When to Write (or Not)

You’re sitting at your desk (or in your easy chair or in a coffee house or wherever), staring at a screen (or a typewriter or whatever), and nothing’s coming. You’re blank. Your head is blank. The page is blank. You want to get up and do something else (anything!), but you know that’s no good. The little voice in your head keeps telling you to stick with it, to keep trying until something happens, even if you write trash.

You might be surprised to learn that at this point, I give up and go do something else. Or you might not be too surprised, since I only have four novels out. But I’m a writer, so that’s what I do, isn’t it?

Let’s be honest here. I’m not a full-time writer, no matter how much I like the idea. I have a day job. I have other hobbies and interests. I have family. Writing is only part of my life. It doesn’t rule my waking hours or dictate that I spend a certain amount of time with it. If you want to know what a full-time writer goes through, you’d better ask one of them.

But if you want to know what a part-time writer does, here I am. I’m sure I will disappoint you when I tell you that I only write when I’m feeling it. (Rewriting is a completely different story. If I only did that when I wanted to, I’d never get it done!)

That’s right. All that nonsense you’ve heard about muses and inspiration might be true after all. I don’t think I have a little angel whispering plots in my ear, but my head has to be prepared to come up with something and it can’t do that if I’m overworked, stressed, angry, grief-stricken or just empty-headed. I must have had some quiet time recently to mull things over. I have to feel comfortable with my characters, sure that I know their motivations and personalities.

Here’s the thing: write when you feel like it. If that’s two hours a day, do it. If that’s an hour every other day, do it. If it’s every other Tuesday, do that. If you don’t like writing, you shouldn’t be doing it.

     And that’s why I never force myself. Writing is one of those things that gives my life more meaning. I’d be lost without it, so I’m not going to turn it into a chore. It’s a joy, and I plan to keep it that way.


P.S. The fifth novel is a work in progress. Stay tuned!

Out of the Blue

Believe it or not, I'm still here.

Believe it or not, I'm hoping to release my fifth novel this year.

Both of those might seem surprising to you, considering the fact that I haven't released a novel for three years or written a blog for three months, but that should tell you something about me. (You can't get rid of me!)

Some of the blogs I wrote last year dealt with writer's block (I admit that I had to go reread some of them because it had been so long), which really explains why I haven't written blogs or a novel. Behind the writer's block, there's another story.

And I choose not to tell it.

By now, you should know that I don't do things just because "everyone does it." I still have a flip phone. I don't have Netflix. I haven't invested in Bitcoin. Call me slow, call me old-fashioned, call me whatever you want. I'm fine with that. But one of the things I absolutely don't do is put my whole life out in front of the world. (Yes, I realize that this blog does NOT reach the whole world, but you get the idea.)

There are several reasons for this. Probably the biggest is that I grew up in a time without social media, where people kept things to themselves because they had no choice. But I think that along the way, I realized the value of that. When I met someone, I could get to know that person by talking to them, not reading something online. We could have a real conversation and learn about each other that way.

Another big reason is family privacy. I could bare my soul here and cry words about what happened to me, but I don't think it's fair to them.

Also, I've always liked to have a slight air of mystery. Once you know everything about me, I'm kind of boring. But if you don't know everything about me, you can always imagine there's something interesting in there that you just haven't been allowed to know yet.

So this leads me to keep a part of my life private. The events I mentioned had been going on for a few years and they came to an abrupt, painful end last year. It was a family event, one that brought us closer together while it tore our insides apart, and now we're rebuilding.

While this was happening, I just couldn't work up any enthusiasm for my novel. A bunch of fictional characters seemed unimportant next to real people in pain and trouble.

I'm starting to recover (it took a while) and aspects of my life are starting to return to almost-normal. Once I was able to do that, I took another look at the novel. It has some themes that come uncomfortably close to what happened to us (all of which were written well before the actual events happened), so that made it both difficult and important for me. Also, I thought that since I'd taken the trouble to write the novel, it made sense to release it.

I've started to format it. A reader has given me feedback. A second reader will look at it soon. I'm in contact with an artist about the cover art.

Amazingly enough, after all that time, this might actually happen.

I apologize for my long absence. If you've moved on, I can't blame you.

If not, thanks for your patience! I'll try to bring you updates when I can and see if I can't get a new title on Amazon sometime this year.

Have a good year and thanks for reading!

(By the way, blue is my favorite color.)

Farewell to Google Plus

When I published my first novel, I read a lot of advice online about the best way to publicize it. Several people/sites said it was imperative for me to put myself out there on social media so that any potential reader could find out more about me and might be inspired to buy my novels.

As a result, I opened accounts with Facebook, Goodreads, Amazon Author Central, Blogger, iAuthor, Youtube, and Google+. I soon realized that each of these needed to be somewhat different since no one wants to read the same information over and over.

I decided that Blogger would have snippets of my fiction, in addition to actual updates and my thoughts on the world, while Facebook would be more about the novels and general space news.

iAuthor, Goodreads and Youtube are sites where I mostly posted items (names & information about the novels, videos about the novels) and then left them alone. Amazon Author Central was the place to post general information about me as an author, with a picture or two.

Then there was Google+. I wasn’t sure what to do with it at first. All of my blogs automatically show up there, but that seemed a little boring. I did some exploring and found out that a lot of people use Google+ for photos, especially collections of photos, so I decided to do the same. At first, I simply shared photos from others that I thought were noteworthy. After a while, though, I posted a few of my own photos. Eventually I posted a few collections. It was always a good place to find amazing photos of birds, wildlife, nature, beautiful things, etc. I liked how easy it was to explore and find others’ collections. And I had around 42 followers!

Now comes the news that Google+ will no longer be available for non-commercial users like me. This makes me sad. It was one place where I could post little items about something cool I’d seen in Wilderness Park or on the flowers out front or while I was traveling. I wasn’t really an author there; I was just one person among many wanting to share some photos.

There weren’t a lot of ads. If I followed someone, I saw ALL of their posts, not just some. If I wanted to explore, it was simple. If I wanted to share my photos with someone, that was simple, too. Google+ never seemed overbearing or difficult; it just seemed like a nice place to hang out once in a while.

I guess those of us hanging out together weren’t generating enough revenue. Also, Google apparently had a data breach and decided it wasn’t worth it to revise Google+ for added security. Whatever the reason, they’ve decided to end the Google+ product, except for business owners.

I’m not the only one who will miss Google+. I’ve read several posts there as people try to figure out where to move their photos and how to notify their followers (sometimes numbering in the tens of thousands). They’re scattering to the wind; I guess it’s a lot like when you leave high school or college in the “real world”: you realize you won’t be with that particular set of people anymore and won’t see some of them ever again.

I suppose it’s for the best. I’ve met a lot of good people since college. I’m sure I’ll find somewhere else to share and enjoy photos.

But I’ll miss this one. Goodbye, Google+.