Random Thoughts by Apryl Baker
Hi, guys, thanks for having me
and I just wanted to share some things with you. I get asked a lot of questions and I thought
I’d just answer a few of them here for anyone who is trying to write their
first novel or break into print.
The biggest question I get is how
did you come up with your story? The
Promise, book one of The Coven series, is what I refer to as my little Post It
Note idea. I was driving home one day
listening to Theory of a Dead Man’s Not
Meant To Be, and I passed this little community called New Salem. I got this image in my head of a girl sitting
beside a gravestone. I couldn’t get it
out of my head. I kept asking myself,
why is she sitting there all alone looking so sad? When I got home, I grabbed a yellow sticky,
wrote the idea down, and then stuck it to the wall beside my computer. Over the next couple days, I kept getting
ideas, writing them down on stickies, and before I knew it, I had the outline
of a novel in a wall of orange, yellow, and pink. A good idea is great, but you still have to
make it work.
To me the most important part of
any novel, whether it’s set in a past or modern reality, an alternate reality,
or a completely new world, is that it has to be believable. Many people ask me how do you do it, how do
you create something you know isn’t real and make it seem as real as the air
you breathe? It’s one of the hardest
things I’ve ever done, but also one of the simplest. Contradictory I know. It comes down to research. You have to know what you are writing about. If you have a good grasp on what you are
trying to accomplish, you can do anything with it.
Witchcraft is what my novel, The
Promise, centers on. I had to create a
place where it was as common for teens to be having meetings on spell crafting
as it was for them to be hanging out at the mall. I literally went to the mall every Saturday
for a month straight and sat in the food court watching teens, listening to how
they talked to each other, their mannerisms, and watching how they interacted
with each other. It was an eye opening
experience. I had no idea. I wanted my novel to be as real as I could
get it in relation to how the characters were in comparison to modern
teens. The mall experience played a big
role in that. If you are not a teen writing
a teen book, I’d recommend spending a couple Saturdays at the mall. It’s well worth it to the aspiring young
adult writer.
The Salem Witch Trials also plays
a huge role in the book. I read just
about every book I could find on the subject.
I studied web sites, spoke with curators at museums, and learned more
about that horrible time in history than I could ever have wanted to. I hope I managed to get some of the tragedy
of that time in the words and emotions in The Promise.
I remember when I went looking
for books on Wiccan and/or witchcraft initiation ceremonies, my first stop was
my local library. The attendant behind
the information desk was a lovely elderly woman who was seventy if she was a
day. When I asked her if they had
anything on the subject, she looked at me as if I’d grown horns right then and
there. She answered me in a very soft, very stiff voice, “No, we do not have
anything on any such thing.” She still
gives me odd looks every time she sees me.
Suffice to say, I stuck to things I could order online as far as books
went on that particular subject.
Armed with all this knowledge, I
went back and filled in the gaps in the story I’d started writing a while
back. Because I lived and breathed the
subject, my characters did too. The best
advice I can give anyone is to jump in head first and learn everything you
can. Once you do, it becomes as easy as
breathing to make it sound real, because it sorta is to you for just a little
while. If you believe it, if you write
like you believe it, then anyone who reads it will too.
The hard part is to be able to
put all this background in without having it sound like an information dump
that will glaze over the readers eyes and make them skim pages. What I did was broke it up a bit. I used various ways of letting the reader
know. My biggest trick is diary
entries. I let the reader see the past
through her sister’s eyes by way of a diary she found that explained so much
and gave her even more questions. I also
used dreams. There is a part in the book
where the main character, Cassie Jayne, actually goes back into the past on the
day of the burning, via a dream. She
hears and see’s everything trapped inside the conscious mind of one of the
witches that are being burned at the stake.
You get to feel the pain, anguish and fear because she does. You get to experience her terror at the feel
of the flames licking her skin. All this
is done via a dream.
You have to find unique ways to
show the past, to show the reader the character backgrounds without a monotone
of information. The best way to do this
can also be done via dialogue. You can
learn just as much by characters talking about each other as you can by droning
on and on in paragraph after paragraph of information. It’s the show VS tell
argument. I’d rather see it through
dialogue or actions than I would read about it.
It makes it interesting for the reader and keeps the attention of so
many teens who are used to the fast paced world of now, now, now or I lose
interest.
I am a huge, huge fan of old noir
mysteries and I incorporated my love of mysteries into my writing. For me, the buildup has to be gradual and in
the beginning the more answers you find, the more questions you get. That is what I did. For every answer Cassie found, it made her
question everything more. It has to be
subtle, you can’t just throw it in people’s faces. I drop hints of answers in most chapters,
just enough to make you start to think on your own, but in the end, the answer
to the mystery is so shocking you gasp and think, I never suspected. To me that is what a good mystery does and
hopefully I did that with The Promise.
After I’d done all this, edited,
polished, edited, polished, and prayed it was good enough, I began the agent
hunt. Agents are like the elusive white
whale. You know they’re out there, but
getting one can be next to impossible.
I’ve come to believe it’s sheer luck.
When your novel lands on an agents desk, if they get to see it mind you
– I think sometime the assistants sit there and go, eeny meeny, miney moe – I
think the agent has to be in the mood to read that particular type of
story. It’s either that or they just are
afraid to take a chance on something that isn’t old and tried and true. And that is just my opinion mind you, no
slight or slander meant to agents in general.
It’s how I rationalize all those rejection letters.
So you send your brand spanking
new novel out into the world and hope for the best. You will get rejection letters. Prepare yourselves ahead of time. Most agents will tell you what they didn’t
like about the work if they requested it or a partial. Look for things that are common, go back to
the novel, rework what doesn’t work and try, try again. Make a list of agents, list A – your top
choices, and list B – your second choices.
Always query list B first so you can take their advice and make your
book the best it can be for your list A agents.
It’s always best to test the waters first with a second or third choice.
I went with a smaller publisher
for my first book. I started researching
small publishers as opposed to the bigger houses. Yes, it requires more work on my part as far
as promoting, but the smaller publisher will work harder for you. You also get more profits from your books as
well. For me it was a good fit at the
time. I went with Black Matrix
Publishing because after talking with the owner and the editors, it was just a
really good fit for me. Do I want an
agent and a bigger publisher? Maybe in
the future, but for now I’m happy where I am and my book is doing extremely
well simply because of all the hard work that is going into the promotion of
it. I’m not sure I’d be given the same
attention at the bigger houses, at least not for my first book. So all in all, I’m happy.
The best advice I was ever given
was to find a good writing group. I was
directed to
www.thenextbigwriter.com
by an agent. Those guys are the best
resource I have. You have to be able to
take criticism, but if you can, the people on that site will take your work,
shred it and then help you whip it into shape.
I would not be where I am today without the support of the friends I
made on that site. They are always the
first to grind me into the dust and the first to shout for joy with me when I
get it right. They took a mediocre book
and turned it into something amazing and I owe them more than I can ever
possibly repay them. For anyone who is
trying to write their first novel, hone their skills, or take an old novel and
revamp it, I’d highly recommend that site to anyone.
Thanks so much for listening to
my ramblings on the makings of a novel, or at least the key features for
me. I appreciate your time and hope that
I’ve at least helped a few people out there who are scratching their heads and
wondering how in the world do you do that?
Most of all, my parting advice is
to just have fun. It should never be
work, it should be something you love to do.
If you love it, then so will everyone else.
~Apryl Baker
