SitRep Saturday: Time For Vacation

Remember last week when I wrote about how I'd abandoned real life and work in favor of being a fangirl? This week hasn't been much better. In fact, I'd say it has been worse because I went back to the movies to see The Avengers for a second time and I won't even try to count how many times I watched Captain America: The First Avenger this week.

Unprofessional? Perhaps. But I was talking to a friend yesterday and I realized just how desperately I need a vacation. An author I admire a great deal posted in his blog about receiving a book on the subject of how writing (creating) can become more work than fun and how important it is to get the fun back. Right now, I feel like I'm stagnating. I feel like I need to do something to figure out what I'm doing and where I'm going and I need to get back to having fun. I think fun is a key part of this.

So I'm going to take off this month. Over the next few days, I'm going to be working to write posts to queue up. There's no reason my readers (few as you are) have to suffer. And while I'm "off" I'm going to see what I can do to regain the fun of writing.

Nine Writing Things: Questions I Hate (From Non-Writers Who Mean Well)

Generally speaking, I prefer to think positive. Negative thinking has dragged me down far too much in my life and it's just easier and more pleasant to focus on nice things. However, in the year since I started this self-publishing journey in a desperate attempt to jumpstart my writing career, I've noticed a trend in questions. Specifically, I've noticed nine questions I really hate being asked. I know the askers generally mean well and I always appreciate support and interest from my family and friends... but if I never hear these questions again, it'll be too soon. In fact, I've actively avoided discussing my work with most friends and family because of these questions.

1. Where do you get your inspiration?
Where does any artist get her inspiration? From the world around her and her great big imagination. That's it. Sometimes I can narrow it to a specific thing for a specific story or scene in a story or piece of dialogue, but for the most part, it's a general mishmash of everything. Explaining this has become such a pain.

2. Do you really believe/think like Character A?
Yes. No. Maybe. I don't know. This is why writing has been called a socially-acceptable form of schizophrenia. I get to live in heads that aren't my own. Any answer I give to this question is guaranteed to get me a look like I've sprouted another head on my shoulder and the judgment can be disheartening if it comes from someone I respect.

3. How come I never knew you thought about those things?
Because it's not something I talk about, it's something I write about. Or, more negatively, because when I have tried to talk to you about those things, you blew me off because they didn't interest you. Or possibly because I didn't want to talk to you about them.

4. I'm your very conservative relative and we're not close. Tell me what your explicit book is about and where I can buy it, please.
So I wrote these books and they have a lot of sex in them. One of them even has some lesbian sex. Also I sometimes write borderline adultery. Have fun at church this Sunday! I have told my grandmother and my husband's grandmothers about my work. Awkward.

5. Where did you learn to write like that?
I read a lot and then I decided that since I liked it, I would try to write it myself. And I got pretty good at it. That's the best I can do with that question. Writing is a skill just like anything else, really.

6. How are book sales going?
It doesn't matter what I say, because you're going to give me your opinion on how to make them higher.And your opinion is probably wrong. And I really don't feel like pretending to be appreciative for your help. So I'll just mumble something and change the subject now.

7. Would you like to hear my ideas for marketing even though I don't know anything about writing/publishing/advertising?
No. No I would not. This question actually offends me. Do you think I just jumped into this without looking? Do you think I don't do research and listen to people who actually have insight? Do you think I'm not smart enough to figure it out myself? If I need your help or want your opinion, I will come ask you. But since you don't even know half of what I know about the industry (and let's face it, I don't even know very much), I think it's safe to say that I won't be asking.

8. Would you like to know what you should write next and why?
Nope. If you've got a million-dollar story idea, you write it.

9. Did you base this story on your life?
Even if I had, why would I tell you such embarrassing, intimate details? If we weren't close enough for you to know the answer to that question before you read my story, what makes you think we're close enough now?

This post has been Ellie venting. We now return you to your regularly-scheduled helpful blogging.

Monday Miscellany: A Program, Fandom, and Work

Last week, Paperback Writer posted about Sketchup (which you can get here). I haven't really made anything with it yet, but I have played around in it, and I think once you get past the learning curve that it could be really, really useful. Probably the first "big" project I'll use it for will be to lay out the Vue de la Mer Inn, the main setting in The Guest. The free version is probably all you need if you're just going to be creating mockups for yourself/reference.

As I mentioned over the weekend, fandom has kind of taken over my free time lately. Despite the fact that I haven't gotten any "work" done, I can't complain. The thing about fandom is that it inspires creativity. It reminds you why you do what you do and what you really love and, at least for me, it helps push me back in the right direction. I remember to read the right things, watch the right things, and write the right things. If you've never thrown yourself whole-heartedly into a fandom, I recommend it.

This week here on the blog should be sort of a mish-mash. Tomorrow I have a nine things post for you and, since I really dropped the ball on reporting my book sales, you can expect two sales posts. According to my stats, a couple of regular visitors come looking for sales data, and even though my sales have been really low, transparency and help are two of the goals of this blog.

With any luck, I'll also be able to assemble the Smashwords formatting guide for OpenOffice and figure out how to offer it. Don't worry--like the official Style Guide, it'll be free.

Blog Roundup: May 21 - 27, 2012

Need a reason to quit writing? Chuck Wendig offered you 25 of them. Planning to take any?

I missed this post last time around, but Joe Konrath wrote about Agency book pricing. It's worth a read.

Missed this one, too: Starving Novelist had a post about pricing the ebook, including reasons to and not to use the $0.99 price tag.

Stella Deleuze wrote about challenging yourself, something all writers should do no matter how good they think they are.

SitRep Saturday: When Fandom Attacks

I confess that once again I have made zero real progress on professional writing. See, I saw The Avengers last week and, well... I've been kind of immersed in fandom. Reading analysis of the movie and characters, tumblelogging pictures and memes, watching the prequel movies (I'd already seen The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man, so I watched Captain America: The First Avenger and... I had every intention of seeing Thor and Iron Man 2, I did, but... Cap!), and generally fangirling with a couple of girlfriends who also saw the movie and were similarly affected.

I've always wanted to be a comic book fan because the stories and characters are right up my alley, but I can't actually read comics. They give me a headache. This is why I'm thrilled that Civil War is coming out as a prose novel.

The guilt is tempting, it really is, except I've sort of dipped my toe back into the writing fanfiction game. Maybe I shouldn't admit that here. But I'm going to, anyway, because it's actually helping. My work has been pretty generic and stunted lately, good but not really moving in the direction I feel I should be moving, and most of my attempts to jumpstart my creativity and force myself to get better have failed. I've been feeling kind of hopeless but I've pressed on because the only real way to beat this sort of thing is to just keep writing. Thinking about fanfiction has done wonders for my creativity.

In fact, I have real news about the next writing project. It's not going to be the anthology I thought it was. I drafted the first story and then just got stuck on the second one--which is a good story, I feel, but it wasn't working because of the blockage--and I was getting down about it. But I've figured it out. The last two stories of the anthology are going to be set aside until a later date and the first story, the one I've already drafted, is going to be expanded. There's more to tell than what I've told. I think I'd like to learn more about Lydia and Locke for that matter.

So, if all goes well, I'll be reporting progress on Lost and Found on Burano Island by next Saturday.

Self-Publishing: Basic Fiction Formatting for Smashwords in OpenOffice: Companion Post with Links to Templates

According to my blog stats, a few people have visited looking for a copyright page template and a Smashwords-ready document template. So here you go. That's a fully-downloadable Google doc without any of the formatting (detailed here, here, here, and here). All you have to do is change the details, insert your story, create your linked table of contents, and upload. Just verify that your formatting looks okay before you upload.

If you just want the copyright page template, you can get it for Smashwords here and for a non-Smashwords document here.

Self-Publishing: Basic Fiction Formatting for Smashwords in OpenOffice (Part 4: Steps 10 - 11)

You can read the first three parts here, here, and here. This post should complete the Smashwords series. Since it has been fairly well-received, expect to see one for Kindle Direct Publishing and one for AllRomance, too.

Today, we're going to create our "extra" pages (the summary, the table of contents, acknowledgements, about the author, and also by) and then create a linked table of contents. As always, I strongly suggest consulting the Smashwords Style Guide by Mark Coker and using this guide only as a program-specific supplement. Click on any photo to enlarge.

Step 10: Extras

Step 10a: Summary
In all of my books, I've included a summary first thing. I got the idea from someone on Twitter who lamented that she'd download free books and then forget what they're about when she got around to reading them. Not remembering what they were about meant she was less likely to read them. So I include a sort of "inside front flap" summary. You don't have to. If you choose not to, just skip this step.

In front of your copyright page, type up your summary, then do three carriage returns (no more).

Step 10b: Insert Manual Break

A manual page break won't affect the HTML or TXT files Smashwords creates, and it may not work on some devices, but I've always had excellent luck with this making the book look exactly as I want it to look. Even if the file doesn't break for a new page, the three carriage returns create space to separate the summary from the copyright page.

Step 10c: Table of Contents Page
After the summary page, you should have your title page and then your copyright page. For each of those, do the same thing: three carriage returns, insert page break. By this point, you should be on a fourth blank page. Here's where you create your table of contents. Give it a title (use the same style you used for your title page) and then add the contents list in default style. It should look something like this:

Step 10d: Acknowledgments, About the Author, Also by
These are all entirely optional pages, just as the Summary page is. If you'd like to keep your book super simple, just lead with the title and copyright pages, create a ToC that has only the story, and leave it at that. If, however, you'd like to give your thanks to those who helped you along, or your readers a chance to learn a bit about you and discover more, then this is the way to go. Marketing guides will tell you to add your website address (the full address; you can even try linking it, but I don't recommend it) and maybe even a sample of something else available for purchase.

At the end of your story, do the same as before: three carriage returns and insert manual break. This will be your acknowledgements page (or your About the Author, or Also by, or whatever it is.) Whatever you decide to do, be consistent in your formatting. If you have complete paragraphs, format the paragraphs with first line indent. If you're creating a list (of titles, for example) then leave them left-justified. Make sure you use the same header style as the other title headings in your book. This is what my "extra" pages look like:

Note that my web address is unlinked. I try to keep my hyperlinks within the book because I feel like it can get messy if you add too many.

After this is where you'd add the sample of your other available writing. You can also add more or less to this page as you desire. In one of my books, I added summaries of each story.

Step 11: Creating a Linked Table of Contents

There are several reasons to create a linked table of contents yourself. The Smashwords program won't do it for you and your book will get rejected from the premium catalog, you want to control where your readers can go easily, you want to organize your book. You really want to do this and it's really easy once you figure it out.

Step 11a: Bookmarks

First you want to create the bookmarks. These should match up with the list you already typed up on your Table of Contents page. Go to the beginning of each page, click your cursor to in front of the first letter on the page, go up to "insert" and select "bookmark."

Give your bookmark a concise, clear name.

Do this for each page that begins a section you want linked in your table of contents.

Step 11b: Hyperlinks
On your Table of Contents page, highlight each entry. Go up to "insert" then select "hyperlink."

Make sure "Document" is selected in the left part of the window that pops up, then click on the target button to the right of the Target box.

A window will appear to the right. Expand the "bookmarks" section.

You should see the list of all bookmarks you created. If you don't, or if you see duplicate links, you'll have to go back into the bookmarks box and delete/add as necessary.

Click on the bookmark that matches what you're trying to link to (in this case "summary"), click "apply" and then click "close" in the small window to the right. When you're done, the main hyperlink window should look like this:

Do this for each item on your table of contents. Go slow, take your time. When you're done, your ToC should look like this:

And this is a good time to test those links.

When you were creating bookmarks, you should have created one for the table of contents page. (Two images up, you'll see a "toc" link in my bookmarks list.) Now, while you're testing those links, highlight something on each page (on my Summary page, I use the story title; on all other pages, I use the page title heading) and create a hyperlink back to the Table of Contents.

All right. You should be ready to upload to Smashwords now. Before you do, check over your file one last time. Is it saved in a .doc format? Is the main body consistently formatted? Do all of your links work?

Does it make you proud?

Good luck!

Nine Writing Things: Confessions

We all have them. Our dirty little writing confessions. Well, I'm going to share some of mine today.

1. I like dialogue tags that aren't "said" and I use them wherever and however I please. I also skip dialogue tags altogether, as often as I can, because if my reader gets confused then I haven't done my job and I suck.

2. I like adverbs and, like dialogue tags that aren't "said," I use them however and wherever I please. Of course, in editing, I do a search for words that end in "-ly" and if they hurt more than they help, they get cut.

3. I actually really hate dialogue. It's so hard to write and it interrupts the interesting part of the story and it just irritates me. I hate it especially in sex scenes. In fact, if it weren't so useful, I wouldn't use it at all. It just happens to be useful for characterization and plot development.

4. I don't like naming characters. At all. For many years, I flat-out refused to do it. I only do it now because, like dialogue, it's useful. I tend to choose names from the American Social Security Administration lists unless a character names herself.

5. I don't share everything I write, I don't finish everything I write, and I love writing what I've seen referred to as "masturbatory fantasies." I am not ashamed.

6. I don't want to be a world-famous bestselling writer. I want to be a reasonably successful reliable writer, the sort of writer you can turn to when you want something specific because you know she'll deliver.

7. Sometimes I wonder why I write. It's hard, it's frustrating, it's time-consuming, it's nerve-wracking, it's exhausting. And then I remember that if I don't write, I'll have all these stories floating around in my head with nowhere to go.

8. I can't stand cliches, but sometimes they're useful. And I hate that. I prefer every word I use to be useful and I don't like relying too much on readers' understanding of linguistic cliches. Not everyone really knows what they mean and while I like a challenge in my recreational reading, I don't want to make people feel stupid.

9. I don't think I'm as good as I'll ever be. I'm always trying to get better.

Monday Miscellany: Movies, Blogging, an Offer

Last week, I finally got to see The Avengers! (I'm one of those weird people who understands what a special treat it is for most people to go to the movies, so I don't take my kid into a crowded theater for an inappropriate film. I wish I could say the same for the family of six sitting near me.) It was absolutely wonderful. And now I have a new crush on Captain America. Go figure.

I have made exactly zero progress on the anthology, which is upsetting, but I'll live. As you can see, I managed to get yesterday's blog post done in a timely manner and today's too. Expect to see a post tomorrow (I'm going to try something new, a list feature on Tuesdays) and on Wednesday (the last of the formatting posts). Since I'm having such a hard time with this "blogging" thing, I'm going to try to add a couple of assigned days to the schedule. If I can keep it up for four to six weeks, it should catch and I should be fine. At least, that's how it worked with the three regular posts I do now.

One last thing before I go. If you are a book reviewer, especially if you're just starting a book review blog, and you're interested in reviewing one or all of my books, please let me know. I am more than happy to send you a copy or get you a coupon code for a free download at Smashwords.

Blog Roundup: May 14 - 20, 2012

Have I mentioned lately how much I enjoy Chuck Wendig's take on writing and relating to an audience? Because I really enjoy it. He respects his audience, something that I think a lot of creative types tend to overlook. His 25 Ways To Earn Your Audience this week offered up ways you, as an author, can encourage your audience to be--and continue to be--your audience.

I have had a problem with over-editing in the past. Greta van der Rol posted this week about taking care when you "murder your darlings," something I think all writers should read. New writers are bombarded with so many rules to follow and told to never, ever break them. I think there's danger in becoming a serial killer of your darlings. You could lose your voice and eliminate all beauty from your work.

A Chick Who Reads reviewed Harlequin title Not Just Friends. (Her review makes me want to get the book, but that's not the point of this entry in today's post.) This is an excellent example of the usefulness of reviewing blogs to writers. You see how she mentions not trusting skinny pastry chefs and lamenting the lack of "real" women who are sexy in romance novels? This is useable. And it makes me glad I went through the extra trouble of finding a cover for Cass Gets Her Kicks that featured a woman with a little bit extra in the "wrong" places. Women generally read romance novels to escape their everyday life. Why not give them an extra touch of reality to really pull them in?

For her Tips on Thursday, Girl Who Reads wrote about the sound bite. If you review books at all, absorb the information she's giving. If you summarize your own work, or swap reviews with fellow authors, or just want to make your blog or book a little more accessible, that's a post worth reading.

James Killick favors the "treatment." Don't know what it is? Check out his post. The trouble with treatments, in my experience, is that they can be so much fun you don't get around to writing the actual story. If you do manage to get past them and start the story itself, they're incredibly useful. At least, they are to me. It's nice to have a reference in case I get lost.

One could argue that this post from Seeking the Write Life could just as easily be titled Top Ten Reasons You Need to Learn to Better Self-Edit, but that's just me. While I do agree that editors can be great things, there's really no replacement for learning to self-edit and for learning to actually think about what you're writing down.