Happy Birthday to Me

I’m celebrating my birthday today, and it’s one of those big round number birthdays. I had a grand day out planned, but I seem to keep pulling back what I want to do because I really didn’t want to drive across town. So I think I’ll end up seeing a movie at my neighborhood theater (where I’ll get free popcorn), and I may do a little shopping afterward to buy myself some gift to serve as a token to mark the occasion.

I’ve already had a weekend with my parents, a party with friends, and dinner with friends, so this is turning into an ongoing celebration. But then, this is a pretty big milestone day.

I’m going to see Christopher Robin because I figure that’s an apt movie to see when I’ve reached an age at which I can no longer deny that I really do count as a grown-up, even if I don’t feel like it. I’m a very responsible person, so I’m adult in that sense, but my job is making up stories, and it’s hard to really be a “grown up” doing that.

Back to Semi-Normal

I’m back to having a semi-normal week. I say “semi” because it’s my birthday this week, and it’s a big one, which means celebration. I already had a couple of celebrations this weekend, and I’m giving myself the day off, but then I’m also kind of tired today from being unusually social this weekend (and still recovering from last week), so maybe it should be a four-day weekend. And you can see where this is going.

This is why it’s important to keep momentum going. Once I lose momentum, it’s difficult to get started again. I think today will be a brainstorming day, then on my grand day off/out tomorrow I’ll stew over what I brainstormed, and then when I get back to work, I may have it all planned out. It will also be cooler, so maybe I’ll be able to think better.

My incentive for getting some work done today: It looks like Thursday might count as a rainy day, and it’s been so long that I need to invoke my rainy day policy for a reading/movie day.

Responsible Adult

I’ve been out all week volunteering at a music and art camp for children, so my mornings have been spent herding kindergarteners around from activity to activity. It was fun, but very tiring. Now I need to get back to work, but I’m not sure my brain will cooperate. I’m being a bit of a slug this morning, and I’m tempted to give myself at least part of the day off today. Really, my birthday is early next week, so this could count as an extended holiday, but I do have stuff that needs to be done.

I haven’t quite finished the book I’m working on. I just have one more chapter to go, but it’s a big one with events I’ve been building to for a very long time, and I want to get it right. I need to think about what will happen, and that will require taking some time when I’m not distracted or falling asleep. This week, if I sat still for very long, I’d soon be drifting off.

Small children really are exhausting. As is being the Responsible Adult. It is nice to go back to not being responsible for anything but myself and some fictional people.

So Close …

I reached my target word count on the book, but I still have story left, so it may be a bit longer than my original plans. But that’s okay because it means I can cut anything I don’t love in the next draft.

The tricky thing is balancing all the characters. I realized that a secondary character I’d set up had vanished toward the end, so I found a way to include her in the big, climactic scene. My cast has grown to rather epic proportions and making sure everyone has a role to play can be difficult.

I may need a chart to keep track of everything and everyone.

And I’m finishing this book just in time, because my agent will soon be getting back to me on the book she’s been looking at, so I may soon have revisions to do on that one.

And there’s been a call for submissions for a science fiction/fantasy Christmas novella anthology, so maybe that’s what I could do for this year’s holiday story. But I need to write it, first.

So, off to work …

writing

Almost There!

I’m so very close to the end of this draft, fewer than 10,000 words to my target word count, and at the point where I more or less know what will happen. That means a couple of days of hunkering down and shutting out the world.

Fortunately, this is the phase where it usually starts to get a little easier because I have some enthusiasm and can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I’m out of the slog of the middle and at the part where things really get exciting.

In this book, I’ve got a few events I’ve been looking forward to writing for a long time, so I hope the execution lives up to my imagination.

For added motivation, next week is music and art camp, so if I don’t finish this week, I’ll have to come home after a morning with small children and try to get the energy to write. If I do finish, I can give myself a low-key week to maybe do some brainstorming and research or work on publicity stuff rather than worrying about trying to get the words out.

I think I need a little time to remind myself that I started out doing this for fun. It’s easy to forget that when you’re in the middle of a book and struggling to keep going in spite of all the other shiny new ideas, or when you see royalty statements and realize how little money you’re making from all this work. Writing was the way I played. Now it’s the way I make a living, but there should still be that sense of play about it.

My Writing Wisdom

The heat wave has temporarily somewhat broken, in that it was cool enough for me to walk outdoors this morning and it’s not yet 100 degrees now. I was even able to go out on the patio and tend to my plants without suffering. I finally managed to repot my basil plant because I could stay outdoors long enough.

Over the weekend, I started going back through some of my old writing posts to see if I might have the material for a book on writing. It turns out that the last time I compiled the posts into a document was in 2009. It’s amazing how much the world of publishing has changed since then. I hadn’t delved into independent publishing then. It was just something sort of on the horizon. Now I have nearly 10 years of additional posts. I’ll probably cull to only use the best, and some may be combined, where I have multiple posts on the same topic. And I’ll probably write some new, exclusive material.

One reason I want to do this is to practice formatting an e-book, using the resources I have. I want to see what I can do. Then I hope maybe putting this out there would get my name out, and I might make a little money along the way. So, win-win-win.

I don’t really have a target date, since this is something I’m doing in my spare time, but if you ever wanted to have my collective wisdom about writing and publishing, stay tuned for more news.

Heat Wave

We’re in the middle of an intense heat wave (high temperatures in the 109 range, still 100 degrees at 9 p.m., low temperatures in the mid to upper 80s), which has required some adaptation of my daily routine. It’s already in the upper 80s before 7 a.m., so I’ve been skipping my morning walk in favor of jogging indoors on my mini trampoline.

Because running in place is boring, I’ve been amusing myself by watching a documentary series on Tolkien’s influences. The episodes are just under half an hour long, which makes them the perfect length. The series was made for French television, but it’s narrated in English and they’ve added an English translation to the soundtrack when people are speaking French (but if people who speak English are talking, we hear them in English). The illustrator who did a lot of the production design for the Lord of the Rings movies goes looking for Tolkien’s influences in myths and legends, guided by a professor, which has him visiting a forest in Brittany, Tintagel, some castles on the Rhine, Iceland, and Oxford. The scenery is lovely, and it’s interesting hearing all the various legends. I finished that series this morning, but the worst of the heat may break tomorrow, so I may be able to walk outdoors in the morning.

Meanwhile, I’ve been avoiding cooking so I don’t heat up the house. I’ve made tea and toast, and last night I microwaved some corn on the cob, but otherwise I’ve been eating cold food. I’ve tried a few salad recipes that fit within the Mediterranean Diet guidelines, and I scored yesterday when I found a roasted chicken on clearance (one of the ones that didn’t sell when it was hot, so they sell it as cold food the next day). So I’ve got plenty of chicken to throw into salads. Otherwise, I’ve been eating a lot of watermelon, berries, and cherries. Although this started as a way to not heat up the house, I’ve been enjoying the food, and it’s good for me, so although I might start cooking again some when it cools down, I’ll definitely keep these recipes in rotation.

This has also been a good time to hole up inside and read and write. During the really hot part of the day, I don’t want to be doing anything more active. It’s nice to just sit under the fan.

We may stay under 100 tomorrow, then it’s back to around 100 but not as high as it has been, and next week the highs are supposed to be in the lower to middle 90s, which sounds kind of like a cold snap in comparison to what we’ve had. Still, I’m looking forward to October, and I’m hoping this is the worst of it and August won’t be so brutal.

Publicity

Follow Me!

I’m not all that good at social media because I’m not particularly social. Still, I thought it might be a good idea to update all the places you can follow me and what you might find there.

So, there’s this blog, which is crossposted to Goodreads in addition to being on my web site. It’s where you’ll get more in-depth discussions about writing, life, and other things I’m interested in.

Crossposting the blog and responding to comments is about all I do on Goodreads. I might post the occasional review, if I remember. I’ve decided not to accept friends requests on Goodreads, since they’re now owned by Amazon, and Amazon sometimes gets wacky ideas like deleting reviews from people they think are authors’ friends because they’re “friends” on various social media sites. They don’t seem to understand the difference between being a fan who follows the author by becoming a “friend” on social media and who, as a fan, tends to post positive reviews, and a real-life friend who’ll post a five-star review just as a favor. So, it’s not personal if you’ve sent a friends request that I’ve ignored. I’m not active enough on Goodreads for being my “friend” to make any difference.

I’m on Twitter, @ShannaSwendson. I’m not super chatty there, but I might throw out the occasional thought.

I’m also on Instagram, shannaswendson. I’ve really slacked off there, mostly because I’ve been in writing mode, so there’s been nothing to take pictures of. I’d probably be more active if it worked on a computer instead of just mobile devices.

I have a Facebook page for my books, Shanna Swendson Books. I mostly post news announcements there. People are welcome to follow my personal Facebook page, but I’m limiting “friends” to people I’ve actually interacted with. That can include commenting on posts. But if I get a friends request and I don’t know who you are and haven’t seen you commenting (almost all my posts are public), I’ll probably ignore it, especially if your profile is locked down so people who aren’t friends can’t see anything other than your cover photo. I get way too many requests from scammers, and since I mostly use that for staying in touch with friends and family and it’s more personal than business, I had to institute that policy.

Did you know that you can also “follow” authors on Amazon? You’ll get announcements about new releases. To follow me, go to my author page and click the “follow” button. And on Book Bub you can follow authors to get news about new books. Plus, Book Bub allows you to recommend and review books and see books that authors have reviewed and recommended. To follow me on Book Bub, go to my page and click “follow.”

I don’t currently have my own mailing list because I kind of hate newsletters, and it seems like everyone is being bombarded with newsletters. For now, there are enough ways to keep track of what I’m doing. I may reconsider that later, but right now I can’t see that it would be worth the effort.

I do have a YouTube channel, but it’s not very active at the moment. I hope to start doing more with that when I get a couple of more urgent items done and can regroup on the PR side of things.

So, come find me in all these places! My follower count everywhere is rather pathetic right now. I seem to be the Invisible Author.

And while you’re in these places, you can leave your own reviews and recommendations for books you love (mine included, I hope!). Reviews and recommendations are probably the biggest way people learn about books and help keep books from being invisible.

writing

Making Smarter Villains

I was pretty down on myself about productivity (or lack thereof) yesterday, but I really was kind of stuck. I didn’t like the scene I was working on, and it affected the things that would happen next. As a result, I fell prey to all kinds of distractions.

But I made myself do another round of brainstorming later in the evening, and that was when I realized that none of what I was trying to write really made sense. It fell into the “who would even do that, and why?” category. Meanwhile, a totally new event popped up, and that sent things into a different direction that will be a lot more fun.

So maybe all my distraction yesterday was my brain getting me out of the way so it could think of new stuff. This new stuff is pretty much going to kill a bunch of stuff I’ve already written, so I’m further from the end than I thought, but it’s a lot better.

Funny, I just couldn’t come up with a reason why the bad guys would meet in public to do their nefarious scheming so they could be overheard, even if they were using magic to create a zone of privacy around themselves (that they didn’t know wouldn’t work on a magical immune). I had the good guys meeting privately and being sure not to talk in public, and then the bad guys sitting in a restaurant to scheme. Ugh. So all that has to go, and the heroes have to figure things out some other way.

Villains can be pretty dumb, but it’s a bad idea to build your plot around that. It’s so much more interesting if they’re smart, but with maybe a blind spot or two.

writing

The Best Writing Advice

One good effect of getting rid of cable while also shifting my schedule to being more of an early bird is that I’ve been reading a lot more. And that has reminded me of just how important reading is to being a writer. If you want to write better, read more.

Read the classics in your genre, the works that established the tropes.

Read the recent award winners and bestsellers, so you’ll know what’s currently setting the standards. Read new releases from debut authors so you’ll know what’s been bought recently from authors without a track record. Read the books that are getting a lot of buzz. Seek out things no one is talking about and try to figure out why.

Read outside your genre, especially in genres that cross over with yours. If there’s going to be a love story in what you’re working on, read romance novels. If there’s an action/adventure element, read action/adventure books and thrillers.

Read biographies and memoirs and books about psychology to get a sense of how different kinds of people think and behave.

Read history to get a sense of the patterns of events, actions, and reactions. Also, more about how people think and behave.

Read books about subjects that may come up in the stories you’re writing, such as science, food, textiles, war, diplomacy, revolution, technology, etc.

Read books about writing. Read books about business, marketing, advertising. An author is essentially an entrepreneur, so you’ll need to know these things.

Really, just read. You’re putting words and sentences and ideas into your brain, and it will all be processed for fodder. If you don’t like to read, if all this sounds like too much work, then it will be hard for you to make it as a writer.

For me, one of the best things about being a writer is getting to count time I spend reading as “work.”