Routines for Writers » Creativity

So Much to Learn in Self-Publishing

Kitty Bucholtz — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 08:00:33 +0000

It’s January and it’s Monday. Beginnings make me feel like it’s time to hurry up and get moving. I’m a morning person (when I’ve slept well) and mornings make me feel that way, too. Hurry up! Go running and eat breakfast and hurry to your computer! So much to do! (Or on more embarrassing days – Hurry and get to your computer! What do you mean it’s dinner time? I haven’t even taken a shower, let along exercised or anything else!)

There’s so much to do because there’s so much to learn. I spent all day last Thursday just trying to read through some of the online group posts about writing and publishing and self-publishing, and then clicking the links to the great posts those people had found, which led to more links and reading more posts. Sheesh! How’s a girl to get any writing done?

But there’s a lot more to being a 21^st century author than there was to being a 1950s author. Not only do you have to learn a lot, you have to do a lot. I took Kristen Lamb’s class on Becoming a Brand two weeks ago and now I’m trying to do everything I’ve been learning about. I’m following more people on Twitter and Facebook, retweeting and replying, and commenting on blogs. I think I did a week’s worth of social media in one day.

I saw some immediate results (I tripled my Twitter followers and got my own blog up and rolling again), so I downloaded the Kindle samples of both of Kristen’s books, Are You There Blog? It’s Me, Writer and We Are Not Alone: The Writer’s Guide to Social Media. I loved the samples, so I bought the books. I’m reading both at the same time now, and trying to apply something new every day. Wow.

There are a gazillion great blogs out there and I read a lot of them last week! (This week, I swear, is going to be more about writing and balance.) Instead of trying to explain everything I read, I’ll just give you some short descriptions and you can decide what you can use.

Oh, and in case I lose you somewhere amongst all these links, let me remind you that Author Crush Month starts on Wednesday! Yay!! We love Author Crush Month, and we know you do, too! We’ve got some really great guests this month talking about their process, their craft, their journey. Be sure to stop by every Monday, Wednesday and Friday in February.

Also, we will have a special guest joining us on the first Tuesday of every month beginning in March. You’re going to love her! (You might even already know her!)

And tune in tomorrow as we welcome Janice Cantore to talk with us about her new book, Accused. If you remember, Janice has been struggling to sell her books with a small press but last summer signed a 3-book deal with a major publisher! Her new book releases February 1^st. Woo-hoo!

And now to my list o’ links:

Elizabeth Spann Craig explains how she uses Google Calendar to stay organized

An online self-publishing conference! I’m waiting by my Inbox for an email with details about registration costs.

The CEO of Smashwords gives us his thoughts on self-publishing in 2011

A Smashwords blog post about the Amazon Select program

I took an awesome online class in November about helping your brain work better, and the teachers wrote this guest post

I’m signed up for another online class next month on how to write cozy mysteries, and here is an article by the teacher (I’m hoping it will help me bring my superhero romantic comedies up a level)

A great craft post from Jody Hedlund on how to make your book play out like a movie

Another self-published author, PJ Sharon, shares her 2011 numbers

From Kristen Lamb’s blog, What’s the Problem with FREE?

Sharpen Your Blogging Habits, a 4-part series from Kristin Nador

Which could lead you to this brilliant post on creating better tag lines for your blog (I just changed my tag line for my own blog. What do you think? Better? Not quite right yet? I’d love to hear your thoughts on it!)

From Bob Mayer, a post that explains why I’ve never dreamed of being on a bestselling list, I dream of selling books for the rest of my life

From Writer Beware, The Fine Print of iBooks Author, free software from Apple to create ebooks that can only be sold in the iTunes store

And the blog author’s reply to common misconceptions about what he wrote

Books I’m reading: Are You There Blog? It’s Me, Writer; We Are Not Alone: The Writer’s Guide to Social Media; Dollars and Sense: The Definitive Guide to Self-Publishing Success

Am I A Writer?

Stephanie Shackelford — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 07:16:44 +0000

Am I a writer? Am I really a writer? I haven’t written much more than jounals and letters to long-distance friends and family. If I’m not producing, am I still a writer?

This time last year I was on the cusp of an emotional storm. Spiraling into debilitating depression, I clung to the few things I thought were unchanging. My marriage. My family. My writing. My faith. I clung and I tried to force joy and purpose into and from them. The more I tried, the greater the pain and, ironically, the greater the emotional disconnect.

Then I had a realization that made all the disparate pieces of emotional turmoil fall into place. The relationship I’d assumed was based on mutual caring and respect and goodwill was, in fact, more a relationship of control and manipulation. In the throes of emotional shock and riddled with confusion and uncertainty, I made a decision to separate from my husband. I realized that only by removing myself from the situation could I ever hope to change it.

And I did hope to change it. I wanted to transform an unhealthy, destructive relationship into a mutually caring and beneficial one. While I hoped my husband would desire the same and be willing to work through the issues troubling our relationship, I knew I could only make choices for me. I chose emotional health.

The ensuing months were a roller coaster ride. I felt out of control. I was numb . . . or in agony. I wallowed in despair . . .or clambered to a place of hope. I clung to a few friends or family . . . or I isolated myself. Up and down. Back and forth. Little by little, I made my way through the conflicting emotions and issues. Eventually I found direction. Maybe not full resolution yet, but at least hope and direction.

And the one constant? (Besides my faith, that is. My faith is actually the bedrock that has kept my from sinking into despair and shame.) Next to my faith, what consistently persisted in my life? Writing. It took awhile for me to recognize it, but I never really lost my writing.

Yes, I lost the ability to create stories. I even lost some of my coherency. What had been easy, became hard. And along with the struggle to put words to paper/screen came the whispers of despair and futility. Why try? I wasn’t a “real” writer, after all. No one was paying to read my work. No one was interested in what I had to say. Half the time I didn’t even know what I wanted to say. It didn’t matter. It probably wasn’t even worth reading.

All that is probably true. I kept writing anyway. I kept fighting the undertow trying to pull me into a silent sea. I journaled; I talked with friends, in real time and chat time. I read voraciously. Mostly non-fiction related to my issues, but now more fiction.

Words are a writer’s sustenance and fruit. Words , both the creating and the devouring, kept this writer alive. The need to put words to what I was experiencing kept me journalling. That helped me work through the issues and to see them more clearly. The have-to task of writing this blog each week kept me struggling to find words, kept me from giving up. The multitudinous self-help and relational books I read gave me words for my experiences. That, in turn, kept my journaling. Around and around, that spiral of reading and writing, writing and reading drew this writer upwards toward a healthier future.

I didn’t recognize it until recently. When, a few weeks ago, Kitty and Shonna asked if I wanted to take a break from having to blog every week, I almost panicked. Yes, I wanted, even craved, a break. It would be so nice to not have to come up with something to write each week. Instinctively, though, I knew removing that writing task would spiral me back into that numb shock-like state. Just like a physical therapist pushing, cajoling and ordering a stroke victim to move their finger, lift that eyebrow, so writing this post each week heeps me engaged with life. Writing is my lifeblood.

Answer: Yes! I am a writer! Are you?

A Creativity Gauge?

Stephanie Shackelford — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 07:25:38 +0000

The past few years have been a journey through an emotional storm. True to my personalty, I often ignored or minimized the effects of that storm. Unfortunately, that didn’t make them any less devastating. It actually left me confused and wondering why life became more and more difficult and depressing. Eventually, I recognized the emotional and relational devastation. And so began my healing journey (even more difficult, but oh so much healthier).

What I didn’t realize until recently was that my writing, any creativity actually, had been an excellent indicator of my emotional health. When I was secure emotionally, when my intimate relationships were healthy and supportive, my creativity blossomed. I experimented with words. I wrote scenes and stories, I decorated my house, I planned creative, hands-on homeschool lessons. I was creative. When I my emotional security was threatened, that creativity dwindled. The lessons became more structured, the decorating less original, the writing less passionate.

I realize a truth that I never suspected until recently. Just as the gas gauge in my car reveals how much gas is left, so my creativity reveals the state of my emotional health. And tending to my emotional health strengthens my creativity.

How do I tend to my emotional health? That’s actually what I’ll be exploring more in-depth over the coming weeks and months. For now, though, for me, it means, no more expectations and demands for creativity. Any creativity, whether it is writing, drawing, dancing, decorating or something else, will be done for the sheer enjoyment of doing it. More importantly, though, it means I need to surround myself with emotionally supportive people. I need to fill my life with caring, honest, respectful and loving relationships. As my emotional and relational health improves, so will my creativity.

What’s your creativity gauge reveal?

New Year. New Journey.

Stephanie Shackelford — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 19:51:47 +0000

What a way to start the New Year! Late with my first post of the year I could bore you with tales of adjusting to a full-time 11pm-7am physically intensive job on top of chaotic family and holiday activities, but I won’t. I’ll just apologize for posting this late and resolve to not do it again.

I’ve heard it said that whatever you do on the 1st day of the year, you are destined to do for the rest of the year. (Therefore, since I did not write and upload this on the 1st, so it would post on time, I’m destined to always be late with my posts this year.) I just don’t believe that. That’s just too fatalistic for this optimist. And it violates one of my fundamental beliefs. Everyone has a choice. Sometimes choices are limited or unclear or even excruciating to make, but there is always a choice. A choice to change; a choice to continue in the same way; a choice to procrastinate making a choice (which is actually a choice in itself). January 1 is not the only day a choice for change can occur. It may be a natural-seeming time for change, with its return to routine after the holiday break, but it is not the only time for change.

My life this past year proves it. Major, life-changing upheaval and messy changes happened this year. They did NOT happen on January 1st. Or even on the Chinese New Year in March. (I was in China at the time.) They are still happening. And that is what I’ll be writing about this year (or as much of it as seems right and necessary and helpful for our readers). The ending and beginning, the life-changing upheaval, the emotional-laden decisions and actions that have led to my New Beginning in The Adventure of Life.

In the years since we started RFW, Kitty, Shonna and I have usually written on the same theme throughout a week or month. Of course we each have our particular style, emphasis, and way of addressing that theme, but generally, we talked about the same thing. This year, at least for a few months, we want to try something different. We thought readers might like to read about our widely different writing journeys. Kitty and Shonna will tell you more about their focus in their posts this week.

For me, I’ll be sharing the emotional journey I have traveled this past year. As I have moved through the events and emotions of this year, I’ve wrestled out of it emotional health and perspective. Writing helped me do that. More than that, writing got me through it. Writing or the thought of writing kept me going. At times it seemed as though I’d lost my words. So I read others’ words. Every effort to create and form words into ideas and stories was excruciating. But I kept trying. Any ability I’d had in the past, just disappeared. I mourned, but kept writing “worthless junk”. As I said, it seemed as though I’d lost my words (still does at times). The truth is the desire to write and the continued attempts to write and the miniscule writing successes kept me fighting, gave me focus and led me to where I am now. Not yet healed, but healthy, healing, and growing.

I want to share some of that with you. The writing for writing’s sake. Not for publication, not to share with others, not for anything but one’s own emotional health. Yes, eventually some of that writing-for-writing’s-sake will become pieces for others to read (like my upcoming blog posts). But there are times when a writer just needs to write. Where the words need to be allowed to linger or be searched for or savored with no thought of anything more. That type of writing journey is valid, even necessary at times. I want to put words to that truth and maybe help a reader in the process.

So bring on the New Year Adventure!

2011 Revisited

Stephanie Shackelford — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 07:28:15 +0000

Kitty and Shonna and I are taking a short break over the holidays to focus on our families. Instead of new blog posts, we’ll be sending you to a few from the past year that we think you will enjoy.

Time For A New Routine

Getting It Out There

Battling Voices

Success From Failure

Monday – A New Perspective

A Word?

Stephanie Shackelford — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:50:58 +0000

Looking back is important in making goals. So is looking forward. In order to keep making progress, you also have to continually evaluate and adjust, using your observations of past, present and future goals and desires to make sure you are headed where you want your life to go. I often get lost in the “forest” of the individual goals and travel in circles. I may accomplish a lot, even check off a lot of goals. Sometimes, though, I realize I haven’t mentally stepped back enough to evaluate if my goals are propelling me in the right direction. I find I’m really at a standstill. Or worse, going backward.

I read an interesting blog this week that gave me a new perspective of how to maintain that forward momentum. An alternative to resolutions . Choose a word or short phrase that encapsulates that “big picture” view of what I want for my life.

This was eye-opening for me. I can see it will be a great help in deciding where to spend my time and energy. And, periodically, when I realize that word/phrase is no longer as great a fit, I’ll be reminded to re-evaluate. It may be I’m being distracted by “shiny objects” and the word/phrase is still appropriate or it may be that it’s time to change focus to the next thing. Whatever that may be.

With just a little thought, I realized that my word for the past several months has been Healing but that I’m entering a new phase in my life-journey. I need a new word. That word is Discovery.

This article also suggested several ways to explore and/or remind yourself of the word/phrase. Some of them, like making a collage or a sculpture or story out of things that remind me of the word, I will do later. A quick and easy one, though, was to create a Wordle . A wordle is a “picture” that contains words written in various sizes, styles and colors. You write out the list, then choose different variations of layout and color. Here’s my Discovery Wordle.

What word or phrase would you choose to define past or future desires, goals, and direction?

Low Level Fear Can Undermine Your Progress

Kitty Bucholtz — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 08:00:01 +0000

We’re back in Los Angeles now, but there is almost nothing about our future that is known. I can deal with that lots of times, but I don’t deal well with stressful situations when I’m not sleeping well. Saturday it seemed like I could only think of the downsides and the negatives in our situation. Half of everything I felt I needed to get my To Do list done is on a ship in Sydney Harbour. John talked me through my fears trying to help me pinpoint the problem so we could find some solutions. Then the next day we went to our old church, Bel Air Presbyterian, and the sermon was about anxiety and getting around it.

Wow.

I am always amazed when God steps in and shakes my shoulder to get my attention. Because we have friends who go to both the 9am and 11am services at church and we haven’t seen them for a couple years, we stayed for both services…so I got a double dose of the message. Probably a good thing. :)

So Monday I started my week with some time away with John in Palm Springs. My goal was to spend the week working on the print version of Little Miss Lovesick, getting some writing done on my next book and a short story coming out in an anthology, and resting. I would love to end the week with the feeling that I’d caught up on my sleep! By the end of the day yesterday, I already felt better and had made a dent in my To Do list. Now all I can think about is how to make this letting-go-of-anxiety twist an intentional part of my career in 2012.

Next year is leap year – we have a February 29th in 2012. I’ve been thinking about making it my leap of faith year. How can I put that into concrete terms? What can I intentionally do differently next year? And how will that affect my readership? Am I willing to risk losing some blog readers and potential book readers by not only being myself in an even more transparent way, but focusing on taking faith-based risks in my career? For a whole year?

The thought is both scary and exciting. Which feeling will win? :)

If you’re also thinking about next year and what goals you want to make for 2012, you might want to consider joining me in my online class. I’m again leading “Going the Distance: Goal Setting and Time Management for the Writer” for the Orange County Chapter of RWA. You can read about the class and sign up for it on that page. I’d love to work together to make our 2012 goals purposeful and doable.

I’m a member of the Dark Side Down Under blog, Australian and New Zealand writers who write speculative fiction of various kinds. Last week I wrote post titled, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Getting Published about how I started writing romantic comedies and how I ended up self-publishing one. You might find it fun to see how things worked for me. It was fun to get it all down on paper, so I decided to re-post it this Friday on the OCC RWA blog, too.

Well, I’m feeling much better than on Saturday. I’m sure letting go of the fear of the unknown future went a long way toward getting a lot done already this week. I’m learning a lot about my new career path (self-publishing) from Aaron Shepard with his books, Aiming at Amazon, POD for Profit and Perfect Pages. Those books – and some research trips to bookstores – are helping me figure out how to make the best choices in getting Little Miss Lovesick into print. It’s been tough to focus on doing the best job no matter how long it takes rather than making sure the book is available for sale in time for Christmas orders. But maybe if I don’t let fear influence my decisions, I’ll reap greater rewards in the end.

Are You Writing?

Stephanie Shackelford — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 14:03:04 +0000

Another Monday slipped up on me! I almost forgot about posting this blog. But not for the usual reasons. Yay!

I’ve been busy writing on my NaNoNovel . . . or whatever it is I’m writing. At the moment, it is just a mixture of scenes, journal entries and guided discussions with myself. Verbalizing the emotions of these past few months is helping me to define them. Defining them is leaching them of their power away over me. Finally, the creative side of me is re-emerging. Tentatively. A tiny sigh here, a stray comment there, a hesitant suggestion whispered in my mind’s ear. That’s okay. That’s as it should be. It takes time to heal from trauma. A body lies in the ICU, being cared for and monitored for many days, even weeks after a physical trauma. Just as I needed “trama-ICU” time to heal emotionally, so I need “trauma-ICU” time to heal creatively. And I am . . . healing, that is.

Last week I read a guest blog on Storyfix.com. Art Holcomb, the guest blogger, tells a story of his 1st published piece. One scene was pivotal. That one scene made the piece authentic. That one scene started him on the road to writing as a career. More importantly, though, it also started him on the road of discovering and healing through his writing.

In another Storyfix blog, one that sounds almost un-Larry-like, Larry also encourages us to write. He suggests that maybe all “our Muse” is waiting for is for us to sit down and start. If we would just start writing, what we need to write will be made clear. (I told you it didn’t sound like Larry. )

Art encourages us to write with our hearts. To learn our craft, but to keep letting the six-year-old in us out to play. In doing so, we’ll grow as people and as writers. Larry encourages us to write, again with our hearts. In the doing, we will discover what we need to write. And now I add my voice to theirs and encourage you to write. That’s what I’m doing. That’s what I’ve done. And in the doing I am healing and I am discovering myself and, even more exciting, I am discovering Story! Sometimes it comes slow; sometimes it comes so fast my fingers can’t keep up. Either way, I’m writing! I’m writing! I’M WRITING!

Come join my happy dance all over the keyboard.

. . . And We’re Off!

Stephanie Shackelford — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 16:35:25 +0000

Week 2 of NaNoWriMo!

I may be the only one on this blog actually writing new material this month. Shonna’s editing and Kitty’s moving.

That’s right! I. Am. Writing!

Tuesday, Day 1 of NaNoWriMo, I met with a few local Wrimos for a kick-off write-in. I sat down to write and a little over 2 hours later, I had 3600+ words over about 6 barebones scenes. It was mostly dialogue and some action tags. Just like a all my other first drafts. It all felt so NOMAL.

For the first time in months, I felt like a writer! I wrote a sentence. Hesitated, unsure what to write next, then cued into the song being played on the sound system. My next sentence included something from the song. A few more hesitations and forced sentences of dialogue and suddenly I was rushing to finish one thought as another one was pushing its way through my fingers.

My plan was to combine my journal writing with scenes. I wasn’t going to force myself to plan the story or even know what I wanted to happen to the characters. In fact, I hadn’t yet even dreamed up the characters. I was just going to write what came to mind, turning the emotions of the past few months and the memories of the past few years into scenes. Maybe changing events and people as I write, maybe not. Because I’m sure it will not be exactly “as it happened,” I’m calling it fictionalized memoirs.

When I started writing on Tuesday, I expected to have to write stream of consciousness drivel for pages and pages as I forced myself to write. Not so! The closest I came to drivel was a short 100-200 word paragraph listing several scene ideas that flooded into my brain faster than I could type. I could see how they would illustrate the progression of the main character’s emotional journey and didn’t want to lose the insight. I’ve since included some journaling and narrative, but that first day was pure fiction!

It was like getting onto a bike after years of not riding. It was like picking up crochet needles and crocheting a granny square after years of no crocheting. It was like . . . returning to the keyboard and writing fiction after months of no words. It all came back: the flow of the words, the germination of an ideas, the way those ideas grew and grew the more it flowed through my fingers, the flickering glimpses of multiple places I could take the scene, the exhilaration of capturing those ideas, the equal exhilaration of not being able to capture them all, the interrupting the flow of dialogue for just a moment to write a few cryptic words, believing that when I returned to those words in saner times, I’d remember the idea that triggered them. And the faith that even if I missed one of those sweet muse offerings, there were plenty more to play with in the coming days.

The following days have not been as full, not quite as sweet, but every day since has been productive. When I actually sit down to write and force myself past that first scene-starting sentence or two, the words take off! Just like I remember. So familiar and so, so missed. Muse, Welcome back! We are making music!

Yes. It was a good, good day! It’s been a good, good week. Viva la NaNo!

NaNo Day 1 – A Start

Kitty Bucholtz — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 10:00:43 +0000

Yesterday I was so relieved to start a day without file taxes, fill out Medicare levy exemption paperwork, or compile medical reimbursement for insurance on my To Do list. All done. Yay! The day only became sweeter when I found/took the time to sit down and write for a while. Ahhh, joy.

I had a plan – I really did – to work on my short story first since it has the earliest deadline. I have some notes, but it’s still weak in the area of plot. Because I needed to fill out the applications to be considered to teach some writing workshops at the RWA National Conference next year, I had business-y stuff on my brain. Turns out, I made about 500 words each of headway on the two business ebooks I want to write.

By the end of the day, I had 974 words to put in the NaNo word counter. Yay! I haven’t done any today, but I’d already planned for today to be a pretend sick day. Yesterday John and I went to the wrap party for Happy Feet 2. It was a blast! We had soooooo much fun!! LOL!! We drank and danced and toasted the film and talked and laughed and talked and drank and danced and laughed. I think that covers everything. So I knew I was going to be out of my mind with exhaustion today. Just that many more words to write tomorrow.

How are the first few days going for you? I’d like to offer a suggestion. Enjoy it.

Enjoy the writing, the not-writing (there’s a good chance John and I are going to the Grand Opening of a new IKEA tomorrow), the thinking, the daydreaming, the wondering what in the world you could possibly put on paper, enjoy it all. I think that is one of the great keys to creativity.

Enjoy! :)