Dreams of the Few - Project Update

In September, we signed the contract for the publication of 'Dreams of the Few'. 

Thanks to all of you who contributed funds to help us publish the 2nd book in the series, 'Legacy of Dreams'. 

There is still time to contribute, and every little bit helps! http://www.gofundme.com/Dreams-of-the-Few

We hope to complete publication early in 2014. The book will be available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other online booksellers. 

Stay tuned for more updates!

Project Update - Publication of Dreams of the Few

What’s Happening?
Unfortunately, we were unable to meet our fundraising goal to cover the cost of publication of ‘Dreams of the Few’. The Kickstarter crowd-funding site requires a fundraising project to meet its goal before a project can receive its funding. So, what does that mean? For those who were generous and kind enough to donate, it means your funds will stay in your account and we will not receive your donation.

What’s Next?
We are determined to get the book published! If you wish to support the effort, there is still time. To simplify the effort, we launched a crowd-funding project on the GoFundMe site. GoFundMe does not require that a project meet its goal, so all donations will go toward the publication of the book whether we meet our goal or not.

Dreams-of-the-Few GoFundMe Fundraiser Project

If you offered to donate to the Kickstarter project, we hope you will honor your pledge and donate via the new crowd-funding site. If all of our backers honor their previous donations, it will help us greatly!

If you are willing to consider this project for the first time, we welcome your comments and your donations. AND, there are rewards for those who donate.

Please consider a contribution to help me publish the novel. Any amount, no matter how small, will be a help.

Thank you, so much!

Tone, Voice, Narration, Point of View

In this installment, we will discuss tone, voice and narration or point-of-view. You are about to open a new electronic document on your computer and begin your book. 

In years past, you might roll a fresh sheet of paper into your typewriter. You are about to begin writing. 

You have your story and perhaps an outline. You have a list of characters and, hopefully, you know who they are and how they react to situations. There are several other factors you should consider before you begin. 

Let's talk first about tone and voice. Every book has a tone and every author has a voice. Some authors vary their approach depending on the topic of the fictional work or what seems to best suit the period or style of the piece. 





Some authors have a signature style and tone that their readers come to expect in every work they publish. 

There are numerous components to this consideration. First, you have to decide what tone you want to take (sarcastic, snarky, syrupy, logical, romantic, formal, short and to the point, very detailed and descriptive). 

Your tone should remain consistent throughout. 

You might give a detailed description of what a person looks like and how their voice sounds or you might wish to leave that to the imagination of the reader. 

You might include pop culture references (with appropriate attention to required copyright or trademark protection, course) or quote poems or songs. You might use very formal language or lots of localized slang. 

It's all up to you! Authors have more flexibility in a compilation of short stories as they can create a different tone for each story in the book. 

However, you will want to keep your audience in mind when you make these decisions. If a reader bought your book because your promotional material, book jacket or cover seems to indicate that it is a series of hard-boiled crime noir stories in the style of the 1940s, they will expect a tone that suits the style for every story. 

Let's talk for a moment about the tone you will set for your characters. If you are writing a period piece, be sure that your characters speak in a way that is suitable for the time in which the work takes place. 

It wouldn't make sense to have an 18th century heroine say something like 'dude, you never called me last night'. This kind of dissonance can be jarring for the reader and will instantly ruin the mood and imaginary world you have created.

You may have noticed that movies and TV programs sometimes take this liberty and, if you are a fan of fantasy works or stories that are told in merry old England, you'll be the first to notice the inappropriate use of slang, abbreviations or colloquialisms that don't fit the times. 

In stories that take place in a modern setting, your characters may have a distinctive tone that varies from one to another. For example, the son in your story might be a teenager whose style of speech is informal so, on paper, when she says 'go get them', the word may appear as 'go get 'em'. If his mother was poorly educated and born in the Southern U.S., you might depict her speech in this way: 'ol be rot back'. 

If you are writing a book that takes place in the future, you might even want to invent some words or a different style of speaking to give your novel a distinct flavor and environment.

Lastly, I want to talk about narratives and point of view (POV). Most fiction is written from a third-party point of view. New writers will probably find this the easiest style to sustain. 

Let's look at the choices:

First-Person: The author uses a narrator to tell the story. The narrator is a character in the book and tells the story from his or her view, including her or his feelings and thoughts about what is happening. However, this narrator does not talk about how another character feels unless he/she is describing what another character told him/her about their feelings. 

You can also change the first-person narration from one character to another in the book, if you wish, so that parts of the story are told from the perspective of different characters.

We won't discuss first-person plural here because it isn't as commonly used in literature. 

If you are an avid reader, you will occasionally find a first-person narrative that is told with insight into the feelings and thoughts of others because the narrator is omnipotent or has died and has insight into that is happening in the minds of others who are still alive. This is called first-person omniscient. This is the style used in Alice Sebold's novel, 'The Lovely Bones'.

Second-Person: This point of view is not used often in fiction. This point of view involves the reader as someone to whom the narrator is actively speaking. For example, the narrator (author) say to the reader , 'You know how you feel when you give your phone number to a guy and he never calls you back? I know you do, so don't lie to me.' Here's another example: 'Don't ask me why I opened the door to a stranger at two a.m. I know you wouldn't have done it, but I did, so don't give me a hard time.'

Third-Person: As I've said, third-person narrative is the most common style of narration and the most common form of third-person narrative is third-person singular. 

When referring to a character, the third-person singular point of view will always refer to, 'he' or 'she' and never use 'I' or 'you' to describe the actions or feelings of the characters or of the reader. He or she is not a character in the book; but is only the story-teller. 

The reader understands that the story is told by a third party - either someone who is not identified or someone who was not involved in the action but knows what happened and can, therefore, tell the story. 

Third-person plural perspective refers to the characters as 'they' or 'them'. This is not as common as third-person singular but can be used in combination with third-person singular, so that the story alternates between talking about how 'he' feels and how 'they feel' as a group. 

In 'Dreams of the Many', I used this combination to reveal the feelings of the protagonist, Brody Murphy, and the group of friends who shared common experiences and dreams. I wrote about Brody's physical or emotional pain and thoughts.

"Brody reeled with the intensity of the memories. He

dropped his head between his knees, and touched the cool

tile fl oor. Nothing like this had happened to him before.

Throughout his life he had always done an excellent job of

burying the memories, but not today. Today, he was back in

the cramped apartment, locked under the kitchen sink."

At other times, I talked about the fears and experiences shared by every person who took the journey with Brody.

"This ‘knowing’ was something he 

shared with Casey 

and apparently, it was now spreading like

a virus."

Epistolary Narrative: This is a point of view revealed in letters, documents, notes or diaries and sometimes includes the POV of several people. For example, an author might include letters between a husband and his wife as in an exchange between Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln.

In a previous blog entry, we talked about creating a believable character. Our next blog entry will offer some tips to create a character your readers will love.

Part 4: Musings on Writing - Writing for a Genre and Audience

You have decided to write the great American novel. You know you have to choose a theme and a location. You'll have to create a compelling story and characters. But, have you considered your audience? It's tempting to think that everyone in the world will want to buy your book and that everyone will enjoy it, regardless of the topic or writing style. Realistically, I'm sure you can see the folly of this belief!

Consider some of our most successful contemporary authors. James Patterson writes detective novels and thrillers. Stephen King writes in the suspense, and some would say, horror genre. Danielle Steel writes romance novels. A simple way to start thinking about your audience is to identify the genre in which your book might be categorized. Once you have a handle on the niche market and the readers you want to target, you may think you are home free. There are many other factors in targeting your audience and I will address a few of them here.

First, when you sit down to work on your manuscript, stay focused on your target audience. For example, if you are writing a book about crime or a murder mystery novel, think about the people you know who read these types of books. What is it that attracts them to this kind of book? If you don't know, do a little research. People love to talk about their favorite authors, actors, books and movies. 

When you have a picture of your target audience, you might want to create an imaginary reader. Stephen King often speaks directly to his readers - referring to them as 'dear reader' and, more recently, 'dear constant reader'. You might even go so far as giving your target reader a name, a face and other background information. 

If you find yourself getting off track when you are writing or reviewing your manuscript, test the content against your own 'dear reader'. 

The worst possible outcome for an author is to work tirelessly on a novel and find that the target audience they want doesn't relate to the story, the style, the characters or the theme. 

Secondly, the peripheral considerations for your novel should also fit the genre and readers you wish to address. Pick a provocative title that helps the prospective reader identify your book as something they might want to buy. Everything from title fonts to the color and image on the book cover can be a potential attraction for your target audience. 

I will talk more about publishing considerations in a future blog post, but for now, it is important for you to understand that it isn't just the content that will attract a prospective reader. 

The process of writing an novel is a long journey and it can be difficult for a new author to stay on track with the story and the characters and to maintain a consistent voice (we'll talk more about that in a later blog post). There are some writers who write only for their own enjoyment but most of us write with the hope that someday a reader will pick up our book and read it cover to cover and maybe even tell friends and family to buy a copy. If that is your goal, don't lose sight of your target audience (dear reader) as you are writing your book. When the book is published, it is out of your hands. You will not be able to talk to every person who walks into a book store or searches online for the next great book. The book will stand alone. 

Unless you are already a famous author (if you are, then why are you reading this) you can't count on the existing pool of fans to snatch up copies of your novel. But, if you nailed the genre and remained focused on your target audience, you will have a much better chance of transforming your 'dear reader' into your 'dear constant reader'.

Author Chat Lynda Brown and Susan Obijiski 8-11-12

Author Chat Lynda Brown and Susan Obijiski 8-11-12

Part 3: Musings on the Writing Process

Excuse my absence. I have been working on Book Two in the series that began with 'Dreams of the Many'. I took a break to continue the promised tips on the writing process. 

If you are new to writing, you may be wondering how to get into the groove. The struggle to get your thoughts on paper might relate to writer's block, or it might simply relate to scheduling. Writing may be your passion but, like every other kind of work, it requires some discipline. At this point in your life you may have some idea whether you are a morning person or a night owl. If you haven't already figured this out, take the time to notice when you find it easiest to focus. 


Establish a writing schedule that will get you into the habit of writing and stick to that schedule. Even if you aren't feeling particularly inspired on a given day, sit down and write anyway. If you are writing a novel, there is plenty of time to edit the excess and fuzziness out of your work later. Just get it on paper. 
Think of your writing as a job at the office. Close the door (or imaginary door, if you don't have a real one) and focus on the work. Do not answer the phone. Do not stop to have a conversation with a loved one (unless, of course, there is an emergency!). Tell your family and friends not to disturb you. They will get used to the idea that you are a writer and this is your process!


If you are like many other authors and creative people, you may get great ideas and even specific lines for a poem or novel just as you are about to drift off to sleep. Keep a notebook and pen handy near your bed and write it down. We have all experienced the frustration of trying (unsuccessfully) to recall that wonderful thought or line in the morning and knowing we have lost it forever. 


Time doesn't have to be your enemy. If you structure your work to get the most out of your creative process while you are the most focused and at your best, you will get through the process faster and with less frustration!

On the Writing Process - Creating Great Characters

The second installment of musings on writing relates to creating great characters. If you've ever seen a movie or a TV show or read a novel or short story that captivates you, chances are that the writers developed great characters to tell the story. Great characters are well-rounded, and detailed enough for the reader (or viewer) to believe. That means they are three-dimensional. 

If you are writing a script, a novel, a short story or other piece, and you give ample thought to your characters, you are bound to win more fans! 


Here are some things you should consider when creating a character:


The character must be consistent (unless the character is mentally disturbed, the traits and actions of the character should remain consistent with their values and the way the writer has presented the character from the beginning of the story).


The character must be believable. Even if you are writing fantasy or science fiction, a good character must be believable in action, deed, thought and relationships, or you will lose credibility AND lose the attention of your viewer or reader.


The writer must create a history and relationships for the character, even if all meaningful relationships with family, friends, husbands, colleagues or lovers are not related directly to the story. With some idea of who this person is and the people in their life, the reader or viewer will understand the character as a whole human being. 


The writer should know how she or he sees the character (age, weight, height, description, gait, mannerisms, job, education). While the writer does not need to tell the reader or viewer everything he or she thinks about the character's physical presence or every fact about the person's lifestyle, exercise regimen or eating habits, it will be easier to write about the character if the writer can picture the character in his head and have a fully formed picture of how the character lives his or life life.


The character might have a particular style of speaking (an accent, a casual or formal sentence structure). That should remain consistent throughout the story, unless the character is a spy or someone who is changing identities!


The character should have a "back story". Even if the writer does not reveal every detail of the character's history, it helps the writing if the writer understands the history and experiences. That will explain the reasons for the character's actions and reactions to situations in the story. If an action or reaction is particularly odd, the writer must reveal the impetus or motivation in order for the reader to understand what is happening. 


There are certainly other factors to creating a character but I won't go into every one of them here. The last one I will talk about is the most important. The character MUST have some redeeming quality, value or reason for existence and/or for the actions they take. If a character is unnecessary to the story, or if the writer does not value the character in some way (even if the character isn't very nice), the reader or viewer certainly will not see the value or purpose of the character's role in the story. 


When a writer chooses to reveal a character's thought process, it should be to provide clarification or critical information to the reader or viewer. Remember that you don't have to write about every thought in a character's head but DO write about reactions so that the reader or viewer can see how one character is reacting to another's action or statement. In TV and movies and on the stage, the viewer has the luxury of seeing an actor emote and so can understand their reaction to what is going on. In books, the reader must rely on the author to explain what is happening so she can see the events unfold in her imagination!


Remember that the viewer or reader cannot read your mind and needs to have a certain amount of information in order to make sense of what the characters are doing and why they are acting they way they are acting. BUT...don't go into so much detail that you lose the reader or viewer in exposition and explanation. 


In the next blog entry about the writing process, I will talk about writing at a particular time of day. Since many of the topics we will discuss relate to other topics, you'll find that I might talk about a technique, about characters or about other topics more than once during these blog posts. When taken as a group of posts and a body of thought, I hope these blog posts will give you  more complete picture of the process, and how you might approach writing your own novel, short story, script or other content.