And all that drafts

I’m swimming in drafts.

I don’t say drown for the truth is that I know what I’m doing now. The knowledge I acquired through those years of learning the craft of writing is like a life jacket, so I float for I have tons of things yet to learn. But this doesn’t change the fact that I created a pool of drafts and dived into it for quite some time.

Dilemma

June is coming soon and I was thinking it would be nice to make a change on my blog, but I couldn’t think of something particular. When it hit me. I can’t decide though if I should do it or not. I’m having a dilemma. I’m uploading this post late today, but now I had the chance to be online and I didn’t want to waste any time.

I would appreciate your opinion. I'd love you to tell me what do you think. So, here it goes.

A game of Tag

A game of Tag…Yay!!! I got the invitation by Kaykay who is a fellow writer and blogger. Go check his blog NOW. Thank you Kaykay!

Some of you may know this game but this is another version. Tag an author who is now “IT”. To play this game you have to share your Work in Progress (WIP) or it’s a smacked bottom and straight to bed with no supper! The choice is yours. :)

The most creative time of the day

It’s official, my most creative time of the day it’s when I go to sleep. No, no don’t laugh, I’m serious. I can’t really explain why but it has happened to me too many times to ignore it. The moment I close my eyes and I try to sleep, my mind just go wild. Maybe it’s the quiet of the night, no lights, to TV, no music, nothing. It’s just me and my thoughts. 

Those moments … something magical happens.

Indie Crisis

Well, I think the title is more than fitting. I am having an indie crisis and I am sure that many of you understand me completely. Being a writer is hard and especially for new writers, it is even harder. Every beginning has its own difficulties but with time and work we develop, and progress is what makes us stronger, better, what is leading our way step by step.

Indie authors, I think, we are in a more complex situation because we are alone. I am referring to writers, just like myself, who are doing everything alone. We don’t have a professional editor, we don’t have any author assistance, we don’t have a professional to design our book’s cover. We are alone! I don’t know if there are others like me, I guess there are, but you can’t imagine how hard it is!  

Publishing World...

New week starts and I have to place in order all the things I want to get done. My focus is on the fifth draft for DAZED since I want to publish it soon. As I read it again, adding things or tossing others, I feel anxious. One moment I am happy and optimistic and the other I have my doubts.  I guess, now I understand completely what people say that writers are never ready to let their manuscript go. I had read an interview, where Jeffery Deaver said that he write one draft after the other until they practically take it off his hands in order to publish it.

Impossible? Think again...

Nelson Mandela once said, “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” How true is this, right? We should never say that something isn’t going to happen because everything seems impossible until it’s done. Think about it.

Writing and Editing...two different worlds.

Writing and editing…the most important parts in a writer’s life but two very different parts. Writing is the core of a writer’s life. It is where we are called to create our story, to build our characters, to give them substance and make them real, make the reader care about them and keep them interested and curious about their lives so they want to keep reading and reading and get attached with them. When we write we must be focused on that and not trouble our mind with anything else.

Supportive much?

Liebster Blog Award gave me the opportunity to talk about something important and that is support. The fact is that there are a million blogs and writers around the world and in order to be known and have your blog read by other people, hard work is demanded and dedication. But are those two enough?

Liebster Blog Award

Here I am sitting by the fire and trying to study for exams but I just don’t have it today. So, I get online and I see a mail that someone has left a comment on my blog. I read it and I smile. Riza Ponciano has left me a message saying that she has nominated me for the Liebster Blog Award and I quickly open her blog to read more about it.

Writer’s self-doubt

Well, it was about time for the doubt to knock on my door…again! I’m sure every single one of you knows what I mean. I’m talking about that little annoying voice in your mind which tells you that you are just not good enough, you are not cut out for this and as hard as you try to shut it down the voice continues screaming at you, making your confidence jumps off the window in a fall without borders. You may hear it when you are reading a good novel or when you see a beautiful manuscript or, even worse...when you are writing your own.

Dazed

I’m too excited today because I will talk about my first book. If you have read my posts, you may have noticed that I haven’t written the title anywhere. A reason I avoided it, was what I said in my previous post. I had uploaded it as a trial and now it still exists even if I have it as a draft on my KPD, because I still work on it. So, today I found the courage to talk about it with title and blurb and all. So…here we are.

When to Publish?

I believe this is a question many indie authors have, including me. It is a big question mark like the one in the picture, which dances in my mind for months. I am referring to indie authors because we do things alone and we don’t know exactly how these things works so our questions marks are plenty and we struggle. I have finished two novels but I am still working on them. My first is on its forth draft and I guess that I will have at least two more before I publish it. But is this enough?

Don't lose your will.

Today I am too excited. I don’t have a particular reason to be, since I have many things troubling my mind but…being able to write and continuing my story makes me happy.

Being an indie author isn’t easy but I believe there is a particular beauty to it. Writing a novel on your own it might be difficult, and speaking of myself, there are many times that I lose my strength. Those are the times I doubt if my stories will ever reach a reader and that is one of the difficulties for being an indie author. We have to do everything alone, editing, promotion and of course there are things we shouldn’t do alone. But I will not talk about that.

I am writing this post because I want to encourage everyone I can, including myself, to keep doing what they love. I am too stubborn to stop because sometimes I am disappointed or because I read an amazing novel and I believe that the world doesn’t need my story. Who knows, there might be one person who will love my work. Isn’t that enough? I believe it is and I am not talking about friends and family who will be supportive and optimists. I talk about unknown men and women who will search the internet and even by chance they will decide to read whatever I have to tell them. And they may end up like it!

So when you feel sad, disappointed or pessimist, don’t give up! The difficulties exist so we can overcome them and keep going. So, sleeves up and keep writing.

How good it feels to write!

I don’t have anything specific on my mind this time; I just want to share with you my feelings when I’m writing. Writing it is a very personal procedure, especially if you are starting a new story or if it is your first attempt. Whatever is the case, you are lost in your thoughts and time seems to fly along with a million scenarios on how this is going to work. At least that’s how I felt.

I remember when I decided to write something that I could publish. I had a story on my mind but only some pieces and I was hesitating. One night I said to myself that there is no point wasting time thinking about it and so I started writing. I still didn’t know the whole story but I knew how I wanted to start and just like that I wrote the preface. After that everything came naturally. I kept writing and the story unfolded before me. Sometimes even surprised me! I can’t explain the feeling when I completed it, but I am sure that any writer out there knows what I am talking about.

I have a lot to do yet, since I am editing, but I know it is a unique experience. Now I understand what they say that when something ends another begins since when I was finishing the first, a new idea was born and now I am in the half of the second book, which is completely different from the first.

What can I say…? I feel so enchanted by the writing world that I want to transmit my feelings across the world. Hope I did it!

What makes a good book?

What makes a good book? There is more than one answer that someone can give to this question and so I am going to give mine. I will not talk about preferences, everyone has his own. There are those who enjoy mystery, adventure, fiction, paranormal, those who like romance, historical, non-fiction and many-many more. I want to talk about the things that anyone expects from a book.

A good story.

The first thing we do when we see a book is to read the description which tells us a bit about the story we are going to learn. This is our first encounter with the book and I believe an important one. We want to be excited, curious and even thrilled and that’s a reason to make us read it. So, an interesting description is crucial but it will not be a surprise if at the end it wasn’t a good book. Yes, there is the case that an astonishing description may lead us to a book that we wouldn’t choose for many reasons.

An interesting start.

The second thing that I do when I have a book on my hands, is to read a few opening lines. This is a way to take a peek at the way the author writes and a hint about how the story begins. This may be a prologue or a preface or even the beginning of the story. Whatever is the case it must be something that we will remember.

Well written.

A huge presupposition is for the book to be well written. This takes a lot of discussion and I know that there are many experienced people who can explain it better than me. From my experience though, even if it is a little one, and form my aspect as a reader, I have to admit that a well written book is the most important thing. But…this doesn’t mean that the author must use some difficult technique or something. Of course when you have studied and you have spent years analyzing, reading and taking advices from experienced people, you see things more clearly than someone who just writes. Writing is not easy but I believe people can do it, and I don’t speak of those who force themselves to do it, because there are those too. I am speaking about people who writing comes from their souls and they will do mistakes and everything will not be perfect to an experienced eye, but those people can create a good book too. The reader doesn’t know what the author has studied; he only enjoys the story and travels along with the characters. If a book can do this to you, then I don’t think that there is anything more we can tell.  So, my advice is to anyone who writes because he likes it, because he is passionate with it, is…write! I do the same thing. I write and I don’t know if it will lead me anywhere but I love to write and I just wouldn’t be myself if I stopped for any reason.

Of course there are a million more that we can tell about a good book but those three are the top on my list. Which are yours? Feel free to tell me.

 xoxo

A.

Children's Book on the way...

New week, new step! I am a little excited today because I made a decision. I will publish (self-publish of course since I am doing everything alone) one of my short stories for Children! It is a very short story, meaning 14 pages, and it is childish. Of course it is that way because I wrote it when I was 11 years old! (About thirteen years ago.) The story is about a man who is selfish and uncaring and he ignores his family but when something tragic happens, everything changes. The story is simple and speaks about the value of family, love and helping people who need you the most.

Well, I searched my documents and I found it sneaking somewhere between a few unfinished ones and I said “We will need to spend some time together.” I have read it three times while I do the editing part. I don’t want to make extreme changes because it is a story from a child and that’s how I want to maintain it. I will have to find a cover and edit some more but I hope that soon enough I will publish it on Amazon. And that is another step of daring!! (if you have read my post “Daring” then you know what I mean). 

I'm just wondering...why??

I am a little disappointed about a “separation” that takes place between the regular publishing and self-publishing. Looking around the internet I saw that many sites and blogs that accept books for review can’t review self-published work.

And I am wondering now…if someone has a literature agent or a publisher, wouldn’t be easier to advertise his novel? Of course he would need a review but he would have already made a step in that world. On the other hand someone who writes and edits alone finds it harder to appear in the world. And don’t give me wrong. I am not talking about money. I am referring to put your story out there. This is, I believe, what a writer wants, this is what I want; to entertain and keep the reader excited with my work.

I admire the good writers and I believe that we will be amazed from their future work but…I can’t help but wonder. New authors don’t deserve a fair chance? I strongly believe that somewhere around us there are more than one persons who can make us chill with their amazing story or their will rock our world with the stunning novel they will create. Don’t you believe that we should check them out? Of course their work may not be perfect at the beginning and their first novel may not be unforgettable but…is this reason to ignore them?

I hope I didn’t offend someone. This wasn’t my intention. I’m just wondering and writing my thoughts. So what are your thoughts on this?