Lauralynn Elliott's Blog, page 55

ROW80 Check In 1/11/12

The first couple of days this week have been okay. I've managed to keep ahead on my word count. I've written the last two days, although this book is HARD to write (see my previous post). I just have to hang in there and see what happens when I'm finished. It may be good, it may be crap. I exercised Monday, but not last night. I had to help a friend with something and I didn't get home until late. I had just enough time to write my 500+ words. So that also means I got no housework done, nor did I get any proofing done on my print book. But I have the rest of the week to make up for that. And helping a friend was worth it.

On a very pleasant note…my free story on Smashwords, The Beast in the Mirror, is getting lots of downloads. I got a 5 star review almost immediately after publishing. I now have another 5 star and a 4 star review there. I'm pleased with that because that story is dear to my heart. It's still .99 on Amazon. I told them it was free on Smashwords, but it may take awhile for them to make it free on Amazon. And people are actually buying it for .99 and haven't yet complained that it's a short story. Of course, it states clearly in the description how short it is.

How are the rest of you doing so far this week?

Why Am I Writing a Horror Book?

I have no idea why I'm writing a horror book. It's one of my favorite genres to read, but I've never written anything but paranormal and fantasy romance. And there's a little bit of romance in this book, but that's not the main focus. My reading is so eclectic that I know I can't write in EVERY genre I read. But horror has always been fascinating to me. So I thought I would give it a try. And I'll have to say that this is the hardest thing I've ever written. I can't tell if the violent scenes are interesting or not. Am I going into too much detail…not enough….? Are the scenes too long…too short….? The only way to know if this book is going to work is to set it down a week or so after it's finished, then read it again as a reader. And then there are the beta readers. I'm really, really scared about sending this one out. What if my betas say this is trash? But what if it's good? When I wrote Haunted Lake, I was able to get that spooky feeling that allowed me to write something a little dark. There was a little bit of mild horror in that book. Not anything really scary, although it would have been if it happened in real life. But the book I'm writing now has slasher type violence in it. I know I'm rambling, but I'm really, really worried about this book. I think this will be the last time I try horror. Maybe.

Eye Candy Post #3

Sometimes I just like to post things that are fun. I don't usually get a lot of comments on my eye candy posts, but my stats show that I do get some lookers. Anyway, here are my two lovelies for today.

Ian Somerhadler

It took me awhile to warm up to this guy. He plays Damon on The Vampire Diaries, and he was such a ruthless killer at the beginning of the series, I just didn't see his hotness. I was told by many Damon fans that I would change my mind. I have. I really, really have. So Ian Somerhalder is now on my top five sexy vampires list.

Shamar Moore

Shamar is so good looking he's almost pretty. His skin is a beautiful color, and those eyes…. He plays Derek Morgan on Criminal Minds, another favorite show of mine.

One of the things these two men have in common, and one of the reasons I put them in the same post, is their beautiful eyebrows. Ian's eyebrows are so expressive, and he uses that to his advantage often. And Shamar's eyebrows are shaped so nicely. People think I'm crazy when I say Shamar Moore has beautiful eyebrows, but they really are gorgeous. That's always one of the first things I notice when I see him.

I hope you ladies have enjoyed the eye candy today!

ROW80 Check In 1/8/12

I'm feeling pretty good about my progress this week. I skipped two days of writing this week and still managed to be ahead of my cumulative goal by 781. That's because I had a really good word count on two of the days I wrote. I was kicking butt on word count yesterday, but then a friend called and needed me. That broke my concentration. But sometimes there are more important things than writing. I'm finding Wednesday to be the hardest day for goals because as soon as I get home from work, I'm already starting the process of getting ready for church. Then it's 8:30 before I get home and I'm tired.

I didn't keep my goal of 30 minutes per day on proofing one of my books for print, but I worked on it a lot yesterday, so I probably made up for most of it.

I was 2/3 successful on the exercise front. I exercised two out of the three days I was supposed to, so I need to do better next week.

I did okay on the housekeeping goal, although not great. On some of these things I have to take baby steps until I get back into a good routine.

How did the rest of you do? I'd love to hear!

A Good Plot Twist

How many of you like a good plot twist? One that surprises the heck out of you. I do. The trouble is, I read so much that I can almost always figure out the "surprise". That's not always that bad. I had someone email me about my book Starfane, and she said even though she kind of saw what was coming, it was a joy ride getting there. I took that as a compliment, but it would have been nice to surprise her. Some readers get what's going to happen in Starfane, and some people don't.

But I'm digressing, because I didn't start this post meaning to talk about Starfane. I'm talking about Kill Me If You Can by James Patterson and Marshall Karp. I'm listening to the audiobook, and the story is told partly in first person and partly in third. When you're listening to the first person POV, you feel like you really know the person who's speaking. But suddenly, he's not who you thought he was. In fact, I rewound three times because I thought I was hearing something wrong. I was floored. I didn't see it coming. I don't want to spoil the surprise in case some of you plan to read this book later, so I won't say what happened. But I was just delighted at the fact that I had been fooled. The plot twist was completely unexpected to me.

How about you? Do you care if you're surprised or not? Do you love a good plot twist? Would you rather be fooled or would you rather figure it out? I would love to hear from you.

Vampire Diaries Revisited

Okay, okay, I get the Damon thing now. I know I said that I thought Stefan was hotter and I couldn't understand the obsession so many women had with Damon. But I GET it now. I'm not sure where the turning point was. I can't put my finger on the exact moment when I suddenly realized Damon was hot. Maybe it happened slowly as I began to see some real humanity come through. He is obviously in love with Elena. I think maybe the moment that it really hit me was when he kissed Katherine, thinking it was Elena. That was such an intense moment that I had butterflies. When I realized that I was actually disappointed that it WASN'T Elena, then I knew I was getting the Damon thing. I do still really like Stefan. I think the two brothers complement each other…dark and light. (On a side note, it helps me a lot to think of these characters as older adults instead of high school kids.)

I know many of you out there want to say "I told you so". So go ahead. I understand now. LOL

ROW80 Check In 1/4/12

We've only had two days to work on our goals since we posted them, but I'm pretty pleased so far. On Monday, I wrote about 650 words, and last night I wrote over 1,000. Not bad since my goal is 500 per day.

As far as my other goals are concerned, I didn't do anything on them on Monday, but I knocked all of them out yesterday. One household chore, thirty minutes of exercise, and thirty minutes proofing for a print book.

How about the rest of you? How did you do the past two days?

ROW80 2012 Round One Goals

The year 2011 was a good one for me. I published three novellas, one novel (I keep forgetting about this because I actually wrote this in 2010), and made some pretty good money. I didn't make every single goal I tried for (especially in the weight loss area), but I'm not disappointed in the writing goals I met.

My goals for 2012, Round One:

1. Finish a novel I started last year by writing an average of at least 500 words per day.

2. Work 30 minutes a day on proofing and formatting three novellas that I'm combining in a print collection. (The three novellas are available individually as ebooks.)

3. Exercise (aerobic and/or weight lifting) at least 30 minutes, three days a week. At some point, I hope to revise this goal to include more, but I want to start small so I won't get discouraged.

4. Work on at least one house cleaning related chore per day, more on Saturdays. It's not fair that my husband does the lion's share of the house cleaning. This is a big guilt trip for me.

Those are my goals for Round One. I have a few more personal goals, too, but they are religious in nature, and I don't really want to state them here. I hope everyone has a great year in 2012 with lots of success. I'll try to get around to as many ROW80 blogs as possible to give a little encouragement. And I'm always here if anyone needs to vent or has any questions about my experiences in the last couple of years. Good lucky, everyone!

My Thoughts on The Vampire Diaries

I'm not going to say too much about the constant casual sex among teenagers in The Vampire Diaries, because Kait Nolan and Susan Bischoff covered that awhile back. Let's just say I agree with them.

One of the things I find lacking in The Vampire Diaries is the wonderful snarky lines from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I know these are two totally different shows, but I miss the humor. I can't find anything really funny in TVD.

Okay, here's the biggest thing I don't understand about the obsession with TVD…Damon. I'm almost finished with Season One, and I STILL don't like this vampire. He's a real jerk. In the last few episodes, he has done some surprisingly humane things (not many), but then he turns around and snaps the neck of an innocent person. But women are OBSESSED with this guy. Personally, I think Stefan is better looking and much sexier. Damon isn't quite as masculine as Stefan. But fans of the show keep telling me to wait and see how I feel about Damon later. So I'm going to give him a chance. When I started watching the Buffy DVD's, I thought it would be Angel forever. But my friend told me that she would end up with Spike later. I thought that was the craziest thing I ever heard. How could that awful vampire, Spike, ever hold a candle to the sexy, brooding Angel? But guess how I felt about the whole thing later? It was definitely Spike all the way. And I'm seeing some parallels here. Stefan and Angel are both all broody and full of angst about their pasts. Damon and Spike accept themselves as vampires and don't feel the guilt. There's definitely a pattern here. So right now, I'm on Team Stefan. But I'm keeping myself open to the possibility that at some point, my focus will be on Damon…like most of the female population. LOL

The Importance of Publishing Often

I want to start by saying this post will probably relate only to independent authors, since publishing schedules for traditionally published books are usually out of the author's hands. And traditional publishing usually takes a long time.

I don't usually give too much advice on my blog. The biggest reason for that is I have an author friend who used to give lots of advice, hoping to help other authors and keep them from making the mistakes she did. And what did she get for it? Lots and lots of criticism. Other authors slammed her for "telling them what to do", etc. So I really hesitated about writing this post. I've been thinking about this a lot, though, and I'm just going to jump into it, and if I make someone mad, I'm sorry. That's not my intention. Remember, this is MY blog, so it's only MY opinions.

I'm going to take off my writer hat for a moment and put on my reader hat. This whole topic was inspired by feelings I have as a reader more than a writer. I'll start with a personal story. I found a book that I really, really liked. It was well written and kept me interested through the whole story. When I was finished, the first thing I did was look for another book by the same author. There wasn't one! This was her first novel, so I thought I would wait awhile and check again. And again. And again. After several months (maybe a year), I gave up. Now I can't remember the name of the author. This means I'll probably never read her next book. I was disappointed that I couldn't read anything else by this author, but I had to move on.

As a reader, that story was just mildly annoying. As a writer, it worried me a little. It made me wonder if I was publishing fast enough. Some authors write much faster than others. That's just a fact. Some authors who have been writing awhile won't have to have to edit their books as much as those who are newer to the business. Some authors write a pretty clean first draft. There are so many factors involved in writing and publishing, so there's no set rule as to how often you should publish. I've heard authors that take a year claim that no one can write a good book in three or four months. I've heard authors that write quickly claim that there's no way it can possibly take a year to write a book. Sometimes, I just get tired of hearing authors criticize other authors. But I digress from my original point. I personally think it's important to publish as often as you can as long as you can maintain quality. I had a reader email me recently, asking when my third Libby Fox novella was coming out. She was getting impatient because she actually wanted to read something I had written. It made me feel good, but something like that also puts pressure on an author. It had only been three or four months since I published the second one. Then I got a text from my uncle who lives about 600 miles away telling me I needed to get writing because he had read all my books and wanted another one. He said after he would read one, he had to pick up the next one and start reading. Again, a compliment, but more pressure. But if people want to read my next book that badly, shouldn't I make an effort to give it to them?

If you're not publishing at least two books a year, what's holding you back? Is it fear? I know for a fact this is the case for some authors because they've told me so. But what are you afraid of? If you're afraid someone won't like your book, then you're right. Lots of people won't like it. But lots of people will. How will you know unless you take the plunge? Maybe you're not publishing because you're a "tweaker". No matter how many times you go over your book, you find things you aren't satisfied with. The thing is, after you publish, you'll STILL be finding things you aren't happy with. I certainly do. But you have to publish it sometime. Otherwise, what was the point in writing it? Or are you a lazy writer who only dabbles a bit here and there, but don't really want to put in the effort it takes to actually write a book? If you're just doing this for fun, that's okay. In that case, your goal isn't necessarily to be published.

I published three novellas during ROW80 this year (I probably would have written one more if my mom hadn't had the heart attack in February). In fact, it was because of ROW80 that I was able to do it because I am just a little bit lazy as a writer sometimes. ROW80 kept me accountable. My goal is to produce at least two full length novels during 2012. I don't want my readers to have to wait a year on my next book. I would love to write even faster than that, but with a full time job, that's almost impossible. And there are other factors, I know, that can hold up writing and publishing. Life just happens. But I feel like my goal should be to put as much out there as I possibly can…without sacrificing quality. I don't want a reader to forget my name because they couldn't find my next book.

What about you? What are your writing and publishing goals? Why have you set the goals you have? I would love to hear from you, even if you disagree with me. I'm always open to comments and I love to hear what my fellow authors think.