Setting unrealistic goals and the painful consequences thereof

I'd be the first to admit I've put a lot of effort into building my career under my pen name, focusing on the genres I was exploring. But, my love of historical romance has been calling to me, with increased volume in recent months. After some time off, I'm jumping back into writing. A little over a year ago I started a new Celtic romance I found myself loving...but have since benched until I can rewrite it.

Currently, I'm working on a Roman era romance which is a lot of fun to write. I had a goal for it - which I think was unobtainable. I figured, 2500-3000 words per day, I'd have it up to 75k in no time. Real life, however, slipped my mind.

How can I truly reach those word counts without sacrificing something else? What would I give up to ensure my goals were reached and I felt successful?

Should I ignore my family? My obligations such as housework, appointments? Promotion and networking with friends? Imagine my horror as I realized not only were my goals beyond my reach, but to get them I was doing the one thing I never wanted to do. So, I sat back, did some serious thinking - and it was painful.

Knowing I wouldn't make the deadlines I set for myself, the word count, was discouraging. Took the wind out of my sails so to speak. Being honest with myself, I can admit I forgot to take the right steps. To know my limits and to push the boundaries only within the realm I could accept is a fact I ignored in the hope I reach the ending I wanted and submit to the publisher I wanted to - without realizing if I rushed myself, the work would have been mediocre at best, and probably would not have been accepted.

How did I overcome this emotionally draining challenge? I took a look at what I wanted vs what I needed.

What I needed outweighed what I wanted in the long run. I need to finish my book, need to be happy with it, need to be confident in it. Wanting to get it done before September 15 and submitted to a publisher - was a great idea, if the word count hadn't been so high. If I hadn't set myself up for the painful and crushing defeat of failure...which ultimately isn't failure.

Did I complete the project and get it in by September 15? No.

Am I happy with myself for missing that deadline? No, but I am not blaming myself, or shaming myself for not being able to do it. Instead, I'm looking at it as a learning experience. I've stepped back and decided I need to focus on what's important to me.

1. Getting a new title finished and ready for publication.

2. Finding a publisher the story and I fit with.

3. Reconnecting with the love of writing and knowing goals are the stepping stones to the dreams we hold.

As an author, there will always be a measure of panic when it comes to writing. It should not be because you've set yourself up to fail. If I have taken anything from this its simple, reaching for the stars is great...but not if you're willing to burn the very earth you stand on.

The Forsaken Series - Our Journey Began with a bang

The Forsaken Series has long been a baby of mine - and of co-author Ciara Lake. In 2010, when we first started talking about this project we had a vision of what we wanted it to look like. Unfortunately, for us, we had no idea where this project would lead us.

Ciara and I sat down and began to work on developing the series in its entirety. As we talked and plotted, and planned, we worked out a rough idea of what we were going to do. In our enthusiasm and eagerness, our vision was simple: Fill the rapidly developing, and smoking hot paranormal romance genre with a series of books. Sounds easy, doesn't it?




We discovered it wasn't quite that simple...or easy.

 Boy, did we have a lot to learn.



The journey itself has been filled with pot holes, self-doubt, frustration, anxiety, joy and euphoria. It hasn't always been an easy one, there have been learning curves, differences, and self-doubts. This project proved to be a challenge unlike anything we'd ever known, or anticipated. There were layers and layers of things we needed to do, tasks we had to master, and even when we thought we knew what we were doing. We have learned how to work as a team - even though we work independently - and overcome our own negative mentalities and egos.

I think we found the stories to be easier to write than we had anticipated, especially since both of us were familiar with writing. Ciara and I had already been published, and were familiar with the process in the sense we were comfortable with the story-telling. The characters were open and willing to allow us to tell their stories, and the worlds were fairly straight forward. It was only as we got further into the actual meat of the project where we stumbled.

However, that's for another post. As we near the release of book thirteen and the release of the second volume of our Boxed Sets, we are still learning, still developing our voices with each new book, each new character and really beginning to not only appreciate the journey for the journey's sake, but understanding the road we are on, is guiding us to yet another crossroad. As we near it, and stand upon the rocky ground, we can only trust ourselves to guide us on the next part of our journey...and we hope you'll come along with us.

Obstacles Writer's Face: Rita Travalyan

What obstacles face writers? Many people have a day job, and by the time they get home from work, they are exhausted.  Others, mostly women, but some stay-at-home men too, have small children they must care for, who would distract them from their writing. My particular obstacle is a yeller. We’re both retired, so have lots of time to pursue our passions. He writes computer programs. This would be fine, except that he yells a lot, and I'm not permitted to make a sound, because he's easily distracted. When you're writing a computer program, it is much more exacting than writing a story. Every jot and tittle has to be just so. The slightest slip can result in an error, which means that the program will crash and not run. That's what he tells me, anyway. But in this yelling disturbs me and I like peace and quiet when I write. If I had my druthers, I’d play one of my Napster playlists which puts me in the Zone. Ohl, you know what the zone is. If you're a programmer, the code is falling into place. If you're an artist, the paint is going on the canvas just so. If you’re a music composer, the notes are coming as fast as you can put them on the clephs. As a writer,. I use  Dragon, which is voice recognition software, so I speak my story, dictating into my computer so that it types the words on the screen.

To avoid the stress-producing yelling, I do my writing in the early morning while my SO sleeps. Because he's sleeping in the next room I can't play my music so it’s more difficult to get into the Zone. But it's not impossible. If you have the writing compulsion like I do you find ways of coping. He tells me he can almost hear when I'm writing about. Sometimes he even has usable suggestions for a direction to go in when I get stuck. But the yelling is hard for me to cope with. I have attempted to tell him a new way to cope. "You can't control what the people do, but you can control how you react to their actions." Why does he yell? Well, you may ask. He has enemies. He left Christianity for paganism and the church he left feels the need to punish him for leaving it. He runs an operating system (Linux) they don't like because they have money invested in Microsoft. So they hack into his system and continuously interfere what he intends to do. And he reacts predictably. He yells. He loudly utters implications and curses. It's been going on for over 11 years. One would think he would have found another way to cope with the situation; different ways of putting one over on his enemies, for example, but he hasn't. He just yells.  .Being an empath as I am, I feel the psychic pain in his yelling. But I guess I am naturally more logical and analytical than he is being as I am a Virgo ascendant. I would take pride and joy in continually foiling those bastards. I would emulate Mr. Spock of Star Trek fame. What a role model he was!

Plans have changed for the re-release of Takuhi’s Dream.  We are in the process of getting the 2nd installment, Takuhi’s Nightmare, ready for publication.  But I am doing the 3rd, and probably the final installment, Takuhi’s Daydream, for November’s NaNoWriMo, and she wants to release them in succeeding months, to take advantage of the buzz created by each book.   I am presently thing phase, to the extent that I plan any book. I am an inveterate pantser.  Outlining this makes me want to go ahead and write the book. And I find that each chapter is a new adventure.

My Books:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BKQ58Z8 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HQUR6QC 

Who do you write for?

Do you know who you are writing for?

Back in the day, when an author submitted their manuscript to a publisher, there was a certain expectation, they – the author- would know who their audience was. In some fields of publication this is still a mandatory practice, but in recent years has become less common when it comes to fiction. Publishers really expected authors to know in advance because it reduced the risks and increased the potential profits.

Having the understanding of who is incredibly important to ensure success and to show the publisher you as an author is serious. The publisher’s request for this information was to show them, the author held a basic understanding of their target market. Knowledge is power, and potentially sales, and having a grasp on where a reader base could be found, and who they are is an asset beyond measure.

In my recent experience, within the last five years or so, I've seen a few publishers actively request a marketing plan it as part of the submission package. Before you panic, let me clarify what I’ve seen. In most cases, the publisher wasn’t asking for a novel length plan on how the author was going to promote their work, but rather something to indicate they had put serious thought into three of the biggest questions for an author. Who? Where? How?

 

The first question is probably the biggest, because if you don't know who you're trying to reach, everything you do will have limited success. Sort of throwing something at the wall in hopes it will stick. So, lets break things down.

"Who am I trying to reach?"

Is she one of my potential readers?

The answer to this question changes is as diverse as we are, and can be answered by how well you understand your genre and who reads it. Every genre has a different reader, yet nothing will help if you don't understand who your reader is. Figuring out your target market is in of itself a complex issue, but do not panic. I know when I first had to think of this question I was freaking out. In the simplest function possible, your target market is the people who read in the genre you write. Bear in mind, if you’re like me, your fan base probably read in more than one genre. This can be a benefit in your favor.

So, we have to ask ourselves, and be brutal in our honestly: Are you trying to reach the middle-aged male reader who lives alone, is slightly anti-social, or shy, and so tries to avoid crowds? Or perhaps you're trying to reach a twenty-something single woman who reads only when she's on public transport? Maybe, the reader you're trying to reach is the stay at home mom with three kids and only a few minutes to read in the evening? Or, are your readers a unique blend of all of the above?

Having the awareness of who your readers are will help you with any promotional and or marketing effort you undertake. Once you understand the who of the equation, you can focus on some of the other aspects of discovering who you are trying to reach. Things like, where to find these wonderful connoisseurs of fine literature. What's the best option for connecting with them?

In my opinion, this trio of questions can either be a help, or a hinderance. Discovering the answers to them is vital to reach the consumer...but making them the focus of everything you say, do, post, write can also be limiting to an author. To be successful, one needs to know who they are as they write, but just as important they need to know who they are writing for while continuing to write.

So, it begs the question – as an author, who are you trying to reach? Do you know who you are writing for?