I’d be interested to learn what authors/publishers think their biggest challenges are with their novel(s). I wonder if there’s any common, pervasive challenges we all face.
I’d be interested to learn what authors/publishers think their biggest challenges are with their novel(s). I wonder if there’s any common, pervasive challenges we all face.
YA Chit Chat 
My biggest challenge is to stop myself from getting too caught up with my character’s inner thoughts and emotions. Sometimes I’ll go off on a tangent and forget what set it off in the first place. Fighting the purple prose is also a problem if I don’t work hard to keep an eye on it. Pretty soon the plot has come to a complete standstill while I get lost describing the scenery and how beautiful it is. Or, get too carried away describing my main character’s love interest. 🙂 It does help to read about other writers and know I’m not the only one who fights with these details.
Denna
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Our latest novel, Sugar & Spice, was a challenge quite unlike most.
Sugar & Spice is about the hunt for a child-killer by the mother of a murdered child. In doing so she confronts the man accused, arrested and awaiting trial for killing her daughter. Despite him being a self-confessed paedophile, he convinces her of his innocence (of the murder).
Trying to create a character like this, that was not a one-dimensional bug-eyed baddie with steel claws and body odour was a huge challenge.
But that paled into insignificance besides the second key character, a father of two fighting indecent thoughts, who goes looking for help, undergoes therapy, and in doing so is wrongly arrested for the murder.
That, plus the real killer, and of course the good guys.
Oh, and a small matter of entwining all this into a story to make a compelling thriller that would keep the reader hooked, at once repulsed and compelled to read on.
Challenging, yes. But we seem to have succeeded.
Sugar & Spice launched on Amazon Kindle under our pen-name Saffina Desforges just before Christmas, is now in the top ten in the Kindle store, and number three in thrillers, and is currently selling in indecent quantities, so we must have done something right!
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congratulations, Mark! Always love hearing success stories. Hope you partied hard last night. You deserve it for all your hard work.
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Writing in new genres is a challenge all of its own. 🙂
And if you can get your copy of the novel to me, I’ll gladly sign it. Or, you could always wait until I earn enough to visit the States, and then I can do it in person 🙂
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You’ll feel him. In my current NiP, not only is it a character I’m not as familiar with, but it’s 1st ppov male (when I’m more used to writing female), and I see myself the exact spot where I get a stronger grip on him. They come to us, it just takes a little time 🙂
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True. My biggest difference between my two novels other than characters is genre. I’m used to writing fantasy. FFTF is a romantic mystery/suspense/murder. I’m having fun with it.
I can’t wait to read your novel when it is released in July! I want an autographed copy, pls!!!! *bat eyelids* 🙂
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My biggest problem is learning to write from a new character pov, and learning them well enough to stay consistent with their voice and personality throughout until the end. 🙂
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Oh my gosh. I feel exactly the same way. I have a murder mystery novel going right now (Flowers from the Field) and the hero of the novel has a teenage son, Sean. Sometimes David’s voice (my hero in ITSOTDK) just shows up in Sean and I have to shake him out of my head and re-write whole scenes. It’s weird because Sean and David are nothing alike and would NOT get along. It’s just that I’ve been with David for so long and Sean is fairly new. I’ll discover more about him the more time I spend with him and then, watch out! He’s such a bad boy and gives his washed up actor dad a run for his money!
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