejfoster.com, www.katefosterauthor.com, on Twitter, and Facebook.

*photo courtesy: Pixabay

The post Making your Character Shine From Page One appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

When you’re writing a character, it’s important to know why she is the way she is. Knowing her backstory is important to achieving this end, and one of the most impactful pieces of a character’s backstory is her emotional wound. This negative experience from the past is so intense that a character will go to great lengths to avoid experiencing that kind of pain and negative emotion again. As a result, certain behaviors, beliefs, and character traits will emerge.

Characters, like real people, are unique, and will respond to wounding events differently. The vast array of possible emotional wounds combined with each character’s personality gives you many options in terms of how your character will turn out. With the right amount of exploration, you should be able to come up with a character whose past appropriately affects her present, resulting in a realistic character that will ring true with readers. Understanding what wounds a protagonist bears will also help you plot out her arc, creating a compelling journey of change that will satisfy readers.

NOTE: We realize that sometimes a wound we profile may have personal meaning, stirring up the past for some of our readers. It is not our intent to create emotional turmoil. Please know that we research each wounding topic carefully to treat it with the utmost respect. 

Courtesy: Pixabay

Basic Needs Often Compromised By This Wound: physiological needs, safety and security, love and belonging, esteem and recognition

False Beliefs That May Be Embraced As a Result of This Wound:

• This is my fault.
• If I had been X (more available, a better daughter/son/spouse, etc.) he/she wouldn’t have done it.
• I should have seen the signs.
• If she had really loved me she wouldn’t have done this.
• Why didn’t he confide in me? Maybe there’s something wrong with me.
• I’m incapable of true intimacy.
• I’m good enough when life is light and easy, but when things get tough, I’m not someone that people turn to.

Positive Attributes That May Result: affectionate, appreciative, nurturing, observant, pensive, private, proactive, responsible, sentimental, supportive

Negative Traits That May Result: addictive, apathetic, callous, compulsive, confrontational, cynical, fussy, hostile, humorless, inhibited, insecure, irrational, martyr, morbid, needy, obsessive, rebellious, reckless, resentful, self-destructive, uncooperative, volatile, withdrawn

Resulting Fears:

• The fear that one will miss the signs and it will happen again
• The fear of never being “good enough” for one’s loved ones
• The fear of never achieving true intimacy with others
• The fear that one is untrustworthy or incapable.
• The fear that there is something inherently wrong with oneself.

Possible Habits That May Emerge: 

• Withdrawing from loved ones
• Maintaining surface relationships as a way of avoiding potential hurt
• Becoming overly needy and clingy with loved ones
• Becoming hyper vigilant with loved ones
• Obsessively watching for signs
• Overcompensating for whatever one feels guilty about (being less or more strict, smothering loved ones in an effort to pay closer attention, etc.)
• Trying to be “better” in whatever way one felt was lacking (paying more attention, being more obedient, etc.)
• Becoming more observant
• Falling into depression
• Having suicidal thoughts or attempting suicide
• Self-medicating

TIP: If you need help understanding the impact of these factors, please read our introductory post on the Emotional Wound Thesaurus. For our current list of Emotional Wound Entries, go here.

For other Descriptive Thesaurus Collections, go here.

The post Emotional Wounds Thesaurus: A Family Member’s Suicide appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Wow, you guys. What an amazing week!

A huge thank you to everyone who participated in our big ROCK THE VAULT giveaway and to all those who shared the #myfavoritethesaurus pictures. I think we made thesauruses everywhere officially COOL. And also an enormous thank you to all the wonderful people who helped out with our launch, especially the Thesaurus Club (our street team). We are so blessed to have so many wonderful people support us. If you want to find some of these folks and their blogs, check them out here.

While we didn’t get to the 500 pictures shared that would unlock all prizes in the vault, we did see about 300 of them online, and so Angela and I, being the softies we are, unlocked most of the prizes. Winners have been drawn and are being notified. Once we have acceptance from these lovely people, Angela will post the list. 

And for those of you who happened to buy our new books this week, thank you for welcoming our youngest offspring into the world! We hope that you have many light bulb moments when it comes to description and maximizing your settings. 

They grow up so fast. *sniff sniff*

While Rock the Vault was a blast, Angela and I would be lying if we said we weren’t looking forward to getting back to a more normal routine. And today, that means me posting at the unbelievably awesome Kristen Lamb’s blog.

If you’re not familiar with Kristen, rectify that posthaste by following her on every conceivable social media platform. She’s one of the most prolific and knowledgeable bloggers out there as well as being an expert on all things networking and branding. If you’ve got a few minutes, drop in and see how Symbolism and the Setting Make a Perfect Marriage.

Happy Writing!

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This is it, the last day. Here’s where we stand with the Prize Vault:

Via Cheryl Rainfield

There are still some prizes to unlocked, so please keep sharing your #myfavoritethesaurus pictures on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The more people share, the more prizes are unlocked!

via Knyghtshadeart @ instagram

Have you entered the draw? Here’s the FORM.

And please visit our Prize Page for the full breakdown of all these unusual and wonderful prizes created just for writers!

You can win books, premiere writing classes, lunch with Becca or I…even a fun “mystery” experience in your own city or town.

And you definitely want to get your name in for Author Accelerator’s Blueprint For A Book 5-week course.

Imagine what could you accomplish with personalized coaching for 5 weeks. What you learn will change your whole writing career.

So join us in celebrating our love of words, and our love of writing. Share a picture you’ve taken of a thesaurus online (any thesaurus, not just one of ours). Use the #myfavoritethesaurus hashtag so we can track it.

Let’s work together to unlock all the prizes!

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The post Rock The Vault: Final Day To Enter The Draw appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS™.

Hi everyone,

We’re at the midpoint of our launch festivities and enough #myfavoritethesaurus pictures have been shared to unlock some more prizes. Have a look at what’s been added! Have you entered yet?

There’s still a ways to go, however, so please, keep showing off your #myfavoritethesaurus pictures online.

We’ve seen some real beauties, and I’ll post a few here.  If you want to join in on the fun on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, pop by this post.

allianne1965 @ instagram

Becca and I are in the Setting mindset, as you can well imagine, and it has been a crazy two weeks of posting about the setting, sharing new tools to help with setting, and of course, celebrating the setting.

So here are some links you may or may not know about.

NEW TOOLS:

Beth Overmyer @ twitter

First of all, we’ve uploaded 4 new tools to the Tools For Writers Page. These Setting tools are straight from our books so that you can download and print blanks if you like.

We have a Emotional Value Tool, a Setting Planner Tool, a Setting Checklist (you want this, trust me), and a Setting Exercise sheet.

Just scoot over to our tools page–they are all listed at the top, so very easy to find.

HIDDEN SETTINGS:

Knyghtshadeart @ instagram

Second, we have a bit of a treasure hunt here at Writers Helping Writers. There are 4 Hidden Settings taken straight from our Urban and Rural books that you need the direct URL to reach.

Some of you have discovered these already through our Guest Posts all this week, but if not, you can find them here: Antiques Shop, House Party, Police Car & Ancient Ruins.

(We left a little something for you on these pages, should you wish to use it.)

LINKS, GLORIOUS LINKS:

Jamie.writer @instagram

Saying that Becca and I learned a ton about setting while writing these books is an understatement. And as we always do, when we learn, we pass it forward. So pick your pleasure!

Learn how to create rich and evocative description using personification, turn your setting into an obstacle course to create difficulties for your character or use it as a vehicle for story conflict.

Or, if you like, get sensory in your description to power up every scene, or discover why the setting is the key to delivering active backstory when you need to.

V. Ichizli-Bartels @twitter

Then, finish off this feast with a post on why it helps to think of the setting as a story garden, and take a mini master class with Becca on a ton of different areas of description.

(Bookmark the podcast with Becca–you don’t want to miss it!)

COME HANG OUT WITH ANGELA?

And one last thing–if you’re trying to plan a online book event and feeling a bit anxious, or just struggling with marketing in general, I will be doing a Q & A session with Jennie Nash of Author Accelerator that looks at our latest setting book launch from the inside.

This is free to attend, no sales pitches, nothing to sell.  Just me answering your marketing questions, and trying to help anyone who needs it.

I’ve done several successful online events that have have high engagement, so if I can offer insight on planning & running one, I’d like to help. (Believe it or not, I actually like marketing!)

The webinar is June 24th at 12PM EST. And if you can’t make it, there will be a recording for people who sign up, which you can do here.

It should be fun, so I hope you’ll come hang out with Jennie and me. A big thank you to Author Accelerator for hosting this webinar.

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The post New Tools, New Articles, and a Rock The Vault Update appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS™.

Bish Denham’s #myfavoritethesaurus

Guys, I have to say thanks! We’re just a few days into our launch and your response to these books has been staggering. Becca and I are both so pleased you’re happy with our newest family members.

Thank you for the reviews, the tweets, the recommendations to friends, and oh my, the #myfavoritethesaurus pictures! I am LOVING the pictures you’re taking. Please keep doing it—so much fun!

Jade_Eby’s #myfavoritethesaurus

Can I confess something? This was a very nervous release for me. And while every author will tell you nerves never go away, you’d think that ol’ Angela would be a bit more chill seeing as this is her 4^th and 5^th rodeo. But no, not at all. Poor Becca’s been babysitting a total worrywart for the last few weeks (sorry, Becca!)

Mich’s #myfavoritethesaurus

Up until now, I thought I was a bit freaked out because we’ve had a lot of challenges.

First, someone had this silly idea of doing two books at once again (sigh, me). Double the work at publishing time (nice one, Angela). Second, halfway through writing these books, Becca and I detoured to create One Stop For Writers. And while we are both so thrilled with our unique online library, it meant a year-long break from the Setting Thesaurus. Finding our footing took time.

Finally we had, well, some outsourced production issues that created delays and caused errors. And, Becca and I hadn’t left ourselves enough buffer time to account for this. So everything really was down to the wire.

So yes, all these things have been swimming in Angela’s Dark Matter, adding to the anxiety, but it was only tonight as I sat down with my print copies (which only arrived today), that I realized WHAT was causing my nerves.

It wasn’t the rushing or stressing that we’d missed a typo or two.

It wasn’t flutters over trying to live up to our other books.

It was that I cared so much about getting this right.

Betsey J’s #myfavoritethesaurus

Setting is often overlooked, passed over in favor of the characters and the plot. For many, setting is just sort of “there.”

We all know learning how to describe the setting so readers feel part of the world is a skill we need. But, here’s the truth: achieving this isn’t enough. Not if we want to transform the story and elevate the characters into complex, rich beings. People who could be real. Who readers could imagine meeting, talking with, and caring about. Maybe even falling for.

Setting is not a backdrop. It isn’t just a jumble of sights and sounds and smells and tastes and textures. It is so much more.

Setting can…

     …create conflict or tension

     …foreshadow a coming event

     …encourage the character to make an emotion-driven action or choice

     …remind the character of their past, good or bad

     …poke at old wounds

     …challenge the character to face his fears

     …recreate a wounding event so the character can navigate it successfully and let go of past pain

     …deliver important backstory actively

     …characterize the story’s cast

     …display symbolism or motifs which reinforce a deeper message

     …convey a specific mood

     …steer the plot

     …test the character through obstacles and setbacks

     …give the setting an emotional value and deploy emotional triggers

(Oh, and of course, that other big thing…provide descriptive opportunities to make the reader feel part of the story.)

Becca’s #myfavoritethesaurus

In writing these books, Becca and I had our eyes opened to the raw power of the setting.

We realized how picking one for a scene must be a deliberate choice as it can directly influence how events unfold and who our characters become.

We became determined to peel back the curtain in hopes of helping others see what we were seeing: that the setting isn’t  simply a piece of the fiction puzzle, it is the story garden where everything grows.

So tonight, as I looked through the two books, I grew calmer. I believe we did what we set out to do: nudge writers to think deeper about the setting, and how to use it to do more.

Because setting is all about “being” more.

ROCK THE VAULT UPDATE:

Angela’s #myfavoritethesaurus

Thanks to the pictures your sharing online with the #myfavoritethesaurus hashtag, a new prize has been unlocked: the Hero’s 2 Journeys video series with Michael Hauge and Chris Vogler. But there are still so many prizes to be unlocked!

So let’s see some more of your #myfavoritethesaurus pictures. We’re still a long way from 500 pictures, which will unlock the entire vault!

To enter to win prizes from the vault, fill out this FORM.

To read up on the prizes & who is eligible, go HERE.

To find out how to help unlock the prize vault, visit THIS POST.

Can’t wait to see your next #myfavoritethesaurus picture!

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The post Building A Story Garden: The Power Of Our Settings appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS™.

Cue the marching bands!

At long last, The Setting Thesaurus is here. Split into two volumes, Urban and Rural, these books are the result of several years’ worth of traveling, documenting, and researching.

What is a Setting Thesaurus, you ask?

Well, imagine having access to the sights, smells, tastes, textures, and sounds your character may experience in 225 different contemporary settings. And that’s just to start.

Not only can you use this sensory detail to create a rich world that will draw readers in, these books can also show you how to choose the right location for each scene so that the setting creates conflict, steers the plot, evokes mood and emotion, provides challenges, and opens a window into the deepest parts of your character, revealing who they are, what they believe, and what motivates their every action.

But enough about that. After all, The Urban and Rural Setting books are just two of the amazing Thesauruses out there, and this week, we want to celebrate them all.

I’m sure, like us,  you have your favorites.

Roget’s, The Thinker’s Thesaurus, The Emotion Thesaurus, The Dialogue Thesaurus…they help us grow as writers, strengthening our vocabulary and knowledge of writing craft. And whichever thesaurus you cherish most, we want to hear all about it.

Here’s a little nerdy secret about Becca and I: we have a Thesaurus Club. I don’t want to brag, but it’s pretty swell, complete with a secret entrance, underground library and prize vault.

Whoa, what?

Yes, a prize vault. And it’s packed with stuff, goodies we’d really like to pass on to you.

So, we’re providing a challenge to fellow thesaurus enthusiasts:

Post a picture of your favorite thesaurus on twitter, facebook or instagram and add the hashtag #myfavoritethesaurus

The more pictures and hashtags we see, the more prizes will be “unlocked” from the vault!

If 500 original pictures using the #myfavoritethesaurus hashtag are shared, we’ll bust open the vault. ALL prizes will be unlocked and drawn at the end of the week. If we don’t reach 500, whichever prizes are unlocked at the end of the event will be in the draw.

(I don’t want anyone to freak out, but there’s around $800 worth of writerly goodness going on here. That, my friends, is a lot of awesome.)

The question is, are you up to the task? Can you unlock all these amazing prizes?

Check out #myfavoritethesaurus! Do you have a favorite one too? http://writershelpingwriters.net/

It’s easy! Grab a copy of your favorite thesaurus, print or digital. Snap a picture, like this one, and share it.

Throughout the week, Becca and I will be counting pictures using the #myfavoritethesaurus hashtag.

The more original pictures that are shared, the more prizes we will unlock. It’s that simple!

And as you can see, there are already some terrific prizes unlocked and ready to be won. As we count up to 500, we will unlock prizes along the way, and update the prize page.

How To Unlock Prizes In Our Vault

A trio of #myfavoritethesaurus! Come join the fun, and Rock The Vault! http://writershelpingwriters.net/

1) Take a picture of your favorite thesaurus book using your smartphone–digital or print. If you like, have fun with it by showing the book in a “setting” of your choosing!

2) Include the #myfavoritethesaurus hashtag when you share it

3) Tag Becca or I

…on twitter: @beccapuglisi & @angelaackerman

…or, on facebook: Becca Puglisi & Angela Ackerman

…or, on instagram: writers_helping_writers_angela

Questions you might have:

Can I upload more than one picture?

–Yes! But each picture needs to be a different thesaurus. You DO have more than one favorite, right?

Do retweets and shares count?

–No, sorry. We’re going to be counting original photos. BUT, if we see lots and lots of tweets and retweets, we may add EVEN MORE prizes… *hinty-hint*

What is a “Mystery Sensory Setting Experience?” It sounds pretty awesome. 

Oh, it is. Visit the detailed prize listing page HERE to find out all about it & our other AMAZING prizes.

Ready to Rock the Vault? See you on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram! #myfavoritethesaurus

To enter to WIN some of these amazing prizes, just visit this page and fill out our form.

(And tell your friends…let’s see the writing community work together to UNLOCK all of these prizes.)

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The post The Setting Thesaurus Is Here: Writers, Get Ready To Rock The Vault appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS™.

Today’s a special one for Becca and me. In less than a week, we will be expanding our thesaurus family by adding The Rural Setting Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Natural and Personal Places and The Urban Setting Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to City Spaces.

We are very excited about these books, and hope they’ll change how you think about setting and description. Sensory detail, a large part of each book, is an especially powerful way to draw readers into our story’s world, so we really need to get it right.

Are you up for a short trip, dear blog reader? I’d like to show you exactly what I mean.

There’s a place Becca and I go, somewhere special. And, well, we have something there  that I think you’ll want to know more about.

You’re in? Great! Let’s head out now. The air is cooler with the sun tucking itself in for the night, and as shadows grow longer, there’s less chance we’ll be seen.

See that door at the edge of the old Abbey’s courtyard? That’s out ticket past the city walls unseen. Each year, the ivy strangles it a bit more, and few even know it’s here. As far as I know, Becca and I have the only keys. Heavy buggers too, these knobby pieces of iron. Always dragging at our pockets.

Damn, stuck. Help me give it a shove? Just watch the ivy. It’s slick with dew and if a piece happens to slither up against your neck, you’re apt to scream. And, well, clearly a hidden exit is only useful if it stays a secret.

Ah, that’s better. Out here, there’s lots of tree cover, and dusk is closing in. We should be safe from prying eyes.

I love the woods, don’t you? Each breath is fresh and sharp with the tang of pine. Odd though, how the mist is rolling in so quickly. I can almost feel it, like a wet glove sliding across my skin.

And not to start something, but does it seem..a bit too quiet? Even our shoes are barely scuffing the trail. I don’t know, maybe the fog swallows the sound or something. You’re not from around here and so probably don’t know, but a few years back, a couple came this way on a hike and simply…disappeared. All their gear–backpacks, climbing poles, water bottles–sitting in a pile on the trail. But them? Nothing. No trace.

I know, such a morbid thing to bring up. Still, let’s pick up the pace a bit?

Ahead, that tunnel at the end of those tracks? We’re headed in there.

Oh, the look on your face. Priceless. I wish you could see it!

Don’t worry, it’s barely a scrap of dark. No boogeymen, I promise. Besides, I brought my headlamp, see? Trust me, Becca and I have come this way dozens of times. It’s safe. One hundred percent. Would I lie to you?

So let’s go.

Okay, so I maybe I forgot to mention this part about a ladder. And, you know, going underground. But here’s the thing…if I’d told you about this shaft, you might have never agreed to come in the first place!

And really, you’ve come this far. What’s a tiny bit further? What’s waiting is worth it.

I’ll go first, so you can follow the light down. Hold onto the bars tightly because rust is settling in. If some of the metal flakes away and your hand slips…well, best we don’t think about that.

Ta-da, solid ground. Feels good, doesn’t it? You were a champ, truly. Nicely done.

And guess what? If you open your eyes, you’ll see we’re here.

This is it: the writing cave. Our very own Thesaurus Club. Pretty amazing, right? Lights. Electricity. High speed wi-fi. Becca and I pulled some strings to make this happen, let me tell you.

No one bothers us here–it’s terrific! We can really dig in get some serious writing done.  When that fireplace is crackling and wood smoke is in the air, well, you’d love it. Home away from home.

Ah, you spotted our vault. Sharp eye, my friend, sharp eye. Manufactured steel, twelve inches thick, twenty bolts, and completely fire, flood, and apocalypse proof. It’s quite the door, no two ways about it.

Bet you’re wondering what’s in there, am I right?

Sure, I would be too, if I were in your shoes. I mean, that’s some serious hardware for a writing cave.

And…I would like to tell you. I would. But Becca, well, she’s a bit intense about this stuff. And what is behind this door is something we’re going to talk about on June 13, the official release date for our Setting Thesaurus books.

But I wanted you to see it today. I wanted you to know how to get here. So you can come back, on your own, in just a few days.

…Because you are going to want to come back.

…You are going to want to know what’s behind this door.

Mark your calendar. Set a reminder on your phone. Write the date in permanent ink on your palm.

And take this key, the one for the abbey door. Tuck it away. Don’t lose it, whatever you do.

Remember, what happens in the Thesaurus Club stays in the Thesaurus Club.

The next meeting is June 13th, and you’re invited. Don’t be late. You won’t want to miss it, not for the world.

The Setting Books are almost here, but in the meantime, try out a sample. Becca’s sharing wisdom on How Writers Can Bring Setting to Life through Personification at Live Write Thrive. And her recent podcast on Writing Captivating Novels Using the Emotion and Setting Thesaurus is like a mini master class.

See you on the 13th!

Image 1: Unspash @ Pixabay

Image 2: Unsplash @ Pixabay

Image 3: Unsplash @ Pixabay

Image 4: Silberfuchs @ Pixabay

Image 5: Hans @ Pixabay

Image 6: tpsDave @ Pixabay

Image 7: DasWotgewand @ Pixabay

Image 8: skeeze @ pixabay

The post Something Big Is Coming… appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS™.

When you’re writing a character, it’s important to know why she is the way she is. Knowing her backstory is important to achieving this end, and one of the most impactful pieces of a character’s backstory is her emotional wound. This negative experience from the past is so intense that a character will go to great lengths to avoid experiencing that kind of pain and negative emotion again. As a result, certain behaviors, beliefs, and character traits will emerge.

Characters, like real people, are unique, and will respond to wounding events differently. The vast array of possible emotional wounds combined with each character’s personality gives you many options in terms of how your character will turn out. With the right amount of exploration, you should be able to come up with a character whose past appropriately affects her present, resulting in a realistic character that will ring true with readers. Understanding what wounds a protagonist bears will also help you plot out her arc, creating a compelling journey of change that will satisfy readers.

NOTE: We realize that sometimes a wound we profile may have personal meaning, stirring up the past for some of our readers. It is not our intent to create emotional turmoil. Please know that we research each wounding topic carefully to treat it with the utmost respect. 

Patrik Nygren @ Creative Commons

Examples: Being undesirably and relentlessly pursued by someone. Stalkers are typically obsessed with their subjects, either out of a romantic interest or from the perception that  the subjects have rejected or slighted them in some way:

• a fan whose mail was unanswered
• an ex
• a student whose scholarship application was denied
• an artist whose work failed to win a contest or received a poor review
• someone with romantic interests whose advances were rejected
• an employee overlooked for a promotion
• a parent whose child was disrespected or rejected
• an athlete/artist/performer who has been replaced by a more talented competitor

Basic Needs Often Compromised By This Wound: physiological needs, safety and security, long and belonging, self-actualization

False Beliefs That May Be Embraced As a Result of This Wound:

• I have encouraged this person in some way.
• If I hadn’t done X, then this wouldn’t be happening to me.
• I’m a target—someone others identify as weak.
• My judgment is flawed; I should have seen this person as a threat from the beginning.
• I’ll never be free of this person.
• I’ll never be safe again.
• I’ve brought danger to my friends and family.
• The authorities are powerless to help me.
• If this person could do this to me, anyone could. I can’t trust anyone.

Positive Attributes That May Result: alert, appreciative, cautious, disciplined, discreet, empathetic, focused, independent, nurturing, observant, private, proactive, protective, resourceful, sensible

Negative Traits That May Result: addictive, confrontational, controlling, defensive, hostile, humorless, impatient, indecisive, inflexible, inhibited, insecure, irrational, needy, nervous, nosy, obsessive, paranoid, resentful, self-destructive, subservient, suspicious, temperamental, timid, uncommunicative, uncooperative, violent, volatile, worrywart

Resulting Fears:

• Fear for one’s life
• Fear that the stalker will hurt one’s loved ones
• Fear that one’s judgment/intuition can’t be trusted
• Fear of new people
• Fear of going to new places or going places alone
• Fear that the stalking will never end
• Fear of not being believed

Possible Habits That May Emerge: 

• Insomnia and fatigue
• Loss of appetite
• Weight gain from eating to comfort oneself
• Isolating oneself; avoiding unnecessary social interactions
• Avoiding social media
• Clinging to those one knows is safe
• Relying on trusted loved ones to make decisions due to doubting one’s discernment and judgment
• Becoming overprotective of one’s loved ones and pets
• Becoming overly suspicious and paranoid
• Mental disorders (panic attacks, agoraphobia, depression)
• PTSD symptoms (nightmares, flashbacks, startling easily, irritability)
• Difficulty focusing on everyday tasks
• Making changes to throw off a stalker (moving, changing jobs, changing one’s name, altering one’s appearance)
• Becoming very concerned with personal safety (adding a security system, taking a self-defense class, getting a dog, etc.)
• Self-medicating
• Thinking about or attempting suicide
• Hypertension, gastrointestinal issues, sexual dysfunction, and other physical symptoms associated with excessive stress
• Performing poorly at work or school
• Giving up hobbies and activities that take one out of the home
• Difficulty trusting others

TIP: If you need help understanding the impact of these factors, please read our introductory post on the Emotional Wound Thesaurus. For our current list of Emotional Wound Entries, go here.

For other Descriptive Thesaurus Collections, go here.

The post Emotional Wounds Entry: Being Stalked appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS™.

With the Urban and Rural Setting Thesaurus books releasing in just two weeks (June 13th), pretty much all I can think about is the setting, ergo today’s topic. You guys have no idea how much Becca and I are loving all the tweets, emails, comments and posts from all of you about these upcoming books–thanks so much for your enthusiasm and support! 

Okay, moving on…

With writers, there seems to be two camps: those who love writing setting description, and those…who…don’t. There isn’t always a lot of middle ground.

Becca is definitely in the former group. She’s freakishly good at world building. Each setting she writes feels like a living, breathing place, yet distilled to have clarity and purpose, so only the most important bits are shown without disrupting the pace or action.

For many, when it comes to describing the setting, the words don’t immediately flow. Some of us (cough-me-cough) tend to write on the leaner side of things, especially early on, and it is only in later drafts we put more “meat” on the setting “bone.”

Here’s the good news: regardless of whether you embrace setting description or not, one way to level up your writing is to think hard about each location you choose. The “where” of each scene is an important factor, and worth the extra time to plan. Here’s two big reasons why:

It Achieves Story and Character Depth

The right setting can greatly enhance our story, providing tests and challenges for our hero to overcome (the Black Gate in The Lord Of The Rings, or the Cornucopia in The Hunger Games), fortify the character, reminding them of their greatest assets (Hermione and the Hogwarts library come to mind) or allow the ghosts of the past to resurface and shape a character’s vulnerability (the sewers in Stephen King’s It.)

The location can even reinforce a character’s deepest longing (the Notre Dame stadium in Rudy), and act as a tangible reminder of a missing Human Need (The Incredibles’ Bob Parr, an unfulfilled insurance claims adjustor in his cramped office, who needs to be something more, something greater.)

Takeaway tip: When choosing a setting for the scene’s events, look at what is going to happen, and make a list of setting choices that can reveal something deeper about the characters involved. The setting should act as a symbol for one or more of the elements above, bringing forth deeper meaning and making characters and their desires matter more to readers.

It Offers Readers a New Experience

One of the big promises we make to readers is that we will take them on a journey that is somehow new and fresh. One way to achieve this is through setting choice. After all, do we really want to show them the same location they’ve read about a million times before? And while genre might influence the range of settings that one might expect to see, this shouldn’t hold a writer’s creativity hostage.

Take the typical party scene, a common sight in many contemporary Young Adult novels. This event doesn’t always have to be at the beach or in someone’s house while the parents are away. Why not have your teenagers sneak into a shutdown construction site or an empty warehouse that’s up for sale, instead? Add some beer, a few spray cans, and the unexpected appearance of a security guard with a stun gun, and you’ve got a unique setting primed for a storm of conflict, plus you’re offering readers something new to experience.

Takeaway Tip: If you start with the scene’s action, make a list of all the obvious places this exchange or event could take place. Then, branch out, thinking about locations that logically fit with your characters’ general location, but offer fresher setting options.

Make Something Familiar New

Now if you do find yourself using a familiar setting out of necessity, don’t worry. Just strive to make it unique through different factors. The time of day or night, the quality of light, the season, the weather, and the POV character’s emotional filter will all help you transform the location into something tailor made.

Plus, you can turn your setting into an obstacle course to differentiate it further, because setting is also a vehicle for conflict.

Bonus Tip!

Not only do our two new Setting Thesaurus books have the sights, smells, tastes, sounds and textures of 225 locations to kick-start your imagination, you can find a list of both volumes’ settings at One Stop For Writers to mine for ideas, even if you are not a subscriber of the site.

Simply register (always free) and click on The Setting Thesaurus in the menu. If you are a subscriber, you can access all the entries in full, as the setting thesaurus books have already been uploaded to the One Stop site.

Do you think “outside the box” when it comes to setting? What are some of the more unusual locations you’ve chosen?

Image 1: Antranias@ Pixabay

Image 2: Unsplash @ Pixabay

The post Level Up Your Setting By Thinking Outside The Box appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS™.