New Year Resolution!

HELLO!

We are now ten days into the new year! Come around fast, don't you think? If you, like me, have set yourself a new years resolution then you will realise that when you think about it it's actually quite hard to stick to.

I told myself that I would update this blog at least once a week to promote my work. Ironically I seem to be unwilling to commit to this job, unlike my writing habits. But never the less I am going to try it again!

I will try! At the very least I shall try!

So, if anyone has any questions about writing, whether it be grammatical or about punctuation. Seriously anything! I will try to answer. I might even try to promote my books, again TRY being the key word there.

If you have the need to explore the unknown, the undiscovered or the impossible, writing is for you. Being a fantasy based author I am a little biased. I attempt put the extra in to extraordinary, just taking a normal scene and putting an odd take on it is the best way. For example, I study creative writing at university, and one of my lecturers told the class when you are describing an ordinary scene and you want it to stand out put a space ship in there!

He has a point. First tip of the year for new writers-

If you want your readers to stick with you, then you have to make something stand out in the first few pages. A killer line! Although the blank page is daunting. Don't be afraid of a new page, embrace it and let your fingers soar over the key board or let the pen scribble. Don't think about it, you can come back to it at a later date. The first draft is just the first of many! Lay your foundations before you build. 

 So, first blog done and out of that way. Hopefully there will be many more along the way!

Thank you for listening, well reading. Good luck with your new years resolutions! I hope you stick to them too!

This is a sneak preview of ZENITH, my new addition to my books. If you love fantasy then you will love Zenith. 

“Seth, why do you want to escape your human life with such urgency? Life is something to cherish and hold on to.”
After fight years, Seth still didn't know names. 
"You don't have any idea what it's like. I was told i always wanted something i couldn't have. It's longed for a smile who would accept me as their own. You helped me when i needed someone the most. You helped me out of the deep sleep others had forced upon me." 

You can get this novel from lulu.com and from amazon.co.uk for kindle. 

JUST A LITTLE BIT OF HOPE

We all need a little bit of hope and belief in our lives. I am constantly talking about the search for something, the search of something that makes sense, a search for somewhere I can escape to. This is all hope, obviously. I can't exactly pick up and leave, but writing is my escape.

Jack Heffron quotes that 'hope is a complex emotion. It's tied to longing.' He then goes on to say that hope gives up some kind of jump to do something, it keeps us focused and directed with a hing of energy linked in. Hope gives us the chance to believe in something to make us move on, move up or carry on with something we are doing or how we are feeling. 'Writing is an act of hope' he says as an opening to this book. Meaning that hope gives us the ground level for everything, hope keeps us determined.

When I read his passage about hope, it made me realise that no matter what happens in life, we can never give up on ourselves or anyone else for that matter. When he give up hope, we give up everything we rely on. Writing is my act of hope, and if you feel the same, never give it up.

Thank you for reading

J.A.M

Just a little tip

Through my own experiences, I have found it hard to get emotion through my novels, it takes me a while to get what I like to think is a great sense of emotion. There are moments in my books were characters are going through Hell, because writers always love a bit of drama, but in all honesty, I never really understood how to make my words more heart felt.

But then it came to me! Yes, it isn't about the dialog, its about the other things going on around the characters. You have to make what they are doing much more prominent. Put in what they are doing, facial expressions. People use characters eyes to get across how they are feeling. This is because people say that eyes are the looking glass into the soul, use it to get across how your characters are feeling.

It's a hard thing to do and it comes with practice, the more you write the easier things will get. 

J.A.M

   

FINDING YOUR VOICE!

A writers voice is the only thing we have for a claim to fame. It's the only thing we have to make people listen to what we have to say. I never really understood it, but no I know. To get a writer;s voice you have to believe in yourself, but most importantly you have to believe in your writing. If you can't do that, then there isn't any point in it.

To really understand your voice you have to know what you are writing, and your characters, so but understanding then you can create a strong voice. To be able to achieve you need to find where you belong. I'm referring to genre, whether its fantasy, crime, thriller and so on. As long as you enjoy what you're doing then the readers will enjoy reading it just as much.

You also have to imagine you're there, living with what's going on around you whether you decide on first person or third. If you believe you're there then you can get across the real emotions your characters are feeling.

Thank you, and enjoy finding your place

J.A.M

HOW TO GET OVER WRITERS BLOCK!

Wow, this is a hard topic, mostly because of the many different ways you could. When I get writers block it is because I am either stressed out or because I have too many ideas in my head making me just crash, I suppose.

I have found if you move on to something else, for example if you are writing one novel and you are like me with little bits and pieces all over, then I usually look at something else. Work on that for a little while.

Another way is by walking away completely, read a book or watch TV. Or sometimes your dog gets a lucky break and take it for a walk. I have also used Jack Heffrons book to help me too, he has done it brilliantly, giving you prompts and challenges to get your mind thinking about something else.

I have used them before, they work a treat and it really makes you realise there are so many ways your novel could go to what you first thought.  

HOW TO START YOUR NOVEL

Writing a novel is great fun, we all know that. It's just getting the thing started that seems to people's downfall. The first five pages are the most important pages because they are what will attract the readers. The beginning is the most important because it is the time to set scene and to kick things off. 

I always try and start the book with something slightly intriguing, not giving all your secrets away at the beginning you can build your readers up to it. There are many ways to open up new chapters, speech, description, you could use a prologue. These i have used in my books they are a great way to set the scene, sometimes they are just good to recall anything from the past to catch the readers up. Also, they are good because they aren't pages long so they have to short and sweet getting straight to the point. 

Dialogue might not be the best way to start off with, but sometimes speech is a good idea if you are writing a thriller. I have used dialogue two of my books because it set the emotions. It is a good way to get across how people are feeling if you have to get the novel moving straight away. 

Starting the novel and ending them are the hardest part, they need to have a lot of thought into them because they are the most important bits. What i usually do is plan a few different starts, one could be using dialogue, setting the scene and sometimes it the other could be a prologue. I then read them through and see which is the best. You need to know where the novel is heading, then you will know which is better. 

I learnt, if you believe in yourself then you can make anything work.

Thank you, and good look with starting your new novel. They are stressful but fun at the same time 

J.A.M