Your thoughts would be wonderful!

[Amanda Fritz]

Hi Everyone!

I'm Amanda, fairly new to BB, but I wanted to ask everyone here what they thought. I've always been a huge lover of reading, and I have always wanted to write a book and have it published. I am thinking that it will be a biography. I spent 5 years of my life as an exotic dancer and I know that most people don't think highly of them, but it really was an interesting time of my life. I discovered a lot about myself along the way, and a lot about others. Some of the toughest choices in my life occured while dancing. I'm sort of taking my first steps of writing the book.

I brainstormed for a month about a book idea, and finally settled on this "diary" of sorts. I have no idea where to begin, so my first step was making my timeline of events and I will work from there.

I guess I just want to know what everyone here thinks about that. Any advice about writing a book, or how to get it published would be wonderful. I don't think it will take me very long to write the book, because it is all from experience, so I don't see it being something that I really have to think about too much. More just using memory.

And I am not sure if I have to ask permission to use the club name or anything like that. So all advice is welcome and appreciated! Thank you so much. I am really looking forward to this new little adventure of mine, and when I'm finished, I hope you all enjoy it as much as I enjoy sharing a little bit of me with the world!

[Deirdre-Elizabeth Parker]

Good morning, Amanda,

I am no expert.  I've just published my first novel.  But I can share the pitfalls and the experience with you.  I also thought it wouldn't take me long to write my book.  It ended up taking 4 years! 

I think that your idea of a time line (and an outline) is a good one.  I think the story of an exotic dancer will have a large market and your book has the potential to do very well. 

There are a lot of book coaches available.  They charge by the hour and they help you to formulate the book:  what is the main message you wish to convey?  Once you put it down on paper, how can you make it read better? 

Here's something I learned while I was trying to write:  do a simple exercise like write one sentence.  Do a very simple sentence like: the man walked down the street.  Then make it better like the old man limped down the street.  Then try to improve it again like the gray-haired man limped down the crooked brick  road, navigating the trash with his tree-branch cane. Well, I won't belabor this but I think you get what I'm trying to say.

So my advice then in summary would be:  put the big picture down in your diary (message of the book), then the outline/time line, then once you have a paragraph or two about the story you want to tell in each chapter, work on how to tell it in language that puts the reader there to participate in the scene that you're describing.

There is a difference between biography, autobiography and memoir.  You may wish to write a memoir since it sounds like you want to write only about your career as an exotic dancer and not about your entire life story. Memoirs to have to be absolutely true and there is no room for literary license. And since you will be naming names, if it were me, I would have a lawyer look at it before publication to make sure there are no grounds for defamation or other types of law suits.

I hope this helps and I wish you well.