M.L. Chesley's Blog, page 19

Scrivener...

Okay first, before I start this post, I need to say

OH. MY. GAH!!!!!!

Okay, I think I'm done.

I just spent the last half an hour trying to find something in Scrivener and it has now prompted a blog post.

Seriously.

I ADORE Scrivener, truly, I do. But these last few weeks have been a complete nightmare with it.

First of all, if you are using Windows and having an issue with Scrivener (Not Responding), allow me to enlighten you.

Go to your C:\Program Files\Scrivener, or, C:\Program Files(x86)\Scrivener and find the .exe file.

Right click, select Properties.

Select the "Compatibility" tab and check the box "Run this application in compatibility mode for" and leave it for whatever is the default or already highlighted selection.

If this doesn't work, re-start you computer and try again. If it still doesn't work, select the compatibility mode until you get it to work properly.

Now that we're through there, let me just say I could not find my live word count bar to save my life. Each section used to show me a live word count and character count. I didn't know what happened, but when I finally got Scrivener to boot properly, my word count was gone.

*POOF!*

Disappeared. Like I said, I just spent a half hour trying to find it again, searching Google, getting warmer when I learned it was called a "live word count bar". This is something I need to have showing! I can't just stop and do an overall project statistics to find my word count or pause to hit Ctrl+whatever...

I got used to that little guy down there and I thought he was gone forever!

But I found it. So I'm sharing this information with you in case you run into a similar issue. Because my bar did just disappear when I finally got the program to launch.

It's in your Footer display. Which I did not know. I feel sort of silly, slightly stupid, but hey, it's all good now.

So if your live word count bar is gone from the bottom of your screen, select "View", go to "Layout" and make sure there is a check mark next to "Footer View".

Thank you, that is all.

Advice For Newbie Authors...

I read something over the weekend that prompted this post. I have to say, this is something that we, as writers and authors, are constantly having to deal with.

It's... The Bad Review.

Change 'company' to 'book'.
(Cue dramatic music...)

We've all had them, those darn Bad Reviews. I have quite a few on my debut novel, which I honestly expected. But I took those Bad Reviews and used them to help me in my writing. To help hone my craft.

Bad Reviews are going to happen, like breathing, whether we like it or not. They just come naturally because *GASP!* we can't force people to like our stuff.

::Looks around with shifty eyes::

If we forced people, that would be bad and we'd go to jail.

So what CAN you do about a bad review?

Weeeellll...

Not a damn thing. You can't take it down, you can't react to it, you can't ask the person who left it to remove it. It's like trying to censor their opinion.


The reviews aren't going to kill you. Well, unless they become solid and land on you... but that'll never happen.

Bad Reviews will:

~ Make you feel like hammered dog poo.

~Make you feel slightly nauseated. (Unless you're actually a pregnant female. Might want to go get that test now.)

~ Make you feel like a World Class Idiot.

~ Make you want to give up writing forever.

But that's okay! Yes, I said that in my most Chipper Voice Ever! And no, I'm not in need of a straight jacket, despite what my family thinks...

A Bad Review should:

~ Help you.

~ Motivate you to be a better writer.

~ Point out the weaknesses in your writing that you CAN correct.

~ Make your next book much better than your last.

You should NEVER:

~ Respond to a Bad Review.

~ Throw a fit, publicly (and by publicly I mean outside your house or on the internet...).

~ Ask the person to remove the review.

The only time you can honestly ask a review to be removed, is if the person is knowingly bashing you and harassing you and you've got proof that they are Out To Get You. I have to admit, I've got my book up on Goodreads and someone actually put on there, "Marked it as Not Going To Read". I think if they could have put, "EVER" on there, they would have. Don't know who the person was or if I ever pissed in their Wheaties, but whatever. What am I going to do? Force them to read it?


::Snorts::

No, that would be BAD.

But seriously. Don't be a troll about your book. Don't be a jerk. Roll with the punches and grow a thicker skin. We've all been there, we've all done that. We'll be doing it again with Every Book We Write . You can't escape the Bad Review, so let them come! Take your time off of work to deal with them. Eat some chocolate, curl up with some tea and a chick flick, and then move on.



It'll be fine and after awhile, you won't even know they exist.

We'll know, but you won't.

You'll develop blinders for them.

We'll still see them, but for you they will seem to disappear like a fine mist.

Okay,okay, I'll stop now.

Have a good rest of your week!

Kindle Scout...

I don't know how many of you know about Kindle Scout, if not, let me enlighten you. If you do already know, well, you'll get a refresher.

Kindle Scout allows you to submit a book, cover and excerpt. They review it, then let you know if it's been accepted or not. Once it is accepted, you have 30 days to gain nominations. After that, they'll review it once more. If your book is chosen to be published, you'll get an advance, plus marketing assistance and a higher percentage in royalties.

Not bad, huh? I learned about this from a fellow author who emailed me and asked for a nomination if I liked what I read. I went over to the site, checked out the excerpt and decided to nominate it. I'm hoping to submit a book over there, one of these days. I've got several in the works at the moment.

So why am I bringing this up, then? Well, my sister in law beat me to the punch. No worries, it's not a competition! I'm just super happy she's getting to try it out. She submitted a Young Adult, dystopian novel she's been working on. She had it all ready, with a cover and everything, when I told her about this program. So she submitted it and got accepted!

I'd like for anyone, who hasn't yet seen it, to go check it out. Read the excerpt and, if you're interested, nominate it. The readers are rewarded in this program, too. Anyone who nominates this book, if it gets published, gets a free copy of the book. So it's a win/win!

All right, so here is the link to her book. Again, go check it out, read the excerpt and then vote. If you don't like it, don't nominate it. Trust me, it's all good.

Have a great week, everyone!

Late Friday Post...

I hope you all had a good week. So far, I have.

Lots going on around here, as usual. My week is full of baby sitting, school work (yes, I'm back in school), and trying to find time to write.

Of course, I try to do some gaming in all of that. But more often than not, I'm choosing to exercise over sitting in front of the computer all day and night. It kills my back and makes my body ache.

The beginning of the week was rainy, and of course it gets sunny over the weekend. I work weekends, dang it.

Ah well, what's a girl to do?

I mentioned I'm back in school. I'm taking Medical Transcription. Hopefully I can find a job soon after I'm done. Gotta find a way to pay the bills around here!

Adversarius has been free on Smashwords for some time, now. I'm just waiting for Amazon to catch up and do the same. Even though people have sent them notices, they just haven't adjusted the price.

Oh, well.

I also have my short story up on a new home. Quarter Reads. Just like the name implies. All submissions on their site must be under 2,000 words. And they're all a quarter. You pay $5.00 up front and get to read 20 stories. Which, let's face it, it's better to pay up front than to be continually charged a quarter every time you find something to read. 2,000 words goes quickly!

Be sure to tip your authors, that's another feature. I love it.

Anyway, the link to my short story is here. I removed it from Amazon, because I didn't think 99 cents was a fair price for so few words. I don't have enough short stories to compile, yet, but I'm working on that as well.

Book two is getting closer to being done, but then I have to figure out a cover. Yay. I've done a few on my own, maybe I will share them next week and let you all choose.

Have a great weekend everyone! I'll see you soon.

Conversation With My Younger Self...

I lay awake the other night, just sitting there, thinking. It's something I do often. Usually, I will think about my to do list for the next day, bills that have to get paid, shopping to get done and what the hell are we doing for dinner? Crap, I forgot to pull something out!

I can lie awake all night long thinking of the weirdest, random stuff that doesn't need to be considered right then and there, but my brain always says otherwise. My brain pushes these issues. A. Lot.

But the other night, I heard a, "Psst!" from some deep, dark corner of my mind. Trying to ignore it was futile, so I looked inward. Standing there in some of the most ridiculous 80's attire, was my younger self.

"Remember me?" she said. Yeah, sadly I do, kid.

"What happened to you?" she asked. I told her she had to be more specific.

When I was a kid, growing up in the midwest, I was a chunky little brat. When I was 11, we moved to Arizona. We lived with my aunt for awhile, in this retirement/family mobile home park. This place was huge. The center area/main entrance was large, circular and housed a playground, basketball court, two pools (one for adults, one for kids and kids could only go into the adult pool on Saturday between certain times), shuffleboard courts, offices and public bathrooms. There was probably more, but I can't recall right now. All I know is that was also where the bus stop was located during the school year.

I lived at the far end of the park, right up against a mountain that we called Cat's Back. I think, but I'm not certain, that we were about two and a half miles from the bus stop. We moved there near the end of summer and getting a ride to the bus stop was out. I was on my own and walking that far took awhile, so my aunt's neighbor gave me a bike. It was not the coolest, or the newest, but it was in good condition and I kept it that way for the longest time. So I rode that bike to the bus stop and back, every day. Five miles a day. On weekends, I rode it down to the pool, would go swimming and ride home. By the time school started, my chunkiness was a thing of the past and I looked like a reedy twig.

Where my aunt's house was, was at the top of a pretty steep hill. I would zoom down that sucker in the morning, pushing the bike to its limit, trying to hit a top speed until I reached the bottom and then see how long I could coast. That part was full of washes, so there were lots of uphill and downhill areas. By the time I hit the main road leading into the rest of the park, it was a gentle slope downward to the bus stop and I could coast the entire way. Going home, was literally all uphill. I had to work for it. At first, by the time I got to that last hill, just before home, I'd only make it up so far before hopping off the bike and walking the rest of the way. Later, I kept pushing myself to see how far I could ride the bike up before getting off. Eventually, I'd ride that sucker up to the driveway and coast into the carport. Victory!!

I never gave up. I kept pushing and pushing.

The pool was a different story. I had to take a swimming test to be allowed to swim by myself, without an adult present. Because I wanted to swim. All. The. Time. But I didn't know how to swim. So I bugged everyone to come to the pool with me. I was allowed to go with friends and their parents, but they didn't go as often. But I went as often as I could and I pretty much taught myself how to swim. I'd watch people, I'd watch swimming on the Olympics. I even taught myself how to dive. I finally worked so hard, took the test and passed on the first try!

Again, victory!!

That mountain behind the house? Yeah, I climbed to the top of it one day, sat up there enjoying the view, went down the other side and walked home. By myself. I think I caught hell for that one, but I can't remember.

I did a lot of stuff on my own back then. I really didn't have anybody to hang out with. I had a few friends, but they had siblings and families to do stuff. My aunt volunteered places, my mom was in school, my brother was working and doing his own thing. I was pretty much a loner. I explored a lot and had some fun in the short time we were there. Then we moved into town and it was so different.  My freedom pretty much went up in a puff of smoke. I still did stuff, but had to watch out for people, so I didn't do as much or anything like what I did at my aunt's house.

These were the things my younger self talked to me about that night. What happened? Why don't you push yourself anymore? Why do you give up? Why don't you explore like you used to?

You know what? I have no idea. Something to think about. If you were to have a conversation with your younger self, what do you think they'd ask?

Just Some Nonsense...

I'm just sitting here, enjoying my day. I'm not being productive, per se, but I am enjoying it, nevertheless.

I'm finding that I can break out of my constraints I've set for myself. Meaning, I feel like I have to work on one thing at a time, but lately I've been working on more than one at a time.

I still feel guilty not finishing book two right away, but what do you do when you have all these ideas hammering the inside of your brain to get out, but your blocked on what you want to finish? So, I have to tamp down my feelings of guilt and just work on what is being demanding right at that moment.

I suppose the reason I feel like this is due to the fact that I already have so many unfinished projects in my life, that I don't need to add to my laundry list. I do try to tackle at least one unfinished thing a week, but find I get overwhelmed rather easy. Because working on one thing makes me think of everything else. I'm to the point, however, where I'm just going to make a list.

Now, for something completely unrelated...

I'm still looking for guest bloggers. I'm looking for authors to either do an interview with or send me a post about your latest book release with purchase links, etc.

This is what I'm looking for:

* Keep posts to 400 words. I know I get wordy, but it's my blog!

* Keep the content clean and don't write about politics or religion. Unless of course, that is what your book is about.

Topics I'm looking for include, but are not limited to: World Building, Character Development, Writing Advice, Promotional Advice, How to Use Social Media Platforms, Software, etc.

Send me links to your books, your websites, your Twitter/Facebook/Pinterest/Whatever...

Throw it all together into an email and send it to me at Paridzule Dot Keep At Gmail Dot Com. All I ask is that you do the same for me. It isn't that hard, is it?

Hope your week is going well and I'm hoping to hear from you!

A Writer's Life...

As writers, it seems we're put through the ringer more than the rest of the world. Sometimes. Perhaps it is because the higher powers that be want us to experience more, feel more, so we know how to share it with the world when we write our story.

I say sometimes, because sometimes it seems like that one author you admire so much seems to have it easy. They can crank out best sellers like a factory worker. But you never know what that person had to go through to get there.

I've seen all sorts of questions from new authors, wanting to know how to manage their time, how to just sit down and write, what to write and why, for the love of all that is holy, do we write?

It's different for everyone. Managing time is difficult for me. I end up writing in spurts. I go long periods without writing and then start to feel guilty or ashamed for not writing and try to force it. Then it comes out like crap, but it is down on paper for me to revise.

Not knowing what to write really hasn't been that much of an issue for me. Getting from point A to point B in my story has been. And I write because I have cool ideas and stories to tell. It is something I would like to read, but have yet to find out there. And I am dipping my toe into so many different genres, it's been fun!

But my life, it's anything but glamorous. I live paycheck to paycheck. If something were to happen to my car, or me, or my family (knock on wood), it would set me back and I'd be stressed and frantic. My sister in law had commissioned a book cover and an editor, had plans to make payments and her husband got laid off. The money she had went to bills. So she started a GoFundMe campaign. I've been tweeting about that. I've seen others who have needed help start campaigns as well. It's important to help out, even if it is just sharing links. Every writer out there has a dream and they all deserve to live it.

I know other authors who struggle with bills, with their health and other things, but they keep on writing. It isn't self flagellation, it's just the love of the craft.

Okay, maybe a little flagellation...

But if you love to write and your life is chaotic at best, you will find a way. You might need to rely on your community once in awhile, but you will get by. I hope all of you find success, no matter what your definition may be. But this community of writers has been good and supportive when it matters. No matter what sort of support you are seeking. Keep your chin up and don't give up!

Please note there are TWO links to two different campaigns. Help out however you can, even if it is just sharing the links on your social media or blogs.



What's your writer life like?

Looking For Guests/Interviews...

Hi everyone! I've been making a few changes to the blog, trying to revamp it a bit.


A few things to note: I'm no longer doing reviews. time just doesn't allow for it right now and until I can get my butt back into shape on the internet and manage my time better, I'm putting reviews on hold.

If I'm currently doing a review for you, patience please! I will still do it, just give me some time.

I'm currently looking for some content. What I mean by this is, over on the left hand side, I'm adding book links for my fellow authors. My contact info is on the Policies page for guest posts and such. I'm looking for author interviews or guest blog posts. I have a questionnaire I can send to you for interviews and there is a list of what I require for guest posts, including links to your social media platforms and books.

I'm also looking for your book links. I'll add them to the list as I get them. Please send me the links via e-mail.

All I ask in return is that you reciprocate. Share my links, invite me to guest post or do an interview. I love doing guest posts, but I work best with a topic. Interviews are fun, too!

I also have a whole list of book links I'm working on to start using on Twitter. If any of you are having issues using Twitter, I'm more than happy to help out. Again, find a way to reciprocate. We're all in this together. If there is one thing I've been missing in my time away from here, it's the close community of writers helping writers.

So, book links are now being displayed on the left. I have a page for links as well. These can link to anything you like, just email me.

Hope you are all having a good week and I'll see you soon!

I Love When That Happens...

I'm often amazed at the way my mind works. It astounds me and, often, makes me think about what kind of person I am. I'm typical, in some ways. Let's just leave it at that, shall we?

I had a bit of bad news and in the midst of it all, I had a story epiphany. Has this ever happened to you? So focused on reality and things going on in your life and you have to stop, pause and write something down.

Weird. Just. Weird.

At any rate, there are a couple things going on. I finally got tired of Facebook. ::Can hear the sighs of relief  and cheers from here:: I know a lot of people did not like that social/marketing platform. I have a Google+ account and have been neglecting that, along with Twitter. Don't get me wrong, I'm good at Twitter, I just don't use it as often as I should be.

Needless to say, my enthusiasm for promoting much of anything has waned and dwindled down to almost nothing. So I'm trying to spark it back up again.

I have a few places you can follow me:

Twitter: Which is @MLChesley. I love getting followers and it doesn't have to be book related. I'm casting aside a lot of people who were just trying to up their numbers/followers, or just no longer suit any of my needs. I'm following writers I know from my social media places or have read their books and liked them. I'm following TV/Movie stuff, games, gamers, just about anyone I have something in common with and who are willing to follow me back and not dump me because I'm inactive sometimes.

Pinterest: Yep, I'm on there, too. I'm getting ready to start adding more stuff to my boards with my books/short stories. But I also have a ton of awesome fantasy artwork, other art, gaming stuff (Come on, it's me, remember??) craft stuff, jewelry. All sorts.

Google+: You can find me there. It's either Mel or Melissa Chesley. Just run a search, you can find me.

Facebook: It's still active just because of family, friends and other groups.

I always follow back. I'm trying to get back into a better time management routine. Things have been changing from week to week this past month.

On a good news note, my daughter graduated from CNA school and will be testing in June for her certificate. She's also applying for a job to get her foot in the door. I've been babysitting and working part time on the weekends, so I don't have much time for myself, but I'm gaining some back.

Alright, so you know where to find me now. Have a great week!

So what odd circumstances have you been in when you received an epiphany about a story you're working on?

Revisions, How I Love/Hate Thee...

I've been working on finishing up book two, revising and polishing it all up. I keep getting stuck in a certain spot, so that tells me that it just isn't time to rush into that part of the story just yet.

It will come, all in due time.

In the meantime, I switched over to a short story I wrote out in one of my many notebooks. It was from a writing prompt and I'm wanting to flesh it out a bit and expand upon it. Trying to get stuff up and out there.

Speaking of, I did put up a short story on Amazon. Heaven Sent. I know some of you read it when I put it up here awhile ago. It was something I wrote for Writing Dot Com's Writer's Cramp contest and won. Even though there were only like 6 other entries, I was proud of it.

A few people asked me to expand upon it, but the word limit for WDC was 999 words. I put back in a few of the details I had to omit for the contest, bringing it up to just over 1,300 words. It's on sale for 99 cents. My plan is to get that one up there, then put out another and make that one free.

Adversarius is currently free on Smashwords. Hopefully word will get out and it will be free on Amazon as well.

I just keep plugging along. Trying to get things out there and work through it all.

Heaven Sent is paranormal and I use my name, Mel Chesley. The fantasy stuff is written in collaboration with my husband, so the author name on that is M. L. Chesley. Hopefully that won't be too confusing. If it is, I'll just stick with M. L. and go forth from there.

Hope you all had a good weekend and have a productive week!

What have you been working on lately?