An Unwritten Rule for New Writers?

I think I may have discovered a couple rules for new writers that aren't in the so-called rulebooks.
#1-If you don't have a college degree with at least a masters in English then it's been decided by the 'clique' that new writers, no matter how talented, shouldn't even bother wasting their time because it won't fall into the accepted rules.

#2-Unless you come up with a 100% totally new concept then it also another waste of time and energy to produce a perfectly interesting book that will be sneered at as tiresome and old.

Read severe sarcasm into the above parts where needed, please.

That's real cute for new writers, young and old, who might have scrapped by High School English...assuming they even got through High School.

It's opinions like this that discourages writers these days. Please see my other blog post on "You Write A Book, Then What" for the rest of my opinion. I know all the vampire writers around today will be sorely upset since vampire novels in most genres have supersaturated the market for the past few years. Yet there are people out there who will tell a new writer that the concept is old, tiresome or a rip-off of something else if their book doesn't have a 100% new twist or concept or something.

So, for an example, we may have a wonderfully bright teenager who graduates HS, though he/she may suck at English class and so passes barely. Yet, he/she is still a talented writer who worked hard on writing their long dreamed of first book about...vampires. It can be a vampire romance, a vampire/slasher, etc. The point is the main plot is vampire related and they spend many a year writing it then they correct every spelling error known to them. Using the wonderful POD capability these days, he publishes his book only to then get told spelling isn't important if grammar and writing style isn't up to college grade standards and the plot is a rip-off of so many other books like his. Do you think this writer will feel encouraged to follow his dream to write? No, he won't. Oh, he may still write but will never offer anything to the public again and those readers who read for readings sake will miss out of his talents.

All of a sudden, original characters and original plot don't mean anything if the plot is centered on things that have been written of by others. In this world of fiction writing, for many writers, coming up with totally new ideas isn't easy and so long as their story is their own they believe it's fine. It's not written in the writing books that original characters (BTW, you can't use a certain number either. It's frowned upon) and original plot isn't vital. If you can't have a brand new concept then they make you feel like it shouldn't be bothered.

That's not true. I'm sure there are vampire, werewolf, etc writers that have encountered such feelings. If you have an original plot with original characters then tell the tale. Spellcheck a hundred times and read it aloud to be sure the sentences flow nicely and make sense. The other people with degrees in Literature, English, etc can gripe and yell about paying $4500 or more on professional editors or say if the grammar is wrong that it's crap but there are people out there who read for readings sake. So long as there aren't spelling errors every other word and the sentences make sense (I advocate spellchecking) then you can tell a compelling tale no matter how many people put you down. It's vital you write what you want for yourself first and don't go into it expecting to have the next famous bestseller.

Blessings and best wishes to all writers.

A Writer's Worst Nightmare

No, not writer's block. Though I used to think that was it...until tonight. The worst possible thing to happen to an author must be having eight chapters, research and notes be deleted.

Wiped out totally from its poor little floppy disc. As if having a novel rewrite itself more than once didn't put the book behind schedule, the second book in my Celtic Evil series has now been......the polite phrase would be 'accidently deleted' by a sweet innocent child who surely didn't know what she was doing. insert sarcasm with an eyeroll here.

Never let an 11 year old bored child near your work, that's what I learned. Oh, sure I'm told it was an accident. An accident would have been if the disc had been in the computer. It was in it's case and she had been told not to touch the floppy when I had to go help make dinner. I didn't notice anything was wrong until tonight when I went to go back to work on it and the disc came up blank. Every bit of data was gone. So I'm calm. I call the darling who is still with her grandmother(my sister) and I ask, 'did you put one of my discs (I don't want to know if she wipes anymore) in and play with it?' Maybe is the reply I get. Then I slowly lose my temper.

So that's a life-learning lesson and also puts my 'No Children Under 30 Allowed in My Room for Fear of Death' rule back into place. If my nephew can't recover anything I am so messed up and will be staying up late just to get back to where I was...and hopefully I can remember what I wrote because usually once I write it, it goes clean out of my head.

I'm still maintaining the hope something can be recovered...if such a thing is possible.

Diablo's Return new revised cover

While I'm working on the second book in the Celtic Evil series I decided to do a minor revision of my short action story, Diablo' Return. It's been given an epilogue and also a brand new, spiffy cover. It can be found on Amazon.com.

The second tale in the Celtic Evil series is going well though it's hit more research snags than I like but I'm still please with the progress. The Kindle version of the first book is also still selling well.

On Goodreads.com there is a Q&A group for Sierra Rose so people can ask questions about the novels and even a topic for questions for the characters.