Lynne Stringer's Blog, page 12

Busy, busy, busy!

I don’t know what it is about November, but it always seems to be a busy time of year.

Of course, the fact that Christmas is looming on the horizon contributes to this, but often there seems to be other contributing factors as well.

One thing, especially for an author, as I mentioned in my blog last week, is NaNoWriMo. But I’m not participating in that this year, so surely I should have some spare time!

It seems not.

Another contributing factor is the realisation that the end of the year is upon us. I think that motivates a lot of us to try and finish those things we’ve been putting off all year. This can make others busy too, if they have to do stuff for you so your project is completed.

For school students, there are certainly the inevitable exams to study for and complete.

For me, I recently started a new job. It’s only part time, but it’s meant that time for my private editing, my book marketing, my writing, and my family, has had to be juggled around. It’s a shame that for most authors, writing doesn’t earn enough of an income to enable us to be nothing more than writers. That’s not the case for most of us, and certainly isn’t for me. I haven’t completely lost hope of it happening, but I do have to be realistic. So I need a job that earns a wage.

Then I have my family to think about – spending time with them is a must. There’s also the marketing of my books, and that’s something that’s definitely important in the lead up to Christmas, and maybe, if I’m lucky, I’ll have time to write as well. Fortunately, I find inspiration often hits when I take a holiday, and I’m already looking forward to a few weeks off during the Christmas period. Maybe this year inspiration will hit and I’ll find another new idea.

Until then, I’ll keep motoring along and hope I can get everything done!

How are you coping with your busy schedule? Let me know in the comments section at the bottom of the page.

NaNoWriMo begins!

November is here, and apart from being told just how close Christmas really is, there is another event I’ve been hearing a lot about as I hobnob with my fellow authors – NaNoWriMo.

For those of you unfamilar with the term, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month (although it should probably be ‘international’ now, since authors all over the world are involved). Every November, many authors and aspiring authors commit to writing 50,000 words of a new manuscript or a current one they’ve got going. Authors can log onto nanowrimo.org and set up a profile, where they can enter the number of words they write each day. The site will add them up and give them a running total of the number of words they need to write every day in order to make it to 50,000 words by the end of the month.

I’m not participating this year because I don’t have a work in progress to use. I’ve found, also, that things like NaNoWriMo aren’t for me, as I don’t respond well to the pressure that goes with them. That’s just me, of course. For other authors, things like this are a wonderful help, as it motivates them either to get started, or to finally finish that project that’s sat too long on the backburner.

For all those participating in NaNoWriMo, I wish you well. But remember, if you don’t make it to your total, don’t despair. Maybe you’re the same as me and this kind of thing isn’t for you. Maybe you still need that bit more work before you’re ready to go that far with your manuscript.

However, even if you don’t meet your goal, NaNoWriMo is still a great thing to be involved in. Experience is the most important thing in writing. If you don’t write, you will never learn the techniques you need, not to mention the discipline, to do it. Reading is another important thing to do, as this will help you to see what other writers are doing and it may help you hone your technique.

And make sure, when you’re done with that manuscript and basking in the glow of succeeding with NaNoWriMo, don’t forget to edit your work and make sure it’s professionally edited. Your book is not ready to be published after the first draft. It will take a lot longer than that before it’s honed enough to presented to the masses.

Get writing!

 

Fandoms are exciting!

If you’re a geek, like me (and perhaps even if you’re not) you likely celebrated this week just past as Back to the Future week. Yes, on Wednesday we passed a milestone, as it was the date recorded in the movie Back to the Future Part II as the date Marty McFly and Doc Brown arrived from 1985 to make sure Marty’s family didn’t stuff up the future.

I was only too happy to jump up and down and share the memes around. I also adored the appearance made by Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyd in character on Jimmy Kimmel Live. It is on youtube if you want to see it, and I posted a link on my Facebook author page. Although both men were showing some marks from the passage of time, it was fantastic to see them in their old characters again.

As I’m serious about my fandoms, there are another couple of events coming soon. In a few weeks, the final movie in The Hunger Games series will be released. I wasn’t a fan of Mockingjay, especially the way the book ended, and a lot of other people feel the same. It will be interesting to see how closely they stick to the book.

Then, a few more weeks after that, is the BIG release – Star Wars Episode VII – The Force Awakens. No, I haven’t bought my tickets yet. I’m waiting to see what it’s rated to make sure my son can come with us. Unfortunately, we will also be away on the day it’s released, so I’ll have to wait a couple of days after before I can go. I’ll definitely be steering clear of social media so that nothing is spoiled for me!

Seeing all this excitement in fandom, I thought of my own. The most frustrating thing about being an unknown author is that you create a world you think is great but your advertising can only reach a small percentage of people. I know I have a number of fans dedicated to the Verindon trilogy, and they would probably love to hear more from it, but sales would have to be astronomical before I could give them the one I’d love them to see – that’s The Heir from Keridan’s perspective. It can be bittersweet to revel in other fandoms while all the time wishing you could have the same success. *sigh* Maybe one day.

Are you a reader? Of which fandoms are you a member? Are you an author? Do you have a world you wish you could share with more people? Let me know in the comments at the bottom of the page.

 

The Balancing Act

I started a new job this week. It’s only part time, but suddenly I find there’s a lot less time to do things – like this blog.

It’s difficult when you’re an author and you don’t earn enough from it to make a living, which is the experience of most authors. While we want to devote as much time as possible to our writing and our books, we don’t usually get anywhere near enough money from it to allow it to be our only source of income, so we need a day job as well. Not only that, if we have families and homes with big yards, all those things have to be taken into consideration too. Everything needs to be done, and often writing comes a distant last place after all our other responsibilities.

I’m hoping that my new schedule will eventually allow me not only time to market my current books, but time to write new ones as well. It remains to be seen if I handle the balancing act well. I’ve never been that great at juggling. Hopefully I won’t let the balls fall …

Do you have trouble juggling the things you need to do in order to earn a living with the things you’re passionate about doing, or are you lucky enough to combine both? Let me know in the comments section below.

And then there are the not so good ones

Last week I wrote enthusiastically about my time at Angus & Robertson bookstore at Victoria Point. I had a great time there and sold a good number of copies. It was a wonderful encouragement to me.

I was also impressed by Catherine and her team and the experience they clearly had with staging a book signing for an unknown author. They had had something up in store to advertise the week before I visited, and when I arrived, the table was already set up and ready for me. I just had to take out my books and charm bracelets and sit down.

Unfortunately, not every event is that well organised. Yesterday I attended an event (which shall remain nameless) that was at the opposite end of the spectrum.

When I first signed up to attend, I tried to find some more out about it, but even the event’s own website was hard to follow and didn’t contain much information. It was difficult to even find the location of the venue where the event was being held! Eventually I found a flyer that included the address and made all the notes I needed so I would go to the right place at the right time.

Last week was a busy one for me, so I neglected to send my usual is-it-still-good-to-go email to make sure everything was set for the event. It wasn’t until the day of the event that I realised I’d never even received a reply to say that there was a table being saved for me. So I was a bit nervous as I arrived. Would they have space?

The event was on the other side of town, and when I got there, it wasn’t clear where to park, nor was it clear where to enter the grounds of the venue. There was a sign with an arrow on it, but it was pointing in the opposite direction to the only open gate. After wandering around, confused, for a couple of minutes, I went through the gate and found the event.

There were about seven authors there, including myself, and for the hour or so we were there, we sat chatting to each other, because there was no one else to chat to. The event probably had a maximum of ten attendees, most of whom didn’t look twice at us. Two people came around to look at the books in the time we were there, and to my knowledge, no one bought anything from any of us. Most authors were starting to pack up before the hour was even up.

This isn’t the first event I’ve been to where the majority of sales come from auth0r-to-author purchases, although even they didn’t take place this time (a number of us had already done that at other events we’d attended together), but this was the first event I’ve ever attended where there were so few attendees that no sales resulted at all, and the first event at which I’ve sold absolutely nothing. I did give out a few bookmarks and talked to another writer about the editing service I offer, so I hope something might come of it down the track, but it was interesting to contrast this event with last week’s. It’s amazing what good organisation and marketing can achieve, and it’s clear what the absence of those things results in as well. A bit of effort is worth the time, as it does pay dividends.

 

Action from the Word Go!

On Saturday I had my latest book signing, this time at Angus & Robertson at Victoria Point Shopping Centre.

It was a pleasure to go there, as Catherine and her team are incredibly organised and welcoming, and know exactly what to do for book signings. Sometimes you can show up to these things and nothing is prepared and the staff don’t seem to know exactly what to do, even though they were expecting you.

However, on this occasion, a nice big table was already set up for my books, with everything I needed on hand, and there was a stand advertising my books clearly on display. So I immediately began setting up with the stock I had brought with me and displaying it, along with my new charm bracelets, which I give to those who buy the full set of the trilogy.

I was still gathering my copies together when I sensed a presence in front of me. It was a girl, who quickly told me she was eleven years old, and looked eagerly at my books.

‘Do you like to read?’ I said.

‘Yes,’ she replied.

‘What things do you like to read?’

‘Everything!’

While she was a little younger than my normal audience, I have had another girl of ten love my books, and after I explained to her mother than my books were clear of any profanity and sex scenes (mine only go as far as kissing), she nodded and said to her daughter, ‘Would you like it?’

‘Yes, please!’

‘Just The Heir, then?’ I said. Most people usually only buy The Heir to start off with, as buying the full trilogy without any knowledge of it is usually considered too much, unless it’s for a Christmas or birthday present.

But I was surprised as the mother said, ‘No, we’ll take all three.’

The girl was delighted, as that meant she received the charm bracelet as well. I couldn’t deny how happy I was either, especially since I hadn’t even set up my table properly yet.

It’s amazing how often this has happened. I find that, at book signings, I need to be on alert from the moment I arrive, as some of my best sales have come while I’ve still been setting up. I can’t just concentrate on what I’m doing and hope whoever it is will wait until I’m done. They usually don’t. So I stop and engage immediately, and am often rewarded with success.

I had a lot of success that day, with four full sets as well as three single copies of The Heir being sold. It can be hard to convince people to buy three books at once from an unknown author, so I usually find I have more sales of single copies of The Heir than anything else, so it was wonderful to see so many people happy to try out all three. It certainly made me happy, and I was glad I could generate some good sales for Angus & Robertson at Victoria Point.

Next week I’ll be at the Pine Rivers Arts Festival at Albany Creek State School. Drop in and say hi if you’re in the area!

 

The Little Gnome Experience

Last Thursday night I was involved in a first for the new Little Gnome bookstore/cafe in Wynnum. They are running Thursday evening book events, featuring authors from different genres. Last Thursday was their first foray into this type of event and featured sci-fi/fantasy authors.

Being the first of these types of events it was a little quiet – these things usually take a bit to gain momentum – but in some ways that made it a better experience. I like small gatherings for their intimacy, and this one morphed into three authors sitting around a table, enjoying hot chocolate and pizza, while talking to each other and others about their books.

The best thing about this experience was the fact that we could feed off each other, describing our experiences as authors. While our genres were similar, our journeys had their differences, but there were similarities there as well. We all had stories of highs and lows, of events that had worked or had failed spectacularly.

The best thing about the evening was that we all managed to engage and entertain, both each other and those who attended, and we all gained new fans that night, who took home our books to (hopefully) discover new worlds they would enjoy immersing themselves in.

While I like big events, there’s a lot to be said for the small ones that allow a lot of conversation and interaction.

Keep an eye on Little Gnome, as there are more of these events coming up on the last Thursdays in each month. There’s a crime book evening in October and a children’s and YA night in November. The Christmas event will feature many different genres and will be held on 10th December, rather than later in the month. I will be there, so mark it in your calendar now!

Are you an author? Do you like small events or big ones? Are you a reader? Have you attended many author events? What do you like about them and what would you like to see?

The Elusive Idea

As an author, I go through stages when the ideas are flowing and there seems to be a never-ending stream of new material popping into my head. This was the way it was all through my Verindon trilogy. Even now, it’s easy to slip back into that world and continue its story.

Then there are other times, times when I have no new ideas, times when I despair of ever having another new idea again.

I’m in that place right now.

Admittedly, I’m not terribly worried. For a start, I’ve been here before and I know it won’t be long before I have an idea. Also, I currently have a new manuscript with my publisher for consideration, so it’s not like I don’t have some work ‘on the go’.

However, it’s frustrating, especially when I have some excellent scenes passing through my head, only to realise that the story they amount to is one that has been done (or overdone) a thousand times.

Although, even if the kernel around which those scenes are built isn’t an original idea, it doesn’t mean their stories aren’t going to have something original in them. After all, as my publisher once told me, there’s no such thing as an original idea these days. All stories are built on about seven original story ideas and are just a variation of one or more of those (ie: forbidden love, overcoming a stronger foe, poor relationships with a parent figure, etc). So even if the story isn’t strictly original, the angle I bring to it might be.

But those angles are still eluding me at the moment. I know better to force it. I never do that unless I at least have an ending in mind. If I start a story that has no ending, I know from experience I’m unlikely to finish it. I simply continue to live in hope that, sooner or later, these ideas will all come together in my head, and that little angle I’m looking for will make an appearance. That’s always the best moment. I hope it isn’t too far away.

Are you a writer? How hard is it for you to think of new storylines and write them? Are you a reader? Have you read many stories that you think are truly ‘original’ lately? Let me know in the comments.

Even Editors need Editors!

Guess what? In November, I am privileged to have a short story included in a new anthology called Glimpses of Light. It will feature works of flash fiction, poetry and short stories by a myriad of authors, all with a significant theme relating to light.

It’s been fantastic to liaise with all my fellow authors as we hand over our work for this anthology. All proceeds from sales go to charity, so it has been a labour of love for all of us. Some of us (like me) have also volunteered our editing, typesetting and other talents to contribute to the anthology.

It’s been a great experience and has brought home to me afresh just how much every author needs an editor, no matter their level of experience or their skill. For example, even though I’m an editor myself, I knew from experience that I would still have changes to make to my manuscript. However, when I received the final suggestions back from another editor this week, I shook my head at some of the things I’d missed. Simple repetition, spelling and punctuation errors (naturally), and some occasions when I hadn’t explained things clearly enough. This is a common problem, especially when you’re writing something set in another world (my short story is a science fiction piece – surprise, surprise!) but even though I look out for things like that, it usually takes another pair of eyes to point out where I’ve stuffed up.

I know it surprises some people to learn that an editor needs another editor to check her work, or that experienced authors need the same thing. They do. We do. When you’re as close to your work as an author is, it is inevitable that you will miss some things which should be made more obvious to someone who can’t see the world in your head, even if it’s the same world in which we live. Professional editors are an essential element in a successful book, be it fiction or non-fiction.

Are you an author? Have you seen how much an editor has improved your work? Let us know in the comments section below.

 

The sacrifice of the creative life

For the past few weeks, my husband’s sister and brother-in-law have been visiting us. They live in America normally, so we don’t get to see them a lot. It’s been fantastic to have them in town for a few weeks.

One of the reasons we don’t see them a great deal is the cost involved in travelling such a distance. This is especially significant because they, like us, are involved in the creative/entertainment industry. Sadly, involvement in creative work usually means you don’t make much money, and this is as true for them as it is for me.

My sister-in-law and her husband, David and Kylie Knight, are illusionists. There’s no doubt they have a lot of talent. They performed two shows while they were here, both of which I attended, and they were slick productions with no sign of error. However, no matter how talented creative individuals (or teams) are, it has no bearing on whether or not they can make a living out of what they’re doing.

On the weekend, I had the privilege of attending the new Living Library which the Queensland Writers’ Centre has set up as part of the Brisbane Writers’ Festival. David and Kylie came in too, to support me. When we were leaving I was telling them that a friend recently congratulated me on having so many author appearances at the moment, as it seems she thinks I’m paid for them.

‘I haven’t told her yet that they’re all free and I just hope I can sell a few copies of my books,’ I said. ‘It always reminds me of my favourite quote by Dorothy Parker, “If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.”.’

David nodded in understanding and proceeded to tell me two standard magician jokes: ‘What’s the difference between a pizza and a magician? A pizza can feed a family of four. How do you make one million dollars as a magician? Start with two million.’

While we were bantering about this, I reflected on why we keep at it. Most of us make little money out of our creative endeavours, but I’m not going to call mine a ‘hobby’, just as I’m sure David and Kylie wouldn’t call their illusionist act a hobby. It’s serious. We want to make a living out of this. However, the likelihood that we’ll ever become famous isn’t great. While I was at the Living Library, I heard two other authors talk about how they were going to be famous one day. It’s certainly not wrong to have those dreams but I’ve heard them so many times over the past few years I know how rarely it happens.

So why do we do this? Is it only to become famous? If you’re a writer and your only reason for writing is to become famous it’s probably best if you stop now. For most of us, I know it’s not for the fame but for the love of it. That’s why we go to event after event on our own time with the hope of selling a couple of copies. It’s the love of it that drives us to get up after we keep getting knocked down.

And the ones who keep getting up, they’re the ones who have the best chance of attaining that elusive fame. And even if we don’t become famous, we can at least say that we continued after others gave up, which is an achievement in itself. All for the love of it.

Are you an author or involved in another creative pursuit? What drives you to keep going? Let me know in the comments below. Also, if you want to know more about David and Kylie Knight, visit www.knightillusions.com