R.J. Crayton's Blog, page 12

Missive from a Snowbound Writer

Image Source: Pixabay

I live in the DC metro area. We are under a blizzard warning until Sunday at 6 am. Our government officials have essentially told us they’ve given up on performing their jobs and we’re pretty much house-bound, needing to “shelter-in-place” because the snow on the ground will make it impossible to go out.

As I sit here, house-bound watching the snow accumulate, I thought I’d offer a few observations.

Children were not meant to be cooped up in the winter. This is perhaps obvious to anyone who has ever known a child, but one is reminded of this important warning when one is, in fact, cooped up with a child. They want to go outside and play in that crappy cold stuff. Even though it’s cold outside, and it makes their mittens wet and they step in ways that the snow sloshes over the top of their boots so their socks are wet, too. And they don’t care. And they come in and touch you with those cold, cold hands, saying the beyond obvious, “You won’t believe how cold it is out there.” I will believe it. It’s why I didn’t go out there. Please stop touching me.
There is such a thing as too much cocoa. Sitting down in your chair, and curling up with a warm cup of cocoa on a winter’s day is a wonderful daydream. It’s even wonderful in reality, the first time. But, when you’re a little chilly and trying to keep warm with that fifth cup of cocoa…. well, it gets old. There is such a thing as too much. Switch to an adult beverage at some point.
Unless you live alone, you can’t actually get much writing done. Little people are full of energy and hunger. They want you to feed them things. They want you to play with them. They want you to watch TV with them. And very little gets done. Big people can be this way, too. It all depends on your big person. It seems very little is done until the wee hours, when all the distracting people are finally asleep. So, the blizzard ends up being like any other day. Only, you probably find less time to write.
Snow is pretty. Until you have to shovel it, or clean it off your car, snow is nice to look at. There’s a certain serenity to watching it fall, and watching the landscape change as it accumulates.
The first day is the best. There’s still a pretty good attitude on day one of being cooped up. Everyone’s still pretty appeased by seeing the pretty white stuff, and the knowledge that eventually it’ll be over, and they’ll go back to normal life. For the moment, it’s nice to have a little change of pace. But, the longer the blizzard lasts, the less cheery it becomes, and the more your housemates start to annoy you.

Alright, that’s where my head is at the moment. The children are all asleep. The hubby’s asleep, and I plan to try to write for a bit before heading to bed myself.

Self-Publishing Sunday: Visualize your future

When you visualize your success, put it in a picture, too.

I started off this year, feeling really excited (and I still feel that way). One of the things about this year that got me in good spirits was knowing I wanted to publish a lot this year, and having a really clear picture of the books I wanted out into the world.

Last weekend, my son participated in a “Mini Comic-Con,” as they called it, in Greenbelt, MD. He’d taken a class in comic book making, and his teacher held a little event at the library where all the kids got to sit at a table and handout their comics and sign autographs. (Very cute.) What was really awesome was the nameplate they created for each kid (in the photograph). I thought it was clever, inspiring, and captured the epitome of what I wanted to talk about: visualization.

Wait! Don’t run off. I know when people start talking about vision boards and visualization techniques,  it can seem kinda hokey. But, give me a second to explain. It’s not bad and it doesn’t have to be hokey.

The truth of the matter, is, all the greats in their field visualize things. From Jim Carrey writing himself a 10 million dollar check to visualize his success to coaching great Phil Jackson to tennis sensation Serena Williams, visualization is a core part of their strategy. When you read books about people who’ve accomplished great things, visualization tends to be a big part of their routine. Athletes often think about their game strategy or see themselves executing moves in their brains. Business people think ahead to where they see their products going. And I think it’s an important move.

A lot of people in the writing field are introverts. They’re not naturally big talkers, and may even be on the modest side (which also becomes an issue when trying to sell books, but that’s best for another discussion).  And I think people can look at visualization and bold assertions of self-confidence as being conceited. I remember seeing an interview with Serena Williams when she was 11. The interviewer asked Serena, if she were a tennis player who she’d like to be like.  She thought for a second, and then said, “Well, I’d like other people to be like me.”  (The interview is on YouTube; the 1:22 mark is where she gets the question.)

This kind of answer can totally sound like hubris, but I think it speaks to her ability to see her own vision of the future she wanted, to see it and truly believe it.  Yes, there is such a thing as humility. Many people have it. But many more practice false humility, where they say the things that are deemed appropriate, even though they have bigger dreams and bigger desires. That false humility comes from a place of fear (which I talked about on Friday). Fear that we don’t have the action to back up our plans. Or sometimes fear that speaking the plans aloud will jinx them. Don’t let fear that something won’t happen make you doubt yourself.

Speaking plans and desires won’t jinx them. Speaking the plans aloud, to yourself, to those closest to you, can really help you visualize what it is you want, and as you do that visualization, your brain can help figure out how to get you there.

So, self-publishers out there, I challenge you to take a moment to visualize what you want this year with your books. Where do you want to be on Dec. 31? Then, write it down, or draw a picture of it. That’s your way to get this year going in the right direction. And don’t just do this once and forget it. Look at your goals each day, so you know how to get yourself there.

Alright folks. That’s it for today. Be bold. Be brave. Be beautiful.

Fearless Friday

As 2015 came to a close and 2016 started, I’ve been thinking a lot about my plans for the new year and how to get things done, and what are the major impediments to getting things done. Reflecting on this, it seems that fear seems to be a major impeding factor. People don’t do things because they’re afraid.

So, I’ve decided this will be the year of fearlessness for me. I’ll do all the things I haven’t tried because I feared the outcome. And not life or death things. I mean, fear is there to help us preserve our lives. Listen to that fear when you consider heading into a dark alley.

But our brain often sends out fear signals when the outcomes are, at worst, uncomfortable. It’s a fear of failing, a fear that something won’t go the way we want it to. A fear that the end result will be embarrassing. And it’s those kinds of fears we need to get away from. Not that we ignore, them entirely, but that we simply look at the worst case scenarios, and figure out how we might deal with that.

This year, my plan is to put out more content and earn more readers with that content.

One of the things I’ve been considering for a while is trying free with the first in a series. I hadn’t done it because I was a bit afraid of what would happen. What if it robbed me of income I would otherwise get? What if people who downloaded the freebie gave it bad reviews because they got it free and picked a book that wasn’t right for them? What if it was a complete waste of my time and be ineffective in driving sales to the other books (a primary reason for being free)?

And you know what I realized? None of those what ifs were so bad. My books haven’t done nearly as well as I would like, so the income lost by offering the first free would be negligible. If it got bad reviews because of an incompatible reader, then I’d have to deal with it. Frankly, I think people who get a bad fit book tend to be angrier if they’ve actually paid money for it. And if it’s a complete waste of time, then I’ve absolutely learned something about free.

So last week, I decided to give free a try for Life First. I don’t have any conclusions yet. I’ve had a decent number of downloads, but not a lot of pickup of the remaining series yet. But, as we know, free downloads take a while before they get read.

And that’s the other part of fear that has to be conquered — the waiting and the second guessing. You have to trust that you made the right choice, and ignore fear when it tries to creep back again. Because it will. Fear is sneaky that way. It likes to say, “Turn back. You’ve made a huge mistake.” And not to be mean, but to protect you. However, if you’ve already decided the worst the fear had to offer was what you could deal with, then you’ve got to forge ahead, or you can’t come out on the other side victorious. You can’t get the upside of what you were hoping for if you turn back midstream.

So, for me, this is the year of forging ahead, and leaving fear behind. I think we should all do that. Roosevelt was right when he suggested there was nothing to fear but fear itself. If you parse out the things you’re afraid of, you take away their power, and return power to its rightful owner: you.

Happy fearless Friday to you. Be brave. Be bold. Be beautiful.

New Year, New Novels, New Plans

Happy New Year to you. I hope 2016 has been good to you so far.

This is going to be a great year, as we’ve got one extra day to make it awesome. I was actually born in a leap year, so I find them to be wonderful.

Last year was fine, but not quite up to my expectations in terms of sales and production. I got a lot of writing done (429,000 words; yes, I kept a tally), but I didn’t get as much published as I would like.

I set goals that focused on daily word counts, but they didn’t actually factor in editing and production time. So, a lot of the writing I got done didn’t get sent out into the world. So, this year, I’ve decided to focus less on just writing — daily word counts–and more on overall project production.

When mapping out my plan for the new year, I decided to focus on the projects I have, and when I’d get them out the door. So, I’ve got a loose production calendar, with the goal of getting five books out this year: the three book Virus series, a book called Scented and a mystery book. All the books are YA except the mystery. The virus series is dystopian, so fans of Life First should enjoy it.  Scented, is different, but a lot of fun. It’s paranormal.  The good news is, I’ve got a lot of content due to my heavy writing last year. The first two books in the virus series are done, though the third book needs to be rewritten (I started it as my NaNoWriMo project and had a horrible time with it). Scented is about three-quarters written, and just needs to be pulled together and filled out. So, the only thing I’ve got to write from scratch is my mystery.

I’ve been writing under a pseudonym and hope to put out two books under that name this year, which is a fairly minimal commitment, as the first book is about 90 percent complete, so it would just call for writing one additional book for that pseudonym. However, I’ve got a rough outline for that.

I’m feeling really good about 2016 being an excellent year. I think it’s all going to come together well, as I’ve finally figured out how to plot a writing and editing schedule that maximizes output and productivity. I intend on producing fewer words, but getting more titles out this year. My writing schedule should also allow for me to get out some titles next year that I’ll have written this year.

So, what are you planning for 2016? Do you have good feelings about this new year? Or am I just overly excited about my extra day?

 

2015 Year-End Post

Well, it’s the end of the year. It’s time to look back and reflect upon what I’ve done during the year. I hope your 2015 was, like all important ones, a year where you learned a lot.

For me, 2015 was definitely a learning experience. One thing most authors who do well in this business have in common is that they have a lot of books. Those with a decent number of titles tend to be able to pull in readers with new stuff, and keep them with a backlist they can happily explore.

So, one of my goals for 2015 was more output. I set as my writing goal 1,500 words a day. I fell short of that goal — intentionally at the end of the year. However, in the early part of 2015, I definitely tried. During that process, I learned a lot about how I write and what works for me.

One of the things I realized is that writing every single day–with an expected output–is wearying. I need time to decompose. And most importantly,  I need time to edit and revise. My brain doesn’t multitask that well, apparently. So I need dedicated time for writing and dedicated time to actively revise and edit.

My precise goal when this year started, was to write 1,500 words a day, everyday with an exception of 2 weeks (or 14 days) of break. There are 365 days per year, generally (let’s not worry about leap years). If you subtract those 14 days out, the total writing days that comes out to 351, or 526,500 words written for the year. That’s with the goal of writing every single day, no weekends off.  That was my intention–figuring some days I’d write a little more, and some days a little less, but 1,500 would be a good average. If you wanted to remove weekends from the year, that would drop writing days to 261 (there are 52 weeks per year, so presumably 104 weekend days; though this doesn’t include a 2-week break). Under that measurement, you get 391,500 words per year. So you lose 135,000 words when you take the weekends off.  Frankly, I think that’s about where I want to be. It’s a little less than what I ended up with for the year (final word count was 429,000). After NaNoWriMo, I was wiped out, and really wanted time to edit, without forcing out the word count. So, I took December off.

Now, even when I’m editing, I do get little word count bumps and shifts. But it’s nowhere near what I get when I’m completely dedicated to writing .For me, I think the approach to the new year is going to be periods of intensive writing followed by periods of intensive editing. So, maybe I’ll up my daily word count goals to 2,000 words per day for a month, and then the next month, just spend my time editing, so I can get that work into pretty decent shape.

I think that approach will get me output, which was the goal of having daily word count goals, without making me feel like I’m drowning in stuff to do. For me, it’s hard to get that dedicated focus when I know I’ve got to slog through some editing stuff later, or vice versa.

I think having that dedicated editing time will also help me get more projects out the door. Even though I wrote a fair amount during the year, I’ve got two-thirds of a three-book series sitting on my hard drive unpublished. There are some strategic reasons for holding off on my series, but I still think I’d be closer to publishing if I had a more cyclical writing/editing season. I also wrote under a pseudonym in 2015, just to try out a different genre. That was interesting, but, also split focus so I didn’t get as much published if I were writing under a single name.

So did I get done in 2015? Here’s a rough rundown of where all those words went.

Published Books:

As RJ Crayton

The Self Publishing Road Map -55,000 of the words written in 2015

Under my Pseudonym

1 novella – 0 words written in 2015 (published in January)
1 novel – 65,000 words published (75,000 written–did some major cuts/rewrites)
4 short stories – 36,000 words

Unpublished writing:

As RJ Crayton

Virus series Book 1 – 49,000 words
Virus series Book 2 – 64,000 words
Virus series Book 3 – 50,200 words (NaNo project)
Humor Book – 15,000 words

Pseudonym:

1 novel – 49,000 words
2 short stories  – 10,000 words

Other Published Writings

Blogposts/Wattpad/Book Descriptions/Website Extras – 26,000 words

Word count by Month:

Jan – 49037

Feb – 50592

March – 31601

April – 50712

May – 34700

June – 24269

July – 25534

August – 17258

September – 47336

October – 32009

November – 55298

December – 10872

—————————

Total – 429, 218

The Twelfth Blog of Christmas: Martin Crosbie

By Martin Crosbie

Last year on the night after Christmas, even though it had been an exceptionally busy day, I drove a car-load of family members around the streets of our town. For two and a half hours we drove up and down roads searching out the brightest, most illuminating lights on people’s houses and lawns. My eighty-six year old passenger in the back seat, wrapped in a blanket and clutching a mug of hot chocolate, smiled the whole time and asked me pull over and look at every light on every street. Two days later we took her into hospital and three weeks after that we lost her.

Doreen Clark was diagnosed with cancer when she was thirty years old. It was a form of cancer that took ninety-five percent of its victims. She beat it. In the following fifty-six years she lost a kidney, suffered heart failure, lost the ability to walk without a walker and overcame it all. She beat everything that was thrown at her. Some people are resilient, she was more than that. She was unbreakable.

Click here to read more…

About Martin Crosbie

In a press release, Amazon called Martin Crosbie one of their success stories of 2012. His self-publishing journey has been chronicled in Publisher’s Weekly, Forbes Online, and Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper. He’s the author of six books including the Kindle Scout winner “The Dead List – A John Drake Mystery”.

Martin was born in the Highlands of Scotland and currently makes his home just outside Vancouver, on the west coast of Canada.

 

Have you missed one of the previous blogs? You can still check them out:

Dec. 13   Ellen Chauvet

Dec. 14   Sarah Lane

Dec. 15   Keith Baker

Dec. 16   Virginia Gray

Dec. 17   Gordon Long

Dec. 18   RJ Crayton

Dec. 19   Jennifer Ellis

Dec. 20   Laurie Boris

Dec. 21   Heather Haley

Dec. 22   Jordan Buchanan

Dec. 23   Cate Pedersen

The Eleventh Blog of Christmas: Cate Pedersen

My Christmas Mystery Man

By Cate Pedersen

There is certain magic I experience right at midnight on Christmas Eve. The entire world seems to pause and the air is different somehow. I relax completely, despite the recent whirlwind of activity over the past few days and the maelstrom which is to come Christmas morning and continue until New Year. My spine tingles with anticipation as the hour and minute hands join; I almost want to cheer, “It’s here, it’s here!” I look forward to it every year. I cannot recall ever going to bed earlier than midnight on that auspicious night— especially as a child, waiting up for sounds of bells and scraping hooves on the roof.

When my son and daughter were young, it was the same performance each Christmas Eve; I knew my cues perfectly and waited until I heard regular breathing through my daughter’s bedroom door. She was always last to fall asleep. Her father had been the first. I collect the presents hidden under my bed, in closets, above bookcases and wedged between storage containers. I tiptoe towards the tree with an armful of brightly papered boxes with colour-coordinated bows (and extra tape) . . . then freeze as the ball of my foot puts pressure on that part of the floor that squeaks. I imagine the cracking of wood sending shudders through the hall, and under the beds of my sleeping children, jarring them awake . . . Read more

About Cate Pedersen

Cate Pedersen is a freelance writer, editor and social media manager. She recently published her first novel and is working on books two and three in the Sister Spirit Series. She is also a contributor in It’s Really 10 Months: Special Delivery, an anthology of birth stories (Special Xmas Sale NOW on Amazon) and an upcoming anthology: Adventures in Potty Training. Cate’s children are now almost grown, so Christmas is not quite as busy, but will always hold a magical place in her heart. Read her “12 Blogs of Christmas” post to find out why!

Website: www.copycate.ca

Facebook: Copycate Writing, Editing & Communications

 

The Tenth Blog of Christmas: Jordan Buchanan

Happy holidays to all and a huge thank you to Martin Crosbie for inviting me to be part of the 12 Blogs of Christmas. It’s quite an honor for me, a fledgling author, to be included in such accomplished company, and I’m thrilled to have this opportunity to share a tale of my Christmas past.

At an office holiday party a few years ago, I decided to forego the ubiquitous Santa hat and donned a fur-trimmed tiara instead. One of my co-workers dubbed me the “Queen of Christmas”, but I’m merely a pretender to the throne, a princess at best. The title was always owned by my mother who reigned over our family Christmas party like a benevolent dictator. She did all the decorating, the cooking, the cleaning — everything necessary for us to eat, drink and be merry. She provided the playground; we came to play.

Read More

About Jordan

Jordan Buchanan was born and spent most of her life in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Now residing in northern Michigan, she misses the Shenandoah Valley but living in the home state of the mighty Detroit Red Wings helps ease the pain.

4Play, her debut publication, is a collection of erotic romance short stories. She is currently working on two novels — For Love or Money and Xander’s Garden.

When she’s not reading, writing, or watching hockey, she enjoys time spent with her charming husband and their three Lab mixes.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JordanBAuthor

Blog: www.eroticablues.blogspot.com

 

 

Miss one of the days? The previous blogs of Christmas include:

Dec. 13   Ellen Chauvet

Dec. 14   Sarah Lane

Dec. 15   Keith Baker

Dec. 16   Virginia Gray

Dec. 17   Gordon Long

Dec. 18  RJ Crayton

Dec. 19 Jennifer Ellis

Dec. 20 Laurie Boris

Dec. 21 Heather Haley

The Ninth Blog of Christmas: Heather Haley

First Came Mary

By Heather Haley

Before hate. In spite of war. A few years back I was fortunate to visit the Yucatan, now referred to as the Mayan Riviera. An anthropology buff, I was thrilled to tour the ruins of Tulum and Chichen Itza . It was Christmas and I was astonished by the degree of Maryolotry, the inspiration for this poem from my collection Three Blocks West of Wonderland.

It bears repeating, especially…

Read more

About Heather Haley

Trailblazing poet, author and media artist Heather Haley pushes boundaries by creatively integrating disciplines, genres and media. Her writing appears in numerous journals and anthologies including the Antigonish Review, Geist and The Verse Map of Vancouver. Haley was an editor for the LA Weekly and publisher of the Edgewise Cafe, one of Canada’s first electronic literary magazines. She is the author of poetry collections Sideways, Three Blocks West of Wonderland, and debut novel, The Town Slut’s Daughter. Haley’s videopoems are official selections at dozens of international film festivals and she’s toured Canada, the U.S. and Europe in support of two critically acclaimed AURAL Heather CDs of spoken word song.

Find Heather’s blog, One Life at:

www.heatherhaley.com

Follow Heather:

Twitter: @heatherhaley

Facebook: www.facebook.com/HeatherSusanHaley

Amazon: Amazon.com/author/heatherhaley

Miss one of the days? The previous blogs of Christmas include:

Dec. 13   Ellen Chauvet

Dec. 14   Sarah Lane

Dec. 15   Keith Baker

Dec. 16   Virginia Gray

Dec. 17   Gordon Long

Dec. 18  RJ Crayton

Dec. 19 Jennifer Ellis

Dec. 20 Laurie Boris

Eighth Blog of Christmas: How Mrs. Claus Got Her Groove Back

How Mrs. Claus Got Her Groove Back

Emma Claus looked from the crackling log in the fireplace to the cheerful cards on the mantel and the string of twinkling lights she’d woven among them. But the yuletide trappings still left her cold. She’d tried everything to awaken her Christmas spirit: hitting the Black Friday sales online, reading letters from the children, baking tray after tray of cookies. Even the sappiest of holiday movies failed to lift her mood. Even the ones with Colin Firth.

Just to make sure she’d given Hollywood a fair shake, she clicked the remote to the Hallmark Channel, which was showing the same snowed-in romance brewing at the same over-decorated country inn. Emma merely clucked her tongue. “Fools,” she said. “Do those innkeepers ever sleep? All that work! Cooking and cleaning! Sweeping up pine needles, drizzling everything with tinsel just so, tending the fires in every room and dusting twice a day from all the ash…what kind of life is that?”

Read more here

About Laurie Boris

Laurie Boris is a freelance writer and copyeditor. At one time, she was a magician’s assistant, although she was very bad at it. She has been writing fiction for over twenty-five years and is the award-winning author of six novels including her latest, A Sudden Gust of Gravity. When not hanging out with the universe of imaginary people in her head, she enjoys baseball, reading, and avoiding housework.

 Website: http://laurieboris.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/laurie.boris.author

 

Miss one of the days? The previous blogs of Christmas include:

Dec. 13   Ellen Chauvet

Dec. 14   Sarah Lane

Dec. 15   Keith Baker

Dec. 16   Virginia Gray

Dec. 17   Gordon Long

Dec. 18  RJ Crayton

Dec. 19 Jennifer Ellis