Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Writing a Book (Writer’s Cruise Part Two)

I’ve never tried to hide the fact that I’m not a trained writer. One day I decided I wanted to write a book, and I did. End of story? Not quite. Lottie Loser turned out to be my Fairytale come true in every way imaginable. Because the most amazing thing happened; people actually liked it.

It’s funny how the success of the AMI Series gave me confidence as a writer. To be honest, I really knew very little about writing when I started, other than I liked romance. At that time I had no idea that most genres have a formula and for romance it needs a protagonist, an antagonist and a Happily Ever After. Who knew there were rules for writing?

Last week I mentioned that I was told on the Writer’s Cruise that my current novel, The Four Seasons of Summer, was not romance but women’s fiction, because my protagonist is married. Another eye opener. I also learned about pacing, sensual and emotional tension, and conflict, an area I already knew I struggled with.

“Don’t dump your backstory” was a big topic with the editors on the cruise, and since I like to bring in the past, I had lots of questions about that statement. Apparently it means save some for later, instead of giving it all away at once, so thankfully my Now and Then chapters in Lottie and Charlotte are okay. Whew!

At the end of the day, or the cruise in this case, this is what I took away. There are rules for writing, but like with all rules they’re subjective. Just as an artist needs to paint what they enjoy, and what brings out their passion, an author needs to write what brings them happiness. I love my series, and many of you do as well, and that’s all I ever wanted.

Would I like to be a best selling author? Heck yes, but more than anything I want to write what I love and what you, my faithful readers, enjoy. And of course I want my books to have a “meet-cute”; yep something else I learned at sea!😉

Another one of the words used a lot by the publishing professionals was Trope. I could never get a clear understanding of what it meant so I reached out to my Twitter friends, and the definition is below. Personally it’s not a word I’ll use, but at least I won’t feel stupid the next time I hear it.

The actual definition is “any literary or rhetorical device, as metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, was and irony, that consists in the use of words in other than their literal sense.” But it can also be used for cliches. EX: dumb jock, brooding YA hero, manic pixie dream girl…

So now you’ve learned everything that I did on the writer’s cruise, but you got the Readers Digest version. It was actually extremely enlightening and if I’d have gone on the cruise before writing Lottie Loser, she would still be an idea floating in my head.

Have an amazing week and why not try a new author? Your next favorite read might be sitting on a shelf but you’ll miss it, because you won’t take a chance.

Until we read again 📚…

Blessings,

Dana L❤️


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