Category: Blogging

Four Years and Five Books Later

by Linda Nelson, posted in Blogging, My Current News for Friends of Choice, Teen/Young Adult

Self-publishing is a lot of work. For those who have taken it upon themselves to publish in this manner, they learn quickly just how much work it really is.

I’ve been self-publishing since 2010, and I’ve learned a lot. I mean – A Lot! When I first started, there weren’t that many others out there mapping the way. We were all kind of stumbling around trying to find our way. There weren’t any road maps with arrows pointing the direction.

I think the hardest was learning how to format the books. I still stumble when I try to make an ePub.

Every writer has a purpose when it comes to writing. Some are trying to find a way to communicate, or educate. Others just want to entertain.

Me, I started off just wanting to play the what if game. My daughter was giving me trouble at the time, like many teenagers give their parents. I needed an outlet. A way to vent and play my wildest fears. That was how Friends of Choice came about.

I didn’t have the intention of writing a cautionary tale. This was my what if, would I survive if the main character died? Did I have the guts to kill her off?

The next book I wrote was Aaron & Keja. This was my story of escape. I wanted to escape the land – world I was living in – all the problems and stresses – and see if the Orcs could keep the elf king from gaining magic by kill a Time Dragon. Aaron was my heroine. At this point, I thought about romance. But the romance never blossomed. I wasn’t a member of RWA at this point and have never read a Romance, which was why the romance died in the first part of the book.

I wouldn’t call the romance off for Aaron just yet. She has another story coming up in the near future. The plot is still brewing.

Witch Book followed Aaron and Keja. I had a lot of fun writing this story. It seemed like the prose flowed from the ends of my fingertips. I was able to write that book in 90 days.

Road Salt came next. This was a return to my contemporary – Friends of Choice. The story needed to move forward and my daughter’s little adventure prompted part of the story line. The rest came from the fact that I am the mother of an Addict, which is my son. This disease has crippled many. Thankfully he never tried Bath Salts. I used the substance in the story after hearing my son’s rehab counselor speaking about the substance on the Sunday morning news. I ran the idea that next week across to her and she loved it.

It took so long to write it because no one knew much about the substance. I have to search the internet, and at the time there wasn’t much information to be found there either. It wasn’t until I had an epiphany and contacted an old co-worker of mine who happened to be an EMT. When he heard what I was trying to do, he was ecstatic to help. I wish I had added more about Spice to the story line too. I guess someone else can tackle that substance for now.

My most recent release, Along Came Neil, is my very first official YA Romance. This was the book that brought Friends of Choice and Road Salt in a new direction. One thing I learned at the rehab sessions, was that everyone deserves a happy ending. So I made sure that Karla, the main character, received her happy ending. What better way to end the series?

I do have works in progress at this time. The one that I can talk about the most is, Sleeping on the Beach. It will be an NA Contemporary Romance featuring a new set of characters. I do believe it will be a single title and the main character is having an issue with Sleepwalking. She meets a lifeguard who is also a firefighter.

I will tell you more about it as I develop the plot more…

What If and Why Do You Write?

by Linda Nelson, posted in Blogging, ROW80, writing and poetry

Just the other day I had my last Chapter meeting for RWA until September. We had a panel of speakers give us the low down on their pros and cons of traditional publishing, hybrid publishing, and self-publishing. It was nice to hear their opinions of publishing and how things have changed so much since 2008.

Image Courtesy of Microsoft

One of the gals in my group mentioned of how one of her manuscripts had been pitched to an editor without her knowledge. She didn’t find out about it until she received a nasty letter from the editor that broke her heart. Even though she knows that the editor does not like Romance, they were so negative about the book in what she felt was an unprofessional manner and sent the manuscript back anonymous.

What do you do when this happens?

You go to your peers and vent about it. Your peers will understand. As a writer, your peers are other writers.

Then we asked her if the negative comments were of any consequence to the story as in bad editing or story line or what not. When she couldn’t come up with any damaging statements about the overall writing, we told her to toss the critique aside. It only means that the person who wrote that was in a sad sort of way that day and they knew it. That was why they wouldn’t sign their name to the critique.

 

Why? Why Write?

 

Have you had bad critiques or reviews? Have they bothered you so much that they have torn you up inside? Should you let them get to you?

I think not.

If they were constructive then you will know it. They will point out the issues with your story, and not point to a person with a bad attitude. Even if it is just one useful line in the whole damning review, it can become helpful to you instead of hurtful.

A pro about self-publishing is that no matter what, you hold the power to revise your stories as many times as you see need fit. There is a big learning curve to overcome when you choose to become a self-publisher of your own work. It will take years to understand every aspect of publishing.

So when you do get that damming review or critique you should look at it and decide if it contains one ounce of constructive criticism. If it does, learn to swallow your pride and use it. If it does not, don’t pay it any attention and know that for all it was worth, the person that wrote that was probably having a bad day.

If you can’t let it go then you need to ask yourself why. Why does this one person’s opinion bother you so much? Should it really matter that much to you to make you feel sick inside? It is just one reader, right?

Then if you are still unable to see constructive criticism then you need to ask the next question.

Why do you write?

Are you out to try and please every person you have ever met? I certainly hope not. Where is your identity if you do so? We all have reputations that will remain with us for the rest of our lives. Are you going to be the one that takes your book and hit the one star reviewer over their head? I certainly hope not. I bet you are better than that.

Image Courtesy of Microsoft

So why do you write?

What are you trying to do? If you are in this for the money then you need to find a different profession. Go be a doctor or a lawyer. Wait, aren’t they switching to writing too?

Anyways, I write for my own entertainment. I like to amuse my own brain, create worlds, create people, monsters and creatures. I like to play the What If game. I like running different scenarios and seeing which one holds the most excitement. How can I make myself chuckle?

There are only a few writers who are going to be Nora Roberts, Huey Harvey, or Amanda Hocking. It happens but not to the extent that some people like to believe.

They say that even the advances from the traditional houses are getting lower.

 

So if you are being bothered by rejection after rejection, ask yourself why.

But most of all, ask yourself why do you write?

When you can answer this question, you will see your perception of that negative blurb change as you drop your defensiveness and look at your work with the same magnifying glass that the readers hold in their hands.

 

My ROW80 Check In:

Writing slow and steady, but I am getting somewhere, finally after struggling with letting one single word out of my brain since NaNo. We will see if I decide to skip NaNo this year. It will all depend on whether I can finish writing Sleeping on the Beach before November rolls around. You can follow my first draft on Wattpad. See the link in the side bar.

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