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Pat Ritter. Books


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Pat Ritter. Books

Postby patritter » Wed Feb 01, 2012 9:58 pm

Writing a book may sound easy however writing is not - all of the book. There is the storyline to consider plus editing. Over the time I've been writing it has taken a long time to find my voice in my stories.

When I write I want the reader to walk beside me in my journey. I've tried various editors and each time I discovered each of them changed my voice. I suppose it all goes back to the time I was told 'you write the way you speak'. I'm not condemning editors for they also pointed out my choice of words and other important issues concerning the book at the time. I wanted to do it my way.

Not only had I to consider the grammar and spelling but the most important part was the cover and back cover of the book. Using Microsoft Publisher I designed my own front and back covers. I know the moral of the story is 'you can't tell a book by it's cover', but in ebooks the cover is the most important part.

Customers select their book by a click of the finger. With ebooks the customer has an opportunity to read up to 20% of the book before deciding to purchase it. Therefore the cover needs to stand out and the first pages of the book interesting to the customer.

Let me know what you think of 'Dream Angel' - the book I wrote about my memoirs after designing the cover and publishing the book:

Tomorrow I'll continue my writing career.
.... PRB


Dream Angel, an Ebook by Pat Ritter
http://www.smashwords.com
Have you wondered why different events happen to you in your life as if the event was meant to happen? This book is about my life and how different events forced me to travel in a certain direction. It's facinating when analysing each event, after it happened, how did it happen. In many ways I w...

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Pat Ritter. Books

Postby patritter » Fri Feb 03, 2012 12:36 am

After I published my books as ebooks I felt like Judy Garland in the Wizard of Oz springing down the yellow brick road. I was so excited my books were being purchased and read by people on the other side of the globe.

At first it must have been an illusion because I thought with advertising my books on the website Smashwords customers would fly to the books like bees to honey. I must have been in a dream to think I needed have to do any further work to promote my writing.

Unfortunately without hard work you don't achieve your goals. First I established a profile page to advertise my books. See link: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/pat48.

This profile page gave the customer an idea of who I was and how many books I'd written and published.

Tomorrow I'll share with you how I started to build a platform to spread -the-word about my writing.
Smashwords - About Pat Ritter, author of 'The Drover', 'Writing Group Stories', 'Parents STOP Be Aw
http://www.smashwords.com
This is the biography page for Pat Ritter. Hi Everyone, Let me introduce myself. My name is Pat Ritter. Since 1988 I have been writing and publishing books and until recently through Writing Queensland have decided to publish my books as e-books on this and other websites. Writing and self-publis...

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Pat Ritter. Books

Postby patritter » Fri Feb 03, 2012 10:26 pm

Building a platform to promote my writing was difficult. What I found most difficult was to promote myself as a writer. Do you believe in yourself enough to tell people you actually write and publish books?

At this stage of my career the vehicle I was driving lost control and I crashed into a brick wall. I lost self-belief with my writing. I couldn't put a finger on one particular thing but I couldn't think of anything to write. It may have been the memoirs and after writing the book 'Dream Angel' I felt it was the end of the road. I'd told everything there was to tell.

Each month I receive a free local community magazine. In this magazine was advertised 'Pomona Writers Group' looking for new members. For a couple of years I attended a local writers group and discovered it wasn't what I wanted. It's that thing I have about 'doing it my way'.

Anyway I decided to attend the meeting to see if it was any different to the local group. To my enjoyment it was exactly what I'd been looking for. The facilitator explained there'd be no judgement from members when stories are read. I joined immediately. If I hadn't joined this writer's group at this time I wonder how my writing career would have developed. I've been attending our Tuesday meetings each week since 2010 and without these members - we are a family of writers and encourage each other with what we do. It is terrific and I look forward to each Tuesday to share my story with the other members.

Each week the facilitator gives us a title he'd chosen from the weekend papers to write about. Although I joined the group in late 2010 I wrote a story on the topic given each week by the facilitator. Here is the link to those stories: Link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/71550

Writing Group Stories, an Ebook by Pat Ritter
http://www.smashwords.com
During 2010 I fell into a hole with my writing. A notice in a local magazine advertised the Pomona Writers Group which meets each Tuesday morning at Pomona Community House calling for new members. I decided to attend. These weekly meetings have become a Godsend for me to reignite my writing ambit...
TO PURCHASE THIS BOOK
Pat Ritter Books then click.... PRB

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Pat Ritter. Books

Postby patritter » Sat Feb 04, 2012 10:07 pm

The Pomona Writer's Group became my saviour. I suppose because we all have a common interest in writing. Soon I learned to enjoy writing rather than it becoming a burden. When we were asked to write a five minute exercise for instance 'Summer Holiday' my mind instantly filled with visions of summer holidays and within five minutes had scribbled down half a page of writing to read aloud to the other members.

One of the exciting moments to devour was listening to the stories written by each member. All were unique, in that, from fifteen writers no two stories were the same. This small lesson highlighted why I became an author. It is a unique craft and the more you learn about the craft the better you become.

From the initial day I began with the Pomona Writers Group the facilitator handed out a sheet 'Helpful Hints For Creative Writers'. These are some of the extracts taken from these helpful hints: 'To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong'. When I thought about this phrase something changed inside me.

Another extract: Creative Writing - Have no other objective than to put your words down on paper. In other words 'write what you want to and believe in your own writing'. This was an important lesson to follow to increase my self-belief and self-awareness in becoming an author.

Don't try to be good - just write what the spirit tells you! This removes the problems of subject choice, grammatical usage, correct spelling and personal embarrassment; these just impede the flow of words. Grab the first word that flashes into your mind and start with that; the rest will follow like a flock of ducks.

Tomorrow I'll share with you how important it was to attend these weekly writer's group meetings.

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Pat Ritter. Books

Postby patritter » Sun Feb 05, 2012 10:46 pm

Another suggestion by the facilitator at Pomona Writers Group was to 'keep writing'. Don't edit on the run. Switching from right brain to left brain isn't helpful in creativity - the train of thought can be lost. When the inspiration stops and the pen rests, that is the time to edit and rewrite.

Practice - Practice - Practice. Read - Read - Read. Enjoy - Enjoy - Enjoy.

Each time I find a good author, the likes of Nora Roberts, I read as many books as I can, not only to enjoy the story but to grasp how she writes. Yesterday I found her wesbite and these are some of the quotes she has made.

"Write what you like to read. If you are not captured by the story, who will be? Write every day—a habit that you need to build. And remember to have fun with it." —Nora Roberts (b. 1950)

She credits her mega success to the nuns who taught her strict discipline in school. Also, she says, "I grew up in a family of readers. Books and stories were always a part of my life. I always loved to read."

She doesn't set goals. Instead, she says, "I just try to concentrate on writing the best book I possibly can." She researches every story and continues doing so until her manuscript is complete.

She once said, "I've never taking a course on writing. I've never read a book on writing. This isn't something that would work for me. Every writer has to figure out what works best -- and often has to select and discard different tools before they find the one that fits..."

How does she do it?

First, she pulls out a Diet Pepsi and some chocolate to help her overcome writer's block. Then, she sits down in front of her computer and goes at it. "In general I do a first draft fairly quickly. Just to get the story down without looking back–I don’t worry about fixing or fiddling. Once I have that initial draft, I know my characters more intimately, know the plot line more cohesively, so I can go back to page one and go through it all again, fleshing out, fixing little problems, finding where I went wrong and adjusting it, or where I went right and expanding it [by] adding texture [and] sharpening the prose," she says.

"Then I go back to page one again, for the third draft, polishing, [and] making sure I hit the right notes. If it feels right after that, I send it to my agent and editor. If it doesn’t, I go back and try to find what’s not working. No book is perfect. I try to send in the best book I can write at that time. And I trust my editor to tell me if it can be made better."

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Pat Ritter. Books

Postby patritter » Mon Feb 06, 2012 9:36 pm

Today I wanted to share with you my next book, 'The Drover'. However, before I do I wanted to share more important news. You see a decade ago I set a goal for myself to have ten books published in ten years. I am pleased to have achieved this goal. My sub-goal was to write one book a year and publish it.

To my amazement I have achieved both goals.

To view these goals, click onto these links: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/pat48, for website Smashwords and Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp ... Pat+Ritter.

Now back to writing and publishing 'The Drover'.

When I was a child, about twelve years old, my yearly vacation was with my grandparents. They worked on a property, Mount Margaret outside of Quilpie, in south-west Queensland, Australia.

One time a drover, his name Blicky Bill Austin came by with a mob of sheep. The moment I saw him with his hat almost covering his eyes, a smoke dangling from the side of his mouth, stock whip folded over his arm, I feel in love with the character of a drover. Bill was unique.

That year a foal was born and he wanted me to have it. Because I lived at Roma, another western town, it was impossible to raise the foal. My grandfather tried to talk sense to tell me not to worry, there would be many other foals later in life. I never forgot that foal. Whether, it was because I couldn't have it or Blicky Bill wanted to give me the foal. I was just a kid. I don't know but fifty years later on I see the foal with a star on its forehead looking up at me.

Wait until tomorrow when I'll share with you my real life as a drover.

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Pat Ritter. Books

Postby patritter » Tue Feb 07, 2012 10:32 pm

Shortly after the holiday with my grandparents my family moved to Brisbane and I lost contact with bush life.

It wasn't until another decade before I again went to the bush. I don't know what lurred me to the outback, perhaps to gather thoughts for further ingredients for the books I would write later in life.

Speaking about drovers. I met and married my wife, who lived her whole life in Cunnamulla, a country town in the south west of Queensland Australia. Her father was a drover. At the time I didn't realise the importance of droving in the far south-west of the state. It was nearing the end of droving but listening to the stories of droving from my father-in-law, these stories intrigued me so much I wanted to write about them.

That was over thirty years ago.

When I prepare myself to write a book, I don't know what happens for the thoughts to enter my mind. It could be focus on the subject and presto next thing I know the thoughts are flowing and creating a story on the computer.

To prepare myself to write the story on droving, my knowledge was very limited, I visited local markets to seek out similar books on droving. Alas I couldn't find any but fortunately my friend loaned me a book on pack-saddle droving. I gleaned ideas from the book. This wasn't my style of writing, but some of the expressions were similar.

In my early twenties I went on the road (droving) with my father-in-law to drove sheep from the north of Cunnamulla to the township. This gave me an idea, in a small cup of knowledge, of his life. The stories he related around the campfire at night were the highlight and remained in my mind until I wrote the book.

Wait until tomorrow when I'll share with you more stories on how I wrote 'The Drover'.

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