Excitement and the Art of Publishing by Rita Travaylan

I'm so excited.  I'm about to sign a contract to get the sequel to Takuhi’s Dream published. Takuhi’s Nightmare was my July Camp NaNoWriMo effort. The old Empress is dying.  She has chosen Takuhi Maimun-Cheng as her successor. Can she maintain the Compire and keep balance between the Compire, its Assembly, and its allies?  What challenges lie ahead for her two children and her husband?  This is by no means my first published novel.  It is number 11. I get excited each time I sign a contract as though it were my first one because it took me so long to reach this point, and it’s all due to Saturn, the planet named after the old Roman farmers’ god.  I call him the Great Manifester because he will grant your heart’s desire, but you will have to work long and hard to attain it. .  

My mother supported my writing by bringing ho,e from the office she worked in waste paper with a letter printed on the other side.  It was fine for my rough drafts. Of course I would have to use a better paper for the final version.  .But I dreamed of an easier way that I could just dictate and avoid the laborious job of typing.  At last in the 20-teens came another dream come true, the Dragon. Speech recognition software. At last the price was down to where I could afford it, so my house mate and I each got one.  Then we had to train our Dragons. The movie that came on TV was How to Train your Dragon, and we laughed at the synchronicity.  I don’t know about Stephen, but I started using my Dragon right away.  I suppose that he was so busy playing his sex game that he hardly ever wrote anything with it.  

But I use it almost constantly. I still have to type a little, as when I translate the gobbledegook  my Dragon makes out of my speech into intelligible English. But that is just par for the course with Saturn.

Tonight's the night we're gonna make it happen

Tonight we'll put all other things aside

Give in this time and show me some affection

We're going for those pleasures in the nightI want to love you, feel you

Wrap myself around you

I want to squeeze you, please you

I just can't get enough

And if you move real slow I'll let it go

That’s the song that occurs to me right about now.  Sure, it’s about making love, but couldn’t it be about other things that get one excited too?  I’m sure that were I to use my blood pressure cuff the number would be high, in spite of my having taken both blood pressure meds today (I’m very religious about taking them.) because I’m under stress, but it’s a good kind of stress.  What makes you excited? What quickens your heartbeat? What makes your eyes sparkle with anticipation? What gets the adrenaline and cortisol pumping through your bloodstream because the body cannot tell the difference between good stress and the other kind?

Rita

When is The Best Time to Edit?

As an author, editing has become an old friend - one I think most of us have a love/hate relationship with. It's necessary regardless of what level of skill one has. Without the final stage of editing our work may not be as professional and polished as we would like. Which isn't to say it isn't a painful endevour, it can be.

Personally, its something I tended to start doing as soon as I opened the manuscript and started back at page one to get my mind into the writing. Since I know there just isn't enough hours in a day to do 70K, I often save and come back to the manuscript. As a pantser (I'll discuss in another post) I rarely have a map of what I'm writing. I usually start with the premise and go from there. So, I have to breeze through before I get down to writing the next chapter. This means often times I'll find things I question, leaving little notes on the side of the manuscript.

However, as I have found over time, editing as you go is not something I could do with the level of success I wanted to get. It often changed the story to the point where the idea was so twisted and moulded by the end it wasn't even what I'd envisioned. Am I the only one who feels like this? No, by no means am I alone in this. I've spoken to other authors who have said the same thing or variations of it.

Editing as you go is a destructive habit, in my humble opinion. If you can do it, kudos to you, but my brain won't work that way. I spoke to an author one time at length about this, and her words were profetic. If you're editing from the start every time you open the manuscript, how can you say you're finishing the piece? You spend so much time editing the first chapter(s) or pages and you lose sight of what is happening with the rest of the story.

The old adage of "You can't edit a blank page" is very true. To edit and polish, there must be something on the page, otherwise, you're not editing. But, when you think about editing, the last thing I'd recommend is editing as you go.

There are several reasons why I say this. Firstly, if you're editing as you go along, are you really gaining ground? The human brain is an amazing thing, we're able to do a lot of things because we have such a powerful inner computer. But, even the most experienced author cannot look at something they've just written and see anything wrong with it. Why? Because we see what we want to see when we're editing as we go along.

This isn't something we can change, though we can be a bit more aware of it.

Is It A Career or A Hobby?

I often hear people tell me, oh you write, it must be a fun hobby. But is it truly a hobby?

By the definition given on Wikipedia: A hobby is a regular activity done for enjoyment, typically during one's leisure time, not professionally and not for pay. Hobbies include collecting themed items and objects, engaging in creative and artistic pursuits, playing sports, or pursuing other amusements. Participation in hobbies encourages acquiring substantial skills and knowledge in that area.

When I sit down to write, yes I do it for enjoyment, but I also do it with the expressed idea at some point I am going to make money from it. Which leads me to question my own intent. Is it a hobby I can make money from? Or is it something which I wish to actually be able to support myself and family with?
Is the money the driving force when I sit down to write? Or is simply the enjoyment and thrill of creating something which is a motivating factor. 

If its the money driving you? How much money do you need to consider it a career? What are the goals you have to meet to ensure you reach the financial benefit you want? How many sales do you have to make on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis? 

I want to be clear here, you can have a career as a hobby and vice versa, there isn't anything to say you can't. There are a lot of people who make their hobbies their primary career and do it with flair and no small amount of success. 

These are questions every author must ask. Deciding is an extremely personal and emotional path, and the answers will ultimately ensure one is faced with an even larger group of questions. Let's break it down even further. 

Is my writing a hobby? 

Writing as a hobby is not a negative in my opinion. Hobbies are healthy, productive events which allow us to have positive brain activity. But I get up every day, get ready and go to work at the day job only to come home and dabble here and there with it. 

Is it something which isn't a prime focus? If you answered yes to any of these questions perhaps your writing is a hobby. Or maybe its something you work on because you haven't decided to make it a career. 

But I only write for myself. My writing isn't good enough. I've heard these before, let me tell you a little secret I said those words myself. Writing, telling stories was something I did to relieve stress, to express myself, and yet deep within my heart, I knew at some point I wanted to share my stories. 

So I had to make a choice - do I keep considering my writing a hobby, a side venture or do I make it more? The true decision is only something, I as the author could make. I chose to try and make it a career.

Oh my goodness, a career as an author?

Have a career as an author is a major undertaking. You have to be dedicated to the hard work, the hours you'll put in, and comprehension you are your own boss. There has to be an understanding of what you need vs want from writing.

Not only in a creative manner but also in a financial one. How much do you need to make on a daily, weekly, monthly basis to ensure your bills are paid? Now, how do you take that number and equate it to how many sales you need?

Marketing and promotion will become a double-edged sword as you work to get your book title out there before readers. Remember, however, you're not simply promoting a book but the whole brand. And that is you. Connect with your readers, focus on making relationships and not simply sales. You will love it and hate it but eventually, it becomes second nature.

Awareness and desire will guide you in the direction you want to go in.  Follow your heart and it will guide you down the path best suited to what you're meant to do.

Welcome to On A Writer's Desk

Hi. Welcome to my blog, On A Writer's Desk. I hope you'll find it helpful as I discuss a multitude of topics I have found to be invaluable or just plain interesting. As an author, I'm constantly learning and discovering new aspects of this industry and how best to navigate the channels. I'll be sharing stories and anecdotes from things I've learned in the last nine years of being part of the publishing industry.

Elise