Lately I’ve been coaching several of my clients through the process of coming up with a good title for their book, so I thought I’d share my tips with you.
Let’s start by acknowledging a few things. The publisher is usually responsible for the final decision on title, and in the query stage, it’s not that important. In fact, some agents have said they don’t pay any attention at all to titles. But at some point, you’re going to want to think seriously about this. Your title is part of the overall impression you’re creating about your book. It can set a tone and create an expectation. Whether you’re pitching to an agent, or your agent is pitching to publishers, I think you want to have the strongest title possible.
Think of it this way: the better your title is, the better your chance that the publisher will decide to use it, rather than changing it.
So here’s what I recommend when you need a title, for either fiction or non-fiction.
First, make sure you know the genre of your book, and identify what kind of feeling or tone you want to convey with the title. Write it down. This is important, as I’ve seen humorous books with dead-serious titles, contemporary books whose titles say “historical romance,” novels that sound like self-help books… you get the picture. Be clear on what your title needs to instantly communicate.
Time to start brainstorming:
→ Find twenty books on Amazon that are in the same genre as yours and whose titles you like. Write down their titles. Try to get a feel for what works with your genre. What do you like about the titles? What don’t you like? Then put the list away for awhile.
→ Sit with a pencil and paper (and maybe your critique group and a white-board) and free-associate, making lists of words related to your book. Put them in columns: nouns, verbs, adjectives. If it’s a novel, list words that describe or suggest the setting. Then think about each of your major characters and write down words that relate to them. Think about the action in the story and write down verbs that capture it. If your book is non-fiction, list words that capture what you want your reader to think, feel or do after reading it. And words that describe what your book is about.
→ Nothing is off limits—write down anything you can think of that conveys anything about your book. Use visual words that suggest a scene. Other words that evoke an emotion. A sensation. A location. A question. You should have at least 100 words.
→ See if any of the words would work as a single-word title. Then start experimenting with different word combinations. Adjective-noun, verb-noun. Keep a thesaurus handy and look up other words. Write down as many word combinations as you can. Try not to self-censor at this stage.
→ From these lists, come up with at least 20 possible titles. Then put them away for 24 hours. Two things will happen: your subconscious may still be working on it; and when you come back to your list, you’ll have fresh eyes.
→ Go back to your title list. Add any new ideas you’ve had. Then narrow it down to three to five possibilities. Run them by a few people. (This may or may not help, depending on if there’s a consensus or the opinions are all over the map.) Take a little more time before narrowing it down to one. If you can, wait another day or two.
→ Remember your list of titles from Amazon? Go back to it. Ask yourself if the title you’ve chosen would fit the list—without being too similar or generic.
A few more questions to ask about your title: Does the tone of the title match the tone of the book? Does it convey the right genre (including time period if applicable)? Would it attract attention? If the book were spine-out on the shelf (so the cover and sub-title were not visible) would it still attract attention? Would a reader have any idea what the book is about just from the title? (Sometimes important for non-fiction.)
Once you’ve made a decision—celebrate!
Q4U: How have you decided on titles for your books? Do you find yourself emotionally attached to the one you’ve been living with since you first thought of the book?
When I first started writing, I took advantage of every opportunity to find time to write and to learn the craft. I spent some of my lunch breaks with my writing journal, jotting down ideas for future projects. While waiting at the doctor’s or dentist’s office, I read writers magazines instead of People magazine. While driving to and from work, I listened to CDs about the writing process instead of the Top 40 station. While my kids swam at the community pool, I outlined articles and researched magazines I would like to write for someday.
When my kids were asleep, I wrote. It may have been only two sentences or an idea for something that I wanted to do someday, but I wrote. I knew that I may not finish an actual article, but I also knew it was important to lay the groundwork for the career I was dreaming of.
Was it selfish to yearn for writing time when I had so many other things going on in my life? Many people may think so. I saw it as honoring the dreams God laid on my heart.
One of the biggest challenges we have is assigning importance to our dreams. We figure, why spend the time now when the things we want to accomplish are so far off?
Invest
We need to make the commitment to invest in ourselves. If we have a passion to do something, whether it’s open a business, write a book, or learn to dance, what is one little thing that can get us closer to accomplishing that goal?
It’s time to invest, time to lay down the groundwork, so that when the season comes to live your dream, you are ready.
In one of my favorite movies, Under the Tuscan Sun, there’s a scene where the lead character, Francis, is kicking herself for buying a villa in Tuscany. It’s a big, beautiful house—perhaps too big for a woman who is single and has no children. She cries to her friend and real estate agent, Martini, “I bought a house for a life I don’t even have.”
I will never forget the words Martini encourages her with: “Signora, between Austria and Italy, there is a section of the Alps called the Semmering. It is an impossibly steep, very high part of the mountains. They built a train track over these Alps to connect Vienna and Venice. They built these tracks even before there was a train in existence that could make the trip. They built it because they knew some day, the train would come.”
That is the kind of faith we need for our dreams. To know that someday, the train will come. To know that someday, we will have time to live out our dreams. To put down visible, tangible signs saying, “This is the life I’m going to lead. I am preparing the way for what is going to happen. I know that God is faithful to finish what He starts, and He is faithful to complete this in me.”
Laying down track looks different for each of us. It may mean signing up for a class or subscribing to a magazine related to your passion. For some people, it is just admitting to a friend (or even to themselves) that they do have a dream, and that they want to see it become a reality.
What is the next length of track you need to lay down?
Full Name --
Meaning of Name --
Nickname --
Birth Date --
Astrological Sign and Details --
Birth Place --
Age --
Race --
Hair Color --
Hair Style --
Shape and Features of Face --
Eye Color --
Skin Tone --
Any Scars or Distinguishing Marks --
Build or Body Type --
Height --
Weight --
Family and Childhood:
Mother --
Father --
Parents' Occupations --
Family Finances --
Brothers --
Sisters --
Other Close Family --
Best Friend --
Other Friends --
Enemies --
Pets --
Home Life During Childhood --
Any Sports or Clubs --
Schooling --
Favorite Subject --
Popular or Loner --
Important Experiences or Events --
Health Problems --
Culture --
Religion and beliefs--
Your Character's Character:
Bad Habits --
Good Habits --
Best Characteristic --
Worst Characteristic --
Proud of --
Embarrassed by --
Driving Style --
Strong Points --
Temperament --
Attitude --
Weakness --
Fears --
Phobias --
Secrets --
Regrets --
Feels Vulnerable When --
Pet Peeves --
Conflicts --
Motivation --
Goals and Hopes --
Sexuality --
Exercise Routine --
Speech --
Tag Words --
Gestures --
Day or Night Person --
Introvert or Extrovert --
Optimist or Pessimist --
Special Abilities or Powers --
Likes and Styles:
Music --
Books --
Magazines --
Foods --
Drinks --
Animals --
Sports --
Social Issues --
Color --
Clothing --
Jewelry --
Games --
Websites --
TV Shows --
Movies --
Greatest Want --
Greatest Need --
Where and How Does Your Character Live Now:
Home --
Household furnishings --
Favorite Possession --
Most Cherished Possession --
Neighborhood --
Town or City Name --
Details of Town or City --
Married Before --
Children --
Relationship with Family --
Best Friend --
Other Friends --
Enemies --
Car --
Pets --
Career --
Dream Career --
Dream Life --
Love Life --
Sexual Turn Ons --
Sexual Turn Offs --
Hobbies --
Guilty Pleasure --
Sports or Clubs --
Talents --
Finances --
Greatest Strength --
Greatest Weakness --
Health Problems --
Culture --
Religion --
Your Character's Life Before Your Story:
Past Careers --
Past Lovers --
Biggest Mistakes --
Biggest Achievements --
a) If your character could have two whole weeks for vacation and go and do anything he be and why? (pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, sloth)
c) If your character could bring one person back to life and spend a whole day with him or her, who would it be and why?
d) If your character won a three-million dollar lottery, what would he or she do with the money?
e) If your character could change one thing about him or herself, what would it be?
f) What would your character do to relax after a bad day?
g) Where would your character go to hang out if he or she wanted to feel comfortable?
h) What does your character do when he or she is angry?
i) Does your character have a secret passion? What? Why is it a passion? And why is it a secret?
k) If your character were asked to describe him or herself, what would he or she say?
l) Where does your character want to be in his or her life, ten years from now?
m) A tear jerker is on. How would your character react if alone? How would your character react if with others?
n) Deep down, what does your character really think of his or herself? Do they think they are fair, moral, honest, etc...?
o) What does your character think would make a perfect first date?
Welcome to over one hundred of the dumbest questions about your character. These are things that, if someone were to ask you in real life, you could answer without giving it any thought whatsoever. Most characters, however, can't answer this because authors never think about it - it's unimportant. Well, these things are going to help you define you character more.
Some tips: Answer these in character, but only in a situation where your character would be 100% honest with themselves and with the person asking the question. Otherwise, answer as an author, and still be 100% honest.
Mandatory Questions
1. What about you is heroic?
2. What about you is social? What do you like about people?
3. Of what benefit could you be to the current group?
4. Why would you choose to join the current group?
5. Invent an adventure/plot that your character would actively undertake (as opposed to just tagging along)?
Personal Questions
1. What is your real, birth name? What name do you use?
2. Do you have a nickname? What is it, and where did you get it?
3. What do you look like? (Include height, weight, hair, eyes, skin, apparent age, and distinguishing features)
4. How do you dress most of the time?
5. How do you "dress up?"
6. How do you "dress down?"
7. What do you wear when you go to sleep?
8. Do you wear any jewelry?
9. In your opinion, what is your best feature?
10. What's your real birth date?
11. Where do you live? Describe it: Is it messy, neat, avant-garde, sparse, etc.?
12. Do you own a car? Describe it.
13. What is your most prized mundane possession? Why do you value it so much?
14. What one word best describes you?
Familial Questions
1. What was your family like?
2. Who was your father, and what was he like?
3. Who was your mother, and what was she like?
4. What was your parents marriage like? Were they married? Did they remain married?
5. What were your siblings names? What were they like?
6. What's the worst thing one of your siblings ever did to you? What's the worst thing you've done to one of your siblings?
7. When's the last time you saw any member of your family? Where are they now?
8. Did you ever meet any other family members? Who were they? What did you think of them?
Childhood Questions
1. What is your first memory?
2. What was your favorite toy?
3. What was your favorite game?
4. Any non-family member adults stick out in your mind? Who were they, and how did you know them? Why do they stick out?
5. Who was your best friend when you were growing up?
6. What is your fondest, childhood memory?
7. What is your worst childhood memory?
Adolescent Questions
1. How old were you when you went on your first date?
2. It is common for one's view of authority to develop in their adolescent years. What is your view of authority, and what event most affected it?
3. What were you like in high school? What "clique" did you best fit in with?
4. What were your high school goals?
5. Who was your idol when you were growing up? Who did you first fantasize about in your life?
6. What is your favorite memory from adolescence?
7. What is your worst memory from adolescence?
Occupational Questions
1. Do you have a job? What is it? Do you like it? If no job, where does your money come from?
2. What is your boss or employer like? (Or publisher, or agent, or whatever.)
3. What are your co-workers like? Do you get along with them? Any in particular? Which ones don't you get along with?
4. What is something you had to learn that you hated?
5. Do you tend to save or spend your money? Why?
Likes & Dislikes Questions
1. What hobbies do you have?
2. Who is your closest mundane friend? Describe them and how you relate to them.
3. Who is your worst mundane enemy? Describe them and why you don't get along.
4. What bands do you like? Do you even pay attention?
5. What tape or CD hasn't left your player since your purchased it? Why?
6. What song is "your song?" Why?
7. What's been your favorite movie of all time?
8. Read any good books? What were they?
9. What do you watch on the Television?
10. When it comes to mundane politics, do you care? If so, which way do you tend to vote? If not, why don't you care?
11. What type of places do you hang out in with your mundane friends?
12. What type of places do you hang out in with your normal friends?
13. What annoys you more than anything else?
14. What would be the perfect gift for you?
15. What's the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?
16. What time of day is your favorite?
17. What kind of weather is your favorite?
18. What is your favorite food? What is your least favorite food?
19. What is your favorite drink? (Coffee, Coke, Juice, Beer, Wine, etc.)
20. What's your favorite animal? Why?
21. Do you have any pets? Do you want any pets? What kind?
22. What do you find most relaxing? (Not as in stress relief, but as something that actually calms you down.)
23. What habit that others have annoys you most?
24. What kind of things embarrass you? Why?
25. What don't you like about yourself?
26. How would you like to look?
Sex & Intimacy Questions
1. Would you consider yourself straight, gay, bi, or something else? Why?
2. Who was the first person you had sex with? When did it happen? What was it like? How well did it go?
3. Do you currently have a lover? What is their name, and what is your relationship like? What are they like? Why are you attracted to them?
4. What is the perfect romantic date?
5. Describe the perfect romantic partner for you.
6. Do you ever want to get married and have children? When do you see this happening?
7. What is more important - sex or intimacy? Why?
8. What was your most recent relationship like? Who was it with? (Does not need to be sexual, merely romantic.)
9. What's the worst thing you've done to someone you loved?
Drug & Alcohol Questions
1. How old were you when you first got drunk? What was the experience like?
Did anything good come out of it? Did anything bad come out of it?
2. Do you drink on any kind of regular basis?
3. What kind of alcohol do you prefer?
4. Have you ever tried any other kind of "mood altering" substance? Which one(s)? What did you think of each?
5. What do you think of drugs and alcohol? Are there any people should not do? Why or why not?
Morality Questions
1. What one act in your past are you most ashamed of? What one act in your past are you most proud of?
2. Have you ever been in an argument before? Over what, with who, and who won?
3. Have you ever been in a physical fight before? Over what, with who, and who won?
4. What do you feel most strongly about?
5. What do you pretend to feel strongly about, just to impress people?
6. What trait do you find most admirable, and how often do you find it?
7. Is there anything you think should not be incorporated into the media or art (sex, violence, greed, etc.,)? If so, what and why, and if not, why not?
8. Do you have any feelings in general that you are disturbed by? What are they? Why do they disturb you?
9. What is your religious view of things? What religion, if any, do you call your own?
10. Do you think the future is hopeful? Why?
11. Is an ounce of prevention really worth a pound of cure? Which is more valuable? Why do you feel this way?
12. What's the worst thing that can be done to another person? Why?
13. What's the worst thing you could actually do to someone you hated?
14. Are you a better leader or follower? Why do you think that? If you think the whole leader-follower archetype is a crock of shit, say so, and explain why?
15. What is your responsibility to the world, if any? Why do you think that?
16. Do you think redemption is possible? If so, can anyone be redeemed, or are there only certain circumstances that can be? If not, why do you think nothing can redeem itself?
17. Is it okay for you to cry? When was the last time you cried?
18. What do you think is wrong with MOST people, overall?
Post-Supernatural Awareness Questions
1. When did you go through whatever made you supernatural? What was it like (in your opinion)?
2. What do you think now of being supernatural? Is it cool, or have you been screwed?
3. Do you have a mentor? Who are they? How did you become their student?
4. Do you have any magical items? Where did you get them?
5. What do you think of the other denizens of the World of Darkness? Why for each? (If you haven't met something, do you think it exists, and if it does, is that bad or good?)
6. Think of a major event that happened during your training/initiation. What was it?
7. What is something you had to learn during your training that you hated? Why did you hate it?
Miscellaneous Questions
1. What is the thing that has frightened you most? Do you think there is anything out there that's scarier than that? What do you think that would be?
2. Has anyone or anything you've ever cared about died? How did you feel about it? What happened?
3. What was the worst injury you've ever received? How did it happen?
4. How ticklish are you? Where are you ticklish?
5. What is your current long term goal?
6. What is your current short term goal?
7. Do you have any bad habits? If so, what are they, and do you plan to get rid of them?
8. If you were a mundane person, what would you do with your life? What occupation would you want, and how would you spend all your time?
9. What time period do you wish you had lived in? Why? (Looking at this as an attempt to change history doesn't count.) What appeals to you about this era?
10. How private of a person are you? Why?
11. If you were to gain an obscenely large sum of money (via an inhertiance, a lawsuit, a lottery, or anything else) what would you do with it?
12. What would you wish for if you found a genie?
13. What do you do when you are bored?
14. What is the most frightening potential handicap or disfigurement you can conceive of? What makes it so frightening?
You have all the scenes. Just go home and word it in.
~ Samuel Goldwyn to Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond
*~*~*
Writing is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to those who have none. ~ Jules Renard
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Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armour and attacked a hot fudge sunday.
~ Kurt Vonnegut
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Every writer is a frustrated actor who recites his lines in the hidden auditorium of his skull. ~ Rod Serling
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When I face the desolate impossibility of writing 500 pages, a sick sense of failure falls on me, and I know I can never do it. Then gradually, I write one page and then another. One day's works is all I can permit myself to contemplate. ~ John Steinbeck
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Writing is no trouble: you just jot down ideas as they occur to you. The jotting is simplicity itself - it is the occurring which is difficult.
~ Stephen Leacock
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Omit needless words. Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.
~ William Strunk, Jr.
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I read and walked for miles at night along the beach, writing bad blank verse and searching endlessly for someone wonderful who would step out of the darkness and change my life. It never crossed my mind that that person could be me. ~ Anna Quindlen
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Writing is like cooking...if you spill something, you should make it look like part of the act. ~ John Keeble
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We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled.
The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over
and let the beautiful stuff out. ~ Ray Bradbury
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Asking a writer what he thinks about criticism is
like asking a lamppost what it feels about dogs. ~ John Osborne
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I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out
of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters.
~ Frank Lloyd Wright
(1868-1959)
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Keep writing. Keep doing it and doing it. Even in the moments when it's so hurtful to think about writing.
~ Heather Armstrong, Keynote Speech, SXSW 2006
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Writing fiction is a solitary occupation but not really a lonely one. The writer's head is mobbed with characters, images and language.
~ Hilma Wolitzer
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Characterization is an accident that flows out of action and dialogue. ~ Jack Woodford
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For anyone who is: just keep writing. Keep reading. If you are meant to be a writer, a storyteller, it'll work itself out. You just keep feeding it your energy, and giving it that crucial chance to work itself out. By reading and writing. ~ Robin McKinley
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The difference between fiction and reality is that fiction has to make sense. ~ Tom Clancy
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Use your imagination. Trust me, your lives are not interesting. Don't write them down. ~ W. B. Kinsella
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It begins with a character, usually, and once he stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I can do is trot along behind him with a paper and pencil trying to keep up long enough to put down what he says and does. ~ William Faulkner
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You don't have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great. ~ Les Brown
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If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor. ~ Edgar Rice Burroughs
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Never let inexperience get in the way of ambition. ~ Terry Josephson
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If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Perhaps it would be better not to be a writer, but if you must, then write. If all feels hopeless, if that famous 'inspiration' will not come, write. If you are a genius, you'll make your own rules, but if not - and the odds are against it - go to your desk no matter what your mood, face the icy challenge of the paper write. ~ J. B. Priestly
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There is no great writing, only great rewriting. ~ Justice Brandeis
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It is perfectly okay to write garbage – as long as you edit brilliantly.
~ C. J. Cherryh
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It's none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way. ~ Ernest Hemingway
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Don't fear making a mistake; fear failing to learn and move forward. ~ Pilip Humbert
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I have never thought of myself as a good writer. Anyone who wants reassurance of that should read one of my first drafts. But I'm one of the world's great rewriters. ~ James A. Michener
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Only self-educated is educated. Others are merely taught.
~ Erno Paasilinna
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It is better to write a bad first draft than to write no first draft at all. ~ Will Shetterly
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The only way to learn to write is to write. ~ Peggy Teeters
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"Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake somebody." ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
So I was looking up music to make new cd's from when I discovered that a few of these songs could possibly be included in my playlist for "Come Back To Me."
A couple of these don't 100% remind me of my story, but I felt compelled to include them. Lyrics are subjective anyway.
The first four songs listed are most closely related to my book, and the Creed & 3 Days Grace song I think Iain would just be a fan of. They might even be neck-to-neck with Nickelback for him.
Just FYI: Before turning on the speakers, be sure to pause the music in the sidebar.
"Books choose their authors; the act of creation is not entirely a rational and conscious one." ~ Salman Rushdie
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"A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit." ~ Richard Bach
*~*~*
A writer is someone for whom writing is harder than it is for other people." ~ Thomas Mann
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Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead. ~ Gene Fowler
*~*~*
I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter.
~ James Michener
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Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand. ~ George Orwell, "Why I Write," 1947
*~*~*
Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass. ~ Anton Chekhov
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Easy reading is damn hard writing. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne
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The story I am writing exists, written in absolutely perfect fashion, some place, in the air. All I must do is find it, and copy it.
~ Jules Renard, "Diary," February 1895
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"Every person who loves the written word has known a firefly moment. It is the moment at which a single word ignites a sentence or a perfect phrase illuminates a page. The writer who can successfully cultivate the firefly gift eventually will make it to the top. How do the writers bring it off? They look intensely at the world around them and they file away images that may come in handy someday. Go, now, and make fireflies of your own." ~ James Kilpatrick
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One must be drenched in words, literally soaked in them, to have the right ones form themselves into the proper pattern at the right moment. ~ Hart Crane
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It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give it up because by that time I was too famous.
~ Robert Benchley
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No man should ever publish a book until he has first read it to a woman. ~ Van Wyck Brooks
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I try to leave out the parts that people skip. ~ Elmore Leonard
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Books want to be born: I never make them. They come to me and insist on being written, and on being such and such. ~ Samuel Butler
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If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it. ~ Toni Morrison
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The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible. ~ Vladimir Nabakov
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I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork. ~ Peter De Vries
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Words - so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.
~ Nathaniel Hawthorne
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Every writer I know has trouble writing. ~ Joseph Heller
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When you are describing,
A shape, or sound, or tint;
Don't state the matter plainly,
But put it in a hint;
And learn to look at all things,
With a sort of mental squint.
~ Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll)
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If I don't write to empty my mind, I go mad. ~ Lord Byron
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What no wife of a writer can ever understand is that a writer is working when he's staring out of the window. ~ Burton Rascoe
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A good style should show no signs of effort. What is written should seem a happy accident.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, Summing Up, 1938
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Write your first draft with your heart. Re-write with your head.
~ Finding Forrester
*~*~*
It is impossible to discourage the real writers - they don't give a damn what you say, they're going to write. ~ Sinclair Lewis
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Writing is utter solitude, the descent into the cold abyss of oneself.
~ Franz Kafka
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A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people. ~ Thomas Mann, Essays of Three Decades, 1947
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Writing is a way of talking without being interrupted.
~ Jules Renard, Journal, 10 April 1895
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Having imagination, it takes you an hour to write a paragraph that, if you were unimaginative, would take you only a minute. Or you might not write the paragraph at all.
~ Franklin P. Adams, Half a Loaf, 1927
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An original writer is not one who imitates nobody, but one whom nobody can imitate.
~ Chateaubriand, Le Génie du Christianisme, 1802
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I do not like to write - I like to have written. ~ Gloria Steinem
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The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar and familiar things new. ~ Samuel Johnson
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Every author in some way portrays himself in his works, even if it be against his will. ~ Goethe
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The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon.
~ Robert Cromier
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Read, read, read. Read everything - trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. If it's good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out of the window.
~ William Faulkner
It seems fairly common these days that writers, both published and unpublished (such as myself), have created soundtracks for each book they write.
It took a while, but I'm guilty as charged here as well.
Below I'll post my unofficial playlist for 'Come Back To Me.' A lot of these videos kind of jar me out of my story, but it'll have to do. (By the way, why is it that the storyline of about 99% of music videos have absolutely nothing to do with the lyrics?)
The one video below that isn't so disconnected from my book is the Celine Dion vid. And the Nickelback song? Well let's just say that even ghosts have favorite bands, and for Iain in my story... that's Nickelback. Had the 16th century had rock bands, I'm certain Iain would have been in one.
Also, the 2nd song on my playlist not only matches the title of my book, but the lyrics definitely echo Lexie and Iain. From the moment I heard that song, I knew this was Lexie and Iain's theme. (If you know anything about Patrick, let's just say Lexie and Iain = Me and Patrick. Well, sort of anyway. If you pay attention to the lyrics, you'll understand).
Note:In CBTM, most of the time Iain is a ghost but we also see him (and his lady) when he was alive in the 16th century. And for those of you that know about Patrick -- when I say "Iain" I'm also speaking of Patrick. It's only that I also have another main character in my book named "Patrick"... but that Patrick isn't MY Patrick. The real Patrick would be "Iain" in my story.
Confused yet?
Some songs are much more connected and important than the others, but here is my unoffical soundtrack for....
I would love to say that my life is extremely romantic. That my home is a 16th century Scottish castle, surrounded by purple heather and perched high on a cliff overlooking the sea, while inside lives my sinfully handsome Highland husband sprung from the pages of a romance novel. After sunset, he regales bedtime stories to our perfect children about water horses and selkies, followed by crooning some century’s old lullaby in the Gaelic. We ride horses, enjoy quiet talks in front of the fireside, take our dogs out for long walks on the beach, and visit celebrated vacation spots like Italy and - my favorite place - Disney World twice a year. I WISH that was my picturesque life… (well, minus the perfect children since perfection is a yawn fest & I’d rather stick a fork in my eye than be responsible for another human being)… but the reality is I’m just a regular Texas gal owned by 3 lovable dogs and 1 eccentric cat. My interests are varied, so let’s just say that I’m pretty addicted to creating blogs and that there are PLENTY (see list below) to choose from here. I look forward to discovering YOUR blogs, so please feel free to introduce yourself.
