Indie Author Month: Guest post – Rosie Threakall

Hello! I’m Rosie and I blog at https://rosiefrecklereads.wordpress.com/ and when Nicola tweeted about Indie Author Month, I knew I HAD to get involved. Me and my friend Josh Baldwin are bringing out a young adult contemporary, dual perspective novel on the 4th September.

I have always loved writing and making up stories. Whether it was setting up a school for my teddies, playing Harry Potter in the school playground or wishing away my science lessons with the characters I created in my head, it’s always been a part of my life. It wasn’t until university where I thought “yeah, I could do this.” I did a drama degree, so I was no stranger to my work being criticised and you have to get over that self doubt pretty quickly. I mean, with performing I’d done that by age five, but my stories had only ever been for me. It was a whole other ball game allowing people to hear my stories. Some were awful and I mean AWFUL but that was first year. I didn’t want to take a playwrighting class in second year so I didn’t get back into writing until third year. I would feel so nervous to the point where I’d get sweaty palms but my friend would read my work, and people wouldn’t cringe. This was, in my mind, a huge achievement. It was a natural choice for me to do an extract of a novel for my final piece and it was the best thing, writing it. I fell in love with characters I can’t wait to revisit at some point. when I got more into book blogging and saw authors at events talking about their books, I felt “that could be me one day” (thank you Katie Webber).a

Indie Author Month: Guest post – Samantha Nicklaus

I’m Not Going to Read, Read, Read!

I hate writing advice. I go out of my way to avoid it, to ignore it, and to actively disregard it. Writing, like all art, is too personal to advise. What works for someone else won’t work for me. What works for me won’t work for someone else. If you happened to find writing advice that clicks with you, it is sheer dumb luck.

Indie author month: guest post – G.R. Dix

Adults in children’s fiction – Villain, Useless or Reactive?
GR Dix

I think a useful ‘rule’ to have in children’s stories concerns the adults that interact with the main character(s). Essentially this rule states that, in terms of the events of the story, every adult in the hero’s life must be either:
• the Villain – self-explanatory;
• ‘Useless’ – not completely useless, but provides no help with the problem your hero must overcome (e.g. a parent);
• or, ‘Reactive’ – that is to say, they will only provide the specific help, advice or information that they are asked for.