5 Things A Writer Can Do to Evolve

Today I have the lovely Angela Ackerman here as a guest. Angela is a Canadian who writes on the darker side of Middle Grade and Young Adult. A strong believer in writers helping writers, she blogs at the award winning resource, The Bookshelf Muse and is co-author of The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide To Character Expression. Angela is represented by Jill Corcoran of The Herman Agency.
Take it away, Angela!

A difficult time for me was the moment I decided to pursue publication as opposed to writing for myself and wondering if I was talented enough to do it. It meant peeling off the rose colored glasses and admitting to my flaws. To become a professional writer, I had to come to terms with how much I didn’t know. Like many others, I knew zilch about the publishing industry, how to approach agents and editors, and most importantly, how to hone my writing to get it where it needed to be.

I’m still learning and growing, but looking back at what helped me evolve to the point I’m at now, five things stand out the most:

Embrace Learning: This is the hardest and most important ‘mind shift’ every writer needs to go through. We all come into the journey believing our writing is good, special, something that will become great with some polish. The truth is that we all need a lot more than a spit shine. Once we own up to that, we can begin to learn from others. Opening myself to learning allowed me to set my ego aside and start thinking long term for publication, rather than believing my writing was almost ‘there’ now. I read a ton--both on craft and fiction--and made a tower of notes!

Find a Critique Group/Partner: Making the decision to share one’s writing with others is a biggie. It can be scary to ask writers for honest feedback. You want them to love it and say it’s great, but what you NEED is for them to point out the problems. Accepting constructive criticism was a skill I needed to learn, and I found that by taking emotion out of it I was able to see that the feedback wasn’t personal. It took time to develop thick skin, but finding critique partners who were strong in areas I was weaker in was one of the smartest things I did! If you are looking for a safe and helpful critique sites, The Critique Circle is one of the best. I’ve been a member there for almost 10 years!

Conferences: Going to a writer’s conference is an excellent way to build relationships with other writers, interact & learn directly from professionals, and find out real information about how the publishing industry works. They can be expensive, unless you’re lucky enough to have one close by, but still worth it to save up to attend one or two as you are developing your career. The most important thing to do when choosing a conference is investigate. You want a conference that suits your current needs as a writer. If you are looking for an event that centers on writing craft improvement, going to a conference that is heavy on book marketing and industry information won’t help. Likewise, if you are a fantasy writer looking to connect with and pitch to editors and agents for your genre, attending a romance-focused conference will leave you dissatisfied. Attending a conference that is a perfect fit will leave you feeling rejuvenated, and give you the creative energy needed to go the distance.

Network: One of the best things about writers is this: they are EVERYWHERE! Connecting with other people who love to write will help you to build a support system that will help you at every turn. Search for writing forums, blogs, facebook groups and twitter hashtags (#writing #writersroad), and you’ll find writers looking to reach out to others for mutual support and knowledge sharing. A new place to check is WANA Tribe. If you feel intimidated by jumping into something when it seems like everyone already knows each other or you’re looking for something new that focuses on sharing, supporting & learning from other creatives, Kristen Lamb’s WANA Tribe is a great emerging community to try.

Find Freebies! Another beautiful thing about writing is that so much of what you need is FREE. Writing blogs, forums and websites are troves of useful help and info. There are a ton of great FREE writing opportunities out there , too! Organizations like Muse It Up and Write On Con offer free online conferences. Sites like Miss Snark’s First Victim and Adventures in YA & Children’s Publishing offer free writing/critiquing workshops. There are free monthly opportunities to win critiques, pitching contests to mystery Agents and lovely free vlogs from incredible Writing Gurus like K.M Weiland & The Plot Whisperer. (The links I provided here are only a few of the great FREE resources out there, too!)

Tell me, what steps have you taken to evolve as a writer? What websites, groups or information sources do you recommend to writers? 

The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide To Character Expression is a writer’s best friend, helping to navigate the challenging terrain of showing character emotion. This brainstorming tool explores seventy-five emotions and provides a large selection of body language, internal sensations, actions and thoughts associated with each. Written in an easy-to-navigate list format, readers can draw inspiration from character cues that range in intensity to match any emotional moment.

How to Overcome Writing Pressures

Writers must face a huge amount of pressure during our careers. Before we even get published, we have to deal with the pressure of balancing our writing time with our daily lives without the backup of having validated our career choice through publication. Then there's the pressure to come up with a story idea that's new and interesting, to finish that first draft, to rewrite, to edit, and rewrite again. We then have the pressure to write the perfect query letter, to research the right agent, to impress said agent.

But it doesn't end there. Once we gain publication we have to face more pressures. To market, to edit again, to 'get it right', and then to write another book that's even better than the first.

Among all that there are the unnecessary pressures we put on ourselves. There's the pressure to measure up to other writers. The pressure to 'succeed'. We worry about book signings and speaking engagements and coming up with the next great blog post to keep our readers interested. The pressure we put on ourselves is greater than any pressure from an outside source—especially if we are unrealistic in the way we measure success. We could either turn into diamonds under that pressure, or we could crack.

So how do we overcome these pressures? The simple answer is, 'Just breathe'. What I mean by this is that when we are heaped under a load of pressure—whether from ourselves or others—we forget. We forget how much we love to write. We forget we chose this life because the need to write flows in our blood. We can no sooner stop writing than we can stop breathing.

Sure, we might be able to hold our breath for a while, but soon the need to breathe—to write—presses in on us and we succumb and take that sweet breath. When we put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, we remember how right, how wonderful writing is.

Why go through the angst? Let's remember to breathe before we go blue, because let's face it, breathing and writing are awesome.

How do you overcome pressures of writing, study, career, or life in general?

This post was written for the Insecure Writer's Support Group founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh. We post on the first Wednesday of each month. #IWSG

Thank you to Lauren for the Open Horizons award.

Carole Anne Carr is offering her ebook Candle Dark for free for three days from 6th July until 8th July. She is also offering her ebook First Wolf free for two days—July 12th and 13th. So be sure to check them out!

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6 Easy Steps to Stop the Chaos in Your Life

The last few months I hadn't managed to get a lot of writing done. I'd been stuck in the middle of things-that-had-to-be-done. I had to deal with marketing demands, edits on various projects—story edits, line edits, edits on edits—commitments to friends, and other deadlines. Inner turmoil grew and I fell behind on my emails, on my comments, my reading lists, and my social networking. A little voice inside me wailed to simply write something new, to explore fresh ideas. But I couldn't find the time or the will.

The advice I'd normally give writers struggling with this is problem is make the time and just write! Sounds simple enough. There's always enough time if we want something enough. But it wasn't so simple when I'd allowed life and everything that goes with it to get on top of me.

So how did I pull myself out of this malaise? Below are the 6 steps I took to turn chaos into order so that I could get back on course to achieving my goals.

1. Decide to make a change: This step is probably the most important of all of the steps. There are few goals in life that are impossible to reach if we truly decide go after them.

2. Unclutter: Deep down I like things to be neat. I like a clean kitchen, I like a tidy living room, and I love to unclutter. But the thing is, my writing area is almost always a mess. I'll clean it up once in a while, but it quickly falls into disarray. I have no idea why. Perhaps it's part of the chaos that makes up a creative mind. Normally this particular mess wouldn't bother me, but because I had too much chaos in my life, it was time to clean it up. There is a certain truth behind the saying that an untidy desk reflects an untidy mind. The act of uncluttering the work space also helps to reinforce the decision to make a change.

3. Make a list: I know that lists aren't for everyone, but I'd like to encourage anyone in this situation to give it a go, just to kick-start the brain. It's a great way of seeing and organising all the things that must be done. It doesn't seem so intimidating once it's written in list form.

4. Prioritize the list: It's a tempting thing to do the easiest things on the list first, but when there are more pressing commitments that need to be taken care of, they'll continue to hang over your head like a noose until they are done. Prioritize your list and remember not to put your personal goals last, eg writing.

5. Make a schedule: Again, this is not for everyone, but sometimes it's necessary to bring back order into your life. Remember that flexibility is key to making schedules work. Keep adjusting your schedule until you find one that works for your lifestyle.

6. Repeat: This process may need to be repeated until you work your way out of the crazies and into a satisfying creative life.

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by everything going on in your life? How did you get over that feeling?

NOTE: Notice anything super cool about the unrelated image above? It's the contents page of Short and Twisted 2012, an anthology of stories and poems with a twist, just released by Celapene Press. Squeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

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#MakeBelieve #Free Goodies For Download!

I was so thrilled when J. Taylor Publishing sent me these goodies. I’ve been busting at the seams to share them with everyone but I had to wait. Well, I don’t need to wait any longer. Check out the wallpaper and poster below (for more goodies head to my Freebies Tab HERE).

The Make Believe Desktop Wallpaper:

The Make Believe Poster:

I’m still not used to seeing my name on the cover of a book let alone all these goodies as well. I’m thinking it’s something I’ll never get used to. 

Note: I have a new Facebook Author Page I've just started. I would LOVE for you to pop on over and LIKE it. 


What exciting things have been happening for you lately?

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Why Authors Need to Do the Marketing

I recently attended a full day writing seminar. The rapid change in the publishing world was the hot topic. One of the signs of the changes is that writers have to do most of the promotional work—even when they are published traditionally by one of the Big Six. The reason for this necessity was best explained at this seminar:

With the advent of social media, the way products and services are promoted has changed. It's not just the publishers who expect us authors to get out there and make ourselves accessible, the readers expect it also.

A publisher could fake a twitter account—and they have been known to this for some authors—but it doesn't work because it comes across as either fake or as spam. No one likes either.

Authors can't afford to be shy anymore. People want to get to know us and have some connection with us. The happy by-product of this is that the authors also get to connect with their readers. How awesome is that?

As a reader, how has social media helped you connect with your favourite authors? As an author, what part of social media do you enjoy best?

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Thank you to Precy Larkins for the Booker Award. Please pop in to her blog and say hi to Precy from me.

I've been meaning to say that the Make Believe anthology is on Goodreads. It would be awesome if you could pop on over and mark it on your to-read list.

Photo: I took this shot of the Sydney Opera House past the Harbour Bridge at sunrise.

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