Set A Time To Write

          If you are a part-time writer, because you work fulltime at a J.O.B, you may have to write when you can. A Little here and a little there, and it can be daunting, frightening, or even intimidating to deal with the pressure of taking the time to write. Well, it is not that difficult to set aside some time. It does need to be done, however. Just bite the bullet and pick a time. Here are a few things to think about that may help you along this part of your journey. You are not the only writer that has had to deal with finding time to write.

          Distractions

Make it a time when there are the least amount of distractions floating around.

• The dog will not need to be walked during this time. 
• The kids will be gone or asleep. during this time.
• You can turn off the phone and TV and other electronic devices so you can have this time for yourself. ( I like a little music going so my iTunes is playing.............quietly)
• Once you set the time, make an announcement. Make sure all family members know to not interrupt your writing time. (unless someone is bleeding to death or choking.... you know, the stuff that is more important than writing.) 

          Location

Once you have the time set, morning noon, afternoon, think about where you will be writing.

• Do you have an office? 
• The kitchen table, or dining room table. Think about the distraction factor. If you plan on writing at the dining room table, will there be any kids there doing their homework as well? Keep that in mind. 
• In the bedroom (with the door closed and a "Do Not Disturb" sign hanging on the door.) 
• Fast food restaurants. Many a morning I have spent at a local fast food franchise with wifi working on a chapter or two. As long as you order something, it has been my experience that most places won't mind so much if you are there a while. Just don't overstay your welcome. 
• At the campus library, if you are a student. 
• The student center of your religious affiliation.

          The ideas on locations can go on and on. The point is, once you decide on a location, to keep the distractions down to a minimum, if not zero.

          Time

          I'm not talking about the time WHEN you plan on writing, but the amount of time you will actually be writing. How long do you plan on writing? I work, on average, 8-5. When I set aside some time, I try as hard as I can to not think about work. I try to get in at least an hour a night. Sometimes, and more often than not, I get a few hours in so in the end it all works out. So, my WHEN varies, but is still the same... "After Work" I work from home so this is convenient. I can close down the work stuff and open my outline and work for a couple of hours.

          Word Count

          Maybe you plan on writing five hundred words, a thousand words at a time. That could take a half hour, or it may take three. Come up with a plan and then work the plan. I know that sounds a bit cliche-ish, but it works. Plan on an hour, or plan on two thousand words. Bottom line is to try and stick to it. If you find that you are in "The Zone" and you feel you need to go further, then by all means go for it. This is a plan and plans change so write as much as you want to or need to.

          I find the biggest distraction, not mentioned above, is myself. So while deciding to set the specific amount of time or the number of words you wish to write, remember two rules.

• During this time you don't actually have to write... 
• But you can't do anything but write...

          What I mean is that during this time, if you do anything, the activity must be writing.

          

          No research, no phone calling, no making your lunch for tomorrow. You must only write. You don't have to write, but you can't do anything else. You can, if you are at a blank spot, just sit there for the hour, or pace the room thinking, but you can't do anything else.

          No vacuuming your office or organizing your files. You can however, work on your blog. That is what I am doing now. I am at a point in my book outline where I feel the story ran stale, so I am taking a break from my book and am working on this article for my blog. I am not writing in my book, but I am writing. See?

Writer's Block

          I am not a fan of this term, because I don't personally believe in it. I don't believe a writer is ever truly, actually, hopelessly, without a doubt blocked and has nothing to write. If you are in a dead zone, one trick I found that works for me is to write.

          That's right, write away writer's block. Allow me to back up a bit here...
Writing is my passion. I don't care if I am writing for my blog, working on my latest mystery, or polishing up a children's book, I enjoy the writing process. Which is odd because I didn't do so well in English class and I sure didn't enjoy writing the essay assignments I was given.

          But, now, I love to write. And, like every writer out there, I too experience writer's block. If James Patterson admits to hitting a wall from time to time, I think it is okay to admit it as well.

          It's not easy to get into a groove, but once I do, its great. Characters are working together, the scenes flow and the conflict is great and the resolutions are hard to see, which is preferable. I don't want an easy-way-out solution, I like solutions that are not all that obvious and have a twist to them. The solution is "X" but it reveals something else, something new, something unexpected.

          I don't like to call it writer's "BLOCK" because I am not really blocked, I just hit some dead air, a lull in the story-line, an air pocket, if you will. The writing just went flat for this specific scene. I can still write, just not on this specific scene. I have my own method to get over the block, or to get back on track and into the groove, but I was curious what others do, so, off to Google I went. I found some things that other writers do to get out of the lull, the rut, get around the obstacle.

Some writers:

• Get physical: ride a bike, take a walk, do something physical –exorcise, hunt down the pesky squirrel in the back yard, build a barge and launch it in the nearest lake.

• Change of Scenery: Taking a walk as mentioned above will give you a change of scenery. Like me, for instance—I work from home so the four walls in my basement tend to close in on me so every other morning or so I head to the nearest Mickey D's for some Vitamin C (“C” is for coffee). The drive is only about ten minutes, so this is a quick escape.

• Put it away till the next day and start over: I have done this before but it is not my favorite way to get past the blocked words. If I am not careful, I put it away and get distracted by some other project and before you know it, six months have flown by.

• Some even take a nap: I can't even take a nap on Sunday afternoon after church. There is too much to do and –I don’t know about you… but I only get 24 hours in a day.

          However, as I stated in the two rules above, I can't do anything BUT write so that is just what I do...

          Since I write on my laptop, and everything is electronic these days, I simply open a Notepad file and start typing. Blah Blah, or what ever...

          Writing, no matter how plain, dull, bland, senseless it is, gets me going again. For me, when I am writing about everything or nothing in general is like priming the water pump to get the water flowing again. For me, writing gets me writing again.

          Another option is to write  "TBDL" (To Be Decided Later) and move on to another area of your outline or book. In one scene, I may be thinking about how to play out a fight scene, so I write, "FIGHT SCENE" and then move on to something else and come back to the fight scene and work it out.

          Commitment

          Now, what ties all this together is commitment. Commitment from your friends and family to give you some privacy, quiet time, a time out or whatever you decide to call it and .....let you write. Also, you need to commit yourself. Commit to start at the designated hour, go to your writing place and do nothing but write.


Good luck with your journey. I hope this is helpful.

Happy Father's Day

Being the middle child, you may think I would get a lot of hand-me-downs. Well, thank goodness I am in between two girls. I have an older sister and a younger sister so the hand-me-downs from my older went directly to my younger sister and bypassed me all together. About the only hand-me-down I got from my older sister, was aggravation, and I got lots of that.

The hand-me-downs I received was more information that my father passed on to me. I learned quite a bit from my father and the information he passed down to me is the basics of any young man coming of age.

He taught me things by lessons and some by example. He would tell me to go put on a dirty shirt or a work shirt and I knew we were going to get our hands dirty. He taught me how to change spark plugs on all of our vehicles. I learned how to drive a stick on an old Volkswagen camper bus. The gears were on a diagonal, not straight up and down. The reverse on that bus was odd. At least it was odd for a fifteen-year-old boy... you had to push the gear shift stick down and then into Reverse. It was kind of cool.

He taught me how to change the fan belts, yes belt(S) plural, in our cars and my truck. This was a time when you have four or five belts running at one time. Now a days you have but the one serpentine belt. Did I spell that correctly? The one belt wraps around every pulley and keeps it all going. I was able to help myself if I ever was to find myself broke down on the side of the road with a busted fan belt or a flat tire. Most fathers taught their sons these little tasks when he was growing up and he passed them along to me.

I don't know if fathers do this anymore. I would like to think they, I hope they do, but if not please take some of your knowledge and skills and hand it down to your child. If that child be a girl or a boy, it matters not, teach your child some basics.

My father took me fishin' many times while I was growing up. If he had to work, my grandfather took me. I remember being in a boat with my my dad, who can't swim by the way, and he would take me in a boat out to Grassy Pond and we would go fishing. I loved those times. He taught me to love the outdoors and fishing.

Remember that old Volkswagen camper bus I told you about, the one I learned how to drive a stick in, well, he would take me camping in that bus a few times as well. I remember going to Alligator point and we spent a couple of nights. Reed Bingham State Park, in Adel, Georgia. I don't think we ever fished there, but we camped there a lot because it was so close to Valdosta.

The things he taught me by example was how to treat a lady. My father actually loves and cares deeply for my mother. I see the way he treats her, respects her, and loves here every day of my life. Both when we were younger and now. My mother knows this and appreciates it. I try to live by his example and love and respect my wife as well.

I really enjoyed those times we spent together. Take your son or daughter camping, teach them how to change the oil in a car, change the spark plugs, and the ONE fan belt. Teach them about the outdoors, fishin', huntin', campin'... or what ever your hobby is. Spend time with your children.  Spend time with your dad if he is still around. Take him fishin' or just for a ride in the boat. Go buy him a beer or a Coke, or a cup of coffee. Spend time with him and tell him you appreciate and love him.


Happy Father's Day

Thank You, Soldier

Soldier:
From vocabulary.com:
        A soldier is the man or woman who fights for their government and carries the weapons, risking their life in the process. The word comes from the Latin solidus, which is the name of the gold coin used to pay soldiers who fought in the Roman army.

From: wikipedia.org:
        A soldier is one who fights as part of an organized land-based armed force. A soldier can be an enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or junior-commissioned officer, or an officer.

From goarmy.com:
        As a Soldier in the U.S. Army, you're tasked with upholding the Constitution and protecting America's freedoms. But it's not always work — Soldiers have free time just like everyone else to spend with friends and family, or take part in sports or hobbies. Soldiers continually strengthen themselves mentally and physically through Ongoing Training. And most important — Soldiers live the Seven Core Army Values every day.

If you wear the uniform, and serve in the military, to protect my freedom, whether it be the USAF, ARMY, NAVY, or the USMC, I want to say thank you for what you do.

You may be on a hill somewhere in another country with your scope set on a target that is plotting to do me and my country harm, Thank you for that.

You may be behind a desk translating encrypted letters to the brass that holds some information about those that intend to do us harm, I want to thank you for that.

You may be two miles deep below the Atlantic, or the Pacific, or even the Baltic, on a nuclear sub with a few hundred other soldiers guarding the border or watching the bad guys... If no one has said it yet, I would like to thank you for all that you do and sacrifice for my freedom and my country.

Memorial Day, is an American holiday observed on the last Monday of May. It was originally known as Decoration Day, and started not long after the Civil War. Memorial Day became an official federal holiday in 1971. 

After the Civil War claimed more lives than any conflict in U.S. history, this required the establishment of the country’s first national cemeteries. Starting late in the 1860s, Americans all over used this time of the year to remember, honor, and pay tribute to these fallen soldiers, decorating their graves with flowers and other acts of love and respect.

It is unclear just where this tradition started, but in 1966 the federal government declared Waterloo, New York, the official birthplace of Memorial Day. Waterloo was chosen because it hosted an annual, community-wide event. During this time, businesses closed and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags. Waterloo first celebrated the day on May 5, 1866.

Memorial Day is used as the unofficial beginning of Summer and many Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings and enjoying or even participating in parades.

There is much more to this day than a parade or a cookout, so please google Memorial Day and read about its history and those involved in its origin. Remind yourself and others the true reason for this holiday.

Originally Memorial Day was for Americans to take the opportunity to remember the fallen soldiers, and pay tribute to their sacrifice for our freedom. Some soldiers paid the ultimate price with their life, and some have lost limbs, and some are still suffering from their service.

While you are celebrating the freedom we have to cook out, spend time with family and friends, please find a vet and say thank you. Shake his or her hand offer a heart-felt thanks to what they have sacrificed for our freedom.

Remember that because of these soldiers, both past and present, we have the freedom that some countries only read about. We have the freedom to gather with friends and family and enjoy a day off. We have the freedom to make YouTube videos, write blogs, write books, sing songs, and say what we want to say without persecution from the law. It's called the first amendment. This is just one of he freedoms these soldiers have fought for, on our behalf.

So on this Memorial Day, I would like to simply say thank you to all the soldiers that stand up for my freedom.

Write Away the Writer's Block

Wait, What?

That's right, write away writer's block.  Allow me to back up a bit here...

Writing is my passion. I don't care if I am writing for my blog, working on my latest mystery, or polishing up a children's book, I enjoy the writing process. Which is odd because I didn't do so well in English class and I sure didn't enjoy writing the essay assignments I was given.

But, now, I love to write. And, like every writer out there, I too experience writer's block.  If James Patterson admits to hitting a wall from time to time, I think it is okay to admit it as well.

It's not easy to get into a groove, but once I do, its great. Characters are working together, the scenes flow and the conflict is great and the resolutions are hard to see, which is preferable. I don't want an easy-way-out solution, I like solutions that are not all that obvious and have a twist to them. The solution is "XXX"  but it reveals something else, something new, something unexpected.

It's nice when the grove is there. but when the groove falls flat, like now; I am working on this article because my story has gone flat. My hero is interrogating someone and I cant find a viable path. I have several ways to go, but nothing is jumping out at me. So I have what some may call writer's block. It's sometimes harder to get back into the groove once you get kicked out.

I don't like to call it writer's "BLOCK" because I am not really blocked, I just hit some dead air, a lull in the story-line, an air pocket, if you will. The writing just went flat for this specific scene. I can still write, just not on this specific scene. I have my own method to get over the block, or to get back on track and into the groove, but I was curious what others do, so, off to Google I went. I found some things that other writers do to get out of the lull, the rut, get around the obstacle.

Some writers:
Get physical: ride a bike, take a walk, do something physical –exorcise, hunt down the pesky squirrel in the back yard, build a barge and launch it in the nearest lake.

Change of Scenery: Taking a walk as mentioned above will give you a change of scenery. Like me, for instance—I work from home so the four walls in my basement tend to close in on me so every other morning or so I head to the nearest Mickey D's  for some Vitamin C (“C” is for coffee). The drive is only about ten minutes, so this is a quick escape.

Put it away till the next day and start over: I have done this before but it is not my favorite way to get past the blocked words. If I am not careful, I put it away and get distracted by some other project and before you know it, six months have flown by.

Some even take a nap: I cant even take a nap on Sunday afternoon after church. There is too much to do and –I don’t k now about you… but I only get 24 hours in a day.

Me, I write.
Since I write on my laptop, and everything is electronic these days, I simply open a Notepad file and start typing.

I may start a 435 word sentence that makes no sense grammatically and has run-on sentences all over the place and just goes and goes until I hit the key point that the guy I killed was part of the inner-circle of some secret society like… theMob.... naaaa....the opera.... nope....the Government....or… um….ILLUMINATI…. or a 33 degree free-mason ….. yeah that’s it. And he tried to get out which is what got him killed. And BAM! Just like that I am back on track with my plot. Now the proverbial juices are flowing once again.

Writing, no matter how plain, dull, bland, senseless it is, gets me going again. For me, when I am writing about everything or nothing in general is like priming the water pump to get the water flowing again. For me, writing gets me writing again.

Now, this might not work for you when you hit your road block and develop Writer’s Block, and you may have something else that works for you.

Take a ride on your bicycle, a walk, a drive, work out, read a book, start over in the morning, call a fried, take a break and watch the three stooges marathon, watch another episode of Castle.

Whatever works for you do it so you can keep writing. For me, if I don’t write during a day, I feel like I have failed. I must write every day. It’s –for me at least- like working out. When I am in my groove and I skip a day, I feel lousy. Writing is the same thing. I gotta’ write to feel like I accomplished something that day.

I hope this works or helps you out.
What do you do to overcome Writer’s Block? Leave me a quick note or on twitter and lend your method of getting over writer's block. It may help other authors.

--Steve                                           .

If You Write It, They Will Come

Before I self-published my first book, I researched how to find an agent, editor, or a publisher. I sent manuscripts to agents and editors which, incidentally, jump-started my rejection collection.

While searching, I found a ton of advice that seemed worthy:
How-to-craft-your-query-letter advice.
Lists of new agents looking for new authors, fiction and non-fiction, historical fiction, poetry... You name it.

I downloaded and read many e-books on how to get the attention of, or get in front of, agents and publishers.

I  refined my Google search parameters to get a new group of search results of possible advice to get my prose in front of an agent -or at least a little bit closer to publication.

One thing I found constant in every google search group, the piece of advice that remained constant in the realm of publication, regardless of how I tweaked my Google search, one piece of advice kept showing up was so simple, it seemed like a bogus answer. 

That advice was this: Self-publish your book. If your work is good enough, editors and agents will find it and reach out to you.

Write the best manuscript you can write. Edit it yourself, or hire a pro to edit your work. But put together your best work. Period.

There may be more, but I found two resources where one can publish their work: createspace.com and smashwords.com.

I have used both. Createspace walks you through everything and when you click a button, at the end of the process, your book will be on Amazon in E-Book format as well as paperback. Cool Huh?

For smashwords, they also hold your hand throughout the process and at the end publish your book on many formats and locations. The I-Store, Barnes and Nobel, Kobo and several others. All you have to do is add a little comment at the beginning saying it is published at Smashwords or something along those lines. Here is their example from their site:

Book Title

FirstName LastName

Copyright 2010 by FirstName LastName

Smashwords Edition

The cover is very important. Even though the saying is, "Don't judge a book by its cover", we all do it, right. So, keep that in mind when you are working on the cover for your book. The cover is MEGA important. You might want to hire a pro for the cover.

This advice that I saw, do it your self and the agents will come to you, sounded like a pipe dream, a scam, a false hope, but let me say this... IT IS TRUE. THIS CAN HAPPEN. I am living proof of that.

This is just what happened to me. I write this blog post today not to brag on or even promote my books, I won't even post the titles of my books. I post this not to lay claim to being as good a writer as King, Koontz, or Cannell. I post this to let you know that it is possible to get noticed by those in the world of traditional publishing.

I was at home one evening going through my e-mail and saw an e-mail that stated my book title in the subject so I clicked on it. It was from a person claiming to be an editor with Skyhorse Publishing in New York wanting to work on a project with me.

A big red flag went up. My self-published book had been out less than a year. I didn't think this person was legit. I played along though, waiting to see how long it would take before they ask me for money. all the while looking into Skyhorse Publishing. 

WORD OF WARNING!          If a "publisher" asks for YOUR money, to publish YOUR book, It is more than likely a scam. Maybe not, but more than likely. Just be careful.

Back to my story... "I replied with yes, I would love to work with you..." The whole time keeping my shields up and waiting for the shoe to drop. (spoiler alert -- Skyhorse is legit, and we are working well together.)

We agreed on a title, cover design, I sent in pictures, sent the book in the format she requested, and before I knew it I got a check in the mail for the first half of my advance. One half now and the other half after the book is released. This is standard.

My self-published book caught the eye of an editor, of a publishing company, and they contacted me. It was just like I read about in my search for an editor. If you write a book, and that book is good enough, agents, editors and the like will contact you. WOW, this really does happen. Cool.

I gotta say, it was a great feeling. Luckily I was already working on another book when she reached out to me and she agreed to publish it. Which hit the shelves in May of 2015.

So, if you are trying to hook in a publisher, editor, or an agent, you may want to direct all that energy from researching agents, and trying to craft the perfect query letter, into writing. You are, after all, a writer, right? Well, Write, don't look for an editor, Write for crying out loud. just write. And maybe they will come looking for you.

If you do get a letter from someone at Skyhorse Publishing in New York, I would go for it. I had a very good experience with them. and working on other projects as well. They are a great group of folks.

But for now...Write, you writer, write.
See you on the shelf one day.

What will your New Year's Resolution be?

What a year!

2014 has come to an end and it is time to start over. Start fresh with a clean slate or what ever cliche you can think of... The bottom line is, it is a new year.

This is the time when many people declare their New Year's Resolutions. And a few weeks later many of those people fall short of said resolutions. I have been guilty of this as much as the next person. So, what can we do about it?

I think if we announce our resolutions publicly, we can be held accountable. So I am offering this suggestion. As I will be publishing this post on Facebook as well as here, I want to ask for help from friends and family to help me keep my resolutions.

Step One:
Come up with some realistic changes you want or need to make in your life. Something you can actually accomplish -with help.

Someone once said "It takes a village to raise a child." -or something close to that. We all need help to reach goals sometimes. What changes do you want of need to make?

Think about your changes for the next few days and be ready for Step Three.

Step Two:
Write your resolutions down and look at them each day, twice a day, and ask yourself, "Can I really do this?" Do this until Midnight on the 31st.  Sometime prior to midnight, ask yourself one more time if you really want this change.

Steps Three:
On January 1st, before noon, post your resolution(s) on Facebook and ask for help in keeping your resolution.

Post something like:
===============================
My New Year's Resolution:
I resolve...
One
Two
Three

I am asking my friends and family to help me keep these resolutions. If you see me falling short of these resolutions, please call me on it so I can stay on track. I need your help.
===============================

Step Four:
We can all help each other keep our resolutions with nice, polite, and loving reminders of each others resolutions.

Some ideas on resolutions... that may or may not be mine, are:
quite smoking...
drink less often...
stop drinking...
eat out less...
post only positive comments and share only positive posts on Facebook...
spend more time with family...
spend less time with those who are negative and bring you down...

You get the idea.

Life is too hard to go through it alone and we all need help from time to time -I don't care who you are, positive help from positive people is a great thing. When you see someone you care about doing something against their resolution, call them on it. However, as every coin has two sides, be prepared for people to call you out when you fall away from your resolution.

If you think this is a good idea, share this on your Facebook and wherever you like so maybe we can all make a change for the better. We all need improvement in our lives. Rather than posting negative comments on Facebook, or throwing blame around, or just being a negative person, let's all work together to make a positive change for once.

I hope everyone has a safe, happy, and positive 2015. 2014 is gone so let's not dwell on the past, instead, let's look forward to the future.

Fianl stages on Book Two

MErry Christmas, everyone... I hope 2014 was what you expected and was a great year for you.
What type of events get you feeling great? Christmas, Birthdays, what???

For me there are a few...

Seeing my wife when she comes home at the end of the day....
Hearing the National Anthem...
Hearing Amazing Grace....
When I am writing a story and my character takes a turn that I was not expecting...
Finishing a project....

And a few more...  There is nothing like making a plan, trying to stick to the plan, and actually finishing a project. Not to mention finishing the project on time, or better yet... EARLY!

Someone once told me to NOT set goals. Instead, make a plan. I have taken his advice, and .... well... I think it works. When something happens to take me "off-plan", it is not as discouraging as it would be if I missed a goal point. I do still keep a schedule in my Calendar of when I should have things done... just in case.

Having a goal, or at the very least some sort of plan, to me is crucial. I keep my deadlines in front of me somehow so I can be reminded of what is coming up so I can get back on track should I become distracted... A squirrel is just outside eating a Pecan.

How do you pronounce Pecan? is it Pee can, pr Pah, khan?

See how easily I get distracted. Now, we are all hungry for some pie, aren't we? Back to the subject at hand.

I really enjoy the feeling of finishing a project, the rush of that final period at the end of the final sentence, of the final chapter.... I am happy to say, my 2nd book is done and at my editor's office in New York.

The title is is still a working title so I can't announce it yet, but the book is scheduled to be released in May of 2015. At the end of my previous book, I had an excerpt, of the 2nd one, and announced the title to be "Plan Right and Pack Light".  This has changed. I will let it go once we finally have a title nailed down to the book cover.

It feels so good to be this close to another finished project. I had to be focused on my writing, my time management, my attitude, and be willing to overcome any roadblock I hit to make sure I finished the book on time, early even.

What do you do to keep you on track with your writing project?

Comment and let me know.

-Steve