I’m a big fan of outlines. I kind of have to be, with what I write. I have sixteen books planned out for the Woven universe and I kind of need to have an idea of where the story is going. So I have a series outline, of course. But the series isn’t all one long story. There are trilogies and two book collections and stand-alone books. So, in the event that I have a couple books that go together, they need their own, separate outline. Then, of course, I have an outline for the book I’m working on at the moment. I’ll even go so far as to outline the chapter I’m working on before I get started.

What I’m saying is, I pretty much know what’s going to happen in every book I intend to write for the rest of my life.

Except that I don’t. While I was writing the Broken Patterns Trilogy, I made outlines like I described above. Then I’d rip the outlines up and redo them part way through. Or I’d end up rewriting so much of the book in the editing process that what I ended up with was totally different than what I’d started with. This doesn’t mean that my outline was bad. It just means that the story grew and went on its own path, like a living thing. It did what it was supposed to do, in other words.

Now I’m writing a new Woven story. A two book collection, hesitantly titled The Roc Hunters. (That’s pronounced rook, like the chess piece. It’s a great huge mythological bird.) It’s a new story, with new characters. I thought it might be time for a new approach.

I opened up an Evernote note and got down some of the major things I know I want to have happen in the books. I have a beginning, an end, and an antagonist. Then I threw in a few protagonists for good measure.

Then I started writing.

As I go along, I’m adding some things to the outline and deleting others. Characters are appearing, weaving themselves into the story in ways I didn’t expect at all. It’s all flowing, all coming to me in new, fascinating surprises.

I was afraid I’d get writer’s block, writing this way. But actually, the opposite has happened. The story is just coming to me as I write. The more I move the pen, the more of the path ahead I can see. I’m more excited than ever to get to my writing every day, and I find myself writing more than I used to.

Now, I don’t know how this rough draft is going to end up. The benefit of a more detailed outline is that the first draft ends up reading more like a second draft. So it might be that the second draft of this book is an even more massive rewrite than I usually do. (Traditionally second drafts take me five to six months to write.) But maybe that’s worth it if the book I write is more original, more organic. Maybe this will be the best book, the one that shows how I’m growing as a writer. Maybe I’ll hate it and scrap the whole thing.

The point is that I don’t know how this is going to turn out. Which is a feeling I’m used to in life, but not so much in my writing. I think I like it.

If you’ve been following along with me on Instagram and Facebook this month, you know I’ve devoted some time to writing poetry. I don’t write a lot of poetry, and it’s not good by any means. But I write it. I also write short stories in just about any genre. I write almost everything, even though I only really market my speculative fiction work.

This has got to seem crazy. I mean, when you think about everything we do every day, fitting in writing that you’re not going to market and might not even be good at can seem like a pointless waste of time.

But it’s really not. There are a lot of reasons that I would advise cross training your writing.

Different perspective

I talk about this a lot, and I’m not the only one. Getting a new perspective on things, especially if we’re talking about anything creative endeavors. What can suspense writing teach a fantasy writer? How to write some damn scary monsters for your hero to face. What can fantasy teach a romance writer? To write in such a way that evokes the suspension of disbelief.

Stretching muscles you might not stretch normally

Your brain is a muscle, we’ve all heard this. Just like we would cross train our bodies, we want to cross train our brains. It will just make all of your brain smarter. It’s like how learning an instrument will help you understand Math, or how when you learn a second language it’s easier to learn a third. Our brains need to stretch.

It’s something new

If all you ever do is write one genre, you’re going to get bored. It’s just the same as everything else. I don’t care how much you love Steampunk, eventually, you’re not going to love it any more if it’s all you write. It’s like eating your favorite food. If you have it too much, you won’t like it as well. Though, I can’t imagine being in a position where I could get my hands on to much sushi. Maybe when I’m rich and famous.

It’s fun

Writing is a job, a passion, a dream life. It’s also freaking fun. Or at least it should be. I mean, if you’re not having fun writing, what are you wasting your time for? Go do something else that doesn’t take up all of your soul.

You might want to write in it for real

There was a time when I wrote horror, nothing but horror. I love it, not going to lie. But after a long hiatus, when my life was falling apart and I needed something to save my sanity, I decided to try fantasy. I was reading a lot of fantasy at the time, you see. My life was in some serious need of magic.

Last year I wanted to write something episodic for this site. I didn’t want to write more fantasy, and I couldn’t think of a horror story. I was watching a lot of Star Trek and Firefly. A lot of superhero stuff, too. That’s where Station 86 came from. I never intended to write fantasy or science fiction. But there we have it.

I still love horror, don’t get me wrong. I’d like to write a horror novel. But right now I’m entirely engrossed in two genre’s I just wanted to write for fun.

I’ve got this friend that I don’t talk to much. It’s not because we don’t get along, quite the opposite. It’s just that we’re both mad busy.

She’s in school, pregnant with her second child, and working. She also lives in Pittsburgh, while I’m stuck in Butler. I have two kids, a full-time job, a side hustle and this whole writing thing I do. We’re busy, is what I’m saying.

She and I have been friends forever. Since high school, if you can believe it. I know, it’s shocking to me that anyone’s been able to put up with me this long. We both love technology, have really eclectic taste in music, shop at second-hand stores and love cats. We love hockey, independent coffee shops, and comic books. We argue about politics and cry about our mothers.

To be honest, we go months without talking sometimes. Like I said, we’re busy. I understand, as time goes on, people fade away from each other. We move, we change, we grow. Or, we don’t grow. I have other friends from high school that I don’t hang out with anymore because I grew up and they didn’t. Or maybe they’re doing it right and I’ve got a stick up my ass. I don’t really think so, given the fact that I really think I’m going to be a full-time writer someday. But I won’t rule it out.

But that’s not the case with this friend of mine. Like I said, we’ll go months without talking. Then one of us will message each other out of nowhere. I’ll send her something I found on Reddit. She’ll message out of nowhere to bitch about something or other. And we’ll just pick right back up like we talked every day.

Like no time has passed.

Writers depend on our computers a lot. You just can’t be a writer these days without a computer and internet access. You don’t the latest or greatest, but you do need a computer with proper internet connection.

Which means you also need your freaking computer to not die. Honestly, if you want to strike fear in the hearts of a writer, kill their computer while they’re working on a project.

And, since most writers are low on cash, you need to maintain your computer so that you don’t need to replace it.

Here are some lessons that I’ve learned over the years when it comes to computer care. I’m also including some basic online safety information for writers in general, to help you avoid scams.

Note: I am a regular person. I don’t have any sort of degree in computers. These are just things that I have learned from experience, and I’m not in any way saying that doing these things will always protect you from computer viruses all the time. Sometimes hackers get in. Please take these suggestions with that in mind.

Clear your cache and cookies.

If you’re unsure how to do this for your browser of choice, you can google step by step instructions. You want to do this once a month, or really any time your browser’s being slow. Be warned, though, you’re going to lose all of your saved password information on any site where you’ve selected ‘Keep Me Signed In’. Do it anyway, just make sure you have your passwords first.

Have multiple browsers on your computer.

While we’re discussing your browser, I’d suggest having at least two on your computer. Sometimes websites aren’t on speaking terms with some browsers for whatever reason. Sometimes you find out that Firefox freezes up every time you try to copy a link to a WordPress post so you have to use Edge.

Have two browsers, is what I’m saying.

Back it up twice.

Here’s something else you should have two of. Backups for your important documents. Like, for instance, your manuscripts. I use Dropbox, but I also save all of my manuscripts on a flash drive. Why do we do this? Because nothing is 100% and flash drives are next to nothing to buy. Dropbox is free for limited space and sometimes flash drives break. So do yourself a favor and save your stuff twice.

If you have a launch day or any other event where you need to have an internet connection, be prepared with an Ethernet connection. Don’t depend on wireless unless you have to.

Wireless is wonderful, but it can be spotty. All sorts of things can mess with it like the location of your router, other people around you on the same wireless channel or weird signals coming off of your microwave. (No, I’m not joking.)

So if you have a day when you know it’s going to be catastrophic if you lose the internet, directly connect to your modem.

Run a virus scan at least once a month. No, the auto scan your anti-virus performed is not good enough.

Yes, if you have an anti-virus it does do an auto scan. No, it’s not the same as running a scan yourself. I’d advise doing it once a month, the same as clearing out your cache. This is something that I do on the first day of every month, right along with backing up my manuscripts on DropBox and on a flash drive.

An anti-virus and a firewall are not the same things.

I hear this all the time, so let me break it down for you.

An anti-virus’s job is to keep viruses from getting onto your computer from bad sites or other bugs. A firewall is intended to keep other people (hackers) from accessing your network and devices. If you’re wondering, yes you need both.

Don’t call phone numbers that appear on popups, or click on them.

If a pop-up appears on your screen, don’t click on it. If it asks you to call a number, don’t do it. Popups are never your friends; they are almost always scammers attempting to get information from you. Just don’t do it.

Always check Predators and Editors.

I think this one goes without saying, but just in case no one’s told you, I will. If you’re submitting writing, before you send anything to anyone, check out their name through Predators and Editors. I can’t tell you how many bad situations this site has saved me from. Just check it, trust me.

And the Better Business Bureau.

This one is for just about everything. If you get a weird email that doesn’t seem kosher, run the company through the BBB. If you’re considering doing business with someone, check the BBB. If someone claims that you owe them money, check the BBB. There are scams out there that claim to be from old landlords or utilities. Just make sure you double check before you send someone money.

Any agent or publishing company that asks you for money up front is not legitimate.

Again, I feel like somewhere along the lines we’re all told this. But I might be the first person to tell you this. No legitimate agent or publisher will ask a writer for any money up front. Flat out, if they ask you for money, they’re not legit. Agents and publishers make money from your writing, end of story. They make money from your work, not from you.

If your computer doesn’t automatically update, update it often.

This is something else I used to do on the first day of the month, but I have Windows 10 now and it updates for me. Whenever it wants to, even if I’m in the middle of something. This is frustrating as hell, but at least I don’t have to update Adobe Flash Player every other week. I swear you’ve got to update that the way you buy milk.

Computers need to be taken care of, just like anything else. So if you don’t want to quite suddenly lose a year’s worth of work in a heartbeat, or have your computer crash hours before a deadline, you’ve got to take care of it.

By the way, I want to let you guys know that as of April 27^th, you’ll be able to get both Station 86 books in one volume. It’s going to be available in e-book form, of course, but it’s also available in paperback. (Yay!) Both options will be available on Amazon, or if you see me at a live event.

I’ve seen a lot of people on my Facebook and other writing groups recently ask the same question. How do I handle social media promotion when I have multiple books to sell?

Since I publish two different series, I’m a decent person to ask about this. It’s a pain, I don’t mind telling you. I only do so much social media-ing to start with. So to balance two books is sometimes a downright pain in the ass. Then we throw in any other events I’m planning or attending (like my poetry month challenge or the B2B Con earlier this month). And I don’t want to spam people, of course.

I have a list of simple rules that I follow when it comes to social media. They’ve worked well for me so far.

If a book is coming out, promote the other ones in the series.

You Can’t Trust The AI came out earlier this month. Two weeks before that, I started promoting only Seeming. I made a big point about getting the book before it’s sequel comes out. This made a lot of sense because a lot of people were showing interest in book two who didn’t grab book one yet. Also, while you can pick up book two before you read book one, that’s not going to be true later in the series. So I want to get my readers in the habit of reading them in order now.

Besides that, it’s not a terrible thing to read two books instead of one.

For real, don’t spam people.

I’ve brought this up before. In fact, every time I talk about social media I mention this. If you work to create a platform, you don’t want to kill it by spamming people. You’re not even going to get a platform built if you’re spamming people.

Once again, the most accepted ratio is eighty percent content and twenty percent advertising. So for every promotional post you write, you should post five other things. Here’s a short list of things you can post. It’s by no means exclusive, and I highly encourage you to think outside of this list, but here are some ideas to get you started.

• Updates about your life that are interesting and relatable.
• Information about books, tv shows, movies and anything else that relates to your genre. I share as much as I can about other indie writers who write speculative fiction. If you like my writing, I assume you’re also interested in Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman. (See what I did there?)
• What are you reading? I would love to know what Tamora Pierce and Stephen King are reading right now. I think you all care what I’m reading, as you can probably tell. I’d love to know what you’re reading right now. Why? For the same reason I watch every single ‘Sephora Haul, Ulta Haul, best and worst product haul’ video on Youtube. I am nosy as hell, and I want to know what you’re doing.
• Anything random that might interest your readers. A lot of this depends on you knowing your ideal reader. I write for adults, mostly parents. Parents, I think, focus so much on creating magic for their kids. We work hard to make holidays and other special occasions happen, even making dinner happen nicely. We tend to squeeze the magic out of our own lives to create it for the kids. That’s why I write speculative fiction for adults. So, when I’m filling up my Buffer feed, I include fun things for parents. Like Tasty videos. There’s no reason to include those, they have nothing to do with speculative fiction. But they do appeal to parents.

If you have free books, use them to split up your paid books.

If you write a book, or a collection of short stories, to promote your name and get new readers then you should promote them just like you do your paid books. Well, maybe not just like. I mean, I scheduled several book signings and online events for my last book release. But I do post about my free books as much as my paid books. After all, nothing gets people’s attention like ‘free’.

Talk about the most recent book you’ve got.

Now that You Can’t Trust The AI is out, I don’t post about Seeming. I post about AI instead. Now, I might go back to posting about Seeming or at least tie it into promotions I do for AI. I’ve been promoting Seeming for awhile now. There’s no sense in continuing to do it when I have something new to share.

Just make a list and talk about them in order.

This is kind of a no-brainer, but it’s what I do if I don’t have anything major going on. I just make a list of books, write out some solid social media promotions, and post them in order. Really, this is one of those things that can be made as automatic as possible. Because really, the whole point of social media is to talk about your writing and let your readers know what you’re doing. So don’t stress over it so much.

We all know at this point that there’s a lot more to being a writer than just, you know, writing. Promotion takes time, you guys, a freaking lot of time. Cons and signings, events, ads, social media, cross-promotion with other authors. Given half a chance, these activities could take up my whole entire day.

If I let that happen, then I sure as hell hope the books that are out sell because I’d never write another one. And that would be a shame because I have a lot of ideas, you guys. I’m hoping to publish three more books this year alone. I mean, I want to be a writer to write. If I wanted to be a saleswoman, I’d have stayed in retail.

But I have to do all of this, don’t I? I mean, if I want my books to sell, I’ve got to get them out there. How is anyone going to read them if they don’t know they exist?

Yeah, I do have to advertise. I talk about my books at the end of my posts. I post on four social media accounts. I attend cons and plan signings. I do all of this social butterfly, come look at me, don’t you want to read this book I have here things they say indie writers are supposed to do. I have guest posts on other people’s sites and I host their guest posts.

So, how do I do it?

I actually don’t. I take all the freaking shortcuts I can find. I spend about half an hour a day on social media, and I do that while I’m watching tv with my kids. I spend one day a week working on business and promotional stuff. Anything that can’t be done in five minutes is done on that one day a week. And if I can’t get it done during the five hours my kids are in school, then it’s going to wait until next week. Do you know why?

Because if it doesn’t get done, I don’t care.

My word of the year, if you’ll remember from January, is Create. I’m spending this year focusing on Creating. So whatever it is, books, short stories or comic book scripts, I always want to be creating something new. So that comes first. Well, actually it comes third after my family and my own emotional well being. But it surely comes before social media obligations.

Six days out of the week, I do nothing more than fill up my Buffer account before devoting all other writing time to content creation or editing. I simply put it first, because that’s where it’s supposed to be.

Come see me! And check me out on Facebook as I’ll be updating through the day, and every day of the Con.

I’ll also be hosting two (not so hostile) takeovers during the con.

On Saturday, I’ll be taking over the science fiction page at 6:00. In addition to some serius science fiction talk, I’ll be giving away a free e-copy of You Can’t Trust The AI.

On Sunday, I’ll be on the Scifan Facebook page at 5:00. I’ll be leaving links to both of these events on my own page. Here’s a link to that.

I’ll also be having a question and answer session on my PBW Facebook page. You can jump on there all weekend and ask me about anything. Writing, Paper Beats World, Station 86, Woven, anything.

Finally, here’s a link to my Author’s Showcase for Station 86!

Click here to get to the B2B Con site.