In the Silence: One Author's Venture into the Universe of Self-Publishing

Image property of Efi Loo Publishing

After publishing my last post on June 26, (click here), where we explored what I learned by taking a blogcation, I had an epiphany.  I needed to take my own advice!  So, I made a conscious decision to become silent . . . online that is.

They say silence is golden.  In my opinion, whoever “they” are failed to mention that the golden part comes with a price.  A three-step price.  Step one; a splash of self-determination, step two; a smidgen of self-doubt, and step three; a dousing of frustration.  But, in the end, every price has its payday.

Let’s explore:

For some of you, venturing into the universe of self-publishing is nothing new.  Perhaps, you entered it many moons ago and have been flourishing in its frontier of possibilities ever since.  However, for others, perhaps like me, you want to board the ship, but in a small way hope the engines never fire up for fear of them exploding before you ever leave the ground. 

In May, I wrote a short story for my Nephew’s second birthday titled, Shells For Hunter.  Being my first venture into self-publishing, I felt the story was the perfect size to use as my “test” subject, and besides, it is a darling little story.  

Having a completed story, I set off to self-publish my first book!  How hard could it be?  I had written the story in four days, what, with another four days of re-writing, a little self-editing, create an Amazon account, download my cover art and story, and boom, my book would be up and published in no time, ready to be read to children all over the world!

Screech! 

Enter step one: A splash of self-determination.  After spending two weeks making sure every adjective, sentence, and punctuation was the best I could make it, Shells For Hunter was ready to rock and roll!  

Enter step two: A smidgen of self-doubt. Wait, if Shells For Hunter were being published by another publisher, wouldn’t they send it through their editorial department to be proofed by a highly trained and skilled professional?  After reading through the draft for the umpteenth time, perhaps I did have a misplaced comma here or a misused semi-colon there.  If I’m going to put my name on something, it is going to be done right!  

Thanks to my inner-connections of networking through the internet, I had recently befriended a wonderful editor in Australia, Dionne Lister.  She had recently edited a book I find to be an absolutely hilarious take on becoming a writer, (The Squirrel That Dreamt of Madness), and so we agreed to do business together.  I am so thankful for Dionne’s services.  She was quick to respond, always willing to address questions and even met with me face to face via Skype!  Glad we did, she has a really cool accent!  

Finally, after having Shells For Hunter professionally edited, it was time to really get things rocking and rolling!

Enter step three: A dousing of frustration.  I spent many years in the corporate world transitioning from typing on an IBM select typewriter to whizzing my fingers across the keyboard of a word-processor and beyond and from creating ad-hoc reports to creating Excel spreadsheets, so I’m no stranger to technology.  I knew about converting my manuscript into an EPub file before downloading to Amazon.  No big deal, piece of cake.  

For the love of Pete!  

After spending another month researching and learning to reformat my manuscript, (you see, I work on a Mac), I knew the rocking had to be over and it was time to start rolling.

   

Double Screech! 

Lucky for me, I have a business partner that is a highly trained professional, my husband!  In comes one last step to the silence is golden price....oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

Needless to say, Shells For Hunter was finally ready to rock and roll and no matter its future, I’m glad those engines fired up and propelled me into the universe of self-publishing.  

My advice?  If you are toying with the idea of venturing into the self-publishing world, go for it!  But, be prepared to pay the price and, hopefully, you have people or business acquaintances that will be there to assist you in your journey. 

What lesson did I learn?  That silence is golden and its path is worth the price.      

Would I do it again?  Only the future will tell.  

Until next time,

Keep on thriving, keep on striving and keep on writing!

T.K. Millin

The Blog That Time Did Not Forget: Three tips from a writer's blogcation

I liken living in the 21st century to a young child born in the 19th century who saw an incandescent lamp light their room for the first time and who lived long enough into the 20th century to watch on a black and white television an astronaut take one small step for man kind.

The only difference is now we don’t have to live to a ripe old age to watch the advancement of technology for it changes overnight, literally.  

For many of my devoted followers, thank you by the way, you may have noticed I have not posted many blogs articles over the past three months.  If you are reading this today, I would again like to thank you for your loyalty, but please be assured it was not due to slacking off.  I would like to think of my absence as more of conducting an experiment in time travel.  

Let’s explore:

My last two articles posted were devoted to time and space in fictional writing.  If you missed them or would like to discover them for the first time, (click here for Part I and click here for Part II).   

In them, we explored techniques that can be used to help transport your readers through time.  Afterall, writing is one of the unique forms of art in which all five senses can be used to achieve this!  

During that time, I began to have flashbacks to when I first started writing.  A time when I unequivocally knew that one day I was going to become a published author!  So, I decided to take a blogcation.  

What did I discover during my time off?  That I did become a published author and if I ever had high hopes of doing it again then some things needed to change.   

Listed below are the top three major tips I discovered during my blogcation that I hope will help you too if you are at a point in your writing career where you may be wondering, “What am I doing wrong?”

REDISCOVER

By taking time to sit, in silence, and free write reasons why you ever wanted to become a writer helps to awaken dreams that have long ago been tucked away deep within your inner thoughts.

For example, here are four of the numerous phrases that seemed to magically appear on my notepad, but once I saw them, I remembered.

To make a difference   

To bring wonder to a child!

To inspire...

Life long...dream

So go ahead, grab a notepad and pen and find a cozy quite spot to sit and ponder and then be ready to rediscover the writer inside you that’s still full of dreams and imagination just waiting to come alive!  (Oh, and one important note, if you have a furry pawed ghostwriter like Efi Loo, don’t forget to include them too!)

REORGANIZE

Prior to becoming a writer, I owned and operated my own interior design business where I not only helped my clients create the home of their dreams through design and color, but also through the art of feng shui.  

What is feng shui?  Feng shui, (pronounced fung shway; fung, meaning wind, and shway, meaning water), is an ancient art and science developed over 3,000 years ago in China where the principle of five elements in shapes; water, wood, fire, metal and earth are used to bring harmony to a space through the use of color and the placement of objects.

What does this all have to do with being a writer?  Everything!  Taking a blogcation helped me realize I could use the help of an interior designer to come in and help revitalize my work space.  Then it hit me, I am a trained interior designer and I wasn’t living up to the advice people once paid me for!  

Clutter is one of the biggest no-no’s in feng shui, because it prevents positive energy, (chi), from flowing freely through a room.  But wait you say, all writers know that clutter is our best friend because having all that paper strewn about our desk is a sign of progress, right?   

Wrong, think again.  Clutter is nothing more than a sign of a bogged down mind which can prevent you from moving forward in a positive way.  

If you have been feeling heavy minded lately and can’t seem to get your creative juices flowing, look around at your work space with feng shui eyes and you just might be surprised at the amount of “progress” you have piling up in front of you!  

Take time to clear your workspace by creating folders for unfinished manuscripts and scribbled story ideas on crumpled up napkins and coffee stained work in progress’ you’ve been editing for months.  

Then while you’re still motivated by the uplifting feeling, organize a closet or clean out a junk drawer and then get ready, because your inner writer will have come alive and nothing will stop it from wanting to write!

RECONNECT    

As with any structure, the foundation is its strength and the stronger its foundation the taller it can rise.  

One of the main lessons any coach can teach their players when they fall into a slump is to go back to the basics.  The same lesson can be applied to any writer.  

Often times, we find ourselves so caught up in our own works of art that we tend to forget we had a starting point.  Then when our flame begins to flicker and burn low we feel lost and confused and don’t know how to start over again.  

Whether you started fresh out of college or spent many years pursuing your dreams of one day becoming a published author, you had a beginning, and it’s important as time speeds by into the unknown future that you take time to revisit your past and those lessons learned that helped to build your foundation as a writer.  It can renew and revitalize old forgotten lessons that once propelled you forward.  

To quote Albert Einstein, “‘Time is relative,’” and as I stated in the beginning, now we don’t have to live to a ripe old age to watch the advancement of technology for it changes overnight, literally.  

I should know, for as the cliche goes, proof is in the pudding.  During my three month blogcation, Facebook came out with a new look, as did Blogger and Twitter, and once again I had to learn new skills to catch up to the 21st century.  

Only this time I realized there was one thing that remained solid over time, my foundation, and I’m glad I took time to revisit my past and add another brick from my memory as to why I wanted to become a published author.

How about you, do you remember why you became a writer?

Until next time,

Keep on thriving, keep on striving and keep on writing!

T.K. Millin

From Seconds to Eternity: Time and Space in Fictional Writing - Part II

“For us physicists believe the separation between past, present, and future is only an illusion, although a convincing one.” - Albert Einstein

In Part One, we explored two methods used for capturing time and space in fictional writing.  In short, we discovered summary deals with a long period of time in a short distance and scene is key to readers experiencing the elements of your character’s lives through the five senses.


Originally, in Part II we were going to discover two more methods for transporting readers through time; however, due to the length needed for each method I felt it necessary to break each one out into its own post.  After all, time is crucial to any writer.

The third method used in fictional writing time travel is flashback.  Although a successful technique used in film, if used appropriately and sparingly, it too can be just as magical and powerful in fictional writing.

Let’s explore:

When used properly, flashback can be more effective in transporting a reader into the past than film or stage can an audience.  How?  Because writing encompasses all the five senses, not just sight and sound, thus allowing a reader’s mind to live the experience as if they too were traveling back in time.  However, when used improperly flashback can be intrusive or even down right annoying to the reader.

So when and how should a flashback be used to strengthen a story?  Here are four quick questions to keep in mind when you feel a flashback is necessary:

1. Could I obtain the same result using dialogue?
2. Would a brief summary fill in the missing information?
3. Is there a reference that could be made instead?
4. What about using a certain detail to reveal the information?

If you can answer yes to any of these questions, then a flashback may not necessarily be your best option.  But, if the answer is no, then ask yourself if using a flashback would contribute to the revelation of character and theme.  If yes, it’s clear a flashback would be an effective method in revealing information at the right time.

It’s important to keep in mind when using flashback to provide some kind of transition.  A connection between the present and what happened in the past will often not only transport the character into the past, but the reader as well.

Listed below are some helpful do’s and don’ts when using flashback.

Don’t use straight out transitions such as, “Larry thought back to when” or “My mind drifted back to when I was little.”  It’s always best to assume the reader is intelligent enough to follow a leap back in time.    

When writing in the past tense, do begin the flashback in the past perfect and use the construction “had” several times.  Then by switching to the simple past; the reader will be with your character in the past!  If writing in the present tense, it's best to keep the flashback in the past.

Don’t have a flashback within a flashback.  Way too confusing to any reader and it may be a good sign you are attempting to use flashback to carry too much of your story.

Do be clear when ending the flashback and catching up to the present.  A technique good for making the smooth transition is to use either an image, a sound, a smell or an action that the reader will remember from the time period the character is now living in.   

In Part III, we will explore our last method for transporting our readers through time, slow motion.

Until next time,

Keep on thriving, keep on striving and keep on writing!

T.K. Millin

From Seconds to Eternity: Time and Space in Fictional Writing - Part 1

“When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity.”  -Albert Einstein 

Literature, in its own right, is tied to time like no other art form I know of.  For example, a photograph or a painting is an image of a moment in time and last only as long as it takes to look at it.  Same could be said about music.  A song lasting 2.5 minutes represents the 2.5 minutes it takes to listen to it.  

A book takes time to read as well; however, the reader can be transported through time whether they spend five minutes reading or several hours.  For example, it’s possible to write a story that takes thirty minutes to read and covers thirty minutes of action or the time covered could be stretched out over a lifetime.  There are no requirements when it comes to fictional writing.  

As a writer, the possibilities to capture time and space in a story are infinite; but just like a scientist developing a time machine, there are methods to the madness and I’m not talking about something as complex as a flux capacitor! 

Let’s explore:

Summary and Scene

Summary covers a relatively long period of time in a short amount of distance.  It’s a useful method to help reveal information, explain a character’s background, change the pace or to advance forward or backwards in time.

Scene is to fiction what the five senses are to living.  In other words, they allow your readers to experience the elements of your characters’ lives through sight, sound, scent, taste and touch.

It’s possible to write a short story in a single scene, without any summary at all, but it’s not possible to write a successful story completely in summary.  By summarizing events rather than having them realized as moments of time in your character’s life, you disconnect the reader from putting themselves in your character’s shoes.  

To put it simply, summary allows you to speed up time in your story and fill in the gap of missing information, scene allows you to slow the pace and fill in the gap of missing details; smells, colors, sensations...etc., you get the picture.  

Eventually, a story requires a trigger or a crisis to occur that is crucial to a turning point in your protagonist’s life and cannot be summarized, therefore, all stories require scenes.   

One simple formula I use to help keep on track to bring balance between summary and scene is the following:

Scene elements Summary elements

Goal                Emotion

Conflict             Thought

Disaster            Decision

                       Action

Basically, in a scene, a character has a goal (maybe to fix a cup of coffee, thus allowing smell and taste to be interjected) then a conflict arises (they knock the mug over, spilling hot coffee on their lap, in could come sight and touch) and next a disaster (the phone rings, Aunt Ruby just died, time for sound).  

Moving from scene to summary will now allow the pace to quicken.  The character reacts to the news (they remember when growing up they were the only one Aunt Ruby never sent a birthday or Christmas present to (a long period of time in a short distance)) then they think about what just happened (Aunt Ruby became filthy rich when her husband died) now they make a decision (they will go to the funeral and put on a show of sorrow) then the character takes action based upon their decision (they take their best suit to the cleaners).  

So as we can see, by using the method of summary and scene we are able to transport our readers through time in a matter of a few sentences or several pages.

In Part II, we will explore two more methods for transporting our readers through time; flashback and slow motion.

Until next time,

Keep on thriving, keep on striving and keep on writing!

T.K. Millin