January 2017 – Marriage, A Journey and A Dog

th-4 The Pleasure of Making up Stories

This is National Story Telling Week – a good time to write a new story?

Stories have entertained humans since communication began, and spread throughout the world before writing and the printing press. Stories were told on street corners and in plays, they were drawn in pictures and written on stones and in sand.

Now we listen or watch stories every day. Stories entertain, but are also reflections of life and a necessary part of the human thinking process. A story can try to make sense of something that we don’t understand.

There is no evidence of fiction in the animal kingdom except to mislead in the pursuit of food. Imagination – the ‘what if ?’ question is a part of the human brain. Storytelling and understanding sets us apart from the animal kingdom. We tell true stories to mirror an event, exaggerated stories to make them interesting and stories which are the product of pure imagination.

This blog is a precursor or opposite of Shed Loads of Money (3 of 6). It’s about making up stories and taking pleasure in the experience and in sharing what you’ve written if you want to.

Great works of literature have come about and stories have been made up just for the pleasure of doing so. Some have hung around in notebooks and others been consigned to waste bins. Sometimes they exist by word-of-mouth, like a children’s story made up in families. Let’s look at some of the reasons to write, dance, act or paint stories.

Using Imagination

Exercising Creativity

A Fun Hobby

Keeping the brain active

Self expression

Communicate a message

Can you add more reasons? (To tell a truth, to impart an idea)

Have you read fiction thinking ‘I could do that’? Well, give it a go. It isn’t as easy as it may seem but none the less a lot of fun.

The pleasure of story creation comes in the freedom and opportunity to do so.

Use triggers – focusing on a creative outcome improves with practice.

Stories can be reworked many times to improve them or develop new ideas within the structure.

If you would like to write a story about A Story Teller add it your blog and enter a link with the title and a 100 word synopsis in the comments so that other people can read it.

Blog 5 Next – Enjoy writing poetry and playing with language skills.

Making shed loads of money.

Is your writing Commercial and what can you do to make it so?

Fiction writers

Have an original and exciting idea. Study what is out there in your chosen genre.
Draft it and see if you think it will work and stand out in a crowded marketplace.
Redraft loads of times correcting content and grammar. Edit to the bone. This will take ages. In my case months. Get your book professionally edited when it is already at a high standard.
Write in an interesting style i.e. Use your own unique voice in your writing and don’t change it.
You need good computer skills and constantly update them in order to prepare your manuscript publication.
Discover social media for marketing and be prepared to do up to two hours a day working on it.
Understanding relatives, willing to put up with your absence in order for you to follow your dream.The reality is that you will make more money going to work, at least for a few years. To begin with, it is a loss maker and ‘may always be’ so remain sober with your dreams.
You need understanding friends who might get fed up with hearing about your writing and may think that to write you to at least should have a best selling book when you start out. The fact that you haven’t might frustrate you and your friends.
When you start to think about giving up work to write and you have no evidence to suggest you can do this, then recognise you are dreaming, It is OK we all need dreams for the future but you can’t eat them.
When you have a wonderful, well edited book with a brilliant cover (you probably paid a few hundred pounds for), great blurb on the back you need LUCK and plenty of it.
Start writing your next book and be prepared to wait a year or two before seeing any results from the time you started writing. It’s called patience.

This is the way you stand an outside chance of making shed loads of money. In the mean time, enjoy writing, enjoy learning, enjoy making writing friends. I wish you ‘Good Luck’.

This blog is intended as food for thought for those starting out. If you want to ask questions do, and if you are an experienced writer and would like to add to what I’ve written I’d be pleased to have your comments and make this blog useful for writers starting out.

ebook trialing your book is a good way to start before printing a paperback. This still requires computer skills. Take a look at Createspace.

Fact is different. Presumably you know who your readers will be. Write for them and not for yourself. Edit, edit, edit. Know how you are going to market it and how long its shelf life might be.

When it comes to marketing I have found the books of Gisela Hausemann useful. Look her up on Amazon and she has a Facebook page. There are lots of books and articles on Google to help you on your way. Any links, please add.

Please add your comments and let others know how you have found the writing experience, and please don’t put up a book with typos, poor grammar and a useless idea as this makes it difficult for great writers to be found.

Next week The pleasure of making up stories.