Read Around the Rainbow • Writing Advice I Take with a Grain of Salt #RAtR 🧂🧂🧂

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Happy Thanksgiving! Or at least, yesterday was Thanksgiving here in the US. I’m actually on the road, staying with family as I’m writing this. I’m always behind, but this time I blame Ofelia Gränd/Holly Day, who has lured me onto TikTok which, while I’m still learning my way around—hashtags are the bane of my existence—it is completely addicting. LOL

This month Read Around the Rainbow has decided to talk about writing advice! I started writing in early 2014. And, like so many others I know, it started with the Goodreads MM Romance Group anthology event. So, eight years later, I can say that I’ve received a lot of advice, often conflicting, and sometimes from the same people.

So, I was thinking about this topic—I always overthink everything, that is my way—and decided I’d write about the three writing tips I’ve heard the most over the years, and my thoughts on them all this time later.

So, let’s get into it!

Read Your Reviews!

This was one of the first pieces of advice I was given. Writing is art or at least artistic expression, but at the same time, when you release it into the world, it becomes a product. The logic here, and I get it, is that you need feedback on your product to improve it.

Don’t Read Your Reviews!

I actually for got this one the first time from the same person who said to read your reviews. LOL And it’s pretty easy to understand. Bad reviews can be upsetting. They can hurt your feelings and make you “gun shy”.

Write Fast, and don’t look back!

I’ve heard this many times, from many people. If you write fast and push to the end as quickly as possible, you don’t have enough time to question your choices.

So, eight years later, which have proven to be good advice for me, and which do I take with a grain of salt? Let’s rate them!

Read Your Review! Dude! No. Like I said before, I see the logic, but it’s not for me. The truth is, one reviewer will love your story, one reviewer will hate it, and the next will say it didn’t make sense at all.

I—and I suspect a lot of writers—am already the most severe critic of my work. There is rarely anything brought up in a review that I haven’t already thought about. And in my opinion, the only thing that will truly improve your “product” is to write. A lot. And read a wide variety of authors, genres, and styles. Write and read, and focus on your craft. Opinions can vary too greatly to help form a ruler for judging your own work.

Like I said before, I started writing in 2014 as part of the Goodreads MM Romance Group anthology, which is kind of like growing up on television. The world saw me at my greenest—having never written a story in my life—and twenty books later, I’m still learning.

Keep improving your craft, write the stories you want, and your audience will find you. They are out there somewhere.

Rating: 🧂🧂🧂

Don’t Read Your Reviews! Let's be honest, you are going to read your reviews. I think the best you can do is read them as little as possible. And if you truly love a story, let that be armor against the negative stuff.

Rate: 🧂🧂

Write-Fast, and don’t look back! Yes! This! One hundred percent, this! If I don’t fly through a manuscript—which I rarely do—I find myself questioning the choices I make along the way. I start worrying about how those choices will be seen by readers. Etc. It’s best to save all that until the second draft.

This is always my goal going into a story. I’ve got a long way to go, but I hope I’m getting better,

Rate: No Salt

The truth is, no one piece of advice will work for everyone. Some writers swear by planning and detailed outlines. Others are seat-of-their-pants. I am somewhere in between. Always take advice with a grain of salt—yes, even the write-fast one—because everyone is different. Every story is different. The most important thing is to create what you want, in a way that works for you. It will take time, but you’ll find your own unique way.

Make sure to check out the other Read Around the Rainbow authors and see what advice they’ve run into over their careers. I’m curious myself!

You can check out the other Read Around the Rainbow authors by clicking their names below!

Addison Albright • Holly Day • Lillian Francis • Fiona Glass • Ofelia Gränd • A.L. Lester

Nell Iris • K.L. Noone • Ellie Thomas

See you next month!

Release Day • Smoke

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It’s release day! 🎉 Smoke was a long time in coming, so I’m happy that it’s finally here! Plus, it’s a paranormal novella, and I always enjoy writing paranormal.

When desperation forces Wyatt Calder out his window and up into this dead neighbor’s apartment, he discovers an ancient Jinn and a chance at the life he’s always wanted.

You can check out the blurb and an excerpt below.

Smoke

Wyatt Calder is trapped -- in a rundown neighborhood, in a dead-end job, by the endless string of trouble his brother drags to their door -- and it seems he’s destined to slowly fade away within the aging walls of Picket House, longing for his best friend's cousin. That is until his upstairs neighbor Abel Walters dies on the staircase just outside Wyatt’s door.

Saalik has spent most of his existence asleep and waiting for the next person to discover his bottle and claim their wishes. And the last four years playing prized possession to Abel Walters and spying on the downstairs neighbors. But he has a plan. And, like every plan worth planning, it has taken patience. But if life as a Jinn has taught Saalik nothing else, it’s taught him that.

When a break-in sends Wyatt out his second-story bedroom window and into his dead upstairs neighbor’s apartment, he finds more than a place to hide. He discovers a magical solution to all his troubles.

Or does he? Because really, when is life ever that simple?

Paranormal Gay Romance: 19,936 words

 Buy Links: JMS Books • Amazon • Universal Buy Link

Grab it for 20% Off through November 25th from at JMS Books

Excerpt

Wyatt searched through the disaster of his bedroom, looking for a shirt for Saal.

His mattress was slit open, his drawers pulled from the dresser, and his closet searched, but it was nothing compared to what they had done to the living room.

He lifted an arm load of clothes from the floor, dropped them on the bed and started to hunt through them. He found a lime-green T-shirt, but discarded it, sure Saal would look sickly in that color. Not that it mattered. He just needed the guy to put on a shirt. Any shirt.

He found a dark blue tee and pressed it against his nose, happy when it still smelled of detergent and softener.

He could hear Saal poking around in the living room and wondered for the millionth time why he’d insisted on coming downstairs. It was embarrassing to have someone see the place like this.

“I suppose you’ll want me to fix everything?” Wyatt jumped, startled to find Saal in the doorway, watching him with those dark, serious eyes. “You’ll have to ask.”

“How do you do that?” Wyatt said instead, pointing to the tendril of blue smoke that curled from Saal’s nostril, slowly winding around his bare arms.

“Wha—” But he noticed the smoke before he finished the question, shook out his arm, and the mist evaporated. “Just happens. I’m out of practice being in public. Abel never let me leave the apartment.”

“Because you were his Jinn?” Wyatt would have preferred to have forgotten the guy was fucking crazy.

“Yes.” Saal walked into the room, stepping over where Wyatt’s penny jar had been smashed on the floor. “Is that shirt for me?”

“Yeah.” Wyatt held it out, uncomfortable to let Saal step any closer. He didn’t know why. It wasn’t like he thought the guy was dangerous, just delusional.

Saal stared at him a long moment before Wyatt remembered. “I wish you to put this on, Saal.”

“You really don’t have to say wish.” But Saal yanked the shirt from his hands and pulled it over his head. When the smooth plane of his stomach disappeared under the soft fabric, Wyatt instantly relaxed.

“Did Mr. Walters have to ask you to get dressed?” Because maybe that was why Saal hadn’t been wearing clothing. Maybe the old man had grown tired of asking him to get dressed every morning, and eventually didn’t bother with it at all.

“No.” Saal turned to look in the cracked mirror that hung on the back of Wyatt’s door, admiring himself in the oversized clothes. “He told me not to. He caught me on the fire escape again and was punishing me. So, I needed you to undo his request.”

The beautiful ones are always crazy, Wyatt. Maybe Teddy had told the truth about something after all.

“Well, I wish you to wear clothes all the time, if you want. Anything you want.”

“Anything I want?” For the first time Saal gave Wyatt a smile, a subtle quirk of his mouth that made Wyatt’s stomach flutter, and he wondered if this was what it felt like to make a deal with the devil.

There was a loud pounding on the apartment door and Wyatt let out a tired sigh. For someone who’d slept for three days, he sure felt exhausted.

He slid past the preening Saal and out into the hall where he had to step over his broken and abandoned enlarger. It was all he could do not to cry.

He had hoped the sight of the main room wouldn’t be quite so shocking the second time, but it was, and when he peered through the peephole to find Mrs. Cain, his stomach sank. She’d be furious at the state of the place. Hell, he’d be lucky not to get booted out.

“Shit. Why now?” He could feel Saal right behind him, watching his world fall apart, playing out like some tragic event in one of his dramas. Maybe if they were both lucky, Wyatt could drop dead on the spot.

“Wyatt?”

He didn’t answer, too busy trying to decide what to do.

“Wyatt?” This time Saal’s voice was a bark, and when he again didn’t answer, Saal touched his shoulder. The gentleness of it was a surprising contrast to the irritation in his voice, and it was a sad reminder of just how long it had been since he’d had anyone touch him. At least a touch that wasn’t Samuel’s rough examination or Teddy’s bruising grip. “Wyatt, you have to tell me to fix this. That’s how it works.”

“Please.” He was so fucking tired. “I wish you would fix it all. Every bit of it.” But there was no fixing this mess, so he took a deep breath and opened the door.

“You’re two days late on the rent.”

“The rent?” It took Wyatt a moment to realize what she was saying. “Oh. I’m…it’s been a crazy—”

“Don’t care.” She pushed inside before Wyatt thought to stop her. “I’m not running a charity.”

“Of course not—”

“What. The. Hell.”

Wyatt pushed the door closed and steeled himself to face Mrs. Cain’s wrath.

“Who gave you permission to paint?”

Paint?

When Wyatt turned, instead of seeing a room of broken furniture and complete devastation, he found the place immaculate. The floors, that only moments before had been covered with papers, shattered dishes, and the splintered wood from the coffee table, were now clean, the old carpet gone and replaced with pristine hardwood. There was a charcoal gray rug and a sapphire velvet sectional where the old floral couch had been. And leaning in the doorway was Saal, looking pleased with himself in a snug fitting suit.