Encouragement for NaNoWriMo Failures

Do you consider yourself a NaNo failure because you haven't churned out 50,000 words? I didn't, and I don't. My goal was to pick up my writing speed ... and I did it. I'm thinking I doubled it from 500-words-a-day to a thousand, sometimes more, depending on what the priority task is for the day.

Thanks to The Colorado Writer's Daily by Tamela Buhrke, I found Rachel Aaron's blog on how she increased her writing speed to 10,000 words a day.  --  The screaming you hear are my thumbs. If they could run, they'd be heading for the hills at such a thought. --  Aaron gives both some great macro- and micro-tips on increasing your word flow.  Give her a read. You may find something useful.

My favorite insight was one I sort of fell over while doing NaNoWriMo. -- I realized I didn't have to outline to increase my word flow. I just needed to know what direction I was going. I set up docs for my chapters: 1, 2, 3, etc. Then, started writing notes to myself at the top of each chapter in red. As a thought occurred to me, I'd jot it down on a sticky note ... and then, add it to an appropriate chapter. If the idea didn't get used when the chapter was done, I transferred it down the line ... until it was thrown away in the "bits and pieces" file.

Point: Even if you don't suceed in writing 50,000 words in one month, you may still have set a continuing pattern or habit that'll help you be more productive. Oh, yes. I realize NaNoWriMo isn't done as I write this, but I'm done. I quit trying before my thumbs gave out. Like, I'll be able to write tomorrow.

While not writing for Thanksgiving, I wrote a new opening chapter for The Somant Troubles ... which hooks readers with an unusual situation [I hope] that shows the MC's [Mariah] openness to the "99%" of the Marches. Then, the chapter introduces the continued bickering between Mariah and Linden plus how she maintains her friends at the Half-Elven military Camp even though Linden has banished her. 

Now, I still have to write the ending, ie. give more detail and action to the summary for chapters 20/21 or combine them into one. -- Who knows what'll happen tomorrow.

To Market , to Market to Sell a Fine Book

Marketing has become an unavoidable basic fact of a writer's life. Even if you have a major traditional publisher, you'll end up doing freelance promotion for your books.  So, I sit in my corner and grumble about my own miniscule efforts at book marketing.

Fact #1, I hate marketing. Always have ... even when I wrote successful ad copy.  Fact #2, I'm not absolved from the Basic Fact. Fact #3, it means I must get the maximum effect from the amount of time I spend on doing. 

So, loved it when Tamela Buhrke [Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Daily] included a blog link to a Maria Zannini article about: Three Layers of Book Promotion, from Tony Eldridge's blog Marketing Tips. Don't know what her sales are for her book, but to me, Zannini seems to be doing quite well with her marketing. I've caught her all over the web promoting her book Apocalypse Rising.  [[How's that for teamwork?]]

On the other hand, I'm not doing particularly well at all. Oh, I've sold a few books, but they're buried deep in the kelp bed and may never see the light of the surf. Maybe regular readers of my blog and a few others might know I have a couple ebooks floating around out there ... if they think hard enough to bring the memory to their fore-brains. So, I wondered what I was missing. If I figured the thing out, I might just jump-start my sales. Study time again. 

Zannini divides marketing into passive, active, and lateral forms. Thought I'd would've covered  the passive forms -- the do it once and leave it alone stuff of marketing -- best. Some of her thoughts didn't pertain to me, but I have a book trailer ... which people even watch and which has more than tripled visits to my Half-Elven website. 

Negatives: I need to revise my website home page. Big time. What needs to be done? Well, add the Taking Vengeance Facebook link and redo my business cards so I have links to the two ebooks for sale. Plus other stuff like getting an email catcher, something I haven't figured out a "prize" yet. There're some other things but I forgot them at the moment.

On the proactive side, I've touched all the bases except for book signings which don't apply to ebooks. I've heard some rumblings about ways to sign ebooks, but the technology escapes my understanding. [Yeah, I'm a computer klutz and can't even get the "like button" to appear at the top of the Taking Vengeance Facebook page.]

Then, there's the lateral forms of promotion. I surprised myself when I learned I was covering this base -- the blogging, Facebook, Twitter, social forum things -- more thoroughly than the others. One thing I haven't done is write articles on a consistent basis. 

So, if anyone wants to reprint this as a guest blog, you are more than welcome. You have my permission as long as you give me links to where people can buy Taking Vengeance and Cavern Between Worlds. Or, you could to give reference to this blog since the buy info's in the sidebar. Guess I could add I'm available for interviews, but that might be dangerous. I tend to say what I think.

My thoughts on my mixed achievement? All these are nice given time constraints. At the moment I'm leaning more and more to limiting my social networking activities to the afternoons where they compete with errands, doctor's appointments, gym visits and whatever else shows up on the calendar, including coffee with friends.

Hey, I have a life and set priorities according to my energy levels. I write first and foremost. Marketing's going to get squeezed in at the end.

Writing with an Irish Lilt

Writing Lesson:

Kevin Hearne wrote a nice Irish-oriented book -- Hounded, the first part of his Iron Druid Chronicles trilogy -- a well conceived fantasy.  His druid uses magic to work iron into his spells while he plays with the Tuatha De Danaan.  Maybe that's why this last of the druids has managed to survive 2000+ years.  

Don't get me wrong, Hearne has a firm grasp of Irish mythology, much better than many writers I've read.  He really manages to make the god characters fit in the modern world while, at the same time, they don't understand our foibles.
  

His set up of the druid is just as knowledgeable.  No new-age druid knock-offs for him.  The magic his protagonist uses fits seamlessly into the plot while he's trying to save his wolfhound's life as well as his own.  Each appearance of a god may seem idyllic -- until all hell breaks out and the tension winds tighter.  The best part?  Hearne managed to tie up all the loose ends and give the reader a neat forshadowing for the next book.  --  Any time spent studying his chapter arcs will be time well-spent.

And, what a nice feeling, it was, to see the book on my grocery store bookshelves -- an actual big publisher book by a blogger [Writer's Grove] I read and comment at regularly. But that doesn't make me biased.  I would have put the book on my trade pile and not mentioned it, if I didn't like it.  I liked the Irish voice and the Irish setting [in Arizona, for a good logical reason without belaboring the back story] a lot.  

Web Links:

I'm sure I use Twitter the wrong way lots of times when I tweet.  Nathan Bradford gives a run down on how to tweet correctly to give the most exposure to your comments:  How to Use the Twitter @Reply.  

Guess I'm in a Twitter vein.  Thanks to the AW Water Cooler Promotion forum, I found the new blog LKWatts Confessions.  She has a piece: Marketing Useful Tips.  Since I picked up an idea from her, I thought I'd share it.  On the same page, she talks about Twitter too.  If you're puzzled by hashtags [#], you should give her a click.

Since Twitter is a prime networking site, let's talk about another type of Networking.  Tamela Buhrke at Chiseled Rock blogged about networking with critiquers and agent/editors.  Interesting.  As I often said, good critiquers are worth their weight in gold ... or is that royalties?

 Progress:

I've managed to beta and critique a couple people's manuscripts.  Still, have some more stuff to go.  I'd use this as an excuse for being late in posting the blog, but I can't.  I wasted a whole day when my old man had cataract surgery [which, while not serious, is still a pain in the a*&@].

It's not all bad.  I only have four more chapters of Demons to edit.  Hope to have it done over the week-end.  But then, I thought that last Friday.

Trivia:

I found a new hobby -- as if I didn't have enough drags on my time -- bad haiku.  I'll be posting them on Facebook and Twitter ... and archive them here if I can figure out how to set up the page.  But, first ...  I have to get the fan page link for the Far Isle Half-Elven up on my website.

Sigh, a writer's work is never done.