HAS IT ALL CAUGHT UP WITH YOU? ... INSECURE WRITERS SUPPORT

  HAS IT ALL CAUGHT UP WITH YOU?

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You're in good company:

Mark Twain

Mark Twain's brilliant authorship of American classics such as Huckleberry Finn might have had its roots in his tendency to depression. 

But this famous depressed writer also lived with a lot of family drama that could have contributed to his stress and depression.

Depression's role with creative writing will also be a function of the individual writers, their personal history, their circumstances, and the nature of their depressions.

 

Stephen King

Stephen King, a modern master of suspense and terror, has quite a body of work to his name. 

Yet his fame and talent didn't forestall the devastating effects of the drugs and alcohol he allegedly had been using to cope with ongoing unhappiness.

Substance abuse and alcohol use often play roles as people struggling with depression attempt to self-medicate. During those years, this famous depressed writer also produced some of his best-known works, 

such as The Shining, Pet Cemetery, and Carrie.

 

F. Scott Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda were known for their glamorous and tumultuous lifestyle, full of wild parties, travel, and larger-than-life characters.

The Great Gatsby remains his best-known work, but other novels such as The Beautiful and the Damned detail a lot of the same ground. 

Their glittering life had a dark side, punctuated by alcoholism and depression for both of them, and their legacy includes being famous depressed writers.

HOW DO YOU KEEP ON WRITING DESPITE FEAR, DOUBT, & SELF-CRITICISM?

1.) ASK YOURSELF WHAT YOU WOULD DO IF YOU'RE WEREN'T AFRAID OR DOUBTFUL.

The mere act of doing usually makes the fear recede in just a few minutes.” Pretend, just for a moment, that rejection or failure isn’t the end of life as you know it.

2.) STOP INDULGING YOUR FEARS, DISCOURAGEMENTS, REJECTIONS, & DASHED DREAMS.

Much as we’re driven to write, we feel we must be in the mood – as if the clouds should part, the sun should shine and every possible interruption should be silenced.

 None of that matters. 

Write anyway. 

Don’t think about how you feel or if it’s a perfect time to write or that you have a thousand other things to do. 

Write anyway. 

You have nothing to share and nothing to sell if there are no words on the page.

3.) REMEMBER THAT REJECTION ISN'T NECESSARILY ABOUT YOUR WRITING. 

You have to be totally dedicated to your writing. Forget about rejections – they’re a mandatory part of any career.

A writer writes.

If you feel you’ll keep writing even if you never get published, then you’re a real writer.

The markets want they want.  Tastes will change.  

You will grow as a writer if you do not give up.

4.) SEE PAST YOUR EXCUSES TO YOUR REAL FEARS

Writers need to look at their fears directly. 

“Recognize them for what they are, and be honest with yourself about why you’re not moving forward with your writing goals.

This can be difficult because we give excuses rather than facing our fears.

5.) SET SMALL GOALS

Long-term goals are great for inspiration, 

but keep a list of small, attainable goals, too, and allow yourself to feel proud when you achieve them.

Reward yourself for finishing a chapter or short story.

Recognize that sending a few query letters to agents takes time, thought, and effort, and don’t discount the success.

HOW TO GET YOUR BOOK NOTICED WHILE WAITING FOR OPRAH TO DO IT

{Cover Design by Heather McCorkle}

1.) WE HAVE THE WORLD BACKWARDS

   People will buy your book for your WHY not your WHAT.

      All those "girl saviors plucking the world from disaster" books are a dime a dozen and sell like stale ideas will.
     
      Their authors have their WHAT shouting from their subject matter.  They want to jump on the bandwagon to fame and money.

      They are in pursuit of the results not the thrill of  the journey for their WHY. 

And they get meager results.



2.) THE WHY OF YOUR BOOK WILL DRAW READERS TO YOU.

     The best writers write for the thrill of telling an entertaining story with characters you can relate to.

      DC VERTIGO comics has some of the worst art, but readers are loyal to them.  BECAUSE THE STORY IS NOVEL AND RIVETING.

      APPLE begins with their WHY: 

      "Everything we do stems from our belief in challenging the Status Quo.  We believe in thinking differently.

      The way we challenge the Status Quo is by making the most user-friendly computers in unique formats.  

      We just happen to make great computers.  Want to buy one?"



3.) HOW THIS APPLIES TO YOUR NEW BOOK.

      The world must be coming to an end, for I am writing:  

JOHN LOCKE HAD SOMETHING RIGHT.

      When starting out his blog, he wrote -- not on writing -- his target audience were READERS not writers.

      He wrote heart-tugging, funny, original posts on topics relevant to the moment.

      In his side-bar, he had his books spotlighted with links to purchase them

 in the belief that if the readers found him amusing in his post, then they might be tempted to take a chance on his 99 cents books.



4.) OUR BLOGS ARE OUR MARRIAGE PROPOSAL TO THE READER.

      Reading a book is like a relationship between author and reader.  

The divorce rate is high here.  

You have to court and continually reinforce the attraction the reader has for you as an author.

      If we are boring, pedantic, or drone on about the same thing to the point of vomiting, 

we will not tempt the reader to try our books.

      If you are saying the same thing in the same way all the other author blogs are, you will be lost in the sea of those screaming, BUY ME!



5.) GIVE THEM A REASON TO CARE, TO BUY.

      Make them laugh or nod their head in sudden agreement: 

"Damn, she's right about that.  I never thought about it that way before."

     We make decisions with our limbic brain that does not think in words but in feelings like trust and loyalty.  

      Most choices are made based on feelings which we rationalize later.

     Most people will wait until the horde agree on a book.  

You want to attract those readers who BELIEVE in YOU enough to talk about you to their friends.

     And they will believe in YOUR WHY more than in your particular book.



6.) PLACE THE EMPHASIS ON THEM NOT ON YOU.

      Don't give them WHAT: 

"Matilda is torn between the merman who saved her and the hunky fisherman who netted her out of the water."

     Place the emphasis on the reader with the WHY: 

"Do you want more than lust?  Do you want lust AND love?  Boy, do I have a book for you!"

      People went to hear Rev. King not for him but for themselves 

because HE VOICED THEIR DREAMS.  

It was not I HAVE A PLAN speech, but I HAVE A DREAM.



7.) DON'T FISH IN THE TOILET BOWL.

     FB, Twitter -- these are NOT the hunting areas for readers.

      Go to Amazon.  

It is the NUMBER ONE SEARCH ENGINE FOR READERS!

But do it right.

 

{The latest Hubble view of the PILLARS OF CREATION}

THREE HINTS:

      1.) PUT YOUR KEYWORDS IN YOUR TITLE.

Amazon’s algorithms look FIRST for the most popular KEYWORDS in your TITLE.  

Why do you think you are suddenly seeing titles like THIRST: A DARK FANTASY?

    
       2.) PUT KEYWORDS IN YOUR PRODUCT DESCRIPTION.

Amazon’s algorithms are drawn to critical KEYWORDS in your product description.  

Take those hard-thought out keywords in your keyword section and place them in the description of your novel.

It will help to pad the description of your book.  

Short descriptions get skipped over entirely by those pesky Amazon’s algorithms.


Amazon’s algorithms look at keywords 

in each book’s title, series title, subtitle, product description, editorial reviews, and customer reviews, 

to match it to what customers are looking for. 

More relevant equals higher placement.

       
      3.) DON'T ENTER A SPITTING CONTEST WITH A CAMEL!

When choosing keywords go to the Amazon Search box and type a keyword that has popularity but not overwhelming lookers.


You want to be on the first page if possible of a search.

URBAN FANTASY will have you lost in a tide of books.

DARK FANTASY is a bit better.

NEW ORLEANS DARK FANTASY or NEW ORLEANS HORROR are the best of the three. 

 Popular but you will find yourself on the first or second page of a reader's search.

BUT FIRST AND FOREMOST:

HAVE FUN WITH YOUR DREAM!

DAY OF THE DEAD and HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL

The last of that title is the wrong question actually.

The proper one is "How to Write A Novel People Are Drawn To?"


Do you know the history of the Day of the Dead? 

It is a strange (to us) holiday occurring during the first and second crisp days of November.  

It falls on All Saints and All Souls Days of the Catholic Church.

But indigenous people are craftily adaptable and 

happily absorbed those holidays instead of being absorbed by them as the church intended.

They believe that the Gates of Heaven are opened at midnight on October 31st, 

and the spirits of all deceased children (angelitos), are allowed to be reunited with their families for 24 brief hours. 

On November 2nd, the deceased adults are released, allowing them to visit their families.  


(There are some sons-in-law out there who are right now shivering, 

thinking of having to lock horns with their mothers-in-law once more after thinking themselves safe.)


For these self-supporting rural indigenous families, the festivities they make for those reunions are crushingly expensive.

Many spend TWO months income to honor their dead relatives.


Imagine if you would that those days are all too real?  

What if you were a woman who had killed her lover out of self-defense?


When he comes with a ghost of a smile
And he roams through her eyes for a while,
The Day turns as empty ground somewhere.

There’s a rise, there’s a fall
Where the light hits the wall
Spins a shadow ...

There’s a cold wind blowing down through the meadow
And he’s the dark where the day has been bleeding
The ink this page has been needing
You closed the lid but it still casts a shadow

There’s a rise, there’s a fall
Where the light hits the wall
Spins two shadows.


What if you were a poor single mother ... so poor that you could not afford the medicines to save your beloved daughter?

So poor you could not now afford the simplest decorations of the sugar-skulls your Maria loved so?

The night of her last day, you held her so close but the warmth was gone as were the stars.  

You sat rocking her for hours.  But your sun did not rise with the dawn.

Now, Maria would not come to this dark, bleak house because you were poor still.

You feel feather touches of light fingers on your wet cheek.  You hear the words you never expected to hear:  

"Mama, Mama, it's all right.  Love doesn't have to be bought." 


That is how you write a novel that people want to read:

You write of characters so real that the readers ache with them, 

fear for them, 

and cheer with them when life grants them some small blessing.


To draw them to your character's situation, 

you paint in word-colors of hope, love, doubt, and courage when all seems lost.

But like with the Day of the Dead, the situation must be original in some fashion --

not a field plowed over by a thousand hackneyed writers spinning the same tale yet again.

I hope this helps in some small way, Roland

Day of the Dead is an interesting holiday celebrated in central and southern Mexico during the chilly days of November 1 & 2. Even though this coincides with the Catholic holiday called All Soul's & All Saint’s Day, the indigenous people have combined this with their own ancient beliefs of honoring their deceased loved ones. - See more at: http://www.mexicansugarskull.com/support/dodhistory.html#sthash.VgMP2nOu.dpuf

Day of the Dead is an interesting holiday celebrated in central and southern Mexico during the chilly days of November 1 & 2. Even though this coincides with the Catholic holiday called All Soul's & All Saint’s Day, the indigenous people have combined this with their own ancient beliefs of honoring their deceased loved ones. - See more at: http://www.mexicansugarskull.com/support/dodhistory.html#sthash.VgMP2nOu.dpuf

Day of the Dead is an interesting holiday celebrated in central and southern Mexico during the chilly days of November 1 & 2. Even though this coincides with the Catholic holiday called All Soul's & All Saint’s Day, the indigenous people have combined this with their own ancient beliefs of honoring their deceased loved ones. - See more at: http://www.mexicansugarskull.com/support/dodhistory.html#sthash.VgMP2nOu.dpuf

WILLIAM FAULKNER'S SECRET TO WRITING SUCCESS

At Meilori's, that is never too far from where dreams have died, 

I was playing chess with the ghost of William Faulkner.

The fog gathered near.  

The jazz murmured low in the shadows.  

The torches beckoned to all who wander lost in the dark of their soul.

I must have spoken that thought aloud, for Faulkner said low, "How do you know they are so lost?"

I smiled sadly, "On such a night, if they could be home, they'd already be there." 

He returned my smile.  "Just so.  Just so."

I asked, "Why weren't you at the poker game last night?"

Faulkner snorted, "Hemingway gets too morose about November's writing contest."

"So you approve of NaNo?"

"Goodness, no!  It is a horrid waste of 30 precious days that will never come again.  

The dead know all too well how fleeting life can be."

I nodded, "Mark Twain says each day is a coin we can spend any way we wish, but ...."

Faulkner finished with me, " ... you can only spend it once."

He sighed, 

"But have those contest participants bought anything of lasting value with those 30 coins?"

"So you agree with Hemingway?"

"No.  He lived a full life and should know Mankind has always looked for the secret elixir, the hidden keys, the lost path to success."

Faulkner smiled bitterly. 

 "Not they exist, mind you, but we want them to.  We live in denial of the simple fact 

that the true path to success, whether in writing or in any other endeavor, 

is paved with courage, imagination, and persistence."

He blew pipe smoke into the shadows. "And it is a lonely road."

I sighed, "For me it has been."

Faulkner murmured,

 "So it is understandable that so many writers think they have found the key to becoming writers 

in this joint 'group hug' as Hemingway so colorfully and callously calls this contest."

He frowned as I moved my knight in a move he had not foreseen. 

 "But the truth is as elusive as smoke in the night.  Sometimes you can smell it in the air, but it slips through your fingers."

Faulkner took my knight in a move that this time I hadn't seen coming and smiled,

 "But I can tell you and your electronic friends the simple secret to writing success."

"It's not nice to tease a struggling writer."

"Oh, I am quite sincere.  The simple secret is this:

Write of an old thing in a new way."

In response to my frown, Faulkner said, 

"The oldest lodestone to literature is the human heart in conflict with itself.  

From Shakespeare to Tennessee Williams that lodestone has been the compass that led the way to riveting stories."

He tapped the chessboard with the stem of his pipe. 

"Only that is worth writing about, worth the agony, and the sweat of wresting something from nothing."

Faulkner leaned forward, stabbing my chest with the pipe stem.

"Leave no room in your writing for anything but the old truths of the heart,

 the old universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed - 

 love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice.

 
Until you do so, you labor under a curse.

You write not of love but of lust,

of defeats in which no one loses anything of value,

of victories without hope and,

worst of all, without pity or compassion. 

Your griefs grieve on no universal bones, leaving no scars.

You write not of the heart but of the sex glands."

He wrinkled his nose as if to sneeze.  

"When I was in Hollywood, Samuel Goldwyn would point out the latest hit to me and my fellow script writers

and say, "I want the same thing ... only different."

I smiled, 

"No stories of young boys or girls fated to save the world, no wallflower girl courted by supernatural heart-throbs, no ...."

Faulkner said, 

"Dare to save your character's world in a way not seen before and with imagination not cookie-cutter formulas.'

I moved my last knight, positioning it to take his King.  "Checkmate."

He tipped over his King and arched an eyebrow, "Only a callow soul takes advantage of the dead."

The ghost of Mark Twain pulled up a seat and crowed, "Why I do that all the time!"

Faulkner snorted, "I rest my case."

THE DEAD CHAT UP NANOWRIMO

The ghost of Hemingway scowled at his cards.

"Bad hand?" asked the ghost of Mark Twain, his eyes twinkling with mischief.

"Bad season" he gruffed.  "Damn NaNoNites are wasting a whole month vomiting out quantity not quality."

"Their choice," I said, looking at a hand full of jokers I was sure Mark had double-dealt me.

F. Scott Fitzgerald sighed and sipped his champagne.  "They are making a gimmick of an art form."

The ghost of Jung frowned at his own cards, 

and I had a suspicion that Mark had jury-rigged another hand.

Jung said, 

"Perhaps it is the herd mentality which possesses mankind.  It can be harmful if the individual gives into it unthinkingly."

I said, "It gives stimulus to many to write each day."

Hemingway chewed his cigar.  

"If you need a kick in the pants to write, you are a wannabe not a writer." 

The ghost of Roger Zelazny said, 

"I made myself write three times during each day and insisted on completing at least a page each sitting.  

Not even close to 50,000 words a month, but I wrote a good many novels.  Even won an award or two."

Hemingway snorted, "And now, you are forgotten."

Roger shook his head.  "Roland still reads me."

Hemingway scowled, "Roland doesn't count."

"You must be talking to my past dates," I smiled 

and then sighed as I drew yet another Joker for the one I discarded.

Mark ignored my dirty look and said, 

"Words realize nothing, vivify nothing to you, unless you have suffered in your own person the thing which your words are trying to describe.  

And to do that, you must live not chain yourself to a desk!"

He lit his own cigar, saying

"I read that NaNo electronic page.  Why they say: 'You will be writing a lot of crap. And that’s a good thing.'  

Am I the only sane person here to think 'writing a lot of crap' does not sound like a particularly fruitful way to spend an entire month, 

even if it is November."


Mark shook his head.

"To get the right word in the right place is a rare achievement. Lord, to condense the diffused light of a page of thought into the luminous flash of a single sentence is worthy of a prize just by itself."

He sighed, 
"Anybody can have ideas -- the difficulty is to express them without squandering a quire of paper on an idea that ought to be reduced to one glittering paragraph."


I said, "They say that they can go back and edit ...."

Hemingway looked like he was going to slug me.  

"I have gone to their site, too.  'The world needs your novel' is their motto.  

The world does not NEED badly thought-through novels.  The world only needs to breathe, eat, and sleep."

Fitzgerald nodded,

"The joy of writing is not in deadlines and word counts, but in taking time to shape your work: 

to sit and let the ideas flow and then, when they ebb away, retreat from your keyboard 

until the next surge washes new fragments of story into your head."


Jung turned to me.  "What do you think, Roland."


"I believe writing is not a sprint but a marathon, 

a way of life for every day of each year, not just a competition for a month.  But that's just me."


Jung stroked his chin.

"I believe this competition, where word counts are paramount, forms bad writing habits. 

Habits such as overusing adjectives or bloating the pages with needless description. 

It takes 28 days to form a habit, Roland, so you can see how November can become a hothouse for writing problems."


I nodded, "Many think that NaNo made writing feel achievable."


Hemingway growled, 

"I put a gun to your child's head and say 'Write 50,000 words or I pull the trigger.'  

You will write that many words.  It is all a matter of motivation.  If you do not burn to write, you are a dreamer not a writer."


Jung frowned,

"No one convinced of the worth of this contest is going to be dissuaded by your words.  

Sad fact actually.  

You see, if their goal is to increase creativity, this contest will not help them.  Research has shown that anticipating evaluation -- 

even the mild stimulus of the Winner's Badge to pin on their electronic newsletter-- 

has a negative effect on creative performance."

Fitzgerald murmured,

"I am concerned for these NaNites. I’m afraid the price for doing professional work is a good deal higher than they are prepared to pay at present.

 You’ve got to sell your heart, your strongest reactions, not the little minor things that only touch you lightly, the little experiences that you might tell at dinner. 

This is especially true when you begin to write, when you have not yet developed the tricks of interesting people on paper, 

when you have none of the technique which it takes time to learn. When, in short, you have only your emotions to sell.

 This is the experience of all writers. 

It was necessary for Dickens to put into Oliver Twist the child’s passionate resentment at being abused and starved that had haunted his whole childhood. 

Ernest’s first stories ‘In Our Time’ went right down to the bottom of all that he had ever felt and known. 

In ‘This Side of Paradise’ I wrote about a love affair that was still bleeding as fresh as the skin wound on a haemophile.

And all of this takes time to distill into just the right magical words to conjure the images in the minds of the readers.  

Throwing them like dice onto the felt of the written page just will not do."

Roger nodded his head.

"Nobody ever became a writer just by wanting to be one.

 If you have anything to say, anything you feel nobody has ever said before, 

you have got to feel it so desperately that you will find some way to say it that nobody has ever found before, 

so that the thing you have to say and the way of saying it blend as one matter—as indissolubly as if they were conceived together"


Mark smiled at me.  "What do you think, Roland?"

I scowled at him.  "I think you've been dealing from a deck of 52 Jokers."

He blew a smoke ring at me.  "That's the story of life, son.  The story of life."