Last week, I watched the Artemis II mission launch (the first crewed launch to circle the moon in 50 years) live because my dad texted me to ask if I was watching, and I appreciated the reminder to tune in to an important moment in time. The first time I remember ever watching a live launch was in 1986, when my classmates and I watched the Challenger explode before our eyes on the TV that was wheeled in from the library for us to witness.

Thankfully, last week’s launch went off without a hitch, after a few delays, but I still watched breathlessly, as if my very attention and presence could send good vibes out into the universe, to the brave astronauts and their families for their safe passage.

There’s something about watching things LIVE that is irreplaceable, in terms of the human experience.

• ⚾ Tuning in to Sporting Events
• 🎤 Attending Concerts
• 🌍 Being present for important moments for your town, your country, or the world
• 🤩 Living your own life in the present

When an event unfolds LIVE, its outcome hasn’t been written yet.

• ⚾ Who will win the tournament?
• 🎤 What songs will your favorite artist play, and how will they differ from the recordings you love?
• 🌎 What details will you absorb that you can recount to those who missed this moment?
• 🤩 How can you bottle each moment of your life to relive the wonderful bits and bobs?

The LIVE experience lets you feel truly ALIVE. 🎉

You can create this LIVE effect in your writing with a few techniques.

• 🎉 To make readers hold their breath
• 🎉 To let readers experience the emotions of the moment, feeling truly ALIVE

This is what will give your story its magical quality. One that moves your readers and moves them to tell others about your book. About what they experienced while reading it.

Your story follows its own arc. But your job as a writer is to make decisions that will immerse us, such as:

• ✏️ Deciding where to zoom in and slow your story down – letting us be in the moment
• ✏️ Showing us the world through your point of view (POV) character’s eyes, coloring everything they encounter with their experience and lens
• ✏️ Not including spoilers – watch for the order you give readers information.
  • • ▶️ In dual timeline stories, it’s very difficult to create tension in the past, because again, we know that your characters lived to tell the tale. Readers will only care about the backstory you’re sharing if it helps them predict what your characters will do in “story present”.
    • ▶️ If you show us what happens at the top of a scene, and then drop back to show how it unfolds, you diffuse tension, because we know the outcome (the rocket launch is successful!)
• ✏️ Using all the techniques of Show, don’t Tell writing to keep readers present in the moment. Think you know these? Check against my 7 Ways to Find Telling in Your Writing, I bet you’ll learn a few new ones!

If you take the time to draw your readers in and show them around, they’ll love your book even more, even if they don’t know why.

Want a guided tour of how to apply these techniques to your story in progress? My Wicked Good Fiction Bootcamp shows 40+ techniques to elevate your book for your readers. Grab it today, and by the time the Orion capsule returns to splashdown on Earth, you’ll be well on your way to making your book the best it can be. The course is asynchronous, and you can complete the lessons on your own time, but my team and I are in there to answer questions and review your work along the way, so you won’t be going solo.

What LIVE events have you witnessed in your lifetime? Leave a comment below to tell me!

 

Do you dream of your book becoming a beloved series? Are you working on one now?

As she works on book 3 in her Miss Austen Investigates mystery series, my client Jess Bull is preparing to release book 2 – A Fortune Most Fatal into the world on March 25. We have been excitedly following and supporting her journey as this series is being published in 18 languages around the world.

Jess has long been a huge supporter of this Inspired Writing community, and in celebration of Book 2’s launch (go grab the preorder here to support Jess!) she wrote these tips on writing a series for you, her writing community. 

Enjoy this rare glimpse into a writer’s process as she creates her series! 

Jess Bull’s 5 Tips on Writing a Series

1. Find a story you absolutely must tell

I always wanted to be a novelist but, after I had my two daughters, I found it difficult to find time to write and lost some of my confidence. In 2020, I turned to my love of Austen for comfort, and it was realising how hard she struggled to get published that encouraged me to start writing fiction again. I felt I had a vivid impression of Austen’s character and I really wanted to portray the vibrant, witty, and joyfully irreverent woman I believe she was. I was also compelled to tell her story because it’s tempting to conflate Austen with her more privileged heroines and imagine her path to success was easy, whereas the truth is far more inspiring. 

2. Write, even when you don’t want to

I don’t think many of us can afford to wait until the mood strikes before we sit down and write. There are so many demands on our time, we must take the opportunity whenever we can. If I’m not feeling the creative urge, I trick myself by committing to a sixty-minute session. Often, by the time the hour has passed, I’ve found my rhythm and don’t want to stop. For, as Austen put it in a letter to her sister Cassandra, in October 1813: 

I am not at all in a humour for writing; I must write on till I am.

3. Have faith in your story 

I always envisaged Miss Austen Investigates as a series, as there was so much I wanted to say about Austen’s life and work. Before I even started writing the first instalment, I drafted the pitches for all 6 novels I wanted to write (Austen wrote 6, and each of mine are tributes to hers). Then, while I was querying the first, I dived straight into writing the second. Everyone advised me not to do this as, if the first book didn’t sell it might be construed as a waste of time. But this was the story of my heart, and even if I never received a publishing deal, I’d have found satisfaction in writing it anyway. 

4. Develop your main character throughout

I wanted to explore Austen as one of her own heroines, and, therefore, my Jane is a young woman learning to navigate the world. Miss Austen Investigates (Book 1 in the series) was very much inspired by Northanger Abbey, and, like Catherine Morland, Jane had good instincts, but her naivety and tendency to fling accusations about without proof caused her some toe-curling mortification. 

In A Fortune Most Fatal (Book 2), she is slightly more mature and, as this is my tribute to Sense and Sensibility, subject to similar faults as Elinor Dashwood. Throughout the novel, Jane desperately wants to save her brother’s inheritance by resolving the mystery of a young woman claiming to be a foreign princess who has been taken in by his adoptive mother, rather than asking friends and family for help. As Austen put it, ‘pictures of perfection… make me sick’ and it is young Jane, the exuberant author of Lady Susan, rather than the wise and mature narrator of Pride And Prejudice, who takes centre stage in this series. 

5. Keep drawing on new sources of inspiration 

As well as Austen’s life and works, this second instalment is very much inspired by the true story of Mary Baker, who, in 1817, persuaded a Gloucester magistrate and his wife she was Princess Caraboo of the fictional island of Javasu in the Indian Ocean, and that she had been captured by pirates and escaped by jumping overboard in the Bristol Channel and swimming ashore. Her ruse lasted two months before she was discovered as a runaway servant. Everyone who knew Mary said she loved to tell stories. It made me wonder, if Mary had been born into the class of women who were fortunate enough to receive an education, would she be remembered as another Austen? 

These tips are great inspiration, thanks Jess! 

Want to read the series to see why Jess’ books get so much attention? (HINT: They are fabulous reads!) 

Grab Book 1 Here

Grab Book 2 (Preorder – Releases March 25^th) Here

As always, I’m here to cheer you on and lift you up as you chase your writing dreams (and Jess is, too!),