The “Beauty & the Beast” of creating Great Art

When I was a child, I spent a lot of my super-hot summer days reading { being from Australia, it’s often 40-45+ Deg C (105-115+ F) for several days in a row}. I would read a novel and then I’d rush off to the library and borrow a book on the author or the setting. For instance, if I was reading an Agatha Christie novel, I’d go to the library a few days later and borrow a book on Agatha Christie. This was equally true for other art genre’s most specifically visual art, artists. Painters & Sculptors throughout the ages kept me fascinated, entertained and had me wishing to one day live in Paris, Province, Tuscany, New York or The Cotswolds or Kent in the UK.

Except there was a lot more to being an artist than sipping a coffee by the Seine, or sleepy, dreaming views of rolling hills and cute red and blue sail boats. For a start it was hard work and more often than not, unfulfilled aspirations led to a kind of manic for many artists. Still, I chose not to think on the loneliness of Van Gogh, the drunkenness of Hemingway or the financial ruin of Twain. I chose to think of the romance, the beauty, the meetings with other artists, the talks on politics and philosophy; and then I grew up.

The Pursuit of Happiness through the Creation of Art is a very difficult path. Today I’m going to specifically talk about writing/authors but the below could be just as easily replaced on other fields.

Writing Isn’t Always a Ball of Fun

Yes, it starts off fun, like a new relationship, you love your characters and are excited to see where the setting takes you and are even surprised at what develops. You tell your friends about Such-and-Such and can’t wait until you are back at that keyboard. But then, as in every relationship, things stall, conversation becomes strained or unnatural and you roll your eyes where once you battered your lashes and you sometimes even curse your character, the very same one you loved just hours ago.

I know you all know this but, I don’t think some of you get just how NOT FUN it really can be. I recently got an MS to edit. As is my policy, I read the first 5-pages and, although I saw several grammar repeat errors, I decided to ask for the first 20-pages and ballpark the cost for the entire manuscript.

I read those additional 15 pages and sent the lot back, with some notes, and no fee. Why? This author had promise (hence why I asked for more pages) but they had spent all their EDIT TIME on the first 5-6 pages. How did I know this? Pages 10-20 were like they had been written by someone else. I think their idea was that I (the reader) would fall in love with the first chapter and be unconcerned about issues, big gapping hole issues, further on. Clue – NEVER HAPPENS!

Writing IS NOT a ball of fun. WRITING does not stop with the first edit, or even the 10^th edit, or the first 25 pages – it’s hard and its time consuming and its frustrating – If you want this to be your future, accept Writing Is Not a Ball of Fun. Still dreaming of your days being filled with magical words & perfectly formed sentences floating into your head and then onto your page… read on.

Don’t Give Up Your Day Job.

Now, I say this in the nicest possible way. I know you want to give it up and honestly, if you can afford to, sure, go for it. But if you are on a single income and there’s no family trust fund to fall back on, as much as it would be great to devote all your precious time to your craft, don’t give up your day job.

Reality check. Most authors don’t sell their first novel, some don’t sell the second or even fifth novel, and even when they do, so very, very, few get any real money form it. Yes you CAN make a living from writing, I PROMISE! But you need to maybe have 3,4,5… novels out there before those royalty cheques pay anything more than a one-off cheap meal.

Don’t believe me? Let’s assume you are one of the lucky/talented ones and your first novel sells. Let’s even assume that, unlike the rest of us that need 12-24 months to write, edit, polish our work, you can do it in 6 months. In other words, this is the best, best, best case scenario. So, six months in, you’ve got a publishing deal. Then the work starts. Edits, re-writes, discussions with your publishers. Let’s even say your MS was so perfectly shiny that six months later it’s publisher-standard ready. Hell, we’ll even give you a decent advance of $10,000 (which really is super rare too). Now, the book has a lead-time of, you know what, we are already in fairyland, let’s go all the way and say it’s only 12 months!

So, 24-months from when you began your first MS, your novel is hitting the market. Hippie! Yes hippie indeed, but wait, remember that advance of 10K? Yep, that one, you need to sell enough to cover that first before you see a royalty cheque. Even if we say you average $2 to the author per book (averaging out e-book and paperback and then being super generous again), that’s 5,000 copies that need to sell before you see another red-cent.

Sure, you’re writing your next novel or two… but there is no guarantee the publisher will take your next work, especially if you don’t cover your advance (which is why big advances are not always a big advantage – but that’s a topic for another day).

So your best case scenario is, after working 35 hours every week, for say 45  weeks of the year, for two years, (or over 3,000 hours), you have $10,000 in the bank, or just over $3/hour – return for novel one. It’s actually not all that bad for your first novel, but its not enough to live off, even eating only 2-minute-noodles, and you’ll need some sort of prop-up income.

Get Used to being Pigeon-Holed

If you write romance, people, even your biggest supporters, will make jokes at your expense. “But I don’t write Romance” I hear so many of your thinking. It’s the same for all writers. You’re a PB or MG writer; people will joke about how immature you are. YA? Never really left college. NA? What the hell is NA anyway… and are you just being a pretentious git? Adult Literary fiction, refer to *pretentious git* – same goes for writers of poetry. Short story writer, Can’t you make a story stretch to something beyond 5K? Self Published; couldn’t cut it in the “real” world… the list goes on and on and on. Some of it is intended to be light humour, much of it is simply not thinking, and occasionally it comes from envy; that you have the courage to put yourself and your work out there when the *wankers* who make stupid comments rather than create something worthy, don’t have your courage.

Shaking your head at me are you? NEVER has this happened to you? Awesome, seriously. But let me ask you, have any of your non author/artist friends ever commented on how *easy* your day is or asked what you do all day? Have you ever been half tempted to smack them on the back of the head? Of course you cannot AND WILL NOT do that, but hey, get your character to do it in your book, you’ll be surprised how cathartic it can be!

Don’t be discouraged. Go back to point (i) – Writing is not easy and sometimes the hardest part is the perception of the community and/or the stigma attached to your writing category, genre or style.

It DOES Get Easier

No, not the work part, not even the labelling part, but your focus, your skill-set, your interaction with the rest of the writing community, it gets easier with time.  As you grow and develop as a writer, and as you become part of a community, whether In-Real-Life or via social-media, the feeling of loneliness, isolation and frustration is shared and that’s what makes it easier. The more friends that you gain who share your struggles and understanding, the more likely you are to improve exponentially. Yes, choose your friends wisely, but choose them none-the-less. Each one of them will help you to make it to the next day and the next page and the next edit… and the next manuscript.

As your network grows, so do your personal resources and so does the likelihood of novel 2,3,4… being completed and published. And that’s when it also get financially easier too – Again I PROMISE!

& the Point is?

The point is, very few things in life fall to us from the skies. Sometimes they do, rare as it is, sometimes people will the lottery and sometimes first manuscripts become best sellers and movies, but the truth is, for the most part, the pursuit of happiness through art is rarely easy. The question should not be when will I make it and how? but, who am I doing it for any why? If it’s for you and its because you simply MUST, then being difficult, although frustrating and often heartbreaking, is not going to stop you. If this is you, don’t let anxiety beat hard work, don’t send work that is not edited or complete — don’t make it harder on yourself than it needs to be.

So who or what is the BEAUTY & who or what is the BEAST of great art? It’s the one and the same – its work. Sorry to make it so simple. Hard work is like a yolk, weighing down our dreams and desires and yet, it’s that hard work that’ll make those dreams and desires become real. What’s more, they will be all the better for you’ll have *war wounds* to share with others- after all being the new generation Gertrude Stein or Ernest Hemingway cannot come with some pain 😉

As for timelines, most people sell their first novel (to a traditional publisher) somewhere between 5-10 years from when they took their writing seriously. In other words, Don’t Give Up Your Day Job (just yet)

How to Get a Book Review – or the Art of Launching without becoming a Nuisance!

Reviews – Getting what you want!

I have a confession to make. I’m a bit of an internet snoop. I troll, stalk, errh check-out dozens of author blog sites, and when I say AUTHOR I mean that in every context, traditionally published fiction & non-fiction author’s, self-published, aspiring, New York Times and Major Prize Winning author’s and the little guys.. In other words, I’m interested in everyone from traditional to hybrid, to self-published to as-yet-unpublished.

All of these sub-groups of authors have numerous things in common, especially “getting-word-out” marketing needs. And lately I’ve been seeing a lot of“How do I get my book reviewed” tweets, questions on LinkedIn and on Blogs. And it’s a fair enough question. If you don’t have an agent, and/or a medium to larger publisher, you’ll need to do a lot of marketing yourself.

Let me repeat that. Even with a publisher behind you. Even with a decent sized publisher, you will have to do a lot of marketing yourself…

“OK” I hear you saying, “But how?”

Here’s the truth, ideally your marketing started LONG before you signed a publishing deal. Yes, it’s true you DO NOT need to have a public/social profile presence to become a NYT Best Seller. But here’s a reality check, not many authors will be NYT Best Sellers, at least not with your first novel. It DOES happen, but not often. So your job is not only to write a killer novel and drop-dead-gorgeous submission, you also have to be prepared for the day you’ll need reviewers.

Now, I’m going to assume that you’ve got a Twitter and/or Facebook, LinkedIn (etc.) profile and that you’ve been interacting with agents, editors, other authors, friends and the general public and have a ½ decent following and a few loyal friends that you’ll be able to call on first as BETA’S and then as Reviewers. (If you don’t … get on to it and if you’re really stuck, leave a message and if I get enough messages I’ll post a blog update on developing a platform and social profile at another time).

For the purposes of this blog, I’m going to assume you have signed with either a small-ish publisher or are self-publishing… and therefore will be expected to do a lot of marketing yourself. First thing to accept is: With few exceptions, major news publications do not review Self-Published books, even though 100s of 1000s of self-published titles have been published and some of them have become Best Sellers. Even so, the lack of coverage in traditional media outlets has not stopped SP authors from their rise.

According to the New York Times, “Self-published titles made up roughly one-quarter of the top-selling books on Amazon last year.”

And according to Digital book World in May 2013, at least ten self-published books were best sellers. Books like Rachel Van Dyken’s The Bet, Katy Evans’Wool Omnibus Edition and Abbi Glines’ Twisted Perfection.

Further down, I will add some KNOWN REVIEWERS but for now, let us assume you are one of those who may struggle to find accredited reviewers. So what do you do?

Let’s look at time-lines first. Most professional reviewers need to receive a copy of your novel AT LEAST 3 months before Launch-Date, therefore you should be contacting EVERYONE 5-6 months before hand.

Types of reviews: There are three basic review types for a book.

(i)                 Cover Reveal/Book Launch. This is the simplest and often is the most popular for other authors with blogs as you’ll provide a cover, a blurb, a brief bio, a list of links (with the link) where the books are available and often a discount voucher that people reading the review can use.

(ii)               Q&A & Cover Reveal. This is more detailed and usually involves reading some or ideally all of the novel, or knowing the blogger/reviewer  quite well, and they you, (hence all that work you’ve been doing on social media) where they’ll pose a list of questions about you, your writing process and your novel. It’s much more in-depth, time consuming for both parties and much more intimate for the reader of the review. You’ll still provide a cover, a blurb, a brief bio, a list of links (with the link) where the books are available and so on.

(iii)             Full review of the Novel. This can also mix *(ii) but is always completely honest. The reviewer will be given a copy of your novel to read and in return they will write an honest and frank REVIEW of the novel. You will also supply links & a jepg cover of your novel as well as a brief Bio and often a photo of yourself. The reviewer will decide what to write ,what to omit and have a free hand – and they will also post a review on (for example) Amazon, Goodreads, Smashwords, etc.

How to decide who to send what? That’s up to you, but remember this, the bigger the name/following of your reviewer, the more people will read the review… good or bad. I tend toward an initial email to all (non-professional) reviewers, that is to say, Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn friends that feature books & authors on their blogs. The initial email should be something like:

Hi there,

As you know my novel (TITLE) is due to be launched mid November 2015 and I am looking for people who might be interested in (List all three options). If you’re interested in being part of the launch please reply email me.

If your launch date is November 2015, you should be sending your first email out in June 2015, with a follow-up at the end of July to those who have not replied. NOTE one follow-up is more than enough, don’t become annoying! For those that have replied they want to do *(ii) or *(iii) send them a copy of the blurb, cover and/or book, thank them for their time and ask them to let you know “If we missed something” – I’ll let you in on a secret, everyone misses something and 5-10 extra sets of eyes are awesome!

NUMBERS:

Ideally you should be looking for (min):

5-10 in the (i) section

10 in the (ii) section

And at least another 10 in the (iii) section

Though that’s not always possible, it should be your min. aim. You also want to stagger the Launch.

In August, after you’ve heard back from those people who’ve read the novel and fixed the last of those annoying little errors, you (or your publisher), will now be ready to confirm a launch time-table. And if you don’t think reviews work, read this:

One best selling book that was boosted by an online book review was Colleen Hoover’s Hopeless. Maryse Black, whose blog reviews mostly S/P chick lit and contemporary romance, was one of Hoover’s early fans. Hoover self-published her third book, Hopeless, in December 2012 and it became a New York Times best seller. Black wrote a rave review of Hopeless around the time it was released, and within a few hours over 20 people commented, many saying they had purchased the book and were excited to read it. 

For Self-Published, Hybrid and authors with Small Press, word-of-mouth marketing is key, that’s a big-deal. Having those early, positive reviews was the first step into making Hopeless successful as it helped direct readers to the book, who then bought copies, and in turn posted their own reviews, creating a snowball effect that advanced it best seller status. FYI, after self-publishing several books on her own, Colleen Hoover is now with a traditional publisher thank-you-very-much. Hoover has also sold the movie rights to some of her work. Johanna Castillo, VP and senior editor of Atria Press, first learned about Hoover from book blogs.

And that’s how momentum starts. Funnily enough IT IS and IS NOT about numbers. You only need ONE GREAT REVIEW that is read by many to start a momentum but you might need to have 50 people review your novel in order to get that one great review.

So, it’s the end of August, you have your super-dooper-polished book ready to go. You have your reviewers ready to rock & dates booked in. Some *(i) & (ii)* will happen in Late September through to book-launch date and *(iii)* will start in October with IDEALLY one reviewer per week, every week from Mid October through to mid December.

Now you are ready to approach PROFESSIONAL REVIEWERS.

First, there is nothing wrong with sending copies to the New York Times. Yes it’s unlikely they will review your book but what the hell right? And should you make it the NYT Best Seller list, it would be kind of cool to be able to give interviews where you say “Well NY Times didn’t want to review my book when it first came out, that goodness for…” (and name those that DID help!)

Other people worth approaching:

Firstly, you MUST approach these people in August or at the latest September if you want their review to coincide with your launch. No, that is not a RULE however; many reviewer’s like to be “the first” to have found the next big thing, rather than hashing over what others have said.

Second, approaching does not equal a YES answer. I have prepared a list of some of the best international ones that are happy to cater for self-published and/or small-press authors. As you can imagine, they are all getting 100’s if not 1000’s of requests. Still, it CANNOT hurt to send a quick email.

Maryse Black http://www.maryse.net/

Black said she posts on average three reviews each week and that about 80 percent of the books she reviews are Self-published/ Indie authors.

We Fancy Books http://wefancybooks.blogspot.com.au/

“We Fancy Books” has five reviewers and focuses on YA fiction, contemporary, sci-fi, and paranormal romance. Approximately 20 percent of the books reviewed on We Fancy Books are Self-published/ Indie authors.

Dear Author http://dearauthor.com/

Jane Litte, the founder of romance review blog “Dear Author”, said her site posts 12 books each week, two per weekday and two on the weekend. “Dear Author” has eight reviewers, over 170,000 visitors each month, and it receives around 300 review requests each month from authors and publishers.

Chick Lit Central http://www.chicklitcentral.com/

Melissa Amster from “Chick Lit Central” said the website usually reviews two to three books per week, and they have a balanced mix of traditionally and self-published books.

indieBRAG http://www.bragmedallion.com/

“IndieBRAG” has a program called B.R.A.G. Medallion that reviews all genres of self-published print and digital books. Readers tell “indieBRAG” their preferred genres and then choose from a short list of titles which books to review.

Building Relationships with Book Reviewers

Some book reviewers try to stay in touch with authors after reading their books. Though in a few cases this helps an author get reviews for subsequent books, most reviewers said they decide whether or not to read new books by previously reviewed authors based on the content and quality of the book, and not by their relationship with the author.

Online Book Review Sites

Here’s a couple of  additional sites worth considering:

–         Blog Nation, http://www.blognation.com/blogs/book-reviews

–         The Indie View, http://www.theindieview.com/indie-reviewers/

–         iDreamBooks, https://idreambooks.com/

And don’t forget to post something on sites like LinkedIn, on Facebook, on your Blog. Also join sites like Scribophile (http://www.scribophile.com/ ) where you can not only get feedback & honest critique on your WIP, Query Letters & Synopsis, but you can also let people know you need reviewers and announce a publication.

And because we are an Australian organisation, I could not have a post without at least a few links to Aussie reviewers/options!

 –         The Sydney Morning Herald http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books

–         Australian Book Review https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/

–         Aussie Reviews http://aussiereviews.com/

–         Aussie Authors http://www.aussieauthors.com/reviewers.htm

–         Aussie Bookworm Express http://aussiebookworm.wordpress.com/

–         The Age Entertainment http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/books/type/book-review

So there you have it. More work – Sorry!

Don’t forget to talk to all your author, musician, artist and entertainment friends as well as anyone who has worked with you on your novel, from BETA’S to editors to illustrators, to CP partners… ask how they did it/are doing it. Share information, and knowledge and contacts.

And IRL you work as an accountant when you’re not bashing the keyboard? GREAT! Ask your friends at work to review your novel and give it a rating on Amazon & Goodreads. You volunteer at the local primary school tuck-shop every other Friday AWESOME! While you’re cutting sandwiches let the other parents know you have a book coming out… and when. Your local community centre as a small hall that can be hired out for events? WONDERFUL – arrange a book signing and drinks/BBQ/Meet-and-greet afternoon. Free food and/or free drinks will bring many along!

You need to be as active and as creative in your marketing approach as you were in writing your novel, even if that means stepping out of your comfort-zone and asking for help. Also, if anyone has anything to add to any of the above, any hints or suggestions, things that worked or did not work, I’d love to hear from you, as I know many, many others would 🙂

 

*Lost Lynx* Wish-List & Submission Guidelines

Hello all, 

As promised, the Lost Lynx Publishing & Media website has now updated their wish-list and submission guidelines… both of which you’ll find under the website SUBMISSION button. There’s a fair bit of information, how-to’s and what Lost Lynx is most interested in… and so on. I’ll post updates here too, but for now, I’d suggest going to the website and taking a look.  http://www.lostlynxpublishing.com/

And you’d be wise to follow Lost Lynx on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LostLynxPub 

Where’s a little of what you’ll find on the two new pages:

Example of how your submission should look:

Attention Submissions Editor,

Please find my submission for (TITLE OF YOUR MANUSCRIPT), a (WORD COUNT) (CATEGORY & GENRE) which fits your current fiction wish-list.

(BODY OF QUERY)

(BIO)

Per submission guidelines I have attached my first (3 chapters/ 5000 words), 1.5 spacing (And this is where you tell us if it’s all prologue), and included my 1.5 spaced synopsis below my signature.

Regards,

YOUR NAME
YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
(& if you want) Links to TWITTER/FACEBOOK/BLOG

All of the above will total 500-words + synopsis below here:

Lost Lynx Publishing & Media is currently closed for submissions, however, with the end of August only days away, we thought it time to let everyone know what we want and what we are looking for in the new year. Additionally, the website has also had a complete face-lift. You’ll also find out why the Lost Lynx name & the new MOTTO in Latin:  “Bene est enim numerus magnitudine; quid est defectus” (& the translation) on the website. Let us know what you think 🙂

& as always, feel free to post a comment on here too 😉

The Art of Clever Writing & how to Finish what you Start

Carry a notebook/pad everywhere – the Art of Clever Writing

First off, writing is an art-form because it transports the reader to another place, another world. And new characters who, if done well, become as important to you as your real (or real virtual) friends. When done exceptionally, you, and others, will quote characters and dress as them at theme parties and create games and almost worship the characters. Such is the power of great books. It has always been this way and I think it will always be so, no matter the format or forum.

So that’s the finished product – the work of art. It’s not the work-part. Just as a dancer spends years in practise and months in painful rehearsal, so it is for a painter, or a sculptor, or a musician … and so it is for an author.

Lets get something clear. If you’ve always dreamed of buying yourself a little cabin in the woods or a cottage by the sea, where you’ll have a cute little loft office with a view of the valley, ocean and sky, and you’ll happily pound away at your keys with a sedated cat purring on a lumpy sofa, just close enough for the odd pat but not too close so as to disturb you, great! You’ve got a vivid imagination. You can probably smell the honeysuckle creeping up the cabin or the salty-tang of the sea. You can imagine chooks clucking in grassy green paddocks or seagulls squeaking. You can even smell the hot chocolate that’ll be there for you, when you sit back, pressed up against your chair, musing over your newest sage words and dreaming of book-launch-day. Are you there?

Now wake up and smell the coffee, no seriously, you forget about it, it’s the damn percolator that’s gargling not chooks and seagulls your hearing. Here’s the thing, the only real part of that *might be* that you can afford to buy a place in the country or by the sea. If you can, great, but honestly, most authors can’t afford to buy much more than two-minute-noodles for much of their writing careers.

Now, like I said, if you imagined all of the above (and more) then you are half-way to writing a scene everyone can imagine – and love. That’s the good news. The bad news is, being a good, or even a great writer isn’t enough.

So let’s talk about how to go from good, to great  to Oh-my-lordy-lordy-wow! 

Before anything else, your character, their actions, their mannerisms (etc.) must sound authentic. There are a lot of things to consider.

1. what age is your MC
2. what age does your MC act (this is important especially in MG)
3. what era is it set in
4. what language is it set in – now, now, none of that. Yes I’m talking English but which English? UK, Canadian, New Zealand, USA, Australian, Fiji English? And then within each of those, what’s the inner culture. Is it USA Southern or NYC Brooklyn? Is Melbourne Eastern Suburbs or is it Western? Is it city or rural? Is it French Canadian or English? Is it pigeon English? Are you seeing where I’m going here? A contemporary mystery set in Melbourne Australia will use not only a different version of English spelling, but also local terms, the meaning of certain words, accent, dialect etc, to one set in central London or Queens NYC.

Here are my tips on Writing Process 

Author’s Survival Fit 101

Whether it’s electronic or pen & paper, never be without a pad – EVER. Sometimes the silliest things pop into your head that could be that Eureka moment.

The little secret I’m about to share, I’ve done so before & most have loved it.  Why? Because you’ll never struggle to try and remember that line that popped into your head half-way home from work on a busy train. You know the one. The brilliant one that was your ideal hook. The one you lost because the train was too crowded and the girl sitting next to you was babbling on the phone – and by the time you got off the train you couldn’t quite remember the EXACT wording?

Yeah – that one! So here it is – In every jacket, in every purse, every trouser pocket, every wallet, put an A4 piece of paper folded up into eighths, but before you fold it up, take 2-3 pencils and have them cut into three. Sharpen all of them and put one small pencil in the first corner of your folded paper. The paper will protect the pencil and will still be small enough to stuff in most places. If the page is still too big, once at 1/8 of the size, roll it up, cigar-style, and stick it into your wallet/purse… everywhere. Now, no matter where you are, if an idea strikes, or if a conversation taking place inspires you, unfold, grab your pencil, and make notes. You have a lot of paper for notes, on both sides, and you have a pencil – this should be considered an Author’s Survival Fit 101.

Draw on real life.

If you write Picture books, Middle grade, or Young adult especially, but even for NA and adult, listen to the language of your main characters peers. Look for key words repeated. Look for interesting inflections in pitch and tone. Note mannerisms, they change just a little with each generation. Look at fashion-style, even hair styles.

No, you don’t want to info dump all that information in one big blob, but getting these things right will help the reader trust the author and will also help the story to progress naturally & organically.

Even if you write fantasy, or SciFi, or historical romance, draw on real life. Your world MUST make sense to us, the reader. No we don’t need to know why your planet has 7 moons or even the names of the moons, but if your planet DOES have 7 moons, do your research on how a planet with so many moons might differ from ours. Will there still be a tide? And if so, will it change 7 times a day? Or will other factors influence your world’s seas? Draw on real life to make your world actively real to us.

Keep a Diary/Calendar

Now this does not need to be a big deal. I recommend an electronic one, perhaps linked to your email account. Each day you write, note this in your calendar and/or diary. Note what you wrote, new pages, editing Ch 1-7, blog post, author novel review (etc.) and note how much time you spent on writing that day. Don’t get bogged down with “I wrote 3,000-words today” because, OK, I’m going to say it; the number of words you wrote is not the significant part – SERIOUSLY. Especially for first draft because much of what you wrote will be edited, cut, re-edited, added to, cut some more, manipulated and then edited again…

So writing 3,000 words on any given day, while awesome, is not a measure of how much work you did.

List what you did that day, and how much time you devoted to your writing, include research too, everything to do with writing. Some day’s you’ll spend all day on Twitter. That’s OK, Other days you’ll spend checking your facts on a 7-moon planet. That’s OK too. What you want to do is establish how much time you are devoting to:

• Writing
• Revision
• WIP Research
• Preparing and entering competitions
• CP/BETA reading other peoples work
• Reading for purpose (that is to say out of your preferred gene)
• Reading for pleasure (just as important to read, read, read)
• On Facebook/Twitter and other social media forums
• Agent research
• Preparing and sending our submissions.
• Blogging
• Observing – YES observing, taking time out to people/season watch
• Anything else you’d like to add.

The point of this is, if you are not doing all of the above, you are not working at your art-form. This is your preparation and your rehearsal and your show.

Writing about What you Know   

 – Do Your Research

OK, I’m going to caveat this one. As far as I’m aware, not too many of us have ridden a live dragon, or lived under the sea, or met an alien, or whatever, so this is one of those bits of advice that needs a caveat.

DON’T write about an Indigenous Australian living on a remote cattle-station in the Northern Territory if you’ve never been on a cattle station, or the Northern Territory, or ever met an Indigenous Australian.  If this is your Dragon ride out of your comfort zone – GREAT! all for diversity and spreading your author wings while also spreading the love – but do your research!

DO connect with people from the Northern Territory and Indigenous Australian’s

DO read fiction and non-fiction on Dreamtime Culture

DO have Indigenous Australian friends/authors/facebook mates read your pages to see if it rings true to them.

And I’m about to be very boring – READ, READ, READ. Everything and anything. reading about the migration of crane’s may give you ideas on how your dragon will fly over mountains. Or reading about someone discovering a new cure for some exotic disease could lead you who-knows-where. Read Fiction & Non Fiction. I highly recommend reading as much flash fiction and poetry as possible too. There is a special skill in telling an entire story in 100-200 words and there’s a magic in really great musical poetry. No not necessarily the rhyming stuff, but the rhythmic stuff – there is a difference 🙂

You don’t have to ride a dragon to be able to write about dragons, but in order to pull it off,

you need to understand the beast, physically and metaphorically. 

So what is it You Want To be?

Firstly another pet peeve, note I have a lot of them, get used to it. I know we all use ASPIRING WRITER. I hate this term. Let me repeat that HATE it. I hate it because I’m not 100% certain what the hell it means? Does it mean you want to learn to write, as in read and write? If so, then this page must look like a lot of small blobs of ink to you.

What you are is an AUTHOR

Now, you could be a PUBLISHED author, or a SELF-PUBLISHED author, or you could aspire to certain objectives, such as being traditionally published by a non-vanity-press publishing house and this is when you will feel you have gone from ASPIRING to just plain AUTHOR. For each artist the lines are a little different, and that’s OK too, but the one thing you are not is someone who aspired to write.

Aspire to write a NY Times best seller – YES

Aspire to make a ½ decent living from your writing – YES

Aspiring writer ? – like I said it doesn’t even make sense.

So, let’s look at this. What/Who is you really want to be?

• A published fiction author ? Great, what sort of published author. Self-published? Small Press? One of the big 4-5? A best seller?
• A non-fiction writer? What field? Do you have a platform or do you need to create a platform? Working together or alone?
• A freelance writer? Great! What sort? Travel. Fashion. Sport. Technology. Industry? Music? Arts?
• A Blogger/Reviewer? Awesome – Again blogging/reviewing what/who/where?

Now I know many of you are thinking, “Hang on, isn’t this blog-site all about fiction novel writers?” – Actually, well… no! It’s about the business of writing. And yes it’s linked to Lost Lynx Publishing & Media, but first and foremost it’s about working with what you have to develop what you could be and it’s about opportunity. Sometimes we start at one point and end up at an entirely different location. And occasionally when we accept where the road might be taking us, some of us, the lucky and hard-working few, will ACTUALLY get to the cabin in the country or that cottage by the sea.

Don’t dismiss opportunity because of your steadfastness to one idea. That is why keeping a journal, or calendar or whatever you want to call it, is VITAL. After a very short space of time you’ll see where you are spending most of your time, and that will help you make those life decisions. I mean, if you are spending 100-hours per week on Facebook and Twitter and only 3 hours on everything else, surely that’ll tell you something. It may not be GIVE UP, it might be OH my farrky-lordy-lordy, no wonder I’m not getting anywhere with my manuscript, or my short stories, or my submissions.

But on the other hand, it might also be that you start to see you spend a lot of time chatting/tweeting to people who travel. Perhaps your writing career will be as a travel blogger, or reviewer. It doesn’t mean that you MUST stop writing your novel, but it might mean your sea view out the window will constantly change as you hop, skip and jump around the country and world – all the while collecting ideas and notes and journal entries and studying people – and writing and writing and writing.

FIGURE OUT WHO YOU ARE, WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPIEST TO WRITE ABOUT

AND HOW YOU CHEER YOURSELF UP – THIS IS YOUR PATH.

And this is how YOU write. Don’t diminish your path or your style or your commitment, this is you. Harper Lee only published one book (and if you don’t know who Harper Lee is, errh, run for cover, and google. And if you still don’t know, stop reading this and get the damned book and read it instead- no seriously –NOW) Anyway, where was I. Oh yes, Harper Lee.

One published novel folks but what a novel! Now I don’t know if there were other things completed and never offered to the public, but I do know that Harper Lee was an author who understood how they wrote.

Don’t be afraid.

Most of us are not Mozart or Harper Lee. Most of us will need to repeat and rinse many, many times before we get it right and even then, after we’ve finally “got it” we’ll stumble and regress and throw a little hissy-fit and question why the hell we are bothering.

Here’s the thing – you are now acting like a writer. It’s called insecurity and indecision and moments of weakness –and it’s beatable. How, actual writing — it doesn’t matter what, replying to blog posts, revising your synopsis, editing a friends manuscript – just do some actual writing, and all the while have your notebook or pad, or pen and paper or your handy little mini-pencil rolled up in your coat pocket – waiting for that moment when something tickles your writers fancy

OH & FINISH what you begin!

– Make it so!