Friday, November 16, 2012

Walking the Talk

Okay, so it's time for me to join the Blogger revolution and get on the marketing and social band wagon. Oddly, it's taken a few things lately to spur me into action, both with my writing and with gaining some much needed self esteem in my own abilities.

Recently I was in a social situation, conversing with a new friend of mine about a much talked about book - which everyone will know, pertaining to a colour which is not really a colour at all - when said friend said something to me which sparked an epiphany in my mind. Well, not really an epiphany, because I'm sure, somewhere in the recesses of my mind I did once know, but had seemingly forgotten the whole reason why I had become a writer in the first place. It seems lately I have become so absorbed in the writing world, and more to the point, the publishing world, that I temporarily forgot what it was to be a writer. So it's not a literary piece of genius. This is what I've heard lately and I tended to agree. But my friend spun a different light on it - one that put me back in to the mode I should never have escaped from. The reader's point of view. Why, oh why, did I ever let myself deviate from this? I'm a writer for goodness' sake. How did I ever let my readers' opinions slip from my conscious thought? Said friend, politely, and without even realising she had done it, reminded me why I write at all. From her vantage point, being a married woman with two young children, the book was an escape. It was also a realisation of what might ultimately be missing from her own relationship. And in this respect I'm not talking about the fancy fringing of ultimately what the story is about, but more appropriately the way the Protagonist makes our heroine feel. That was my lightbulb moment. How the reader feels while he or she is reading, is the whole point. This is why we write.

Secondly, I was lucky enough to see one of my idol authors this month. When my husband first used reverse psychology on me and I found myself knee-deep in a creative writing course at the Canterbury University, one of my fellow classmates pointed out that if I was going to write romance, I must check out Paullina Simon's Bronze Horseman series. I hastily went away and bought my own copy, and quickly devoured all three books. I can't say that Paullina's story was the only thing responsible for my own writing, but she was certainly there with me when I embarked on my life-changing 'hobby'. Seeing Paullina in the flesh was one of the best things I could have done for my own self esteem as a writer. Like most writers, published or not, we share many traits and beliefs. She's very passionate about what she does, her characters, her stories, and I was sitting there thinking how unabashed she was about sharing what she does with her readers. She believes in what she's doing.

So, it's time I do too.

Between me and Helen, we have four published novels under our belts, with another one on it's way. I'll be the first to admit, if I went back now there would be plenty I'd change about all of them - including edits and rewrites - but ultimately, they're great stories, with well fleshed-out characters and emotion-invoking plots. They're not epic sagas. They're not historic dramas. But they are beautiful stories about real women in the real world who will take their readers out of the mundane on the journey to find love.

6 comments:

  1. I suspect you always were "a writer", you just needed the push to become a "published" one ;)

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  2. I think you're right, Andrea, so the next step is to market myself as one ;)

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  3. Great to see that you've entered the blogging world, Paulette! I look forward to reading what you've got to say.

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  4. Hi Paulette,
    You hit the nail on the head. We write to evoke emotion. I love that. Thank you for reminding me. I think I'm going to pin that up in my office. I never guessed you too have to push yourself into the marketing world. With all you have to do, how do you find the time?

    Love your blog!

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  5. Hey Julie, welcome to my blog :) I'm afraid time is something I haven't mastered yet...I've always been terrible with my own time management...it's there, I just have to slot it in around everything else! No rest for the wicked, don't they say?

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