One Aim...One Target

So what I have I been doing?

If you haven't noticed my more recently doings, I managed to share a free short story most weeks for the last few months, until I ceased my Free Fiction Friday for a bit of hiatus. That's a fun way to share my own fiction. I do plan to reactivate it once I get a few more important matters squared away.

I've also announced that I'm stepping back into freelancing, and even ghostwriting--albeit this process is a rather slow one since I am way out of touch with the way things operate these days, having been away from freelance writing and the like for several years now. So, a new learning curve there.

Another, more recent event, was the launch of a Patreon page that would be about one goal: Helping me go full-time as the publisher at Founders House Publishing, my indie book company. That has also had a slow start. While I'm a bit surprised at that given the sort of rewards and benefits I'm offering, I guess maybe I have more to learn about appealing customers of Founders House books in order to convert them into patrons. 

I've been busy looking at various approaches to my problem and trying to find the one that would free up the most time in my day so I could focus on building Founders House by publishing authors like John Michael Greer, Catherine McGuire, Ralph Meima, and others as well. Plus, I'd have time to add my own works to the publication schedule. 

I've ran into obstacles and have been dealing with lots of complications at my current primary income that have added a bit more urgency to my quest. A certain amount of single-mindedness has taken over. There's one aim...one target...in my mind right now. But, perhaps, I'll have to re-cultivate a little old-fashioned patience too.

Regardless, there are lots of books planned for release this year. Here's hoping all stays on track to finish strong.

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I'm Freelancing Again

Several years ago, I made my first attempt at earning money as a freelance writer. Ultimately, I ran into complications and I moved away from that and created my publishing company as a side gig and ended up working another job which has now become my main source of monthly income. In between, I've slowly built the publishing company up but haven't yet reached a point where I could subsist solely on that income. 

My life circumstances have changed over the last few years and I've thought about changing the shape of my life into one that better fits my new focus and plays to the strengths and skills I've gained. I've been employed in the same job for almost six years now and as time has gone on, I've become less and less satisfied with the work. It has pulled me away, again and again, from my focus as a publisher and a writer, and given its physical demands, I've just come to the end of it and it is time to move on.

So, I've decided to become a freelancer again, with an emphasis on writing, editing, and proofreading. These are all related to what I am doing elsewhere, especially in Founders House. Honestly, I will be doing a little bit of freelance book design and eBook formatting, as well as ghostwriting. 

These days, there is a lot to be said for the so-called gig economy. Larger numbers of people are jumping into it at different points using different providers. I've started that process myself, and have stepped into Upwork and Fiverr, but I've also decided to ply my skills locally too. Lots of self-promotion and client searching lie before me. 

I'm hoping to find work sooner rather than later as my desire to get away from my current job grows. I'm ready to be creative again and ready to help others with their writing, including giving feedback as an editor by offering beta reading services.

With luck, I'll find a way to step fully into this work.

Dear Writer: Where It All Started

"If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it!" ~ Toni Morrison

It started in my head.

It always starts in my head.

It probably starts in your head as well. We writers are often those peculiar and foolish sorts of people who spend a great deal of our time imagining things in our heads and then attempting to put them out on pages using words. We started out innocently enough, absorbing the stories that we were told as children, watched on television, or read in books. Humans need stories. It is one of the main ways they, social animals that they are, communicate with one another. Writers took that a step in one direction and said that it was not just that stories needed to be told, shared, and expressed in some fashion to others, but rather our stories.

Quite the egomaniacs, aren't we? I'll admit it.  I write because I want people to read what I wrote. It's not enough just to write the story and put it away in a drawer somewhere or store it on a flash drive. That line of thinking makes me an author. (Shh, it's not a dirty word as long as one doesn't use it as a badge that keeps them focused too long on one book or one story.) I can say with a hint of pride that I'm the author of more than one book. Still, I am a writer first and foremost, meaning I'm someone who writes rather than merely someone who has written. (In case you're wondering, that could be a simple way to explain the difference between the words 'writer' and 'author.' Many newer writers might be shaking their heads at this point. Sorry about that. Maybe I'll talk about it more in a future post.)

It started in my head when I was very young. It started then in your head too. While it's true that no writer is the same as another writer, it might be fair to say that we all cross a line between just playing and using imagination as other children would and really thinking that the things we made up are worth sharing with others. I don't know when I crossed that line. I could think of many instances throughout the rest of my childhood when those impulses reared up and sometimes even found outlets. You could too.

Dear writer, if it's okay with you, I will talk about this thing we do. I'll come back to this space every so often and unpack what we writers do, think, and grapple with as we, hopefully, continue writing. Thank you for tuning in and reading. It makes this writer happy.

2013: What's The Shape Of This Writer's Year?

I'm really going to refrain from any attempt at prognostication about how my work life as as writer will shape up this year. It's a fresh, brand new year and I am thinking about what I would like to do to fill it with exciting projects. I've even done some groundwork at filling my schedule.

Design Work

In fact, I enrolled as a student in an Associates program in graphic design.

You might be wondering what that has to do with making strides as a fiction writer. On the surface, maybe nothing at all. As a freelancer in general I've had a rather erratic year. I've been pitched up and down, gained prospects at consistent work, lost them, and have been tossed around. It made me realize that I needed additional creative skills. I could think of nothing better than to revive my dormant visual art skills and funnel them into computer art and graphic design.

After I pick up the skills, gain, the knowledge, and develop the expertise, I will have a viable freelancing channel to add to my writing. I like having options and means. It's a far more resilient position to be in, as a self-employed person. I intend to focus my attention on book design too so I can be more effective for projects coming through my small publishing company. I say two birds with one stones on this one.

Writing

I've been on a small break from writing, trying to assess the way going forward. That hasn't been an easy process. I've been bouncing around in different moods weighing the whole project in different ways depending on my mindset at that particular point. When the nonfiction freelance dried up or bottomed out, I felt stressed out about it. The writing had no fun left in it--a dire prospect for any creative writing. I've not done much fiction since publishing my last novel, A Kingdom Of Shadows.

I want to write again. I want to fiction this year.

I don't know exactly all that I want to write. I've thought about mixing it up with short fiction, novellas, and regular length novels. It may end up that way but I've been trying to come up with some goals. I read a good series of post by Dean Wesley Smith about it. You should visit his site.

If I were making a goal for 2013--when it comes to writing--I think I would take a modest approach. I have to be realistic. Certainly, I have a whole year stretching out far before me. The expanse holds limitless potential. So what am I going to do?

The thing I think that makes sense is just to say that I plan to write 6 novels this year. That's the sum of it, at the moment. Six, brand new and fresh works from my little old imagination. It sounds good, doesn't it? Will I stick with it? I'm not sure. It's a good starting point. Heck I could change my mind in a week and say I'm just focusing on writing novellas for the whole year. (I've certainly thought about it.)

Still, I'm sticking with it now: My goal is to write six (6) new novels in 2013.

Other Matters

While, I  will not get into it here, I have other things happening this year of a more personal nature that will doubtlessly shape the year in some regards. Wish me luck, both on navigating through them and in reaching the end of the year with the goal (whatever final shape it takes) accomplished.