As far as the writing plans for the Labor Day Weekend panned out... not so well. In short, I'm scrapping what I did write (which wasn't much). And focusing on getting a few other projects prepped for later.
Writers Block. I hate it. I have it.
There was a time when I spent a lot of it (time, that is) writing. Mostly fanfiction, back in the Nineties during my love affair with the television show The X-Files. Gossamer has an archive of most of what I wrote in terms of fanfic. For normal writing, regular fiction writing, I was focused on short stories mostly for writing contests. Eventually I coalesced the more coherent shorts into a smallish anthology Last of the Grapefruit Wars, which I published in 2003 through a Print-on-Demand service Xlibris.
And since then?
Most of my ambitious projects - actual novel writings, additional short story attempts for contests - don't go very far or very well. I've tried the 3-Day Novel contests for years to no avail... I've joined the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), and while the last two years I've "won" the months by hitting the 50,000 word counts I've yet to complete either novel into an acceptable conclusion. This year was practically a miracle seeing me get some stories - Welcome to Florida and The Hero Cleanup Protocol - self-published...
I could explain it away if I was distracted by work or by family. But I've been unemployed full-time the last two years (going on three), and my family is mostly off doing their things while I'm struggling with mine (and family have never really been major motivators in my writing projects, to be honest).
The unemployment issue is what worries me most: when I was working, I was stimulated with library work - research, above all - and that stimulation helped with getting some works off the word processor. Now, stressing out over each submitted resume and cover letter seems to dull my interest in getting writing work done. Even suggestions that I go into freelancing work (for websites like Guru or Examiner.com for example) somehow don't appeal to me even though there's a huge part of me that does. It's even part of the reason why I don't blog as much as I should: if I kept more active, I'd think I'd get more traffic here.
As for future projects... there's obviously NaNo in November. I've been given a heads-up about a 24-Hour Comics contest, hosted this year on Saturday October 1. I am/will be tempted to join in that.
Wish me luck.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Friday, September 2, 2011
And The Winner Is... PIE!
Wait.
Damn you Carl Sagan and your obsession with pies!!!
Actually, the early vote results are for the "unemployed insomniac" plotline. That means my primary writing objective today shall be a story I titled Midnight Blues. I consider it an attempt to create a new subgenre: the Recession Noir. Hopefully I can get a chapter or two done today... off to work. Happy Labor Day to all of you who voted! And to those who didn't vote... the pie was crumbly.
Damn you Carl Sagan and your obsession with pies!!!
Actually, the early vote results are for the "unemployed insomniac" plotline. That means my primary writing objective today shall be a story I titled Midnight Blues. I consider it an attempt to create a new subgenre: the Recession Noir. Hopefully I can get a chapter or two done today... off to work. Happy Labor Day to all of you who voted! And to those who didn't vote... the pie was crumbly.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Polling the Seven Readers About What I Should Write Next
What the hell, let's make this democratic. I inserted a poll to this blog (to the right of your screen). Hopefully the text is legible and you can select an option as you prefer. While the deadline is set for a week, I'd like to get some results in before Friday, so I can get a good idea which idea is good for you. ;-)
It's all up to you people. And don't worry: I'll make sure that regardless of the plot line, I will include an action sequence involving exploding penguins.
...what?
It's all up to you people. And don't worry: I'll make sure that regardless of the plot line, I will include an action sequence involving exploding penguins.
...what?
Monday, August 29, 2011
In Lieu of the 3-Day Novel
Normally, this is the week I'd get ready for the 3-Day Novel Contest.
But not this year.
For one thing, you have to pay for it. Ouch.
Second, I've found that having it Labor Day weekend makes some sort of sense... except that it's usually the same weekend as the start of college football. And my devotions to USF, UF (and my family's devotions to the same as well as Mom's War Eagle roots) seem to take a full day out of my attempts to write. This year, for example, I may have to babysit my nephews while my twin brother and his wife head up to Gainesville for the UF home opener, and while Mom & Dad are off at Selmon's for the Auburn watch party.
Third, that despite all my efforts and planning and outlining... well, what I come up with tends not to be well-written, well-organized... and nearly everything I've pounded out basically are works I've never re-visited.
So this year, I'm swearing off the 3-Day.
Instead, I'm doing the 4-Day Whatever-The-Hell-I-Write Self-Imposition.
The plan is to write something on each day of the weekend - Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday - that do not necessarily have to be novels. I do, after all, have an interest in writing short stories, and I think my short story efforts can be done within a day.
Given the epublishing limits or lack thereof - that I can basically write a short story however long I want, well into novella size if need be - I could well get at least ONE thing done over this weekend that's publish-worthy.
Some of the ideas up for work are a story idea I've had for awhile about a wacky road trip to Vegas (the trickiest part is writing the whole thing in present tense, which is harder than you think); a humor story about teens planning a Skip Day; another story in my superhero 'verse; an unemployed insomniac getting wrapped up in an unusual criminal conspiracy; and perhaps revisiting an old story in my files that needs a rewrite.
So there goes, here goes, it will go, it may have went. Shush, I'm working on tenses...
But not this year.
For one thing, you have to pay for it. Ouch.
Second, I've found that having it Labor Day weekend makes some sort of sense... except that it's usually the same weekend as the start of college football. And my devotions to USF, UF (and my family's devotions to the same as well as Mom's War Eagle roots) seem to take a full day out of my attempts to write. This year, for example, I may have to babysit my nephews while my twin brother and his wife head up to Gainesville for the UF home opener, and while Mom & Dad are off at Selmon's for the Auburn watch party.
Third, that despite all my efforts and planning and outlining... well, what I come up with tends not to be well-written, well-organized... and nearly everything I've pounded out basically are works I've never re-visited.
So this year, I'm swearing off the 3-Day.
Instead, I'm doing the 4-Day Whatever-The-Hell-I-Write Self-Imposition.
The plan is to write something on each day of the weekend - Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday - that do not necessarily have to be novels. I do, after all, have an interest in writing short stories, and I think my short story efforts can be done within a day.
Given the epublishing limits or lack thereof - that I can basically write a short story however long I want, well into novella size if need be - I could well get at least ONE thing done over this weekend that's publish-worthy.
Some of the ideas up for work are a story idea I've had for awhile about a wacky road trip to Vegas (the trickiest part is writing the whole thing in present tense, which is harder than you think); a humor story about teens planning a Skip Day; another story in my superhero 'verse; an unemployed insomniac getting wrapped up in an unusual criminal conspiracy; and perhaps revisiting an old story in my files that needs a rewrite.
So there goes, here goes, it will go, it may have went. Shush, I'm working on tenses...
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Self-Publishing, Self-Marketing
If any of you seven readers of this blog get into self-publishing, you need to recognize that the real key to success is marketing.
Sure, a good story goes a long way, but if people don't even know that story exists and is available for download to anyone's ereader... well, it just sits there.
When I mention to people on the various online chats I visit that I self-publish stories, more often than not they will ask me "What's it like to go that route? How hard is it to get self-published?"
I always reply that the publishing part is easy. Just find a good self-publish site online - say, Smashwords - and follow their instructions to create an account, then follow the instructions to upload and prepare your story for publication format.
Formatting sounds difficult, but it's not. As long as you know Page Setup / Format Paragraph options for your word processor (more than likely Microsoft Word, or if you're cheap Wordpad which comes with the Windows OS) you can format:
The other thing to know is that you're publishing to a format - usually ePub - that shares traits with HTML. That means:
This is all standard desktop-publishing techniques/tricks. The basic rule: keep it simple, but also readable. (This is why asking friends with the right skill sets to edit your work before publishing is a really really good idea)
That all is easy for me.
The problem I have is marketing. Getting the word out. Advertising. There's a level of aggressiveness to marketing to where I'm just simply not comfortable doing it.
If you've got salesmanship skills, good for you. The trick for marketing ebooks as best I can tell is blogging, webpage sites, getting ebook reviewers to sample and review your titles, word of mouth, local author signing events at bookstores, stuff like that. The specifics still elude me.
The regional gathering of the Florida Writers' Association (I just joined this year) had someone a few months ago present a lecture on self-marketing. I gotta see about getting some one-on-one help with this, and see about getting the stuff I have out now more aggressively known.
I have more writing in me. There's a few writing events coming soon (a Write-A-Comic event for October oooh yeah, the NaNoWriMo obviously. But not the 3-Day Novel. I'm burned out of that) and I think I can squeeze out another story for publishing this year. If I can do that, I need to market it like mad the second I get it uploaded.
Good luck, self-publishers!
Sure, a good story goes a long way, but if people don't even know that story exists and is available for download to anyone's ereader... well, it just sits there.
When I mention to people on the various online chats I visit that I self-publish stories, more often than not they will ask me "What's it like to go that route? How hard is it to get self-published?"
I always reply that the publishing part is easy. Just find a good self-publish site online - say, Smashwords - and follow their instructions to create an account, then follow the instructions to upload and prepare your story for publication format.
Formatting sounds difficult, but it's not. As long as you know Page Setup / Format Paragraph options for your word processor (more than likely Microsoft Word, or if you're cheap Wordpad which comes with the Windows OS) you can format:
- Auto-Indent of first line (usually half-inch or .5).
- 1.5 or double-space line spacing.
- Default font and Default size (usually 11 pt - 12 pt to begin with). If you want to make sure, set your font to Times New Roman, which is standard font.
- (Optional: 6pt spacing after each paragraph to create legibility between paragraphs)
The other thing to know is that you're publishing to a format - usually ePub - that shares traits with HTML. That means:
- No fancy fonts that HTML doesn't recognize (that's why I said Times New Roman earlier. You can use Arial as your sans serif font. Really don't mess with any other).
- No text symbols (umlauts, tildes, that Scandinavian o with a slash through it, stuff like that) that would get eaten by HTML.
- You can use Bold and Italic for highlighting of text, as HTML/ePub recognizes that.
- You can create links within your story itself: especially links to personal websites to promote author information and direct traffic to other works for sale.
This is all standard desktop-publishing techniques/tricks. The basic rule: keep it simple, but also readable. (This is why asking friends with the right skill sets to edit your work before publishing is a really really good idea)
That all is easy for me.
The problem I have is marketing. Getting the word out. Advertising. There's a level of aggressiveness to marketing to where I'm just simply not comfortable doing it.
If you've got salesmanship skills, good for you. The trick for marketing ebooks as best I can tell is blogging, webpage sites, getting ebook reviewers to sample and review your titles, word of mouth, local author signing events at bookstores, stuff like that. The specifics still elude me.
The regional gathering of the Florida Writers' Association (I just joined this year) had someone a few months ago present a lecture on self-marketing. I gotta see about getting some one-on-one help with this, and see about getting the stuff I have out now more aggressively known.
I have more writing in me. There's a few writing events coming soon (a Write-A-Comic event for October oooh yeah, the NaNoWriMo obviously. But not the 3-Day Novel. I'm burned out of that) and I think I can squeeze out another story for publishing this year. If I can do that, I need to market it like mad the second I get it uploaded.
Good luck, self-publishers!
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Librarian Is
Derek Thompson posted on The Atlantic the other day this article "What People Don't Get About Working In A Library".
Naturally, I posted my own response, defining in my terms what a Librarian is.
Essentially, to me a Librarian is a key player in the Information Age, the professional who can store, sort, index and locate all forms of materials in all formats (print, audiovisual, electronic).
Don't sell us short.
Naturally, I posted my own response, defining in my terms what a Librarian is.
Librarian = Bibliographic expert.
Librarian = Research specialist.
Librarian = Hunter-Gatherer of the Information Savanna.
Librarian = Finder Of Secrets.
Librarian = Wielder of Reader Advisories.
Librarian = Party Organizer and part-time Hogwarts Professor Impersonator (true. I got a photo of me in a Hagrid outfit around here somewhere...).
Essentially, to me a Librarian is a key player in the Information Age, the professional who can store, sort, index and locate all forms of materials in all formats (print, audiovisual, electronic).
Don't sell us short.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
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