Wednesday is for Writers...

Rejection.

One of the worse feelings for a writer. Thinking that your work isn't good enough. Wondering what you could have done better.

Everyone who has ever been a writer has been rejected from one place or another. This is one of those times when one thinks to ones self - I wouldn't belong to any club that would have me as a member. However, as it turns out, this particular group also happens to have the best and the brightest of writers, living or dead.

I have writer friends who become fatalistically discouraged after receiving their latest (and of course, most devastating) rejection notice. There are no words that can console and no opinions that matter at the moment other than that one editor or publisher who didn't find their work a good fit. Their writing careers are over, its time to hang it up and go back to work in the lucrative world of the service folk.

They have been weighed and measured and have absolutely been found wanting. 

At least at the moment, and at least in their own mind.

I don't know why as both readers and writers we can't seem to fathom that people (even publishers, editors, fans, and agents) have different tastes. I, for one, don't care for Science Fiction or Romances. I don't know why exactly, even the most well written story is simply not my cup of tea. Start talking about aliens or space ships or bodice ripping men and I look elsewhere for my entertainment.

I like horror, and detective and legal dramas. I like Agatha Christie and Shirley Jackson. Stephen King and Michael Connelly. John Grisham and Scott Turow. Dean Koontz and the late and great Terry Pratchett.

Why would we believe that anyone else would NOT have a preference? So you don't like my story, yes I am a little hurt and slightly disappointed. But there has never been a writer that could please everyone. Not in this life and not in the next. Nor it is ever going to happen either.

We all have different tastes.  That is why there is chocolate ice cream, vanilla ice cream, and ice cream sandwiches. Almond Joys and Mounds. Dark and Milk chocolate. There is no One-size-fits-all when it comes to what we enjoy. Not in our desserts, and certainly not in our libraries.

So fellow writers, take your rejections for what they are worth and learn from them what you may.

Tomorrow is another day after all.

Wednesday is for Writers...

I am trying something new for all you folks out there in the stratosphere... Wednesdays (when I can remember it is in fact, Wednesday) I want to post some links to blogs that I feel have really helped me in different areas to become both the person and the writer I wish to be and to pass on relevant information to other writers out there.

I've included articles this week on becoming more productive, how to limit your social media distractions, finding your muse, and what makes a good beta reader. There is also a blog post about one author's nightmare into a DMCA complaint.



Leo Babauta on Zen Habits
An Addict's Guide to Overcoming the Distraction Habit

"One of the insidious things about the distraction habit is that we often don’t even realize it’s happening. It sneaks up on us, like old age, and before we know it we’re addicted and powerless.

But actually we’re not powerless. The power we have is our awareness, and you can develop it right now. Pay attention to what sites you visit, how often you’re looking at your phone, how long you’re spending in front of a screen all day."


Joanna Penn on The Creative Penn
Productivity for Writers: 5 Ways to Become More Productive


"We all have 24 hours in the day, and we all have to balance the real life stuff with the writing. Before I was a full-time author-entrepreneur, I would get up at 5am and write, then go to work. After the day job, I would come home and get on with building my online business. We got rid of the TV so I would have more time to create, and I spent every weekend working. I was so focused on leaving my job that I cut out everything that got in the way. I was driven to schedule my time incredibly well in order to fit everything in.

Now, as a full-time author-entrepreneur, I still have to schedule everything. You might have noticed that I blog, podcast and speak professionally, as well as writing books. It’s just as hard to get everything done, let me assure you!"


Becca Mills on The Active Voice
Independent Publishing and  DMCA Abuse, or “How a Scammer Got my Book Blocked With Very Little Effort"

"On Friday, February 27, 2015, I noticed that my bookmarked Amazon.com link to my first novel, Nolander, was yielding, “We’re sorry. The Web address you entered is not a functioning page on our site.” I went to my Amazon dashboard and discovered the book had been blocked.

In my spam folder, I discovered an email from Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Amazon’s self-publishing arm, informing me that someone had sent in a DMCA notice. In response, Amazon had summarily blocked Nolander from sale.

“DMCA” stands for “Digital Millennium Copyright Act.” It’s a Clinton-era U.S. law that lays forth a process for dealing with copyright infringement online. If you find material online that infringes a copyright you hold, you can send the hosting website a DMCA notice; in order to be in compliance with U.S. law, the hosting website has to remove the material and notify the person who posted it."


Ruth Ann Nordin on Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors
Beta Readers (Video/Post)

"A beta reader is a person who reads your book before it’s published.  A beta reader is a person who can look at the overall story and give you their impression of it.  But they are not an editor.  The editor is the one who goes in and polishes it up so it’s ready to be published."


Harvey Chapman on Novel Writing Help
How to Discover your Writer's Muse

"Brace yourself: this ultimate guide to finding your inner muse and writing more creatively isn't short! It may be one of the most important things you ever read, though.

Learning how to write with more creativity will not only improve the quality of your writing (i.e. make it more publishable). It will also make the journey a lot more fun."

Tweet This....

I have been thinking a lot lately about social networking, Twitter and Facebook, mainly and have been given to wonder, how did authors sell books before these options existed?

Margaret Mitchell, Harper Lee, Shirley Jackson, and Daphne du Maurier come to mind first. Women writers who were also very private people and in some cases, introverted, and it would seem to me that they would be at a distinct disadvantage now. Would they be willing to blog, to Tweet, to post on Facebook? Would their great works ever be known? How about the Bronte sisters? Neither one was much for the spotlight, would Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre be the classics they are if they were published today?

I spend a good amount of time every week on social networking and marketing although I am not really skilled in either one. I don't know the "rules" of Twitter...all the thanks for the retweets...and what is fair game to retweet? How much time should I devote to these things when I should be writing?

I took a marketing class several years ago but I don't remember anything from it, in fact, the only thing I do remember is how much I hated it.

My nephew is publishing his work the traditional way, I don't know what that will entail for him in the future but I am hoping he gets help with his publicity and marketing although he has more training than I have in these fields and has a natural gift for social networking...apparently it is not in the "family genes."

I want to write, period. I am not fond of the editing that I know must be done but I understand that is part of it. But right now I spend more time doing the things I dislike the most and less time writing than ever before.

And in this world of obligatory social networking, I wonder of all the great authors out there that we might never know...

Remembering...

It's New Years Eve everyone!

I must admit one thing before we start. It's New Years Eve and my Christmas tree is still up. Horrors my mother would say, never have two trees in one year, bad luck and all that. Whether or not it is true, I am not taking any chances and my afternoon will be spent taking down the last of the Christmas decorations and putting them away for another year. It's sad, but it must be done to preserve our family's safety and well-being for one more year.


So, a new year is upon us and today many of us will spend some time on reflecting on what went right last year and what went wrong and we'll be planning out our resolutions hours before they are needed.

For writers, reflections of the year past can be daunting to say the least. For most of us, we didn't write as much as we would have liked and what we did write wasn't as perfect as we wanted it to be. Most of us didn't have books on the New York Times Bestseller's list or on any list for that matter, but we pattered on from month to month, writing when we could and many times writing when we didn't want to. We trudged on through NaNoWriMo and Book-in-a-Week typing endlessly and hoping our muse will at least show up for coffee once in a while and help us out. We write and hope and pray and bare our soul for everyone to see. This is not a glamorous life for the majority of us and for some, it's not enough to even pay the bills.

So why do we continue to write and put ourselves through the mental torture of word counts and deadlines?

It's simple really. We love to write. Even if we didn't make a dime on it, we would still write our stories and long buried novels that are always peeking at us from behind the slightly open door to the back of our mind. We want to frighten you, make you fall in love, or make you laugh. We want to educate you and make you think that even the  impossible can be made possible with just a slight of hand over the keyboard. 

Most of all, we want you to read us, peer into our tortured souls and understand what is going on in there. We have an inordinate desire to mine our subconscious with large pickaxes and spread it out there on the page for you to pick over, again and again. We want to tell you what scares us so that you may be scared along with us or why we love the way we do so that you may fall in love too.

As Stephen King once said, and I am paraphrasing here, you don't write for the money, you write because it's the monkey on your back. You can't NOT write, to be doing so would be unfaithful to the very being you are.

So Dear Readers, I will keep writing and keep baring my soul this coming year and hopefully a spark will catch and the fire of creativity will burn brighter than ever.

Happy New Year!!! Welcome to 2014!!!