Good afternoon, squiders! It’s finally October, and yet it is still so hot. I just want my autumn weather, is that so much to ask? Hot drinks and sweaters and boots and all that jazz.
So, September was okay, productivity wise, but not great, and I think it ultimately came down to still being a bit unfocused. Too many potential projects, too easy to give up on doing anything and instead read fanfiction.
(Must stop reading fanfiction. It is a sign of procrastination.)
So, I’m trying something new this month. A random number generator. My very own random number generator.
I’ve made the following Google Sheet:
On it I’ve listed all the things I might potentially work on for the month, and then I’ve made separate sheets for each project with the steps on them. Like so:
Now, you might be wondering, where does the random number generator come in?
Ta-dah! Random number generator. Every time I open the document, or make changes in the document (such as crossing out a step as completed), this number changes. It aligns with the list of projects beside it.
So, the idea is that I, instead of waffling over the many possible things I could be doing, simply go into my spreadsheet, see what the number is for the day, and then work on that. Problem, in theory, solved.
(I haven’t had a chance to check it yet, as I made the spreadsheet Wednesday, did not have any time to work yesterday, and am working on Book 1 today as I need to get the draft to my final beta who is going to check overall flow on the whole novel. But I’m optimistic!)
You’ll note that there’s a couple of yellow items at the bottom that do not have corresponding sheets of steps. In an attempt to rein myself in, I’ve designated these projects as follow-ons once other things finish. Both the novella outline and the Rings Among the Stars edit can only be started once the Book 1 submission materials list is done, and the book from Prospector (which is our interlibrary loan program) needs the Trip Book to be done first.
Anyway, we shall see how this goes. Any thoughts, squiders?
I sent the end of Book 1 to my in-person critique group yesterday. I expect there will be some adjusting necessary, though I am interested to see how they feel about the ending as they’ve read the whole book, whereas the online group was more inconsistent, with some people missing large swathes of it.
(On the submission material front, I re-read the book, taking notes on the first quarter or so to use in the query. I’m finding the actual writing of the query letter to be very intimidating, which is frustrating. And I still haven’t figured out how to even start looking for comps. A problem for next week, though.)
I’ve found myself, over the last week or so, starting to think about Book 2. Books 2 and 3 are drafted, though they will need to be adjusted at some point to match the changes I’ve made in Book 1 over the last few drafts. Part of me would like very much to jump right into doing that–I’ve got some really good ideas for changes to Book 2–but logically I know that I’ve got to get Book 1 completely finalized and ready to go out, and that it doesn’t make sense to spend a lot of time on Books 2 and 3 until, hopefully, Book 1 sells.
But, man, the urge. The urge, squiders.
I’m indulging a bit. Daydreaming. Writing down some thoughts so I don’t lose them. I may reread both drafts for my own entertainment. Might do some character sketches, or play on avatar makers (though finding ones that do green skin is always a bit of a challenge).
Hopefully that will be enough, for now, to squash the urge to poke any further.
Probably part of it is subconscious avoidance of query writing and that jazz. Just got to make sure I stay focused.
Any thoughts, squiders, on focusing on tasks even if they seem intimidating or scary? Thoughts on how to find decent comps?
Every now and then I sit here and actually think about marketing (I know, shocking). And one of the things I think vaguely about is…is this blog working? Is it doing anything for me? Is blogging even still relevant in 2024?
But then I get distracted by something else and never look at it too deeply.
On one hand, the blog in general is useful. It keeps me writing even through otherwise dry spells. It helps me organize my thoughts. I wrote part of my nonfiction series here.
On the other hand, the marketing hand–maybe not? I wouldn’t say my views or comments or likes or what have you have greatly increased from when I started 14 years ago to today, and I can’t point to the blog as moving the needle when I put out a new book. I doubt followers of this blog have joined my newsletter list, or any of that jazz. And it feels like blogging is out. Like, it’s YouTube or TikTok or Instagram now, and who reads things other people write anymore?
Part of me wonders if I should move to another platform. Something like Medium or Substack, where there is better discoverability. But if also feels like you need a little more polish for something like that, instead of just writing whatever comes to mind on a vaguely routine schedule.
That could entirely be a misconception. I haven’t ever looked too closely at alternatives. If you’ve used Substack or Medium (or some other alternative that I don’t even know about), what has your experience been like? Do you like it better than maintaining your own blog? Do you follow blogs on Substack/Medium/whatever? How’s the reading experience?
I will admit to being a creature of habit. I’ve blogged here for a long time, and it’s scary to think about leaving. But hey, I did LiveJournal for a long time before that, and before that, I used to send random emails to my friends. So I can learn new tricks if necessary.
Howdy, howdy, squiders. I got a flat tire today, which is a pain in the ass. Siiiiiigh. Hole in the sidewall, so no repairs for me.
But anyway.
WriYe’s September prompt is: What type of characters do you like writing? Hate writing?
At first thought, I don’t think I hate writing any sort of character. Boring ones, maybe, but if you have a character you’re not jiving with, maybe you should spice them up a bit?
Like, let’s look at Lily, who is in Shards. She’s a secondary antagonist, and on the first draft, she was kind of boring. I think I wasn’t quite sure what to do with her.
The only image of Lily I could find easily. I think I liked this particular avatar maker cuz I could give everyone appropriately colored wings.
That wasn’t really Lily’s fault.
When I did the revisions that would end up in the published version of the book, I spent a lot of time doing character work on Lily. What was her background? What was her motivation? Why was she working against the main characters (in the first draft she’d been an antagonist still, but I wasn’t clear why, and so her actions didn’t always make sense)?
And she ended up being one of my favorite characters in the book.
Even despicable characters can be fun. Sometimes it’s therapeutic to work through someone being evil.
So I kind of feel like if you have a character you’re hating to write, something’s wrong with the character. And you should take a look at them and either flesh them out better, or maybe remove them from the story if they’re not working. Sometimes the wrong character is in the wrong story, after all.
I’m afraid I’m not going to be a ton of inspiration on this particular prompt. Characterization typically comes easily for me, so it’s not something I spend a lot of time on (unless a character isn’t working, like Lily above, and even then I can normally sort them out–or remove them–without too much trouble). Now, pacing is something that does NOT come easily, and so I have spent more conscious time working on that.
So far so good on my front. I’ve gotten through my query research (and goodness, I’m going to have to figure out comps, and I can’t think of any YA fantasy I’ve read recently that fits the bill.) and have consolidated all my story ideas into a single document.
(I think I’ve got to query as YA, even though Dan and Lana are a little old–18 at the beginning of Book 1, and 20 by the end of Book 3–but that probably fits better from a theme/trope standpoint.)
(aaaaaahhhh comps)
The story idea consolidation took me longer than I expected it to. The last piece of that was going through my Tumblr likes.
Guys, do not use Tumblr if you ever want to find anything again.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I love Tumblr. It is my favorite social media, and the only one I use on a semi-regular basis. (Semi-regular, in this case, means I spend a lot of time for a few weeks or months, liking and reblogging memes and stuff from whatever TV show(s) I’m on at the time, and then don’t touch it for like two months.) (Also this autoposts there, the last remaining hold out.) It has its own lore, the randomest stuff goes viral, I learn all sorts of weird things that someone else found interesting, and all my favorite fandoms are there.
I initially made a tumblr with the idea that I would use it for marketing, but you cannot actually market on tumblr, and also I always get distracted by everything else going on.
(You guys are welcome to follow me there, if you are also on tumblr. I’m here. Recent stuff includes writing memes, a lot of Psych–my current hyperfixation, some Gravity Falls due to the resurgence of interest because of The Book of Bill, Star Trek, and whatever else randomly caught my interest.)
Anyway, what tends to happen is I’ll get deep into the tumblr rabbit hole, come across something that either is a cool story idea, a writing prompt, vibes, or otherwise gives me that pleasant little “this could be a story” tingle, and I’ll like it.
Guys. Guys. There is not a way to efficiently search through tumblr, let alone your own blog or likes. If you reblog something and tag it, you can look through your tags, but this assumes I reblogged it, which most of the time I do not.
It took me hours to get through my likes, and even then I gave up, still not having reached other tumblr notes in my story idea document. Some things are lost to the aether forever.
I’ve got to stop doing this. If I want to save something, it’s got to go straight into the story idea document. I will never find it again otherwise.
So, lesson learned. RIP things I never found again.
(Even if I could search my likes, I don’t know how I’d find anything. Not like the words “story idea” appear in any of them. Alas.)
It’s September! And yet still like 95 degrees. The planet is on fire, my dudes.
So, as we discussed last month/week, August ended up not being terribly productive for me because I was free of the revision (aside from making edits from the marathon) and promptly was like I CAN DO ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING and hence did nothing because of Too Many Options.
Having had the weekend to think about this, I’ve remembered that this often happens when I move from working on a single project to multiple. It’s like my brain forgets how to compartmentalize. (To be fair to my brain, I did work on this revision for a year and a half.)
So, having had some insight, this weekend was actually fairly productive, and September should be better in general.
First step: clear goals for each project.
Project 1: Short Stories
This is further broken down into subgoals:
Read book about writing short stories — I inherited this from my mother. It is from the late ’90s and is Bad. But I am almost through it, and if nothing else it reminds me what not to do. (It is very short or I would not bother. Plus then I can get it out of my house.)
Consolidate short story ideas — I’ve been going through my idea list and expanding ideas, and I’ve picked a few anthologies to try and write stories for. I also need to do a RaTs this month.
Write shorts — depends on the number of ideas that get fleshed out enough, timing, anthology deadlines, etc.
Project 2: Submission Materials for Book 1
Same thing here:
Research how to write a query letter
Write said query letter
Get feedback and revise as necessary
Research how to write summaries
Write summary (multiple?)
Get feedback and revise as necessary
Do agent research and make agent list
Project 3: Finalize Book 1 draft
This will be done later in the month, but basically will include making edits based off the final weeks of the critique marathon and then running the end of the book past my critique group (which is meeting the last weekend of the month) and making any additional changes that are necessary.
Project 4: New SkillShare class
Steps here:
Outline class
Create slides for class
Film class
Edit class
Publish class
I don’t expect to get further than the slides this month.
If that seems like a lot, well, it might be! But the secret is to identify priorities, blocks of available time, and have a plan of attack, instead of putting everything on my to do list everyday and throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. I’ve already made more progress these past four days than all of August combined.
So, cautiously optimistic!
Hope your September is off to a good start as well, squiders!
Happy Wednesday, my dudes. (Sorry, I can’t help it. I love that joke.)
August has been…unfocused. I am hyperfixating on non-writing things, which isn’t helping but I do find that I tend to do that as either an avoidance technique or because I have too many options for what I could be doing, and then I get overwhelmed.
I suspect the latter, in this case.
I finished my revision for Book 1 last month, so in theory I could do so many things for August! In fact, here’s the list of things I might do this month:
Create a new SkillShare class
Create and finalize all my submission materials for Book 1
Outline and write at least four short stories
Various marketing activities
(Oh, I got eliminated from SPFBO last week, very sad. Though one of the reviewers said he could only get through a couple of chapters, and my book doesn’t even have chapters, which makes me wonder if he read it at all. Alas. I wasn’t expecting to make it terribly far, so not a surprise, and as I’ve learned more about the contest and the types of books that tend to do well, I’ve come to realize that it wasn’t the best fit from a fantasy subgenre standpoint.)
(Also now I don’t have to stress out about that anymore.)
Now, on top of a million things I thought I might do, I also had to contend with the new school routine, which has been rough. (The smaller…squidling?…rides the bus to school, but every five weeks or so they cancel her route because of Not Enough Bus Drivers, and it turns out that two schools plus the loss of the bus makes everything so much worse.) But I think, fingers crossed, that I’ve finally figured it out. Or, at least, figured out when I could potentially work when I’m not hyperfixating on stupid things.
So, what have I actually done this month?
Well, the critique marathon went through this past weekend, so I spent a lot of time critiquing other people’s chapters as well as making edits on Book 1. The end’s reception has been mixed, and one person expressed a worry that the ending might be too abrupt. (Not sure how seriously to take that, as the one issue with the critique marathon is that people get the story piecemeal, and often skip or miss chapters. Book 1 has been through three separate marathons to get all the way through, and this particular person missed the winter marathon and hence the middle of the book.)
With the end of the book in flux, I haven’t been motivated to work on my query or synopsis, which is silly, because the query only covers the beginning of the book anyway and many people recommend writing it before you even start the book so you know what the core of the story is, and even if I tweak the ending a bit, most of the synopsis would stay the same (in fact, I have an old-ish synopsis that I suspect is more or less still useable, just need to find and tweak).
I have messed up every marketing thing I’ve attempted to do this month, which is… a lot. My own fault. Just got to grin and bear it, and do better next time.
On the SkillShare front, I did at least create the guiding documents for the class, and I watched a bit of a different class of mine that overlaps on subject matter a bit to see if I was going to repeat myself.
For the short stories, I have two outlined (one is fanfiction, and will probably never get written, because I have a weird hang up about writing fanfiction. It goes back to when I was a teenager and I decided I was going to write a Star Trek novel. I never really got anywhere because I couldn’t get anyone into character, and I gave up in frustration and decided I couldn’t write other people’s characters, which has, unfortunately, become an ingrained belief that has proven to be hard to overcome over the years.) and a couple more that are vague scribbles on idea that have yet to be gelled into an actual story.
Not a lot to show for the month, quite honestly, though I should know that the critique marathon often doesn’t leave a lot of time for other projects, and I should have known between that and needing a new routine, to try and take it easy instead of frustrating myself.
Hi squiders! Just a quick note today about a contest that might interest you!
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Long and Short Reviews is celebrating their 17th (wow!) anniversary, but you get the gifts. They’re featuring more than 50 books in all genres from romance to science fiction, young adult to poetry… no matter your reading preferences, you can find something to enjoy!
What could possibly be better than that?
How about a chance to win one of two $100 Amazon GCs, of course! Think of how many books you could buy…
Once you’re arrived at the Long and Short Reviews site, simply read through the book posts each day and answer a simple question (or follow authors on their social media accounts) and you’re entered to win. New chances to enter every day!
So, go visit and enter and don’t forget to tell a friend or two. Good luck!
How oddly appropriate on the timing. The small, mobile ones (I should probably call them something else now, they’re no longer small–my oldest is now almost as tall as I am. Something to ponder) went back to school a week ago and I have been spectacularly unproductive.
August’s WriYe prompt is: Motivation – Myth or Muse?
Um. I have no idea what this means. Let’s attempt to unpack. Motivation (n.), meaning the urge to do something (The official Oxford definition says: “1. the reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way. 2. the general desire or willingness of someone to do something.”). Myth (also a noun), a legendary story with little to no basis in history or, alternately, just something made up. And Muse (noun again), coming from the Greek pantheon, originally 9 of various specialties, now generally used as anything (or anyone) which provides creative inspiration.
Are we asking if motivation is fake, or inspiring? Sure, why not. Let’s go with that.
Maybe the idea is more like…asking about inspiration. Like, you know, the discourse about whether you need to wait for inspiration to strike in order to write, or whether you can build it by writing on a regular basis.
So, like, is motivation a myth, because you just need to do it, make a habit of it, instead of waiting for motivation to arrive (the muse in said question)?
Motivation is different from inspiration, I would say. Inspiration is “the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative” (Oxford definition again). So inspiration is having ideas, vaguely, whereas motivation is actually being willing to act on those ideas.
I would say I am generally motivated to be creative. I’m often thinking about stories, and I usually don’t run into creative writing blocks. The urge and willingness are there.
What is not always there is the executive functioning. I suspect I have undiagnosed ADHD (and, in true neurodivergent fashion, the idea of trying to get diagnosed and adding those extra steps into my day is exhausting so it will never get done) but have masked for long enough that I mostly come across as a functional adult. And I am mostly functional! I feed my family, I make sure the…squidlings?…get to all their activities and school on time, the house is kept clean, laundry and dishes are done, etc.
But sometimes the act of functioning like an adult means that when I do have some free time, instead of working on my creative goals like writing or drawing, I just veg instead. Watch ghost videos on YouTube, or read some fanfic, play silly games with no real point (looking at you, Minesweeper).
It’s not that I’m not motivated. It’s that I’m out of spoons.
So, I guess, in the terms of the question, I’ll say motivation is a myth. I suspect most creative people, or people who have creative hobbies, are not sitting there on a regular basis and saying they don’t want to work on their projects. Nobody does creative things because they have to. (Unless they’re doing court-mandated art therapy or something, I guess.)
But, alas, that motivation just can’t be realized all the time.
How are you doing, squiders? Anything that works for you when the motivation is there but the spoons are not?
Good morning, squiders! Those of you who’ve read Hallowed Hill will know I love a good haunted house story, and I’ve got a series today that sounds amazing!
DARK WALKER SERIES
Shelly Campbell
GENRE: Speculative Fiction/Horror/ Dark Sci-fi
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Series Blurb:
When we were children, they told us monsters weren’t real. They were dead wrong.
It’s just a closet door with a skeleton key, but when David opens it, he unlocks a gateway to a sinister world that’s bent on destroying everything and everyone he loves. Some doors are better left closed.
Embark on a thrilling journey with the Dark Walker Series, and be transported into an interdimensional tale of monsters, lies and self-discovery. Where the terror of darkness is real and the line between ally and enemy is as thin as a blade.
“Equal parts coming of age story and otherworldly horror, Gulf probes the depths of loneliness, loss of identity and childhood trauma. It is a true treat for fans of the genre and had me clutched in its razor-clawed hands from the first word to the last.” -C.M. Forest, author of Infested
Book One Blurb:
Seventeen-year-old David is fading from his world, like a Polaroid picture in reverse. He longs to feel connected to something bigger.
When his brothers discover the new extension at the rental cottage comes with a locked door, David finds the key first. Expecting to claim a bedroom, he opens a dimensional gateway instead, exploring abandoned versions of his world in different timelines, 1960s muscle cars alternating with crumbling cottages.
Except now the dimensional bridge won’t close, and something hungry claws the door at night. David scours for clues to break the bridge, but each trip to the other side makes him fade more on his. Even if he succeeds, he risks severing his connection to his own world, and dying on the wrong side, forgotten.
Book Two Blurb:
There are doors that open to other worlds, but it’s no fairytale on the other side.
I thought otherworldly monsters bent on devouring my whole world starting with my family trumped everything. Turns out, I was wrong. My world’s only one of thousands facing annihilation from the maneaters that tried to eat me alive. Charlie saved me, rolled into my life on a motorcycle, and rescued me.
Problem is, I’m the Embassy’s property now. They’re the interdimensional agency tasked with stemming the flow of ravenous aliens into our universe, but they seem more interested in studying me. I crashed a gateway in a way they’ve never seen. The Embassy wants to replicate that. I think they want to use me as a war weapon.
If I don’t convince Charlie to help me escape, I’ll be an Embassy science experiment for the rest of my short life, or worse, eternally trapped in the dark hell that fills the spaces between worlds.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I asked Shelly what the idea that inspired her series, and she was good enough to write me a guest post on the matter!
Guest post:
Fellow squiders, I’m happy to be a guest on the blog today. Thanks so much for having me! Gulf, book 1 of the Dark Walker series was originally inspired by a short story prompt that simply said: there’s a locked door and your main character has found the only key. What do they find beyond the door?
I thought it would be fun to write a portal short story where my character, David, finds a doorway to another world but it’s no fairytale on the other side. Terrible monsters are trying to cross the bridge he’s built, get onto his side, and devour his family. He’s inexplicably becoming invisible in his own world, and he can’t warn his family, because they don’t see or hear him.
The other inspiration behind the story was to play with the idea of invisibility. I felt a bit unseen as a teen, like I wanted to make a big impact in the world I was growing up in, but at the same time I felt too small and inadequate for the task. I wanted to lean into that. What if my main character was actually becoming invisible and they had to save their entire world on their own? That was the idea in a nutshell.
As soon as the short story was complete, I knew this was something I could expand upon. I fell in love with the main character David and needed to give him more page time to tell his story properly, so I wrote Gulf, which allowed me to get some rich world-building and deep character development onto the page. It also posed a lot of questions that (hopefully) readers would want answered.
Breach, book two, expands the worlds, answers some questions—and gets David into way more trouble ? I just finished book 3 to wrap up the series and it will be out in early 2025. It’s been one heck of a ride following David through different dimensions. If you like sci-fi horror, I hope you’ll give the series a try. I’d love to hear your thoughts on it. Keep feeding those imaginations, squiders!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt:
Something that sounds like a dog scrabbling across hardwood jolts me awake. I focus on a low wooden ceiling and struggle to place my surroundings. My legs tingle under a heavy weight, and when I push away what I assume is a blanket, the dictionary slides off my knees and falls to the floor with a thud. The busy scratching intensifies, reminds me of mice running through our hollow walls back home, or cockroaches.
That sounds bigger than cockroaches. I frown.“Shit!” I whisper, scrambling to the edge of the loft, and blinking into the darkness below.
James is standing in front of the couch. A wedge of pale moonlight from the kitchen window ribbons across his back, and his shoulders shudder. He’s shivering. A moving shadow ahead of him catches my gaze. It’s a black hand extending under the door, elongated fingers splayed, claws scrabbling for purchase on the worn planks as it reaches for James’s ankle.
“James!” I yelp.
He shuffles closer to the five-panel, oblivious to my call, but the maneater hears it and rattles the door violently.
“James, stop!” I plunge down the ladder and my feet hit the floor so hard my ankles twinge. Spinning, I grip the couch as I round it, grasping for my brother’s shoulder. I miss, barely raking his back as he shuffles ahead with his hand reaching for the crystal doorknob glinting in the moonlight. “James!”
The black questing hand snags around his ankle and yanks hard.
James’s chin snaps against his chest as the rest of him rag-dolls backward. A thick smack reverberates through the floor as his head ricochets off hardwood.
I scream and jump over him.
The claw twists James’s foot sideways and jerks back, mashing my brother’s heel against the bottom of the shuddering door, deaf to his waking, harrowing wail.
Blood trickles down his foot.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author Bio and Links:
At a young age, Shelly Campbell wanted to be an air show pilot or a pirate, possibly a dragon and definitely a writer and artist. She’s piloted a Cessna 172 through spins and stalls, and sailed up the east coast on a tall ship barque—mostly without projectile vomiting. In the end, Shelly found writing and drawing dragons to be so much easier on the stomach. Shelly writes speculative fiction ranging from grimdark fantasy, to sci-fi and horror. She’d love to hear from you.
