Tag Archive | motivation

Writing Resolutions

I’ve never been much for setting New Year’s resolutions, but let’s face it, 2012 was pretty awful in my world. Maybe 2013 will be better if I resolve a few things. But you know, life is so unpredictable. Writing, on the other hand, is far more predictable than people think. It takes focus and dedication. So this year I’m going to make some Writing Resolutions.

The other day, as I was skimming through Facebook catching up with all of my writing friends, I noticed that someone proudly announced that they had reached their word count goal for the year. Ooo…. A word count goal for the YEAR! What a fabulous idea! I said as much to her and she said that she stole the idea from someone else. Is this something I didn’t know about? Anyhow, I, Merry Farmer, resolve to set a word count goal for 2013 for myself. I’m going to start “modestly” by setting that goal at 300,000 words. Go me!

The perfect writing workstation

Okay, 300k words is roughly three books. OR NOT. I have plans to publish two books this year (cross fingers, knock on wood). But there is more to writing than sweating out novels for publication. A lot more. So my second Writing Resolution for 2013 is to write something(s) for myself. Yep, you heard me. I am going to take some time out at some point from the grind of writing towards publication to amuse myself with my writing the way I always used to. Writing for yourself is fun. It’s therapeutic. It makes you remember why you started writing in the first place. And if I’m being honest, a lot of those stories I write for myself end up being something I could publish down the road anyhow. Or not. I come up with some crazy stuff sometimes.

Along those lines, I am going to finish Fool for Love if it kills me! Yes, I’m kind of struggling a bit with this second book in my Montana Romance series. Not because it’s not any good, mind you. I had this Christmas thing and my brother and best friend’s wedding sort of get in the way of my process in December. So this resolution is more of a January resolution. I’m going to write the hell out of that novel, as my hero, Eric, would say.

Speaking of specific books, I am also going to write A Duke and a Pirate and have it ready to take to the RWA nationals in Atlanta in July. Just sayin’. And right there, between those two books, I should have at least 200k of my 300k words for the year. See? Making resolutions is easy!

As for my next Writing Resolution, I’m going to write standing up more. Huh? What? Why? Because in 2012 I sort of killed my back by sitting down for hours at a time. Just ask my chiropractor. It’s bad. I love writing and I want it to be my 9-5 job before too long here, but I can’t do that at the expense of my health. So writing standing up it is! In fact, I’ve got Ace, my laptop, set up on my ironing board right now as I type this. … It need to be six inches taller. I’ll figure that out soon.

More of this

And for my final 2013 Writing Resolution…. I am going to read more. Yes, read. Every writer needs to spend a large amount of time reading. We should really be devouring novels and articles and everything in print like I devour cookies. The sad truth of the matter is that I feel guilty for reading. I know. It’s completely contradictory. But I do. Every time I sit down to read a book I feel guilty for reading instead of writing. I feel like I’m wasting or mismanaging my time. In 2013 I’m going to get over that and read more. Without the guilt.

So there you have it. My Writing Resolutions for 2013. I think they’re all pretty manageable.

So what are your resolutions, writing or otherwise, for this new year? Do you make resolutions?

Confidence

Nov7

It’s NaNoWriMo time! This is a truly great time of year for writers. It’s always a treat to see everyone come together to talk about their writing process and to know that everyone is in the same boat at the same time. Wordcounts are on the rise, inspiration is flowing, and everyone is doing a great job of encouraging each other to keep going.

Ah! If only every month of the year were like this!

It’s a wonderful thing to have public encouragement and support for what we do as writers. The trouble is, more often than not we have to go it alone. We all know that writers are writing every day. Deadlines and goals exist 365 days of the year. If we’re lucky then we’ve found ourselves an encouraging group of like-minded people to keep us going when the going gets tough.

But what do you do in the middle of March when you’re slaving away at a tricky chapter that just isn’t turning out right? What do you do when it’s torture to crank out 500 words a day, let alone 50,000 in a month? How do you get through that?

It helps to belong to a writer’s group, in person or online. I belong to several and they’ve helped me immeasurably. Writers need other writers, plain and simple. We need each other for support and understanding. No one understands the gravity of panic in the face of a looming deadline like another writer. We need each other for a laugh. No one can laugh at the silly things that we writers do like another writer. We also need each other to keep things real, in the good way and the reality-check way. Writers are your best ally to tell you when your baby needs work. They can also point you in the right direction when the time comes to choose a publishing path, and they can be your guideposts along the way.

But after all that, at the end of the day when you’re home alone and the computer is turned off, there’s one thing that you need to make it through the next small crisis: Confidence.

You can do this! You’ve set out on an amazing journey. You’re writing a book! Not because you have to. Not because there is some grade attached to it. Not because you will starve because if you don’t. You are doing this because you want to, because you love it, because it is your soul!

I once read a fascinating blog post by Kristen Lamb that asked the question “How likely are you to actually succeed as a writer?” Kristen’s answer is that if you stick to it and see thing through to the bitter end, then actually you are very likely to succeed. It’s one of the most inspirational posts I’ve ever read.

Great! So how do you stick it out? You have to have confidence. Believe in yourself. You are a writer. You can do this.

Having confidence in yourself does not mean that you skip blindly down the primrose path believing that every word that spills from your fingertips is genius. That will land you in a world of hurt more often than not. No, having confidence is all about reminding yourself that you have started to climb a mountain that WILL be climbed.

: © Rigmanyi | Dreamstime.com

You will learn. That’s for certain. If you don’t make your NaNo goal this year you will still have learned something. Learning whatever that thing is will help you go further next time. If you do meet your NaNo goal, fantastic! If you can meet that goal then you can meet other goals. You can finish the book. You can write the sequel. You can edit the book and make it into something that will turn heads.

Every step of the way on a writer’s journey there is something to be confident about. You can be confident that the more you write – and the more you read – the better your writing will become. You can be confident that the novel you write next year will be better than this one. You can be confident that someone will love your story … and that someone won’t. That person who doesn’t like your story will teach you something that can help you to make the next story even better. Be confident in that.

Okay, so I’ll confess that part of this pep-talk is designed to boost my own confidence. Because let’s face it, it doesn’t matter how confident you were yesterday, some days you lose hope. Some days it doesn’t matter how much you’ve accomplished or how hard you’ve worked, someone leaves you a bad review or your numbers fall or you watch TV instead of focusing on writing and boom, your confidence is shot.

Yep, it happens. But it’s also temporary. You can be confident that the sun will rise again, your learning process will continue, and you will once again experience the joy that only writers can know: the knowledge that you’ve just written something good.

So keep up the good work, all you NaNos! You can do this!

P-Day, NaNoWriMo, and How I Became a Bad Friend

Nov2

I used to be a good friend. No, really, I was! I was considerate and thoughtful and made sure to keep in touch with people. Then I became a writer.

Writing is a wonderful thing. I love it to distraction and it really defines who I am at a soul level. But the problem with launching a writing career is that it takes so much time and focus and dedication that sometimes you have to push everything else aside. That means people too, unfortunately. I’ve been a terrible friend lately as I approach the launch of my latest book, The Courageous Heart, tomorrow. I’ve forgotten to reply to blog post entries, failed to respond to emails in a timely manner, and forgone hanging out with friends in favor of working on the book. It’s what a writer has to do.

But P-Day is here! The book is out! You can now buy The Courageous Heart wherever eBooks are sold! Huzzah! Not only does this mean a sense of accomplishment and closure for me, it means that I can be a good friend again. At least for a while. NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is this month. I could very easily slip into being a total non-friend again. But, after much soul-searching and temptation, I have decided not to participate in NaNo this year. It’s time for a break. It’s time to recharge the writing batteries a little bit by reading and hanging out with my friends.

So, because you are friends, instead of concentrating on writing a whole big blog post for Fun Friday, I leave you with something fun. Here is an excerpt from my new release, the third book of the Noble Hearts trilogy, The Courageous Heart….

The king swept to the front of the room and mounted the stairs to the dais that held his throne. He turned and glanced across his people with an assessing stare. Those who had marched in with him took up spots around the throne. Joanna recognized Prince John from his visit to Derbyshire years ago. He hadn’t aged much but his expression was drawn and penitent. An older woman stood near him with enough gold and jewels on her headdress to mark her as Eleanor, the Queen Mother.

Joanna’s heart thundered in her ears. She’d never dreamed of being in the presence of such greatness. Her knees threatened to give out. Her arms were numb as they held the children. Meg was wailing still. The room had gone silent but for her ear-splitting cries.

King Richard spoke something in a foreign language. Joanna had no idea what he’d said but his tone did not bode well. He frowned and searched in her direction. She tried to pat Meg’s back, do anything to keep her quiet, but with Wulfric squirming in her other arm there was little she could do.

“Silence that child!” a voice boomed in English.

The crowd of nobles inched away from Joanna, singling her out. Madeline broke away from Jack and crossed to pluck her daughter from Joanna’s arms. Joanna would have been grateful but for the panic in Madeline’s eyes. Madeline cradled Meg close as Jack rushed to hover by her side. The king spoke again.

“It’s Lord John of Kedleridge, your majesty,” Matlock answered. “The peasant who your rebellious brother made into a lord.” He repeated his words in the same language the king had spoken, but they had already had their effect on the rest of the nobles in the room.

The buzz that followed was too much like angry bees. The nobles around them parted further, glancing between them and Prince John. The prince kept his eyes downcast.

“My liege.” Crispin stepped into the opening, dropping to one knee and addressing the king with more humility than Joanna thought the man possessed. “Lord John was raised to his title for acts of valor in the service of the crown. He has continued to earn his position through untiring service to you and to England.”

Jack caught on a few beats too late and dropped to his knee in imitation of his friend. They both stole glances to Prince John, silent pleas for help.

There was a long silence. Prince John shook his head.

The king spoke in the foreign language again. A minister standing near him translated. “King Richard demands to know who you are.”

“I am Sir Crispin of Huntingdon, Earl of Derby, your majesty.”

“Another appointment of your brother’s, your majesty,” Matlock added, repeating his words once again in the king’s language. He slid closer to the throne, to where Pennington had positioned himself next to the king.

King Richard frowned at a stoic Prince John then spoke to Pennington.

Pennington turned a mock startled look on Crispin and Jack. “Why no, I don’t believe they have sworn fealty to you as yet, your majesty.”

Madeline gripped Aubrey’s arm, her eyes as wide and white as moons. Aubrey didn’t look much better. All Joanna could do was hold Wulfric and pray.

King Richard spoke directly to Crispin and Jack. The two of them exchanged apprehensive glances. “Aubrey,” Crispin spoke over his shoulder without taking his eyes off the king, “take Madeline and get out.”

“No. I’m not leaving without you.”

The king spoke again. The tension in the room doubled.

“Why doesn’t he speak in English?” Jack hissed to Crispin.

“He doesn’t know how,” Crispin whispered back.

“He’s the bloody king of England and he doesn’t speak English?” Jack swallowed.

“What he’s saying, peasant,” Matlock took a step towards them, giddy with delight, “is that he doesn’t think it’s particularly wise for the appointments of his usurping brother to go unchallenged. Or perhaps his words would be better translated as unpunished.”

The king spoke to Matlock again. Matlock spun towards him, dropping to his knee. Pennington stepped forward to say something, gesturing to Matlock and then to Crispin and Jack. Joanna couldn’t understand his words but she knew the tone all too well. The heads on the Tower walls flashed to her mind. She understood far too well how they had gotten there.

“Why doesn’t Prince John say something?” Jack muttered to Crispin, flushed with panic.

“He can’t.” Crispin motioned for him to be quiet. “Not unless he wants to be hanged for a traitor.”

“Hanged? No!” Madeline gasped.

“Nothing’s happened yet.” Aubrey tried to comfort her but didn’t sound convinced.

King Richard sighed and answered whatever Pennington had said to him. He put a question to Pennington. Pennington bowed low and sent a swift glance in Jack’s direction as he spoke to the king. His words were in the king’s language, but his sneer revealed everything. He finished his speech with an obsequious grin and melted back into the rest of the nobles.

The king stood. The sea of nobles sank to bows. He made a pronouncement in a loud voice. A murmur filled the room before his translator could say, “The king has declared that Sir Crispin and Lord John should be detained in the Tower until such a time as the appointments made by his brother can be investigated.”

Before Madeline could shout “No!” four armed guards sprung forward from the sides of the room. The assembly of nobles jumped out of their way, thrilled at the prospect of two men being arrested. The guards wrenched Crispin and Jack to their feet before they could rise on their own and had their hands in shackles behind their backs in seconds.

“Your majesty, I can assure you that we are true and faithful subjects,” Crispin argued. His plea was not translated for the king.

“You can’t do this!” Aubrey stepped forward, eyes blazing with anger and panic. “You can’t lock them up after everything they’ve done in Derbyshire!”

“Please!” Madeline rushed forward. “They have done nothing but serve you, your majesty!” To Joanna’s surprise she continued her plea in the king’s language. Crispin, Aubrey, and Jack stopped their struggles, watching her in shock.

The king spoke and Madeline bowed low, Meg still fussing in her arms.

“This is my daughter, your majesty, the peasant lord’s wife.” Matlock glared at her then repeated his words for the king. “She should be remanded into my custody while her husband is held prisoner, your majesty. Let me deal with her.”

“No!” Jack shouted, straining against his captors. “No, your majesty, he’ll kill her!”

The guard holding Jack jerked him back. Jack let out a vicious cry of pain and protest. He jammed his elbow into the man’s gut. The second guard holding him reached around to strangle him. Jack’s eyes bulged.

Crispin shouted and rushed to defend his friend as best he could. He kicked at the guard strangling Jack. The guard let go, but the one holding Crispin joined the fray. He clamped Crispin’s arms to immobilize him while his mate punched Crispin in the gut. Crispin doubled over.

Aubrey shrieked. She pushed the guard nearest to her then drew the man’s sword from its scabbard.

With a collective gasp the nobles watching the scene backed up. Aubrey slashed at the guard who had punched Crispin. He jumped away. His fellow let go of Crispin. Off-balance, Crispin spilled to the side, knocking into the man holding Jack. More guards rushed into the room. Aubrey spun and swung at them when they tried to get close. She gave one a nasty gash across his face. The watching nobles fell into a panic. They began to push towards the exit.

“Arrest them!” a voice demanded above the growing din of the crowd. “Arrest that woman as well!”

Joanna screamed as a guard barreled into Aubrey from behind. The force of the impact knocked the sword out of her hands and sent her careening off-balance. The guard swiped her around the waist and lifted her off her feet. Crispin roared but three men were on him in a heartbeat.

Jack struggled against his guards. “Madeline!” he shouted. “Get out of here!” Jack’s eyes flashed to find Joanna. “Get them out of here!”

By the way, here are the links to purchase The Courageous Heart:

Amazon – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009Z1AATQ

B&N – http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-courageous-heart-merry-farmer/1113712615?ean=2940015912661

Smashwords – https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/250038

When Do You Become A Writer?

Oct17

A couple of weeks ago I was having dinner with some family friends, talking about my latest book, and their teenage daughter asked me, “How do you come up with your ideas?”

What a great question! I blinked, tilted my head to the side, and answered, “I kind of don’t come up with them, they’re just there.”

My young friend looked at me and said, “No, but where do they come from? How do you think up all those stories?”

Her mom smiled and told her daughter, “Some people’s minds just work differently like that.”

How true it is! But it also begs the question: Are writers born or made?

We all learn to write at some point. For me it was first grade. I had learned my letters like everyone else, and as that eventful school year progressed I learned the magic of putting them together to make words. This was more than just an exercise in phonics. It was the dawning of a whole new era. I still remember the day that I learned to write the word “grasshopper”. It was the longest, most beautiful, most complicated word ever! I remember staring at my extremely wide-ruled page of writing paper and thinking *sigh* grasshopper!

When mankind first began creating signs and pictures to represent words it was considered miraculous. Storytellers who could capture their words in stones or on paper with a few simple lines were considered shamans. They were revered by their tribes as people of great power and wisdom. They could do what no other people could do: they could speak to people far, far away. They could tell stories years after their deaths. These were amazing people.

But does the ability to form words on a surface make you a writer? Evidently not, as my young friend reminded me. How do you come up with your ideas? People have been asking writers those questions for millennia.

At the same time, coming up with stories and ideas isn’t exclusive to just a few magicians. If you watch young children at play you can see they are just bursting with stories. Whether its reenacting their favorite tale or coming up with an explanation for why the toy dog and the toy dinosaur aren’t getting along, children create stories by nature. Play is the developing mind’s way of ordering the universe and making it familiar. Coming up with stories to explain the narrative of any given play session is just what kids do.

So if we all spend a huge amount of our childhood making up stories, why do only some of us become writers?

Ah. Here’s where I think my friend’s explanation to her teenage daughter was right. Some people’s minds just work differently.

I happen to believe that you can’t teach someone to be a writer. You can teach someone to write, you can teach them grammar, you can teach them plot structure and character development, but you can’t teach them to have a passion for it. And you definitely can’t teach imagination. Imagination is as much a genetic trait as athletic ability or musical talent. Either you’ve got it or you don’t.

But what if you do have it? What if you’ve got the perfect storm of neurons and synapses that allows your imagination to run free and the passion to drop everything in order to focus on getting those stories out there? When does natural talent translate to you being a writer?

My argument would be that you become a writer when you start writing. Not when you learn to spell grasshopper, not when you sign a book deal with a big six publisher, but when you first decide that there’s nothing more that you’d like to do in a given moment then find a pencil and some paper and write a story.

For me that moment came in third grade when I realized that I didn’t have to wait for the teacher to assign a creative writing project to write something. I was ten years old. It was awesome. For my niece it might just have come earlier. A couple years ago, when she was eight or nine, her mother, my sister-in-law informed me that my niece had taken to writing plays for her and her friends to perform. Thus furthering the argument that this crazy writing thing is genetic.

Do you have to start when you’ve just learned to write grasshopper? Not at all. You’re still a writer and have every right to call yourself one if you wait until you’re old and grey to pick up a pen for the first time. I might be willing to argue that you become a writer when you start imagining stories in your head, whether you write them down or not. Although if you do that you might actually be a filmmaker, like my brother. But as long as the spark is there, you’re on your way.

So what about you? When did you first realize you’d become a writer? Do tell!

Self-Publishing: What You Need to Know Before You Start

Sep26

Congratulations! You’ve decided to self-publish. Welcome to the wild and wonderful world of the fastest-growing segment of the publishing industry.

Fastest-growing, eh?

Yep. Seems like you can’t turn around these days without someone sprinting off to publish the manuscript they’ve been working on for years. Or months. Or a couple of weeks. But does that mean that if you self-publish the rest of the literary world is going to “dial you down to dumbass”, as my Dad likes to say? Does that mean you’ve forever separated yourself from the realm of the serious author? Not anymore it doesn’t. But it does mean that you get to navigate a minefield of potential mistakes and problems, and you get to do it all by yourself.

Now, I consider myself to be a successful self-published author. I’ve got three books out and one coming out the first weekend of November. And I’ve learned a lot of things during the process of publishing those books. I’ve made some mistakes and I’ve had some extraordinary good luck. I’ve also watched other writers make some mistakes and do things right. These things are super important to know. So in no particular order, here we go….

The first thing you need to know about self-publishing is that you’re not the only one who has this idea. In fact, right now the market is flooded with self-published authors eager to impress the world with the fruits of their imagination. There are now millions of books out there just waiting to be read. What does this mean for you? It means that you have to figure out a way to stand out from the crowd. Think writing the book was a challenge? Try getting it noticed above the sea of other books whose eager authors are trying to do exactly the same thing. The sad thing is that the majority of these books will stay right there in the sea.Now I’m not trying to discourage you by telling you this. Quite the contrary. I want you to be well aware of what’s ahead of you so that you can tackle the challenges head-on. Because this whole thing is an incredible challenge.

Right, so what do you need to do as a self-published author to stand out and catch on?

The first and most important answer is the same thing that everyone out there has been telling you. You have to write the best book possible. There’s no getting around it. So for those of you who are tired of hearing that, here’s a few things that will help you get there.

Patience. Patience is the only way to write the absolute best book possible. It takes a lot of time to write a first draft. It takes even more time to write the second and the third and the fourth drafts. Words can’t be rushed onto the page. Yes, it’s a great idea to set yourself a word-count goal for the day and to make it consistently, but that first flush of story is going to deserve to be flushed until you put some more work into it. That work takes patience. It takes letting it sit, handing it off to beta readers, and most importantly of all, it takes shipping it off to an qualified, professional editor to whip it into shape. Don’t skimp on the editor, people!

But patience isn’t just about time. Patience is about keeping the lid on yourself. It’s about being diligent. One of the things that draws people to the process of self-publishing is the speed with which we can get something published. It’s so exciting to think that in just a few short hours people out there in the world will be able to buy your imagination fruit! But be careful not to fill up the apple cart before the fruit is ripe. One of the biggest mistakes I see self-published authors make is focusing too much on getting out there and not enough on refining and perfecting the product. I’ve been guilty of it myself. And I’ve had to go back and publish updated editions with all sorts of embarrassing corrections.

You’ve worked hard on that book. That book deserves to be ready before it bursts out into the world. If you’re going to self-publish the onus is on you and you alone to set aside the writer part of you in favor of the editor part. You are your own quality control. This takes so much honesty and self-awareness that it boggles the mind. Don’t rush it.

Moving right along….

The other biggest mistake that I see self-published authors make is in the way they use social media. You might hear the message that in order to succeed you have to be on every platform all the time posting public service announcements about the worldwide benefits that buying your novel will bring. Um, the only thing you’re going to accomplish by attempting that is burning yourself out on social media and annoying a lot of people in the process.

Trust me, I’m speaking from experience here. When I first got into this gig last year I went nuts with the whole blog, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ thing. I tried to be all things to all people all the time. Not only did I end up with a sour taste in my mouth over so many of these social media tools, I didn’t see any results from them.In the end I switched to as two-part strategy. I focused my attention on the social media tools that I actually enjoy: my blog and Facebook. As a side note, I made a mistake within a mistake of joining every Facebook author group under the sun only to find that I wasn’t able to give most of them everything they deserved. I learned that it’s far more effective to give your all to a smaller amount of people within a circle of activities that you really enjoy than to try to master all forums.

And you know what ended up happening? Part two of the two-part strategy. I made friends with people who like the tools that I don’t like so much. This meant that when I had news, like the fact that I was running a promo of The Loyal Heart in July, some of those dear friends I had made posted about it on forums I didn’t even know existed. 50,000 eBook downloads later….

Concentrate on what you love. Pace yourself. Interact on a genuine level with people who are on the same path that you are. Help them out without expecting anything in return. And watch and see what happens.

Of course, you have to be patient while you do this. It took me a year’s worth of cultivating these connections and friendships before I was able to have the success I had with my promo. The good news is that I’ve made some fantastic friends along the way.

And that brings me to the biggest potential pitfall, the biggest message self-published authors or authors considering self-publishing need to hear.

Be careful about how you define success. I know you don’t want to hear it, but the likelihood of you being the next J.K. Rowling or Stephen King or even E.L. James is about the same as your chances of winning the Powerball Lottery. It’s okay. You’ll get through this. Take a deep breath. Just because your debut self-published novel does not instantly get optioned by Hollywood doesn’t mean you aren’t a success.

It’s time to redefine success. I consider myself a successful self-published author because since I made the decision to take this road I have worked hard and produced consistent results. I have published. I continue to publish. I also continue to learn. My writing has improved by leaps and bounds. And yes, I’ve sold books. Enough to pay for a new transmission when my car died earlier this month (although I really wanted to spend my royalty money on something a heck of a lot more fun). I’ve also begun to have my fellow writers at events here in Philadelphia come up to me asking for help and advice with self-publishing. When your peers ask for your advice, that’s success.But just because I consider myself a success right now doesn’t mean I haven’t raised the bar for myself. Yes, I love self-publishing. I intend to keep on doing it. But now another bee has flown into my bonnet. I want to see if I can get a couple of books in my “backlist” published by a small press. And I’ve got a couple of ideas for novels that I want to write in time to pitch to agents during next year’s conference season. And my long-term goal is to just be a writer. I’m starting that journey by self-publishing. It’s not an either/or prospect. It’s a stop along the way.

So huzzah! You’ve made a great choice to self-publish. It’s a lot of fun. Consider this the first step in a fantastic journey that will teach you to be a better writer all around.

Merry Farmer

An Historical Romance