A huge apology for being a day late posting this week’s blog. As Mary McDee says (often), “Technology, you can’t trust it.” She says this while spending the week chasing Dorper sheep (Goat-Sheep Cross), from the neighbour’s yard back into her own. They are more stupid than actual sheep, much like she thinks computers are.
Anyway, ‘twas a computer crisis at Mrs. T’s (my mum), that sent the weekend into wobble-world. That with the default of chasing ancestors down familial rabbit holes, I have done little in the way of preparing an article to post, let alone any idea what to post on the chosen topic, World Building.
Then inspiration struck. At the proverbial last-minute. Why not do a spot of World Building from one of my developing novels? Why not, indeed!
I searched around for a worthy template—one that was interesting, not too many questions (just enough for the exercise) and one that was memorable. I didn’t have to look far on the World Wide Web, to find this little beauty: GRAPES.
“G” for Geography
“R” for Religion
“A” for Achievements
“P” for Politics
“E” for Economics
“S” for social Structure
There’s even a colourful chart with two or three questions under each heading to help with the process, courtesy of Amanda Schlindwein. Thank you, Amanda, for posting this helpful model which you can see if you click on the link to her website.
So, here goes. I will use the book that I have been posting serially on Wattpad, Diamonds in the Caveas my world building muse. (I won’t be addressing every question in the GRAPE help. The post would end up being too long, otherwise.)
Geography
How does the region’s climate and placement affect the characters in your story? The village of Luthertal on Pilgrim Planet (approximately 20 light years from earth) suffers extremes of temperature and weather conditions because of orbiting two suns. After emigrating from Eastern Europe from the 19th century, where climate was more stable, they find the change confronting, confusing, hard on their stamina and they become angry. They need to vent their anger and frustration. As a primarily farming community, the droughts, fires and floods that fail their crops, and kill their livestock, cause them to seek someone to blame. Hence a perfect storm for parties of evil intent to stir up the idea of witch hunts.
Religion
What do your characters believe in?
One God and the founder of European Protestantism, Martin Luther. But they, being Wends, are synchronistic, never having relinquished the superstitions, magic and healing practices from their “heathen” ancestors. So, there’s this conundrum; a person who fails to attend church each Sunday is called a “heathen”, but it’s okay to believe that breaking a wishbone of cooked chicken and the person getting the larger portion can make a wish. Or a character must trust in God to heal them, and the church prays for them, but it’s acceptable to treat the sick with herbal remedies as according to the long tradition of apothecary. I might digress here that my two-times great grandfather came from the region of Lusatia (which is where the Wends come from). Before he became a doctor he studied, at Herrnhut, the base of the Moravian Brethren, (so we’re talking seriously Christian here), the medicinal art of apothecary. Maybe some Lutherans would’ve had a problem with that, but we’re talking about a particular community, the Wends or Sorbs. So, writing from my own family history experience, which is partially Wend, I can see this community of Luthertal being more open to magic and the supernatural. One day I might write on these supernatural experiences that my family and relatives have experienced.
Achievements
What has this civilisation created that has withstood the test of time?
As mentioned above, being an agricultural community, the Wends are robust and healthy. They have their Wendish culture of dress and traditions. They are remembered as an industrious people, but also as a deeply religious God-fearing people. In fact, they feared God so much they escaped the persecution and oppressive norms put upon their religious practices that they planned to emigrate to South Australia. Unfortunately, an evil alien called, Boris who pretended to be God’s ambassador, led them astray and transported them to the Pilgrim Planet with plans to enslave them and breed an army from them.
Politics
Who controls the society and how do they control it?
Although in Diamonds in the Cave the Wendish community are emerging from the ruthless fascist control of Boris, having been saved from his clutches by the good guys Intergalactic Space Force (IGSF), in my previous book, The Lost World of the Wends, they are still politically and structurally fragile and finding their way. They have reverted to the ways of old where the Burgermeister runs the village and decisions are made by all villagers gathering in the church. The Wend community is by this time a theocracy. However, Boris still has his influence with a couple of his agents hiding in plain sight in the village. These agents are stirring up the Wend community to seek out witches and burn them.
Economics
What is considered valuable? And how are products bought and sold?
Apart from food and the products from farming used to be self-sustaining, as was the custom back in Eastern Europe in the mid-nineteenth century, mining minerals and ore for power and energy for space travel is taking off. Mutants who have been freed from slavery under Boris have been brought in to help develop the village building houses and mining in the local mountain range of Mount Martin. The Wend villagers begin to regard the mutants with suspicion and they become targets for witch-burnings.
The currency that the Wend community use are “pfennig” (pennies) and thalers, like what they used in Saxony in the mid-nineteenth century. Products are bought and sold at market which is open every day except Sunday. Sunday is the Lord’s day, a day of rest.
Social Structure
Who are the most important people?
The Burgermeister (Herr Biar), the pastor and the doctor (Dr. Zwar), who in Diamonds in the Cave is the pastor. Prestige is shown by the assets the high-status ones have. The doctor owns a Mercedes. Herr Biar has a beautiful, large brick house and large farm.
Least important people?
The mutants, old single women (Gertrude) and women who don’t fit in the community (the female heroine, Minna). They are the prime targets for witch-burnings.
***
That’s all for my little exercise for starters. I found it helpful to clarify my ideas for the world in which my characters live in Diamonds in the Cave.
Have a go yourself using the GRAPE template or click on the links below to try one of the other templates that looked useful.
Let us know how you go? Or if you have found a template that works for you, send us a link.
It’s been one of those months busy, busy, busy. I was asked to write a blog about world building and failed miserably. That’s how it is with me and the idea and how to of world building. While in my first blog on the subject, now titled “Before World Building” I floated into dreaming and imagination, I did not realise that for most people in the world in which I live that airy fairy imagination doesn’t cut the muster. For them it’s the details and secret rules that only a Fantasy role playing gamemaster has access to. I’m not a game master.
My one foray into fantasy role playing ended badly, another epic fail, where, despite it being “free form” I had no idea how to operate in this peculiar world that the “game master” had constructed. It had rules and I was constantly breaking those rules.
The first thing about World Building is it’s about rules. Like if you have a game. You have the boundaries or field of that game. The field looks a certain way like the stage or land in which you story is set. For example, you may have goal posts if it’s a football game. The field will have green grass with markings. And so on. Then in the game the players are dressed in team colours and have roles like goal kicker and goal defence. Just like in your story, your characters dress a certain way, have roles and personalities. The game has of course rules that the players must follow, just as in you story the village or land will have laws, culture mores and religious practices they must follow.
So, you can see that it’s advisable to think about these “rules” for the world in which your character lives and into which your reader will vicariously enter. In the world the reader enters, if the world is believable, the reader suspends disbelief and immerses themselves in that world. I should mention here that Mary McDee has written a yet-to-be published children’s story “Chaos in the Kingdom” which has a land which she has mapped out, and there were specific rules of language that the characters must obey. And in my own Sci-fi books, I spent decades researching Astronomy, space travel, physics, UAPs (formerly UFO’s), alien first contact and abductions to make my story of Minna’s alien abduction by Boris believable.
This then is the premise of how to create a world. To be frank. I have no idea how I land on creating my worlds. I brainstorm. Research. Write notes. Do character profiles. The story develops and I write it. In the process, the world forms around the story. This, I’m finding works well in the world we know—our contemporary world. For the Science Fiction or Fantasy genre, since the worlds are alien to our general human world view, the writer needs to delve into greater detail to make the world cohesive, consistent and believable for the reader. Tolkien’s last uncompleted work before he died was The Silmarillion which as I understand was his notes building a fantasy world. It’s a decent sized book. As for me, I spent over thirty years planning, researching, world-building and writing my first book, Mission of the Unwilling.
Now, on that line of thought, about conveying the details of the world in your story, there is a danger for the author to become bogged down in too much information to describe their fantasy world. Have you ever read a book which spends three quarters of the story on developing the world in which the characters live? I have. Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I laboured through three hundred pages of the book describing every square inch of Paris, before I reached the interesting story part. I dare say, the novel served me well when we did visit Paris a second time in 2014. Victor was just following the “rules” of world building…And playwrights and movie makers of the Hunchback of Notre Dame plays and movies were eternally grateful.
Not sure if I tackled such a 300-page info-dump, I could have Victor Hugo’s success. One of the world building articles I read advised against overloading the reader with detail.
On another note, about being OCD about detail, is that it can stall the writing of the work or story. I remember one of my first attempts to draft a novel. I was 18 and had this idea for a fantasy romance. Like any obedient aspiring author, I asked my playwright uncle for advice. Build the world, he advised. Do a story map. Make a diagram or graph of the characters and their relationship with each other. So, I did. Spent all summer building the world and the storyline never happened. Those pages now languish, buried in a cupboard somewhere…covered in dust.
Yet, what is the essence of World Building? How is it done? I believe that central to the art of it is creating. Creating a world or stage in which the characters physically live, move about and interact with. Creating a past from which the characters come and what has made them who they are. Creating rules, norms, boundaries, habits, means of communication, and attitudes that defines the characters as a race or type of being. Creating the mechanics of how stuff works in this world, either by peculiar or unique physics, chemistry, biologically or even dimensionally (are they two dimensional? Or six dimensional?). Creating a world view. Creating a conflict. Creating the people or beings who live in this world.
You may have noticed I have used the world “creating”. To create, I believe begins with imagination. Which is why I still think that whatever world a writer is developing, imagination is the key. The stories that resonate most with us, books like Tolkien’s classic Lord of the Rings, it’s because the world they create is unique and memorable and the reader wants to enter it and stay in there.
But, just in case I haven’t nailed it, because I’ve been general, and creatively waffly, here’s what my AI guru has to say about World Building:
World building is a crucial element in creating immersive and believable settings in a novel, especially in genres like fantasy and science fiction. Here are the main elements of world building:
Geography: This includes the physical layout of the world, such as continents, oceans, mountains, and climate. It sets the stage for the environment in which the characters live.
History: A world’s past can shape its present, so detailing historical events, wars, discoveries, and cultural shifts is important.
Culture: This encompasses the arts, customs, traditions, and social norms of the societies within the world. It also includes language, religion, and societal structures.
Politics and Government: The types of governance, political relations, and power dynamics between different groups and nations within the world.
Economy: How the world’s inhabitants sustain themselves, including trade, currency, industry, and technology.
Magic System (if applicable): If the novel includes magical elements, defining the rules, limitations, and effects of magic is essential.
Flora and Fauna: The creatures and plants that inhabit the world can add depth and wonder to the setting.
Rules and Laws: The physical and metaphysical laws that govern the world. This could include gravity, time, or even the possibility of traveling faster than light.
Conflict: The central conflicts that drive the narrative can be deeply tied to the world’s structure, such as scarce resources, ancient feuds, or clashing ideologies.
Characters: While not a direct part of world building, characters should be shaped by the world they live in, reflecting its values and complexities.
Effective world building creates a rich backdrop that supports the story and characters, making the novel’s universe as compelling as the plot itself. Remember, consistency is key in making your world believable and engaging for the readers.
For further reading to demystify the world building process, here are four links to posts which tackle the topic. They have done a much better job than I ever will on the topic.
Some time ago we told you the sad story of friends of ours caught up by a so-called “vanity publisher”. When their work was accepted (with a great deal of enthusiasm!) by this publisher, they were over the moon. Slowly, however, joy turned to frustration and financial loss to the tune of more than $30,000-oo. With nothing more to show for it all than only one single copy of their book they were hugely ashamed and embarrassed – not at all surprising as they are very savvy and have always dealt with life in a business-like way.
Fortunately, this bitter experience has not killed the urge to write. But it could well have done so.
However, we have become aware of the fact that, as well as this vanity publishing racket, there are a number of other matters connected with writing that are causing a degree of confusion among those of us who dream and scribble and dream some more.
The two words we want to deal with today are “printing” and “publishing”. They are not the same and they are not inter-changeable. Let me repeat that so you get the message –
THEY ARE NOTINTER-CHANGEABLE
Printing is something you can do yourself. All you need is a laptop; a ream of plain paper; a printer attached to your laptop; card for a cover and a good strong stapler or comb binding machine. Your magnum opus won’t look all that professional, of course, but it will be printed. If you require a better-looking job, you can source a printing business, make an appointment to discuss the details of exactly how you want your book to look; how many copies you would like and how much it will cost. End of story.
You may have ordered only a few copies to give away, in which case you pay up; collect; distribute and (hopefully!) bathe in the glow of all the congratulatory comments. End of story. On with the next.
On the other hand, you may have ordered a hundred copies with a view to selling them. Have you decided on a marketing plan? How do you intend to publicise your book so eager buyers will be aware that it is available for sale? Do you have a list of bookshops that might be willing to stock your deathless prose?
If you decided to jump on this bandwagon, you have now become a publisher. Congratulations!! I really hope you succeed and make at least enough money to cover your costs and maybe have a celebratory dinner as well.
Bottom line: publishers are businesspeople whose essential business is to produce books, market them and make a profit. They do not author books although some do occasionally commission a book on a particular topic from an author they know and believe in. Once they have found a book they consider marketable, the author is offered a contract. After this is signed the publisher works hard to ensure a profitable outcome; hard work that involves, among other things, editing, proofreading, printing and marketing – and that printing is done by a printing firm; a separate business.
Publishers are not printers and printers are NOT publishers. Not a case of “never the twain shall meet”. Far from it. Much more a case of mutual dependence as each cannot function without the other. Think of it as complementary co-existence.
Modern marketing is an amazing process. As more people use the internet to find out information about all sorts of things it’s not surprising that buying books is now subject to the same internet marketing strategies of so many other products.
I’ll give you an example from real life. My oven was in desperate need of a clean and especially the glass door. Before the internet I would have phoned my mum or a friend and asked, “How do you clean your glass oven door?” These days I google “How do I clean my glass oven door?” and I get lots of useful and useless answers and many adverts telling me that this particular oven cleaner is perfect for the job.
My original search did not get the product I needed. So, I refine my search and add “How to clean a glass oven door when it’s encrusted with fat?” And then I get more specific products and information. I may also add another keyword “How do I clean my encrusted oven door with an environmentally friendly product?”
The keywords in my search are: clean, glass oven door, encrusted fat, environmentally friendly.
Keywords are what people type into the Google, or alternative search engines. As I explained in my previous blog for marketing it helps to understand how search engines work. Key words are essential.
But, you ask, how does this effect authors?
There are millions of books online in so many genres. And within each genre there are sub categories of genre so key words become important words and/or phrases for readers to find the right book for them on Amazon and other platforms.
Try googling Romance books. You will get a list of different types of romance books. I selected Dark Romance books and got another list of keywords, hottest, extremely dark, possessive dark, dark kidnapping. Select one of these and you will finally get a selection of books in just the right genre sub-category you crave. So, before they get to your cover, blurb and reviews readers will find your book from the millions of other using key words.
Try a few different categories just for practice. I tried Fantasy novels and chose with dragons. I then selected romantic fantasy novels with dragons and finally you get to a list of books that fit close to what I was seeking. That list of books is where you want your novel to appear so it can compete with the others. After coming up on the list your cover and blurb will then win the sale.
Authors can select their keywords when they upload their book on Amazon and other platforms. It is part of the process for getting your book available as an e-book or print version. Before you start it is wise to research what keywords will get your book noticed.
Google keyword selection and you will find a number of websites that provide authors with the best key words for your novel. There are forums (Kindle forum, Reddit) lists of genres (Marie Cole) and my favourite from Draft2digital Specific Genres Literature and Fiction.
But can you change your keywords after you have published your book? The answer is Yes.
Keywords are classed as metadata so can be changed for free. (Unlike actual changes to your book cover or inner material which might incur a fee for changes) Just go to your publishing site and edit the novel metadata and review your keywords. Both Kindle Direct and Draft2digital allow changes to metadata but do check the term and conditions carefully yourself.
I’ve found this foray into keywords enlightening indeed (as one of my Regency romance protagonists would proclaim). I will be doing further research and perhaps update the keywords I so blindly selected when loading my books. Modern marketing is complex. I hope that this blog helps you navigate some of its complexities and increase your chances of your novel being found on-line.
Having a website is a great idea for authors. It allows them to showcase their books and builds relationships with readers. You can sell your books on-line through links to your book publisher. You can write blogs or newsletters for distribution, provide information about your life and writing career, advertise future releases and connect to social media. You can advertise author events and book signings. It is a marketing tool with a personal focus and while it can be tricky to set up it gave me a lot of satisfaction having a website. But mine hasn’t performed and languishes unread. Time to make some changes.
But where do you begin? There are millions of author websites in existence, and they all are competing for attention and sales. So how do you get your website noticed? Let’s find out.
Let’s start with the biggie, SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION – SEO
When I want to research a topic, I fire up Google and then work out what information I want. For example: I want to find out about SEOs. So, I type in “what is a SEO?”
(Some popular alternatives to Google are DuckDuckGo, Bing, Yahoo but there are over 1500 others to choose from including one called Dogpile?)
The response to my search is overwhelming. I initially got a very long and complicated one sentence explanation which didn’t make much sense. I then scrolled down to 76 (enough, there were more) companies giving explanations about SEOs. There were also several You-tube videos available with lovely people wanting me to find out visually what SEO’s are all about. They all invited me to click on their website and swallowed up in their advertising and sign up for expensive services to improve my website’s SEO.
I scrolled down to Wikipedia. I love Wikipedia and regularly donate when they put out requests. Yes, I know it’s not perfect but it’s a great first stop that can provide you with good information and directions for further research.
Wikipedia defines SEO as the “Process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or web page from search engines.”
Okay, what do I, as an Australian author need to improve my website’s SEO. Well, the Key Words are Australian and author. These narrow down my search to what is relevant to me. I Google again and get another long list of companies and individuals who want me to look at their websites and sign me up for their services.
I chose three web sites to explore:
Australian Writers Centre – it looked professional and offered a course on SEOs.
Jin and Co. Caught my eye with the proclamation “Two simple steps for authors to found in Google with SEO.
Amazon SEO for authors.
I chose the Australian Writers Centre because it looked professional. The tag “Two Simple steps…” caught my attention as it offered a quick and simple solution. I chose Amazon because they are a big brand and should know what they are talking about.
So, these services and companies drew me in with their presentation, that includes their titles, their choice of words to advertise themselves and their brand name. It is these factors that draw readers and potential customers. It is these factors that you must address to improve your own website.
The other big consideration is, Do I want to pay for a SEO improvement service or do it myself?
There are information websites for free. These are referred to as “organic” or “natural” traffic and is hard to find amidst the other monetarised websites. Many YouTube videos fall into this category, as does Wikipedia. I also found a Business.gov.au website and looked at Wix and LinkedIn sites for free information.
The second, and more prolific websites available are called direct traffic, which is really advertising. Advertising on-line includes emails (think Spam) Banner advertising where an advert decorates the bottom of a page. Pop – ups jump out at you at unexpected times, some webpages encourage you to join in a chat with a robot. The aim of these services is to get your money, which is fair enough if they provide a good service and you can afford them. All these websites are geared to draw you in and some of them make it difficult to escape from their greedy clutches. Ever found yourself in a website without a log out or delete button and you keep on going around and around looking for a X.
All these multiple forms of websites are guided by Algorithms.
Algorithms have been around since 2500BC in Babylonia. They are formulas that take complex date from a variety of sources and make it more user friendly.
In modern times algorithms are programmed by computers to work out what words and sentences are popular and gain the attention of browsers. They do this primarily through keywords, and getting the right key words, the name and the visual presentation of the site. It’s what draws attention to your website and, the books that you hope to sell.
Website marketing is a huge area to research and understand. I have found just this first step edifying. Watch out for more blogs on this complex topic.
References used in this Blog:
Wikipedia
LinkedIn SEO – 6 steps to optimise your profile.
Wix – Free SEO tutorials
Australian Government – Business.gov.au – Improve your search engine rankings.
My stories begin long before I put pen to paper or print words on a screen. They start in my head. Dreaming. Often with a dream. Or a vision. Or a “what if”. Or a memory.
My latest novel venture into crime fiction, began with a dream. Then developed with a “what if” and some memory thrown in. Fourteen years ago, my mum and I would discuss what if a child were given up for adoption, traced their birth parents and the reunion wasn’t the rosy one imagined it would be for the child. We had a certain character in mind when musing this situation. This person had their life together and would see their former “mistake” as an intrusion and something they’d rather forget.
Around this time, I had a dream about finding a body under a bridge. It was so vivid that I drafted a short story about the “experience”. I read out the story at writers’ group and received both honest feedback and harsh criticism for my efforts. The story was filed away.
Years went by and the ideas of the story percolated. Meanwhile I concentrated on my Sci-fi “War on Boris” series and the “Intrepid T-Team Travel Memoir” series. I travelled with my family and got on with life. In the background, I mulled over the characters and the world in which my Under the Bridge characters lived. I allowed the characters to move about and interact in the world of my imagination. I realised that I could marry the idea of an adoption reunion gone wrong with the body found under the bridge.
As ideas and situations emerged, I shared them with my mum and others. Along the way I began research into the issues around my crime fiction story. I familiarised myself with the genre. Read books and newspaper articles, watched crime shows, and listened to podcasts. All this absorption of information helped with the percolation process.
Five years ago, I sat down with pen and paper and began planning. After writing a sentence encapsulating the main idea of the book, I fleshed out the characters on paper. By this time in writers group, we had been given a sheet of paper that had set out how to write a character profile. I found this helpful in describing what my characters looked like, their main motivation and desires, their habits, personality, backstory and even fears. As I did this, the characters began to interact with each other, and the story began to take shape.
I decided to set Under the Bridge, being my first crime novel, in a place in which I was familiar. My home town, Adelaide. After all, the city has much going for it, and could be equated with “Midsommer” in the British Midsommer Murder series. It does have the reputation for the strangest and grizzliest of crimes—the Beaumont children (never solved), the Family murders, the Truro murders, and the bodies in the barrel murders, just to name a few. Come to think about it, I don’t know how I’ve managed to survive in Adelaide.
Into this I spent time planning the story line, timeline and chapters. Last year I wrote a synopsis and shared it with my Indie Scriptorium big-picture editing friend, Elsie King. She loved the premise, but gave helpful feedback on developing the characters more, giving them depth.
So back to the process of percolating, dreaming, visioning and having conversations with my characters in the shower…And research. As I have mentioned previously, part of that research has been delving into my family history. Although, in doing so, I have opened a Pandora’s Box of more stories that have started to percolate. Watch this space…We have so far: riches to rags (more than once), destitute to convict to doctor, missing on the Russian Front (or is he?), and mistreated orphans (sounds like another Dickens tale only this time it’s Dutch). I hope to write up short stories of these ancestors over time and after sufficient research and again, percolation.
Back to Under the Bridge, I then began to plot the chapters and timeline of the story. But I will deal with this part of the World-building process in Part 2.
Welcome to my new novel, A Suitable Bride. Impossible love, the dire need for an arranged marriage and a happy ending firmly place this novel into the Romance genre. And yes it’s set in the Regency era.
I got lovely feedback from my first novel A Suitable Heir so I hope my readers will enjoy this second foray into my favourite time in history.
The book will be available from the 30th April in both e-book and print copies. Please visit my website www.elsiekingauthorartist.com for links to purchase on-line.
I read an article by Draft2digital that said the best marketing for your first book is to publish a second. I certainly hope that this is true. Enjoy.
I’ve never really understood or considered tropes when I write something. I find it easier to write with a theme in mind. But Tropes are apparently important enough in the romance genre to provide the theme for the Romance Writers of Australia conference 2024. Time to do some research.
The Collins Pocket English Dictionary defines a Trope as ‘a figure of speech.’
The Collins National Dictionary is more extensive. It defines Trope as ‘a word or phrase used metaphorically.’
Roget’s Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases links Tropes with metaphors. And a metaphor is a way of describing one thing with a phrase that describes something else.
Examples: Courage – a heart of a lion
Love – the light of my life
Lazy – a couch potato.
A look at Wikipedia (bless them) says that the word Trope has undergone “a semantic change” and is now used as a rhetorical (persuasive) device in creative works.
So, to summarise: A trope used to be a figure of speech but has morphed into a commonly used metaphorical device in genres of rhetorical creative fiction. In simple terms they are the themes that readers want to have in a novel.
Some common romance tropes are:
Happy ever after
Lovers torn apart, fight to get back together
Forbidden love
Love triangles
Enemies to lovers
Amnesia
I have a secret
Some historical novel tropes are:
Marriages of convenience
Dual timelines
Political/social upheavals
Actual historical figures
Protagonists ahead of their time.
Research driven plots.
Fantasy tropes may include:
Good versus evil
Quests
Magic
Mythological species
Time travel
The list of tropes can be extensive for each genre but from what I’ve read it’s important that the trope is subtle, that it emerges with the story or it can become a dreaded cliché. These are tropes used so often they become a bit of a joke. Think of the dreaded Bodice ripper.
I hope you found my exploration of tropes useful. I have discovered that I definitely like happy endings, most of my characters are ahead of their time and some engage in marriages of convenience. I also like to use historical research to describe political and social upheavals.
And these tropes put me firmly into my genre; historical novels with a touch of romance.
My photo is of the black sand beach in Iceland made famous in Game of Thrones. Yet another example where an image can be used as a literary trope.
Now I have to work out what costume I’ll wear at the RWA conference that will clearly define a romantic trope.
I must admit I’ve only begun my journey onto this path. At this stage, it’s more of a side-gig than a career. So, I thought I better do research before spouting words of wisdom about what ghost writing is all about.
After gleaning a few articles online, I realised an experienced and quality writer could make a decent career out of ghost writing.
If only I had known, I could’ve seamlessly transitioned from research writing to ghost writing without a thought…once my boys had both gone to school. Imagine the flexibility, working from home and the money. Extra money for house renovations, more trips overseas, and perhaps a caravan for that longed-for lap around Australia.
But such literary adventures were not to be for me at that time.
These blog posts also advised that for landing a good ghost writing contract, a writer needs to prove their skill and worth by having published a book or two.
Now that I have spent the last fifteen years in writing groups honing my skills, have published five books, and recently set up with my writer friends, Indie Scriptorium Self-Publishing Collective, the time has come to investigate the prospect of ghost writing.
The idea arose out of a recent job I acquired to help a friend who is writing a biography of her mother whose family suffered under the Nazis during World War II. Each week she hands me another handwritten chapter which I type up and expand in places. The story is good, it’s there, but needs glue words and verbs in sentences to make it flow.
I realised that I had become a ghost writer. Or was I a hybrid editor?
In this case, although my friend is paying me an amount that they can afford, I’m doing the work as a favour, more in line with the ethos of Indie Scriptorium where a community of writers trade skills to get the work completed, and the book published.
Hiring a ghost writer can be expensive, but let’s say a person does get a ghost writer and has completed the work. Although some ghost writers claim to be a one-stop shop of the publishing process, it is advisable to have the book edited, test read, and proof read by different sets of eyes. In this regard, Indie Scriptorium might be ideally suited to help an aspiring author prepare their completed manuscript as we have the combined skill set to edit, proofread and design covers for their book. A couple of us can even help those who want to self-publish to upload their competed work onto a publishing platform. Done either for an agreed amount of money or in trading skills.
Is there an option for Indie Scriptorium to offer a ghost writer or two in the future? Currently, I personally, am still exploring this possibility. Such a venture, if undertaken to the best of my ability, would be a full-time task, and my other projects such as my novels, would have to be set aside for a time. The reality is, I still have stories in my head that I want to tell. And I am working on my friend’s assignment. Their mother’s story is one I have been waiting ten years to be told and shared with the world.
These are my personal thoughts on Ghost Writing, but for a more professional view about ghost writing here are a couple of articles you may like to look at.
Indie Scriptorium -- Self Publishing Collective 