Alledria Hurt's Blog, page 20
May 2, 2016
Hacking My Brain [Shoulding All Over Myself]
After reading THIS POST from February on Gretchen's blog, I realized I really do should all over myself. The phrase 'Don't Should All Over Yourself' came up in the comments and I think its apropos. How often do we say we should or shouldn't have done something when it comes to things that we want to do? I forget which chapter of procrastination expert Neil Fiore's book "The Now Habit" deals with the problem of Should (despite having listened to the audio book quite a number of times, I find the narration soothing) but it comes up as something that makes us feel bad. Whenever we tell ourselves we should or shouldn't do something, we're taking a model of perfection and overlying it on our now which is by default not perfect. It's just another way for us to end up not wanting to do anything because we can't reach that perfect person or situation. Case in point, as a writer, I should be able to write everyday. That RARELY happens for me. Not because I don't have the best intentions but because I, as a person, have a tendency to prioritize too many other things over my writing. (This is something I'm working on, slowly.) Another thing I have a hard time with is managing my social calendar. I have friends, a number of them. They like to do things. I like to help them do things or at least go sit in the audience and be in awe of the things that they do. However, I'm also an introvert who needs a certain amount of me time in order to not be a triple A terrible human. Plus I recently started a job where my go time is between 6 and 730 in the morning, not conducive to late nights. Facebook events make me feel like I'm always missing something, mostly because I am. I'm choosing sleep over interaction on a lot of cases. But the missing of things I want to go to and can go to is the problem. Until recently, I didn't really do well managing my calendar. I had one calendar over here which I barely updated and Facebook events reminding me of something else over here and while I should have been able to manage those things and keep track of everything, I was failing miserably. So finally, in an effort to not be completely lost about what is going on I instituted the habit of updating my calendar on my phone whenever I agreed to do something. That automatically syncs to my IPad at home which is where I keep my writing schedule and workout schedule. Plus I have a handy wall calendar (yeah, analog) so that I can see the entire month and make sure I'm not overscheduling myself without realizing by saying yes to too many things.
If you know that should is not helping, how do you deal? Having expectations for yourself is a reality. They have to be phrased somehow. If 'should' doesn't work, what does? Fiore's book deals with procrastination, contrasting between the language of the producer and the language of the procrastinator. Procrastinators unfortunately set themselves up to feel the need to procrastinate through the use of 'should' messages. On the other hand, producers use different language to feel empowered to make decisions. Things like 'I am', 'I choose', or 'I will' communicate a sense of choice and a possibility of accomplishment. They are not panacea however. You can say these things as much as you like without moving forward to actually doing any of these things. Trust me, been there, tried that. You still have to do the work, not just make the choice to do the work.
One of my other favorite blogs, Nerd Fitness likes to point out that the exercise program of the most worth is the one that you do and stick with. It doesn't matter what your intentions are, it matters what you do. If you can't get yourself to the gym everyday, but can manage three days a week, stick with what works. Don't beat yourself up over the 'shoulds' of life. I recently started going to the gym and told myself I would go to the gym three times a week. So far, so good. I didn't tell myself I should because as far as I'm concerned going to the gym at all is an 'I should'. How many times I get there is dependent on the week. (I schedule three times a week, but if I don't make all of them, I don't hamstring myself.)
What's the current should weighing you down? Are you shoulding all over yourself in an attempt to work toward a goal? Would a change in vocabulary perhaps add the spark needed to move from 'I should' to 'I will'? Oh and if you're into Gretchen's podcast, you might listen to the Little Happier 'Don't Let the Perfect be the enemy of the Good' available now. I listened to it earlier at the gym, it is, as usual, a little ray of hope in my day.
April 25, 2016
Hacking My Brain [So What's an Obliger?]
Learning about the four tendencies as outlined in "Better Than Before" by Gretchen Rubin has offered me a new framework from which to think about my habit formation and how to get myself to do things on a regular basis. Like blogging for instance. I'm not a very good blogger. I have a tendency to forget about this thing for weeks at a time. Which means I never build up much of an audience. One of the keys to blog audience building is consistency. I occasionally flirt with the idea of just letting this thing fall by the wayside and not worrying about it anymore. However, I have things to say that I want to share, so I keep coming back to it.
What does being an Obliger have to do with any of this?
I'll repost the handy chart I made that gives you the four tendencies and their interactions with expectations.
As you can see from the chart, Obligers are the ones who do well with external expectation and poor with internal expectation. In short, I thrive when someone else expects me to do something and have a higher rate of failure when I, solo, expect me to do something. Case in point, blogging. I have attempted on several occasions to put myself on a self-imposed schedule for blogging in order to keep this blog up to date. Unfortunately, because of how I feel about internal expectation, which is to say I can disappoint me without there being really any consequences, that has not worked. On the flipside, I have no audience expecting me to come to them with pearls of wisdom (or even a possible witty comment) on a regular basis so that doesn't work either. No consequences, no one breathing down my neck to say that I should. Nothing. Now that we have defined the problem an obliger faces, how does one create a system of accountability by which one can do something like blogging without it being cumbersome and useless? I'm still working on this. There is a hashtag called #MondayBlogs on Twitter. In order to work on blog traffic, I want to participate in that as much as possible. Therefore, I need to have content to post. External activity helping to drive internal motivation. I want to blog. I just need some reason outside of myself to blog regularly. If I take part in #MondayBlogs, then I have to post a new blog post by Monday every week. Considering that Monday is currently my day off, that works out rather nicely. I can write the blog post before Monday. Edit it on Monday, and make sure that it gets posted to the interwebs by Monday afternoon in order to take part in the Monday blog traffic.
Let's look at another something I've done recently where I am running into what I call the 'Obliger Wall'. The Obliger Wall is the awareness that I want to do something, but my nature is working against me for some reason. My obliger nature is making it hard for me to create and hold onto the habit.
Recently, I started going to the gym, Planet Fitness. I've been trying to get my weight back under control for a while now and I'm more than a little disappointed in my progress. I actually started this journey last year only to end up 20lbs heavier over the course of a year than losing any real weight. Needless to say, this was a trend I really needed to head off before it got any worse. So gym membership, here I come. Problem: Going to the gym is not inherently something I feel inclined to do. I know why I need to. I feel the mild unhappiness with my body shape that prompts it, but I'm not exactly super motivated in spite of my shortcomings. In most cases, this is where I quit. I cancel the gym membership and I give up. Who cares if I look like a whale in a bathing suit but me, right? I'm falling back on the online option for group interaction in the Nerd Fitness Rebellion and Habitica (formerly HabitRPG). I've written about Nerd Fitness HERE and HabitRPG HERE. These are two of my favorite sites on the internet and they offer me a chance at accountability that I don't have in my regular life. Through my party occasionally asking me how things are going and opening up a daily battle log on Nerd Fitness, I've tried to set myself up for success. This is not to say that I get a lot of interaction from these places and no one is riding my coattails trying to get me to do anything, but the occasional how is this going, which requires me to formulate my thoughts into some kind of update (and feel bad if I haven't done anything toward my goal) has been very helpful. I'm in week four of going to the gym and seeing some positive improvement in my weight. So I guess it's working.
One thing I will point out though: Just because I'm an Obliger doesn't mean that I cannot work off of internal motivation. It simply means I have better success when I have external factors spurring me on. At the end of the day, no one cares if my books get finished, but me so the motivation has to come from within me. I don't have an agent or a publisher or even a favorite reader waiting for these things. It's all on me. If it sounds like I can't get myself to do things on my own without someone standing over me with a stick, that's just not true.
What does being an Obliger have to do with any of this?
I'll repost the handy chart I made that gives you the four tendencies and their interactions with expectations.
As you can see from the chart, Obligers are the ones who do well with external expectation and poor with internal expectation. In short, I thrive when someone else expects me to do something and have a higher rate of failure when I, solo, expect me to do something. Case in point, blogging. I have attempted on several occasions to put myself on a self-imposed schedule for blogging in order to keep this blog up to date. Unfortunately, because of how I feel about internal expectation, which is to say I can disappoint me without there being really any consequences, that has not worked. On the flipside, I have no audience expecting me to come to them with pearls of wisdom (or even a possible witty comment) on a regular basis so that doesn't work either. No consequences, no one breathing down my neck to say that I should. Nothing. Now that we have defined the problem an obliger faces, how does one create a system of accountability by which one can do something like blogging without it being cumbersome and useless? I'm still working on this. There is a hashtag called #MondayBlogs on Twitter. In order to work on blog traffic, I want to participate in that as much as possible. Therefore, I need to have content to post. External activity helping to drive internal motivation. I want to blog. I just need some reason outside of myself to blog regularly. If I take part in #MondayBlogs, then I have to post a new blog post by Monday every week. Considering that Monday is currently my day off, that works out rather nicely. I can write the blog post before Monday. Edit it on Monday, and make sure that it gets posted to the interwebs by Monday afternoon in order to take part in the Monday blog traffic.Let's look at another something I've done recently where I am running into what I call the 'Obliger Wall'. The Obliger Wall is the awareness that I want to do something, but my nature is working against me for some reason. My obliger nature is making it hard for me to create and hold onto the habit.
Recently, I started going to the gym, Planet Fitness. I've been trying to get my weight back under control for a while now and I'm more than a little disappointed in my progress. I actually started this journey last year only to end up 20lbs heavier over the course of a year than losing any real weight. Needless to say, this was a trend I really needed to head off before it got any worse. So gym membership, here I come. Problem: Going to the gym is not inherently something I feel inclined to do. I know why I need to. I feel the mild unhappiness with my body shape that prompts it, but I'm not exactly super motivated in spite of my shortcomings. In most cases, this is where I quit. I cancel the gym membership and I give up. Who cares if I look like a whale in a bathing suit but me, right? I'm falling back on the online option for group interaction in the Nerd Fitness Rebellion and Habitica (formerly HabitRPG). I've written about Nerd Fitness HERE and HabitRPG HERE. These are two of my favorite sites on the internet and they offer me a chance at accountability that I don't have in my regular life. Through my party occasionally asking me how things are going and opening up a daily battle log on Nerd Fitness, I've tried to set myself up for success. This is not to say that I get a lot of interaction from these places and no one is riding my coattails trying to get me to do anything, but the occasional how is this going, which requires me to formulate my thoughts into some kind of update (and feel bad if I haven't done anything toward my goal) has been very helpful. I'm in week four of going to the gym and seeing some positive improvement in my weight. So I guess it's working.
One thing I will point out though: Just because I'm an Obliger doesn't mean that I cannot work off of internal motivation. It simply means I have better success when I have external factors spurring me on. At the end of the day, no one cares if my books get finished, but me so the motivation has to come from within me. I don't have an agent or a publisher or even a favorite reader waiting for these things. It's all on me. If it sounds like I can't get myself to do things on my own without someone standing over me with a stick, that's just not true.
April 19, 2016
Hacking my Brain [The Four Tendencies]
As a writer, I do a fair bit of reading. Some of it I even find useful for more than just allowing me to procrastinate about doing more important things. One writer I find very interesting (interesting enough that I also subscribe to her podcast) is Gretchen Rubin. Gretchen is a lawyer turned writer who specifically deals with habits and how to create a happier life. I first read her book, The Happiness Project, on a plane returning from New York with my mother. I bought it in the airport when the dramatic YA novel I had been reading ran out. It was a sixteen dollar book at the magazine kiosk, but I didn't regret it. That book, in short, is about a year long experiment Gretchen did on herself in order to create a happier life. It started from a place of stagnation and dissatisfaction and moved toward making real strides to improve her circumstances without necessarily changing much of anything. To me, this was a novel idea. In my own mind, though I had never said it out loud, I considered happiness a product of things that happened to me as opposed to something that I could affect and control. This may be an unintended side product of my interactions with a bunch of therapists over the years who have emphasized how much my condition (Severe depression/Schizophrenia/Social Anxiety/Aspergers) is not my fault and just the reality of faulty brain chemistry. In a way, that set me up as the victim. After reading The Happiness Project, I decided maybe just blaming bad luck and poor genetics wasn't enough.
I liked the book so much I lent it out on multiple occasions and that's my it isn't on my bookshelf right now. I lent it out and never got it back. Oh well, as I always say with books, they are enriching someone's life wherever they are, so no hard feelings.
In my pursuit of improving my life, I started seeing a therapist who fully believes my life is under my control. The worst of the faulty brain chemistry has been corrected through medication and now I'm enjoying a happier and more fulfilled life thanks to someone believing it was possible for me. However, that's not enough. I recently started embarking on changing my life a little further by tackling my habits. Gretchen wrote another wonderful book called Better than Before about the science and strategies of habit formation. Of course, I had to read it and see what I could glean for the use in my own journey of habit formation. The first thing I learned was that just as there are different personalities, there are different tendencies when it comes to habit formation. I put together a handy little chart to be able to tell them apart.
Now as you can see, you can be one of four. I am actually an Obliger. I thought I might be an Upholder, but from looking at how I handle projects and inner expectations like food logging and portion control, I realize I have a real problem dealing with expectations I set for myself. Is it impossible for me to do the right thing if I don't have external expectations or someone hounding me? No, but things go much more smoothly for me when I consider that I have someone else I am influencing, impressing, or just accountable to. The biggest question is what does this mean for my writing? I am generally capable of finishing a writing task without someone breathing down my neck or a real deadline other than the one that I set on the calendar. On the flipside, I do so much better on things like NaNoWriMo because it gives me a lot of external accountability. Others are looking at my progress bar going: Has it turned purple yet? They're asking me about whether or not I'm writing today. All stuff that makes me feel like 'Ah man, I really need to be writing today'. I'm going to think on this some more and see if there are ways to create external accountability to get things done more quickly. It would be awesome if I could find a system to get me writing more with fewer days off. Look for that to be upcoming. I also have a progress report due on where we are in creating the next two books: Wielding His Scythe and Blades of Fate.
If you would like to check out Gretchen Rubin, try her blog/website at gretchenrubin.com. You can also find her podcast, Happier with Gretchen Rubin, through her website. If you want to find out your tendency, take the quiz found here.
I liked the book so much I lent it out on multiple occasions and that's my it isn't on my bookshelf right now. I lent it out and never got it back. Oh well, as I always say with books, they are enriching someone's life wherever they are, so no hard feelings.
In my pursuit of improving my life, I started seeing a therapist who fully believes my life is under my control. The worst of the faulty brain chemistry has been corrected through medication and now I'm enjoying a happier and more fulfilled life thanks to someone believing it was possible for me. However, that's not enough. I recently started embarking on changing my life a little further by tackling my habits. Gretchen wrote another wonderful book called Better than Before about the science and strategies of habit formation. Of course, I had to read it and see what I could glean for the use in my own journey of habit formation. The first thing I learned was that just as there are different personalities, there are different tendencies when it comes to habit formation. I put together a handy little chart to be able to tell them apart.
Now as you can see, you can be one of four. I am actually an Obliger. I thought I might be an Upholder, but from looking at how I handle projects and inner expectations like food logging and portion control, I realize I have a real problem dealing with expectations I set for myself. Is it impossible for me to do the right thing if I don't have external expectations or someone hounding me? No, but things go much more smoothly for me when I consider that I have someone else I am influencing, impressing, or just accountable to. The biggest question is what does this mean for my writing? I am generally capable of finishing a writing task without someone breathing down my neck or a real deadline other than the one that I set on the calendar. On the flipside, I do so much better on things like NaNoWriMo because it gives me a lot of external accountability. Others are looking at my progress bar going: Has it turned purple yet? They're asking me about whether or not I'm writing today. All stuff that makes me feel like 'Ah man, I really need to be writing today'. I'm going to think on this some more and see if there are ways to create external accountability to get things done more quickly. It would be awesome if I could find a system to get me writing more with fewer days off. Look for that to be upcoming. I also have a progress report due on where we are in creating the next two books: Wielding His Scythe and Blades of Fate. If you would like to check out Gretchen Rubin, try her blog/website at gretchenrubin.com. You can also find her podcast, Happier with Gretchen Rubin, through her website. If you want to find out your tendency, take the quiz found here.
April 3, 2016
Switching Gears
I had been working on the second in the She Becomes Death trilogy. However, with my new (much slower) schedule, I'm realizing in order to get Blades of Fate out by this summer, I'm going to have to switch gears and work on it. Otherwise, I'm never going to finish it in time. Therefore, I've switched over to working on Blades of Fate which is currently in need of revisions and additions so that I can make sure it's ready to be seen by the viewing public in August at the latest. I'm thinking of putting out ARC copies of it as is so that others can start formulating reviews. Which means asking my email list if they would be interested in reading a digital copy of the new book in enough time to put up reviews when I finally have it out.
Does this mean I've completely stalled on Wielding His Scythe, She Becomes Death book 2? No. It just means it isn't on the front burner right now. I'm still making a little bit of headway here and there with it. I've almost got the first fifth of it finished. I'm just probably not going to get it out before say December at my current pace. Knowing that, I have plenty of time to plug the first book and get people ready for the second.
In other news, I've almost got a venue for the wedding. It requires pre-marital counseling, which my mother is excited about. I think she's more excited about it than I am and I'm the one getting married. Aren't I supposed to be the one who is super excited about this whole process? Oh well, even if I'm not gung-ho about the whole thing, I am certainly looking forward to having the beautiful day followed by years of wedded happiness. That's the part I'm really looking toward, the bit after the wedding.
All things considered, things are going well. I just have a few more things I have to take care of and then I'll be ready to get down to some serious party planning.
Does this mean I've completely stalled on Wielding His Scythe, She Becomes Death book 2? No. It just means it isn't on the front burner right now. I'm still making a little bit of headway here and there with it. I've almost got the first fifth of it finished. I'm just probably not going to get it out before say December at my current pace. Knowing that, I have plenty of time to plug the first book and get people ready for the second.
In other news, I've almost got a venue for the wedding. It requires pre-marital counseling, which my mother is excited about. I think she's more excited about it than I am and I'm the one getting married. Aren't I supposed to be the one who is super excited about this whole process? Oh well, even if I'm not gung-ho about the whole thing, I am certainly looking forward to having the beautiful day followed by years of wedded happiness. That's the part I'm really looking toward, the bit after the wedding.
All things considered, things are going well. I just have a few more things I have to take care of and then I'll be ready to get down to some serious party planning.
March 22, 2016
What's Really Going On
Since Gnome Con, I haven't gotten a lot of writing done. Why? Because I'm working a new job within the job I've been working for several years. I now get up at 5:30 in the morning in order to be to work by 6:30 so I can work until 4 or 5 in the afternoon. It doesn't give me a lot of time left where my brain is not mush and I have to get up the next day and do it all over again. As a consequence, my writing is suffering. In a way, I expected this and perhaps it is for the better because it means I only write when I'm mentally together enough to do so. However, that means there is no way I'm going to be putting out more than maybe three books this year, if I'm lucky, and one of them is already out.
The first draft of Blades of Fate is written, but in need of edits and probably some additions. It is, however, already done. I can, with some effort, get it done by June which was my original plan. Unfortunately, the other three She Becomes Death books: Wielding his Scythe, Winning his Kingdom, and Matchmaker, Matchmaker are going to be delayed with this current writing schedule. Will they still get done? Of course. It will just take me longer than initially planned. As the saying goes, it will happen, I'm not dead yet.
Currently, I am working on Wielding His Scythe at an Arctic slow pace. The good news is: I'm still working on it.
In other news, I've started planning a wedding that isn't for another year and a half. I might be rushing things just a bit trying to get it all done before I have to worry about it too much, but then again, maybe not. Still many questions to answer, but I've answered a couple.
The first draft of Blades of Fate is written, but in need of edits and probably some additions. It is, however, already done. I can, with some effort, get it done by June which was my original plan. Unfortunately, the other three She Becomes Death books: Wielding his Scythe, Winning his Kingdom, and Matchmaker, Matchmaker are going to be delayed with this current writing schedule. Will they still get done? Of course. It will just take me longer than initially planned. As the saying goes, it will happen, I'm not dead yet.
Currently, I am working on Wielding His Scythe at an Arctic slow pace. The good news is: I'm still working on it.
In other news, I've started planning a wedding that isn't for another year and a half. I might be rushing things just a bit trying to get it all done before I have to worry about it too much, but then again, maybe not. Still many questions to answer, but I've answered a couple.
March 15, 2016
Gnome Con 2016, so that happened!
Amazing that it's already been more than a week since I went to Gnome Con and rocked out my first ever vending opportunity. So here's the essential breakdown. Gnome Con ran from March the 4th through the 6th: half-day Friday, full day Saturday, 2/3 of a day Sunday. I got there on Friday not long after they opened for set up and got myself all ready to go. I bought 15 copies each of my first two books. Though the third book was ready for downloadables that weekend, I didn't have any physical copies. That made me a little sad, but the good news was that it was done in time to be put on sale. On Friday, I sold about half of my physical copies. I was offering them for 2 for $20, in hopes this would help them move. I also included download cards, which I got from a blog post on Magical Words. They are super easy to make and they can be sold for a couple dollars a piece. I sold each of the three for $2 and then a pack of three for $5. All in all, a good deal to get my books in the hands of new readers. So far, I've only gotten one email about someone being unable to download the books that I put up through Google Drive, so hopefully that means everyone else has been getting them easily enough. I also, for the first time, used a Square reader. This was a little daunting as I learned how to make it work, but after a couple tries, I got the hang of it. Worked out pretty well.
I know, I know, you want to know how much I made at this shindig. Was it worth it for me to do? Yes, I have never vended before and having a chance to do so at a small convention in my hometown was priceless experience. Nothing like it. Monetarily, was it worth it? I made about $200 after taxes, in GA you have to pay sales tax even on things like convention sales. That is a hundred dollars more than I spent on the table, but didn't completely cover the amount of the merchandise. So did I break even? No. Would I still do this again? Yes. I'm actually currently in talks to take part in another public venue and perhaps sell more books. The chance to interact with new possible fans is something I simply can't pass up. My best seller was Dark King Rising though I sold a copy of Chains of Fate to, , one of the guests there at the convention through my boyfriend.
In other, not less important news, my boyfriend has become my fiance. He decided it would be a fabulous thing to do to propose to me at Gnome Con on that Friday after I got set up. I was surprised, pleased, and a little miffed because here I was trying to be a professional author and he was going to make me cry in front of a bunch of people I didn't know. Over all though, it turned out quite well. We're now planning a wedding, even though neither of us has some much as ever planned a party. Here's hoping we'll get the wedding of our dreams in a year or so.
So Gnome Con is gone for another year. I don't think I'll ever have another one as eventful as this one, but I don't need it to be. I look forward to do it again next year and doing even better.
I know, I know, you want to know how much I made at this shindig. Was it worth it for me to do? Yes, I have never vended before and having a chance to do so at a small convention in my hometown was priceless experience. Nothing like it. Monetarily, was it worth it? I made about $200 after taxes, in GA you have to pay sales tax even on things like convention sales. That is a hundred dollars more than I spent on the table, but didn't completely cover the amount of the merchandise. So did I break even? No. Would I still do this again? Yes. I'm actually currently in talks to take part in another public venue and perhaps sell more books. The chance to interact with new possible fans is something I simply can't pass up. My best seller was Dark King Rising though I sold a copy of Chains of Fate to, , one of the guests there at the convention through my boyfriend.
In other, not less important news, my boyfriend has become my fiance. He decided it would be a fabulous thing to do to propose to me at Gnome Con on that Friday after I got set up. I was surprised, pleased, and a little miffed because here I was trying to be a professional author and he was going to make me cry in front of a bunch of people I didn't know. Over all though, it turned out quite well. We're now planning a wedding, even though neither of us has some much as ever planned a party. Here's hoping we'll get the wedding of our dreams in a year or so.
So Gnome Con is gone for another year. I don't think I'll ever have another one as eventful as this one, but I don't need it to be. I look forward to do it again next year and doing even better.
January 17, 2016
Big Big News!
Hello again, ladies and gents. Of course, there are many lovely things I could talk about but I want to talk about one thing in particular: Handselling books. I never thought I would get the chance, but this year, I will be handselling at Gnome Con 2016. Gnome Con is a small convention held here in Savannah, GA, which is for gamers, comic book geeks, and readers. I am extremely pleased that this is going to be a part of my life. By the time this happens in March of 2016, I will have my third book out, Wearing His Ring. Dark King Rising and Chains of Fate will also be there and I will be taking preorders for the second book in the She Becomes Death series, Wielding His Scythe. It will be amazing.
On top of getting to vend at the convention, I will be joining friends of mine who always attend. This will make it a wonderful experience for me because I rarely get to share my professional happenings with my friends. One or the other at times, but not both.
What else is there to say? I'm in the second draft of She Becomes Death book one, Wearing His Ring. About 25k in with a little over a month left to write. So 50k due in 30 days. That sounds about like NaNoWriMo. With eleven years of that under my belt, I'm fairly certain I can manage.
Looking around the blog, I need to spend some time on what I've been reading lately. Lots of professional development books (Lots of craft and business books) thanks to the StoryBundle from November. I paid $30 for 25 ebooks including titles like Million Dollar Productivity. Writing about them should give me a better perspective on what I want to learn from each book. I also recently read Level Up Your Life by Nerd Fitness founder, Steve Kamb. Another book I learned something from, so want to talk about that too. Look for that review coming up soon.
On top of getting to vend at the convention, I will be joining friends of mine who always attend. This will make it a wonderful experience for me because I rarely get to share my professional happenings with my friends. One or the other at times, but not both.
What else is there to say? I'm in the second draft of She Becomes Death book one, Wearing His Ring. About 25k in with a little over a month left to write. So 50k due in 30 days. That sounds about like NaNoWriMo. With eleven years of that under my belt, I'm fairly certain I can manage.
Looking around the blog, I need to spend some time on what I've been reading lately. Lots of professional development books (Lots of craft and business books) thanks to the StoryBundle from November. I paid $30 for 25 ebooks including titles like Million Dollar Productivity. Writing about them should give me a better perspective on what I want to learn from each book. I also recently read Level Up Your Life by Nerd Fitness founder, Steve Kamb. Another book I learned something from, so want to talk about that too. Look for that review coming up soon.
January 5, 2016
New Year! Forward ho!
It's the fifth, we are firmly in the year of 2016. Huzzah! Well done all. Now to see what happened last year worthy of note versus what we have possibly planned for this year already. Truthfully, I can't say that I put out my first publication last year. If you've been around a while, you might remember a little project called Objects that I put out in September of 2014. That little book of short stories holds the honor of being my first real publication. However, that doesn't mean last year wasn't a year for milestones. I put out my first novel last year in June, Chains of Fate. So far all the feedback I have received has been good. There are a few nitpicky details I will be fixing before the anniversary of the book and the publication of book 2. I followed that up with a second book in December, Dark King Rising, for a total of two books out in the year 2015. I'm trying something a little different with Dark King Rising as I started out offering it on multiple platforms while I went with Kindle Direct Publishing Select on Chains of Fate. As much as I enjoyed running the free promotions on KDP Select, I didn't really see myself getting a lot out of it. These days, free books just don't move like they used to. Glut in the market, I more than suppose. In short, last year was a good year for my writing career. I started it off running. I know, I know, the big question is: Did anything sell? Well, technically, no. I'm not doing well in the sales department. I am not, however, worrying about it. The books are good. Word of mouth is moving slowly. It will take some time for it to gain the appropriate momentum.
What's on the board for this year, 2016? Well, first I have a third book coming out which will be the first in a trilogy, Wearing His Ring. The trilogy title is: She Becomes Death. The other two books are slated to come out this year as well, as soon as I can get them out of my hot little hands and into the hands of readers. The sooner, the better. Not rushing though. I must say that, I am not rushing. I'm giving myself 2-3 months at a stretch to work on the manuscripts because I think that's the best thing to do. Enjoying the process.
I get to make my first public appearance as an author with a table at Gnome Con 2016 down here in Savannah, GA. For those who don't know, Gnome Con is a small convention, still growing, that is put on over a weekend. This year, it's the beginning of March. I'm looking forward to that and trying to have my third book ready to go by then. Selling actual physical copies will be quite interesting, I'm certain. Who knows, if I do well, I might get asked to be a guest at some point in the future. That would be ace.
So here's the rundown:
Wearing his Ring: February 26, 2016
Wielding his Scythe: March 2016
Winning his Kingdom: April 2016
Blades of Fate (The second Chains of Fate book): June 2016
That gets me to the middle of the year with an entire trilogy completed. I think that's thinking far enough in the future for right now. I'm sure more new things will happen that I feel the need to post about. Until then, ta-ta.
What's on the board for this year, 2016? Well, first I have a third book coming out which will be the first in a trilogy, Wearing His Ring. The trilogy title is: She Becomes Death. The other two books are slated to come out this year as well, as soon as I can get them out of my hot little hands and into the hands of readers. The sooner, the better. Not rushing though. I must say that, I am not rushing. I'm giving myself 2-3 months at a stretch to work on the manuscripts because I think that's the best thing to do. Enjoying the process.
I get to make my first public appearance as an author with a table at Gnome Con 2016 down here in Savannah, GA. For those who don't know, Gnome Con is a small convention, still growing, that is put on over a weekend. This year, it's the beginning of March. I'm looking forward to that and trying to have my third book ready to go by then. Selling actual physical copies will be quite interesting, I'm certain. Who knows, if I do well, I might get asked to be a guest at some point in the future. That would be ace.
So here's the rundown:
Wearing his Ring: February 26, 2016
Wielding his Scythe: March 2016
Winning his Kingdom: April 2016
Blades of Fate (The second Chains of Fate book): June 2016
That gets me to the middle of the year with an entire trilogy completed. I think that's thinking far enough in the future for right now. I'm sure more new things will happen that I feel the need to post about. Until then, ta-ta.
December 26, 2015
Adaptation
I have the good fortune to live in a very art friendly town. One of the things we have here in Savannah is called Savannah Shakes, a local theater company devoted to the classics of Shakespeare reimagined. Just recently they did a 1950's style Hamlet which was all the rage. However, in thinking about what they do, I find myself wondering about adaptation. The Bard certainly never expected that his words would become near immortal or that they would become the fodder for hundreds of adaptations on stage and screen, or in print. Maybe it's a little presumptuous to even be thinking about it in my current state, but I wonder what an adaptation of my own work would look like. After all, I am still living and thus able to put my two cents in. For those of you who know The Shining, you undoubtedly know of the two movie adaptations, one written by King himself. I don't know if I would have the gall to redo a movie because I didn't care for the portrayal of my characters, but you have to admire someone with that much vision.
That's what it really comes down to: vision. If you don't have the vision to see it on the stage or screen from your words, then you had better hope that someone else does. Even these days, there are audiobooks, which read more like grand old radio dramas with multiple voices and mood music. Amazing pieces of art. One I'm highly anticipating is the audio drama of the first Heritage book written by D. E. Morris. You may remember, I interviewed her earlier this year. I count her a dear friend with an awesome talent. But on the subject of her audio drama, it's been in the works for quite some time, with her voicing several of the characters. With a little finesse, I expect it will be a masterpiece.
Back again to reimagining my own work. I have written for the stage, albeit only once, so I have at least a passing understanding in distilling things to be seen by an audience. Where do you get such training if you haven't had any? One from reading plays. Two from watching plays. Three from talking to those who do plays: actors, directors, stage hands, everybody. They all have perspectives on good workmanship. You may even find a few who do not care for Shakespeare, contemporized or otherwise. What you won't find is a lack of opinion. There are favorites in every field. People lauded above all others. This may change from person to person, but ask a small sample and you'll find a few names that pop up over and over again. Never waste a chance to be involved with the things you want to adapt to. In my paltry, shall I call it a career, I have also written for screen. Were they good? In some ways, yes. In other ways, no. They were the attempts of a novice at a form requiring depth I did not, and perhaps still do not, completely have. It might be best left to someone else. However, don't let that be a reason not to try. Sometimes, the only person who believes it can be done is YOU. If that is the case, do it anyway.
I started this post on the thought of what about adaptation and have turned it into a post about why you should be willing to attempt adapting your own work. Believe in it because you can. Breathe into it because you should. Love it when no one else does because only through that love will others be able to see it. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what I have to say about adaptation.
That's what it really comes down to: vision. If you don't have the vision to see it on the stage or screen from your words, then you had better hope that someone else does. Even these days, there are audiobooks, which read more like grand old radio dramas with multiple voices and mood music. Amazing pieces of art. One I'm highly anticipating is the audio drama of the first Heritage book written by D. E. Morris. You may remember, I interviewed her earlier this year. I count her a dear friend with an awesome talent. But on the subject of her audio drama, it's been in the works for quite some time, with her voicing several of the characters. With a little finesse, I expect it will be a masterpiece.
Back again to reimagining my own work. I have written for the stage, albeit only once, so I have at least a passing understanding in distilling things to be seen by an audience. Where do you get such training if you haven't had any? One from reading plays. Two from watching plays. Three from talking to those who do plays: actors, directors, stage hands, everybody. They all have perspectives on good workmanship. You may even find a few who do not care for Shakespeare, contemporized or otherwise. What you won't find is a lack of opinion. There are favorites in every field. People lauded above all others. This may change from person to person, but ask a small sample and you'll find a few names that pop up over and over again. Never waste a chance to be involved with the things you want to adapt to. In my paltry, shall I call it a career, I have also written for screen. Were they good? In some ways, yes. In other ways, no. They were the attempts of a novice at a form requiring depth I did not, and perhaps still do not, completely have. It might be best left to someone else. However, don't let that be a reason not to try. Sometimes, the only person who believes it can be done is YOU. If that is the case, do it anyway.
I started this post on the thought of what about adaptation and have turned it into a post about why you should be willing to attempt adapting your own work. Believe in it because you can. Breathe into it because you should. Love it when no one else does because only through that love will others be able to see it. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what I have to say about adaptation.
December 22, 2015
Choices, Choices
No matter what you do, you cannot avoid making a choice. Even making no choice is a choice. Opting out, while not cool, is a legitimate decision. However, there are points at which it is best to make a decision for or against. Major life choices like marriage should not be entered into by opting out of making a decision. Either you're for it or against it, not following along with the stream of what someone else wants. Just one of those moments when having a strong opinion should be par for the course.
How does this affect your story? Well, say your protagonist is a princess with an arranged marriage hanging over her head. There are two possible choices here: duty or self. If she sides with duty, then this arranged marriage will cause little major stir in her world and she will acquiesce to it without serious complaint. On the other side, there is self or any of the myriad reasons she might say no to such a proposition. Sure, you could go with the not so opinionated option of 'meh' and have her be pushed along by circumstances, but then she fails as a protagonist because as Writing Excuses says, Protagonists protag. To make that a little longer and maybe a mite clearer, protagonists do proactive things. They make choices. They don't opt out because that is rarely the stuff of a good story. When people tell stories, people do things. Doing things requires making choices. See the correlation: person + choices + actions = story. Put a bunch of this together and you might even weave that little thing called a plot into the whole thing.
Back to your princess's upcoming nuptials. Suppose the proposing prince-guy is a douchenozzle. Maybe that will promote a stronger sense of whether or not our princess needs to take a stand for or against this marriage. Now we're dealing with more than one person and more than one set of choices and actions, but the formula still stands. Person plus choices plus actions = story. So what choices does the prince-guy make? Maybe he's a douche with a heart of gold. (Not quite sure how that would work but go with me here.) All he needs is the proper love and affection to bring out the best in him. Thus our princess's actions have every chance of influencing the decisions the prince-guy makes regarding how to go about this.
As you can see, the simple way of looking at things sometimes is all you need. If you want to tell a story, you start with someone making a decision to do something or not to do something or to do nothing at all. All choices. All options. All well and good. Just make sure if you're going to have a protag, they do protaggy things. Same thing for your antag. They need to do antaggy things like get in the way and have differing viewpoints. But I suppose that's a discussion for another day. Ciao!
How does this affect your story? Well, say your protagonist is a princess with an arranged marriage hanging over her head. There are two possible choices here: duty or self. If she sides with duty, then this arranged marriage will cause little major stir in her world and she will acquiesce to it without serious complaint. On the other side, there is self or any of the myriad reasons she might say no to such a proposition. Sure, you could go with the not so opinionated option of 'meh' and have her be pushed along by circumstances, but then she fails as a protagonist because as Writing Excuses says, Protagonists protag. To make that a little longer and maybe a mite clearer, protagonists do proactive things. They make choices. They don't opt out because that is rarely the stuff of a good story. When people tell stories, people do things. Doing things requires making choices. See the correlation: person + choices + actions = story. Put a bunch of this together and you might even weave that little thing called a plot into the whole thing.
Back to your princess's upcoming nuptials. Suppose the proposing prince-guy is a douchenozzle. Maybe that will promote a stronger sense of whether or not our princess needs to take a stand for or against this marriage. Now we're dealing with more than one person and more than one set of choices and actions, but the formula still stands. Person plus choices plus actions = story. So what choices does the prince-guy make? Maybe he's a douche with a heart of gold. (Not quite sure how that would work but go with me here.) All he needs is the proper love and affection to bring out the best in him. Thus our princess's actions have every chance of influencing the decisions the prince-guy makes regarding how to go about this.
As you can see, the simple way of looking at things sometimes is all you need. If you want to tell a story, you start with someone making a decision to do something or not to do something or to do nothing at all. All choices. All options. All well and good. Just make sure if you're going to have a protag, they do protaggy things. Same thing for your antag. They need to do antaggy things like get in the way and have differing viewpoints. But I suppose that's a discussion for another day. Ciao!
