Highlighting Rejection Day 3: Robert Galbraith (J.K. ROWLING)

To my fellow authors, I know that rejection letter stings. I know that it sinks down into your mind and heart. It makes you doubt whether you should even continue writing. DON’T LET IT. Rejection now does not mean rejection later and it certainly does not mean rejection forever. Let me share with you some well-known authors who experienced rejection themselves!

Robert Galbraith is the pseudonym used by J.K. Rowling who wished to separate her thriller novels from her famous children’s series, Harry Potter. Many people are already aware of both J.K. Rowling’s struggles as an author and of her success. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was turned down twelve times and the thirteenth editor only published it because his daughter wanted to know what happened next. He encouraged J.K. Rowling to “not quit her day job.“

In theaters alone, J.K. Rowling’s movie adaptations of her novels earned her 3.2 billion dollars (Movie Mojo). Quite obviously, Rowling could easily quit her day job and focus solely on her writing.

When Rowling finally wrapped up Harry Potter and decided to move on to other books, she used the name Robert Galbraith and was rejected AGAIN by one of the same publishing companies who TURNED HER DOWN BEFORE.

Don’t get me wrong, sometimes, our work needs improvement (probably most of the time), but sometimes, the publishers aren’t the right fit. The hard part is, we rarely get to know the reasons behind the rejection so the best thing we can do is work to perfect our writing and be persistent in getting it out there!

Try and try again, it’s all that we can do!

Have you been rejected before, or does the world of traditional publishing seem too intimidating to venture into just yet? Let me know in the comments below!

©KaylaAnnAuthor2022

© KaylaAnn and KaylaAnnAuthor.wordpress.com, 2022. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to KaylaAnn and KaylaAnnAuthor.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Writing Tip: Know Your Points of View

The fact is, a lot of novice writers switch point of view unintentionally or without knowing that there are specific categories of Point of View. Knowing these categories can help authors decide which point of view is best for their story. For the experienced writers out there, this might be a refresher or old news, but it is still worth remembering! For the novice writers, I hopefully have something new to share with you concerning Points of View:

There are in fact six different Points of View:

• 3rd Person Omniscient
• 3rd Person Limited Omniscient
• 3rd Person Objective or Dramatic
• 1st Person Central
• 1st Person Peripheral
• 2nd Person

The most commonly used P.O.V.s are 3rd person limited and 1st person central.
3rd Person Limited is when the narration is viewed through the mind of one character in particular but does not use “I” or “My” throughout. Also, the reader is not granted access to everyone’s thoughts, only one character’s thoughts. Consider the Harry Potter series where we follow the story through Harry, we view the action as Harry sees it, and we often come to the same biased conclusions as Harry.

1st Person Central is similarly viewed through one character, but the narration strictly uses “I” and “my” throughout the story. Consider The Hunger Games series as we read the words through Katniss’s voice.

One reason you might want to use 1st person over 3rd person is to help anchor the readers into the narrator’s perspective. 1st person helps connect the readers to the narrator’s struggles and beliefs. The story feels more personal.

Now that I’ve covered the two most common, you might be curious about the others.

3rd Person Omniscient is a narration that can jump around from mind to mind, from character to character. While this P.O.V. can be done well and offer a lot of information, it often can go wrongly when readers find it difficult to follow the narration. One example is the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.

3rd Person Objective/Dramatic is narrated from an unbiased narrator. The best example is a fairy tale in which the story is laid out, the facts are given, but no opinion is offered and we do not often hear the thoughts of the characters.

1st Person Peripheral is similar to 1st person central as both are narrated by an individual character who uses “I” and “My” throughout. The major difference is that in 1st person peripheral the narrator of the story is a minor character at best and is describing the major events happening between other characters. The best example of this is The Great Gatsby which is narrated by Nick, but if we are being honest, no one really remembers Nick because he’s not that important for the story. He’s as much a member of the audience as we are.

Lastly, there is 2nd person which is the least used P.O.V. In these narrations, the “speaker” consistently addresses the “you” of the story. “You” are the story. It’s an interesting, yet hardly used P.O.V. due to the difficulty is successfully sustaining such a narration without sounding awkward or repetitious. I’m not sure I can even think of one successful novel that would be labeled a 2nd person P.O.V. . . .

Well, there you have it! These are the six points of view you can use when you write! Your point of view does affect your narrative and as such you should consider it when writing, editing, or re-writing your stories! It applies for poetry too! In fact, 2nd person can work nicely with poetry. . .

What P.O.V. do you use most often? Why?

***If you enjoyed today’s tip be sure to check out more under the tab “Writing Tips” on my main menu! Have any questions about writing? Leave a comment!

Happy Writing Everyone!

©KaylaAnnAuthor

© KaylaAnn and KaylaAnnAuthor.wordpress.com, 2018. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to KaylaAnn and KaylaAnnAuthor.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Writing Tip: Learn Rules to Break Rules

“You must learn the rules before you break them.”

Have you ever heard this saying before? It’s quite popular, even in the academic world where you would think we would never say such a thing.

The idea behind this is that we must first learn the rules of punctuation, active versus passive voice, proper syntax, points of view, use of adverbs, etc., before we break them.

You might be asking, “If I’m breaking the rules, then why is it necessary to learn them at all?”

When you break these writing rules, you don’t do it willy-nilly, you do it with a specific goal in mind. For instance, one common rule of writing is that the author never switches points of view. Consider the world-renown Harry Potter series which is primarily told from Harry’s point of view. However, it occasionally drifts away from Harry in these following scenes: the OPENING SCENE OF THE NOVEL (Harry’s only a baby so we get the Dursley’s point of view) and in Snape’s house as he makes the unbreakable vow (Harry isn’t there).

This rule of remaining in a consistent point of view was broken because it was necessary for the story.

As you can see, sometimes rules must be broken; however, having the knowledge of the rules and why they’re important also plays a role in maintaining the quality of your work. These scenes were necessary in the Harry Potter series and therefore, Rowling broke the rule. However, knowing how important the rule is in the first place keeps Rowling in check for the majority of the novel and draws in readers with a consistent narrative.

*If you enjoyed today’s Writing Tip be sure to check out additional tips under the “Writing Tips” category on my home menu! Have questions about writing? Leave a comment below!

This is only one example of a rule that was well-broken.

Can you think of others?

Happy Writing Everyone! Get out there and break some rules!!! (Intentionally of course)

©KaylaAnnAuthor

© KaylaAnn and KaylaAnnAuthor.wordpress.com, 2018. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to KaylaAnn and KaylaAnnAuthor.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Today is the Day: Graduation!

That’s right, today is Graduation Day!

(Legit: I think my hair looked just like Anna’s this morning when I woke up)

I’m super excited to walk across that stage in just a couple of hours!

Even though they’re going to hand me an empty golden tube with my fake “diploma” in it, that golden tube represents everything that I have accomplished! It represents sleepless nights, feeling of insecurities, moments of triumphs! It reminds me of my family and my friends who have supported me through it all. I could not be more blessed. I have been in school all my life, I never took a break moving from high school directly into college, graduating and then moving forward into the Master’s program. So this graduation is going to mean a bit more than the ones before. This time when I walk, I will be leaving school. While I may return to education later on in life for a Doctorate degree, momentarily I will be saying goodbye, or possibly see you later. . .

I will be moving on to a new stage in my life and I am ready to welcome this adventure with open arms!

Anywhooo . . . . . .

I wanted to share with you my graduation cap design! I thought long and hard, went back and forth between ideas but here it is!

I wrote/drew everything by hand so I’m pretty pleased with the result (especially since I messed it up twice and had to redo it 😥😅). While I debated between doing something like “Mischief Managed” or “May the Odds be Ever in Your Favor,” I decided that this quote was more apt. Words truly are our most inexhaustible source of magic! – Albus Dumbledore

Oh and a HUGE THANK YOU to all my new and old followers! I was just notified that I’ve reached 500 followers! What an awesome Graduation Gift! Thank you!