This one’s kind of a quickie, because I’m probably going to need to go into protective custody once you’re all done reading it, and I really need to pack. Writers, I love you, I really do, so take this advice in the spirit in which it is intended… Writing Advice No One Wants to Hear If you’ve been working on the same book for ten years and it’s still not […]
Writing Advice No One Wants to Hear Read More »
Ok, so I have once again adjusted my writing plans taking me through 2039. I’m thinking of this as the current cycle of my life, which really started in 2019 when I started making my writing the focus of what I was doing. This schedule is based on how long it actually takes me to work, so feel confident that I can meet these dates. But if life attacks and
A Reflection from the Middle Read More »
There’s one question writers seem to get a lot. We all get it. We all have a rote answer for it, that differs from writer to writer. Here’s the question: Where do you get your ideas? My answer to this is: from everywhere. Ideas are literally everywhere. I have twenty ideas for stories every morning before I have my coffee. They’re not GOOD ideas, all the time. They need to
The Truth About Ideas Read More »
In the past couple of years, I’ve sort of become a one-stop shop for producing books. I write them. I do the covers. I format them. I create my own promotional social media graphics. The only thing I outsource these days is editing, and that is an expense I’ll continue to pay for because I have no confidence in my own ability to edit myself properly, plus I have an
My Favorite Tools for Writing and Publishing Books! Read More »
There are all sorts of productivity routines out there. Most of them say something like, ‘Do your most important work first when you’ve just gotten up and are fresh for the day,’ or ‘Get up at 5am and knock out a couple of hours of work before everyone else has started their day.’ Now, there’s nothing wrong with these strategies. They work for a lot of people, but they’re sold
Maximizing My Schedule Read More »
I’ve run across a lot of people lately who say something like, ‘I’m not writing with a message. I just want to write fun stories that entertain people,’ and also, ‘Thinking about the big ideas you’re working with is misguided, it’s not a writer’s job to work with a theme in mind, it’s the job of the critic to think about theme.’ There’s also the old wisdom that says, ‘If
In Defense of Theme Read More »
Ok, so a couple of things. First, good news! Looking at my sales from the first of this year to now, I have already sold more books/made more money than I did all last year! That seems like a nice marker of progress, especially since most of these sales weren’t from any sort of campaign but from me posting about my books and people hitting the links. Those sales mean
My last post went over the basics of how Self-publishing works. But there are a lot of other things you need to make decisions about. Here are some things you need to think about when you start your self-publishing journey. What’s an ISBN Anyway? An ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is the identifier your book will carry in various retail systems. It’s how the system identifies it. You need one
More Self-Publishing Questions Answered Read More »
I often tell the story that I was unable to complete a book satisfactorily until 2019 when I first learned to plot. A lot of writers are allergic to this advice, thinking having a plot will kill their desire to write their story. This might be true for them, but there are also diverse levels of plotting, from detailed scene plans to a rough sketch of what you want to
I’ve been doing a deep dive into worldbuilding lately because that’s where I identified I most needed to level up. And I have so many ideas for worlds, characters, and stories that the hard part is realizing that I can’t do everything at once, and I know from experience that I can’t draft more than one book at a time. So, I used my favorite coping strategy, making a
The State of Things Read More »