Hi Family,
How are you today? I am praying that you are in the best of health and spirit and ready to sharpen your creative writing skills. As promised, I am going to offer some encouraging suggestions on making your writing experience MORE worthwhile.
My suggestions may not apply to you, so keep it moving if you found your niche and it is working for you. My suggestions are really geared for the new author trying to proof or to write that first masterpiece. Remember this your journey. Watch out for jagged cliffs and make it as comfortable as possible. So, as they say, take what you can and leave the rest. If the shoe fits, gon' wear it. (uh-hmm).
As I thought about what to share today, I decided that if you have a specific question you can either post it below this blog or e-mail me for a private chat. My e-address is Swaggie86@aol.com. But ...
I will NOT read any books or manuscripts! I also will NOT charge for my services. Of course, I am using my own set of skills learned from previous education and practice. My suggestions are not the gospel...I know that is shocking!:)-
Ok, so I would like to share about audience and themes.
Before you pull together your plot and cast of characters, you should know who you are writing for. What inspired you to write? What is your passion? If I was the only person reading your book, what do you want for me to learn or discover when I close the book? What do you want me to do after I read your book? Have you market-researched your genre (audience)? Make your list as exhaustive as you can and this will be your left shoe.
Now, put your foot in the other shoe -- the audience. What do you want to get from a book? Are you looking for specific answers to questions about health or relationships, etc.? Are you looking for a funny story to escape the grind of the day? Are you doing a school assignment? Are you cultivating your spiritual growth or relationship with God? Are you building a library or new to the literary world and looking for what genre suits you best? If you have children in school, you might be looking for a few good resource books to always have on hand for their school assignments. Make your list as long as you can and be creative and this will be your right shoe.
These are questions that should help you discover your target audience. You should not enter the literary world attempting to write a Best Seller. Keep it simple and God will take care of the rest over time. Make your own list by first putting on your left-shoe of writing ideas and goals (interests, etc.) and then put on your right shoe of expectations. Now, walk it out. By this I mean, match your ideas/goals with the needs/wants of a target audience.
You should be able to narrow your list as you match items. This will shorten your walk - keep you focused.
Now, let's take a look at themes. What in the world is a theme? Well, a theme is basically a message. In most cases, your reader should be able to get the message loud and clear by the time he or she finishes reading your book. When writing your book, your theme might be invisible which is the opposite of actually stating your theme in a research paper. So, what are some themes? Love, Peace, Friendship, etc. Stop being lazy and make your own list.:) Your list can be a mile long or one powerful word! You decide.
Ok, now that we have covered that, you should be ready to whip out some paper (I always prefer index cards because they keep you focused more and are quick reference tools as you write) and let it flow.
Quick exercise: Ask yourself what is the theme of this post? What helped you figure out the theme?
Next week, I will focus on the main character together with the theme. amen? Amen!
Swaggie Coleman
"If you listen to the whispers, you won't hear the screams." (Rev. Run DMC)
Visit Swaggies Voice at
http://swaggiecoleman.blogspot.com Swaggie's Voice is exclusively published by Levine-Oliver Publisher
Posted By: agnes levine
Saturday, January 9th 2010 at 9:44AM
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