About Robin Storey:
Robin Storey is an indie author who lives on the picturesque Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. She has published novels in a variety of genres – comedy crime, romantic comedy, noir and memoir. All are available on Amazon and Smashwords.
Robin is enjoying the challenges and rewards of being an indie author and loves connecting with readers on her Facebook page and her website/blog Storey-Lines. If you go to her website and subscribe to her newsletter, you’ll receive a free e-book of her comedy crime novel How Not To Commit Murder.
When she’s not writing and dreaming up stories, Robin likes to get back to nature – hiking or chilling out at the beach. She is a certified book nerd and is a useful person to have on your team for quiz nights for the literary questions, but not much else.
She has no strange hobbies (although she did skydive for the first time recently) or unusual pets.
What inspires you to write?
I am inspired by a number of different things – my own experiences are a big factor. For example, my experiences of internet dating formed the basis of my romantic comedy novel Perfect Sex, and my former job as a parole officer gave me the ideas for my comedy crime novel How Not To Commit Murder and my romance noir novella An Affair With Danger.
I am also inspired by books I have read, movies I’ve seen, articles in newspapers and magazines and conversations with people. Ideas will suddenly occur to me and I make sure I put them in a separate folder on my computer called Brilliant Ideas, that I can refer to when I need inspiration.
What inspires me to turn all these ideas into books is that I have been a writer since childhood – it is part of my identity. It’s my way of making sense of the world and a way of creative fulfillment that is second to none. There is nothing more thrilling for me than to see my finished novel listed on Amazon and to hold the print copy in my hands. And even more thrilling to know (via reviews and personal feedback) that people are reading and enjoying them.
Tell us about your writing process.
I’m in the middle of being an outliner and seat of the pants writer. Before I start writing, I like to create an outline of the main events and the ending, and I do this by hand on paper. I find the brainstorming process works better if I write by hand.
However, many of the scenes in the novel only occur to me as I’m writing, so a lot of the novel is written on the fly. I could never be a true “pantser” as there is no way I could start a novel without knowing how it’s going to end.
I also like to know my characters fairly well before I start, so I do brief character sketches, and as the book progresses, I fill out those sketches in more detail. Another thing I do is find photos on the internet of people who look similar to how I imagine my characters and download them – looking at the photos often helps me to write them authentically.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
I don’t generally talk to my characters, (cue ‘woo-woo’ music) but I do listen to them, in the sense that I can hear them talking in my head – that helps me to write authentic dialogue. I’ve heard other authors talking about their characters overtaking their novel – this never happens to me – I always keep my characters firmly in check. 🙂
Having said that, I often find new characters popping up as the books goes along that I hadn’t factored into my original outline and I enjoy meeting new characters along the way.
What advice would you give other writers?
One word – perseverance. It takes a lot of writing and reading to attain any level of competence and it’s a life-long learning process. If you are serious about a career as an author you may encounter criticism and negativity from friends and family – it’s important to surround yourself with other writers who have a positive and encouraging mindset.
But if you truly want to be an author, nothing will stop you.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I did try the traditional route with the first novel I published, How Not To Commit Murder, but after none of the publishers I approached showed any interest, I decided to self-publish on Amazon. This was in 2013, when indie publishing was starting to lose its stigma and be seen as a viable way of publishing. After that, it was a no-brainer to do the same with subsequent novels. The process is quicker, more creatively satisfying, potentially more lucrative and enables you to publish many more books.
Having said that, if you have your heart set on being traditionally published, by all means go for it. There are manuscripts being accepted every day and you could end up being one of the lucky ones. And you know that ultimately you still have the option of self publishing if it doesn’t work out.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I think the future of book publishing is very bright. With the advent of e-books, you have a potential audience of millions – the challenge is to make your books visible to them. There are many indie authors making a good living, which was not possible even 10 years ago.
What do you use?: Professional Editor, Professional Cover Designer, Beta Readers
What genres do you write?: comedy crime, romantic comedy, noir, memoir, mystery
What formats are your books in?: Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Robin Storey Home Page Link
Link to Author Page on other site
Your Social Media Links
Goodreads
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
LinkedIn
Instagram
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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