30 April 2019

ISWG post Writer Insecurity

Well, well, well. It's that time. Here I am, writing, typing on my phone. Trying to get this written. Tomorrow, the first Wednesday of the month, begins in 5 hours.

Well, didn't take time to check out the question. Insecurity in writing? Well, as some of you know, my time for the past three weeks has been taken up with the dreaded business plan.

Oh, I won't go into everything cause this might turn into a...dare I say? Nah, sufficient to tell y'all that I learned a very important lesson concerning my chosen writing programs: Scrivener, Scapple and Aeon.

I have been working, in a very desultory fashion, on my business plan for years. Bits and pieces are in various files scattered in a few dozen sites. Now, this isn't the reason I procrastinated writing that plan.

No, cause it was taking time away from my precious novels. Therein was the problem; a mindset that some of us writers have concerning our precious writing time. The very term "business plan" implies a job and all that goes with a job.

"What does this have to do with the aforementioned fav writing programs?" You are rightfully asking.   And a very embarrassed me answers:

"I've been inputting data into Scapple for a few months, knowing I was gonna need it down the line.  Fourteen days ago, I transferred it manually to Aeon. I knew it synced to Scrivener somehow. The past three very frustrating days have flown by.  I finally figured out, after much frantic searching of the Literature and Latte site, how easy it is to transfer data back and forth.

Duh

26 April 2019

Writerly Doings of the Business Kind

Just a short post today to let all interested parties know what I have been up to recently.

First and foremost, learning to type with two fingers. The exact opposite of what I've been taught since reaching the age at which I could legally earn money as a child.  And I now hear my typing teacher's voice in my head as I type this on my handy dandy phone.

Ahh, what a conversation going on in my head-Muse vs. Typing teacher.  And in the background, the clamorous sounds of sadly neglected characters.

Secondly, the would be author's most dreaded task on the way to fulfilling the childhood dream of seeing their name on a published book: the business plan.

Now this might not have yet entered the realm of reality if one is focused on getting their book written.  If this is the case, you're in for what may come to feel like a badly written novel.

"What? Business plan? No one ever mentioned business plan. I am a writer.  I create..." or some such scene when you're out trying to network, particularly if you are trying to get some publisher, editor or possibly even financial backing of some kind.  "All everyone mentioned was the 2, (or is it 1?) minute elevator pitch."  Hmmm.

T'any rate. That is is precisely what I've been doing.  *Note, now at home and doing good; the Typing Teacher has now happily settled since I am properly using a keyboard once again.  Back to my writerly doings...where was I? 

Oh! The dreaded business plan.  And the Bullet Journal, both of which have grown to slightly larger than planned proportions.  Still manageable though.  An enormous relief.  Thinking this may be why I've put off doing the business plan, the thought of all those papers that I have been reliably informed, being a recent KonMari convert, that one must categorize, sort and dispose of those papers.

I took an SBA class offered several years ago on my home rez which helpfully provided me with a sample business plan to follow.  Yep.  Having been a government employee, a tribal one, I can safely say that things get complicated.  Without even half trying, I got lost amongst all the rules, regulations, laws, forms and rigamarole that goes into such things.  Promptly went back to happily writing, letting my now happy muse free rein, my book which then grew into 3, then 6, then 20...well.  There are a few more than that clanging around in my head.

My bullet journal has pretty much stayed in one notebook, still a reasonable 2, 3, at most 6 tasks to get done per day.  The tasks include the joys of living, cleaning, finishing up the KonMari stuff and other necessary things such as traveling to get groceries, cooking....

How now brown cow.  *Just threw that in so the typing teach is deliriously happy. 

My bullet journals have grown to.  Ahh, must quietly say this, since I think this defeats the purpose of bullet journaling, seven total.  Yep, seven, 7, VII, total.  One for each area of the Business Plan.  Not that they are rapidly filling. Just to keep me reasonably organized: WebSite, Blogs, News column, tracking, current stuff, planned stuff, financial....

*This was intended to be short when I started.  Went a little overboard upon getting back to my keyboard.  Now, should I review, rank, whatever, blog posts according to phone vs. keyboard typing?

03 April 2019

IWSG #3 of 2019 April

Insecure Writer's Group has been a part of my life for a number of years.  Not that I've made the group a priority.  I've let life events overwhelm me and set aside aside my writing goals and tasks.

A few months ago, I came across this lady, Laura of "How to get your Shit Together," during my searches for a printable (free, of course and 'sides, why reinvent the wheel?) list of the KonMari Method of tidying on her You Tube channel.  Cause, of course, we, as writers, sometimes get carried away in our "research" and that is by far the biggest time suck of our writing the next "world's greatest novel" in the J.K. Rowling sort of dream.

T'any rate, I watched all of her KonMari videos and glanced at her Planner stuff.  Thought I'd skip this stuff as it never worked for me.  I'd always start one or the other of the various systems available and whoa, stop doing these things as, well, you might be familiar with the process so I won't go into detail.  Over the next few weeks, I ended up checking out her other stuff.  Signed up on her Facebook page and gradually the idea of "Bullet Journal" entered my life.  I like her style.

Then, I actually started a Bullet Journal after checking out various posts and stuff over on Pinterest.  Which by the way, reminds me to post a link to my page over there in the event some of you may be interested in checking it out.  I found out the author/originator of this system and yeah.  I did the short tutorial and thought, why not?  Ryder Carroll said it was simple and one didn't have to do all the fancy stuff so I just followed the advice on the Learn page.

I had an empty 88 cent notebook I'd bought to use for organizing my novel writing stuff.  Started it and here I am, three months later, getting things done in a more organized fashion.  Three months of daily setting of goals was enough to help me decide my priorities in life and how important writing is to me.  So, I've gotten some tasks done, or started some, that are important to an author if one is serious about writing.  Or publishing.

I'd already known about Business Plans, marketing and other stuff.  I even registered with my state as a business.  And there I stopped.   As far as the business aspect of it went.  All that research involved in "target audience," Competitive Analysis, copyright, trademark, and so on.  Overwhelming, to say the least.  Aspects of this writing life aren't my "cup of tea."

Got back into IWSG and here I am with that part of my reorganization of my life.  Yep, Yep.  I even put up a picture of my mother and her sisters on my lockscreen that has the added words from Marie Kondo's philosophy, "Does it spark Joy?" on the top and "What do I want to take with me in the future?" on the bottom.  All in all, a more inspiring screen than Mic...ft's default picture.