D. G. Driver
  • D. G. Driver
    • About Me
  • MY BOOKS
    • Songwriter Night
    • Dragon Surf
    • Lost on the Water
    • The Juniper Sawfeather Trilogy >
      • Cry of the Sea
      • Whisper of the Woods
      • Echo of the Cliffs
    • Chasing the Romantics
    • No One Needed to Know
    • All the Love You Write
  • Short Fiction and Plays
    • "Mother's Night Out"
    • "King or Beggar"
    • "The Ticket to Her Heart"
    • "Hallway of Three Doors"
    • My Plays
  • Write and Rewrite Blog

Author D. G. Driver's
Write and Rewrite Blog

“There are no bad stories, just ones that haven’t found their right words yet.”

​A blog
mostly about the process of revision with occasional guest posts, book reviews, and posts related to my books.


Button Text

Writing a World Full of Witches

11/23/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
My guest author this week is Lexi Witcher, whose name is more than appropriate as she writes a series of Young Adult novels about witches and warlocks. The covers of her books are alluring, and her stories about old curses and magic are intriguing. There are three books to her series so far. Read about how she has created a setting and storyline that easily allows her to write book after book.


Lexi Witcher:

     When writing a story we all create a world of some kind as part of our story setting. Whether the author creates a world for a one-book story or several stories tied together, allowing the author to go further in depth with the world building, this concept is very important in our story creation. I’ve done that with my Dodie Jenks Novels. My characters in this series are mortals, witches, warlocks, and seers.

     You may ask did I do research when building this series and the answer is yes. I did find out that a warlock is not a male witch but a witch who is without a coven, and I used the information as a dilemma for the hero, Leopold. His goal in helping Dodie in book one is so he can once again be accepted by his coven. In book two that goal changes, but in book three that goal resurfaces. I also did research on symbols and meanings, aura colors, and I watched television programs dealing with witchcraft, magic, curses, etc. Netflix can be an author’s best friend. I also read books by other authors on the subject to see how they handled witchcraft in their stories.

      So far I have a trilogy planned, but I am open to there being another book or two in my series. The first two books have already been released. Book one is Bittersweet Sixteen and it touches on the surface of a 300 year old curse. It introduces the reader to the history behind the curse and the ramifications that the cursed experienced over the years. In book two, Twisted Sixteen, the reader experiences along with Dodie what happens when she tries to break the curse. And in book three, Wicked Sixteen, (which will be released next year) the reader will find out more about Bernadette’s curse and how Dodie attempts to completely break it. Will she? You’ll have to read the series to find out.


Follow Lexi Witcher:
website: lexiwitcher.wordpress.com

twitter: @lexi_witcher
facebook: facebook.com/authorLexiWitcher

Buy her books:
Bittersweet Sixteen amazon

Twisted Sixteen amazon


Picture
0 Comments

Silence That Doubt

11/16/2014

1 Comment

 
Picture
As I slog my way through writing the sequel to Cry of the Sea, I have asked a few writers of series and sequels to visit my blog and write about their experiences. In the spirit of National November Writing Month, my first guest is sharing what she's attempting to accomplish during the month-long writing challenge. She is still waiting for her big publishing break, but she is pretty confident that it is on the horizon. She's written what sounds like an exciting paranormal YA and is shopping it around. While I have a book published and am struggling to figure out how to write a follow-up, she has known from the beginning that her project would be a trilogy. What's amazing and brave to me is that she's begun writing the sequel completely on faith that the first book will sell. I know a lot of writers who want to do series books struggle with the question: should you write the sequel before the first book gets published or hold off and start something new? Here's author Tamara Girardi's take on it.

Tamara Girardi:
When I first started writing a YA paranormal about eight years ago, I attended conferences where writers talked about it taking ten years on average to get an agent and sell a book. I thought, “That will not be me!” I also scoffed at the suggestion my first (or fifth) book would not sell but end up “in a drawer.”

The aforementioned YA paranormal novel rests in an old computer, aging peacefully along with a few other projects started but abandoned.

Now, though, my more recent manuscript, a YA fantasy titled DREAMSEER, is on submission with several literary agents, and I’m hopeful I’ll find “the one” who loves it like I do. In the meantime, I’m following other ever-present advice in publishing: write another book.

Against common advice, as part of NaNoWriMo, I’m writing the second book of what will be a DREAMSEER trilogy. In other words, I’m daring to write a sequel to a book that is unagented and unpublished. It might also end up resting peacefully on this computer (when I upgrade to a newer model, of course).

Don’t get me wrong. I have faith.

I have faith that DREAMSEER is strong enough to catch an agent’s eye, an editor’s eye, a reader’s eye, but there are no guarantees in this business, are there? DREAMSEER could be revised to stand alone, but the ending really sets up so much for the second book that it would feel unfinished without a sequel.

 In other words, I’m breaking the rules.

 Despite my faith, the rules and the averages and the disappointments of the industry weigh on me as I sit down to my NaNoWriMo writing sprints. No page is wasted. My writing this time around is better than last time, but what if I could be writing something different now? Something that will sell? Would that be time better-spent?

The truth is there’s no crystal ball with swirling sand to predict the future of my publishing career (although there is a sandseer with a crystal ball in DREAMSEER and its sequel).

And perhaps that’s one of the true benefits of NaNoWriMo. The expectation is that writers silence internal editors, and in this case, internal disbelievers. In talking with other writers I’ve come to believe we all have moments of doubt. Faith, and the realization that even if we never publish we’d want to write anyway, silence that doubt.

For me, NaNoWriMo silences that doubt. It has to! How else could I write 50,000 words in 30 days?


An English instructor for Harrisburg Area Community College’s Virtual Learning program, Tamara Girardi holds a PhD in English from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Letters in Creative Writing from the University of St. Andrews. Her YA fantasy DREAMSEER won the 2013 PennWriters Novel Beginnings Contest and is on submission with agents. Tamara is a member of Backspace, Sisters in Crime, and PennWriters. Follow her on Twitter @TamaraGirardi.





1 Comment

Sequels are Scary

11/2/2014

2 Comments

 
I'm taking a break from rewriting old stuff to write something new.  Well, I keep trying to anyway, and then another editor or agent says, "Hey, can you rewrite this manuscript you sent me?" and then I have to stop my new novel and go back to the old one again.  This has happened to me three times this year.  And sure enough, just today, after writing about 1,000 new words, I get an email from my editor at Fire and Ice with all her edits for my upcoming novella Passing Notes (due out in January, 2015).

But I'm determined. I will have this new novel completed before the year is out.  What is it that I'm writing? The sequel to Cry of the Sea. Only, it's not just the interruptions to work on other projects that keeps me from finishing it. The problem I'm having is that I never intended Cry of the Sea to have a sequel or be a series. It ends where I planned it to end. However, the people who've reviewed the book have unanimously declared that the book requires a sequel. My publisher has requested a sequel. My readers keep asking me what happens next. A sequel must happen.

I'm not sure what all of these people want to happen next, and it frightens me a bit to tell the wrong story. If you've been following this blog, you know how long it took me to get Cry of the Sea right in the first place, and the idea of quickly producing a sequel of the same quality is daunting. Many of my readers love Juniper's boyfriend Carter. Can I capture his voice again and make him as charming and adorable as he was before? Reviewers have commented again and again on how strong and admirable Juniper is. Can I keep her that way? And... well... what happens if my sequel isn't exactly about mermaids? Are people expecting it to still be about mermaids? So many doubts plague me as I write and discard and then write and discard some more.

Plus, (and let's be frank here) it's not like Cry of the Sea has been a runaway bestseller. If I write this sequel, will anyone buy it? Is it worth doing? Or should I just move on to a new project?

I am on chapter five now. It is slowly coming together. Some hints: it still has an environmental theme; it has more ties to American Indian mythology, and it has a lot to do with an old growth tree. This book should be a lot scarier than the first by the time it's done, and I'm pretty sure it will lead to (dare I say?) a third book. To keep me motivated, I've invited some writers to come visit the blog over the next couple months and tell their stories about writing sequels and series books. I hope you enjoy what they have to say. If you've got any encouraging words for me, I'd love to read them. 
2 Comments
    Picture

    D. G. Driver

    Award-winning author of books for teen and tween readers. Learn more about her and her writing at www.dgdriver.com

    ​Follow her on
    Facebook
    ​Twitter
    Instagram
    Goodreads
    Amazon
    ​Bookbub

    Archives

    March 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    March 2022
    December 2021
    October 2021
    April 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014

    Categories

    All
    Adverbs
    Advice
    Agent
    Autism
    Blog
    Book About Autism
    Book Beginning
    Books
    Book Writing
    Boy Protagonists
    Chapter
    Classic Books
    Criticism
    Cry Of The Sea
    Editing
    Editor
    Edting
    Fan Fiction
    Fantasy Novel
    Female Protagonist
    First Drafts
    First Line
    First Page
    First Paragraph
    Ghost Story
    Guest Author
    Harper Lee
    Introvert
    Love Letter Blog
    Love Letters
    Marketing
    Mermaid Book
    MG
    Middle Grade
    Middle Grade Novel
    Moms
    Moms In YA
    Mother's Day
    NA
    NaNoWriMo
    New Adult Novel
    Novella
    Opening Line
    Point Of View
    POV
    Previously Published
    Pronouns
    Publicity
    Revision
    Rewrite
    Romance
    Romance Novel
    Romance Novels
    Sequels
    Series
    Short Story
    Shy
    Submitting
    Summary
    To Kill A Mockingbird
    UtopYA
    Vampire
    Writing
    Writing Advcie
    Writing Class
    Writing Conference
    Writing Workshop
    YA
    Young Adult
    Young Adult Novel

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly