You Have to Write the Bad Stuff Before You Can Write the Good Stuff

 

If you want to write something but you aren’t sure about the right words to use, just start writing anyway. Don’t worry if they aren’t the “right” words to use; you will figure that out later. For now, just start writing what you want to write.

 

Keep in mind that once you start writing your first draft, it is only your first draft. It is not the final piece that everybody will read. It is not the final piece that will be published.

 

It is only a first draft. And every first draft sucks.

 

Why do we writers push ourselves on to write our first drafts even if we know they are not going to be so great? Because we know one truism about writing: You have to write the bad stuff before you can write the good stuff. Once you get that bad stuff (bad writing) out of the way, you can now focus on the good stuff – namely, good writing.

 

If you still struggle with trying to figure out how to get started writing, here are a few tricks I use:

 

• I pretend I am sharing this with the person I am writing it for.
• I pretend I am giving a lecture or speech.
• I pretend I am on the news reporting about the topic.

 

These usually work for nonfiction, but if you’re trying to write fiction, start with your idea. If it’s a character, then write the scene they are in. If the story comes to you with a lot of action happening, write about what’s happening.

 

The important thing is that you get started writing. Get that first draft down. Yes, it may seem long and tedious. It may seem hard to do. And if you allow yourself to get carried away, it may seem like A LOT of work and writing you will need to do. (Tip: Don’t even go there!) But once you start writing your first draft, you’ll start to figure out where to go from there.

 

And once you have that first draft written, you will have something to work with. You can trim, edit, revise, change, delete, add and elaborate all you want to when you tackle that first draft to create your second draft. And you know what? Your second draft will be better. Why? Because while creating your second draft, you were able to catch all the bad stuff in your first draft. You got rid of it and got the good stuff in your next draft. And the draft after that one will be even better.

Managing the Money Chaos: Fabulously Frugal helps readers reach financial stability

Nearly 3 years ago, I finally achieved a long-term writing goal: I was ghostwriting books. Through a job ad in a writing newsletter, I applied to write books and was accepted for the job. Eventually, the assignments came in and I was happily writing short books on various topics over the course of a week. The way the process worked was, as part of a team of writers, I had to select from a list of titles to write books for. With one particular list, I selected my title, let my client know, then started writing. However, he eventually got in touch with me that another member of the team had already selected that title – and was given the job. Since I had already started writing the book, I didn’t want to just toss it away. So I asked my client if it was all right if I kept this particular book for my own use provided that I changed the title. He said that was fine.

And that is how my new ebook, Fabulously Frugal: How toManage Your Money, Live for Less and Build Up Your Savings, was born. At first, I worried this book would not be so well received since I don’t have a platform as a “financial expert” or “living frugally.” So I reached out to a couple of fellow writers who I felt were and asked them if they were interested in co-writing the book with me. Both of them said yes. Both of them later ditched me.

So I decided I would just strike out on my own and do this book myself. Platform or no platform!

Thankfully, though, this is not a subject unknown to me. I know all about being frugal, trying to cut corners, be a bargain hunter and score out the best deals because I have certainly lived this way for a long time! When I was living on my own, I had to wise up real fast about managing my finances and creating a budget to survive on each month. I mean, there were days I would look for change under couch cushions just to buy food. Plus, there was the time I struggled to make ends meet, and feed my child, when I was on my own again. I have done the coupon thing, the free stuff thing, the sweepstakes thing and the websites offering deals in exchange for surveys filled out or clicks on links or videos watched. I have even donated plasma just to get money to buy food with. And because money for things was so scarce, I had to be smart with how I used it. In essence, I had to learn how to be frugal.

So, yes, I certainly know all about frugal living! I may not have a platform for it, but I have lived it! And I felt, you know, that had to be enough to qualify as the author of this book. I tried to get an expert, tried to get someone with her own readership, but it did not work out. So I decided to just strike out on my own with this book. (Apparently, “lone wolf” is a theme for my life!)

Fabulously Frugal is pretty much what I have learned about managing money, following a budget, shopping smarter and where to find good deals. It’s the kind of book that pretty much guides anyone who struggles with money along a path to reaching financial stability and enjoying life without sacrificing things we enjoy.

I am grateful to Denise Bartlett of Gypsy Shadow Publishing for accepting my book for publication and thank you also to Charlotte Holley for an awesome cover. Thank you also to Brandy Collier, Jenn Greenleaf, Mary Potter Kenyon, Martine, Renee, Bill, Carol, David, Glen, Holly, Harrine, Pete, Marilynn, Christian and Janice for all of your contributions to this book. I know they have made the book even better!

Here is the buy link for Fabulously Frugal.

And here is the blurb:

Want to repair bad credit? Start saving money? Find out how to live frugally without making sacrifices? This eBook will give you the strategies to make it all happen. Fabulously Frugal will help you solve your money problems and get you started on building up your savings!
Learn strategies for saving money for emergencies, how to spend less on home repairs or at the doctor’s office, be a savvy shopper who knows how to find the best deals, and afford everyday costs like transportation, school expenses and utilities. Additionally, money-saving experts share secrets in this book on how to get the best deals!
Money-saving strategies included in this book:
• How to travel on a budget
• Enjoy your passions without breaking the bank
• Celebrate holidays or special occasions for less
Fabulously Frugal will help you tackle your financial issues and share how to enjoy more in life for less!

Books published in 2013

Today is the last day for the year 2013. Aside from book stuff, I had two gigs this year: PR and editing. The PR gig was my dream job: I worked for a publishing company. I got that gig near the end of last year and I'm so grateful I had a chance to work in that position. It's true when they say that being a PR rep is a 24/7 kind of job! You really can't turn that stuff off. There were times I was emailing clients late at night and struggling to keep my eyes open. I don't regret resigning from that job and I am grateful for that experience. 

The editing gig, unfortunately, is not exactly a well-paying one, but I'm happy that at least it brings in SOMETHING and have enjoyed working in this capacity. At the end of last year, I was ready to say goodbye to editing forever. I only took this gig because the client insisted he only wanted ME to edit his book. I am glad, too, because I have enjoyed the work. So I am not saying goodbye forever to editing!

A decision does NOT have to be set in stone.

Now, as far as the books are concerned, this year was a good one. This year I wanted to do one poetry book, one nonfiction book, one children's book and a novel. And, thankfully, that happened. Hooray! But I also had an extra “fiction book” come out this year, which was a nice slice of awesome!

The first book to come out this year was my first attempt in self-publishing, Hunter’s Upcycling Adventures. I managed to get this one out in time for Earth Day. Woot-woot! My daughter, Jennifer Wilson, illustrated this book. You can read more about this children’s book here.

Next came the poetry book my daughter and I collaborated on, Satyrs Are Cool: Poems of Mythological Creatures. Last year, Jen and I collabed on our first poetry book together, and this time ‘round it was her turn to put a theme for our next book. A fan of Greek mythology, she wanted to do a book on mythological creatures. She also illustrated it. Read more about Satyrs here.

The next book to come out was the first two books in The GHOST Group series, The Ghosts of Sarah Travers and The Crying Valentine. This one was released as an ebook only but we have plans to combine editions for a print book every so often. I was thrilled this book came out. This series was a long time in the making! I was also happy it got a good review. Check it out here.

My poetry book for this year was the autobiographical collection, Touched by Fire. I felt it was important to do a poetry book about being a burn survivor, but there are also poems in there about being deaf. It was edited by Denise Bartlett and the cover was designed by Charlotte Holley – both very talented ladies in their field! Read more about this book here. 

And, yes, my novel came out this year. HOORAY!! I was so thrilled to finally see the release of my dark fantasy novel, Shadow of Samhain. It was quite some time for me to write the book, get it edited, rewrite it and everything else involved before it finally came out. I am so grateful to everyone who helped make this book possible, including Denise and Charlotte at Gypsy Shadow Publishing! THANK YOU! Read more here.

And the last book of 2013 was … the nonfiction book! Thanks to my co-author, Martha Jette, for all of her hard work in getting Terror In the Night edited and released! I am very excited about this book and grateful to Martha for taking me on board for it! Read about this book here.

So it seems that I managed to get one of everything published this year. Yay! That is 6 books I had published this year! Not bad. I am so grateful for these accomplishments and to all of the people involved who helped to make it happen.

Next year will be different. It seems there will be “two of everything” in 2014, except there won't be a novel next year. More on that coming soon.

Here’s to a busy 2014!

Terror In The Night – a new book with shocking true stories and surprising information about aliens and the UFO phenomenon

One of the things that I love about being a writer is that I have the chance to learn something new. It is through research, writing and interviewing experts that I learn about new people, places and things. I get to ask questions, let my imagination take off by asking “what if?” and explore things in our lives and in our world. That last part is true with the nonfiction books that I write.

There are so many mysteries in this world that I am very curious about. I have always been a curious sort of person, always asking questions and wanting to know things, and there’s quite a bit of things that I want to know about. I mean, why do things happen? Are things I’m reading about true? Where do things happen? What is true and what is not? What is a person like? Who is this particular person? When did a certain thing happen? What are the details? How do things work? How did something happen?

It’s no accident I used to work in journalism. I asked questions all the time when I was writing those articles for SIGNews. And I asked questions when I pitched article ideas to magazines when I was working as a freelance writer.

These days, I’m still asking questions, but mainly for the books that I am writing. And when I was asked to join the writing team for the new book, Terror In The Night, I asked a whole lot more questions for the chapters I helped write for this book, which was also written by Martha Jette and Usko Ahonen.

Before I decide whether or not I should write a book, I ask myself if I’m interested in the book’s subject. Given that I’ll be spending months, maybe even years, working on getting this book written up, it really DOES need to be a subject I am interested in! The same goes for books I agree to collaborate on. There’s gotta be something there pulling me to this decision.

With Terror In The Night, that something was my curiosity about life in outer space. My interests in outer space have mostly focused on astronomy – the stars, planets, comets, etc. – but I have always wondered, are we alone in the universe? Is there really intelligent life out beyond the cosmos? And if so, what are they like? Are they interacting with humans? What do people know about them?

Collaborating on Terror In The Night helped me get answers to these questions. It would seem that, given the stories told by UFO abductees in this book, we are obviously NOT alone! And there is quite a bit going on with alien life than we are prepared to comprehend, let alone accept.

I must admit, I was really blown away by some of the things I learned about while working on Terror In The Night. It has definitely been an eye-opening experience and I’m so glad that such a book is now out there so that others can learn about these things, too. As the TV show The X-Files was famous for claiming, “The truth is out there.”

You’ll find it in the new book, Terror In The Night.



Terror In The Night I – Alien Abduction Exposed!
By Martha Jette, Dawn Colclasure and Usko Ahonen
Published by Martha Jette, 2013
357 ppg.


Have you been abducted? After reading this book you will know for sure. Along with an extensive list of indicators, learn just who these aliens really are and what they want from us. You will be quite surprised! Read terrifying true-life accounts from folks in a variety of walks in life who in many cases are still being abducted. You will also learn what services are available to help you cope with this frightening and unwanted covert activity in your life.


Amazon link

Advice to nonfiction authors: Don't lie

Some time ago, I read the book Roots by Alex Haley. It’s a very good book and I was impressed by how much time and research the author put into his book. Later, I went online to look up more information about it, because I was very interested in what happened after the book was published. I was dismayed to learn that Haley admitted that not all of the material in his book was true. Because the man did not have a time machine and could not go back in time to double-check everything and learn exactly how things were, he had to use literary license to fill in the gaps. I accepted this, but what I could not accept was how there were people claiming Haley lifted their stories as his own and that the main character in the story, Kunta Kinte, didn’t even exist. After reading all of that, I started to get suspicious with what was in the book. How was I to know if anything in the book was true or not? It was, after all, labeled a nonfiction book, but how could I know which parts of it were fiction?

The recent controversy over the now disgraced athlete Lance Armstrong made me remember this. Because of Armstrong’s recent confession on national television that he lied about doping to win the Tour de France, the world now knows that all of those times he fervently denied such accusations and everything he wrote in his books were all just a fake. They were his way of perpetuating the lie.

It seems that Armstrong has a long, tough road ahead of him in winning back the world’s admiration and respect. But it also appears that this lie is going to cost him A LOT of money. Not only are newspapers and magazines suing him for the lawsuits they lost or helped to defend, but readers of his books are suing him, as well. An article I read today discussed how two readers in particular are so upset over Armstrong’s public admission of the lie that they want to be reimbursed for buying his books.

This is not the first time an author of nonfiction books has been caught in a lie. But I have to wonder what’s going to happen after all is said and done, after everybody is paid and the whole thing blows over. What book would Armstrong write next? Bigger question: Will readers believe what he writes in them? Perhaps if he convinces the world he’s not a liar anymore or that he changes everything and becomes an honest man people can trust again, maybe readers will believe everything he writes in future books. Still makes me wonder, though.

But it’s not just readers that he has angered; it is possible his editors and publishers are not all that happy with him, either. Would they be willing to publish his next book? Armstrong now has an iffy relationship with his readers. What can be said of his relationship with his publishers?

Of course, the man is famous and brings in a lot of money no matter what happens. He’ll get published again.

But for the writer who is not famous, not worth millions of dollars and who is Very Lucky to get a nonfiction book published, things can be very different. This particular writer would have a harder time setting things right with readers again, let alone editors and publishers. And if an author's lie(s) in a book get so bad and build up a lot of controversy, it's very likely publishers won't want to work with this author again.

In my opinion, nonfiction should be nonfiction. There are no two ways about it. It should be as true, honest and as accurate as the writer can make it. Otherwise, you’re just writing fiction instead and should publish it as such. If you’re making things up or lying to readers, then that does not make the book nonfiction. It makes it fiction or, as some people have claimed, a fraud.

Wait! That's not what I meant!

This morning, I was surprised to learn that there is a woman in Spain who claims she is the legal owner of the sun, and that she is going to tax everyone who uses the sun in any way. (Yeah, good luck with that.) What’s interesting is that I came across a related news story in which former Vice President Al Gore sued this woman for global warming. When he was confronted by members of the media who remembered how Gore said in the past that the sun doesn’t cause global warming, people do, Gore apparently recanted and said, oh, it’s the sun after all.

This reminded me of a recent story I came across, in which author Amy Chua, who wrote Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, met so much controversy and outrage over some of the things she wrote about in her book. Her book claims Chinese parents are superior because they don’t allow their kids to have sleepovers or play video games (among other Western sins). After she met an angry throng of readers who don’t agree with her, she pulled the old switcheroo and said something like, “Oh, I was only poking fun at myself.”

OK, got it.

I know we can’t believe everything we read, but it seems wrong that an author would not defend what they have written. They went to all of that trouble, they put in all of that effort, and they're not going to stand by what they wrote? It's a shame, really.

Of course, we cannot say something is indeed “the whole truth and nothing but the truth” because we are not privy to what other people are thinking or feeling (or what their intentions are when they are doing something), but it should still be as accurate as we authors can portray it to be. And we should stand by what we wrote, too – no matter what kind of reaction our books would cause.

Sometimes, the best thing to do is step away

This week, I have been working on trying to fix up an essay in my deaf parenting book. This particular essay received harsh criticism from a beta reader (well, "harsh" as in "she never sent back any feedback on it after I sent an essay that had the same mistakes she'd complained about in another essay"). Even though I don't dispute what the essay says, I do see how it is saying what I want it to say in the wrong way. One thing I have learned during this lovely torture of revising the essays is that some of them are just "preachy." I might as well be standing on a soapbox spouting all of this stuff!

No, that's not the kind of book I want it to be. I don't want it to be some "manifesto" or "mission statement for deaf parents." It's an essay collection. I wanted it to tell stories, in the form of essays, which will convey the messages and insights which I am trying to get across to readers. If it's preachy, they won't read it. But if it's entertaining, and kind of like a story, then that might attract more attention.

Of course, it's not easy trying to write about experiences that took place 6-7 years ago with complete accuracy. I have been literally racking my brain trying to remember things, just so I could relate what I learned during the early years of being a deaf parent in a way that is more true-to-life. I have to keep asking myself, what exactly happened at that point in time that made me reach this conclusion in the essay? What was I trying to say? What was I doing? What was I thinking?

Fortunately, I used to be a heavy journal writer, so looking back on old journals has helped. Still, a lot of my journals were destroyed after I moved out of California (thank you, neighbors who refused to allow us access to our personal belongings in the garage!), but some things are still fresh in my mind. Also, old e-mails help, and I was able to review all of these things to help me revise the essays. (Yes, I do save old e-mails! LOL I even have old chats saved, too, but don't really read them.)

But ONE ESSAY was giving me big trouble. I tried and tried to revise it, but to no avail. I just didn't get it "right."

Even with one revision I did this morning, I hated it. I hated what I was writing. I just KNEW it was not how the essay should be. I kept writing it, anyway, because I knew I had to get this "junk" out of my head first. Before I could do anything else with this essay.

But halfway through the essay, I had to stop working on it. After all, nothing will get accomplished if I ended up starving to death!

So I got up from the desk and went to the kitchen to get something to eat. I'd only had coffee, which usually helps me to get through writing something decent in the mornings. But this time, coffee failed me. Maybe actual food would help. I grabbed a box of cereal, got a bowl out of the cabinet, watched as the cereal poured into the bowl...then it struck me. It literally came to me like a bolt of lightning. I knew EXACTLY how the essay should be! I knew EXACTLY how I should write it. Eureka! I've got it!

I hurriedly went through my meal, opened a new document on the computer, and my fingers started flying over the keys as the words came pouring out. I didn't care for typos. I didn't care about "that darn Shift key" sticking again. I just typed. And typed and typed.

Gee, this is getting long, I thought, noting I was now on page 3. But I couldn't stop now. There were more words to type! More things to say!

When I finished typing what I HOPED would be the final revision of that essay, a wave of satisfaction went through me. THIS is how the essay should be, I thought. It was perfect, similar to the way I wrote the others. (Like creative nonfiction. Emphasis on..."creative.") I didn't care if I did not get the exact words I said correct; how the heck could I remember exactly what I said 7 years ago?? It wasn't possible. Still, I did use quotes that got across what I was asking about. I give myself permission to misquote myself. (Ha!) The quotes were still good and the essay got across everything I wanted it to say, which is what the original version tried to say. Of course, it needs editing and probably some tightening. But at least the foundation was in place. I got it right this time, on my fourth try.

And all it took to survive that week-long revision nightmare was just stopping the writing and stepping away from it for a while.