Beth Greenslade's Blog, page 87

How To Stay Positive After A Rejection

Being rejected is not a great feeling. Any writer who has suffered a rejection will attest to this.

There is nothing quite as disheartening as pouring all your energy and passion into something only to be told it isn’t good enough.

Worse than this is the way writers are often rejected. You don’t get any feedback. Often, in fact, rejection comes as a form of ‘ghosting’ - where you know if you have been ignored for a long enough amount of time you have been rejected, you don’t even get the decency of someone telling you they received and read your story.

After months, even years of work, that is going to sting a little.

While rejection isn’t something that writers alone experience, it is fairly unique to be rejected in such a brutal and frankly, kind of rude manner. However, we just accept this as part of the job. In any other circumstances we might say something, perhaps write a rather short email explaining why it would have been nice for the editor to at least acknowledge that we have contacted them. But we don’t, because it’s just the way things are, and that’s got to do something not so great to our self-esteem.

After a rejection the writer has to simply go back to the drawing board with no real information on what they’ve done wrong, only that what they have done simply isn’t ‘good enough.’ What’s worse still is that if they go on to spend even more time changing it, it might not make the slightest bit of difference. How will a writer know that the next editor they send their manuscript to wouldn’t have actually much preferred the original? Initially, it does come down to one person's opinion after all.

However, we must accept that things are unlikely to change anytime soon. This being the case it is better to focus on how to stay positive after a rejection rather than dwell on it for too long.

So what are the things you can do?

Keep things in perspective. A rejection doesn’t have to be devastating, and it certainly doesn’t mean that you should give up on your writing dreams. There are plenty of other opportunities for you to succeed, and the sooner you focus on them and move on the better.

Create your own opportunities. It’s all too easy to sit and wait and hope that success will come to you, but in reality, you have to fight for it with all of your might. Do everything you can to make yourself successful, be creative and imaginative in your ideas and don’t stop until you get what you want.

Don’t take it personally. Remember, a rejection of your writing is nothing personal. In fact, it might be that an editor enjoyed your piece, but it simply wasn’t what they were looking for. It’s hard not to want to retreat and lick your wounds after receiving a rejection, but that’s not going to help anyone.

Reflect and learn. While there are a myriad of reasons your work might be being rejected, if it happens time and time again it’s a good idea to take some time to reflect and try to figure out where you might be going wrong. You might gain some valuable insights into what you need to do to improve your work, and then have better luck next time around.

Rejection is never easy to take, especially for writers who are so invested in what they are trying to achieve. However, a positive attitude and the ability to dust yourself off and pick yourself back up after a rejection will mean that you’ll keep persevering and let nothing stand in the way of attaining your goals.

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

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What You Can Learn From Other Writers

Many writers see writing as a somewhat solitary pursuit. It’s true that we might spend much of our writing time working alone. However, other writers are a genuinely vast and unending resource, and not tapping into that is foolish!

Communicating, befriending, and helping and sharing our work with our fellow writers can bring so many benefits. Many of which help improve our writing and our make our writing life better too.

So what are the great lessons you can learn by getting involved with the writing community? Here are just a few of them.

Honest feedback

Your fellow writers all know how important it is to get honest feedback for your work. It can be very disheartening receiving rejection after rejection without knowing what you are doing wrong. From cover design to synopsis to the actual content of your book, your fellow writers can help you try to figure out what the problem might be - and because they’ve been through it themselves they are more likely to do it in a helpful and sensitive way!

New ideas

Reading the work of other writers is a gold mine for new ideas. Remember that it’s practically impossible to have a truly unique idea, and therefore don’t be ashamed about being inspired by your fellow writers or being influenced by them. There, of course, is a line that no writer should cross when it comes to ‘borrowing’ other writers work, but the more you read, the more you are likely to find new ideas that you can adapt and change to make your own.

Dealing with setbacks

Every writer goes on a journey, one that might be filled with many setbacks along the way. Writers are fantastic at supporting one another and sympathising with one another, as well as offering words of encouragement and motivation when things aren’t going your way. Remember if you are feeling down, are doubting yourself or finding it hard to recover from a setback, it’s important to try and get over it as quickly as possible. Reaching out and learning from other writers can be a great way of doing so.

Useful contacts

Your fellow writers are also super helpful when it comes to finding the best in the business regarding editors, book cover designers, promoters and so on. Getting recommendations from those who have used the services before can make all the difference when it comes to finding a reputable company to help make your book the very best it can be.

Writers really can be an invaluable source of help and comfort to one another. So when you are struggling with anything from inspiration and motivation to the more practical aspects of getting your book together, remember that your fellow writers are there to help!

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

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Why You Need To Start Keeping Track Of Your Fitness Routine

When you go to the gym, you might notice one thing, there are tons of people working out… but none of them are tracking their fitness routine. They’re meandering around the gym with no set purpose as to what they want to achieve.

It’s more than tracking your fitness results. It’s a simple process you can use for goal setting. Every time you go into the gym and carry around your notebook and write how many reps you got on a certain exercise, you will want to push past your previous max the next time you work out.

When you set goals, you will want to push yourself. Just like going to the gym, you want to keep track of your goals. How will you know how far you’ve come if you haven’t been tracking yourself from the beginning?

Too many people give up without realizing how far they’ve come. When you keep track of your goals you can look back on the previous goals you’ve set. You can see how far you’ve come and that should give you the motivation to keep pushing forward.

Like most people in the gym, no one wants to seem to track their life and they wonder why they end up at a destination that was unattended. With goals, you know where you are going. Wouldn’t it be easier to achieve your goals if you had a set destination?

When you track your goals, you can see you’re getting stronger as each week passes. This is the motivation you need to continue on when time gets tough.

You need to get in the habit of tracking results. When you don’t track your goals, you’re more apt to give up easily because it’s easy to forget about your goals if you aren’t seeing them every week. By tracking your goals, you’re reminded of what you need to achieve.

When you track your goals, you achieve the best results possible!

 Trevor Oldham

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What Actually Happens When You Sleep In

If you want to become successful, you can’t be sleeping in. It’s that simple. Think of anyone who has become successful, do you think they’re sleeping in? Of course they aren’t!

When you sleep in, you’re telling yourself you don’t want it bad enough. Because if you truly wished to become successful, you wouldn’t be sleeping in.

Success doesn’t come easy. You will only make it harder on yourself by waking up later in the day.

You could counter my argument saying that by sleeping later you can work later in the night. Yes, this is a possibility. But you can’t tell me that when you wake up later in the day that your day isn’t more hectic.

By waking up later, your day will have control over you rather than you having control over your day. You want to show the day whose boss.

I guarantee when you wake up early, your day will change. You’ll realize you have more time than you thought possible. Why is this? Because when you wake up before the rest of the world, there’s nothing to distract you from your work. Your work will have your full attention.

When you wake up at 8 am or 9 am, you probably have texts, emails or calls of people asking you to do something for them. From this, you become anxious and the rest of your day will be shot.

How badly do you want to achieve success? All you have to do is model those who are already successful. If you look at most people who’ve become successful, you’ll notice they get up before the sun. If they’re waking up early, then why aren’t you? I don’t want to hear your excuses because excuses won’t allow you to become successful.

Next time you decide to sleep in, I want you to think of all the people who have doubted you.

 Trevor Oldham

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How To Get Inside Your Readers Head

One of the most helpful things you can do as a writer is to identify who your reader is. No matter what we are writing about, figuring out exactly who will want to read your work, and what their reaction will be to it is so important, right from when you start to create your work through to pitching and marketing it.

To help you create a piece of writing that will appeal to your reader you need to be able to ‘get inside their head.’ The more through an understanding you have of who they are and what they want the more easily you will be able to mould and shape your writing so it will appeal to them.

Of course, this might be easier said than done. However by making an effort to get to know your reader, and to truly understand them you will be able to appeal to them more through your writing, to influence them and to turn them into loyal fans!

So what are the things you can do to try and get inside your readers head?

Do your research

Start off by doing some simple research. Think about the genre your writing falls into and the kind of person that might be interested in that type of book. You could even go into bookshops and look at the different people browsing in that section, or join fan clubs and get to know the kind of conversations they might have.

Get feedback all along the way

Make sure you don’t wait until you have already finished your book or piece of writing to get feedback. Ask your readers questions and get feedback throughout the writing process, this will make it so much easier when you go back and begin to edit and reshape your book.

Look at what other writers are doing

One of the most helpful things you can do is follow your fellow writers and look at the different techniques they are using to engage readers and pique their interest. Look at successful writers in genres similar to yours, how does your writing compare? What do their books covers look like? What does the blurb on the back say? Check out their social media accounts, their author profiles, their websites - find all the information you can and see what reoccurring themes are there that you could apply to your writing and marketing plans.

Use actual data

There are plenty of programmes out there which can give you a real insight into your readers, your potential readers and their behaviour. Even just looking at your engagement on social media and trying to get a picture of the types of people that are interested in what you are saying can help you to build up a picture of who your ideal reader might be.

Create a personna

Once you have gathered together as much information as possible, use this to create an ideal reader personna. Write down as much as you can about them and stick up the details near to where you write. You can then always refer to this and always keep them in mind when you are writing. If you are stuck, then you can use them to help you. Simply ask yourself what your reader would want to happen, and if you know them well enough, you should have your answer.

Getting inside your readers head can make a difference when it comes to the popularity and success of your book. So it is well worth trying to get to know your reader and use this knowledge to help shape your writing.

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

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Realm Portals

There are places on this planet that cross over to other realms. There are few that know some of the locations and none that know them all, however, there are people that have been sent to other realms to interact and we are none the wiser.  Some of these beings live on this very planet with us and we see them every day without even knowing it.  Take the octopus for example; a creature whose existence defies proper classification on the tree of life as we know it, but there they are.  Very rarely beings stumble on these portals by sheer accident, on both sides of each portal.  These beings have become known as Realmers in the annals of the universe. The name was given them aeons ago by a race of beings that were simply known as The First.  Not that they know that, as no-one on any of the realms connected know the term.  The entire race shares this single name in any surviving imagery and they thrived in the universe for countless millennia before leaving our corner of the cosmos for whatever it is that an ancient race of people is looking for.  Before they left, they gave the power of immortality to a small group of men and women as well as the knowledge of the existence of the portals to the other realms.  Some realms are peaceful and others are not.  Some are barren wastelands, and yet others are paradise.  Many of the legends and myths that we have been brought up with have their roots deeply planted in these other realms.  The immortals that hold the knowledge to these paths are a very secretive bunch.  In the past, they took extreme measures to meet clandestinely lest any person or group learn of them and attempt to move against them.  Not so any longer; hell, none of them has been in the same city together in almost 100 years thanks to the continuing advancement of technology starting with the telegraph and telephone and culminating with today’s high-tech communication options.  The only exception to this are the only 2 of them that have decided to create a life bond.  Collectively they have all been assisting with the technology advancement as well.  Not all advancements came as a result of their helping to shape the analogue and digital path; for example, the Compact Disc was developed independently of their efforts.  When people speak of the Illuminati (a secret society that has been shaping our history), it is this group that they speak of.  They are collectively the most powerful and wealthy beings on the planet.  Part of the reason for all this advancement was an attempt to learn of other portals that are still unknown, and it has worked.  So far, two other portals have been located on the planet in the last 50 years, but that is a tale for another day.

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Suicide Run

It was a dark and stormy night when it happened. Okay, it wasn't really; I'm trying to make light of a bad situation. Truth is, it was one of the worst...no, I'd have to say it was THE worst day of my entire life.

Her name was...IS Tammy, and she had been my date to the prom. I had known something was off when we picked up her friends, Natasha and Noel. Perhaps it was because their driveway was on such a steep slope that I never questioned anything. The four of us said our hellos and then piled back into Tammy's car. It was an old, beat up jalopy of a vehicle, but she was the only one that owned her own vehicle so none of us would say a word about it.

My next clue had come when Tammy backed up. She didn't come to a complete stop before throwing the vehicle into drive again and the car's lurch let us know how little the transmission cared for such practice. Again, we said nothing, but by the time we reached the bottom of the driveway, saying nothing was no longer an option. The car had reached a speed of more than 40/kmph and Tammy showed no signs of breaking. We yelled about the oncoming truck and the sharp corner, but she ignored us.

I closed my eyes; I had accepted my fate. A moment passed, but it felt like an eternity. I reopened my eyes and I was sitting in the driver's seat. I looked at the rest of the car and I was driving by myself. Things began to make sense to me. It had been over a month since I had been released from the hospital. Tammy, Natasha, and Noel hadn't made it. I was alone.

The sound of the oncoming truck's horn jarred me back to reality. Slamming on the breaks I left black skid marks on the pavement for 5 meters and the truck whizzed by the nose of my parent's car by mere centimetres. Did I want to die? Did I want to rejoin my friends? Would I really compound the heartache that people were already feeling from the loss of three teens? The short answer was yes, I did want to end the pain I felt. The long answer is no, I could never do something like Tammy had. When I looked back there had been plenty of warning signs. When she talked about taking a month's supply of medicine at once. When she had shown up to school with those cuts on her arm. When she talked about sometimes feeling like nobody cared about her. How could I have guessed that she would cut her own brake lines? How could I have anticipated that she would pick up her three best friends before her suicide run? Maybe the answer is that I wasn't as good of a friend as I had thought.

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Seasons

Seasons

by Kimberley A. Cone

Jennica Niles stood at her clothesline taking in the refreshing early spring air. She appreciated the hint of warmth as a long cold and for her, an extremely emotional winter had just come to an end. The sights and sounds of the neighborhood caught her attention this particular night. She enjoyed the tweet of the robins and the buzzing of the traffic of the nearby highway. The distinct sound of the ice cream truck caught her off guard, however. She thought it still too cold to enjoy ice cream.

Jenni looked forward to later in the spring when she could enjoy the smell of her neighbor’s freshly budded lilacs. They reminded her of the two lilac bushes in her childhood yard and her grandparents’ row of them across the street. A tear came to her eyes remembering that heavenly scent of her treasured past.

She also missed the warm summer country breeze carrying the smell of freshly mowed grass and the oil from the tar road that ran in front her Grandma Price’s white farmhouse.  She found her grandmother's house and the over twenty acres around it to be so peaceful. She loved just taking in the beauty and thinking about life.  

What she did not like was walking by the hornet's nest above the barn door. She got stung quite frequently as a child. Even as an adult, one day just watching her husband Adam swing at a beehive behind their garage, a pesky bee flew across the yard straight into Jenni's face. She found it both comical and frustrating as her sting throbbed with pain.

Fall brought back memories more painful than any bee sting, any physical pain for that matter. The sting of her mother’s death hit her like a knife had stabbed her too. Jenni could not fathom why anyone would want to hurt her dear precious Mother. Fayette Hampton Price had no enemies that Jenni knew about. However, one night about after an especially fun weekly family game night in Mom’s living room, Jenni received a phone call from her sister.

“Jenni, come back quickly!  Someone just broke into Mom’s house and stabbed her!”

“Is she…” Jenni could not bear to finish her sentence.

“Yes, she’s….dead!”  both ladies started to scream in agony.

Thankfully detectives arrested Fayette’s newest neighbor Conwell Perry quickly after finding a bloody knife in his bushes just an hour after the murder.

A few seasons went by before Conny’s trial started, but it only took two hours for the jury to find him guilty. It happened on the coldest day of winter, which Jenni found appropriate. Relief came over her that justice had been served. She could look forward to another spring and beyond knowing her mother’s killer would be behind bars for the rest of his life.

 

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How To Make Your Writing More Powerful

Powerful writing will have a significant impact on your reader. No one wants to read something that doesn’t make them sit up and take notice, that doesn’t get them invested in the story, that doesn’t make them excited to keep turning each page.

Writing powerful prose is something that every writer should learn how to do. Taking the time, practicing and having the discipline to write effectively can make all the difference to your writing and save you lots of time when it comes to editing too.

So what can you do to make your writing more powerful?

Don’t get too bogged down in the truth.

Whatever kind of story you are writing, if you dwell too much on the facts or getting the truth across you could end up writing something long-winded and dull. If the truth doesn’t fit in with where you want to take your story, just abandon it - that’s the beauty of writing fiction after all!

Write as economically as possible.

We all know the rule ‘never use two words when one will do,’ and taking that to heart will work wonders when it comes to making your writing deliver a much stronger impact. Every word in your book needs to count, so always be on the lookout for places to cut things out and swap descriptive phrases for short, sharp sentences that deliver a more significant impact.

Use the active voice.

The active voice will entice the reader in and keep the pace in your novel moving forwards. Where possible always use the active voice in your story to create a sense of immediacy and keep readers engrossed.

Be aware of the rhythm.

Reading your work aloud can help you see if it has a natural, musical rhythm. If it doesn’t, try to address this. Readers should be carried along easily as the words flow from your book. If the language and sentence construction feel disjointed or difficult to read, it will detract from the story and deliver less of an impact.

End each chapter on a cliffhanger

Powerful writing always considers how to keep the reader engaged. Pay particular attention to the ends of your chapters. Do they always finish on a cliffhanger that makes the reader want to keep on reading? If they don’t go back and change them, until they do.

Avoid repetition

Every writer has their favourite words or phrases that they almost subconsciously overuse in their text. Make sure you use varied and descriptive language in your book, using the same descriptive words and language will bore your reader and make your writing seem unimaginative and unoriginal.

By following the above tips, you can help get your writing into great shape and deliver a powerful and exciting impact on your reader. So next time you are writing or editing your manuscript think about how you can make your writing more powerful and use these tips to help you!

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

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Want To Write A Book? It’s Time To Get Organized!

On the surface organization and creativity don’t seem to go hand in hand. When you are feeling creative, you want to be free and not to be restricted by any rules. Organization is all about keeping tabs on what you are doing, having order, and routine.

When it comes to writing, however, if you aren’t organized it could have an adverse effect on your writing and, in turn, your creativity. It actually pays to self-impose some order into your writing day to ensure you will be at your most productive. It’s good to plan for the future, to do research, and yes, even to have a great filing system!

So what are the ways you can get organised and become a better writer? Let’s take a look:

Organizing your writing space

One of the biggest enemies of any writer is getting distracted. It’s all too easy to let other things get in the way of our writing and take over. To make sure this doesn’t happen it’s a good idea to try and keep your writing space as neat, tidy and organized as possible. If you know exactly where everything is as well as feel calm and comfortable in your writing space, you’ll find it so much easier to get on with your work.

Organizing your research

Your book will be so much better if you bother to do thorough research as you write. Organizing your research in a way that is most helpful to you is so important. It can be easy to start off researching with enthusiasm, but then when faced with actually using it find it muddling and confusing. By organising your research properly, you’ll know exactly which bits relate to which bits of your story and make it so much easier to call upon your research when necessary.

Organizing your files

Whether you like to work with paper files or have everything stored on your laptop, keeping your desktop free and having a good system in place so you can easily access everything you need will ensure you writing day runs smoothly and seamlessly!

Organizing your schedule

A writer without a writing schedule runs the risk of procrastinating or simply putting their writing off over and over again. By setting yourself a realistic but challenging writing schedule, you’ll be more likely to stick to writing regularly and will be so much more impressed with the progress that you make.

These organization tips are simple to implement and will help anyone who wants to write a book feel as though they are prepared and ready, and help them to stay on track.

Which tools do you use to stay organized? Let us know here!

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

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