#191 Chore Of Solitude

Every spring the wife and I plant a vegetable garden filled with peppers, tomatoes, squash, and herbs. We spend several hours a week monitoring sun exposure, watering, and pruning.  It's a joint effort that's fun and rewarding.  And when our first harvest comes, we are ecstatic to be eating food from our own garden.

Every year, without fail, one of us gets too busy and the responsibility of the garden falls on just one of us.  This year, it fell on me.  Most evenings, when the temperature drops to a manageable degree, I step outside and water those plants that look dry.  I pick random tomatoes and peppers, and I'll remove pesky caterpillars seeking to destroy our crops.  But without the wife, this process ceases to be fun.  It's become a chore.  As a result, the garden suffers.

Writing can be very much like this.  The writing process is a solitary one.  Some days I write fabulous pages and I tell the wife, "I can't wait for you to read what I did today.  In five months when I am actually finished with this project, you're gonna be so impressed!"

Writing is a patient endeavor.  The reward comes with the process itself.  Or it comes only when the project is done and you're passing your story around to people who must devote several hours to the work you've been toiling over for months.  This is not an easy way to live.  You must be happy with yourself.  You can't rely on the day-to-day praise one might experience in other industries.

I write this post for myself and other writers who have felt the chore of solitude.  A writer must understand this is part of the deal.  It's part of the lifestyle.  If you require constant positive reinforcement, you'll be disappointed as a writer.  But if you can remain diligent, even when your spouse gets too busy to help, you'll end up with a beautiful garden.  Or you'll end up with a few random tomatoes and peppers, and the knowledge that you are doing something you love...which will be enough and will make you happy.

#190 Story Ideas

My brother's been writing short stories -- fantasy pieces that take place in a Steam Punk environment with characters from Grimm's Fairy Tales fighting a vicious villain and a mysterious fog called The Rauck.  He shares his stories with only a handful of people.  These people, who are unfamiliar with Steam Punk and fairy tales, don't share his excitement for this genre, which has caused my brother to doubt himself and the stories he wants to tell.  He told me he wanted to write stories in the "real world," so that his friends and family might want to read them.

I am in favor of writers occasionally writing outside their chosen genre.  Writers can learn from the change of perspective and style they encounter when forced outside their comfort zone.  I encouraged my brother to write a "real world" story because I thought it would do him some good.  And I was tired of reading Steam Punk, which makes little to no sense to me.

He sat at his computer in my living room, quietly staring at his computer screen.  He typed a few words, then vigorously pounded the delete key.  He groaned.  He sat back in his chair and stared toward the ceiling.  He groaned again.  "How do you come up with stories?" he finally asked me.

Without looking up from my own screen I said, "From life."

This idea seems pretty obvious.  But it doesn't occur to all writers that they can pluck stories from their day to day as a farmer might pluck an apple from a tree.  I thought of my brother a few moments ago while writing at Half Price Books, and I'd like to share.

I walked into the Half Price Books bathroom at 1:05 pm on a Monday afternoon.  An older gentleman wearing all black stood at the mirror.  He leaned over the sink with his large eyes glaring critically at his own reflection.  He removed a black, wide-toothed comb from his back pocket  and ran it meticulously through his grey hair, which was parted neatly down the middle.  

I used the bathroom, washed my hands, and stood at the electric dryer feeling the hot breath of a public bathroom blow across my palms, all the while this man stood at the mirror making himself look as presentable as possible.  I left the bathroom and lingered between the History and Weapons sections just outside.  I wanted to see where this man went.  I wanted to see for whom he paid so much careful attention.

After 30 seconds I felt like I lingered too long.  I was being creepy.  So I returned to a desk near the clearance section so that I could write a few more pages on my current project.  

I could not get the man out of my mind.  I wanted to know what he was doing.  I imagined him sitting alone near the cafe, conspicuously watching the women who visited HPB every Monday for their weekly game of pinnacle.  One woman especially intrigued him.  He battled with himself every week to muster enough courage to buy her a pastry.  A nice little dessert just to say that he would like to know her name.  

Or perhaps he was meeting his daughter and grand child for the first time.  He'd made an unforgivable mistake sometime in his past and had been estranged from her ever since.  What was that mistake?  For what did he need his daughter's forgiveness?

I stopped writing on my novel and played the possibilities over and over in my mind until finally I jotted some notes on my legal pad to be discovered at a later time when I would need a new story to write.

The moral of this little story is to remind writers to pay attention.  Keep your eyes open.  You never know when you'll stumble upon Willy Wonka, Hermione Granger, Darth Vader, or Lisbeth Salander living their life, their story ripe for any willing writer to pick.

#189 Small Victories

I became a full-time writer in late October of 2013.  I began with a couple of ideas, my wife's laptop, and no clue how this adventure would play out.  I had no process.  No benchmarks.  No short-term goals to keep the train rolling day to day, week to week.  I knew I wanted to write a series consisting of at least 3 novels, and I wanted to complete it by the end of 2014.  Combined with this monumental task, an Indie Writer must also develop a website, engage in the social media trifecta (FB, Instagram, Twitter), write a blog, develop relationships with graphic designers and editors, and read more books than ever before.

That's a lot to take on.  And a writer must do it with little help.

I'm ten months in and can't tell you how many times I've been overwhelmed by it all.  I've had to keep my frustration in check.  I've had to battle the intimidation with small victories, taking small steps -- marking off assignments from my to do list one at a time.  No step is too small to celebrate, as long as it gets you closer to your final goal.

Following is a list of small victories that, when added up, equal the great accomplishments in the life of a writer: novels.

• Finishing a chapter.  Breaking up a novel into chapters gives you natural milestones to strive for.  Understand that finishing a chapter is a good thing.  It's a great thing!  Feel proud that you are one step closer to finishing that project.
• Weekly word counts.  I set manageable weekly word counts instead of daily word counts.  If you have a particularly difficult writing day, you can make up words on a different day.  Likewise, if you have an aggressive Monday and Tuesday, then taking a Friday off every now and then is not such a bad thing.  Of course, I've found that when I have aggressive days early in the week I tend to have great days later in the week as well.  In this profession, success breeds more success.  I write 10,000 words per week.  If you have another job and you scramble to write on the side, look to get 5000 words per week.
• 5 blog posts per month.  Keeping up with a blog is a great way to engage readers, practice writing and develop content (outside of the novel) that will help connect you to readers.  Blogs can be fun.  Let your personality shine through.  Explore your passions and connect with readers who like the same things you do.  But you must keep up with it.  You must be consistent.  If readers like what you have to say, they will stay with you.  If they find you quiet for extended periods of time, they will find something else to read.
• Finishing the first draft.  This is a big one for me.  I celebrate this more than I celebrate the novel actually being published.  Not sure why that is.  The novel is far from finished.  There are many remaining steps that must be taken after the first draft.  But there is nothing wrong with celebrating the birth of a new novel, no matter how imperfect it is at that point.
• 5-7 tweets per day.  I'm still new to twitter and have not mastered engaging prospective readers through social media.  All I know is from what I experience.  When people over tweet, it can get on my nerves.  When people do not tweet enough, I'll miss them in my news feed.  There is a balance in here somewhere.  I'm still searching for that balance.  Until I learn definitively what that number is, I generally tweet 5-7 times per day.  Check out my post on tweeting for more info on what to tweet about.
• Read 2 books per month.  Ideally you should read more than this.  Reading is essential to becoming a better writer.  It's part of a writer's life that can easily be overlooked.  Many writers read for fun, and NO writer should be having fun when there's a novel to be completed. Not true!  An inspired writer having fun puts out a higher volume of better work.  Reading other writers helps develop your own style, and it inspires.  Don't get so bogged down in your own work that you ignore the work of others.

#188 Connections

A few months ago I traveled 25 miles north to Frisco, TX to visit a good friend of mine and his two kids.  I call them the goofball brothers because they are both goofballs and they are both brothers.  A. is 10 years old.  C. is 7 years old.  10 and 7 are wonderful ages.  The boys are confident and aware.  They have developed senses of humor.  They love to play and they still ask plenty of questions.  I look forward to visiting these two because it gives me a chance to talk to the boys about my favorite sport.  Soccer.

A. did not take to soccer.  He prefers baseball and basketball.  C., however, loves soccer.  He recently got new cleats and a soccer ball, and he wants nothing more than to punt the ball as far as he can.  Each time the ball launches into the air, he lets out a giggle that is equal parts ecstasy and villainy.

When I arrived I promised one boy we'd play basketball and the other we'd play soccer.  I told them to round up some boys and we'd organize some games.  The boys led me to one yard on the street, the neighborhood sports field, and I taught them the basics of passing and trapping.  Any chance they got, they lifted the ball with their hands and punted the thing down the street.  I would shake my head and make them retrieve the ball.  They laughed the entire way.

I enjoy playing neighborhood sports on a field full of young boys and girls.  I like the balance of chaos and organization.  I like teaching.  I really like watching the children succeed.  But my favorite part happened several weeks later when, unbeknownst to me, C. played in his first ever "real" soccer game for a team he just joined.  He scored a goal and got an assist.  On his way home from the game he called me two times back to back because I didn't answer the first time.  He had to talk to me.  He had to tell me about his first game.

We go about our lives doing what we need to survive.  Occasionally we have time to do the things we love, and sometimes that allows us to connect with another person who shares a similar passion.  That connection is so important.  It's what makes life worthwhile.

#187 Tweetness

Been working hard recently to understand and utilize Twitter to help increase awareness for my 2 novels.  I think it will help me with my writing, and I think it will ultimately help me find readers.  Twitter is an interesting tool.  It makes complete sense for people trying to break stories in real time.  It also seems like a natural way to share pop culture information like: movies, music, gossip, etc.

The big question is how do newbie writers use twitter effectively?  I am new to Twitter, but have noticed a few things that I'd like to comment on.

• Many writers Tweet self-promotion.  This includes reminders to buy novels, announcing deals, promoting other authors doing the same, excerpts from works.  Many of these tweeters have massive amounts of followers so it seems like a natural way to get your message across.  However, I find myself skipping over tweets from people who promote too much or exclusively.
• Other writers Tweet inspiration.  These fill cyberspace with encouragement meant to help writers during wanderbreaks throughout the day.  As a writer whose mind wanders to Twitter almost every time I reach a new paragraph, I find these inspirational quotes helpful, though sometimes I think they are overdone or too well crafted as if they came from a book of inspirational quotes.  Genuine encouragement is always the best, in my opinion.
• Next I find writers who Tweet other's articles, blogposts, words of encouragement.  These writers stumble upon something they found useful and wish to share with their followers.  I like these as well, as I often find myself reading articles because they are right there for me, instead of me having to spend time searching for them myself.  Not all articles are worthwhile, but it only takes a moment to decide if a read is worth the time or not.  And at the end of the day, I am educating as well as entertaining myself.
• I also see humorous/cute tweets.  These include funny/cute pictures or witty comments meant to break up the feed and bring a smile to anyone's face.  I like these, as I am always ready to smile.  Not all of these are funny, but I do not fault anyone trying to be funny or thoughtful.
• Finally, there are many tweets that I simply do not understand.  Perhaps I am not smart enough.  Perhaps I am too old.  But I do not understand what they are saying or the cryptic code in which they are written.

So, in my initial analysis, I believe that a newbie writer looking to break into Twitter should execute a  well balanced attack that includes, but is not limited to, self-promotion, inspiration, articles, humor, and cuteness to help entertain as well as educate.  That way, people do not follow then mute you.  They may be inclined to retweet you and ultimately they may one day visit your website where they will buy and read your wonderful books.