Tag: The writing Life

The Writing Life- May 19 plus a pretty exciting announcement.

So, I had an aha moment this past week.  I realized that I’m doing a lot of good things to help set myself up as a full time writer.  I have a few e-books in the works. I’m very nearly done with my first novel, Broken Patterns.  I was published twice last year.  I’ve got this awesome site right here that helps me meet and interact with so many other like minded people.

But I didn’t have any real, tangible step by step goals to quitting my day job, and becoming a full fledged full time writer.  My plan, so far, has been ‘write, edit, submit, repeat.’

That’s a great basis, but I need something more.  I realized that I couldn’t visualize what it would take for me to be comfortable leaving the day job and writing full time.  How would I ever know if I was making enough to insure we weren’t going to starve to death?  Writing isn’t a guaranteed paycheck, what if something happened, and I lost all of our income?

The answer came back to Dave Ramsey.  Have you heard of him?  I love the guy.  He’s got the best, most down to earth and easy to follow money advise of anyone, ever.  Have you heard of his debt snowball plan?  It’s awesome!

I decided that the first step down the path of being a full time writer was planning to fail.  I needed to achieve the first three parts of Dave Ramsey’s baby steps.

  1. Save $1,000 in an emergency fund.
  2. Pay down debt with the debt snowball method.
  3. Put 3-6 months worth of bills and expenses in saving.

That’s step one.  I can’t even think about quitting my job until I’ve done those three things.  Well, two things, actually.  Fortunately I’ve managed to live debt free.  My savings, however, is nothing.  Not a dime.

So, while I’m saving my pennies, here are some other things I’m doing to prepare for full time writer-hood.

  • I’m finishing Broken Patterns.
  • I’m setting specific work hours every week, and sticking to them the same way I stick to my day job hours.
  • I’m considering other revenue streams, like ads on this blog, super sweet writing tools I can create, and investing.

So I was thinking, maybe this might be something that we could do together.  I’m starting a newsletter for writers who want to start writing full time, but don’t know how feasible it’s going to be.  If you want to come along, and share your story as you go, please sign up for the newsletter below.

Subscribe to our mailing list

I’ll be sending out a letter probably about once a month, so please don’t feel like I’m going to flood your inbox.  Please, I do not have the time.  However, I think you’ll be pretty excited about what you do find in the newsletter when it comes out.  Here are just a few awesome things I have planned.

  • Even more paying freelance markets than I post on Paper Beats World.
  • Some money saving tips, because frugality is a step on the path to full time writer-hood.
  • Some links to posts from other sites that helped me out on the path.
  • And, once I get to the point where I’m selling my e-books and writing tools, you’ll get heads up, pre-ordering, freebees and discounts.

It’s been really exciting for me to have a clear, attainable goal.  I hope that it is for you, too.

Things That Rocked This Week-

  • I finished up a new piece to send to Every Day Fiction.  Hoping that ends well.
  • Wrote the rough draft for my Second Hand Smoke piece.  It was really hard to write, I don’t mind telling you.  But I feel better having written it.
  • Also wrote a clever piece for the Stingy Jack Anthology I told you about last Friday.  I think it’s a solid piece.

Things That I’m Looking Forward to This Week-

  • The Tipsy Writer twitter chat is tonight, and every Tuesday night at 8:30.  Just follow The Tipsy Writer on twitter, and join us.  Hope to see you there.
  • I got a ton of books off Amazon by some super fantastic indie authors.  I’m going to read them, and tell you all about the good ones in coming Check This Out posts.  There are so many great indie books out there, and so many that make me want to slap the authors for making the rest of us look bad.  I want to tell you more about the good ones.

So, what did you do this week?  What are you pumped about?

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The Writing Life, May 5

Much better week this week.  Home life is calming down, and my writing can go back to center stage.  I even get, gasp, a whole day to focus just on writing, at my favorite coffee shop.  Of course, this was after a very sick day on Monday.  I’ve always been a really dedicated employee, so when I take a sick day, I am super sick.  Needless to say, I didn’t get much writing done that day.

That’s something that I learn and re-learn all the time.  Hopefully someday I’ll learn it for good, but for now I keep re-learning it.  No matter how many times I make a to do list with the best of intentions, something will happen to throw it all up in the air like a snow globe in the hands of a four year old.

But I’m not going to try to play catch up.  You know why?  Because I’m working more on quality, not quantity.  What a concept, right?  I mean, what’s the point of writing a bakers dozen books if they all sound like Twilight?  Better that I should write one story in that time, if it’s a really good one.  So, this week I’m focusing more on committing an amount of concentrated time to each of my major projects every week.   Remember the Pomodoro method?  That’s what I’m using.

Things that Rocked This Week-

  • Even though I’m still reading Broken Patterns, Draft 3, I’m really excited.  I mean, there are still some glaring issues, but it is so much better than what it was.
  • I got my awesome Epic Blog planner by ByRegina.  I’ve been using it to plan out the next twelve months of ideas for Paper Beats World.  Including an awesome surprise gift for all of you this month.  More to come on that soon.

Things I’m looking forward to this week-

  • I’m going to be writing the rough draft of a short piece for an anthology called Second Hand Smoke.  It’s going to be a real life story that’s very important to me.
  • As mentioned earlier, I’m devoting a whole day to writing tomorrow.  I don’t get those very often, so I’m going to take full advantage.
  • With any luck, I’ll be done with my read through.  Which means I get to start writing my next drive.  That’s super exciting, because when I’m done with that draft, I’ve only got a final polish, and I can finally start sending it out to agents.  I’ve been working on this book since July of 2013.  So yeah, that’s kind of a big deal.

What are you doing this week?  What are you super excited about?  Share it with us.

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The Writing Life- April 28

This week has been sort of rough, home life wise.  Lots of appointments, and sitting in waiting rooms.  Needless to say, I have not gotten as much done writing wise as I would have liked.

Things that rocked this week-

  • I’m reading Broken Patterns, getting ready to write the fourth draft.  I seem to be having a roller-coaster reaction to it, but the farther I get into the story, the better it is.  I can’t wait to get started writing it.
  • The Writing 101 event is going great.  I love how everyone is coming together and making friends.  I’ve had so much fun finding new blogs.

Things I’m looking forward to this week-

  • I’m going to be editing both Letter on the Bar and Warm this week.  It’s been a very long while since I’ve had a short story that I can send out.  Looking forward to being back in the game.
  • Still working on my very exciting top secret project that I’ll be telling you all about in July.  It’s taking a lot of time, and I think it’s all going to be worth it.

So, what are you doing this week?  Any super exciting milestones?  What are you working on?  Let us know in the comments below.

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The Writing Life

So, let’s do something a little different this week.

This week, I want to share some of my own personal journey with you.  My own writer’s life.

Because, let’s face it, I’m far from a place where I can just sit back and give advice like an old wise woman.  I work really damn hard on my writing every day.

So from now on, I want to start something new on Tuesdays.  I’ll talk about what I’m doing with my writing, and you tell me what you’re doing.  What are you working on this week?  What did you accomplish, or wish you could have done more with?

Remember, this isn’t about having written a book. It’s about being a writer, every day, and sharing the journey.

This Week-

If you haven’t noticed, I finished the rough draft of Starting Chains, the second book of Woven.  I’d been working on it since November, so it’s a huge relief, but also kind of sad.  See, now I’m done moving the story forward for awhile.  I’m already excited to write the third one, which I won’t be doing until last year.

I’m starting on four different e-books now that Starting Chains is done.  Now, I know that sounds like a crazy amount of work, but really, it’s not as messed up as it sounds.  One of the books is a non fiction about writing a fantasy series.  I’m not a huge fan of writing non fiction, so this will be a very slow process.  Probably at the rate of a chapter a week.

As for the other three, they’re short fiction collections.  So, while I hope to write two short stories a month, I have no idea what book it will fit into.  With my luck, they will probably all progress at the same time.  So, yeah, that’s four books at once.  This week I intend to edit the short story I wrote for the first week of Writing 101, cautiously titled Letter on The Bar.

Then, there’s the fourth draft of Broken Patterns.  That’s four of five, total, I hope and pray.  I also hope and pray that I’m going to finish this one this year, and I can start sending it to agents.

Oh, and I’m also working on a secret project for Paper Beats World.  It’s huge and wonderful and scary and awesome, and I’ve been working on it for about a month already.  Can’t say anything yet, but just keep watch around July.

Alright, so that’s what I’m working on this week.  What are you planning?  Let us know in the comment section below.

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The Writing Life- A Prayer for My Agent

Lord, please look after the agent
upon who’s desk my manuscript is placed
Let her have a good cup of coffee, and an empty bladder
Let her be in a peaceful frame of mind
Let her not be rushed, or tired
Let her not be jaded
Let her put away preconceived notions and bigotries
Lord, I do not ask that the agent rushes to represent me
I do not ask that she get me a million dollar contract
or make me famous
I only ask that when the agent reads my manuscript, that she be in a positive frame of mind
and that she see its merits, and know how to correct its flaws

Amen

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The Writing Life- Orginizing Submissions

You should know by now that I have a thing about organization. Especially when it comes to my writing, keeping order is keeping my sanity.

Submissions are a pretty big thing to keep organized. If you haven’t started yet, start right now. If you’ve only got one submission, set up your process anyway. Those suckers will multiply like ferrets if you’re doing your job right. Get ready now, because you need to keep track of a lot.

Who did you send this project to? This is a no brainer. If you sent your manuscript to an agent and they politely pass on it, they are going to be less polite when you lose track and send it to them again. You have wasted your time and theirs.

Now, an often overlooked portion of this step is making a distinction between the agent and the agency. When you submit a manuscript to an agent who is part of an agency, they probably showed it around to their fellow agents who might also want to look at it. So don’t, unless informed otherwise by the submission guidelines, send that same work to a different agent. You also need to keep a list of agents by name. It is absolutely plausible that when you sent your manuscript to agency A and agent 1 read it there, then moves to agency B, they still read your book already.

You will also want to track what sort of reaction you got from agencies and publications. If you have a lot of short stories you’re selling at once, you’ve going to have some cross over. I have a few markets that I often send my work to. When you do that, you are going to see some trends. This magazine likes your work, but this one never gives you a positive response. Maybe it’s time to look at magazine B. Either you need to step up your game, or decide that this isn’t the market that’s going to appreciate your voice.

If all this isn’t enough to keep track of, I’ve got one more important piece of data for you to track. How many submissions did you send out in a month? When I’ve got a lot of active projects, I love to play the beat my own high score. Remember, when you’re a writer, you are your biggest competition. Don’t worry about what any other writer is doing. Be a better writer than you were last month. So, try to send out more work this month than you did last month.

Now that we know what we’re tracking, we have to have a system to track it. Now, this is something that I have struggled with over the years. I started out tracking agents on index cards. That was concise, but messy. Then I tried to incorporate cross indexing, and it was such a mess.

Then, when I tried and failed to sell my murder mystery, I wrote down every agent I sent it to by the month. At the same time I had this complicated, color coded chart of short fiction, markets and reactions. It was a huge ball of highlighter

So now, I am working in Open Office to create a super simple list. I love this because it is searchable. I can look up an agents name with a simple control F. I list the title of the project, then under that the market, date I sent it, date I got an answer and what that answer was. It is taking a lot for me to do this, because I am really addicted to paper. But it is so much easier, that I’ll just have to get over it.

Whatever style you like now, don’t be scared to move it around and change it up. The important part with this is organizing data. You need to see the patterns this data will make to make better decisions about your writing business.

This week’s affiliate sponsor is Share A Sale. If you want a great starter way to incorporate adds in your writing that’s not pushy or skeevy, check them out.

How do you organize your submissions? Are you happy with it, or do you think it could be better?

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The Writing Life- Reading to Learn

There is a ton of things that go into being a good writer, as we’ve discussed here. You’re not just writing, or just editing, or just revising. You’re also learning all the time. This business changes all the time, and you’ve got to keep on top f things. The good thing is, you’re keeping on top of something really fun, reading. That’s right, you’re best tool in writing is to read and read and read.

You’ve got to read in your field and out of it. You’ve got to read short stories and long novels. Read good books and bad. Banned books and socially acceptable ones. There is so much to be learned from reading.

When Reading Good Books–

Soak up grammar rules. A lot of our rules are confusing and hard to remember. But if you’re accustomed to looking at our language for long periods of time, really hearing it in your head as you read, you’ll find yourself knowing when it’s right and when it’s wrong. You might not know the rule something’s breaking when it’s wrong, but you will know that it is wrong.

By the way, if you are interested in learning some grammar, read Elements of Style. It’s short, but madly useful.

You’ll also develop an ear for good storytelling. You know when you read something, and it resonates, because it’s honest, or because a part of your heart just jumps out at it? You learn to spot that, and with luck, you can learn to write it.

Another reason you want to read, especially your own genre, is to know what other people are doing. It’s not to mimic what they’re doing. It’s to know. You can’t know if you’re doing the same thing as everyone’s doing if you have no idea. You can’t know what’s already been done a million times, and what might actually be cutting edge. After all, everything is new if you’re not reading those kinds of books.

When Reading Bad Books–

And you should read bad books. (Maybe not Twilight, though. Just saying.) I make a point of picking up random books in the horror and fantasy genres. Some are great, some are really bad. I learn a lot from the bad books. For instance, I learn what doesn’t work. When I read a bad book, and I say, “Wow, that blows,” I then take it a step further than that. Why does it suck? Is the story line poor? Is the dialog bad? Do the characters fall flat? These are things to avoid.

I also like to ask myself, why did this get published, if it’s so bad. There’s a book that’s going to be made into a movie this year, that a lot of people really liked. I did not. But it’s being made into a movie anyway. So, I ask myself why. There’s something in this bad story that was so good that it was published even though it was really bad. What might happen if I learned how to do that, and put it in a good book? I’ll tell you what, best seller!

There’s also a big dose of optimism in a bad book. After all, if this trash got published, surely I’ll be eventually. You too, I bet. I mean, Twilight was published, after all. So was Ann Rice. Just all of her books. They were bad, and I thought they were bad when I was a creepy goth chick in high school.

If you learn nothing else from this blog, learn to fit reading into your everyday life. I read every night, at least a half an hour. I read in the bath, and on the way to work. I love my tablet because I’ve always got a handful of books with me. My love of reading is something that has always been with me, and it’s something that I share with every person in my life. If I’ve got nothing else to talk about, I talk about books. Someday, people are going to be talking about mine.

What book have you read that you’ve learned the most from?

This week’s affiliate sponsor is Shutterfly. I got a great calendar for my mother in law last Christmas, and it’s how I get all of my pictures published. They’re fast, great quality, and really inexpensive. Especially if you collect Coke caps. I generally get my prints for the price of shipping.  Oh, and if you click on this link, you can get a special deal.

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The Writing Life- Keeping a Sketchbook.

Characters, (you remember that we’re talking about characters this month, right?) are a complex creation.  They must walk like real people, talk like real people, behave. This all takes time and hours of study. You must learn about psychology, language, and behavioral patterns. History doesn’t hurt either, along with a working knowledge of insert the thing your character knows more about than you do here. You’re going to be awfully busy, is what I’m saying.

With all of that to learn, it’s easy to forget one simple feature of a character; what they look like.

Now, this is a tricky one for me, so I do what everyone should do when things are hard for them. I practice a lot. How do you practice describing people? With a writers sketchbook.

A writers sketchbook is yet another theft from visual artists. They are never found without a sketchbook, after all, and you shouldn’t either. It can be a portion of your notebook if you like, doesn’t need to be a different book. In fact it probably shouldn’t be. After all, there is a limit to how much you can carry with you.

One thing to consider, though, is having some unlined paper with you for this experiment. If you’re the sketchy sort, you might want to have some illustrations go go along with your verbal sketches. Unlined paper isn’t required for this, but if you like it, you should use it.

Of course, you’re not relying only on visual sketches. You’re writing out a description of what someone looks like.

Sketch one- the basic description. Not a lot of explanation needed for this one. Look at someone in public. The old man sitting next to you in the coffee shop. The bus driver. The really irritating woman in the back of the bus who won’t stop having really personal cell phone discussions. They are all objects just waiting for you to describe them. You don’t have to be nice. Just describe what you can about the person, realistically. Try not to be flowery right now. That will come later. Just tell us how this person looks, good or bad.

Sketch Two- the flowery description. Now let’s have some fun. We’ve got our basic description, essentially what you’d give a cop who was looking for this person if they’d killed somebody. This time, we’re going to describe the person in a very poetic way. Fortunately, you’ve already got the basic description to work with, so you don’t need to have the subject in your sites while you write this one. Talk about hair that fell like straw, and the doughy skin that looked as though you could press your finger against it and leave an imprint. (I think I’ve mentioned before that I ride the bus a lot.)

Now, you do sketch one and two over and over. Do it on the little kids playing in the park and the old man reading an old magazine at the doctor’s office.

Remember, people are all characters. And in spite of what we say, you can tell a lot about a person based on how they look. A girl in sneaks and jeans is a different person than the girl in the heels. And skirt. For instance, guess which one’s more likely to cuss up a storm if they’ve got to walk a long while.

Carry a sketchbook with you for a week. Find at least three people to sketch. See how much it helps the next time you sit down to describe your character.

By the way, if you’re running low on notebooks, The Pen boutique is having a special, and right now they’ve got free shipping.

Rhodia LD 3 1/2 x 5 1/2 Webnotebook

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The Writing Life- People Watching

What are characters? Your cast, your actors, the most important parts of your story? Well, yes, that’s all very true. But there’s a more basic answer than that. Characters are people. Or at least, they are the way we either wish people were, or secretly think people are.

To learn to write great characters, you need to learn about people. To do that, you must master the art of people watching. Once again we are borrowing from the habits of our fellow artists, visual artists. Sit near an artist in a coffee shop, and you run the risk of ending up in their sketchbook. So it should be with writers as well. If you’ve never practiced people watching, here are some steps to help you get started.

Always have your notebook with you.

You should already have a notebook with you at all times, but try to keep some pages open for taking notes on the people that surround you. When I started paying attention to the people around me, I was shocked by how no one ever seems to be aware of the fact that anyone else is around them. People will have amazingly personal conversations while shopping in the grocery store.

Wear headphones with the music off.

Like a spy, you don’t always want to be observed observing others. That’s when headphones are your friends. People assume that when you have headphones on you can’t hear them, so they’re not so self conscious. Pop on some headphones and settle in at a local coffee shop. People will go about their business, letting you take notes.

Listen more than look

You can see how people look on the internet. You’re watching people to learn how they act, but more importantly how they talk. Remember, I talked about how important dialog is in this post. So, when you’re people watching, you’re actually listening. Close your eyes and listen to how people talk to each other. Talking is like music in a way. You have to listen to a lot of it to develop an ear for it. If a piece of dialog strikes you, jot it down. Why does it strike you? Take notes on how that line made you feel, and how it would have felt if a friend or loved one had said it to you.

Take a walk through the park

Especially if you’re writing with children characters. Kids gravitate toward parks, and so do a lot of other sorts. Besides, it’s probably a good idea to get out of the house when you can. We don’t need anymore of the sun deprived pale geek stereotype.

Take public transportation

If you’ve never ridden on a bus or subway, do it. I have sat on long bus trips and just wrote notes on everything people around me were saying. Yes, all the rumors about people on public transportation are true. Yes, a woman once petted my chest while I was on a bus. Go try it anyway, you will not find a better place for people watching, I promise you.

If you want your characters to sound and act like real people, you’ve got to study real people. So practice people watching every chance you get.

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The writers Life- Research Pt 2, Now that you’ve got it.

Assuming you went ahead and did a ton of research after reading part one, you’ve got a pile of facts and figures now. The question is, what do you do with it all?

Part 2.1- Organizing your research.

First you need to organize it in a way that makes it a quick reference. Nothing is going to be helpful if it’s scribbled on a sticky note that ended up on your kids shoe and made its way out into the driveway. Personally, I go back to my book bible. I’ll need it with me anyways, what with its accurate dates and details about my series, so I commit a portion to my notes.

This part I will tab as much as possible, so that while I’m editing a chapter and need to remember what that really cool word I learned for what the feather on an arrow is called, (fletch) I don’t have to sort through five pages of spinning diagrams to find it.

I also color code the hell out of everything. The major color code for me is based on the character pov. I put research notes for that character in his or her section. I do not need to have my krav maga notes out while I’m writing about Victor, and I don’t want to be troubled with them.

I don’t know about you, but I’m a big fan of charts and graphs, so I add a lot of them. This is why I’d advise a three hole punch, and a big ass binder.

So now we have all of our notes color collected, color coded and sorted by character. Now, keep it with you while you’re writing. This is why it’s so important to have this all in a binder, and make friends with a nice big writing bag. Also lower back pain.

Step 2.2 Now, what are you going to do with all of this?

Add realism.

Yes, even in a fantasy setting, it’s important to remember that suspension of disbelief is a funny thing. Readers will accept your fantasy world rules if you’ve expressed them clearly. They won’t accept if you’re talking about something simple like baking a chicken and you screw it up by making it in the microwave.

Set the scene.

One of your biggest jobs as a writer is to describe things. Your reader needs to know how things around your characters look to be properly sucked into the story. Well, how are you supposed to do that if you don’t have any idea?

By the way, here’s something I started doing recently that has helped me a ton. I got a tablet for Christmas, and the first thing I did was download the Pintrist mobile app. I started making a pin board for each of my fictional worlds. Then, when I’m writing for that country, I pull that page up for inspiration.

Open yourself up to new ideas.

Speaking of inspiration, you’re sure to find some while doing research. Maybe even the helping hand your plot twist that wasn’t twisty enough needed. Maybe an explanation for why your character does that weird thing. Or maybe you’ll just find out that it used to be common practice for Norsemen to put butter in their tea, and decide that this has to go in the book. Anything you learn about any subject has the potential to inspire your writing, but obviously if you’re looking into things that inspired your stories to start with, the ideas are going to multiply like rabbits

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