Theme - Your Writing's Message

Writing through themes.

I've been wanting to write this post since the workshop I recently took on How to Write a Series, hosted by the wonderful fantasy-writer Jennifer Fallon. There was a lot of information in this workshop, but as I usually do, I hone in one thing. Theme. I've come to see this is a week spot for me.

Jennifer explains that theme should drive your story, it should be the first thing you tell people in your elevator pitch when asked, 'So, what's your story about?'

Heck, I thought that was what premise was for. Premise is different from theme. Premise is the breakdown of what happens in your story. A one sentence synopsis. Theme is the message behind your story - what are you really trying to show people, exampled by your characters' journey?

It finally hit me while I was watching 'Forrest Gump' the other night. The premise is demonstrating how a young man can overcome any adversity and succeed in life despite physical and mental handicaps, no matter how much people underestimate him. The theme is more important. Lucky for me the themes are actually stated in this movie:

• Stupid is as stupid does.
• Life is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you're going to get.

And the unstated theme for me was; people die, love does not.

For my tween novel Dog Show Detective, my themes are easy, 'identity can be misleading', and 'Believing in yourself can lead to surprising results'. I'm struggling a little more with the themes of 'The Costume Maker'. I know it's based on prejudice, fear and identity - I just have to work a little harder to articulate that into a clear message. In the meantime, I've just started reading:

And today I'm off to attend a workshop on Creating Colourful Characters.

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A Writer's Idea of Souvenirs

Supanova was a new experience for me. I loved seeing so many people in costumes, ranging between store-bought, elaborately designed and homemade with sticky-tape and cardboard. Loved them all. Lots of pop-culture like manga, anime and dvd's, but also lots of books. Oh yeah, books *rubs hands together*.

My day started off with Jennifer Fallon's writers workshop on how to write a series. I'll share more about that soon. Today, I just want to share some of the souvenirs I bought home. The girls got loads of cool manga stuff, including this must have fox hat for Emily:

And for Matilda? Something less subtle - mittens to match your ears:

But my favourite purchases were the books! 

We got this series, signed by both the authors:

Matilda found these cuties:

I couldn't wait to try something by Jennifer Fallon, and she generously signed them:

And I am absolutely in love with these books by Kate Forsyth:

Emily was so excited to meet Kate Forsyth and get her books signed, she can't wait to read them and blog about them in the book review site she shares with her sister, Paper Dolls.

And to top the day off, the lady hosting the Penguin Books stand was so impressed with Emily's choice of costume (Katniss from The Hunger Games, complete with silver arrows and bow and golden mocking-jay badge), she gave Emily a free copy of Marie Lu's Legend. This novel won't be released until November, so Emily's quite excited about reviewing it early.

Now we need to look for more shelves for Emily's room as it fills with yet more books.

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Build Your Author Marketing Plan

Today I have to share a blog post I came across all about building an author platform. I HAVE to. Anthony at Book Cover Cafe posted the best advice on building your author platform I have ever come across (and you know I come across a lot).

Included in Anthony's post is a marketing map. Make sure you go there today, click on the map for the bigger size pic and print it. You can even laminate it - I won't think you're odd. This post brainstorms every avenue you can promote your writing and how to go about it. It's gold. Go get it.

How to get the most from your writer or author platform

And tomorrow I'm off to Supernova! A huge pop-culture expo that will be filled with books and writers and other fun stuff. My girls are getting dressed up as book characters for the event - you can read their posts about it at Paper Dolls. I'm also attending a writer's workshop in the morning on writing a series. Of course I'll let you know how that goes.

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10 Top Issues to Address in YA Fiction

Wassup YAs?

YA (young adult) is a huge market. So what makes a story appeal to teens? Apparently, they want novels that are relevant to their age group and the problems they face. A YA today may share some basic desires and problems with a YA in 1939, but you'll find there are quite a lot of differences too.

At a recent writers workshop we discussed YA issues, then I spoke to my English class of 16yr. olds and we elaborated and tightened that list. Here are the issues we came up with as important to young adults today.

1. Sexuality. This is a biggie. As I write this, I hear teen girls in the hall hassling a boy to find out who he 'made-out' with on the weekend. Many teens find this age-bracket very confusing, identifying their own sexuality and what is considered right or wrong by their peers. Some are embarking on their first sexual relationships (whether we want them to or not) and others are terrified about what will be expected from them (this is not just the girls). The students told me they do not like novels that ignore this issue completely.
2. Relationships and friendships. Social peers are the most valued relationships at this age (as a mum I want to think that must be a mistake, but sigh, no). Being left out or worse, pushed out of a social group is extremely painful.
3. Social power. There are hierarchies within groups for the teen bracket. Those are defined by your social power - how much influence you have over your peers. This can be influenced by sporting achievements, attractiveness and even how powerful you are on Facebook.
4. Social responsibility - The kids pleasantly surprised me by rating this as very important. Many teens see it as their responsibility to look out for their mates. This can also mean standing up for the underdog or even standing up against your peers (and risking your social power).
5. Bullying - Wow this has evolved over the years. When I was a kid you risked being punched (or worse - spat at) but now the most common risk is via Facebook slandering. I still haven't figured out why kids care so much about what some moron says about them on Facebook, but they do. Must have something to do with that social power hierarchy. One of the issues raised in my writing workshop was the fact that kids are online early in the morning, late at night and via their mobiles during the day (even during class time - grrr). This suggests there is no 'off' time - that people can reach you, and therefore bully you 24/7. At least in my day, when you went home in the afternoon it was all over.
6. Risk taking. Drugs, alcohol and misadventure are all playing a part in a lot of teens' lives. Unfortunately they believe that we as adults do not know what we are talking about and feel they are completely safe because they have their mates with them. Planking was a new topic that became an obviously dangerous pastime for students recently.
7. Belief system. Teens are coming into an age where they stop taking information provided by adults as being right and start making their own decisions about their belief system. This might manifest in some teens as an interest in or a rebellion against religion, or it might just be their ideas on social justice.
8. Freedom. Many teens feel they should be able to go out and explore life, live it the way they want, but due to financial and parental restrictions, they can not. This is quite frustrating (but after suggesting risk-taking as a part of their life, I can understand the parental restrictions!).
9. Anger. This has manifested in many teens, most likely due to hormonal changes as well as a desire for freedom but still feeling restrictions from family. In the extreme we have boys and girls lashing out with physical violence or self-harm (such as cutting).
10. Multiculturalism. This is a two-sided issue. It's important to teens to have a feeling of assimilation, so this would be heightened for any teen feeling their culture does not fit in with the local teens ideas of what is acceptable. It is also an issue for teens to accept new cultures into their community. This is an issue we are dealing with in class now as prejudice is one of the themes we are exploring.

Some themes will easily link together. In class we are exploring the relationship between prejudice, bravery and growing up. You can always add a theme in the editing stage. If you see one here that you think may be important to a scene in your novel, you can go back and foreshadow it. 

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Find a Market or Write a Market

I'm curious, do you write your novel with a market in mind, an age-group, or even genre? Or, do you get a story concept and write it, only to try and work out who your market is later? Logic tells me to identify the market first, picture my reader and write a story perfectly suited for them. But I think my muse may be a mischievous little pixie that likes to play pranks on me.

My dad is an entrepreneurial wizard, and I took a keen interest in marketing, undertaking studies in that area and early on in my career working for promotional agencies. I know the importance of identifying a market. You waste resources ineffectively shooting arrows in the air without a target in sight. But the creative side of me says 'I want to write a pirate story, about a little kid, for adults.' And I'm a sucker for the inspiration.

You type 'The End', then look around frantically to see who would possibly want to read this story you wrote aimed at your own individual and rare persona. Some writers do identify their target market first, and I applaud them (you're doing the right thing), but if, like me, you can't do that, all is not lost. 

As you develop your story idea, or if you're a panster, as you start writing, think about the plot emerging and what your main premise or theme in the novel will be. What is your underlying message? Who would benefit from this, who will care? It help you immensely in the end with your marketing plans, and with your queries to publishers. But also, by having that ghost-reader, sitting by your side, looking over your shoulder trying to read as fast as you write, I find this helps me push on through the tough parts of any novel. Knowing that they're out there, waiting impatiently for your book to be released. This makes me push onto to finish little zombie dog's tale, or plot out the next murder mystery for 11yr old Kitty and her dog Spade.

How about you? Can you identify your reader? Know where to reach them?

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Games for Writers

Alex J Cavanaugh is hosting a blogfest today about our favourite games. Here are my top three that I think writers will like:

Cluedo - hands down, my absolute favourite. Of course I forget to actually try and win and just have a wonderful time throwing red herrings and making accusations. Every time one of my opponents even flinches, I quickly jot down their suspicious activity. These notes do not help me win at all, but they do give me some fun new ideas for stories.

Sims Pets - Okay, I don't actually play the game, but I do love creating the dogs :) Sims is great for creating your characters, you really need to think about their features and dress sense.

Charades - Hey, it's cool. Yes it is. I just think this can be so much fun, and it makes you really think about words and their meaning.

I would have included Scrabble, but I have a wonderful friend who is zany and fun, but when it comes to Scrabble - she's turns it into a deadly extreme sport. Check out the blogfest, maybe there's a game you'd like to play with your family?

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who

Part of blogging culture is the awards and tags that gain momentum from one blogger to the next. I am always appreciative and humbled when I receive an award. I don't usually post them on my site or blog about them because I'm too forgetful to be that organised. But today I'm going to take part in a tag game - maybe I'm feeling frivolous.

Lynda from WIP IT has been sweet enough to tag me - check out her blog, there's lots to learn there. So here's the questions I've been asked to answer:

Do you think you're hot?

Pfft! I'm more adorable than hot... ;-j

Upload a picture or wallpaper you are using at the moment.

My screensaver changes daily. This is one that I pop on when I'm editing THE COSTUME MAKER.

When was the last time you ate chicken meat?

What the....? I did have a steak earlier this week that was cowering a little...

Do you have nicknames?

The very first time I entered a chat room (over 10yrs ago) I was warned not to use my real name - so people could not hunt me down. This made me roll my eyes - I chose 'notcharmaine' - that'd throw those sneaky chat-room assassins. Online I've been HotDoggy - but it's less sexy than it sounds, that was the name of the dog grooming business I owned. Then I was charmbug and chamclancy, but nowadays I try to stick to charmaineclancy. 

Tag 4 blogger friends (you are It!)

My first comment here is: don't feel obligated to participate - I rarely keep up with these tags - but if you'd like to share - whoohoo!

An Alleged Author

Book Dreaming

Dim's Write Stuff

Play off the Page

Who's listed as number 1?

An Alleged Author always has something interesting and often funny on her writing blog.

Leave a lovey dovey message for number 2.

This is easy, Shannon from Book Dreaming you are a natural muse. You selflessly give your time and energy to motivate and encourage others. This makes you the perfect writer and educator for children. They're lucky to have you. I've been lucky too.

How did you get to know number 3?

Last year I went to my first ever writer's conference at CYA. It was so amazing I will be heading there again this year. This is where I met Dimity, she has a great blog where she explores how we write and shares helpful links.

How about number 4?

Mary from Play off the Page is always sharing uplifting messages. A great place to go to feel good with other writers.

Have a great weekend all.

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4 Rules for Book Covers

You know by now there is more to producing a novel than just writing it. You need to market it, build your platform and (if you self-publish) create your cover.

There are plenty of graphic artists you can go to for cover design, but perhaps you've decided you can do that yourself? If you're handy with Photoshop, chances are you can. But first, there's a lot of things to consider for your book cover design.

1. Market. Search online to see other book covers aimed at the same age-group and in the same genre as your book cover. What are the signature colours and designs (for example, black and red are popular for horror and paranormal fantasy, and, purple is often used for fantasy).
2. Title and text. Unless you are a household name, the usual rule is to put the title of the book big and the author name smaller. You've spent all that time coming up with an enticing title (I hope), now is the time to let it do the work for you. In a lot of online ebook stores, shoppers will be browsing through and noticing titles. And it is so important that you play with your colours to make sure the text pops against the background. The cover is the first point of sale between you and the customer. Don't put grey text on black or brown text on red. 
3. Image. This can be tricky. Unless you are an amazing photographer, you wont get one of those awesome photo shots that appear on a lot of book covers (especially YA). If you have art skills, use them. If not, try photo stock websites like Shutterstock. You can buy a licence to use a professional image for your cover.
4. Size. Don't busy it up. Remember, when you look through books on Amazon, mostly you are getting a thumb-size image. Check to make sure you book looks clear and enticing at that size. Despite the debates on pricing, a lot of customers buy books by appeal. Make sure they find your tiny little book cover appealing enough to click on it.

The key to marketing is communication. Your cover is a form of communication, you want the message to be understood and received positively by the receiver. Here's an example of a cover I really like:

Amanda Ashby's cover will appeal to teens, it's trendy and colourful. I like that the body looks like a teen, but the head is gone. This could be anyone, this could be the reader. The colours go great together and it is obviously in the fantasy genre from the images. It's girly, but kick-ass with the sword. I saw this thumbnail on a website and immediately went and ordered the book.

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