R.A. Hobbs's Blog, page 3

6 Quick Tips for Aspiring Authors

I started my own writing journey three years ago and have collected some excellent advice along the way.  So, I thought I’d put it down in a list for all my friends who have aspirations of writing that novel someday.

1.) Start writing now.  If your serious about this goal of writing a book – start writing now.  Writing is a craft that you can only learn by doing.  You don’t necessarily need to start the novel yet – but just write something, anything.  Start a journal, a blog, or a newsletter.  Get into the habit of at least writing for 15 minutes a day.  You’re going to need that habit later.

2.) Read.  Read everything you can get your hands on.  Read fiction, and non-fiction and something from every genre.  Read short stories, and long stories and everything in between.  Read good books and bad books.  Read everything.

3.) Study your favorite authors.  Take notes as you read them, what you like , what you didn’t like etc…  I have even heard of physically writing down passages from your favorite author as an exercise.  I haven’t done it myself yet, but you get the picture.

4.)Read books on writing.  There are some really good books that give you the basic rules on writing craft.  Off the top of my head I can think of Stephen King’s book, On Writing is excellent, so is Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne & Dave King.  Google for this stuff – there’s a ton of really great books by professionals in the industry that will help you nip a lot of amateur writing mistakes in the bud.

5.) Learn to welcome critique.  Yes it hurts, and yes it stings for a while afterwards but without it you will never grow as a writer – much less a person.  And remember – writing is just words – and they need to be put down in a certain order for them to be understood.  Nothing less, nothing more.  (still hurts though, ain’t gonna lie! But after a while you do develop a thick skin and the crits don’t sting for nearly as long as they used to.)

6.) It takes the average writer 15 minutes (give or take) to write 250 words.  If you write for 15 minutes a day, every day, for a year, you will have written about 90,000 words.    90,000 words is the size of a good novel!

When you finally do get around to writing that novel, you’ll have a good foundation and habits to build from.

So, start writing now!

Cheers!

-R

My latest “Work” in progress.

I mean, really.  Can making up stories and writing them down be considered “work”?

Writing in an entertaining fashion, yes.  But come on – you writers know that for the most part this stuff is really fun for us.

Anyway,

About a month ago, I was in the middle of having a pity party, when I read a blog by Kristen Katheryn Rusch that inspired me to get out of a writing slump I was in.  I don’t remember the specifics of the blog post – if you want to read it yourself, I would suggest reading all of her posts because she is awesome and the type of writer that I aspire to be.

Anyway, something she said resounded like a clash of cymbals and snapped me out of feeling sorry for myself and to get my ass off the couch and back into that old, creaky, duct-tape wrapped contraption that my husband and I affectionately call with quote fingers – “The Office Chair”.  It is not one of these, I assure you.  I hate it.  And it hates me.

So, there I was, sitting in the “Office Chair” ready to kick butt on the keyboard but without any clue what to write. Whether it was a grocery list or a living will, it didn’t matter. I just needed to write something.

So, I tried a writing prompt.  You basically pull two random words or three or four – it doesn’t matter – out of the air and try to make a story out of them.  Some writers use pictures to do this, or some make up titles of books and try to come up with a story to fit – but, I extracted, with some difficulty, two random words from the top of my head.  And they were, Ninja + toothpaste.

I think that maybe living with a very rambunctious nine-year old boy might have had something to do with how easily the word Ninja came to my mind.  The other was probably because it was nearing bedtime for my kids and I was trying to convince them to brush their teeth/use toothpaste sometime in the next decade so I could have my evening mommy let down time.

So, Ninja Toothpaste.  That’s how my latest novelette, How Ninjas Brush Their Teeth was born.

At first I didn’t expect much out of it, but as I wrote – the plot started coming along and now, I believe I could write a sequel if there was ever a demand for it. (pfft! Don’t get me wrong, I like it – but I have really odd tastes and there’s hardly a guarantee that anyone else will .)

I have about a chapter left on it now, and after it’s done, I’ll probably let it sit for a week before going through my revision process and sending it out to beta readers.

I’m planning on uploading it by the end of September.  Can’t wait!

Oh, and a couple of months ago I mentioned I had finished my novel Pandora Mech?  Yeah, still revising that one.  Finishing that project once and for all and getting it into the hands of beta readers will now be my main focus.

Well, that’s it.  Thanks for stopping by!

Cheers!

-R.

Hugh Howey bought my book!

If you read sci-fi and don’t know who Hugh Howey is – please, do yourself a favor and get acquainted with his break-out series called Wool.  It’s some of the most immersive writing I have read in sci-fi for a long time.  He is also a self-published author who has found huge success and one of those outliers that all of us one day-dream to be.  I don’t know how many times I’ve mentioned his success to my husband in hope of him getting on board with my dream of one day being able to make money with self-publishing – but it’s a lot and I’m sure he’s pretty sick of hearing that name, actually!

So for Hugh Howey to be the first one to buy The Girl and the Guitar – ever,  is … just frikken wild, weird and cool and surreal and awesome and puzzling and crazy all at the same time.

I was replying to a thread in a writers forum to congratulate a fellow self-publisher on her 5,000th sale and I mentioned how I felt inspired by it despite my zero sales and that it gave me hope for my own success.  Right after that, Hugh Howey replied and said, “There, I bought a copy.  Now you are on your way!”  And then I typed some nonsense in return as I fell out of my chair onto my ass.

I’m just so giddy!  Even if he hates it – my book is on his kindle and I think that’s just so cool.  And even if I don’t sell another copy, it just motivates me to keep trying and to keep my head up.

I also don’t want to forget that two other posters in that thread also took pity on my non-existent sales and bought a copy of Interview with an Android.

I realize that these were bought out of pity – but you know what?  I’m okay with that!  They were trying to encourage me and guess what?  I’m very encouraged!  LOL

So thank you Hugh, T.L Jennings and Donald Wells!

This reminds me of an old friend of mine, Alan R. Gandy,  who writes Zombie graphic novels and  told a story on a podcast that he was at comicon and George A. Romero came walking by, checking out all the zombie books and comics and stopped by his table, picked up his comic, thumbed through it and set it down before walking off.

The interviewer asked him if it bothered him that he didn’t buy his book, and he said, “No way!  I was so excited that George A. Romero just touched my book, are you kidding?”

When I heard that I remember chuckling and thinking to myself, wow, I hope I can have the same attitude someday.  And now I totally get what he meant!

Cheers!,

-R