Linda Nelson

Do you have morals you adhere to as a writer?

I know I do.

It is tough to build your morals as a writer/author when you go it alone and there is no one out there to teach you right from wrong. You scan the internet looking for ways to publish your book and get it to sell, but of course you will make mistakes. When you first start out you will stumble a lot along the way.

I’m sure you will do stupid stuff too. It is all part of the learning process.

The morals I have developed over the past few years have come from bits and pieces I have learned on many different blogs I follow. It might be from given advice in the blog or by seeing what another author did that they shouldn’t have done.

No one wants to be an example. Why? Because it is embarrassing, but once you learn to move past the embarrassment it takes you down a whole new path and a learning experience happens.

Examples can be:

poorly edited books you have published
over reacting to bad reviews
becoming offended when you can’t find readers
being offended at a critique session
stalking editors
stalking agents
Putting down other writers books in hopes of making your own look better.

After you get over your embarrassing moment you begin to enter your learning experience. There is no telling how long a denial period is for a newly published author. Some can take years before they are ready to grow from their experience, just like life in general.

Learning experiences can lead to:

Making multiple revisions of your published works until you can’t revise them anymore. Then waiting two years to go by and then taking another look at that story and attempt to revise it once again.
Learning to laugh at reviews or if they still bother you then don’t look at them. A negative review can be used as a heads up saying that maybe you need to return to that story and take another look at it to see if you can make it better.
You can’t shove your story down someone’s throat. If they want to read it then they will read it. Just accept the fact you don’t write for everyone. If you did then you would be God.
Learning that critique sessions are in your best interest. It is a good place to throw out your ideas and maybe brain storm with your colleagues. That is how some best sellers are formed.
If you write it and write it good the editors and agents will come.
Putting down another person’s book is not in your best interest. We all want to be liked and have our stories liked. If you really have found fault with a particular story then don’t leave a review. Give the author a chance to learn to make their story better. Send them an email instead letting them know what they might want to look into to make their story better. It is called paying it forward. Help them to become better writers.

Do you practice a writer’s creed?

Tell me about it. I would love to hear it.

Learning Your Craft: 4 Recommended Books for Writers (amandabumgarner.com)
Daily Prompt: Morality Play (jlroeder.wordpress.com)

Four years ago today I never once had it enter my mind that I was going to have written four going on five books. My first book – Friends of Choice – was just a pipe dream. Now I am able to say I am closing in on the first draft of Along Came Neil. I have a minimum of 14k words to go. I never even thought back then that I would consider writing a romance.

My book, Friends of Choice, it was written for me. I had fears living deep down inside me that needed to come out. This book banged around in my mind after my daughter left home unexpectedly when she turned 18. A friend of hers told her that now that she was 18 she could move out on her own and not finish school.

Things have a way of not turning out the way you plan. I had planned on going to my daughter’s graduation that never happened. She still has not passed her test for her GED either. I hear she is close but I don’t know how close she is to getting a high enough score.

You see, things didn’t turn out the way she had expected. She figured getting her GED would be easy Peasey. Not –

Then when I started writing Aaron & Keja, that book was just for fun. It was my way of toying with writing and publishing and just having plain old fun with my stories.

Witch Book came next. I enjoyed writing that book so much that I had the first draft written in sixty days. Almost a NaNo Wri Mo achievement, I just missed it by a month.

With Road Salt, my writing took on a more serious note. With this book I was on a mission after my son entered a residential drug rehab and had been in the program for almost six months.

He had been so proud to tell all the counselors that his mom wrote books he had me passing Friends of Choice around his rehab house. His counselor liked it so much she asked me what are you going to write next. I gave it some thought. There were topics in the news to choose from that dealt with substance abuse. The first one I thought of was snitching.

I presented the idea about snitching to his counselor – she didn’t like the idea. I didn’t give up. I was determined to come up with a new topic that she would approve of. It wasn’t like she was my publisher or editor. It was more about the beliefs of the program he was in. I wanted to write a book that his counselor would find acceptable.

Then I saw her – one Sunday morning on the local TV news station. She was talking about the dangers of Bath Salts – a new designer drug that was having devastating effects not just in the US but world wide. It was being sold globally in our own store fronts legally and online.

So the next time we met with her I told her what I came up with. I pitched it to her and she loved not just the idea of the book but also the name.

That is how Road Salt came to be.

I look back on that past year while I was struggling to come up with the next title and how my desire to write began to change.

Call it inspiration or desire – I now call it a need because each story has made me feel good when they have been completed.

How is your writing week going?

Tell me I’d love to hear from you.

What has inspired you to write the book you are working on? Is there a cause that is a driving force in your life?

Cheer on other ROW80 writers by visiting the Linkey List.