Category: Writing

Observations on the writing life

WIP Wednesday: Prepping for the New Year Pt 2

GOALS 2015

I divide my goals into categories: writing; family; personal; and so on. This year, I added a new grouping: Promotion & Marketing. Items such as newsletters, blogs, Tweets, Facebook, Goodreads, and Tsu belong in this category. They used to be under Writing, but they multiplied too quickly. One of the things I need to do in the coming year is focus on the writing when it’s time to write, and the promotion/marketing when it’s time for those activities.

Another thing I’m trying to do this year is be specific. “Be kind to myself” is a nice sentiment, but what does it mean? So I added “Monthly date with myself.” I’m also going to set up and maintain a Happiness Jar. I meant to do this a year ago, but until I reclaimed my office, I didn’t have a place to keep the jar. It’s now all set up and ready to go.

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Speaking of my reclaimed office, once of my goals for 2015 is to maintain and refine the writing space. I actually worked on this the day after Christmas by moving books off one shelf to another where they would be more easily accessible.

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I also hung my book covers.

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And there are goals that have been successful and will stay on the list: calling my aging parents once a week; a monthly date with my husband. Because my parents are “local”, I didn’t make an effort to stay in touch, which is really self-absorbed. So for the past several years, I make a point of calling once a week. When X-Chromo was a senior in high school, I realized TV Stevie and my identities as “parents” was about to shift and we would once more be a couple instead of Y & X’s parents. So we started dating again. It’s been wonderful.

What New Years goals have been successful for you?

WIP Wednesday: Prepping for the New Year Part 1

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, but I do set goals every year. My best friends, my writing peeps (a.k.a. The Purples), and I have been doing goals together since 2005. We even gave a workshop on goal-setting to our local chapter in October of last year.

I first started seriously thinking about goals–specifically writing goals, but all goals–after attending then listening to a workshop by Barbara Samuel at the RWA National Conference in 2004. It seemed appropriate to run into her when thinking about my goals for 2015. I found this blog by her shortly before Thanksgiving.

I shared the link with the Purples. One Purple friend shared this link. And this one. Another Purple shared this. And another link showed up on our e-mail loop.

I think the recurring theme in most of these shared blogs is that we’re all feeling overwhelmed. We’re juggling too many roles. The demands on our time are increasing and any support systems seems to be vanishing. I once read a book–I thought I’d written down the quote, but I can’t seem to find it–in which the author wrote, “If one more person tells me to get up an hour earlier to do whatever they think I should do–eventually, I will never get to bed.”

We are too demanding of ourselves when we set our goals. We need to take a step back and take a deep breath.. Setting our goals needs to be rooted in reality–our reality, with our families, our homes, our day jobs, our spiritual communities, and other obligations.. We need to create realistic expectations for ourselves, and the number one goal should be, “Say No.”  Our goals need to be grounded in truth, not fantasy. One person can do only so much.

 

 

 

WIP Wednesday: My Newsletter

When I sold my first book, a friend suggested I start a Mail Chimp account right away. Mail Chimp is a popular newsletter program. It’s free. It’s easy to use. So I signed up for an account and put a “Subscribe to my Newsletter” tab on my Facebook author page. There is also a spot to sign up here on my website–far right column, scroll down a bit.

And that’s where I stalled. With the pending publication of my second book (and some other exciting prospects in the works), when I saw an on-line class for Mail Chimp, I immediately signed up. I finished the class earlier this month. If nothing else, I now have a better sense of what I want to accomplish with my newsletter. And, in my usual fashion, I know more about what I don’t want than what I do want.

So Issue One of the Comptonplations™ Newsletter is now a work in progress. I plan to issue it the first week of February. There will be exclusive newsletter subscriber content. There will be a list of places where I’m guest blogging, and the topics I’ll be covering. I will issue a newsletter only when I have something news-worthy to announce. I think this will be fun!

WIP WEDNESDAY: Acrobatics of Being An Author

According to Wikipedia, acrobatics  is “the performance of extraordinary feats of balance, agility, and motor coordination. It can be found in many of the performing arts as well as in many sports (sporting) events, and martial arts. Acrobatics is most often associated with activities that make extensive use of gymnastic elements, such as acro dance, circus, and gymnastics, but many other athletic activities — such as ballet and diving — may also employ acrobatics. Although acrobatics is most commonly associated with human body performance, it may also apply to other types of performance, such as aerobatics.”

Really? Clearly the creator of this so-called “definition” was never a mom who works a full-time day job and is trying to pursue a career as a published author. More than ever before, being an author also includes being one’s own agent and publicity/PR guru. Oh, and sometimes there are freelance editing jobs. Let’s not forget active involvement in  a local RWA chapter. Having so much on the plate goes far beyond mere juggling. And none of this includes life: cooking; cleaning; grocery shopping; spirituality/religious obligations; exercise. I don’t know what I would do if my children were still living at home and needing all the extra-curricular stuff that consumed my time for so many years.  No wonder I’m tired. No wonder I have trouble finding time to actually write.

A writer’s life is truly an example of extraordinary feats of balance, agility, and motor coordination. Maybe  it should be an Olympic event.

Slice of Life Sunday: Movie Review-Authors Anonymous

I reserved the movie Authors Anonymous from my library after someone recommended it. The plot sounded amusing. I’m in a writing group. I’m always looking for a good flick.

The story started out cute, a mock-umentary of sorts, and I thought I would enjoy the movie. But almost immediately, the alleged heroine wasn’t likable. She never went to college. I don’t see that as a problem. But she couldn’t name a favorite author. She couldn’t name any author. Throughout the entire movie. She’d never read a book, yet she was a writer and became extremely successful during the course of the story. She’d never even heard of Fitzgerald or Hemingway. Because she’d never been to college.

EXCEPT: I read Fitzgerald and Hemingway in high school. I went to a small, rural public school, not a posh, private school for exceptional students. We read The Great Gatsby, The Old Man and the Sea, and several other books/authors mentioned in the movie.

I really didn’t like the portrayal of successful authors as ignorant. Authors read other authors. Even the prolific Nora Roberts says, “I don’t think you can write — at least not well — if you don’t love stories, love the written word. One of my greatest pleasures is falling into a story someone else has written.”

The other female in the writing group couldn’t pronounce anyone’s name.  She was trying to come off as smarter than she was, and it didn’t work for her.

The only redeeming quality in the movie was the realistic portrayal of vanity publishing.

This movie may have been directed by a woman, but the underlying misogyny of the writer and his jealousy of the romance genre were first and forefront.

One star.