Turtle Bugs

Every once in a while, we get lazy and trust those we know are trustworthy forgetting that in cyberspace, no one is to be completely trusted.

It is not our trusted friend's fault. It is that individual with too much time on their hands and evil thoughts in their pea-sized brains. Maybe they have elephant-sized brains, but they only use a pea-sized portion of it.

For two days, I have restored my computer and changed many of my passwords because of some pesky Corina Little Turtle in Twitter.

Not to be discouraged, I woke up this morning with full intentions of spending my one day off writing. Then autumn allergies attacked my eyes. Writing and reading are painful, but I am not going to let that stop me. I added a little to my website (a free sample page to my latest novel - Encore) and painted some walls.

If any of my followers here are interested in building a fast and easy website...please go to Weebly.com and check them out. They make it easy and dummy friendly. You don't have to have a degree in graphic designing, html coding, or any other techie stuff. All you need is your creativity (and I know all of us writers have creativity) and determination to build your cyber house with all the rooms you want in it.

Sorry for not being over here on a regular basis, but I really like the blog I have going over at http://lucindabilya.weebly.com along with two other blog pages where readers can post comments.

Have a wonderful day

Luci

Good Morning,

Having a summer home (Blogspot) and a mansion (Weebly.com) to clean, dust and move stuff around has taken its toll on my writing time. Here at Blogspot, I have to run outside each time to see where things are, move them again and run back outside. Over there at Weebly, I click on the image and it asks me where I want it moved or donate it to cyberspace goodwill. That place is such a joy to play around in. You should check them out: http://weebly.com and set up your own FREE website that is actually dummy friendly. I told one lady about it and she set one up in a hurry...even though she hasn't a clue how to build a website (professionally looking at that).


So, for anyone who is still following me here at Blogspot, I am sorry, but my time is mostly spent writing the sequel to Encore and setting up permanent residence over at Weebly.com. Soon, I hope to shut this one down and move my summer home to Wordpress (very impressed with it).


Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer and staying cool while writing your masterpieces.


Love Luci

Sometimes, learning to write, like any of the arts, feels like walking through a thick woods without a compass or map.

Everywhere we look, someone has "expert" advice, a list of tips of what to do and what not to do, or suggestions on how to market our books once we reach that stage of our writing careers.

The old expression about not being able to see the forest for the trees is so true. When we are so deep within the woods, whether it is our writing, our marriages, our jobs, or whatever situation overwhelms us or takes up so much of our time that we feel lost, many tend to give up.

For the past ten years, I have been writing poetry, short stories, notes on the backs of receipts or napkins, and novels. I keep notebooks everywhere (along with a collection of reading glasses now so I don't waste time searching for them when a brilliant idea strikes me), in the bathroom, on my nightstand next to my bed, in my purse, and in my car.

During this period of time, many hours have been spent in editing, revising, and studying, reading, and searching for all those "expert" advice tidbits. There are so many out there. Where does one begin? We begin with one tree at a time. After a while, we learn how to identify the different trees and determine their worth in our unique journey. We learn how to sort through and decide which trees are valuable to our genre, our personal quest in writing, or how we measure success.

In contemplating the forest, I reflected on my earlier writing while editing my very first completed novel (which is now a four-book series: The Corundum Empire) and realized that in all the learning, reading "on-writing" books by the greats such as King and Morrell, and getting my very own leather-bound copy of Strunk & White Elements of Style, I have learned how NOT to write.

By that, I mean - I have learned more over the past decade on how NOT to write than how to write:

Don't write in passive voice.
Don't repeat phrases or words.
Don't mix tense.
Don't tell, show.
Don't head hop with point of view.
Don't....etc

At first, I had no clue what passive voice meant. After discovering that MS Office Word has a setting to identify our passive voice sentences, I began learning just what they were and my writing improved. Same as with all the other "don't's," I began avoiding them so the revisions wouldn't be as big of a job. My writing has changed dramatically since that first novel was drafted. I printed it out in my vanity, thinking I was a real author. The current edition of The Corrundum Empire is not the same book, and I am not the same writer.

I think one of the biggest things I learned in all the DON'T's of writing is this...

DON'T EVER GIVE UP!

(see this blog and more at http://lucindabilya.weebly.com)

Why Write

Imagine standing in front of a classroom full of students and the name of the course is, “Creative Writing.”

Ask the question, “Why did you take this class?”

Now imagine some of the answers they would give to that question.

“For fun,” one student may say while shrugging their shoulders as if they have no idea why they signed up for the class.

That answer is one that we must agree with, but there are times that it isn’t so much fun, right? How about all those re-writes and editing, only to realize that your work and effort do not measure up. There are times when writing is not always fun and games. However, the rewards are cause for great rejoicing.

“It’s easy,” another student says while slouching down with a cell phone hidden under his desk. “It’s an easy English credit.”

Here you remind the student that there is nothing easy about writing, if done correctly. None of the arts, dancing, singing, painting, or writing is easy. They all require practice, drive, setting goals, practice, study, practice, re-working, practice, dedication, and did I mention practice? All successful artists of any sort have dedication, determination and spend years perfecting their craft.

A singer on stage didn’t hop up there from the audience unpracticed. A painter did not one day grab a paintbrush and create a masterpiece without first learning the craft. Dancers do not move with the music as if a part of it without first spending long hours practicing the steps. A successful writer does not one day decide to sit down at a typewriter and create a NY Best Seller without any knowledge of the craft, the industry, or the audience.

“I like to write,” a shy student on the front row of the classroom answers.

Now, there is a student with a valid reason for signing up for the class. They like to write. Write the answer on the chalkboard (oh, that’s right…today it is a dry erase board, or computer screen projector, or some other “board” in front of the class. Chalk is so dated).

I like to write.

Then you edit it: I love to write.
Then you edit it again: I enjoy writing.
Then you rewrite it: I have a passion for writing.
Then you rewrite it again: My passion for writing has become an obsession.
Then you get crazy: Writing drives me crazy and I must write!
Finally, you write with calm and deliberate ease on the board: I like to write.

That is creative writing. Writing stories takes us down many avenues and many different routes to get to the same basic thing: putting into words our passions, our feelings, our fears, and our ideas. There are many ways to say the same thing, but sometimes we have to get more creative.

King Solomon once said, “There is nothing new under the sun.” So, we must get creative in HOW we write it. That is why love stories and detective mysteries will never go out of style. People love them. Vampires? Exactly! Same old Dracula movies for years until…brand new sparkling vampires that we can love rather than fear. Vampires are as old as dirt, pardon the pun, but take an old idea and twist a new concept around it. Get creative.

So, why do you write? Why did you embark upon this journey down a road filled with detours, side roads, potholes, and road construction?


(I deliberately avoided the answer, "To make money" because that is not a wise reason for writing novels. As a member of the Starving Artist's Society, I know that writing for the money is merely a pipedream, a "winning the lotto" frame of mind.)

What Makes a Writer Tick?

What makes us tick? Maybe it is the "tock" part that sounds the loudest.

Somedays, we tick by writing according to our inner schedule - some write on a schedule, others fly...I mean write...by the seat of their pants. We get lost in our stories whether they are non-fiction, fiction, or a mixture of both.

Giving our woes to our fiction characters helps us weather the storms and forget the pain while creating credible stories and characters. For some, writing fills gaps. We all have gaps and everyone fills them in different ways: a writer fills them by creating fantastic worlds where characters are chased up trees and have to find a way back down again.

Those are the ticks...but the tocks, wow, those are awesome! They sneak up on a writer in the wee hours of the night, in the middle of eating dinner, or at the stop light. Even driving to work, brushing our teeth, or waiting in line at the bank are all times when we hear the "tock" in writing.

Those unexpected moments are when we discover things - important things such as who our character really is, why our character refuses to come down out of the tree, what happens next, or another great idea for another great story even before we finish the WIP we are working on at the time.

New Website Home

For all of those who read my blog and for those who don't...

I have built a new website way over yonder at Weebly.com.

After trying to rebuild my blogspot (limited freedom) as my website, I realized I wanted a more creative and free site where I can do what I want to do and when I want to do it.

Weebly is made for us dummies, or for those of us who do not have the time for all that html building from scratch(ing our heads). It is drag and drop, upload, click and move, and it has its own photo editing (though limited) and formatting text. It was so easy that I managed to build my site in less than three days. I will add more later as time goes on.

One of the features I loved most is that it has NO TIME OUT. I hated it when I would be deep in building and writing html and uploading pictures etc, then linking to them, blah blah...only to have the file manager time out and I lose an hour of editing in a nanosecond.

Take a look at my new website and give me some feedback. Plus, check out Weebly.com if you are looking for an easy and fast way to build a site for all your hard work at writing. It even has a free blog - just drag and drop it from the tool bar to your page and POOF...you have a blog YOU control without flopping back and forth between your dashboard and the trunk. No seatbelts needed for Weebly.com!

http://lucindabilya.weebly.com <--check my new cyber home out.

I will still come here from time to time to post some thoughts about writing, but my wild and insane musings and ramblings will be playing around over at my new blog: http://lucindbilya.weebly.com/blog.

Thanks for being patient while I wonder off into the wonderful land of Indie Publishing where there are no fiery hoops, no games, and no attitudes of superiority merely because someone won the Agent Lotto by going around on the Query-go-round. I am old and tired...and I like life as simple as I can get it with fewer games to have to compete in.

warm regards Luci

Nothing Easy

I have read that self-publishing is hard work.

You know…it really is.

First, we write to novel. Second we rewrite the novel, thus becoming our own “Copy Editor.”

Then, we edit, proof, and remove all unnecessary words, phrases, paragraphs, and even chapters, or add all of the above, thus becoming our own “Editor.”

While accomplishing this, we study and learn about the industry if we are smart.

Then, we proof, thus becoming a Proof Reader searching for all tittles and dots.

Somewhere along this journey, we develop doubts, questions, as we teeter between Traditional and Indie wondering if we have made the right choices.

Refusing to burn bridges or spout off about one or the other, we trudge on determined to write the best novel we can regardless of which path we choose when we come to the fork in the road.

We learn that self-publishing is just that: Self Publish, which means we become our own Publishing Company, in a way.

Then, we study marketing. We read what others have done to promote their works. We never thought we could be a salesman (politically correct=Salesperson). Then a spark ignites the fire with promotional ideas, and if we really dig deep within our creative spirits, we discover that we are not selling books, but adventures. We become determined to get stores that don’t sell books, to sell our adventures, even the corner Exxon down the street.

Meanwhile, we read another Tweet about publishing whether it is about Traditional or Indie and edit our manuscripts one more time.

There is NOTHING easy about becoming a successful author. It is not a popular sport at all. In the end of it all, regardless of which path we choose, we feel like we have been running in circles because the way the traditional publishing has evolved, the agents, editors, and publishing houses EXPECT us to do all of the work of Indie while they hold onto our rights.

There is NOTHING easy in writing, but the rewards are immeasurable.

There is NOTHING easy about getting published, whether we do it our way or “theirs” but Indie seems a little simpler. After all, we are at the helm amidst the sinking, sailing, storms, and doldrums.

Simplicity sounds good. It may not be the most powerful force in the universe, but often times a writer, a true writer of the craft for the sake of the craft, merely wants to be read. That is simple.

While formatting my novel for Amazon, I keep hearing the words of Frankie… “I did it my way…no…not in a shy way…”

However, those bridges won’t be burned just yet…I am conniving another query letter…one last attempt at the Big Houses. Actually, it is more of a dare query than one with hopes of winning the Agent Lotto.

Anyone wish to put their two cents in about which side of the fence to graze upon…?

Another blog about this topic <--a link to a good read.

Although there are many blogs out in cyberspace, many tend to compare success to the million-dollar authors whether they were Indie or Traditional initially. Both sides of the fence have the super-successful writers, the middle or self-sufficient writers, and the hobbyists who write without making it big.

Successful writing is determined by how much passion we have for the art.

Blog under construction, or reconstruction

Originally, this blog was all about links to better writing. However, the WWW is packed full of such links, advice, and sure-fire methods to success. For years, I have taken the advice, studied the industry, and then taken a break while completing another novel. This blogspot has not been forgotten, only put on the back burner while I edit and prepare my novel for publishing. My blogspot is now under construction for a major facelift. My website no longer functions over at 110mb.com because they seem to have frozen up. Therefore, My blogspot IS my new website. Coming soon….updated information, novel details, upcoming novels in progress, etc. Please be patient as my blog morphs into a butterfly.

"If anyone then should take away the tragic actor’s buskins and his mask, and introduce him on the stage as a phantom, is the tragic actor lost, or does he still remain? If he has voice, he still remains."
~~Epictetus

Can you survive, can you thrive?

That is the question that came to mind after I read the above. When I read the last part, the writer in me would not shut up. All that I have learned about writing, publishing, and putting to practice the mega-loads of advice, knowledge, tried-and-true hoops to jump through for becoming a successful author, it all boils down to one simple word, VOICE!

Remember When...

...you were a child?

The best parents are those who never forget when they themselves were children. Do you remember how it felt to be afraid of the dark, scared to be alone, embarrassed when someone laughed at you? After half a century, we tend to forget when we exchange fashion for comfort, a curmudgeon attitude instead of fear, and laugh at ourselves before others have a chance to do so. Think back to the good ol’ days and remember when…

…you were a student?

We teach others in many ways, even when we aren’t trying to teach. Teachers who remember being students make the best teachers. Youth comes in delicate packages. Remember that teacher who was so hard on you? You hated them at the time, but as the years passed, you realized that they were the best and that you learned the most from that class regardless of the subject. It could be your eighth-grade mathematics teacher. We remember those who cared when…

…we were sick.

The best doctors are those who remember what it was like to be the patient. They have compassion even when they don’t want to get too attached because of the emotional pain.

Growing up, growing wiser, and growing towards the real things that matter in life has been an on-going process since man first walked upon this earth. There is nothing new, only rearranged. Ever meet an old friend who made it rich and they cannot remember your name or what it was like to be poor? Rather than taking offense, pity them. Pity anyone who forgets the roads they have traveled to get to where they are today.

Read the news…
…about those who jump out of windows because they lost a fortune – pity them for they have forgotten true value.
…about someone who cannot live without another, yet murder them and themselves – pity them for they have forgotten true love.

Remember when…and be thankful and content – the power of tranquility.

Lucy

Temptation of Self-Publishing

Temptation of Self-Publishing

If you are a writer, a truly dedicated writer who wants to make a dream come true with a novel or two, then you have researched the endless, wireless, mindless space called cyberspace for the answers to your quest.

First, you want to do it the right way, or dare I say that pun, “the write way”?

Second, you write those nasty little query letters to the gatekeepers. You re-write them more times than you re-write your novel. You pray. You beg. You cry.

Then, you read about the success stories of the “few” exceptions to the rule, you know, the ones who made it successfully to the heights you dream about, by self-publishing.

You wrestle with your conscience, your pride, and your reasoning. By now, you are so totally confused about it all that you chuck it all aside and write another novel.

Yet, while writing the exciting new novel surely to be a best seller, you are haunted by that dark cloud – Publishing! It is an omniscient haunting feeling you just cannot shake. Should you? Dare you? How could you? How could you even dare to venture into the possibility of…self…publish. It sounds so weak, so much like surrender. It sounds so much like defeat and inferior to the enemy.

(pause for reflection)

Then, after writing that next novel certainly worthy of at least a movie on the family channel, you begin to reason the reasons why self-publish is not a bad idea after all.

Then you doubt your reasoning.

Does any of this sound familiar? If you are a writer who cares about writing, works in progress, and the whole reason for writing, it should.

When you boil the cabbage down, it is simply cooked cabbage. That sounds simple, doesn’t it? Is there anything wrong with simplicity?

Simplicity in publishing is this: Self-publish in today’s world of publishing is made so easy that is seems wrong to do it. Yet, in the end, simplicity may be a valid reason for self-publishing. For many years, I have resisted submitting my short stories and poetry to periodicals or magazines because of complicated “rights” to the work I wish to put into a book. If someone has their claws deeply embedded into my work, I have to ask them permission to publish them in a book later. (please correct me if I am wrong)

Simplicity is pure and uncomplicated. Simplicity may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back swaying me towards self-publishing. If I upload a novel to Createspace in Amazon, I become the publisher retaining all rights. If I want to rewrite it, sell it to a mainstream publishing house, a movie company, etc., it is mine to do so. Simple. No complications.

I welcome anyone’s argument pro or con on this topic. Enlighten me, please, but I ask that you back up your opinions or judgments with legitimate sources.

(Just in case you think I have not searched the fiery hoops of publishing, bettered my writing to be accepted by the “traditional” avenues, I have done it for several years now. I want my writing to evolve into the very best it can be. I never have liked the expression, “I am just how I am” with an attitude of refusing to improve. I want to improve my writing and have done so to the point of blushing when reading the first book of mine currently in print. I welcome feedback and constructive critiques.)

Put Your MC up that tree

As painful as it may seem, we must put our main characters (MC) up that tree, and then find a way to help him down without killing him, or the tragic ending...to kill our MC.

Since coming out of the dark, I recoil at the idea of returning to it. However, that is life. So, today, a little spirits, a little opera, and I am ready to put my MC up that tree. He will have to run until his young lungs burn with fire to save a girl's life.

Question is this...will he make it in time? Will he be able to get down out of the tree and be a hero, or will he die inside all his life knowing he failed?

Oh...how I love writing.

Oh...btw...he is also running to save the life of the "monster." Such a paradox.

Eating Words

When we read, we think. When we write, we think, and we think about what a reader thinks. Does a reader ever wonder what a writer was thinking while writing what the reader is now reading.

Huh?

Think of reading and writing as food for the mind. We can eat junk or healthy food. We can also eat for fun, whether it is healthy or junk.

If we only chew our food without swallowing it, it does our bodies little good. That may not be a bad thing to try with that chocolate cake and ice cream.

Same as when we read, if we do not act upon a truth, or if what we read does not make us think at all, then the writer has not entered our head and it does little for our minds.

Even reading for entertainment can make us think about our lives, our neighbors, people we work with or playmates.

Thinking deeply about things will take us into the realm of philosophy where we contemplate the universe, our existence, and our reaction to it all. Reading what a philosopher has written takes us on a journey inside not only their thoughts, but also our own.

Hope I made you think a little today.

In the front of my first book in print, there is a poem I purposefully wrote for that book:

As I Write

If I write about the insanity of life
Then I may intrigue you

If I write about the passions in life
Then I may move you

If I write about the joy in life
Then I might lighten your load

If I write about the truth in life
Then I may cause you to think

If I write about the pain life gives
Then I may touch your compassion

If I write about the love in life
Then I may reach your heart

If I write about the beauty we share
Then we can connect with peace

If my writings never touch you at all
Then I have failed