So, the real reason I am blogging is to promote my writing, make it pay for itself at least, and help all you guys out there who are in the same position as me or not as far along. The thing is, that all my reasearch and blogging and developing a market for my books is taking time away from…guess what? Writing books. So today I am reminding myself and you to stop putting off your writing with endless blogging and research and WRITE! So there.
Writing
The Real Reason
Categories: Self-Publishing, Writing
Tags: Author, blogging, marketing, promotion, publishing, reading, research, Self-Publish, self-publishing, so there
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Tag Surfing! Posts I liked:
I use the Tag surfer to connect with other bloggers on WordPress, and it works pretty well!
I liked:
- this author interview http://andrewbutterworth.wordpress.com/2011/10/14/self-published-author-interview-simon-fox/ Simon did a good interview and had some good stuff to say about being an Author .
- This short blog about including the sense of smell in writing setting descriptions http://3by3writingmethod.wordpress.com/2011/10/14/dont-forget-to-smell-the-noses/
- This blog post from an author who I found once in a different blog post from another author http://dlmorrese.wordpress.com/2011/10/14/my-self-publishing-adventure-episode-three-building-a-platform/
I read lots of others and commented too, but these have new information I haven’t posted and fit what I am discussing in my blog: writing and self-publishing.
Categories: Self-Publishing, Writing
Tags: advertizing, andrew butterworth, Author, blogs, D L Morese, description, facebook, interview, links, marketing, platform, promotion, Self-Publish, self-publshing, Simon Fox, social media, Twitter, Writing
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Blog with insightful instructions on How To Review
http://cochisewriters.wordpress.com/category/ross/
Ross Lampert gives us a detailed and intelligent process for how he reviews a book. It gets to the heart of why we read. As I’ve pointed out before, reading is necessary for writing, and if you can better analyze your reading then you can better craft your writing!
The instructions are written in series, so I’ve linked to Ross’ page in the blog (multiple authors).
Thanks for the cool tools, Ross! I gave them a new page in One Note for future reference.
Categories: Resources, Writing
Tags: Author, how-to, literature, reading, review, Writing
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The Divergence of the Sites
Upon the advice of a wise man, I am varying my information on the web. That means that this site will still be the meat of my blogging, and my other site http://katepolicani.blogspot.com will be my mushy sensitive site full of my feelings and writing experiences. If you don’t want that, don’t go there. Nyah.
I think it is going to be cool, so if you’re cool, you will check it out. Soon, anyway. There isn’t much there right now that isn’t already on this site. Don’t worry. I’ll fix that.
A link to a blog with a cool scene-writing technique!
http://dlmorrese.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/writing-a-simple-scene-in-five-easy-layers/
DL Morrese has laid out a simple but beautiful method for creating a scene.
How Writing a Book Changed Me
It did. It changed me, not in an enormous way, but I feel different now that it is out there. I have an accomplishment that is tangible and will endure beyond me. It may reside in a used book store or a storage unit, but it’s there. I have the knowledge that I wrote a book and the confidence that I can do it again. That is enormous for me.
Before the book, I was just Kate, a mommy and a homemaker, doing what all mommies and homemakers have done since the beginning of time. Truthfully, I felt lowly and unimportant to others as a mom. My job (and I consider it to be that) is un-glamorous and possible for anyone who can produce or acquire a baby to parent. Don’t get me wrong. I also think it is the most important job in the world, to raise the next generation, and that is why it is my job, and not my hobby or my side-job. It’s just that it is a really easy field to break into.
Writing a book, however, is not something everyone can do. It makes others see me as unique and worthy. Only a week after my publishing date, I feel the rise in respect from other moms who I chat with in passing at my kids’ school. Friends I haven’t heard from in 16 years are excited about my books! My books are getting people excited! They are enthused about the one that is out and eager for the ones to come.
The publishing thing is interesting too. Even though I self-published and had control over when the book came out (har har), that confirmation of publication was a rite of passage that made me a “Real Writer”. Without the evidence they could hold in their hand (or in their Kindle) it was just a cool hobby. I have the paperback. It says my name on it.
The paperback’s arrival was especially important to my kids. To them, books are still objects. Seeing my book in physical form, not just words on a computer or an ereader, made it real to them. The interest expressed by others is what makes the book important in their eyes and not just some thing mom does on her laptop. They aren’t allowed to touch my laptop, and so it is my space. But when others notice and talk to them about it, it becomes important.
I do feel kind of like a cheater here because my writing is not something I planned to do and sat down with sheer determination to accomplish. It did take discipline and work, but that was to make it presentable. When an idea is whirling around in my head and I am looking at it from all angles and poking it to see if it will twitch, it has to eventually come out onto paper, or the screen of my laptop. The night before last, in order to stop thinking about my next day’s schedule, I made up a story about people transformed into strange beasts with a gene-altering parasite. Last night I expanded on that idea and then fell asleep had a dream about a dramatic confrontation that also could be a story, if arranged properly. There are two potential pieces of books, right there, that oozed out of me without effort.
This writing isn’t an accomplishment of will for me, it’s the manifestation of my thought processes. And it makes me look cool. “Hi, my name is Kate. I’m an author. Here’s where you can buy my book.” That is so cool! Truthfully, you probably can’t sneeze and not infect at least two authors. But I’m an author, and I can prove it, and it has changed me.
Categories: Self-Publishing, Writing
Tags: Author, books, career, fiction, homemaker, housewife, literature, mommy, publishing, science-fiction, Self-Publish, self-publishing, women, Writing
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My Notes on Reading Like A Writer by Francine Prose
Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose
Rarely do I like a nonfiction book enough to read it from cover to cover and take notes voluntarily. I did for this book because there was some stuff I just didn’t wan to forget. This is good stuff! My notes were as follows:
Close reading: Reading a book “closely” allows you to see beyond the plot, characters,
and ideas in the book.
Words: Word choice tells the reader about the author and shapes the tone of the story. It shows why certain writers endure.
Sentences: Look at the really great sentences! Sentences are what writing is about.
Paragraphs: Paragraphs are the completeness of the work and give it a musical quality, a rhythm.
Narration: Who is listening? On what occasion is the story being told and why? Is the protagonist projecting this heartfelt confession out into the ozone, and, if so, what is
ithe proper tone to assume when the ozone is one’s audience?
Character: Characters are defined by how you describe them, what they say, and what they do.
Dialogue: You can’t and shouldn’t try to make fictional dialogue sound like actual speech.
Details: God is in the details. They make the story and drive it.
Gesture: The description of gesture sets good writing apart from common. Common writing describes common gesture while good writing shakes things up.
Learning from Chekov: Books are still the best way of taking great art and its consolations with us on the bus.
Reading for Courage: The fear of writing badly, of revealing something you would rather keep hidden, of losing the good opinion of the world, of violating your own high standards, or discovering something about yourself that you would just as soon not know, prevent people from writing. Literature is an endless source of courage and confirmation.
Categories: Writing
Tags: Author, Francine Prose, publishing, reading, Reading Like a Writer, Self-Publish, self-publishing, Writing
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How to write a “Vampire Chick” novel/series (based on the ones I’ve read):
Create a character who is in her late 20’s to mid-thirties who is or becomes a vampire, never voluntarily. She doesn’t want to be a vampire or hates herself since she became one. She has to be “nice” and hates sucking blood. She has to be either unnaturally innocent or a world-weary bad girl grown up. Both innocence and past pain are hooks for us to care about her.
Start her out being a “normal girl” with flaws like bad hair or clumsiness, but reveal her to be secretly superhot or become so as the book goes on. She also has to be special in some random way; she reads minds, sees ghosts, has visions, knows jujitsu etc.
She either has to be a fashionista or despise/not care about clothing. Have the love interest be frustrated by this–he is a high-class man or he is a no-nonsense guy–inverse to the character’s value of looks and dress.
If she becomes a vampire in the book she has to be unusually sane during her “newborn vampire” stage or not go through it at all. Accept or reject any piece of vampire lore as fits your story. Use the explanation of “what vampires are really like” to add word count to your story.
You must create one gay character to show how non-homophobic you are. There are extra tolerance points if the person is the main character’s best friend.
There must be a best friend for her to protect or to protect her. Other’s love for her shows she is lovable and her love for them makes her lovable. Have the best friend encourage her in the opposite of the desires of the love interest to add drama.
Every man has to be sinfully handsome, whether he’s the love interest or the bad guy. Even though the main character is portrayed as a shlub at first, she must be irresistable to all the male characters (except the gay bff and even that is open to interpretation).
One of the hot guys must be a vampire hunter with a love/hate relationship. He can hate her at first and then fall in love. He can protect her until she becomes a vampire and then turn on her. You get the idea.
The love interest can be any hot guy from the ancient vampire to the vampire hunter, or even another supernatural being. It doesn’t matter. He is a decoration for the main character. Spend a lot of time describing how attracted the main character is to the love interest. Slather it on and make it really embarassing. Bonus sexy points if she can’t control herself around him and vice-versa.
There is no other woman in the love interest’s eyes but the main character, though he has to have had scads of women before her. A beautiful, intimidating, evil ex can be the best bad guy or assistant-to-the-bad-guy.
Any other mythical race can be real or a myth based on how many super characters you want. If they usually hate vampires, your character has to be the exception unless the bad guy is non-vampire or non-human. Describe how the mythical races work for word count.
Somehow your character must always be the key to saving the city/country/world from super-evil forces. Danger and magnitude must grow throughout the novel/series with a maximum of one week in-between threats.
Many terrible injuries must occur to your main character so we can feel bad for her. If she isn’t yet a vampire, they never require physical therapy, ruin her looks, or permanently disable her. If she is a vampire, they heal quickly with no scars, but you can make her drink the love-interest’s blood to cure her and that’s sexy.
Sex scenes should come at inappropriate moments with no privacy, no time, terrible locations, and no warning if you like. Even if the main character jumps right in the sack with the love interest, she isn’t a slut. Every character accepts this. No disease or unwanted pregnancy ever results from sex in “Vampire Chick” novels.
There is no need to complete the story or even the plot within any given book. Readers love it when you make them wait for the next book to see if the world was saved. Chop it off wherever you like. Who cares!
And that is the “formula” for the “Vampire Chick” novel! Go for it! (Wow! That was practically one all by itself!)
A few more links
I just posted a few more publishing links! These didn’t fit in with any particular experience I’ve had, but they are excellent resources. Here they are:
Some important info for authors from a self-publishing site: http://www.authorhouse.com/AuthorResources/default.aspx
Penguin Publishing’s Author’s guide to online marketing: http://us.penguingroup.com/static/pdf/misc/penguin_authors_guide_to_online_marketing_summer_2008.pdf
WikiHow’s article on self-publishing: http://www.wikihow.com/Self-Publish-a-Book (I especially like the “Tips” at the bottom!)
I found the link I mentioned a few posts ago about which gave me the idea for my “Think Tank”! It was tucked away in One Note “where I wouldn’t lose it”. Hehe! Silly me! I’ll put it in the article too for you later taters. http://jaynie2000.hubpages.com/hub/Publishing-Tips-for-First-Time-Authors
Categories: Self-Publishing, Writing
Tags: Author, publishing, self-publishing, Writing
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Why I Love Microsoft OneNote (as a writer)
I don’t know if any of you writers out there have a “crazy train” of thought like I do, but Microsoft OneNote is something wonderful, I’m telling you! I am. Right here. (If you’ve been reading the blog, you understand about the “crazy train”.)
First of all, it is very flexible and I can put everything in one place or I can make a new notebook or a new page or a new un-filed note for whatever I want. I have a notebook for my personal book reviews with a page for Wins and a page for Fails, a page for Manga reviews, a page to list the ones I have moved to an excel spreadsheet, and another of the books I have downloaded on Overdrive (from the library in case there is one I read but didn’t review).
Reviews, by the way, have been an excellent tool for me to use my reading addiction to fuel my writing compulsion. I can remind myself with each review what was good or bad about the book and then remember to do or not to do that!
I also have a notebook for each of my books, and it is extremely useful when I need to organize my thoughts outside of Word while I am working. I am easily distracted and frequently find myself finally getting to a place in my book to change something but forgetting what that was. But! If I switch over to OneNote, where I have been “showing my work”, I can see exactly what I need to do. I can even write it there before wedging it into my manuscript.
My Disenchanted Pet notebook will be my example:
- The first page is all about the themes I want in the book and the other deeper workings of the book.
- The second page is an outline page. My outline is vital, but changes constantly and OneNote is flexible enough to take it.
- The third page is random cut-and-paste content for when I take something out I want to keep, or need to organize something for the writing.
- The fourth page is just for comments and ideas from my Think Tank, so I can keep track of comments and ideas they have made.
- The fifth page is just for listing stuff I want to change or “tune up”
- The sixth page is Bios of my characters, so I can be sure everybody is consistent.
- The seventh page is actually on this blog, my list of “Things to do” for my book.
- My author profile has the next slot, where I can put all permutations of my Author Profile blurb.
- The eighth page is my acknowledgements, to put into the book when I publish.
- The Ninth is my copyright page.
- The tenth is my dedication page.
- The eleventh is all my editing notes from my recent edit, and my responses to her comments by number.
It is so easy to add in things I want and take out things I don’t, never having to worry about saving because it somehow keeps every change without losing them. Only once did I get a “corrupt file” and lose the book reviews I had transcribed from my email to OneNote. That was the last thing I had done before the problem, but everything else was there.
The caboose for today’s crazy train will be the beauty of the dedicated email address. I set one up for myself just for my personal and writing notes, and I can email from my phone. Wherever I am, as long as I don’t forget to bring my phone, I can email my sacred email account and all my thoughts go right to my email inbox, on my laptop, where they are the most useful. TaDa! I highly recommend it even if you aren’t a writer. It works for shopping, calendar planning, bad memory, and to-do lists, among other things.
Categories: Writing
Tags: Author, Microsoft, Microsoft OneNote, OneNote, review, self-publishing, software, software review, Writing
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