Bre Faucheux's Blog, page 47

Day 19 – 20 | NaNoWriMo Vlog | Flexing My Writing Muscles

Day 17 – 18 | NaNoWriMo Vlog | Zumba on Crack!

You Don’t Need All the Answers

I love listening to podcasts about writing. I love listening to interviews with successful authors. I love engaging in conversations about writing and knocking ideas around. And lately, there has been one common theme in most of the discussions I’ve had or listened to. That’s the notion that you have to know all the things about your story from the get go. Or at least others expect you to know certain elements right away. As in, you shouldn’t even be writing until you know what your book is ULTIMATELY about.

I’m calling bullshit on that right here and now.

I got into a conversation recently with another writer who started drilling into the deep nitty and gritty of my current work in progress. He asked me questions about what the theme was, what’s the point, why does this happen? What does my character learn from it all? Why does that happen? What’s the point of that plotline? And why does character b kill character e?

I came to a conclusion later on. I appreciate help and these discussion are always valid to helping someone get down and dirty with their story. But there was one problem. I didn’t have all the answers and I found myself scrambling in the conversation. The thing is, you don’t need to have all those answers from the beginning or even halfway through. Saying that you should, basically implies that you don’t know what you’re doing. I think this is where many writers get hung up and confused. And most of all, intimidated. They think they have to know everything or they aren’t good enough to be descent enough writers.

This breaks my heart.

I often only have a story from one scene to the next. Then I go back and fix things like theme, or the ultimate point of it all during the first, second, and third revisions. Sometimes, I like allowing the readers to knock around questions like, ‘what is the theme of this story?’ rather than doing it myself. Because quite frankly, I find questions like that belong in English Literature 101 classes, and not in my books.

If I have a scene in my mind, I have a story. And that’s all I’m really after. At least for the first few drafts. A story. It all comes down to telling a good story. I don’t think you need to have all the answers right away. Nor do you have to have them when you finally get to the end. You can incorporate things as you go.

I’m might never be a best selling author. I might not be a New York Times Best Selling author. I’m might never reach the income I want to from my writing. And I certainly won’t be everyone’s flavor when it comes to my stories. But saying that there is a ‘proper’ or ‘correct’ way to write puts a really nasty taste in my mouth.

You don’t need all the answers. And in the spirit of NaNoWriMo, I say just write.

Is Less More?

This is a concept that I fight with on an almost daily basis.

Today I started doing my daily word count at around 10:10 am. When I looked back at the clock after writing 2,000 words, it was 11:05 am. I managed to write 2,000 words in under an hour. Yep. Haven’t done that in a long while.

Here’s where I struggle. I know others out there are working 9 – 5 jobs. They work all day. I know not all day, but they have to stay at work for all that time. I’m at home in my nice cozy chair, sipping coffee. And yes, there is editing to be done this afternoon for a few hours, but still. I could push and write more.

Even so, I decided that for a while, I’m not going to push and write more. I find that when I do that, the quality of what I write goes down. I used to be able to push out 5,000 words a day with relative ease. And I still could if I wanted to. I could write a whole novel in a month if I did that. But the quality of what I like to write would certainly go down. I know there are others who can write efficiently at that speed and I commend them. In fact, I admire them. I wish I could be more like them. But I’ve found that my brain tires out if I so much as try. And in the spirit of Nano, I don’t want to burn out early. I’ve got keep the flame going steady and strong. If I strain it and try to create a bigger fire, I fear it might dwindle down into nothing. So I’m going to maintain what I’m doing. Because right now, it’s working.

So here’s to being a rebel.

Speaking of rebels, I drew a card from my Lucy Cavendish ‘Les Vampires’ Oracle Deck a couple nights ago. The card that came up was “Rebellion.” I think it’s well suited to the what I’m currently doing. Maybe the universe is telling me that it’s okay to be a bit of a rebel. Maybe it’s okay not to be obsessed with productivity.

I’ve gotten to the point of believing that productivity is an addiction like any other. Americans in particular seem to be obsessed with it. If you don’t produce something, you aren’t worth anything. When I went to school abroad, I was amazed by how little was expected of me. Back at uni in the U.S., I might have a quiz, a test, 200+ pages of reading, and an essay all due in a single week. When I went to the U.K., they told me to write one essay a month. Then gave us a week off in which to write it where we didn’t have to go to class. Um…..done! Easily. Without the week off. The rest of the world seems to function at a slower pace than we Americans and I think it might be a much more efficient way of getting things done.

That’s the line of thinking I’m trying to commit to right now. And let me tell you, it’s hard!

Current personal mantra: Less is more! Less is more! Less is more!

 

Sunday Morning Archery

Day 11 – 13 | NaNoWriMo Vlog 2015 | S.T.R.E.S.S.

Days 8 – 10 | NaNoWriMo Vlog | Building Tension?

October 2015 Favorites

No More Free!!!!!!!!!!!!

That’s right. You read the title properly. I’ve decided quite randomly that I am permanently done with “permafree.” In other words, none of my books will ever be free again. SUCK IT UP!

So basically, I took a good hard look at my sales this morning and got all depressed. I actually (for the first time) did a little conversion of free sales, and the number of people who actually buy books 2, 3, etc. after downloading the first book for free.

Abysmal. Pathetic. GROSS AND TOTALLY DEFLATING!

So I decided early this morning (seriously early, around 6 am), that my work is worth something. Permafree might work for some people, but it isn’t doing me any favors. And maybe my work won’t sell great with charging for the first book, but I don’t think cheap price points work to entice readers anymore. They are used to seeing them and perhaps look at it with suspicion. Especially once you tip the indie hat.

I work very hard on my stories. I realize that they’re not the best thing in the world, but I no longer see why I should give them away for free. People say to experiment with different price points, but that has never done anything for me. So I’m just going to start charging. Because…reasons. Not because I need the money (which I do), but because my books probably won’t do any better or worse with a changed price point. And I would rather not give my work away for free anymore.

I know something about myself. When I read a first book in a series and like it, that doesn’t mean that I will buy the next one. In fact, it’s rare that I read an entire series or go running to get the sequel. It’s only happened twice in my entire life that I finished a book and ran to the bookstore to get the next one the same day. I think many other readers might be the same way. They’ve become jaded by the free price point, or download the book because it’s free. I used to average one review per one hundred downloads. And now I’m not even doing that. So why?

So for now, and probably permanently unless I’m doing a temporary free promo, the first books in all my series will no longer be free. So be sure to go get one if you are in any sort of rush. Because later this week, the new price change will take effect.

Sorry not sorry. *shrug*

Writing as Meditation?

I heard something somewhere (as I often do then can’t remember where), that said writing for some writers…is like meditation.

I’m calling bullshit on that. In so many ways and on so many levels.

Yes, I can see it as being therapeutic in a sense. It feels relaxing to have written something. To know that I got work done and that I created something out of nothing. There’s a definite feeling of accomplishment. And I can completely see how writing can be a form of healing. It helped me get through a time of loneliness when I was living overseas and I had nothing else to do with my time but write. But seriously now… meditation?

I do meditation. It can sometimes be the hardest part of the day if you do it as a daily ritual. (I’ve tried and failed every time. Making yourself sit in silence is harder than it sounds). And it can be the most relaxing thing in the world. Writing isn’t relaxing for me. When I’m not writing, I’m thinking about writing. When I’m not thinking about writing, I’m worried about writing. When I’m not worried about writing, I’m quite possibly dreaming about writing. I find this to be the case with many writers. We are often consumed with our stories and constantly thinking them through. We are in self-mutilating cycles of self-doubt and always wondering if this next book will be the one to prove that we really don’t know what we’re doing.

So yeah… meditation. Not so much. It can be cathartic. It can be healing. It can (sometimes) be soothing, but I only find this to be the case if you’re writing journal entries. Or it’s in reference to the feeling that takes over after you’re done writing. But meditative isn’t a word that I would chose to describe it. It makes me feel as though I’m doing something wrong when someone says writing should be meditative and should come naturally to you. Sure writing is one of the things in life that I feel I’m best at and it comes naturally to me in the sense that I know others can’t plant their butt in a chair and dedicate time to it like I can. But it’s not a natural action to force words from nothing.

There are many things in this world that make me doubt my skills and make me wonder if this is the right path for me. Especially when someone says writing should be meditative. So yeah…calling bullshit on that. It’s work. Work that I purely enjoy and that I would do over anything else. But work never the less. I don’t stop doing it because it’s work. I do it because the work is fulfilling. I love it. And I can leave meditation for before or after I finish. It’s completely separate from what I do.

Next thing someone will be saying that writing is like doing yoga because it’s “relaxing.” More bullshit. Yoga is hard fucking work. Do you feel great afterwards? Yes! Does it make it NOT work? NO!!!!!!!!!

I could write a whole blog post about everything that writing ISN’T. Maybe I should one day…