Whitney Cason's Blog, page 6

#WhitReads: Charcoal Joe

Next book up for reading. I havent read many books by Mosley (only 1) but I’m developing a collection of his books because I’ve heard nothing but remarkable things.  I’m confident this book will not disappoint!  

Personal Essay #8

Reading is a critical point in becoming a good writer!

Organized Chaos

As a budding author I know one of the most important things to do (besides writing, of course) is to read. To not just read, but to read a lot, to read closely and to read from as many genres and authors as possible. While reading tends to be an enjoyable time-consuming process, it also is one of the best ways to learn to write effectively and helps to find your voice as a writer.

When I wrote as a child, I had very little in the way of literary inspiration and even less in the way of encouragement. Therefore, the stories I wrote lacked vividness, structure, and cohesion. This was still true even in my early adult years. It wasn’t until after I finally became a voracious reader that my writing began to come to life, with each subsequent book I finish having some impact on my writing.

I…

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So, What’s the End Game Here?

Olivia Pope couldn’t have said it better when she said that she asks all her clients the same question: “What’s your end game?”  I find that I ask myself this question often with my writing.  What’s my end game?  When the dust settles and the smoke  clears, what do I want to be known for?  Do I want to  be famous,  do I want to be a NY Times best seller?  Do I want to win a Pulitzer?  What is Whitney’s end game with writing?

Honestly, I don’t really know.  I mean, who wouldn’t want to be a well-known author, with a NY Times best seller, and all the accolades that come with that?  Exactly.  I would love for my talent to take me places I could never even fathom of going; but I also am such a humble soul, that if I could touch just one person, or inspire one person to go for their own goals or even embark on a writing journey, I feel like I have done a good deed as a creative (never thought of myself being an inspiration, but if I am, then heeeey!).

My overall end game; if the above doesn’t happen, is to make people happy with my writing, and give other writers and women of color the opportunity to publish themselves.  This is the main reason why I write, and this is why I research and educate myself on how to expand my talents to owning a publishing company one day.

I want to be able to give women of color the opportunity to grow and develop and become the writers they would like to be.  In more regard to my writing, I just love writing and I want to do it for the rest of my life.  Will I be famous only amongst my family and friends, or a worldwide super-writer?  Only God can tell me that, because He knows the path He has set out for me and this journey.  I had my own personal goals of publishing my own book, and I am doing more than I ever expected with projecting to publish 3 more projects that I have written just from that one seed that was planted with Playing with Fire.  I am overflowing with happiness based on that one goal alone; and now, I want to go into a business that will allow me to help others achieve this dream as well.

So, if you were to ask me what my end game was?  To be doing something I love and to be successful, by my standards.  So far, I’m already achieving that goal.

 

In All Seriousness

In all seriousness, writing is a painful passion that I love to endure. It’s like a marriage; some days are wonderful and some days you want to pull your hair out from the frustration, but in the end, you stick it out because you know that the good outweighs the bad.

In all seriousness, writing is actually one of the most difficult tasks you could take on.  When I was younger writing poetry, I always thought it would be easier for me to try my hand at writing because I was already doing it.  Once I became more and more interested in wanting to write full-time one day, I began to come to the realization that the skills, tools, and even the work itself is so vastly different, and requires several different steps to master.  All in all, writing is a grave undertaking and you have to be ready to accept it.  I’m sure that for the untrained eye, one could look at a writer and think that this is something that comes naturally for them to do; knock out a book in no time, but it is not that simple.  Some writers have an innate gift to write effortlessly, and some take years to master that ability.

In all seriousness, I have wanted to quit while I am ahead on more times than I have been motivated to write.  There are days where I can sit down and the inspiration comes and other days when I’m staring at the screen dumbfounded on what to say.  Most times, writers have other responsibilities (jobs, children, families) and writing has to take a backseat to those things.  Writing takes planning and a lot of commitment; some that a lot of people are not ready to take on full or part-time.

So, in all seriousness, don’t worry if you have days that you want to give up in being a writer.  Don’t be ashamed to say it sucks, or don’t fret when you don’t hit your word count.  You’re not alone in your emotions.  We all have our days when we don’t feel our craft is valued; we don’t feel that we contribute to the everyday lifestyle of a creative.  I say this to say, we are all creatives, we are all artists in our own right, we all have a gift.  Sometimes we cannot move mountains, but we can write a bomb ass story about one,

Never Hit the Delete Button

We’ve all been in this place.  You sit down in preparation and with full intention to smash the writing goal for the day.  You have the necessary amounts of caffeine, snacks, pens, paper, your favorite book(s) for reading and research; I mean, you’re golden.

You get to the laptop, fire up those headphones, and about an hour later, you’ve got maybe ten words on the page..

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My sentiments exactly.  Like I said, we’ve all been in this place before; ready and willing to write, yet someone drank up all the creative juices and you only got the last little swig out of the bottle.  You want to be mad, throw a fit, fight the air; and you’re about to hit the delete button and just call it quits for the day, because those ten words are nothing more than pure frustration and a slap in the face of your creativity….

STOP!

We are so quick to hit DELETE, and throw the laptop out the window in frustration, but don’t give up hope.  Even if it’s only 10 words,  even if they suck, or you may put them somewhere else, never delete anything you’ve written, because even writing one word puts you closer to your goal.

This was something I had to teach myself, because I once had something written that I didn’t like, and I deleted it. Well, come to find out it was actually something I could have used down the line, and I didn’t have it.  I did that a lot with my first novel, so for round 2, I made a separate folder on my laptop labeled “another time, another place”.  This is for anything I take out of my current draft, with hopes that maybe I can use it later on, or maybe in a different project later down the line.  It’s the best idea I could have come up with and I wish I would have thought of it sooner.  You never know when one scene that doesn’t work for your current project, may be the fuel for a different one! I try to keep it all on a running document, and sometimes if I’m stuck in a place, I look back on those various pieces and see if anything there can spark up some more ideas.  Sometimes it has helped, and other times it hasn’t, but the bottom line is that it was there even if I didn’t need it or use it.

Whatever you do, keep writing.  Keep sitting down for that allotted time and putting whatever you have to give on the page; and under no circumstances, never get rid of your words.

Knowing Your Writer Weaknesses

Bound By Rosie

You never know what you do wrong until someone tells you, or until you do it. That is just how a lot of writing works. Even with critique groups you’re left pulling things apart yourself to figure things out.The broadest question is How to Write? and from there we get How Do I Become A Better Writer (#writelife #writerwednesdays) There’s a reason for that. Writing is a skill that is intuitive and learned, one of possessing talent and crafting skill, one of cultivating your best traits and minimizing your worst. It is easier said than done at almost every possible level. So it pays to spend more time figuring out your weaknesses especially for beginning writers and writers who have primarily written their craft for themselves. Doing the introspection, self-reflection, and criticizing yourself isn’t easy. You have to step away from your work for months if not years to even…

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Just Keep Writing…

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Whether it’s one word are one hundred, keep writing, it means something to someone! 

Showing Support to Your Fellow Author

A lot of you may be wondering how to make an author happy?  I mean, what is the one thing you could do for your fellow writing friend/family member?  It’s quite simple from what I’ve gathered; support, support support!!

New, self-publishing authors love the support they get from their friends, family and anyone else more than anything!  Knowing that you have a fan club boosts confidence like no other.

If you’re like me, you have self-published and is handling all aspects of your work, including promotions.  I chose to do it this way, because it’s a learning experience for when I accomplish future goals of mine.  The one thing I can say throughout all of this is that support for your craft goes a long way in the department of gratitude, and even if I never made another sale, knowing I have people supporting and encouraging me to continue down this path is enough to call me successful.

So, I’m sure you’re wondering “well I want to support, but I don’t know how!”  Well, I’m here to tell you some cool ways to do it; and they’re take little to no effort!

Click and share blog posts: if you’re like me, you also blog on a frequent basis (you can click here if you want to check it out #plug, lol).  I always encourage people to check out my blog as well, because that is more of a personal side of me where I have extra opportunities to practice my writing as well.  I have to admit I thrive on the rush I get when I’m having a good blogging day; when people are noticing a new post I wrote, liking and even leaving me a comment!  So if you have a friend who loves to blog and is trying to make a name for themselves, do them a favor and click the link or share it amongst your friends. Never know who may want to read it and how far it will go!

Buy our books, even if it’s on Kindle Unlimited: In the past year, one thing I have learned about myself is that I really don’t care if someone buys a copy of my book (even though I’m eternally grateful for the royalties lol).  I’m just as grateful and excited when I see that someone has even downloaded it via Kindle Unlimited.  Even though I do not get royalties for it, the exposure is the main goal here.

Follow and share social media sites dedicated to that author: To aid in the promotion and following of my journey through being an author and blogger, I created a Facebook and Twitter page dedicated to all things writing related.  I try to share and retweet things that I put there, onto my personal feeds as well, and vice versa.  This opens me up to a totally different community of bloggers and writers and it bumps up your professionalism.  So again, do your writing friends a favor and share their professional author social media pages as well.  They will thank you for it in the end.

I promise you guys, if you do these little things, the writer in us will thank you for it; and we might even put you in the acknowledgements!

My Advice for New Writers by John W. Howell

 

Great read!!

Mystery Thriller Week

I was at a book signing the other day, and a person asked me a question that caused me to have to think a little before blurting out an answer. The question was, “What should every new writer know?” My answer at the time seemed to satisfy the person asking but after giving it a little more thought I decided that my reply was at best adequate and at worst incomplete. Now thanks to the Mystery Thriller Week I have been given another opportunity to adequately express what I have no come to call My Advice for New Writers that Every New Writer Should Know Before Deciding to Become a Writer. I think you can tell from my title that the thought process has grown from my initial response at the book signing. Also, if you have decided to become a writer no matter what anyone tells you, I would…

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3 Reasons You Need an Author Website (And Why It’s Not the Same as a Blog)

Pearls Before Swine

Let me start by saying that a blog and an author website are two different things.

From the word weblog, a blog is a website that is designed to be interactive with regularly updated content. This can be why they are so popular today and why every writer should have one. Blogs are a great way to communicate with readers, meet new friends, and network with business people in your field.

A website is less interactive, not updated in the form of publishing new posts, and exists for selling products or services, promoting products, and displaying more information about the owner. Every professional business person will have a website. The biggest disadvantage from the network side for websites is that they are stationary. After someone purchases your product or service, joins your newsletter or discovers more about you, there is no room for interaction like with a blog. This may…

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