R.M. Archer's Blog, page 27

3 Indicators That It’s Time to Let Go of a Project

This post is a little ironic, seeing as I’m gearing up to promote a book I edited after I’d already published it and clearly didn’t let go of, but… here we are. With the new year, many writers are taking on new projects (or refocusing on existing projects) and letting go of others. But how do you know which are worth keeping and which to let go of? Here are a few indicators your project might be ready for the far back burner.

You’re not excited about it

If you look at your project and you’re filled with dread instead of excitement… it might be worth considering to set it aside. Writing is work, yes, but it’s not supposed to be drudgery, and if even you–the person who thought up the idea–aren’t excited about it, is it going to be exciting to readers? (Maybe the answer is yes. Maybe it’s not.) If you can’t get back any spark of “This is why I wrote this book,” maybe it’s time to move on to a different story.

There’s no meaning to the story

Excitement, however, can be a faulty guide. After all, sometimes we’re just not motivated to write, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t write. Procrastination is a real thing, and it’s something that should be battled, not succumbed to. In those cases, the next thing to think about is the meaning of your story. What are the themes of this book? Are they something you’re passionate about? Are they edifying? Or have you failed to introduce a theme altogether? If your theme is something meaningless, it might be time to retire the story and think of something else. Or alternatively, you might realize through this process that you don’t have a strong theme but there’s one you can naturally draw out of what you already have, and that might rekindle your excitement for the story.

If you already have a strong theme, great! Keep plugging away and remember why you write this story. It will get easier, I promise, even if it takes something like setting a tiny daily word count goal to get the words down.

It’s really not moving

If you’ve been stuck on the same chapter for six months and you still can’t figure out how to move forward… it might be time to drop your project. ;P Like excitement, though, this guideline can have issues. First, ask yourself if you’ve come at the problem from all angles. Have you brainstormed? Come at it from a different character’s POV? Asked a critique partner for help generating ideas? You don’t have to try everything, but give it a good go before deciding to bench the project. If you’ve tried several different tactics and are still deeply stuck, though, it might be time to set the project aside.

How do you decide whether or not to bench projects? What was the last project you had to give up? Do you ever truly get rid of your projects, or are you like me and keep them in the archives of your computer?

 

 

 

 

 

2019 Wrap-Up and 2020 Goals

The new year is almost upon us, and time has my brain screwed up in knots. On the one hand… it’s been a whole year already? On the other hand, wasn’t July a full year ago? And how did November and December pass in a week? Time is just weird, and the way my brain handles time is even weirder. But according to the calendar, it’s almost the start of a new year and a new decade, which means it’s time for reflection, new goals, and fresh starts. So, let’s reflect, shall we?

2019: An Overview

At the end of 2018 I was extremely discouraged, I felt isolated and cynical, and my relationship with God had apparently taken a nosedive. My hopes for 2019 were that I’d find more joy in Christ, that I’d get out of my comfort zone and talk to people more, that I’d break out of my “introvert” shell, that I’d be a light and encouragement and good example to people (especially those younger than me), and that I’d just generally get out more. And I smiled so big when I read that, because I can say that I did make huge progress in that direction! This year, overall, has been fantastic for my mental and spiritual health. I haven’t been as consistent with my Bible/prayer time as I would have hoped, but I’ve made huge progress. I haven’t made any super close friends yet, but I’ve gotten out of my bubble a lot more and started setting foundations for future bridges. I’ve been far more optimistic and joyful, and there’s been a huge contrast between my mental health this year and my mental health last year. So overall, it’s been a super encouraging year!

The beginning of this year was still a little rocky, as I was still coming out of my 2018 depression, but more time with God and extra time with choir for an extra performance helped a lot. In May, I published The Mirror-Hunter Chronicles, which went super well. June was really fantastic, as choir took up a lot more of my time and I got to spend time with the people there and sing and dance and go on a bus ride (bus rides with choir are always the greatest). July included camp, which went fairly well; I got to know one of my friends a little bit better, and practice leadership… and I learned that focusing too much on people can, in fact, be a problem. (My priorities were a little skewed that week, unfortunately. :P) August was great for social engagements and productivity, both. I seem to remember my motivation sort of dropped off in September and October, but then NaNoWriMo went really well (despite a huge drop in motivation about halfway through the month), and December has been… interesting. But it’s starting to pick up again, so I’m hopeful for January. :)

And I started learning French this year! It’s a super fun language, and I’m looking forward to getting back on track with it around the new year and building up a longer Duolingo streak.

I also learned just how much I enjoy ballroom dancing, and my family learned about a homeschool group that does dance classes, so I’m really hoping I’ll get to do more in the future through that class before I graduate.

Overall, it’s been a fantastic year! I’m a little sad to see it go. But I’m hoping it’ll just be the foundation for a better year in 2020. :)

2019: Goals in Review

1. Prayer journal daily

I haven’t been 100% faithful with this, and there have been some weeks or months I’ve neglected it altogether, but overall I made a lot of progress toward prayer journaling consistently.

2. Do a devotion/read the Bible daily

This one… didn’t go as well as the prayer journaling. I still made a lot of progress, especially toward the beginning of the year, but after my first devotional ran out I started falling out of the habit again. But still, a lot of progress was made, and I’ve been getting back into it over the past week or two.

3. Go to church regularly (after I get my driver’s license)

Well, I still don’t have my license, so…

4. Read daily

This is another one I did really well at for a while and then just… tapered off. I think my reading really slowed around October or November.

5. Get out of the house once a week (once I get my driver’s license)

Like I said… no driver’s license. :P

6. Take a day away from electronics once a week

This one worked really well for a few months and served its purpose of helping me keep my sanity, but then the specific thing I’d been giving myself a buffer from became much less of an issue (hallelujah! one of my friends saw their mental health drastically improve, also), so the habit tapered off. As I’ve done Christmasy things over the past couple weeks, though, I’ve realized how much I appreciate unplugging, so this is something I want to bring back in 2020.

7. Dance every morning

Epic fail.

8. Drink 3 glasses of water daily

Also an epic fail.

9. Take vitamins daily

Nope.

10. Get to bed at 10 and get up at 6 daily

*laughs*

Can you tell the physical health goals are where I most struggle?

11. Participate in conversation at every social event (choir, youth group, etc.)

I’m not sure this was really an effective goal to set in the first place? But I did get out of my shell a lot more and have a lot more conversations, so the heart of the goal was still achieved, I guess.

12. Publish Slander & Steel

This book is currently in the “I have no idea what to do with you” category. I’m no longer focusing on publishing it in the near future, but that’s as much as I’ve decided.

13. Edit and publish The Mirror-Hunter Chronicles

Done! :D And with (relatively) resounding success! You can find the book here. ^-^

14. Write one “easy” novel (so I have something to work on that’s not as time-consuming or emotionally draining as The Dark War Trilogy)

Yep! I wrote two, actually. ^-^ I completed The Masked Captain‘s first draft in June and Calligraphy Guild‘s first draft in November.

15. Win all three NaNoWriMo events

I… don’t actually have accurate stats for the two Camp NaNo events, since the website redesign. I think I won in April? But I don’t remember July. I did win November. So… I don’t remember how well this goal went.

16. Write 2k every day

Nope. I was verrrrry sporadic in my writing; some months I wrote a ton, others I wrote close to nothing. But I learned in November that it is definitely possible, so I’ll be shooting for this again in 2020.

17. Find an accountability partner

I found an accountability partner a few months into the year. I found that our method was ineffective, and our check-ins sort of… died. :P (Thank you, though, Leila! I appreciate your time and effort. ^-^)

18. Outline Unstoppable with Allie

We mutually decided this story isn’t working and we need to either completely overhaul it or just… not write it. It’s another limbo story, for now. :P

19. Post once a month on Our Mind Palace

#1) I’m not sure why this was a goal in the first place? #2) I only posted once the entire year.

20. Write a short story each month

I cut this goal in my first quarterly check-in, I think, because it just didn’t suit my long-term goals anymore. But I did write/finish eight short stories this year.

21. Finish and publish Short Story Collection Vol. 2

I decided partway through the year that I didn’t really like half the stories that were supposed to be in this collection, so this goal is postponed until I can figure out what stories I do want to include.

22. Finish and publish Memories & Photographs

This is another one I decided I didn’t really want to do. The stories aren’t really my style, at this point–they were really only fun as a once-off thing–and they’re really old and rough. :P

23. Read the 23 books by the Phoenix Fiction Writers that I haven’t read and can get in paperback

This didn’t happen, unfortunately, but I did read twelve PFW books this year (or thirteen, if you count the one I beta-read in November/December). And I’m still planning on working toward this goal. I aim to have a complete PFW collection, one day.

2019: Concrete Goals

This is just a selection, because some of my goals are either especially irrelevant or more personal, but this is a lot of them.

Spiritual

1. Prayer journal daily

2. Read Bible daily

3. Keep up Within the Static (at least one post per month)

Physical/Mental

1. Dance every morning

2. Drink 3 glasses of water daily

3. Take vitamins daily

4. Go to bed at 11 every night

5. Get up at 8 every morning

6. Unplug once a week

Relational

1. Do something with each sibling weekly

Vocational

1. Go to Realm Makers

2. Revise Calligraphy Guild

3. Prepare to pitch Calligraphy Guild

4. Draft The Half-Elves

5. Re-publish Lost Girl

6. Re-publish Short Story Collection Vol. 1

7. Write 2k each day

8. Win two NaNoWriMo events

9. Figure out a strategy to finish The Shadow Raven

10. Write a guest post for Story Embers

11. Volunteer at the library

12. Revive my editing services

Miscellania

1. Revise Hands (a poem)

2. Get my license

3. Finish reading A Series of Unfortunate Events

4. Practice French daily

2020: General Hopes

2020 is going to be a weird year. I’ll be graduating (not only from school, but also from choir and youth group), and I don’t really have anything concrete planned for beyond that aside from what I’m already doing. I’ll be taking a couple of trips, hopefully, but I have no college plans or anything like that (2020 will at least be a gap year; I might take an online course in church ministry come the 2021-2022 school year), and I really don’t know what I’ll be doing for most of next year besides continuing to write. It feels like everything will change as far as the big picture is concerned, but everything will stay the same when it comes to daily life. And that’s a little scary.

So I guess my general hopes are to make the most of the last few months I have in choir and youth group (building relationships, especially), to find what God wants me to do with the year, and to keep my joy and hope in Him even after I graduate and I have to leave most of the people I know. And I hope I’ll be able to keep in touch with more of them than I expect.

Honestly, next year scares me more than anything else, lol. But here’s praying God will help me conquer that fear and have joy and faith despite the unknown. *breathes deeply* Easier said than done.

How was 2019, for you? What are your goals for 2020? Does anything scare you about the coming year (or the coming decade)?

 

 

 

 

Know the Novel Part 3 – It Is Written

Hi. I’m not dead. I’m sorry for (once again) falling off the face of the earth; I should be around much more consistently as we head into the new year and I get back on top of… all the things. For now, here’s a link-up to conclude my series on Calligraphy Guild. (If you missed Part 1 and Part 2, you can find them at those links there.)

1. Firstly, how did writing this novel go all around?

Pretty well! I was able to get down the basics of the characters and their relationships, the bare bones of the plot are there, there are some cool descriptions I can build off of… Overall, it’s a workable first draft. :) Plus I had a lot of fun with it, which was the hope, and I’m super excited to dive into “remodeling” and making it even more of what I want it to be. ^-^

2. Did it turn out like you expected or completely different? And how do you feel about the outcome?

It didn’t turn out exactly like I hoped, because I was hoping for more description and more vivid characters on the page and that kind of thing, but I more expected what I got, which was a place to start. And it actually exceeded my expectations, to some degree; it has a lot more going for it than I was afraid it might. So overall, I’m happy with how it turned out. :)

3. What aspect of the story did you love writing about the most? (Characters, plot, setting, prose, etc.)

The characters and the setting, both. I was super excited going in, and it turned out to be just as fun to write as I’d hoped. I also enjoyed the play-by-play scenes of the fictional sport kyang much more than I’d expected to.

4. How about your least favorite part?

Probably the kyang games. Which I know sounds like a contradiction of my last point. :P While it was enjoyable, it was also tedious, and there was no part of the book that I remember expressly disliking the process of, so kyang it is.

5. What do you feel like needs the most work?

…All of it? The characters need more page time (the whole thing is shorter than intended), the description needs fleshing out to do the setting and the characters justice, there’s a character I want to give a full arc to which will mean a lot of reworking stuff… I guess the character arc is probably the biggest thing. But the whole thing needs a lot of work. (Which I plan to start in February!)

6. How do you feel about your characters now that the novel is done? Who is your favorite? Least favorite? Anyone surprise you? Give us all the details!

I still love them!

Favorite: Makio

Least favorite: Chaska? Which is a bummer, because she’s a really cool character. She didn’t get enough time to show off some of her character traits, and I want to fix that in the next draft.

Surprise: Makio. He wasn’t even supposed to feature heavily, but he made himself right at home. XD

7. What’s your next plan of action with this novel?

Editing it. The plan is to let it sit through January so I can come back with some perspective (but I might jump in early… we’ll see what happens), and then work on edits from February to June (with a break for Camp NaNo in April). That’s the plan. My plans tend to derail, so we’ll see what actually happens.

8. If you could have your greatest dream realized for this novel, what would it be?

A final draft that perfectly communicates the feelings and characters and setting, a gorgeous cover, and glowing five-star reviews saying how much people loved the book and how unique it was and how much they want to read more set in this fantasy world. (I, um… may love this book just a little bit and want other people to love it.)

9. Share some of your favorite snippets!

Ryuu walked over from a conversation with some of the younger boys and set one foot on the steps. “Are you doing all right?”

Duyên nodded with a soft smile. “Thanks for asking.”

Ryuu took a seat beside her, hands between his knees. “I saw Makio had to get Po away from you again.” Ryuu smirked.

Duyên chuckled. “It wasn’t like that. Po was actually being nice, he’s just… not the best company when my thoughts are heavy.”

“I hope I’m an improvement?” Ryuu wiggled his eyebrows.

Duyên laughed, head thrown back. Her expression faded to a grin as she turned back to Ryuu. “Yes.” She leaned up and kissed him briefly.

Ryuu grinned. “I’m happy to hear it.”

Duyên leaned on his shoulder and watched the lights dancing over the field a moment before closing her eyes and listening to the childrens’ laughter. She felt Ryuu press a long kiss to her forehead. Duyên released a contented sigh. “Can’t evenings like this just last forever?” she murmured.

“I wish.”

“Can we pretend?”

Ryuu rubbed her shoulder. “Absolutely.”

Duyên’s thoughts drifted and she fell asleep.

*****

Duyên stepped onto the porch as a peal of thunder rolled in the distance. She looked up at the dark clouds gathering over the jungle and frowned. The sunset was coming faster than usual.

With a quick glance, Duyên spotted Ryuu looking up at the sky before stepping down from the porch. She hurried over to him and set a hand on his arm. “Do you want some company? I could walk you home.”

Ryuu smiled a little and offered her his elbow, but his eyes didn’t hold the sparkle they usually did. “Shouldn’t I be the one walking you home?”

Duyên hooked her arm through his and tried to give a reassuring smile, but she doubted it was effective.

The two of them walked in silence, the thunder growing louder as the storm approached. Duyên set her head against Ryuu’s arm, wishing she could do something more to make him feel better.

Just as the Lai house came into view, raindrops started to hit Duyên’s skin. She raised her head and looked up at Ryuu. “Race you to the door?”

Ryuu chuckled and unhooked his arm from hers. The two of them took off, racing the rain, but the rain turned to a downpour a few feet from the house and they were soaked by the time they stepped onto the porch.

Duyên turned back to Ryuu. “Do you want to borrow an umbrella?”

Ryuu shrugged. “I’ll be all right. Thanks, though.”

Duyên frowned. “Are you sure?”

Ryuu nodded and leaned down to kiss her forehead. “Have a good evening, Duyên.”

*****

Makio turned back to Tora. “Take care of yourself, okay? I don’t want you getting yourself into any more trouble than you have to. Come home in one piece.”

“I’ll do my best.”

Makio wrapped Tora in a hug. “I love you, Mixa.”

Tora groaned. “You know I hate that nickname.” She pulled away and punched him half-heartedly in the arm.

Makio grinned. “You love me anyway.”

Tora sighed. “Yes.” She looked up at him. “I love you.” She smirked. “Even if you are obnoxious sometimes.”

Makio chuckled. “It’s my job as an older brother.” He ruffled her hair, earning another eye roll.

Tora walked over to Zen, and Makio came over to Duyên.

“Hey.” Makio tugged on Duyên’s braid. “You take care of yourself, too, okay Nỏcha?”

Duyên nodded. “I’ll look out for Tora, too.”

Makio smiled. “I know you will.” He looked over at Ryuu. “And you take care of them both.” Makio slapped Ryuu’s shoulder. “I trust you.”

Ryuu nodded. “I will.”

Makio returned the nod.

“Look out for Riye,” Duyên blurted.

Makio looked down at Duyên with wide eyes.

“She’s been… off lately. Just… make sure she’s okay, and make sure she knows someone’s there for her.”

Makio nodded slowly. “Okay.” He turned toward the door, but immediately turned back. “Why me?”

Duyên smiled. “I trust you.” And I trust you to care about her.

“Th-thanks.” His brow furrowed, like he knew she’d left something out and wanted to know what, but he just tugged on her braid again and said, “Gossalu be with you,” before leaving the guild.

10. Did you glean any new writing and/or life lessons from writing this novel?

I know I’ve said this so many times in this series and my NaNo updates, but I learned that I can write consistently if I really set my mind to it. I wrote 2k each day fairly consistently for most of November, and it worked really well, so I’m hoping to do that more in the coming year as I work on other projects and see if I’m able to keep it up as effectively.

Self-Publishing 101: What NOT to Do

Over the past few weeks I’ve talked about the pros and cons of both traditional and indie publishing, what’s really involved in self-publishing, and what you can get away without. This week, I’m going over the things NOT to do if you’ve decided to self-publish.

Don’t Publish Your First Draft

I’m sure most of you know this already, but let me just reiterate… DO NOT PUBLISH A FIRST DRAFT. First drafts are messy, riddled with both grammatical errors and structural problems. They’re great for building off of, but they are not for displaying. At least in the vast majority of cases. I’m sure there are authors who edit as they go or something like that and put out really “clean” first drafts, but the average first draft is not of a high enough caliber to publish confidently. Definitely take the time to edit your book until it’s something you truly feel you can be proud to share. And even if you’re a younger writer and your best isn’t equal to the best of a more experienced writer, that’s okay. Just make sure that you’ve put in as much effort as you can to put out a quality book.

Don’t Give a First Draft to an Editor

As I said in a past post, it’s not an editor’s job to fix all your messes. “That giant mess is your job; the editor is to catch the issues you only don’t notice because you wrote it and you know things the reader doesn’t.” Before giving your story to an editor, make it the best you can on your own and maybe beta readers. Fix as many problems as you can on your own, and then give it to an editor to catch things you missed, whether because you’re too close to the story or because there are things you haven’t learned yet. (And hiring an editor can be a great learning experience!)

Don’t Leap Into Editing Blindly

When you do hire an editor, don’t do it without looking into options and communicating with the editor you want to work with. When I was first intending to publish a novel in early 2018, I hired the first editor who offered to work with me and didn’t communicate with her what I was expecting. I ended up with a copy-editor rather than a developmental editor, so she fixed up the words but the story itself was still a disaster. (She did an excellent job of copy-editing, and I don’t place any blame on her.) When looking for an editor, you should know what sort of editing you’re looking for (developmental, line-editing, or copy-editing) and you should make sure your editor works with your genre. Most editors will offer a free sample of their work, which will help both of you sort out whether or not you’re a good fit.

Don’t Make Your Own Cover

This is more of a general rule thing than an absolute. (I guess all of these things are, really, but this one in particular.) Most writers are not graphic designers or artists. I’ve also known a good number who are, but they’re not the majority. Most writers don’t have the skill to make professional-level covers (myself included), and sub-par covers attract less attention than professional-caliber covers. So if you want your book to look as good as it can, I’d recommend hiring a professional cover designer to make you a high-caliber cover.

BONUS: I also don’t recommend getting covers featuring people unless the characters are part of original artwork. They almost always look forced onto the cover and less professional. (Or maybe that’s a personal preference thing; I know a lot of people get covers like this. But I generally steer clear of books with this style of cover because they look unprofessional to me. So I don’t know. It could be personal taste.)

Don’t Announce Publishing Plans Until You’re Sure

Another mistake I made with my novel in 2018 (House of Mages) was announcing that I was publishing when I was still on the first or second draft. After that announcement, I went through a stage of despising my draft, made a myriad of mistakes in the editing process, had no timeline to follow, bought a cover too early… Just… don’t announce your intentions to publish until you’re confident in the quality of your work and you have a plan in place for getting it to the final stage. I can’t tell you exactly when this will be; with some books it could be the fourth draft, with others it could be the thirty-second (and no, I’m not exaggerating). But be sure you’re confident in your work and it’s not only book-baby love from a just-finished book before you announce publication plans.

BONUS: Don’t buy a cover until you’re sure you’re publishing, either. If you change your mind and already have a cover, that cover will sit around unused unless and until you pick the book back up later, and chances are the cover won’t even fit anymore by the time you’re done with a reboot of your book.

Don’t Rush

Publishing is a long, long process. It gets faster the more you do it and learn what process works best for you, I’d imagine, but it still takes a while, and there are often unforeseen setbacks. If you try to rush through publishing, you’re going to miss things, you’re going to cut corners, and you’re not going to put out the best-quality product you could. I’m not saying your book should–or can be–perfect, but you don’t want it to be thrown together, either. So take your time. Learn the lessons along the way. Enjoy the process. And then, when you get to the moment of publication, you can be proud of all the work you’ve done and the quality of your work.

And that’s a wrap on this series! What did you find most helpful? Was there anything you’d like to read about in more detail? Let me know in the comments!

 

 

 

 

 

NaNoWriMo Week 4 Check-In

Today is the last day of NaNoWriMo, and a week ago things were looking sketchy. I was seriously wondering if I would win. But…

Current total word count: 50,073

Favorite snippet from this week: (Apologies for redacting so much, but there are few enough characters that even the gender would lower down options considerably, so pronouns have been redacted along with the character’s name.)

When Sairsha stepped into the hospital, Riye was in the front room mixing a tonic.

Riye looked up from her work. “Zen shouldn’t see anyone yet.”

“It’s not him I’m here to see. Is [SPOILERS] still here?”

Riye shook her head. “He headed for the guild right after dropping off Zen.”

Sairsha nodded. “Thank you.” Sairsha turned, but stopped and looked back at Riye. “How is Zen?”

Riye’s expression was far too uncertain for Sairsha’s liking. “He’s still alive. I don’t know for how much longer. The ginger doesn’t seem to be doing much. I’m trying, but… I don’t know.”

Sairsha bit her lip, taking a deep breath to steady herself again as tears threatened to well in her eyes. “Thanks.” Her voice was barely above a whisper. She hurried out of the hospital and broke as soon as she’d stepped into the puliquan. She fell to her hands and knees, eyes squeezed shut, sobs wracking her shoulders and making everything tight in her chest. She could barely breathe, and the heat wasn’t helping. Her fingers dug into the dirt, which caked under her nails as she curled them into a fist. A yell tore from her throat, scraping at her vocal chords. She pounded the ground with her fist until her fingers finally throbbed and ached.

Sairsha sat up and opened her eyes though hot tears still streamed down her face and dampened her skirt. How could [SPOILERS] have done something like this? Not only breaking the rules, which was bad enough, but also betraying her directly? Changing her past without her permission… It was a deep violation, and Sairsha wanted to make [SPOILERS] hurt for it. But there was also something in her that couldn’t hate [SPOILERS]. Something that wanted to forgive the unforgivable, because [SPOILERS] was her friend. Because they knew each other. Because she loved [SPOILERS] and didn’t want to hate [SPOILERS].

But she did want to hate [SPOILERS]! The other side of her said [SPOILERS] was awful, that this unwound everything they’d created in all the years they’d been friends, that this was the absolute end and [SPOILERS] had no right to be forgiven. She wanted to swear [SPOILERS] off forever. Break ties completely.

Because… because…

She didn’t know why. She couldn’t figure out why the two sides of her both raged so strongly, why she could want two such opposite things at exactly the same time.

But regardless…

Sairsha stood and brushed off her hands, followed by her skirt. She wiped her tears and wrested her curls into one long braid.

Striding toward the guild once more, Sairsha took a deep breath. Maybe she could at least use that hatred to her advantage and keep from crying.

Biggest challenge this week: Catching up. I was 15k behind.

Biggest success this week: I wrote 15,125 words yesterday! :D I devoted the entire day to writing, and it paid off! I caught up, and I had less than 2k to write today in order to win. I also finished the first draft of Calligraphy Guild yesterday afternoon, so I’ve been working on a backup project to complete the word count and that has also been going smoothly. So overall… several big wins this week! :)

If you were participating, how did NaNo go for you? If you’re still writing furiously, I’m cheering for you! :D If you weren’t participating in NaNo, how did this month go for you, overall? How was your Thanksgiving? Did you get any writing done? I’d love to chat with you in the comments!

Self-Publishing 101: Non-Negotiables (and what you can get away without)

Last week I wrote about the (extensive) ideal process of self-publishing a book. However, sometimes the ideal isn’t plausible, your goals aren’t for a long-term career, you just want a foot in the door, etc. There’s a long list of reasons you could get away with only adhering to some parts of that list. So this week I’ll be discussing which items on the list are non-negotiable and which can be waived. I’m pulling all of these steps directly from my previous post, so check that out for explanations of what I consider each step to entail.

Step 1: Write the First Draft

Obviously this is non-negotiable. You can’t publish a book that hasn’t been written. ;)

Step 2: Edit on the Macro Level

Also non-negotiable. You need to make sure your book is structurally sound (or at least mostly sound) if you want to put forward a good-quality book. But how many drafts this takes can depend on how serious you are with this particular book, how much work it needed in the first place, etc.

Step 3: Hire a Developmental Editor

This one is more flexible. Especially if you’re solid on story structure, you can often skip this step and still put out a good-quality story. It’s not likely to be as perfect as if you had hired a professional editor, but it’s definitely possible for your book to still be good without this step.

If you decide not to hire an editor, though, I do recommend at least getting a handful of beta-readers to give you feedback, because an outside set of eyes can be super helpful at pulling out issues you hadn’t seen before (and more than one set is even better).

Step 4: Build a Marketing Timeline

A marketing timeline will make your marketing efforts easier, but it is theoretically optional. Especially if you’re not looking to make a whole lot of money off your book, you might not need to focus on the marketing side of things as much as you otherwise would. For instance, I didn’t have a timeline or any pointed marketing plans with Short Story Collection Vol. 1 because I knew short stories aren’t my focus, half of the stories connect to a universe I haven’t published any longer works in… etc. As a result, I haven’t gotten nearly as much exposure to that book, but that was my intention from the beginning.

Step 5: Edit on the Sentence Level

It could be debated whether or not this option is required or not. In this step, you tweak your wording and sentences to best fit the tone and voice of your book. This will significantly strengthen your writing, especially if you’re aiming for a more poetic or descriptive voice. However, it’s also possible to get away without this (especially if you have a more simple voice) and most readers aren’t likely to notice anything’s missing unless you have significantly ill-fitting wording choices. So… this one is more up to you. I didn’t do a whole lot of line-editing on either of my short story collections, beyond structural issues, but I intend to do a lot more with it in my future works.

Step 6: Copy-Edit

This is 100% non-negotiable. People’s opinions of your book will take a HUGE hit if your book is riddled with grammatical and spelling errors. If grammar isn’t your strong suit, give your book to someone who’s better at those areas and let them help you. My biggest complaint with most indie-published books is the frequency of grammatical errors. So please don’t harm your readers’ enjoyment of a fantastic book just because you didn’t get a copy-editor.

Step 7: Get Formatting Done

Your book has to be formatted. If you want it to be readable, it needs to be formatted like a book. However, your formatting doesn’t have to be fancy. If you’re decently handy with Microsoft Word and Google, you can probably manage to do this by yourself. If you’re not confident in your own skills, you can see if you know anyone who is and is willing to format for you, or you can hire a formatting professional. Like I said in last week’s post, which option is best for you will depend on several factors.

Step 8: Acquire a Cover

A cover is, obviously, non-negotiable. How you get that cover is up to you. A homemade cover is often not as good quality as a professional cover, but that doesn’t mean homemade covers are always bad, either. So if an eye-grabbing cover isn’t your priority, you can probably make your own cover or get a friend to do it. If you want a really, really good cover, buying one is probably a better option.

Step 9: Set Up Your Book

You can’t publish your book without setting it up in your chosen publishing platform.

Step 10: Find ARC Readers

Like the marketing timeline, this is a marketing step that you might not find important for your book. ARC readers help your book get more visibility, but that’s not always a requirement.

Step 11: Order a Proof

I recommend this step, but it’s not technically necessary. If you want to be 100% sure your formatting and everything works in print, order a proof. If you’re ready to trust that everything worked, you can go ahead and skip this step. (I’ve gone both routes, and both choices worked. But it’s safer to order a proof.)

Step 12: Send ARCs

See “Find ARC Readers.”

Step 13: Head Into Your Marketing Plan

See “Build a Marketing Timeline.”

Step 14: Launch Your Book!

Hit the publish button on your chosen publishing platform and watch your book enter the world. Congratulations! You’re a published author! Shout it from the rooftops and don’t be afraid to be proud of your work! You’ve done a lot to reach this point. You’ve earned some celebration!

Step 15: Continue Marketing

If you want your book to continue being seen after it’s been launched, this is something you’ll have to do to some degree or another. If visibility isn’t a huge thing to you, you can do this a lot less. Just know that your book won’t get read nearly as much as if you brought it up even just once a month or something.

NaNoWriMo Week 3 Check-In

Yes, this is late. Life has been craaaaazy, and I’ve burnt out a little. :P But better late than never, right?

Can you believe there’s less than a week left in November? Anyone else feel like the month just flew by?

Current total word count: 30,693 (why yes, I am 10k+ behind. thanks for asking)

Favorite snippet from this week:

Makio turned back to Tora. “Take care of yourself, okay? I don’t want you getting yourself into any more trouble than you have to. Come home in one piece.”

“I’ll do my best.”

Makio wrapped Tora in a hug. “I love you, Mixa.”

Tora groaned. “You know I hate that nickname.” She pulled away and punched him half-heartedly in the arm.

Makio grinned. “You love me anyway.”

Tora sighed. “Yes.” She looked up at him. “I love you.” She smirked. “Even if you are obnoxious sometimes.”

Makio chuckled. “It’s my job as an older brother.” He ruffled her hair, earning another eye roll.

Tora walked over to Zen, and Makio came over to Duyên.

“Hey.” Makio tugged on Duyên’s braid. “You take care of yourself, too, okay Nỏcha?”

Duyên nodded. “I’ll look out for Tora, too.”

Makio smiled. “I know you will.” He looked over at Ryuu. “And you take care of them both.” Makio slapped Ryuu’s shoulder. “I trust you.”

Ryuu nodded. “I will.”

Makio returned the nod.

“Look out for Riye,” Duyên blurted.

Makio looked down at Duyên with wide eyes.

“She’s been… off lately. Just… make sure she’s okay, and make sure she knows someone’s there for her.”

Makio nodded slowly. “Okay.” He turned toward the door, but immediately turned back. “Why me?”

Duyên smiled. “I trust you.” And I trust you to care about her.

“Th-thanks.” His brow furrowed, like he knew she’d left something out and wanted to know what, but he just tugged on her braid again and said, “Gossalu be with you,” before leaving the guild.

Biggest challenge this week: Well… I’ve written less than 7k this week due to a bunch of social engagements (which have been fun, for the most part, just time-consuming) and burn-out. And I have a tendency to not really take care of my burn-out, but just try to keep pushing myself, which doesn’t actually work and just makes me feel guilty because I’m not getting anything done. Fortunately, I’m working to be more aware of that and yesterday I gave myself a day to just relax and allow myself to do nothing, and I think that really helped.

Biggest success this week: I’m approaching the climax! I don’t actually know what the climax is going to look like, because my outline runs out before that point, BUT I know some of the action leading up to it and it’s going to be so fun!

PFW Sale Announcement!

Sooooo, my favorite group of indie authors ever (if you haven’t heard of the Phoenix Fiction Writers by now you’re either new or you’ve not been paying any attention) holds a sale every year, so you can get a good number of their books and their merch at a significant discount. If you’ve been procrastinating on getting one (or more) of their books, now is the time to stop putting that off. If you’ve read their books and/or think friends or family members would enjoy them, now is a great time to order Christmas gifts. Or, if you just want to expand your collection (does anyone else have a PFW collection? No? Just me?), now is a great time for that, too!

PFW has more detailed prices on their site, which is unfortunately down until the sale starts. But there are some awesome sales going on, so head over there or get on Amazon from November 29th to December 2nd and pick up some of these awesome books!

And I do my best to never blindly promote books (I did that once and I had to eat my words afterward, unfortunately. :/). I truly trust the quality of these books, and I’ve read and reviewed several already. You can see my honest reviews here:

Colors of Fear by Hannah Heath

Antiheroes by The Phoenix Fiction Writers

The Raventree Society: Season 1 by J.E. Purrazzi

The Hidden Queen by Janelle Garrett

The Traveler by E.B. Dawson

Child of the Kaites by Beth Wangler

Sounds of Deceit by Hannah Heath

Strange Waters by The Phoenix Fiction Writers

The Beast of Talesend by Kyle Robert Shultz (5 stars)

Flames of Courage by Hannah Heath (5 stars)

Lost Empire Short Stories by E.B. Dawson (5 stars)

Self-Publishing 101: What Does It Really Take?

Last week I talked about the pros and cons of self-publishing versus traditional publishing, and this week I want to talk about what indie publishing really entails. From first draft to marketing after you’ve published, self-publishing (and traditional publishing) takes a lot of time and effort, and I want to shine a light on some of the concrete steps that have to be taken in self-publishing.

If You’re Not Publishing for a Career…

This whole post series is primarily targeted at writers who intend to make a career out of self-publishing, but some things on this list should be done regardless of your intentions with self-publishing (which I’ll discuss more in-depth in my post on non-negotiables in a few weeks). And even if you’re just publishing for fun or as a one-time thing right now, it can be helpful to know what the extra mile looks like. Most of my current published works didn’t go through all of these steps, because short stories aren’t my focus so I haven’t paid for them as much as I would for a novel. For serious novels, I intend to follow this model. (But that doesn’t mean it’s the only model.)

Step 1: Write the First Draft

Obviously, this is a necessary first step. The great thing about self-publishing, though, is that this step can take as much or as little time as it needs. If you’re a slower writer and it takes you a year to write a first draft, that’s all right. There’s no rush on self-publishing (unless maybe you get a really great fanbase and they want books faster, but even so, whether or not you let them push you is up to you; that can be a good challenge or it can be a damper on the creative process, and which it is depends on the individual writer).

I recommend keeping a running list of things to edit as you go, both so you have a starting point when you start the next draft and so you can temporarily silence your inner editor and keep moving forward with the drafting process. But that’s just a personal tip.

Step 2: Edit on the Macro Level

This is something you’ll want to do on your own. Set aside the first draft for a while (until you think you can look at it objectively; in some rare cases you might not even have to wait, but under most circumstances I’d recommend setting it aside so you can look at the story with fresh eyes), and then come back to it and start going through it looking for big things to edit. Plot holes, character arc problems, adding or rearranging scenes… Start with the big stuff, because the small stuff will change with it and you don’t want to do all the detail work just to mess it up. You don’t paint the walls before you do the remodeling. If you made a list of edits during your first draft, see if you mentioned any macro-edits (remodeling edits) then that you’ve forgotten. And, obviously, look for anything you didn’t see while in the midst of writing.

This draft can take a while, as you troubleshoot and are likely to end up rewriting (or adding) whole sections of your novel. You might find it helpful to have a brainstorming buddy as you go, to help you work through the worst trouble spots.

Step 3: Hire a Developmental Editor

Once you’ve caught as many of the structural issues in your novel as you can on your own, it’s time to hire a professional. I’d recommend actually shelling out money for this step (though you can find affordable editors, so it doesn’t have to be a ton of money), but if you’re fortunate enough to have a trained editor in your family or friend group you might be able to get this done for free. Just be aware that you often get what you pay for. Another option, either in addition to or instead of a professional editor, is to get a group of trusted beta-readers to look over your book.

The benefit of hiring an editor is that they’re both trained in story structure (often) as well as simply an outside perspective. It’s easy to overlook issues in our own work because we see them as they should be rather than necessarily as they should be, or we see them as writers rather than readers, while an editor has no personal connection to your story and doesn’t have those handicaps in finding the problems in your book.

At the end of the day, though, remember that this is your novel and you don’t have to take all of the suggestions your editor gives you. It’s often a good idea to take most of them, but if you think one of their suggestions really doesn’t fit with your story, you don’t have to take it. And you have particular freedom with that when you choose to indie-publish.

Step 4: Build a Marketing Timeline

At this point, you’re pretty committed to seeing your book published. Awesome! You’ve survived the Valley of Book Hate that you almost certainly fell into during at least one set of developmental edits and you’re back on track to rekindling your excitement (or maybe you already have) and you can start looking toward marketing it to other people. Here(ish) you’ll be able to build a semi-accurate timeline of your publishing and marketing plans. This can be a complicated process, because there’s a lot to do to publish and market your book. Here are some of the things you’ll need to schedule in:

Buying/making a book cover
Formatting your book’s interior for both print and ebook (or hiring someone else to do it)
Building/commissioning graphics for marketing purposes (quote graphics, blurb graphics, cover graphics…)
The actual release date
The last of the edits
Finding ARC readers
Ordering ARCs (if you’re doing physical versions)
Ordering a proof copy to double-check formatting
Sending out ARCs
Launch parties (usually hosted on social media; and don’t forget the prep for those)

(I’ll go more in-depth on the specifics of some of these things later in the post.)

Step 5: Edit on the Sentence Level

After you’ve fully addressed your remodeling (which is likely to take several drafts), you can paint the walls. Line edits are making sure all that your sentences fit the story and are worded to their utmost potential. Adding description (which could go in the structural draft or this one, depending on how much you need to add) and adapting it to fit the tone and character voice of the novel, tweaking dialogue to best match your characters’ voices, working in motifs through your word choice (if you have a musically-themed story, for instance, using a lot of sound-related words could be really effective to bring the writing together), etc. All of the sentence-level issues are tackled in this draft.

Step 6: Copy-Edit

Once you’ve polished your sentences as much as you can in word choice, comb over your novel for grammatical errors. Spelling errors, incorrect formatting, incorrect punctuation, etc. All of that gets fixed in this draft.

You’ll definitely want to get a second set of eyes for this step, after you’ve gone over it on your own, because even the best of us can miss little errors like these (especially when we’ve been looking at the same words for ages and we know how they’re supposed to read) and having an experienced second set of eyes–whether a professional copy-editor or your friend who’s practically human autocorrect–can be a huge help in making the content of your book as professional as it can be.

Step 7: Get Formatting Done

Depending on how fancy you want your formatting to be, you might be able to teach yourself to do the formatting of your book. Or you might know someone who can do it well for free or cheap. Or you might have to hire someone to format your book for you. It depends on what you want your book to look like, what connections you have, and how easily you pick up skills. So far, I’ve had one book formatted by my dad and the other I formatted myself (and I actually had a lot of fun with it, even though I’ve found formatting to be one of the most frustrating steps, lol). But formatting is a tricky business, so you might find it a better fit to get someone else to help. *shrugs* It totally depends on your skills and priorities.

Step 8: Acquire a Cover

In general, I’d recommend against putting a cover together yourself. This often results in less-than-professional-looking covers, and despite what people may say, readers do judge books by their covers. If you have experience in design, go for it, but otherwise it’s probably a better bet to pay for a professional cover. Even then, though, you’ll want to be careful you get a cover that matches your genre, the tone of your book, etc. If you get a romance cover for your fantasy novel, chances are you’re going to hit entirely the wrong audience and you’ll get a bunch of bad reviews because your book was improperly advertised by its cover. Or it’ll simply be skipped over altogether because it’ll show up in fantasy circles but readers will assume it’s incorrectly categorized or that you didn’t make an effort to get a proper cover for it. Basically… a cover is serious business.

Now, full disclosure, I’ve designed (or co-designed with my mom) all of my covers up to this point. But 1) I’m aware they’re lower-caliber than if I’d paid for a cover to be made, and 2) I chose that route because I know both my mom and I have a good enough eye to make a passable cover (okay, SSCv.1 is a little questionable, but everything about that book is a little questionable as far as quality, so…) and I know short stories aren’t my primary focus so I don’t need them to be as eye-grabbing. When I publish my novels, I fully intend to buy professional covers/art.

Step 9: Set Up Your Book

How exactly setup works will depend on what platform you’re using to publish your book, but you’ll need to upload your cover, your book file, and put in keywords, categories, and your book’s blurb. This is a pretty intuitive process in Kindle Direct Publishing, which is what I’ve used for all of my books (including several I only printed once), but I can’t speak to the process in other platforms.

Step 10: Find ARC Readers

ARC (Advance Reader Copies) readers are people who agree to review your book in exchange for a free copy (most often an ebook copy, since that’s cheaper, but you could do print if you really wanted to) in advance. Generally they’ll review the book in the days surrounding your launch.

How do you find ARC readers? If you already have a newsletter or a blog, start by asking your readers there. Beyond that, family and friends who read and review your genre and people in your writing groups can be good people to ask.

Generally, the easiest way to keep track of ARC readers is to set up a form and collect contact info, what dates work best for people to post their reviews, etc. through that.

Step 11: Order a Proof

Once your book is set up, you’ll be able to order a print proof of your book to make sure the formatting is all as it should be in physical form, comb over one more time for typos or grammatical errors, that kind of thing. Make sure there aren’t any issues with the cover, the interior formatting, etc. Once you’ve checked it over, either tweak your files or approve it as is appropriate. Ideally, you should probably order a new proof every time you make changes, just to make sure nothing has shifted weird, but it may be sufficient to only order one proof and trust nothing’s going to moved.

You’ll also want to check over your ebook proof to make sure everything is displaying properly there. I found out after publishing Lost Girl that it was shoving words together, even though the document looked fine on my computer, and I had to upload it in a different format. It may be tempting to skip this step, but don’t.

Step 12: Send ARCs

This can be before you’ve fully approved the proofs, since ARC readers generally go in with the understanding that they’ll be getting a not-quite-perfect copy (especially if you set that expectation). You want the book to be near-perfect, but your ARC readers will forgive a few uncaught typos or formatting glitches.

If you’re sending e-ARCs, you’ll send PDFs via email. If you’re sending print ARCs, you’ll need to order those and arrange for packaging and postage and then make sure they get sent out.

Step 13: Head Into Your Marketing Plan

What exactly this will entail depends on what platforms you’re focusing your attention on, but this generally involves sharing graphics on social media and can also include a blog tour and/or online launch parties (which require their own set of plans). Social media posts can include countdowns, quote graphics, behind-the-scenes info, character cards, or whatever else you want to come up with. If you can come up with things that relate specifically to your book’s content/themes/etc., bonus points. The goal is just to get your book on people’s radars in a positive way and influence them to buy it when it comes out.

(If you’re interested, I can do an additional post about marketing suggestions and the things I tried for my own books.)

Step 14: Launch Your Book!

Hit the publish button on your chosen publishing platform and watch your book enter the world. Congratulations! You’re a published author! Shout it from the rooftops and don’t be afraid to be proud of your work! You’ve done a lot to reach this point. You’ve earned some celebration!

Step 15: Continue Marketing

Marketing doesn’t stop once your book is published. People won’t stumble across it on their own–at least not a lot of people–unfortunately. You have to continue building hype, continue putting it in front of them, continue making it sound like something they need to read. Just try not to be obnoxious in the process. ;) (In case anyone was wondering… this is the step I struggle with the most, lol.)

Self-publishing is obviously a lot of work, but it’s fairly manageable when you break it down. It’s still stressful, it’s still difficult, but it is manageable (especially if you have help, support, and encouragement), and it’s totally worth it.

What scares you most about publishing? What do you most look forward to? Is there anything else you want to know about the publishing process? Drop your thoughts in the comments!

NaNoWriMo Week 2 Check-In

Current total word count: 23,248 (hoping to get up to 23,500 this evening)

Favorite snippet from this week:

Duyên stepped onto the porch as a peal of thunder rolled in the distance. She looked up at the dark clouds gathering over the jungle and frowned. The sunset was coming faster than usual.

With a quick glance, Duyên spotted Ryuu looking up at the sky before stepping down from the porch. She hurried over to him and set a hand on his arm. “Do you want some company? I could walk you home.”

Ryuu smiled a little and offered her his elbow, but his eyes didn’t hold the sparkle they usually did. “Shouldn’t I be the one walking you home?”

Duyên hooked her arm through his and tried to give a reassuring smile, but she doubted it was effective.

The two of them walked in silence, the thunder growing louder as the storm approached. Duyên set her head against Ryuu’s arm, wishing she could do something more to make him feel better.

Just as the Lai house came into view, raindrops started to hit Duyên’s skin. She raised her head and looked up at Ryuu. “Race you to the door?”

Ryuu chuckled and unhooked his arm from hers. The two of them took off, racing the rain, but the rain turned to a downpour a few feet from the house and they were soaked by the time they stepped onto the porch.

Duyên turned back to Ryuu. “Do you want to borrow an umbrella?”

Ryuu shrugged. “I’ll be all right. Thanks, though.”

Duyên frowned. “Are you sure?”

Ryuu nodded and leaned down to kiss her forehead. “Have a good evening, Duyên.”

Duyên watched him head back into the rain and frowned. He wasn’t himself since the dragons, and she had no idea what to do about it.

Biggest challenge this week: Continued lack of motivation has been the big thing this week. I’m still pushing through, but there were three days this week that I didn’t come close to hitting my 2k goal. Tuesday I was struggling so much I only forced myself to write a little more than 100 words and fell behind, so yesterday and today have been catch-up days.

Biggest success this week: I figured out the specifics of one of my magic rules! It’s something that’s been bugging me since I first developed the novel idea, but that I could get away without knowing. But I finally know how it works, and I’m so much more confident in my ability to make everything work now, lol.

How has this week gone for you? Have you hit the mid-month writing slump yet? Is writing a breeze or more of a slow climb through snow? What have your big victories been so far?