writing career

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Nancy: Progress and Plans

Welcome to December! While I’m labeling today’s post accountability thread, you’ll note that in place of the runners jumping over hurdles image I usually include, I’ve chosen a picture of a woman in a zen pose as she looks out at the mountains in front of her. That’s in honor of the kinder, gentler approach I’m going to take this month to scaling all the cliffs in front of me. With the holidays, family obligations, and some exhaustion setting in from the breakneck pace I’ve been trying to keep, I don’t have much choice.

By this time in January, I might be lacing up my Sauconies and hitting the trail, sprinting up the side of the next mountain. But for today, I’m going to calmly celebrate November’s accomplishments and peacefully prepare my December plans. Continue reading →

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Jeanne: The Chunky Writing Method

Chunky candy barThis weekend my RWA chapter, Central Ohio Fiction Writers, hosted Allie Pleiter, inventor of the Chunky Writing Method. The Chunky Method is a way of scheduling your writing time to make yourself more productive, based on how you naturally write–in big chunks or small chunks.

The size of your natural chunk can be determined by how many words you can write on a normal day before you run out of energy/creativity. In the absence of writer’s block or incomplete research, which will stop any writer from moving forward, each writer will still hit a point where they just run out of steam.

Big chunk writers, according to Ms. Pleiter, can write thousands of words before that happens. Small chunk writers run dry after only a few hundred words–or even less.

But, she says, don’t despair. By figuring out which kind of writer you are, you can adjust your writing schedule to make the most of the way you write. Continue reading →

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Nancy: Accountability Thread and…Free ARCs!

It’s the first Monday of the month, and that means accountability here at Chez Nancy. However, today I have something else to share first, and since I used the titillating word “free” in my post title, I’m going to start with that. You see my novella book cover over/up there in the image? That cover and the words attached to it (aka my book) will be released at the end of November. Yippeeee!

Now it’s time for me to think about the care and feeding of Too Clever by Half as it goes out into the world. In this day and age, a big part of a book’s survival is garnering reviews, primarily at booksellers that carry it (mine will be Amazon-exclusive for a bit), secondarily at popular reader sites like Goodreads. To get the review party started, authors give away advance review copies (ARCs) before release, with the request that recipients post a review in the first few days of a book release.

Starting today, I’m looking for my ARC readers! If you think that could be you, you’re just a few clicks away from requesting one. Just go to my author website contact page, where you can choose to email me (please include ARC in the subject line), or continue onto my FB author page to message your email address to me. Easy peasy!

A few important deets: I’ll send out a limited number of ARCs on a first-come, first-served basis. ARCs will not include the pretty pink cover you’ve been seeing for the past few weeks, so don’t be surprised by that! I will NOT collect your email address for nefarious purposes or, well, for any purpose other than to send you the e-ARC and a quick note with the basics about ARC reviewing, and a follow-up reminder to post your review on or after release day.

Now, back to Monday and that accountability thing… Continue reading →

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Nancy: October Accountability Thread

Me on September 30 (which I thought was September 29)

Okay, first things first. For the first several hours of the day, I had no idea we’d entered October. Somehow, I thought it was September 30. Thus I was working on a post about the incredible writing experience I had this past week at the WFWA annual retreat, which was taking longer than expected because I was including examples of some of my workshop exercises.

Now that I realize it’s the first Monday of a new month, we have some accountability to discuss, and my WFWA squee will have to wait until next week (which means better examples, anyway). So, first up, my September recap.

September Progress

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Continue reading →

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Nancy: September Accountability Thread

Welcome, September! Happy Labor Day to those who celebrate, and happy Monday to those who don’t. It’s the first Monday of the month, so it’s time for some accountability all up in here! As a reminder, first I’ll go over what I planned to do in August and report on how close or far I was from each goal.

August Progress

1) Write the short story prequel for the Harrow’s Finest Five series. Well, I’ve thought about it quite a bit. Does that count? Can I get a half credit, or maybe a quarter, or…OK, this one’s going to have to show up in September. Continue reading →

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Nancy: Just 20 Pages

As regular readers here know, several months ago, I finally gave up my high-stress, pressure-filled, deadline-driven corporate consulting job and set up my own high-stress, pressure-filled, deadline-driven writing and publishing plan. It’s a much better gig! However, one good thing about a corporate job is the structure. (That, and cake. People randomly bringing in cake. Why do my new office mates, aka the cats, never bring me cake? But I digress).

When you enter the full-time writer world, your time is suddenly your own, even with a very firm stake planted in the ground somewhere out there in Future Land. When it comes to publishing schedules, suddenly you’re thinking in terms of months or even years. Gone are the daily and weekly due dates, the guide rails that keep you plodding along on the straight and narrow. Take the girl out of the corporate world and chaos follows. At least, that’s what happened to schedule- and spreadsheet- and calendar-loving me. Continue reading →

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Jilly: Vicarious Thrills

Regular readers of this blog will no doubt be aware that our Jeanne’s debut novel, The Demon Always Wins, is now available for preorder on Amazon and will be released for sale on 1 September. Squee!

Some of the 8 Ladies have been published before, so it’s not technically our first book, but it’s the one Jeanne was working on when we all first met (virtually) in class at McDaniel College. When she said it was a re-telling of the story of Job as a paranormal romantic comedy I remember thinking, “that’s interesting, and different.”

Because we spent a whole year in class talking about our stories and critiquing each other’s scenes, I think we all feel a certain sense of ownership of this book. We got to know Jeanne’s dark, snarky, funny voice. We saw her delete a fantastic opening scene only to replace it with one even better. We watched her polish her manuscript until it became a Golden Heart winner, and then take it up another level with the help of rigorous professional editing. Continue reading →