Continuing my series about my experiences, thoughts and lessons learned on my journey to becoming a writer is this second installment best subtitled "About Time".
Time can be seen as a gift or the perceived lack thereof can be seen as a curse.
One of my author bios says something like "he has always wanted to become a writer...". This is true, especially since I found that my childhood aversion to reading books was not the fault of the books but it was more of the "I'll do it but I won't like it" attitude I had toward compulsory assignments. So this leads to the question, if I have really "always wanted to be a writer", why did I not start sooner? I don't know if I can pinpoint it down to one single reason (or excuse, take your pick) but here are a few:
1. I was too busy. I work a full-time job as a computer programmer, meaning 8-5 Monday - Friday and sometimes more. I have a wide and two children.
2. How could an unknown first timer break into the publishing world? I don't know any publishers. I can't afford the expensive fees I've heard about to get a book published.
3. Fear of failure. What if I wrote a book and everyone hated it? Could I handle writing something and it not selling? Would I end up with a stack of unsold copies?
Once I answered my own questions, I didn't any reason not too write. Here are my answers:
1. We all have the same amount of time in a day, its just a matter of prioritizing what we have to do with what we want to do.
2. Simple answer, self-publish. When I found out that one of my co-workers sister made a full time career out of self-publishing books through Amazon, I set my sights on their sites kdp.amazon.com and createspace.com. This would allow me to publish a paperback and Kindle version almost for free.
3. Some fears are meant to overcome, and for me F.O.F. was one of those fears. It helped to make it easier to make the jump when I found out that Amazon self-publishing services are almost free. My thought process was that if I "failed" it couldn't really hurt me, just my pride. Sure enough, I'm not in pain, even though I have only sold into the double digits.
Another angle I could use to look at time in the process of writing Teddy Visits Mitchell Farms is the time I spent writing it. It took much longer than I expected to finish. I'm pretty sure I stayed up all night several times writing, working on the layout and editing the book. I think it was all time well spent because I learned so much about the publishing process and I had a lot of fun doing it. I'm still having fun when I'm able to use some of my time to blog, post, or tweet. Today I took some of my day off and donated a copy of my book to the local public library, while I was there I got a library card.
Writing Tip:
If you have written something , a book, article, blog post, paper, report, anything, you need to proofread it. If you can afford the time, step away from it for a while and come back and read it again. If you can afford an editor, hire one. While I haven't yet taken my own advice on this, because I'm cheap, I plan to use an editor for any novels I write.
The next part of this series might include something about character development.
Thursday, May 7, 2015
Monday, May 4, 2015
Thoughts about real life as an aspiring writer, Part 1
Before I wrote my first book I thought that it would be easy. Somehow I had it in my head that I could quickly become a successful writer and be able to have a steady stream of extra income. Looking back now, I laugh and wonder how in the world could I have thought that writing would be easy or instantly successful. My experience with writing has been rewarding and has been a lot fun.
In each part of this blog post series I will share some of my experiences, thoughts and lessons learned.
One lesson I learned along the way:
Know you limitations and push them -
In my day job I am used to making software work. Both purchased software and programs I have written myself usually will eventually submit to my will and do what I need them to do. I knew I wasn't the best at the graphical side of things and I thought that I might have a little trouble with getting the images to look just right. I really had no idea how tricky it would be. My easy solution was to have someone do all of the images and split any profits from book sales with them. When this didn't work out I decided I would do the illustrations. I tried, but I don't have much skill at free hand drawing so my next idea was to try to use image manipulation software to alter photographs to make them look more like children's picture book illustrations. From here I started looking into the different software programs available and quickly realized the I was cheap and most image manipulation software is not. A friend recommended that I try a very affordable , aka free, called GIMP. This was exactly what I needed to finish turning high quality amateur photographs into the illustrations for my first children's book, Teddy Visits Mitchell Farms. Now I am almost ready to really start the process of taking a second book in the Adventures of Teddy series from first draft to published. This time I think I might push though my cheapness and hire a real artist to draw or paint the illustrations.
Quick Tip:
If you plan to put photographs in a book make sure the orientation matches the book format, before you finish taking all of them. Otherwise be prepare to do a lot of cropping.
The next part in the series will be "About Time"
Friday, May 1, 2015
Continued Effort to Put #morecontent On My Blog
Yesterday I posted that I would try to post more in an effort to increase my reach on the web. I also sent a couple of tweets out today. It looks like my efforts might be paying off. Yesterday's blog post had several views. This made me think, If I had not posted the blog post, it would not had any views. It might sound funny or even corny but it is true.
Today's post will include #morecontent.(You might have noticed that I'm trying to emphasize the #morecontent hashtag)
Today's Fun Fact:
I was born in Sidney Montana. But I was raised in and currently live in south Mississippi.
I was born in Sidney Montana. But I was raised in and currently live in south Mississippi.
Today's Writing Tip:
I have read other tips about not editing as you go when writing a first draft, but I want to take this a step further. If you have a story in your, head start writing it down! If you self-edit yourself so much that you decide your story is not good enough to put into writing, then you have might just kill what could be a good story that others might enjoy. If you don't try you will never know.
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