
The sun will shine again.
You will stroll with a friend.
Colorful flowers will take bloom.
Normality will be back soon.
Win (2) e-book copies of GHOSTLY INTERFERENCE
THE THREE P’S
Hello, everyone, and welcome to one of my last blog posts on the Ghostly Interference book tour! It’s an honor to be here, and I’m happy to announce that Ghostly Interference is currently on sale through January 22nd!
Today I want to talk about something I’ve learned over the years that deserves to be shared.
The three P’s – Patience – Persistence – Practice
Patience:
When you begin any writing journey, whether it be a short story or novel, be patient with yourself and with the process. Rushing through any part of the story creation will not yield a great story. The reader will feel the rushing and miss out on the depth that your story or character needs. Be patient when life interferes with your writing time. It will happen. Be patient when you get stuck in a scene and spend your entire allotted writing time wrestling with a paragraph. It will unfold. Be patient when your characters invade your life and keep you awake at night. And most of all, be patient with what your body needs. Sitting for long periods is not healthy. So, when your back starts to ache and your butt feels glued to the chair, be patient. Give yourself a break. Take a short walk, do ten minutes of yoga, or simply stand and stretch. Another excellent and super affordable alternative is an adjustable desktop that will allow you to stand and work.
Persistence:
Writing a book is not easy. Coming up with a fantastic story idea that gets your blood rushing through your veins is so energizing. But it takes persistence to stick with the process of transferring those vivid images in your head to the written word. It takes persistence to keep going when you feel overwhelmed. It takes persistence to stick it out to the end. Without persistence, you’ll never write those coveted two words, “The End.”
Practice:
While there are many aspects of the craft of writing you can learn by taking classes, reading books by experts, and sitting in on workshops, nothing replaces the value of practice. The old saying, ‘practice makes perfect,’ fits here. The more you write, the better you will get. You will learn to recognize weak verbs and how to replace them with power words. You will learn to spot repetition when you tend to use a crutch word over and over throughout the manuscript. You will get proficient at forming sentences that convey your thoughts in a concise and visual way and avoid passive writing. Scenes that move a story forward are essential in telling any story. Learning to spot the scenes that do nothing to advance the story comes from practice. The experts say to write every day. That doesn’t mean you must work on your WIP every day. It means you must write something every day. I would venture to say that most of us do that either through social media posts, blogs, or emails. Learn to look back over what you’ve written before you hit the ‘send’ button. When I’m in a hurry, I often fail to see a glaring typo, and I hate that. Everything we write reflects on us as authors. Think about that. If you consistently post sentences with typos, it will deter possible new readers from picking up your book. When I became a member of RWISA, that idea firmly cemented itself in me. I never want to write anything that would reflect poorly on that professional organization. It held my feet to the fire in a good way.
So, be persistent, be patient, and practice as you grow in this beautiful art form of writing. It will pay off.
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
BOOK BLURB
Jag Peters has one goal in his quiet, comfortable life—to keep his karma slate wiped clean. A near-miss crash with a candy apple red Harley threatens to upend his safe world. He tracks down the rider to apologize properly. Slipping into a seedy biker bar, he discovers the rider isn’t a “he”, it’s a “she”, a dark-haired beauty.
Rena Jett is a troubled soul, who lives in a rough world. She wants no part of Jag’s apology, but even while she pushes him away, she is attracted to him. When he claims to see a ghost—her brother—can she trust him? And could her brother’s final gift, a magical rune stone with the symbol for “happily ever after” have the power to heal her wounds and allow opposites to find common ground—perhaps even love?
BOOK TRAILER LINK: https://youtu.be/NHaLVSe_flI
BOOK PURCHASE LINKS:
AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/Ghostly-Interference-White-Rune-Sikes-ebook/dp/B08KW1KFMW/
BARNES & NOBLE: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ghostly-interference-jan-sikes/1137871003?
KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/ghostly-interference
iTUNES: https://books.apple.com/us/book/ghostly-interference/id1535082886
GOOGLE PLAY: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=PCwNEAAAQBAJ
JAN SIKES SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
http://www.facebook.com/AuthorJanSikesBooks
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00CS9K8DK (Author Page)
To follow along with the rest of the tour, please visit the authors’ tour page on the 4WillsPublishing site for the additional stops that are all going on today. If you’d like to book your own blog tour and have your book promoted in similar grand fashion, please click HERE. Thanks for supporting these authors and their work!