self-publishing – DEE HARPER LEWIS

A Sudden Fortune

After a short break, I’ve started tackling my fifth novel, ‘A Sudden Fortune’.

Abandoned in her youth, Claire Hastings has inherited a fortune from a guardian who rescued her from a convent. The riches are hers with one caveat – she must share the fortune with the impoverished Marquess of Kingston.

Of course, the new-found wealth is more of a burden than a blessing for a girl who has been a social pariah all her life. When the aristocratic family that abandoned her appears to claim the fortune, Claire’s troubles begin. A half-brother, step-brother, father, and a dowager Countess insinuate themselves into her life, and she discovers her origins and the reasons why she had been placed in a convent at an early age.

Nelson Ridley had been holding his impoverished family together – just barely. With a mother, sister, and four nieces and nephews to support, he remains on the outskirts of society, earning a living writing stories for several popular periodicals.

The Ridley household, with their unexpected fortune, find themselves thrown into the whirl of the Season, and Nelson is suddenly one of the most eligible bachelors in London.

None of the beautiful, wealthy debutantes tempt him. His heart is captured by the friendless, socially awkward woman whose inheritance has changed their lives. They become fast friends, and each yearns for more. . .

Inciting Incidents

In a writer’s forum not long ago, an author said that their approach to writing is simply creating ‘what if’ scenarios.

I suddenly realized thatI have exactly the same approach.

For my first book, I wondered – what if your hopes and dreams are completely scuttled because of an incident beyond your control? How do you get back on course? Or do you just give up?

For my second book, I wondered – what if you overhear a conversation that gives you an opportunity to change the course of your life? What happens if you seize the moment?

For the third book, I wondered – what if you walk into a room and see someone who could be your identical twin? It turns everything you knew about yourself into everything you didn’t know about yourself.

For the fourth book, I wondered – what if a family member’s reckless, narcissistic behavior changes the future you carefully planned for yourself? Do you make the difficult decision to cut ties with your family?

My next book will be – what if you suddenly inherit a fortune and discover tragedy and a deep, unsavory past?

There are so many possibilities with ‘what if’ scenarios, and it is so much fun to create an inciting incident.

A Writer’s Corner – Writing Love Scenes

The love scenes are the most difficult scenes to write. In my books, I thought I handled the emotional part of desire very well but did not handle the Instalove and obsession well at all. This is so much a part of the romance genre, and it has always felt very unconvincing to me. It is very juvenile, yet it is so popular.
My characters are more ‘mature’ in that they don’t fall in love immediately. They are attracted, intrigued, and often baffled by this. There is a lot of wariness and uncertainty until the very end.
It’s hard to identify the moment when real love happens. We don’t even see when that happens in real life, so how can we capture that moment in a novel?
There’s a scene in my most recent novel, Marry Me, Duke, where the female main character all but begs her new husband to make love to her. That was such an enjoyable scene to write. For one, you don’t often see this in historical romance novels. Her lust and curiosity seem very real to me—as is his rejection. When they finally do make love, she takes the lead at first. And after that point, he gradually falls in love with her. That, to me, felt more realistic than Instalove/lust would have.

A Writer’s Corner – The Publishing Industry

The publishing industry has been missing the mark in different ways for a very long time. This was more understandable in the past. Given the printing costs involved and the warehousing of unsold books, taking a chance on a new author or genre was risky. Now, with print-on-demand and e-books, there’s little reason to be so cautious.

There is no reason not to watch Indie authors and ‘try before you buy’.

Many writers feel that there is a stigma attached to being an Indie author. Sadly, many readers still believe that if you aren’t published by one of the big publishing houses, you aren’t a legitimate writer.

I seek out Indie authors on Amazon as long as they’re enrolled in KU. I hope others do the same. That said, with the ease of self-publishing, readers have a lot of matter to sift through and it may be difficult to choose a new author.

This culture of social media, branding, and putting oneself on display does not help matters. That an author is lauded on social media does not mean, that the writing is good or compelling. I have picked up books that have few to no ratings and found them wonderful to be wonderful hidden jewels that have no way to shine.

A Writer’s Corner – Should a person who is not a romantic write a romance novel?

An editor in the R/writing sub Reddit asks the intriguing question, “Who are you writing for?”
They went on to say that they’re not writing for themselves because their goal is for other people to read their work. I totally get that. And OP goes on to say that they’re not writing for others either because they don’t want other people and those opinions to affect their work. I get that, too.
“However, without a clear picture of for whom I’m writing, I am still writing.”

That’s the thing, isn’t it? Sometimes, we just don’t know what motivates us to write. But this post got me thinking.
Initially, I started writing purely for myself. I needed to get all of these characters and scenarios out of my head, so I thought, why not publish them? It’s an exorcism of sorts.
Then I discovered that the process was a lot of fun—more fun than doing my other hobbies. It became the most enjoyable use of my spare time.
I love developing the characters, getting into their minds, and building their world.
Then, I published my first book and discovered the world of self-publishing. I was immediately resistant to marketing and branding. I hated the idea of using social media to promote my book. I told myself that, though sales would be nice, the lack of sales wouldn’t stop me from writing. But I found myself checking every day to see if the book had any traction at all.

I found that as much as I like writing, I absolutely loved the idea that someone else might enjoy my book as much as I enjoyed writing it. I found that I wanted the reader’s opinions as much as I feared those opinions.
It became a balancing act. I have to confess that I altered my writing somewhat to fit my reader demographic. Historical romances traditionally have a happy ever after—I know that. I’m too much of a realist to want or to even buy into the happily ever after. For the most part, they also have alpha males as the hero. This makes me think that maybe someone who is cynical by nature shouldn’t be writing romances. I’m not enamored of the alpha male trope. Nuanced male characters are much more intriguing. I love the flawed heroes who show their vulnerability: the ones overcoming family baggage, the ones who are scarred by war and other trauma. I deep dive into the feelings.
So, while common tropes frame the narrative, my characters don’t quite fit into the trope. My female characters are bolder and somehow more self-assured—even those who are shy have confidence in some areas of their lives.

The OP in the sub-Reddit ends his post by asking again who I should be writing for. My answer would be to write for yourself, and hopefully, you will find your audience.

A Writer’s Corner – Reading

This very interesting question was posed on Reddit: Can you be a good writer if you’re not reading?
My vote is—no; you can’t unless you have superpowers. Yes, it’s difficult to juggle a writing schedule and manage time to read, but it’s certainly doable. I would say it’s essential.

One brilliant answer to this question was this:
“I think part of what explains your bafflement it is that the resistance to reading more/constantly/as a life-long requirement comes up against two big psychological bugaboos:

⁠Reading puts it right in front of you just how long that path is, and that even if you have confidence and willfulness, people get very uncomfortable being aware just how much great writing already exists, and always will, and therefore, there will always be somebody better at it than you. Conclusion: if you don’t read then you won’t have to face the truth that the odds are not in your favor.
⁠The more you read the better you get at analysis and critique, which leads to expanding awareness about structure, and how much structure exists in subtext. This freaks people out. There is more craft to writing than we want to admit, and once you face up to that, you have to go through a difficult process of learning how to separate your ego from the work itself.”

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Does Social Media Kill Creativity?

A Redditor recently railed against mobile phone usage by writers-more specifically, that it fosters addiction to social media. They claimed that over usage of mobile phones kills creativity and productivity. They went on to talk about the effect on the brain of overstimulation, which will make us want nothing more than constant mindless content. The OP claimed that mindless stimulation does not allow our minds to wander and be creative.

I was happy to see that most of the commenters disagreed. It seems that most writers, like me, use their phones as a tool rather than an escape. While there is some truth to the benefits of allowing the mind to wander, a lot of creativity can come from many things in social media that stimulate our brains.

Our phones can be, and are, used for research, world-building, YouTube videos on writing, finding out what other writers are doing, and marketing. One commenter stated that he wrote most of his book on his mobile phone while commuting. I do a lot of writing on public transport or when I am stuck in a waiting room. I use the dictaphone if I wake up in the middle of the night with an idea.

My phone is one of my best tools because I can use it anytime, anywhere.

Writing my Third Novel

I’m working on my third novel, An Unexpected Lady, and asking myself – what is the hardest phase of writing a historical romance?

There are struggles with every single step, but for me, the very beginning is by far the hardest. I have an idea. I have the general story arc. I’ve been world-building for a while. Now I have to pull it all together into something cohesive and outline each chapter. What is the purpose of the chapter? What are we supposed to feel? Why am I making it so complicated?

All my thoughts end up in such an untidy collection of dialogue, description, and backstory. I have to ignore the fact that it’s a huge mess that I will come back to and make sense of. It will be refined and made into something readable, but it seems so daunting at this stage. It feels endless and chaotic. Nothing is in the right sequence at this point and I can’t even determine if the chapters are superfluous or not – if I’m deviating from the original storyline. This phase is all about ideas. And they are so very rough that it looks unlikely that it will ever become a readable, much less enjoyable.

Then, when I have each chapter outlined and a jumbled mess of words serving as placeholders, the second phase starts. This is the most enjoyable because it’s where I take each chapter and make it into something I like. With each read through, I allow the quirks of personalities to come forward and get ideas about external factors and minor characters. I delve into feelings and personality quirks.

And when all that’s done, in the final draft, I try to create prose that I’m proud of – to build ambiance, nuance, and emotions. There are a million ways you can rewrite something, and finding just the right way is so frustrating but it’s also so much fun – even when the words don’t come easily.

A Writer’s Dilemma-A Wealth of Knowledge

“Just write the damn book.”

This was the advice given on this wonderful Reddit thread. The OP asked: Hello, beautiful community! Wondering, what was the best advice you got that helped you?

The answers were a gift that keeps on giving. I must share what I consider to be the best advice of all.

Quote:

“Just write the damn book.”

Honestly, that was the best advice someone gave me years ago. I was so hung up on if I was writing something my family or friends would be proud of, instead of just writing what I wanted to write. Writing without worrying about social etiquette, societal morals, or if someone would approve. It was such a freeing experience and I learned a lot about myself.

So, I just shamelessly wrote the book, and here I am years later, wishing I had just bit the bullet and started sooner.”

I feel this. It is very difficult to write without anticipating other people’s reactions, and if one dwells too long on this, it will totally corrupt the writing. Many of us are people pleasers and want people to like and relate to our work. But writing to please is a betrayal that kills and the joy and freedom writing should give.

It takes a long time to get over the need for approval. And now, on top of that, comes the desire not to offend. Not to use offensive language and character portrayal is a minefield. There is a need for sensitivity readers. In my next book, my main male character will show signs of mental illness and I briefly wondered if I should add a trigger warning in the book description. I wrote one up and then decided against it.

Some other pearls of advice from this Reddit thread are:

“You have to get up in the morning and write like a drunk has to drink”.

“You can’t fix a blank page.”

“Write the story you want to read.”

This is what I do and though my approach is not the most popular in my genre, I have to write what is fun for me, not what is popular. I do get up in the morning, and get drunk on writing.

Artwork generated by AI using Midjourney.

A Writer’s Dilemma – A Word of Advice

A word of advice to someone whose mind is full of ideas and leapfrogs from one to the next but never completes anything. I read this plea for help from a writer whose mind works like many, many other writers. We are full of ideas. Too many–all at once. I get it. Ideas are wonderful, and I never ignore creative inspiration.

Crafting a story is not just about random thoughts and inspiration, though. You’ve got that side of things down pat. Creativity is a wonderful beast. Keep that imagination tuned by jumping from idea to idea. This is a good thing!

While doing that, pick one idea to finish. The story you pick, work on for at least 30 minutes every day: rewriting passages, finding better ways to get your idea across, fleshing it out, developing characters to make them more interesting, etc.

Do this until you finish it. Then proofread and correct grammar and maybe find a beta reader. Then, look at the publishing end of things and find cover art for it. Then look at the marketing tools available and decide what you want to do and set that up. Decide whether you want to self-publish or submit to agents.

Creativity is amazing, but finishing something is tremendously satisfying, too.

All it takes is the discipline to do it for 30 minutes a day.

You have to get to the finish line.

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