Showing posts with label writing is hard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing is hard. Show all posts

Friday, August 2, 2019

Back to School...



I've got to say, I don't miss having school-age kids. The thought of all that stressful school-shopping and money-spending makes me shudder. Now, do I like getting pens and spiral notebooks for the office on sale? Sure. The rest? RIP. :0)

TGIF...although it hasn't been a bad week despite the transition from one month to the next. I got a head start on all my new-month tasks, so that makes the shift much smoother. All I've got left to do of the major things is send out the monthly invoices and download bank statements to reconcile accounts. Nice.

I tried to work hard on plotting yesterday and made some small strides, but as I do 95% of the time when wrestling with this aspect of writing, I end up feeling stupid and frustrated because there's an aspect of this that I don't get, that hasn't clicked. I'm not quite sure what it is, because if I did, I could research it and learn it.

I've taken several different classes, listened to an online webinar thing, read a book or two in regards to plotting/setting up your characters/etc/etc/etc and it's still a struggle. Like I said, something isn't clicking.

I wonder if a one-on-one mentor/coach situation would help me... Someone who could sit down with me as I utilize the different tools at my disposal and ask questions when I get stuck to unstick me or point me in a better direct and help me somehow figure out what's going to work more often than not.

It's especially frustrating when I breeze through plotting a book like I did in March and then breeze through writing said book like I did in April and then here we are again and >>BRICK WALL<<

**sigh**

Anyway, looking forward to the weekend. Have a great one.



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Friday, October 13, 2017

I guess it's time to do this publishing thing...


Book six arrived back from the proofreaders this past Tuesday...it was with some trepidation that I checked email everyday looking for it. After all the struggles I had, I really doubted that I'd sent her something at least on par with the first five.

As luck would have it, Ms. Proofreader had lovely things to say about the book as well as my writing--things I find hard to believe. Not because I'm trying to be humble or modest at all, but because I have doubts every time I sit down to write a book, because pulling a plot together and weaving any and all threads is a challenge each and every time, because plotting in the first place is not intuitive to me.

I don't have beta readers or critique partners that I run chapter by for feedback. Yes, I have my group of peeps who I ask for brainstorming help or their opinions or for help when I'm stuck, but they don't read my work. My proofreader is also my first reader. Which means not only does she find all my errors--of which there were many this time around--but her initial impression of the book is, I don't know, "pure," maybe? I mean...she doesn't know me. She's not obligated to encourage me.  I pay her to be honest with me about my words, to tell me if there's a flaw in my plot.

So, no, she doesn't have to love my characters or their particular tale, nor does she have to enjoy the genre I'm writing in order to praise my ability to actually tell a story. The fact that she has means a lot.

Anyway...all that to say that pulling the trigger on publishing my books hinged on book six being done. Well it's done and back in my hot little hands. So I guess it's time to get my little ducklings in a row and get them ready to go out into the world.

Look out world, here they come...

Well, in November!

Have a great weekend! I'll be busy checking and double-checking books 1 through 3 in preparation for creating the ebook files. But it's a task I'm suddenly looking forward to a heck of a lot more.



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Friday, February 26, 2016

Milestones


It's taken me a couple of days to decide what to post for today. I was trying to be proactive by coming up with a topic in advance and jotting down the bulk of my thoughts before tweaking for the final posting, but a true milestone happened yesterday and so, that's what I'm going to share. :)

I'm going to be a (self) published author by November! That's the goal, anyway.

But that's not the milestone. Not yet anyway...

Last December, my writer peeps and I were sitting around Cotton Patch for our after-the-meeting get-together and my dear friend Clover said, "Anyone interested in doing a box set for Christmas next year?" Pretty much everyone at the table said they liked the idea and we moved on to other varied and random topics. But that question and the possibilities stuck in my head all through the holidays, and ideas percolated.

When we reassembled in January, I asked if Clover meant it and if everyone was serious about participating. Everyone agreed and we brainstormed how we wanted things to work. I started writing my contributions at the beginning of February and yesterday morning, I sent it out to the other participants! It was pretty exciting.

That was the milestone. My first major for-publication effort was sent out into the world for the opinion of others. Yikes. YAY!

So this is it. I've danced around the idea of being published for years--like twelve of them, but the route of traditional publishing never appealed to me. Luckily for me, the romance publishing industry began growing and changing back when I first joined and now the options are much more to my liking.

The next milestone will be to finish and publish a book. I want to have something else available should someone enjoy my storytelling in Christmas thing so much they want to see what else I've got out there. It's not going to be much. One book, possibly two.

One's in a completely written first draft state and waiting for me to start reading the paper copy I printed. The other's not quite done and will be in a similar state once it is. I have a lot of work ahead of me. Hard work. Energy-sucking work. Energizing work.

So that theory of mine that things are going to calm down after my trip to Atlanta...yeah--maybe not so much. :)

WHEEEE!!

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Friday, May 22, 2015

Pushing Past the Self-Doubts and the Fear


For the past two months I've been hard at work on a brand new book. My track record is abysmal when it comes to actually finishing, I will admit, but I really love these characters and really do want to share them with the world.

The last two weeks have been a struggle for me and this is probably the point at which I've given up and quit in the past, but I've continued on even if I only worked on it for half an hour, fifteen minutes, five minutes...

(This is how I feel--overtaken by doubt and fear...)

It probably wasn't the best timing to take a particular online class either as now I'm worrying about that aspect of my book. I will admit to not working on it at all for a few days here and there, and reading when I should have been writing/revising. It definitely helped get me back to work to have writer friends encouraging me to stick with it and asking to read the book. (Well, that also a little scary, frankly.)

So I've put on my big girl panties and gotten back to work with determination to get the story to a good enough state to send to one of my critique partners. (She's not too scary.) She keeps asking for it. I'll see what she has to say and then make yet another pass at it and see where it stands.

I thought this was appropriate--end of story, you know THE END...

Anyway...




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