Protect the Joy!

I recently listened to the keynote addresses from this past summer’s RWA convention and one phrase that was used struck me so profoundly I had to write it down on a sticky note that sits on my desk.

Author Nalini Singh (who writes absolutely wonderful paranormal romances) urged everyone to “Protect the joy in your writing.” Plenty of negative forces wait for you whether you’re published or not. Rejections, bad reviews, naysayers, poor sales, etc.  All of it can get you down and take away the pleasure from your writing.

She didn’t offer too many concrete ways to accomplish this, and I understand. The means and method will be different for each person.

On the personal level, I’ve spent quite a bit of time trying to decide what that means for me. It certainly hit home, because I haven’t been as productive the last few years. Part of the reason is the demands of family and job on my time. But another part, and maybe even the bigger part, is that I’ve misplaced some of that joy. It got buried beneath keeping up with the day job and family, meeting deadlines, the need to promote relentlessly, and mounting worries about some of my publishers.

I’m trying to find the joy again.

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, but I do set goals to strive for.  So this year my aim is simple: write more, spend less time on everything else (except family). In practice that means, I’m cutting back on my day job work. I run a web business and I’m starting to shut it down. I’ll continue to work with my existing clients, but I’m taking on very few new ones. That way I won’t have the worry of backed-up work hanging over my mind while I’m trying to write.

I plan to worry less about promoting. I’ll continue to blog here and on my own blog, plus occasional guest blogs. I refuse to get hung up in trying to be a huge presence on social media. It’s not my thing and I don’t know how to do it. Instead, I’ll spend that time writing and trying to put out the best stories I can.

I don’t have any current deadlines and I’m going to try to avoid getting into that trap again. I won’t stop submitting to publishers but I want to try to keep it to a book at a time or series that I already have planned out.

I’ll spend less time on the whole business end of the job. I’m designating a time (an hour a week) for handling that.

I’ve already gotten to the point where I can cope with rejections and bad reviews without too much stress and recognize that it’s part of the rough business I’m in. I’m not opposed to self-publishing books that won’t work for my publishers, but I’ll hire out most of the formatting work.

Mostly I just plan to write. Not with any particular publisher or market in mind. I will write what I need to write and hope that I’ll find the joy in it again along the way.

What do you do to protect the joy in your writing?  Or if you've lost it, how have you found it again?

Struggling with Time Choices

My first novel was published by Avalon Books in 1990, which means I’ve been a published author for twenty-five years now.  What a difference twenty-five years make!

In 1990, it was simple.  I wrote the book; I sent it to Avalon; they published it.  I did a few readings and signings for each book, mostly at a local bookstore or with various groups of authors. That was it.  I got to work on the next book.

The Internet did exist then, but the World Wide Web was in its infancy. My first real online experience was with the Prodigy bulletin board. I logged in via a dial-up modem and it slowly—very slowly—downloaded content to my computer. I found some shared interest groups, including groups of authors writing mystery and romance. It was wonderful, though the slow interface limited my interaction. It still felt like an amazing thing to connect with other authors online.

Today I connect via cable modem and it’s lightning fast and always available. I belong to tons of different writers’ groups and listserves. I’ve learned a huge amount from online interactions. It’s amazing.

It’s also a nightmare. It’s the amorphous blob that swallows all my time. And I’m not even talking about the hundreds (yes, hundreds!) of emails I get each day or the temptation of so much news and information available. I’m talking about the pressure to join more groups, interact with people on Twitter and Facebook. Learn Linked In. Figure out Goodreads. Join Google +, Tumblr, Tsu, Instagram, Hologram and Phooeygram.

I can’t do it. I have a day job and family. I barely squeeze in time to write in my crowded schedule and I resent having to take some of that time to join conversations on Twitter, mostly on topics I don’t care about, or try to make sense of all those other social media sites.

I like blogging, since I’m always willing to give my opinion on any particular subject, especially if it’s one I know something about, like writing and telling stories. I use Facebook mostly for family connections and occasionally get rewarded when one of my children posts pictures of the grandkids.  I connect with other author friends there, too, and I like keeping up with what they’re doing.  But I don’t like posting too much about my own writing stuff.  I’m really not much for self-promotion.

I do a few public appearances at science fiction conventions and writers’ groups events.  In fact, as you’re reading this I’m probably at Con-gregate, a local science fiction convention. I have a great time at science fiction conventions.  They’re so much less format than mystery and romance writer conventions and I always learn a few things as well.  (And frequently come home with dragon ear-rings or a unicorn pendant – I mean where else can you get those things?)

But I think I’m going to try to relax about promoting and just do what works for me – blogging, a few appearances, some other online writer events, but mostly just try to continue to write the best books I can!

 

Life on the Dead Chicken Ranch

by Sofie Couch

People often ask about the writer’s life. Some will tell you it’s glamour, glamour, glamour. Hey, who am I to argue? (Excuse me while I mop up the coffee that just got spewed on my computer monitor.)

The other delusion I have to squash is this “homeschool” thing that we do here on the Dead Chicken Ranch while I’m living this glamorous writer life. I begin to see the image others have by the questions they ask. “Do you have a classroom in your home dedicated to homeschooling? How are your children socialized? How do you test them and meet typical standards?” I think they credit me with more than I’m capable of delivering. I would love to paint you a picture of our homeschooling endeavors that resemble a Little House on the Prairie standard, but alas…

It makes perfect sense that folks would expect it to look at least something like typical school. I can assure you, homeschool looks as different in each home as there are homeschoolers. I don’t deserve the accolades that so many have offered. “I don’t know how you do it? I know I could never….” Yeah. I couldn’t do it either.

We don’t call it the Dead Chicken Ranch for nothing. (I guess you could call that a biology project gone full-circle. I’d like to say “no animals were harmed,” but… sigh.

Then there was the ecology project that was launched when my son decided that his 10cent feeder fish needed a larger habitat. Three hundred dollars and a twelve foot, hand-dug pond later, we would call that a success if not for the heron that showed up at the end of the summer and cleaned us out.

Most recently, we’ve been taking a more traditional route. The graphic design certificate program was MY idea. I wanted to take the classes, but DS decided that now, after years of spurning anything that resembled traditional school, he’s crashing my party. So for the past two semesters, my son, my baby, my 6ft. 6in. 16 year old, is taking classes with his mommy at the local community college.

It’s a hoot. We hit the vending machine before class. We share the same text book. And my son can help his old mother with her homework. And THAT is what homeschool looks like here on the Dead Chicken Ranch… and that’s what a writer’s life looks like too. I write. I drink my coffee. Some days, we stay in our jammies and binge on movies, (based on Jane Austen novels, of course). We just finished cleaning the fish pond. (We have three new fishies – Blossom, Buttercup and Bubbles.) Now, I make time for graphic design classes in and around writing… and THAT is a writer’s life. I love to hear about yours!