Our blog topic today is a little different than what I’ve been talking about. I have a lot of beginning authors tell me that they don’t have time to write, that life gets in the way. If you are serious about finishing your first novel or any novel then you have to write even if life gets in the way. I have discovered that anyone can find fifteen or twenty minutes to write each day.

Jamie Todd Ruben states that he has written every day for the last 373 consecutive days. Check out his website at www.jamierubin.net

In her article 12 Workplace Skills to Apply to Your Writing Career, Lisa Tener gives some good advice to writers who are truly serious about writing. For example the first skill is:

1. Show Up: Yes, it’s a skill. Did you show up on time in previous jobs? How about for writing?

Success Strategy 1: Schedule Writing: Set a time to be in your writing space. Pretend you’ll get fired if you don’t show up on time. In a sense, you will! Check out the rest of the article on

http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/there-are-no-rules/12-workplace-skills-to-apply-to-your-writing-career     Her website is lisatener.com

Randy Ingermanson talks about how to become a writer. He says: Nothing is more important to your writing business than making an annual plan.

Even if you don’t follow it completely. (You won’t.)

Even if your year takes a drastic left turn. (It will.)

Even if you bite off way more than you can chew. (You greedy dog, you.)

Those pesky motivational geeks constantly tell us that “if you don’t have a target, you’ll never hit it.” It’s a platitude, but they’re right, curse them.

It may take you five years to do all the stuff you foolishly cram into your annual plan. That can be frustrating, but so what? Life is full of frustrations, and then you die. Being frustrated is better than dying, so don’t sweat the frustrations. For more information check out his ezine. The link is www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com/ezine/

In the article 5 Authors Share the Quirky workplace Skills That Make Them Successsful in their Creative Writing Careers, Tama Kieves, was an attorney before she became an author and speaker. I asked Tama about a workplace skill she did not have that she had to learn once she became a writer. Tama says, “I had to ditch the ‘billable hour,’ the idea that I could produce something like clockwork. My muse took off her watch, kicked off her shoes, and wanted to walk barefoot in a park in the middle of the day. I had to unlearn my old idea of productivity, showing measurable results immediately. The more I set myself free and wandered off the clock, the more I nabbed spectacular outcomes, moments of genius, connecting dots I didn’t know needed to be connected. I came to understand that relaxing and not forcing myself to work helped me unlock a level of brilliance I could never have tapped in any other way.” Read this article at http://www.lisatener.com/2015/02/quirky-workplace-skills-for-creative-writing-careers/

Stephen King even gets into the act with his article titled:
Stephen King’s “Everything You need to Know About Writing Successfully—in Ten Minutes” Mr. King says: “I am going to tell you these things again because often people will only listen – really listen – to someone who makes a lot of money doing the thing he’s talking about. This is sad but true. And I told you the story above not to make myself sound like a character out of a Horatio Alger novel but to make a point: I saw, I listened, and I learned. Until that day in John Gould’s little office, I had been writing first drafts of stories which might run 2,500 words. The second drafts were apt to run 3,300 words. Following that day, my 2,500-word first drafts became 2,200-word second drafts. And two years after that, I sold the first one. You can read the entire article at: http://www.aerogrammestudio.com/2015/02/24/stephen-king-everything-you-need-to-know-about-writing-successfully/

So here it is, with all the bark stripped off. It’ll take ten minutes to read, and you can apply it right away … if you listen.

After reading all this, I’m sure you’re wondering if you really are a writer. I found this interesting article that answers that question. The title is How to Know If You are Really a Writer. The author is Chantelle Atkins. In the final paragraph of her article she says: “Ultimately it comes down to this one fact. This is the crux of it. If you are a writer, you write. Whatever it is. Poems, fiction, non-fiction, blogs. Whether you share it or not, whether you publish it or not, whether you think you are good at it or not. You do it anyway, there is no choice.” To read the entire article click on this link: http://www.authorspublish.com/how-to-know-if-youre-really-a-writer/

Writing isn’t just about finding time to write, it is about emotion or what we are feeling at the time we write on our novel. I’ve noticed that if I’m depressed, it shows in my characters feelings as expressed by their dialogue. Like us readers bring their feelings to the book they are reading and the characters they are identifying with Donald Maas says: We connect to fiction by association. We bring our biases, baggage and opinions to what we read. We say things like, “I hated that character”, or “I didn’t buy that character’s choices, I would never do that.”  We argue with authors in our heads. We wish for different outcomes. We discuss and judge the stories that we read, placing higher value on stories that stir us up than on stories that soothe us and too easily affirm our feelings.

The goal, then, is not necessarily to get readers to feel more of what characters’ feel but simply to feel more themselves. The link for the rest of the article is http://writerunboxed.com/2015/04/01/emotional-work/

Running out of ideas. I found an article titled: The Greatest Advice for Science Fiction Writers: “Ask the Nest Question”, however, I think this is one of the best ways to stave off writers block: ask what happens next. You can read what Theodore Sturgeon said at this link: http://io9.com/the-greatest-advice-for-science-fiction-writers-ask-t-1688303702

Once your get your ‘great American novel’ written then you need to find an agent and get publish. Dam Blank takes an irreverent look at getting an agent in his article: It Turns Out, All you Need to do is Write a Great Book. The link is

http://writerunboxed.com/2015/03/27/it-turns-out-all-you-need-to-do-is-write-a-great-book/

There are other alternatives to the traditionally published novel. An agent I talked to told me I wrote a great book, but that publishers wanted new authors to already have a platform. She explained that meant that people were already reading my work. When I looked into self publishing, I found that it was very expensive. It was also difficult to find self-publishing companies that didn’t want to rip me off. I finally decided to publish on-line or what is called Indie publishing. There are a number of sites that support Indie authors. At this point in time, I have 3 books on Kindle: The Murderous Puzzle, Stalked to Death and Sun, Sand and Murder. I have been paid royalties every month for the last four months. It isn’t a lot, but the amount increases each month.

I found a great article on indie publishing by Joanna Penn who has a super great website. The article is titled Author Entrepreneur: Increase Your Revenue. She says: There’s a learning curve for all indie authors, which I have covered before in the arc of the indie author. But once you get the hang of the process – writing, editing, publishing, marketing – then you start to think about the business side. The link is: http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2015/03/26/increase-revenue/

As you can see there is more being a writer than just writing a book. I hope you enjoyed this blog. If so, please comment.

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