R. L. Stedman

Writer

How To

How to Write Amazing Urban Fantasy

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Amazing Urban Fantasy

fairytale book
Image source

What is Urban Fantasy?

Urban fantasy stories are tales of magic, but unlike other fantasy sub-genres, like Epic Fantasy (think Lord of the Rings) or High Fantasy (like Game of Thrones), they’re set in the real world. Urban fantasy stories are HUGE on TV, film, and books. They’re the oldest kind of story. I think urban fantasy is amazing!

Here’s some tips on how to craft a great urban fantasy story:

1. Use Recognizable Settings

Make sure the reader recognizes the setting of the story.

The house design is familiar, or the story takes place in a well-known city.

Generally, urban fantasies occur in a man-made environment, although sometimes they’re set in at the boundary between the urban and the wild. Like the story of Hansel and Gretel: the witch who lives in the woods in a house made of gingerbread.

2. Plot Structure

Often UF’s follow the typical hero’s journey:

  • At the start of the story, the protagonist is happily living his/her life, ignorant of the magical world. Generally, he will be from of humble origins and not blessed with any special powers. He or she will be ordinary. Good-hearted, perhaps, and sometimes naive. At the beginning of the tale, the hero never sees themselves as special.
  • Then … enter the miraculous; the theatrical; the magical. Generally, in an Urban Fantasy, the magical is a total, freaky surprise to the hero. Of course, the reader will know that its there, because it’s an Urban Fantasy, after all!
  • Frequently, upon entering this magical realm, the hero finds they have a super-power. He or she might be amazingly talented, or beautiful or desirable. Sometimes the hero discovers he’s from a magical dynasty and was hidden at birth to protect him from opponents of this dynasty. (Harry Potter, anyone?)
  • Sometimes the hero is the secret hope of the hidden world, but perhaps he’s a bystander. Either way, he’ll have to use his newly-discovered powers to overcome a threat, and in so doing will return to the real world changed.
  • He may leave the real world altogether and continue in the hidden lands, or he may continue as a bridge between the worlds, and move at will between them.
  • There are variations on this. For example, the hero may be inside the hidden realm at the start of the story – in which case, entering our real world may be a total shock.

But either way, all this is good stuff for a story, right?

3. What Tone Should I Use?

Urban fantasy stories are generally funny, although sometimes they’re dark, almost gothic in tone – Vampire stories are classic UF but they’re rarely funny.

Where there is humor it usually comes from the contrast between the magic and the real, and how characters in the magical realms just don’t get technology, or vice-versa.

But wait – there’s more!

I love reading and writing urban fantasy, and gradually I’m focussing more and more on the genre.

Over the next few blog posts I’ll showcase some of my favorite UF books, but right now I’m going to leave you with an Excerpt from Welcome to Faery.

Excerpt: Beauty is a Subjective Term

I’ve put this story below as it demonstrates many of the points above. (P.S. You can download this entire story collection at this link here: https://bookhip.com/VHJFPS)

– Define: Fairest
The Queen tapped her fingers on the marble dressing table. Click click click. Nails filed to a killing point. ‘Stupid Mirror. “Fair” means “beauty”.’

– Define: Beauty

The last mirror had done what she’d asked. But oh no, the dwarfs had talked her into this new one, saying magic words like ‘memory’ and ‘voice activation’ and ‘ram’ and she hadn’t wanted to look stupid, not in front of a bunch of dwarves. And now look at this super-sleek mirror; so beautiful on the wall and yet so, so useless. How was she supposed to find Snow White without a working mirror? An upgrade, they’d said, as if an upgrade was a good thing.

The Queen threw a crystal jar across her chamber. It shattered on the stone tiles, spilling musk-flavored perfume. A serving girl scurried to clean it up, ducking low to avoid any other stray objects that the Queen might throw.

‘I mean, you stupid mirror, is there anyone else in this Kingdom more beautiful than I?’

– Define: More beautiful

The Queen paused. How does one define beautiful, anyway? ‘Girl,’ she said over her shoulder.

The maid paused in her cleaning. ‘Yes, my Lady?’

‘What makes someone beautiful?

Kneeling on the floor, the maid carefully placed shards of glass onto a folded piece of paper. ‘Like you, my Lady?’

The Queen smiled. This girl was intelligent. ‘Exactly,’ she purred. ‘Like me.’

The girl scrambled to her feet, bending her head. ‘Beauty, my Lady? Ah, maybe something like clear skin. Red lips.’

‘Is that all?’ The Queen was disappointed. ‘Why, you have red lips.’

‘Thank you, my Lady.’

‘There you are, mirror.’ The Queen turned her back on the servant. ‘I want you to find out for me if there is anyone in the Kingdom with clearer skin and redder lips than I.’

Behind her, the girl went to get a mop and bucket.

– Subjective terms. Reframe your search parameters

‘Servant,’ called the Queen.

The girl was folding the paper into a funnel, ready to pour the glass into a small tumbler. ‘Yes, my Lady?’

‘What does it mean now?’

The girl ducked her head. ‘I think, my Lady, it does not understand your question.’

‘Why not? I am perfectly clear.’

Tap-tap went the nails. The Queen’s hand twitched towards another glass bottle and the girl added quickly, ‘It’s a dwarf mirror. My Ma works for them. They’re scientific. Need to use very specific terms, to get their magic working.’

‘Specific terms?’ asked the Queen grimly. ‘I’ll show them how specific I can be. With my wand, I can very specific.’ She sighed. ‘So. What should I ask this wretched mirror?’

‘May I, my Lady?’ The girl indicated the space beside the Queen.

The Queen nodded, and the servant stepped beside her. She smelt of musk perfume and bleach. Her face, what the Queen could see of it behind the fall of grubby hair, seemed pale. She was right to be nervous, thought the Queen grimly. Persons that got too close to her were apt to have a significantly shortened lifespan.

‘Mirror mirror,’ said the girl softly.

‘I said that. Didn’t I say that?’

‘That’s just the start command.’

‘Oh,’ said the Queen. ‘I knew that.’

The girl cleared her throat. ‘Definition input.’

– Inputting

‘Beauty = Fair. Beauty: blemish-free skin.’

‘Amazing,’ thought the Queen. ‘How does she make that noise in her throat? It sounds just someone choking.’ She frowned, remembering: red apple, blood falling on snow.

– Define: blemish

‘Definition input: Crease, line or wrinkles.’

‘Freckles,’ whispered the queen.

The girl nodded. ‘Definition continues: moles, warts, lentigines, skin tags.’

– Definition received

‘What is a lentigine?’ asked the Queen

‘Like a freckle.’ The girl pointed at a sunspot on the Queen’s hand. The Queen moved her hand quickly, hiding the imperfection. ‘So now, if you ask it to tell you who is the most beautiful in the land, it will tell you who has the clearest skin.’

‘Well,’ said the Queen, looking pleased, ‘that’s very clever. Back you go, girl, clean up that mess. The perfume is giving me a headache.’ The girl crept back to the floor and the scrubbing brush.

The Queen stared up at the mirror’s silver screen, tapped her finger and asked: ‘Mirror mirror, who is the most beautiful in the land?’

On the screen appeared faces, flickering in and out, changing too rapidly to recognize any individual. A montage of faces, from happy to sad, from fat to thin, in a rainbow of skin tones. All clear-skinned, all beautiful.

All of them children.

The Queen screamed, stood up, backed away from the mirror. She stumbled over the servant, still scrubbing the floor.

‘Your Majesty. What is it?’

The Queen pointed at the mirror. The menagerie of children floated past. But never her own face, never her own!

‘Girl! Make it stop!’

The servant sat back on her heels, called out: ‘Mirror. End query.’

The screen faltered, the faces disappeared. The Queen slowly straightened.

‘Beauty,’ she said crisply, ‘is in the eye of the beholder. And I behold my face, and I say I am beautiful. I do not need to ask any mirror anything.’

The girl returned to her scrubbing. ‘That’s what my Ma says. She says beauty isn’t that special. It’s what you do that counts.’

The Queen sniffed and returned to her dresser. ‘When you’ve finished clearing up,’ she said, ‘go and wash.’

The girl wrung her perfume-scented cloth into the bucket, picked up her brush and backed from the room. ‘That’s why she stayed with them. She’s never coming home. She’s no interest in your stupid kingdom. And we’re good at hiding. So stop trying to find us.’

The Queen spun on her chair, stared at the servant girl, creeping backward from the room with her mop and brush and bucket. She did look familiar; black hair, creamy skin. ‘Wait!’ she called. ‘Wait!’

But the girl had gone. Out into the corridor, merging with the other waiting staff. Hundreds of them, scurrying about like mice. Identical in their grey coveralls, hiding their faces. The Queen would never find her.

The mirror! The mirror could tell her.

‘Mirror, mirror,’ she said. ‘Show me…’

She stopped. She would never succeed. Curse the dwarves and their wretched technology! Only Snow White had ever managed to work with them.

What I Learned from Writing a Non Fiction Book

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What I Learned from Writing a Non Fiction Book

Picture Book

I’ve often thought of writing a non-fiction book. After all, I have this blog – it’s not as though I’ve never written in the genre. But I’ve never had the courage, or the energy.

But Susan Day, whom I’ve met on Twitter, has.

So when she told me she’s just finished a non-fiction work, I asked her if she’d mind discussing the experience on a blog post.

She very kindly said “Yes”.

So, over to Susan …

Learning from Writing Non-Fiction

I have been writing children’s books for a number of years now. I write middle grade, chapter books in the Astro’s Adventures series. I’ve also turned my creative skills to early readers and picture books. I love illustrating books and designing them.

However, when I became a grandmother at the very young age of 47, I still continued to write children’s books, but my life had changed and I knew as a writer I needed to confront it.

I decided to write a non-fiction book about grandparenting called The Top 10 Things Happy Grandparents Never Regret Doing! And, like many non-fiction books there would be no pictures, no jokes, and no zany adventures. This would mean quite a change in my writing style.

Top 10 Things Happy Grandparents Never Regret Doing

So, how did I move successfully from a fiction author to a non-fiction author?

Facts and Figures are about Real People

As I began to research my book I discovered that most of the facts were about real people. Of course, statistics are just numbers, but behind those were stories and lives that were interesting.

I was touched when I read how some parents had become suicidal after being separated from their grandkids. I was buoyed when I read that when a positive relationship exists between grandparents and grandkids neither group are likely to fall victim to depression.

There’s Always a Story to Tell

Being a storyteller by trade I knew that my experiences of being a grandparent weren’t unique. I believed that many other young grandparents were probably going through similar experiences as me.

While researching the book, I discovered that grandparents are richer and healthier than they have ever been in the history of the world. I discovered that they come in all different shapes and sizes, and that my original idea of a granny being grey-haired and dressed in an apron was far from reality.

I wanted to include my story and stories I had heard from others. Sometimes the stories are poignant, and other times funny. I was able to use my fiction writing skills to make the research more relatable so that anyone reading it would be able to say, “Oh, that’s me!” or “Yes, I feel like that.”

Touch the Reader’s Heart

I wrote The Top 10 Things Happy Grandparents Never Regret Doing! so that grandparents could feel more empowered, and do something positive about their relationship with their grandkids.

I didn’t like the way that many grandparents just sat back and played a passive role; babysitting when asked, cooking for special occasions and helping out with cash.

The Top 10 Things Happy Grandparents Never Regret Doing! encourages grandparents to create their own Grandparenting Philosophy. This is a real document that they put together as they read through the book. There’s a whole section for compiling the information or those savvy grannies can complete the form online.

WTF

It was this aspect of writing a non-fiction book that dramatically changed from writing a fiction book. When one is writing fiction you can create worlds, and control the emotions of your characters. Non-fiction books, however, deal with real people who have a wealth of experiences and knowledge to draw from. Part of the writing process for me was to respect that, and provide a platform from which my readers would feel safe. Feeling safe leads to feelings of trust, and once trust is established it is much easier to get your point across.

Did I Love Writing a Non-Fiction Book?

Yes, I did love creating and writing a non-fiction book. It took me back to my university days when I was scribbling down notes and adding references to end notes: an old skill I had to learn again!

I loved telling my story and using it to build a connection with other grandparents. I also loved showing them how much they do have to offer, and how important it was that they spend precious time with their grandchildren in simple, but meaningful ways.

Now that my first non-fiction book is complete, I don’t have plans for any more as yet, but you never know.

Susan Day

You can find The Top 10 Things Happy Grandparents Never Regret Doing! on all online stores – here’s its Amazon link

About Susan Day

Susan Day is a passionate author, educator and, of course, a grandmother. She wants to empower all grandparents to build meaningful relationships with their grandchildren. Discover here the Top 10 Things Happy Grandparents Never Regret Doing.

Also, her blog, Astro’s Adventures Book Club, is full of ideas and tips for grandparents who want to build a strong relationship with their grandchildren through reading and sharing books.

Susan lives in country Australia with four dogs, three bossy cats, two rescue guinea pigs, and an errant kangaroo.

The Perils and Pitfalls of Writing a Trilogy

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Writing a Trilogy? Here’s What to Do (And What Not To Do)

SoulNecklace Stories (Box Set)

I’ve just published the final book in The SoulNecklace Stories.

This feels like a momentous occasion; it certainly has felt like a lot of work! This series has been nearly eight years in the making, with a fair number of fits and starts along the way.

So this blog post is like a message to my former self – as well as to anyone embarking on a trilogy. Here’s the things I wish I’d done, plus the (few) things I did do that worked well.

Top learnings:

Do

  • Write them! Series are great! They are actually a heck of a lot easier than writing stand-alone novels, because you don’t have to reinvent another world or another set of characters. Writing A Memory of Fire, the last book in my SoulNecklace Stories, felt a little like slipping on a comfy pair of slippers. Once I’d settled on the plot, I could just go.
  • Build your world-rules carefully. When writing fantasy, or indeed any fiction, you create a fictional world. This world has rules: things that are allowed, or not allowed.  Readers are (generally) content to go with these rules, but they do become upset when they spot an inconsistency.

Typically, a writer will have rules that are based around location or appearance (you can’t have a black-haired character suddenly becoming blonde without a reason) but in fantasy the rules are way more extensive and can include magic, technology, religion, geography: in fact, any part of life. This makes writing fantasy fun, but full of pitfalls.

As a writer, it can be hard to remember all your rules, especially once you’re 300,000 words in!

  • Draw maps and pictures. This helps to navigate around castles, houses, villages, countries, whatever. Once I figured this trick out I could get a feeling for distance (how long would it take to travel 40 leagues – and how long is a league anyway?)
  • Plan a little bit, but not too much. I found it helpful to have an idea of the stories ultimate destination (and no, not going to give that spoiler away), but by not being too settled on what would happen too early, interesting characters emerged. Like the Kamaye, the Wayhouses, TeSin and Ma Evans. They all spontaneously arose from my subconscious. I’d not planned for them at all, but weaving their stories into the main narrative added a lot to the overall depth.
  • Write faster! I really wish I’d just knuckled down and put the words on the page. Instead, I became distracted by other projects. This was partly fear – what if the conclusion was awful, what if no-one liked it. So, all in all, it took nearly 8 years to complete the series, but if I’d gotten over my fear issues I could have finished it a lot sooner.

WTF

Don’t

  • Don’t bother too much with the marketing until you’ve finished the series. I really wish I’d figured this out earlier. No point on worrying about Facebook ads or Goodreads giveaways until the series is completed. On a plus side, once a series is completed suddenly readers are very happy, because they can binge-read.
  • Don’t overpromise.  I found that I needed breaks from my imaginary worlds to retain the joy of the process, and this meant I had slow periods. Plus, because writing a series just takes so darn long, life gets in the way. This is part of the writing challenge, but it’s hard to explain to an impatient publisher or reader.
  • Don’t be daunted by the amount of work. Writing a novel is a huge amount of work. Writing a trilogy … oh man! It’s way more! You have to be totally committed before starting, because this world and these characters will be part of your life for a couple of years. It’s a big deal, taking on a two-year project, and not being certain of the outcome. All the time, through your head, a little voice murmurs: What if it’s no good. What if no-one likes it? What if no-one buys it? What if, what if…

And Finally

The most important lesson to anyone embarking on series: ditch the fear. Just do it anyway. You’ll be glad you did.

And, as a bonus, the third book might be so much fun to write that you might be tempted to write another book, or even just a novella, in the same universe.

A Long, Long Life

But that’s another story…

 

You can find The SoulNecklace Stories online or, in hard copy as individual titles on this website, or at your local library.

How to Get Published

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How to Get Published –

How to Get Published

So you’ve got a story you’re aching to share?  Here’s a step by step guide to getting published.

This is the fifth post in a series called Options for Publishing. This series is based on a talk I did recently in Taranaki.

Before reading this post, I suggest you go back and read the other posts in this series, as they tie together. Here’s the links:

This is a long post; you can download the PDF here.

Here are the slides from the talk:

 

How to Get Published:

1. Write

Keep a journal, a diary or a blog. Write poetry. The more writing you do the better. Think of it like fitness training; you don’t build a muscle without exercising it.

2.  Read a lot

Read books from diverse genres. Read classic books, read contemporary novels. I prefer reading books that are ten + years old more than the latest blockbusters, because I find time sifts out a lot of dross. However, I know that’s not always the best idea if you’re trying to work out what the market wants, and writing styles are constantly evolving. But you can NOT write well if you do not read. Period.

3. Write for free

Writing for a wider audience is good discipline, and helps you to get used to criticism aka “feedback“. I edited a professional magazine; it taught me about deadlines, formatting and word redundancy. School or universities generally have magazines and often welcome contributors. If you’re in a community or church group you could either start or contribute to a magazine or blog.

4. Training

Doing a writing course is not essential, but it does help. There’s nothing like intensive tuition to improve the craft of writing. Personally, I wouldn’t suggest spending enormous amounts of money or time. Gaining a Masters in Creative Writing is expensive and may not be any more beneficial than say a twelve-week course at a polytechnic. I prefer face-to-face to online, but there’s nothing right or wrong. Just make sure you participate. You won’t learn if you do not do.

5. Develop networks

Often in this world it’s not WHAT you know, it’s WHO you know. Talk to other writers. Join professional societies, like the New Zealand Society of Authors. Attend meetings. Read the magazines. Interact in forums. Talk to writers on twitter. Be helpful. Only one rule: Don’t be a dick.

If you write romance, or novels with a romantic theme I strongly recommend joining your national Romance Writers Association. RWAs are generally very commercially savvy and they’re highly internationally networked.

6. Go to conferences

In New Zealand there are very few writing conferences, alas, but if you’re in the States it’s a lot easier. Reason for conferences: you meet other writers (networking), you can have lessons in craft (training) and most usefully of all: you can often do cold reads or pitch agents/publishers. This can short-cut a lot of slush piles.

7. Submit to competitions

This was my break. Competitions are frequently listed in the forums of various professional organisations, and you’ll find more online. I suggest the smaller comps, as anything with thousands of entries are almost a lottery. But with some of the smaller ones, like the RWA ones, (another reason for joining), you’ll get feedback from the judges, and if you’re shortlisted, you may get your manuscript read by an agent or publisher.

8. Publish your own

The last four posts are my explanation of why this isn’t as crazy as it seems! There are pluses and minuses to publishing your own work, just as there are to using a publisher. These days, it’s more about understanding your options than recommending one particular path.

But whether or not you use a publisher to reach your audience, or you do it yourself, I would still follow steps 1 – 7 above.

How to Get Published

How to Submit to Agents/Publishers

If you decide that you don’t want the hassle of publishing your own work, then you’ll probably need someone to publish for you. Generally this involves an agent or a publisher. This is the classical approach, and until 2010 (ish) it was pretty much the only way to get your book published.

Warning: This can take a long, long time.

1. Write your book

2. Find out who the publishers and agents are that might be interested. You want to know who’s looking for new writers, what kind of work they want (no point in sending erotica to a children’s publisher, for example!), what format they want you to submit in. FOLLOW THIS!  Generally, this information will be on their websites.

Here’s what to do:

3. Make a list of who’s looking in your genre.

Be strategic – don’t submit to everyone at once. I’d start with 5 established agents with a great track record and 5 new ones who are hungry. Follow their submission instructions (have I said this before?!).

4. Send your submissions

  • Submissions generally consist of a query letter, a brief synopsis and, if requested, the first three chapters. This may vary, so again: check.
  • General rule of thumb seems to be that simultaneous submissions are okay to agents (that is, you it seems acceptable for you to submit to more than one agent at a time), but a definite no-no to publishers. If you are submitting to multiple agents at a time, I would let them know this; at the very least, it’s polite.
  • Here’s instructions on query letters and Marissa Meyer’s really good blog post on synopsis writing.
  • If an agent likes your work you’ll generally hear reasonably quickly. Publishers seem to take longer.
  • I allow 4 -6 weeks for an agent, and then I follow-up with an email.  If I still don’t hear anything I follow-up with another email advising I’m sending elsewhere. If you’ve submitted to a publisher you may  not hear anything for 4 – 6 months. Longer than that, and I usually send an email.
  • If you don’t get a good response to just a query submission, it might pay to rework your query letter.
  • Keep a spreadsheet of who you’ve submitted to, the date and the outcome.
  • Try not to get depressed. I know of writers who have submitted 1000 times before landing a deal!

If you want to short cut this process, enter competitions and go to conferences (see above!).

5. While you’re waiting, write another book. Or two. Or three…

An alternative approach:

Be famous or otherwise notorious!

Publishers and agents LOVE writers with an audience. If you’ve got a million followers on wattpad, SAY this. If you’ve got a huge youtube following, again: mention it in your pitch.

Options for publishing

What’s best?

This depends on your goals.

If you are desperate to see your book in book stores, you may be better to follow the classical approach of using an agent/publisher. Book stores tend to work through established channels, although there are signs this is changing. If you love literary fiction and you prefer to write richly textured novels, you may be better to approach traditional publishers. If critical acclaim and acceptance is important, again: a traditional model may be better.

However, if you’re just wanting to find people who want to read your work, if you write in a commercial genre with a huge readership (such as romance) and you’ve previously run a small business, my suggestion is self-publishing.

I say this because in the long run, you may be better off by finding your own route to market than by relying on a publisher third-party, who may or may not have the same goals as you. It’s also about the rights. Given that your copyright can last 50 + years, and that rights are constantly evolving, you may be better off in the long run to own the lot.

The good news: nowadays writers have options.

How to Write a Fairytale (And Why You Should Try)

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How to Write a Fairytale

I’m obsessed with fairytales.

writer's notebook

That’s because I’m writing my own right now, so they’re filling my head: Disney, Grimm, Arabian Nights.

I always put a twist on the original. So far I have a sleeping beast, a Charming Ball, a fairy godfather … and many more.

Fairy tales are surprisingly easy to write. This post shows you why fairytales make good stories, and how you can use their strengths to craft your own.

3 Reasons Why Fairytales Make Fantastic Story Starting-Points:

1.  They have strong character archetypes:

The hero (or heroine) is attractive: Snow White and Cinderella are beautiful; Ali-Baba is clever; Jack the giant-killer is strong.

The bad characters are altogether evil. Snow-white’s stepmother isn’t just vain and jealous; she’s also murderous.

2.  They have the classic hero’s journey plot structure:

This plot structure is like the Ultimate Guide to Great Storywriting. It’s the plot structure used by screenwriters — why? Because it works. More on that below.

3.  The themes are powerful:

The obstacles tap into deeply held terrors. Hansel and Gretel are small children, lost in a forest. Cinderella loses her mother.

The drama is intense and often horrific. Hansel and Gretel burn an old woman alive. The Little Mermaid walks on knife blades. Snow-white’s stepmother wants her heart.

4. Optional extras

Original folk tales (that is, the stories that fairytales came from) were frequently bawdy. In today’s world of political correctness we’ve lost that part of the story, but one version of Sleeping Beauty has the sleeping heroine being raped by the prince. In Arabian Nights a prince marries a virgin each day and beheads her the next.

Fairy tales used to contain barbaric violence. Cinderella’s stepsisters chop off their toes to squeeze their foot into the glass shoe (the prince notices the fraud when their blood seeps out).

The Hero’s Journey

Here’s a short summary of the classic hero’s journey plot structure, and how this is used in fairytales:

  • A likable hero (or heroine).
  • The hero has a Goal:  Cinderella wants to go to the ball. Sleeping Beauty wants to avoid a curse.
  • He faces MONUMENTAL obstacles: Jack doesn’t just fight an ogre; he fights an evil, man-eating, giant ogre.
  • He encounters set-backs: Cinderella gets to the ball, only to have to run away at the stroke of midnight.
  • He has to overcome a final, almost overwhelming obstacle: Hansel escapes from the cage, only to be caught by the evil witch.
  • He must overcome his/her internal demons: Cinderella gains the courage to defy her evil stepmother and set her foot in the glass slipper

How to write a fairytale

You can start by a small change, like the setting. Put Cinderella in the present day, for example, and then all of a sudden you’ve got The Bachelor on steroids. Kiera Cass did this very successfully, in The Selection.

How to write a fairy tale

You could change the hero’s gender (I did this once, and made Cinderella a man, and called her Cynders).

You can play with the technology of the tale, and what it means. Marissa Meyer did this really well in her Lunar Chronicles series. In Beauty is a Subjective Term, my Snow White retelling, a mirror needed reprogramming. Because what does ‘fair’ really mean?

The Lunar Chronicles

But the best way is to change a fairytale is to consider the motivation of the character.

For example, Cinderella. In Ten Minutes to Go, Cinderella is no longer interested in the prince; she’s interested in his prince’s money. And so, in Ten Minutes to Go, Cinderella was a contract killer with a deadline of midnight.

So if you want to write your own fairytale, first think of the story. Think about the characters. Change their names if you want to; their gender; their setting. But most importantly, consider what they want to achieve.

And really, that’s how you write any story. The fairy tale is just a scaffold that, fortunately, usually leads to a bloody good story.

More information?

If you want to read some other examples of fairytale retellings, check out this blog post here. And if you want to read my stories that are mentioned above, you can download them for free here. And now, what are you waiting for? Go away and write your own!

writer's notebook
Image from Pixabay

How to Market Your Book (without feeling like a salesman)

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How to Market Your Book —

Marketing seems to freak out many writers, me included!

writer's notebook
Notebook – Image from Pixabay

I guess it’s because we’re generally introverts who are happiest alone or in small groups – the thought of engaging with strangers to talk about a deeply personal work just doesn’t come naturally.

(Before I write a bit more, a big shout-out to all the salesmen and women who work ethically and professionally. You’re not who I’m talking about. I’m talking about the dodgy folk who prey on the elderly and vulnerable. No-one wants to feel like that.)

This is the third post in a series of three on selling your rights and publishing, sparked by a recent radio interview with Vanda Symon on Otago Access Radio. You can check out the first of these posts here (or you can listen to the podcast!)

 

5 Steps to Marketing Your Book

1. Know your audience.

If you don’t have an audience, think about the audience you want. It helps if you can get really specific here: not just male/female and age, but where they live and what are their interests; where they hang out, and who their influencers are.

Marketers call this ‘building an avatar’ – not a big blue alien, but an ideal customer. This has never worked for me, because being a writer, I have an extremely fertile imagination – and an avatar has to be reasonably accurate (i.e. not imaginary) to be useful.

Instead, I think of my two most passionate fans (that aren’t related to me:)) I don’t stalk them, obviously, but I know roughly how old these two fans are, where they hang out (facebook, goodreads, instagram, blogs etc) and I know what they like to read.

I develop content for ONLY these two fans. I call them K and N.

Quick side-note: if you’re new to writing, or you’re not really sure who your biggest fans are, then have a look at this podcast on the Author Hangout. Here you’ll find a quick step-by-step guide to developing a reader profile.

 

2. Develop content for your audience.

Every blog post is written for either K or N. (Except this one, although K might find it interesting). Every post on social media is designed for them. My only criteria about each post is: would K or N like this? (This approach also MAKES me sit down and write my current WIP, because I know that the thing they most want from me is my next book.)

Share your content. When I’ve developed content, like this blog post, I go onto twitter or facebook or whatever, and I say, hey, I’ve made this! I don’t say ‘Hey N, here’s another post just for you,’ – that’s kind of weird. But often one or the other will pick it up and share it or retweet or whatever, and I love that, because it means I’ve done something that makes them happy.

 

3. Marketing Through Sharing Love

It took me a long time to learn this approach, and I’ve only just started working like this since the beginning of March. But since then interest in my blog is going up and downloads of my books are increasing. Why? Because it’s not just N and K buying my books – hell, I’ve given them my books – it’s because there’s enough people out there like N and K, and they also like the same material.

I am really, really grateful to N and K for their support and I want to deliver more content that makes them happy. It’s just a side benefit that other people like it too.

I’ve summarised this approach in a pdf, which you’re welcome to download.

Before I wrap up this extra-long post here’s a couple of things to consider.

 

4. Social Media is Not Essential

Don’t be spammy. Don’t stalk. Be compassionate, respectful and behave like a normal human.

Marketing doesn’t mean you have to slather yourself in social media. Old-fashioned print or radio works too.

If your fans don’t live online you may not even need a website (although I would, but that’s another post for another day); the point is, once you know who your fans are, you can design your marketing to serve their needs. Robert Free meets his fans through sending a ballad to Radio New Zealand every day. It seemed to take Robert AGES to get his website up and running, but I’m not sure this really mattered; he was already meeting his audience through radio.

Play to your strengths. If your fans are out and about on a variety of different channels – like blogs, youtube, instagram – chose the channels that suit you best. I like taking photos and I’m totally in love with my iphone, so instagram works well for me.

Kyle Mewburn, who writes books for kids, is a natural entertainer and has a youtube channel. This suits her fans, too, because teachers and parents can play it for their kids.

Finally, although I say you don’t need to be involved in social media, it sure helps you to meet more readers than traditional media. And unless you’re running adverts, social media is free. (As a side note, if you are thinking of running ads on social media, check out Mark Dawson’s Facebook training videos. They’re free, and are almost guaranteed to save you a ton of money.) It always saddens me when I hear (usually older) writers say “oh no, I don’t get facebook.” They’re missing out on an opportunity to hear and connect with readers, and surely, that is why we write, isn’t it?

 

5. Writing is Connection

Which takes me back to the beginning of this three-part series of blog posts: Why do we write? For me, it’s to connect; to share; to provide enjoyment. Writing, actually, is not about me. It’s about my reader.

Thanks for sticking with me through this incredibly long post. If you have any questions, please get in touch.Here’s a summary as a slide-deck:

 

And thanks again, Vanda and Otago Access Radio, who sparked this series of posts. Now you’ve navigated your way to the end of them, here’s the link again to the podcast interview. I hope you enjoy!