more thoughts about writing I wrote on Google plus

(Written in April)

I’ve read lots of things about how people recommend you find inspiration for new ideas to write about. I am a writer. Some of you might have noticed me advertising my ebooks on Smashwords & Feedbooks.

I don’t think there’s any sure-fire way of finding new ideas. Personally I attribute creative drought to a couple of things. Stress and burnout.

Most writers stress a lot, about deadlines, about about finding inspiration.
As I currently don’t write for profit I have no deadlines apart from the one I self-imposed when I made my New Years Resolution.

We’re into April now and I have managed to stick to it – so far.
It was fairly simple, write one new ebook and publish per month.
I’ve written 34 since October last year.
Which equates to 4 per month so far.

Sometimes I’m writing and another idea will occur to me and I’ll actually have to stop to write that new idea down. And before I even started I had a small collection of ideas and stories, from 1 line to a synopsis to partially written pieces.

I’ve got no set length I aim at. As long as I can finish it, that’s all I really care about. Absolutely anything can give you an idea. Just be sure to have something to note them down on as there’s nothing worse than forgetting a potentially good idea then not being able to recall it.

thoughts on writing I wrote on Google plus

Why do I write?
Because I enjoy it, it’s a good way to be both creative and it’s an escape from reality, however temporary. If anyone actually enjoys reading it then that’s a billy-bonus as far as I am concerned.

What do I write?
Mostly fiction, mostly science fiction, sometimes horror. I’ve also done satire, humour, western, erotica and non-fiction.

Where can you read my stuff?
For free? Smashwords, Feedbooks, Kobo, Diesal, Itunes, Sony and Barnes & Noble?
For money? Amazon.

Why should we read it?
Because it’s awesome? No, I try to write original, thought provoking work. If you think it’s odd, weird, or offensive then I have definitely done my job.

Does it pay well?
Does it bollocks. In other words, no it doesn’t.

Is it easy to be creative?
Frankly, anyone can make a story up. If you’ve ever told a lie then you are already on the rocky path to becoming a writer. Writer/Author is a much nicer label than “Professional Liar”.

How do you deal with writers block?
I don’t think such a thing exists. Sometimes you have ideas, other times you don’t. It’s being able to tell if an idea will make a good story or not.

How long does it take to write a story?
How long is a piece of string? Seriously, stories can be any length, some places even take stories that are only 100 words long. I’ve seen them even shorter than that. My usual story length is 1000-2000 words. I’ve written shorter and longer. I’d like to write a novel one day, when I can get my head into the right frame of mind.

What are you writing at the moment?
Apart from this “blog” entry? Heck, I’ve got over 25 stories in development. Some are what I call “partials” (stuff I’ve started), some are just a synopsis, some are frameworks, some are even just literally 1 sentance. I also have a bunch of stuff thats to be typed up and a TXT document where I sometimes leave ideas that has at least 15 stories or partials on it.

Accountability

I’m not really much for being held to anything. I hate deadlines.  But sometimes there is a need to be accountable for things, writing is one of those things for me.

My way of holding myself accountable is to date my work, even individual stories within a collection.

I’ll put down the date it was started which is normally also the date it was finished.  Because the stuff I am writing is short then it’s generally finished the same day I start it.  This way I can say “I did THIS on THAT day.” and be 100% certain of it.  Because it’s there in black and white

Things can happen, life throws stuff at you.

I’ve never really written anything long.
Normally reaching 5000 words is a lot to me.

I’m a “barriers” person.  I see them.  I am a trier.  God loves a trier, that’s what they say.

I’m not always happy but I’ll take being satisfied over forced happiness any day.

If I can achieve something I set out to do then I am satisfied.  I don’t do being happy all that much.

It’s massively over rated.

Right now I am fairly satisfied because I have completed all my stories for the year.

I’ve heard something about an idea in September, a story a day.

I’m not sure if I can do it, if I can manage to finish something every day, especially without burning myself out creatively.

Right now it’s not a definite, the people doing it aren’t even sure if it’s happening.  If it does I’d quite like to get involved.

I’d rather try and fail.  The only way you can learn what you can’t do is by failing.

Updates

The writing has been on a series of ups and downs over the last week or so, mostly downs.  I’ve been in that place where I just didn’t feel like doing a damn thing.

I was there almost a week.

Then had a few ideas (both of which went into my lastest forthcoming flash collection) and then I wrote a story as a present for a close friends birthday.

I wouldn’t say I am back on track writing again but I am closer than I was.  I think that because I have got enough complete pieces (with covers) to finish out my resolution to publish at least 1 title per month that I have decided I don’t actually have to write anything for the rest of the year.

And it’s only July.

I might be looking at trying the story a day thing in September.  We’ll see.

I know my ups and downs are fairly manic.  I could be working on something in less than 24 hours.

Sometimes its better not to have any deadlines.

“Letter To a Friend”, a writing technique

I read about this on another blog here:- I Don’t Want To Write – Part II | Story A Day.

 
I call this “The Pitch”.

Quite frequently I’ll start writing an idea and run out of steam and be unable to finish it.  So what I do is explain the story to my mum or brother and that normally gets me to the point where I start filling in holes or adding extra stuff.

Also bouncing the idea off a second person quite often gets them giving you pointers or asking questions which gets you thinking in new directions you hadn’t previously explored.  When you have to explain the idea to someone else clearly and simply it’s actually quite a challenge because you want to tell them everything and that often means you get new ideas in the process.

“The Pitch” can be incredibly helpful.

Even late at night when everyone else is asleep I quite frequently pitch to myself which can have a similar effect, you start filling in gaps and saying “well, I could do this” which kickstarts your creative process.

If alone The Pitch can be done when you are away from where you normally write, I quite frequently brainstorm whilst making food as I am then not in the “creative” mode and I get ideas from different parts of my brain.

Writing Landmarks

As a writer there are various yardsticks that mark sucess.

Publishing your first book for money.

Yesterday I reached another.  Someone deemed my work worthy of stealing.

I discovered “The Case Of The Invisible Man” had been posted on an ebook forum (without my knowledge and certainly without my permission or consent).  As it was placed there without my being asked, I deem this as stealing. I know the ebook is free but I wasn’t asked for permission for it to be rehosted.

The person who posted it had downloaded the PDF file off Feedbooks then tried (very badly) to convert that into a MOBI & EPUB.  He/She did a right hatchet job there.  I can say that because:-

A) It’s my book and I know what the “proper” non-converted versions look like.

B) I know what a badly converted PDF looks like. (It was one).

C) This is my blog and I can saw what I damn well like here without any forum person getting uppity about it.

I have politely sent the poster a PM asking them to either take down the thread or change their links to point at the actual book on Feedbooks & Smashwords.

We’ll see what happens.

Update

Published my story for this month titled “Keep Off The Grass” on Smashwords and Feedbooks.  Also today I started 2 new things and finished one story completely.

 

Just finished a new erotic short that may well out do “Death Wears A Black Basque” in download numbers. It’s called “Extra Special Forces.”
Erotica meets Military SF. And shags its brains outs. ;-P

More details when I upload it.