Konn Lavery's Blog: Posts from konnlavery.com, page 9

Telus StoryHive Edmonton Interview EP4 with Konn Lavery

I’m pleased to share that I was interviewed on Telus’s StoryHive by the 2022 Summer Crew 3 in Edmonton!

Listen to the interview on Telus StoryHive’s website.

We talk about my writing, creative process, the various books, and my love for transmedia storytelling.

Thanks to Keys 2 the City YEG crew for having me.

Enjoy!

The post Telus StoryHive Edmonton Interview EP4 with Konn Lavery appeared first on Konn Lavery.

Chiselling Away at Writing Vs Burst Sessions

Chiselling away at writing bests burst sessions over a long time. You’d be amazed at what a little bit per day will do vs doing burst sessions and taking breathers in-between. This is your classic tortoise versus the hare scenario. As great as it is to have massive burst sessions, we all can’t block out hours a day to focus on writing. I’ve preached many times on the blog about keeping momentum while writing. Today we will elaborate more by chiselling away at writing vs bursting through it.

Welcome to Another Edition of Unprocessed Thoughts

I love dedicating portions of a day or an entire day to writing. It is liberating to focus on nothing else but the story. You can power through big chunks of the manuscript this way and string it all together with a clear mind. It gives you a greater sense of focus because your mind isn’t being thrown in many different directions. That’s not always possible throughout the week, especially if you juggle a full-time job or personal commitments.

Chiselling away at writing has far more strength in this realm. It’s another way to describe what every author I know does: write a little bit every day. You will be amazed at how quickly it adds up after a week. Take it one step further and let a couple months go by, and before you know it, you’ve tackled major milestones with your writing. So, how do you do it?

Stay Organised

Some people love organization; personally, I don’t. It seems to be a means to an end. The perks are so crucial to my world that I stay pretty organized in my graphic design business and writing. If I don’t do it, everything behaves like a collapsing tower of Jenga. I have a blog post dedicated to keeping organized while writing found here.

The small sessions are low commitment and give a small return, meaning you don’t get far with the tiny steps when looking at a single day of chiselling away. For example, if you only spend a 15-minute or 30-minute sessions, you’ve only done a tiny bit. Sometimes it takes 30 minutes to finally get into the groove of the writing, then before you know it, you have to go back to some other task or move on. This can be solved by . . .

Keeping Notes

Your future self will love you if you write things down. After all, you are a writer. This should come as second nature. Keeping notes also applies to other art mediums as well. The methods will vary for each person depending on how they like to be reminded of things. Some people love colour-coated sticky notes. I personally do not. I’ve digitized most of my working documents for projects because otherwise, I would have mountains of paper covering every corner of my apartment.

Notes can be as simple as a few lines. They should be to jolt your memory, not provide an essay. Trust your mind to be triggered when seeing the key phrase on your note. On the flip side, as Stephen King has said, notes are a great way to keep bad ideas. At the moment, something might sound like a billion-dollar idea that will push your book to be a top seller. A few months down the road, it might be pretty poor after some reflection. Good, scrap it and move in.

Chiselling Away at Writing Reveals a Sculpture

Small sessions over a long period let you reflect upon the work and see it every day. The counter to this method is it’s not effective when it comes to timelines. If you must have a manuscript by a specific date, this method only goes so far. If you have self-set goals, which are difficult for many people to commit to, this is where chiselling away at writing is compelling. You have a low commitment every day, plugging away at it.

Here is another analogy: it’s like letting a garden grow, planting a seed, watering it and enjoying the fruits of your labour months down the road. This is, of course, if you remain consistent. It’s a bland, unexciting truth about finishing a manuscript in small daily sessions.

What About Motivation?

What about it? In all honesty, motivation and inspiration seem to be the same mishmash of fluff that I don’t really look at. Coming from a graphic design background, I’ve become familiar with being a creative professional on demand. You do not have the luxury of being inspired or motivated. You must produce whether you like it are not to meet that deadline and get paid. This is where creative problem-solving comes into play, and you follow a proven process that repeatedly works to reach the end creative project.

For example, I start with dozens of thumb sketches on paper playing with ideas (like a book premise) with a logo. Then I take only the best thumb sketches and digitize them into many black and white logo variations. These are broken down into 3 to 4 basic concepts that I share with the client. The chosen concept is refined, with colour applied, and finalizes the logo. This process has worked for me for well over a decade. There have been many times when I don’t want to design logos, but I know it’s part of my job. Thus, I trust the creative process.

The same philosophy can be applied to writing by following a consistent method. Chiselling away at writing every day works in the same way. That’s not much fun, is it? Unfortunately, a lot of work is still work, regardless of whether you enjoy the medium. In a perfect world, we would only do things we like to do, but we cannot do that if we want to get somewhere.

Burnout

I’ve tackled project burnout in a previous blog post. Still, I want to bring it up again because chiselling away at writing will reduce the amount of project burnout you experience. Again, burst sessions are incredible, and if we could all do them all the time, that would be fantastic. This method is dangerously close to the road of burning out, and then you’re out of commission for weeks, if not months.

We’re Not Unique

We’re not, really. You’d be amazed at how our emotions are identical to each other. Different things trigger them, yes, except creativity. We all go through slums and have the same internal emotions about our creative outlets. Those that buckle down and work through the creative problems end up with a finished project that they can take to the next phase.

For example, I’ve been heavily bogged down with design work all year, and truthfully it feels like my year is just starting now as we reach the end of May. I consistently wrote every morning before starting the rest of my daily routine. The repetition let me complete Beyond the Macrocosm, my upcoming choose your own path short story collection. I also outlined an entirely new book for a new series which I am now writing the first draft of. While that’s been going on, the Patreon, the blog, and the newsletter have been consistently released every month. It’s thanks to chiselling away at writing, whether I like it or not.

So be kind to yourself, do small sessions consistently over several months, and you will be amazed at what you end up with.

Beer Note: Spectrum Beer co. Hot Pink Lemonade Sour

For this month, I tried Spectrum Beer co. Hot Pink Lemonade Sour. This is a relatively light 5% alcohol volume beer, which was a bit of a shock at first. Usually, if they say sour in today’s market, it’s prune-face level sour. The lightness was refreshing on a warm day. With the low alcohol level, I enjoyed too many of these in the sun.

The post Chiselling Away at Writing Vs Burst Sessions appeared first on Konn Lavery.

Blood Will: Part III

Want to read this?

Click Here to Join Konn's Patreon Today

Konn's Popular Membership:
Monthly Short Stories + eBook for $5/mo CAD
$0.16 a day.



Three eBooks to dive into The Macrocosm
Monthly Short Stories in Written and Audiobook Format
Access to drafts, works-in-progress, and writing updates
High Rez Short Story Artwork for Phone Backgrounds
Your name in the thank you section of the next Macrocosm short story collection
Access to The Macrocosm Wiki

You're basically buying me a drink every month, fueling me to craft more stories!

Let's not forget you will get a copy of the Into the Macrocosm eBook to jump-start you into this strange world of fantasy, horror, thrillers, scifi, and bizarre.To view this content, you must be a member of Konn's Patreon at $5 or more - Click "Read more" to unlock this content at the source

The post Blood Will: Part III appeared first on Konn Lavery.

Committing to Learning

Committing to learning is a lifelong dedication that shifts your mind and outlook on life. I read a quote online that I can’t recall where from. Unlucky for me, it was from one of those doom-scrolling, ludic loop moments where you get trapped after squeezing your brain dry all day (in my case, some complex design projects). Still, it was a good photo of a book, cropped down to a single line that went like this:

“You are never fully invested in something if you have full confidence in it.”

The statement resonated with me, considering some of the massive overhauls I’ve been doing with my online book marketing, design business, and life direction. How’s that for some vagueness? We’ll dive more into these topics:

Welcome to Another Edition of Unprocessed Thoughts

Like most people over the pandemic, I shifted focus to online sales due to the great world shut down. In my case, book signings, book launches and conventions were no more. This was okay for me because I have a background in the web design industry. I’ve also been learning how big-time indie authors recommend spending their time marketing which I am continually shifting to. Adapting is partly why I did not attend the Calgary Comic Expo this year.

Let’s get back to that quote we opened with. As I said, I have no idea where it came from and if you do, let me know either in the comments or by email because I’m curious. It brings up an interesting point because, as writers, we are fully invested in our craft when we finally complete that manuscript. Finishing a project shows commitment.

Growing is vital for your craft, writing, or any form of artwork. The idea of success and fulfilment with writing varies for every writer. Some writers want craft recognition, others only want to sell a few thousand copies, and others want to go big. This is where confidence becomes a double-edged sword.

Confidence. Ups and Downs.

If you’re confident in something you’re doing, you can take risks, showcase your work better, and open the doors to more opportunities because you’ve shone your abilities and can produce results.

On the flip side, confidence can lead to arrogance, cockiness, and the inability to learn. It can cloud you and your judgement, leading to poor decision-making, especially as years go on and the industries change.

Confidence can also rot your mind, leaving you stuck in your craft, and you become a one-trick pony for an indefinite amount of time until you’re committing to learning once again. That is where the total investment comes in.

Instability is the Constant

Having some confidence is a perk if you remain humble and know when to return to the role of student. Personally, I think we should be lifelong students to exercise our minds, living a fulfilling life, but that’ll derail us into a life philosophy topic.

We are continually growing and changing physically and mentally throughout our time alive, whether we like it or not. Life throws new curveballs at everyone. There’s one constant in life, which is instability. Continually being curious about the world and being willing to learn will keep you engaged, humble, and able to adapt to change.

An Adaptive Mind is Committing to Learning

Artists of all types, or entrepreneurs, must stay light on their feet and pivot quickly to keep up with our ever-changing world. I discussed some of these points in last month’s Unprocessed Thoughts with The Dark Side of Contracting. To expand upon that, we writers are always trying to find new readers. There are millions of them worldwide, which leads to the question: how do you find these people?

The methods change, and one thing will work for some months while some methods remain solid for years. A dramatic example would be referencing the conventions again. They were great for building loyal readers until they all closed in 2020. Many authors can adapt and return to the conventions now that they’re opening again. Sometimes being adaptive means going back and revisiting something with a fresh lens, and I’ll loop it back to the previous statement, which is committing to learning and not letting confidence cloud your mind.

Personal Examples

I’m kind of a clich�� where every year, around December and January, I reflect upon what worked well and what didn’t work well with writing and marketing that year. There are always ups and downs and things I can improve upon.

My marketing re-configuring has been a slow grind with the massive influx of contract work this year. However, I have drastically changed a lot on the backend with automation, tools, and marketing philosophy. It’s phase one. Phase three is profit. Phase two? Who knows? South Park reference aside, re-configuring the systems and my own mindset lets me change how I market my writing online and ultimately reach more readers who will enjoy the stories.

This goes back to committing to learning which sometimes means taking a hard look at yourself in the mirror and asking what you can trim and grow from. Thus, I put on the student hat and picked up some books to re-evaluate my writing and marketing, breaking from the slump.

The newsletter is part of the revamp that I have been working on over the past couple of months. Some of the other books I chatted about in March’s newsletter gave great insight into online marketing. I will explain more about these in the upcoming newsletter, so be sure to sign up if you haven’t.

The personal example covers the first overhaul, online book marketing, which I mentioned initially.

My design business? Well, I want to focus more on design and less web. I also wish to grow and expand my design skills, working on even more cool projects. This ties into the third overhaul, my life direction. It’s taking a new angle this year. More on that later.  

Stay Humble by Committing to Learning

That headline, along with the quote at the beginning of this blog post, sums up the whole thing, and we could have saved about 1,000 words. There’s no fun in that, though, is there? We got graphical icons, subsections, and elaborations on the quote. Either way, we can call it a day and grab a beer. Speaking of a beer, for this month, I tried . . .

Beer Note: Zero Issue Brewing Tartarus Dunkelweizen

For this month, I tried out Calgarian-based Zero Issue Brewing’s Tartarus Dunkelweizen beer, which features artwork by Phil Piercy. I haven’t tried a Dunkelweizen before, and in the spirit of staying curious, thus I did.

I quite enjoy it! Easy drinking and not too potent with a 5.1% alcohol volume making it all about the flavour. It’s something I’d have again sipping on my balcony.

The post Committing to Learning appeared first on Konn Lavery.

Blood Will: Part II

Want to read this?

Click Here to Join Konn's Patreon Today

Konn's Popular Membership:
Monthly Short Stories + eBook for $5/mo CAD
$0.16 a day.



Three eBooks to dive into The Macrocosm
Monthly Short Stories in Written and Audiobook Format
Access to drafts, works-in-progress, and writing updates
High Rez Short Story Artwork for Phone Backgrounds
Your name in the thank you section of the next Macrocosm short story collection
Access to The Macrocosm Wiki

You're basically buying me a drink every month, fueling me to craft more stories!

Let's not forget you will get a copy of the Into the Macrocosm eBook to jump-start you into this strange world of fantasy, horror, thrillers, scifi, and bizarre.To view this content, you must be a member of Konn's Patreon at $5 or more - Click "Read more" to unlock this content at the source

The post Blood Will: Part II appeared first on Konn Lavery.

Diabolic Shrimp Short Stories, Poetry, and Novella Panel

In the latest edition of Monday���s Tartar Sauce, bestselling author and comic creator Josh Grant interviews authors Jamey Boelhower, and Konn Lavery. They discuss creating compelling short stories, poetry, and novellas in an epic panel (with some trivia at the end)!

Joshua Grant���s author website, books, and Kickstarter campaign:

https://diabolicshrimp.com/

https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/ent…

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/…

Jamey Boelhower���s books: https://www.amazon.com/Jamey-Boelhowe…

Konn Lavery���s books: https://www.amazon.com/Konn-Lavery/e/…

The post Diabolic Shrimp Short Stories, Poetry, and Novella Panel appeared first on Konn Lavery.

The Dark Side of Contracting

Being independently employed has many benefits. For one, you get to set your own hours, which is incredibly handy if you are passionate about writing or any other art. There are pits found on the dark side of contracting, though. If you’re not careful, you’ll fall into one and collide into the icy water below.

Welcome To Another Edition of Unprocessed Thoughts

For this month’s unprocessed thoughts, we’re looking at the dark side of contracting, which applies to small business owners too. I’ve been freelancing full-time since 2014 in the graphic design and web development industries. I would be lying to you if I said there haven’t been significant downers with the benefits of flexibility.

With freelancing, we commonly hear it’s about “lifestyle” or “being your own boss” or “embracing hustle culture,” and my favourite, “do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” There’s some truth to these generalized statements, but they’re too broad of a stroke. We don’t hear about the dark side of contracting because there’s nothing sexy about hearing bad news.

As mentioned, you can set your own hours. You can also set your rate, decide to take on a project or not. The elasticity is immense. It also benefits companies to seek out freelancers opposed to hiring an employee.

Benefits for The Company

Businesses today are hiring contractors for specific skills on a project-to-project basis. It is cheaper in the long run than hiring someone and worrying about human resources, healthcare, employment liability, etc.

If a business sources niche skills for specific jobs, they drastically cut costs, finding these freelancers in their own network or from a gig site like Fiverr. Discussing quality and cost is another topic, especially with gig sites.

I’ve had colleagues warn me about these gig sites in the past. They have said there’s cheaper competition out there. These gig sites have never impacted my work because I maintain happy clients through top-notch work and transparency.

This is great for a company, but what does that have to do with the dark side of contracting? Well, for starters, let’s look at what it’s like to be on the flip side of the company.

Contractors Need Thick Skins and a Sturdy Backbone

Some companies are intentionally malicious by squeezing out every bit of drop they can from their workers, contracted or employed, while others are oblivious to the actual work involved. Leads may attempt to haggle the contractor’s price down too, and freelancers fall for this. At times, contractors don’t have the confidence to properly negotiate the terms of the agreement. They can spend many hours and do additional work on a project beyond the original scope and quote.

To avoid this dark side of contracting, one must maintain a thick skin and a sturdy backbone to ensure a project doesn’t derail from the original conditions. This keeps everyone is happy with the results. Of course, there are times you just can’t please specific clients.

Politics and Bullies

You would be surprised to learn that office politics don’t stay in the employment realm. There are plenty of politics that can be found when freelancing. Projects can mutate due to the internal politics of your client’s company which will alter how your work is done. Or you’ll have some clients you have to tread lightly with due to their personalities.

Bullies don’t just appear in the playground. They follow us well into adulthood and morph into politics where egos and pride play critical roles. People try to secure their importance within a company to prove their value which can affect you as the contractor if they push you around for their own benefit.

Opposite of a sturdy backbone, stay flexible enough to work with unforeseen circumstances because no one has a crystal ball. Be sturdy enough to know when to stand your ground and flexible enough to adapt.

Here is a quote from Bruce Lee, which you’ve likely heard, that is more poetic:

“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.

Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”

��� Bruce Lee

I’ve been quite fortunate to have a consistent client base and have rarely run into the two topics mentioned above. They do exist, and like any contractor who has been in the business long enough, I have had my run-in with them. Thankfully they don’t last long, and we part ways.

These aren’t the only pits on the dark side of contracting. Cash is king, and with freelancing, there are challenges with it.

Getting Paid

This is the second biggest pit in the dark side of contracting. Unlike employment, freelancers are required to fetch the money themselves. And it’s up to you to follow up when you need to get paid.

There are many reasons why clients are late or never pay. Here are some scenarios:

Their accounting team has changed, and your invoice gets lost.The person you’re working with has quit or been fired, and no one knows about your project, and it dissolves.They do not have the money to pay you and are avoiding it.They don’t ‘feel’ the work is worth paying anymore.They forget.

Believe it or not, clients forgetting is the most common reason why you’re unlikely to get paid. Do the best you can to keep them pleased, and they’ll be keen on paying you quicker.

As a freelancer, keep track of all the invoices you send out, split by the month, to ensure that you are on top of all the work you did and the money owed to you. Speaking of keeping track of things, this leads us to our next section.

Biting Off More Than You Can Chew

Contractors supply quotes for projects. On the dark side of contracting, this pit is supplying too many quotes, and they are all approved. This can occur from submitting RFPs, too many client referrals, or an influx of projects from existing clients. Even if you can negotiate timelines and the pay is good, sometimes there is too much work for you to deal with on your own.

There are ways of handling too many projects, such as:

Subcontract Someone You Trust

As a freelancer, you should develop a professional network of colleagues you can rely on hiring if you have too much work or team up with more significant projects. With subcontracting, you can tax a project management fee as well.

Pass The Work to a Colleague

You may have no time to play project manager and want to entirely remove the project. This is another reason why keeping professional relationships within your industry is helpful.

Negotiate Time or Throw Your Hands Up

Try to negotiate an extended timeline. Perhaps the timeline is too tight, or you have no colleagues to pass the client onto. Worst case, you can tell them you can’t help them and pass on quoting. In the end, they’re not your boss. They’re your client. Careful, though. You can burn bridges this way.

Even Then . . .

There are times when you simply can’t do any of the above and have too much work. Maybe you need the money or none of the other options available to you, and you must do all of the projects. In this case, you will be working many hours and long days. Your quality of work will degrade because it’s inhuman to work long weeks. We’re not designed to be production machines.

There’s more to life than simply working, and it’s important to remember that as a freelancer because we can get lost in our own heads. This leads us to the final and most giant pit.

Personal Life Suffers

This is the enormous pit on the dark side of contracting. Not having thick skin with a sturdy backbone will put stress on you. It increases the chance of not getting paid, leading to politics and bullies or biting off more than you can chew. These pits will cause a decline in your health and quality of life.

Make sure you set clear boundaries, realistic pricing for your skills, and stick to timelines while doing excellent work. It’s the best way to avoid any of these pits. If you do fall in one of these pits, you can climb out of them.

Personal Experience

Here’s a short example of some of the above that we’ve discussed: All of 2022, I have bitten off more than I can chew. Since January, I have worked 70 hours a week, Sunday through Friday. It made me scattered, lose track of project details, reduced my quality of work, and impacted my personal life. Amazingly enough, I’ve still been writing short stories on Patreon and am near completion for my next book release.

No one is to blame for my scenario. It was an accumulation of many things, from timelines bleeding over, scopes mutating, an influx of new projects, and the world opening back up again after two years of a pandemic.

Life is Beyond Control

We all make mistakes and end up making rookie moves which are embarrassing when we are seasoned in our line of work. You can’t predict unforeseen circumstances in business, such as timeline extensions for the client, being paid, scope mutations, personal tragedies, etc. You can do everything right to the best of your abilities, and the universe will go completely against you.

Freelancing adds another layer to the complexity of life’s random nature. Steady and reliable work tends to be for people employed by the government, while freelancing is everything opposite of that. It has many benefits, but you can still fall into the pits on the dark side of contracting.

There are other holes here, too, which we haven’t covered. Here’s a short list of some:

Managing the admin business paperwork and messing it up.Accounting. Unless you’re an accountant, I’d highly recommend hiring someone for that.Additional expenses like healthcare and tools.Holidays and sick days equal no pay (no work, no invoice).Office space.You set the labour standards.

As a contractor, the best way to stay clear of the pits is to be lean, vigilant, and remember your humanity. Business is cutthroat, and it is easy to forget who we are. Before you know it, you’ll fall to the bottom of one of these pits and be swallowed up in the icy waters. What was once human will become a shark, preying on others who fall into the dark side of contracting.

Beer Note: The Est. Brave Noise Pale Ale

I tried the Est. ‘s Brave Noise Pale for this month’s Unprocessed Thoughts, a 4 .5% alcohol volume. The beer comes in a four-pack set. It’s a little hazier than I usually like, but I enjoy its lightness compared to some beers claiming to be pale ales and are usually IPAs. These go down easy, and it is worth having a few if you’re not drowning in the ocean of work.

The post The Dark Side of Contracting appeared first on Konn Lavery.

Let’s Talk with She Blurbs Interview

I’m pleased to have been on Let’s Talk with She Blurbs podcast where I share details on all my writing, books, and various genres I’ve written in. Listen to it below:

The post Let’s Talk with She Blurbs Interview appeared first on Konn Lavery.

Interview and Horror Discussion All Outta Bubblegum EP 08 Neil Chase and Konn Lavery

Check out the interview and discussion I had on author/actor Neil Chase’s radio show All Outta Bubblegum on Sound Sugar Radio.

We chat about writing horror in all mediums, favorite horror movies, what makes horror so fun, and some common misconceptions and tropes (good and bad) within the genre.

Listen to it here!Interview and Horror Discussion All Outta Bubblegum EP 08 Neil Chase and Konn Lavery

The post Interview and Horror Discussion All Outta Bubblegum EP 08 Neil Chase and Konn Lavery appeared first on Konn Lavery.

Blood Will: Part I

Want to read this?

Click Here to Join Konn's Patreon Today

Konn's Popular Membership:
Monthly Short Stories + eBook for $5/mo CAD
$0.16 a day.



Three eBooks to dive into The Macrocosm
Monthly Short Stories in Written and Audiobook Format
Access to drafts, works-in-progress, and writing updates
High Rez Short Story Artwork for Phone Backgrounds
Your name in the thank you section of the next Macrocosm short story collection
Access to The Macrocosm Wiki

You're basically buying me a drink every month, fueling me to craft more stories!

Let's not forget you will get a copy of the Into the Macrocosm eBook to jump-start you into this strange world of fantasy, horror, thrillers, scifi, and bizarre.To view this content, you must be a member of Konn's Patreon at $5 or more - Click "Read more" to unlock this content at the source

The post Blood Will: Part I appeared first on Konn Lavery.