Stepping Back to Move Forward

 I took a break from most of my social media for a few reasons.  One is I wanted to take time to learn more about being an authorpreneur.  I took several courses on how to format, how to create a cover, marketing, self-editing, and so on and so forth. Another reason is 2020 was crazy for many of us and I was simply burnt out.  

There is A LOT of information out there and it can be overwhelming.  One site or youtuber says do A and here comes another two or three saying do B or D.  Then there is branding yourself and social media content creation.  Not only do you have to create it, but you also have to constantly engage.  You need a facebook group and Instagram account. Don't forget to market and create funnels and opt-ins.  Oh, and email lists and websites. Don't forget Twitter. Did you create that freebie yet or get on Tik Tok?  

It ended up feeling like I was doing everything BUT writing. I was frustrated and felt I wasn't accomplishing anything even though I was doing so many things.

So I took a pause from it all. I was perusing Pinterest when I came across this pin:

(Click image to go to the webpage)

The first five things were like an "ahhhh" moment. Like, someone out there said it was okay NOT to do a bunch of things at one time even though everyone else is saying do 900 things at once and smile while you're going crazy.   

So I stepped back and looked at what I was doing from an outside perspective. I made an outline with my end goal at the top and organized my time so that the things I get into are getting me closer to accomplishing my goals.  As far as the goals go, I dialed them back so that I'm accomplishing one or two mini-goals a month instead of trying to accomplish them all at once. As the saying goes, "you gotta crawl before you walk."

Some folks are good at daily social media postings.  I'm not.  Plus, I have other things going on. I decided to commit to posting on Instagram and Facebook three times a week. Yeah, it probably doesn't do anything for me with the algorithm but so what? If people are looking for what I write they will find me easy enough. 

And writing?

I am like a lot of creatives in that I have a lot of projects going on at the same time. Inspiration strikes when it will. What can I say? What I do now (instead of writing nine different stories at once) is focus on one and write several chapters. Then I might work on something else. All within a certain time frame and that's it. If anything else pops up, I jot it down in my notebook and move on. I've found that I have more time to relax and chill with my almost-adult kids and watch a few shows to get more inspiration. 

What strategies are you using to get more done this year?

 

My Thanks

 Happy Thanksgiving!

A lot of people rebel against Thanksgiving.  I like to think of Thanksgiving as a time to give thanks and show gratitude for all that I've been given and experienced this year.  

For example, even though Covid has been a major pain in all our lives this year, I have been able to finally realize two dreams.  The first, I published my first story earlier this year.  With the release of Into the Den, I've now published three.  The second, I finally started that vegetable garden.  Had a lot of failures and disappointments but I've had some successes as well.  

I am so thankful for all those who have supported me and pushed me to do this.  I am thankful to the haters and the critics.  I am thankful for the readers and writers who have shared their thoughts, insights, and knowledge with me.  I am thankful just to be here and be able to share my stories with people out there.  

Happy Thanksgiving and happy reading!

My Writing Tools

As an author I'm often asked the same question:  How do I write my stories?

This post contains affiliate links.  You are under no obligation to purchase.  If you do purchase anything, I get a few pennies.  

Writing the Manuscript

Many authors use fancy computers or programs that do everything but come up with the story.  I don't.

I use a Lenovo Ideapad laptop and Office 365 only because that's what came installed.  Before this laptop I had a Dell that was more than five years old and had Microsoft Word 10 or something like that.  I was totally content. 

Then it died.

Printing the Manuscript

To print my manuscripts, I use the Canon Pixma MG3220.  It's a good little scanner and printer.  I might swap it out one day for a top loading one that can handle more pages with less time.

Sometimes to get inspiration on what my characters should look like, I'll go to Google search or Pinterest.  There is so much to look at, you can find yourself losing whole chunks of time just surfing the net.

Notetaking

There are times I'm not with my laptop and inspiration strikes.  If my phone is on me, I'll use Samsung Notes.  It's just like a memo.  You can type what you want then save it for later retrieval.  You can also use the speech function to orally dictate what you want then save.

More often than not I will have notebooks, or notepads filled with scenes or notes for my story.  I used to have dozens of pieces of paper all over the place.  As you can imagine, they got lost or ruined.  This prompted me to create a notebook just for stories.  It contains everything I need for a story with space for notes.  You can find it on  Amazon.  You are in no way obligated to purchase (and that's not what this post is about anyway.)  This book, though, has made a difference in helping me keep my characters straight especially since I tend to write multiple stories at the same time.

Other Tools

Pens - Any pen.  As long as it is a fine point like the Pentel RSVP.

Correction Pens - Red Bic. I used to correct papers with red pen before they proclaimed it to be bad.

Pencils - to draw maps and such.  Pro Art or Daler-Rowney Simply sketching pencils, Ticonderoga, or .5mm Silver Zebra mechanical pencil or .7mm Sakura mechanical pencil.

Paper - Graph and college rule for notes and regular printer paper to print manuscript.

I've found my print books to be limited.  For vocabulary help I use powerthesaurus.org.  They have an amazing database with synonyms and antonyms.  It also offers some colorful phrases for some words as well.

Hope that answers any questions.  Have I left any out?  What are some tools you use in your writing?  Leave a comment below.  

Happy writing!   

Welcome!

Welcome to my author page and blog.  I'm so glad that you've taken the time to learn a bit about me and my writing process.  This blog is mostly about my writing process, writer life, and tips and tricks for aspiring authors.  I'll also post book releases and updates as they occur.

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Happy reading!

KD