Saturday, June 30, 2012

And Another One Bytes The Dust

In my last post I sort of griped about how my fiction/non-fiction ratio was all screwed up and after hitting "publish" I cracked open another non-fiction book and read it at work.
Okay, when I say "crack open" I don't mean literally because it's an ebook and that might damage my boss' computer, and saying I read it all during my 8 hour shift sounds impressive but it's not a full size GRRM novel, it was more like a manifesto.

But it was a damn good read. The advice given was obvious and practical, yet had impact and truth. This one definitely falls in line with the other things I've been reading lately and with my previous post about how conflicted I was about weather I could consider myself a 'real writer' yet.

I already am a real writer because I declared it so.


As soon as you accept that and get rid of your fears of being called out you start to have more fun with it.
Again great, quick read for anyone having doubts or still clinging to that "aspiring" label.

Now time to start making progress on my fiction pile.

Book Rotation (or Brain Confusion)

Brain Confusion is a little practice I came up with where I read one Fiction book and one Non-Fiction (motivational, self help, historical, etc..) at the same time. It's designed to work somewhat like Muscle Confusion in sports and physical training where you alternate working different muscle groups in no particular pattern, Book Rotation works the Left and Right sides of the brain (in theory at least. I'm no neuro-genius) in the same fashion.

It's probably just bro-science but I like planing my reading this way so that I'm always reading one fiction book and one non-fiction book at any given time.

However, my finished book ratio is way off. Since I started this I've breezed through 3 non fiction books in the last month and haven't even finished the one fiction book I started.
Stephen King's Night Shift

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Published! Pt. 2

This is a very exciting time for me.

I present to you: "Flowers: A Short Story of Love and Death"























Now this isn't a full length novel and it was *only* self published (be careful about adding that "only" part. To some Indie Authors, that could be considered grounds for fighting!) but what is important is that this marks a beginning for me as an author. It's a first step.

When I decided to take my passion much more serious and ditch the "aspiring" prefix and simply be an author I realized I could go about one of two ways.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Published!

Can I officially call myself an author now? Did I just upgrade from hobbyist to someone who's serious about their craft? Can I now say Literacy and I are going steady?

Not to sound like one of those guys (you know the type I'm talking about) but I've been published before. I've had my work in various lit mags and even by my local library but never anything on this scale. I'm talking worldwide distribution.

More details to follow...

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Author Branding ~ Thoughts


Author Branding. Creating a unique visual/verbal niche for yourself. Something I always knew I would need to start thinking about but just thought I could work on refining that later…
But as I’m reading all of these articles on author branding 
I’m realizing it’s something I’ve got to do NOW.
What makes me special as a writer? What makes me unique as a person? How do I want people to identify me? What colors do I want to associate myself with? 
I’m thinking about all my writings, what do they have in common? What is unique and is a key component to my style? And so far… I’ve got nothing good. It’s okay, it takes a little time I guess.
One of my favorite bands is Dragonforce. They play “Extreme Power Metal” which really isn’t that much different from standard Power Metal (same chord progressions, songs that are at minimum 6 minutes long, one token ballad/slow song per record) but that’s the brand they created for themselves and it sticks!
So I guess the first step for me is to analyze what is integral to my writing style and describe those aspects with flair. Create a hook for myself. Kind of like a logline for your book, except that it applies to you as a writer/business.
It’s a very daunting task considering all the writers out there who have their own established brand, and all the ones developing brands similar to mine but I have to just remember no matter how similar they are they can’t be me. 
There is a certain amount of excitement I’m feeling too that kinda cancels out the daunting bit of this whole thing. I get to be the architect of how the world perceives me. Saki, the writer. I get to tailor the aesthetics of my blog, take cool headshots, design business cards, write better bio and keep it consistent in all my networks, work on how I present myself, and generally run PR department of my life. And that’s pretty effin cool.

Monday, June 4, 2012

Writer's Mantra



1. It is inevitable, if I keep trying, that someday I'll be published. A professional is an amateur who didn’t quit.
2. I won't take rejection personally. Each rejection is one step closer to publication. Most rejections have nothing to do with how good the writing is.
3. I will have faith in my work, but always remain open to suggestion and change.
4. I will keep writing, keep submitting, keep marketing, and never surrender. Ultimately, getting published rests squarely on one person’s shoulders–mine.


J.A. Konrath - From “Write Good or Die”

Sunday, June 3, 2012

It's Okay to Suck


It's okay to suck
“You will never be perfect. Never. You will eventually finish stories and novels and achieve a sense of accomplishment, of satisfaction, even. You’ll start to get confident in your work. But the story will never appear on the page the same way it did in your head. And that’s OK. It happens to all of us. Your job is to tell the story in the best way you can. When you’re done, put it down and write something else. You can edit later. Right now, just focus on letting go of the perfect shining image of the story in your head, sitting down, and writing it. And if it sucks, so what? Your next story will be better.
I have faith in you. The day you accept that your writing is allowed to suck is your first day of being a writer—the day you set yourself free.”
- Mur Lafferty, from the book “Write Good or Die”