The Demons That Lie Within Us: An Author's Advantage

Those of us that write to be appealing to the public, must create characters that will catch the eye. They must be bold and brash and make you want to learn more about them.

I have never had a problem creating characters. In my murder mysteries my killer is sexy beautiful woman and ropes them in to succumb to torture and death. As you read through each chapter her life becomes real from my creative thoughts to your eyes.

She is busy and as you read through the book you can imagine the whole scenes.

This is the hope of every author that through their writing you can live vicariously through each characters lives.

I love to create my characters based on people who at one point in time made an impression on my life whether it be good or bad. My first novel True Cupid which is a comedy about online dating which lead me to my main character "a woman serial killer, Yolanda Adams" in my last two novels.

I never thought of killing anyone but after spending four years of online dating and meeting some of the craziest men I would ever know, I thought the next best thing would be to get closure by killing them off in my book. Yes it has been therapy for me but the part that really became so very hard was in the second book I had three computers crash on me and lost most of my material three times because at that time I never thought about saving it on anything. Yeah I know dummy me and lesson learned, however in light of rewriting 10 chapters over three times, I met my husband and no longer had the urge to kill anyone. I was exquisitely happy and now I had to use my real writing skills in order to finish.

Day after day I procrastinated about writing because I just couldn't be mean enough to kill anyone even though I still wished death on them lol. So now I had to resort to my childhood friends on facebook to do the trick for me. Two lovely souls who I ended up dedicating my book to for irritating me enough to finish, and yes I killed them off too, the sequel. Yes it's true I have demons in me that need release and the best way I know how is to write it.

As writers we all have our own demons and we make our own characters for whatever reason or whatever experience they gave us. But mine are just ordinary folks who struck a wrong cord in my life and the demons that lie within me don't have the courage to really do what I did to them in real life so with closure of these folks that irritated me so I can move on to the trilogy finding more victims for my demons to attack right here at my computer and no one will ever know except for me and my demons.

I love my character she is sexy and sassy but most of all an evil villianess waiting for the next chapter to be written.

You can't release the demons if you don't let them out. Sometimes we are hit in the head with an idea then sit down to write and the idea goes South. I don't usually have a problem finding topics to write about because I am a Chatty Cathy as I have been told.

Here are some tips to get you over the hump.

The reasons for your block may vary, but some common ones include:

• Timing: It’s simply not the right time to write. Your ideas may need to stew a little longer before writing them down.
• Fear: Many writers struggle with being afraid, with putting their ideas (and themselves) out there for everyone to see and critique. Fear is a major reason some writers never become writers. This has always been my fear. I don't believe in myself and everyone else needs to help me.
• Perfectionism: You want everything to be just right before you ever put pen to paper or touch a keyboard. You try to get it perfect in your head and never do, so you never begin.

Here are a few ideas to help you work through your uncreative abilities:

• Go for a walk.
• Eliminate distractions
• Do something to get your blood flowing.
• Play.
• Change your environment.
• Read a book.
• Freewrite.
• Listen to music (try classical or jazz to mix it up).
• Brew some coffee (my personal favorite).
• Create a routine. Many famous writers have daily routines to summon the Muse.
• Spend time with someone who makes you feel good.
• Call an old friend.
• Brainstorm ideas in bullet points.
• Read some inspiring quotes to get you started.

The possibilities are endless, but movement is critical. You need to generate momentum to get out of your funk.(Jeff Goins 2017)

Sometimes I just have to get it out but make it through a hub or just a story. I love teaching people new things and informing people of different things such as healthcare and laws along with recipes and funny hubs.

I don't post something just out of the blue if I have not researched the subject. Sometimes it takes a lot of research and sometimes not so much. If its something I am very concerned about such as HIV, STD's and women's health, I make sure I know what I am talking about.

I think most writers, who are very talented, have some flaw in their make up. I live with depression and anxiety and wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. The greatest of artists were schizophrenic.

As a writer, I need it and want it. Sometimes I can go days and never write and other days I can produce 2 or 3 hubs.

Find your inner demons and release them. You will be happy that you did.

If computers were available in the nineteen century, would Dickens or Austen still write in longhand? Perhaps they would do both like some of the early twentieth century authors who typed on typewriter and sometimes wrote on paper. Today, authors prevalently write on computer than on paper. But there are some who still swear by their pens. Neither preference is better; every writer has to find the tool that best suits them. (Anthony Koh 2013)

You always see in the movies a ton of balled up paper on the floor of the author. He or she can't get it right. Yeah I think my first master piece was on a piece of paper and then I learned to type.

Now you don't even have to type if you have a program like the talking dragon. You can train it to write and punctuate as if you wrote it. You talk and it types and you probably can produce a book in a day, well maybe not in a day.

I wrote a lot of poetry all my life but never thought it was good enough to publish. My friends and I were in Delray Florida one night and I had my palm read for ten bucks. She told me that I was very creative and if I used my talent in five years I would be successful.

That night I went home and stayed up for hours putting all of my poetry on a word document. When I thought it was done I submitted it to a publishing company who rejected my manuscript. I was disgusted and very disappointed, but I was not stopping there. I submitted it to several publishing companies and finally it was accepted.

Well as the years have plugged along I have been a successful writer. I will always let out my demons of good and bad and you should too. You are only as good as you want to be.

KEEP DOING IT