Jumping Back in the Pool...Maybe, One Writer's Viewpoint Part 1

So normally I blog about books (reviews, etc.). Rarely do I talk personal stuff, but this is too good not to share. 

It's been over a year since the final decree and I've been ready to start over. The last year has seen a host of changes and transitions for me. But then life is a journey.

Without revealing my age (a lady never tells and a gentleman never asks), it is an interesting task to meet someone. So far, the locals have been "just good friends", hot messes or some combination of the two. Several friends encouraged me to give online a try. After some hemming and hawing, I said ---what the hell.

So last week I registered for one of those specialized sites. You know the ones that weed out the youngsters. I was honest on my profile: real age, current picture, actual education, interest. Yeah, I THOUGHT fessing up to being a woman with a Master's degree in my age group might scare some off, but more on that later.

On a semi-regular basis, I will share some of my observations (serious and funny).

Here's where my author/editor hat goes back on. I will never reveal personal information on others as this is not about the person and not meant as disrespectful and, in fact, may prove useful to some.

First and most important: Please proofread your profile!

I have seen too many profiles from men filled with serious typos.

Here is a minor example. No names, although I doubt this person follows my blog.

I'm a good lesener romantic i like to go for car rides with no destinationi like music I play some instruments I like to cook and going fishing and most of all I have a great sense of humer and I"M Italian

I'm jumping right on this flirt…NOT.

I wish him luck on his search.

At first this might prompt a giggle or two. But seriously, a profile is your ad, your resume, your chance to make a first impression. Spell-check it, re-read, show to a trusted friend (we call them beta readers). Put your best foot forward.

My writer friends can understand. Would you send an agent or publisher a query letter with similar issues?

This is also true for any social site whether it's dating, twitter, Linked-in or Facebook. Oh and one final note: Facebook is NOT a dating site.

Row, Row, Row your Goals. No flaking allowed.

I have been, I hope, noticeably absent from this site of late. That is because I am trying to follow the advice passed on from a Twitter follower of Laurell K. Hamilton (Urban Fantasy author extraordinaire—and then some).  The original tweet is lost on a long list of tweets, so I am unable to give the sender their props.  If you see this, please chime in so you can be thanked. But here it is:

                The @LKHamilton Way: Self-impose a deadline, give up fun activities to meet deadline, and do not fucking flake out on the deadline!

                In sticking with that theme, and since my betas hit me with their comments I have been in the cave.  On one of my less frequent visits to Twitter, I found #ROW80.  Rather than re-invent the wheel, let me post the description from their site.

A Round of Words in 80 Days is exactly what it sounds like.  It is a writing challenge that runs for 80 days.

How is it different from other writing challenges?

Well apart from being longer than most writing challenges (NaNoWriMo being the one most folks are familiar with), ROW80 allows YOU to set YOUR GOAL (You’ll wanna read this post about what constitutes an actual measurable GOAL).  We don’t presuppose that everybody has the same needs, the same level of productivity, or the same schedule.  When the challenge starts, you might be in the middle of a WIP.  Or you might be on revisions.  Everybody’s different.  You take whatever project you are working on, in whatever stage it is in, and you figure out a goal for it, share it with us in a blog post that you link to when the challenge begins, and you join our community of dedicated writers and fellow cheerleaders.  Don’t feel limited to fiction.  We’ve had non-fiction writers on here as well as one participant who was working on her dissertation!

And here’s the clincher about what makes ROW80 different from all the other writing challenges out there: We recognize that you have a life.  It’s all well and good to think that you can put your job and family and responsibilities on hold for a month or more to hammer out a book, but it’s not realistic.  Hundreds of thousands of people start NaNo and only a fraction actually SUCCEED.  Because life happens.  It gets in the way.  And real writers have to find a way to cope with it and STILL GET THE WORK DONE.  So in light of the fact that we know you have a life, ROW80 allows you to change your goal should you need to. 

And since we all want to (presumably) be writers rather than hobbyists, we need a challenge that happens more than once a year.  A Round of Words in 80 Days happens FOUR times a year.

Round 3 begins today July 4th.

So here are my ROW80 goals:

1)      Finish the polish edits on Dark Dealings, including formatting.

2)      Finish outline of Ogham Court

3)      Write an additional 50,000 words for Ogham, which should mean a completed first draft, or pretty darn close.

4)       DO NOT FLAKE OUT!

Who's with me.  If you want to jump in, you can do so on any reporting day which is Sunday and Wednesday.  See the link above for details.  I'll be checking in here and at #ROW80.

29 Ways to Stay Creative

Today is Writer Wednesday on Twitter. In case you do't now what that is, it is a chance to give a shout-out to some of the creative and hardworking writers in your Twitter community. So today I wanted to share a post a came across that I enjoyed and took from it inspiration and practical advice.  It is all over the Internet but mine comes from the site of Huub Koch.  I liked it so much I asked him if I could in turn share it here.  So whatever you are creating, whether it is a novel, a poem, a painting, a business, a family or all of the above, I hope the list below helps when the energy level is low.

 

Why the Vampires Won't Talk to Me

So my last post was about my list.  I’m good at lists as you might have surmised.  What I’m not so good at is making me a priority.  When I went back to my last post, I realized that the whole diet, exercise, reading part was almost an aside.  At the same time, I was internally lamenting my lack of progress on my writing projects.  Dark Dealings is nearly complete; feedback from betas is starting to come in.  That will give me some editorial work to do, but I need to get the creative side going.  My vampires are not talking to me right now.  Neither are the Druids and shapeshifters.

Being just a little over-analytical (ya think), I rewound the mental video to the early stages of Dark Dealings to look for the things I did differently.  Some interesting things emerged from this.  I did a lot of my first draft writing in quiet places, like my home office or the back room on the first floor, with only some music in the background (NO TV).  I took exercise seriously by hitting the gym or walking five or six days a week (I was 15 pounds lighter).  And I stayed off Facebook—I since built a Twitter platform and this blog, too.  Last night I set up my Facebook author page.  It’s definitely a work in progress.

I know that the last point is important to publishing and selling Dark Dealings and my future works.  I am told Urban Fantasy, vampires, werewolves is a crowded field.  Not so much for the modern Druids that populate my real world universe.  To make my only slightly romantic novel a success I need to work hard at the platform thing.   I can’t change that part of process.

BUT, for my writing and my health I need to work my own personal magic on myself.  The exercise worked off the stress of the day job and other stuff and the quiet space opened me up to the voices in my head so my characters could have their say.  So today, during my lunch break, I’m going to sit with my DayTimer and schedule time for me.

How about you, what do you do for you and what are the benefits you get from it?  Have you sraed from those habits the way I have?

Tuesday, Twitter and Brags

Tuesday Tales: 

So for starters, I have to brag.  My daughter is a college senior and recently applied to 17 PhD or Masters programs.  She was just offered a spot at the University of Nebraska in their doctoral program.  Waiting to hear from the other 16. She has also been accepted as a presenter at a conference in her field in San Diego.  Of course, my brilliant daughter will probably be the first to publish.  Her Independent Research paper is being submitted to journals.

Hey, if you can’t brag about you children whenever and wherever possible, what’s the point of social media? Which brings to my point, social media as a marketing tool for new writers/authors.

Her more reticent Mom’s, that would be me folks (no snickering from those who know me), big accomplishment of the week is setting up a Twitter account. @kvictoriasmith. It is yet another step in building a platform for the day when I, too, can lay claim to the title Published Author.  So now I blog, am on Facebook and Twitter.

 I can’t say how it will all end up but we stand at the edge of a new world and places like Facebook and Twitter are not only marketing but educational tools.  We can teach each other and watch and speculate on trends.  After all we are writers, it’s our job to ask what-if.

So here’s the question.  What do you think the publishing and bookselling industry will look like in 5 years?  10 years?  Will the roles and responsibilities of the author, agent, editor, publisher and publicist change?   What about big bookstores, will they even be around?  Do they go the way of the music industry, as some have suggested?  Do we need any of them in an Amazon/Kindle/B&N/Nook world?

 What’s a lowly writer to do to get published and get Henry Cavill to play the hero?  Or maybe Alex Skaarsgard.   Or even Matt Bohmer.  Hmmm, now where was I?