Technical Friends!

Remember that old fashioned method of communication - talking, yes I mean seeing somebody in person and actually speaking to them...  I'm a bit old fashioned I'm afraid, but tt's funny to think that in this day and age we have 'technical friends'. I'm referring, of course, to people we are friends with online, but perhaps are never fortunate enough to meet in person. As I see it the world operates on two levels, the real person and the one we only know as a profile name or facebook photo...  Can a 'technical friend' ever bridge the gap into reality do you think...? I'd like to think so, and recently the proof came to light that they can - hurray!
A lovely lady has offered to help me this week and we only met on twitter a few days ago. I'm always very pleased to find the private communication routes available on most media platforms. They offer the online friend the opportunity to speak more freely, and thank goodness for that, perhaps a 'technical friend' can walk the line into reality... what do you think?  I sincerely hope my theory proves accurate since there are so many people out there, and it seems a shame to confine ourselves to the laptop screen!
Jayne-Marie Barker
Author

Characters - Reality Within Fiction

I promised you this blog and here it is - how to create characters that really stand up, in a fictional sense of course!  My tips on how to make characters real (within the realms of fictions) include:

• Know your characters. It sounds so simple but it really does work. Get to know them well, before you start writing. Give them a full profile, note down everything you can about them from their shoe size to their hair colour. When you start writing you'll be surprised just how useful these notes become.
• Expand your characters. As we live we make mistakes, we learn, we grow... yes it's true. Your characters should develope in the same way that real people do. Think about how people react to bad news, how disasters change them, how good news makes them feel etc.  For example - if a family home is destroyed by fire in your story, think about what your characters would feel about the loss of the building, their home, their personal belongings; in particular the sentimental items that cannot be replaced. This is especially important if the fire was not part of the original plotline, or at whatever stage you first thought about your characters. Golden rule - if you alter your plotline remember to focus on what this means to your central characters, how this could affect their personality or outlook on the world.
• Commit your characters to memory. Throughout your novel writing process skip back to your character notes and refresh your memory. Even if your characters are living in your head and you think you know them better than the real people around you, just re-read and perhaps update your notes. It pays to be efficient with these things; you never know when they may come in useful.
• Observe. Generally speaking, writers tend to be good observers of real life, people, places, colours, scents, tastes. The next time you're in the waiting room, dreading the call to the dentist's surgery, watch the other people around you. It's incrediable just how much is availble to inspire your literary skills, if you only open your eyes. Of course I'm not suggesting you stare at people, or write about real people in detail; but you could mingle a mannerism of one person with the unique hairstyle of another and so forth... you get the idea!

So, that's it for now. Keep reading for more literary tips and feel free to add your own as comments.
Best wishes
Jayne-Marie Barker
Author

The Idea Highway

As a writer one of the most common questions I am asked is "where do you get your ideas from?"  Well, I'll tell you.  Everywhere, everyone, everything. Just the other day I was told about a fabulous plotline (sadly true and quite terrible but with a little twist here and there it could be an excellent fictional tale). Naturally, I would never write a tale exactly as it's told to me, not even in its entire format, but these things can spark up ideas and it's worth remembering that several small ideas can conjure up one fantastic plot; when pieced together in the right way. So there you have it - be careful what you tell a writer, you may see it turn up in their next book!

Happy Easter

Easter is almost upon us. Whatever your views on the subject, it is always a lovely opportunity to spend a few days away from the usual routine. Personally, I am looking forward to spending time with family and taking in that fresh sea air; there's nothing quite like it!
So, if you don't see much from me for a few days don't worry - I'll be back to normal before you know it!
Have a lovely weekend everybody!
Jayne-Marie Barker
Author

Happy Easter

Well Easter is almost with us. Irrespective of what your views on the subject are, it is certainly a lovely opportunity to enjoy a few days away from the usual routine! I'm looking forward to spending a few days with my family and taking in some of that fresh sea air.
If you don't hear much from me for a few days don't worry - everything will revert to normal in no time at all!  Have a great weekend everybody.
Jayne-Marie Barker
Author

Guest blog on Kindle Promo

New guest blog on Kindle Promo site, read it here: http://t.co/4hXNlb59
Many thanks to the lovely people at Kindle Promo who have invited me to publish this second blog on their site.

Guest Blog: David at Kindle Promo

Why Kindle Promo?
The hard work was complete. My book; The Stratford Fiasco was written. I had it critiqued by two different professionals along the way. I had the final version back from the editor I had employed. I had designed my own cover.  I had decided to go it alone and self publish. Finally I was holding the first hard copy of the real book. Fantasic!
What next – who on the earth was going to buy it? How would they know it existed? Sure I could tap up all my friends – that worked and I sold about 200 copies – now what?
I was sceptical about the social media sides of things, so I went to my local Waterstones and they agreed to stock it. I called up the local newspapers and got my photo in the local press. I called up a couple of the national newspapers to place an ad. Well the £4,000 fee put me off. Making a pound a book meant selling 4,000 copies to break even. Not likely!
I had a website for the book, so turned to twitter. I decided to open two twitter accounts, one as myself and one promoting indie authors in general. I figured if I was willing to tweet for others, they in turn would tweet for me and collectively we could reach a wider audience.
It kind of took off to a far greater extent than I imagined. My twitter account @kindle_promo has become inundated with tweets for me to retweet. I also have a couple of generous friends with twitter accounts that would also retweet my tweets and so the following grew. Due to the retweeting it is not uncommon for the tweets to go to over 100,000 twitterers. Now that would be expensive on ebay so not bad for free!
February 14th I started a Facebook page. Within a month it had over 200 likes and people regularly posting there. This would be OK if it would also attract readers. So to measure this I decided to start a website. www.kindlepromo.com was launched March 14th.
The initial idea was to have a place where other authors could place their books for free and try to spread the word about the site. 
In two weeks I have been contacted by a large amount of people with varying requests that I am now considering and many also want me to list their books. I am trying my best to list as many as possible and in a couple of months I will meet with some true web design gurus to see how I can make the site more user friendly and work on the SEO. So far it is all my own work and I am by no means any kind of web design expert – far from it.
I set up google ads on the site, hoping for some click through revenue and became an amazon affiliate. The goal was to try to cover the costs of setting up and running the site. I am not sure this will ever happen unless it really takes off or people all of a sudden go ‘click mad’! But I will stick with it until I come up with a better idea. With Amazon affiliates the site gets 5% of books sold. Seeming as most kindle books are a pound or so, you can do the math. 5% of a pound, several times, doesn’t add up to a fortune!
The traffic has been steadily growing which is encouraging.
The current challenge is to come up with a strategy and direction to take the site in, now I have proved the initial phase was what I would consider a success. I am working on plans of how I want it to look in the future and what content it will contain.
So stop by the site and feel free to contact me with any ideas, comments, critiques, requests or complaints!
Many thanks
David

A special thank you to David for being the very first to guest blog on my site! If you'd like to guest blog please contact me by email: contact@jaynemariebarker.com
Thank you, J-M

The Art of Plotting

Every good novel needs a structure. A solid building has foundations, without which it would collapse. The modern novel needs foundations to support the story in just the same way.  In my humble experience setting the foundations makes life so much easier. Trial and error and countless rejection letters have paved my way to where I stand today; on the beginning of knowledge.
Plotting is just one of the foundation tasks I find necessary to complete - in some detail - before even starting to write the story.  So, how do you plot? There are thousands of books available dedicated to the art of writing, building characters, plotlines, structure, themes...
Plotting in my world can be as simple or as complex as I choose to make it.  I tend to think of the plotline in an arc shape. Every plotline has its ups and downs, its climax and its resolution. Personally, I have eight points on my arc, and I ensure that the story twists and turns effectively around every point.
To begin, I list the points of the arc, then I toy with the order of the story's critical points until they fit nicely into the most dramatic sequence possible.
Once the main plotline is configured into an order of revelation I do the same with all sub-plots, ensuring that they weave into the main plotline in the right places.
I've never tried ths method myself but some people have yellow post-it notes and they move them around on a table until they're happy with the order.  I do much the same but on the laptop screen with cut and paste. If you struggle to plot out your story then try this method and see if it helps.
Next time - characters and how to create reality within fiction.
Jayne-Marie Barker
Author

Guest Blog at Kindle Promo

http://t.co/Yi5pQ0S5
The lovely people at Kindle Promo invited me to guest blog on their site. Link attached to the entry posted today about Virtual Marketing - The EBook.  Please feel free to read, share and forward link to friends and family.
Jayne-Marie Barker

New Listing for 'Beneath The Daisies'

http://kindlepromo.com/indie-books/indie-books-uk/
Many thanks to the site owners for listing 'Beneath The Daisies' on their website!