Laura Barnett on Writing 3 Love Story Variants in "The Versions of Us" Romance Novel

Laura Barnett talks with Alexander “The Engineer” Lim, host of AuthorStory by alvinwriter.com about her book, The Versions of Us.



“Isn’t it a funny paradox that fiction, that the more specific and personal you make it, the more general and worldly it becomes.” ~Laura Barnett

Laura had always written works of fiction as a child, and had always wanted to write a novel. She trained as a journalist once she got out of college and has spent over a decade, so far, writing for various publications and specializing in the arts. She had actually written two novels which, according to her, didn’t work before writing The Versions of Us and remarked that it was just as well that she did, as she was then able to write about characters who, and situations which, didn’t have much to do with herself. When she started writing the novel, she was constantly thinking about what would please a reader, but she then realized that she would never know what exactly goes on in a reader’s mind, and after that wrote the kind of work that she wanted to write, after which things fell into place for her.

For Laura, writing The Versions of Us was so clear, it seemed to her that she had read the novel in its entirety before it was written, and in addition to being hit with the inevitable doubts that plague every author whenever they write a book, she also doubted how well the book would do, given its unique structure, and she received a boost of confidence when, halfway through writing the first draft, she showed it to a colleague, who remarked positively about it. She remarked that there seemed to be an interest in “what-ifs” where stories are concerned, and that three different permutations of the same story seemed to be just the right number to do. She included what she called “handholds,” or parts within the story where a reader could latch onto so they could understand the story, in a way that someone climbing a cliff would use handholds to climb it.

Where writing out the three different versions were concerned, Laura remarked that she started with a paragraph summarizing each version and the characteristics of the characters, after which she essentially inhabited the characters and just moved with them as their story progressed over time - a method that felt very natural to her. Laura kept notes of the stories as these progressed, and she likewise did the research as she wrote, rather than doing all the research before writing. She credits the Internet for being a wonderful research tool.

Laura remarked that she never thought that the book would achieve the success it presently has, and added that its story of taking the path less traveled is what resonates with people all over the world. She is presently working on her next book, Greatest Hits, which focuses on the life of a female musician and whose chapters are titled after a song that the character is listening to. She is also working to create a companion soundtrack album to that upcoming novel. To aspiring novelists, Laura advises them to not give up and to dig deep, asking oneself hard questions about what one wants to say and then challenge themselves.

Laura Barnett’s website for her book, The Versions of Us, is laura-barnett.co.uk.

Purchase on Amazon: The Versions of Us (a romance novel in 3 versions) by Laura Barnett

D.D. Marx on Beyond Believing - A Novel about Love That Awakens the Heart

D.D. Marx talks to Alexander “The Engineer” Lim, host of AuthorStory by alvinwriter.com about her book, Beyond Believing: An Inspiring Story to Awaken the Heart.



“The limit is only your imagination.” ~D.D. Marx

D.D. Marx has always been a strong communicator, and her creative juices began flowing after participating in the Second City program. Although she had no desire as a child to become an author, this desire came into being after she lost a close friend of hers in a car accident after college, and her book sprang from this event. Her book, Beyond Believing: An Inspiring Story to Awaken the Heart, is a mix of actual things that happened to her as well as fictional events, and she wanted to present these in such a way that the reader wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the two.

D.D. Marx combined her first name and her friend’s first and middle names to create her pen name, and she names Paulo Coelho, Jen Lancaster and Emily Giffin as some of her favorite influences. Beyond Believing is actually the first book of a trilogy she intends to write, with the trilogy focusing on the characters of Olivia and Finn and their developing relationship. Where characters are concerned, only Finn is the totally fictional character, while Olivia is based on D.D. herself and Dan is based on her friend who died in a car accident, and Finn was the character for whom Olivia needed to do the most amount of research on, given that he was Scottish and that D.D. had never been to Scotland, even though she did have a Scottish neighbor with whom she is good friends with.

D.D. didn’t want to impose a particular spiritual belief on the reader, and despite some potential spiritual elements in the book, she declines to have the book referred to as a paranormal romance. She wrote this book after she had been fired from her first job ever, and after that event really delved into such questions as what her purpose was and what she was doing, what made her fulfilled, and what she was passionate about. One of these aspects was friendship, and writing the book enabled her to step “out of the box” she had been living in as well as fulfilled her in ways she hadn’t realized, including becoming less stressed in her present job. She chose the title as a way to give multiple meanings to the story.

To those who are interested in becoming a writer, D.D. recommends first getting out of one’s own way and to just write the book out, tell the story, and then edit it later, after which one could show the story to those one trusts and work with an editor to make sure it works. To those who seek to publish their first book, D.D. recommends that a would-be author should not be afraid to ask questions, to do their homework to make sure they’re working with the right partner for them - homework which includes getting references from their other authors, getting samples, and ensuring that a contract is signed, particularly given the many publishers out in the market nowadays.

In the future, once she’s done with the trilogy, D.D. hopes to write stories based on the perspective of the character of Dan.

D.D. Marx’s website for her book, Beyond Believing, is ddmarx.com.

Purchase on Amazon: Beyond Believing: An Inspiring Story to Awaken the Heart