Category: Writing: Harder Than I Thought It Would Be

Are You in Your Books?

~ Aimer Boyz ~ 4 Comments

It’s inevitable. It’s not always a conscious act on the author’s part, but it’s always the end result. Bits and pieces of the author find their way into their characters. This character’s favourite ice cream,  that character’s  height, eye colour, sleeping habits, exercise routine. All the personality quirks that make a fictional person feel real? They work because they are stolen from a real person, usually the author.

This is as true on the larger scale as it is on the small. Is the space alien an atheist, does the vampire support transgender rights, does the fictional mom running car pool in suburbia support legalized euthanasia? The answer lies in the author’s own belief system, in the author’s concept of morality.

There are also times when an author can be seen through a character that expresses the exact opposite of the author’s own feelings and beliefs.

At the base of all fiction is a kernel of non-fiction and that kernel comes from the author. No matter how dystopian, futuristic, or paranormal the novel, it is that basis of real that makes it read as true. Bits and pieces of the author filtered through their characters make the book authentic.

Case in point: The fact I write about Vampires says something about me 🙂

Are you in your books?

Aimer at Amazon

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On Writing With a Purpose

~ Aimer Boyz ~ 4 Comments

According to Meg Dowell, knowing why we write can help keep us writing. To paraphrase Meg, our reason is our inspiration. Nice theory. I like it. Makes sense.
The only problem is I don’t know why I write… It can’t just be vanity, right? That would be sad 😦
It’s an interesting question. Why do you write, do you know?
Check out Meg’s article.

A Writer's Path

writing pen judge



by Meg Dowell

You likely learned in school that writing an essay begins with defining your target audience and purpose for reaching out to them. We all wrote that essay about whether or not our school should or shouldn’t have uniforms (did schools who already had uniforms still argue this?). Audience: school board. Purpose: convince the authority figures that we should or should not all dress alike.

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When to Ignore Negative Feedback — A Writer’s Path

~ Aimer Boyz ~ 1 Comment

If you’ve ever had to nurse an ego bleeding from a nasty review, this post by Tonya Moore is an excellent bandage 🙂

by Tonya R. Moore I think we call all agree that getting feedback on our writing is very important. Most of the time—whether it’s positive or negative, feedback serves to encourage or help us grow. We can learn a lot from negative feedback but this isn’t always the case. Sometimes it makes more sense […]

via When to Ignore Negative Feedback — A Writer’s Path

Crazy

~ Aimer Boyz ~ 7 Comments

You know that promise you make to yourself? When you swear you will never do this  (behaviour of choice) again, ever? And then, of course, you do it again. Crazy, right?

Some time about the middle of my last book, I told myself never again. I sucked, no one was ever going to read my books anyway, why was I putting myself through this … you know the rant.

Done. Finished. Over.

A secondary character whispered to me. Wisps of scenes and conversations tantalized and teased and …  (insert faourite expletive here)!!!

Okay, not over. Not done.

I’m writing book two in a trilogy. Crazy? Yes.

I’ve gone crazy and I won’t be back anytime soon.

But this is it. This trilogy — which at the moment amounts to a whole 400 words followed by no freaking idea — and I’m done. Really 🙂

Aimer at Amazon

A Little Blood

 

 

Sweet Spot

~ Aimer Boyz ~ 6 Comments

Despite this picture of pastel perfection, I’m not talking about food. I’m not talking about the right place to hit your golf ball or that singular spot on your body that melts your mind. Sorry.

I’m talking about an author’s sweet spot; those few golden days between the last edit and publication. That slice of heaven when your book is pure genius — before it jumps out on Amazon and … no one cares.

No one buys it, you PayPal account is laughing at you, and a reviewer destroys any desire you might ever have to write again. Fun times.

If you’re sitting in the sweet spot, enjoy. Sit back, crack open a bottle of wine or that new pint of ice cream, enjoy that feeling of accomplishment. Bask in the bliss — before you hit publish.

I intend to 🙂

 

Aimer at Amazon

Waiting

~ Aimer Boyz ~ 2 Comments

My manuscript is on someone else’s laptop. A stranger is reading the book I’ve been working on for over a year and I’m cringing.

Thanks to the anonymity of email, I will never have to look this stranger in the eye. Never know if he/she rolled their eyes as they waded through my pages or yawned with boredom. Never know if they laughed at their screen and called out to their partner, colleague, or dog, “Listen to this. Can you believe this crap?”

Paranoid—who me?

I’m waiting. I want and don’t want to know. Is it even worth fixing? Worth the inevitable rewrites, the time I should be spending on the treadmill?

Why am I doing this again?

 

Aimer at Amazon