About Diane Hall:
I haven’t always thought of myself as a writer, although I have always written, for as long as I can remember. I used to read voraciously as a child, and secretly wrote poetry at night. I LOVED the library and used to go through book series phases. I have some very unusual early memories of books and writing.
I used to love Roald Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected, and books about spiritualism and strange goings-on. I once wrote an essay in my English class at school, in which I used the word ‘ectoplasm’, much to my English teacher’s surprise! English was one of my favourite subjects at school. English, French and Drama. I later went on to study drama and then became a drama teacher. I fell in love with plays immediately, and still remember the first time I read Shakespeare. It woke me up, and made me realise how powerful language is!
As a singer and musician, I used to write a lot of songs, and after a while I suppose I realised I wanted to say much more than the usual three minutes would allow. Then, as I began to meditate and to listen more, inside, to the point where I was able to access other dimensions, it was a bit like taking dictation… sometimes from the characters themselves, and sometimes from my guides and angels. The craft comes with the fiction writing, when I’m left alone to write the more human side of the story and allow imagination and ancient memory to fill in the gaps.
What inspires you to write?
So many things inspire me. Hearing or feeling the little inner nudges and inspirations from my guides and spiritual teachers and wanting to share their messages of love and inspiration. Wanting to change the world and see people happy. Wanting to inspire people and remind them of Heaven. Wanting people to understand that they are precious, beautiful and eternal and that life continues after physical death. Wanting to give hope, wanting to imagine and create Utopia, at least in my mind – wanting to show how it might happen. Wanting to just enjoy myself: spread my mind out and have a good old laugh at the human condition. Wanting to have people laughing with me, wanting to create and inhabit a range of preferred realities, wanting to stay sane in this 3D body, and wanting to describe the most exquisite gorgeousness and the most absurd contradictions I’ve seen in myself and my fellow humans, as we strive to be fully human and aspire to be so much more than that.
I think we all essentially want to be more loving, and it’s really always, ultimately, love that inspires me to write. Hope that doesn’t sound corny!
Tell us about your writing process.
With novels, it’s usually seat of pants, then tidy up later. In other words, I start off with a big old messy rough draft that emerges over the course of a week or two, and then takes a few revisions to perfect, but then, the perfecting could go on forever, and have to force myself to let go.
When it’s something purely inspired or purely channelled, it tends to just come through me, more or less as a finished piece, with maybe some typing errors here and there. Crafting a novel requires more involvement on my part, but it’s so much fun!!
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
Absolutely!! I mostly listen, ask them to speak louder, and occasionally say “Really!!! Are you sure??””
What advice would you give other writers?
I don’t know that I’m in a position to give advice. I still feel very much at the beginning of my journey, even though it’s my second attempt at self publishing, however, from a creative point of view, I’d say, just do it, whenever you’re called to it. Write what you love and say what you really need to say to the world. Don’t allow yourself to be boxed in by categories or any other external machinations. Write from your heart, from your gut. Write what YOU want to write, and listen out for inspiration as you go.
Your imagination is a gateway to other worlds. Trust it and try not to think about what would be the sensible thing to write, depending on the whims of the market. Never be sensible!! Writing is a place to go to dream and be idiotic, when there’s nowhere else left. Machines can’t write books or songs. You are a magical being with an incredible gift! Make a start and keep going, no matter what.
Tell the story you have to tell, the way you have to tell it. Write the book you want to read. Try to keep your logical mind out of the way as much as possible, and just let it come through you. Tell the story and amuse yourself! Sometimes, I sit laughing my head off when I’m writing my comedies. I don’t care how mad that is!!
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I decided to self-publish because I just needed to have people read what I was writing, right now!!! I got tired of not connecting with people, tired of rejections, and of the time it took to wait for those rejections to happen! Life was passing me by!! So I decided to get serious about self-publishing again.
I would advise new authors to explore the vast range of self-publishing resources available out there. There are tons of books, and some great youtube videos, podcasts, and other platforms that will support not only the huge learning curve of book marketing, but also your journey as a writer.
It’s a very different space now, out there in self-publishing land, both ideologically (in terms of the public’s perception of a self-pub book) and in terms of the possibilities for reaching people. It’s probably still possible to get better exposure through a major publisher, and maybe the best option is to do a bit of both if possible, but what I love about self-publishing is the immediacy of contact with an audience. That’s probably what most artists really want anyway – to have a voice, and to share a message, and in those terms, at least, I think the outlook for indie artists, across all creative fields, is looking better than ever now.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I think the future looks great! From the writer’s point of view, reading seems to be more popular than ever, and people who love books will always love books, and will always want to find more great stories and good information. I can also see how the internet is introducing a new generation of readers to a wider world of books.
As a reader, there’s so much more choice now, in terms of all the new writing talent that’s emerging, and the easy book access that comes with ebooks, ereaders, and all these great book offers and giveaways.
Again, from the writer’s perspective: if you’re a storyteller, you’ll probably always find a way to tell stories, and if you’re a human, you’ll probably always want to read them, or digest them in some form. So I feel very excited about it the future. More writers, more choices, more books! More opportunities to write, express ourselves and share our stories!
What genres do you write?: Spiritual fiction, spiritual non-fiction, romantic comedy, paranormal romance, magical realism, mind body spirit, inspired and channelled books
What formats are your books in?: eBook, Print
Website(s)
Diane Hall Home Page Link
Link To Diane Hall Page On Amazon
Your Social Media Links
Goodreads
Twitter
Pinterest
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.
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