Update Day: Missed It by That Much

Sigh. One of these days, I'll be able to actually get everything done in time. It would be so very nice. In case you guys are wondering what I'm on about, yesterday was the last Friday of the month, so that means it's time for another Update Day. And because I'm an absolutely terrible blog hop host, I didn't remember I was supposed to post an update until it was way too late for me to post an update. *Eye roll*

So how am I doing? Well, I actually did great for most of the month, but the wheels fell off a little bit this past week. I got distracted from my writing work, but you know what? I actually don't regret it. This past week I gave myself permission to do things just because I want to instead of because I have a goal to achieve a certain thing. Which was actually so refreshing.

Maybe it's a bit bad because it put me behind, but for now, I'm just going to go with it until the end of the month. My brain obviously needs the break.

At the same time, I've also got a lot of work done on the freelance side, and despite the fact that I'm behind, I still manage to write/edit over 40k words so far. So regardless of how I do for the rest of the month, I'm going to call this a win.

In short, I'm really proud of myself. I'm really making leaps and bounds when it comes to not only getting things done, but also on knowing when to ease off the acceleration. It's a bit unfortunate that it meant that I didn't quite get everything on time at the end of the month, though. :-/

But there's one good piece of news for me, though, and it's that I'm definitely starting to pull things back together, and any and all progress I might be making counts as a win.

How are you guys doing? 

IWSG: Learning to Write Again

It's the first day of the week, so time for another Insecure Writer's Support Group post.

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting!

Friday, sometime after my rather victorious Update Day post, I felt a sudden pinch on my left wrist and noticed that the small bump I had, had swollen and was now bigger and aching.

I went to my doctor and... yeah. As I suspected but didn't want to really admit, I have a ganglion. Which is... annoying to say the least when you literally cannot afford the eight-week recovery time to cut it out. (And have a needle phobia. It's enough to stand still to be injected. But to let someone put a needle into this thing to pull the fluid out--NOPE.)

That means one thing: Changing my habits to make things easier on my wrist.

And a big one is in the way I type.

See... I'm a self-taught typist, which means I've learned all sorts of bad habits over the years that pretty much came back to bite me in the ass seventeen years later. Because while doctors don't know what causes these little buggers, hurting muscles does contribute, and... well... I've been straining my wrists for weeks, spending anything between twelve and fourteen hours per day on writing. The one that had the lump already was just the one that said "ENOUGH!!!" and called it a night.

And here's the thing, for as long as my wrist is inflamed and the ganglion is being a pain, touch typing, as in that skill I never learned, is probably going to be the safest way for me to write. And I know it will be good for me. But damn it all if learning touch typing while suffering from a ganglion and with work needing to be done doesn't make me feel stupid. 

Why? Well. I've been working on a computer for years. Years. I've been writing novels for seventeen, but I've been typing... well since I've learned to write. So we're talking about 22 years' worth of muscle memory I'm retraining on short notice... without being able to really practice for prolonged periods of time and OH BLOODY HELL I'M USING THE OLD WAY AGAIN.

Ahem. 

Yeah. It's really irritating, but I'm hoping the ganglion will go down ASAP. If the touch typing doesn't do it... I guess I'll finally be caving and getting dictation software.

Anyone else get ganglions? Any tips for me? Anyone else think it's stupid of a country's curriculum to not make typing compulsory when most employment requires typing for long periods of time? 

I Hate My Internal Editor Because It's Right

Hey everyone! Before I get to today's vlog post, I just wanted to let you know that I signed up for a charity auction for the victims of Hurricane Harvey. I'm offering to format a book for paperback and ebook, so if that's something you need, you might end you getting my services for a steal. You can click here for more information.

Okay! Time for today's vlog. As always, I left the script at the bottom for those of you who just can't get into the vlog thing. Enjoy!



If I was to think of one word to summarize how I am right now, it would be:

FRUSTRATED.

Why?

Because I have this brain that tells me things like “Hah. You really want to just edit and publish this shit?”

Sarcastic voice and all.

Which I tend to ignore because often, that voice is dead wrong. However, out of two books I’ve wanted to pick up for revision, this voice chimed in twice. And it was right… twice.

Not that this is really a bad thing. I’m taking a long-term view of self-publishing. Yes, I could be publishing once every three months right now, but would I be happy with the quality of my books? Eh…no.

Which isn’t to bash people who are able to do that.

I just can’t.

It’s hard enough to let go of a book as it is. Let’s not rush the process.

But the thing is, my method has always worked as follows: Rough draft by hand, rewrite to computer (with a plan), revise, edit a million times, proofread a few times more, and then I’m ready for formatting.

Except now it’s not working that way. Because now, when my inner editor takes a look at my rewritten draft, it’s seeing glaring weaknesses that would be better solved with yet another rewrite than with revisions.

The previous three times this inner editor chimed up, I could say, “Hey chill out. Yes, it’s not perfect. But a scene here and there would be all this needs to be perfect.”

The last two times, though, my inner editor helpfully pointed out that somewhere between a half and three quarters of my plot wasn’t written.

And that’s a rewrite-scope problem. How do I know? Because the first time it happened, it took me almost a years’ worth of rewrites and FOUR TIMES the amount of words to tell the story in the right way.

But at least there I had the excuse of wanting to split a book in two.

This time, no such luck. This time, I just let major plot points occur way before intro and build-up was done. And so it feels like at least the first third of a story is missing.
Can I fix it by inserting those scenes? Not this time. Because stuff that’s missing now will impact reactions later.

So it’s another rewrite for me. On a book that’s been rewritten four times already, over sixteen years.

Kill me now.

Have you ever prepared to edit, only to realize the underlying draft isn’t worth editing? Did you ignore that feeling or did you rewrite? How did it work out for you? 

Why Writers Need Critique Partners

On September 4th, 2016, I had decided to use my knowledge gained from about sixteen years of writing in order to stabilize my income. I started freelancing as an editor and critique partner on Fiverr and Upwork.

For the most part, I love this job, because it basically pays me to read. A lot. 

But there's a flip-side: I sometimes have to deal with a lot of writing by people learning the craft. Don't get me wrong. I love helping people. But the truth is that often, an editorial letter and comments written into the margins of a manuscript just aren't enough to explain exactly what I mean. 

The biggest reason for this is the huge disconnect in experience between me and my client. At the moment, probably close to two thirds of my clients for content edits are first-time writers. They paid for me to tell them how to improve their stories. 

But when it comes to things that I take for granted, they never even thought about it. Within this blogging community, we've formed a sort of short-hand. When someone's offering to exchange critiques with me, I know it's okay for us to use that short-hand, because we do share a common background when it comes to how and where we find our knowledge.

So in a lot of ways, the bloggosphere forms a sort of hive-mind. Although the transmission of information isn't perfect, I usually know, when I picked another blogger's work up to critique, more or less what the level is that I'm batting for. So when I say, "Your opening isn't really hooking me," I'm pretty dang sure the writer I'm critiquing either knows what I mean, or knows where to find the information they need to correct this issue. 

My belief that this is so is further reinforced by the general level of writing I've critiqued over the last seven years. You can see when someone has a concept of what's going on. 

I believe there are certain fundamentals to the plot and development of fiction (regardless of genre). And most of the time, people in my network get the majority of those fundamentals right. In this way, then, content editing is more about catching where the writer slipped than anything else. I think it's because we are a network that shares what we learned and often I would critique someone, who critiques someone else, who critiques someone else, etc. Because a large amount of us are connected in multiple degrees (I have 20 people or more in my network who are also in your network), it means that the information I share gets refined and then applied to my work again when one of you reads for me. And just so, if I learn something new because of something one of my critique partners (CPs) picked up, I can take that information, refine it, and apply it to that CP's work, and also the work of all my other CPs. 

And so, overall, the quality of our output increases. 

But when I'm freelancing, all those assumptions go out the window. I can't say "This opening isn't a good hook," because the writer has no idea what a hook is. 

And often, none of the fundamentals are there. 

Without any of the fundamentals in place, it's almost impossible to improve the writing without rewriting the whole thing first. And no matter how nicely I try to put it, that's an incredibly demoralizing thing for a new writer to find out.

I'm talking about things like character arcs. I'm talking about motivation. I'm talking about internal logic. I'm talking about obedience to the set-up. I'm talking about having the set-up be in the writing, in a way that's palpable to the reader. I'm talking about not having certain plot points in the writing because it's "done" in the genre, but have that be at the cost of believability. I'm talking about the ways to create tension and to keep the pacing at a reasonable clip. 

These things rarely come naturally to writers. They're learned by trial and error. And honestly, I don't think learning all that by paying an editor is the best way to do that. 

So my suggestion: Don't give up on writing. On the contrary, write more. Practice. But improve on your craft by learning from other writers. Get critique partners and learn both from the critiques you get and the ones you give. Read up to understand why your CPs are suggesting certain things. Learn.

That way, your developmental editor is there to help you perfect what you wrote and revised, instead of finding gaping holes that will make you want to write off your skill as a writer entirely. 

Also, it's easier for a content editor to write a thousand-word outline of why this one thing needs work. Not so much when all of your fundamentals are missing. It's simply too much knowledge for someone to impart in one go, and it's also too much for you, with your small amount of experience, to understand.

All of us had to start somewhere. But those of us who are here after ten years or more crawled before we ran. 

And if you're a new writer paying for an editor without having critique partners look at your writing first, you basically tried to skip to riding a unicycle. 

Do you have critique partners? If so, how did you find them? Any tips for finding and being an awesome critique partner?

How Writers Can Stretch Time, in Four Steps

Unless the wheels have spectacularly come off my life in some way, people have a tendency to be amazed by how much I get done in a month. And every now and then, someone will ask me how I manage it.

After all, we writers have the same amount of hours in the day. So how do I stretch mine to get so much done?

Step 1: Set Goals and Break Them Into Smaller Chunks

How does that help a writer stretch time? you might ask. Well. One of my big secrets to getting stuff done is knowing what I want to do.

So I set myself some huge goals, and then I break them into progressively smaller chunks.

For example:

Goal 1: Make a living wage from writing books. 

1. Write books. 
1. Write this one book. 
1. Write 1,000 words every day.
2. Write 50,000 words.
2. Write the next book. 
1. Write 1,000 words every day. 
2. Write 50,000 words.
2. Edit books. 
1. Revisions
2. Edits
3. Proofread
3. Publish books
1. Format books.
2. Upload them to retailers. 

And so on. Now I not only have this big goal, but I also see the steps to get to that goal. (The ones that are in my control, anyway.)

I often break even the steps into smaller steps, until I have hundreds of little things I need to do.

Which might sound terrifying, but what sounds easier:

Make a living from writing? Or write 1,000 words today?

So what I'm doing is to break all of my goals into smaller, bite-sized chunks. And then I move onto Step 2.

Step 2: Set Your Priorities. 

Once I know what I want and how I'm planning to get there, I can sit down and decide what's the most important to me. 

But here's the important thing: I decide what's important to me right now. 

This bit is a trick to my success, because a lot of those big goals I set are pretty much equal when it comes to how important they are in my life. 

I don't have kids, but if I had, I wouldn't be able to say writing is more important than my children. But I wouldn't ever be able to call writing unimportant either. 

So the thing is, if you're sitting down to get going, there will be things on that specific day that's more important. If you know you want to focus on that, then focus on that. But also know when you've neglected some other aspect, so you can temporarily bump that thing up your priority list in order to even everything out. 

Step 3: Create a To-Do List.

Once I know all the things that are really important, I can quickly write down the 10 things that are weighing on me the most. (I like 10 for being a nice, even number, but pick whatever works for you.) 

Next thing I do is to number the order in which I'd like to do those 10 things. 

Why? 

Because if I decide upfront what I want to do after I've finished the task at hand, I don't have to waste time later trying to decide what I should be doing. 

How do I pick the order? 

This depends. Some days, it's in order of the shortest deadline to the longest. Other days, it's Writing first and everything else next. Today I'm not feeling a bit lethargic, so I'm making up for it by starting with something easy, then something hard, then easy, then hard etc. 

Step 4: Start Doing

Yeah I know. Obvious, right? But sometimes, people underestimate how important it is to just get going. There's a reason why, when it comes to the setting of my to-do list, I keep things simple. I don't try to schedule anything because I know it takes longer for me to schedule and re-schedule as my day shifts. Time that I could actually be using to tick stuff off my to-do list. 

So once I have my 10 things and I know in which order I'd like to do things. I start. If something happens to prevent me from completing one task, I move onto the next. (Writing this blog is task number 4. Number 3 is postponed because I'm waiting for information.) I might get back to it later. I might postpone to tomorrow. 

And no, there's nothing wrong with postponing as long as it's not going to break a deadline. Because unless you set the bar really low, there's no way you're going to finish all the tasks you set for yourself. 

So move the stuff you didn't get to. Just as long as you get it done. 

And My Big Secret? 

I don't multitask. 

Whaaaaaaaaaaaat? 

Yeah, I know. People usually act like multitasking is the way to go. Especially if you have as many and as varied goals as I do. 

But here's the thing. No one actually multitasks. 

You're just rapidly switching your focus from one thing to the next thing. 

As I'm sitting here, I'm writing this post without looking at my twitter. When I'm doing my social networking stuff, I don't do it while watching T.V. When I am doing something to relax, I try to do so without bringing "work" along. Unless you count crafting as work. But that's a whole other story. 

Point is: If I'm at task number 1, I focus on that task until it's done, or until I take a break. 

And then I focus on the next thing. 

And the next thing. 

And the next. 

Why? 

Because when I'm focusing, I'm making fewer mistakes. And I actually speed up. Because I don't even have the smallest moment of thinking "what did I want to do here again?" 

And so, things get done one little step at a time. And then at the end of the month, I take stock and actually realize how much I have achieved. 

What about you? Are you a multitasker? Do you have a system for getting everything done? What tips do you have? 

Camp NaNoWriMo Progress Update: Nooooooooo!

Still ahead of schedule... Just.

I know that second weeks of NaNoWriMo months are harsh. They're kinda notorious for being as difficult to get through as swimming through molasses. That's why all of the encouragement we get from the organizers in week two features some version of "Hey it's okay to struggle. You're far from the only one, so just keep chipping away and things will get easier." 

To be honest, though, I thought I'd skip the difficult second week. Not because week one was epic (and it was), but because I'm in the final sixth of my book. These are the final chapters leading up to the climactic point and the last ones to finish the book off. 

They write themselves. 

They always have. 

Usually when I hit the last quarter of a book, I can easily write up to 6k words in a day. (My record is 10k in a single push.) 

But what I didn't count on was that, when I threw a huge curve ball at my characters, they would retaliate with a massive one in return. 

You'd think, after having about six iterations of this same event in my draft novels without much of a dent, nothing would change when I let the same thing happen now. 

Boy, was I wrong. 

Because I hadn't taken into account one major thing: Every time before, the thing happened early in the story. This time, it happened near the end. 

And because of everything that had happened before the event, the characters were now armed with a set of information that pointed to something I hadn't even looked at. 

Et voila. 

Devastation. 

I've been struggling to write even 1000 words a day since Tuesday. The moment I get to scenes around this event, my unwilling fingers slow down to a drag and I want to burst into tears. 

But hey! Drama's good. So I can't complain too much. 

I just have to get over this. 

And hopefully my poor readers will cry just as hard when they hit this scene. I'm not going to say what it was, but... I think you'll know when you see it. 

How are you doing? Have you ever had a character spring a whole new world of pain on you? How did you recover?

The Importance of Stepping Back

Hey lovely people! My vlog post ended up coming a week late, because I caught the flu. Sigh. Really complicated everything. It's finally done, though, so I hope you enjoy it. :-)

Going off of the comments I got last time, I decided to keep posting my script below the video for those of you who prefer to read.

And if you're not a Blogger user who somehow got to this blog, you can find this same post on Wordpress here.


I want to talk about a really understated bit of advice that can be vital to your survival as a writer. Namely: That sometimes, you just need to step back, take your foot off the gas pedal.

As you might know from my more recent vlog updates, things haven’t been going well with me lately. Basically, nothing has been quite going my way since 2014, but that was okay, because I was taught that old truism that we all get fed with mother’s milk:

If you work hard, everything will work out. 

Eh…

Turns out not so much.

See, in the years since 2014, I’d worked 16 hour days, often more in order to do more, and I’d do that until I was on the edge of breaking emotionally. I never stopped writing. Never stopped building at businesses and marketing and literally anything that I *knew* would get me ahead.

And it just kept feeling like everything was turning to dust under my feet.

The worst part? None of the hours I’d spent, of the health I’d risked, of the life I’d postponed… none of it actually meant anything.

Because there are always assholes out to get you. And they will steal your life and your hours of work and your very soul if they can, just to benefit themselves.

So yeah. After relentlessly pushing myself for almost four years, there came a point where I just…couldn’t. Not going to go into detail, but I came to the point where I was so exhausted that I couldn’t fight anymore.

I couldn’t keep acting like everything was okay and that it was business as usual, because it wasn’t.

And so, I pulled back. From as much as I could. Obviously there are some commitments you can’t avoid without incurring long-term damage, but if there was something I could leave with a cost I could tolerate, I did it.

This sadly included my writing, because the stresses of my life had basically drained my creativity. So instead of forcing myself to write, I forced myself not to. Instead, I spent my writing hours doing needlepoint or crocheting. Anything with an almost mindless, repetitive motion.

What this did was it allowed me to grieve. It allowed me to feel. It let me process my pain and frustration instead of allowing me to suppress them like I’d been doing for years. It put me in a place where I could regain some perspective. Where I could look at the problems and at least get to the point where I could see the value in the things I was doing again.

And that’s probably the most important thing about stepping back. When we’re writers, we basically take on an extra job, and when we’re published, marketing that book becomes another job. Which means that it’s go go go go all the time with no stopping, and when things aren’t going as well as they should, it’s so easy to be overwhelmed. It’s too easy to lose the meaning of what we’re doing in the mad rush to get it all done.

So it becomes imperative that we step back and breathe at least for a few days, just to regain a sense of balance before taking everything on again.

What do you do to recharge when you're pulling back? 

Getting Back to Basics

I briefly considered writing this post for my other blog (you know, the one that actually is supposed to contain musings about my life), but I put that one on hiatus more than a year ago, and I feel bad to take it off hiatus for what could potentially be only one post.

So here we are.

I've been really quiet. Mostly I just needed a break. The events of the past two weeks just really brought me to a brink I didn't like being on. A kind of mute terror that nothing would ever be okay again.

And no, I'm not being dramatic.

One day, I might actually write about this time here, but if you'd like to know exactly what's going on, I have a post about it on my Patreon feed, which you can get to (as well as some awesome rewards) for a $1 subscription pledge. Eek. That looks like a plug. It's really not. I don't like keeping secrets from you guys, but what's going on right now is so ugly that I can't just post it out in public. Patreon is a balance of both, offering easy access to those who really want to know while keeping it relatively private so it can't just come up whenever someone searches my name.

For those of you who'd rather like to skip to the current point I'm making: The shit situation continues, but I'm picking myself up (again) and dusting myself off (again) and getting on with getting on (again.)

Sometimes, it's really hard, almost impossible to do that. Especially when I've been knocked down and back so many times that I'm about a hair's breadth away from losing all faith in humanity. Because the most frustrating thing about all this is that I didn't put myself here. 

But I have to get out somehow and I can't do that if I keep wallowing in the rage I feel toward the growing list of people who've wronged me and those I love. I can't get out if I don't have hope that one day, something I or someone in my family did will pan out. I also can't do it if I'm snowing myself under with a laundry list of expectations when some days, just the act of getting up for the day feels like a chore.

So now I'm going back to basics. If I feel like I'm too burned out to write, I don't write. I've scrapped my publishing deadline for Book 3 because it's already too close and I really don't need the extra pressure. I'm putting in more time with my freelance work which, while still not quite in the "it's taken off" category, still is doing well enough to give me hope that it will take off in the near future. I'm cutting out as much negativity as I can.

This means willing myself not to dwell on the past, and particularly not this most recent thing. I let myself feel them, but then I remind myself I have to move on and do that instead. But also, I've found that the Trump election has turned a lot of people in my social networks (on all sides of the political divide) into toxic people to have contact with.

So I'm culling them out of my feed.

It's nothing personal, but for the sake of my own well-being, I'm doing what I must in order to keep myself in as good an emotional shape as I can.

Because I can still move for as long as I can function on some level.

And if being ruthless with my culling and stingy with my time is what it takes to just get anything done, so be it.

It's already helped too. Because here I am, writing when on IWSG day I could barely even type out a sentence without crying.

There is hope. There is progress.

Onward.

How about you? How do you deal when life gets really difficult? 

The Writer's Life for Me Tag

Hey everyone.

Still somehow alive and kicking, although part of me doesn't feel like that. But... you know... keeping on keeping on.

As part of that, I decided to take part in the Writer's Life for Me Tag, and since I got tagged on YouTube, I thought I'd do it as a vlog.

Enjoy!



What are your three best pieces of writing advice?

Holy Crap I Forgot It's IWSG

I wish I was kidding, but sadly, I'm not. The first of the month always catches me for some reason, because my brain seems to believe that the first Wednesday for the month must be the third or later. *facepalm*

No idea what I'm talking about?

The Insecure Writer's Support Group is a monthly bloghop taking place on the first Wednesday of every month. About two hundred writers are part of the IWSG, sharing our doubt, fears, insecurities and encouragement to let everyone else know that actually, they're not all that alone after all.

You're more than welcome to join, if you'd like. Click here for more information or to sign up.

So. 

Because I already eloquently explained myself last week by vlog, I'm going to re-post here. I did try to keep a brave face on everything, but by the end of the first third or so, I'm basically going into where I really am in my life at the moment. 

Spoiler alert, it's not pretty. (Also, this isn't family rated. Just so you know. And yes, the f-bombs I dropped actually did make me feel better. My mom always asks me that. No idea why.)

Since I'm just going to let that do the talking for me instead of writing again (because I've *just* managed to not burst into tears at the thought and writing about it again would open the scab, so to speak), I figured I'd answer this month's question for those of you who'd rather not see/hear me.

Have you ever pulled out a really old story and reworked it? Did it work out?

Yes, I have. A long long time ago, I finished a rewrite to a book shortly after I finished rewriting Doorways. For those of you who weren't visiting my blog at that time, The Vanished Knight + The Heir's Choice = Doorways. 

It wrote like a dream. I backed up. 

I was backing up the file for the last time when something (and don't ask me what) went wrong. The entire file disappeared, replaced with an empty one of the same name. 

I was heartbroken. So much so that I decided to just shelf the whole project until I could look at it without mourning the project I'd had. 

It took about five years before I decided to look at that thing again, and by then, I'd grown so much as a writer that I ended up redrafting the whole thing from scratch, keeping only the characters and about half of the concept. 

Any you know what? I love it even more than I loved it before. I've started editing it and working on it with critique partners and they've enjoyed it too. 

But... it's still a to be continued when it comes to knowing if it worked out. It's not shelved per se, but because of my lack of time and the abundance of crap in my life as is mentioned in the vlog above, I just haven't been able to get to it when I'm supposed to be finishing the sequel to The Heir's Choice. But one day... Hopefully in this year... 

What about you? Did you ever rework an old story? Any good news to share? Really in need of some good news. 

One update I should mention: the business plan is in with the possible investor, so prayers would be appreciated. 

Update Day: February Edition

Sigh. I really hate being late for my own bloghop, but technical difficulties made it impossible for me to post yesterday.

But here I am.

I decided to do a vlog post for the update. So I hope you enjoy it. :-)

For those of you who would like more information on the Got Goals? Bloghop and to sign up, please click here.

How did your February go? What are your plans for March?

My Short Story is Out With CPs

I'm happy to say I managed to finish writing my IWSG short story in time to send it to the awesome people who'd volunteered to give it a read-over.

Most of them already sent back feedback. (I mean seriously. How's that for speed?)

So now, I'm planning to sit down and do the critiques I owe them.

I have to say, though, I love my story. The character has been sticking in my head ever since I edited The Heir's Choice, so I was happy to get a chance to write something for her. Fingers crossed that the judges also enjoy the story.

How are you doing? Sending in a short story for the IWSG competition too? 

On Word Targets

It's the strangest thing how psychological this writing game is. 

People (and by this, I mean non-writers) always assume that writing is such an easy thing. After all, they write hundreds of words every day with e-mails and texts, right? 

Sure. The thing is... It's easy to just jot a few words with no particular word-count goal in mind. Ten words here. Twenty words there. 

Easy. 

But get told to write a 1500 word article. Or a 3000 word to 6000 word short story. Or just think and realize that the novel you're working on needs 150,000 words to get finished. 

Suddenly, a task that seems simple becomes much more complicated. Especially when you're starting out and wondering if the thing you're writing will actually hit the word-count target. 

Last night, I wrote an article, and about 700 words in, I couldn't imagine where I would find the remaining 800. 

When I started drafting my story for the Insecure Writer's Support Group competition, I liked the idea, but I just felt like the word-limit was this insurmountable mountain to climb. 

Odd to think it, but I find the 150k goal less intimidating, because if I come in under that, it's not like there will be repercussions. And that is actually the reason why I don't like setting a target for the length of any story I write. It just adds extra pressure I don't like feeling. I mean, I already give myself some steep deadlines to chase. 

The challenge is good for me, though. It's nice to know that, yes, I could actually write to demand and actually hit those targets. 

And you know the funny thing about my short story? I'm at 3500 words now, and wondering if I'll be able to wrap the story up in 1500 words or less. 

So that just goes to show you the importance of just writing. Even if we feel like we'll never make a word-count target, we can always surprise ourselves if we try. 

Are you writing a story for IWSG competition? How's it going?

Changing Things...

As you ladies and gents might or might not have picked up, I've been struggling to write. With my life as it is, I just found it difficult to almost impossible to sit down and focus on what should be going into my stories.

I have to say that I'm relieved to say that this is changing. Not my life. That's pretty much stuck in hurry-up-and-wait mode until next month at least. However, changing my perspective into being more proactive about my writing career has made a huge difference to my ability to write.

More than that, it's changing the way I look at a lot of things. Yes, my priorities still largely focus on getting the next book finished. But at the same time, I'm having to do things right now that will bring in enough money for me to publish in the future.

Which means I'm doing a lot of different things. Trying new things. This includes, you know, being more active on social networks. And setting up a Wordpress version of this blog. Right now, I don't think I'll leave Blogger entirely to go over to Wordpress, but a lot of my Wordpress blogging friends kept saying that blogger swallows their comments and I just can't have that.

It means changing the way I've been approaching my writing sessions. Usually, I basically sit down and write until a scene is finished. The problems to this method have been twofold.

First: I haven't been in the right headspace to sit down for two to three hours on end. So I've been waiting for that to right itself because I wanted to sit for two or three hours to churn out a chapter.

Second: My scenes have become longer than anticipated. See, with The Vanished Knight and The Heir's Choice I had a lot of 2k long scenes that I ended up combining in order to create longer chapters. I think my longest chapter is 7k long, but the average is about 4k. Book 3 is different. Maybe it's because my point-of-view characters are simply closer together so I don't have to jump between them as much, but at the moment, the average chapter is about 5k long. So now it's not a matter of writing for two hours and having a finished scene. Actually having a finished planned section would probably take me an entire working day.

Which I don't have available. Oh, you thought "being a full-time writer" meant having more time to write? Nope. Not yet, anyway.

So lately, I've decided to follow Cherie Reich's example and setting a time goal for my writing. Instead of setting a word count goal, she decides how much time she wants to devote to writing and then she sets a timer, which she races to write as much as she can.

I've adapted her method a little. She did away with her word-count goals. I can't. I want to finish Book 3 this year. Which means I have to write between 1 and 2 thousand words every day. I have found, though, that timing myself means that I take about 90 minutes to write 1800 words. (So far, I break my writing into 5 and 10 minute sessions which I add up later.)

In other words, timing myself is speeding me up, which is good, because I don't have enough hours in a day.

How are you doing? Have you tried timing your writing sessions? 

Some More Perspective on the Full-Time Writing Thing

So lately, I decided to approach my writing like a business. And I'm calling myself a full-time writer, which has a few of you guys confused and worried.

Worried... might be somewhat accurate, although you guys are worrying for the wrong reasons. My other business(es) that I started to recover from the last SNAFU have entered the dreaded hurry-up-and-wait stage. Which is... Yeah. That bit worries me, and you're welcome to worry/pray with me. (Although I find that, upon praying, I worry a little less.)

The thing is that, while this hurry-up-and-wait phase is ongoing, I have hours and hours worth of time that I can use more constructively. And I decided to use those hours to be a full-time writer, because I'm basically working 40 day weeks at this writing thing (even, by the way, while I'm doing the day-job too.)

So really, this foray into full-time-writerness isn't new. At least, the time I can spend on it isn't. The major difference is that I've decided to set myself up better. Instead of saying I'll wait for quiet time and then waiting for an hour or two in case day-job work comes in, I'm asking if there's anything I have to do that can be done right now.

If there isn't, I'm immediately going into full-time-writer mode until such a time that something does come up at the office. (This happened on Wednesday, which I was super grateful for. But now offers have been made and we're waiting for clients to come back to us.)

In other words: No. I'm not refusing to do anything else that could bring me a more stable income just so I can write. 

It's just the case that, since I have to wait for my income anyway, I might as well spend it furthering my writing career instead of sitting around and doing nothing, waiting for the hours to pass.

Admittedly (as mentioned on Monday), pushing my writing career on a shoe-string budget is a pain in the ass.

That said, I'm not sure that it's a bad thing. 

Yes, I'm stressing about money. Yes, I have to literally turn every cent I get over twice in order to make this thing work. Yes, I'm currently having to do 90% of EVERYTHING myself and there are never enough hours in a day.

But.

Turning cents over twice is good business practice. Even when I do have money to splash around on my writing venture.

It's making me so sad to think how much money I wasted being inefficient with my time and money just because I assumed there would be another salary next month.

So yeah. EVEN if -- ahem -- WHEN my clients come back and my other job brings in some money, I'm only going to put back the royalties I've earned and used to other purposes. And IF I need more money for something, I will do so on a strict loan basis and keeping track of everything.

Because I want this thing to work. And it's not going to work if I'm lackadaisical about my writing business.

Business is a serious thing.

And I think, in retrospect, that saying "oh I'll make a career of writing someday when I have money" is bad business. (Sorry not sorry.)

So I'm putting my foot down right now.

I'm saying: Writing is my career now, regardless of my other jobs/obligations/present circumstances. 

I will approach it with the same seriousness with which I approach all of my other business activities.

Writing will support my writing.

And I will support my writing by writing even more.

Which is to say:

I am building an empire, even if I have to do it with my bare hands.

IWSG: A Little Perspective Change...

Today is the first Wednesday of September, so it's time for another round of Insecure Writer's Support group. For those of you who are wondering, IWSG is hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh. A whole lot of us have signed up for this bloghop and once a month, we share our insecurities and our encouragements.

If you would like more information or to sign up, click here. 

I've been mostly quiet, lately, and you don't need to scroll back far to see why. Things haven't been going well. It's been so bad, in fact, that I've started to think that my dreams of making a living as a writer will never come true. 

I've been completely without hope for weeks now, because it just seems that everything I've tried (including finding a job, or doing anything to build up my business again) comes to nothing. 

Which means that, all in all, my dreams of turning writing into a day job seemed so far away.

And that just made me sad. 

Something's been happening, though. A tiny seed of a thought have been planted by various friends saying various little things. A tiny thought that's been growing more and more every day until a tiny royalty payment put things into perspective for me. 

And the thought goes something like this. 

Suppose...

Suppose that, for all the hours I'm putting into my business, I just am not able to get to the point where the business stands on its own. Or suppose that it's just a few months away, but nothing I can do now is going to make it happen faster. 

Suppose I've done everything I could to find and contact possible clients for my available products and now it's a matter of waiting for them to come back. 

Do any of the hours I'm currently wasting waiting for feedback help me? No. 

Do I have to sit there staring at nothing while I'm waiting for feedback? No. 

Do I have anything else I could be doing that could actually add value? 

Well... 

Actually...

The fact that I'm getting any income at all from my writing means that it's actually adding more value to my life than hours spent at the office. 

In fact, this income, small as it might be, actually could be what pays the Internet so we can keep doing business. It could be a small bit towards trying something that could become something bigger. 

It could be a start. 

And I've been overlooking all that for the stupid reason that my year just didn't look the way I wanted it to.

I keep griping and moaning about not writing full-time, but if I keep in mind the idea of flexi-hours, I could have worked 40 hour weeks as a writer for WEEKS now. 

But I haven't, because somewhere in my head is this idea of all-or-nothing. And also, the idea that I needed to stabilize my business so I could use that to pay for my writing in order to become a full-time writer. 

Which is great in theory, but not if my writing income actually out-strips what I'm actually getting out of my business. 

Because if that happens, doesn't it make more sense to double down and figure out a way to 1) write more and 2) generate income for writing-related activities and 3) generate income to fund further writing and publishing endeavors? 

To me it does. 

And to me, it means I'm actually a card-carrying full-time writer as of now. 

But. 

Since "Staving Artist" is a bad look on me, I need to be more than a writer. I need to be a businesswoman who writes. 

And as a business woman who writes, I know I might have some products and services that might interest you: 

1) My writing.

If you're a reader, you might be interested in my books. Right now, all of my available writing is speculative fiction of some sort. But I have a wide variety of other genres waiting to be released as well. My books are also available at iTunes, Kobo, Barnes & Noble and other places.

Want exclusive sneak-peaks of my writing? Then there's Patreon, where you can find out first if there's any publishing news from me, see any excerpts I post first, and even read stories I post there, all for as little as $1 a month. 

2) My knowledge.

As part of my writing and publishing journey, I've gathered about 15 years' worth of experience in what works and what doesn't in a story. 

I'm sharing advice on Patreon when asked for (as part of my $1 subscription reward) and will be posting regular vlogs about writing, which you can watch and enjoy while I (eventually) earn revenues from advertising. 

Then, I am also offering my services on Fiverr. I am offering critiques of short stories, novellas and novels. I will also help you polish your query or back-of-the-book blurb. Or your synopsis. I can even go through your query package (query, synopsis and up to five chapters) to help you find possible weaknesses in your submission. 

Right now, I'm trying to build a track record on Fiverr, so I'm offering Query/Blurb, Synopsis or critiques of up to 10,000 words, all for $5, even if you need one of the premium packages on offer. All you have to do is go to my profile, click on "Contact" and follow the instructions to get in touch with me. 

So yeah. I actually have a lot to offer people. Now it's a matter of getting the word out... 

How are things going on your end? Have you had a bit of perspective change for one reason or another? 

Annalisa Crawford on Reasons to Enter Writing Competitions

Hi everyone! Today, I'm welcoming Annalisa Crawford to my blog to tell us a bit more about entering writing competitions. Also, I want to congratulate her again for placing third in the Costa Awards. I'm so proud of you!

Reasons to Enter Writing Competitions 

by Annalisa Crawford

I love entering competitions - I like the idea of having my stories out in the world without having to do very much market research, and I like the anticipation when the long- or short-lists are released, followed closely by the winners. And, occasionally, I win... which I also like. Okay, I lose, as well; it's a bit of a lottery. But that's not a reason not to enter.

There are several regular comments people repeat when I talk to them about competitions. It's too expensive. It's a waste of time, you'll never win. Contests are scams.

You might have your own reasons for avoiding them, but I'll take the ones above one by one, and answer any others in the comments.

1.      It's too expensive.

oYes, some of them are. I've actually paid £17 for a single entry before. I don't pay that much often, but I weight up the prestige of the competition, the overall judge, and the prize money - and then I decide whether I have a story/can write a story that is worth £17.

oSome are completely free - such as the Costa Short Story Award. But you have to bear in mind how many people will enter a free competition, which will make your odds of winning reduce.

oMost of the competitions I enter are between £5 and £10.

2.      It's a waste of time.

oI tend to enter stories that I have hanging around, those that I don't know what to do with or have been rejected by a couple of magazines. Competitions usually have a looser idea of the type of story they are looking for - whereas a magazine will have a definite style.

oThe story can be tied up for several months, but as long as you build this into your submission plan, it won't be a problem.

oThe discipline of writing a story, refreshing it, submitting it to a deadline is important. It gives you something to work towards.

3.      You'll never win.

oWell, firstly, someone has to - why not you?

oOn the other hand, you probably won't. You'll be frustrated and angry, but you'll get over it, and you'll write something else. If you're sensible, you'll try to work out why that story didn't work but the 1st/2nd/3rd place entries did. You'll learn without even trying.

oA lot of the larger competitions these days are being judged by literary agents and publishers. They are not just judging the competition, they are looking out for good writers. Even if you don't win, they might see your name, and they might be interested in you.

oYears ago, when I was just starting out, I'd see the same names on the long-lists and short-lists, then I'd see them placing 1st, 2nd or 3rd. Then I'd see them publishing their first novels. One name I remember seeing was Helen Dunmore.

4.      Contests are scams.

oI haven't heard British writers complaining about this quite so much as US writers. But, if in doubt, don't enter - or spend some time researching.

oRead the terms and conditions - I know most people don't, but in this case it's very important. You need to make sure you are following the rules so you won't get disqualified, but you also need to know what happens to your story if you win - do you retain copyright, will the story be published. The terms will also flag up areas where it feels scam-like, in which case, don't enter!

How about you? Do you enter? Have you won? Do you have doubts that I haven't covered above?

Annalisa Crawford lives in Cornwall UK, with a good supply of moorland and beaches to keep her inspired. She lives with her husband, two sons, a dog and a cat.

She writes dark contemporary, character-driven stories, and has been winning competitions and publishing short stories in small press journals for many years. She recently won 3rd Place in the Costa Short Story Award 2015.

www.annalisacrawford.com

I can't believe I did it again.

I don't know how or why this keeps happening to me, but I always seem to realize that a book in my War of Six Crowns series is done after I've finished it.

Last week, I'd decided to renew my focus on Book 3 in order to complete the rewrite. So I reread the whole thing again to pick up all the loose strings I'd left in November, when I'd stopped when my writing had lost momentum.

And... well... the story felt done. It had a rising action. A twist, climax and an ending.

And half of my planned plot remaining unwritten. (Which was annoying.) But since the other half felt like I'd be shoe-horning it into my story, I decided to split the book. Which means that:

1) Book 3 is done. (Yay!)
2) The other half I had planned will now go into Book 4. (Also yay. Rewrite is already prepped.)
3) Revisions for Book 3 will probably involve significant revisions to compensate for the structure being slightly wonky due to me having planned most of it to be the introduction to the other (unwritten) half. (Eh... okay. I can live with that.)
4) I need a new title for Book 3. I had a title, but now the events referred to in the title happen in Book 4. (Sigh.)
5) I'm going to start revisions to Book 3 at the end of this month. (Yay!)
6) The War of Six Crowns will now be a six-book series. I was planning on five books, but hey, the more the merrier, right?

Have you ever been surprised to discover you completed a draft after-the-fact? Or is it just me?

Mark Noce's Publishing Journey

Hi everyone! Welcome to my regular guest feature! Today, Mark Noce is here to share his publishing journey with us. 

Take it away, Mark!

Thanks, Misha for having me here! I’m pumped to have my debut novel, Between Two Fires, coming out with St. Martin’s Press this August, and I’m here today to share a little bit of what my “journey” to this point so far has been like.

I love reading and writing historical fiction, double-majoring in both History and English in undergrad before getting my Master’s in English. To improve my craft further, I started attending the San Francisco Writer’s Conference about five years ago. I learned a lot, became a better writer and eventually got my super fantastic agent, Rena Rossner of the Deborah Harris Agency. This February I’ll be a guest speaker for the second year in a row at the very same San Francisco Writer’s Conference I used to attend as a budding writer. Needless to say, I’m pretty stoked.

But of course, it wasn’t all a bed of roses. I wrote plenty of other manuscripts before Between Two Fires and got plenty of rejections along the way before I found my niche. Now I’ve got a two book deal with Thomas Dunne Books (an imprint of St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan) and my editor is the head of the imprint himself. But guess what? Rejection is still part of the game. I still run through lots of drafts that my publisher either likes or does not like, spending a good deal of time making each chapter shine until we can’t possibly do another thing to improve it. I’d liken it to pulling rabbits out of hats, except it isn’t magic. It’s a lot of darn hard work. But it has a happy rainbow at the end of the tunnel when I’m left with a great story of which I couldn’t possibly be more proud.

So what’s this Welsh epic of mine all about? Below is a blurb about Between Two Fires, and I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I have. You can pre-order Between Two Fires on Amazon or add it to Goodreads! You can also connect with me via marknoce.com, my blog, Twitter or Facebook.

Thanks again Misha for having me!

Between Two Fires

Saxon barbarians threaten to destroy medieval Wales. Lady Branwen becomes Wales’ last hope to unite their divided kingdoms when her father betroths her to a powerful Welsh warlord, the Hammer King.

But this fledgling alliance is fraught with enemies from within and without as Branwen herself becomes the target of assassinations and courtly intrigue. A young woman in a world of fierce warriors, she seeks to assert her own authority and preserve Wales against the barbarians. But when she falls for a young hedge knight named Artagan her world threatens to tear itself apart. Caught between her duty to her people and her love of a man she cannot have, Branwen must choose whether to preserve her royal marriage or to follow her heart. Somehow she must save her people and remain true to herself, before Saxon invaders and a mysterious traitor try to destroy her.

Thanks for stopping by, Mark! Anyone else interested in being featured on my blog? If you are, please mail me at mishagericke(AT)gmail(DOT)com with "Thursday Feature" in the subject line. 

Have a lovely day! Don't you just love this book's cover?

How to Get Back Into the Writing Groove

Lately, my advice posts have fell a bit to the way-side. Mainly, I blame a bit of a writer's burn-out that I suffered from since mid-November.

It's hard enough to write a thoughtful, useful post without feeling like I'm sipping yogurt through a thin straw. (Don't know what I mean? Try it sometime. The feeling compares remarkably well to writing while burned out.)

The only thing I advise people to do when burned out is to rest. But what to do when the burn-out is gone and you just can't get into the writing groove again? 

Oh, I'm glad you asked. 

I know that everyone is different, but I've found that the following steps work for me: 

Step 1: Find a big enough stick. 

I'm serious. Resting during a burn-out is all about spoiling ourselves rotten and doing all those things we usually do to procrastinate without feeling guilty about it. This is a good thing in its time, but now that time is over. But why promise yourself a reward when you're already in the zone of instant gratification? 

It just won't work. So find what will really make yourself feel crap if you don't do it within a certain time, and commit to it now. I picked saying yes to two anthologies and setting up a book for pre-order. 

Of the two, the pre-order thing is worse. I like having the pre-order option. And Amazon will take that option away for a year if I don't submit the finished work in time. See? Pretty big stick. 

And already, I've started making sure that I'll have everything done. Just make sure that the big stick won't be falling too soon. You've got to be reasonable. Setting something up for pre-orders a week from now isn't reasonable unless you were close to done to begin with. 

Step 2: Get into the habit of delayed gratification.

You used to do this before. It's not so hard. Say: "Yes, I want to watch TV, but first I need to finish this chapter."

This is a tricky thing to do, because the excuses are a dime a dozen. But if you want to get that book done, you need to say: "Later." to everything that isn't finishing your book. 

Except, you know, your family needing your attention or something like that. Family is important. Writing is important. Sometimes, friends are important. TV.... not so much. 

And be careful of the social networking you "need" to do. Not that important either. 

Step 3: Find a nice, juicy carrot. 

That's the nice thing about delayed gratification. Telling yourself you'll do something after finishing a chapter means that you'll want to finish that chapter even if it's only to get to a guilt-free session of that other thing. 

I go a bit bigger, though. I've promised myself something really nice and expensive if I publish my book on time. Actually, that was a new laptop, but the old one broke. So I'm going to have to think of something else. 

I'll probably feed my addiction to pretty notebooks. (NOTE: if you're ever a die-hard fan that wants to send me stuff for Christmas or my birthday... NOTEBOOKS. The beautiful hard-cover kinds with the high quality paper.) 

In the short term, I promised myself a decadent chocolate and banana smoothie once I've finished this post. 

Step 4: Actually write, nitwit. 

You know? It's kind of important. 

And that's pretty much it. Simple, right? 

How do you get back into the writing groove after a long break? 

Back to the subject of putting books on pre-order. I'll be putting Endless up on Amazon this weekend. It's already up on B&N, Kobo and Apple. In the meantime, though, I'm looking for people who'd like to help me spread the word in May after the launch. If you're interested, please click here. Thanks! You're awesome.