A.L. Michael's Blog, page 12

New Goal, New Dream, New Year.

I’m a dreamer. I’m a planner. And I’m not the only one.

As a writer and someone interested in the therapeutic benefits, I can tell you this: writing down your goals makes them real. However, spending time THINKING about these goals is more important. Pick something that means something to you. Something that will change your life, that will stretch you but not break you.

I have a terrible habit of picking a hundred things I want to do. Or I pick a goal, but don’t plan HOW I’m going to get there. Achieving our dreams is a process that includes planning, thinking, visualising and DOING.

For example, I’m sitting here thinking: I want to have four more books out next year. That’s entirely possible. But I’m sitting here thinking about that instead of editing the book that would be the first out of those four. There is a time for dreaming and a time for doing.

Use these next couple of days wisely- think about what you want from 2015, but more than that, think about what you can do TODAY to make those dreams possible! Every journey starts with a step, yes, but it also is continued by steps every day, and there’s usually a map and a general sense of direction! Get together your tool kit for 2015, what’s going to help you on your journey?

My aims for 2015:

-To have four new novels out

-To get to grips with vlogging, podcasts and other active forms of social media

-To continue on my healthy journey, and explore how creativity can promote health

-To make more money from the work that I do, working smart instead of just working hard

-To find adventures and explore every day

 

Some of these are personal, some are professional, but all can be achieved with a plan and a little time each day to consider whether what I’m doing is taking me towards where I want to be. In my toolkit, I’ll need motivation, the support of friends and family, a work ethic, a dozen reminders of my goals, and an understanding of what my success will look like.

How will you know if you’ve achieved your goals? How can you tell what your doing is working? Think of a plane’s trajectory- the smallest change in direction at the beginning of a journey can be all the difference at the end of it.

Go slow, go steady, and get excited.

Wishing you a creative and fruitful New Year.

Tagged: aims, goals, new year, resolutions, writing

Doin’ it for the kids (or the paycheck)

A lot of people say that if you love what you do, it isn’t really work. I’d argue that you can love your job as much as anything, but it’s still going to have some crappy parts to it.

Of late, I’ve had trouble finding the joy in my classes. Maybe I’m a little burnout, maybe I’m working with stale material. More than likely, I’m worried that what I’m providing has to be worth the value that I’m assuming it has, and also that I’m getting paid enough for it.

Jim Rohns, an excellent motivational speaker and business guru, said work is ‘the value we add to the market place’ and it sounds simple, but value is a very difficult thing. We have to decide what our services are worth, but also, what we need them to be worth.

That’s generally why I like being hired by a company who tells me how much they want to pay me, and then I can decide if it’s worth it. Instead of having to say ‘wait a minute, I’m worth this much, and here’s how I quantify my worth.’

But back to enjoyment. Because for the first time in ages, I taught a class and absolutely LOVED it. The responses were engaging, the writing was awesome, people were interested and creative and I sat there thinking ‘YES! This was what I wanted to do with my life! Why can’t it always be like this?’

Well, why can’t it? The truth is that sometimes workshops are going to work, sometimes you’re going to be in a weird place, someone will be tired, there might be drama. It might be the end of the year and no-one wants to learn. Factors vary in what will make a successful group. But what you can rely on is KNOWING YOUR MARKET. Working with writers who all want to write, and are really enthusiastic about it? Hell yes, that’s my target market.

Often as freelancers, we get drawn in to the idea that because we CAN do something, we SHOULD. Because we need the money, because we should be using our skills, because, because, because.

And I’m not saying you should ignore that. This time of year, it needs to be happening. But every now and then, it’s important to consider whether you’re enjoying what you’re doing, and what needs to change to let that happen. Because whether it’s work or not, it’s still your life. When you’re a freelancer, your work and life are inextricably linked, and when you’re an artist, even more so. So do what makes you happy, at least some of the time.

The Pre-Christmas Slump and what to do about it

I have spent a lot of time and energy expounding on the fact that Christmas doesn’t suck. In fact, I just wrote a book about it. You can see it here. There are loads of wonderful things about the festive season; a great variety of calorific hot beverages, music, angelic-faced children dressed as random animals, and lots and lots of naughty things to eat. Don’t get me wrong, Christmas is great.

Except when you’re a self-employed creative.

Well, I say that, maybe it’s just me, but the energy with which I pursue my usual leads, teach kids, write books, promote and learn seems to have been sapped. Pretty much all I want to do at the moment is watch boxsets, sleep and go to the gym. Sadly no-one will pay me for this. And the one thing I am quite happy to still do (write books) doesn’t quite pay enough so that I can stop working (yet, always think ‘yet’).

So what options do we have to counteract the darkening days and cold winter blues?

GET INSPIRED

Yes, perhaps watching that boxset is inspirational. Maybe reading books just for fun, or trying out new TV shows, watching documentaries is all research. You may be enjoying it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not useful in some way.

ADAPT YOUR LIFE, NOT YOUR WORK

So this is a realisation I had in my little slump. If I stop my usual work, I make less money. But if I sacrifice my usual work AND some of the stupid stuff I spend that money on, I’m actually no worse off, I’m at an even keel. If there’s some work you actually can’t force yourself to do, or see the point of, then just counteract for losing the money and adapt your life. As creatives we spend so much time trying to get work that turning it down seems ridiculous. But if it’s making you miserable or ill, then sometimes you get to a point where sacrificing your morning latte instead of having to do that work is appropriate, or even, good for your health.

SLEEP

Self-employed creatives are notorious at working too many hours. If you compare yourself to your 9-5 counterparts, I bet you’ll find you work a lot more than they do. Sometimes our systems demand a reboot. Get some exercise, get some sleep, and turn off your phone!

DO IT FOR THE LOVE

Remember why you went into the arts? Sometimes we get really far from that original starting point, and sometimes that’s good, but sometimes we can feel like we’ve lost our way. Why not spend some time thinking about how you want your life to look, and start to play again?

Hope that gave you some food for thought. Or at least stops you feeling guilty about being a lazy creative! I know I do. The next few weeks will be busy for me, where I’m running a Creative Careers development day for writers, in Watford. This is open to 6th form students interested in working in the arts/studying writing at university. Then I’m out in Wiltshire at the Wiltshire and Swindon Archives to teach a writing workshop around the theme of celebration!

My book, Driving Home for Christmas is doing well in the charts, and I’ve submitted my next one to my publisher. I’m now working on a project a lot of you will be excited to hear about- a novel based on my blog Cafe Disaster! I’ve been waiting to write this book for quite a while, so I’m eager to hear what you all think.

The Opening of the ‘Driving Home for Christmas’ Blog Tour!

Welcome! This is the first day of two weeks worth of excerpts, reviews, interviews and articles around my new novel ‘Driving Home for Christmas’ which is out on the 28th October (but is available for pre-order now) plus the chance to win a goodie bag full of merchandise, festive treats and a ten pound Amazon gift card!

So here’s the book!

Megan McAllister is home for Christmas…whether she likes it or not!

Christmas is about family…and for Megan family means two people: herself, and her daughter Skye. It doesn’t mean her parents who, ten years ago, saw her pregnancy as anything but a miracle. And it definitely doesn’t include her irresistible ex-boyfriend Lucas Bright.

So ‘Driving Home for Christmas’ has never been top of Megan’s festive playlist. But for Skye, she knows she needs to spend the holiday season with the people she’s left behind. She can do this. Even if the thought of meeting Lucas under the mistletoe still has her feeling like she’s drunk one-too-many Snowballs!

But somewhere between the hanging of stockings and the crackle of wrapping paper, Christmas starts to sparkle. And Megan begins to wonder if family could be bigger than her and Skye after all…Pop the buck’s fizz, stoke the fire and prepare to giggle the festive season away with AL Michael!

Keep an eye out for the next few days of excerpts and reviews, plus enter the competition here:

Rigidity and Fluidity: Living as an Artist

Nope, it’s not me writing naughty scenes and being funny (although watch out for the Driving Home for Christmas blog tour which starts soon!)

I gave a lecture this week on the MA in Creative Entrepreneurship run by UEA, a course I studied on three years ago. In many ways, coming back felt like I’d ‘made it’, like I had things to share, things that might help others on their journey into living and working as professional.

I’m not entirely sure I did, because each journey is so individual, and each person’s life is made up of so many factors. Our priorities, our joys, our responsibilities and our systems all determine how well we do.

In preparing for this talk, I sat down and thought about how my life had changed since leaving the MA a few years ago. It’s important to remember that as part of the MA, I had to create a five year Arts Plan, a travel map of where I wanted to go professionally and artistically, and a collection of the resources I had available to me.

For the most part, I’m following that plan. But that’s because my goals rarely change! I’ve been adapting, trying new things, but what I’ve learnt is that consistency is the key to anything.

Three years ago, I had to supplement my time writing with other work. Whilst I still do that, it’s at least related work that I enjoy doing. Everything I do is related to writing, or wellbeing. And where I’m most excited is where those paths cross!

But the main lesson I realised I’d learned was that (apart from continuity) my work and lifestyle have been built on the principles of fluidity and rigidity. Freelance work, by nature, is fluid. It’s coming and going, not always stopping or staying. When the work comes thick and fast, life gets crazy. It’s like surfing waves and you’re never quite ready for the next. You adapt, try new things, vary your work, find a new specialism, try and new technique. You learn, you experiment.

Rigidity comes in to play when you know who you are and what you’re doing. It’s about not sacrificing the lifestyle, the work, the time needed to do the work. It’s about sticking to your principles, being a little selfish. When what you do comes from who you are (when your brand is an authentic part of yourself, not a creation) then rigidity is built in for you.

So, I’m aware of where I need to be rigid and where I need to be fluid. At the moment I’m riding the crazy wave, but we’ll see how long that lasts before I need to retreat to my hermit writers cave again!

Stay tuned for the prizes and blog tour!

Driving Home for Christmas- What’s Up with That?

So, my next novel, the festive ‘Driving Home for Christmas’ will be released on the 28th October (the day before my birthday- yay for double amounts of fizzy wine!) but if you’re a reviewer, blogger or book fanatic and want to read an advanced copy in return for a review, click HERE for the netgalley link.

Driving Home for Christmas is the story of Megan McAllister, and the stress of returning to her small town home after ten years away from her parents. As a pregnant teenager, she ran off to London to live with her aunt, and now she’s back, with daughter Skye in tow. Christmas is the time to forgive and forget, right? But with Megan’s childhood sweetheart still hanging around in town, is forgetting really the answer?

A sweet, nostalgic, romantic Christmas story about what happens when we finally go back home.

Plus, don’t miss the Driving Home for Christmas Blog Tour, where I’ll be giving away a great goodie bag filled with festive swag, as well as interviews, blogs, excerpts and much more!

Workshopping at the Cheltenham Literature Festival

It has been a majorly busy week! I’ve signed on for a further two novels with my publisher, I got to see my new cover design for my soon-to-be-released Christmas novel (Driving Home for Christmas) and I was teaching creative writing workshops for children at the Cheltenham Literature Festival.

There are a few moments in life where you really feel like you’ve ‘Made It’ in the field. Obviously, I just wrote about how there are no big breaks, and what I love about this opportunity, like all of the other really awesome exciting things I have coming up in the next few months, have happened really organically. Sometime last year, after working a few summer festivals near Cheltenham, I enquired about workshops, and got a reply saying that the person I’d emailed wasn’t really in charge of that, and she’d pass it on.

I didn’t think it would go anywhere. And yet this week I was running workshops for four different schools, inside canopies and tents and a Waterstones Hideaway. It felt amazing to be part of something so literary! We created dragons with powers, mystical island settings, animal superheroes and crazy characters! It was so much fun, and it felt brilliant to be in the midst of such creative talent! Plus, Cheltenham is absolutely beautiful.

Just goes to show, that gradually working your way up, you can get somewhere. So let’s aim big: next year, I’ll be giving a talk, or reading from my book!

I’ll be sharing some awesome news about different lectures I’m giving, residencies I’m taking part in, and workshops I’m running too, but expect there to be an overwhelming amount of details and competitions about Driving Home for Christmas soon enough!

Tagged: authors, books, cheltenham, cheltenham literature festival, creative writing workshops, dumbsaint project, imperial gardens, kids creative writing, lit fest, waterstones hideaway, writers

Why Big Breaks are Bullshit, and other tales from the Writer’s Life

My housemate is a lovely person. She tends to talk me up to people. When she was explaining what I do for a living, and that I’m an author, her work colleagues asked, ‘that’s great. Is she just waiting for her Big Break now then?’

Big Breaks are a myth. There is no one defining moment in a writer’s life that means they’ve ‘Made It’. Often, we think getting an agent, or getting a publishing deal, or finishing a body of work is the Big Break. But I’m a firm believer in the fact that even though those rituals are recognised (and really exciting) they are only one more step on the journey.

We don’t wait around for breaks, we make them. By writing the book, by talking to authors and bloggers and reviewers, by blogging and connecting and entering competitions and continuing to have belief in our goals, no matter what.

The goal posts are constantly shifting for authors. First it’s agent, then publishing house, then bestseller, then multi-book deals, then royalty percentage. Then what about the movie deal? And is it really any good? Maybe you’ve got all these things, but people still think you’re waiting to ‘make it’ because they haven’t heard your name, or haven’t seen you on the cover of Hello Magazine.

We confuse success with fame, and we confuse creative lives with lives of ease. When you do something as a job, it involves dedication and hard work, regardless of whether you love it or not.

The writers who ARE sitting around waiting for their big breaks, well, I don’t classify them as writers. I consider them to be Writers-in-Waiting. If you don’t have the confidence or commitment to chase after your dreams, even in the face of derision or judgement, well, you’re in waiting. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But it’s the nature of the game that no-one is going to come along and drop a multi-billion pound book deal in your lap if you’re not doing all the groundwork.

Ways to Make your Own Breaks:

Write. Every day. Find your pattern. Find your story. Make it happen.

Talk to people, but more importantly, LISTEN to people. Out of interest, not just about how they’re of interest to you.

Enter competitions, blog, tweet.

Build a brand based on who you really are. Spend some time navel gazing. Think about what you want to write about, what kind of writer you want to be, and where you want to go.

Think about how you define success for you. When will you feel like you’ve achieved what you wanted? What are your goals? What are you working towards?

Keep doing this every day, every week, every month, and regardless of whether you even think you’re any good, I guarantee someone else will. Baby steps. Not one big break, but many little ones.

 

 

Tagged: get published, marketing, successful writers, tips to publication, writers tips, writing

London Writers Workshop- Sale!

I’m really excited to be working with Steven from The Thriving Creative on a Marketing for Writers day bootcamp. Here’s what we’ll be covering:

-Creating your identity- who are you as a writer? What should you be doing to show that? What’s your image and author profile? Does it fit what you write?

-Analysing your audience- who is buying what you’re selling? Who are your fans and where do they hang out?

-Channels of communications- now you know who they are and where they hang out- how can you get to them? What’s appropriate? What’s easy? How do you get to these people?

Tips and Tricks! Here I’ll be learning everything I’ve gleaned since working with an independent publisher and a bigger one, plus talking to lots of self-published authors. We’ll cover book blog tours, ARCs, blog content, rafflecopter, reveals, communities, reviewers and much more!

 

PLUS! A Q&A with a London publisher who’s willing to ask all your questions, and talks about the work expected from writers outside of the writing! As well as a workbook for you to work through during the day, and a list of really great resources, it’s a great day and a great deal:

Especially as it’s only £49! And we’re selling out fast! Click HERE for details and tickets.

Hide and Seek Blog Tour- Day One!

Hi all!

I’m really excited to be premiering some excerpts from an excellent new book by fellow Carina author Amy Bird. Amy’s new book is called Hide and Seek and I’m sure it will be as excellent as her last two! Plus there’s a brilliant competition to win £200 worth of Eurostar vouchers! Just check out the image at the bottom!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t you just love that cover? Here’s the blub:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s what Amy has to say about writing Hide and Seek:

Writing secrets – hidden truths of Hide and Seek

There are many different types of secrets, and many ways to conceal them. Some secrets lurk in objects, or family artefacts, hidden away if they have an obvious meaning, or they can be waiting in plain sight to reveal their hidden truth. There may be secrets that one person knows about another’s past. Or secrets about the future and what you plan to do. Or secrets from yourself, locked away in your own mind. Inter-marital secrets, that breed silence, mistrust, and duplicity.

All these are present in Hide and Seek.  Will, the protagonist, has a lifetime of secrets being kept from him by his family. By his wife. And then he starts making his own secrets. These secrets go to the heart of Will’s identity. As an author, my challenge was how to tackle them. One writing tutor once taught me an exercise: write a scene, then re-write it as though the main character has a secret. The impact is immediate. Suddenly, you have intrigue, suspense, mystery, and motivation – does the character want to hide this secret? If so, from whom? And why? How has it affected their life so far? How will it affect their future? The trick, though, is to do this without being annoying. In the same way as no-one in the playground likes the kid who dances around saying ‘I’ve got a secret and I’m not going to tell you,’ no-one likes a book that does that either. Deliberately delaying reveals is not the way forward. Instead, characters must learn at their own pace, the plot must unfold in a way that keep should you guessing, but not necessarily knowing what you are guessing about.

In Hide and Seek, I wasn’t content with just one character behaving as if they have a secret. The book is split between three voices: Will, Ellie, and Sophie. You’ll find out how they relate to each other when you read it. They all have secrets from the world and from each other. And other people have them too. As the novel escalates, the level of danger attached to those secrets heightens. Some will do anything to keep the secrets safe, other will fight to have the truth revealed. Sometimes the reader knows what those secrets are. Sometimes they don’t.

So just what are those secrets? Well I’m afraid…it’s a secret. For now. But if you read Hide and Seek, all will be revealed. In the end.

Amy is the author of the thrillers Three Steps Behind You and Yours Is Mine, and now Hide and Seek.

Having moved all over the UK as a child, she now lives in North London with her husband, dividing her time between working part-time as a lawyer and writing.

You can find out more at http://amybirdwrites.com or follow her on Twitter @London_writer

http://www.carinauk.com/amy-bird

https://www.goodreads.com/AmyBird

https://www.facebook.com/amybirdwrites

 

Keep Up with the rest of the blog tour for more excerpts and interviews!

Tagged: amy bird, carina authors, guest post, hide and seek