My Problem with Writing Conflict

Answer to Survey and Book Deals!

In the text twenty-four hours, I will be writing the last two chapters of What Used to be Arkansas! (The book that follows this one.)

These last few thousand words really fought me. The scene included a battle of some kind. (Can’t give away spoilers!) And for some reason those are hard for me to start. Once I get going on it, I’m good. But starting is a problem.

Writing is a funny thing. It shows you parts of yourself in a way you never really knew before. There are some things I dread that I never really understood were a problem for me. It can also be the opposite, I find things cropping up in my writing in a way that shows me I find real joy in them.

I’m not a psychologist, but my take on my thing with writing the battles is this. I do not like conflict. I’ll face someone if it’s the best thing to do, but there’s a ball of anxiety in the pit of my stomach when I do it.

However, I love, love action shows/movies. Lots of conflict! But I’m not writing it. I’m just watching.

Writing drags emotion from my soul. It puts it out there for me to see. The words of a story feed on those emotions. That sounds dramatic, but it’s how it feels sometimes. As far as emotions go, for me, writing conflict is similar to experiencing it first hand.

I find that interesting and sometimes disturbing. But I carry on.

These last two chapter I have yet to finish on this book are the fluffy endings, so I’m good to go. lol

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Answer to Last Newsletter’s Survey

The last survey was: What is your Favorite Kind of Post-apocalyptic book?

The answers were:

Family running for a safe place 40%
A little twist (like monsters). 31%
Magic of some kind 20%
Family split up 7%
A stalker 2%

I also got an email suggesting writing more of the rebuilding work.

I love surveys like this. They always teach me something new. It really, really surprised me that a stalker ranked so low. Kyla Stone’s best-selling series is based on a stalker.

I was also surprised to find that a family running together was much higher than a family split up.

It seems like the What Used To Be series is somewhat on track with the little twist (monsters) and the ‘magic’, though in this series it is abilities by injection—supposed science instead of fantasy.

I’m going to keep all of this in mind as I gather ideas for my next two books. A lot of the third book of the What Used To Be series will be about wrapping up the storyline for the characters we have in What Used to be Texas and the upcoming What Used to be Arkansas. But I’m reintroducing the family from the short story When Tomorrow Comes from the Fractured World anthology. I wasn’t sure exactly what adventures to give them. But since the other two story lines are all action, I may give them more of the homesteading/rebuilding work. There is sure to be a lot of that after all that space junk fell from the sky. :)

I also think I will incorporate the ‘Family running for a safe place’ in a fourth book (or a new series—depending on how well What Used To Be series is liked).

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What I’m Reading . . .

The Last Tribe by Brad Manuel.

I’m really enjoying this book—which is actually a book set of three books. It is a highly rated book and most of the reviewers seemed surprised they liked it so much considering it was low on the violence.

The last book I read ended up high on my violence score (which is admittedly not that high), so I was eager to read this book and see how they managed an interesting post-apoc book with little violence.

I have to say, they are managing it very well.

I’m not even to the end of the first book, but I really like the book so far and highly recommend it. And, according to the Amazon reviews, so did many people who expect and like more violence in their books.

See what you think! You can buy the ebook collection for $4.99 or read through Kindle Unlimited. It is also in audiobook.

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Another Post-apocalyptic Substack

A.R. Shaw has a Substack here. She has a lot of deals on her own book including audio code giveaways, and 99c or free specials. Right now, she has her Remember the Ruin Series Box Set for 99c.

BOOK DEALS

Shane Shepherd is a respected name in post-apoc. Check out this deal!

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This Sci-fi Alien First Contact book looked interesting. I downloaded it too!
It is available for only 99c and is on Kindle Unlimited.
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Marci, a super soldier and escapee of the Astral’s bio-enhancement military program Zedger, has found a new purpose in rescuing others like her. But she can’t do it alone, and not without parts.

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