register |  login
› NIWOT
Loading Ad
Visit Other Hubs:
ADVERTISEMENT
Loading Tower
RECENT STORIES

To be or not to be...an Author

Contributed by: Jonna Turner on 11/14/2005

Inside every person there is a story and a good book.  That is a paraphrase but you get the point.  Many of us feel that we have something to say, something to write and share with John Q. Public—or in my case Jonna Q. Public.  Attempt at humor aside, if you feel you have a good story rumbling around in your head—and heart—and keep telling yourself that one of these days you’ll put that story down on paper—well today is the day.  Tomorrow may never come, and your story will pass into the great hereafter along with your soul.

How to start, you inquire?  Well, sit down at your computer and start with this sentence, borrowed I might add from my pal Snoopy: “It was a dark and stormy night.”  Take it from there.  Now, you are a writer.  All you have to do is fill up about 200-300 more pages and you’ll have a manuscript.

Kidding aside, just the act of starting to write will inspire you and give you a sense of accomplishment.  Start with a few paragraphs or a few general thoughts about your story or your characters.  Maybe outline a scene or start a list of the characters you want to use. 

For example, in my latest mystery novel, New Pictures of an Old Murder, a Highlands Ranch Mystery, my main character is Val Atwell.  I developed her over a couple of years so I know her well.  Here is her description:  Forty plus, five-feet-five, shoulder-length golden-brown hair, blue eyes, just starting to get crow’s feet, skinny legs, computer illiterate, a so-so cook, an animal lover, a Christian, wife of a minister but not interested in trying to run the church or the people in it, still hurting over the loss of her sister in a rather mysterious car accident three years earlier, and friend to her deceased mother’s best friend who lives in a nursing home. 

Is there some of myself in my character, you ask?  Yes, there is a lot of myself in my main characters.  Generally, my characters are braver, more outgoing, more community-spirited, better looking, and younger.  I have found it to be a great joy to live vicariously through my characters. 

I let my characters take the risks.  For example, in my first published novel, The Desk, my main character, Jeagan Christensen, ends up unconscious in a van that is rolled into a river.  In New Pictures of an Old Murder, Val Atwell ends up in the snow at the bottom of a rocky slope on Guanella Pass.  Would I pursue a murder investigation to the point that I would be put in those dangerous situations?  Are you kidding!  But, I dream of those kinds of situations and often have no fear in my dreams.  Just last night, I dreamed I was caught in a flood and pulled into a big wave.  I had no fear and kept my head above water until I made it to safe ground.  That is fodder for a possible scene in an upcoming book.

In all this, what I’m trying to get across is that if you have a book rattling around inside you that is trying to get out, let it.  I know you are busy with a job and possibly raising a family.  But, you can find a few minutes every day or so to put a few paragraphs or a page down on paper.  You may change everything you write at first or delete it later, but you will be writing.  You will be an author.

Jonna Turner is a Franktown author who recently published her second mystery novel, New Pictures of an Old Murder, a Highlands Ranch Mystery (Publish America , 2005), which is the first in her Highlands Ranch Mystery Series.  Jonna welcomes reader e-mail at her website:  www.jonnaturner.com


SUBMIT COMMENT

Rate the above story



Current Rating
Based on 1 user ratings.

Talk Back : submit comments to the story

*Note: you need to log-in to add a comment or rating.

Showing 1 of 1 comments
Submitted By: Mike Daciek
posted on 2/9/2006 @ 11:01:08 AM
Rated Story
Very informative and very encouraging for the timid writer.
[Report as objectionable]
Showing 1 of 1 comments
CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Jonna Turner

Franktown , CO

Jonna Turner has posted 436 stories and 4 comments since joining on 11/9/2005. Jonna Turner 's average story rating is 4.64.
SAVE AND SHARE THIS STORY
STORY RSS FEEDS
WANT TO WRITE FOR YOURHUB.COM?
Want to see the stories you write and the photos you shoot featured in the YourHub.com Thursday print section available all over the Front Range and with home subscriptions of the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post? All you have to do is register, then post a story or column, start a blog or tell everyone what events are happening in town. We will print the best stories, columns, event listings, photos and blog entries in our print sections.

ADVERTISEMENT
Loading Ad

Loading Ad
ADVERTISEMENT
Loading Ad

This YourHub.com community is produced by The Denver Newspaper Agency
Web Development and Channel Analytics provided by Indigio

terms of use //  privacy policy
the staff //  advertise //  help & faq
buy photos