Writing Advice

Writing Advice:
Two Successful Authors, Four Questions

When exhibiting at the Scottish Festival, there were two other authors with a booth near mine. As is often the case, we got talking shop. In the end, I decided to interview them both for future use as Writing Advice. Their responses to the questions reflected some real differences in how they approach the business. I thought it was quite interesting! Hopefully, you will, too. The authors are

LL Muir

Romance Author L.L. Muir

and

KelliAnnMorgan

Western Romance Author Kelli Ann Morgan

Q: What are your most interesting writing quirks?

Muir: I have to have three massive, cups of ice from Maverick to start any project, and I go through them. I probably go through three every day while I'm while I'm writing.

Morgan: I make my husband or son help me act out falls, sweeping gestures, or other actions to “see” the feasibility in what I am writing. How the movement feels, how it looks, I don’t want to guess, I want my readers to understand and experience what I am writing instead of just reading about it.

When mapping out a town, village, or even the inside of a building, I often use Lego or other objects to help with scaling and organizing before actually drawing up the map.

I spend a lot of time developing my characters — studying psychology, personality traits, star cards, and other aspects of human behavior to help me create believable characters who have real strengths and flaws — who feel like people the readers might recognize in their lives. Or want to. If your characters are real and believable, for a pantser, the stories seem to flow easier once you know and understand them. They tell you what you/they need or what they would do in any given situation.

I add a little bit of myself to every character — even, maybe even especially, the antagonists.

I don’t care what anybody says, I love an M-dash and ellipses and have used them throughout my career. I also love exclamation points, but while I use them in my emails and texts all the time, they rarely make it into my books.

Unlike other writers, I do not listen to music when I write. I do not wear the same outfit or article of clothing day in and day out. I don’t have a specific beverage I have to drink while I am writing. I don’t draft everything on yellow legal pads or dictate in the car. I do, however, generally write a book from beginning to end without a lot of jumping around. I do research as I go vs. giving myself a note to go back and write something. I find that if I do that, I lose some of the momentum and realism in the story.

Q: What's the measure of a successful writer?

Muir: Figuring out what makes you happy is your measure of success. So it's gonna be different for everybody. I used to think that it was traditionally published that that would make me happy, and once I was, it didn't make me happy, and I was happier publishing myself.

Morgan: Success as an author can be measured in many ways — bestseller lists, royalties, foreign translations, movie rights, readers eagerly waiting for your next release, growing readership, fame. Those are all wonderful milestones, but to me, they point to one of the greatest measures of success ... connection.

The ability to make readers experience the whole gamut of emotion and emerge from a story with hope, satisfaction, or a new perspective — if I can do that for one or for millions — I’ve done my job. Changing a life for the better, even for a few hours, is success.

Ultimately, the numbers matter in business. The people matter most in writing.

Q: What is the best advice you could give other writers about writing?

Muir: If you can get away with not doing it, find something else to do because this is the it will be your life, and everything else is gonna have to fit in the cracks.

Morgan: Finish the book.

Most people dream about writing a book. Writers finish one.

Don't use editing as an excuse to avoid moving forward. Of course every manuscript needs revision, but too many writers get stuck rewriting chapters that are already working because they're afraid to finish the story. Trust your creative voice enough to let it carry you to the end.

I'm a cycle writer, so I absolutely believe in editing as I go. But there's a difference between strengthening your story and constantly second-guessing it. The more you interrupt your creative momentum to continually rewrite what's already behind you, the more you risk silencing the very voice that made the story worth telling in the first place. Writing should still feel playful. It should be exciting. I believe readers can sense when an author is writing from a place of joy—and they can sense when that joy has been edited away.

Keep moving forward. Make today's pages the best they can be, then trust yourself enough to write tomorrow's.

And finally, remember that you're not writing to impress other writers. You're writing to create an experience for readers. Make them laugh. Make them cry. Make them care. If readers care about your characters, they'll forgive a surprising number of imperfections.

Don't protect your characters from making difficult choices. Let them fail. Let them deal with hard things. When they struggle, grow, and become better because of what they've experienced, that's where stories become unforgettable.

Q: What is your best marketing tip?

Muir: Copy successful people. Ask them questions. They're so much they're so much more willing to answer your questions and to help you than you think they will be. And they always have great advice even if it you know, they could talk for an hour, but there might be one line in there that's really gonna be valuable to you.

MORGAN: Don’t market books. Build a world readers want to be a part of, then invite them in.

Readers may enjoy one great book, but they'll return again and again for characters they love, communities they feel welcomed into, traditions they anticipate, and stories that make them feel something.

Give readers something to look forward to long before—and long after—they finish the last page. If they are eagerly waiting for your next release, talking about your characters, wearing your t-shirts, attending your events, collecting your extras, or introducing your books to their friends, you've built something much bigger than a book—you've built a world they don't want to leave. And they’ll bring others along for the ride.

Ultimately, people don’t collect books, they collect experiences attached to books. It’s much like that old adage, “They may not remember exactly what you said, but they will remember how you made them feel.” Make them feel something—not just through your stories, but through every interaction they have with you and your world.

And lastly, the best marketing of all is to simply write the next book.

About L.L. Muir

L.L. Muir lives in the shadows of the Rocky Mountains and writes fiction between bowls of cereal. She loves convincing readers that falling for a Highland ghost, a magnetic Irish Fae, a grumpy Scottish laird, or a deadly English nobleman is a perfectly reasonable life choice.

She'd been a florist and writer all her life, but discovered time travel and Scottish romances the same month she first saw Phantom of the Opera. Suddenly reincarnated, she began a new life as a romance writer, dropping just about everything but her family in order to pursue the new dream.

Before writing full-time, she owned a flower shop called The Scottish Rose. She'd often answer the phone sounding like Mrs. Doubtfire ... until a gentleman customer asked to speak with the Scottish woman who owned the place. A little embarrassing, that.

An award-winning author, she has nearly a hundred novels, one of which might well be your favorite book ever. For more www.LLMuir.com

About Kelli Ann Morgan

Kelli Ann Morgan is a bestselling author whose western historical romance books have been downloaded near a quarter of a million times and maintain a better than four-star rating.

Kelli Ann lives in beautiful Northern Utah with her wonderfully creative and witty husband, her fun and imaginative teenage son, and two very playful cats. Before she started writing historical western romance, she’s worked as a photographer, jewelry designer, motivational speaker, but has found fulfillment living her dream of writing romance and designing book covers for herself and other authors.

She’s passionate about creating stories with handsome, chivalrous men, and intelligent, strong women in a world where there is always a happily-ever-after. Her novels are highly romantic and on the sensual side of PG—without all the graphic love scenes. For more www.KelliAnnMorgan.com

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