Picture of the Week
Three book covers I recently redesigned. More on the way!
General Discussion
I don’t know what’s different about this year, but something definitely is. In a good way, for me. I have a renewed interest in getting my writing business moving again, and in finishing and publishing stories that have been languishing in my files for years now.
Part of it is definitely that I’ve decided I want to retire from my current job when I’m 55, which is 8 years from now, and I want to build my writing business into something profitable by then.
Part of it is probably that I’ve been studying craft for awhile now, and am more confident than before that I have the skills to potentially make that a reality.
Either way, I’ve been writing regularly this year and really studying marketing and all the things that go along with building a business. I’m not writing as fast as I’d like to be yet, and I’m limited as to how much I can get done due to the day job (it can be very mentally demanding, so some days, I just don’t have any mental energy left), but I’m optimistic, and being in that particular mindset definitely helps more than one might think.
It’s a difficult thing to work a demanding full-time job and still keep up with another job on the side. I’ve let a lot of things go with the writing business that I’m now trying to catch up on – like the covers in the picture above. I have twelve covers from when I first started publishing that aren’t large enough for the current requirements for some distributors. Since I didn’t make the covers myself, I don’t have the source files, and I no longer work with that particular artist so I couldn’t just ask for larger versions.
So one of the catch-up things I’m doing is updating all those covers, and while I’m at it, I’m updating the back matter and author pages for all of those books (since I have to insert the cover anyways). There are a couple that I formatted by hand before I started using Jutoh, and those are getting reformatted as well. It’s a lot of work, but it has to be done, and I’m just focusing on one cover at a time. Slowly but surely, they’ll all get done, and it will feel really good knowing those books are once again being distributed as widely as possible.
I’m also teaching myself to plot and to write from a plot outline. I’ve also been a “pantser”, in that I don’t outline anything before I start writing – I just write and discover the story while I’m writing it. But that isn’t a quick or clean way to write, and I want to be as efficient as possible so I can write faster and so I don’t have so much trouble on those days when it just feels impossible to be creative. I’ve never had much luck plotting before, but I’ve also been resistant to even learning, citing that it would stifle my creativity or some such nonsense.
Now I hear that coming from my brain and respond, “Don’t be such a prima donna. Writing is fun. If you want to make money at it, it’s also a job, and just like any job, if there’s a way to make it faster/easier/more convenient to do, you should totally explore those options.
Needless to say, the logical part of my brain is correct, and I’m finding that having a loose outline not only helped me to create a more in-depth story, but it also helps a lot with knowing what I’m writing when I sit down late at night, which makes it easier to find that flow, and easier to write more words in a session.
Good stuff, all around, and to top it all off, it makes me feel good to finally be doing what I’ve wanted to do all along.
Stay tuned…more stories coming soon!
Currently Reading
In addition to the book I’m editing, I thought this article was interesting (and timely):
The True History of Valentine’s day from Lifehacker.
Video Highlight
I’ve been watching a lot of Katie Steckly’s videos lately to get ideas on how to plan my own social media and blog content. I’m finding her very helpful – not everything is relevant to a writer, but a lot of the overall philosophies apply, IMO.
httpss://youtu.be/Q2rn0bJclHY
Song of the Week
I’m in a “Magic” sort of mood this week…groovin’ with that romance vibe.
httpss://youtu.be/QGmIkreNmQ4
Pop Quiz!
What skill have you had to work a long time to improve at?
Writing is obviously one for me (and I’ll always be working at that). It also took me a considerable about of time and effort to learn to knit – and I’m still not that great at it.
Post Round-up
The Writer’s Desk (last updated: February 12, 2022)
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