Tiffany Rambles

I've always taken pride in being able to wear a lot of literary hats. I'm an editorial assistant for a traditional publisher, freelance editor, reviewer, author, freelance writer...

Something about knowing I can wear all of those hats and switch between them multiple times in one day made me feel like the ultimate freelancer.

Now it's time I finally admit to myself that, considering the circumstances, I can't wear all of those hats. So, what are the circumstances?

Today I went to a job fair and handed out a lot of resumes. I not only asked for part-time jobs, but I asked for full-time ones as well. The jobs I'm mostly interested in are full-time jobs, where I'll most likely be expected to work anywhere between 35-40 hours per week. School won't be a concern, at least not for the next eight or so months, but my freelance jobs will be a concern. Usually, I write book reviews, work on my books, put together style sheets and style guides for Month9Books, edit a freelance project, and write articles for websites. If I try doing all of that with a full-time job and a desire for a love/social life, I'll burn out hard and fast, and I don't want that.

That's why I've decided that I will only wear two freelance hats: editorial assistant/freelance editor and author. I am no longer a freelance writer or professional reviewer. From now on, as far as freelancing goes, I will only edit books and write my own. I may occasionally write a review for SPR or submit an article to websites like Listverse, but not consistently.

Plus, the main reason why I held on to professional reviewing and freelance writing was because I can make money off of both. However, in a recent blog post, I decided that I'm no longer doing freelance things for money. I really like writing reviews and articles, don't get me wrong, but editing and writing books are things I truly do out of a passion. I'll hold on to those.

This may seem pretty odd coming from a reviewer, but I genuinely believe that reading reviews for anything you're generally interested in before starting is a terrible idea. Doing so can really ruin a show or book you would've otherwise loved. People like to think that their opinion is their opinion and no one else's thoughts can interfere, but that's not true. As humans, what we do and think is both directly and indirectly affected by others.

If you go on Amazon and read five reviews that all say that the plot is weak and the characterization is bad, you'll start that book with those reviews constantly circulating in your head. You'll start looking for instances of bad characterization and weak plot. And what if you actually like the characters and the plot in spite of all the bad things people had to say about the book?

When that happens to me, I feel like maybe I'm missing something, like maybe my judgement is lacking and I just can't tell the difference between what's good and what's bad...but then I realize that reviews are highly subjective. Even the most intelligent, experienced reviewer is only a judge of what's 'good and bad' based on their opinions.

I'm fully aware of how subjective reviews are, but they still ruin books and shows for me if I read them beforehand. Once the other opinions are already in my mind, it's too late. No matter how aware I am, my thoughts are never fully my own.

Reviews are best read after you've finished, not before. How do you feel about reviews? Do you read them before or after? Do they negatively or positively impact your decisions?

Money is a touchy topic. For some, it's even more touchy than sex, and I hate it. I hate that it almost feels like a person's worth, specifically my worth, is measured by how much money I have or appear to have. Up until the age of nineteen, I didn't associate success or making my dreams come true with money. If I was working hard, getting things done, and making my dreams come true, I felt some semblance of success. But now that I'm twenty, in debt, and struggling to hold on to money, I can't do the things I used to do that had nothing to do with money without feeling like I'm taking one step backward.

So let's talk money and writing/editing. I need to, or else it'll keep making me sick. The elephant is too huge, the room too small.

If I got fired from my part-time job tomorrow, I'd be able to make a living off of editing, reviewing, coaching and writing. After all, I only make $7.75 an hour and I never work more than 25 hours. I make between $100-150 a week. It certainly helps, but it's not a lot where if I lost it I'd really suffer.

At first becoming a full-time freelancer would be a struggle, and I know some months would be rough, but all I currently need to get by is $250/month. I no longer have a car, nor can I afford another one. I'm in $18,000 of debt because of that car crash. I'm a college student paying with loans and I still live with my parents. Though I'll only be going to college spring semesters, it's still expensive. Which, while all very irritating, means I can get by on very little.

As assuring as all of that is, that knowledge is also a double-edged sword. Somehow, it made me forget that I edit, write, and read out of a passion for editing, writing, and reading. When I'm doing stuff and making little to no money, I get anxious and stressed. It's like, somewhere along the line, I forgot that - while I CAN make a living off of it and would like to go full-time one day - it's certainly not some glamorous choice where I'll make enough money to feel as well-off as all of my well-off friends. The people I hang out with, while not rich, have considerably more money than me. Then I feel like I must be doing something wrong.

Basically, I need to know where to draw the line. I ramble a lot, I know, but just bear with me.

Should I go full-time as a freelancer and put all my energy into succeeding as a freelancer, even though I know that will financially stress me out? Or should I handle my freelance jobs the way Stephen King handled his writing before Carrie sold for $400,000 and made it so that King no longer had to work as a teacher anymore?

I've been reading On Writing by Stephen King, and the first part of the book shows how he worked full-time and had a variety of part-time jobs, yet he still worked on his writing and sent out short stories consistently. Though his major source of income came from those other jobs, he still took his writing very seriously. Any amount of money that came in from his efforts and consistency were more like a bonus payment than anything else. And, while the extra money was definitely wonderful, he didn't keep submitting to magazines and writing for money. He did it because he couldn't NOT do it. That's what matters, and that's why I'm considering going back to that style.

Maybe it's best I go back to keeping my freelance life and 'average' life separate. I ask myself, "If I had no freelancing interest or skill, how would I get by? What would I focus on?" I know the answer to that question: I'd be focused on working at least 25-30 hours a week and getting a degree in something business-related.

So maybe I SHOULD be focused on that and, like Stephen King did, maybe I should treat the money I make from freelancing as bonuses and go back to working on writing, editing, and reviewing because it is my dream - not to prove something, not to make as much money as my friends. If I happen to hit it big somehow, enough so where I can quit working at day time jobs, then I'll stop working at day time jobs. But until then? I should just stop worrying myself about money.

Unfortunately, that does mean that I can't get as much freelance work done. I have a lot of projects, a lot of skills I'd like to take to the next level. I'm an editorial assistant for Month9Books, and I may become a paid reviewer for Fantascize (if not, I can still be a paid reviewer for Self-Publishing Review or Kirkus). My services as a freelance editor are still open, and I'm definitely working on nonfiction and fiction books. There are lots of things I want to do, and if I work 25 hours a week and spend 10-20 hours a week focusing on school...well, I'm not super human. Things will get done, but certainly not a fast rate.

That's why I've decided to only go to college one semester every year. The semester and summer I'm off means those 10-20 hours I would spend stressing out about college won't happen two semesters in a row. I can dedicate that hour to stressing out about my wonderful freelance career instead. ^_^

I've spent far too many nights mentally destroying myself over the amount of money I make freelancing. It's time to stop. It's time I stop letting the elephant distract me from my dreams. If I want to make money, that's what day time jobs are for. That's where I'll think about money.

I don't edit, review, or write solely for the money. Sure, I need to make some money from it, but it's not my aim to get rich off of it. I'm just glad I've finally remembered that.

Now it's time to work on a style guide for Month9books. I was at the day job a couple hours ago. This week, I'll only make $100, and that money will be spent right away on food and bills. I'm making absolutely no money on my freelance ventures right now. And you know what?

That's okay.

I'm a big supporter of author David N. Alderman and his communities/books. The Crossover Alliance Giveaway contest looks really awesome. I'm particularly hoping to get my hands on The Maze.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Last year, I did a post summarizing what I did all year. Why not do the same thing for 2012? Unfortunately, I didn't write as many posts this year as I did last year. In 2011, I was able to read all my posts at Tiffany Rambles to jog my memory. I'll do the same for 2012, but I'll definitely have to fill in the blanks more often.

Keep in mind that this list is not in order of when they actually occurred.

• I discovered myself and learned to accept who I am and who I'm becoming: Many of my posts in February revolved around my battle with overcoming depression and how much I have changed since meeting Matthew. Discovering and accepting myself as well as learning to fully trust my love for Matthew were two of the most important things to happen to me last year, but I did spend a considerable time making sure I didn't regress.
• Indiegogo Campaign: Though I'm still working on Unconventional Methods due to having a lot to learn about self-publishing and unfortunately being distracted by a number of other assignments, last year I ran an Indiegogo campaign and made about 16% of my goal ($290 out of $2000). It wasn't enough to fully self-publish the book, but it's definitely a much better amount to start with than $0. I plan to have Unconventional Methods ready for publication and in the hands of formatters and artists sometime this month.
• Launched an author website: I mainly launched the site for the Indiegogo campaign, but, when the campaign ended, I dedicated a good amount of time and energy into making the site something I'd be proud of. I succeeded in that enough to get a great website critique from Author Media.
• Wrote Unconventional Methods: Sure, I still need to edit it again and get it ready for publication, but I did finish writing the book. It's the first nonfiction book I've written, the first book I plan on self-publishing. Because of that, writing this book means a lot to me. Unfortunately, I wrote little to no fiction, but I've pretty much accepted the fact that I won't be writing fiction for a while. EDIT: I'm currently working on a contemporary fiction book that I'm very excited about.
• Went back to college: In spite of my love/hate relationship with college, I enrolled myself in Purdue Calumet in time for the fall semester. I actually did very well. I got a 3.53 gpa, which was much better than my 2.7 gpa from the Fall 2011 semester at IUB, and I enjoyed college this time around much more than I did the first time.
• $1400 Month: Last year, I made more money in one month editing and reviewing novels than I made all 5 months working as a barista at IUB. It was a very busy, stressful month, but definitely well worth it. The $1400 gave me much more confidence about taking my freelance duties to the next level. Soon, when I can find a way to make $1400 months a more consistent thing, I will be going full-time.
• Stopped Being a Wallflower: By that, I mean I finally stopped despising myself for not hanging out with people, for feeling like my life revolves around Matthew too much, and actually hung out. Spending too much time with others does drain energy from me. If I start feeling like I'm obligated to be social, I very quickly get miserable. However, when I allow myself to be a social butterfly after spurts of being a loner, I genuinely feel a lot better about myself. I'm still trying to figure out when to switch between the two.
• Became a writer for Neatorama: Neatorama is my first paying gig, and it's an amazingly fun and flexible job. I love finding interesting content to share, sharing it, and then actually getting paid at the end of the month for doing something I'd do for fun anyway. I can't thank Adrienne Crezo enough for putting up a status on FB about a website hiring writers. Without her, I would have never had the opportunity to get this job.

Since 2012 is coming to an end, I figured it would be a great idea to write a post featuring my top five most popular/helpful posts this year. Listing and rereading these posts are as helpful for me as they will hopefully be for you. 2013 will be one hell of a year for me, so it's important I take note of what posts were popular and try to comprehend why. Enjoy!

It's a good thing I don't have an established, large fanbase yet. I still have a lot to learn about self-publishing, especially when it comes to conversions, distribution, and cover art. Even worse, a lot of personal matters interfered. Unfortunately, that means that I couldn't release Unconventional Methods December 5th.

At first I thought I could learn and do all the conversion and distribution on my own (generally my downfall; I'm learning to get better at accepting help), but then I realized that was unlikely to happen. I almost turned to Book Baby, but after lots of research and discussions with other writers, I decided against that. While I wouldn't say Book Baby is a scam or that it's vanity, I have heard that the prices can easily be avoided and that the customer service has a tendency of going down once you actually sign on with them.

Instead, I think I'm going to The Eyes for Editing or WalkingStick Books for ebook and print conversions. I've come up with my own ideas for promotion, but I wouldn't mind turning to Xpresso for a book tour. Of course, this depends on how the tour sign-up process works and if they do tours for nonfiction books. By that, I mean how exactly does Xpresso get participants? I wish I could turn to Novel Publicity for a tour, but they're much too expensive for me.

While I like my current cover, I'm thinking about buying a stock image and creating a new cover. Interior design and book jacket design are two things I never thought about, unfortunately, so I still have a lot more planning to do if I plan to make this book both an ebook and a print book. I still have to create and pay for a number of tl;dr cards as well.

So far, here are prices (as of now) for what I'm talking about:

1.) Stock Image - $19
2.) eBook formatting - $100
3.) Print formatting - $150
4.) 100 copies of tl;dr card - $39.99

Already, that's over my current budget ($300) and that doesn't even count taxes or other hidden prices I may not know about just yet. My ordering of print copies for Indiegogo backers will have to wait. At this rate, I'll be lucky if I don't have to put one of the things above on hold until I do other freelance things on the side to pay for it.

In all, I'll have to update my Unconventional Methods page to make it clear that most of the dates there have changed and that I can't do the book tour (Only two people volunteered anyhow).

This is all a learning process for me. As of now, there are three other books I'd like to self-publish - a how-to series and an anthology. Working on Unconventional Methods is a great way to prepare me for those books.

Nathan Pierce has a lot in common with the Broken Lands. In spite of how much damage has been done to the world thanks to Legion and the president, there is still sunlight and love within Nathan. Sure, he struggles with the sunlight, but it's still there and can remain there as long as he has enough faith in himself and those he loves.

As thus, it's only fitting that Exodus, the last book in the Black Earth series, begins with Nathan reflecting in the Broken Lands about the many people who have already departed either from this world or from his life before continuining his journey against Legion.

Sitting in the Broken Lands playground, watching the sun set with Ginger, is one of Nathan's last moments of peace.

Soon after, they find a woman who is part of Legion, a woman willing to help Nathan and betray Legion in the process. Unfortunately, her very presence causes more members of Legion to arrive, and things can only get worse when more members of Legion join the fray.

In a dark realm far from where Nathan and members of Daisy's Rebellion ran into trouble, Cynthia Sin Ruin sits atop a throne as the princess of the Black Cathedral, the mysterious Ryn her king. She doesn't know exactly why Ryn asked her to be the princess or what exactly she's supposed to do, but she has mixed feelings about the Black Cathedral. Sometimes she's anxious and afraid; other times, she loves the power, and she loves the power even more when Ryn gives her the one thing she loves most - sex slaves. Her battle is within. Will she lose herself to her sex addiction and the darkness involved in being the princess of the Dark Cathedral?

Back on Earth and inside the high tech SilverTech facility, Mr. Silver is still dealing with the assassin who has been trying to kill him for a while. Even more, he has to prepare to leave for Anaisha along with the selective group of people being sent to Anaisha with his special airships, but that won't be so easy with an assassin as successful as Mira deadset on taking his life.

Of course, as the case with all the books in David Alderman's Black Earth series, there are more plots than just the point of view (POV) ones. Ericka Shane, Heather, Pearl, President Stone, Evanescence, Olivia, Absolute, Marigold, Ryn, Chaos, Legion...they all play a considerable role in the plot. All of the sub-plots intertwine, but this time around there aren't as many sub-plots to keep up with.

For the most part, I really liked Exodus. The descriptions, especially the descriptions for battle scenes with Legion, were wonderful. I loved the character development for Nathan, Heather, Cynthia, and Ericka. I enjoyed reminiscing about how certain characters were in the first book and marvelling at what they became. Since I knew that the Black Earth series would lead to David's Expired Reality series, I didn't expect a happy-go-lucky movie ending where the main protagonists would somehow defeat the antagonists in the nick of time and save earth moments before it could fall apart. I don't want to spoil the ending, of course, but my expectations about the ending were true.

There were some things I didn't like, but I'll cover that below, in my review of the entire Black Earth series.

Black Earth Series

I've read and reviewed all four books in the Black Earth series. If you want to read my reviews of the first three books, just click the corresponding title:

Black Earth: End of the Innocence 
Black Earth: The Broken Daisy
Black Earth: Dark Masquerade

This is the first book series where I've reviewed all the books. That in itself makes me very happy. It's been quite the ride, but I enjoyed reading the series as much as I enjoyed talking to the author.

Characters have grown, some more than others, and much has changed. Many have joined the tale and disappeared. The conflicts became tougher in each book, the stakes higher. David Alderman outdid himself in each book with his great writing and immense imagination.

With each book, the number of sub-plots grew smaller and smaller. That's a good thing! However, there's a bad side to that downsizing. By the last book, I couldn't shake off the feeling that seemingly important plot points that carried on through multiple books didn't really get a proper ending.

I'm okay with the fact that some of the major plot points weren't resolved since David makes it very clear that the story continues in the Expired Reality series, but I felt like there were one or two sub-plots that could've been resolved. For instance, it bothered me that the origin of Cynthia's book wasn't really explained. I also didn't like that her pregnancy often seemed like an after thought. When her pregnancy first happened, it played a vital point in the plot, but, by the last book, it seemed like a build-up with no 'up.'

I'm not really a fan of ratings. The numbers usually seem arbitrary to me, but I feel the need to rate Black Earth.

4.5/5

If you think you'd enjoy Edgy Christian Speculative Fiction, this is definitely the book for you. There are demons, aliens, sci-fi technology, angels, battles, and much, much more. Even better, the series is mainly about hope, faith, love, and willpower. I hope you enjoy the series and meeting the author as much as I did!

Author David N. Alderman

Prioritizing and time management is hard work, and it becomes even harder when more variables get tossed in. For instance, I spent a long amount of time being a workaholic loner. Though I was miserable, I never had a hard time creating and sticking to tight, efficient schedules. I knew exactly what I wanted to achieve and exactly how to go about achieving it in a timely, thorough manner. Prioritizing was my entire life...

Well, until I met Matthew, fell in love, had a series of breakdowns when I went away to college, and then finally reached a happy equilibrium with myself where I feel confident, beautiful, intelligent, and ready to pursue my dreams.

Now everything is reversed. I still have my bad juju moments, but overall I'm very happy with who I am and who I want to be. As a result, I hang out a lot more, both with my friends and my boyfriend, and I allow myself to take breaks and have fun. On top of that, my fear of college has dissipated enough for me to enroll in college again (though I admittedly still think I could be doing much much better things with my time) and I finally have a part-time job.

Nothing clashes more with prioritizing than being a full-time college student who has a part-time job and friends/boyfriend who like to hang out.

Of course, when I say prioritizing, I don't mean just prioritizing my personal life. I'm a writer, editor, reviewer, and entrepreneur. My ideas are never 'average.' I like to take something that's been overdone and add something fresh or relatively unheard of. I like to create a list of ideas and and put it together to make something grandiose. Unfortunately, grandiose innovations require dedication, time management, hard work, and, more than anything, the ability to consistently prioritize.

If I were a stranger observing myself, these would be my priorities, in order from most important to least important. It's not really in order of what I think is most important, which is a vital distinction to make. People, including me, don't necessarily live life the way they want to or think they should. Many of us live life the way it forces us to and then try to add in what we want.

•  Hanging out with my boyfriend.
• Getting good grades at college, or at least going every day and finishing the majority of the assignments.
• Hanging out with friends (keep in mind that, while I do get asked to hang out more than before, I don't get asked to hang out on an everyday basis. Some months I'll only be asked once or twice. Other months, I'm out one or two times a week. Regardless, it's not rampant and extremely time consuming).
• Working on Unconventional Methods of Book Promotion and Networking
• Improving my networking.
• Entering into writing/scholarship contests.
• Working on Savior of the Damned and other fiction ideas.
• Developing my retail store idea or any other entrepreneurial idea that seems worth pursuing. 
• Working on DIY Guide to Book Promotion and Networking and the tutorial videos.

It's a lot to try and prioritize, and each is very important for one reason or another. The first thing I want to do is start crossing stuff off the list. I start thinking, "Maybe I should hang out with Matthew less. Maybe I should turn my friends down. Maybe I should become a part-time college student or take another break...."

They seem reasonable when written out like that, but those solutions don't really work for me when applied. They throw off my equilibrium in a way that always escalates to unnecessary issues.

See, my main problem with prioritizing is that I want to think about and work on every idea simultaneously. I want to be an entrepreneur, writer, editor, reviewer, tutor, full-time college student, sales associate, committed girlfriend, and social butterfly ALL AT ONCE. Every day, I'm awake and active for 15 hours, give or take, and I want to stretch those 15 hours and divide them into neat little portions where I can cleanly take off one hat and put on another.

Unfortunately, life doesn't work that way. If you have lots of ideas and live an active, multifaceted life, your method of prioritizing needs to take that multifaceted life and spell it out. What does that mean?

First, it means that you need to figure out what part of your priorities will happen consistently regardless. For me, that's the first three priorities in the list above and improving my networking. I don't have any intentions to change those priorities or do them some other time. They just happen, and they don't interrupt my life so much that they're intolerable or counterproductive.

Second, it means that you need to figure out what's most important to you now and what can be put aside until later. If I take that list above and list it again based on what's immediately important, but this time missing the four consistent priorities, this is the list I get:

• Working on Unconventional Methods of Book Promotion and Networking
• Working on Savior of the Damned 
• Working on DIY Guide to Book Promotion and Networking
• Entering into writing/scholarship contests (Which I'll most likely do simultaneously with developing my retail idea)
• Developing my retail ideas (This may move higher up on the list if I enter this idea into the Big Sell competition this May) 

Now that I know exactly what needs to be done by order of immediate importance, I know exactly what to focus on individually. Right now, I need to finish Unconventional Methods of Book Promotion and Networking. That needs to be ready for publication by the end of this month. Until I finish Unconventional Methods, I shouldn't work on any other thing in that priority list. Sure, if I get ideas, it's fine to note the ideas in a notebook, but I shouldn't follow up on that idea until I'm finished with what I'm currently working on. Otherwise, I'm just giving myself permission to procrastinate with the excuse that, "It's not really procrastination. I'm working on something I need to work on, after all."

I also need to get rid of my 'be all, end all' notebook. Having one notebook for everything I need to do makes me more likely to procrastinate and work on something I shouldn't be working on. Beside that, it's also highly unorganized and frustrating when I want to search for something and find it mixed in with a gazillion unrelated notes.

Give us a brief introduction of yourself.
I'm an American currently living in China with my wife and son. I teach English classes at a Chinese university. My interests include art, tattoos, heavy metal, cathedrals, a cold beer, and of course, reading and writing.

Tell us about your writing. What genre(s) do you specialize in?
I've been writing stories of all kinds since I was a little kid, but I've always been drawn to sci-fi, action/adventure, and horror. I like to infuse all the elements that I enjoy reading into my own writing. I'm a sucker for intense dramatic atmosphere and melodrama, and I try to make my writing moody and engrossing. I also enjoying writing about characters that are unlikable and even repulsive. I see it as a challenge: to make readers loathe a character but still feel compelled to read about them.

Who are your favorite authors?
I pretty much only read classics. I rarely pick up a book that is less than one hundred years old, though I do enjoy some modern authors. Anything from the Gothic, American Romantic, and Victorian eras suit me just fine, but I also enjoy intense psychological stories, regardless of genre or era. Lord of the Flies by William Golding is my favorite book.

What inspires you to write?
I like writing what I would want to read. I get most of my inspiration from music and movies. I am a very visual writer and I try to replicate what I see in my mind through words. I listen to a lot of bombastic music like death and doom metal, and this helps put me in the mood to write. I love action movies that are explosive and over-the-top, so I seek to combine rip-roaring action with atmospheric creepiness. This is the direction that my writing is going now, but I'm sure my inspiration will change when I branch out into other genres.

Describe your writing process.
The time of day doesn't matter, but I have to be alone, either at home or in my office. I usually listen to heavy metal music, and I like to drink beer or green tea. I find my best bursts of creativity happen after I've watched a TV program or movie.

Any upcoming projects?
The Age of Apollyon just came out last month, but I'm already 2/3rds finished with the sequel, Black Sun.  There will be a total of three books in this series, and I expect to finish Black Sun early next year. I have a few ideas in my head that are just waiting to pop out, and I'm pretty good about keeping a steady writing rhythm, so I hope to crank out at least one book a year. You'll just have to wait and see.

Where can we find you and your books?
The Age of Apollyon on Amazon
The Age of Apollyon on Barnes and Noble
Official website
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads

I spend a lot of time stalking reading and observing Neil Gaiman's blog and Tumblr.  I've been reading his posts as though they are chapters of a book for months. For his journal, I started from the first post and worked my way up. There are more than 5000 posts there, so I of course haven't read everything, but I like to believe I will one day. For his Tumblr, I started from the most recent post and am currently working my way to the first.

If vicariously living through Neil Gaiman and other successful writers - Amanda Hocking, J.S. Chancellor, Michelle Davidson Argyle, David N. Alderman, etc. - has taught me anything, it's that there are five characteristics many successful writers seem to share. Incidentally, of the five characteristics, I fail at three.

In fact, my idea for this post came about when I asked myself, "Why am I not more successful? What is Neil Gaiman doing that I'm not doing?" I have faith in myself. I know I'm intelligent and hard-working enough to achieve anything I put my mind to, so why haven't I achieved much of anything since the busiest, most successful month of my life?

Here's what came to mind:

Successful Writers Finish Projects

After all, how can you attain success if you haven't finished anything?

This is, by far, one of the hardest things for an aspiring writer to do. It's completely understandable. Writing a novel is hard work. It takes some people weeks to complete a full novel while it takes others months, if not years.

For many, that's the appeal of Nanowrimo. It motivates writers to finish; it teaches them that writing a crappy novel is okay as long as you finish the damn thing. Even more, it combines all of that with a large support system.

Notice how I said 'projects' instead of 'project'? Sure, some writers are lucky enough to be wildly successful with only one project under their belt, but most successful writers I idolize have finished loads of projects. Whenever I check in to see what they're up to, they're always working on and finishing something else. It makes perfect sense. The more quality stuff you have out there, the better.

Successful Writers Make Meaningful, Genuine Connections 

 

 

Successful Writers Work Hard and Make Their Own Luck

Sometimes, people do get out-of-the-blue lucky but, in most cases, luck is just a matter of preparation and hard work meeting opportunity.

The chances of you getting lucky rise when you finish more projects. The chances of you getting lucky also rise when you make meaningful connections. See the pattern?

All in all, don't rely on luck and don't expect it. Just work hard, finish projects, and make meaningful connections and luck will probably come knocking at your door.

Most Importantly, Successful Writers are Consistent

In July and August, I ran an Indiegogo campaign for Unconventional Methods of Book Promotion and Networking. I only reached 17% of my $2000 goal, or $355. After fees from Paypal and Indiegogo, that amounted to $290. I have not and will not touch that money. It's specifically for the book, which I am, of course, still working on.

After doing a substantive critique, I came up with a seven step list of everything I need to do to get Unconventional Methods ready for publication. Some steps are longer and more time-consuming than others, but they will all get me to a finished book worthy of publishing and promoting.

Here's step one: Define terminology for the index. Put chapters in the right section depending on the terminology. Add/remove chapters. Figure out which interviews I'll for sure conduct and where I'll place the interviews in the book.

I finished step one yesterday and learned that Unconventional Methods will have two sections, both with 5-6 chapters (titles subject to change):

Social Media and Networking
Yahoo! Answers
Seven Step Networking
World Literary Cafe*
Facebook Pictures*
Roundabout Promotion*
Author Karma

Promotion and Advertising
Giveaway Sites
Quizzes and Games*
Web Series*
Business Products
Character Personification*

*Chapters I'd love to get an interview for. I will not conduct an interview for each, but I need to choose three for each section for the sake of a back-up plan. 

I plan on doing two interviews for each section. I already know exactly who I'd like to interview and what to do if I can't get their help. I won't release names until I complete step two, which is dedicated entirely to interviews, and get some okays.

How do you prepare your books for publication, especially if you're self-publishing? 

*NOTE: There are slight spoilers, but really it won't ruin the book for you. Also, I made all snippets of writing advice bold so, in case you don't really care to read about my life or emotions, you can skip right to the juicy bits about the craft of writing.

The first time I read Fat Kid Rules the World, I was a freshman in high school. I don't remember how I found out about the book (maybe it was required reading for some classes?), but I do remember judging the title: "Is this gonna be some stupid revenge story? Why'd I choose to review this for the newspaper?" However, as soon as I started reading the book, I couldn't stop. I forgot all about my immature judgements.

Curt, the sickly talented guy always afraid people will bail, and Troy, the social outcast who thinks far too much and depresses himself, seemed like two halves of my whole.

I didn't really have a breakdown until my sophomore year of high school, but I could feel myself bristling even when I was a freshman. In fact, a scene from pages 146-148 made me realize I was bristling.

In the aforementioned scene, Curt and Troy are in a diner. Curt asks Troy to watch these skinny, stereotypically beautiful people eat. At first Troy starts putting himself down. He thinks about what makes them beautiful and relates it to what makes him not beautiful. Curt instantly realizes this and tells him, "You're not watching them. You're watching you. If you'd watch them you'd see it."

I remember how Curt's response really struck me. I realized, in that moment, that I'd been watching myself my whole life. Hell, I still do. People are often just one-sided mirrors to my downfalls and flaws. I exaggerate their positives and exaggerate my negatives even though I know damn well how simplified that is.

Anyway, back to the scene.

Troy goes back to analyzing them as they eat. It takes a while for him to stop watching himself - trust me, that's really hard to stop doing - but when he does stop, he finally realizes that they're just acting. They're trying really hard. There are little indications, if you look close enough, that make it clear just how unsure and unhappy they are as well. As 'perfect' as they may seem, they're really not.

Curt puts Troy's realization in words: "That moment you see through the bullshit? That's what punk music is all about. That's what anything great is all about. We're all just stuffing our faces, no matter what we look like, and people need to figure that out. When you can play that moment, you've got it."

In the very next chapter, Troy cried. I cried too. It seems silly in hindsight, that a scene as simple as that could make me cry, but it really did mean something to me. I cried because I felt like those pretentious characters trying too hard to be stereotypically beautiful and perfect. I thought, "I'm worse than a liar. I am a lie."

Minutes later, I forced myself to stop crying, promptly felt dumb for crying, and buried the moment of clarity in my mind where it would simmer until the downhill current of shit hitting the fan started a year later.

On a writerly note, Fat Kid Rules the World also taught me that book reviews can be really fun if you're passionate about the book. Fat Kid Rules the World was my very first review. I've written 50+ reviews since then.

The Second Time

During a field trip to Indianapolis with the First Friday Wordsmiths, the only club I'm able to stay in after the car crash, we visited the Konnegut Library, where Corey Michael Dalton lived for Banned Books Weeks. His section of the library, which consisted of a small desk, a futon-like bed, and a chair and tables for his laptop, was sectioned by a stack of banned books.

Sorry it's so dark, but isn't that a cool stack? It almost looks like he's in a prison, like the books.

In that stack, I noticed Fat Kid Rules the World instantly. I remembered how much I loved it for being realistic and unfiltered. when I learned that the FFW advisor was planning for us to do a public reading of banned books on campus, I knew I would be reading from Fat Kid Rules the World. When I checked it out from the library, I intended to read a scene for the event and turn it back in. Of course, I didn't do that. Instead, just like before, I peeked at the first couple of pages and couldn't stop.

I figured I wouldn't have time to finish Fat Kid Rules the World, which is why I never intended to read it a second time, but I made time simply because I couldn't fathom not finishing it. Kudos to K.L. Going for that!

This time around, Fat Kid Rules the World taught me an important lesson about writing stand-alone books. When you want to keep the book focused, it's a good idea to choose a very specific goal to end the story on. In Fat Kid Rules the World, the goal became the first gig Troy could play in without panicking out. 

See, I'm the type of writer who always gets carried away with sub-plots. I love sub-plots, and I think my love for video games plays a huge role in that. However, I don't want every fiction book I write to need 3-14 books just to tie the plot up. I would love to write a slice of life or bildungsroman story that only requires one book to finish it, and Fat Kid Rules the World helped my mind click. Now I know exactly how to go about writing a stand-alone book.

Yes, yes, I know that's really simple, and that's something I should've known as a writer and editor ages ago, but something about seeing it effectively done in a published novel made the advice seem that much more effective.

*This is a post that I originally wrote for The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog before it went down and came back. I'm reposting the article here since it is no longer on the site.

 Every morning, without fail, I create a to-do list that usually keeps me busy throughout the day. The satisfaction I get from writing a check mark is only rivalled by the satisfaction I get from biting into a chocolate bar.

First off, consistently creating and following a to-do list is important. Part of me wants to tag on a shy 'Maybe...depending upon the person,' but the differences I've seen in satisfaction and progression between those who list and those who just rely on their mind are too distinct. If there's a lot of stuff you need/want to get done, lots of stuff that will depress you if you forget, create a list. Most serious writers have a lot on their plate, definitely when it comes to networking and promotion, so I'm especially talking to you if you inhabit that broad category.

You may think you're too busy to sit down for two minutes and sloppily jot down what you want to accomplish (you can eat breakfast and write simultaneously, y'know); you may be a very unorganized person by nature who likes every day to be a spontaneous surprise; you may be too scatterbrained to get into the habit of doing a list every day; heck, you may even be dead set on the idea that no written list can beat your all-powerful mental list.

You know what? I still say write a list because I once was all of those types (except unorganized) and none of that stopped me. Here are some pointers:

• Make the list extremely long so you won't feel bad if you can't check everything off. Because my lists are often scary, off-the-wall ridiculous, I can easily say, "It's okay I didn't complete everything. I mean, it would've been impossible, and I'm just human after all." Is that cheating in a sense? Perhaps.
• 
  Find the number you are okay stopping at. As long as I check off the 3-5 most important things on the list, I'm satisfied. 

Lists are a great way for you to see how much closer you are to your main goals. I'm all about drawing the big picture (listing major goals), breaking it into a number of puzzle pieces (listing minor goals), and then drawing the big picture again.

More importantly, though, lists and check marks are an obvious indication that you're not wasting your life away. At the end of the day, note how much you've completed (not how much you haven't; that's counterproductive) and notice how good you feel about yourself before sleeping.

I announce what I've completed on Facebook - not to seek validation from others, but to seek validation from myself. Social networking sites can make stating your daily accomplishments, things you want to complete and actually did thanks to a list, seem so much more final, like you're proud enough to share your progress with everyone who can read your statuses.

And you should be. So get in the habit of writing those lists.

*This is a post that I originally wrote for The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog before it went down and came back. I'm reposting the article here since it is no longer on the site.

Writing the first draft of a novel is like a race, except it matters less who is first and more who can pass the finish line.

Let's say there are fifty runners. Even before the race starts, one can predict the outcome. Fifteen people won't make it past the preliminaries. Thirty people will struggle through and stop at the first round. The remaining five people, though, will win.

It's usually those fifteen writers, and a couple of writers who stopped at the first round, that never rejoin the race. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. Maybe they've realized writing isn't for them, and they can redirect their energy to something they can better excel at. However, there are a few dedicated troopers that just keep coming back. Sometimes they get closer; sometimes they don't advance at all, but they take a deep breath and try again. It's not that they don't genuinely want a completed first draft. They don't know how to get there.

This article is for those troopers.

I spent about two or three years constantly starting new novels. Ten-thousand words, if even that, was as far as I could get before my passion dissipated. Still, I wanted to be a 'real writer' with all my heart, and I was certain, even at the age of thirteen, that 'real writers' actually, y'know, finished stuff.

Things changed for the better when I stumbled upon five methods that both challenged me and kept my passion going. Here they are, in no particular order:

1.) Nanowrimo: National Novel Writing Month, or Nanowrimo, is a contest where your goal is to write fifty-thousand words or more from November 1st-30th. Nanowrimo is great for encouraging you to just write and write with no inhibitions. The forums are friendly and infomative; you have a deadline to hopefully stop you from procrastinating as much; it's easy to gather a support group that will follow you way after November. I didn't win Nanowrimo the year I participated, but I did reach twenty-thousand words. Hey, that's ten-thousand more than my usual word count at the time!

2.) Inspiration: Watch movies that make you think, "Wow, I want to make my readers feel this attached and awed." Listen to songs that fit your scenes. Read a book that totally moves you or frustrates you enough to want to do better. It's important to refrain from getting too lost in fantasies. This can easily lead to more dreaming and less doing, but it is important to surround yourself with inspirations. You develop a need to finish, to fulfill your dreams. Needing feels a lot more significant.

3.) Prompts/Experimentation: After Nanowrimo, I realized my real problem. I wasn't writing in the right genre. So, to figure out where I really belonged, I started the Practice Package. My goal was to write a short story/scene in every genre and see what story held on the tightest. After that, I took a long writing break to experiment with life.  And it worked. I'm suggesting that you write stories from prompts or write outside of your comfort zone or live differently for a while. Maybe you'll learn what is holding your muse back
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4.) Edit Less: Are you a perfectionist who finds it necessary to stop every chapter, every scene, every paragraph, every sentence...to edit? I understand your anxiety. I was once that perfectionist, and I know too many aspiring writers who are that perfectionist. You know what I tell them? STOP EDITING! Or, at the very least, edit very minor things that won't take too much thinking. If you know you have to edit something that will take lots of time and energy, write a note and save it until you're finished with the entire novel. You finish the first draft. Editing happens in every draft afterward.

5.) Discuss/Theorize Less: Writers love their stories. We're excited to think and talk about our quirky characters, interesting settings, and amazing plot points. It's okay to spend hours upon hours developing your stories or ignoring everyone's groans when you absolutely must tell them the awesome thing Sally told Matthew, but make sure you're actually writing. Otherwise, you can fall into the trap of telling the story so much that, by the time you've sat down to write chapter one, you're no longer excited to see where the story takes you. That, my friend, is tragic.

See that video above? That girl just so happens to be me. In spite of my fears of looking like a goober when recorded, I asked my friend Mike to record me talking about my Indiegogo campaign. I wanted this video to be an introduction of sorts to the longer question and answer session underneath the video, where I thoroughly explained the who, what, when, where, and why about Unconventional Methods of Book Promotion and Networking, the guide I need help producing and marketing. You see, I'm a college student trying really hard to pay for a car and textbooks. Self-publishing a book is as expensive as paying for a car and textbooks combined, so I actually really do need help publishing this book.

I went into this campaign like a wide-eyed, hopeful kid. I somehow figured that the moment I put up the campaign, all the people who liked my FB page and my author photos would instantly support me. I set donation amounts as low as $1 and $5 with the hopes that, since anyone could give that much, anyone would.

7 days into the campaign, only three people donated. I'm extremely grateful and thankful that those 3 people donated a good amount of money, but my heart still sank. Of course, I understand the importance of marketing or I wouldn't have written a book about it, but this crowd funding campaign taught me so much about coming into anything wide-eyed without hardcore preparing from the get-go.

I still have 28 days left to market this campaign and ask for help, so I'll try to go as all out as possible. In my next post, I promise to share what I've learned about crowd funding, even if I don't meet my goal (and I honestly don't think I will. It's not a self-confidence thing. Realistically, I don't think I will). If you want to support the campaign, though, there's a big link below. ^_^

I'm an ultimate wallflower. I somehow went from being a semisocialite to someone who shudders at the thought of calling friends and gets emotionally drained after hanging out, which later leads to abrupt sadness. I'm pretty sure that's also why I've been hesitant to use Twitter for so long. There's so much chatter. It makes me feel like I'm at a large party, expected to talk to all of these people, and then I just shut down.

A couple of days ago, I decided, "To hell with that. I'm gonna do things. There's no reason for me to feel lonely, like Matthew is the only one who wants to hang out with me."

So I did things. I went to the zoo with Matthew's sister and her boyfriend. A seagull creepily approached and stared at us the entire time we ate. When all the kids ran him off, he would come back and just stare.

I loved the meercats. They were so chill. When they're sitting there, looking up at the humans, it's like we're actually the zoo animals and they're watching us.

For 4th of July, I hung out with my cousin and her friends. We all shot firecrackers at this park. Someone let kids with no concept of death shoot the crazy firecrackers, and it was terrifying. Then, after that, I stayed in Chicago with my sister, mom, and niece for almost five days. 

This thing was made be trolls. The moment we lit it, it turned around and started shooting at me, my cousin, and her friends.

Mike, Matthew's best friend, recorded my Indiegogo video. I'm a little nervous that I look really awkward, but what the hell. It'll be fine. Now I'm just waiting to get the edited video back; then I can officially start the Indiegogo campaign and get back to work on the novel.

EDIT: He gave me the edited video right when I was in the middle of adding pictures to this post. It's mostly okay! I wanna edit a couple of things, but I like it. ^_^ 

I hung out with Matthew and a couple of other people at Mike's house. It was initially supposed to be a movie day, but it instead turned into a Minecraft day where I tried (and failed) to write a scholarship essay. I'm perfectly cool with that. I like Minecraft. Whenever I have the time, which I hope will be soon, I'd like to play. It's basically an advanced version of Legos, and it's great for building 3D maps.

Me, Angie, and a couple of other friends went to China Town for a parade. It was my first time at China Town. I wasted money on a lunch box and a fan, but it was money I was proud to waste. Wish I could've wasted more.

I don't know why I left the lunch box out of the group picture.

Found the petting zoo, and that was really fun. Unfortunately, we couldn't find the parade when we first got there, so we all spent most of our money in the normal stores. By the time we got to the parade, we were broke and kinda tired. The petting zoo made finding the parade so late completely worth it.

He has the Fro Factor.

Then we raced against time to get to the bus, but GPS on phones failed us and we missed it. Good times, good times. Still, I had a lot of fun, and I mostly feel sorry for Angie for having to spend so much money on the CTA passes.

I planned a beach trip. It was a small trip. Me and four others went. Though walking on the sand was like walking on hot charcoals and the flies persistently tried to rape us, I had a lot of fun at the beach. I discovered that my swimming phobia is much more fatal than I thought. When Jojo dumped me in the water, I seriously almost drowned. I'm the type of idiot that goes under and automatically screams. Whenever we went in to the deeper portions, it felt like the ground would just disappear and I'd drown. Just typing that now is making my heart go crazy. I think it's a control thing.

Anyway, these kids stole the big bouncy ball I brought. We had to go and get it back, but the ball kept flying back to them every time, so we punished the ball by forcing it to stay in a chair.

Ultimate punishment for a backstabbing ball. Somehow, though, the ball looks really godly.

Then a group of guys came and started playing football in the water. I didn't have my glasses on, so they all looked like running flabs of meat blob. Just when I thought THAT was odd, someone brought out an alligator. I'm really sad that I couldn't get a picture of that. First everyone thought it was fake, but then we saw stuff like his tail move. He had a duct tape around his mouth and a leash. The guy let us pet it. So I did, like three times.

The day before the beach trip (I think?), I got hired. I now have a part-time day job! All in all, this has been a great week, but I know that, soon enough, I'll have to return to my busy schedules. I don't want work to fall too far behind. Still, this vacation was much needed. Now that wallflower syndrome is going away. I like hanging out and talking to people. I like planning events, and I feel much better about myself.

Today I finished putting all of my office stuff in my bedroom, since my stepbrother is moving back in and needs that room. I love waking up to the medals, office materials, and that picture of me and Matthew at prom. It always reminds me that I have accomplished a lot, and I have a lot more to accomplish.

I had a ridiculous nightmare last night. This isn't the first time I've had a wild dream. In fact, I have wild dreams almost every day. Some are so realistic that it often feels like I'm losing my grip on reality. I'll get a crazy sense of deja vu only to realize that a certain moment or memory isn't real. It just happened in a dream. Other dreams teach me stuff or work out story elements I couldn't figure out while awake. For instance, I learned about a minor character's entire back story through a dream. I also learned about soul splicing and ragnarok, two terms I had no idea existed until I woke up and Google'd them.

So, I bet you're wondering how a nightmare can possibly combine all of those shows? Even if you aren't wondering, here's a retelling of the nightmare with pictures. Pictures make everything better, after all.

So, the guy was basically Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs.

Except he was strong enough to easily murder Sam and Dean Winchester from Supernatural. I don't know why he wanted to murder them so badly, but he REALLY wanted to. Than again, the Winchesters don't understand that death means forever, so they'll be back.

He can also shape shift (his true form is...hard to describe. Also, I don't remember) into a guy that looks just like the dude from Ghost Ship...

...And whenever he shape shifts into Ghost Ship dude, he cuddles with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, who is apparently his girlfriend. She knows that he is a shape shifter with the same interests as Buffalo Bill, but she somehow doesn't find this creepy and refuses to murder him. They are madly in love, and their relationship is very angst heavy.

This is where the mind screw comes in! It turns out that I'M Buffy.

I don't understand why my mind created this nightmare. D:

Seriously, I've typed five different explanations for why I had this nightmare, and none of them make sense. If you've ever wondered what it's like to be inside my mind, there's your answer.