December 20, 2016 – Writer's Treasure Chest

Welcome back!

You were a guest on ‘Writer’s Treasure Chest’ before, where we learned about writing in your life and your projects.

Let’s see what you can tell us today:

Are you still writing in the same genre as you did before, and if not, why did you switch – or would you ever think to change genres?

Christian Romance Suspense is still my genre, although I’ve decided to add a bit more mystery to my story in His Perfect Love, just released. I’ve also started a many themed collection of short stories that I will be publishing when I have enough of them. At some point in my writing career, I’d love to write an Historical Romance set in Ireland. I may try that after I finish with my current projects.

Please, tell us a little about your writing process.

This is the system that I came up with and developed through the writing of my last book:

Come up with an idea for a story, decide what characters will be needed, the setting for the story, where I want my story to go and end, and what kind of a climax I will need.
Start Chapter One in the computer, and get out a spiral notebook to keep next to me. As I finish each scene, I keep a short description of it in my notebook under chapter and scene headings (C1-A, C1-B, and so on). I don’t worry about my spelling or grammar, unless something obvious glares at me.
After my first draft of the story is complete, I begin the self-editing process where I read the story and see what needs to be changed, moved, etc. With my last book, I used the index card system through this process. That way, when I needed to move a scene to another point in the story, it was easy to renumber the index card and move it as I cut and paste the scene in the computer.
After a 1^st self-edit, I read the story aloud to myself or use the translation feature on my computer (if I don’t feel like hearing myself speak). This catches many little problems.
Then, I send one chapter at a time to my critique group in American Christian Fiction Writers and scrutinize every critique I get from the “Scribes.”
I make my changes and then reread that chapter.
After that, I send the chapter to my proofreader.
When I’ve finished this process all the way through the last chapter of my story, I send it to the editor.
When she sends it back to me with her first round of edits, we go through the last process of reading, making/accepting changes, and resubmitting it to her until the writing is as I think it should be.
That’s when it is submitted to be published.

There’s still a proof to go through, but for the most part, that’s the whole of it.

What is important to know for young, new authors and writers?

Never give up. If you think you have a story in you, write it. Never mind what others say, unless it’s in the form of encouragement. Also, take some classes in writing. You won’t be sorry. There are so many offered free now online that you can complete at your own pace, there’s no excuse not to.

Your experience in the writing world, do you think it has already taken you where you wanted to go?

Yes, I am content where I am today as an author. Yet, I will still keep working at furthering my writing career. I still have a lot to learn.

In your opinion, are you a writer or an author – and what is the difference for you?

I am both a writer and an author. A writer is someone who writes, period. Whether they’ve been published or not is beside the point. A writer writes stories, poems, news articles, periodicals, etc.

An author, on the other hand, is someone who has had something published. They authored a written piece for others to read.

Please, tell us about your projects again. Was there progress since the last interview or are there even completely new projects?

Since my interview by you in June of 2015, I feel that I’ve come a long way in my writing career. During that interview, I had started writing my last novel, His Perfect Love. It was just about then that I decided to change my writing style into deep point of view. I began the writing process for that book all over again and finally published it in December 2016.

Now I’m in the process of rewriting my first three novels into my new writing style, which to me is so much better than what I had been doing. Those who read my first three novels said the stories were very good, and they enjoyed them. That’s why I decided redoing them would be worth the time. It will probably take me an entire year to finish all three books, but I know my readers will be happier with them. After I accomplish this, I’ll begin my fifth novel, of which I already have the plot, setting, and characters in mind.

Thank you for being my guest. It was such a pleasure to have you here!!

As always, Aurora. It is a privilege to be interviewed by you regarding my writing career and novels. God bless you.

Sharon Connells’ current novel:

Here is the link to my book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/His-Perfect-Love-Sharon-Connell/dp/1505782139/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1480876539&sr=1-1

And here is the link to my book video for His Perfect Love: https://youtu.be/e3tRr6mLzZk

Readers can contact Sharon K. Connell:

Sharon’s new Website: http://www.sharonkconnell.com/

I will be starting a newsletter in January, sent to subscribers once a month, so please keep checking the site for the subscribe button. I’d also be pleased if anyone would like to give me their email address so I can include them in the initial subscription. Be a “Chapter Subscriber.”

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharonkconnell

Author’s book page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/averypresenthelpbook1

Group Forum on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/writersandauthorsforum/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SharonKConnell

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/author/sharonkconnell

Blogging on WordPress: https://sharonkconnell.wordpress.com/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/SharonKConnell

Blogging on Niume: https://niume.com/pages/profile/?userID=52569