Ask the Author: Charity Marie
Answered Questions (7)
Charity Marie
Middle earth - I want to see Rivendell and Hobbiton!
Charity Marie
1) Expose yourself to anything and everything you can. Experiences will enrich your writing in incredible ways. The writing I do now at 37 years old is so much richer than the writing I was doing in my 20's and that's because I hadn't really experienced much of life. So just allows yourself to experience as much as you can.
2) Train yourself to observe the world around you. At first it might seem awkward and uncomfortable (I really shouldn't stare at strangers!), but with practice you won't notice you're even doing it. My senses (all of them!) are always wide open, which is a huge benefit. I'll see and hear and smell the most amazing things which impacts my writing. Maybe not right away but eventually it becomes something you do naturally. Be a keen observer of life - you never know what you'll experience!
3) Read, read, read! Then write, write, write! These two things go hand in hand and are essential to the writing life. If you want to be a "serious" writer, you have to immerse yourself (within reason) in both of these worlds. The more you write, the better you'll become. And writing is not something that's easy to teach OR easy to learn. So expect to spend your whole life learning. I've been doing it for over twenty years and I still am learning.
4) Don't be afraid to be insatiably curious. It is something that will serve you well. If you can teach your brain to look at situations and ideas like a rubix cube, you'll never run out of ideas.
5) Be yourself! I learned this lesson recently - it's okay not to do it the way anyone else is doing it. There's a ton of people out there who will give you advice about how to write. Try it, see if it works, and if it doesn't, don't force yourself! Try a different way, make up your own way. I recently discovered that I was forcing myself to meet a word count every time I wrote and it was stifling me. I need the freedom to write as much or as little as I want. I had to give myself freedom and in doing so, I wrote almost 5000 words in two days. Sometimes you just have to figure out what YOU need, not what someone else does.
2) Train yourself to observe the world around you. At first it might seem awkward and uncomfortable (I really shouldn't stare at strangers!), but with practice you won't notice you're even doing it. My senses (all of them!) are always wide open, which is a huge benefit. I'll see and hear and smell the most amazing things which impacts my writing. Maybe not right away but eventually it becomes something you do naturally. Be a keen observer of life - you never know what you'll experience!
3) Read, read, read! Then write, write, write! These two things go hand in hand and are essential to the writing life. If you want to be a "serious" writer, you have to immerse yourself (within reason) in both of these worlds. The more you write, the better you'll become. And writing is not something that's easy to teach OR easy to learn. So expect to spend your whole life learning. I've been doing it for over twenty years and I still am learning.
4) Don't be afraid to be insatiably curious. It is something that will serve you well. If you can teach your brain to look at situations and ideas like a rubix cube, you'll never run out of ideas.
5) Be yourself! I learned this lesson recently - it's okay not to do it the way anyone else is doing it. There's a ton of people out there who will give you advice about how to write. Try it, see if it works, and if it doesn't, don't force yourself! Try a different way, make up your own way. I recently discovered that I was forcing myself to meet a word count every time I wrote and it was stifling me. I need the freedom to write as much or as little as I want. I had to give myself freedom and in doing so, I wrote almost 5000 words in two days. Sometimes you just have to figure out what YOU need, not what someone else does.
Charity Marie
I have to pick just one thing? Geez, I don't know if I can. Writing is such an experience. If reading opens up new worlds, writing is the creation of one. It's a whole other level! I love that incredible indescribable feeling of creating something new. There's probably few things that can compare with it.
Charity Marie
This is a great question. My answer is: it depends. With anything creative, there's no one-size-fits-all solution. A lot of it depends on what I have going on in my life at the time. I've found over the years that high levels of stress will really impede creativity so I try to keep things very stable in life (as much as I can!).
This means that I make sure to run a tight ship all the time - whether it's dealing with bills in a pro-active manner, or managing healthcare for the family or making sure I have down time from work. I also find keeping a consistent schedule helps. My body needs to know when to get up, when to work, when to relax, and when it's time to write. By scheduling these things, my body gets into a consistent, comfortable routine that allows for things to run smoothly. Lastly, I work with my husband to make sure we communicate effectively on all things. Limiting life distractions frees my mind for play and imagination!
This means that I make sure to run a tight ship all the time - whether it's dealing with bills in a pro-active manner, or managing healthcare for the family or making sure I have down time from work. I also find keeping a consistent schedule helps. My body needs to know when to get up, when to work, when to relax, and when it's time to write. By scheduling these things, my body gets into a consistent, comfortable routine that allows for things to run smoothly. Lastly, I work with my husband to make sure we communicate effectively on all things. Limiting life distractions frees my mind for play and imagination!
Charity Marie
Right now I'm working on multiple projects. One of them is a YA fantasy with a working title of "Not Dragonborn". I can't give too many details on that one as it's still pretty early in the writing (just added 4,000 more words this past weekend) and a lot of things keep changing. The main character's name is Reyna. A publication date is planned for sometime in 2018.
Another project is the third book in my children's series, and is titled "Jason, Lizzy, and the Luckless Leprechauns". I managed to plot the entire book in a 12 hour period recently, which was exciting! I'm hoping this will be the best in the series yet. It's tentatively scheduled for release in 2018 but I'm determined not to release it until it is good and done.
My final project is something I've been working on for almost a year and is a trilogy of adult fiction. I'm not entirely sure of the genre yet as it's a mixture of thriller/suspense/faction. I'm very busy plotting all three books to make sure they make sense and flow in real time. Once the plot is figured out, I'll start writing like a runaway train! It's an ambitious project and trust me when I tell you this, plotting three books simultaneously is HARD! But I'm hopeful to release book one in late 2018/early 2019.
At some point I'll be writing a non-fiction/inspirational book about surviving and overcoming abuse but that project is likely to take me years. For all I know it could take me the rest of my life! I haven't even done an outline on it yet so no firm plans on that yet.
Another project is the third book in my children's series, and is titled "Jason, Lizzy, and the Luckless Leprechauns". I managed to plot the entire book in a 12 hour period recently, which was exciting! I'm hoping this will be the best in the series yet. It's tentatively scheduled for release in 2018 but I'm determined not to release it until it is good and done.
My final project is something I've been working on for almost a year and is a trilogy of adult fiction. I'm not entirely sure of the genre yet as it's a mixture of thriller/suspense/faction. I'm very busy plotting all three books to make sure they make sense and flow in real time. Once the plot is figured out, I'll start writing like a runaway train! It's an ambitious project and trust me when I tell you this, plotting three books simultaneously is HARD! But I'm hopeful to release book one in late 2018/early 2019.
At some point I'll be writing a non-fiction/inspirational book about surviving and overcoming abuse but that project is likely to take me years. For all I know it could take me the rest of my life! I haven't even done an outline on it yet so no firm plans on that yet.
Charity Marie
My inspirations come from everywhere! My two kids are a pretty powerful source, but world events influence me as well. Sometimes inspiration just comes in waves a result of circumstances as they unfold, or after reflection on circumstances in the past. I'm not above using word prompts, photos, news stories, or anything else I can find. One of my favorite methods is asking the question, "What if?" and seeing where it takes me. Many of my stories have that simple question as their basis.
Charity Marie
The idea for Jason, Lizzy, and the Ice Dragon came as a result of some very serious bullying my daughter was experiencing at school. It breaks my heart to know just how cruel and mean children can be to each other. My daughter has been a target of bullying from the beginning of her school career and it's a battle we fight every day. And when another little girl told my daughter it would be better if my daughter killed herself, I knew that I would have to write a book that had friendship and an anti-bullying message. The book is written to represent and help children understand how to accept the diversity of others and that doing so can lead to some incredible, even magical results! Bullying is an issue we really need to work on with our kids. It's an awful problem in our country and I look forward to a day when bullying is not only unacceptable but nonexistent!
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