We’re looking forward to June during which we will be exploring publishing options.  With guest posts from writers Brandon Sanderson, David Dalglish, Stephen Nelson and Gini Koch, literary agent Laurie McLean, and publisher Celina Summers, it’s going to be a big month.  We look forward to exploring publishing options with you.

In the meantime, here’s 10 reads worth your time:

The Undiscovered Author talks Amazon, Apple, Antitrust and You.

Speaking of Amazon, Carl Franzen discusses Amazon Ready to Lower E-book Prices In Wake of Publisher Settlement.

The New York Times explores Writer’s Cramp: In the E-reader Era, a Book a Year Is Slacking.

Heroes and Heartbreakers.com explores the issue of race in romance novels with Choosing Between White, Off-White, and Beige.

Warriot Poet discusses 5 Undying Myths About Published Writers and their Eerie Powers.

Kristan Hoffman talks about Learning To Embrace My Limits.

Courtney Carpenter discusses how to Discover The Basic Elements of Setting In A Story.

Writing about an animal?  Kaitlin Ward looks at some essential elements of Animal Behaviour.

Janice Hardy discusses Fixing A Stalled Scene.

For inspiration, check out The Scale of the Universe.

Missed any Fictorians articles this week?

Guest post from Marsheila Rockwell – Tie-in Fiction

KD Alexander – Life Block

Mary Pletsch – Filing Off the Serial Numbers: Part 1 – Fan Fiction

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June is going to be a big month here at The Fictorian Era with a special focus on publishing.  We have guest posts from a publisher, an agent, and writers who are at a variety of stages of their careers, as well as posts by some of our regular Fictorians.  We’ll be spending the month exploring publishing options, looking at both traditional and independent publishing.  More info in a few days.

In the meantime, here’s 10 reads worth your time:

Jane Friedman has 3 Possibilities For Defeating Writer’s Block.

Tonya Kappes talks about how to boost your creativity in Creative Flow: Scene by Scene.

DiYMFA identifies 5 Pockets Of Time You Never Knew You Had.

The Millions discusses The Appeals and Perils of the One-Word Book Title.

Over at The Bluestocking Blog, they’re talking about The Chasm Between Intentions and Execution.

John A A Logan talks epublishing in Fending Off The Next Dark Age.

Interested in writing contests? Writers’ Village has an ebook on How To Win Writing Contests for Profit.

For some motivation, check out Writers Digest’s 23 Timeless Quotes For Writers.

Listen to screenwriter Michael Arndt talk about writing Little Miss Sunshine.

And head over to Musa Publishing to check out Fictorian Nancy DiMauro’s new release, Paths Less Traveled.

Missed any Fictorians articles this week?

Ann Cooney – The Great Spring Migration

Matt Jones – Motivations

Leigh Galbreath – How To Be A Better Tease

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10 reads worth your time:

Liza Palmer has 5 Tips For Starting and Finishing Your Novel.

Janice Hardy has Four Tips On Adding A New Twist To An Old Plot.

Carly Watters talks about How Writers Build Successful Online Communities.

Rachelle Gardner has advice for a writer’s family in This Post Is For The Ones You Love.

Jonathan Gotschall explores Why Fiction Is Good For You.

Jason Boog recounts an Ohio State University study on how Fictional Characters Can Influence Real Life Actions.

Looking for a place to connect with both readers and writers?  Check out the World Literary Cafe.

And for another place to connect with readers, check out Book Blogs.

Deadman’s Tome has a horror writing contest open until the end of June.

Finally, for images and inspiration, check out Retronaut.

Missed any Fictorians articles this week?

Guest post by Dean Wesley Smith – Stop Being In A Hurry

Frank Morin – Burst Writing – Case Study

Colette Vernon – Brandon Sanderson’s Rules of Writing & Other Notes

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10 reads worth your time:

At Writer Unboxed, Barbara O’Neal discusses the need to figure out what you’re really writing about.

At Editor Devil, read about how to Delinate Characters Through Dialogue.

Over at Romance University, Theresa Stevens talks line editing.

Marcy Kennedy discusses the use of smell in How to Make Your Novel Scratch and Sniff.

Over at YA Highway, Veronica Roth talks about the Strictly Objective Critique Partner.

Julie Butcher-Fedynich has A Ten-Step Program For More Writing Time.

Nathan Bransford lists The Top 5 Social Media Blunders You Shouldn’t Make.

Andrew Jack has some no-nonsense advice in It Doesn’t Matter How You’re Published – We’re All Self-Promoted.

Over at Genreality, Bob Mayer talks about the necessity to Have A Career Plan As A Writer.

And, just for fun, check out the The Terrible Crossover Fantiction Idea Generator for wacky creative writing prompts.

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It’s time to write. My laptop is already turned on so I’ll just sit myself down in front of it. I probably should tackle that big pile of laundry that needs to be folded – there’s at least a week’s worth – but no, this is my writing time. The folding can wait.

So I flip up the laptop lid and wait for it to wake up. I had better check my emails first because there might be something urgent waiting. I have three email accounts but it will only take a couple of minutes to look in on them all. Now, twenty minutes later, I’ve dealt with the most urgent emails and am pleased with my ability to just leave the rest. I’ll come back to the non-urgent ones in a day or two when I have more time. I should tackle my writing now.

Oh but before I do, I’ll check in on facebook, just to see what’s happening. After all, facebook is how I keep up with most of my writer friends, largely due to us living in different countries and time zones. And reading about what all of my writer buddies are up to is a good way to get myself into the right mindset to write. Fifteen minutes later…

Gosh, look at all the mess on my desk. I can’t work with my surroundings in such chaos so I’m going to have to deal with this right now. And besides, I’ll be so much more productive once everything is in order. There, that didn’t take long. Only fifteen minutes.

On my laptop, I’m now opening my manuscript and, oh, I just remembered, I need to research that thing I thought of yesterday. I should do that before I knuckle down to writing. Hmm, that wasn’t as quick as I expected and I got sidetracked looking at that cool new blog I found. But still, it was only an hour and I did need to do that research before I go any further with my manuscript.

Since I’m already on the internet, I should catch up on a few of the blogs I follow. They’re mostly industry-related, a mixed bag of writers, publishers, editors and agents. I need to ensure I stay informed with what’s happening in the industry. And now since I’m up-to-date on all of my professional blog reading, I should check in on those couple of dog-related blogs I follow too. I don’t like to get too behind on this sort of thing because then I take time out of my writing to get caught up. There you go, forty minutes and my blog reading is all up-to-date.

Before I shut off the internet, I had better check the Fictorians blog and make sure the posting schedule hasn’t changed. I wouldn’t want to be caught unprepared when my next blog post is due. Besides, that only took five minutes.

Yawn, it’s 9pm already and I’m too tired to start writing tonight (a night owl, I am not). I’ve been productive though and I’ve worked for the better part of three hours. But I’ve got that book I’m reading for research and I should try to read at least a chapter before I go to bed. At least I will still be working…

What excuses do you make to yourself about why you aren’t writing right now?

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10 reads worth your time:

Rachelle Gardner suggests your Train your Muse Like Your Train A Puppy.

Sonia Simone talks about the 7 Bad Habits of Insanely Productive People, all of which are relevant to writers.

The Red Pen Of Doom discusses Why Every Man Must Read A Romance and Every Woman Read A Thriller.

Over at Writer Unboxed, Sophie Masson discusses Updating Traditional Motifs To Create Fresh Fiction.

Jody Hedlund has 7 Setting Basics That Can Bring a Story To Life.

At Writers In The Storm Blog, Janice Hardy discusses 5 Ways To Bring Your Description To Life.

Terrible Minds lists 25 Reasons I Hate Your Main Character.

Jennifer Conner explains why you should care about Categories, Key Words and Tags.

The Huffington Post has three tips for getting your e-book off the ground.

Roni Loren discusses some bad advice about twitter.

Missed any Fictorians articles this week?

The Heart of Fairwood Press - Guest post by publisher Patrick Swenson

The Conflicts of Character Design – Matt Jones

Plumbing the Depths of Emotion – Brandon M Lindsay

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Another week gone, and here’s 10 sites worth your time.

Steve Feasey takes a stab at answering the eternal “what do you do when you’re not writing” question.

Constance Hale talks about Make-or-Break Verbs (and, yes, I do feel like I should have used a stronger verb there!)

Over at Wistfully Linda, there’s a discussion about Reading and Writing Negative Reviews.

And on a similar note, Sierra Godfrey talks about the damage 1-star reviews can cause.

A few upcoming events worth checking out:

Superstars Writing Seminar, Las Vegas, April 30 – 2 May

Agent Reads the Slush Pile, a webinar by Kristin Nelson, May 2

DFW Writers’ Conference, Dallas, May 19-20

Book Expo America, June 4-7, New York City

World Fantasy Convention, Toronto, November 1-4

And, finally, check out the Pens for Paws Auction which kicks off on May 7.

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Welcome back to another instalment of our favourite reads.

Over on Live Simply, Simply Love, Tracy Ruckman explains what StumbleUpon is and how writers can use it.

At Slush Pile Tales, Lauren Ruth discusses author business cards.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch sums up the changing publishing industry.

CS Lakin talks about three things you must have in your first paragraph.

Over at Dreaming Awake, Rayne Hall discusses creating suspense.

At Omnivoracious, AJ Jacobs discusses why reading books can save your life.

Neil Gaiman provides an interesting insight into Stephen King.

At Writer Unboxed, Bob Proehl discusses the way a community got behind an independent bookstore to stop it from closing down.

Visit The Idea Bird for prompts to get your creative juices flowing.

And, finally, for a bit of cool: what it’s really like to fight with giant suits of computerised armor.

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Welcome back! Another week gone and here’s another 10 of our favourite reads.

Considering writing in first person? James Scott Bell discusses some of the pitfalls in First Person Boring.

Kidlit.com talks about drawing the reader in by Eliminating the Frame.

Time to start those rewrites? Writer Unboxed has a great post about How to Think Like An Editor.

Tim Kane has a cooking-inspired post in Layering Flavors In Your Writing.

AC Wise made me stop and think hard about my current manuscript with Heroine Quest, or The Fairytale Problem.

And while we’re talking about heroines, Marcy Kennedy discusses How To Keep Strong Female Characters Likeable.

Terrible Minds highlights 25 Lies Writers Tell (And Start To Believe In).

Over at Rock Your Writing, they’re talking about How To Build a Writer’s Support Network.

Jane Friedman outlines 5 Principles for Using Facebook.

Jody Hedlund has 3 Ways To Find the Perfect Opening For Your Story.

And James V Smith Jr explains The Dos and Don’ts of Novel Endings.

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Wow, another week has gone by already and we’re now 25% of the way through the year (you really wanted to know that, didn’t you?).  So once again, here are some of our favourite recent reads.

Looking forward to a writerly get-together? Kait Nolan discusses the etiquette of talking to writers.

Over at Romance University, Laura Griffin discusses chapter hooks.

Nathan Bransford talks about the war on ebook pricing.

And while we’re talking ebooks, David Gaughran goes through the basics of self publishing.

Wondering how the length of your current WIP matches up against expectations? Aaron Stanton discusses average book length for various genres.

At Writer Unboxed, Anna Elliott talks about the necessity of trusting your own instincts.

For a laugh: Word count envy

For fun: How fast do you read?

For inspiration: how will we obtain additional resources once we exhaust the earth’s supplies?

And just because it’s cool: over at The Accidental Author, our very own Joshua Essoe talks about working as an editor.

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Welcome to our new feature, Sunday Reads.  This is a collection of the cool/interesting/thought-provoking articles we’ve read during the week.

I thought I was the only person in the world who hates chapter titles.  Apparently not, according to Navigating the Slush Pile.

Jami Gold made me laugh with her post Multiple Personality Disorder? No, I’m a Writer.

Over at YA Muses, they’re talking about how to create a satisfying end.

(And thank you to The Golden Haystack for drawing my attention to this post.)

Struggling with the difference between a pitch and a synopsis?  Check out Agent Kristen’s video.

Roni Loren has a great collection of books to cure a variety of writerly woes.

Over at Civil War Horror, Robert Walker talks about e-book pricing.

Magical Words has worldbuilding for writers who hate it (and it’s written by a fantasy writer!).

For a laugh: check out SlushPile Hell.

For fun: the sharpest teeth in the world.

For inspiration: real world locations for fantasy worldbuilding.

And just because it’s cool: an animated short of a post-apocalyptic world.

Happy reading!

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I’ve blogged before about my New Year’s Resolution to write a page a day and, so far, I’ve done it. Every. Single. Day. That’s 75 days in a row, for anyone who’s counting.

Some days the words come out easily and I kid myself that it’s always going to be this easy now I’m in the habit of writing every day. But then there are the other days… The days when I’ve had less than two hours sleep the night before and I’m so tired, I’m almost falling asleep on top of the laptop. The days when I’m sick and can barely think straight. The days when I’ve already put in 12 hours in the day job and it’s 8pm before I haul myself to my laptop and try to convince myself that I really do care about writing tonight.

So what am I doing? Why am I forcing myself to sit here and write – something, anything – when some days I really couldn’t care less? On the good days, I tell myself it’s about forming a habit, about being professional, about making progress. On a bad day, it all comes down to stubbornness and that damned New Year’s Resolution. Maybe once we get a little further into the year I won’t care quite so much about achieving my page a day. Maybe I’ll even give myself an occasional night off. But right now, on this night, I will write my page. If stubbornness is the only reason I have today to keep going, I’ll take it.

We all have days like this. As much as I love writing and the thrill of creating a new world or of bringing a character to life, there are days when I wish I’d chosen an easier craft. Something that perhaps doesn’t take everything I have and then a bit more. And it’s on those days that it’s so important to have a reason to push on. Even if tonight that reason is only stubbornness. After all, if I’m stubborn long enough, I might just make it.

Where does your spoonful of stubbornness come from when you need it?

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Last year was spectacularly unproductive for me. I started on a roll but the unexpected death of someone close to me left me shattered and barely functioning for the rest of the year. So on New Year’s Eve, I set myself some goals for 2012. I do this pretty half-heartedly every year. After all, nobody ever sticks to their New Year’s Resolutions, right? Only this time I meant it. Really, really meant it.

I had a big goal in mind when I set my resolutions: to finish the current WIP before World Fantasy in November. That meant some serious edits. As of New Year’s Eve, I had a mostly complete first draft. It had issues – some big ones. A flabby middle (which I’ve christened the FM), lack of relationship building between key characters, some subplots were little more than a suggestion. I had two viewpoint characters but most of the manuscript was written from the perspective of one of them. It had been suggested that I needed a third viewpoint character and although I knew exactly what I wanted to do, it was difficult and very unlike anything I’d ever attempted so I had been putting off starting. In short, I had a lot of work to do.

So with the new year, I had a renewed focus. However what bothered me about focusing on edits for the next ten months was that I wouldn’t actually be writing during this time. Although the edits were necessary, it seemed I was facing a year of lots of writing work but few new pages.

So my New Year’s Resolution was deceptively simple: write a page a day. Something. Anything. Even while editing. Regardless of how it happened, I would produce a page a day of new words, be they new scenes in the WIP, blog posts, short stories, whatever.  An additional benefit was that I’d be learning to keep two projects in my head at once, which is something I struggle with.

For a 31-day month, one page a day – assuming a standard 250-word page – comes to 7750 words. Doesn’t sound like much, does it? But if I could consistently produce a page a day through 2012, it would give me 365 pages of new writing. I figured it was worth a try.

So four weeks into the new year, here’s how my resolution is panning out…

Week 1: Motivation levels are high. I’ve just had a week off work so I’m feeling somewhat refreshed. I’ve achieved my goal of one page a day every day this week. Word count: 3189 words, almost half of my goal for the month.

Week 2: Motivation is still high although I’m starting to flounder a little. I’ve spend some time this week on a new short story and a couple of blog posts. Not as much time on the WIP as I should have. Word count: 2616.

Week 3: This week has been almost easy. I feel like I’m developing a habit and I’ve worked on the WIP every day instead of letting myself get distracted with writing other things. Word count: 2988.

Week 4: Now it’s getting tough but I’ve not missed a day yet.  Work count is 1974 and the week isn’t over yet. I’m surprised I’ve lasted this long and am starting to think that maybe I can actually achieve a page a day for the whole year.

Lessons

The big lesson I’ve learnt is that I can write every day, which I didn’t think I could do. My usual pattern is four days on then one or two days off, and I’ve never really tried to push past that before.  I might be tired and a bit brain dead or, like tonight, ill and having trouble concentrating, but I’ve found I really can do it if I want it bad enough. And I think this is the first time I’ve ever had a New Year’s Resolution that lasted four weeks.  Bring on February!

Okay, ‘fess up. What’s happening with your New Year’s Resolutions?

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It’s that time of year again: Christmas.  I have a million deadlines at work, presents to buy (and wrap) and a ham to order.  I have to decide whether to risk putting up a Christmas tree or to avoid it in the interests of not giving the cat an enormous plaything with removable parts.  The rainy season is about to begin so I need to get the gutters cleaned.  I have to find a new dog groomer, buy printer toner, get the carpets cleaned…  If you have kids, they’re probably already on holidays and you’re now a fulltime taxi driver, money distributor and all-around entertainment machine.  And, somehow, we’re also trying to write.  Insane?  Perhaps.  Achievable?  Yes, but only with the right plan in place.

Step 1: Decide your priorities

Are you going to commit to writing during the Christmas season?  If not, don’t feel guilty – perhaps this is a time when other things need to take priority.  But either way, make a decision up front.  If you’re choosing not to write right now, set a date when your normal routines will resume.

Step 2: Check the schedule

Look at your schedule and find the days or times when you can most realistically expect to get in some writing time.  Block out that time in your schedule and treat it the same as any other appointment.  Don’t forget about those little pockets of time which are so easy to fritter away without noticing: waiting for guests to arrive, those precious minutes in the early morning before the household awakes, time spent waiting for dinner to cook.  If twenty or thirty minutes a day is all you can find, then lock that time in and protect it.

Step 3: Set goals

This is a crazy time of year so set smaller goals than usual.  There’s no point aiming for 3,000 words a day if you know you will be lucky to find half an hour to yourself.  Be realistic: aim for half a page, 500 words, one scene.  Whatever you can reasonably achieve in the time you’ve blocked out in your schedule.  Alternatively, work on small editing tasks so that you can cross individual items off your “to do” list.

Step 4: Enlist the troops

Make sure your family knows what your goals are.  Add your writing time to the family calendar and then consider how your family can contribute.  Can someone else put on a load of washing?  Who can be appointed Chief Fixer of the Leftovers, responsible for finding all of the half-eaten stuff in the fridge and setting it out for dinner?

Step 5: Make time to relax

If you’re running around in a panic because you have three million things to do and you can’t stop going over your mental “to do” list, you can hardly expect to be able to focus on your writing.  So take some time out.  Write down all of those things in your head so you don’t have to remember them.  Give yourself time for a long soak in the bath or to read a book or go for a massage.  We’re all stressed to the hilt at this time of year so find some time for you, not just your writing.

Step 6: Don’t forget Christmas

Don’t let yourself get so caught up in trying to meet your goals that you forget what time of year it is: Christmas.  This is a time for friends and family, a time to take stock and look forward, a time to be thankful for what we have.

This is my final scheduled post for this year so I wanted to wish all of our Fictorians readers a very merry Christmas.  We have big plans for our little blog next year, including regular guest posts and a new regular feature dedicated to the art of storytelling.  See you in 2012!

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The adjudicators

Thank you to everyone who dropped by the Fictorians over the last week to enter our Jacqueline Carey giveaway.

Thanks again to everyone who entered and a special thank you to Jacqueline Carey for making this contest possible.

Click here to read the first chapter of Saints Astray

Click here to order from Amazon.com

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