After much discussion we’ve decided to concentrate our efforts to teaching people how we treat our writing like a business. Which means that we have a series of posts coming up that will talk about under the “more tag.” If you think we left anything out that you want to know about, fill out the form at the end of the list. 
Creating Schedules and Routines to Enhance your Writing
8
Bad me! I checked in this morning and realized it’s been a little over a week since our last post and we’ve run out of scheduled posts. So time for me to emerge from the writing/editing cave I’ve been hiding in for the last month and get to work on some Writing as a Business posts I promised everyone.
I’m going to save the post about Plots for the next couple of slots and jump to scheduling and routines, mainly because I’ve been dealing with this of late and it’s on my mind right now. On my blog I wrote a post, It’s all About Balance, and no you don’t have to click the link to read the post. I’m going to use much of what I talked about there here.
A few weeks back I started to feel overwhelmed by the demands being placed on me and not getting to any of my editing and writing. I decided it was time for a break from anything I considered a time waster while I learned to could juggle all the new responsibilities with all my old responsibilities.
This meant finding a schedule that would allow me to spend time with my kids and husband, do my housework, take care of ranch, write and edit and market my books, and work on book cover designs for clients. This means sticking to a schedule long enough for it to become a routine or learn what works and what doesn’t.
Creating a Writing Schedule or Routine
For me a daily routine is imperative. I’d get nothing done if I didn’t. When building a writing schedule there are some things I take into account:
1. What is the time that best suits me for certain tasks (i.e. writing, editing, marketing, etc)
2. What is my work schedule (i.e. ranch, book designing, etc).
3. What are my writing and publishing goals for the year.
4. What are my other responsibilities
I wrote down everything I could think of and started to build a routine that works for my needs. If I want to write a book in a year, I create a list of all the things I’ll have to do to accomplish this. Working on characters, plotting, writing, etc. I take these smaller goals to meet my bigger goal.
I know that my schedule won’t work for everyone, hell, some days it barely works for me. But I thought an example might help some of you.
I start my morning by looking over my to-do list while my computer boots up. Then I write or edit (M-F I wake at 6am to get my youngest ready for school and on the bus by 7am. So I start my writing time after I send her off. On Sat. and Sun. I sometimes get to sleep in, if not I have to start breakfast before I write.). I try to get at least 2 hours of writing or editing done.
Setting limits to your writing time will help you not over do it and burn out. A time allotment, page count, or a word goal are the most common. If these don’t work for you, don’t sweat it.
I mark off all the tasks that I accomplished that day and write down notes of what I need to do tomorrow. This way, when I start my day all I have to do is look at my schedule and know where to start. This saves me time and useless staring at the computer screen.
Then I write a blog post if I’m in the mood before I check emails. If I have any emails or blog comments that I need to responded to I do that first, Business related newsletters and blogs are next.
I shut down my computer for the day and start my other responsibilities and spend time with my kids. After I get my kids off the to bed at 8pm, I’m ready to start working on book cover designs. I look at my to-do list while my computer is booting up. I check emails to see if there is anything “urgent” for me to respond to, changes that needed to be made to a cover, or new clients before I start working. I do not read blogs or business newsletters, that will wait until tomorrow.
I like to schedule tasks at the end of the day that allow me to wind down and relax from the day. I find writing at night makes it hard for me to sleep. I’ll work for an hour or two and then mark off what I accomplished and write down what I want to accomplish the next day before I head to be.
I hope this helps some of you create your own schedule and routines. If you have a writing routine you would you like to share, please comment below or post a link to a blog post where you wrote about it? If you have any questions, now is the time to ask.
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Writing When You Got the Blues
The blues come. The blues go but how do you escape them when you experience these downturns?
This is the time you push your chair to your desk and concentrate on your writing. Why? Because in this way, your mind focuses on your work and bypasses the dark days.
Of course, if it is the death of a loved one or a terrible family crisis this would not work. However, if it is an incident, an argument or something along this line, getting your creative juices going provides better mental healing than any pill could achieve and without the side effects.
Forming that witty character who you love lightens your mood. There is a character in my Work in Progress, Cameos and Carriages, I just adore. Perhaps it is because she is bubbly, naive and says what she feels without hesitation. Here is an excerpt:
… Looking to his right then to his left, he took a step forward bumping into Annie Lee.
She giggled. “You hiding, Johnnie boy? I thought you got over your schoolyard pranks.”
Reshuffling the camera to get a better handle on it, John took a step backwards to eye the redheaded beauty. “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t see you. I-I …”
“Not paying attention isn’t going to snag a headline,” her long hair bobbing.
Annie Lee puts me in a better mood. But it does not need to be a character, setting the scene also gives you inward peace. When I wrote an intimate scene by a fountain, I needed to go to the Internet and find a picture of the kind of fountain I had in mind. This was not easy since it was one I had seen in an old motion picture. Thus I searched several Web sites before I came to the three-tiered design I desired. Another excerpt:
She turned her head from him and fixated on the fountain. The water gushed from the top tier to the second before flowing to the bottom tier’s large rock base. She swept her hand over the bubbling liquid.
He reached for her arm and clasped his fingers around hers. Laughing, he brushed his lips against her hair. “Your hair smells nice but you didn’t answer my question.”
Giggling, she stirred her index finger in the cool water and faced him. “Did you say something?”
In addition, do not forget the importance, if you are a believer, in the power of faith and how this intertwines in your work.
Christ is my center but in no way am I saying I am perfect or I never experienced depression. With two different autistic sons and other problems, I have had my share. But then again, writing and faith helps placate the bad times. My recently released inspiring-historical romance, Lockets and Lanterns, includes biblical quotes which ease characters’ pains just as they do mine. For example, the novel includes this passage: “I laid me down and slept; I awakened; for the Lord sustained me.”
So restore your soul by writing even when you got the blues and as always God bless.
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Revising or redoing–taking old stories and making them new by Alix Storm
I know that most of you aren’t erotica or romance writers, and while this article was posted at a blog for erotica writers, the content of Alix Storm’s article can be applied to every genre.
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I recently had a chance to discuss revising old stories with an author friend of mine. She was at a crossroads, trying to decide if it was worthwhile to take one of her old works and structure it for the erotica market. She’d assumed, as had I once upon a time, that it would be a process of tweaking the material and much less creative than starting anew.
For me, that wasn’t the case at all.
A couple of months ago, I discovered a cache of old stories—some good, some perfectly awful. I sent a few off to my editor to have her look at them and decide if she thought they had any merit. We both loved one particular story and thought it would be a great candidate for tweaking, editing, and releasing. The story was almost five-thousand words, the characters were interesting, why not?
Finish reading the rest of the article at One-Handed Writers
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Breaking Writing Sterotypes
Every genre has its writing stereotypes. This morning I came across a tweet decrying and asking people to leave a comment at this man’s blog in view of his post making fun of romance novels and readers. The post actually made me laugh as did some the comments–and yes, I do read and write romances.
The one thing I realized while reading his blog was that the people who commented live day in and day out with untrue writing stereotypes. They were fed up with people making fun of their hard work, but very few of those people were actually trying to break away from the stigma that they were so anger about.
Why? You might ask. Because traditional publishers dictated what rules they have to follow. Different is good. But not too different. Unique stories are welcome, but not always accepted.
As self-published authors, we are in the position to write what we like. We can move away from the writing stereotypes we don’t like. We can break the genre rules and take chances.
Please share the stereotypes you would like to see broken or changed, that you like, or that you hate. If you have a related post, let us know.
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The Shame of Genre
I’m a firm believer in drawing life lessons from various places, and then applying them to completely different topics. Call me the Miss Marple of the blog world, sans the mystery solving thing. (If you don’t know what that means, then you need to read some Agatha Christie).
So, HIM, a rock/pop band from Finland, fronted by Ville Valo, has recently released their newest album, Screamworks. The reviews I’ve read of it, and even my own thoughts on it, have prompted me to think about genre writing a good deal. One thing I’ve been thinking about is that there seems to be an element of “shame” associated with some genres, such as Romance or Vampires/paranormal (And watch out if you put those together!). It’s as if you should be embarrassed to write them because they aren’t “real” enough. In fact, one friend of mine said “Let me know when you write something real, and I’ll buy that.”
Because of this shameful stigma, I think a lot of would be genre writers try their hardest to stay away from the genre’s that they’re really the happiest writing, or they try to package their genre book as something else. They manipulate the description to turn it into anything but what it really is, they might even edit it to inject bits of something else between the paragraphs, to try to fool their readers. But, no one’s fooled at all.
This makes me think of the band HIM because out of the many, many interviews and videos I’ve enjoyed, one thing always stands out. Poor Ville wants nothing more than to be the front man in a metal band. He’s even tried to call their brand of music Love Metal, and the music to many of the songs has an almost metal edge, but no matter what he does, no matter how he packages it, it all goes back to a catchy synthpop with lyrics about love, death, graves and tombs because, deep down, this is what Ville is good at. This is how his mind works, and it’s probably the thing that really appeals to him, especially considering he sights Poe and Baudelaire as some of his favorite works. But, like many writing genres, there’s definitely a stigma attached to a man in his thirties who is writing synthpop about broken hearts and tombstones.
Or is there?
HIM is the first Finish band to have a gold album in the United States. In it’s first week, their new album debuted at number 25 on the Billboard 200 and the album before debuted at number 12 – and that’s just in America. My point? For being a “genre” band with “nothing to say” they seem to have a lot of fans, and not just any fans, either. HIM fans seem to me to be some of the most obsessive, intensely loyal, nearly fanatical fans I’ve ever come in contact with. That says to me that they must be doing something right.
And it’s not just HIM. Look at genre book fans; Twilight, anyone? Whether you’re a fan or not, you’ve surely noticed the thousands of fan groups, email signatures, icon graphics and more that are plastered on every corner of the internet. They sure don’t think that genre fiction is anything to be ashamed of, so why do genre writers let other people tell us that it is? Why do some of us try so hard to be something – anything – else, like Owen Wilson’s character in Marley and Me who was a natural columnist and yet spent the entire movie trying to be a journalist just because “a columnist isn’t a ‘real’ journalist”.
Well, who decides what’s real? Someone sitting on a stack of dusty literary, socially relevant books that people buy just to look good in their bookcase? Or someone who is writing books that people enjoy, even if they list them as a “guilty pleasure”? Though, the question does arise, why must they be a “guilty” pleasure? Is it because the reader has also been shamed by our literary minded society, so that they’re embarrassed to admit what they like?
Back to the new HIM album. All the reviews I’ve read say the same thing, that this album is “like their other albums” and that they are like several other bands out there (I beg to differ on this one, but then I’m looking only at the lyrics, not the whole package). All of the reviewers say this as if it’s a BAD thing, and as a consumer we tend to draw the same conclusion:
“Oh dear, more of the same old, same old.”
But, you know what? When they mixed it up in Venus Doom, most of the HIM fans were crying in their heartagram hoodies because it wasn’t what they wanted. They say “Man, we want something fresh”, but they don’t really. They want more of the same old, same old, because that same old is what they liked about the band in the first place!
The same goes with genre books. It’s as if every vampire or romance or mystery book that is written is expected to “rewrite the genre” and if it doesn’t, it’s chalked up as “same old, same old”. Let’s completely overlook the fact that everything that can be done has been done (Even that amazing movie Avatar that everyone is so rightly praising as original and amazing has the same old, same old storyline!) and go straight to this question: If you’ve rewritten the genre, then does that mean it’s even a part of that genre anymore? Doesn’t that make it its own genre?
Maybe I’m just too literal. I’ve been accused of that before, but I don’t think so. I know if I go looking for a romance novel there are several things I expect to see, and if I don’t then I’m disappointed. The same goes for vampires. I don’t want the author to try to be clever and make her vampires sparkle in daylight (sorry, I just can not embrace that), I want a good old vampire that turns to ashes in sunlight. I want some blood, I want some gore, I want some sex, and I want some good old fashioned fighting and, if they can work it in, I’d like to see some emo winging. Maybe I’m just paranormally-old-fashioned, but I don’t think being compared to Anne Rice is a bad thing! I happen to think that’s pretty damn spectacular, since I think she’s got some of the best vampires going.
So, why, if everyone really wants the same thing, do they complain that everything is so “unoriginal”? Why is the “same old” romance or mystery or thriller or vampire formula frowned on? Why should every book rewrite the genre, when there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the genre in the first place? Am I the only one in the world thinking, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”?
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Erotica Gravy Train
My brother-in-law says he wants to write an erotic book.
What he really means is: I want to get rich.
Everyone is talking about erotica lately. The words “mommy-porn” are on everyone’s lips, from Dr. Phil to Dr. Oz to the ladies of The View. E.L. James’ “Shades” series has pushed erotica and erotic romance into the mainstream spotlight. Suddenly my “smut writing” isn’t such a shameful secret the family doesn’t want to talk about–oh no, not anymore–now it’s a lucrative career choice!
For those who are thinking of jumping into erotica because it seems to be making the money right now, you might want to read this post by Selena Kitt.
Short Stories – Guest Post by Terry Compton
Authors want their names down in history; I want to keep the smoke coming out of the chimney.
Mickey Spillane
I need to do my disclaimer first. I’m not a huge selling author with lots of books on the market. I’ve never been traditionally published. I’m just a newbie that self-published my first ebook in November 2010. I don’t want anyone to think that I’m like Joe, a friend of mine that was giving out lots of free advice when I first started racing stock cars. Joe did have a few trophies from trophy dashes and thought he knew everything. He insisted you needed more motor or bigger motor and lots of horsepower. On the other hand I found John. He didn’t say too much but the car he was helping with was always in front or close to the front during the main. He said, “Get your set up right first and then try to find the horsepower as you have the money.” I went over to John’s shop one day for something and I was amazed at the number of trophies he had. They covered shelves he had in a small office and extended out on a shelf near the ceiling that lined two walls of his shop. These trophies weren’t just from trophy dashes but most of them were from the mains. That’s what you strive for. Winning the trophy dash is nice, but the main is where you make your money. I figured out right quick who I needed to listen to.
I have been emailing Joleene Naylor about a cover for my new upcoming novel and a collection of short stories. When I told her that I had one short story “The Sunset of Big Oil” on Smashwords that had over 2000 page views in two days and sold one copy with a review in less than two hours, she suggested I needed to tell about it. One of my other short stories “The Leprechaun’s Gift” sold two copies in two days. I don’t consider that a big success but it is getting things started. How did I get started writing short stories? Well, I’m glad you asked.
I’ve been reading several blogs and forums about how to write, what to write and how to publicize. One is Self Published Author’s Lounge, another is JA Konrath’s blog and two that really caught my eye are Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith. Dean and Kristine both have been saying not to worry about doing a lot of promoting. They say the best promotion is to have more books. I looked on Smashwords for Dean Wesley Smith and saw that he had 69 short stories, collections or novels there under just his name. He writes under several pen names, too. Kristine is his wife and I think I saw one time that they have over 700 books and short stories between them. They have won several awards over the years so I figured they might be like John and worth listening to. Dean says write more short stories, publish them and then put them into collections of five or ten. I decided to try it and currently have six published short stories and another that will come out the third week in August.
When I saw “The Sunset of Big Oil” generate over 2000 hits in two days and a sale with a good review in less than two hours on Smashwords, I was thinking move over Amanda Hocking here I come. Then the next day however, the graph tracked across the bottom of the chart. I’m still getting a few hits per day but when the top is set to 1250 and you only get 4 or 5 hits a day, they don’t even make a bump. However, one thing I did see was that I was getting more page views on all my books on Smashwords and more free sample downloads. So far, the sales haven’t followed but sales on Kindle have picked up. Does one drive the other? I don’t know. Why did the one short story get so many page views? If someone has an idea, I’d like to hear it because I’d like to see if I could duplicate it on future short stories and novels. I suspect that a lot of the interest was because gas prices are so high and people were looking for a legal way to stick it to the Big Oil companies or hoped that I had.
I have received three major benefits from doing the short stories:
- I have more books out there for someone to find. The more that are there, the better your chances of being seen. Dean Wesley Smith talks a lot about this and even has figures to back it up.
- Writing the short stories gives me a chance to practice the craft of writing. I can switch genres to try some different things. I can try different techniques. I can polish my writing without taking months to complete a project. I have also been doing some of my own covers. They don’t measure up to Joleene’s yet but maybe one of these days after I get all the right tools I need. (grin) I don’t like to read short stories because most of the time, it seems like they leave you hanging in the middle of the story. I have been having fun writing these stories though and I have worked to get them to come to a conclusion. I know this will help later in my novels. I want to keep learning and improving. Doing the short stories in different genres also gives different search words when someone is looking for a particular thing.
- One thing I do with the short stories is to work up stories from things I’ve heard on the news or from what people are talking about. The Sunset of Big Oil came from a news story about the super tankers that were lined up in some harbor. The crude oil tanks were full and they couldn’t off load. What if that became permanent? What if??? Dean Wesley Smith talks about writing from a list of book titles. He has two different lists and takes part of a title from one and the rest from the other. So far, I need to have an idea first but maybe with a lot more practice, his way will work for me as well.
One other thing I’ve learned is how global Smashwords and Kindle truly are. My review for “The Sunset of Big Oil” was from Australia. You hear about people from all over the globe buying ebooks but until one buys from you, sometimes it doesn’t really sink in.
Are short stories the answer for everyone? I can’t answer that. I don’t have enough data. I know its working for me and I’m going to continue to write short stories as well as the novels. Are my results spectacular? Not for everyone but they did look impressive for me for two days. Ask me in a year or five how they have worked, because I think this is going to take some time to build and polish. Like the quote at the top of the article says, I just want to keep the smoke coming out of the chimney. I doubt that I will ever have any of my novels become required reading in high school but I do hope that one day if I continue to improve, they will become “Hey, man, you’ve got to read this.”
Terry Compton
