I’m busting out at the seams here with such pride for my baby brother’s musical success. Never you mind the competitors on USA Network’s “Nashville Star.”  Take a listen to my personal choice to be the 2007 Nashville Star:

W. Alan “Bill” Vincent

My kid brother has an awesome voice and is a talented songwriter.  That’s not just a proud sister’s opinion, either. Noosiree.  Bill performs regularly at Lyrix, a music bar and cafe in Nashville. If you’re near Englewood, TN, he’ll be appearing at the American Legion Post on Feb. 7 and Feb. 28. 

And that’s not all the good news. Nashville Independent Music has accepted Bill as an artist.  NIM is an invitation-only website dedicated to independent artists and songwriters.  You can pick up a few of Bill’s songs for the pittance of $.99 each.

I can’t believe how much time I’ve spent writing backstory, all the while thinking I was writing my novel.  Ya’ll know what backstory is: all those fascinating details about what happened to your characters before the story starts, how they got to be who they are and where they are at the time of the story’s opening.  Yes, yes, that is all very important information that you, the writer, needs to know. 

However, the reader doesn’t give a hunting dog’s left rear paw about it. The reader wants the story to start in the here and now.  Don’t tell me about the Hero’s tragic childhood, moans Reader, show me the kind of trouble he’s in right now.  Don’t bore the reader with details of the long train ride to Where It Happens; set her down right smack in the middle of T-R-O-U-B-L-E.  As you flesh out the story, subtly add information that will help the reader understand the character’s fears and motivations. 

Don’t stop writing backstory for your characters. The writer needs to know far more about the characters than the reader does. Just be aware that backstory is not story. Story is what is happening to the characters in the here and now of your novel.

Making characters distinctly different from each other is not always easy, especially when you are writing from the POV of several characters. I just finished a novel by one of my favorite authors and throughout the entire book I was very conscious of how each character “sounded” in my head.  Each character seemed to have the same type of smart-alecky, sarcastic self-talk, and also used the same swear words. Perhaps it was just me - I love smart-mouthed characters like Bruce Willis in the “Die Hard” movies.  Or maybe after writing a number of books with the same characters, the author herself can no longer “hear” distinct voices.

In any case, it was a reminder for me to pay attention to not only dialogue, but to my characters’ internal attitudes, their self-talk, when I’m writing from deep POV.  I think we tend to think of the spoken word when we write character dialogue, but I’m learning dialogue is much richer than that. Adding action tags, rather than “he said”, paints a more dramatic picture and conveys more about the character. The writer can show nervousness, for instance, by having a character twist a strand of their hair or drum their fingers on a table. (Yes, cliches, but they work!). The dialogue itself might appear mundane, but the actions belie the words.

Congratulations to my friend Nikki Leigh on the e-book release this week of another novel. Nikki is fascinated by lighthouses, and Lady Lightkeeper is the second book in her series set in mythical Misty Cove, Massachusetts.

Kudos also go to Nikki for winning a 2007 Ariana Award, which recognizes excellence in book covers. The cover of Widow’s Walk won “Best in Category” and is now in competition for the QUASAR award.  Both awards are sponsored by EPIC, a professional organization for e-book authors.

A great way to start off my New Year: a reprint of one of my articles has been picked up by Absolute Write. I’ve been a subscriber to their free newsletter for eons, but it never dawned on me to submit an article. Well. . .I’m blonde, you know. LOL

A few months ago I bought Jenna Glatzer’s book Make a REAL LIVING as a Freelance Writer, and was inspired to rekindle my freelancing efforts. Jenna was the moving force behind Absolute Write for several years and has a pretty decent freelance writing career herself. Certainly someone to model.  AW boasts an online circulation of more than 78,000 subscribers. I hadn’t thought about it until now, but I probably should update my blog and website a lot more often as part of my new marketing plan.

You might be wondering what freelance writing has to do with how to write a novel. For one thing, being published in any venue is not only a kick for my writer’s ego, it’s also a publishing credit that bespeaks a serious attitude about my career. Nonfiction keeps me writing when I’m feeling stuck with my novel. My background is in nonfiction and it’s more of a comfort zone for me than fiction, so I tend to go there when I’m frustrated or insecure about my fiction writing.

The trick is to keep writing no matter the doubts and fears. If you’re bogged down in one type of writing, try something else. It’s the discipline of writing regularly – some vehemently insist it be daily — that will eventually get you where you want to go.  So just keep writing, no matter what!