Mishka Jenkins's Blog, page 18

When is enough, enough?

Photo by Rennett Stowe via Flickr

I was sat down doing my final read out with my mum and sister, and I was saying how I was looking forward to getting these books finished so as I can get them out and go back to writing again. I don’t want to rush them, but I really want them to be done as the amount of edits are taking so long.

Then my mum asks, ‘Are you just editing and editing so as you don’t have to put them out there?’

‘Of course not, I really want to get them out and into the world,’ I scoffed, gave a nervous laugh and then thought, hm, maybe she’s not so wrong.

Am I just editing, doing a read out, editing some more, doing more read outs, all because of my complete nervousness of putting my work out into the world? Some kind of strange procrastination?

I am excited to get my stories out there for people to read, I am incredibly proud of what I’ve produced and I think they are strong stories that I hope people will enjoy. But they’re still my babies, my babies I know that people will be looking over with a critical eye, and my babies that I know there are some people will not enjoy.

And that is a terrifying thought!

I want people to enjoy my books. I don’t need them to change people’s lives, but I do want people to put down the book and think, ‘Yeah, that was a really good read’. And the longer I put off actually getting my work out there, the more I can convince myself that people will think that :D

I know I’ve talked about being nervous before, but the closer I get to finishing, the worse I get. These are the first books I’ve ever finished, and I put a lot of work and heart into them. It’s scary to know that once they are out there, I have no control over how people view them or what they will think.

But, it’s just another fear I need to overcome. A big one, but one that I will be better for getting over. Yeah, some people may not like them, but others may really enjoy them. How am I going to know unless I put them out there? I’ve got to take the risk to reap the reward.

As I was saying to my mum, part of the worry is that I really want writing to work out as a career for me. I have tried many different things in the past, but writing is something I love with a real passion, and I want to be able to live off of what I produce.

But how will I know until I take the first step.

A career from writing is a very long term plan, and I have got to start somewhere, right?

Saying that, editing is finally drawing to an end and I have only one book left to edit, then it’s just the formatting, blurbs and covers to get up together. The time for the release is really starting to draw near!

Were you nervous about publishing your works? Did you worry what people would think of them? How did you get over those nerves? Any advice?

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Progress Report

Publishing status:

> Stolen- Formatting. (Still to do: Cover, blurb, formatting, marketing).

> The Queen’s Jester- Formatting. (Still to do: Cover, blurb, formatting, marketing).

> Third Manuscript- Final edits. (Still to do: Cover, blurb, formatting, marketing).

May E-Book Review: Book read. Review written.

Info about the Blog and Schedule

I thought I would do a quick post today about my posting schedule and generally let people know when I’m around :D I will also add it to my About page and Contact and Connect page.

Posting Schedule:

Monday

Tuesday (Romance Weekly)

Wednesday

Friday

I do my end of month, self published eBook reviews at the end of every month, but apart from that and my Romance Weekly post, I have no set posts that I do every week. Just whatever I am feeling, though still writing or reading related :D

If you want to get hold of me through email or facebook or twitter, etc, I am around during the week, but I take the weekends off.

I don’t even turn my computer on during the weekends, so if you email me or contact me and I haven’t gotten back on a weekend, then I will most likely do so on the Monday :D

If I take any other time off, I will be sure to let you all know (like I did at Easter), just so as no one worries that I might have disappeared!

I comment on other’s blogs during the week, but again not on a weekend.

I will do honest book reviews if asked, just drop me a line :) I have end of month reviews planned for next couple of months, but still post reviews on Amazon, Goodreads and wherever else you would like. But again, just so as everyone knows, I will only post honest reviews, plus they’re not as great as some others, as I am still learning how to write reviews properly!

If you have any queries, let me know! Back to normal posts Friday, just thought it was probably time I let people know how the blog works :)

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Progress Report

Publishing status:

> Stolen- Formatting. (Still to do: Cover, blurb, marketing).

> The Queen’s Jester- Final edits. (Still to do: Cover, blurb, formatting, marketing).

> Third Manuscript- Final edits. (Still to do: Cover, blurb, formatting, marketing).

May E-Book Review: Read. Review written and ready.

Romance Weekly

Here we go then with this week’s questions :)

1. When did you start writing, and why?

Well, I started writing in my early teens, a creative outlet for all the stuff in my head :D I have written bits and pieces throughout my life since then, writing is something I have always done. I didn’t start writing seriously, looking to make a career out of it, until last December.

I sat down on December 23rd and started writing Stolen, and I just didn’t stop!

2. What do you like best about writing?

Being able to get a story out, to tell about these character’s lives and the excitement that comes from that. It’s such an amazing feeling to take these characters I’ve created and go on a journey with them, then let someone else read that story and do the same.

3. If you could go on a writing retreat, where would you go and for how long?

Oh, um, possibly Devon, or maybe Scotland. Somewhere with lots of open space and silence.

As for how long, I would like to go for the rest of my life, can I do that? :D

Some fun questions this week, now let’s go learn more about Lanora Mangano!

How would you answer this week’s questions?

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Progress Report

Publishing status:

> Stolen- Formatting. (Still to do: Cover, blurb, marketing).

> The Queen’s Jester- Final edits. (Still to do: Cover, blurb, formatting, marketing).

> Third Manuscript- Final edits. (Still to do: Cover, blurb, formatting, marketing).

May E-Book Review: 100% read. Review ready.

Can you feel it?

Photo by Dr Wendy Longo via Flickr

I am in the very early stages of planning out my next book. I know I shouldn’t be, I have got to focus on finishing my others! But I can’t help myself :D So, I’m doing little bits and pieces here and there to satisfy my craving.

My next book will be a romance again, but in a different sub-genre. I’ve been getting inspiration and doing bits of research, and I realised something about how I write.

I like to get the feel for the genre I’m writing.

For example, for Stolen, I read paranormal books, I watched vampire movies and tv shows. I immersed myself into that world and the feeling of the paranormal genre.

For The Queen’s Jester, I watched medieval shows, I read medieval romances. And for my third book (which I will give an intro to at some point and a title so as I can stop calling it my ‘third book’ :D), I dove into researching Romans and that life, surrounded myself in information of Romans and took up watching Spartacus!

I haven’t ever realised it before, but apparently my subconscious knows I need to immerse myself in the genre and get the feel of it for writing. Which is great, the more my head is in that genre then its likely the better I am going to write in it. It just means for a few months I watch, read and think nothing but the genre!

I think that is why visual aids helped me so much on my last book, it’s just another way of surrounding myself with that genre and getting into the mind-set of that story. Doing that means it flows easy and the writing has that distinct feel to it that I want.

It was just one of those random observations about my writing process I didn’t realise until I stepped back and actually looked at how I go about planning a new book :D

Do you immerse yourself in the particular genre you’re writing? Do you have an unusual things you do to get into the right frame of mind for writing different genres?

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Progress Report

Publishing status:

> Stolen- Formatting. (Still to do: Cover, blurb, marketing).

> The Queen’s Jester- Final edits. (Still to do: Cover, blurb, formatting, marketing).

> Third Manuscript- Final edits. (Still to do: Cover, blurb, formatting, marketing).

May E-Book Review: Reading.

Here it comes…

Now, I’m going to write a word that will most likely evoke a strong reaction in most of you, are you ready?… You sure?…

Fanfiction.

Oh yes, the word that is spoken in hushed whispers between writers.

Fanfiction is one of those topics that gets a lot of writers into a heated debate, but I’m not here to talk about fanfiction as a good or bad thing for literature. I am going to talk about it as a writing tool.

I think fanfiction is great in a few ways:

- It gets people writing who wouldn’t write otherwise, and then from there, discover a passion for writing to go on and produce their own stuff.

- It shows how much passion people can have for their ‘fandoms’ :D

Do I write fanfiction? Yes, I do.

I think I could almost feel a collective cringe from some people reading this at that admittance!

But let me explain why I write it.

I don’t write fanfiction to be read by anyone else, I write fanfiction only for me. When I was younger I posted fanfiction for the public, but haven’t for many years. Nowadays, I write fanfiction for my eyes only.

And I do it because it’s fun.

Fanfiction gives me a release, it gives me a place to just write for me, to be able to write without the thought that anyone will ever see it. It also means I don’t have to think about characters or setting because they are already done, all I have to do is write. Write for the pleasure of it. That doesn’t mean my writing ability plummets to a terrible level, I still use it as practice to better my writing.

When I did post fanfiction for the public, most of the comments I got were about the way I was good at keeping the much loved characters of someone else in-character. Taking the characters of someone else and writing them myself was amazing practice at keeping my own characters in-character throughout my works.

Obviously I get great amounts of pleasure from writing my own works :D That’s the most fun. But at the moment, as I have said, I can’t start working on a new story because I’m trying to focus on finishing my other books.

Fanfiction gives me that writing release whilst not making my head focus on starting a new story.

I can understand why fanfiction gets a bad rep, some of it is rather… interesting, yeah, let’s go with that word :D

But for me, fanfiction isn’t a guilty pleasure, it is just a pleasure. I enjoy writing it, and sometimes I love to read it. Will anyone ever see my fanfiction? No, but that is part of what is nice. It’s all for me.

How do you feel about fan fiction? Do you write it? Do you read it? Do you have a favourite fandom?

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Progress Report

Publishing status:

> Stolen- Final edits. (Still to do: Cover, blurb, formatting, marketing).

> The Queen’s Jester- Final edits. (Still to do: Cover, blurb, formatting, marketing).

> Third Manuscript- Final edits. (Still to do: Cover, blurb, formatting, marketing).

May E-Book Review: Reading.