Still Learning How to Write

I feel like I learn something new everyday.  It really pays to do your research.  To see what others have to say about writing.  I've stumbled across some amazing blogs during my searching.  Some I've mentioned here before.  The Other Side of the Story with Janice Hardy, The Book Shelf Muse, and Janet Reid, Literary Agent.  All three provide a lot of good information for beginning and querying authors.

Take today for example.  I stumbled on Janice Hardy's weak area words.  It's a list of words that can signal telling or info dump in writing.  I love it and read it here.  She describes them as red flag words in another entry.  On The Book Shelf Muse, there are so many helpful ways of describing characters and feelings.  There's even an Emotional Thesaurus.  Check that out here.  Finally, Janet Reid is every querying author's best friend.  She gives wonderful tips on that as the Query Shark and answers questions on her Janet Reid, Literary Agent blog.  I love her wit and sense of humor.  As aspiring authors, we have to learn to laugh at ourselves and with each other.

Moral of the blog entry is this:  keep learning.  You never know too much or enough.  Now, happy research!

Blogging Is Necessary!

At least I think it is.  Or some form of social media.  Twitter.  Facebook.  Instagram.  A website.  All of the above.  These are all ways to interact with people out there and to connect with would be readers.  Or so I've been told.  Every agent blog out there talks about it.  Nearly every agent interview on the Writer's Digest website specifically discusses your ability to market yourself.

Why must I market myself?  You may ask, as I have, this very question.  I'm sure there are many reclusive and intensely private authors out there who've chosen not to.  However, I'll just bet there is a website and possibly even Twitter feed devoted to said author run by someone else associated with his or her posse.  It's simply a product of where we are today.  Our world is an electronic one, whether we like it or not.

I'll admit part of me doesn't like it.  I'm not on Facebook, Pinterest or any of the like.  My husband and I, to the chagrin of our family and friends, agreed a long time ago not to be on Facebook.  We have our reasons and our reasons are good for us.  Doesn't mean I'm not intensely interested in things going on in my loved ones' lives.  Doesn't mean there aren't people out there I'd love to hear about 20 years after leaving high school.  But...so far, it hasn't been necessary to our lives and until it is, we won't be on there.

Blogging is perfect for me at this stage in my career.  I'm still figuring everything out and I enjoy learning how to do this.  I love connecting with others on their blogs and following to read what others have to say.  Through blogging, I can narrow my topics and interests specifically to writing.  That's what I enjoy most at this time and is what works for me in the moment.  Still, I'm willing to explore other aspects of social media when the time is right or it's necessary for my career.

Just my opinion;-)  Here is an interesting post on an upcoming webinar relating specifically to this topic.  Might provide some insight.

Would love to hear what others think about this or your personal experiences;-)

Blogging Is Rewarding Too

When I wrote the last post about blogging being hard, I began to think about all the aspects of blogging.  I'd been having trouble with my writing lately and that included the blogging part too.  When I started this blog, I was really nervous.  It involves putting myself out there.  Something I'm only gradually becoming comfortable with.  My thoughts and words are out there floating on the world wide web for everybody to see.  A daunting thought for me at times.

Why has it been rewarding?  Many reasons but the biggest of which is the trolling I've done of other blogs.  I would search out blogs before but not on a regular basis.  I wasn't a follower of any particular one.  Now, I'm a regular follower of at least five blogs.  I get on my page and connect to those other sites several times a day.  I feel like I'm learning a lot in doing that.  Looking at these other blogs often provokes a thought in me leading me to an entry here or leading to something with my WIP.

In many ways, this blog is like my writing journal.  I'm able to pour out all my thoughts, good and bad, about this most difficult of processes-writing a novel.  I love writing and I find I love blogging as well.  To keep going through the hard times is one of the hallmarks of a real writer.  I like to think that's me.

Blogging is rewarding.  I promise;-)

Blogging Is Hard!

Lately, I've had trouble coming up with witty and wise blog posts.  I feel like I'm repeating myself, talking about the same topics over and over.  Blogging is hard!  So is writing.  The fact something is hard is not an excuse not to do it, or so I tell my children.  So, bear with me if I'm a bit off my game lately.

I'd gotten in a comfortable place with my writing and my blogging, following certain rules with each.  Write romantic fiction in third person POV and blogging once a week.  There are others but these seemed to be the main rules for each.  Lately, I've been exploring more with my writing and I think because of that, struggling with what to blog about.  I don't know the answers.  I don't yet know what works.  You, as my readers (if I have any<grin>), are going through this with me.  I would love it if someday I can look back on this documented process as a published writer and relive some of the things I went through.  I would also love it if along the way, I impart some hard won wisdom on others breaking into writing.

I seem to be tossing all my rules up in the air and seeing what form they take as they come back down.  Example, I recently wrote a first person POV novel.  I was amazed at how easy it seemed.  Probably the fastest writing I've ever done.  I put it aside for several months while I finished one of my more traditional manuscripts then went back to it this week.  I read it from start to finish and I loved it.  It felt so natural.  So, now I'm wondering what it all means.  Write everything in 1st POV?  Switch back and forth from novel to novel (is that even allowed)?  Put both finished products out on submission and see which one does the best?

I have no idea, but then again, I'm still learning;-).  So, dear readers, take this journey with me and see where it leads us.  Hopefully, down the path to professional writerdom.