The Soul of the Story

Episode #59

Guest Speaker ~ Kris Groth

“Being true to myself, being true to the books and not trying to change them to meet the expectations of what other fiction writers are doing (that was a big temptation). It’s much easier to make a living as an author if you’re writing what people are already buying. It’s more of a challenge to break away from that mold and do something different, because you don’t know how it’s going to be received, how to market it, or how to get it out there to the people who would resonate with it. Setting that aside, that expectation of, okay, if it’s a fiction book, it needs to be like this. Allow it to be the beautiful, unique thing that it is.”
– Kris Groth

Are words your friend?

Before Kris Groth became a best-selling author, she entertained the belief that words were not her friend. The creative journey of writing a book was not an aspiration until she received divine guidance. With a knowing to trust her intuition, she followed her heart and listened to the soul of the story.

What would you accomplish if you acknowledged and pursued your soul’s calling instead of the rambling thoughts and perceptions that are stifling? Your words have power.

Once she considered the idea of writing, opportunities presented themselves to her. She enrolled in a writing program, took part in collaborative book projects, and focused on writing a first draft. There are many benefits in contributing to an anthology (collaborative book). It provides writers valuable guidelines on ways to write, edit, and market books. The insight gained is priceless and beneficial when self-publishing.

Kris and I spoke on the topics of the vulnerability and feeling what our characters feel as they go through traumatic events in the storyline. In Kris’ second book, Soul-icitude, a character experiences abuse. This is not something Kris has experienced. She shares where she got her insight to tell the story from a point of experience, and the emotional toll it had on her.

One of the bigger challenges Kris faced was determining how to categorize her book genre. Find out how she wrote the book description to ensure readers knew what the book was about without giving away the story and what categories she used when listing the books. Is she promoting it as a romance, personal growth, metaphysical, general fiction, or something else?

In this Pen to Paper Press Podcast episode, you will hear:
.:. Why Kris weaves the word soul into her book titles.
.:. How intuition guided her creative journey.
.:. If Kris used an outline to write her books.
.:. How to determine the categories to list your book when it covers multiple genres.
.:. Can you write a character’s point of view if you have not experienced the emotional trauma in the story and have it be realistic?
.:. Upon receiving divine guidance to write a book, how to trust the process.
.:. Many of the lessons Kris has learned on the journey to becoming a best-selling author.

Pour a mug of rose tea for yourself and enjoy our light-hearted conversation about trusting our intuition, marketing books, and growing an audience.