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Packing Heat 123: What's Important?
Creativity Series: Notion Potion
Notion Potion #1: One Sip at a Time is another look at one of my favorite themes, the way small steps add up to measurable results when you are consistent about taking them.
Notion Potion #2: Don't Make Yourself Hurl exposes a pernicious bully who's constantly undercutting our creative efforts...ourselves.
Stop by and say hi! You can expect new Notion Potion columns the first Wednesday of each month. Please leave a comment if there's a specific creativity issue you'd like me to write about.
Self-Publishing Guest Post
Jessica Broughton was kind enough to let me pick her brain about the movie biz back in episode #75 (listen here). I'm thrilled that she's followed up with me about what she's up to lately...and that includes self-publishing her first short story.
That deserves a "yay," Jessica. YAY!
Without further ado, here's the story in her own words:
Three Self-Publishing Challenges I Didn't Expect by Jessica M. Broughton
Hello, my name is Jessica,
and I’m a writer (“Hi, Jessica!”). I’ve been freelancing
for almost six years now, and just self-published a supernatural/horror
short called “Bespoke” for the Kindle, Nook, and on Smashwords.
My story and my reasons for self-publishing echo that of many other authors. I had spent almost two years shopping my short story around, to no avail, and I was just done. I decided that I was going to submit it to one more place, and if they didn’t take it, then it was time to self-publish.
It became a perfect storm: the short got rejected; an artists’ collective that I work with, the PixelDrip Gallery, decided to exhibit at the Long Beach Comic and Horror Con Halloween weekend; and because my story is supernatural in nature, I couldn’t have asked for a better time of the year to publish the darn thing.
I decided all of this on Tuesday, October 11, and in just a little over two weeks I pulled it all together with the help of some amazing friends.
I knew that this was going to be a learning experience but there were definitely some challenges that I was totally prepared for.
- To Market, To Market
So you’ve self-published a book – congratulations! Now get back to work.
Self-publishing means you have to get incredibly creative with your marketing. Really creative.
In the last two weeks I’ve spent more time online just talking to people than I ever thought possible. In addition to attending the Long Beach Comic Con, I just spent Sunday at the Comikaze Expo in Los Angeles (oh darn!). I’ve gotten myself on Goodreads, and it’s become more important than ever for me to keep in touch with every single person that I’ve met. I’m tweeting. I’m taking pictures. I’m asking friends to like my author page on Facebook. I’m reaching out to other writers and artists to figure out how we can support each other as we try to make a living out of our art.
I’m not going to lie – I’m having the time of my life. I love writing and I’m glad I decided to take this step. I’m also trying to figure out just what the hell I’m doing and to figure out what works so that I can finesse my marketing plan.
Had I had more time, I would have done more marketing prior to the book launch. But the truth is I was racing to the finish line just to get everything done and completed for the Long Beach Comic Con.
I definitely didn’t expect the way the dynamics were going to shift post-book.
Which brings me to…
- Learning How to Juggle Chimpanzees While Tap Dancing
I knew I had a lot of work to do to promote my book, but right now it feels like I’m trying to do the impossible. That’s just my way of saying that I have a huge to do list, and now I’m feeling like I have no time to actually write.
I also work as a non-fiction freelance writer, and in the last five days I’ve done exactly nothing on work that I have due at the end of the month.
Jordan once said on her Packing Heat podcast that after examining her 40 hour workweek as a writer she was spending about 10 hours writing and 30 hours marketing, updating her website, and doing everything else under the sun to make sure that she promoted herself and stayed relevant.
Oh, and did I mention that I, like many authors, still have a day job?
The problem is that you can very easily and very quickly find that you’re doing absolutely nothing but marketing and promotions, and you’re not doing much writing.
I’ve actually had to start dividing up my days so that I can accomplish everything without driving myself batty, burning myself out, or being incapable of having a normal conversation with a real human being.
It just means I have to cowboy up, get organized, and prioritize.
For me, that means breaking things down to the basics – writing every day, eating regularly and eating healthy (as I am prone to skipping meals), exercising, and getting enough rest. Of course, it wouldn’t hurt to have a little bit of fun thrown in there, too, just for sanity’s sake.
I’m happy to report that by just taking care of myself I’ve noticed a huge upswing in my energy levels, my productivity has gone through the roof, and I am juggling everything quite nicely. For today, at least, but it’s something!
- Getting my Inner Critic to Shut Up
It’s going to happen whenever you take a step in the unknown: your inner critic is going to go hog wild.
If you decide to self-publish, your inner critic is going to go bonkers.
My image of my inner critic is a cigar smoking Gollum in a three piece suit. He tends to jump up and down like a monkey and is quite the little douchebag.
Gollum-monkey decided to pipe up the minute I had a minute to myself. It was the first day at the Long Beach Comic Con, Mark Batalla (of the PixelDrip Gallery) and I had just finished setting up the booth, and it was the first time in two weeks that I had the time to think.
Big, big, BIG mistake.
“Who do you think you are, precious? You don’t belongssss with themsssesssess! You are nots a real writersssszzz!” The little Gollum monkey whispered these things in my ear and hopped up and down begging for attention. I was already tired, and by 3 p.m. I looked and felt like I could have just put my PJs on and gone right to bed.
Then I walked around the Con and talked to many other artists and writers who had done THE EXACT SAME THING. They were tired of waiting for someone else to validate their work, so they just put it out there. Once I realized I was in good company (even though my logical brain knew that already), Gollum-monkey crawled back into his corner and had a pity party all by his lonesome. I sure as heck wasn’t going to join, and I had a great Con as a first-time exhibitor.
Jessica Broughton is a writer
of both fiction and non-fiction with a penchant for swing dancing, Art
Deco, and vintage typewriters. She writes speculative fiction
and horror from her home in Pasadena, CA. Bespoke
Picking a Pro
We writers need the services of other professionals both as businesspeople, and as human beings. Unless you have some very specialized training, it's not a good idea for us to install our own toilets, cut our own hair, edit our own books, or (in my case) do our own taxes. But sometimes we hook up with a professional in what should be a mutually beneficial arrangement, only there's something subtly wrong with the relationship. You feel bad after you meet with them. Inadequate, somehow. You feel guilty for asking them to do the work you've both agreed they would do for you, and that you're paying them for. You start feeling anxious days, or even weeks, before you need to meet with them.
And by you, I mean me.
I had a dentist who made me extremely uncomfortable. (In fact, every dentist I've ever had in my life was hideous except one in Chicago 20 years ago who was nice.) Finally, when my insurance dropped him...back when I HAD dental insurance...I remember thinking, "Oh boy! Now's my chance to get free of him!" The dentist I switched to is like a dream! He's smart and funny, and all the work he's done on my teeth is wonderful.
Okay, how about my accountants? My first accountant was great. So great that he developed a numbers-system and used it to win the lottery and retire. My second accountant...that was one of those awful relationships I was talking about "you" having a few paragraphs up. So I decided I wasn't going to give her any third chances. I prepared all week long and met this morning with my third accountant...and he is great! I'd been re-inventing the wheel every three months to pay my quarterly taxes, and he says he can do my 2010 return AND prepare my estimated quarterly payments for 2011 and all I need to do is mail them in. No re-figuring everything every three months.
Hallelujah!
He's in the same building as my good dentist. Coincidence? I think not.
So anyway...here's my thought on picking a professional to help you out, whether it be with your plumbing or your cover art or your typesetting or your taxes. You are in charge. It's your business or your body or your affairs. There's no reason for you to feel guilty or inferior, and if for some reason this other person manages to make you feel this way, switch! I wish I had switched dentists earlier. The good, funny, competent, smart dentist was three blocks away from the creepy one who whispered all the time and always acted like I was in need of a full mouth transplant. I wish I had picked the current accountant instead of the bad one the last time I was in the market. I had a call in to each of them and ended up going with the bad one because she returned my call first, and seemed intelligent when I met with her. Yes, I realize in psychobabble-talk, no one can "make you feel" anything, but I do know this: sometimes we come away from dealing with certain people feeling worse than we did before.
When you see this pattern, walk away. You're in charge. You.
Packing Heat 124: Final Ep
Recommendation: Accidental Genius
We all know how to freewrite, right?Mark Levy’s book Accidental Genius is all about freewriting. You may be wondering what there really is to say about the practice of writing with the internal editor switched off to generate ideas and solve problems. More than you’d think!
Mark did an awesome interview on the podcast Six Pixels of Separation to talk about the new revised edition of his book. His talk got me so excited, by the time that podcast was done, I’d visited his website , signed up for his newsletter, downloaded his free PDF and MP3, and bought his book from Amazon. Then I listened to the whole podcast again. How’s that for a testimonial?
A few key things about Mark’s technique:
- Aim for a time-goal rather than a substance goal. It’s okay to freewrite and not come up with something usable from the session, as long as you’ve put in the time. You're trying to develop a habit.
- After you do a block of freewriting, go in and underline the key points.
- Do another freewriting session to further explore some of the key points you underlined.
- Don’t stop once you get a good idea. Trust that you’ll spot it when you do your underlining.
What was different for me:
- The creative outpouring was interspersed with analysis to guide it.
- Multiple sessions are done back to back—and Mark goes a lot longer than I’ve ever done, sometimes 5 to 8 hours!
- Many people stop and pat themselves on the back once they get a good idea. Keep going. Who knows, another wonderful idea might be right around the corner.
Drawing the Podcast to a close
I’ve been doing the show for three years, and I think I’ve told you all I know about writing. I’ll leave the 147 episodes up—tagged for searching—so that both old listeners and new can refer to them.Thanks for listening. Now go put your butt in the chair and write!
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