2016 – New Beginnings

Those who follow this blog know that it fell silent last year. You probably know why, because I blogged about it. For those who don’t, the short form is, I was suffering from chronic depression and couldn’t manage to do anything for a while. It has taken eight months to get back to the point where I can function reasonably well, and even so there are days when I just can’t.

But today is not one of those days, and thanks to modern medicine, Mind Over Mood, and much support from the people I love, I am on the road to recovery.

Which leads us to this post.

I have plans for 2016. Lots of plans. I have stories to write and a novel to finish and another to write and another novel that I’m going to self-publish, which means marketing plans to make and execute and all sorts of other fun things.

And going to more conventions. I like conventions and need to get out of the house a bit more.

And I plan to talk about it all here.

I’ll be spending part of my January getting organized and figuring out my blog schedule, and then I’ll be posting regularly.

I hope you’ll join me.

Happy New Year, everyone.

Guest Post: The Making of Eerl by Raven Oak

Today I am very happy to present a GUEST POST!!! That's right, someone else came on and is saying smart things about their books. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Raven Oak, author of the bestselling fantasy novel Amaskan’s Blood, the science fiction novella Class-M Exile, and the upcoming space opera The Eldest Silence.

Raven Oak is here to tell us about how Earl, the lead character in "Class-M Exile" came to be...

The Making of Eerl

One morning, the birds were singing and the cats were complaining about their required food intake and the Seattle sun beamed directly into my eyes with fiery contempt for my sleep schedule. I sat up straight in bed and this book idea fell into my lap…

Actually, no.

That’s not it, though it sounds entertaining enough I suppose. Much more so than how Class-M Exile actually came to be.

The life of a writer is full of long hours that stretch into years, saint-like patience, thick-layered skin, and a certain need to finish the sentence. I was awaiting the line edits on book one of my epic fantasy, Amaskan’s Blood, and at the urging of a few writing buddies, decided to attend the Locus Writers’ Workshop.

Christopher Barzak and Connie Willis were the teachers that year, and in the workshop, we were asked to think of an event that impacted us emotionally when we were younger. We were given fifteen minutes to write it as an opening scene. The event, which I wrote about in an article called Dreaded Differences, dealt with a small town’s reaction to someone different. It dealt with prejudice and bullying and all the things a child shouldn’t have to swallow so early in life. Even twenty-five years later, I remember the incident as vividly as the sweaty black leather interior of my first car during a Texas scorcher.

We were asked to rewrite the same scene with a science fiction or fantasy twist. For me, I chose to rewrite my friend’s first day at school, but rather than a human somewhere as mundane as a Earth, she became a rare human—alone in the world and seeking answers to her past. The main character, Eerl, was a professor with an unhealthy fascination for almost-extinct humans. Eerl was also an alien (as were all the other characters in the book) with a deep Texas drawl because that’s what he thought all hu-man’s must sound like.

The opening carried the slapstick of Robert Aspirin and mixed it with my sarcasm as I wrote the intro scene. The novella became a social commentary on how prejudice dwells within each of us, no matter what our race, nationality, creed, gender, or religion. The response that opening scene drew encouraged me to finish the story, though doing so was akin to a root canal.

I didn’t have time for a full-length novel (after all, I had a sequel or three to write for Amaskan’s Blood), nor did I feel the story arc was long enough for one. And honestly, after such a reaction at Locus, could I continue to carry that level of writing? Could I finish it with the bang the story needed?

I pushed through until I finished the damn story, but it took longer to write than most novels. Then I revised it. And I revised it again. I walked through the process as normal.

Only this novella wasn’t normal. Something about this story sang inside me. I’d dived into a character’s head in a way I hadn’t before. Don’t get me wrong—folks love the strength and the voices of my characters in Amaskan’s Blood. Characters, along with world-building, are what I do best—but Eerl was special. He was bold.

He was different.

In every way that my friend was the antithesis of Texas, Eerl was this odd juxtaposition of alien and ‘down home’. Writing this novella was unlike anything I’ve ever done before. It was a glorious experiment and often while editing, I wondered if I’d gone quite mad in my creation.

Despite having lived in Texas for 22 years, I did not pick up or adopt the southern slang. No blessing your hearts or talkin’ to ya’ll like the letter ‘g’ weren’t no thang. My husband could always tell when I was editing because he’d call and reach Eerl—or at least the voice of Eerl. The thick Texas drawl would creep through the conversation like honeysuckles through plywood.

Eerl could say what I couldn’t. He gave voice to my doubts about the sanity of folks living in the south—folks who believed that if you weren’t a gun-totting, church-going, straight, white Republican, you were in the wrong state. Heck, you were in the wrong country.

Weirdos and hippies need not apply.

For all that heart blessing, I never felt comfortable speaking my mind much as a child in Texas. Some folks argue that as an author, I should bite my tongue and remain impartial to the injustices of the world, but I say they’re wrong. Science fiction has always held with the practice of asking difficult questions and pushing the boundaries. Just like Eerl—my mad experiment.

As a child, I was often too polite and afraid to stand up against prejudice, but as an author, doing so comes with the job description—even one written in a Texas drawl.

————
Raven Oak She spent most of her K-12 education doodling stories and 500 page monstrosities that are forever locked away in a filing cabinet. 

When she’s not writing,  she’s getting her game on with tabletop games, indulging in cartography, or staring at the ocean. She lives in Seattle, WA with her husband, and their three  kitties who enjoy lounging across the keyboard when writing deadlines approach.  

Raven is currently at work on Amaskan’s War and The Eldest Traitor.

Her works are available in paperback and eBook formats at booksellers worldwide. You can find Raven Oak on:

Facebook: http://facebook.com/authorroak 
Twitter:  http://twitter.com/raven_oak 
Google+: https://www.google.com/+RavenOak 
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/kaonevar/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/raven_oak 

Work Life Balance and How to Get Some…

Work life balance?

BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha….

Hee hee hee

Whew…

My Schedule, Simplified:

 (I say simplified because of course my child's activities are at different times on different days, but this gets you the idea):

6 a.m. – Get up
6:15 a.m. – Work out
7 a.m. - Get child out of bed, make breakfasts, make lunches, clean kitchen
7:45 – eat breakfast
8:00 – Martial arts with child
8:30 – Get breakfast
8:45 – Child goes to school, shave, shower
9:00 – Ghostwriting
1:00 – Lunch
1:30 – Writing
3:30 – Child comes home, snack, review schoolwork, piano practice, homework
4:30 - Make dinner
5:00 - Eat dinner
5:30 – Take child to activities
6:00 – Write while child does activities
8:00 – Go home, spend time with significant other
9:00 – Child goes to bed
10:00 – Brush teeth, stretching, meditation
11:00 – Lights out

My Reality

No plan ever survives contact with reality. See the schedule above?  Most days, if two thirds of it goes right, I’m a happy bunny.

Today, I could barely drag myself out of bed by 7:00, probably because last night I was doing a class at Rapier Wit and then we went out for milkshakes (because we are that cool). That meant I didn’t get to work out and won’t unless I decide to do it this evening, in which case I can either drop some writing time or some sleep. Neither is particularly appealing.

And if it’s a dark day (when my depression flares up) that two-thirds drops to one-third and if I’m lucky it’s the one third that pays my bills.

What’s My Point?

I don’t have one, I just wanted to whine.

Seriously?

Nah....
OK, maybe partially serious, but still…

Work Life Balance is What You Make It

I have a very full, very hectic schedule, and I know I’m one of the lucky ones. I don’t have a commute. I make a pretty good living doing what I love. I have a wonderful, lively, strong kid who has a lot of interests. I have a great relationship, and opportunities that others don’t have.

And sometimes I still feel out of whack. Like life is passing me by. Like I don’t ever, ever, EVER get to have fun.

And that’s when I realize I forgot to do some things, which I highly recommend to anyone who feels the same.

1. Plan Your Fun

Being spontaneous is great. But most times, if you’re an adult with kid(s) and a busy schedule, not planning your fun means you don’t have any. You glue yourself to the TV or the Internet and before you know it, the weekend is done and you did nothing.

Take some time each week to plan out your days off. Do it over dinner, if you can. It’s much better than spending the meal bitching about your day.

If you plan it, you are more likely to do it, which means you’ll be more likely to enjoy yourself on your time off.

2. Get more sleep

I try to sleep 7 hours a night (on the weekends, if I go to bed on time, I can get 8!).  Most times I sleep less sleep less.  That is bad.

When the schedule gets hectic, getting enough sleep is paramount because that’s what gives you the strength to go on, and gets you the energy you need so you can to the fun things you planned.

3. Accept that some time you just can’t…

Yep. Sometimes, things are not going to work out. Some days, everything goes wrong and all you can do is pull out your emergency straw and suck it up until the day is done.

The key thing with days like these is to reset at the end of them. Start tomorrow fresh (easier said than done, I know) and look at how you can plan the next day so it doesn’t get quite so bad.

Next Time: Keeping a clean house, writer style…

Black Dogs, Carbs and Deadlines – A Post on Depression

It took me three months to write this post. Part of it was a lack of courage, part of it was...

Well, read it and you'll figure it out.

Ever had one of those days where you can’t get off the couch? Ever had a week of them?  How about a month?  How about on and off for most of a year?

Yeah, that was my last year, maybe my last two. I’m not sure.

Falling into the Pit

This January I was doing a lot of lying on the couch. I as behind on my book, I was behind on my marketing plan, I’d stopped blogging (in case you hadn’t noticed) and I was only barely functioning in other parts of my life.  I spent far too much time web-surfing and far too little functioning, and everything I loved wasn’t making me happy anymore.

I think it was that last that caught my attention. I LOVE writing. I LOVE martial arts. I LOVE my kid, my girlfriend, and my life, generally. But I didn’t love any of it anymore.

I began web-surfing again, only this time it was actually research. It didn’t take long.

Then I called my doctor, took some tests and got the diagnosis:

Depression

Not “I’m sad” depression but full-out clinical depression. On the scale they use, I’m “moderate to severe.” Which means that I have a chance of dealing with it without meds. Could be worse. Could be better.

Winston Churchill used to call depression “the black dog,” which seems unfair to dogs, but we all need our metaphors (and for a series of good articles on male depression, check out The Art of Manliness series “Leashing the Black Dog.”).

For me, it’s more like a loa riding me. This loa hates sunlight and life and activity. It hates everything I love and when it rides me, I can’t be bothered to do the things I care about. And there is no way to appease this loa; no Houngan to help make it leave. The only way to get rid of it is to lie curled up on the couch, mindlessly numbing my brain with TV or internet until it gets bored and goes away for a while.

Annoying doesn’t begin to cover it.

Treatment

So what to do about it?  First step was seeing a doctor. He said that the level of depression I was at was possible to treat without medication. The treatment itself is easy enough:

• Get exercise
• Eat healthy
• Get enough sleep
• Reduce your stressors

Also, having goals to work towards help keeps your brain focused, and taking on responsibilities keeps you thinking forward instead of giving up. In my case, writing to deadline covers both those and is a great motivator.

The problem is, treating the depression like this is tricky. One misstep; one missed workout or deadline or night without enough sleep, and the loa jumps on again and tries to pull everything else off track as well.

This last couple of months have seen a lot of missteps.

Side note: Do you know why people who are depressed binge on carbs? Self-medication. Eating carbs releases serotonin, which makes you feel happier. I ate a lot of carbs over the past winter.

My other option is anti-depressants. They do work for many, many people, some of whom I know. But I’m leery of them. Their side effects can be as bad as the depression itself, sometimes worse.

Or maybe I just don’t want to admit I have that little control over what’s going on in my head.

So that’s what’s been going on with me, why things have been quiet, and what I’m up to.  I’m not sure if this was a wise post to write, but I needed to write it. Now, back to work. I have a book to write.

Actually, I have about ten, but one thing at a time…

Next Week: Work-life what?

Look! It's my Ad Astra Schedule!

Yes, I finally got around to posting this. And despite my lateness, I am actually pretty stoked.

Ad Astra is my favourite convention, and if you haven't gone I highly recommend you should. Good people, good times, and a focus on authors and other creative professionals.  This isn't the place to go to see famous actors and movie stars, but it is the best place to go to hang out with some great names in Canadian Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror literature.

In fact, I recommend you come on the Friday night and start off the convention with a book launch. You know, my book launch.

So here's what I'm doing, and if you're coming, come see me!

Friday

Book Launch: Dragon Moon Press presents True Magics by Erik Buchanan

Time: 8:00 PM - Until they kick us out!
Room: Event Suite

Join Dragon Moon Press for the launch of the third book in Erik Buchanan's Thomas Flarety stories. True Magics brings our hero right into the middle of a conflict between church and state for control of magic, and Thomas's actions may decide not only his fate, but the fate of the kingdom.

Readings, chocolate, prizes, chocolate, refreshments, chocolate, and, of course, lots of good books for sale! If you go to only one book launch Friday night, make it this one!

Saturday

Melee Combat: Separating Fact From Fiction

Time: 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Room: Oakridge
Panellists: Chris A. Jackson, KW Ramsey, Russ Howe
There are a lot of myths and misconceptions when it comes to fighting with swords and other melee weapons. This panel will bring them to light and discuss how to write great combat scenes while still getting it right.

Late Night Bad Fiction Reading

Time: 11:00 PM - 2:00 AM
Room: Newmarket
Panellists: Angela Keeley, Matt Moore, Michael Matheson, Simon McNeil

An 18+ late evening event that lasts until everyone's ears are bleeding or the readers simply can't go on.

Sunday

Ghosts in Popular Culture: From Caspar to Ghost Whisperer

Time: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Room: Oakridge
Panellists: Derek Newman-Stille, Douglas Cockell, Gail Z. Martin

Is one of the classic horror set pieces being relegated to jump scares and reality TV camera tricks? What made ghosts of past stories interesting and what would bring this genre staple back out of the shadows?

History of Monsters: Things that go Bump in the Night

Time: 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Room: Aurora
Panellists: Denis McGrath, Kari Maaren, Matt Moore

We love imagining the monster in the dark...Around the corner. Under our bed. Why? Where does our fascination begin? Is it from some primal fear left from our earliest ancestors or have we been inventing our monsters simply because we want there to be something out there?

Readings: Erik Buchanan & Chris A. Jackson

Time: 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Room: Buttonville
Panellist: Chris A. Jackson

I'll be reading from True Magics, for those who missed the party , and maybe even my entry into the Chizine Bad Poetry contest (and believe me, it is bad, bad poetry). Chris Jackson writes Pirate fiction and is amazing at it.

TRUE MAGICS IS OUT!!!

Rumours of Magic and War...

 Thomas Flarety, Captain of the Student Expeditionary Company and hero of the battle for Frostmire, thought that convincing the Academy to take Eileen as their first female student in more than 200 years would bring him trouble enough.

Then stories of Thomas’s magic reached Hawksmouth.

Now, Thomas’s friends have started disappearing. The king has ordered Thomas to keep his magic hidden and to find the other magicians in the city. The Cult of the Daughter wants Thomas for one of their own. The Archbishop wants Thomas to surrender to the Inquisitors and redeem his soul, and preachers are raging in the streets against witchcraft, the Academy and the king.

With Hawksmouth falling into chaos and the Academy divided against itself, Thomas must save his friends, find the other magicians, and decide what to do with his magic before the struggle between the king and the archbishop turns into an all-out war that will destroy everyone and everything he loves.

Buy your copy on Amazon here!

Haven't read any of my books yet?

Thanks to my publisher, Dragon Moon Press, you can get a great deal: All three of my Thomas Flarety Stories in ebook for only $9.98.

Click here to get get the books, and use coupon code TRU3-1 at the checkout!
Thanks to Dragon Moon Press for waiting on this one, and everyone who supports my writing.

Next Post: Ad Astra Book Launch and Schedule!

Marketing True Magics 16 – What do You Mean, Start Over?

As much as I’d love to say, “New Year, New Ideas!” that is not the case here.  The reality of the part-time marketer is that the best-laid plans go awry.

Three things led my marketing plan astray:

1. Took longer than I expected to finish the last edit of the book, which meant time way from marketing (We’re still good for our April launch though!).

2. Facebook changed its algorithm again, which means I have to rethink (read: ditch and do something different) all the Facebook stuff I was planning.

3. And then I got sick.  Dammit.

But on the bright side, this mean you all get to follow me on a desperate journey to figure out how to market the book without much time! How exciting is that? I’m thrilled to go on this adventure! Thrilled!  Like Bilbo Baggins with a dining room full of dwarves! Like Alice falling down the rabbit hole!  Like Sir Gawain awaiting the strike from the Green Knight’s axe!

All right, maybe “thrilled” is not the word I’m looking for….

But stay tuned!  In two weeks I’ll be putting up my first new marketing post of the year: Cutting to the Chase or Biggest Bang for the Buck!

Meanwhile, buy Small Magics and Cold Magics, because you want to know what all the fuss is about, don’t you?

Next Week: This Writing Life 20: My Many Methods of Outlining

This Writing Life 19: Fear

First off, Happy New Year, 22 days late!

I suffer from migraines, which are a massive pain (HA!).  This week I had one that started as an attack of blind panic.  Complete mental immobilization. Scared of everything. I couldn’t think, couldn’t work, couldn’t focus my brain.  It wasn’t until my head started hurting that I figured out what was going on, took some drugs and was finally able to focus again. By the time I did, I’d lost a day.

I hate it when that happens.

And much as I’d like to say that was the inspiration for this blog post, it wasn’t.  But it did act as a catalyst to finally write what’s been kicking around in my head for about three months. Because there’s stuff I’m afraid of, and it affects my work.

What If…

 “What if” is one of my favourite questions. It’s the beginning of all fiction. Without “What if” there would be no stories.

Unfortunately, it’s also the beginning of all the fears:

What if I can’t finish the story? What if it won’t sell? What if I’m wasting my time?  What if it’s no good? What if everything I write is actually garbage? What if everyone decides I’m a fraud? What if I never sell anything ever again? What if the people reading this don’t immediately go out and buy Small Magics and Cold Magics?  (hint, hint) What if no one buys True Magics (coming in April) and my social media campaign fails and I have to go back to working in offices? What if, what if, what if…

Too many of the bad “What if” questions and suddenly you’re suffering from…

Fear Paralysis

The amygdala (fun word to say out loud. Amygdala. Amygdala… but I digress) is the part of the brain that, among other things, controls our basic emotional responses. Originally, there were believed to be only two responses: fight or flight.  New research into the amygdala indicates there is at least one more: freeze.  Makes perfect sense really. “There is a giant sabretooth tiger out there trying to kill me. If I hold perfectly still, nothing bad will happen.”

Unfortunately, the freeze reaction that can keep us alive against sabretooths (sabreteeth?) can also overwhelm us when we’re engaged in high-stress situations, like trying to make a living as a writer and all the nasty, self-exposing tasks that are involved in this line of work.

It’s gets so tempting to give into the freezing.

“If I don’t do anything, then nothing bad will happen,” is a wonderfully comforting idea. No risk, no danger, no nothing. Just hiding comfortably under the covers, with occasional ventures out for the bathroom and food.

The problem is, it’s a false idea. The truth is “If I don’t do anything, then nothing will happen. Ever.” No success, no new stories, no chance of ever being something more than an office drone.

But it is so tempting, some days…

Breaking the Paralysis

So what can we do to stop he paralysis that keeps us from getting things done? Three ideas:

1. Do Something Scarier. In my time I’ve scrambled up mountains, earned two black belts, and stood in the delivery room waiting for my daughter to take her first breath long after she should have (she did, eventually, which proves that stubbornness runs in the family).  And when you have scary things like that under your belt, you can use them to counter the other fears. Sure, a marketing plan is hard. So is writing a book or sending it to an agent for the first time. But if you can say to yourself “I did this scary thing, so how hard can that be?” it can help you break the paralysis.

2. Use Logic. Much of our paralysis comes from ongoing negative self-talk (to fall into psychology-speak for a moment). We think bad things about ourselves and keep repeating them until we start to believe them. The talk makes the problems bigger and bigger until they seem insurmountable. When we start thinking logically about the problem and questioning that self-talk, we can take control of the fear and that can help us break the paralysis.

3. Count to Three and Jump (and have someone help you). I am afraid of heights. All right, terrified. And when I ran the Tough Mudder (which is not on my list of hard things because really, not that tough) there was an obstacle that was a 15-foot jump into water. So I worked out a plan with my partner. We would stand at the top, count to three, and on three we would jump. We did, I did, and it worked fine (I don’t recall if I screamed all the way down or not, but 15 feet is a relatively short fall).  And sometimes, that’s the only way to beat the fear paralysis. Count down and jump.

But have someone counting with you, because scary things are a lot easier to do when you have someone counting with you.


Next week: Back to to marketing with, "What do you mean, start over?"

A Christmas Eve Ghost Story

Merry Christmas Eve! And to add a little spice to your evening, have a brand new ghost story:

'Til Dawn Comes

Merry Christmas, all. See you in the New Year!

This Writing Life 18 – Holi-Whats?

(Note: Wow did I lie to myself about how long it would take to finish editing True Magics. But it's done! And now, a blog post!)

It’s the time when income slows down to a trickle and expenses are blooming like dandelions in a Kentucky Bluegrass lawn in spring and you wonder how in the world you’re going to survive until January when everyone realizes that there’s a ton to do before year end and wonders who is going to write their annual report (hint: me) or whatever.

So as I sit here in my kitchen at 4:30 a.m., regretting my movie night snack choices over a cup of mint and ginger tea, I thought it would be a great time to talk about holidays. Or, as I like to think of them…

Selective Unemployment

Because let’s face it, if you’re freelancing, you don’t get vacation pay, you don’t get retirement pay, and you don’t get health insurance.  You get work, you get a pay cheque, and with a little luck you get by, at least for the first few years. Who has time for a holidays?

You do.

You Need a Holiday

If you’re a writer, your world can become very small. Mine consists of a kitchen and a computer, most days. Even if you love your job (and I really, really love my job), you need some time away from it.

Holidays allow us to see beyond ourselves. They refresh body and spirit, and expand horizons and let us see some of the world and our fellow humans. All of this feeds you creatively, recharges you and becomes grist for the mill.

The nice thing is that holidays don’t have to be expensive. You don’t always need to fly off to a foreign, exotic destination (pauses to imagine…. OK, back now). Going hiking or touring your own city’s tourist spots or visiting the relatives you like can all be just as nice.

But no matter how little or much you spend, holidays do mean taking a break from your routine, which means not earning money.

So Plan for It

The space between Christmas and New Year is a great time to sit down and say, “what do I want to do next year?”

I’m not talking namby-pamby “resolutions,” here.  Those are for people who don't want to commit.

I’m talking hard-core, project-management-style planning, with a white board and sticky notes and a spreadsheet and whatever other tools you need to get where you want to go.

Five steps:

1. Figure out what you want to do and how much it’s going to cost
2. Figure out what you need to spend to survive (food, shelter, bills, debts, taxes, retirement savings, education funds, insurance, whatever)
3. Figure out the difference between the two.
4. Develop a S.M.A.R.T.* plan to either:
1. save the difference or 
2. earn the difference.
5. Commit to saving/earning that money and stick to it.

Yeah, I know that last one is the hard part. But it’s worth it.

Be Realistic

Sorry to be a downer here but yes, you need to put some realism in your planning. If your take home is only exceeding your expenses by few cents a day, now is not the time to drop $100,000 on a week on a private island.  Plan for something you can afford, or something you can reasonably work toward affording without selling organs or your children.

(Seriously, don’t sell your kids. I know it can be tempting sometimes but the market is down and you’ll never get back what they cost. Also, what sort of a bad person are you?)

That’s it until the New Year. Happy Holidays, whichever ones you celebrate, and I’ll blog at you again in January.

Next Time… I have no clue. So come back in January to find out!

*S.M.A.R.T.: Specific, Measureable, Actionable, Realistic, Time-Specific

Blog Pause!

My Editor is giving me the side eye for True Magics, so I'll be taking the week off blogging to get that done and out.

Meanwhile, Have you bought Small Magics or Cold Magics? Because you'd hate to be behind when True Magics comes out in April.

Talk to you all next week!

Friday Free Flash Fiction! This Week: Non-Contact

Aliens have come to our solar system and Earth is... being ignored?

Non-Contact by Erik Buchanan. Click here to read the story.

This Writing Life 17: When is a Project Dead?

Sometimes we have pieces that just don’t work.  At all.  I’ve got at least a half-dozen short stories and one novel that will never, ever see the light of day.  Ever. But how do you know when you’ve gotten to that point?  How do you know when your labour of love/hate is dead as a Dickensian doornail and needs to be abandoned?

So let’s start with the obvious:

How Big is the Project?

If it’s a Haiku
And you’re not happy with it
Write another one.

Anything larger (and even that haiku) is worth a one last look.  And if it’s the novel you’ve been working on for the last year that you’re two-thirds of the way done but just can’t get to “the end” then it’s definitely worth trying to figure out what’s wrong with it before you toss it away.

So how do we do that?

Step Away From It

Sometimes, the best thing you need to do is to take time away from the project. Work on something else. Clean your apartment/house/whatever. Go for a seven-day hike in the bush. Whatever it is you do to put some time between yourself and a project, go do that. And when you are done that, come back and look at it with fresh eyes.

Figure Out Why It Isn’t Working

Sometimes, once you know why something isn’t working, you can fix it. With both Small Magics and Cold Magics (which you really should buy), I got badly stuck. So bad I didn’t think I could go on.  So I went back and read through each one and in both cases, figured out what I did wrong and managed to finish the book.

So go through your work and find out what’s wrong:

• Is it a character thing?  
• A plot thing?
• Are you focusing too much on the theme at the expense of the story? 
• Do you just absolutely and completely hate everything about the book and everyone in it?

Then ask yourself two questions:

• Can I fix it?
• Is it worth the effort?

Usually the answer is yes. Sometimes it’s no.  Both are all right, because they allow you to move on.

Let Someone Else Look at It

I don’t usually recommend this with unfinished work, but sometimes you just need an outside set of eyes to look it over and help you see the problems and get past them. If you do decide to do that, make sure of three things:

1. The person you get to read it will be brutally honest with you.
2. The person knows you only want them to help find what's wrong, not to help you write it.
3. You can deal with it like an adult if they agree with you that it’s so bad it can’t be fixed.

As with Figuring out what's wrong, this may lead to a fix, it may not. Both results are good.

Let It Go

Cue Disney song here and no, I’m not linking to the video.

Seriously. You’ve taken time off, you’ve figured out what’s wrong, you’ve had friends try to help.  If, after doing that, you decide it can’t be fixed, or that you hate it too much to bother, then let it go. Move on to your next project with a lighter heart and a happy grin because you tried.

Two Notes:

If You’re Getting Paid for It, Finish It

If the contract is signed, you need to deliver, whether or not you end up working on stuff you don’t like/hate/despise with a holy passion. Finish it anyway. Because writers who don’t finish work they’re getting paid for are writers who quickly end up with no work to do.

That Said…

If you are ready to chuck in the towel on a paid project, you need to ask yourself some things first:

• How much money will you lose?
• What damage will it do to your relationship with the client?
• What damage will it cause to your reputation?
• Will you be sued for non-completion of the contract?

If the answers to those questions are something you can live with, quitting may be an option, but generally, if you are getting paid, the best thing to do is to finish.

Then, you can promise yourself to never work for that client/ on that type of project/for that little money again.


Next Time: But I don't WANT to read in public...

Marketing True Magics 15: 10,000 Twitter Followers! Now What?

I now have 10,000 twitter followers!  Joy! Excitement! Thrills!

Sort of…

Why 10,000?

Because it’s big shiny number and it looks impressive!

No, seriously.

I wrote here why I used follow-backs to gain followers. In short, it allows me to find people with similar interests and market to them. Cold blooded? Yes. Effective? Time will tell.

What Does Having 10,000 Followers Get Me?

1. ReTweeters!

If you talk about interesting things, people re-tweet you. Last week, I got 21.9K views of what I tweeted, and 177 link visits. Not bad at all. Because more views lead to…

2. More Followers!

 10,000 followers sufficiently large enough that anyone who sees one of my tweets or re-tweets and clicks on my profile might say, “Hey, this guy has a lot of followers. Maybe he’s interesting…” and read through some of my posts, which should (if I’m doing my job right) make them decide that yes, I am worth following, which then turns them into…

3. Potential Customers

I need people to buy my books so I can eat.  And every person who follows me on Twitter is a person who may buy my book. And in the end, that’s what this is all about.

What Having 10,000 Followers Doesn’t Get Me

1. Fans

Followers are not fans. Fans buy your books, read your stories, come see you when you are in town, and promote your work to other people. Followers follow you on Twitter.

The good news is you can convert followers into fans with work. Not all of them, but enough to make a difference which is why I don’t have…

2. Time to Relax

Must keep the information flowing.  Must keep the fun and exciting tweets going out. Must start the Christmas “Buy my Books” Campaign.  Must begin developing contests and twitter talks and other exciting things so people will keep paying attention.  But doing all that on Twitter does not give me…

3. An Excuse Not to Use Other Marketing 

Twitter is nice, and I started with it because it’s the easiest. But email lists work far, far better and that’s an area I haven’t even started figuring out yet. I still need to develop my Google+ presence, and my Facebook page for those who are already fans. Then there’s planning next year’s convention and promotion circuit to go with my new book (True Magics, out in April).  And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

And speaking of that…

Next week: Marketing Plans 2: Why do I need all this background stuff?

This Writer’s Life 16: There’s no such thing as writer’s block (and how I deal with it)

I was hoping to make a joke about how I was trying to write about writer’s block and got writer’s block from attempting to write, and be all meta or something. (Is that meta? What is meta anyway? Is it meta to reference meta, or is it only meta when I reference myself referencing meta?)

Anyway…

The Myth of Writer’s Block

One day, you sit down (or stand at your standing desk) take out your pen and paper or open your laptop or take out your clay tablet and spike (I’m looking at you, writer of Gilgamesh) and you prepare to start writing but, horror of horror, nothing comes!  I can’t write! I have writer’s block! I’ll never write again!

Yeah. Right. Suck it up, Buttercup.

There is no such thing as writer’s block. It is a myth writers invented to give themselves an excuse not to work on their projects. (And won’t that statement make me popular, eh?)

The Brain Never Stops Working

Seriously, never. You are designed to have continuous brain function and to be continually observing, thinking and reacting.  Doesn’t matter how good you are at meditation, doesn’t matter how tired you are, doesn’t matter how much TV you’re watching. The brain is always going.

Which means you are always able to write.

If it’s not Writer’s Block, What is It?

It’s called being stuck and it happens. And the nice thing about being stuck is, whether is a car in the snow, a boot in the mud, or your story on a page, you can unstick yourself (and for those who want to argue about drowning in quicksand, that is not being stuck, that is being caught and yes, I am being overly pedantic).

Here are some of the tricks I use:

1. Start Writing Anyway

Seriously. WRITE. Write what your character is wearing. Write what room they are in. Write the weather for that day in the story. Write “ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY” a few dozen times (unless you and your family are alone in an isolated creepy hotel in the middle of winter in which case, better not). The very act of writing something can be enough to get your brain going and get you back on task.

2. Questions and Answers

Ask yourself questions about the project and write down the answers. How does the character feel about his/her mother?  Why is he in that room?  Why did you make her wear the red shoes with the green pants? What will the rain do to the fields? Doing this forces you to think about the characters, their world, their lives and relationships and helps you get into your project.

3. Do an Outline

I used to hate outlines. These days I rarely write without one because they act as signposts on the way to “the end” and get me there faster. Outline your story. If that’s too big, outline the chapter. If that’s too big, outline the scene.  Break it down into smaller and smaller pieces until you have something you can write. Then write it.

4. Edit

If I’m in mid-project and stuck, I go back 5 or ten pages and edit. I clean up the language; tighten up the character’s lines; improve the descriptions.  This forces me back into the world of the story, which can give me the boost I need so that when I get to that blank part of the page, I can keep on going.

5. Go Back and Read

When I get really badly stuck it’s usually because somewhere I’ve done something that makes it impossible to move the story forward. Maybe the demon was supposed to come to terms with its raccoon mother but I killed the kid already.  Maybe the matching pants and shoes will save the world but I made her wear red and green.  Maybe the rain was supposed to put out the small fire they were building but I wrote the driest summer ever and now there’s a grass fire.   Whatever it is, I’ve messed up the story. So I start reading from the beginning until I find the place where the story stops making sense. Then I fix it and get it moving forward again.

Need other Suggestions?

Hayden Trenholm (author, publisher, and all-round smart man) wrote a great post on Writer’s Block  that is well worth reading. There are also (according to Google) 13,570,000 other articles on the Internet about writer’s block.  Search through and you’ll find something that suits your process.

But no matter what, write.

Next Time: When is a project dead?

Marketing True Magics 14: What is a Marketing Plan?

(Also called "Building a Marketing Plan, part 1." I thought I should change the title to reflect what we’re talking about. I hear that helps people to know what they’re reading and, you know, find stuff on the internet.)

Meanwhile:

It’s Planning Time!

This is the fun part of the whole thing. Planning!  Figuring out every action you’re going to take for the next six months and justifying your reasons for every single one. Fun!

No, seriously. It’s fun.

I love planning. Planning is the thing that makes everything else work, and when each step of the plan works you get to do a little happy dance.

Of course, you need to be flexible in your planning because, no plan ever survives contact with reality intact. So you plan in flexibilities and contingencies and hope you’ve thought of everything.

Before I start waxing eloquent on all that (which will be over the next several posts), I thought I’d use this post to define what a marketing plan is and does:

Marketing Plan – Short Definition

A marketing plan is a detailed document that explains exactly what you will do to convince people to buy your products, and why you are doing it that way.

What a Marketing Plan Does

Forbes puts it like this:

“The right marketing plan identifies everything from 1) who your target customers are to 2) how you will reach them, to 3) how you will retain your customers so they repeatedly buy from you.”

Sounds simple enough, right?

Right....

Elements of a Marketing Plan

Unfortunately, the devil (and a lot of annoying perspiration) is in the details. And while Forbes definition is correct, there are a lot of things you need to do to get there.

Background: This section examines all elements of the environment in which a product is being sold, including:

• Date of product release
• Venues of sale
• State of the market for product
• Competition
• Previous products
• Success/failure of previous marketing efforts
• Financial state of the organization
• Resources available for marketing
• Benefits of marketing the product for the organization

Marketing Objective: How much of what are you trying to sell by when? And yes, you need to have an end date. Otherwise it isn’t a plan, it’s a long, slow march towards obscurity.

Communications Objectives: What things do you want people to think, feel and do so they will buy your product?

Target Audiences: To whom are you selling your products? And which people do those people listen to who could help you sell your product?

Key Messages: What will you say to convince your target audiences to buy the product? What other messages can you use to support that message and who will you say them to?

Channels: What channels will you use to market your products? Note this is not where you are selling them, but where you are convincing people to buy them.

Communications Strategies, Tactics and Evaluations: This is the brass tacks stuff.

• Strategy: What you will do to achieve your communication objectives
• Tactics: How you will do it.
• Evaluation: How will you measure success for each tactic and strategy.

Critical Success Factors: Without these nothing else will come together. Example: you are selling a book, but you don’t actually write it. Marketing campaign fail.

Tactical Map: This is where you get to play with spreadsheets! Look at all your tactics for all your strategies and figure out:

• How are you going to do it?
• When does it start, when does it end? (timeline)
• Who is going to do it and who is going to support them?
• How much you’re going to spend on it? (budget)

Next Steps: Assuming all this works out, then what do you do?

So just a little bit of work to do, right?

I’ll be continuing on about marketing plans in 2 weeks. But first...

Next week: 10,000 Twitter followers. Now What?

This Writing Life 15: Getting Through The Bad Days

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER

This article does not deal with mental health issues. Mental health issues are a whole other kettle of fish.  If you think you suffer from a mental health issue, the Health Information Page on the CAMH website has good information. Read it and visit your doctor.

If you are in crisis, if feel you want to kill or hurt yourself or someone else, please call 911, or your local emergency number.

I like you and want you to stick around. Get help.

That Being Said…

Everyone has days where things don’t get done and goals don’t get met. Where they stare at their computer/tool bench/blank canvas/empty notebook/whatever, and bemoan their art, their job, their family and their existence. I’ve had several of them recently, and they’re what inspired this post.

Fortunately, here at Erik Buchanan Writing and Communications, we have come up with an effective solution:

Suck It Up, Buttercup

Yeah. Seriously. Suck it up.

As soon as you finished reading this post and have out of sheer gratitude purchased my books, Small Magics and Cold Magics, get off your couch/chair/self-made cross and do something productive.

Anything productive.

It doesn’t have to be a big thing; it just has to be something. Because even the tiniest accomplishment makes the difference.

That last sentence is so important it’s worth repeating, rephrasing, expanding and putting in bold and italics:

When you are having a bad day, do something productive because even the smallest accomplishment makes a difference, and can motivate you to accomplish other things.

So suck it up, Buttercup, and go do something. And if you need help getting started, here’s a process:

Step 1: Make a list

Get something to write with and something to write on, and make a list of things that need doing.  Not things that you want to do, or things that you like to do, things that need doing.

Don’t number the list, because numbers give a false sense of priorities. Put little checkboxes beside each one.

Step 2: Do the simplest thing on your list

It may be taking out the trash. It may be deleting the spam in your email account. It may be putting on pants (no, seriously, it may well be that on a bad day).  Whatever the simplest, easiest thing to do is on your list do that.

Congratulations! You have accomplished something! Celebrate it! Pat yourself on the back and….

Step 3: Do the next simplest thing on your list

You can see where this is going, right?

Each task that you accomplish reinforces your perception of yourself as a person who gets things done.  Even if you only get one little thing done today, that means you know you’re capable of getting at least one thing done in a day.  Tomorrow, shoot for two.

But What if There’s Nothing Simple on My List?

Then you are thinking too big. Take the big tasks and break them down into small tasks. Example: Do the dishes.

Doing the dishes is not one action, it’s several actions:

• Finish your coffee
• Take the dirty dishes from the dining room (if you have one)
• Take the dirty dishes from the bedroom (hey, don’t judge)
• Pile the dishes on the counter
• Take the dirty dishes out of the sink
• Rinse out the sink.
• Put in the plug
• Fill the sink with water
• Wash a glass
• Repeat until all glasses are done
• Wash a plate
• Etc., etc., etc.

You may not manage to get all the dishes done, but each step brings you closer.

So suck it up, Buttercup, and get stuff done. Because you and I both know that you can. You just need to get started.

Next Week: Writer’s Block Doesn’t Exist And How I Overcome It

Marketing True Magics 13: How’s that Marketing Plan Going?

Uhhh… good. Really good. Yeah. Things are going great right now.  I have 8,972 Twitter followers.  No problem. Excellent. Amazing in fact…

Did I mention the 8,972 Twitter followers?

All right, I’m not where I want to be, which brings us to the real point of this post:

Staying on Track

The biggest danger of a marketing plan is that we think of it as set-it and forget-it, like a land mine. And like a land mine such thinking can blow up in our faces.

What have I done with my marketing plan?

• Built my twitter following
• Made desultory attempts to build my facebook page
• Blogged a lot
• Thought about how to re-jig the marketing plan to improve it

And that’s it. Because I have a plan, and once you’ve got the plan, that’s half the game, right?

Right. A half-won game is called a loss. What I want is a win.

The first step in fixing a problem is admitting you have one.  So having done that in as public a manner as possible, it’s time to start fixing it.

So, how do we do that?

COMMIT!

A marketing plan isn’t like online dating. It’s a long-term relationship that needs to be nurtured, checked in on, and developed. Sometimes it needs to be chucked and started over, but that’s a different conversation.

I have not been checking in on the marketing plan. I’ve been faithful about building my twitter followers and keeping my feed fun and alive. I’ve been fairly faithful about blogging, but that’s about it. It’s the equivalent of doing the dishes once a week and saying you’ve done your share of the housework.

Avoid the “Tyranny of the Urgent”

(Not my phrase, and if you know whose it is, let me know so I can credit them properly.)

Remember that post on scheduling? Urgent/not urgent/important/not important? I’ve allowed my attention to get swallowed up by the urgent. Now some of that urgent is important:

• Taking care of my child
• Keeping my relationship with my girlfriend healthy
• Earning money to pay the bills

But a lot of it is not:

• Must finish that computer game
• Must check twitter every 5 minutes
• Must read the news compulsively
• Must track friends on Facebook
• Must find out what happens next on Protect the Boss (Korea does good drama, by the way).

None of that gets me any closer to the big goal of this marketing plan (selling more copies of True Magics) nor does it help me build a viable marketing platform to use for future book sales.  And looking closely at that first list of important and urgent things I’m doing, what do you not see?

Writing. 

My writing. Client writing is under “earning money to pay the bills” but just paying the bills isn’t the goal, is it?

The goal is to write my books/stories/screenplays/we series for a living, and if I am not writing, and if I’m not marketing, I’m not getting near my goal.

Well, that’s enough of that, folks.

Getting Back on Track

The first step is to get back on schedule overall, with the necessary changes to make it happen.  I revamped mine over the weekend. It includes:

• Daily writing time
• Daily marketing time
• Daily client time
• Family time
• Internet/TV time (very limited)

Second step is to turn my anti-distraction software back on.  I use Antisocial, which I highly recommend if you have a Mac.

Third step is the hardest one: get to work. Because planning is one thing, but if you’re not doing, you’re not going anywhere. For my marketing plan, that means:

• Get the marketing plan up on the calendar!
• Set goals for each week based on the plan
• Meet that week’s goals
• Measuring the success of those goals
• Set next week’s goals based on the plan and success of previous week’s goals

So back on track and let's get this plan going! And speaking of planning...

Next week: Building a Marketing Plan Part 1 (and yes, I should have talked about this earlier)

This Writing Life 14: Why I Hate Writing Groups (and why you might want to join one)

Many writers like writing groups. They find them helpful, useful, and companionable. They find people with common goals, common interests and a common desire to help each other succeed.

I don’t.

My Writing Group Experiences

The first writing group I joined was led by two psychiatrists big into literary fiction and poetry.  I was writing a screenplay about a Kung Fu student who has to fight of an army of invading demons. They critiqued it my half-finished draft and I never finished it.

Not a good fit.

My second writing group was with two dear friends.  Both are smart, both write well, both had projects they were working on.  Neither was trying to writer for a living, which is too bad, because what they wrote was good.

Our meetings became irregular.  People didn’t have the promised pieces when they were supposed to have them.  We didn’t get a chance to meet often and eventually it dissolved.

What Went Wrong?

First time?  I was young and not sure what I was looking for. I didn’t know what I wanted from a writing group, and how it was supposed to work.  I joined a group of people with different goals and expectations, and as a result felt out of place and that my work was being critiqued for what it wasn’t (literary fiction) instead of what it was (kung fu movie with mythic elements using both “realistic” and “fantasy” kung fu tropes as well as elements of horror to create a multi-dimensional adventure).

I really should finish writing that.

Second time, it was about commitment. All of us were building our careers, but mine was the only one that was a career in writing. The other two had other concerns. There was no set agenda, no dedication to the group, and so it faded away.

On the Other Hand

There are many writers who swear by writing groups, Julie Czerneda [http://www.czerneda.com], whose new book, A Play of Shadow [http://www.czerneda.com/fantasy/play.html} launches next week, and Brandon Sanderson [http://brandonsanderson.com ] (best known for completing Robert Jordan’s “Wheel of Time” series and an excellent writer in his on right) among them.

These writers have found (or have helped to found) a group of like-minded individuals with the same level of dedication to craft and to getting the work done.

Should I Join a Writer’s Group?

I don’t know. Do you want to?

That’s Unhelpful

I don’t know what’s going through your head! Maybe you really just want a book club.  Maybe you’re desperately pining after someone who’s in a writing group and think that joining will help you build a relationship.  Maybe you’re a writer who likes quick, quality feedback and would thrive in a writing group environment. I don’t know your life.

But I do know a few things:

Don’t Waste Their Time

 A good writer’s group is about writing. They have rules and standards and requirements, and if you can’t meet them, don’t bother joining.  Just like you want to get something out of it, so do they. Respect it.  If you can’t keep up, drop out and spare them the embarrassment of kicking you out.

Don’t Waste Your Time

A writer’s group should be about helping each other grow and improve as writers.   Does the group critique members work and if so, how? Do they provide useful (specific, helpful, and honest) feedback or not (vague, unhelpful and don’t want to hurt your feelings). Do they meet regularly? Do they look down on the genre you write in?  Do they spend their time talking about their projects instead of giving you samples?  If any of the above are “yes”, they are probably a waste of your time.

Don’t Think a Writing Group Will Make You A Success

There are a lot of writers in writing groups who will never be published and never make a living at this.  That’s because there are a lot of writers who will never be published and never make a living at this. It’s a hard business.

…Or a Failure

Because Brandon Sanderson, Julie Czernada, and others. Because sometimes the best thing to improve your work is to have a group of people who care about it rip it to shreds. Because you may flourish as a writer when you have external deadlines and a group waiting for your work.

As For Me

I’ll keep doing what I’m doing, because so far it seems to be working.

Next Week: Getting Through The Bad Days, or Suck It Up, Buttercup

Marketing True Magics 12: Why Facebook Rocks (no, really)

Some posts are harder to write than others and this was one of them.

I said last week, Facebook sucks for marketing, but that it was still worth it.  And then I spent a week struggling to figure out why.

Because, I was thinking about it wrong.

It’s like this:

Facebook’s Business Model is the High School Clique…

You don’t get to see what everyone’s doing. You get to see what the popular people are doing. And if you aren’t popular, well, you can use money to buy popularity (Yep. Still bitter about high school).

And Posts End Up Lost and Alone and Ignored…

It used to be that I could post to Facebook with exciting news about my books and expect a fair number of followers to see it and respond. These days, I get very excited message from Facebook explaining 8 people saw my post and wouldn’t I like to give Facebook money so more can see it?

So How Can I Promote on Facebook?

The answer is, you can’t.  Not effectively.  Not anymore. And that’s all right, because…

Facebook is Not for Promotions Anymore.

It took an hour of writing this post to reach this epiphany, folks, so listen up:

Facebook is for Fan Retention

People no longer find out about you on Facebook. People find out about you through other means and then go like you on Facebook. And someone who goes out of their way to like you is called a FAN. And fans are very, very good.

Fans like you and check your page regularly. They have notifications for your feed turned on. They are the ones most likely to buy your books, and so they deserve special treatment. Fans should see special content and get special insights and fresh gossip and a chance to speak to you.

So, here’s some ways to use Facebook as a Fan Retention tool:

Targeted Fan Events 

When you get an invite to an event, it makes you feel special. Now, most of the time you’re too busy to go, but at least you were invited, right?

With Facebook you can post an event (whether real or virtual), and invite people to it.  More important, though, is that you can target that invite to specific locations, so if you’re doing an reading in Elbow, Saskatchewan (yes, it’s a real place [http://www.elbowsask.com]) and you know you have a fan base there, you can target your fans from Elbow specifically in your event and send out a special invitation to for them to attend.

Contests 

Like events, contests are now for fans.  They are a chance to reward the people who care about you and have a bit of fun doing it. Your fans get a chance to connect and to get something others don’t, like free books or autographs or posters or whatever it is you are giving away this week.

Remember: contests on Facebook cannot be used to do anything that will promote your product or yourself (Annoying, eh?). You can’t ask people to share a post, or share a page, or like your page.

However: You can to drive some traffic to your page and hopefully increase your number of fans, but you have to be careful. Use sentences like “Tell your friends about this contest so they can get a chance to win, too!” and “If you want to learn more about what Erik Buchanan is up to, please like this page and turn on Notifications so you can keep up to date on all contests, events and posts.”

What you can’t have are any sentences that imply a benefit to any person promoting your contest, because the only one allowed to benefit from promotions on Facebook is Facebook.

Q&A’s

Q&A’s are events. You set up a public event saying “Ask Me Anything!” (or something similar) and invite all your existing fans to come to your page at a specific time and date and do just that.

When it is time for the event, in your “Ask Me Anything!” post to the top of your feed. People put their questions in the replies in the comments and then you reply to their replies.  It’s a great way for Fans to connect and learn more about you.

And, like a contest, you can ask those you’ve invited to invite their friends to come along.  Because it’s fun to meet a celebrity…

Hey, I can dream...

And who knows, those friends may become fans after they meet you.

Wait! How do I get non-fans to my Facebook Page?

Massive cross-platform promotions utilizing your website, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, blogs, Google+ and whatever else you've got.

Or, you know, give Facebook money.

Next Week: How’s that Marketing Plan Going?