Optimism and the Aspiring Author

I wish I had more patience.

I'm playing the long game, wanting to be traditionally published. And it's a long game, because the market is glutted with people like me who want to be published. The market is fickle, as it wants to pick books without risk. And the market is shrinking, because there are fewer readers.

I have invested a lot in my books. Developmental edits, beta reading, and sometimes massive rewritings. I'm now at a point where I don't think I can improve them any more. (I could, of course, be wrong). I have gone through cycles of rejection, and I don't know if I can go through it again.

But I do, because I have optimism. Every morning I wake up believing that my life could change in one day. I've heard enough stories where someone's life changes tragically in one moment; I believe it's just as likely that my life can change for the better. So as long as I have my works in the hands of agents and publishers, I can hope.

Frivolous Questions about Agents and Publishers No One Will Ask (Personal)

NOTE: I have not found the publisher or agent yet. I'm just daydreaming.
ALSO NOTE: I would never wear the heels pictured above.


Daydreams:
I daydream about the two outcomes I'd really like to see in my novel-writing: finding an agent and getting published. And like any pragmatic (and neurotic) person, I have questions:

I Have Important Questions!
1) Do you actually meet in person with your agent? Do you have to fly there or will they visit you on your turf? (A working lunch in New York City sounds better than one at the local steakhouse, but that's just me.) Who pays for the plane ticket? Can my husband come with me?

2) What do you wear to meet your agent? Do you dress for business? Business casual? Eccentric writer? Should I get my nails done in a French manicure or go for the power red?

3) Same questions as 1) and 2) but for a publisher. 

4) I know the part where you run contracts past an entertainment lawyer. But how can you tell an entertainment lawyer's good at what they do? (There's one in my area, so I hope he's good).

#SFFpit and the Concept of the Pitch Contest (Social Media, Writer Development)

I found another pitch contest on Twitter, which reminds me of why #WritingCommunity Twitter is so valuable. This one is called #SFFPit, and is specific to science fiction and fantasy books.


What's a Pitch Contest?
In a pitch contest, a writer of a completed and unpublished work distills the essence of their book into a Twitter-sized pitch. The author has the opportunity to pitch their book (using a different pitch each hour to get past Twitter algorithms) once an hour for a set number of hours. The purpose of this is to attract potential agents and publishers, who will ask for a query to further judge your work. 

Pitches should illuminate the character, their desires, obstacles to their desire, and the consequences of failure. Be specific of the consequences! Also, all pitches need to have #SFFpit in their body and use other designated hashtags for genre and audience. (Koboldt, 2020). 

See more details here!

Koboldt, D. (2020). #SFFpit. Available: http://dankoboldt.com/sffpit/#sffpit-rule-changes [January 20 2020)

I don't feel like writing (personal)

Not in the Mood Today
I have two ideas for short stories, and one novella (or a short story, I don't know) and I don't feel like writing yet.

I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I'm editing from beta readers' suggestions for two novels and I want to get some queries out! I have two months before I can query again.

The Wise Advice Someone Gave Me
I really should take the advice someone (I don't remember his name!) gave me at Archon (a writers' conference in St. Louis): I should concentrate more on short stories and poetry and submit them in contests and for publication,

I've been submitting, using Submittable as a platform for finding and submitting my works. I've had a 10% response rate, which I consider good. I've noticed, strangely, that my work is received better overseas. Not so strangely, I've noticed that I don't score so high with literary journals

I'm Tired
It may be the weather or seasonal depression or something, but I'm really tired right now. The moment I get more beta reader feedback, I'll wake up and modify my novel like a maniac.

And there's always coffee.

Words and Music (Essay)

The Words are Important

I'm listening to Counting Crows to wake me up, immersed in Adam Duritz' (is that possessive right?) lyrics. He paints images, moods, scenes, describing without telling. I want to write like Adam Duritz, but I have to settle for writing like myself. 

Another band I immerse myself in is Dream Theater, which might be on the opposite pole as Counting Crows, but the words evoke a sharp-focus world where people fight internal battles.

Making Room for the Music

I understand the music is important, also, in communicating the mood of the songs. Counting Crows' roots rock sensibilities invoke moodiness, while Dream Theater's wall of intricate metal and dissonance convey the intellectual alienation of their music.

I'm a word person -- as a writer, this is expected. When I was an unknown singer-songwriter in my home town (before I divorced my guitarist 25 or so years ago), I wrote lyrics to his guitar compositions. I try to understand the music part, but I don't really get how music can carry mood. I am willing to learn. 

Tell Me Your Favorite Lyrics

If you have favorite lyrics, tell me about them and why they grab you!

Interview with Richard Leach-Steffens, writer (Interviews with Writers)

Tell me about yourself:
Growing up, back when I was in high school, I started writing short fiction at the urging of my Gifted Ed teacher, Linda Knoll. I actually submitted to a local community college's creative arts contest. I actually got a couple of stories -- I think I got a second and a first. I did okay, but I didn't feel like my writing was good enough that I could become a writer for a living. Since then, my writing's been mostly professional -- I have a ten-year career as a technical writer. I haven't really done much creative writing since becoming a technical writer, because it's hard to get in front of a computer after you've been in front of a computer for eight hours at work.

More recently, at the encouragement of my spouse, who is also a writer, I have written one novella, one novel, and one short story. The novella is set in my spouse's universe and shares some of the characters, while the novel, which I wrote for NaNoWriMo, is based on an idea I had back in high school. I would like to submit the novel for a developmental edit.

What do you like to write about?
Early on, I wrote apocalyptic fiction. I grew up in the 80's and 90's; one of my fears, of course, was nuclear war. What I'm finding is that I've moved past that, and my latest ideas tend to be creative with a twist. Think a "what if?" with a "where will it lead?". 

What is your novel about?
The NaNo novel deals with the idea of musicians traveling from town to town for gigs. What happens if humanity gets into space and finds out we're technologically behind other races in terms of trade? What would humanity have to offer? Humanity discovers that what it does have to offer is artistic culture -- music, art, even classic tv shows. As part of that, it's a way of introducing humanity into other cultures. My protagonists are a jazz combo, and what they find out is that, in the history of this one planet, there is a cultural taboo against sung music. The remainder of the novel deals with solving the mystery: Why did this happen?

What is your advice to writers?
Don't stop and think that your writing is good enough in its rough form, because there's always room for improvement.

Thank you for being my guinea pig, Richard.
Oink.

Update (personal)

My brain feels rusty.
These last couple days I've been trying to recover from a tooth pulling/the meds/getting off the meds (hydrocodone does a number on me, but so does pain). 

Best rejection ever.
I got a rejection on Prodigies from Stirling Publishing (UK) which sounded like an almost-acceptance. I don't feel too bad about it. 

Glass half-full
Lately I've gotten second places and honorable mentions on my short story/poetry submissions, so I feel like maybe either my work is getting better or it's finding its home. Or my luck is getting better. I'm still frustrated and still looking for an agent.

Time to go to bed.

Small Victories (Personal Goals)

I’m writing this on my iPad as an experiment using BlogTouch, so bear with me.

Random picture.

I don’t think I’d blog from here every day, but it might work on-the-go. Finding pictures is harder unless I take my own, and typing is slow, but there I go. 

And I can’t change the title without losing everything. Weird.

My 1000th Blog Post (Blogging)

Time to celebrate!
This blog has hit a milestone I didn't ever think I would hit -- my thousandth post! How does one celebrate 1000 blog posts? By writing a blog post!

Origins
I started the blog a little over three years ago with the aim of developing an author's social media presence. Its secondary purpose was, however, to warm up my mind for a day of writing. Thus, writing in the blog became an almost daily event. 

Content
The content of the blog echoes the header above: "A blog about being a writer, believing it, honing it, living it." As a theme, this has afforded me a bit of flexibility, and I have written about my writing, my struggles with writing, writing tools I've discovered, and occasionally examples of my writing. 

Most writers don't write in their blogs daily. I'm pretty sure this makes me an overachiever. 

Changes in the Blog
The blog hasn't changed much in the past 1000 posts. At first, I didn't post every day. Occasionally, I whined about my lack of progress; those posts have been deleted. 

I recently began formatting posts with headers to make the blog more friendly to readers. I hope this has helped readers find meaning in the blog.

Beyond 1000
I'm not sure what's in store for the blog over the next couple of years. I have thought of moving it to a weekly blog and focusing on writing tools and the like, but there are many blogs that already do this. I want this blog to be accessible to writers and people who like writing, so I will probably continue with the daily posting and the variety of posts I make. This has the added bonus of making the blog more fun to write.

Here's to 1000 more blog posts!

Loving Criticism

We Want Our Work To Be Loved

We're authors. Of course we want our work to be loved. Therefore, anything that seems like criticism shrinks our ego to the size of our withered thymus gland. We crumple into ourselves, hang the "Out to Lunch" sign on our front door, and mourn.

Criticism is the Most Loving Thing for Your Work

If we want our work to shine, we must accept and react to criticism. We can't be expected to see everything that could be wrong with our writing; we've lived with it for so long it makes sense in our minds. We can't be the reader who sees it for the first time.

Criticism has a bad name, because we think of it only in its most negative sense: the harmful, useless "This book sucks". But we should make room in our lives for the more constructive "This doesn't work", "I don't understand," and "This frustrates me" as well as the "This works great", "This makes me laugh", and "I really enjoyed this".

Different Levels of Critique

In writing, we can get critiques at several levels. We may not need all these levels for smaller works, but novels and novellas would benefit from all these levels. These are the most usual levels:
Developmental edit: Exploring shape and meaning
The developmental editor deals with the readability and strength of the work. Character development, theme, and plot fall into the dev editor's responsibility.
Line edit/Copy edit: Ensuring readability and accuracy
The titles "copy edit" and "line edit" are used interchangeably. Their function is to make sure sentences are grammatically correct and words spelled right. They also look at whether the individual sentences make sense.
Beta readers: Conveying the reader's experience
Beta readers are casual readers who read and comment on the book that has gone through developmental and line edits. They convey the reader's experience of the book. In a way, they are the freshest set of eyes because they don't have the expertise one expects from editors. 

Takeaway
If we invite critique into our writing process, then the criticism happens in a way that we can respond to it. Then, when the random critic decides they don't like the book, we know we've done our best. We may not love criticism, but we can at least value it. 

If you have any favorite "oopsies" in your works, found by an editor, please let me know in the comments here.

Short note

I'm not feeling particularly articulate after five hours sleep and a Lord of the Rings extended cut marathon movie viewing. Fourteen hours of sitting in a comfy chair with a theater screen, I've always wanted to do that -- think of it as a bucket list item.

I'm going to end here by saying this is my 998th post. 

Have fun!

Interrogating a dream and finding a poem (Literary Work)

Ethereal boy,
you would kill me with a feather
fine-sharpened to a point,
intended for my heart,
and you would call it art.

Dreams as Fertile Fields of Meaning
This poem, like many of my writings, came from a dream. In the dream, an artist acquaintance from overseas comes to visit me, spending only a brief time with me in O'Hare airport. Then he wanders off. I later read an interview with him in a snippet of newspaper that says that he planned to approach me for a film, which explained the brief interlude. It also said he considered, for the same movie, throwing a feather, quill sharpened into a dart, at my back, and if it killed me, it would be art.

Dreams are symbolic, so I woke up doubting that said acquaintance had any desire to kill me, nor could he kill me with a quill pen. As that was what he described the murder weapon as.

Gestalt Dream Analysis
Because I found the dream poetically compelling, I interrogated it using Gestalt methods, which basically instruct the dreamer to tell the story from the viewpoint of all the major people and objects: 

• Me: You know my part.
• The artist: I play with images, I play with image. I play this scene with you, and I will not tell you why. I could stab you with this feather; fear not, it's all illusion.
• The feather: I am a pen; from me ideas flow. I am an arrow; Cupid does not miss. 
• The paper: There are no secrets. I announce success
• The airport: I am the place where people cross, where people greet and part, the resting place between journeys.

What Does It Mean?

This dream is too complex to define linearly, so maybe I can put in place themes that don't necessarily contradict each other:

• The journey: my journey of being a writer
• The artist: my inspiration/an established artist/personification of mischief/Cupid
• Cupid: ludus (crush energy) as vehicle for inspiration
• Brief interlude: a surprise
• The newspaper: He's arrived; I have not. Also, an implication that I have importance, but as a abstract concept
• Feather pen as weapon: Cupid's arrow, creativity, ludicrousness (see ludus); vague sexual reference but lazily so

In conclusion:

That was fun! If I had to guess, I'd say this poem is about the nature of inspiration and our muses. Ludus, sex, death are all tools of the writer, and of the artist. 

Have you ever used a dream as inspiration for one of your works? Let me know in the comments or at lleachie@gmail.com

An excerpt from Whose Hearts are Mountains (Literary work)

I decided to sleep for the night in a rest stop just outside of Adair, in the former state of Iowa; a place where a giant white monolith stood outside the entrance to an old rest stop. I could see very little; my headlights didn’t cut through the deep night enough.  

I should have known someone else would find the rest stop as a shelter. I spied two such individuals at the Adair rest stop, revealed by the flicker of my headlights — a dark man with long greying hair and a wizard’s beard, and a paler man with hair tucked back in a rasta cap. The two sat on the ground in front of the door. Behind them, I noted the expansive blond brick building with its glass panels in the front, and a dull glow in a back room. I didn’t doubt that the windows would be revealed to be damaged and dusty in the morning.

I considered that, in the post-wars era, the men sitting by the entrance were not truly homeless. They landed on their feet, founded a camp, and called it home.

I pulled up to where they sat and rolled down the window. “May I stay here for the night? I can sleep in my truck.”

“Sure, ma’am. Martha should be back shortly, so you don’t feel scared with just us two men.” I didn’t expect such a considerate offer on the road.

“No, that’s okay, I’ll pull my truck over here — “

“You ain’t sleeping in that truck, are you?” The unkempt white man, who wore socks as gloves on his hands, shook his fist at me. He spoke in an oddly flat voice, and he struggled with eye contact.

“Well, actually, yes, I was going to.” I could recline the seat back and stretch out a little — 

“No, we got a nice warm building. You’re staying,” the black man decided. “Martha will be back soon to be your chaperone. Would be nice if you gave us something to help with supper. ”

I didn’t trust him. I couldn’t. Was this another trap? I searched my mind for something to forestall my spending the night with them. Would they rob me? Assault me? “I have nothing to trade — “

The black man chuckled. “You got stories. Might as well get to know you better,” he said, extending his hand. “I’m George.”

“And I’m Pagan,” the other man said, not offering his hand.

I looked them over in the headlights’ glow. They looked harmless. Famous last words, I realized. On the other hand, I would probably have a good chance against them with my gold-filled backpack, which probably weighed 20 or 30 pounds.  And I was very hungry.

Rejections and Cognitive Distortions

This is probably a rerun from way back when, but:

Sometimes I wonder why I put my books out there.

Ask any writer after a rejection, and you'll probably hear the same misgivings. I myself been rejected by so many agents that I thought I'd get over this. I haven't. 

I think the two things that keep me from quitting are: 1) my short memory, and 2) noting the negatives -- cognitive distortions -- are not real.

Cognitive distortions

Cognitive distortions are statements we make to ourselves to define our reality -- but in actuality just make us miserable. (Positive Psychology.com. 2019)

For example, I just went through an online pitch contest where writers try to get attention from agents about their books. I did not succeed. So I combined this with all the rejections I've gotten and started talking to myself like this:

"I'm a bad writer."

"Nobody likes my writing."

"I'll never get published."

These are all examples of cognitive distortions. 

"I'm a bad writer." -- All or nothing thinking. "I'm either perfect or bad." Also labeling.

"Nobody likes my writing." -- Mind reading. How do I know this?

"I'll never get published." -- Fortune-telling. If I can predict the future, can't I win the lottery? 

In reality, I can't predict the future, Nor can I be the worst writer ever if I got through college. I can name people who have liked my writing. These realizations are known as contradictions.

How to start:

It helps to write this down on paper. Here are the steps:

1) Write down the thoughts that are bothering you

2) Identify the cognitive distortions. If  you look for "cognitive distortions" on Google, you will find many sources. My favorite resource is here.

3) Come up with an alternative thought: 

"I'm a bad writer." -- "There are people better and worse than me"

"Nobody likes my writing." -- "I have had short fiction and poetry published"

"I'll never get published." -- "Never is a long time; and if you never get published, it might have nothing to do with you"

4) The important question: what is my next action?

When your mind is clear, you can determine your next move to live your life most authentically.

What now?

Get the list of cognitive resources and the PDF journaling sheets at the site below. Do this when you're feeling negative about life. Keep it up. After a while, you'll only need to do this as a reminder.

Positive Psychology.com.(2019). Cognitive distortions: When your brain lies to you (+ PDF Worksheets). Available:

https://positivepsychology.com/cognitive-distortions/ [January 14, 2020]

Tweetdeck vs Hootsuite -- a writing blogger's take (Social Media)

Social Content Managers
I don't have the money to have an assistant handling my social media. (And, unless I become the next JK Rowling, I won't). So I have to depend on social content manager web pages. I use two social content managers -- Hootsuite and Tweetdeck. Here's what you can expect for each and why both can be useful:

Hootsuite: My everyday workhorse
I will be talking about the free version of Hootsuite, as I can't afford (nor do I need) the full versions, which runs $29/month for the professional (individual) account. The free version does enough for most uses. You can follow your feeds on three different social media sites at once. More importantly, it functions as a launcher for multiple social media sites -- three different social media for the free version. I have my Hootsuite working with my Facebook Pages, Twitter, and Instagram, and can send the same post through one, two, or all three sites at once.  Free Hootsuite can be found here.

However, Hootsuite allows for a limited number of scheduled tweets, four in total, in their free version. Sometimes, if there's a #PitMad or a  #IWSGPit (sessions for pitching a novel on Twitter), I need 12 pitches, one for each hour the contest runs. This is why I turn to Tweetdeck.

TweetDeck: For Targeted Twitter Time
Tweetdeck does more functions than free Hootsuite, but only for Twitter. TweetDeck is free, which makes it tempting if you're a Twitter-only social media user. 

TweetDeck can follow multiple functions of Twitter at once -- home, notifications, messages, trending, and submitted tweets. I think the beauty in TweetDeck is scheduled tweets. As I said above, in the case of a pitch contest, one needs to be posting once an hour. That's twelve hours with two books I'm pitching, which is 24 posts. Although one has to prepare each post seperately, TweetDeck handled all of them without balking. Free TweetDeck can be found here.

In Conclusion,
Hootsuite is my everyday social media companion. Its free version does everything I need on a given day. But on those special days where I need to tweet a lot throughout the day, there's TweetDeck. Does anyone use either or both of these? Tell me why at lleachie@gmail.com.

A Moment of Gratitude (Personal Development)

This is a picture of my husband.

Something happened to me yesterday that I couldn't imagine ever happening -- a couple of friends offered to beta-read my latest novel!

This is big, for reasons most writers will recognize. Our  own families generally don't read our books, much less our friends.  The fact that my friends are actually beta-reading my works amazes me,

I don't worry about these friends being unable to critique fairly, because they know I need this to grow in my writing. And one's a Creative Writing grad, one a professor, another a grad in (I believe) psychology. A good mix. 

So pardon me if my feet don't touch the ground today!

Stretch Goals (Personal development)

A Reminder: All Goals Should Be Smart

I know I've talked about SMART goals -- all our goals should be Specific, Measurable, Action oriented, Realistic, and Time-bound. It's good to write these down to have something to refer to and direct your energy.

Stretch Goals!

But what if we fulfill those goals? We need new goals, and we want them to continue the progress of the met goals. Stretch goals are these next level of goals. They should be as we're nearing success in the first tier of goals, so we can build them using the momentum we currently have.

Examples:

• I am nearing 1000 followers on Twitter. Now I would like to see 2k. I now plan I will acquire 2000 followers by June 1 through a combination of getting my name out there by making and following and liking posts, and following others. 
• I have just finished the developmental edit stage of my WIP. My next stage is to find beta readers, then collect their comments and edit some more. (This goal has not reached SMART goal status; notice I haven't developed it enough to make it SMART)

What now?

Look at your goals. What's the next step? Start plotting that! 

If you want help with that or SMART goals, drop me an email at lleachie@gmail.com.

Ode to Developmental Edits (Writing Tools)

I just finished making corrections from the developmental edit of Whose Hearts are Mountains, so I've been thinking of all the reasons I'm glad someone told me to find a developmental editor:

Because "good enough" is not good enough
If you think about it, a developmental edit is a brutal thing to put your book and your psyche to. You pay good money (averaging about $800-1200 from my research) to have someone tear apart the novel you've spent months or years bringing into existence. You have to read over all those comments and it's frustrating.

Still, I do it and I swear by it. Why? Because my "good enough" isn't good enough for publishing. Few people's are, even after second or third draft. Writers need a pair of fresh eyes; furthermore, we need someone with literary skills to examine our word choice, to make sure our meaning comes out in our words.

Why can't I just proofread extra good?
First of all, if you didn't notice the grammatical error in the previous sentence, you probably need skilled help. More importantly, proofreading is not the same as developmental editing. Proofreading picks up grammatical and punctuation errors,and the person who does this is a proofreader or line editor. Developmental editing gets into the conveyance of your ideas itself -- whether a sentence or paragraph is clear, whether your passage's moods make sense, whether your characters are portrayed realistically and readably.

Why can't I just use beta readers?
Beta readers are very good at letting you know what the average reader will think or do. Some beta readers -- the ones with some creative writing skills -- might pick up on some unclear sentences or sentences that don't sparkle.  But they're reading for enjoyment, not for discernment, and usually not in a higher literary sense.

How to find a developmental editor

• Ask around. If you have writing friends, they have likely dealt with developmental editors, and have had good and bad experiences. If your sample of writing friends is small, ask on Twitter, a writing forum, or NaNoWriMo. Ask for their feedback in direct message, because they're more likely to be honest that way. Don't be surprised if a couple developmental editors find you that way.
• Comparison shop. Ask the developmental editors questions. Rates, of course, are important. Turnaround time is important.
• Understand their style -- you can have them read and respond to a short excerpt of your writing. A developmental editor should push you but be constructive in their criticism.
• A very important point -- make sure you sign a contract before proceeding. Read it well before signing so you understand what your rights are. 

A developmental editor is someone you should consider having on your team. If you can't afford one, at least find a beta reader who has a lot of literary skills. The idea is to create the most compelling version of your hard work.

If any readers use developmental editors, share your stories with me via email: lleachie@gmail.com

Saturday Morning at my House (Creative Essay)

Mind the clutter on the coffee table. 

Welcome to my Saturday morning.

It's 8 o'clock AM, and my husband and I won't go out today because of the ice and sleet from yesterday and the potential snow today. It's a good excuse, anyhow.

We lounge in the living room under low light. The fake fireplace and a piney Woodwick candle create ambience. Tony Bennett sings "Darn that dream" and we chuckle at the song's quaint language. Chucky sits on the edge of the cluttered coffee table, managing to knock only one thing down.

The coffee today is from Burundi, home roasted and ground, and I can taste notes of lemon, cooked apples, and spice. Tony Bennett has segued into a mellow jazz tune. 

I'm in my writing corner on the loveseat typing this. When I'm done I will go back to my developmental edits, which are going smoother than I thought. Today is an enforced retreat day, for which I'm grateful.

Twitter as #writingcommunity (Personal development, Social Media for Writers)

Oh, that's how you do Twitter!
I just wanted to announce that I've figured out Twitter. I even pinned a tweet!

#writingcommunity is my Favorite Place
I have fallen in love with Twitter, especially the #writingcommunity.

Why have I fallen in love with #writingcommunity?
#writingcommunity Twitter is different than mainstream Twitter (although I don't have much knowledge of other specialty Twitters). It's surprisingly social. Some of the discussion is about writing, but some of it is simply "tell me how your day went."  It uplifts, commiserates, and makes people laugh.

One of the activities in #writingcommunity is following each other.There are two reasons: one of the purposes of Twitter for writers is to add to one's "writer's platform" or media presence. One of the things many publishers and agents ask is about your writing platform, because that means potential buyers for your book. The more important part, though, is the interaction I mentioned above. 

Is #writingcommunity for you?
If you're a writer or an aspiring writer, a thousand times yes! Think about it -- you have thousands of people who are good with words. Playing with words is a natural consequence. You have people with writing as a commonality; they'll talk about writer's block and rejection.

Comparisons (Personal Development)

Wandering the Twitterverse:
I'm spending time on Twitter building my social network there (#Writercommunity is a good start). It's a great place for encouragement and commiseration and celebration

But there are dangers. I'm an author who has written five books and

haven't yet gotten an agent or sold one to a publisher, and I refuse to self-publish because the average self-publisher sells 250 books at latest count. 

There are people on Twitter who have agents, who have books traditionally published, who have awards, who have 41k followers on Twitter. In other words, people much more successful than I am. 

It's hard not feeling inferior. Or bitter. All the ugly emotions that I don't want to bring into the Twitterverse because people are so nice there.

Comparing yourself to others is toxic. 
Those negative feelings are the result of comparing myself to others, always the more successful ones. This creates a toxic inner voice that says, "why aren't you as good as them? You should be better. You should try harder."

Or " You might as well give up. You don't have a chance. You should never have been a writer."

Either way, I don't like the person I'm listening to. I want to hide from the Twitterverse, from people, from my cats (who don't care as long as I feed them).

My solution
First, I take a short break from Twitter and have a good talk with that toxic inner voice. Cognitive journaling (Check out this link; )Ragnarson, 2019)) helps with the cognitive distortions I experience. For example, "You don't have a chance" is an example of furtune-telling, and I know I can't predict the future (or I wouldn't be in this mess anyhow). 

Then I go back on Twitter and celebrate those who are successful. I know I would like it if people celebrated me. If there's such a thing as good karma, I would like to have a piece of it.

Finally I celebrate myself, because I know I've come a long way. 

Reference:
Ragnarson,R. (2019). Cognitivejournaling: A systematic method to overcome negative beliefs. https://medium.com/better-humans/cognitive-journaling-a-systematic-method-to-overcome-negative-beliefs-119be459842c [Available: January 9, 2020)

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Part 2 Developmental Edit (Personal Development)

"That wasn't so bad, was it?"
After a certain amount of hyperventilating at the sheer length of the developmental edit notes, I took a deep breath and dipped my toe into the first chapter. It really wasn't bad with a two-screen setup so I could go back and forth between comments and book. I made it halfway through the second chapter before my eyes started bleeding. Only 29 chapters to go.

Procrastination is not my friend
Honestly, I'm my own worst enemy with these edits. It goes back to my dissertation, where I sat on a major edit for six months, because I thought I couldn't fix it. It was easy to think that, what with comments like "why should I care about this?" I finally approached the professor who made the remarks, and she said, "Oh, that's simple. Just explain the importance of it." I did not respond with "Why didn't you tell me?! because I was a lowly grad student and she was a tenured professor.

In praise of dev edits
I have a long ways to go on fixing my work in progress, but I wouldn't go without the dev edit. I have trouble looking critically at my work -- I'm either too critical or not at all, and I sometimes get overwhelmed by the sheer number of words. So I need help in the form of an educated set of eyes.

I'm looking forward to seeing more of my work blossom under edit.

Unboxing my Dev Edit (Personal Development)

I'm a bit nervy about this ...
I confess -- I've been afraid to open up that dev edit for Whose Hearts are Mountains. It's long, it's detailed, and I'm going to be mortally embarassed by the mistakes I've made.

But it doesn't matter.
My novel deserves an opportunity to improve. It deserves to become great, not just good. And I deserve to have a better book.

Too many excuses
I've been avoiding reading this for four days. I had to clean my room, take a nap, write a synopsis of a poster session I want to present research in, nap some more...

But now it's time.
I need to get the courage to dig into it and improve the story. Anna Schmidt and Daniel Ettner deserve better than to be left in the corner, their story never heard.

An Epiphany (Personal Development)

Happy Epiphany!

In the Christian calendar, today is the Epiphany, which I guess has to do with the Three Wise Men meeting Jesus. I'm nowhere near a devout Christian, so I think of this as the night some good friends hold a Twelfth Night party, complete with flaming pudding.

What is an Epiphany?

According to Wikipedia (yes, I went there) the definition of epiphany is "an experience of a sudden and striking realization." (Wikipedia, 2020).

How to Recognize an Epiphany

Imagine you're thinking about an issue that vexes you. Suddenly you have an "aha" and the explanation for the problem suddenly hits you. From there, a solution comes quickly.

Epiphanies take the form: "Oh, that's why!" or "I get it now." Or even, "Well, shit, it's staring me in the face."

Epiphany and the Writer

Writing is full of these sudden realizations. Insight into a character, a revelation about a story line, a clue to the action -- all are epiphanies that writers cherish. Creativity and innovation come from these aha reactions. 

A Happy Epiphany!

Whether you're a writer or not, here's wishing you a happy epiphany!

Wikipedia (2020). Epiphany. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiphany_(feeling) 

[January 6, 2020]

Putting Together my Writing Platform (Social Media for Writers)

Learning something new
I have been reading through Robert Brewer's Guide to Literary Agents 2020 (publication date 2019), and I discovered a treasure trove of information on building one's writing platform.

What's a writing platform?
According to Writers' Digest, a writing platform represents a writer's visibility through their identity, their personal and professional connections, and social media (Carpenter, 2012). 

I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't know what a writing' platform was when I was asked by a hybrid (traditional with self-publishing elements) publisher what my platform was. I didn't get the contract there. 

Thirty Days to a Writers' Platform
Brewer's book contains a thirty-day path to your platform, I have to admit I've done the beginning steps already not knowing they were part of a platform. My blog, my author account on Twitter. But now I'm stepping it up. 

More about this as I get more established.

References:
Brewer, R. (2019). Guide to Literary Agents 2020. Penguin Random House. 

Carpenter, C. (2012). The Basics of Building a Writer’s Platform. Available: https://www.writersdigest.com/writing-articles/by-writing-goal/build-a-platform-start-blogging/building-a-writers-platform [January 5, 2020).

A Glimpse at my Novels (Literary Works)

Are you curious about what I've written?

I casually mention in this blog that I've written five novels and am working on getting an agent and getting published. I very seldom talk about what I've written. So here's a list of my novels with synopses.

I will cover the ones that exist in the same universe first, in chronological order.

Gaia's Hands

The odd couple of Jeanne Beaumont, biologist, and Josh Young, writer, follow a threat to Jeanne's livelihood and a path of their own awakening talents. After calling forth a miracle at the collective Barn Swallows' Dance, they must fight the conspirators who would destroy it -- and possibly their lives. 

Apocalypse

Laurel Smith, a woman without a past, works as a laborer at the ecocollective Barn Swallows’ Dance, unaware of her part in a 6000-year-old myth. Adam Lee is an immortal Archetype who holds the patterns which allow Han Chinese men to survive. He’s been sent on a mission to help Laurel find her legacy and bring her memories back.

An army assembles to kill Laurel to collect on a millennia-long vendetta. Laurel's memory loss isn't an accident, though, and three dangerous Archetypes more ancient than even Adam are determined to keep her in the dark. If Adam and Laurel can't collect enough allies to stop the approaching army, they will build an army to wipe out all women on Earth, and with them, all future generations of humans.

Prodigies

Grace Silverstein, an eighteen-year-old viola prodigy, flies to Poland to participate in an international assembly of prodigies. However, her hosts have hidden their plans to coerce the prodigies under a flimsy mask of hospitality. Grace’s new friend and fellow prodigy Ichirou can influence people’s emotions with his computer graphics, and they figure out that his talent is what their hosts want to capture. Grace smuggles him out of the country with the help of his chaperone and her mysterious accomplice, but their escape has not gone unnoticed.

Back in the US and under pursuit, Grace discovers her own talent of manipulating emotions through her beloved music. The chase continues as both foreign agents and Homeland Security close in on Grace and her compatriots, who uncover a terrorist plot by the prodigy organization. Grace can keep herself and her friends safe if she never reveals her gift but exposing her talent could save many more lives. Making the right decision while avoiding capture may be the hardest thing Grace has ever done—and could have long-lasting effects on the entire world.

Whose Hearts are Mountains

In Whose Hearts are Mountains, Annie Smith escapes the smoking ruins of her university and heals in a remote Canadian town, where she hears stories about a fair folk who help humans and then disappear. These tales resonate with the stories her mother told her as a child, and she seizes the opportunity to research the spread of these tales – until she comes home to find that the United States has crumbled under sectarian turmoil.

Annie chases the stories through a drastically changed landscape, and begins to experience unsettling dreams and strange phenomena. The stories lead to an oasis in the middle of the desert and a people who present mysteries. Pieces click together, and Annie finds out that her identity is tied in with the tales and with a frightening act of terrorism that only they can stop.

This next one is not in the same universe as the others:

Voyageurs

Ian Akimoto, Traveller, jumps through time from the environmental catastrophe called the Chaos to 2015 Kansas City to help Kat Pleskovich, time-jumping daredevil, solve the mystery of who wants to kill her mentor.  Soon their own lives are in danger as they piece together clues involving everything from time physics and falsified records to multiple Kats and gruesome deaths in Kat’s daredevil game Voyageurs. 

Their search reveals that a rogue time traveller broke the timeline at crucial points with a goal of winning Voyageurs with the greatest stunt of all – destroying humanity. Kat and Ian must decide whether to risk their lives toward setting the future right. 

Enjoy and give me feedback!

If you have suggestions for synopses or just want to comment on the storylines, please let me know! My email is lleachie@gmail.com.

Trying to get Twitter

So I'm trying to up my Twitter game ...
My guide to building a social media platform for my writing has been challenging. I find Twitter to be overwhelming.

Ok, Boomer
I'm aware that a good part of the reason I'm overwhelmed is because I'm getting older. As much as I hate this fact, it's unavoidable. And everything I've heard says that the older generation has to explain technology to the younger generation.

The overwhelming factor

What I find overwhelming is the sheer size of the Twitterverse. How do people have time to read all these posts? It seems like posting is akin to throwing the message-in-a-bottle out into the endless ocean and hoping someone sees it.

It's not so bad, people assure me. There's always hashtags. If you can figure out the hashtags, people will read you. If. You. Figure. Out. The. Hashtags. 

My husband just explained hashtags: You make a post; you create a hashtag. Other people notice the hashtag, and it trends, and then people notice, and then you get likes and retweets. Except this is the Twitterverse, which as I pointed out is a vast sea of hashtags. 

To my relief, I know one of the hashtags people use to promote writing, or at least being a writer: #writingcommunity. 

All is Not Lost

I did the thing I should have done a long time ago -- ask people in #writingcommunity what hashtags I should use as a writer. I also participated in a #writerslift thread. 

Maybe I'll get the hang of this.

If you can help me get the hang of this, please email at lleachie@gmail.com

PS: My reaction to this new blogging style

How's that new blogging style going for me?

In this new blogging style I'm working with (outlined in this post), I'm finding pluses and minuses that I want to talk about. 

Pluses:

• The short sentences/headings/short paragraph form is familiar to me, because it's close to academic style writing. I could even improve my academic style game with subheadings and APA style, but that might be too much for a blog.
• This format is probably the easiest and best for followers to read. People don't have long attention spans on the Internet.

In other words, this is how I should be writing for the blog, according to the source I read.

Minuses:

• This method forces my writing into a factual format rather than a creative one.
• I don't know how a more creative essay could be done in this fashion, because it wouldn't be an essay.

Questions:

• Do people actually read my lyrical/essay posts??  
• Does the headings/short sentences format increase my readers?
• Is there a possibility of including both types of entries (creative and factual) as blog posts?

Readers, please let me know your take on this. Use the Comment button to reply!

Wishes are the first step

I've been thinking about wishes, largely because I tend to look down on them as impractical. The truth of the matter is, the impetus for goals comes from wishes.

What are wishes?
This is easy. Wishes are thoughts about what we want to happen. They are the expression of fantasy. Fantasy is a video clip of our desires, wishes are the sound bite. 

Fantasy, as well as the resulting wishes, come from our values, which in turn come from our emotional and cognitive responses to formative experiences, some of which are transmitted to us by our childhood interactions with caretakers.

I grew up in a creative family -- my mother took photographs and designed multimedia projects and my dad did woodworking. Thus I learned that creativity was valued in my family, I learned from my teachers that I had a skill for writing. These developed my value that getting recognition for creativity was important.

I fantasize about getting a book contract. It's a movie in my head. From it I extrapolate the wish to get published.


Wishes are translated into goals
We have limited resources and abundant wishes, so we have to prioritize which ones we act upon. When we decide to process a wish into steps we can act upon, it becomes a goal. So my raw goal is to get published.


Goals are then clarified
We can't act upon goals until we've clarified two things: 

1. what resources (time, money, etc.) we can allocate to fulfill the goal
2. actions to take to fulfill the goal

To make strong goals, we need to answer the queries "who, what, where, when, why, how many, how much". So I come up with "I will have my first book traditionally within the next five years."

Goals that go through the SMART philosophy (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) become even stronger. When I do this to my goal, it falls apart somewhat when examined:

• Specific: Yes, I covered the query questions above
• Measurable: "book traditionally published" is measurable
• Relevant: I think so
• Time-bound: Yes
• Achievable: here's the big problem. This goal has nothing to do with what I can do, but a result that's out of my control. I need to rewrite this goal into one or more goals that will be things I can take action on, which I have articulated here. 

The goal becomes the plan
Because I have done the prior steps, I can act upon those specific goals. The goals inform the plan, which is the series of actions that it will take to fulfill the plan.

Then it's time to act.
You have a trajectory, a time limit, and the steps toward winning. Now it's up to you.


Without goals, our wishes flounder. But without wishes, we have nothing to make goals from.