Suz Korb

 When I go on Twitter and I see my fellow fiction writers tweeting wise about all things literary prose, I get excited and I want to carry on with my own novel writing. This blog post might seem peppy and annoying, but really it's not. I'm just so stoked about a new novel idea so... HOLD UP. Don't go there. Do not start that crap again. You are not allowed to start a new manuscript without having finished your last one. But- No buts about it! Finish what you start , girl. Okay, now that's out of the way I can just do a little insert here about my new novel idea that I promise to put aside for later. Totally AFTER the completion of the manuscript I have on the go at the moment. But yeah, blogging about stuff, sharing with writers on twitter and facebook, etc. It's a great community for keeping up your writing spirits. Especially with the way things are at the moment. Well, the way things have been during an actual global pandemic. Sometimes when I think about it I st

 I've often thought about writing a novel that includes every character from all my books. I've written 17 novels and stories to date, so I definitely have a lot to chose from. Sort of like writing my own fan fiction? Weird and wonderful. Also, I will put myself into my book. So a novel where the author gets sucked in by the irritated will-power of the very characters she's created! Now that's diabolical. Just think what put-upon characters would do in such a situation. What would you do if you discovered that your life was controlled by a higher power. By someone literally writing out what you thought were your own choices, or bombarding you with tragedy.  Dang. At least I've always given my characters happy endings. Haven't I? Image credit: blueberrykings111, pixabay.com

I'm currently doing a marketing course and it finally dawned on me that there's no need to stress about having an author brand. I realised the way to look at book sales and getting readers, is to come at book marketing from my own perspective. And what's the first thing I do when looking for a new audiobook to listen to? I see the book's cover. I might not even see the title at first. The cover as a whole will stand out with the right typography and imagery. It all needs to blend and strike out at a potential reader at very first glance. Like love at first sight, but with books. Think about it. When you make eye contact with a stranger you become intrigued as to why they strike you so suddenly, that you want to know more. Of course, with strangers you're not really going to find out more, especially not out on a daily run or walk, but when you see an enticing cover, you're already hooked on finding out more about the book, and you most certainly can. So you look

I've been struggling to write for over 2 years now. That is, I've been struggling to finish anything. I think my problem lies in wanting to start over every new day I sit down to write. I'm guessing the solution to that is to go back to my blog post about writing a short story every time. I absolutely cannot come back to a manuscript in the middle of a scene. If that scene is incomplete I'll re-read it, decide it's shit, and delete the whole thing. Therefore I really must finish what I start on a daily basis. I've got to become a planner. That's not to say I need to start plotting or outlining, heavens no. That stifles creativity. And I wouldn't mind-plot when I'm not actually writing. There's no point in that either and it's actually damaging to new prose. No, what I need to do is to organise my time.  I need to sit down and chart out what actual writing time I'll have during the day. I need to know when I'll run out of time so that

I just watched the Meghan and Harry interview with Oprah. It was nice to see and hear their perspective on everything that's happened. The vile British media and racists will continue to condemn them on a daily basis, I'm sure. But that doesn't matter now. What matters is Meghan and Harry are happy. They can finally live their lives, be happy in the love they share, and take care of each other as a family. I felt so bad for Meghan.  I moved to the UK to be with my British husband way back in 2001. I too am a woman of mixed race. The culture shock alone that I suffered would have been unbearable if I'd been in her situation. I didn't marry into royalty, but I married into Britishness and I had no idea about the differences in culture at the time.  Just a few months into my new marriage and new life in England things just fell out from beneath my feet. I was in a bad marriage and in a foreign country and all I wanted to do was go home. My husband at the time didn'

How do you stay motivated to finish that project you've started, once begun? That is the question. For 2 years now I haven't finished any manuscript I've started. The most I've written was half a novel. Like 20,000 words then just abandoned it. The last manuscript I abandoned was 3000 words long, but usually my projects get tossed aside after a few hundred words. Maybe if I blog about it I can brainstorm my way into finishing what I start. Let's figure out why I get unenthusiastic at what point in my writing. Oh I know the answer already. It's when I think about my book when I'm not writing. When I mind-plot I sometimes come up with the entire outline, all the way to the end of the story. So then that's it for my burgeoning imagination. It was exciting for me to brainstorm that outline, but then I have to write all that plotting up and I get super bored with the thought of doing that. The entire point of writing fiction is to entertain myself while I'

HOW TO KEEP WRITING WACKY SCIENCE FICTION - (or any fiction for that matter) - especially during a global pandemic It started with Superstellar; my book about a pink-haired (earthling) girl who gets beamed aboard a space ship and becomes an intergalactic space queen. Twice!  Since then my penchant for writing wacky space adventures has overwhelmed, to say the least. Next, I wrote Superpower . My story about a girl not from earth who's on earth, but she discovers earth is absolutely not where she's from. Also, she has the superpowers of the elements: earth, air, fire, and water. I went on to start writing Supernatural about an earth girl from earth, so far. She's haunted by the echo device in her house. She's convinced there's a ghost in the machine. Is it possessed A.I. or is she the one about to become digitally possessed? But I got sidetracked and started writing an even more wacky science fiction novel. It wasn't even supposed to be science fiction. The thi