Loni Townsend's Blog, page 4

Got You Covered #IWSG

Wow. January flew past me. It’s been busy at the Town’s End, but nothing this squirrel can’t handle.

I’ll hop straight to the question of the month, since it’s a topic I’ve been known to obsess over.

IWSG Question of the Month – If you are an Indie author, do you make your own covers or purchase them?

When I first started my publication journey, I heard the same advice over and over again. Don’t make your own cover. Honestly, I can see the reasoning behind this, as we’re often terrible judges of our own work, especially if we don’t know the waters we’re wading into.

But fame and fortune were never my goal with my writing, so I set out on my own journey to create the covers I wanted. I went through several iterations, moving from this to this, then seeking feedback with this, and eventually settling where I am now. And because I want to stay consistent, I created the covers for the whole series, even though I’m still working on book 2.

Are they exceptional covers? No. Will they drive click-bait traffic? Likely not. Will anyone but me understand them? Ha. Are they exactly what I want? Yep.

Symbolic covers aren’t huge sellers. Trends show people connect more when there’s a character to look at. But it wasn’t what called to me for this series. And since my goal wasn’t sales so much as fulfilling my life long dream of completing this series, I was okay with good looking covers, even if they weren’t purchase enticing.

Not to say I’m against character based covers. In fact, I’m fairly proud of my companion novel cover, which I also did myself:

Are there better artists? Sure. Is she missing fingernails? Definitely. But it’s not half-bad for an self-made.

I also went character based with my Cera Chronicles, doing a photoshoot of a friend to make a series of planned novellas.

But I’ve since encountered a problem–I can’t turn what have into what I want.

See, Cera is bronze, like her father.

And I’ve found I can’t edit skin tone worth a darn.

I’ll probably redo them as digital paintings, when I get back around to that series.

Speaking of digital painting, fellow blogger Olga Godim had asked if I had portraits of my characters after last month’s lineup. Beyond my four Book 2 POVs (plethora of those), I don’t. But I hope to remedy that this year. Of course, I kicked off the effort with my main guy Derek.

I went with semi-realism rather than the stylized cartoons this time. I’m trying to find a happy medium between the two. This is a redo of my 2019 version.

Well, this post has gotten unwieldy, though I’m not surprised. I better wrap it up and send you on your way to other blogs for Insecure Writer’s Support Group day.

What are your opinions on self-made covers? Do you have suggestions for improvements? Is there a subject you’re passionate about?

About Insecure Writer’s Support Group

You can find the sign up for the IWSG here. We owe Alex J Cavanaugh a huge thank you for thinking this blog hop up.

Welcome 2023! #IWSG

I returned to the office yesterday morning and discovered a power outage had killed my computer. Now I’m starting with a fresh image (computer image, not a new physical appearance) for the new year. Yay. We’re supposed to get new work computers this year, so that means I get to set up all my tools from scratch in preparation to do it again a few month from now.

But who wants to talk about work on Insecure Writer’s Support Group day? Not this squirrel!

I only accomplished one goal last year, and that was to finish writing something–anything. I reached The End on a short story, so I’m calling it good, even though that story needs a bit of help (namely a plot). My other goals, which were far grander in scale, didn’t happen. I didn’t stick to fasting, I didn’t refrain from Red Bull, and I didn’t do any of my Blender tutorials or the anatomy class I bought on Udemy.

This year, I’ve taken the steps to actually put a checklist widget on my phone so I can remember what my goals are rather than rediscovering I made the goals in the final month of the year. These goals are as follows:

Finish Book 2Do the Udemy Art Courses I boughtDo the Blender TutorialsLose 20 lbs

That’s right, I put Book 2 on my goal list. I’ve got 6 more chapters to revise in the current POV rewrite, and 3 marked for adjustment in a different POV. I feel it’s reasonable to hope I’ll finish it this year.

The art goals I’m not so sure about, Blender especially. We got a 3D printer for Christmas, but for some reason, it’s not working. Hopefully my husband can figure it out, then the Blender skills will really be put to use. But I’m always looking to improve my character rendering skills.

Speaking of, hey, would you like to see my cast of characters for book 2?

The upload quality wasn’t great, since I limit my website to a low upload size, and I shrank it quite a bit to make it meet. But the original file is 28″ wide, so there’s that. Yeah, I know there are a lot of characters. There are also some minor characters missing. But I wanted a lineup to see the height differences between my characters. Didn’t realize MaTisha was so tiny, did you?

As far as losing 20lbs… That’s ambitious, I admit. I found a dance workout I enjoy, with a new online class every day, so I’m gonna give waking up 15 minutes early to squeeze it in a try and see if it helps. I’m also going to try adding yoga to my evenings before I pester my kids into the bedtime routine. That’ll require I sacrifice some of my lazy time, but my back has been begging me to strengthen my core and improve my posture, so I better listen to my body.

IWSG Question of the Month – Do you have a word of the year? Is there one word that sums up what you need to work on or change in the coming year? … What is your word for 2023? Why

Ha! My squirrely mind never settles on a single thing for long, so to expect myself to have one word to summarize what I want in a year?? Nope, not a challenge I want to undertake, especially when my focus will change two seconds from now.

Do you have a word for this year? Do you have any goals? Are you looking forward to the rest of 2023?

About Insecure Writer’s Support Group

You can find the sign up for the IWSG here. We owe Alex J Cavanaugh a huge thank you for thinking this blog hop up.

Progress Made #IWSG

December. Wow. Where’d the year go?

It’s the first Wednesday of the month, making it Insecure Writer’s Support Group day.

I didn’t participate in NaNoWriMo this year because I knew I wouldn’t achieve 50K in 30 days, and I didn’t want to derail my current progress by trying. I did get 5K, which was a boost over the typical 3K, so that’s cheer worthy.

I’ve still got 7 chapters marked as needing to be looked at for this whole POV subplot change. I’ve edited 13 since April, so it’s looking like sometime next year I might get this darn thing done…for the third time.

Yes, I’ve reached “The End” twice already. The first time I had a pacing problem. The second time led to the subplot debacle, and I pulled it back from beta readers before some even started reading.

I’ve got confidence in this version so far (version 6 for anyone counting), and I’m pretty sure it’ll be the one.

It’d better be.

I’ve got 4 other books in this series to write, and I want to finish it within my lifetime.

IWSG Question of the Month – It’s holiday time! Are the holidays a time to catch up or fall behind on writer goals?

As a mother who can’t write once her kids are awake and present, I’m inclined to say “fall behind”. However, my son is now old enough to respect when I say, “Give me until 7:30 AM to write” that he’ll hang out in his room and entertain himself while I get some words down on the weekends. My daughter is old enough that I have to drag her out of bed at 9 on her days off just so she doesn’t mess up her school-time sleeping schedule too much. So I have the mornings pre-breakfast to get stuff done, therefore I don’t expect too much falling behind this year. My husband, if he sees me writing, will take off for another room because he knows I can’t focus if there’s someone around me, which is sweet. Who ever thought one’s spouse running away from them was a nice gesture?

How did your year go? Is this a busy time of year for you? Do you find it difficult to write with family around?

About Insecure Writer’s Support Group

You can find the sign up for the IWSG here. We owe Alex J Cavanaugh a huge thank you for thinking this blog hop up.

No NaNo for Me #IWSG

Ah, November–a time to try to cram everything in. There’s holidays and medical appointments and school productions and shopping to be done. It’s usually a month where I’m overloaded with things to do that it’s amazing I get anything else done. That leads directly into:

IWSG question of the month – November is National Novel Writing Month. Have you ever participated? If not, why not?

I have. I’ve participated 8 times, won 5 times… and in doing so have landed myself in the mess of book 2 plot problems that I’ve spent the past half-decade trying to fix.

As a result, I’ve chosen to abstain for the 2022 season. I’ve made steady progress on book 2 this year, averaging 3K a month as I rework the main character’s subplot into the bigger overall story arc. It’s been a deliberate and methodical process to make sure the story A) makes logical sense and B) keeps moving in the right direction that I don’t want to disrupt anything by throwing myself into a challenge.

I’m on the sixth version of this book–and when I say version, I don’t mean drafts and edits, but complete plot shifts, setting changes, and thousands of words that couldn’t be salvaged. Version 1 had my character abducted. In 2, he was trying to cure a dying people. For 3, I completely rearranged events across multiple POVs to fix pacing problems. Version 4 afflicted my character with an illness he’d inadvertently taken on. And 5 was the bad idea of me splitting the book in two that left me stalled out for years.

I’m confident version 6 will be the one that sticks.

I need to get this book done, and I need to get it done to my liking. That won’t happen if I distract myself by jumping into another book or forcing words in this book that don’t fit my end goal.

But maybe next year!

Do you participate in NaNoWriMo? Have you ever gotten yourself in trouble because of it? What plans do you have for November?

About Insecure Writer’s Support Group

You can find the sign up for the IWSG here. We owe Alex J Cavanaugh a huge thank you for thinking this blog hop up.

October Already #IWSG

September flew by, and I struggle to fathom where the time has gone. I expected this, but it still shocks me that it’s October already. The first Wednesday of the month makes it Insecure Writer’s Support Group day!

What makes me insecure this month? The fact I’m starting this month’s writing the same place I started August. I thought it’d be smooth sailing after I overcame the scene I mentioned last month, but then my progress just stopped. It’s the same problem I had with my other scene. I can’t make it flow from A to B in a way I like. Except, instead of mulling over options like last time, my brain just quit. No input, output, or desire to figure it out. I worked on some art as I waited for that spark to return.

When a week passed and I still hadn’t gotten anything, I took drastic measures and I skipped it. Typically this gets me in trouble because my writing turns choppy, but I had stuff I wanted to write, and dwelling on this insignificant transition was holding me up.

That put me back into the scene where my main character is contending with the enemy who makes his life miserable, and the words once again flowed. (August’s post, like I said.)

My son, curious why Mama was sitting at her computer cackling, asked me what was going on. After I explained the scene to him, he asked to see a picture of this horrible villainess.

I didn’t have one.

In all my decades of working on this story, I’ve never drawn Ira.

So, to appease my son, I sat down and sketched her out.

At first, he asked, “why does she look like Derek?” I then had to wince and explain to my colorblind child that her hair was green and Derek’s hair was red.
Though, to his point, she does have the diamond skin markings and accompanying leaves that are part of Derek’s identifying features. I tried to make her leaves a little more spiky to relay a meaner look, though I think the blood on her hand sends the “I’m evil” message pretty well.

I’m progressing well at the moment, but considering I’m where I was 2 months ago, it does make me wish I was at least a little bit further along.

IWSG Question of the Month – What do you consider the best characteristics of your favorite genre?

Escapism into otherwise impossibility, and the fact that you can make up pretty much anything and have it work if you do it right. At least that’s why I love Fantasy.

What’s your favorite genre? What do you like best about it? Do you ever skip sections of your writing just to keep your momentum going?

About Insecure Writer’s Support Group

You can find the sign up for the IWSG here. We owe Alex J Cavanaugh a huge thank you for thinking this blog hop up.

I See You, September #IWSG

I switched up my standard pixabay lighthouse picture for one generated by Wombo Dream. AI art is getting impressive, controversial as it is.

September kicked off much as I expected—a lot of running around doing kid stuff as school resumes. I’ve been busy since late last month, and I don’t foresee it calming down until summer comes around again. But I can’t miss out on Insecure Writer’s Support Group day, so here it is, first Wednesday of the month again!

I haven’t made much progress on my writing, but it’s not due to the aforementioned busyness. I was stuck on a scene for weeks now because it just wasn’t flowing like I want it to. Earlier last month, I decided to change the order of events, moving a key moment later to increase the related urgency, because the way I had it dragged things out and undermined the tension. I moved it, and that went beautifully… until I tried to transition from that scene into the next. All I had to do is set my character on the path to move from point A to B, but for the life of me, I couldn’t get it to work. It was either too slow, going off into details that didn’t drive the story forward or deepen the characters, or too fast, creating a disjointed, choppy narrative.

But then… Yesterday. I shifted 2K from one chapter to another, ending the scene in a different place, and then trashed 1K of the wandering words that didn’t get me where I wanted to go. I started the new scene in a different spot, leaning into the mental meltdown that is my character’s constant, and with a lucky swap of two reveals… I made it happen. After long weeks of frustration and toil, I finally achieved a scene I didn’t hate.

IWSG Question of the Month – What genre would be the worst one for you to tackle and why?

My initial reaction was to say romance, because I’m terrible at writing relationships that develop over the course of the story into something more with substance. In fact, my book got tagged as “crappy-instant-love” on Goodreads in case you need convincing. If I’m being honest, I think I might be able to write a romance if I put actual effort into it. But I’m more prone to killing off my love interest than scribbling a happily-ever-after.

What I couldn’t do, however, even if I tried, is write deep, thought-provoking stories. My creativity doesn’t work like that. I thrive on banter and dark twists with a heavy helping of the absurd. If it’s not ridiculous in some way, it’s not me. (Heck, I’m a self-proclaimed squirrel if that doesn’t give some hint.) I applaud the people who can leave a reader musing over deeper meaning long after the story is done. Me? I’m more likely to pop that bubble of tension leaving everyone around me decorated in splattered bubblegum.

Have you had any scenes that have given you trouble for weeks on end? How’d you figure it out? What genres work or don’t work for you?

About Insecure Writer’s Support Group

You can find the sign up for the IWSG here. We owe Alex J Cavanaugh a huge thank you for thinking this blog hop up.

Entertaining Myself #IWSG

It’s the first Wednesday of August, and guess what! I’m co-hosting the Insecure Writer’s Support Group blog hop today along with Lisa Buie Collard, Lee Lowery, and Tara Tyler! Be sure to give them a visit.

(Because I anticipated a lot of visits, I drew a couple of eye-candy pictures for you all. I opted for cartoony this time around. Click on them to view larger sizes and captions of who they are.)

July saw my character hashing out his trauma with a long-hated enemy. I admit I’m disturbingly gleeful with how terrible this villain is. She’s a cold-blooded, psychotic killer, and sarcastic to boot. She murdered my character’s family, caused a war, and nearly wiped out the world with her single-minded selfishness. And my character’s stuck with her for the rest of eternity.

It’s been incredibly fun forcing him to face this foe, which brings me to the question of the month.

IWSG Question of the Month – When you set out to write a story, do you try to be more original or do you try to give readers what they want?

That’s a weird question. It implies readers don’t want original stories. Probably not what the question writer intended, but the either-or setup leaves me with the sense that I’m doing it wrong because neither apply. (I guess I prefer open ended questions rather than trying to shove this squirrel into a box.)

I shamelessly admit I don’t think about the reader when I’m writing. Writing is a purely self-indulgent hobby. Sure, I try to grow, improve, and do my best for other consumers to have a positive experience. But I write to entertain myself.

Does that make my work original? Sadly, no. My magic system stems from my tweenaged Sailor Moon days, with the alt-world travel of Sliders and extensive family trees rivaling Xanth’s character sprawl. The latest short story I wrote was a combo of two ideas I saw online.

Nothing I do is original, but that doesn’t bother me, because I’m having fun.

What about you? Are you having fun with your writing? Do you think readers want original stories? Do you draw inspiration from other sources?

About Insecure Writer’s Support Group

You can find the sign up for the IWSG here. We owe Alex J Cavanaugh a huge thank you for thinking this blog hop up.

Chipping Away #IWSG

It’s July! Heat’s in, fireworks have mucked with the air quality, and I’ve finally managed to get to a headspace where I’m not overwhelmed. June was good, despite being busy. I got to watch AJR in concert, which was awesome. We started the long and expensive process of orthodontic work for my daughter. My friends hosted a successful first-annual book event. I celebrated 16 years of being married. I started the long-awaited work of demolishing my defunct hot tub. It’s been productive, and with school no longer in session, I’ve had one less thing to juggle within my limited mental space.

I’ve also been writing! I’ve made decent progress on book 2, though not in word count. I get stalled out easily if I don’t know how to solve a problem, and that’s happened more than a dozen times with this book.

The latest dilemma: too many characters.

Some of you might be thinking, “that’s just now become a problem??” because you know I’ve got a TON of characters. Believe it or not, I try my best to limit how many appear in any given scene. But in this case, I need to introduce and make these characters relevant to set up events in the last quarter of the book, and I was stuck on how to do that without bogging everything down.

I figured it out.

The easiest solution to having too many characters in a scene is to remove everyone. I cackled as I told my best friend of my plan to pluck my character from his companions, providing me a great opportunity to inject these necessary characters, set things up for later in the book, then pack them away before he reunites with his companions.

Now I just need to type it.

IWSG Question of the Month – If you could live in any book world, which one would you choose?

You know, I’m not sure here. You might wonder (or not), would I live in my book world? Heck no. It’s way too dangerous! I wouldn’t subject my kids to that, and I wouldn’t choose a world without my family.

If I were 30 years younger, I might say Xanth (Piers Anthony) or Landover (Terry Brooks). But at my current stage of life, I don’t know that I could survive a fantasy world. I’m having enough trouble with the real one.

Have you made progress on any of your projects? How has summer been treating you? Did you spend any time in Xanth or Landover, like I did as a kid?

About Insecure Writer’s Support Group

You can find the sign up for the IWSG here. We owe Alex J Cavanaugh a huge thank you for thinking this blog hop up.

Into Month Six! #IWSG

It’s the first of June, and the first Wednesday of the month, making today Insecure Writer’s Support Group day! Woot!

I’d hoped for less busyness in May, but that wasn’t the case. I faced urgent application changes at work, health problems at home, school events and overdue assignments, birthday parties to attend, and none of that includes the stuff I had planned for myself. Despite all the demands for my attention, it was a surprisingly productive month for this year’s goals.

Back in January, I set my only writing goal as “Finish something. Anything.” I’m happy to report that I’ve completed that goal! Of course it’s not one of the big projects like Book 2 or the companion novel, but I did write a short story comprising 6K of utter ridiculousness. It was unfinished when I handed the first 4K to my critique group, and I had the pleasure of getting accused of lying about it being a rough draft. Granted, it wasn’t without fault. I clearly don’t know squat about horse equipment because I got that all wrong. But my critique group enjoyed it for the most part, to the point that I flipped off Troy when he suggested I give up writing my big books and just stick to short fiction. Of course, Dani didn’t like it, though, but I expected that. Admittedly, I even chuckled to myself once and said aloud, “Dani hates time travel,” and kept on writing, throwing in dialect (which she also hates) and non-English words without proper context (which annoys her). I don’t have any plans for this short story, but there it is regardless.

The other goal I’ve made progress toward is learning Blender. After watching a YouTube video about using 3D models to help in 2D art, I cracked open the software and started sculpting, using the linked video as my guide. That led to other searches, such as “how to make curly hair” and progressed toward my ultimate goal: character figurines from my big books. Within a couple of days, I had a decent start to a Derek face.

Over the course of 2 weeks, I poked and prodded my digital clay, exploring the different tools at my disposal, and spending a few of those days venting my frustration as I tried to overcome problems I encountered when trying to join objects. I also deviated from my pictures toward more realistic, and masculine, features to arrive at the current state. Once I had Derek, I took the head/torso sculpt along with my gained knowledge and started on MaTisha. Within 2 days, I produced her current form.

Compare it to my digital paintings:

I’m starting with just the bust with the intention to 3D print them and place them in my office like marble Greek statues. Someday, I may do full body and make posed figurines, but I’m not so ambitions to aim for that this year. I need to figure out remeshing and texture painting first. I plan to sculpt Cameron, LaTonya, and Cera as well, all of which are protagonist POVs in my big books. My coworker commented I could make my own chess set, though I don’t know how I’d go about identifying the different pieces as my characters. Still, it’s a neat idea, and one I’d entertain.

IWSG Question of the Month – When the going gets tough writing the story, how do you keep yourself writing to the end? If have not started the writing yet, why do you think that is and what do you think could help you find your groove and start?

AH HA HA HA HA! Keep writing to the end? Have you met me–the squirrel who has taken a decade to write book 2 in a series? Clearly I don’t adhere to forcing myself to stick to one project. I’ve only got the “I’m going to freaking finish this series” motivation that keeps me going in spurts. I get back to things when my brain ignites because I haven’t seen much success in forcing myself to do something when the vision isn’t clear in my head. I am still actively working on book 2, and that’s good enough for me.

Have you dabbled in digital sculpting before? How are your goals coming along? Do you keep yourself writing to the end?

P.S. (because I totally spaced that I should’ve made an announcement): Melissa Maygrove has released a new book today–historical romance called Fool’s Iron. Be sure to pick up your copy on Amazon!

About Insecure Writer’s Support Group

You can find the sign up for the IWSG here. We owe Alex J Cavanaugh a huge thank you for thinking this blog hop up.

Mayhem, Of Course #IWSG

It’s the first Wednesday of the month, making today Insecure Writer’s Support Group day! I wish all of you Star Wars fans out there a happy Star Wars day. May the 4th be with you!

I’m actually writing this blog post early and using the schedule to make it publish on the right day. I’ve got to take my kid to the orthodontist, which is where I’ll be this Wednesday morning.

Life’s been busy lately with a few spiraling breakdowns induced by the overload that was April. My husband saw it–that wild look in my eye–and intervened a few days to try to keep me afloat. He convinced the kids to give Mama a break and helped me tackle half of my To Do list to his own detriment. The guy doesn’t get enough credit for how much he keeps me grounded when I get overwhelmed and start shutting down. It wasn’t until last weekend that I regained my footing and breathed easy for the first time in almost 2 months.

But amidst all the mayhem, I have been writing. I’ve got seven chapters in book 2 revised. Not bad, if I may say so. If I hadn’t been able to write, I think I’d still be a wreck. It’s the thing I do for me–not for the kids, not for the house, not for the dog or the husband or the friends. I guess that brings us to the question of the month.

IWSG Question of the Month – It’s the best of times; it’s the worst of times. What are your writer highs (the good times)? And what are your writer lows (the crappy times)?

Writing, in itself, is a good time. Oh sure, there’s the blocks, the revisions, and the stuff I have to fix that sucks. I scream in despair anytime I feel a major rewrite’s in order. It’s crappy when people tell me they hate my characters or they don’t see the point to my chapter.

But writing is therapeutic. I can throw a bunch of crap at my characters and have them scream in frustration while I cackle maniacally from behind my keyboard. The best of times are when I’m amused by something so absurd, I know no one else will appreciate it.

They do say laughter is the best medicine. It certainly helps when you’ve had an April like I have.

Do you ever find yourself entertained by the visions in your head? How are you handling this year so far? What are your best writer times?

About Insecure Writer’s Support Group

You can find the sign up for the IWSG here. We owe Alex J Cavanaugh a huge thank you for thinking this blog hop up.