It's the Writing Biz

It feels like I've come back from a rather long trip and arrived home to a familiar place.... Basically, I have, since my lack of posting here could count me as 'missing' or "gone fishing"... hah!

In any case, I'm back again! Hello, nice to see you all once more. I have taken such a lovely break from writing. It truly was wonderful. Now, I can't say that I got to relax entirely, but I was able to accomplish so many different things during this break (First and foremost, getting my life back on somewhat of a routine!).

However, vacations can only last so long... and so, here I am again.

I'm so very excited because my book cover designer, Jeremiah Hoppman, has been working hard on my cover (and the results are simply A.M.A.Z.I.N.G, I might add). I can't wait to give an official 'release' and such.

Now, on a slight side note, I've recently been learning that personalities come into play for writers.. I didn't think it did before but boy oh boy was I wrong! My 'personality' type ("I" on the DISC profile) "needs deadlines and needs to realize that they need to meet those deadlines..." It doesn't sound pleasant to read something like that about yourself. Still, it's very true. I work best with deadlines because it motivates me to get done. Doing NaNoWriMo last year was one of the best exercises for actually 'meeting deadlines' I have ever done.

So my newest deadline? To get my book published by this summer. I'll keep you all posted on an official 'release' date and such, but for now, I'm just excited to say that I'll actually be getting it done! It has been a lot of work and stress, but I'm ready to get back in gear and embrace my writing like I used to. =)

Although I don't consider myself a 'professional' writer, I do realize that I need to treat myself as one. Meaning, set deadlines and goal, meet those deadlines and goals, and reward your self accordingly. I'm not perfect and never will be, but I'm still striving towards becoming a better writing. And that's what is important I think.

I tend to over analyze and expect everything to be perfect. I want my books to be perfect. I want my other projects to be perfect. I don't want any mess ups and I certainly don't want there to ever be a reason for a critic to not like my book. However, in the grand scheme of things, it will happen. I've slowly been learning to come to grips with that. In fact, whenever I do get my first negative review, I hope that I will keep an optimistic attitude about it. Funny thing, actually, I rather look forward to getting my first 'negative' review. Why? Because it means someone was honest. Sure, negative reviews might hurt your sales and such, but remember, I'm not a professional writer. I write because I love to write. I don't write for other people, I don't even write for myself, really. I write because God has given me a story, and I want to get it out on paper. If people enjoy my stories, then wonderful. If not, that's fine, too. Everyone has a different view and opinion of things.

So, for you other writers out there, remember that no negative comment or review will ever hurt you so long as you don't allow it to. As soon as you let yourself start feeling down or upset by it, you've begun to lose the battle. Take the criticism that was given with positive attitude, then step back and really consider if what they said was true. Because if it is, then you just might want to work or change it...

Perhaps this is a random ramble, but then again... writers do tend to be random. To end the post, here are a few funny/true things for writers:

When You've Reached Your Limit

I sometimes think that the purpose of this blog is to show how imperfect a writer I am. However, I also hope that perhaps it will be an encouragement to other writers that we *don't* have to be perfect!

The last month or so I have been feeling extremely overwhelmed. I really couldn't put a finger on what it was in my life that was stressing me out so much, but I definitely knew it was there. When I woke up sick on Sunday morning with a 'stress and lack of sleep' migraine, I knew that I really needed to reevaluate my schedule and life.

I began looking at what I had been doing the past couple of months. I have just started directing a drama group all on my own, and, a couple weeks into the semester, I was pulled in as a 'fill in' actor for another group. So directing and acting (thankfully a small part on the acting side, but still acting nonetheless). Then we just started up our busy season for the ranch- bull sales. Went to Oklahoma, and we have Tucumcari, Belen and Montana still to come. Then, we're also still in the middle of calving (which doesn't include me all that much, but I still feel involved). Oh, and to top it all off, I was trying to write over 50,000 in about two weeks.

Huh.

I just couldn't figure out what was going on! I mean, I knew I had lots going, but seriously? I can handle this. Right?

Wrong. After an emotional breakdown last night, and a wonderful, wisdom filled conversation with my mom and, later on, my dad, I realized what my problem was. I simply had too much going on. As my mom and I talked, I realized that one of the things that was stressing me out the most was trying to finish this book in time for CAPE convention this April. I knew that I would really be straining to get it done, but one of the things I realized and what scared me the most? I wasn't enjoying writing.

In fact, I pretty much hated it. I wasn't getting inspiration for my story, and I had gotten into the 'writer's block rut' where I was simply writing just to get a word count in. Not a wise idea. And it has always been the biggest pet peeve to me. I used to say (and still do, sometimes) "forget the word count and just write a story!"  Who cares if it passes up the 50,000 word count in order to qualify for a 'novella' or what have you. Write the story, write it well, and be content. I told my mom that if I were to get my story published by convention, I wouldn't be proud of it. I wouldn't be satisfied with the way it turned out because I would know it was slapped together.

That's when I realized something.

I'm not a professional author.

I thought perhaps that idea might alarm me, but actually, it brought a lot of peace. It felt like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. I don't write because I want to make money with my writing skills. I write because I love it. I love the thrill of developing characters and the shivers I get when I construct a great sentence. I love it when I feel proud of the story I wrote. It's even better when I know that I did my best and that it turned out well.

Most importantly, I love being able to write to the Glory of God. However, if I am writing just to write and become famous, or churn out so many books a year with no inspiration from Him, what sort of a writer am I? I fall into the common writer's category of folks who just want to make a living off of writing. Now, before I go further, I do want to say that there are several authors that I enjoy that know how to write a book, but they also know how to write several books in a year. I admire them for it, and I praise the Lord that there are authors out there like that. However, I have realized that it isn't my dream to be famous. It used to be, yes (yeah, I was determined to go on Oprah Winfrey and on all major news stations as being the youngest writer who could write an amazing book.. oh, and let's not forget the New York Time's best seller.). However, that dream has been changed into something else. I want to write because I love it. I don't mind if people don't like my stories. That's ok. If I get a 2 star review, it might hurt for a bit, but it really won't bother me in the long run because I don't want to make it a business to write.

A wise 'Titus 2 woman' friend of mine once told me, "Yup, once I started doing such and such for a business I really didn't enjoy it anymore... so be careful what you turn into a business". Of course, there are lots of people out there who have turned a passion into a business and, more often than not, you have to have a passion for what you do in order to keep it thriving.

I guess I'm just one of those people who need to learn how to keep a business while still having the passion for what I do.

So, all this to say that I have decided I won't have a book ready for convention in April. I will go to convention with my one book that I published last year, and I will be proud of it. Then I will just tell other folks about the new book coming out in the summer. Then, I'll have more time to get it done, but I'll still have a deadline (I do better with those). =)

Now to all you new authors (and perhaps 'older' authors who have been doing this for a while). Don't be afraid to admit when you've got too much on your plate. It's better to back out of a few things than to do a bunch of things halfheartedly or to realize that you didn't do a good job on all of the things you signed up for. I would much rather do a few things in life and be proud of how I did and feel satisfied and content than to be overloaded and burn out way too quickly.

I'm off to enjoy a less stressful, more enjoyable month of writing. Feeling very much at peace with the decision the Lord helped me to make (I think He has probably been telling me to do this for a long time, and I just haven't wanted to admit it...). I'll just look forward to releasing a book in the summer.

Toodlepip and Cheerio, my author friends!

November is Finished, but the Writing is Not!

Hello fellow Writers!

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm slightly relieved November is over. It was a grueling month of sitting at a computer for so many hours a week. Not really fun (for me, anyway!). I enjoy writing, but I just don't care for the process- the sitting, the thinking, the brain blocks, etc.

However, I am very excited to say that I am a NaNoWriMo Winner!

I seriously could not have done it without my family. They are really great. My mom made sure I had plenty of time to write during the day so I was staying up super late at night (which basically means that she either took over some of my chores, or helped out to make it go faster). Then my siblings were great, too, in that aspect of taking over chores or just being an encourager to me. My younger brother often came to see how my word count was doing, give me a high five, give me chocolate, etc. Yeah, he's great. :-)
  My dad helped me keep on track with his words of wisdom: "It's not how many words you write, but what you write that counts." It helped me realize that even if I didn't win NaNo this year, so long as I was satisfied with my writing and felt that I did my best, then that's all that mattered.

One of the biggest challenges for me (and hopefully others, so I'm not alone here!) was making sure I didn't write tons of words, but a story. See, it's easy to get caught up in just writing whatever so that you get as many words in as possible. It really doesn't matter. Honestly, if you're a good writer, you can tell a story in 20, 000 words as opposed to 50, 000 and still do a good job. It's easy to write up a LONG description of a flower on the hillside of some obscure mountain when it really has nothing to do with your story. Its easy to keep repeating the same thing over and over, just in a different way, so you can get your word count up. Yet the hidden point to NaNo, I think, isn't really about hitting that 50, 000 word mark, but it's about making yourself write to reach a goal. However, it is a public goal, therefore you have accountability. If you don't reach that 50, 000 words or don't even write much at all, folks are going to see it. I don't know about you, but that tends to really kick it for me. I don't like failing. I really don't- especially when it comes to writing. I want to be able to accomplish what I've set out to do. Yet there were several times last month that I thought for sure I wouldn't make the goal. Determination set in, however (or perhaps it's just pure stubborness), and, Praise the Lord, I was able to make it.

Now that the month of November is over, I start thinking that I can take it easy... but the reality is, I can't. Not if I want to succeed with my writing, if I want to get my book published.
I'd love to take a break, and yesterday and today I have. However, I am now making a public goal. To finish the novel I started in November by December 31st. Sounds like a tough goal at first, but hey, I just wrote over 50,000 words in one month! I'm already a little more than halfway through my story (the actual story, not word count).
So here is my public announcement that I am setting out to do this. This means that I need you, my fellow writers, to hold me accountable. Sure, I don't have a fancy word counter so that you can see where I'm at, but I do have this blog. I can come and post every so often (can't promise a certain schedule) so that I can be held accountable. If I know I have to come here every week or so to post about how I'm doing, I'm going to be getting in a lot of writing.

However, there is a second goal here... and that is to post more regularly on here. I'm not exactly sure what I'll post about, but I've got a few ideas churning around in my head. So we shall see what we shall see. In any case, I'm glad to be able to pop my head up for a bit of 'blogging air', and now I get to burrow it again in the 'writing sand'... only, now I'll hopefully have more "air" breaks. ;-)

Happy Writing!

NaNoWriMo

Hello fellow writers!

I'm very excited to announce that I will be joining up in the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). The goal is to write 50,000 (yes, that is fifty thousand... I didn't accidentally add another zero) words in one month. That averages out to about 1600 words a day. That's a lot of writing! I think it will be a super neat challenge, though. Obviously, if you don't complete, it isn't the end of the world. However, there is something about working hard and winning. Don't know if that will happen with me, but I'm going to certainly try! If I do get it (or even if I don't) y'all can plan on seeing a new book being released... *wiggles eyebrows*. I won't tell ya anything about it now, but suffice it to say that it isn't in the children's genre. :-)

If you'd like to join up, that would be fantastic!! Visit the link for the NaNoWriMo official site, and sign up! It's easy, free, and you get to have writing buddies! Can it get any better? Oh yes, add to the list that you actually have a super good excuse to skip school and write... just joking. I don't think that would go over well with parents or teachers. ;-) However, it might be a really good way to motivate you to write more. Get some buddies who can encourage you, write along with you, etc.

Happy writing!

Success at the CAPE Home school Convention

Hello everyone! I thought I had better drop in and do an update. First of all, thank you so much to everyone who prayed that my book would get here in time. Praise the Lord, it actually arrived several weeks before convention. So happy about that. :-) The Lord just continues to amaze me as He orchestrates everything with  this book publishing process (from the very beginning all the way to getting my book out to different retailers.)

Just last week I was blessed to be part of the exhibitors at the New Mexico Home School convention. My friend, Alicia, and I shared a table. We cleverly called it, "Homeschool Authors"... actually, I think she is the one that came up with that title.. :-) In any case, it was quite brilliant and made for some neat conversations with homeschooling parents.

Alicia was selling her book, "To Birmingham Castle". If you haven't seen the interview I did with Alicia, you can check it out here. The book that she published was written very well and had tons of historical facts and adventure. She researched for about 5 years before publishing so that she made sure she was as accurate as possible. It definitely paid off! Alicia was able to sell out on the second day, which was fantastic! We were all pretty excited- yes, I say 'all' because we had several visitors and helpers who came frequently to our table.... but, hey, who could resist the free chocolate we were passing out?

We forgot to start out our first day 'right'. We had both said that we wanted to pray together for the Lord to bless our sales and let us just shine for Him. So, we forgot to that the first day. The second and third, however, we were able to have some time before we opened to seek the Lord. It is quite amazing how it can make your day go so much better when you start out right! :-) Not that we were too surprised or anything, but it was still nice to see and feel that change.

The Lord blessed me as well and I was able to sell out- at the last minute! I remember thinking, as the people in charge began calling through the vendor hall for vendors to start shutting down, "Well, Lord, thank you for letting me sell most of my books..." then it occurred to me that we hadn't officially closed and He could still sell my last three books.... and sure enough, He did. It was quite exciting. :-)

Needless to say, Alicia and I had a wonderful time at convention. We hope to do it again next year and we'll see how the Lord grows it.

In the meantime, here are a few pictures from the convention. They were taken by my friends Rachelle and Kelsey. Enjoy!

(The candy that was in that jar was the 'convention saver'... espresso candy! Literally kept us going... and all the mom loved it, too.... hmm..)

 (The pictures below were taken by Kelsey- Thank you for letting me use them!)

(This is a book that we were honored to also have at our table. The illustrator, Debbie, did an amazing job. It is simply Psalm 1 put to pictures to help children memorize their scripture. I thought it was fantastic! She has done the artwork for the Curious George show as well.)

Well, that is all I have! I will be returning soon with some other update posts. Also, you can now find links to purchase my book on the sidebar.

First Book is in the Works!

Well, technically speaking, its been in the works for a while now. However, it is just finally getting to the 'I'm only a few clicks away from getting it published'. I'm extremely excited and can't wait to share it with you all soon!

God has been so good and has blessed me tremendously throughout this entire process. He has given me such a wonderful family who has helped me by doing chores, getting dinner, washing dishes, and everything else in between to make sure that I had time to do this. My parents have been such wonderful support, my siblings have been such a great encouragement to me. I've had a young man doing my cover for me. He's been wonderful, too, and has dealt with all my picky comments.

There are so many things that the Lord has worked out for me to get this done. I feel so truly blessed. I am now just trusting that He will allow the publishers to get my book done quickly and efficiently as the convention is just around the corner! Prayers that He will just keep opening doors would be so appreciated it.

Thank you to all that have given their support and encouragement throughout all of this. It has been such a blessing and so wonderful. I don't know what I would do with all of the family and friends that have been there for me on this with prayers and everything else! I even received emails from friends every now and then asking how things were going and letting me know that they were praying and hoping everything was going well.

So, I wanted to give a huge thanks for all of that, but I also thought I would share a bit of a sneak peak of how the book is looking so far. I'm just sharing a clip of the inside and a few illustrations. Please remember that these are copyrighted.

A corde meo honoráre Deum!
Sarah Elizabeth