I’ve really enjoyed this month’s Fictorians’ posts on new beginnings. As I am typing this, I am sitting in my newly finished basement, in the new house we built in 2016, and am about to head to the Superstars Writing Seminars. I’m also starting a new novel and looking forward to a new year.
Some of the posts I found the most interesting and helpful were those where the author embarked on a new direction after deciding a previous effort was not working out. Taking motivation from rejection, using a new start to rekindle a love of writing, taking a leap into a new genre… All of them were helpful and entertaining.
I hope our readers found them helpful. It was my deliberate desire to provide new writers, or writers who were dealing with difficulties and lack of motivation some encouragement and ideas.
I’d like to thank all of the Fictorians who posted, and would like to especially thank this month’s guest posters. As far as I’m concerned, you all hit it out of the park.
Does anyone else think that their creative process is about as effective as trying to walk on Jell-O? Sure, you can do it, but the trip is precarious, and the outcome is iffy at best.
January is usually a time to reflect on the past year and look forward to a new beginning. Many people make goals without having an actual plan for change, while others simply don’t bother, knowing themselves well enough to understand that writing it down won’t change their daily run to the gas station for a doughnut or a soda. Or both.
I think most of us are good at spotting our big picture goals, but where we stumble is with an actual plan to get from here to there. And once we throw ourselves off the wagon, even just for a moment, the goal is then forever out of reach.
Well, I’m here to offer a different approach. Because why is it that January 1st is the only day we all feel like we should maybe change something in our lives? Or start down a new path? What about, oh I don’t know, tomorrow? Are we allowed to start over tomorrow?
Back to my creative process. I go through spurts. I can write an entire novel in a month, then I have two months where no matter how much I try, it seems that nothing will work. Not creating, not editing, not fixing, not even eating lots of chocolate in order to make everything better. Sometimes even my trusty Diet Coke fails me. I can throw hours and hours at a plotting problem, and I’ll get exactly nowhere. Then, the stars align and suddenly I’m once again a writing machine. Nothing can stand in my way as I masterfully fill all of my plot holes with the perfect puzzle pieces and my novel is a work of art!
And then I go back to the slums of my process to wallow while I take another few weeks to figure out how to fix the one little problem a beta reader pointed out. It’s exhausting, and it makes me feel like a total looser.
Like so many others, I need to be more healthy this year. I said this last year as well, and nothing really happened except me feeling guilty about nothing happening.
I once heard a brilliant mantra that I’m sure this man stole from someone famous. “Nothing changes if nothing changes.”
I’m not going to lose weight if I don’t modify my diet. My writing process isn’t going to get smoother unless I change something. And instead of saying I’m going to put out five books this year, I’m going to take things day by day.
If today fails in the writing department, then I get up and start again tomorrow. I decide to jot down fifteen ways that won’t work with my plot, or ten horrible ways to fix the problem that involve ninja monkeys. My goal is to have a goal each day—something more than “I will fix this!” or maybe get some Sonic for lunch. No, instead I’m going to take a moment each night before I go to bed and decide how I will tackle my problems the next day.
Starting over is difficult under any circumstances, but each day can be a new chance at success. Don’t waste it! Decide tonight how you will approach your problem tomorrow, and at least you will be moving forward, not lying on the treadmill as it unceremoniously dumps you back on the ground at the end of the belt.
Like most of the authors I know, I’m not a naturally organized person. Sometimes it’s a struggle to force myself to get the major plot points or non-fiction chapters mapped out before I start on a new project. After installing a giant electronic whiteboard I picked up on CraigsList, I was able to see the value of the visual cues and mind-mapping when hashing out a new project.
When it comes to my writing laptop, appropriately named “Novel Factory”, I tended to start writing and just dump everything into the My Documents folder. When I set a project aside for a while, I sometimes have a problem locating where I put the documents, notes, and/or pictures. That’s why I created an organized area for projects.
The first step was to create a home for my projects. This is a set of nested folders so I know where things are located. In My Documents (I use Windows for this example), I have a folder called !Master Project Files. I place an exclamation point at the beginning of this folder name to make sure it appears at the top of the listing.
I have enough projects where I had to add in a layer between the Master folder and the project names.
Here is my main overall folder structure:
!Master Project Files
Fiction
Science Fiction
Cyberpunk
Fantasy
Horror
Western
Graphic Novels
Non-Fiction
Cookbooks
Author’s Handbook Series
One-Offs
Poetry
!Poem Superstore
Chapbooks
Collections
!Short Story Superstore
Anthologies
Original (Add in Submissions and Contracts folders to each Project)
For Other Publishers (Add in Submissions and Contracts folders to each Project)
The “Superstores” are short stories and poems that have been published elsewhere or are original unpublished works that are available to put into a new collection or chapbook. When I complete a short work or poem, I make sure to put a copy in the Superstores.
For each project, I copy the below generic project folder structure and rename it to the title of my new project. Inside some of these folders are appropriate files. For example, in the Word folder, I have a generic Word document set up with my preferences (font, margins, etc.), whereas in the Research folders I have a simple text document ready to accept notes and URLs. In the Final folders, I have documents that have my set publishing templates for interiors and covers. Note that I have a folder called Graveyard. I never throw away (delete) anything. If I cut something, such as a scene or a whole story arc out of a book, I paste it to text documents and place them in the graveyard. I can use these later on to develop short stories, to generate ideas for a series, or to use the words for marketing. Sometimes I file off the serial numbers and reuse them in other books.
Here’s my individual project folder structure:
Project Name (Rename Me)
Manuscript
Word
Text
Scrivener
Images
Cover Ideas
Characters
Places
Objects
Research
Concepts
Scientific
Characters
Tropes
Marketing
Ideas
Ads
SWOT
Final
Print
Interior
Cover
eBook
Interior
Cover
Audio
Notes
Script
Graveyard
When I have a new project, I copy the “Project Name” folder and its contents and place it in the appropriate genre master folder. Then I rename it to the book title. Now I can find all of my information for any project in one location (three, if you count the backup on my server and the copy linked and auto-uploaded to my commercial Dropbox account.)
Hopefully this will inspire you to create a better organized virtual home for your darlings. Have a happy, prosperous, and productive 2017!
About the Author:
Guy Anthony De Marco is a disabled US Navy veteran speculative fiction author; a Graphic Novel Bram Stoker Award® nominee; winner of the HWA Silver Hammer Award; a prolific short story and flash fiction crafter; a novelist; an invisible man with superhero powers; a game writer (Sojourner Tales modules, Interface Zero 2.0 core team, third-party D&D modules); and a coffee addict. One of these is false.
A writer since 1977, Guy is a member of the following organizations: SFWA, WWA, SFPA, IAMTW, ASCAP, RMFW, NCW, HWA. He hopes to collect the rest of the letters of the alphabet one day. Additional information can be found at Wikipedia and GuyAnthonyDeMarco.com.
Everyone’s heard it, especially if you have aspirations in a creative field. “Don’t quit your day job.” In November, right before Christmas, I discarded the age-old advice and I quit my day job. Am I crazy? Yes. Though I can’t recommend this for everyone, it fit for me. Why did I do it? Honestly, I’m not sure. It kind of just felt right.
A previous post talked about time and motivation; I felt I’d completely lost both. I was starting to hate my job and it’s incurable monotony. Between the job hours, appointments for myself and my kids, and a number of medical problems, I decided I’d rather be poor than dead. That may seem like an exaggeration, but I’d turned into an automaton. You all know the routine: get up, get kids to school, get to work, do boring job, come home, get kids (or yourself) to appointments/practices, don’t have time to make dinner, pick up fast food, collapse on couch, watch a show and look at emails, go to bed. And then start all over again.
Interesting thing, quitting the day job hasn’t actually given me more time to write. It’s about the same, but I actually use that time to write instead of staring comatose at a computer screen and it has given me more motivation in a number of areas of my life. I have to be very careful with the budget, but I like that. I don’t feel like I’m throwing my time at one wall so I can make money to throw at another. We eat more homemade meals and I’m able to get everyone in the family to participate in making them because I’m not running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I’m able to exercise, get everyone to their appointments, take care of my daughter in online school, and now I can help with my mother’s ever-increasing doctor’s appointments. Maybe I sound privileged. I like to think I’m blessed. My husband is able and willing to support me in my decision, and the family is adjusting to the new restraints on our budget.
The point is, if you want to be a creator in any field, find what works for you. Some people have to work and they make time for that creativity as an outlet. Some people enjoy their work and their creative endeavors are a much-needed balance to life. For some, focusing their energy, time, and making their creativity work as a career is the only way to go. For me, balancing my health, my family, my budget, and making time for my creative endeavors is the path I choose. It’s new, sometimes it’s painful, but I’m happy. And isn’t that the real point?
As a side note, I received an offer from Brick Cave Media to publish my novel, “Moon Shadows.” I signed the contract around the middle of December and just turned in the final edits. Maybe I wasn’t so crazy after all. Time will tell.
Colette Black Bio: Colette Black lives in the far outskirts of Phoenix, Arizona with her family, 2 dogs, a mischievous cat and the occasional unwanted scorpion. She loves learning new things, vacations, and the color purple. She writes New Adult and Young Adult sci-fi and fantasy novels with kick-butt characters, lots of action, and always a touch of romance. Find her at www.coletteblack.net
Like most of the authors I know, I’m not a naturally organized person. Sometimes it’s a struggle to force myself to get the major plot points or non-fiction chapters mapped out before I start on a new project. After installing a giant electronic whiteboard I picked up on CraigsList, I was able to see the value of the visual cues and mind-mapping when hashing out a new project.
