Linda Nelson

Have you been wondering what it’s like to be a self-published author?

I don’t want to scare you, but it is a lot of hard work and the learning process will take you down an immensely long and winding road.

The journey of the Self-published author is a dangerous one. Critique Partners, editors and most of all reviewers will jump out at you along the way. Each one will tell you how you should have done this with your story, or how you shouldn’t have done that with your story. And mind your grammar and spelling. Jesum crow!

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I see spelling mistakes all over Facebook. They are random mistakes that everyone makes. But being a self-published author you are not allowed to make those mistakes anymore. You are now about to embark on the journey of the elite.

This will be a learning process that will change the way you see yourself. At first you will think that everyone hates what you are writing. Maybe, you will even think that they are out to attack you. Some just might be. There are a few trolls out there that like to see what you are made of. Can they push your buttons and make you uptight by saying something mean and nasty about your story along with a single star rating?

When this happens, will you take what they say personally, or will you give them the benefit of the doubt and look over your story again to see if what they say is undoubtedly true or will you get all worked up and not read one more word of what they have written? Saying, they don’t know what they are talking about. Obviously they didn’t read the story. Meanwhile they did. Their review holds subliminal messages about what is wrong with your story.

The writing journey of the self-published author will continue if you have not fallen by the wayside to the dangers that are out there along the way. The dangers of self-doubt brought on by the reviewers who have left those nasty tidbits about your book.

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Well if your book is that awful – then fix it – you hold the power to change what you have written. You are allowed to revise your story as many times as you see fit. Obviously you will never be able to satisfy all the readers, but if you make just a few happy then you are learning to improve.

A few more years or months will go by and soon you will learn how to take the positive from a negative review. These will be your beta readers. They may be a dangerous bunch, but they will help shape your writing journey.

Continue that journey and never, ever stop learning to write one word at a time.

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Finally, a gorgeous weekend, though, I’m not saying that the past few weekends haven’t been nice. The sun has broken through the clouds melting all the snow. Winter is over, and we are about to skip spring. This happens every year in New England. Spring seems to last only a week or two and then – bam – its summer.

Don’t get me wrong. I love summer. I just wish that spring time temperatures of 70 +/- would last more than a week or two.

My last two weekends have been busy – busy – busy. First I went to the NEC Conference for RWA. It was my first Conference, and I loved it. I learned a lot too. I am looking forward to going back again next year. I’m hoping to make it an annual event.

Last weekend was my NHRWA Chapter’s Deb Dixon Workshop. We had a terrific turnout, more than was expected. Talk about a pack load of info. Now I want to go and buy her book GMC – Goal, Motivation and Conflict.

I can’t wait for our next Chapter event, whatever that may be. I will keep you all posted if I hear mention of anymore events.

Between the Conference and the Workshop, I was able to find the motivation to get my butt back behind the keyboard and start pumping out the word count. I successfully hit 3k words today. It has been quite a while since I was able to do that kind of word count. I know all I actually needed to do was to give in and just write. Drop all my censorship, create a world, and let the story to write itself. The story has been there all along. It’s the fear of telling/showing how the world needs to be perceived to the reader. I need to remember to let go of any world rules one would think belongs in a world of fantasy, and only focus on how the world will be explained by my own rules to the reader.

It’s not a historical. It’s just a fantasy. All the world rules are up to me to create. The freedom to create world rules is what has always drawn me to fantasy. The escapism and freedom to do what I will with my characters and the world they live in.

I have three works in progress going at this time. I don’t know which one I will finish first. Probably the one where the characters scream for attention the most, just as long as the story can flow.

So, if you ever get the chance to attend a Deb Dixon Workshop – do it. You won’t regret it. I hear she only does a couple of workshops a year.