It's Okay to be Single

When I first started writing, my books were written from one character’s viewpoint. It never even occurred to me that I could or should write from multiple character viewpoints. I was writing from the perspective of the character I most identified with, which was why she was the protagonist in the first place.

Most of the books I read as a kid were this way. My favorite authors were Judy Blume and Lurlene McDaniel and S.E. Hinton. Until I read Blume’s book Summer Sisters, which came out in 1998, I don’t recall any of these authors having books with more than one character narrating the story.

As authors, we tend to write the same genres we read. Authors also stick to the formula and follow the trends. Let me be clear. That’s not true for every author 100% of the time, but a majority of us stick to the formula: characters meet, they fall in love, they face obstacles, they overcome obstacles and they live happily ever after. Since the early days of my reading were single character viewpoint books that followed the traditionally accepted formula, I fashioned my writing to be the same. That’s what people were reading.

It wasn’t until ten years ago, that I branched out and began telling stories from the viewpoint of the two main characters. And to be honest, it wasn’t my idea. I’d shared a completed story with an online readers’ group and several people asked why I hadn’t shared the viewpoint of the other character. Readers felt the story would benefit from being told from both sides. Taking their suggestion to heart, I revised the story, making many readers happy.

Since then, I haven’t looked back. All of my stories are told from the alternating viewpoints of the two main characters. Likewise, most of the stories I read are written in the same way. I think it’s safe to say it’s an industry standard at this point.

That’s why I was surprised to run into a book last week told from only one character’s viewpoint. Having written and read the opposite for more than ten years, my first instinct was to say the story was lacking. When I took a step back, I realized this was a me problem. Just because I was used to things being a certain way didn’t mean the story fell short if it wasn’t. Taking it a step further, I applaud the author for writing the story her way, just as I write my stories in the manner I want.

Writing is subjective as is reading. There are some best-selling books that still get bad reviews. There is no way any one book will ever be met with a unanimous reaction, good or bad. Writers don’t have to write what others expect. Instead, they should write what makes them happy. I guarantee it will make the story better than forcing themselves to do something they may not be comfortable with.

Happy New Year

Now that we’re a week into the new year, it seemed like a good time to talk about my plans for 2020. My writing plans, that is.

January is off to a good start with the release of Moved By You, my third Nice Ink book, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

Like so many people, I made some resolutions in connection with my writing. First, I want to be better about my blog. It’s been going for a while, and in the last couple of years, I haven’t posted as often as I’ve wanted to. My goal is at least two posts a month or one every other week. I figure leaving myself some flexibility might ensure I stick to the plan. Second, I need to post on Twitter more often. For a while, I was a faithful daily poster. For some reason, I slacked off last year, and I want to stop doing that. No point in having social media if I’m not going to use it.

Don’t worry, I have plans for my books too.

Let’s start with the New Beginnings series. So far, there are 4 of 6 books under my belt and I’m about to start working on the fifth. I plan to release the last two books in this series this year. First up would be Out of Hiding, which is Luke’s story and the only one of the six books in the series that features a m/m couple. The final book will be one that I know many of you have been waiting for; Stone’s story which is titled No One Really Knows.

I’m also planning to release at least one more book in the Nice Ink series this year. Ideally, I’d like to release two, but it may not happen. Because I’ve committed to alternating the releases in the New Beginnings and Nice Ink series, I’m likely going to end up with the last two New Beginnings books and one more Nice Ink book coming out this year. I started the year off by releasing the Moved By You, the third Nice Ink book. There are two more books in the series. The next up is X’s story and it’s called Games We Play. The final book will be Damian’s and it’s not titled yet. Well, actually it is, but I may change that title as I’ve done with the last two in the series.

I’d like to attend at least one author signing event this year, but I’m not sure about that one. Might have to file that away under: start planning now for next year. There are a lot of things that go into attending these events. Since I’ve never done one before, it’s especially daunting. Maybe I’ll get lucky and there will be something close to home for me. We’ll have to see.

I’ll be mapping out the next series I have planned and looking into doing some story and character outlines so I’m ready to dive right in when the time comes. I don’t want to give anything away yet, so we’ll just stop there.

Above all, I’m going to write, write and write some more.