Writing Tips and Writing Experiences (Brooke Williams, author of "Wrong Place, Right Time")

Brooke Williams is the author of Wrong Place, Right Time.

MyReadingLounge: Can you give us some writing tips and talk us through some of your writing experiences?

Brooke Williams:

I could probably sit and write about writing all day long! I won’t, though, promise!

I remember writing in grade school. I would cut out pictures from magazines and paste them onto blank sheets of paper and write new stories around them. Then I would sell the creations to my parents. I should have known then that I was meant to be a writer.

But parents are easy targets. Writing in the real world is much more of a challenge. I wrote my first novel, Someone Always Loved You a good decade ago. I approached agents with it. I got rejected. A lot. The worst/best rejection I got was an agent who returned my self-addressed stamped envelope to me with “no” written on the outside. The inside was empty. No form letter or anything! How rude! Ha.

Honestly, after so many rejections, I gave up on writing and tried to enjoy my career in radio. I wrote short commercial scripts and told myself it was enough. But about a year after my first daughter was born, I started working from home on a freelance basis. I wrote and still write articles for clients all over the world. I love it! But even that isn’t enough. Fiction is my true love and I had to dabble there as well.

I don’t write a story unless the plot or characters bother me…a lot! When I get an idea, I let it fester until I can no longer sleep at night unless I write it down. And once I start, I feverishly work on the story until it’s complete. Since I’m a mom of two young girls, the time I have to write is very limited. We’re talking like an hour a day is all. But even at that, I can generally churn out a story in around a month or so. Thankfully because it’s hard to concentrate on much else until it’s out!

I don’t outline. I try not to think about things too much unless I’m sitting typing. Sometimes I’ll run into an issue and the best thing I can do is walk away. The answer comes to me at a random time and then I just have to hold onto it until I can write again!

My biggest tip for writers who aspire to be published is to never give up. I readily admit that I did give up and I regret that. Had I kept at it a decade ago, who knows where I’d be today! There are so many publishing options out there that it seems like there’s something for everyone. Publishing is still a tough business and finding the right publisher can be like finding a needle in a haystack. But if you aren’t digging through that haystack on a regular basis, you’ll NEVER find that needle, right?!

If nothing else, write because you love it. Write for you. Write because you can’t NOT write! Doctors tell you to work out because it’s good for your body. On the days when I’m able to write, my mind feels better. Writing is the work out my mind needs to keep itself on track for the rest of the day!

Wrong Place, Right Time is a story that stems from one simple line that I couldn’t get out of my head… “Stop the wedding!”  The whole story fell out from that line on. It was my first stab at a true romance story and I thoroughly enjoyed writing it. I hope you walk away from the story with a smile on your face and laughter in your heart. I know that’s what happened to me when I typed “The End!”

-x-x-x-x-x-

Thank you, Brooke!

Wrong Place, Right Time

Release Date: December 9 , 2014

Published by: The Writers Coffee Shop

Genre: Fiction: Romance/General

ISBN e-book: 978-1-61213-289-1

Available from: Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, and TWCS PH