witter (ˈwɪtə)
vb – (often foll by: on) to chatter or babble pointlessly or at unnecessary length
n – pointless chat; chatterCollins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
Every once in a while the stars align and you magically make stellar progress on your W.I.P. Never mind you’re living out of a hotel with a toddler in confined space. Kids give you heck for the first couple of nights and then they’re cool like they’ve always lived in a one room space. I’m convinced if we didn’t own a Great Dane, we could be those “tiny house” people.
Somehow you make room around your online job to blog and market research and plan out your strategy whilst loving and wrestling your little boy, playing puzzles and watching lots of kids cartoons. (whew) I love my kid and I love what I do professionally. While writing doesn’t really pay the bills yet, it’s my labor of love right after raising my son. Crafting a manuscript is kind of like raising a kid in fact. So many tiny little things go into it each day. You can’t neglect it either. You don’t just ignore your kid and say, feed yourself, change your own dang diaper. (unless you’re aiming for an award for awful parenting) Moving on from odd analogies 😉
Like I said, I’ve been making some serious progress with my W.I.P, Silver Hollow 2017 Edition. For about a week or so it seemed like I had no extra time to write. And while we’ve been on the road, I’ve had to squeeze in around 300-600 words per night to make any progress. But I finally broke through the other night and have been reaching my 1K a day goal. At one point last year I was up to 2K a day (for about a month haha) before I finished Scarred Beauty. With Silver Hollow, I’ve hit the stride again and am very excited for the direction the story is taking. For you die hard fans of the original, don’t worry, because I’m keeping the same spirit and many parts of the core story, just making it more “reader friendly” as my beta says. For more on New Silver Hollow, stay tuned for the Tuesday Teaser!
Another hitch in writerly progress was because I was researching the whole marketing thing and getting serious about it for the first time. I recommend reading Rachel Thompson’s “30 Day Book Marketing Challenge” by the way. I have taken way longer than thirty days already, but it’s been a fairly decent learning curve. I confess, I was one of those people who believed the most I could blog was a once a week teaser.
My personal challenge has been to blog about writing, hence Weekly Writerly Witterings. I haven’t followed through to perfecting by any means. I still struggle with social media connecting and some weeks, like this last one, I’m too overwhelmed with real life stuff. But it’s the effort that counts, and if you’re an unbeliever like I was, putting Rachel’s methods into practice really will bring results.
Above all, I believe if you’re genuine, if you’re writing what you love with sensitivity to market, that’s what ultimately draws in readers. As for networking and making connections, BEE yourself, as the Genie told Aladdin. Also, put yourself out there. In a time not very long ago, we didn’t have texts and social media to rely on for building relationships. Friendships were maintained by phone calls, by taking a little risk to get out in the world. Ironically some of my best friends are either long distance or across the country and the world. Whatever method you use to build relationships in real life, try to apply them online. Because as an Author, you are your own business and you gotta take a little risk to grow.
So spread your wings and soar my lovelies!
Goals for this week
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Get website up to speed!
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Aim for 1K/Day for 2017 Silver Hollow.
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Get back into the social media swing.
Helpful Links
“Handling Author Envy” – The Indie Tea
“GIFGRRL” – (She makes gifs for books!)
“Hootsuite” – (This will simplify your social media handles so much!)
Don’t miss out on Melissa Wright’s Venom & Steel Swag Giveaway! Just one week left to enter! Extra points for sharing fanart 😀 For more info about The Frey Saga check out the Release Day Page.
Jennifer Silverwood 