Robin Jeffrey's Blog, page 5

The Check-In

Welcome to THE CHECK-IN, where you can get a sneak peek into my writing progress every week! Read on to find out what I’m working on and how things are progressing in my world.

Here’s the breakdown:

Lonely is the Night – Progress! But not as much progress as I was hoping for! I got back from my work trip/working vacation on Tuesday night last week and then was gone again Friday morning for a different social engagement (got back Sunday), so I’ve only had a couple “working” days so far to focus on this project. In the end, I’m going to miss my self-imposed deadline for getting this draft to my editor, but I’m trying to extend grace and kindness to myself. It’s not that I haven’t been working! It’s just other parts of my job have gotten in the way of putting words down on paper. After all, I’m only eight months into this full-time creative thing. It makes sense that I’m still figuring out how to balance everything! The Graveyard Keeper – Speaking of balance, I’m putting this project back on the shelf (again). I just really want to get Lonely finished and done and to do that I need to focus on it exclusively. Not my usual M.O., but I think it’s necessary this time around.

Grace and kindness. It’s hard to practice those virtues with myself, particularly in regards to my work, but like everything it truly is a matter of ‘practice’. I’m not a story generating machine. I’m a person and as such I’m going to have some more productive times than others and not always meet the goals I set. It happens! It doesn’t mean I’m not still the badass writer I’ve been trying to be. It just means I’m human.

LESSON OF THE WEEK: BEING HUMAN IS WHAT MAKES THE WRITING WORTH READING.

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The Check-In

Welcome to THE CHECK-IN, where you can get a sneak peek into my writing progress every week! Read on to find out what I’m working on and how things are progressing in my world.

Here’s the breakdown:

Lonely is the Night – Exactly where it was last week.The Graveyard Keeper – Exactly where it was last week.

You see, I participated in a four day event at the Washington Spring Fair (where I had a fantastic time connecting with readers and book supporters!) this past week and, on top of that, I decided to give myself a little bit of a break. So I’ve been taking a working vacation. Emphasis on the working. I like to think that I’m not a full-time creative, but an all-time creative. Even when I take a break, I’m still plugged in, chipping away at the writing life. This week I’ll get back to putting words on paper, but for now, it’s been nice to step away for a bit and recharge.

LESSON OF THE WEEK: TAKE A BREAK WHEN YOU NEED IT.

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Washington Spring Fair – LAST DAY!

LAST DAY TO VISIT ME AT WASHINGTON SPRINT FAIR 2024!

Come to the Washington Spring Fair in Puyallup today & find me at the Author Event Network booth (Booth 905) where I will be signing and selling all of my books. Readers Unite! Whether mystery, science fiction, romance, or the paranormal is your jam, I have something for you. Come find me at the fair!

https://videopress.com/v/AEP6xaqx?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

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The Check-In

Welcome to THE CHECK-IN, where you can get a sneak peek into my writing progress every week! Read on to find out what I’m working on and how things are progressing in my world.

Here’s the breakdown:

Lonely is the Night – WOOOAAAH – WE’RE OVER HALFWAY THERE! That’s right, we have crossed the halfway point in the rough draft for the third Night book. And there was much rejoicing. I’ve got a little more of that muddy middle to get through and then hopefully things will start flowing a little more easily again. Honestly, it’s been a slog this past week and I think I may have to push my “To the Editor” deadline back a couple weeks into Mid-May rather than the beginning of May. But we shall see! The Graveyard Keeper – I just can’t seem to find the motivation I need to work on this piece. I’ve got a thousand words of it translated over to first person but the whole thing seems so daunting. I’m not sure what I need to make this book really work, I feel like I’ve gotten so close so many times. But we’ll see if I can make some slow, steady progress all the same.

Full disclosure time: I’m burnt out. I can tell. The words aren’t coming, the motivation isn’t there and I look at my writing time with a sense of dread. I need to take a step back which is always my least favorite thing to do. It feels like quitting, even though in my head and in my heart I know it’s just tending my own soul-garden so I can write even more and even better than before.

With all that in mind, I don’t expect to write a lot in the coming week as I’ll be taking a self-imposed vacay. Now, if the spirit moves me and I feel inspired, I’m not going to stop myself from writing. But I won’t be forcing myself to sit at the keyboard every day either.

LESSON OF THE WEEK: IF YOU’RE HEART IS TELLING YOU THAT YOU NEED TO TAKE A BREAK – LISTEN.

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Behind the Scenes Sunday

Business of Writing

Let’s take a peek at the cogs inside the machine and talk about why I write and how I write on Behind the Scenes Sunday! Today I’d like to talk about how I am attempting to use the business of being a writer to support my actual writing projects, such as teaching, participating in conferences, and Kickstarter.

I attended a fantastic writing conference early this year where presenters broke down the three ways most people support their writing.

The writing supports the writing. This means the income you receive from your creative writing projects is sufficient to support your basic needs including giving you time to do more creative writing. I think this is what your average joe still thinks of when they think of a “full-time author”. Truly, though, people who get to live this way are few and far between. The full-time job supports the writing. This means you have a separate, non-writing related full-time job that financial supports your creative writing pursuits. This isn’t for everyone — not everyone can balance the demands of what can essentially become two full-time jobs (if not more) plus the pressures of everyday life. But, for those who can make it work, this is often the most fiscally viable method of support.The business of writing supports the writing. This means you have writing-related work that supports your creative writing time. I.e. the business of being an author, hand-selling books, teaching about writing, making appearances at conventions, etc. etc., provides income that is sufficient to support your basic needs including giving you time to write.

Number 3 is where I am currently focusing my efforts. Through teaching writing courses, hand-selling books at in-person events, and investigating starting a Kickstarter and restarting my Patreon, I am looking at all the various ways I can make the business of writing support the act of writing. This mode of supporting your writing can be challenging: it’s keeping a lot of plates spinning while making sure you still have time to express yourself creatively. But I am really enjoying myself and finding more and more success doing this. I’m excited to see what the rest of 2024 has in store for both my creative writing and my writing business!

As always, if you’re interested in supporting me and my work, thank you: Hungry is the Night, my paranormal romance, is available on all major platforms, as are my classic murder mysteries with scifi twists, The Cadence Turing Mystery series!

Order Your Copies Now!

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The Check-In

Welcome to THE CHECK-IN, where you can get a sneak peek into my writing progress every week! Read on to find out what I’m working on and how things are progressing in my world.

Here’s the breakdown:

Lonely is the Night – Still plugging away at the first draft! So close to hitting the halfway point, I can taste it. I’ll probably hit it today, which is very exciting. Not entirely sure I’ll make my self-imposed May 1st deadline, but I think I’ll be near to it. External-to-writing stuff (a.k.a. life) has taken up a lot of time that I haven’t been expecting, but I’m still finding space to work on this a little bit every day. The Graveyard Keeper – New project alert! New project with a twist — The Graveyard Keeper is an old project that is technically already finished. So why is it showing up here? Well, I recently made the decision to rewrite the entire thing from 3rd person to 1st person. Am I crazy? Probably. Do I think it will make the whole book better? I honestly do. So I think it will be work worth doing. Yes, it will take time, but anything worth doing takes time and effort and I’d rather do it right than do it fast. So, I’m going to start tracking my progress “from scratch” as it were and see how I move along getting this piece changed over!

It’s strange, I didn’t put as many words on paper this week as I would’ve liked, but I still feel like I did really well. I’m very happy with what I’ve written and with other aspects of my writing career (Two amazing signings in two weeks where I sold over eighty books total! Getting to 100 ratings on Goodreads!). I’m going to hold on to that positive feeling and hope it helps the words keep flowing.

LESSON OF THE WEEK: STAY POSITIVE WHEN YOU CAN.

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Behind the Scenes Sunday

In-Person Events

Let’s take a peek at the cogs inside the machine and talk about why I write and how I write on Behind the Scenes Sunday! Today I’d like to talk about doing in-person events as an author. The benefits, the drawbacks, and why I think absolutely every author needs to do in person events as often as they can!

There are few things more exciting than connecting directly with a reader. I love getting emails from folks letting me know how much they’ve enjoyed my work, or comments on my social media content, or anything like that. But nothing quite beats the rush of meeting a reader face to face and watching them walk away with your book, excited to dive into the world you’ve created.

I have been doing in-person events ever since I self-published my first book in 2021. Of course, it was a little more difficult in those days to get in-person events off the ground, given that we were still all recovering from COVID. But now, in-person book events are in full swing once more. Whether you like to meet your readers at bookstores, coffee shops, or comic cons, there are more opportunities than ever to look people in the eye and pitch your book.

I think every author should do in-person events and do them frequently. Not only is it a great way to see what kind of reader your books are connecting with, it’s a great way to build things like newsletter lists, street teams, and more. People want to support you and by showing up at in-person events you are showing readers you are willing to put in effort if they are!

It’s not always easy — your book isn’t going to be for everyone and not everyone is going to be nice about saying that. But the majority of interactions you have are going to be positive. So what are you waiting for? Get your in-person events set up today!

As always, if you’re interested in supporting me and my work, thank you: Hungry is the Night, my paranormal romance, is available on all major platforms, as are my classic murder mysteries with scifi twists, The Cadence Turing Mystery series!

Order Your Copies Now!

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The Check-In

Welcome to THE CHECK-IN, where you can get a sneak peek into my writing progress every week! Read on to find out what I’m working on and how things are progressing in my world.

Here’s the breakdown:

Save Yourself – This project is headed for the WIP folder, to be worked on again at a later date. This was a hard decision for me to make, because it was enjoying what I was happening with this piece, but in the end, I felt I owed it to The Night series to try and make more forward progress on book three and focus my attention there. I predict this project will seen the light of day again, sooner rather than later!Lonely is the Night – Some solid progress on the third wolfy book, though not as much as I was hoping, quite candidly. Still, I’m making steady, forward movement through this draft. Having a game plan for the muddy middle has helped immensely and I really like what I am coming up with character/dialogue/conflict wise. We’ll see how it all shakes out upon editing, but I think outlining has actually helped make this a better draft — oh no!

Can a leopard change his spots? An old dog learn new tricks? We’ll see. I’m still not a hundred percent sold on this whole “outlining” thing. After all, I’ve written seven great books and one killer novella without it. But I’m never going to say ‘no’ if there’s a better, easier way to get my work done. It’s got to be worth a try, right?

LESSON OF THE WEEK: YOU’RE NEVER STUCK – ONLY TAKING A BREATHER.

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Countdown to Kitsap Mall Barnes & Noble Signing!

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Kitsap Mall Barnes & Noble Signing!

In less than a week, I’ll be back at it again — this time at the Kitsap Mall Barnes & Noble! March 30th starting at 11am I will be in the store signing and selling copies of all my books, ready to meet and greet, chat about all things bookish, and see all your lovely faces. Be sure to mark your calendars so you can stop by and say hi!

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The Check-In

Welcome to THE CHECK-IN, where you can get a sneak peek into my writing progress every week! Read on to find out what I’m working on and how things are progressing in my world.

Here’s the breakdown:

Save Yourself – In all honesty, I’ve largely put Save Yourself on the back burner as I focus on Lonely is the Night. I’d really like to get the third Night book to my editor by the beginning of May and since this is the series under contract, it just feels like it should have more priority. But it’s not only that. The writing is coming a lot better with Lonely (more on that below).Lonely is the Night – Having read Rachel Aaron’s 2k to 10k, I decided to start implementing some of her suggestions in small ways as I work on this draft. I’m still not certain I’m ever going to hit 10k in a day — that just requires a commitment of time that I don’t know I have in me to be quite honest. I get a little antsy sitting and doing one task longer than four hours or so. BUT — her tip of planning on what you’re going to write before you write it? I’m annoyed to say it’s helped dramatically.

I’ve never been a plotter – at most, a plantser. But my experiences this past week with writing Lonely may get me to change my methods. Writing should be fun, after all, not a slog, and if planning ahead helps grease the wheels for that fun — well, I might just bite the bullet and do it!

LESSON OF THE WEEK: DON’T BE AFRAID TO TRY NEW TECHNIQUES!

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