Annette Lyon's Blog, page 12

PAIGE Launch: Spread the Love Contest

Paige is now in stores! (Yippee! Woohoo! Happy Snoopy Dance!)






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The official launch party is this Saturday, August 11th, from 1-3 PM at the Fort Union Deseret Book store (same location as the other launches).



Help us spread the word about the launch.



Head on over to The Newport Ladies Book Club blog for details on how to enter and what prizes you can win!




© 2012 Annette Lyon, all rights reserved

Blop Hop Winners

It's Wednesday, but it's not Word Nerd Wednesday. Instead, I'm announcing the winners of the Summer Splash Blog Hop.



The e-book of Lost Without You goes to Cathy Jeppson.



The e-book of At the Water's Edge goes to Lynn Parsons.



The e-book of The Golden Cup of Kardak  goes to Lisa Banks Bennett.



The paperback of Spires of Stone Goes to Aimee.



The paperback of Paige  goes to Zanza.





Thanks to all who entered!



The fine print: If I don't receive email addresses or mailing addresses (where applicable) for the winners by 8/3, prizes are forfeited.










© 2012 Annette Lyon, all rights reserved

Summer Splash Blog Hop!

BIG FUN is afoot at the Circle K. (Pardon the goofy Bill and Ted's reference.)



Consider this a jump-start to your fall reading list as well as a jump into the excitement for the release of my next book, Paige.



Truly, though. A boatload of writers are participating in a giant blog hop through the end of July. Each blog offers a chance to win prizes like books and other swag.



PLUS: The home blog for the hop will give out lots of GRAND PRIZES that you won't want to miss out on.



Grand Prizes Include: 


TWO Kindle Fires
$75 Amazon gift card
$50 Amazon gift card
A Kindle cover
And signed paperbacks of something like TWENTY different novels (including a copy of PAIGE, which will be out right about the time the hop ends!)



To win one of the grand prizes, tweet about the hop.



Each tweet must have two things: (1) a link to the hop AND (2) the #SummerHop hash tag (both are needed to track the tweets to give you credit). Cool side note: The blog hop host blog post already has pre-written tweets, complete with links, for you to use. Copy, paste, and tweet. Easy peasy. (Use the link below to get there, or use the blog hop button in the sidebar.)






SO WHAT IS MY BLOG OFFERING?


I'll randomly select FIVE winners. Each will receive one of the following prizes:


E-book of Lost Without You
E-book of At the Water's Edge
E-book of The Golden Cup of Kardak
Paperback of Spires of Stone
Paperback of Paige (Get your hands on it before anyone else!)




HOW TO ENTER HERE



TWO ways to win on my blog:

(1) Spread the word about MY participation in the hop, leaving a link to my blog. Be sure to leave comments each time you tweet or Facebook about it. PLEASE add the links so I can track them. (This is in addition to general tweeting with the #SummerHop tag.)



AND



(2) Answer any or all of the trivia questions below, but NOT in a comment. (EMAIL the answers to me. See details below.)





(1) SPREAD THE WORD

Every day from July 23 through the end of the month, you can get an entry point for linking to THIS post on Facebook or Twitter. (Don't link to my blog's regular URL. Use this post's permalink). Do it every day, and that's NINE potential entries on FB and NINE more on Twitter, for EIGHTEEN total.



(2) ANSWER UP TO 5 TRIVIA QUESTIONS

E-mail me the answers to any of the following trivia questions about me. Each correct answer gives you TWO entries, for a possible total of TEN.



Find every answer with a simple blog search right here. HINT: Each question has a big-time hint in it.



IMPORTANT NOTE: 

NO trivia answers in the comments will be accepted, or the answers will be ruined for everyone else. Comments with trivia answers will be deleted. Instead, e-mail your answers to ANNETTE (at) ANNETTE LYON (dot) com with "SUMMER HOP TRIVIA" in the subject line.






NOW FOR THE QUESTIONS:



(1) When I referred to racing stripes  in a post, what was I referring to?



(2) If I'm NOT an Anne freak , who or what am I obsessed with?





(3) While blow drying my hair, I got a great idea for the story that became Tower of Strength (the creative juices were really flowing). What annual tradition kept me from working on that book for a week?



(4) In the company of weird, where was I? (A general answer is fine. No specific date or location required.)



(5) When my family decided to attack the grammar fascista, what word pair did my husband brilliantly drive me crazy with? (TIP: The answer to this question is part of Melissa Smith's scavenger hunt, which she's doing for the hop. Find the answer to this question, and you're ahead of the game when you hop over to her place!)







For the list of all of the participating blogs, and for further details about how the hop (and for a chance to win prizes!), head on over to the Summer Splash Blog itself.






Happy hopping!

© 2012 Annette Lyon, all rights reserved

Print vs. Electronic Books: My Take

You'd have to be living under the proverbial rock to not be aware of the brouhaha over e-books versus print ("real") books.



Two common arguments:

1) Get with the program. E-books are the wave of the future.



2) Nothing will ever, ever replace a good book. I love turning pages and the SMELL! Oh, I love the smell of paper!





Not surprisingly, I'm often asked where I stand on the issue, so I figured a blog post would be apt. Everything below is my opinion. The book industry is changing at warp speed, and no one has a crystal ball to know what it'll be like in the future. But here's my take:



E-books, for better or for worse, are here to stay. 

This isn't necessarily a bad thing. A few years ago, my mother (a bibliophile who at the time traveled by air a lot) asked why anyone would want a Kindle. I told her to imagine being on a long flight and having hundreds of books to choose from to read . . . but no extra weight in your carry-on.



Her eyes lit up at that.



This is a woman who has bookshelves in every room of the house. (Yes, the bathroom, too.) When I moved out, bookshelves moved into my room. My dad has joked that he needs a library card to get into his own room. If anyone loves a real book, it's Mom.



And yet. Even she could see an advantage to having e-books as an option in addition to print books. Slip that e-reader into your purse instead of a bulky hardback (or two) and read any time you have the chance.



Sales of e-readers and e-books continue to grow each year, at an amazing pace. There's no unringing this bell.



Perks to e-books:

I read a lot of books. Books take up a lot of room. Eventually, I have to weed through my collection and decide what to keep and what to give away.



And then there are books I want to read, but which probably won't end up on my all-time favorites list, to be read and re-read. Once is enough. I don't need a physical copy of those books. A digital one is just fine.



Five devices can access the same account on Kindle. So all four of my kids' Kindles can download any book that any of the others have bought and read--or are currently reading. It's like a family library with extra copies of the same book.



Another benefit that may impact me more than some other readers is that I read a lot of beta manuscripts from friends, as well as some Whitney Award books for judging purposes, and it's easier to do that on the fly with my Kindle. I can email it documents and read them that way. So easy.



I'm betting that schools will get more and more involved with e-books, especially with text books, which can be enormously expensive in print.



Why print books are here to stay.

All that said, I believe that there will always be a place for print books.



Think of hardback books versus paperbacks. A lot of people worried that that cheap paperback would eliminate the market for hardbacks. In reality, die-hard fans tend to buy both: the paperback to read fast and quick and maybe share with friends, and the hardback to keep on the shelf in their collection.



The way I see it, the e-book is the new paperback. In my case, I have a lot of books signed by the authors (who are usually friends). A "signed" e-book (done with a website) isn't the same. I'll always treasure my personalized signed books. I buy the physical book in those cases instead of downloading it, although I've been known to buy the book AND download the e-book version too, especially if the e-version is inexpensive.



For that matter, I wouldn't be at all surprised if some publishers start bundling the versions together: buy the hard copy and get a code to download the e-book for free.



Print books do have an advantage in some areas. If I want to highlight and take notes and easily flip back to find something, an e-book is a bit cumbersome. Yes, they have highlighting and note-taking features, but it's not the same. This is an issue, for me, at least, that's mostly a non-fiction book problem. (Not too often that I'm highlighting stuff in a novel.)



I have a lot of books that hold dear memories, like my dog-eared copy of Rilla of Ingleside, which I bought at my 8th grade book fair at school and remains one of my favorite books ever. I love reading the "real" book.



But when I want to eat up a book, something I'll be glad I read but don't necessarily need the physical reminder of the experience, an e-book will do the job just fine.



Another element to the whole issue is that children from poor areas, who already have a gap in reading because they don't have access to books at home, will fall even further behind if they need technology to access books. I can hope that schools will fill in the gap, whether with e-readers during class or by sending home actual books. But it's an issue that could widen the education and literacy gap.



The e-book generation

My kids each have a Kindle. They're avid readers of "real" books and e-books, both. From what I can tell, they're pretty even on how much they read of both, and they don't seem to prefer one method over another. If we go on a car ride that's longer than 20 minutes, it's common for them to bring along a Kindle to pass the time. Kindles go along to Grandma's house and other trips. They love having access to lots of books at the push of a button.



It's sort of like how kids today are "fluent" with computers. They were born into a world where computers were everywhere, and they picked them up almost like another language. So to them, they aren't hindered by the idea of whether reading on a screen is "real" or not. They just want a great story.



Call me crazy, but anything that gets kids reading more is a good thing. Paper smell or not.



I'm confident that e-books are not heralding the death of print books. I'm also confident that e-books are here, and they aren't going away. Readers (and writers and publishers) will gradually adapt, and each type of book will settle into its own niche.



Sort of like how television didn't destroy radio. VHS and DVD players didn't keep us from going to the movie theater. E-books won't keep us from reading on paper. They're simply one more form in which to enjoy a great book.



Oh, and if you've got an e-reader and just gotta have the smell of paper books, try THIS.© 2011 Annette Lyon, all rights reserved

WNW: Independence Day Edition

Laurie (L.C.) Lewis is a friend of mine and a historical novelist who has studied U.S. History, particularly the founding of the country. She's written a series of books about the the War of 1812. 







(Note: I consider myself relatively well-versed in US history, but I learned a ton reading her stuff.)



She suggested a few words worth looking at on Word Nerd Wednesday for the holiday. Laurie gets lots of feedback from people who see those misused, so she passed some of them on to me.




EVINCES

The text: But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security.




The meaning: To display clearly, or provide evidence of. This part of the Declaration says that the "long train of abuses and usurpations," among other things, show clearly that the intent ("design") or the British government was to absolutely control the colonists. And when a people have such evidence, it is their right to throw off that government.



INALIENABLE



The text: We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their CREATOR with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.




The meaning: Something that cannot be alienated from or transferred from ownership or relation. In other words, there are certain things human beings own by virtue of simply being alive. Jefferson used John Locke's ideas in his writings, and here, he used the same idea, changing one of Locke's unalienable rights. The Declaration has "the pursuit of happiness" where Locke used "estate" (or property).



PERFIDY
In the text: HE [meaning the king] is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with Circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized Nation.



The meaning: Being unfaithful and disloyal. Pretty clear in this instance what it refers to: The King George III of England was sending troops to the colonies to keep them in line and make them obey his laws, which felt traitorous tot he colonists.



CONSANGUINITY
In the text: We have warned them, from Time to Time, of Attempts by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settlement here. We have appealed to their native Justice and Magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Kindred to disavow these Usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our Connexions and Correspondence. They too have been deaf to the Voice of Justice and of Consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the Rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.



The meaning: Being a close relation or connection. The colonists were saying that the king had essentially cut off the close relationship the colonists had once shared with their mother land.



Laurie also pointed out two words that are often misunderstood in our country:



REPUBLIC
This is the kind of government we have in the United States. (Remember the pledge: "and to the republic for which it stands . . .") A republic is where citizens vote for representatives who then run the government and are responsible to those who voted them in. This is what we do with our representatives and our senators. The average U.S. citizen doesn't make laws or vote for laws. We vote for leaders who do that for us.



DEMOCRACY
In some ways, a democracy can be a republic, and vice versa, but they aren't necessarily the same thing.

A democracy usually means that the majority rules. The power lies entirely with the people themselves. Our country has elements of a democracy, but in the end, we're mostly a republic. Even voting for the president isn't technically a democratic situation, because each state is really voting for electoral seats to represent their votes. It's not majority rule. If it were, several recent presidential elections would have ended up with different results.




 *** 


There's an episode of Monk where he sees a copy of the US Constitution in a bag and knows immediately that the woman who owns the bag is an immigrant working toward citizenship. He explains how he knows: "You're studying the Constitution, something no citizen would ever do."

The line gets a good laugh because, unfortunately, it's at least somewhat true. I hope more of us take the founding of our nation more seriously, and that includes knowing what's in both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.





Happy 4th of July!

© 2011 Annette Lyon, all rights reserved

DISPIRITED WINNER!

Random.org picked Heffalump as the winner of her own copy of Dispirited.




I'll be returning to my regular blogging schedule soon, including a new Word Nerd Wednesday.



In the meantime, congrats to Heffalump, and for the rest of my readers, be sure to check out the book. (Remember that the Kindle version is mucho cheap!)




© 2011 Annette Lyon, all rights reserved

Author Interview: Luisa M. Perkins

I'm so stinking excited to host my dear friend Luisa on my blog today. She and I met online years ago, when my blog was brand new. We struck up a friendship based on the fact that we're both knitters (that's how we connected originally), writers, and Mormon.



Our friendship has gone way beyond those things. Today, we communicate via email and text almost every day, often several times, as we report our progress with to-do lists and goals and cheer each other on. Everyone needs a Luisa in their lives.



Aside from being a great friend, she's a great writer. As long-time readers know, I don't officially review books here. That said, her new book, Dispirited, is fantastic. It's deliciously creepy (this from someone who doesn't like to be scared), with a fascinating story, complex characters, and lyrical writing (something missing from a lot of fiction).



First, a bit about Luisa. Then her interview. And finally, a giveaway!











Luisa Perkins writes contemporary fantasy. She loves cooking and eating,
all kinds of music, and knitting. She and her husband, Patrick, have
six children and one aging-but-still-insane cat. They are in the process
of moving from the Hudson Highlands to Pasadena, California.



And now our interview about writing and her new book. (Isn't the cover delicious?)







AL: How long have you been writing and how did you get started?
(When did the bug bite you?)


LP: I’ve been writing off and on since I was four
years old. (Note to self: remember to burn those early journals.) I started
writing because reading was my life, and I wanted to give that gift of wonder
and escape to others—kind of a “pay it forward” situation.




AL: Where did the idea for Dispirited come from, and how is
it significant to the book?

LP: A long time ago, I read an article about
astral projection. I immediately wondered—as cool as it sounded to have your
spirit floating free—how would you possibly protect your body while you were
away? That problem wouldn’t leave my imagination alone until I started
exploring it through fiction.




AL: What research did you have to do for it? What was the most
interesting thing you learned?

LP: I read a lot of folklore from around the world
about unembodied or disembodied spirits. (I realize those terms are somewhat
redundant) One of the most compelling myths was that of the wekufe, a Chilean legend about
malevolent beings who envy the bodies of the living.




AL: What is your writing style? Are you an outliner or a
by-the-seat-of-your-pantser? Somewhere in between?

LP: I actually totally changed styles in the midst of writing Dispirited. I started out
knowing how I wanted it to end, but having no idea how to get there. I wrote
the first third of the book that way—in the “discovery” or “pantsy” way.




Then I got horribly stuck and started
researching story structure and outlining methods in my desperation. I made a
spreadsheet and finished the book adhering to a pretty strict outline. I don’t
think I’ll ever go back to pantsing it.




AL: What is your typical writing schedule like?

LP: I wish I had one. I try to write every weekday—or at least every day that my children are in school. I try to get that done sometime between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m., so that I can be fully present for my kids when they get home from school. It doesn’t always work that way. I am trying hard to be more consistent and disciplined.




AL: What is one big thing you've learned through the process of
publishing this novel?

LP: That I am not my writing—that there will inevitably be people who do not care for my writing, and that I can’t take that personally.




AL: What's been the biggest surprise?

LP: I love to garden. Every spring, I plant seeds. A few weeks later, I am always astonished and delighted when they actually grow. It’s the same kind of act of faith when you publish a book—and the same fun surprise when people actually buy it and enjoy it.




AL: What’s the greatest challenge?

LP: My greatest challenge has been trying to balance focusing on marketing the currently published book with working on my new work in progress. It’s very hard for me to switch hats like that.




AL: What’s the greatest reward?

LP: I love hearing from readers who were touched by the book—that it frightened them or made them cry or made them think. Books affect
me deeply, and so when my book makes an impression others, I get that “pay it
forward” reward that got me writing in the first place.




AL: Which authors are your biggest literary influences in the
national market?

LP: I’ll stick to people who are alive, or we’ll be here all day.




Susanna Clarke and Neil Gaiman write
the kind of quietly creepy book that I find thrilling and thought-provoking.© 2011 Annette Lyon, all rights reserved

Full Circle

A couple of weeks ago on Facebook, I mentioned getting a phone call that marked a full-circle moment for me. Life has been nothing short of hectic lately, so this is my first chance to explain.



March of 1996, I joined my local chapter of the League of Utah Writers. I attended their spring workshop, where I first met Rachel Ann Nunes, who wasn't yet published, but who today is pretty much a superstar in the local market.



I went to chapter meetings, which turned out to be one of the few times I left the house then, as I was a new mom. That fall, shortly after my son's first birthday and discovering I was expecting my second child, I attended  the League's annual Roundup conference. (I remember talking to Rachel in the hall after I'd stepped out of a class because I was so tired from the pregnancy that I kept falling asleep. She was out there soothing her newborn.)



At that conference and other Roundups that followed, I sat in classes taught by big names in the LDS market, which was where my goals were set.



I listened to Orson Scott Card, Jack Weyland, Jennie Hansen, Chris Heimerdinger, Anita Stansfield, and others.



More than once, I sat in a workshop and thought, "Some day, I want to speak at Roundup as a published novelist like these guys."



I became a published novelist in 2002. (My first book came out in July, so we're almost exactly to the decade mark.) I didn't speak at Roundup that year. Or after my second, third, fourth, or fifth books. (I'll stop there. My ninth book with Covenant is about to go to press.)



The last couple of years, I have taught at Roundup, but it's been under the umbrella of Precision Editing Group. And while that has been great (and I've been grateful for the experience!), it didn't fulfill my original dream of speaking in my own class, representing just me. I've been there as an editor, not a writer.



Some people may think that hey, it's silly to still want to be invited to speak at Roundup. After all, I've taught at a bunch of conferences, often several a year. Right? True. But it's never been at LUW, not me speaking as just me, the novelist. Roundup was my first big conference, and it was my first big goal.



You can probably see where this is going. I recently got a phone call inviting me to teach not one, but two workshops at Roundup in September! My picture and bio are already up. (Proof! CLICK HERE.) I'll also be there with Precision Editing, but this time, it's different.



I did it. I made it as me. The little whisper of a goal I had 16 years ago will be fulfilled in a few months.



I still have plenty of goals regarding my writing career, and I'm working hard toward them. But I must say, it's pretty cool to have something checked off the list so many years later.




***


If you're interested in attending this year's Roundup, check out the League's site. The conference will September 14 and 15 in Park City. Members of LUW get a discount, but anyone can come.



I'll also be teaching at The Teen Writers Conference on June 23 at Weber State University. This is the conference's 4th year, and it just gets better. If you have (or know!) a teen interested in writing, be sure to let them know about it, and soon, because registration forms must be postmarked by THIS Friday, June 15.



Other news:

*Paige, my contribution to The Newport Ladies Book Club, goes to press any day and will hit stores in August!



*The sequel to my Whitney Award-winning novel will be out in January, titled Band of Sisters: Coming Home. No cover on that yet. I imagine we'll be starting edits in the next couple of months.




© 2011 Annette Lyon, all rights reserved

Guest Post: Ali Luke on Why Editing Matters

Self-editing must be in the water . . . last week I posted on the Precision Editing Group blog about how I do it, answering questions from TJ, and today my readers get a treat: a guest post by Ali Luke that digs deeper in to the whys and wherefores of self-editing.



Ali is a personal writing coach. She's written books about freelance blogging, and now she's also a novelist. Today she addresses what's behind self-editing.



In short: It matters, and here's why.













Why Editing Matters . . . and How to
Stay Motivated to Do It Well

by Ali Luke



Whatever sort of
writing you do– whether you’re working on a blog post, a book, or just a short piece
for your church newsletter—you’re going to need to edit.




Sometimes, that
editing might take just a few minutes. You’ll be looking for typos, smoothing
awkward sentences, and making sure that you’ve included everything you wanted
to say.




With bigger projects, though, the editing phase
needs to take a correspondingly bigger chunk of your writing time. If you’re working on a non-fiction book or a
novel, you may well find that you spent as long on the editing as on the first
draft (and quite possibly longer).




If the creative bit of
writing is what excites you—seeing a blank page fill up with new words and
thoughts—then editing may feel uninspiring. You may be very tempted to just
call it “done” and publish your blog post or send off your book manuscript as-is.



But here’s why editing
matters...







Editing Shows Your Respect for Your
Work . . . and Your Reader

It’s very, very tough
to produce a perfect first draft. You might manage it on a short blog post
(though even then, you’ll almost certainly find at least a word or two you want
to change). With anything much longer, you’re likely to have all sorts of first
draft problems. This doesn’t mean
there’s anything wrong with your writing, or with you; it’s just part of the
writing process.



First drafts often
have:




·        Missing information—sections, chapters or scenes that you realize
need to be added in for a sense of completeness.



·        
Superfluous information—tangents and digressions that you might have
needed to write through . . . but that are now making your work lopsided.

·        
Badly ordered information—perhaps chapter 10 would make more sense as
chapter 5.

·        
Repetitive information—maybe you’ve been working on your project for
years, and you didn’t realize that chapter 20 covers rather similar ground to
chapter 12.

·        
Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, poor
punctuation, typos—all of
these will distract, confuse and annoy your reader; thankfully, they’re easy to
fix.




Careful editing means taking your work
seriously. It means respecting
the time that you’ve already put into the writing, and the time that you’re
going to be spending on publishing, promoting, or sharing this piece with
others.




Your editing also shows respect for your
reader. Yes, of course the
reader can still gain value from a piece of writing that has a few typos, or
that’s badly organized—but when they’re investing their time and energy in reading
your work, you want to deliver
something that’s as good as you can make it.







Staying Motivated to Edit: Start to
End

One of the best ways to be motivated is to
split editing into several stages: don’t try to do everything at once, and
definitely don’t try to edit while you’re writing the first draft. If you find yourself going back to restart
every sentence before you’ve finished it, you won’t make much progress.



Whatever you’re
editing—from a novel to a blog post—here’s a simple structure you can use:







Step #1: Let Your Work Sit

If you’ve written
something short, leaving it alone over lunch might give your mind enough space
to come back afresh. If you’ve written a whole novel, leaving it for at least a
couple of weeks should help clear your head. While you’re away from your work,
your subconscious will keep on mulling over ideas—and you may be surprised what
comes up when you dig in on the editing.




Motivation Boost: Often, taking some time out can make you feel
much more eager to get back to work! You might want to plan a vacation or a
retreat so that you can rest while your writing is resting.







Step #2: Read Through the Whole Thing

Go through your whole
post, article, or book in a short space of time—ideally, one day. Jot down any
brief notes as you’re going along, if you’re worried about forgetting
something. At this point, you’re just trying to get a sense of the shape of the
work (something that’s tough to do when you’ve been writing for days, weeks, or
months).




Motivation Boost: You’ll almost certainly come across some great
passages in your work that you’ve completely forgotten writing. You may find
that it’s better than you expected. And even though you’ll notice some
problems, you’ll also start thinking of ways to fix it.







Step #3: Edit the Big Picture

This is the stage that
I often call “revision”—making substantial changes to a work-in-progress.
You’ll find yourself cutting, adding, or rearranging whole sections. If you’re
working on a non-fiction book, you might change the direction entirely; if
you’re writing a novel, you may add a subplot or cut a character.




Motivation Boost: You can make fast, visible progress at this
stage, cutting through swathes of words at a time. You’ll see your book (or
post, or article) coming into shape.







Step #4: Get Feedback

Once you’ve gone
through step #3, it’s a great idea to get feedback on your piece, especially if
you’ve written something in-depth like a book. Ask some trusted friends or
fellow-writers to act as your “beta-readers,” testing out your work and giving
feedback on what’s good and what might need some further improvement.




Note: Depending on the feedback you get, you
might need to repeat step #3 and make some further big-picture changes.




Motivation Boost: Having readers feels great, especially if they
get excited about your book. You’ll also get lots of new ideas and suggestions,
which can be really encouraging, especially if you were starting to feel a bit
stale.







Step #5: Edit the Details

By this point, your
piece should be in good shape. If it’s a blog post or an article, all the
paragraphs should be in the right order; if it’s a book, all the chapters and
scenes should be firmly in place. Now, you can deal with all those little
things like grammatical slips, spelling mistakes, punctuation
errors, and so on.




Motivation Boost: This stage isn’t very creative, but it can be
immensely satisfying to get things right.
If it feels like there’s a lot of work before you, try splitting your project
into sections; make a chart, and check each off as you complete it.







So, is editing really
worth all that work? I was wondering that myself when I got to Draft 5 of my
novel, Lycopolis: I sent the draft to
a freelance editor, the lovely and honest Lorna Fergusson from fictionfire, and
she recommended some substantial changes. I’d
hoped for just a few minor corrections . . .  but I took her advice on board, and I cut the
novel’s manuscript from 135,000 to 85,000 words.



It definitely was
worth the work: the lovely reviews, tweets, and emails that I’ve had confirm
that! So if you’re staring at a first draft right now—or even a fifth draft—then
don’t be afraid to dig in once again, if that’s what your beta-reader (or your
editor) is suggesting.





But once you’ve got
that article or post or book as good as you can, let it go. Put it out into the
world . . . and trust that the great editing job you’ve done will be enough
that your work can really shine.






About the Author:

Ali Luke is currently on a virtual book tour for her novel Lycopolis, a fast-paced supernatural thriller centered on a group of online role players who summon a demon into their game . . . and into the world. Described by readers as “a fast and furious, addictive piece of escapism” and “absolutely gripping,” Lycopolis is available in print and e-book form. Find out more at www.lycopolis.co.uk.





© 2011 Annette Lyon, all rights reserved

16 Months: My Transformation

While I usually talk about writing and books and word nerdiness here, this post is going to be a bit different. I'm hoping it will be of some benefit to others in their journeys.



A photo that amazing photographer Erin Summerill took of me at the recent LDStorymakers annual conference inspired me to put this post together. Even with my goofy facial expression and hand waving (I can't teach without using my hands), I've got great before and after pictures.



The really short version: 

For some unknown (then) reason, I got fat, sank into a horrid depression, and otherwise was miserable. Now I'm, well, not all that. The end. Oh, and this is what I looked like. The picture was taken at the 2010 UVU Book Academy conference. I may have gained a few pounds more in the following three months.


















The longer version:

For most of my adult life, not counting pregnancies, my has weight stayed in about a seven-pound range. Ideally, I would have liked to have been around 10 lbs lighter and at my marriage weight, but I was at a healthy weight and felt decent about myself.



Then, a few years ago, the pounds began creeping on. I wasn't doing anything different in my life, as far as I could tell. Okay, I could have exercised more than I was (although I didn't stop altogether). And sure, I ate chocolate here and there. But that wasn't a change. Nothing significant had changed in my lifestyle.



But hey, I knew how to lose weight, right? I began watching my diet carefully, cutting here and there and eating much healthier. I exercised more.



Result: More weight gain. The scale just crept up and up. I'll clarify here that my weight gain wasn't in the realm of anything you'd see on The Biggest Loser, but it was still way more than was healthy, and I hated feeling like a beached whale. I hated not fitting into my biggest clothes and having to go to the thrift store to find stuff to wear. I rarely wore anything that didn't stretch.



At first I was in denial. Sure, the scale was up, but I didn't look that bad . . . right? I inherited my mother's frame, so I really can carry a little extra weight without it showing up. When my chocolate cookbook first came out, I had people asking how I could write it and stay so thin. That was before the weight gain. So when those comments stopped altogether, I had a clue what it meant. I was fat. I cringed at every photo of me. My usable wardrobe shrank and shrank.



I started to suspect I had a thyroid problem, but I didn't want to be one of those people making excuses for being fat. ("Oh, it's glandular . . .") I brought it up to my doctor, who ran a blood panel. My TSH and T4 were normal, so I was told not to worry about it; I wasn't hypothyroid.



But the results didn't sit right with me. I had plenty of symptoms of hypothyroid beyond unexplained weight gain, including a low body temperature (97.1), brain "fog," fatigue, depression, headaches, brittle nails, and a bunch of other things.



After doing a bit more research, including talking with a good friend who has a thyroid condition, I was convinced that something wasn't right. My original doctor, while a great guy, was a GP and likely didn't know how complex hypothyroid issues are and which panels to run, or how to read them. Finding a doctor to take me seriously and who knew enough to run the right tests took awhile, but eventually I did, thanks to the referral of a friend.



And waddaya know, but my T3 (the one that really matters) was in the toilet. So was my progesterone (which helps with stress, sleep, and mood), and a few other things, including Vitamin D, which was also contributing to my depression. I was indeed hypothyroid, among other things. My body was whacked out.



Almost as soon as I began taking the supplements I needed, my life, and my body, began to change. While the weight didn't come off in a flash, it did come off, slowly and steadily.



Here's a key point: I still had to do the work. 



I had to exercise, stay hydrated, and watch what I ate. But at least losing weight became possible, where before, it wasn't.



Something to note here: It's a horrid myth that to exercise you have to find something you like to do. I hate exercising, but I love having exercised. If you're waiting to like huffing and puffing and sweating like a pig, and you're using your dislike of exercise for not doing it, then you'll never have success. I often go running even when I hurt all over and I feel like someone's taking an ice pick to the back of my head. I go because it's something I have to do. I force myself to do it. I don't go to the gym when I feel good. I go to the gym and work my tail off so I'll feel good.



Another aspect in my success was that I started reading blogs of people who'd managed to lose weight and keep it off to learn more about how to fuel my body properly for weight loss (which takes more than cutting calories, of course). I grew up in a nutritious home, but there was still a lot to learn.



I'm now within (count 'em!) 9 pounds of my marriage weight. I'm solidly in the healthy range for what my weight should be, and on the low end of my old range. (I think I can actually hit that old marriage weight yet!) I sleep better (didn't even know how messed up my sleep was until it was fixed). I can exercise more. My chronic headaches are still around, but they're more manageable. My depression isn't the dark sink hole it once was.



No, life isn't all unicorns and rainbows. I still have chronic headaches. Depression of some kind just runs in my family. But things are so much better.



Losing the weight hasn't been an easy road. Like I said, it's still work. But now I can fit back into my skinny clothes, and my fat clothes are a thing of the past.



In my before picture up there, I hated myself.




But now? Well, this next picture was taken just over a week ago, at the LDStorymakers conference. I feel and look like myself again. Huzzah!









© 2011 Annette Lyon, all rights reserved