Distractions!

June 2017 Blog

Almost didn't make my deadline this month. Remember what I said about "shiny things"?

Distractions!

Well, life may not always provide shiny things, but it is always there and the living (or surviving) of it can easily distract us from our intended purpose.

To Purpose! A Haiku

The sharpest pencil

Would rather be dulled by use

Than retain its point.

This is the first day of the sixth month of the year. 2017 is nearly half over, and I am not much closer to my goals than I was when the year started. I have made virtually no progress this last month at all.

I would apologize to myself, but the apology would fall on deaf ears. I must renew my efforts or face accomplishing little this year except treading water, and I'm certain I don't have that many years left to procrastinate.

Now, how does one hold one's self accountable when there are no incentives to do well and nothing to be held back against failure?

One gets to that point when the only thing in life pending or looming is one's own demise and one seems to have a mental block against contemplating it.

True, that should be incentive enough. I must do these things before I can't do them and all is lost. Sad state of affairs, isn't it?

Okay, on a more positive note: I need to be more organized. I used to have a schedule for everything and I pretty much stuck to it (and consequently got things done). It went by the way side sometime around my bout with congestive heart failure and resting –  lots of resting. Then came trying to live life again and then came the elections (but that's a whole different story). Guess, I need to drag the schedule out and rework it – making it relevant to the now.

I do make lists (and my DH makes lists for me), but I frequently neglect to refer to them. I guess I can blame that on age (really, I think I can). The old brain is still a whiz at Sudoku puzzles, but "what was I supposed to de next?" can still be a mystery.

Oh, and distract me from my routine at any time and I'm totally shot for the day. Seems I'd rather nap than jump back into something I was supposed to do, if I remember what it was.

My excuse, if that's what you would call it, is "I can always do it later". Which in itself is a fallacy, and I know it. But at the time, the nap wins out and then later becomes later yet.

I don't suppose anyone else has these problems. In my mind, it seems everyone else has it all together. But then, over the years, I've found "everyone" else to be essentially the same as me. So I'm assuming others out there have performance problems also. (Not that kind!)

I'd be grateful for any hints. While waiting for some, I guess I'll print out my old schedule and work on it.

Shouldn't be too hard, right? All I need to do is remember to do it, may be write myself a note to do it, maybe paste it on my forehead and look in the mirror once in a while.

By the way, as I sit outside and write this, I can see rain clouds rushing my way with actual rain in them. Since I do my best writing outside, guess I had better speed up my pen. The wind is picking up, but I still don't feel like moving this inside.

I've written in the rain before (as well as bitter, freezing cold). Not sure if it's defiance or I really, really, really like to write out here where clocks don't tick and time (if not the storm itself) stands still for a little while.

Back to that unvarnished, un-shiny schedule: It has to include (besides writing) household chores and paying bills as well. The former seem to get done on an "as desperately needed" basis. The latter is done (reluctantly at best) at the last moment because, it seems, there is rarely enough money at the end of the month anymore. (I’m sure it's a situation that many seniors understand as an unfortunate fact of later life.)

Okay, none of that helps my writing, editing, publishing or promoting situation one whit, but now you understand how I am with distractions and shiny things.

Hopefully, next month, I can report on some real progress. At least I can tweet my book promotions like I did earlier this year. Sold a few books that way, too.

That reminds me, I love Twitter ( https://twitter.com/awlasky ). My husband says "way too much", but then he says that about my fan-girling Jimmy Fallon, too.

I will reach 20,000 followers soon (three years worth of work – and it is work). I will celebrate that milestone, maybe with a book sale – that would be appropriate, wouldn't it? J

I'm not on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ann.wilmerlasky ) much, although I repost my Twitter post (Daily Haiku) there everyday. I should learn to make better use of it. (Wow, I've just added another project, haven't I?)

Too bad, so sad – so many projects in my mind, but they can't seem to translate to actions. Maybe I need to post some visual reminders of what I want to do somewhere I will actually see them. Wait! They would obliterate my computer screen, wouldn't they?

Until next month's progress report, remember – a sharp pencil writes nothing. You have to use is to make any progress. It is happiest blunted.

If you have any questions or comments on any promotion platforms or options, please leave a comment and I will get back to you. I love to hear from my readers.

Must Promote!

May 2017 Blog

This is the Fifth month in a row I'm posting my blog on time. It's almost a habit.

Must Promote!

Writing outside in the wind and the sun today. A welcome change after yesterday's all day rain. No, I didn't write outside in it. Sadly, I didn't write at all yesterday. But now, the sun is shining and the wind is easy. I sit and contemplate the volunteer sunflower growing where it shouldn't and I write.

Must Promote! A Haiku

I would shine my light

For all to see, but I fear

It is not worthy.

I'm actually still on track with my mantra for the year:

Must Write! Must Edit! Must Publish! Must Promote!

And this month's post is "Must Promote!"

The above Haiku should be entitled "Hesitation", but I hesitate to do that since the previous month's titles reflected the theme of the month's blog.

This month's blog is not an easy one to write. I know little about promotion, except for the advertisements I am constantly bombarded with across all media. I know even less about self-promotion, except that I was discouraged as a child from bragging or boasting about my accomplishments as if doing so were a mortal sin.

Unfortunately, that attitude has stuck with me to the point where I have hesitated even to acknowledge a compliment over the years.

If I am to have any kind of financial success as a writer, that must change. I need to accept the inevitable necessity and learn to promote myself and my body of work.

Actually, I believe I've written some pretty impressive, if not entertaining stuff, but I also have a problem with judgment (which doesn't help either) so I hesitate putting myself out there for criticism. But, what the heck, at my age I should be able to take it on the chin and blow my own horn. (Some clichés are just too handy to pass up.)

I know there are many outlets available for promotion. Some are free, some cost a little, and some cost a lot. Being a 'starving artist', I'm all for the first option: "FREE"!

I run across so many writers' sites and Twitter accounts that offer such varied platforms, that I have become overwhelmed by them. Even my publishing outlets have resources available that I have not taken full advantage of.

I need to take some time to sort it all out, because as sure as "Publish or Perish" is true, so is "If you put your candle under a bushel basket, no one will see it." (or something like that)

Amazon and http://createspace.com/ seem to have some of the most comprehensive promotion ideas available, but a lot of them insist you be exclusive to Amazon and its outlets. I prefer to spread my wares around, but most of my royalties do seem to come from them, so I guess I do owe them some loyalty, if not exclusivity.

http://smashwords.com/ has promotion material available also and they are my co-favorite publishing site (along with the aforementioned Amazon and its http://createspace.com/)

There are also Twitter accounts for authors that offer free promotion in exchange for promoting other authors. I've run into several of those. I will be checking into them in the next few months.

 I know I said I would do some promoting during April, but you remember those taxes I also mentioned? Well, I put it all off until the last minute and filed my extension just prior to the deadline.

I have got to be the world's worst – or best – procrastinator, depending on how you look at it.

So now, here I am, the beginning of the fifth month of the year that's one-third over already. I still need to write, edit, publish AND promote.

Taking a deep breath, I'm plunging into the deep end. I'm going to do them all in May. If I'm breathing again by June 1^st, I'll tell you how it all went.

And I'm still thinking about throwing in at least one audiobook at www.audible.com project, so I'll have that to talk about, too. It's all very ambitious, I know, but stringing it out hasn't worked in the past and my far future is getting closer and closer to its final resolution.

In the meantime, over this month, if you have any ideas or thoughts about what has or hasn't worked for you, please let me know. I want to explore all the options I can.

It's wonderful, really, to have so many options available to us in this media driven age. I keep telling myself that over and over even as I am overwhelmed by my daily Twitter activities.

Okay, smiling now. I need to get back to my Tweeps and see how they are doing. Wish me luck this month, as I will need all I can get to not drown in the media sea I need to make better use of.

(Sorry about the preposition at the end, but…)

If you have any questions or comments on any promotion platforms or options, please leave a comment and I will get back to you. I love to hear from my readers.

Must Publish!

April 2017 Blog

This is the fourth month in a row I'm posting my blog on time. I'm on a roll!

Must Publish!

I was able to write outside today. My session started out cold and windy, but about halfway through, the sun came out and I finished in relative warmth.

Must Publish! A Haiku

I'd share my thoughts with

The world, to the pleasure of

Some, bane of others.

I'm actually still on track with my mantra for the year:

Must Write! Must Edit! Must Publish! Must Promote!

And this month's post is "Must Publish!"

Publish or Perish! It's ever been the rage in academia and is a great admonition for all authors. It goes along with "Don't hide your light under a bushel basket!"

Truth is, authors must publish to be widely remembered, and who among us does not wish to be remembered or at least have our words live beyond us?

"Traditional" publishing, where you submit your work to an agent or a publishing house directly, has been joined (and some may say even surpassed) by self-publishing through one or more of the capable publishing platforms on the internet.

I would have stuck to submitting the traditional way, were I a whole lot younger and had not nearly died from heart failure a couple of years back. There's a certain amount of validation having someone else believe in your work and actually paying you for the privilege of being able to publish it. However, it's not necessarily the way to instant riches or a "Steven King-dom".

Also, self-publishing or "Indie-Publishing" does not carry the stigma it used to – since your work lines up equally well on sales platforms such as Amazon – and a lot of readers now don't seem to care who the publisher is or isn't when they pop a book into their Kindles.

Personally, I have used http://createspace.com/ (the publishing arm of Amazon) and http://smashwords.com/ (a multi-platform e-book publishing site) to a certain degree of success. Their tutorials are relatively easily followed, and they have been around for a while. I'm sure they'll be around a while longer, so I believe my own catalog is safe.

Once you make it through their step-by-step processes and hit that "Publish" button, you will feel a euphoria unknown to the non-writer, non-publisher. Once you come down from that high, however, you need to concentrate on promoting and marketing your offerings. Few self-published books are instant successes without a push to let the buying public and your future loyal-readership know what you have to offer and how easily they can purchase it.

But I digress and marketing is the subject of my next blog. (Wouldn't want to get ahead of myself.)

Once your manuscript is written and edited (and re-edited to everyone's satisfaction), you need to carefully research your publishing choices.

Even if you go traditional, you need to make sure your publisher or your agent are reasonably honest and trustworthy. A search online should reveal any problems they may have in the industry.

Also, you need to be aware and perhaps wary of the vast array of subsidy publishers out there who may not have the best of reputations among authors and aspiring authors. Some may promote a good game, but after a large investment and sweat equity on your part, you may find yourself with cartons of unsold and/or unsalable books and the huge headache of selling them yourself. (Maybe not too much of a problem for our extroverts out there – but many of us fall on the introvert side of the author coin.)

I will not name names. Since I have avoided these companies, I have no tales of woe to tell, but again – "google" them. Find out what others are saying about those in which you are interested.

If you decide on my favorites (http://createspace.com/, and http://smashwords.com/), follow their instructions carefully. Check and recheck every step. If you have insurmountable problems, they offer excellent professional services, but you can publish absolutely free with them.) And you will end up with a product of which you can be extremely proud. A book you can put next to anybody's on the shelf and smile and say "Hey! I wrote that! Would you like me to autograph it for you?

By the way, that first autograph is going to put you on cloud nine. There is no better feeling for an author than to autograph a book and hand it back to a satisfied reader. (I know. I've been there. I've done that.)

Sorry, another tangent there. Back to publishing. You need to consider all the options available to offer your work to the widest possible audience. Besides print-on-demand books suitable for every conceivable outlet, you need to consider e-books in all their varied forms and requirements. It is essential to make your work available on Kindle type platforms.

Sounds confusing, I know, but remember Createspace, Amazon and Smashwords. They've got it all figured out for you. Just follow their instructions.

Beyond all the print and visual media out there, you also need to offer an audio option. I know I need to, and I'll be exploring www.audible.com for my audio publishing needs and will report my experiences in a future blog.

Remember, next month's blog should be on Marketing and promotion unless something else pops up that cannot be ignored. Hopefully, I will be reporting on my own successful efforts this month. However, I have procrastinated on taxes again this year, so don't know how much I will accomplish.

If you have any questions on any of these platforms or options, please leave a comment and I will answer. That's a new thing I'm doing – trying to be more responsive. I do have this problem – I am distracted by shiny objects – there goes one now – ooooh, so shiny…

Must Edit!

March 2017 Blog

This is the third month in a row I'm posting my blog on time. I'm so proud!

Must Edit!

Using my inside voice today. Writing outside in 50+ mph winds was not working for me.

Must Edit! A Haiku

Words that fall Willy-

Nilly on the page, needs must

Be put to order.

I'm actually get back to my mantra for the year: Must Write! Must Edit! Must Publish! Must Promote! And this month's post is "Must Edit!"

Remembering that "all the first draft has to do is exist", hopefully you have written what you wanted without censoring yourself.

But, even if you hire a professional editor, you need to go back through the manuscript yourself at least once, preferably twice. You will be looking for obvious plot problems, continuity errors, and anachronisms (if you are writing a period piece) besides errors in spelling and grammar.

In my first edit, I concentrate on making certain my typist (who is my dear husband) has actually gotten my words right (even if I make a mistake – and I do), correcting what's wrong and taking care of punctuation problems – his or mine.

After going through it again to see if it still makes sense and catching leftover typos, it's read to send out for professional editing.

When it comes back with suggestions and corrections, it's time to make them (or not – just remember you hired an editor to improve your manuscript so you may want to carefully consider their probably expensive input) and then send it off for publishing.

Being an independent publisher, it is time for me to go through the file one last time, line-for-line making the changes in font, style and spacing that will make it compatible with (in my case) CreateSpace and/or Smashwords publishing tools. I have found both incredibly easy to work with.

Another take on editing is far more esoteric. I want to make certain my content is age appropriate for the intended audience. Besides General Fiction, I write for Middle Grade & Young Adults. There are words and concepts that need to be handled more carefully there, although the lines are becoming increasingly more blurred.

For my General Fiction. regardless of the genre, I find I need to be careful not to pull my punches – not to try to cater or pander to my audience – but to be true to my voice.

I believe my audience appreciates that honesty, al least I've not had complaints about it. I'm even occasionally encouraged to push against my own restraints in future projects and become even edgier.

In the end, however, I have to enjoy reading my own writing. If I can smile at the look and the professionalism and the story contained in my proof copy, I can smile at my audience and bid them to enjoy.

Since I seem to on a monthly roll here, you can expect my next blog post "Must Publish!" on April 1^st – that is if the good lord's willin' and the creek don't rise. Wait – it'll be spring. Those things could happen.

Cautionary Tale

I have tried to live a good life; had I done otherwise, would I have been more a success? Just wondering.

Topsy Turvy: A Haiku

I have lived my life

All wrong; seems intolerance,

Bigotry succeed.

I am a writer. My only weapon is the word upon the page. Now, I fear I have not the words to warn of the perils we are facing. And we are facing them because of our collective hubris and ignorance.

We (the citizens of these United States of America) have elected to be led by a vengeful, under-educated man who appeals to the baser instincts of our populace and mankind in general.

We will suffer the consequences of our rashness. The exclusionary tactics this leadership now embraces have damaged and will further damage our standing in the world community.

Once looked up to as the people most people wanted to be like, we are now the pariahs no one wants to be associated with (except perhaps, for a few social groups with reputations as damaged as our own).

What do I write during these times? I am not a pundit. I do not feel I can change the world with one well-written sentence or (heaven help me) one skillfully chosen word.

My daily Haiku offerings seem to have become a collection of my feelings and an expression of my trepidation for the difficulties that lie ahead of us.

My fiction must not turn from its original purpose – to provide an escape from the world that is

  – into a world better or worse (as the case may be), but at the least – fictional.

Although, somehow, it feels like the world as it stands now is but a fiction and a dystopian one at that.

I have no antidote to this world as it stands today. My writings are but aspirin to alleviate the pain, if only temporarily. I would hope my readers find such enjoyable.

If you would rather read something that might shake up your world a bit, may I suggest reading the incomparable George Orwell. At the very least, watch the movies.

His "1984" and "Animal Farm" should be required reading for every American, because, people, we are living these books today.

"Big Brother" is here and you need to be afraid – very afraid. The liberties taken from us will not easily be restored. And even more liberties are in danger. He is hoping we will acquiesce and come to believe in the truth as he tells it, however many times he changes it.

In reality – facts are facts and #AlternativeFacts are a fiction, and I know fiction. We have become a nation of fictions. We have come to believe "the man behind the curtain" is all-powerful, when it is we who have unwittingly bestowed such powers upon him. (Just thought I'd drop a little "Wizard of Oz" in here, too.)

And as far as "Animal Farm" goes, believe me when I say 'the knacker's wagon is coming' and sooner rather than later. It will not take us to greener pastures.

My intended blog "Must Edit!" must take a back seat for now. Some other things needed to be said. I will attempt to return to my regularly scheduled blog postings next month. However, I am happy I am posting any blog on time, and I hope to continue to do so.