About Charlene Carr:
Charlene Carr is a lover of words. After travelling the globe for several years and working as a freelance writer, editor, and facilitator, she decided the time had come to focus on her true love—novel writing. She’s loving every minute of it … well, almost every minute. Some days her characters fight to have the story their way. (And they’re almost always right!)
Charlene writes fiction full of thought, heart, and hope. She lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland and loves exploring the amazing coastline of her harbour town, dancing up a storm, and using her husband as a guinea pig for the ‘yummy’ recipes she creates!
What inspires you to write?
Often, I’m inspired by some little, seemingly insignificant thing. It could be an interaction between two strangers, an aspect of nature, a line in a movie. Something that makes me ask a question or starts a story percolating in my mind.
Tell us about your writing process.
I definitely started out as a pantser. Unfortunately, that’s also why I probably have about fifteen started and abandoned stories in various journals and computer files. Now I’m somewhere in between. I try to figure out 7-9 major points in a novel before I start writing, including the inciting incident and the final resolution. This gives me direction but leaves a lot of room to fill in the story pieces in between. I started using Scrivener a couple of years ago and I love IT, it’s so helpful to be able to rearrange scenes and even chapters as the story develops and when I’m working on a story with multiple points of view? Priceless. My novel, Beneath the Silence, which has multiple points of view and a scattered chronology would still be in the editing process without this software.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
I don’t generally interact with my characters, but I listen to them for sure. They sometimes keep me up at night, which is why I’ve taken to keeping a notebook by my bed. If they have something to say and won’t shut up I can write it down and then go back to dreaming.
What advice would you give other writers?
That’s a hard thing to answer … I think maybe don’t get into this business unless you’re SURE you love it, and it’s going to be make you happy. Because there will be rough days, days when you wonder why you’re doing this, whether you’re going to drive your family into the poor house, days when it’s hard to stay motivated … sometimes weeks. So if you don’t truly love it, run far, far away from the writing life!
How did you decide how to publish your books?
Originally I was VERY against the idea of independently publishing books, but the more I researched, the more I understood how little control authors with trade publishers have over their works and marketing choices, and the more I thought, ‘If I’m going to do this, I want to make sure I’m producing what I want to produce.’ I would certainly be open to signing with a publisher one day, but it would have to be with a contract that still allowed me a fair amount of involvement in the books I create and put out into the world.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I think people will always want to read books, and I think it’s going to be a LONG time before people are willing to give up print books. So in that way, book publishers (be they trade or independent) are safe.
Right now, there are a flux of books with the popularity of self-publishing, which makes it hard both for readers and writers. My guess is, although there will always be far more books published every year than there ever were before self-publishing and the ebook, in the next decade or so it will thin out more, only those who are truly devoted to producing quality work and investing in the business of being an authorpreneur surviving.
What do you use?: Professional Editor, Professional Cover Designer, Beta Readers
What genres do you write?: Women’s Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Young Adult, Chick Lit, New Adult
What formats are your books in?: Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Charlene Carr Home Page Link
Link To Charlene Carr Page On Amazon
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All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit, to allow you, the reader, to hear the author in their own voice.
