Please enter any questions in the comments below and I’ll answer them!
Why did I decide to self publish?
After nervously studying whether or not self-publishing would ruin my chances at “real publishing”, I decided to go for it because I could start sooner. I have a preschooler at home and I am committed to my kids as my first priority. The pro bloggers say that it is a good idea to have two complete books before trying to publish, and that is one more than I had. By I self-publishing I could start as soon as my first book was complete and edited. Also my husband wanted me to go this route.
I’m a Christian, so why do I not write Christian fiction?
The answer is, I do. I just haven’t finished a Christian Fiction book yet. For me, what comes out is what you see. My writing is me working out ideas in an abstract fashion, and some of those are a complete story and some aren’t.
I have to say that the environment of Christian Fiction is not very selective. I can’t say that I feel the genre of Christian Fiction is full of great literature. Maybe the trend of Christians always striving to “be nice” squashes the critics. So many books I’ve read that are “Christian” are interesting stories with Jesus mashed in, or evangelism through writing.
I do hope that my writing reflects my beliefs and I am very picky about what I will and won’t include so that my “product” is appropriate. When I finish a story that fits in the “Christian Fiction” genre, then I’ll publish it.
How do I put together and finish my stories?
Almost all of my ideas come from a single theme I am thinking over. Somehow I do best with abstract scenarios which I use as a kind of petri dish for my idea. It is a great way to single out an idea and control what influences it.
Often my ideas begin with a dream. I am a very vivid dreamer and I remember most of my dreams. Usually they are completely odd and all about stressful situations, but every few weeks I get a really interesting story out of one of my dreams.
I am greatly influenced by what I read and see on TV and movies. I read an enormous amount of fiction and usually only finish books I like. Thanks to my husband’s brilliant suggestion, I write reviews on everything I read, listing what I liked and/or didn’t like about the book. This has been an enormous help to me in perfecting my own writing. If you want to write, you have to read.
Initially I wrote out the whole progression of how I write a story, but it got way too long so I’ll summarize it here and post it as a blog entry.
1. Ideas I have an idea and I NEED to write it down as soon as possible. They end up as several sentences to several paragraphs in my Microsoft One Note “Writing Ideas” tab. (I am in love with One Note.) I can’t really count all of these.
2. Documents The ideas I love get attention and grow to several pages and more. They become a Word document. There are over 100
3.Developed Documents Ideas most interesting to me get further attention and get their own tab in my “Kate’s Stories” Notebook in One Note. Some of these also have a folder full of Word documents with revisions and re-writes. A few have several ideas that I mash together to make a few stories. All of these, I plan to finish and publish. There are 12 right now.
4. Manuscripts Finally I choose a special one and write it from beginning to end (usually in the summer) and it gets combed over until I feel confident, then given to my “Think Tank”–friends who love reading who give me excellent feedback and some editing. I got the advice to do this from a website and it is A+ advice.
4 1/2. Manuscript Plus I had to add that after it is a stand-alone manuscript it grows tentacles in the form of copies in many formats, extra pages on the Outlook Notebook (synopsis, etc.), and usually its own folder for all those to live. The Disenchanted Pet has multiple folders in convenient locations now.
5. Published Book This is the best phase! All done! NOT! Go to https://katepolicani.com/books-for-sale/ to see what I have finished!
Kate Policani 
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It was really hard to get to anyone else’s blog through WordPress! I’m happy to connect to other bibliophiles!
Kate,
I appreciate very much your subscription to my blog. Please feel free to suggest any topics. Encourages me to write more 😉
Like your page,
Doris
This is really great advice, Kate. I’ve been wanting to write a fiction novel for about the last 15 years. I just never seem to find the time to devote to one piece of writing in particular. I guess I keep waiting for the perfect time–with 5 kids, when do you think THAT will be? 🙂 It’s especially motivating that you are now published and I actually know you!! That alone has been a HUGE inspiration and butt buster for me to get writing! Thanks for sharing so much of your adventure.
I read a blog by an author who claims that the best way to get you to write is to give yourself no time to write, and then you just make it happen. I think she has a good point. The reason I decided to self-publish was partly because I don’t have a lot of time–even with only 3 kids. 😉
Hey Kate….
I met a guy who said he was working on a book that was a (Christian murder mystery) novel. I thought it was an interesting niche. He said none of his characters would use profanity.
I thought, “Hmm, murderers who don’t cuss? Now that’s a novel idea”
Thanks for dropping by, thought I’d do the same. I like what I see! Keeping pounding the keys!!!
L.B.
That does sound interesting! I usually don’t have my characters swear, or I say they do but don’t write the actual words. All of my stories reflect something about me, and so reflect my faith in some way. I think that is true of all authors, Christian or not.
i thought your comments on what makes something readable was a good analyses of good writing and i was very interested in your descision to selfpublish. I am considering that route as the whole business of finding an agent who loves your book and then tries to find someone to publish it is so time consuming.
That was one of my main reasons for choosing self-publishing. I have young kids at home and don’t have time/money/resources to wait around for a publisher. I do have time to promote online (thanks to hubby). It is just a different kind of work.