Novel Magic: How To be an Author

Novel Magic takes a look at the nuts and bolts of being an author with Muriel Yantiss. We all have our secrets and rituals. Mine include sandalwood incense, amethyst, a lucky writing bra, and the occasional blood sacrifice. Read on for a look at Muriel’s latest release Rise of the Storm Warrior and don’t forget the April Giveaway.

Demons, Killers, Spaceships and Authors.

Being an author is an interesting state of mind full of killers, spaceships, and childhood tales. As I give talks or meet people, I am asked the same questions. Where I get my ideas? How do I write a whole book? How did I get my books published? There are none who ask the important question.  What are the technicalities in writing a book?  WHAT A BORING QUESTION.  

 Being a published author, I can say with a big sigh that the whole process is a learning business, a learning business that never ends.

Let’s start with the easier questions. 

Where Do I Get My Ideas?

I treat this as a serious question, so I give a serious answer.  I get ideas from the very people who ask me that question.  I have a wild imagination.  I am one of those people that look up at clouds and see rabbits that change into dragons.  The guy sitting next to me sees the clouds.

For me, to be an author or to write a full book, you have to take an idea such as a storm planet and then not only put people on it but decide how those people would have survived as indigenous natives in such a harsh environment that led me to wonder what kind of plant and animal life would also cling to this harsh world.  There it is folks, one idea leads to another idea and then to a whole book full of ideas.

My thought and what I share with my listeners is that if you can’t take a single cloud and see several shapes, you are going to have a hard time taking an idea and finish a book.  Now, remember I am talking about fiction, not reality topics. 

How do I write a whole book?

This was partially covered in the paragraph above.  You need to expand on your idea and take your characters into situations that you enjoy writing about.  Did I mention that you had to enjoy writing?

You need to look forward to getting your fingers on a keyboard to add to those ideas.  If you get tired or bored, you need to talk to someone else to see what the problem is with your writing ability.

Books come in all sizes from all authors, with only a few exceptions.  I do know of one who only writes very short novellas.  We all know of a couple like Hemingway who only wrote very long books.  Still, most authors write both sort and long stories.

How did I get my books published?

Here is where I wish I had a fairy godmother.  I can tell you that a small author like me and a big-time author like Stephen King had the same problem, that very nice refusal letter.  

You are never going to be published until you have written a book, edited it, re-edited it, asked for help on editing it, and then submitted it.  Like all the rest of us, you will submit it to every publisher you can find on the Internet, through Google, and by reading the NY Times or Reviewers in California.

You will get the same nice refusal letter back.  I got enough to cover the walls in my bathroom; that is where I began to hang mine.  Not a regret, but to remind me to keep trying.

So can we believe some of the words in those refusal letters?  This leads to the boring last question.

What are the technicalities in writing a book?

Good English learned in Lit. 101.  When we write, most of us are using the English language where there are rules.  We can break those rules when our characters talk slang, but when we are describing plants clinging to a storm chased planet, we must use proper English.  

We also have to very careful how we use proper names or refer to brands.  A number of those refusal letters were because the editor that looked at the first Chapter found so many errors in punctuation, quoting, numbers, and most important, POV (Point of View).

Writing the story with your idea was fun; it was for all of us.  Then reality hit us all as we went back to school to write our books correctly, so we could get past that editor who kicked out the first Chapter.

Get your story down, and then find some help on the editing before you go back and re-submit it to all the same publishers.  You might have a surprise, I did.

There is one thing that is always a fact about the rich world known as the Storm Planet, life is never boring, as a new Warrior rises up to help a Royal Lady, stop a war and save a small child.

He is a lazy young man that is forced into greatness. All he wanted to do was live off the doles that the rich Storm Planet handed out to everyone. Then an accident brings out one of his strange talents he had kept hidden, and he is forced into a life of pain and travel and protecting a Royal Lady that hates the sight of him. Suddenly a young man who does nothing, is living a life full of Assassins, strange worlds and too many trying to kill him he has lost count of all of them. Added to all of it, if he could only find a way to get this beautiful Lady with the foul mouth to shut up.

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Meet M. Garnett

Muriel G. Yantiss writes under the pen name M. Garnet. Her time owning an International Business gave her a hard view of life but her farm family in Kentucky left her with a great humor to enjoy everything, bad and good. Writing has allowed her to put all of these observations down and share with others, lacing each story with true facts. Living now in Florida with her Daughter and Son-in-law, a dog, two cats and a Quaker Parrot she still ends most letters with – life is good. She has many books published so look for her other titles.

Spring Giveaway

Spring has sprung with the birds returning and the flowers blooming. Rain showers can’t dampen my spirits because I’m participating in N. N. Light’s Book Heaven’s Spring into Freebies Giveaway

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