Pat Ritter. Books

[patritter]

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...
T

[patritter]

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.

[patritter]

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."

[patritter]

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.

[patritter]

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'.

[patritter]

When I'm writing a book, I write whatever flows from my mind. Each day I've got to write something. For instance when I was writing 'The Drover' my mind had flashbacks of events and I needed to record those flashbacks.

For instance, in 1996 Olga (my wife) and I decided to attend the Birdsville Races. We went with a tour and enjoyed each moment. When we crossed the Thompson River she called to the bus driver to stop. He stopped. She got out of the bus and I followed.

We stood on the bridge and she pointed to a spot along the river and said, 'Pat, that is where Dad crossed those 500 head of bullocks in the flood, I was only nine years old. The dogs, in the dogbox underneath the truck almost drowned.' I included the event in the book.

Part way through writing 'The Drover' after exhausting my memory of tales told by my father-in-law, I hit a roadblock. There was a huge gap in the story. I needed help. I telephoned my father-in-law's brother to seek some answers. After a couple of days staying at his home listening to his stories I had sufficient to continue 'The Drover'.

One of the most important tasks I set myself in writing a book is to give myself a deadline to finish. I start writing a book in January and complete it by the end of November that year.

The size of the book and number of words are important. I allow twenty-five hundred words to each chapter - not exact, only thereabouts. Depending on the length of the book, normally my books are between eighty to one hundred thousand words.

'Dream Angel' was a longer book because it was my memoir.

Wait until tomorrow and I'll share with you other tips when writing a book.

[patritter]

Whilst writing 'The Drover' although I personally experienced some of the scenes from the book, there were many I needed to visualise to make it feel real. Like for instance, I'd travelled to Thargomindah in my earlier days to experience the bush with the pristine gum trees, kangaroos, lakes and properties. Without personally experiencing these scenes I doubt if I would've been able to write about them.

I wanted to write this book thirty years ago after I listened to stories told by my father-in-law about different men he worked with, also his experience with stock. How to count sheep - you may think it's easy but when you have five thousand head of sheep on the road and need to count them before handing them over to the trader, they all need to be there. I learned how to count sheep from my father-in-law.

Although he was illiterate, he never learned to read or write, he possessed a heap of common sense and honesty. Apart from these special gifts he possessed - he knew his craft backward.

I thoroughly enjoyed writing this book and dedicated it to my parents-in-law.

Harry Williams from the age of ten years wanted to become a drover, like his father and grandfather before him. This is his life story of leaving school at ten years old, operating his first droving plant at thirteen years and fully operational at twenty-one years old. Droving is now a craft past ...

[patritter]

Each year after I've written and published a book I have twelve copies printed to give to my children, grandchildren and friends as a Christmas present. I know it's a little vain but since I've been doing this my children and friends appreciate their gift of twelve months of hard work.

As I mentioned before it is more cost effective to publish a book as an ebook rather than the cost of printing five hundred copies and trying to distribute them to make a sale. Moreso the ebook is marketed throughout the world via various ebook distributors and is on-going forever.

Shortly after publishing 'The Drover' on Smashwords website I was amazed how quickly sales started. One purchaser left a review of 'The Drover' and here it is: 'Great read! Pat Ritter's writing is so detailed and descriptive that you can really see in your mind's eye what life was like as a drover in outback Queensland many years ago. My teenager is now starting on the book as well as there is stuff in this book they will NOT learn at school. The main character, Harry, is very likable and I did develop an appreciation of our forefathers and what they went through, and the grace by which they lived while out in the rough 'n tumble. I'd love to see a movie made out of this book! Lots of good ingredients there.'

I don't know if any of you know Wendy Millgate for she was the person who purchased 'The Drover' and after reading it gave this glowing appraisal of the book. Thank you Wendy for your kind and sincere words.

Tomorrow I'll explain how I put together OMR (One Minute Read) stories and made them into a book to sell.

[patritter]

Each Tuesday morning I attend the Pomona Writers Group. On average fifteen writers gather to express their thoughts and ideas on writing. Each person is unique in that they bring with them their personal adventures and stories.

The facilitator provides a leadership to the group to share our writing within the group and not to be judgemental. This is my third year in the group and each Tuesday I look forward to attending.

Each week we have homework to do. The facilitator gives us a title he's gleened from the weekend newspapers. Our homework is to write up to five hundred words about this title. Then in-turn we read our story to the members of the group. Although there are up to fifteen members or sometimes more, each story is different. No two are the same.

At the end of our writing group for 2011, I joined each story together into a book and named it 'Amazing Stories' OMR - One Minute Read. The book is published as an ebook on the websites Smashwords and Amazon.


Wait until tomorrow and I'll share with you my latest novel - Detective Bundy Quicksilver.
Amazing Stories - OMR - One Minute Read., an Ebook by Pat Ritter
http://www.smashwords.com
This book contains Amazing Stories - OMR (One Minute Read.) Each story is less than 500 words. These stories were written by me while attending Pomona Writers Group for year 2011.

[patritter]

This has been quite a journey you've taken with me so far and I thank you all for your continued support. I thought of recapping on a few events during this career. It's not over by any strength of the imagination.

From time to time I come to a sign post and need to decide which way I turn or which sign to follow. Life's a bit like that also. Anyway, I've come to a sign post.

At the beginning of my career I wanted to write a book to help parents improve communication with their children. At the time it was a huge mountain to climb and eventually I climbed it to have a look at the promised land.

Along the way I discovered so much about myself and others. I think when you write, I've read about it, and been told at seminars, it takes ninety percent persistance and ten percent imagination.

If there is one lesson I've learned since I started and that is to go down to the hardware store and purchase gallons and gallons of 'bum glue'. Without 'bum glue' there's no hope in writing or finishing a book and have it published. It's a lonely life because no other person can write what you want only yourself.

I write everyday. It mightn't be much but I've got to keep up the habit of writing for the old saying is - if you don't use it - you lose it. Another important aspect to the craft is to set a deadline to complete a novel. Otherwise the novel will end up never being read by the readers. It could be the greatest novel that's ever been written and if it's on your computer and not being sent out to the public - you'll never know if it has a chance of success.

As I mentioned before, I'm at a sign post in the highway of writing. This new novel 'Detective Bundy Quicksilver' is started. I've written the first one thousand words and have another ninety thousand to go.

Wait until tomorrow and I'll share with you how I'm writing this latest novel.