I read something interesting the other day. Chinese Bamboo takes 5 years to root before you see a sprout come to the surface. When it does, within 6 six weeks, this bamboo shoots up to 19 feet tall! Nature is amazing. That waiting period is a nourishing period. While it may seem like nothing is going on, in fact, everything is going on. The root system is hard at work building a firm foundation.

Writers can apply this to their work as well. I know so many people who want to spend a few weeks, maybe a month, writing a book and then expect to see amazing financial results overnight.

Yeah, it doesn’t work that way.

Writing is an art. It takes time. You need to build a foundation of followers who enjoy reading what you write. It takes a lot of effort and time and nourishing. I spend one day a week concentrating on marketing. I hate it. It’s the worst part of my job. I don’t like to promote or talk about myself, but how am I supposed to get new readers if I don’t? That is part of my foundation.

Another part of my foundation is to keep on writing smaller pieces while working on the larger books. Books take a whole lot more time to write than an article. When writing articles, I find new readers who can link back to my website and see what else I have done.

So, for all of you new writers out there, don’t expect fame and fortune to happen immediately, if it happens at all. Make sure you spend some time working on your foundational platform. Take notes of the things you do as well as take notes on how much response you’ve had. For example, post a short story on your blog. See how many people actually read it and, even better, leave comments. You have to find what works for you and helps you get your name out there.

Don’t get discouraged. Keep on working. It will be worth it in the end.

Let’s talk about editing. Editing is on my mind a lot lately. First of all, I have my second book in the hands of beta readers as I write this. I have edited that until I can’t stand it anymore. Hopefully, they won’t come back to me with ideas for huge edits. Second, as I work in publishing, I do a lot of editing of other people’s writing. I can’t stress enough that YOU MUST HAVE YOUR WORK EDITED. Yes, that’s in all caps for a reason. If you want to publish a quality book, editing by several pairs of eyes, is never too much.

I know one writer, who recently self-published a book, who rejected all editing advice. When she received the printed copy of her book, yup, you guessed it, it was not good. It was riddled with mistakes and she was very unpleased. But, the mistakes were hers and things that would have been caught if she had allowed an editor to work with her.

Just in case you are one of those people who feel they can be their own editor, here are a few tips for you to at least catch a few more mistakes in your writing.

1. Use spell check. However, this is not the end all to your editing. Yes, it will help you catch words that you inadvertently misspelled. You will often find words with transposed letters you didn’t notice. I like to use spell check after I’m done with most of my editing to “ignore” certain words. For example, on more than one occasion I have edited a writer’s work and found they spelled an unusual name two and even three different ways throughout the book. Pick the spelling that you want to use and ignore that one in your spell check. Other spellings with come up as wrong allowing you to then correct them.

2. Track changes. This can be a useful tool when editing. Once you complete your first run through, save all the changes in a new document. You can then compare two manuscripts side by side and see where you may have missed something. This is especially useful as far as spacing when you’ve added or deleted something.

3. Enlarge your text. When editing, sometimes I find more mistakes when the text is larger. I can see spacing issues easier and spelling errors seem to jump off the page. It also helps with eye strain if that’s a problem for you. This works well in your final edit when you are simply scrolling through the text looking for formatting errors.

4. View different formats. One of the problems with editing your own work is that you begin to skim over words because you already know what they say. Putting your book in a different format helps you to see things you didn’t see before. Read your manuscript in print, in Word, in a PDF, change the font, etc. This helps you lessen the skimming and find more errors.

5. Find readers. I have discovered first readers to be an invaluable tool for me. These are people who simply read for the enjoyment of it. They find inconsistencies in my stories. They find duplications. They may catch a few typos or grammatical errors, which is fine, but it is the story line that I am most concerned with. Find people you trust and people who will not just say, “I loved it!”

6. Find an editor. Now is the time to find an editor. Yes, the above items will help you get better at editing your own work, but you still need a trusted editor to go through your work one more time.

When publishing or self-publishing, you want your book to be the best that it can be. Don’t think

that just because you publish with a traditional publishing house that they will catch all your errors, either. Nothing is more discouraging than receiving print copies of your books that are full of mistakes, or seeing things you wished you’d changed. Take your time to give your book a thorough edit before going to print. You will never regret too much editing.

I’m an old-fashioned girl, and I write in the old-fashioned way – with pen and paper. At least I do in the beginning of the story. I eventually make my way to the computer to type, but there’s something about the feel of the pen in your hand and the way the ink flows down the tube as I fill up all the blank pages.

And I'm particular about pens. One quirk I have is to choose a pen and use that one pen until it's used up. Why? Who knows. Maybe because when I get to throw that pen away when it's used I have a feeling of accomplishment.

Here’s an interesting factoid for all interested writers. According to the Bic website, one of their medium ballpoint pens can write up to 1.25 miles. Get a finer point pen and write up to 2.5 miles. That’s a total of about 25,000 words. Multiply that by 10, which is normally how many pens are in a pack, and you can write about 250,000 words.

If you write with a pencil, as some other authors I know do, a typical pencil can draw a line that is 35 miles long. That equates to about 50,000 words.

Steinbeck used 300 pencils to write East of Eden. He was known to use up to 60 pencils in a day, preferring the pencil to a typewriter or pen. Hemingway was also a fan of graphite rather than ink, though ‘Papa’ apparently also enjoyed sharpening pencils while he was working on a novel, to help him think!

Oh the possibilities! What will you write today?

Do you have trouble even finding time to think about writing? I know I do. I am a wife and homeschooling mom of three children. I make quilts to sell and I also work outside of the home part time in the evenings. My true love as far as a career though is writing. I have been writing since I was a child. I wanted to be just like my mom when I grew up, so I would sit at the dining room table and peck away at her typewriter making up stories. Now, however, there are many more activities besides those already mentioned that keep me from pecking away. There are all the things at church we are involved in, a weekly homeschool group not to mention all the usual activities surrounding a household that often keep me from my writing.
             
Another problem I had was that I kept my writing a secret for a long time, until a close friend revealed a secret of her own. She liked to write as well!  I thought that was exactly what I needed. I needed someone to write with, someone who would encourage me and someone who would ask on a regular basis, “Have you written anything new lately?” I figured a little accountability wouldn’t hurt me. After a little more conversation we discovered a third mutual friend that also liked to write. The possibilities were becoming exciting!             
 
We started our own little writing group. Since I was the only one of us three who had actual writing experience, they asked if I would be their writing mentor and help them learn the ropes about sending things out to be published.
 
We decided to get together every other week, (Not too often because we are all busy and we didn’t
want our writing to become a chore.) We would each take a turn being hostess and fix lunch
for the others. And then we would spend a few hours just writing. 

We didn’t stop this arrangement even if the kids happened to be home from school on vacation. Over the summers we would all pack our own picnic lunches and meet at a park or a pool so the kids
could have their own fun and entertain each other and we could work, for the most part,  undisturbed. 
              
This is a system that works well for the three of us. However, we have had to set a chat time limit so that we can get busy doing what we all have so little time to do. It’s what we love to do, we write.             
 
Here are a few other ideas to help you find time to write. My life has only gotten busier and I relish those moments when I can jot down even just an idea for a future project.  A lot of these ideas may not seem like much, but you will be surprised at how much you can get done in those little bits of time. 

1 – Keep a notebook and pen in your car. How many times are you sitting in the drive through, either at the bank or a fast food restaurant, and wishing you had something to write with? Keep one on-going project in the car and work on it paragraph by paragraph. It won’t be long before you have a whole chapter or a whole article.

2 – Plan to stay at the repair shop. Everyone has to get the oil changed in his or her car once in a while. Don’t drop off your car. Wait for it. It might take an hour or two, but when was the last time you found an hour or two where no one needed you for anything?

3 – Give yourself an extra thirty minutes. Leave for work early and just sit in your car with your coffee and a notebook. There will be no disturbances. If you already get to work very early in the morning, sit in your car for thirty minutes after work. Your family will get used to your schedule and will learn to adjust. 

4 – Hide in your bedroom one night a week. That’s how my mom did all of her writing. After dinner one night every week she would go to her bedroom and close the door. Dad was in charge and none of us kids were to disturb her. She was able to write a novel on this schedule. The result was her Civil War novel Victory Song.

5 – Get up early on Saturday morning. I know this is the only day for many of us to sleep in. I knew of one writer whose work schedule got her up at about 4:00am. She found it hard to sleep much past five. She got up and while her daughters were still sleeping, she managed to write a children’s picture book. She knew she had at least an hour or two before the girls were up and wanting breakfast so she took advantage of it.

6 – Skip that television show. I mean, really, how much TV do we need to watch anyway?   
 
I hope some of these ideas will help you find some time to write. There is always time, if we just
know where to look. Happy writing!

We’re halfway through the first month of the year. What have you accomplished? Most writers have multiple projects going at any given time. Each of these projects are at different stages of development. Some have just begun while others are so close to being completed you can almost taste it.

The problem for many writers comes when those almost completed projects don’t get finished but new ideas get started.

How can you divvy up your time to make sure that each writing project gets completed and in a reasonable amount of time without missing out on huge opportunities that may arise?

Organize and prioritize will be, or at least should be, two of your favorite words.

Organize yourself by:

1.  Writing down all the projects you are working on. Don’t worry bout putting them in any certain order at this point.

2.  Start a new notebook, or computer file, for each of these projects. Add any notes or ideas for each project in the appropriate notebook or folder. Whenever you think of something new put it in the right place. This helps to prepare you for when this project makes it to the top of the list. It also allows your mind to work, knowing you can always add to your notes.

Prioritized by:

 1. Purchase a calendar. Purchase one that has all holidays listed and has squares that are plenty big enough for you to write it. You can also create a calendar on your computer, but a physical calendar is always in view and will help you keep on track.

2. Think about your projects. Do some have deadlines? Do you want some things to correspond with a specific time of the year? Schedule these projects first.

3. Create project deadlines. Add these deadlines to your calendar. Update specific projects first. For example if you are writing a Christmas novel you may want to have it completed by July at the
latest.

4. Fill your calendar with the rest of your projects that are not date specific. These are projects you're working on, but are not in any particular hurry to finish.

5. Work on each project in its turn. By taking one project at a time and focusing your energy on that, one at a time you can accomplish  and complete many writing projects you’ve been wanting to finish.

Tips:

For articles check and see when the publication needs pieces by. Some publications need seasonal articles a year or more in advance. Others only require a six month lead time.

Make theme list deadlines on the calendar as well. You may want to mark the deadlines a couple of weeks ahead of time to make sure you don’t neglect to send something you were working on.

Update your calendar as often as necessary. For example, when a publication sends you a new theme list make sure to add those dates to your writing schedule.


By organizing and prioritizing you can be more productive than ever this year.


 

I have always hated that term New Year’s resolution. Resolutions
were meant to be made but never really meant to be kept. Just because you don’t want to make a New Year’s resolution doesn’t mean you can’t make plans. I am big on making plans and planning everything well ahead of time. Making plans is setting goals, and goals are good.

 Last week I bought a calendar that has lots of blank spaces for each day. I’m in the process of filling it up hoping to keep myself organized and help myself to plan ahead for a new year of writing. This is my way of setting goals for myself. This is a way I can spread out projects and make sure that each one of them gets done by specific dates; some of the states are very important in my plan making. For example, I know I went to promote the first anniversary of my novel in February. I have begun making plans for that in January so that when February rolls around I’m all set.

By planning ahead I know when I need to send in articles and stories for publications for next Christmas. (Yes, I am already planning for next Christmas!) For several years I have been working on a book geared toward homeschoolers. I want to have this finished by July so I can start promoting it and selling it for the new school year.

 So what are your plans for the future? Do you have a novel you want to finish? Do what to send out more articles and stories and you did last year? Do you have a book you want to publish? 

Share your plans with me. Share your plans with other writers helps keep you accountable. If you share one of your goals with me in the comments I promise to check that once in a while to make sure that you are still working and that you are succeeding in meeting your goals. If you need help
finding a publisher for your book, I can help you with that as well.

So…what are your plans?

Organization. That is a word that can scare many people. It seems that people who are organized, get more done. Then there are the people, like my husband, who are so preoccupied with getting organized, that they accomplish nothing.
 
As a writer, I have learned that organization is a must, especially after I embarrassed myself by sending the same article to the same editor twice. The little note he sent back was not encouraging. 
Mistakes like that are not only unprofessional, but a waste of the editors time, which are very, busy people.  It may also hurt your chances of being accepted by that same editor later on.
 
I decided to get more organized so that I would never make the same mistake again. The method I use has been easy, inexpensive and very thorough. Even if I forget to write something down in one place, I have the information somewhere else. This is also not time consuming, as I do not have a
lot of time.
 
To help you get organized as far as keeping up with writer’s guidelines, and tracking your submissions the only tools you will need are:

1. 2 three-ring binders

2. Recipe box (big enough to hold 4x6 index cards)

3. 4x6 index cards

4. Different colored highlighters

5. A blank book (you can find these journal type books at a dollar store)
 
As far as keeping track of the writer’s guidelines that I request, I just punch holes in each page and file them in alphabetical order in the three- ring binder. When they are filed in one place I can easily look them up, instead of sorting through random papers that would have a tendency to be   scattered all over my house. You can also create a file on your computer for guidelines if you don't want to print them all out. Your computer will automatically store them in alphabetical order making them easy to find. 
 
For the submission, the organization is two-fold. First, I use the index cards. On the top of each card, I write down the title of the article. (I also find it helpful to put the word count in parenthesis next to the title. That way when I need to know the count, I don’t have to open up the file on my computer and perform a word count each time.) Then, each time I send out that particular article or story, I write down the publication underneath the title. If it is rejected or accepted, I write that down next to the publication. If it is accepted, I write down the issue number and date or any other information I may need later for reprints.
 
Keeping my box of cards is helpful in the fact that I can quickly see whom I have already sent something to and also how many times it has been rejected. If it has been rejected too many times, I can tell that I should probably go back and do some rewriting.
 
The second part of tracking submissions is where my little book comes in. First I write down the date, then the publication, then the title of the article, how long it will take them to respond and if I used any postage. It might look like this:
 
2/23/99  
Fellowscript    “To Be Organized”   1-4 weeks  (2 stamps) 
 
This helps me see a lot of information at one time.  First of all, by glancing through the pages, I can see how much writing I have been doing lately. Second, I can see if it has been too long since I have heard back from a submission. If it has been quite a bit longer than they say it should take to respond, I can contact the editor and see if they have made a decision.  
  
A couple of times when I contacted the editors, they had either not received it, or it had been misplaced and they asked it to be resent. After checking on he status of both of those articles they ended up being accepted. Who knows if they would have if I had just ignored the fact that they had not responded. It’s worth it to keep careful track of your submissions and get back in touch with an editor when you are unsure. Sometimes a short email or a postcard can mean the different in a sale or not.

When decisions have been made, I mark over each entry in my book with an appropriate highlighter color. For me, yellow means it was rejected, orange means it was accepted, blue means it was returned or there was no response even after I contacted them again, pink means it was an
assignment.
 
I use another three ring binder to keep track of all my paychecks. I use regular ledger paper and write down all the accepted articles and how much they will pay. When I receive payment, I put a checkmark by the dollar amount so that when tax time rolls around, I have all the numbers I need
handy and in one spot.
 
I hope this will help you keep track of all your submissions in the New Year. More writing can get done if we are more organized and not always looking for something that we know we left right
“there.”

Please feel free to share any questions or comments you have regarding the way you organize.


 
 

Is blogging really worth it? Do you make money writing a blog? These are questions I am asked often. And the answer is yes and no. Confused? Don’t worry; you’re not alone in that confusion. 
 
Here is an article I wrote about blogging. Read it and see if blogging is worth the effort for you or if it is a complete waste of the time you have.

If you have any other questions about blogging, please don't hesitate to ask.

I was fortunate enough to know what I wanted to do at a young age. By the time I was 9 years old I knew I wanted to be a writer. My mother was also a writer and she encouraged me by allowing me to use her typewriter, she read my stories, and she brought me along with her to writer’s conferences where I learned a lot at a young age. But…there are several things that I had to learn on my own. These are things I wish I had known sooner in my writing career. 

So, I thought I’d share them with you and help other writers out a little bit. 

-  Keep organized

You have to keep organized. Come up with a system that works for you for tracking submissions or buy software that will do it for you. It will be worth the investment. Why is organization important? Before I got myself organized in my writing and especially my submitting, I sent the same article to an editor twice. Yup, she’s the one who mentioned it to me. Can you say embarrassing???
 
-  Let writing sit
 
This is a very important step in the writing process. Don’t be in a hurry; your story will be better for it. When you finish your piece, whether an article or a novel, you need to step back from it for a few days at least. This allows you to see mistakes and holes in your story. 
 
 - Check on submissions
 
Believe it or not things get lost in the mail and in cyberspace. Many times this will result in a sale. I can’t tell you how many times I have made a sale simply because I asked about it. This is where your organizational skills will come in handy. Don’t be nasty, editors are humans, too. When I have to contact an editor I usually say something like, “I know you’re busy, but I just wanted to check up
on an article (or book proposal) I sent you.” Add a little humor here to show you aren’t angry. Take note of any publishers that do not respond to submissions. If they want it, they will let you know. 
 
-  Define your idea of success and work toward that
 
I always said that if I could make one person laugh or cry I would be successful. To me this is much more important than money. Yes, I need money to pay my bills, but I also want to know that my writing touches someone. You have to have faith that little words of encouragement will come at the right time. 
  
-  Promote, promote, promote
 
Promoting myself is not my strong point, but you have to use every opportunity possible to promote yourself and your book. As hard as it is for me I have to tell people when I publish something new. It isn’t as important for my articles, which I get paid for whether anyone reads them or not, as it is for my books, however, getting my name out also sells more books. Books are completely different animals. Create a book trailer and post it on your blog and all social media. I will tell my friends and brag about myself a little bit – even though that is what I truly hate. When publishing a book you have to sell yourself. The more people that read and enjoy your book, the more people will buy your next book. This is one of the ways you can build your platform and have pre-sales for subsequent books. 
 
-  Find readers
 
Finding readers for your work is very important. If you are writing a book you need to have two different kinds of readers. You need writers who will look at the mechanics of your work, but you also need readers who can give a good overview of the effects of your story. Here again, you cannot enlist readers who simply tell you your work is good.

I hope these ideas will help you in your writing. Feel free to send me your ideas and things you wish you had known when you began writing. 

            
I had an epiphany the other day. Maybe it won’t be so much for you, but here it is: every writer should be part of a book club. Yup. Sounds simple, but it’s true. What caused this epiphany, you may wonder? The ladies in my book club. 
             
We were discussing the past month’s book, and not really too kindly. These women gave all sorts of advice for things in the book they did not like. They gave ideas of what the author SHOULD have done but didn’t. There were many issues. There were too many characters. It took too long to get into the actual story. Too many loose ends. “Why were these characters introduced at the end of
the book? They’re unnecessary.” The author only put in information when she felt it moved the plot along, not because that information was actually needed. 
              
I could go on with their comments, but I won’t.
             
Readers, not writers, can give valuable feedback for your story. Sometimes writers get too caught up in the mechanics of the book, rather than focusing on what the reader will walk away with, if they finish your book. 
              
There are certain things to look for when joining a book club. 

1 – Look for groups with about 5-10 people. If there aren’t many people, you won’t get much feedback. If there are too many, you won’t get to hear everyone’s opinions.

2 – Make sure the group actually reads the books. It won’t do you any good to join a group to hear what they have to say about books if they don’t read them.

3 – Look for them to choose from a variety of authors. If they only read one author, you won’t learn anything new. New authors encourage new discussion. 

4 – Join more than one book club if you have the time. You can join a local book club, but you can also find many book clubs online. If you do join more than one book club, look for two that read different types of books and have different types of people to get the most out of your efforts. You
don’t want to join two clubs that are exactly the same. 
 
5 – Consider who you write for. If you write for children you may want to sit in on or have your own children join a book club. If you write chic lit, keep your book clubs to those mostly consisting of women. 
 
If you are unsure of where a book club is in your area do a little research. Bookstores can often give you a list of book clubs in your area; many meetings taking place at the actual store. Libraries are another place to look for book clubs. If you live in a college town ask the school if they have book clubs that non-students can join.

It is definitely worth it to you and improving your writing to joi