The English Language Archives ⋆ L.J. Diva

PUT YOURSELF IN THE POSITION OF…

15/06/2017 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: The English Language, Writing Leave a Comment

A lot of authors constantly talk about writer’s block and being unable to come up with storylines or characters.

When writing, it can be hard to come up with something new. One of the things to do is use tv shows, movies etc as a base and then put yourself in the position of…a character or contestant, on the show, the astronaut, cop or paramedic in the movie, the role opposite your favourite actor… whatever the character is or does, pretend to be it and see what you come up with.

In other words…roleplay.

A Story is Like a Pot of Stew. Just one analogy on how an author’s story idea works.

08/06/2017 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: The English Language, Writing Leave a Comment

As an author, I’ve often thought about what it is I do, how I do it, and what sort of analogies comes along with it. And this is one analogy I’ve come up with. I’m sure many creatives will be nodding their heads as they read this, because at the end of the day, ideas for creatives are all the same, and come the same way, regardless of what it is we do.

A Story Is Like A Pot Of Stew

First off, start a fire, put a huge pot onto the fire, then fill it with water.

So far, it’s just plain old water. It’s the start of your story, your vague idea. You’ve got it in your head and you’ve written it down. It’s the pot of water on the fire.

Second, as the ideas come to you put them in, pretend they’re seasoning like salt and pepper then start adding your vegetables. Write them down/throw them in and soon the water in the pot is bubbling with all sorts of twists and turns in it.

Third, you add the meat which is your big crescendo or twist. You stir it around, you let it thicken and gain traction, and by the time you have a pot of thick hearty stew ready to enjoy, the story should be ready to go too. Ready to write down and turn into reality.

So there you have it, how a story is like a pot of stew.

For Authors, What Does ‘Not Well Written’ Actually Mean?

18/05/2017 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: Authors & Books, The English Language, Writing Leave a Comment

I recently had one of my tween stories given a review and that is what it said. It was not well written. But not well written compared to what? A literary masterpiece? It’s a tween story for god’s sake.

The review didn’t mention spelling, grammar, maturity, issues with the story etc, so not well written means what exactly? You could look at 100 books and none of them will be literary masterpieces. They will be written as well as the author can write it, but then that still may not be good enough for some people.

By what standards are they using? Their own? Not well written compared to their books? Their English skills? Clearly some people just expect everything to be a masterpiece. Except people don’t write like that. That’s right, NO ONE writes literary masterpieces without help. The very few books that become literary masterpieces are beaten to a bloody pulp by countless editors telling the authors what to write. So what do us mere mortal authors do? Do we write to the best of our ability and stick to that, or do we ask the reviewers to expand on their comments so we can get some idea of what they thought was wrong with it in case there actually was something wrong with it? Of course, it could just all be in their own head.

It’s a real pity there wasn’t more to the review than just, not well written.

At the end of the day what does not well written actually mean, coz I’m confused?

Author Versus Writer. What do either really equate to?

11/05/2017 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: Authors & Books, The English Language, Writing Leave a Comment

There have been a lot of blog posts and columns about this topic, so I’m going to weigh in myself.

Some people believe that authors are not writers and vice versa.

Some people believe that writers are not authors and vice versa.

Some people think you can be both.

I think that each word/title means something a little different.

To me, a writer is someone who writes different things across different areas, mainly non-fiction columns, blog posts, web stories, magazine articles etc. They are writing, so they can use the label writer.

To me, an author is someone who writes books, fiction or non-fiction. Yes, they are a writer, but since the primary object is books, to me, the title of author seems more fitting.

To me, a novelist is someone who writes novels. Hence the title, novelist.

To me, a blogger is someone who blogs. Hence the title blogger.

To me, a columnist is someone who writes magazine/newspaper columns. Hence the title, columnist.

Get the picture?

I think it all means something to everyone and I also think it depends on what you write. If you do a bit of everything, go ahead and call yourself a writer. But I don’t necessarily think an author needs to call themselves a writer even though they write.

To me, that would be like calling a reality show contestant a celebrity…

ah *shudders*

It’s all much of a muchness and what you want to call yourself is up to you, just make sure it has some authenticity to it.

L.J. Diva’s 2017 Writing Plan and some great quotes from Debbie Gibson and Kristine Kathryn Rusch

16/02/2017 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: L.J. Diva's Books, Publishing, The English Language, Writing 2 Comments

Last year I released three short stories and an anthology under T.K. Wrathbone, as well as the paperback edition. I also released #teenblogger to paperback under Tiara King and released the three Porn Stars books across September and October, after writing them in April and May, with the fourth of that series to be released in March of this year, more on that I future weeks.

Since then I’ve written three more books and have more to go in that series. The book I wrote in November emotionally exhausted me and made me bawl my eyes out daily because it has a heavy storyline and I was watching documentaries and movies to get the vibe of the time and era. And then, because the universe gave me the idea while writing book #2, I started writing book #4 (formerly #3). And it’s been a huge bastard. Let’s hope the rest will be novellas or short stories because I really cannot write another long book because writing is so damn tiring!

Here’s a quote from prolific author Kristine Kathryn Rusch from a podcast with author Joanna Penn…

My writing plan for 2017

(1) Under Tiara King the two series I had planned to write have been waylaid for another year or two but…

– 1 – I will be releasing a six book series plus omnibus edition (title to come but it’s awesome I promise) from March 1st in pre-release across e-book and paperback. It’s a look into another side of me and I typed everything up in the September school holidays of 2016 and #1 is currently with my book designer being finalised.

– 2 – I will be releasing two books in paperback, How To Be A Jewel Diva and Closet Confidential which have been finalised for release sometime in the next month or so.

– 3 – I want to get #teenblogger to Ellen DeGeneres so need to craft a letter to her. If anyone can help me out with an address of where to send presents and stuff to her that will actually get to her, much appreciated.

– 4 – I wanted to get my jewellery back into its own website last year but a whole bunch of other stuff came up instead, so it’s on the plan, but we’ll see. So once again selling will be on hold during the year as I cannot deal with all of it. I’m currently looking for wordpress.org templates that would suit the type of website look I want.

(2) Under T.K. Wrathbone

– 1 – I’m releasing a paperback in March called Two Bone Anthology 2 which is last year’s stories in paperback.

– 2 – I will get three stories written, typed up, edited, assessed and out along with an anthology. Thank God I have already done the e-covers.

– 3 – Get the paperback version of them done.

(3) Under L.J. Diva

– 1 – I want to get the first four Porn Stars books done in paperback plus an omnibus edition of all four and release them in September.

– 2 – type up book #2 and have it edited, assessed, a cover done, the interior done and release it in September. But who knows, it may not come out until March 2018 considering everything else I’m doing.

– 3 – get books #3, #4, #5, #6 typed up along with any short stories if I have time.

– 4 – consider a website for the book series, plus an author one purely for books so I’m currently looking for wordpress.org templates that are awesome for books and authors that provide a decent layout and author plug-ins.

– 5 – get family and business trees for the book series made up but I’d have to do that done in Word or on PicMonkey. The Stephanopoulos family tree is huge and keeps growing with every book, along with the business tree so I’ll need a lot of space to fit everyone in. I also have character lists and a family/book timeline typed up. And I’m not even done with it yet.

Now, while I had a plan for what I was going to do and a yearly writing chart, clearly that has changed across the board with all three names because Porn Stars keep coming in my head. It’s obviously for a reason; I’ve had more ideas for these books than any other. So I figured I may as well grab it with both hands and run with it because the universe is giving it to me for a reason.

I read an interview with Debbie Gibson a while back and something she said resonated with me so I tracked it back down and made a quote of it. It’s quite relevant to anyone writing, or doing anything else creative.

The only way I can get everything done is slot it into a week/month. Once Retribution is up for pre-sale, I will start typing up book #2 and slowly get that done across five months until August. It will be up for pre-sale September 1st for a September 19th release date so Aug is the final month to work on it (IF I’m able to get it done on time otherwise it will have a March 2018 release).

While it is being edited and assessed I can do other things, such as T.K. Wrathbone stories which will take a day or two each, plus have my Tiara King books done, as well as finishing up the other Porn Star short stories and books. Once book #2 is released regardless of it being in September or March I can start typing up book #3 and deal with that until February/September 2018.

I work until 12 or 2 most nights, so that’s about 14 hours work, 6 hours sleep and four hours feeding, watering and showering both of us. Thursdays no work gets done because it’s bill paying/shopping/library day, but hopefully I can get my Fridays back because the blood nurse has now finish up with mum as of two weeks ago.

So, that’s my book plan for 2017. It’s set up until at least 2020, and probably beyond. Hopefully the universe will wait for me to finish with Porn Stars to let me have time to write the two jewellery series, plus the adult crime drama and teen book series, plus more short stories under Tiara King and T.K. Wrathbone so yeah, well beyond 2020. At this rate I’ll be writing until I’m 50. And that’s only 7 years away.

What do you guys think about the quotes?

Have you ever been emotionally exhausted by something you’ve done, or has the universe dropped something in on you that needed to get out?

Does pure, true talent really exist?

25/08/2016 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: Humans & Behaviour, The English Language 2 Comments

Talent has been made a big deal out of by many. People have told me I’m talented, and thank you very much, but let’s take a moment to study what it actually is all about.

To me, true, pure talent is so extremely rare. To me, it’s the ability to open your mouth and sing without ever having a lesson. It’s the ability to pick up an instrument and play it without ever seeing one before. It’s the ability to pick up a paint brush or pencil and paint or draw something that could only come from pure talent.

For the rest of us, it’s not talent, it’s practice and dedication to our craft.

How many actors go to acting lessons, how many musicians spend years perfecting their playing, how many singers spend years with vocal coaches, how many painters spend years honing their craft?

It is years of practice, rehearsals, educating ourselves on our profession, or hobby as the case may be for some. It’s only been the last few years that talentless hacks called reality show contestants are getting the jobs that many of us strive for years to get, learning our craft, polishing our act, all to be told that some little pissant is getting the gig because, well, they have more social media followers and will bring in the cash.

You don’t get to write a book overnight, unless it’s a very short one. You don’t get to write the way big authors do unless you’ve had years of practise and education on the ins and outs of writing and all that comes with it.

You don’t get to host the Tonys or Emmys unless you’re known, unless you have proven yourself on stage and screen, writing, producing, hosting, singing, dancing, doing everything because that’s what you spend years learning and honing and educating yourself on.

Talent is nothing but years of hard work and dedication to what we do. It has nothing to do with natural talent, as others may see it; it has to do with us being dedicated to what we love.

What about “child prodigies” who play the piano, violin or some other instrument? That’s purely practise from their mother’s sitting them down and making them rehearse. Asian cultures are more into that than we are. You don’t get to play the piano like that at three unless you’ve already been practising for two years.

And these “child prodigies” who paint? Take a look at the painting. If it’s just paint on a canvas then there’s no prodigy or reincarnation from some famous artist. Simply a kid who put paint to paper and the parents thought they could make a buck by calling it “abstract”. I’d love to see a five year old paint the Mona Lisa or Sistine Chapel.

No, very few people have true pure talent. The rest of us are just well practiced, rehearsed and educated on our craft after years of honing our skills.

Having said that, here’s pic of my books below.

I would not have been able to write these if it wasn’t for years of practise in English class at school, and my teacher critiquing me on them. After I wrote my first, The Road To Vegas, where the original draft was shit, I signed up to writing clubs and read a tonne of books. I googled what I could not find and asked questions, all in the pursuit of knowledge which is far more than what some people bother doing these days. I learned what it took to be a published author. And while I may not be traditionally published, I am still published. And that knowledge led me to writing my own book about self-publishing (middle bottom).

I’m also considering an author name change, more a simplification of what I already use, and will be using the new name on my new series. I’m seeing if they sell more with an initialled name on the front and then I might change the rest.

But as for talent, I have none. What I have is over 30 years of practise behind me. Whether it be in jewellery making or writing.

What do you guys think? Think talent is real or just dedication to the education of our craft?