New Year's Resolutions

In short, I don't make them anymore. The will to change isn't about a cutsey saying I can pin to a pinterest board. Last year I:

Learned how to dance.
Learned to speak Spanish.
Adopted two tarantulas and rescued two guinea pigs.
Completed a writing pet project.

This year I:

Will keep it up. And up. I can only go up.

Depression and Writing

It's the received wisdom about writing: you go to fairy land and you come back mad or a poet. Or a mad poet. In reality, that's the nice way of saying all writers have to look at the world sideways. Sometimes it's too far askew to be helpful.

That's what I'm fighting now. When I look at a keyboard, or a pen, or blank sheet of paper the least helpful part of my brain starts talking. Nothing I have to say is important. Nothing I want to write is worthwhile. 

Fighting that voice gets much harder when I do the silly thing and compare myself, often to other writers I know or admire. So now I have to scrap that voice forever and start fresh.

What I have to say is worthwhile.

The Self-Publishing Petrie Dish

The Summerlark Elf at Create Space

The Summerlark Elf on Amazon

Here is a good friend's foray into self-publishing. Although he's in a different genre and has a different audience, our goals are the same.

He's self-publishing, and I'm going to be a keen observer of all the pitfalls and joys of that path.
A lot of writers these days get their big breaks in self-publishing first. It gives them an audience. It also gives them cred when pitching to a bigger publishing house.

As a Millennial and a library worker, self-publishing is a great equalizing tool. As a book snob, there's a miserable gollum-shaped hole in me that doesn't believe it could work. I ignore gollum-me most days.

Never-Never Land

So, this article is mostly about a specific genre within fiction. New Adult means nothing to me: I have a job (three of them) and my fairytale adventures are confined to boardgames and good books these days. However, a boatload of those books are self-published: by, for and about Millennials. This self-publishing thing clearly is gaining traction with the Under 30 set.

I hope The Summerlark Elf does well. It's my first object lesson in being brave and putting your work out there in the open market.

Fear vs Laziness

Confession time: I'm afraid of editing. Actually, I'm afraid of what editing will reveal about my writing, my psyche, what mental state I must have been in to put that into words. 

And when words are gone, what do I have left? Nothing is scarier.

Major overhauls are ongoing. Family and life (and the weather!) are intruding. So, all that fear of change and want for stability is making me...lazy.

Editing and my ego

So, I have a whopper of a manuscript that I need to pare down to a lean, mean publishing machine.

I've found some great writing tips through Writers Digest (Writer's Digest) but implementing means being comprehensive. Right now, I have to hack and slash a lot of the weeds cropping up in my narrative. Like tearing off a bandage, you gotta do this fast, no regrets.

Why did I include that circular conversation? Hack!

Why is this character here? Slash! (and I don't mean lemons)

What is the meaning of this mixed metaphor and tortured simile? BURN!

All that effort got rid of 2k. Pray for me, literary fellows. I have a lot further to go!

Introductions are in order

Who am I?

The kind of hipster writer who, between shifts, manages to get down a few passable paragraphs.

Why do I write?

Because it pays slightly better than Mortician and a little less than Dictator of a Small but Oil-Bearing Country.

When do I write?

Daytime is for work. Nighttime is for play. And by play, I mean mashing the keyboard until something sticks.

What do I write?

Whatever tickles my fancy. Currently my fancy is tickled by historical romance with more than a hint of supernatural drama.