Keeping Motivated & Avoiding Losing Your Spark
When you make up stories for a living, it's hard sometimes to find the inspiration to keep going. There's always something else that needs doing and sometimes it's hard to set yourself some time just for writing. I have a lovely sign on my office door which tells people to keep away when I'm writing, but unfortunately life doesn't always obey. One of the many things I've talked about before is making sure you balance your real life responsibilities alongside those in your writing world. Today, I'm just gonna talk about how to stay motivated when writer's block hits and how to avoid losing your spark when you hit the dead zone.
I know I've written a piece about the mysterious "zone" that many writers and other artists have talked about. It can be found here. The good thing about the zone itself is while it's hard to enter at times, it's always there in the distance as something to aim for. The problem is, how do you stay motivated when all you keep hitting is not the zone itself, but the bit that comes before it - the dead zone.
What is the dead zone, you ask? It's the place where writer's block comes from and ideas go to die. It's that place where so many writers find themselves stuck, with no idea how to get out of it and into the actual zone itself. I've hit it a fair few times myself, both in my youth and in my writing career. It's not fun, because unlike plain old regular writer's block, it comes with a little voice that drains you of all enthusiasm for your work. It's not unlike having a gremlin (pieces on mine can be found here & here.) The problem is finding a way to stay motivated about your project to the point where it will lift you out of the dead zone and help you move forward in your work.
There are numerous ways to do this. Like many excellent writers have said, you should try to write something every day (piece can be found here). You should also be sure to keep your project new and exciting. While I do plan things to a point, I like allowing my characters a little freedom when it comes to how they would react in certain situations. People always say that original characters don't always do as they're told and a good way to try and get past that dead zone is to just allow them to wander from the plot a little. It doesn't have to make it into the final draft; hell, sometimes I do an interview with each one to see if I can find something in their responses that will show me some avenue I've not yet explored. Whatever works, right? ;-)
One thing that is always good for me is to talk to my best friend, and my editor, who both know the stories I write and the characters almost as well as I do. They can help me see a point I'd overlooked and they can help me get back on track, motivated and zooming into the zone without a second thought. Another way is to take a step back, read a book of your chosen genre, spend some time relaxing for as long as time constraints allow and try not to put too much pressure on yourself to write a chapter or two right then. Sometimes we all get a little burnt-out, and the last thing you want to do is make the pressure so high that you just don't want to continue with the work.
Overall, whatever path you choose to climb out of the dead zone, try to stay focused on the end game. You will get over this hump and you will get to a point where you are entering the zone so much that you forget that there was any other way of writing. Be kind to yourself, and allow yourself some breathing room. Writing a novel takes time and you can't rush it, no matter how much you wish you could, something I have learnt a lot recently. Novels come along at their own pace, and after all the work that goes into them, you can understand why. So keep writing, don't give up and you'll get there in the end!
Follow Joey on Facebook or here on her blog to be kept up to date with the latests news regarding Joey and her books.
Hey Guys!
Yes, it's true! I managed a total of fifty-four pages and over 23k words during the month of November! Considering I planned to write at least a page a day, I think it's really great I almost doubled it. In total, I managed to write twelve chapters - six of each book - and I feel well and truly out of the slump and on my way to getting these books finished!
It was in the middle of #NaNoWriMo that I realised I could aim for the same in the coming months. It was really hard to find something to start each page with, but once I got into it, I found the words flowed a lot easier. So, I plan to do #JoWriMoGo - Joey's Writing Monthly Goal - through to the new year and see if I can beat my current score with sixty pages. Keep checking on Facebook and other places to stay up to date with how I'm doing!
I hope that 2016 will bring with it the remaining three books in paperback, and I plan to do a give away or two that will give you all the chance to grab a signed paperback copy of one of my books. Make sure you follow me on Facebook or here on the blog so you don't miss out!
There is a wonderful Tumblr blog called letterstothrive which has disabled woman write to their younger selves. I decided to send a letter to my fifteen year old self (posted here), as a way to show her, and me, how far I have come and how becoming disabled at nineteen and having what I thought would be my future changed, did not destroy me, or my plans. I may not have known it at the time, but even back then I was doing what would become my career. I decided to share it here in case other indie authors fancy doing something similar, especially if they are also disabled.
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Dear fifteen year old Joey,
I'm you, from nearly two decades into the future and I'm writing to tell you things that may not have seemed that important to you, but ended up changing the course of our lives. You're probably reading this while working on chapters for that story. Maybe you're with B and writing the story about the twins. I know one thing is for certain, you are very sure about where your life is going and what comes next in your path. I'm writing to tell you that you're wrong.
Right now, you'll have nearly finished your first GCSE year. Your lungs are getting worse, but you figure it's just the stress and upset of being a teenager. You know that you need to do well on the science exams because you plan to become a doctor - a paediatrician to be exact. You're probably wondering how that went. Well, it's a long story, but I have the time, so here we go.
You do well in your GCSE's, you get the grades you need to go to college and you do just that. You sign up for the A-level classes you need to go to medical school, but then things start to go a little wrong. Your health isn't the best and due to a number of other circumstances you end up dropping out of college. For a long time you feel like you've let your parents down, let yourself down but you hide it by throwing yourself into the working world. Your dream seems to be over before it's even started and for a long time, you struggle to find out exactly what it is you want to do with your life.
Even though you find yourself a good job, you don't stay there long. A year later and with the additional diagnoses of M.E and Fibromyalgia, you find yourself under the heading of "medically retired." I know that for a long time after that you're not really sure what to do with your life. I mean, you have to move out of the room you rented, back in with mum, and then move again. You fight to get the benefits you need to be able to live and for a fair few years you are not stable medically. By the time you hit twenty - five years from now - you'll be using a wheelchair.
It's not all bad, B turns out to be the best friend you always knew she was and together life goes on, but still you ask yourself what can you do with your life? How can you become a "productive member of society"? You are not well enough to go back into the working world, but you have dreams of doing *something*. You're just not sure what. That's when it comes to you, to work on one of the stories you wrote all those years ago. You've gone back to it before, re-writing and hoping that you can make it as good as it can be. You also find you have more ideas, some that have been brewing for almost as long. Remember the coma girl story you told B about on the way to school when we were thirteen? Well, that becomes your focus now. You write it in ten days and suddenly, that feeling of pride that you'd missed came back.
As more stories appeared, you settled into your own routine of writing. You even sent off manuscripts to publishing houses. You are desperate to get published, and you do, at age twenty-three, your first book is released. It's a massive achievement for you, as you've gotten more books written, your health has declined. Now B is taking care of you, and you are an inseparable pair. I'm sorry to say that only one other friend stays in contact with you from your school days, but you find that you have a lot of friends online and although some go, others stay.
I'm writing to you now as thirty-three year old Joey. I, well we, have seven books published, twelve completed and two more on the go. There will be a launch for our eighth book this autumn. You are also very much disabled. The chair started as an only long distance thing, and then you became sicker and it became a constant need for you. I know that you, at the age you are now, may struggle with knowing what this future holds for you, but I can tell you this. You are happy. You love your job, love writing, adore the community of indie authors you're a member of and you are good at what you do. You may not yet be on the best sellers list - maybe the letter from the future for me will arrive any day now saying that is to come - but people do like and cherish the work you do. Your disability is just another part of the identity you have made for yourself, just part of you like the colour of your eyes is part of you. It's not to be feared, but to be embraced.
You may wonder why I'm writing this letter, if the future changes so much from what we thought it would be all that time ago. I'm writing to tell you that even the small decisions you made at fifteen, still influenced who you became. You graduated last year from the Open University with an honours degree in Health & Social Care. It's not medical school, but it's still something you love. I know that at fifteen, life seemed to be just one path, but I'm telling you that it's not. It's a myriad of paths and they all end up in different places. The diagnoses and getting sick led me down this path and I don't look back and see missed opportunities, but highlights of my life that I wouldn't change. While I may never have seen that one day I would be the person I am, I'm telling you that you will be, and you'll be proud of that too.
So, keep writing those stories, some will be buried in my attic for years and never spoken of again, but others become books and they help shape your career even if you don't think so at the time. Don't be scared of getting sicker, it happens and you come through it strong. Be nicer to Mum too, she becomes our biggest supporter in the darker times coming, I know you want to take control of things, but try to remember that she does it not to baby you, but because she cares.
I'll see you soon.
Love and *squishes*
Joey (age 33)
Approaching Blogs For Reviews
As I've talked about before (pieces from here & here), one of the many issues of being published as an indie author is that you do the majority of the work. You should be farming out your editing, proof-reading and other aspects like that, but the rest of it pretty much falls on your shoulders. It's not an easy task, and it's one of the reasons many people chose not to go the indie route, or if they do, they pay for other people to be in charge of the promotional side of things. For some of us, that just isn't an option and so, here my advice about how to approach people for reviews for your work.
Every writer needs reviews. It's a way for people to judge whether or not your work is something they want to read; after all, they are spending money and the general aim of reading is to escape to an imaginary world and people like to know in advance if your world is the one for them. I know that a lot of people in my author circle are constantly on the look-out for reviewers and I am no different. I have contacted so many different people and had wildly different rates of success when asking for a review. It's all about making contacts (a subject I discuss here) and using other resources to make sure that you can get as many reviews and as much feedback as you need to get your name out there and sell some books.
There are numerous websites that you can go to and look for book bloggers who will possibly review your work. I use one mostly for indie authors, which is quite good and has a very full database. It called Indie Book Reviewer and can be found here. They've got a whole bunch of blogs and you're able to browse by genre. I've combed through those and then gone on to fill out a spreadsheet of my own so that I can keep track of which sites I've contacted and their responses. Googling the same will probably bring up some other book blogs. So, now you have the information you need, what do you do when you are ready to contact the blogs themselves?
Simple really, make sure you ALWAYS read the review policy. Some blogs have a full list, or they only accept either paperbacks or e-books. Others will only read certain genres. Others have a specific way for you to contact them, a form to fill out or an email to send and all of them want some kind of information. Some will want you to submit your e-book or a sample along with your enquiry email and not doing so makes you look bad. So, step one, before you even think of opening an email is to read their policy. Make sure you meet their requirements and have all that you need to send them a request.
The second thing is to be polite. I know, right? Like who would be rude to someone when you're the one asking for a favour? I dunno, but it happens, so you need to be sure to ask nicely and say please and thank you and all that other stuff you learnt in primary school. The other thing is to be aware that they probably receive a huge number of requests. There simply isn't enough time for someone to read every book that they get a request for, and there's also the fact that some people just won't like or be interested in your work. That's not saying that it's bad, just that they read the blurb or info and decided it wasn't for them. It happens, move on.
It would also be good to prepare yourself for the fact that due to the volume of their requests, they might not get back to you quickly...or at all. If they've read the email and decided that it's not for them and they have another fifty requests, there also isn't time to shoot you an email saying so. Accept that and move on from them to the next site. Another big thing is to not bombard them with emails until they reply. Make the first contact, and wait. If they get back to you, then yes, you should respond in a timely manner, but if they don't? Keep waiting and/or assume they weren't interested. It's pretty much the way it goes. Always be polite and always keep it professional.
The last thing is just simply that sometimes there will be people who give you low scoring review. Basically a "bad" review. My thoughts on the matter are there are no such things as bad reviews. Yeah, you can get a one star, but as long as it's not directly attacking you, then it's just a fact of life. You can't please everyone and you won't please everyone. What appeals to one person may not appeal to another and a one star review may well be the thing that makes another potential reader say "yes, this is the book for me!" Book bloggers are promoting you for free, in their own time, and you can't demand that they provide you with a five star review just because it's your work. Learn from it, take whatever feedback they have and move on with your writing. Reviews are there to help you, to make you a better writer as well as to guide other people in which books they buy. So, always be polite, and always be professional. If you remember these two rules, then you're on the right track. Your mileage may, of course, vary.
Follow Joey on Facebook or here on her blog to be kept up to date on the latest news regarding Joey and her books.
For as long as I've been a writer, I've always been drawn to the month of November and the great NaNoWriMo event that goes on through it. I've never taken part, mostly because I can't write that way. I applaud those who do though, and for a while I've thought about doing something to get myself back into writing consistently. So this year, I decided to do my own version of NaNoWriMo: One page of writing each day for the whole of November.
For those unaware, NaNo stands for National Novel Writing Month. The main idea is to write 50K words in a month and therefore finish a novel. Started in 1999 by a small group of people in San Francisco, it has become a massive world-wide yearly event for all kinds of writers. (More History caan be found here.) Even back before I was published, it was still this big thing that a lot of my friends did online and I always wondered if I ever would. Although I have written a novel in ten days (admittedly, it falls below the 50K word count), I have never been able to repeat that endeavour and even then, it was far from finished. Once it went through the battle to get published, editing and all, it was a good four years before I held the book in my hands. I can understand the attraction of dedicating a whole month to nothing more than getting that long thought-out novel onto the page.
My own writing has become somewhat of a career since I became indie in 2011 and went on to add seven more books to the published list. Once I realised that I wasn't going to be able to work a conventional job, it became easier to dedicate time to writing. For a while it was on the back burner because of my degree course, but having held a BA (Hons) for over a year now, I do wonder why I don't spend more time at my desk pounding out the pictures in my head for the books I'm working on. The argument can be made that given I've had three surgeries this year and am looking at a possible fourth, it's understandable that I've not written more. Yet, I still want to push myself. Even on my worst health days, I still use my tablet, and with my nifty desk and bluetooth keyboard I can easily write a page. So, that's my plan for this month.
My hope is that given we're on November 2nd and I've already written five pages and completed a chapter, I won't be coming back to this blog post in a week and telling you all I managed my set chapters and nothing more. My hope is that by pushing myself just a little to write that one page will mean that some days it's all I write and others, I keep going. It's about getting into the flow of writing and the story, something I've not been doing much of lately. We'll see how it goes! Keep track on my Tsu, Facebook and Twitter pages.
I do have some good news for you, Blackout, Lynne & Hope, Waiting On You, and Dying Thoughts book two and three are all now available in paperback! I'm hoping to have the fourth Dying Thoughts book out soon but there were some issues with the cover and my artist is working hard on fixing those now. I hope it will be by the end of the month, but we'll have to wait and see. As for the remaining two books, those are awaiting cover revamps before being released in paperback. Maybe even by the beginning of 2016!
So, here's to a month of writing!
#ICYMI Dying Thoughts - Fourth Week is now available on Amazon Kindle (US, UK)!
Now for an update! I am awaiting the proof copies of six of my books for paperback, and as they're coming from the US, I've been told to expect delivery around the middle of September. Once they get here, I'll be able to look at them and make sure they're just as they should be. Once that's done, I'll be able to release them on Amazon and other stores. It's all rather exciting!
I was also interviewed by two lovely indie authors - Wendy Jones (interview can be found here) and Jan Raymond (interview can her found here) - who both asked interesting questions and were kind enough to host me.
I am working steadily on my current two manuscripts and am also working with my cover designer to get new covers for Dying Thoughts - First Touch and The Friendship Triangle. Once those are done and live, I'll be able to publish those two in paperback as well.
So, busy, busy, but all is well. A new school year has started and with it a new month and I'm already on the third of my normal four monthly chapters, so hopefully this month will have some added bonus ones!
As always, follow the blog or my facebook page to be kept up to date with all the news!
Info-Dumping & Why You Shouldn't Do It
As I've mentioned before in numerous posts, research is one of the many things a writer has to do when they're creating new worlds. Posts on this topic can be found here & here. It can be one of the more fun parts of writing, because even when a story is set in your own original world, you still need to carry out some world building and for that, you get to use hard facts as well as your imagination. But the issue I'm talking about today is what is affectionately called "Info-Dumping", and it's something you really want to avoid at all costs.
Now, I can understand the attraction, and I've been guilty of doing it myself on occasion. When you've spent a good few hours, days or even weeks researching how a certain thing should be done (in my case, usually a murder or something equally grisly) then you want to be able to show off that you actually did do the research and include all that you can in the dialogue and exposition. However, nothing else will pull your readers out of the cosy world you've built faster than a fourteen page lecture on how forensics work, or how fast a certain car can actually go. It may be fun to include it for your own reference, but if there's no real need for a character to talk about it, or for the reader to know, then it shouldn't be there.
I am grateful to have my excellent editing team, who make sure that I don't go on for pages and pages about how DNA evidence is collected, tested and used to catch a suspect, but it wasn't always like that. Back in the early days of my writing career, I was very happy to include as much information as I could find on a certain subject and it wasn't until someone else read it and told me that it took away from the writing, that I began to see that it wasn't needed. I would spend hours reading about a certain forensic technique and would make copious notes, but would then find that actually I didn't need to write about x or y and while it was disappointing, you have to be firm with yourself and make sure that you're telling the story and not just giving people irrelevant facts that they could find on their own if they wanted.
I don't mean facts that are relevant, such as how your characters managed to track down a killer, or how they escaped from a bound chair when kidnapped: those things do need to be in your work. That becomes a case of showing and not just telling, which I'll discuss in another piece. A good way to think about the difference between the two is to think about what YOU would like to read if the story were written by someone else. Would you really want to know every detail of a contract that was signed and never mentioned again? Or would you prefer it be kept to a simple sentence or two? If you're using so much researched information that it becomes likely that you'll need to include a list of sources, then maybe it's about time to actually start thinking less is more.
I get why writers (myself included) want to include all that information. Like I said, it's an exciting prospect to have the facts to back up your fiction and to justify certain choices, but if it starts to look more like a piece of formal writing that you'd hand in to be marked by a teacher, then it's probably too much information. There is a certain level of pride that I know I have when I write something and know that it is as accurate as I could've made it, but sometimes as a writer you have to be happy to just know that you did your research and leave it at that. While something pivotal to the plot should be included, there really isn't any need to include what kind of toothpaste your character uses and their favourite flavour of ice cream. Just because you've thought of these things, it doesn't mean that your reader needs to know, or will even care. I mean, taking that example, unless the ice cream is going to be a clue that leads them to being rescued or if the toothpaste is actually poisoned, there's no need to tell your reader all the things you know about your main character.
So yes, sometimes less is more, and info-dumping is something that should be avoided at all costs. You're writing a work of fiction and that means that some things are sometimes better left to the imagination. If you could see yourself having the conversation with the character in a relaxed setting, then maybe it needs to be there, if not, do yourself a favour and scale back on the researched information. It certainly makes life a lot easier in the editing process at least! Your mileage may, of course, vary.
Follow Joey on Facebook or here on her blog to be kept up to date with the latest news regarding Joey and her books.
Hey Readers,
I know, it's been a long time since I did an update. I have got a few other posts already written, but thought I'd do a more personal and general one about news that may have been missed in my writing posts.
Firstly: NEW COVER ART!
Now you may have noticed that over the past year or so, there have been new covers for a few of the the books released before Dying Thoughts - Third Wish. There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, me and my cover artist, B, were no longer happy with the existing covers. Lynne & Hope was the first of the older books to get a revamp, and as you can see up above, Dying Thoughts - Second Sight has just received its new cover too! The other reasoning behind this leads onto my next point...
Secondly: PAPERBACKS!
Now, as you'll all be aware, I always planned to have every book available in both e-format and paperback. It's finally happening this year! I hired a proof-reader to read the first six books and check them for any errors, and once corrected, I have been working upon the paperback covers, uploading the files, checking formatting etc. to make sure that by the time book eight - Dying Thoughts - Fourth Week - is released, I should also be able to release a paperback version of at least three other books. By the end of 2015, ALL eight books should be available in paperback. Once that's all done, I'll plan to release in paperback and e-format at the same time.
Thirdly: COVER REVEAL!
This year, I am planning a cover reveal event for Dying Thoughts - Fourth Week. It's set for the14th August at 12:00 (BST) and will run through live until around 16:00. I am hoping to be able to find three (or more) young adult authors to take over the event for a short thirty minute period, where they can do one of the games I've planned and have ten minutes to talk about anything they wish. If you're interested in doing that, you can email me at bugbooks@virginmedia.com
Fourthly: DYING THOUGHTS - FOURTH WEEK RELEASE!
It's taken a long time to get the book ready, but I'm pretty sure I now have an actual release day. 18th September will be the day that the fourth Dying Thoughts book is released on Amazon Kindle (and hopefully paperback shortly after). I am planning a big event for that, and will try to keep you all updated as and when I have actual ideas about what it will entail. I am very busily working on making sure the editing is done by the middle of August, so that I can send it off to the proof-reader afterwards and then set it up so that it is ready to be pre-ordered by the end of August!
I'm hopeful that these events will all go along as planned with as few hiccups as possible. I promise to keep you updated, should there be any more developments, so be sure to like my Facebook page or my Tsu, and follow along here to be kept up to date and make sure you don't miss something important!
Welcome Guest Blogger, Roy Huff!
Roy approached me asking for a review of one of his books, and since I loved the book, I thought I'd host him here and share the review with you all! Below is a little piece about why he chose the fantasy genre.
The reason I write YA fiction is because I love it. I love science fiction and fantasy as well and have been heavily influenced by all three genres. I also watch just about every tv show and movie that comes out. This allows me a great escape. I often live in a dream world and play out a multitude of scenarios in my head. That becomes part of the inspiration for when I write. I have also recently taken to writing down my dreams on a daily basis something I used to do when I was a teenager. The broad background in the subject and the frequent daydreaming allows me to sit uninterrupted for hours when I have the time and inclination to write. Due to my hectic schedule, I tend to be a marathon writer and write during my days off, so having played out many plot lines beforehand helps my imagination when I start putting pen to paper.
If you want to know more about Roy, you can follow his blog, find him on Goodreads and other social media sites, or join his mailing list here.
The book I read was the fourth in the Everville series. You can find it here. Below is a synopsis and following that, my review.
Two very different worlds, Easton Falls University and the magical realm of Everville are in dire need of a hero. Owen Sage embarks on an epic journey of monumental proportions to save these worlds all while fighting to keep the world within himself intact. This quest is not for the faint of heart nor is it for the weak of mind—only the bravest will succeed. Discovering the well-kept secret of The Fourth Pillar of Truth is only part of the feat. Owen will have to outwit the ever-powerful villain Governor Jahal and overcome countless other challenges along the way. Amongst all of the dragons, giants and grand chaos, will Owen's acquired skills and wisdom be enough to save both worlds or will peril be the ultimate fate of all?
My review: 5/5 stars - an intriguing tale!
I was approached by the author for an honest review in exchange for a copy of his book. I'm not usually one to read fantasy, but the synopsis of this book made me want to give it a go, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I did find it hard to follow some of the storyline in places because I haven't read the previous three books, but on its own it did tell a good story and I worked out most of what was happening. It tells the story of Everville and follows on from the changes to the time-line made in what I assume to be the previous book. Owen is on the search for the Fourth Pillar of Truth, and treks through Everville to find it.
It is well written, fast paced and certainly held my interest - it had me reading from page one until the end, and I was only able to put it down when I became desperate for sleep. It's a great book and one I would recommend to YA fantasy readers, as the world building is superb and spot on. I enjoyed it immensely and may even end up checking out the previous three and the ones that come after this book. Overall, a good read and well earnt five stars!
If you're interested in doing a guest blog post, contact us by email - bugbooks@virginmedia.com
Making Your Ideas Work: When You Start Off Too Small
I wrote a piece recently about what to do when your idea is too big (found here) and I promised that I'd look at the other end of the spectrum as well, which is where this piece comes in. What do you do when your idea is a great one, but it's tiny? It's so small that you're not sure the box you want to put it in will even notice that it's there. You can't stretch it without worrying about it snapping in two and no matter how much you think about it and try to brainstorm your way into making it larger, nothing seems to work. If you're a planner like me, you'll usually be aware of this before you put pen to paper, but sometimes even the best planners have great big plans for ideas that are just too small. So, here are some options for if you choose to try and make a little idea into a big story.
#1 - FEED REGULARLY AND ALLOW TO GROW
One thing that works for me when an idea is too small to support itself in a full length novel, is to set it to one side, check in on it occasionally and see if it grows on its own. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't, but as long as you keep it earmarked for a possible book, then you give it the chance to feed itself and fill up to the point where it fits in the box without the need for packing to balance it out.
#2 - MARRY TWO TOGETHER
Sometimes an idea won't do enough growing to ever be considered large enough to fill a book, in those cases you can sometimes alter it to be a small arc in one of your current WIPs, or in a new project where you take the bare bones of another story and use the smaller idea to help that one grow too. It doesn't always work that way because sometimes you'll find that an idea is too specific to marry it with another without losing the plot points you wanted to create.
And finally, #3 - LEAVE IT AS IS
There are no rules when it comes to how long a book is. Well, there are rules, but there are also awesome short stories and just because an idea you have is too small to fill fifty-thousand words, that doesn't mean that it should be shelved and/or never used. Some ideas are just too awesome to do that to and so a lot of great authors have taken a lot of smaller ideas and put them together in a collection of short stories. Just because they're in the same "book" doesn't mean that they all have to intertwine, though generally speaking they usually all share a common genre, such as detective or horror or fantasy. It's a great way to use those unfulfilled stories and turn them into a collection of awesome short ones.
However you choose to get your ideas to work for you, remember that while there are rules as to how things should be done in the writing world, part of being a writer is knowing which rules you can bend, which ones you can outright break and which ones you need to stick to no matter what. When you have that worked out you can make any idea - big or small - work for you to create the story that you see in your head. After all, that's what writing is about, sharing the impossible, creating from nothing and sending your ideas out into the world and hoping they soar to the clouds. Your mileage may, of course, vary.
Follow Joey on Facebook or here on her blog to be kept up to date with the latest news regarding Joey and her books.
